Alternatively

Once Upon A Dream (iv.)

He was tired.

When Annabeth had fallen asleep on the bus, he so desperately wanted to follow in suit, but everything in him refused. Whether to avoid dreams or in fear of not being able to wake back up, he kept his eyes open and his mind busy.

It helped when Annabeth's hand grabbed his as she napped, giving him plenty of thoughts to comb over.

"I'll take the couch."

He dropped her bag at the foot of the bed. "No, I should stay there tonight."

"As if I'm helping your insomnia," she scoffed, tossing one of the pillows from the bed to the couch.

"Honestly, dude," Grover called from the bathroom, the toilet flushing. "I don't know how you didn't pass out on the bus."

"I'm just skilled," he cracked his back with a wince.

Sitting in one spot for hours had him cramped and sore, but it wasn't anything new. Even before he lay unconscious on the throne, he had been pushed to sit still for the majority of his life. Portraits, schooling, dinners, chamber meetings; nearly every event he experienced was threatened with reprimands and scoldings if he fidgeted.

He got in trouble a lot.

A chill went down his spine and he wandered to the window, pulling the curtains back just a hair. The sun was hovering over the horizon, streaking the sky with pinks and oranges. If he looked between the buildings, he could see a canal glittering in the evening. It may not have been the Amsterdam he remembered, but it was more familiar than the towering cities Annabeth had shown him.

Still, something was off.

"It's just like before."

He barely looked over, Annabeth's presence beside him calming his jumping nerves. "Do you see it?"

"Yeah," she blinked a couple times before turning from the window. "It's gone now."

"What do you think it is?"

If he hadn't known better, he would have said she looked guilty. "I'm...not sure, but when and where it comes back, I'll keep it away."

"How?" he raised an eyebrow, twisting to face her fully. "What do you know?"

Her guilt hardened to a glare and she lifted her chin resolutely. "Nothing. Just that a black shadow follows you wherever you go."

Liar.

Grover threw his suitcase on the second bed, startling them both back a few steps. "We're going to the Van Gogh museum before leaving for England tomorrow, so you guys better get a plan together."

"Psh," Annabeth ripped her gaze from Percy, marching over to the small desk. "I always have a plan."

Pain stabbed into his temples and he leaned his head against the cool glass. "Which is?"

"Give me a minute," she snapped as she pulled her laptop out of a bag.

Insufferable, he closed his eyes.

The sound of typing clicked through the air and from time to time, a phone would beep. A machine in the room droned on and on and the bed would squeak whenever Grover shifted. Everything was so loud, so noisy, but he was bogged down by fatigue. He couldn't think, white noise clouding anything and everything.

He was tired.

There was a knock on the door.

Percy cracked open his eyes, watching as Annabeth cautiously stood up.