A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!
Annabeth headed towards her new company's location. It was different than where it had been in her past life since Percy had offered her the free use of a floor in his trading company building. Annabeth accepted easily, since the building was in a good area of the city, and she didn't need to pay rent. In truth, the Stoll brothers, having overhead Percy's offer to Annabeth, shook their heads for the naivety of their future Mistress, since it was obviously their master's ploy to have his future wife work closer to him.
The future wife in question had no idea what the truth was and was currently inspecting the books she had personally placed in her bookcases. Her employees offered to help, but Annabeth brushed them off, saying that she wanted to do it herself. She felt absolutely giddy about having her own office space, and it was happening one and a half years earlier than it did before. Her company would be up and running by the time the Imperial family would call for city planning and architecture companies to redesign the city. Then, she would absolutely crush Luke Castellan's attempts at business!
"You'll stress out your staff if you keep doing things like this."
Annabeth startled at the voice behind her and hit her head on the table she was currently underneath.
"Ow!"
"Are you all right?"
Percy helped her get up from under the table. Through the throbbing pain on her head, Annabeth could see Percy was struggling not to laugh.
"It's not every day one gets to see my future wife on the ground with her butt in the air. What were you doing underneath the desk?" Percy asked.
He gently inspected her head for any bumps. Annabeth was beginning to be not as startled every time he was close to her, though her heart did flutter a little. She couldn't help but take a nice whiff of his natural scent. She would never get over that ocean breeze scent.
"Ah, I dropped my pen down there."
Percy carefully rubbed the small bump on her head. "Have one of the assistants do it."
"It's fine, I have two hands that work quite well."
"Independent, are you?"
"Yes, but you already knew that, didn't you?"
"True." Percy plucked a piece of white thread from her hair. "Did you go try on your wedding dresses today?"
"I tried just one. I didn't know you designed a dress for me." Annabeth smiled up at him. "Thank you, I really liked that one, so I'm planning to wear just that dress on our wedding."
"I'm flattered that you picked my dress out of all of Madam Drew's dresses."
Annabeth could tell that he was pleased. How adorable, she thought.
Percy bent lower so he could whisper into her ear. "But I also look forward to seeing you out of that dress on the wedding night."
She took back her statement of being adorable. All of her past memories of Percy had been of him being a gentleman, a worthy adversary in battle, and a crucial partner in business. Was the flirty Percy in front of her truly who he was towards his wife? A small voice in the back of her head wondered, had he ever been like this with Rachel? There was just a tiny inkling of jealousy Annabeth wasn't willing to admit.
"You're so quiet all of a sudden. Cat got your tongue?" Percy teased again.
This punk! Annabeth sighed inwardly. Hadn't he learned anything from her personality that time the aphrodisiac had affected her? He seemed to have gotten even bolder since that night. She hated backing down from challenges, so it seemed like it was time for her to teach Percy a lesson. Besides, technically she had three more years of experience than Percy from her previous life, so shouldn't she be the one making him flustered?
Annabeth tiptoed up and swung her arms around his neck.
"Well, I was picturing what it would be like on our wedding night," she whispered.
Unfortunately, her words didn't have the effect on Percy that she wanted. He only wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.
"You're always welcome to visit my bedroom before then if you're that eager to find out."
Incorrigible bastard! In her mind, she was beating him up.
"You're no fun at all," she complained.
Couldn't he at least give her the slightest bit of reaction that she wanted or even try to play along?
"Really? I thought I should say the same to you."
They were pressed against each other now. Annabeth recalled back to that night when Percy had hovered over her on the bed, lips over hers and a sneaking hand that left tingles as it skimmed her waist. She had been so willing to let him in her bed with her body so heated up from the aphrodisiac. Now Percy's arms were dangerously low around her waist. His smirk dared her to do more.
Oh screw it, Annabeth thought. It wasn't wrong to be physically attracted to one's future husband. She would give it to him as a reward for finding such a good place for the start of her company.
And so it was Annabeth who took the first step to lightly brush her lips against his. She leaned back to smirk at Percy's expression, only to find it unreadable. She couldn't help but pout a little. Was he not affected in any way?
She was about to give up the lost cause when he bent down to recapture her lips. The kiss was softer but no less determined than when he had kissed her that heated night. Percy's hands stayed obediently on her waist as he slowly explored each curve and crevice of her lips.
Annabeth found his grip on her light enough that she could easily break away if she wanted to. But strangely enough, she didn't want to. She merely tilted her head and let their lips interlock better for a proper kiss. Then she felt a warm tongue swipe across her bottom lip, causing her to shiver. Was a mere kiss supposed to make her feel this affected?
