Work Text:
October 2nd, 2010
Demigods never really get to rest.
It’s an unfortunate fact that Annabeth has been living with since she could remember. If it wasn’t nightmares it was staying alert for monsters. Sometimes it wasn’t even a sign of actual worry, it was just hardwired into their dna.
Whether it was with her dad and step-mom, surviving on the streets, traveling with Luke and Thalia, training at Camp Half-Blood, she’d always known. She’d stayed up late sketching gothic cathedrals and sharpening daggers. Hobbies kept you sane, and training kept you alive. There was always another monster.
As she understood it, for most summer camps even when they told campers to go to sleep the kids usually stayed up late giggling and talking about boys or something equally silly that mortals did, but at Camp Half-Blood, lights out meant everyone shut the fuck up right now . Even the slightest sound could set off a demigod's instincts and propel them into full alertness, which is never a good thing when you have to be wide awake for combat practice in the morning.
Annabeth wondered if it was any different at Camp Jupiter. She unfortunately had very little time to study the biological differences between Roman and Greek demigods, let alone their sleeping arrangements and how they ran their camp.
She internally scolded herself. Maybe if she had tried to be friendlier they would be open to inviting her to look around.
Maybe if they hadn’t branded Percy like cattle she would have been a little more interested in learning.
She quickly brushed that thought aside. It was an old hurt, and not one she wanted to revisit.
She was up late now in Percy’s mom’s apartment, working on a complicated atrium for Olympus. She usually tried to work on her Olympus designs at lunch, but as today was Saturday she had spent the majority of it with Percy, and her boyfriend had distracted her with cuddles and a nap after their afternoon workout so she never got around to it.
She glanced over to a digital clock glowing slightly in the dark living room. It read 11:32.
She cursed under her breath. She missed her curfew for her dorm again. She was supposed to be back there two hours ago. She couldn’t believe she had gotten so sidetracked.
She moved to start cleaning up her designs and pencils off the table, but hesitated. She had gotten up from her nap with Percy to go finish her sketches for the day, and she didn’t want to sneak back into her dorm room without saying goodbye to him first.
On the other hand, she didn’t want to wake him up. The two of them rarely slept soundly without each other since Tartarus, though they had been getting better since Senior year had started and Annabeth had moved back into her dorm with her roommate. (Going from sleeping huddled together every night to sleeping in different beds was very painful, but it was ultimately helping them.)
Eventually she decided to go wake him up, only because she knew how anxious her boyfriend would get if he woke up and she was gone. (As she would if their positions were reversed, she knew.)
She turned around and startled slightly when she saw said boyfriend in the hall. Her hand instinctively moved to where her knife usually was strapped to her belt, but of course she didn’t have it on at the moment.
Percy was leaning heavily against the wall of the hallway, eyes heavily lidded and arms curled around himself in some sort of protective gesture. He was still in the basketball shorts and thin long sleeved shirt he had thrown on after their workout and fell asleep in.
He stared at her for a couple seconds like he couldn’t believe she was there, and she tried to send him a comforting smile to put him at ease. The silence hung between them. He shifted back and forth on his feet like a kid afraid to tell a secret.
“Hi,” he said, sounding oddly shy. Annabeth's heart lifted at the sound.
“Hi, Seaweed Brain.” She said, her smile growing a little bigger but also edged with worry. “You okay?”
He hesitated for a minute, eyes darting from her to the door of his room and back.
Wordlessly, she offered her hand to him, and immediately Percy stepped forward, gently lacing their fingers together.
She wrapped her other arm around his back, gently pressing into where his Achilles heel used to be, as he bundled his hand into the fabric of her sweatshirt (Formally his, long since stolen).
He was only an inch taller than her, so she was able to easily hold his weight when she slumped bodily against her. She tightened her hold on him a smidge and led them to the couch. As they sat down they held onto each other, and she let him relax his head on her shoulder.
“You left the bed.” He said, almost too quiet to hear.
Guilt wrapped around her heart like a vice. “I’m sorry, Perce. I thought I would have been done already. I should have told you I was getting up.”
He shook his head, exhaustion clear from the amount of effort it seemed to take. “No it’s okay. I shouldn’t have pulled you away from lunch earlier. And I’m just being a baby right now.”
Annabeth pinched his side lightly, scowling at him through the dim light. “No you aren’t. You know I get the same way. And what would Dr. Mallory say?”
