The Boy Born From the Sea

File: There, There

Everyone went silent for a moment at Jessica's outburst but Tony's lips were already twitching up into a smile and Bucky had to turn away in an attempt to hide his shaking shoulders. The rest of the Avengers were clearly amused, Clint even openly cackling despite the disapproval radiating in the air from the captain.

"Watch your language," Steve said, frowning severely in her direction.

Jessica smiled sweetly, her brown eyes gleaming with a mix of mischief and annoyance. "No."

"A young lady such as yourself shouldn't-"

"Don't assume you know me." Did Jessica feel bad for interrupting the war hero? Maybe a little bit but the way he was frowning at her was starting to annoy her. With the way Jack was shifting from foot-to-foot, she could assume he was starting to get secondhand annoyance from her. "I'm not your kid and I'm not your sister. I can curse whenever the hell I feel like it, especially since I found out I was living in a fucking Nazi base for twelve years."

Bucky decided to step forward at that moment, slinging an arm around Tony's shoulder, a grin on his face as he studied the young girl. "I like her."

Jessica decided to assume that was the other boyfriend of Jack's and she nodded solemnly. "Strong power, thank you."

"She's like a younger version of you," Bruce said to Percy, who was studying Thor's hammer like he was contemplating picking it up and bashing his own head in with it. "But... More tame."

Percy shook his head. "Give her a minute."

"They're like creepy twins," Clint piped up from where he sat on the floor to dig through his backpack for the candy bar he knew he had stashed somewhere.

"Kind of like Hela and Nico, except Percy and Jessica are more likely to take over the world out of boredom."

"That's fair." Both Jessica and Percy intoned at the exact same moment, as if trying to add credit to Clint's words.

Steve shuddered, inching away from the two. "God, no," He whispered, shaking his head.

Percy smirked to himself before moving over to Bucky and Tony. He hummed happily when each man took turns to pull him into a slow kiss. "Miss me?"

"Too much," Bucky responded, wrapping an arm around the demigod's waist as he kissed his forehead. "Tower was too quiet without you."

"Yeah, I'm glad to be back, too!" Clint exclaimed loudly, pushing past the trio to saunter over to the quinjet with all the glamor of a 2000's drag queen.

Before he fully boarded, he turned to eye Professor Xavier, who had come out at some point to watch the interaction. "You can keep the truck. Take it apart for all I care. The shit is bad luck, we almost died in it, like, twice."

Jessica nodded, a smile on her face. "Once from Jack and the other from an asshole driver."

"I'm sure some of our students will enjoy using it for spare parts," Charles Xavier spoke, not at all bothered with the agent dumping a vehicle in his yard suddenly and taking off. In fact, with the way he reacted, it was almost like he was used to it.

Percy pointed at the mind reader, a scowl on his face. "You're an asshole but... You made good points earlier so... I guess I won't kill you today."

Xavier nodded solemnly, tapping the arms of his wheelchair lightly. "I appreciate that. Please leave now. I have found that having you and Mr. Barton in my general vicinity is bad for my health."

"Yeah, we'll take 'em from you," Tony laughed, beckoning everyone towards the quinjet. "Come on, all aboard!" When Jessica walked by him, he smiled softly at her. "It's nice to meet you. Don't worry about the Nazi thing. You're hardly the first one here to go through that."

"God, I wish that didn't make me feel better."

"But it does." The inventor gestured inside the quinjet. "Pick any seat you like. We'll be taking you to the Avenger's Tower for now until we decide which place would be best for you."

Jessica nodded slowly, looking a bit apprehensive. "Why can't I just... Stay?"

Tony made sure the others weren't listening to the conversation as he turned to the girl. "Look, I, personally, don't have a problem with you staying at the Tower, especially since we just recently had some new people moving in. However, it's not just up to me if you can stay. The other place we were thinking of is a camp Percy used to go to a lot growing up."

"Percy?"

"Oh, uh, that's him." Tony pointed at Percy, who was shoving the files he had found at the HYDRA base at Natasha so he could curl up in a ball on one of the chairs by the pilot seat.

Jessica's expression scrunched up like she smelled something bad. "His name's Percy?"

"...Yes. What name did he give you?"

"Clint told me to call him Jack. Said it was short for Jackass."

Tony tilted his head. "Well... Okay, yeah, that's true. His full name is Percy Jackson."

Jessica frowned. "Why didn't he just tell me his name in the first place?"

The inventor simply pointed at Percy, who was trying to kick Steve off the seat next to him without uncurling from the ball he had made himself into, and Jessica understood.

"Ah," She said.

"Alright, guys, we're ready to go!" Clint called before sliding into the pilot's seat.

Jessica looked horrified for a moment until Natasha calmly reassured her that Clint could, in fact, fly a jet.

"Um... Is he okay?" The spider girl gestured to Percy, who looked like he was a second away from chewing off someone's arm as he made himself appear almost impossibly small as he tucked his knees to his chest. That position couldn't have been comfortable, what with the harness digging into his stomach and armpit.

"He doesn't like flying," Bruce explained with an easygoing smile. "He could die at any minute."

"Oh." Jessica leaned forward, reaching out her hand slowly to pat Percy's head twice. "There, there."

Sea-green eyes flew open and locked on her brown ones with startling intensity. "I will kill your entire bloodline."

She nodded. "If you can find out who they are, by all means, go ahead."

Steve shook his head. "Don't encourage him. He might actually do it."

Percy turned his piercing gaze to the super soldier, who admirably didn't flinch away no matter how obvious it was that he wanted to. "I have had many victims, Steven. Do you want to be one of them?"

"Percy, if you don't take a nap then I'll throw  you out this plain myself," Bucky proclaimed from where he was trying to get his own shut eye to Jessica's left.

The demigod grumbled but dutifully closed his eyes, using his wavy hair to hide his face.

"Ah, peace and quiet," Clint hummed from the front seat. "It's so ni- OW! Did you just throw a shoe at me, Jackson?!"

"Actually, that was me," Bruce said from the back of the quinjet, a shoe missing from one of his feet. "Now shut up before I throw all of you out of here."

"...Yes, sir."

"And the true leader of the Avengers is revealed," Jessica muttered before slouching in her seat to take a nap. Maybe her stay at the Tower would be nice and relaxing...

--

"Why does that Roomba have knives?"

"That's Maurice."

"Okay, that checks out."

"You should see Rebecca, though. She's feisty."

"Rebecca...?"

"She has a rocket launcher."

"She has a what?"

Xxxxxxxxxxx

words: 1,219

song: Get You the Moon - Kina (slowed)