Archive of Our Own

Percy had not been able to sleep correctly for six months, twenty-five days and ten hours. The truth was, he had not been able to breathe correctly either. 

He had dreamed of her every night he got to fall asleep and he had regretted it every morning he got to wake up, because sleeping meant being stuck in the illusion of her for far too long just to be hit by the reality of things when it ended. It also meant not searching for her, and that was something he could not afford to do. 

Morpheus had been so cruel with him. 

The god of dreams was playing twisted games on his mind, torturing him with the most beautiful memory of his love but never assuring him that she was okay —even though demigod dreams could do that. However the worst of all was that he never granted Percy the ability to hear her. In six months his dreams remained silent, he kept seeing her lips move, sometimes into a smile, knowing she was laughing but never catching the sound of it. All of it had been torture, and despite his every effort to grab onto the memories of her, he could not forgive himself for the silence that came with them. 

He was slowly forgetting the sound of her voice. 

Percy thought it might have been punishment for all the people he let down during the war, all the ones he lost because of mistakes he made or promises he broke. Just like the one he made to Annabeth. He promised her to be by her side no matter what impossible trials they had to face, and yet she was nowhere to be found. 

He had grown quite confident throughout the years of discovering what it was like to grow up as a demigod, a forbidden one at most. He finally started to feel like he belonged to this world, that he was going down the right path. But it all crumbled the cursed morning he went to find her in her cabin just to walk into chaos. 

He wasn’t the only person at camp who loved Annabeth —but he was pretty sure he was the one who loved her the most, so when the sun rose and she vanished the whole camp went on high alert. Her youngest siblings kept tearing up, meanwhile the older ones tried to manage as much as they could but nobody could deny it : she was the heart of the camp. 

Percy was mad at first, he kept blaming her cabin for not having a single clue about what happened. He even got into a fight with Annabeth’s sister, Brontë. She was leading the searches and asked for them to clear camp and its surrounding before asking for a quest, but Percy knew she wasn’t there. He couldn’t explain it but every second he spent walking through the forest screaming her name, knowing it was useless was killing him. Brontë argued that they were doing this the logical way, the wisest way, but even from a daughter of Athena herself he couldn’t help but notice how unconfident she sounded. 

That made him snap.

He also had to tell Thalia, which was harder than anything he could’ve had imagined. Her first reaction was to blame him, yell at him. But instead of yelling back like he used to, he hid himself in silence, because even if she apologized right after he still believed every single one of her words. 

The hunters joined the searches covering more ground than anyone else, Thalia’s brother and his friends showed up and gave them the information they were lacking ; a Roman camp somewhere in the country existed and that was where Annabeth got sent to. And yet, nothing happened ever since. Annabeth was still gone and none of the roads had led to Rome.

"Percy !" He turned around at the sound of Grover’s voice. The satyr looked exhausted, trying to catch his breath at the Poseidon’s cabin door. When finally he decided to raise his head, Percy knew something had happened, maybe their empathy link was working better than usual but his heart’s response was to beat significantly faster and so loud he wondered if Grover could hear how much hope he still had. 

"She’s back." Percy’s legs moved on their own, he had no idea where to go but he knew she was here, he didn’t mind searching a few more minutes. Every time he blinked, her face would appear. He wondered what their reunion would be like, he hoped for a kiss but he prayed for a hug. He wanted to feel her in his arms to make sure she was real, that this was not one of Morpheus’s game. He wanted to hear her voice. 

He followed the noise, the murmurs, the screams, and the sobs. All that brought him to the tree, the one protecting camp that once belonged to Thalia. Countless of people were standing there but Percy could only see her, the sun kissing her skin and her brown eyes wandering around every faces surrounding her with a frown. 

He surged towards her, trying to get through everyone standing in his way. When, finally, she was at reach for his arms to embrace her, his body once again spoke for himself and he stopped right in font of her.

