Hi, it's been a while!
I'm currently working on something else which is taking so much longer than anticipated, but I can whip out things like this pretty quickly so you will have this story from me in the meantime.
T for swearing
"Can we stop? Just five minutes. Please." Annabeth grumbled.
Percy's face looked dark. He was trying his best - trying to get them the hell out of there as quick as he could before one of them got killed or hurt any more than they had already or worse. He didn't like to think about what could happen to them down there, what horrible ways they could suffer before it was all over, one way or another.
He scanned the area. They had come to some sort of cavern. Long shards of rock hung above them in rows and the air felt thick - if it could even be classed as air. Every breath he took burned his lungs and stung his eyes and hell, he'd be lucky if he didn't suffocate at this rate.
"Sorry. Yeah, of course. I could use a break too, to be honest."
"Um," she looked around and pointed towards a rocky ledge, not too far away. "There? We wouldn't be as exposed as we are now."
Percy nodded and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
She was terrified - they both were. She had no inkling of how long they had been down there but she could feel it. She felt like she had been cloaked in some kind of permanent despair, forcing her to believe they were never going to find the Doors of Death, they were never going to make it out, that they were going to be separated or die and not even make it to Elysium because that's not how it worked down here.
Every second without Percy's hand in hers felt long and painful and she knew he wasn't exactly in the best frame of mind either.
She sat on the rough ground beside him, watching as he turned his sword over and over in his hands. All his raw edges were showing and she wasn't really used to that. Sometimes he could be bitter about his past, but it was different down here. He seemed dangerous and vengeful, like he was going to push himself and push himself until there was nothing left. Of course, he would never hurt her and she trusted him with everything, but in all honesty she was aching to hear his soft laugh or for some kind of stupid joke from him.
"Are you alright?" She asked eventually.
"Downright fantastic." He didn't mean to spit the words out the way he had and he instantly felt guilty about it. He wasn't making it any easier by being like that. He sighed. "That wasn't cool. I'm sorry."
She shook her head.
"It doesn't matter. Shall I take that as a no?"
He didn't answer. His arm curled around her shoulders and he kissed her temple.
"I just want to be able to sit here and promise you that everything's going to be okay but I can't because I don't really believe it myself." He swallowed as his eyes began to sting, although he wasn't sure if was from the air anymore. "I just can't believe that after everything we've ended up down here with the fucking flimsiest excuse for a plan ever and no way of knowing if we're ever gonna get there."
"...I'm sorry, Percy."
He shook his head.
"No." He said softly. "Not your fault. I just wish..."
He wished it could have been someone else and he despised himself for it. More than anything, he wished it wasn't Annabeth.
"I know." She said shortly, finishing off his sentence in her head. "Thank you. For not letting go."
"Didn't even consider it." He mumbled, trying to keep his voice steady.
She looked up at him. He had risked everything to be here with her. They were almost certainly going to die and they both knew it. He could have had a life. He could have found someone else and fallen in love and had a family and he had taken all that away from himself to be with her.
He was an idiot. And she loved him for it.
"I know." She whispered. "It's the most stupid thing you've ever done though. I could kill you, sometimes."
He managed a smile.
"No. Leaving you would be more stupid. At least we've got some kind of chance of settling down together if we ever get out of here. No one could make it through this place alone. Not even you."
"Nico."
"That's different and you know it."
She sighed and lay beside him with her head in his lap. Part of her wished they could just stay right there and wait to get eaten or something, rather than trawling on aimlessly through the darkness, holding on to their last shred of hope. It was cruel to do that for herself, to either of them. Annabeth knew math and she knew the odds of she and Percy successfully getting their asses out of there were realistically too small to even consider.
But, she supposed, whilst she was down there, she might as well try. She was with Percy after all and if she was going to be spending her final hours with anybody, it would be with him.
If she were going to be spending her life with anyone, it would be him, too.
"... do you think we're going to die down here?"
"I hope not."
She was hoping he would say no.
As much as Percy didn't want to carry on through this mess, he had to. He had to remember what her was doing this for. There was a whole group of people relying on them being on the other side of those doors. If they didn't do this, it would be over. Everything would be over. Everyone dreaming of any kind of future would lose their chance.
People deserved lives. That was what he was doing this for. He deserved a life. Annabeth did. She deserved everything she could ever want and if they were going to make it out of this place alive, he would give her anything, he'd do anything to make everything alright again.
They weren't going to be the same after this and he knew it. The second he hit that river, a switch seemed to have turned off in his brain and he was so angry. Rather than just hiding, he wanted to destroy every bastard monster he came across and he wanted to do it slowly. He wanted them to suffer, to punish them for taking people away from him too soon, to force them to understand how painful grief could be.
He decided to change the subject. They needed to take their minds off things, if only for a couple of minutes.
"Where do you reckon we'll be in ten years time?"
She closed her eyes, temporarily shutting the world out. She dragged Percy's arm over her and held onto him tightly, aching for as much comfort as she could get.
She could almost pretend she was on the beach at camp on a blisteringly hot day. If she concentrated really hard, she could almost hear the sea and she longed to be back there so much. She missed lazing around with Percy and she missed the smell of the sticky ribs from the barbecue and she even missed laughing at Mr.D getting her name wrong.
"Hey. Don't fall asleep on me." Percy said gently, stroking her grimy hair away from her face. "I asked you a question, Wise Girl."
She smiled a little.
"I'm not asleep." She promised. "And I guess you owe me a tour around New Rome. Maybe we could convince Chiron to let us build our own version. So obviously, our house would be exactly how we want it -"
"- Because you'd be designing it, right?"
"Right. With sea views to keep you quiet and big windows because I'm getting sick of being stuck in the dark."
Percy swallowed. He thought he hadn't seen the sun for a long time, but Annabeth had spent even more days underground on her quest. If it was driving him to pieces, what was it doing to her?
"Yeah. Me too."
"And we'd have a balcony outside our bedroom. You know - like full on, clichè romantic balcony with the doors flung open and all that bullshit."
He laughed a little. He hadn't expected that from her, but he wasn't complaining. He was a romantic, so all those kind of clichès were always going to be a winner for him.
"I'd like that."
"I know you would."
He wanted that life. He wanted that life so badly. He wanted the future he'd dreamed about when he lost her. It had given him hope then and it was the only hope he was hanging on to now.
"We'll be twenty seven, so I feel like we could stretch to a little responsibility. Can we get a dog?"
"You have a dog."
"Mrs. O'Leary doesn't count. We can't exactly keep her in the house."
"Fine. Just no kids until I'm at least thirty, alright?"
Percy snorted. Maybe in any other circumstances, he would have been embarrassed. Heck, whenever his Mom brought up the subject of grandchildren he usually wanted to hide forever, but this was different. This was a future he and Annabeth might not get, so this meant everything. It meant that he could at least dream about it. It meant that although he'd probably never live it physically, he'd get to live it in his head and that would have to be enough.
"Not if I have it my way."
"Which is..?"
"Kids when we're like, twenty eight. Only two, though."
"Only?" She grumbled. "Two is plenty, thanks."
"I'll hold you to that."
She wondered if Tartarus had ever heard so much hope before. Maybe it was a fool's hope, but it was something to keep her going. Something that made her want to make it.
She wanted Percy. She wanted a life with him. She wanted him to understand how much he meant to her. If there was a chance of that, she was going to take it and it wan't going to happen while she was resting. She finally opened her eyes and groaned, taking in the horrible world around her, before looking up at her Seaweed Brain. His face was smeared with muck and his eyes were tired, but he was still beautiful.
"I love you," she said softly as she sat up, "but we should get moving."
"Yeah, I know." He stood up and offered her his hand. "We're going to get ourselves out of here."
She nodded and let him pull her up.
"Thanks." She brushed herself off and squinted into the distance, nodding towards what looked like the safest route - the clearest. "That way?"
"That way." He agreed and held her hand as they walked through the darkness, holding on to the tiny slither of hope they had.
