Chapter Text
Jason never regretted not living in the manor anymore. For one, he got dragged there often enough for dinners or Dick’s ridiculous ‘family bonding nights’ or crashing after patrol, and two, his apartment building was a very quiet reprieve from the chaos of his family. It was shitty, don’t get him wrong. A run-down building in the Narrows didn’t lend itself to a very pretty apartment. But Jason didn’t need pretty. He needed a place decently close to Crime Alley that wouldn’t have people bothering him, where he could sneak in and out easily, and where he could hide guns. And Jason was very much okay with the building he had been living in for the past year. If he had gotten his way right after he started to break through the influence of the Lazarus pit, then he’d have been living on his own for longer than just a year, but Jason had somehow let himself be convinced to live at the manor until he was eighteen. Somehow. (It was Dick. Dick gave him the Older Brother Puppy Eyes—objectively the worst kind of puppy eyes—and before he knew it, Jason found himself right back in his old bedroom, two doors down from the teenager he had just tried to kill.) Then when he finally hit eighteen, he forcibly removed himself from the manor before even Dick could notice he was moving out. Tim probably knew he was doing it, Bruce knew better than to try and stop him, the little demon probably didn’t care either way, and Alfred had helped him pack while making him swear on his second life to come back for at least a weekly dinner. And while those dinners were the definition of chaos, Jason kept his promise to Alfred and then some. But he did always return to his silent apartment the next day—his upstairs and downstairs neighbors off at work and the apartment across the hall still empty—and unwind in the peace and quiet before patrol.
And then, he came back one day with his jacket slung over one shoulder, just to find a young man trying to budge open the door across from his, two large boxes in his arms and another one on the floor next to him. Jason raised his eyebrows.
“Hey, need any help there?” he asked, causing the man—who was only slightly shorter than Jason, maybe a few inches—to look over at him in surprise. Jason expected the slight wariness that entered the man’s eyes, this was Gotham and Jason knew he cut an imposing figure, but it was accompanied by a grateful smile splitting his face as he took a step away from his door.
“That would be great , thank you,” he said, adjusting his grip on the boxes in his hands. Jason walked over and found that the guy had managed to get the key into the lock, but hadn’t been able to turn it. As he unlocked the door and pushed it open, he heard the guy sigh behind him. “Why is moving such a pain in the ass? Or is it just these doors that suck?”
“Both,” Jason answered wryly. “But hey, rent is cheap. Isn’t that the only reason to put up with shitty doors?”
The guy laughed, and for some reason, it made Jason pause. It wasn’t often that he made people laugh. If he did, it was a rare occasion that his family wasn’t annoying the shit out of each other, or it was a little kid that Red Hood was trying to get to trust him. Most people were put off by Jason, intimidated by him. It was oddly refreshing. Jason had been certain that if anyone moved in across from him it would ruin the peace of his apartment, but he was now deciding to withhold that judgment just a little longer. At least it was someone near his age.
“Makes me wish I had given in and asked my dad for money, but fuck that,” the guy laughed again, and this time Jason joined in. It was the same sentiment he had thought when he bought the apartment with his own money. The guy walked into the empty, dusty apartment and dropped the boxes on the floor with a groan. Then he straightened up and turned to Jason with his hand outstretched. “I’m Percy.”
As Jason shook Percy’s hand, there were a few immediate things that he noticed. Percy was built, for one. Not quite as much as Jason, there was less overt muscle and a whole lot more lean muscle, but Jason knew that lean muscle was not to be underestimated. Most of his family fought with lean muscle. His t-shirt and blue jacket worked to make most people skim over the muscle, but Jason wasn’t most people. Percy’s eyes were scanning him too, with irises that seemed to glow with a sea-green intensity, but his grin was lopsided and easy-going for someone moving into a more crime ridden area of Gotham. His handshake was strong too, calluses on his fingers pinning him as someone that either worked with his hands or fought a lot. For his sake, Jason hoped it was the first. Fighting a lot in Gotham never really landed anybody in a good position. Despite the fact that everyone did it.
“Jason,” he returned. “I live across from you.”
Percy’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “Really? Guess we’ll be seeing more of each other then.”
“Guess so,” Jason shrugged. “Where are you moving from? Inside Gotham or outside?”
“You’re not gonna pull some ‘we aren’t fond of outsiders’ thing, are you?” Percy asked, chuckling. “I’d hate to break some unspoken taboo.”
“I don’t know,” Jason raised his eyebrows, scanning Percy a little more blatantly, “you don’t really give off the ‘I grew up in Gotham’ vibe. Might have to kick you out.”
“I’m sure the Gotham vibe has its perks and all, but I’m a New York kid through and through, I don’t think I can hide that.” Sure enough, as Percy spoke, Jason caught the hints of an accent in his voice. Percy walked past Jason to grab the other box that was still in the hallway. Something about Percy was making Jason keep an eye on him, but he couldn’t place a finger on what it was. At least Percy being his neighbor meant that keeping an eye on him should be relatively easy. Especially if he ended up needing to place a bug anywhere.
“New York, huh?” Jason asked, watching as Percy dropped the other box onto a small table and started to rip off the tape. “What made you leave?”
Percy pursed his lips. “Nothing made me leave , I guess. I mean, my mom is still there and she rocks. But my best friend is going to Gotham University, and I had no other plans. Also, this way she can physically drag me to classes if she has to, so she liked the idea of going to the same school.”
“University?” Jason couldn’t help but be a little surprised. Most people didn’t move into this part of Gotham if they were coming for school reasons. He had been trying to avoid the thought that most people (especially parents) would heavily advise their kids to not live alone in fucking Gotham when they were—at the oldest—twenty. And Jason would eat his helmet if Percy was twenty. But with Percy living on his own, in this part of town, to go to Gotham University? It's like he was trying to make Jason want to follow him to and from campus just to make sure he didn’t get mugged. Percy didn’t even seem remotely worried, giving Jason a crooked grin as he started pulling picture frames wrapped carefully in bubble wrap from the box.
“Yeah, one of the points my friend used to convince me was that Gotham U actually has a good marine biology program,” he said. “Annie is studying architecture, and she’s practically been talking in her sleep about the architecture of Gotham. Are you in school?”
Jason nearly laughed. Him? Legally dead Jason Todd? Well, okay, he wasn’t legally dead anymore. Bruce had fixed that, even if it took months of coming up with some story that explained why he was considered dead for two years, and Jason had to admit that he liked this outcome better than living with a fake identity since all of Gotham knew the face of the little Wayne who died. He could go to school if he wanted to. But he was one of the reclusive Waynes for a reason, so much so that some people actually believed that he was still dead and his return was the lie, whereas others thought he had never died in the first place and it was all fake. Being a cryptid in a city of weird people was kind of fun, honestly. People rarely recognized him if he wasn’t with one of the others, and that’s how he preferred it unless he was bribed to go to a gala. Employees at Wayne Enterprises kept up the secrecy too, which was one of the reasons he was okay helping out there. Really, though, it was a good thing he didn’t particularly care about higher education. Getting a degree might be nice, and Jason did enjoy his old English classes, but...right now that wasn’t his priority. When you die for the first time at not even fifteen, school really isn’t the most pressing thing anymore. But he couldn’t laugh outright at Percy’s question, it was a reasonable assumption given his age. He was almost impressed that Percy didn’t assume he was older.
“Nah,” he said, shaking his head to hide the slightly bitter amusement in his eyes. “College wasn’t really my thing, although I’m sure my old man would be thrilled if I changed my mind.”
“What do you do then?” Percy turned away from Jason to start setting up frames along the small kitchen island counter.
“I’m a mechanic,” Jason answered. He was, it wasn’t a lie, he just didn’t work full time. He also sometimes helped with security at WE, but that wasn’t something he was just going to tell a stranger. He went into the mechanic shop occasionally and helped if the other guys were too overworked, but he wasn’t technically on the payroll. He didn’t need the money anyway, it was just nice to help out and work with his hands. It was an easy explanation to give, though, it made people accept the calluses on his hands and the scars along his fingers and wrists with little more than a small wince of sympathy. “I’ve always been good with cars.”
“Oh, that's cool!” Percy said, sending another grin over his shoulder. This was the most a stranger had smiled at Jason since before he had died. It was...weird. “I’ve never really gotten cars, y’know? I’ve got some friends, though, and they’ve got a running competition going on who could hotwire more cars. It’s been going since I was...fourteen, I think?”
That time, Jason didn’t even try to not laugh. “Seriously? How old were they ?”
“Oh, uh,” Percy thought for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows. “Fuck, which one was older? It was...oh!” He lit up, snapping his fingers. “Travis is a year older than me, which means he would have been fifteen, and that means Connor would have been thirteen.”
“Thirteen? Damn,” Jason felt a bit of respect for the kid, and couldn’t help but wonder what he could do now if he was hotwiring cars reliably at thirteen. Jason hadn’t progressed too far past tire theft by the time he was adopted. Percy laughed.
“Yeah, they were menaces,” he said, but it was the same tone that Dick used when he was talking about Jason, Tim, Damian, or Duke. Whatever these kids did, they were still close with Percy. Jason wasn’t quite sure what significance that story could hold, but the jury was still out on Percy, and so he filed it away in his brain. It was then that Jason realized he had spent fifteen minutes standing in the doorway to Percy’s apartment talking with him. How did he spend that long in a conversation with someone he wasn’t related to? Deep down, he knew it was because Percy wasn’t scared of him, which was both a point in Percy’s favor and a reason for Jason to keep an eye on him. But it was nearing noon, and if he wanted to rest before patrol, he couldn’t let himself get caught up in the life of his new neighbor.
“Well, it’s been great to meet you, Percy,” Jason said, “but I should head out. I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time.”
“What? No way, man, if anything, I took up your time,” Percy waved him off. “You were just helping me get into my own stupid apartment. See you around, Jason!”
“Definitely,” Jason said, waving slightly as he ducked out the door and pulled it shut behind him. Then he stood in the hallway and took a breath. Percy was not the type of person to move into this part of Gotham, not unless he was either incredibly oblivious of the danger, or hiding something. And one conversation wasn’t enough to clue Jason in to which one it was. Percy wasn’t threatening , not like Jason knew a lot of people saw him as. He was bright, and the only indication that there was any other side to him was the calluses on his hands and the slight glint of small scars on his wrists. Jason couldn’t see more due to his jacket, but he would be surprised if the scars stopped there. Percy had the energy of a very sweet guy, one who chose to be nice to people even when he didn’t have to be.
So why was Jason’s heart beating ever so slightly faster?
“You’re kidding ,” Percy groaned, flopping back onto his new couch. Annabeth laughed from the small IM projected from his ‘phone’. The Hephaestus cabin still couldn’t find a workaround to give demigods cell phones, but they were able to make small phone-like portable Iris Messages. They still had the downfall of being not incredibly private, but they made messaging still so much easier.
“You knew this, Percy, we talked about it.”
“I know, but it’s so much more unfair now that I’m actually in my apartment.” He pouted, knowing that didn’t work on Annabeth. She just rolled her eyes.
“You’re taking care of the more run down part of the city. It would be infinitely more suspicious if I were to live there, and you know it. Women don’t live in that part of the city by themselves,” she said. “And you know we can’t just live together.”
“I know,” Percy sighed. “Too much of a connection.”
“Don’t worry, Percy, we’ll see each other every day anyway,” Annabeth said, smiling fondly despite the exasperation in her eyes. “Are you all settled in?”
“Yeah, got all my stuff in only two trips with Mrs. O’Leary, and I got some furniture,” he said. “It’s kinda shitty, but I had to install it myself so I couldn’t get anything really good.”
“And food?” Annabeth asked. When Percy didn’t answer right away, she narrowed her eyes. “Jackson. Food?”
“I swear I was gonna go food shopping!” Percy defended himself. “I was all ready, I had the list and I had the things I was gonna make this week, and then I leave my apartment and I go the back routes to avoid getting mugged just like Jason told me, and then the next thing I know I’m by the lake and the fishes need to talk! I can’t just ignore them when they’re so happy to see me!”
“You need to go shopping or I’ll tell Sally you—wait,” Annabeth paused. “Jason? When has he been in Gotham?”
“Oh, uh, not our Jason,” Percy said, flushing a bit. “My neighbor across from me is near our age, and we run into each other a lot.”
“You mean you actually have a friend and you didn’t tell me?” Annabeth asked, acting more affronted than Percy knew she was. Percy made a ‘so-so’ gesture with his hand.
“I don't know if we’re friends ?” he said. “We’ve never actually hung out besides talking in the hallway for a few minutes. But he seems nice. Doesn’t seem to trust me, but I think that's just a Gotham thing.”
“Well you’re eighteen and living on your own in one of the worse parts of Gotham, so that makes sense,” Annabeth thought out loud, “and with how you carry yourself, it’s not obvious that you can hold your own if you get mugged. Which is good for not inviting questions about why you can fight, but it might make people think you’re a bit naive about Gotham.”
“Isn’t that what we were going for?” Percy asked. “I can’t be up to anything if I don’t know anything.”
“Exactly, yeah, it just also might make people watch you for a bit to figure out if you’re actually naive or not,” she said. “Have you seen any of the bats?”
Percy shook his head. “No. I haven’t really left at night, trying to keep a low profile, but I’ve been watching out the window. I thought I saw Red Hood a few times on the roofs, but if I did, the guy is really good at blending in.”
“Maybe I’ll see them more from my apartment, I think the rest of them tend to stay around that area more,” Annabeth mused.
“Do you want my help moving in?” Percy asked. Annabeth smiled.
“Would I ever refuse unpaid labor from someone who owes me about a thousand favors? I should be getting there around ten in the morning. Do you remember the address?”
“No, but I still have the paper you wrote it down on,” Percy replied, grinning. “I’ll be there.”
“Good, I’ll see you then,” Annabeth said. “The sooner we get settled with school, the sooner we can work on our real problem.”
“If I believed that we were lucky in any way, I’d say that it was good luck you had wanted to go to Gotham University before all this happened,” Percy sighed. “But since our luck sucks, I can’t wait for everything to go wrong.”
“It’s not luck, Percy,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “It’s my plan. And it’s going to go right, I just know it.”
“I know, Wise Girl. I’ll just feel a lot better once we have a route and can get the others here.”
“I know,” Annabeth’s gaze got softer. “And we will. This is a pretty big wrench in our original plans for Gotham, but that’s all it is. It is something that we will fix , and then we can get back on the plan. This isn’t a quest right now, and hopefully it won’t be.”
“Has Cabin six gotten a floor plan yet?” Percy asked.
“We’re working on it,” Annabeth replied. “Or, well, they are. I’ve been packing. But they’ve roped some Hephaestus kids into helping and so we’ll have those before we need them.”
“Good,” Percy said, trying to relax into the cushions. “I should get something to eat. I’ll see you tomorrow, Annie.”
“See you, Percy,” Annabeth responded in kind, waving slightly before reaching out and swiping through the Iris Message, leaving Percy in the silence of his apartment. He sighed. Even when he was twelve and the subject of a manhunt, he never considered himself a criminal. Even when he was indirectly or directly responsible for quite a bit of property damage. And even now, knowing the plan that he and Annabeth and a few others were carefully putting together...he still knew that he was doing the right thing. He was not a criminal.
But damn, was he not looking forward to actually committing an act that could be considered thievery. Even if what he was ‘stealing’ was a person.
“Anything new?” Jason could hear Dick’s voice as he walked into the cave, his helmet tucked under his arm. It had been a quiet night of patrol, and so he should have figured that something was going to be wrong in the manor. He hadn’t heard of any new cases that the rest of the family was working on, but he had been pretty focused on a smuggling ring trying to form in his part of the city. Tim’s sigh was the answer.
“Nothing. No news reports, no facial match, no record,” he said, his voice placing him at about four hours of sleep. He barely glanced up as Jason entered. “Hey Jason.”
“Hey runt,” Jason said. “What’s the case?”
“The newest Arkham patient,” Tim answered, pinching his nose. “It’s like he came from nowhere.”
“Oh, yeah, he seemed weird,” Jason said. “Didn’t he not resist at all?”
“Yeah,” Dick sighed. “Well, it would have been hard for him to resist seeing as he passed out pretty soon after we arrived, but...he was weirdly calm after waking up. He seemed unconcerned that he had been taken to Arkham, even after the fiasco that was whatever he did.”
“You’re still thinking meta?”
“What else? And he still won’t give a name, so…”
“Blood tests?” Jason asked. Tim scoffed.
“Who do you take me for? They came back weird. I’m working on it.”
“Weird?” Jason repeated, frowning. “How do blood tests turn out weird ?”
“I said I’m working on it,” Tim rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Until then, we just have to hope he lets something slip to the psychiatrists he’s been talking to. At least he doesn’t seem violent.”
“That’s definitely a good thing,” Dick sighed. “It means that if he decides to cooperate, we can probably let him out of Arkham with no issue. I really hope we can.”
“You know if it was still up to us, I’d be saying we let him out now , right?” Jason said, trying not to actually get upset when it had been a very calm night. “I still don’t like that you guys brought him to Arkham in the first place.”
“The police showed up to deal with the gang, we couldn’t just take him to our holding cells here,” Dick defended. “And even if we did, then we’d all feel bad trying to figure out what’s up with him. We just need to know he’s not a threat, and then we can tell Arkham, and they can let him go.”
“He’s a kid , Dick,” Jason said, motioning towards the picture up on the screen. “He doesn’t even look Tim’s age yet! And he’s in Arkham !”
“I know, Jason. I don’t like it either. But the facts right now are that he somehow managed to choke out an entire gang using only their shadows,” Dick said, “and we need to make sure he won’t do that to innocent people. We know exactly how dangerous kids can be, we can’t assume anything.”
Jason sighed and crossed his arms. “Well the last two dangerous kids we encountered ended up a part of the family. So we might as well skip Arkham and just tell Alfred to get a room ready.”
Dick laughed. “If that’s how this ends up, I’ll welcome the new little brother. Until then, though, we do our job. And unfortunately, for now, that means he stays where he is until we know he’s not a threat to innocent people. He’s not with the real criminals, either, he’s on the other side of Arkham. He’ll be okay, Jason.”
While Jason continued to frown at the screen, Tim leaned forward onto the desk. He narrowed his eyes at the picture of the new patient. The kid really did seem young, even with his haunted dark eyes and seemingly perpetual frown. According to the nurses, he was perfectly polite to them, despite his dour demeanor. The boy’s black hair fell messily into his eyes, and he was so pale that Tim could almost see his veins through his olive-toned skin. Tim frowned and began to type, trying to figure out what went wrong with the DNA test.
“Alright then,” he muttered, the discussion of his brothers behind him fading to the background as he focused solely on this potential meta. “Who are you?”
Chapter Text
“ Gods , Annabeth, what did you pack in here, rocks?” Percy complained, dragging a suitcase out of the stairwell of Annabeth’s new apartment building. Leagues nicer than Percy’s—case in point, it had an elevator , even if the two didn’t use it—the two of them did not get nearly as many looks as Percy had gotten for moving into the Narrows. Annabeth snorted a laugh from ahead of him, her duffel bags on her shoulders.
“Of course not, if I were going to pack a bag with rocks it would be for an improvised weapon and a suitcase would be a horrible choice for that,” she said. “That’s full of my blueprints for both—” she looked around furtively “—my mom and to help Jason. It’s also got all my drawing tools and supplies.”
Then she turned back to grin widely at Percy. “And of course a suitcase full of only paper and some drawing tools would be way too easy to steal if someone broke into my car, so I wrapped a few of them around some large rocks I had some of the younger campers find for me.”
Percy groaned loudly. “You gave this one to me on purpose!”
“Oh please, you can handle it. It’s only a few large rocks.” Annabeth rolled her eyes. She nudged her door open with her shoulder and held it open with her foot for Percy. “Just set that carefully by the bedroom okay? I don’t have a desk set up yet but that’s gonna be my first priority.”
“Annabeth,” Percy said, dragging the suitcase to the door into the bedroom and finally letting it go, looking over his shoulder at her while he still held another of her duffels.
“Yeah?”
“Is your main priority a desk for your architecture, or is it getting a bed set up and some food in the fridge?”
“You cannot lecture me on making food a priority, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth shot back.
“You’re supposed to be the smart one though!” Percy protested. “I’m the dumb one who forgets about food to talk to fish.”
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to rephrase what you just said?”
Percy flushed. “Alright fine, I’m not the dumb one. The point stands, though, get your bed set up before a drawing desk!”
“Hm,” Annabeth thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think I will. I can sleep on a couch or the floor no problem, but if I have to draw a blueprint on my kitchen counter, I will stab someone.”
“And the food?”
“Fine, I’ll at least focus on food first,” Annabeth conceded, rolling her eyes, “as long as you finally tell me that you also got food.”
“Well not yet, we just talked about that last night!” Percy defended himself, walking over to help Annabeth unpack her duffel bag of clothes. “But I’m planning on getting groceries on my way back today, my mom made me a recipe book and I’m already missing some of her family recipes.”
“How often is too often for me to be seen in the Narrows if I want to drop by for some Jackson cooking?” Annabeth asked, grinning.
“If you thought I wasn’t dragging you over for dinner at least once a week, then I’m wondering who you’re calling your best friend,” Percy shot back. Annabeth raised her eyebrows, a faux innocent look on her face.
“But...Thalia is my best friend?” she countered, blinking her wide eyes. Percy stopped unpacking the duffel.
“Oh, then I guess Thalia is on her way to help you unpack right now? Wonderful, I need to get ingredients for Sally Jackson’s famous lasagna, I’ll just be on my way…”
Annabeth grabbed his wrist before he could leave. “Don’t you dare, Barnacle Boy.”
“Oh I am definitely more of a Mermaid Man,” Percy protested, easily stopping his exit and returning to the duffel bag.
“No, because you’re my sidekick.”
“We are co-leaders ! Partners!”
“Alright then, partner , can you find which duffel has my other knives? I’m gonna bury them under my pajamas.”
Moving Annabeth into her apartment—or at least as much as they could before she got more furniture and some decorations—took a lot faster than it took Percy to move in. And it wasn’t just because there were two of them this time, it was all due to the fact that one of those two was Annabeth, and despite her own ADHD, she was dead set on getting everything unpacked right then and there. Percy wasn’t quite sure why she was so determined, but he went along with it anyway because he was sure she had a reason other than just wanting to boss him around for two hours. And sure enough, when the bags were unpacked and Annabeth had made plans to go furniture and decoration shopping later in the day, she took a breath and pulled something out of her backpack of personal items.
“So,” she said, and Percy felt the good mood of the room lessen slightly with just that one word.
“...so?” Percy repeated warily. Annabeth put the rolled-up sheet of paper onto the kitchen counter, carefully undoing the rubber band keeping it shut and opening it up. She held down the sides with her hands and looked down at whatever it was, sighing. Percy leaned over to see what it was, and froze. Yep, there went the good mood. But this was important. Open on the counter was now a blueprint, very roughly sketched and still incomplete, with the words ‘Arkham Asylum’ written in barely legible chicken scratch in the corner.
“Malcolm gave this to me this morning,” she said. “It’s not done, and they’re still working on getting footage of other parts of the asylum so they can sketch it all out, but this is what they’ve got so far.”
“Do we know where Nico is?” Percy asked.
“Well he hasn’t managed to connect with Clovis since letting us know he got taken, so we don’t know if Gotham is blocking his dreams or if he’s not sleeping,” Annabeth said, frowning. “Knowing Nico, the latter isn’t very unlikely. But he did say he’d try to get a better perspective of the place to let us know where to get him.”
“So right now we’re just trying to figure out an entry point?” Percy asked, and Annabeth nodded.
“Again, it might change if Nico figures out where his cell, room-thing, whatever is. I haven’t been able to really look at this yet, and I wanted you here to bounce ideas off of.” She looked at Percy hopefully, as if he would ever say no. He hopped up to sit on top of the counter, looking down at the blueprint that he didn’t fully understand, but that he needed to save Nico.
“Hit me with it, Wise Girl,” he said, trying to smile reassuringly. “But don’t push yourself too much. We don’t have all the information yet, so we don't need a full plan right now.”
As he said that, Annabeth visibly relaxed. She had been trying to map out a full rescue plan with half the necessary information, and she knew that wasn’t feasible and would only lead to her burning herself out, but having Percy say it out loud helped. She began to point out the different entrances into Arkham, rambling out loud about the benefits between using a side door or a window, and how they would need to bypass the security systems. To be quite honest, Percy wasn’t listening all that hard. After following Annabeth’s plans for the better part of a decade, he knew that sometimes she needed to just talk herself into a plan and that if she needed his opinion on something, she would make it expressly clear. He just stared at the map and wanted nothing more than to go over to Arkham right that moment and get Nico out. He was right there . He was in the city, they knew where he was, but they couldn’t just get him. And it was killing Percy. They had known that Nico was going to go to Gotham before Annabeth and Percy, his shadow-traveling was the quickest way to get there and Percy wasn’t set to move in for another week. But the plan had been for Nico to spend one day in Gotham, scoping out the city and seeing if he could get any read on the strange presence that Annabeth and Percy had both felt while touring Gotham University. It wasn’t a normal kind of strange, it was their kind of strange, they could feel it. Nico had promised that he could travel basically anywhere in Gotham with how shadowed it was, and that he would be back within a day.
They didn’t hear from him for four days .
Everyone who had known where Nico was going had been a wreck worrying about him. And frankly, that hasn’t gone away with the knowledge that Nico is physically fine, because he was stuck in Arkham fucking Asylum . It was days before Nico managed to break into Clovis’s dream and get a message while he was sleeping, explaining that he accidentally shadow-traveled right into a gang’s warehouse and got caught defending himself by the bats. And as soon as Nico was safe, out of Arkham, and enough time had passed for Percy to calm down, he was going to make fun of the younger boy relentlessly for passing out in front of Batman. Now, though? Now, Percy just wanted Nico safe. He had never been able to shake the feeling of being responsible for Nico, and it didn’t help that his mom practically adopted him on sight the first time Nico was dragged to dinner. Those who followed their godly lineages in terms of DNA would call the two of them cousins—and Percy couldn’t blame them considering he and Jason had adopted the terms for each other—but he had always seen Nico as a bit closer of a family member, probably because of all they’d been through together and how young Nico was when they met.
Gods, Nico was just a kid. Percy’s fist clenched. If anything happened to Nico before they got him out…
“Percy?” Annabeth’s voice gently brought him out of his own head, her hand covering his. He looked up to see that the glass of water she had gotten herself was floating above the cup. He flushed, and the water dropped back down, thankfully not splashing onto the blueprint. “He’ll be alright.”
“I know,” Percy sighed. “He’s tough, and he’d hit me if he knew how worried I am about him, but I can’t help it.”
“We can take a break,” she said, rolling up the paper. “I’ve narrowed it down to three potential entrances, and I think that’s all I can do with this information anyway.”
Percy’s smile was tight. “A break sounds nice. How about we go get some food? It’s a bit past lunchtime, but knowing you, your dinner will be closer to midnight.”
Annabeth laughed, going along with lightening the mood, and hit his arm lightly.
“Lunch sounds good. I saw a good burger place as I was driving into the city.”
She grabbed her keys from the counter and slipped her sneakers back on. As she pulled the door to her new apartment shut, her eyes landed on the rolled-up blueprint still sitting on the counter. She sighed, shut the door completely, and locked it tight. She had done all she could right now. Nico would be fine, just like she assured Percy.
Annabeth was not going to be wrong about this.
When she had first made the decision, Percy had questioned if she really wanted to have an internship at the same time as her college classes. But this was Annabeth, and she had the opportunity to apply for an internship at Wayne Enterprises , was she really going to turn that down just for extra time to do the homework that she was going to ace anyway? No, no she was not. If she was a successful intern for Wayne Enterprises, then that would open doors for countless future job opportunities (that Percy would argue she could get on her own , but the connection to WE would help a lot) and could help her reach her dreams so much faster. Well, her mortal dreams. She was already redesigning Olympus and helping Jason build new temples for minor deities. That was pretty hard to beat with any mortal job, but she was still going to try her absolute hardest to become the best mortal architect.
That said, however, she was slightly starting to wonder if Percy had maybe had a point when she realized that the first day of her internship was also the first day of her classes, and that she had to rush from Gotham University’s campus over to the Wayne Enterprises building within half an hour. Doable, definitely. But fucking annoying . At least she had plans to go over to Percy’s for dinner after she got out of work. Currently, she was sitting at the desk they had given her, trying to figure out the computer programs that she had claimed she could already use. She knew normal people could use these, and she was already picking it up fast enough that she would be completely fine, but she could count the number of times she’d used a computer for longer than a Google search on one hand. Luckily her boss assured her that she wasn’t expected to do any work outside of her scheduled hours, which meant she didn’t need to have a computer of her own. Even with whatever weird shit was going on with Gotham that seemed to make monsters not find it, she didn’t trust having her own technology.
Speaking of her boss, it was a little weird for her to be the personal intern to someone younger than her. She was thrilled that she managed to impress WE enough to intern directly for one of the co-CEO’s, but Tim—and he had insisted she call him Tim after she started with the respectful Mr. Drake-Wayne and he said it made him feel as old as his father—could be no older than sixteen. Maybe a young-looking seventeen, but he was in no way an adult. Which was fine! Her siblings were all brilliant and could be CEOs of any company they wanted and some of them were barely teenagers! So the fact that Tim was younger than her didn’t bother her, it was just a much different dynamic than she was used to with her equally smart and potentially successful siblings. Back in Cabin six, no one was a ‘boss’, even if they were in charge of a certain project. Although, that didn’t mean she didn’t think she was going to get along with Tim or that this internship was going to be a bad experience. She was a little concerned, even knowing how good Wayne Enterprises treated its employees, that this was going to fall into the stereotypical ‘female intern’ mistakes of them being a glorified food delivery service.
Then, her boss said his first, rushed words to her as she introduced herself.
“Please, call me Tim, you’re older than me and it feels weird for you to use my last name,” he had said, showing her the desk that had been set up outside his own office, “now I swear that your job here is not going to just be getting me things and especially not just getting me coffee, because that’s sexist as hell, but I have a meeting in five minutes and I slept for ten minutes last night, could you please—”
She had smiled and cut him off, getting him a black coffee with—she eyeballed a guess based on how tired he looked—three shots of espresso, a little bit of milk, and another guess of four sugar packets. It was similar enough to how one of her brothers took his coffee, and she got similar vibes off of him. And judging by the look the barista gave her, they knew exactly who she was getting coffee for, and her boss was just like that. But since then, he had been telling the truth and her job had actually consisted of real work , like helping sort and organize files on the computer. She had enough downtime to sketch out ideas to transfer to her actual blueprints once she got home, too.
However, she had to admit that by the end of the workday, she was exhausted . She logged off of her computer, packed up the scratch paper she had sketched on, said a polite goodbye to Tim—who was still working and was on what she was pretty sure was his fourth coffee—and started to walk towards the elevator.
“Annabeth?” Tim said, stopping her suddenly.
“Yes?”
“Are you going to be alright getting home on your own? It’s getting rather late. I can call a security guard to walk you partway or all the way if you’d like?”
She smiled, appreciating the offer but knowing that she didn’t need it. Sure, Gotham was dangerous, especially for pretty young women out on their own, but Annabeth was not a normal young woman and anyone who tried to go after her would find that out in a very painful way.
“Thank you, but I’ll be alright. I’m meeting a friend, anyway,” she said, only partially lying. Tim didn’t need to know that in order to meet her friend, she would be walking into the Narrows by herself. But Tim nodded, still seeming a little concerned, and Annabeth made her way out of the WE building. She also didn’t feel it was necessary to mention that she might not actually be meeting Percy, because she had, admittedly, also not gotten much sleep the night before because she couldn’t stop staring at the Arkham floor plan. Percy would understand, and they could easily reschedule. It wasn’t as if this would be the only time they talked or saw each other, she had just seen him earlier today as they walked to Gotham University together and in between their classes. So she walked back to her apartment with eyes peeled and her senses hyper-aware, a mortal knife tucked into the waist of her pants and her drakon-bone dagger deep in the bottom of her bag just in case. She hadn’t seen a single monster since arriving in Gotham, but the odd feeling that still permeated the air told her it probably wouldn’t stay that way forever.
When she shut her apartment door behind her and locked it, she let out a soft breath and tossed her bag onto her new couch. She had to beat Percy in an arm-wrestling competition to stop him from getting her a couch in an eye-searing blue color, but after having to go to best twenty-one out of forty, she got to get her soft grey couch instead. Sitting down, she pulled out the little celestial bronze box and set it on the coffee table, pressing the button that sent a rainbow into the air. As she called Percy, she felt her muscles finally relax into the couch.
“Hey, Wise Girl, how was the first day?” he asked as soon as he saw the IM. Annabeth sighed.
“I could sleep for three days straight,” Annabeth deadpanned, rubbing her temples. “You might have had a tiny bit of a point about going right from classes to an internship, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to quit the internship.”
“I never expected you to, Annie,” Percy said, turning back to what he had been doing, which appeared to be cooking. “I assume this means we’re rescheduling dinner? Because it looks like you’re memorizing the woodgrain of your table and you only do that when you’re practically dead on your feet.”
Annabeth almost tried to protest, but realized that she was, in fact, trying to etch the grain of the table into her mind. She blinked, shaking her head. “Yeah. Yeah, sorry, Perce. We can do tomorrow?”
Percy’s returning smile held no annoyance at her canceling, just like she had known it wouldn’t. “Tomorrow sounds great. Get some sleep, Annabeth. I’ll see you on campus.”
“No later than 9, or I’m coming to make sure you’re awake.”
“Noted,” Percy laughed. “Get me coffee and I can make it 8:30.”
Annabeth smiled teasingly. “How about you get there before nine and I don’t replace your coffee with salt water?”
“That was one time ,” Percy whined. “I forgive you since you’re clearly only being this mean to me because you’re tired.”
“Funny, I don’t remember being perpetually this tired since I was twelve,” Annabeth shot back, and Percy pouted.
“Alright, alright, I get when I’m not wanted,” he said, but the grin on his face was all in good fun. His eyes were a soft lake blue-green when they turned back to Annabeth. “Get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you, Perce,” Annabeth returned, the stress from her day having evaporated after talking with her best friend. When the IM had ended, Annabeth dispersing the rainbow since Percy was busy with his stove, she sighed and got up, ready to go right to bed and deal with her hunger in the morning. But then she turned and saw the temporary set-up still located on her counter. Another week , and there was nothing. She couldn’t help but count the days, and Nico had now been inside of Arkham for ten days. She knew that he was likely fine, and that he himself had insisted they not rush in to get him and instead take their time, but the fact remained that they had still had no contact from him since that first dream. Five more days had passed, and the radio silence was starting to grate on Annabeth. She didn’t like having to wait when her friends were behind locked doors. Never mind that Nico had a point, that they weren’t going to hurt a child when he hadn’t hurt any innocents, and that if they rushed in it could compromise their original goal in Gotham.
Annabeth clenched her fists and forced her eyes away from the blueprint that she still couldn’t do anything with. If she gained enough trust in her internship, she was hoping she could sneak a look at the full schematics of the Asylum, but that would also take time.
With every synapse in her brain urging her to ignore sleep and keep working , Annabeth pushed past it and shut her bedroom door tight behind her. She would be no help to anyone if she was sleep-deprived.
Annabeth was asleep before she fully hit the pillow, half-way through a prayer that her dreams would link her with Nico’s.
Jason didn’t know what he was expecting when he got back from a few hours working at the mechanics. He had some time to kill, his Alfred-mandated break from patrol meaning that he didn’t have to be awake until the sun began to rise, and so he decided to let off some steam by fixing a couple of absolutely wrecked cars. With his shirt covered in oil—something that threatened to make him laugh as it looked like the same splatter patterns as when he ( occasionally, as he reminded Dick) got covered in some dickhead’s blood—he had planned on returning to his apartment, showering, and watching crap TV while pretending he wasn’t scanning the city skyline for any sign of the other bats.
The first change to this plan came when he got to his floor in the building and saw the door across from his own be pulled open. He had spoken to Percy a few times over the past few days since the other boy had moved in, and he was nothing but bright and kind, which was baffling to find in this part of Gotham. He had, in fact, trailed Percy once as the slightly-younger man had gone shopping, just to see how he handled himself and to make sure he wasn’t actually naive enough to get mugged, and what he saw was that Percy still held himself with that cheerful confidence. Jason really had no idea how Percy was going to survive living in Gotham. But no matter how many hints Jason had dropped into their brief conversations that Gotham was dangerous and especially this area, Percy just laughed it off. Jason truly hadn’t pinned down yet if his new neighbor was hiding something or if he was a complete airhead. Like, worse-than-Bruce’s-playboy-persona kind of airhead.
Even now, seeing Jason with a few new scrapes on his knuckles—not that they were from fighting this time, but the point stood—and his shirt stained with black oil, Percy grinned brightly at him.
“Jason!” he greeted, leaning casually in his doorway like someone couldn’t easily shove past him and rob him blind. “I was just about to check if you were home, but I guess you weren’t.”
“Nah,” Jason said, gesturing to his shirt. He decided to ignore, yet again, the way he was fixated on the easy smile Percy leveled his way, not at all intimidated by his appearance or the way he carried himself. It was something that kept itching at Jason, and all went back to the question of ‘assassin or airhead’. “The auto shop needed some help today. Were you looking for me?” He really couldn’t help the slight suspicion that entered his voice at that. People didn’t tend to look for him if they weren’t related to him. People definitely didn’t look for the alias that this apartment was under, and no one around here had pegged him as a Wayne, did Percy somehow figure it out? That would be a point under the ‘assassin’ column. But Percy just laughed and pointed behind him into his apartment.
“Yeah, it was the first day of classes for me and my best friend,” he said, “and she was going to come over for dinner, but she decided it was a great idea to have an internship right after all her classes so...she’s probably passed out right now. But that means I have way too much food. So...do you want some? It’s my mom’s recipe for chicken parmesan.”
Jason’s eyebrows raised. “You cook?” he asked. Percy didn’t strike him as the kind who could cook, he had the same look in his eyes that had gotten each and every other member of his family banned from the kitchen. He almost didn’t process the invitation, but when he did, his eyebrows went higher. “And...you’re inviting me?”
Percy grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, yeah. You’re my neighbor, you seem cool, and you’re actually my age! I think it’d be cool to get to know you. And of course I can cook, I think my mom would kill me if I hadn’t picked anything up from years of helping her.”
Okay. So. Percy, who still acted naive enough that it meant unless he was an assassin he had not figured out that his new neighbor was the previously deceased son of a billionaire, wanted to get to know him. Because...he seemed cool . Not as Jason Todd-Wayne, not as Red Hood, but just...Jason.
There was no way that Percy wasn’t going to try and kill him eventually, was there? Why else would he be feeling his heartbeat pick up slightly, if not because he was about to enter a potentially hostile environment? Jason knew that he wasn’t lucky enough to have a neighbor who just wasn’t put off by him, much less actively wanted to know him. But if Percy wanted to play this game and pretend to play nice, Jason would play along. He just wouldn’t be caught off guard when Percy pulled a weapon.
“Uh, sure, then,” he agreed, walking closer to his door. “Just let me clean up a bit.”
Percy seemed confused for a split second, and then laughed. “Right, yeah, walking around covered in oil probably isn’t comfortable for most people.”
“Do you do it often?” Jason asked, unlocking his door. He thought Percy had said he didn’t get cars. Percy shook his head, though.
“No, no, not me. One of my friends spends so much time making things, though, that motor oil is practically a part of his permanent wardrobe.” He grinned fondly. “I’ll leave the door unlocked, just come on in when you’re ready.”
And then before Jason could say ‘what the fuck ’, the door was shut behind Percy. But seriously. What the fuck? You do not leave your door unlocked anywhere in Gotham for any reason! Jason just blinked, his mouth dropping open at the sheer stupidity— or confidence , the part of his mind that was betting on ‘assassin’ whispered—that Percy had just displayed. Then he shook his head and continued on into his own apartment, quickly changing and washing the oil off of his arms and face. He wanted to get this over with and see if he had to fight his way out of this. He found himself hoping that Percy was just an airhead who would get eaten alive by Gotham if Jason didn’t knock some sense into him. He really didn’t want to deal with assassins knowing about this apartment or this alias. Now there was the chance that Percy was an assassin and just not here for Jason. Maybe he really didn’t know who Jason was. Although, admittedly, ‘Jason Peters’ was not his most iron-clad alias. So he didn’t know how likely that outcome actually was.
But to be completely honest, he thought that maybe if he had to fight tonight it wouldn’t be the worst thing as long he got to have whatever smelled so goddamn good first. Pushing open Percy’s ( unlocked!!!! ) front door, the smell of chicken parmesan was absolutely incredible. Hell, even if it was poisoned, Jason might still eat it, that’s how good it smelled.
“Holy shit that smells good,” he said aloud, shutting the door behind him. Percy came out from the kitchen, setting down two plates on a small table, a proud grin on his face.
“I know, right? I was worried I’d fuck it up, since I’ve never made this without my mom helping, but I think it turned out good!” Jason wouldn’t call what Percy was doing ‘preening’, because he really couldn’t bring himself to use that to describe anyone other than his birdbrained family, but it was pretty damn close.
“You said you were supposed to have your friend over tonight?” Jason asked, sitting down in one of the chairs. He might as well get some information while he was here. Percy nodded, taking the other seat.
“Yeah, but Annabeth really could use the sleep. I would tell her not to burn herself out, and I do , but if I did any more then I’d be slipping sleeping pills into her coffee and then she might decide to get me back for that.” He shuddered. Jason laughed a bit before he could help himself.
“Sounds like my brother,” he said. As long as he didn’t say any names, assassin-Percy might not put it together who he was, as long as he hadn’t already. “I think he’s currently on his second day without sleep, but maybe someone’s managed to force him into a bed since I’ve last seen him.”
“Annie tries not to get that sleep-deprived,” Percy said, but he nodded in understanding. “She doesn’t like how it messes with her brain, she just gets really into her work sometimes. My cousin, on the other hand, sounds exactly like that, and routinely has to be forced to sleep. It drives his boyfriend insane.”
“Where is your friend interning?” Jason asked, not smelling any recognizable poison in the food and deciding to say fuck it as he took a bite. “ Fuck , that’s good.”
“My mom’s recipes are never to be doubted,” Percy said, grinning. “And Annabeth is interning at Wayne Enterprises.”
What are the fucking odds?
“Shit, really? She must be really smart, then,” Jason said, filing away the information but deciding not to focus too heavily on the fact that Percy’s friend just happened to work for his family’s company. Percy lit up at Jason’s comment, though, his eyes seeming to shine a deeper green-blue.
“Oh, she’s brilliant . Easily one of the smartest people I know. And I’ve known her since I was twelve, she was brilliant back then too.”
“What about you?”
“Am I brilliant too?” Percy asked, snorting a laugh. “Well, as Annabeth keeps reminding me, I’m not actually an idiot. No matter what my old teachers used to say. But I’m not at her level, no way.”
“Your old teachers called you an idiot?” Jason clarified, eyebrows raising. He remembered his old Gotham Academy teachers, in the few years he attended before dying, calling him the same thing just because he came from the streets. Percy’s face lost its grin, flashing into an annoyed frown before becoming a resigned expression.
“Yeah,” he said, sighing. “ADHD, plus dyslexia and a general annoyance for authority didn’t make teachers like me much. There were a few who tried, but most just wrote me off and did everything they could to pin me as the problem child they assumed I was.”
Well that hit close to Jason’s home too, minus the ADHD and dyslexia. But it brought a wry, understanding smile to his face that he knew tugged at one of the scars on his lip. And as the conversation turned to the two of them and Jason heard stories about Percy’s mom dealing with those asshole teachers, Jason slowly allowed himself to relax. He still thought Percy had to be hiding something, but he was reasonably certain that he wouldn’t be attacked tonight. So he just enjoyed the incredible food, the actually pretty nice company, and told what stories he could without giving away his last name, his siblings names, or his childhood.
And as he left later that night, with a cheerful goodnight from Percy, he realized that he had actually...had fun .
And that was almost more worrying than the ever-present nerves that seemed to spike when Percy grinned with a carefree confidence that seemed to
ask
Gotham to try and hurt him.
Notes:
i would love to say that the past two weeks have been full of me working on this fic, lmao. but unfortunately that is not the case. first, i graduated college (yay!) and then within a day of coming home my dog got sick (boo). luckily its not serious, hes just 13 years old, it just means that he's needed basically constant monitoring and also hand-feeding. so yeah, not much writing happening. But ive got a decent stock of chapters ready, so ill see you all again in two weeks! depending on how writing goes this time, maybe ill up it to every week, but for now I'm sticking with every two weeks.
Hope you enjoyed! <3
Chapter Text
Finally. Finally . Jason had been having dinner at Percy’s occasionally—hey, he hasn’t been killed again yet, and the food is good—because once Percy found out that Jason had set a microwave on fire upwards of four times, he had insisted . Never mind the fact that all of those times were from when Jason was a child , because Jason had mentioned his siblings kitchen bans and Percy had assumed that he was also banned. Like he wasn’t the only Wayne that Alfred allowed in the kitchen—a fact that yes , he wore like a badge of honor. Sure, he could have corrected Percy, and still could, but his apartment kitchen was shitty and so having a few nights each week where he knew he wouldn’t be living off of takeout? It was kind of nice. But tonight, Jason had gotten a small piece of information that would finally let him see if Percy’s background was fishy. As he made his way down to the cave, he knew that he probably could have gotten this information sooner. Percy could ‘accidentally’ cut his finger on a knife and then Jason would have a blood sample, or Jason could have asked, or snooped. But on the incredibly off chance that Percy was being completely genuine, any of that could backfire. This, though? This was all on Percy.
“Dude, seriously, why is the bread blue?” Jason had asked just the previous night, staring at a loaf of what he assumed was regular white bread, just dyed a bright blue. Percy laughed and shot him a wry grin that once again made Jason wonder if he was in danger.
“Don’t question the Jackson Method, Jason,” he shot back, cutting into the bizarrely colored bread. “Blue food is the peak of cuisine.”
At the time, that comment had sparked a long mock argument over what constituted cuisine and if weirdly colored food made the list. But Jason was trained to file away information while keeping up a casual conversation, and now was no exception. Because now, Jason knew who Percy was—or was claiming to be.
The Jackson Method . Percy’s last name was Jackson. The bat-computer would let him look his new neighbor up in extreme detail, and figure out if this was an alias or not.
However, when he got down to the cave, the computer was in use by Tim, who was rubbing his eyes as Dick frowned at the screen from behind him. Bruce and Damian were taking patrol that night, Duke was already asleep because he was somewhat healthy compared to the rest of them, and the sounds of Cass training could be heard from deeper in the cave, which meant that Tim and Dick were the only ones looking at the computer that was displaying a faded scan of a very worn photo. Jason frowned, coming up behind them with his hands in his pockets.
“What’s with the photo?” he asked, not startling either of them, just making Dick’s frown deepen as Tim sighed.
“We have no idea,” Dick answered. “Timmy, this doesn’t make any sense.”
“Tell me about it!” Tim groaned, shifting the picture to the side on the large screen and pulling up the files on the new Arkham patient.
“Oh, is this about that kid?” Jason looked closer at the screen, leaning on the back of Tim’s chair. “Any luck on the blood tests?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Tim grumbled, clearly annoyed. “But I know that if the blood tests would just give us an answer , it would answer everything! Because the nurses have asked this kid every question in the book, gone through their whole protocol, and the kid has given them nothing. He deflects, answers with obvious lies, or just sits there silently.”
“Have the nurses told him that if he answers the questions, he can go?” Dick checked, and Tim nodded.
“I’ve watched the recordings, they remind him of that multiple times.”
“Maybe he’s just scared of registering as a meta?” Jason thought aloud. “He does seem young.”
“Yeah, but Duke is around his age, probably, and if he told the nurses that that's the reason he’s being so stoic about this, then the nurses could tell us and we can help him!” Dick countered. “We could help him, make sure no one goes after him for being a meta. Surely he’s got family somewhere worried about him, we could find them for him if he would just tell us his name!”
“Hence why these fucking tests are pissing me off,” Tim added. “It’s not like they just aren’t finding this kid in the system, it’s not registering his blood as blood .”
“...that’s weird,” Jason agreed, narrowing his eyes. “He’s not an alien, right?”
“Everything else about him seems completely human,” Dick said, shaking his head. “Tell Jay the weirder thing, little bird?”
“It gets weirder ?”
“Of course it does, Jason, when is anything simple for us?” Tim said, shifting the screens to show the old photo again. “The weirder thing is that I decided to look at what Arkham cataloged from his possessions when he was brought in. Most of it was normal, he had the jacket he was wearing, a silver skull ring, some snacks in a bag, and some other stuff in his pockets. But there was also this picture, which was pretty old and faded but still in good condition, which meant this kid took care of it. So I got the scan, took a look, and I found something that really doesn’t make sense.”
“Little Wing, take a close look at the people in this photo?” Dick asked, glancing over at Jason. Jason frowned, leaning closer to the screen and scanning the faces of the four people in the photo. Two adults, the woman with dark hair and eyes—the greyscale photo made it difficult to tell color, but he could tell it was either brown or black—with her hands resting on the shoulders of the two children. Her smile was gentle and kind. The man next to her was not nearly as kind looking, but even he seemed happy to be in the picture, his own dark features somehow looking even blacker than the woman's. He was dressed in a suit, and wasn’t holding onto either of the children in the photo, but the children were standing very close to him and were clearly comfortable. Speaking of the children, there was also a girl and a boy, the girl clearly older by a year or two. Jason scanned her face and her soft, youthful smile, before turning to the widely grinning young boy next to her. After a second, he froze.
“That’s...that’s the kid. A baby version, but that's the same fucking kid,” he said, baffled. “When was this picture taken?”
“We can’t tell from the photo itself, but given how old it looks I tried facial recognition again after opening the parameters by a few decades,” Tim continued, pulling up the files as he talked, “And I got a hit, but I really don’t know how this fits together.”
“If the picture really is of him, and not just a scarily identical grandfather or something, then the kid was born in Italy in 1932,” Dick said. “The woman is Maria di Angelo, the young girl her daughter Bianca, and the boy her son Nico. We still can’t get any match on the man in the picture, but he’s not the focus. All we can find is that after they moved from Italy to D.C., Maria was found dead and Bianca and Nico were both nowhere to be found.”
“...but it can’t be time travel,” Jason inferred, “because the kid seems completely unfazed.”
“Also, he’s older,” Dick added. “When he went missing, Nico would have been about to turn ten. So if this is Nico di Angelo, then what happened in those years? And how did he end up in the future?”
“If he time traveled here, then it’s not his first time,” Tim spoke up, still looking at the picture as if his glare could make new answers appear. “He asked the nurses if he could have any video games. And when they asked what kind, to try and make him a bit more comfortable to maybe get him to open up, he asked if there was a Switch in the Asylum he could use.”
“So has he been here a while, then?” Dick thought aloud. “Maybe he accidentally time traveled back when he was ten, so he’s had time to adjust?”
