Percy was jolted from his almost nap by some first year calling his name.
"Oh man. I'm sorry. Did I wake you I didn't see! Man, I'm so-"
"It's fine. What do you need?" Percy asked with a yawn, standing up from his resting spot by the tree. He could practically feel his strength being left on the ground as he stood up, wanting nothing more than to curl up and sleep.
"It's just... the senior in charge of swordplay is sick today so we have no one to teach the lesson so Chiron told us to find you, and see if you were busy." The young'n spoke quickly and nervously, as if he expected Percy to blow up.
Percy let out a sigh. "Sure, no problem. I'll be there in a minute."
Grinning like a child, the young kid ran back, already screaming that Percy was going to teach them. A small smile graced Percy's face as he began to seemingly endless walk back to camp. Still, he had to perk-up, he couldn't slack off while teaching sword play, that's how people got maimed. Half way back to camp, he crossed paths with his amazing girlfriend.
"Going somewhere, seaweed brain?" She asked with a taunting smile, her arms full of various pieces of armor.
"Teaching sword play to the first year campers. Again," He said with a yawn.
Annabeth's grin fell from her face as she turned to stare at her boyfriend. "When was the last time you slept a good 9 hours?"
Percy thought for a moment. "What month is it?"
Annabeth nearly dropped everything she was carrying out of frustration. "Percy Jacks-"
"Hurry up! We're waiting!" The kid's voice called from over the hill.
"Duty calls. Campers need me," Percy spoke with a tired smile before he turned and jogged up the hill, taking out riptide and uncapping his sword.
XxXxXxXxX
By the time training was over Percy was struggling to stay on his feet. Dinner was called and he began his slow trudge to the dining hall, his eyes failing to stay open.
"Hey Perc?"
"Mmm?" He responded, summoning the strength to open his eyes to look at whoever the monster was that called his name. It was some 4th year camper, a year younger than himself if Percy remembered correctly.
"I got stuck with cleaning the stables as punishment for failing cabin inspection, but I had promised my girlfriend we'd eat dinner by the lake tonight. . ."
"That sucks," Percy's drawn out sympathetic voice sounded out followed by a yawn.
"Please man. She's already mad at me, I don't want to lose her. I'll make it up to you. Please, no one else will do it. I'm counting on you," He continued, looking desperate.
Percy looked at him for a second. Counting on me? He sighed, ignoring his rumbling stomach. "Fine."
He turned and trudged back to the stables. He wanted to go have dinner, but he could see how desperate he was. If he was in that guy's position with Annabeth, he'd be saying the same thing to Grover.
He stopped outside of the stables with a sigh. He knew it would be so much easier to just borrow some water from the nearby stream, but he knew how much the Naiads hated that. The old memory of cleaning the stables at that hell ranch when they wandered the maze sprung back into his mind. Still, he knew his best bet was to just start cleaning it the old fashion way.
Two hours later and the stables were relatively clean. Good enough at least. He was dead on his feet at this point though and actually stopped half way back to his cabin to rest against a tree. Weighing the benefits of sleeping in a bed to the torture of walking the rest of the distance he leaned his head back against the tree. Sleeping under the stars once in a while wasn't so bad he figured. He was about to try and nod off when he heard footsteps approaching.
"Where were you Percy? You missed dinner!" His girlfriend's concerned scolding came from somewhere in the darkness in front of him.
"I ate breakfast," He mumbled mostly to himself.
"You missed lunch too?!" Annabeth's voice growing more and more upset with him. "Here!" She said as she angrily thrust the muffin at his chest. "Ugh, I knew I should have grabbed more food. I just didn't think you were stupid enough to miss lunch too," She half-scolded, though the concern in her voice made it sound less intimidating.
Thanking the gods, but mostly Annabeth, for the Muffin, he began to devour it glad he stopped to wash his hands before heading back to the cabin.
Annabeth reached out with her arm, placing it against the tree next to his head as she leaned close to him. "What's up, Seaweed brain? You've been the walking dead for the past week. Why aren't you resting?" Her voice softened for a moment. "Are... you having nightmares?" She hesitated. She was still plagued by them from time to time too, though things had gotten easier for them with time.
He smiled, leaning his head forward to rest his forehead against hers. "No, I'm not. I just have a lot on my plate. Camp needs me to step up," He confessed. It was true, ever since the end of the second war, a lot of campers had taken to viewing Percy as the head camper, coming to him for things they needed. Which Percy never understood, having him in charge of anything was never a good plan, he left planning to his brilliant girlfriend most of the time.
"Percy Jackson. You need to think about yourself too. You can't do everything, and this camp isn't resting on your shoulders," Annabeth stated, staring into his eyes. She was going to scold him more, but could tell he was struggling to stay awake. "Here, let me help you to your cabin before you pass out in a bush," She said, throwing one of his arms around her shoulders as she helped him on his way.
"Don't forget to take a shower too, you smell like Blackjack."
XxXxXxXxX
Sleep was a fleeting fantasy as he was shaken awake by one of the other campers. "Percy! There's monsters roaming outside of the border, and a new camper is on his way with a satyr, they'll never make it with those creatures out there!"
Percy shot out of bed, grabbing Riptide and his chest armor as he ran out of his cabin. Sure enough there were two strange creatures made up of a combination of animals Percy had never seen before. Percy ran to the border, seeing a few campers trying their best to take them down, but their hard shells seemed to be deflecting most weapons. Percy turned to Clarise. "Get the new campers out of there. You take the one on the right with your cabin, I'll take the one on the left."
"Alone, Jackson? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" She shouted before ordering her cabin to get in formation.
"I'll be fine! Everyone stay back!" He shouted at all the campers as he charged out of the barrier.
The monster swiped at Percy, unable to catch him in its claws as it flailed around. Percy struck out with his sword but every strike bounced harmlessly off its tough outer shell. He let out a frustrated growl rolling past it and stabbing at the back of its knee. The monster let out a roar of pain but didn't go down. Some part of his mind registered that if he had a group this thing would be easier to take down, but as he dodged the poison it spit, he remembered why he avoided bringing others into the fight.
Then Percy got a stupid idea, one of his best ones. He stood still, as the beast reared its head back. It spit poison and Percy dodged forward into a roll, coming out of it with an upwards thrust of his sword. It stabbed through the roof of the monsters mouth, unfortunately it didn't dissolve into dust right away. Swinging its powerful arm, Percy felt a rib crack as it crashed into his chest and sent him flying, back through the barrier and into some campers. He was vaguely aware of some campers screaming that Percy did it, and a girl with blond hair crying over him as his vision faded to black.
XxXxXxXxX
Percy came to in his own bed. Trying to sit up he felt a wave of pain through his chest and collapsed back onto the bed with a wheeze of pain.
"You broke a rib last night, take it easy," Annabeth's voice called as she left the bathroom in his cabin. She was dressed in her pajamas still and was currently putting her hair up into a ponytail. Her expression was less than amused as she stared at his bandaged chest.
"What the hell was that? You charged the thing alone while you had the whole camp there to support you? I left for a minute to take an injured camper to the Big House for treatment and I come back to see you flying through the air!" She shouted throwing her arms up in frustration. "Why are you being so stupid? I don't understand," She growled out, placing her hands dangerously on her hips.
Percy sighed. "I beat the monster, I knew I could. It spit poison and having too many campers just meant that more people would likely be hit by the poison. I'm not going to let any campers die on my watch, I've lost enough friends," His voice cracked on the last word as he stared down at his hands.
Annabeth sighed as she slowly moved over to his bed, sitting down next to him. Gently she pulled his head to her shoulder. "Seaweed brain. I understand what you're thinking but you're being stupid. You can't protect everybody by doing everything yourself. What if something happens to you, then how do you think we'll feel? How do you think I'll feel if something happened to you because you wouldn't let me help?"
Percy looked up at Annabeth, understanding what she meant. "Fine, wise girl. I promise I won't fight alone anymore," He said, kissing her forehead. "But I'm still a camp counselor, I have to help run camp."
Before Annabeth could protest there was a knock on his cabin door. Shyly, a young camper entered. "Um Percy?" She asked hesitantly, looking between Annabeth and Percy. Annabeth blushed lightly, standing up and going back to fixing her hair.
"What's up Stacy?" He asked as he stood up.
"Well... there's some young campers who don't know how to swim yet and some of the older campers are trying to teach them but they're nervous. They say they want a son of Poseidon there so they don't drown. And well . . . you're the only one," She said nervously, playing with the hem of her shirt.
Percy smiled, suppressing a yawn. "Sure. I'll be down in a minute," He said, ignoring the daggers Annabeth was glaring at him. He closed the door as the girl ran back giggling to her friends.
"Annabeth . . ." He started.
"You could have said no! You were knocked unconscious last night and you just woke up, and I'm pretty sure you haven't had anything but nectar and Ambrosia since breakfast yesterday."
"I had that muffin."
"Percy!" She exclaimed in exasperation. "You don't need to be there. There's plenty of Naiads in the lake. You know they would never let a camper actually drown," She said, with her hands on her hips.
"They want me there. I'm not going to say no to young campers learning how to swim. It is kinda my area of expertise after all."
Annabeth sighed, growing tired of arguing. "Don't you dare miss breakfast," She said as she left his cabin, slamming the door behind her.
XxXxXxXxX
A couple hours later most of the campers had managed to tread water and some could even swim well. Percy had convinced the Naiads to help out instead of flirting with him and soon all the kids were running to go get breakfast.
Dragging himself out the lake, he left as dry as he entered with a yawn. He was exhausted. Controlling the water the help the kids learn how to swim for so long was draining, even in the water. He stumbled across the field; at least he hadn't missed breakfast.
Stumbling a bit he came to a stop against a bale of hay. He was exhausted. Figuring he could take a little breather he leaned back against the bale, sliding down it. Just a little nap and he'd be back to normal, right?
"READY!"
"AIM!"
"HOLD!" Annabeth's voice interrupted in a scream as she ran from the pavilion, her arms full with a bundle of food. Quickly Annabeth made her way to the back of the targets the line of archers were aiming at. She nudged Percy with her foot, waking him up.
"You seaweed brain! Of all places to pass out, you choose the archery range?" Annabeth scolded, dragging him by his sleeve out of the line of fire.
Percy yawned, not registering the fact he had almost been the target of a volley of arrows accidentally.
"Is breakfast over?"
Annabeth just let out a frustrated sigh. "I swear. Sometimes you are so stupid, Percy. Why help the swimmers if you were that tired?"
Percy still had his eyes closed as he leaned against a tree, smiling softly. "They needed my help. Besides, you shoulda seen them smile when they swam for the first time on their own," He mumbled tiredly.
Annabeth's glare softened as she stared Percy. "Percy . . ."
"Percy!" Another voice interrupted. It was Will, another senior camper. "Hey, man. Ever since the kids you taught to swim got back all the other young kids are begging for you to teach swordplay again. What do you say?"
Percy sighed, looking between Annabeth and Will. "I dunno."
Annabeth let out a dramatic sigh. "Oh what a shame. I had packed this picnic for us so we could relax by the lake, and maybe go for a swim later. I even wanted to show you my new bikini I got."
She said with a sly grin as she began to walk away from the boys, towards the lake.
Percy looked at the back of his retreating girlfriend, before he looked back at will.
"Uhh . . . sorry Will. I think I'll pass."
Will just laughed, shaking his head. "Don't worry man. I'll cover for you. You helped me out yesterday anyway. Enjoy yourself," He said before running back to the group of kids. "You should learn to say no more, someone might try to take advantage of you!" He called just before he vanished over the hill.
Percy grinned, running to catch up to Annabeth, wrapping his arm around her waist as he leaned his head against hers. "Maybe taking time to relax isn't such a bad thing."