Disclaimer: I am the very definition of a broke college student right now. This necessarily means that I own absolutely nothing that you can recognize from reading this story. If I owned any of this, I would not be a broke college student. Or at least, I wouldn't be broke. Don't sue me because I own absolutely nothing and am making no money from writing this. My only reward is the feedback high I get from reviews and the psychotherapy I get from cathartic writing.
Meeting with Chiron and Mr. D doesn't take anywhere near as long as Cassie had thought it would. The fact that Mr. D disdains the very idea of speaking to Steve upon hearing that he can't get drunk helps matters as it means that most of the conversation is carried out by Chiron. In the end, Chiron, Cassie, Meg, and Reyna divide a plan with some structural input from Steve and Bucky and Mr. D. simply sighs and approves the plan on behalf of the Olympian council.
Pietro, for his part, is occupying both himself and the youngest campers by running laps through the camp carrying the small children. Occasionally a loud squeal of laughter followed by a blur of silver will flash past. He stops twice while they're talking, and both times Meg shoves half a sandwich in to his mouth before he vanishes again.
Stark shows up before the planning is completed to add in some ideas he's been working on to increase building security. Some of his ideas are actually very well thought out and might be usable with a bit of godly modification. Pepper, he says, is still with Katya.
The two of them are both still gone and Pietro is gods know where by the time they wrap up their meeting. The campers are headed to their last activities before the conch shell horn will sound to call them to dinner. All is as it should be.
No sooner has that thought crossed her mind than the normal buzz of camp activity is interrupted by shouting. Looking towards the noise, Cassie sees two campers chasing a third along the valley. She just has time to process the image before the camper being chased passes where she stands with the others, cackling wildly.
"You are so dead Callum!" shrieks one of his pursuers. It's a girl of about thirteen with shiny dark hair and nearly black eyes. The boy she's been chasing is several inches taller than her and is using his longer legs to his advantage. Still, the girl is carrying a sharp, curved, knife and Cassie knows that this situation could very easily go bad fast.
With that experience in mind, Cassie steps sideways to block the girl's progress, gripping her arm above the wrist with one hand and prying the weapon free with the other. "Wow now," she chides. "Don't run with a knife unless you're going to kill something."
The girl glares up at her. "I am going to kill something!" she protests. "Callum!"
"Good luck with that," the boy who must be named Callum taunts. He yelps and then shuts up pretty fast when the metal arm Bucky is using to keep him where he is tightens. "Ow! Not cool dude!"
The third player in this little scene arrives a moment later. Cassie is surprised when she recognizes him as Jacob Calloway, the son of Athena she had ferried to camp with Carmen Hollow way back before SHIELD had fallen. He's older and taller now, but still has the same grey eyes that he shares with so many of his siblings.
"Mal!" he pants as he arrives. "Why'd you run off? You didn't even let me finish saying-"
With a growl of frustration Mal wrenches herself out of Cassie's grip. Cassie let's her go, wondering what the story behind this little drama is. Mal glares at everyone in turn before turning her back on them to talk to Jacob. "He needs to pay," she states. "You know I'm right."
"Fine," he agrees. "But plan it and pay it back in kind. Don't stab him! Besides, if you let him run away you'll never get him."
Mal nearly stamps her foot but seems to catch herself first. "He made all of the water in the showers freezing- Literally! No one in my cabin can turn on a faucet without it starting to snow inside! The only thing equal for that is maiming!"
From a few feet away, Cassie hears the boy named Callum scoff. "Lighten up Mal," he says.
This is not the right thing to say.
Mal shrieks again and resumes her efforts to get at her target, launching herself bodily at Cassie. She's prepared for the impact but Jacob is quicker, stepping between them and holding up his hands placatingly. "If you maim him he'll never learn," he says. "A taste of his own medicine is better. It's more balanced."
If Cassie's suspicions about this girl's parentage are right, that's absolutely the right thing to say.
Sure enough, Mal deflates some. Instead of attacking again, she relaxes forwards in to a hug that Jacob just manages to maneuver to catch her in to. She's murmuring something Cassie can't hear, and Jacob is nodding in response.
"Okay," Cassie says, because it looks like the situation can now b brought under control. "Senior Councilor time."
"I'm a senior councilor," Callum pipes in.
Cassie hears Bucky sigh and mutter. "Seriously kid?"
Reyna, on the other hand, steps up next to Cassie. "Senior Senior Councilor time," she revises. "Also praetor and senate representative time. Each of you will explain the situation in an orderly manor. To begin with, we will state the facts as we currently know them. You will then contribute al missing details. Meg, Cassie, and I will form your panel of judges. Rachel, as ever, will remain impartial."
Following her example, Cassie moves over to sit on the deck railing of the Big House. "We will begin with the complaint," she says grandly, mustering a bit of her inherited theatricality. "Callum, son of..." she raises her eyebrows at the boy and waits for him to fill in.
