Half-light, jack knife into the canyon at night — Signs and wonders Perseus aligned with the skull
₊˚⊹♡ Percy Jackson x Fem. Reader
Synopsis: One of Percy's main love languages was physical touch; everyone could see that. But what everyone didn't see was the small movements he would always do with his hands when it came to you. Or, two mini blurbs about how Percy's hands always seem to find you.
Content Warning(s): reader gets a small concussion while being on a quest, reader is said to have anxiety & has a small anxiety attack, soft Percy cuz that's how I always write him (...whoops), not proofread :,(
Author's Note: okayyy so this fic is a bit of a warmup to get used to writing again bc of the long ass break I just took lmao. I'm planning on writing the P2 to the angst Percy Fic, but I don't have any full ideas for it yet, so I wrote this to hopefully inspire some ideas for that (if any of you guys have any ideas for what I should write for P2, I would greatly appreciate it!!)! :)
There were habits Percy always did with his hands around you—always subconscious, never on purpose, but always there. His hand finding the small of your back whenever you are just the right distance apart, covering the sharp corners of surfaces when you bend down, massaging your shoulders after a Friday of capture the flag, his hand always resting on your thigh when you two sit together, thumb rubbing small circles into your skin.
Usually, you didn't put much thought into the actions. When you first started dating, you noticed. How could you not? You asked him about it, why his hands always seemed to find you whenever you were near. He replied with a shrug of his shoulders and that stupidly handsome grin. "Don't wanna have you drift away from me, y'know?"
You laughed it off with a blush already making its way across your face. After that, his actions drifted to the back of your mind. It became a custom for the two of you: Percy would reach out to you, always silently, always gentle.
The quest was supposed to be an easy one.
If a God tells you that—specifically a God of war who goes by the name of Ares—then it probably isn't going to be. To Ares' credit, it was going fine, until a hellhound appeared. The other times you've dealt with hellhounds, it's been fine; it wasn't necessarily easy to take one down, but it was manageable without getting injured. However, when it appears out of nowhere when you're already blinking away stars in your vision because of the amount of running you've done in the past day, it gets trickier.
You tilted your head back, hitting a tree with the back of your head—you think it might be a sycamore tree, you were in that type of forest, right? Watching through a blurry vision, you could make out the shape of Riptide gleaming in the unnatural way it always did in the dark, along with the slow falling golden particles of what used to be the hellhound, gleaming from the faint glow of Riptide.
"Hey—hey sweetheart, can you hear me?" You heard Percy ask, and oh, his voice was a lot softer than usual. It always got softer around the edges with you, a warmth that he only showed to a few, that being his mortal family. But now? It was all warmth, honey-coated, and vanilla sugar. At least you think that's a good way to put it—it was hard to have a fully coherent thought with the throbbing in your head. You blink slowly, finally registering the words. The throbbing becomes more intense as you attempt to nod, so you croak out a weak, "yes," in response.
Percy exhaled quietly, nodding to your single word like it had changed the entire trajectory of his life. "Okay, that's good. That's really good." One of his hands came up to the back of your head, gently pushing it away from the trunk of the tree, cradling the back of your head. "You took a pretty good hit there, yeah?" He prompted, though it was more of a thought to himself rather than to you.
Before you could even attempt to reply—although you hadn't even heard him—he continued. "Let's get you somewhere else. How's that sound, pretty girl?" You attempted to roll your eyes, having only picked up on the part where he called you pretty, because how he was calling you that right now was beyond your imagination. That, however, only resulted in a low groan emitting from you. Percy grimaced at the sound, his other hand coming up to gently be at your waist to prop you up onto your feet. After a moment of struggle, you were standing, although most of your weight was leaning onto him.
You might've passed out after that; you honestly weren't really sure. You came back to reality silently, blinking away the familiar fog that's always there after an injury. Squinting, you could see the stars shining in the sky, twinkling as you stared at them. So, if you did pass out, it hadn't been for very long—it was still nighttime.
Your attention shifted from the night sky to the heat next to you. Percy was sitting next to your lying form, fast asleep. His head was tilted forward at an awkward angle, and his face shifted slightly every few moments. One of his hands rested in his lap, lightly gripping his own jeans, probably a form of self-comfort as he had the normal demi-god dreams. As your eyes slowly went over his whole form, you realized that his other hand was glued to your wrist.
His hand placement wasn't random either; his fingers aligned perfectly where your pulse was. His fingers pressed against the skin of your wrist—not in a rough way, but in possibly the gentlest way possible for someone. The rest of his hand held your wrist in a loose grip, the obvious attention being on your pulse point rather than your hand. You smiled lightly and slowly brought your free hand to Percy's hand, returning the action by pressing softly into his skin on his pulse point, feeling the steady movement of his heart.
