A/N: This is the long-spoken-about-by-me-because-I'm-really-distracted-all-the-time story that relates to all my Rico oneshots! This is canon with all my other fics (except for Battle of the Raps because it is a parody and therefore just stupidity.)

If you catch the How I Met Your Mother reference, you are a winner.

Read, review, enjoy!

I was bouncing on the balls of my feet, trying to keep myself from having an aneurism. I hadn't been this nervous since Annabeth and I first – well, you know.

Gods help me that this event won't turn out as uncomfortable as that one.

I shook off the nervousness – this was Annabeth. Things aren't going to be weird or uncomfortable. She's not going to say the wrong thing or change her mind about me or decide that she wants this to be over.

It's all going to be okay.

"A-Annabeth?" I called. Obviously my voice didn't agree that it was all going to be okay. Wincing at the high pitch, I cleared my throat and tried again. "Annabeth?"

She was making me wait in the living room/kitchen of her New York apartment she shared with Rachel while she was dressing, but I for the first time in ages felt uncomfortable standing there.

This would be a great time for Piper to arrive – I was in dire need of some serious charm speak.

Annabeth walked out of the bathroom, a vision in a pale green dress. Did she have to look so good all the time? It made it really hard for me to figure out how to breathe.

"Hmm," said Annabeth, twirling a little bit. Her hair, in a low side ponytail, curled along her right side, looking more beautiful than I could have imagined. "I seem to have chosen well. You have that look on your face that usually means you forget how to speak. And that's always a good sign." She smiled at me, and, not for the first time, I felt like the luckiest twenty three year old on the planet.

I choked, "Uh-duh, uh, yeah," I said. I'm so eloquent. I should write speeches.

"Yeah," said Annabeth, walking over to me, "I chose very well."

She kissed me lightly on the lips, and it was all I could do not to sweep her off her feet and carry her into the bedroom.

The last time I did that she almost killed me for being archaic and misogynistic.

I knew she'd go feminist after taking that Philosophy and Gender class in sophomore year of college.

I kissed her deeper, putting my hand behind her head, but she broke the kiss away. "Now, now," said Annabeth with a little laugh, "Don't we have reservations?"

I shook myself out of my stupor and took a steadying breath before I agreed. "Yeah, reservations." Another deep breath, "Right."

"Wow," laughed Annabeth, taking my hand, "You really like this outfit."

I shrugged. "It's more you I'm fond of, really."

Annabeth paused as she locked her door. "Want a little wine with that cheese?"

"Oh, shut up." Annabeth hated cheesy lines more than she hated Hera, even when I meant them. But I wasn't trying to sound cheesy. It just…It's not easy for guys to tell how they actually feel. And sometimes it gets to the point where I, a guy with no real idea how to sound like a Mr. Rico Suave I-Get-All-The-Girls man, end up saying the dorkiest thing ever.

Annabeth, gods love her, never let me forget it.

The two of us walked down the hallway, hand in hand, until we reached, not the taxi, but the limousine I had rented. Annabeth let out a sigh.

"Whoa."

I shrugged my shoulders and leaned up against the door, "Just a little surprise."

"What's the occasion?"

I opened the door, and forced back the question I wanted to ask. "Oh, nothing."

Annabeth smiled. "You're hiding something from me, Perseus Jackson, and I swear to you I'll find out."

I nodded. "We'll see about that one, Miss Chase."

My breath hitched in my throat when I saw her leg appear out of the slit in her sea green dress.

"Well, Seaweed Brain?" she asked sitting in the car. "You coming or what?"

I nodded. "Yup," I said, barely containing a nervous laugh, "Yup, right here."

I slide into the seat next to her and gave her a quick kiss, careful not to mess up her hair.

"You know," she said, breaking away, "It's just a ponytail, Percy, it's not like a prom hair do."

"Oh gods," I said, wincing at the memory, "Don't remind me."

She patted me on the cheek with her I-know-everything smile. "It's okay, Percy, it's not your fault that you ruined my hair for junior prom two minutes into dancing."

All I could really do was glare at her – she knew how much I hated it when she was right.

And that was most of the time.

"So," she said, leaning against the window. She was peering out at the city – probably picking which buildings she could design better or admiring those she deemed perfect. "Where are we going?"

I smiled. "You'll see," I said in a singsong tone. Annabeth gave me a look.

"I don't like being surprised," she said in a slightly intimidating tone, but after being with her since we were sixteen I had gotten used to it. Sort of.

"Just wait," I said. "You'll find out soon. Once the limo –" We came to an abrupt halt. Annabeth slid forward in the seat and landed with a startled expression on the limo floor.

"Well," she said. "That was…Uncomfortable."

"Ranjit," I said to the driver, "What's going on."

"I'm not actually sure," he said, looking at the two of us in the rear view mirror. "The car in front of us just stopped – it looks like a giant truck is blocking the way."

Annabeth and I exchanged a look. Most people would take that as a hint and blow it off – but we were demigods. When we heard hoof beats, we don't hear zebras or horses. We hear hippocampi or centaurs.

Annabeth turned in her seat and rolled down the window. "Oh, Hades…" She muttered.

"What..."

