The Gods Must Be Crazy

by aprill99

As a daughter of Apollo and a granddaughter of Mercury who has lived through wars with Titans, Giants, and undead Romans, Cassie is well aware that "normal" must be judged on a curve. Still, the invasion of a Norse god backed by an alien army is taking it a little far. Now she's involved with the Avengers and it seems like life won't be getting less weird. The gods must be crazy.

27. Chapter 27

Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine. I'm just borrowing anything you recognize for a little bit of fun.

Breakfast, lunch, brunch, whatever the appropriate term for the meal they just ate within the time period they just ate it in concludes on a pretty high note. Everyone leaves having eaten probably too much of the gourmet catered food. Coincidentally, Cassie's finally figured out one of the best things to ever be shipped out of Connecticut.

Donuts.

Farm fresh donuts.

Cassie doesn't know exactly what goes in to the coconut ones, but she can only assume that one of the ingredients must be crack. She knows some foods effect the human brain the same way that crack does, oreos to name one. That is the only explanation she can possibly see for why no one at the meal ate any fewer than three of them, including Wanda who generally eats like a bird.

Speaking of Wanda, the girl walks up beside her and taps her on the arm. "Could we talk?"

The request surprises her a little, but she recovers quickly. After all, once you've lived your life being twenty-four seven aware of three hundred and sixty degrees of possible danger, you learned to get over the unexpected pretty damn fast. She nods and takes a look around the dispersing group before indicating to Wanda that she should come with her.

Wanda had been quiet while everyone had sat talking together, even when the subject had been the likelihood of Cassie turning super villain and ending life as they knew it. She'd even refrained from talking when the awkwardness levels had gotten blown off of the charts when Pepper had asked about super soldier babies. And demigod babies. And hybrids there of.

Wow formal-informal group meals with the other women they know are incredibly full of landmines. Or just completely lacking embarrassment. Or tact. Whatever, they necessitate missing a conversational politeness filter.

Cassie thinks they might be more fun that way.

The point is, if Wanda wants to talk to her with no one else around it's probably personal. She's in a mind frame to understand the importance of someone else's sense of personal privacy having just suspended hers completely. Once upon a time, Cassie had been a fairly private person. Apparently those days have gone the way of the dodo bird.

She and Wanda hang back near one of the wide windows as the others disappear to their offices or apartments. For several moments the only sounds to be heard are the chattering of their friends and coworkers and the cheerful dinging of the elevator doors opening and shutting. Occasionally FRIDAY's voice joins the hubbub and Cassie lets the everyday sounds wash over her in a comforting lull.

Reyna gives her a questioning look when she sees Cassie hanging back near Wanda. Her intelligent eyes flick back and forth between them and Cassie gives her a little wave and a smile. Some of the confusion clears and Reyna allows Meg to pull her along in to the elevator with Pepper. Evidently, Reyna's job coordinating the press in all their rabid hordes has been fairly time consuming and complex lately.

The hallway falls silent, indicating that they have privacy now, but Wanda still doesn't speak. Since this conversation isn't really "her party" so to speak, she remains quiet and leans against the window frame. The sun is shining out there still, and the warmth of it across her face has always been one of her favorite sensations as it fights against the blasts of cold from the air conditioner.

Eventually Wanda speaks. "It is funny," she says. "Before a few months ago I had never even been in a building this high. Now I live in one. Pietro and I have had to keep the blinds shut for a while because I felt dizzy when I looked down."

"Would you like to move away from the window?" Cassie offers. She's enjoying the sunshine, but not to the extent that she's willing to handle the fall out, or rather throw up, that comes from someone else's nausea.

Wanda shakes her head and instead of walking away, simply sits down on the carpet with her back to the view. She folds her knees and rests her chin on top off them. Cassie hesitates for a moment and then sits down about a foot away with her shoulder braced against the window. For a moment she wonders if she should feel guilty about smudging the glass, but then she figures if any building on the planet has a dedicated cleaning staff capable of handling things like that, it's this one.

To kill some of the dead time that's apparently going to be involved in this conversation, Cassie flips through her mental catalogue of herbal remedies. She still doesn't know exactly how drugs might interact in Wanda's system so she's been erring on the side of all natural being better since she first started trying to work up a treatment profile. "Ginger," she says as she manages to put her finger on the answer. "Ginger. That's been proven to help wth motion sickness. I don't know if it works for vertigo, but it's just a plant so I don't think it would hurt to try."

The other woman gives her a small smile. "Thank you. I may try that. Health food stores are full of new options."

"They really are," Cassie acknowledges. "Farmers markets also have some great things. Steve likes going to them on weekends. You could come with us some time if you wanted.

Wanda winces. "I do not know about that." Cassie cocks her head, asking for an explanation if Wanda feels like giving her one. "The crowds," she says. "There are so many people all packed together. All of them are talking, and lying, and thinking, and feeling all at once and most of the time none of those match, even within one person. I can block it out, but if I do I have to block out everything. There's no working selection. It is like going deaf."

