Aquaman? Whoops, Wrong Universe: A Percy Jackson Marvel Crossover

Chapter 6: Steve

When Steve had heard the scream from last night, he was immediately woken from his light sleep. It felt like second nature to get up at a moments' notice for him. But, he was left very confused when he found the source of the yell. A kid, who Steve had never seen before in his life. He definitely wasn't Peter. Steve vaguely remembered Tony calling a "team meeting" and forcing the team to listen to what he had to say, but Steve didn't think he had ever said anything about the newest addition to the tower being a teenager.

Steve was going to do something about it right then and there in the middle of the night, but he figured that it wouldn't do any good to rant to Tony as a tired and grumpy Captain America. 

Steve could tell the kid was a little bit uneasy when Steve entered his room underneath his veneer of annoyance and sarcasm, but Steve set it out of his mind. He sent himself back to bed, ignoring the strange boy that was lying across the hall from him. 

<<<<..........>>>>

Steve sat at a table the next morning, with Natasha, Tony, Clint, and Bruce. None of them actually lived at the tower, besides Stark. Steve had just come back from a mission alongside Nat, and they were on call to join another mission for SHIELD at a moments' notice. Pierce had decided it would be easier to just stay at the tower for the time being for convenience. Plus, Steve's apartments had a habit of getting compromised. Bruce was helping Tony with some medical research at the moment, and Stark had let him crash at the tower.

Clint always seemed to come up with excuses to get out of staying at the tower, for reasons unknown to Steve (although Natasha always looked pointedly at Clint whenever this happened). 

Sorry, SHIELD needs me.

Sorry, I have a dog I need to feed. 

Sorry, I signed up to give kids archery lessons. 

The list went on, each excuse getting a little more ridiculous than the last. One time, he had flubbered for a response so badly that he ended up claiming he "needed to go to the UK to pick up specialized medicine". The guy was full of crap, but Steve never pressed. It wasn't in his nature to be pushy about personal life. Maybe so much so that he was blindsided from the fact that his teammates were real life humans with unique experiences and not just "those guys from work". 

Thor was, well, Thor. Asgard always seemed to need him for something or another. He visited from time to time, of course, but was whisked away just as fast. Ever the hero.

Peter was a teenager. He had teenager things to do. School, flirting with girls (apparently he didn't have much luck in that department—Steve could relate), pulling pranks, whatever it was that kids did those days. The team wanted him to, you know, actually have a life outside of Spider-Man.

Today just happened to be one of those rare times when Hawkeye was on call for SHIELD, specifically told to stay at Avengers Tower, same as Nat. 

Tony fiddled with a device on the table that Steve didn't bother to ask about. Natasha was just about to get up and leave to go somewhere else, probably the training room, when their daily routine was interrupted.

"Stark," Cap said, finally remembering the strange encounter last night as he shook off his sleep-filled daze. His anger flared at the thought. "Why on earth did we kidnap a child?"

Stark just started to say something when a crashing sound roused them from their thoughts. The kid from last night stumbled into view, frantically picking up a strange looking machine that was probably Tony's from the floor.

"Hey!" Tony said, without looking up from his contraption. "You better hope that's not broken. You're paying for it."

"Aren't you a billionaire?" the kid asked.