"Hellhound. One hell of a hell hound, actually."

My hand flew to the box in my pocket. "Um, Annabeth? Before we go running to our deaths…"

Without another word, she pulled open the door and hiked her dress up. Before I realized that she was just going for her thigh holster for her knife, I thought she was about to jump me. Not like I had a problem with that, but I felt like it would have been inappropriate at that time.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," she said, adjusting the bottom of her dress so it swept the dirty New York sidewalk, "Wipe that look off your face. We have some hellhound to kick."

I scrambled across the limousine seat and tossed the driver a tip of twenty bucks. "Ranjit, we might be back later. I'll dial the number if I need you again, okay?"

He nodded. "See you later, kids."

I slid the rest of the way out of the limo, landing on my feet right in front of Annabeth. "So," she said, twirling the knife in her hands, "Who gets this one?"

"Well," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling the first thing out. "You're in a fancy dress, so I think I might want to take this one."

"Yeah, but that tux is rented so – " Annabeth made a noise I could liken to a strangling rat and stared at my hand. "What the hell is that?"

"Um, Riptide?" I said. I looked down into my hand, and realized that in my haste, I'd pulled out my sword/pen but the hinge on the wedding ring box had caught on a button and it was hanging on my sleeve.

"What is that?" asked Annabeth with a funny look on her face.

For a moment I couldn't speak. I glanced over to where the hellhound was beginning to devour a car, then back to the person that made me more nervous that the huge dog. "It's…Oh, screw it."

I kneeled down on the dirty cement on one knee, pulled the box off of my sleeve and opened it. "Annabeth, I've been in love with you since before I turned fourteen. It's been nearly ten years since then, and I know that I won't change that opinion. You make me want to rip my hair out, you fight with me, you never cease to prove that you're smarter than me," I looked up into her face and smiled, a goofy grin spreading across my face. "But I love all of those things more than anything. This isn't exactly how I planned to propose," I said, speaking too fast but I didn't care. I gestured around to the setting and grinned apologetically. "But with the two of us I had a feeling that this wouldn't go down easily no matter how hard I tried. Because we're about to go fight for our lives – again – and you'll probably have to save my ass a couple times in the next couple minutes, Annabeth," I took a shaky, deep breath. "Wise Girl, will you marry me?"

The look on her face was indecipherable. Her mouth opened and closed, an expression of confusion and – for some odd reason – annoyance spreading across her face.

"WATCH OUT!" I shouted. Annabeth, for the first time in her life, didn't have the right reaction and continued to stare into the box I was holding in my hand. I rolled my eyes and tackled her to the ground, feeling the hellhound brush over the two of us. The ground shook as its massive body slammed to the pavement feet away from us, and I rolled off of Annabeth to get out of the way. I shoved the ring back into my pocket and prayed to whichever god that it wouldn't fall out. Annabeth, unfortunately, staring at me still. I glared at her. "Look, don't answer yet, fine, but get the hell off of the ground before you end up becoming puppy chow."

Annabeth inexplicably glared at me and stood up quickly, facing the hellhound. I had no idea what was going on – Annabeth seemed pissed at me.

The realization hit me like a brick, and I couldn't exactly wrap my mind around it. She didn't want to marry me.

I watched her, feeling detached, as she sprinted towards the giant creature and slid underneath it on the side of her dress. She plunged the knife up into the belly of the beast, and it exploded in a puff of smoke.

Annabeth emerged from the cloud, her perfect hair bedraggled and her dress shredded in a way that made certain parts of my brain appreciate it more.

The look on her face – irritation, determination, and determination – knocked back into me like a brick. "You don't want to marry me," I muttered, staring at my shoes.

To my surprise, Annabeth just moved her mouth around, and threw her hands in her air.

"I…I'm not sure what you're trying to say, Wise Girl." I felt my heart collapsing in on itself. I'd been drenched in the Styx, I had to hold up the sky, I had to worry that my mother was gone forever, but I had to admit that this was probably the worst feeling of all of that.

She made a frustrated noise and reached her hand down her shirt. I completely forgot my downtrodden state as she did that – I actually just became confused. Then she pulled out the small notebook she always carried around and began frantically scribbling down something.

She handed it to me, and finally gave me a little smile.

I can't speak! It's Hera… She wrote, But did you seriously think I didn't want to marry you?

"You want to marry me?" I asked, hope filling my heart.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and laughed silently. She nodded and pulled my tie, dragging me closer to her. Her eyes proved it to me – she was saying yes. Well, sort of.

Once our lips touched, she made a noise. "I can speak!" she shouted, "I can speak! Yes, you idiot! I want to marry you!" She looked in the direction of the Empire State building and up. "Well, after I kick the butt of a certain marriage goddess…"

I grinned at her. "You know," I said, putting my arm around her waist, "I thought you were going to say no."

"No? Really? You thought I was going to say no."

I nodded. "At the very least I expected you to be pissed that I proposed like that."

She shrugged as we walked down the sidewalk. "It wasn't the best proposal," she said, taking my hand in hers. "But it matched with who we are."

"What, crazy demigod losers getting killed six out of seven days?"

She turned my head to hers and kissed me. "Yes."