She didn't have to be a daughter of Athena to figure out Tony Stark would be in touch. Even Percy got the idea he would. He had taken Estelle out for the morning after the 'incident', leaving Annabeth to deal with the man. He had the tendency to piss off authority figures- or so he'd been told.
While working on her laptop, scrolling aimlessly through Daedalus's 3D models and inventions, her phone buzzed on the table with a message from an unknown number. She had been asked to meet with Stark around midday, a QR code attached to get her past security. Annabeth closed the laptops lid, grabbed her keys, and left.
No one in the lobby questioned her. She carried herself with such purpose and confidence, there was barely a second glance sent her way. She tapped on the code and held her phone screen up to the gates. A red light switched to green and the glass gates slid open, allowing her to stride into the readied elevator.
A painfully cheesy song played as she rose through the floors, which she could only guess was deliberately irritating for whoever dared visit the tower. Annabeth smirked and smiled at the small speaker in the ceilings corner. She thought the Empire State's building elevator was annoying, it wasn't often she was proved wrong.
When the doors slid open once more, she was greeted with an office. It was almost empty, a very minimalist design having of been chosen, and the only messy area was the cluttered desk directly ahead of Annabeth.
Tony had kicked up his feet onto what worryingly looked like an important pile of documents, his laptop resting on his legs, typing away. He lowered his coffee mug when Annabeth walked in and spun his chair around, leaving the laptop on the table behind him, and gestured for her to sit.
She sat in the chair opposite the desk, posture far too straight for a teenager, and folded her hands neatly in her lap. They made direct eye contact, both refusing to look away in a battle of intimidation.
"Annabeth Chase, it's nice to properly meet you." Tony broke the silence and grinned "care to explain what in the ever loving fuck happened yesterday?
She took a deep breath, preparing to have the 'yeah, monsters' talk for the hundredth time "We were talking with Peter, we'd spotted him on patrol and waved him over. I hadn't realised my phone had been on all day, our signal to monsters are boosted when using most technology, and a pack of Hellhounds caught Percy and I's scent. We weren't paying attention and one managed to knock Peter out."
"What actually happened to them after I left?"
"Percy took out over half while I was getting Peter to safety, when I returned we killed the rest and cleared up."
"You make killing something sound almost casual. I'm assuming you do it a lot?" Tony frowned, she wasn't really making a great perfect-role-model impression.
"Monsters don't really die. We can temporarily destroy them, using the right weaponry we can reduce them to dust, but they can reform," Annabeth sighed. Gods, it would be nice to permanently kill the fuckers, but when had The Fates ever been on a demigods side? "But Hellhounds aren't overly intelligent creatures, when they manage to return they won't remember Peter. He's safe."
"Is he? Because, not only do I have to worry about his Spider-Man enemies, apparently monsters exist now and will hurt anyone you lot talk to." Tony had to do everything he could to not raise his voice. How was she so calm?
"A few friends are watching him at school as a precaution and a couple of other half-bloods will be turning up soon to help with the monster problem. You clearly care for Peter, so do I, I would never want to hurt him."
"He was unconscious on the ground with a head injury, he seemed pretty hurt to me." He almost laughed "Go ahead, tell me, how the hell can I trust you?"
"You can't."
A electrical shiver flew down Tony's spine. He, at the very least, had expected her to sugar coat her answer of just flat out lie. The bluntness of her response had caught him off guard.
"As long as Peter is friends with people like Percy and I, he will never be safe. But he's not safe as Spider-Man either, and I very much doubt any amount of persuasion could convince him to give that life up. I understand you are worried for him, he's in your care after all, but he isn't some naive child. He's an incredible fighter. If you payed attention to my report, he saved my life."
Tony recalled the young adults mission report, particularly the section where Peter had caught her, preventing her from going down with the floor of a burning building "I remember."
"I cannot stop you if you decide I am too dangerous for Peter to affiliate himself with, you would do anything to protect him. Though, maybe you should take into account wether controlling his entire life will end up doing more harm than good."
Without another word, she arose from her seat and silently left the room, taking the elevator back down to the lobby.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Unfazed by Happy desperately trying to ignore his incessant chattering, Peter rambled on about his day. He even mentioned the 'new kids', but was cautious not to spill anything about their heritage. In almost no time at all (but what felt like eons to Happy), the car stopped outside the back entrance to Stark Towers.
Peter, buzzing with energy, pushed open the car door and darted in such haste he had to rush back for his backpack. He even took the stairs, just desperate to move around. Happy took the lift at a regular pace, biting back a smile as he watched the kid sprint away. What could he say, Peter was starting to grow on him.
Up in the workshop, Tony received a text alert from Happy to say they'd arrived and immediately put down his tools.
Peter was staying at the Tower for the entire weekend (with May's blessing of course) and Tony'd been planning for it all week. Thought, he was not looking forward to the conversation they were about to have. He could only hope the kids mood wouldn't drop like a rock in a pond afterwards.
A few minutes after the message, Peter poked his head around the door, grinning at his mentor- who was pretending to have not noticed him "Mr Stark?" He shuffled into the room, hugging his backpack in front of him (one of the straps was beginning to tear at the seams) "I know you can hear me. If you don't talk, I'll go spend the weekend with Bruce."
Tony turned to face him "How come he get's to be Bruce but I'm still Mr Stark, huh?"
"Because it annoys you." Peter cheekily grinned and walked further into the room, heading for the only clear table in order to set down his bag.
"How was school?"
"Awesome!" Peter sat down and started to spin on the stool "I got a ninety-three in my Biology exam, Ned got the Millennial Falcon Lego set for Monday after school, and I hung out with the new kids at lunch. What have you been doing, any suit upgrades?"
"Not yet, I was busy talking with Annabeth," He kept a straight face as Peter moved his hand to the table to stop spinning and avoided eye contact "It's okay, kid, you're not in trouble or anything, I thought we should just have a quick talk to get this out of the way."
"A-Alright." Peter started to shift awkwardly, nervous to say the very least.
"I asked her about what hurt you the other day, she explained a bunch of things to me about their monsters." He leaned his back against his worktable, his arms crossed over his chest.
"You want to know if she's a danger to me." Peter had heard about Tony's protective side before from the other Avengers, it mostly made an appearance when he was injured, and was dreading whatever was coming next.
"Yeah."
"Am... Am I not allowed to see them again?"
"She told me demigods have a sort of scent that constantly draws monsters to them. Whenever she is around you, you will always be at risk. That being said-," Tony saw Peter's head snap up in surprise "You will always do crazy stupid things and get hurt, I can't prevent that. At least, if you choose to keep in contact with half-bloods, I know you'll be with good company."
"Thank you."
A/N
[PUBLISHED 18/09/20]
I rewrote this entire fucking chapter for so long it is now the next day. Why can't I have the same motivation and energy for doing my course work on time- oh shit I still haven't sent in my last lot of work, fuck.
Like I said, this is my last book on this account. I have an alt one that I'm releasing a few old drafts on but that's something I'd like to keep separate to this.
Not sure if I'll be back, I'm still writing stuff but it's all original stuff for comics and animation that I'd post elsewhere.
Thank you for all your support, it's been real.