So many words he wanted to tell her but his lips weren’t moving, his arms were not responding. She was right there but the more she looked at him, the more he felt the distance between them increasing. Something was not right. 

"You’re back." He tried to keep his voice steady, confident. But what he thought would sound like a statement, came off as a pleading. 

"Do I… know you ?" 

Crack.

He wondered if she heard the crack of his heart, if behind that frown she recalled a vague memory of a blond man in love promising her eternity. 

He knew Jason’s memories had been wiped, he knew there was a risk that the same thing happened to Annabeth. But in a hopeful and probably naive way, he never thought their love could be erased, it was supposed to be a power greater than the will of the gods so why was she staring at his blue eyes, a crease in between her eyebrows, trying to find familiarity in them. 

He thought Annabeth knew everything, yet she didn’t even know him. 

"Percy, excuse me but I need to bring her to my office." He couldn’t even reply to Chiron, he did not even know when he got there but nothing mattered anymore. 

He simply took a step back but he could not bring himself to stop looking at her, scared that she would vanish a second time if he blinked. 

Annabeth’s lips parted but she pressed them right back together without pronouncing a single word, her legs started to move towards the centaur allowing him to lead the way. And the last look she gave Percy was one that he knew far too well, her arched eyebrows and the gloss in her eyes left no room for interpretation. 

Annabeth knew she was missing a piece of her life, and it made her so incredibly sad. But it made Percy hopeful, which he was scared was going to be the most cruel feeling of all. 

"I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you but you didn’t let me finish." Grover put his hand on Percy’s shoulder "She doesn’t remember anything, only her name and that she’s a daughter of Athena."

Percy pressed his lips together, blinking away the tears that were threatening to fall. 

"It’s okay, we’ll get her to remember," he said, "we have to."

From the corner of his eyes he could see Grover nodding strongly to his words, he wanted to smile at his best friend —after all he had lost her too, but any strength he had left, he used to keep his demeanor in front of Annabeth, so his lips remained paralyzed as he followed Grover back to camp. 

***

Percy had locked himself in his cabin for the entire day, not even leaving it to eat. He had been exhausted for the last six months, in a constant state of worry, everyone had told him to rest but he had not been able to. 

Instead he replayed this morning over and over again, trying to figure out how to fix everything.He traced every line of the ceiling of cabin three, searching for ways to truly get her back, stuck in his mind between strategies and memories. 

He wondered what it would be like if she never got her memories back, would she still love him ? 

He didn’t even understand how knowing him so well led her to adore him this much, but he hoped it would happen again, even without the knowledge of everything they went through together. 

He brushed off this thought by physically shaking his head, that was when a knock startled him. He sat on the edge of his bed rubbing the palm of his hands on his face to ground himself back in reality, before standing up and walking to the door. 

Annabeth was standing in front of him, a tray in hands, moving her weight from one leg to another as a testament of her discomfort. 

"Hi ? I’m bringing you something to eat. Can I come in ?" She asked, but Percy was not able to reply anything. His eyes were widened and his lips parted trying to process this unexpected visit. 

He moved out of the way to let her in, taking a deep breath through his nose preparing himself for the interaction to come, only to realize she still smelled of vanilla. His lips moved into a smile, and he wondered how he could ever be casual with her. She was his favorite everything, but to her, he was a stranger. 

She sat on his bed as he remembered how she used to sneak in so that they had more time together and sat in the exact same spot she was using now. Twelve hours of daylight had never been enough for them, they always needed more of each other. 

He joined her on the bed, she was looking around the cabin as if she was trying to figure out the history behind it. She was probably trying to guess their history in it. 

"I’m sorry for this morning. It was probably… unsettling for you." Percy broke the silence, making her look at him. 

"It’s okay, really." She pressed her lips together in an awkward smile. "I didn’t see you at lunch, or at dinner, so I stole this."

