Peter Parker (is definitely not Spider-Man) (__spiderman) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-04-15 17:27:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, percy jackson, peter parker (spider-man) |
Who: Peter Parker & Percy Jackson
What: Pizza!
When: Before the April Fool's plot [backdated]
Where: A Pizza place
Rating: Low
Status: Complete
Peter had been systematically trying as many different pizza places as he could since arriving in California. Between classes, before going home (or at home, ordering take out and then grinning at Peggy for it being the third time that week)... he was just looking for one that reminded him of home. He knew that there weren’t going to be any places that made a proper New York pizza but he figured there would be somewhere that was close.
Last week, someone had argued with him that Chicago made the best pizzas. Peter hadn’t been anywhere near annoyed enough to throw a punch, but the guy he’d been talking to had tried. Thankfully he telegraphed it and Peter had the good sense to duck and then the guy’s girlfriend dragged him away.
He was queuing, which was a pain but then he wasn’t overly in a rush to get back to the library, and his stomach gurgled a little in a reminder that he’d skipped breakfast and lunch and it was well into the afternoon now and energy drinks weren’t something that could keep a guy going no matter how much he tried.
Above the counter in bubble writing was Bringing NYC to CA since 2019. He eyed it critically and then turned his head to look at the guy behind him.
“You think that’s true?” he asked, thumbing towards the chalk lettering. “Not the 2019 bit. So far every ‘New York’ pizza I’ve tried isn’t a New York pizza.”
Percy had been back in the OC for a few weeks now and while he was happy to be home, he would admit that there were things he would always miss about New York and one of those things was the pizza. Sure, Percy enjoyed all types of pizza; he really wasn’t a pizza snob, but there was just something about New York style pizza that he was more partial to and of course that was probably because he’d grown up in New York, but honestly so far he hadn’t found a pizza style that could top it.
The pizza shop he stepped into was one that he’d discovered shortly before he’d gone back to New York, which had the closest thing to New York style that he’d found in the OC. He had just stepped into line when the guy in front of him turned and asked him about the pizza, “It’s the closest I’ve found.”
Peter’s eyebrows lifted a little, face lighting up at the news. “Really? That’s- wait- are you from New York?” It was an important question, “Just- like, loads of people say they’ve had New York pizza but they’re from, like, not New York. Or worse, I end up in the Chicago-pizza-is-better argument which no-one really has the energy for.”
He was a little more excited at the prospect of pizza now, though. “Peter,” he added, holding his hand out. Might as well make friends while in line for pizza. Pizza bonded everyone.
Percy nodded, “Yeah. Manhattan. Are you from New York too?” It was always fun to meet someone else who was from New York, especially in Orange County because it always brought up the question of why they had decided to move across the country as well as multiple possible conversations about things in New York. “I mean, deep dish is really good, but is it really pizza?” Percy had also had the New York style versus Chicago deep dish argument before.
“I’m Percy. Nice to meet you, Peter.” He shook the other’s hand, smiling.
“It’s not pizza,” Peter said, that bright smile still there as Percy shook his hand. “I’m from Queens. My uncle’s from Brooklyn.”
He shuffled forward a little as the queue did, tipping his head back at the counter like he was checking it was still there before letting his attention return to Percy.
“How long have you lived out here?” Peter was still trying to get used to the culture shock. Orange County was so different to where he’d lived with May. It wasn’t all bad: the people were friendlier on the whole. He hadn’t been yelled at by a single cab driver.
“I’ve been here for a few years. Although, I was just in New York for an internship.” Percy thought back to how much things had changed over the last couple of years. When he’d first moved to Orange County he still considered New York his home, but then his mother and Paul had moved out to California as well and he’d found out that Nico and Hazel were his cousins so with no other family anywhere else, New York became the place he’d grown up, but Orange County was home now. “How long have you been here?”
“Not long at all,” was Peter’s answer, along with a rueful smile. He rubbed the back of his head. “My aunt and uncle live out here, and I- I needed to get away from New York for a while.” His chest clenched, tight and hot and made his throat close up briefly. He wondered how long it would be before he stopped feeling like that. “Since I have family out here and all it kinda made sense?”
He offered Percy a helpless wave of his hand. “This place is a lot.”
Percy nodded, “Makes sense. I moved out here by myself at first then my mom and step-father moved sometime after.” He was extremely glad that Sally and Paul had decided to make the move, because if he didn’t have the chance to spend time with his baby sister, he would have hated that, “Are you going to school out here?”
He laughed, nodding again, “Yeah, it can definitely be a lot.” Percy couldn’t help but wonder if Peter was on Valar and what kind of dreams he’d have.
