Spiders come in different Shapes

Coffee

Peter stared at the coffee bundled in his hands. Even as the steam floated and the smell curled around his fingers, he knew it was not a good idea, to be fair, he wanted caffeine. To stay awake? Alive? Okay? But when he drank it he would be up for forever and insanely hyper.

His metabolism should have canceled it out. But somehow specks of his old self still shone through, even in that red and blue suit, you could see bits and pieces of Peter Parker.

He hated that.

You could see his ears poking out. You could hear his voice. High pitched and annoying. You could feel his nerves. His jittery hands that shook sometimes. If you pulled off his mask you would see a small nose, pale skin, brown doe eyes, curly hair. You would see a dork. A loser a nerd. 

A small patter of rain startled him. He watched it slowly drip down the window. Like he was in a movie. The rain was above him. The coffee in his hand. It should be a romance. But why did it feel more like a sad story? Peter wasn't depressed. Don't get him wrong. Sometimes he just felt lost. Sometimes he looked for a compass in people. He tried really. To find them. It would be easy. To rip off everyone's skin, look beneath, a compass paused in their heart, golden and bright. New and old. 

A bell rung. Signalling the arrival of someone in the shop. Peter has been waiting long enough to know exactly how this works. The sound would ring out, the door would be pushed open, flushed cheeks and bright eyes would be pushed through, and the door would close. 

Instead what he was met with, gray eyes. Serious. He didn't looking at peoples eyes for a long time. He'd rather glance. Never even look. But the gray eyes were perfect. They held on to a boy's arm; his hair pitch black and sun kissed skin. 

Peter smiled without his teeth and held up a hand, it too was slightly pink, with a splash of freckles across it. Slender. 

"Nice to see you again, Anna?"

Annabeth's beautiful eyes slanted into a angry view. "Don't. Call. Me. Anna."

Percy put his hand on her shoulder, and even she flinched away from that. 

But Peter? He did what he could. "I'm sorry, I understand the preference, I tell everyone I don't enjoy my name being pronounced 'Penis' but they never seem to listen."

With that Annabeth softened, like a slab of butter left out in the sun too long. And Peter let a small smile light up his face, slowly, perfectly. She was beautiful. 

Percy clapped. "I'm glad we sorted that all out! Let's drink...I mean coffee....not, like, bad stuff."

Percy sat down at the table, as Annabeth and Peter clasped hands. A chill ran down her spine. 

Something was off about this boy. 

Horribly off. 

When all their coffee was drained Peter handed Percy Jackson a hand full of dollar bills saying. "I'll pay, but people make me nervous."

Annabeth didn't know what to think of Peter, one moment he was sending shivers through her body, and the next he was saying something small and cute and perfect and kind of a little sad. 

Peter flapped his hands slowly behind his back. People did make him nervous. His spider senses were on edge though, more than ever, something about those gray eyes, and that boy, they weren't right. Not in a bad way. Just different. 

"I haven't seen you around New York, are you visiting?"

"No, my dad lives somewhere else, and my mom left when I was little." It wasn't sad for Annabeth, just weird, to think her mom was off being smart and a god and she had to lie to someone's face about it. 

"I get it," Peter started, Annabeth's eyes wide, her knee so close to his, and her hushed breaths small and parted. "I mean, I guess I don't get it, it's different for everyone. But my parents. They left, not by choice, they died I mean. In a plane crash, I was little then. At first I thought they were coming home, at first I thought gone was always temporary and people would wake from the dead or claw apart their headstones because I was sad. Even after the funeral, even after my Uncle and my Aunt took me. I still thought that they were coming home. Even when I watched my Uncle die a year or two ago, it was so impossible for gone to mean forever."

"Even after all this time?" Her hair was curled and bouncy, blonde, like a beautiful warrior. 

"Yeah. Even today." Peter Parker could see Percy happily coming back with a few fluttering dollars held in his forefinger and his thumb, dangling carelessly. "Even right now."

Authors note:

Please comment what you liked, or some criticism, that would mean so much to me. I hope you liked them, and my portrayal of the characters? Don't get me wrong, Percabeth is my main ship, but I couldn't ignore the spider thing that would go on if Peter and Annabeth met. 

Thanks