Before I Die (Split Souls part 1)

33: A Non-Thundering Entrance

TONY PoV

Light trails in through the window. Ugh. I thought I had blackout curtains. Did I open them or something? I pry one eye open, and realize I'm not in my room at all. I'm in Percy's.

Oh. That's right. After a long while, Natasha came out of Percy's room. She told us that basically his nightmare was the memory of an agent of HYDRA from when we busted out Sally and her husband.

Then she told me to stay with him. Of course I wasn't going to argue. So obviously, the arm splayed across my shoulder that whacks me in the face is Percy's. Unfortunately, he bumped my nose in just the right way to make me sneeze.

"Ughgha!" Percy jolts awake.

I chuckle. "What was that sound?"

"Huh? What was what?" He yawns.

"That sound you made. It was all like, ugahauugah!" I poorly imitate him.

"...No, it wasn't like that."

"It wasn't? Then you do it again." I say.

"No." He turns over and buries his face into his pillow. He has to move his head to a different spot, if the puddle of drool is anything to go by.

"Ugh. What time is it?" I question.

"Eleven forty-six, Sir." JARVIS announces for us.

"Woah. I got sleep." I mumble to myself, rubbing at my eyes.

"Sleep is a thing people need." Percy agrees.

"Apparently." I yawn.

"What are you even doing here?" He wonders.

"Couldn't leave you alone."

"Oh." It's really quiet for a minute, and I worry that I've said something wrong until he adds: "Thanks."

"Any time." I swallow.

There's a much more comfortable silence. Then Percy asks, "What does AM and PM stand for?"

"Um..." I frown.

"Like, 'after midnight' and 'post mid-day'?" Percy suggests.

"Maybe? JARVIS?" I inquire.

"AM stands for ante miridiem, and PM for post miridiem." JARVIS says.

"Oh. Okay, I was kinda right. Before mid-day and after mid-day." Percy says.

"How do you know what that means? I thought that was Latin, not Greek." I frown at him.

"I guess I'm a wierd case. I understand Latin, relatively. Way more fluent in Greek though."  Percy shrugs, now out of his pillow.

"Huh. That would probably be extremely helpful, what with all the latin base words." I say, thoughtfully.

Percy is about to say something when his stomach growls, loudly. "I'm actually kind of surprised that it didn't wake me up earlier." He admits.

"Maybe it's what woke me up," I joke, though it could be an actual possibility. Percy laughs. "Well, I think a coffee sounds great about now."

"Yeah, lemme grab a shirt first." After he has donned said article of clothing, we venture off to the kitchen to find our own favored forms of sustainance.

We aren't the only ones up and about. Clint and Will are in an animated discussion about archery. Steve and Nico are comfortably conversing. Natasha is sitting cozily on the counter, watching the others with humor in her eyes as she sips her coffee.