The next morning, the newly engaged couple were unfortunately not woken up by birds chirping prettily, but instead by all of their friends bursting into the cabin, shouting. "Percy? Percy? Did you do it? Did you ask her?" The question bombarded them from all directions.
As Percy and Annabeth looked at their friends sleepily from the bed, they thanked every god they knew that they had decided to put clothes on before they fell asleep.
Percy rubbed his eyes and sat up, as their friends looked on in anticipation. Annabeth remained under the covers but stuck her left hand up in the air, the ring glittering on it beautifully in the morning light.
As soon as they saw it , their friends were started celebrating. They were jumping up and down, hugging each other and shouting as loud as they could. Leo was singing 'Love is in the air', and Jason pulled Percy from the bed to crush him in a hug, the same with Annabeth and Piper and Hazel.
While there had previously been no tradition for couples who got engaged at camp, one was quickly introduced. (Was this in preparation for the inevitable Percabeth proposal? 100% yes) The week before it had been decided that first, the newly engaged couple would be paraded around camp on the shoulders of their friends.
While this was happening, the Aphrodite cabin was in charge of releasing doves into the air every ten feet, and rose petals every twenty. The cabins of the campers were then charged with designing crowns for the engaged people to wear, or a cabin would offer in place of the cabin they were a part of.
Percy and Annabeth, following the new rules of the tradition, were quickly hoisted up onto their friends shoulders, disbelief laughs being pulled as they were immediately paraded around camp in their pyjamas.
Though their friends had busted in at ungodly hours of the morning, it seemed that most of the camp had known what was going to go down the night before and had woken up early in anticipation for the results. As a result, it had only been moments before the parade grew to a mob.
The Aphrodite cabin was very vigilant in their dove releasing and petal throwing, Piper made sure of it. (Everyone was fairly afraid of becoming victim to her charm speak should they mess it up, so that part of the plan was going perfectly).
The procession stopped for a moment in front of the Big House, and Chiron walked out, holding the two crowns in the air proudly. He looked like a proud father as he placed the crowns on their head, gold olive branches and tridents interweaving together.
Even Mr D had come out to watch, and he joined in the clapping as the procession continued to the Lake. This time around, Percy and Annabeth didn't even mind being thrown into the lake, especially when Percy made a giant 'Fuck you' float up as they suck to the bottom.
Their second underwater kiss was just as amazing as the first.
~~~
Breakfast was a much busier affair than usual, mainly due to the sheer amount of people who had visited camp for Percy's plan. Many people were also awake due to the new tradition, or to wait for the Hunters to arrive because they had friends in the hunt.
The Hunters ended up arriving midway through breakfast, and settled down in the Artemis cabin before going to join other campers at breakfast. Annabeth barely had time to stand up before Thalia was barreling into her, the both of them going down as Thalia shouted her celebrations.
After admiring the ring for a few moments, Thalia jumped up and spun around to face Percy, threatening with a knife seemingly pulled from nowhere.
"I've said this before, and I will say it again, but if you hurt her...," Thalia trailed off, angling the knife down slightly. Percy gulped and nodded, the message perfectly understood.
Thalia then pulled Percy into a hug and congratulated him excitedly, leaving him with whiplash from the drastic changes in attitude. The hunters then settled themselves into breakfast, Artemis coming up to the couple to give her own well wishes, shocking the couple slightly.
After breakfast, the day went on as a normal camp day would, campers completing their daily tasks to help out, the older and more experienced campers holding lessons for various things.
The only difference was an Archery class taught by Artemis and a few of her Hunters, something which many people had decided to join. Percy could not say he was one of those people, and Thalia happily retold anyone who asked the tale of Percy attempting to use a bow.
Later in the day the large group of friends were hanging out in the training arena, having a small unofficial tournament against each other. It wasn't very serious, mostly just training as they had to stop every few minutes when someone came up to congratulate Percy and Annabeth.
