I do not own Percy Jackson or Annabeth Chase. Rick Riordan does.
Oh, gods. The day was finally here. The day Percy planned to propose to Annabeth.
He'd been planning it for weeks- the place, the time, what he'd say. And, of course, the ring. He fumbled for it. He remembered shopping for it, and how exquisite it had looked in the display window. It had been a lucky find.
It was on a silver band, with three gemstones on it- two moonstones on either side that matched Annabeth's eyes almost exactly, and a blue sapphire in the middle, no diamonds for Annabeth's ring. Engraved on the sapphire was an owl.
"Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth called. She was knocking on the door of the apartment and he hustled to get it open. "It's almost five forty-five. We need to be at the restaurant soon." She was standing there looking gorgeous with her blond hair in half-curls down her back and falling on her shoulders, wearing a sleeveless dark green dress like leaves, with a lily tucked behind her ear.
"Uh, yeah," Percy managed to say. "Coming." He called a taxi to take them to the restaurant- a really fancy and expensive place he'd had to book months in advance to get Annabeth and him a reservation into.
During dinner Percy was sweating so much it was a miracle he'd remembered to put on cologne. He ordered them drinks, but not too many, afraid Annabeth would only agree to marry him because she was drunk. She was so unsuspecting. They'd been going out for eight years, since his sixteenth birthday, and now, at twenty-six, she was even more beautiful.
He could hear his pager- he now worked, after college, as a teacher, but it was better than a phone- beeping in his pocket no doubt Jason and Piper- they'd stayed together and, even though Jason wasn't at the point of proposing to the daughter of Aphrodite, they were getting close- or Leo and Calypso, probably asking him if he'd done it yet.
"Want to get out of here?" he whispered after the eighteenth guy ogled Annabeth too closely for his liking, and she nodded, after he paid the bill.
He asked the taxi driver to take them down to the beach, and- he'd planned to propose on a full moon and it was- moonlight was washing the waves and sand in silvery white. Artemis, please don't make Annabeth say no, if you're watching. If not, I'm sorry to disgust you with a display of love.
"Annabeth?" she was admiring the waves washing the sand near their feet, and turned to look at him questioningly.
"Well, er…"
"Seaweed Brain?" he'd miraculously managed to get the ring box out and discreetly open it when she wasn't watching…
"Annabeth, when I met you, some of your first words to me were 'you drool when you sleep'. It's astounding we made it through the next four years until that point that you kissed me on my birthday. But it's been twelve years since our first day together, and eight since that first kiss, and you've made me happier than I thought possible. So, what I'm saying is, Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?"
Oh gods. Time had stopped. Annabeth was staring at him with a wondering, confused expression and smiling, but it didn't look like she was going to talk anytime soon…
"Yes." And then she was on the ground next to him, and she was hugging him and she was crying from happiness and she was kissing him and his hands were sliding the ring on her finger and moving up to tangle in her hair and he was on the ground and she was on top of him and then they were moving and into their apartment and his pager was beeping even more and then it all was black.
He woke up on the couch, still in his suit, with a note next to it.
"You fell asleep, so I took the bed. -Wise Girl." He growled good naturedly.
"That little Wise Girl."