Yooooooo. New two-shot. :D Was originally going to be a one-shot, but then I got to the end, and saw the word count above two thousand…. Meh. :P

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"...Evangeline says she is lovingher fifth grade teacher, Gadreel. She says that he…" The red head laying with him went on about her daughter. He smiled as she did, listening in a little to what she said, but growing tired the more she talked. She had been going off about their most recent day living with the son of Ares since she had arrived home from her job at the mechanics across town. Gadreel didn't know of any polite way to make her shut up, so he did the only thing he could think of.

Pulling his girlfriend closer to him, he pressed his lips to hers, kissing her gently. "Mmm... And I... I finally got... enough... Money to go to..." She continued to try and talk around and between it, but when Gadreel continued to insist the kiss upon her, she went silent and kissed him back. After a while, the son of Ares broke it off, smiling slightly. The red head laying with him smiled as well before letting out a small, tired yawn. Gadreel chuckled.

"Go to sleep, Askira." He murmured, brushing some hair out of her face.

"I'm not tired..." She argued.

The naturally tanned man gave her lips another small kiss. "Yes, you are. You spent twelve hours at work today, and you've been going off about your day for three. It's just about midnight. You need to get some sleep. You need to wake up in six hours for work again."

Askira frowned, about to argue, but another yawn escaped her. She scowled. "Fine. But I still had something to tell you."

"You can tell me in the morning. Now go to sleep."

He watched as the daughter of Hephaestus closed her green eyes, listening to her grumble something about not needing sleep, making him chuckle a little, and he watched as she slowly fell asleep. He brushed a bit more hair out of her face once she fell asleep, giving her a final kiss on her forehead before removing his arms from around her. He rolled over and opened the drawer to his night stand, making sure what he had in there was still in there, and smiled slightly. He closed it again after locating it, and laid down, closing his eyes to get some sleep himself.

-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

"Evangeline would you stop running?!" Gadreel exclaimed in frustration, chasing after Askira's daughter. "You need to be at school in fifteen minutes! That's how long it takes to drive you there!"

"Gotta catch me first, Gadreel!" The quarter demigod, quarter monster, half human seven year-old laughed. She dodged Gadreel's advancements once more, dancing around him with the ribbons in her red hair waving in the wind she created.

Gadreel's pale blue eyes widened when he saw the wall, and he quickly applied the brakes to his charge, falling on the floor instead of colliding head first with the wall. He grunted, landing with an oofh and a heavy thud. Evangeline laughed behind him, skipping back up to her room. Gadreel grumbled as he sat back up, rubbing his sore back. He hated the mornings when Askira wasn't there. Evangeline always listened to her mom, and always had, even when she was only a baby. Rarely ever did she listen to Gadreel, always wanting to play with the son of Ares instead of listening to what he was telling her to do.

Sighing, Gadreel fell back onto the floor in defeat. He rubbed his face with his hands before letting those fall onto the floor around him, staring up at the white popcorned ceiling of his and Askira's apartment. After a while, he closed his eyes, giving up on chasing Evangeline around the interior of their home for a second year in a row, not wanting to go through with it all again.

He wanted summer back. Summer was much easier, when Askira would send Evangeline to Camp Phoenix, to the camp that the two demigods had met at. He wanted Ben back, too. Ava listened to Ben, her uncle, just as much as she listened to her mother. But summer was gone, and they were a week into the school year. Ben was gone, at his own job and trying to spend as much time with his three year old son and wife as work would allow. Occasionally Ava's uncle would take her for a weekend to spend time with her the rest of her family, but the weekend was far away, two days too far.

"Gadreel?" Evangeline's voice spoke up a few feet away from him. He looked over to see her at the bottom of the apartment stairs, dressed and ready for school, her backpack on and shoes mismatched, one shoe from one pair on her left foot, and one shoe from another pair on her right. Gadreel opened his mouth, about to tell her to fix it, but shook his head instead, chuckling and rolling his eyes. Maybe sometimes he did enjoy having Evangeline around. The ten year-old girl was good company sometimes, and she never failed to make him laugh at least once a day. Though she wasn't his daughter by blood, he still thought of her as his, and he had since Askira first introduced him to her daughter, ten years ago when she brought her to camp for two weeks, the year they had first kissed, and the year they had started dating.

He sensed Evangeline's hesitance when he didn't respond. "I'm sorry…" She murmured. "I'll listen better tomorrow. I promise I will." Gadreel rolled his eyes, knowing well she wouldn't.

"Alright. If you do, I'll take you for some ice cream." He looked over just in time to see her gray-brown eyes light in excitement, and she nodded eagerly. The son of Ares chuckled and stood, stretching his back out as he did. "Ready for school?"

Again she nodded, and Gadreel smiled a little. "Out the door then. Let's get going."

