When I looked back at Annabeth, she was staring off into the distance. "Are you alright?" I asked. "Yes, I'm just... processing everything I just heard while trying not to die from an overdose" "Overdose of what?" "Serotonin. Annie being so close is not helping" "Uh, sorry" "No, it's fine, this is the best I've felt in almost three months. Mortal time" If I wasn't mistaken, that was when Annabeth and I had finally been reunited after more than half a year. "What about when we came back to this world?" "That was only enjoyable in contrast to what came before, but looking at it now, it sucked" "Makes sense" "I mean sure, the reaction I have to actually being loved by someone is also a contrast thing, but it's the contrast to my whole life and not just two days. The first time someone actually cared about me, it was such an important and non-typical that it created Annie. Speaking of Annie, I think she's coming now, bye" A few seconds of dissociation followed. "Now I'm in charge." "Wow, that might just have been the quickest switch I've seen" "Well, I was really close to front already. I'd say we check out this thing now. When did you even build that?" "I actually had the idea just today. Annabeth did most of the work, but I think she just enjoyed it too much to care what it was for. I just connected everything while she was solving that nail polish issue. Piper thought you'd like it" "I do." She opened the door and we went inside. "Wow, it even has soft floors. This is soooo cool. Thank you Percy" "I'm glad you like it." "It feels safe." After thinking for a while, she added "I'm basically like a cat right now" "How is that?" "Well, I like to plan out attacks and take the enemy by surprise, I'm cute, I'm small and I'm in a cardboard box" "Makes sense I guess" "So, can I just come here whenever I want?" "Well, there isn't really space for this anywhere else so sure. I think Annabeth already can go here whenever she wants, and I guess the same applies to all of you" "Cool, thanks" "You're just so cute right now" Annie drew her knife. "Still cute?" She stabbed at me with great accuracy. If she had actually intended to harm me, it would have been successful. Well, she had fought monsters for months after all. "Nope, you're very scary" I got riptide from my pocket "But are you this scary" I took the cap off and riptide's blade extended into the air. Annie quickly scrambled back to the back wall. Even after months of monster fighting, she was still just a little girl who'd get scared easily. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you" I told her. "Remember, you're safe in here" I transformed riptide back into a pen. "How about you tell me what you want to have in here to make it feel safer" "Okay. A blanket would be nice." "I know. Best monster protection in the world. Do you know where your laptop is? It might be a phone right now" Annie searched her pockets "This one?" "Exactly. Annabeth doesn't really like to give it away but she's not here, right" "Not close enough to stop me" She gave me the phone. I transformed it into a computer and started making a list of additions. "Okay, I got blankets. What else? Just say whatever comes to mind, I won't judge." "Well, it's a bit dark in here, so some lights maybe." "Do you want a certain color? We can't do red, that triggers some of you. And me as well" "Maybe orange, like my knife" "Sounds good." I added that to the list. "Anything else?" "Can't think of anything right now. Wait, maybe a way to look the door" "Would that make you feel safer?" "Yes" "Then we'll do it" The list now read 'Blanket, lights (bronze), lock" (actually, it was closer to "Balknet, lihgts (bornze) ,lokc" because dyslexia, but who cares)
We got to work on getting these things. The blanket was the easiest; I just grabbed it from one of the empty beds and tossed it into the box. Next up was the lock. I obviously wasn't going to give a seven year old anything she could use to lock herself away, so I decided to use a deadbolt made from cardboard. I explained my idea to Annie. "A piece of cardboard doesn't seem very safe" "Yes, but I'll add some celestial bronze to it, that'll keep the monsters away" "Okay" I had no idea whether that would actually work, but it didn't need to. Annie just needed to believe it did. "I'll have to ask the Hephaestus kids about how to do that. Same with the lighting" "They'll figure it out" "Do you think you can handle a while alone in here while I ask them" "Probably. Someone is close. But leave the laptop here, Annabeth might get angry" "Then I better do that. I don't want Annabeth getting angry at me"
