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It was suddenly heavy in his hands. Percy looked down at the guitar Paul had gotten for him and nervously strummed at it aimlessly. This had to work.
He’d been taking some lessons on and off with some of the Apollo kids when he wasn’t preparing for college, assisting Annabeth with her Olympus reconstruction, or helping out around camp. But he found loads of time to practice at his mom’s apartment, away from the hustle and bustle of demi-god life. The callouses on his fingertips had been almost effortless to gain, and the pain of guitar strings was nothing compared to every battle he’d ever fought. Now, it was the most difficult thing he had ever done.
Closing his eyes, Percy breathed in the warm summer air, listening to the sounds of camp around him. The fountain in the corner of his room gurgling the fresh salt water. Mrs. O’Leary barking and running with kids just inside the forest. Swords clanging and bows twanging in the arena. The sounds of home. But it wasn’t complete. Sure, he missed his mom and step-dad and his friends from the Argo II, but they didn’t make a place home either. Not really.
But, he told himself, it’s a good thing she’s not here right now, Seaweed Brain. She’d mess it all up!
So with a heavy exhale, Percy began to play.
I found a love for me
Darling just dive right in
And follow my lead.
I never knew you were the someone waiting for me
Annabeth.
A child of Athena. Architect to Olympus. Locator of the Athena Parthenos. Leader of the Second Great Prophecy.
Percy could go on thinking about all the great and wonderful things his great and wonderful girlfriend had done, but they weren’t what kept him at her side. It was how she trusted him even when they were kids and didn’t know each other. How she confided in him when she was scared or had her weak moments. It was how she laughed at Leo’s jokes or pulled on her princess curls when she was upset. How his sweatshirt would go missing for days until Michael or one of her other siblings returned it to him before cabin checks. Their training sessions when he would watch her face, as calculating and menacing as it was, radiate with a beauty he couldn’t begin to describe.
‘Cause we were just kids when we fell in love
Not knowing what it was
I will not give you up this time
But darling just kiss me slow,
Your heart is all I own
And in your eyes you’re holding mine.
Months were gone from his memories due to Hera and her insufferable plans. Months of his relationship with Annabeth gone, making him want to savor every moment he had with her for the rest of time as if it was his last. (And with being a demi-god, he never knew if it would be anyway.) All of that made him promise to never give her up, never let her go, never let her journey alone.
Dark memories crept up in Percy’s mind’s eye. Tartarus. The Death Mist. Fighting for their lives across a treacherous terrain of monsters and death. Yet he never once gave up. He remembered looking over at Annabeth in those dark times and finding an eerie beauty in her even as she looked like she was dying. He found himself amazed that even after a year, he could remember those moments so clearly.
Baby, I’m dancing in the dark
With you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass
Listening to our favourite song
When you said you looked a mess
I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it
“Darling, you look perfect tonight”
He smiled to himself through the words as the sight and sounds of Olympus crossed his memories when he and Annabeth had visited as kids. Sure, he’d received a few threats, especially one from Athena about staying away from her daughter, but what he remembered most was Annabeth. ‘You owe me a dance, Seaweed Brain.’ And he remembered holding her and swaying to the Muses’ music, a slow song he knew from his mom’s collection, and wondering what Annabeth was hearing.
Well, I found a woman
Stronger than anyone I know
She shares my dreams,
I hope that someday I’ll share her home
Facing Arachne alone with only the Athena Parthenos as support was one of the strongest things Percy could think of when it came to his girlfriend. How she out-witted her mother’s longest rival and the murderer of so many of her siblings. The root of all Athena’s children’s fear.
But then he also knew she had taken on her share of other burdens too and hadn’t let them drag her down. She had risen above running away at seven years old. She had triumphed over the death of so many of her friends, the loss of her greatest role model, the torment of Tartarus.
And their dreams of a future were already coming true. His New Rome University acceptance letter was somewhere amongst his things while Annabeth’s was likely under her pillow. That only made him smile a little bit more.
I found a love to carry more than just my secrets
To carry love, to carry children of our own
Sons and daughters. Children with Annabeth. One of the shining lights that had kept Percy going in his darkest hours while consumed with the Death Mist still kept him going above ground. It kept him studying even when Apollo came for help and through the birth of his little sister, Estelle. While it was likely a few years away, it was a future Percy was determined to work hard for and prove to not only those around him (mainly Athena) but to himself that he was worthy and ready for that future.
We are still kids, but we’re so in love
Fighting against all odds
I know we’ll be alright this time
Darling, just hold my hand
Be my girl, I’ll be your man
I see my future in your eyes
Gaea using them to reawaken her in Greece or Kronos trying to use Annabeth against him to take over Olympus. What crazier odds could they overcome? What worse nightmares would they have to battle through in their lives? Percy knew it was inevitable – being a child of Poseidon didn’t let him take a day off – but he knew he could get through it if Annabeth was there with him.
