Because today's August 18, I've decided to write something! Unfortunately, I'm also pretty busy today, and completely blew off homework and violin for this, because I was stupid enough to make it long, so it's probably really rushed and with typos because it's late now and a school night and I don't have time to reread it. But, hope you like this! This is my first fic that I've actually wrote for something. I kept missing the birthday deadlines and stuff and forgetting about them because dates don't register with me, but finally I've gotten something up!

Our baby is 21! Well, in real-world time. In book-time he's 18. Maybe tomorrow if I have time I'll write a birthday-fix for when he's 18.

Enjoy!

Memorial

August 18th.

Every year, for the past five years, Percy Jackson has woken up on this day with dread and excitement playing tag in his stomach. Sometimes, they were fighting. Dread usually won.

He starts his birthday, this special August 18th, the same way every year. He wakes up and greets Annabeth in the kitchen while she puts breakfast on the table. It is the breakfast that always clues Percy in that it's his birthday—he's horrible with dates, but Annabeth only serves him breakfast on special occasions.

They'll kiss, tell each other happy anniversary, and she'll wish him a happy birthday. He never says thanks. She knows, though, so she never says anything about it. Breakfast is usually done in silence.

At 9, they head down to the car. On the way to camp, Percy will practice his speech, Annabeth critiquing him. Sometimes she'll practice hers, if she feels she needs to and there's time, but this year, they're saying their speech together. By 11, they're at camp and changing into formal attire, which in Camp Half-blood means full-on Greek armour and their camp beads. For Percy, he has to wear his purple Praetor cape too, because sometimes Romans come over for the occasion and hey, this day isn't just for the Greeks.

This year, the fifth year that Camp Half-blood has held this memorial day (which is really a lunch because no one wants Percy to go into mourning his entire birthday), the amphitheatre is filled completely with new and old campers alike, and Percy and Annabeth take their seats at the front, with all the other Heroes of Olympus. There are a few empty chairs along their row, but no one looks that way, and aside from those, all the other seats are taken. People even have hard times finding places to sit, and Percy thinks he sees a few families and children. That heartens him; now he knows he had chosen the topic of his speech well.

Chiron, as always, starts the ceremony with a quick speech about bravery and life, practically the same speech it has been every year. Percy's practically memorised that one as well as his own, although unlike Chiron, Percy tries not to talk about the same things twice. He's been running out of new things to say. Maybe Chiron was the smarter one in that.

Then there is a calling of all the names and all the people who lost their lives in the war, both the second Titan War and the second Giant War. They start with the casualties of the Battle of the Labyrinth, then continue onward with Beckendorf and the lost ones of the Battle of Manhattan. They say them as chronologically as possible, adding titles here and there, and always specifying whose child it was. When they finish with Leo Valdez, who isn't actually dead (according to Nico) but hasn't been seen in five years and is presumed to be dead, it's Percy's turn to go up. He grasps Annabeth's hand, and they both rise to go onto the stage.

It's the same every year; the feeling of all those eyes on you, watching your every move, daring you to say something wrong or make a mistake. The pounding of the heart so loud you're sure the gods up in Olympus, who are definitely watching this right now, can hear it. Swallowing multiple times but not seeming to unstick your tongue from the roof of your mouth. And then Annabeth is there, and you focus on her, and pretend you're in the car practicing again.

But this time, Annabeth's up there with him, and he has no one to settle his eyes on and keep calm, so he concentrates instead on the hand holding his and the feeling of her promise ring pressing against his fingers. He starts.

"We are here today to celebrate something great." There are surprised faces now. He's never said that about August 18th, even when the memorial was done and he was celebrating his birthday or anniversary. "I know many of you consider this day a tragic one, one that marks loved ones lost, sisters and brothers you'll never meet. I've thought this about today. But that's not what we're here for. We're here to celebrate life, and to celebrate the fact that we won these wars, we survived, and good is finally happening."

"Everyone has their own beliefs." Annabeth says, her hand still interlocked with his. "Beliefs on what is good and what is bad, right and wrong. Some people believe different things from us. But whatever our beliefs are, we all want to make a better place. We want to make one for our children, and our friend's children, so they can live in a world where all the horrible things we've experienced won't happen to them."

"And we can see that we've succeeded." Percy's turn now. "We can see old faces and new, children and families. Things we never had and might never have are available to people so close to us, people we love so dearly."

"I wasn't best friends with Silena. She and I had different beliefs about what was important in life and how to get it. But I do know that what she wanted more than anything was for the war all to end, for there to be no more fighting, and for everyone to just love each other. And she wanted to love Beckendorf. She wanted him to lover her, too. And, although she never really anything specific, I know she wanted a family with Beckendorf."

