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chapter ninety-eight. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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YOU KNOW HOW WHEN A KID GETS A NEW TOY, they carry it around with them everywhere, never ever let it out of their sight, and show it off to anybody that will listen?
That was kinda me with Apollo's bow. Everyone on Olympus had heard of my receiving it, whether it be by me or someone else. But it was probably by me.
Percy and I were on our way out of the throne room when he grabbed my arm and held me from continuing on. I looked up, confused, when I realized what he was looking at: Hermes, standing in a side courtyard of the palace, staring at an Iris-message in the mist of the fountain.
Percy turned to me. "I'll meet you at the elevator."
My gaze trailed slowly away from Hermes and onto Percy. I paused, staring up at him. At the boy who'd just turned down immortality for me. If that didn't mean he liked me, I wasn't sure what did. My stomach twisted and my lips pursed. Before I could stop myself, I said, "Are you my boyfriend, Percy?"
He was clearly taken aback by the question—he arched a dark eyebrow, a faint smirk dancing across his features for a fleeting second. "I don't know. Do you want me to be your boyfriend?"
I raised my eyebrows, only barely keeping the smile from my face. "Maybe a little bit. But I need to know if you want this as much as I do."
Percy's brow furrowed, and for the first time, he broke into an amused grin, beaming down at me. He took a long pause before replying, like we had all the time in the world. Which I guess, in a way, we did.
"Gods, Sunshine," he said, laughing, "you are way too smart to not know how I feel about you. But if you want me to put it into words, I guess I can try my best: I'm absolutely crazy about you. And when I say I love you, I mean it. No doubt about it. I've loved you ever since the first time I met you. And I think you've loved me this whole time, too—because, duh, how could you not? I think the most unbelievable part of all this is that Grover and Annabeth realized it before either of us did."
A laugh bubbled past my lips, and I shook my head, in disbelief of his determination. "Actually, I think the whole camp knew before we did."
"So?" Percy said, raising his eyebrows at me. "What do you say? Do I sound worthy enough of loving you? Because if you say no after all of th—"
I pulled him by the straps of his armor into a kiss, and his hands slid around my waist, holding me like he never wanted to let go again. I sure didn't want to.
When our lips parted, he grinned at me like I was the most perfect thing he'd ever seen. "Now that that's established, I'm going to go talk to Hermes."
