Catch Me If I Fall (PJO/Avengers Crossover)

39

"Hey, Percy? Are you back?" Tony knocked on the door to Percy's room.

"I don't want to see anyone right now," Percy called back to Tony, bringing his knees closer to his chest and closing his eyes.

"You have to come out at some point. It's been two days. What happened?" Tony pressed on when he realised Percy's room door was locked. "You can talk to me."

There was a few minutes of silence before he heard Percy get up and unlock the door, opening it. His hair was messier than usual and his eyes were rimmed with red, like he'd been crying. "What?"

"The funeral. How was it?" Tony asked gently, and Percy rolled his eyes and laughed humourlessly.

"Oh, it was the best day of my life!" He replied, sarcasm drenching his words. "Magnificent! I can't even remember any day that was so extravagant-"

"Percy, don't be sarcastic with me," he cut him off. "Tell me what happened."

"Fine," Percy rolled his eyes. "My ex-boyfriend was most definitely not alive this whole time and posing as the ruler of Asgard through an illusion, and I definitely didn't decide to break up with him. No! What sort of idiot would think of that? Certainly not me or Loki."

Tony knew that Percy's recount wasn't complete and that it was laced with sarcasm, but he didn't comment on that and instead put a hand on Percy's shoulder. "Oh, kid, I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," he rubbed his eye, and Tony knew immediately he hadn't been sleeping. He'd been troubled by his own nightmares enough to know. "It- it's probably for the best that I never see him again."

"Hmm, maybe," Tony nodded, trying to be encouraging. "Have you been sleeping okay?"

"Huh?" Percy looked up from his feet, surprised by the question. "Oh, sure. I've been great," he nodded, thinking back to the nightmares he'd been having these past few nights, all recounts of Thanos' or Tartarus' torture, or he watched Loki die- or, at least, fake his death- over and over again, a voice in his head always asking: why didn't you do more?

Tony looked unconvinced but nodded anyway. "Well, if you need anything, I'm in the lab with Bruce, alright? Don't hesitate to come up. We could all use a little reconciliation right now, Percy. It's okay to talk."

"Right, thanks Tony," Percy put a fake smile on and closed the door when he walked away, occasionally glancing back, wondering if he should have said anything else.

Percy sat down on the windowsill, running his finger over a scar on his arm he'd gotten from Thanos. Before he'd gotten the ambrosia and disintegrated to join back with Percy's main consciousness on Earth, the arm had been completely mangled. If he wasn't a god or didn't have ambrosia, he probably would have had to have it amputated. He closed his eyes, leaning his head back and breathing in deeply. He wondered what Loki was doing right now.

As much as he wanted to be, he just couldn't bring himself to be angry at his ex-lover. He loved him more than anything, but he would not, no matter how much he wanted to, let his pride down. He was too deep in this now to swim to the surface.

Percy had an eternity to make things up to Loki. Two days were less than a split second to two gods. He could sit here for a while, help the avengers and, when the time came, he could come back and apologise. He only hoped Loki felt the same way.

*

Loki, meanwhile, was feeling absolutely dreadful. What had he been thinking, faking his death like that when he knew Percy would react this way? He should've seen it coming. Percy's emotions and mind were hard to understand, the way he thought was almost like a foreign language to Loki, but if there was one thing he knew, it was that, when you lost Percy Jackson's trust, it was near impossible to win it back.