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Annabeth woke up late, it was mostly a studio day for her today and this third pregnancy was leaving her especially tired, however, she’d take a little extra fatigue over the nausea she had with Liese or how sensitive she got with Nori (she cried at Finding Nemo, a past-time usually reserved for Percy, got mad that Finding FUCKING Nemo had made her cry which made her cry even harder…neither she nor Percy will bring it up to this day).
She rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom to shower. As she took off her pajamas and shoved her unruly curls into a shower-cap, she noticed something in the mirror. Her stomach was a little rounder than when she’d last looked at it.
“Hey Perce?” she called out to the hallway.
A few seconds later a faint “...Yeah?” could be heard from the kitchen.
“Could you come here a minute?”
“...Just gimme a sec, gotta plate up these blueberry waffles for the big kids.”
“No problem! Just come up when you can!”
About 3 minutes later she hears a knock on the bedroom doorframe, “I’m up!”
Annabeth smiles, “in the bathroom, come look at something.”
Percy makes his way to the bathroom to see Annabeth standing there with one hand hovering over top of where her stomach has begun to extend and one hand underneath.
“Look! We’ve got a bump!” Annabeth announces.
Percy grabs her stomach himself and presses a kiss just above her brow bone, “I’m guessing it’s time we announce?”
“I think so.” his wife nods.
“Do you want to send a text to everyone or would you rather do a gathering? I mean this is pregnancy #3, we don’t have to go all out if you don’t want to.”
“Nono, I like having everyone there. It’s so hard gathering everyone in one place, I was thinking dinner party at the beach house? This weekend?”
“I think we should be able to make that work, are we cluing in Rachel for decorations again or keeping it more lowkey?”
Annabeth hummed, “I think we can keep this one lowkey, it’s okay.”
Percy nodded, “You get in the shower, we both still have to work today. I’ll get Nori up and eating and then I’ll text everyone about this weekend. 7pm Saturday sound good? Not too early for everyone to get there, not too late for the kids to stay up?”
“Sounds perfect! I love you, Seaweed Brain.”
“Love you too, Wise Girl.”
Annabeth turned on the shower and let the water heat up as Percy went and got the toddler up. As she stepped in the shower she could hear his conversation with their current youngest in the hallway.
“Should we get you some new baby doll toys or do you think Liese-y will share them with you?”
Little Eleanor gasped, “NEW TOYS?!”
Percy chuckled, “Of course that’s all you heard.”
Annabeth smiled as she stepped in the shower, trying not to melt. Even after all this time seeing her husband be so good with kids never ceased to turn her legs to jello.
She quickly showered and grabbed her towel before deciding to be “lazy” and “cheat” as their friends called it.
She popped her head out of the bedroom and shouted, “Percy?”
He waved his hand as he wiped down the counter and washed the big kids’ breakfast dishes and she was instantly dry.
“Thanks babe!”
“Anytime love!”
Annabeth stepped into their shared walk-in closet, finding a comfortable professional outfit. Studio days were usually a lot more casual, typically spent by herself or with Rachel or whatever local friend who was working alone and decided coworking in Annabeth’s colorfully and creatively decorated office would be more entertaining; however, there was always the odd client who decided they needed a last minute meeting. She picked out a relaxed-fitting brown t-shirt with a mix of olives and olive branches, loosely tucked it into a pair of cream-colored slacks, and topped it off with a cream and white striped blazer. As she walked out of the bedroom she pulled on a pair of brown mary-janes and fastened her smartwatch on her wrist.
She walked into the kitchen, pulling her hair back into a loose, low ponytail when Percy called to her.
“Hey Wise Girl, I was just thinking.”
“Uh oh,” she joked, “that’s dangerous. Should I get out the fire extinguisher?”
“Ha-ha, very funny. I have a toddler with syrup here and I still need to get dressed, should I leave her to you?”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Pregnancy brain must be getting to you babe, you and I both know I would.”
“Fuh–Screw you!” She laughed as he pulled her into a kiss.
The toddler in the highchair next to them decided to make her presence known again. “Ewwwwwwww!” she giggled.
“You’ve been watching your brother and sister too much.” Percy laughed. “Anyway, I was thinking that we should maybe invite Mom, Paul, and Estelle over for dinner tonight and tell them privately.”
