I am so sorry about the wait, I have no excuse and all rights to rick riordan...
When we started this, I had no idea that it would turn into what it is now. He loves me. He actually loves me, and somehow I have locked him down, at least for now. He truly cares about me, and when I think about that, my hearts swells.
It all started two years ago, when a drunken one night stand turned into more of hook ups, and then to an actual relationship. He only got a few woman pregnant during that time, but when we started to seriously date, somehow he found it in himself to stop hooking up with other woman.
Afterward, he treated me like a queen, always told me that I should be treated that way. He wakes me up with kisses in the morning, and remembers that I still have to eat (unlike other gods who, for some reason, like to get drunk and forget) so he will make me breakfast before my training. After a long day of working out and training, he will give me a massage or he will just spend his evening with me, watching my favourite T.V. shows, or a movie.
But sometimes things with him don't work out. He can be a little...
"I'm sorry that I didn't agree with you. I just...I feel like we would be too obvious."
"Apollo, what would be obvious about you agreeing with me on something small." I ask him, my eyebrow arched, although he can't see that. We are in the bath together, bubbles surrounding us, the smell of lavender and vanilla fill the air. And the heat steaming up the entire room.
"I don't know, I just want to delegate." I scoff at him and turn around hard, making the water around us splash around us violently.
"Apollo, you don't have to delegate. They already know that we are good friends, they wouldn't suspect anything." I argue, this time arching my eyebrow, to where he can see it.
He sighs and looks down at the water for a moment, then rolls his head back onto the edge of the tub and stares at the ceiling. My stomach tightens with my next comment.
"Unless you don't agree with me, and you are too afraid to tell me."I say in a small voice. He looks up at me with a guilty look on his face. I groan and sit on the other edge of the tub.
"My love, I don't agree with you, but I just, I didn't want to tell you." Apollo tells me while trying reaching out to me. I pull away and look him dead straight in the eye.
"Apollo, part of a relationship is being able to tell your significant other that they don't agree with them, or being able to disagree with them and not be afraid to tell them that." I explain to him. He sighs and gives me a defeated look.
"I know. You are right, I'm just knew to this whole relationship thing. I'm knew to this idea of loving someone so much, that it hurts. I'm new to this idea of seeing my heart walk outside of my body. And I really, really, don't want to screw it up. I can't lose you, so I thought that disagreeing with you and blaming it on something else would be a better idea."
I smirk at him and move slowly to him, like a predator sneaking up on her prey. His eyes watch me closely, and then move from my eyes to my chest.
"My love, you are full of ideas, some beautiful, some enchanting. And some just plain stupid. But I get where you are coming from. Just next time, come out with it alright?" I say, sitting on his lap, facing him.
Apollo groans and pulls my waist to him, making our chests touch. I smile at him,and kiss him lovingly.
"I love you." he mumbles as he kisses my neck and I let my head fall back closing my eyes.
It's easy to say that we are anxious. It's the day of the party, the day of the celebration and we are finishing up everything. I haven't seen Annabeth at all, I've been mostly working with the water Nymphs about tonight's water show. I knew that today might be a long day, when me and the most of the seven just want to go do our own thing. But in the end, it wasn't just us that defeated everything. I mean yeah, we did do most of the work, but still. This was a team effort.
I still had not proposed to Annabeth, no moment is perfect. I know she will say yes, but I am still nervous. That tiny fear that I will be rejected, and the even bigger fear that I won't be enough for Annabeth. I just want to be able to give her everything, but what if I can't? I have to be enough for her, or else, I'm screwed.
"Jackson, it's simple physics" Valdez says while eating a chicken wing with hot sauce dripping off of it. Don't ask me, I don't know either. "This girl loves you, you jumped into hell for her, you studied to get into the same college as her, and did by the way. She will definitely say yes."
Jason and Frank make eye contact with me and we all raise our eyebrows at the look alike elf eating a chicken wing with hot sauce.
"Valdez , how the hell is that physics?" Frank asks, sipping his ice tea. Leo looks up from his food, concentrates on my face for a fat second and then sighs.
"I don't know, I was just saying things. You guys have to try these wings! They are delicious!" I groan and put my head in my hands and Jason sighs.
"Hey what are you guys talking about?" I hear Hazel ask, coming up behind us with the girls too.
"Definitely not how Percy has no balls whatsoever!" Valdez says in a rush. I shoot him a look and Frank kicks his shin underneath the table with a smile on his face.
"Ummm, as the girlfriend, I am pretty sure that is not true." Annabeth says smirking at me while sitting on the bench next to me. I feel my cheeks go red and give a small smile.
"I can already tell you guys that today is going to be brutal." Piper says to all of us, sitting on Jason's lap. Some of us nod our heads, while Valdez just continues to eat his wings.
