Percy meets Jason 2.0
Perseus Jackson was chilling in the park with the ducks. Eighteen years old and a shit ton of trauma under his belt, his form of therapy was to feed the ducks. I mean, ducks are cute right?
So yeah, anyway, he was sitting on a bench, a vacantly pleasant smile on his face as he watched the ducks swimming merrily in the pond.
The trill of a phone cut through the silence. Percy patted his pockets until he remembered, wait. He didn't have a phone because phones gave away demigods' locations like a homing beacon. Must be someone else's then.
He shrugged and sat back, focusing on the ducks once more. Must be nice to be a duck.....floating away merrily, merrily.......
A deep sigh was heard from near. The immense amount of tiredness caught Percy's attention. He tilted his head slightly to listen as the blond, beefy guy picked up his phone to accept the call. "Hello? Yes. Yes, I'm at the park. No, no trouble at all. Yes, I'll be there."
He curtly cut the call without a goodbye.
Noticing piercing, stormy green eyes fixed on him from a short distance, the guy flashed a weak smile. Percy nodded back warily. He seems like a human. Smelled like one too.
Since coming back from Tartarus, Percy had a preternatural sense for spotting monsters. Usually they smelled their hellish home on him and stayed away.
"Hey, kid." Percy startled at the address. He raised an eyebrow as if to say- Who,me?
The blond guy who reminded him a bit of Jason really, chuckled a bit and spoke to him.
"No school on a Tuesday?"
"Nah. I go to university in a few months."
"Really? What are you thinking about studying?"
"Maaannn." Percy groaned. "I'm tired of people asking me that so many times. Makes me rethink every single one of my decisions and nervous. But, uh, I'm gonna study Marine Biology."
"That's really cool." Beefy Jason grinned showing pearly white teeth. Wow.
"Yeah. I love the sea." Percy grinned back.
"Oh yeah, Save the Turtles." Jason 2.0 did a weird little fist pump and looked really embarrassed after.
Percy giggled at this guy trying very obviously to learn the new generation's antics. "Don't forget the bees, man." He teased as the man blushed to the tips of his blonde hair.
"Yeah, uh, anyway, my name's Steve. What's yours, kid?"
"Percy Jackson. Nice to meet you, Steve." Percy shuffled forwards and held out his hand, the manners ingrained in him by Sally coming out to show.
Steve gripped his hand in a firm grip, then winced and loosened it quickly, dropping his hand like hot coal.
Percy frowned at him a little bit.
Steve contritely said,"Sorry, sometimes I can't control my strength all that well ever since Buc- um, sorry if I hurt you, you know."
Percy laughed, confused at his stammering. "Why, would you hurt me? It was perfectly fine, I don't know what you're talking about?
Steve had wide eyes as he stared hard at Percy. Feeling a bit unnerved at the attention, Percy ruffled his hair and stood up, brushing the grass stains from the seat of his pants. Steve scrambled to his feet as well, staring at him the whole time.
"Well, I better go-"
"Wanna race?"
........
What?
"What?" asked Percy.
Steve had a sheepish look on his face as if regretting every decision that led him to this moment.
"I just mean, ah, I mean that I run pretty fast and no one can keep up with me y'know and since you look pretty fit I thought we might be able to uhm, compete?"
Percy stared dumbly at him for a moment. Steve looked like he really wanted to sink to the ground and let it swallow him up(or be frozen in ice at the bottom of the sea).
Percy blinked once, then twice.
"Sure."
"WHAT?"
"Sure, I'll race you."
Percy smiled so wide, it lit up his entire face and his green eyes sparkled like the clearest waters of the Atlantic. Steve looked a bit stunned at the display. A wind picked up from nowhere which ruffled the inky black strands of the grinning boy, as if caressing his joyful face.
"We're the same, man. I haven't had someone able to keep up with me in so long and it would be really fun I think."
Steve still stared at him.(The staring was getting a bit much now.)
"Afraid of losing, old man?" Percy taunted, narrowing his eyes at him.
