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

Chapter 32: Peter

Peter should've known it would come down to Percy and Annabeth in the end. It made sense. From the moment he had met her, he could sense that those two had a deeper bond then he could ever really understand. Call it human intuition or his Peter tingle, but Peter knew that those two shared something special. He just knew.

Peter's role in the whole debacle was to get Percy out of the mess Peter had gotten him into. He owed it to his friend—he couldn't just sit by while Percy was brainwashed by HYDRA. He knew he wasn't the main character in the story—not really. It was his fault this entire thing had happened in the first place. It was only right to atone for his mistakes by helping in any way he could. That was what heroes did. Besides, Peter was okay with taking the sidelines. He used to complain about never having the chance to do big-time crime-fighting, but Peter now realized something. When the situation started to get dangerously out of hand, it ended with the people you love getting hurt, one way or another. It was nearly impossible to get a truly happy ending, it seemed.

Maybe Peter would be fine with sticking to the friendly neighborhood stuff.

He watched awkwardly as Percy and Annabeth hugged, holding onto each other for dear life. He started to blush a little at the PDA, and turned away. He wished he had someone who would comfort him like that. His thoughts strayed to MJ, his mind picturing her perfect curls and cynical attitude. I should just ask her out, he thought absentmindedly, trying to get his mind off of... everything that had just happened. He could only count his blessings that Percy was back in his right mind.

Hopefully.

He helped Nico up from where he was sitting, clearly exhausted and waterlogged. His hair was soaking wet, dripping in his face so Peter couldn't see his eyes. He coughed a few times, grumbling a thanks to Peter but pushing his arm away after he got his footing, instead opting to brace himself on a building. By now, Peter knew better than to infringe on his personal space. The kid was very threatening when he wanted to be, and Peter would have appreciated it if he could avoid getting on someone else's bad side, especially in their current situation. He already felt guilty enough as it was; he didn't need more animosity to blossom between him and Percy's friends. Also, Nico could command undead soldiers. Peter didn't want to walk into his room one day and see a zombie with a knife staring back at him.

Right now, he had to focus on creating a masterful apology to Percy, declaring what a massive screw-up Spider-Man was and how terrible he felt for what had transpired in the past weeks.

Yeah, that sounded good. Peter Parker: World's Biggest Loser Strikes Again! It would make the headlines if he was a reporter. Everyone would want the latest scoop on how he messed up for the forty-millionth time in his life. Who needs cheap entertainment when you have Peter Parker as a friend? You had all the juicy, messy situations you could ever want, without the sitcom and laugh track! (Peter was fine. Definitely not on the verge of having a hysteric mental breakdown and confessing his self-deprecating, possibly well-practiced speech. Besides, he had to be fine for Percy's sake. He could go off and have a meltdown later.)

Peter shook himself out of his thoughts and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. Not so much a hand, really, more like a very heavy piece of metal. He looked up, his eye lenses adjusting to see Iron Man staring down at him. Tony was never one for physical contact, so Peter just stared up at him with both surprise and confusion. A sudden spike of fear surged through him. He had disobeyed him. He wasn't supposed to show up to this fight. He was supposed to stay back and let everyone else deal with it so he didn't make a bigger mess. He gulped uneasily, quickly looking anywhere else that wasn't his mentor's face. He took a breath to apologize and—

"You did good, kid," Tony said, reverting his gaze back to the street in front of him, tattered and beat up. 

"What?" Peter asked, surprise rippling through his emotions.