Forever and Always
A/N: So, I was kind of on a roll then, so I'm pumping on another chapter. To MOTH, who remarked that my writing was too rushed, thank you for pointing that out. I was actually a bit of a rush when I wrote that and I really wanted to update. I'm sorry I can't be as accomplished a writer as you are, I'm not perfect and I'm trying to balance everything that's going on in my life.
As for the other part, I know House of Hades hasn't come out but there are plenty of people writing FanFiction about what they think will happen after that. I think it's a site where I can use my own imagination and write what I want. How do you know that they won't be friends? If you don't like it, you're under no compulsion to read it. I honestly do value your advice but I have an artistic license.
I don't mean any of this as an offense to you, just letting you know how I feel.
To my other reviewers, make sure you leave more for this chapter!
Annabeth jerked up in bed. After years of training herself and honing her senses to detect even the slightest thing gone wrong, it didn't take much to wake her up. She waited silently as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The swell of panic in her chest had loosened a little when the metal of her trusty Celestial Bronze knife met her fingers. She groped around in the darkness, trying to feel if Percy was there. You could trust him to sleep through even the worst earthquake.
Her fingers met empty nothingness. The blankets were mussed up, half trailing down, as if he'd been dragged from bed. Cold fear gripped her heart. What could've happened to him? She slowly got up, making sure not to make any sudden, jerky movements. Her feet touched the ground and she quickly gathered her hair into a ponytail, sent a quick prayer to her mother, and opened the door.
As she slipped downstairs, she smelled something burning in the kitchen. Her faced relaxed; she knew what was happening. It had happened plenty of times before. She pushed open the door of the room and surveyed the scene before her. Anastasia was standing on a stool and trying to salvage the burnt scrap which Annabeth suspected used to be pancakes. Theseus was leaning over the table, putting out the plates and cutlery, while Percy juggled glasses which she knew he was trying to save from death-by-smashing.
Stifling her laughter, she walked over and took the glasses from Percy and put them in their places, then pulled the pan of the stove and scraped the charred mess into the 'cooking-disasters' (which seemed to be quite a lot in this home) bin she kept for this special purpose. She pulled her six-year old off the stool and set her down on a seat in front of the table, Percy doing the same with Theseus.
She then pulled on her apron and mixed more blueberry-pancake batter (the kids had inherited more than Percy's features, they had his love of blue food as well), flipping pancakes on the stove and piling them on the platter which she placed in the middle of the table along with syrup and jam.
"Seaweed Brain, eggs for you?" she asked, pulling out a carton of eggs from the fridge. He nodded while tying his tie and stuffing his face with his wife's pancakes. She shook her head and added tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, spinach and cheese to the omelets. Once they were done, she put toast on two plates and placed them on the table, sitting down with a sigh and digging in. She occasionally stopped in between to wipe syrup of Theseus' face ("Just like your father, he's an extremely messy eater.") or make sure Anastasia didn't spill her milk on her school skirt.
Come to think of it, how did they get ready on time for school of all things? Annabeth's eyes narrowed in suspicion and she looked at Percy accusingly, who gave her a clueless look. She let out another sigh and went back to her food, her eyes looking out for another sign that something was going on. She caught a look exchanged between Anastasia and Percy and smirked. Score.
She cleared her throat. "Hey Thessy," she began, knowing that her son wouldn't be able to keep a secret, "do you have something special planned for today?" His eyes lit up and he gulped down some orange juice before opening his mouth to answer when his sister clamped a hand over his mouth. "Nothing mom! Daddy, we should be going now, right?" Percy grinned and said, "Absolutely sweetie, let me just get my case." Percy worked as a marine biologist while the kids attended school and taught sword-fighting, canoeing and Pegasus-riding while at Camp.
He entered the kitchen again with his case in hand and hugged Annabeth. "What's going on, Seaweed Brain?" He grinned again and shook his head, "Nothing Wise Girl, you relax, alright? Have a nice day at work." Annabeth sighed. He'd sure gotten better at avoiding questions and skipping around discussions since they first met.
She waved bye as Percy helped the kids into the backseat of the car and drove off. She went in and began getting ready for work, wondering what was going on.
Annabeth sighed in relief as she kicked off her heels and felt the soft carpet run between her toes, easing her stress. She padded through the hall and into the living room. It was dark, as if no one was there. Her danger alert went up. Twice in one day? Something fishy was going on. She tiptoed over to the light switches when she heard a shuffle. Drawing her knife, she switched on the lights and leapt over to whatever was making the noise, pressing the blade against its throat.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Percy yelled. "Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me…" he trailed off with his eyes squeezed shut. Annabeth drew a sigh of relief and sheathed her dagger. "What the Hades Percy?" Thunder rumbled and she yelled sorry. Then she turned back to her troublemaker of a husband. "What- what stunt were you trying to pull?"
He straightened up and gulped, then pointed behind her where their friends were trying to unsuccessfully stifle their laughter. "What's so funny?" she demanded and Nico gave up trying to hold back his laughter, holding onto Thalia (who wasn't much better) for support. "P-Percy's f-face when you ha-had that d-dagger to his neck, hahahahahahahahahaha!" He began laughing uncontrollably.
Jason, Reyna, Frank and Hazel were disguising their laughs as coughs; Leo, Nico and Thalia were rolling on the floor and Piper gave a very unladylike snort, Evangeline giggling at her mommy's behavior.
Anastasia and Theseus jumped out from behind the couch and shouted, "Happy Birthday Mom!" Annabeth gasped; she'd been so pre-occupied with looking for monsters under her bed (literally, you never knew with a demigod) and work, that she'd forgotten her own birthday. Trust a child of Athena to do exactly that.
As Leo pumped up the music, Percy mixed drinks and Frank set out pizza and sandwiches, Annabeth wandered over to her girlfriends. "Hey! How are you guys?"
"Drew's the same bitch as ever. Grace has finally stopped punching annoying boys at her playschool," Piper rolled her eyes. "Things are good at Camp, Annabeth. Cabin Ten has finally got the hang of throwing spears, thank the Gods," Reyna sighed exasperatedly. Thalia snickered, "Nico was chased by Mrs. O' Leary all over Camp because he wouldn't let her tear apart the dummies. I now have an excellent blackmail video!"
Hazel took a deep breath and squealed. "I have some really exciting news! Frank and I had a talk a few weeks back; about- about children. We found that we both wanted to have kids. We- we tried for a baby and-" Thalia rudely interrupted, "Ooh! How was it, good?" Annabeth glared at her and Piper rolled her eyes, Hazel just blushed deeply. "What? It's a valid question," said Thalia defensively. Annabeth sent her another glare and said, "Continue Hazel."
"As I was saying, we tried for a baby," she blushed and Thalia waggled her eyebrows, "and I took the test yesterday. It-it came out positive!"
"Gods, Hazel, congratulations! This is amazing! Does Frank know yet?" Piper said excitedly. She was a daughter of Aphrodite, no matter how much she denied it. Hazel nodded. "He does!" Just as Annabeth was about to say something, Percy came over. "Hey girls, it's time to cut the cake. Come on here."
Percy brought them over to the table in the center on which was a box. He grinned and opened it to reveal a beautiful cake. Annabeth gasped. It was a red, heart-shaped cake, with sugar roses and tulips adorning it. "This is amazing guys, thank you!" she said in a heartfelt manner. Jason handed her a knife and she cut in, as everybody burst out in a demi-god rendition of Happy Birthday.
"Congratulations Annabeth,
Congratulations Annabeth,
Congratulations, our friend so dear,
on making it through another year!"
She blew out her candles and gave a bite to Percy and the kids. "Time for presents!" sang Anastasia. Presents came out from behind the backs of their friends and her children. A pad for her to design in, an order for a designing table, a new sheath for her dagger, handmade cards from the kids, a new armor set from Leo, a spear (Reyna could only hope) and various other things she loved.
"It's time for mine now!" Percy grinned happily. He held up a picnic basket and said, "Come on Wise Girl." He pulled her towards the car and helped her in. They drove off to the sight of everybody waving. Annabeth was confused. What's going on? The party'd just gotten started. Who'll take care of the kids?
As if reading her mind, Percy said, "Don't worry; Piper's staying back with Evangeline to take care of Annie and Thessy." Annabeth nodded her head and sat back as Percy tied a blindfold over her eyes and gave her earplugs to put in her ears. "It has to be a secret," he had whispered into her ear, sending shivers down her spine.
She sat in silence, listening to her husband's steady breathing as he drove. It must have been a while before he stopped, she didn't keep track of time. She heard the click of the car door opening. Percy grabbed a few things and came around to her side to find her waiting, leaning against the car door. "Always the independent one, eh?"
She just smirked and motioned to him to lead the way. He took her and led her along the path. They finally came to a stop somewhere and Percy told her to stay there, walking away, presumably to set up something. He finally tugged off the blindfold and pulled out the plugs. Annabeth blinked and looked at the scene, and smiled widely. They were at a secluded part of the beach, the sand shining in the moonlight and the ocean looking leagues deep.
Percy waited for her reaction. Annabeth just pulled him close and gave him a long, lingering kiss. She pulled away to see a goofy grin on his face and let out a loud snort. Once a Seaweed Brain, always a Seaweed Brain.
He turned her face downwards and she gasped. A little picnic had been set up for them. A large blanket covered the snow, fresh sandwiches, a dish of pasta, a flask of coffee and in a freezer basket, she could see ice-cream. "You did this for me?" she whispered happily. "Only you Wise Girl."
They plopped down and Percy set up two plates with the food, pouring coffee in two mugs. He packed the rest in and cuddled up to his wife, then hungrily dug in. They ate silently for a while, enjoying the sound of the ocean, the breeze and the way the moonlight brought out each other's features. Percy'd just brought out the two ice-cream sundaes when they heard a roar.
They whipped their heads back to see the Minotaur charging towards them. Percy dropped the dessert and drew Riptide.
"Ready, Mrs. Jackson?"
"Forever and always, Mr. Jackson."
A/N: Crap chapter, I know. I just wanted to write this out and I hope it was better than the previous few ones. Also, I want to let you guys know that I got two VERY rude, cussing reviews to Daughter of Hera, one saying that I was a fucking bitch because I killed off everyone in the story, which could've been perfect but wasn't because of this. The other said that it was a horrible, stupid story because earlier on Annabeth said that Percy was her boyfriend.
My responses to these are:
1) Fuck you man. I don't give a damn what you think. I said in the beginning that no hate reviews and if written, I won't care. I don't, alright? You can call me a bitch but it's my fucking story and I can do whatever the hell I want. So back off.
2) I said that Annabeth died, alright? She died in Tartarus. I know the HOH hasn't come out yet but I'll do what I want. It's my wish. As for the stupid, horrible thing, yeah, the 10,000 people who read it didn't think so, because not once did I get a review saying that they didn't like a twist. Yes, some people did say they were unexpected, but that's why they are twists. You can say what you want, I don't care. I want my OC with Percy and that's what I'll do.
To my other reviewers, let me know if you ever feel this way, alright? I'll try and change whatever I can. I am writing for you all, after all.
Rock on!
Jay