A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Caput III: To Transcend Honor

"We speak of virtue, honor, reason; but our thought does not translate any one of these concepts into a substance." -Wilhelm Wundt

Caput III: To Transcend Honor

OKAY, so maybe she was scared to death about the consummation of marriage. Maybe she was worried about not being good enough.

Annabeth walked with her hair loose and barefooted to the chambers which she would share, yes, share, with Perseus. As if Rómi wasn't strange enough. There was this tradition where the husband and wife would share their chambers. Unlike back in Athens, where there would be two chambers joined and then the husband would . . .

Stop thinking about it. It'll be over sooner that way.

She stared at the door toward Perseus' chambers and raised her hand, Piper's instructions as she got her ready ringing through her head. Annabeth had always wondered why she wasn't a hunter with the way she talked about stuff like that. Now, Annabeth wished she were a hunter of Artemis right now—at least she would be safe from all this.

Of course, she would probably end up regretting that she had joined eventually.

Annabeth shook her head and placed her hand on the doorknob. She would be brave; she would be strong. She turned the doorknob, preparing for the sight of him lounging on his bed like he was—

His chambers were a pigsty.

Annabeth felt her eyebrow twitch as she took in the empty chambers. It looked like a hurricane had hit them. Dirty clothes were strewn all over, and apple cores littered the ground. The bed wasn't even made!

"How in Hades does someone live in this?" Annabeth found herself a little awed despite herself as she carefully stepped inside of it. The door closed behind her with a loud bang and she cringed. That was an omen if she ever saw one, but she didn't know if it was a good one or bad.

Carefully, she lifted the skirts of her nightdress and stood on her tippy-toes, trying to avoid stepping on the ground as much as possible. She leaned down and picked the core to a fruit (it certainly wasn't an apple) and gagged as she held it as far away from her face as she could.

If she was going to live here, it was going to be at least sanitary.

______________________________

Annabeth nodded to herself in satisfaction a little while later, sitting on the made-up bed. She had cleaned it up as best as she could, even if there was a stain in the rug that looked like honey.

She had been pleasantly surprised with her new living space (don't think it's perseus' don't think don't). It actually was a nice chamber: fairly spacious, with a daybed, a wardrobe, tables on the ends of the beds and a chest at the bottom of it. There was another door that opened to a living area, with a table and three seats, and another door opened into a office with a fireplace. There was also a balcony to see the streets of Rómi, though that would be more useful during the daytime.

She had ended up kicking Perseus' clothes to the side of the room and throwing the fruit cores in something that looked like a bowl, but thinner and taller. The walls of the chamber were the color of the sea, while the ceiling was a simple white. The covers on the bed were a design similar to the laurel crown she wore, except they were green and silver along with gold-colored trimming that reminded her of the crown. The wardrobe, too, had gold for its trim, but the wood was red. The end tables were made out of redwood, too, and there was gold for the trimmings, along with the couch.

Perseus seemed to like red and gold, but Annabeth had to admit she liked the blue more. Something about the color was calming; perhaps that was why he chose it.