tushanshu_logs | the light in me//will guide you home

Entry tags:

the light in me//will guide you home

Characters: Annabeth & Percy, closed
Date: Feb 7
Location: Their suite, the ocean
Situation: A peaceful moment
Warnings/Rating: N/A atm

"Hey." Percy is lying upside down on the couch, his head hanging over the edging, his legs draped over the back of it. Annabeth is...somewhere near enough that he's pretty sure she can hear him, and that's the main thing. The hyper awareness of where she is at all times, its faded a little. He's not sure if he's glad for that, or mourns it. There's definitely still some paranoia there though.

"I think Asti's changing direction." He can feel it, the shifting in the water. Asti's huge, but he still floats. He's not exactly a boat, but Percy's sense of latitude and longitude remains pretty much the same, even here. "We should go up to the head again."

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He squeezes her hand, nudging her back but otherwise heading for the door. "Everyone's slower than you are, whatever." He stops short before they reach the door though, and abruptly changes direction. Annabeth gets dragged along for the ride as he heads to the kitchen, rummaging one handedly through the fridge. "Snacks," he announces.

Somewhat haughtily: "That's true, I suppose." She's shaking her head though, even laughing a little when she gets pulled along, and honestly she's not surprised in the slightest when he goes in for the food. "Of course," she says, teasingly. "Do we need to drag along a bag for this?"

Percy has a roll shoved into his mouth and an armful of food when he turns back to her. "Uh." He tries to speak, but between the food and his hand twined with hers, he can't manage it around the roll. Apparently he's reluctant to let go of her hand.

Not out of any sense of neediness or desperation for once, though. He just enjoys being close to her. So he opts for a nod instead, grinning behind the bread.

There's a moment's pause after he turns around, and then she's laughing, but it's a pleasant, welcome sound. Annabeth leans in to plant a kiss on his cheek, and she's a little reluctant, too, but she tugs her hand from his. "Lemme get it before you drop everything."

Which she'll do, making her way across the kitchen for a bag and coming back over in only seconds.

The urge to kiss her again is there, but he doubts Annabeth would appreciate getting smacked in the face with a bread roll. So he refrains, sighing loudly when she leaves him. "I'm not gonna drop anything," he protests, except it comes out more like 'Mm nrt goma nrop amyfin'.

To his credit, he does manage to avoid letting anything hits the ground, although there's some obvious relief in the way he drops his armful into the bag when she gets back. "Okay Miss Plan, is that everything?"

The worst part is, she totally understood it anyway. But that seems pretty par for the course in her relationship with Percy Jackson, and she's sort of fondly accepted it by this point.

Annabeth rolls her eyes, but she takes his hand again once all the food's in. "I dunno, you're the one who decided food was a necessity." But she's ready to go, if he finally is.

His fingers wind through hers, as easy and instinctive as breathing. "You don't think it's better to have food now rather than end up out there and get hungry?" But he's moving towards the door again, giving a sharp whistle for his dog when he gets there. Mrs O'Leary immediately leaves off from harassing the neighbours (lovingly), bounding over to the two demigods.

Shadowtravel is a disconcerting darkness these days, but the warmth of Mrs O'Leary underneath him and Annabeth behind him helps counteract it. And then they're at the turtle head, the sense of peace there immediately washing away whatever lingering uncomfortable feelings are left.

She doesn't need it, but he helps Annabeth down anyway. "I never get sick of it up here."

"You're always hungry," is about all she gets in before they set off. Annabeth's not all that fond of shadow traveling lately either, but it's quick, and she's knows it'll end faster than other things.

And she lets him help her down once they're there, if only because she wants to keep holding his hand. Which she does, even once she's back firmly on the ground. She smiles at him, tugging him a little further away from Mrs. O'Leary. "Can't say I mind it all that much either."

It definitely helps now. Why didn't they try this more often, during all those months? Late realizations, apparently.

The grin she gets back is a little goofy, which has nothing to do with Asti and everything to do with the warmth that bubbles up in Percy's chest every time she smiles like that.

There are other feelings that seem to battle for space in his ribcage these days, but for the time being they seem to be dormant. He appreciates whatever peace he can get, all the more precious because it happens to infrequently these days.

Percy tugs on Annabeth's hand, pulling her into a walk. They head vaguely in the direction of the edge, but he's not in any hurry right now. They have the whole day. "You know what's weird?" It's related to what she said, really. Sort of. "That one day Bobby and all the others are going to be like this. Big. Huge. And wise. They're just kids now, you know?"

Annabeth keeps up pace with him easily, naturally. And it's not entirely related, but you sort of come to expect that when dealing with Percy. She chuckles a little. "I don't think they realize how big they're going to get yet either. And there are, what, fifteen of them? Sixteen giant turtles, swimming around." She squeezes his hand. "It's still pretty weird to think about, though they're already pretty smart."

Considering interactions thus far, when comparing them to Asti. Stupid adorable baby turtles.

"No, you know what's really weird?" He stares out over the ocean, a fainter, calmer smile than usual crossing his lips. "Thinking about Asti being their age. I mean, Asti's great. But he definitely gives off the whole wise and peaceful mega god aura, not...turtle demigod."