Cassie winces. "I'm sorry," she says, with every single ounce of sincerity she possesses. "I can hear and see more than the average person, but all of that is focused. It's an ability I have to concentrate to use with any level of accuracy. I can't imagine getting that range of feedback all the time with no way to control it."

She looks at her, the light turning her brown hair red. "I would have thought you did," she says. "I am sorry. I did not mean to intrude, but at times you broadcast what you are thinking, and at times you manage to block me out. I never know exactly what you think, but I have a certain sense of how your mind works. It is..." she pauses as she searches for a word. "Very busy."

The laugh that bubbles out of her throat isn't one she can help. "Yeah I guess it would be."

Wanda laughs with her and the smile changes her face, making her seem less nervous and less damaged. Mostly it makes her seem younger. "It is very interesting actually," she says. Pepper and Reyna, their minds are very organized. Meg is loud and fluttering like hummingbird wings. Steve is pounding and linear as a war drum. Sam is even and soothing. Bucky's mind is silent but all locked doors, full of things even he cannot see. Being in his mind is like walking along stairs and constantly worrying you will miss a step. Natasha plays chess always and Barton thinks like waves, layers upon layers of thought that go deeper and deeper in a way where you cannot see the bottom of things."

"Do i even want to ask what the inside of Tony's head is like?" Cassie asks with a grin. The conversation has turned light now so she's going to try to keep it that way. Besides she kind of wants to know about Tony and kind of doesn't. It's a 'slow down to see the car accident' kind of a feeling.

The answer surprises her though. Wanda actually stops and considers. "His mind, it is hard to track. Not because it is quiet because it is not. Stark does nothing quietly and that includes thinking. His mind moves too quickly for me. It is like- like a ping pong machine set at the speed Pietro moves at. I cannot see the connections between one idea and the next. But I know that he is very, very afraid for the people he loves. And I know that those people are all the ones who live on this floor, on this team. He is terrified of loss and he thinks he will lose everything. Now he has more to fear for, but also more to think of. Katya helps. She gives him a reason to think through things more than once."

Cassie pauses, letting that information sink in. A lot of what Wanda's just told her is what she sort of assumed might be true. Having it all confirmed for her by an honest to Zeus telepath is different.

She nods once to show she understands and then sits forwards, bracing her elbows on her knees. The change in gesture also helps to change the subject. "What does my brain sound like? You never said."

"It is difficult to completely explain," Wanda says. She holds out a hand and a tracery of glowing red light twists it's way in and out of her spread fingers. "I do not have to tell you that you think of many things all at once. The way you seem to take in information changes everything. There are a multitude of humming notes and levels all at once. I think- I think that music may be the best comparison. Sometimes when you are quiet there is a hum. When you are busy or feeling many things your thoughts almost emit an orchestra. But it is always music."

The words make Cassie blink in surprise. "But I can't play instruments," she says. "I have siblings that can, but that's not the ability I inherited. I got healing, and the manipulation of light and sound waves. Plus the world ending outbreak capabilities we talked about just now." A sentence she didn't think she'd ever say out loud. "Seriously, I don't even sing."

"No you don't," Wanda agrees. "But that doesn't mean that you can't. Besides, it is not about ability. It is just the only way I can think of to describe what echoes from you. There is no one else like me in the world. There are no categories for me to reference. I am left with words, and if being a telepath has taught me anything it is that words are not always the most effective means of communication."

Cassie manages another smile and files this conversation away as something to go over more carefully later. She'll also probably tell Steve once she has it sorted out in her head. It's the kind of thing he'd be interested to hear. Hopefully her brain will log all the salient details.

Once she has all of that worked out she reaches out and gently taps the back of Wanda's hand. "Was this what you wanted to talk about?" she asks. "Because it's fine if it is. I'll pick up some ginger for you next time I'm out or order it online. I have some in roads at EBay. Or I can ask Meg to just grow you some. Stark has funded a really amazing greenhouse for her at this point. And it's amazing what you've told me about how everyone's minds work. Maybe you could look in to taking some psychology classes?"

Wanda smiles again and that makes it twice inside of ten minutes which Cassie thinks might be a record. "I may do that once we are settled in the new compound. Maybe it would be good for me to get out in to a classroom with some people in it. Someplace with academics who will think quietly and calmly." The trail of red coalesces in her palm and vanishes as Wanda closes her fingers. "I wanted to talk with you because I know that my brother is worried. He knows that I feel overwhelmed but he worries that I am lonely too."

"Are you?" Cassie asks. "Lonely?"

The other girl shrugs. "I do not think so. Not with all of you here near me. I have never had so many friends and new family members as I do now. And their is everyone working downstairs. There is a pleasant hum. Like a bee hive. I do not feel cut off, but I feel as though I cannot go out in to the rest of the world. I do not really know what I thought you might do, but you have helped Mr. Barnes and Doctor Banner and Steve very much."

