Percy Jackson, the Seriously Attractive Snake, and the Ex-Winter Soldier

Golden Cows On A Bashful Merman

Loki braced for the pain of his body hitting the water from a ridiculous hight, but was pleasantly surprised when there was none. Percy knew that he and the prince would easily survive the fall but -luckily for Natasha- the demigod was well aware of the reckless spy that had leaped out after them. And so, just as Natasha was cursing herself, she was shocked to see a hand made of water pluck her out of the air just before the assassin hit the surface.

The hand brought her into the river but somehow a bubble of oxygen surrounded her, preventing any unfortunate drownings. Natasha looked around to gain her bearings and find the source of this obvious display of magic. Loki was about ten metres away, also underwater, and Nat briefly wondered if he'd had a radical personality change before she noticed what the god's eyes were fixed to as his jaw hung open.

In the history of glow ups, there have been many. Many. But Percy's was not one to be ignored.

A while ago, Percy had done Oceanus a great favour. To avoid be indebted to the young man, the old sea god had begrudgingly given Percy his blessing. Not the marriage kind. One of the result's of which, had been the development of a second form.

The demigod's shirt had mysteriously disappeared, revealing his tanned torso and something truly beautiful.

The multiple scars had been temporarily hidden and instead ethereal patterns ran up and down Percy's arms, connecting on his collar bone. The lines etched onto his skin were different shades of silver, turquoise, and gold. They even glowed slightly. In the spaces between the lines were several miniscule drawings of various creatures. Some were jelly fish, others were sea lions. All of them appeared to be sea creatures apart from the odd... cow? There were even small, discreet gills outlined in gold on the sides of his neck.

Percy, hating the shocked stares of Natasha and Loki, snatched something neither of the pair had noticed yet from his head and held it behind his back. Scowling slightly, the demigod asked, "You two done yet?"

Nat looked away quickly- understand that Percy wasn't comfortable with anyone staring so intensely at his bare chest, the weird glowy things not a good enough excuse. Then she remember that she was quite literally breathing underwater. Still not looking back out of respect for Percy's privacy, the spy called out, "Loki, while I appreciate you using your weird, new magic to save me -and while I'm sure Percy's abs are something you'd happily look at for a long time- I think it'd be best if we went back up to the surface now."

Loki, flushing red slightly, pulls his eyes from the demigod's stomach to meet Percy's eyes guiltily. 'Sorry' mouthed the god, only to see Percy shake his head with a small smile in response.

Processing what the red head had said, Loki realised something utterly bizarre. "But I'm not doing anything... My control over water extends as far as me freezing it and nothing beyond."

It took half a second for Loki to locate where the thrum of magic was emanating from.

Percy watched as both Natasha and Loki twisted to face him with as much shock as the two would allow their expressions to betray. He wasn't keen on the idea of having to answer questions on how he got control over water, how powerful he was, and if anyone had similar talents. Especially not the last one. So he brought the trio to the surface, dumped them gently on the river bank, before running away from the others at a sprint.

time reverse- ten minutes

Clint was pacing while holding back tears and the rest of the avengers were frozen in anguish. Their friend had tried to stop the escapees, only to fall to her death. Some of them had only known Nat a year, but all of them were close to her. Tony's mind raced, trying to think of some logical way for Natasha to have survived, but he could think of none.

At that moment, Pepper burst in from one of the doors. Everyone turned to look at her. "The agents told me there was something going on but..." Pepper trailed off, seeing everyone's expressions. "What?" she asked. Then she looked around for her girlfriend. Natasha was nowhere to be seen. That combined with the faces her honorary family made had her stomach feeling like lead, but -ever the business woman- Pepper had to check. "Where's Nat?" All of her friends looked between each other sorrowfully but stayed silent. The lack of sound felt like the weight of the world was pushing down on her and Pepper finally burst out, "For Gods' sake, just tell me what happened to Natasha!"

Steve was the one who broke the news. The horrible awful news. He'd taken her to the side and in hushed tones told her the tragedy that had taken place.

Pepper didn't believe him. Didn't want to believe him. She ran to the elevator and -after they'd all exchanged one more look- everyone else followed her too. Together they strode out to the river, not wanting to admit how their eyes all looked frantically for their friend.

Bucky was the picture of indifferent, but was tearing apart inside and was begging any deity that'd listen to let Loki, Percy and Nat be okay. That was why, when he saw Percy sprinting away from something, he thought his eyes were tricking him. The soldier smiled sadly and wished it were real.

Then he heard the shouts of the team.

They were all running towards Natasha and Loki, who both were without so much as a scratch. Bucky too rushed over, being the first to check that Loki was fine.

It was only much later that Bucky realised that he hadn't dreamt up an alive Percy.