Bucky releases him so that he can move and Callum gives her a grin that is at once alien and almost heart wrenchingly familiar. It is a grin that echoes through the memories that make much of her childhood. It's Luke's grin, and even before he announces himself as a son of Hermes Cassie knows that that's what he is.
"Councilor for Cabin Eleven when the Stolls aren't here."
"Right," Cassie says. "And you decided to use your authority to completely ice the water in one of the other cabins. Accuser, please stand forwards and announce yourself."
Mal stalks forward, chin up and voice completely steady when she speaks. "I am Mallory Vendettis. The cabin so egregiously wronged was mine," she announces. "Cabin number sixteen. The house of Nemesis."
Meg gives voice to the reaction that Cassie and Reyna both manage to repress and groans. "Really?" she mutters at Callum. "All the cabins available, and the one in charge of vengeance is the one you go for? There are like twenty other options out there."
"Callum, do you deny that this is what you did?" Reyna asks, taking things in hand once again.
Callum grins again, not looking the least bit ashamed. "Nope," he says, popping the 'p'. "It was hilarious. Besides, now they know that some of their security measures can be circumvented. They should be thanking me for demonstrating the problem."
Cassie carefully controls her expression to keep from laughing and raises an eyebrow at Jacob. "Anything to add?"
He shakes his head. "I'm just a witness," he says. "Not even really that. I didn't actually see anything."
"Okay," Reyna says, clapping her hands together. "Here's what we're going to do."
Before she can continue Mallory puts her hand up. "Can I maim him? Just a little? I swear he'd live. You don't need all ten fingers. Or toes."
"Why is there so much maiming?" Cassie hears Stark wonder out loud. "This is the most discussion about it I've ever heard in a single twenty-four hour period. Is that normal here?"
No one answers him.
"No maiming," Cassie tells Mallory. "Like capture the flag. Maim without permission and lose your desert privileges until after the end of summer bead ceremony. This includes illicit snacks and stolen chocolate."
The girl looks disappointed but not actually surprised as Reyna continues. "Mallory and her cabin have been wronged and in the nature of their cabin the scales must be balanced. Therefore, they are permitted one act of retribution." Reyna places special emphasis on the word 'one' to make sure her meaning is clear. "This act will not involve any bodily harm or permanent physical alteration. It may occur at any time Mallory deems appropriate."
All involved parties nod their agreement and something strikes Cassie.
"Hang on," she says before the group can break apart. She looks at Callum. "It's an interesting prank," she acknowledges. "But you wouldn't have been able to do it alone. Snow means magic which you don't have the use of. Therefore, you must provide Mallory with a list of your co-conspirators and explain to them what has gone on here and the agreement you've reached. We'll tell Chiron about this before we leave and he'll monitor things."
This pronouncement knocks the grin off of Callum's face a bit and Cassie knows she had guessed correctly. Obviously, whoever helped Callum is someone who scares him a little. Cassie's guessing it's someone from the Hecate cabin given the nature of the trick.
He walks off a little more resignedly and Rachel goes off to tell Chiron what they've done. Stark wanders after Callum to look for Pepper and Katya. Cassie shoots Reyna a look and other girl gets up with a nod, dragging Bucky along after her to keep an eye on Stark to ensure that he doesn't get in to any trouble.
Jacob and Mallory have been talking together again and Cassie catches Mallory saying she's planning to go and consult with a friend from the Nike cabin and Jacob replying that they should bring Carmen as well. Meg hears that too and hops up to go with her. "Carmen's my half sister," she tells Mallory. "I'll go with you and say hi. Tell Pietro where I've gone?" she asks.
Cassie nods.
Then it's just her, Jacob, and Steve left on the porch. When she knows the others are gone, Cassie turns to Jacob with a grin. "Well?" she asks, holding out her arms expectantly. "Do I get a hug?"
Jacob smiles and humors her. He must have hit a growth spurt recently because he's taller than she is. "How are you?" he asks.
"Good," Cassie affirms with a nod. "Busy. Looks like you are too."
"Mal and Callum keep things interesting," Jacob allows. "But they make things fun too. They're actually friends most of the time. Vicky down in the Nike Cabin hangs around with us too. And Carmen. We all try to look after her a bit."
She nods. "That's how it should be," she agrees. "Any quests on the horizon."
Jacob's expression goes more serious. "I've actually done one already," he admits. "With Vic and Mal. Nothing too major. We got in and out fine. Even had a few days to spare on the deadline. Carmen was mad she couldn't come too. I think she got lonely while we were gone. That's why we're friends with Callum now. He gets her laughing."
He talks about the girl like she's a beloved little sister, and hearing that tone warms Cassie's heart.
"Well, keep me updated," she tells him. "I'm only ever an Iris Message away."
Jacob nods and Cassie shoes him off down the hill to go see his friends.
Steve looks at her and Cassie can see his mouth opening up to speak. Unfortunately, he never gets the opportunity. This is because they get interrupted in a rather spectacular fashion as an enormous rainbow chariot drawn by a matched team of huge white pegasi dive bombs them from behind some marginal cloud cover magically manufactured from inside the protective weather proof borders.
