Hawkeye is a DEMIGOD?!!!
Clint Barton was having a good day. The sun warmed his upturned face and the slight breeze ruffled his hair. It was a clear autumn day and so far, there were no alien invasions that needed urgent Avenger attention. So Clint was free to be himself for a while, not the hero Hawkeye.
This time, he sat atop the very peak of a very, very tall skyscraper, swinging his legs childishly over the edge. Looking down at the faraway ground made him feel funny, but he relished the peace and quiet the altitude offered him. Clint took a deep breath to ground himself and-
"Hello?"
Shit, shit, holy shit, I almost fell. Breathing hard from the unprecedented voice startling him out of nowhere, Clint took hasty steps away from the edge. Heart jackrabbiting in his chest and his fear quickly turning into anger, he turned to the owner of the voice and received another shock to his poor heart.
It was a teenager. Wind tousled hair and wearing typical streetstyle clothes, he looked very normal. What was not normal, was that he was sitting astride a HORSE on top of a BUILDING.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FU-
"Are you okay, dude? You're not like, planning to jump or anything are you?"
The boy's eyes were eerily focused on him, as if waiting for his answer to decide whether or not to interfere.
This whole situation was freaking Clint out.
Now, call him a hypocrite but normal people didn't spend their free time on the inaccessible roof of a towering skyscraper. Clint might genetically be nothing special, but give the guy some credit, he trained with superhumans for a living. He already had an instinctive balance and uncanny aim true to any mark but the added strength and stamina were earned through blood, sweat and tears (a lot of tears, damn you Steve Rogers and your perfect record).
The kid in front of him was still waiting for an answer. Clint took a second to size up the unknown entity.
He looked like one of those troublemakers on the streets, a spark in his bright eyes that made you look around warily to see if you were the victim of a prank. Tall and decent-looking, Clint supposes but the most bizarre thing about him was his pet(?) horse.
Like, how did he even get it up here? It boggled Clint because he could not, for the life of him figure out any answer except teleportation. And the kid didn't really look like he had any kind of unnatural powers.
The horse chuffed at him and he had a feeling it was giving him the stink-eye. It was of a glossy black colour and quite muscular except....
The air around his flanks shimmered ever so slightly like a mirage.
The horse whinnied again, this time the kid's eyes widening and then narrowing at him. Clint crossed his arms defensively and asked him quite rudely, "Who the hell are you and how did you come up here? And for god's sake how did the horse get up here?"
The boy regarded him silently for a moment. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it and opened it again to finally ask, "Have you ever heard of the Greek Gods?"
Clint was beginning to think he was hallucinating. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his dilemma. He even pinched himself to wake up if this was a dream but alas, all it resulted in was a sore spot.
"Uh", he mumbled intelligently then berated himself for being tongue-tied in front of a kid. "I know Norse Gods?"
he finally got out.
The Boy's eyes narrowed further and this was really starting to freak Clint out, oh my god, someone save him from the situation.
"Hmph", the teenager said, "you could be a legacy perhaps. I do sense the faintest trace of ichor in you. Have you manifested in any blessings or gifts?"
"Huh?"
The Boy sighed and sat down at the edge and gestured for Clint to do the same. "Come sit with me."
Clint, in all his recklessness, decided to see where this lead. He plopped down beside the mysterious guy as the horse trotted off to the other side.
"My name is Percy Jackson and what I am about to tell you might change your life."
**************
"HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT."
"Um, are you okay?" Percy was starting to worry if he had made a mistake telling Clint Barton about his demigod lineage. He was definitely too old for the typical life of a demigod and Percy was not sure if it okay to make him aware about the monsters that plagued the lives of the children of the gods.
But looking at the lithe form of the self-professed master archer( Clint liked to brag), he could imagine that this man could take care of himself against his enemies.
