By the way, this story will all be in Percy's point of view, I think… Yeah I think it will. Maybe once in a while I will switch to a different POV, but I will try to make that as clear and understandable as possible so nobody gets confused—if you're like me, which I get the sense a lot of my readers are, then you get easily confused. :P

2

As Annabeth dragged me to the bus stop I couldn't help but stare at her. Annabeth Chase, more beautiful than anyone or anything I had ever seen, in one of the most beautiful parts of New York, and headed out on the day of the life time with me, a dorky 22 year old who's greatest strength is either swimming or talking to fish (I'm still debating on that one).

As soon as we got to the stop I realized I'd forgotten one minor detail. And I was hungry.

"Hey Annabeth, we need food. I think I know the perfect place."

I ran back up to her apartment and grabbed a basket that Juniper had woven for her, a pale blue blanket my mom had given her, and a sandy colored cardigan sweater. I would be fine, she might get cold as it got later, and we were going to be out all day. I threw both in the basket and went back down.

"Alright, let's go," I said, grabbing her hand and leading the way.

"Where are we going?" she said with a smile, running a bit to catch up with me and then both of us walking normally.

"A little café that Thalia took me to once. It's called Café Angelique. Great food. I figure we can grab some sandwiches and head out on our first adventure of the day." I couldn't help but smile as wide as she did. Today was going to be perfect.

We picked up sandwiches at the café and walked back to the park to eat. The sun shined and the whole park glowed bright green, NYU students walking dogs or jogging or talking to friends or studying for finals. Definitely a college park. We sat on a bench in front of a fountain and ate the best sandwiches in the world. We didn't talk much-I was still half asleep and I think she was just wondering what I had planned for the day.

"So Percy, what exactly are we doing today?"

Could she read my mind anymore? "Stuff," I replied through a mouthful of sandwich. She giggled and wiped some mayonnaise of the corner of my mouth.

"What kind of stuff?" she asked. Determined, isn't she?

"The kind of stuff you're going to love," I said with a big grin.

"Well you're here, so of course." She beamed at me before looking back down and taking a bite of sandwich. As soon as we finished out quiet lunch, we hopped on a bus (for real this time) and headed to our next destination-the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now I know what you're thinking-how many millions of times has Annabeth already been there? More than I can count. How many times has she been able to get me to go? Never. It was a free ticket for her to walk around and tell me the history of every piece of artwork and force me to listen for a few hours, and I was completely willing. There was an exhibit on Ancient Greek stuff that I knew she'd been dying to go to, but getting passes was hard. But you see I know a guy… ok, so maybe Chiron pulled a few strings because they like teachers. I don't know how he did it really, but we had passes, and she didn't know yet.

When the bus let us of at the Met, she gave me a look like "Really? I really get to go in there with you for hours on end and you're not going to groan or ask when we're leaving and you're going to listen and walk around with me and not die of boredom?" So I picked her up and set her on the bottom step and kissed her, with her now at my eye level. She wrapped my hair around her fingers and pulled me closer for a moment before I pulled away, and reached down to my pocket to pull out the passes. She then screamed and jumped on me in a huge tackle-hug, and I carried her up the steps until we got to the doors. I put the basket in a coat check room (thank the gods for those) and we started walking around.

Finally being forced to listen to her, some of it was actually interesting. She knew every fact you could think of about each artist. Apparently, Monet's wife died of tuberculosis. And Van Gogh mostly painted a lot of trees. Yeah, ok, so that's most of what I got out of it, but when you're ADHD and Dyslexic, it's hard to remember things unless you're really into them. So she can remember all that stuff because she cares.

Then we went into the Greece exhibit, and I was fully engrossed. We actually found that we were telling each other facts or stories or myths instead of her doing all the talking. We ended up sitting on a bench in front of a huge print of the Parthenon, swapping stories and theories and ideas about why the Greeks did things the way they did, who we knew that might have been there, why are parents made such a big deal out of being patron of Athens, etc. It was around three when we decided to leave, having been there since about 12:30. Annabeth could have stayed there forever, but I convinced her we had other things to do—which we definitely did.

Next up, I was going to drag her off to every little hidden jewel of New York that I thought she'd missed growing up in Camp Half-Blood. I took her to the candy store where my mom used to work; on a tour of Times Square; to all the best stores and parks; eventually, we'd made it all over the state, and it was 7:00, and we were hungry (even having snacked at food stands while walking around). So I flagged down a taxi and we headed to dinner.

Now we were getting into the important part of the evening.

I knew we were a bit under-dressed for Periyali, but the place was great, and I had to take her. I'd made the reservations months ago, this place was in demand. And pretty close to home, too.

So the cab took us to this Greek restaurant called Periyali and the food was incredible. I felt like we were on Olympus. Best Greek food I'd had in a while.

Then we headed off to the real surprise of the day. I had rented a car and we were headed somewhere special. The little silver Prius was waiting for us outside. I helped her into the car and started driving. I knew the drive was going to be about an hour, so I'd loaded the car with some good music and we were good to go.