Cassie hums slightly as she contemplates what to do. "Maybe you could try some kind of exposure therapy?" she suggests. "It's a pretty common psychological tool from what I can tell. You could go to a quieter spot in the city like one of the museums with a friend here who thinks quietly or you find reassuring. You could go for a few hours and slowly work your way in to more crowded places. Maybe it would let you work your way in to spending time in crowds by yourself without shutting everything out to deal with it." She shrugs again. "I don't know. Like you said, we haven't got a roadmap here."

Wanda seems to consider something and then speaks all in a rush. "Would you come with me? I would like to see the MoMa and Pietro is not patient enough for a museum."

"Of course," Cassie says, actually pleased to be asked. She doesn't have very much practice in making new friends. It's not something she has to do all that often. "Maybe we could go on Thursday? I don't have appointments made for the week yet since I just got back yesterday. No missions means no one will be in danger of bleeding to death. I'd say we could go at the weekend but the crowds would probably be worse."

Wanda stands and Cassie does too, brushing her palms together. Before she can really balance herself Wanda leans forwards and gives her a hug. Cassie stands stunned for a moment before hugging her back. Human contact is important and healthy and if Wanda is willing to initiate it then those gestures should be encouraged. "Thank you," she says.

Cassie nods and grins. "Of course. It'll be fun. Just cross your fingers that nothing tries to kill me. It's happened to me in museums before, but recently I've had a better track record."

She frowns. "Death would be bad, yes."

"That's what I'm saying."

They take the elevator together and Cassie waves goodbye when she gets off at the floor her office is based in. As long as she's functional and avoiding the after effects of jet lag she figures she might as well get some work done. Besides, Steve is likely still going to be stuck in his meeting with Tony for the planning and fine-tuning of their new facility, and post-Ultron repair to their medical files is still ongoing.

Ongoing, time consuming, and pretty much mind numbing.

Thank the gods it's also almost over.

In fact, Cassie manages to do the final pieces three hours after getting to work. It's a relief to not have to worry about redoing all of the old papers any longer, but by the time she's done the letters are swimming off the page. The great and mysterious forces of dyslexia have apparently decided that now is the time to strike as vengeance for the reading and writing she's been doing lately.

The rest of the week is now free for her to get back to running physicals and working towards helping Banner and Bucky. She's also going to need to dedicate some time towards working out a selection of drug-free natural medications that Wanda will be able to take. Pietro needs a different chemical cocktail too because his system burns through everything that currently exists too quickly for it to actually work.

If things go wrong with Stark, she's seriously considering leaving and starting a specialized pharmaceutical company. She thinks she could pull it off by now. Seriously, with the right marketing she'd make a killing.

Back up plans are good to have, okay? Even if she never wants or needs to use them.

She's jolted out of her work induced haze and her mist of blurring letters when Bucky interrupts by breaking through the door. "Umm..." she says, letting the single syllable place holder drag. "Hi? Is knocking something we're not doing anymore? Because in principle I'm okay with it, but I am dating your best and oldest friend and you are dating one of mine which means that in practice some things might get pretty awkward."

"What?" Bucky's eyebrows draw together in a frown. "Oh. Please like I haven't seen Steve naked. Who do you think helped his skinny ass do his steam inhalations in the winter when he had pneumonia? Besides, army. You see a whole lot of stuff you really wish you did't. Anyway get up. I need your help with something."

Cassie has enough blind faith in Bucky as her friend and Steve's right hand man to get up and allow him to usher her out the door. "What exactly am I helping you with? Because I have to believe that if someone was bleeding to death somewhere on the premises we'd be walking a little bit faster."

They reach the elevators and Bucky jabs the button several times and then stands back to wait for it to arrive. "No one is bleeding to death on the premises," he says in a singsong kind of voice that tells her he thinks the question is kind of amusing and a bit exasperating. "But there is a crucial window of opportunity now open to us and I have a feeling it'll be closing pretty soon."

"What kind of opportunity?" She asks the question warily because she has a lot of experience with being dragged in to things by friends with very mixed results. Like, 'holy shit Percy we can't risk drowning Staten Island!' as opposed to 'gods the sunset from the top of this mountain is amazing' mixed. Still, she steps in to the elevator ahead of Bucky and waits for him to tell FRIDAY which floor they're going to.

Once they're moving Bucky turns to her. "Okay this is the situation. The Department of Education wants Steve to do a set of health and fitness videos to use in schools. The thing is, Stark has bought and signed over everything involving Steve's likeness to Steve himself, so he's the one who gets to say yes or no. At the current moment his answer hinges on the outcome of a poker game."

Now it's Cassie's turn to frown. "So if he looses at a poker game he's going to have to do a whole bunch of Captain America educational videos. Fine. As long as he came up with the terms that's fine. Also highly amusing potentially. Where do I come in?"

Bucky grins mischievously. "Through the door. He can't do Cap Mode around you and I know him better than anyone." He holds out a hand. "It will be hilarious for everyone and Steve agreed to the bet when Natasha brought it up so there's a pretty good chance he knows it to. Shake on it?"

