AN: I don't know where this came from, but I got a few flashes of images in my mind which turned into this...

This is completely unrelated to my other PJO/HOO stories, though, since it is set post-canon, it probably fits in with In the Stables, but is completely, utterly unrelated to Strings of Fate (to be updated on Wednesday- Rom-Com!AU) and Elephants Deserve Love Too (to be updated next Saturday).

Anyway, hope you like it!

Maybe it isn't quite appropriate to let them sleep in the same bed, but after everything they've been through, they're adults, really, even if they're still seventeen years old.

They're entangled tightly, tightly together, and Sally wonders whether it's even comfortable to sleep like that, but from their peaceful breathing and still bodies (and the lack of terrifying screams and sobs), she figures it must be, at least for them.

He's drooling, as usual, and she'll be annoyed when she wakes up tomorrow with it in her curls (or at least she'll pretend to be), but at least they're asleep and seemingly nightmare- free.

(The first couple of months were so hard, on all of them...)

Sally smiles as she closes the door, leaving Percy and Annabeth asleep on the new bed with the blue and grey striped bed sheets they just bought.

It's against the rules, but all the legionnaires of the Fifth Cohort turn a blind eye to the fact that more often than not, there's a bulldog sleeping on Hazel Levesque's bed, over the covers and not touching her, but close enough for her reach out and rub his back if she wants (needs) to.

Just like they turn a blind eye to the fact that one of their Centurions is dating one of their Praetors, which is also against the rules.

After everything they've been through together...well, Romans aren't heartless, not even Reyna. (Not by a long shot.)

The first time Hazel wakes up sobbing, Dakota is about to send for a medic and Praetor Zhang when his fellow Centurion pulls out a denarius, a rainbow appears in front of her, and she mutters something about Fleecy doing her a solid. (Iris-messaging, he remembers this is called. The Greeks use it.) Seconds later, Frank appears, sees the tears running down her face and her shaking shoulders, and disappears out of the message.

The rainbow has barely faded when Dakota sees a bulldog padding into the barracks and jumping onto Hazel's bed, curling up in front of her, as if guarding her. The girl reaches out and rubs his back rhythmically until she falls asleep, the bulldog making whiffling noises as she does so.

Dakota smiles to himself as he falls asleep, because it's adorable. (A little weird, but adorable.)

Chiron knows it happens, but he lets it occur anyway, provided they're discreet.

Besides, it doesn't happen all that often anyway.

(He's either doing his duties alone, or if it isn't summer and she isn't doing her Counsellor duties- no way she's letting Drew be in charge again- they're off together beyond Chiron's supervision and Camp rules.)

But when he is around, Piper abandons her bed in the Aphrodite cabin, and curls up with Jason on his bunk in the Zeus cabin.

It's not always a perfect arrangement, because it's kind of squishy and they've got pretty different sleeping preferences, and a couple of times someone ends up with a minor injury or two, but they get better at it rather quickly, and can now sleep on his bunk, spooned together, extremely comfortably.

(But even the time when she accidentally gave him a blood nose is still better than when they're alone. Even if she elbowed him hard because she was having a nightmare, at least she had someone to wake her up and hold her and comfort her who understands, which makes it so much better and keeps most of the horrible dreams at bay. The same goes for him.)

They're probably a million miles away from anywhere, and kind of lost and flying on a severely damaged dragon, so they end up camping out on these little uninhabited islands for quite a while.

The first few nights, they sleep on opposite sides of Festus, but every single time, he wakes up screaming and the first thing he sees is her face, because she's hurried over as soon as his cries started.

Eventually, it is decided that this arrangement is impractical, so she moves over to his side. He sleeps by Festus' torso, ear next to where his heart would be, she sleeps closer to the dragon's tail, with the former figurehead's head and tail curled around them and a protective wing over them.

There are teething problems, like the fact that neither of them is used to sharing sleeping space, so end up bruising each other quite a few times, or the fact that occasionally he might char his blankets by mistake.

They don't end up working out all the kinks before they reach Camp Half-Blood, but they've long stopped causing each other accidental injury, and they both sleep much better now, since the nightmares seem less and less frequent when they know they're not a million miles away from each other.

He can't believe that the stubborn, bull-headed, infuriating medic actually went and got Chiron's permission for this.

Moving into the Hades cabin for a week, to monitor his patient? Really?

This was not part of the three days. Not at all.

Nico had been an obedient patient for three days, but Will still wouldn't leave him alone.

No, he'd even managed to obtain a really, really thin chain, almost like a string, made of celestial bronze, and every single night, he insists on tying one end to Nico's wrist and the other to his so he doesn't try any Underworldly stuff.

Nico glares at the boy asleep on the bunk opposite his.

He is a little tempted to try just to see what Solace would do.

But instead, he closes his eyes and goes to sleep.

There is a brightness and colour in his dreams that had become so, so rare in his life.

(After the week is up, Nico found he kind of misses the company. Kind of.)

Reyna lies down in her bed in her Praetor's Villa, sighing as her head hit the pillow.

It's been a long day, but she'll sleep soundly tonight for it.

Sleep soundly knowing she's worked hard today.

Sleep soundly knowing her Camp, her legionnaires, her people, her friends, both Greek and Roman, are safe and sound and recovering.

Perhaps she won't ever get the strength she's shared back, but somehow, she swears, these thoughts almost feel like her friends, her people, returning some of it.

It's a nice feeling.

She rolls over, and falls into Somnus' embrace.

It isn't that hard to persuade Chiron at all.

Since the Romans are at Camp Half-Blood, things are a little more crowded than usual, so any space-saving is probably a good thing.

Besides, it's been one year since...since, well, that battle, and tonight, none of them want to be apart from one another.

(And no-one is going to let Leo out of their sight ever again.)

They all pile into the newly-redecorated Hades cabin (because only Nico, Jason and Percy had cabins with no one else in them, and Percy's is full of boxes in preparation for his move to New Rome and Jason's is full of dust due to lack of use), and after watching countless Disney movies on the TV that Leo had provided, end up falling asleep on a pile of mattresses, sleeping bags, blankets and pillows on the floor.

The next morning, feeling surprisingly refreshed, Jason wakes to find that his entire left side is asleep, because Piper slept on it all night long, his left arm curled around her (not that he's complaining), as well as his right arm, because Percy, who has his back to him and is entangled with Annabeth and drooling, slept on it.

On Piper's other side, Leo is twitching, his hand just a couple of inches away from Calypso's, while at Jason's feet, bulldog Frank is snoring lightly, with Hazel curled up beside him, the two as close as they could be without touching.

Nico is asleep with his back against his sister's, with Will's hand firmly clasped over his, as if preventing the younger boy from disappearing into the shadows. Reyna lies between the two, head facing Will as if she is keeping an eye on him.

Incredibly, they'd all slept through the night.

Peace. Together.

AN: I tried to have the whole sleeping arrangement try and symbolize everyone's relationships after the Giant War. I think I've got them fairly in-character and reflective of said relationships, I'm just not sure about Jason and Piper (I'm just not 100% sure where they stand after BoO. On one hand, it seems that most of the issues in their relationship have been worked out, like Frank and Hazel's, but on the other hand, I feel like the whole Greek/Roman divide- even if Jason has changed- is still kind of there, so I feel like there might be a couple of little difficulties for them, even if they've 'started over again'.)