A/N: Sweet noodles it's taken me forever to update this. Sorry about that! And here is the second installment! I decided to put the speaker of the parts of the story at the top of the section to make things clearer.

Thank you to all my reviewers – it means SO much.

(And that's not a reference to "Loser of the Rings" near the end there what are you talking about? : P)

Read, review, enjoy!


PERCY

"You two are getting WHAT?"

Annabeth sighed and stroked her thumb against the side of my hand. "Percy and I are getting married. He proposed when we nearly got killed by a massive hellhound."

"That's hardly romantic," said Aphrodite, popping in on the Iris Message. Athena glared at her. "What?" the love goddess responded. "Really, you two were supposed to have this epic romance. Granted nearly getting killed…Did he take a knife for you?"

"Well, I actually took a knife for him when we were fifteen. That good enough?"

Aphrodite shook her head, and Athena and Annabeth gave identical eye rolls that kind of worried me. I knew Annabeth had a lot in common with her mother, but only when I saw the two of them together did I realize just HOW much in common.

"Mother," said Annabeth. "Mom, we've been together for, what, nearly eight years? Did you really think that we weren't going to get married ever?"

"I had hoped you would find someone else. Perseus here leaves a lot to be desired in the intelligence department and my relations with his father are far from the best."

Ouch. "Athena, goddess, I –" Annabeth squeezed my hand a little too tightly, a signal that had come to mean "shut up."

"Mother, honestly, has he ever done anything to offend you?"

Athena sighed, and I braced myself for the rant about how I deflowered her daughter and ruined one of the virgin goddess' most wonderful prodigy… "You two were caught in a hotel together a few years back…Together! I'd call that an offense."

"Yes, and clearly we were responsible about it, mother," said Annabeth. She stepped closer towards me, our shoulders close together. "Look, we just wanted to tell you to make sure you wouldn't be in shock." There was a brief silence, and I decided that, what the hell, I might as well jump in. Hopefully I wouldn't end up regretting it.

"In all honesty, Athena, I've kind of been in love with Annabeth since I was fourteen. Regardless of how you feel about me, I'm not sure that'll ever change. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, um," I swallowed and steadied myself, "um, I intend to marry Annabeth. And I have a feeling that, as a strong woman, you would in no way expect me to think that she needs another person's permission to, um…To marry? Because she doesn't need to be, er, given away, because she's not a possession. I mean…Er…Annabeth's capable of making her own decisions and doesn't need another person making them for her. So…I guess I just mean that I love her and that I want to marry her. And I believe that she's the one who should make the decision whether she should marry me." I felt myself blush red as Athena looked at me, half glaring and half stunned. I had tried incredibly hard to remember everything Annabeth had told me from her feminist theories course about how sexist it was to assume that a woman needed permission to marry.

I hoped I had gotten it right.

"Fine then," said Athena. Annabeth and I couldn't control the looks of shock on our faces.

"Really?" Annabeth asked, a smile breaking across her face. "You mean it?"

Athena nodded, staring me dead in the eye, but I saw the faintest beginning of a smile. "I suppose I realized as Percy was talking that I truly had no authority over who you marry, and that it was absurd to assume so. I may not approve wholeheartedly of your relationship with Sea Salt here, but it would be obvious to even the greatest of dunces that he cares for you more than anything. So," she sighed, as if the words needed to be forced out of her, "so I suppose you have my blessing."

"Thank you so much, Mom!" said Annabeth, grinning. "I, l-love you." Athena looked a little stunned at the words, and it struck me that they may never have had this exchange before.

"Love you too," said Athena, a little awkwardly. "I will speak with you later, daughter."

"Okay."

"Watch yourself, Mr. Jackson," said Athena. "I hope you realize that there is a very good chance that you will mess up before the wedding, and I as of now reserve the right to react in whatever way I see fit when you do. This includes anything from revoking my blessing to setting you on fire."

"Um…"

She waved her hand through the message before I could respond.

Annabeth turned to me, a grand smile spreading across her face. "That went well!" she said, pulling me close to her and planting a kiss on my lips. I could feel her smile, and finally I began to relax.

"Well?" I said, my eyebrows rising. "She threatened to incinerate me."

"Only if you mess up!" she said cheerfully.

"Yeah," I said, "and we both know how likely it would be for me to do that."

"Oh, you." She punctuated it with a kiss to my cheek.

"Now," I said, "we tell my father."

Annabeth immediately went pale. "Do I have to be there? I have a feeling he's going to give me that I-hate-your-mother-so-I-hate-you look."

I nodded. "I was there for you, you're going to be there for me."

Annabeth nodded. "Right."


ANNABETH

"So I proposed. To Annabeth. We're getting married."

"That's nice. Anything else new?"

Percy and I exchanged a stunned look. "…Annabeth and I are getting married."

"Hey, I'm not paying. By the way are you inviting Amphitrite? Because this could get awkward with your mother being there and all. I just want to know."

"Are you serious?" I asked with a smile. "You don't mind it?"

Poseidon looked up from the map he was studying and gave me a look that made me feel vaguely like he was trying to drown me with his eyes. "I can't stop it, can I?"

"Well, it's not like –"

"And also Athena notified me about five minutes ago."

"We only stopped talking with her ten minutes ago!" I said, shocked.

"Then you were ten minutes too late, I guess. I suppose my only issue is that it's a bit inconvenient that you ended up with someone whose mother hates me."

Percy laughed awkwardly.. He started fiddling with his hands nervously, like he always did when talking to his father. "I, uh, I don't think –"

Poseidon barked out a laugh. "Oh, believe me, she definitely hates me, what with the existence of you and the fact that my kid's the one who nearly destroyed the world."

