I open my eyes to a mouthful of blond silk. Annabeth. The love of my life, here, in my bed. Annabeth. She is the sun (not Apollo). She is the sun in the way that she is always there, and is always bright. She is the sun, pure, shiny and yellow. She makes my days, and nights, brighter and I would do anything for this silk-skinned perfection. Although, she would argue the silk-skinned part due to the scars that basically cover the length of her body. But if you ask me, the scars only intensify her beauty. They remind me of the how much I need her, some of those she got protecting me and that just makes me want her more.
My thoughts are interrupted by a giant snore as she rolls over and hits my face with the back of her hand. It wouldn't have hurt except for the little rock on her third finger that got my eye. I get up and pad to the bathroom. My hair is in all kinds of disarray and there's a smear of drool on my cheek. I brush my teeth, splash water on my face and head to kitchen. Annabeth emerges from the bedroom right as I'm flipping the last of the blue pancakes onto a plate. Luckily she woke up after I cleaned all the burned ones off the floor and wiped the rouge batter off the ceiling.
"'Morning Sunshine!" I say as she stumbles into the kitchen. She's dressed in one of my old Camp Half-Blood t-shirts and not much else.
"You're up early on a Saturday," she says, "Please tell me there's coffee." Snaking her arms around my waste and kissing between my shoulder blades.
"I couldn't sleep with all the snoring coming from your side of the bed; and coffee will be up in two minutes." I reply turning around to face her.
"I do not snore! I simply hum through my dreams." She says with a smirk.
"That's some nasally humming, Wise Girl." She slaps my arm and I pull her into a full on kiss. I lift her up onto the counter and she wraps her legs around my waste. We stay like this until the beep of the coffee maker tells us that the java is up. I make us our coffee, hers black with two sugars; mine with three creams and two sugars. We sit at the counter of our small apartment in New York City and eat our breakfast.
It's not a big breakfast, nor is it romantic. But when I glance over at Annabeth, reading this morning's newspaper- hair un-brushed, face bare, in pajamas, I can't help but fall in love with her all over again. That's the thing about being in love with your best friend, you can look through the veil that they put up for the public, and see who they really are. In Annabeth's case, a snoring know-it-all who has a pride issue but is one of the bravest, caring and sensitive people I know. She swears that she wasn't those last two things until she met me, but I know that someone else can't put those in a person. They can be brought out, intensified, highlighted by someone else; but they can't be placed there.
"You're staring Seaweed Brain." She remarks without even glancing up at me.
"I'm aloud to Wise Girl. That's the thing about being your fiancé." I reply pecking a kiss to her cheek. She smiles and continues to read the news.
I get up, clean the dishes from breakfast and make myself another cup of coffee. It's only 9:30 so we have plenty of time before we have to be at camp. I teach sword fighting with Jason at noon on Saturday's and Annabeth teaches ancient Greek. The rest of the week we work and Annabeth goes to school. I teach Greek mythology at NYU and she's interning at an architecture firm run by a guy named Ted Mosby. She's been interning there for almost a year while she goes to school for her degree in architecture.
I don't know much about architecture, only what I've learned from Annabeth, but I do know her and watching her face light up when she talks about it is worth getting dragged to museum after museum with her. In exchange she comes to all of my swim meets. Well, they're not my swim meets, just my students. I coach the swim team for Goode High School. Paul got me the job and it's possibly the greatest job ever. My kids are so determined and willing to go that extra mile, to push a little harder, and to give it they're all. Watching them try their hardest and win is the proudest I've ever been. It gives me a sense of how Chiron must feel when a hero returns from a quest with a victory. Doesn't happen as often as we'd all like, but when it does it's just amazing.
Annabeth and I are both 23 now and as busy as ever. But we are happy, and we're safe for now. Hazel and Frank live at Camp Jupiter and Frank is still a praetor. Leo and Calypso live at camp, Leo converted bunker 9 into a workshop with an apartment above it; and they have 2 children. Cleo Esperanza Valdez and Abigail Piper Valdez (named after her godmother). Piper and Jason live in a penthouse in Manhattan (her father insisted) and they both visit camp frequently. Nico comes around every once in a while, apparently he met someone in the underworld and is trying is hardest to get him out.
In the end Gaea was defeated and we all survived. Annabeth and I still get nightmares now and again, but we just hold onto each other and wait until it passes. It always does and last night marked my 2 weeks with no nightmares streak. That's my new record, it may seem small, but when you're a half-blood you celebrate even the smallest of victories.
I used to resent being a half-blood, for a very long time I wished I wasn't. But if I wasn't a half-blood then I never would have met Annabeth, or Hazel, or Leo or any of them. I never would have met Grover and Juniper, or their 3 kids. I wouldn't appreciate my life as much as I do. In the end, I'm glad I went through the things I did, not because they were pleasant, but because I wouldn't be me today, Annabeth wouldn't love me if I wasn't me, and that alone makes me thankful to the fates. They may be cruel, and unfair, but right here, right now, I'm happy.
"Percy!" Annabeth's scream jolts me out of my thoughts. I run to the bathroom where I see her sitting on the bathroom floor holding- "What is that?"
She hands me a little white knife looking thing. On the little screen reads Pregnant 2-3.
"You're two thirds pregnant?"
"What?! No Seaweed Brain! I'm pregnant, two – three weeks. I'm two or three weeks pregnant. Pregnant."
"Baby?" I ask, I can feel my face start to slip into a smile.
"Baby." She confirms. "Real life baby."
I drop down to the floor next to her and wrap her in my arms. I start placing kisses all over her face until I reach her mouth. She breaks away and gasps-
"My mother is going to kill you!"