“Or his meta ability is time traveling, and this just isn’t his first time in this time period?” Tim added. Jason shook his head.
“His meta ability can’t be time traveling. If it is, how did he do the shadow thing?”
“Fuck, how did I forget the shadow thing?” Tim groaned. “Why is this kid so complicated?”
“Take a break, Tim, you’ve been working at this for a while,” Dick said, putting a hand on Tim’s shoulder. “Time travel or not, we have time to figure it out.”
“I bet it’s not time travel,” Jason said, still looking at the screen. “The kid just seems too...comfortable. With the Switch comment, the fact that he never asked where he is, the fact that he knows our vigilante names, this kid has been in this time period for a while. And then there's the question of how he would have stumbled onto time travel in the 1940's. I’m not sure if this di Angelo kid is our mysterious meta, but there might be a connection between them.”
“I bet you twenty dollars that it’s time travel, and he just accidentally traveled here when he was ten,” Dick said, raising his eyebrows and holding out his hand. Tim sighed.
“Just don’t break something when you get in a fight over the results,” he sighed. “And I think that right now, unless I find something new, I’m with Jay. And no, I never thought I’d say that either.”
“Good choice, runt,” Jason said, reaching over to ruffle Tim’s hair as he shook Dick’s hand to seal the bet, his hand getting batted away from Tim’s head in annoyance.
“Go to sleep, Tim, you clearly can’t make coherent decisions right now,” Dick said, making Tim stick his tongue out petulantly, only to yawn in the middle.
“...fuck,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes.
“Timmy, go to bed,” Dick said again, this time less teasing and more serious. Tim shot him a half-hearted glare before saving everything on the computer again and sliding out of the chair. As he did, Dick’s comm buzzed to life in his ear.
“Nightwing, Robin and I could use assistance from you and whoever else is available. Ran into Penguin. ” Bruce’s voice came through, lowered to the deep growl of Batman. Dick raised his eyebrows at Jason, who nodded.
“Got it, B. RR’s been put to sleep, but Hood and I are on the way, and we’ll grab Black Bat too.”
As he changed and raced out of the cave on his motorcycle, Jason pushed all thoughts of the bat-computer and research out of his mind. He had a penguin to fight, after all.
It was only after he had gotten back and passed out in his room in the manor that he realized he had forgotten to do his own research.
“Percy!” Clovis lit up as Percy’s dream faded into view around him. He was in the Hypnos cabin, with Clovis lying down on the bed in front of him, his eyes fluttering shut even when he was already asleep. Percy realized where he was immediately, but it took a few moments for him to realize that there was only one reason Clovis would have hijacked his dream. “You’ve got a call coming in.”
“Pre-paid or collect?” Percy couldn’t help but ask, grinning. Clovis yawned, but he smiled behind his hand.
“You just owe me snacks when you get back, Jackson. But the death kid seems fine, he’s as creepy as ever,” he replied. “Dunno how long the connection can last, the energy of both your dreams is weird . So see ya soon.”
Then the surroundings faded, and the next thing Percy knew, he was standing in a small padded room, kitted out with a plastic cot screwed to the floor, no windows, a large industrial light in the ceiling, and an analog clock way too high on the wall to reach . Other than that, there was nothing in the room. Well, nothing other than the boy sitting cross legged on the bed, scowling down at a clearly dream-summoned Nintendo Switch until he noticed Percy was there. Percy felt his shoulders relax upon seeing Nico.
“Hey, Neeks,” he said, and immediately, the scowl was back.
“Not my name, Peter .”
But Percy could only laugh, relief too evident in his expression and posture. He walked over to sit down next to Nico. “How are you holding up? They aren’t hurting you, right? Because I know what you said, and we’re listening to you, but if they hurt you then we are busting in here tomorrow with or without a full plan.”
“I’m fine, Percy,” Nico assured him. “They seem to want information more than anything. They’ll keep me here as long as it takes, but they’re willing to wait which means they probably won’t hurt me. They, uh,” he faltered, his eyes growing dark, “they did take my blood, though.”
“Oh shit,” Percy cursed, eyebrows furrowing. “Have they said anything about it? Did they take it by force?”
“No, and yes,” Nico answered. “It hasn’t been mentioned since they took it, which means the nurses probably don’t know if any results were fucked up.”
“Language.”
“Eat shit,” Nico shot back.
“Man, these Arkham guys are a bad influence on you,” Percy teased, grinning.
“They didn’t have to be and you know it,” Nico rolled his eyes, “Anyway, they did have to knock me out to take the sample, but they did it with a tranquilizer and not by force. I didn’t do anything unnatural, though, so that’s still under wraps.”
“And...you’re really okay in here?” Percy asked again, leaning on his knees. “Don’t hit me for this, but you know we’re worried about you. I’m worried about you, Nico. I really don’t like leaving you in here. You’re sure you can’t just shadowtravel out?”
Nico’s features softened slightly. It had taken a while for Nico to recognize that he also considered Percy to be as close as Percy considered him , but Percy was just glad they had gotten there. “I’m okay, really. It’s the smartest choice and you know it. Annabeth knows it. They saw me manipulate shadows, but not shadowtravel; if I just disappear then they’ll know there’s more. If things do get bad here, I think I’d be rested enough for one short jump, but to be honest, I don’t think I should try it if I don’t have to. The atmosphere here…you’d think the gloom would be good for my powers, but something here is doing the opposite.”
He sighed, shaking his head. “Anyway, they can’t figure out who or what I am from my blood, and they aren’t going to get another look at my powers. So they’ll keep trying to get me to slip up, mention my name or my powers, and I’m not going to. You can afford to take the time, and examine Gotham like we were meant to before I got caught by the bats like an idiot. Speaking of, have you found anything?”
Percy sighed. “No. Not really. The aura is still there, I’m sure you can feel it worse in here, it’s like the city is drenched in a twisted version of the Mist. Something dark wants this city off the radar of everything. I’ve been attacked by monsters only once since setting foot here, and it was a single dracanae. Annabeth hasn’t seen a single monster in her part of the city and we’ve been here almost two weeks.”
“I’m worried we were right,” Nico said, frowning. “I can’t think of anything else that would benefit from having a city with no monsters or godly interference, which means no demigods or anything. Just mortals managing to pick up the slack of not having literal monsters.”
“Yeah,” Percy agreed. “Chaos seems like a good bet. Not looking forward to dealing with another primordial deity, but at least this one isn’t a prophecy.”
“Don’t even say that, now Rachel’s gonna have one tomorrow,” Nico punched Percy in the arm. “We just need to find what’s causing the heightened chaos and then we can be done with this. We hopefully won't need to deal with Chaos themself at all.”
“Easier said than done, but at least we can somewhat take our time,” Percy said, trying to keep a bright outlook. “Have you gotten anything new about the Asylum?”
“Good news and bad news,” Nico started. “Good news, I’ve been polite enough around the nurses that they really aren’t intimidated by me and are starting to wonder why I’m still here. That means that one of them wasn’t very quiet when directing a new hire around, and it turns out that there are other exits in this section of the Asylum.”
“That’s great!” Percy said. “What’s the catch?”
“The catch is that for some godsforsaken reason, the security is actually higher in this section than in the one with assholes like the fucking Joker,” Nico deadpanned.
“I would say language again, but for the Joker it’s understandable,” Percy said. “Is this another piece of Chaos in Gotham? No wonder the villains keep breaking out.”
“Probably,” Nico nodded, “But I’ll keep an eye out for ways around the security. Now...I think I’m waking up.”
“Damn, okay,” Percy said, disappointed. Finally he got to see Nico and make sure he was okay, and it was over so soon. “Don’t let us go two weeks next time, okay? We all want to hear from you.”
Nico let a small smile flicker on his face. “I’ll do my best. But I can’t really make any promises. Not only is sleeping here hard, since they know I can do something with shadows and so they keep this room fully lit, but I also can’t break out of my own dreams easily. I’d bet that’s thanks to Chaos too. But I’ll be fine, Percy, really.”
“Just...be careful,” Percy implored him. “Don’t make them suspicious, don’t maim anyone, don’t get hurt.”
“I’ve been a perfect angel, Jackson.”
Percy snorted. “Your last name is the only angelic thing about you, di Angelo. I’d better see you soon.”
He reached out to ruffle Nico’s hair, getting his hand slapped away by the now scowling boy. Before he could try again, or get tackled by the smaller boy, the edges of his dream started to go fuzzy. So he settled for giving Nico a proud, supportive smile. He really was proud of Nico for telling them to take their time getting him out.
“Bye, Nico. I love you.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “ Bye , Percy. Don’t die before you break me out.”
As the dream faded completely and Percy woke up in his bed, he smiled. He knew Nico. That was his way of saying ‘I love you too’.
Jason didn’t end up having dinner with Percy for another few days, his neighbor getting swamped with classwork, and so it took until later that week for him to remember that he hadn’t looked up Percy Jackson yet. And so, less than six hours later, he was sitting in front of the bat-computer, thankful for a slow patrol night so he could return early and have the cave to himself. The others didn’t know about Percy yet, much less Jason’s suspicion, and he wanted to figure this out on his own before deciding if he needed backup. He typed Percy’s name into the search bar, hit enter, and immediately blinked, hands stilling above the keyboard.
Well. This was not an alias. That was something he now knew for certain.
No assassin or spy worth their salt would make their alias the subject of a nationwide manhunt. No assassin or spy would ever make their alias once a suspect of blowing up the fucking St. Louis Arch .
“Who the fuck are you?” Jason muttered as he sifted through information about Percy Jackson. Full name Perseus, age 18, birthday August 18, 1993, son of Sally Jackson. Father unknown. Two step-fathers over his life, Gabe Ugliano until he was 12—and that guy just reeked of asshole, even in a picture—when Gabe vanished, and then Sally married Paul Blofis when Percy was 15. That was all normal, and everything except maybe the mysterious disappearance of his former step-father could be a cover story for something else. But the rest of it was where the weird started to creep in.
Expelled from nearly every school he ever attended, until he got into Goode High School on recommendation from Paul Blofis—his future step-father—but the expulsions were for...not normal reasons. Sure, some were for talking back to authority figures in addition to getting into fights, which could explain the scars that Jason had seen, although he just had a feeling that wasn’t all there was to it. But once he was accused of firing a supposedly defunct Civil War cannon at his school bus, and when he was 12 he accused his math teacher—who didn’t exist in any school records—of trying to kill him? And that’s not even getting into how he was kidnapped that same summer and taken all the way to California, with sightings across the country like the aforementioned Arch explosion and one incident where he and two other kids apparently attacked a group of old ladies and blew up a bus?
Jason stared at the screen, looking at far more information about his new neighbor than he expected to find. He had confirmed that Percy Jackson was not an alias, but he hadn’t figured out what Percy was doing in Gotham.
Because Percy might not be an assassin, and their interactions might not end with Jason dead, but Percy was still hiding something.
And Jason was going to figure out what .
Notes:
I love thinking about what must come up when you google percy in universe. what do his old classmates think of him? Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed :) and bc i totally forgot to put this in the tags, i want to reassure yall that im not gonna have super heavy angst in this! therell be some angstier bits, but for the most part im not delving into anything super heavy here. Just in case anyone was worrying about future chapters.
I hope you liked this chapter, and ill see you in two weeks for when Annabeth and Jason are finally in a scene together! <3
Chapter Text
If Annabeth asked him, Percy would insist that he was not trying to keep her from meeting Jason. And he wasn’t! Not really, that is. He thought they would get along, he really did, and he did want to introduce them because Annabeth was his best friend and he felt like he and Jason were getting to be pretty good friends too. They had graduated from Percy dragging Jason into having dinner in his apartment all the way to actually going to do things! Sure, it started because Percy had offhandedly admitted that he still didn’t know his way around Gotham all that well, and Jason had given him the same look that Percy had gotten when he found out just how dreadful Jason was in a kitchen. Jason had shown him around Gotham, both the Narrows and outside of them, and Percy had to admit that having a native Gothamite show him around did a lot for his navigation skills. He wasn’t afraid to take back alleys, despite the thinly veiled warnings that Jason tried to give him, because no mortal really posed a threat to him. There were some that would be a damn hard challenge, like any of the batclan, but no normal mugger in Gotham was a match for a demigod. Still, he didn’t miss the exasperated and slightly annoyed looks that Jason shot him when he said he’d be fine and that he wanted to know the fastest routes even if they went into dark alleys.
That being said, the first time that Annabeth and Jason met was a complete accident. Annabeth had come over for her weekly dinner, after a rough week of classes and her internship, and Percy realized too late that he had forgotten to tell Jason that Friday was the day he ate with Annabeth. Last Friday, Jason had been busy and so it hadn’t been an issue, but this time...the knock on his door had him wincing as Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
“A friend?” she asked dryly, knowing damn well who it was. Percy stuck his tongue out in response before handing her the spoon for the stew and going to the door. He sighed on his way. At least he had made something that could easily feed three. He pulled the door open and grinned sheepishly.
“Hey, Jason! So, funny story, my friend is here for dinner tonight too. Are you good with it being the three of us?” he said, utilizing his wide eyes to the best of his ability. Not that he would mind if Jason decided to leave and give Annabeth and Percy the night to catch up. He totally wouldn’t mind. Jason could decide what he wanted, and Percy wasn’t going to be upset. But he really did enjoy spending time with Jason. The other young man had a biting, dry humor to him that bordered on the edge of morbid, which luckily was something Percy knew very well. Jason was intriguing, Percy could feel that there was more to him than a car mechanic that had no intention of going to college. He could see it in the way he spoke so vaguely about his family, but couldn’t manage to fully disguise his emotions as he got to know Percy better. It was a mess of emotions that Percy honestly didn’t think could belong to a family that wasn’t demigods. Affection, annoyance, sometimes genuine anger, and a running thread of guilt that sometimes had Percy thinking Jason’s eyes had just turned a bit green.
He didn’t have to worry though—not that he was worrying—because Jason was conflicted for only a moment before sighing and shrugging.
“I mean, it was only a matter of time, right? Your friend comes over pretty often,” he said. Percy’s grin widened and he stepped aside to let Jason in.
“Yeah, I forgot to tell you that Friday is our catch-up dinner night, since you weren’t here last week,” Percy explained. “But I’d been meaning to introduce you anyway, so two birds with one stone, right?”
Jason’s shoulders stiffened so minisculely that Percy figured he was just uncomfortable meeting someone new on such short notice. As they reached the table, which Annabeth had set for three, she was leaving the kitchen with two bowls in her hands. She smiled kindly at Jason, but Percy knew her microexpressions better than basically anyone, and she was scanning him intently. She set the bowls down and held out her hand.
“Annabeth Chase,” she introduced herself. “I’ve been keeping this idiot out of trouble for six years now.”
Percy groaned. “This was a mistake.”
Unfortunately, Percy’s regret made Jason’s smile turn sharp and dangerous. “Oh, Percy, do you not want her telling me all sorts of embarrassing shit you’ve done?”
Now, Percy knew himself pretty well, he liked to think. He was raised by Sally Jackson, who told him to never hold back his affection for people. He was also completely oblivious, but he liked to think he had learned his lesson with Annabeth. They both had waited too long, and by the time they realized they liked each other, other factors added up to equal the fading of their feelings after barely any real time of dating each other. So yeah, Annabeth had knocked some sense into him, he liked to think, and he was more in tune with his feelings. And the sharp grin that Jason gave Annabeth just to make fun of Percy? If he could drown, he figured this was what it would feel like.
“Let's start with a freebie before dinner,” Annabeth said, a matching grin on her face. “Percy was once forced by his other best friend to apologize for being rude to a very fashionable poodle. The reason he was rude was because he wouldn’t say hello to the poodle, and yes, he had to apologize to the poodle himself.”
“ Annabeth ,” Percy hissed, hoping his face wasn’t red, “you had to greet the poodle too!” And this, this was why he had put off introducing the two as long as possible. But the laugh that Jason let out was almost worth it, the white streak at the front of his hair falling into his eyes as he turned a blinding wry grin to Percy.
“A poodle? Really?” Jason asked, pulling out his chair and sitting down, still smiling teasingly at Percy. There was something in his blue eyes that struck Percy as familiar, reminiscent of the exact same thing Annabeth just did a few moments ago. He was laughing, yes, and genuinely amused at Percy’s expense. But he was also calculating something. Percy had noticed it a few times over their past dinners, but he wasn’t sure what to make of it. So he pretended he didn’t see it, and raised his hands in defense of himself.
“Hey, Grover’s puppy eyes have had me stealing enchiladas from the school cafeteria before, apologizing to a dog is nothing,” he said, joining Jason and Annabeth at the table. “He has also roped me into dumpster diving before, so don't underestimate the man.”
“When and why did he make you go dumpster diving?” Annabeth asked, amused and intrigued. Percy sent her a meaningful look.
“You know how Grover feels about his recycling, Annie,” he said. Annabeth nodded and hummed in agreement.
“Ah, that makes sense. I heard he called you yesterday? How is he?”
“And who told you that?” Percy asked, grinning. He knew exactly who told her, Grover had said he was in close contact with camp, and that he was planning on calling Rachel after speaking to Percy. “He’s doing good, he and Juniper just celebrated their anniversary last week. I think he said he’s in Oregon right now? He’s with one of Katie Gardner’s brothers.” Grover and the new son of Demeter were making the long trek back to camp, but Oregon was a long ways away.
“Oh, exciting!” Annabeth brightened. “I’ll have to wish them a happy anniversary.” Then she turned to look at Jason, who had been both listening intently and also focusing on eating since he had nothing to contribute to the two of them. “So, Jason, what do you do?”
Jason gave her the same answer he had given Percy, but there was something in Annabeth’s piercing grey eyes as she watched him answer that gave Percy the feeling that Jason might not be telling the whole truth. He wasn’t going to say anything, because it looked like Annabeth had information he didn’t, and so he would follow her lead. It wasn’t like it was anything dangerous, because if it was Annabeth wouldn’t still be sitting calmly at the table. That meant that it could easily wait until Jason had left. What was interesting, though, as Percy watched Jason attempt to lie to Annabeth’s face, was that Jason seemed to notice it too. He almost seemed to state that he was a mechanic with some kind of insistence, like he knew that Annabeth knew there was more to it.
Percy just hoped that demigod luck would avoid him for one night and this dinner wouldn’t end with Annabeth and Jason fighting. Or worse, Annabeth and him both fighting Jason. Percy knew how often people fought in Gotham, especially this close to Crime Alley, and he got the impression that Jason could take care of himself in a fight easily. He had more bulk muscle than Percy and Annabeth combined, but Percy knew that Jason had seen his own leaner muscle and so he wouldn’t be underestimated.
Luckily, though, the dinner continued with no bloodshed on either side. Practically a miracle where demigods are concerned. Even at camp, spars breaking out was not uncommon in the middle of the mess hall. But as they continued to eat, Percy and Annabeth shared heavily edited stories of their adventures and their friends, and Jason returned the favor with what Percy could only assume were heavily edited stories of his family. He couldn’t help but notice that Jason was careful to not mention names, because each story involved one member of his family at a time. Jason asked Annabeth how her internship was going, and Percy saw again that calculating, Annabeth-esque expression as Annabeth stared right back at him and described how much she’s loving what she’s doing. How once they realized she was dyslexic—which took a while because of her work ethic—they made sure to give her everything in a dyslexia-friendly font, which she had told Percy about earlier and said that it wasn’t nearly as good as reading in Greek, but she appreciated the effort. Annabeth told a story of her boss, and how she brought him a chamomile tea before leaving the office the night before, because he had fallen asleep with his eyes open just fifteen minutes earlier and still asked if she could get him a triple-shot. She seemed pleased in a triumphant sort of way when Jason tried to mask his bark of laughter.
All in all, it could have gone worse. Percy had absolutely no clue if Annabeth and Jason liked each other, but they engaged in back-and-forth conversation just as easily as Percy did, and so he took that as a win. Jason gave Annabeth a mocking bow as he left, something in his eyes that was mirrored in Annabeth’s as she acknowledged his bow with a nod. Percy gave Jason a soft smile as he walked him to the door, even though Jason lived right across the hall. And as Jason returned his ‘good night’, the smile Percy got was an odd mixture of sincere, a softness that had his breath catching in his throat, and a faint resignation that Percy didn’t understand. And it still held that slight calculating look, with a hint of suspicion that had been there for so long Percy wondered if it would ever go away.
Then he shut his door, turned to face Annabeth, and watched her for a moment in silence. After a few seconds, a sly smile spread across her face, and Percy’s gut sank. He took it back. This was why he hadn’t introduced them.
“Perseus Jackson, you have a fucking type .”
Percy groaned, dropping his head into his hands. “I do not ! Explain to me how I have a type!”
Annabeth’s eyebrows raised and she started ticking things off on her fingers, “Well for one, smarter than you or at least equal in intelligence because you banter like a motherfucker. Two, will mercilessly make fun of you. And probably the most important, or at least the part I was referring to, must be able to take you in a fight.”
Percy gasped, only slightly offended. “Excuse you? I could totally take Jason in a fight, as long as he doesn’t get a good hit in. I’ve beaten Kronos !”
Annabeth shrugged. “I’ll give you that,” she conceded, “You’re fast enough that you could probably avoid most of his hits and so as long as one hit didn’t knock you out, you could take him. But a hit from him would pack a punch. That being said, you still have a type for hot people who could at least give you a challenge and can carry you around. He fits that.”
Percy felt his face burning . “You say that like you’re making fun of me for liking you .”
“Oh no, liking me was one of the few smart decisions you’ve made, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth grinned. “And, frankly, I like Jason too.”
“Really?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. “You seemed to think something was up with him.”
“Nothing like that, I just know for a fact that he works somewhere other than that auto shop he talked about,” Annabeth answered, her grin turning smug. “I bet he didn’t think your best friend was the intern who was in a heated debate with his brother when he came into the office at Wayne Enterprises a few days ago.”
Percy blinked. “What?”
“Only you, Percy, only you,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “Jason’s brother is my boss, and Jason sometimes helps with security at WE.”
“But...your boss is one of the CEO’s,” Percy said, wondering if she was going where he thought she was going. “Isn’t he a Wayne?”
Annabeth patted him on the shoulder. “I knew you’d get there. Only you could become neighbors with one of the most reclusive Waynes and not even know it.”
Percy blinked again.
“I’m sorry, Jason’s a what ?”
Honestly, Jason was waiting for Percy to knock at his door. After that dinner with his friend—Annabeth Chase, Jason remembered her name from Percy’s file, she was kidnapped with him—it was a guarantee. Just Jason’s luck that his CEO little brother’s personal intern was the same young woman he would be having dinner with a few nights later. He could see it in her eyes as soon as she saw him, and he was glad she didn’t say anything right there. He could see it when she asked him what he did, and he knew that she knew he knew. So he pressed her for details on her internship, knowing that she knew she was gossiping about his brother. It felt like a game, but he knew that it was inevitable that Annabeth would tell Percy. If he didn’t already know, but he did seem genuinely confused by the odd looks Annabeth sent his way.
That being said, he didn’t really want to deal with Percy knowing who he was. It always changed when people found out one of them was a Wayne. Especially Damian, the poor little demon, but all of them had seen the way people’s eyes changed. Everyone got greedy around the Waynes. Hell, Jason barely considered himself a Wayne, and he still had to deal with that. Would Percy be like that? He had no idea. Annabeth seemed to have taken it as a challenge, or a way to make fun of Tim, which he could understand. But he still couldn’t get a read on Percy. Not that he could get a read on Annabeth either, she was as calculating as a Bat herself, but he had no doubt that she had skills to back up her intimidating stare. He saw faint scars on her too, and the same lean muscle that Percy had. Her grin was just as confident as Percy’s, just asking for Gotham to try something, and he started to wonder if Percy really was as capable as he said he was. Airhead or Assassin. Was there another option? What was it?
He found himself sitting in the cave, staring at the files he had pulled on Percy, trying to figure out what else he could be hiding. He had crossed off assassin, so he had settled on Percy being naive and just hiding something weird. Maybe it was PTSD or something from being kidnapped, because Jason never once got a feeling that Percy could have done the things he had once been accused of. But if Annabeth had the same signs as he did, had impressed Tim enough to be his personal intern, and seemed more than capable of backing up any threats she made...was Percy dangerous? Was Annabeth? Did he need to warn Tim?
He didn’t know how long he had been in the cave. He didn’t think anyone in the manor had heard him sneak in through the cave entrance, since everyone was back from patrol and back upstairs. But as he was staring at the missing persons report Sally Jackson had filed when Percy was sixteen, a hand came down on his shoulder.
“Little Wing?” Dick’s voice was gentle, and more than a little concerned. Jason did his best to not get annoyed by it, but he couldn’t help bristling slightly at the worry in Dick’s tone. “You okay?”
“‘m fine, Big Bird,” he said, waving his brother off. He should have known that saying he was fine just made this family buckle down. Dick took a seat on the desk and looked up at the screen.
“Percy Jackson? Who’s that?” he asked. Jason sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“My new neighbor. Well, relatively new. It’s been almost a month.”
Dick nodded thoughtfully. “So...why are you digging into him this thoroughly? Did he do something?”
Jason scowled. “ No . And that’s almost the problem.”
Dick frowned. “What do you mean by that? Talk me through it.”
Jason sighed. He knew Dick had a point, sounding boards always helped, and he hadn't even mentioned Percy to anyone. “When he moved in a few weeks ago, I noticed things that seemed off, but could just be normal. He has scars that seem like too many for a normal person, but he’s a student at the university and so he doesn’t even work with his hands like I do. But then he just keeps carrying himself with this confidence, like anything Gotham tries to stab him with won’t be enough, and he just has this look in his eyes, like he can take on anything. So I thought maybe he’s an assassin. Not my smartest plan to accept a dinner invitation from someone I thought might be an assassin, don’t look at me like that Dickie-bird, but there was also the chance that he was just incredibly naive and I would have to keep assassins from killing him . But now neither of those are true, and I have no idea who the fuck this guy is. I mean, look at this, Dick.”
He pulled up the reports from Percy’s childhood kidnapping. “There’s no fucking way he’s an assassin. He was accused of being a terrorist . He got into a gunfight on a California beach with his kidnapper! What am I supposed to take from this?”
Dick hummed, tilting his head as he thought. He took control from Jason to sort through the files, scanning each of Percy’s expulsions. He looked down at Jason.
“Why are you so certain he’s innocent in these?” he asked. Jason frowned. “I just mean that we know police aren’t always honest. Maybe he was cleared just because he was twelve. We know how dangerous Damian is at twelve. But you seem pretty certain that he was accused of terrorism, not guilty.”
Jason huffed, unsure how to put his gut feeling into words. “You’ve never talked to the guy, Dickie. I know what an innocent mask looks like, even on trained professionals. He doesn’t have one. He might be hiding something, but he doesn’t carry himself like someone who committed domestic terrorism as a tween. I’d be less surprised if he turned out to be a vigilante. He isn’t acting nice, he just is .”
Dick was quiet for a moment. He watched Jason carefully, and Jason kept perfectly still so he didn’t squirm under his older brother’s intense gaze. Then Dick relaxed, and leaned on his knees to be eye level with Jason.
“Jaybird?” he asked, and Jason looked him in the eyes for him to continue. “Why is this bothering you so much? You know he’s not an assassin, and you know he can take care of himself. Why are you so invested in this?”
Jason blinked, caught off guard by that line of questioning. He thought for a moment, sifting through his thoughts to try and answer Dick. He wished he had an answer ready for this, something he had prepared—something he knew how Dick would respond to. But if he didn’t even know his own thoughts, how could he tailor them to make sure Dick reacted how Jason would want him to? Eventually, he realized he just had to start talking.
“Well...there’s just something off about him. It’s why I was certain that he was an assassin, or some kind of danger. He has this...this smile. It’s sarcastic, and sharp, and confident . And every time he smiles like that, I feel like I’m in danger.” He moved his gaze back to the computer screen, where Percy’s driver’s license photo showed the other smile the man had. “But he hides it well. Sometimes he’s just...soft, and it’s nothing like the guy who claimed that he could handle the back alleys of the Narrows no problem. And I don’t want him to be hiding anything. When he first invited me to dinner, I did think he had ulterior motives. But he just said that he liked that his new neighbor was around his age, he thought I was cool, and thought it would be nice to get to know me. When I first saw him, moving in, he-” Jason cut himself off and sighed. “You know how people look at me sometimes, Dick. You guys have small scars on your face, mostly unnoticeable. I’m not so lucky. I know that people tend to get scared at first glance until they either get over it, realize I’m a part of this insane clan and therefore safe, or leave. He...he didn’t. He didn’t even look twice . He looked me in the eyes, the whole time, feeling comfortable enough to laugh, and that’s...not very common even in the Narrows. If he’s hiding something, I need to know what it is. Because I’m not lucky enough to make a friend like that.”
He couldn’t look at Dick. That was way more than he had meant to say, and more than he even thought he was feeling. But all Dick did was lay a hand gently on his shoulder.
“Jason,” he said, the sound of his actual name making Jason’s head snap up to meet Dick’s. “Promise that you won’t hit me for what I’m about to say?”
Jason immediately frowned. “You saying that automatically makes me want to hit you for whatever it is.”
Dick laughed, but his expression remained annoyingly sincere. “I figured. But, Jay, hear me out. Are you absolutely certain that you’re not this worked up over finding what he’s hiding because you like him?”
“ What ?”
“It sounds to me like you might be focusing too hard on the vigilante side of things. You believe he’s not dangerous, but you’re trying so hard to prove yourself wrong. I’m not saying this to tease you or anything, I just think you should look at the far easier explanation before working yourself to the bone.”
Jason blinked. “You’re insane.”
“Nope, I’m just your wise older brother. I mean it, Jay. Think about it,” Dick smiled supportively. “You deserve good things. Now put these files away and get to bed, okay? Even Tim’s asleep.”
With that, Dick patted his shoulder and walked to the cave exit. Jason was left sitting in the chair, staring at a pair of endless sea-green eyes. He shook his head, closing his files and standing up. Dick was wrong. Of course Dick was wrong. They were all tired, Dick probably hadn’t fully listened to Jason’s explanation, and he had only had a cursory look at the many files Jason had pulled together. And the biggest point—Dick had never even met Percy, he had never seen that dangerous smile. If he had, he would see what Jason was worked up over. Jason didn’t like Percy like that. And as he fell asleep, he vowed to prove Dick wrong, by finding out whatever Percy was hiding.
But then, when morning broke, Dick’s words were still all he could think about. He didn’t even see Dick in the morning, but as he accepted breakfast from Alfred and watched Tim try to multitask eating, drinking coffee, working on WE financials, and trying to hide said financials from Alfred, Dick’s voice was all he heard. It was infuriating. All the big bird had to do was look frustratingly fond while stating some incomprehensible bullshit, and it latched onto Jason’s head like a leech. Jason wasn’t Tim, who had to be metaphorically doused in cold water before realizing he had feelings, and who had to be told he was on a date by said date. He wasn’t Damian, who scowled bloody murder whenever someone dared to point out his obvious soft spot for the little Super. And he sure as hell wasn’t Dick , who crushed on every redhead he met and yet still needed to get sense knocked into him before he noticed. Jason was his own damn person, and if he had feelings he would know them. He didn’t need Dick to try and figure them out for him, because he clearly couldn’t do it.
The ride back to his apartment felt more silent than normal, as Jason spent the whole time in his own head. But he walked up the stairs ready to lock himself in his apartment until patrol, only to find Percy waiting outside his apartment again, this time with a plastic container under his arm. He seemed startled to see Jason, but the reason was clear once he opened his mouth.
“Jason? Are you okay?”
Jason realized he was still scowling. He shook his head and wiped the expression off his face. “I’m fine. Just, uh, fought with my dad.” It was an easy excuse, because it very well could be true. Percy’s expression turned sympathetic—not pitying, Jason noted—and his smile was soft.
“Sorry about that,” he said, “Fighting with a parent is never fun. Anyway, I, uh…” he trailed off awkwardly. Jason sighed.
“Annabeth told you, right?”
Percy’s cheeks turned a little pink, and Jason felt the same thing he did when Percy grinned at him. His frown threatened to return.
“Yeah, she did. I’m sorry,” Percy said. “I swear I didn’t know, it makes perfect sense why you’d want to be under the radar sometimes.”
The worst part was that Jason believed him. His eyes were wide and earnest, and Jason was too tired not to smile.
“It’s fine, Percy,” he assured him. “Just...don’t treat me any different, okay? I get that enough from snobby rich assholes.”
Percy laughed, and the apologetic look left his eyes. “Well, in that case, these are no longer an apology gift,” he said, lifting up the container. “These are just a gift to my good friend to make him feel better after fighting with his dad.”
He opened the lid so Jason could see, revealing chocolate chip cookies—dyed a bright blue. Jason stifled a laugh, but Percy wasn’t so successful, and he met Jason’s eyes with his own shining bright and his grin wide and teasing.
It wasn’t his sharp grin, but it was sly and soft at the same time, curling crookedly on his tanned face.
Jason suddenly felt his cheeks warm.
Oh
fuck
.
Notes:
hey!! sorry about missing yesterday. Family shit happened and took up the day. if yall could give some good vibes in the comments, it would be much appreciated. thank you for being patient :)
would this really be a fanfic if there wasn't an italicized 'oh fuck' moment? No it would not be, and jason deserves to have one. He's earned it.
i hope you enjoyed, and ill see you next chapter <3
Chapter Text
“So have you seen any of the, uh, problems?” Percy asked, strolling with his hands in his pockets. Annabeth shrugged next to him.
“Yeah. They pass by every night, not all of them at once but I see at least one every night. I’ve got a chart mapping out what day might be the best option, if we have the ability to choose,” she answered. Annabeth had realized that she was the better one of the two to try and track the bats, given that Red Hood was the only one regularly seen in Percy’s area. He was seen on the rooftops most nights, and only rarely was joined by another one of the bats.
“What’s the verdict so far?”
“Tuesday,” Annabeth said after a moment of thinking. “The ones I’ve seen on Tuesday over in that area were just Piper’s Mortal Enemy and Are We Sure It’s Not Nico.”
They had made codenames for each of the vigilantes after the first time they wanted to discuss their progress in public. Piper’s Mortal Enemy was Nightwing, because the two of them had seen pictures of previous costume choices the man had made and unanimously decided to never show the daughter of Aphrodite. Are We Sure It’s Not Nico was the smaller bat who wore all black, who Annabeth figured out was called Black Bat. She seemed incredibly capable in a fight, and incredibly stealthy, but if everything went well ( hah , that was a joke) no one would see them anyway.
“What if they call in?” Percy asked. Annabeth’s mouth curled in annoyance.
“They probably will,” she sighed, “but only if they see us. And once we’re in , then we can handle it, I think. If they see us before we’re in, though, that’s a problem.”
“At least it’s just us at that point,” Percy added. “Not too many people to worry about.”
Annabeth gave him a grateful smile. “Yeah, you’re right. Have you heard from Nico again yet?”
“No,” Percy said, frowning. “But he said he’d try to not go silent for two weeks this time. It’s been...a bit longer than that, and I'm trying not to stress about that, but I hope he hasn’t lost track of that much time. That means he’s been trying to contact me, right? Or you? But he can’t, because of this weird aura? He’s...he’s fine, its just Gotham making everything harder?”
“He’s okay, Percy,” Annabeth assured him. “We have to trust him, and he said they wouldn’t hurt him. It’s up to him right now to get the last pieces we need and get them to us.”
Percy sighed.
“You’re right, but you know this isn’t the last time you’re gonna have to tell me that. Have your siblings gotten back to you with the plans?” Percy asked, and Annabeth’s smile turned fond and proud.
“They called me last night and said they were sending them in the mail. I’m not thrilled with the transportation method, but none of us are,” she said. “No one else is gonna come to Gotham unless or until we need them, and unfortunately our courier is...indisposed.”
“Please call him our courier to his face when we see him next,” Percy laughed. “I want to see his expression.”
Annabeth shot him a glare. “I’m not the one who is fond of purposefully antagonizing him, Seaweed Brain. That seems to be you, Jason, and Hazel’s forte.”
“What can I say,” Percy defended, grinning wryly, “I take my job very seriously.”
“Uhuh, sure,” Annabeth couldn’t hide her own smile much longer, “so you can call Nico a courier next time.”
Percy paused, considering his options. On one hand, it would be hilarious . On the other hand, the best case scenario would be that Nico refuses to ever shadowtravel anything for Percy ever again. Worst case, Percy gets a sword to his gut. Not the stygian iron sword, Percy wasn’t afraid of that weapon being a part of Nico’s revenge, but there were plenty of normal weapons available at camp for Nico to stab him with.
In the end, he shook his head. “No, I’ll just stick to the Batman jokes I’m stocking up on. Less of a risk of losing our courier privileges.”
“I knew there was a brain up there somewhere,” Annabeth teased.
Before they knew it, before Percy could even get offended at Annabeth’s remark, they were in front of her apartment building. Percy sighed.
“How much longer, do you think?”
“I don’t know,” she said, catching his eyes in her sharp gaze. “And you know I hate saying that. But Nico is fine. We know he’s okay. So I can’t imagine it will take longer than another month. And yes, I know,” she cut off his protests, “it’s already been almost a month and a half. And yes, this is our mission that he’s helping with. But he asked us to wait and take our time. So we will. As long as he says he’s okay, we won’t barge in. Be patient , Percy. Your loyalty is a wonderful thing, but don’t bypass what Nico’s been telling us because you’re worried about him.”
Percy sighed, letting her words calm him down. “You’re right, like usual. I’ll see you Monday, Wise Girl.”
“See you, Percy.” Annabeth said, hugging him tightly. The streetlights made her hair glow as she turned away from him to enter her building. Percy watched her until she got into the stairwell, waiting until her ponytail disappeared before he turned and walked back down the sidewalk. Honestly, if you weren’t scared of muggers, pickpockets, drug dealers, or gang members, Gotham was very pretty. Walking around at night was gorgeous and rather relaxing when crime wasn’t causing adrenaline to flood your veins. Sure, Percy was alert. Pickpockets genuinely didn’t bother him, he didn’t have a phone to take, Riptide came back to him, and his drachmas and IM machine were kept way at the bottom of his pockets. Someone would have to dig to get those. The other criminals were the ones Percy kept an eye out for, not willing to be caught off guard even if he could take them. But Percy’s alert awareness was such a second nature to him that he was still able to look around and examine the architecture that Annabeth loved to rant to him about. It was very different from New York, but Percy could definitely appreciate the aesthetic of the gargoyles.
Everything got darker as Percy entered the Narrows, and not just because the streetlights tended to be broken more often than not. He carefully avoided every crack in the sidewalk as he walked, half to keep his mind occupied and half out of genuine superstition. Gods turned out to be real, why wouldn’t superstitions? He wasn’t risking his mom’s back like that.
So maybe when Percy said he was alert, he wasn’t entirely truthful. He was, really! Until he had to dodge a particularly large crack and then he got sidetracked noting every crack in the cement, and then there was a crack with some dandelions in it and wow he’s been thinking the word ‘crack’ a lot and—yeah, you get the picture. Needless to say, his focus slipped. And he didn’t hear the man approaching to drag him into an alleyway. But he definitely felt the large hand wrap around his bicep and yank him off of the sidewalk to the right. He relaxed slightly so it didn’t hurt as much when he was slammed against the brick and held against the wall with an arm across his throat. The man had a gun in his other hand, how original. Two other men stood behind him, only one had their gun unholstered. Percy flicked his gaze back to the dark brown eyes of the main man, keeping still and calm as the man snarled at him.
“Empty your pockets, now , kid!” he spat, and Percy raised his eyebrows.
“Uh, ew,” he said, raising a hand to wipe the guy’s spit from his cheek. The man’s face turned a ruddy red. “And empty them yourself, asshole, then we can add ‘feeling up a teenager’ to your rap sheet.”
And as the man raised his arm to pistol whip Percy across the face, Percy saw his opening. Not that he couldn’t have just shoved the man off of him from the start, but...he was a demigod. It was practically in their not-DNA to be as dramatic as possible. He caught the man’s arm as it came down to strike hard across his face, and he frowned at the man.
“Not the face, man, do you see this skin? I can’t go scarring it, what would my mom say?” Never mind the few tiny scars he already had on his face. With that, he twisted the man’s wrist until the gun fell to the ground, and then he put his other hand to the man’s chest and shoved . It was immediately clear that the men were outmatched. Demigod strength was nothing for mortals to scoff at. The man went reeling to the other side of the alley and Percy quickly kicked his gun under a dumpster and ran for the second man who was now raising his gun to aim at Percy. With a strike to his wrist, his gun also went flying, but the man was quick to respond and tried to knee Percy in the gut.
Honestly, it had been a long time since Percy had ever had to fight a mortal. It was always either monsters or other demigods or—gods forbid—a fucking primordial deity. He hadn’t realized how...easy it had gotten. Over the years, his strength must have really kicked in, alongside the things he had noticed like his eyesight and hearing getting better. That being said, even though Percy remembered to pull his strength, it took a few quick strikes to make the man fall to the ground, unconscious. He turned to face the other two and—
He ducked quickly as the third guy took a shot at near point blank. It looked like he had been waiting until his friend was out of the way. The bullet grazed Percy’s shoulder, but didn’t dig deeply. It would bleed, but not horribly. Percy hated bullets. He hated how they got stuck in a person’s body sometimes. They were so...impersonal. But he wasn’t about to pull out Riptide to take these guys on, so he used his fists. And within a few more minutes, both the other two men were passed out on the alley ground. Percy leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. There was blood on his knuckles, his shirt too, but his only real injury was the bullet graze on his shoulder. He stayed there for just a moment more, no way to restrain the men, before a voice spoke from further in the alley.
“You know, when I heard the gunshot, I came to help but...it seems you had it handled.” Percy looked up to see a very distinctive red helmet as the Red Hood himself leaned casually against the wall a few feet down. Wow, Percy really was out of it if he didn’t hear the vigilante approaching. Percy sent a slightly shaky grin the man’s way, hoping his hesitancy was seen as adrenaline and anxiety from being almost mugged rather than a desperate need to sleep and ignore his mission along with anxiety over one of the vigilantes knowing he existed. Honestly, the fight had been a good distraction for the first two problems, but now the last one was staring him in the face.
“Yeah, hah, they weren’t super great at fighting once their guns were gone,” Percy said, about to stick his hands in his pockets before he remembered they had blood on them from when he broke one of the guy’s noses.
“Are you okay? Your shoulder’s bleeding,” Red Hood said, motioning to Percy’s wound. Percy glanced at it, wincing slightly at the blood soaking his t-shirt, but he shrugged with his other arm.
“Yeah, ‘m fine,” he said. “Barely hit me. Do you need me to do anything, or…”
“Nah,” Red Hood said, spurring into action and pulling a few zip-ties out of his belt. “You should take a look at that shoulder. Are you sure you don't want me to take you to a hospital?”
Percy shook his head, schooling his face of any panic. “No, really, I’m fine. Thanks though.”
“Alright,” Red Hood shrugged. “Gotta say, this is impressive. Are you trained?”
“Not formally,” Percy answered. “I’ve got friends that like to fight each other. I’ve picked a few things up.” Could camp be considered formal training? They taught actual skills, not just sparring, but it was also very informal if you ignored that everyone was training for their lives. Camp Jupiter on the other hand...maybe that could be considered formal training.
“Your friends must be damn good,” Red Hood commented. Percy felt an itch under his skin from being this close to the vigilante. The Narrows were quite fond of the Red Hood, far more than the rest of Gotham, and so Percy knew that the man wouldn’t hurt him and he wasn’t in danger. Hell, Percy had grown decently fond of the vigilante over the month or so he’d been there, he just never wanted to run into him. Because now Red Hood knew his face. Now Percy had to be even more careful when they went to get Nico. But he couldn’t act like he had a problem with Red Hood knowing him, so he chuckled and hoped his tense muscles looked like leftover nerves from the fight.
“Yeah, one of them definitely knows her stuff. She’s been doing different styles of fighting since she was a kid,” he said. He wasn’t going to mention that Clarisse never ‘taught’ him anything, just challenged him to a spar for the chance to try and kick his ass. And...usually succeeded.
“Where do you live, kid? Do you need a lift?”
Percy shook his head. “No, I don’t live too far from here. I, uh, should probably call my friend though, she’d kill me if she found out I almost got mugged and didn’t tell her. Thanks for coming to help.”
“Hey, it’s my job,” Red Hood said, finishing zip-tying the last thug’s hands together. “Be careful around these alleys next time.”
“Yeah, I will,” Percy said, knowing he absolutely would not. Jason had been trying for the past month to get Percy to stay on the street, one suggestion by the local vigilante wasn’t going to change anything. He gave the Red Hood an awkward wave before walking through the rest of the alley, not really trying to hide the blood on his hands or shirt. The sidewalk was dark enough and the people in this area were unnervingly used to sights like that. Still, he let out an audible sigh of relief when he shut his apartment door behind him. His shoulder wasn’t hurting as much as it did when he got shot, it was just throbbing uncomfortably. He maneuvered his way out of his bloody t-shirt, wincing when he had to move his arm out of the sleeve and the blood tried to stick the shirt to his skin. But he was incredibly thankful when he looked in the mirror and was able to judge that the wound wouldn’t need any stitches to heal shut. So he cleaned it, wrapped his shoulder in a bandage, and decided against pulling his ambrosia stash out of the cabinet. Sure, it would heal his arm overnight and then no one could see and ask about his injury, but he was planning on showering in the morning anyway, which would heal it immediately anyway. Waiting that long might make it scar, but he had shoulder scars anyway. This one wouldn’t be that big.
He quickly called Annabeth, assuring her that he was fine and brushing off her teasing insults. He showed her his bandaging for her to inspect, and she nodded in approval.
“Be more careful, idiot,” she said before they ended the IM. Percy couldn’t help but laugh. He would love to be careful, if trouble wasn’t attracted to him like gravity. Then he collapsed onto his couch and resolved to not move again until he woke up the next day, whatever time that ended up being. He didn’t have any plans for Sunday anyway, just work to do. So he lay down, keeping his shoulder from pressing into the couch, and just let himself relax.
Or at least, he would have relaxed, had a thud from across the hallway not entered his inhuman hearing and woken him up, setting him immediately on red-alert. Because while it wasn’t in his apartment, he knew that the sound had come from Jason’s apartment. Jason, who could definitely take care of himself, but who Percy wasn’t going to leave to a robber if that was what was happening. Jason might not need his help, but Percy was going to give it anyway. Ignoring the twinge of pain from his healing shoulder, he rushed to his door, internally debating if he should bring a weapon. Riptide would do nothing, and he didn’t know if he had time to grab a kitchen knife, so he decided against it. Glancing at the clock as he left, it read one in the morning. Percy frowned. Those three hours of sleep definitely weren’t enough, but they were enough to let Percy be alert as he shoved his door open and went into the hallway.
He froze, something cold in his gut. Jason’s door was ajar. Percy could smell the sharp, metallic scent of blood from inside the room. And the noise had stopped, leaving the hallway silent. He crept towards the slightly open door, his back against it and ready to shove it open.
“Jason?” he called softly. “Are you okay?”
A groan answered him.
“Yeah, I—” Jason’s voice cut off with a grunt of pain.
“Okay you’re clearly not fine so don’t say that,” Percy said. “I’m coming in, okay? I can help.”
“Wait, wait,” Jason said, his voice still tight. Percy hesitated, until Jason grunted again and said, “okay.”
Percy immediately pushed the door open and darted across the room to where Jason was leaning against a wall, his shirt pulled up and exposing a stab wound to his lower abdomen and a slash on his arm. Percy hissed through his teeth as he saw the injuries, neither looked deadly, but they weren’t fun either.
“ Shit , Jay, you’re gonna need stitches,” he said. Not for the first time, he lamented that ambrosia could kill mortals. Jason needed it more than Percy did. “Do you have a first aid kit? If not, I can run and get mine.”
Jason shook his head, halfway through using the bottom of his shirt to wipe the blood away from the stab wound. “Bathroom,” he said, “top shelf. I can do it.”
Percy paused on his way to the bathroom. “Absolutely not. I’m going to help.” Then he rushed to the bathroom and quickly found the rather large first aid kit that Jason had pointed him towards. He pushed aside the thought that it looked well-used. That was a worrying thought that he didn't want to pursue. Not when Jason was hurt. He pulled out the needle and knelt back beside Jason, who had tied his shirt off to the side so he didn’t pull it all the way off. Again, if Jason was not currently hurt, Percy might have been upset by that. What he could see was...very muscular. But that was for a very different time. Percy started to thread the needle, not noticing that the neck of his own shirt had slid enough that Jason could see his bandaging. Jason groaned, shifting slightly.
“What happened?” he asked, motioning with his head to Percy’s shoulder. “Are you hurt?”
Percy blinked. “Am I hurt? Jason you have a stab wound . I’m fine. I might have been almost mugged a bit, but I’m fine . What happened to you?”
Jason’s grin was far too teasing for his current situation. “I might have been almost mugged a bit,” he repeated, trying not to laugh at Percy’s glare so he didn’t aggravate his side.
“At one in the morning?” Percy asked, finally threading the needle. He leaned forward to see the wound better, grabbing a wet towel to clean it better. Jason shrugged before remembering that his arm was injured too.
“Yep,” was all he said. Percy sighed, shaking his head.
“Alright then,” he acquiesced. “Now do you want me to call someone? Because I might have learned first aid from a guy training to be a doctor, but stitches are not my forte.”
Jason shook his head and reached out his unharmed hand. “That’s why I got it,” he said. “I can do it myself.”
“Stitch yourself ?” Percy repeated, incredulous. Jason sighed, snatching the needle from Percy’s hand.
“Yes,” he said insistently. “Do you know how often the rogues decide to take one of Wayne’s kids? Or how often muggers recognize one of us? We all learned how to fix ourselves up in case we had to.”
Percy frowned, but let Jason start to stitch his own knife wound shut. “Is there anything I can do, then?”
“...help me with the bandaging?” Jason asked through grit teeth, staring intently at the work he was doing. Percy nodded.
“I can do that,” he said. As he watched Jason stitching with a precision that he was pretty sure Will would be proud of, his eyes were drawn to the scars that he could see on Jason’s chest. Not a lot was visible, but there were other scars that looked to be from knives, a burn that went down onto his leg, and a straight, raised line down the center of his stomach that vanished under his shirt and looked old. Percy couldn’t help but think of his own scars. Ambrosia’s healing stopped smaller injuries from scarring, thank the gods, but he still had his fair share of marks on his skin. And he didn’t always use ambrosia for smaller injuries, and so his arms did have scars from training, just small white ones. He still had a mark in the center of his chest from where Kronos stabbed him, he knew Annabeth had one from the hit she took for him, and they both had a few scattered burns from Tartarus. He wasn’t going to ask Jason about his scars, knowing that would open the gates for questions about his own scars (he wasn’t even positive Jason had noticed them, but still), but that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious.