Cassie hesitates a moment to think it over. On the one hand, deliberately distracting her boyfriend in the middle of a poker game isn't something she'd normally volunteer to do. On the other, Steve Rogers, the man who can factually barely lie to save his life, agreed to play Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, probably the best liar in the entire world, in a poker game. He had to have been prepared to lose.

"You're making money off of this?" she asks. Bucky doesn't respond but his grin widens. Cassie sighs. "I get twenty percent of the profits and another thirty goes to Steve's charity of choice."

"Done," he agrees.

The two of them shake hands and the elevator dings softly as the elevator arrives.

"You'll take pictures from the set?" he checks, almost addressing the ceiling as they step out of the elevator.

Cassie rolls her eyes and then arranges her own poker face. "Obviously. What am I, a heathen?"

That actually gets Bucky to chuckle as they make their way down the hall towards the team's new break room. "Well fifteen plus years of Irish Catholic nun provided education says yes, that is exactly what you, my amazing girlfriend, and all of your friends are."

She holds her hand out so that the scanner next to the door can analyze her prints. A glowing blue hologram of her palm appears projected right above the scanner plate and the laser moves to pinpoint her biometric indicators. "Point of differentiation," she says. "We are very technically, pagan, not heathen. There's a difference, and we spawn of the greco-roman pantheon care about it. Heathens are less classy."

Bucky nods. "Noted." He gestures to her. "After you."

Cassie steps through the door and pulls the tie out of her hair. If she's playing blonde distraction to her own boyfriend for the sake of widespread group amusement and charitable contributions, then she might as well bring the blonde. Besides, Steve has a thing about her hair.

Speaking of her boyfriend, he's sitting across a hastily erected card table from Natasha regarding his cards. He also has a huge pile of chips in front of him. Considering that Barton, Stark, and Pietro had both been playing as well, the fact that Steve's gotten this far and has won so much is pretty damn impressive. Being chronically underestimated in this field has probably helped.

"Hey," she says, leaning down and kissing him. He's clearly surprised at the gesture but melts in to it quickly. Cassie enjoy the kiss thoroughly before pulling back.

"Hi," he says back. "The planning meeting kind of went down hill."

Stark scoffs from his place behind the exceedingly well stocked team bar. "I think you mean improved Rogers."

Cassie institutes her general operating procedure when it comes to off-topic comments from Tony and instead grins at her boyfriend who is asking non-verbally why she's here. She nudges his arm out of the way and settles herself across his lap for a second, sneaking a shameless look at his cards. His hand is decent but not overly fantastic. He's been bluffing pretty well so far. Normally honest people make the most convincing liars.

Then she leans over to speak in to Steve's ear. "Why'm I here?" she posits, and Steve nods. "I'm supposed to be distracting you. Bucky thinks it'll be funny for you to do the educational commercials, and I think the bet he made is against Stark so the money he's making here is substantial. I negotiated a bunch of it going to charity."

She backs away to look at him and sees that Steve is wearing a somewhat exasperated smile. "I think you were probably not supposed to tell me that."

"Probably," she agrees. "Anyway, I've pulled your focus for at least two minutes. I'd say my work here is done."

He kisses her again, holding her against his chest tightly enough that she's definitely not moving until he feels like letting her. "Seems like me losing would benefit everyone but me. What do I get out of this point shaving?"

"Hmmmm..." she contemplates, tapping her fingers against her mouth. "I got twenty percent of Bucky's profits directed to us?"

He smiles a bit more and shakes his head in to her shoulder. "Anything else?"

Cassie represses a giggle as his hair brushes against her neck. She leans over and drops a kiss on top of his head. It's all she can reach right now so it'll have to be good enough. "I'm sure the two of us can think of something. We're very creative people. Why don't you give it some deep thought and get back to me later?"

Steve shakes his head but moves his arm to let her up and Cassie hops to her feet and grins to Natasha. The woman responds by raising a single eyebrow at her. It's the most reaction she'll get until the game is over so Cassie gets herself a snack and a bottle of water out of the team refrigerator and makes herself comfortable in an empty armchair. She doesn't know how long this will go for so she might as well be comfortable.

Clint swings down in to the seat across from her and kicks his feet up over one arm of it while leaning against the other. "I wanted to keep playing just to see if Cap really did have the cards, but Nat mentioned ditching the chips for dares so I figured I'd better bail out."

Tossing a blackberry in to her mouth, Cassie raises her eyebrows at him. "Spoken like a guy who knows what happens when they lose. Is this story time?"

He groans and rolls his head back against the other arm of the couch. "It went sooooooo badly. I had a full house! I thought it would be fine. Then what does she turn up with?"

"Straight flush?" Cassie guesses. Poker isn't her particular game. Mercury has less to do with gambling than Hermes does, but she did go through childhood with a best friend in the Hermes Cabin. She knows her card games and how to rank her poker hands.