Being the highly trained and logical individuals that they are, Cassie and Steve do the practical thing and haul ass out of the way. For Cassie, this involves a high backflip over the porch rail and back on to the deck of the Big House. Steve selects the less dramatic but equally affective dive roll sideways.
Not a moment too soon as it happens.
The horse hooves of the pegasi's equestrian bodies smack in to the ground mere inches from where the two of them had been standing just moments before. A loud whinny pierces the air as manes and tails flick. Steve begins to stand up but Cassie waves for him to stay down. At Camp, where one dive bombing flying chariot went, a second one was sure to follow.
"Hey Cassie!" Butch calls from the driver's side. "How you been?"
Cassie slowly and hesitantly came out of her crouch and waves at the senior counselor of the Iris Cabin. "I've been good Butch. How are things with you? Is the yoga place up and running yet?"
He grins. "Yeah. We've started to build a pretty good customer base."
She's about to congratulate her friend when the second chariot comes charging up the hill towards where they sit. Cassie recognizes the vehicle and the horses drawing it as the one that Aries uses and suddenly the situation becomes a whole lot clearer. The chariot begins it's charge back in to battle and Cassie backs up hurriedly.
"Oops," Butch says calmly. "Looks like I've gotta go. See you later Cass!"
He's gone with a cheerful wave and a powerful downdraft of air from the wings of the horses. Cassie returns the waves and then does a careful inspection of the surrounding area before relaxing once again. Steve doesn't look quite ready to move just yet incase another set of flying horses descends from the sky, and frankly Cassie can't blame him.
She walks over to him. "I think we're okay now," she announces.
Steve stands up looking a little sheepish. There's dirt and bits of grass clinging to his shirt. Cassie reaches out to brush the bits away, stepping up on to her toes to reach the few leaves she can see clinging to his hair. She also gets him to turn a little to make sure that the rest of the dirt is gone.
"Sooooo," he says. "Flying horses. Those are a thing. I really didn't think about being crushed by them."
"Yeah," she says. "I would say not to worry because that doesn't normally happen, but in all honesty, there really is no normal here. There's just stuff you get used to and stuff you don't. It's best to just role with everything." A thought strikes her and she tips her head to the side. "It's not that different form living in the Tower really."
Steve leans down to kiss her once gently and his arms come up to loop loosely around her waist. "Stability isn't something either of us actually have is it?"
This time Cassie stretches to kiss him. When she drops back down she favors him with the softest and sweetest smile she has. "I think we're more stable than we used to be."
"That's true," he says, fingers brushing up her sides and along to cup her shoulders. "We're both very stable."
"Both metaphorically and literally," Cassie says. "We even have like, grown up jobs and everything. We cook meals with protein and pay all of our bills on time. I bet we could even have a mortgage if Tony wasn't providing all of our housing without us having to pay for any of it. I may have no history pre age eighteen, but you must have a pretty reassuring credit card history when it comes to banks."
Steve laughs in that way that means her humor has surprised him somehow. He does that sometimes. Laugh like he's surprised that he's happy.
"I've never checked," he admits. "But I guess I'd probably get a loan pretty easily if I ever needed one."
"Well the government's been giving you backpay for a while so I think it's possible that they still owe you money," Cassie points out. "Interest rates being what they are and everything."
Steve smiles down at her and for a moment the world seems to pause. It's a snap shot kind of memory. An every day moment that is totally and completely happy.
They have to leave at the end of the day, but not before dinner in the pavilion and a few s'mores down at the campfire. Cassie also makes a stop at the Aphrodite Cabin and let's one of Piper's younger brothers trim her hair. When she returns to Steve again later before dinner, he stares at her in confusion for minute as his sensory abilities and soldier's eye for detail analyze her, searching for what's different.
The fact that the answer is approximately three inches of hair is amusing to her. Actually it's impressive to her that he can notice the difference. Her hair length has moved from the just above the top curve of her hip to the bottom of her ribcage.
They all depart just after the sing along. The two greatest surprise talents of the night are Pepper and Pietro by far. Tony also puts in a surprisingly good showing for someone who blasts so much rock and heavy metal in to his ears with as much frequency as he does,
The duck out they pull happens pretty much immediately after that. Cassie's pretty sure that the speed at which they exit is mostly due to a very deep and very real terror within Steve that someone is about to try to make him dance in public. It takes so little time to leave that Pietro doesn't even have the time to start looking impatient.
Katya is half-asleep before they even get to the car and Tony scoops her up to carry her the rest of the way. Still, she'd been chattering excitedly on and off for several hours so Cassie's pretty sure that this little excursion has been a hit. They'll probably manage to arrange a few more visits like this one as well as a trip out to Camp Jupiter next time Pepper and Tony can clear more than a solitary day of free time in a row.
Cassie herself manages to fall asleep leaning against the window of the car on the drive back to the city and wakes up just as Steve pulls in to the parking garage at Stark Tower. She wakes up feeling fuzzy and disoriented and has to stretch before getting out of the car.
