A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
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When Percy's knights had arrived back at the palace, the trial had occurred almost immediately. There was hardly any time for Annabeth to talk to Percy alone. Then after the trial, Percy had to follow his responsibilities of securing the prisoners while Annabeth sorted out the rest of the palace household and dealt with the two other factions with as much diplomacy as she could.
Many of the nobles came up and congratulated her on her pregnancy. Annabeth felt her right eye twitch as she accepted their congratulations. She pretty much YOLO'd and pretended to be pregnant to stall for more time but now that the emergency was over, she had to face the consequences of her haphazard plan. Clarisse would say this was a FML situation. Maybe Annabeth could pretend to have a miscarriage?
"Your Majesty, truly, it is a glorious day for Eldoris!" One countess came up and shook her hand fiercely. "I have some pregnancy books that were passed down through the family. I would be delighted to send them to the palace!"
"That is very kind of you but I wouldn't want to bother you, Countess. The palace royal physicians will take good care of me, so I thank you for the concern." Annabeth smiled.
What books on pregnancy? What kind of books would the countess have compared to the grand libraries of the Eldoris palaces? One would fear that the countess only wanted to express goodwill and gain relations rather than wish for the health of the next heir.
The countess was nonplussed by Annabeth's gentle refusal. "It's no bother at all! By the way, my daughter is turning just three this year... I shall bring her to the castle and introduce you to her! Perhaps Your Majesty's good fortune will rub off on her!"
Annabeth just smiled and felt her eye twitch once more. Great, she thought, just great. Her nonexistent child hadn't even been born yet and already these nobles were planning on sending their children to be crown princesses if there was a prince or court ladies if the child was a princess. And if Annabeth faked a miscarriage, no doubt there were still some power hungry nobles who would take this opportunity to insert more women to the king's side and claim that Annabeth's health wasn't suitable for child-bearing. If the dowager queen hadn't been locked up already, Annabeth would have wanted to throttle the woman for being infuriatingly annoying even after her defeat.
She had never thought of having children, really. Back in the modern world, it was work first. Even if Annabeth dated, children were still low on the priority.
Still...a child from her and Percy... Would they have his green eyes, dark hair, and Mediterranean complexion like a Greek god's? A miniature version of Percy... Annabeth had seen some portraits of a toddler Percy in Gardenia Palace. He was quite adorable back then, she thought, with a more carefree but mischievous expression in his toothy grin.
She caught herself daydreaming as the next noble came up to congratulate her. Annabeth smiled politely while her mind just thought: fuck. What had she been thinking? Get it together, Chase!
Now finally finished with the work, all the emotions from everything that had happened finally caught up with her when the king arrived from inspecting the prisoners.
Annabeth pulled away from the king's hug and pinched Percy's waist.
"Perseus Jackson." The king flinched slightly from the use of his full name. "How dare you!" Annabeth crossed her arms. "You pretended to be dead without informing me?" She jabbed her finger into his chest. "You need to give me an explanation!"
She wasn't truly angry to the point of wanting to throttle her errant husband by the neck, but she needed to tattoo it onto Percy's brain that they were a team. And a team would let every single member know of their strategy so there was no miscommunication at all.
But most of all... Annabeth was relieved that Percy had come back alive.
Her relief must have shown on her face, as Percy's gaze softened. The king caught her hand and kissed the back of her palm. Even when being scolded, he couldn't keep the corners of his lips lifting up slightly. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. I got hit by an arrow and was knocked off of my horse, and then my horse ran off. I surmise that that's where the confusion of my death spread."
Annabeth snorted. "No excuses! Sir Grover told me that it was you who ordered the reply to be sent to the dowager queen about your supposed death."
The king's gaze shifted towards the door. Very wisely, Sir Grover coughed and beckoned Sir Nico and the other people in the office to leave.
"... It seems I need to have a little discussion with Grover about covertness."
"Don't blame Sir Grover. I made him tell me about everything that happened while you were taking care of the prisoners."
Annabeth sighed inwardly. She knew that this was probably the best way to catch the dowager queen in the act and oust her from power once and for all. For Annabeth to have the least knowledge possible about the coup meant her expressions and actions would be the most natural, luring the enemies into a false sense of security. It was fortunate that the plan worked out. And truly, Annabeth felt a lot better without the constant assassinations or schemes sent by the dowager queen.
Annabeth glared at the king. "But seriously, don't do this again."
