Annabeth's P.O.V
Dinner with Will and Nico was great. Nico ate about four burgers, which for him was impressive; Will threatened to drop him off for dinner everyday just to make sure he ate. A little history; Nico used to go through phases of not eating especially if he was working through something. He has been a lot better in recent years but Will still worries about him missing meals. Though, I don't think he needs to be based on his appetite tonight.
Will was helping me clear the table as Nico and Percy talked in the garden.
"How are you doing?" He asked me.
"I'm fine Will really, you don't have to worry" I said and I knew he was doing his Son of Apollo thing on me.
"Annabeth you're pushing yourself too hard, is it nerves about the wedding?" He asked. It was sweet of him to ask.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous but it's a good kind of nervous" I assured him "I just want to get these projects that I'm in the middle of done they're important."
"Don't make me give you a doctor's note too" he said to me seriously, and I wandered if he and Percy were right maybe I was biting off more than I could chew with the house for Clarisse and Chris and the phone for demigods that I now potentially needed to redesign and the wedding too. Maybe I could take a few steps back on the construction of the house, Clarisse knew what she wanted and how it should look, she didn't need me there all the time asking her if she was happy with it. I decided I would talk to her tomorrow about it. With any luck the house would be fully constructed by the end of the week which meant they then just had to decorate and move in.
~ 3 weeks later ~
Thalia and I were walking through the woods to the Greek village and I was trying to get a hint about what we were doing tomorrow for my bachelorette party. All I knew was that it was going to last all day.
"Come on Thals give me a clue, I hate not knowing?" I had absolutely no idea what she had planned and it was driving me crazy. Two weeks before the wedding and everything else was sorted we just had the set up to do the week of the wedding. I knew all the details inside and out for our day but for tomorrow I was totally in the dark and my best friend loved it.
"All I will tell you is to expect a parcel first thing and to be ready to go at 8am we've got a full programme." She replied.
"What kind of clue is that?" I asked exasperatedly, but she just laughed at me.
"Relax Annie, it's going to be fun" she told me as we got to the house.
It wasn't that late but I was really tempted to go straight to bed just to be able know what in the Hades we were doing tomorrow but I also wanted some time with Thalia and Percy too.
Percy's bachelor party was also tomorrow and I didn't think that was a coincidence either. I guess I was just going to have to wait. I hated waiting.
Thalia's P.O.V
I left the parcels for Annabeth and Percy on the kitchen table. Sally had agreed to have Nightshade for the day so she wouldn't be alone, what it was important to me! Anyway the parcels... they contained t-shirts Annabeth's was grey and Percy's was green. I was quite excited for them to find out about the joint element of their day. I'd left a note too and went to set up the first activity. Chiron had taken the campers on a field trip for the day which meant we had the run of the camp which was really useful.
First up was archery - it was going to be a really close competition even with Percy's lack of skill at it. On the girls team there was Annabeth (obviously), me, Piper, Clarisse, Katie, Calypso and Reyna. Hazel and Rachel were judging for obvious reasons we didn't want them to get hurt. Juniper also was abstaining from the Olympics as she didn't want to fight which was fine, she would join us later on in the evening. The boys team was Percy (obviously), Grover, Nico, Chris, Frank Malcolm and Leo. Tyson wasn't able to get away from the forges said he had some special project he had to do? I don't know but it evened the odds up a little. Will was also invited to play but said he'd be medic to even the numbers out - it also increased the girl's chances of winning at archery or so I thought!
Percy and Annabeth joined us in the dinning pavilion at 8am. Rachel and Hazel were super artistic and had used one of the big house black boards to design a scoreboard. I'd have just drawn a table but apparently that was too 'basic'. With all of the waves and the owls on it I did have to admit it looked cool. I'm sure however they were going to score today's events it was going to look very artistic.
"Morning love birds" Rachel said as Percy and Annabeth walked hand in hand into the pavilion.