Percy helped Jason tie off his stomach, and did the same when Jason was done with his arm, feeling better when the stitches were holding and the bleeding had slowed down. He gently cleaned the new blood off before grabbing the bandages, missing the way that Jason was watching him wipe the blood away with a strangely soft look on his face. Jason let him wrap the bandages around his abdomen tightly, hearing Will’s voice in his head lecturing him to make the bandaging tight, but not too tight, especially around the stomach area. Then he was done, and he looked up at Jason’s face. The other man was looking right at him too, and his eyes seemed tired. Percy couldn’t blame him, it was after midnight and he had just been stabbed. So he sent Jason a small, tense smile.
“Come on,” he said, holding out a hand, “I’ll help get you to bed, you should rest.”
Jason took his hand with his uninjured arm, letting Percy pull him up to his feet. Percy leaned him against himself, even though Jason’s legs were fine, but Jason didn’t seem to have any issues with their positioning and so Percy helped Jason walk into his bedroom, trying to keep from aggravating his stab wound. Jason didn’t even try to change his shirt before sitting down on the edge of his bed and grimacing at the pain. Percy’s side felt cold now that Jason was sitting down.
“Do you need anything for the pain?” Percy asked. Jason shook his head.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “Thanks, Percy.”
“Don’t thank me, I wasn’t going to just let you deal with this on your own,” Percy said as Jason lay back to rest. “If you need anything, just yell and I’ll probably hear you. These walls must be paper thin.”
They weren’t, not really, but how else could Percy explain being able to hear a yell from Jason’s bedroom all the way in his own apartment? Not easily, that’s how. Jason’s eyes had closed, slightly clenched shut from pain, but he nodded at Percy’s words.
Now, Percy wasn’t trying to be creepy. Jason was hurt, and he wasn’t a creep. But Annabeth watched him sleep when she first met him, and there was something to be said about seeing someone you care about relax as they fall asleep. Jason wasn’t asleep, not yet anyway, but Percy didn’t...want to leave. He wasn’t going to stand creepily around Jason’s bed, but Jason was probably fully aware he hadn’t left yet and hadn’t said anything. Percy smiled softly, feeling better now that Jason wasn’t bleeding and would definitely be okay, and turned to leave. He had his own shoulder to let heal, after all.
But as he turned, a hand closed gently around his wrist. He turned back to see Jason’s eyes barely opened, looking through a haze of exhaustion but still managing to be a sharp blue as they met Percy’s.
“Could you...could you stay?” he asked, and Percy felt his heart swell like the crest of a wave. How in the gods' names could he say no? He shifted Jason’s grip on his wrist until their hands were together and squeezed his hand gently.
“Yeah,” he answered quietly. “Of course I will.”
It felt easy to lie down next to Jason, almost natural. And as he started to fall asleep next to him, he refused to think about potentially waking up from nightmares, instead focusing on one far more positive thought.
I could get used to this .
Jason woke up slowly, and he couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t wake up either by an alarm or by a nightmare. He was warm, and actually well-rested, but he couldn’t quite remember why he slept so well. What had happened? Was he in the manor or his apartment? How had patrol ended? He remembered running into Percy early on in his patrol, finally seeing that yes, his neighbor could actually handle being mugged, and then the rest of his patrol was rather quiet. Around quarter of one, he got wind of an attempted abduction, possible trafficking, and had taken on the men attempting to take a young girl. He...he had won, he knew that. For one, he was alive, and two, he remembered knocking the last man’s head against the brick wall and giving the girl a lift all the way to police he actually trusted. Then he...told the others he was headed back to his apartment instead of the manor. But why...oh.
The stab wound. Right. He hadn’t noticed that until he accidentally got blood on the poor girl’s jacket, but he wasn’t worried because he told the girl to only tell Gordon whose blood it was, because he would make sure no one tested it. But he didn’t want to deal with Dick’s mother-henning over a small stabbing, so he went home instead. But he felt...fine.
He cracked his eyes open and froze. That explained why he felt so warm. Percy was curled against his side like he had sought him out in his sleep, his eyes still shut peacefully and his face relaxed. Jason could get used to this. He shouldn’t, because despite his newly realized feelings, he didn’t want to drag Percy into his clusterfuck of a second life. But damn it, Percy Jackson just wouldn’t leave his head. For the past two weeks, he had stopped looking at Percy as a potential threat, thanks to Dick—not that he would ever tell the man that—and yet Percy still wouldn’t stop showing up in his thoughts. And every time he saw his face, especially those eyes, it was like the first time all over again and he felt his breath catch. Jason had seen beautiful people. Hell, one of his best friends was Kori, objectively one of the most beautiful people on Earth. Percy, though, was beautiful in a different way. Almost ethereal. If Jason didn’t know better, he would think that he had seen Percy’s eyes glow on occasion, but he knew that was just a trick of the light. When Jason’s eyes glowed, it was a signal of danger, that he was losing his carefully built defenses against the Lazarus sickness. But with Percy it was just...captivating. Annabeth had the same kind of ethereal beauty about her, but Jason was too wrapped up in Percy.
He took a moment to just look at the boy who had affected him like this. He had never felt like this for someone before. He had gotten crushes before, he was pretty sure. There weren’t too many opportunities for them in his life, and frankly the only reason he figured out he liked guys so soon was because Dick was so open about his own bisexuality, but he thought he remembered having crushes as a kid. This, though. This didn’t feel like that. Maybe it was because Percy became a good friend first, he wasn’t sure, but it was clear that this felt different. It was something else. Percy’s head was close to his shoulder, lying on his second pillow like he belonged there. Jason never thought he would find someone drooling in their sleep anything other than gross—he would know, Dick and Tim both did it—but he just found it amusing that Percy did. Percy’s hair was falling into his face, obscuring part of his features, and Jason reached out to shift it when he frowned slightly.
Part of Percy’s hair, the front bangs predominantly in his face at the moment, was growing in...grey.
Jason reached out to look closer, moving the hair out of Percy’s face and running his fingers through the dark waves. As he did, Percy stirred and cracked his eyes open. A smile tugged at the side of his lips. Jason smiled back, feeling more relaxed than he had in a while. He almost didn’t want to break the silence, but it didn’t feel like breaking it. It felt calm.
“You’ve got grey hairs,” he murmured softly, rubbing the grey roots with his thumb. Percy laughed lightly and grinned up at him.
“Yeah, I got them after walking in on you with a stab wound,” he shot back, shifting to lean his head on Jason’s shoulder. Jason wanted to explain the stab wound—or at least spin a plausible story—so that Percy wouldn’t assume anything or jump to his own conclusions; he wanted to warn Percy that more wounds like that were practically guaranteed in the future. But he couldn’t speak. He just looked at Percy and his fathomless green-blue eyes. The best part was that they weren’t green-blue like Jason’s. Bright sapphire most of the time, but infected with a sickly lazarus green. No, Percy’s were soft, piercing, and as deep as the ocean. They seemed to shift colors like waves too. So Jason didn’t try to speak. He just leaned his head down on top of Percy’s, and ignored the vibrating of his phone that he could feel in his pocket. He was positive it was his brothers, who he knew didn’t fully believe that he wasn’t hurt after patrol. But they could fucking deal. Jason had a cute boy in his bed, and with the amount of times Tim had ignored them because he was hanging out with either of his boyfriends? This was karma.
They lay there in silence, Jason feeling completely at ease. He didn’t even want to head out to the auto shop just for something to do with his hands and to occupy his mind. He didn’t want to move an inch , bar his taking of a leap when he reached out and took Percy’s hand in his own. Jason wasn’t used to this. This...soft thing between them. Not many things in Jason’s life were soft. Even when his family actually decided to show genuine affection, it was rare that it felt this gentle. That’s just what happened in a vigilante family headed by the most emotionally-constipated man alive. And Jason was okay with that, because their family showed affection in different ways (sure, most of them were varying degrees of violent, but things worked differently in the cape community). But something about this felt right. And it was something Jason realized he wouldn’t mind getting used to.
Then an hour later there was a pounding on Jason’s door, and he felt a scowl shatter the peace. He let out a breath through grit teeth, and it was Percy rubbing his thumb gently on the back of his hand that stopped him from leaping out of the bed in a mix of anger and annoyance. He just stayed in the bed and seethed as the knocking continued.
“Would you help me break out of jail if I go murder my brothers?” he asked, glancing over at Percy’s amused face. The brief yet strong flash of annoyance had stroked the edges of the pit rage, but he had shoved it down enough over the years that making jokes about familicide no longer risked him trying to go through with it. But Percy had no idea about his shaky past with life and death—both his and other people’s. So he laughed, not at all put off by the joke.
“Let’s not murder them for being worried, I’m assuming they’re here about the mugging?”
The mugging? Right, that was the excuse that injured-Jason landed on. He sighed. “I didn’t even tell them, they shouldn’t know!”
Percy’s face fell flat. “Go tell them you’re okay! You didn’t tell them you got mugged ? If I didn’t tell Annie about my experience last night, she would be the one murdering me .”
With that, he gently pushed Jason out of the bed, sticking his tongue out when Jason flipped him off and making it very hard for Jason to keep his scowl. Luckily, when he left the bedroom and therefore couldn’t see Percy, the scowl came back. He swung the door open with more force than necessary, dodging Dick’s fist as his next knock came flying towards his face.
“Jaybird!” he exclaimed, sighing in relief. “You never answered our texts, and we know how your voice sounds when you’re injured, we know you got hurt last night! What happened, are you okay now? Do you need any pain meds? Alfred made cookies and had us bring some.”
Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. Normally, the concern would at least be a little welcome, as proof that his family did truly care about his well-being. But today he wasn’t alone in the apartment, and he would very much like to keep that fact a secret from his nosy family.
“I’m fine, Dick. Got lightly stabbed on my way back, but it’s healing fine. Stitched up an’ everything,” he said. “No meds, but I’ll take Alfred’s cookies if it gets you all to leave me alone.”
From his spot next to Dick, Damian crossed his arms. “Did you just wake up?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “It’s unlike you to wake up this late, Todd.”
From the back of the small army outside his door, Cass smiled slyly, and Jason knew that she had figured something out. He rolled his eyes, though, turning back to the menace in front of him.
“I got stabbed , demon brat,” he said. “I slept in, sue me. I’m not the one with the nonexistent sleep schedule.”
“Hey, this isn’t about me,” Tim cut in, before Dick could turn his concern on a different younger brother. “You’re acting awfully twitchy today, Jay.”
Jason glared at him. “Maybe because you all woke me up .”
“So...you were sleeping well, then?” Dick asked, and he at least looked a little sheepish for interrupting a nightmare-less sleep. They didn’t have to know that he was already awake, because they did interrupt something. Jason nodded, and Dick’s smile was genuine. Then again, when were they not?
Jason sighed. “Listen, Dickolas, I’ll be over for dinner tonight anyway. Can you stow the mother-henning until then? I’m barely hurt. You all really didn’t have to trek out here to check on me.”
“As long as you tell us the real reason you don’t want us to stick around,” Tim said, and Jason cursed being in a family of detectives not for the first time. But as long as they didn’t find out while Percy was still here and able to be swarmed by his annoying siblings, that was better than nothing. So he pursed his lips and threw his family a bone.
“At dinner,” he acquiesced. “I’ll tell you at dinner.”
Tim nodded, satisfied, and it only took Jason a few more minutes to practically shove them back down the hallway. As they were going down the stairwell, Dick waving goodbye, Cass turned around and grinned, signing ‘ Tell me about him later’ .
Jason couldn’t help but laugh at that. He wasn’t sure what tipped her off, but he never was with Cass. And he knew she wouldn’t gossip with the rest of the family if he talked with her, so he nodded and she sent him a thumbs up as the door closed behind her. Then he shut his door and leaned his forehead against it with a sigh.
A laugh came from behind him, and he turned to see Percy leaning against the bedroom doorframe, his hair messy from sleeping.
“Why’d you call your brother Dickolas?” he asked, making Jason laugh too. He had believed Percy when he said that he didn’t know Jason was a Wayne, but over the past few weeks, he’d realized just how true it was. When Percy said he didn’t pay attention to celebrities or rich people of any kind, he meant it. And once, when Jason asked why Percy kept asking him things that were easily found on Google, he was given the answer that Percy didn’t want to do research on Jason’s family when he could just ask the man himself. Which...made Jason feel just the tiniest bit bad for his background check of Percy, but it was practically a family policy to check anyone with regular contact with one of them.
“His name is Dick,” Jason answered, “And he can be a real big one sometimes.”
The small snort that entered Percy’s laugh made Jason’s grin widen.
“And I’m guessing the one you tried to turn the conversation onto was Annabeth’s boss? Tim, right?”
“Yeah, you could hear all that?” Jason asked, raising his eyebrows. Percy shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I’ve got good hearing,” he said. “Are they gonna interrogate you tonight?”
Jason groaned, dropping Alfred’s cookies on the counter before sitting down on his couch and subtly shoving his helmet and gear further under the furniture where he had hastily stashed them last night so Percy wouldn’t see. “Absolutely. At least this way they won’t be able to interrogate you too.”
“Ah, my savior,” Percy said, falling onto the couch next to him. “Do they know who I am?”
Jason shrugged. “Dick does, the others I think just know I talk to my neighbor sometimes. Tim probably knows more than he says, though, he always does. Oh, and Cass, my sister, somehow figured out that you being here was why I kicked them out so fast, but she didn’t say anything to the rest of them, so she’ll just corner me later. She might have heard you or something, I’m not sure.”
Percy cocked his head. “I didn’t hear her say anything?”
“She doesn’t talk much. She prefers signing,” Jason explained. Percy nodded. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, before Jason remembered that if his siblings did find Percy to interrogate, they would definitely bring up the stuff in his file. And he didn’t want Percy caught off guard.
He sighed. “So...in the interest of full disclosure,” he started, drawing Percy’s attention, “my siblings will eventually try to find you to interrogate you too. And...we have this policy for our family, that anyone we’re in regular contact with gets a background check done.”
Percy cut him off by holding up his hand and wincing. “Don’t tell me. The Arch thing?”
Jason didn’t have to confirm it, he could tell from Percy’s face that he knew exactly what Jason found. But he said anyway, “The Arch thing, yeah. Only Dick knows about it for now, but it came up...pretty easily.”
Percy groaned. “It’s been six years! They cleared me of all suspicion! Yet still people recognize me as ‘that kid accused of blowing up the arch’. Or, ‘that kid who was kidnapped and then accused of terrorism’.”
“Did you really get in a gunfight on a beach?” Jason asked, intrigued. Percy laughed.
“Yep. Then I used the media attention to simultaneously get home while fucking over my asshole stepfather,” he said proudly. “I claimed he was giving away free appliances.”
“Is that, uh, how you met Annabeth?” he asked, and Percy seemed startled for a moment before relaxing.
“Right, yeah, it would be public that she was kidnapped with me,” he said, “and we actually met briefly before that. But we were taken together, and Grover too. So while it absolutely sucked, at least I had two friends with me.”
He seemed about to continue with the story before he saw a clock and cursed.
“Shit,” he hissed, “I, uh, should probably get going.” He sounded disappointed, which made Jason feel better about his own disappointment. “I’ve got homework I gotta do for tomorrow.”
Jason made sure he wasn’t showing that he wanted Percy to stay, and stood up to walk him the five feet to the door. Let it never be said that Alfred did not make them gentlemen. Damian was a work in progress. When he opened the door for Percy to leave, though, Percy stalled in the doorway. He turned around, nerves evident in his twitching fingers.
“Hey, so…” he trailed off awkwardly. “I’ve been in Gotham for almost two months now, but I’m still not sure where the good places to eat are. Do you have any suggestions?”
Jason felt a grin on his face. He hadn’t been waiting for Percy to make the first move, but now that he had , Jason would gladly take the bait.
“Yeah,” he said, something warm fluttering in his chest, “Yeah, I’ve got some ideas.”
Notes:
ha lmao me? try to write a slowburn? i did my best and my best was five chapters.
Jason, seeing his hot neighbor kick ass in an alleyway while in his vigilante mask: uhh ok shit, how do i not make him suspect its me?
Jason: wait, ive got it
Jason: call him 'kid'these two are idiots, i love them your honor. I hope you enjoyed, see you with the next chapter!!! <3
Chapter 6
Notes:
this chapter is...almost entirely fluff. please enjoy. i would like to say that there is the briefest mention of suicide but its not actually something that happens, just a way of explaining something where the truth is unable to be said. just want everyone to be okay. if youd like to avoid the use of that word entirely, then when it says 'Jason was probably trying to lighten the mood' skip the next paragraph.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“I’m not the only one who’s concerned about this, right?”
“Come on, Timmy, it’s not that weird. I think it’s nice!”
“I, for one, agree with Drake. This is disconcerting.”
“See! Even Damian agrees with me!”
“You both are overreacting, this is something we should be happy about!”
“If he ends up stabbing one of us, I blame you, Dick.”
“Please, he’s not going to stab one of us , not if he’s this happy! He might stab someone else, but that someone else will probably deserve it, so…”
“Todd wouldn’t be smiling like this because of stabbing a criminal. He does that nightly.”
Jason listened to his brothers arguing in the hallway outside the living room, waiting for them to realize that he could hear them, and that their debating was only making his smile wider. Frankly, he understood their surprise. Jason wouldn’t say he never smiled, because he did. Years after the Lazarus, uh, incidents , he and his family were a lot closer, and while he still often pretended he didn’t love them, he knew he was pretending and so did they. So he did smile, and laugh, and he enjoyed being home even if he was glad he didn’t live full-time in the manor anymore. But he did know that this smile was...different.
Fucking sue him, he had a date ! He and Percy had made a date at a restaurant that was nice enough for a date while still being a place he wouldn’t get recognized easily. Their food was damn good too. He had to wait until Wednesday, but he could deal with three boring days in between today and his date . He felt...young. He knew he was barely nineteen, he was still a child in the big scheme of things, but he had always felt like he grew up too fast. With being a street kid, then a child vigilante, then dying, then being a crime lord by seventeen...he never really got the chance to be young . Bruce did his best—Jason could acknowledge that now—but even with a decent father figure and a stable home, Jason had already had to grow up fast long before he lived in the manor. But now...he felt like a child with their first crush. God, Dick would never let him forget that he said that, which was why Dick was never going to know.
“It’s getting worse ! Dick, why is it getting worse!”
“Aww, wait, I think I know what’s going on here!”
“What? Grayson, what could possibly be causing Todd to smile like that?”
“Well...I talked to him a few weeks ago about this but I assumed I was wrong! I think—”
“—Finish that sentence, and I will stab one of you, dickface,” Jason cut in, raising his voice to be heard in the hallway. The three hushed voices went silent immediately. Tim peered around the doorway, eyes wide.
“Make it Dick, he started the conversation!”
“Oh it will be,” Jason assured him, Tim sighing in relief as Dick squawked in offense. “Especially if he was about to tell you all about what I think he was.”
“Oh, come on, Jaybird, am I right?” Dick asked, entering the living room like an excited puppy. “You never mentioned it again so I figured I really was wrong, but am I right?”
Jason wanted to fuck with him and say he was wrong. But he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face even if he tried, and so he sighed and leaned further into the couch.
“You shits wanted to know why I kicked you out of my apartment so quickly, right?” he asked. Tim got a calculating look in his eyes.
“Is this connected to why you’re frighteningly happy right now? Is this an answer that I don’t actually want to hear, because that’s gross, and—”
“—woah, woah, no,” Jason cut him off before he could continue that train of thought. “But yes, it’s connected.” He knew Dick would be insufferable about this, so he muttered the explanation under his breath at first, wanting to put off the cooing and teasing. Sure, he could just leave the room and start fighting anyone who tried to press the answer out of him, but like he’s said before, he felt on top of the world. And weirdly enough, he wanted to tell them. Although it was also influenced by the fact that even if he didn’t tell them, they would find out and they would still stalk his date. There really was no escaping that. “Percy helped me stitch myself up last night, he kind of stayed the night, and now I have a date.”
Dick cocked his head, his eyes narrowed in confusion, but a smug smile started to edge onto his face. “Sorry, Little Wing, I didn’t catch that. What happened?”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Alright, fine. Percy found me bleeding last night, helped me stitch it up, maybe spent the night in my apartment, and now I have a date. Happy?”
Dick’s smile was literally splitting his face. Tim looked surprised, but in a pleased way, and Damian was just slightly less disinterested than he was a few seconds ago.
“Who’s Percy?” Tim asked, looking like he was itching for his computer. “Why have we never heard of him?”
“Because I don’t tell you assholes everything?” Jason answered. “Percy is my neighbor across the hall. And I already did a background check, runt, so don’t get your panties in a twist.”
“Yeah, you did a background check because you thought—”
“—Nuh uh, nope, I want him to find it on his own,” Jason cut Dick off. “Just wait to do your own check until after Wednesday, okay? It’ll be funnier that way.”
Tim’s eyes narrowed. “This feels like a trap.”
Jason grinned. “Now why would you say that? I just think that it would be in everyone’s best interests if you stalkers didn’t do a background check before spying on my date.”
“Well it’s no fun if you know we’re gonna do it,” Dick pouted. Jason rolled his eyes.
“Sorry, was I supposed to think this family would have a healthy understanding of boundaries and privacy, or was I supposed to be smart?”
“He has a point, Dick,” Tim sighed. “Fine, whatever, I’ll take this obvious trap.”
“Dinner will be served in ten minutes,” Alfred said, popping briefly into the room before leaving, presumably to find Bruce. Before he left, though, he smiled at Jason and said, “congratulations on the date, Master Jason. I’m glad it’s making you this happy.”
After he left, Jason blinked and shook his head. “He knows everything .”
“Did you expect him not to?” Damian spoke up after spending the entire conversation examining Jason intently. “While this has been fascinating, I need to go if I am to feed Gladys before dinner.”
Like a switch was flipped, Tim scowled worse than anything he had ever shot at one of the others. Jason’s eyebrows raised.
“Why don’t you feed her to something, that sounds like a better use of your time,” Tim grumbled, making even Dick blink in shock at the vitriol in the younger boy’s voice.
“Woah there, little bird, what did Gladys do?” Dick asked.
“Yeah, and who the fuck is Gladys?” Jason added.
“ Gladys ,” Tim said, the name dripping with sarcasm, “is Damian’s newest pet , if you can call that monster a pet. And what hasn’t she done! She hates me!”
“Grow up, Drake, she doesn’t hate you,” Damian rolled his eyes.
“Like hell she doesn’t!” Tim argued, standing up out of his chair to have the height advantage over Damian. “She’s tried to kill me!”
“She is physically incapable of killing you,” Damian spoke like he was explaining to a toddler, “and I highly doubt she has the desire to. Considering you are in a room with two people who have felt that desire, and have acted on it far more than Gladys, I find your hatred of her amusing.”
“Feeling the love, demon spawn,” Jason muttered, not entirely liking when he was reminded of what he had tried to do. Jokes about it were one thing. Outright stating he had almost murdered Tim? A bit different. Tim didn’t even flinch at the reminder, though, too incensed over whatever newest stray Damian had collected.
“‘Incapable’ my ass! You said she stays in your room at night, but I woke up and she was just sitting on my fucking floor, staring at me!” Tim’s eyes were wide as he grew nearly hysterical. “She is plotting my murder !”
“Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Dick cut in, standing up and putting a hand on Tim’s shoulder. “Damian, go ahead and feed Gladys, but make sure she can’t get out of your room. We aren’t going to make you get rid of her, but if we can keep her away from Tim, that would be great. Jay, you’re off the hook for now, but I do expect details about how this date came to be.”
All three of them sighed in unison before acquiescing to Dick’s demands. Tim slumped back down in his seat like his strings were cut, crossing his arms with a huff. Damian was clearly not happy with having to sequester his new pet in his room when his others were allowed to roam mostly at will. And Jason, well, he wasn’t looking forward to the excited interrogation coming his way. But they separated for now, Damian starting to make his way out of the room as Dick started going to help set the table for dinner. When Damian was at the threshold of the room, he turned back and met Jason’s eyes.
“You look happy, akhi . If this ‘Percy’ ruins that, I will remove his spine from his body, because he clearly would not deserve one.”
Then he was gone, before Jason could even consider responding. He was just left staring at the door, as stunned and baffled as he was every time he heard that word come from Damian in reference to him. Tim was shocked too, before his eyes narrowed.
“Every time he calls you that, he follows through on whatever else he says,” he said. “You might want to warn Percy.”
But Jason, in a combination of his previous childlike glee of a first date and the rush of Damian calling him akhi , could not give less of a shit about his tough-guy, see-my-emotions-and-I’ll-kill-you, Red Hood demeanor. So that same genuine, soft smile was back on his face.
“I don’t think I’ll need to do that.”
“Annabeth help me! Blue or green! Or black? Wait, didn't Piper say I’d look good in a brown jacket?” Percy rambled to the Iris Message that had just barely connected next to his closet. “She made me buy one, it doesn’t look too fancy, should I wear that? Should I go fancy? He didn’t say it was fancy. Annie, what if it’s fancy?”
“Percy, for the love of—” Annabeth cut herself off as she interrupted him, but it wasn’t with exasperation, it was because she couldn’t stop laughing. “I haven’t seen you this worked up over what to wear since you tried to make a ‘first impression’ on Estelle and she was literally a newborn. Do you really think Jason gives a shit about you dressing nice enough for a venue?”
Percy let out a breath. “...no. Not at all, actually. He’d probably think it was funny if I wore something completely casual to a fancy restaurant.”
“Exactly. And he told you about this place, it’s not super fancy. It’s just a restaurant. If you stress much more about this, the few brain cells you have left are gonna turn into kelp,” Annabeth said, her words firm but gentle. “Now as for colors, since we’re going casual, I’m not sure the jacket Piper got you goes. I’d go green, you seem confident in green in a different way than when you wear blue. Do a black t-shirt with that dark green button-up you have on top, but don’t button it.”
“Am I gonna have to start calling you Beauty Queen?” Percy teased as he pulled out what she was directing him towards. Annabeth rolled her eyes.
“Try it and see what happens,” she shot back. “I’m just helping you so I have something to use to guilt you into doing my hair the next time I can plan a date with Rachel.”
“Like you need to guilt me into that,” Percy said, checking himself in the mirror. “Hey, this looks good, thanks Annabeth.”
“Did you doubt me?”
“Never,” Percy grinned at her, something just a bit too serious behind their words. But the moment passed before they could get caught in memories, and Annabeth just sent him a fond smile as she leaned on her kitchen counter.
“You should head out if you want to be there on time, Seaweed Brain,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be watching in case anything happens. I know we’ve barely run into monsters, but just in case, I’ll keep an eye out so nothing interrupts.”
“You’re the best, Wise Girl.”
“I know I am. Tell Jason I say hi, and have a good time. I’m happy for you.”
With short goodbyes, knowing that Percy would most likely be calling her again after the date to talk about it, Annabeth cut off the Iris Message, which prompted Percy to actually get going. He didn’t want to be late for his first date. He was worried about dating a mortal, and one who had no idea about his world right now—hopefully someday, though. But before he could worry about telling Jason anything about his large extended family, he had to get to know him better. See how serious this would turn out to be. He really liked Jason, and he wanted this to turn pretty serious, but this was the first date. He couldn’t get ahead of himself that fast.
Then he walked up to the restaurant and saw Jason wearing a dark red shirt with a black leather jacket that Percy had never seen him wear before. His hair was brushed but still untamed, the white streak falling into his eyes right above a small scar on his eyebrow. Percy blinked and realized—oh. He was already very ahead of himself. He hoped his face wasn’t slightly pink as he approached Jason and made his presence known. Jason looked up from his phone and seemed to pause slightly before smiling.
“Hey, Percy,” he said, slipping his phone into the pocket of his jacket. “You, uh, you look good.”
“You too,” Percy said, his eyes catching again on the jacket. “Is that new?”
J ason followed his eyes and laughed. “Oh, no, I’ve had this for a while. I was gonna wear my usual one, but Dick stole it so I would have to wear a nicer one. He said something about my brown one having a faint bloodstain on it, which is a fucking lie.”
“I don’t know, I might agree with your brother on that,” Percy said, grinning, “there was a part of the sleeve that seemed a bit discolored.”
“That wasn’t blood , it was oil!” Jason protested, rolling his eyes. “Maybe you’ve gotten too used to Gotham if you can make jokes like that so casually.”
Percy laughed, “I have a friend who literally does that ‘clean under your nails with a dagger’ thing, completely unironically, and she has accidentally cut me with it before. Bloodstained clothes aren’t anything new to me.”
Thalia was always apologetic when she accidentally stabbed Percy—keyword being ‘accidentally’. If it was on purpose, she just flipped him off with a laugh.
Jason shook his head. “Your friends are fucking weird .”
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Percy said gleefully as he followed Jason into the restaurant. His friends were incredibly weird and he loved them for it. Weird personality traits were practically normal when it came to demigods, and he sometimes forgot how bizarre they were to actual normal people. “This same friend tried to get me struck by lightning once. It didn’t work , but she tried.”
Now that was a lie. The fact that it didn’t work, that is. And she didn’t so much try to get him hit by lightning as much as she shocked him with her own lightning, but it’s basically the same thing.
“Is she actually your friend or does she just hate you? Because I seriously think you might want to check if she hates you,” Jason asked as they were led to their table, but he was grinning, and so Percy knew he wasn’t actually put off by Percy’s weird stories.
“Well...to be completely honest, the lightning thing happened when she did hate me,” Percy admitted. “But she doesn’t hate me now! We’re very good friends. The accidental stabbing is totally friendly.”
“And here I was thinking you might think my family is too weird,” Jason said. Percy just shrugged.
“I’m pretty used to weird. Although I am pretty interested in how weird your family must be for you to be worried about that,” he said, grinning, “since you haven’t told me much about them.”
“And you’re better off for that,” Jason shot back. Percy saw him glance out the window, and brushed off his flash of a scowl as just a reaction to light getting in his eyes. What else could he be scowling at?
(On the rooftop across the way, Red Robin sent a middle finger back towards the restaurant, even though Jason had already turned away again. He was immediately scolded by Nightwing, and he was in the middle of retorting when he saw a flash of blonde hair in an alley by the restaurant. None of his siblings recognized the young woman, but he did. What was his personal intern doing here? And why was she hiding in an alleyway?)
(In the alley, Annabeth kept a hand on her knife and a sharp eye on her surroundings. No monster was interrupting her best friend’s first date. She spotted a flash of color on a rooftop and realized that for some reason, Gotham’s vigilantes were hanging out across from the very same restaurant she was watching. Why were they there and not patrolling? She frowned slightly. And where was Red Hood?)
The conversation between Percy and Jason was easy as they ordered their food and waited. It was a mix of casual talk, merciless ribbing of each other, and mutual uncertainty of how a first date should go. Percy had only ever been on a date with Annabeth before, and their first date had included killing a Lastrygonian together before going to get burgers while still covered in gold monster dust. So...not exactly a good reference. It was only a few minutes before Percy had an idea.
“How’s this for a conversation starter,” he said, leaning slightly on the table because his mom wasn’t here to scold him for having his elbows on the table, “what was your first impression of me?”
His eyebrows raised expectantly as Jason huffed in amusement.
“Really?” he asked. “We’re doing icebreakers now?”
“Oh, c’mon, it’ll be fun! Obviously I know you like me, we are on a date right now, but I wanna know what you thought when we first met,” Percy pushed, already thinking of what his own answer would be once Jason flipped the question onto him. Jason rolled his eyes, but thought for a moment before answering.
“Do you want the honest answer or the better answer for a date?”
“Always a fun clarification to make,” Percy deadpanned. “How about both?”
“Well...the better answer for a date is that I felt weirdly comfortable around you from the start, which never happens, and that I spent longer than I care to admit trying to pin down a color for your eyes. The honest answer is that I couldn’t decide if you were a spy under deep cover and everything you were saying was a lie, or if you were an idiot,” Jason said bluntly, a grin twitching as his lips as Percy blinked. “I’m serious. You said you were here for school, but you were moving into the Narrows, and you brushed off every warning I tried to give you about Gotham. The only explanations I could think of were either that you were so oblivious you didn’t even notice Gotham was dangerous, or you were trying way too hard to seem normal. That and...you’ve got those small scars on your hands. They look like scars from fighting. Now I know you’re just weird, but when we first met? I was making bets with myself on if you were an airhead or not.”
Percy couldn’t hold it any longer and started laughing. “Holy shit , please never tell my friends you thought I was a spy, they would never let it go. I could never be a spy, for so many reasons. They’ll totally agree with you that I’m an idiot, but they also know I’m not, so it’s all in good fun.”
“And what are these reasons?” Jason asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Well, for one, I have a bit of an... issue with authority. I know you’ve seen my file, you’ve seen some of the stuff I’ve said to teachers,” Percy answered. “It does not stop at teachers. I do not like authority figures and they don’t like me. People love to remind me that I have been an authority figure to kids before at a summer camp, and I hate it every time. Second, this face has already been plastered all across the country. I’ve told you I still get recognized. It’s gotten less often, thankfully, but some people just will not let that go. I was incredibly honored to have my own Buzzfeed Unsolved episode, but it did not help.”
“Trust me, I get that. My brothers like to quote my Unsolved video to annoy me,” Jason said, shaking his head. “And actually, both of those reasons were why I ended up being confident you weren’t under a deep cover, and both of those I found out doing my background check. Congrats, Percy, you’d be a shitty spy. Now I answered your dumb icebreaker, so it’s your turn.”
“Hey, it’s not dumb!” Percy defended. “It’s a perfectly valid conversation starter considering neither of us know what we’re doing right now. And frankly, my first impression isn’t as funny as yours. I thought ‘wow, finally someone in Gotham who is gonna see me struggling with these stupid boxes and actually help me instead of walking past me’. Then I stopped being pissed at my own packing job, actually started talking to you and actually looked at you and thought ‘shit, he could probably bench press me’.” Percy grinned at the slight flush that appeared on Jason’s cheekbones. “Admittedly, I was too busy being happy that my new neighbor wasn’t an old creep or an asshole to notice that you were pretty, but it didn’t take me too long to realize.”
He noticed that Jason had nearly choked on his drink and cocked his head in concern. Jason looked at him in slight disbelief, his bright blue eyes tinged with something that was either confusion or fondness, Percy couldn’t really tell.
“I—sorry, did you call me pretty ?” Jason asked, and Percy frowned slightly.
“Yes? Sorry, do you not feel comfortable with that? I can—”
“—No, no, I…” Jason hesitated, “I don’t mind it. I just...don’t get why.”
“Why I’d call you pretty?” Percy asked. Jason nodded, and Percy felt something ache. “Because you are . You have to know you’re good-looking, right?”
“Yeah, but…” Jason seemed uncomfortable with how serious the conversation had turned, but he also didn’t look like he wanted Percy to change the subject. Which was good, because Percy wanted to know why Jason didn’t think he was attractive. But as Jason continued, Percy realized that the problem might be a little different. “I’ve gotten ‘handsome’ and ‘attractive’ and sometimes ‘hot’. But that’s it. Scars like mine aren’t usually considered... pretty .”
Percy took a moment to look at the scars in question. They were noticeable, that was for sure, but Percy genuinely forgot sometimes that mortals were put off by visible scars. Usually the only demigods who didn’t have scars were new to camp, and it was a point of pride to get your first cool scar. Not to mention, Percy knew Clarisse, who seemed to make it a point to try and get as many badass scars as she could. He got used to them pretty fast. Jason had a cut through one eyebrow, one through his lip, and one down his chin. There were a few smaller scars clustered close together by his left temple, and while it wasn’t a scar, it was clear his nose had been broken at least once. Percy wasn’t sure what had happened to give Jason all these scars, but he wasn’t about to let Jason think that he would be scared off by a few sharp white lines on his skin.
“Scars don’t scare me, Jason,” he said, trying to seem casual as he ate and talked at the same time. He didn’t want to make this a big deal, but it still started to feel like it. “It’s the stories behind them that scare me, sometimes. Bad looking scars can come from funny stories, and sometimes the worst stories don’t leave scars at all. I have a friend, his name is actually Jason too, and he has this scar on his lip that he never wanted to talk about. It wasn’t big , but it was hard to not notice. We all assumed he got it in...not great circumstances, since his mom wasn’t the best. Then his older sister comes back into his life, takes one look at the scar, and announces to all of us that he got it when he tried to eat a stapler when he was two.”
Percy felt a smile tug at his face when Jason couldn’t help but laugh. “And even when we thought the scar was a bad thing, it never changed the fact that Jason was like our own personal Superman, willing to help anyone with anything.” His face dropped suddenly when he thought of another person with another scar, one that he thought could never bother him. “But that doesn’t mean scars can’t be scary. I’m not trying to say that they mean nothing, because that seems like invalidating whatever trauma made them in the first place. But...it’s all up to the person. There was someone else, his name...his name was Luke. He was nineteen when I was twelve, and he was so nice . He had a nasty scar going from under his eye down through his lip, but it could never bother anyone because Luke was always smiling anyway, and it was just a part of his face. Luke...I looked up to him, and while I noticed his scar immediately when we first met, something in his eyes told me that I would never be afraid of him.”
Jason was watching Percy intently, and Percy almost didn’t want to continue. But the next part was the most important. It was also the part that he was most unsure about telling a mortal, but a part of him wanted to continue anyway. Something told him that a native Gothamite wouldn’t be as put off as, say, literally anyone else.
“And then he tried to kill me,” Percy said softly, seeing Jason’s eyes widen and his hand still with his fork in midair. Before he could get asked questions, Percy continued. He wasn’t expecting to think about Luke tonight, and now he wanted to get it over with. “He was being manipulated, and coerced, and was definitely afraid of the person he was following, the person he had gotten drawn in by. But he still made choices on his own, and those choices... they scared me. He was a victim as much as he was a villain, but he still tried to hurt me, and whenever I saw him next, I was scared of what he would do. The scar was still just a part of his face. His scar didn’t make him intimidating, he did that all on his own. It’s the same for you, Jason. You could totally be intimidating or scary if you wanted to be, but it’s not the scars that do it. They’re just a part of you now. And I think they’re pretty.”
Jason didn’t seem to know what to say for a bit. He just looked at Percy like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. Eventually he just opened his mouth and said, “thank you.”
Percy smiled. “Does this mean I can keep calling you pretty? Because sure, words like ‘handsome’ and all that are completely accurate, but I’ve always been partial to ‘pretty’ and ‘gorgeous’ myself.”
Jason rolled his eyes like that would make the red rising in his cheeks go unnoticed. “Yeah, whatever. Hey, so, uh, what happened to this Luke guy? Where is he now? I just want to talk.”
Jason probably meant to lighten the mood, and Percy appreciated that. But he just swallowed and couldn’t take the frown off his face.
“He’s, uh, he’s dead,” Percy said, trying to shrug it off. Over two years later, though, he could still remember every detail of that final fight on Olympus. “Suicide.”
The word left a sour taste in his mouth, but how else would a mortal see it? He couldn’t exactly say that Luke killed himself in order to kill the titan in his body, and Percy really didn’t want to say that Luke saved his life because he’d already implied his life was threatened once, and he didn’t need to raise that number. Jason already knew about his kidnapping, he couldn’t be too honest about how dangerous his life has been. It was too suspicious, and Percy knew Jason was a curious guy. He cut in before Jason could say anything else.
“You can ask me about Luke, if you want, as long as it’s not tonight so we don’t ruin the mood even more,” Percy offered, trying not to glance over to the wall of the restaurant that he knew was separating Annabeth from him. He wondered if she could hear what he was saying. He hoped not. “Just, do one thing for me, and don’t ask about him around Annabeth? She can handle it, I know she can, but she shouldn’t have to, and she was...much closer to him than I was. He was practically her big brother, and it hurt her a lot. Still does, I think, but we don’t tend to talk about it.”
“Yeah, of course,” Jason agreed, his fingers twitching slightly like he wanted to reach out to Percy. Percy wouldn’t mind if he did. “Don’t take this the wrong way, please, because I’m really not the type of guy to get worked up over this, I’m just genuinely curious, but did you and Annabeth date?”
Percy laughed slightly, a smile spreading gently on his face as his thoughts finally shifted to much happier memories. He believed Jason when he said he was genuinely curious, he didn’t seem like the type to think that guys and girls couldn't be exes and best friends, or that Percy would cheat. Because gods, he could never. Literally. His fatal flaw was loyalty , how could he ever cheat? So he let his expression turn fond; he really did enjoy the time that he and Annabeth were dating, even if it was for the best that it ended.
“For a bit, yeah,” he answered. “It took me forever to realize I liked her, and by the time we got together at sixteen, we were best friends first and dating second. Then, well, I’m sure you saw the report my mom filed around that time?”
“Yeah,” Jason said, frowning. “No offense, but a lot of bad shit seems to happen to you.”
Percy laughed. “Oh for sure, my luck is abysmal. Anyway, it ended up being that I was missing longer than we had been dating, so those feelings just kinda faded while she was looking for me. I still love her, just...differently. She’s way more than my best friend, there’s just no real word to describe it. It’s not romantic, but it’s stronger than friendship. I’d do basically anything for her.”
“I get it,” Jason said, nodding, “‘best friend’ isn’t a strong enough label for how close you guys are. That sounds nice.”
(The eavesdropping birds across the way stopped staring suspiciously at the young woman still crouching silent in the alleyway. They knew why she was there now. She knew Jason’s date, and was likely just as protective over him as he seemed to be for her. Red Robin especially felt himself relax. He would hate to have to be suspicious of the best intern he’s ever seen at the company.)
Dinner passed in easy conversation and childhood stories. Turns out, Jason and Percy had another thing in common.
“You pushed her into a fountain?” Jason asked with a laugh. Percy held his hands up in defense.
“There’s no proof I did such a thing! Personally, I saw her trip backwards into the fountain, no pushing involved,” he said, the shit-eating grin making his words even less believable.
“Sure you did,” Jason agreed sarcastically, his own grin almost matching Percy’s. “And I never broke another kid’s nose at least once every two months.”
Percy had gotten roped into talking about his awful school track record, and the wild stories that always ended in his expulsion. Jason had reciprocated by admitting to Percy that he was a bit of a fighter in school himself—with the valid justification of being a former ‘street rat’ (his words) now going to a rich kid school and dealing with the assholery of said rich kids. So Percy immediately thought of Yancy Academy, the last school year before he knew why trouble was attracted to him like a magnet. He still got a little mad when he remembered helping Grover get peanut butter out of his hair (he would never be allowed to help with washing it out, and he always chalked it up to Grover being embarrassed. Now he knew it was the horns).
Percy shrugged. “I’m sure those kids deserved it. All Nancy did was repeatedly drop her sandwich in my best friend's hair and call us poor, along with other names, which certainly doesn’t deserve being pushed into a fountain—therefore, why would I push her?”
He liked that Jason didn’t judge him. More than that, he got it. He understood being labelled a problem student, and sometimes having to lean into that by fighting back just to make the other students back off a bit. He had his fair share of fight stories, and he seemed to get more comfortable sharing them the more Percy talked about his own shitty school experiences.
“This was the same year you claimed your teacher attacked you, right?” Jason asked. Did Percy think it was a little weird that Jason knew so much about him already—albeit knowing things that really weren’t fundamental to Percy as a person—through a background check? Yeah, he did. He knew his life was weird, and the fact that Jason had seen that part of it before really getting to know Percy was a bit weird. But Jason had seen the Arch Incident and still wanted to date him, and it was totally understandable that he’d do a background check given his family. So he just laughed.
“Man, how much shit comes up when you background check me?” he asked, no real annoyance in his voice. If he was famous at all, he’d probably be worried about people getting close to him too. Hell, Percy was just as paranoid about people tricking him, but monsters tended to not play long cons unless something big was happening, and Jason didn’t have any signs of a hidden demigod. “But yeah, Mrs. Dodds. Who then somehow fucking vanished. Terrible teacher, zero out of ten, accused me of being a thief and tried to attack me.”
“To be fair, the main thing that comes up searching you is the arch thing,” Jason said, grinning. “And do you just have an aura that makes people want to fight you? It seems to happen way too often.”
Well...technically yes . He smelled very good to monsters, which was still weird to think about. Years later, and he sometimes still had to sit for a moment to think about the fact that there were creatures who wanted to eat him. But he just leaned further onto the table and raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t know,” he said, “do you want to fight me?”
Then he leaned back and shook his head. “Also, what were your family’s reactions to my alleged terrorism?”
(Across the street, Red Robin choked on his coffee and Robin’s head whipped around so hard his neck almost made a sound. Nightwing was just watching the younger vigilantes with hidden amusement.)
Jason laughed. “I managed to get Tim to hold off on his background check, so they don’t actually know yet. He’s probably doing that right now, though, since I just made him wait ‘til Wednesday.”
“Well, as long as he doesn’t think I’m guilty and call Batman on me.” Percy shrugged. Jason’s grin turned wry.
“Scared of the Bat? What, are you gonna blow up another iconic building? I vote for Lex Luthor's building, I don’t think the Bat would object to that one.”
“Jason, he’s Batman ,” Percy emphasized. “No matter how much Luthor's building is a worthy target for my hypothetical alleged terrorism, I don’t want to get the Dark Knight knocking on my door. Or, window probably.”
“What about one of the other vigilantes?” Jason asked, his eyes curious. “I think the Red Hood would probably help you instead of stop you.”
“You know, you’re probably right,” Percy agreed, “and if this was at all a serious conversation, I would totally accept his help. But I think if the waiter heard us talking about this, he might not realize it’s all bullshit. I think one terrorism accusation is enough for one lifetime.”
It was a miracle no one had managed to pin the Mount Saint Helens explosion on him too, that just would have been way too much. Mostly because that actually was his fault. He wondered briefly if Jason— his Jason, not the one across from him—had ever done something like that by accident. He already knew Nico could be damn scary sometimes if he wanted to be, but he’d never heard any stories of Jason’s powers going haywire like the volcano incident. Maybe it was just a Percy thing, that would be just his luck.
“Seriously, though,” Jason said, cocking his head, “I’m always curious about what non-Gothamites think about the vigilantes. What’s your impression?”
Ah, well, I’m trying to make sure they don’t know I exist because I’m planning a technical crime. It’s going terribly so far, and I’m anticipating having to fight them at some point in the next few weeks/hopefully not months . So all in all, I respect them greatly and am positive they would hate me . Yeah, Percy thought that would go over great. He wondered what Jason would think if the Batman himself tried to arrest him. He probably wouldn’t want to talk to Percy again. But Jason wasn’t asking about any of that, and didn’t need to know it. Percy thought back to Annabeth’s lectures about the vigilantes and remembered hearing a few younger campers who had been hanging around chime in with their own opinions. He grinned slyly.
He could have some fun with this.
Notes:
pretty jason rights!! he deserves it. and lmao im in the same boat as percy bc i also didnt expect luke to show up in this chapter until he decided to shove himself into it. I have very complicated feelings about Luke, and i feel like so do percy and annabeth. dont worry tho he probably wont be talked about a lot in this fic, it just felt right to bring him up in his chapter.
anyway, hope you all enjoyed, and ill see you next time for the second half of the first date :)!
Chapter 7
Notes:
this is somehow even more fluff than the last chapter :) date pt. 2! enjoy
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Well? Who’s your favorite?”
“Jason, I live in the Narrows.”
“...and?”
“Are you kidding me? Red Hood, obviously. The Narrows love the guy.”
“Wait, really? They do?”
Percy blinked. “Uh, yeah, Jay. I’ve been there for two months and it’s been very obvious. How long have you lived there now?”
“A bit over a year?”
“Over a year and you haven’t realized that the Narrows have a huge soft spot for the guy who takes care of the rampant dickbags who try to stay there?”
Jason seemed sheepish, but also...faintly fond? There was something in his eyes that Percy couldn’t pick up on clearly. “I guess not. So is that why you like him, then?”
Percy shrugged. “It helped. I just kept hearing people talking about being saved by him, and it doesn’t seem like the normal people in the Narrows are scared of him like some of the rest of Gotham is. They know that if you aren’t a criminal, he won’t hurt you. Someone has to care about the darker parts of Gotham, and frankly if he wants to break a few extra bones when stopping a rapist? I don’t blame him at all.”
“Huh,” Jason said, an odd smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “That’s a good way of thinking about it, I think. I think he does care about the, uh, ‘darker parts’ as you put it.”
“He seems like a good guy,” Percy said. Yes, he knew about the Red Hood’s past. The whole drug lord/murderer/crime lord thing. But for one, Batman cleared him of all murder charges himself, which meant that something was up behind the scenes. Two, there seemed to have been a real change between the Red Hood of around two years ago and the one of now. Three, he really did have no problem with a bit of extra violence towards rapists and traffickers and drug dealers targeting kids, which seemed to bear the brunt of the Hood’s fists. And, uh, four? With his family history, he really had no leg to stand on when it came to necessary versus unnecessary violence. Hood seemed to target bad guys, so that was pretty fine in Percy’s book. He didn’t want to talk about the one time he spoke to Red Hood, though, because he didn’t quite trust himself to not let slip that he didn’t need or want the vigilante’s help, so he changed the subject. “I think Annabeth likes Red Robin the best.”
“Really?” Jason quirked an eyebrow, curious.
“Yeah, something about his fighting style? I’m not sure, she was talking about it while I was packing to move here and usually I listen to her instead of any other work, but I was already way behind on packing,” Percy said. “And we’ve made an oath on our own graves to never show one of our friends any of Nightwing’s old costumes because she will come all the way to Gotham, stake out on a rooftop, and yell at him about them.”
Jason tried to hold in a snort of laughter, and failed miserably. “Holy shit, I would pay so much money to see that.”
Percy shook his head. “Oh, it would be hilarious, but we made the oath for Piper, not for Nightwing. She would shout herself hoarse, and she needs her voice to keep a bunch of rambunctious children and hyperactive teenagers in line all day. I can’t let her put herself through that, not if I call myself her friend.”
Jason was still laughing, leaning back in his chair. “God, Nightwing deserves it, though. For those old outfits?”
Percy cracked a smile. “As for the others...Black Bat seems cool, she reminds me of a friend of mine just because of the all-black thing. To be honest, I didn’t know about her until I moved here. Annabeth gave me a whole briefing on the vigilantes so I would know who was who and not embarrass myself, and even she didn’t know about Black Bat. I teased her for a whole day about that.”
“Yeah, Black Bat tends to stay in the shadows, often literally,” Jason said, shrugging.
“As for Robin, I know a whole bunch of young kids who would jump at the chance to meet him. And probably immediately ask him to teach them how to fight,” Percy said. “I mean, personally I just want to invite the kid to dinner and make sure he’s eating properly, but that’s just me channeling my mom’s energy. I know Piper nearly cried when she saw the colors of his suit, but I think it looks cute.”
Jason was grinning so widely it looked like it hurt, and he might have had tears in his eyes. “ Cute ? Did you just call Robin cute ? The kid wields a katana and is not afraid to use it. Most new Gothamites are horrified by how young he is, and you’re calling him cute ?”
