Chapter 16

Apollo POV

To be completely honest I wasn't sure how to react to his question. Part of me was ready to punch his lights out for even thinking he might be good enough for my sister. But before I did my brain kicked in and I started thinking. 'He is extremely loyal.' I thought 'So he won't go cheating on my sister. But he won't hang out with me if I'm heading to a bar or some of favorite clubs anymore'. 'Actually Arty hates that I do it so that's probably a good thing. He's a good fighter, even dad recognized he was good enough to protect Arty.'

I looked at Percy, he looked handsome I guess I'm not gay though but I picked up an idea for what girls look for over the years. I thought about a few other things but two things came to mind that were a game changers first 'Arty really seems happy with Percy and he a good guy.'and second'Dad's been wanting sis to marry for a while and I know he's been trying to get her to marry Heracles ever since my half brother divorced Hebe. That's why he wanted him to be guardian of the hunt but she hates him. If I let her marry Percy she'll be happy and she can get out of any chance of marrying that pig plus it wouldn't be that bad to have Percy as a brother'.

I looked at Percy who was getting really nervous and said "Ok I give you my blessing to marry my sister, but if you hurt her I will throw you in Tartarus myself got it."

Percy nodded smiling "Thank you." he said.

I was about to leave when I remembered something "Oh and Percy just so you know when it comes to marriage for a god or goddess the moment the girl says yes and puts on the ring you're officially married. Also don't tell Arty you asked my permission to marry her or we're both dead." I said flashing out.

Percy POV

I stood there stunned by what Apollo just said, the part about the instant marriage thing not Artemis killing us I already knew that. I felt someone grab my hand and I looked over to see Arty with her hand in mine "Hey you want to take a walk outside?" I asked.

"Sure" she said. We walked along the beach which happened to be near the restaurant. The moon was shining brightly and the sea slightly choppy which matched the nervous feeling in my gut. I turned to Artemis and said "Arty there's something I wanted to tell you." I took a deep breath "I love you more than anything and I want to be with you for the rest of my life however long that may be." I said dropping to a knee and pulling out a little black box "So Artemis will you marry me?".

I sat there for a while and started to get nervous because of her stunned expression. My mind started playing all the different scenarios including me getting shot by her bow and turned into an animal for even suggesting it. But she answered with my single most favorite word in the English language "Yes." she said softly before planting a kiss on my lips.

We broke apart just long enough for me to slip the the ring on her finger. I had asked Hephaestus to forge it for me, without telling him who it was for of course. It was a simple silver ring with the center middle third made of a dark sea emerald with the words'I will always love you.' carved into it that could disappear if the wearer wanted them to.

As soon as the ring was on her finger we were both enveloped in a white light I assumed signified that we were now married. I kissed her again before returning to the restaurant to finish our dance. Afterwards we went back to camp, we talked in her private room and decided that we would break the news to the hunters in the morning.

I was just about to leave when there was a knock at the door and Artemis had me move off to the side. Arty opened the door and Thalia walked in and locked the door behind her.

"Milady I need to talk to you about me and Nico." and before I could voice my presence she said "On our date today he proposed and I said yes. Now I know that you only gave me permission to date but…" Artemis held up a hand effectively cutting her off.

"It's ok Thalia I'll allow it." Arty said "In fact I was going to announce to the hunters that they could date tomorrow."

"Really?!" Thalia said slightly surprised "So I guess that means things have been going well with your boyfriend."

Artemis merely held up the back of her hand and cheekily said "You tell me.".

Thalia ran over and said "He proposed?" Arty nodded. "And you said yes?!" she nodded again a faint blush forming on her cheeks. Thalia stood up straight, folded her arms across her chest and said "Do I finally get to meet this guy now that you two are engaged."

"Well technically we're married." Artemis said.

"WHAT!!!" Thalia shouted 'Good thing we're in a soundproof room.' I thought as I rubbed my ears.

"Since I'm a goddess the moment I said yes we we're by ancient law already married." Artemis explained. "And I guess it is only right that you know who my husband is." she said standing up and walking over to me.

That was when Thalia noticed me for the first time, she paled "P-Percy how long have you been there?" she asked.

"The whole time." I said.

Thalia looked at Artemis and said"Artemis I'm so sorry I should have made sure we were alone before I started talking about your boyf-husband I mean.".

"It's fine Thalia in fact I would like to introduce you to Perseus Jackson, Hero of Olympus, Prince of the sea, and My husband." she said giving me a peck on the lips.

"Percy you're Artemis's husband?" she asked incredulously.

"That would be correct pine cone face." I said putting my arm around Artemis. Thalia congratulated us on our marriage and we did the same in turn for her and Nico.