"I mean, I don't know about you guys, but my day is going great because of these wings." Valdez says as he dances in his seat. Calypso just rolls her eyes.
"I know that Katie and Travis already left to go into the city for the day. They wanted some alone time." Annabeth quietly tells us.
"Clarisse has yet to come out of her cabin today. She has a lot of new campers who all think that the gods are going to show up today, so she kicked them out of there and is spending the day with Chris." I say adding onto Annabeth's comment. Frank nods his head.
"Yeah we have that too, where a lot of new kids think that the gods are going to show up today, and it just sucks when we have to deal with the little ones asking why their parents don't care about them." he adds.
We are quiet for a little while are hearts heavy with that comment, until we talk about miscellaneous things. The birds chirp for a while, singing their song while we talk. I have my arm around Annabeth, her leaning her body into mine and I get the chance to just spend the evening with my love. After just spending time and talking, we move to walk around camp.
"I can't remember the last time I saw camp this happy." I whisper to Annabeth. We are holding hands as we walk down with the others. She squeezes my hand and turns to face me.
"I know, it's a little unnerving. Almost like something bad is-"
"Nope! I love you, but do not ruin this with jinxing it." I quickly interrupt her. She smiles and laughs smalley, and we continue on with our friends.
The party is now in full swing and everyone is laughing and having a good time. Drinks are flowing and the food is delicious. Some are dancing to music, others simply enjoying conversation and their food. The seven plus Nico, Will and Reyna have parked ourselves at the hearth, with some blankets, junk food and loads of marshmallows. I have Annabeth leaning on me as she roasts her marshmallow on a stick.
"Hey guys, can we sit with you?" We all look up from our conversation to see Clarisse and Chris, holding hands, along with Katie and Travis standing next to them.
Different replies, all saying yes, chorus throughout the air. Clarisse and Chris came and sat down next to me and Annabeth, while Travis and Katie sat next to Jason and Piper.
"Good to see you being affectionate towards someone, Clarisse." I whisper over to her, while the rest of the group engages in a conversation about a Katie and Travis' day in the city.
"See, Prissy, we may be friends, and you may be the son of the sea god, but I can still kick your sorry ass." she whispers back, grinning from ear to ear. I shake my head at her, quietly laughing.
"We went in and found a deli, ate there and just walked around Central Park. It was really nice, and we didn't even run into any monsters." Katie tells us. She grabs the blanket that Jason hands her and wraps it around her and Travis.
"We had a wonderful time, it was really peaceful, and I got to stare at Katie the entire time so, big plus." He adds on, helping Katie get the blanket around them. Everyone laughed while Katie's face turned red. I look down and see Annabeth's marshmallow is on fire.
"Hey Wise Girl? Your marshmallow is on fire." I tell her, laughing at her.
"Oh I know, I like it burnt." she smiles cheekily.
"Now that is something I can get behind!" Valdez shouts, pumping his fist in the air. I shake my head and Annabeth brings her marshmallow out of the fire, blowing the it out. I helped her create the rest of her s'more and then quickly took a bite before she could.
"Hey!" she yelled, while she slapped my lightly. She grabbed the s'more out of my hand and took it into her own.
"Wow, Jackson, you've made Annabeth soft." comes Thalia's voice. I turn around to see her standing there, not in her usual Hunters get up, but black ripped jeans and a cropped Green Day shirt that showed off her stomach/ badass abs that would make any other guy want to crawl into a hole and die.
She shrugged "it was all I had in the Zeus' cabin. Otherwise I wouldn't be wearing it."
She sat down and grabbed part of the big blanket that Annabeth and I were sharing, leaning into Annabeth, who cuddled up to Thalia.
"Hey! You took my girlfriend, give her back!" I say, offended, pulling at Annabeth's waist trying to tug her back over to me. They both laugh, along with the group, but I still don't have my girlfriend back.
"Here bro, I'll be your girlfriend!" Jason says as he stands up, and moves over to sit on my lap. I let out a grunt when he does that, but then get used to his weight.
"Fine by me boys, I get this blanket all to myself!" Piper flaunts to us as she covers herself into a Piper burrito. We all let out a loud laugh, our laughter filling the air and for the first time in a while, I see this group becoming happier. I missed everyone.
With our crazy lives lately, we don't get to see each other too much which is really sad. I miss all of my friends who have become my family.
"Hey guys, you want to go to Estelle's first birthday in a couple of days?" I suddenly ask. Everyone looks surprised at my sudden outburst that interprets their conversations. I blush a little, and smirk at Annabeth.
"We would love to Percy! Oh my gods I love that little girl more than anything in this entire universe!" Piper squeals, flashing us all with a bright smile.
