Day 9 - December 2nd

Annabeth
At this rate, I was going to go insane. I had been staring at the clock all day in the hope that it would actually move only to find thirty seconds or so had gone by. All I wanted to do was get back to my new home so that Percy and I could finish putting the place together.

I have to admit, at first I was pretty ticked off the man bought a house without even consulting me, but as the night wore on and we slowly put things in their respective places, the more in love with him and the house I became.

Honestly, I didn't think that falling more in love with him than I already was, was even possible. But, here I was, sitting at work, bored out of my mind, daydreaming of my second night in my new home with my fiancé. I was honestly in heaven right now.

A small part of me wanted to call Helen and gloat, but I knew that she would turn everything around, just as she had when I was there for Christmas and I decided against calling. I was happy and I didn't need her ruining my mood.

"Hey, Annabeth," a quiet voice called to me and I looked up from the storyboard I was supposed to be looking over. "Mark said we could head out whenever you are ready."

I gave Piper a confused look and she shrugged at me as I looked at the clock on my desk. "But it's only four."

"Hey, I personally, am not against getting out of here an hour and half early, but if you want to stay . . ."

"Lord no! Come on Pipes, let's get the heck out of here."

"Oh, thank god! I don't know if it is just me, but today has seriously dragged on and on."

I smiled up at Piper, thankful for the news and immediately grabbed my phone.

'Hey Perce, on my way. Mark told us to scram. See you in about fifteen!'

"So, how do you like the new house?" Piper asked casually, looking at her nails while she waited for me to gather my things.

"How do you know about the new house? I haven't said a word."

She shrugged and then looked up at me with a sly smile. "Percy, of course. He had us empty out his apartment several days ago. How on earth do you think he managed to pull this off? Between me and Jason, Silena, Beckendorf, Luke, Thalia, and . . ."

"And?" I asked making my way toward her.

"Oh, sorry, I was trying to remember who all was there. Grover and Juniper were the other couple there."

I gave her a sideways glance and moved on. She almost let out a secret, but now that she was aware, I would never get the information out of her to save my life, so I figured it was just time to go home.

"Got it. Go get your stuff. I'll walk out with you."

It took me a little longer than fifteen minutes to get home, mostly because I forgot where I was going. I jumped in the car, turned the radio on and Imagine Dragons was blaring, so naturally I was distracted. Muscle memory took over and I started to head toward my old apartment.

'Old apartment.'

That felt weird, rolling around in my head like that. It took me several extra minutes, but once I was finally on the right track, I couldn't help but think of anything other than the new house and how much fun Percy and I would have making it our own.

Ten minutes later, I burst through the back door of the home, Mrs. O'Leary an excited mess as she greeted me with a running leap that had her crashing to the ground just short of my feet.

"Oh good, you're home! I need your help," Percy exclaimed, disappearing just as quickly as he appeared.

"Well hello to you too," I called after him. "Where the heck are you?"

"Upstairs," he answered back and I wished I could move that fast.

I cursed him under my breath as I tried to take the stairs two at a time and quickly resorted to one at a time as my body screamed at me to slow down.

"Where on earth are you now?" I called, winded at the top of the stairs. He had been busy today. The sofa from his apartment was where we discussed and the giant flat screen from his place was on the wall across from the sofa. His perfect little gaming area.

"Our bathroom."

"Ugh, Percy, what have I told you about calling me in there when you are doing your business?!"

"Just get in here!"

I groaned and moved toward our room and slowly stepped into the bathroom to find him sitting on the counter, surrounded by candles as the oversized tub filled.

"What on earth?"

"For you, my Lady. Today we are taking a break. No setting up the house as planned, just some good ole you time and then some good ole us time."

"I know you said no complaining and trust me, I am not, but Percy, we really do need to get the house in order."

He hopped off the counter and moved toward me, quickly enveloping me in his arms and causing me to practically go limp. I was tired. Exhausted actually, and a good hot bath and some us time sounded ideal. But we couldn't live out of the boxes forever, and if he had it his way, we would skip all the usual unpacking and figuring things out and just move around them and dig through them when we needed things.

