Chapter Text
Annabeth could be a light sleeper at times.
Of course, when she was exhausted on a quest she would be sleeping like the dead, and nothing could get her up until she got enough hours. On other days, when she wasn’t knocked out by all-nighters filled with monster fights, she was a pretty light sleeper.
So it was no surprise when she woke up to the sound of a door slamming somewhere outside, followed by heavy and rushed footsteps at ass o’clock in the morning.
At least, she thinks so. There was still no way of telling the time here.
She shifted to lay on her back and stared up at the ceiling, contemplating whether or not she wanted to get up and see who it was or go back to sleep.
The latter was more tempting. A way better option in her mind.
So why was it that something in her gut was telling her to get up and see what the heck that was?
Grumbling, she sat up and got out of bed. She wanted a glass of water anyway.
Grabbing the jacket she left on her desk, Annabeth left her room, quietly closing the door behind her and making her way down the hallway, zipping her jacket up.
First stop: the kitchen to get some water. Then: find whoever it was that woke her up (by accident but she still woke up nonetheless).
Turns out, she didn’t need to have to find the person, seeing as he was in the kitchen, too.
Water. Of course.
“Percy,” Annabeth sighed. “What are you doing up?”
Percy froze from his place in front of the sink. “Umm…I could ask you the same thing.”
“It was you who woke me up, actually.” Annabeth made her way to give Percy a back hug. “You weren’t exactly being quiet, you know.”
Some tension left Percy’s shoulders as he melted under Annabeth’s touch. “I’m sorry.”
It was then that Annabeth noticed how guarded Percy was being before she hugged him. She pulled away and stood beside him. “Hey, what’s wrong?” She asked gently, reaching up to touch Percy’s cheek.
Percy turned to face her, and Annabeth’s worry heightened even more. His dark circles were more prominent now, extremely contrasting with his naturally vibrant eyes. He was worrying his lower lip between his teeth, not enough to cause it to bleed, but enough to show Annabeth that something was on his mind.
“I thought we wouldn’t have to worry about nightmares while we were here,” Percy sighed, breaking eye contact and looking down at the sink drain. “I should’ve known it was too good to be true.”
Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. She wasn’t getting any nightmares, so she thought Chronos and Ananke did something about that. Looks like she was right in her worries about that not being able to keep up. For Percy at least.
She took one of Percy’s hands and squeezed it. “Is it the usual?” She asked softly. The usual being nightmares from their time in the Pit.
Percy thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “Both? I don’t know.”
Annabeth tilted her head confusedly.
Percy noticed this and smiled slightly. “Maybe not the best answer.”
“No,” Annabeth chuckled. “Maybe not.”
“It’s, uh…” Percy looked down again. “Night found me, Annabeth.” He wasn’t going to risk saying her name now, not when they’ve established how names could literally summon these beings. He also contemplated whether to tell her or not. He decided the better option would be to tell at least her but not anyone else. He’ll keep it on a need-to-know basis.
“What?” Annabeth’s eyes widened. “But the primordials…” She trailed off, realizing what she just said.
“Exactly, she’s a primordial too.” Percy sighed. “It doesn’t help that she’s the primordial of Night. It shouldn’t be hard for her to sabotage my dreams. The void doesn’t exactly show signs of daytime, either.”
“Did she do anything to you?” Annabeth asked, looking Percy up and down, checking for anything wrong.
“I’m fine, Annabeth,” Percy immediately reassured her. “Just the nightmares this time.”
Annabeth nodded, relieved. “Anything I need to know?” She asked.
Percy slung an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go somewhere more comfortable, yeah?” He led her to one of the tables. They sat down beside each other, hands holding each other’s on top of the table in front of them.
“I’m sure Chronos and Ananke are stopping her somehow, seeing as she’s not, well, here,” Percy sighed. “Yet.” He added.
“Yet.” Annabeth nodded. “Can never be too careful.”
“Gods, Annabeth, I could have sworn I was back in her Mansion.” Percy rubbed his eye tiredly. “She may not be here but she was still fully capable of controlling my dreams.” He grumbled.
“Hey,” Annabeth rubbed his back comfortingly. “Nothing happened, right? So let’s not worry too much about it for now. You already have enough on your plate with all of these projections.”
“Tell me about it,” Percy huffed.
“But if anything related to her happens again, tell me. We’ll get through it together.” Annabeth said sternly, staring into his eyes.
