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It was 2am.
Night terrors are not foreign to Percy, he's had them for as long as he could remember.
He just needed some water, and then he could go back to bed.
(it's a simple task, nothing can go wrong here).
Percy walked into the kitchen. Stupidly enough, it hadn't occurred to him to turn on the lights. He was trying to make as little noise as possible, since Apollo was asleep.
(He tried questioning his boyfriend about it before, something about being more fatigued in the winter).
The glass fell, shattering to the ground and splitting into thousands of tiny pieces.
Percy's eyes widened in surprise and fear.
Suddenly, he wasn't an eighteen-year-old in his apartment anymore, but a ten-year-old kid who just wanted some water.
Percy dropped to the ground, eyes going misty with tears forming in his eyes. His mind goes blank as he picks up the pieces of glass with his bare hands, ignoring the sting from the sharp edges that cut into his skin.
He barely processes the fact that he's shaking, but he can't bring himself to care because he needs to clean this up before anyone finds out–
“Percy?” He hears a voice ask.
The demigod immediately starts sobbing, not looking up at him because he's angry at you, you have to fix this you fucking idiot.
“Perseus please, you– you have to stop,” Apollo grabbed both his hands, making Percy drop all of the glass he was holding.
Percy continues to cry. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I didn't mean to I promise–“
Apollo moves forward, carefully avoiding shards of glass. “Hey, hey it's okay, I’m not angry at you.”
“But I—”
“Percy,” Apollo says, voice soft yet somehow firm at the same time. “Let me help you.”
The son of Poseidon stared at him wordlessly. Apollo gently pulled him close, still being cautious of the glass as he carried his boyfriend bridal style.
Apollo carried him to their room, placing him on the bed and summoning some medical supplies.
He held up tweezers. “I will warn you now this is probably going to hurt, tell me if you need to me stop, okay?”
Percy nodded. His eyes seemed… distant, however. As if he wasn’t completely present.
He didn’t make a sound as Apollo got all the pieces of glass from the palms of his hands.
“There you go, I’m going to put some antibiotic ointment on this and then we can use water to heal it. How are you feeling so far?”
Percy shrugged, and Apollo stared in concern. He placed a soft kiss on the demigods forehead and got to work in adding the ointment on. Once he finished, he summoned two wet towels and wrapped them around his boyfriends hands.
Apollo got up and sat next to him on the bad, staying silent for a few moments before speaking up. “You wanna tell me what happened back there?”
Percy fiddled with his sleeve.
Apollo could feel his anxiety growing, an an intense pit in his stomach that was clawing at him to do something to help his boyfriend, who was clearly suffering.
“I just don’t understand,” Percy spoke up, voice soft.
“How do you mean?”
“I—I mean,” Percy sniffed. “Why does he still bother me? He— he’s dead. He can't do anything to hurt me or my mom anymore but I just— I still get so fucking scared and it's just so stupid.”
“Perseus, I promise you it's not stupid,” Apollo said, putting a hand on the demigods face, cupping it in his hand. “The funny thing about abuse is that it leaves scars. And while there aren't always physical ones, the mental ones are still there. You're not there anymore, but that doesn’t change what he did to you, nor does it change what you went through. Back there, mentally you weren’t there anymore, you knew that. But physically, your body got thrown back into the moment it happened. You were panicking and you were scared, and I promise my love that for what you went through that's normal.”
Percy stared at him, eyes wide. Tears abruptly formed in his eyes and Percy lunged forward, hugging the sun god tightly, uncaring of his wrapped hands. He sobbed into Apollo's chest, clutching onto clothing tightly. “A—Apollo? Am I– am I always going to be like this?”
Apollo felt his heart squeeze painfully. “My beloved, I swear to you I will help you in every way I possibly can. I will be here for every step of the way. You can heal, now.”
“Thank you.” It was quiet, and choked up, but it still made a small smile creep onto his face.
“I love you, Perseus. More than anything in the world.”
“I love you, too.”