"Hey" Jason yells out, offended while putting a hand to his chest, faking hurt.
"Oh please love, you know you are in a very close second." she smirks, while Jason leans his head back onto my shoulder.
"You love me so much, right bro?" he asks me, giving me some puppy dog eyes and a quivering lip. I laugh out loud, throwing my head back while nodding.
"Count us in, Perc. She is very adorable." Hazel agrees. The rest of the group nods and most of them say that they are able to make it.
"I'll try to get away that day, wait what day is it again?" Thalia asks, cocking her head in my direction. All eyes turn on me, all of them also silently asking me.
"Oh yeah, so it'll be at my mom and Paul's house in New York, and I'm thinking she said something like tuesday next wee-"
"DEMIGODS! PLEASE ALL COME TO THE AMPHITHEATER!" We hear a voice boom out. All of us look up to the voice and the sight we see makes all of our jaws drop.
We are all sat down in the amphitheater, the older kids watching the gods with close eyes. I have Annabeth's hand in mine, and we are both squeezing tightly. The gods are flickering in and out of their greek to roman personalities, but mostly greek.
Jason looks over at me with wide eyes and mouths 'what the hell is going on?'. I shrug my shoulders and squeeze Annabeth's hand more.
"Demigods!" Zeus booms out once we are seated. "We congratulate you and ourselves on our victory from defeating the giants and Gaia!"
I roll my head sideways towards Jason and Nico and scowl.
"We are very grateful for your sacrifices and we all want you to know that we are in pain from the loss of our own children." suddenly my heart feels heavy from remembering the loss of my friends who were my family.
"But! We are here today to give you all a gift. Something you all have not thought of, but will enjoy!" whispers start flying around about what the hell they could possibly be talking about, and Annabeth grabs my forearm with her other hand that isn't squeezing mine.
"Years ago, after we finished the Titan war, we the gods had an idea. An Idea that would end all of our suffering." Zeus announces.
"We designed something. A team, so that we could give you all a break from having to fight every day for your lives." Athena adds on.
"Someone reminded us about something very important," Zeus says, looking amongst the crowd and stopping his eyes straight on me, staring me down. "He reminded us that even though we were all very busy gods, with many demanding responsibilities, we should make time for the greatest joys in life. Our children."
"So, we present to you a task force, that will fight day and night, trying to make the world safer for all demigods." Zeus announces louder this time, his voice booming. I look at Annabeth, her eyes drowning in worry, and we lean in closer to each other.
"The members of this task force have either died a tragic death, or are warrior's that have chosen to help on this task force." Athena informs us, stepping forward from all of the twelve major gods.
"May we present to you, Zoe Nightshade. Lady Artemis' old lieutenant." the crowd erupts into whispers as soon as Zoe appears out of the shadows, and both Annabeth and I make wide eyes at each other. I look over to see Thalia's reaction and she just has her jaw dropped.
"Maximum Gandy, son and warrior of Mars." I don't really know who that is, but he is a big guy, full of pure muscle and a buzz cut hair style, that honestly doesn't look too bad on him.
"Francesca Adelina, daughter of Eros." When Francesca steps out of the shadows, a hush falls over everyone. This girl is seriously pretty. Sorry, that is an understatement. She's striking. She rivals Aphrodite. Long brunette locks and big brown eyes. Her skin shines a dark tan and her smile could kill. Every movement about her is graceful.
But even though she is very beautiful, I still find Annabeth to be way more gorgeous than her. And I'm not just saying that.
"Bianca Di Angelo, daughter of Hades, former huntress." All heads whip to Nico who looks like he's just been slapped in the face with a fish, a big fish. My heart starts pounding.
"Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus." my jaw drops. Heart still pounding. Maybe we've all been just slapped with big fishes.
"Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite." Clarisse cries out, and so do many other people.
"Percy, what is happening." Annabeth whisper cries to me, and I shake my head at her with my wide eyes.
"SILENCE!" Zeus booms out and we all hush up.
"Luke Castellan, son of Hermes." and all the colour drains from my face. I suddenly can't breath and Annabeth grabs onto me. Luke steps out into the light and his face doesn't have the scar anymore.
"Andromeda Jackson, daughter of Poseidon." and now at this point my body stops working. If it wasn't for Annabeth, I would have fallen over. Everyone looks at me with mouths open wide. But I'm only staring at my sister.
She's grown. A lot. She has long blood red hair and her eyes are still striking green mixed with blue. She's more full now in the sense of she has a lot of muscle. Her eyes fall on me and I almost cry out.
"And last but not least, Thysia, daughter of Kronos."
Rage erupts, and everyone starts to scream. But I only do one thing, and that's dropping down on one knee and opening the ring to Annabeth.