Breathe (Percabeth AU)

XXXIV: The Save

"Well I would hope so,"

She chuckled. Then, a thought popped into her head. Something so immensely horrifying, she wanted to scold herself for even thinking it.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why would you hope that I love you?"

"Because you're my girlfriend...?"

"You're not... planning anything... right?"

Percy laughed, louder this time.

"No, Annabeth." He grinned over at her, slightly shaking his head.

"Okay," she sighed in relief. Then she was chuckling. "Just making sure. You like to pull a fast one on me." They chuckled.

"But I do love you very much," he continued, staring at the ceiling.

"Tell me."

"I love you in a way that I've never experienced... a way that I never even thought was possible."

Now he looked over at her. Those piercing green eyes caught hers, and she never wanted to look at anything else. She got lost in the emerald sea, the current gentle but inescapable. But she didn't want to escape. She let herself get carried out to sea, to get lost in this beautiful boy in front of her, to give him everything. He had given her everything.

"Can you promise me you'll never resent me?"

"Why would I resent you?"

"You've given me so much more than I could ever ask for. You've given me your love, your future, your freedom. I don't want to make you regret it."

"For as long as we live I will never regret it. You could never make me regret this. I know we're young, and there's so many years ahead of us, but I want to spend every one with you. I can just feel it within me."

"Good. Because I plan on loving you forever."

~*~

Thursday, March 21st
7:45 pm - Percy's car  

"Will? Hang on, man, you're almost there." Percy glanced at Will in the back seat, barely breathing and bloodied to the point of being almost completely unrecognizable. Thalia and Beckendorf were crammed in the back on either side of him, desperately trying to keep him awake and staunch any bleeding they could. Grover seemed to be paralyzed in the passenger seat next to Percy, white as a sheet.

The thought of Will's weakening heartbeat caused Percy's own to thump louder and louder in his head, like a ticking clock reminding him that they were running out of time to get Will help. He drove as fast as he could without breaking too many traffic laws.

"Stay with me, blondie, come on," Thalia encouraged, applying as much pressure as she could to Will's side. All Percy had in his car was a blanket, which Beckendorf had ripped into rags. They started with about 20, but were on their last few, the rest soaked red with blood. They weren't exactly sure what the bleeding was coming from, but they knew it was bad.

"We need to get him to a hospital," Beckendorf said.

"N-no," Will choked out, his voice weak and raspy. Thalia wiped blood from his lips as he struggled to keep his eyes open. "My dad..."

"Will's not out to his dad," Thalia began. "The piece of shit is homophobic. If he goes to the hospital his parents will know, and if we're right about what happened, it'll out Will."

"Then what are we gonna do? He needs a doctor," Percy argued urgently. He understood what it was like to be afraid of a parent, but as far as he knew, Will was dying in the back seat of his car. His friend, someone so important to all of them... Percy tried not to dwell on the fact that his life was partly in his hands. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat.