Month 7 (July)

She had to admit, Artemis was slightly worried as Aphrodite and Piper led her down the hallway of her own home with a blindfold over her eyes. They held one arm each, steering her to avoid injury, but to Artemis it felt like she was being led to the chopping block.

Artemis knew when they arrived, because the aura around her immediately changed. The blindfold was removed from her eyes, and Artemis gasped. The entire room was decorated, with the large silver banner over the window screaming HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARTEMIS! Balloons were bunched up in all corners of the room, amplifying the party atmosphere even more.

Her female friends were all there, along with her mom, sister, Percy's moms and aunt Hestia. Aphrodite grasped her shoulders and leaned in beside her ear. "You like it?" She asked, and Artemis couldn't lie. She was shocked, shocked that they did all this for her birthday. "Yes... Yes I love it!" She almost squealed, which was very unlike her. Very unlike her.

Hera and Athena gave each other a strange look as Artemis hugged Aphrodite, but didn't say anything about it. Finally, Artemis broke away and looked at everyone. "Where's all the guys?" She asked, noticing a distinct lack of males in the building. Sally explained it for her. "Well, not only is this your birthday party, but we decided to combine it with the baby shower. We'll do the latter first, and once we're done the boys will come back and we'll have the actual birthday party." She said.

"I assume Zeus and Poseidon brought Percy to the bar with them, you know how Ganymede can be bought over easily by Zeus. I'm sure for a couple thousand and the promise that no one would call the cops, he'd let Percy have some drinks with half the men in town. They said they'd be home once the game ended, so we have until about, what? 8?" Amphitrite elaborated.

Piper nodded. "Yep, so we better hurry up before the dad-chelor party gets back. What's first?" She said, clapping her hands and sitting down on the couch. Artemis followed her, and waited patiently for someone to kick things off.

"Well, I guess I'll volunteer to start with mine." Hazel said, going over to the pile of presents and picking out her one. She picked up a relatively small green box and handed it to Artemis. The teen was still dazed over what was happening, so she just tore the gift wrap off and opened the box. She pulled out a large piece of fabric, and almost made a noise reminiscent of someone like Aphrodite or Piper or Sally.

It was a onesie, baby sized, made to look like a tiger. It had an orange and black striped pattern along it, and it was woolen to keep the baby warm. On top it had a small hood, appearing as the head of a tiger. Artemis thought her daughter would look very cute in the attire, something which she wasn't one to think about.

"This is amazing, Hazel. Thank you!" She said, putting the onesie down and pulling her younger friend in for a hug.

Thalia got up next, and handed Artemis a long present. "Here. It's a birthday present, not really suitable for kids." She said simply, placing the box in Artemis' arms and patting it. Artemis looked down at the box and wondered for a second if it was a shotgun. She wouldn't put it past Thalia. Then she realised it was too light to be a gun, so she opened the box.

Artemis smiled when she saw what it was. She knows me so well, she thought to herself. Inside was a long silver recurve bow, glistening up at her. She recognized it as one she had pointed out to Percy when they were going through some magazines they stole from the dumpster of a doctor's office nearly a year ago. Don't ask why they were going through that. That led her to believe that Percy had something to do with the choosing of this gift.

"I'm guessing Percy suggested this to you?" She asked her close friend, and Thalia nodded. "You like it?" She asked, nodding to the bow. She knew Artemis was a big time archery fan. She was off every couple of months competing in competitions, and usually taking home the gold as well. If not her, then her twin brother Apollo, who was also big on archery. The two could often be seen challenging each other in the backyard, but at the end of the day they were practically equal in skill.

Artemis nodded. "Thank you so much Thalia." She said, placing the bow down beside Hazel's onesie. Amphitrite was next, giving her two boxes. Upon opening the larger one, Artemis found an empty scrapbook. "For the baby. I don't know how many photos you take, but it'd be nice to get some memories there." She explained, and Artemis thanked her. She didn't really take photos, at least not as much as an Instagram thot like Aphrodite or Piper. Perhaps that would change once the baby came along. Not the thot part though.