She leans on Steve in the elevator up to their apartment. He feels more solid than the elevator wall does. Plus he has the added bonus of giving off heat and being able to hug her.
Once they've back in their apartment Cassie wastes no time in kicking off her shoes and wiggling her toes. "I know I didn't even try to wear heals today, but somehow my toes still feel squished."
"Your feet are disproportionally large for someone your height," Steve says, putting on a mock serious voice.
Cassie lies out on the couch and kicks her feet up, wiggling her toes at him. The blue paint on a few of the nails is chipping away. The part of her that's just a smidgen impulsive is seriously tempted to lean down and pick at it.
"Wider spread of toes," she says. "Better for balancing. And no matter what I have done to myself, my arches have never collapsed. Broken all the bones involved, sure. But no arch collapse requiring special insoles has ever taken place." She shifts around and sits with her legs crossed underneath her to make room for Steve as he comes to join her on the couch. He's carrying two steaming mugs and passes one over to her.
Taking a sip of hers proves the contents to be her favorite licorice tea. It's the best herbal one she has for drinking before bed. It's non-caffeinated which means she can drink a mug of it and then go to sleep when she's done.
She thanks him and Steve just smiles, settling in beside her with one arm draped along the back of the couch behind her. "You know collapsed arches was one of the reasons that the army rejected me before the Serum. I'm not sure exactly where it fell on the list, but I know it made it on there at least once. Along with 'nervous troubles of any sort' which always confused me a little. The least they could have done for me was be a little more specific."
Cassie makes a sound of sympathy and reaches out with the hand she's not using to grip her mug to feel the heartbeat in the pulse at his wrist. "Well, you don't seem nervous now," she comments. "I mean, your heart is a little up."
Steve sets his mug to the side and takes her hand. "I think you've got more to do with that than I do."
See? Steve just says stuff like that sometimes.
He'll say things like that, and look at her like this, and it's so much sincerity and genuine emotion that it feels like her heat is either expanding or being crushed inside her chest.
Emotions like that have to be expressed before they choke you, so Cassie lifts his hand up towards her face and kisses the back of it. It let's out some of the feeling but not all of it which is why she let's their hands drop down to balance on her knee. "I love you too, you know," she tells him. It's the right response for the moment because it's how she feels, and with the right person saying how you feel is really just that simple.
Steve shuts his eyes at her words, breathing in deeply as though he's trying to absorb the moment through his skin, drawing her words in to himself. He leans his face towards hers with his eyes still shut and Cassie takes the initiative to close the gap herself. His mouth slips to cradle her lips with his own and Cassie moves to run her hands along his shoulders. However, as she tries to, Steve's fingers tighten on hers, holding them in place.
He also won't let her break the kiss when she tries to ask what's going on. Instead, he follows her mouth with his own as she moves away and the kiss intensifies. It takes them both away with the irresistible pull of rushing water.
Dimly Cassie remembers something Percy had told her once, that the Greek word for a riptide directly translated to meaning a current that swept in and took you by surprise.
Kissing Steve-
No.
No.
Loving Steve... It's a riptide.
She can't fight against it, and what's more than that, she doesn't want to.
Eventually though, Cassie does actually have to breath and manages to indicate that fact to her boyfriend. However, the kiss doesn't completely break. It just becomes light and feathery, more brushes of lips than proper kisses she that they can both breath around and between.
"Well now your heart's beating like crazy," Cassie manages to get out, leaning her forehead against his as they both work on getting their breath back. Her thumbs are moving in tiny circles over the insides of his wrists, the rhythm she's talking about beating away beneath his skin. She's not lying either. Steve's heartbeat, normally so steady you could mark time on it like a Swiss watch, is pounding and off rhythm. It's possible she actually feels it skip a beat.
"It's yours," he replies without a moment of hesitation. "And-" he breaks off, swallows, and reaches in to his pocket. What he extracts from it is small, golden, and in a very specific way sparkling. "This is too," he finishes, looking as nervous and unsure as she's ever seen him. "If you want it."
Cassie silently takes the offered engagement ring. It's elegant and simple, a gorgeous stone on a loop of what she thinks might be white gold. She doesn't know enough about gemstones, gold, or jewelry to be able to tell what this ring is actually made out of. What she does know is that it's an engagement ring.
And her boyfriend is offering it to her.
Looking nothing short of completely terrified.
Which is a weird look on someone who makes a habit of jumping out of helicopters without parachutes.
...
...
...
And he's still waiting for her to stop talking and say something.
"I use my hands a lot," she says at last. Her voice comes out lowly and much quieter than she meant for it to. "When I'm working," she clarifies, locking her gaze on to the denim blue eyes that are her favorite pair of eyes in the entire world. "I'll need to work out somewhere safe to put it during missions."
She looks back down at the ring, and then at her left hand, now free of Steve's. Cassie extends it, wiggling the fingers faintly and then proffering the ring. "Put it on me?"
He blinks once like it's a bit beyond him to comprehend what is actually happening right now. In fact, he looks quite a lot like how she feels. It's both reassuring and completely not all at the same time.