Annabeth rolled her eyes but Percy just smiled like the Kelp head he was.
"Morning" they replied together.
"So have you eaten or do we need to wait for you to do that?" Nico asked and I could almost see that excited ten year old, that we first brought to camp coming through. He wanted to get on with the activities.
"We've eaten Nico - don't worry we followed your instructions" Percy said.
"So, what is the plan Thals? You're note left a lot to be desired" Annabeth said and I could tell she was not impressed at not knowing what was happening today.
"Okay, okay" I said holding my hands up in mock surrender "so the plan today we're-" I pointed to everyone present "-going to being competing in the camp Olympics, and as you may have guessed from your t-shirt's it's Wise Girls vs. Seaweed Brains. There are five events and then we're going to separate for a girls night and whatever Grover has planned for you guys" I said.
I could tell instantly by the smiles on their faces that what we'd decided to do for them was the right thing. I could also see the edge of competition in their eyes.
Percy dropped Annabeth's hand and then held it out for hand shake. Annabeth took it and shook it but I knew he was going to end up on his ass.
"Good luck Wise Girl" he said shaking her hand and then Annabeth judo flipped him.
"Good luck Seaweed Brain" she replied and he laughed reached up and kissed her before they joined their teams.
I got on with explaining the rules and the events that we had set out for the day.
"So first off is archery-"
"Oh come on! That's totally biased you know I'm rubbish at it!" Percy protested.
"Shut it Kelp Head, you'll see in a minute if I can continue?" I raise an eyebrow and he shrugged so I took that as a yes. "Right as I was saying archery, followed by chariot races, then canoe races followed by a lava wall relay and ending with capture the flag. Rules obviously all non-lethal attacks, Percy no water powers during the canoe races and no knocking each other out of the chariots there'll be other items for distractions in that, any questions?"
"Yeah so..." Percy started.
"Any non-Kelp Head questions?" I asked teasingly Annabeth laughed and rolled her eyes. "No? Alright Percy what is it?"
"You ready to lose Pinecone face?" He asked me.
"As if Prissy" Clarisse responded before I could oh today was going to be good.
Archery was a lot closer than I had hoped for I'll admit. I had forgotten how good with a bow Frank was even with Percy's lack of skill he almost made up for it. Almost. We took the first round of the games with only five points in it - like I said it was close. An owl went up on the board under archery.
"That was closer that I thought it would be" I said to Annabeth who laughed next to me.
"Forgot about Frank huh?" I laughed and nodded, I hadn't spent that much time with the Roman friends in the group outside of our hangouts I had forgotten that Percy had said he was really good with a bow and arrow. Oh well worked out in the end.
Next were the chariot races which were going to be a little unconventional to normal rules. Sally had helped me out a lot with this one, I wanted to make it fun and competitive but I also didn't want to take away from the skill of winning in spite of the distractions and oh boy would there would be distractions.
"So, this is going to run a little differently to normal races. There will be one rider, bride vs. groom. The rest of us are going to be the distraction element to the races, I have a variety of distraction materials here. Percy, Annabeth why don't you get set up in your chariots we'll sort the distractions."
Percy's P.O.V
"What do you think these non lethal distractions are?" I asked Annabeth as we headed over to the two chariots that were waiting for us.
"Who knows" she laughed and for once I could tell she wasn't trying to find out she was just having fun. "Ready to lose Seaweed Brain?" She teased and it was like being back at camp when we were younger.
"In your dreams Wise Girl" I said and grabbed her waist pulling her in for a kiss.
"Kelp Head! That's cheating!" Thalia yelled at me.
"Shut it Pinecone face!" I yelled smiling at Annabeth. "If she only knew what kissing you does to me, she wouldn't say it was cheating then." I whispered to her and her cheeks flushed.
"I think that works both ways" she whispered back, pecked me on the lips and then walked over to her chariot. I stood staring for a moment before remembering I should be doing the same. What? My future wife is extraordinary I was allowed to be in awe. Get your head in the game Percy, I told myself as I headed to my chariot.
