"Alright," Percy sighed, scrubbing a hand through his now damp locks as he plopped down on the small black leather couch. Annabeth flinched backwards at the assault of water droplets, glaring at her boyfriend. He was oblivious to her annoyance, his attention entranced with the large living area they found themselves in. Daisy sat opposite of the two teens in the center circle of chairs and couches, the circle of which was dwarfed by the sheer size of the room. A granite clad counter lined the far wall, marking a wall of cabinets filled with liquor and glasses. The largest flat-screen Percy had ever seen triumphed the other. Warm light spilled in from the ceiling, detailed in gold glass planes that hid the source but diffused the rays evenly throughout the room. He imagined this place could have once been part of the playboy mansion.

"What's our first question?" he asked, casually throwing an arm around his girlfriend as though they were in his apartment and not in a government compound. The dark brunette smirked at the two, especially when the blonde tried to fight out of Jackson's grip, only for him to tighten his hold with a smug smile. The teen seemed to be overflowing with energy, contrasting what he had been an hour earlier- exhausted, "hungry, gross, (and) annoyed" (to quote him). The agent didn't know where it came from, but appreciated it anyhow.

"We have to wait for the others, first," she informed him, leaning down to adjust the end of her dark jeggings. "Glad to know you're so eager, though."

"Tell us about yourself, then," Annabeth said suddenly, jabbing Percy in the ribs with her elbow. He jumped backwards with a hiss of pain, giving her the opportunity to duck under his arm and escape.

"Hey!" he complained, reaching for her again. She grabbed his wrist firmly, sending him a pointed look Daisy could only interpret as not right now. We're trying to be professional. Annabeth rolled her eyes as his face morphed into a pout, his bottom lip jutting out as his dark eyebrows knit together. He looked like a kicked puppy.

"Percy, stop," she mumbled weakly, on the edge of giving in to his antics. She leaned back into the couch before making eye contact with Daisy. Her grey irises startled the Inhuman into words, drawing her attention from the boy.

"What do you want to know?"

"What do we need to know?" Annabeth replied evenly, her eyebrow twitching upwards slightly.

Daisy laughed. "I used to be called Skye. Something Coulson hasn't entirely picked up on," she added with a roll of her eye, hoping that would win her over. By the frozen glare she received in returned, she guessed that it didn't.

"As you already know, I'm Inhuman," she continued, feeling a twinge of de ja vu to when S.H.I.E.L.D. first picked her up and Coulson allowed her to interrogate them instead of the other way around. Her face soured slightly at the memory of Ward, but she shook off the thought. "I uh, I control vibrations in things."

Percy's head jerked up, his rejection already forgotten in in exchange for rampant curiosity- god, he was hyper at the moment. "What does that mean?"

Daisy's lips curled into a sly smirk. "Why don't I show you?"

Her Hershey eyes scanned the room, past the two's inquisitive gazes, searching for a target. Her eyes finally settled on a small glass atop the bar. She assumed Hunter had left it behind from his last visit. She cautiously extended her hand, ignoring the small whisper in her brain that reminded her she wasn't wearing her gauntlets. Sure, the force might end up a little unfocused, but she was more concerned with showing off.

She narrowed her eyes in focus, twitching in excitement when the glass wobbled, dancing tentatively on the granite. She willed it to shatter, which it did... along with the glass cabinet and ceiling pane near it.

Maybe she had been a little too enthusiastic about the whole ordeal.

Jackson clapped slowly, distracting her from the fact of her inevitable scolding from the Director. She turned to him with a scowl. "Impressive," he complimented with mock awe, to which she flipped him off. Annabeth just nodded, processing her ability. Daisy couldn't help but feel a little unnerved by the blonde's blank stare. The intelligence locked behind the young woman's eyes was at a caliber she wasn't sure she'd seen before.

And she'd met Simmons.

The three of them jumped when the heavy wooden door leading into the meeting room slammed open, revealing a concerned Coulson flanked by the majority of their team. His eyes immediately sought out his agent; he relaxed upon seeing her unharmed.

"All is well," Percy informed him, slinking an arm around Annabeth once more- although this time, the gesture seemed to be protective rather than playful. The blonde shot the lean boy a nasty look but allowed the motion anyway. "Daisy was just demonstrating her skills of vibration."

"Sorry, DC.," the Inhuman offered a cheeky grin. "I'll fix it."