"The other one is your birthday gift. Percy suggested it to me." She said, pointing to the smaller present. Artemis tore off the wrapping paper, and grinned as she found a stack of three PS4 games. Until Dawn, Terraria, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Old games, but ones she hadn't gotten around to yet.

"Thanks 'Trite." She said, using the nickname Amphitrite had permissed her to use. Sure, there wasn't much you could do with Amphitrite, but Mermaid had already been claimed by Poseidon.

"I got something a little more useful than a scrapbook." Piper said suggestively, which worried Artemis. She then walked over to the largest present, which was large. It was half Artemis' height, and about her width from shoulder to shoulder. As Piper got out a knife and tore the paper apart, Artemis could see why it was so big.

It was a cardboard box, and as Piper pulled open the lid, Artemis' jaw hit the floor. A crate's worth of diapers, all fresh and still in the packaging. This gift alone probably saved her and Percy hundreds of dollars. "I... don't know whether to be grateful or pissed." She said, while Piper smirked continuously. "Why would you be pissed?" She asked innocently.

"You got me diapers for my birthday. How much did this even cost?" She asked, dumbfounded. Piper tsked. "A rude question, Arty. But, I took a small loan from dad's bank account. He's got millions, he won't miss a thousand or so bucks." She said. Everyone else in the room was shocked, but generally agreed that it was a good gift on account of how much money it'd save them.

"Okay, well mine was nowhere near as valuable as that, but it's the thought that counts." Hestia said, dragging over a big box. Smaller than the last, but definitely second biggest. Artemis opened it, and gasped as she pulled out a giant teddy bear. The thing went up to her thighs, and was bright pink with a love heart sewn into the chest. The thing would absolutely dwarf the baby, but Artemis saw it as one of the most wonderful things on earth.

"Oh. My. God. This is amazing, Hestia!" She said, launching herself at Hestia for a hug, forgetting that she was like 6 inches pregnant. The older woman chuckled and patted her back. "It's quite alright, dear. Now hurry up and move on, we haven't got all day." She said, gently pushing the teen off.

Artemis herself went to the gifts and picked one out herself. "That one's mine." Athena said, sipping on her cup of coffee. Artemis kept her smile, but to be honest she was entirely expecting a copy of Pride and Prejudice for when the girl turned 3, which was about the age Athena thinks children should be reading high school stuff at.

But, when she tore open the present, she got a bit of a surprise. It was a blanket, far too small for her. It was obviously for the baby, and it was silver with a picture of a deer on it. The deer was Artemis' favorite animal, and silver her favorite color, and Athena knew that, so Artemis appreciated the symbolism.

Of course, since it was Athena, she couldn't not giver Artemis a book, so there one was. It wasn't Pride and Prejudice like Artemis expected. No, this one was called Baby 101, and it was clearly supposed to be a joke, some sort of gag gift. Artemis smiled at the book, and thanked her sister. "Not what I expected, but thanks." She said, putting the book and blanket down on the pile of opened gifts.

Sally gave her the next present. "As the grandmother of your child, I declare my gift to be the most important." She joked, giving Artemis a very small box. Artemis wondered for a second if it was a wedding ring, and if Sally was proposing to her. Tentatively, she opened the gift wrap to find a jewellery box. After opening the box, she found a small locket, even more silver than the blanket.

She looked up at Sally, silently asking what the purpose of the locket was. "Percy told me you like silver, so I got you that. It's to put a picture of you and Percy inside it, I gave him one as well, though his is cobalt blue. I thought it would be quite romantic." Sally clasped her hands together, looking proud of herself.

Artemis had to admit, she felt like she was going to cry. She looked down at the locket and flipped it open. Though it was empty, she could imagine her and Percy forever smiling at each other. TL;DR, she absolutely loved it. "It's beautiful, Sally." She said, engulfing her probable-future-mother-in-law in a hug. Sally hugged her back, smiling and chuckling softly. "It's fine, Artemis. Just take care of my son, and my granddaughter.