“Of course,” Percy nodded. “That reminds me, I want to talk to you about something.”
Annabeth looked at him curiously. “Should I be worried?”
“Nah,” Percy shook his head. “I’m the only one worried about it, honestly. It’s about Poseidon’s blessing.”
“Oh,” Annabeth’s eyes widened. “I kind of forgot about that. That was a surprise.”
“Well, I don’t think I can forget about it even if I wanted to,” Percy ran a hand through his hair. “I honestly still can’t believe it.”
Annabeth analyzed Percy. “There’s something more to it, isn’t there?”
Percy glanced around the room as if to make one hundred percent sure that no one else was there and listening in on them. Specifically Zeus.
“It was Neptune.”
Annabeth blinked. “Excuse me?”
“The blessing was from Neptune,” Percy repeated.
Annabeth opened her mouth but Percy cut her off. “Please don’t ask, I don’t really know much about it either.”
Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him in amusement. “I guess that’s the real reason why Neptune was suddenly there with you then? Not because of your tattoo.”
Percy shrugged. “Zeus would probably kill me if he found out.”
Annabeth made a small noise of agreement. “You know, it kind of makes sense.”
Percy looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“Your quick pick up on Latin,” Annabeth suggested. “Before you say anything, I know Roman demigods can pick up on Greek and we can pick up on Latin, but it never came as naturally as it did to you.”
Percy made a face. According to Neptune, the Latin was quite literally just a bonus. Something that happened to come with the blessing since Neptune was Roman.
“You picked up on it as easily as you picked up on Greek,” Annabeth said. “I only know a few words in Latin at most. You’re out here yelling at Furies to eat your pants!” She laughed.
“I’m still Greek,” Percy muttered.
“I didn’t say you weren’t,” Annabeth poked his cheek.
“So, was it because of this blessing that I was able to even survive Camp Jupiter?”
Annabeth hummed in thought. “I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “Not even a Roman can just become praetor in the span of a week. That’s something only Percy Jackson does.” Annabeth grinned, tapping her finger on his nose.
Percy wrinkled his nose, blushing. Annabeth’s grin widened at the sight. “Anything else Neptune told you?”
“He said something about it helping my body handle what I already have?” Percy said uncomfortably. That implied that the powers that he’s been struggling with would have been within him with or without the blessing.
He had wanted something or someone to blame. When the blessing thing came up, he thought he could just blame that, maybe even ask his father to take it back so that he didn’t have to deal with his growing powers.
“Percy…” Annabeth looked at him knowingly. “I keep telling you this but I won’t stop until you get it through your head. You are amazing.” Annabeth emphasized every word.
Percy looked at her with doubt in his eyes. Annabeth grabbed his hands and sighed. “You’re so amazing that your dad had to help your body adjust to that amazingness.” She grinned.
Percy snorted at her word choice. He then frowned. “I just don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Percy, I trust you with my life.” Annabeth squeezed his hand. “I know you’d never hurt any of us. Not deliberately at least.”
“See, that’s the problem!” Percy pulled on his necklace as if it was choking him. “I can still hurt people. Even if it’s not on purpose, it’s still my fault. I lost control with the Gabe situation yesterday, Annabeth. People could’ve gotten hurt. My mom could’ve gotten hurt.”
“But she didn’t,” Annabeth said firmly. “No one did. Besides, you had every right to explode that bathroom given what was shown.”
Percy just looked down at their hands.
Annabeth pulled him up and gave him a hug. “If you’re really worried about it, you can always talk to us. I can tell you now that no one will blame you, but you can always ask them yourself. You don’t have to carry this burden alone.”
Percy’s hold on her tightened, face buried in her shoulder. “I’ll try.”
“We’re here, Perce,” Annabeth whispered. “I’m here. And we’re not leaving you anytime soon.” And if she needed to keep reminding him of that fact, she would do it with no hesitation.
They stood in each other’s embrace for a long time. Annabeth sighed into Percy’s chest. “Will you be able to go back to sleep?”
“Can you stay with me?” Percy asked, muffled by Annabeth’s hair.
Annabeth’s shoulders shook as she laughed gently. “You know I can’t. The others are going to take it the wrong way, and our parents are here. Not to mention Chiron.”
“Fine,” Percy grumbled as he pulled away. “But I’ll still try to get some more sleep.”
“Good,” Annabeth said, already taking Percy’s hand and walking back to the rooms. “Because I would have made you try to sleep anyway.”