Then I thought of something that I had to voice "Um Artemis." I said. "I just realised that now that we're married you're officially Melissa's mother."

Artemis hugged me tighter "Our little girl." she said looking up at me"This is the best birthday present ever".

'Crap it's her birthday?' I thought "Happy birthday." I said before mouthing to Thalia 'What's the date?' she held in a laugh and wrote something on a piece of paper and held it up 'March 12' it said 'Thank you.' I mouthed.

"Well I'll let you two go to bed you look like you need some rest." Thalia said rushing out the door.

I looked down at Artemis "About that … I'm going to sleep in my cabin to night." I said.

"Why?"

"Because you leave the door open all night so they can come talk to you and I think it would be a really bad if that's how they found out."

"You have a point." she said sadly giving me a kiss "Besides I have some other stuff I need to do on Olympus." she kissed me again "See you tomorrow." she said and I left.

Artemis POV

After Percy left I flashed to Aphrodite's palace to flaunt my new wedding ring, this kind of thing wasn't really my style but I was in an exceptional mood. Aphrodite was already there with Athena and Hestia, Aphrodite insisted that we had to have a weekly meeting where we gave status updates on our relationships.

We couldn't really say no because of how long we kept her in the dark. "Oh finally Artemis is here." Aphrodite said "Now we can get started." she pulled us onto the couch and sat on the couch directly across from us on the the coffee table.

"So what the news I feel love rolling off you girls?"

I decided to go first "Well this is new." I said holding out my hand. Aphrodite squealed and grabbed my hand

"He proposed?" I nodded *fifteen minutes later*

"Ok, ok." Aphrodite said calming down a bit "What about you?" she asked Athena but before she could answer we heard someone clear their throat.

We turned around to see Hera standing in the hallway "I think I've heard enough." she said walking towards us "I'm guessing you probably don't want me to tell Zeus about your little boyfriends so how about we make a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Athena said seemingly debating on simply killing the woman.

"Oh it's simple really." Hera said "Zeus has a little ring that I made him swear by the strongest oaths I could, never to take off. The ring is enchanted to prevent him from having affairs but the amount of energy needed to power it is hard to come by which brings me to my offer." Hera pulled out a piece of Paper that looked to be made of gold.

"Because of what's going to happen tomorrow I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of baby gods soon so I want their first 20 years of godhood." Hera said summoning a contract"By signing this with your blood you are willingly giving me their power, for the first 20 years of their life they'll be just like regular demigods, mortal. But when they turn 20 they'll become full gods instantly you won't even need the consent of the council."

"Also I want the godhood of six of your kids total. By nature of this spell you can't each do two so one will have 1 the next 2 and the last 3 you can either decide yourselves or make it random to be honest I don't care. In exchange I will keep any knowledge I have about your relationships now and in the future to myself. I'll also help cover for you when I can." She said.

"Oh and no sending messages to your little boyfriends or Zeus will know before they even arrive."Hera said looking please with her self "If I disappear there's numerous messages that are to be sent directly to my husband informing him of what I know."

I took a deep breath and Athena said "What you ask requires three of us, do you intend on have Aphrodite sign this to?".

"No" Hera said shaking her head "Hestia will be the third."

"But she's not with anyone!" I said

"Oh really?" Hera said looking at her sister.

Hestia looked down "Actually that's has recently changed I was going to bring it up in the meeting.".

I looked at Hestia and Athena and we came to a silent, reluctant, agreement. "What do we do?" Athena asked.

Hera walked us through the steps, we decided to make it random on who had the most mortal children. After we finished each of our right arms glowed and black bands with our sacred animal on each appeared on our arms. "What are these?" I asked.

"Oh those represent your kids." Hera said "When they become gods the band will break, they will also have an identical band on their arm."

Hera got up to leave but I had a something that was nagging at me "Why us rather than any of the other gods you could have pick to do this." I asked.

"Because among the kids the three of you have there will be firstborns." Hera said over her shoulder practically dancing out of the palace.

The first thing we did was see who got what number of bands. Athena had 1 with an owl on it, Hestia had 2 with cranes, and I had 3 with wolves on them, my less well know sacred animal. After that I had to ask "So what is a first born? I mean I get that it's the first kid we have but what does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

Hestia just looked at me and said "Well when a god or goddess has their first child more of their power is given to them making them stronger than normal. They're more in tune with their parents domains, this is usually shown as a birthmark or a tattoo somewhere on their body. Haven't you noticed that eagle tattoo on Athena's leg that's her mark. Also there's one more thing the child must be naturally born which means that even though Athena has had many children she has yet to have her firstborn."

