This one-shot is already published in a book called Percabeth One-Shot Community Collection by @crazedauthors1093 which allows other writers to showcase their work! It's a super cool compilation of song fics from all different people - you should check it out! Also, be sure to read the rest of crazed's work because it's really fantastic stuff!

The song this is based on is "Little Talks" by Of Monsters of Men.

I don't like walking around this old and empty house/So hold my hand I'll walk with you my dear

Percy woke to a thumping noise coming from downstairs. He reached to the other side of the bed, hoping to find his wife sleeping peacefully next to him. Instead, he felt only cool sheets. He was instantly up, Riptide in hand. Even though this wasn't the first time he'd found Annabeth out of bed, he was still afraid. Afraid that his worse nightmare was coming true.

"Wise Girl," he called as he hurried down the stairs. "You okay?"

He found her pacing through the kitchen, head held in her hands, bumping into the table and counter and pretty much everything else. Her breathing was heavy. Percy sighed, partly in relief that she was still right in his reach, but also because it hurt him to see her like this.

Discarding his sword, he carefully approached Annabeth. She was walking faster and tugging at the hair that fell over her ears, completely unaware of Percy's presence. He grabbed her arms, trying to pry away her hands. She fought him until he gave up, letting go of her. She backed up quickly, tripping over a chair and almost crashing to the floor. He caught her just in time and pulled her to his chest, taking advantage of her guard being let down.

He kept a strong grip around her torso as she kicked and screamed, tears streaming down her face.

"No, no, no, no, let go! Let go!" Her voice was so sad and broken and pleading that he almost listened. It sent him back to Rome, hanging over that cliff. He promised he'd never let her go, never again. So instead, he just held her tighter, pressing a kiss to her forehead. 

"I have to keep moving. If I stop, it catches up to me. It's all my fault, all my fault. I have to keep moving, it's catching me!" she cried.

"Alright, alright," Percy muttered, hauling Annabeth to her feet. "We'll walk. Together."

The stairs creak as I sleep, it's keeping me awake/It's the house telling you to close your eyes

Percy swore he heard someone coming in their room. He recognized soft footsteps and the door seemed to creak open. He even heard a voice calling for him, but it didn't use his name. For so long he had ached for a little voice to say that, to say it to him, that a tear slipped down his face.

"Yeah? Baby?" he asked, his voice thick. No response. He jumped out of bed and rushed down the hall. He heard crying from the room to his left. The door was closed and he threw it open. Empty. The crib, the rocking chair, everything was empty. Nothing had been touched in a long, long time. Suddenly, it was like fog clearing from his head. Reality came crashing down on him and he crumpled to the floor. Dust stirred around him.

Annabeth didn't find him there for hours. She refused to acknowledge that the room even existed. She'd been all over the house, outside, and had even called camp before beginning to consider going down that end of the hallway. As she headed slowly up the creaking stairs, she told herself that the crying she heard coming from the room was all in her head. Her crooked imagination was getting the best of her, and she almost turned around. But Percy was missing and that was enough to make her enter the room she hadn't in so long.

When she realized the crying was coming from her husband, she collapsed next to him. She closed her eyes, feeling herself being dragged under. It's all my fault, she thought.

And some days I can't even trust myself/It's killing me to see you this way

There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back/Well tell her that I miss our little talks

'Cause though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Annabeth dropped the mug she was holding. It shattered against the kitchen floor. She hardly noticed. "What?" she asked her husband sharply.

"We can't keep living like this, Annabeth," he repeated slowly.

"What do you mean, like this?" She felt a lump forming in her throat.

"I mean..." Percy faltered. He swallowed and then continued, a new icy tone in his voice. "I mean we can't spend every waking minute drowning in the past. We can't keep avoiding eye contact and not touching each other and ignoring the outside world and-"

"You think I don't know that?" she demanded, angry, hot tears streaming down her face. "Do you really think that every time I lay down next to you I don't miss being wrapped up in your arms? Or every time I look at your face I don't miss your stupid smile? Or every time I think about living another day I don't include a child in the picture? What about when I wake up night, you know? Do you think I just enjoy being trapped in my own head, stuck down... down... down there? Scared of everything, including you?" She was screaming at him now.

He flinched when she mentioned being afraid of him. But these days, his emotions were pretty numbed. "You know I don't think any of those things," he said, still surprisingly calm. "I know how hard it is, but I can only console you so much. You have to help yourself-"

"I thought you were supposed to be loyal-"

"I am being loyal, Annabeth!" Now he was yelling, his calm replaced by a storm. Just like a still day on the beach when out of nowhere the clouds roll in and the waves crash together. "I've stood by you through everything, always being right when and where you need me, but I can't do it anymore! You have to help yourself."

"Then why don't you just leave?" she asked him quietly.

"I - what? Leave?"

"Isn't that what you want? You said it yourself: you can't do it anymore." She started sobbing hysterically. "I've pulled you into all of this. I pulled you over the side of that cliff, I made you travel across the country only be trapped under the weight of the sky, I couldn't take care of myself so you had to take curse after curse to protect me, and I couldn't even handle being a mother. So just get out before I hurt you more. It's all my fault. All my fault."

He stared at her with an expressionless face as thick, painful silence settled over the room. She felt drained, not even capable of crying anymore. She looked at the man she fell in love with and for only the second time ever, she had no clue what could be going through his head.

