Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Percy was bitten when he was 14 years old. It happens on that stupid field trip in 8th grade, he had been messing around with Grover and knocked over one of the arachnid display cases on accident. He got detention after school and had gotten a nice bite to the back of the neck.

The next morning he wakes up 3 inches taller and accidentally rips his closet door off its hinges.

(His mom was not happy)

He thought about telling Grover, telling his mom, telling anybody, but then a few months later he knocks out a guy attempting to rob the CVS near his school with one punch and decided maybe he could put these powers to good use.

———

Its a really shitty suit. In fact its not even really a suit, its a red ski mask and a blue hoodie he found buried under his bed that had a mustard stain on it, but it does the job.

He uses his skateboard and his wall climbing abilities to get around the city but it proves ineffective after his board gets broken when he’s running from the cops after stopping a car thief.

Yeah, definitely need a better way to get around.

Percy isn’t stupid. He comes up with a solution to his transportation problem easily. Spiderwebs. Partially because it’d be cool but also because NewYork has taken to calling him Spiderman after seeing blurry photos of him in the paper climbing up buildings and on wanted signs put up by the police, and he’s come to like the name. The only problem is the actual execution of it. So he does a little research and finds out that the same lab where he’d been bitten had been developing groundbreaking web-like fluid that can hold a weight of up to 6 tons but had to abandon the project due to lack of funding.

So Percy steals it.

Its suspiciously easy, he sneaks into the lab through a window a 3 am on a Sunday. The web fluid is stored in boxes shoved into the corner of the lab, obviously abandon. He rummages through the file cabinet next to the stack and finds the one labeled Carbon Nanotube Rope (Web fluid is a much cooler name) and tucks the file into this backpack along with 6 packs of the stuff.

The web shooters are a bit more feasible for Percy to do himself, he gotten used to fixing stuff around the apartment for his mom and with a little help from the robotics teacher at his school (who was very confused as to why Percy was all of a sudden asking him for spare turbine bearings and palm switches having never actively been interested in his class) he managed to make pretty feasible web shooters (and develop a newfound interest in science).

Its the most Sally (and percy if were being honest) has seen him ever focus on a project and every time Percy skips dinner to hole up in his room or go out to test his super secret school project she lets him without question. (If she knew he was actually going out beating up thugs and attempting to swing around lower Manhattan using spiderwebs it’d be a very different story.)

———

Its the summer before freshman year, about 8 months after he’s bitten when he tells Grover. He’s sleeping over at his house when he sees a tweet about a bank robbery on 12th street not far from Grovers place. He goes and beats up 6 guys, almost gets shot and sneaks back into Grovers room a 2am with bruises scattering his face and a wide-eyed best friend awaiting him.

He explains what happened, how he got bit, and how he’d been stopping a bit of crime around the city. Grover freaks out (unsurprisingly). Percy shows him the web shooters and he freaks out again. Percy still in his suit, which he hasn’t upgraded at all, apart from buying a new blue hoodie (no stains this time) and using a sharpie to draw a spider on the back. Grover takes personal offense to the worn ski mask and the old navy jacket and tells Percy to give him a few weeks and he’ll make him a suit that doesn’t make him embarrassed to be best friends with a superhero.

———

It takes almost 2 weeks (12 days to be exact) but Percy gets a text on top of the building on 56th street from Grover after stopping a guy from stealing a kids bike (her mom bought him an ice cream as a thank you) telling him that he’s finished.

Percy swings as close as he can to his house, ducking into an alleyway to change into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt (it was unbelievably hot in his suit in the summer) and walk the 4 blocks left to Grovers house.

It's kind of unbelievable what Grover managed to create. Its red and blue made completely of spandex (Percy complains about that for a solid minute) and its got a spider across the back, Its the coolest gift Percy has ever gotten and he thanks Grover for it every day for the next month.

———

New York takes him a bit more seriously now with the super awesome suit upgrade. The name Spiderman officially sticks (everyone who had been relentlessly calling him spiderboy finally gives in when they see the new suit) and Percy goes out on patrol a lot more. He knows it’ll be a lot harder when school starts up but for now he enjoys the freedom of going to beat up bad guys, swing around his city for a couple hours and then go hang out with Grover.