We sat while me and Athena took all that in, I was mostly trying to figure out how I was going to tell Percy what I had done and I imagine Athena was doing the same thing. "Lets get back to the meeting" Athena said and I nodded my head in agreement needing something to take my mind off what just happened.

Athena simply said that she had a big surprise that was going to happen during tomorrow's council meeting which annoyed Aphrodite to no end but we moved on. Hestia blushed when we asked what her news was "Well there's this boy at camp half blood that I've been seeing, he was one of the few people that could see me and we talked often and over the last month I realized that I loved him. It's a little funny because I hadn't even realized we had been dating but I'm happy."

"So thats why you've been in your 18 year old form all month!" Athena said.

Hestia nodded and continued "Then yesterday he did something I didn't expect. After dinner while everyone was at the campfire we were talking and he accidentally let it slip that he loved me too. At first both of us were shocked but he seemed to gather his courage and he swore on styx that he loved me and had for a while. Then he asked me to marry him and I said yes." Hestia finished showing us a ring that was made of a solid red ruby and shimmered as if it was made of fire instead. I have to say my mouth was on the floor but I was happy.

"So who is he?" Aphrodite asked getting barely an inch from Hestia's face.

Hestia made her back up then said "Leo, Leo Valdez."

We all said our congratulations and then Aphrodite made an announcement. "I'm pregnant." she said. I reached out with my power to make sure she was and to check on the health of the baby seeings as I was the goddess of childbirth and all, her baby was fine which didn't surprise me what did was the other thing I sensed.

Athena noticed the look on my face and asked me what was wrong "Aphrodite isn't the only one" I said before I could stop myself which successfully gave me everyone's full and undivided attention.

"Are you..." Aphrodite started to say but I shook my head. Athena shook her head as well before looking at Hestia who went from paralyzed in place to practically screaming in joy.

"I'm going to be a mom." over and over. On that happy note we separated and went home.

Percy POV

The next morning I got up and went to a meeting with Chiron and the other cabin leaders where he informed us about the gods coming to visit and to be on our best behavior. Afterwards I went straight to Artemis's cabin with Thalia.

"So you nervous about telling them?" she asked I nodded. We walked in and Artemis asked us all to link hand so she could flash us to her palace.

Once there she pulled me into a side room "Percy there's something I need to tell you." she said seemingly ashamed.

"What is it?" I asked.

She looked away refusing to meet my gaze"Last night Hera came to me, she found out about us somehow and she gave me a choice. I had to give her the first 20 years of godhood our first 3 kids would have or she would tell Zeus and have you killed. I couldn't think of a way out so I agreed to her terms, I'm so sorry." Artemis said starting to cry in the last half.

I pulled her close "Its ok, we'll be fine we'll still be a family." I said.

She looked up at me with tears in her eye's "Your not mad?" she asked.

"I actually I'm beyond mad, but not with you." I said wiping the tears from her cheeks "Why would I be, this couldn't have been an easy decision to make and you did your best. No the one I'm mad at is Hera.".

Artemis calmed down and gave me kiss before we headed back into the main room "Where did you two run off to?" Phoebe asked.

"We just needed to talk about somethings." I said.

"Also I have a few announcements I would like to make." Artemis said taking a deep breath "First I have decided that I will allow you all to date and marry a boy if you so choose but the boy must be cleared by me."

Most hunters mouths dropped at her statement "The next announcement will be given by Thalia" Artemis said stepping aside. Thalia took a deep breath and glanced at the door, probably deciding whether or not she should make a run for it, then back at us. "Lady Artemis over the past month has let me date a boy as a sort of test run to see if it could work and as you can see it did. But that's not the announcement, the announcement is that I'm engaged now to Nico di Angelo." she said most didn't know what to think but some of Thalia's closer friends come up and congratulate her.

"I have one other announcement." Artemis said "I myself am now married." this led to an uproar of questions such as 'Who is he?' and 'Were you forced to marry him.'. She waited for them to calm down and said "I will say this right now I was not forced or pressured by him or anyone else to marry him, I chose to marry him of my own free will." Artemis took a deep breath "Now without further adieu I would like to introduce you to my husband Percy Jackson".

All the hunters eyes widened and turned to me except Thalia who already knew. I wasn't sure what to say so I just stood there waiting to see how they would react. Melissa walked over to Artemis and asked in a very cute voice "If you married my daddy does that make you my mommy?" Artemis nodded with a smile on her face. "Mommy!!" Melissa said hugging her tightly around the waist and everyone smiled.

Thankfully the hunters accepted it and I only got shot once by a blunt arrow from Phoebe who was just joking around but it still hurt. Artemis then sent the hunters back to camp while me and her went to the throne room where we found my Father and Zeus by themselves talking.