It shook the other guy from his reverie and he scowled back at him playfully. "Old man?! I'll show you an old man. I am not that old..... technically." He mumbled a bit petulantly.
"Come on, then. Where to?"
"Oh, wanna race from here to the uh... let's stay Stark Tower?"
"Stark Tower? You mean that ugly as shit-"
"Language", Steve barked before he could control himself.
"Wow, you really are an old man." Percy laughed at him even more.
"Whatever. The path is pretty clear right now. You sure you're up to it, kid."
"Less chatting, old man. Let's see what you got."
Percy was really excited now, the dreary mood from before gone at the promise of an exhilarating race against the wind. He jumped up and down a few times and stretched his legs a bit theatrically. After all, normal humans did that right? (What do demigods know of normal anyway? )
"On three. One, two, three.." Steve had barely finished calling out when both of them took off like a bullet, swerving around people and cars alike. A few people swore at them but this was New York. A few shenanigans here and there were practically daily news.
Percy whooped as he leapt over cones and barely avoided slamming into pillars. The added danger of a busy road further added to the building adrenaline rush. After the dangers he faced on a daily basis, this was child's play. Steve was behind him, swearing up a storm, trying to catch up to the demon child who was racing like a whirlwind, rushing through the streets easily.
The looming monstrosity that was the Stark Tower was almost upon them. Steve put on a burst of speed to try to overtake Percy but he was always a few steps ahead, his carefree laughter carried over by the whooshing wind.
Percy tumbled down upon the steps to the lobby, beating Steve by a second. They both paused to catch their breath, Percy coughing a bit wheezily but the ever present mirth in his precious eyes clearly shining through.
Steve was in awe. Who was this kid? Or better question, what was he? Some kind of mutant? There were no obvious signs on him except those damn eyes that sent a shiver down his spine everytime he met them. They were eyes that carried a depth of knowledge he could never understand and could never hope to experience.
Percy looked over at him in innocent camaraderie and Steve felt a little bad at bringing him over here under false pretenses. But this little race of theirs meant that he was right. There was something not quite right with this kid. It didn't necessarily mean that he was a danger to them but it wouldn't hurt to be careful nonetheless.
"Alright, old man. That was quite a race, no? Been a while since I ran for the sheer fun of it." Percy ran a hand through the windswept bangs covering his eyes. He hadn't even broken a sweat running the absurd distance.
Steve grinned back. Honestly, he couldn't see this kid as being dangerous. I mean, come on, look at the dopey smile that took over his entire face. He actually wanted to wrap him in his arms so that no harm could come to him. Seriously, wrap him in a blanket and feed him a steaming cup of hot chocolate and the cookies Bucky bakes now and again as a part of his therapy healing.....
"Steve?"
"mmm? Oh yeah. Yeah, that was", his grin matched the smile Percy wore, "that was awesome. I am really glad I met you, kid."
Percy bashfully looked down and shuffled his feet. So adorable, Steve thought to himself.
"Um, I better get home now. My mom must be waiting for me. My friends promised to visit and if I leave them without supervision, my mom starts breaking out the most embarrassing baby pictures and stories. I have to go see that doesn't happen under any circumstances. It'll ruin my street cred." Percy complained but the underlying affection almost broke Steve's heart. Oh god, I wish I could steal this kid. Maybe I could adopt him with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources? Hmm....
Outwardly, Steve waved goodbye as Percy whistled for a cab but waved away the one cab that stopped. He looked up at the far skies instead.
Huh, weird.
Steve went inside the tower, deciding to keep this encounter to himself after all. The boy wasn't capable of evil. And Steve knew how evil could manifest, up close and personal. There wasn't an iota of evil in Percy's bones.
Time to look up illegal adoption techniques. Steve laughed at his ridiculous thoughts.
(That day, it turned out that the entire Tower's water supply had been contaminated but they could never trace the source since neighbouring areas weren't affected. Just the Tower.
Weird, right?)