"Is that- I mean- Are you saying-"
"Well are you asking?" Cassie squeaks. Her voice has never sounded less like her voice. "Because I gotta say this is going to be incredibly awkward if that's just a ring in celebration of our couple-ness after a very sweat declaration of love and I've misunderstood the entire situation. If I have say so now so I can stop talking and we can skip to the awkward part and move forward."
Steve cuts her off by nodding frantically. "I'm asking."
There there's a pause where the energy spinning through the room crackles almost tangibly and Cassie waits...
But there's a thing about demigods.
They really suck at being patient.
"WELLLLLLLLLL?"
"Right. Yeah." Steve says with a start. He shifts, holding her left hand in one of his. His eyes as they look at her have never been quite this blue. His mouth is open to speak and Cassie waits, whole body nearly vibrating with expectation and excitement. Her entire face hurts from how widely she's already grinning. Then he stops and shakes his head once. "Wait," he stands and drags her up after him, ignoring her half formed utterance of confused protest. "Come on," he begins dragging her towards the door.
Cassie stumbles a step as she gets her feet under her and lets Steve pull her along. "Where are we going?" she asks as the door to their apartment shuts behind them.
They've already bypassed the elevator and Cassie now sees that they are headed for the stairs. Steve's legs are long enough that he can take the stairs three at a time and Cassie goes in to double time to keep pace.
They reach the roof access door and Steve comes to a stop. Cassie assumes she'll crash in to his back but instead he turns around, right on time to catch her. His left arm goes behind her and tugs her in against him as he kisses her again.
"We're going to the roof," Steve tells her after the kiss breaks. "I'm getting engaged once in my life, and I'm going it with the perfect girl. I'm a superhero, I can do better for a proposal than a clumsy conversation sitting on our couch." With that he extends his right arm and casually caves in the metal door. It swings open with a clanging noise that tells Cassie they'd be paying for property damage if their landlord wasn't a good friend and disgustingly wealthy.
She laughs and moves to follow as Steve steps forwards. "Okay well you're getting points for effort. But for the record I was going to say yes downstairs too."
The two of them step out on to the roof and Cassie has to catch her breath. The space is beautiful. Since Meg had started working and living in the building a lot of the roof space has been converted in to greenhouses which glow softly from within. The air is faintly perfumed with the smell of plants and flowers and fresh earth and the plants cast floral shadows against the glass.
Wind sweeps through the roof, whipping Cassie's hair around her face and carrying the faint sounds of New York traffic way down below them. Cars move below them and planes fly above and both leave winding glittering trails. The surrounding buildings are lit from within by small glowing squares of buttery light. The stars are silvery pinpricks against a backdrop of royal blue velvet.
Steve is watching her, waiting for her reaction. She smiles at him, pushing her hair back so that she can speak without it flying in to her mouth. "Alright," she admits. "Good call with the roof." He smiles and holds out a hand which Cassie takes, letting Steve draw her forward. She expects him to say something else or kiss her again, but rather than doing either of these things he draws one of her hands up to his shoulder and placing his free hand on her hip. "So now we're dancing?"
"I never danced before," he says, and in that moment Cassie is hyperaware of everywhere they're touching, right down to the tiny pattern his thumb is tracing through her shirt. "I love dancing with you."
Cassie smiles up at him and tightens her fingers on his. "I love holding your hand."
Then she does something she almost never does, and sings.
'I'll tell you somethin'
I think you'll understand.
When I say that something,
I want to hold your hand.
I want to hold your hand,
I want to hold your hand."
Steve is looking down at her with an expression of so much love that Cassie can barely keep going. When she does, she changes a few words just slightly.
"Oh please say to me
That you'll be my man
And please, say to me
You'll let me hold your hand.
Now let me hold your hand.
I want to hold your hand."
This time Steve brings her fingers to his mouth and kisses them. Cassie extricates her fingers to brush against his cheek. Now that she's started singing she doesn't want to stop until she's said everything she can. So she keeps going, softer and sweeter than before.
"And when I touch you I feel happy inside.
It's such a feeling that my love,
I can't hide,
I can't hide,
I can't hide."
Now she goes in to the last verse she plans to sing.
"I'll tell you something,
I think you'll understand.
I want to hold your hand.
I want to hold your hand..."
She lets her voice trail off there and simply hums the rest of the melody. The two of them sway together until her music trails away at the end of the song. It's one of her favorites, and she remembers playing it for Steve on their drive down to New York when they were first moving in.
"I love how you sing," Steve says, inclining his head to place a kiss near her ear. "You don't do it often but when you do it you always smile. And that is just- Just the best thing."
Cassie leans her head forward, tucking in to the hollow beneath his chin. "I love your heartbeat," she tells him honestly. "It's steady and stable and it's my favorite sound in the world. And I love how careful you're always careful of me even though you don't have to be, and that you know I can take care of myself. I love how you trust me and I love that I can trust you too."