His mom is happy to see him out of the house so much, so he lets her keep with the idea that he now has more friends. He weighs the idea of telling her that he’s Spiderman but then he catches her watching the news, the story of a hostage situation he was at with a worried face and decides nope he will be keeping his superhero life a secret as long as he can, to keep her from worrying (which she already does enough of).

———

Over time he gets a lot better at this whole superhero thing, better at fighting, making less of a mess when taking down criminals and at swinging around the city (he hits less building which is good in helping him keep this a secret from his mom). The thing about fighting more crime (which New York has a lot of) is it means more injuries for him. His super healing helps as does the small bit of padding on the suit but some fights leave him worse for wear than others. The first time he walks into the kitchen with a fading black eye Sally watches him with a worried look for 15 minutes while he eats his cereal and makes him hold frozen peas on his face.

He’s glad he has Grover to talk about it with. They’ll hide away in his small attic while Percy works on improving his web shooters and recreating the web fluid (he’s nearly got the formula down with the help of google and an advanced chemistry textbook from the library (( he had gotten a weird look from the librarian for that one)) and Grovers asks him about his latest escapades. Its a nice change from keeping it all to himself, someone to share the childlike excitement with (I mean come on, he can lift cars for gods sake).

Schools approaching quickly. Percy grows another inch (Sally groans when jeans she bought him 4 months ago only reach his ankles and tells him to stop growing.). Percy tones it down on the superheroing. He knows with school he’s not going to be able to keep up with his normal schedule so he dwindles it down over the approaching weeks of his freshman year.

———

Freshman year is weird. He turns out to be really good at science, getting a 96 on his first test 2 weeks in. His mom nearly cries when he shows her the grade and he comes home the next day to a fresh baked plate of blue chocolate chip cookies. He lets himself have 2 days off from being Spiderman before New York starts to wonder where he went. He goes out after school on Friday, gets a cat out of a tree (cliche, he knows), helps a nice couple moving into their new house with their boxes and at the end of the night, right when he’s about to go home gets caught up in a little grand larceny which end up with him chasing the thieves to the Queensboro bridge and webbing the guys up at the north end of the bridge for the cops right behind him.

He gets home later than he thought and Sally pulls him into a hug 2 steps after he’s gotten through the door. She asks him if he’s okay, he swears that he fine just got caught up after school and goes up to his room. He tries not to see the worry in her eyes.

It's about a month into the school year when he develops a set schedule. He gets up, has breakfast with his Mom (3 out of 5 days of the week its something blue) walk to school with Grover, double checking that his suit is stuffed into the bottom of his bag. Go through the motions at school, attempt to stop the jerk sophomore Luke Castellan from picking on Grover too much, grab a snack from the deli-mart across the street, change into his suit in an alleyway and then swing on top of a subway to start his patrol.

Keeping up with homework was tough, but he managed to squeeze it in between crimes on top of random billboard signs or buildings. Of course, because Percy was Percy and he had some of the worst luck of anyone he’d ever met, sometimes a bird would poop on his English essay, or his algebra homework would blow off whatever rooftop he was staked out on, never to be recovered (apparently my homework flew away on the subway platform isn’t a plausible excuse for his teachers).

———

Percy comes across the alien tech completely on accident. He’s been tailing a few guys for the past hour or so and, well when they entered a shady looking warehouse, well, he kind of had to follow them. So he sneaks in, hides on the ceiling and in-between rows of boxes listening to a bunch of guys talk about deals and money and secret meetups. The alien guns are big and glowy and scary and Percys not a 100% sure on what the protocol is for big alien weapons are so he calls the police (even though they’re still warranting for his arrest) waits till he hears the faint sirens get closer and jumps in.

It's the biggest fight Percys even been in. There are 12 guys in total, all big and all strong. He manages to web up a couple of them before the pull the big guns out. The tech is weird. It makes him hover with no way to resist except for his web shooters. He webs the guy holding the gun and collapses to the ground. He hears yelling behind him, hears a gun fire off. The police had arrived (finally. geez. these guys were slow) and managed to help Percy take down the rest of the gang, only almost shooting him twice. Of course, after the bad guys were webbed up or handcuffed one of the cops halfheartedly yelled for Percy to stop he was under arrest but Spiderman was already gone.

(The police didnt really want to arrest him anyways, the street cops had grown kind of fond of the web-head)

———

Sally finds out.

