Banished

36

Percy PoV

Apollo waited for me to tell him about the purpose of my visit.

"I want to marry her," I explained. "I know that marriage traditions aren't followed normally on Olympus, but I thought it would be nice to try and let some of her family know before I proposed. I already spoke to her hunters, and they seemed fine with it."

He took a deep breath. "Percy, marriage between immortals is a lot different than marriage between mortals. Your sense of it would be all-encompassing until death. For immortals, marriages are basically putting an expiration date on the relationship."

"The keyword there is basically," I remarked. "I love her, and I want to marry her. What do you think?"

He sighed. "I wish you luck, and I'll kill you if you break her heart."

I nodded. "Of course. Anyway, could you refrain from telling anyone about my plan to propose to Artemis? If many other people find out, she'll know before I even get home."

My future brother in law nodded and waved me off.

I appeared at my girlfriend's palace and decided to make dinner.

Tacos seemed like a good idea.

To start, I stuck a few tortillas in the oven to crisp and become taco shells.

While those were in the oven, I got out several bowls, ingredients, a couple of pans, a cutting board, and a knife.

I set some ground beef in a pan and left it to cook while I began cutting up various vegetables.

Every once in a while, I went back to stir the ground beef.

Before long, I was done cooking dinner. I took the tortilla shells out of the oven and stacked them on a large plate, which I brought out to the dining room.

Next, I brought out the smallish bowls of taco toppings, each with their own spoon.

The bowl of ground beef wasn't very large, but it seemed that way in comparison to the other bowls.

As I was finishing up setting the table, Artemis appeared in the foyer.

She entered the dining room, looking for the source of the taco smell.

Upon seeing the fresh taco set up, she threw her arms around me and declared her undying love for me.

We shared a laugh and she kissed my cheek. "I do love you, Percy."

"I love you too," I reciprocated. "Now let's eat so you can tell me how good or bad my tacos are."

We sat down and ate together peacefully.

"The meeting I went to was really boring," my girlfriend supplied. "Athena was just reminding me about protocols for if I encounter a mutated monster. She did take the so-called triclopses off the collection list, so I can kill those on sight. How was the rest of your day?"

"I was organizing a surprise," I replied. "That's all you'll be getting out of me until you experience the surprise."

She took a bite out of the massive taco she assembled, and half contents fell out onto the plate.

I chuckled and passed her a clean spoon.

"Tacos, the food that not even gorgeous goddesses can eat without spilling."

We finished our dinner and Artemis sat down in my lap. "Are you sure that I won't be able to get more out of you about the surprise? I'm pretty sure there are ways that could persuade you."

"Considering you'll probably be experiencing the surprise tomorrow morning, I don't really see the point," I answered. "It's noting you need to worry about. I promise."

She kissed my cheek. "I love you, Percy."

"I love you too, Artemis," I replied, wanting to propose to her right then and there.