Questions
Part 2

by Goldfish945

"Where were you?" asked Annabeth the moment Percy entered their apartment. Her tone was not accusing, simply casual, and she opened the New York Times and began to read, not even waiting for a response.

"I went to visit my dad," said Percy, opening the fridge and pulling out the carton of milk. He prepared himself a bowl of cereal, but found he couldn't actually eat it.

"Really?" said Annabeth, looking at him over her paper in surprise. "Any particular reason? Isn't he coming to your birthday party?"

"Yeah, he is," said Percy.

"So why did you go to see him?" Her brow furrowed in confusion and she put her paper down onto the table.

"I had to ask him a couple questions," said Percy, stirring his cereal nervously. "They couldn't wait."

"About what?"

"Stuff," mumbled Percy. He really hated this quality about himself. He became bumbling and nervous when it was something important that involved speaking rather than doing. Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Descriptive," she commented, picking up her paper again and disappearing behind it. Percy sighed. He had no idea why Annabeth read the newspaper so much. He could never read it. The dyslexia made it nearly impossible most of the time. And so Percy sat, staring at his cereal, trying to find the right words. In the silence, he heard the clock in the bedroom ticking closer and closer to the moment where both of them would have to go to work.

Finally, Annabeth lowered her paper again and headed into their room to change for work. As she walked back and forth in their room, clothes flying around in a frenzy, he found the courage. He stood very suddenly and his bowl of uneaten cereal spilled onto the table. No matter! He'd clean it up later, when Annabeth was his fiancee. He gulped.

"Are you gonna clean that up or stand there like an idiot?" asked Annabeth, sticking her head out of the door. She walked out of the room, pulling a navy blue polo over her head. Her work uniform was rather depressing. A pair of black slacks and the navy polo, plus a white tie. Annabeth was fixing the tie around her neck before Percy walked up to her and pulled her hands away from it.

"What -" she began, but Percy put a hand over her mouth.

"Don't say a word," he said. His hands were shaking. "Please just let me say this before I lose the nerve." He let go of her hands and mouth and stuffed his left hand into his pocket to retrieve the ring.

"Are you okay?" asked Annabeth, but Percy didn't respond, letting out a shuddering breath instead of words.

"Sh-shut up," said Percy, fumbling with the little black box. It slipped through his fingers and clattered to the floor, rolling across the room. He chased after it, hoping to the Gods that Annabeth hadn't seen what he'd dropped.

"Percy?" He snatched the box off the floor and looked up at Annabeth from on all fours.

"What?" His arms were shaking.

"Is everything okay? Are you okay?" Percy was fairly certain he'd never seen Annabeth look so concerned. It would've been funny if he hadn't been so terrified.

'Okay, Jackson,' he thought. 'This is it. There are only two possible answers: yes or no. Just grow a pair and say it.'

"Willyamuryme?" he slurred, holding out the box in his fist.

"What?" she said. Percy felt like he was going to throw up.

"Whu-Will you m-marry me, Annabeth?" He opened his fist and opened the small black box to reveal the silver ring his mother had given him with the very subtle hint of "in case you need it sometime in the very near future."

Annabeth just stared, her mouth hanging open, visibly shocked. "What?" she repeated.

"Please don't make me say it again," wheezed Percy, closing his eyes in mortification. 'Just say no and let me die.'

"Who said I was saying no?" exclaimed Annabeth.

"I said that out loud?" said Percy stupidly. "Wait, what?"

"Well, I'm not sure," said Annabeth slowly. "I… I think I need to think about it a little bit, Percy. It's a big deal." Percy froze.

Of course. There were two possibilities, yes or no, and of course Annabeth had found a third one: maybe. The air stopped in his throat, and he found that he couldn't quite speak.

"I'll let you know later," said Annabeth. "I'm, uh, late for work." She closed the box in his hand, kissed him quickly, and headed for the door.

"Oh-kay," he choked out just as the door shut. He stayed on the ground for another twenty minutes before slowly standing, taking a deep breath, and heading to his room to get ready for his own job.

"She said maybe?" Grover's eyes were round with surprise. "Are you serious?"

"I know," said Percy miserably. "It's the nice way of saying no."

"Oh, don't think that," said Grover immediately. "I'm sure she just needs to make sure she's ready for that step. She's right; marriage is a big deal."

"You'd know," commented Percy, glaring. Grover blushed beneath his beard.

"Look, just because Juniper can't get married doesn't mean I don't want to marry her. We may as well be. I mean, we've talked about it before."

"Yeah, and she basically said yes. Annabeth said maybe. If Thalia heard about this, she'd laugh her head off."

"Probably," agreed Grover. "But that's because Thalia has a Pleasure-At-Other-People's-Pain complex sometimes." Percy silently agreed, and Grover continued. "Don't worry, Percy. Even if Annabeth isn't ready to marry you yet, I know she does love you."

