~three months later~

The sun was shining brightly as Annabeth swung her backpack over her good shoulder, leaving work at the tutoring center behind for the day. Percy was waiting for her by the doors, a cup of her favorite iced coffee in hand. Annabeth let out a soft squeak of surprise as he spun her in a circle, tugging her into his arms and capturing her mouth with a kiss.

"We're in a library!" she scolded as they separated, but she couldn't help the laughter that rose in her throat.

"And?" Percy raised an eyebrow and handed her the coffee. "I haven't seen you in like, a whole day. Seemed like reason enough to kiss you if you ask me."

"Fine." Annabeth primly agreed. "But you know perfectly well we both have our own apartments, not far from here at all…"

"Apartments we don't have time to go back to," Percy groused. "C'mon, we're gonna be late as it is."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Let's go." Tucking her hand in his, she led them down the center path that ran down the middle of Olympus University. As they headed off-campus, Percy slid an arm under the loops of her backpack and easily transferred the weight to his own shoulder, earning himself an elbow to the ribs from Annabeth as they went.

"Hey, give it back!"

"Not a chance, Wise Girl. The one shoulder's damaged, you're not taking risks with the other one too, not if I can help it."

Annabeth sighed. "Fine." She took a contented sip of iced coffee and nudged her boyfriend's arm. "I think they're over there," she said, pointing at a park with pink-blossomed trees on the other side of the street.

They crossed the street where sure enough, their friends were waiting, a huge blue gingham picnic blanket spread out under the trees. The sound of laughter grew louder as Percy and Annabeth got closer. Jason was swinging Piper around in a circle, Thalia poking Nico in the shoulder with a French fry while Will laughed at them (it hadn't taken long for Thalia and Jason to put the pieces together that if Will was dating a musician who used to be a fencer in high school, and Nico was in town and oddly… sunny in disposition, then well, there was really only one explanation).

"Hey, everyone. What're we celebrating?" Annabeth looked around at the group. "Not that I'm complaining, but Thals, that text was pretty cryptic."

"Right." Thalia ate the fry she'd been holding and then turned to Annabeth. "So I wasn't going to tell you until I was sure, but… it's official. The three thousand dollars from Luke have been put into the Annabeth Chase Anti-Sexual Harassment Legal Defense Fund. Name still a work in progress. The firm signed the paperwork this morning."

"Ahh!" A weight lifted off of Annabeth's shoulders as she leaned in to hug Thalia. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I still can't believe you went to bat for this with your boss."

"Well, it's not like Olympus was going to do anything about it without a legal pressure." Thalia shrugged. "And besides, Lune, Titan, and Nightshade is kind of tailor made for this kind of thing. But—"

"But you're amazing, and thank you." Annabeth cut her off. "So that's what we're celebrating?"

Percy gave her a nudge. "Well, that… and also we've got a couple of Olympus U sports records to celebrate. Plus I got straight A's on my midterms thanks to you and Will. Plus you're done with physical therapy for a little while. It seemed like we deserved a little party."

"One where you don't punch someone in the face." Jason remarked slyly.

"Oh my god." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You're never letting me forget that, are you?"

"Nope." Thalia shook her head. "Best moment of my life, watching that go down. I was so very proud of you in that moment. It's like all my lessons of vague anti-patriarchy violence actually had an impact."

"Plus, it's nice out." Piper chirped. She looked around at them all. "Hey, we're all here, let's take a picture. The lighting's great for it and no one's super sweaty just yet."

It took several tries, three phones, and several mess-ups on the self-timer to get a picture that wasn't blurry, but the picture that was taken was one that would stick in Annabeth's memory for years to come: Thalia giving a middle finger to the camera but smiling nonetheless, Piper's face caught in mid-laughter as Jason picked her up off of the ground, Will and Nico caught in a rare moment of looking at one another, faint smiles on their face. And Annabeth herself, grinning up at the camera from inside the warm circle of Percy's arms. Chaotic and a little messy, all of them, but happy. Gloriously, wondrously happy in the late spring sun.

FIN.

GC here one more time just to say hello and thank you a million times over for reading and reviewing. This story's come to a close, but I do hope you'll keep an eye out for future ones from me—fandoms to expect include but aren't limited to Harry Potter, Sanderson's Cosmere, PJO (obviously), All Souls, and… well. It might get pretty eclectic, honestly. But I hope some of you will be interested! In any case, a very happy new year to all y'all. Sending virtual confetti and sparkling cider—you're magical and don't any of you forget it.