“Yeah, I’m at college,” Peter answered, “though ‘cause I transferred mid-semester I’ve got a lot of catching up to do so I’ve been running an extra workload. I’m finally about the right kinda, y’know, I think I’ve finally caught up.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you at school here?” He was really bad at the guess-the-age game.
“I’m interning right now.” Percy said as they moved a little closer to the counter, “I’m majoring in video game design though. I should be graduating this summer.” Percy couldn’t believe how much time had actually passed since he’d moved to Orange County. Not only had so much happened with his family, but so much had happened with the dreams as well. When he’d first moved he’d been a normal college student and now he was a demi-god who had various abilities over water, “What’re you majoring in?”
“Video game design?!” Peter asked, eyes wide. “That’s- oh, man that’s awesome. I’m doing sciences, I mean- chemistry and engineering. Where do you intern? Is it at a video game company? That- sorry, that’s a lot of questions.” He was just excited. He hadn’t had a lot of luck in getting to know people here, yet, and that had partly been because he’d been so focused on his studies.
He shuffled up the line a little, which was slowly getting them closer to the counter which was good, because he was hungry.
“Yup,” Percy nodded and told Peter which company he was interning for, “That’s what I was doing back in New York, but I got a chance to switch to their location out here now since there wasn’t a spot before.” Had a spot not opened up in California, Percy would have been in New York for another couple of months, which meant he would have missed Estelle’s first birthday, which was coming up soon. At times he still couldn’t quite believe that he had a baby sister.
“Hey that’s always lucky,” Peter said, trying not to think about the reasons as to why he moved out. He put his hands in his pockets. “Did you miss living here?” he asked, adding a second later, glancing around them furtively, “Do you- uh, I mean do you have those weird dreams I keep seeing people talking about?”
Because hey, if he didn’t ask, he’d never know. And if Percy didn’t know, well, Peter could yeet himself out of the door and never come back here again, right? He hadn’t tasted the pizza so he wouldn’t know what he was missing.
Percy nodded, “I did. My family is all out here now. My mom, step-dad, sister and cousins. It just got lonely in New York.” Percy did have some friends still in New York, but it just wasn’t the same as being around Nico and Hazel and Will. At Peter’s question, Percy couldn’t help but smirk and nodded, assuming that he too must be a part of Valar otherwise how would he know about the dreams? “I do. This might sound crazy, but I’m actually a demi-god.”
Peter’s eyes widened. Percy was right, that did sound crazy, but then he’d seen people on the network talking about powers and abilities and all kinds of stuff that should seem insane but didn’t feel it. He let out a slow breath and nodded his head even as he said, “No, not that- uh- that doesn’t sound crazy.” He folded his arms across his chest and breathed in quickly, “So, d’you, y’know, have any powers or anything? ‘Cause, demi-god?”
Percy couldn’t help but be amused by Peter’s reaction and he smirked and nodded in response to the question, “I do. In the dreams, my father is Poseidon so most of my abilities are water related.” Nothing that he could demonstrate right there in the restaurant, but perhaps there’d be another chance for him to show Peter something.
If it was possible, Peter’s eyes widened even further. His jaw dropped a little and then he caught himself. “You- Poseidon?! That- oh man, that’s intense. Can you do stuff like the people in Avatar, you know with the- uh- the water bending?”
“Not exactly. I mean, technically I could probably tap into the plumbing and flood the place if I needed to, but I usually only use that type of thing in dire circumstances.” Percy noticed that there was only one more person in front of them in line, which he was grateful for cause he was starving, “I can use water to heal myself and if I’m in the ocean, I can tell exactly which way I need to go. Oh and I can talk to horses.” Of course Percy hadn’t really been around too many horses since he’d discovered that in the dreams, but he knew he could do it in the waking world too.
Peter, on the other hand, had been shuffling down the queue out of habit more than anything else because he’d completely forgotten that they were in a pizza place and he was waiting for food. He’d just met someone with superpowers, that was possibly the coolest thing to have ever happened to him.
“That’s really awesome.” And it was, and Peter was completely genuinely excited. “I mean- uh- do you-” he glanced over his shoulder, seeing he was about to be called next. “Do you wanna grab pizza with me? I- uh, if you don’t wanna that’s cool but I just really would like to know more…”
Percy nodded, “Yeah, that’d be cool.” He didn’t mind talking about his dreams and abilities with other people and it was actually nice to meet someone who didn’t know all about him like Nico and the other did since they shared his dreams, “I can even tell you about the time we were almost killed by a Cyclops.”