A/N: I don't own Percy Jackson or the Avengers(do I have to say this every chapter?)
Percy POV
The elevator opened with a loud ding and I quickly hopped off my skateboard and positioned it behind my back and out of sight.
"Jackson," My entire body froze at the familiar grating voice of Mrs. Algarotti, "I see you still haven't understood that skateboarding isn't allowed in my lobby."
"Wh-what ever do you mean Mrs. Alagrotti." I walked sideways desperately trying to to keep the board as flat against me as possible. "I don't even haaave my skateboard today."
She raised a thinly threaded eyebrow in my direction and turned the desk computer around to face me. It replayed a video taken five minutes ago of me swerving down the apartment hallway before skidding to a stop and pressing the elevator button.
I frantically searched through my brain for an excuse, "Uh that was my twin?" My tone raised at the end making my statement sound more like a question.
Here's some background, Mrs. Alagrotti was an interesting Italian woman who had been working in this apartment building ever since we had gotten the money to move here; all thanks to cement Gabe and his beer bellied friends. She's like a female version of Mr.D except Italian and is only drunk half of the time but still manages to be a Hades of a lot meaner.
Mom said she used to have a husband but he hasn't been seen in years. The idea of the poor man being held hostage seemed pretty accurate to me. Instead of assuming he was chained up in a cellar being fed only guinea pig pellets and tap water, I asked Mrs. Alagrotti about him. On a day where she hadn't cussed me out under her breath in Italian too many times.
"Ahh, that cane merda mangiando cretino?" She asked casually tossing her deep green dyed hair over her shoulder, "He was worthless and a waste of my beer. Although it did get him drunk enough for me to be able to crush his windpipe with my hands." After that she muttered something that sounded scarily close to 'bastardo disossato'.
I had laughed nervously and tried to back away inconspicuously, hanging around Mrs. Alagrotti and Nico has taught me a few words in Italian. None of them good. I've fought Titans, Giants, and killer cheerleaders but hearing a fairly old lady call her husband a boneless bastard scared me shitless.
When she had caught me trying to escape she just rolled her eyes and grinned in a shark-like way, "I was kidding tu stronzo, he died of natural causes...mostly."
"Oh yes," I jumped forgetting where I was, Mrs. Alagrotti had still been talking. "Your mom must have forgotten to mention she had another son when I was invited over for dinner last week."
I nodded rapidly, "Uh yeah...yes she must've been distracted by how good the casserole you brought was." My eyes widened seeing the time displayed on my watch "Well I gotta grow..I mean go nice seeing you bye!"
Speed walking out of the apartment building the sun peaked through the clouds and I decided to slip on my ray bands. Pushing off the sidewalk with one foot I wove down the busy New York streets on my battered skateboard. The wind ruffled the hair peeking out from under my beanie and I skirted out and around people walking down the graffiti filled streets having to shout sorry to some particularly close calls with groups of tourists and one competitive bicycle cyclist.
Soon enough my stomach rumbled. It's been sooo long since I've eaten, like 5 whole minutes too long. It actually wasn't too hard to ignore the 50 Starbucks I passed, no matter how hungry I was. I was not going to admit to the barista that I wanted a Grande, Iced, Sugar-Free, Vanilla Latte With Soy Milk like some pre-teenage spoiled brat and put my masculinity at risk of being shattered. Instead I popped my earbuds in and thought of happy things like that time last year when Octavian dressed up as a scarecrow for Halloween and everyone pretended like they couldn't see the difference.
I reached a less busy part of town and sped up a little more, according to Annabeth and my watch I had about 8 minutes to get to Stark Towers. I was distracted by a particularly 'interesting' piece of spray painted artwork on the side of an old building so I paid no attention as I splashed through a puddle until I heard someone yell, "Hey, Kid!"
I quickly stopped and turned around to see a man standing in a black and white suit now splattered with muddy water. Picking up my skateboard I walked over to him, "Oops sorry about that, I'm kinda in a rush." he just looked at me incredulously.
"Oops? That's all you have to say, this is a 60,000 dollar Kiton K-50 tuxedo! The name Kiton derived from the Greek word chitin-" All I did was stare as his eyes practically bugged out of his head, "It was imported from blah blah blahhh."
I spaced out quickly seeing as I didn't need another history lesson, I chose not to try to attend school again after the giant war for a reason. Unlike 50% of those other fanfictions that make me attend some stupid place called something random like Midtown High.
No shade though.
Stepping away from breaking the fourth wall and putting my ADHD to good use I studied the guy in front of me. He had dark brown hair and smile lines around his eyes which was pretty hard to believe considering how boring his serenade to his suit was getting. He had shades tucked into the front pocket of his suit and looked like he was in at least his 40s. There was also light facial hair including a goatee on his tanned face.
I was getting pretty bored so I interrupted him by gasping dramatically clutching my chest with one hand. "What's the matter with you kid?" he asked eyeing me in disgust. I pretended to look terrified, "I-I almost gave a fuck about your dam suit."
He narrowed his eyes, "You little-" I continued on sarcastically not being able to hide my smirk any longer. "Good thing I caught myself in time, that scared the schis—shit outta me."
"Kid I swear on..." I pretended not to hear him as I rode through the puddle again definitely not using my water powers to soak him a little more than necessary.
"See ya old man!" I waved to him as I started back on my way to the tower which was now in view.