Suddenly, Percy slammed his hands down on the table. Hard. Annabeth's ears started ringing.

"It's not your fault," he screamed. "You have to stop saying that. Stop thinking it, too. Not a single one of those things was in your control. None of it. Annabeth, do you hear me? It's not your fault." He had crept towards and she moved away until her back was up against the counter and their chests were touching. Even though the breath that formed his words hit her in the face, she still couldn't believe him.

"Just leave," she whispered.

A crazy laughter escaped his lips as he stepped backwards and ran his hands through his hair.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone for a little bit." He headed for the back door. "But I'm not actually leaving. I would explain to you that I'm pretty loyal, but you already know that."

Annabeth couldn't bear to look at him when he said that, but the bite in his voice was enough. She heard him opening the door but she focused on counting the tiles on the floor. She looked up, though, when the door never closed. Percy stood in the doorway, fresh tears pooling in his eyes.

"I don't know how," he started with such an out-of-place gentleness that she almost didn't realize he was speaking, "but it's going to be okay. We'll get through this. We always do."

Then he turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him.

Soon it will all be over and buried with our past/We used to play outside when we were young and full of life and full of love

Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right/Your mind is playing tricks on you my dear

'Cause though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

"I miss you," she told him, sitting down carefully next to him on the couch.

"I'm right here," he responded, continuing to stare at his reflection in the dark TV screen.

"You know that's not what I mean."

He sighed. "I miss you, too." He met her gaze and she saw how cloudy his beautiful green eyes looked. She was sure her eyes appeared the same. "Sometimes," he continued, "I wish we had just died at one point or another."

"Sometimes?" she snorted. He didn't seem to hear her.

"We could be in Elysium, together and happy. Instead, we're stuck here, in our own Fields of Punishment." He finished with a shaky breath and took her hand.

"If only we could just... forget," she murmured. She took her free and stroked under his jaw. "But maybe you should remember how to shave. You look like your dad."

And that pulled a real smile out of Percy, something he didn't think he was capable of anymore. Maybe it was that smile, or his hand that was running up her arm, or maybe even his other hand that rested on her knee, but Annabeth threw her arms around his neck and started kissing him.

He leaned backward to lay down and pulled her on top of him. She straddled his waist and his hands went to her hair. Something about it felt wrong, but something about it felt right. They both knew they were raw with emotion but they hadn't felt this close and this connected in so long. So they just didn't stop, and for at least a little bit they felt like they were going to be okay.

You're gone, gone, gone away, I watched you disappear, all that's left is a ghost of you/Now we're torn, torn, torn apart, there's nothing we can do, just let me go, we'll meet again soon

Annabeth looked in the mirror and didn't recognize the woman staring back at her. She didn't recognize much about herself these days: her thoughts, her feelings, her actions, none of it was hers. She didn't know much about Percy anymore, either. And that was ten times more painful to realize.

For a little bit she thought it was getting better. She had felt closer to Percy again. But now she was hopeless as the nights only got worse and the days never improved. She felt herself slipping away from, well, herself. The weight on her shoulders was starting to take it's toll on the rest of her body, not just her mind. She had broken one too many times to be put back together again.

She stumbled out of the bathroom and looked at Percy's sleeping figure. For once, his face looked relaxed and his shoulders weren't all the way up at his ears. The image calmed her and spread a warm feeling across her chest. But she didn't want to disturb his peace, so she headed down the hall.

She stumbled through the doorway of the nursery. The room looked as perfect as the day they put away the paint cans and assembled the last piece of the crib. Only one thing was missing.

Annabeth thought how most of her had already died. Now it was time to let the other part go, too.

Now wait, wait, wait for me, please hang around, I'll see you when I fall asleep

Percy wandered aimlessly through the woods. His hands shook and his breathing was uneven. Annabeth spent all that time saying it was her fault, and now it was his. He should have been a better husband. He should have done more for her. Now she was gone and he could never get her back. Neither of them seemed like heroes anymore. He knew they could never be treated as such.

"We should have just died in Tartarus," he said for the millionth time. "It would have been so much easier."

He continued tromping along, occasionally throwing Riptide as far away from him as he could. He hoped he was found defenseless. That's what he deserved.

Annabeth's words kept ringing through his head: I have to keep moving. If I stop, it catches up to me. Now he understood. He kept moving, trying to forget the way her voice sounded.

He stopped when he heard a growl in front of him.

"Well, it's nice to see an old familiar face," he said. The Minotaur just snarled back. Percy raised his face towards the sky. "My first enemy? Seems a little cruel, doesn't it?" He hoped the gods saw the crazy look in his eye and never forgot it. "Well," Percy told the beast, "come and get me."

Don't listen to a word I say, the screams all sound the same

'Cause though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore 

He didn't remember anything. Not how he got here, or where he was, or who the people all around him were, or even his own name. All that was in him was a sense of complete emptiness. Despite the people everywhere, no one spoke. Everyone held the same, blank look. He felt just like them. Completely empty.

His feet started moving. He didn't stop because walking gave him a purpose. It was the only thing he had in his empty world. He looked down at his feet and pushed ahead, unable to form any real thoughts.

He bumped into something, effectively cutting off his adventure. He looked up to see a girl with curly blonde hair and gray eyes staring back at him. Something warm inside of him stirred, and he no longer felt so empty.