Chapter Text
Percy
11 months after the Giant War
“Annabeth come on I know things haven’t been going well but please let’s just talk this out,” Percy pleaded with Annabeth for the third time today.
“Percy just please listen to me,” she says frustrated that both of them keep arguing. “I already made up my mind, I don’t know how much longer I can be with you without completely losing all semblance of logic.”
Percy sighs, knowing what’s coming next as he braces himself and tries to calm his ever increasing heart rate. He braces himself for the words that he knows will break his heart.
“Percy we need to break up, I love you but I can’t keep letting this,” she says pointing between him and her repeatedly, “getting in the way of things. You already know that my mother offered me to be the true architect of Olympus but she told me that I was to become a goddess in order for that to happen. I really want this Percy, you have to understand,” she finished saying to him as she awaited for his response.
Of course Percy understood, of course he did, he knew how badly Annabeth wanted this and he knew that nothing, not even him, was going to stop her from achieving her dreams.
Percy looked down to the ground as he took a deep breath in and exhaled with a shaky breath. “Okay, okay that’s…fine with me,” he says as he tries to keep himself firm and steady and not cry in front of her at the moment. “I know how bad you want this and I’m no one to stop you Annabeth from achieving what you want in life, so…. I guess this means we’re done?” He says, looking down on the ground, trying not to look her in the eyes.
“Yeah…..we’re done….for what it’s worth Percy, I really am sorry,” she says, trying to look into his eyes but he doesn’t meet her there. He knows that the moment he looks into the eyes that he fell in love with, he was going to have a whole mental breakdown.
He takes a deep breath before he starts talking again. “it’s okay, I….understand why you wanna do this, really I do, thanks you know, for always being there for me, lot of good and bad times, but worth it, thanks Wise girl,” he finishes as he looks at her, his heart fluttering as it begins to crack more slowly.
“Like wise Seaweed brain, thank you for always being loyal and thanks for everything really,” she said as she looked at him and took a deep breath. “Well, now that we have that out of the way, I have to go, mother said that she wanted to pick me up today, so yeah, thanks for everything Percy,” she said as she walked towards her cabin to pack her things up.
Percy just stood there staring at the spot where Annabeth was previously standing on. “You too wise girl,” he says as he begins to walk away towards a small secluded part of the beach.
As he gets there he collapses on his knees, unmoving for several moments. Then he begins to shake as tears start to slowly come out and he begins to sob. Then his sobs become louder as he starts to have a mental breakdown. He feels as if he is holding the sky again, pain flares throughout his chest starting at his heart. He clutches his chest over his heart as his sobs become quieter. He then silently screams as more tears come rolling through.
He stays like that for another hour as he sees the sun start to set over the horizon. He checks his watch, one that was gifted to him. 5:51 it shows as he gets up and dries his tears as he goes into the water. The moment he goes in, he feels his bloodshot eyes begin to return to their natural look. He feels calmer but that agonizing feeling he felt lingers as he takes deep breaths to further calm himself down. He then goes back up to the surface and makes his way to the dining pavilion as he hears the ring of the bell that indicated it was dinner time.
He makes his way to his table and sits down, he then gets some blue coke, some blue cookies, and some pizza as he begins to eat it slowly. Every cabin started to file into their respective tables whilst Percy was alone at his. Without Tyson here or any of the 7 at Camp Half-Blood at the moment, he felt even lonelier as he continued to eat. He then walked to fire during the call and offered his blue cookies. “Hey Aunt Hestia, I hope you’re doing well, I….. just need some hope right now, badly,” he says in a whisper as his voice breaks slightly. He then walks away as he leaves the dining pavilion and starts to walk towards his cabin.
As he walks, he feels a sense of hope, peace, and calmness washing over him. He feels the pain in his heart start to go away as if his heart was rebuilding itself until it stopped. He felt less pain, although just a little left, he still felt like one piece was missing. He felt like something was missing. He then decided to go to the beach again and he took a dive in. 20 minutes later, he comes out and dries himself completely as he makes his way to Cabin 3. He continued on to his cabin as he reached the door and went to open it as he hears someone running towards him.
His first instinct is to get Riptide out and as soon as he gets it out he hears the person yelp.
“Woah woah woah Jackson, no need to be so jumpy,” the voice, clearly feminine says as they get closer revealing the face of none other than Drew Tanaka.
