(Fem.) Percy meets Spidey

39

I wasn't sure what I was doing. Dad wouldn't be happy about it. Mom wouldn't either, but her opinion mattered less and less to me with every passing day. When I was younger, I'd clung to my mother, to the safety and love she offered. A safe place that would shelter me from the storms of Gabe's wrath, even as I kept secret after secret from her. After all, if I told anyone about what Gabe was doing, they'd take me away from Mom, and I didn't want that. 

As I slipped out the front door, I paused. Dad said he'd take me if he had to. What did that mean?

Why didn't that bother me as much as it had back then? 

The air rushed from my lungs. I could ask him. I laughed. The thought was weird. A god giving straight answers to questions, much less a god letting me ask questions in the first place. "Call me if you need to," he'd said. He wanted me to get his attention, and as much as I hadn't wanted to, I was too scared of what he'd do if I hadn't told him I was thinking about texting Peter. He'd have found out somehow. 

For all I was worried that he'd get upset the way Mom would if she ever caught wind, he'd been gentle, not yelling and demanding to know if it was something he did. It made me want to curl against him and press my head against his shoulder again, feeling so safe caged in by his arms. What would he do if I called him now and told him what I was doing? Would he come get me? 

Hold me like that again? 

Riptide was heavy in my pocket though. I needed to hunt something; it burned through my veins as battle instincts wore thin, and I cursed being a demigod all the more. Names of monsters were on my tongue. Which one would come when I called it? A hellhound would be fine. Cyclops? A little harder to fight in the city, but they dwelled in alley's where they could lure in children and unwary adults. Plenty of them. 

No. I wouldn't call Dad. Fuck him. There was no heat behind it, just an urge towards violence. He'd frown and tuck me close and say they'd put too much weight on my shoulders. They had. They had, and now I paid the price for it in hunting and stalking and acting far too much like a monster so those same monsters couldn't hurt my family. 

Hypervigilance, Ares's voice rumbled in the back of my head. 

I ignored it. 

It's only paranoia if they're not out to get you. Nothing hyper about making sure monsters couldn't kill Mom and Paul in their sleep, making sure I can't come back to an apartment smeared with blood like it came out of a nightmare.

Down the stairs, out of the building before I could second guess myself. There wasn't much traffic in this part of the city. Not many pedestrians at this time of day. Perfect for--

"So, is there--"

I screamed.

Tony leaned to the side to avoid my fist. He flashed his teeth in a grin. "Wow. Chill. And I thought Peter was jumpy." He pressed his hand between my shoulders, guiding me down the street. "Come on," Tony said, "nothing like a late night snack, is there?"

If I'd been smarter, I'd have made an excuse to slip away or ask why he was there. Surely, he'd been meaning to meet up with Peter, not kidnap me. Yet I trailed behind him into a hole-in-the-wall diner where the waitress's eyes widened at the sight of a billionaire walking in. 

Oh gods, please don't let me end up on a tabloid. 

Tony groaned as he plopped into the booth, telling the waitress that we wanted two grilled cheese and looking at me for what I wanted to drink. Once she left, he didn't spare time. "So, your dad-- Bit of a weird guy, isn't he?"

"Careful, you never know who you're talking about." Did he drag me here to interrogate me again? "Wouldn't want to end up in any unforeseen situations."

"Is that a threat?"

"More so a warning." I shrugged and slouched in the booth. "My dad's not someone to piss off. Mom's already treading a thin line I think, and as far as I know, you haven't slept with my dad to get you that leniency."

Tony's brow furrowed in that way Paul's did. The way Chiron's sometimes did when I came back covered in cuts and bruises. 

"He's nice to me," I said hurriedly.

"And my dad was nice to me until he started smacking me around." He scoffed. "Never did stop trying to please the old bastard."

I couldn't say Dad wasn't like that. He was a god after all and they had a habit of doing exactly that in spite of all his reassurances and soft words. My head ached with a memory of power, his voice booming in my head for that moment before he realized it was me on his throne--stifling a laugh when i realized he'd sat me on his lap on a throne. No. 

Dad wasn't like that, not with me. The sea came back to its own, possessive in the way it wrapped and pulled, dragging everything in with riptides. I sit at the foot of the throne of the sea. 

The plate was hot; I wasn't hungry. Dinner hadn't been that long ago, but I bit into the grilled cheese anyway, knowing how easy it was to lose access to food. I'd rather be overfull than under if I found myself in that position again. 

Tony's face softened. "Listen, if he's hurting you, we can help you and your mom. And if he's not, and he starts to, that's still there." 

"He won't." 

"Pete gets a weird feeling from him, and I've learned to trust his gut about this sort of thing." 

I stared at the crumbs. The grilled cheese wasn't enough--how hungry was I? Sometimes it felt like I'd never lost the Curse of Achilles. Peter was worried about me? It sent a warm feeling into my stomach that I wasn't sure how to feel about. That turned to tingling anxiety in the tips of my fingers. 

My own nerves weren't setting off around Dad. That had to mean more than a mortal, right? I pressed my lips together. The sea calls to its own. Everything that belongs to it returns to it. Cyclopes mimicked their prey to draw them in with a false sense of security--fuck, I wasn't that bad at mimicry myself. 

Dad's being might be overriding every natural fear and instinct I have. Wasn't I more bold on Olympus with him there, bowing at his feet first, talking back to the gods? Sure. Sure, I'd done that with Ares too, but he'd pushed that. Filled my veins with anger and rage to get me to react so Kronos and Luke would get what they wanted. 

Then again: I did send them Medusa's head. With the hindsight of age, bad idea. Horrible one. Not entirely born from anger, either though. I was a cat dropping a kill at the doorstep, wanting approval. Look at me, didn't I do good? 

"He won't hurt me," I said, sounding far less confident. I was supposed to go back to him this weekend after school started. Friday night, three days away. School was something I was dreading because odds were some monster would track me down, part of the reason I'd avoided open house. The other was I had Paul. He said he'd take me in early on the first day so I could find my way around. Now, school sounded more appealing. 

Normalcy that demigods didn't usually get, while Dad's home was the complete opposite from the abnormalities that were expected from that side. 

Tony dropped a hundred dollar bill on the table and stood. "If that idea of yours ever changes, tell May to give me a call." 

hello
i am in fact alive
hope you enjoy this and I'm hoping to actually update more often, now if you excuse me I have to go do some birthday art for my friend and keep prepping for artfight

also, if you wanna, leave a comment? They're very good for my motivation surprisingly, and I get a little sad when I dont see any, cause I like knowing your thoughts and reactions