Annabeth's POV - August 18

I woke up already happy, light streaming in the window and Percy snoring quietly beside me. I checked the time and decided that it was late enough to wake up my boyfriend without him complaining. Plus I didn't want to just lay here and think any more. I had done plenty of that last night, trying to fall asleep. Percy seemed to be having the same problems, but I'm not sure what he was thinking about. We both tossed and turned all night.

"Good morning, Seaweed Brain," I murmured, running my thumb along his cheekbone. His eyes fluttered open and he gave me his signature lopsided grin.

"Morning, Wise Girl." He wrapped his arm around me and kissed my cheek. Probably to spare me his morning breath. "Happy Anniversary."

"Happy Birthday," I countered. He just smiled again.

Soon enough we were walking to find a restaurant to eat breakfast, hand in hand. I noticed he kept fidgeting nervously, more than usual, and sticking his other hand in his pocket a lot. The pocket where he usually kept Riptide. He must be more on edge than usual, this being the day that five years ago the final Battle of Manhattan took place. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, and he did the same back.

-----

"Uh, what are we doing?" Percy asked as I started pulling him towards Hazel's after we ate.

"Gotta grab something from Hazel."

"What do you have to get?"

"No more questions!"

He looked at me suspiciously, but didn't say anything else.

Pretty soon I was knocking on Hazel's door, and she answered almost immediately. Frank was right behind her. They both gave Percy hugs and told him happy birthday, and then wished the two of us a happy anniversary.

Hazel and I left the boys on the couch as we raced in the kitchen to get the puppy that was sleeping soundly. He was just so cute. I knelt next to him and petted his head. I scooped him up as his eyes opened.

"He's the sweetest little thing," Hazel whispered. "Percy will love him." I just nodded and headed back towards the couch.

"Hey Seaweed Brain," I called from behind him. He turned around but it took a few seconds for his eyes to land on the puppy in my arms. When they finally did, the dazzling green seemed to get even brighter.

"Did you really...? he asked, standing up.

"Yep. He's all yours." I handed Percy the yellow fuzz ball. The first thing Percy did was hold the pup above his head, arms outstretched.

"He's adorable," Percy cooed. 

"Why are you holding him like 'The Lion King'?" I asked with a laugh. Percy chuckled too and brought the puppy back down to his arms, scratching behind his ears.

"Does he have a name?"

"Not yet. I thought you'd like the honors."

"How about Simba, then?" Percy looked at me with a smile and it was hard to tell if he was joking or not. I'm fairly certain he wasn't.

"You're going to name your dog after a Disney lion?" Frank asked incredulously.

"You betcha. As long as Annabeth is okay with it."

"Of course," I responded. It was a cute name.

-------

"Thanks for the present, Wise Girl," Percy said as we were walking to my fake meeting with Reyna after Percy had gotten plenty of play time with his puppy. "I love Simba."

"I was hoping you would."

"I promise your present is coming later today. I didn't forget or anything."

I laughed softly and replied, "I wasn't even going to accuse you of that. And whenever is fine."

He kissed me lightly and then we kept walking.

"Whoa," Percy muttered as we got closer to where the party was being held, conveniently the same place "Reyna" had "asked" me to be.

"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to hide my smile.

"What is going on up there?" He pointed to where a lot of talking and music could be heard.

"Let's go check it out," I offered. He nodded and started walking faster.

When we reached the top of the hill, I saw in Percy's eyes that he knew what was going on. All it took was for him to see the camps together, having a good time, and he figured out what I had been keeping from him.

"Did you really...?" he asked for the second time today. This time I didn't even bother to answer.

"Hey! Percy! Annabeth!" a familiar voice called from in the crowd. Pretty soon everyone had noticed we had arrived and swarmed us. We were given lots of hugs, but really only one hug stuck out in my mind: Grover's.

He had absolutely tackled Percy, knocking them both to the ground. I pulled them up, sporting a huge smile that strained my cheeks. Grover embraced me next and lifted me slightly off the ground.

"Dude," Percy said happily, "we've missed you so much."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I'm so glad you could come."

"Like Hades I was going to miss my best friend's birthday party!"

Then there was Tyson, who scooped Percy and I up in one big hug. He even cried a little, saying how he never got to see his brother anymore. Percy promised that they would get together at least every month from now on. That earned him another hug.

After all the guests had gone back to what they were doing previously, Percy took my face in his hands and leaned his head down slightly.

"You are completely, one hundred percent, positively amazing, Annabeth Chase, you know that right?" he said lovingly.

"Tell me again."

"You. Are. Amazing." Then he kissed me.

"LET'S GET 'EM AGAIN!" Clarrisse screamed, breaking us apart. Before I knew what was happening, Camp Halfblood had lifted both of us onto their shoulders and were carrying us somewhere. I knew what they were trying to do, but there was no lake anywhere.

But Camp improvised. Percy saw what they were doing and threw his head back laughing. I just braced myself as they chucked us into the fountain. The water was shallow and unnaturally blue, but it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.

------

After the party started to die down a little bit (and by die down, I mean the Party Ponies finally fell into a sugar coma so there was no longer hazardous Nerf bullets being shot everywhere) Percy asked me if I wanted to take that walk. Of course, I said yes. I motioned to Nico, who was standing about 30 feet away from us with Reyna and Will, as best as I could that we would have to wait a little longer. He nodded and went back to his conversation.