Or else she would march down to the underworld, drag his soul back up and give him a piece of her mind.
"I'll inform you of my plans ahead of time, my queen," Percy promised. "But look here."
Percy brought out from his pocket some piece of pale blue fabric. Annabeth picked it up and inspected it. It was the remains of the sachet that she had made for him.
"And here's the silver coin, too."
The silver coin's shiny surface was dented on one side. Percy explained how he had been shot by an arrow with deadly accuracy and how the coin had protected him.
"Without the sachet you made for me, I fear I would have been severely injured or worse..."
Annabeth buried her face in his arms again, unwilling to even hear those words spoken out loud.
"Were you that worried about me?" He teased lightly.
"It's not funny," Annabeth complained. "You really scared me. But I'm glad I made that for you."
She nuzzled her face into Percy's embrace. The king's gaze softened, placing his chin on top of her head.
"I'll always come back home to you, my love." Percy murmured.
Annabeth glanced up, somewhat surprised at him calling her "my love." She was sure that when he left to check on the "drought" situation, he had mouthed, "I love you." Was this his way of confessing to her?
"Truly, Annabeth, I—"
"I love you, too!" Annabeth blurted out. Then, she clamped her mouth shut, half-mortified. True, she did realize that she loved him when she thought she was going to lose him, but right now was not the right timing.
Percy broke out into a huge shit-eating grin, as one of her more uncouth-mouthed-friend would say.
"What was that, Annabeth?" He leaned his ear towards her. "Could you repeat that again, my love?"
Annabeth shot him a classic glare, but the king only wore a grin that split from ear to ear.
"Oh, what the hell," Annabeth grumbled.
She pulled the king's head down and kissed him hard. All too willingly, Percy welcomed the kiss as his hand slipped around her waist to pull her closer.
"What I said was I love you," Annabeth murmured.
"Tell me that again, my love." Percy answered back.
When his lips dropped from underneath her ear to the soft hollow of her throat, Annabeth whispered those words once more.
"I love you, too, Annabeth. It's been a long time since I wanted to say that to you," the king admitted.
"Oh, you so wanted to," Annabeth grinned.
"Then let me show it a few more times as well."
Percy returned her kiss, leaving her soon breathless. Somehow, the kiss felt even better than Annabeth recalled. Was it because they had finally admitted that they loved each other?
Finally, they had to pause their make-out session to breathe. The king's Adam's apple bobbed as he took in the sight of her swollen lips and hazy eyes.
Percy brushed a strand of her hair from her face that had fallen out from her hairstyle when he cupped the back of her head. "By the way, aren't you also keeping a major secret from me?"
Annabeth froze. "Um, what are you talking about?"
She wasn't aware of any secrets that she was keeping from the king. Unless Percy had somehow figured out that she was from another world and that she manipulated the novel's events until no one knew how the ending would turn out? Fuck, how would she explain that?
Percy looked from her bewildered expression down to her flat stomach.
"Oh. Um, that. You meant that." Annabeth's face flushed as Percy placed his palm on her stomach in wonder. "I had to fake it. I was going to buy some time in case you were um, dead..."
The king's eyes were far in thought. He clearly was thinking about something else with that wistful look. Was he, too, wondering what their children could one day be like?
"A child from the two of us. I wonder..."
She coughed again. "That's a discussion to be had in the future. Much later in the future."
Annabeth squirmed a little as his hug grew tighter.
"Percy..." Annabeth coughed.
"Yes, my queen."
"...Why are we sitting like this?"
Somehow, they had moved onto a chaise with Annabeth sitting on Percy's lap. One of his arms supported her back while the other was placed casually on top of her thigh.
"Well, why not?"
Percy's smile was too dazzling that Annabeth felt like she had to turn her head or it would be too bad for her heart.
"Perhaps we should take advantage of this occasion, my lovely queen."
"What do you mean?"
"What if I say there's no need for you to pretend to have a miscarriage?" The king had a twinkle in his eyes as he suddenly pushed her down until her back met the chaise. His voice seemed to drop half an octave. "Why don't we make that into reality today?"
"Percy!"
Giggles and laughter soon filled the office.
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Her enemies must have been waiting for this moment. The king of Barinia's body hadn't even been lowered into the ground when the coup occurred.
