Abandon
[Title] Abandon
[Fandom] Percy Jackson and the Olympians
[Characters] Zoe and Calypso
[Rating] PG-ish
[Genre] Angst
[Word Count] 980
[Summary] Zoe winds up as Calypso's next visitor. Spoilers for The Battle of the Labyrinth.
[Author's Note] This was a fill on the PJO Kink Meme, with the prompt ' the next hero to come to ogygia turns out to be a heroine.' It was fun to write, and though I could go back and put more in there, I'm actually happy with how it turned out :)
Zoe has never found peace with the sea. The rolling waves don’t calm her the way so many others claim it does for them. To her, the ocean looks menacing; looks painful, erratic, powerful and destructive, the force of the tides sweeping away any last traces of footprints in the sand. Exactly what she wants. To be swept away, no trace left behind that she’d even so much as existed, much less stepped foot on this sand.
To be in love, she thinks as she steps into the water, waves lapping against her ankles, is much like the waves crashing over your feet: there for a moment, and it feels so real, so right, so perfect. But before you know it, you’re being abandoned.
Two more steps and her calves are being submerged, and now she can feel the tug of the currents trying to pull her in, the waves wrapping like cold fingers around her legs and pulling her along. Seducing her with promises of better things to come. Not unlike a lover, she can’t help but think with the barest of smirks. Another step, and the insistent hands get stronger until she has no choice but to continue. She can’t swim, but that was the reason for coming here. A cliff, she can back away from. A knife, she can drop. But once she gets swept away by the ocean, there is no escape.
No escape. It sounds beautiful in Zoe’s mind, and without thinking, she lets her legs go, and the destructive force of the ocean pushes her away, away from the shore, away, away, until she can no longer find the surface and it is simply a dark-haired girl tumbling through dark waters, her eyes closing as her breath leaves her body, and now the world is dark, too.
She doesn’t expect to wake up.
For a breathless moment, she can’t remember what’s happened. She’s only aware of sand against her back, the sun on her face, and a gentle breeze brushing across her skin. But as brown eyes flutter open, squinting against the brightness of the sun, she feels a deep ache in her chest, and memories of the tall hero she’d all but carved her heart out for come rushing back to her. And she realizes she’s alive.
A curse falls from her lips, tears spring to her eyes. In her life, there were two things she wanted more than anything: her hero to love her the way she loved him. And to successfully end her own life. And she couldn’t do either. She pounds a weak fist against the sand by her thigh.
‘A girl?’ a soft female voice asks from somewhere off to Zoe’s left.
Before she can turn to look, the sun is blotted out by a silhouette with long hair, and it’s a few moments before Zoe can make out the delicate features of a young girl. A girl perhaps not much older than Zoe. She attempts to speak, to ask where she is, but all she can do is splutter out a cough.
The other girl smiles as if in amusement. ‘I am Calypso, and this is my island.’
-----
Calypso nurses Zoe back to full health. The sea had done a number on Zoe’s young body, and it takes days for her to feel rehydrated and back to her old self again. It doesn’t take long, however, for Zoe to feel as though Calypso had nursed her heart back to health as well. Or as healed as her heart could be, a dull ache taking place of the stabbing pains that once pained her.
‘Your island is lovely,’ Zoe says one evening as they sit on the shore Zoe had washed up on, the water coming in gently with the tide to brush across their toes before receding again.
‘You could stay.’ The offer is eager and poorly disguised behind an ‘if you would like to’ demeanor. After spending so many days here, Zoe had come to realize that Calypso lives alone, and it wasn’t difficult to see that she desired companionship more than anything else. The girl’s lips press together as if realizing that she was being forward. ‘You are…so very much like the others.’
Others. Zoe’s confusion must have shown on her face, because tears found Calypso’s eyes and she would no longer look Zoe in the eyes.
‘Always the type I fall for. I suppose it does not matter if it is a hero or a heroine.’ She shakes her head, long hair spilling down her back and over trembling shoulders, and Zoe understands. And it frightens her.
-----
When the sun rises, Zoe is standing on the shore, toes curled in the sand, tears on her cheeks. She cannot stay. She cannot fall in love. Love is what she was trying to escape in the first place, and only the gods would be so cruel as to inflict this on her again.
Soft footsteps stop beside her. Zoe stiffens slightly as a finger curls around her own, little fingers interlocked in one of the few touches they’d shared. ‘I understand why you wish to leave.’
Zoe doesn’t think she really does.
‘It is part of my curse. Perhaps you are cursed as well.’
Zoe doesn’t let her say goodbye. It would be much too difficult to leave if they had proper goodbyes. If she had to look in those sad eyes as she broke another girl’s heart. As she felt her own breaking again. Only a few days, but it was enough.
Perhaps I am cursed, she thinks as she steps into the ocean, not looking back even once. The tears on Calypso’s face are easy enough to imagine. She could not bear to face them. We will see.
-----
‘I am Artemis, Zoe Nightshade,’ are the words Zoe hears when she awakens again.
