It's totally not Annabeth's fault that this stupid couch is so uncomfortable and small. It's not her fault that there's no room for Percy and her to sit side by side, just like it's not her fault that his lap is quite possibly her favourite place to sit in the entire world. Especially when her head is buzzing a little bit from wine, which it definitely is now. So she doesn't quite understand why the girl up the other end of the couch is glaring at them. They're only twenty, and this is a party, right, so if Annabeth wants to sit on her boyfriend's lap then she is going to sit on her boyfriend's lap.
She grabs a handful of candy from the bowl on the coffee table and glares at the girl, hoping that her infamous grey eyes are no less intimidating as she munches on jellybeans. Apparently they're not, because the girl gets up in a huff and walks off. Even though there's now a vacant spot on the couch, Annabeth doesn't move.
"You gonna share those?" Percy says, mouth by her ear. His warm breath sends a shiver down her spine.
"Only the blue ones." She half-twists towards him, grinning, and pops a blue jellybean into his mouth. He holds her gaze as he chews it, and she sticks her tongue out at him.
He laughs and gestures for another jellybean, but she holds it out of his reach. He grabs for it, but she keeps her weight settled firmly on his thighs and her arm outstretched, and even though he could easily oust her if he wanted to, he doesn't send her toppling onto the floor. Instead he starts kissing her - her shoulder, her neck, up her arm. Annabeth turns to goo. She falls back against him, eyelids fluttering closed and a soft sigh escaping her lips.
"You gonna give me my jellybean?" he asks, voice low and slightly husky and totally at odds with his words.
She shifts, turning around to straddle his lap, and shakes her head no with a coy little smirk. He smirks back, hands settling on her hips with a familiar weight, and leans in to kiss her. Her heart flips.
After everything they've been through, Annabeth finds it kind of hard to believe that they could be sitting here now, looking for all the world like any other young couple out with friends. Not they have any friends here, as such - besides Rachel, of course. She's the one who invited them. This is the afterparty to one of her gallery showings, so the room is filled with artists and a bunch of pretentious buyers, but Percy and Annabeth are good friends who are more than happy to support her. They came all the way from New Rome to Brooklyn for this, so they thought it best to stay for at least a little bit of the afterparty.
Speaking of Rachel, the sound of her laughter above them breaks them apart. Annabeth cranes her head back to see the redhead standing behind them, another girl hovering awkwardly behind her.
"Can't take you two anywhere," Rachel teases. "You're still acting like horny sixteen year olds."
Annabeth doesn't bite, merely tugging her dress down and spinning around to look up at Rachel demurely. Percy, however, acts just like a flustered sixteen year old.
"Rachel! Hey, hi there, nice- uh, nice… art."
Rachel shakes her head and gives Annabeth a look. So eloquent.
"What Percy means," Annabeth says patiently, "is congratulations, Rachel. We're glad that other people are recognising your talent."
"Well, art is just one of my many talents, as you know," she says with a wink.
Percy wraps his arms around Annabeth's waist and props his chin on her shoulder. "Of course," he says, breath tickling the golden curls by her ear. "So, what's up? Are you having fun?"
"Not as much fun as you guys, apparently, but yeah! I wanted you to meet Claire, an old friend of mine from school." Rachel gestures to the small girl standing behind her.
Claire steps forward and smiles. She still looks kind of awkward about interrupting their make out session.
It takes a second for the name to click, but when it does Annabeth smiles. "Oh, Claire! From Clarion, right?"
Rachel hadn't made a whole lot of friends at the snobby private school her dad had insisted she attend, but Annabeth vaguely recalled hearing talk of 'one girl who's kind of cool', in Rachel's own words.
They both nod. Claire says, "It's nice to meet you. You guys are counsellors at that summer camp Rachel works at, too, aren't you? She talks about you a lot."
Annabeth says, "All good things, I hope."
Rachel's eyes are glinting. "Never. All I do is complain about how you never do any work - too busy making heart eyes at each other."
