Chapter Text
Percy breathes in shoulders relaxing, as he steps through the boundary line at camp.
Japan wasnt all bad, at least Apollo likes demigods more than most gods so it’s not like it was particularly dangerous.
He starts the walk to his cabin, going through a mental checklist of what he needs to get done post quest.
He sighs slightly hes Atleast gonna change his clothes, and take a bath before reporting to Chiron.
He pulls out his phone with a swift movement chuckling slightly, okkotsu texted him a funny story of one of the pranks his friend played on there sensei.
He texts back smiling slightly, Atleast if there’s one positive from the quest it would be meeting him.
He looks up and annabeth is waiting for him outside his cabin, he still hasn’t figured out how she always knows when he’s back at camp.
He feels warm seeing her again, his love for her making him jittery.
He obediently walks up to her and stands still, letting her scan him for injuries.
She takes a good second to sweep her gaze over his form, stilling on the many bandages.
When she’s satisfied she walks toward him, her movements slow and deliberate as always after a quest.
She puts a hand on his cheek and he presses into it, smiling adoringly at her. they don’t say anything for a minute staring into each others eyes, a habit they’ve gotten into doing after the strong codependency that formed after Tartarus.
He remembers how hard it was to be separate from her so used to surviving side by side, when not seeing her close bye meant danger.
It always helped to consciously scan her, keeping her image stamped in his brain.
Annabeth pulls back slightly, and wrinkles her nose in disgust.
“You stink seaweed brain, you couldn’t have stopped anywhere to bathe?”she says, a teasing smile letting him know she’s not scolding him.
He sheepishly rubs the back of his head
“No most of the places I could’ve washed up were communal, and well you know.”he says with a slight grimace.
She nods knowingly it’s not the bathing next to other people that’s the problem, it’s the strangers part.
“You should probably bathe before talking to Chiron, here put your stuff away and we’ll go to the bath house.”she says already leading him into his cabin.
He grins slightly at her back, some will call her bossy but he likes her taking charge like this.
When he puts his stuff away he checks his toiletries, clicking his tongue at the tiny bit of body wash left in the specialty made soap the Demeter cabin invented that dimmed demigods scent from monsters.
When annabeth peares over, she hums noticing the problem.
“You can use mine? If you don’t mind smelling like vanilla and coffee beans.”she tells him with a teasing smile.
He thinks for a second, it’s kind of a attractive idea smelling like annabeth instead of his usual ocean breeze.
“That would be great actually.”Percy says honestly, grinning at her.
They spend the walk to the bath house in silence content to bask in eachothers presence, unconsciously gravitating toward each other as they walk.
He trys to duck his head and hide behind Annabeth, when he spots Will looking at him glaring.
Annabeth looks stealthy when he ducks behind her, when she spots Will she turns around and gives him a judgement filled look.
He raises a silent eyebrow calling her out for being a hypocrite, and she snorts conceding.
Did someone snitch that he was back already? he was hoping to hide from Will for Atleast a few hours.
He holds out his bag of toiletries, showing Will he’s busy.
Gods, he’s definitely gonna ambush me when I get out the bath house.
He knows that the rule of checking in with the healers after quests was made for a good reason, but come on all he needs to heal is a dip in water.
He walks quickly to the bathhouse, heading into the building.
He helps Annabeth put her hair in a wrap so it doesn’t get wet, and they put their clothes in cubby’s sorted by cabin.
Annabeth washes quickly in the shower area of the bathhouse, stopping to help him untangle his hair that was covered in blood, mud and glitter.
“Did you trip on every root and rock on the way to here?”Annabeth says amused, using her dexterous weaving hands to gently get the debris out of his hair.
“How did you even manage to get this stuck in here?”she says pulling out a tiny stick, and setting it down on the stone bench they were sitting on.
He looks down at the stick, flushing slightly in embarrassment.
“I really should’ve looked in a mirror to see what I looked like huh? Im surprised someone didn’t call the police on me.”he says sheepishly, reminded earlier when he undressed and saw himself in the wall length mirror to the side of the room.
It was great to finally get the bandages off, now that he had a nice water source to heal in.
Annebath makes a little hum in thought.
“That reminds me, who helped you bandage your wounds? they were way neater then your sorry excuse for first aid.”she says chuckling softly.
“A nice guy I met in Japan, you would’ve liked him he was so nervous it was adorable.”he says with a slightly mean smirk.
She makes a tsk sound, and bonks him gently on the head with the detangling brush the Aphrodite cabin swears bye.
“Be nice you know how mortals get around demigods, especially the more powerful ones.”she scolds amused.
“Yes yes I know but I could tell he was just that nervous naturally, oh! Also he had this really pretty katana, it had really intricate designs made into the blade.”Percy says dreamily, thinking of the beautiful sword.
“He had a sword just with him? Could he be a demigod from a new pantheon you think.”Annabeth says face in what he lovingly calls her thinking face.
Percy makes a curious hum thinking
“I don’t think so he did have this sort of energy around him, but it didn’t have that divine twinge you know?”he gestures vaguely with his hands.