Eventually Thalia brought up the good question of when the wedding was going to be, and if she had to join in the planning because if she had to, she would fatally impale herself on a knife.
("But Thalia, aren't you immortal unless killed in battle?"
"Not the point, Seaweed Brain,")
Annabeth quickly disarmed Piper then turned to Thalia, smiling. "Don't worry Thals, no planning will be required of you," She returned Piper's weapon and turned to her next partner. "We can't do it in Camp though, because we were going to invite some of our mortal friends,"
Percy shrugged, "Honestly that's fine with me, I had always imagined a beach wedding anyways, so anywhere near the ocean is fine with me,"
Everyone scoffed, "Of course you did, Aqua Man," Jason said, ducking just in time as Percy threw a blunt training dagger at him. "Asshole,"
"To be fair, I think a beach wedding is a great idea," Piper announced, helping her boyfriend up from the floor.
Percy pointed at her, "See? Thank you, Piper for agreeing with me,"
Hazel rolled her eyes "Well, do be fair, the ocean is nicer than some random venue, if you can't do camp because of your mortal friends,"
Frank nodded in agreement, "Do you guys already know where you want it to be?"
Percy and Annabeth shared a look, having already talked about this some months before in a sort of 'if we were to get married, how would we do it' talk. They had decided on the beach in Montauk, especially as it was important to the both of them now.
"We've already decided, but we'll look into it more to make sure we can actually do that," Annabeth said. "But we also probably won't be doing this for a while, we need to wait for the weather to warm up first,"
Everyone tilted their heads up to observe the sky. The weather in Camp was always nice - in the winter slightly warmer than outside camp borders and in the summer it was cooler. But it was definitely getting colder, and the time for a beach wedding had just passed.
"Well, to be fair, there's no rush, is there?" Thalia observed. Everyone nodded in agreement.
Annabeth smirked as she remembered something, and Thalia paled slightly. "Thalia, you may not be planning anything, but you are going to have to come wedding dress shopping with me,"
Thalia cringed and started whining her protests, "Noo, Annie! I wanted to go with Percy to pick out tuxes so I could threaten him to my heart's consent," Annabeth could still see the smile Thalia attempted to hide.
Annabeth smirked happily, "Tough luck," She turned back to Jason and carried on her fight. "Ladies, you're welcome to join as well, I'll send dates on the group chat. Sally's already making time in her calendar to join,"
All the girls immediately brightened up at the fact that Sally would come, as every time they had met her, she treated them like her own family.
A thought seemed to cross Piper's mind as she immediately brightened up. "Annabeth, I dibs doing your makeup on your wedding day!"
Annabeth laughed, "Of course you can do my makeup, I wouldn't trust anyone else!"
Piper smiled in satisfaction and everyone went back to fighting with their partner.
~~~
The atmosphere was tense as everyone gathered around Lady Artemis and Chiron, waiting for the game of Capture the Flag to begin. Percy could see Thalia and Jason glaring at each other, literal sparks crackling in the air between them and he rolled his eyes at the sibling rivalry.
Chiron handed over a flag to Thalia, who took it and immediately tucked it into her pocket. Lady Artemis handed over the other flag to Annabeth, correctly recognising that the Athena cabin had a plan that would be executed by Annabeth.
"Campers and Hunters!" Chiron called for attention, before handing off to Lady Artemis.
Lady Artemis smiled regally at Chiron, and she let herself age slightly so her voice would carry farther over the large number of people. "When we announce the start, you will have fifteen minutes to hide your flag and go over your plan. The horn will then sound, initiating the second start, when you attempt to capture the other teams flag,
"The teams are the Hunter versus the Campers of Camp Half Blood - along with a few friends," She announced, acknowledging the campers from Camp Jupiter. "I will take the pleasure in wishing my Hunters the best of luck, and ask you to bring our winning streak of 56 to 57!"
