Memories

"Annabeth?" I peered around the door of the Athena cabin, looking for a certain child of said goddess. The cabin was simple; bunkbeds lining the walls; a bathroom off to the side; dozens of desks, covered in an organised mess of papers and drawings. You see, Athena is the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, so Athena kids spend most of their time planning battles or working on research for some sort of project.

I spied a desk on the far back wall of the cabin where a figure lay slumped over, blond hair spilled over a dozen sheets of paper. I quietly walked over to the figure and pressed my lips to her forehead, "Annabeth?"

When she didn't stir, I scooped her up in my arms- leaving her desk untouched, of course- and placed her gently on her bed. I lightly brushed her hair out of her face and pulled a blanket over her. As it was dinnertime, I would have usually woken her up and told her to go eat something, but ever since we came back from Tartarus, we had learnt that sleep was precious.

It was very rare that we would be able to sleep through the whole night without yelling out in fear and waking up plastered in sweat, tangled in our covers. For me, most of my dreams were about losing Annabeth, but on the occasion when I slept with her tucked up against my side, the dreams were tamer and almost manageable, sometimes non-existent.

When Annabeth woke from a terrible dream, her older brother Malcolm would fetch me from my cabin as only I could calm her down. When I woke from a dream, however, I would deal with it myself. Annabeth already had so much to worry about, she didn't need to be overly concerned about me too, especially when I would sometimes wake up with stained-red sheets and new cuts or burns on my chest and arms.

I would never be able to tell her that Tartarus plagued my dreams with torture. Both figurative and literal.

As I turned to leave the cabin, Annabeth suddenly began to fidget in her bed and muttered the odd word: "Stop." "Don't." "Percy!"

I automatically knew what she was dreaming of.

"Annabeth," I shook her shoulders gently at first, taking a more tender approach, but when she started screaming out in terror I shook her more fiercely, still careful not to hurt her. Her eyes snapped open and she bolted upright. I pulled her into my arms as she repeated my name in a hushed whisper. "It's okay, Annabeth. I'm here. We're together. We're okay."

I held her in my arms until she calmed down and her shuddering breaths slowed to calm, steady ones. She pulled away from me and wiped the tears from stormy, grey eyes, frustrated at herself. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked her gently and clasped her hand in mine.

"It was just," said Annabeth, "that place. I keep reliving it- what they did to us. To you."

I pressed my lips against her temple briefly, "I'm okay now. We're safe here."

"Recently, it doesn't feel like we're safe anywhere," she shot back at me, her shoulders sagging from exhaustion. "And you keep saying you're okay, but you're not. I know you, Percy, and I know when you're lying to me."

It seemed like I had been doing a lot of that lately. Everyday lies - "I'm fine", "I already ate", "I'm just tired"- that would go unnoticed by most people, but not by Annabeth. Never by Annabeth.

"It's hard to talk about what happened in Tartarus, but I'm trying. I'm learning to cope," I shrugged. "You are my way of coping."

"I wish you wouldn't say that place's name," Annabeth shuddered.

"I know, I'm sorry," I pulled her to her feet and slid my arm around her waist. "We're missing dinner now, but I got the Stolls to smuggle some food for us. We can eat in my cabin, if you would like to."

She smiled gratefully at me and leaned forward to give me a gentle peck on the lips as a brushed a few wayward princess curls out of her face, "I would love that."

A/N

Hey, so this is my new PJO fanfiction- I hope it's going to besomewhat decent.

I intend to have fairly regular updates (although I never really succeed at that) as I've already written most of it.

That's really all I have to say for now, but I hope you all enjoy this.

For now, I'm signing out,

-R x