Percy Jackson Pirate AU

A Song of the Sea

Camp Half-Blood was on the horizon. The sun shone as brightly over Camp, although gently wind danced around the deck of the ship.

They were in the Sound now, somehow. It still didn't make sense to Annabeth, and Percy's comical explanations gave her a headache. She pinned it to just being a Poseidon thing. She found herself entirely unconcerned, finding it tricky to feel anything other than gratitude.

She and Percy currently stood side by side upon the quarterdeck, not talking. His hand was in hers. It felt tense and clammy in hers, which made her nervous.

As the ship inched its way through the water and closer to Camp, she had to say something. The silence was beginning to be too much.

"How long has it been?" she asked him quietly. Annabeth didn't know how to feel in the slightest.

"What?" Percy replied to her, obviously pretending not to know what she meant.

"Since you were last at Camp Half-Blood."

"I was twelve when I left," he said, his voice betraying nothing and his eyes on the waves.

"Four years."

"Most of my life. Most of my real life. When I was allowed to think for myself, away from Camp. Four years."

Annabeth couldn't respond. She had no idea how to feel. She was desperate to arrive back at Camp and deliver the Fleece to restore Thalia's tree. She was cutting it close time-wise. Even besides this, a quest - finishing a quest - had been her dream ever since she was a child. So, naturally, she was excited.

But what about the pirates? She felt stupidly close to them all, and even closer to Percy. The chances of them staying at Camp, however, were smaller than the chances of herself leaving Camp to stay with them. So far, she had forced herself to avoid thinking about it to prevent herself feeling the pain before it had even happened. But it was about to happen.

Annabeth felt bad too. She knew she had never asked them to bring her here, and it had been an offer, but none of them wanted to be there. Breakfast that morning had been silent after Leo told everyone that they were expected in the Sound of Camp Half-Blood later that day. The outcast demigods of this ship hated the place. Even if they didn't hate it, Annabeth could tell how uncomfortable it made them. Even Frank, Hazel and Jason seemed to be uncomfortable and dislike the place, even though (to Annabeth's knowledge) they had never been there.

Again, Annabeth looked at Percy. His face was serious and his stance was tense. Uncharacteristically, Annabeth felt that she wanted to hold him, to hug him and wrap her arms around him until all of the stress melted out of his face, and she saw that he was fine. But she couldn't do that, so instead, she simply gripped his hand a little tighter.

She noticed his other hand clasped around the locket he wore.

Furrowing her eyebrows slightly, she let go of his hand.

"I'm going to my room. I want to make sure I've got everything."

"Oh," Percy replied, looking at her properly now. Something about the way he was acting made her uneasy. "That's okay. I want to speak to the others anyway."

Simply nodding, Annabeth left for her room. Her nerves were swimming around her body like trapped tadpoles.

Entering her room, she picked up her already-packed bag, and tipped it out. She then reloaded her bag, triple-checking all of her belongings. Not that it was much, really. Gold drachmas, ambrosia squares. Deodorant.

The Fleece, she put on top of everything else, so that it was was easy to check on when her paranoia got the better of her. Zipping her bag back up, Annabeth slipped her knife into its holster. She still wore the pirate outfit she had been given, because there was no saving her original clothes. They smelled, anyway.