A/N: If you recognize it, it's not mine. Simple as that.

Chapter 21

Perci POV

It was a good thing that I had told Charlie I was spending the weekend with Emily, because mine and Paul's engagement celebration lasted well into the night. By the time we finally crashed, it was pushing four in the morning, and I was exhausted from all the events that had taken place during the day. A battle, our engagement, the ride to Camp Half-Blood, and the council meeting were exhausting enough. When one added the announcement of the engagement, my official coronation as princess, Paul being named my consort, the palace celebration, and then the party the people got to attend, I was completely wiped out.

"Well, today has been insane on a number of levels. Am I the only one that wants to sleep for a week?" Paul asked, flopping down face first onto my -now, our- bed, making me giggle as I grabbed a pair of pajamas for me, and a pair of pajama pants for him.

"No, you're not the only one. At least they're happy for us though, so that's a good thing." I said, tossing the pajama pants to him, and walking behind the changing screen in the room. Paul was already well aware that the most undressed he would see me until we were married was in a swimsuit, so he didn't complain.

"Tyson especially, my ribs actually hurt from being hugged. I think I can actually tell people now that I was nearly hugged to death by my future brother-in-law." He said, and I could hear the joking tone to his voice. I smiled though, as I remembered Tyson's reaction to finding out I was marrying Paul. He had been thrilled, hugging us both and calling Paul his 'new, furry big brother', not that my fiancee seemed to mind the title.

"You loved it, and you know it, you're his family now, so he's gonna take every chance to hug you. I can guarantee you, he's probably in the forge making you a weapon right now." I told him, coming out from behind the screen, smirking slightly at the jaw dropped expression on his face when he saw my light blue silk tank top and shorts pajama set. He stared for a second, before shaking his head, and lifting the covers for me to slide in next to him, an experience I was still getting used to.

"Of course I loved it, I finally have family that don't turn into giant wolves and can share my mind. Don't get me wrong, I love the pack, but it's nice to have family who knows about it, and can actually say that they deal with weirder things on a daily basis." He said, pulling me close, and I couldn't stop the smile.

"I'm glad you see them as family, Paul. It makes me happy to know that you accept the craziness that is my life so easily, and can accept it as your life as well." I told him, earning a chuckle that rumbled my ear where it laid against his chest.

"Well, I'm not so sure about Mr. D, but yeah, I see them all as family. Even Lord Zeus and Lady Hera scarily enough." He joked, making me laugh, before sighing.

"I'm an idiot, I forgot to tell Ares about Felix's greeting, or about locating Jasper. Oh well, I'm too tired to IM him right now, so I'll write a message for him tomorrow. Hopefully Hermes will get a kick out of delivering it." I mumbled, hearing a low chuckle before drifting off.

The next morning, I arrived at the breakfast table smirking, while Paul's shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter. Upon spotting our amusement, dad just shook his head, holding up a hand.

"I don't want to know. You only wear that smirk when you've done something to piss one of the members of the Council off, so the less I know, the better." He said, before starting on his meal now that we were here.

"Then please ignore what she has to say, because I want to know who you're pissing off this time, and if you think it will be funny." Triton said, leaning forward in his seat, and earning a sigh from his mother.

"Ares, and yes, it likely will be funny. That's all I will say since dad doesn't want to know any details." I said, before starting on my own food while Paul's laughter finally broke free.

"She wrote him a letter and is having Hermes deliver it, I read it before she sent it off, and it was hilarious." He choked out, before sobering at the scolding look Amphitrite sent his way for laughing at the table. After a few minutes of eating in comfortable silence though, dad's right hand and adviser swam in, coming to a stop a few feet away from the table.

"Delphin, what can we do for you?" Dad asked, looking over at the dolphin calmly.

"Lord Hermes is here with a message for Princess Perci, sir." He squeaked out, and I felt Paul stiffen next to me.

"Perci, I heard him talk." He said, staring at Delphin in wonder.

"Oh, that would be my engagement gift to you, Paul. You now share some of Perci's powers, in that you can speak and understand aquatic life and horses now. Also, you can breathe underwater on your own, and I've tweaked it so that you can use it in wolf form as well, so while you're in that form, your pack will understand it too." Dad told him, before turning to Delphin and telling him to bring Hermes here, while Paul's jaw hit the table in shock.

"Just be glad you don't have the ability to control water, or make earthquakes by stomping too hard. That is dam hard to learn how to control." I told him, taking another bite of my breakfast, honestly not too surprised. Triton had told me months ago that this was a possibility, after all. Just then, Delphin lead Hermes into the room, before bowing and swimming off to the side.

"Hey, Hermes. Delphin said you had a message for me?" I asked, an amused gleam in my eye as Hermes looked confused, and like he was trying not to laugh at the same time.

"Yeah, first of all, that letter pissed him off at first, before he became quite amused. Second of all, he asked me to give you a verbal reply to said letter." He said, and I waved a hand, prompting him to continue. Giving a sigh that was a mix between amused and exasperated, and a small smirk, he stood straighter and looked me in the eye.

"He said to tell you, and I quote, 'I'll punch you if you call me that again, but thanks, I guess you punk. I suppose our rivalry is now over, but don't count on it staying that way.' Unquote." He said, making me smirk, and Paul crack up again.

"Thanks for the message, Hermes. Why don't you grab something to eat before you head out again." I said, gesturing to the abundance of food on the table. He grinned and nodded, before assembling himself what appeared to be a breakfast burrito, before giving a wave and disappearing.

"I still don't want to know." Dad said, pointing his fork at me, making us all crack up. The rest of breakfast passed by quickly after that, and soon it was time for Paul and I to head back to La Push, much to the disappointment of Triton and Tyson.

"I'm sorry, guys, but we have to go. We still have to tell Charlie about the engagement, too." I said, giving my brothers a hug.

"You'd best keep us updated with wedding plans, sister. Father and I are already arguing over who gets to walk you down the isle." Triton said, making me snort in amusement, shaking my head.

"I'll let you and dad duke it out for a bit on that, give Amphitrite some amusement. Love you guys." I said, grabbing Paul's hand.

"Love you too, Perci." They all said, waving, before I vapor traveled Paul and I back to La Push, and the two of us emerged on the beach by Sam and Emily's house. Sharing a smile, we walked up, catching the pack in the middle of their breakfast.

"Wow, you guys missed us so much, you're eating away your sorrows." I joked, making them turn toward the doorway.

"Welcome back!" Seth called, being the only one not with food in his mouth, making Paul and I laugh.

"Thank you, Seth." I said, while Paul looked at Sam.

"I'm gonna take Perci back home to Charlie's and tell him about our engagement, then I'll come back here and we can have a pack meeting in wolf form so you guys can see what happened while we were gone." He said, earning a nod from Sam as he finished what was in his mouth.

"Sounds good, and welcome back guys." He said, smiling slightly as Paul and I gathered up the things from the campsite to take back home, sans tent, as Charlie didn't know about that. After gathering my belongings, Paul loaded it up into his truck, since he had picked me up for my 'girl's weekend with Emily', and started the drive back into Forks.

"Are you nervous?" I asked, looking over at him as he drove.

"About what, telling Charlie? Not really. I know Poseidon already sent a picture to your mom and Paul 1.0 last night, but the only one I was actually worried about telling were your friends. Sally and Poseidon gave their approval, as did Paul 1.0 and Amphitrite, and Triton liked me well enough as well. Your friends though, they don't really know me all that well, and they likely wouldn't hold back any opinions about me. I was scared of telling them because I didn't know if you would break it off if enough of them decided they didn't like me." He said, making me snort, and take his hand.

"Well, aren't you glad that got cleared up while we were at camp?" I asked, earning a chuckle.

"Oh, yeah. Though, I've got to say, Clarisse is one terrifying girl, and I don't think I want to get on her bad side." He said, and I burst out laughing.

"No, that's not a place you want to be, trust me. Clarisse and I hated each other for a while at first, but eventually we came to an interesting friendship. Now, she's like that grumpy sister who claims to hate everyone, even the sibling, who she actually does love, but doesn't show it. That much is understandable though, since the last person she showed her friendship with was killed in the Titan War, trying to get her to participate and help out. Now she's pretty closed off to everyone but her boyfriend, Chris, who's a son of Hermes." I told him, making his eyes widen.

"That sucks for her, I'm sorry she had to go through that." He said, turning down the street the house was on.

"Yeah, but she doesn't really talk about it much anymore, so we don't bring it up. Now, let's go tell my favorite mortal cousin, shall we?" I asked, earning a booming laugh as we climbed out of the truck. Paul grabbed my stuff, which thankfully fit in one bag, and wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked up to the door.

"Charlie? I'm an ax murderer here to chop you to bits and eat your food!" I called as I entered, and heard him laugh in response.

"I'm in the living room, watching a game, so I won't put up much of a fight!" He called back, making Paul shake his head. It was a game Charlie and I played, coming up with ridiculous things to call when we entered the door, since I had sassed him the first time he called that he was home. I had responded by asking if he was sure he was Charlie, because for all I knew he was some creepy stalker trying to fool me. Since then, the two of us would always call out crazy things. Entering the living room, we found Charlie indeed, sitting on the couch and watching a game, making me laugh.

"Hey there, murder victim. I'm the killer, he's gonna be eating the food." I said, pointing at Paul, who just laughed in response.

"So he will, not that it'll be a change, since he always eats all the food." Charlie said, giving my fiancee a joking smile.

"Hey, we've got some news to tell you." I told him, pushing Paul to sit on the recliner and climbing into his lap, not caring about the eye roll Charlie gave.

"What is it?" He asked, putting the t.v. on mute, and giving us his full attention. I could see Paul trying to figure out how to word the announcement, and rolled my own eyes, deciding to be blunt.

"Paul asked me to marry him yesterday, I'm engaged." I said, holding up my left hand so he could see the ring. Paul's jaw dropped slightly as he stared at me, while Charlie just looked at the ring.

"Are you happy?" He asked, giving me a measured look. I nodded without any hesitation, leaning back into Paul.

"Happier than I've ever been. Paul and I love each other, and my parents approve, and gave their blessing. We don't have a date in mind yet, but we are engaged, and nothing's gonna stop us from getting married." I said, once again, bluntly. He gave another measured look, this time, including Paul before nodding.

"You're my cousin, not my daughter. If Sally and your father approve and have given their blessings, it's not like I can protest. I've seen that Paul treats you right, but I will tell you now, boy. If you make her cry, I will pump you so full of lead, all someone would have to do is touch you, and they'd get lead poisoning. You hear me?" He asked, making me smile at how protective he was of me.

"I understand perfectly sir, however, you'd have to get in a very long line that would begin with my beautiful fiancee here." Paul said, pressing a gentle kiss to my cheek.

"As it should be, Perci is not afraid to stand up for herself. I'm happy for you both, congratulations." He said, giving us a smile, before leaning back on the couch and unmuting the t.v. I smiled as I snuggled into Paul, turning to watch the game as well. Everything was perfect now, now battles, no wars, no quests. Too bad the fucking Fates couldn't keep it that way.

Bonus! The letter to Ares.

3 POV

Hermes stared up at the giant metal door of Ares's palace, before sighing and knocking. What Perci was thinking sending Ares a letter, he had no idea, but at least there was a possibility of amusement from this.

"What?" Ares demanded, answering the door, giving his brother a hard look.

"Message for you, what else? It's from Perci, though I don't know why she's writing to you." Hermes said, handing over the letter. Ares gave him a bored look before taking out one of the many knives he had on him and sliced open the envelope and pulled out the letter.

'To the assface that I unfortunately call my cousin,

I met your son, Felix, now of the Volturi yesterday. He wanted me to tell you thanks for letting him keep his strength upon turning for him. Also, I found the vampire who's been calling himself the god of war, it's Jasper Cullen, and he lives near me in Forks, Washington.

-Perci Jackson

P.S., When you go to kick Jasper's ass for the insult, there's a penny-headed, pansy-assed vampire who doesn't believe in the gods, his name is Ed-weird. Have fun, but try not to kill him. Ed-weird is my psycho cousin Bella's boy toy, and I don't want to deal with the whining, crying, and complaining.'

Ares looked up from the letter with a smirk, for the first time, liking Jackson.

"I need you to tell her something for me, bro." He said, leaning in close to the messenger god.