"More like I'll fix it," a deeper voice grumbled. Mack wandered into the room, beelining for the mess of shattered glass to survey the damage. Daisy laughed at his annoyance, turning towards him. "Sorry, big guy."

He waved her off, squinting up at the hole in the ceiling. "Hey, Turbo."

Fitz skittered in nervously, sharing eye contact with Percy for a split second before following behind the mechanic. The hefty man pointed towards the edge of the crack, drawing the engineer into a side conversation about materials and structure as the rest of team filled out the space in the room. May stood solemnly at the back door as a guard, while Coulson chose the seat next to Daisy. He placed a small black recording box on the clear coffee table in front of them as Agent Morse navigated to the recliner to the left of the director. Percy's eyes swept over their new company with unease, suddenly overwhelmed. They were supposed to reveal all their secrets to all of these people? All of these strangers?

Annabeth shifted next to him, her leg brushing against his own. She lifted her hand to the one he had thrown over her shoulder, intertwining their fingers before squeezing his palm once in reassurance.

Though, he had a feeling she wasn't just comforting him.

"Anyone want a drink?" a British voice called out. The son of Poseidon's green eyes snapped to the bar, where the British agent was digging around in the mini fridge for a Bendeery ale. His gut twisted when the man stood, his eyes locking on him. "Ay, Jackson!" he grinned almost maniacally. "Want a beer?"

Annabeth stiffened, her grip on her boyfriend's hand almost suffocating. She was surprised when Percy only shook his head. "I'm only seventeen, man."

Hunter didn't look impressed. "And?"

"I don't drink."

"Sure you don't. Here, how about I get you-"

"Hunter, leave the kid alone and sit down," Bobbi snapped. "We don't have time for this."

Coulson exchanged a look with Daisy, commenting silently on the obvious tension between the two agents as Hunter dejectedly made his way over to the communion of seats. He plopped unceremoniously onto a white ottoman, taking a swig out of his bottle.

"So," he questioned, wiping his chin. "Greek gods, eh? That's bloody brilliant. Tell Dionysus I'm a big fan."

Percy narrowed his eyes. He didn't like this man. He didn't trust him.

"How do you know anything about Greek mythology?" Bobbi spoke accusingly.

Hunter chuckled, turning towards the two teens before sending an exaggerated wink Annabeth's way. "The ladies love the Greek."

A low growl came from Annabeth as she made a move to punch the man, but Percy managed to hold her back. Fire burned in his eyes; he turned intentionally to Coulson. "I'm not talking if he's here," he declared pointedly before directing his attention towards Hunter. "Annabeth alone can kick your ass so I suggest you shut the hell up."

"Look, mate, I'm just-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Daisy interrupted, throwing her hands out to provide some sort of obstacle between the two parties. The whole situation had escalated quite quickly. "Everybody calm down, let's take a breath..."

"I'm not talking if he's here," Percy repeated.

"Percy, it's fine-" Annabeth started.

"No, I want him out," Percy insisted, his voice strained.

Coulson sighed, motioning for Hunter to leave as the rest looked on. It wasn't worth the fight. Hunter's presence wasn't vital, unlike the information the two teens had. "Hunter-"

The agent threw his hands up in indignation, ready to yell out a rebuttal, but lost the motivation when the action caused the relatively threatening physique of the boy to flinch rather violently. Percy recovered quickly, but the implications of the action were clear. His mind shot back to the intel they had added to the kid's file after the flight to the Cabin... specifically, the intel about his stepdad.

His drinking, abusive stepdad.

Bloody hell, he was an idiot.

"I'll see you guys later," he said softly. "Sorry, mate," he apologized to the two before striding out of the room.

A heavy silence fell over the room. "Well, this is awkward," Percy started with a lopsided grin. "But I kind of want to go home, so someone better start asking questions."

........................................................................................................................................................................................

After the agents had sworn themselves to relative secrecy ten times over, the son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena carefully dipped into their history- a history they realized they hadn't completely talked through together. Coulson, and the rest of the team for that matter, observed in reserved awe as they detailed what had led up to the explosion of the St. Louis Arch and shootout at the beach, everything from the Minotaur to the limited training at their camp to Riptide to flying shoes. A shadow of a smile crossed Annabeth's face when Percy mentioned their ride in the zoo van. She hadn't thought about that in a long time.

"So you fought a god? At twelve?" Daisy asked cautiously at the end of Percy's first monologue. The demigod snorted. "Yeah, and won."

