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I wish you were here. Percy looked again at the text Annabeth had sent thirty minutes ago and smiled, the taxi slowly making its way to the city via the Williamsburg Bridge. The flight had arrived early which Percy was glad for, a little balance from the New Year’s traffic that was waiting for them outside the airport. He really hated the NYC traffic and under different circumstances, he never would have traveled on such a busy day, especially on a coast-to-coast flight. Turns out even if he had been a Praetor for less than 24 hours, the Roman council still needed him for certain official meetings, it usually was a pain in the ass and Percy usually did them via Iris Message. But this time was different, this time Frank was trying to change the way the New Rome Army and Senate worked, putting an age minimum of sixteen to join their army and twenty-one to start on the Senate and he had asked for Percy, Jason and Reyna’s presence for support. And that’s how Percy and Jason had taken a four am flight to San Francisco on December 26.
Frank and Hazel had thought the process would be long, and to be honest, so did Percy. He hadn't expected to be able to go back home until the beginning of January. But having four praetors who were Heroes of Olympus and another who had helped bring peace between the Greeks and the Romans brought a heavy backup to Frank’s argument/petition that not even an old senate could refute. The only thing they fought back on was Frank’s policy on a minimum age of twenty-five to be eligible as a Praetor, the fact that he was currently twenty-two and Hazel nineteen didn’t really help his case. But Percy ended up being able to fly back to New York before the year ended, and with New Rome’s wealth and him being a former Praetor, he and Jason scored first class tickets for the two pm flight from San Francisco to NYC.
Percy was glad his friend had also decided to go back to the east coast. He definitely would have had a hard time on the plane by himself, even when Zeus had already given his approval for him, Nico and Hazel to be in the sky as a reward for defeating Gaea, having the Son of Jupiter next to him on the flight made him feel safer. Said blonde was currently happily chatting with the uber driver while Percy exchanged texts with Piper. Percy hadn’t told Annabeth he was coming home early, instead, he was planning on surprising her at Rachel’s New Years Eve Party and Piper was helping with the surprise.
His plan had been to go straight to Rachel’s party from the airport, but the reality had been different. During their flight he had been a sweaty mess, it was disgusting how much he had sweated, and it wasn’t only from the stress and anxiety that flying gave him, for some reason the A/C had never come on during the flight and even Jason had complained about it after leaving the plane. But now they were en route to Percy and Annabeth’s apartment in the Flatiron district so they could refresh and change before going to Brooklyn.
“You know, I can wait for Blackjack, it’s not a big deal.”
They were on the roof of his apartment building, after they had showered and changed out of their travel clothes. The city below them was a sea of red or white car lights, depending how you were looking at it. Traffic on New Year’s Eve was always terrible and if they wanted to make it to Rachel’s apartment in Brooklyn before midnight, this was the only way.
“I’m sure you can, but this is faster and you know it.” Jason stretched his arms and legs before patting his back. “Just jump on Percy, unless you want to recreate a scene from Howl’s Moving Castle.”
“I absolutely hate this idea.”
His friend laughed. “You can give me an underwater tour later that I am sure I will absolutely despise, but you're making us late.”
Percy only grunted in reply before jumping on his friend's back. He thought it was going to be quite similar to flying on a pegasus, how wrong he had been. It had been one of the worst experiences of his life. He was terrified of Jason accidentally dropping him. Percy was holding onto Jason like a baby koala clinging for dear life, the wind was freezing and it was so loud. It was close to eleven when they landed on Rachel’s rooftop and Percy had never felt so grateful
“Wasn’t that fun?” his friend laughed once Percy’s feet were touching solid ground.
“How the fuck aren’t you freezing?” Percy breathed into his hands trying to warm himself. “I think I stopped feeling my nose around the Lower East side.”
Jason shrugged. “Don’t know, probably the same way cold water doesn’t give you hypothermia.”
“I'm leaving you a zero review on yelp.” Percy mumbled and started making his way towards the rooftop door. Jason’s loud laugh echoing behind him.
Rachel’s apartment wasn’t packed as it had been in previous years, which Percy was secretly glad about. It's not that Rachel’s place wasn’t big enough for the party, the opposite. It's just that after the day he had, the last thing Percy wanted to do was to be shoulder to shoulder in a room with random people.
“I’m going to see if there are sodas,” Jason said after they dropped their coats in the coat pile by the door.