Percy hesitated. “I mean, don’t get me wrong here, I think he should definitely be staying up late playing video games instead of fighting criminals twice his size, and I don’t even know the kid and I’m still terrified of him getting hurt, but also...he’s what, twelve? He’s twelve, and clearly knows how to use that sword very well. Twelve-year-olds are vicious on their own , add in a weapon and the training to use it? I feel bad for Robin’s enemies. On one hand, I was a tween once, and on the other, a decent amount of these small scars on my arms are from particularly precocious children. A criminal knows no fear until he sees a small child who knows how to use a sword.”
There was silence for a moment, before Percy looked up from his dessert.
Now it was Percy’s turn to nearly start crying with laughter. Jason just looked so concerned . He knew this would be fun. Was it probably not the best idea to freak Jason out like this and bring camp into it at all? Sure, yeah, most likely. But Percy was running out of weird friend anecdotes! That was a lie, of course he had hundreds, but this was funnier.
“Percy,” Jason started, his voice measured. “Why are you fighting children ?”
Percy laughed and leaned forward. “Do you know how much I don’t want to explain right now? Your face is hilarious.”
He let a beat pass before shaking his head. “Listen, what do you expect to happen when you give kids the chance to pick the next activity to be added to a summer camp roster, and swordfighting is on the list? The kids pick swordfighting, obviously. I’m a counselor at the camp, I help teach the kids. And when you put a sword in the hands of anyone younger than maybe seventeen, fake sword or not, all bets are off and it’s a free for all. And that’s not saying the older teens are better, just that they’re less likely to start hitting each other with the swords when they’re not supposed to and I’m still looking at them. The older ones at least wait until I’m not looking.” That being said, ‘when they’re not supposed to’ only counted if Percy was actively teaching. Otherwise, random spars were valid and encouraged. Gods, the thought of trying to stop the Ares cabin from randomly fighting each other? That’s like locking the Hephaestus cabin out of the forge. Jason just blinked.
“Sorry, you swordfight ?”
Percy grinned. “Yep. Not with katanas, which is why a lot of the kids would love lessons from Robin. But I like to think I’m pretty good.”
“So do you have a sword? Like, a real one?”
“Not with me, but yeah,” Percy answered, lying. The pen was in his pocket, like always. “It’s at camp. It’s named Riptide, and it’s modeled after ancient Greek swords.”
“Where the hell did you learn to fight with ancient swords?” Jason asked, his eyes still slightly widened. He seemed to have calmed down though, since it was clear Percy was not beating up children.
“I never said that this group of kids was the one to pick swordfighting,” he said cheekily. “It’s been a thing for years, I just got good enough to help teach it.”
That, and the fact that kids would literally deck each other for the chance to learn from one of the Seven of the Prophecy, especially the Savior of Olympus. He couldn’t get out of teaching them if he wanted to, which he didn’t. He was proud of all those little gremlins, and happy to help them protect themselves, even if he wished he could keep them out of danger. That was unfortunately impossible for him to do, not with demigod children.
“You might want to keep any trace of your sword away from my youngest brother, or you might not see it again,” Jason warned. “He’s got a thing for swords too, thanks to Robin.”
“If he can manage to take it from me, he can have it,” Percy challenged, shrugging. In six years, Riptide had never left his side for longer than a few minutes. If Jason’s brother managed to keep it from manifesting back in his pocket? Well, that meant Riptide liked him better, and who was Percy to argue with the sword? If he wanted to argue with a sword, he’d call Annabeth’s cousin and say that ABBA was overrated. He’d just negotiate visitation rights and maybe steal it back to see if it really did switch owners. He doubted Jason’s brother could keep the sword, though, which was the only reason he made the casual challenge. Jason shook his head.
“Your funeral,” he said. Percy held in a laugh. Been there, done that , he thought. Morbid jokes were one thing, discussions of his own funeral were different. But as they relaxed again and Jason dropped the ‘my father is a billionaire’ thing to get Percy to let him pay, Percy was glad he had brought up camp and some of the other weird things about him. Because he could see this going somewhere. He could see Jason meeting his friends, he could see himself inviting Jason into camp and showing off his second home. And Jason was rolling with every weird punch. There was still a large leap between ‘my friends are fucking weird and I can swordfight’ and ‘my father is a literal god’, but he could see them getting there. Hopefully. Just with a little more time to get used to each other and for Percy to be absolutely sure he could trust Jason with that secret—that even if something happened and they broke up, his family would be safe.
But he pushed that aside for now. He had time. And right now, he just wanted to focus on the fact that his miraculously uninterrupted first date had gone pretty well, if he did say so himself.
He reached out and grabbed Jason’s hand as they left the restaurant, giving him a small smile when he looked over. He didn’t see Annabeth down the alley, but she was good at hiding. So he stopped looking and just followed where Jason was walking. He wanted to wait to tell Jason his story, wait until he was positive , but there was a small part of him that just wanted to say it.
Because with everything feeling warm after dinner, Percy wanted to see Jason’s face when he dragged him to the bottom of the lake and showed him what it was like to kiss underwater.
“He looks really happy,” Tim muttered, watching Jason walk hand in hand with the eighteen-year-old whose face was currently pulled up on his tablet. The mention of terrorism had gotten him moving fast to do the background check he had been coerced into waiting on, but after reading the files it was clear why Jason agreed it was unlikely Percy was guilty. His apparent tendency to attract trouble might be worth keeping an eye on, but it was probably safe to say that Jason’s new boyfriend wasn’t anyone they needed to be worried about.
“You sound concerned about that,” Dick said casually, a small smile on his face as they watched Jason actually laugh at something Percy had said. They listened in occasionally during the dinner just to make sure everything was alright, but now that they were just walking back to the Narrows, they switched back to just watching. Tim shook his head.
“No, just...I’ve never seen him like this.”
“Yes you have,” Damian cut in, not moving from his perch on a gargoyle. “Todd has been far more relaxed at the manor in the past year.”
“I mean around a civilian,” Tim clarified. “Someone who doesn’t know the other side of him that has a mask. He’s usually...guarded.”
“It’s nice to see,” Dick said. “If anyone deserves something good like this, it’s Jay.”
“And yet he kept it from us,” Damian muttered, not sounding upset but his words saying otherwise. Cass looked over from where she had jumped to the next rooftop.
You just weren’t looking ’, she signed, and they could feel her smug smirk even under her mask, ‘ I knew ’.
Damian threw a dagger at her and she easily flipped out of the way, her shoulders moving in a silent laugh. The four of them watched Jason turn a corner, his eyes focused solely on Percy, and they let him disappear. They’d seen enough.
Jason was happy, and that was all they needed to know.
Jason had never really dated anyone before, and when he pictured his first date with Percy, this wasn’t quite where he had anticipated it going. He knew Percy was weird, and he had said things that made Jason very aware he wasn’t cool , but he still gave off this aura of confidence most of the time that seemed to mask the fact that Jason had just fully realized—the fact that Percy Jackson was a fucking dork . The tiny, faint scars, the lean muscle, the glint in his eyes when he mentioned something weird that made it very clear he knew how weird it was and was doing it on purpose, it all worked as a great mask. But that’s what it was, really, a mask. And Jason was now getting to see the Percy that wasn’t necessarily hidden, just hard to see if you weren’t close with him. He had walked the long way with Percy to get back to their building, which took them through the park and right by Gotham Lake. He had walked past the lake with Percy before, when he was giving a tour of the important places in Gotham, but they hadn’t gotten that close. This time, they walked right up to the edge, and Jason was privy to the way that Percy’s eyes nearly glowed with excitement.
He rushed right up to the edge, his hand leaving Jason’s, and he didn’t even think twice before kicking off his shoes and putting his feet in the edge of the water, squatting down so he could see the surface. Jason watched with a cocked head, curious as Percy let his fingers skim the water with a fond, relaxed smile on his face. Then he looked up, and those startlingly bright eyes locked with his own.
“Jay,” he whispered, motioning with his head for Jason to get closer, “look at these little guys.”
Jason walked up and knelt next to Percy, still out of the water unlike the other boy. Sure enough, swirling around Percy’s hand like they knew him were multiple small fish that Jason couldn’t name. It looked like one was nibbling at Percy’s hand, but he didn’t seem to mind at all, laughing gently and reaching his other hand into the pocket of his pants.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it,” he said, pulling out a small plastic bag, “you all are so impatient sometimes.”
Jason blinked. “Are you talking to the fish ?”
“Oh, uh, yeah?” Percy answered, flushing slightly. The hand holding the bag froze, revealing small ripped chunks of bread. “It’s, uh, habit.”
The fish nudged his hand again, breaking his hesitation as he turned back to the water and rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright, I get it, you want my mom’s bread. Now don’t fight each other for it, or I’ll have to...I don’t know. Do something about that. And I don’t want to have to figure out what that something is.”
So Jason watched as Percy took small pieces of bread, clearly ripped for this specific purpose, and he didn’t toss them into the water like normal people did when feeding ducks or fish. No, he put his hand into the water and let the fish clamber over each other to eat out of his fucking hand. Percy’s face was relaxed and calm as this was happening, like he was giving a dog a treat and not watching a horde of tiny fish eat bread out of his hand in a lake.
“So...you like fish, huh?” Jason asked, feeling like it was a stupid question but not really knowing what else to say. “Do you have pet fish at home or something?”
Percy huffed a small laugh. “I mean, I’m studying marine biology so something like that, yeah. There’s a lake at camp, I feed the fish there. And, uh, anywhere else I see fish. I like them, and they seem to like me, so…”
“Percy?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a fucking dork,” Jason said bluntly. Percy sighed, sitting on his heels as he left just his toes in the water.
“Yeah, Annabeth won’t let me forget it,” he shook his head. “When only fish and pre-teens think you’re cool, you tend to accept the fact that you aren’t pretty quick.”
“Well, you act like you’re cool pretty well,” Jason shrugged. “If a person doesn’t get to know you, they’d probably think you’re one of those stereotypical ‘bad boys’. Like me.”
Percy blinked before dissolving into laughter. If Jason didn’t know better, he’d think even the fish were laughing at him. “I-I’m sorry, you ? A bad boy ? Sure, you’ve got the mechanic thing, you’re jacked, the scars, and the way you hold yourself, but do you really want to call yourself a bad boy ?”
Jason groaned. “Alright, alright, I couldn't think of a better term!”
“Jason,” Percy said, looking sideways at him, “don’t think I hadn’t noticed you saying goodbye to that little cactus on your counter. Or when you yelled at your book the other day because of the miscommunication subplot? You sneeze like a kitten and blush whenever I call you pretty. You’re not even close to a ‘bad boy’, you’re just adorable.”
Jason felt his face burning. “I am not adorable !” he protested. He was pretty sure the last person to call him that was Dick, and Jason had retaliated by grabbing his brother by the leg and yanking him off the chandelier where he had been perched. Percy reached out—with the hand that had been resting in the water—and tapped Jason’s nose, sending him falling back onto his ass to try and avoid it. Percy grinned, smug.
“ Adorable ,” he insisted, and Jason wanted to wipe that smugness off his face. Preferably by kissing him, but he didn’t want to risk toppling them both into the lake. So he put a scowl on his face that he could tell Percy didn’t believe, and pushed himself to his feet.
“Alright, Ariel, whatever,” he said, pausing as Percy seemed to choke on air. He frowned a bit more genuinely. “You alright?”
Percy collected himself and groaned, dropping his face into his hands. “Oh fuck, that nickname is gonna stick, isn’t it?”
Jason wasn’t sure if he was supposed to hear that, but he did, so he responded with a grin of his own, “Oh absolutely. Would you prefer Fish Whisperer? Unfortunately, Aquaman is taken, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind some copyright infringement. You don’t strike me as the type to be upset that Ariel is a princess name, but if that’s it then we could go with Triton—”
“— no , no, no, gods no, Ariel is fine,” Percy interrupted him, his face blazing red as he stood up quickly and brushed his hands off on his pants. Jason noted the pluralization but wasn’t sure if he had heard correctly. “I do actually have a friend who calls me Aquaman, though, and I still can’t get him to stop even if I bring up the actual Aquaman. It seems to make him use it more.”
“In that case, Ariel has officially stuck,” Jason said, knocking into Percy with his shoulder. The flush that still hadn’t left his face was very cute, even if Jason wasn’t entirely sure what had embarrassed him so much, because the nickname had made him mostly resigned. Percy knocked him back.
“In that case,” he repeated, “I gotta think of a dumb nickname for you. You’re not getting out of calling me Ariel unscathed.”
“I expected nothing else,” Jason said, “but if it’s particularly stupid, please don’t let my siblings hear it. They will never let it go.”
“Same with ‘Ariel’ and my friends, if you would,” Percy said, shaking his head. “They’re menaces who will take it and run with it.”
“Even Annabeth?”
“Oh, no, she’s fine,” Percy waved him off. “She’ll find out anyway, so there’s no point.”
“I know I’ve only met her, like, twice,” Jason said, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if she somehow knew already.”
Percy laughed, “You know? Me neither.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes, Percy carrying his shoes until they left the park and he had to put them back on for fear of stepping on glass or other debris. Jason couldn’t help but keep looking over at him—and he knew he wasn’t the only one, because he could feel Percy’s eyes on him occasionally. It made him feel better about his own not-so-subtle observations. And as they passed under a streetlight that actually worked, Jason’s eyes once again found the streak at the front of Percy’s hair that was growing in a light grey. It wasn’t all that long yet, about half an inch of his roots, but it seemed to glow in the faint light around them.
“Percy?” he asked, gently breaking the silence. At Percy’s questioning hum, he continued, “You don’t have to answer, but...why is your hair growing in grey? Just that one section?”
Percy’s face fell for a moment before he shook off the expression and put an awkward smile on his face that Jason could see right through. The smile was sad, and Percy’s eyes suddenly looked miles away.
“Ha, that’s not really a good first date story,” Percy tried to brush it off, but his tense shoulders gave away how fake his relaxed tone was.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Jason assured him. He wouldn’t want to tell the story of his own odd hair streak. “I was just curious.”
“No, it’s just, uh,” Percy hesitated, clearly thinking over his words. “I’m not sure exactly why it’s grey now, but it was—it was a trauma response, I think. Got it when I was fourteen. I dyed it for a while, I didn’t love thinking about it and it made my mom upset. But...it’s my hair and I don’t want to feel bad about it?”
The idea of pity didn’t even cross Jason’s mind. How could it? So he just stuck his hands in his pockets and sighed.
“Mine is trauma too,” he said, drawing Percy’s attention. His eyes flicked between Jason’s face and his white streak. “I was fifteen. Well, almost. I thought about dyeing it so I didn’t look like a skunk, but my emotions were all over the place after it happened. Once I even considered dyeing it, I was already used to it.”
Percy’s smile got a bit more genuine. “Well, aren't we a pair? I’ll tell you the full story behind mine as soon as you’re alright with telling me yours. And that can be never, too.”
Jason shook his head. “Yeah, uh, maybe at some point.” Before he could tell the truth about it, he had to tell Percy about his night time job, and that wasn’t gonna happen for a while. He trusted Percy, but telling him about the Red Hood was a gateway into his family's identities, and that wasn’t his choice to make. Weirdly enough, he kind of wanted to, though. After all, Percy had already said he wasn’t scared of Red Hood. He wouldn’t judge Jason. And he could clearly handle weird.
“Yeah, I’d prefer holding off for a while, too,” Percy agreed. “That seems like it’ll be a heavy conversation.” Then he winced slightly, and shook his head. “I really need to watch my accidental puns,” he muttered under his breath. Jason didn’t understand the accidental pun, but he rarely turned down an opportunity to make a morbid joke.
“Yeah, it seems like it’ll be a bit more gravely serious than a date should be,” he said casually, wondering if Percy picked up on his slight emphasis on grave .
It was at that moment that they got back to their apartment building, the night ambience of Gotham never quite quiet, but seemingly more peaceful than normal. It was almost calm as the two of them walked up the stairs to their floor, just the faint sound of a siren in the background. Jason knew someone in his family was checking it out, and tried to not think too hard about what was happening. As they reached their floor and both paused in the middle, Percy glanced over at him.
“You know,” he started, his voice too casual to not be forced, “it took me years to even realize I had liked Annabeth, much less make a move.”
Jason frowned, confused, but Percy kept talking before he could say anything, stepping further into Jason’s space.
“I’m not making that mistake again,” he said, looking Jason in the eyes. He really wasn’t that much shorter than Jason, and they were practically eye to eye already. Jason was suddenly very glad he had noticed his siblings not following them on their walk back, because that meant they weren’t watching. Just because there weren’t any windows didn’t mean his family couldn’t see him here if they wanted to. Jason knew that he was still breathing, that his heart was still beating, but as Percy took another step closer, it didn’t exactly feel like it. Percy reached up and brushed Jason’s hair out of his eyes, but his hand didn’t fully leave Jason’s face, instead stopping to rest on his jaw.
“Is this okay?” he asked softly.
Jason didn’t answer with words.
He raised his own hand to rest behind Percy’s neck, and tugged him gently forward, closing his eyes as their lips met in the middle. And Jason, this time, wasn’t entirely certain that his heart didn’t actually stutter for a beat. Every romantic seemed to describe a first kiss as electric, as a static shock of lightning that sent everything into a buzzing haze. And sure, Jason was pretty sure his first ever kiss felt something like that. But this?
This kiss hit Jason like a tidal wave, not a lightning strike. He wasn’t used to feeling in over his head, to feeling overwhelmed with something he didn’t even know how to describe. He had never drowned before, even when he was submerged in the waters of the Lazarus Pit, but he figured this was close enough. Percy’s hand on his cheek, a gentle touch that he never expected to have and wasn’t used to, didn’t send a buzzing under his skin, but it felt instead like how a wave inches gently up the sand and never fully leaves even when it recedes back into the ocean. It wasn’t electric, it was...a tempest. Hell, Percy even tasted like salt water, but that could have been Jason’s mind playing tricks.
When Percy pulled away slowly, his eyes fluttering open until his irises met Jason’s like darkened whirlpools, Jason was speaking before he even realized what words he was saying.
“Stay?” he muttered, his hand still tangled in the back of Percy’s hair. “Just to sleep.”
Percy smiled as his thumb gently traced the line of Jason’s cheekbone.
“Of course.”
Notes:
how many water metaphors can jason use without knowing why thats ironic lmao
if damian ever visits CHB, he will have a hoard of little pre-teen demigods following him around like ducklings and you cannot convince me otherwise. also pushing my Percy Is A Mom Friend agenda, because its impossible that he was raised by sally and didn't end up that way.
hope you all liked it :) see you next time.
Chapter 8
Notes:
honestly, if i had to pick a chapter i was the least confident about so far, its this one. but i hope you all like it!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A loud shriek made Jason’s head snap up from his book, a frown furrowing his features as he got ready to run into action. But the yell that followed the shriek had him relaxing back into the couch.
“DEMON SPAWN, GET UP HERE IN THREE SECONDS OR GLADYS GOES OUT THE WINDOW!” Tim’s angry shouting echoed down the halls, and was immediately followed by the sound of Damian sprinting up the stairs to either rescue his pet, commit fratricide, block a fratricide attempt on himself, or all three. Within seconds, Jason was sure that everyone who wasn’t in the Cave could hear Tim yelling loudly at Damian about ‘that little fucking monster black-hearted hellspawn’ somehow ending up on Tim’s pillow. Dick walked past the living room, laughing while staring in concern at the ceiling, and Jason decided that no, he didn’t actually want to be in the manor to deal with the fallout of Damian being accused of planting a pet that Tim thought wanted to kill him inside his room. Not when he had a nice quiet apartment with no shrieking little brothers, and a boyfriend who he might be able to drag away from homework to go do something.
It still wasn’t quite natural to think of Percy as his boyfriend , but not because he didn’t want to use that word. He had just...never had a boyfriend before. But they had been dating for a month now, and Jason had been really happy. The number of dinners he spent in Percy’s apartment had increased even more, he had met Annabeth a lot more, and he was doing more than alternating work and patrol. So he ignored the shouting match erupting upstairs and went over to the door, slipping his shoes on and grabbing his helmet.
“Heading to see the boyfriend?” Dick asked from behind him, evidently doing the same thing as Jason and trusting the two younger boys to not draw blood over a pet escaping. Probably a mistake, knowing the boys in question, but Jason never claimed to be the responsible older brother. Jason rolled his eyes.
“I’d rather not experience dinner after this fiasco,” he said, jerking his head up to motion upstairs. Dick sighed.
“I’m not sure what to do there,” he said, “I don’t want to make Damian get rid of one of his pets, you know how badly he’d take that, but I’m starting to think Tim might have a point and this one might actually hate him. You weren’t here last Tuesday, but Gladys was on Tim’s face when he woke up.”
Jason laughed, “Oh shit, really? And it’s still alive?”
“Barely,” Dick groaned. “The scream woke us all up, obviously, and then Damian protected her.”
Jason sent a sardonic grin his brother’s way. “Well, have fun with that at dinner. I’m going to go be anywhere else .”
Then he ducked out the front door and avoided Dick’s hand trying to grab the back of his jacket. And as his motorcycle roared to a start, he started thinking about where he might want to take Percy if he was free. He’d been holding out on his big idea, waiting for a good time to take Percy to the place that Jason knew he’d love—the Gotham Aquarium—and so he thought of smaller outings. They’d been back to the park a few times, and every single time, Percy fed the fish and talked to them like old friends. He hadn’t told Damian about that fact, because he knew that Damian would insist on starting to feed the fish himself, and Jason was not about to get dragged into babysitting the demon as he went weekly to the park. Also...he kind of wanted to keep that to himself. He already got interrogated weekly (at least) on his still fairly new relationship, and so he definitely had things that he wanted to keep away from his family until they either had to know, or they snooped and found out for themselves.
He tried to be quiet as he walked up the stairs and onto their floor, in case Percy actually was trying to work on his homework. It was almost dinner time, but Percy tended to do his work later rather than earlier. However, when he heard faint, insistent talking through Percy’s door, he stopped short. The walls in this building really were pretty thin, and so he wasn’t surprised he could hear the conversation with how sharp Percy’s words seemed to be. So it wasn’t the conversation itself that drew him up short. No, it was the fact that he couldn’t understand a word his boyfriend was saying. He considered himself decently versed in languages, even ones most people didn’t know—the whole family was at least passable in Arabic for Damian, Romani for Dick, Spanish for himself, and ASL for Cass, plus the other languages they all learned for fun or practicality—but this one wasn’t any that he recognized. But Percy was clearly fluent, and so was whoever he was talking to, which sounded like Annabeth’s voice? He seemed to be on speaker with her, if he was recognizing her voice correctly. The simple fact that he didn’t know the language set off his Bat Training, and he felt his muscles instinctively stiffen.
He stood in the hallway, listening to Percy speak this strange language for a few short minutes, before he glanced down at his hand and froze. He hadn’t noticed, too focused on trying to name the language, but he had unconsciously pulled his phone out of his pocket and started recording the conversation. It was still recording, breaking the unspoken promise Jason had made to not bug his boyfriend’s apartment. Sure, this wasn’t a bug, but this was still an invasion of privacy that he never wanted to tell Percy about. He hated that his instinct was to record this, and he hated even more that he physically couldn’t bring himself to delete it.
This wasn’t something he had wanted to do. Stalking was a Tim thing, not Jason! But he was a damn Bat, and what was a civilian’s privacy to the Wayne family? He resisted the urge to curse out loud, and stopped the recording. He shoved his phone back into his jacket pocket and went to quietly open his door, leaving Percy to his obviously private conversation. He should delete it. He knew he should. That would be the decent thing to do, the normal thing to do. That would be the course of action that a good boyfriend would take.
But instead of that, Jason was across his living room and sitting on the couch, pulling his laptop out before he even could make a conscious decision. God, he hoped Percy never found out about this. Even if he knew Jason was a bat, this was...he knew this was a fucked up thing to do. He knew it, but he didn’t stop his hands from pulling up the recording and a translation software. He made a silent promise to himself, and said that if the conversation was something clearly private and something Jason might accidentally bring up to Percy, he would stop translating immediately.
But before that, he had to figure out the language. This was one of Tim’s softwares, so it had basically every language someone could think of. So Jason tried to match Percy’s words to one of the languages in the software, knowing that it at least sounded like a European language.
He got a partial match when he tried Greek. He frowned. On a hunch, he found the pet project Tim had spent a while on, which was the Ancient Greek setting. It wasn’t entirely complete, considering it was a dead language that Tim was compiling for fun and clearly hadn’t worked on for a while, but it had more than enough.
He got a match, and it started translating. But that just raised another question.
How the hell did Percy know Ancient Greek so fluently?
He started playing what had been translated, making sure his headphones were connected, and was greeted with Percy’s voice, a slight undertone of panic accompanying the computerized notes that the translator had added.
“-calling me daily, Annabeth, asking if I’ve heard from him yet,” Percy was saying, sounding strained and worried. So it was Annabeth he was talking to, which...well, actually, that probably explained how he knew Greek. Jason could see Annabeth learning it to fluency and then forcing Percy to learn it. Annabeth sighed.
“Me too. Kayla interrupted his latest call, saying that they’ve had to involve cabin fifteen just to get him to sleep.” Annabeth sounded tired, almost weary. “But hopefully we’ll have news soon.”
“You’ve been saying that for weeks, Annie! He promised me, he said that he’d try to contact me again within two weeks—it’s been two months! He said he didn’t think they’d hurt him, and I trust him, but two months!”
J ason felt a pit form in his gut. Was someone in danger?
“Percy,” Annabeth said sternly, her voice cracking slightly , “we will get him out of there as soon as we can. He’s our eighth, he’s our emo zombie boy, he is our mini dark lord and we will get him the fuck out. But we promised. We said we would follow his lead on when to move forward.”
“I hate this, Annie,” Percy emphasized, practically begging . “I hate leaving him there when we know where he is! It’s like—like watching my mom stay with Gabe because she told me to let her protect me, when I should have done something.”
“This isn’t like that, Percy, because he is not being hurt ,” Annabeth’s voice turned firmer, more confident. Jason felt like he had made a mistake in following his Bat Training, because he was pretty sure he was listening to Percy and Annabeth discuss a friend who was stuck in an abusive household. The comparison to Percy’s stepfather seemed to cement that idea, because while Percy had never spoken about the man, and Jason would never ask, the man didn’t look like he would be a particularly good father.
“ Yet,” Percy rebutted, his voice breaking. Then he sighed. “ Fuck. You’re right, I know, you always are. I miss him, though, and watching Will’s face fall every time I have to say there’s been no contact? It’s killing me, Wise Girl.”
Jason stopped the playback, not willing to hear any more. He deleted the recording and any record of it on his systems, and he shut his laptop with a sigh. He knew this wasn’t Bruce’s fault, this was on him, but he still wished he could blame Batman. It might have been Batman’s fault that this training was so deeply ingrained in him, but it was all Jason’s fault that he didn’t just delete that recording immediately.
He wanted to go tell Percy everything, and offer his help to get this friend out of their situation.
He wanted to ignore that this ever happened and hope Percy never found out.
But he knew that he had to find some kind of middle ground, because the first wasn’t going to happen and the second was idealistic. He leaned back on the couch and knew what he had to do. Percy might not see it as the apology it was meant as, but he would enjoy it, and that was what mattered.
It was time to take Percy to the aquarium.
“Percy, don’t even try to tell me that you aren’t in Jason’s apartment right now,” Annabeth said, deadpan, her expression flat in the Iris Message. Percy froze, his cheeks flushing slightly.
“Uh, what?”
Annabeth laughed lightly, keeping her voice quiet so that Jason didn’t hear from the living room. “Seaweed Brain, you know I message you sometimes after a nightmare just to look and make sure you’re still there . I know you do the same. I know you stay over a lot, like you very clearly did last night.”
Percy sighed, but didn’t fight the fond smile on his face.
“Yeah, I did,” he said, knowing the admission wasn’t necessary. “It’s...it’s like when we sleep in the same bed, Annie. When we’re sleeping together, the nightmares are either nonexistent or not that bad. With Jason, it’s not as effective, but I wake up calmer and that means I don’t wake him up.”
“I figured something like that was happening,” Annabeth said.
“How have your nightmares been?” Percy asked. “You haven’t mentioned any recently.”
“They’ve been...manageable,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “If they weren’t I’d tell you and camp out at your apartment for a while, you know that. It helps that my apartment tends to run cold, and I think my brain finds it harder to trick me into thinking I’m... there .”
“Good,” Percy sighed, relieved. He had been feeling a little guilty that his nightmares were getting better and he couldn’t help Annabeth with hers as much anymore. He glanced at the bathroom door, knowing that Jason shouldn’t be able to hear him. He switched to Greek just in case. “I talked to Clovis last night.”
Annabeth perked up, following his lead in the language switch despite her speaking even quieter than Percy. “You did? Just Clovis?”
“Just Clovis. He said he’s been feeling like Nico has been trying to connect with him, but hasn’t managed to break fully into his dream. That means it’s likely that it’s Gotham’s fault we haven’t heard from him yet, and we might hear from him soon.” He couldn’t hide the relief in his voice even if he wanted to.
“Considering how long it’s been, he probably has the info we need to get him out of there,” Annabeth said, a smile forming on her face. “Knowing Nico, he has definitely memorized nurse routes and camera locations by now, and knows exactly where he is in the Asylum. That, combined with the full blueprint we have, means we should easily be able to find him.”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from him,” Percy promised. “I should go now before Jason wonders where I went. He said he had something planned for today.”
“Alright, enjoy your date,” Annabeth said. “See you Monday for class.”
Then she ended the message and Percy quickly made his way back to the living room. Jason was reading, but glanced up when Percy entered to return his smile. Percy had spent a decent amount of time in this apartment over the past month, and had gotten to know where everything was pretty well, so he didn’t wait for Jason before heading into the small kitchen and looking for breakfast. He was tempted to head over to his own apartment and get stuff for pancakes, but he didn’t know what Jason’s plans were, so he just scoured the cabinets and found a box of cereal tucked in the back of one.
He opened it, and then he froze, frowning in slight bemusement.
“Jason?” he asked, his voice level and casual. “Why is there a gun in your cereal box?”
There was the sound of a book being slammed shut, and then Jason was standing up loudly.
“Is that where he fucking hid that?” he demanded, walking quickly into the kitchen and peering over Percy’s shoulder into the box before reaching in and grabbing the gun. He stared at it for a second. “ Dick ,” he hissed. Percy raised his eyebrows.
“Was that an insult or your brother’s name?” he asked, he was never sure. Jason laughed, glancing from the gun to Percy.
“Both,” he said. “He swore he didn’t know where it was, but he's the only one that buys that cereal and just leaves it in my cabinets. He doesn’t even eat it! He just buys it because ‘his little brother needs a healthy balanced breakfast’, the asshole. Just for this, I’m enlisting Cass to help me glitterbomb him again.”
“From what I know of him, it doesn’t seem like glitter will phase him much,” Percy said, following Jason back out of the kitchen—watching Jason slip the pistol into an inner pocket on the leather jacket hanging by the door. Jason shrugged.
“If it’s his everyday clothes, then no, you’re right. But if I get his work uniform…” His grin turned wicked, and Percy was reminded of a similar grin on so many demigods. The Stolls (although every child of Hermes could qualify), Leo, Harley, Thalia, Nico, himself ...the list went on and on. And so Percy knew exactly how this would end, and it would end with chaos.
He matched Jason’s grin. “Oh, that’s devious ,” he said. “Tell me how he reacts.”
Then he glanced back at the hidden pocket that he now knew held a gun. “Also...you have a gun?”
Jason rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, this is Gotham. You gotta be able to protect yourself. So...I have a few.”
“A few?”
“Just this one in my apartment,” he clarified, “But I’ve got a few more back at the manor. I, uh, I like them?”
He let Jason stew for a moment, narrowing his eyes slightly. He genuinely didn’t like guns—way too often had they been shot at him, and bullets were annoying—but Jason had a point about self-defense in Gotham. And he got just liking a certain weapon, even if Jason could have better taste. He grinned lightly.
“Eh, I get it,” he said, noticing the slight way Jason relaxed. “As much as I don’t like them, guns can be useful. And I can’t judge having weapons, I’ve got a sword .”
“No offense, I’m sure your sword is cool, but guns are way handier than a melee weapon,” Jason said, raising his hands in defense.
“Alright, sure, you fucking cowboy ,” Percy shot back, raising his eyebrows. “Swords are cooler. Now are we heading out somewhere or what?”
“I am far more ‘mob boss’ than ‘cowboy’, Mr. Renaissance Faire,” Jason retorted, putting on the jacket in one smooth motion—which was way more impressive than it had any right being. “And yes, we are, but I’m not telling you where.”
“Hey, I could rule at a Renaissance Faire,” Percy said, following him out the door. Sure, he wasn’t anywhere close to the Renaissance, but there are competitions, right? Swordfighting skill is swordfighting skill, even in a mock fight. And horses are involved? Maybe? He had never actually been to a Ren Faire, but he hoped there were horses. And that maybe for once he’d find a horse that didn’t curse more than Thalia. “And I’m a bit closer to ‘gladiator’.”
“Yeah, but gladiators are actually cool, so you’re out of luck there,” Jason grinned, dodging Percy’s light punch to his arm.
“Sure, and mob bosses are way too intimidating,” Percy shot back. “You’re too cute.”
Did he take personal pride in how flustered he could make Jason with just three words? Yes, yes he did. He knew damn well most people wouldn’t describe a muscular six-foot man who liked guns as ‘cute’, but was Percy ‘literally half god’ Jackson most people ? No. And Jason was cute. Especially when he tried to hide the fact that his face was pink, and he flipped up the collar of his jacket as if that would do anything. He changed the subject, too, starting to talk about the book he had been reading with way too much forced neutrality in his voice. Percy just smiled and let him talk. He had more than enough practice with listening to someone ramble about something he knew nothing about. Annabeth did it all the time, so did Leo. He appreciated this, though. It was too much work for him to read it himself, with the whole dyslexia thing, and so Jason seemed to enjoy recounting the plot for him as if he had read it alongside him.
They grabbed breakfast on the go as they walked through the streets of Gotham, reaching the nicer part of the city within half an hour. Percy wasn’t sure where they were going, but he was already having a good day, so he was sure wherever it was would be fine. Surprises weren’t his favorite thing, because the surprise in question was usually a trap, but he didn’t want to spoil what Jason was clearly excited for. His fingers had started to drum a pattern onto his leg as they walked, and his eyes kept flicking to Percy. He was acting like a hyper demigod. Percy wasn’t sure why, until….
“Jay?” Percy breathed, his eyes growing wide and excited as he looked at the building he could see down the street. Jason grinned.
“Yeah, Ariel?”
“Are we going to the fucking aquarium ?” Percy was vibrating. Some might think he would hate seeing fish in captivity, especially after the fiasco with Phorcys a year ago. But most fish in aquariums were actually quite happy there, and were even happier when he came to visit. Jason’s widening grin was his answer, and he reached out to grab Jason’s hand in his own. “I’d like to apologize in advance if I get distracted and ignore you for a bit in there.”
“Percy, you get distracted with fish in a lake , I’m anticipating you getting distracted here,” Jason waved him off as they reached the aquarium and he held the door open.
Percy didn’t respond. He didn’t notice as Jason went to go buy their tickets, because there was a small tank in the entrance lobby of seahorses and goldfish, and they all perked up as he entered, calling out to him.
My Lord! They called, swimming around each other excitedly. My Lord, it is an honor!
He moved over to the tank so he could whisper to them without anyone overhearing. When Jason came back over with their tickets, he found Percy complimenting the goldfish on their shining scales and hearing in response a glowing review of the workers at the aquarium. Not that Jason could hear the response, but he definitely saw Percy staring intently at one fish in particular as she detailed how the aquarium had gotten better funding a few years ago and a lot of terrible workers were finally fired and now her scales are grime-free! He heard Jason approach, but let the little fish finish before whispering a goodbye and turning to face him, feeling truly relaxed with so much water around. He hadn’t been swimming in months, and he hadn’t noticed that it was taking a toll.
Jason just rolled his eyes as Percy sheepishly stopped paying attention to the first and smallest tank in the entire building, motioning for Percy to follow him further into the aquarium. Percy was tempted to reach out and take his hand again, but decided against it. He knew himself pretty well, and knew what he would do if he had Jason’s hand in his.
Sure enough, in the very next room, Percy took off like a bullet towards the right half of the room where there were a few stingrays floating around lazily, and he would have dragged Jason right along behind him if they had been holding hands. He listened to them all recognize him and try their best to do a fishy little bow. He wanted to talk to all of them individually, but there were too many people around, and he couldn’t talk out loud to Jason and telepathically to the fish at the same time. So he settled for telling Jason all about the stingrays, and the other fish he saw in the tank.
He asked every tank if they were happy in the aquarium, as a parting note. This aquarium seemed to take care of its inhabitants, but if Percy heard otherwise...let’s just say that he still had half-written plans in his cabin on how he was going to destroy Sea World. He saw Jason watching him curiously each time he did that, and he knew he could just talk in his mind, but he liked talking out loud to them if he could. And Jason knew he liked to talk to them, he just had no reason to think they spoke back!
All in all, Percy was having a great day. Which means he really should have expected it to go south as soon as he had relaxed in the shark room. He shouldn’t have relaxed at all, he should have seen that the reef sharks circling the bottom of their tank looked agitated. They didn’t even notice him when he entered. But he walked further into the room with Jason, and was just as blindsided as the other visitors when the voice boomed from above them.
“Well, well, well!” An overly cheerful voice called from the top of the tank, drawing everyone’s startled attention. “What do you find on a hook when there are no coats to be seen?”
Percy heard Jason groan loudly next to him as he looked up and saw a man who would make Piper and all her siblings froth at the mouth. Percy wasn’t the greatest at fashion himself, admittedly, but neon green and purple? On the same suit jacket? Not a good look. And that bowler hat did the man no favors either. He knew who this man was, Annabeth made sure he would recognize all of Gotham’s Rogues on sight, and he wished that she was here to make the Riddler cry. But no, it was just him and Jason, and a bunch of terrified civilians who were trying in vain to open the now locked doors. Jason grabbed his hand and tugged him into a shadowed corner.
“It’s fine,” he whispered. “The bats will be here soon, and the Riddler likes to talk a lot. If we’re lucky, he won’t get through his monologue before Batman shows up.”
Percy hadn’t realized his fists had been clenched. He forced a breath and tried to relax. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Jay, but I’m the furthest thing from lucky.”
“We’ll be fine, Percy.”
Percy sighed. “I’m not worried about me , I’m worried about the families he’s got locked in here. There are kids .”
Jason looked around with darkened eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. If he lays a finger on those kids, I don’t think I’ll wait for Batman to get here.”
“I’ll be right there with you,” Percy promised. Then he heard what the man above them was crowing.
“—three chances is all you get! Answer correctly, and you return just fine. But get one wrong…” Riddler grinned widely. “And take a swim with some fishes.”
Percy knew his scowl was dark as he stared between the Riddler and the nervous sharks in the tank. Was he serious? First, those sharks clearly knew what was going on and were unhappy with it. Second, they weren’t mindless beasts who would attack anyone dropped into their tank! If they got a scent of blood, maybe, but anyone dropped in would just be scared and flailing, not bleeding, which might scare the sharks more than incense them. And if the sharks didn’t attack, the Riddler would probably make sure the poor person just couldn’t surface instead, which would kill them anyway.
He believed Jason when he said that Batman would get there before anyone died. But there was only one person here who could buy Batman a little more time. As long as it took less than his breath-holding record, he had an excuse for his abilities.
When the Riddler asked the silent room for a brave volunteer, he knocked Jason’s frantic hand away from his arm and stood up.
“I’ll do it,” he said casually. If the Riddler wanted to kill him, he’d have to try a lot harder than this. The Riddler clapped his hands together.
“Wonderful! And who are you ?” he asked, his eyes noticing Jason right behind him. “Coming in with a Wayne?”
“Someone who’s not scared of you,” Percy said, climbing the ladder up the tank to where the Riddler had hijacked the mechanism to open the top of the tank and positioned a chair right in the center. Riddler laughed.
“And why is that, young man?” he asked as Percy sat leisurely in the chair and looked anywhere except at Jason. He hated scaring him, but he had to do this. If he didn’t, and someone innocent got hurt? He’d never forgive himself. He had the ability to not die here, he had to help. Jason would hopefully understand.
“Because my best friend is both scarier than you, and better at riddles,” he said. “She met someone like you once, actually. She made them cry.”
That wasn’t entirely true, as the Sphinx had decided to try and kill them rather than cry, but Percy liked to imagine that she did that after they had gotten away.
The Riddler sneered at him a bit as he tied the wrist straps a bit too tight. Percy was pretty sure he could break them if he had to, but he’d probably be fine if he didn’t.
“Well try this one, then,” he said. “We’ll go easy to start. You can see me in water, but I never get wet. What am I?”
Me , Percy thought, wanting to laugh. Honestly, was this guy for real? Calls himself the Riddler , but can’t even use hard riddles? Annabeth forced him to learn a bunch of riddles after the Sphinx incident, and this was definitely one of them. “A reflection, duh,” he said, unable to stop himself from poking the proverbial bear again. He saw the man bristle at his nonchalance.
“ My thunder comes before the lightning; My lightning comes before the clouds; My rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?” the man said next, his teeth clenched. Percy almost winced, but kept up his act of not caring.
See, the first one he would have gotten on his own. It really wasn’t that hard, and while Percy wasn’t known for his intelligence, he was actually smart. This one? Without Annabeth, he would not know this one. She had told him this one through grit teeth, and then stared at him for a full hour straight until she finally gave in and told him the answer, her grey eyes glaring at him. She hadn’t really….gotten over the Mount Saint Helens incident at that point. Or the whole ‘Percy showing up to his own funeral’ thing. Which, fair. She definitely had a right to be pissed at him for that. Still...this riddle brought back up that memory of her eyes, swimming with an anger that he could only tell later on was masking the remnants of her grief. He never wanted to scare her like that again, especially not after the Camp Jupiter fiasco where he just vanished (thanks Hera) and especially not after they survived... that place together.
But this wasn’t a danger to him. The worst case scenario was that he was a bit too strange to be brushed off, and so he would make a quick getaway and lie low at Annabeth’s place for a bit. But that wouldn’t happen, because Batman was on his way already, no doubt about that. So he kept his eyes trained on the Riddler so he wouldn’t have to see Jason’s expression just yet. He wasn’t ready for that.
“A volcano,” he sighed, leaning back as much as he could in the chair. The Riddler seemed surprised, taking his extended silence as a sign that he didn’t know it. Now, rather than annoyed and angry, the Riddler seemed intrigued. But Percy already knew he wasn’t going to answer this third one, because that would just mean someone else would get put in this chair right away. The Riddler paced along the part of the tank that was safe from the opening mechanism—which was, regrettably, too far away for Percy to grab him if he got his hands free.
“Final chance,” the man said, “It is a 5 letter word, if you take away the first letter it is something you get from the sun, if you remove the second letter you will get something to eat, if you remove the third letter you get a word you use in pointing at something, and if you remove the fourth letter you get something to drink. What is it?”
Percy blinked.
“Oh come on , man, I’m dyslexic!” he groaned, his head dropping back onto the wooden chair. This wasn’t one that Annabeth had come across to make him memorize, and the only way he could figure it out was if he had a pen, some paper, and half an hour at least. And maybe a Phone-A-Friend so he could call Rachel, who could actually spell normally .
“Does that mean you can’t answer?” The Riddler taunted, and Percy raised his head, finally looking down at the crowd that was mostly trying not to look at him. He saw parents huddling their children away, keeping their heads turned away from Percy in case he got eaten by sharks. Even if they were looking at him, eyes were straying from him to the Riddler to the sharks and then to the locked doors. All except for one person in the corner, staring directly at him as if he could kill the Riddler with a glare. Jason was not happy, that much was certain. When he noticed Percy finally looking at him, and the placating expression on his face, his eyes widened as he seemed to realize what was coming. He shook his head once, eyes locked with Percy’s, as he mouthed ‘ don’t you fucking dare’ . Percy gave him a small smile, not wanting to tip off the Riddler but wanting to reassure Jason.
Then he remembered Leo’s lessons to all of them on Morse Code, and he wondered if Jason would know it too.
Quickly, before he could ponder if Jason would understand his message, he blinked out ‘I’ll be okay’. Jason frowned, but Percy couldn’t wait any longer without pissing off the Riddler.
“Dude, I can’t read, much less spell shit in my head,” he retorted. “I guess there’s no chance of a retry?”
The Riddler cocked his head. “You really aren’t afraid, are you? You must be new here, and think I’m bluffing.”
He reached over to the mechanism and Percy took a breath.
Hey guys, he sent to the sharks below him, I know you won’t hurt me, but you gotta act a little startled and panicked when I drop into the water. They can’t know anything is off about me .
He got affirmative responses right as The Riddler grinned menacingly.
“I don’t bluff,” he said, and pulled the lever. The metal under the chair started to split, opening until Percy’s feet were dangling, and then until the feet of the chair were straining to not fall, and then—
The familiar feeling of being surrounded by water. He faintly heard startled screams from the civilians outside the tank, but he ignored that in favor of feeling the water on his skin and letting it rejuvenate him. He could easily break out of the chair now and go kick the Riddler’s ass, but for once that wasn’t his job. So he let his chair sink, and he blinked open his eyes as soon as the chair settled into the sand at the bottom of the tank. The sharks were swimming in a frenzy around him, but not in a way that indicated violence. To someone less knowledgeable about marine life, and someone without a telepathic connection to them, it might seem like they would turn into a dangerous frenzy soon. But Percy had no such fears, and kept his heart rate steady. He had to resort back to his practice of holding his breath, which he didn’t keep up as often as he should anymore. He couldn’t be caught breathing water, though. He met Jason’s wide eyes through the glass once the sharks started to calm down, and he could definitely see the sharp edge of fear in his face. Percy blinked his same message again, slower this time because of the water, and saw Jason falter in confusion. His eyes moved between the sharks and Percy, and Percy just looked up at the closest shark to him.
Hey, could you pretend to check me out and find me uninteresting? He asked. I don’t want my boyfriend thinking you’re going to eat me .
Anything for my Lord and his paramour! The shark responded excitedly, and Percy hoped his red cheeks could be passed off as a side effect from holding his breath. The shark approached him, making Jason look like he wanted to shatter the glass from the outside, but all it did was bump its nose into his shoulder and neck before swimming away. Jason froze, frowning. But the commotion outside the tank of the Riddler shouting in anger that Percy wasn’t being torn to shreds was suddenly interrupted as Batman burst through a window, followed by Robin. There weren’t many goons next to the Riddler, and so Percy assumed that the other vigilantes were sitting this one out. Batman engaged the Riddler while Robin took on the henchmen, but the kid glanced over when Jason shouted something that Percy couldn’t hear all that great through the water. He saw Jason point to him, though, and the boy’s eyebrows raised above his mask. Batman glanced over too, and seemed to return to fighting the Riddler with increased fervor—previously it seemed as though Batman was treating this as a ‘same shit as always’ fight.
(Batman and Robin could both see a rage simmering in Jason’s face when they looked over, and they knew that he was seconds away from fistfighting the Riddler as his civilian self, identities be damned. They decided to wrap it up before that happened. Usually as long as no one was hurt, they let Nygma put up a decent fight and a few shouted quips, but Jason’s short fuse was already lit.)
Robin dove into the tank as Batman worked to cuff the Riddler, and Percy inconspicuously had the sharks move out of his way so he didn't think he had to hurt any of them. The boy—gods, he was small. Was this what Percy looked like when he first got to camp?—sliced the restraints on the chair and made to grab Percy’s arm to help him. Percy was fine, though, and started swimming up on his own, thanking the sharks as he left them down in the reef. The boy followed, and breached the surface of the tank at the same time as Percy, making him remember that he really should pretend that he needed air. He climbed onto the top of the tank, letting his clothes stay wet as he took a few deep breaths.
“Are you alright?” Robin asked, his voice far more stern than a kid his age should sound. Percy nodded, shaking the water off his hands.
“Oh, yeah, I’m peachy. Nothing like a villain and a swim with some sharks to interrupt a date,” he said.
“Are you in shock?” Robin asked. “You likely lost a bit of oxygen to your brain, you should sit down.”
Percy shook his head, making to climb the ladder back down to the ground despite the kid trying to make him sit. “Oh, nah, I can hold my breath for eight minutes. I’m fine. That's why I volunteered.”
“You volunteered because you’re a fucking idiot ,” Jason countered as he reached the ground, immediately coming over to make sure he was okay. “Those are fucking sharks , you scared the shit out of me, dumbass.”
Percy let Jason make sure he wasn’t injured, even though he would have seen if any of the sharks had hurt him. “Jay, I’m studying marine biology. I know sharks, and I was pretty certain they wouldn’t just swarm me for dropping into their tank unless I was bleeding. The Riddler’s just an idiot who doesn’t know shit about sharks.”
“And since when can you hold your breath for eight minutes ?” Jason continued, ignoring Percy. “Why can you-”
His phone started ringing in his pocket and he scowled at it before answering and snapping, “ What?”
He paused, listening and frowning. Then he took the phone away from his ear and held it out to Percy. “It’s Annabeth?”
Percy winced, taking the phone. “Hey, Annie! How’s your day?”
“Don’t you ‘how's your day’ me, Seaweed Brain, are you okay? Are you still at the aquarium?”
“How did you know we were at the aquarium?” Percy asked. He could practically hear Annabeth’s eye roll.
“I saw that the Riddler attacked on the news at this coffee shop I was in. The fact that it was an aquarium and that I know our luck, I figured you were there. Are you going to say I’m wrong?”
“...no,” Percy admitted. “Listen, I’m fine. I maybe got dropped into a shark tank, but the sharks weren’t going to attack me! And you know I’m a damn good swimmer if I need to be.”
“Percy you were tied to a fucking chair,” Jason cut in, his arms crossed. Percy shrugged.
“Semantics,” he said. Annabeth was silent for a moment.
“Annie?” Percy asked. He heard her sigh.
“I’m not going to get mad at you, because I know you would have only done this if people were in danger,” she said, “But Percy, if you pull something like this again, I’m telling your mother .”
Percy looked up hurriedly, his eyes catching on the Riddler being maneuvered around in cuffs. “Will you promise not to tell my mom about this if I do something that I know will cheer you up?”
“...I’m listening.”
He pulled the phone away from his ear and glanced at the screen before deciding that the rich person phone was too complicated for him, leaning over to Jason and asking, “how do I make it on speaker phone?”
Jason gave him an odd look, but pressed the button Percy had been looking for. Percy sent him a smile in thanks and turned back to the Riddler.
“Do you want to hear the riddles the guy asked me?” he asked, seeing the Ridder glance over in interest. “I actually got two of them, but the third one needed spelling.”
“Oh ew,” Annabeth said reflexively. “And absolutely, I do. Am I on speaker? Can he hear what I’m saying?”
“Yes and yes.” Percy grinned. He recited the first riddle casually, not as excited about that one, and Annabeth scoffed loudly over the phone.
