*whispering* hey guys it's me 👋 let's get this party started.

*yelling* YOU GUYS ROCK

*whispering* okay here we go

Percy whimpered slightly from his position on the mattress. The curly blonde perked up at the noise, hoping it was a sign he was waking up. She couldn't sleep herself- thanks, nightmares and perilous fear of her boyfriend choking himself- and had been awake, alone, for hours (the adrenaline did a great job knocking Percy out after its effects wore off).

She was glad for the spare notebook she found, and the fact that Riptide functioned as a working writing mechanism. She hoped Percy didn't mind her digging around in his pockets. She had taken the time to draw a few rough sketches of the building she had been working on for Olympus before they were dragged away. It was only a small temple for Demeter, but she wanted each detail to have meaning, to align perfectly.

The teen in questioned whined again, kicking his bottom feet so that the comforter bunched at the foot of the double bed. His girlfriend watched intently for a few seconds to see if he'd react any worse (she didn't want to wake him if she didn't have to- he hadn't slept this well in days); she regretfully jumped up when a pained yelp left his lips.

"Percy," she whispered soothingly, carefully pulling his forearms down from where he had lifted them to cover his face from the fictional threat. He jumped into consciousness, the green of his eyes wide and attentive.

"It's just me," she comforted him patiently, brushing his cheek with her thumb. Her nose scrunched at the prickling she felt. He needed to shave.

He needed a shower, in general. He stunk, bad.

His eyes flicked across the room, surveying the surroundings for threats before focusing on Annabeth's soft features, his body relaxing slightly.

He graced her with a small smile, although his heavy sigh suggested anything but happiness. "Hello," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Sorry, did I wake you?" His words slurred together in exhaustion.

Annabeth shook her head slightly, leaning forward to kiss the tip of his nose.

"I wasn't asleep."

He nodded once, noting the bags hanging under her eyes and the dullness of her typical bright grey irises with a frown. With a groan he sat up, his body stiff and aching. A drum beat steadily behind his eyes as he glanced around the room, realizing with a start that he had no idea where they were. He had expected to be back in the obnoxious white cell he and Annabeth had been locked in for the past day or so, but instead they seemed to be in what looked like a bedroom. The walls were painted a solemn brown, which paired nicely with the dark carpeting. There was a cramped leather loveseat across from the bed and a mahogany side desk, on which sat an unassuming lamp and red notebook.

As if reading his mind, his girlfriend gestured around the space. "We've upgraded. You scared the schist out of those agents, so now they're pampering you." Her voice lifted tightly. "They said it's some sort of extra sleeping quarters at this base or what not."

"Is it bugged?"

Annabeth shrugged. She had no idea, and told him as such.

"I guess it doesn't really matter anymore, though," her boyfriend admitted. "Given they know about the whole demigod thing."

"What all did you tell them?" his tanned girlfriend asked curiously. They had basically had her confirm her mother was Athena, and that Percy had powers because of their blood, but to her knowledge that was as much as their intel covered.

"Just that Greek mythology is a thing. And that my dad's a God. Not who he is though," he clarified at her raised brow. "And they've already guessed we're not the only ones."

A beat of silence passed over the two half-bloods before Percy spoke again. He ran a nervous hand through the raven mop of hair on his head before starting.

"Did uh- um... did they ask about the whole, uh..." he waved his hand in circles, his palm open as though the right word for vivid flashback or episode or mental breakdown would fall into it willingly.

"No, but they're going to," she replied honestly.

Percy exhaled sharply through his nose. "Well, that should be a fun conversation."

Annabeth hummed in response, absentmindedly drawing a circle into the carpet. "Was that what your dream was about? Just now?"

"About what? Gabe, or Tartarus?"

"Either."

Percy shook his head with a sigh before he explained. "Well, it started with my mom. She was just crying... then we were in the rec room, and there was some kind of counselor meeting. I couldn't hear what anyone was saying, it was completely silent other than this gods awful ringing- like I used to get after the concussion all the time?, but I just felt like it had something to do with trying to find us. The entire time, you just sat there staring at me shaking your head like something bad was going to happen, and when I asked you what was wrong it just cut back to my mom... she was like, what's the word? Incon... inconsoluble?"

"Inconsolable," Annabeth filled in.

Her boyfriend nodded. "Yeah, that. She wouldn't stop crying. And then Gabe walked in... and yeah." He nodded as he finished, looking down at the black brace on his hand where he picked at the velcro.

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "Yeah?"

Percy rolled his eyes before continuing to ramble. "He started screaming, I stepped in and said some schist and he turned on me. It was stupid. That part was just coming from the... the whole relapse or whatever, but I don't get the rest. I don't feel good about any of it."