All the Campers - Chiron included - rolled their eyes at the dig, the Hunters looking smugly across at them. Everyone readied themselves at the treeline of the woods, ready to take off as soon as the call sounded.
Lady Artemis and Chiron shouted start, and everyone immediately jumped into action, Campers following Annabeth in a sprint to one end of the woods and the Hunters following Thalia to the other end.
If Percy was being honest, Annabeth's plan was amazing. All her plans were, but this one should hopefully break the winning streak the hunters had been on - at least, if Annabeht had anything to say about it. And Annabeth had a lot to say.
The only thing was, the Hunters themselves had a fair few of Athena children. This meant Annabeth had to come up with a plan where it would combat the Hunters plan, as well as slip under their radar. And Thalia had most definitely told them to not underestimate Annabeth.
Whatever. Their plan would work. This time. (Thalia would not gloat any longer. Even Annabeth was gearing up to punch her)
As soon as the flag was up, the rest of the plan fell into place. The Hecate cabin had created stunning arrows along with the Hephaestus cabin, and they quickly handed those out to the Apollo children, and anyone else whose main weapon was a bow.
Annabeth instructed them to spread out around the forest, and once Annabeth deemed they were adequately placed, they scaled the trees to wait at the top and be snipers.
The Hermes and Demetre cabins then went and started laying traps and trip wires, using vines and plants to cover things, especially around the flag. Percy was low-key worried he was going to fall victim to one of these, but they weren't fatal, so that was good.
Annabeth had then split people into groups of defence, distraction and attack. There were very few people doing ground defence, as most of them were in the trees, but there were many distraction groups. This was to draw attention away from the actual attack group, who were going for the flag.
Percy himself was only on a distraction group, to his disappointment, but he saw how it was an advantage. Thalia would be expecting Annabeth to put Percy on the attack group as he was one of - if not the - strongest fighter. This meant he was also prime bait.
Annabeth finished going over the plan, making sure everyone knew their role, before quickly announcing they had thirty seconds before it began.
"Any questions? If you do speak up now, this plan has to go perfectly, and we want to win," Annabeth asked. She looked around at the determined facing, looking up to those in the trees as well. No one raised a hand and she nodded.
"Brilliant. We got this, guys," She turned to Percy who nodded. Everyone was tense in anticipation, but very determined. The Hermes cabin looked especially happy to finally have test subjects for their pranks, and many people shuddered at their smirks.
Annabeth whispered a countdown, and right on time they heard the horn. Immediately each group split up into the direction they were directed to, disappearing into the trees.
Percy led his group out in front, quickly but silently. He could sense the other groups getting further away, and Annabeth with her invisibility cap already far ahead with the attack group.
He turned to his group, and motioned for them to slow down slightly. He could sense Hunters that were close to them, so he put into action part of the plan. His group contained many of the best fighters, as they were to drag away the defence and distract them.
He didn't have the whole seven, they were spread across the groups according to their strengths, but he did have Leo. He also had 'Annabeth' (Lou Ellen shrouded in Mist to disguise herself), and the fact that three of the seven were on one team was to make it look like they were the main team.
Percy led the group into a space where he could sense two or three fairly large groups of Hunters. It wasn't all of them, but he already heard tell-tale signs of other distraction groups doing their best, along with the help from snipers in the trees.
He saw a trip wire laid out on the ground in front of them and called for a halt. Picking up a rock, he threw it at the wire, causing it to go off. The noise of the prank (this one was a loud horn and a large amount of slime), drew the attention of the surrounding groups of Hunters.
They immediately locked onto Percy's group, exactly as planned.
Percy looked to his group and grimaced at 'Annabeth', "Oops,". He was acting as well as he could, this performance needed to be solid for the plan to work.
'Annabeth' rolled her eyes in a very Annabeth way and the group readied themselves to fight the rapidly approaching Hunters. Percy internally smirked as he noticed Thalia, who was smirking at them as though she had caught them exactly where she wanted them.