Percy closed his eyes for a moment, memorizing every alteration of her voice so that it would never leave his mind again. He took a few seconds to process the sentence and when he did his eyebrows shot up, betraying his surprise. 

"You stole this ?"

"Yes. And then snuck in so I could give it to you…" 

A short silence filled the room, broken by Percy’s laugh. 

"So you could bribe me for answers, right ?" He asked, trying to remain calm but seeing as Annabeth’s whole face lit up and a smile finally graced it, he let himself laugh a bit longer. 

"Yes, sorry I’m just so confused and no one wants to tell me anything." She replied, "They said they didn’t want to shock me with too much information, but I can take it." 

"You’re still… you." He fought back the urge to place back a braid, that had fallen off her ponytail, behind her ear. Something he liked to do when he was admiring her. 

"I guess I am. I can’t know for sure." Her look adverted back to her hands, where she was fidgeting with her dad’s ring, previously on her camp necklace. "But I have a feeling."

"A feeling ?" He could see her biting the inside of her cheek, probably trying to find the right words. 

Same old Annabeth.

"Yes. I thought this," She showed Percy her father’s ring. "would help me figure out who I was. It was on my necklace, so I guess it either belonged to me or to someone important but looking at it I just… don’t feel anything."

"So what are your others leads ?"

"My other lead, singular, is you." Percy was struggling to breathe, her words still hanging in the air of his cabin. He thanked the silence of the night for being able to catch those words that were uttered in a whisper. 

He desperately wanted to look in her eyes at that specific moment, to know if maybe by simply looking at him she could give a name to what she called a feeling, but the gods weren’t that kind.

"In six months, I only ever felt familiarity when my mom came to find me. And even then she had to tell me who she was for me to sense something from my old life." She kept going but Percy cut her off. 

"So you know your mother is Athena, right ?" He already had the answer but still, he wanted to hear her say it. That she remembered this part of her old life, that it was possible for her to remember more. 

"Everyone keeps telling me this but she said her name was Minerva. I only trust her words, I don’t actually remember her if that’s what you were asking." 

Percy’s head fell back with a sigh, hope was a dangerous thing for him to have because the disappointment kept hitting and he wasn’t sure how much he could still handle. 

"But there’s still something, Percy." At these words, he raised one of his eyebrow hinting at her to keep going. "This morning, when I saw you, I felt something. I don’t really know how home is supposed to feel like but I would guess it would be close to what I felt on that hill when you showed up. It was just like… I finally found where I belonged."

She finally dared to raise her head and look at him. He knew what feeling she was describing, it was the one he had been missing ever since she was gone. 

"I think you hold the key to my memories, Percy. I need you to help me, please."

A humorless laugh escaped his mouth, if only she knew how long he thought about helping her, how he went through every possibility in his head just to be met with disappointment in the end. 

"What do you want me to do, Annabeth ?" He asked. 

"We were close before, right ? How close ?"

"You were my best friend." He wanted to tell her exactly what they were but he still struggled to figure it out. Of course, she was his girlfriend but that seemed too simple of a word to describe what she meant to him. 

She was his lifeline, his anchor to the demigod and human world. She was his North star, guiding him through the darkness. Even saying she was everything to him felt like diminishing his feeling. 

"Right. So, would you mind maybe telling me about our story ? Outside of this cabin, I mean. Show me camp through our lens."

Percy’s lips parted, not expecting this request. This was the closest they could ever get to remembering. 

"I would gladly do that. You’re lucky that I have the best memory ever when it comes to you." He shot her a reassuring smile, standing up from his bed. 

"Can’t really say the same, but thanks." She replied, clearly trying to bite back a smile. 

"Ha-ha, really funny." 

"It was kinda funny." 

"Okay, maybe we can get going now ? Or do you want camp to wake up before we even got to one spot ?"

She energetically stood up from his bed, a proud look on her face, probably from convincing Percy to do that for her. 

What she didn’t know was that he had never been able to refuse her anything. 

