Chapter Text
The whispers had been following them for hours.
They echoed off the walls, hissing and murmuring. Annabeth couldn’t tell where they were coming from or why they were there. Every time she turned her head, every time she scanned the dark walls of Tartarus, the voices seemed to shift. Sometimes they drifted down past the jagged rocks lining the path. Sometimes they echoed from the endless ceiling above her head. Sometimes she feels as though they were right over her shoulder.
Watching them. Waiting for them.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
She shivered and moved closer to Percy, pressing tight against his side as they moved. It still didn’t feel close enough. He squeezed her hand gently, and continued to move forward following behind Bob.
She had never seen him quite like this before.
He moved through Tartarus with a frightening sort of calm, tall and steady beside her. The crimson glow of the River Phlegethon painted his features in shades of red and gold. His blonde head of curls looked almost copper beneath the light, and his blue eyes remained fixed on the path ahead, constantly searching for threats. Percy Jackson had never looked so stoic.
But through all of his seriousness, his alertness, he looked exhausted. They both were.
Dread twisted painfully in her chest.
They didn't know where the Doors of Death were. They didn't know how much farther they had to go. She trusted Bob, but she was becoming increasingly worried that the silver eyed Titan wasn’t sure where they were going either.
For all Annabeth knew, they could be walking in circles through Tartarus until the darkness finally swallowed them whole. It felt like weeks had passed since they'd fallen. Weeks of running. Fighting. Surviving.
Their clothes hung in filthy, torn strips. Every muscle in her body ached. The cuts and bruises she'd accumulated along the way burned with every step she took.
Somewhere deep inside, beneath all the exhaustion, she could feel herself beginning to crack.
She wanted out. Gods, she wanted out.
There had been moments over the past two weeks when she'd caught herself silently begging for help. Desperately praying to any deity who might be listening. Athena. Poseidon. Artemis. Anyone.
The thought almost made her laugh. Growing up, Helen had always tried convincing her to go to church and Annabeth had refused every time. Now she found herself wondering if maybe she listened, then she'd know who to pray to.
Not that it mattered. No god had ever answered her before.
No Olympian had descended from the heavens to pull them from Tartarus. No divine voice had whispered that everything would be okay. The gods weren't coming.
Deep down, Annabeth had known that from the moment she'd started falling. If they were going to escape this place, it wouldn't be because a god saved them, It would be because they saved themselves. Because she and Percy had refused to die.
Her fingers tightened around Percy's hand, and the pressure grounded her immediately.
He was warm. Sturdy. Real.
The gods might have ignored her prayers, and they might have abandoned them, but Percy hadn't, not once. Not through the fall, not through the monsters, and not through the endless darkness.
Every time she reached for him, he was there.
And as long as he was still standing beside her, Annabeth would keep moving through the pits of Hell.
The whispers suddenly stopped.
Annabeth's steps faltered, her breath quickening. She had become used to the voices trailing them, the soft murmurs of sounds almost comforting in a twisted way.
"Percy," she called quietly.
Barely a few feet ahead, he glanced over his shoulder. The dim glow of the Phlegethon painted sharp shadows across his face. "Yeah?"
"They’re gone?"
His expression tightened, as if saying that he, too, had found the silence eerie.
"Unfortunately."
That wasn't reassuring. Then again, nothing in Tartarus was.
The ground beneath her boots pulsed faintly, as though some monstrous heart beat beneath the surface. The air smelled of sulfur and decay. Every breath felt wrong. Too thick. Too hot. Annabeth adjusted her grip on her knife. Something was out there. She could feel it.
“Don’t move.” Bob whispered sharply. His tall frame scanning the perimeter as if he could see the threat before it arrived.
Percy froze. Annabeth did too.
Then figures emerged from the darkness.
Dozens. No, hundreds.
Women stood scattered across the black terrain. They all looked the same. Pale skin. Dark robes. Burning eyes. Each one smiling. Annabeth's stomach dropped, her heart sinking along with it.
She heard Percy suck in a breath, moving to step in front of her, his thumb on the cap of his pen ready to be unsheathed.
“Fuck.”
"Arai."
The smile on the nearest spirit widened.
"Annabeth Chase."
The sound of her own name sent ice through her veins. Around them, more Arai appeared. Their voices rose together, the sound becoming unbearable in her ears. They were singing a chorus. A curse.
"You failed Luke."
"Unloveable. Unwanted."