He sighs in relief as he puts away Riptide and looks at his friend who looks at him with a look of concern and slight amusement. “Relax Percy it’s just me, I’m not trying to hurt you,” she says as she gets closer to him till she’s only a few feet away from him.
”Y…Yeah….sorry Drew, I’m just not in the right head space right now….im really sorry,” he says as he looks at his friend who just closes the distance and hugs him tightly. Percy tenses at the embrace since she was never this physical with him. But after a moment, he accepts it and hugs her just as hard. He feels tears start to spill from his eyes as they hold that embrace for a couple more moments.
“I’m really sorry Jackson, I….heard what happened between you and Annabeth,” she says as she gives him a somber look.
“Ho….How did you hear about that,” he says as he tenses up again.
She shrugs, “Naiads are not necessarily the best at keeping gossip to themselves, practically half of camp heard and knows what happened between you too during dinner after you left,” she says as she puts a hand to his shoulder. “You wanna head inside and talk about it,” she gestures with her head to his cabin.
“Yeah…..sure….please,” he says as he looks down, not wanting to meet her eyes as tears threaten to spill again. “I really need someone to talk to…..really bad,” he says as he looks up and she just nods.
“Okay let me just go back to my cabin and I’ll be back in about 15-20 minutes okay, just need to take care of a few things then we’ll talk,” she tells him as she leaves towards her cave.
Percy heads inside and he finds his cabin relatively clean, he then remembers that he cleaned it out in the morning before he went out. He sighs as he goes into the bathroom and puts some shorts on and a plain black shirt as well. He comes out and then he hears the door being knocked on.
He goes to the door and opens it as he sees Drew waiting for him. “Hiya Jackson, may I come in?” She says in a casual voice with something else that he couldn’t quite place.
“Yeah of course Drew come in come in,” he says letting her in as he closes and locks the door behind him.
She then comes up to Percy and hugs him again, he tenses up again. He hugs her back and he unconsciously hugs her tighter. Drew sensing this, starts to rub his back in a comforting manner. Percy finds this odd since she was never really like this with anyone that he remembered.
“It’s okay Percy, you can cry, I know that you are hurting bad, but….im here for you okay…..just be,” she says and as he hears that last part, the tears start rolling down his face. He begins to sob as he feels all the pain he’s been holding in all day come out all at once. Drew leads them to his bed and they sit on it, still hugging as he continues to sob.
After about 17 minutes of crying later. They let go of each other and he wipes his eyes and cheeks as he looks at Drew.
“I’m really sorry about messing up your jacket with my tears,” he says, his voice breaking at the last word. Drew just shakes her head, “don’t apologize Percy, really it’s nothing and it’s just a jacket okay,” she says as she puts her hand on top of his. “Percy, tell me what happened,” she asks him.
“Well I suggest you get comfortable because we’re going to be here for a while if I’m going to explain everything,” he says slightly chucking through the remaining tears that ran down his face.
He goes on to explain everything starting from when he and Annabeth came out of Tartarus to the unfortunate happenings of that day. He explains to her of how Annabeth was afraid of him ever since he almost killed Akhyls with her own poison. When he said this, Drew’s eyes widen, not in fear but in curiosity and admiration.
“You had to do what you had to do to survive Percy, you’re a survivor and you used what you had to your advantage,” she says offering her hand and he takes it, intertwining their fingers together.
He sighs, “I was scared and I didn’t know what else to do so I did that, and Annabeth made me promise to never use those powers again.” Her eyebrows furrowed when he says that to her, “woah woah woah, so she made you promise to not use a power that is rightfully yours, yeah even if it’s very powerful and dangerous, it’s still yours to use Percy, although with some caution of course,” she says as she looks at him. “No one has the right to deny you that power Perce, it’s how you’re gonna use it that matters,” she says to him as he nods slowly and lays down on his bed with his feet dangling off the side.
”I just don’t know Drew, I don’t wanna do something reckless or scare anyone,” he mutters as he closes his eyes.
“That’s why you gotta be cautious with it Percy, it’s your powers, given to you by your dad through his divine blood,” she tells him as she mirrors his action and lays her back down on the bed with her legs also dangling off the side. Both of them side by side, their hands still intertwined.
Percy takes a shallow breath in and speaks, “I guess you’re right.”
Percy yawns as he knows he’s getting tired and to be frank, he knew he was drained completely. “You want me to keep you company tonight,” Drew offers as she looks at him, awaiting his answer.
