Work Text:
To be honest, Annabeth was starting to get bored.
The monsters were numerous, but they were by no means a challenge. She wasn't sure who had let them into the camp- that was to be discovered later, though she had her suspicions- but the Drosoulites were never ending. Why they were attacking, she didn't know- she supposed they were just mindless warriors, attacking whomever they were instructed to- but either way, she and the rest of her friends were up at four in the morning defending the camp nevertheless. She was only wearing leggings and a sports bra as she ran through the shadow creatures, but she wasn't cold despite the June night. The adrenaline and movement had her sweating, which was annoying considering she had just taken a shower not even four hours ago. Now she was going to have to redo the whole stupid five step hair routine her hair required to not look like a rat's nest (no, she wasn't high maintenance, she was just trying self-care for once in her life. Sue her).
"Hades, how many of these things are there?" Piper complained as they waited for the next wave of soldiers to hit, leaning to stretch her quad. Her kaleidoscope eyes were tired and heavy, evident of the early wake-up call they had had. Annabeth grunted, agreeing with the sentiment. She just wanted to go to bed.
"In theory, three hundred and fifty. If I'm not wrong, but I don't think I am. But it doesn't look like they're actually dying the first time around."
She wasn't wrong; every time they drove a blade through a spirit they just seemed to melt into the ground instead of the usual explosion into gold dust. They re-spawned meters away like a poorly designed video game. Occasionally the monsters would 'die' as expected, but for the most part, there were no signs that the onslaught would be ending anytime in the near future.
Annabeth once again grieved her bed.
The daughter of Aphrodite slashed through a particularly grotesque apparition; it must have been trampled originally, with its face awkwardly distorted and bulging eyes. It almost looked like a Scooby-Doo villain with the way it moved. "How do we get them to stay down?" she spat. She was beginning to regret staying up to read that stupid book Jason had recommended. This was hell.
Annabeth was quiet, focused as she easily went through ten invaders. "I'm not sure," she admitted, brushing ghoul dust off of her thigh. "But if we could find the leader of this army- Dalianis, I think, we might be able to shut this down. I'm hoping this is a 'take out the mother ship' sort of ordeal."
"Alright, what does he look like? I'll go kill that motherf-er myself!"
"How the Hades would I know?" Annabeth laughed, whooping slightly when an angry harpy swooped down towards a shorter silhouette, dissolving it.
Piper scoffed. "Because you know everything, Annabeth. I can't believe you even know what these things are."
"Read a-"
Their conversation was cut off abruptly when a loud explosion sounded about a hundred yards away, lighting up the night sky in a brilliant green. Greek fire. Both Annabeth and Piper flinched, looking on as nearly fifty shadows get instantaneously annihilated. Around her, the ghosts halted in confusion.
The daughter of Athena expected them to continue to charge, but as the smoke cleared with the time, they seemingly were all under the impression they were overpowered or more so uninterested in continuing their assault. The wind shifted and the illusions floated away into nothing. Campers stood poised to attack with nothing to fight.
It was almost beautiful, the quiet that followed.
Piper hummed as the first demigods began to cheer. "I don't know who set that off, but I think that Daliasis guy is gone."
Annabeth nodded, resisting the urge to correct her. "Along with everyone else, thank gods. Whoever set that up gets my dessert for the next month."
Still, she wasn't fully settled. Something felt wrong. Had they missed one? Was there another wave coming? Her gray eyes swirled under the waning moon as she scanned what was seconds ago a battlefield, searching for anything that could be off. For a moment she thought she was just being paranoid. Demigods were already dragging themselves off to their respective cabins; she saw Will and a few other Apollo kids hastily applying some quick bandages and gauze, but nothing looked serious. She dropped her shoulders with a sigh and sheathed her dagger, reserving herself to checking on Percy once before heading to bed.
But then someone started screaming.
Everyone's heads turned at once toward the source.
It was a younger camper, a son of Ares. Tears were streaming down his face; Annabeth glanced once at Piper before breaking into a dead sprint towards him. There were nearly five campers around him by the time she got there, all unsuccessfully trying to calm him down. She remembered the boy as Lucas.
"Calm down, buddy, it's okay, it's okay. They're gone," someone soothed.
"No-no-No!" he stammered, vehemently shaking his head back and forth. He pulled anxiously on his Spider-Man pajama shirt, which was all but covered in dirt. Scratches lined his arms. "He's not- he's not- it's my fault-"
Annabeth's blood ran cold.
"Lucas," she said measuredly, looking around frantically. Anxiety balled in her chest when she realized she couldn't find Percy anywhere. "What are you talking about?"
The little boy let out a sob.
"Lucas," she bit out, harsher this time. She'd have to apologize later. "Where?"
A few shot her confused looks, but she didn't have time to answer them when a shaking finger pointed somewhere behind them; she was already gone. Footsteps and voices yelling at her to wait followed her. She ran faster.
Green tendrils of smoke were still rising up from where the fire had exploded, and it was in their light that she saw him. Percy.
She froze. He was lying on his back in the grass, eyes closed, his gray New York Aquarium shirt smoking and charred. His arm was bent unnaturally beside him, and he wasn't moving.
Lucas had caught up to her. "I'm- I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-"
"What happened," Annabeth said, sharply but not unkindly as she knelt down by her unconscious boyfriend. Her head snapped up as an older son of Iris slowed by the scene, cursing. She sent him to find Will before meeting the twelve year old's eyes.