Barton gestures with one hand to indicate she's right and then returns to addressing the ceiling. "Yeah. So before we've both placed bets already and we're out of chips when Nat suggests we raise again. I know we're in dangerous territory, but like I said, I'm looking at a good hand. So I say sure, and we show up. Next thing I know, she's handing me a cover I.D and dossier and I'm working for a completely different government agency under a false name."

Cassie grins. Hearing this story is a highlight of her day. Barton hardly ever talks about his personal life, so she's going to enjoy this while it lasts. "Oh that has to be a felony," she says. "Did Fury pull the plug on you when he found out?"

"No," Barton mutters. "That's what makes the story so much worse. When Fury figured out how much intel I was gathering by working there he made me stay! I ended up disavowed, trapped in a sandstorm, free falling towards a spinning fan of death relying on a magnet to save me, and preventing nuclear war. Because the mission was such a success, SHIELD wouldn't let me leave. I ended up working for two separate covert agencies with two identities at once long term for five years."

The almost spit-take Cassie barely manages to control is epic on a whole new level. "Five years?!"

"Actually that dare is still ongoing," Natasha calls over from the table. She and Steve are both standing up now so the game must be over. Nat is smiling like a cat who ate the canary and the cream together. Steve looks equal parts exasperated and amused so the game must have ended exactly the way that everyone expected it to. "He files ongoing paperwork, shows up for some missions, overseas field operations, and collects a paycheck." Nat smiles at whatever her expression looks like so it must be something to see. "I fully admit that it's one of my better works."

Cassie really doesn't know what to say about that so she just blinks and mentally tries to work out how on earth that income tax paperwork can possibly be filed or organized. The resulting mental mess threatens to give her a headache so she gives up and finishes her blackberries while Steve and Nat clean up their card game. Where the table came from in the first place, she has absolutely no idea.

And most of her family tree can summon furniture with literally a snap of their fingers. Maybe Thor was involved here? No, that can't be it. Jane mentioned earlier that he was busy with some Asgardian thing with too many vowels.

When that's done Steve walks over and extends a hand to pull her up and out of her seat. She goes with the motion and her feat leave the ground for a moment before she regains balance. An interesting feature of this relationship is the amount of times when that is actually true. She supposes it's the most convenient way around the height differential. The other options are carrying a step stool or Steve bending over a lot.

"What do you say to take out for dinner?" he asks. "I'm thinking Chinese?"

Cassie shows him a double thumbs up. "I am one million percent in favor. I will order the entire menu for you and clear space in the fridge. You are in charge of ice cream. We can divide and concur at the elevators."

They follow the plan she outlines and over dinner they fill each other in on their days. It's a nice reminder that even when they aren't separated from where they work and all of their friends, they can still be a private couple. They can still go to work, come home, share what they've thought about and done for the day, eat dinner together, and go to bed. It's a major piece of the normalcy and security that neither of them could manage to find for the majority of their lives.

"So I should probably mention," Cassie says after swallowing a mouthful of noodles. "And generally I wouldn't bring this up because there's literally no chance it'll ever be relevant, but it came up at brunch so I figured I might as well." She lays down her chop sticks and meets hie eyes. "I could, if I felt like it, restart the Black Death. Just putting that out there."

Steve's actually further through his food than she is but that's to be expected with his metabolism. "I thought that might be possible," Steve says, calmly soaking a dumpling in soy sauce. She gives him a look which clearly asks for an explanation. "I did a lot of reading about mythology when you first told me about your dad. And no offense to him, I don't want to be smited or turned in to a frog, but a lot of the stories are dark."

"Oh believe me, I am fully aware of that," Cassie says. "Seriously, my teacher Chiron makes every camper read and learn pretty much every story there is in case any of the elements pop back up on us and try to play out all over again. Plus there's a lot of ancient grudge holding nasties ready to spring out of thin air and murder us because of different things our parents have done. Seriously, reading the stories is worse than the battle drills."

Steve gets up and pours them both water before sitting back down. "As someone who has done and lived through extensive battle drills, I can't really see how that's possible."

Cassie brandishes a chop stick to emphasize her point. "Ahhh, but you, oh boyfriend mine, are forgetting the rampant dyslexia rate amongst godly kids. Extensive reading and verb conjugation is torture. Like in the literal sense, Camp Jupiter makes you conjugate Latin verbs as a punishment if you're late for assembly. Or they grow you in to the Little Tiber stuffed in to a sack of weasels. Besides, your forgetting just how many of the ancient stories about the gods involve them popping down to Earth to produce our more famous elder siblings."

The expression Steve's face bends in to tells her he's only just grasped exactly how bad the subject matter actually is when you're trapped knowing that all of it is real. "I copy," he says, spreading his hands. "I lived with Bucky for a bit and ended up knowing more about his- well, let's call it social schedule, than I ever wanted to. And he was my best friend. Having to read about your dad's..."

He doesn't seem to know what to say so Cassie makes a suggestion. "Extracurricular activities? It's the phrase I use in my head when I'm trying to avoid actually thinking about it too hard."