“Get me a coke if you can, please,” Percy said to his friend. Jason nodded and made his way to the kitchen while Percy walked towards the living room and scanned the place looking for Annabeth. Rachel’s loft was located on the last floor of her building, it was a big space that was usually filled with canvases in different stages of painting and random art projects. They were currently nowhere to be no seen, instead there were tables scattered around the place, as if Rachel had remembered to put them out at the last minute.
After walking around he finally found her near the large windows that faced the Manhattan skyline, a wine glass in her hand while she talked animatedly with Piper. Annabeth looked beautiful, her long curly blonde hair was braided in a fancy half updo that was probably Piper’s work, and was wearing black leggings and a sparkly blue shirt that shifted to purple when she moved. She looked like a vision under the moonlight that entered through the window and every inch of his body finally started to relax just at the sight of her throwing her head back while laughing at something Piper had said. He started making his way towards them and once he was close enough to hear their conversation Piper caught Percy’s eye and took a chance, winking at him and putting a finger to her lips while Annabeth was distracted taking a sip of her drink.
“Did you know the first time I saw Percy I thought he was unimpressive?” Piper said to Annabeth who almost choked on her drink.
Percy couldn’t see Annabeth’s face without giving himself away but he could feel the indignation radiating from her. Percy was feeling a little offended himself.
“He's not unimpressive, at all.”
“Come on, you didn’t think he was a little, you know, underwhelming when you first met him?” There was that mischief glinting in Piper’s eye that made Percy finally understand what Piper was trying to do.
“No! He had just fucking killed the minotaur, I definitely didn’t think that!” Annabeth loudly exclaimed to her best friend who was just laughing. “And I definitely don’t think that now!”
“Okay then if you could describe Percy in three words what would they be?”
“Tall, dark, and beautiful.”
“Not handsome?”
“He is handsome,” she agreed. Percy could hear the smile in her voice. “But he’s also so beautiful it's not fair.”
“You've got it bad for him.”
“I just love him so much and I’m so sad he isn't here,” Annabeth whined. Percy finally realized his fiancée was more on the tipsy side than sober.
A part of him felt a little bit guilty for eavesdropping on the conversation she was having with Piper, but part of him was glowing with affection towards her. It wasn’t like Annabeth never told him those things to his face, she did, quite often but hearing her talk about him with Piper was different, the tone in her voice wasn’t the same, instead it was more dreamy. He could hear her happiness and love for him and even some hints of giddiness that made him melt inside and made his heart ache with how much he loved her. He was sure he sounded the same when he talked about Annabeth to friends and the urge to have her in his arms and kiss her was starting to be too overwhelming.
He was about to tap Annabeth’s shoulder when Piper spoke again.
“Do you have a picture?
“Of Percy? Of course I do! What type of question is that!?”
“No, no. I mean, do you have the picture?”
A beat of silence from Annabeth. “I don’t follow.”
“The one you show when you talk about him to someone who doesn't know him and they ask what he looks like.” The brunette waved her hands around, almost spilling some of her wine in the process. “You know, that picture.”
“Oh,” Annabeth said and grabbed her phone from her back pocket. “No, yeah I totally have that picture of him.”
Percy’s curiosity was ignited as Annabeth opened her photos app, while he had his own version of the picture of her (Fall of last year during a weekend getaway Upstate. They had been sitting at a picnic area during golden hour. Annabeth had stood up for some reason, her golden hair glowing under the sun with the help of the contrast of the red trees behind her, she was laughing at some lame joke he had made and she looked so beautiful he was grateful he had managed to snap a quick picture.) The thought of her having her own version of his picture had never crossed his mind.
“Here.” Annabeth showed her phone to Piper. Percy took the opportunity to walk a little closer and take a look at the picture from behind Annabeth's shoulder.
He had never seen that picture of him. He was sitting at an outside table, from the looks of it it was one of Annabeth’s favorite brunch places. He was wearing dark ripped jeans, a white shirt and a blue jacket, his hand was resting around a coffee cup on the table, but his attention wasn’t on the person taking the picture, instead he was looking at someone out of frame. There was a big smile on his lips that reached his eyes and Percy had to confess he looked good, really good in the picture.
“Shit. That's actually a really nice picture of me.”
It was an immediate reaction, Annabeth turned so fast that if it wasn’t for Percy’s quick reflexes, she would have crashed against him. She was looking at him with her big eyes opened wide in shock, her lips slightly parted in surprise. Her cheeks were flushed but that was probably related more to the drink in her hand.