Dr. Mallory was Percy’s therapist. A Roman legacy of Hygeia (A goddess of medicine) who Chiron had set up in the city to work with demigods in an attempt to help them with their issues. Percy had been seeing her weekly since the school year had started, and had been begging Annabeth to do the same just as long. She didn’t think it was for her though, no matter what her boyfriend and Chiron said.
Percy didn’t even deign that with a response. They both knew how his therapist felt about his self deprecating tendencies.
They lay there for a few seconds, Annabeth running her hand through Percy’s raven locks of hair as he played with the strings on her hoodie absentmindedly.
“It was just nightmares,” he said eventually, his soft words breaking into the night.
She had figured. They had comforted each other through enough nightmares over the years for Annabeth to become somewhat of an expert in how to handle one of Percy’s, as much as she wished she didn’t have to be. He rarely showed as much open vulnerability with her concerning this stuff, even when they were alone, and when he did it was a sure sign he needed her.
“The demigod kind?”
Percy looked at his feet.
“No,” he said.
Annabeth moved to one side of the couch and lay down, gently pulling him with her. He went without question, laying his head on her stomach as they sprawled across the couch horizontally.
“Gabe again?” She asked.
Percy sighed, shuddering, and she got her answer.
Her chest thrummed with rage and not a small amount of bloodlust, as it always did when Percy’s first stepfather was brought up.
She had only ever seen Percy cry a few times in her life, and they could all fit on one hand.
The day she had met him, and he thought his mom had died, he had sobbed into his pillow. The day he had told her he was afraid to die in the Prophecy, he had cried as they held each other on the docks. When the two of them were in Tartarus, he had shed a single tear in one of their darkest moments. When he came home from the Giant War and saw his mom and stepdad for the first time in 8 months, he had cried into their arms like a little kid.
And lastly, after their quest on the sea of monsters he had explained to her what his first stepdad was like. He had broken down into choked sobs, wrenching her heart in two, as he attempted to tell her why his mom had killed him.
To this day, she had never seen quite that expression on Percy’s face before. Sadness, of course, but also a lot of shame and guilt, mixed with what he had thought was a very real fear she would be disgusted with him.
The idea that he could possibly feel shame over the abuse Gabe had inflicted on him for years infuriated her, as it infuriated her now. The fact that her Percy, her sweet, precious, amazing Percy, had suffered through a horrendous and monstrous experience for years and was then taught that it was somehow his fault?
She doesn’t think she’s hated anyone who has ever lived as much as she hates Gabe Ugliano.
Pushing those thoughts aside, and knowing Percy doesn’t need her anger right now, she leaned downwards for a second and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Just trying to let him know she was there for him at this moment. As she had been all those years ago.
“I don’t know what it is about being a kid,” he murmured into her sweatshirt, almost inaudible. “So much worse happened— monsters, Titans, wars. But something about the monsters you meet when you’re a kid, they stick with you. You know?”
She did.
Percy shrugged, even though she hadn’t said anything. “It sucks because he’s gross and pathetic and he’s dead. I’ve fought with gods and this guy still gets to me. Some garbage mortal in a stained tank top scares me worse than the Furies.”
There was a long stretch of silence, broken only by the sound of their breathing and the background noises of New York City outside the apartment's window. Annabeth searched her mind for anything that could help, but she came up short.
She just continued to run her fingers through his hair. She never knew what to say in these moments, and she wished more than a little bit that she had some of Percy’s own uncanny ability to make someone feel better. She genuinely couldn’t count how many times he had talked her down from a panic attack or a nightmare or just a fit of sobs.
It made her feel guilty, and inadequate. Feelings that often went hand in hand with her, and feelings that piled on top of a mountain of similar feelings that she always has in the back of her mind.
She pushes the mountain away, just for now. She doesn’t have time to be insecure when her boyfriend needs her.
Before she can continue racking her brain to say something that might make him feel better, he spoke up.
“This is nice,” he said, lifting his head from her stomach and looking at her with his beautiful green eyes.
She rubs a thumb over the fragile bones in his cheek. She manages to smile, even though it hurts so much to see him like this.
“You’re nice.” She teased. It felt dumb coming out of her mouth, but he smiled wide and a little goofy so she suppose she said the right thing. At the sight of his smile her own face broke into a true grin, and they took a few moments just to look across at each other, smiling like kids again.
Percy shuffled up the couch, taking his head off her stomach and laying it on her chest. Immediately when he was close enough she put a protective hand on the small of his back. Even though he had long since lost the Achilles Curse, it was instinct at this point to protect what was once his most vulnerable spot.
