Not Always the Hero; Rewritten // (Percy Jackson x Peter Parker)

a bad case of dissociation

It's okay to be saved once in a while too.

Percy had just knocked on his mom's door when the neighbor, May's door opened. Peter, May's nephew was halfway out the door, mid step when his whole body froze, rigid and he and Percy made eye contact. Percy's mouth tasted like dust from the sudden lack of moisture that came with the wave of anxiety. He hadn't thought about Peter much in the past few months, he'd been a little preoccupied trying to not die and stop Gaea and the second Giant war. He had thought about him though, especially right after he got his memories back on the way back from Alaska. There he was though, Percy's dorky neighbor, Percy's cute friend- staring at Percy like he couldn't believe his eyes, which was probably fair but... Percy started to raise his hand in greeting as he swallowed, prepared to say hi and hopefully stop the scrutiny in those hazel eyes. Right as he opened his mouth to speak his own apartment door opened and his mom barreled out. Percy turned to meet her halfway and was almost knocked over from how hard she hit him with her hug. He glanced to the side, towards the Parker door and was met with an empty hallway. He didn't have time to think about how quickly Peter vanished though, Percy ducked his head into his mom's hair and tried not to cry as they held each other in the hallway for too short an amount of time to make up for how long he'd been gone. He felt Paul's arms wrap around them at some point and when they all finally broke apart (Percy and Sally both crying) Perce glanced over to his neighbor's door and felt strangely disappointed at the fact that Peter was still gone.

𝚿𝚿𝚿

Peter ran to the grocery store. He couldn't breathe. Is this what having an asthma attack felt like? Peter couldn't breathe and didn't stop running until he was at the grocery store. Once there, he went into the alley which served as an impromptu shopping cart storage space and proceeded to collapse against the exterior store wall, panting. Gasping. Struggling to breathe. His heart thundered in his chest and he could feel it in his ears, in his forehead, in his toes. Logically, he knew there was some evidence to Percy being alive. He also knew he'd been in denial about the potential for the boy to be dead. Why was this so hard? So painful? To see him there, alive, healthy? It should be relieving. It was, wasn't it? It just... Peter sucked in a breath, it didn't feel real, he realized. Percy Jackson was alive and Peter had gotten so used to him being gone, it was hard for him to accept the reality that Percy was back.

In a haze he got up and got groceries, still not totally believing that Percy had returned. Peter went through the motions, shopping was some distant crusade he wasn't even there for, not mentally at least. Yeah, it was his hands putting the bread and the eggs into the shopping cart, but it was as if Peter was an outsider looking in. His body had gone into autopilot and he just sat there and watched it happen.

He blinked and he was checking out. Blinked again and had all the grocery bags in and on his arms. Blinked and he was standing in front of his and Aunt May's apartment door. What had happened to the walk back to the apartment? He vaguely remembered getting on the subway, having ran to the nicer grocery store which was further away from the apartment. He didn't really remember the walk back though, or the subway ride.

Peter wasn't sure how much longer he was standing there, in the hallway, with arms full of groceries he couldn't feel, staring at the door. It must have been a while though because when May opened the door and ushered him inside to put the groceries down, afterwards his arms throbbed, just a bit. Not enough to knock him out of it, but enough to make some part of the back of his head wonder. Maybe later he would remember how May had opened the door and jumped a little, not having expected Peter to be standing there blankly. Maybe later he would remember how she sat him on the couch and went to put the groceries away herself after multiple questions to Peter that the boy did not respond to. Maybe later he would remember how she knelt in front of him and asked him what was wrong, maybe later he would remember how he whispered to her "percy's alive".