Work Text:
percy sat on the edge of the barracks’ porch, his feet dangling over the edge as he watched the sun dip below the horizon. the california air was warm, the salty tang of the pacific ocean carried on the breeze. he knew he should go back inside soon—hazel and frank were waiting for him—but his head felt too heavy with thoughts to move.
he pressed the heels of his hands into his temples, willing the ache behind his eyes to go away. it wasn’t just the exhaustion from training or the nagging whispers of memories that didn’t quite fit—it was her.
the girl from his dreams. the one who haunted him like a shadow.
“annabeth,” he whispered, testing the name on his tongue.
it felt right, like a key turning in a lock. but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember anything else.
her face was a blur. he knew she had blonde hair—it shimmered like sunlight in his dreams—but the color of her eyes escaped him. blue? gray? something else entirely? and her freckles—he was sure she had freckles. or at least he thought she did.
he clenched his fists, frustration bubbling up inside him. how could he forget her? she was important. he knew that much. she was a part of him, like the sea itself. and yet, every time he tried to grasp at a memory of her, it slipped through his fingers like water.
“do you even have freckles?”
his words hung in the air, carried off by the wind.
percy leaned back, his gaze fixed on the stars as they began to appear, one by one, in the darkening sky. there was something about the stars that made him think of her, though he couldn’t explain why. maybe it was the way they seemed constant, like they’d always been there, even when everything else felt uncertain.
a part of him wanted to scream, to rage against the emptiness in his mind. but another part of him—the part that had been hardened by months of survival, of not knowing who he was or why he was here—told him to stay quiet. to wait.
because she was out there.
he didn’t know how he knew, but he did. she was out there, and she was waiting for him, too.
and when they found each other—when he could finally see her face, hear her voice, and count every freckle (if she had them)—he’d make sure he never forgot her again.