Annabeth half-stands, whacking her lightly on the arm.
"Shut up," Percy says, but he's laughing. He pulls Annabeth back down and she snuggles in to him. "Heart eyes? Are you kidding? Most of the time she's glaring at me."
"Only when you do something stupid, Seaweed Brain."
"Which is always," they say at the same time.
Annabeth laughs and Percy grins his stupid little troublemaker grin, making her wish that they were somewhere a lot more private.
Claire looks at each of them in turn and asks, "So is it true that you two have been friends since you were thirteen?"
"Twelve," Percy and Annabeth correct in unison. They smile at each other.
Percy continues, "Gee, how much has Rachel told you?"
"Nothing too personal," Rachel assures them. "Just that I knew you two were going to get together way before you did, because someone's a bit thick and someone's a bit stubborn."
Annabeth's spine straightens. She loves Rachel, now, but the memory of her jealousy all those years ago makes her uncomfortable. Rachel ruffles their hair affectionately, one hand on each of their heads, and Annabeth tries to imagine her fourteen year old self's reaction if she'd been told that one day she'd end up with Percy as a boyfriend and Rachel as a friend. She pushes her hand away and throws her a playful glare.
"I don't know," Claire says, and Annabeth notices for the first time how astute her gaze is. No wonder Rachel became her friend. "You two act like an old married couple, from what I've heard - and seen."
They all laugh, and then Rachel is called away to speak to a potential buyer, and Claire says her goodbyes and disappears back into the crowd.
Percy drums his fingers idly against Annabeth's hip bone. "Old married couple."
She turns sideways, looping her arms over his shoulders and lacing her fingers behind his neck. "That wasn't even a possibility a few years ago."
"It is now." His sea green eyes are suddenly serious, staring at her so intently that her breath catches in her throat. "We can get married, if we want."
She thinks about the home they've made for themselves in New Rome, and how different it is to their life back here on the East Coast. She remembers how excited Percy was for their future together, even when they were facing impossible odds against Gaia. She remembers how the thought of that future was what got them through Tartarus.
Percy winds his fingers through her hair, wrapping the golden strands around his palms and gently pulling her towards him. She steadies herself with a hand against his chest, the beating of his heart a steady rhythm beneath her palm, and she kisses him so softly and so sweetly that the rest of the party melts away.
Annabeth loses track of time. Rachel pours her more wine, and as the girls drink the sparkling liquid Rachel draws patterns on Annabeth's thighs in Sharpie. Annabeth shows Percy the drawings, laughing at the way his eyes widen, and kisses him again. People stare, but she doesn't even care. They're probably just jealous. She scoops handfuls of jelly beans out of the bowl and throws them into his open mouth, whooping with joy every time he successfully catches one - which is pretty much every time.
Eventually they run out of wine, and all the blue jelly beans are gone, and Annabeth decides she's had enough.
"I want to go home," she whispers to Percy.
He sighs with such relief she actually sees his chest deflate. "Oh, thank the gods. All right, let's say bye to Rachel and go."
"What's our excuse?"
Percy blinks at her. "What?"
"We can't just bail, Percy, we need an excuse."
"Oh. Uh. How about, 'we have to leave because we're going to get married, right now'?"
Annabeth laughs and kisses him. "I'm pretty sure the clerk's office is closed," she murmurs against his lips.
"I'm pretty sure we have the approval of Aphrodite, finally. We don't need the approval of the county clerk," he whispers as quietly as possible.
Mention of the goddess makes Annabeth frown, but she brushes it aside and says, "I think from a legal standpoint it would still be nice."
He rolls his eyes and says jokingly, "Alright, Wise Girl, whatever you say."
"You know I'm right, Seaweed Brain."
"Always."
Rachel gives them a knowing look when they say their goodbyes, muttering some half-hearted excuse about jet lag (she knows very well they didn't fly here in a plane) and squeezing them both in an uncomfortably tight hug.
