"Not here, Percy" Annabeth hissed.

"I can't believe they actually fell for that," Percy chuckled, kissing her lightly on her lips.

"Of course they did. It was Chiron and my plan after all."

"Whatever you say, sweetheart. Personally, I think it is because of my charm and amazing acting skills."

Annabeth snorted.

That's when Percy noticed something missing. "Where's the ring?" he asked confused.

"I can't wear the ring on my finger! Everyone would know I'm engaged. Mom would get a heart attack."

"Yeah, you are right," Percy said although Annabeth could make out from his voice that he was disappointed.

"You didn't really think that I would not wear it, did you?" Annabeth said as she showed him the necklace that she was wearing. And there was the ring, shining brightly acting as a pendant. Percy grinned at her, the same lopsided grin that she had found annoying at first but now found endearing.

It had been an extremely simple plan. As they both were Royals, both of them knew that they would be marrying a person of their parents' choice. Contrary to most beliefs, a Royals' life wasn't all sunshine and daisies. All of Annabeth's choices and actions were curbed by the will of her subjects and was closely monitored. When Percy had proposed, Annabeth had that one small voice in her head telling her that the wedding wouldn't be possible. They were Royals after all. And that's where Chiron stepped in.

Being a friend of Poseidon, he put in a good word for Annabeth. Or rather a lot of good words. With some persuasion, Poseidon had agreed and a proposal was sent to Athena for Annabeth's hand in marriage and Athena couldn't exactly refuse the proposal. Atlantis was after all one of the most powerful kingdoms. An alliance with them would solve all the financial issues that Athens  was facing. After that, all it took was a little bit of acting from Percy and Annabeth's side and BOOM, they were getting married!!

But something was off, Annabeth could feel it. Athena never took hasty decisions and yet the entire marriage alliance was agreed to, in one day itself. Something was happening. Something big, big enough to even scare Athena.

But before going into the enthralling part of the story, let's take a trip down the memory lane, shall we? I can tell that you are confused. Let me tell you about their past. It all started with a certain grey-eyed princess....