A/N: Shorty little guy for you to wrap up some loose ends. I really can't believe I'm done with this story. I actually wrote the first version on this fic fifteen-ish years ago and only made it a few chapters before giving up. It still lurks somewhere here under a different username, but it's meant a lot to me to get to rework this story as someone who takes my writing seriously now. Super grateful that I was able to come back to this fandom after all that time too.

Epilogue to follow.

Annabeth

I'd been to parties like this a hundred times, and this party was not the biggest, fanciest, or best executed. Despite all that, it was easily one of the best party I'd ever been to.

Percy and I never really got to do this before. Most of our time together had been overshadowed by something else. In high school, there were wars, far too many hormones, and constantly just trying to make it through the day. In college, we were still kids, still broke, and just struggling to figure out what life was going to be like. We went to parties that took place in somebody's dark basement, and drank stale beer from a bucket.

Now, we danced, drank good drinks, mingled, and most importantly, got to be together without any impending doom. At the end of the night, we got to go home and be normal. We'd had glimpses of that in college, but we both thought we had the rest of our lives ahead of us at the time. Now we finally did. I could live my real life again, the version I'd been missing out on for so long, and I was looking forward to figuring out how to knit it together with the good parts of my new life.

"What are you thinking about?" Percy asked, squeezing my shoulder with the arm he had draped around me.

"You," I let a big smile spread across my face, warmed slightly by the alcohol but mostly by being with him again.

He smiled too, and leaned down and kissed me. I couldn't believe that this was real and he was here, and that we were finally together again. By the look on his face he was thinking the same thing.

"Annabeth!" Someone called as we broke apart, and I looked up to see Marshall the librarian and his husband coming toward us.

"Marshall, Clark, hi!" I said as I broke away from Percy to greet my friends.

"Is this your new man?" Marshall asked, and I took Percy's hand.

"Not new, exactly, but yes. This is Percy."

"What an interesting answer," he said, eyes lighting up at the potential gossip trail. The guys shook hands, and Marshall continued. "I heard you and Grayson broke up, you know we never liked him. You should have left him ages ago."

"I—What? What do you mean you never liked him?" I stammered.

"He always acted like he was better than everyone, but we knew," Clark said.

My cheeks burned red with embarrassment as I asked them why they hadn't said anything sooner. Kennedy and Elliot I understood, we were all friends, but had it really been that bad that everyone else saw it, too?

"You try telling the Annabeth Chase what to do. It's an impossible task," Marshall laughed, and I felt Percy stifle a laugh at my side, too. I couldn't help but grin. It wasn't one of my best qualities, but he wasn't wrong. I gave Percy a playful smack on the chest.

"Isn't that your cousin over there, sneaking alcohol?" Marshall asked, pointing behind me.

"My cousin?" I asked, turning around. He was pointing to Cara, who had seemingly just smuggled two glasses of champagne away from the bar. That's right, they met at the library the day of the leucrocotta attack.

"Excuse me," Percy said, making a beeline for Cara and Phillip who stood together. They appeared to be toasting to a successful quest or a successful alcohol theft, I wasn't sure which.

"Absolutely not," Percy plucked the champagne out of their hands and set the glasses on a nearby bus tray. "Neither of you are 21, nice try."

Both of them looked a little shocked that Percy had reprimanded them, and I was too, thinking he would just let it go after the night we'd had. But then, he clapped a hand on each of their shoulders and leaned in to whisper something.

"You're going to have to be sneakier than that if you want to get away with it next time."

Smiles blossomed on the kids' faces, and Percy walked away, smiling too. Cara and Phillip laughed, grabbed the champagne from the bus tray, and took off toward the stairwell hand in hand.

"Are you going to go after them?" I asked as I motioned my head toward their disappearing figures.

"No," Percy admitted, still smiling. "They're good kids, they deserve a little break every once in a while."

I let out a laugh now too as Percy took my hand again, following Marshall and Clark to the dance floor. "Okay, Mr. Jackson," I joked, and he wrinkled his nose.

"I like Seaweed Brain better, but I'll deny that if anyone asks."

"I like it better too," I laughed.

/\

As we neared the end of the night, Percy disappeared with Phillip and Cara to send an Iris message to camp. The kids were going to return with Apate and Dolus' trapped souls, and Chiron would help them figure out what to do next. Percy was staying in the city for the weekend, because we had a date later.

I stayed in the main room as the party wrapped up, and people were starting to trickle out. Someone grabbed my arm, and I turned my head as my best friend locked elbows with me.

"So I've been hearing the rumors," she started, "but I want you to tell me for yourself. Are you and Percy back together?"

"Yes," I answered without pause. "I'm sorry things didn't work out with Grayson, I hope it doesn't make things complicated."

Kennedy looked slightly disgusted at my answer, and I hoped it wasn't a reaction to admitting that Percy and I were back together.

"Why would you apologize to me about that?"

"I don't know, I…" I thought back to Marshall's comment from earlier. "Can I ask you something? Did you think Grayson and I were good together? Like really, deep down?"

She sighed, and her shoulders slumped a bit.

"I thought he was what you wanted. At first, I was thrilled. He was Elliot's friend, and you were my friend, and it all seemed so perfect. Plus, your breakup with Percy did a number on you, and I really thought you needed to get back out there, because you are so amazing and I was worried you were going to hide yourself away forever. I think I could see by the end that you were outgrowing him, though. I wanted to be there for you, whatever decision you made."

I chewed on my lip, still unsettled about something that I couldn't place.

"Annabeth, are you happy?" Kennedy asked.

"Yes," I answered without pause again.

Her face softened at my reply. "Then I'm happy. I am, however, expecting full details on how this happened soon, but if you're happy, I'm happy. You deserve it, and nothing is going to change."

She squeezed my arm, and the last little bit of tension in my chest dissipated.

"Love you," I said, squeezing her arm back.

"Love you too, always."

/\

The night eventually slowed to a stop. The music quieted, everyone went home, and I was left tipping out the vendors and getting everything straightened up.

Percy went upstairs to make sure Phillip and Cara got off to camp okay. The pegasi had been waiting on the roof the whole time, as a reminder that the mythical is always lurking just out of sight, even when you don't think so.

The party ended up being a good time, but I wasn't in a hurry to come back to this building any time soon. I wasn't sure if I could give it the true love and care that I gave the rest of my buildings, knowing what happened here. Maybe I could pass it off to one of my juniors, or maybe it was worth pushing through the uncomfortable feelings and reclaiming this place for myself.

I couldn't believe it was finally over. Ten years of strife, hurt feelings, and being without him. It wasn't fair, any of it, but there was nothing we could do at this point. We just had to move on together.

Would things be different between us now? There was no denying the gravitational pull was still there, it had been the only thing on my mind for the past month, but we were different people now than the last time we were together.

I felt Percy's arms snake around my waist from behind, and I let my worries melt away as my body melted into him.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, just thinking about what's next for us."

"We go home, enjoy our time together, and then figure it out from there," he said, not a trace of insecurity in his voice. His confidence made the last little bit of worry wash away completely.

"Do you think we're going to be okay?" I asked.

"I'm sure of it," he said, planting a kiss on my temple. "I heard what you said upstairs, by the way."

I wasn't sure what he meant, so I squirmed in his arms slightly so he could see the confused expression on my face.

"I love you, too," he said, "and that's how I know we're going to be okay."

The kiss that followed was the best one of the night. He'd been unconscious, and I hadn't expected him to hear me, but I was so glad he did.

"Ready to get out of here?" he asked with a tilt of his head toward the door. And we left, hand in hand, ready for a fresh start and to get our lives back on track.