Annabeth shook her head. "Don't get cocky. You were on home turf."

Mack squinted. "Home turf?"

Percy exhaled deeply. "Remember when I said my dad was Poseidon?"

The majority of the room nodded in unison. They had started with that- yes, gods come down and... ahem, mingle with mortals to create demigods, and Percy was Poseidon's fault, while Athena graced the world with Annabeth (Percy's phrasing, not theirs). Percy laughed at the sight- it was quite comical, really- before continuing. "Yeah, well, like when I fell in the river- I can breathe underwater. I can make water do weird crap."

Daisy raised a brow. "What do you mean by that?"

The teen smirked deviously, brushing his wavy black hair to the side. "Why don't I show you?"

"Let's not right now," Mack interrupted, remembering all too well the wreck the boy had made of the Bus while half-conscious and unwilling to fix more than what Quake had already destroyed. "Explain what you can do. Please."

Percy's fingers tapped relentlessly on his thigh, his foot, clad in a government issued black (itchy) sock, bouncing anxiously on the floor. "I can breathe underwater. I can kind of morph the water to do what I want, like push me forward when I'm swimming, or I can summon waves, change the current momentarily... I only get wet if I want to. Water heals me to some extent, which, speaking of..."

The demigod proceeded to slide off the brace, tossing it to Bobbi, before undoing the wrap around hand. He flexed his fist cautiously, wincing slightly- it was still sore, but doable.

Coulson nodded thoughtfully. "Okay," he started, storing the fact under a list of the weirdest things he'd experienced before turning towards the daughter of Athena. "What about you?"

Annabeth smirked, bumping Percy's shoulder. "I keep this one in line, and make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

Percy grinned. "She's insanely smart, and an incredible architect, and probably the best fighter I've ever seen. She's a badass."

"And this badass has saved your ass on multiple occasions."

"Well, yeah."

"Mmm."

Percy was suddenly acutely aware of her body pressed against his and coughed, shifting away as subtly as he could before launching into the next narrative, beginning with Annabeth falling off a cliff.

And the two demigods popcorned between themselves, detailing the monsters they'd fought, the dam snack food, the Mist. They discussed Atlas, Artemis, holding up the sky, all the way to the fine beginnings of the Battle of Manhattan. All the while, the agents looked on in amazement. They couldn't believe what they were hearing.

But they had to.

"The River Styx," Bobbi interrupted at one point. "Becoming invincible-"

"Mostly," Percy shot in, sharing a knowing look with Annabeth while squeezing her hand. "Mostly invincible."

"Becoming mostly invincible," Bobbi corrected. "Couldn't any one of our enemies do that? That seems like something we should be worried about."

"It's not," Annabeth shook her head, before launching into the details of the Styx and everything it entailed. A mortal wouldn't be able to handle it. Percy shuddered at the memory of feeling as though his entire being was being burned away. Bobbi sat back, not entirely convinced, but had enough respect to listen to the two finish their story, to finish the tale of the Battle of Manhattan. They all sat in silence at the image of a teenager bringing a blade to himself, bleeding out on a palace floor.

Tears pricked Coulson's eyes.

These kids had been to hell and back, saving the freaking world, for what?

Because they had to?

And they had taken them from the whatever normal they had in their lives to throw them into a new form of chaos?

Annabeth sat forward, releasing Percy's hand to rub her own against the thin fabric of the pant scrubs. "What you need to realize," she started, addressing Coulson's entire team, "Is that this entire world of Greek mythology? Percy and I? It's all isolated from the mortal world- your world. Yes, sometimes it crosses over- take the storms when Zeus lost the lightning bolt, or the Arch- but our job as demigods is to subdue those threats before they affect the outside world. The Mist helps, but we're here stopping this stuff before it becomes your problem.

"Consider: you barely believe us as it is. You think you would have recognized the signs of a war in a city as busy and populated as Manhattan. The fact of the matter is, you didn't. And you didn't need to, because we handled it. Yeah, it cost us, but here we are.

"And maybe this team understands this. Maybe this team can live on knowing that our world is self-sustaining, maybe this team recognizes that our world controls itself.

"But if this spreads outside this room? If the public gets wind of this, or if someone who shouldn't gets this information, eventually the world will be a madhouse. We'll be fighting monsters, giants, titans, and mortals. We can't afford to do that. That's when we'll lose our wars, and that's when our monsters will start to hurt mortals.

