Tortured in Tartarus- A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

25 Home?

Percy

I awoke with Annabeth in my arms at first light. The sun shown through my window and glinted onto my face. I yawned and nudged her a little.

"Annabeth," I said. "We might have a problem. If people see you walking out of my cabin like-"

"Dammit," Annabeth cursed. "I'll wait a while. If I come out like 40 minutes later than you, everybody will just think I'm looking for you. You leave. It's not like we did anything." Annabeth could wear my camp shirt. It was the same anyways. And she was already wearing Nike short shorts, so nobody should notice.

And truthfully, we didn't do anything. We talked it out, made out and fell asleep.

Pretty much it.

"Alright," I shrugged, throwing on a shirt. Dammit, I needed to change pants. I walked into my bathroom and brushed my teeth and combed my hair while I pulled my pants on with my one free hand.

"Percy, what's your sched today?" Annabeth asked through the wall.

"Ehhhh... uhhh." I shrugged. "I actually was going to head into Manhattan."

Annabeth paused. "Take me. I want to go on a normal date." She poked her head in the door.

"Sounds amazing," I said, giving her a smile. "Hey, I have a question. I forgot to ask. I honestly assumed this was a dream but..." Annabeth nodded at me indicating for me to go on. "I had this dream. That Chris Rodriguez and Leo burnt down my moms apartment..."

Annabeth looked up at me and bowed her head. "Liam and Leo, actually. And Liam... he told him that Chiron had sent for it, and it was full of darkness, the same type of darkness that had you. He dosed Leo with this medicine that made him hallucinate, and he saw things, lost control and burned the building to ashes. Most everybody made it out except..." Annabeth met my eyes as tears began to fall down my face. "Leo felt guilty. He was going to apologize... have you seen him?"

"A little," I said. "It's okay. It's not his fault."

"Your parents," Annabeth said. "I'm so sorry."

She hugged me and I held her, my chin on her head. "Thank you..." I trailed off and just held onto her. Then the camp alarms went off.

"Just lay low in here," I said.

"I hope nobody notices I'm gone," Annabeth said.

"Eh. We're old enough now just to do whatever, you know?" I shrugged.

"Hey, find Leo," Annabeth said, hanging her arms around my neck. "He feels so guilty Percy, you have no idea..."

I had no sympathy for his guilt, despite my outward display. Although I forgave him, I still had a little grudge. How could you not? He murdered my parents. In the worse possible way! Burning to death, trapped. I was so weary from everything in the past year, I had no sympathy.

"Right," I said, slightly gritting my teeth. Annabeth gave me an empathetic look, before kissing me.

"I'll tell Chiron we're leaving camp," I said.

"Percy, I was kind of thinking, you know," Annabeth stuttered. "We're 18 now. We're too old to be here... can't we leave?"

It was true, we were way too old to be here, but there really was no safe place, being our strong auras and having a, you know, bounty on our head as the most dangerous Half Bloods out there. Most of the time when people outgrew camp, they simply just moved out of their cabins and into the Big House, assuming leadership roles. Others could go on with a normal life, depending on their parent. But Annabeth and I? We could never.

"Leave?" I asked. I thought about it. I'd always left camp and went home and returned during the Summer months, but that was with my scent masked. I wondered if there was absolutely any way possible Annabeth and I could mask our scent- but with good smells, like overwhelming scents of clean cars, not moldy socks and beer.

"Well... I want a normal life with you... not a life surrounded by children, fighting with swords, and playing war all the time." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth," I said. "This isn't playing war. It's real life. It's not pretend. There is no normal for us."

Annabeth looked down. "I just wanted to try."

I breathed. "I'd love it. You know that."

She looked up at me, and kissed me. "You better go seaweed brain. I'd hate for you to miss a meal."

She smirked at me and I playfully nudged her before kissing her one last time and heading to the pavilion.