2

Right up until one of the most famous women in the world told him they were getting married, Percy's day was going relatively normally.

He'd spent the morning in the lab, sifting through the footage of last month's expedition in the Gulf of Mexico and cataloguing all the deep-sea species they'd caught on camera, before meeting up with Nico for lunch.

"Do you want to come to Luke and Annabeth's wedding with me this evening?" the younger man had asked, twisting the skull ring on his finger as he waited for Percy's answer.

Percy paused. "Luke and Annabeth are… friends of yours?"

"If only," sighed Nico. "They're the most famous couple in the world and they're getting married in a joint concert-wedding this evening at Madison Square Garden, and I've got a spare ticket."

"I've never heard of them. Aren't the most famous couple in the world, like, the Obamas?"

Nico had fixed him with a look at that point. "You," said Nico, "are so, so, incredibly, old."

"I'm twenty-four-"

"The Obamas?"

"Yeah? Everyone knows the Obamas."

Nico paused. "I can't believe I ever crushed on you," he said, finally.

"Well, what are their surnames?" asked Percy.

"Obama and Obama."

"No-"

"Luke Castellan and Annabeth Chase," said Nico.

"See if you'd said that the first time around-"

"Then you'd still have been totally clueless and thought they were my friends," Nico told him.

"I mean, the names are familiar… they're singers, right?"

"Hence why the wedding is also a concert," said Nico with exaggerated patience.

"And they've sold tickets to it?" asked Percy, still trying to wrap his head around what was going on and why and how it was working.

"There's also a free livestream to give something back to their fans."

"But you went and got two tickets to be there in person."

Nico nodded.

Percy considered this information carefully. "Who were you meant to be going with?"

"Well, the tickets went went on sale about a year ago, and I was hoping I'd be able to take someone with me."

"…you bought two tickets to a wedding so you could take a hypothetical future boyfriend with you to it," said Percy slowly.

"The wedding of the century, to be fair," said Nico. "Also, yes, I did do that. I thought it would be romantic."

Percy shakes his head, trying to disentangle his brain from his friend's antics and the logistics of a concert-wedding. "I can't come anyway," he said, "I promised Mom I'd look after Estelle for the weekend."

"Actually I've got three tickets," said Nico. "Leo was going to come and third wheel us, but he kind of blew up his garage, so he asked me if I could get rid of his for him."

"You really have an answer for everything," marvelled Percy.

"So you're coming?" said Nico, a smile breaking through the brooding expression that his face normally sported.

"I mean… it's not dirty, is it?"

"Dirty?" asked Nico, smirking.

"I don't want to be put in charge of Estelle for two days and expose her to sex and drugs and stuff!" he protested.

"You're so old," Nico murmured incredulously. "Nothing explicit. It would all go over her head anyway, at that age."

"I mean, I'm not sure…" he began, but Nico interrupted him.

"Luke is iconic and Annabeth is absolutely huge at the moment, and Estelle would think you're the coolest big brother in the world if you took her to their wedding show."

"I wish you'd stop using their first names like you know them," said Percy. Then he registered the rest of Nico's sentence. "You think she would?" he asked, perking up a little, because, like the absolute sap he knew he was, Percy really really wanted his little sister to think he was cool.

Nico leaned over the table conspiratorially, and then moved Percy's hot chocolate out of the way so he could lean even lower. "I know she would," he whispers.

And after that, there was really no escape.

To be fair, Percy enjoys the concert. He particularly likes Luke Castellan's half of the set, as the man reminds him a little of his one true musical love, Bruce Springsteen, even if he's not quite of the same standard.

He doesn't really listen to much modern pop music, since the boat that he spends months of the year working on has internet of far too poor a quality to use streaming services, and when he's at home he tends to relax in the company of a handful of classic rock CDs, but he's impressed by Annabeth Chase's performance, too. Her songs seem more carefully chosen to suit a wedding than those of her other half, they've got a beat you can dance to, and she's got a hell of a voice, even if there's one song with a chorus that goes "I want you in my room, on the bed, on the floor," for which he has to cover Estelle's eyes and ears.