I didn't know if Percy had a destination in mind or not, but he started leading me with both arms wrapped around my shoulders. I put mine around his waist and leaned on his side as we walked. We talked about random things for a while, classes starting soon, how we were going to take care of Simba, and just about anything else. I did notice that every so often Percy would stick his hand in his pocket like he was making sure something was still in there. I wondered why he kept doing that, Riptide was always there.

"Okay, Wise Girl," he piped up after a few minutes of comfortable silence. "Do you realize-"

"Wait. You have cake on your face." I reached up and wiped some blue icing off of the corner of his mouth. He cheeks flushed a little pink, then he kept talking.

"Do you realize where we are?"

I looked around, trying to see every detail in the fading light. I had been so wrapped up in our conversations and my thoughts that I had stopped paying attention to where we were walking. But I knew exactly where Percy had taken us.

"This is where we anchored the Argo ll," I told him. "Where I finally knew I had found you." He nodded.

"And this," he led me about twenty yards away, "is where kissed each other for the first time in eight months."

I looked up at him, my eyes shining and so were his, but I knew he wasn't done.

"This is where I knew I loved you. When I saw your face, and held you, and it felt just like I had remembered it, I knew I loved you. And the fact that even losing my memory couldn't ever make me forget you was just proof."

My heart swelled with every word he spoke. "Oh Percy, I loved you too."

"And Annabeth, I love you now even more than I did then. I only want to love you more." He started fishing in his pocket again, and this time he pulled something out, but it wasn't his sword. "So Wise Girl," he said, dropping to one knee, "will you please marry me?"

I stared at my wonderful boyfriend and the ring in his hand, and I was so overcome with love and joy that I couldn't react for a few seconds. But when I finally could, I flung myself in his arms and cried into his shoulder, "Oh my gods, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Of course I'll marry you Seaweed Brain!"

His breath tickled my ear when he responded, "That's a relief. For a second there I thought you were going to judo flip me again."

-----

I was admiring my ring while Nico spoke to Percy about what was going to happen. We had decided against summoning the spirits in front of everyone. It would be way too crazy, especially now that everyone was buzzing about our new engagement.

"So," Nico concluded, pulling me from my gaze, "are you both still in?"

Percy looked over at me, then back at Nico. "Let's do it."

I'm not sure at all what Nico had to do to get the ghosts to visit us because he made us look away, saying that the portal would only work if only a child of Hades was watching it open, and no one else.

When he told us to turn back around, I had not prepared myself enough. I choked back a sob when I saw two old friends standing in front of me. Well, floating in front of me.

"Hey guys," greeted Charles Beckendorf.

"Hey," Percy replied, sounding winded. 

Silena reached out to hug me, but where I should have felt her arms, I felt only cool wind.

"So you two finally got together, huh?" she exclaimed excitedly.

"We did. And now we're getting married."  I showed her the ring happily. She squealed a little.

"How did you guys know about us?" Percy asked.

"Well, one," Beckendorf started, "literally everyone saw it coming. Two, the Underworld is gossip central."

"I'm not sure about the 'literally everyone' part, but okay," Percy said with a laugh.

"How are you guys?" I questioned.

"Good," they chorused. "We're together, and we're happy. It's not such a bad place down here when you have someone to share it with," Beckendorf finished.

"I take it you two are happy too," said Silena.

"We definitely are."

"Then it all came out in the wash, didn't it?" Beckendorf only sort of joked. Percy and I just nodded.

"We have to go now, but we really missed you."

Then they were both gone before we could even say goodbye.

Percy and I stood in silence for I don't even know how long before Nico interrupted it. "There's someone else trying to come through."

I think my heart nearly stopped when Luke Castellan appeared before my eyes. Percy tensed up beside me.

"Luke," I let out in a strangled whisper. I glanced at Nico, who looked surprised.

"Look," Luke said, almost pleadingly, "I know you both probably don't want to say anything to me, and that's okay. I don't want to talk about... anything of that-" he gestured vaguely behind him, possibly to mean the past "-I just want to tell you that I'm glad you two have the happy ending you deserve."

I don't think I could have spoke even if I wanted to. But Luke went on.

"And Percy, thank you for taking care of Annabeth when I didn't."

I even smiled slightly and Percy relaxed a little. "It's a good job, I suppose. But she doesn't really need anyone to take care of her."

"Isn't that the truth," Luke muttered, just barely audible. Then he was also gone without warning.

"Nico, close the portal," Percy said. Nico obliged.

The three of us didn't move for a long time. Finally, a very pale Nico mumbled something about going to find Will and took off back towards the party. Percy sat down and I followed him.

"Well, that was..." My voice trailed off.

"Yeah, I know."

He put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. I wrapped my arms around him tight. We sat like that for a few minutes longer, but then I stood up and pulled him to his feet. "Let's get back to our friends."

With our hands clasped we ventured towards the weirdly enjoyable chaos.

Piper came running up to us. "So," she said, sounding oddly similar to her half-sister, "when can we have the wedding?"