Perseus Odinson

12: A Life Worth Protecting

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Perseus grunted, the burning sensation was overwhelming.

His muscles cried for help, quickly running out of functionality as he lifted the weights until he could lift them no more.

As he dropped the weights, he knew that while he was finished his weight workout for the day, he still had the core portion of his routine to power through. His body urged him to rest, his mind forced him into all of those thoughts that arise when those mental limits begin to set in when your mind tells you that you cannot continue.

And Perseus listened. He fell victim to those thoughts, letting his mind make him believe that he could rest for the day, that he had worked hard enough today.

Annabeth had arrived late due to having to teach a class, but she watched him stand up in the middle of her exercises as he headed toward the exit. Now this wouldn't have been suspicious if she wasn't aware of all of his routines after living with him for months.

"Percy!" She called, walking over to him with a frown on her face.

He looked over with an exhausted look. "What? I'm done for the day." He threw over his towel, which symbolized more than either of them recognized in the moment.

"No, you're not." She threw the towel back as he was forced to catch it. "You've still got core, I'll do mine with you."

Her core circuit wasn't nearly as deadly as his was, that was due to her lack of divine strength that he seemed to possess, even more so than most, if not all of the gods. But she could still do hers alongside him and keep his chin up while she did so.

It was ironic that this was something Annabeth had learned from Percy, and here she was reminding him of it.

He always reminded her that it's important to have people close to you who are willing to throw the towel back at you. When you throw in the towel, those people throw it right back at you. They remind you that it's not over until it's over. They're not there to continue telling you not to stop until you pass out from exhaustion, but to remind you that you made a promise, a declaration to yourself of what you're going to do on this day, and there's no resting until you've done exactly what you said you were going to do.

She voiced this quickly and concisely to him, receiving a small, exasperated, but grateful smile from the Norse.

"Thanks." He kissed her forehead.

"The things I do for you." She mused affectionately, kissing his cheek before dragging him over to the yoga mats.

"Because you loveeee meeee." He teased childishly, causing her to roll her eyes, though her smile never faltered.

"Yeah, yeah. I do, you dummy."

Her face still reddened each time she was forced to admit it, though it was never an unpleasant feeling. Never that.

It didn't take them long to finish up. Core didn't take a long time, but that was because they gave themselves little break between each exercise. The point was to really push the core to it's limit, working that group in general really required one to go until the burn was unbearable. Which is probably why his mind tried to avoid it so feverently.

"You wanna spar?" He asked her as they left the little open area the camp used for weights. The arena was right next to them, but Annabeth already felt pretty exhausted. She laughed internally. She pushed him to finish his workout, to live up to his word and now she had reawakened the beast of desire. Of the desire to be great.