Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Annabeth lets out a loud, defiant yell that comes from her gut and slips out of her mouth as she slashes up the empousa’s body, dispelling it into golden dust. She watches it fall to the ground like pieces of confetti, littering the street like the stones in the road. 

She hears a groan and a pained cough, whipping around to see Percy laying there in a pool of his own blood. She watches in horrified fascination as it seeps out of his abdomen and gathers onto the concrete.

The empousa must’ve gotten to him, her mind works out as she instinctively rushes towards him.

“Percy! Oh Gods, are you okay?”

He grunts, coughing again, red liquid coming out of his mouth and spraying next to her as he did, “That was one helluva knife,”

She resists the urge to roll her eyes at his attempt at a joke. He winces as she fed him what very little ambrosia they had left.

Annabeth swallows hard, “Percy, I need you to take your shirt off,” 

He grins at her, “Geez, Wise Girl, you didn’t have to use this as an excuse, y’know,”

She manages a somewhat shaky smile as he pulls his Camp Half-Blood tee off. She gasps when she sees it, trembling hands flying to her mouth.

The wound was almost completely through his body, a gash about six inches long across him.

“Okay, okay,” She murmurs, turning around.

She rummages through her backpack, trying to find something- anything- that could help him. She comes up empty-handed. She distracts herself with looking for a drachma to keep the worst-case scenarios out of her mind. When she finds one, she shakily murmurs a prayer, throwing it into a nearby mud puddle. A distorted, unclear iris-message of Piper and Jason appeared in the water.

“Jason! Piper!”

“Annabeth,” Piper grinned “What’s up, girl?”

Annabeth squeezes her fists together, ignoring the fact that her nails are digging into her skin. Behind her, Percy lets out a wheezing breath and she forces herself to concentrate.

“It’s Percy, he- I- I need help. You need to get here quick,”

They must’ve heard the urgency in her voice because a determined look crosses Jason’s face and he says they’ll be there in five, before swiping a hand through the misty call.

Annabeth wrings her wrists nervously in her hand, closing her eyes as a tear makes its way down her face.

“‘Beth, ‘Beth,” she gets snapped out of her thoughts as Percy calls for her.

She whips around to look at him. He’s got dust and dirt on his face, and there’s blood everywhere, crimson mixing with his dark brown skin as it sits on his face, blending with his freckles. His dark curls are matted on his forehead from sweat and her heart aches at the sight of him. 

He’s never looked more handsome, and she wants to kiss him so bad, but she just grabs his hand and squeezes, hoping that it’s good enough.

“Perce, you’ll be okay. I-” she swallows hard, interrupting herself, “I’m gonna make sure you get through this, okay?” 

She stares at him and she has a very bad feeling it’ll be the last time she’s able to.

“Ann’beth, I do’t wanna die,” he whispers, his words cut through her, like the knife that’s made him bleed out on the street like roadkill. 

It feels like something in her breaks, and she used all her glue trying to keep her emotions down, so she doesn’t have anything left to put it back together. 

She can’t stop her eyes as they refill with tears and she lets out a hitched hiccup, she tries not to sound like she’s convincing herself when she says, “I know, baby, I know. I’m going- I’m doing everything I can to help you, okay?” even if it’s not working, and even if I know, deep down, it won’t help , “A-and Jason and Piper’s coming, too, you just-” stop stammering godsdamnit, you’re boyfriends dying and you can’t speak right. You’re boyfriends dying . She squeezes her eyes shut as another tear escapes, “You just have to hang on, okay? You’ll be okay,”

Her shaky hands tighten on his and she meets his eyes. Grey on green.

She remembers when she first saw him, a complete idiot who ran into the Underworld blind. Remembers getting a crush on him, how it grew when he pinky promised he'd never leave her. How he saved Thalia and they danced at Westover and on Olympus. Recklessly kissing him in the Labyrinth before thinking he was dead for two weeks. When she felt like she couldn't breathe because he’d been offered immortality , but he had met her eyes and had declined for her. Losing him again and the overwhelming feeling of dread when she learned he didn’t have his memory. Impulsively judo-flipping him because the relief that flooded her system when he remembered her was too much. Tartarus. The vivid memory of her blood spilling onto the grass, only to be followed by Percy’s moments later, effectively awakening Gaia. She had thought they were going to die, but then he had met her eyes, given her his lopsided grin and she had known that they’d be okay.

He reaches his arm up, caressing her cheek and she grabs onto it and holds tight like she’s scared it’s the only thing keeping him here with her. She leans into him, sniffling, trying to ignore the blood and the smell of copper and the fear.

“Percy, I-I love you. I love you so much. Percy, I need you. You can’t leave me yet. Please. Percy, you mean everything to me. I need you here with me,” She’s near sobbing, but she doesn’t care because what he doesn’t understand is how true the words are. How she won’t be able to move on without him, how Paul and Sally are waiting for him, and so are all his friends.

“Percy, I love you,” so much, so much, so much.

“I-I-”

She watches as his head lolls, slightly, and she stifles a sob because No. This couldn’t be happening. But there’s nothing she can do as his eyes close, and his arm drops. 

She lets out a sob, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him onto her lap, tremors going through her body.

I love you.

Chapter Text

Percy stumbled, gasping, holding his abdomen, and lowering himself carefully down to the ground. His vision blurs as he tries to focus on Annabeth finishing off the Empousa that had just stabbed him.

His breathing labors and he lets out a groan and a cough against his will, the pressure pushing on his chest. Annabeth turns around to face him, and he can see her eyes widen and the blood drain from her face.

She runs toward him, shouting something, but all he can hear is his blood rushing to his ears, and he can’t tell if it’s inside of him or outside.