"You weren't enough for your family to want you."
Annabeth's jaw clenched.
She had spent years learning how to ignore fear, years learning how to keep moving. But hearing her worst memories whispered from a hundred mouths at once made her skin crawl.
Beside her, Percy summoned Riptide, the familiar bronze blade gleaming in the darkness.
"Stay close." he muttered.
Annabeth nodded.
Then the Arai attacked. The battlefield exploded into chaos.
One spirit lunged and Annabeth ducked beneath grasping fingers and drove her knife upward, the monster dissolving into black smoke. Another appeared immediately.
And another.
And another.
The air filled with shrieks, curses, and whispers. The sounds were deafening, painful. Annabeth started to feel a slight wetness begin to drip from her ears. A touch brushed her shoulder and Annabeth spun, slashing at an approaching spirit before it could reach her.
Somewhere to her right, Percy was fighting too. Bob wasn’t far behind, sweeping the Arai until their bodies had vanished.
She caught flashes of bronze, the familiar rhythm of Riptide carving through monsters.
For a brief moment, relief settled in her chest.
Percy was still there.
Annabeth tore her knife through the monster, its face twisting into a secretive smile before disappearing completely. Then something struck her.
Not physically.
A feeling, like icy fingers dragging across her eyes. Annabeth staggered and the battlefield blurred.
She blinked hard. The next Arai in front of her smeared into a pale gray shape.
What the hell-
She blinked again when nothing improved. The world became hazy. Foggy. As though someone had breathed across a pane of glass between her and reality.
Her pulse spiked.
"Percy?"
No answer.
Annabeth turned toward where she thought he was.
For a split second she saw him.
A familiar dark silhouette, Riptide flashing in his hand. Then even that disappeared.
The fog thickened and panic began to claw its way into her throat.
Her vision narrowed. Gray. Then darker.
Then darker still.
“No, no, no please-”
She rubbed frantically at her eyes but her view remained unchanged. She whipped her head to the side and felt the wall around her, her braids tangling as she frantically touched the jagged rocks that she could no longer see.
The battlefield vanished.
And so did the Arai, the river, and the floor beneath her.
Everything was gone. Darkness swallowed the world whole.
Annabeth stopped breathing. She pressed harder at her eyes, desperately trying to blink through the black curse that had obscured her vision
"Percy."
Her voice came out small. Horrified.
For the first time since falling into Tartarus, she couldn't see him.
Then she realized she couldn't see anything at all.
Annabeth screamed.
“PERCY!”
The terror in Annabeth's voice cut through the dark cavern like a knife.
Percy's head snapped toward the sound and for a split second his heart stopped.
Annabeth was stumbling blindly across the rocky ground, one hand stretched out in front of her as though searching for something she couldn't find.
Searching for him.
An Arai lunged from the darkness, Percy didn't even think before swinging Riptide through the daimon before the spirit dissolved into black smoke.
He was already running before the remains hit the ground.
His stomach twisted painfully, and the twitching of his right eye was starting to bother the hell out of him, but still he ran.
Three Arai immediately surged into his path. Before Percy could reach them, a wall of darkness slammed into the spirits.
Bob.
The Titan's broom swept in a wide arc, sending the shrieking monsters tumbling backward into the abyss.
"Go!" Bob roared.
Percy didn't hesitate.
"Annabeth!"
She spun toward the sound of his voice. Not towards him, but the sound of him. She stumbled, as if the ground had tilted beneath her feet. Her balance was shaky, her movements uncoordinated. She was walking with her arms straight out in front of her.
Panic clawed at his chest.
"Percy!"
"I'm here!"
He vaulted over a jagged outcropping of stone and reached her just as she nearly lost her footing. His hands caught her shoulders.
Immediately, Annabeth grabbed onto him.
“What’s going on? Are you hurt-”
Both hands fisted the front of his shirt, desperately pulling him down a foot to match her height. The force of it nearly knocked the breath from his lungs.
"I can't see!"
Her voice cracked.
Percy's stomach dropped. He reached one shaky hand up to smooth her braids back, tucking one behind her ear. He didn’t understand.
"What? Annabeth-"
"I can't see. I can’t see. I can’t-” A frantic sob escaped her.
Gods.
He grabbed her face gently, forcing himself to stay calm. Annabeth was hysterical. Her chest was heaving as more tears trailed down her face, down her jaw.
"Look at me, Annabeth!"