"TO BE FAIR," Nico bellows in his ear over the sound of the music, "THIS IS A COVER AND I DIDN'T KNOW SHE'D PLAY IT. ALSO IT'S REALLY NOT AS BAD AS YOU'RE PRETENDING!"

Percy nods faintly as Chase informs them that "I wanna do bad things to you."

Nico's spent the whole night chugging cider and waving a huge sign that says MARRY ME on it whenever Castellan is on stage ("Marry Me is their new song together, and it's iconic," he'd informed Percy when they'd arrived), possibly mourning the absence of the man he'd hoped to come here with a year ago. At the tail-end of Stolen Your Heart, however, the drinks finally catch up with him, and he thrusts the sign into Percy's hands and rushes off to find a toilet, swearing in Italian that he'd better not miss the big finale.

The crowd goes wild, realising that they've reached the end of the main set and euphoric with the prospect of what comes next, and Percy stands there with the sign propped up on his shoulder in one hand, and one of Estelle's hands in his other while they're surrounded by whoops and cheers for what must be several minutes.

He leans down to his sister, who's yawning, and he realises that it's further past her bedtime than he'd expected it to be. "You OK down there?" he asks, having to shout to make her hear him, but pleased when she smiles and nods up at him. "You want to go home?" he asks, already half-ready to make a quick exit through the crowd, but she shakes her head.

"Without seeing the wedding?" she asks, like the suggestion is obviously a crazy one, so he's agreeing to stay until the end with her when the first chords of a new song sound, and a spotlight focuses on a figure emerging from the back of the stage.

The rest of the crowd don't seem to notice, but Percy, able to see well from their spot relatively near the stage, can immediately tell there's something wrong. Annabeth Chase is stiff and motionless in a way she hasn't been for the whole show, and in any other song she'd be moving to the music already.

Then she asks for the music to stop and the lights to go up, and he's filled with second-hand dread. He doesn't cheer when the rest of the crowd does, he simply stands, waiting for her to announce, as he's sure she will, that the wedding's off and sorry for disappointing everyone, but they can all go home now. She talks briefly about her night and makes a couple of references to her and Luke's lives that he figures everyone else here understands a lot better than he does.

Then she says something about not wasting the wedding now it's been set up.

And then she points straight at him and Nico's stupid sign, and says "My answer's yes."

Percy can feel every eye in the arena, maybe in the world, turn to him, feel the glare of camera lenses and confused and disappointed gazes.

"Is this a joke?" he hears someone nearby ask. You tell me, pal, Percy thinks.

Nico chooses this moment to re-emerge from the crowd, snatching his sign and Estelle's hand from Percy's limp grip. "Go on," he says, like it's weird that Percy hasn't already leapt towards the stage.

"What?"

"You'll be great for each other, I can tell already," says Nico. "Now get a move on, she's waiting."

Percy looks back up at the stage, where she's waiting, wearing what might be the largest wedding dress he's ever seen. It doesn't take a psychologist to see that she's distraught, and he figures that the last thing she needs is to be turned down in front of all her fans by some random guy in the crowd, but also surely he's not about to actually get married to her, is he? None of the fans who are parting in front of him like the Red Sea seem likely to have the answer, so he lets himself be ushered and manhandled towards the stage, asking himself as he goes what in the world is going on.

Maybe they're all just caught up in the excitement, and if he does get married now (which he's still not certain he will), then tomorrow, in a calmer state of mind, she'll quietly tell him that it's been fun or some equivalent emotion while it lasted, and maybe the papers will have a page or two about the mystery man Annabeth Chase married for less than twenty-four hours, but they'll have no way of finding him and everyone will be able to move on with their lives.

Security guards lift him over one of the barriers like he weighs nothing, and moments later, he's onstage with the guy performing the ceremony, who looks as confused as Percy feels, and the most beautiful woman he's ever seen.