“Thank you for helping.” Percy said into her hair.
“I barely did anything.” She protests immediately.
Percy shakes his head, and Annabeth laughs as some of his hair flies into her face. It was getting long again.
“You were here when I needed you. That’s enough.” He says simply.
“You’re always there when I need you.” She responds. “I’ve always got your back, Seaweed Brain. We’ve got eachothers backs.”
Percy hummed contently into her chest, the sound sending vibrations through Annabeth's body.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Annabeth asked at last, hesitant.
Percy tilted his head just enough so one bright, almost glowing sea green eye looked up at her.
“You mean the specifics? Like what I remember about it?”
She nodded. “If you want or you think it would help. You don’t have to, of course.”
Percy furrowed his brow a little bit as he thought about it, and Annabeth stifled a giggle. He always had the same look on his face when he was thinking hard about something, and while she used to think it was stupid, now she found it adorable.
“Not now, Wise Girl. Thanks though. Really.” He said at last.
She nodded, having expected that too. “You want to go back to bed then? It’s not that late. We can probably get a few hours before I have to be back for morning check up.”
She felt him stiffen immediately, and he moved to get up and onto his knees, so he was basically sitting on her lap.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t even remember that you have a curfew now. You should go back to your dorm.”
Annabeth shook her head quickly, even though she had been planning on leaving not even 30 minutes ago.
“No, it's fine. You know I can sneak back in whenever. And I want to spend the night with my boyfriend, we haven’t done that in awhile.”
Percy gave her a doubtful look. “We slept all day yesterday. We got in at like 5 and I just woke up.”
Annabeth shook her head mock seriously. “That’s sleeping in the day Seaweed Brain. We haven’t slept together at night in weeks or something. Keep up, will you?”
Another grin split across Percy’s face at her, and her heart soured at the sight. It was a tragedy she couldn’t look at that smile every minute of the day.
Still, Percy seemed concerned. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me…”
Annabeth shook her head, and gently pulled Percy down to her level as she rose to meet him halfway. She kissed him on the lips long and slow, trying to convey with actions what she always struggled too with words. Trying to tell him how much she loved him, how grateful she was for him, how he should never feel guilty over something like this, and how he would always come first. Always. No matter what was happening in her life, no matter the tests or jobs or even goddamn Olympians, Percy and what she’s built with him were her priority.
She tried to convey all that to him, but when she came back for air and he just looked dazed and flushed, she wasn’t sure how much had made it through the message.
She laughed as he touched his now slightly swollen lips, giving him another quick kiss on the nose and resting her head against his shoulder.
“Let’s go to bed, Perce. I promise I’ll wake you up before I leave tomorrow.”
His breath hitched a little, but he nodded, hugging her close.
Annabeth let the moment last for a beat. Then another.
“Are you gonna get off of me Seaweed Brain? You aren’t as light as you used to be.” She teased him.
Percy looked down, apparently just realizing he was still sitting on her. Sheepishly, he got up from the couch, offering her a gentlemanly hand to get up herself.
She took it, smiling as she did, and they walked back to his room hand in hand.
Sally didn’t like them together without the door open, in fact that was her one rule of Annabeth being over her house so often, so they didn’t bother to close it as they snuggled into bed under a heavy comforter. Percy had bought this comforter specifically because he knew she liked pressure on her when she slept, even though he sometimes got overheated with it, and the reminder of that fact made her heart flutter a bit. Gods she loved him.
“You good babe?” She asked, just to make sure.
He nodded with a smile, scooting backwards so she was spooning him, his former weakpoint protected by her. She immediately wrapped her leg around his and pressed her forehead into his shoulder blades.
“Perfect,” He said. At the last minute he remembered to turn their joint nightlight back on with a small remote he kept on his bedside table, and the gift from Leo snapped to life with a soft grey glow. It had helped them, a little bit, in the days after Tartarus when they were so terrified of the dark, and they still used it over 4 months later. Annabeth had a matching blue one in her dorm room.
“Goodnight.” Percy says, a little sleepy. “Love you.”
Annabeth kisses his shoulder blades. “Love you too. So much. Goodnight.”
Annabeth wishes she could take away Percy’s nightmares. Scrub away the parts of his life where he had been hurt or afraid. But she couldn't, so she only hoped this was enough.
Demigods can’t usually control lack of sleep, and there’s certainly nothing Annabeth can do to stop nightmares specifically, but as the two of them fell into slumber they found nothing but dreamless rest. They deserved it.