The smile on Steve's face matches her own perfectly. There's more they both could say. They could spend an infinite amount of time discussing what they love about each other. But Cassie thinks is the important thing about that is that for each thing about Steve she loves, there's something about her that he loves just as much. They're going in to the future on completely equal terms with each other.
And that's amazing.
Another amazing thing has started to happen too, and that's that the tension has faded. The air around them is still unquestionably charged. There's a sweet tang of anticipation buzzing along her nerves, but there's no rush as the two of them stand together. They're more swaying than dancing, but that's more them anyway.
Still, when Steve extends an arm to spin her and tuck her back in to his chest it makes Cassie laugh and it makes him smile even wider. He spins her again, and then another time, and the next time her vision settles Steve is there. He's down on one knee, gazing up at her, holding her left hand in one of his with the ring in the other.
Cassie has never been the girl who pictured a proposal, a wedding, or any kind of personal future. She never thought she'd ever have one, but it dawns on her that it's possible Steve did. Back before serums, and nazis, and wars, and ice, and aliens from outer space. Before all that he developed his own sense of propriety and how things should be and which things should really be done right.
Proposing to the girl he loves is something he is going to do perfectly.
Cassie gets the feeling that he's going to be doing his utmost to do a lot of things perfectly when it comes to them and their life together. He's not always going to get it right because no human no matter how enhanced can manage that. But Steve's going to do his best, and Steve Roger's best is a force to be reckoned with. And Cassie's best when she cares about something is nothing to sneer at. They'll be helping each other as well, and any mistakes they make are ones they'll be able to work out together.
"Cassandra Melody Morgenstern," Steve says, enunciating each word carefully and smiling around the words as they form on his tongue. It's the first time he's said her full name out like that and it makes a happy shiver run down her spine."Seventy years ago I crashed in to the Arctic and lost everything and everyone I loved all at once, and when we met I was so- so numb that I couldn't even believe that loving someone as much as I love you now would be possible. Then you crashed in to me on the stairs, and you changed my whole perspective on what impossible even meant."
There are tears pricking the corners of her eyes and Cassie doesn't even try to stop them from forming and falling. She's getting proposed to. If there's a time in her life for her to cry with happiness, this is it.
"I helped you up the stairs because you'd broken your foot, and then you corrected me and told me about gender sensitive stereotypes and you did it without making me feel like an idiot," he continues, grinning so widely Cassie wonders if his cheeks are hurting. "You didn't ask me for anything in a world where everyone else seemed to, and it made me want to give you everything and anything you ever needed. I fell in love with you in so many different bits and pieces that I'm not sure I noticed until loving you was the most important thing in my life" he hold the ring up a little farther. "So? Will you legally agree to letting me be in love with you, and to loving me back, and sharing everything we own until one of us dies?"
The ending to that incredibly romantic proposal makes Cassie laugh so hard she almost can't breath enough to say yes. She gets there in the end though. "Yes," she says. "Yes I will legally agree to taking half of your stuff and loving you with everything I have until one or both of us dies. And after that, I'll keep loving you then. I've got some pull with the people running things down there."
"I'm going to put off thinking about that some more in light of the fact that the girl I love just agreed to marry me," Steve decides out loud and Cassie nods furiously to show her agreement.
"That's a good choice," she tells him as he slips the piece of jewelry she'll be wearing for the rest of her life over the last knuckle of her left ring finger.
He stares at it sitting there. Then he kisses her palm, then her pulse point, then the pads of each of her fingers, than the knuckles. He comes back to the one that bears the ring and kisses her fingers once more, still staring as though transfixed.
Cassie buries the fingers of her free hand in the soft hair at the base of his neck as she moves to kiss him. For once it's him who has to lean up and it lets Cassie fall in to the warm slide of their mouths enmeshing without worrying that she'll have to break away when her toes give out. The hand Steve doesn't have locked around her left one moves up her leg to lock around her hips, landing her in his lap with a single sharp tug as his teeth nip at her bottom lip and her mouth opens to him.
They're still sitting on the roof. Wind is roaring all around them and twisting the strands of her hair in to both of their mouths and faces. Cassie's knees are digging in to the cement surface of the roof and sitting like this can't be comfortable for Steve, but Cassie is perfectly happy where she is and Steve doesn't seem at all inclined to move from where they are.
Eventually, they are going to have to move. If for no other reason than the fact that Steve's hands have already moved up the back of her shirt to tug at the fabric which surely won't hold out very long if he keeps tugging like that, there's almost certainly camera surveillance up here, and there are some things Cassie really doesn't want Tony Stark to have on video. 'Captain America Sex Tape' is exactly the newspaper headline he'd find hilarious.
She's about to try to suggest moving when Steve's mouth detaches in favor of a certain spot along the side of her neck and all words fail her. Instead she devotes her energy to focusing on other things. Things like the way they sometimes can't really kiss because of how widely they're both smiling, like the pressure of his fingers against her hips and thighs or tugging at her hair, like making as much of their skin touch as they can manage, and the low moan she can draw from his throat by nipping at the cords in his neck. Steve throws off enough warmth to beat the chill from the wind anyway.