He took a shaky breath, wiping tears with a muddy sleeve and leaving a brown streak across his face. "I didn't- I didn't hear them when, when, when they-"
"Slow down," Annabeth nearly snapped, too tired and stressed to be gentle as she felt Percy's neck for a pulse, relaxing slightly when she felt it strong and steady beneath her fingers. His skin was hot to the touch, very nearly burning. She blinked and looked at him again- he had blisters up and down his arms, and one forming along his jaw. She didn't think they were third degree, but the burns were definitely bad. He was going to be disappointed that his favorite shirt was charred and burnt through in several spots, too.
The blonde waited impatiently for a few moments, passing the time by gingerly examining his arm. It was swollen at the elbow and already bruising horrifically. She held back a gag when she felt the bone pointed out directly under the skin. Broken, definitely.
The blonde looked up, desperately looking for Will. Where was he? It wasn't good that Percy was still unconscious. Anything longer than a minute and that could mean serious brain damage. He'd already had so many concussions that one more could make or break him.
Gods, he was miserable enough dealing with the side effects of Tartarus. It couldn't get worse. It couldn't. He needed to wake up.
"When they set off the Greek, um, the fire," the boy finally choked out, slightly steadier than he had been. "They yelled for everyone to get out of the way. I didn't... I didn't hear them, and-"
"This self-sacrificial fucker pushed you out of the way and got himself blown up? Typical," Annabeth seethed, her anger masking her immediate fear.
"I resent that, you know," a voice rasped, immediately followed by a pained whine. "Oh owww that hurts, please please stop, Holy Hera-"
Annabeth yanked back her hands, touching Percy's cheek once before allowing herself to take a breath to calm herself down. "You're an idiot," she told him just as footsteps approached behind her. She let out a deep exhale.
His eyes fluttered halfway open, the bright green dulled to a dark forest color. "Yeah," he managed weakly before breaking down into violent coughs. Annabeth cursed. Tartarus had ruined both of their lungs- and Percy's were all the more worse, thanks to the years of second-hand smoke he grew up with. She didn't want him having an asthma attack now, especially when they didn't know how bad he was fully hurt. "Where's your inhaler?" she prodded him.
"I think-" cough, cough, "I think I'm okay," he swallowed a mouthful of air, wincing. He dug his head back into the cool ground. He sputtered a few more times, trying and failing to get his breathing under control when a hand emerged over Annabeth's shoulder with an inhaler.
It had belonged to Will. Thank gods. "Here."
Annabeth snatched the device, shaking it a few solid times before shoving it into her boyfriend's mouth. He went to bat her hand, too stubborn for help, when he gasped in pain- he'd forgotten his elbow was trashed.
"Just let me do it," she chided. "Please." Her voice was an octave higher with panic. Will knelt down next to her at Percy's side, glancing over his injuries as the demigod begrudgingly accepted Annabeth's help.
While the Son of Poseidon regained his breath, Annabeth spared Will a grateful smile. "Thank you. How- how did you just have this on you?"
The healer looked incredulous. "As if I'm not going to carry one around. You and Percy both need it, and you both don't carry one because you're stubborn and stupid, so I need to."
"I normally have one," she protested. "But these pants don't have pockets, and it was kind of a rude wakeup call."
"Imagine being a girl, and not having pockets."
"Ha ha. Fix my boyfriend," Annabeth's smiled was forced.
"Hey Will," Percy coughed weakly, dropping the inhaler onto his chest. The son of Poseidon took a shaky breath. "We have to stop meeting like this."
The blonde shook his head. "You know the drill by now, what's up?"
"I'm fine. Just momentarily gained the gift of flight before landing on my arm weird. Maybe a little- ugh, winded."
"It's fractured for sure," Annabeth added, talking to Will. "At the elbow, and I don't think it's clean."
The son of Poseidon winced unhappily as he allowed his girlfriend to help him into a sitting position. "That doesn't mean-"
"Surgery, yeah, it does," Will supplied, equally unamused. "Congratulations."
He cursed, loudly, which only sent Lucas into more tears. The four turned back to him. Annabeth, in all honestly, had forgotten he was there.
"Percy, I'm so sorry. I was so stupid, I wasn't listening, and-"
"Hey, hey, hey," Percy soothed, "Come here, dude."
The boy stepped forward, blue eyes shiny with tears.
"Everything's alright, yeah? Let's be honest, this would've happened with or without you. It's important to be paying attention to everything going on the field, but you haven't had a lot of experience. It's all good. Plus I get a fancy cast out of this, yeah Will?"
"It'll be blue, just like you like them," his friend affirmed.
Percy nodded. "You can pay me back by being the first to sign it, deal? And we can work on battlefield awareness in the next class, okay?"
Annabeth resisted the urge to correct him- there was no way in Hades she would allow him to teach sword fighting with a broken elbow. She didn't want to ruin the moment he was making with Lucas, though. Gods. He was always so good with kids.
The kid visibly relaxed, Percy's assurance that he didn't hate him exactly what he needed to overcome his humiliation and panic. "You're sure it's okay?"
"I'm not mad. Accidents happen."
With that, Percy struggled to his feet, grunting profanities under his breath before allowing Annabeth and his friends to help him to the infirmary.
When he awoke the next morning, nearly high off of pain meds, he smiled lazily at Annabeth, who had slept in a cot by his bed the rest of the night.
"Hey, Annabeth."
"Seaweed Brain."
"Is it true that girls dig guys in casts?"
She answered him with a kiss.