We pulled up to the starting line and I could see our friends dotted around the arena sporadically again I wandered what the distractions were going to be. But, I didn't get too long to think about it because Rachel sounded the conch horn and we were off. The race consisted of two laps while avoiding whatever was going to be thrown at us.
I quickly found out what Thalia's distraction was; paint powder arrows. She hit the track in front of me with four arrows that sprouted blue dust it was tough to get through and I had a feeling I looked like a smurf when I got out of the smoke coughing and spluttering as I'd inhaled a lot of it.
"Pinecone face! That's unsportsmanlike like conduct almost as bad as fart arrows!" I yelled but I knew that was kind of the point.
While I was struggling through the blue smoke it didn't look like Annabeth had been saved either the side of her chariot was covered in paint and I could see broken water balloons on the floor behind her as I worked to catch up to her. I caught her on the bend as Frank shot some paint dust arrows at her. Fortunately for Annabeth, Frank had been more generous about where he'd placed his arrows. I was racing down the straight still winning when paintball pellets started hitting the side of the chariot, I looked up from the race just long enough to see who was firing, Katie and Calypso, I did my best to avoid them before entering the bend before the final straight of the first lap. Annabeth caught me up on the bend and we were level going down the straight into the second lap.
"You look like one of those three Apple high creatures Estelle likes!" She yelled at me.
"They're called smurfs" I shouted back.
Before she could respond I was hit again by Thalia's arrows which obviously did not help my 'smurf case'.
Leo and Nico started shooting paint balloons at Annabeth their aim was terrible but they managed to shake her path up a little allowing me to pull ahead around the bend.
I was expecting more paintballs as I hit the back straight but what I got was totally unexpected. Pomegranates, Lady Aphrodite's sacred fruit. I was so distracted that I almost drove into Annabeth.
"Seaweed Brain! Look where you're driving she said dodging my poor driving only to get pelted by paintballs from Grover. I managed to take control of the reins enough to pull ahead into the final stretch.
I crossed the line first marginally and Thalia shot another dust arrow at me for good measure.
"Pinecone face!" I yelled but I could hear Annabeth laughing as she pulled up next to me.
Annabeth's P.O.V
I couldn't stop laughing at how distracted Percy had been after Piper and Clarisse had thrown pomegranates at him. A lot of people don't know but it's actually Aphrodite's sacred fruit. With how much reading Piper had done with her dad before camp that first winter she was here I knew she knew what the fruit stood for even if it hadn't had been her mother's sacred fruit. It stood for consummation of marriage or loss of a woman's virginity and I knew Percy knew that. If his face hadn't been completely blue from the paint powder arrows I suspected it would be totally red. I don't think Piper realised quite how much of a distraction she'd managed those.
"Stop laughing at me Wise Girl" he said as he pulled me in for a passionate kiss.
"Kelp Head, don't make me fire another arrow" Thalia yelled but it sounded half hearted to me.
I could feel Percy smiling as he continued to kiss me. When he pulled away there was blue missing from his face and I knew it must be on mine.
I leaned in close to his ear and whispered "found those pomegranates pretty distracting huh?" I leaned back and raised my eyebrow at him before laughing. I could tell he was blushing underneath the paint.
"It was pretty suggestive" he whispered back.
I punched his shoulder and he rolled his eyes at me but he was smiling.
We had a break after the chariot races to clean up and then we had a light lunch before heading to the canoe lake for the next set of races. Thalia was right last night when she said I'd have fun I should have known she'd plan something as awesome as this.
Thalia's P.O.V
As suspected the boys won the canoe races even with Percy not using his water powers. The lava wall races were really close it was neck and neck until the last pairing Annabeth vs. Percy.
Nico put the wall on max settings thinking this would give the boys and advantage, how wrong could he be?