Annabeth thought on it for a moment, “Y’know what? That’s probably a good idea. They’re such a help with the kids, it’s only fair they get to know first.”
With that, Percy wiped down both the highchair and the toddler before handing her off to Annabeth to dress while he dressed himself.
She brought the toddler up to her bedroom, setting her on the plush rocking chair while she rifled through the girl’s closet.
“You know your grandma Sally and grandpa Paul are coming over tonight with your auntie Stella, are you gonna be a nice girl for them.”
“Mhm, Nori nice, not little shit.”
Annabeth stopped in her tracks, “what did you just say?”
“Nori not little shit! Eugene little shit!”
“Eleanor Zoë! You don’t use those words! And you don’t call your brother that! Where did you hear those words from?”
“Uncle Nico!”
Annabeth sighed, running a hand down her face, “If Uncle Nico keeps teaching you naughty words he’s gonna move in with his daddy sooner than he expected! Mommy will make sure of it!”
Percy walked by the bedroom door in a pair of khaki slacks, white tshirt, and an undone blue button-up shirt with his trident necklace hanging around his neck. “Uh oh, what did Uncle Neeks do now?”
“He taught your daughter some new words.”
“Oh gods, if she’s my daughter right now it couldn’t have been good.”
“He taught her the phrase little S-H-I-T!”
“Ooh! He really did it this time! Uncle Will is gonna have to wash his mouth out with soap!”
“That he will…”
Annabeth turned back to the closet and picked out a vintage blue Minnie Mouse romper with a matching headband.
Quickly she dressed the little girl and brought her down the stairs while Percy checked Eugene and Annaliese’s backpacks for any “contraband.” (You never know what a little kid will sneak in their backpack, Percy would know, he had to learn the hard way. Liese’s former Pre-K teachers fully believed they were very dedicated active LARP-ers and they just decided to commit to that whenever mortals saw more than they should’ve).
They loaded the kids in the back of Annabeth’s car for her drop-off day and before climbing into the front seat Annabeth lifted her chin up and gave Percy a kiss accompanied by a chorus of “ewwwwws” in the back seat.
—
Percy had gotten home with the kids a bit early so he prepared their dinner of purple potato gnocchi with pesto and chicken, a side salad with blueberry vinaigrette, and blue bread sticks.
With a bit of extra time to spare he decided to have a little fun with his family and throw a roll or “bun” in the still slightly warm oven.
As he helped the older two kids with their homework in the living room he heard the door open and shut and soon enough he watched his wife, who was always beautiful if you asked him but appeared to be absolutely glowing today, walk in.
They shared a quick but deep kiss before Annabeth walked into the living room to press a kiss on top of all her babies’ heads.
Percy then remembered he had yet to clue his wife in on the little game he decided to play on his parents. “Oh! I had a little extra time so I decided to throw a roll in the oven, when mom gets here I think we should ask her to grab it out and see if they realize what it means before we tell them.”
“Oh my gods I love that! Your mom is gonna freak.”
And with that the doorbell rang.
“I’d go get it but I’m sure the kids already rushed to answer them.” Percy laughed.
Percy and Annabeth quickly made themselves look busy, “Hey guys! We’re in the kitchen, come on in!”
Sally and Paul walked in with Estelle quickly trailed by their 3 very elated grandkids.
Percy leaned over the table, “Hey mom! I know you’re a guest but would you do me a favor? I have something in the oven I need pulled out, could you grab that so it doesn’t start to burn?”
Sally smiled, “Of course sweetheart.” She grabbed a potholder and grabbed a suspiciously empty tray out of the oven. “Percy? Honey? Why is there a tray with a singular bun…in the…oven…” she suddenly dropped the tray on top of the stove, “OH MY GODS!” she shouted as she ran to hug her son and his wife.
“Congrats you two, I’m so happy for the both of you.” Paul also encouraged.
Estelle looked confused, “I don’t understand? What are you guys talking about?”
Annabeth walked over, “sorry Estelle, I’ll explain. So we had a bun in the oven as a surprise because when people say they have a ‘bun in the oven’ what they really mean is that they’re pregnant.” At that point Annabeth pulled the excess fabric of her tshirt back to reveal a small bump where her stomach was.
