heaven and hell and back again (heaven is you)

heaven

ANNABETH

Annabeth was standing in the middle of the room. She hadn't yet put on her dress, letting Piper flit around her with makeup and hairpins first. From here, she could see herself in the mirror, and though she looked even more beautiful with every stroke of Piper's brushes, all she could think was hurry.

She eyed the bouquet of flowers on the table. Of course, Percy had insisted on blue being a part of today. She'd thought his obsession with blue was odd, if endearing, until she'd found out that love had come from his mother. It only endeared him to her more. When picking out the color she wanted, Piper had seemed to think she would want gray, the color of her mother. She remembered very vividly the way both Percy and Piper had laughed at the vehemence in her "no." Gray was too plain a color for what she knew would be the happiest day of her life. She'd toyed with the two cool colors for a long time, but when she'd looked up to see her fiance watching her with abundant, eternal love overflowing in his eyes, she'd decided on green.

Though her stepmother had wanted her to choose a traditionally all-white dress, she'd picked out one with a little blue to it, and there was blue in her flowers and earrings and on the shoes she'd borrowed from Piper. Percy's suit was a dark blue, with a white flower and green leaves pinned to it. They'd both seen the outfits the other was going to wear, but Percy had insisted that if he wasn't allowed to see her in her dress until the actual wedding, she couldn't see him either. His groomsmen — Grover, Frank, Tyson, and Nico— were dressed in dark green suits, and her bridesmaids — Piper, Hazel, Clarisse, and Rachel — had all picked different dresses in the same shade of light green.

Sally was in the room with all the girls, clad in her own green dress. Standing there, with the overhead light shining on her, in the dress that made her look ten years younger, Annabeth found it easy to see how she had attracted the attention of a god. But Annabeth found her eyes lingering on the laugh lines on Sally's face and the gray streaks threaded through her dark hair. She could hardly wait to grow old with Percy and have lines on her own face. She missed the matching gray streaks that she and Percy had once had, but she knew it was only a matter of time before they returned.

Estelle was there, too, in a shimmery little dress of soft green. Annabeth had suggested her as the flower girl before Percy had even been able to get the idea out. She was playing in the corner with Clarisse, who got along with the little girl almost surprisingly well. Annabeth could see her and Percy asking Clarisse to babysit for them one day.

Piper finished with Annabeth's makeup and helped her step into her dress. The top was fitted and modest, white silk curving over her chest. The lace piece over it came up to her throat, with lace sleeves ending just below her elbows. A plain piece of white silk was at her waist, cinching the dress in there. The skirt was soft white tulle over a smooth blue underskirt so that the colors blended together, and that whole skirt was over a shorter skirt, so that she could remove the long one after the ceremony. She was fairly certain Aphrodite had had a hand in seamlessly working the dress together because it was perfect. Sapphires and diamonds gleamed at her ears and neck, and her heels, the ones from Piper, were dark blue as well. They weren't high, but she had little practice with fancy clothes, so Percy had laughed at her as she shakily walked around in them. Then he'd taken her hands and spun her around as they danced together down the hallways of his mother's apartment.

They had their own apartment now, one they'd filled and decorated together. She couldn't wait to move in together when they returned from their little trip. The honeymoon destination had been his idea. He'd told her that it was a shame she'd never truly gotten to appreciate the ancient world while they'd been there a couple of years ago. She'd protested, weakly, that they couldn't possibly afford it. He only shrugged. His father and her mother and Zeus owed them a lot of favors, as he saw it. They were only calling on one of them.