The Meanings of I Love You

I Love You

Ok so I posted this on tumblr originally, but I'm thinking of writing more like this. Tell me what you think!

The door softly creaked open. The light patter of her feet made their way towards the bed. Right away she knew he was still awake. Neither of them slept much anymore.

"Hey." She whispered, nestling herself into the covers along with him.

His breath shook raspy and worn. The tension in his shoulders still evidently there. A nightmare had undeniably occurred.

"Hey." He managed to choke out almost inaudibly.

Rolling over to face her, Percy saw how close they were, how he wanted to be even closer. He hugged her frame to his, resting his chin on her silky head of hair, only it wasn't so silky anymore.

"It was just really lonely by myself." Annabeth said, not needing to elaborate, not needing to say what that statement really meant.

She felt the nod of his chin on her head. His grip tight on her, but not too tight, just the right amount of tight. The type of tight that pleaded don't leave me, but with a slight looseness that said you're always free to go.

A twinge of sadness crept up in her chest, weaving an icy thread around the strings of her heart. How did they get like this?

They were strong and brave. They faced their fears on adrenaline and planning. Recklessness and calculation.

Now they could barely hold a sideways glance at those fears.

"What was it?" She asked delicately.

His hold tightened a fraction more. It was so small it was almost indecipherable, but she knew. She always knew.

"Please." Percy said, voice cracked and raw. The one syllable a giant plea for mercy. Begging to not relieve the terrors.

"It's not good to keep it all bottled up." Annabeth looked up at him.

His eyes were clouded over and incredibly dark in the minimum light. She could hardly make out the faint swirls of emerald that signaled an oncoming storm. They'd need to get another nightlight.

He took a sharp intake of breath like the air could save him from everything. Like the air would heal the past.

"You didn't come back with me."

Nothing else was said. He stared at her with fear, desperation, and above all love.

"I'm here now. We both are."

They laid there for a while drinking in each other's warmth and security.

Together they were safe. Together they could conquer anything. They'd look full on at those fears and shoot them down fast.

"Annabeth."

The way he said her name sent shivers down her spine.

It was like he wasn't just simply saying it. He tasted it on his tongue, rolled each sound in honey, pronounced each bit as a work of the universe. Coming from him her name sounded like telling the truth, greeting someone you haven't seen in a while, and gazing at the stars on a clear country night.

"Yeah?"

Grey met green and green met grey. Their eyes weren't so broken anymore. Some of that shattered glass had been swept away.

"I love you." His voice was deep, drawing out each word so slowly, so lovely.

It wasn't the first time they told each other that, but it was the first time one of them had said it like that. Like it was a fact carved in a stone, something so tangible that it could only be true. Something so permanent it would never be broken, possibly battered, but never split.

"I think I've found something permanent." She breathed her words out in wisps, afraid they were wrong, afraid because her something permanent was something that could be so temporary.

The night encased them, filling their pores and flooding theirs veins in its peaceful quietness. The silence fell on them like a blanket tucking them into bed.

Sometimes the silence of two people together, two people that love each other so inconceivably much, speaks in greater volume than any language could ever manage.