About two thirds of the way up the wall it started to shake really violently. Annabeth lost her footing and was hanging from the wall, she probably would have managed to find her footing again but Percy came back down the wall to help her and I would never say it out loud but I'm pretty sure he let her win just so he knew she was safe although it did nearly get the Kelp Head fried by lava before he reached the top of the wall. Like I said he's a Kelp Head a romantic Kelp Head but still a Kelp Head.
With that in mind the events were tied up two to us and two to the boys. It was all going to come down to capture the flag.
"Hey Thals, thanks for today it's been really fun" Annabeth said to me as we got ready for capture the flag.
"I'm glad you're having fun Annie. I told you, you would didn't I?" She laughed.
"Yeah I guess you did, you ready to capture this flag?" She asked.
"Is Percy's head full of kelp?" I asked, she rolled her eyes but she knew I was teasing her.
"It's not as full of kelp as he lets on you know" she said seriously.
"Yeah I know Annabeth you think I'd have accepted he was good enough for you if he was actually as dump as kelp?" I asked.
"I guess not, though you know it wasn't up to you right?" She teased.
"Yeah I know, true love blah blah blah" I rolled my eyes and we laughed as we headed into the woods. Piper and Katie had taken the left flank; Clarisse was on defense with Calypso, which left Reyna, Annabeth and me.
Annabeth had her magic hat and put it on and took the centre of the forest which left Reyna and I to take the right flank.
Percy as predicted took the centre thinking it was 'open' seriously Kelp Head how do you forget your future wife has an invisible hat?!
Malcolm and Grover looked like they were taking the left which meant they'd meet Piper and Katie. We would so win that contest.
Leo and Chris advanced towards us on the right which meant only Nico was guarding the flag.
"We've got this Reyna, get past these two and it's just Nico, who's under doctors orders not to summon the dead."
Percy's P.O.V
I set off through the middle of the clearing I could see the flag I just had to get past- huh? Wait no, if it's not Annabeth where is she? I counted two left and two right, which meant three defensive players. But when I got to the flag only two stood in my way. Oh Poseidon's pearls! Percy you idiot! Her invisibility cap!
She must have run straight past me and I was too busy concentrating to notice. Well I just had to hope our strategy worked before Annabeth got to our unprotected flag.
Yeah I know I know never leave anything unprotected but I was trying to lure them into a false sense of security.
I wasn't actually aiming for the flag I was a distraction - I just had to keep Clarisse and Calypso occupied long enough for them not to notice what was actually happening.
"Hey Boar head" I yelled at Clarisse it had been ages since I called her that but it was just our way of accepting each other when we were younger. She came at me with her spear and we went spear on sword. I managed to get so I was between Clarisse and the flag which drew Calypso away from the flag long enough to create the opening Nico had been waiting for.
Nico appeared out of the shadow long enough to close a hand around the flag pole and disappear again. I hoped he got over the boundary line before Annabeth came back with our flag.
Annabeth's P.O.V
I got to the flag to find it completely undefended. That Seaweed Brain, what was he up to? I snatched the flag and started back towards the boundary line. This was too easy something wasn't right. I was ten feet away from winning the game when Nico tumbled out of a shadow and knocked me over holding our flag and the conch horn sounded ending the game.
"Sorry Annabeth" Nico said standing up.
I got to my feet too.
"It's okay Nico, good game" he smiled and nodded and we headed back out to the pavilion.
"Shadow travel is cheating!" Thalia said as we walked in.
"Please you're just upset you lost Pinecone Face!" Percy said teasingly as I sat next to him.
"Hey Wise Girl" he said before he gave me a kiss. I didn't think I'd get tired of that ever.
"Hey Seaweed Brain" I replied resting my forehead on his.
"I hope you have fun tonight" he said to me, knowing that we weren't going to get long together before we broke off for our evenings apart.
"You too" I replied, I meant it but I knew I would miss him at the same time.
"Oh enough mush! Come on Owl Head let's go!" Clarisse said pulling me away.
