A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Capvt XXXIII: Heartstrings

A Crown of Golden Leaves
Christmas 2015
by xXTheDragonRiderXx

Author's Note: Okay. Please don't kill me. Sorry for the long wait? I've been drowning in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom/finals/holidays/illnesses in my family. Plus, you guys get a long chapter, Percabeth, babies and (steamy, OMG my dad's gonna kill me!) make outs. ... I think I wrote five or six drafts just to get this chapter right. *laughs*

Anyway, I recommend you grab a hot chocolate (or tea, or coffee, or whatever), find a nice dark corner to hide from nosy siblings/family, and carve out a solid half an hour before you begin this chapter because it's literally the longest chapter I've ever written. In my life. I'm steadily creeping closer to the big, bad, scary M rating. (Right now it's still in the T zone, but some of the later parts will have smut... if I don't chicken out, that is.) ...Kitty's been writing too many kisses for her own good lately. And she's got friends who've been corrupting her for over two years. For the record, I blame Kishia for everything. E V E R Y T H I N G. Help me. I don't know what I'm doing. I've never kissed someone in my life and I'm writing make-outs.

To the guest who asked about Percy's age: I'd say he's around 22/23. There's a bit of a gap between him and Annabeth, but I've seen people with more than twenty year gaps, so five years is pretty much nothing. I've also been getting a few questions about this on Wattpad: Piper is Annabeth's handmaiden, Thalia is Annabeth's bodyguard/lady in waiting (Is that the proper term?) and Luke and Nico are both her body guards. (For that matter, Jason and Reyna were Percy's bodyguards before they became praetors, but that's off track.)

...And now I'm procrastinating. I'm nervous over the make out. Please enjoy?! :)

Oh, by the way, this chapter is for Kishia. Have your make outs and smut, you animal.*slams papers in your chest and runs away* (And Chat Noir. Have a sly, smexy kitty dressed in a leather spandex. I'm sticking with the nice one. :P ...Maybe. Can we share Chat too now?)

"I would have known her anywhere and I would have followed her anywhere. She came wordlessly, and wordlessly, I followed." -Eaven Boland

Capvt XXXIII: Heartstrings

Rome

THE weather was perfect for a day so late in autumn. There were no clouds in the deep blue sky, so the sun could warm the earth. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either-the temperature was perfect, so that if she wished, Annabeth could walk outside and stay out there without breaking into a sweat or needing something heavier than a toga.

Still, she wanted to hit something. It was too perfect, this weather, as if it had forgotten too that Percy had died.

Some time had passed since they had received news of his... passing- enough, apparently, for Roman nobility to begin pestering her about what she was going to do now that she was currently the sole Heir of Rome. So far, she had turned down three proposals and thrown out so many roses that she had lost count.

It infuriated her so bad her hands shook, and she had reached the point that she had begun to snap at Piper of all people. Though Piper hadn't been any better either, snapping at her over the strangest of things, which baffled Annabeth. She knew that she hadn't done anything to upset her, so why... why now? Then she would feel guilty over being short with her friend, which would make her angry.

Nico was a godsend though, with his blunt sense of humor and honesty that she didn't really appreciate at the time. After she had ranted about the nobility and Piper, he had called her a mess. She figured he was right- especially since she felt like she was about to cave in from all the pressure and just explode like that time when she had made a paste made out of baking powder and water to draw out a bee sting. Eventually, there would be no room left inside of her to take it, and it would just fly out of her like a huge mass of chaos and destruction.