He grunts and just barely registers hot, red liquid slipping through his fingers. Blood . 

He coughs, causing some of it to come out and land on the ground. He needs to say something because he can feel Annabeth panicking, and he really doesn’t want her to. They were demigods. They knew they probably wouldn’t live long, and they knew that their lives would be cut short.

“That was one helluva knife,” he manages, and it hurts so bad , but she smiles at him and it’s worth it. He can practically see her trying not to roll her eyes. 

She adjusts him, feeding him ambrosia, and he grimaces, the burning feeling in his gut almost overtaking his fear.

“-Take your shirt off,”

Annabeth’s voice is fading in and out, but he gets the gist of what she’s saying and she’s close to tears, so he tries for another joke, “Geez, Wise Girl, you didn’t have to use this as an excuse, y’know,”

She smiles again, but it’s shaky, and he feels his heart drop because he knows that it’s bad and that he’s in trouble. He sits forward, biting his lip so hard it draws blood to keep from yelling, pulling his shirt off.

He can hear her audibly gasp, and he swallows whenever her hands fly to her mouth. He doesn’t look down because he doesn’t want to see what she sees, but he can tell by the way her eyes fill that it’s bad.

She definitely blinks back the tears murmuring to herself as she rips her backpack off her and rummages through it. Percy’s trying to keep it together, ignoring the blood spreading around, soaking into the ground underneath him.  

He watches as she throws a drachma into a mud puddle- “Oh, Iris, accept my offering, show me, Piper McClean,”- trying to keep the thoughts of death and pain, so much pain, out of his head.

He hears Annabeth explaining to Jason and Piper that he needs help, but he can’t concentrate on it. It’s like everything's underwater but it’s not healing him. It’s like he’s just been ripped away from whatever was holding there- the Fate’s sting, his consciousness, his heart, whatever- and he’s been set onto a row of spikes, expected to be able to hold himself up.

He watches his blood slip through his fingers and suddenly his resolve kicked in. His fight or flight instinct and it’s screaming at him not to give up. It sends electrical currents through his nerves, adding to the painful stabbing feeling in his abdomen. It shoots up his neck and down to his toes, and it was all he could do not to cry out.

His earlier thoughts of accepting the situation were replaced by a garbled line of thoughts. I don’t wanna die ’s, and I’m too young ’s. He had promised his mom and Paul that he wasn’t going to do anything stupid or dangerous. That he was gonna come home alive. 

The fading rational part of his brain tells him that there’s no way he’s getting out of this one, but as his breath increases in pace, and he becomes hyper-aware of his blood on the road like red wine on a tablecloth, he does his damnedest to fight it.

“‘Beth, ‘Beth,” He croaks.

Annabeth turns to face him, her eyes bloodshot, cheeks puffed out and flushed, tears sliding down her cheeks. She looks so beautiful.

He feels a guilty pang add to the muddled smell of copper and sweat. It’s his fault she’s crying and shaking. It’s his fault she’s in pain. Then he remembers that she’s willingly helping him and it wasn’t his fault he was stabbed, and he feels guilty for feeling guilty.

Annabeth grabs his hands with hers and squeezes, gently, “Perce, you’ll be okay. I-” she visibly swallows, “I’m gonna make sure you get through this, okay?”

He stares at her, unable to shake the cold feeling pooling in his gut, like his blood on the concrete, that it’s the last time he’d ever be able to.

Her hair glows in the sun like Rapunzel's, a stark contrast to her flawlessly tanned skin. Her grey eyes are misty and wet like New York on a foggy day and her freckles that he used to draw constellations on are splattered across her cheeks like paint.

“Ann’beth, I do’t wanna, I do’t wanna die,” He whispers, his words slurring together. He knew it was stupid and he knew it was childish, but he was so terrified.

Her eyes seemed to shatter like a glass vase and he manages to swallow, ignoring the lump that blocked his airways, his throat dry. 

He instantly regrets saying it as her eyes fill with tears and her breath hitches and she lets out a hiccup, “I know, baby, I know. I’m going- I’m doing everything I can to help you, okay? A-and Jason and Piper are coming, too. You just-” She stutters over her words, squeezing her eyes shut as another tear escapes, “You just have to hang in there, okay? You-You’ll be okay,” She whispers.

She sounds like she’s trying to convince herself, but he was trying to focus on breathing and I’m too young ’s and shaky hands gripping his, so he doesn’t say anything. 

He reaches his arm up and places his hand on her jaw, moving his thumb over her cheekbone. It leaves blood streaks that makes him sick to his stomach, but she squeezes her eyes again, grabbing his wrist and forearm and leaning into him, so he doesn’t move. He feels his breathing shallow and his eyes droop and he swallows hard again. 

Annabeth opens her eyes and they land on his. Green on grey.

He remembers seeing her for the first time and how she had looked like a princess. When he held her at the Siren’s Bay as she had sobbed into his shoulder. Carrying the world for her. The Labyrinth and the first war. How Hera had taken his memories and he had never- not once- forgotten her. Going into Tartarus for her. The second titan war. All of it. She had been his anchor. Literally.

“Percy, I-I love you. I love you so much. Percy, I need you. You can’t leave yet. Please,” Her voice breaks, and more tears fall faster, “Percy, you mean everything to me. I need you here with me,”

He wanted to protest to tell her that she didn’t need him, to make sure she would move on without him. The world didn’t revolve around him and he was just hurting her anyway.

“Percy, I love you,”

“I-I-”

No. No, no, nononono. He has to say it, had to tell her. I love you. I love you, too. I need you. I love you so much. 

But he was so tired from keeping his arm up and he just wants to close his eyes. His breathing labors until it was no longer there and he feels his eyes droop and he felt himself disconnecting.

I love you.