"Alright alright!" I said, I turned my head one last time to smile at Percy before letting Clarisse pull me away to her house.
Once we'd showered and changed we sat in Clarisse and Chris's lounge and started catching up on what we'd all been up too.
It was nice to know that Travis was still up to his old tricks but had grown up enough to ask Katie to move in with him. Calypso and Leo's repair shop was doing well and she was hoping he'd propose soon. Hazel and Frank had finished decorating the nursery. Grover and Juniper were going strong she was also hoping for a proposal. Piper and Malcolm were doing okay but it was still very new, which I already knew but some of the others didn't. Clarisse and Chris had moved to the village and were settling in, which we all knew but that was all she was willing to share with such a big group. I knew she was also hoping for a proposal and I was pretty sure Chris was planning one too, but she'd have to wait for that little snippet of information. Rachel was graduating from college soon and had a crush on a guy in her class.
Reyna was doing really well her and Frank were running the Legion well together and she was dating but no one serious yet. I knew she'd find someone soon. Thalia told us about her recent hunts and how many monsters they'd killed recently. I think she secretly just wanted to stop the relationship talk, I knew she loved to gossip but it got to a point where she just wanted to move on from it.
"So now we're all caught up why don't we move on to the next game?" Piper asked and the way she said it I'm unsure as to whether or not I wanted to know what it was. Like she was excited to play whatever it was.
As if sensing my hesitation Thalia decided this was the best idea yet. She loved to catch me off guard if she could and I could tell she knew she had done just that even before I even knew what the game was.
"Great idea Piper, we thought we'd have an evening of truths. We each get to ask Annabeth for one truth in return she gets to ask one from us. Piper's going to be our lie detector so if I were you I'd tell the truth unless you want to be charm spoken" Thalia said. Well this will be interesting, I thought to myself.
"Oh I'm starting" Clarisse said "I've always wanted to know this, what happened between you and Percy before he went missing for 2 weeks, on your quest in the labyrinth?" She asked me.
"What do mean?" I asked her.
"I want to know why you didn't punch him when he got back, why you tackled him in a bear hug. What happened?" She asked me.
"I kissed him, right before he blew up Mount St. Helens." I said.
Clarisse smiled ruefully. "That explains a lot; alright what do you want to know?" She asked me and it was tough with Clarisse I knew quite a lot about her already.
"When did you know you liked Chris, was it before that summer?" I asked because when else would I get to know. I knew I didn't have to specify which summer as we'd just been talking about it.
"It was before that summer, when I was 13 I think was when I first knew." She said and I smiled at her.
"That's so sweet!" Piper said.
"Piper reel it in" Thalia said "you're supposed to be judging truth not channelling your mom."
"Can't I do both?" She countered "both answers were truthful."
"I guess" Thalia grumbled but I could tell she'd rather Aphrodite side of Piper was kept to a minimum but the stronger Piper had become the stronger her connection to her mom had become.
"Who's next?" Clarisse asked.
"I'll go" Rachel said, oh man what could Rachel possibly want to know? "Did you ever have romantic feelings for anyone else?" I felt myself relax.
"No" I said and everyone turned to look at Piper. "Why is that not believable?" I asked noticing that no one seemed to believe me.
"She's being truthful" Piper said.
"But Luke?" Katie said and I sighed.
"Was like a big brother to me, haven't you ever wanted to impress someone because you cared about them?" I countered and I could see them all nodding.
"So what truth do you want from Rachel?" Piper asked directing us back to the game.
"How did you feel after you kissed Percy?" I asked.
"Whoa - wait - time out" Piper said making the time-out signal with her hands "when did you kiss Percy?" She asked.
"Better question, why didn't Annabeth kill you for it?" Katie asked.
"Sorry" I said to Rachel "I thought people knew" she smiled at me and I knew it wasn't a problem.
"Yes I kissed Percy, Annabeth didn't kill me for it because the dope had obviously finally figured out that he loved her, so it didn't matter." Rachel said and then looked at me. "Disappointed and annoyed" I nodded understanding dawning on me, that Percy hadn't kissed her back.
