Hey Guys! Here's chapter two! THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the favorites, follows, and reviews!

I am going to try to upload at least once a week, so be on the lookout for that.

Sorry, this is going to be kind of a long AN, but it's important, so please read it all!

I know there were a few reviews last chapter about the mood of the story being too serious and out of character for Percy, Just a reminder, they are adults in this novel, so the maturity levels of the characters will have increased, however, not to worry, there will still be plenty of Percy's personality, because I love it just as much as all of you do. These first couple chapters are more serious though, so they have to be more cut and dry. Chapter 3 will include more of the Percy we all know and love!

Another thing, I plan on getting into the marriage and family aspect for Percy and Annabeth later on in the story, which means I will need names for children that they will eventually have. I am very bad when it comes to coming up with names and stuff, so ideas are welcomed, please! If you could, try to make them relate-able to PJO/HoO in some way. I'd prefer not to have random names that have no connection whatsoever to anything, however, if it's a really good name, I'll accept. :) And also, if anyone has any ideas for future chapters, I'd love to hear them too!

I know chapter one was a little on the shorter side, but I promise that they will start to be longer, like this one, and sometimes even longer than that. In my stories, most of my chapters are usually between 1,500 and 2,000 words, give or take. Just so you know what to expect.

Anyway, that's all for announcements for this chapter. To the story! Enjoy! :)

Re-edited: 12/16/2016

Disclaimer: The "motto" (first line) of this chapter was inspired from the movie We Bought a Zoo, so I can't take credit for that!

Twenty seconds of courage.

I'd heard that's all you need; twenty seconds of insane, crazy, embarrassing courage, and something great would happen. The problem, of course, was building up that courage…

Annabeth and I sat on the beach, not too far from Camp Half-Blood, but far enough outside the borders that we actually stood a chance at some privacy. So far it was working.

The sun was setting. It was August eighteenth; my birthday, our anniversary, and hopefully, soon to be even more. We'd eaten dinner here, picnic style, plain and simple, and so far, everything seemed to be going more or less according to plan. It was quiet, peaceful, a beautiful night. I was with Annabeth, on the beach, and we were alone. This was pretty much my idea of Elysium; my own little piece of Heaven, right then and there.

There was still the matter of proposing, which I hadn't gotten around to doing yet. I was waiting for the perfect moment, the right opportunity to pop the question. So far I hadn't found it.

I pulled Annabeth close and leaned back. We lay there next to each other, watching the sunset turn the sky a million shades of pink, orange.

It sounds cliché, I know, but we'd been through Tartarus. We'd spent days and days down there, believing that that was where we would die, that we wouldn't live to see the light of day again. Trust me, after surviving hell, you learn to treasure things you barely even noticed before; every single moment becomes cherished. It hadn't the only time we weren't supposed to survive and did. It wasn't the first, and it wasn't the last, but it was definitely the worst, most impossible, and most desperate. I had been in countless "impossible" situations before, so had Annabeth (usually with me), but that was the only time when things had really seemed truly hopeless. The fact that we got out alive was nothing short of a miracle, and every day after was another day we may not have otherwise had. We were going to make the most of every second we were given, and every sunset counted.

"Happy birthday, Percy," Annabeth said softly, leaning against my chest.

"Happy anniversary," I replied back.

She smiled and nodded against me. "That too." We were quiet for a few more seconds before she spoke again, "Can you believe it's been five years?"

I smirked, "No."

"We were sixteen, Percy," she continued, turning her body and propping her head up with her arm to better meet my eyes, "The Titan War had just ended."

I couldn't help but chuckle a little there. "Yeah. We thought all our problems were over and done with."

Annabeth smiled and shook her head. "Guess we were kind of wrong about that, huh?"

"You think?" She laughed quietly and resumed her original position with her head on my chest.

We talked for a little longer about nothing in particular and soon ended up walking along the beach, waves washing over our feet, hand in hand. She was talking about a book, or architecture; maybe a book about architecture? I wasn't really listening.