And she is beautiful, even as undisguisably upset as she is. Her blonde hair glows as it flows down over her shoulders, her skin is rosy and tanned, and her eyes shine like pieces of silver. Percy, who's always worked from the basic assumption that nothing about celebrities is real, finds himself thinking not about how well her makeup has been applied or that this woman's stylist needs a pay-rise, but about the way that his breath is catching in his throat and his skin bursts into goosebumps as she takes his hand to pull him to the centre of the stage.

"Let's get going, then," she tells the official, who seems to have decided, like Percy, not to swim against the current of what Chase has decided she wants.

"Will you, Annabeth Chase, take… this guy to be your lawfully wedded husband?" he asks.

"I will," says Annabeth.

The official looks at Percy. "Same question, buddy," he says.

Percy meets Annabeth's gaze, and thinks he sees the faintest trace of appreciation that he's going along with this. Maybe there's a touch of humour in there, too. She's very obviously smart enough to know that what she's doing is outrageous and absurd. She's very obviously furious enough not to give a damn about what the sane option is. Something tells Percy that even if the night is on the whole ruined, she's somehow enjoying this moment, and he finds his face breaking into a smile that he doesn't think he could prevent if he wanted to. "Sure," he says.

Things move quickly after that. She gives him the ring she'd been going to give to Castellan, but he doesn't have one to give back to her. When they're told that they may kiss, there's another cheer from the crowd, who he reckons must be desperate for something to root for, as Annabeth crushes her lips into his more forcefully than he'd expected, her nose rubbing against his cheek as his own nose is tickled by her lemon-scented hair. He reacts automatically, holding her in his arms and kissing her back.

The train of her dress is, mercifully, detachable, so with the ceremony over, she detaches it and they head backstage, away from the multitude of flashing lights and directly towards a row of getaway vehicles in the basement. On their way, they run into a tall blond man who must be just a few years older than Percy, and it takes him a minute to realise that it's Luke Castellan, his face like thunder.

"What do you think you're doing?" Castellan demands of Annabeth. "Are you mad?"

"I'm leaving, Luke," she says. "It was nice knowing you."

"You listen to me, 'Beth," he says, pushing an aide out of the way and stepping towards her with clenched fists.

"Woah, man," says Percy, stepping between them. "She doesn't have to marry you if she doesn't want to."

Castellan looks him up and down, and then laughs, caught halfway between contempt and disbelief. "Yeah, and now she's got her ideal husband, hasn't she?"

"The best I could have asked for," says Annabeth before Luke can make his verdict any clearer, her tone sickly-sweet as she loops her arm through Percy's elbow and pulls him away down the hall.

"You've made a fool of yourself, Annabeth!" Luke shouts after them, but mercifully, he doesn't make to follow them. Percy can feel her bristling alongside him like she's ready to hit someone, and thinks that if he'd been in her shoes, he might already have done.

Moments later, they're in the back of one of the cars, accelerating out of the building's basement.

Annabeth flops against the seat opposite Percy, the tension disappearing from her shoulders as she lets out a huge sigh that turns into a slightly hysterical laugh. "Thank you for going along with this," she says. "And I'm sorry about Luke. You're clearly very sweet, and he's… well, he's an asshole."

"I'll be honest, there wasn't a whole lot there that made me understand why you'd want to marry him," Percy jokes weakly, but his words seem to deflate her as the adrenaline of the moment wears off.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into my mess of a life," she says. "I was just… I was just so angry. I wanted to hurt him, and – I don't know what I was thinking."

"I get it," says Percy. "I get being so angry that the most important thing feels like making sure everyone knows how mad you are, and I get that once you've done that it's hard to figure out what comes next."

"Wow," she says, sitting back. "We've been married five minutes and you're already psychoanalysing me."

"Sorry," says Percy, but she shakes her head.

"No, you're right. I was mad. What I did was mad. I'll drop you off wherever you need to be, and… I don't know. Figure it all out tomorrow."

Percy peers out of the tinted windows to try to identify the New York lights streaking past. "Yeah, I don't live far from here," he says, and gives her driver a few directions until they're pulling up at an empty spot on the kerb where he can climb out of the car to the welcome sight of his apartment building.

