Catch Me If I Fall (PJO/Avengers Crossover)

53

There are many kinds of monsters;
All different in terms of fright;
And, most of the time, they're so scary one may struggle to sleep at night;
Some deformed, some hideous, just plain weird;
Some might even have snakes for a beard;
But the scariest monster, the one I see;
Is the monster that lives and lurks deep inside of me.

Loki fidgeted with his pen, tapping it against his table, before closing his notebook and leaning back in his chair, running a hand through his hair, closing his eyes and sighing deeply. Getting his feelings out and on paper was a great luxury, and he felt ten times better after doing it, but it never stopped him from being at least a bit miserable. He loved to rule, never let that be forgotten. Being king, having all this power, it was everything he could have ever wanted. But the workload and the stress was becoming slightly too much for him. He had so many council meetings to attend, and keeping up his illusion was getting harder and harder by the day. He needed rest, but he couldn't bring himself to sleep at night. As long as he was awake, Thanos couldn't get him. As long as he was awake, nobody could hurt him. Nobody.

"Loki?" He heard someone call him, and looked up almost instinctively to see Percy's face through an Iris message staring back at him. He was dangerously pale, his hair a mess, his eyes rimmed with red, as though he'd been in tears a few moments earlier. Immediately, Loki knew something had happened, and stood up.

"Percy? Is everything okay?" He asked, glancing back at his notebook to make sure it was closed. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to see those poems.

"No," he shook his head. His voice was panicked and breathy, as though he'd ran a marathon. "Oh, gods, no."

"What happened?"

"I don't know," he was tearing up again. "I got so overwhelmed, and next thing I know Steve had fractured his knee. Gods, I'm so fucking stupid."

"You're not stupid, Percy," Loki tried to stay calm- panic would get them nowhere. "I need you to explain to me what happened, okay? Take your time."

"I-" Percy ran a hand through his hair- he was breathing dangerously fast. "I was on a mission yesterday, and we failed the mission and Steve was bitter about it, and we had an argument..."

"Okay," Loki nodded encouragingly, pressing for Percy to go on, ignoring the fact he'd gone on a mission when Loki had explicitly told him not to.

"And I had so many thoughts, so many emotions, they overwhelmed me," he said, pausing after every few words or so, searching for the right thing to say next. "I couldn't breath- I couldn't think, and then Steve took my arm and he went flying across the room. He- he fractured his knee and windows shattered and-" his voice broke, and he found himself unable to force any more words out.

"Okay," a sudden idea came to Loki- it was such a slim chance, a dangerous one. Could it have happened to Percy? The odds were so low, but they were certainly still there. He looked at the I.M, worried. "Percy, could you come to Asgard? Immediately?"

"What?" Percy looked up back at him.

"Don't stop to talk to anyone, tell your team that it's quite urgent and you have to go. I'll alert Skurge and all of the guards, and you come straight to the library, is that clear?"

"I- okay," he nodded. Percy was clearly still panicked, but some colour had returned to his face, and it was evident he was thinking more clearly now. The I.M was waved away, and, immediately, Loki shrouded himself in an illusion to make him look and sound like Odin, alerting Skurge and the guards that Percy was to go to the library, and nobody was to stop him. With that, he began looking for a certain book he knew was in there, hoping to the Norns his speculations were incorrect.