"We'll go with that then."

Cassie cracks open a fortune cookie and swallows half of it. "Honestly I'm just glad Apollo and Mercury never got themselves immortal wives. That adds a whole separate level of awkward and immortal grudge holding and malice. You heard what happened with Jason. And the one time Percy met his step-mom and an immortal half-sibling his dad's kingdom was under siege and Triton implied he would really enjoy murdering him. At least Apollo's only godly children are the patron gods of medicine, housekeeping, and some spears."

Steve frowns. "Isn't that Scylla whirlpool spitting thing related to you too?"

With a groan Cassie drops her head on to the table. "Yes she is," Cassie mutters. "I met her once when I was fourteen and I have been working very hard since then to forget all about it."

She can hear the screech of Steve pushing his chair back as he comes around the table to stand behind her and kiss her shoulder. "Sorry. I'll consider it a blacked-out subject. We'll just forget that that piece of information exists."

"See that's a plan. A plan that I approve of," she says, straightening up and turning to catch his lips with hers. "And because you are an amazing boyfriend and I am an equally amazing boyfriend, the pictures that I promised Bucky I would take at the video filming will be on a handy dandy computer program cultivated by some of my cousins to delete immediately if he tries to send them anywhere."

"Very thoughtful," Steve murmurs against her mouth.

From there the kiss spirals, and any and all conversation is pretty much abandoned for the rest of the night.

The rest of the week passes in a happy pattern and on Thursday Cassie meets up with Wanda in the front lobby of the building. Somehow Tony's caught wind of their plans (possibly that's his superpower: always knowing pretty much everything) so Happy is waiting for them outside on the curb with a private car and the paparazzi has been cleared and being held back by a mix of private security and the police.

Wanda joins her a few minutes after their set meeting time wearing a pair of frayed jeans and a maroon sweatshirt she thinks might be borrowed from Meg if the shade of red is any indication. She makes a mental note to introduce Wanda to the joys of online shopping with her new Avenger's sized bank account sooner rather than later. Even if she's shy about getting out and going shopping in person, the girl deserves some new clothes after helping save the world.

It's like rule one of understanding the Aphrodite Cabin. Which is something Cassie actually has to do given her friendship with Pepper. Besides, having Aphrodite against you never works out well. Lesson one from most of Greco-Roman mythology. Those people get turned in to hyenas or drowning or something.

And there was the thing with the Trojan War.

Which they don't talk about.

Ever.

At any costs.

On the other hand, they're both probably less likely to be recognized hanging out together like. As they've established, Wanda doesn't go out in public very much, and she's new enough to Avenging that the only public photos of her that exist are official releases or mid battle shots. The press's interest in Cassie declines hugely when she's out and about without Steve. She and Wanda together wearing casual clothes will probably blend with very little trouble.

"Hi," she greats. "I didn't tell Tony, but I did tell Steve who seems to have told Tony that we were doing this today. He, or maybe Pepper, sent Happy to drive us so we don't need to take a cab."

Wanda looks startled for a second and then shakes her head. "I am still not used to things like this. It is strange to have someone I used to blame for so much as a friend. For years I blamed Stark for killing my parents and destroying my home. Now, he has welcomed my brother and I with open arms, and sends his private driver to take me to art museums."

"I get it," Cassie agrees as the two of them open the doors and step out on to the sidewalk. "Early on it was just me and my mom, then I was functionally homeless for a while before moving in to a cabin with nearly a half-dozen siblings. I lived in tiny apartments and worked ridiculous shifts to pay for what my school scholarships didn't cover so I wouldn't get buried in debt. Until moving here, the nicest place I'd ever lived in was an apartment in D.C. Now I live in one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in New York and my boyfriend is known to the public as Captain America.

She gives Wanda a sympathetic expression as they reach the car and greats Happy as the man opens the door for them. "Trust me, it gets easier to comprehend. You might have to pinch yourself a couple times, but you'll get used to it."

Wanda climbs in after her and Happy shuts the door. "It is my opinion after being in people's minds, that it is possible for most people to get used to almost anything. Sometimes I wonder if that is a good thing."

Cassie shrugs. "I've been brushing up on my psychology, but I don't feel qualified to try to answer that question. Personally, my life as been pretty 'adapt or die' so far. And I'm still alive so... I guess I kind of have to stay in favor of changing to survive your circumstances. Being against it would feel pretty hypocritical."

"I cannot disagree with that," Wanda agrees. "I am alive because of changing too. And the changes are ones I chose to make."

The memory of a medical study she had read a long time ago drifts to the forefront of Cassie's mind. "I read a paper once," she says. "While I was in school. I don't remember the exact text because it was a little wile ago, but the general idea was that people aren't evolving anymore. Technology and medical science means that most people are living no matter their physical fitness or genetic capabilities. Everyone is getting to pass on their genes so none of the faulty ones are being eliminated. Everyone lives, so no one improves or changes across generations."

