This is going to be a sweet chapter, it’s really just fluff :)

Chapter Quote:
“I want you for worse or for better, I would wait forever and ever, broke your heart, I’ll put it back together, and I would wait forever and ever, and that’s how it works.  That’s how you get the girl.”
~How You Get The Girl, Taylor Swift “1989”
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Chapter 20: Time to Talk

Luke 

The minute Shiloh disappeared, I started pulling out the decorations.  I’m pretty sure she’d forgotten it was her birthday today.  That or she didn’t care it was her birthday.  But hey, this would be her twenty-first.  That’s big for a demigod!  I grabbed the Christmas lights and hung them around the crown molding on the walls.  I made sure the lights worked before moving on to arranging the flowers.  I had white stargazer lilies, her favorite, but I also added white carnations tipped with red, and these really cool light pink and orange flowers (I think they were called dahlias?).  I attempted to arrange them in the best manner possible but I’m no florist, so I just made sure it looked as good as I could get it.  After setting the vase on the table, I went to work on dinner.  I’d bought a massive prime rib roast.  It would give us leftovers for a good three or four days along with the sides and dessert (which was actually a cake I was making).  I made the cake itself first, throwing the ingredients together and putting it in the oven.  Afterwards I started making the sides including Yorkshire pudding, carrots, roast potatoes (which thankfully there was another oven to use), and finally the prime rib.  I didn’t have to do much with it, and once the cake was out and cooling, I changed the temperature on the oven and stuck the Prime Rib in.  While I waited for the cake to cool so I could put on the icing, I wrapped her gifts up.  I’d bought them a while back, before Thalia had come to camp.  It was a necklace and the entire Game of Thrones series and the Captain America movies.  I was glad the items were square though (the necklace came in a box) so it was easy to wrap.  I’d tried wrapping non-rectangular objects, and let me tell you, it’s not easy.  I placed them next to the flowers, arranging them from largest on bottom to smallest on top.  While the prime rib and sides still cooked, I iced and decorated (to the best of my weak ability) the cake.  It was done in forty minutes, perfect timing because right after I’d put it in the fridge, Shiloh came down.  Her eyes widened.

“What’s all this?” She asked.

“It’s your birthday,” I laughed. “Did you forget?”

“I- yeah, I did.  I thought I’d be celebrating it on my own so I didn’t really think about it.  Where’d you get all this stuff?”

“Belize.  When you were buying your things, I bought mine and hid them in my backpack.  Although your presents I brought with me.  I’ve had those a while.  You can open them now or after dinner or while we’re eating cake.”

“Where on earth did you get a cake?”

“I baked it.”

“You baked one?”

“I wasn’t planning mass destruction my entire time in Kronos’ army.  I taught myself some things.  Baking and cooking being one of them.  Now flower arranging and gift wrapping, those I’m still working on.”

“Luke, this is amazing!  You didn’t have to do all this,” Shiloh insisted, lightly touching a lily’s petal.

“I didn’t have to, but I wanted to.  Twenty-one is a big milestone, especially for a demigod.  And to celebrate,” I said, pulling out a big bottle of port, “Wine to celebrate your first legal drink.  But if you don’t like wine, I have some Kahlua Mudslide.  Stuff’s delicious.”

“Let’s go with the wine and save the Kahlua for later.  I feel that’s more of an afternoon drink,” she said.  I nodded and put the Kahlua away.  Grabbing two wine glasses, I poured the dark liquid and handed one to Shiloh. “Cheers!”

“Cheers!” she repeated.

“The roast will be done in a few minutes.”

“Want any help?”

“No way, this is your birthday.  Your job is to sit back and relax,” I ordered.

She saluted me. “Aye, aye, captain!”

“Lieutenant, actually.  You’re the captain of this ship here.”

“Technicalities.”

I smiled and turned around, checking on dinner.  Five minutes later, the prime rib was out of the oven.  I cut some slices off and put them on the plate before putting heaping amounts of the sides on.  I served them on the table and sat down.

“Happy twenty-first birthday, Shiloh!” I declared.

“Thank you.” She smiled sweetly at me.  We clinked our glasses and took a sip of wine before digging into the food.  Now, I don’t want to sound conceited, but damn was the meal good.  We devoured it, both going back for seconds, albeit much less than we had before since there was cake to be had.

“Crap, I forgot candles!” I groaned when I pulled out the cake from the fridge.

“Don’t worry about it,” Shiloh said. “Just the fact that you made me a cake is wonderful!  Thank you!”

Still berating myself mentally, I started singing Happy Birthday (extremely off key).  Shiloh was blushing profusely and laughed to cover up her embarrassment.  At least I wasn’t the only one embarrassed.  I swear my singing could kill some monsters.  Once the song was finished, I about to cut some pieces for us when Shiloh said, “Let’s just eat it off the plate.  I mean, it’s only the two of us here.”

Grinning, I handed her a fork.  We dug in, stuffing our faces with chocolate cake and vanilla icing.  We brought the cake over to the table (still eating it).  Sitting down, I handed her the biggest present, wanting to save the smallest for last.  It was the most special.

“Luke, what in Poseidon’s name did you get me that is so tall?  And how did you fit this in your duffel bag with everything else?”