The words left his mouth before he realized how stupid they were. Annabeth made a broken sound somewhere between a gasp and a cry.
"I can't- Percy, my eyes- I can’t see."
The realization hit him like a punch.
Slowly, Percy tilted her face upward and his breath caught.
Her beautiful amber eyes were still there. Still Annabeth's, except now a strange white haze clouded them.
A milky film stretched across her irises, dulling the intelligent spark that had always lived behind them. Her eyes quickly darted from side to side, aimlessly scanning his features. He watched her face break as her eyes slid past his face again without recognition. They couldn't focus, couldn't track him. Couldn't see him.
Dread unlike anything Percy had ever experienced tore through him.
Annabeth was blind.
He'd seen Annabeth injured. Had watched her take a knife for him last year that should have left her more incapacitated than just a few days. He has watched her fight for her life, brown eyes glowing in a quiet fury as she meticulously planned out every battle.
But he had never seen her like this, this shaky and unresponsive towards him. Her entire body was trembling, her hands cold where they gripped his shirt. Her breath was coming out in short, panicked breaths as if she were unable to take in a deep breath.
Annabeth wasn’t just scared, she was terrified.
And she kept clutching him as though he were the only thing keeping her standing, which at this point he likely was.
"Percy."
His name broke apart on another sob, her face wet with tears.
"I'm right here."
He pulled her against his chest immediately. One arm wrapping around her waist and pressing her firmly against him, the other cradling the back of her head. He gently brushed his hand down her curly braids, distantly wondering if her hair tie had been lost in the midst of the fight.
"I'm right here, Wise Girl."
She buried her face against him. Her forehead resting right over his heart as she tried to control her breathing. Her hands twisted tighter in his shirt and Percy welcomed it. Because every instinct inside him was screaming.
The Arai, the curse, the strange film over her eyes.
Fuck. He knew something was terribly wrong.
And for the first time since they'd fallen into Tartarus, Percy had absolutely no idea how to fix it. All he could do was hold her. As tightly as he could, as though somehow, if he held on hard enough, he could keep the darkness from taking anything else from her.
Around them, the battle continued.
Arai shrieked from the darkness, Bob's broom flashing a bright gold through the gloom as he forced the spirits back.
One after another, they dissolved into black smoke.
They kept coming, shrieking widely as they kept trying to get closer to where he stood wrapped around her.
Percy tightened his hold on Annabeth. Every line of their body was touching, Annabeth kept curling into him as she sobbed, as if she were trying to crawl into his ribs and hide.
"You're okay," he whispered as he rocked her gently back and forth, “I got you, Wise Girl.”
The words felt hollow. Annabeth shook her head against him and continued to cry, shuddering as she kept repeating the same sentence over and over.
“I can’t see. I can’t see-”
“Annabeth.”
“I can’t see.” Her voice sounded distant, almost detached from her body.
A shadow fell across them.
Bob.
The Titan stood over them, weapon in hand, his expression unusually grim.
Percy's stomach dropped.
"Bob?"
The Titan didn't answer immediately. Instead, his silver eyes settled on Annabeth. Then on the strange white film clouding her eyes.
His jaw tightened.
"Bob," Percy repeated. The Titan hesitated, his mouth opening and closing as though he didn't want to speak. Finally, he lowered his gaze.
"The Arai who cursed her spoke."
Percy's entire body went rigid.
"What did it say?"
Annabeth stiffened against him. Bob watched her with a heartbreaking gaze as his grip tightened around his broom.
"It spoke to you, Percy."
Percy's heart started to pound.
"Bob, what did it say?"
The Titan finally met his eyes and then repeated the curse.
"’You abandoned someone who cared for you.’”
The world seemed to stop. Percy felt Annabeth shift slightly in his arms, moving even closer to him. He felt her listening. Waiting.
Bob continued.
“‘You abandoned an innocent soul who loved you. Who took care of you.’”
A horrible sinking feeling settled in Percy's stomach.
No.
No.
The Arai couldn't mean-
"’Now your beloved will suffer in her place.’"
Annabeth's fingers tightened painfully against his shirt. Percy barely noticed, his blood roaring in his ears.
Bob's voice was quiet. Almost apologetic.
"’She will know only darkness.’"
Percy stopped breathing.
"’She will never see your face again.’"
Annabeth made a small, broken sound. Her breath hitched as a new wave of tears soaked through his torn shirt.
Percy immediately pulled her in deeper, as if he could somehow shield her from the words. He bent down and pressed his lips to the crown of her head, hoping to soothe her as much as himself.
From the curse. From all of it.
But Bob wasn't finished, the Titan's expression darkened.
"’She will forever feel isolated and alone.’"
The remaining Arai burst into cruel laughter, the sounds echoing across Tartarus.
"'And she will die mourning what she can no longer see.'"
Heavy silence followed. It was suffocating, nearly choking him as he stared at Bob
He couldn’t breathe. The words repeated themselves inside his head. You abandoned someone who cared for you. You abandoned an innocent soul. A familiar island flashed through his mind.
Golden beaches. A lonely girl standing at the shoreline.
Waiting.
Calypso.
The realization hit him like a punch.
"No."
His voice came out hoarse. Annabeth immediately turned toward him, her blind eyes searching.
"Percy?" She whispered.
"No. Why would she-”
He cut himself off, his words came out sharper this time. Angrier.
Because this wasn't fair. Annabeth hadn't done anything wrong. She had never even met Calypso, yet somehow she was the one paying the price. A 17-year-old girl, his girl, condemned because of a bitter goddess.
Percy looked down at Annabeth, curled tightly against his chest, trembling so hard her teeth were beginning to chatter. He glanced back at Bob, a storming raging in his eyes.
His arms bounded around her. Protective. Possessive.
Terrified.
As though if he loosened his grip for even a second, Tartarus would take her too. Annabeth buried her face against his shirt. Percy pressed his cheek against the top of her head.
For the first time since falling into Tartarus, he felt truly helpless. Not because monsters surrounded them. Not because they were trapped in the deepest pit of the Underworld.
But because the curse had spoken the one possibility he couldn't bear to imagine.
A future where Annabeth never saw him again.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then a shriek rang out from somewhere behind Bob as the final Arai lunged from the darkness, Its pale face twisted into a smile and Its ember-red eyes fixed on Annabeth.
Bob's expression hardened.
"No."
The Titan stepped forward as he drew his arm back then brutally swung the broom forward.
The Arai barely had time to scream. The celestial bronze tip pierced straight through its chest. The spirit dissolved instantly, black smoke erupting into the air before being swept away by the hot winds of Tartarus.
The laughter and whispers stopped, and finally the battlefield fell silent. For the first time since the attack began, there were no monsters surrounding them.
No curses. No voices.
Nothing.
Only the distant roar of the fiery river.
And the sound of Annabeth's uneven breathing against Percy's chest.
Bob lowered the weapon, his eyes sweeping across the empty landscape. Watching. When no new monsters emerged from the darkness, he finally turned back toward them.
"They are gone."
Percy should have felt relieved. Instead, terror settled deep into his stomach as he watched the Titan study the strange white film clouding Annabeth's eyes.
His eyes slightly wide with shock.
"Percy."
"What?"
"The curse should already be fading."
A cold weight had settled into the pit of his abdomen.
"What do you mean?"
"When an Arai is destroyed, its curse dies with it."
Percy stared at him and for a moment, he couldn't process the words. Then he looked down at Annabeth and she was still clutching his shirt. Still trembling. Still unable to see.
"I can't see," she whispered again.
The words sounded exhausted now. Not frantic, just broken.
Percy swallowed hard. His gaze lingered on her face.
On the tears drying on her cheeks, the streaks glowing against her dark skin. On the cloudy film obscuring her lovely brown eyes that had always seemed to see everything.
"What if it doesn't go away?" he asked Bob quietly.
The words tasted like poison in his mouth, coating his tongue as he spoke their true fear aloud. Bob's expression softened. It was the look of someone who already knew the answer Percy was afraid to hear.
For the first time since they'd met, Percy wished the Titan would lie.
Instead, Bob stepped forward and rested a hand on Percy's shoulder. The gesture was surprisingly gentle.
"I do not know."
Percy closed his eyes.
"But I know this," Bob continued firmly. "I will get you both out of Tartarus."
Percy looked up. Bob stood tall against the darkness, his bright eyes unwavering.
"I promised to help."
The Titan's grip tightened around his weapon.
"And I do not break my promises."
Something in his voice settled the panic threatening to consume Percy.
Not completely, though he knew nothing could do that, not while Annabeth was still blind and still shaking in his arms. Not while the possibility existed that she might never see again.
But it was enough.
