[Friend of a Friend] PJO x Marvel

[6. You're not a Detective, Ned]

Peter looked around the museum in awe, he'd never been the artistic type but he loved to admire art. MJ was somewhat of an artist, if Peter were lucky he'd get to see some of her drawings. That was only if she was in a good mood.

  "Any plan on how to find it?" Ned asked, he gazed around but seemed much less interested. His real focus was definitely on trying to solve the mystery as if he were a character from Scooby Doo. Peter almost wanted to chuckle, but he restrained himself.

  Peter shrugged, "Ask?"

  "Ah yes, excuse me sir, do you know where this one statue is? No, I don't know the name nor anything about how it looks, I just know it exists."

  "Hey, I was just planning on asking if anyone knew where the statue by Sally Jackson was. They'll have to have an idea, right?"

   Ned shrugged and kept walking alongside Peter, his eyes darting between the names of the artists. Peter was to search the opposite side, that way they wouldn't have to play the game of looking back and fourth.

  "Who knew sculptures could be so boring, they're all starting to look like grey blobs to me now." Ned stretched his arms back, "Maybe we should look for someone who works here."

  "Maybe-" Peter stopped in his tracks, Ned looked back and walked over to where Peter was standing. "This one, this is the statue."

  "The Poker Player? He looks, uhh, rough?" Ned frowned and stepped closer, "Highly detailed though, it looks exactly like him."

  "It looks too much like him. Sally isn't a sculptor, May said she's a writer." Peter slowly reached his hand over to the statue and tapped against the stone, "It feels like stone-"

  "A gentle reminder to not touch the artworks," a girl's voice spoke. Peter quickly moved his arm to his side and turned towards the girl. "The sculptures especially are fragile."

  "Oh, I'm sorry, I-"

  "No need. Personally, I wouldn't mind if this one got cracked or destroyed. Unfortunately my employers don't feel the same way." She smiled, "The name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, I'm a tour guide here."

  "They give tours?"

  "Eh, sometimes. Usually people prefer to browse on their own, so mainly I'm here to just enforce the rules." Rachel chuckled, but Peter only stared at her. She had long red curly hair and a freckled complexion, her green eyes felt almost hypnotic. Something about her felt off, not in a life-threatening way or anything, but Peter could tell something about her was different.

  "Do you know anything about this sculpture?" Ned asked, not as confused by Rachel's presence.

  "Sure, I know a bit. It was bought around five years ago, long before I worked here. Sally Jackson made it as a small dabble into sculpting, but so far it has been her only work. With such high amount of detail, it looks just like the person it was inspired by. It's a memorial piece for her deceased husband." She grinned, "Personally, I think it truly captures who he was as a person, don't you think?"

  "Ah, I'm not too familiar with who it was based off of, so..." Ned was at a loss for words, standing there staring at the sculpture. Peter wanted to bet that Ned was finally realizing that something about her knew the full truth behind the situation. Whoever Rachel was, she knew something. Whether she just knew who Percy was, or maybe she also found herself trying to solve a mystery.

  "You sure know a lot about it," Peter said in hopes of making Rachel give more information.

  "Sure, it's my job after all."

  "Right, of course. What made you wanna work here? You seem young."

  "I'm only seventeen, a family friend is the owner of this place, he offered me the job as a part-timer and I couldn't really resist. I'm a bit of an artist myself, actually. I usually work with paint though, but I do like admiring all of these sculptures."

  "Ah, I see." She was the same age as Percy, but that didn't necessarily mean they had a connection.

  "What makes you so drawn to this sculpture in particular? I can recommend some way cooler ones. There's one over there carved after the Greek God Apollo. There's a siren one, a cyclops, ooh, you'd love the centaur one at the end of the hall!"

  "Ah, I'm sure I'd love them. This one is just interesting, my Aunt is a friend of Sally Jackson and told me I should go check it out next time I came here. So... here I am?" Peter wasn't sure how much longer he could bullshit his excuses, he really hoped Rachel would stop talking and go back to wandering the building looking for people breaking rules.

"Ooh, interesting!" Rachel looked around, then back at Peter. She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, "Have you met her?"

"Once, but I didn't really get to talk to her or anything..."

Rachel nodded, "I heard she's a very kind woman. It's a shame what happened to her husband, but I love the addition to the gallery. Anywho, I should stop bothering ya. If you have any questions I'll be wandering around, feel free to ask anything."

Peter didn't like how suspicious she had been, but he couldn't really investigate it any further. He glanced over at Ned, who seemed a bit confused himself.

"Maybe I should look up her name too-"

"You're Not a detective, Ned. Let's leave it be, I don't want to be suspicious of random people right now. We should get going anyways."

Ned sighed, "Yeah, okay."

  "Hey, at least we have that field trip to look forward to later this week."

  "Yeah, guess you're right."

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Percy stared up at his ceiling, unable to sleep. His physics homework has been tossed aside as he struggled to understand it. He didn't want to ask his mom to call over Peter, as he really didn't feel like dealing with people.

He couldn't stop thinking about the Wizard guy, Doctor Strange? It was such a funny name, he chuckled each time it crossed his mind. He really didn't understand that situation at all, why he was hand picked to serve as an ally to a wizard. How had the guy even heard of him? Had he met some Greek gods or something?

  Or perhaps maybe he was an enemy, disguised as an ally. He wanted Percy to promise to fight with him, but what if that meant fighting against his own side?? Percy was an idiot for saying yes, he swore on the River Styx and now whatever happened was out of his control. If Doctor Strange was truly an enemy, he really messed up.

  "Gods, I need to train myself to think about these possibilities before I make unbreakable oaths to them..." he groaned and sat up, "Too late now though.. whatever."

  He really just hoped that nothing would ever come of it.

  "I can feel the anticipation in the air, Percy."

  Nico's words were starting to haunt him. Part of him wanted to go back to camp, but he couldn't. He wouldn't go back unless it were a desperate situation. He didn't want to ruin his one chance at a happy future with Annabeth. New Rome was his top priority, no matter what.

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[A/N]
I love these small interactions and everything, but damn I'm so ready for the action to start. Can't do that too quickly though lol, I'm just ready for Tony and Percy interactions to happen.