Demigod is not an indication of their power. It's a descriptor of their ability to get into trouble.

She likes the way that smile looks on his face, mostly because it's been a while since she's really seen anything like it there. She squeezes his hand again over it, without really thinking, and kind of maybe starts swinging their hands the tiniest bit.

And then she laughs, softly. The mental image of a teenage Asti poking around like the turtle babies is pretty great. "Can you imagine how long ago that must have been, too? Or if there were even more than there are now?" More than fifteen babies running around, getting into trouble. It's... really weird to think of turtles as being the continents, too, a bunch of giant turtles all interlocked. "If he ever talks to us again, we should ask him what the most trouble he's ever gotten into was."

"He'll definitely talk to us again." Their hands swing a little more as Percy absently picks up the motion, and there's nothing but certainty in his voice. "I bet it was something really impressive though." He's quiet for another moment, and when he does speak again, his voice is softer, more pensive. "I wonder if he ever screwed up."

"Probably," she hastens to say, but she's honest with it. Something in her feels a little warm when he swings his hand in tune with hers, completely unaware, even if she isn't. But Annabeth kind of picks up on the undercurrent to his question right away. "Pretty sure even giant magical turtles can make mistakes."

They reach the edge of Asti's head, as far as they can go before it becomes a slide down into the ocean. Percy's expression turns as pensive as his voice as he stares out at the water, feeling it pull at him. Calling. He's more aware of it now than ever, the power he has within him.

That he's capable of things he never thought he would be. "You'll stop me, right?" If he screws up too bad. Starts heading down the same path as Luke. He doesn't want to put that on her, but right now he's being realistic enough to know that if the urge to use water in a way it really should never be used comes over him, she's the only one he's going to listen to.

Something in her tenses for a moment, but then she feels oddly determined at the same time. She takes a slight step forward, if only so she can turn to look him right in the eyes, because everything else that question implies comes out with it.

He won't be Luke. She won't let him. Annabeth rests her free hand on his cheek, squeezes his hand again. She wants to tell him it's unnecessary, but what she saw of him in Tartarus hasn't gone away. "That's a stupid question," she says, even if the teasing tone falls a little flatter than she intended. She just means it too honestly. "I will. You know I will."

"Well," he starts, a smile twitching on his lips despite the topic. "That probably shouldn't be a surprise." It's not like Percy has a talent for asking smart questions, after all.

His free hand comes up to cover hers on his cheek, before he turns his head and kisses her palm. "Yeah, I do. I guess I just needed to hear it again." His gaze is drawn out towards the water again. Towards peace. "You ready to go in?"

"It's never a surprise," she says easily, smiling when he kisses her palm. But she's glad he seems to accept it without much issue, and she already knows what he's going to ask the moment he looks out over the ocean.

"Waiting on you." Then she tugs at him, pushing them both over the edge without actually waiting for him to pull her in first.

There's a shout of shock from Percy, who'd been pretty sure they were having some kind of a serious moment right then. They drop through the air, and for a split second he thinks Tartarus, but the water is already stretching up to meet them, wrapping around them in a protective bubble before drawing them back down into the embrace of the sea.

"Has anyone ever mentioned how bad you are at waiting to you?" he demands once they settle. There's a small (read: large) chance that he lets her leg slip through the bubble a bit, dousing her.

"I'm hardly worse than you are," she retorts, but she's fighting back a grin as they settle in underwater; though if he's not expecting any sort of punch for letting her leg fall through, he's wrong. Because she punches him right in the arm. "Percy!"

"Hey, ow!" He solidifies the bubble around them again, even being so kind as to dry her off. "You can't punch me, that was revenge for shoving me off a cliff. Now I have to take revenge on you, and it's never going to end."

Unless she capitulates. Which he doubts she will, because Annabeth.

Annabeth rolls her eyes, but she looks pleased when she's fully situated and fully dried once more. "I didn't shove you. I just influenced your jump."

There's totally a difference. "No, it'll end with my final move, whatever it is."

He raises an eyebrow at her, struggling to make his expression unimpressed. "Are you saying you don't have a plan here, Wise Girl?" Their fingers are still twined together, and he uses that connection to tug her forward, into his lap. For all of the levity in his tone, there's something heavier in his gaze as green eyes track her face, taking in all of the details, the tiny things that make up Annabeth Chase. Even a fall off the top of a giant turtle's head can't make the remnants of their conversation (and everything it had referred to) fade away.

Annabeth realizes his intention the moment he starts tugging and doesn't fight it. And when she's sitting in his lap, she just adjusts herself a little more comfortably.

It's a little intense, the way he's studying her face, though she does get why; the conversation hasn't quite left her yet either, and she more or less knows what she can do for him just by existing.

But he still gets a bit of a pointed look. "My plan depends on your next move, naturally."

Percy reaches up and gently tucks a loose curl behind her ear, fingers lingering as they brush over her skin. The corner of his mouth tugs up a little at her comment. "My next move, huh?"

It's not the height of wit (or any kind of wit at all), but Percy's pretty sure he can win this. Or at least enjoy the process of losing. He shifts closer to Annabeth, easing his lips softly over hers. The hand near her face cups her jaw properly. It's sweet and slow, and not lacking any intensity for it.

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