In Which Athena Checks up on Her Son
To say that Peter Parker, unremarkably, had an unordinary life would be putting it short to be honest. There’s been a lot of things that’s happened over the course of his 16 years of life and he’s glad (Partially) to say that none of said-events has killed him. Yet. He’s still counting the days where he’s yet to be viciously mauled by something - whether it be some sort of Greek mythology monster or it be his own stupidity that gets him killed.
But, back to the point, Peter doesn’t have a normal life. Why? Well, one of the winning factors might just be the fact that he’s the son of a Greek God (If the reference to Greek monsters wasn’t a big enough indication), Athena. The other winning factor is that he’s also Spider-Man, which is hugely ironic because Peter is 100% sure that his half-blood siblings are relatively terrified of spiders. But, Peter digresses.
Now, with these winning factors, you can only imagine what his life is like. One would assume that mixing his blood relation to a god and his side-career of being a vigilante, it would only go so well. Case in point; his current situation.
“Hey, Ma,” he chuckles, smiling sheepishly under the mask. Athena only quirks an eyebrow, arms crossed, face stoned and poker-faced, as she floats in the air, 12 floors off the ground of Avengers Tower.
“Hello Peter,” she says, greeting her son, “And what, if I may ask, are you doing so high up and not on the ground?”
Well shit, he hadn’t really thought of a reason. Well, aside from the fact that Mr. Stark had called him over for something and he figured the quickest way to get in was from the top, but he wasn’t exactly expecting his mum to show up of all places.
“... Accident?” he responds, unsure of himself. Athena doesn’t look convinced.
She sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose and for a moment, Peter watched his own mother age in front of him. Athena looked… older, somehow, if that was even possible. There were the faintest of wrinkles and signs of eyebags beginning to show as she tried to compose herself. But as quick as Peter saw it, it was gone.
“And, pray tell, Peter, how does one get stuck 12 floors off the ground? As far as I’m concerned, half-bloods did not suddenly manifest the ability to stick to walls,” Athena sighs, looking at Peter with a fixed, indifferent expression. Just like how he remembers her most of the time.
Peter stays silent for a good minute, formulating sentences in his head. Then he blurts out with the best reason he could think of.
“I’m Spider-Man.” he says, blurting out the first thing that made sense to him.
A longer silence. Peter thinks he nailed it.
Update; Peter did not nail it, whatsoever.
He should’ve gotten the hint when Athena looked as if she was only a good few seconds away from slapping something. And Peter doubts it was going to be herself. Athena loves her kids, she really does. But that did not mean that she couldn’t slap some sense into them if necessary.
What’s worse, however, was how Peter was forced to get down from the Tower and into civilian clothing, going into disguise although he wasn’t the only one doing so - it seemed like Athena was also going into disguise. The dark grey suit with button up and pencil skirt is definitely an upgrade from the chiton she usually wore, although a bit much.
“Explain,” she demands, crossing her arms again as she fixes her eyes on Peter in a heavy somewhat glare. Peter partially shrinks.
It takes a while for the words to formulate, but Peter gets a rhythm going as he begins to explain to his mum what exactly happened and what she had missed since she last visited when he was - Gods, if he even remembers - 9 years old? As he explains, words spilling out faster than he could think, the glare on Athena’s face softens, her stern eyes melting into something softer as she realizes just how much she’s missed. It’s not a surprise to her, in all honesty, considering just how inavailable she was during her children’s life, but good God, someone threw a fucking ramp at her child!
“I… was not aware that Richard died,” she ends up saying, trying to process a lot of this information.
Peter shrugs, looking away. They were both sitting in the grass patches outside of Avengers Tower.
“Yeah, well, it’s fine. Aunt May took me in,” he says, not trying to make a big deal out of it.
Athena sighs wearily, rubbing her face as she does so before abruptly standing up. She begins to pace, Peter watching her as she did so.
“This is… not good, quite frankly. No, no, not at all. I should’ve taken you to camp long ago, I fear…” She mutters, pacing back and forth in a manner that was always so prominent in the children of Athena - and Peter, particularly - when stressed, “No, this has gone long enough.”
Then she stops, turning to face Peter with set determination in her eyes.
“Peter, dear, I am so sorry, truly I am, that you had to deal with this on your own-”
“I wasn’t alone, Mom,” Peter interrupts, frowning ever so slightly, “I had May.”
Athena warily smiles, “Yes, and I trust May with every fibre of my immortal soul, but it won’t last long enough. You need to be prepared when you have to fend for yourself. And this may sound odd coming from me, but I fear that you may not be safe by yourself for long.”
The irony of it all that Peter already knew pretty much how to do that. Sure, he’s relied on Aunt May for a long time, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to fend for himself. He’s fought with several monsters on his own, moreso than before of course, when May had somehow concealed Peter entirely from monsters. It’s a miracle that he hasn’t died yet, if he was being honest.
“Okay,” is all he answers in reply, unsure what was coming next, “What do you want me to do?”
“Come this summer, I’ll send you instructions on how to access the camp. I’ll send a satyr if needed for any guidance, but I am sure you will be able to locate the camp without trouble.”
“Sure. Can’t be too hard.”
Peter shrugs, unbothered by the entire situation although he was wondering how he was going to explain to Aunt May that now he needed to go to Camp Half-Blood and how he was going to explain to Mr. Stark that suddenly, he won’t be available all summer. Eh, he’ll think about it later.
“I must go now, before my presence is detected and I doubt that the city needs a fourth war going on,” Athena eventually says, sighing as she brushes golden locks out of her face. She reaches forward, hesitantly before drawing her hand back. She looked conflicted, as if wondering whether it would be appropriate to hug Peter after being gone for so long.
“Goodbye, Peter,” she eventually decides on a gentle squeeze on his shoulder, “Until next time.”
“Bye, Mom,” Peter responds, “Until next time.”
A flash of light and she was gone, as quickly as she appeared.
Peter then dropped his head into his hands and groaned loudly.
“How am I going to explain this…?”