Reyna snarled at one assassin who had pretended to be her guard. She ducked as the guard's sword passed inches over her hair. As quick and lithe as a cat, Reyna snapped up and swung a sword from a fallen knight who had tried his best to protect the crown princess. The assassin probably didn't expect Reyna to be so good at sword fighting. While Octavian was good with words, Reyna had secretly trained her military prowess. Within seconds, the assassin was mincemeat.
But it wasn't enough. Reyna analyzed that the Barinian palace would soon be run over. And even on this day where her father was supposed to be laid to rest, her brother Octavian was nowhere to be seen. She deduced that he had orchestrated this whole plan once he had tried to engage the princess of Kiran in marriage.
For now, there was no choice but to run. Barinian could not fall like this, but she had to live to fight another day.
Reyna grimaced. "Retreat!" She called out. The castle was already almost overtaken. But no one knew the woods as well as she and her secret band of soldiers did.
Just as she threw herself out of the window to land on the grass below, she was faced with a sword pointed right underneath her chin.
"Hello, sister," Octavian smirked. "Did you miss your dear brother, the true king of Barinia?"
While Eldoris was gripped in the power struggle between the current king and the dowager queen, Kiran took advantage of the situation and launched an invasion, citing that Eldoris had endangered the life of the eldest Kiran princess. It was a bullshit reason that hardly disguised the veneer that Kiran had been waiting for the opportunity to invade.
The nearest towns at the Kiran-Eldoris border were soon emptied as villagers quickly evacuated. What could the commoners do against well-armed and trained soldiers? But Percy had stationed some scouts near the border that quickly reported on the imminent attack. After all, Kiran had also taken advantage of the power struggle for the throne in Percy's past lifetime, and he had always been wary that they would do so again.
This time, however, the invasion had occurred much earlier and planned at a time where the majority of Eldoris' defenses were at the center of Eldoris to defend against the dowager queen's coup. No doubt there would be some losses in the beginning of the war.
Percy kissed Annabeth one last time before he and the Eldoris army went out to meet Kiran in battle. There were a few nobles who tried to make use of the situation by crying out that since the queen was from Kiran, she should be imprisoned. Percy threw those nobles in jail instead.
As the army left the Eldoris palaces, Percy turned around and saw Annabeth standing on a turret of Gardenia Palace. Though her figure was now too far away and small, he could imagine that she was glaring at him and saying, "You better come back alive, Perseus Jackson."
Percy blew a kiss towards her before turning back to face the front. "Onwards, for Eldoris!"
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Because the queen of Kiran had resembled a sleeping corpse for months now, her attendants had grown slack in their duties. The king of Kiran did not care about his ailing wife and long taken numerous lovers until a disease of the wanton flesh had overtaken his body, rendering him debilitated in pain and suffering in bed. As a result, Princess Alana easily became regent with her first order made to invade Eldoris. No one suspected that it was her who had sent various courtesans with diseases to her father's bed.
For these reasons, three or four days had passed since the last time anyone had gone inside the room of the Kiran queen. No one remembered or bothered to care about the queen when the rest of the country was embroiled in beginnings of a war.
The youngest maid groaned as she was finally bullied into giving the queen a hand bath when somebody finally remembered the Kiran queen. The maid hated serving the bed prone queen as there was no opportunity to move up in ranks. A sleeping queen would not remember those who would take care of her. It was much more useful to flatter Princess Alana or even serve the king in bed to become a concubine, although the maid felt she was somewhat lucky now to not catch the king's disease. Still, having to wash the queen was a rewardless task.
"Stupid bitch," the maid grumbled under her breath. "So what if I call her a bitch? It's not like she'll hear me anyways."
The maid opened the curtains of the room to get some light in the darkness. She coughed as a fine layer of dust flew out. Evidently, no one had even come to adequately clean the room in the past few days.
The maid turned towards the bed, resigned to her task of bathing the queen. Then she paused in her tracks, thinking that her eyes were deceiving her. She rubbed her eyes once more. The bed was empty, with the bedcovers scrunched up.
The queen of Kiran had gone missing.
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A/N: I was rereading the PJO series and saw that in The Sea of Monsters, the pegasus Percy rescued from Luke's ship was supposed to be a black mare. But later on in The Titan's Curse, we're introduced to BlackJack, who is very much not a mare. Is this a plothole, lol, or am I misunderstanding something?
Anyways, I'm going on a fun roadtrip so I won't be able to update as quick as I have been the past few days, but we shall see.
As always, thanks for being thirsty-I mean reading, and see you all next chapter!