"What would evolution even look like to someone like you?"

She throws up her hands. "I mean it literally when I say that the gods only know."

Traffic is minimal for the day so they arrive at the museum not long after that and head inside. Happy checks that Cassie has his phone number and says to call it or text when they're ready to leave again. Then they go in and get a little button in exchange for their admission fee. There are people drifting through the building but none of them look at either of them twice.

It's a strange museum visit, and Cassie can say this with impunity because since this summer she has actually had normal ones. She's done museum trips that were abruptly cut short by things popping out of the walls wanting to kill her and she's done trips where in she actually got to look at and learn about art. This trip with Wanda is not either of those.

Instead, Wanda finds a gallery with a bench in it and sits down. She's facing a painting but Cassie doesn't think she's really seeing it. A closer inspection shows Cassie that her eyes have taken on the somewhat vacant look of someone thinking about something else. Apparently, this is what it looks like when Wanda is just sitting and listening to what people are thinking and feeling all around her.

Cassie asks if Wanda needs her to do anything and the other girl tells her to just stay relatively close and try to think of calm things. It's on the tip of her tongue to make a joke about Peter Pan and thinking happy thoughts but she doesn't do it. Instead, she kills some time wandering through a few rooms and studying the artwork around her. Then instead of venturing farther she turns to people watching.

When she and Annabeth had been younger, they would sometimes look at all of the perfectly ordinary people around them and make up stories about what their lives must be like. It had killed time and kept them from getting board. Sometimes Luke or Thalia would play the game with them. It's something she does now and thinks that maybe when the day is over, she'll be able to ask Wanda if any of her guesses had been correct.

At about lunch time she goes back to find Wanda and taps her on the shoulder. "Ready to get some lunch? There's a decent cafeteria downstairs. I have had the lentil soup before and in my experience it is unmatched. Which is surprising when you consider it's museum cafeteria food."

Wanda blinks with the 're-entering the atmosphere' look that Cassie normally sees on Steve's face when he's been busy sketching for a while, or the way her brother Austin looks after a morning devoted to trumpet practice. "I am... starving actually." She tilts her head sideways like she's listening to something through the floor and then grins. "And according to the head chef, a fresh pot of the very soup you mentioned is about to be served."

Cassie holds out a hand and hauls Wanda up behind her. "Come on," she says. "It'll go quickly and there is a school group on the premises."

"Yes there is and they are all very hungry," Wanda agrees, hurrying along next to her. "There is also a loaf of fresh bread which we should be able to smell as we hit the landing according to the thoughts of the security guard near the main gallery on the ground level."

They make it down to the cafeteria before huge crowds can actually form and order and procure food quickly. Both the soup and the bread are fresh and hot and just as good as Cassie remembered them being when she visited the museum during a Camp Half-Blood trip when she was thirteen. Come to think of it, that was the same trip during which Luke had stolen the Lightning Bolt and the Helm of Darkness.

It had been a happy trip. The last prophecy free year she had experienced. It will live fondly in her memory.

"Whatever you are thinking of, it is good," Wanda comments, soaking up some of her broth with the last of her bread. "Don't worry, I'm not looking at your thoughts. It is just that you feel things strongly. It is part of why I wanted you to come with me. When you are happy and calm, the people around you normally feel happy and calm too. Even the ones who are not telepathic like me."

That takes Cassie a moment to absorb. She's never felt like an overly happy or aggressively positive person. She's just always tried to figure out a way to make the best of a situation, even if the situation clearly sucks. Thanks to Luke, she's seen first hand what happens when you let the worst swallow you.

Her job has always been the medic, the healer. The perspective Wanda seems to have of her as the group optimist and ray of sunshine is new to her. She's not a gluey shinny person. She's the triage person. Her view of crises and team dynamics is to figure out what's most in danger of falling off or bleeding out and slapping a great big literal (or metaphorical) bandaid on it.

With a blink, she consigns the matter to her own ever changing mental pile of things she'll consider at some time that isn't now. It's an interesting pile. There are strata involved. Not unlike volcanic rock deposits. Lots of things go in to her pile. Her life is not generally convenient for extensive mental processing.

"I was thinking about a trip I took here back when I was a kid," she says. "My uh, my camp used to take us on trips once or twice a year to go see the city and visit Olympus. It was really the only time we were allowed outside the boundaries for anything other than quests, and only the older campers got to go on those. Gods-" She shakes her head and smiles ruefully. "My friend Annabeth and I, we used to be so jealous of the older campers when they got quests. We didn't really think about the fact that a lot of the kids who left didn't make it back. We just wanted to go. We wanted to do something amazing, something our parents would care about."

Wanda smiles. "Pietro and I had wonderful parents," she says. "Our mother ran a bakery. We always had pastries. The whole house smelled like cinnamon and butter all the time. Mama used to sneak me the first piece of a batch every time she made something and keep something back so that Pietro and Papa would not eat them all. Papa was a math teacher. He always helped us with homework at the kitchen table."

