[ He scrubs at his face with his free hand, letting his eyes close again as though maybe testing the limits of his nightmare-addled brain for a memory he half-doesn't even want to remember. ]
The dumbest thing is sometimes I just can't remember all the details. Guess that's my brain's way of telling me to keep some doors closed.
[ Doors.
Oh. Yeah, he remembers doors. ]
You think one day we'll stop thinking about this stuff so much? Like we'll finally be ... I dunno, allowed to dream about other things?
[ she frowns, sympathetically. ] It's not dumb. Some of mine are like that too. The details are gone in the morning, but those feelings...
[ annabeth knows she doesn't have to explain it to him. she curls into him a little more. ]
I hope so. I know demigod dreams are challenging on the regular, but it does seem more than usual for us lately. [ gee, annabeth, what could possibly be making your dreams worse than they've been before lately?? ]
[ then her tone becomes a little more tentative. not exactly nervous or shy, but maybe maybe borderline. ] I had an idea though.
[ Percy nods, exhaling another huff of air as he draws closer now to being Fully Conscious rather than still clinging onto the last remnants of an unrestful sleep.
He really doesn't have a whole lot else to add, so he simply stays where he is, arm around Annabeth, pushing his face back towards her to half-nuzzle her. ]
Hmm?
[ Translation: What's your idea, Annabeth? I'm all ears. ]
[ annabeth is maybe a little nervous about her idea, which is probably stupid, and she is reminded that it's stupid when percy ducks his head in against her. ]
[ she smiles, faintly, from the affection. ]
I've been thinking. I noticed that we both tend to sleep better when we're together. Even when we have a nightmare, it's better after when we're together, right?
[ but she is still but a seventeen year old girl trying to ask her stupid boyfriend to share a stupid bed with her so her stupid ears are a little red, and maybe she doesn't know if she's doing it right, but ultimately - she just wants to sleep. she wants them both to sleep, and she knows this will help. ]
[ the idea itself is not stupid. annabeth tilts her head enough to look at him and simply refuses to let herself feel stupid anymore. they're literally sharing a bed right now. ]
So maybe we should just do that. By default. What if I just... slept here all the time? I'm here more often than not anyway. Cut the middle man.
[ There's a quiet little huff of amusement in response to 'I've been thinking—' because that part's not surprising. She's always thinking, and that's one of the millions of things that Percy loves about Annabeth.
But then she continues talking, and slowly Percy pulls back from nestling into his girlfriend's shoulder to meet her eyes too.
Back at Camp, they'd always had their own separate cabins to come and go from, and there were rules and regulations about other sons and daughters of one god visiting another cabin that wasn't their own. It was the same with eating at their table. Mixing just ... wasn't a thing that happened. But after they'd left Camp, and after Percy had gone to Camp Jupiter for months, things ... changed. The rules started to mean less. And after Tartarus ... well, now the rules just don't matter.
They're here now, so far from everything familiar in their own world, but the nightmares of Tartarus still remain. And those horrible visions of torture and blood and losing friends are hard enough to push through on their own, but together —
Annabeth's right. They really only get actual sleep when they're together, the warmth and presence and solidity of the other person like an anchor.
So he moves in again, drawing Annabeth closer, but this time it's to meet her mouth with his. ]
[ in reality his pause is only a few seconds, but maybe it feels like longer, on the .01% chance percy thinks it's a bad idea. but he doesn't, because, well - when are they not on the same page? it's an increasing rarity, but they've always kind of been on the same page. ]
[ annabeth never cared much about following rules she thought were stupid anyway; she's the one who kept coming to his table, she's the one more likely to poke into his cabin. she's the one who sometimes ignored her dorm rooms' curfews because she had the gift of an invisibility hat. annabeth certainly doesn't care about whatever might pass for propriety in this castle, if it even exists. ]
[ she sort of feels like going through tartarus gives them a pass on a lot of things. and she would like to keep tartarus away, as best she can. the safety of percy helps that better than anything else. ]
[ he pulls her in to kiss her and she's smiling softly into it before he even agrees aloud. she didn't even have to bust out all the other logical reasons and arguments she had prepared to convince him! probably she could have just kissed him first, but she can simply do that now and kiss him back. ]
I just feel safe with you.
[ not that he needs more convincing. she just wants him to know. ]
[ His response is an echo of hers, but no less heartfelt or genuine. Percy knows without a doubt that whenever things go south and he loses control of whatever it is that tugs him in every other direction but sanity, it's always Annabeth that guides him back to where he's supposed to be. Even if it's just the thought of her, or a memory of her, it's still Annabeth.
Is it sane and normal for a teenager to think and feel this way? Well, probably not — but other teenagers aren't half-god, and they aren't faced with the same kinda problems anyway. And honestly? They just haven't met their Annabeth the way he has. ]
I think that last night would've gone a whole lot differently if you hadn't been here. [ He gratefully presses in close again for a moment. ] Like, I'd probably be quarantined in the dungeons by now for noise complaint or because I've been officially dubbed criminally insane.
[ He can only joke about it now because she's here, anyway. But the truth of the words isn't that far off. ]
[ no matter how many times they might echo sentiments at each other, it's always like music to her ears. ]
[ but the sense of safety and security annabeth feels with him exists in many forms, for many reasons even outside of the nightmares. he grounds her. percy has her back. he always has, in a way she found it very hard to doubt even in the midst of their most tumultuous times. it's in the way he knows her so well it should probably be scary, but mostly it's just a comfort. letting percy know her has been one of the best things she ever did and she's all the more safer for it. ]
Like I wouldn't bust you out.