"What I'm saying, is that the mutual benefit for both parties, the overall benefit for the good of the world, is that we all pretend we never met. Percy and I don't talk about your side of things, that you exist at all, and you forget anything we've said about Greek mythology. Everyone is safe. You protect people from what they're not ready to see, you protect those who can't protect themselves," Annabeth finished, throwing the Director's words from their first meeting back in his face.

(Too bad Percy was unconscious for that; he missed the true genius of her conclusion).

Percy cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah. What she said."

"That was a pretty convincing argument, kid," Mack complemented, searching Coulson's face for some evidence of a reaction, but it remained stagnant.

Daisy nodded in agreement. "I'm convinced," she added, wishing that Lincoln was with them to see what had come from the slap in the face he had given her.

Fitz nodded once, and Bobbi gave a firm yes.

All eyes were on the Director, including the two teens. Looking into their eyes, he saw an honesty he couldn't ignore. A wisdom he had to trust.

He stood, straightening his jacket as the two demigods rose to meet him. He extended a hand with a small smile. "We never met."

Annabeth shook his hand, and then Percy.

"Never met."

...................................................................................................................................................

"Are we there yet?"

"Percy!" Annabeth groaned, slapping his knee from where she lay across his lap, trying and failing to get some sleep on the floor of the old S.H.I.E.L.D. utility can. His thigh was a terrible pillow; he wouldn't stop bouncing.

She couldn't really blame him for his impatience. He hadn't slept- at least not well- for the past three days. The first night he was plagued with nightmares about the consequences of revealing the secrets of their lives to the agents; the second he had dreamt the same dream about the counselor meeting and Gabe following the agents second look at their lives. They had answered many, many, many questions about the gods and their lives before going over the details of being returned home.

Also, Percy had bonded with Hunter, and Annabeth had received the opportunity to thank Lincoln, but that memory was forgotten with the stress of the current day.

The flight was inevitable: Bobbi had researched driving back to Long Island for Percy's sake, but the ten hour tag deterred them. The team was stuck with forcing the son of Poseidon into a Quinjet for three hours and surviving another two and a half in a van with the hyperactive team.

Five hours later, Annabeth, Daisy, and Mack had only heard are we there yet a hundred times.

Percy rubbed his sea-green eyes, yawning. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm just bored."

No sooner had he spoken the words did a large bang filled the team's ears; the van lurched forward as small holes bore across the back doors of the vehicle. Annabeth flew to her feet, Percy following, his eyes now wide and swirling with the readiness for battle Daisy had imagined amidst their stories.
"What's happening? Who's shooting at us?"

"Keep your heads down!" Daisy demanded to the two teens, pushing them into seats across the wall. The Inhuman struggled to keep her footing when the van swerved violently to the left before maneuvering her way to the front of the vehicle. "What the hell is going on?" she shouted over the blaring of horns and screeching tires around them.

Mack cursed as the vehicle skidded through an intersection, narrowly avoiding a semi- the truck in which swerved into a small sedan. The Inhuman winced, hoping the passengers of each were alright. "We have a tail!" he yelled over the noise, his voice just a notch too loud due to the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"Who?" she demanded. No one should know about this. This was a relatively low-key assignment, to take the two demigods back to Long Island. The ATCU had no knowledge about the two teens; they had picked them up early in order to avoid them gaining intel on the pair. So who the hell was following them?

May screamed something in her ear, something she couldn't understand. "What?" she yelled back, pressing the earpiece into her head so hard she was briefly afraid she'd get it stuck. The Inhuman glanced back at the two teens, shocked by their faces of determination rather than panic. Their fingers were curled tightly around the bottom of their seats; Percy had already pulled out Riptide, ready to fight. She opened her mouth to yell at them to buckle up, but the voice in her ear cut her off.

"It's Hydra, Daisy! It's-"

No sooner had Daisy comprehended May's words did a force slam into the side of the van, bending the metal inwards and launching the vehicle into a roll with a deafening BOOM. Mack yelled in surprise as Daisy went airborne, her body tossed throughout the cabin of the van like a shoe in a washing machine. The outside world blurred together into a single mass of color, and within the second she flew into the ceiling, her head cracking against the metal audibly.

Then it all went black.

Wow, a cliché ending, am I right?

Muwahahahaha 😊

Thank you so much for reading guys. Here's to a change in pace, happy holidays!

See you guys soon,

JustAnotherGirlmcg