"Hey!" said Percy defensively. "I SAVED the world!"

Poseidon raised his hands. "Look, son, her words, not mine. I also think it has something to do with that time in the hotel room –"

"And we're done talking about that!" I said, interrupting brusquely. There was no way I wanted to discuss my sex life with my fiancé's father.

"You two have my blessing," said Poseidon. "Just let me know what I should do about your stepmother and stepbrother. Because there is a very good chance they will attempt to drown all of you."

"Awesome, Dad."

"And son?" said Poseidon just as Percy went to wave his hand through the mist.

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Screw this up and you'll have Athena and me killing you." I was momentarily taken aback.

"What do you mean, Dad?"

Poseidon turned to me with a grin. "I like you, Annabeth. I do think that you're not exactly the expected match for my kid, but you seem to get him levelheaded and you shut him up when he needs it. So I can deal with you."

"Th-thanks, sir."

"My only problem with you is that you're a little too uptight. So chill out a little next time, okay? Don't be afraid to go a little crazy," He turned back to Percy. "I expect you to treat her well, son. Don't be like me."

I didn't exactly know what he was getting at, but Percy sure did. "Never," Percy responded.

I couldn't really do much but blink as he waved his hand to clear the message.

"Crazy?" I asked Percy. "He wants me to go crazy?"

Percy shrugged and took my hand. "I think he's kind of worried you might get me infected with a brain."

"Oh, no," I said, touching him lightly on the nose, "that will never happen."


PERCY

"So," I said to Annabeth as the two of us lay in our bed that night. "Fiancée."

"Yes, fiancé?" she responded, turning over to face me. Her blonde hair was piled up in a sloppy bun on top of her hair, small tendrils falling on either side of her face. The book she held in her hands, something about the studies of Kant and his theories, cast a shadow over her eyes. I took it from her and set it down on my bedside table. "Hey!" she protested, leaning over me to grab it. "That's mine."

"Yes," I said, rolling closer to her, "but I was thinking we could chat about something."

"Like what?"

"The wedding," I said, brushing a piece of hair out of the way. Unfortunately I sort of missed and ended up poking her nose.

"Graceful," she said with a smile. "What about the wedding?"

"Well…Like…Who are we inviting? Who's going to be our groomsmen and bridesmaids? And like food? And a band? Oh, gods," I muttered, "this is going to take so much planning. I suck at planning."

"Oh, the downside of being a grad student," Annabeth sighed. "No time for planning anything but your exam schedules."

"You mean I have to do this on my own?" My voice reached a pitch I was pretty sure it had never done since I was twelve.

"I'm kidding, Percy," she said, laughing quietly. "I guess we'll just be really busy once we get everything ready. No time for…Well, anything, really. Who were you thinking for groomsmen?"

I shifted so I was sitting up against the headboard, and Annabeth followed suit. "Well…Tyson, Nico, Leo…How many do I need exactly?"

Annabeth shrugged and pulled her hair out of the bun as she spoke, the curls falling down her back. I couldn't break my gaze as she shook it out. "I don't know. I don't want this wedding to be huge…That would be exhausting to plan and execute. I'll definitely have Thalia, Piper, Rachel, Madison from high school and Maria from college as bridesmaids. I don't think I'll do too many more girls – it'll be too confusing."

"So…In that case I'll go for five guys. Just to make it even. That's how it goes, right?"

Annabeth nodded. "Who are your other two?"

"No idea. I'll do a raffle, or offer prizes or bribe people or something. But I think Nico's my best man."

Annabeth looked surprised. "Really? Why not Tyson?"

I scoffed and said, "Tyson would probably lose the rings in his own pocket. Nico's probably more responsible, and more likely to actually be at the wedding. Tyson gets called off for help with the Cyclopes often now. Nico's the right choice."

"Probably more responsible is right," said Annabeth, cuddling next to me. I wrapped an arm around her.

"Who were you thinking for your maid of honor?"

Annabeth thought for a moment. "At first I guessed Thalia, but she might be a little more protective older sister than I need. Plus," she said, grinning up to me, "her bachelorette party for me would be far too innocent. I think I'm going to go for Rachel as my maid of honor. She's the only one who wouldn't go absolutely crazy trying to make everything go perfectly. I think she'd let things go as they may…And you know what they say about the maid of honor and the best man." Annabeth turned to me and winked.

"No, um," I said, furrowing my eyebrows. "No, I kind of don't."

"They're supposed to hook up," she said with a lighthearted eye roll. "It's a stupid joke, sort of. But I've been dealing with a hell of a lot of tension between the two of them for nearly eight years. I'd like to see what would happen in this situation."

"You are a little scheming devil," I said. This wasn't the first time she did one of her little social experiments on some of her friends. She tested Reyna and Jason and Piper's little triangle herself, ultimately leading Jason to not only pick Piper but Piper ended up making Jason prove himself to her, all because of Annabeth's choice phrasing.

The girl was a mastermind.

"Of course I'm a scheming devil. I've been messing with you since the day we met. "

"Have not."

"Of course I have. And it will only get better now that we're getting married."

"You don't mess with me much anymore, though," I said. Suddenly I was hyper aware of how close she was, and how thin the material of her silk top was. Despite the years we'd spent together, Annabeth and I still had fire. I had a feeling we always would.

"Really?" she asked, moving away from me and tilting her head to the side. Her hair fell to the side, exposing her neck and the thin straps of her pajama top. I felt my breath hitch. "You really think I don't mess with you?"

"Neefuh?"

She crawled towards me and sat on my lap, straddling me and letting her hair fall like a curtain over her shoulders. "That's what I thought."