Work Text:
She looked at the boy lying on the bed, his head resting on his pillow as his hair splayed across the cotton wildly. He looked younger when he was sleeping, his tense features softened and Annabeth could still make out features from the young boy she first knew him as.
But he was so different from that boy now. Five years of battles and wars slashed scars upon scars on the poor boy. His chest, back, arms, legs, everywhere was littered with physical and mental imprints from those he's lost and those who hurt him.
A very real scar still burned pink against his tanned skin, a freshly healed Chimaera burn from an unpleasant visit in Central Park which still caused Annabeth to grimace. She had to constantly remind herself that a monster in the park should be nothing to her now. Because she was Annabeth Chase and he was Percy Jackson, the two demigods who survived two wars and the depths of Tartarus. It should have been nothing. But it wasn't. Instead, she fought clumsily and distracted, like an amateur.
And now he was resting from the fight and added another scar to his collection of unhealed cuts and bruises.
She thought back to little twelve year old Percy and Annabeth. How they used to spar using basic javelins while Grover watched. How she taught him to string and unstring a bow without breaking the whole thing. How their biggest problem was accepting that Luke had betrayed them and what his next move was.
The thought of nostalgia for those days striking through Annabeth's mind had seemed outrageous before but now she would trade that summer for anything else in the world. To once again feel the rough hewn of her dagger in her little grasp. To look at the Stoll brothers sacrificing a pack of peanut M&Ms and roll her eyes instead of wanting to recoil. To look at the Hephaestus and Aphrodite campers in the eyes without seeing the ghosts of Beckendorf and Silena in their behavioural patterns. To not feel that ache in her chest and swirling in her head when anything reminded her of anything else.
But Annabeth looked back to her boyfriend and just thought about how much they've changed. She thought of the boy from his first summer at camp, how naïve and angry he was. His mother had just been killed right in front of his eyes and then he had been dragging his best friend across the border to camp only to pass out just as he crossed.
His eyes weren't always the calming anymore, sea green but now were flecked with dark green, almost black specks, creating the illusion he seemed that little bit angry all of the time. His shoulders used to tense just the slightest when a door shut a little louder than usual from his time living with Smelly Gabe but now it had seemed as if he were always tense and alert, like he was on a constant look out for anyone or anything. Percy had matured but in the worst possible way, he shouldn't have had to grow up because if he didn't, he would've been killed. He should've gained life lessons from crashing Paul's car into a bike rack or staying out two hours past his curfew. Not because he wasn't supposed to be born. Not because he had a big target pasted to his back since the day he was born.
And she thought, his life would've been so much easier had he been human.
Her eyes glanced back at Percy, she watched his chest rise with each breath as he sleeps, thinking how glad she was that his heart was still pumping and he was still breathing. He was alive and they will be fine. Not only did they have each other but they still had Sally, and Chiron, and Grover, and Rachel, and Thalia. They're going to be okay.
Percy began to stir awake, he dragged the back of his right palm over his eyes and stifled a yawn. He blinked and saw Annabeth looking at him, "Hm. What did I miss?"
She let out a watery laugh, "Nothing. Everything's... good." And it was the first time in a long time where Annabeth actually believed it.