Son Of None

Silver Tongues and Pink-Tinged Words

Third Person POV
To Piper and Jason's surprise, Percy stayed calm.

"Annabeth."

"Percy, can I come up?"

Tony opened his mouth to answer, but Percy beat him to it. "No, Annabeth, I'm sorry."

"Please, Seaweed Brain-"

"DON'T! Call me that!" Percy barked, causing everyone in the room to jump.

Annabeth's mouth was hanging open in shock.

"It's not a joking nickname anymore. It's an insult, the worst you could have picked. I never said anything, but it hurt sometimes when you called me that. It reminded me that I wasn't good enough. And now that feeling is tenfold." Percy growled, his fists clenched angrily.

"Percy, I just want to make it up to y-"

"Save it, Chase! I don't want to talk to you, so get lost."

She glared at him through the screen. "I will get in there and I will talk to you face to face, Percy."

"JARVIS, use any and every means necessary to keep Annabeth Chase out of this building." Percy ordered coldly.

"Perseus Jackson, don't you dare-" the feed shut down.

"We're sorry, Percy, we didn't-"

Percy cut Piper off. "Exactly. You didn't." He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down from the confrontation with the daughter of Athena. "You didn't account for every possible thing she could have done, and if you had accounted for this, she would have figured out something else. It isn't your fault."

"Are you sure?" Piper stepped forward and met his eyes.

Percy grinned lopsidedly at her. "Totally. How long have you two got?"

"A while. What do you suggest?" Jason asked.

"I need a sparring partner. Loki and Nico are great and all, but neither of them are quite at your level, bro."

"You got it." Jason nodded. "Just lead the way."

"Another fight? Can I film this one too?" Tony asked excitedly.

"You filmed the first one?"

"Course I did! You and Nico were really going at it."

"Is no one going to explain the enraged blonde at the front door?" Natasha asked.

"My ex." Percy said flatly. "She wants to try and get the relationship back when there's nothing there to re-kindle."

"If you want, Perseus, I can remove her and take her back home." Thor offered.

"Nah, just leave her. She'll lose her head of steam eventually."

"'Eventually' is the operative word here." Piper pointed out.

"Pipes, you could get her to go away." Percy suggested.

"I could, but I don't think it would last that long."

"Worth a try." Jason muttered.

"I'll help, maybe then it will work." Percy offered.

"Since when...."

"Since I ran. Your mom helped me out, as did several of the others."

Piper nodded slowly. "Two should be enough to get her all the way back. Then we can have Nico keep an eye on her or something."

"Yeah, or something. Let's go." Percy headed for the elevator.

"Wait, I wanna see what happens-" Tony started forward.

"No." Power rolled from Percy's words as he turned and ordered, "Stay here, only Piper and Jason are coming."

"Wow, that is impressive." Piper commented once they were in the elevator.

"Yeah, I think your mom gave me quite the power boost."

"No kidding." Jason muttered, rubbing his forehead.

They reached the lobby, which was empty, as Percy expected.

Annabeth was at the door, inspecting the strange locking mechanisms JARVIS had enacted.

Seeing him through the glass panes, she began to scream and pound on the door. Her voice was faint but they could still hear her clearly.

"Perseus Jackson, let me in there right now, or I swear I will kick your-" Percy swiftly crossed the room and undid the locks, throwing the door open and moving to the side so Annabeth sprawled across the floor in front of him.

"What do you want, Annabeth?" His voice was ice cold and emotionless.

Instead of answering, Annabeth jumped to her feet and leapt onto him.

"Percy, I'm so sorry, I swear I didn't mean it!" She hugged him, but Percy simply stood there, not responding.

"Percy?" she asked softly, looking up into his eyes.

"Annabeth, get off me." Even without charmspeak, the look on his face was enough for her to move.

"Please, Percy, I just want you back." She said softly.

"Well the feeling is one way." Percy said calmly.

"How can I change that?"

"You don't get it do you?" He shook his head, chuckling derisively. "You can't change it! I don't want you to try and change it. I like my life here, with the Avengers. They may have their doubts about me, but so far they haven't tried to manipulate me or use me."

"I didn't-"

Piper decided that it was time to end the conversation.

"Percy, let's get this over with."

"What are you going to do?" Annabeth looked slightly fearful.

"We're going to talk to you, then you're going to leave." Percy responded.

Before the daughter of Athena could say anything else, he continued, Piper joining in.

"Annabeth Chase, go back to camp and don't come back."

The blonde turned on her heel and marched away.

"That was slightly terrifying." Jason commented.

"Yeah, I have a bit of respect for Aphrodite's power now. Piper could literally walk up to someone and nicely ask them for their heart to stop beating....and it would."

"That's not creepy, Perce."

[A/N Goodbye for now, Annabeth!]