After quickly cutting out a piece of cardboard roughly the right size for the bolt, I left my cabin and went over to cabin nine. As I approached, I heard something hit the ground. When I entered, I was greeted by what seemed to be a mixture of oil and paint covering the floor. "Hi guys, so, hypothetically speaking, if I cleaned this up for you, would you help me with something I'm making for Annabeth?" "I guess" Nyssa said. The fact that the oil did not contain water made the whole process a bit more complicated, but using the tricks Annabeth had taught me, I eventually managed to clean it all up. "So, what do you need help with?" "Firstly, I need to somehow get some celestial bronze on this cardboard" "How much?" "Enough to make an especially intelligent seven year old think it will protect her from monsters" "I guess we could spare a few milligrams of bronze for that. Is that it?" "No, I'll also need some way to illuminate a room about this size," I used my hands to show them the rough dimensions "Preferably with light that same color as you get from celestial bronze weapons" "Well, you did just save us several hours of work, so I guess we can give you a bit of time. We'll tell you when we're done." "Thanks guys. You're really helping me out a lot" I went back to my cabin where I found someone sitting on my bed. "Hi, it's Annabeth again. I'm assuming this is a list of improvements for the box?" "Correct. Cabin nine is currently working on point two and three, one is already done." "Anything else would have been embarrassingly unsuccessful" "And she's making fun of me again. Yup, that's Annabeth" "I'm not making fun of you seaweed brain, I'm making fun of something you could have done, but didn't." "You just have to have the last word" "Correct. But that's why you love me" "It isn't exactly your best quality but I guess I yeah, that's why I love you" I gave her another kiss.
"You know what we haven't done in ages?" Annabeth asked. "Go an entire week without flashbacks?" "Well, that too. But I was talking about fighting." "That just shows how well our relationship works" "No, I don't mean fight as in argue, I meant like a sword fight" "I'm a demigod, I sometimes get into sword fights on a daily basis, how did I not think of that first" "Childhood trauma?" Annabeth guessed. "Probably. I don't recall a single day where Gabe didn't… doesn't matter" Annabeth gave me a look that said 'I know how hard this is for you to talk about, so I won't ask' "So, want to fight or not?" She asked. "Sure" "Then I'll see you in a few minutes." Annabeth left my cabin to get her stuff.
I met her a few minutes later at our favorite spot in the practice area. She had both her dagger (When does she ever not have that? Whenever she's wearing something that can support a belt, she's got her knife attached to it) and her sword. "And don't try any tricks this time" She warned me "What tricks?" "Once you summoned water to fill the porous structure of the bone so you could control it" "To be fair, your sword is seriously powerful, so cheating a bit is only fair" "Powerful? That's just a sharp bone splinter" "Don't you remember? Of course you don't, it was in… well, it can cut through stygian iron easily." "Really?" "How do you think we cut the chains on the doors of death?" "I try not to think about that at all." "That's fine. Let's get this fight started." "Percy?" "Yeah?" "Can you make sure I don't get too dissociated during the fight? I don't want to end like Pallas" "How did she end?" "Dead. Reduced to an epithet" "I'd prefer you to stay alive, so I'll take care of that" "Thanks" While Annabeth was still saying her response, I got riptide out of my pocket, uncapped it, and swung the sword right in front of Annabeth, but still not close enough to hurt her.
