How You Changed Me (Demigods In High School AU)

Chapter 49 || Trying To Adjust

PERCY JACKSON

As Percy slowly gained consciousness, the only thing that plagued his mind was Annabeth's lifeless corpse in front of him after the piano had crushed her. He shivered slightly, trying to open his eyes. His whole body felt like it was on fire, but he opened his eyes nonetheless, the whole place being brighter than Apollo's teeth.

He groaned, hearing the shuffling of sheets.

"Percy?" a voice he longed to hear from for so long cut through his thoughts.

But being dehydrated didn't mean he had a melodic voice. So with his lips parched and the taste of blood still fresh in his mouth, he managed to cough.

"Annabeth," he rasped.

He fumbled for a small button to put him into sitting position and smiled when he saw his wise girl. She was busy drinking some clear broth with some macaroni and cheese to her side. Sea-green eyes met gray and the two lovers shared the first romantic moment they'd ever shared before. They both broke down in tears, thinking about how they could've lost each other.

Percy reached for her, ignoring the sharp pain in his side as he did so. Annabeth followed, reaching her arms out to close the gap. It felt good to finally feel her hands on his, and to finally see her face. They heard the door click and they both hurriedly took their hands away from each other as the rest of the demigods filed in.

"You're awake!" Leo ran over, giving his best friend the biggest hug in the world.

Percy hugged Leo back, feeling the scent of grease fill his nose.

"Hey, man," Percy rasped, surprised at the roughness of his own voice.

Nico came in lugging a huge wagon, which burst through the door to the infirmary.

"Watch my beautiful ship!" Leo pouted.

"1900 gallons of water?" Nico smirked.

Thalia walked in after him, having to climb on top of the water gallons.

"8189 blue cookies?" she asked, holding two trash bags full of cookies.

"712 Nemo plushies?" Hazel asked, dragging in a huge bag filled with identical Nemo plushies.

Percy felt his heart skip in joy as Hazel put down the Nemos onto his bed.

"Nemo plushie!" he squealed like a little kid, "Oh, that also reminds me... I need to order another 388 of them when I get back..."

He could practically hear Annabeth facepalm and give a groan in annoyance, but he was too focused on chugging gallon after gallon after gallon of water. He tried to turn to the side but gasped as white hot pain flashed through his body.

"It's your side," Nico said gently, "Recovery won't be easy for that boy. It was a pretty nasty hole and all your ribs were thrown all over the place."

This hit Percy like a stone. He then remembered the sight he had seen in Tartarus of his own flesh hitting the bloodied dirt floor, making his whole body alight in agonizing fire. He'd remembered the head wound as he touched the bandage that was now wrapped around his head. The memory of seeing Leo towering over him on the floor after his heart had stopped came back to him like a baseball bat swing to the seaweed brain.

"Percy?" Leo's voice cut through his thoughts and Percy looked up to meet those brown eyes. "You okay?"

"Yeah..." Percy breathed, "Yeah... I'm fine."

Fine. Not okay.

The others didn't question his behavior, much to his relief, and they simply moved his cot closer to Annabeth's.

"Go on," Piper smirked, "Kiss."

Percy gave her a lopsided grin, even if the pain was so intense, a smile was barely manageable.

"Not before you give my blondie cousin a big smooch, McLean."

Piper paled and Percy laughed slightly at her shock. That laugh quickly turned into ragged coughs, but he waved it off, just grabbing another gallon of water and chugging it all down. Both Jason and Piper were pink, their faces showing nothing but pure embarrassment.

"It's been Project Jiper all along! You two love each other," Leo tried to convince them.

"Yeah," Frank agreed, "And you've always liked each other. I mean, Percy and Annabeth hated each other."

Percy winced. He didn't hate her. He was afraid to like her. But that's changed. The moment Percy's eyes connected with Annabeth's gray ones, he realized that even if Tartarus was the worst thing that ever happened to him, it was the thing that made him realize how much he was actually attached to her. The same look was reflected in her gray eyes, and before they knew it, they were making out in the middle of everyone's cheering.

Normally, Percy knew they wouldn't show this much affection, but it was the only thing that made him happy in that moment. As they pulled away, they smirked over at Piper, who was already staring at Jason. Before she could say anything, Jason had already pulled her in for a kiss. Louder cheering erupted and Leo began to tango around them, screaming "JIPER" millions of times.

And for that moment, Percy could almost forget that he had literally just been walking through hell last week. He could actually think about being happy. About being a different person.

"You okay, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked.

Until she questioned him, he didn't even know he was crying.

"Oh... yeah," he nodded, "I'm just... happy."

"So you're sobbing," she joked and Percy smiled.

"Do you want Zeus's version?" He gave her a troublemaker smirk.

Annabeth's eyes widened.

"Percy we're in the f**king air--" she started but Percy had already started his dramatic impression of Zeus.

"WAHHH! WAHHH! WOE IS ME! I'M SO OFFENDED! WHY DO I HAVE AN ANNOYING NEPHEW WHO NEVER SHUTS THE F**K UP?! WAHHH! WAHHH WAH--"

A loud clap of thunder followed by a fork of lightning stopped all the clammer before the silenced turned into laughing.

"Sorry!" Percy called up apologetically.

He said that so many times it probably lost its meaning.