Maidenhood

Epilogue

"...and I was thinking about leaving the bed here, you of course can change the colors and such." I mentioned to Clare.

"It's alright, Ms. Dare-"

"Please, Clare, it's Rachel." I insisted upon the shy fifteen-year-old, wrapping a gentle arm around her shoulders. She smiled softly and nodded. "Now, seriously, if you want a different color, or even different furniture, you're entitle to say so and your resident patron here will change it, won't you?" I glanced at the silent Apollo with an arched eyebrow.

"Of course she can! I'm not so kind of monster!" I kept staring at him with my eyebrow and he relented. "Oh, for my sake, just stop it!" He groaned and left my presence, to check on the people who kindly offered to move Clare's things into my old cave.

Yep, you heard right. My old cave. Apollo appeared at my 34th birthday and said that I was going to be replaced soon by a young Oracle (and yes, he did used the word 'younger', which kind of made me feel old and useless, but I took my revenge on him by smacking the back of his head. Not before someone grabbed him by the ear and explained him the facts of life).

My replacement- poor thing, I shouldn't use the 'replacement' on her, she's a human being -is Clare, an orphaned girl from North Carolina. Very sweet and respectful, a bit shy, but that will disappear over time. I actually couldn't wait but to meet her and I was pestering about everyone about it. When Apollo, in all his mighty glory decided to show up and tell me the poor had no one, I did the only thing I could.

I adopted the girl.

Thankfully, I wasn't alone taking that decision.

"Don't worry, Clare. You will have years of practice to throw Apollo away just with one look." I heard behind us. I rolled my eyes before raising my eyebrow at Octavian. "See? She practice with little old me every single day-"

"Just because I'm tired of repeating you that you have to put a new milk on the fridge every time you finish one does not mean I use you as practice!" I interrupted him. He acted all wound up and Clare giggled.

"Is that the way to treat your husband-to-be?"

"Since when you started to behave like a clown?" I argued back and he fake glared at me, before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer to his chest, almost like in a wrestling move. "Octavian!" I pulled away, all flushed, not really angry.

"Fine, fine dear... Explain everything to Clare and then, off we go!" He hugged and kissed Clare's forehead before doing the same with me and leaving the cave. Like an idiot, I kept looking his way.

"Apollo doesn't like him much..." Clare voiced out and I sighed, guiding her to bed.

"That would actually be my fault. Some of it were theirs, but most of it was mine." I explained to her, smiling softly. He raised an eyebrow, just like I do, but she was curious about my statement. "You see, when I started this Oracle job, it was forbidden for us to even consider dating someone. It didn't matter if you liked boys, girls or even rocks. Apollo had it forbidden."

"But..." Clare frowned at my story. "You guys are going to get married soon... You guys adopted me, single people can't do that..."

"Well, under special circumstances you can adopt while being single." I added, thoughtful. "And, I know... But we had to fight a long time for Apollo to accept that he had lost..."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was your age, I was curious about what dating was like. I had only liked one guy until then and he had a girlfriend he loved very much." I started the tale, remembering about Percy and Annabeth. "So, and because my father was very good about doing it and I picked up the skills, I drew up a contract saying that Apollo should let me have dates that didn't interfere with the Oracle job."

"And he just let you?" She asked me, in wonder. I chuckled, remembering those days.

"Well, no at first... He even decided to date me, so I could never pick someone else, but he blew his chances thirty minutes into the date. Story for another time." I emphasized when I saw her opening her mouth to ask. "What you do need to do now, is to sigh the Dating Contract... You don't need to date right now, or you may don't wanna date at all, but if you want the chance to try it, this will allow it."

I saw Clare reading the contract I drew up almost twenty years ago, making me think about those chosen ones. Nico and Will got married and adopted several little kids, two of them starting primary school soon. Apollo, of course, is still his womanizer self, getting in troubles and leaving kids around. Reyna and Leo had a rocky first year of dating- with the Senate and 'he almost blew up Camp Jupiter', but they are the parents of two girls now.

Regarding me? Well, I started to date Octavian. It wasn't a smooth relationship, and we did had our fair share of arguments, until we realized we could not change the other but accept the differences. We started to attend a couple of therapy classes and life started to have a new meaning and perspective. I won't deny that more than once Apollo tried to break us up, but we remained strong.

The same day that Apollo informed us of Clare, he proposed, after almost fifteen years of living together. You may imagine how that pleased my parents.

"Will you guys come to visit me?" Clare's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I simply smiled while hugging her.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Yes, life is the best!

----

Hello, boys and girls!

Today's update has a bittersweet taste to me. I'll just jump to the important bits cause there are no news regarding my personal life and such, so the news about the stories it is!

Today, with both a heavy and ecstatic heart, I announce the ENDING (I wrote it in caps so there are no misunderstandings between us, but I'll say it again, ENDING) of THREE (again, THREE) of my stories. It is sad for me, but don't worry. I won't quit writing. Here's why:

1) I still have Sis/Bro! Your Shadow is Hot! and Quest: Matchmade to post and finish.

2) I have embarked myself in two collaborations (none of them will appear in my profile, sorry), so I'll be busy for a while.

3) If you keep looking down, I left you a link to my newest poll! So, please vote there (vote will only count from there or my poll in FanFiction, so please no comments about it)

h t t p s : / / docs. google. com / forms/d/1ADdVNJSUbqXV7HtTRIW1B1zc5ZshdTh_FySStiv4tGA

Anyway! Here are the chapters today!

Rise of Ouranos (ReWrite) (former collab with LordNitro): 3 chapters! These are the last chapters, so I first want to thank LordNitro for starting this story with me (hope it reached your expectations) and you all for sticking through this rewrite. THANK YOU!

Maidenhood (adopted from TheColorofBoom): 4 chapters! These are the last chapters as well, so I want to thank TheColorofBoom for letting me take over (hope it reached your expectations) and you all for sticking through this rewrite. THANK YOU!

Sis/Bro! Your Shadow is Hot!: 1 chapter!

Masked Hearts (former collab with ReeReeWithAngst): 2 chapters! The last two chapters of this story and I want to thank ReeReeWithAngst for joining me in this collab and you for reading it. THANK YOU!

Quest: Matchmade (former collab with ReeReeWithAngst): 1 chapter!

ALSO! I'll be posting a late special chapter to my girl iamlillyherondale for her birthday. Happy birthday, sweetie! I hope you like it!

I'll just loaded with info, so have a nice weekend!
xoxo, SilverHuntresses