Oh, the Hunters have completely fallen for our plan, Percy thought, ducking his head down to hide his uncontainable smile, This is going to be a win of Epic proportions.
Despite the fact there were almost two Hunters for every Camper in the fight, Percy's group was holding their own. He had chosen the best fighters in camp for a reason, and the snipers in the tree were definitely a big help, incapacitating Hunters left and right with the stun arrows. Thalia was so absorbed in fighting Percy, that she barely noticed the fact that Annabeth wasn't fighting up to her normal standard.
Percy was also absorbed in the fight, so he wasn't able to concentrate on sensing anything that was going too far away from them. All he could hope was that his group and other distraction groups had successfully played their role and that the attack group was well on their way to capturing the flag.
He couldn't say how long exactly he had been fighting against Thalia, but he knew they were getting on time wise. They were both tiring, albeit slowly. The rest of the battle around them had faded, both of them absorbed in trying to decimate each other.
Neither of them had landed more than a handful of blows on the other, Thalia only gaining a slight upper hand when Percy lent a hand to the other fights around him, or trying to sense other players in the forest.
Suddenly, in the middle of Thalia calling down a lighting bolt, the circlet on her head letting off sparks, and Percy building a shield, a loud horn sounded. The bolt dissipated into the air, and Percy's shield fell to the ground and the fights stopped around them. Capture the Flag had been won, but Percy had absolutely no idea who had.
He studied the Hunters' faces, looking to Thalia for signs of annoyance or upset. She wasn't immediately cheering, in fact she looked perfectly impassive. Percy let himself nurse a tiny glimmer of hope.
A booming voice started speaking around the forest, startling many of them slightly. It was Chiron's voice, and the glimmer of hope grew larger.
"All fights cease immediately! A flag has been captured!" Chiron announced. The snipers in the trees dropped down, Campers and Hunters alike, ready to hear who won. He waited in silence to build suspense and Percy itched to just shout 'get on with it!'.
"The winner of todays Capture the Flag, putting an end to a 56 long win streak," - Here all the Campers started celebrating, not even needing to listen to the end of the announcement - "Is Camp Half Blood!"
The cheers going around the forest were deafening, everyone jumping around and hugging each other. Percy picked up Leo and put him onto his shoulders, running around in happiness. He was never going to let Thalia forget this. They blew simultaneous raspberries at her, before sprinting off with the rest of their group to find Annabeth and everyone else.
They found everyone by the river, standing knee deep and surrounding Annabeth who was proudly holding the Hunters flag aloft. Percy pushed his way through the crowd, dropping Leo down to crush her in a hug.
Everyone cheered even louder, and Chiron joined them in the water to heartily congratulate all his campers (he looked like such a proud dad, it was amusing to everyone).
Chiron shook hands with Artemis, who looked slightly salty but accepting their win graciously. The Hunters looked rather annoyed, as the Campers had immediately started gloating. (They were making up for 56 losses in a row here, it was well deserved).
Dinner was a cheerful affair, and when they were hanging around the campfire later, it was almost the largest and brightest they had seen. Annabeth and Percy were teasing Thalia to no end, knowing that if they were ever to get away with it unscathed, it would be tonight.
All in all, this was probably the best trip back to camp Percy and Annabeth had ever had. They were engaged (!!!) and they had beaten the Hunters in Capture the Flag. Percy and Annabeth went home late on Sunday the happiest they had ever been, despite the fact they had school the next day.
A/N:
HALO LOVELY READERS
apologies for such a long time between updates, things have been unexpectedly hectic! I hope everyone had a nice Christmas (if you celebrate it) or has had a nice holiday in general!
I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and thank you all for the love on all the previous ones, you guys are abolsutley amazing. Every message makes me unbelievably happy!
Feel free to leave votes and comments - I love getting feedback!
DARE YOU TO GO ON A WALK AND GET SOME FRESH AIR - ITS GOOD FOR YALL
OH AND HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!