Chapter Text
Percy Jackson sighed as he dropped his keys before bending to pick up the keys from the floor. After the defeat of Gaia, Percy’s (then) girlfriend -- Annabeth Chase -- had insisted that he keep going with his studies, and (because it was Annabeth and Percy would never disregard her) he had. It had only been 2 months since the battle against the primordial goddess when he had started at yet another high school. This time he was studying at an ‘elite science school’. Annabeth had asked a favour of her mother, Athena the goddess of wisdom, asking for Percy to be admitted to a school with an excellent marine biology program. And sure, Midtown Tech was a fair trek from where he lived with his mother, but Percy didn’t mind. He had only been attending for a week but already all his teachers were helping him with his work, and despite his struggle with dyslexia and ADHD, for the first time in ages he didn’t hate school.
Eventually he opened the door, slipping in -- somewhat -- quietly, in case his younger sister, Estelle, was sleeping. He turned and closed the door behind him and was about to silently slip down the hall and into his room when in his peripheral vision he noticed three figures seated in the living room. He moved so that he was facing the living space. One person -- his mother he noticed -- was facing towards him, while the remaining two had their backs to him.
Sally Jackson took a sip from her steaming mug, at the same time noticing her son standing by the doorway and she waved him over. She swallowed what Percy can only assume was boiling hot coffee -- how she could drink it like that he has no idea -- and spoke, “Percy! We weren’t expecting you home so soon!”
Upon addressing them, the two strangers turned to look at him. On the left was a lady who looked only a few years older than his mother. She wore her brown hair loose and had a pair of glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. The figure to the right was a male that appeared to potentially be a few years younger than Glasses Lady, closer to Percy’s mother’s age. The man’s face was slightly weighed down by stress, grief and loss -- much like how Percy expected for himself to look in the future. The man had hair a shade slightly darker than the two women with a somewhat overly groomed goatee. He looked vaguely familiar, but Percy was not sure from where.
“Uhhh,” Percy started, as elegantly as ever. “Am I interrupting anything? I can leave if you want? I’m sure Annabeth wouldn’t mind if I-”
His mother cut him off, “no no, we’ve been waiting for you. Well, and Peter. I just didn’t think you’d be home for another half hour or so.”
Percy nodded, casually wondering who this ‘Peter’ was, but decided not to ask -- knowing his mother it would be explained later anyway. “Yeah,” he said, placing his bag on the table beside the door. “My maths teacher’s wife went into labour so he let us leave early. And I had a free last so I thought I'd just come home early.” he hung his bag up on one of the hooks above the table.
Sally smiled. “oh that’s wonderful!” and Percy knew she wasn't referring to the news of the class being let out early. “I hope everything goes well for them. I’ll bake some cookies for you to take for them next week.” Percy smiled at his mother. She was good like that, always there for other people, always being an amazing person, always looking out for those around her. Percy was glad he could call her his mum.
He nodded his head to assure her that he would, before his eyes moved from his mother and grazed over the two guests, before resting on Sally’s face once more, as though to silently ask her about them and their presence in the Jackson-Blofis household.
“Oh!” Sally gasped, remembering the two people. “Percy, this is May Parker,” she gestured to Glasses Lady, who waved at him and said a small ‘hi’. Percy moved over beside his mother and shook Glasses Lady’s -- May’s -- hand. Sally then turned and gestured to Goatee Guy. “and this, is Tony Stark.”
Tony Stark lifted his chin as a form of weird nod -- a movement Percy could see fellow demigod, Leo Valdez making. “What’s up, kid?”
Percy gave a small laugh and internally fought with himself over whether to give a serious answer or not. Eventually he decided on “the roof,” which Goatee Guy seemed to approve of.
Tony Stark held out his hand to shake Percy’s and at the same time turned to Sally and said “I like this one.” May Parker scoffed and rolled her eyes.
Percy sat on the sofa beside his mother. As he sat his mother lifted herself off of the two-seater and readjusted her seating position so that she has rotated her body 45 degrees and now had her body facing slightly towards Percy.
