"Jason, shhhh, Jason, it was only a nightmare, it's okay - "

"Calm down, it's okay. I'm here - it was only a nightmare Jason."

"Oh, sweetie, you'll be fine. Don't worry. I'm here, I'll always be here, Jason!"

"Please be quiet Jason, you're making me scared!"

"Mommy can't be here Jason, I'll be your mommy! I'm your sister, I'm here!"

Please be quiet Jason.

He screamed and he screamed and he screamed. He wouldn't stop, no, not until the world had heard his cries. He screamed until Thalia's ears bled, until she was crying as well, pleading with him to stop. He screamed until he could scream no longer, his throat hoarse as if someone had rubbed sandpaper against it, his voice faint and wheezy and weak. Jason clutched onto Thalia's pyjama shirt roughly, burying his tiny face into her bony collarbone, dampening her shoulder. She rubbed his back soothingly, with the gentleness of a mother at the mere fragile age of eight.

"The monsters are gone now Jason," she murmured, her voice low. "You'll be alright."

At barely one and a half years old, Jason barely knew any words. It was too hard to teach him herself, and her mother did nothing. She didn't even wake when he started the screaming, she was plunged so deep into the murky depths of alcoholism. But the sound of Thalia's voice alone, slow and calm and level and oh so sweet, as soon as he had stopped crying long enough to hear it, it was enough to chase away the shadows.

"I'll never let you go, Jason," she said. "Never."

He just buried his face further into her shoulder, tiny little toddler hands grasping at the fabric of her top so hard his knuckles turned white. "But, I have school tomorrow, and I need sleep. I have to go now." She started to get up, started pushing him away, trying to make him let go, but he wasn't having any of it. He pounded his fists against her, against her neck, with unimaginable strength for a boy of his age, so she couldn't go. He screamed again, 'NO! NO! NO!' scratching at her neck, trying to keep her there, trying to hold on. She knew there'd be bruises there tomorrow.

Thalia started to cry, started to rub her eyes, as she sat back down, no choice. Jason, unaware of what he had done, cried with her as she rocked him from side to side, all the while saying 'I love you Jason, I love you, I love you,' until the words were lost. She started a lullaby, a soft, lilting one about a better place, one she couldn't even remember how she knew it. She could have made it up on the spot.

Just close your eyes

The sun is going down

You'll be alright

No one can hurt you now

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound

They would, wouldn't they?

'You and I'll be Safe and Sound, won't we Jason?' she repeated, again and again and again.

It comforted herself more than him.

She couldn't go to school tomorrow. Not when her family was in this state. She had to stay with him, scaring away the shadows that so frequently stole the happiness from their dreams. She couldn't leave Jason here when he was going through what she had, was.

"Don't leave me here alone."

Jason knew that much. It saddened her to no end that the phrases he had learned were necessary like that. He pulled back, looking at her pleadingly with wet, shiny blue eyes full of too much anger and pain for someone so inexperienced. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, so hollow and gaunt for someone so young.

"I won't. I'll never let you go."

Never, Jason. Never.

Thalia wished she could of kept her promise to him that night.

She had just gone to the car, just gone to get the picnic basket.

Only gone for a minute.

Things had finally started working out, the future finally looking bright.

Their mother was recovering slowly, acting more like a mother, being there, doing stuff with them and at least making an effort, if only a small one.

It all changed that day.

Thalia had yelled, shouted, swung fists, stomped her foot, screamed, scratched and hissed, cried until her throat bled. Then she had run away, simple as that.

He was so young.

Everything was wrong. The world was messed up, their lives were just series of bad luck and mistakes and doomed futures. The weather just had to be perfect that day. Everything had to be perfect. She had never been happier, and within such an innocent, mediocre activity everything had to be washed away, in another sick aspect to her life.

She was only nine.

Thalia skipped along the grass, wet and spongy beneath her worn down sneakers, the air as clean and fresh as you could get in a city park. The picnic basket was heavy on her arm, filled with food and goodies and everything perfect in her life then. It filled her with possibilities, anticipation about the future in store, and hunger for what lay within.

It was all crushed when she reached the blanket.

Her mother, sat there, rocking herself with wide, frightened eyes, glazed over and staring into the distance as she hugged her knees to her chest and mumbled incoherently.

"Mom."

No answer.

Panic started to build up in her chest.

No, no no no. No, this couldn't be happening, not now.

"Mom."

Louder, sterner this time. More urgent.

"He's gone, he's gone," Ms Grace murmured. It took a few moments for Thalia to make out what she was saying.

"Where?" Thalia demanded, the picnic basket fallen to the ground. "Where's he gone?"

She was crying now, sobbing, shaking her mother. She was so distant, so unfazed, not looking at her daughter, not doing anything.

"Tell me where he is!" Thalia screamed, racking her mother's shoulders. "Tell me where he is, tell me where he is..."

He was nowhere. He was everywhere and nowhere, and all at once the shadows were there, creeping up behind her, stealing her light. She wandered for what felt like years, but could only have been mere minutes, screaming his name into the wind.

She wanted to kill her mother. She yelled in her face, pulled on her ears, tried to punch and hit and scratch her, but no matter what, she couldn't bring herself to. Her mother just looked so pathetic, so lost compared to what she once was.

'He's gone, he's gone...'

Thalia slapped her. On her mother's pale, thin face grew the red outline of her hand, and she stopped, but showed no other signs of noticing, or pain, or anything. With the maturity of someone beyond her years, Thalia bent down and looked her mother in the eye. All signs of crying gone, she glared, she searched her mother's blank gaze, and with a voice colder and sharper than lightning itself, she said,

'This is the last straw.'

Then she picked herself up, stuffed her backpack with food, and without a second glance, ran away into the streets, trying furiously to wipe away the tears that sprung. All the while, she was singing to herself,

'Just close your eyes

The sun is going down

You'll be alright

No one can hurt you now

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound'

She'd be safe and sound, she told herself.

I'll never let you go, Jason.

I'll never let you go.

"Don't look outside," says Jason, fiddling with the hilt of his gladius. His eyes are looking anywhere but at hers, trying so hard to avoid her gaze. She wants to ask why, but stops herself, realizing she'd rather not know. "Please."

Everything's on fire, she thinks to herself. Evertyhing she loves, burning to the ground.

"Why?" she asks, unable to help herself.

He raises a finger to her lips, squeezing her other hand. His lips are pursed in a straight line, forcing a smile for her sake. "Don't you dare, okay? Promise me?" His voice catches.

She nods, taking his actions as that he rathers she doesn't talk. When the things she has to say become too much, she talks anyway;

"The war needs you Jason," she whispers, taken aback at how weak her voice sounds.

"And the huntresses need their leader, but you're not fit enough to go back out there," he responds, and the cries and screams and explosions and sound of metal upon metal is enough to tell her that he's right. "I'm not leaving you."

"Can you hear that?" she murmurs, tears gathering at her lashes, her eyelids trembling from the growing fear in the pit of her stomach. "The war is raging on. The seven need you. Percy needs you."

Jason finds himself leaning closer in order to hear her weak, shaky voice. "I know," he says, giving her limp hand another squeeze. He has to fight back the tears. "I know."

"I'll be fine, honestly. The Apollo kids will be here soon, and then I'll be able to go back outside, hm?" she says. She's trying to convince herself more than him. Tears are falling freely down her face now. "I will be okay, right Jason?"

It breaks his heart how scratchy and hoarse her voice has become, how some stupid arrow shot from Gaea's stupid army can reduce his strong, brazen sister so alive and full of energy to this. "Yeah," he bites his lip, searching her black and blue face, trying to see the old Thalia beneath all the dirt and blood. His older sister who sang lullabies to him as a baby. "You'll be fine. I promise."

"And we're- we're gonna win this war, r-right?"

"Yeah, yeah we are," he says softly.

She smiles, such a sad, wistful smile.

"Okay." Her voice is barely scraping a whisper anymore.

...

...

"Jason?"

"Yeah?"

It takes ages for her to continue, as she struggles to find her voice.

"Will you sing to me?"

He leans back in surprise. Sing? He can't sing, not for his life. He- he could talk to her, he guesses. She probably won't mind.

"Okay," he tries, leaning forwards and brushing her hair from her face. "I-" he can't really start. He clears his throat.

"J-just close your eyes," he starts, taking a shaky breath, his voice catching. It's deep and low and so unlike her own, but she does as he says and the darkness is gone as she listens to him talk.

"Th- the sun," he pauses, "-i-is going down."

It's tuneless and whispered but she doesn't care. In her mind, it's only his voice, her brother, and there's no war, no fire outside.

"You- you'll be alright."

You will, Thalia, he tells himself, mind being whisked back to when he was a baby.

"No-one can hurt... y- you now."

She holds a back a sob, the serenest of smiles dancing upon her chapped, bloody lips.

"Come morning li-" he has to take a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Come morning li-ight," he continues, "And-"

"And?" she pleads, her blue eyes wide and open and wet.

"And-

and you and I'll be-

y-you and I'll be-"

He can't bring himself to finish.

She does for him. They were siblings, binded by blood. No matter what happened, she was never letting him out of her sight for the rest of her life, however short that may be, no matter he was older than her; she wasn't ever letting go.

"You and I'll be Safe and Sound."

A/N. So you lot are all giving me the angsiest prompts ever! I need some happy stuff! I'm really sorry this took so long, the next one will be up soon hopefully. I hope this was okay, I do love that song! The request was from an anon called Thukefan101, so I hope you enjoyed this, and next up is your Titanium for Luke and Thalia, or Luke and Annabeth, I'm not sure which yet.

Again, I'm really sorry this took so long, and I do hope it's good enough.

Disclaimer: Song belongs to Taylor Swift feat. Civil Wars and the characters belong to Rick Riordan, not me.

Reviews are appreciated! Give in your requests and I might get them done eventually!

Yay.

~Franki