Pampered by the Villainous Tyrant King

Chapter 48

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.