-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

Gadreel was exhausted by the time he finally made it back home several hours later. He dropped onto the couch in the living room, not bothering to change out of his clothes. He wanted badly to sleep, drained from needing to chase a monster posing as a robber half way across town after spotting it trying to get inside what he assumed to be a tasty demigod's house on his way to work. He had chased it all day, missing work, and about an hour after he was due to be off work he had finally caught up and had slain the beast, but only after jumping into a hundred yards, sprinting down a thousand blocks, and scaling a few walls when he came across a dead end in an alleyway that the monster had led him into.

Though he refused to sleep, despite the terrible ache in his muscles from over-exertion and the mass amounts of sweat rolling from his forehead, slicking his brown hair back. He didn't want to be asleep when Askira came back home, wanting desperately to ask her a question. He groaned once he realized she'd demand him to take a shower once she came home and smelt the over-powering stench of sweat coming from the son of Ares, and that she wouldn't let him talk until he was clean and smelling fresh.

Groaning once more, he got his hands beneath him and pushed himself to a sitting position. Head spinning a little, he stood and stumbled to the kitchen, bringing down a glass of water and filling it several times, downing each glass he filled, before setting the cup in the sink and going to the bathroom for a shower.

-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

As soon as Gadreel was out of the shower and dressed, he heard the front door open. Quickly he scrambled for the bedroom he and Askira shared, taking his dirty and sweat drenched clothes with him, depositing them in the washing machine in the closet at the start of the hall connecting the two different rooms. He stumbled over one of Evangeline's toys, cursing as he caught himself on a wall before continuing his advancement on their room. The son of Ares opened the drawer to his night stand, shuffling through the drawer till he found what he was looking for. Pulling it out, he shoved it into his pocket before making his way downstairs.

He froze when he heard the sobs coming from the living room, halfway down the stairs. Making his way silently down the rest of the stairs, he peered around the corner, spotting Askira's dull red hair pulled up and out of her face, not taken down after she had finished her shift at the mechanics. Gadreel bit his lip, hesitating before approaching her, slower and less eager than before. "Askira?" The son of Ares asked hesitantly, stopping a couple feet behind the couch.

The daughter of Hephaestus turned around at her name. She wiped at her tears, giving Gadreel a small smile. He bit his lip slightly when he saw the joy in her green eyes, confused as to why she was crying if she was that happy. She had never cried when she was happy before. At least not while he was around…

"Are you okay…?" He asked hesitantly, going around the couch to sit down beside her. He noticed a paper in her hands, and he shot a glance at it. There were a whole bunch of words on it, a few he recognized as medical terms, and he grew ever the more confused.

Askira smiled a bit more and nodded. She wiped at her eyes a little more before handing Gadreel the paper. He skimmed over it with his pale blue eyes, growing nervous as he caught sight of the few words he understood on it, words like "fetus" and "return in two weeks for a cheek on growth progress". He bit his lip as he finished skimming the paper, glancing back at the top to see "Results: Conclusive" scrawled across the top.

"You're… You're…" His mouth suddenly turned dry, unable to get the word out.

Askira nodded, wiping at her tears. "Yes. I'm pregnant, Gadreel. That's what I still had to tell you last night. I went in today. That's why I worked so late yesterday- so I could get off early today and go in to get the tests done. And they're positive. They're all positive." She noticed his blank expression, and she bit her lip. "D-do you not want this…?" She asked hesitantly.

Gadreel quickly shook his head. "N-no. A-A-Askira… This is… Th-this is great news, Askira. I… We…. We're having a child together…." He rubbed his face, trying to get the thought through his head that that was what was going on. She allowed him some silence to allow the information to sink in. After it had, the The thing he had shoved into his pocket suddenly made itself re-known to the son of Ares, and he sighed. "I guess now's as good a time to ask you…" He murmured, reaching into his pocket.

Askira tilted her head curiously. "Ask me what, Gadreel?" She asked curiously. He saw her green eyes glance at where his hand was reaching, and he gave her a loose grin, pulling it out of his pocket. Her eyes widened, and he watched as her mouth fell open, jaw hanging in her shock.

"Askira, I have loved you since…. Gods. I think since the trip to Rome eleven years ago." He started. "I'm not going to be all romantic with this since… I'm not good at that, and I hate to be clichéd. But… Askira Jones, Ms. Independent," He grinned when he called her by her nickname from Camp Phoenix. "Would you like to marry me, Mister 'One-Man-Army', and become Misses Dependent and allow me to take on the world as Mister Two Man Army?"

He saw the fear flash in her green eyes, and he knew why she was afraid, and knew she was about to go back to the whole "undeserving" thing she had done as a teen. But when he saw her swallow thickly and nod, he couldn't help but to feel relief, and couldn't help the heavy sigh that accompanied the feeling. He was about to speak again, until warm, soft lips were pressed to his, and he immediately melted into the kiss, fumbling for Askira's left hand and slipping the engagement ring onto her finger before bringing his arms up and pulling her closer to him.

Happy moments! :D

Quick thing: Gadreel is not mine. He is Oddington's, still, as you all would know if you read Frozen Waters: Book 2. :3