Dream: Percabeth AU✔️

11

All those days, chasing down a daydream

All those years, living in a blur

All that time, never truly seeing, the way things were

Now she's here shining in the starlight

Now she's here and suddenly I know

If she's here

It's crystal clear

I'm where I'm meant to go

And at last, I see the light

And it's like the fog has lifted

And it's like the sky is new

And it's warm and real and bright

And it's like the world has shifted

All at once, everything is different

Now that I see you

Now that I see you

Percy's POV:

The cold drift finds its way to my cell and I shiver, wrapping my jacket around me tighter. Cheers are followed out the tiny window and I struggle to a stand. Grasping the cold metal bars, I watch the fading lights in the sky, the moon taking its place. That's when I begin to have flashbacks of everything that occurred in the last three hours. Cringing, I gaze out into the night, sadness taking its toll...

The night started out as it should. We got on a canoe of a sort and paddled out into the misty lake. The sky was silent in the start before lighting up with a thousand lanterns, each glowing differently than the next. The whole time I wasn't watching the lights, I was watching her. Annabeth's eyes train themselves on the glowing objects, light reflecting off of them breathtakingly. It was when she looked at me that I really realized something. I liked her. I was attracted to this girl I found hidden in the tower. I'm falling for the lost princess. But what's worse is that she doesn't know it. My eyes drifted down to her hand. I've been blind. From what I've felt and what I have to do. And if protecting her means she'll end up hating me, I'll have to deal with it. As long as she's safe. But for this one moment, this one time on the boat, I'm going to allow myself to be driven by my emotions, not my thoughts. Sucking in a breath, I gently grasp her hand, sliding my fingers in-between hers. She smiles slightly, still gazing out. I feel mine grow wider and I lift my eyes to the sky.

"Percy?"

"Yes?" I ask, my eyes flickering down to her searching ones. 

She seems to shake her thoughts away, pulling something out of a bag. Its gold surface shines in the night, the lanterns gathering around us in the sky. I feel my eyes widen slightly. "I've brought this along with us, and I er, I thought that uh," She stammers, something I can't pinpoint flashing in her eyes. "That maybe this wasn't the reason you were helping me anymore, so I thought it was only fair." She stuffs the crown in my hand, the cold metal carving its memory into my palm.

Gulping, I feel my mouth go dry. What I am holding in my hand at the moment has been the core reason I've helped her, I've wanted my life back and everything since that moment I snatched the crown from the thief's hands. But now? Now it's not the crown, it's not the money. It's not even my old life. It's her. "You're right, you're the reason," I reply back truthfully, the words pouring from my mouth like a waterfall. "I haven't felt what I feel with you in a long time, Annabeth. I love your intelligence, the way you blink twice every time you can't figure something out, the way you hold yourself," I tuck a strand of blonde curly hair behind her petite ear. "And the flaws that make you human."