It's inevitable, after all, Percy is her only son and she likes to think she’s knows him pretty well. Percy had been helping the NYPD with a hostage situation that afternoon (Spiderman and the majority of the NYPD were pretty cool now, to the displeasure of the NYPDs Captain) and when he crawled through his bedroom window and looked to see his mom sitting on his bed he froze. She didn't look shocked just a bit upset. She asked him if he was okay (Yeah mom I promise), what he was thinking getting involved in all these dangerous situations (Mom I have these powers I can’t not do anything) and where in the world he had managed to get the suit (Grover made it for me). She gets the most upset when she finds out he’s been hiding this second life from him for over a year but other than that she just makes him promise to stay safe and be home by 11:30 on school nights (earlier if he didn't have his homework done).

———

He meets Annabeth his sophomore year. It's after his guidance counselor puts him in AP Chemistry stating that in the span of two days he had managed to (apparently) prove that the regular chemistry class was too easy for him (Percy doesn't know what to say to this, he's been in the easiest classes his school has to offer since forever because of his dyslexia so he just follows his guidance counselor and doesn't question it). Since he entered the class late he gets the last seat available next to the tall blonde girl who gives him one glance and doesn’t speak to him for the rest of the class except to let out a small sigh when he asks her if he can borrow a pencil.

A few days later they’re paired together for the rest of the year as lab partners. He tries not to look offended when Annabeth lets out an annoyed huff at the announcement.

The first lab they do together is an absolute disaster. Apparently Annabeth is dyslexic too, and together they manage to confuse potassium and pyridine, succeeding in blowing up a beaker and both getting detention because their chem teacher hates them (that's one of the only thing they can agree on).

Detention is stupid they’re the only two people because it's the first week of school. Percy learns a lot about Annabeth in the hour they’re stuck in that room, she just moved from California, she has a brother (maybe two) and she possesses more intelligence than Percy thought was possible to store in a humans brain but she levels it out with biting sarcasm and he thinks they’ll get along fine.

———

They do. Annabeth, Percy and Grover, one he introduces the two, become quite the trio. They sit together at lunch with some other friends they meet in their classes, Percy and Grover doing dumb boy things and Annabeth making fun of them for it. Annabeth and Percy spend a lot of time mocking their chem teacher behind his back and manage to only blow up 3 other test tubes that year.

The first time they all hang out together at Percys house Sally pulls Annabeth into a big motherly hug. Annabeth flushes red and Percy makes a face at her behind his Moms back. Sally lets go of Annabeth, tells the group theres cookies in the kitchen and that she’s heading out please try not to burn the apartment down while she’s gone.

———

They eat the entire plate of cookies. Percy smiles when Annabeth doesn’t question the color.

———

Spiderman's arrest warrant is finally taken down and Percy celebrates by webbing up the Queensboro Bridge to say About time, thanks. He shows up to the press conference announcing it and can’t hold back a smirk when the Captain is asked about all of the crime Spiderman stopped before the cops could manage. Grover is giggling next to him and when they stop by Percys apartment, his Mom gives him a hug and tells him she’s proud he’s not a wanted felon anymore (she laughs when she says it because what is their life anymore).

______

He turns 16 that August just before junior year starts. Its small thing, just his Mom, Grover and Annabeth who laugh while they eat blue cake and ice cream. Percy dad shows up for three very awkward minutes but Percy appreciates it all the same. They do presents and Percy and Grover crack up when Sallys gift to him is a very extensive first aid kit. Annabeth looks confused but accepts it when they tell her its an inside joke.

He wakes up at midnight when he hears sirens in the distance that night and thinks even if he didn't have Spiderman anymore he’d be okay.

———

Percy doesn’t have a crush on Annabeth. He just doesn’t. Is she pretty? Yeah. Does he get stupidly flustered 9/10 times she talks to him? Maybe. But does he like her? Absolutely not.

Grover, of course, notices the first couple of times Percy goes red whenever Annabeth makes a sarcastic quip at him. One time near the end of their first semester Percys hair had gotten a little shaggier, Annabeth pushed it out of his face and told him he needed to get it cut he was starting to look homeless (It takes nearly the whole period for the blush to disappear from his face).

