(Fem.) Percy meets Spidey

20

I sat on the couch, half listening as Mom yelled at me. Every word sent a jab of pain through my head and a spike of anxiety through my heart. It took everything I had to remember any of the things Ares told me. Focus on something else, distract myself, get myself away from whatever was triggering the response.

Any of those might've helped, if I wasn't being lectured by one of the people who has no idea about the PTSD. I half wished I had let Dad tell her.

A loud knock at the door caused Mom to stop yelling.

"I'll get it," I said, shooting up from the couch. I opened the door and found myself face to face with Peter. "Hey, what's up?"

"Did you want to come with me and Ned to the park? We're supposed to meet MJ there and I thought you might want to have some friends before school starts."

"Hold on. Mom? Can I go to the park with Peter Parker?" Before she could respond I pusher past Peter and shut the door. "We might want to hurry before she decides to track me down and pull me back in."

Peter followed me out of the building in silence. Only after we were on the sidewalk did he say anything. "I thought you wouldn't want to make your mom upset?"

I sighed and twirled my bracelet around my wrist. "Neither did I. Don't get me wrong, I love her but recently, I can't. There's a lot of stuff she doesn't know, stuff that she doesn't need to know about."

"Why?"

"If she knew- Peter, my dad is already insufferably overbearing. I love him but he constantly treats me like I'm two," I said. I mean, I'm not wrong. He'll randomly pick me up and sit me on his lap. He's taken up messing with my hair since I cut it. He put a godsdamn kiddie harness on me so I couldn't disappear and get attacked. "If Mom knew everything, she'd be just as bad. At least Dad has an excuse." I am a little kid to him, nothing more than an infant.

Not that age has anything to do with it. I went to find Dad before I left, and I left with blackmail on Triton. He likes curling up against Dad and taking naps.

"You should still tell her, Percy. She's your mom. Do you have any idea how much I wish my parents were still alive? That my uncle was still alive?"

"I mean, you can have my uncles. Both of them. Two for the price of one." I glanced at him with a small smile. It faded quickly. "You have no idea what happened to me while I was gone. My dad doesn't know everything either." My fingers curled into fists. I told him about the river. I didn't tell him that I wanted to let myself drown in it. I didn't tell him about Polybotes and the poison, darting into it despite my every instinct screaming not to.

Still wonder why Jason didn't say anything more. I pretty much straight up told him I was trying to die. I didn't move the poison because I felt like I deserved to die. I cracked a joke and next thing I know he's acting like nothing happened.

"You're ADHD, right?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

Peter messed with the hem of his shirt. "Anxiety and depression tend to coexist with it. Is it something like that?"

I shook my head. "Nothing that's ever been diagnosed, but then again the place where I spend my summers has the simultaneous best and worst healthcare." It's near impossible for anything to get past the Apollo cabin, especially Will, but it's hard to get meds. The closest we can get is a mixture of potions from the Hecate cabin and things the Hermes cabin brews up.

Gods, my yearly checkup is going to be complete Hades. Apollo would've found the PTSD if he was looking, so I know Will is going to.

"When was the last time you went to talk to someone?"

"Are we talking fully licensed? Because that would've been when I was little. I've been seeing a series of healers since then."

"You know crystals have no effect outside of the placebo effect, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Just because I said healer doesn't mean they're trying to say essential oils cure everything. Will has an entire case of vaccines to use on kids whose parents didn't let them get them. Though those are less for us-" Our immune systems are boosted by our godly half so it's near impossible for us to get anything worse than a sniffle. "-and more for him to sit in Central Park and shoot kids with them."

"What?"

"Yeah. I think he said he was planning on coming to this park this year, so you better hope you have all of your vaccines. He's not as a hood of a shot as some of his brothers. Lee could shoot the nuts from a squirrel's paw."

We walked into the park and Peter led me towards a bench. A heavier boy with dark hair sat next to a girl with curly black hair. He kept trying to look at what she was drawing.

"Hey guys." Peter broke into a wide grin.

"Hey nerd. Who's the girl? Find someone else whose dad is a supervillain?"

"MJ, this is Percy. Percy this is MJ and that's Ned."

"Sally's daughter?" Ned asked. "Wow, you look nothing like her. Not that that's a bad-"

I held up a hand. "I know what you mean. I take after my dad."

"What's your dad do?" MJ asked.

"Fisherman."

"Ah yes, contributing the overfishing of threatened species." A small smile tugged at her lips, the only hint that she was teasing.

"Trust me, I've seen some of the small things he's fished up and I'd rather have those things be dead than in the water. I can't eat fish, but my gods those things are terrifying." I still can't imagine what a big enough sea monster to eat looks like.

"Hey, hate to break up the budding chickmance, but are we going to get ice cream or not?" Ned asked. "Because if we aren't I'm taking Peter to finish up the Lego set."

MJ put her sketchbook in her satchel. "Let's go. Last one there pays."

I like muffins.

See yah