[ she leans in as he does without thinking, briefly tapping her head into his and letting herself become a little bit of an octopus, an arm sprawled, a leg tossed over his. ]
If they arrest people for nightmares here, they might have to quarantine the whole castle. So maybe we'd just have to break out together. [ she pauses, because she knows despite the jokes that perhaps he's still a little worried about last night, even as they're in the midst of solving the problem for the future. ] I'm always going to be here when you need it.
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seaweedbrain) wrote2024-04-05 11:53 am
no subject
The dumbest thing is sometimes I just can't remember all the details. Guess that's my brain's way of telling me to keep some doors closed.
[ Doors.
Oh. Yeah, he remembers doors. ]
You think one day we'll stop thinking about this stuff so much? Like we'll finally be ... I dunno, allowed to dream about other things?
no subject
[ annabeth knows she doesn't have to explain it to him. she curls into him a little more. ]
I hope so. I know demigod dreams are challenging on the regular, but it does seem more than usual for us lately. [ gee, annabeth, what could possibly be making your dreams worse than they've been before lately?? ]
[ then her tone becomes a little more tentative. not exactly nervous or shy, but maybe maybe borderline. ] I had an idea though.
no subject
He really doesn't have a whole lot else to add, so he simply stays where he is, arm around Annabeth, pushing his face back towards her to half-nuzzle her. ]
Hmm?
[ Translation: What's your idea, Annabeth? I'm all ears. ]
no subject
[ she smiles, faintly, from the affection. ]
I've been thinking. I noticed that we both tend to sleep better when we're together. Even when we have a nightmare, it's better after when we're together, right?
[ but she is still but a seventeen year old girl trying to ask her stupid boyfriend to share a stupid bed with her so her stupid ears are a little red, and maybe she doesn't know if she's doing it right, but ultimately - she just wants to sleep. she wants them both to sleep, and she knows this will help. ]
[ the idea itself is not stupid. annabeth tilts her head enough to look at him and simply refuses to let herself feel stupid anymore. they're literally sharing a bed right now. ]
So maybe we should just do that. By default. What if I just... slept here all the time? I'm here more often than not anyway. Cut the middle man.
no subject
But then she continues talking, and slowly Percy pulls back from nestling into his girlfriend's shoulder to meet her eyes too.
Back at Camp, they'd always had their own separate cabins to come and go from, and there were rules and regulations about other sons and daughters of one god visiting another cabin that wasn't their own. It was the same with eating at their table. Mixing just ... wasn't a thing that happened. But after they'd left Camp, and after Percy had gone to Camp Jupiter for months, things ... changed. The rules started to mean less. And after Tartarus ... well, now the rules just don't matter.
They're here now, so far from everything familiar in their own world, but the nightmares of Tartarus still remain. And those horrible visions of torture and blood and losing friends are hard enough to push through on their own, but together —
Annabeth's right. They really only get actual sleep when they're together, the warmth and presence and solidity of the other person like an anchor.
So he moves in again, drawing Annabeth closer, but this time it's to meet her mouth with his. ]
Yeah. I think that's perfect.
no subject
[ annabeth never cared much about following rules she thought were stupid anyway; she's the one who kept coming to his table, she's the one more likely to poke into his cabin. she's the one who sometimes ignored her dorm rooms' curfews because she had the gift of an invisibility hat. annabeth certainly doesn't care about whatever might pass for propriety in this castle, if it even exists. ]
[ she sort of feels like going through tartarus gives them a pass on a lot of things. and she would like to keep tartarus away, as best she can. the safety of percy helps that better than anything else. ]
[ he pulls her in to kiss her and she's smiling softly into it before he even agrees aloud. she didn't even have to bust out all the other logical reasons and arguments she had prepared to convince him! probably she could have just kissed him first, but she can simply do that now and kiss him back. ]
I just feel safe with you.
[ not that he needs more convincing. she just wants him to know. ]
no subject
[ His response is an echo of hers, but no less heartfelt or genuine. Percy knows without a doubt that whenever things go south and he loses control of whatever it is that tugs him in every other direction but sanity, it's always Annabeth that guides him back to where he's supposed to be. Even if it's just the thought of her, or a memory of her, it's still Annabeth.
Is it sane and normal for a teenager to think and feel this way? Well, probably not — but other teenagers aren't half-god, and they aren't faced with the same kinda problems anyway. And honestly? They just haven't met their Annabeth the way he has. ]
I think that last night would've gone a whole lot differently if you hadn't been here. [ He gratefully presses in close again for a moment. ] Like, I'd probably be quarantined in the dungeons by now for noise complaint or because I've been officially dubbed criminally insane.
[ He can only joke about it now because she's here, anyway. But the truth of the words isn't that far off. ]
no subject
[ but the sense of safety and security annabeth feels with him exists in many forms, for many reasons even outside of the nightmares. he grounds her. percy has her back. he always has, in a way she found it very hard to doubt even in the midst of their most tumultuous times. it's in the way he knows her so well it should probably be scary, but mostly it's just a comfort. letting percy know her has been one of the best things she ever did and she's all the more safer for it. ]
Like I wouldn't bust you out.
[ she leans in as he does without thinking, briefly tapping her head into his and letting herself become a little bit of an octopus, an arm sprawled, a leg tossed over his. ]
If they arrest people for nightmares here, they might have to quarantine the whole castle. So maybe we'd just have to break out together. [ she pauses, because she knows despite the jokes that perhaps he's still a little worried about last night, even as they're in the midst of solving the problem for the future. ] I'm always going to be here when you need it.