My first foray into the Percy Jackson fandom :3

DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED HOUSE OF HADES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

p.s I don't own Percy, unfortunately. Ohh the things I would do to him if he were mine...

My dreams, are they normal or not?

At this stage in my life, I can never tell anymore.

But this is a nightmare. A normal nightmare, not a Gaia-nightmare. I'm not sure which I prefer. I'm in Tartarus. I don't know how many times I've dreamed of that place in the last week since we escaped, but they never get any better. It's dark, blacker than night. The air is filled with terrifying noises, moans and screams from hungering monsters. A river of fire cuts through the darkness in the distance, and shapes move randomly across the steady flow.

More screaming begins, but this time it's closer, and it sounds like Annabeth.

Annabeth.

I can't leave her!

My body aches, like I've lost again to those stupid arais, the curses. I can barely breathe, the air dragging like fire through my lungs, and I'm pretty sure one of my ribs is piercing a lung or something. It's a miracle I can differentiate the two pains.

I run towards the screams, but suddenly they're all around me, and I have no idea which direction to turn.

I twist, my sword in my hand, but what I come face to face with is unexpected.

It's me.

I look weird, like someone sapped away all the colour that comes with natural life. My eyes are black, and ringed in black shadows. In place of my frayed orange t-shirt was, surprise surprise, a black one, and all it did was make me look less like me.

The other me grins, and I take a step back. "Look at the power we command, Perseus, look what we can do!" it whispers to me, it's face at once gleeful and malicious.

Unwillingly, I look to where other-me is pointing, and I see myself again, like a memory, of when I manipulated the path of the poison sent by Nyx to destroy Annabeth and me.

Worst of all, I see Annabeth's terrified face, seared into my brain, something I will never forget.

A loud wail cuts through my own horror, and I wake with a start.

For a moment I lie there in the darkness of my bunk, staring at the ceiling. My brow is cold with sweat.

I breathe out slowly, not realising I had kept it.

Feeling like the walls are closing in on me, I throw off my quilt and leapt out of bed, making my way to the deck.

Only Leo is there, manning the wheel and talking to Festus, so he only acknowledges me with a nod as I stand at the rails of the ship. We are flying over land now, and I seriously missed water. The ocean. Anything.

The wind blows in my face, and I'm simultaneously relieved and dismayed. The wind tells me I'm above ground, out of the pit, Tartarus, but it also reminds me of our fall, for hours and hours into the death trap that awaited us.

Glancing behind me, I note that Leo is busy. Glancing above, I see the stars twinkling above me.

I shrug to myself and lie down on the hard wooden deck, tucking my hands behind my head. I stare at the stars and try not to think of anything.

I'm like that when Annabeth finds me, though I'm not sure how much later it is. Maybe Leo got her, maybe she just needed the stars like I did.

I release one arm from its trap and hold it out for her. Without a word, she lies down and tucks herself into my side, her head snuggling onto my chest. A sense of warmth fills me.

"Oh," I hear her say, "so this is what was missing."

I smile in realisation. "In –" my mouth goes dry, "down there, we always took watch, but we were always together. It's weird how much of a comfort it is now, after."

"Not really," she says, voice muffled. I can feel the dampness from her breathing slowly spreading across my chest, but I don't care. "We got used to it, and now it provides us comfort in the knowledge that another shared our experience and knows exactly how we feel."

"Wise words," I say softly, but she doesn't respond.

After a while, she begins tracing constellations with a pointed finger, and whispering to me the story of each one. She tells me about Sirius, the Dog Star, and the many adventures of Hercules littered across the night sky, and the tale of the first Argo. I already know a lot of what she tells me, but the familiar lilting of her voice is comforting.

When she drifts off into silence for more than five minutes, I lift my head up curiously to see if she's asleep, but instead I find her stark grey eyes looking steadily at me. Funny, I don't remember feeling her move.

"What," I ask stupidly, "do I have something on my face?"

Her lips lift on one side, and I get the distinct impression she's smirking at me.

"No, Seaweed Brain. I just keep dreaming about you –"

"Oh really?" I waggle my eyebrows at her, and in response she whacks me with one of her fists, which honestly comes out of nowhere.

She smiles a bit, but continues determinedly, "No I keep dreaming about that 'gift' from Nyx, when she made us invisible and dead looking. That whole time, I was so terrified you would just fade away and leave me there, like when the arai cursed you."

Annabeth looks away, and in the darkness I can see the red that tinges her cheekbones. I lift a hand and stroke a cheek with the backs of my fingers, and it just grows more heated.

"I have nightmares too," I admit slowly, "but they change a lot. I dreamed of Bob and Damasen, and Tartarus himself gaining a physical form, for those first few nights. It's terrifying to think he's siding with Gaia. But tonight I dreamt of…" I trail off, unsure if I should continue, again her terrified face plastered into my memory.

Her eyes silently prompt me, so I continue in a rush.

"When I – when I stopped Nyx's poison river from reaching us."

She rests her chin against my sternum, and I can see I've brought a haunted look into her eyes. "You scared me, Percy," she informed me. "What you did – no one should have that kind of power."

"What, as a demigod?" I panic a bit. Have I stolen something from the gods? Have I stolen something from my Dad?

She places a kiss on the underside of my chin and I settle down a bit, because at least she's not stabbing me with her knife… which she lost in Tartarus, actually. Hmm.

"No," she states, "not as a demigod. Morally, though. It terrifies me to think what you could do if you could manipulate anything with enough water. Did you know the human body contains approximately 60% water?"

"Really?" I ask, intrigued. "But – wait – I just wanted to stop the poison from reaching us! I'm not going to manipulate someone's body or whatever!"

"I know, Percy, and that's what makes you a good person. I knew that even before you defeated Kronos and turned down an offer of godhood."

"Yeah, well, look at Hercules," I retorted. "He didn't seem particularly happy about his godhood. Imagine what I'd feel like in two thousand years! I don't think I could stand living for so long if we're just going to go through some other world-threatening Titan War or Giant War or anything."

She laughs softly, and the noise reverberates in my chest. I tighten my arm around her.

I can feel my body relaxing, and I can hear Annabeth's breathing evening out. I press a kiss to her hair, and so quietly I'm almost certain she doesn't hear me, I whisper three words.

Although I think I feel her smile.

I don't understand why Leo never bothered to wake us, but it was Frank and Jason who found us the next morning, where I wake well rested and feeling free of nightmares for the first morning in a week.

If Annabeth and I shared a bunk on the Argo for the rest of our hazardous trip to Greece, none of the others said anything.

We were just lucky Coach Hedge had gone back to Camp Half-Blood with Reyna and Nico.

Please let me know if you find any mistakes, or if I miss certain Americanisms, or if you liked it!