“Wha-” she said.
“Hey, babe.” He smiled at her and that was all Annabeth needed to throw her arms around him, and Percy spun them around. Thankfully Piper had the good sense to take her glass of wine before Annabeth could splash them with it.
“Percy!? What!? How?” Annabeth said between laughs after Percy had stopped and both of their feet were on the ground.
“We managed to leave earlier than anticipated, and decided to surprise you.” He smiled at her and leaned in to give her a chaste kiss. “Are you surprised?”
“I'm delighted.” Her hands found their way to his cheeks and then brushed some of his hair away from his forehead before going back to his cheeks. “I can’t believe you're here.”
He grinned at her. “In time to be your midnight kiss.”
“How did you pull this off?” There was a giddiness in her voice that made Percy want to giggle in happiness at seeing her so happy at them being together.
Percy nodded towards Piper who saluted Annabeth in return. “She was the one who gave me the idea, and she was the brains behind the operation, I was a mess before the flight.”
“I barely did anything except give you updates on Annabeth.” The dark-haired girl laughed. “But I also managed for you to get to hear her confess her undying love for you.”
“You tricked me!” Annabeth fake gasped before extending her hand towards Piper who happily took it. “But thank you, this was the best surprise, you are truly the best.”
“Yeah but now that he's here I guess I have to look for another midnight kiss.” Piper’s tone was teasing but Percy could see her gaze move towards the location of a certain Son of Jupiter, and he could bet anything that the same longing on her brown eyes was mirrored in Jason’s blue ones. “I'll give you some space, I’ll be seeing you around lovebirds!”
“Don’t forget we still have brunch tomorrow!” Annabeth yelled once Piper started to walk away from them, their friend only waved her hand in reply.
Percy wrapped his arm around Annabeth’s waist and pulled her closer. “Hi there, I’m going to kiss you again now.”
“You better.”
In normal situations, they usually weren’t big on PDA, but Percy had a crappy day stuck in a sauna of a plane, having Jason fly him on his back through the sky and had been dealing with Roman senators, lares and their old-fashioned views for the past week. All he wanted was to kiss his fiancée, and kiss her he did. He could have stayed there for hours, his lips moving against hers, but his stomach had decided to remind him he hadn’t really eaten anything since that morning.
“Do you think Shake Shack is still open?” He asked sheepishly after breaking off the kiss.
“Oh, my gods.” Annabeth laughed.
“What!?” Percy asked, laughter in his voice. “I'm starving.”
“I sadly think they've closed already, you know, holiday hours.” Annabeth gave him a chaste kiss. “But I think I saw trays of taquitos and sandwiches somewhere around here. Otherwise there are lots of leftovers at home.”
“Did you even have a home cooked meal at all while I was away?” He teased her and Annabeth scrunched her face at him. It was no secret that Annabeth’s was if not the world’s worst cook, at least New York’s worst cook. If left on her own she usually lived off of delivery apps and frozen food.
“I had at least one meal per day at your parent’s place and your mom made sure to always send me home with leftovers.”
Percy snorted. “Good, I’m glad. Come on, let’s find some food.”
***
“By the way,” Percy asked a time later. They were sitting on the floor in a relatively empty space in the living room, an almost empty pizza box between them. “Who took that picture of me?”
Annabeth set down her glass of wine on the floor and happily exclaimed. “Me!”
“What?” Percy’s Coke can joined Annabeth’s drink on the floor. “How!? I’m not even looking at you! Wait, if I’m not looking at you then who am I looking at?”
“At a dog wearing pajamas.”
“Oh, yeah that sounds about right.”
“TEN!” The room cheered and Percy looked at his phone where the time said 11:59. How had time passed by so fast?
“Shit, already?” He asked Annabeth who just shrugged in reply.
“EIGHT.”
She smiled at him. “Our first and only countdown while engaged.”
“You nervous about the wedding?”
She shook her head, a big smile on her face. “Excited.”
“FOUR”
“Me too,” he said and started leaning towards her.
“TWO.”
“ONE.”
Their lips met while the room cheered around them as confetti and balloons started appearing and somebody started playing Auld Lang Syne on their phone.
“Happy New Year, almost wife,” Percy murmured against her lips.
“Happy New Year, almost husband.”