More Than Just Little Soldiers (PART 2)

CHAPTER 13: WHEN DADDY ISSUES GO OVERBOARD

Tony POV

Hearing their story was almost unbelievable. I was a man of science. I prided myself on my knowledge and my ability to always be the smartest in the room. I was always in the know. So to suddenly discover something that had been hidden from all of us for all this time is shocking and slightly scary even.

Another part of it that was scary was that it actually all made sense. I believed their stories of the gods and all that they had faced. I understood that Percy and Annabeth's sadness was not due to the troubles that most teenagers claim that they face. They have seen war. They've been forced to fight like pawns for a cause that they're simply obligated to because of their parentage.

That was rough.

I pictured my own relationship with my father, Howard Stark, as I poured myself a glass of alcohol. I mindlessly sat there, staring up at the wall, drinking glass after glass when I heard a pair of feet walk towards my garage. I could feel my heart pounding as I sharply turned to face whoever it was that entered.

It was Percy.

Percy looked so shocked at my reaction that he flinched back, he stared at me with wide eyes as he glanced over to the glass of alcohol I had in my hands.

"I-uh-I sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you. I'll leave now," he started to say, stuttering to get his words right.

"Wait! Don't go!" I called out after the retreating boy. I saw his body stiffen as he slowly turned around.

What was up with this kid?

"Y-uh-yes?"

"You don't have to leave, Percy. I was just startled when I heard you come. Jarvis usually announces but I must not have heard. That's all," I told him, trying to get this kid to loosen up. "You can hang out here. Why did you come?"

Percy hesitantly walked over and took a seat in the other spinny chair next to me. His face was rather flushed.

"I dunno Tony, I just wanted to talk to you," he told me. "And I've always loved cars. I never got a chance to work on stuff like this when I was younger. Didn't have a father. Smelly Gabe didn't count. We were always kinda poor anyway, could only afford one cheap car. And then the whole demigod madness happened when I was 12 so..."

"You want to help me out then?" I asked him. He smiled gently and nodded, and then got up when I did. I told him to go grab my toolkit as I took him over to one of my favorite cars. I don't know why I was being so receptive towards this kid. I rarely ever let anyone get close to me or my tech this easily.

But he seemed special.

"Tell me about you, I honestly don't know that much about the Avengers," Percy told me as he handed me tools upon request. So I told him about the team and the battle. It honestly seemed rather silly, sharing a war story to a kid who had been through two. Almost everything that I said seemed to be insignificant to the stuff that Percy had faced. But he sat there and listed to me so intently and gave me his fullest attention.

"That sucks Tony, I'm so glad you all made it out alive," he said, with such utter seriousness that I was hit with the idea that so many of his demigod friends had died in the wars.

Friends.

Children.

The thought alone made me sick.

"Now tell me about you," I told him. "Not about you as a demigod. I mean just you. There has to be more than you than just all this madness."

Percy just laughed and started to tell me about his childhood. He was being oddly vague, and I learned to catch up on a few things. It was just him and his mom at first. They were awfully poor. Percy started to see a bunch of weird things and he did a bunch of weird things that got him kicked out of 7 whole freaking schools. Percy stayed away from talking about his home life, though, after he introduced Gabe Ugliano (Smelly Gabe, he liked to call him). After that, he mainly just talked about being bullied in school and going to Sweet on America with his mom after he came out of that hell hole.

I realized that there was something wrong. Why didn't Percy want to talk about his home? And which kid names their step parent Smelly Gabe?

Did he really stink that bad?

"Who was Gabe? You barely mentioned anything about him," I asked, trying to get more information. Percy stiffened at the name and went silent.

"I don't like talking about him," he said abruptly, biting his lip. "He's gone now, that's all that matters."

What does that mean?

"Gone? As in he left?"

"As in he's dead and that's better for everyone."

Well that's interesting.

"You don't seem to care that much."

"He never cared that much. Besides, the man was a piece of filth anyway. I think we were better off after we– uh, he died."

We?

This story is getting juicy.

"Did you just admit to a crime?"

"Excuse me?" Percy asked, his eyes glaring and getting defensive. "I just said I didn't mind that he was dead. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Okay, sorry!" I said, playfully raising my hands up in surrender.

I got up from my spot under the car and went over to pour myself another glass. I continued blabbering about some random nonsense, taking sips between words, when I realized that Percy wasn't listening. I sauntered my way over to him and then waved my hand in his face.

"Hellooo, Percy? You home?" I said, snapping my fingers twice to get him out of a trance. Percy suddenly flinched and backed away from me.

"T-Tony?" he asked, as if confirming that it was me and no one else. "Put the glass down, please."

Realization struck me as I poured the rest of the drink down the drain.

"Oh, Percy, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize..." I started to say, trying to apologize for scaring him. That's why he hated that Smelly Gabe so much. Everything seemed to make so much more sense now. "I'm so sorry."

"No, no, it's okay. I didn't mean to scare you off, I just got kind of nervous," Percy responded, not really able to meet my eyes. He started to look around everywhere else, finding the spot in the corner of the room rather interesting.

"Percy, look at me," I tried to say softly, bringing myself to eye level with this kid. "You don't have to feel embarrassed for anything. You're fine."

Percy just nodded, but his furrowed eyebrows never relaxed themselves.

"Can we just go for a walk or something?" Percy asked. "I want to get out of here for a second. Only if you're cool with it, of course."

"Yeah, sure."

The two of us left and started to walk around the streets of New York. It was 3 AM in the morning and there were still a decent amount of people. We walked silently together, not mentioning all that had happened and all that we knew.

"Thank you, Tony, really," Percy told me when we got back. "This was a lot more helpful than you know."

"No problem Percy."