A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Caput LV: What's Easy and What's Right

"We're not perfect, but we want to do the right thing." - Charlie Bell

Caput LV: What's Easy and What's Right

WHEN Percy woke up, it was to Annabeth shaking his shoulder, eyes wild and glassy. 

"What?" he asked, sitting up, instantly looking around for monsters. But she shook her head. "What- did-- are you okay? Were we attacked?" 

"I..." Her eyes were glassy in the moonlight, and he felt his worry blossom into a fervor. He reached out and rubbed her arms, briskly. She felt freezing to the touch. 

"Gods, Annabeth-- you're freezing!" He hissed out underneath his breath. He reached behind her  to grab his coat, intending to pull it across her shoulders, but she fell into his chest. 

"Just hold me, please?"

A thousand questions swirled in his mind. Why was she upset? Did something happen recently? But as he watched her shoulders shake, he decided not to voice any of them. He didn't know how. He didn't know what to say. 

He held his arms out and she instantly slithered into them, pressing her face against his chest. Half of his toga was damp already from the grass, but her tears added an unpleasant warmth that contrasted against the chill.

"Why did this happen to us?" she whispered, and Percy tightened his arms around her. "We didn't do anything to deserve this."

Those words made his heart ache as he thought of his mater. No, none of them had done anything to deserve what they had got. It was just a terrible hand of fate they had been given and they now had to play the cards in the only way they knew how. And somehow, at the end of the day, win with them. 

He hated this.

"Sorry," he whispered, apologizing for everything he had left unsaid and left undone. He wanted to go back, wanted to go back to ignorance. He wanted... 

He didn't want to know what he knew now.

~...~

"Where's Demetria?" Annabeth asked. "Have any of you seen her?"

Nico traded a look with Reyna and they both shrugged.

"I'll go look for her," he said. Annabeth shook her head.

"No, stay with Thalia." They ignored Thalia's grumbling that she wasn't defenseless and she could defend herself just fine. They were all exhausted and hungry. "I'll look for her."

"I'll go with you," he said, standing up. Reyna watched him with steady eyes as he grabbed the sword he had taken from some fallen soldier from the road and he silently told her to stay behind. There was strength in numbers of three, and he didn't want to take any chances with Thalia.

"Don't do anything stupid," Nico said, and Percy was startled because he was looking at him – not Annabeth. "You're not invincible."

"We'll be safe," Annabeth said, glancing up at him, sounding confused. Nico quickly looked away, and Percy shrugged.

For a while, they walked together in silence. Percy slowed when he noticed that she was panting to keep up with him – Why is she always so tired? – and he climbed a tree to get a better vantage point.

"There's a fork in the path," he called down to her, perching on one of the highest branches. He brushed bark off his hands, revealing the permanent dirt. He tried to remember what his hands looked like underneath the scars and dirt, but couldn't. He fingered his oily hair. He'd never noticed how fast it had grown until he couldn't cut it.