"I saw Micheal Yew sacrifice himself for the rest of his cabin, and for the rest of the camp. I could see it in his eyes as he did it that he knew he wasn't going to survive, but he also believed that it was the only way he could keep Kronus from those he loved and from ruining the world. He died protecting those he loved. I didn't know him well, and we barely talked, although I guess he'd healed me more times than anyone else, but I do know that he was selfless. People call me selfless, but he's really the selfless one, the one who would help anyone anywhere, anytime, as long as they needed help. He wanted everyone to do their best, too, to help the world."

"And Luke. He had the strongest beliefs of all. Yes, none of us agreed with all his beliefs, especially the ones concerning Kronus and world domination, but he did it all because he wanted to improve the world, same as everyone else who was fighting wanted. And I know I'm stealing Thalia's speech, so all I'm going to say is that he succeeded. He made the world better, and now it's up to us to make sure it stays that way."

"So this is a day to celebrate. It is the day when we demigods succeeded in making the world, in making the gods, better. When we managed to fight and win for what we believed in, what we thought was only fair or good and right. Some of us didn't live to see the fruits of our labor, she result of all that hard work and blood and sweat we put into it. But I am here now, and Annabeth and all the other 'veterans,' as you call us, can see the families people have made. We've seen how safe demigods are now, how many more of us there are to train and learn and live. So yes, today is sad, because of all those we lost, but today is also happy, because we are all alive and we are all in a better world because of our precious loved ones, the ones who we all wish had made it, but are undoubtably partying right now in Elysium. And they know we'll join them one day, so there's no need to talk about never seeing those who are gone now. Only thank them for the world they have given us today."

There was another part of the speech, but Percy had decided that now wasn't the time. Yes, they were slowly moving toward celebrating the day and not mourning completely, but that didn't meant that mentioning new life was appropriate. They would wait. After all, they've got all the time in the world now.

Anniversary

Annabeth plans his birthday. That means Percy has to plan their anniversary.

This has grown increasingly hard over the years, especially since for their monthiversary, or whatever it's called, was in Paris. How was he supposed to top that? And just to make it extra hard, Annabeth plans their second anniversaries, the date that they reunited. She always had the best ideas for their anniversary.

They allot the time after the memorial lunch (around 3 o'clock) to dinner for their first fifth anniversary this year. They always negotiate who gets dinner, but since this year he turns 21 and is officially the legal drinking age, Annabeth didn't even put up a fight when he asked for dinner.

He's as nervous as hell.

For almost a year now, Percy's been trying to find a good time to propose. Many times he almost did propose, when the moment seemed nice—when they're lying in bed, just being together and enjoying each other's company, or after they kill off the Minotaur for the fourth time, or even during their second fourth anniversary—but it had never seemed right.

So he decided to pull and Annabeth and actually plan his proposal. Obviously, since he was still struggling on what to do for their anniversary, August 18th seemed like a perfect day to plan it. But Annabeth always wanted to get engaged and then get married in Camp. So he had carried the ring in his pocket the whole day, but decided against proposing during their speech for the memorial lunch. He'd go for plan b.

They ate lunch with all their old friends for once, all of them finally together, and on his request, everyone had agreed to stay for dinner too, and then those of age were going to go to a bar that Annabeth had picked out to go drinking. He missed being with everyone.

After lunch, they walked along the beach, just the two of them. He had asked everyone else to leave beforehand. They stopped at their favourite spot, the one they could only recognise because they had memorised the number of steps it was from the nearest sand dune, and sat down, arms around each other.

This was always Percy's favourite time on August 18th, when he and Annabeth could just sit contented, the two of them, not talking but knowing that the other is there if they need it, giving comfort all the same. In the beginning, he always thinks of the past wars, what they had to endure and what everyone else did, too. He knows she thinks about it too. But then after a while, Percy starts thinking about them.

He and Annabeth have been together for five years, officially. That was a long time to be with someone. He had given her the promise ring when the Second Giant War had ended, promising that he'll never leave her and that one day, when they're older and have settled down, he'll propose properly to her and they'll get married. He still needs to fulfil that promise.

It's not that he thinks Annabeth minds all that much, not being married, because to be honest, the only thing marriage is to her is another social hoop to jump through. To him it's a bit more, obviously, as it opens up the possibility of children and therefore family, but he knows she's not too eager to have kids just yet. If he weren't so impatient, they could wait forever and she'd be perfectly content.

"Let's go for a swim." Percy breaks the serene silence that had lapsed over them, but Percy has made up his mind and if he's going to propose, he'll have to be nearer to the sea.

Annabeth is reluctant at first, unwilling to break the peace, but eventually realises that he's not going to back down and walks with him into the water. They don't bother with swimsuits or clothes, because Percy's going to dry them anyway, so why bother?

