(Fem.) Percy meets Spidey

6

Water swirled around me, faster and faster, a dark whirlpool. Still the presence didn't leave, didn't shift from my bed. I rolled over, tangling myself further in my blankets. 

"Go away," I grumbled. 

"You screamed," said Triton. His powers slipped around mine, settling the water. The gentle current tugged at strands of my hair. "Excuse me for being worried about you."

I almost snorted. Being worried means he'd actually have to care. He'd made it clear he only tolerated my existence, nothing more nothing less. If Dad didn't like me, didn't want me here, then Triton would be all too glad to dispose of me. Whether that meant throwing me out or killing me, I didn't know. 

"I do, in fact, care." He tapped his fingers on my arm. "Especially when I get flashes of your dreams. So I came over here to check on you, and to ask you to please not dream, because I have a meeting tomorrow."

"If I could stop myself, I would."

Water brushed along my skin. Concern echoed through it. Triton leaned over me, lifting up his hand---I flinched---the pads of his fingers drew against my cheek, curling with the shape up my face, until he held my head. Glowing eyes stared. He opened his mouth, then sighed. 

"I'm sure he'll do a better job of it," he said. Faster than I could track, he leaned next to the door. It opened, and he slipped out. Dad peered over his shoulder. Huffing out a laugh, he shook his head. 

"Are you okay?" The bed creaked. His hand settled in my hair, so similar to Triton's, but bigger and safer. I could press into it. I did. No risk of him killing me, not when he fights his brother so hard to allow me to live. (Sea gods are notorious for their tempers, for their rapidly changing emotions, but as long as he claimed me as his, I'd be safe.) 

"Triton didn't decide to kill me, so I think so." I shimmied closer to Dad's warmth. It sank into my bones like an anchor.

"He won't hurt you."

"Keep believing that." It's all the gods do. They hurt and take and keep asking things that we're not sure we can give. Everything they gift is in exchange for something else. But when he leaned down and kissed my head, beard scratching my skin, and offered to stay with me, I didn't care if he'd one day want something in return. 

Dad was the outlier with the gods, and even if he would want me to do something for him, I could at least know it wouldn't be for a while. 

"I don't know if I'll be able to get back to sleep." His fingers carded through my hair again. "Do you care if we just talk?"

"About what?"

I shrugged. Dad continued to rub my head, gently dragging his nails over my scalp. My breathing evened out, long, slow near silent inhales as my chest barely rose. The water cradled me, gentle arms holding me in an embrace. A strand curled around my shoulders, tugging my blanket up and tucking it around my body. 

Finally, Dad said, "I doubt you want to talk about the stuff I'm thinking of." He rolled onto the bed, ignoring my squawk. Air replaced water, and he tossed a lightly glowing ball in the air. 

"Too slow," he laughed after I failed to snatch it. "You need to work on your reflexes if your old man's faster than you."

"I can deflect bullets." 

"But you can't catch a ball of water." 

"Usually balls of water aren't trying to kill me," I snapped, then winced. He's a god. He's a god and you aren't acting like it. 

He exhaled and waved his hand. The ball vanished in a puff of steam. "Percy," ---He reached and he pulled, bringing me flush to his chest. My throat closed.--- "You're my child. I'm not going to be upset with you for acting like it. You can snap at me, yell at me, all of that. I'd deserve it. There are--" Dad cut off as my fingers curled into the loose material of his shirt. I yawned. "I thought you said you weren't going to be able to sleep?"

"You're warm." I smushed my face against his chest. "I don't want to go home."

"Your mother will worry if you don't."

"You could call her." 

"She'll want to talk to you, little one."

I grimaced and tried to press closer. "Why do you think I don't want to go back? She's going to make me talk about things I don't want to talk about, things I don't even want to think about!" My eyes scrunched close. His heart thumped just a little to the left of my head. Even underwater, the salty sea scent that followed him surrounded me. A button from his shirt dug into my nose.  Focus on Dad. Not the memories, keep focusing on him. "And I don't even know what else we could talk about, because I've been gone for so long. I-- I lost so much time and everyone just kept moving on. How can I even act like I'm still a part of that family?"

"Because you are. Time isn't going to change that, especially when you were stolen away. You're a part of this family, you're my child, and you're a part of that one because you're your mother's child. Interference from one side shouldn't affect the other," said Dad, voice low and hushed. His arms tightened around me, tugging me closer to his chest. 

"I don't belong there.  I don't feel like I do. It's not my room. It's not my bed. I went missing and it feels like Mom and Paul used that as an excuse to do what they've wanted to, regardless of if I'd come back or not. And with everything that happened, all of it-- I know I'm not the same as when she took me, but Mom will ask questions if I'm not the same, so I have to be the same." 

They deserved to be happy. (But why did they have to move? Nothing is mine there. It might be my stuff, but its all packed up, out of the way. Like they wanted to forget I exist.)

"The man who fancies himself a sailor dooms a ship." The warning hung in the air. "You'll only hurt yourself, Percy."

If only I could find it in myself to care. 

Okay

So this was edited (god i cant believe this story was started in 2019. Remember when I finished a 80,000 word fanfic in a year? where did that go) and I'd like to note something: Remember in Sea of Monsters when percy could telepathically talk to tyson under water? Percy just kinda does that accidentally in this

See yah