Questions
The next mornings were always disorienting when Leo woke up. He’d forget that he moved into the Avenger’s Tower to live with the heroes and Percy. It was strange, every time he thought or talked to Percy, his heart felt strange. He thought Percy would confront him about it since the whole Aphrodite’s blessing so Percy could sense the emotions going on in people’s hearts. But the other teen never made a comment on it.
Leo got up and ready for the day, much to his distaste. He liked to sleep in for once. That night, nightmares didn’t torment either of the resident demigods. The Avengers did wake up from nightmares but not as violently as the boys.
He walked into the dining room to see Steve, Bruce, and Thor already there. The super soldier was cooking some pancakes while the other two were talking at the table. Natasha probably was waking up Clint, Tony was down in his lab, and Percy was still sleeping in or at least still in his room. Sure enough, Natasha walked in with a tired Clint following her. As she went to sit down on the other side of Thor, Clint went to his reserved coffee pot and took a gulp from it. Leo walked over to the fridge and grabbed some orange juice and poured himself a glass.
“Hey, Leo? Could you get Tony and Percy? Pancakes are almost done. I just need to do yours and theirs.” Steve asked.
“Sure can, Stevie boy!”
The group laughed as Leo ran off to the lab. When he got there, he could see Tony sipping some coffee (he decided to sober up for his nephew’s sake, after Percy’s reaction to the alcohol) and reviewing some blueprints for a monster proof Stark phone while looking troubled over something. Leo knocked on the wall, letting the older man know that he was there. Tony turned and greeted Leo and ushered him over to the table. Leo excitedly ran forward and sat on the nearby stool.
“Steve told me to get you since the pancakes are almost ready. I know how excited you are to try the blue pancakes.”
Ever since the first time Steve made pancakes, Percy had asked his to be blue. The last time it happened, Tony put a request to try it as well as Leo. Tony chuckled.
“I have to ask you something Leo, before we go up.”
“Uhh, okay?”
He grabbed some stuff to fiddle with from his toolbelt to help him listen to whatever Tony has to say.
“Okay, well I have a few questions for you. The first one is, are you happy living here?”
Leo nodded. “It’s been the happiest time of my life here!”
Tony smiled. “I’m glad to hear! I know this question may be a bit… upsetting to you but have you ever… loved anyone else? Other than Calypso?”
Leo stopped making the item in his hands and stared down at it. He could tell it was an Iron Man action figure of some sort.
“I… I think I am? I think? I’m not sure. I’m still making sense of it.”
“Okay. Just some of your behavior seemed different around one particular person. I won’t say who,” he said when Leo whipped his head up at him, “But, my last question is if you could help me with something.”
“Uhh, sure!”
“Great! I’ll fill you in later, after breakfast.”
Leo nodded and just remembered that he needed to get Percy. He decided to walk with Tony to the dining room to make sure that Percy was there or not. He wasn’t. Leo ran off to leave Tony to tell Steve why they were a little late. At that point, all the pancakes were done and Clint and Thor were getting impatient to eat theirs. Steve insisted that they eat together.
Leo stopped at Percy's door, a little out of breath. He only knocked once and the door was flung open suddenly. Leo yelped in surprise. Percy still looked like he just got out of bed but he looked troubled.
“I need to tell you something Leo. Something important.”
“Uhh, can it wait? Or could you tell it to the group? Steve’s already mad at me and Tony for being late.”
“No. I need to tell you before I tell the others.”
“Okay. Uhh… JARVIS? Could you tell the others that we have a demigod situation and we will be late and that they can eat without us?”
“Of course Sir. They will be informed of your absence.”
At that, Percy pulled Leo into the bedroom. Percy’s bedroom was almost covered in blue. On some shelves were some picture frames, action figures, random stuff from quests, and a lot of seashells. Two picture frames were turned downwards so that no one could see the pictures in them. The two teens sat on the bed still with the Iron Man blanket on top of it.
“What’s up Percy? Did you have a dream?”
Percy nodded.
“It was about one of my blessings. The ones from Aphrodite and Hera besides the charmspeak. The ones that let me sense soulmates and the emotions in people’s hearts, apparently, I can’t sense my own or my soulmate’s love. I can sense my soulmate’s heartache no matter where in the world we are. But I don’t know who they are. At least, Hera in my dream told me I won’t know until the time is right.”
As he finished, Leo wasn’t quite sure what to say. He felt like there was something huge they were missing, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. They sat in a slightly uncomfortable silence for a bit before Percy broke it.
“We should get to the dining room. They might be getting worried.”
“I guess.”
Percy got up to leave the room before Leo stopped him.
“Are you going to tell the others?”
“I’m not sure. I might tell a few of them. Maybe not all together.”
They left the room and walked in to see Natasha and Bruce holding a plate of blue pancakes each. Clint was trying to grab one of them. Steve was pinching his nose in mock disappointment but his shoulders were shaking from silent laughter. Tony and Thor watched in amusement while eating their pancakes.
“What’s going on?” Percy asked while grabbing the plate in Nat’s hands.
“Clint ate his pancakes too quickly but we all told him not to and he’s still hungry for more.” Nat said with a straight face.
Clint pouted and mumbled something under his breath as he got up to get some fruit to eat. Leo went over to Bruce and collected his own pancakes from the scientist. The teens took a seat next to each other and started eating their blue pancakes. By this time, Clint was gloomy eating an apple while watching everyone else enjoying their pancakes and Percy drowning his pancakes in syrup.
“Wow, Perce! The blue does make them ten times better!” Tony said, stuffing another bite into his mouth. “No offense Steve. Your pancakes were already amazing but wow!”
Steve and Percy chuckled. Percy was still sad over his parent’s deaths but he was happy that he found another family.