The drive was one of the best parts of the day. We were free to talk and laugh and sing horribly the whole hour-long drive down. This was my favorite stretch of the highway. So many memories. About halfway, in the middle of belting out "That's What You Get" by Paramore, Annabeth figured out where we were going.

"Oh my gods, are we going back to Camp?!" she yelled over the music. I laughed.

"Took you long enough!" She leaned over, though I was still driving, and kissed me on the cheek.

"You know you really shouldn't do that when I'm driving, it's going to distract me," I joked, turning my head to kiss her on the lips quickly. It was about 9:00 and the road was emptying out anyway-no car crashes (or Minotaurs) here.

We finally drove up Farm Road 3.14 and into Camp, passing the borders without problem. I guess being a half-blood never changes. Camp was almost empty, being still during the school year, but everyone recognized us. The current counselors told stories about us, I knew, and there was a picture of Annabeth, Grover, Rachel and I in front of the group of half-bloods who fought Kronos with us. The picture was taking after battle, in some of the carnage, but after we had healed everyone. I had my arm around Annabeth and Riptide in my hand. It really was a great picture. We knew that all the counselors made a show of pointing us out and telling stories of our greatest battles. We'd become camp legends. Actually, it felt great. I've never been into having attention, but somehow… knowing that campers just like I was had a great group of modern-day heroes to look up to was gratifying.

I parked the car at the base of the hill and grabbed the blanket and Annabeth's cardigan from the back, and we ran up to the Big House to tell Chiron-even though I'd already told him in an Iris message weeks before.

"Hey Chiron, just so you know, we'll be down on the beach now. Please don't let the Harpies eat us," I told him. He let out that laugh that reminded me of the days when he was just Mr. Brunner, my English teacher.

We ran down to the beach and collapsed, rolling down the dune that led down to the ocean, holding our breath and trying not to laugh so that we wouldn't breathe in any sand. Finally we landed and sat up, coughing out sand because not laughing at each other was impossible.

I stood and spread out the blanket and sat down, when Annabeth, still standing, reached for my hand, pulling me up and dragging me towards the water. She kicked her shoes off and I followed suit, running to the ocean and wading in to just above our knees. Of course I could have gone farther, and she could have too, but we didn't want to get completely soaking wet-it was getting colder.

We were still holding hands when she splashed some water on me and we got into a splash fight. I had no idea what time it was anymore, but the sun was going down and it was gorgeous. The pinks and oranges basking the puffy clouds were reflecting over the deep blue churning water, white crests of waves breaking in the distance and little rip currents tearing at our toes. Finally the water fight ended and Annabeth walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, pulling me closer, put her head on my chest and looked out at the sunset.

"It's so beautiful," she said.

"Not as beautiful as you." It was cheesy, but she squeezed a bit tighter for a second. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back for a moment before simply holding her and staring out at the ocean and the sky. I knew she was getting colder and needed to be warmed up a bit.

Staring out at the sunset, I knew the time was coming.

"I love you," she said, looking up at me with wide, sparkling gray eyes. In those eyes I had seen so many feelings expressed. Determinedness, absolute hatred, anger, frustration, friendship, hope fear, sadness, depression, excitement, joy, and for the last few years love like I had never seen. Before I knew it I was saying my thoughts out loud.

"Annabeth, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. When I first met you, I thought you were cute, but I was only half conscious. Then I got to know you a bit, and I despised you for being so much better than me at everything, and taking charge all the time. And then you told me our parents hated each other, and I thought 'Well, that explains a lot.' Then I saw you with Luke and it annoyed me and I couldn't figure out why, but I wanted to punch him in the face. Now I know there were a lot of reasons for that, but that's not the point. Annabeth, over the years I have realized that I love you more than life itself. I've nearly given my life a couple times to save you, and I will always mean that. You're incredible, and without you, I don't know who or where I would be, and I probably wouldn't be able to find my keys in the morning."

She laughed a bit, and was absolutely beaming. I took a deep breath, heart pounding, and reached for the little black box in my pocket, kneeling despite the water, and taking Annabeth's hand.

"Wise Girl, will you marry me?" For a second she just stood there, still beaming, when finally her expression changed to surprise and ecstasy, even with some disbelief. I couldn't quite believe it myself, actually. I kept her hand in mine and stared up at her as she glanced from me to the white-gold band studded with tiny turquoise aquamarines and silver diamonds. Finally, after seconds that felt like hours, she looked straight into my eyes and spoke.

"Of course, Seaweed Brain," she laughed, a single un-Annabeth-like tear sliding down her cheek. I took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto her finger and stood, and she jumped up into my arms and kissed me. I kissed back and carried her back to the blanket and sat down with her in my lap and we just sat and kissed for a few minutes. Then I realized how cold she had to be and made her put the cardigan on, and she sat in my lap and stared out at the ocean for a few more minutes.

That's when everything went terribly wrong.