That, more than anything, got Percy through the day. When he reached home again, he stood outside the door for a solid thirty minutes. He reached for the knob several times, but he found he wasn't ready to face Annabeth yet. He glanced at his watch - seven-fifteen. If he didn't go in soon, Annabeth would get worried. He took a deep breath.

"One answer, two possibilities," he muttered to himself. He reached out his hand. It was inches from the knob before it turned and the door flew outward and smacked him in the nose.

"OW!"

"Oh, Percy! Thank the Gods!" Annabeth flung her arms around him. "You're forty-five minutes late! I was afraid that some monster had gotten a hold of you!"

"No, I'm fine," said Percy, hugging her back and checking his nose. It was bleeding. "I think you may have broken my nose, though."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry!" moaned Annabeth, reaching out and lightly touching his nose. "Is it broken?"

"No," said Percy. "It doesn't hurt when you touch it."

"Come in and I'll fix it," she said, dragging him in by the arm. She pushed him into a chair, pinched his nose with his own fingers, pulled his head back to stop the bleeding, and hurried into the kitchen to get tissues and ice. "I'm so sorry, Percy," she repeated over and over again.

"It's not that big a deal," said Percy nasally. Annabeth moved his hand and put the ice against his nose.

"Well, I'm sorry anyway," she said, wiping the blood off Percy's face. "Why were you so late?"

"I wasn't," admitted Percy. "I was outside the door."

"Why didn't you come in?" shouted Annabeth. Percy snorted, and blood trickled out of his nose and Annabeth just mumbled, "gross."

"Annabeth," said Percy flatly, "I proposed to you this morning and you said maybe. It took Grover hours to convince me that you hadn't actually just said 'no' underneath it. Do you think I wanted to just come home and hang out?"

"That's it?" asked Annabeth, annoyed.

"Isn't that enough?" Annabeth scoffed at him, walking away and leaving Percy to accommodate his bloody nose alone.

Percy sighed, checked his nose gingerly with his fingers, and found that it had stopped bleeding. He sniffed and wiped his nose. He went into the bathroom and checked his nose. Afterwards, he stood in the bathroom for an extra few minutes before taking a deep breath and heading back into the living room.

The thing about fighting with Annabeth about anything was that Percy never won. Annabeth's responses were always stumpers; it came from being the child of Athena - Annabeth always knew the right thing to say, whether it was in an argument or to comfort someone. He steeled himself to lose another argument and headed into the living room.

Annabeth was waiting for him. Her arms were folded across her chest and her face was set into a glare. And - for some reason - she was wearing a red dress. It fell to her knees and swirled around her legs easily.

"Well?" she prompted. Percy just shrugged.

"Are you going to answer?" he asked dully.

"Are you going to ask me again?" Percy looked at her, confused.

"Huh?"

Annabeth practically growled. "Look, Percy, you asked me while I was wearing my work uniform. I mean, yeah, marriage is a big step and whatever, but we've been together for nine years. I just wanted to look nice when you asked, okay! So ask me again!" Percy gaped at her, his jaw aimed at the floor.

And then he laughed.

"Are you - gasp - serious?" he said. "That's - gasp - stupid!"

"It is not," said Annabeth through gritted teeth. Percy rolled his eyes, but fell to one knee and pulled the black box from his pocket smoothly.

"Annabeth," he said, grinning, "even though you feel the bizarre need to be well-dressed at moments that are supposed to be a surprise, I love you. Will you marry me?"

"No," she said, Percy's eyes bugged. But Annabeth just laughed. "Just kidding! Of course I will, Percy!"

"You," he said, standing up and taking her in his arms, "suck." She grinned at him.

"You need more excitement in your life," she said, raising an eyebrow sarcastically. He chuckled - they'd fought the Minotaur not too long ago. Life was always exciting for a demigod.

"So the final answer?"

"Is yes," conceded Annabeth, leaning her forehead against Percy's.

"You know, I asked one person to marry me, and I got three answers," observed Percy. "Maybe, no, and yes."

"You'll laugh about it in ten years, " promised Annabeth.

"I better," said Percy. "Otherwise there will be a problem!" Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Will you please just shut up? We're getting married."

"Ah, yes, you're already telling me to shut up. This is gonna be gr -" But Annabeth cut him off silencing him with her own lips.

"Shut up," she growled. And Percy complied, kissing her back with equal fervor.

As girly as it was, Percy's heart was pounding with joy. His legs felt like jelly with relief. He just wanted to hug Annabeth as close as he possibly could and never let her go; thankfully, Annabeth seemed to have the same thing in mind, as her hands were gripping his black hair a little too hard, but he didn't care.

"Love you," he muttered between kisses.

"Shut up," she repeated. "I love you, too."

fin

A/N: And, complete. lol, oh Annabeth. I hope people enjoyed.

~Kate