“Just open it and see,” I urged.  She gave me curious smirk but did as told.  It was the entire collection of the Game of Thrones series.  She hugged the books tightly to her chest after she marveled each one.

“This is the best.  I love it, I love it, I love it!” Shiloh exclaimed.  She proceeded to squeal, literally, when she opened her second present, the Captain America movies.  She said these were both being watched tonight.  And tomorrow.  And the day after that.  I laughed and handed her the last present.  Unwrapping it, her mouth dropped open.

“Luke, it’s stunning!” she breathed, holding the aquamarine and diamond necklace.  The gem was in the middle and the diamonds swirled outward from it; it almost looked like a hurricane.

“It reminded me of you.”

“How?” She put the necklace on.

“Well the shape reminded me of a hurricane and you’re like a hurricane yourself.”

“Destructive?” She queried, looking up at me.

“Powerful,” I corrected.

Her lips spread across her face into a fully-fledged grin. “This is never coming off.”

“I’m glad you like it,” I said.

“Like it?  I’m in love with it!  Where did you get the money to get it though?”

“I had some money stashed away when I ran off.  Earned some over the years from Chiron too and I’ve always kept it for special occasions.”

She fiddled with it. “The talk you wanted with me.  I know this is a total mood killer but I feel like it has something to do with you being here now.  What you said a few nights ago, about my curse being broken, you broke it when you kissed me in the Underworld, didn’t you?”

“That’s my assumption.  Or it might be the fact that we’re apparently soul mates, according to Aphrodite.”

“We’re what?”

“Don’t worry, I was just as surprised as you.”

“Why’d you fall for me though?  Not all soul mates are meant to be partners.  I can’t shake the feeling that you’re soul mates with Thalia and Annabeth after everything you three have been together.  Why did you choose me over Thalia when you had such a history with her?”

“It started even before Thalia.  Before she came, whenever I wasn’t around you, even if I was focused on another task, in the back of my mind, I was always excited whenever I’d get to be near you again.  And whenever I saw you, I’d always get this little… jump in my heart.  When Thalia came, don’t get me wrong, I do love Thalia.  She and I survived a lot together.  But even with her, I still thought about you.  It was then that it dawned on me you weren’t a crush… I was sort of kind of in love with you.”

“So why’d you ignore me for a month if you were in love with me?”

“I thought you wanted space after that Underworld kiss so for the first week I just left you alone, thinking you didn’t want to be around me.  The second week, I’d been going to go up to you but whenever I was about to go talk to you, I lost all confidence and finally decided if you wanted to talk to me, you would.  You’re a child of Poseidon.  You like to do things on your own terms.  But come the third week, I thought I should actually talk to you but when I would start nearing you, you’d disappear.  Fourth week, I just believed you didn’t want anything to do with me.  Stupid of me now that I think about it but looking back, it seemed like the right choice at the time.” My eyes had drifted down to staring at my wine glass.  I felt like such a fool reminiscing my actions.  How could I be so stupid?  I should’ve talked to her.  Maybe then she wouldn’t have left.  Maybe then we’d actually be together and I wouldn’t be struggling just to be her friend again.

“I should’ve done something too.  To be honest, I felt like my curse had been broken after you kissed me, but I didn’t want to believe it.  It just seemed too good to be true.  And I knew you wanted to see Thalia again, so me having Annabeth call her seemed like the right thing to do.  I didn’t plan on you two dating.  When that happened, I immediately thought my curse was still going.”

“Did you mean it when you thought you didn’t stand a chance in dating me when Thalia came back?”

Shiloh nodded. “Like I said, you two had so much history together whereas you and I had hardly any, despite what we went through to get you to stay on earth.  It just didn’t seem physically possible.  I tried so hard not to fall for you because I knew how it’d end up for me, but I couldn’t help it.  I told myself I didn’t love you, but I knew the truth.  I knew I’d fallen fall you.  Maybe my fear of losing you if I tried to make it work between us like that influenced my decisions to leave you alone during those four months.  I’m regretting those decisions now.”

“You didn’t know.”

“I do now though.  I’m going to assume from your statement the other day, about travelling three hundred miles just to talk to me, that you’re still in love with me?”

I chuckled. “Yes, that would constitute the very true prospect that I’m in love with you.” I paused. “This is going to be really awkward if it’s only a one way love.”

“Ah, no, it’s not one way,” she laughed.

“So… does that mean you want to give us a shot?”

“Yes.  Yes it does.”

My face broke out into a grin.  I didn’t know what to do to celebrate.  Shiloh did.  She grabbed me by my shirt and pulled my lips to hers.  She certainly caught me by surprise but I had no problem getting accustomed to it.  The kiss didn’t last long but that was okay.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long,” she admitted.

“What was stopping you?” I countered.

“Oh just fear of rejection and fear of losing you thanks to that bloody curse.”

“Correction then: what’s stopping you now?”

Shiloh seemed genuinely confused when she replied, “I have no idea.”

We kissed again.
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FINALLY THEY’RE TOGETHER TOOK THEM LONG ENOUGH okay review please :)

Here’s the link to Shiloh’s necklace!

http://www.kay.com/images/products/3727/372750303_MV_ZM.jpg