***

Throughout the night Percy showed every part of camp that made sense in their story. 

Beginning by the infirmary and the first time they ever saw each other. 

"You said I drooled when I sleep." Percy said to her. 

"Ew, do you ?" Annabeth simply replied. 

"I guess I do but you found that endearing. I hope."

That earned him a laugh from her, and oh how much he had missed this melody. Even if the memories weren’t coming back to her, just being with Annabeth as they were before was enough for him. He had spent so many hours torturing himself with the worst thoughts of what she could’ve possibly gone through, just hearing her being able to laugh healed something in him. 

***

They moved on to the next stop which was camp’s toilets. Where they first talked to each other and when he first used his powers. As he was counting the story to Annabeth, he realized every big moment of his life from twelve to now was, in some sort of way, laced with a memory of her. He added that newly acquired awesome fact to his story, saying it with the biggest smile on his face. Her eyebrows, however, were scrunched together forming a crease in between them. 

"Was I really stalking you ?"

"You were trying to figure out if I was the one you were waiting for." 

"Were you ?" She asked, it was strange to witness Annabeth being so clueless about everything. Sometime he didn’t know what to reply. 

"You could say that."

***

They then headed back to where all the cabins were, it felt weird seeing camp buried in darkness, this place that usually was so lively. Over the months of Annabeth’s disappearance, camp held less bonfires, less festivities. Everyone was mourning a girl they weren’t even sure was lost. Percy had wondered if the same thing happened when he had been stuck in Calypso’s Island, if she had to go through that as well. He felt incredibly sorry if it was the case. 

"You hugged me there, after our first quest. Even kissed me on the cheek once." 

"How do you even remember this… Was that necessary for you to tell me ?"

"You’re smiling, so yes."

They passed by the Poseidon cabin again and Percy was reminded of something that had happened a few years ago. He didn’t know if it was by any mean important, but he wanted to share it. 

"We hadn’t seen each other in a year and we didn’t know how to act around one another anymore. You had just experienced your first year of school and I wanted to know everything, even though I reread every letter you sent me throughout the year at least a million times. But you just wouldn’t tell me."

"Was I that interesting ?" A sly smile was plastered on her face. 

"Yes. Yes, you are." 

When showing her the cabins, he could not miss the Athena one. His mind thought back to her moment of vulnerability when discovering her prophecy almost two years ago. He remembered he had thought about kissing her, he had wanted to show Annabeth how devoted he was to her happiness and how much she could count on him. He really just had wanted to show his love. They had hugged, their longest one before getting together and it had made him feel all kind of things. He had known about his growing feelings at that point, but it had been the first time he truly had wanted to act on them. 

That was until Brontë showed up and saw them. 

He tried not to look Annabeth in the eyes when telling this story, he could tell she was beginning to figure out how deep their friendship went. 

"I… I think I remember." Percy stopped moving, afraid that he would break the magic of the moment if he uttered a single other word. "I remember the warmth of your embrace and your hand on my back, I remember the fear. And… I remember a feeling in my stomach, one I’m feeling right now."

She turned her head to look at Percy, but he still couldn’t dare to move. 

"Did I have a crush on you ?" 

"I like to believe you did." His lips moved slowly to form a fond smile, he tried not to think of the use of the past tense in her sentence and to focus about the feelings she just got back. It wasn’t a memory, but it was something. 

A tear rolled out on Annabeth’s cheek while she was staring at her cabin. 

"Hey, you’re doing great. It’s working." Percy placed a hand on her shoulder, she was shivering. 

"It’s filled with people I’m supposed to care about. I know it’s filled with memories… of you. Why can’t I remember anything ?" One tear turned into two, and before she could even say another thing, Annabeth was crying. 

His hand, once on her shoulder, moved to her waist, by one movement he brought her against his chest and put both his arms around her, and his head resting on top of hers, hugging her for the first time in six months. He felt everything, how her arms struggled to make their way on his back, how her body was still shaking. How right it was to finally get to have her there again, how familiar the butterflies in his stomach were. 