He wanted to add "And I miss my mom and feel insanely guilty for everything I've put her through and maybe if she knew I was gone for good she could stop worrying all the time," but he had already said too much. He figured he'd given Annabeth enough to analyze already.

Sure enough, the daughter of Athena's mind was running rampant with ideas and theories about the meaning of the dream. She pressed him with questions- where was his mom? Who was in the meeting? Was it dark or light out? What were the counselors' expressions? He couldn't hear anything? Really, nothing at all? What did he feel?

"What did he say?"

Percy snorted, scrubbing at the nest that was his hair. He squinted at her before responding. "Who, Gabe?" With her nod he continued. "I don't know, something about how we wrecked his car. He wasn't looking at my mom though, just me, so I don't know why he said we-"

Two solid knocks sounded at the front of the room, relieving Percy from his thousandth interrogation of the past week. The two demigods shared a look before the door creaked open.

Daisy's head popped in, her dark hair swinging down in front of her face. "Mind if we come in?" she asked, as though they had a choice. She had already pushed the door open farther to enter, revealing her tail of Director Coulson. Percy sat up farther on the bed as they filed in, attempting to appear more threatening than he felt, while Annabeth met their stares with a hardened gaze.

The agents filed in slowly, shutting the door behind them with a solid click. Percy snorted. "I guess so. Welcome in."

The director turned towards the teen. "How are you feeling?"

Percy didn't blink. "Hungry. Gross. Annoyed."

"Percy," Annabeth hissed, her eyes flickering between the figure on the bed and the S.H.I.E.L.D. representatives. They may pity them now, but they were still the underdogs in this situation. They had to tread lightly if they wanted to avoid getting themselves and/or the entire camp injured or killed.

Daisy shrugged, surprising her, making eye contact with the dark-haired demigod. She smirked under his glare, slightly amused by his anger. God, he reminded her so much of herself when she was younger. Feisty. Sarcastic. Guarded.

Was it narcissistic to add intelligent to that list?

Jackson wasn't wrong when he said he was gross. Daisy made a show of wrinkling her nose at the smell that wafted off the boy; he didn't smell great. She told him as such, which earned her an eyeroll in response.

"Yeah, big surprise there. Must be an after effect of being held against my will in an underground lair. Sorry if personal hygiene isn't my biggest concern right now." He didn't mention that he desperately wanted a shower. The fact that he hadn't in days made him anxious, but he wasn't about to ask these idiots for anything. He had more dignity than that.

Director Coulson cleared his throat, breaking the tension. "We'll get you cleaned up in just a moment. But first, we want to talk."

"Talk about what?" Annabeth inquired after a moment of silence. As though she didn't already know. She glanced at Percy, his gaze still hardened on the two agents as though his sheer anger might get them to turn around and walk out. Her heart fell. He was strong, but she didn't know he'd be able to talk through all of the crap they'd been through with a couple of strangers, especially when they were part of the problem.

Daisy sighed, glancing once at the sharp-eyed director before turning back to the demigods. "We want to make a compromise."

The two demigods' eyebrows rose in unison, incredulous. Annabeth's laughed in shock, while Percy tensed, looking one hundred and ten percent pissed.

These agents kidnapped them, imprisoned them, interrogated and threatened them... they shot Percy! Twice! And now they want a compromise?

She had to bite her tongue to avoid spitting out that the only compromise they were going to get was leaving her and Percy the Hades alone in exchange for the two demigods not destroying everything they had.

"You're kidding, right? A compromise? What the Hades do we owe you?"

Apparently, her boyfriend didn't possess the same need to keep his opinions to himself.

Still, the two didn't flinch. "We want information about Greek mythology. In return, we'll release you," the director stated uniformly, his voice steady. The man's eyes flicked over to Percy, surveying the teen quickly. Annabeth didn't miss the flash of guilt in his blue irises.

Percy snorted. "Read a book. There's a thousand books on Greek mythology- "

"Not that you've read any of them," Annabeth interrupted snidely, earning her a playful scowl,

"- you can look at. You're welcome, you can let us go now and maybe we won't tell the cops you guys are kidnapping kids off the street."

The older man smiled slightly at the teen's comment. This kid had passion, that was for sure. He crossed the room to sit on the small leather couch, steepling his fingers together as he faced the two half-bloods.

His voice was steady, yet somber. "I owe you two an apology," he started, holding up a hand to stop the retaliation that was somehow already formed behind the boy's open mouth. The girl's lips snapped together as well, reluctantly ready to listen. "And an explanation."

"We've discussed Inhumans with you briefly- Miss. Chase especially. Inhumans, in short, are the result of an alien race known as the Kree descending to Earth. I don't understand the science behind it, but genetic modifications were made to gift the ordinary with... the un-ordinary. Powers."

Daisy nodded, her dark hair bouncing with the movement as she looked between Coulson and the two they had gravely mistaken to be like her in the beginning. "I'm inhuman. Cue the earthquake powers and stuff."

"There was an accident," the director continued. "The powers could only be activated by something called a terrigen crystal, which used to remain isolated in a community known as the Afterlife."

Percy's eyes widened, remembering that specific question and his confusion on the ever-stressful flight there. Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "Used to?" she beckoned them to continue.

The inhuman before them coughed. "Well, long story short, my mom was kinda manipulative. Tried to steal a bunch of the crystals, tried to kill all of S.H.I.E.L.D., tried to kill me..."

She trailed off, hesitating to continue.

Percy shook his head. "If you're expecting us to be impressed by your mom trying to murder you, think again. We've got enough family problems between the two of us to last your entire organization a lifetime."

Annabeth smothered her laugh with her hands. He wasn't wrong. How many of their relatives had attempted to murder them- directly, or indirectly? Hell, her mom had sent her on a death quest that had resulted in a very much unwanted trek through the depths of Tartarus.

Daisy raised an eyebrow at the two. "Really? How so?"

The son of Poseidon shook his head, gesturing with his braced hand for them to move on. "No, no, I believe you were doing a poor job of apologizing. Please, continue"

The woman squinted at the boy in front of her, leaning forward with a small smile, highly amused. She opened her mouth to instigate him once more, but unfortunately Coulson the party-pooper saw through her schemes and spoke before she had the chance to rile him up further.

"Terrigen crystals were dropped in the ocean. The terrigen itself spread, infecting the waters and fish- and those who ingested fish, the meat, or fish oil pills- even a visit to the beach- were exposed. Now, Inhumans are being exposed constantly, all over the globe. Many don't know how to correctly harness their powers, and it's up to us, S.H.I.E.L.D., to guide them with that transformation."

"We assumed that was the case with you two- except you already had a history of destruction and terror. The fact that you wouldn't admit to any of it made us assume the worst- that you were with the enemy."

Annabeth furrowed her brows, busying her hands by twisting her hair into a tight bun atop of her head. Her boyfriend watched distractedly, entranced with the motions. "So you thought we were inhuman or you thought we were evil? Your story is a little crooked here."

"We thought you were both," Daisy clarified, joining the director onto the couch. "And then, your blood tests were negative. And you both were clueless about anything you would know if you'd been terrorists- not to mention Jackson here completely bombed the polygraph, something he'd be trained to evade. And then Lincoln came-"

"Lincoln?" Percy asked, confused.

Annabeth turned slightly towards him. "The blonde guy right before they split us up. Kinda looks like Jason, without the glasses?"

Hey boyfriend shook his head. "I don't remember. I don't care. Continue," he motioned to the agents.

"Lincoln is pretty much the expert when it comes to Inhumans. He's an expert doctor, too- so when he said you two weren't inhuman, but you weren't human either, we believed him.

Then we started thinking about all the stuff you guys had been saying- about Athena, gods, Hades, Hera, Tartarus... and Jackson, Fitz was able to link that to a Hellenistic design. And given that we're well aware Norse mythology is a thing... well, we were willing to accept Greek mythology was as well."

Coulson nodded, searching the teens faces for any sort of reaction, but both were hardened and unreadable. "We shouldn't have gone about questioning you like we did, and we should have informed you of the situation beforehand, but we weren't positive of your intentions or backgrounds. I extend my apologies for that.

"But our job here is still to protect the public from things we can't explain, things they can't protect themselves from- the supernatural, the mythology they believe to be false. And given we know absolutely nothing about the Greek world, we were figuring we could cut ourselves a deal.

"Explain to us your world. What we need to look for to protect ourselves and to protect others- explain everything, truthfully. Prove to us you're innocent; we know you're demigods at this point, and with that you shouldn't have anything to hide.

"When we have enough information, we'll take you two home. No strings attached; we'll leave you and your community alone, unless you pull a stunt that forces us to reconsider your innocence."

The room filled with silence as Coulson's words settled over the two teenagers before him. The Director observed the two turn towards each other in unison, like a well-oiled machine, their eyes meeting in silent conversation. Grey clashed with green, but the weight of their gaze caused Coulson to consider if telepathy was an ability Greek gods passed down to their children. An eternity seemed to past before the two looked back towards them.

Percy Jackson shrugged with a defeated sigh. "I want a shower first."

Coulson smiled, standing. "We can work with that."

happy holidays!! hopefully see you guys soon ;P