Though the thing that prompted Percy to open his mouth and reveal the truth to him was that Percy could sense an innate sense of loneliness that emanated from this man. And say what you will about half-bloods, they took care of their own. The first and foremost thing each child had had drilled into their heads was that this was now their family.
A family that might be broken, full of drama, fights and skirmishes but in the end, they stood back to back with their weapons in hand, fighting to their last breath while protecting their own.
(It was why Luke's betrayal had hurt each and every camper so much. He had broken their trust.)
(Family, Luke. You promised.)
"You won't be alone now. You'll have us with you." Percy blurted out since he could see the pitiful arch of Clint's back as he clasped his head in his hands.
Clint barked out a harsh laugh. "What, a group of children running around, trying to save the world? Newsflash kid, so have I. I have done things you could never dream of. Why did you even tell me this, huh? So I could lay awake at night, scared of the big, bad monster? "
Percy gritted his teeth as his anger rose sharply at Clint's condescending tone. " I told you this because we know from a very young age what it's like to feel different from others, to have no one that understands you. And what I am offering to you is a family of battle hardened soldiers who are familiar with death and loss more that you know. We watch each other's backs, we stand beside one another and if you think for a minute that I'm going to let you stand there and talk shit about my family like that, you're dead wrong. I could push you off this ledge myself as an offering to Zeus."
Percy's eyes glittered harshly and the air was charged with power, raising the hair of the back of Clint's neck. At that very moment, a strong wind ripped through the air currents, and reminded Clint of the whisper of death. He closed his eyes and swallowed his shout of fear.
"I am....sorry about what I said. It's just that this is unbelievable. This absolutely cannot be happening right now. Having Thor show up out of nowhere was a mind trip in itself and now you're saying that someone in my family may have procreated with a GOD?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying".
Maybe the truth wasn't such a good idea. What had he done? Annnabeth was going to kill him.
"Do you, maybe, have any idea as to which god?" Clint was almost afraid to know.
"Since you say that you are an archer, I would maybe guess that you're a legacy of Apollo. Though it could be one of the minor gods but, I suspect it's an Olympian because his gift still runs in your family even when you are not a direct descendant."
"Oh, okay." Clint breathed out deeply, trying not to hyperventilate. He could be related to Apollo, the god of music and archery. He was going to cry into his pillow tonight.
"Hey." Percy clasped a hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile. "I'll take you to meet my girlfriend, Annabeth, okay? She explains everything a lot better than me. She'll instruct you how to handle it. And don't worry, Apollo is one of the better guys. You could have done a lot worse, buddy."
Breathing out a shaky laugh, Clint stood up on wobbly legs. His world had just turned by 180 degrees and nothing would ever be the same again. But, and it hurt like hell to admit this even to himself, he was a little excited to meet the people Percy had promised would be accepting of who he was. Maybe, for the first time, he wouldn't be a freak. He could just be Clint.
"I don't trust my legs to support me anymore", he moaned in distress suddenly. "How the hell am I going to get off this building?"
Percy smirked and yep, that one was definitely a troublemaker.
"Oh, don't worry too much. Blackjack can take us down. He's a Pegasus."
Clint frowned. "What's a Pegasus?"
Sweeping a hand to indicate to his horse, Percy grinned. "Look closer, dude. Past the Mist."
"What's the mi- WOAH. HE HAS WINGS?!"
Percy's carefree laughter rang through the air and Clint softened.
I wouldn't mind having him as family, you know.
Meanwhile:
Apollo smirked at Poseidon in the Council Room. His uncle was practically vibrating with anger at that thought of another one of those Avenger bastards trying to claim his son as their own. The archer had caught Apollo's eyes a while ago and now he kne why. Hmm, he might have to introduce himself to his legacy.
"Hey, Uncle P, do you think Tony Stark might want to adopt Percy too? He does have a lot of money to forge documents-"
A slam of Poseidon's trident and cracks spread across the throne room floor.
Zeus sighed wearily. His brother's snot-nosed brat was more trouble than he was worth, honestly.