"It’s okay. You have all the time in the world, Annabeth." He said, patting her back. 

"I was scared… of losing you." He almost didn’t catch her words. "I was supposed to lose a love…" 

"You remember ?" He tried to get his heart to slow down, especially since she was so close to it. He felt her shake her head against his chest. 

"I don’t remember the full thing, just… some things." She replied, stepping away from his embrace leaving an empty spot in Percy’s arms. "Thank you for helping me… you know by hugging me and stuff." 

"Oh yeah, sure." He wanted to tell her how natural that was for them. How hugging, holding each other’s hands became their way of saying the things they didn’t dare to voice. Just how delicate they were together. But he was scared of how she would react so he hid himself in silence, once again. 

***

"Did we ever fight ?" She asked, walking to their next and probably final stop of the night.

"We did." He recalled how complicated he thought things were with Annabeth, another way of trying to escape how deep his feelings were. "Actually, you once called me a coward, right there." He pointed at the tetherball court across the path they were walking. Annabeth followed his finger, and that same look of confusing she had been wearing since the morning came back. 

"What did you do ?" 

Percy let his head fall as a small laugh came out of his mouth. 

"How are you so sure I was the one doing something ?" 

"I don’t know, I don’t seem like the kind of person who’d snap without reason. Am I right ?"

"Touché. I was scared of… my feelings and you called me out on it."

Annabeth stopped walking and took a moment to stare at Percy. He didn’t know how to react to that sudden reaction, but he hoped it had something to do with her memories. 

"Your feelings ?" She moved her head to the side in confusion, something so instinctive for her, it made him smile, almost forgetting the nature of her interrogation. 

He let the words linger a little bit longer in the air, thinking of an answer to giver her. And just for this moment, he felt like the Percy who was so scared of admitting his feelings, he buried them deep inside him and ran away, just like she once said to him. 

"My feelings, yes. We didn’t discuss those often but when we did, it often ended like that. Don’t worry, though, that eventually got better."

"You had feelings for me ?" have, he wanted to scream, their history wasn’t gone, they weren’t over so he couldn’t understand why insisted on using the past tense. 

"Let’s keep walking." He said instead. 

***

The moment he dreaded was approaching. 

As they reached the beach, he knew there was no turning back. He sat on the tree trunk in front of the Ocean, and hinted at her to join him. 

"Are we done…?" He could hear the fear in her voice, and that broke his heart. They weren’t done but he knew they were going to be, and he didn’t know if he could handle this last thing not working. 

"Not exactly," he took a deep breath, following the waves on the shore with his eyes. This always had the ability to calm him, almost as much as holding Annabeth’s hand. "I wasn’t completely honest with you."

"What do you mean ?" This time it was him who couldn’t bring himself to look at her, scared of what he might see when he would.

"You were my best friend, but you also were… are so much more."

For a moment, nothing but the sound of the ocean could be heard, and Percy didn’t mind staying like this until the sun rose. But he knew he had to keep going, if there was a single chance that telling her about them would bring her memories back, he was willing to take it. Even if it ended up breaking his heart. 

"You kissed me for the second time around here. It was my sixteenth birthday, and we just had lived one of the most difficult week of our life. But we were together, and that was all that really mattered. Because, Annabeth, we loved each other so much, I still do." He sighed, expecting the silence from her side. "That’s probably why things are different with me, you’re my… girlfriend. Actually, you’re so much more. I barely told you half of the thing we went through together, but I think you can still understand that you’re everything to me, and more." 

He brought the palm of his hands to his face, rubbing them against it. The silence made him anxious and he couldn’t tell if it was from all the memories coming back, or from his hopes being torn apart. 

"Please, say something."

He barely had the time to finish his sentence that Annabeth suddenly got up from where she was sitting. His eyes followed her as she walked frantically around the beach. Surely this didn’t mean any good. 