They broke away, and Hera cleared her throat. "Well, mine certainly isn't as romantic as that, but I'm sure you'll like it all the same." She said, scooting a rectangular box over to her. Artemis opened it, and almost gasped when she saw it.

It was a tiny dress, so regal and elegant, but somehow still clearly a baby item. It was light green, with little sparkles on the skirt. Artemis began to get rapid flashbacks, but she couldn't pinpoint them or really even see them. Still, she knew the dress from somewhere.

"That was your dress when you were a baby, you used to love it. You were wearing it up until you were almost 3, and we had to keep extending it. I got it back down to infant size, since I thought you might want your daughter to wear it." She said, and suddenly Artemis could remember. Some of her earliest memories were of her looking in the mirror at her green dress while her mother did her hair. It brought a huge smile to her face.

"Thank you so much mom. I thought we lost this!" She said, quickly hugging Hera, before pulling back and re-examining the dress to make sure it was real. Her mother shook her head. "No, I found it buried under Ares' stuff in the attic a couple of weeks ago. Slob doesn't know how to properly store things up there, he literally threw all his boxes into a corner, which ended up crossing into your area." Hera ranted.

Aphrodite cleared her throat. "Finally, we can do mine." She said. Artemis looked over and saw there were no gifts left. Before she could ask where Aphrodite's was, the teen reached behind the couch and pulled out a badly wrapped lump. "I didn't want you to accidentally pick mine, since I wanted it to be last, so I hid it here." She explained, handing Artemis the blob.

To be honest, Artemis wasn't really excited, in fact she was a bit worried. She had known Aphrodite since they were little kids, and the girl was a bit... unpredictable. She most likely bought Artemis lingerie for later one. So, she was extremely cautious when opening the present to be the only one to see it at first, lest her mother and friends be traumatized.

She was wholly unprepared to find inside... a teddy bear? As she pulled it out of the wrapping, she held it in her hands. It was cream colored, and about the average size of teddy bears, unlike the monstrosity Hestia got her. The bear was in a state of semi-disrepair. One of the eyes had fallen off, and was barely being held on by glue. It had three lines of stitches along the stomach, looking like a war vet or a chucky doll.

It had a weird green stain on the right arm, which looked like it'd been bleached. The ear was slightly torn, like Mike Tyson had owned this bear when he was a young lad. Finally, the thread that made the line of a smile on the bear's face was slowly slipping off, and if she tugged on one end Artemis might've gotten rid of the bear's mouth.

Sally gasped when she saw it, and looked at Aphrodite with happiness in her eyes. Percy's sister spoke. "That was my teddy bear when I was little, Mr Bear. Very original name, I know. I tried to fix him up a bit before we came here, but he's been loved a hell of a lot, as you can see." She smiled, folding her hands in front of her.

As Artemis traced her thumb over the bear's face, Sally laughed and sipped some wine. "I remember the day you and Percy both broke bones at the exact same moment." She said, catching everyone's attention.

"The two of them were playing in the backyard, Percy in the pool and Aphrodite just on the grass. Poseidon and I were sitting on the porch watching, and we both went inside to get more drinks. Apparently Aph ended up getting Mr Bear stuck on the tallest branch of the tree. Instead of asking for help, she climbed all the way up and got it." She began, and Artemis already started to cringe. She remembered this all too well, as her, Apollo, and Zeus all went to visit Percy and Aphrodite in hospital afterwards.

"Meanwhile, Percy had dragged the 6 foot slide all the way from the backyard to the pool area and got on it. Right as Poseidon and I came outside, these two both simultaneously almost killed themselves. As Aphrodite jumped from a 15 foot tall tree to the solid ground, Percy went down the slide. Unfortunately, Aphrodite miscalculated the height and broke her left leg upon impact, while Percy misjudged how fast the slide was gonna make him go and he held out his hand to stop himself. Of course, his arm hit the opposite wall of the pool and the right wrist snapped." A chorus of 'ooh's rang out as everyone cringed.

"I don't think neither your father nor I will forget the horrid sounds of two different people's bones going krrk at the same time. Moral of the story, don't leave your daughter out of sight with that bear. Trouble's bound to happen." She winked at Artemis as they all laughed at the story, even Aphrodite.

