Percabeth at Stark Tower

10. A little bird heard

Bucky's POV

"What happened to Nico?" Steve asks me once we've gone to bed. Tony's going to be up for hours unless something's wrong but the sensible people are in their rooms and hopefully in bed although the rest of the tower is bad at actually sleeping.

"They finished the war that was going on the first time he was here and had another. He got captured but rescued." I keep it short, I'm not sure Steve would be able to handle more.

"Who captured him?"

"The giants."

"Wait..." he says, brow furrowed, making him look so cute as he tries to remember where they're from. "Those are the second group that fought the Gods right?"

"Yeah, it looks like they tried it again just like the titans."

"That's not good."

"Yeah but Nico survived at least."

"Maybe, but you know how hard the war was on us, that would make it his second war before he's even old enough to join the army."

"You're one to talk about fighting when you can't join the army." I joke.

He smiles ruefully. "Just because I was a little short and sickly doesn't mean I wouldn't have gotten in eventually. And that was different."

"Keep telling yourself that punk."

"How is he really?" Steve asks. "I'm sure everyone saw he's had trouble but he won't talk, he never opens up."

"...he's not good." I sigh, "but this Will person seems to be good for him. He's always willing to argue with Nico and managed to make him deal with his health a bit more. I think we just need to give Nico some space for now."

"You sure?"

I want to reassure him but that would be a lie. "No, but Will has the best chance of helping Nico recover. We need to give them their space."

He sighs and I pull him closer. "I just want Nico to be happy the way he should, he's still just a child."

"Don't tell him that!" I whisper sharply pretending Nico can hear us and Steve laughs.

"Goodnight darling." he says and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek before falling asleep.

"Morning," I say when Annabeth walks in.

"Good morning Bucky, did you sleep well?"

"Yes. you?"

She hesitates for a second before saying, "fine."

"What's wrong?"

"I had a nightmare. It's not a big deal."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She immediately shakes her head. "I don't want to talk about it. And don't try and tell me about how repression is bad, I know it's not healthy but right now it's the only way any of us are dealing with it."

"What was it?"

"JARVIS, turn off audio and video." she says, impressively calm about it. It took Steve and I awhile to get used to JARVIS.

"I will need confirmation from War Amputee." JARVIS says and she looks confused for a second before looking at my arm.

"Confirmed." I say and there's a click as he shuts off for a bit. We can still call him but will have to say JARVIS first. "What was it?" I ask again no what no one's listening in. well unless Clint's in the vents again but if he is spying on us I doubt he'll tell anyone besides maybe Natasha and she's good at keeping secrets.