When they make their escape out on to North Fifth Street, Annabeth's head immediately clears. It's a beautiful night. Some stars are visible through the light pollution, the moon is shining full above them and Percy Jackson is smiling at her like she's his whole world.
She laces her fingers through his and swings their arms between them as they meander down the middle of the road.
"Did you mean what you said?" she asks.
He looks at her out of the corner of his eye. "When?"
"All that stuff about getting married." She hesitates before looking at him. When she does, she sees that he looks almost stunned.
"Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's not exactly… I mean, I have a whole speech planned and everything, but, essentially -"
She stops dead. "What? You have a whole speech planned?"
He smiles sheepishly.
"Percy Jackson," she says, and a for second she sounds angry. But she can't maintain it, not when he's looking at her like that. She throws her arms around him and he swings her around. When he plants her feet back on the ground, she grins up at him so wide that her cheeks hurt. "Have I ever told you that I love you?"
He shrugs with false modesty. "A few times."
Annabeth can't stop smiling. "So. Are we gonna do this?"
His smile slips. He pats his pockets and mutters, "I wish Hazel were here."
She's about to tell him that she doesn't need a ring when she's struck by one of her great ideas. "Hang on." She slips her dad's class ring off her necklace and hands it to Percy before re-clasping the necklace.
His mouth works silently for a few seconds, and then he just laughs. "Oh, man, our parents are going to kill us."
"And our friends," she adds.
"They're all going to want to know what we were thinking."
"What are we thinking?" Strange question for a daughter of Athena, but she is honestly wondering if they're doing the right thing. She likes plans and blueprints and organisation, and this is the exact opposite of that.
Annabeth feels as though Percy is looking straight into her soul when he says, "That we're going to be together forever, so we might as well make it official."
Official. She can work with that.
"Together," she says.
"Together," he repeats. "You're not getting away from me, Wise Girl."
"Wouldn't dream of it, Seaweed Brain."
Her father's ring is too big for her finger, but it'll do for ceremonial purposes. She slips it back on to her necklace almost immediately, and Percy promises that he has a proper one, fitted to her finger, back in his suitcase.
She almost has her way with him right there on the street when he says that.
They manage to make it back to his apartment, sneaking in after Sally and Paul have gone to sleep. His childhood bedroom is covered in mementos of their early years together, and photos that show the progression of their friendship. Annabeth almost cries when she sees one of the two of them with Tyson and Grover, all so little and so close and beaming up at the camera. Percy wraps his arms around her and pulls her onto his little bed, and they reminisce about everything they've been through.
Annabeth eventually falls asleep with her head on Percy's chest, a photo of the two of them sitting by the campfire in her hand, and the knowledge that she is going to be with this boy for the rest of her life.
Sally makes them blue pancakes for breakfast, and when she asks how their night was they share a secretive smile.
Percy grins up at his mom. "Well, actually -"
(Sally cries. A lot. Which makes Annabeth cry. Percy tears up but he'll never admit it. Paul walks in to them all crying and hugging, starts to ask if everything is okay, and just gets pulled in to the hug too.
They act as witnesses later that day at the County Clerk's office, where Percy and Annabeth say their official vows and exchange rings that actually fit and sign all of the paperwork.
Paul cries almost as much as Sally.
They manage to keep it a secret for a day and a half before Rachel dobs them in. Piper almost kills them for not letting her be involved, and Jason is stunned by their spontaneity, and Hazel and Frank are sad they weren't there but happy for them at the same time. Nico seems entirely unsurprised. Grover is somehow simultaneously flabbergasted and not surprised, and Tyson starts calling Annabeth 'sister' immediately. She acts sort of annoyed, but Percy can tell that she secretly loves her new moniker.
Not as much as she loves being called Annabeth Jackson, though. That's her favourite.
"After Wise Girl," she insists.
"After Wise Girl," he repeats, pausing only to kiss her. "Because Wise Girl and Seaweed Brain just has such a good ring to it."
"You know it does, Seaweed Brain.")