"I know what you are thinking. I can see it all over your face. I will take care of everything I possibly can, but Beth, I can see how exhausted you are," he said quietly, pulling away from me and pushing a stray curl out of my face. "I need you to relax."

I sighed heavily. He was right.

'Dammit, I hate it when he's right!'

"Fine. And thank you," I said softly in his ear, leaving a kiss on his cheek.

"When you're done, there is a present on the bed for you. Meet me in the living room."

Honestly, I didn't care about the bath or the present on the bed, I just wanted to snuggle into him and sleep, but he pulled away from me and left the bathroom without glancing back.

I wasn't exactly sure how long I was in the tub, I didn't exactly have a watch on me but the nap was amazing, until the water got cold and I woke shivering. I quickly dried off and made my way to the bedroom to find a medium red box in the middle of the bed.

'You so aren't getting lucky tonight Mr. Jackson.'

I popped the tape on the box, expecting some sort of lingerie to fall out, but much to my surprise it was something a lot less sexy. I quickly threw the pajamas on and then made my way downstairs to find him messing with Netflix and cursing quietly to himself each time the app kicked him out.

"You're leaving the one off the end of the password."

"Duh! Thanks, babe!"

I rounded on the sofa and before I could sit down, he was next to me, an arm around my waist and the other entwined in my hair as he pulled me in for a kiss.

After several minutes, I finally emerged for air and he asked, "Nice nap?"

"Wonderful," I replied, kissing him one more time. "By the way, these are simply the sexiest non sexy PJ's ever!"

"I thought you would think so," he replied with a laugh. "You look good in flannel plaid and whatever this fuzzy stuff is," he said as he ran a hand over the pink fuzzy material on my shirt.

"See, I thought you just liked the little foxes all over the top," I giggled back at him.

He plopped down on the sofa and gently pulled me into his lap. "I like all of it actually," he said with a quick kiss to the base of my neck. "Now, what do we want to watch tonight? Do we want to finally binge The Santa Clarita Diet or do we want to watch an honest to god movie for once?"

I snuggled into him and sighed in content. "Santa Clarita. I have been dying to get started on it, we just haven't had the time lately."

"Good. I could use a little comedy right now. Now help me out," he replied, pushing me to stand and then moving to the edge of the coffee table.

I followed suit, confused as to what was going on.

"Just roll with it, babe."

Rolling my eyes, I played along, moving the table to the far side of the room and then following him to a small closet and I didn't even notice the night before.

"Take this," he grunted at me, shoving several pillows and a blanket into my hands. He walked away from the closet with even more pillows and my favorite throw and like a lost little puppy I followed him back to the living room.

I couldn't do anything but watch as he tossed pillows on the sofa and then turned to me, taking the large blanket I was holding and spreading it across the floor in front of our sofa. He began dropping the pillows for us to lean back on and I quickly caught on, arranging my pillows for maximum support.

He disappeared on me a few minutes later and I was caught off guard when Mrs. O'Leary came trotting into the living room with a red tulip tucked into her collar. I reached down to pull out my flower and give the dog praise when Percy interrupted us.

He barged into the room, setting the pup into play mode as she took off around the sofa and did three fast laps before crashing into his legs and landing on her side on the floor.

"Poor thing, she really is a klutz."

"Sweet as can be though," he replied, dropping down next to me and opening the picnic basket, handing me a strawberry flavored water.

I leaned over him, forcing my way into the basket to see that the man had packed nothing but our favorite snacks and candies.

"Percy, do you really call this dinner? Wait, don't answer that!"

"It is all part of the present love. A nice long hot bath, new non sexy PJ's, a picnic on the floor in our new home with all of our favorites and the pizza will be here in about fifteen minutes."

"God, I could marry you!"

"You are," he deadpanned with a wink.

"At least you are good at something!"

"Hey," he cried, quickly wrapping his arms around me and pushing me back into the pillows as he kissed me once again. He pulled away after several minutes and smiled at me. "I am good at other things too!"

"That you are Mr. Jackson. That you are."

"Now, sit back, munch and enjoy our in home picnic."

I grabbed a bag of sour gummy worms from the basket and leaned back into Percy and the pillows. "I don't know how I got so lucky, but I thank god for you every day."

"I'm the lucky one," he replied, kissing the top of my head and sighing.