Percy kissed Annabeth’s forehead as they stopped in front of her room. “See you in a few hours.”
“Now you really better wake up later than me this time, got it?” Annabeth jabbed a finger at his chest.
“Yes, ma’am,” Percy chuckled. They smiled at each other before Annabeth waved and retreated back into her room.
As she lay in bed and closed her eyes, she realized she didn’t even get to get herself some water.
Oh, whatever.
Once again, Annabeth woke up to a loud sound. This time though, she could tell it was at a reasonable time seeing as the sound was coming from the chatter of the other teens in the hallway, awake.
Annabeth groaned, shifting to face the wall and bringing the comforter up and over her head. She didn’t want to get up. Too much effort.
She also didn’t want to start the next part. Just why did she have to be so eager to go on quests? This one wasn’t even her or Percy’s quest!
This next one actually wasn’t so bad, at least compared to their others. The one that would suffer the most other than Percy in this one would probably be Clarisse. Or maybe even Grover.
Annabeth was sure that both of them do not want to revisit the dark time that is almost marrying a cyclops.
She was about to drift back to sleep when her door suddenly slammed open. “Yo, Annabeth!” Thalia’s loud voice rang through her room. “Are you awake?”
Annabeth groaned, not moving from under her covers. “Yes, no thanks to you.”
From where she lay, she could hear urgent whispering from Jason. “Don’t wake her!”
Annabeth huffed and pulled down her covers. She sat up and glared at the Grace siblings. “Too late. Why didn’t you go and bother someone else?”
Thalia raised her hands up in surrender. “Sorry,” She said, not sounding sorry at all. “I thought you would have been up and getting ready already.”
Jason rubbed the side of his neck. “Sorry.” He said, sounding much more genuine than his sister.
Annabeth snorted, rubbing a hand down her face. “Sometimes, I forget you two are full-blooded siblings.”
“I’ll see you at breakfast, Annabeth.” Jason smiled sheepishly, waving as he turned to jog up to Leo and Piper who happened to walk past her open door at that moment.
Thalia leaned on the doorframe, arms crossed while she watched Annabeth get up from her bed.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow at her while she stretched. “Yes?”
“Nothing,” Thalia muttered, but her eyes seemed to scan Annabeth for any sign of hurt or injury. “Just wanted to check in on you.”
“I’m fine Thals,” Annabeth sighed, walking to her closet to rummage for a fresh set of clothes. She held up a plain white tee and some sweats before nodding to herself and shutting the closet door. “No need to worry.”
Thalia pushed herself off of the wall and glared at Annabeth. “No worries? You do know that I won’t just drop the fact that you were in—” Thalia cut herself off, not even able to say it out loud.
Annabeth bit her lip and looked down. “I’m sorry, Thalia, but I really don’t want to talk about it.” She looked back up and walked towards Thalia. “But I am fine. For now at least.” She knew better than to lie. Thalia, no matter if she was an immortal huntress stuck in a fifteen-year-old body, was always going to be her older sister.
“I can see that,” Thalia ran a hand through her hair. “I just…it’s not exactly something I could just forget overnight.”
“I know,” Annabeth gave her a sad smile. “But you’re here now. As much as I hate it, I know you aren’t going to be leaving me, Percy, or Nico alone anytime soon.” Her smile turned into a joking one.
Thalia scoffed. “You bet.” It didn’t matter that Nico was technically decades older than her, or that both Percy and Annabeth were also both (technically) older than her now. Growing up with a mother that never cared for her or Jason made her grow up with a need to protect. A maternal instinct, almost. She would always be that mom-friend, no matter how much she herself denies or hides it.
Annabeth smiled at her gratefully, not needing to have to put it into words. “Now, shoo. Let me get ready in peace.” Annabeth pushed her out of her room.
Thalia laughed. “Geez, okay. You better not skip breakfast.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Annabeth shut the door with a laugh. She leaned back on it and sighed. Thalia never stopped nagging at her, and surely would never stop.
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Alrighty!” Leo cracked his knuckles, tongue stuck out in concentration as he carefully placed the last piece on top of his tower.
Frank looked at him, unimpressed. “I’d really love to eat my waffles now, you know.”
Somehow, Leo had managed to steal everyone’s waffles and stopped them from getting anything else from their magic plates. What did he do with the waffles, you ask?
