"Hey, Wise Girl." Percy called from the couch, pushing himself up from the comfortable cushions to help her with the shopping.
Life had treated them pretty well since everything. They got married in the winter nearly five years ago. It was pretty low key, but everyone had expected it to be. They were both pretty done with being in the limelight - it was time to do exactly what they wanted. It was a day for them and entirely for them. Annabeth looked beautiful but completely effortless. She spent the day laughing and the night dancing terribly with the stupid, hilarious boy she loved, even despite her dad not turning up at all.
Annabeth had managed to work her way up to the top of an architecture firm so they could afford something a little more than the tiny little box they had in the city. Enough room for the kitten Percy spontaneously purchased on his way home from work one day, anyway.
Percy had the day off today. Being a nurse meant he had a pretty weird work routine. His hours were unpredictable and sometimes he and Annabeth spent a week hardly even managing to utter a word to eachother because their timetables were so different, so they ended up communicating via notes stuck on the fridge a lot of time.
It was shit sometimes, but he was lucky to be doing a job he loved, no matter how difficult it could be.
It wasn't perfect, but it was them and neither of them had ever expected to be this happy, or even alive.
Annabeth smiled at him, letting him wrap his arms around her. He could probably see that she had had one of those days, like he had some kind of telepathic emotion sensor or something. They knew eachother so well now that everything was pretty effortless. There was no point in keeping secrets here because they could read eachother so quickly that there wasn't anywhere they could be kept.
To make things worse, he looked disgustingly, annoyingly good, even just hanging around the house in his sweatpants, his chest bare and tanned and goddamn beautiful.
She knew how lucky she was to have him. They were polar opposites in most respects, and yet, they still had so much in common. They never ran out of things to laugh about or cry about and their movie choice was usually pretty similar. They just worked, in that weird way they always had.
He kissed her forehead. "I got the shopping, Wise Girl."
"Are you sure?" She asked, slipping off her shoes and not even bothering to conceal her sigh of relief.
He laughed. "Yes, Annabeth. I've got it. I haven't eaten yet but we've got loads of pasta so -"
"Gods, yes. I love you."
"I swear you only say that when I make dinner." He grinned.
"I'm only with you because you can cook, to be honest." She smiled and kissed his cheek. "I'll be with you in a minute, Seaweed Brain."
It had been years. He was still as excited and in love with being with her as he was when he was a teenager - nothing had changed in that respect. He still woke up in their bed knowing that he was waking up into a life with her in it and everything, no matter how long work had been recently, or how battered he was from a monster encounter, felt beautiful.
She shuffled into the kitchen in her stupid fish pyjamas that Percy had bought her for Christmas as a joke one year and grabbed a can of beer.
"You having one?" She yawned.
"I only just got up."
She smirked. "You're a disgrace."
"I was on the nightshift!" He reasoned. "Do you reckon its acceptable if I do?"
She chucked him a can.
They were such a married couple and it made her kind of sad. She didn't want to settle into life like this. She wasn't yearning for quests, or danger, but there was something she needed. She was enjoying life, of course she was - she was with Percy. But she didn't want to get old and sit around waiting for death.
"Long day, Wise Girl?" He asked softly.
She nodded. "Yeah." She picked up Dora the cat, who was hovering by her feet and she tickled her chin as she purred loudly. She wasn't exactly pleased when Percy brought her home, but life without her would seem pretty weird. There was nothing that made her relax like the stupid cat did. "Are you working tomorrow?"
"No, thank gods... You're not, right?"
She shook her head and dipped her finger in the pasta sauce. Percy's arm slid around her shoulders as he took a sip from his drink. He spent a lot of time worrying about Annabeth, despite knowing there was probably no reason to. She worked a lot and he worried that if she got too stressed things could get a little tricky. He was the same though; often getting called in to work at two in the morning after a ten hour shift. He was scared that one day everything would just get too much and their relationship would crumble.
"We should do something tomorrow." He decided. "just us two, I mean."
Annabeth smiled. "Dinner?"
"Yeah." He sighed. "We hardly get to do anything anymore, do we? I mean, I just miss hanging out with you." He said, as he sat down and twirled pasta around his fork. "It sounds pathetic but I miss Camp, sometimes. Being on your team for capture the flag and fighting with you. Just doing stuff together." He realised that fighting wasn't exactly a typical husband and wife activity but it was what they were used to. They were still trying to adapt and get themselves back into the swing of the mortal world. It wasn't like either of them could get their swords out in the middle of the sidewalk and practice on each other. It didn't work like that here, but they loved the city too much to leave. "Being an adult sucks."
Annabeth smiled. "Tell me about it."
"You're happy though, right?"
"Don't be a moron." She smiled. "You know I am. Its just been one of those days, Percy, thats all."
"I know. Want to talk about it?"
She shook her head. "Nah."
He smirked. "Probably for the best. I don't get architecture."
"What do you get, Seaweed Brain?" She teased. He kicked her shin under the table and she laughed. She teased him a lot, but he was a lot more intelligent than anyone gave him credit for. He was ridiculously good with people and he had common sense - things that even Annabeth wouldn't get anywhere without.
"I get you." He smiled.
"Sure you do."
"No, seriously. I think you're bored, Wise Girl." It was a dangerous thing to admit, but life at the moment was a little too comfortable, even for him, who was so done with the demigod thing that he'd do anything for a little peace and quiet. They needed something to do, but for them, like they were used to. As long as they were together and all that. Thats how things worked out best.
It was scary, how well he knew her.
She thought about it as she ate, thinking back to a conversation they had a while ago.
"... I think we should have a baby, Percy."
He put his beer down and looked at her. He had brought the baby thing up a couple of times in the past, and the answer had always been a yes, but not now. It was something he had always wanted and he knew Annabeth had too, but she was far more cautious about the whole thing than he was. She wanted to be completely and utterly sure before she agreed to it and she hadn't felt that until very recently. Percy was right; she was bored, but goddamn it didn't mean she wasn't ready. She wasn't a girl anymore and she figured it was getting to a now or never situation. She worried that if she left it too late all the necessary organs would pack up and it would never happen. They had been talking about doing this for years now and sure, she was only twenty-nine but if she kept dismissing it, it would only get riskier.
"Annabeth, are you sure?" He asked. "I know you know I'm completely up for it, but when I said you were bored I wasn't even -"
"I know, Seaweed Brain."
"You know its okay if you don't want to, don't you?"
"Yes, Percy."
"And you're not just doing this for -"
"Percy, listen to me. I want this. You know me. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."
"I know you wouldn't." He said, softly. She was saying this so lightly, almost as if she didn't know it meant the world to him, as if it wasn't going to change their whole dynamic - something they were comfortable with and used to - forever.
She smiled and put her head in her hand. "Then trust me."