Chapter Text
Percy watched as Luke made a desperate grab for Thalia’s spear. His elbow jabbed into her abdomen, the spot Percy knew her scar from last summer’s poisoning was.
In a moment of vulnerability a few days ago, she’d told him that the scar was completely healed, but the phantom pain of it still affected her sometimes. He figured it was more about Luke’s betrayal than it was about the wound itself.
Thalia’s face twisted with rage as she placed a hand over the scar. Annabeth, the broken chains still hanging heavy from her limbs, scrambled to their side in an attempt to stop what was about to happen, but she was too late.
On instinct, Thalia kicked Luke back. He staggered towards the edge, his face blanketed in terror, and then he tumbled down the mountain.
“Luke!” Annabeth screamed.
Before she could look down at the sight below, before she could see what Percy already knew would be brutal, he rushed forward and pulled Annabeth into a hug.
One hand was wrapped tightly around her waist, the other cradling the back of her head. She began to sob into his chest as she melted into him.
He could feel her trembling, and it twisted something inside him. The moment he’d seen her across the clearing, relief had hit him just as hard as the anger. Even from that distance, he could see the wounds to her face and legs. Her puffer jacket was nowhere in sight and her pretty yellow dress was tattered and stained, blood appearing in splotches across the fabric.
But the worst was over. Somehow, impossibly, Annabeth was safe. The thought hit him with a force that could’ve brought him to his knees. His eyes met Thalia’s from where she stood frozen. The look was fleeting, but he knew from the small shake of her head that she needed a moment alone.
Percy let himself sink into the comfort of Annabeth’s embrace, knowing that, at least for now, they had survived impossible odds once again.
Silently, he thanked his mother for always buying his jackets a size or two bigger than needed—big enough that, with Annabeth tucked under it, it kept them both warm.
From over her shoulder, he could see Luke at the bottom of the cliff. His broken body was bent in a way that would be impossible to survive. Percy’s stomach turned, a cold weight setting in his chest. He should feel relief, but instead, all he felt was a growing knot of feelings he couldn’t place—anger, sorrow, and something uncomfortably close to guilt.
But he didn’t have time to untangle it all. All he could do was hold Annabeth. He couldn’t stomach looking at it for long before he buried his face into the crook of her neck.
The smell of sweat and dirt and something citrusy that was so distinctly Annabeth filled his lungs, and he felt tears stinging from behind his eyes. In that moment, nothing else mattered more to him than the girl in his arms. It had been days since he’d been this close to her and it felt like he could finally breathe again.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair. “I'm so sorry for not getting to you sooner. For not being right next to you back at Westover. I’m sorry for…”
The argument? Luke? He was sorry for many things but he wasn’t sure how much any of that mattered after what they’d both been through.
“It’s not your fault. None of it was your fault,” she said from where her face was still buried in his chest.
He didn’t agree, but he felt it best not to argue with her. The awkwardness from their dance all those days ago no longer existed; only the insatiability of two friends who had missed each other desperately.
Percy let Annabeth take what she needed from him, but he risked another glance at Thalia. She was kneeled over in the same spot he’d seen her last. Her hands grasped at the ground as she dry heaved into the dirt.
Once he saw Lady Artemis approaching Thalia, Zoë leaning against her for support, Percy decided to lead Annabeth to a rock off to the side, giving Thalia space to process while he worked on her chains.
“Let’s move over there, so we can get those chains off, yeah?” He said, his fingers massaging the back of her scalp as a means of soothing her still trembling form.
She nodded against his chest and pulled away. Percy immediately took his outer layer off and wrapped it around her shoulders.
His massive puffer swallowed her frame even more than her own jacket. The image of her standing under the moonlight outside Westover flashed in his mind.
He wrapped an arm over her shoulder and guided her off to the side. Once she was settled on the rock, he knelt in front of her and began working at the chains around her arms and legs. He could feel her eyes following his every movement, and he burned with it.
In her absence, he’d discovered parts of himself he was sure he’d been subconsciously burying, but even now, with everything he’s ever wanted under the palms of his hands, he didn’t know where to go from here.
Breaking through the chains was easier than he’d thought, and soon enough, the ones around her wrists were pulled off. He frowned at the angry welts dotted across her skin and gently rubbed his thumb along the markings.
“It’s okay,” Annabeth said softly. “It doesn't hurt.”
The lump in his throat swelled. All the guilt and grief he’d pushed down over the past few days threatened to spill out of him.
Annabeth clutched onto his hands that were still rubbing soothing circles into her skin. “Percy, I promise it’s okay. You saved me, remember? I’m right here.”
“I just…” He could feel his words failing him. “It’s been so– I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t gotten you back--”
“But you did,” she cut him off. “You found me, and if the roles were reversed, I would’ve done the exact same. Because that’s what we do, okay?”
If Percy hadn’t been watching her so intently, he would’ve missed the way her breath stuttered and how her eyes briefly flitted to the cliff where Luke had been only minutes before.
