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Percy frowns at his empty dresser drawer.
It’s official; he’s completely out of sweatshirts.
Where could they have gone? Had someone invited in a monster that ate clothes just to mess with him? And sure, it was summer, it wasn’t like he’d freeze to death without them, but there were some chilly nights that he’d prefer to have a sweatshirt to wear to bed, and tonight is one of those nights.
His angry musings are interrupted by a knock at the door. He hopes it’s the sweatshirt-eating monster coming to apologize.
He opens the door to find Annabeth, fingers twisting nervously around the edges of her sweatshirt—his sweatshirt.
“Hey.”
She doesn’t need to say anything, and instead keeps her eyes downcast, like his knees are the most interesting thing on the planet. Percy can tell just by looking at her that she’s feeling small.
Annabeth was probably one of the last people on earth Percy would’ve pegged as an age regressor—that is, after she explained to him what age regression was. But piece by piece, it slowly began to make sense. She did have those moments where she’d be a little off, but he never thought anything of it, until she told him the truth. He’d never seen her so nervous—even when she’d been staring down angry gods or fighting back spiders.
Percy didn’t have to force wrapping her up in a hug and telling her everything was okay, because he loved her and supported her no matter what.
There were times when she was half-small, when the stories tumbled out easily. It was usually the most Percy got to hear about the… less than ideal parts of her childhood. Because no matter what he went through with Gabe, at least he’d had his mom. From the sounds of it, Annabeth hadn’t had anyone. And Percy intends to fix that.
“Was the Athena cabin getting too loud?” Percy knows all too well how those kids can get if you rile them up enough. He’s seen it all, from cheering at a completed puzzle like a football game to screaming matches over the symbolism in Harry Potter.
“Mm-hm.” Annabeth says. Gosh, she must feel small if she isn’t even saying anything. It’s a good thing no one else is in the Poseidon cabin.
“Come on inside, then, because I’ve got a juice box with your name on it.”
At the very least, it makes Annabeth smile and follow him inside.
She makes a beeline for his bed, tucking her knees up to her chest and pulling the sweatshirt down around her ankles.
“Do you want Cubey?” Percy doesn’t even have to turn around to know Annabeth is nodding, because it’s her favorite toy in the world, courtesy of the only other person who knows that she likes to be little sometimes, Leo.
From what Percy could put together, she’d told him the same thing she’d told Percy, though she’d never felt safe enough to approach him for help, aside from a few breathing exercises on a quest. Percy couldn’t blame her. He was sure the Hephaestus cabin wasn’t nearly as nice to regress in as the Poseidon cabin. Annabeth is all about privacy.
He places the cube into her hands, noting the way a little smile crosses her face.
Yeah, she looks to be in desperate need of some quiet time.
Annabeth has good coping strategies for her ADHD, but it gets harder for her when she’s feeling little. It’s easy for any noise to become too much, and in times like that, she just needs a few minutes of quiet. Quiet and cuddles.
Cubey doesn’t too many complicated parts, since teeny Annabeth has an unfortunate habit of getting her hair caught in just about everything, but there’s a button in the middle makes the arms, legs, and head pop out. From there, it can say a few rudimentary phrases and talk, but Annabeth normally uses it to play guessing games and I-Spy with.
Not tonight, though. He can tell just by looking at her that she’s too small to talk.
Instead of pressing the center button, she adjusts something on the corner, causing the outside to flip into a set of panels. Percy fondly rolls his eyes. He’ll never understand how Annabeth can have so much fun with puzzles.
“Sneaking behind you.” Percy announces. Maybe it’s a demigod thing, but Annabeth always likes to know where he’s going when he gets out of her sight.
He crawls onto the bed behind her and carefully combs back her hair, holding it in place with a rubber band. She should really start bringing her hair ties over, but Percy guesses he’ll have to lose as many rubber bands as sweatshirts.
“Having fun?” He plops down beside her, his hand floating over her shoulders. Sometimes she doesn’t like to be touched, so he always lets her make the first move.
“Mm-hmm.” Annabeth leans in, resting her head against his shoulder. He takes that as his okay to wrap his arms around her, resting his linked hands on top of her knees.
Percy’s the kind of guy that gets bored easily. In fact, big Annabeth gives him grief all the time because he can never sit still when they cuddle. But he forces himself to be still for Annabeth’s sake. And he can’t say it isn’t kind of interesting to watch her work through all sorts of puzzles. Really, even while small, puzzles take her a matter of minutes.
Still, there are some days where he gets a little antsy. “Hey, will you be okay if I talk real quiet?”
Annabeth nods into his shoulder, which is all the invitation Percy needs to start babbling. He jumps from subject to subject, hoping that Annabeth doesn’t mind. She offers a little chuckle every once in a while to show she’s listening, but it’s not that long before her puzzle-solving slows.
By the time Percy’s done with his latest story about Tyson, she’s out-cold against his shoulder.
Percy lays his chin on top of her head, simply glad he could help.