They get partnered up for a history project. Annabeth being Annabeth wants to get started right after school but Percy had promised himself he’d patrol right after school. He makes up an excuse (not really, he tells her he has a ‘thing’ and avoids her for the rest of the day) and darts out of school into one of his alleys and changes into his suit. He swings by his apartment chucking his backpack in through his window. He does his usual route, check on his mom at her work, down through lower Queens and the Bronx before making his way to Manhattan. Its a pretty quiet afternoon all Percy does in hist first couple hours is help some tourist with directions and stop a mugging.

He decided to wrap it up as it starts getting dark swinging down Queens Blvd. He’s just passing by his school when he sees a blonde head walking down 14th street. He recognizes the grey backpack as Annabeths and decides hey theres nothing suspicious about Spiderman making sure someone gets home right? Thats what Percy tells himself anyway.

Percy so caught up in his head he doesn’t sense the shady guy in the alley a block a head. It takes until her hears Annabeths indignant yell for him to jump into action.

By the time he actually swings down to the street, Annabeth had already gotten in a few kicks and jabs, all Percy had to do was web the guy up.

Annabeth gives him a critical one over and says thanks but she had it handled and starts walking. Percy stands there awkwardly for a moment not really knowing what to do. His brain finally manages to start working again and he has to jog a few steps to catch up to her. It takes him 3 tries before she lets him walk her home the rest of the way and when they reach her house she gives him another weird look before closing the door without a word.

———

The next day at lunch they’re sitting with their friends is when Annabeth finally brings it up. She mentions it causally like Spiderman walks all of his crime victims home. While she immediately gets bombarded with questions by their other friends, Percy chokes on the pop he had been drinking. Grover, slapped his back and gave him a question look (uh hello dude you seriously saved and walked the girl you have a crush on who just so happens to be your best friend home as your superhero alter ego and didnt tell me? what the hell man). Annabeth then mentions that Spidermans voice sounded vaguely familiar and Percy doesn’t speak for the rest of the day.

———

Percy and Annabeths relationship has decidedly gotten weird. They get all blushy around each other (Percy) and make more deflecting sarcastic comments than usual (Annabeth) and overall are just plain awkward around each other. Grover tells Percy he’s being stupid and to just ask her out he’s a freaking superhero or had he forgotten.

Piper is the one to tell Annabeth. She had become friend with her and Percy at the beginning of the year and had been insisting to Annabeth that Percy had a thing for her since they day they had met practically. Annabeth tells her she’s being crazy and to go back to fawning over Jason (Piper shuts up after that).

———

Annabeth is the one who makes the first move (shocker). Their entire friend group is out at a house party finally managing to drag Percy along to one being held by one of their classmates (he keeps his suit nearby webbed it to the top of the kids roof just in case). He actually has fun, dancing with his friends, drinking cheap, crappy vodka with orange juice chasers and guessing who’s going to end up sleeping with who with Piper (She’s freakishly good at it). He eventually finds Annabeth again outside, her curly blonde hair sticking to the back of her neck a bit from the dancing. They stand in silence, Annabeths eyes tracing over the New York skyline, Percy watching her. He’s about to ask if she wants to go back inside but before he can fully get the question out she’s grabbed the front of his hoodie and is kissing him. His spider sense goes into overdrive, he feels like every nerve in his body is on fire and holy crap is the really happening? Percy mind is completely blank until he feels Annabeth pull back. She looks at him (if Percys brain hadn’t turned to complete mush he would’ve seen the bit of nervousness in her eyes), hands still holding onto his jacket. Percy would like to think he said something really smooth but his brain was still attempting to catch up with his body so he’s not quite sure what it was (something along the lines of uhhhhh yeah) but Annabeth laughs, kisses him again (what the fu-) and Percy thinks as long as she keeps kissing him he doesn’t care how stupid he looks.

———

They do eventually talk about it. Sort of (Percy still isn’t convinced it wasn’t a dream). Two days after the party on a Sunday afternoon Annabeth is sat crosslegged on Percys bed while he spins awkwardy in his desk chair. (This is stupid this is stupid this is stupid) After a minute Percy breaks the silences, asks Annabeth if she wants to go get food and everything goes back to normal (and if they hold hands on the walk back from the IHOP well so what).

