Stargazing- A Percabeth Oneshot

Hello, everyone. I'm here with a Percabeth oneshot, called Stargazing. It's an angsty/fluffy fanfic… my favorite kind. Any pop culture references that I might make have all legal rights dedicated to their rightful owners, and of course Percy Jackson and all characters relating to belong to Uncle Rick Riordan. Now, without further ado, please enjoy Stargazing!

Percy

Nightmares were a horrible demon.

Causing images of Hell, death, and hallucinations to harass Percy's mind whilst he was attempting to sleep, Percy felt the increasing fear growing in his mind.

He had only been asleep for a bit, now, but he was already starting to get a sense of his surroundings.

Dark, fiery red skies. Unstable, hard red grounds with small volcanoes poking out of them, coughing up monsters every few minutes. Disgusting, noxious, sulfurous oxygen took over Percy's lungs, forcing him to aggressively cough and sputter.

He first noticed now, that Annabeth was at his side, worriedly looking over at him.

"Percy?" Annabeth asked. "Does it hurt your chest again?"

"I'm fine." Percy reassured Annabeth. "Just the dust…"

Percy didn't have time to elaborate on his statement, as right then, he felt a sharp pain in his back.

He gasped, standing still, time suspended, watching in slow motion as Annabeth's eyes went wide.

Percy attempted to turn around to see who his attacker was. When he finally came face to face with his opposition, he screamed.

Annabeth had later told him that his scream had scared her, as she described it to be utterly painful and broken, like someone calling for help six feet under, aware of the fact that no one could hear them, but yet trying anything possible to make someone hear them.

And that was exactly the description of his feelings when Percy had seen his attacker. He felt helpless, like he could never even speak again.

Because, when he had turned around, he'd seen his mother.

His own mother, holding a bloodied kitchen knife in her hand, staring at Percy with the most sinister, evil grin resting upon her face.

"Percy Jackson, II hope that you die in the depths of Tartarus." She sneered, pointing the knife up at his chest. "I hope that I never see you, such a disappointing, delinquent of a son ever again. STAY DOWN HERE YOU BITCH!" Sally finally finished. "I wish that I could kill you, but I'm only a mere hallucination. However, the word that come out of my mouth are nothing false. I hate you, Perseus. I hope you die!" Sally finished, before vaporizing into thin air.

Percy was speechless. He had literally just been stabbed in the back by his own mother. Percy knew that he shouldn't believe a word of what she said, as she was probably some nightmarish-induced hallucination to weaken him, however the words that she had spoken to him had hit so close to home that Percy didn't know what to feel.

For a bit, Annabeth was in the same stage of shock as Percy was experiencing, but had recovered quicker.

"Percy… it wasn't real." She said.

Percy remained silent, not even bothering to acknowledge that Annabeth had said anything.

"I just want to go home." He said, pain evident in his voice.

"Percy, you are home. As long as we're together, we're home. You know why? Home is where the happiest memories are made. And where are your happiest memories made, Seaweed Brain?"

"Well, with you." Percy said.

Memories came flooding back to Percy's mind, like the time where he and Annabeth were in the Tunnel of Love when they were twelve, and their Underwater Kiss, Percy's favorite memory ever, and when after eight long months of Percy being without Annabeth, they were finally reunited at Camp Jupiter.

"Of course. And… your back." Annabeth said, turning him around to reveal to stab wound. But it was insignificant. Amongst all of the other bruises and wounds on his broken and malnourished body, it was nothing. He just needed to stop the bleeding.

Percy had only now realized that there were salty tears leaking out of his eyes.

Stop. He thought. Stop! Percy yelled in his mind.

"Percy!" he heard Annabeth say.

Percy turned around, expecting to see Annabeth, but then Percy realized that he was on a bed… on the Argo II. And that he was no longer in Tartarus.

"Annabeth?" he asked hoarsely, touching his cheeks to feel that they were, as he had suspected, wet.

"You were having a nightmare. Do you remember what it was about?" Annabeth asked, sitting up in the bed next to Percy. Ever since they had returned from Tartarus, Annabeth had been sleeping with Percy in his bed. Coach Hedge wasn't here to do anything about it, and the rest of their friends hadn't been bothered to mention anything.

"That… that time in Tartarus. Where my mother had appeared…" Percy said, sitting up. He ran his hand tiredly over his face, half in an attempt to wake himself up, half to wipe the tears that were resting on his face off.

Annabeth held onto his arm, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" she asked.

Percy remained silent, not wanting to lie to Annabeth, but not really wanting to tell her the truth.

No, of course he wasn't okay. Seeing his mother literally stab him was one of the most horrifying moments ever in Percy's life. The experience had emotionally and physically scarred him, and now he had just witnessed it again.

Annabeth took his hand, and smiled.

"Follow me." She said. "I want to show you something."

Annabeth pushed herself up off of the bed, and led Percy outside. It was cold, and Percy shivered. It was the middle of July and the weather should have been warm.

When Percy looked up at the sky above him, he was greeted by the spectacular sight of hundreds, maybe even thousands of white, and blue twinkling stars, and a half moon, glowing brightly in the sky.

"There are eighty-eight recognized constellations that you can see in the sky throughout the entire year. My favorite one is Perseus, because when you were gone, it reminded me of you."

Percy smiled, and laced his fingers through Annabeth's.

"And my favorite is Cancer. That's your zodiac sign, correct?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, and it's also Jason's and Leo's."

"I'm a Leo, and Leo isn't? How coincidental."

"You know, the constellation Pisces consists of the two fish, and in Greek mythology, the myth says that once, when Typhon was coming to destroy the gods for the first time, Aphrodite and her son Eros needed to take a disguise so that Typhon wouldn't try and harm them, so they took form of the two fish and set themselves as the oldest constellation of the zodiac, Pisces, in the sky."

Percy and Annabeth stood in a comfortable silence, holding hands and staring up at the sky.

Annabeth was right. Gazing at the stars really was rather relaxing.

Percy smiled. All of the time that Percy was in Tartarus, he had longed to see the moon and the stars. Now, finally, after everything, he was outside staring up at the constellations with Annabeth.

Bob says hello. He thought.

Annabeth squeezed Percy's hand, and his nightmares all faded into bad memories.

Percy had no doubts that he would have better dreams when he went back to sleep.

The End

Hi, everyone! I hope you enjoyed my oneshot, Stargazing. If you haven't already seen it, go check out my multi-chapter Percabeth AU, Time Flies, and for my Attack on Titan fans, my oneshot called Promises. Thanks for reading this, and don't forget to leave a review. Constructive criticism is appreciated, flames will be ignored. Thanks for reading, and have a magical day!