Artemis took another look at the bear, then got up and softly hugged Aphrodite. "Thank you Aph, it means a lot for you to give my daughter such a precious item." She said, still managing to hold in tears. Aphrodite on the other hand was having plenty of trouble. "It's okay..." She sniffled. "I'm gonna miss that bear. Make sure you get him patched up." She said, crying onto Artemis shoulder. Hera mouthed to her daughter from behind Aphrodite. I can do that.

As she placed Mr Bear down on the coffee table, Artemis clapped her hands. "Alright, who wants some cake?" She asked, but was immediately rebuked by Amphitrite. "Actually, the boys were supposed to be picking up the cake from Mrs Gemini from down the street, but they've probably started a food fight with some local gangsters, only they're using food and the gangsters are using guns." She joked.

Right as she said that, the door burst open, and 7 men walked into the house. 5 of them were clearly slightly intoxicated, while the two sober ones held a birthday cake in their hands, and Apollo sat down next to her quickly.

The drunk men started the party off. "Happy birthday to you!" Then everyone else joined in as Piper turned off the lights and Thalia tried to quickly light the candles. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Artemis and Apollo! Happy birthday to you!" They finished as Jason placed the cake in front of them. He and Nico were the sober ones, while Zeus, Paul, Poseidon, Apollo and Percy had clearly had some silly juice.

Artemis smiled at the cake, which was banana with white icing on top. Happy 17th Birthday Artemis & Apollo was written in cursive with chocolate icing, courtesy of Mrs Gemini.

Percy walked over to her and sat down next to her, stopping halfway there to pick up the teddy bear. "Hey, Mr Bear. Where've you been?" He asked, bringing the bear to the couch and hugging it. He leaned over to Artemis and kissed her temple. "Happy birthday Moonbeam. Make a wish." He said hazily.

Artemis smiled and closed her eyes. I wish for my daughter to have the best life imaginable. Please, just give me that. She wished, then waiting for Apollo to make his wish. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and nodded at Artemis. The three of them silently counted to three, before blowing out the candle and plunging them into darkness. Like seriously, it was pitch black. When the light came on, Percy was holding something out.

As Artemis looked over, she gasped, and dropped her wine glass, as did Sally and Hera, while everyone else just gasped. He was holding out a silver ring, with a deep blue gem beautifully woven into it.

"Percy." Poseidon hissed, suddenly sober. "I told you to wait a few years." He reprimanded, but Percy didn't spare him a glance.

"Artemis, we've been together for, what, nearly two years now? It hasn't been that long, but I already know you're the one for me. You're the mother of my child, the love of my life. I don't care if you wanna wait, we can wait forever, till we're out of college, till we've got a house, till our daughter's in college, I don't care. You may think I'm doing this because I'm drunk, but I'm not. Artemis Phoebe Olympia, will you do me the pleasure of marrying me, when the time finally comes?" He asked, holding out the ring a bit more.

Silence. Complete and utter silence. Everyone was waiting to see Artemis' reaction, and as time wore on, Percy began to notice the silence and his arm shook slightly as he clutched Mr Bear closer to him.

Artemis felt her life flashing before her eyes. She couldn't believe it. She was getting proposed to at age 17. Senior year hadn't even started and Percy was popping the big question. She felt the salty flow of tears leaving her eyes, and didn't know what to say. She dared not look around the room, for fear of seeing the angry glare of her father, or the pressuring glare of Sally, or the scarily neutral faces of Aphrodite and Apollo.

She popped a glance, and surprisingly found none of those things. Everyone was just shocked, and wondering what she would do next. As time froze and Artemis thought it all over, she knew her answer.

"Yes... yes, yes I will marry you!" She shouted, tackling Percy in a hug. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and cheered, while she parted so that Percy could slip the ring onto her finger. As Percy leaned in for a kiss, Artemis placed a finger on his lips. "One thing, let's leave the marriage until after high school." She said, and Percy agreed, before capturing her lips for a passionate kiss.