“Tony’s rather well know,” Sally informed her son.
Percy gave a small nod. “Oh? What for?”
Percy turned and looked at their guests in time to notice Tony Stark’s jaw drop open a tiny bit.
May Parker let out a laugh. “Well that’s a blow to his ego.”
Tony Stark furrowed his brows at the snide comment, “my ego isn’t that big…” he whispered almost to himself, and Percy was sure it was missed by all but him and his advanced demigod senses. The man shook his head as though to rid his brain of the thought and then spoke directly to Percy. “I’m kinda just a rich mechanic… I donate to some charities here and there… lots of scholarships for kids who deserve to go to college but can’t afford it… that kind of stuff. I’m really just a philanthropist with a terrible sleep schedule.”
Percy didn’t understand but just shook his head like he had been able to understand every word Tony Stark had just thrown at him.
“Money-bags made a big metal suit that he uses to fly around in and save people,” May Parker decided to fill him in.
Percy still did not understand, in fact, he understood less.
Noticing Percy’s ignorance, Sally tried to finish painting the picture. “He’s Iron Man.”
Now, Percy Jackson may be dumb, but he wasn’t an idiot. “Oh yeah?” he said, very much pretending like he knew who ‘Iron Man’ was so as to not hurt anyone’s feelings. “That ahh... must be… cool…”
Tony Stark did not buy it. “You’ve got no clue who I am?”
Percy didn't miss a beat. “Nope. Not one.”
May Parker leaned forward in her seat and looked at Percy in what may be classified as shock. “You don’t know the Avengers?”
Percy’s eyes scanned quickly to his mother, then back to the older lady. “I mean, kinda… is Iron Man apart of the Avengers?” the three elders nodded at him. “Oh… I mean I really only know what my friends gossip about. I know that one of them is super smart -- my girlfriend quite admires his ability to get 7 PHDs -- and one is a mechanic -- I’m guessing Leo was talking about you, Mr Stark.” Percy paused to take a breath. “Oh and I guess that means you’re also the one who's kinda friends with Piper’s dad.”
Tony looked at him with a tiny ounce of concern. “Kid… do you just like… not use the internet at all?”
Percy thought about the question. “Well, I guess I actually don’t use it that much. I’ve never really had the need to use it before other than googling the odd thing here and there. Besides, I don’t really have enough time to use social media and what not with all that I’ve got going on -- school, homework, summer camp, going on… exchange trips.”
May Parker tilted her head slightly, “but it’s not just being away from the internet Percy. The Avengers fought to save our world several times, without them our very existence, well, to put it lightly,wouldn’t exist. The stuff they’ve done? Its world news. No matter where you where, exchange trip or not, you should have heard about it…”
The comment struck something within Percy, he had also fought to save the world several times without it being world news, but that a whole other can of worms.
“Look,” he began, trying to find a way to justify the fact that he was clueless without spilling the secret of the Gods. “I may have heard about them, but like, 10 or so months ago i lost my memory…” he looked down at his hands. “I only started remembering things about 2 months ago, so im still a bit hazy on some things…”
No one said anything. Technically it wasn’t a lie, the memory loss thing totally happened, and he didn’t remember anything about the Avengers from before the events that led to Hera, the Goddess of Assholes taking his memory.
After nearly a minute of silence someone finally decided to speak. It was Sally. “Paul had the day off work, he took Estelle to see some of his family.”
Percy nodded, he wasn’t sure what his mother meant by her words. His step-father didn’t just take Estelle to see his family, if he had then Sally would have gone with Paul, that was the kind of person she was. Something was up.
He decide not to mention anything though.
“So, how’d you guys all become friends?” Percy questions after a while.
Tony Stark -- Iron Man (was Percy meant to call him by his ‘superhero’ alias? Percy had never spoken to a superhero before so he couldn’t be sure) chuckled. May Parker huffed as though she found something more ironic than funny. His mother took a deep breath.
“Well, that’s why we were waiting on you and Peter -- May’s nephew. We want to talk to you both together. It’s easier that way. We don't have to explain things twice.”