the light in me//will guide you home

[kelpful]

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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[kelpful]

A low groan escapes Percy when she bites his lip like that and even though everything in him is screaming to keep going, kiss her harder, push her shirt out of the way so they can be even closer--

He breaks off the kiss. Because they're totally underwater, and while he can keep his focus just fine now (on the water, at least. Not much else, other than Annabeth), he doesn't think either one of them want to test that. Percy tucks his face into the crook of her neck, and then kisses the skin there because he can't help himself. Once, twice, a third time, before he pulls away from her completely, laughing.

"You're a serious problem for me, Annabeth Chase."

[sophos]

She doesn't do much when he breaks it off, having been not too long for the same move herself. There's only so far she was willing to push. She smiles warmly, though, when he tucks his face in against her, gently cradling the back of his head; she's still smiling when he pulls back, like she couldn't be happier. Which isn't that far off, really. She moves the hand from his chest, searching to take one of his.

"Should I be insulted or proud of that?"

[kelpful]

"Definitely proud." He says it with certainty, moving his hand so she can find it. He tangles their fingers together and then lifts them, kissing the back of hers because it's there and he can. It's kind of hard not to think about her being pressed up against him, but he does his best.

"I love you."

[sophos]

"I can do proud." Understatement of the century, and she's super aware of how ridiculous it is to say.

Her expression softens even more though with the gesture, doubly so with what follows. "I love you, too." The ever familiar promise of always is more than heavily implied with it. Always and despite everything and anything that has or might happen - especially things Tartarus related. Because she loves this stupid boy more than everything, and that thought is a lot less scary than it used to be.

[kelpful]

"You can do pretty much everything." Something that Percy has firmly believed since he was a kid. Even when they were arguing all the time.

He draws in a breath, the sound shuddering before he lets it out again. He thinks about Annabeth, and the ocean, and the giant turtle floating alongside them and how he's probably screwed up before too. And he thinks about Captain Bobby Tennyson and his three siblings that Percy met in Dreaming. Even having been in Malicant's world, in its presence, it's hard to not have hope. Not after seeing himself and Annabeth make their way out of Tartarus, and not after holding a tiny pink girl in his arms and listening to her chatter at him about moving on.

"I think," he says softly, leaning his forehead against Annabeth's, "we're going to be okay."

[sophos]

She used to believe that of herself in all honesty, but if she really sits down to think about it, believing so is dangerous. It's - it's her fatal flaw, and she's been confronted with that that means in terrible ways lately. But she smiles anyway when he says it.

And then Annabeth waits, because she knows that look on Percy's face, that he's doing the kind of thinking that isn't worth teasing over.

He presses his forehead to hers, and she closes her eyes with the words. But it's out of relief to hear it. Things have gotten better in ways over the last few months, but there'd been an uncertain undercurrent at the same time, and Annabeth knows it was Percy trying to deal with - everything. All she could do was try and keep anchoring him.

That he can say it, we're going to be okay and mean it more than he has in ages - it's more than a good sign, really. It adds weight to the hope. They can and will get through it. She opens her eyes again, slips her hands up to cup his face. "Yeah," she starts, believing it a lot more wholeheartedly herself now, too; Percy's hope has always helped hers, even when she's been the one channeling more optimism lately. "I think so, too."

[kelpful]

He draws in a soft, slow breath when she cups his face like that. It's not exactly a smile, the expression that touches his lips, but it's definitely along the lines of positivity. Relief, maybe. They're in the same place, physically and mentally, and that place isn't even all that bad.

What was commiseration for months (this might be awful, but at least we have each other) has started to morph into something that much more...peaceful. It's not great, but it definitely counts as okay.

His arms wrap around her, roll them (and shifting the bubble a bit) so they're both lying on their sides, tangled up in each other. "Never again," he murmurs, and instead of the desperate, fatalistic promise it's been since Rome, it's just a simple truth. He's not letting go.

[sophos]

Something flutters at that look on his face. She can't really remember the last time she saw anything like it. And she's beyond relieved, too, for him and for herself, to be in a better place than they were a month ago.

Percy rolls them and the bubble both over, and Annabeth doesn't hesitate in tangling them together even more. The never again doesn't make her worry. It's a promise for a future where the worst is behind them, and he's still not letting go. She curls up against him further, breathing out a sigh of contentment as she smiles softly with all the feelings she doesn't have words for. Right now, this is pretty much all she needs, because Percy Jackson is going to be in her life for the rest of her life, and they're going to be okay. Because despite everything, they're still together.

And it's not scary anymore.