Right there, walking the beach, holding hands with Annabeth, the ocean filling me with strength, I had no desire to procrastinate any longer. It was just the two of us, the moonlight turning her hair silver, fireflies lighting all around us. This was here and now, and this was right. Any fear, anxiety, or hesitation that had been there earlier was gone now. I loved this girl with everything in me and I was through waiting.

Twenty seconds of courage…

"Annabeth," I began, interrupting whatever it was she was talking about. She stopped mid-sentence and looked up at me expectantly, clearly a little annoyed at my interruption. "Do you remember our conversation in the stables on the Argo II? And in the Cocytus? About a future for us?"

"Yeah…?" she replied slowly, still looking at me expectantly, "What about it?"

We stopped walking and I turned to face her, holding both her hands in mine and meeting her eyes. I took a deep breath. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this, but I still had fifteen seconds left and it was now or never. "Annabeth, the ten years I have known you have been some of both the best and worst times of my life. They've been crazy, dangerous, and just downright scary, but they've also been amazing because you were there through it all, and because of that—because of you—I've made it through. I love you, Annabeth, and I want that future with you that we've talked about. I want to wake up every morning to my Wise Girl and know she's mine forever."

Annabeth's eyes were filling with tears (no small feat). She had to know what was coming, or at least that something was going on. She was too smart not to and it wasn't like I poured my heart out to her often, not like this. I continued, on a roll now, "I know I can be annoying at times. I know I'm not, and never will be, anywhere close to as smart as you are, and I know we probably spend more time arguing than is healthy. But we've defeated Titans and Giants, we survived Tartarus together. We built something permanent together, and none of the other stuff matters. It hasn't been easy, and I doubt it will ever be, but I know we'll get through it, like we always do, so…" I pulled the ring box out of my pocket and slid down on one knee, opening the box in one fluid motion. "Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?"

I stared up at her, a little impressed with myself. I hadn't known I had that in me. Annabeth had her hands over her mouth, but she was smiling hugely. She had tears in her eyes that were threatening to spill over. I had rendered her speechless—another very hard thing to do—but she nodded, still smiling, and eventually managed, "Yes!"

I couldn't help the huge smile that spread across my face as I stood up and hugged her. When we pulled apart, she held out her left hand and I slid the ring onto it—a perfect fit, thank gods.

I kissed her and allowed all of the bottled up fear, anticipation, anxiety, and the other million or so mixed up emotions to finally leave my body. She said yes! We were going to get married! I had never really doubted what her answer would be, but it was still absolutely amazing to have heard it. The moment, the kiss, Annabeth; the entire night could be described no other way. It was perfect.

And the best part: despite the fact that we were half-bloods, and despite our track record for things going wrong, tonight, for once, thank the gods, went right. It was flawless. And I couldn't have been happier as I held my new fiancée in my arms.

"My mom's going to kill you; you know that right?" Annabeth asked me, pulling away and suddenly looking concerned.

I smiled. "What? You thought I would just propose to you without getting your parents' permission first? I may be a seaweed brain, but I'm not that stupid."

She stared at me, a hint of a smile playing around the edges of her lips. "You mean, my mom actually approves of this? How did you manage that?"

I laughed once. "It was a dangerous, scary process," I said, and then sobered. "Yeah. She wants you to be happy, and even though it "goes against her better judgment and is a very unwise decision," I quoted, making finger quotes in the air, "She sees that I make you happy, so she's okay with it."

"Wow," Annabeth answered, looking rather impressed.

"And your dad was pretty easy. He gave me permission in, like, five minutes. Athena took all day."

She smacked me playfully, but she was smiling, "And your parents?"

"My mom cried. A lot. And Paul just smiled. They both apparently knew it was coming."

Annabeth's smile turned playful now. "Well you did keep me waiting long enough, Seaweed Brain." I didn't know what to say to that, but my face must have been pretty funny, because she laughed. "I'm kidding, Percy." She kissed me. "C'mon," she said when we pulled away, "Since we're right here, we should go tell Chiron. That way, I can be there too."

I smiled and kissed her one more time and grabbed her hand, which I liked much better with a ring on it, and led her back to my car.

And other than the hellhound we ran into on the way to Annabeth's apartment, the night ended up going down perfectly.

It should've gone down in the record books.

Thanks for reading!