"Wait," says Annabeth, and he turns around in surprise. "I, um." She blushes and grins bashfully. "I don't actually know your name," she says. "And since we're married and all…"

He laughs. "I'm Percy," he says. "Well, strictly speaking, I'm Perseus Jackson, but as my wife, I think you have permission to call me Percy. Also, I prefer Percy, so please don't call me Perseus."

She nods. "I'm Annabeth Chase," she says, sticking out a hand. "But if you shorten it to Anna or Beth or some terrible third option I haven't even heard before, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you. Nice to meet you, Percy."

"Nice to meet you, Annabeth," he agrees, shaking her hand. They're both sporting bashful grins, the ridiculousness of the whole situation not lost on them.

"And – I know we're doing this all backwards – do you think I might have your phone number?"

She hands him her phone to add himself, and he pulls out his own cell to seek out his number only to be greeted by the sight of a missed call from Nico.

"Oh, crap," he realises. "I left Estelle there."

"Your girlfriend?" she asks.

He shakes his head. "My little sister. I mean, she's with a friend I trust, it's not like I just abandoned her or anything, they'll just be wondering where I am – I should phone them in a minute."

"I'm sorry about all this," she says again. "You've been so cool about it all, and I've just been making chaos."

"No, no," he insists, "it's fine." He jabs his number into her phone on about the third attempt, unused to the different style of keyboard she has, and hands it back, their hands touching briefly as she takes it from him. There are those goosebumps again, just like when she'd taken his hand on stage earlier.

"I just want to say – I can't thank you enough for how chilled you've been tonight," she says.

Percy thinks of the word chilled, thinks of how he's feeling inside (a little like a bouncy castle, except instead of children throwing themselves around, it's emotions and questions and chaos and confusion), and then thinks that maybe she's not reading him perfectly right now.

She reaches for the handle of the door and flashes him a smile. "I'll call you tomorrow." Then she shuts it, and the car drives off into the New York night, leaving him on the roadside with his phone to his ear, waiting for Nico to pick up.

"How does it feel to be married to the most beautiful woman in the world?" asks the younger man the moment he picks up Percy's call.

"I am figuring that out, and I'll get back to you once I have an answer," Percy tells him. "Are you guys okay? I'm back at the flat, if you're okay making your way back."

"We're fine!" Nico informs him in a gleeful tone that doesn't really suit him. "Estelle's pretty pleased her big bro's a celebrity trophy husband now."

"Ha ha. Don't let her get any big ideas about me and Chase, please, it's not as if it's anything permanent."

"Why not?"

"Did you miss the bit of the show where we married each other despite being complete strangers and it was entirely motivated by spite for her ex?"

"Ah," says Nico dismissively. "Definitely not entirely. There's something there, I guarantee it. After all, I set out specifically intending to break up their marriage, and you did it without even trying."

"Right, so-"

"To an extent, I blame straight privilege," his friend informs him airily. "But mark my words, this is the beginning of a love story for the ages."

"I'll see you in a bit," Percy tells him.

"Yeah, at your golden wedding anniversary-" Nico's saying as he's cut off when Percy hangs up.

He takes a deep breath, and pauses to listen to the sounds of the city around him. He knows already that he'll sleep badly tonight, buzzing as he is with the events of the last couple of hours, questions swirling around inside him as he stands looking up into the New York skyline as if it will have answers for him. He knows that in a few days the whole thing will be fading into a the past like a particularly strange dream, but here, in the moment, he wonders if the world is already humming with the news of his wedding, if tonight's events will cause ripples far off in his future or if they'll be lost behind him without a trace. He wonders if he'll have to cover his face when he goes out, or if he can use tonight to raise any money for his deep-sea research.

Most of all, though, he wonders at the possibly borderline-insane woman who dragged him onstage and married him in front of millions of pairs of eyes.

And then he looks away from the sky and all the stars it holds just out of his sight, and he goes inside.

thanks for reading. reviews received like water in the desert.

nico a little out of character, i know, but in this AU being out has cheered him up significantly.

percy and annabeth also a little out of character, i guess, but i challenge anyone to write a story where two strangers get married on a whim and it's just like a normal everyday thing that that person does.

hope you all enjoyed.