———

Percy tries his best not to obviously follow Annabeth home as Spiderman but the way she goes has a lot of crime and if he stops a few muggings along the way its not really stalking is it? He’s just being the friendly neighborhood spiderman. (at least thats what he tells himself as he ducks out of her view)

———

(Annabeth totally notices the web slinger following her but she keeps it to herself)

———

They’re sitting on top of Percys apartment building a few months later, Percys head laying in Annabeths lap having given up on his geometry homework (he had been out patrolling late the night before and hadn’t gotten much sleep). Annabeths on her phone and tells Percy to look at twitter something big is happening in Upper Manhattan. He opens one eye sees the article and darts up. The childrens hospital is on fire and he needs to be there. He can’t come up with a plausible excuse (he’ll deal with that later) tells Annabeth he needs to go, darts back into his apartment and is swinging through the neighborhood less than a minute later.

Annabeths not an idiot. It takes her approximately .0001 seconds after Percy says he has to leave to confirm it. She’s suspected it for a little while, the way he disappears after school at odd hours, seems nervous whenever one of their friends brings up something the webbed hero has done. Percy Jackson, her Percy Jackson, is Spiderman. She watches his silhouette swing towards downtown New York and oh god the guy who stops car robberies and muggings and murderers is her heroic, idiot boyfriend who’s about to go headfirst into a burning building. Annabeth sits with her panicked thoughts for half a minute before running down into his apartment and turning on the news just in time to see Percy smash his way into the burning hospital.

———

Its one of the hardest days Percy has ever faced as Spiderman. He would rather take down a thousand bad guys at once than ever fail at saving anyone especially a kid. It's not his fault, he knows logically there was no way he could’ve gotten everyone out. The hospital is one of the largest in the city and he managed to save hundreds of people. Families are sobbing, tears making tracks through the ash on their face as they thank him. He hands over his last rescue before the top 3 floors nearly collapse on top of him, a little boy, to his mother who's being held back by one of the firefighters. She's sobbing his thanks as Percy pushes her away from the building, the burning rubble still coming down around them. The woman and her son are herded over to one of many ambulances but not before she pulls Percy into a bone crushing hug, crying her thank you over and over. Percy feels numb.

The captain of the NYPD is talking to him, thanking him for his service, the mayor wants to speak to him everyone in the entire city of New York seemingly wants to talk to him, thank him, and Percy wants nothing more to go home and sleep for three days. So he does, he tells the captain thanks but no thanks and also Spiderman might not be around for a while, and webs himself up to the closest rooftop.

He crashes into his bedroom, his exhaustion finally catching up with him and he stays on his floor. Every bone in his body hurts and Percy, honestly in that single moment, wants to just fall asleep and never wake up. He can hear footsteps outside his room and Annabeth opens his door and takes a sharp breath in when she sees Percy. She kneels down next to him and helps him sit up against his bed before pulling him into the gentlest hug he’s ever received. Its so unlike Annabeth and yet so welcome at the time that Percy nearly cries.

Its not until Annabeth gently removes his mask that he realizes he's still in his suit. Annabeth tries not to flinch when she removes his masks but she does a pretty poor job (that bad huh he jokes weakly). They stay like that for a while on the floor, Percy sitting in his ruined, still slightly smoking suit, Annabeth holding him like she’s his lifeline (she kind of is).

They do eventually move, Sally runs into the house yelling for her son, finding them the same way they’ve been sitting for nearly an hour. Sally’s crying, holding Percy close to her chest. Annabeth leaves them alone and goes back into the Jacksons living room. She pulls her hands through her hair her breath catching as she sees the smear of blood and ash on her hands. She washes them until they’re bright red but she still can’t get the feeling of Percys blood off. She sits in silence until Sally comes into the room giving Annabeth her usual motherly hug (she holds on a little tighter this time) and tells her she’s welcome to stay the night as its already so late and it's been a long day. Annabeth texts her Dad she’s staying at Pipers and then Piper to ask her to cover for her please it's about percy.

Sally is on the phone with Grover reassuring him that Percy is safe he’s at home with her and Annabeth. She tells Grover to go to sleep he has school tomorrow before she hangs up the phone and sinks into the couch next to Annabeth. (he’s okay she says. he okay he’s alive) Annabeth isn't sure if she’s talking to her or herself but she takes the reassurance.