Seeing as she wasn’t settling down, he decided to get up as well. His heart was hurting from the gymnastics it did through the day, so much that even getting up was harder than usual. He walked to the shore, where she was and stood there, waiting for her to stop. 

And she did. She stopped right in front of him, a feeling of deja vu hitting him that he didn’t know where it came from. But she wasn’t speaking, she wasn’t even looking at him, so he kept going.

"Please" He pleaded her but he hoped the gods were listening as well. "I need you, Annabeth."

His biggest curse was knowing her too well, so when she closed her eyes slightly harder than usual, when her eyebrows were arched that way, he knew that all his efforts had been in vain. 

"I’m sorry, this is not working, I don’t think this is ever going to work." 

She couldn’t be another person, she couldn’t have come back to him just to slip away from his fingers once again. 

"I can’t go back to being the girl you got to know Percy, I’m sorry. I… I bet we were fun though." 

A single tear fell from his left eye, and this time he did not even try to keep it away from rolling on his cheek. 

He had to accept the truth, his girlfriend was gone. Annabeth Chase was never going to be the same.

Her hand reached for his cheek, cupping it like she had done so many times before. Her thumb caressed his skin, erasing the testament of his pain. Something he would’ve leaned into had it happened a few months earlier, but now his hands couldn’t move his eyes were searching frantically for a hint of hope in her face, but nothing. 

"You wouldn’t believe it.” He built up the strength to pronounce these four words, stepping back from her touch and leaving her hand hanging. 

He was done. 

***

Annabeth didn’t know how to react so her body did it for her. 

As soon as Percy left the beach, her knees had failed her and she dropped to the ground, no longer able to keep herself from sobbing, mourning a life she had once known. 

She was fine with forgetting everything that happened in her life, her parents, her siblings, her friends. She was okay with waving goodbye to how they were and creating new memories with them. But somehow, something was keeping her from thinking that way when it came to Percy. 

As she sobbed on the sand, she cursed herself. How could she ? How could she forget about someone she knew she loved endlessly. Even without her memories, his voice, his touch were so familiar to her, she felt safe by his side. 

She felt permanent when he looked at her. 

It was like she never left, sometimes it was like she never even forgot. It was so right, so why did it hurt so much to think about him ? She placed a hand on her heart as she sobbed, a minute for her life, all the following ones for Percy. 

For his patience with her, for his gentle embrace and his soft words. For the way his eyes widened whenever she smiled and for the way they closed when she laughed. For the way he loved her, and for the way she couldn’t remember how to. 

The sun was still far from rising again, when Annabeth’s sobs died down. She wondered what sort of punishment was that, she, who already had such a hard time dealing with her feelings, with her humanity, was subjected to the worst fate of all. Everything that rooted her in the human world had disappeared, leaving only the warrior. 

Annabeth Chase was gone, the child of Athena was what remained. 

« Me ? I just know how to be a demigod. » 

Her head shot up as she thought she was hearing something. Her surroundings seemed oddly familiar, not in the way of the Athena cabin earlier, but in a more precise one. 

« And that means we can’t be friends ? »

She quickly turned around to see where the voice came from, she was sure it was Percy’s but how could it ? He had been gone for more than half an hour now. 

« Because I don’t believe that. »

Annabeth’s head was hurting, trying to put back the pieces of a broken dialogue. She was hearing him everywhere, she even was starting to see him. 

« I think that when you talk about stuff, it gets less scary. »

And then, it all came back to her. At the same spot, a few years ago, Percy had made her feel seen and heard for the first time in her life. He had listened to her worries about their differences and he brushed them off allowing Annabeth to take a step towards humanity. They had fought, yes, but it made her realize how much she cared about him, how much she cared about entering his world to be closer to him. How scared she was of him rejecting her because of how differently they faced the world. But mostly how scared she was of losing him. 