[Fandom] Percy Jackson and the Olympians
[Characters] Zoe and Calypso
[Rating] PG-ish
[Genre] Angst
[Word Count] 980
[Summary] Zoe winds up as Calypso's next visitor. Spoilers for The Battle of the Labyrinth.
[Author's Note] This was a fill on the PJO Kink Meme, with the prompt ' the next hero to come to ogygia turns out to be a heroine.' It was fun to write, and though I could go back and put more in there, I'm actually happy with how it turned out :)
Zoe has never found peace with the sea. The rolling waves don’t calm her the way so many others claim it does for them. To her, the ocean looks menacing; looks painful, erratic, powerful and destructive, the force of the tides sweeping away any last traces of footprints in the sand. Exactly what she wants. To be swept away, no trace left behind that she’d even so much as existed, much less stepped foot on this sand.
To be in love, she thinks as she steps into the water, waves lapping against her ankles, is much like the waves crashing over your feet: there for a moment, and it feels so real, so right, so perfect. But before you know it, you’re being abandoned.
Two more steps and her calves are being submerged, and now she can feel the tug of the currents trying to pull her in, the waves wrapping like cold fingers around her legs and pulling her along. Seducing her with promises of better things to come. Not unlike a lover, she can’t help but think with the barest of smirks. Another step, and the insistent hands get stronger until she has no choice but to continue. She can’t swim, but that was the reason for coming here. A cliff, she can back away from. A knife, she can drop. But once she gets swept away by the ocean, there is no escape.
No escape. It sounds beautiful in Zoe’s mind, and without thinking, she lets her legs go, and the destructive force of the ocean pushes her away, away from the shore, away, away, until she can no longer find the surface and it is simply a dark-haired girl tumbling through dark waters, her eyes closing as her breath leaves her body, and now the world is dark, too.
She doesn’t expect to wake up.
For a breathless moment, she can’t remember what’s happened. She’s only aware of sand against her back, the sun on her face, and a gentle breeze brushing across her skin. But as brown eyes flutter open, squinting against the brightness of the sun, she feels a deep ache in her chest, and memories of the tall hero she’d all but carved her heart out for come rushing back to her. And she realizes she’s alive.
A curse falls from her lips, tears spring to her eyes. In her life, there were two things she wanted more than anything: her hero to love her the way she loved him. And to successfully end her own life. And she couldn’t do either. She pounds a weak fist against the sand by her thigh.
‘A girl?’ a soft female voice asks from somewhere off to Zoe’s left.
Before she can turn to look, the sun is blotted out by a silhouette with long hair, and it’s a few moments before Zoe can make out the delicate features of a young girl. A girl perhaps not much older than Zoe. She attempts to speak, to ask where she is, but all she can do is splutter out a cough.
The other girl smiles as if in amusement. ‘I am Calypso, and this is my island.’
-----
Calypso nurses Zoe back to full health. The sea had done a number on Zoe’s young body, and it takes days for her to feel rehydrated and back to her old self again. It doesn’t take long, however, for Zoe to feel as though Calypso had nursed her heart back to health as well. Or as healed as her heart could be, a dull ache taking place of the stabbing pains that once pained her.
‘Your island is lovely,’ Zoe says one evening as they sit on the shore Zoe had washed up on, the water coming in gently with the tide to brush across their toes before receding again.
‘You could stay.’ The offer is eager and poorly disguised behind an ‘if you would like to’ demeanor. After spending so many days here, Zoe had come to realize that Calypso lives alone, and it wasn’t difficult to see that she desired companionship more than anything else. The girl’s lips press together as if realizing that she was being forward. ‘You are…so very much like the others.’
Others. Zoe’s confusion must have shown on her face, because tears found Calypso’s eyes and she would no longer look Zoe in the eyes.
‘Always the type I fall for. I suppose it does not matter if it is a hero or a heroine.’ She shakes her head, long hair spilling down her back and over trembling shoulders, and Zoe understands. And it frightens her.
-----
When the sun rises, Zoe is standing on the shore, toes curled in the sand, tears on her cheeks. She cannot stay. She cannot fall in love. Love is what she was trying to escape in the first place, and only the gods would be so cruel as to inflict this on her again.
Soft footsteps stop beside her. Zoe stiffens slightly as a finger curls around her own, little fingers interlocked in one of the few touches they’d shared. ‘I understand why you wish to leave.’
Zoe doesn’t think she really does.
‘It is part of my curse. Perhaps you are cursed as well.’
Zoe doesn’t let her say goodbye. It would be much too difficult to leave if they had proper goodbyes. If she had to look in those sad eyes as she broke another girl’s heart. As she felt her own breaking again. Only a few days, but it was enough.
Perhaps I am cursed, she thinks as she steps into the ocean, not looking back even once. The tears on Calypso’s face are easy enough to imagine. She could not bear to face them. We will see.
-----
‘I am Artemis, Zoe Nightshade,’ are the words Zoe hears when she awakens again.