"I'm sorry to 'channel mom'" Piper said using air quotes "but what do you mean you were disappointed and annoyed?"
"He didn't kiss you back did he?" I asked already knowing the answer and trying to spare her a little embarrassment.
"No he didn't, I think I startled him" she said.
"Quite possible" I agreed and everyone looked at us like we were crazy. "What?" I asked.
"You knew he kissed someone else, your friend and you're not mad" Katie said. I realised I'd opened a door I couldn't close and sighed.
"I wouldn't say we were friends at the time, and it took Percy a while to tell me about it because he didn't want to upset me but he didn't want to lie to me either. Rachel and I became friends after she became the oracle because like she said Percy had figured out how he felt." I gave a brief run down and Piper gave me a look like 'I want to know the whole story' I knew we'd be having girl talk later. "Who's next?" I asked.
"I'll go" Hazel said "have you and Percy talked about having kids?" I smiled.
"Yes, quite a bit actually" I answered and Clarisse snorted and all heads turned her way.
"What?" She asked and rolled her eyes and said "please like we need another Percy"
"They might be like Annabeth" Juniper countered.
"Moving on" Thalia said looking a bit uncomfortable at the thought of Percy and I having kids, I knew I had a motherly/ big sister talk coming my way. "What truth do you want from Hazel?"
I thought about it, I didn't want to set the cat amongst the pigeons like I had with Rachel's truth.
"Who are you hoping the baby looks like?" I asked her.
"Frank" she told me and heat touched her cheeks but I understood and smiled at her.
Calypso asked me her question next. I was curious about what she wanted to know, as she had at one point been in love with Percy. "Did you know he'd been to my island?" She asked.
"Yes, at the time I was less than happy about it. But, thank you for nursing him back to health." I answered. "Did he ever mention me while he was in your island?" I asked and I was curious.
"Yes, he dreamt about you almost every night" she told me and I smiled, he hadn't forgotten about me while he was there.
"How do you know?" Clarisse asked.
"I think you all know by now that Percy talks in his sleep" Calypso responded "when I'd check on him, he was usually saying Annabeth's name."
"Oh Annabeth" Piper sighed like she was about to overdose on love "how romantic" she swooned.
"Yeah romantic" Clarisse scoffed, causing Thalia to laugh.
"What?" Piper asked clearly confused.
"They're laughing because it took another summer for us to get together" I said.
"Oh" was her only response before she said "whose next?" Juniper asked me hers next.
"What's your favourite thing about Percy?" My favourite thing about him hmm... I love so many things about him but what was my favourite? I hadn't really thought about it before.
"How much he cares" I said finally.
"Annabeth" Katie moaned face palming.
"What?" I asked her.
"You know normally a girl would pick a feature they liked best" she said to me.
"I did" I responded "how much he cares is a feature" Piper just shook her head smiling knowingly at me.
"She's telling you the truth" she said and I suddenly realised that I might have missed the point of the question.
"Oh, did you mean physically what do I like best?" I asked Juniper.
"No" she said "we'd be here for weeks while you decided on that" she teased me and I rolled my eyes at her. Truth was we wouldn't my favourite physical feature of Percy's were his eyes, I could get lost in those forever, though I decided not to share that.
"Do you want little satyrs one day?" I asked her.
"Yes" she said and he cheeks turned bright green at the thought, it was sweet and I knew Grover wanted that future too. I had kind of expected Grover to have asked her to marry him by now but I suspected that he had been too wrapped up in his duties as Lord of the Wild - I'll get Percy to give him a nudge I silently promised myself. Piper looked at me like she knew I'd just promised to meddle in someone's love life, yeah I was in for a private girl talk sometime in my near future.
"I'll go" Katie said and she had a real mischievous look in her eye that made panic start to rise inside me. I willed myself not to show it though. "Is Percy good in bed?" She asked and my cheeks flushed so red I felt like my face was on fire.
"Oh nuh-uh no!" Thalia said "don't answer that, I do not need to hear about that" she said.
While Thalia was having her outburst Piper was watching me very closely and it made me uncomfortable but I knew she knew. She raised a questioning eyebrow at me that I tried my best to ignore it but I knew I'd sealed my fate in doing so. I had made that girl talk inevitable.
"Truth is Katie" I sighed "I don't know" Thalia looked almost proud as the others looked like their eyes were going to pop out of their heads.
"What do you mean you don't know?!" Katie said and I held up my hand to silence her. I may as well tell them I thought to myself after all it's only going to show them that my Seaweed Brain is just a respectful and romantic idiot, the thought almost made me smile in spite of my embarrassment.
"After the Giant war Percy and I, well you guys know we had those nightmares that were awful. We spent a lot of nights in the same bed and I'd be lying if I said we weren't thinking about it. But we were so fragile and broken inside -"
"But -" Piper started but I interrupted.
"We didn't want you guys to know, so we put on a front that everything was okay. But, we knew no matter how much we wanted to, we weren't ready. So we promised each other to wait and you know Percy and his promises to me he swears on the Styx to prove he means it. Anyway the way he worded his promise to wait, sounded like he said he'd wait until we were married and I knew somehow, as did Percy that if we ever broke his vow I'd lose him for good. So we just haven't yet." I finished feeling rather embarrassed.
"Please tell me you're not marrying him just so you can?" Thalia said and I raised an eyebrow at her, "right, no of course not" she answered herself.
"That's so romantic" Piper gushed and even Reyna nodded along.
"Anyway" Rachel said sensing how uncomfortable I was getting "I believe it's your turn to ask Katie for a truth"
"Oh this should be good" Clarisse said almost daring me to ask for something just as personal. Katie seemed totally unfazed by it all as if ready for what was to come.
"You could have had either brother, why Travis?" I asked.
"Connor? Gods no please he is so immature" she replied.
"So is Travis" Rachel noted. Katie turned such a deep shade of scarlet that I didn't need an answer.
"Okay okay, moving on" I said and Piper raised an eyebrow at me and I titled my head towards Katie, Piper glanced over at her and nodded. She knew, as did I that Katie loved Travis, no matter how similar the brothers were she'd always been attracted to Travis.
"Reyna, do you want to go?" I asked.
"Sure" she replied "did you ever think you'd give up training and fighting for a guy?" She asked me.
"Before Percy? No, I never imagined I'd give it up." I replied. "What did you think of me when you saw me again in New Rome?" I asked.
"Wait again?" Rachel asked "you'd met before?"
"We had" Reyna answered Rachel's question before she answered mine. "Before you got off the ship I was unsure what to think, my only perceptions of you, were what I remembered and what Percy had told me. When you stepped off the ship and judo flipped him well it only confirmed for me that you were as I first thought, strong." I smiled and nodded that was a great compliment from Reyna considering how exhausted I was at the time and how strong she was as a person.
"Thank you" I said.
"Can we go back to how you met before?" Thalia said and I rolled my eyes.
"It wasn't like we knew each other prior to us touching down in New Rome. When Percy and I left camp to find the Golden Fleece -"
"Without permission" Clarisse added in.
"Right without permission because it was Clarisse's quest. We ended up on another island before we reached the island of the Cyclopes who had the fleece. Reyna and I met briefly there. I can't say much more than that as I've agreed to keep it to myself." I said.
Reyna looked up at me a thankful expression on her face. I got the impression she didn't like people knowing about her time working for Circe.
"Piper, are you next?" I asked.
"Sure why not?" She said, Piper and Thalia were the two I was dreading answering most because they were the two that knew the most about me. "When did you first start to have a crush on Percy?" She asked me. I relaxed instantly – that I could answer, easily.
I rolled my eyes. "When I was 12" I replied.
