Bonds

Percy's Life Goes From Bad To Worse

Percy lay on is bed as motionless as a corpse; his lips parted just enough for drool to drip out and slowly soak his pillowcase as he stared at the wall with an unfocused gaze.

How did this happen?

That question assaulted the son of Poseidon's mind every waking moment of the day; driving him to the edge of insanity. Every single time he asked himself that question he had to relive every moment that led to the end of the one the few things he had been sure of in life. He dissected every sentence, every movement, every little twitch he could remember trying to find the exact moment things went so terribly wrong. But all that he could come up with was Tartarus.

Yet, he would have known sooner, right?

Sure, there had been some initial distance between them after they escaped. Neither of them had been sure on how to broach the subject of him trying to drown a goddess, as that was not covered in any training course offered at camp. But after Annabeth's trip with Piper they had talked, had gotten over it. And by the time Gaea was reduced to a pile of dirt they were back to one-hundred-percent. One-hundred-and-ten-percent even!

Right?

They had returned home and had a few blissful days together before things started to turn noticeably south. She became started to become impatient with him and quick to snap at him. She apologized for a time, blaming it on headaches, but eventually she stopped apologizing altogether. So, he tried to change, tried to avoid doing anything that would bother her or make any mistakes that might set the daughter of Athena off.

But that' s the thing about mistakes, you don't know you've made one until you have.

Then school started back up and he thought the time apart would give Annabeth some breathing room, that maybe he was smothering her. And with only seeing each other after school and on weekends, it helped.

For a time.

But then things got worse and even more confusing. They had been sitting in silence doing their respective homework; Annabeth working diligently on some architecture class that he could never dream to understand, while he slogged his way through basic algebra. He wasn't even sure what happened but all of a sudden, she started yelling at him for being stupid, pointing at his answer with one perfectly manicured nail. All he could do was blink in a mix of shock and fear, which apparently was the wrong thing to do as the daughter of Athena then smacked him upside the back of his head. It wasn't one of those funny little playful slaps that she sometimes did when he annoyed her, but a full-blown smack that was intended to hurt him.

It did.

And in more ways than one.

And that blow opened up a Pandora's Pithos of pain. Hitting him became Annabeth's only way to vent her frustrations for a time. She had a bad day at school? Smack. Dormmate snored too loud? Bam. Cafeteria ran out of blue raspberry Jello? Nose, meet fist. No news from her cousin in Boston? Swift kick to the dick.

And he put up with it. Took every blow without a word, without a fuss. He would have let her stab him or break his bones if it helped her. Because he loved her.

Somewhere along the way his mom figured out what was happening. Not that it would have been hard to figure out, the abundant bruises he sported would tip off anyone that something was wrong. And she tried to help the both of them, convincing Annabeth to talk to a therapist or councilor (he never did figure what the difference was). There was a part of him that was a bit upset that it would mean spending less time with Annabeth (and there was the tiniest bit that was grateful to get away), but for the most part he was thankful for his mother's idea and relieved that Annabeth agreed.