Percy looked down at Annabeth and gently pressed his forehead against hers.
"I'll fix this," he whispered.
Percy knew Annabeth hated relying on people, she always had.
Even after all these years, she'd rather struggle through something herself than ask for help.
But Annabeth had never been blind before. Now, she couldn't navigate, couldn't watch for monsters, couldn't protect herself the way she always had.
And for the first time since he'd met her, Annabeth was going to have to trust someone else. Not just with the quest, but with her life. That would be something she was going to have to trust Percy to do wholeheartedly. Which he would, or he would die trying.
His hand rubbed a circle on the skin of her lower back, her shirt nearly hanging in tatters around them.
"You hear me, Wise Girl?"
Annabeth shifted slightly, her unfocused eyes turning toward the sound of his voice.
Percy's chest ached.
"I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere."
A shaky breath escaped her.
Percy leaned down to tilt her chin up, his lips almost brushing hers as he spoke gently.
"You don't have to worry about anything except staying with me, okay?"
Annabeth's chin trembled.
"I can't-"
"I know."
His voice softened immediately.
"I know."
For a moment she looked impossibly small. Not because she was weak, Annabeth had never been weak to him, but because she had never looked so scared.
And that frightened Percy more than any monster in Tartarus ever could.
"I'll be your eyes."
The promise left his mouth before he could stop it and Annabeth went still.
"I'll tell you where to step." He gently squeezed her hand.
"I'll tell you what's around us. If something comes after us, it'll have to get through me first."
A tear slipped down her cheek. Percy brushed it away with his thumb.
"You will not be alone through this, Annabeth. I will not leave you."
For a second, Annabeth's grip on him tightened so hard it almost hurt. As though she needed to hear those words, because she was too terrified of the alternative.
Beside them, Bob planted the butt of his broom against the rocky ground, the sound vibrating softly through the darkness.
Percy looked up, The Titan's determined eyes met his.
"Worry only about Annabeth."
Percy frowned. Bob glanced toward the endless darkness stretching ahead of them.
"I will worry about getting us out."
Something steady and unwavering entered the Titan's voice. A certainty Percy desperately needed.
"You have my word."
The walk was agonizing.
Not because of the monsters. Not because of Tartarus.
Because every few steps, Annabeth stumbled, and Percy's heart cracked a little more each time.
"Rock," he warned quietly and Annabeth adjusted her step. A second later her foot caught on another uneven patch of ground. She lurched forward and Percy caught her immediately.
His arm wrapped around her waist before she could fall.
"I'm okay."
The words came automatically. Annabeth had always been terrible at admitting when she wasn't. Percy swallowed, his throat feeling dry and tight.
"Right."
Her eyes remained fixed somewhere over his shoulder, unable to focus on anything. Annabeth pulled away from his grip after a few moments, trying to walk on her own again.
Trying to prove she could still do this by herself.
That somehow made it worse.
Because she shouldn't have to relearn how to walk, shouldn't have to count steps, and she shouldn't have to reach blindly for him every time the ground shifted beneath her feet.
This was Annabeth.
The same girl who had led quests across the country. The same girl who could navigate cities and temples after only seeing them once. The same girl who always knew exactly where she was going.
Now she couldn't even see where to place her next step.
And still she kept trying.
Percy found himself hovering beside her, close enough to catch her and close enough that his arm brushed hers with every other step.
Annabeth never commented on it, never told him to back off. She simply reached for him whenever she lost her balance. Every single time.
Hours later, Bob finally stopped, the Titan examined the rocky cliffside before giving a single nod.
"We rest here."
Percy could have kissed him.
The small cavern wasn't much, just a shallow recess carved into the black stone. But it was sheltered. Safe enough for them to rest for a couple of hours.
Bob moved toward the entrance.
"I will watch."
Percy looked up.
"You sure?"
Bob nodded, "Go sleep. You look like you could use it."
The Titan settled near the opening, spear resting across his lap. Percy didn't argue with him. The moment Bob turned away, he looked back toward Annabeth.
She was standing exactly where he'd left her, her arms wrapped around herself. Exhaustion written across every line of her body.
Waiting. Unmoving. Because she couldn't see where to go.
The sight nearly broke him.
"Come here, Wise Girl."
Immediately her head lifted the smallest amount, enough to show she'd heard him. Percy walked forward and took a hold of her fingers, then started walking her towards the wall of the cavern. The second her fingers touched his, some of the tension left her shoulders.
