Happy birthday, my dear fellow. You've made our lives that much happier.

I'm sorry if the timing of this story is off, I did mention why, but it still might be a bit awkward.

Feel free to review!

- purplepanda242

Percy was not having a good birthday.

He was covered with mud, monster slime slash dust and blood.

He was standing in the middle of a battlefield, back to back with his partner-in-crime, best friend, and girlfriend, Annabeth, fighting for their lives, in the war that had been going on for two weeks now... apparently, the 'final battle' was not quite the 'final battle'. Gaea's sacrificial plan in Athens took a detour, so she was left with her forces stalling until she gained enough energy to wake.

He could see Jason, Piper and Leo fighting off some minions of Gaea out of the corner of his eye, and if he had the time to look closely enough, he could see flashes of gold and a dragon breathing fire on Alcyoneus, who, fun fact, did not stay dead after Alaska.

It was a hard battle. Most of it was a blur to Percy and Annabeth, as they sliced, dodged, swung, rolled, and stabbed. There was pretty much no end to the number of Gaea minions there were, and this is saying a lot since Percy, Annabeth and Jason experienced the Titan War.

Percy steadied Annabeth after a karpoi tried using wheat to strangle her. Of course, he died trying, but Annabeth was already exhausted from her week in Tartarus; this war was draining her even more. Percy looked no different. His eyes lost a little sparkle, and he spoke as if the words were his last. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She brushed away a stray strand of hair. "I'm...I'm fine."

Percy didn't look convinced, but some Earthborn had decided to charge, and he had no time to answer.

Percy and Annabeth knew they weren't going to be able to keep this up any longer. The two weeks in battle was overwhelming, even just to the average demigod.

"Annabeth!" Percy saw a cyclopes (evil, not Tyson) over Annabeth, but he was occupied with another Earthborn. Suddenly, a bright light absorbed the air for a second. Then, suddenly, twelve powerful Olympians flashed through the blue sky. The cyclopes was zapped, and long story short, basically saved the day. It took a while, but it was all over. They had won. Gaea was asleep once again.

Now, the Seven and the gods had a new force to be reckoned with: Leo Valdez. He was adamant on having a celebratory party on the Argo II, telling everybody even Festus was in a festive mood (so therefore you can't not go) and even Annabeth was too tired to correct him (you can't use double negatives!). After shoving everybody on board, including the gods (and nobody could zap him for it because he did kill the bane of Hephaestus with his father), he yelled, "PARTY TIME!" and streamers burst open, lights flashed everywhere and suddenly he was the DJ. "YEAH, BABY!"

"Good gods," Jason muttered. But he was pulled to his feet by Piper, who was pulled onto the dance floor - the space allocated by pushed back sofas - by Aphrodite.

"If I'm going down, you're going down with me," Piper whispered maliciously to Jason.

Jason pouted, then grinned wickedly and shoved Frank and Hazel on the dance floor as well. They looked absolutely terrified as they saw the dance moves of Apollo and Hermes.

Meanwhile, Annabeth managed to pull Percy belowdecks and into the stables, where they were first caught by Frank. The Argo II was well on its way home by now, so Percy was able to truly see Greece as he sat down on the glass doors. He pulled Annabeth in between his legs and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned back into his chest and snuggled into him. They sighed contently.

"This feels nice," Annabeth said, breaking the peaceful silence. "No prophecies for now."

"Yeah," Percy agreed. "I'm glad we're still alive."

"Mm."

They sat for another comfortable silence before Annabeth gasped. "Oh! I forgot something upstairs... I'll be right back, okay?"

Percy nodded and let Annabeth go from his arms.

Annabeth raced up the stairs, avoiding the party room (where she could literally feel the floor thumping, but luckily Leo had taken this into consideration and made it extremely durable, because obviously he assumed there would be a party) and headed straight into the kitchen, where she took two frosted cupcakes out of the fridge. She carefully made her way back down to the stables, and placed the two plates in front of Percy, who looked at her with an expression that said oh my gods sugar sugar sugar I love you so much.

Annabeth laughed. "You didn't think I forgot your birthday, did you? In honor of last year. And I made two this time, one for you and one for me." She put a candle on one of the blue frosted cupcakes and lighted it. "Happy birthday! Make a wish."

Percy thought for a minute, and then blew out the candle. He gathered up Annabeth in his arms again, and they ate the birthday cupcakes together. After they had finished, he kissed the tip of her nose and announced, "You are the best girlfriend ever. Thank the gods I have you."

Annabeth smiled up at him and replied, "My pleasure." Then, in a quieter voice, "I couldn't live without you either."

Percy looked at her.

It was pretty much the sweetest kiss of all time.