She remembered her own self, how cursed her story had been but mostly how capable she was of loving against all odds. How that became her greatest strength despite being the strongest warrior at camp. 

She remembered the kisses, the promises, the impossible trials they had to face, the unconditional love. Every word, every hug, every touch came back to her and gave her the strength to move her legs. She couldn’t believe she forgot him, the best part of her, the most precious one. 

She began to run, she had to see him, she had to tell him. Every time she blinked, she saw his face, the single tear tainting his beautiful eyes as he pleaded her to remember. He had to know he succeeded. 

She ran through the path they walked on earlier, she ran past her memories. 

« Yes, you. You’re a coward, Percy Jackson. » 

She ran past the infirmary they were in just earlier.

« You drool when you sleep. »

She ran past the toilets, where she first dared to talk to him. 

« Are you stalking me, Annabeth ? »

She ran past her cabin, where she was so scared yet felt so safe. 

« I don’t want anything happening to… any of you. »

She ran past all that, because she was running to him. She knew their story, and she knew there was no world in which it could be over. They had so much left to live together, so much more things were waiting for them. As long as they were together, everything in this world felt right. That was why, on the door of the Poseidon cabin, she felt more at home than anywhere else. 

« This whole year, why didn’t you reach out. »

« That’s what I’m trying to do now. »

That was what, years later, she was still trying to do. 

Catching her breath, she knocked on the door, the same way she did a few hours ago. She prayed that he wasn’t asleep, but she didn’t have to hold the prayers for long as she was already hearing his steps heading towards her. 

« Annabeth ? What are you doing here ? » He asked, it was his turn to frown in confusion. 

« Can I come in ? Please. » And it was her turn to plead. 

Percy opened his door wider to let her in, and they stayed facing each other in the middle of this cabin, the silence engulfing both of them.

« What happened ? » 

« I remember. » Annabeth didn’t miss the way Percy flinched at the words. 

« What do you mean ? » He spoke slowly, as if he was scared of disturbing her mind and going back to square one. 

« Everything, Percy. » She took a step towards him, her eyes that had just started drying up were filled right back with tears, blurring her vision. « I am so sorry, I can’t even understand how I even forgot, but I did and I apologize for this. » 

She let her words float in between them, before continuing.

« When everything got back to me on the beach, my first thought was how could a goddess could dictate my feelings for you ? But the truth is, she never did. From the moment I woke up in the forest, with no memories left, it felt like a part of my soul had been ripped away from me. And when I saw you this morning, it was like nothing I ever experienced before, I just didn’t know what was happening. I thought the feeling was simply due to the fact that I once knew you but I was terribly wrong, it was because I knew deep down that I belonged right here with you. That my soul found its way back to its other half. » 

At that point, Annabeth started to cry again, she always felt more comfortable crying in front of him, she felt safe. Looking at his eyes, she smiled at the fact that this time, he joined her. 

« She never took my feeling away from me, I knew something, someone was waiting for me somewhere, that’s how I survived all these months. That’s how I found this place. My body moved and I decided to follow. And I love you, Percy. I never stopped loving you, and you have no idea how much I missed you. Thank you, for waiting for me. »

He gently brought his hand to her head to cup her cheek. He mirrored her actions and started caressing her skin with his thumb, only this time Annabeth place her hand on top his, and let out a small laugh of relief. 

« You’re back. » He said, shaking his head in disbelief. 

« I’m back. » She nodded against his hand, more tears rolling down her cheeks. 

He brought her head closer to his, and linked their lips with a kiss. Annabeth reached for the back of his neck, as his other hand took its usual position, on her hip. Their lips were moving in unison, at the perfect pace, she could taste the salt from their tears but she didn’t care, she was home, finally. 

« I love you. I knew you were going to come back, thank you for proving me right. » He said, in-between kisses. 

« You didn’t believe I was dead ? » 

« Never. » 

« You always made sure of that. » She replied, 

holding onto the memories of him.