Heeey, there. I know, I took way longer than a day with this one, and I still feel like it's not perfect, but anyway. A little Percabeth never hurt anyone. I hope you like it!
Sometimes I stopped to wonder about the things I'd done in my demigod life. I'm not the one to gloat or anything, but there were some impressive things, Annabeth assured me. And thinking of it, I did do a bunch of stuff.
I had travelled across the country a lot; to return to my dear Uncle Zeus his lightning bolt – which I hadn't been sent to steal, thanks for the faith in me –, to find Artemis and the Ophiotaurus – or Annabeth, whatever –, to be part of Hera's switch-demigods game… And that's not talking about the Labyrinth or the Sea of Monsters.
I had been to the Underworld a couple of times. I had bathed the Styx. I had even been to Tartarus.
I had been to Rome and Greece.
Our generation of demigods had repeated a story which had only happened a long, long time ago; we'd defeated Kronos and his army, and we'd put Gaea back to sleep.
That was a handful of "heroic" stuff. I had always thought of those heroes of Ancient Greece in an impressive way, only to be disappointed by the ones I'd met. They weren't all that different from the rest of us.
So, one day, I took Annabeth out for a walk in the Central Park. It was a warm, beautiful Saturday afternoon, and we had just eaten a couple of delicious ice-creams. When we were walking around the Kennedy Reservoir, I said, "You know how we have those Mythology classes at camp?"
She smiled. "Yes, Seaweed Brain. Sometimes I'm the teacher."
I didn't bother rolling my eyes. I stopped walking and leaned on the railing facing the water. "And… you know how those heroes back in the ancient times did all that awesome stuff and fought pretty much everything there is to fight?"
"Yes," she said, standing next to me. "Why are you asking me this?"
I was quiet for a while, remembering how I had fought a titan on that very same spot three years before. That was the first time I realized I could make private hurricanes to help me smash the enemy, and it was pretty amazing, although tiring.
I continued, "Do you think they'll… talk about us someday?" I turned to her. "About everything we did."
I met Annabeth's eyes for a moment, but she turned them to the reservoir, also recalling the battle that had taken place there. Then she turned back to me with a little smile on her beautiful face. "I certainly hope so. They have to know about the big twice Olympus hero who struggled to survive high school."
I sent her a playfully offended gaze. Annabeth just laughed and scooted closer. Her eyes were light gray and full of life, sparkling in the sun. I knew they could turn stormy and dark whenever we were at war and had low chances of saving the world. It made me happy to think I hadn't seen them dark in a long time.
I turned to her and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. I still thought it was unfair how she was so absolutely gorgeous all the time.
Annabeth leaned into my hand and stared into my eyes. "They'll talk about you. About all the great things you've done. They'll know that they wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you. They'll be thankful for your Seaweed Brain-ish way of saving the world."
I snorted. "You talk as if I did everything. I wouldn't have lasted a day without you."
"True. But," she took my hand and placed the other on my cheek, "what if the Minotaur had killed you before you got to camp? Luke would still have done… well, what he did, but there wouldn't be anyone to keep Hades from starting a war among the gods, and we'd all be dead."
I shook my head. "Chiron would have sent someone else." Annabeth shrugged. "Maybe. But I probably wouldn't have been so personally willing to help the person."
My right hand naturally made its way to her waist while the left released hers and placed itself on her back, pulling her closer. I narrowed my eyes. "I thought you hated me back then."
"I did," Annabeth answered nonchalantly. "But also I had a crush on you." I opened my mouth to make a cheeky comment about how awesome I was, but she placed her index on my lips. "Don't flatter yourself. You were still an idiot."
I side-grinned and kissed her. Even after three years of having Annabeth as my girlfriend, I was very scared of losing her for something stupid I might do. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if she got away. You could say I was kind of traumatized; I couldn't shake the feeling that some angry, vengeful god could simply take her from me.
"But seriously," Annabeth whispered against my lips. "Demigods will talk about you. They already do. We only saved the world, after all. Twice in a roll." She leaned out a bit, just enough to look me in the eyes. "We did make history, you know. Those two wars only happened twice, and we won both of them."
"That can really get to your head, can't it?"
"Well, I certainly hope it doesn't. Yours is pretty big already."
Having said that, Annabeth started to run. By the time I realized what had happened, I only had time to say "Hey!" and start to chase her. We were still in a good shape, because we went to camp on every vacation to teach younger students, so we were fast enough to make New York citizens stare after us for a moment. That is, until I caught up and hugged Annabeth from behind, twirling her around once before setting her down. All that made the velvet box in my pocket even heavier than it seemed.
