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Steve and Bucky were walking down the busy streets of NYC, sunglasses and baseball caps obscuring their faces and gloves hiding Bucky’s metal arm, when Steve heard yelling.
“Oh come on Will, it’s not even that bad! It’s just a scratch, stop freaking out on me!”
Steve cocked his head. Something about that voice sounded familiar, the slight European accent ringing a bell in the back of his head.
“You heard it too?” Bucky asked quietly, turning slightly in the direction of the yelling. Steve squeezed his hand, knowing that Bucky didn’t always trust his memory, not these days.
“Sounds very familiar,” he murmured back. The yelling continued, this time a new voice.
“If it’s just a scratch, then stop whining and let me look at it before we head back to camp! Don’t be such a baby, di Angelo!”
Steve and Bucky made eye contact, matching stunned expressions on their faces. They hadn’t heard the name di Angelo in a very long time.
Way back when Steve and Bucky shared a little apartment in Brooklyn, before the war or the serum or anything, there was a sweet little Italian woman with two young kids and no husband, who had immigrated to run from Mussolini. Her name was Maria, and she doted on Steve and Bucky, claiming she worried about two young men living on their own. In return, they’d babysit for her -- her daughter, Bianca, and her son, Nico. They were the sweetest kids. Rambunctious, extremely close, and Nico could run his mouth like nothing else. Steve and Bucky helped watch the two of them for about two years before the whole family vanished, with no one being able to say what became of them.
Steve blinked back the memory of little Nico taking a nap on Bucky’s chest as Bianca listened to the radio, turning to the source of the yelling.
One of the boys was tall and blonde, with a deep tan and an eye-searingly orange t-shirt. He had his arms crossed over his chest, face angled away from Steve and Bucky and towards --
Nico. That had to be Nico.
He was older now, probably around fifteen, far younger than he should be. His dark hair was untidy and long, curling around his jaw and nearly reaching his shoulders, while his face was drawn, with hollowed cheeks and heavy bags under his dark eyes. He looked sick, and was clad in a heavy aviator jacket that Steve recognized.
“Oh god,” he heard Bucky mutter. “How is he here?”
“I’m fine, seriously, now can we leave? It’s too damn crowded,” Nico was complaining, and yeah, there was that Italian accent, much less thick than it was in his childhood but still there. Steve used to have to ask Nico to slow down when he got too excited, because his accent would turn his babbling to mush. Apparently he had learned to suppress it with time. “You know I hate the city.”
He used to love the city.
Steve used his hold on Bucky’s hand to maneuver them both closer to the arguing teens, eyes locked on Nico, who had yet to notice them.
The blonde boy let out a frustrated groan. “I can see you limping, Death Boy. I’m not dumb. Now will you please just --”
“Nico?” Steve said, just loud enough to be heard, not able to bring himself to feel bad for interrupting. Nico visibly tensed, dark eyes going to Steve and Bucky and one hand devling inside his jacket. Christ, did he have a weapon?
“What do you want?” he asked harshly, not seeming to recognize them through their meager disguises. What happened to the cheerful, hyperactive kid he used to be?
“Nico di Angelo, holy shit,” Bucky said, taking off his sunglasses and showing his face fully. Nico’s eyes widened, but he carefully hid any other reactions. “Good to see you, kid. I’m thinking maybe we should talk.”
The blonde boy, who at this point had turned to see who was talking, paled dramatically. “Nico, why are the Winter Soldier and Captain America talking to us?” he said, voice raising a few octaves.
“The what?” Nico asked, sounding baffled.
“Long story,” Steve offered, taking off his own sunglasses. “Seriously, can we talk? Maybe in private?”
“You’re huge,” Nico muttered, looking Steve up and down. “How the hell did that happen? You’re supposed to be like, my height.”
“I wasn’t that short!” Steve protested, and Bucky let out a bark of laughter.
“Yeah you were, Stevie.”
“You shouldn’t be alive, much less young,” Nico muttered, ignoring the blonde boy pointedly tugging at his sleeve. “Then again, I guess I shouldn’t be either. You know a place we can talk?”
Steve nodded. “Follow us,” he said, before leading the group through the crowded street and to Avengers tower, the blonde kid babbling all the way, baby blue eyes wide and vaguely panicked.
“Nico, answer my questions please, how do you know them? Oh gods, we’re going to Avengers tower, Lou Ellen is never gonna believe this. Nico, are you listening to me? Apollo above, did anyone ever tell you about superheroes? That was supposed to be Percy and Jason’s job, of course they didn’t do it, of course --”
“What’s your name, kid?” Bucky asked, and the kids jaw shut with an audible ‘click’.
“Will Solace, sir,” he said, and Bucky snorted.
“Don’t call me sir. Nice to meet you Will. How do you know Nico?”
“He’s my boyfriend,” Nico said, squaring his shoulders and glaring at Bucky, daring him to make a rude comment.