My precautions were unnecessary. As soon as I uncapped riptide, Annabeth's battle instincts kicked in and she took a step back before grabbing her own sword and slashing it in my direction. Within seconds, we were in a proper sword fight. However, we knew each other's moves so well that we were always able to predict what the other one would do next and dodge. Because of this, the battle went on for a long time without much happening. After like fifteen minutes, Annabeth eventually dropped her sword and the next thing I felt was a cut on my left cheek. How had that happened? Annabeth's sword was on the floor. I checked her belt. No dagger. Said dagger was now on my neck, ready to theoretically kill me. "You win" I told her. "I'll just go deal with this" I pointed to the bleeding cut on my cheek before running to the river. Just a few seconds in the water and everything was fixed, so I went back to Annabeth. "I'm sorry, I should have been more careful" She said. "Annabeth, this isn't about being careful. Besides, skin-deep cuts aren't a problem as long as there's water around. See, it's already healed." "You're right. Maybe I overreacted" "You do that a lot" "I only overreact in situations related to my trauma" "You've got the entire trauma spectrum covered. Almost every situation you're in relates to some sort of trauma." "That's fair. I feel like a great portion of my personality was shaped by my trauma." "Does that include your sexuality?" "Piper asked me the same question just the other day" "And what did you tell her?" "I wasn't comfortable answering it at that point, might be triggering" "That's okay" "I'd tell you, that's no problem" "That's… also okay" "Then I guess I'll get Piper" "Why?" "Because she wanted to know as well" "Didn't you just say you weren't comfortable telling her" "I don't have a problem with her knowing about it, it's just that I want to have a certain level of comfort and mental stability, which is the case when you're with me." "My Percabeth fluff detector is going off" Piper said as she suddenly appeared. "Good, you're here, Annabeth was just about to trauma dump to us" "But where? I'd prefer a safe space. One that doesn't trigger out anyone else" Annabeth asked. "How about the lake?" I suggested. No one will hear us there" The girls agreed and we made our way to the shore. "So, Percy asked whether my sexuality had to do with my trauma. I think it's obvious what kind of trauma this is about, so if anyone has a problem with that, here's your trigger warning" Annabeth waited for a few seconds, then continued. "No one, good. Then let's go down" I walked into the water and the others followed me. Where I went, the water receded and eventually, we were fully submerged. We all sat down on the dry lake bed.
"Okay, my trauma related to Zeus' hobby" She reached for my hand. I took it. "I'll make it quick. As far as I know, I don't have any, (Trigger warning ends here I guess) so figuring out reasons for my sexuality will be harder. Assuming there's an actual reason related to my trauma and it isn't just a genetic thing. I guess we'd first have to define what exactly demisexuality is and how it works in my case. You could say I'm allo, but only when I know people, in which case it could be a mechanism to protect me from becoming sexually attached to someone who will leave me, which developed as a result of my abandonment issues or rather the trauma that created them. Another option is that I'm asexual unless I know someone really well. In this case, I don't think my trauma can be blamed for it. As far as I know, trauma can create asexuality, it's called caedsexual, but it doesn't work the other way around. To figure out which one it is, I'd have to know what my sexuality was before I was traumatized, but I was like seven so I hadn't yet developed a sexuality yet. I guess I'll never know." "Why exactly did you make this such a big deal" Piper asked. "This was not at all triggering to you" "It could have been and I didn't want to take the risk. I don't have full awareness of all of my trauma" "Makes sense." "And also it's completely fine. You can still ask for comfort, even if it's just 'just in case'. I felt like you needed to hear this" "I guess I did." "Want to go back up?" "Okay" "Guys, you need to stop being so cute together. It's making me jealous" "Alternate idea: I kick you out and we continue being cute" "Fine" I opened an air tunnel to the shore and Piper left.
"So, what do we do now?" I asked. "Well, this is the cute Percabeth afternoon" "Says who?" "Says me" "Makes sense" "Okay, it is that afternoon and we've only hugged once, maybe twice" "Sounds good. Anything you want to talk about before that?" "No, I just want a hug. No need to ruin the mood and then try to fix it with one" "That's fine" We spent the next few minutes executing Annabeth's plan.
Next, we left the lake. "What the dad are you doing?" Nico asked when he saw us. "Trying to walk while hugging after talking about trauma for a bit." "You know, this whole having-friends-to-talk-to-and-who-can-comfort-you-thing doesn't seem so bad." "Want to try it?" "Hugging or talking about trauma? I guess both will help me. But I'll only do those things under one condition" "What?" "You wear your shirts" "We'll do it" I said. I had a feeling that Annabeth didn't really like the idea, but accepted it for Nico. We went to my cabin and put on the Nico protection squad shirts before heading back to where we had met Nico. "Good, now you can protect me." "Maybe Piper wants to join as well" Annabeth suggested. "I mean, she just left us because our hugging was too cute, but still, she might do it for you." "Okay, I'll get her" Nico disappeared into the shadows. Since I had seen Piper just a few minutes ago, she probably wasn't far enough away for the shadow travel to cause any significant problems to Nico's health.