Finding yourself inside the Poseidon cabin wasn't unusual; in fact, it was more common to find you there than in your own cabin. Although you loved your own cabin, especially your siblings, the Poseidon cabin was a safe space for you. With the sound of the lake lapping softly against the shore, the smell of old wood and ocean salt, and the breeze that drifted through the always open windows—it was the perfect place to relax.
Today, though, it felt like you were hiding in there more than relaxing. Your breath was coming out unevenly, no matter how many times you tried to count to five, breathing in, holding, and then breathing out. You would hold the pattern for one round of counting and then get overwhelmed again.
Nothing specific happened that day either, making the overwhelming sense even worse; you didn't have a reason to be like this, today was a good day.
You took another shuddering breath, hands leaving where they were holding Percy's sheets to hug your knees instead. The pattern of you trying to breathe in and out slowly but choking up halfway through continued for what felt like hours but was probably around twenty minutes. Being trapped inside your own world that consisted of counting to five, you didn't hear the loud approaching footsteps of Percy.
"Hey, sweetheart, you huddled up in here? Will said you disappeared as soon as your shift at the infirmary ended—" Right. The infirmary was where everything started being too much. The smell of cleaner with an underlayer of dried blood, the nonstop mutter of voices that were always an octave too loud, the rustling of sheets from patients. You took a shuddering breath as you thought about being back there.
At the sound of your breath, Percy's steps came to a halt. For a moment, he simply stared at you, huddling up against the back of his bed, knees drawn to your chest with your hands hugging them. Quickly, he moved, kicking off his sandals as he scooted into his bed. He sat crisscross in front of you, head ducked down slightly so he had a clearer view of your voice. "Hi, pretty girl," he whispered. "Are you okay?" He gently asked, not making any move to touch you just yet.
It took a few seconds, maybe even a minute, before you responded. You shook your head slowly, responding with a no. "M'sorry, I don't know what's—" You started before Percy gently shushed you.
"Hey, none of that, 'kay? Whatever you're feeling is fine for you to feel." He muttered, hand coming up to rest on your bare ankle. You nodded before choking back tears, although some had already started to fall down your face. Percy gave no verbal response to your tears, but his grip on your ankle tightened slightly, thumb now rubbing small circles into your bone.
The two of you sat there in silence, with the only sounds being your shuddering breaths and the noise of the lake just outside. As your breath started to pick up once again, Percy started talking again in that soft, gentle voice reserved for few. "Let's do something together, yeah? How's that sound, sweetie?" He prompted, leaning forward to press a light kiss to your knee. You nodded, not trusting your voice just yet. Percy smiled at your nod, squeezing his hand lightly on your ankle as a response.
"Can you tell me five things you hear?" He asked, moving so he's slightly closer to you.
You frowned, thinking of a response, letting go of the breathing pattern you were trying to follow for so long. It took you a few moments, but you eventually muttered out small words, which Percy hung onto. "I—uhm—I hear the lake," You started, voice uneven and cracking slightly at the end.
Percy nodded lightly in response, once again pressing a kiss to your skin, this time your lower leg. "Good job, pretty girl."
Hearing his response prompted you to continue. "The windchimes on the deck, people talking, my breathing, and uhm—" you paused, finally looking up to Percy instead of your lap. He smiled softly at you, nodding for you to continue. "And you," you finished, moving one of your hands that was wrapped around your own knee to hold his hand that wasn't on your ankle.
Percy immediately latched onto your hand, grip firm but soft at the same time. "You're doing amazing, sweetheart," He whispered, carful to keep his tone at the same level you were speaking at. "Four things you feel?" He prompted again. This time, your head was slightly clearer, breath coming in slower bursts, but still slightly on edge.
It took you less time to answer. "My necklace, hair tie, uhm—my breath?" You say, having it come out as a question toward the end.
Percy smiled, "Keep going pretty."
You took another deep breath, realizing that Percy was also breathing in and out slowly, giving you a pattern to follow. "My shorts, and your hands," you finished, blinking away the last of your tears.
In response to your breath evening out even more, he took your hand that wasn't being held and kissed each of your knuckles softly. "Wanna keep going?" He prompted, watching you closely for a reaction. You nodded, hand squeezing his to add to your response.
Percy continued to gently ask you questions, your breath getting slower and more controlled with each passing moment. His hands always stayed on you; one gripping your ankle with a gentle grip, thumb going over your bone in careful movements, and the other holding your hand in a grip that was anything but rough.
Title lyrics from The Only Thing by Sufjan Stevens
No AI was used in the making of this fanfic 💞
