Princes and Peasants

Chapter 19

[ Ok, well, I know a lot of you are mad at me right now for the cliffhanger, and to add to that, the update delay. In my defense, my mother just had surgery a few days back, and I've been overly obsessed with Doctor Who. And yes, I'm a Whovian! ]

~PERCY~
The door to this Grover guy's house opened to reveal an old man in his late 50's. He had tan, cocoa colored skin, and curly grey hair. His green, dull eyes bored into us in annoyance.

"What, do, you, WANT!" He yelled again, his voice echoing through the forest.

Annabeth looked at me with a nod before opening her mouth to speak.

"Sir, I was wondering if a Grover Underwood lived here?" She inquired, in the politest voice I've ever heard her use.

"Grover? You mean my son? Yea, he's out back, sweetie." He motioned for us to enter the cabin. Well someone's bipolar.

We stepped into what seemed to be a living room. On the couch, a girl and boy were cuddling, asleep.

The boy had brown, curly hair, and light tan skin. The girl had red, straight hair, and the same skin color as the boy. I would describe how old I thought they were, but both of them seemed ageless. They both could have been their forties, or they both could have been their twenties.

I looked towards Annabeth and I found silent tears falling down her beautiful face. I squeezed her hand to reassure her.

She let go of my hand and slowly made it to who I thought to be Grover, and she lightly tapped his shoulder.

His eyes slowly opened to reveal a chocolate brown and to take in the sight of Annabeth still crying.

"A-Annabeth... is that y-you?" He questioned, hopeful.

She nodded before he took her in for a hug. Cue the awkwardness, because I again barely knew this dude, who for some reason lives out in the middle of the forest, and is currently hugging my lover.

After a bit of catching up with each other, in which I learned that Grover and his wife, Juniper, were nature lovers that moved out here with his dad after marriage, they decided to wake sleeping beauty.

Juniper opened her green eyes at the mention of Annabeth and  instantly jumped up to crush her in a hug. From what I can understand from their conversations after the greeting, the couple and Annabeth were long-time friends before marriage and the move to the forest.

They talked and talked, I felt like a fourth-wheel if that was possible.

The day was spent in happiness,(for them, not me, it was boring)and the warmth of the sun, but at nightfall it began to get pretty cold, resulting in us sleeping in the warm kitchen, next to the hot stove.

~ANNABETH~
By morning, the glorious sun was back, thankfully.

Whilst admiring the wonderful weather, Percy got up to get breakfast.

Being out so far in the forest, no one could worry about the soldiers tearing through households to find us. I pray that no one gets injured because of my horrible love-life.

I looked up to see my prince attempting to "cook" eggs. Of course he failed.

Deciding that he needed help, I got up to help the poor guy.

I took the pan from his hand, making him blush. I sent him a smirk as I expertly flipped the eggs in the pan.

As we finished breakfast, I heard a soft thud on the old, wooden kitchen floor. Juniper had woken up.

Yawning, I greeted her good morning. She did the same and sat next to Percy at the breakfast table.

Grover than came moaning into the kitchen, half asleep.

After murmuring a good morning, he proceeded to sit next to his wife. She then responded by getting up to make the sleepy pair breakfast.

The morning was quiet, full of small talk and memories. Grover's father showed up at noon, at lunch, half asleep like his son.

Lunch contrasted to the morning, we had quite the time, laughing at Grover's humorous father.

Right before night, we packed our things, bid our friends good bye, and headed back out to the silent, dark forest so that we could begin the lonely journey to the kingdom next door.

Little did I know it would be an extremely interesting week out.

[ Short, jumpy, and quick. Not what I wanted, but eh. Sorry guys, you must really hate me right now. Like I said earlier, obsessed with Doctor Who... love you guys! Did I mention the 3.14 K? YAAAASSSSSSS!!!!! ]