Annabeth stays on their pullout couch but she’s restless the images from the news replaying in her brain (the building collapsing on Percy is the most prominent and it makes every part of her feel cold). It's nearly 1 by the time she can’t take it anymore she gets up and tiptoes to Percys room. She needs to make sure he’s still alive, he made it out he didn't leave her.

He’s awake, his eyes meeting hers. It scares Annabeth how empty, how broken they look. She stands in the doorway until he taps the empty spot on his comforter. She crawls in next to him and curls into his side. It's comforting, she grabs his hand reassuring herself that he’s here, he’s real. Percy hand is shaking slightly but hers steadies it. Percy tells her he doesn’t want to talk about it not yet. She whispers back an okay and when she feels him drifting off, moves to go back to the couch. Percy hand, still holding hers tightens and he tells her to stay, please. She stays Percys arms wrapped around her his hands still holding hers and its then that she knows, she’s never going to leave.

———

Spiderman is radio silent for 23 days after the hospital fire. Theres a memorial held a week after, outside of the charred remains of the hospital. The mayor gives a speech, commemorating the lives lost and thanking Spiderman for his help in evacuating those he could. Percy stands in the back of the crowd, gripping Annabeths hand so hard it aches. When the fire chief stands up, and tells the city of New York how many more lives would’ve been lost had Spiderman not been there, Percys chest tightens so much he feels like he can't breath.

Percy goes back to school two days after the fire. He catches up on his classes and homework and he spends time with his friends. The first time he sees Piper and Jason and the rest of their friends he's greeted by all of them with a hug. Percy hasn’t told them about his secret identity yet but he knows they know. They spend their first lunch period after the hospital outside, away from the crowded lunch room where the hot topic, unknown to the school, is Percy himself.

The first time Percy hears a fire truck after the hospital his spider sense goes into overdrive so bad his hands shake. He’s crouched over in an alleyway trying to block out the sirens that feel like they're ringing throughout his entire body. He’s still sitting there long after the sirens are gone.

The second time Percy hears a firetruck he’s walking home from school with Grover. This time he looks up- and when he does he notices something different. Right underneath the trucks numbering is a large white spider decal exactly like the one on Percys suit. Grover points and nudges his shoulder and Percy smiles- really smiles for the first time in weeks

Percy is lying on his bed ignoring his English homework when his phone buzzes. Its a text from Annabeth with a picture attached. He opens his phone and enlarges the picture. Its of a small cat sitting in the upper branches of a tall oak tree in Central Park. He closes the picture and looks at the message Annabeth sent underneath.

hey, i know you're not back yet but i told this little girl i knew a guy who could maybe help her get her cat back. you don’t have to but i know you’d be her hero, mask or no mask. we’re at central by the baseball fields if you're up for it xx

Percy stares at the message, his thumbs hovering over the screen. He looks over at his closet where he knows a new suit is sitting under a pile of dirty clothes. He tells Annabeth he’ll be there in 15 minutes and grabs his backpack. He’s 5 minutes away from central park when he ducks into an alleyway. He stares at the mask sitting at the bottom of his bag before he pulls it over his head for the first time since the hospital.

He swings to Central Park from there and hears the gasps and shouts from New York below him. Crime hadn't boomed while he had been MIA but to the people of New York he was more than a protector- he symbolized hope to them- so they always knew someone was looking out for them. 

He swings into Central Park and its not long before he sees the curly blond hair of his girlfriend knelt down next to a little girl. He sees the small cat in the tree twenty feet above their heads. It's by far the least impressive thing he's ever done in his time as Spiderman, but the sight of the blue and red suit draws a crowd within seconds and pushing to see a glimpse of New Yorks own. He scoops up the cat from the branch and returns him to the small girl who thanks him with a big toothless grin and an unexpected hug. The crowd around them cheers and whoops at seeing Spiderman first heroic act since the hospital fire and its so silly and overdramatic and supportive and welcoming that Percy tears up under his mask. Annabeth smiles knowingly at him through the crowd now surrounding them and he gives her a small nod before swinging away- the cheers still echoing behind him. 

Chapter Text

simply me letting u all know i have once again changed the ending <3 (also i updated my other pjo fic if u wanna read that but u dont have to ok bye now see u again in a few months when i change the ending again <3)