Percy was a better kisser than she had previously thought. Luke's kisses had felt overbearing and perhaps even...bland? Then Percy kissed her harder and all thoughts of her previous husband flew out the window. It would be rude of her to keep thinking of that bastard while a handsome man was currently holding her in his arms.
The sound of voices in the hallway brought Annabeth back to reality. They were at the company, and she couldn't risk setting up a bad image in front of her employees on the first day.
Releasing Percy before any more naughty thoughts appeared, Annabeth began to rummage through the files on her desk, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks. Percy merely hummed, sitting on the edge of her desk and just observing her organize her things. If people hadn't walked outside in the hallway, who knew how far they would go?
Annabeth could feel the heat from Percy's gaze and tried to broach a subject of conversation to distract herself from their previous kissing session.
"Oh, that's right."
Annabeth relayed what had happened with Luke and Kelli earlier. As expected, Percy didn't look surprised since she surmised that he already knew it from his intelligence gathering. But Annabeth was curious for more information. After all, such a thing had not happened before in her previous life, unless it happened after she died.
"What do you think? Do you think the aristocratic faction is planning on supporting Princess Medea as Prince Jason's bride?" Annabeth asked.
"No doubt that that's their plan." Percy confirmed. "But it's still too early to say. Two of the princesses have only just started the bridal training."
Annabeth reached into her memories. There was another princess candidate who had gone missing and was perhaps disqualified in the end. Due to Luke's influence (and manipulation, now that she realized), Annabeth hadn't been too involved in politics. Luke was in the aristocratic faction while the Chase family supported the imperial faction, so Annabeth remained neutral throughout her marriage. But she did recall there was a scandal involving the third missing princess around this time. But what scandal was it again?
"By the way, the last hunting competition of the year is this weekend." Percy reminded her. "Are you going to give me a token?"
"You want a token from me? But you already took my handkerchief from last time when I dropped it."
"Hmm, but I want one that my fiancee has personally made for me."
Annabeth bit her lip. Tokens were usually handkerchiefs embroidered by one's lover. She didn't hate embroidery but it also wasn't her favorite thing to do. Moreover, what should she embroider?
Percy just smiled, watching her thoughts show themselves on her face.
Thalia crumpled up the report she had in her hand before tossing it into the fire. The report had contained details of Medea's developing connections with the head of the White Knight Order and one of the daughters of the Chase family.
Thalia ended up walking over to the game of chess she and Jason had left unfinished yesterday.
How bothersome, she thought as she looked at the chess pieces. She had a suspicion that the aristocratic faction was planning to partner up with Princess Medea in order to install Prince Jason onto the throne. Should they succeed, they would have political power from the court, foreign support from the Colchis nation, and military power from the White Knights Order. They could easily take over the throne.
Though the Cuora nation would benefit from having an alliance with the Colchis nation, there were other ways than a marriage alliance. Plus, the Colchis princess gave Thalia pause for consideration. Thalia could just sense the danger the Cuora nation would end up if Jason took Medea as his bride.
Thalia picked up the black rook and twirled it mindlessly in her fingers as she considered the other candidates. The princess of Inferis nation was sweet and intelligent, and her country was insanely rich with its ores of gold and jewels. The Inferis Princess was a match for Medea in terms of beauty, wealth, education, except for in one area: age.
Pity Princess Hazel was only thirteen, a full decade younger than Jason. Her elder sister, Bianca, had tragically passed away in an accident, leaving Hazel to substitute as the candidate. Naturally, if Hazel was chosen, the wedding date would be set after Hazel's coming-of-age ceremony.
But though Jason treated Hazel well, anybody could see Hazel was like a younger sister to him. No wonder society gossiped that the Colchis princess was going to be confirmed as the bride and Jason's main wife. After all, how could a child compare to a mature woman?
The black rook was set down and Thalia picked up the bishop instead. The third princess was rumored to be famous in the Cythera nation for her insane beauty, an unsurprising fact since her mother, Queen Aphrodite of Cythera, surpassed all women and men in all many countries in beauty. Cythera was also quite wealthy, known for blacksmithing and luxurious beauty products. Princess Silena would have been the perfect bride since Thalia's intelligence networks had gathered info that the Cytheran princess was not manipulative nor pulled schemes. But the princess was missing, and all letters sent to the Cythera Kingdom went unanswered.
Thalia felt the letters were being intercepted, but it wasn't like they could send an envoy personally to Cythera to check without going through so many regulations. Cythera was a two week horse-ride journey away. Thalia's intelligence network informed her that the princess had lost contact once she crossed the Cuora border. Should the Cythera nation ever find out, they could take the chance to instigate a war since it was on Cuora land.
So where in the hell was the third candidate? Thalia feared that she was already dead.