Percy slid down the wall, his back resting against it while he kicked his long legs straight out in front of him. Percy continued to guide her carefully and when she reached him, he didn't hesitate. He wrapped an arm around her waist and gently pulled her down into his lap.
Annabeth let out a startled breath and then she just melted against him, as though she didn't have the energy to argue.
Percy settled his back against the stone wall and adjusted her until she was comfortable.
One arm wrapped securely around her middle, the other rested across the tops of her thighs as she sat across him, keeping her close. Keeping her safe.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
Then Annabeth's fingers found the front of his shirt, gripping it lightly. Not enough to wrinkle the fabric but just enough to reassure herself he was there. She rested her head down in the space between his neck and shoulder, her nose lightly brushing against the side of his throat.
Percy adjusted his grip around her.
"Try to get some sleep."
Annabeth didn't answer.
For a moment, he thought she had already fallen asleep, Then he felt her tense, every muscle in her body drawing tight beneath his arms.
"Annabeth?"
A long silence followed.
When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.
"I don't want to."
Percy frowned.
"Why?"
Another pause, longer this time, as though she was trying to decide whether she wanted to say it out loud.
"I can't tell when my eyes are closed anymore."
The words hit him like a punch. Percy's arms tightened around her instinctively.
Annabeth swallowed.
"When I blink.." Her voice wavered. "Nothing changes. Everything looks the same."
Percy closed his eyes. He hadn't even thought about that. For him, darkness still meant something, because there were degrees to it. Shadows. Shapes. Distance.
For Annabeth, there was only nothing. No difference between sleeping and waking. No difference between having her eyes open and having them closed.
Just endless darkness.
He felt her fingers tighten in his shirt.
"What if I wake up and you're gone?"
The question came out so quietly he almost missed it.
Percy's heart broke.
Because it wasn't really about him leaving. Not entirely.
It was about not knowing. About being trapped in a world she couldn't see, about losing the certainty she'd always relied on. Percy rested his cheek against the top of her head.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"What if something happens?"
"It won't."
"What if-"
"It won't."
For the second time that night, Annabeth turned her face into his chest. Hiding.
Percy hated how scared she sounded, hated that there was nothing he could do to fix it.
So instead he did the only thing he could. He took her hand and placed it directly over his heartbeat. The steady rhythm echoed beneath her palm.
Annabeth went still, like the endless stream of thoughts and more what-ifs running through her head had finally been silenced.
"If you wake up," Percy murmured, his lips pressed to her temple, "and you're scared.."
He intertwined their fingers, his hand covering her smaller one against his chest,
"..look for this."
A shaky breath escaped her.
"My heartbeat."
"And if I can't find it?"
Percy dropped a kiss into her hair, then turned his head to gently press his lips against hers. His were chapped, hers a little dry, but he loved it all the same. Loved her all the same.
"You yell my name."
The smallest huff of laughter escaped her.
"I'll answer every time."
For several seconds, the quietness consumed them.
Then Annabeth shifted closer, somehow. Percy didn't know how she managed it considering she was literally on top of him already, but he wasn’t complaining. The weight of her in his arms grounded him.
And eventually the tension began to leave her body, piece by piece. Until her breathing finally deepened. Even after she fell asleep, her hand remained pressed over his heart.
Making sure it was still there.
Making sure he was still there.
Percy looked down, Her eyes were already closed, the exhaustion finally winning. Yet even half asleep, she still hadn't let go of him.
Right now, he was the only thing in Tartarus she could find without looking. The only thing she could reach for and know was real.
His chest tightened painfully. Because he understood it, understood her.
After being kidnapped by Juno, or whoever Hera wanted to call herself, Percy couldn’t sleep without the fear of him waking up and not knowing who he was. He had spent months desperately trying to find a way back to her, to Annabeth. The name he had remembered before he had even remembered his own.
Percy finally let out the tense breath he had been holding since she was cursed.
He tried to glance down at her, to see her face, but her head was nudged so deeply against his neck he could feel her soft puffs of breath touching his camp beads.
He slowly ran his hand over the muscle of her thigh, feeling the strength of his girlfriend across him as she slept, and then rested it back around her hip. Protectively. Lovingly.
He whispered quietly, so soft that he was sure no noise actually came out of his mouth,
“I love you.”
As he laid back and shut his eyes, Percy swore he felt Annabeth’s lips on his neck press the words back.