“How dare you make a waffle tower without me?” Annabeth gasped in mock outrage as soon as she walked into the dining room.
“Out of everyone, I must say I did not expect you out of all people to encourage this nerd.” Clarisse scowled, also just wanting to eat already.
“I’m an architect, remember?” Annabeth replied calmly. She stopped in front of Leo and his waffle creation. The waffles were just stacked, one on top of another, nothing too out of the ordinary. It was the different toppings that really made his tower more… intricate.
With the help of whipped cream, chocolate chips, fruits and even candy, Leo had created some weird waffle tower contraption that no one seemed to understand.
“May I?” Annabeth asked, holding up a bottle of syrup that was sitting on top of the table.
“Why of course,” Leo grinned, ecstatic that Annabeth knew what he was getting at.
Annabeth poured syrup at the very top and they all watched as the syrup ran down the paths Leo made for it, creating an intricate waterfall down the tower of waffles.
Paul stared open-mouthed from his and Sally’s table. “How did he manage to make a stack of waffles look like an artwork?”
Leo heard him and turned to face Paul. Giving the English teacher a bright grin, he bowed. “Why, I am an artist.”
Piper laughed at her best friend fondly. “Or simply, a Repair Boy.”
“That’s Artist Repair Boy to you!”
The teens laughed together while Sally and Paul smiled as they watched.
“Okay, now can we eat?” Frank asked Leo.
“Yeah, yeah.” Leo sat back down. “Your welcome for the toppings.”
Annabeth went to sit down beside Thalia. “See? Didn’t miss breakfast.”
Thalia just replied by stuffing her face with waffles.
“Percy still asleep?” Hazel asked.
Thalia swallowed her food before grinning mischievously. “I can always go and wake him up.” Everyone knew that just meant shocking the poor guy awake.
“Any other day, sure,” Annabeth said. “But not today. Let him sleep in.” She went back to eating, completely aware of the fact that everyone at their joint table was now looking at her curiously with a bit of concern. Annabeth was usually the one who was first in trying to get Percy awake for breakfast, both back at camp and on the Argo.
“Did something happen?” Katie furrowed her eyebrows.
“Rough night but nothing to worry about for now,” Annabeth gave them a reassuring smile. “But let’s not disturb him while he’s getting some actual rest.”
That was enough reassurance for the teens as they all went back to eating their waffles.
“Won’t he be disappointed that he didn’t join us for waffles?”
“They’re not blue though,”
“So, since he’s not here,” Thalia placed her elbows on top of the table, clasping her hands under her chin. “How are we taking his life so far?” Her question seemed to be mostly directed at the rest of the Seven, seeing as they knew Percy the shortest.
“Really, Thalia?” Nico raised an eyebrow at her.
“What?” Thalia shrugged. “I’m curious! Besides, Percy himself would never ask. The guy never gives himself enough credit.”
“Back at camp, we’d hear his name left and right,” Leo answered Thalia. “Sure we expected great skills and monster-slaying but I don’t think any of us ever expected something like this.”
“No wonder none of you could really explain to us who he was and what he’s done,” Piper added. “Can’t exactly put any of what we just watched into words.”
“Not like they told us everything, either,” Travis rolled his eyes. “Can’t tell you what we don’t know.”
“And we only just started,” Pollux snorted. “Gods, he and Annabeth got into all kinds of shit.”
“Hey,” Annabeth defended. “There are instances when I wasn’t there. I don’t know everything.”
Thalia snickered to herself. Annabeth gave her a look. “What?” She asked.
Thalia grinned, throwing an arm around Nico’s shoulder. “If not you, then it was either me or Nico who was with him, funnily enough.”
Nico grumbled under the sudden weight of Thalia’s arm but didn’t deny her statement.
When Annabeth was taken by Thorn, Thalia was there. When Percy had to bathe in the Styx, Nico was there. And of course, who could ever forget the mini-adventure to retrieve the so-called sword of Hades?
“And none of you ever tell me what you guys have actually done,” Annabeth huffed.
“That is literally how we feel for everything you guys do,” Connor pointed out.
“Well, that’s about to change,” Nico told Annabeth, pushing Thalia’s arm out of the way. “Lucky for you. Now when the time comes and you need to kill one of us because you don’t like what you see, I suggest you go for Percy.”
“Agreed.” Thalia nodded.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. Gods, what was she going to do with those three?
