Chapter Text
"Annabeth?" I peered around the door of the Athena cabin, looking for a certain child of said goddess. The cabin was simple; bunkbeds lining the walls in uniform rows; a bathroom off to the side; dozens of desks, covered in an organised mess of papers and drawings. You see, Athena is the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, so whilst planning and strategy came naturally, organisation wasn't their best suit.
I spied a desk on the far back wall of the cabin where a figure lay slumped over, curled blond hair spilled over a dozen sheets of paper. I quietly walked over to the figure and pressed my lips to her forehead, "Annabeth?"
I stroked a spiral curl out of her face to tuck it behind her ear, opening her face up to me. She looked so peaceful when she slept, but what sort of boyfriend would I be if I left her asleep at her desk.
"Hey," I softly whispered to her in a hushed tone. When she still didn't stir, I scooped her up in my arms- leaving her desk untouched, of course- and placed her gently on her bed, pulling a blanket over her. As it was dinnertime, I would have usually woken her up and told her to go eat something, but ever since we came back from Tartarus, we had learnt that sleep was precious. A finite resource.
These days, it was rare that we would be able to sleep through the whole night without yelling out in fear and waking up plastered in sweat, tangled in our covers. For me, most of my dreams were about losing Annabeth, but on the occasion I slept with her tucked up against my side, the dreams were tamer and almost manageable, sometimes non-existent. We became a sort of lifeline for each other.
When Annabeth would wake from a terrible dream, her older brother Malcolm would fetch me from my cabin as only I could calm her down. When I woke from a dream, however, I would deal with it myself. Annabeth already had so much to worry about, she didn't need to be overly concerned about me too, especially when I would sometimes wake up with stained-red sheets and fresh slices and burns over my arms and chest.
I would never be able to tell her that Tartarus plagued my dreams with torture. Both figurative and literal.
As I turned to leave the cabin, Annabeth suddenly began to fidget in her bed and muttered the odd word: "Stop." "Don't Leave." "Percy!"
I automatically knew what she was dreaming of.
"Annabeth," I shook her shoulders gently at first, taking a more tender approach, but when she started screaming out in terror I shook her more fiercely, still careful not to hurt her. Her eyes snapped open and she bolted upright. I pulled her into my arms as she repeated my name in a hushed whisper. "It's okay, Annabeth. I'm here. We're together. We're okay."
Annabeth clung to me, fingers gripping into my hoodie like the roots of a tree. I held her in my arms until she calmed down and her shuddering breaths slowed to calm, steady ones. She pulled away from me and wiped the tears from her stormy, grey eyes, frustrated at herself.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked her gently and looped her shaking hands through mine to steady them.
"It was just," said Annabeth, "that place. I keep reliving it- what they did to us. To you."
I pressed my lips against her temple briefly, "I'm okay now. We're safe here."
"Recently, it doesn't feel like we're safe anywhere," she shot back at me, her shoulders sagging from exhaustion. Annabeth tilted her head back so that it pressed against my chest. I took the opportunity to wrap my arms around her and just... hold on to her. But then she continued, "I know you hide it from me Percy, how much it's affecting you too. I know you're not okay."
It seemed like I had been doing a lot of that lately. Everyday lies - "I'm fine", "I already ate", "I'm just tired"- that would go unnoticed by most people, but not by Annabeth. Never by Annabeth.
"It's hard to talk about what happened in Tartarus, but I'm trying. I'm learning to cope," I shrugged. "You are my way of coping."
"I wish you wouldn't say that place's name," Annabeth shuddered.
"I know, I'm sorry," I pulled her to her feet and slid my arm around her waist. "We're missing dinner now, but I got the Stolls to smuggle some food for us. We can eat in my cabin, if you would like to."
She smiled gratefully at me and leaned forward to give me a gentle peck on the lips as a brushed a few wayward princess curls out of her face, "I would love that."