Cassie's own smile is a little sad but very honest. "They sound wonderful. I was only eight when my mom died, but I never doubted how much she loved me. And I guess my dad will never die, which is a different set of issues entirely. Though mostly on his end. My teach Chiron was more of a dad figure in my life really. But I think all the gods like it that way."

"Parents are not a common feature in our little group," Wanda observes.

They both take a moment to flip through their mental catalogue of friends. "Wow," Cassie says with a vague sense of surprise. "The only people I can think of in my immediate friend group with more than one parental figure to speak of are Annabeth and Percy. Everybody else is at one or less. Even Jane and Pepper have a deceased parent each and Darcy's parents are divorced. I guess technically Katya now has two parents."

"Katya is a lucky little girl," Wanda says. "A very, very, lucky girl. At least in this."

"I've always figured that the way luck works is that to have good luck, something bad has to happen, or almost happen, first," Cassie says. The fact that the godly embodiment of luck is some kind of relation of hers with a feast day she's celebrated before is one she leaves unspoken. Sometimes the brand of crazy that is particular to her life is best left out of conversation.

Wanda nods. "I like that. It is a very honest view. Now, I feel like I should see a little bit of the actual art here before we leave."

With a quick glance at the screen of her phone to check the time, Cassie nods. "Okay. That sounds good. It's one now so we could stay another hour or two. But for art I think we have to go back upstairs." She looks at Wanda in consideration. "Any suggestions on where to start."

She pauses to check and makes a face. "Not from here, but if we walk up the stairs slowly I will be able to tell which galleries are empty."

Cassie tosses the last of her bread in to her mouth before standing up and slinging her purse over her shoulder. "I think that that is an excellent use of telepathic abilities."

She has always believed that there is literally no point in having extraordinary powers if you can't occasionally use them for your own means. Otherwise it's just prophecies and a shorter life expectancy. Having some perks sometimes helps with the sting.

They make it through exactly one gallery on the bottom floor before the demigod curse of the museum activates.

And when she says activates, she means in a big way.

The two of them should have left after lunch.

A chimera in a crowded museum lobby trying to kill her has a way of sharpening a girl's hindsight.

The last time a chimera had been a part of her life, she, Annabeth, and Grover had missed it. They had managed to crowd in to an elevator and get back to the ground floor, stupidly leaving Percy on his own at the top of the Saint Luise Arch. Sue them, they'd been barely a week in to their first quest together. They had yet to figure out that leaving Percy alone in a national monument was a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

That time they hadn't seen the chimera, only the result of the attack. These results had included Percy plummeting to what they had all thought would be a horrible splatter death. Percy had described the beast to them all after the fact, but actually seeing it in person was something else.

"Get everyone out!" she shouts to Wanda, activating her bow. She doesn't have to break her nightlines with the monster to see that her friend does as she had asked. Red light streaks out through the room around them, briefly enveloping as many people as possible. Then the entire crowd begins marching out the door. It's the most calm and orderly evacuation of innocent bystanders Cassie's ever seen.

Later, she'll be impressed. Now she's a bit more worried about survival.

It takes eighty seconds, seventeen varieties of localized projectile, some very tense dodging, a helpful energy shield from Wanda, one minor sonic boom, and quite a lot of property damage before Cassie is forced to resort to drastic action. Normally she wouldn't do anything so destructive in an enclosed and public space, but she also does't normally have a monster hissing and spiting poisonous gas, flames, and acid at her. Desperate times and all...

She says a quick prayer to her father, gathers her courage, and steps out from behind the desk she's been using for cover. For her plan to work, she has to get the monster to open it's mouth. Something she'd really rather it didn't do.

As the monster stalks towards her, tail whipping and scraping over the marble floor, Cassie shuts down the part of her that is screaming at her to run away, and focuses on what she has to do. She gathers power in to every cell of her body, focusing her energy and will on what she has to do. The energy builds below her skin and she can actually feel her body temperature rising as power pulses in her veins, ready to explode the instant she lets it.

The monster is so close now that her nose is full of the smell of rotten eggs and it almost makes her gag. Then the moment she's been waiting for arrives and the creature opens it's maw to swallow her. She seizes her one and only chance and puts everything she has in to a full frontal magical attack.

The power rips out of her, sending a bolt of sound and light energy straight in to the Chimera's throat. For one long and terrible heartbeat nothing happens. Then the Chimera explodes, showering the room with venom and monster guts.

The good news is that they're alive. The bad news is that now Cassie is covered in ichor and really needs ambrosia, a shower, and a nap. Though possibly not in that order.

In fact, almost definitely not going to happen in that order.

Is it still a nap if you've been knocked unconscious against your will?

A/N: So what did you guys think? I wanted to do some more friendship building content and bring back some of the Riordanverse elements of monster attacks. I'm also trying to update on some kind of schedule but so far I'm having trouble sticking to one. Sorry about that :(. Anyway, let me know what you thought! That's what makes writing worth while! Review for me! xoxoxxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo