Solstice
Percy went to sleep on the night of December 20th not really thinking about the date. It was the end of his first semester of college, his exams were finished, and he and Annabeth had gone to a "We Survived Finals Week" party thrown by some UC Berkeley students she'd met in one of her architecture classes. It was surprisingly fun. Percy discovered he was actually pretty decent at beer pong (although Annabeth was even better), they didn't run into any monsters on the way there or back to New Rome, and, overall, it was a great night.
So when he woke up in the middle of the night with his heart pounding, he wasn't immediately sure why. His brain was still foggy with sleep, but his adrenaline was spiking. He opened his eyes. His dorm room was dimly lit by the streetlight filtering through the blinds and the blue light of his alarm clock, which read 3:02 a.m. Nothing looked out of place. There were some piles of clothes and textbooks laying around, but he'd left them that way. The room was quiet. The only sound was the hum of the radiator and Annabeth's deep, even breathing beside him. Once he'd determined that the room was clear, his pulse started to even out again. He took a deep breath, laying on his back and looking up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what had woken him up. He thought maybe it had been his dream. He squinted at the dark ceiling, watching the ceiling fan tick slowly around, trying to remember.
Then it hit him.
The nightmare that woke him up and set his heart racing had been about the solstice several years ago, when he'd traveled with Thalia and Zoe to Mount Othrys and faced the Titan Atlas. The solstice had been the deadline to stop the Titans' plan…and save Annabeth.
He looked at his girlfriend. She was sleeping on her side, her back to him. One of his arms was pinned under her shoulder and starting to go a little numb, but he didn't want to try to move it and wake her up. The oversized t-shirt she'd gone to sleep in had slipped to the side, leaving her shoulder bare.
He leaned forward and brushed his lips over her skin, just to remind himself that she was here. She was safe. They were together.
And, he realized, it was the solstice. 3:02 a.m. on December 21st. But this year, he didn't have a deadline. They weren't on a quest. Instead, they'd gone to a party like normal college students. Then they'd come back to his dorm for a movie and late-night pizza. And eventually fallen asleep. No swords, no weapons, no monsters, no gods, no heart-pounding danger or heart-stopping fear. Just a regular, chill, fun night.
Huh, Percy thought as his heart rate went back to normal and the adrenaline drained away, leaving tiredness in its wake. I could get used to this.
He shifted onto his side, curling himself around Annabeth, one arm still pinned under her shoulder, the other slipping around her waist.
She stirred, and he made a face, annoyed at himself. He hadn't intended to wake her up. Her voice was thick with sleep when she asked, "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, sorry." He pressed his lips to the back of her neck. "Didn't mean to wake you up."
"S'okay." She ran her hand along his arm at her waist, then laced their fingers together. "Bad dream?"
"Kind of. About that winter with Atlas."
"Oh." She scooted closer to him, leaning back into his chest, and he took the opportunity to slide his arm into a more comfortable position, feeling the pins and needles as it started to wake up. "That was a tough one."
"Yeah." He dipped his head to kiss her neck again, this time at the edge of her collarbone. "Today's the solstice. But we're just here. No quest or anything. It's nice."
"It is." She pulled his arm more tightly around her and snuggled closer. "Sleeping is even nicer."
He chuckled. "True." His lips brushed over her skin one more time, just because she was here in his arms. "I love you, Annabeth."
"Love you, too, Percy," she murmured. "Now go back to sleep. We're good."
"I know."
Percy closed his eyes. The lemon scent of Annabeth's shampoo drifted over him, bringing much more pleasant memories to the front of his mind as he slipped back into sleep.
Annabeth woke to yellow morning sunlight flooding the room. Percy had forgotten to twist his blinds all the way shut again. Seaweed Brain, she thought, with a mix of mild annoyance and sleepy affection. Turning her head to look over her shoulder, she could see over Percy's messy dark hair to where the clock read 7:04 a.m. Too early to get up on a morning when they didn't have anywhere to be.
On the solstice, she thought with a jolt, remembering their half-asleep conversation from the night before. It was the solstice, the day of the gods' council, the deadline of multiple quests that both she and her friends had been a part of…but she and Percy had nowhere to be. If anything was going on today, they weren't involved. The fate of the world was on somebody else's shoulders.
Annabeth drew in a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, a smile creeping across her face. Twelve-year-old Annabeth would have been shocked, but eighteen-year-old Annabeth had now seen enough and done enough and proven herself more than enough times to appreciate the fact that now, this morning, she didn't have anywhere to be or anything to do. She could just stay here, curled up in bed with her boyfriend, safe behind the magical protections of New Rome, and breathe. She could relax.
Percy's chest rose and fell against her back. Each exhale puffed against her hair and the back of her neck, sending pleasant shivers down her spine. One of his arms was still draped over her waist. The other was curled around her shoulder; her cheek was pillowed on his forearm. She tilted her head to press a kiss to the inside of his wrist, then shifted into a more comfortable position. She didn't wake him up though. Later, they would get up and probably go grab pancakes at their favorite breakfast place, then do whatever else they felt like doing with this day off in between the end of the semester and traveling home for the holidays. But for now, they had nowhere to be and nothing to do. They could actually sleep in this morning.
They'd earned it.
***Happy solstice! The idea for this little drabble-y one-shot popped into my head yesterday, so I wrote it. Hope you enjoyed the fluff lol***