Cassie's just about made up her mind that Steve can just beat Tony up later when Steve makes an executive decision and stands up, still holding her. They make it downstairs with a few brief, though highly pleasant stops, first in the stairwell, and then against the wall outside their apartment.
Making it to their bedroom takes longer.
In fact, they don't really get much sleep that night, which makes it a real bummer when they're privacy is fairly predictably invaded by their friends at a freakishly early time the next morning.
Waking up to pounding fists on the door and Bucky's voice calling to them is decidedly not her favorite way to regain consciousness. She doesn't think it's Steve's either given the fact that his only response to Bucky's voice calling to them is to groan and bury his face in the back of her neck. He presses a kiss there and mumbles something she can't make out.
"Steve!" this time Bucky's voice is a whole lot louder and closer and Cassie reaches to pull a pillow over her head.
"Go away asshole!" Steve calls back, voice still rough from sleep.
Apparently after a lifelong friendship you didn't listen to shouted insults anymore because instead of going away, Bucky opens their bedroom door and sticks his head in. This prompts a semi-conscious scrabble for blankets and Cassie finds herself not so much covered as completely burritoed. The speed with which it's done is actually at the point of being impressive.
"I'm not listening to you right now because my best friend got engaged last night and I found out from a hyperactive Stark at three in the morning," Bucky says. "Hi Cass. Reyna's waiting out here to tackle you and I'll give you hug once there are some more clothes involved. Now get up and get out here so that the people who love you can congratulate you and ask too many personal questions."
"Bucky," Cassie says, fighting to extricate herself from the duvet. "Please understand that as the girl who's best friend you're dating and who is planning to marry your pseudo brother that I love you dearly. That said, get the fuck out of our room and please forget the fact that our friendship is at the point where you have now seen at least one of my boobs."
Bucky smirks and snaps her a tiny solute. "Got it. Oh and Steve? Next time keep at least one blanket for you okay? For all you knew I'd be opening the door with Reyna next to me."
Steve sits up and Cassie passes one of her blankets over to him. "We got engaged last night. Why are you opening our door at all?"
"Well for one thing my girlfriend is out in the kitchen making celebratory breakfast for you and your's," Bucky says. "For another, saying I'd go in first was the only way to keep Stark from breaking down the door."
Steve looks at her and sighs and together they acknowledge that this battle is definitely lost. He moves to stand, holding a blanket around himself. "Fine. We'll be out in a minute." Bucky grins in a way that tells her that they'll both be getting shit about some things for a little while but begins to take himself out of the room. "There had better be bacon when we get there!" Steve calls after him as the door shuts.
Cassie sits forwards with her elbows braced on her knees. If she concentrates she can here the sounds of at least two people talking out in their living room. "Is it too late to make new friends?" she asks. "We're nice people. I feel like we could do it."
"Probably," Steve says, crossing the room to kiss her again. "On the other hand we could probably get some new security on our front door."
"Yeah how did they get in?"
"I have no idea and I'm a little worried I gotta say."
They get out to the kitchen within the next ten minutes. It's long enough to brush their teeth and make themselves look more presentable but neither of them actually bothers to find real clothes. Cassie's in the shirt Steve had been wearing the night before and he unearths a pair of sweatpants from somewhere. They come to the consensus that if they're friends had wanted to see them better dressed they'd have waited another four hours before coming to find them.
As it turns out the pajamas were a good call. When they get to the kitchen they find Reyna yawning sleepily in to a cup of coffee in a pair of sleep shorts and an oversized sweatshirt while Bucky flips pancakes, also in pajamas. This tells Cassie that while they may be the two in their apartment, they aren't the only people who would have wanted in on this conversation.
Cassie hops up next to Reyna and wordlessly steals her coffee mug, chugging approximately half the mug before speaking. "So Tony checked security tapes and then you guys drew the short straw," she surmises out loud.
"Basically," Bucky agrees, pouring more bater circles on the frying pan. "We also got voted least likely to die for coming in here. Tony made FRIDAY let us in to the apartment. In the meantime," he holds out an arm and beckons to Cassie to draw her in to a one armed hug. "Congratulations," he tells her. "You guys are perfect for each other."
She kisses him on the cheek in thanks. "Thanks Bucky."
Then she steps back and let's Steve and Bucky have a moment together, pointedly not listening to what's said and turning to Reyna who is on her second cup of coffee. She asks to see the ring and Cassie complies, watching the gem stone sparkle in the early morning light coming in through the windows. It really is beautiful and feels only very slightly strange to have on her finger.
"That's gorgeous," Reyna comments. "And you can put it on your necklace when you're fighting or in surgery."
Cassie pauses and swallows the mouthful of coffee she's just taken. "Oh thank the gods someone else thought about that," she says. "I knew I'd have to work out something but I didn't quite get to that part last night what with the," she gestures vaguely.