“You don’t have to Drew and also won’t your siblings to be worried if you aren’t there in the morning?” He asks with concern. “Especially Piper.”
“Nah not really since I told them I was gonna be hanging out with someone at their cabin so it’s really no big deal,” she shrugs as his shoulders lose the tension they had and he relaxes.
“Well okay,” he says as he gets up and makes sure the entire cabin is locked. He then makes his way to his bed and plops down on the left side of the bed with Drew on his right.
“Thanks,” he says in a quiet voice, his tone vulnerable and strained.
“It’s gonna be okay Jac…..Percy,” she says as she makes a decision and moves herself closer to him. She lays her head on his chest and presses herself closer to him. He tenses up as she gets close but just as quickly loosens himself up. She looks for his hand with hers and he notices that motion and gives her his hand.
“Why are you doing this,” he says in a quiet voice. “Why help me? Why do all of this for me?”
“Maybe…….because you’re not the only one who is hurting right now. I……am struggling as well,” she says in a quiet and vulnerable voice that he honestly never heard from her. She lets out a soft sigh as she begins to explain.
“I was going out with this one dude from the Ares Cabin…..let’s just say it did not end well,” she said as her voice breaks as she says those last words.
“Wh….what happened?” Percy asks as puts his left arm around her back, bringer her closer, trying to comfort her as best as he could.
“He…..um……he,” she mutters as she struggles to get her words out. Her voice breaking as she begins to shake slightly.
“Hey you don’t have to tell me if you don’t feel comfortable telling me,” he says trying his hardest to make her feel better.
“No no, I have to say it or I feel that I’m going to have another mental breakdown or worse,” she says with teary eyes. He just nods and she begins to tell him. “He um…..he violated me…..badly…..and……he pulled a dagger out when I started to tell him no,” she says and sits up trembling. She lifts up her camp shirt to show Percy the scars and cuts she has on her back and as well on her arms. When Percy looks at her, he sees her starting to cry and she begins to tremble.
“I…I’m so sorry I never knew……come here,” he says as he opens his arms to offer her comfort. She lunges at him and holds him tight as she begins to sob hard. He begins to rub circles on her back as he whispers words of love and comfort. He felt so much anger in that moment towards that son of Ares. He was going to figure out who it was that did this to her but he first had to comfort her.
“E…Everybody always thinks I’m a fucking slut…..they think that I’m always trying to get with whoever I want and that used to be true because I was only trying to dull the pain,” she says with her voice muffled as her face was pressed to his chest. He felt her tears making his shirt more wet but he didn’t care. All he was worried about was trying to help his friend out.
“I put up this tough girl act where I look like I don’t give two shits but I care more than I let on,” she says as her silent sobs turn into loud ones. Percy just continues to rub circles on her back. She just hugs him tighter as if she lets go of him then he’s gonna disappear.
“Hey hey it’s okay…..I don’t know if my words would mean much but it’s gonna be okay…..I’m here for you if you let me…..even if I don’t have much to offer but love and loyalty, I’ll be here for you…..no matter what…..if that’s what you want,” Percy says as Drew looks at him and begins to cry again.
“That’s….that’s the sweetest, most heartfelt, and genuine thing anyone as ever told me,” she says in a quiet and thoughtful voice. “Do you….Do you mean those words Percy,” Drew asks him with vulnerability in her eyes.
“Every word,” he says, his own tears spilling at the words he declared to her. “I mean it, If Annabeth couldn’t appreciate all of that, then maybe you can if you want,” he says as she hugs him and nods.
“I will….I promise you……I swear it on the river Styx,” she swears as Percy’s eyes widen with shock.
“You swore on the Styx….Drew you know tha…..” Percy says before he gets interrupted by Drew crashing her lips on his.
At first, he is overcome by shock but it starts to wear off as he begins to reciprocate it. The kiss is tender and slow as Percy lays back on his bed with him pulling Drew on top of him. The kiss starts to become more passionate as her hands go behind his neck and his hands go around her waist. Both of them start to have silent tears going down both of their faces.
They continue to make out for about another hour, only stopping to take breathes of air. Once they stop, both of them have nearly fallen asleep.
“Good night Drew,” Percy says in a dazed tone.
“Good night Percy,” Drew says as she kisses him and he kisses her back as they pull a blanket over themselves. They both then fell asleep in each other’s embrace.