“Well, that’s not intriguing at all.” Jason raised an eyebrow at them.
“You and Hazel should join us next time,” Thalia grinned.
“Chiron’s going to lock you all in separate rooms if you even try,” Will said. “He’s already tired of just Percy and Thalia. He doesn’t need more Big-Three-induced headaches. God and demigod.”
“Which won’t even work since Nico can shadow travel,” Rachel pointed out.
“Wow,” Will shook his head in disbelief. “No wonder there was an oath.”
“Because we’re too awesome?” Thalia asked with wide, ‘innocent’ eyes.
“Because you’re all menaces.”
The teens laughed together. Chiron sighed in exasperation from where he sat beside Sally and Paul. “Sometimes I wonder how they haven’t destroyed the camp yet.”
Sally chuckled. “Same goes for our apartment. Never a dull day with the demigods around, no?”
“For sure, for sure.”
The demigods kept bickering even as they finished their breakfast and made their way to the theater. The gods joined them after a while. Soon enough, everyone was there except for one.
And they couldn’t really start anything without Percy now, could they?
Well, technically they could but why would they do that? Unless Percy told them to, or they really needed to, then they wouldn’t begin without him.
Zeus scanned the group of mortals. “Where is Perseus?”
“Percy,” Annabeth muttered under her breath before facing Zeus. “Still asleep, sir.” She said clearly.
Hera’s face scrunched up in disdain. “So what? We wait?” She asked, obviously not happy about having to wait for a demigod to be able to do anything.
Annabeth did everything in her power not to snap at the goddess. Hera, no matter what timeline, would always get on her nerves.
She wasn’t the only one who was annoyed. Annabeth could pretty much hear Thalia gritting her teeth beside her.
Grover’s head suddenly popped in, in between Annabeth and Thalia as he slung his arms around both of their shoulders. “No fighting the queen today, alright you two?”
“No promises, Grover,” Annabeth mumbled, calming herself down. “Ugh, she is so lucky she’s a goddess, otherwise I would have—”
“Okay,” Grover cut her off. “Yup, we got it.”
“You do know that we don’t have to stay here and wait for young Percy, yes?” Hestia asked amusedly. “We don’t have any schedules nor are we in a hurry.”
Zeus huffed and sunk into his bean bag. Poseidon looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you are actually looking forward to the next one?”
“I do not know what you are talking about, brother,” Zeus stuck his chin up, arms crossed. “I simply do not want to waste any more time in this place.”
“And they say we act like children,” Nico scowled.
“You are children,” Sally told them as she fixed her seating position, a small smile on her face.
Nico wrinkled his nose. “Technically, I’m older than all of the mortals here.” He muttered to himself.
“I was born first,” Hazel whispered back.
Damn, she heard him.
“Okay but I didn’t die, though,” Nico shot back.
Hazel shoved him gently, laughing. “Whatever you say.”
“I’m surprised everyone’s just waiting here in this room,” Paul told Sally as he laid down on his bean bag. “We literally have magic rooms right there.”
Sally was using the same bean bag except she was just seated. She chuckled, patting Paul’s knee. “Everyone’s too comfortable in their places already,” Sally replied, stating her observation. True enough, everyone was already seated comfortably or sprawled comfortably on the ground. “Like you.”
Paul smiled sheepishly. “You got me there.”
Hephaestus was tinkering with gods-knows-what. Every now and then, images made out of explosions of light came from the machine in his hands, creating what looked like a miniature fireworks show in the theater.
It was adorable actually. The demigods were mesmerized, the burst of colors able to catch their attention.
Leo was focusing less on the images and more on his father’s ever-moving hands. From the look on his face, it was just as mesmerizing to him as the fireworks were to the others.
Suddenly, the door to the hallway of rooms slammed open, revealing a yawning Percy, rubbing one of his eyes like a young child. Sally’s and Annabeth’s hearts melted at the sight.
One of the colorful fireworks burst right in front of his face, creating an image of what looked to be a satyr on roller skates with a tutu.
Why? No one understood either. It was funny, though.
Percy startled, his eyes crossing a bit to see the image that just exploded in his face. He blinked, watching as the image faded before looking at the rest of the room with sleepy eyes.
He blinked again. “Yeah, I’m just going to go back to bed.”
“Wait, Perce, no—!”
The door slammed back shut.
“Aww, damn it.”
“I don’t think I can wait any longer, someone go and get him.”
“I’m on it.”