She Hums in agreement then making a satisfied sound, the comb finally running fully through his hair.
“Gotcha I’ll pray to my mother tonight, ask her if she knows what he is. it’s nice that you made a friend, did you give him a way to keep in contact?”she asks using her hands to tilt his head back, and then grabbing the detachable shower head to wash out the various substances caked in his hair.
“Mhm I gave him my number, oh remind me later to update the Hephaestus cabin about the phone please.”Percy says, basking in the comforting feeling of the warm water.
A few minutes later after they finished getting clean, they walk out to the heated soaking bath.
He helps Annabeth go in first, standing as support while she lowers in so she doesn’t put too much pressure on her ankle, without her medical brace blessed by Apollo.
When he gets in he can sense the healing properties of the water, soothing sore muscles and speeding up the healing process.
He blinks his eyes suddenly tired, exhaustion setting in.
He leans his head onto Annabeths shoulder, clasping her hand in his. not shy of showing affection, even with the many other demigods soaking in the communal bath.
She absentmindedly uses her thumb to trace the raised brand on his skin, the irritated skin from taking off the patch of fake skin, that hides whatever it’s covering from mortals, made by the Hecate cabin, noticeably fading from being in the water.
“Any sore muscles still?”she asks with concern in her tone.
“Not anymore, your ankle bothering you?”he asks affection leaking into his voice at the concern.
She visibly hesitates before sighing “it has, it rained earlier and the joints throbbing cause of it.”she admits grudgingly.
His worry increases exponentially, it must hurt a lot if she admitted that so easily.
He mimes picking her up, and she understands and puts her hands on his shoulders, as he picks her up so she’s sitting on the ledge.
He takes her bad ankle into his hand, gently moving the joint to see the range of motion.
It’s very stiff, and a little swollen he winces in sympathy. using a simple hand motion, he forms a thin sheet of flexible ice over the swelling using the healing water.
Using a thin bit of water, he grabs one of the healing remedies stocked in the bathhouse.
He started doing stretches and massaging the scar tissue with the ointment, getting blood flow back into her foot.
“I can’t believe you were walking on this.”he says in sympathy, when she makes a hiss in pain at one of the stretches.
She looks away embarrassed, fingers running over the groves in the stone.“I know, Will had been on my ass about using a mobility aid.”she says with a huff.
“I bet Leo would make you a cool one, like a cane that has a sword or dagger in it.”he says in thought.
She sighs heavily “I know, a few days ago he showed me a couple blueprints he made. it’s just I already get underestimated cause im a blond girl, it would be even worse with a mobility aid.”she admits, her nails digging into her palms.
“But think of the tactical advantages! You’ll be underestimated and boom! Cane sword through the throat.”he says in protest.
She smiles in amusement at him
“Good argument seaweed brain.”she says chuckling slightly.
Everyone in the room pauses, the chime ringing throughout the room signaling an hour before curfew.
“We should probably get out then.”Annabeth says, watching a good amount of people start to leave the baths.
“So like im definitely carrying you Intill we get back to my cabin, I’m not letting you walk on that.”Percy says his face showing how stubborn he would be about this.
Annabeth searches his face before agreeing grudgingly, too tired to argue about it.
A few minutes later walking out of the building clothed, he carries her in a piggyback making the trek to his cabin.
After a couple nights where Annabeth woke up the Athena cabin with her nightmares, her siblings all agreed to not say anything about her sleeping in his cabin.
He lays her on the bed they share propping her ankle up, and taking a shirt to wrap around the pieces of ice he makes, and resting it on her ankle.
She pulls him down too kiss him softly, leaving it chaste. “thank you Percy, that helps so much.”she says softly, adoration in her gaze as she looks at him .
He blushes with a pleased grin, before pulling away.
“I’ll go bring us food to eat in here before curfew starts.”he says awkwardly walking away.
Ten minutes later he walks in with a tray carrying the food, he sits right next to Annabeth balancing the tray on his lap.
While they eat Percy shows her a picture yuta sent him after he asked where he got his katana, of a stand filled with blades like the one yuta had, the sign says something in a language he doesn’t know.
She whistles appreciately “that’s excellent craftsmanship alright, can I text okkotsu my questions?”she says hand above the phone.
He hands it to her watching as she quickly types questions concerning the make of the blades, of course clarifying that she isn’t Percy first.
He makes sure she eats as she gets into a passionate conversation with yuta about weaponry, thumbs flying across the screen.
When they’re both putting on comfortable clothes for bed, and lying down to go to sleep, she’s still texting with occasional passings of the phone so Percy can text.
Annabeth gives him his phone for a bit, so she can pray to her mother.
When they finish the conversation and snuggle close together, Annabeth speaks up.
“If you don’t romance him, I will.”she says chuckling softly, with his head lying on her stomach he can feel it as she laughs.
He opens his eyes, his neck angled looking up at her face intently. “your on wise girl.”he says with a smirk.
They do a little pinkie shake on it to settle the challenge, before going to sleep.