So, there's this long (I hope) chapter for Family I should be working on, so I wrote this instead! Yeah, maybe not my best choice, but I really wanted to write it up, so... Interpret as you please, I guess. This came to me, and I couldn't help myself. Have a good day, everybody, I hope you guys enjoy this, and stay awesome!

-ROC6

She remembered the first thing she said to him, really said to him, not an offhand comment he probably didn't remember. It brought a small smile to her lips, and boy did she need that smile. Life had been hard on her for awhile now, and Annabeth knew she needed his help. She hadn't seen him in a little while.

Shifting how she was sitting, she let the memory wash over her.

"You drool in your sleep."

He'd been scrawny, then, and he had that city, cool guy, skateboarder look going, with his dark hair messy (though she guesses it makes sense there, he had been in the infirmary for days). He was somewhat pale, too, at the time, and she had already seen how he wasn't as calculating as her siblings, since he had dragged Grover over the camp borders (something she was immensely thankful for, he was still one of her best friends).

That didn't prepare her for when he walked out onto the porch carrying a minotaur horn. She was surprised, she could get lost in his eyes even then, and she saw spirit and determination she hadn't expected from him. He was nervous, and thought he'd lost his only family member, and yet he wasn't a crying, sobbing mess. She almost wanted to praise him. Instead she told him he drooled.

Annabeth remembered the quests they'd been on, like her Labyrinth quest, or their escapade into the Sea of Monsters. She reached out and touched the ground in front of her. It wasn't muddy, upturned earth any more, rather, a bed of grass, vibrant and healthy. She remembered the time she was kidnapped by Luke, when Percy snuck out on a quest. The memory brought some strength to the smile on her face.

She remembers he died a hero in the end, died the hero she always knew he could be. The award ceremony passed in a blur, but she remembers that she felt thrilled and ecstatic and depressed and guilt-ridden all at once. Then, there was the part she remembered passing agonizingly slowly. Percy kept looking her way, not even realizing he was doing so. He looked torn for a moment, then he said it.

"No."

The Seaweed Brain, for he would forever be a Seaweed Brain, turned down immortality. And she knew he did it for her. Her smile widened. The sun began to cast long golden rays across the ground, but she could've sworn it had been high in the sky moments before. She knew she still had time, though, so she made no move to leave. That day-his sixteenth birthday-they officially began dating, though everyone had seen it coming (except for him). They had dated for four months, then he was gone, a mist in the wind. She looked for him day and night, distraught and out of her mind with worry. She found Jason, Piper and Leo, but not Percy. Even after they came back from their quest, claiming they knew where he was and that he was safe, she still couldn't quite believe them, didn't quite trust them, not yet.

Then, finally, after months of waiting, she saw him. He was wearing a toga (backwards, not that she'd tell him), and somehow was exactly how she remembered him and wholly new and different. His troublemaker smile was still there, his black hair still messy, his eyes still the beautiful, stormy green she'd fallen in love with. Yet he seemed different, somehow, though she couldn't put her finger on how. The Praetor, who she'd later learn was Reyna, was talking, but she couldn't control herself anymore, and she surged forward, kissing Percy, pouring all her worry and fear into it, then judo flipping him in front of the entire legion.

"If you ever leave me again, I swear to all the gods-"

He'd grinned at her, making her heart flutter, and told her he missed her too. They left on a quest that day, one that would leave them scarred and haunted for a long time. They bonded with the Seven, and worked their way closer to the Ancient Lands. They arrived in Rome, and she left to follow the Mark of Athena. She followed the path, defeated Arachne, retrieved the Athena Parthenos, and overlooked a piece of webbing caught on her leg, an oversight that cost her more than she'd care to admit. The floor started to crumble, and she was pulled down, towards the edge, until she was almost falling, and then Percy caught her and smiled at her, as if he was going on vacation at the beach with her.

"You are never getting away from me. Never again."

He had turned to Nico, made him promise, then let go. And somehow, with him, falling into the uncharted depths of the underworld didn't seem so bad anymore. Even now, though, she sometimes couldn't bare to think of those times, even after years of healing. She knew he still felt that way, too. But they made it out, together. And that's what matters. It left her scarred, and hurt. She'd zone out for long period of time, lost in the memories, and he'd stay up every night, watching whatever was on TV (though she thought he'd secretly grown to like Bubble Guppies). She was a grown girl afraid of the dark, but having him by her side cleared the shadows away, and she could see it in Percy, too, he'd smile just a little bit wider when she was there.

They won the war, went to school together, and lived happily ever after. She could see the shadows lengthening around her, she knew she'd have to leave soon, but she couldn't go. Not yet.

They'd been out of college four years by the time he'd asked her. She'd considered asking him herself, but she knew he'd want to make some romantic gesture, and she couldn't take that away from him. They'd been walking together along the beach at Montauk. It was her birthday, and they were walking barefoot in the surf when he pulled out a tiny box. He didn't get down on one knee like most men do, rather, he turned to her, revealing an elegant ring with a simple green gemstone. She loved it.

"Annabeth Chase, I love you with all my heart. We've fought together, and survived Tartarus and school together. Will you marry me so we can spend the rest of our lives-"

Then, in true Percy fashion, he'd tripped. She'd helped him up, accepted the offer and kissed him better. The wedding was a crowded, elegant affair, and she remembered exactly how she felt as she saw Percy waiting for her at the end of the aisle. He actually had his tie on right, and she wondered how long he took to do that. Or who helped him. They celebrated long into the night with their friends.

Roughly a year later, Emily Sarah Jackson was born to the world and Percy had told her that he was sorry, but he had a new favorite person. She smiled, because she felt the exact same way.

"I promise, Emmy, we'll give you the childhood I never had. No monster will ever be able to touch you."

Percy had wrapped his fingers around hers as they stared in awe at their daughter, the little life they'd brought into the world together. She had a tuft of blonde fuzz on top of her head, and she was by far the cutest thing Annabeth had ever seen. They raised her lovingly, and she was an extremely happy child, with all the love she could want. Two years passed, and Jacob Luis Jackson came to be.

Her phone (, monster proof and Leo tested,) buzzed in her pocket, alerting her it was time to go. She sighed, deciding to sit a few minutes longer in the twilit yard.

"Emmy, she's five now, was so proud the other day, she built herself a moving model of a hippocampus. And Jacob, well, he looks more and more like you with every day that passes. I wish you were here to see him," she finished her speech.

She reached out and ran her fingers over the letters carved into the stone, a bittersweet smile on her face, "I miss you, Seaweed Brain."

Annabeth lay a bouquet of the moonlace she grew in his honor on his grave, they were just starting to glow in the dim light. A few tears escaped her eyes, "Have fun in Elysium, Percy. I love you."

She stood up, and, taking one last look at the shadowy graveyard, walked to her car, where it was waiting on the road. She had two beautiful young children to take care of and enchant with worlds of fantasy. She dried her eyes, well aware she had to stop living in the past.

"Goodbye Percy," she whispered, already planning when she'd visit him again next week.

Hello, it's me again. Sorry for that ending, I hope you don't hate me now. For those concerned, everything in this story coincides with the universe of Family up until where Percy dies. (Semi-spoiler alert?) In Family he gets to live. Have a good day, yada yada yada... I hope you guys enjoyed, and stay awesome.

-ROC6 (again :) )