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Watching Luke’s eyes fade probably shouldn’t have filled Percy with relief, but he couldn’t help it.
Annabeth probably would have stabbed him if he’d said that, so he kept it to himself, but there was no other emotion going through him right now. Not because he wanted Luke dead, though he did, but because he could finally say it was over.
The war was over. They’d won.
It was everything he’d wanted for so long, and the moment he registered it, he felt the adrenaline drain out of his body. Normally, when that happened, Annabeth would have held him before he fell. This time, he only had a few moments on the ground before she fell on top of him.
“Ow,” he grunted. “Beth, you’re crushing me.”
“Calling me fat?” Even now, she was joking.
“If I say yes, will you get off my back?” Though it wasn’t like he was any better.
“Ass,” she huffed, though she didn’t move. There was something in Percy that told him if she’d actually been upset, she’d have found the energy to smack him right now.
“We did it,” he said before he noticed, almost in disbelief.
“Yeah,” she sounded just as tired as he felt, which checked out given they’d been fighting for the better part of a few days now.
And if they counted the past year of close to nonstop fighting, then the timeline got even weirder. And given they were fighting Kronos, Percy wouldn’t have been surprised if his Grandad had done anything to make it feel longer.
Frowning, he shifted slightly, his energy slowly coming back, and Annabeth moved off his back with a grumble, lying on her side next to him. “What?”
“Think Kronos did anything to make the last year feel longer?” Percy blurted out.
Usually, when he asked weird questions like that, he’d get at best a look questioning his sanity, and at worst, be told he was wasting everyone’s time. With Annabeth, he got a frustrated look. Not because she was mad he asked her a stupid question, but because she was irritated he’d put something into her head that she now had to solve.
The fact that she always answered made it a bit easier to swallow that she was a bit annoyed.
“Why do you always ask questions I can’t answer?” she ended up smiling toward the end. Given this had been the first time they’d had this banter in maybe close to a year now, he understood the feeling.
“Because I’m me,” he smiled, shifting closer. Then, just because it was true, he said it again. “We did it.”
“We did,” she reached out and grabbed his hand, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Percy felt impossibly lighter. After so long, the war was over, and they could rest.
That was when the doors burst open, and Percy barely had the energy to turn and look at the ensemble of Gods standing at the doors of Olympus, his Father staring at him. “Percy… my son. What has happened?”
“We need a shroud,” he said, his voice cracking slightly as he felt Annabeth squeeze his hand. “A shroud for the son of Hermes.”
Things had gone back to normal in the past few months. At least, as normal as they could get after the past year.
That meant that, for once, Percy could just be at camp without worrying about what was going to happen. The best part was that he felt like he could finally walk through camp without everyone looking at him like he was a goner.
Things were looking up.
Although that wasn’t strictly true. That had not been the best part of his life right now. The best part was waiting for him at the docks.
He tried sneaking up on her, hoping to get her once to make up for all the times she got him with her cap, but he should have known it wouldn’t work. “What took you?”
“How do you always know when I’m around?” he shook his head, looking at Annabeth with a bemused smile.
“You’re about as stealthy as an asteroid, Seaweed Brain,” she turned to him then with a smile, shifting to the side so he could sit next to her. “It doesn’t take much for me to know you’re here. Just need to listen to the footsteps.”
“I could do the same with you if it weren’t for your cap,” he huffed, dropping right next to her.
“Keep telling yourself that, babe,” she leaned against his shoulder, and suddenly, any and all snarky comments he had in mind left him. It hadn’t been long since they’d gotten together, just about two months or so, and it still surprised him how affectionate Annabeth could be, especially given how the past year of their friendship had been.
Though, to be fair, before their spat, she’d been very touchy as a friend, something he never minded all too much. Why she’d been this touchy, he never asked, but as long as she was happy with it, he didn’t mind.
But it was the casual tone in which she called him babe that got him. For whatever reason, terms of endearment like that were still catching him by surprise, even if it wasn’t the first time she’d said it. Maybe it just made everything feel more real all of a sudden.
“Cat got your tongue?” she teased lightly, but he didn’t have anything to say to that either. It might have been months since they’d gotten together, but today, something felt different.
For a moment, it felt like everything was going right all at once. That wasn’t something he was used to. It made him think that maybe, just maybe, things really were looking up.
“Hello, Earth to Percy?” That and the snapping of Annabeth’s fingers in front of him jolted him back to reality. Looks like he’d been out of it longer than he’d thought.
“Sorry?” he turned to her with a smile, hoping she wouldn’t be too mad.
Instead of annoyance, he saw concern, which was probably better. “You alright?”
“Just thinking,” he shrugged, hoping she’d turn it into banter.
“About what?” She didn’t, of course, instead latching onto the conversation.
“Just… things are looking up,” he said, turning to the other. “We’re done fighting, now it’s just like how it was before, and everyone’s looking lighter. And, well,” he raised their hands, fingers intertwined. “There’s this.”
“Yeah,” she said with a soft smile, one he’d never seen around the others. “Yeah, I guess they are.”
