(Fem.) Percy meets Spidey

36

"I'm really sorry about this," I said.

Percy sighed and opened the oven. Heat washed over us. She grimaced. "It's not your fault. This was going to happen sooner or later." With her bare hands, she pulls out the glass pan. "Besides, at least it's just dinner."

"Are. . . Doesn't that hurt?"

She blinked and looked down like she didn't realize she'd pulled the food out. The dish clinked against the wire rack. "Oh, I can't feel heat in my hands very well." Ignoring my expression, she yells towards the table, "We could've made this in the microwave!"

"Do you want to have them show up to a microwaved family dinner?" Sally ducked around Percy. Her hair was pulled into a bun, and her warm eyes were unusually tired. They lingered on me, and I swore her expression twisted. Before I could be sure, though, it was gone. "I would have planned for something better if I'd had more warning."

"I'm really sorry," I said. "I was trying to--"

The front door opened, and the air turned heavy. It pressed on my shoulders like weights. My hands clenched. I inhaled. Forced myself to ignore the tingling. Went to greet Percy's family.

"Sorry, we're late." Percy's father was the first in the door, followed by her brother and step-mom. "Someone didn't want to come."

"I have better things to be doing than sitting to eat dinner," her brother drawled. Percy and him looked alike. Both were copies of their father. Was. . . he Sally's too?

"Your maps can wait."

"Unless you want to stop the changing terrain, they really can't."

Their father stood for a minute. He was silent, tilting his head and humming as if he were actually contemplating stopping the very forces of nature. I rolled my eyes at myself. He was probably trying to think of some dumb joke to that. Topography doesn't change fast enough that having a family dinner would matter.

He inhaled slowly. "I'm going to help with the food. Please behave yourself."

"Oi. I'm not the child you need to tell that."

"We are guests," Percy's step-mom chided. "Do not infringe on the courtesy we're being shown."

Instead of staying and listening to the brewing argument, I headed back to the kitchen, expecting to have to rope Percy into a conversation about something dumb. I froze in the doorway. Percy's father hovered behind her. His frame completely boxed her in, made her look so much smaller. She tensed. Swallowed.

"What are you doing, seahorse?" he asked lowly.

"Uh. You eat more than I do, don't you?"

The fork hovered above the plate, gravy pooling at the ends of the tines before dripping onto the slab of Salisbury steak. He took it from her and moved the food back to her plate.

"Don't try to switch it back," he said, then added something else. Something hard. Something with an edge. A command.

She nodded slowly. Satisfied, he picked up a couple plates. We carried the rest. Most of dinner went well: it was silent. Really, I couldn't tell if that was good or bad, but everyone being quiet meant no putting foots in mouths. Sally and Mr. Blofis seemed to agree. They carefully cut their food into chunks. Percy's gaze darted around the room. She didn't touch her silverware.

"I'm not sure I caught your names," May said, eyeing Percy's dad. He didn't shift. "But I'm terrible with my memory. Peter's put so many extra years on me I feel like I'm already in my eighties."

"I'd say names aren't that important of a thing to know." He grinned, making me shudder.

"So, Peter--" Sally interrupted. "Anything interesting going on? Any new hobbies?"

That was a much more welcome topic, and one that wouldn't lead to May accidentally pissing off someone who was. . . off. My nerves hadn't settled; a conga line was dancing in the back of my skull.

"Mr. Stark has me testing prototypes for his new armor."

"Armor?"

And I thought too soon. Percy's father was frowning, staring at me. Predator, my mind screamed.

"Um, yeah? Mr. Stark is Iron Man," I said. Please, I begged to God, don't let him have heard my voice crack. "I'm an intern at Stark Industries." Fuck. I shouldn't tell that to someone who's probably a villain.

He hmphed. "You really know how to pick friends, don't you? I can't complain; it's not bad to have people smarter than you around."

"I'm not stupid." Percy slumped in her seat.

"I never said you were."

Conversation shifted away, but Percy stayed quiet. Actually, most of us stayed quiet, and if we talked, it was only among each other. Sally only responded to Percy's step-mom when she said something. Paul silently ate. Percy's brother gestured as he talked about map-making and the difficulties with it.

"It would be easier if a certain someone would help me," he said. "There's places that you won't let me go, and she can easily get in there unnoticed."

"No making your sister do dangerous things." Their dad idly cut through his meat. It was the first thing he'd said in long enough that May jolted.

"Mom."

"You heard your father."

"Can't even kill a child in this day and age." He rolled his eyes. "Percy, how about we--"

"That's enough." Their dad's voice was laced with dangerous power-- there was no way he could be anything less than what I thought. Not with the reactions that earned. His tone was enough to make Percy sink back in her seat. To make Mr. Blofis subtly scoot further away. My hand curled around the webshooter in my pocket.

Even Percy went for a weapon. In the corner of my vision, she wrapped her hands around a knife and spun it around her fingers. It looked. . .natural for her. Like she was used to needing to defend herself.

That couldn't be good.

"Percy," Sally said. "Put the knife down. You could hurt someone."

Percy opened her mouth, then closed it. The knife clattered on the table. Her shoulders fell, and she sucked in a deep, heavy breath. Then another. And another. Each time they grew shallower and shallower. Little gasps of air that hardly moved her body.

I frowned.

Paul pressed his lips together. "Percy, can you come help me with something?" Without waiting for an answer, he urged her out of her chair and down the hall.

Her father's eyes followed them.

Well, im not the happiest with this chapter, but eh, I have essays to write and books to read. I think everything I write feels a bit off because of that tbh

Anyway

See yah