Reyna raises an eyebrow a her flailing hands. "Hot, prolonged, semi-public, super soldier fueled, engagement sex?" she provides.
"Yeah that."
A plate of pancakes and bacon lands in front of her and Cassie smiles at Bucky in thanks. In the next five minutes, everybody has their breakfast and they're seated at the counter. To their credit, Bucky and Reyna give them five to ten minutes to eat before they start back in on the awkward teasing, insensitive ribbing, and personal questions.
"So Stevie," Bucky starts, face impressively blank. "Follow through on the logic for me here. You get the ring, hold on to it for probably way to long trying to plan a proposal, and then end up popping the question on a roof on a random weekend."
Steve's mouth is too full of food to answer verbally but the eyeball he does conveys his feelings fairly clearly. They wait for him to swallow because mockery is always better with more than one person participating. His answer is a surprise though, because it's not mocking or banter or anything like that at all. Instead he smiles over at Cassie, and she loves him and all his faces but this might well be the smile she loves best. "It was more us this way," he says. "I could never have planned feeling like this."
Cassie leans over to kiss him and his mouth tastes like black coffee and blueberry pancakes and it's a taste she wants in her morning routine for the rest of her life.
And there's a ring on her left hand saying she'll get that.
It's a tangible promise that her future will hold something, and that that something will be good, and it won't be just her experiencing it.
The kiss lasts a little longer than either Cassie or Steve might normally let it while in polite company. In their defense, the company they've got might be too familiar to be considered polite. It's also company that should have known better considering that they were both aware of the fact that they'd gotten engaged the night before. Honestly, if they'd wanted a limit on PDA they shouldn't have come over this morning.
Reyna and Bucky, the company in question, are the kind of people who just eat their own breakfast and wait it out. The kiss may be lengthy but it's fairly PG13. As a result both of them are still there and Bucky is contentedly and methodically working through what must be half a pig worth of bacon while Reyna massacres an innocent orange that to Cassie's knowledge has never once done anything to earn this particular death.
"So Bucky," Cassie says after a moment when her brain is working again. "How long exactly did Steve have the ring?"
Steve makes a small sound that might be a protest and Cassie can vaguely make out the phrase "ganging up on me" but that's it. "Months," Bucky answers, selling out his best and oldest friend without missing a beet. "Since right after you guys got home from England." He brandishes his fork. "You owe me some for your potential future happiness by the way. I got dragged through four different independent jewelry stores before finding that thing."
"Consider that best man duty number one," Reyna advises. "'Best friend's wedding'. Say it like a mantra. That's what I'll be doing during the dress shopping."
"You won't have to," Cassie assures immediately. "Making you shop with me more than you're willing to would be cruel and unusual. Besides, we don't have anything planned yet. I'll probably just point you at a color and tell you to go nuts. We've all gotta survive Annabeth and Percy's wedding at the end of October first." Reyna groans and Cassie pats her back sympathetically. "There there. Remember this is Annabeth Chase's wedding we're talking about. Everything is going to be so organized that all we have to do is show up. We'll probably get briefing notes and a step by step diagram."
Bucky clears his throat and raises one hand like he's a kid in school. "This is the wedding I'm gonna have to wear a fancy suit for?" he clarifies.
Reyna grins at him. "I'm still planning on making the effort worth your while."
This time it's Reyna and Bucky kissing and Cassie and Steve sharing glances. Their friends are less PG13 while in public than they are.
After a moment Steve sighs and claps Bucky on the shoulder, dislodging his mouth from the sucker hold it had been in with Reyna's tongue. "You're wearing one for mine too, but I'm not thanking you like that. Let the honor of being my best man be good enough."
Bucky rolls his eyes. "Duh. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kind of short on life-long friends to ask you Punk."
"Just for that I'm gonna go leave and ask Sam now you Jerk."
The fact that Reyna immediately joins Cassie in her humming rendition of the song 'Guy Love' as Bucky and Steve dissolve in to a round of high speed verbal insult flinging cements her place as a member of the wedding party the way very few other things could have. To some people, this whole thing probably looked pretty severely dysfunctional. Their overall group dynamics, especially after you'd thrown in more demigods and th rest of the Avengers, were probably, to put it plainly, fucked up.
What family wasn't?
Anyway, this is all the short story version of how a demigod daughter of Apollo and granddaughter of Mercury ends up at Percy Jackson's wedding to Annabeth Chase wearing a sapphire and diamond white gold engagement ring with Captain America as her plus one.
A/N: So what did you guys think? I know there's been a bit of a gap between the last chapter and this one and I'm sorry about that. I'm also sorry that there'll probably be a pretty big gap before the next chapter goes up. I'm in school and working and there are only so many hours in a day if I want to get any sleep. Meanwhile, I left you guys with something happy! I didn't even cliff hanger you! I hesitated to do the engagement until I thought back over the timeline I was working with. In my timeline, Cassie and Steve have known each other for about 3-4 years and have been together for 2-3 and are living together. The relationship has to keep progressing and that seemed like the logical next step. Let me know what you guys thought! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox