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Music I listened to was I Want To Know What Love Is by Hunter Plake and Better With You by Kris Allen.
"So what does that mean?" Thalia said exasperatedly. "Are we gonna have to go on another quest and have no peace at all?"
"It might not happen for a while," Apollo comforted. "Maybe not even in your lifetime. I hope."
"Who do you think will go?" Percy asked him.
"God of prophecy, at your service. Let me see," he closed his eyes and concentrated, "The one who follows free is you, Percy. The one who follows bound will be, quite obviously, Luke. Those whose judgments are clouded are Thalia and Clarisse. The one whose judgment is sound is Annabeth."
"Just great," Thalia grumbled. "Just fricking great. My judgment isn't sound? What the hell does that even mean?!"
"And mine is," Annabeth said teasingly.
"Why does it have to be Clarisse?" Percy complained.
"Enough," Chiron interjected. "We will discuss what this prophecy means later. For now, let's deal with someone else."
He motioned toward the door. "I think it's safe now!" he called.
None other than May Castellan came out the door.
"Hi, kids!" she said brightly. "If I've met you before then I'm sorry but I don't remember much since I tried to receive the spirit of Delphi. You'll have to excuse me. I'm May."
Luke choked up and turned away. They could see his shoulders shaking. He took a long breath and then faced her. Tears were streaked across his face. He wiped them away quickly. Thalia looked over at him concerned, and then patted him on the back.
"It's ok," she whispered in his ear.
"I'm Percy, and this is Annabeth, and Thalia," Percy pointed to each in turn. "And ... Luke."
"Luke?"
"Hi, mom." he said shakily.
"You're all grown up!" she cried before crashing into him for a hug.
The closeness of a hug made him start to cry again until he was sobbing into her shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
"Everything's alright. Chiron explained it all and I understand. I shouldn't have tried to receive the Oracle. I should have left well enough alone and then you wouldn't have had to run away. I'm the one who should be sorry. I should have been a better mother. I love you, my beautiful boy."
"I entirely forgive you." he sniffled, regaining his composure. Then he noticed everyone was watching him awkwardly. He let go of her.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat. "Not a word, Thalia."
"Fine. I won't say anything about you going soft."
"But you just ... oh, never mind."
Thalia grinned. May looked at Luke and then over at Thalia and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," Thalia answered her unspoken question. She went over to Luke, grabbed his hand, and intertwined her fingers with his. Luke smiled.
"Ok, lovebirds. Knock it off already," Clarisse said from behind them. "Seriously. Between Thaluke and Percabeth I've had more lovey-dovey crap than I can stomach. If I'm going on a quest with you people you're gonna have to cut down on the romance. This is going to be awful."
"We didn't see you there," Thalia defended.
"Clearly."
"Wait, Thaluke? Percabeth? There are ship names for us?" Percy asked shocked.
"Yep. The Aphrodite cabin girls couldn't help themselves. Sorry but not sorry for breaking up the little party." And with that she marched off.
May shifted from foot to foot like Luke often did when he was nervous. Percy was beginning to see their similar habits. Eventually she spoke up.
"I suppose I'll go home now," she said, looking at Hermes. "I hope you'll be able to visit me?"
"I will, as long as Zeus allows me. I promise."
"And Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"Be careful. I love you, and I'll hopefully see you soon."
"Love you too, Mom. Bye." He waved awkwardly.
She beamed at him as Hermes whisked her away and Apollo left as well.
"C'mon, Luke. We've got some catching up to do," Thalia said wickedly.
"Definitely." And they practically skipped back to her empty cabin.
"They're not supposed to do that, but I suppose I'll make an exception," Chiron chuckled.
As the moon appeared, Percy went to sit at the Poseidon table and took a moment to himself while Annabeth left to study some more of Daedalus's laptop. He watched the moonlight glowing on the lake and sighed with contentment, glad to have a truly peaceful evening for the first time in a long time.
He could see Juniper and Grover at the beach, holding hands and talking. He closed his eyes for a bit, soaking in the moonlight. He opened them to see Annabeth making her way over to him.
"Hey." Annabeth slid next to him on the bench. She was holding a huge misshapen cupcake with blue icing. "This is for your birthday. I figured I should make you something. Make a wish."
"Did you bake this all by yourself?" Percy asked incredulously.
"Shut up, seaweed brain." She paused. "Alright, fine. Tyson helped."
"That explains why it looks like a chocolate brick," Percy laughed. "With extra blue cement."
Annabeth pretended to pout. "Whatever."
Percy thought for a second, and then blew out the candle.
"What did you wish for?"
"I can't tell you or it won't come true. I think you know anyway."
Annabeth smiled and cuddled up to him. "I love you."
"I love you too. No matter what happens with this new quest, I will never stop loving you."
Annabeth cut the cupcake in half and they shared it, eating with their fingers. Then they watched the ocean, listening to the crickets in comfortable silence.
"You saved the world," Annabeth said.
"We saved the world," Percy responded.
"And Rachel is the new Oracle, which means she won't be dating anybody."
"You don't sound too disappointed."
Annabeth shrugged. "Oh, I don't care."
"Uh-huh. You wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't."
Annabeth smirked. "You got something to say to me?"
"You'd probably kick my butt."
"You know I'd kick your butt."
Percy brushed the cake off his hands. "When I was at the River Styx, turning invulnerable, Nico told me to concentrate on the one thing that keeps me anchored to the world, that made me want to stay mortal."
Annabeth kept her eyes on the horizon. "Yeah?"
"Then up on Olympus," Percy continued. "When they wanted to make me a god and stuff, I kept thinking..."
"Oh, you so wanted to."
"Well, maybe a little. But I didn't because I thought ...I didn't want things to stay the same for eternity, because things could always get better. And I was thinking..." Percy's throat felt really dry.
"Anyone in particular?" Annabeth asked, her voice soft.
He looked over and saw that she was trying not to smile.
"You're laughing at me!" he complained.
"I am not!"
"You are so not making this easy."
Then she laughed for real and put her hands around his neck. "I am never, ever gonna make things easy for you, seaweed brain. Get used to it."
With that she kissed him, and he felt like his body was melting.
They could have stayed that way forever, until a voice behind them growled. "Well, it's about time."
Suddenly the pavilion was filled with torchlight and campers. Clarisse led the way as the Stoll brothers and the Aphrodite cabin charged and hoisted the both of them onto their shoulders.
Clarisse whispered to them, "This one time. There will be none of that during the quest."
"Oh, come on!" Percy complained. "Is there no privacy?"
"The lovebirds need to cool off!" Clarisse said with glee.
"The canoe lake!" Connor Stoll shouted.
With a huge cheer, the eavesdroppers carried them down the hill, but close enough to hold hands. Annabeth was laughing, and Percy couldn't help but laugh too, even though his face was completely red.
They held hands right up to the moment the group dumped the couple into the water.
"Per-ca-beth! Per-ca-beth!" the group chanted.
But Percy had the last laugh. He made an air bubble at the bottom of the lake. They didn't have to come up anytime soon, because when you're the son of Poseidon, you don't have to hurry.
And Percy and Annabeth had pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.
