The Quiet Before the Storm (Percy Jackson and the Avengers Crossover)

CHAPTER 31

WILL P.O.V

Annabeth, Nico, and I walk in with Natasha, Clint, and Steve while Thalia waits for Percy to finish up talking with Tony.

I try to grab Nico's hand as we walk, but he shoots me a nervous glance. His eyes ask me the same question they usually do when we meet new people, 'What if they're homophobic?'

I get why he's scared. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not people are gonna judge you. Even though they're stupid for judging who you love. Like, honestly? How hard is to just accept people for who they are? To understand that, they to are a human being. Even though they may not be 'just like you.'

But you know what? I really don't care if they judge me. If I wanna hold my boyfriend's hand, imma do what I want.

I grab Nico's hand in a tight grip, despite the murderous look I receive.

I smirk and swing our hands as we walk, knowing it would only annoy him more.

"Stop it, Will," he growls at me.

"Is there a problem?" Steve asks in a slightly concerned manner, turning around as he asks.

"No problem, sir," Nico and I both say, but Nico says it with clenched teeth while I say it with a wide smile.

He glances down at our hands and looks a bit confused.

I give him a challenging stare, and he just shrugs, turning back around.

Nico looks at me, half grateful and half really pissed. I just grin at him and continue to hold his hand.

Peter and Clint are talking about something, I can't really hear what it's about, but Peter seems really into it.

Annabeth is chatting with Natasha about who-knows-what. They seem to get along pretty okay.

We reach the elevator, and Annabeth freezes.

I also feel Nico tense up next to me.

"Uhh..." I start to say, "Can we take the stairs? We...have bad experience with elevators..."

They look at us, and Steve says, "I mean, I suppose you could...but it would take a while. It's a lot easier to just take the elevator. And it's not gonna get stuck. Stark helped build it himself."

Annabeth was visibly freaking out.

"I- uh..." I didn't know what to say. "It's not the craftmanship that bothers us...it's just the fact that it's an elevator."

Steve nodded, "Look, I'm not gonna press you. That's your business, but I'm just going to let you know...it takes a lot less time to just take the elevator. Do whatever you want, though."

We all nodded as he told us what floor we needed to go to and booked it to the stairwell. We waved at Thalia as we passed, who was still waiting in the lobby for Percy to come back inside.

We raced up the stairs, and it actually didn't take us that long to get to our destination. In fact...it only took us, like, 7 minutes.

We reached our floor, slightly out of breath and laughing. As we walk out, we see that the others were still in the elevator.

Nico snorted and said, "So much for the elevator being faster."

I chuckled and grabbed his hand again. He didn't pull away this time, shooting me a lopsided grin instead.

I beamed at him.

We kinda just stood around awkwardly for another minute or two, waiting for the others to get off the elevator.