Percy Jackson, the Seriously Attractive Snake, and the Ex-Winter Soldier

The Coffee Shop

TW: will contain death and violence

Percy's PoV:

I was waiting in line to order a pastry and getting hungrier by the second.

Personally, I blame the monster that attacked me five minutes ago.

The guy ahead of me was about to collect his order though so I didn't have long to wait.

"One decaf cappicino for a 'Bruce'?"

See? I've got mere minutes between me and my cinamon roll of deliciousness. I look up eagerly to step up the second 'Bruce' walks away but frown when I see the scene before me. The waiter was holding the coffee hostage while scowling at the guy.

Bruce looks confused and hesitantly asks, "Can I have my coffee please?" Bruce was weirdly polite for a New Yorker at 7am. With his large-ish frame and soft demenour he sort of reminded me of Fr- No.

I'm not going there.

I got cut from my thoughts by one of the most vemon filled voices ever. "We don't serve vigilate murders! My mother was in Sokovia!"

This Bruce guy looks crestfallen. I have no idea what happen in Sokovia -wherever or whatever that is- but he look too much like Fra- like a person I cared about for me to let him get bullied like this.

So I do the most rational thing any dude who wants to get served quickly and without someone spitting in their coffee can do. I say the first thing I think of.

"Dude, he just wants his coffee. Back off." I'm too tired to give them the glare that always works on everyone else but I don't care at this moment. I just wanted the last piece of luxury I'd be able to afford for a good while now.

Except from the way the waiter shoves the coffee into Bruce and glares at me, I doubt they wouldn't add a saliva based special ingrediant to my order. Ah shit.

Welp, no point hanging around now. I give the swirls of sugary amazingness one last longing look before heading out. I think the Bruce guy might've been about to talk to me but I don't care. I helped the guy get his order, that doesn't make us friends. Not that I have many friends left.

No. NO. I won't think about that now. I mustn't.

But as I duck into the closest alley  anyway. It's coming and there isn't anything I can do to stop it. And so, I'm ripped from reality by my flashback as I sink to my knees.

Flashback:

I'm standing among my friends, only we're not celebrating. I'm in a ring of their bodies. Directly in front of me, I can see my Wise Girl. Killed by Arachne. She must've been so, so scared.

And then there's everone else I care for. All the friends and family I've found in the last ten months, scattered before me. Piper and Jason still lay in eachothers arms. Leo and Frank are still curled as close to Hazel as they got before they...

It doesn't matter that I got my revenge on Gaia. It should be me. I should have been the one tortured and stabbed and burnt and slaughtered. It should have been me.

I can already hear the people behind me whispering the same. Nico and Thalia amongst them. That hurt, but they're right.

Poseidon calls out to me. He probably thinks I'm in shock. I could be, for all I know. But that doesn't matter either. They're all gone, and it's all my fault. I'll never tease my Annabeth, or spar with Jason. I'll never have Leo yell at me with looking like an adorable angry octopus when I drop one of his inventions. I'll never get the chance to protect Hazel as the little sister she'd become to me. Frank would never pull me into one of his literal bear hugs.

All. Because. Of. Me.

I start to walk off. I think the voices behind me grow louder behind me.

Coward!

It's your fault!

It should be your body here!

I can't believe I looked up to you.

You're the monster here, Percy. Nico and I both know it!

I'm running now. Their words sinking into my heart. Into my head.

But I have a plan. Sort of. I'm going to run and they hate me so they won't follow. That's good though. If they can't get close to me, then they can't get hurt because of me.

Right?

End of First Flashback

A voice at the back of my mind that I've come to fear so much jeers out one word "Wrong!" before I'm pushed back into a memory.

Start of Second Flashback:

My hand is shaking as I go to put my key in the door. I just needed to see them one last time. One last time before I disappeared forever.

But the Fates couldn't even give me that.

Because the door was already unlocked.

My mother had lived in NYC for almost three decades now she wasn't naïve and she wasn't the forgetful. So why the Had- Hell. So why the Hell was the door open?

Part of me already knew the answer. I knew it as I pushed open the door. I knew it as I crept into the too quiet apartment. I knew it as my eyes registered the up-turned table and the broken vase. But none of that -none of that- could prepare me for the sight I saw next.

My mother, the one person who'd never abandoned me, or doubted me ever, lay dead on the sofa. She cradled her baby bump while the sword stuck out of her chest and as she was held by Paul who had his own sword protruding from him.

It took me an hour to find the note that had been left behind..

Percy,

Enjoy my present? It was the least I could do. You brought this on them. Let's see how you cope with knowing that. We will be seeing each other very soon.

Much love-

Tartaurus

End of Second Flashback

I stayed in that apartment, a sobbing mess, for hours before I finally call the police. That was the moment I realised that I truly had no one. And could never reach out for anyone. They'd only get killed. 

Plus, with my criminal record, they'd automatically assume I killed my own parents.

So I called the police and ran.

I'm currently staying at whichever bench is driest. And the most secluded. Note how I said staying not sleeping. It's been a week and I don't think I've slept more than 6 hours total since I... found them.

My shoulders start to shake as memories of baking blue cookies with Mom and play fighting with Paul over them start to play in my head.

And then it's me and Wise Girl, sparring.

Me, Frank and Piper, geeking out over Star Wars.

Jason and Hazel teaching me how to play chess.

I wouldn't be surprised if they hated me from their places in the fields of Elysiam. I wouldn't blame them for it.

I stayed like that, trapped in my mind, for a long while. I couldn't tell you exactly how long, I just know that when I sunk/collapsed to the ground it was the sky was a light blue and as I raised my head the sky was a shade of navy blue.

I could almost hear Grover ranting about how none of the stars were visible and that humans were idiots who couldn't be bothered to fix their own home planet.

Unbeknownst to me, while I was thinking on the light pollution of NYC, I had not been alone.

****

the updates not this are gonna be s l o w just warn ya