“WAIT!” exclaimed the teenager, “YOU’RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY?!”
Percy nodded, “Yes we are. I don’t want to hear any jokes about that date night though, Annabeth was already pregnant, we just didn’t tell anybody yet.”
“YOU DIDN’T TELL ME YET?!”
“Dude chill, the only people who knew were Annabeth and I and Elena.” when he realized what he said he turned to Annabeth, “I’m sorry Wise Girl, I forgot to tell you. I didn’t mean to spoil it before we announced, we were talking about stuff and the topic we got on took us to her accidentally revealing an slightly more…intimate…detail of her and Hyacinth’s relationship which I reacted to and she brought up how you’d been through two pregnancies and I just couldn’t leave her in the dark.”
Annabeth just laughed, “It’s okay Seaweed Brain, I’m sure Sunshine was more than exasperated when you told her.”
“You have no idea.”
With that the family sat down at the table and began to eat dinner while discussing the pregnancy as well as their days, their plans for the week and more.
—
The day of the dinner party came, Percy and Annabeth rushed around the beach house along with Paul and Sally making sure they were fully stocked for food, drinks, and more before their guests began filtering in.
Percy and Sally whipped up a blueberry pie that had “We Are Pregnant” cut out of the top crust that they were going to serve for dessert that night.
Around 6:30 Elena and Hyacinth arrived, Annabeth hugged them both. She wore a green sundress that mostly hid her bump but she was worried one of them would feel it and say something about it. While she knew Elena knew, she still wanted to convince herself there was some element of surprise.
At 6:45 Rachel arrived with Piper and Shel in tow. Rachel raised an eyebrow at Annabeth but if she noticed anything she didn’t mention it.
Around 6:57 Travis and Katie with their 5 year old daughter Vera, Malcolm and Connor with their 3 year old son Bowie, and Will and Nico all began filtering in. Once again Annabeth and Percy gave everyone (even Nico who begrudgingly accepted the physical affection) hugs, still nobody mentioning anything out of the ordinary.
Percy and Sally had prepared raspberry ribs (one of the few surprisingly not blue foods because Percy is an adult who can eat non-blue foods when he feels like it and definitely doesn’t have a blue food problem), purple cabbage and carrot coleslaw, blueberry bratwursts (with blue buns), blackberry pasta salad, tofu skewers for the vegetarian(s) and a berry and watermelon fruit salad–all with blue lemonade on the side.
Everyone ate and caught up, glad to have their friends’ beach house dinner party as an excuse to get together for once. Grover arrived late but thankfully Percy had prepared enough tofu skewers for him and Piper to have some as well as anybody curious enough to try them out.
After everyone’s dinners started to wind down Percy went back into the kitchen to grab the blueberry pie out of the oven. As he stepped in Annabeth stood up and began to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey everybody, I’m so glad you were all able to make it. Percy and I have some very exciting news to share with you all…”
Percy then walked out of the kitchen.
“Percy and I wanted to share with you that we are having another baby!”
Everyone clapped and congratulated the couple…except for Grover who looked like he was about to faint.
Percy quickly served the pie to their eager guests before Annabeth and he pulled Grover back into the kitchen to talk.
“Hey Grover, you looked a little green out there when I mentioned we were pregnant again, is everything alright?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, it’s nothing, just a little shock is all.”
Percy laughed, “You of all people shouldn’t be surprised.”
Grover snorted, “Am I surprised you freaks are having another kid? Absolutely not. It’s just…We’re coming up on 13 years since you fulfilled the prophecy and 17 since I brought you to Camp Half-Blood and it just kinda…hit me…” he started tearing up, “I just…I’ve seen and heard about so many demigods just coming and going and all so young and I just can’t believe that you’ve made it this far…I-I never thought I’d see this day and I love you both so much and I’m just so happy and excited and overwhelmed that you’ve come this far.”
Annabeth and Percy both started tearing up themselves.
“Awwww Grover! We never imagined we’d make it this far either, but we love you so much too.” Annabeth sobbed.
Percy pulled Grover in for a bone-crushing hug, “come here G-man, this is what you get for making the pregnant lady cry.”
Annabeth soon joined in the hug as well, and if Sally took a picture of the three of them hugging like they were little kids once again, they didn’t even seem to notice.