Baby, I’m dancing in the dark
With you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass
Listening to our favorite song
I have faith in what I see
Now I know I have met an angel in person
And she looks perfect
I don’t deserve this
You look perfect tonight.
Percy let the last few notes hang in the air as he finally opened his eyes. The wall of his cabin still looked the same. Grey stone sparkled with seashells as his view of Long Island Sound cast light and rainbows onto the floor.
The guitar still felt heavy in his hands but with a thrumming he knew so well. His ADHD was going off the charts with anxiety, which didn’t help as he reached into his pocket to pull out the small box from his brother. He popped it open to reveal the ring Tyson had forged for him. Small olive laurels cast in Celestial bronze and Imperial gold twisted delicately around one another into a simple band that Tyson had enchanted to change size with Annabeth’s finger.
‘Never get it redone,’ Tyson had told him. ‘Only one ring for my sister!’
Percy couldn’t get Tyson to understand that Annabeth wasn’t going to be his sister, but he also couldn’t get him to understand that about Estelle either.
Like the guitar, the ring felt heavy in his fingers until he heard a muffled squeal behind him.
In a flash, the box had been dropped. The guitar came up over Percy as if he were wielding Riptide, swinging it towards the sound, until he actually focused.
Standing in his doorway were the hazy and unfocused faces of his friends.
Chiron had an expression of longing mixed with surprise, his dark eyes unfocused somewhere towards Percy’s ceiling. Nico looked as if he were ready to sob uncontrollably or summon an army of the undead for a murderous rampage. Even Will, who clung to Nico’s side, looked uncomfortably upset yet bleary as if waking up from a nightmare. Jason and Leo both simply looked dumbfounded.
In front of the troubling group were Annabeth and Piper, clinging to one another so tightly that Piper’s arm was actually bleeding underneath Annabeth’s fingernails. But their eyes, cold grey and kaleidoscope rainbow, were clear and focused, even though they were slightly misty.
For the first time in a long while, Percy was speechless. The guitar fell from his grip as his face flushed with embarrassment and shame. All his planning gone out the window. And from the looks on his friends’ faces, it was probably a good idea he hadn’t gone through with it all anyway.
“If I was really bad,” he finally choked out, “you can just say it, guys.”
One by one, his friends shook their heads until their expressions were more confused yet normal. Annabeth let go of Piper and took a step towards her boyfriend, who held out his hand to stop her.
“Just tell me: was my singing really that bad?”
“Bad?” Annabeth chuckled through tears now streaming down her face. “Percy, it was beautiful.”
“But it sounded a lot like charmspeak,” Piper piped up as Jason clung to her from behind, looking as if he were going to fall if he let go. “I began seeing things – I don’t know –good things? But I felt horrible. I – “
“Siren Song,” Chiron croaked. “Percy, my child, you have the gift of Siren Song.”
“But aren’t Sirens those mermaid-like things in the Sea of Monsters?” he asked, still looking around nervously at his friends. “They’re the ugly things that try to kill people, right?”
“By showing them their greatest flaw,” Annabeth said. “But yours it was…different. I could feel it still but it wasn’t like last time. I don’t know how to describe it. Thankfully, Piper seems immune to it and kept me from – “
“’Ambush’ is a very good word for what you were about to do,” Piper chuckled. She straightened Jason up to her side and wrapped both arms around his waist. “May have been best before these guys did it.”
“I don’t know what just happened,” Jason murmured, “but I heard you singing. Dude, why didn’t you say you could sing like that? You could seriously beat out some of the Apollo kids.”
“Or sing some monsters to sleep,” Leo said from his spot on the floor, crouched with one hand on the ground to stabilize him. “It’d be easier to fight if you just sang them to sleep. ‘Little nursery song before Tartarus!’”
Nico had disappeared, Percy had noticed, but Will was still looking at him astounded. “So that’s what the lessons were for,” he muttered.
“Lessons?” Annabeth asked, finally turning her attention from Percy to Will. “You mean the singing – ?”
“Guitar,” Percy clarified. His hand rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly. “I was kind of thinking of doing this tomorrow, you know, at the campfire after Capture the Flag. But, uh, I don’t think I should do this again if I’ve got this Siren’s song thing.”
“Doing what?” Annabeth said. But the bright twinkle in her eye told Percy she had already figured it out and the answer to go along with it. It gave Percy the rush of confidence he needed to relax.
He bent down onto the floor and picked up the box again, quickly making sure nothing had been damaged during his scare. Still perfectly secure. He let out a sharp breath before looking up at his girlfriend. His mouth opened but the words seem to have left him.
“Annabeth,” he said after a moment, the box shaking slightly in his hand. “Gods, this is scarier than Kronos. “
Annabeth gave him a look he was very familiar with but the severity was dampened by her smile.
“Whether it’s here in Camp Half-Blood or in New Rome or wherever we land, will you build something permanent with me?”
A flurry of blonde curls assaulted Percy’s face as he was pushed to the ground, the wind knocked out of him hard.
“Of course, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth sobbed in his shoulder. “Of course I will.”