Maybe things were going to be alright in the end.
War was never fun, especially not so soon after the last one ended, but at least this one was over now.
It was around this time last year that Percy last felt anything resembling hope that things could be better, and it was kind of funny that he was feeling this again now.
And yet, there was something different about this time compared to last time. For one, he’d been through a lot more than he had by the end of last year. If nothing else, that place was the single worst thing he’d ever been through, which was saying a lot.
Other than that, there were more people celebrating victory this time, with the Romans being here this time around. That made things a lot simpler for them, at least in terms of mourning, since they had a lot of other friends. Or at least, they might be friends.
But best of all, he and Annabeth had been together for a year now. Sure, they’d been apart for longer than they’d been together, but that didn’t matter. The number of things they’d been through when they were together more than made up for it.
That’s what made things a lot better in some ways. It meant that the two of them could comfort each other a lot easier than they did last year. And right now, that meant that the two of them were sitting at the docks, with Annabeth leaning against him, her arm around his waist as his own was around hers. It was nice.
“We did it,” she said quietly, squeezing his waist.
“Yeah, we did,” he whispered against her head, feeling the tension he’d been carrying since he woke up in the Wolf House bleeding out of him. “I love you, Beth.”
“Love you too,” she said, and he could feel her smile turn into a smirk. “Even if it took you your sweet time figuring it out.”
“What’re you talking about?” Percy frowned. “I knew it for a long time.”
“You didn’t say it till the Parthenon,” she shrugged. “The first time I told you was in Charleston, and the first time I thought it was when you were…”
She didn’t need to finish the sentence, but Percy knew how to steer the conversation away from that. “I figured it out when I swam in the Styx.”
“No, you didn’t.” Her voice was soft, but he could hear the sureness in it as well. “Maybe you thought you could be falling in love with me, but you didn’t for sure.”
“Maybe,” he smiled, kissing the top of her head. “It was when I woke up. All I could remember was your name, and that I loved you, and that I had to get back to you.”
“And you did,” she pulled back then, staring up at him with a smile. “And now, we’re together.”
Being together meant a lot right now. It meant they could work on their future together, it meant they weren’t alone, and it meant that things were finally looking up.
There were a lot of things Percy wanted to say right now, from thinking about New Rome and a future they had, to maybe thinking about any kids they might have, and so much more, but he figured that might be a bit too much to spring on her in one go. One day, they might sit down and talk all this out, plan their future together, but for now, Percy had one thing he wanted to clear up. “Did you and Connor ever go out?”
“Oh, for fucks sake,” Annabeth groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “He’s still going on about that?”
“Do I want to know?” This was something they hadn’t talked about before, but to be fair, it wasn’t like it was that big a deal. Every time Annabeth spoke of Connor, she always sounded tense or irritated, so he figured he didn’t need to be too worried about that.
It wasn’t like the things with Rachel and Luke that they needed to clear up quickly.
“We played spin the bottle once sometime last year,” Annabeth huffed. “I’d come back for about a week. It was during winter after the… the Labyrinth quest, and we were trying to figure out some kind of normalcy.”
“And I’m guessing you ended up kissing Connor?” Percy raised an eyebrow. “How’s that lead to him talking about you two dating?”
“I lost a bet,” she huffed. “Had to spend a week hanging out with him, and apparently, he considers that dating.”
She looked so annoyed, it was only kind of funny. And while Percy knew he should be a supportive boyfriend right now, and in most other situations he would, he had a feeling he could have some fun before he did.
Besides, after all the fun she had at his expense for the whole Lou Ellen situation, he figured this was only fair. “I dunno, Beth. Sounds to me like you were a whirlwind romance.”
“You’re not funny,” she gave him a deadpan look, without even the corners of her lips twitching.
“Think about it,” Percy smirked, knowing that anyone else would be in big trouble right now. “You spent a whole week with him during a time you wouldn’t even look at me without looking like you wanted to stab me. Sounds like you two had something going on.”
That just got a raised eyebrow, and now, the smirk was starting to form, though whether that was because she found this funny or because of something else, he didn’t know. “You think so?”
“And you kissed him?” Percy raised his eyebrow. “Sounds to me like you’re just making excuses to hide that you wanted to be with him, Beth.”
“You have exactly five seconds,” was all she said, and Percy knew that the safe thing to do was to get up and start running.
But Percy was never one to do the safe thing, and he used those five seconds to grab her by the waist and drop the two of them into the lake, calling an air bubble around them as he did.
Thankfully, from the look on her face, all the irritation in her bled out and she was left with a soft but exasperated smile. “What am I gonna do with you?”
“I can think of a few things,” he said, leaning in as she met him halfway, with this kiss coming very close to the one they had last year on his birthday.
Though maybe it might have been better, since he could feel a bit of a promise in it, too. A promise that she was his and he was hers. A promise that they’d have a future together.
A promise that no matter how bad things seemed to get, there was always an ending that would make it all worth it. And if that ending was with Annabeth, then Percy would say it was definitely more than just worth it.