“Things always end up where they should,” she continued.
He could tell that there was a separate meaning under those words, but he decided not to pry into it just yet. Instead, he focused on the chains around her ankles. He bit at the inside of his cheek when more angry sores were revealed under the bonds.
He was at least grateful that Luke’s team gave her a pair of tattered sneakers in place of the heels she wore to the dance. The shoes were a bit big on her, but he was grateful all the same.
“What’s this?” she asked.
In her hand was a thick wad of folded papers. Papers she’d just pulled out of the pocket of his jacket.
He watched as she unfolded them. Her eyes traveled between the pages and his face, before giving her full attention to the letters he could recite by heart.
“Are these…You wrote me letters?” she asked softly.
Her big brown eyes peered into him, the warmth of her gaze making him feel grounded in a way that he hadn’t felt in a while.
“Yeah, Grover gave me the idea after I almost flooded camp,” he rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly.
“You almost flooded camp?” Her eyebrow was raised in a look that was meant to chastise him, but he could see the mirth dancing in her eyes.
“It’s all in the letters. We really don’t need to get into it right now.”
“If you say so, Seaweed Brain.”
She smiled at him, and if all it took was her gaze to set his skin on fire, having one of her blinding smiles directed at him felt like bathing weightless on the surface of the sun.
----------------------
Percy couldn’t help staring at her. Annabeth stood across the throne room, talking excitedly with Thalia about her new position as Artemis’s lieutenant, and Percy couldn’t look away for even a second.
He was still reeling from the unexpected turn of events. Even after all their talks, there was still a part of him that feared Annabeth would still choose to join the hunt, but she was quick to reassure him. She didn’t tell him exactly what changed her mind, but he’s eternally grateful that she did.
After all the loss he’d witnessed over the past few days, he thought it rational to soak in her presence. They’d been glued at the hip since he’d gotten her back, but sometimes even that wasn’t enough to make the visions of her disappearing off that cliff go away. He’s not sure they ever will.
He watched as she tilted her head back in a laugh, her eyes crinkling at the edges and her nose scrunched in a way that made something inside him stir. Percy couldn’t help how his own lips tugged upward at the sight. He couldn’t hear her laugh from this distance, but he bottled the sound up long ago—enough to hear it anyway.
From his left, Percy could feel someone watching him. Sat with her legs crossed on her throne was the goddess of love herself. When their eyes met, Aphrodite lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow, and the sparkle in her eyes made Percy’s stomach drop.
“Hey.”
Percy snapped his attention away from the goddess, craning his gaze down to a familiar pair of deep brown eyes.
“Hi,” He didn’t mean for it to come out so breathless.
“What’s wrong? You look a little pale,” she paused. “Well, paler than usual.”
He scoffed as she smirked at him.
“Very funny.”
She tugged at his sleeve, and that was new to them too. The casual touching. The fleeting moments of closeness that weren’t there before the quest.
“Seriously, what’s wrong?”
The crease between her brows deepened. A slight frown appeared across her lips, and that just wouldn’t do.
“Just thinking about the past few days.” It wasn’t a complete lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either.
She hummed at the response, unsure of how to broach the topic, but honestly, Percy would rather do anything else than dwell on the growing list of things taken from them.
“Can we drop all that for just tonight?” he asked.
She still looked unsure, but before she could respond, he grabbed her hand and guided her to the center of the room.
“Percy, what–” she huffed through a laugh.
“Dance with me,” he said, a small smile on his lips. Her hand was still warm in his.
She stared at him for a second, considering. He loved that he could see the gears turning in her head. Slowly, she guided his hands to her waist before wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“Took you long enough to ask me to dance.”
He tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips, “I got there eventually.”
She rolled her eyes, but her smile never faltered. He hopes to keep that smile on her face for as long as the Gods allow.
He knew the goddess was still watching them. He tried to deny himself in that limo with Aphrodite, but deep down, he knew she was right. What scared him most was her promise of a tragic love story. I’m not going to let this be easy and boring for you…Anguish. Indecision…
Percy knew neither he nor Annabeth needed more anguish and indecision in their lives, so he swallowed whatever realizations he’d had down.
They had time. He had to believe that. He was only fourteen, which meant the Great Prophecy wouldn’t unfold for another two years, at least. So, tragic love story be damned. The quest was over, he’d gotten Annabeth back, and he was going to savor this moment with his best friend.
Gently, Percy pulled her hand from where it rested at his neck, keeping his other hand steady at her waist.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
“Always.”
He gave her hand a tug and sent her twirling, laughter catching as she came back to him.
“Where’d you learn how to do that?” she asked, still laughing.
“Honestly, I didn’t think that would work,” he admitted.
For the next few hours, he twirled her across the dance floor as many times as she asked. Her laughter followed every spin, and they danced as if the sun would never rise on Mount Olympus.