"Why did it take so long for you do something about it?" Clarisse asked "you know you were Silena's pet project right? What had to wait four years? Especially if you kissed him in the volcano?!" There was an annoyance in her voice.
"Do I have to answer that?" I asked exasperatedly.
"No, I think living through it the first time was painful enough" Thalia teased me and I chucked a cushion at her in response.
"Piper, what's your favourite part of being a daughter of Aphrodite?" I asked.
"Forcing you to feel your emotions" she teased me, I also chucked a cushion at her. "Fine, helping people with their emotions" she said and I could tell she was being truthful, she was a great help when I needed help with my feelings certainly and as much as she teased me she did sometimes force me to deal with my emotions at my request, she was a very good friend.
"So I guess that leaves me" Thalia said. "Truthfully now, and I'll know if you're lying, are you going to name your first kid after me?" I knew she was messing with me and I was a little relieved.
"No" I said poking my tongue out at her and laughing, she feigned in mock hurt and looked at Piper who confirmed I wasn't lying.
I knew what truth I wanted to ask her and I could see in her eyes she knew too. But, I also saw pain like me asking her to confirm what I thought I knew would hurt her and I didn't want that. So what could I ask her?
"Thalia, who's your favourite big three cousin?" I asked. She pondered for a while before answering.
"No offence Hazel, but I have to go with Percy" she said.
"None taken, I would too" Hazel said and I smiled, I knew Percy had touch all of their lives in many ways and although I was a mess during the time he'd been missing during the camp exchange, I knew it had hit everyone else hard too.
"Can I ask why?" Piper said.
"Sure, you can ask but I don't have to answer" Thalia teased but she did answer. "Hazel probably already knows as I suppose does Annabeth. After the Titan war and the Giant war, but it started after the Titan war, Percy decided that we would meet up and check in on each other once a month. So once a month he and Nico would shadow travel and steal me from the hunt for a couple of hours before sending me back. He became like the glue and then after the giant war Jason and Hazel came with us too."
We continued to talk well into the night and you could say it was the best bachelorette party I could have ever hoped for.
Percy's P.O.V
I was lying in bed at 3am after all the guys had gone home and thinking back on today. It had been amazing fun and I was so glad Annabeth and I had been able to do most of it together. After we left the girls we had come back to the house, Paul had bought some beers for the night, not too many that it would turn into a raging mess but enough that we could chill and have a couple of drinks with friends.
We'd spent the night just catching up and talking which was nice we didn't get to do that enough and I thought – well I hoped that maybe we could make the camp Olympics an annual event.
I thought back to the chariot races and those pomegranates that Piper and Clarisse had thrown at me. Did they know how much of a distraction that would cause or had they just been really lucky?
I guess any normal guy would think I was crazy but I knew that I would wait forever if she asked me to, because that wasn't what our relationship was about. Did I want to? Gods, yes I did! But, I'd made a vow on the river Styx that I would wait until we were married if that's what Annabeth wanted. We both knew if we broke that vow, her mother wouldn't hesitate to wipe me from existence and neither of us, were going to give her that chance. But, that wasn't why I was marrying her and I think even Athena knew that now. I was really honoured to have gained her approval, it was almost better winning well anything. My fiancées mother approved of me and she was an almighty powerful Goddess. How many people could say that? I'd wager not many, y'know if I actually did that which I don't.
I couldn't wait for the next two weeks to fly by so I could finally see her in her dress walking towards me down the aisle. I had no idea what sort of dress she'd be wearing but I knew it didn't matter she could wear a trouser suit down the aisle and she'd still look like the most beautiful woman in the world to me. Gods I was lucky!
I fell asleep with a smile on my face, knowing that when I woke up I'd see my Wise Girl again.
~Author's Note~
First off – apologies for the longer wait on this week's chapter – I was having a little bit of writers block with how I wanted the Olympics to go and what events to pick and who would be there etc. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this Chapter please leave a review and let me know!
Happy reading all !