They're in a bubble that Percy has made for them, cuisine along the sea floor. He's pointing out fish and coral, even finding a piece of sea glass that has a perfect circle in the middle of it. She slips that onto her leather necklace, along with the fourteen other beads and her father's class ring. He's in the process of coaxing a pearl out of a clam when she sees it.

"Percy…" The tone is endearing and yet also exasperated, one that clearly says of course, this is such a Percy thing to do, I should have known better. He knows she's found it before he even looks at where she's pointing.

"Huh." He tries to look surprise or even confused, because obviously he had wanted a gasp or a look of joy on her face, not a sigh and a small smile. He wills the bubble towards the spot she's looking at, where an open clam is sitting with a ring in its mouth.

"Percy, I know that's a ring." Annabeth says in a flat voice. "And I know it's an engagement ring, and this is your way of proposing."

Percy contemplates just letting the panicking side of him take over and just run. Then, because he's Percy and she's Annabeth and that's the way they work, he just says, "Well, sorry, but I thought it was pretty smart. And I had a whole speech prepared and everything, Annabeth, you ruined it!"

"No you don't."

"Okay, I don't, but I was going to say something, about how much I love you and everything like that…" He trails off as Annabeth grins and rolls her eyes.

"Only you, Percy, only you." She mutters and wraps her arms around his neck, kissing him hard.

"Wait." Percy pulls away. "I still need to ask you: will you marry me?"

"Obviously, Seaweed Brain, we might as well be married already!" Annabeth places another kiss on his lips, this time light and chaste.

"Oh, then you don't want the ring?" Percy challenges.

"No no!" Annabeth responds too quickly, and flushes. Percy smirks.

"So you do care about engagement and weddings, don't you?" He teases. Annabeth scowls and slaps his arm.

"Of course I care about making our relationship official and permanent." She says. "I love you."

He smiles, but doesn't say anything, only slips the ring onto her finger.

Birthday

"Come on, Percy!" Annabeth insists. They're in his cabin, getting ready to go. "We should go out! The Stolls, Rachel, and even Clarisse and Chris are waiting to celebrate your birthday with you!"

"But I wanna stay in." Percy nuzzles his face into her neck. "The Stolls and Rachel scare me."

"Percy." Annabeth warns.

"But it's our anniversary, and we just got engaged!" Percy protests, his lips touching her ear as he speaks in a low voice. "Let's just stay home."

"As tempting as that sounds, Seaweed Brain, we can't. It's your 21st birthday! We just got engaged! Let's celebrate! Get your first legal drink!"

"You mean my first drink without my parents?" Percy inquired dryly. Annabeth glared at him :How about we just go out later?" He suggested.

"We'd never leave."

"Exactly."

"They'll drag us out."

"Not if we put a sock on the door." The smirk and wink almost brings the desired blush onto Annabeth's face, but she'll have none of that right now.

"No."

"But Annabeth…"

"Percy, I wanna go out as much as you do, but we need to do this."

"Why do we need to do this?"

"Same reason we why need to get engaged. Society dictates that it needs to be done."

"Well you were against getting engaged, and I'm against gong out drinking."

"I agreed to get engaged, didn't I?"

"That's different."

"Come on, Seaweed Brain, I planned this! I spent time looking or good bars—"

"Or asked the Stolls and Rachel—"

"And asking the right people over and what drinks you should have, everything!"

"And I appreciate the effort, but I'm perfectly fine just staying in!" He leans his face close to hers again. "Wouldn't you rather that?" He whispers into her ear. To his satisfaction, he feels her shiver.

"Percy, we have to go. Might as well get it over with." She tries to sound firm, but there's a waver in her voice. Percy grins triumphantly before placing butterfly kisses up and down her neck.

"I can think of better things we can do with our time." His lips against her collarbone, he opens his mouth and sucks. She moans. He moves to her mouth.

He can feel her resolve crumbling with every kiss, see how she collapses into him, and he can tell she's secretly glad that they're not going out, that she can just stay in with him and have a good excuse for it. Her hands, which he suspects are moving of their own accord, are slowly making their journey upward with the sole purpose of removing his shirt. His own hands are moving around her body too, and they continue to kiss.

Obviously, because the gods are probably watching this and want as much entertainment as possible (and hopefully don't really want to see them have sex), Connor picks the lock and opens the door.

He doesn't remember all that much of the rest of the evening, just Nico getting arrested and Annabeth looking hot when she drinks, and dancing and kissing and passing out. He suspects the next day that the Stolls put something in his first drink to make him so drunk, because there's no way, with all Annabeth's calculations, that he was meant to be so wasted.

He decides never to go drinking again. Next time, they're barricading the door and staying in.

Uh... I've never gone drinking, so I thought it'd be weird if I wrote about it... I get that it's a bit OOC of Percy to not want to go out, but let's just say that it's because today has been a very taxing day and he just wants to spend some time with his new fiancé.

Review!