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“You know,” Annabeth started, looking out at the open ocean next to her as she spoke, “I never thought that our Christmas breaks would end up being alternated between spending it with your family and spending it with mine.” This year they were spending it with Annabeth’s family in California. They had booked a beachside resort for the week and had just finished Christmas dinner with both families before deciding to take a walk down the beach. The sun was slowly setting, casting a warm orange glow over everything. They had left without their shoes, so Annabeth relished in the strange feeling of the sand between her toes.
Percy hummed next to her, tightening his hold on her hand. “There’s a lot of things that I never thought would happen,” he answered, taking a brief glance at her. Annabeth just smiled, pressing the side of her head up against his shoulder as they continued walking down the beach, the sand pressing up between her toes.
“For example,” Percy spoke up again, “me spending Christmas in a place where it’s too warm for it to be Christmas.” Annabeth snorted, trying to control her laughter. It was something that Percy had been saying for years — California was too warm for Percy to believe it was actually Christmas.
“What, the lights, decorations, Santas, and Christmas trees everywhere you look don’t do it for you?”
“Nah, it has to be freezing in order for it to properly sink in.”
“I think that can be arranged,” she answered, tugging him closer to the ocean and promptly shoving him in. She knew it would have practically no effect on him because “ son of the ocean god” and everything, but it was still funny to watch him momentarily panic.
“Annabeth!” he protested, quickly wading out of the water. He came out absolutely dry, and so he really shouldn’t be mad, but he had a scowl on his face that Annabeth couldn’t help but laugh at.
“Why are you so bothered about it?” she laughed. “It’s not like you got wet.”
His expression changed to something akin to nervousness for a split second before the scowl returned.
“If you weren’t wearing such a nice dress, I would’ve dragged you in here with me.”
“For another underwater kiss?” she teased. He barked out a laugh in surprise, clearly not expecting her to take that route. Percy probably expected her to threaten him over her dress because he was right, it was a really nice dress. It was a blue halter neck dress with white flower patterns that fell down to her knees with a net extension on the back that trailed towards her ankles. Percy was wearing denim jeans that he had rolled up a few inches with a white button up shirt.
“Sure, let’s go with that,” Percy agreed, moving out of the range of the waves and took a hold of her hand again.
They stayed quiet for a while longer, just basking in each other’s presence when Percy spoke up.
“Annabeth?”
“Yes?” she asked, her eyes trained on the sun as it slowly started disappearing under the ocean.
“Do you think we’ll be forever?”
Annabeth came to a stop, looking at her boyfriend incredulously. At her sudden stop, Percy stopped and turned to look at her. He was nervous, and he was looking down at the ground. Their hands were still intertwined, and Annabeth used their hands to pull him closer to her before tilting his chin up so she could look into the eyes that stole her breath away since the very first time she looked into them fourteen years ago.
“Of course we’ll be forever. You’ve literally raised the standard for me so high that even if there was some reason — which there isn’t — that we broke up, no one could even compare to you. You literally walked through hell for me! Who else would do that?”
It was rare for Annabeth to be so open and straightforward when it came to her emotions, but Percy’s question baffled her so much that she didn’t even think before she spoke. It must’ve worked though, because his sea-green eyes were twinkling in the dimming sunlight, and there was a small smile playing at his lips.
“I also gave up immortality for you,” he answered. Annabeth scoffed.
“So did I.”
“Just so you know, you raised my standards impossibly high too.”
“Good,” she answered, stepping into his embrace. “I love you, Seaweed Brain,” she mumbled into his chest. She felt his chest rumble as he laughed.
“I love you too, Wise Girl.”
After giving him a tight squeeze, she pulled away from him just enough to look at his face. “Now, you want to tell me what brought that up? We’ve been dating for ten years. If I wanted to break up with you, I would’ve done it before I spent the last ten years of my life with the same guy,” Annabeth asked, raising her eyebrow.
“So, you know how I didn’t give you your present yet?”
She nodded. Earlier this morning, the families had gotten together in the living room to exchange presents, but Percy had said that he would prefer to give her his present alone. No one said anything to dispute it, so she figured that it was just something sentimental that he didn’t want to show off in front of everyone.
He licked his lips and took a deep breath before speaking. “You came into my life at a time where I didn’t know who I was and what I was doing anymore, and you were like the first ray of light as a sun rose for me. You showed me what I was supposed to become and helped me every step of the way. You’re quite literally my anchor to this world, and I can’t imagine a forever without you.”
Percy stopped speaking for a moment, and Annabeth felt as though she couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding, and one of her hands came up to cover her mouth as the other went to lie above her heart. Everything around her froze, and everything boiled down to her and Percy. She had a feeling she knew where he was going with this, but she still couldn’t believe it entirely. He stepped away from her and smiled at her.
“Plus,” he started, a mischievous glint in his eyes, “I really don’t like your last name.”
Annabeth choked on her saliva. “What” she coughed, “the hell?” Percy let out a bright laugh before sinking down to one knee as he reached into his pocket to open up a small red velvet box to reveal a ring inside. It was a thin silver band with a bright blue sapphire in the center surrounded by four smaller diamonds. It was absolutely beautiful, and Annabeth felt her heart swelling.
“Jackson is a much better last name for you,” he grinned. “Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?”
Annabeth choked out a laugh. She couldn’t believe that he had turned such an emotional moment into a weird joke, but it was just so them .
“Yes, you dumbass.” He slipped the ring on her finger before standing up, and she launched herself into his arms, wrapping hers around his neck and kissing him, but their smiles were too wide for it to be a proper kiss. They eventually pulled away from each other, grinning.
“Just so you know, if I am going to change my name, it’s going to be hyphenated, Jackson.”
“Whatever you want, Chase.”