“Cool,” Bucky said easily. “Me and Stevie started dating a few months back. Guess we’re all a couple of queers, huh?”
Nico blinked, clearly not expecting that response, and Steve snorted. “Stop being a pain Buck, c’mon.” He scanned his ID at the door of the tower, quickly ushering the other three in. “We’ll have some quiet here, so long as we avoid the others.”
“The other Avengers. Oh boy,” Will said weakly, and Nico frowned.
“What’s an Avenger?”
“Do you live under a rock?” Bucky asked, sounding amazed, and Steve smacked him upside the head before turning back to Nico and Will.
“We’ll explain how we’re alive and young, then you can return the favor, okay?” he said, careful to keep his voice calm. Nico nodded hesitantly, and Steve smiled. “Good, thank you. Alright, so back during the war, we both got drafted.”
“Bullshit,” Bucky interrupted lazily. “I got drafted, he lied his way into the army because he had a damn complex.”
“Shut up, Bucky. Anyway, I got picked for this sort of, um, science experiment.” Steve took a deep breath. “They wanted to create a super soldier. I got injected with some sort of serum, and I turned into this. I’m stronger than the average man, along with much faster, and I heal quickly. Not that long later, I flew a plane into the ocean, and got covered in ice. I managed to stay alive in the eyes for seventy years, until someone found me and thawed me out a few years ago. Now I’m here, and I’m part of a group of superheroes, along with Bucky.”
“I got the worse backstory,” Bucky muttered, easily picking up where Steve had left off. “I was snatched by Nazi’s, they gave me a discount version of the serum and a metal arm, then cryogentically froze me and brainwashed me until I was a perfect assassin for them. Stevie managed to break me out of the brainwashing, and then talked me into joining his merry band of idiots.”
Nico, who looked like he wasn’t quite sure he believed them, nodded slowly. “Superheroes,” he repeated. “Superheroes are a thing.” He turned to Will. “Mortal superheroes?”
“As far as we know,” Will shrugged.
“Mortal?” Steve asked.
“I’m uh, not entirely human, as it turns out,” Nico said, voice soft, like he was waiting to be called a liar. “My father is Hades, Greek god of the Underworld. Zeus killed my mother as revenge for her having me and Bianca, so Father put us in this magical casino. It felt like we were only in there for a few months, but when we came out, it was a brand new century.”
Steve blinked. Greek gods were real? He worked with Thor, so this shouldn’t be such a surprise, but still. “Huh,” he said. “Will, are you also half god?”
Will nodded, jumping a little when he was addressed. “My dad is Apollo,” he said. “God of the sun, music, prophecy, and healing.”
“So both you and Bianca are here, then?” Bucky asked Nico, whose face was visibly shuttered.
“Bianca is dead.”
“Oh god,” Steve muttered. “Nico, I’m so sorry.”
Nico shrugged, and Steve and Bucky made eye contact, silently agreeing not to push any further.
“I’m uh, I’m sorry,” Will piped up, eyes flicking between Steve, Bucky, and Nico. “I still don’t know how you all know each other.”
“We babysat Nico back in the 40s,” Steve said, grinning. “He was a real cute kid.”
Nico flushed. “Don’t you dare,” he hissed.
Bucky’s grin matched Steve’s perfectly. “He used to fall asleep laying on top of me while we all listened to the radio,” he told Will. “It was just precious. He was a teensy little thing, even smaller than he is now, and he’d just crawl on me whenever he wanted a nap.”
“I could kill you,” Nico said, voice muffled as he buried his face in his hands. “I could easily kill you both.”
“You won’t though,” Steve said cheerily. “Seriously Will, anytime you wanna swing by, we can swap stories of little Nico here.”
“I will most definitely take you up on that offer,” Will said seriously, and Steve shook his hand. “You should hear about this one dude Nico had this embarrassing crush on, Percy --”
“Will, I swear to every god listening, I will tell Jason you were mean to me and let him electrocute you!”
Will gaped. “That’s just cold.”
Nico rolled his eyes, before turning to Steve and Bucky, expression going soft. “It was, um, it was really nice seeing you guys again,” he said, not quite meeting their eyes.
Steve grabbed his shoulder, trying not to focus on how delicate and little he felt. “We’re serious, come by any time. It was really good seeing you two.”
“We’ll get you guys ID cards or something,” Bucky offered. “You can meet the group.”
Will beamed, and it kind of looked like he was glowing, but it could’ve been a trick of the light. “We’d love that,” he said, grabbing Nico’s hand. “But for right now, we gotta
get back to our demigod camp, or we’re gonna get lectured.” He shuddered exaggeratedly. “Terrifying. C’mon, Death Boy.”
“Watch this,” Nico said with a grin, and then he melted into the shadows, pulling Will along with him. They both vanished.
Bucky gaped after them for a moment. “Goddamn. Demigods, huh?”
Steve nodded. “Demigods.”