“This guy calls himself the Riddler , and that’s what he asks you?” she almost sounded offended on Percy’s behalf.
“That’s what I was thinking!” Percy agreed cheerfully.
“Do you want to know where I first heard that riddle? In a book for children , that I worked my way through when I was six ,” Annabeth continued. “And I can barely read! Congratulations Percy, you have the same intelligence as my six-year-old self, which is more than can be said for ‘the Riddler’. At least when I was six, I didn’t have the audacity to think that was a challenging riddle .”
Percy was struggling not to laugh as he stared down the man in question. Batman had stopped leading him towards the exit, which now had police officers standing in it, and was standing there, holding the Riddler in cuffs as he let the man listen to Annabeth tear him apart. Percy hoped Batman was enjoying this too. If he had to get on the radar of the bat somehow, he hoped he could make this a good impression. The Riddler was staring at the phone in Percy’s hand, eyes wide and mouth dropped open. Really, it was like no one had told him his riddles sucked before.
“Wait, wait, Annabeth, the second one is even better,” he said, immediately launching into a retelling of the riddle he knew Annabeth would remember as vividly as he did. If he got a little over-dramatic with it, well, who had to know that volcanoes were a personal subject for him?
Annabeth clearly tried to stop her laughter, but failed miserably as the sound of wheezing came over the phone for at least twenty seconds.
“Did he get-” she cut herself off to breathe, giggles still fighting their way into her words. “Did he get that fucking riddle off of Riddles.com ? Because Perce, I never told you this, but when I told you that riddle a few years ago? That’s where I found it ! Exactly that, wording and everything, on Riddles-fucking-dot-com! So not only does the Riddler not know what makes a riddle difficult, but he also plagiarizes a bad riddles website? Hey Riddler!” she called, not even making the man blink, he was so frozen in his look of deep offense. “Riddle me this! Who has a less original gimmick than a fucking sphinx, can’t do research on the types of sharks he’s exploiting, and would lose on Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?”
“Is it the Riddler, Wise Girl?” Percy answered, mock surprise in his voice.
“You’re off the hook this time for getting that doozy of a riddle right, Percy,” Annabeth responded, “I won’t tell Sally that you’re being an idiot again. Just do me a favor and try and get the mailing address for the Riddler’s new room in Arkham. I’ll send him some books on how to actually write your own riddles. If I ever have the misfortune of meeting him in person and he doesn’t give me a challenge? He’ll wish he had a shark tank to drop me into.”
Batman started to lead the catatonic Riddler towards the police again, so Percy grinned brightly and waved at the aghast man.
“Bye Riddler!” he called. “Let’s do this again never!”
Next to him, Jason was struggling to keep a straight face, and even Robin seemed to be trying to hold back a smile. But the kid simply nodded at him and Jason before vanishing after Batman as the Riddler was out of the aquarium by the police. Percy slumped slightly as the doors closed to the now-empty room, sighing. He figured there was normally some protocol for people targeted by a Rogue, like being questioned or taken to the hospital, but he was glad that the police had seemingly been too distracted by Annabeth's comments to remember about it. Or maybe they just didn't care, Jason was always talking about how corrupt they were. Either way, Percy was fine with the fact that he had been left alone. A hospital was the last place he wanted to be right now.
“Well, I had a great time destroying a man’s self esteem with you, Annie,” he said, “But I think I’m ready to sleep for three days. I’ll see you Monday?”
“See you Monday. Don’t go swimming with sharks again, okay?”
“No promises,” Percy grinned, “Bye.”
Then he hung up and handed Jason back his phone. Jason pocketed it while watching Percy carefully.
“You’re really okay?” he asked. Percy nodded.
“Really, I am. I’m a swimmer, Jason, I trained myself back in middle school to hold my breath as long as I could. I knew I could handle it, and the other people in this room couldn’t. So I volunteered, just so I could stall until Batman got here. That was it. I’m sorry for worrying you, but there wasn’t an opportunity to tell you that I was going to be fine .”
“Just...don’t do that shit again, okay?” Jason sighed. “I see my siblings held hostage enough already, I’d like to not add you to that list.”
Well, shit. Percy understood where he was coming from with that. He’d seen his friends—his family —held captive by monsters way too often. He really couldn’t promise Jason that something like this wouldn’t happen again. He couldn’t , because it most likely would happen at some point. He took Jason’s hand.
“I’ll try my best,” he said, knowing that was the best he could do. “And I’ll try and be a little more clear when there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I guess I’ll take it. Now, uh,” Jason frowned slightly, “why did Annabeth call me from a pay phone ? And why did she call me instead of you?”
Percy winced. His lack of technology had managed to be avoided by the fact that he and Jason lived across from each other, but he knew it would come up at some point. Normal people had cell phones. Normal people had computers. And while he could probably get away with having one in Gotham, he’d have to ditch it when he left and that didn’t feel worth it. He just wasn’t sure how to explain his lack of a phone to Jason.
“Well…” he started, trying to think of his words. Jason’s frown deepened.
“Percy,” he said, “you do have a phone, right? Tell me you just left it behind at your apartment. Or that it’s dead.”
He could lie, but it wasn’t a sustainable one because what if Jason left the city one day and wanted Percy’s number? He grinned sheepishly at Jason.
“I’m Amish?” he offered, hoping to make Jason laugh. But he just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose like he was warding off a headache.
“ Percy ,” he said emphatically, “ why ? You live in Gotham .”
“And I used to live in New York. I survived that without one, I’ve never felt the need for one.” It wasn’t really a lie, even though phones would be a lot more convenient sometimes. Everyone he cared about was someone he could Iris Message, so he really didn’t need one.
“What about Annabeth, or your mom? How do you keep in contact with them?” Jason asked him, something sharp in the blue of his eyes. Percy shrugged.
“Payphones, mostly,” he answered easily. “I see Annabeth at school, and sometimes I’ll sneakily Skype my mom from the school library.”
“Really?” Jason asked, his voice flat. “You do that when cell phones exist to make all that so much easier?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “My mom raised me not to rely on technology, and I never once thought she was wrong for not getting me a phone as a teenager.”
It was likely that Percy would never think his mom was wrong about that even if he wasn’t a demigod, but the fact that a phone could lead monsters to kill him was just icing on the cake.
“You’re so fucking weird,” Jason shook his head. Percy patted his shoulder.
“You’re the one who chose to date me, Cowboy.”
Jason’s head snapped up to meet his. “No. No , that is not sticking. I’m not a fucking cowboy.”
“Sorry, I can’t hear you over my mental image of you in cowboy boots,” Percy laughed, dodging Jason’s shove to his shoulder. “If I got you a cowboy hat, would you wear it?”
“Over my dead body,” Jason retorted. “At least my dumb nickname for you makes sense!”
“Oh, this makes perfect sense,” Percy said, blinking innocently. “Just...in my head. If you don’t like it, you could always pick a better weapon of choice than guns, that might change my mind.”
“You little shit,” Jason insulted him with no real heat, trying to catch Percy in a headlock as he danced out of Jason’s way around the quiet shark room. “Is this all a ploy to try and trick me into using a dumb sword?”
“Maybe so,” Percy grinned, “I think it’d be fun to teach you.”
“Well you’re out of luck, Fish Boy, I happen to like my guns.”
“Have you named them?” Percy asked. “You can’t really be attached to them unless they’re named. You know my sword has a name.”
Jason crossed his arms and lifted his chin smugly, but Percy caught the faint pink on his cheeks. “I don’t need to name my weapons, unlike some people with archaic taste.”
Percy grinned. “You totally named them, didn’t you.”
“Lies and fucking slander, I’m gonna sue you.”
“Sure, but did you name them after characters from your books? Please tell me one of them is named, like, Mercutio or something. Do you know what weapon Shakespeare characters used?”
“It doesn’t matter that they used swords, because I didn’t name my guns.”
“Or maybe you went the noun route. Is one named Sparkle? How about Bubbles, Destroyer of Men?”
“Keep this up and you’ll be destroyed.”
“You and what army? Which gun will be my demise? Can I know the name of my killer?”
“I hate you so fucking much.”
“Sure you do, Cowboy.”
Percy did end up getting caught in a headlock, but his still-soaked hair got water all over Jason too, so he was pretty sure he still won.
And the next day, when he found an envelope under his door with printed photos of the Riddler’s face as Annabeth was destroying him (with a handwritten note saying ‘I got my brother to hack the security cameras. Worth it’), he was certain of it. He framed the best photo, and put it in his bedroom nearby his extended family picture, with Annabeth, Tyson, Thalia, Jason, Hazel, Nico, Piper, Leo, Frank, and Grover all crammed next to his mom and Paul—his mom with her hand over her belly to try and include Estelle as best she could.
He really was happy in Gotham. Even with everything, he felt like he had a place here.
Then Nico finally contacted him.
Notes:
i do know that jason uses swords and knives too, i just think he'd find it funny to argue with percy over this. also bc once the mental image of jason as a cowboy entered my head i became physically unable to change it. he deserves a cowboy hat.
also, percy vs. sea world, the fight of the century
i hope you all liked it! i feel like there was more i wanted to say here but i cant think of it so ill just see yall next time :) <3
Chapter 9
Notes:
after a brief check-in with jason at the start here, we'll be with percy for a while. but dont worry, we'll get back to jason's pov soon enough :)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“You are not going to pull a Tim, you are not going to pull a Tim, you are not going to pull a Tim,” Jason muttered to himself, pacing back and forth across his room. His phone sat tauntingly on his bedside table, reminding him not only of the problem at hand, but also of how he felt the last time he did something with his Bat-instincts regarding Percy. The problem was that he wanted to trust Percy. He was his fucking boyfriend , trust was kind of a big part of that. But Jason couldn’t deny the itch that had started the moment Percy told him that he didn’t have a phone.
He might have deleted the recording, but he still remembered what he overheard.
He knew what it sounded like when someone was talking over a phone. Annabeth had not been in Percy’s apartment when they were talking, and while he had seen that Percy’s apartment had a landline, that didn’t explain the speakerphone-like quality of the conversation. The only explanation that Jason could think of was that Percy did have a phone, and he had lied about it for some reason. Maybe he only used it with Annabeth and his mom? Maybe he did grow up without a phone but got one recently and just forgot? Maybe there was someone else in his apartment with him who was just really quiet and he was using their phone?
Jason groaned and dropped his head against his wall with a dull thud. He wished he could just let this go.
He wanted to let this go. He hadn’t mentioned this dilemma to anyone else because he knew that would just make it even harder for him to ignore it, but he had forgotten the fact that his own brain hated him. It was taking all of his energy to just not get angry about being potentially lied to, and that left nothing to help him actually not think about it .
It would be easy to bug Percy’s apartment. It would be easy to tail him, to snoop around his rooms—which, now that he thought about it, he really hadn’t been in that much except for Percy’s living room because they spent most of their time in Jason’s apartment except for dinner and was there something to that, was Percy hiding something in his bedroom, if Jason snooped would he find something incriminating, would he —
Jason shook his head sharply, stopping that train of thought before it could get any worse. He had already breached Percy’s privacy once, and he felt like shit about it. Tim might be a mini-stalker, and his civilian boyfriend might not be much better, but even Jason knew that their boundaries were stalking each other . Tim let Bernard keep his secrets, and Bernard didn’t do any kind of snooping that could lead to him discovering Tim or the older Super’s identities. And so here Jason was, having already fucked that up and eavesdropped on a private conversation. If he hadn’t done that, he’d have no reason to want to snoop more, because he’d have no reason to think Percy actually had a secret phone somewhere. Which was why he was determined to ignore this, no matter how much it made his skin crawl to not solve this mystery.
He had to let it go. He had to let Percy keep this secret, and if it turned out that Percy was lying to him and without a good reason, well…he’d deal with that if it happened.
He really, really hoped that was an ‘if’ situation.
Percy appreciated that Annabeth didn’t take the opportunity to surprise him while he was distracted. She easily could, he didn’t notice her approaching as he lay back on the blanket that he had spread out by the lake. But she just sat gently next to him, and let him stare at the clouds for a few more minutes. She joined him, and the first thing she said to break the silence was as she pointed at a cloud to their right.
“Look,” she said softly. “That one looks like Leo.”
Percy glanced where she was pointing, and laughed sharply, having to sit up as he nearly coughed—the cloud looked nothing like Leo, and more like a shapeless blob that was on fire. Which actually...that could be Leo. Annabeth smiled smugly, leaning onto her knees to look at Percy.
“ There we are,” she said. “Pensive isn’t your look.”
Percy calmed down, swallowing and turning to Annabeth.
“Thanks. I was just...caught up in last night.”
“I know. I spent my whole shift today going over a thousand different plans for tonight.”
“ Tonight ,” Percy repeated. “Gods. After practically three months...it doesn’t feel real.”
“It’ll feel real when we’ve got our Ghost King back, and when he’s whining about being forced to sleep in a real bed for three weeks,” Annabeth said, placing a hand on his knee. He put his own hand over top of hers, and squeezed it gently.
“Will is going to smother him so much ,” he said, grinning slightly. “If Nico thought he was a mother hen before …”
“Has Nico even thought about that? I’m surprised he’s not telling you to leave him there longer so he can get away with not taking care of himself.”
“One, as if I would also let him not take care of himself,” Percy corrected, “I’ve nagged him every time he’s managed to get through to my dreams. Two, I think he’s well aware that Will is going to mother hen him, and while he would admit it to me only under penalty of painful death, I think he’s looking forward to it.”
Nico had asked about Will the previous night, in Percy’s dream. He had scuffed his bare feet along the floor almost sheepishly, swinging them off the side of his cot, and asked how worried Will was. Percy didn’t lie to him, Nico would know immediately, and so he answered honestly that Will was not taking it well. Kayla had updated them not that long ago, and they had forced Will to spend less time in the infirmary, taking turns dragging him into other camp activities and having game nights in their cabin for him. He had been sleeping slightly better since they started doing more ‘sibling bonding’ as she put it, but they still occasionally had to involve the Hypnos cabin. Nico had sighed at that answer, staring at the floor and nodding.
“Yeah,” he had said. “Yeah, I figured.”
They all knew that Will understood exactly why Nico was staying in Arkham, and why Nico didn’t let them break him out sooner, but they also knew that understanding why didn’t stop anyone from worrying themselves sick. Just ask Percy.
“So let’s eat,” Annabeth said after a few minutes more of silence. “We made a picnic, let’s have a picnic. Then we’ll go over the plan, and then we’ll just relax.”
“ We made a picnic?” Percy asked, and Annabeth rolled her eyes.
“Alright, alright, you made a picnic, and I brought us drinks.”
“There we go,” Percy grinned. “So, how did homework go? I did good, I only almost called you five times, that’s a record low!”
“It went good, thanks to someone not interrupting me with a random conversation topic that will inevitably become an hour long discussion,” Annabeth glared teasingly at him. “Did you actually get anything done?”
“I got a bit of my essay recorded, I was gonna head to the library tomorrow if everything goes well,” he said. The two of them had taken the first few weeks of their mortal college experience to hash out how they would go about their assignments like a mortal student. They couldn’t just turn in their essay written in Ancient Greek. So Annabeth had the idea of them verbally recording themselves orating their ideas and how they think the essay should go, so that they aren't trying to write in English at the same time that they’re thinking of what they want to write. It’s helped a lot, actually.
“It will go well,” Annabeth said. “And I think I’ll join you at the library, I think the smell of old books will help me with this assignment I can’t focus on.”
“Nerd,” Percy whispered, laughing when Annabeth reached over to flick his forehead.
“Sorry, who’s the one who IM’d me at two in the morning last week to rant for half an hour about the essay you got assigned on ocean pollution and how you had no idea how you were going to condense all your points into five pages?” she countered, eyebrows raised.
“You say this like I’m gonna be able to try and argue with you,” Percy said. “You already know you’re right.”
“Why thank you, yes I am.”
With a light jostle to his shoulder, Annabeth reached into the basket Percy had brought and took out the sandwich he made her. They ate in relative silence, the occasional conversation about their classes or Annabeth’s internship flowing naturally. The two of them weren’t opposed to silence, either. It was usually a nice reprieve from their hectic lives, just sitting there on the blanket in quiet contemplation. That was usually more Annabeth’s thing than Percy’s, but he was happy to people-watch (and fish-watch) while Annabeth contemplated. Percy really loved Annabeth. He loved a lot of people, to be fair. He couldn’t fit them all on two hands when counting them. But besides his mom, he had known Annabeth and Grover the longest out of anyone. He loved the G-man, too, Grover was the best satyr hands down, and while their empathy link hadn’t been needed in a while, it was nice to occasionally focus on it and see that Grover was content where he was. But Annabeth had gone through a lot more with him than Grover had. They were both there on Olympus as it was crumbling, but Annabeth was the one he had trekked through Tartarus with. Annabeth was the one he had fallen into Tartarus for . And he never once regretted it.
He didn’t realize he was staring at her until her foot knocked into his, and he noticed she was watching him with concern in her stormy eyes.
“I think talking about tonight will help,” she said. “I want it to go just how it does in my head, but I know that’s unlikely.”
“Knowing you, Wise Girl, I wouldn’t be so sure,” Percy said. “You’re brilliant.”
“Thank you, Percy, but I really do think that with the amount of frustrating, unpredictable, masked variables...something will go wrong,” she replied. “It’s inevitable. So we just need to walk through multiple options and see how many contingencies we can make.”
“So let’s hear the main plan again, then we’ll go from there,” Percy prompted her, leaning onto his knees. Annabeth sighed, beginning to tick off her fingers.
“We call Will after we’re finished here, and he gets his side of everything ready. Then, at exactly ten-thirty, since there’s a guard change at ten-forty, we meet his group by the right side of the Asylum. Leo gets us in past the alarm using a burner laptop, and we head in through the ‘maximum security’ area.”
“And we have to go through that area?” Percy asked, apprehensive. “I know what Nico said, but…”
“Nico said that the security is worse on the exits in that area. So that’s how we get in. Yes, that means we are passing some of the worse villains of Gotham, but I’ll be using the Mist to make sure no one sees us anyway, and I’ll have my cap with me. So we’ll make our way through to the door into Nico’s section, which he found out the code for, and just run to his room. I know we could cut the doors open, but I’d like to use the codes as often as possible so we don’t leave a trail of evidence in the form of destroyed doors. If anyone manages to see us and the variables are called, then we book it to Nico if we haven’t made it there, and I give him my cap. One of us runs out with him if possible—best case all of us, obviously, but the variables cannot see Mrs. O’Leary shadow-travel—but as long as he has my cap, he can make it back to Will and get back to camp.” Annabeth finished with a slight slump of her shoulders. “Powers are an absolute last resort, for Nico especially. Mostly because of his energy levels, but also because we would rather confuse them more with something they’re not expecting rather than give them more to work with on Nico’s abilities. Best case, though, none of us need to use anything, and they have no proof we’re different.”
Percy looked down at his hands with pursed lips. “What if we have to fight them?”
“Then we fight,” Annabeth answered, just as unhappy with that as Percy. “We aren’t villains, even if they might see it like that. But if it takes engaging them and fortifying their belief that we’re criminals so we can stall and get Nico out...it’s worth it. As long as none of us get taken instead.”
“I don’t like the idea of fighting heroes,” Percy said. “It feels...weird.”
“I don’t either,” Annabeth admitted. “If there was a way to guarantee that they wouldn’t get called and we wouldn't have to engage with them at all, I’d do it. But the only way to do that would be to cause a big enough crime elsewhere that they all have to take care of it, and that would be worse than what we’re actually doing.”
“I just wish we could say ‘hey, he’s fucking fifteen and we’re taking him home’ without having to explain anything about the questions they definitely have.”
“That would be nice,” Annabeth agreed. “Part of me is curious what questions they have, how much they’ve pried and investigated...but I don’t want to gain even more suspicion by flat out refusing to explain anything.”
“If they all come...can the three of us take them?” Percy voiced his fears, frowning. “I know we’re stronger and faster than mortals, but they’re incredibly well trained and would outnumber us. Without powers, without our main weapons…”
“We have to think that we can,” Annabeth sighed. “And if it comes to that, then it might be the situation that would allow powers. But I don’t know if all of them would come, not for a breakout that wasn’t in, say, the Joker’s section. And if it’s a few of them, I think we can definitely get out of there without too much of a fight.”
“Then we lay low, the Mist will make sure that cameras don’t have our faces,” Percy continued. “Maybe we take a vacation back to New York, tell our professors we’ll take a few days off?”
“I can do my classes online, if I had to, so I wouldn’t really miss anything if we did that,” Annabeth said, considering. “We would need to make sure we weren’t seen, though, so that the variables think we just vanished instead of leaving the city. The last thing we want is to lead them up to camp.”
“Well if we don’t have to split up, we can just hop onto Mrs. O’Leary when the others leave, no one will see us. We’d just have to leave camp to find a computer to email our professors.”
“I think that’s a plan,” Annabeth said, leaning back onto her hands. “Until we have to improvise and replan on the fly, which we all know will happen.”
“You’re great at that, though,” Percy said, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s how we haven’t died yet. At least tonight, the stakes aren’t our death.”
Annabeth laughed. “I hate that that’s actually comforting.”
“Really says something about our lives,” Percy agreed.
They trailed off after that, both thinking about the ways their heist could go wrong. The more they could plan for, the more likely it would go smoothly.
But Percy didn’t hear the quiet for very long.
My Lord? A small fish began, swimming close to the surface and poking its face out of the water occasionally. Percy cocked his head, not talking out loud so he didn’t disturb Annabeth.
Yes ? He responded. The fish swam in a circle before speaking again.
You seem distressed, My Lord.
I’m okay, he assured them, smiling softly, we’re just planning something big and don’t want it to go wrong.
We are glad nothing is wrong, My Lord. You have seemed happy recently when you come to our lake with the kind masked man.
Percy frowned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Annabeth peer attentively at him, but he was too focused on the fish, and on the sudden seed of dread sprouting in his gut.
“What do you mean?” he asked aloud, and he could almost feel the fish cock its head inquisitively.
Your paramour, My Lord , the fish clarified, making that seed grow ever so slightly taller. With the white hair and the gentle hands. We have seen him before, on occasion. The first time he passed through this park at night, he frightened us, with his large red mask and loud weapons. But he took the helm off to speak with the other masked men, and we weren’t frightened anymore. He has come recently to feed us without you as well. He is kind, to us and to our Lord.
Percy blinked, that seed a full fledged tree. The fish seemed to shy away.
My Lord? Have I offended you?
But Percy couldn’t form enough words to answer it. He felt his breathing pick up, and he focused all his thoughts on not affecting the water in the lake, purposefully dragging his mind away from what the fish was telling him. His fingers curled into the blanket. Today of all days. When tonight was so important? Why today ? Why was it today that he had to accidentally find out that Jason was—
“—ercy?” Annabeth’s voice broke through his mind, her hand reaching out to cover his and hold it tight. She was leaning forward, watching him with concern. He blinked again. The fish in front of him had left, and he felt bad for making it feel like this was its fault somehow. It had no idea. “Percy, are you okay? What did it tell you?”
He let out a slow breath, trying to calm down.
“Jason,” he said, still staring at the water as if the fish would return and tell him it was all a big misunderstanding. But the worst part was that it made so much sense. “Jason, he—he’s the Red Hood.”
Annabeth froze. “What? How does it know?”
“It...saw him, before we met, with the ‘large red mask’ on,” he said, telling Annabeth how the fish had described him. “He’s the Red Hood. He’s one of the—the variables , Annabeth.”
Annabeth took a moment to stare at the grass, and he could see the gears turning behind her eyes as she thought.
“And this makes sense to you?” she asked. “From what you know about him, this fits?”
“Yeah,” Percy said, nodding. “Yeah it does. The guns, the scars, the way he seemed almost familiar with Robin that day at the aquarium, the— fuck , he never did tell me why he was stabbed the night we got together, did he? He made a joke about my near-mugging, and I brushed it off because he was stabbed and bleeding and I was more focused on helping him, and then by the next day I had forgotten how odd it was for him to say he was mugged at one in the morning, but now it all makes sense.” He paused to take a breath, feeling how fast his heart was beating. “ Gods , Annabeth, what do we do? I’m dating the Red Hood.”
Annabeth sat up straighter, shifting closer to him. “I think that’s up to you, Percy.”
“...we’re still going tonight,” Percy said, his voice firm despite the undertone of uncertainty. “This doesn’t change the fact that we are getting Nico out of there. He matters more. If the variables don’t show up? Great. Then I forget this ever happened and let him tell me if and when he wants to. If they do…”
“I’ll give you my cap,” Annabeth said. He looked up at her, already starting to form a protest, but she shook her head. “Percy, you’re happy. If we can make this not mess that up, then I’ll do what I can. He’s my friend too, and I don’t want you to lose him. If he’s one of the variables that shows up, then I’ll give you my cap before he sees you, and you go home. We can handle getting out without you, and I’ll message you as soon as we get to camp.”
“Annabeth, I…” Percy trailed off.
“I know,” she said. “I know. But even though it's admittedly unlikely, we can do our best to try and have the best of both worlds here. I don’t want to make you choose here, Percy. You shouldn’t have to.”
“If I did, you know I’d choose camp,” he said. “After everything, and everyone who’s there, how could I not?”
Annabeth smiled, squeezing his hand again. “I know, Perce.”
Percy was silent for a moment before he sighed.
“Annabeth?” he asked. “If he finds out...that’s it, isn’t it? Do you think he would even let me explain, or would he just try to arrest me?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, “but...I think probably the latter. It’s his job. He might not want to, I don’t know what would be happening in his head, but he would probably compartmentalize and not think of you as his boyfriend.”
“Yeah,” Percy agreed, “yeah, I think you’re right.”
A beat, and then, “If he doesn’t show up tonight, do you think it’s stupid of me to keep dating him? Like...he has to find out eventually. If any of them show, they’ll describe us to the others, Jason included. He’ll figure it out.”
“...the bats were at your first date,” Annabeth said suddenly, her eyebrows furrowing. “I...I wondered why , but I thought it was a coincidence. If this is true, though, then they were there for Jason. They’ll probably recognize you too.” Her eyes widened. “Oh Hades , the others are probably his family, all the rumors of the vigilantes being a family are probably true. Tim is one of them too, my boss is a variable. He’ll know me, they’ll know you…”
“This is just getting worse and worse,” Percy summed up, making Annabeth laugh sharply.
“You can say that again,” she said. “ Fuck . To answer your question, no, I don’t think it’s stupid. Because if they don’t show up, or if only some of them do, I’m going to keep going to my internship and keep sitting barely thirty feet from one of them.”
“We’ll be stupid together,” Percy said.
“It’s what we do best, isn’t it?”
“You have to join the rest of us dumbasses at some point, Wise Girl,” he replied, nudging her shoulder. She sighed, leaning against him. He rested his head on top of hers, trying to calm his suddenly overactive imagination. Puzzle pieces that he didn’t even know existed had just fallen into place, and it made their plans for getting Nico back much more complicated. But at the same time, nothing had changed. Because no matter the consequences in their personal lives here in Gotham...they were getting Nico out. He had been there too long already, Percy had wanted to break him out three months ago. Everyone had except for Nico, and what good had it done? They had confirmation that something was blocking monsters from finding Gotham, blocking dream communications—potentially specifically to make getting Nico out harder, if this really was Chaos and they wanted to mess with demigods—and maybe also blocking godly communications as Percy and Annabeth had both tried to talk to their parents and heard nothing in response, not even a sign. Nothing was learned that was worth keeping Nico in a fucking Asylum. Nothing . And now, the things that the two of them had managed to gain while letting Nico stew might be the things that could stop them from freeing him.
Fucking demigod luck. The Fates really had it out for them, huh?
Other than the fact that Percy was planning a crime, the fact that he had been dating a vigilante didn’t bother him at all. In fact, it almost made him feel better. Jason wasn’t normal either, he probably had shit that he didn’t want to drag Percy into, just like Percy was worried about dragging Jason into the whirlwind life of a demigod. Maybe this would be a good thing—if Jason wasn’t most likely about to try and arrest Percy. But...if anyone might understand breaking a child out of Arkham, it might be the Red Hood? Everyone in the Narrows knew he had a soft spot for children, and went especially hard on criminals who hurt them or involved them in a drug trade. Some people theorized he must have been a street kid himself, which Percy now knew was true since he was Jason. There was a lot of speculation about the Red Hood that he had overheard since moving there.
Percy paused.
“Hey, Annabeth?” he broached, ending their brief silence. “You know how you were the one to explain my fatal flaw to me?”
Annabeth frowned, sitting up and staring at him. “Yes...why?”
“Because you know that my loyalty to you and to others at camp means that I would do...basically anything for you or to keep you safe,” he said. Annabeth nodded. “Even if it meant hurting other people. Badly.”
“Percy where is this going?” Annabeth asked.
“There’s a bit of an open secret in the Narrows, one that no one mentions to anyone not living there or in Crime Alley,” he explained, “because the Narrows is pretty certain that Red Hood used to be a Robin. The second one, specifically.”
“But he…”
“Died,” Percy finished, nodding. “He died. Then almost two years later, Red Hood appeared, and once he started working with the bats, people overheard bits of their conversations that led to them being basically positive. And...Jason mentioned that something bad happened when he was almost fifteen. I don’t know any details, but I’m putting some things together now. All I’m saying, Annabeth, is that if I ever meet the Joker face to face...is that something you would pull me back from?”
She thought for a moment, searching his eyes.
“...not as long as it was still you ,” she said eventually. “As long as you weren’t getting lost in it. I think that Batman’s decision not to kill is admirable, but that sometimes, by giving someone the opportunity to escape and hurt more people, when that person has , multiple times...whatever he did to Jason is just the final nail. We kill monsters, Percy. And I’m not sure that the Joker doesn’t qualify.”
She laced her fingers into his. “And if it does come to it, I trust you to step back if I tell you to.”
“I always will,” Percy assured her. “I’ll follow whatever you say.”
“Then calm down,” she said softly. “I can hear how fast your heartbeat is. Whatever happens tonight, even if everything that can go wrong does, we’ll have each other’s backs. And that’s all we need to know we’ll be okay.”
“Us against the world.” Percy smiled. Annabeth returned the expression.
“Us against the world, Seaweed Brain. Now let’s go call Will.”
Notes:
who would win: the secret identity of one very strong crime lord/vigilante, or one tiny scaly boy
percy would commit murder if any of his friends needed him to and im just correct about that, theres no arguing.
anyway :) hope you enjoyed. see you next time for Arkham Breakout: Demigod Edition!
Chapter 10
Notes:
we are approaching the end of my first 'arc' of this story! nothing is officially sectioned like that, but the Nico In Arkham plot makes a nice little bookmark of a psuedo-arc. anyway, i hope you all enjoy :)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
As the moon rose above Gotham, most smart citizens were tucked away in their homes, safe from the criminals roaming the street. The faint sound of sirens became background noise, and if they were lucky, they would spot a glimpse of one of the vigilantes on the rooftops, assuring them that they were protected. The air was chilled, the stars were covered by clouds, and the moon broke through occasionally to shine silver on the buildings. It felt like a city that should be empty. But weaving through alleyways and side streets was a pair that didn’t tend to fall under the category of ‘smart Gotham citizens’.
Most smart Gotham citizens knew to stay far, far away from Arkham Asylum. But here Percy and Annabeth were, creeping through the shadowed streets and staying both physically and magically out of anyone’s sights. Percy still had his issues with it sometimes, but Annabeth had grown much better at manipulating the Mist—especially with the help of Hazel and Thalia. But with both of them working together, there was no way any civilian in Gotham would spot them on their way to the Asylum. Their hands were clasped together tightly, and Percy held on to Riptide, even though he knew that even if he got in a fight, his sword wouldn’t be the answer. Not only was he dreading the possibility of having to bear his sword against Jason in anything other than a friendly spar, it wouldn’t do anything anyway.
Arkham Asylum rose in front of them, a sinister, imposing building surrounded by a high iron fence. There was barbed wire at the top of the fence, which Annabeth threw her jacket over as the two of them carefully climbed, Annabeth boosting Percy up and then him helping her as he reached the top. There were a few guard towers with search lights watching the courtyard, but the two of them stuck to the perimeter and eventually made it to the most shadowed part of the yard, a small section that was out of view of the towers. A major security risk, frankly, but right now it was a benefit to them and so they weren’t complaining. Annabeth checked her watch and mouthed down the seconds before the shadows rippled and a massive hellhound tore her way through, shaking her head in disorientation only briefly before noticing Percy and giving his face a slobbery lick.
“Yeah, girl, I missed you too,” he whispered, scratching behind her ears as one of her passengers slid off her back. Piper was pulling her hair into a ponytail to match Annabeth’s, her eyes locked calculatingly on the Asylum as if she was trying to find the one brick to pull out to make the whole thing crumble like a sandcastle at high tide. Percy couldn’t exactly blame her on that one.
“Are you positive that I need to stay here?” Will asked for the eighth time, perched by Mrs. O’Leary’s neck like he was one of the gargoyles decorating Gotham. He was staring Annabeth down, but she sighed and nodded.
“Yes, Will. One, Mrs. O’Leary likes you better than Leo. Two, we don’t know what condition Nico will be in when we get him out, and it's better that you’re here and ready to help him, instead of trying to prepare to help while running back here,” she quietly listed her reasons, before lowering the hand she was ticking off numbers with and leveling Will with a slightly deadpan stare. “Three, you have this funny habit of sometimes glowing when you’re stressed, or emotional, or angry, or happy, or—”
“—okay, okay, I get it,” Will cut her off with a huff, crossing his arms. “I guess it would be best to check him over at camp anyway, rather than before he gets back to Mrs. O’Leary.”
“Check him over or check him out?” Leo asked, grinning cheekily as he glanced up from his most likely stolen laptop. Will punched him in the shoulder without looking at him, but Leo just laughed.
“Are we ready to go in? You know the path, right Piper?” Annabeth asked, and Piper nodded in return.
“I know how to get out if I have to,” she confirmed. “And I think we’ll regret teaching the Human Torch here how to hack, but he knows what he’s doing.”
“Of course I do, Beauty Queen, those alarms won’t know what hit them,” Leo said. “Just give me the word, and I’ll shut ‘em down.”
“Just a few more minutes, and then the guards will change and we’ll have our opening to go in,” Annabeth told him. “Remember, even if Nico comes out alone, head back to camp immediately. We might have to distract the vigilantes if they show up, and getting him out is the priority.”
Leo’s mouth twitched slightly downward as he glanced over at Piper, but he nodded. “Got it, Beth.”
“Don’t call me Beth,” Annabeth said off-handedly as she looked back down at her watch. “One minute. Get ready, Leo.”
“I’ve barely spoken for the past six hours, so if we need charmspeak, I should be able to get some decent power behind it,” Piper added as she began to rock onto the balls of her feet in preparation. “I let Drew shout at everyone for me, she had a great time.”
“I’m sure she loved that,” Percy laughed, shaking his head. “I hope we don’t need your charmspeak, though.”
“Better we need me to make people stop chasing us than we need you to explode the toilets,” Piper shot back, punching his arm lightly.
“Ten seconds,” Annabeth cut in, staring intently at her watch. The conversation died to nothing, and Percy looked up at the imposing building behind them. He wasn’t scared of it, none of them were. But he had been a demigod for too long to think that any plan would go just as they intended. Even one of Annabeth’s plans. He was optimistic, but he also had experience. So as Annabeth counted down the seconds and Leo began typing rapidly, he just tried to calm his heartbeat. And he prayed to any god that could hear him outside of Gotham, hoping that he wouldn’t see a bright red helmet tonight.
“A’ight, and we’re go !” Leo said, hitting the enter key with more force than necessary. “Good luck guys.”
But there was no time to respond as the three of them had already taken off running towards the door closest to their meeting spot, Annabeth yanking it open and ushering Percy and Piper through. As no alarm sounded, they all were thankful for Leo’s ability to learn new skills like he was breathing. The hallway they were in was silent, and the only jarring sound was the snap of Annabeth’s fingers as she reinforced the layers of Mist wrapping around them.
Annabeth motioned the two of them to follow her, and they began to make their way through the long hallways of Arkham, following the blueprints that Annabeth had committed to memory. Percy had no idea how she did it, each hallway they were in looked exactly the same to him. Dark grey walls, metal doors with those little square windows on them, the occasional pot with a dead flower, and posters all over the walls reminding the dangerous criminals to be on their best behavior. They made a few right turns, a few left turns, and Percy was officially lost. But Annabeth wasn’t, and her eyes were narrowed in concentration as she led them closer and closer to the exit of this section of Arkham. They would occasionally pass doors that actually had faces peering out the windows, and Percy was thankful for the Mist as their eyes always passed right over the three demigods as if nothing was amiss. He spotted the Riddler through one of the windows, and sent a wave that he knew the guy couldn’t see. He noted the door number, though, so Annabeth could send him a condescending gift basket later.
He was caught up in following Annabeth, expecting the real trouble to start when they got close to Nico’s room, and he wasn’t expecting the eerie chuckle that echoed through the hallway and stopped all three of them dead in their tracks. Percy looked over to see a face peering at them through a heavily locked door, grinning far too widely. Those eyes, wide and full of madness, didn’t pass right over the demigods. No, they stayed locked, jumping from Annabeth to Percy to Piper and back again. The smile widened even more, slowly and almost painfully.
“Who are the little kiddies lost in the madhouse?” The words were hissed and quiet, but easily heard in the silent hallway despite the slight muffle of the thick door. The voice was high-pitched and laced with laughter that contrasted with those cold, cold eyes. Percy took a slow breath.
“Annabeth,” he breathed, almost silent. “Why is the Joker fucking clearsighted ? And can apparently see through deliberate Mist? ”
“Because the Fates are laughing at us,” Annabeth breathed back, her hand inching towards her pocket that held the Yankee’s cap.
“Should we run?” Piper chimed in, her eyes narrowed at the clown currently pressing his forehead against the glass. Percy steadied his breath and clenched his fists tightly. As much as he wanted to break that glass separating him from the very asshole that he just realized killed his boyfriend, he was here for Nico. And he wasn’t leaving here without him. He wasn’t going to let the Joker get Nico hurt too, not on his watch. So as he didn’t lessen the glare he was leveling at the Joker, he nodded to Piper.
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I think that’s the best idea right now.”
There was no reasoning with the Joker even if Percy wanted to. Whatever the clown would do with the fact that he could see them, they couldn’t bother worrying about it. They just had to get through their mission. The Joker’s eyes darkened.
“Leaving so soon?” he crooned, his eyebrows raising. “You haven’t even met the guards yet. They’re always so kind to unexpected visitors.”
Then he slammed his fist into the metal of the door, the resounding clag echoing down the hallway in both directions. He kept banging, his grin remaining steady as he began to shout.
“INTRUDERS!” he shouted, his voice deafening in the former silence, still audible as the three of them took off like rockets down the hallway. “THERE’S BEEN A BREAK-IN!”
“Shit,” Annabeth cursed as they reached the door they had been looking for and she began to punch in the code Nico had gotten them. “Shit shit shit .”
The sounds of clamoring had started all around them as guards ran first to the Joker’s cell and were greeted by his gleeful shouting pointing them in the direction that the demigods had taken. The Mist was still thick, but its effects were beginning to fade now that people were actively looking for intruders in Arkham. So while none of the guards that had run past the door had noticed them yet, one of them definitely noticed when Annabeth swung the door open, ushered the two of them through, and shut it behind her. And as they began to run down much calmer hallways, they heard the door open again as guards started locking down the Asylum.
“We just have to get there,” Piper said, determined. The three of them sprinted at their full demigod speed through the winding, confusing hallways, following the Athena Cabin’s blueprint all the way to Room 167, holding one Nico di Angelo. By the time they reached the right hallway, every worker they ran past could see them, and shouted after them, but none of them could catch up to the pace they were running at. But they knew they didn’t have much time. Annabeth leaned forward to look at the keypad on Nico’s door, pressing the code that only a demigod would have been able to stealthily figure out through hearing the differently toned beeps of the numbers each time a nurse opened his door. Gods, Percy was going to give Nico the biggest hug once he was able to.
There was a loud beep from the keypad.
“No, what in Hera’s fucking name?” Annabeth cursed, making Percy’s head snap towards her.
“Hera? That’s code red, Annie, what’s wrong?” he asked, and Annabeth let out a frustrated noise.
“It’s on Lockdown mode. It’s a different fucking code!” she hissed, glaring daggers at the red button glowing on the keypad.
Percy’s heart began to race. “So we can’t get in?”
“Not with the code Nico got,” Annabeth replied gruffly. “We’ll have to do this by force.”
“So much for not leaving evidence that we were here,” Percy muttered, pulling the pen out of his pocket and twirling it anxiously as Annabeth stood back up.
“Hopefully they won’t consider ‘magical sword’ as an option, though,” Piper chimed in, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she rested her hand on Katoptris’s hilt just in case.
Percy just laughed, the sound a little tense due to the situation, and uncapped Riptide. The sword settled naturally into his hand after far too long of not having to use it, and he took a breath before slicing straight through the lock mechanism like it was butter. And he would know. He used Riptide to cut butter once.
Once the lock was broken and severed, Percy pulled the door open and was greeted with the sight of Nico, standing behind the door with his arms crossed and foot tapping. He was wearing the white Arkham uniform, and Percy took a moment to register how strange it was to see Nico wearing white. He had his jacket on over the uniform, which made it at least a little bit less odd. He rolled his eyes as the door opened, but his posture gave away his own nerves.
“About time,” he said, and he tried his best to hide the yawn that suddenly hit him. His next blinks were slightly sluggish. “We should...we should go.”
“Just don’t pass out on us yet,” Piper said, maneuvering his shoulder around Percy so that they didn’t collide as Nico left the room.
“Time to get you to an actual bed,” Annabeth agreed, ruffling his hair quickly before glancing behind her at Percy. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cap, holding it out. “Let’s go, quickly.”
But as Percy looked down to take the cap, he felt a chill down his spine. He blinked, and noticed that Nico had frozen too, right next to a still Piper. Annabeth, still looking at him, had gained a tinge of sympathy in her eyes as she too grew tense from the same feeling. Percy looked up and confirmed what he had felt. Standing in the hallway, blocking their exit, were three of the bats. Red Robin was clearly trying to seem subtle, but kept his head angled slightly towards Annabeth, Nightwing was watching Nico and wasn’t holding his weapons—although Percy held no naive hope that he wouldn’t take them out if he needed to—and next to Nightwing…
Percy tried not to look at the bright red helmet. He could practically see Jason’s face underneath it, he could feel how mad Jason would be at this. He’s glad he couldn’t actually see the emotions. Just imagining them was bad enough.
“Too late for that, Annie,” he said quietly, sure that the bats could hear it anyway. He could feel two more presences behind him, but didn’t know which bats they were. Everything felt frozen. He could feel the water rushing through every pipe in the walls next to them, but he really didn’t want to use it. It was one thing to be caught breaking a teenager out of Arkham, it was another to be caught using powers on his scale. He glanced at Piper beside him; she had been right when she said that her powers were the safer route. But she couldn’t tell them to let the demigods go, that was too extreme for someone with as strong of a will as a bat had. She needed something subtler.
In an instant, Percy knew the plan they had to follow. He had no doubt that Annabeth’s mind wasn’t racing for a way to get all of them past the vigilantes, but he knew she would also agree with his plan if he had a way to tell her. He wasn’t always a strategist, but he had his moments. And the main priority was that Nico got out.
“This doesn’t have to end in an arrest,” he heard Nightwing say to Annabeth, who had stepped protectively in front of Nico. Nico was trying to seem alert and awake, but Percy could see the slight sway in his movements. It had been apparent in their dream conversations how little sleep he had been getting, but in person it was even more obvious. “Just explain what’s going on and give the answers that we’ve been trying to get, and we can let him go with you. He’s been told that he can leave if he answers the questions.”
Annabeth’s stoic silence was his answer. Percy shifted slightly to his right, enough to let his hand brush Piper’s inconspicuously. He spoke without moving his mouth as much as he could, the words coming out as more of a breath than real words. He couldn’t tell exactly how close the bats behind them were, and he couldn’t risk them hearing him.
“ Tell them to chase me ,” he breathed, his eyes locked on the stalemate between Annabeth and Nightwing. Piper barely startled, her eyes flickering over towards him before she considered his words. She seemed to slump her shoulders, thinking through the same options he had and accepting his idea. She gave a miniscule nod.
“Miss, I understand the anxiety of registering as a metahuman so young,” Nightwing continued. So that’s what they thought was up with Nico. “But if you answer our questions, we can help . It’s what we do.”
Sorry Nightwing, not happening , Percy thought with a sigh. He kept his eyes away from Jason. He kept his posture as loose as possible, ready to sprint when he needed to. Piper reached forward and tapped the back of Annabeth’s hand twice, the signal to be ready. All three vigilantes zeroed in on the movement, but there was no other movement from either Annabeth or Piper. At least not until a few moments later, when Piper darted forward quickly, right at the space between Nightwing and Red Robin, causing Red Robin to take a step to his right and intercept her. She stopped short, her job done, and Annabeth launched forward, practically dragging Nico through the small gap Red Robin created between himself and the wall. All the vigilantes sprung into action, but Piper’s voice was the fastest.
“ He’s the one you want !” she shouted, pointing back at Percy, her voice dripping with charmspeak. “Chase him instead! ”
And rather than feel anxious, Percy felt relieved when all the bats turned towards him and let Piper slip past them after Annabeth and Nico. Annabeth still had her cap in her hand, and he saw her shove it onto Nico’s head as they turned the corner. He noticed Piper stumble slightly as she ran, and realized just how much power she must have put in her words to make sure all of them fell under her spell. Frankly, he wasn’t sure any charmspeak was needed to make Jason chase him instead of the girls, but the assurance was nice. He turned tail and ran the other way, immediately leaping over the sweeping kick of the little Robin, and ducking under the grabbing arm of Black Bat. Five sets of footsteps followed him as he darted down the hallway and took turns at random. He didn’t know how to get out anyway, he would figure that out once he was sure that the others were safe back at camp. He just had to stall the vigilantes long enough that they couldn’t catch Piper, Annabeth, and Nico before they reached Mrs. O’Leary. He didn’t have to outrun them completely.
Only as he glanced behind him, he realized that he was doing exactly that. Shit . It had been so long since he’d run from humans, he hadn’t realized quite how fast he’d gotten. He stopped running at full speed, slowing down to a more human level of sprinting. He couldn’t let them think they’d lost him, otherwise they might break from Piper’s charmspeak too soon. So he ran at a pace that seemed way too slow for him, having to remind himself that the individuals chasing him were human and not monsters. It didn’t stop his heart from racing, but it kept his feet at a steady pace. It wasn’t all running, though, as his battle instincts kicked in to help him dodge the small bat-shaped projectiles thrown his way. He had to speed up slightly after dodging them, as Black Bat had started to catch up to him.
He turned around another random corner, passing door after door of Arkham rooms, when there was a curse from behind him.
“Why the fuck did we leave the others behind?” Red Robin exclaimed, immediately turning on his heel and sprinting back the way he came. At his words, the charmspeak shattered completely, with matching curses from Red Hood and Robin. Percy glanced over his shoulder to see Black Bat silently turn to follow Red Robin, followed by Nightwing. Robin continued to run beside Red Hood after Percy, at least until Jason locked eyes with the kid and jerked his head after the others. Percy’s gut fell, but some part of him had known it was coming. Of course Jason would want to do this by himself.
He wasn’t sure who to pray to, given that he was pretty sure no one could hear him in Gotham. But he prayed anyway, to Athena for Annabeth’s safety (she might still not like him, but she appreciated how much he cared about her daughter), to his father to look after his friends, to Tyche to shift her luck in their favor. He prayed that the others were already at Mrs. O’Leary and on their way back to camp. Because there was no running from Jason unless he left Gotham entirely, and...he didn’t really want to do that. Not unless Jason gave him no choice. So he kept running, kicking open random doors, and he took a hard left down the first hallway he saw that had a window at the end. He was almost positive it was bulletproof glass, but he was pretty sure he could break it. Just to be safe, he took the condensation on the outside of the glass from the fog, and he urged it to weave into miniscule cracks in the glass and freeze. When this was done, he realized he was at the end of the hallway, right in front of the window. He took a breath, his heart pounding in his chest. He stopped, hearing Jason stop behind him, and he raised his hands, turning around slowly.
He had never been intimidated by Jason before. And even now, he wasn’t entirely. He knew that if he had to, he could win if they had to fight. But the way Jason stopped, his arms crossed over his chest, his stance ready to fight if Percy started anything, that red helmet expressionless and cold...Percy almost couldn’t look at him. He was only a few feet from Percy, a clear gesture for Percy to stop running and not try to fight him. Percy forced himself now to look right at the eyes on the helmet, he refused to pretend to be afraid. He wasn’t afraid. He was just sad. He knew Jason was doing his job, and he was probably doing just what Annabeth said he would do and was compartmentalizing, but...it hurt that Jason was staring Percy down like he was a common mugger being cornered by the Red Hood. He wondered what Jason was thinking. Was he trying to figure out Percy’s motive? Trying to figure out if Percy could have a valid reason for doing what he did? Or was he just mentally cutting all ties with Percy and preparing to drag him off to jail if he had to?
“Stop running, there’s nowhere to go,” Jason demanded, and Percy wasn’t sure if his helmet had a voice modifier or if this was just a harsh growl that Percy had never heard come from Jason before. He hoped it was the former. He hated the sound of it. He swallowed, keeping his eyes steady.
“It’s not what you think,” he started, before sighing. “Well, okay, technically it is what you think. But there’s a good reason! I’m not a criminal, I wouldn’t do this unless there was a good reason, and he didn’t belong here! He doesn’t belong in an asylum, he belongs with his family! They’ve been worried sick about him.”
‘ We’ve been worried sick’, he amended in his head. Better not allude to their familial connection, that would just add suspicion. Jason huffed.
“The patient was told multiple times that if he cooperated with the nurses and answered their questions, he could be free to go,” he said, not losing the harsh edge to his voice. “He was only here to clear that he wasn’t a threat, and once that happened, he could go home.”
Percy’s laugh was only slightly hysterical. It was nerves, mixed with his innate horror at the idea of the demigod secret getting out. “No,” he said, shaking his head sharply, “no he couldn’t. And even if he could, I’m not surprised the kid didn’t believe that, he’s a paranoid one.”
“Why wouldn’t he be able to leave?” Jason asked, and Percy could almost feel his eyes scanning every nervous movement of Percy’s body. “He’s a minor, as long as he registers as meta, he can’t be kept here.”
Percy took a breath. “Listen, we didn’t want to cause trouble. We only went through the other part of Arkham to avoid alarms, we didn’t touch any of the cells of actually dangerous people, and we never would! We were only here for him, he’s been here too long already, his partner was driving themself insane with worry and we just wanted to make sure he was safe! No offense, but this place doesn’t have the best reputation. This place isn’t good for him, this atmosphere isn’t good for him, we were all worried sick, we were never going to hurt anyone, honest , we just wanted him to be safe with people who love him, Jay, I—”
He froze, seeing the exact moment that every muscle in Jason’s body tensed. His eyes widened.
“Shit,” he cursed. “Now this isn’t what you think, I swear. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not true.”
He knew something like this was going to happen! It was going to be hard enough not to let it slip in general now that he knew Jason’s identity, but in a high stress situation? Gods, he was so fucked. Even with that helmet on, he could tell easily that Jason was pissed . Jason took a step closer to him, and so Percy took a step backwards towards the window. He looked at Jason, now letting his sadness show slightly on his face.
“I’m sorry,” he said, hoping that Jason could hear that he was telling the truth. “It’s really not what you think. But I can’t explain here, you have to understand. I—I will explain. Just not here. I’ll be nearby, I promise.”
He hadn’t quite decided how much he was going to explain yet, but he only had a short time left to figure it out. Before Jason could move closer to him, he turned to the side and jumped at the window that he had weakened with ice, hitting it with his shoulder and shattering right through it.
He felt Jason’s hand skim the back of his jacket, but it didn’t catch hold.
He fell towards the ground, and desperately wished it was the ocean underneath him.
Notes:
:) percy and jason are both just having a great time in this one, they're doing awesome. sorry about the mini-cliffhanger, it just worked so nicely as a chapter ender haha.
i hope you all liked it!! this was one of the scenes that gave me this whole fic idea, so i hope it was good :) see you guys next time for the continuation of percy and jason's completely normal and casual night.
((((also i know cliffhangers like this can be pretty anxiety inducing for people esp since this fic has been pretty light hearted so far, so if you are worried about where the next chapter is going and would like slightly spoilery reassurance, keep reading this note, if not, see you in two weeks!
Anyway, all im gonna say is that i said in an earlier note that im not doing any heavy angst in this fic, and that still holds true. itll be ok! in fact, im kinda worried that itll go too ok for some people lmao. our boys are getting through this, dont worry. i read/write fanfic for characters to be happy, and that is very true in this one too, even if things seem rough in this chapter.)))))
Chapter 11
Notes:
this is a LONG fucking chapter yall, these characters just would not stop and let me end the scene lmao. i hope you all enjoy :)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Percy landed in an easy roll, never more thankful for the climbing wall at camp. Once you jumped from the top of that to escape the lava, no other fall was really a problem. He kept running as soon as he got to his feet, glancing over his shoulder to see that Jason didn’t hesitate for a single second to follow him out the window. He landed almost as easily as Percy did, and chased him as he weaved through the streets and tried to find a secluded alleyway. He couldn’t make it all the way to their apartment building, he knew that. He just wished he could know for sure that the other bats wouldn’t hear whatever he decided to tell Jason.
Eventually he found an alley not too far from Arkham Asylum, with not a lot of windows overlooking it and a decently heavy layer of the Mist that he could feel. So he ran down it, and turned halfway to meet Jason. Jason slowed from his sprint, but didn’t stop completely, striding straight towards Percy. Percy raised his hands again, hoping that Jason wouldn’t start a fight that Percy would have to win.
“I don’t want to fight you,” he pleaded, going against every atom of his body. He could feel the lake nearby, the sewer pipes below him, the fog in the air, the blood in Jason’s body, and all of it was screaming at him to just get out of this situation. He felt trapped, not wanting to leave Gotham and Jason, but not sure Jason would even let him explain—much less explain everything if that was what Percy decided to do. And the ocean hated feeling trapped. Percy’s body wanted to fight, to flee, to dive into the water and not resurface until he was at camp. But Percy’s heart wanted to resolve this, if he could. Jason kept stalking forward (not actually holding any of his guns, thank the gods), and Percy started walking backwards, gesturing with his hands back towards Arkham. “All this? Everything tonight? It had nothing to do with us , I swear, I know how this looks. But I wasn’t and wouldn’t use you like that, play you like that, it was all just...this wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t—”
“ —Stop ,” Jason demanded, his hand curling into a fist. Then he stopped walking, a hand flying up to his ear. “What do you mean ‘they’re gone’, Red?”
Percy’s sigh of relief definitely didn’t go unnoticed. It didn’t seem to make Jason any less angry, that much was clear enough. In fact, as he listened to his comms (and Percy was very aware that he could run now while Jason was distracted, but that was a temporary solution, not in any way a permanent one), he got progressively more tense until he let out a frustrated growl and practically tore his helmet off, revealing the black domino mask underneath.
“Well clearly if the kid was meta, at least one of the others was too,” he said sharply, staring right at Percy. Then his scowl deepened at whatever his teammates were saying. “I’m fucking dealing with it. There will be no removing of spines, Robin, I can handle this on my own.”
A beat, and then he finally stopped staring at Percy just to move his glare to a random brick in the wall as he clearly cut someone off to say, “If I see any of you nearby right now, especially you, B, I won’t be responsible for what happens. I can fucking handle this.”
With that, he tore his comms out of his ear and shoved it into his jacket pocket, turning back to Percy. Percy couldn’t help but feel relieved again, now that Jason had cut communications with the other vigilantes. He didn’t know any of the others well enough to trust them, but he trusted Jason. Or at least, he wanted to. He hoped he could.
The silence was tense, hanging in between them just like the Mist, until Jason broke it.
“Explain,” he said, leaving no room for argument. Percy could still feel the call of the water, begging him to run. But if he ran, he would definitely lose Jason. So he took a breath, standing tall. He didn’t regret what he did, just these consequences of it. He wasn’t in danger here. If the worst happened and he had to fight, he could win, or at least get away, but this was still a situation he wished didn’t happen.
“He didn’t belong there,” he repeated, slower this time. He hoped Jason could hear the sincerity in his voice. “And there were no options for him to leave. If he lied about his abilities to say what everyone there, including you, wanted to hear...something would be off enough to raise red flags, and then he’d be deemed a threat and he’d never see his family again. And if he told the truth?” Percy didn’t even try to hold back his full-body shudder. He had seen what happened to some metahumans with abilities that scientists wanted to study, the ones deemed dangerous, the ones people wanted to control. Demigods? They would be a brand new commodity, and one that people might kill for control over. He had enough nightmares already, he didn’t need to add scientists poking at his DNA to the list. “If he told the truth then he would never be let go, and he’s only fifteen . He’s practically my little brother, Jason, I couldn’t leave him in there.”
“So he’s not meta, then,” Jason stated, crossing his arms over his chest. His voice held no trace of emotion besides the anger that was written all over his body. Percy sighed.
“...I can’t answer that,” he said, seeing the way Jason bristled and took a step forward. He hurriedly continued. “Not here. Not without discussing it with someone else. I want to, I do, but I can’t answer that easily. It’s not just up to me.”
Jason didn’t... relax , exactly, but Percy’s addendums definitely helped. There was the opening of a door, the offer of answers, and that was better than Percy saying he couldn’t give any information. But that didn’t mean that Jason was calm, or that he was getting any less angry at Percy, he just wasn’t actively pushing for an answer right that second . Instead, he clenched his jaw behind his scowl, his stare piercing even through the white lenses of his mask.
“So, what, you figure the kid was in Arkham and think ‘hey, let’s use one of the vigilantes to make this easier’?” he asked harshly, making Percy shove away the instinctual offense he felt. He knew how this would look to Jason, he couldn’t be offended by that.
“ No , absolutely not!” He defended himself. “I told you, I wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, yeah, and your word is definitely believable right now,” Jason shot back. “How am I supposed to believe that? You showed up in Gotham not long after this kid was arrested, moving right across from me, how am I not supposed to see a connection there now that this happened?”
Percy let his shoulders slump. “The connection is between me arriving in Gotham and him being arrested, not me moving in across from you. It was coincidence, that’s all, I—”
“— Coincidence ?” Jason repeated, bristling again. “You expect me to believe that? It makes so much sense for you to have figured out my identity, moved across from me, strung me along this whole fucking time, did you bug me? Is that how you got whatever information you needed to pull this tonight? Or did you just stalk me? Were you just going to disappear from Gotham now that you got what you wanted, were you going to unmask the Red Hood to the world, or—”
“—I found out about your identity eight hours ago !” Percy cut in, his voice raising to an almost desperate shout. Sue him, Jason was attacking his fucking loyalty! Jason stopped, staring silently at him. “We’ve been planning this for months, and I found out who you were this afternoon , do you know how much that sent me fucking reeling ? If we weren’t so desperate to get him out of there, we might have put it off because of finding out your identity, that’s how much of a wrench it was! Jason, I was not using you. I swear, I found out who you were this afternoon, I had no idea who you were when we started dating, when we met , I swear it on the River Styx.”
He said the words before he could really think about it, but he realized that he meant them. Especially because it made Jason freeze. He could feel the power that had entered his words as he made his vow, swearing to Jason that this had nothing to do with their relationship, the way his words seemed to echo in the air and swirl around them as the river accepted his oath. Mortals could feel this oath just the same as demigods; he knew that Jason could feel the rippling of his words and the power behind them. It was just another reason why making oaths like that was dangerous. Mortals tended to ask questions when your words made the air sit up and pay attention. Jason was silent for a few moments, letting the energy dissipate, before he spoke, his voice a lot quieter—almost in shock.
“...What was that ?” he asked. Percy gave a small, tense smile.
“That was my oath,” he said. “I know you could feel it. It was a real oath, and I meant every word of it.”
“...that could have been you,” Jason protested, but he was clearly conflicted now. Percy shook his head.
“You could tell that wasn’t me,” he said. “And Jason? The way I found out your identity...it’s safe. No one else can find out that way, at least no one who actually would try to. Annabeth only knows because I tell her everything and she was with me when I found out, and neither of us will tell anyone. We understand how important secrets like that are.”
Jason swallowed, and Percy could see that he was more contemplative and stunned now than angry. Still slightly mad, probably masking a fair amount of hurt, but not...itching for a fight. “The person you need to discuss with...it’s Annabeth, isn’t it?”
Percy nodded. “Technically her and someone else, but she’s probably already talked to him by now. Just in case. And I do want to talk with her and tell you everything. I probably would have done it anyway eventually, but this just...moves the timeline up a bit.”
He wanted to tell Jason that the only reason he hadn’t told him everything already was because it was too dangerous, but he didn’t want to risk telling him anything that would make him unsatisfied with whatever excuse Percy had to give him if he and Annabeth decided against the truth. He had already maybe said too much just to get Jason to calm down. It would be hard to brush off his oath, even with the help of the Mist. He still didn’t regret saying it, though. Jason gave a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose before huffing and pulling his domino mask off.
“Not like that was doing much anyway,” he muttered as he glared at it and shoved it in his pocket, zipping his leather jacket to hide the red symbol on his chest. Now when he looked back at Percy, his eyes were unobstructed. Percy could see not only the lingering anger (and the odd speck of green that seemed to be fading away), but also the hurt that he had guessed Jason had been hiding. Jason stared Percy down. “The kid, whatever he is, if he’s not meta...are you the same thing?”
Now that’s a question that Percy should not answer before getting confirmation that he could trust Jason with the full story. But now that he saw Jason’s eyes, and could really tell what he was feeling, how could he not? He’d deal with the consequences.
He nodded. “Yeah.”
Jason clenched his jaw again, but nodded back, clearly stiff. “How do we contact Annabeth if you don’t have a fucking phone? Or was that—”
“—not a lie,” Percy cut him off. “I genuinely don’t have a phone or a computer or anything like that. And we can contact her once we get somewhere a little more private. We can go to your apartment, you’d probably prefer that to being in mine, and we can talk, and hopefully I can tell you everything.” he paused for a moment, lowering his hands from where they had still been hovering by his head. “Jason, I—I never wanted this to hurt our relationship. I knew once I found out your identity that it was a very real possibility, but I wanted to avoid it if I could. Even now...if we can get through this and still be together, I’d like that.”
Jason was silent, searching Percy for something. Then he blinked, and looked away, walking around Percy to the mouth of the alleyway.
“We’ll see,” he said, not looking back. Percy felt his heart sink, but he understood. Hey, at least Jason hadn’t tried to kill him. Look at where his relationship with Nico started, this was much less drastic than that. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. He hurried to follow Jason, keeping a step or so behind him so that Jason didn’t feel crowded.
The walk was silent. Percy didn’t see any of the other bats, and so they must have listened to Jason’s threat. At least that was a positive. He didn’t want to deal with any of the others, not tonight. He’d deal with that once this was resolved, because hopefully then he’d have Jason on his side. He would need that if the bats were out to get him.
Percy fidgeted with Riptide as they got closer to their building, wanting to play with the water all around him but he knew that he couldn’t do that yet. Just a little longer. His heart was almost racing more than when he was being chased. He could handle dangerous situations. But he had never had to explain his world to someone alone before. His mom had helped when they broke the news to Paul, and that was under a much less stressful situation. And Paul still fainted!
He barely noticed when Jason roughly shoved his apartment door open and waved Percy inside, but he noticed when Jason dropped into a corner of the couch and looked at him expectantly. He sighed, sitting at the other corner and taking the IM box out of his pocket. He set Riptide next to it, and reached into his pocket for a drachma.
He hesitated. Once he did this, it would cement that something weird was going on. That he was weird. Sure, Jason was the Red Hood, he had seen weird things, but never demigods. He glanced at Jason, seeing the expectant and impatient look on his face.
“Do you hate me?” he asked before he could stop himself, unable to fully read Jason. He could see the way he startled at the question, and the thoughtful look that entered his eyes, but he couldn’t read the answer without Jason telling him.
Jason thought for a moment, making Percy fear that the answer was yes. But then Jason crossed his arms again and huffed.
“I want to,” he said. “I definitely wouldn’t say I trust you right now. But I can tell when someone is lying, and you weren’t. Not to mention, I was against keeping a kid in Arkham to begin with, even if what you did was definitely illegal. I don’t really have a leg to stand on with illegality anyway. You didn’t hurt anyone, so that’s better than a lot of illegal things in this city. I want to hate you, but I believe what you said about not using me, and not wanting this clusterfuck to break us up. So…’hate’ is a bit of a strong word. But this had better be a good explanation.”
Percy nodded, accepting that. He could deal with Jason not trusting him, because he could prove his explanation. Hate would be different. He was about to start talking when he saw Jason’s eyes widen and heard a familiar shimmering sound from his right. He turned to see a mist sheet now in the air, with Annabeth’s face in it. They both relaxed as their eyes met, Annabeth sighing in relief.
“Percy, you’re okay,” she said, leaning back against whatever building she was sitting outside of. Next to him, Jason muttered ‘what the fuck ’ under his breath. Annabeth looked over at him with a sympathetic smile. “Hi Jason.”
“I’m fine. You all got back okay?” Percy asked. “How is everyone?”
Annabeth smiled, her exhaustion obvious in her foggy grey eyes. “Well, Beauty Queen passed out as soon as we got to Mrs. O’Leary, but Drew took her to a bed and is taking care of her, which also means she’s dealing with Leo and Jason.”
“I’ll make her a gift basket,” Percy said wryly. Annabeth laughed.
“For once I’d agree she deserves one. Ghost boy is with Will, also getting much needed sleep. I have it on good authority that he won’t leave the infirmary for at least the rest of the week. What’s going on with you two?” she asked, looking between them. “I assume Percy accidentally said something, judging by your faces. Sorry for figuring out your identity, Jason, it really was an accident.”
Percy sighed as Jason didn’t answer, just pursing his lips. “Yeah,” he said, “I called him by name accidentally. We’re...talking. I was actually just about to IM you to see just how much we’d be talking about. I assume that since you IM’d me first, you’ve already seen Chiron?”
“Yeah, I filled him in because I figured that something like this would come up sooner or later, even if we had hoped it wouldn’t be tonight. He said that it’s up to you, Percy. He trusts your judgment, after everything we’ve done,” Annabeth said, brushing a loose piece of her hair behind her ear. “So the question is—what do you want to do?”
Percy pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing Annabeth was here in person because the sound of her heartbeat never failed to calm him down. “I want to actually introduce Jason to you all, with a real introduction. I never thought that I’d have to decide this so soon, but now I either tell him, or I leave Gotham. And…” he glanced over at Jason, who was watching the discussion intently but was still very clearly impatient, “I don’t want to do that. I actually kind of like it here.”
Annabeth nodded. “Then there’s just one more thing. Because his identity as Red Hood makes this both easier and harder. Easier because any promises of secrecy are ones that we can believe he’ll keep, but harder because he might not make them. So Jason,” she addressed him directly, turning away from Percy, “we need to ask one thing of you. And I know that you don’t trust us right now, and I get why. But we want to tell you everything, about the boy we rescued tonight, about Percy and I, everything . And in order to do that, we...we need to know that you won’t tell anyone. And we’ll explain why, because you don’t trust us, but we need your promise. And, at least for now...that includes not telling your team.”
J ason’s scowl returned, reminiscent of his expression in the alleyway.
“And why the fuck would I do that? What if I say no?”
“Then we’ll both leave Gotham,” Percy said. “I’ve already told you too much, if you can’t promise us secrecy, then we’ll leave to protect it. And you’ll never see us again.”
“You live in New York, I could find you,” Jason said, his eyebrows narrowing. “You know I’ve done a background check, I know your apartment number.”
Percy felt his smile drop. “You won’t go there. If Annabeth and I leave, if we disappear, you will not find my mother and baby sister just to get to me. I know that was just to make a point, I know you wouldn't actually harass them, but if you did? It would work. You’d be able to find me. You just might not like the ‘me’ you find.”
A beat, and then Annabeth snorted. “Well that was melodramatic. Sally can handle herself, you know that very well, Perce.”
Percy relaxed, leaning back against the couch. “Yeah I know. She’s still got her, uh, sculpture supplies in a storage shed. Sorry about that, Jason, I just...I get protective of them.”
But Jason was just watching him thoughtfully. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you threaten someone before,” he said. “Even if that was all hypothetical.”
“I try not to,” Percy said. “Not seriously, at least. Unless I really mean it. But...I was being serious when I said that if we can’t get a promise of secrecy, we’ll leave. And that does include your family for now. There’s more at stake than just Annabeth, me, and the boy we rescued.”
“How is something that secret?” Jason asked. “So secret that I can’t even tell other vigilantes, ones that are arguably more moral than I am?”
Annabeth’s eyes hardened to steel. “Because the more people who aren’t directly involved who know? The more of a risk it is that a government agency, a laboratory, a supervillain will hear about it somehow and believe it. And it’s not just me, Percy, and that boy at risk if that happens. There is a growing community here of almost three hundred people, ranging from the age of four and a half to twenty-six.”
Jason stiffened.
“And another one,” Annabeth continued, “of over a thousand, with most of those being families with infants or young children. By keeping this a secret, you help protect them.” She hesitated for a moment, glancing off into the distance before her eyes hardened again and she turned back to the IM. “My youngest half-sister is six years old. Her name is Amber. And while you could argue that Percy and I are criminals because of tonight, she’s completely innocent. She doesn’t deserve scientists or villains digging into her DNA, or using her for horrible things.”
“And while she’s not technically involved in this, if anything happened to let this secret out, Estelle could be in danger too,” Percy added, feeling the fear grip his heart at even the thought of his world bringing danger to his baby sister. “She’s barely a year old. We don’t keep this a secret because we don’t want to tell people, or because we don’t care about other people enough to trust them with this, it's a matter of life, death, or something even worse, and—”
“— fuck , okay, fine,” Jason cut him off, running a hand down his face. “I’m not gonna put fucking kids in danger, no matter what’s going on with them. So I’ll promise not to tell my team, but only if what you end up telling me doesn’t seem to be a direct danger to them.”
Percy and Annabeth nearly deflated in relief, Percy leaning forward onto his knees.
“Thank you,” he said earnestly. Annabeth was smiling, her eyes back to their usual light grey.
“As a show of good faith,” she said, “We’ll tell you something that you can share with your team. The name of the boy we rescued, and a bit of his story. Most of it counts as a secret, but there are bits that your team can know, just to clear up a few questions.”
“Uh, yeah, that’d be nice,” Jason said, raising an eyebrow. “None of the fucking tests gave us a name, his bloodwork was gibberish, and the kid was the furthest thing from cooperative.”
Percy sighed. “Right. You took his blood. Awesome.”
“We’ll deal with that later, Percy,” Annabeth assured him, but she also looked anxious at the reminder. “He’s okay now, and they won’t find anything in his blood because they’ll be looking in the wrong place if they ever analyze it again. I know it's concerning that Arkham has Nico’s blood in the first place, but we can fix that.”
There was a beat where Percy wiped the thoughts of blood tests from his mind, before Jason interrupted.
“...Nico?” he asked, his voice almost exasperated. Annabeth grinned wryly.
“Nico di Angelo,” she answered. “And judging by your face, that does mean something to you.”
“The fucking kid from the thirties?” Jason asked, throwing an arm towards the IM. “I swear, if I owe Nightwing money because it was fucking time travel all along, I’m burning my helmet.”
“Not time travel,” Percy assured him, laughing. “More...time stasis.”
“...Time stasis,” Jason repeated flatly. Percy glanced at Annabeth before answering, the sudden memory of the smell of lotus flowers entering his mind.
“Yeah,” he said. “There’s this...hotel, in Las Vegas, and when you’re inside it, time passes like sand. Nico entered when he was ten, and he thought he was in there for a few months. He finally leaves, and suddenly eighty years have passed. Annabeth and I got stuck in there when we were kids but we were luckily only in there for a week. It makes you never want to leave. That place is a fucking nightmare.”
He couldn’t quite tell if Jason believed him, but he didn’t say anything to suggest that he didn’t. Annabeth rubbed her eyes and looked off to the side, towards what Percy assumed was the other side of the cabin horseshoe.
“Well, Percy, I’ll let you tell the rest,” she said, giving him a smile that told him she had every bit of faith in him to explain everything. It made Percy more confident in himself. “I want to go see if Piper’s woken up at all, she really saved us tonight. And maybe get started on Drew’s gift basket.”
“Get some sleep, Annie,” Percy said, smiling back at her. “Are you coming back tomorrow?”
“I’d like to, yeah,” she answered. “I’ll spend tonight in my cabin, it's been forever since I’ve seen everyone, but I’ll come back tomorrow, so long as everything goes okay. I have my internship tomorrow, which should be...interesting. Goodnight, Seaweed Brain. And Jason, thank you for keeping our secret.”
“Night, Wise Girl,” Percy returned, watching as Annabeth pushed herself to her feet, swiping through the IM as she did and ending the call. The room was silent for a moment. Then he turned to Jason, who was still staring at where the IM used to be.
“...thank you,” he said, drawing Jason’s attention. “For not attacking me or arresting me. For hearing me out. For promising to keep the people I care about safe.”
Jason sighed, leaning forward like Percy was doing.
“I’m not gonna put kids in the line of fire,” he said, but Percy hoped that he was right in hearing the unspoken addition of wanting to keep Percy safe. “Can you tell me what you are now? If you aren’t meta? Are you an alien? Some new kind we don’t know about?”
Percy laughed. “Gods, I wish it was that easy. No, I’m human. Or, uh, half-human. On my mom’s side.”
Jason's eyes narrowed, but it wasn’t really in suspicion now, just curiosity.
“Since you’re the Red Hood, you probably know Wonder Woman, right?” He asked, before Jason could cut in with a question. Jason nodded, and he continued with, “that might make this easier, then. Wonder Woman isn’t exactly a daughter of Zeus, but she was created by him, she was given life by him. So that means that Zeus exists, right?”
Jason frowned, his eyebrows furrowing. “Uh, existed ,” he corrected. “Diana was made thousands of years ago, thanks to Themyscira.”
Percy grinned, shaking his head. “She was, yeah, but Zeus is still around. So are all the others. Gods don’t tend to fade away like people think they do, they just shift with where the main power of the world is, and right now it's in America. So now America has Mount Olympus, the Underworld, the gods, the monsters, everything. They’re pretty present here if you know where to look. So, you’re pretty well-read, what’s one thing that the Greek Gods were pretty good at in their mythology?”
Jason looked a little bit stunned at Percy’s casual revelation that the gods were still around, but Percy hadn’t even gotten to the big part yet. For someone who worked with aliens, he had figured that the general existence of mythological beings would be easier for Jason to accept than Percy’s own familial connection. He seemed to be scanning Percy’s face for any trace of a falsehood, but at least he was taking this far better than Paul did. That was admittedly a pretty low bar, though, as all Jason had to do was stay conscious.
“Having kids,” he answered himself, drawing Jason’s eyes back up to his face. He softened his voice slightly, knowing that this next part was the kicker. “Falling in love with mortals and having kids with them.” He let a beat pass for that to sink in before he continued. “We call ourselves half-bloods, but technically...demigods is the most accurate term.”
Jason blinked. “ Demigod ?” he repeated, his eyes wide. He looked Percy up and down as if something would have changed in his appearance, before settling once more on meeting his eyes. “You’re...half god ?”
“It’s a lot to process, I know,” he said in return, reaching out to grab Riptide so he could twirl it between his fingers. “Do you wanna guess who my other parent is? Might make it a bit easier to accept. I already gave away that my mom is human, so that’s one clue for you.”
Jason barely gave a cursory scan of Percy’s body before flatly answering, “Poseidon.”
Percy deflated, pouting at Jason. “Oh come on, I thought it would be a little harder than that! What happened to being blindsided by the gods existing? Paul at least asked if it was possible for me to have two moms, which it is by the way. Do I just give off Poseidon vibes? Is that even a thing? I don’t even wear Hawaiian shirts!”
Jason finally laughed, unable to hold it back, and making Percy relax for real for the first time since he left to go head to Arkham Asylum.
“Percy, you talk to fish ,” Jason shot back, before doing a double take and staring at Percy. “Hold on a fucking second, are you actually talking to the fish?”
Percy flushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Um, yes? The fish in Gotham Lake were the ones who told me your identity. They thought I knew it already and they said you were really nice. They also snitched that you’ve gone to feed them without me.”
Jason shook his head with wide eyes. “I have met aliens. I have met Aquaman . And this is still so fucking weird, how are you like this?”
“It’s a talent,” Percy said, shrugging.
“What else can you do? The communities that Annabeth mentioned, are they all demigods? Who is Annabeth’s parent? What about di Angelo? Do other pantheons exist too? Is—”
“—Slow down!” Percy cut in, laughing. “One at a time, I am only one person! To start, listing my abilities would take too long. We’ll just address them as we come across them, how’s that?”
At Jason’s unimpressed look, he rolled his eyes.
“Alright, alright, I’ll give you one more.” He waved his hand towards the kitchen, the motion unnecessary but adding to the effect as he grabbed a ball of water from a glass Jason had out on the counter and brought it over to them. Jason watched with calculating eyes as Percy played with the water ball, forming it into different shapes. He made a little replica of the Red Hood helmet, catching the little fond eye-roll that Jason tried to hide.
“That’s some detailed hydrokinesis,” Jason said, watching curiously, “you've got a lot of control.”
Percy grinned proudly. “I’d hope so, I’ve been training for years now. As for the communities Annabeth mentioned, for the most part they are entirely demigods. There are a few exceptions, but they exist as demigod communities first and foremost. What was your next question again?”
“Who is Annabeth’s parent?” Jason repeated, his eyes still on Percy casually playing with the water. Now that he could , Percy was pretty sure he would be fidgeting with water all the time. Jason would get used to it fast.
“Athena,” Percy answered easily. “You should ask Annabeth for the details on why a virgin goddess has kids, she always gets annoyed when I explain it because I make fun of her. Also, Athena just barely tolerates me now, so I’d rather not accidentally offend her somehow.”
“Does Annabeth have powers?”
“Besides being the smartest person I know and one of the only people I trust to make a strategy for me? No,” Percy said. “But she doesn’t need any. She’s terrifying without any extra abilities. I've said before that I think she’s the most powerful demigod of this generation, and that’s all her.”
“High praise from the son of one of the main gods,” Jason said, raising his eyebrows. “If you can do that so casually,” he pointed to the water that Percy was still absentmindedly making into shapes, “I can only imagine what else you can do.”
Percy grinned. “Wait ‘til you see Nico at full strength,” he said. “Talk about terrifying.”
“What does the kid have to do with that?” Jason asked, frowning. “Who is he related to?”
“He officially claimed the title of Ghost King a few years back, and you saw a hint of his powers. Take a guess,” Percy said. “Also, just think about his appearance.”
“His appearance? He looks half-dead,” Jason retorted, meaning it as a joke but faltering when Percy just raised his eyebrows in patient wait. “Are you serious? The kid is the son of a death god?”
Percy winced. “Ah, close, but Thanatos doesn’t actually have any kids that we know about. Hades might not be the god of Death, but the god of the Underworld isn’t any less intimidating. Trust me, I’ve met both of them, just because Thanatos uses an Ipad doesn’t make him not scary, and I’m pretty sure it’s my sheer lack of self-preservation that lets me talk back to Hades as much as I do without getting scared shitless.”
“The kid’s the son of Hades ,” Jason said, deadpan. He was probably deciding to ignore for now the whole ‘Thanatos has an Ipad’ thing, which was the proper response in Percy’s mind. “Any kids of Zeus out there or are all the myths inaccurate?”
Percy laughed, “Oh there have been plenty of kids of Zeus throughout history, but right now there’s only two. Technically one, if you want to get specific about Zeus and Jupiter, but us kids don’t really enforce that difference. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades aren’t supposed to have kids with mortals, we tend to be...powerful, and there was this whole prophecy a while ago that just made that worse, don’t ask please, so there aren’t many of us. We’re family, though.”
“Does that mean you and Annabeth are related?” Jason asked, making Percy make a face.
“We don’t think like that. The gods technically don’t have DNA, which is why Nico’s bloodwork was fucked up, so if you don’t share a parent then you aren’t related. It’s just me and other Big Three kids that consider each other related. Sometimes we’ll drag one of Demeter’s kids into the conversation, but they tend to not want to get involved with our chaos, so we leave them be.”
“That seems like the sensible choice, and I don’t know anyone involved except for you,” Jason said, making Percy gasp in offense.
“Hey, I am perfectly sensible! Other Jason is involved, so you’re kind of insulting yourself in a way.”
“That makes no sense,” Jason shot back. “And I never said that I was sensible.”
“At least you’re self-aware,” Percy teased, happy that the tense moments seemed to be over. “I remember you had asked something about other pantheons, but trust me when I say that you don’t want to know. It makes my head hurt to think about that, and I’ve been in this world since I was twelve.”
“You know, when you’re trying to explain something to someone in a way that makes them believe you, brushing off a question like that isn’t always a good idea. It can sound like you don’t actually have an answer to give,” Jason said, but his tone was still light, especially compared to earlier in the conversation. Percy got where he was coming from, though. He shrugged.
“Alright, but don’t blame your future headaches on me,” he said. “As of right now, I’m aware of the Greeks, the Romans, the Norse, and the Egyptians. The Egyptians are weird, though, and aren’t kids of their gods, but like…harness their powers? And sometimes are a god? The two I’ve met, Carter and Sadie, have tried to explain it and I still don’t really get it. And the only two Norse demigods I’ve met are dead, so they’re weird too. My cousin Jason is Roman, he’s a son of Jupiter, and Nico’s half-sister Hazel is a daughter of Pluto. The Roman gods aren’t technically separate gods, but are kind of like other aspects of the Greek gods who are both separate from them but also the same deity? Again, weird. I prefer the Greeks. I’ve never met Neptune and I don’t really feel a need to.”
Jason just stared at him. “You’re right. I might get a headache from all that. That is just too strange for you to be making up.”
“I warned you,” Percy agreed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this time next year, I’ve been dragged into something involving yet another pantheon, either. Just another Tuesday at this point.”
“How do you keep it all straight?”
“I don’t,” Percy answered immediately. “If I need to know something, I ask Annabeth. I am not exerting the effort needed to actually remember the name of Obscure Minor God Number 152.”
Jason nodded. “A valid approach. I can respect the inadvertent ‘fuck you’ that not knowing a gods name would be.”
“Oh, it’s not inadvertent,” Percy corrected, grinning. “Just a nice side effect. I like to give myself a little treat after a long quest and let myself insult a god to their face and dare them to smite me. I’ve done so much for them that they basically can’t touch me, and if they did, basically every other demigod would hate them and refuse to help them. So I can call Hera a birdbrained asshole and she can threaten to turn me into a cow, and then we go about our days. We have fun.”
“I feel like I shouldn’t believe that anyone would call a goddess a birdbrained asshole to her face, but somehow, I absolutely believe it,” Jason said. “A god or goddess is, like, the ultimate authority figure, right?”
Percy lit up. “Exactly! None of them except maybe my dad understand why I just can't help but talk back to them. It’s instinctual at this point. Anyway, enough about my hard-earned lack of self preservation. What was your last question going to be?”
Jason’s smirk made him regret asking.
“Is this why you were upset by the Ariel nickname? Is Ariel real?”
The water Percy had been controlling suddenly dropped, splashing onto Percy’s pant leg as his head fell into his hands. “Can I plead the fifth?”
“Absolutely not, Fish Boy. If you’re related to Ariel you legally have to tell me.”
“Ariel isn’t real,” he said, lifting his head. “But Triton is my half-brother, and he finally doesn’t hate me. Pretty sure his mom talked to him or something, since Amphitrite is actually pretty great of a step-mom, but for whatever reason he’s making an attempt to be awkwardly not antagonistic. Anyway, I am keeping all knowledge of the mortal movie ‘The Little Mermaid’ away from Triton so I can see if he actually eventually has kids and names one Ariel. Technically, I would be Ariel’s uncle.”
Jason looked about two seconds from laughing.
“You’re Ariel’s uncle ,” he repeated, mirth evident in his voice. Percy rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, my other half-brother is a cyclops and I’m technically related to every horse ever. Laugh it up. At least I’m not related to Heracles ,” he said, making a face.
“On a scale of one to ten, how annoyed does the Disney Hercules movie make demigods?” Jason asked, leaning forward in interest. Percy shuddered.
“Don’t even get Annabeth started. I think it's kinda fun if I ignore real life, that’s the attitude of most demigods since their parents aren’t really present in the film—although I think Hermes’s kids unironically love it, they have a framed picture of Hermes from that movie in their cabin. Thalia and Jason, Zeus’s kids, don’t watch it; Thalia will only agree to watch it if she can throw pinecones at the screen. And as for Nico and Hazel...Nico likes it. He references it to his father sometimes to be annoying. Hazel doesn’t like movies all that much. Not yet anyway, we’re trying to find her a genre she likes.”
“This sounds like a common discussion.”
“It happens every time a new demigod comes to camp and asks about Hercules, with the movie as their only reference,” Percy replied, sighing. “We hate to be the one to tell them that it’s very inaccurate and that Heracles is an asshole, but it’s better than their false expectations.”
“I hope you know that I am going to be asking you every question under the sun now,” Jason said, and Percy grinned.
“I’d hope so. It’s easily the best case scenario for me telling you everything. I’m still sorry about earlier, your name just kind of...slipped out. I was very stressed. I’m not sorry for breaking Nico out in the first place, but I am sorry for what happened after.”
“...I’m kind of surprised at how easy it is for me to say that it’s okay,” Jason said, frowning thoughtfully. “I don’t want to get into this now, not after we’ve already had a bit of a long discussion, but I have….kind of extreme anger issues, to put it lightly. And I was fucking pissed when it all happened. But this makes...a weird amount of sense, and all this is just too strange for you to be making up unless you’ve been planning this all out for years, which seems unlikely. And I get why you would be afraid of scientists or villains finding out about you. That, and...you really weren’t playing me, you’re acting exactly the same just with this...mask taken away. That’s mostly what I was mad about, more than the whole breakout thing. So I’m not mad anymore. And I’m not gonna let any villains find out about you.”
As Percy was smiling gently at him, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He scowled and sighed, pulling it out and glancing at the contact before looking to Percy.
“You said ‘my family’ earlier, and Annabeth talked about her internship,” he said, his eyes narrowing slightly. “You know , don’t you?”
Percy winced. “It’s Annabeth . She got it pretty quick.”
Jason sighed, but just shook his head, answering the phone.
“What do you want, Dick?” he greeted bluntly. Percy could hear his brother’s reply pretty easily.
“We’re worried, Jay. It’s been an hour. Are you okay? What happened?”
Jason sighed, shutting his eyes. “Physically, I’m fine. And I don't really want to talk about what happened right now. I’ll be over for debrief tomorrow, don’t bother me tonight.”
A pause, and then, “Alright, Jaybird. Be safe, okay? We’re here for you. And if he got away from you, it’s not your fault.”
“I don't want to talk about it,” Jason repeated. “I’ll be there in the morning. Bye, Dick.”
“Get some sleep, Jason,” Dick said gently. “See you tomorrow.”
With a click, the call ended. Jason set his phone on the table with a groan, and Percy huffed.
“They kinda hate me now, huh?”
“Well to them, my boyfriend is now a criminal who figured out my identity, just without any of the very vital context I was just given,” Jason said, massaging his temple. “But I get why you don’t trust them with this, you barely know any of them.”
“Hopefully this’ll blow over?” Percy offered. “I mean, we didn’t actually cause a breakout, we just...broke one kid out.”
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up when it comes to Batman letting something go,” Jason shook his head, standing up. “I need some fucking sleep. And maybe another freakout about you being literally half-god when I’m a bit more rested.”
“Sleep sounds really great right now,” Percy sighed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then?” He was hopeful, since Jason seemed to take this well. Maybe they wouldn’t change much.
His hopes were fluttering when Jason looked back at him like he was an idiot. “Fuck that,” he said, “I just had probably the second largest emotional rollercoaster of my life. While I process this, you aren’t leaving my damn sight. Get over here, Uncle Fish Boy.”
Percy grimaced at the newest nickname, but couldn’t even pretend to stay upset for long when Jason held out an impatient hand.
He wasn’t sure how Jason would process all this in the morning, with a bit more sleep, but he had a good feeling about it.
And as he fell asleep next to Jason after worrying that he’d never even talk to the other man again, Percy felt calm. Jason knew who he was now. And a small voice was now thinking of all the opportunities that had just opened to him.
That small part of him was currently thinking about how much he wanted to introduce Jason to Clarisse. And he drifted off to sleep imagining Clarisse sparring with the Red Hood, helmet and all. And as much as he liked Jason, as much as he admired the way he could fight….
His money was still on Clarisse.
Notes:
downside to long chapters? ive got like,,,tiny comments and tidbits id love to put down here but by the time yall reach the end so much has happened that small stuff kinda gets buried lol. but im doing it anyway bc i can. so heres an extra long end note for an extra long chapter.
believe me, i tried my hardest to maybe make these two actually fight each other, but percy flat out refused. i couldn't make him do it, he just didn't want to.
i cant actually remember if the river styx is used for oaths that arent future promises, but i didn't really want to fact check that so in this it is! im mostly running off my memory for this fic so if i do get something wrong about one of the canons no i didnt lmao
im pretty sure that recent wonder woman 'canon' (lbr here, dc canon doesnt mean much) has her as the bio daughter of zeus but...no :) i prefer her being made out of clay, its more fun.
also, Hot Take but like,,,i know rick did the whole Big Three thing bc zeus hades and poseidon split the domains of the earth between them and all that stuff but....i feel bad leaving Demeter out of that, yknow? Like, she's Kronos's kid too, the only one besides the big three to have kids, but her demigod kids are just on the same power level as every other demigod? So i like to imagine that percy and the other big three kids annoy the hell out of the demeter/ceres kids by trying to drag them into hanging out with them.
also i highly doubt im gonna actually be bringing anyone from the kane chronicles into this bc thats a bit much, but catch me trying to figure out a way to drag magnus into this bc i love him and i want him to annoy annabeth some more. who knows. certainly not me.
lets see, how can i make this end note even longer? i know some of you were probably hoping for more of an angsty continuation of last chapter, but i would like to assure you that this is not going to be swept under the rug, just bc percy and jason are fine doesnt mean that everything is going back to normal lol.
thank you all so much for reading and i hope you enjoyed! im shit at replying to comments bc i always remember to check my inbox when i cant actually respond, but i read all of your comments and i love all of them, they make me smile like an idiot :) see you next time! <3
Chapter 12
Notes:
i feel like following up last chapter is a difficult feat lmao, but i hope this chapter does it decently :) writing Percy and Jason banter just feels so different now that they can make random comments about their various bullshit. i love them so much. hope you enjoy. also i love fanfic bc theres a bit in this chapter where i just completely make shit up and im allowed to do that. its so great, i love making shit up.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Jason wished that when he woke up, he had a moment of not remembering what had happened the night before. Just a little bit of peace before he had to deal with the consequences of the information he had learned. But he was never that lucky. He remembered it all, from getting the call of a break-in at Arkham—which was less concerning but more confusing than a break- out —to seeing that the people committing the break-in included Percy , to Percy knowing his fucking name, to finding out the identity of Percy’s father. It had been the closest he’d come to giving in to the pit rage in a year. He could practically see the green in his vision when he looked at Percy, standing across from him in a dark alley and trying to tell Jason that he wasn’t using him to get into Arkham. He wasn’t sure anything Percy said could have gotten through to him and made him actually listen. Part of him was yelling at himself, trying to shove back the green and not attack his boyfriend even if he was incredibly suspicious, but the pit was louder than ever.
Then Percy made some kind of oath, and it was like a sea breeze swept through the alleyway, a cold air that cooled the rage. He could feel that there was a real power behind the words Percy said, and one that wasn’t connected to Percy, but to... everything . It was a sensation that was bizarre and brand new, but also not entirely unfamiliar. Because while it reeked of power and finality, cementing Percy’s words into reality, it also had the faint familiar feeling of...death. Of a darkness lurking below the surface, promising retribution. But not to Jason. That darker feeling was entirely lingering around Percy. And the pit madness receded almost instantly, beaten back by Jason’s confusion, his curiosity, and the way this feeling made it impossible for him to still think Percy was lying to him. He couldn’t explain it. But he knew it.
And now he knew so much more. Demigod . Percy was a demigod . He knew that Diana had spoken to some Greek gods on Themyscira, that Captain Marvel called on some similar powers, and that Aquaman had mentioned rites that the Atlanteans still did for Poseidon (fuck, how would Aquaman react to Percy ? He didn’t even know where to start with that), but to think that they were still around to such an extent that they had kids ? And a lot of them, from what it sounded like. Just how powerful was Percy, being the son of a god? He had called the di Angelo kid terrifying, was that saying that he was more powerful or was Percy downplaying himself?
He had a lot of questions. Especially regarding stories that Percy had already told him, since Jason now suspected there was a lot more to them.
But there was also the issue of his family. Who still thought Percy could be a threat to him, and who Jason couldn’t tell about the whole...god thing. The thing was, Jason knew his family wouldn’t use Percy’s heritage against him, or let it slip to anyone—they knew all too well how secrets could keep someone safe. But he also knew that his family didn’t let anything go easily. The fact that two years had passed with nothing and they were still looking for a cure for his Lazarus sickness showed that. They would investigate demigods and build files on them, just for their own databases. But he knew that those files would still be too much for Percy to let exist, and he’d probably try to destroy them, and that would just make Batman distrust him again. Batman made contingencies, every Justice League member knew that. They had long since stopped being offended by it. Demigods and even gods would be no different, and Jason was starting to see why Percy and the other demigods had kept this a complete secret instead of trying for some kind of government protection like with metahumans. There was too much that just couldn’t be regulated, and a lot that the general public would never understand. Jason was just lucky he was weird enough to be able to accept it.
So he couldn’t tell his family. But he had to tell them something . They wouldn’t accept ‘I can’t tell you’ as an answer.
He saw Percy wake up out of the corner of his eye, and he saw how Percy relaxed as he saw Jason. He wasn’t sure why exactly he didn’t take Percy’s unspoken offer for him to go back to his own apartment, but he figured it had something to do with the fact that he felt bad for almost giving in to the pit rage. Demigod or not, he could have seriously hurt Percy. He had no doubt that Percy was powerful and could hold his own against Jason, but when Jason succumbed to the pit? Well, the slightly faded scar along Tim’s throat was a glaring neon sign of what he was capable of.
He wasn’t sure what to say to Percy now, after everything that happened the past night. It wasn’t a new start, it wasn’t like anything had officially ended , but...both of them had been stripped of their secrets. It felt weird for Jason to know that Percy was looking at him and could see not only Jason Todd-Wayne, but also the Red Hood. That Percy could know the things he’s done, and that without being a part of his family, he can just...accept it. Then again, they hadn’t actually talked about that secret yet, just Percy’s. But Jason wasn’t all that ready yet. Or at least, he wasn’t ready for anything about his own identity to be the first thing spoken this morning. So he racked his brain until he could think of something to say that could break the slightly awkward silence as Percy also struggled to think of anything. Then he hit it. Something random, aimed at Percy, but still gave a window into Percy asking questions if he had any. God (gods?) knows Jason had plenty to ask.
“So, did you get put on a Most Wanted list for the St. Louis Arch thing?” was what he ended up saying, making Percy blink in surprise before laughing loudly.
“Honestly? I’ve got no clue,” he answered, shifting to sit up while laughing and prompting Jason to do the same. “Annabeth probably would know, but I never even thought to look for that. Do they put kids on there?”
“Fuck if I know,” Jason snorted, “it’s not like they knew I was seventeen when they added me to the list.”
“Well, even if they did add me, they probably would’ve taken it off as soon as the whole kidnapping story ran,” Percy shrugged, turning more towards Jason. “Did they ever take the Red Hood off? I thought Batman wiped all your charges, or something.”
“Yeah, you’d think that would make them take me off,” Jason said, shaking his head. “Nah, still there. However, the federal government tends to leave Gotham in the hands of Batman or the rest of the JLA, so unless the Red Hood leaves Gotham, I won’t have any problems. And considering the only times I’ve been spotted out of Gotham have been on JLA business or space missions, they couldn’t really touch me.”
“So no earthbound vacations for the Red Hood, huh?” Percy laughed. “That’s a shame. I think Red Hood would get a kick out of seeing the place where I had a swordfight with the god of war.”
Jason looked over at Percy sharply, not expecting those words at all . “Ex cuse me? You can’t just say that shit like it’s nothing. Where did this happen and when? Did you win?”
Percy’s grin was slightly smug. “I did,” he said, letting Jason sit in slight disbelief before he shrugged and corrected himself. “Well, I injured him and so he got mad at me and left, cursing me because I managed to hit him. But I count it as a win. You know the whole ‘beach gunfight with the super scary kidnapper’ thing that got televised when I was twelve? Take a guess at who the quote unquote ‘kidnapper’ is.”
Jason blinked. “You fought the god of war at twelve , and actually managed to hit him?”
Suddenly, Percy’s confidence in Robin made a lot more sense. Then he frowned.
“Wait, why did the report say it was a gunfight? And did a god actually appear on TV with no one noticing?”
Percy made a face. “I am really not the best person to explain the Mist. Especially when you...might be clearsighted? I’m not sure. Did you see what weapon I was carrying last night before I ran away?”
“Weapon?” Jason frowned, trying to remember if he saw Percy carrying a weapon. He definitely didn’t have one when he broke through Arkham’s fucking bulletproof windows, but before then, it seemed to be a little...fuzzy. Until Jason thought back to the exact moment that he had seen Percy standing in front of di Angelo’s open door, a moment where he had been a little distracted, sue him , and… “It was a sword, right?”
Percy beamed. “Yes! You might be clearsighted, or you might have just already known I had a sword and so your brain was able to see it, I have no idea. But yeah, that was Riptide. The rest of your family probably saw it as a baseball bat, that tends to be what swords appear as to mortals, unless they decide to be guns like in the case of my fight with Ares.”
“About half of those words made no sense to me,” Jason admitted. “Also, do you seriously call normal people ‘mortals’? That’s so pretentious.”
“Hey, it’s true!” Percy argued. “You and other so-called ‘normal’ people are fully mortal, and I’m not, it's a fact!”
Then he sighed. “It is kinda pretentious though, isn’t it?”
“One hundred percent,” Jason agreed. “Now what do you mean your sword would have appeared as a baseball bat?”
“Magic,” Percy answered simply. “It’s called the Mist, and it’s there to keep the mortal world,” he emphasized the word this time, “separated from our world. For our safety and the normal people. Monsters appear as animals or people, and our weapons as...other, non-magical or weird weapons. It would be awesome if it made weapons look like harmless things, but yeah I guess a gun is better than a sword to you mortals.”
He stuck his tongue out at Jason at this, and Jason rolled his eyes. Magic. Of course.
“No wonder you have such archaic weapon taste,” he shot back, making Percy narrow his eyes.
“No insulting Riptide until you’ve actually seen it,” he said, pointing a finger in Jason’s face. Jason raised his eyebrows and gestured around them.
“I see no sword,” he said. “I’d be happy to see it, but it seems like it’s nowhere to be found.”
Percy pulled a pen out of his pocket and waved it in the air as if that answered anything.
“Percy, that’s a pen.”
Percy’s grin widened smugly, but before he could say anything else, there was a rippling in the air above that small bronze box he carried with him, which he had placed on the bedside table the previous night, and another one of those rainbow screens appeared. In it this time wasn’t Annabeth, but the other girl who had been with him in Arkham, with braided brown hair and eyes that seemed to change color every time Jason blinked.
“Perseus Jackson,” she started, her hands on her hips as Percy turned to face her, “Annabeth just told me the funniest thing, do you know what it was?”
Percy frowned. “That we’re making Drew a gift basket for dealing with Firestorm while you were sleeping?”
The girl wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, Firestorm? Try again, way too cool for the two of them.”
“Well if we follow the theme of the Terrible Trio, you and Leo steal the title of Double Trouble, so that’s out,” Percy explained, “and just going with Valgrace is lame.”
“I mean, you’re right, but still never use Firestorm again, especially around Leo,” the girl said, shaking her head. “Anyway, not the point! And no, not the gift basket thing, although if the scene I woke up to is any indication, she has long since earned one. No, what Annabeth told me was the nice little fact that you were very stressed because you were telling your boyfriend about our world and she was heading back to Gotham to make sure everything was fine! Do you hear anything wrong with that sentence?”
Percy’s contemplative silence gave her all the answer she needed, apparently, because she groaned and glared at him.
“One word, Jackson. Boyfriend ,” she said, and something seemed to dawn on Percy as his eyes widened slightly and his mouth dropped open.
“...oh,” he said, slightly sheepish. “C’mon, Piper, I was a little distracted, and—”
“—nope, no excuse,” the girl, Piper, cut him off. “You know damn well I live vicariously through everyone’s relationships, and you just didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend? Of all the people not to tell, me ? I am losing it over here with the state of my relationships, and you’re killing me.”
Percy crossed his arms. “Piper, you’re not even single, and your relationship is going great.”
“Yeah, but both my boyfriends are idiots!” Piper argued. “I have horrible taste! Which is ironic, but whatever. Is that him behind you? You clearly have better taste than I do, just look at Annabeth, and also how in my mother’s name did you manage to land a boyfriend as hot as you are?”
Jason felt his cheeks warm in confusion as Percy just leaned forward, grinning.
“Aw, thanks Pipes, I knew you loved me.”
“Ew, I’m taken, asshole,” Piper shot back, grinning and rolling her eyes. “Now, considering you didn’t immediately hide the IM, I’m assuming I can do a real introduction?”
Percy nodded, shifting to the side so that Jason could move closer to the weird mist screen. He was pretty sure this was something he would have to brush off as ‘more weird magic he didn’t understand’ like he did with Zatara, Zatanna, and whatever the fuck Constantine got up to. As he got closer, Piper frowned.
“Hey, wait, do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar.”
Jason gave Percy a side-eye, which was met with a shrug that looked far too casual.
“Yeah, uh, Piper is a bit more...cultured than I am,” he said. “Comes with the ‘famous father’ territory, I guess.”
“You’re not including yourself in the famous father category, Aquaman?” Piper teased, her eyebrows raising. “Pretty sure almost everyone knows who Poseidon is.”
“Well if we’re playing that card, you’ve got two famous parents,” Percy countered. “But I’m pretty sure it’s not your mom who gives you your knowledge of other famous people.”
Piper sighed, “No, she just likes them,” she agreed. “So what you’re saying is that you managed to get a famous boyfriend in three months?”
“Hey, it’s been longer than that!”
“Barely,” Piper scoffed.
“To be fair, we’re really only famous in Gotham,” Jason cut in, deciding that if this Piper already recognized him, she’d figure out his last name eventually anyway. And since she was clearly a demigod too, she knew how to keep a secret. Piper’s eyes narrowed, then widened.
“Oh,” she said. “No offense, dude, but for a Wayne, you have bad taste in men. Why’d you pick the half-human disaster that’s Percy Jackson?”
They both ignored Percy’s offended ‘hey!’ as Jason grinned slightly. “Who said I wasn’t also a disaster? Also, don’t let the public image fool you, every Wayne is a few braincells loose of a bunch. I do prefer Todd-Wayne, though. Jason Todd-Wayne.”
Piper blinked, before sighing. “Of course Percy ends up dating the one Wayne who shares a name with my boyfriend, why not? Nice to meet you, Jason. Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite.”
“McLean?” Jason asked, the name ringing a bell. Piper huffed.
“My dad is Tristan McLean.”
“No shit, really? One of my brothers loves his movies,” Jason said. It could be said that Dick just loved all movies, but considering the Tristan McLean box set that was on the movie shelf…
Piper looked to Percy, pointing at Jason through the mist. “I like him,” she said, “he asked about my dad, not Aphrodite.”
“Yeah, I’m still...wrapping my head about that whole side of things,” Jason said. Piper smiled.
“Yeah, demigods are kinda thrown into this headfirst, we don’t really get time to process it. So take all the time you need, it’s weird. And Percy,” she added, turning back to him, “take it slow with your bullshit powers, got it?”
“Hey, they all make perfect sense,” Percy argued. Piper shook her head.
“Sure, maybe, but you have way too many of them,” she countered. “Anyway, Annabeth is leaving for Gotham in about half an hour, I’ll tell her that everything seems to be fine with the overpowered mermaid and his newly enlightened cooler boyfriend.”
Percy pouted at the mermaid comment, but couldn’t help smiling at Piper anyway as he waved goodbye. “See ya, Beauty Queen. If you see Nico, tell him that I’m glad he’s sleeping, and that my mom said he can call her if he needs anything.”
“Uh huh, sure, and she’s still just your mom, got it,” Piper said with a wry grin. “Last I heard, he was eating normal—for him, at least—and is being forced to sleep for longer than four hours at a time. But he’s good, I think. Come visit soon, Perce, Sparky is getting into his ‘I miss my bro’ phase.”
“Aw, I miss my bro too,” Percy sighed.
“Don’t even start, one is bad enough,” Piper cut him off. “Bye, Percy. Nice to meet you again, Jason.”
“Yeah, you too,” Jason replied. Piper gave one last wave before swiping her hand through her side of the mist and breaking it apart. Then he turned to Percy, curious. “She was there last night, right?”
At Percy’s nod, he continued, “What did she do? She did something, I know she had to in order to get all of us chasing you and not her, Annabeth, and the kid.”
“Yeah, she did,” Percy answered. “It’s called charmspeak, it’s a power that only some kids of Aphrodite get. It’s not mind control, but it’s...strong suggestion. Which is why you guys broke it so fast, we weren't sure it would work on you vigilantes in the first place. Strong wills are kind of your thing. But all Piper needed to do was shift your focus for a little bit, and that worked.”
Jason hummed as he thought. He didn’t like having his mind messed with, he hated it in fact, but at least it wasn’t full control. He still never wanted it used on him again, or his siblings preferably, but if a strong will could break it or avoid it completely, it wasn’t as if Piper could make them do anything against their character. And she was a friend of Percy's, so it was doubtful that she would try. So that was a positive, he guessed. It wasn’t like the pit.
As he got up and started getting ready to go over to the cave for the debrief that he was not looking forward to, he stopped. He hadn’t figured out what he was going to do about his family. They would press him if he said at all that he knew something about what happened, because he couldn’t tell them why Percy and Annabeth really were doing a good thing. But he couldn’t pretend that he knew nothing, for two reasons. One, then Percy would have to stay away from Jason in public and Jason would have to keep lying to his family and pretending to be pissed at Percy. And two...well, Jason never pretended that he wasn’t an asshole, and he wanted to see the looks on his family’s faces when he said that he didn’t want Percy arrested. He frowned, thinking.
“What was that oath thing you did last night?” he asked, making Percy startle slightly.
“Oh, I swore on the River Styx,” he answered. “It’s completely binding, and if you break it...well, really bad things happen to you, and when you die your soul goes to the river instead of the underworld. So...you really don’t want to break those oaths. Why?”
“Curious,” Jason answered. “Can mortals make them?”
Percy looked at Jason carefully. “Jason, you don’t want to just swear on the River Styx like it’s nothing. I only did it last night because I was swearing something that was true and wasn’t a future promise. And so that you would feel it, that’s it.”
“So we can,” Jason said, making Percy huff.
“Yes, as long as a mortal knows the stakes and knows what the oath means, then the river accepts it. Kinda lucky, demigods don’t need to know the stakes and can just accidentally make a binding oath, but whatever. You don’t want to though, Jason. It’s a serious oath.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Jason said, “but I would make it for a serious reason. The only way my family is going to let me not tell them something that I clearly know and that they want to know is if I physically can’t without dying.”
“The oath wouldn’t kill you immediately for breaking it,” Percy corrected, and Jason shrugged.
“Sure, but they don’t need to know that. And quite frankly, if my soul is stolen away by a greek river of death, I’m almost positive it’d be better than the last magical body of water I found myself in.”
Percy frowned, clearly seeing that Jason had found his solution and wasn’t taking no for an answer. “What exactly are you planning to vow?”
“To not speak of the demigod world with anyone who doesn’t already know about it, unless given explicit permission,” he said, “that way I can still tell them what Annabeth said about the kid, since I’m assuming that counts as part of your world, Ariel.”
Percy rolled his eyes, but thought carefully about Jason’s words. “Jason...you really don’t have to do this. Even gods avoid swearing on the Styx if they can. I appreciate that you want to, but you don’t have to.”
“I know I don’t have to, but if I gotta be the wall between the batclan and some half-god children, I might as well use all the cards, right?”
Percy sighed. “I appreciate that. Really, I do. But for context, the last time I swore on the River Styx before last night was in a situation that was 50/50 on if I lived or died, swearing that I wouldn’t alter those odds at all. In the Greek world, oaths are taken very seriously. What if you just told your family that you made an oath but you don't actually make one?”
Jason made a face. “If I imply that the oath is that serious, they’ll probably ask one of our magically inclined associates to check. So if then there’s nothing…”
Percy thought for a moment. Jason got why he was hesitant, but he felt like having some kind of magically binding thing stopping him from telling his family was the best option given what he knew his family was like. After a minute, Percy looked up at him.
“Oaths are very serious. But I get where you’re coming from. I have an idea, though. Broken oaths bring the attention of Horkos, or whatever his name is, and he does not make exceptions regarding the circumstances of the broken oath. Vows, however, aren’t necessarily his domain. Still important, but more under the responsibility of whoever the vow is to. This might sound a little awkward, but it would be the safest option,” he explained, looking slightly hesitant. Jason appreciated the more detailed information, though. Given the feeling that he had gotten when Percy made his oath in the alleyway, he gathered that oaths held a larger importance, but he hadn’t realized they were considered different than vows. Percy’s eyes were a dark ocean green when he next met Jason’s gaze, as if prepared for Jason to reject whatever his suggestion was. “What if you made a vow to my father? Since it involves me, he’d look at the context if you ever found yourself in a situation where you need to break it, and most likely not do anything that would impact me negatively. And while vows usually don't leave the same mark that an oath on the Styx would, my dad will go along with adding something like that easier than a different god. Also, there is no getting out of an oath on the Styx, whereas if you make a vow to someone, they can let you out of it if they want to.”
Jason huffed a small laugh. “Swearing a vow to your father before I’ve met any of your family? Skipping a few steps there, huh, Fish Boy?”
Percy rolled his eyes. “We’re going there? How about your entire family wanting to arrest me when I’ve never met any of them outside of costume?”
“They’re uniforms , not costumes!” Jason retorted, only slightly offended at the insinuation. “And my family members aren’t gods .”
“No, just some of the most famous vigilantes in the world,” Percy shot back. “Does that idea work? Since you’re set on making some kind of magical promise?”
“Works for me,” Jason said. “I’ll be telling my family it’s worse than it is anyway.”
“And they won’t be mad at you? If or when they find out you lied?” Percy asked, and Jason couldn’t help but smile at him. This was about helping to keep his entire world and family a secret, and Percy was worried about Jason’s family finding out he lied to them. Out of all the things Jason had done, this wouldn’t be on the top ten.
“It’ll be fine,” Jason assured him. At least, it would be a Bat-level of ‘fine’, which Jason could handle. “I promise.”
Percy still looked unsure, but his eyes were grateful. And Jason knew that he was making the right choice. A spontaneous one, yes, and one that he was maybe a little less certain about than he sounded, but the Red Hood kept children safe. And if, right now, that included keeping them away from his family?
Well, it wasn’t as if Jason was anything other than the black sheep already, huh?
Jason pulled his motorcycle to a stop inside the cave, his thoughts still racing from his world changing so rapidly. Part of him was still baffled how quickly he accepted everything that Percy had told him, and how quickly it took him to take the demigod’s side. Over his own family? Part of him was angry at himself, and almost ashamed. How could he call himself one of the birds when he did this so fast? After everything they’d forgiven him for, too. But it felt like the right decision. The same way that it felt like the right decision to boost the batmobile’s tires, or allow Dick to talk him into coming back for a family dinner. And both of those had, for the most part, turned out for the best. He made some very bad decisions in between those good ones, but this decision felt like the right one to make. He just had to hope he was feeling things right.
“Jason?” Tim noticed him first, his head snapping towards Jason and alerting the rest of the family, who were sitting around the debrief table with files strewn between them. Immediately, Dick was on his feet and hurrying towards Jason, Tim was standing in his seat, Damian was leaning on the table and glaring at an open file, and Cass was watching him intently. Duke was frowning at him, as concerned as everyone else seemed to be but a bit cautious. Well fuck, they were actually worried for him. Now he almost felt worse. But he had made the choice already, and there was no turning back from it.
“Jay, are you okay?” Dick asked, his hands on Jason’s shoulders. Jason sighed, letting Dick fuss for a moment.
“Yeah, Big Bird, I’m okay,” he said, knowing none of them would believe him.
“I’ve been sharpening my blade, and will hang his spine from—”
“—I thought I said no to the spine-removing,” Jason interrupted Damian, who narrowed his eyes before turning his harsh glare back onto the papers in front of him. “I’m…I’m good. Really.”
“Take a seat, Jaylad,” Bruce said, and even his voice was gentle. God, Jason always managed to forget why he preferred his position as the fuck-up, until he was the subject of the entire batclan’s fretting. At least he was about to annoy the shit out of all of them. So he picked the seat right by Cass, leaning back and crossing his legs. Bruce watched him for a moment, perhaps wondering if he’d say something to start the debrief, before he took a breath and tented his hands on the table.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” he said, looking towards Dick. “What happened last night?”
Dick gave a short glance towards Jason before beginning the story they all knew already. He talked about the call from Arkham, that there was a break in found near the Joker, but that the Joker was still in custody. They were all close by, luckily, and got there in time for the nurses to point them down the hallway the infiltrators had turned down.
“The scene we saw was three young adults, identified as Perseus Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and one unknown. They had gotten into the room of the still unidentified teenage patient, who the nurses have been calling ‘Shadow’ because of the circumstances of his arrest, and were removing him from Arkham custody. Chase and the unknown girl were unarmed, while Jackson appeared armed with a baseball bat—”
“—a sword,” Jason corrected casually, before blinking as he realized that he wasn’t the only one to correct Dick at the same time. Tim had cut in with ‘the fuck? Dick, that was a sword ’, Damian had seemed offended as he scoffed ‘a bat ? Do you need glasses, Grayson?’, and Cass had raised her eyebrows as she signed ‘ Sword. Clearly.’
Dick had paused, confused. “I— what ?”
“Do you think I don’t know what a sword looks like?” Damian repeated. “I know one when I see it, it appeared to be a xiphos, of Greek origin.”
“Uh, but…” Dick thought for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing. “You’re right, I think. It was a sword, but...not always? I swear I saw a bat for a few moments.”
“Ugh, magic,” Tim grumbled.
“You can say that again, Timmy,” Dick said, still frowning thoughtfully at the table. “Anyway, we surrounded the suspects, and when Chase made a break with the patient, the unknown suspect shouted at us to chase Jackson instead. And...we did. I don’t know why we did, but we chased Jackson until Little Bird seemed to snap out of whatever was happening and went back to go after the other three. But when we tried to find Chase and the two unknowns, they were nowhere to be found.”
There was silence, and then it seemed to be Jason’s turn. Right. Time to be the asshole he was meant to be.
“Well, then I kept chasing Percy,” he said, refusing to continue Dick’s choice of pulling a Damian, “until he reached a dead end and tried to explain himself. While doing so he accidentally dropped my real name, then before I could confront him about it, he said he would be nearby and jumped out the window, shattering it with his shoulder. I found him in a secluded alley not far from the Asylum and after disconnecting my comms, demanded an explanation. He insisted that the kid they broke out, ‘Shadow’, was fifteen, innocent, and practically family. And that he hadn’t been aware of my identity until yesterday.”
“Do you believe him?” Bruce asked. Jason figured that everyone was expecting him to say no.
He was proven right by the widened eyes when he shrugged and said, “yeah, actually. He promised he would answer any questions I had and explain everything. So I let him. And I believe him.”
A beat passed where everyone waited for him to continue. In the end, it was Damian who scowled and demanded, “well? What did the criminal explain?”
Jason took a breath, preparing himself for the explosions. “I can’t tell you.”
As expected, every single member of his family did not like that answer. Damian even stood on his chair to try and tower over Jason as they all asked him what the fuck he meant by that.
“I meant what I said,” Jason said loudly, cutting through the clamor. “I promised Percy I wouldn’t tell anyone, you guys included. But you can take my word for it that he’s not a threat, and neither is the kid he broke out. This was an isolated incident.”
“Jason,” Dick said, gentle but insistent, “I heard you last night. You were pissed at him. For good reason, too. And now you say that everything is fine? Are you okay? He isn’t holding your identity over your head, is he?”
Yeah, Jason probably should have seen that train of thought coming. He was starting to fall back onto the idea that making that vow was probably a good idea.
“No, he isn’t, Dick,” he answered. “And I was pissed, until he explained everything. I just can’t tell you the explanation.”
“That girl, the unknown one, she made us do something we wouldn’t normally do,” Tim said thoughtfully, watching Jason. Damian’s frown grew stronger.
“Hypnotism?” he asked, “or full control?”
“I am not under mind control!” Jason argued. “God, only in this family do I have to argue that I’m not being brainwashed in order for you people to actually take my word for something.”
“It’s not that, Jaybird,” Dick said, “it’s that these people are clearly unregistered metas, and we don’t know what they can do or how strong they are. We trust you, but we don’t trust them and according to you, you were just alone with one for an unknown amount of time.”
Jason really hated that from Dick’s perspective, that made a lot of sense.
“Well, sorry, Dickie,” he said. “But I literally can’t tell you. I made an oath. One that, if I break it…” he didn’t actually finish the sentence, instead making a clicking noise and wrinkling his nose. If the faces around him were any indication, they got the picture.
“Did they make you—”
“— No ,” he cut Duke off. “No they did not. And if you’re wondering why I made that oath, just look back at this conversation and ask if you let it go back when it was just a promise.”
The silence around him showed that everyone knew they hadn’t. But he could read his family, and he knew that they still weren’t going to let it go. Maybe they wouldn’t press Jason, but...now that Tim had gotten them on the mind control track, he could see that lasting a very long time. He decided to change the subject.
“I can tell you that I don’t owe Dick money,” he said. “The kid, he actually is the same one from the thirties. The di Angelo kid. It just...wasn’t exactly time travel.”
He grinned as Dick’s intrigued look collapsed into annoyance.
He also took it as compensation for the hell he was putting himself in by being interrogated and mother-henned, but either way, that was the sweetest twenty bucks he’d ever taken from Dick.
Notes:
jason is such an asshole i love him dearly. im sure this will go completely smoothly and his family will just let this go like vigilantes always do :)
2 notes for this one and they both revolve around the same thing:
we r getting into a portion where we are talking more about the various shit these characters have been through in their canons now that they arent hiding it. i also write many chapters in advance bc if i dont it stresses me out. so if i make mistakes with the canons, please know that A) it might not be a mistake, i might have just chosen to fuck with it to fit the story better, or B) i am already a bit into the future having worked with what i wrote already, and it would probably be a whole mess to fix it. Therefore, i ask you guys very kindly and preemptively to please not correct me on canon stuff i dont have accurate! if its like, a fun fact about canon then thats totally chill but i would appreciate not being corrected on things. it also stresses me out lol. thank you i love you all.
second note is just a fun little fact about the mess of a person that i am: writers block is a fucking nightmare. i haven't written anything for any of my projects in like. three weeks. im going insane. as for this fic, when i posted chapter 1 i had 13 completed chapters. as of right now, i am halfway through chapter 16. so things are going great. pray for me lol.anyway. long note! but i hope you all are having a good spooky season, halloween month best month am i right! i hope you all enjoyed jason making the best decisions possible, and ill see you next time <3
Chapter 13
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“McDonald’s is definitely suspicious,” Annabeth said without a greeting, letting herself into Jason’s apartment despite definitely not having a key. Percy waved at her from the couch where he was explaining camp to Jason, who glanced up at Annabeth in confusion.
“Uh, what the fuck?” he asked, “I’m pretty sure we don’t even have a McDonald’s in Gotham.”
Percy stifled a laugh, and Annabeth grinned. “We made code names for all you vigilantes when we first got to Gotham. That way we could talk about you guys without seeming like we were trying to track your patrols.”
“Which we were,” Percy added, unrepentant. Jason took a second before he was laughing, leaning back into the couch and shaking his head.
“‘Lemme guess, McDonald’s is Red Robin?” He asked, his amused grin wide and teasing. “Oh, he’d hate that. He already hates when we do the Red Robin jingle to get his attention.”
“Yep, and he was trying very hard to be subtle with how much he was watching me during my internship today,” Annabeth continued. “But I could tell. It was killing him to be right there by my desk and not able to do anything because he was a civilian and shouldn’t know anything about what happened the other night.”
“Did you go to your internship just to see how annoyed he would be?” Percy asked, eyebrows raised. Annabeth shrugged.
“Maybe. It was fun,” she answered. She dropped down into the armchair next to the couch and leaned her weight on the arm. “So, Jason, how are you taking all this?”
“I think it’s gotten to the point where my life is already so goddamn weird, I’m both surprised and not phazed at all,” Jason answered. “Now what’s my codename?”
Percy grinned. “Yours was ‘Not Actually A Nazi’ because some of Annabeth’s siblings had been reading Captain America comic books and said you looked like Red Skull.”
“You’re damn fucking right I’m not a Nazi ,” Jason spat the word like a curse. “I’ve killed a few, though, and I don’t regret it one bit.”
To his credit, Percy was very proud of the fact that he didn’t even bat an eye at what Jason just said. It wasn’t that he was surprised at the words, he knew that the Red Hood had blood on his hands and he also knew that it wasn’t the blood of innocents. It was more that he was surprised because this was the first time Jason had blatantly said something relating to his actions as a vigilante/crime-lord. It was almost like he didn’t realize what he was saying, because Percy saw his eyes widen slightly only a few moments later. Percy didn’t say anything, though, because he didn’t want Jason to think that he expected some kind of explanation or defense of his actions. Percy was against murder, yes, that was a pretty normal stance to have. But he also wasn’t ever going to defend a nazi, and if Jason had come across them as Red Hood, then they were probably doing something even worse than just being a nazi. So yeah. ‘Murder = bad’ did have a bit of a grey area to it sometimes. Percy could never forget, after all, that the first monster he truly encountered was supposed to be his step-father.
“Would it make you feel better to know that Batman’s codename is Does He Really Count As Adult Supervision?” Percy offered. “Which, admittedly, is much longer than his actual name and very unwieldy, but when he’s a grown man who dresses as a giant bat, we kind of had to.”
Jason, after a moment of checking whether Percy was really just going to skip past his casual mention of murder, finally gave in and grinned widely.
“Oh he definitely doesn’t count as adult supervision,” he said, shaking his head and laughing slightly. “I think he barely counts as adult , and I’m the one who was most recently eighteen. Batman might be good at beating up criminals, but that's about it. All other adult responsibilities are null and void.”
“So Batman can’t cook either?” Percy asked, teasing. Jason’s eyebrows raised.
“I’d say it’s genetic, but I was adopted,” he said. “You think me setting a microwave on fire a few times is bad? The man burns water , Percy. Even at my worst in the kitchen, I could make tea without sparks flying. And trust me, I make damn good tea.”
“Even I can make tea,” Annabeth cut in, “although admittedly, the extent of my cooking skills fall under survival situations, not when I have access to an actual kitchen.”
“Ah, yes, your delicacy of foraged plants and fucking squirrel ,” Percy shot back, his nose wrinkling.
“Not all of us had Sally Jackson teaching us to cook.” Annabeth turned her nose up in response. “You’re the chef and I’m the brains, that’s how this works.”
“Who’s the brawn, then?” Jason asked.
“Both of us,” the two of them answered in unison, grinning.
“You know I haven’t actually seen either of you in a fight yet, right?” Jason said. “I mean, I saw the aftermath of someone trying to mug Percy, but that’s about it.”
“Yeah, well unless we’re sparring, our fights are usually because our lives are in danger, so it’s a good thing you haven’t seen one,” Percy responded. “Although saying that has probably jinxed it and now a monster is probably going to attack sometime soon.”
“You saying that has definitely jinxed it and now it’s going to happen even sooner, dumbass,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. “You’re lucky I’m feeling pent up. It’s been way too long since I’ve fought anything.”
“Usually not something we have to worry about,” Percy agreed, frowning slightly. “Gods, Gotham is weird.”
“Gotham seems to just like fucking with people,” Jason said, nodding his head. “Some people come not believing the stories, and so Gotham throws a rogue attack at them. Others come cautiously, already afraid of Gotham, so it tosses Scarecrow at them to make it even worse. There’s gotta be a reason that Scarecrow most often ends up attacking tourist groups. Now you guys, you’re so used to fighting that it fucks with you by giving you nothing to fight.”
Percy and Annabeth shared a loaded look. “Chaos,” they said together. It was becoming increasingly clear that Chaos had somehow gotten a foothold in Gotham, and was having their fun with it. They didn’t think that they would have to fight Chaos in the end, they weren’t the same as Gaea, but they still had to figure out how the primordial was digging their claws so deep into the city.
Jason looked between them, frowning slightly. “I get the feeling I’m missing something.”
Annabeth sighed. “Before Percy and I came to Gotham, we realized that something was blocking our world from this city. Nothing ever smelled anything Greek coming from Gotham, no Satyrs got leads for any demigods here, no monsters attacked Percy and I when we toured campus—or even over the past few months—and we’re pretty sure our parents can’t hear us here. Percy told you about the Mist, and even that feels...wrong here. We can still use it, manipulate it to help us, but it feels sick . We don’t just think Gotham is chaotic, we think that Chaos themself is keeping an eye on the city. And we want to figure out how to stop them.”
Jason blinked. “Oh.” His frown turned thoughtful. “Is that why our villains are...like that ?”
“Maybe,” Percy said. “We don't know exactly what Chaos is influencing. We don’t know if pushing them out of the city will undo what they’ve done, or just stop it from getting worse. We’re just doing what we can.”
“Well if you need help, I know the city like the back of my hand,” Jason offered. “Not sure what you’re looking for, but just let me know.”
“As soon as Nico is cleared from the infirmary and gets impatient, which will be basically as soon as his boyfriend lets him travel again, he’ll be coming back to Gotham to help us look,” Percy said, “and I think some extra help would be really great. Thank you.”
“Someone has to keep the bats off your tail, huh?” Jason teased, leaning back into the couch. “Red Robin is trying to get the security tapes from Arkham, ‘trying’ being a loose word since he probably has them already. Is that gonna be an issue?”
“It shouldn’t,” Percy answered, shaking his head. “Our faces shouldn’t be clear on any camera, and my sword shouldn’t show up. Facial recognition won’t get us.”
“That mist sure is handy,” Jason commented. Percy shrugged.
“It’s great when it helps, then other times it makes mortals see us as the antagonist when we’re just defending ourselves. Give and take. It’s a force of nature, not a god, so it just... is .”
He waited for a moment, positive that Annabeth was going to jump in and make fun of him for saying something profound like that. He was proud of that explanation, and Annabeth ribbing him for it would be her way of being proud of him too. But she didn’t say anything. He frowned, about to glance from Jason over to where she was sitting on the armchair, when a soft sound registered that had been muffled by his conversation.
Soft, quiet, shuddering breaths.
“Percy, Percy, Percy,” her voice cut in before Percy could look over to see her, and it was laced so full of panic that his head snapped towards her immediately. He was already half-way out of his seat before he even noticed what was grabbing her attention with so much fear.
“Fuck, Percy, help,” she said, her wide grey eyes not even noticing as Percy moved, because they were staring intently at her leg, where a large spider had managed to crawl. It wasn’t a tarantula, but it was large enough that you could see it was hairy. Annabeth was as still as a statue—and not one of Daedalus’s—with her limbs tense and stiff with anxiety and panic. Percy was out of his seat fully and crossing over to her as soon as he registered the situation, keeping himself calm so that he didn’t make Annabeth’s panic worse.
“Shit, you’re fine, Annie, just breathe,” he said, leaning down slowly and reaching out his hands. He hated spiders too, and hated touching them with his bare hands, but it was usually the fastest way to get them away, especially if they managed to get this close. Anything for Annabeth, after all. Better he touch them than her. “Eyes on me, Annabeth, I’ve got it.”
In one quick movement, practiced after years of knowing her, he reached out and grabbed the spider in his hands, cupping them closed and trapping it. He looked to Jason, who was watching with furrowed, worried brows.
“Can you open the window?” he asked, prompting Jason to move quickly and unlatch his heavily locked window. He jostled the spider slightly and felt a pinch as he rushed to the window, wincing slightly as he hoped it wasn’t poisonous, and he felt no remorse as he dropped the spider out the window. Arachne’s brood could fuck off, he hated them as much as they hated Annabeth. Grabbing the water from his cup on the table, he healed the small bite on his hand, not feeling any poison, and then went over to put his hand on Annabeth’s shoulder gently.
“Just breathe, Annabeth, it’s gone now,” he said softly. Annabeth’s breathing was still ragged, but she wasn’t petrified anymore, leaning forward onto her knees with her face in her hands.
“Ha, you’d think it would get better now that I’ve seen her die with my own eyes,” she muttered, her voice still slightly tense and stressed. “Instead, I think it’s gotten worse.”
“It’s okay,” Percy said calmly, tugging lightly on her ponytail to ground her. “It’s gone now, I’ll always get rid of those eight-legged bastards for you.”
“I know, Perce,” Annabeth said, her breathing evening out and her voice a bit steadier. “Thank you. Wouldn’t’ve been that bad if I had noticed it before it touched me, but…”
“I know,” Percy responded, remembering times where Annabeth or one of her siblings had seen a spider before it got near them and immediately speared it with a knife. They all tended to feel bad when they had to get someone else to take care of the spider for them, despite how no one ever minded helping. “She won’t hurt you, not as long as I have anything to say about it.”
“She can’t hurt me, she’s dead , there’s no way she’s reformed already with the Doors shut still, and yet…” Annabeth sighed, removing her face from her hands and leaning back into the armchair.
“And yet,” Percy agreed. “You don’t have to justify yourself, Annie, not to me.”
“But you’re not the only person in the room right now,” Annabeth crossed her arms, hiding her embarrassment in a slight frown. Percy looked up to see Jason’s face—just as he had figured, there was no judgment there. Just confusion, concern, and the type of understanding that comes from also having severe problems with things that normal people might just generally dislike. Percy didn’t know exactly what had caused his boyfriend’s severe claustrophobia, but he figured it had something to do with his nightlife.
“You don’t have to justify anything to me either,” Jason added, his eyebrows furrowing. “And if you don’t want to tell me anything, I get it. I work with superheroes, and my family never talks about any of our issues unless at gunpoint.”
Annabeth laughed, shaking her head. “Thank you. It’s fine, though. It’s not like it’s just my issue, anyway. My siblings and I...we don’t do well around spiders.”
“Athena and Arachne,” Jason surmised, making Annabeth smile and nod.
“Exactly. Arachne’s descendants hate us, a lot . They probably hate me especially,” she added, shuddering. “Percy and I...we killed Arachne a bit over a year ago.”
“That’s the ‘she’ you mentioned,” Jason said, frowning. “Well, somehow the manor never has bugs or spiders despite being huge, so I can see if Alfred does anything special to keep them away? If that would help?”
Annabeth’s smile was thankful, but she shook her head. “Thank you, but it probably wouldn’t work as well for me. Spiders can find me.”
“They even manage to get into the Athena cabin at camp sometimes, and that’s probably the most spider-fortified place on the planet,” Percy said. “If a scream ever comes from that cabin, the first guess is there’s a spider in there, and the second guess is that someone got seriously injured.”
“And if you heard the scream from all the way across camp, it was probably my brother Malcolm,” Annabeth added with a wry grin. “That boy has the lungs to be in Apollo’s cabin.”
“Speaking of that, Percy was kind of in the middle of explaining the whole cabin system and what the cabins are like,” Jason said, leaning back into the couch. “So now I can ask you - what’s your cabin like?”
Annabeth grinned wider, her expression turning fond as she thought back to her home and her siblings. It made Percy realize how long it had been since he’d spoken to Tyson. His half-brother was busy between the forges and helping Ella, but was always thrilled to hear from Percy.
“Well,” Annabeth started, “I might be biased, but it’s the best cabin. There are quite a few of us, and it doubles as a workspace for all of us, so we have a lot of different ways to save space.”
Percy sat back down on the couch while she talked, looking between her and Jason with a soft smile. This was what he had hoped for, when he told Jason everything, but he was still surprised that it was going this well.
He just hoped that Jason’s family wouldn’t keep trying to arrest him for too long.
As soon as Jason heard voices, he started to walk slower and softer through the Cave. His family had been pretty tight-lipped about how they were investigating the Arkham incident—thank you so much, Tim, for throwing out mind-control as an option—and Jason wanted to figure out if they had made any plans to try and get Percy into custody. As he approached the main area of the Cave, Tim’s voice became clear, grumbled and annoyed.
“I hate magic, I hate magic, I hate magic ,” he muttered, and Jason didn’t need to be able to see him to know that he was gripping his hair in his hands and was inches away from banging his head onto the table.
“Are we sure that they didn’t have someone outside messing with the cameras?” Duke’s voice was hesitant, like most people when they tried to talk technology to Tim. “Maybe it’s not magic?”
“Nope, it would need to be magic,” Tim sighed. “Everything on the image is perfectly clear, except for their faces. Like, I was there , I know who these people are, but even I can barely tell from the security footage. If I hadn’t been there, I’d have no idea who did this.”
“So we have no way of figuring out who the third person is?” Duke surmised, and Jason could hear the frown in his voice.
“Not like this,” Tim answered. “I...I feel like I should know her, but I know I’ve never seen her before. And I can’t even go back to refresh my memory on what her face looks like, because whatever this magic is also affected our damn mask cameras .”
“Oh,” the surprise was audible in Duke’s voice. “Yeah, that’s definitely not hacking. If we can’t get facial recognition, what’s the plan?”
“I don’t know ,” Tim admitted, annoyance lacing every word. “We know exactly who broke into Arkham, we now even know who they broke out . But we have no proof of any of it. Putting camera footage right next to a picture of Jackson or Chase doesn’t even make it clear that they’re the same people! And there’s no evidence that I can find of the di Angelo kid existing in this time period besides the similarities in his appearance with the photo he had, which is circumstantial at best. It’s like he’s been in hiding the whole time he’s been in our time period.”
“Maybe he has?” Duke offered. “He clearly knew the other three well, and knows how to use his powers, maybe he’s been with them for the years he’s been here?”
“That’s what I was thinking too, but there’s no proof of that. No camera footage with his face on it, which might be this magic again, no documents with his name on them, nothing.”
“Nothing digital, at least,” Duke added. Tim’s groan echoed through the cave.
“I’d love to know where to even look for physical records of him,” he grumbled. “The worst part is that we all saw their faces in Arkham. We know who they are, we know where they live and work and go to school. But if we went and brought them into police custody, it would be our word over theirs, and who the hell knows how that would go?”
“It wouldn’t go well,” Jason cut in, walking up towards the bat computer. Tim and Duke both looked up at him as he approached, a mixture of concern and apprehension.
“Why?” Tim asked, his eyes narrowing slightly. “I mean yeah, I agree, but why?”
“Your word against theirs? I mean, sure, Batman’s word is well respected by the police and so by extension all of yours are too,” Jason started, his hands casually in his pockets as he pretended that his little brothers weren’t watching him for any signs of magical interference. He figured he had earned a little bit of assholery. “But I don’t think it would look great if the vigilantes brought in two college students for a pretty serious accusation, especially considering one of them isn’t white—”
“—ninety percent of us aren’t white either, Jason—”
“— still ,” Jason kept going, “it wouldn’t look great. And with no security footage pinning them to the scene, no identity for the third suspect, and no real motive since you can’t connect the kid to either of them without their own words...well, the last time Percy was really in the public eye, he was seen giving himself up to the Riddler to protect innocent families. And Annabeth is a high-level intern at Wayne Enterprises. I’m not sure how many people would believe that they’d break into a facility like Arkham. And, in addition,” he gave a mock wince, shrugging half-heartedly, “the Red Hood was one of the vigilantes who was present at the Arkham break-in. And I don’t think he’d agree that those two college students look like the people who broke the kid out.”
Tim blinked, staring blankly at Jason. “...You are absolutely no help with whatever magic shit is going on in your head.”
Jason sighed. “I’m assuming you’re not going to believe me if I try again to argue that there’s no magic going on?”
“Definitely not,” Tim said. “Zatanna is on a mission right now, but B already asked her to stop by when she’s done. So we’ll get this sorted out soon.”
Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. “So when Zatanna takes time out of her day and ends up telling you all that there’s no magical coercion going on here, you’ll actually believe her? And you’ll, by extension, believe what I’ve been saying and stop trying to arrest my boyfriend and his best friend?”
Tim turned back to the bat computer, still looking at Jason out of the corner of his eyes. Duke shrugged and nodded.
“Sure,” Tim said, disbelief dripping from the word. “If she says that, then fine. I’ll even apologize for thinking it was magic in the first place.”
“Wow,” Jason said, widening his eyes. “You really don't think she’ll agree with me, do you?”
“I just think that there was a very short turnaround between you angrily telling all of us to stay away so you could deal with Percy—who just broke someone out of Arkham—knowing your name, and you making an oath that will kill you if you tell us why he did it.”
“He—allegedly—broke a child out of Arkham,” Jason emphasized. Sure, the kid was apparently the son of the god of the Underworld, and apparently terrifying when he wanted to be, but still. Fifteen. “A kid who, if you’ll remember, none of us were completely comfortable with putting in Arkham in the first place. Have you considered that maybe it was just a good explanation ?”
“Yeah, none of us liked putting the kid in Arkham,” Tim agreed. “But we saw him use his powers to hurt people—”
“—in self defense—”
“—we don’t know that, though,” Tim countered. “Because he never said a word about that night. Even to defend himself! We couldn’t help him if he didn’t even try to claim it was self-defense. I’m not angry that the kid isn’t in Arkham anymore, just that he wasn’t released , he was broken out, we still have no answers and no idea what the fuck is up with his bloodwork, and we have magic interference stopping us from being able to interrogate the people that we know did it . And they’ve fucked with your head! So yeah, we’re a bit obsessed with this, but you can’t tell us that you wouldn’t be too if it was one of us who got magically coerced into signing a death contract.”
“That’s a bit more dramatic than what actually happened,” Jason muttered. He still didn’t regret making his vow or telling his family it was worse than it was, but he was beginning to think that he probably should have expected this response from his family. That was on him. “I appreciate the concern. Really, I do. But Zatanna is going to say that I was not magically influenced. So it’d be really great if you started trusting what I’m saying before a third party has to tell you that I’m speaking my own mind.”
Then he turned to leave, satisfied that his family didn’t have anything concrete to try and arrest the demigods. He still wasn’t used to that, but Percy had been very open and willing to explain, and the casual use of his hydrokinesis just cemented how much trust had been put in Jason by telling him everything. There were a bunch of possible explanations that could have been given to him instead of the truth that protected innocent kids who were already in danger just because of their parentage. They might not have been as good as the truth, but they would have been safer to give him, and yet Percy and Annabeth took the time to introduce him to their world even when he hadn’t been physically unable to tell anyone about it. He wanted to be annoyed with his family for not taking his word, it was awfully similar to before he got the Lazarus pit under control and they thought they understood what was happening in his head better than he did. But he knew this was different, he knew this was coming from a good place. And Tim did have a point—if he only had their level of information, he would probably be just as up in arms and ready to fight. And he’d done some hypocritical things in the past, but he was going to try his hardest to not be a hypocrite over this, and that meant not being annoyed with his family for an understandable reaction. In their line of work, messing with one of their heads was more common than it should be.
Even still, he should probably keep Percy out of their crosshairs for a while. Which meant taking him places that the bats wouldn’t look for him.
Jason sighed as he pulled out of the Batcave on his motorcycle. He knew a place. It had a story attached to it that he was thinking he wanted to tell Percy, which meant that this was probably one of the better times to tell it. It helped that his family rarely visited there, and it was well known that Jason himself only went there on certain days of the year.
And with his deathday still off on the horizon, there was no way his family would look for him at the cemetery.
He didn’t tell Percy where they were going. He would have, because this wasn’t nearly as pleasant a surprise trip as their last one, but he had no idea how to bring it up. It wasn’t exactly normal to say ‘hey, let’s go to the cemetery, I want to show you my own grave, which I was buried in and crawled out of like a B-movie zombie’. It didn’t hurt to look at anymore, but it still wasn’t exactly a pleasant time of his life. Or, well, death. So as he drove through the city with Percy behind him on his bike, he wasn’t exactly sure how he was going to say it. Maybe Percy would put two and two together when he saw the headstone, and Jason wouldn’t have to be the one to say it. But it wasn’t exactly a leap that most people made, since usually dead people aren’t standing next to you when you visit their grave.
“Jason?” Percy asked as he parked the bike outside Gotham cemetery. “Why are we here?”
His gaze was gentle, but still searching for something within Jason’s face. Jason sighed, staring at the cemetery sign and not looking at Percy. He knew where the Wayne family plot was like the back of his hand, but he still looked at the map to postpone seeing his grave again.
“Jay?” Percy asked again, his voice even softer after Jason never answered him. Jason swallowed and steeled himself.
“Just...follow me,” he said, entering the cemetery and hearing Percy’s footsteps hurry behind him.
“Jason, you—”
“— Please , just...let me show you something before I lose my nerve, okay?” Jason cut off whatever Percy was about to say, knowing that he would take the first opportunity given to him to not take Percy all the way to the family plot.
A beat, and then— “Is it going to hurt you?”
“What?” Jason asked, not pausing his stride.
“Whatever you’re going to show me, is it going to hurt you?” Percy clarified.
Jason took a breath to steady his heartbeat. “No,” he said. He could practically see the expression that he knew Percy was making, so he continued as he saw the plot in the distance. “It’s not... fun , exactly, and it would have hurt a year or so ago. But I’m fine.”
“...okay,” Percy said, and then continued following Jason as he led the way along a route that he first took when he was catatonic and half-dead. And then they reached the plot, and Jason’s eyes locked onto the angel statue that still stood with arms outstretched over his grave. He walked over to stand in front of it, Percy coming to a stop next to him and looking down at the name instead of following Jason’s eyes to look up at the face of the angel. Jason’s hands were in his pockets for a facade of ease, but even he could hear that his breathing was unsteady. The air around them was chilled with the early December wind, biting gently at his exposed skin and ruffling his hair into his face. The grass crunched underfoot, and it looked so similar to each time Jason visited on his deathday. Just slightly colder, slightly less leaves on the trees, remnants of frost scattered on the grass, but it felt the same. He closed his eyes and breathed, feeling the chill of the air in his lungs.
“ Do not stand at my grave and weep ,” he quoted, his eyes shut against the angel, the grave in his mind's-eye dug open from the inside, dirt strewn to either side, “ I am not there, I do not sleep .”
That poem had gained a larger place in his heart recently, for obvious reasons. It helped calm him down, resonating as a reminder that he wasn’t lying there, trapped under six feet of earth. He was here, alive, feeling the wind bite at his hands. He waited for Percy to say something, anything, even to ask what the fuck he’s talking about, but there was only silence. Until he felt a hand take his, and gently squeeze. But when Percy finally spoke, it wasn’t what he was expecting.
“...I didn’t realize you’d have a grave,” he said, his voice quiet, pained, and forced to be level. Jason blinked his eyes open, glancing over at Percy, who was staring with furrowed eyebrows at the ‘ Jason Peter Todd-Wayne ’ engraved on the stone. He noticed Jason’s eyes on him, swallowing and looking over at him. “I—I’ve heard rumors, connecting the Red Hood and the second Robin. In this world, even discounting the demigod world, coming back from the dead isn’t completely unheard of, just...rare. It made sense. But I never considered…”
“Why haven’t you asked about it?” Jason asked, his heart beating in his throat. Percy already knew .
“Why would I ask?” Percy said, his shrug stilted and unnatural. “I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about it. If you wanted to tell me, you would, and if you didn’t, it wasn’t something I needed to know about. I know I’ve mentioned things that you could’ve asked for more details about, or more context, and you haven’t. I wasn’t about to make you talk about it if you didn’t want to.”
“I don’t know if I want to,” Jason considered. “But I want you to know about it. So I guess I have to.”
He still didn’t know where to start, though. So he waited until Percy hesitated and finally asked, “What happened?”
Jason huffed a laugh. “Joker,” he said bluntly. There was really no better way to put it, even as he saw Percy wince at his word. He softened his tone as he continued. “It was...bad. I had gone to find my birth mother, in Ethiopia. I thought that she was being blackmailed by him, but it turned out that she was working with him willingly. She gave me to him. He...had his fun, I guess, then rigged the warehouse to explode with both me and my birth mom still inside. I tried to get out, but...didn’t have enough time.”
“Fuck, Jason, I’m sorry,” Percy said. “Is it alright if I call your birth mom a bitch? Are you okay with that?”
“Oh, go right ahead,” Jason said. “Bruce originally had her buried next to me, since he didn’t know what happened. He got the message when I shot her headstone to rubble, and now I don’t know where she is. I prefer it that way.”
Percy got a wry, almost angry smile on his face. “You know, I know exactly where my shitty step-father is,” he said, like he was telling Jason a secret. “He might not be my birth father, but he was the closest thing I had for the first twelve years of my life. He also might not have directly put me in mortal danger, but he knocked my mom around like she was nothing, and had no qualms about tossing a punch my way either.”
Jason had never expected Percy to talk about the step-father listed in his files. It was obvious just from looking at him that the guy was an asshole, he didn’t need to be told that Gabe Ugliano hit Percy, but hearing the words out loud made him wish that the fucker hadn’t gone missing.
Wait.
“You know where he is?” Jason asked. “I thought he went missing.”
Percy’s grin widened. “He did. Technically. Have you heard of the one-hit-wonder photo-realistic sculpture by Sally Jackson called ‘The Poker Player’? I suppose it’s also important to know that on my adventures that year, I happened to fight and behead Medusa.”
Jason blinked. “Did you turn your asshole step-father to stone?”
“Oh, I did nothing of the sort!” Percy’s eyes widened into a facsimile of innocence, making Jason crack a smile for the first time since deciding to take Percy to the cemetery. “I just sent my mom a trophy of my adventures, that’s all. I have no idea what happened to Gabe Ugliano after that, just that he vanished halfway through my summer vacation.”
“You know, that ‘innocent’ look isn’t nearly as accurate as you seem to think it is,” Jason commented, making Percy bark a laugh.
“Trust me, I do it much better when I actually want the person I’m talking to to believe me,” he said, grinning. “That being said, if there are any other asshole family members that you would like to not know where they are, my mom has a secure storage shed and would probably love a new sculpture to show to museums.”
Jason laughed, but squeezed Percy’s hand in thanks. “No, the rest are already dead, but I appreciate the offer. My mom who raised me wasn’t bad, she just...had an addiction. Although...my little brother’s creepy grandfather had a pretty huge hand in bringing me back and majorly fucking with my thoughts, so I think he could use a look at that head.”
“Time and place,” Percy said. “A little petrification never hurt any bad people.”
Then he frowned slightly and nudged at the ground with his foot. “Hey, uh, you don’t have to answer this, if you don’t want to. I don’t know how insensitive this question is. But...what’s buried here?”
“Huh?” Jason asked, cocking his head.
“I mean, we don’t usually bury people, at camp. So even if there’s no body, we just burn the shroud as if there was one, it’s the same ceremony. But...what did they bury? Is it just an empty coffin, or…” Percy trailed off, looking unsure of what he was saying. Jason just...stared. It made sense to him, that Percy would ask that. He was clearly familiar with, or at least okay with the idea of someone coming back from death. But he had skipped right to Jason coming back, to the idea that his body was out there, waiting to be brought back. He had skipped over the far more horrifying truth.
“Percy…” he started, not wanting to shatter Percy’s idealized version of the truth. But he had to. It was an important part of the story. “Percy, they buried me .”
Percy’s face drained of blood, paling in front of his eyes. “No…”
“I woke up surrounded by wood and silk,” Jason said, trying to soften the blow. “I dug my way out, no idea who I was or where I was wandering. I was found by people who hated my father, and saw me as the perfect blank slate to use against him. I was dead for six months, it took me a year to come back to Gotham, and then it took six more months for my father to convince me that the things I’d been fed by those people were wrong. They told me that I had been replaced after I died, that Tim took my place and no one bothered to even let my body cool. It was all an elaborate plot, I know that now, but they pit me against Tim and I believed every word.”
“Jason…” Percy said, shifting closer so that their arms were touching. “I’m so sorry. The times I’ve known someone who cheated death...both times their bodies weren’t a factor. One was brought back in a way that didn’t need it, and the other...was a bit of a special case. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that.”
Jason appreciated that, he really did. He had gotten a lot of apologies from his family once they realized what he went through after coming back, and he appreciated all of them. But his family knew the rest of what he did after coming back. His family knew that he learned to kill, his family was intimately aware of what he did to his fucking brother , his family looked at the blood on his hands and still held them, still apologized for the scars that betrayed the frantic clawing at the roof of a coffin. Percy only knew the parts that happened to him. Not the parts that he did with his own two hands.
The words clawed at Jason’s throat. He didn’t want to say them. They were the regrets that were dragged out by his subconscious in nightmares, or when fear gas entered the equation. They weren’t a good representative of who he was, of the person that he had grown into without the Lazarus pit hissing violence into his ears. But they were as much a part of him as the scars that were now forever on Tim’s skin. They were intertwined with the story of his resurrection, his rise from death and his fall from grace.
“I tried to kill Tim,” the words burst from him like water from a dam, as he failed to hold them back. Percy might be aware of the blood coating the hands of the Red Hood, and he was fine with Percy knowing he had taken the lives of rapists, murderers, nazis, and abusers. But underneath that was the burning blood of his brother, the violence that he actually regretted. He couldn’t keep them silent any longer, not here, not standing in front of the angel that saw his resurrection and watched him stagger away. Not in front of the grave that he could still remember pulling himself out of, limbs aching and stiff. “After I came back, after being taught how to kill and kill well . They pointed me at him like a loaded gun and I tried really hard to kill him.”
Percy was watching him carefully, having looked over sharply when Jason made his confession. His face was unreadable, but after a moment, it softened.
“There was a time where Nico wanted to trade my life to bring his sister back.” The words were light, no bitterness behind them. No judgment. Like Percy didn’t understand the weight of what Jason had just admitted. But Jason heard what he was trying to say, even if it wasn’t the same. Nico, the kid he was adamant was his little brother, had wanted him dead. But wanting him dead was different than actively attacking him. Was different than doing what Jason had done.
“Percy...” Jason needed him to understand. He knew already that Percy was used to danger, was dangerous himself , but what Jason had done was something he still returned to in dreams and woke up feeling sick. He worked so hard now to keep his family safe, to keep Tim safe, but it still didn’t erase what he still remembered his hands doing. “I slit his throat. It’s a fucking miracle that he’s still alive. When I wake up suddenly and still see his blood on my hands, it...” Jason didn’t know how to finish his sentence. Percy adjusted their hands so that their fingers were intertwined, a silent gesture that he wasn’t disgusted by what Jason had disclosed. He was silent for a moment, thinking, before looking back out at Jason’s gravestone.
“I got possessed, once,” he said conversationally. Jason’s eyebrows furrowed, and Percy’s mouth twitched into a frown. “Me and my cousin Jason both got possessed, and we were forced to fight to the death. We joke about it now, arguing over who would win, but...if Piper hadn’t’ve been there, or her charmspeak didn’t effect these creatures...one of us would be dead. And the other would have to live with that. I almost had to live with killing my cousin, who I barely had the chance to know at that point.”
“You were possessed, it wasn’t you,” Jason said, not protesting, since Percy was clearly still affected by what happened and he wasn’t totally an asshole all the time, but still putting up a wall between their experiences. Percy gave him a side-eyed glance.
“Was it you when you almost killed Tim?” he asked, still no hint of judgment in his voice. Jason frowned. A part of him wanted to hear judgment. He got why his family no longer held it against him, why even Tim was able to joke about it now—thank fuck—but the part of him that felt that blood burn on his skin almost needed Percy to hate him for this.
“Yes,” he argued. “It was my thoughts, my plan, my goddamn hands that did it. Someone else wasn’t piloting my body like a fucking joyride. I appreciate what you’re doing, but it’s not the same. I knew what I was doing, and I wanted to do it.”
So what if his vision was tainted with green the whole time? So what if the Pit had been whispering to him while he planned, while he watched the new little Robin, urging him to spill his blood? So what if he was so overwhelmed with the rage of the Lazarus waters that he barely could remember that Tim had a name other than Replacement? It was still him. It was still Jason.
“I know it’s not the same,” Percy said. “But I’m not going to just say that it’s okay and move on. This is something that you’re still working through, something that the person you are now would never do, and that means that there was something more going on behind the scenes. I’m just trying to understand. And I’ve been through a lot of fucked up things, I’m trying to see if any of them are similar.”
Jason sighed. “I don’t know if there’s anything similar to what they did to me. And I don’t even know where to start with it.” How does one explain the Lazarus pits? How did he put into words the way it scooped out his personality and replaced it with bloodlust? “But even if there was more going on, even if they manipulated me, I still had the opportunity to stop. And I didn’t. Not until later, not until...my family still wanted me, and proved wrong all the lies I’d been fed.” He had built his reputation as the Red Hood around protecting the children of Crime Alley—only to go on and nearly murder a teenager. He should have stopped as soon as the thought of hurting a child with his own two hands entered his head, but he didn’t. He couldn’t see Percy ever having to encounter that same choice.
“Hm,” Percy made a thoughtful noise and crossed his arms, looking at the ground. He seemed to be lost in his head for a moment, before he raised his gaze back up towards the angel. “You say that you knew what you were doing the whole time, that you were in control and making the decisions. Just like I knew what I was doing when Annabeth had to pull me back from murdering a goddess?”
Jason’s head whipped around to stare at Percy. His boyfriend glanced at him with a familiar darkness in his eyes, one that spoke of regrets he could never truly get rid of.
“The full context is too much, I don’t want to get into that,” he prefaced, but then shook his head ruefully. “But Annabeth and I once had to fight a goddess, Akhlys, protogenoi of misery and poison.”
“Pleasant,” Jason muttered, making Percy laugh.
“Yeah. She was...a piece of work. But the gist of it was that she controlled poison, and Annie and I were already weakened because we had been forced to go to her for help. And, uh, poison is a liquid, right?” Percy’s face flushed much the same way that Jason’s did when he was forced by Alfred to apologize to one of his siblings. He didn’t look at Jason, and didn’t elaborate, waiting for Jason to put the last corner puzzle piece together to see the frame of the picture.
“...you could control it,” Jason guessed, having seen Percy play with a glass of milk as easily as he made shapes out of falling raindrops just to make Jason roll his eyes. Percy’s lips pursed, but he nodded.
“I was just...so mad,” he said, the words making Jason’s gut harden to stone. He understood giving in to rage, and the idea that Percy did too… “Annie and I had been through so much, too much to even imagine, and I just...acted. I actively used her own poisons to nearly choke her, and I didn’t care. I just wanted to get Annabeth and I out of there alive, and the air all around me seemed to feed into it, until I couldn’t see anything except her, choking and pleading. Then I glanced to the side, and I saw Annabeth.”
“Was she mad?” Jason asked, remembering the rage that had been leveled at the Red Hood before his helmet ever came off to reveal his face. After that, it tended to be sadness or grief until the pit rage lessened and Jason came home. But he would never forget looking at Batman and seeing his father look at him like he was some random new violent criminal in town, just another madman to throw into Arkham. It had only fueled the green more, and the sorrow that wracked Bruce’s face after knowing it was Jason was what threw water on the burning flames of his anger. But Percy shook his head sharply.
“She wasn’t mad,” he said, his voice still slightly hollow. “I don’t think she would have been mad if we had fought normally and the end result was the goddess dying. We aren’t strangers to death. No, Jason, I looked at her and she was staring at me, fucking terrified . After five years of fighting at each other’s sides, guarding each other’s backs, saving each other time and time again, she didn’t recognize me and she was scared of me. It was like an ice bath, and...I haven’t tried controlling any non-conventional liquids since. So yeah, Jay, I understand doing something when you’re in control and yet at the same time you don’t recognize the hand that did the actions. If you expect me to think you’re a horrible person for what you did to your brother, then maybe you shouldn’t have let me see that it hurts you so much to remember what you did, or let me see that he seems to have clearly forgiven you. Just like Annie forgave me. Mine might have been self-defense, I know it’s still not exactly the same, but the person that nearly drowned a goddess in her own poisons is a person that I try every day to never be again.”
Jason could see a familiar regret in Percy’s eyes like looking in a mirror. No, the situations weren’t the same. No, Percy didn’t come within inches of murdering his family. But if he had gone through with his actions, he would most likely have lost Annabeth—and that was close enough to the same thing. He didn’t know what to say, and so he leaned his body more against Percy’s, their fingers still laced together.
“Tim forgave me too easily,” he said. “He didn’t even fight it when Dick convinced me to move back into the manor, even though he was still slightly scared I’d hurt him again after I swore I never would.”
“Fear isn’t always rational,” Percy said. “He could be afraid and still know that you meant your promise.”
Jason knew that. He also knew that it didn’t stop the guilt that had eaten away at him every time he saw Tim stiffen at the sight of him during those first few months at the manor.
He had to change the subject.
“You know,” he said, looking back down at his grave, “coming back to life was how I got my white streak.”
Percy’s eyes flicked up to his hair, and the ghost of a smile tugged at his mouth.
“I suppose I owe you my own tragic hair backstory, then,” he said, taking Jason’s topic change in stride. “I don’t know if you’ve seen it, it’s harder since she’s blonde, but Annabeth has the same grey streak. She dyed it because I did, and then we both just stopped keeping up with it in Gotham.”
“So...did you get them at the same time?”
“Yeah,” Percy’s smile vanished. “You know Atlas?”
“The titan holding the sky?” Jason answered. He’d brushed up on his Greek myths in the days since Percy told him about the demigod world, and it was really coming in handy.
“That’s the bitch,” Percy scowled. “The other titans, led by Kronos, wanted to free him so that he could fight the gods with them, but that meant someone else had to hold the sky. Humans would eventually be crushed, but they’d work as a placeholder until a god would take it from them, and that’s exactly what the titans did. They kidnapped a demigod, prompting Artemis to try and save her, and then told Artemis that the girl would be crushed if she didn’t take the burden herself.”
Jason saw the puzzle pieces start to fall into place, and felt a pit in his gut. “That was Annabeth, wasn’t it?”
Percy’s face flashed with anger. “It was partially my fault she got taken. And the only reason they got her under the sky in the first place was because Luke tricked her.”
“Luke?” Jason asked, frowning. “The guy who tried to kill you?”
“Oh he did a lot more than that, I just couldn’t say it back then because it would be way too concerning,” Percy admitted. “But to make a long story short, for now, by the time me and a few others got there to rescue Annabeth and Artemis, Artemis was holding the sky. But we needed her help to fight with us, so Annabeth and I took the sky together. I can’t even describe how heavy it was, how much it hurt to hold up. I don’t know how we did it, we were just fourteen. But we held it long enough for Artemis to trick Atlas back under it, and we have the grey in our hair to show for it.”
“What about the rest of the titans? You said they wanted to fight the gods?”
Percy sighed, glancing at Jason out of the corner of his vision. “That’s a long story. Not one that would be any fun to listen to while we stand in the cold in a graveyard. How about I tell you over dinner?”
Jason could think of a few restaurants that his family wouldn’t think to look for him at. They were also casual enough that their security cameras wouldn’t be that good quality, and it would be easy to hide his face so that he didn’t trigger any alerts his family might have put out for him—since obviously tracking Percy’s face wasn’t going to do anything. He gave a small smile, squeezed Percy’s hand, and turned away from his grave. His shoulders felt lighter, and the angel’s gaze wasn’t as piercing.
“Sounds good to me,” he said, leading Percy back to his bike. Percy closed his eyes as they walked, taking a breath before diving into his memories.
As they reached his motorcycle, Percy had visibly steeled himself for the long tale he had promised.
And when they reached the restaurant, Percy started at the beginning.
“
A half-blood of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds…”
Notes:
I love writing Jason because I can make him pretentiously quote my favorite poem while standing in front of his own grave and that’s totally in character. also bc it might not be clear, the ppl percy is talking about in regards to ressurection are hazel (brought back in a way that doesnt need it, i.e. nico leading her out of the underworld) and leo (special case, i.e. physicians cure).
also, i am sorry to say that i think i need to take a hiatus. i participate in nanowrimo every year and im unsure im in a place this year to be able to keep up with the commitment of nano and keeping up with fanfic. my passion and dream is to publish a novel and i think i need to focus on that in november. i was thinking of just doing my best, but i would hate to miss a week or two and make you guys worry i abandoned this fic, bc i have no plans to do that. i would rather it be an official hiatus than make you guys wonder whats going on if i miss an update. so i am very sorry, but i believe i will be taking a month off, and i will be back with the next chapter on the first friday of december, december 2nd. thank you for understanding and i hope that you all have a wonderful november and good luck to any of you also doing nano. i hope you enjoyed this chapter <3 <3
Chapter 14
Notes:
i hope everyone had a good november!! Nano went pretty well for me! to everyone else who did it: congratulations!! now for me to try and switch tracks again and get back to thinking about these chaotic, lovely boys. wishful thinking alert: maybe a month break will have shattered my writers block :)
Hope you guys like this chapter!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Are you sure you’re—”
“—Percy, if you ask me if I’ll be okay on my own one more time, I’m not helping you with your next essay.”
“It’s vacation, I don’t have any essays!”
“All the more reason to want my help with your first one next semester, isn’t it?” Annabeth’s arms were crossed as she stared Percy down through the mist screen. Percy huffed.
“Fine. I’ll stop worrying, I guess.”
“No guilt-tripping me either, Jackson,” Annabeth chided. “Nico’s gonna be dropping by soon anyway, so I won’t be alone for long.”
“Oh awesome, then I’ll be worried about both of you instead, at least until Nico comes to drop in on my search,” Percy countered, grinning at Annabeth’s groan.
“The odds of me running into a monster here are so much lower than you, Seaweed Brain,” she shot back. “In fact, I’m probably safer exploring on my own.”
“Wow, hit me where it hurts, Wise Girl,” Percy splayed a hand on his chest like he’d been shot, making Annabeth roll her eyes.
“I’ll message you if I find anything,” she said. “Don’t get into too much trouble, you two.”
“I might not be a demigod, but I am a magnet for trouble, so I don’t think I can make that promise, Annabeth, sorry.” Jason shrugged from behind Percy. “But I can make sure we don’t die in whatever trouble ends up happening.”
Percy raised his eyebrows and nudged Jason with his shoulder. “Hey, this is my world we’re dealing with. I’ll be the one keeping us from dying today.”
“Gross, stop flirting,” Annabeth cut in, making a face. “Be safe, don’t get killed, call if you need anything.”
“Back at you,” Percy said, giving a mock salute. “Good luck, Annie.”
“You too,” Annabeth sighed, a bit of exhaustion entering her eyes. “I hope we find something.”
Then she ended the IM, leaving Percy and Jason surrounded by silence as the buildings around them rose high into the sky. Jason looked to Percy.
“So what exactly are we looking for?”
“Well,” Percy started, frowning slightly. “I don’t think you’ll be able to feel it, but right here is where the Mist starts to feel...wrong. I noticed this spot yesterday, which is why I was so insistent that we had to do it today, I don’t know how much longer it’ll be here. It trails off that way,” he pointed towards the north, further away from the center of the city, “but each time Annie and I have tried to follow it before, it disappeared before we saw if there was anything at the other end. Hopefully, I caught this one soon enough that there’ll be a clue at the end.”
“And Annabeth is following another one? Why are there multiple?”
“We don’t know ,” Percy grumbled. “For all we know, these are pointless, and a primordial being is just having fun watching us run around like headless chickens. But we can’t just ignore them unless we have proof that we can cross them off the list, otherwise Annabeth will be unable to consider any other options. I love her, I do, but her whiteboard plans are meticulous and she doesn’t cross any ideas off without explicit proof.”
“She’d fit in well with the bats,” Jason noted, following behind as Percy started walking further into the alley, twirling Riptide in his fingers. Previously, monsters only found him if he was further down the trail of this tainted Mist, but better safe than dead. That was the saying, right? Eh, either way, it was accurate. He was quiet as he led Jason through side streets and alleys, needing to concentrate to feel where the Mist was tainted, feeling it swirl around him like smog rather than a cool breeze. It led them further and further towards the edge of Gotham, making Percy grow tense with anticipation. Why would Chaos be leading them out of Gotham, when they clearly kept their influence contained within the city limits?
“We’re reaching the forest,” Jason noted, frowning. Percy glanced at him over his shoulder.
“There’s a forest?” he asked, knowing that he should probably know that already, but all the maps Annabeth showed him kinda started to blur together. Jason laughed, shaking his head.
“Yeah, there’s a forest. It’s not big , but it mostly works to separate the actual city from all the fancy rich mansions.”
“Oh, like your family’s fancy rich mansion?” Percy teased. Jason rolled his eyes.
“Haha, very funny. What do you think is in the forest?”
Percy’s nose wrinkled as he made a face. “I’d guess monsters, if Gotham wasn’t so weird. And maybe they are there, and they just don’t venture into town even if they smell a demigod? But as it is, I don’t know. Maybe this is where Chaos has been camping out, although I doubt they’ve been physically in the city at all. This could just be where that main seed of their influence is hiding?”
“So basically we’re just winging it right now,” Jason said, making Percy shrug.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s basically how a lot of demigod stuff happens. It drives those of us more partial to plans and with the last name Chase absolutely insane, but there are some things you just gotta roll with.”
They found the forest easily, the trail leading them right to where the buildings tapered off and gave way to trees and foliage. Leaves failed to crunch under their feet as they tried to be quiet, demigod training and bat training combining into near perfect silence between the two of them. The air was chilled, frost lining the grass underneath them, and Percy forced himself to not shove his hands in his pockets for more warmth. If they did run into a monster, he had to be ready. Jason wouldn’t be able to help, it would be up to him. And he was fine with that, he was confident in his ability to handle a monster or two on his own, but he would rather not be caught off guard when there was another person who might be put in danger simply due to his proximity to a demigod. Next time he went to camp, he was bringing an extra bronze dagger back for Jason, just in case. Even his mom had a knife in the apartment for emergencies, kept far out of reach of Estelle, of course. Just because it couldn’t hurt her didn’t mean they were letting her near a knife until she was old enough to learn how to properly use one.
It had been close to two hours, with only one of those hours spent within the trees, when Percy spotted the familiar rippling in the shadow behind a tree. He stopped walking, making Jason pull up short behind him, and finally relaxed the hand holding Riptide.
He wouldn’t say so, but the surprised ‘holy shit’ from behind him when Nico stepped out of the shadow was incredibly satisfying. He looked over his shoulder to see Jason staring wide-eyed at Nico, who was brushing stray shadows off his jacket like dust before shoving his hands in his pockets and turning to Percy. His eyes were as dark as ever, but the bags underneath them were slightly less pronounced. He seemed far calmer than he ever had in their dream conversations, and even had the faint ghost of a smile still on his face. A few weeks of forced bedrest and being around family had done him good. Percy felt a fond, relieved grin stretch across his own features.
“Are you going to stab me if I hug you?” he asked, already stepping forward. Nico hesitated, but rolled his eyes.
“Even if I say yes, you’ll do it anyway,” he grumbled, reluctantly letting Percy wrap his arms around him and hug him tight.
“You’re absolutely right I would!” Percy agreed brightly. “I haven’t seen you in weeks , the least you owe me is a hug.”
“Yeah, I, uh,” Nico ducked his head as he stepped back from the hug, and Percy knew that it was to hide a blush, “I never got the chance to thank you. I was able to thank Annabeth and the others, but you were still here, so...thanks. If I was in there any longer, Will was going to break in himself, and that...wouldn’t end well.”
Percy smiled softly. “We both know that you would have left on your own before that happened, even if it meant all the consequences would fall on you instead. And you don’t have to thank me. There was never a question of if I’d help or not, just when I would.”
“...I know,” Nico said, jostling Percy with his shoulder. That was his equivalent of a hug. The actual hug was for Percy’s benefit and they both knew it. But Percy appreciated Nico allowing it.
Percy then remembered that they had an audience, and looked over his shoulder at Jason. He was watching Nico curiously, and Percy couldn’t really tell what he was thinking. Nico looked over at that moment too, although Percy was under no illusions that Nico didn’t know Jason had been there the whole time. Jason was quiet, yes, but not invisible. He noticed Nico go still, but that wasn’t exactly unusual for him, especially around strangers.
“Jason, this is Nico,” Percy said, “Nico, this is-”
“-your boyfriend who you told about us, yeah, but you neglected to mention the fact that he’s one of the vigilantes here and was also dead at some point,” Nico said bluntly, not moving an inch from the spot he had gone still. Jason, too, froze. “I recognize your soul from the night I left Arkham, but I couldn’t see it all that well that night since I was in a rush. Do you...need help with that?”
“Nico, what have we said about mentioning someone’s soul to them without them asking about it?” Percy said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Nico glared at Percy out of the corner of his vision.
“Yeah, okay, it freaks people out, I get it,” he said, looking back at the still-staring Jason. “But I’m allowed to be a little concerned when his soul looks like that .”
“We don’t know what that means , Neeks, we can’t see his soul,” Percy sighed.
“That sounds like a you problem,” Nico shot back, narrowing his eyes at Jason. “Sorry if this is an invasive question, I do actually have a point to this, but...did you willingly enter a Lazarus pit?”
Jason reeled slightly, taking a small step back. “You...you know about the pits?”
“I can see the residue on your soul,” Nico said, frowning slightly. His voice grew a bit sympathetic. “You’ve clearly been able to ignore the influence very well, it’s faded slightly, but it still looks like a poisonous green vice grip around your soul. It’s a different residue than what told me you died once, but it’s...interconnected. As for the pits, how could I not know about them? My father absolutely hates them. If he was allowed to be that involved in the workings of the world up here, they would’ve been destroyed as soon as they were created. While they don’t bring people back from the dead, they do extend life-spans far past what humans should get, and usually lead to people dying before they’re meant to because of the side effects. They’ve caused a lot of extra paperwork for Thanatos, so he has many issues with them too.”
“Wait…” Percy cut in, furrowing his eyebrows. “What are these pits?”
“The Lazarus pits are currently under the control of a group known as the League of Assassins,” Jason said, still watching Nico curiously. “They can heal anything. Not death, but as long as you’re still somewhat alive, they can heal you to even better than perfect health, which means that regular use can lead to a kind of immortality. But they have...side effects.”
He seemed hesitant to continue, but Nico remained silent. Jason sighed.
“You aren’t the same person who went into the pit,” he kept going, rather reluctantly, and now he seemed to be looking at Nico so that he wouldn’t look at Percy. “It...shoves everything about your personality and feelings into some tiny corner of your mind, where it does its best to make sure you never find it again. And all that empty space, it fills with rage. Or, more accurately in some ways, bloodlust. The Pit wants violence, all the time, and it knows exactly what buttons to push to make you listen to it.”
A beat, and then he was scowling. “And to answer your question? It was absolutely fucking not willingly. I was just in no shape to refuse.”
Percy didn’t know what to say to that. So he just walked over to Jason and took his hand. What he had said made a lot of sense with other things he’d told Percy. Now that Nico was here, and they were talking about the fact that Jason had died, he had a question he wanted to ask. But Nico seemed to be searching for something within Jason, and Percy could see the moment he found it. The hard edge of his eyes lessened, and he cocked his head slightly to the side.
“Do you want help with that?” he asked again, and Jason’s scowl turned confused.
“Help with what?”
“The residue of the Lazarus pit,” Nico clarified. “It can’t be fun to have that in your head.”
Jason stared at him. “You...you can fix that? How?”
“If it was in your blood or something, then I couldn’t help, but it’s on your soul,” Nico explained. “It would take time, and it might be uncomfortable or even a little painful, but I could separate it.”
“I don’t care if it hurts, fucking yes I want it gone,” Jason said, eyes wide. “It’s been four years and I can still hear it sometimes, if you can get rid of it, do whatever you need to.”
Nico nodded. “I’m staying at camp for the time being since your masked friends are likely still looking for me, but I can come by more often to help, then.”
Jason still seemed slightly stunned, so Percy took the opportunity to ask his own question.
“Hey, Nico,” he started, drawing the younger boy’s attention, “Jason’s not on the list, right?”
Nico frowned, thinking. “I don’t think so. But I can sneak into Thanatos’s office and check, if you want? I’m told we’re having family dinner next Saturday anyway, Hazel can be a distraction for me.”
“Would you get in trouble?” Percy asked. Nico shrugged.
“Probably not. It’s not like I’m doing anything but looking. I’m not a bratty ten-year-old anymore, he’s actually trying to be a good dad.”
“Aw, Neeks, you’ll always be that adorable bratty ten-year-old to me,” Percy teased, making Nico flip him off.
“Wait, what list are you talking about?” Jason cut in, looking between the two of them.
“Thanatos’s list of people who are supposed to be dead,” Nico answered. “If you were on it, then it’s likely that whatever shroud is around Gotham is what's kept him from finding you. But if you were near a Lazarus pit for any significant amount of time, then that meant you were outside of Gotham after being resurrected, which meant he wasn’t looking for you. However you were brought back probably lands under a different jurisdiction, then.”
“I don’t even know how I was brought back,” Jason said, frowning. “No one does that I’ve asked.”
“I wouldn’t necessarily worry about it,” Nico said, “there aren’t that many people who come back from the dead illegally now that the Doors of Death are closed again, so I usually hear my father complaining about them, and I haven’t heard him mention anyone who seems like they’d be you.”
Then he turned to Percy. “Have you found anything out here yet?”
And just like that, the conversation about Jason’s resurrection was pushed aside, and it seemed like Jason was still trying to come to terms with how easily they had moved on. That, or the fact that Nico was going to help him with this...Lazarus pit stuff. Percy had never heard of them before, but anything that made Nico that concerned about a soul was bad news. Percy filled Nico in on how the search had been going—which was badly—and they followed the trail together for a while until the Mist started to fade and go back to normal.
“Damn it,” Nico cursed, kicking a rock forward into the now-clean Mist. “Annabeth’s trail went cold too, I think these are red herrings.”
“I know, but they’re the only clue we have so far,” Percy sighed. “Thanks for coming anyway, Nico. It was good to see you.”
“You’re coming up to camp for the holidays, right?” Nico asked, looking to anyone who didn’t know him as if he didn’t care about the answer. “Your mom asked me to check.”
Percy ignored the fact that he had called his mom yesterday. He just ruffled Nico’s hair and laughed as his hand was slapped away. “Yeah, Annie and I are leaving next week. We’ll spend most of it with my family, and you know you’re welcome to join, but we’ll be at camp a lot too.”
“Okay, cool,” Nico said, shoving his hands back in his pockets and stepping over to a darkened shadow behind a tree. “Uh, see you then. Or when I come to help with the pit. Whichever’s first.”
Then without another word, he was stepping into the shadow and vanishing from sight. It was silent for a few moments as Percy finally relaxed with the knowledge that Nico was looking much healthier. It was good to see him in person, to see the way that he wasn’t swaying at all like he had been the night they broke him out. His eyes were always dark, but now they were once more sharp and piercing, not glassy. Percy’s shoulders released the tension that had become normal within Nico’s first week in Arkham. A small smile spread on his face as he stared at the shadow that used to hold his informally-adopted little brother. (His mom had gotten paperwork ready before they realized that Nico didn’t have an identity in this time period. The physical paperwork that Alecto had filed at Westover Hall was drenched in Mist and magic, and to everyone else in the world, Nico di Angelo was long dead. They had considered making him a fake identity in secret to surprise him, but then realized that making it official didn’t matter as long as Nico knew he had a place at the Jackson home. If Nico ever expressed a desire to go back to school, though...well, his mom still had the papers.)
“So...is it normal for you demigods to have family dinners with gods?” Jason broke the silence, his voice incredulous. “I’m not sure where my ‘this is crazy’ meter should be set now, what the fuck is normal for you?”
Percy couldn’t hold in his laughter. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s normal . When I was a kid, that would be absolutely unheard of. But the gods have gotten a lot better. The eldest gods have less kids, so it’s easier for them to visit us, but it’s not that weird nowadays to hear that Apollo visited one of his kids, or that Aphrodite took a few of her kids shopping. And, well, Hades doesn’t really come up here all that often, so Nico and Hazel head down to the Underworld sometimes instead. It’s been happening more often now that Persephone has started to like them and named herself their step-mom officially.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed. “...do you have family dinners?”
Percy grinned, taking extreme pleasure in the awkward way Jason was asking. It was clear he didn’t know if he wanted the answer or not.
“Only on certain occasions,” he said. “I’m welcome in the palace, but I’m pretty sure half the reason Amphitrite likes me is because I’m not trying to shoehorn myself into their dynamics and it's clear that I don’t want to steal Triton’s title of heir. That fact has certainly helped my relationship with him . I just like chilling in the palace sometimes, and she makes good cookies. So I go occasionally, and I have a room there, but it's not the same as Nico in the Underworld.”
Jason thought about that for a moment, before an amused smile quirked his mouth.
“Do you think Aquaman would start crying if he found out that you had your own room in Poseidon’s palace?”
Percy snickered, having heard his father’s thoughts on the new King of Atlantis and how maybe now Atlantis would finally move more into the modern day.
“Maybe some day we can sea for ourselves,” he said, knowing that the chances were slim, but still liking the idea. If he were to tell any hero outside of Jason’s family, it would easily be either Aquaman or Wonder Woman—although no demigod really knew for sure if she was ignorant of their world. No one wanted to ask to check, so some people figured she was just being polite and helping them stay in secrecy.
“No. No, that was an awful pun, take it back,” Jason demanded, pointing a finger in Percy’s face. Percy grinned wider.
“I’m so sorry. I just can’t kelp myself.”
“That’s it, have fun getting out of the forest by yourself, I’m going home.”
“I can literally feel the lake and follow it, I’m not lost.”
“Your powers are bullshit.”
“At least be accurate and say they’re horseshit.”
“Stop reminding me that you’re literally related to horses, I can’t—”
“—Shh,” Percy cut him off, his eyes narrowing. Jason looked like he was about to speak anyway, but he saw how serious Percy’s expression was and his own instincts kicked in, making him lower into a defensive position. Percy glanced around, scanning the trees for the small noise he had heard. He knew the sound, and he knew that Mrs. O’Leary would never sneak up on him unless they were playing. Which meant…
“Jason, down!” he called, knocking his shoulder into Jason to move him to the left as a hellhound leapt from the trees with a monstrous bark. In one fluid movement, Riptide was in his hand once more and uncapped to its full length. One hellhound was something he’d fought on his own before, but this one was large and angry. It tried to bite him, growling low and deep, then blocked his answering strike with sharp claws. He ducked under its swipes, trying to hit its underbelly, and managing a slice along its skin that didn’t kill it, but had it dripping blood onto the ground as it backed away from him and eyed him with pitch, malice-filled eyes. Drool dripped from its fangs onto the grass, and it huffed a breath of hot air as it stared him down.
“You know, you’re not as scary as you think,” Percy taunted, adjusting his grip on Riptide. “I’ve got one of you as a pet . And she’s way scarier than you.”
The hellhound snarled and looked ready to pounce, when there was the snap of a branch behind him.
“Percy, behind you!” Jason shouted, and Percy cursed as he whirled around in time to roll out of the way of another pouncing hellhound, seeing Jason on his feet and about to pull his gun from inside his jacket.
“Don’t shoot them, it won’t work,” Percy told him, turning back to face the two monsters. “Leave this to me, I’ve got it.”
As he readied himself, he was at least thankful that hellhounds couldn’t speak. He hated when monsters talked about how much they wanted to eat him. Now that Jason had, however reluctantly, agreed to stay out of the battle, he felt his focus narrow to just the two hounds, and his muscles relax into the familiar stance for a fight.
The rest was a bit of a blur. Two large hellhounds in a small clearing was still just two large hellhounds in a small clearing—they didn’t work off of strategy like the larger and stronger opponents that Percy had faced. They were monsters, yes, but still mostly animals. And when Percy managed to down one of them by launching off a tree and onto the beast’s head, he was then only dealing with one monster. This one, enraged by the death of its companion and also covered in gold monster dust, snarled loudly and swiped at Percy’s head, letting him duck and roll underneath the beast, stabbing up into its underbelly where its heart should be.
He realized how dumb an idea that was when he realized that he had missed, and that while gravely injured, the hellhound was not exploding into dust just yet. He could never tell Annabeth about this, she would make him study the monster diagrams again. He hated the monster diagrams. The beast growled, and dropped its body into a crouch, preparing to pounce forward and get Percy out from under it, and Percy looked behind him to where—
Oh gods damn it.
He dropped Riptide, leaving it impaled in the beast, and rolled sideways out from under the beast right as it readied to launch itself forward to where Jason—with no useful weapons—was looking like he was preparing to fight the hellhound when it got close to him, and not run away to leave the beasts to Percy. This is what he got, dating a vigilante. He was pretty sure ‘run away’ wasn’t in their vocabulary. He jumped forward at the same time as the hellhound, his side reaching Jason first and knocking him backwards, leaving Percy on top to meet the hellhound head-on. The hellhound’s leap led it right on top of them, its large paw pinning Percy’s left arm into the dirt, and dripping drool onto his shirt. Gross . He quickly reached out, grabbing the hilt of Riptide still stuck in the monster’s chest, and yanked it towards him, slicing through the beast, finally making it stiffen and burst into gold dust. The dust settled directly onto Percy’s hair and face, unfortunately, but he tried his hardest not to let it get in his mouth. Once was enough to make that mistake. He took a moment to breathe, letting his heart-rate settle, before lowering Riptide and using his arm to push himself up into a sitting position. He was practically lying next to where he had shoved Jason down, their legs tangled together, and he glanced down at his boyfriend to make sure he was okay. The beast had likely only targeted him because he was the only living creature around and it wanted to get Percy away from it, but still, Percy didn’t want one of his monsters hurting Jason.
Jason was also covered in golden monster dust, but he seemed to not have noticed, his eyes trained on Percy and slightly widened. His face was tinged with pink.
“Are you okay?” Percy asked, not seeing any injuries but also aware that the hellhound’s claws still could have injured Jason. Jason blinked, not moving his gaze from Percy’s. When he spoke, he was still slightly breathless.
“...okay so maybe swords are cool.”
“Jaybird, is that you?” Dick’s voice called out as Jason entered the manor. He could hear talking from the living room, including a voice that he knew he knew, but didn’t belong to any of his family.
“Yeah, why?” he called back, carefully hanging his jacket just the way Alfred liked it.
“Just c’mere,” Dick continued, and it was only the forced calm in his voice that made Jason not expect to walk in on his brother being held with a gun to his head. Dick would be far more actually calm in that scenario, which really said something about their family. That being said, he wasn’t sure what would make Dick nervous, at least until he reached the threshold of the living room and saw the young woman dressed in a suit sitting on the armchair. Jason stopped in the doorway, sighing.
“...hi, Zatanna,” he greeted, dragging his hand down his face. “Totally surprised to see you here. I assume they told you all about my supposed magical coercion?”
Zatanna’s answering smile was small, but not cautious. It did have traces of sympathy, though, most likely in case his brothers ended up being right. Which, obviously, they weren’t . “Hi, Jason,” she responded. “They told me all they could from their perspective, yes. I’d like to hear your side, though. Do you want to do this here, or—”
“—absolutely not,” Jason cut in. “I’m doing this where none of them can eavesdrop, or I’m not doing this at all and you all can believe whatever the hell you want.”
“Jay, we just want—”
“—I know, but either you hear it from her and believe that, or no dice,” Jason insisted. He didn’t know what Zatanna would be able to feel from him, but he knew that whatever it was, he didn’t want his family overhearing what she would definitely ask him. He couldn’t give her much more information, since she didn’t already know anything, but he did want her to trust that he was okay so she could assure his paranoid family.
He turned to Zatanna. “My room will work,” he said. He broke all the cameras when he moved back in, regularly sweeped for microphones, and had personally soundproofed his door and window. He didn’t want his siblings to hear his nightmares, not unless he was having a really bad time. Zatanna nodded, standing up and brushing off her pants before striding past his still complaining family. The only people who seemed fine with this being a private meeting were Damian, who wasn’t fine so much as ‘watching him quietly with narrowed eyes and a suspicious expression’ which was better than most of them, Cass, who was perched on the back of the couch with her head cocked to the side like a bird, Duke, who seemed slightly preoccupied as Jason realized that this was probably his first time meeting another hero from outside Gotham beside Clark or Diana, and Steph, who for some reason was on call on Tim’s phone that had been propped on the table like this was some kind of intervention and they had to bring in everyone. Why she was called, Jason had no idea. She hadn’t even been there for the break-out, and was still in the middle of her solo work. He shook the thoughts out of his head, done trying to figure out half of what Stephanie did. He ultimately just ignored the complaining, immediately turning on his heel and leading Zatanna out of the room and up the stairs, flipping the bird behind him when he heard more than one of them stand up to follow.
“If I get wind of any of you trying to eavesdrop, Z’s leaving and so am I,” he called back. The footsteps stopped. Jason couldn’t help but grin slightly as his threat worked. He was under no illusions that his family wouldn’t try again, but if they hadn’t noticed some of his nightmares, the ones he didn’t want them to know about? They wouldn’t hear this either.
As soon as the door closed behind them, he sighed and went to sit on his bed as Zatanna turned his desk chair around and sat backwards in it. He gave her a flat look.
“What’d they tell you?” he asked. Zatanna shrugged.
“What they knew,” she answered. “You seemed to change your mind and emotions suspiciously fast after being alone with an unknown metahuman for hours. In their shoes, magic is a reasonable worry.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jason agreed, frowning. He knew it was, it was still annoying. “And if I could tell them the things I learned that made me change my mind, I would. It would make them understand that magic wasn’t needed at all. But I can’t, and I don’t really regret that either.”
“Ah, yes, the oath you made,” she said. “They mentioned that too. I believe Tim called it the ‘murder malediction’?”
Jason snorted a laugh. “Of course he did. Did he use a thesaurus to come up with that one? Again, they would understand if I could tell them the things that I promised not to tell anyone. Unfortunately, they are included in the definition of ‘anyone’. But because I can’t say anything, I’m stuck in this annoying situation.”
Zatanna cocked her head. “I’m inclined to believe you, honestly. I haven’t checked yet for magical residue or ongoing spells, but usually people who have been coerced aren’t as...cognizant of the downsides of whatever they’ve been coerced into. When you think back to that night, and if you were able to talk about it, would you be able to walk me through step-by-step what happened? Or are there any parts that are a little difficult to remember?”
“I could tell you the whole night, except for what exactly went through my head when I decided to ignore the patient running away and chase Percy instead,” Jason answered, and Zatanna nodded thoughtfully.
“That is more like what coercion does to memory,” she said, “and from what your siblings have told me, they experienced that too in that moment. So if that isn’t present in the rest of your memories, then either coercion didn’t happen, or it was a different kind of magic at play. Is it alright if I…?” she stood up, reaching a hand towards Jason. He shrugged, letting her walk closer and place a hand on his forehead like she was checking for a fever. She muttered under her breath, but Jason didn’t try too hard to hear what she was saying. He never understood her magic, and had long since stopped trying. She fell into a sort of trance while standing next to him, a soft glow coming from her hand as she didn’t stop murmuring a spell the whole time. When she stopped, taking her hand off of his forehead, it was to look at him curiously with a slight frown on her face.
“...I don’t sense any kinds of magical residue or magic in general,” she mused, her eyebrows furrowing further. “However...what can you tell me about this oath you made?”
Jason made a face. “Uh...nothing, really. Sorry. Just that it’s real, it’s serious, and if I break it then I’m kinda fucked.”
“Your family said that you said it would kill you,” she said, moving back to the chair. “But while I can’t identify the oath itself, I can tell that’s not true. I can’t tell exactly what the consequences are, and it has its roots in a magic that I don’t recognize, but I can tell that it’s not death that waits for oathbreakers. If I had to say, I don't know if I could even say it feels negative to you.”
Jason internally felt relieved that there was actually some magical trace of the vow he had made. He and Percy had both been a little worried that his father wouldn't hear it, considering that Percy had been having trouble talking to him in Gotham. It was also good to know that his father apparently seemed to be giving Jason the benefit of the doubt, likely due to Percy's influence, and that the vow wasn't a negative weight like he imagined the oath he had been talked out of would have been.
He couldn't say any of that to Zatanna, though.
Jason sighed. “Yeah, I know. But I figured some kind of immediate consequence would make them maybe stop pressing me for answers.”
“So it was your idea to lie about that?”
“Yep,” Jason answered. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell them I was lying. You don’t have to lie, but just...don’t mention that? To save my sanity from their interrogation?”
“...I won’t tell them unless it becomes pertinent information that I believe they need to know,” Zatanna compromised, and Jason figured that was the best he was gonna get. It wasn’t gonna be pertinent anyway. “Can you at least tell me what type of magic this oath is?”
Jason hesitated. “I...don’t know? I don’t know if that counts, and so I’d rather not risk it. I knew what I was getting into, though, even if I was told that I was being incredibly stubborn and it wasn’t recommended.”
“You were told... not to make this oath?”
“I was told it wasn’t advised,” Jason admitted, “but I know those nosy assholes out there. If this consequence wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have a moment of peace.”
Zatanna seemed both comforted by his answers and her examination, yet at the same time slightly concerned. Jason felt just slightly bad for lying to her, considering that she was just trying to help, but it wasn't as if he was lying that badly.
“Just so you know, I will be telling your family that there is no sign of any magical tampering with your brain,” she started, “however...I believe it is important for them to know that I cannot identify what magic was used with this oath you made.”
Jason’s face went flat. “You know that they’re gonna jump to ‘this is a new weird form of brainwashing’, right? After all, if you can’t tell what my oath was, what else can’t you tell? It’s gonna make this whole meeting solve nothing! Don’t do this to me, Z, just tell them I’m fine!”
Zatanna sighed. “I would, really. I think you’re fine! I believe what you’re saying, and there’s no magic that I can feel, even if it’s a kind I wouldn’t know. But...you know as well as I do that Batman might be even more suspicious if I come out and say that absolutely nothing is going on. He’ll jump to ‘it’s magic that Zatanna can’t feel’ even if I don’t say anything about the oath.”
Jason groaned. “So basically, they brought you here to check off a box on a checklist of ‘things that could be mind-controlling Jason’, not to actually believe that I’m not being manipulated? Yeah, I should’ve seen that coming. I really wish I could be mad at them for this.”
“At least it’s out of concern,” Zatanna offered.
“I guess,” Jason conceded half-heartedly. “If you need to go tell them that there’s something you can’t identify and set off their alarm bells again, then go ahead. Tell them I’m staying up here, but I’ll be down for dinner.”
Zatanna nodded and stood up, making her way to the door. She paused with her hand on the knob, turning back to Jason.
“For what it’s worth, whatever reason you made this oath? It must be a worthy cause. I hope they appreciate the weight of this oath.”
“They do,” Jason said, quirking a smile. “Thank you.”
Then Zatanna was gone, and Jason was left to dread whatever conversation was coming at dinner. He could only hope that they would make the mistake of saying something when Alfred was nearby, which would make the older man scold them about ‘work during dinner’ and put an end to it until they all convened in the cave later. He sighed, shutting his eyes and leaning back onto his bed. He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, but he spent the time mentally going through the things he needed to do as Red Hood in the coming week, and eventually he got bored and started doing push-ups on the floor.
At some point, when the sky outside was telling him that it was getting close to dinner time, there was a knock at his door. He stopped exercising, shutting his eyes and sighing. He really didn’t want to answer that. He didn’t want to deal with the fallout of Zatanna’s visit until he had to.
Sure, technically , he could leave through his window and have dinner somewhere else, he knows Percy wouldn’t mind a surprise guest for dinner, but...Alfred was making lasagna. Alfred’s lasagna was never to be missed.
The knocking came again. “Little brother,” Cass’s voice came softly through the door, making the sudden tension in Jason’s shoulders drop away. He would readily ignore any of the rest of his siblings—except maybe Duke, because if he needed anything from Jason , it was likely serious—but never Cass. He got up, making his way to the door and cracking it open, seeing Cass watching him with calculating eyes.
“Hey Cass,” he greeted, “I’ll be down at dinner. Did you need anything?”
“To talk,” she said. She noted the way Jason’s face shuttered slightly and amended, “No questions.”
“So you’re not here to ask me anything about what I’m sure Zatanna filled you in on?” Jason asked to clarify. Cass smiled softly.
‘ She saw no magic’ , Cass signed, ‘ And from the start you have felt the same as always. So I don’t think there is more to worry about.’
Jason grinned lightly and opened the door for her to come in. “I’m assuming the rest of them aren’t as open-minded?”
Cass chuckled under her breath, taking a seat on his windowsill. ‘ It is like Big Brother said. They trust you, but they are worried. They don’t feel the things I do, and so they are just doing what they think is best.’
“Any chance you could...I don’t know... tell them that you think I’m fine?” Jason asked, but his hopes were dashed when Cass grinned slyly and laughed.
‘ I will tell them,’ she signed, ‘ as soon as you bring your boyfriend to family dinner.’
Jason blinked. “See, now this is coercion. I can’t even call this blackmail, because I want you to tell them. Why would you want me to do something that would likely end in someone bleeding? Isn’t that what this family is always trying to stop me from doing?”
Cass’s grin was blinding. ‘ I want to see everyone trying their best to seem normal and like they’re meeting him for the first time. Everyone will be very uncomfortable. It will be funny.’
“How do people think you’re the sane one?” Jason asked. “That title clearly goes to Duke until he inevitably loses it because no one in this fucking family is sane. You’re a menace, Cass, and I love you, but Percy will not be coming to family dinner until this whole brainwashing thing is done.”
Cass shrugged. “Your loss. I will meet him one day.”
“Yeah, you will,” Jason agreed. “You can even meet him before the rest of these idiots if you want, since you don’t think he’s an evil metahuman messing around with my head.”
“Duke too,” Cass said. “Not as…” she trailed off, frowning, “over-thinking?”
“Paranoid?” Jason offered, and Cass beamed.
“Paranoid! He has not been a bat long enough.”
“Huh,” Jason said. “I’ll maybe bring it up to him, if he wants to. We just have to make sure that the paranoid ones don't then start to think that you two have also been influenced by some dark unknown magic. Next they’ll start thinking that Percy’s thinking of joining the Rogues.”
Cass winced. Jason’s eyes narrowed. “They don’t actually…”
Cass shook her head. ‘ Not that extreme. But they did want me to ask you something if you let me in to talk.’
“Of course. Always an ulterior motive in this family, I’d expect nothing else. Whose idea was it to send you?”
“Mine,” Cass insisted, looking offended. But she didn’t lose the amused light in her eyes, so Jason just raised his eyebrows until she sighed. “Dad.”
“Huh,” Jason said, “the old man made a good plan for once. What did they want you to ask?”
“Theft,” Cass answered. ‘ Samples and test results went missing from Arkham over the weekend. Di Angelo’s samples and results. And camera footage. Records. Like he was never there.’
“They want to know if Percy did it,” Jason finished. “Got it. Well, he couldn’t’ve. I was helping him and Annabeth pack the whole weekend to go home for the holidays. I never saw them talk to any of their friends, so I don’t know if they were a part of that theft at all. Doubt it, though, they seemed happy enough to just allegedly get di Angelo out of Arkham.”
Cass frowned. ‘ When baby brother investigated, there was no sign of a break-in. It makes sense that the thief would have the knowledge of someone who already broke in.’
“I agree, that makes sense,” Jason said, sighing. “But I haven’t heard either of them talking about even trying to get back into the asylum. Or any of their friends making plans.”
Cass scanned his face before nodding. ‘ If Percy is good, then so is what he did, and so I am glad that the boy is not on record anymore. Whoever ended up doing it.’
Jason wasn’t sure what she saw in his face, but Cass had always been an expert at reading the truth in people. So it took a lot of effort and skill to successfully fool Cass. It was probably one of the reasons Bruce had asked her to ask that question, and it was smart.
It was very likely that Cass saw right through him and decided to let it go.
Jason still hated lying to her at all.
“So, is Alfred almost ready with dinner?” he asked, glancing out casually at where the sun was setting. Cass was still eyeing him, but smiled slightly.
“Soon. Shall we get the little birds?”
“Yeah, let’s drag them down to the dining room,” Jason agreed, standing up and holding out a hand for Cass to take and lace their fingers. They walked out into the hallway together, and immediately heard Dick trying to defend himself to Tim for snitching to Alfred about something—most likely Tim not taking care of himself again. Cass laughed.
“Most are downstairs already,” she noted, and so she steered the two of them right past Tim’s closed door and down towards Damian’s. It was unlikely that Damian was downstairs already even with the chaos currently ensuing, because he always insisted on feeding his pets before he ate. All of them. Which took…a while. And sure enough, when Cass gently knocked on his door, he called for them to open it without seemingly moving an inch—he was standing by his desk with his back to the door, leaning over a terrarium. Alfred the cat was lounging on Damian’s pillow, and the small injured bird that he had insisted on nursing back to health was on the table by his bed, peacefully asleep. Somehow, Alfred the cat had never once tried to eat the bird. Damian insisted that it was due to his training, and this time, they all found it hard to argue. Damian glanced over his shoulder.
“Ah. Cassandra, Todd, is it dinner?”
“Almost,” Jason answered, “you’ve got some time.”
Damian nodded. “Good. Gladys is refusing to eat, and so I was about to try and hand-feed her.”
“Is she alright?” Cass asked, stepping into the room. Damian turned slightly to look at her better, frowning.
“She appears to be. It might be stress, or she’s simply tired. If it persists, then I will test to see if it’s something more serious. Perhaps she just ate something she wasn’t supposed to during her free-roaming time earlier.”
“I hope she eats,” Cass told him, “Come down after.”
“Of course,” Damian agreed. “Although if Drake refuses to sit near Grayson after all that yelling, I’m sure extra time will be bought for me while seating arrangements are argued over.”
“As if any of us want to sit next to Dick ‘I will actively steal your food like it is my own plate’ Grayson,” Jason scoffed. “Hope your pet’s okay, kid.”
“She will be fine,” Damian said, running his fingers along a furry grey...something that Jason just realized was being cupped gently in his hands. A long, furry, spindly leg tried to escape from his hands, but Damain just readjusted his grip and reached down onto the desk to take a pinch of something in his free hand and hold it out to Gladys. Jason watched in fascination and slight disgust as Gladys revealed a set of mandibles, taking whatever Damian was feeding her without pinching him, and then using two of her eight legs to retreat back into Damian’s cupped hand. Jason blinked.
“Well I’m gonna go now before I lose my appetite,” he said, turning on his heel and walking back out the door.
He heard Damian scoff behind him.
“ Tt. Wimp.”
The sound of a light smack, and then Cass reprimanding, “Little brother be nice .”
Damian’s response was too quiet for Jason to hear, but he could imagine the slight indignant whine that would enter his voice, and he laughed as he walked down the stairs. Dick and Tim had stopped arguing, but were nowhere to be found, which meant it was likely that Steph would once again be on speakerphone, placed in the chair in between Tim and Dick like a petty barrier of chaos.
Maybe dinner wouldn’t be so bad.
Notes:
;)
sorry if Zatanna is ooc, i don't really know her all that well so i struggled with her voice a lot.
ive been waiting for jason to get to see Percy in action for a while now, and trust me, this will not be the last time that percy gets to be badass in front of jason.
not me completely forgetting everything i was thinking of saying in my authors note :) love that for me. maybe ill edit this if i remember, maybe ill forget to do that too. who knows. anyway, i hope you guys enjoyed this one!!! i have thoroughly enjoyed reading all your theories in the comments <3
Chapter 15
Notes:
....hi :) its, uh, been a while? sorry about that. i wish i had a good excuse for yall, but its just a lot of little things instead of the ao3 author cliche of 'i nearly died, sorry'. i hope you guys enjoy this chapter, though, its a bit longer than normal to make up for my absurdly long absence. thank you guys for being understanding and ill see you in the end notes <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Percy was well aware that Jason’s family wasn’t all that fond of him. It became very clear when he had to start sneaking around if he was out past sundown, because he only got tracked once by Robin before he decided that he didn’t really want that happening again, or for the bats to realize that he definitely knew they were trying to watch him. Sure, most nights he wasn’t anywhere close to a priority, since he had only committed one crime, and the reason they were watching him was personal—which meant that if he got news that there was literally any other crime happening in Gotham, he was free to walk and be pretty sure that they wouldn’t care enough if they saw him to follow him. If the night was quiet, though, he stuck to the shadows.
That being said, he was also under the impression that none of Jason’s family liked him at all, much less enough to try and actually meet him without a mask on their face.
So to say that he was surprised to hear someone fiddling with his window from the outside was an understatement, especially when he left his bedroom to see a young teen slipping through his now unlocked window with casual clothes on and no vigilante gear in sight. Also it was noon. So it was a bit strange. He had definitely seen this kid in the few photos in Jason’s apartment, but he couldn’t recall if he knew his name—he was easy to tell apart from Jason’s other brothers by his dark skin, and so Percy was pretty sure that he would have been able to remember knowing this kid’s name. The kid straightened from the crouch he had dropped into after falling through the window—yep, definitely a vigilante—and noticed Percy standing surprised in the doorway. So far none of the bats had done anything as drastic as break into his apartment, and considering the kid was in normal clothes, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have to fight him. Still, he didn’t expect the kid to smile at him and stick out a hand.
“Hey!” he said, as if coming into an apartment through the locked window was a perfectly normal thing for non-vigilantes. And the fact that it wasn’t abnormal for demigods didn’t count, since that was still a secret. “I’m Duke, Jason’s brother.”
“Uh...hi?” Percy greeted back, awkwardly reaching out to shake his hand. “I thought you all were, like, super suspicious of me still?”
Duke shrugged. “Oh yeah, definitely. Or at least, everyone but me, Cass, and Alfred. Babs is staying out of it, so who knows with her, but I think she’s way less into this than everyone else. Steph is treating it kind of like a soap opera, so I don’t think she has any actual opinions about you.”
“Gonna be honest, I don’t know who half those people are,” Percy said. “Jason doesn’t tend to use names all that often. I have never heard him refer to your youngest brother as anything but ‘the little brat’ or ‘the demon’ or just variations of that.”
Duke laughed. “Yeah, nicknames are kind of a way of life in that house. I think it’s a leftover habit from not being able to use each other’s names at night.”
Percy frowned. He hadn’t been expecting such a blatant reference to their nighttime activities. “Wait, do you all know that I already figured out the rest of your identities?” Or Annabeth did, but she wasn’t here now to take credit. Duke cocked his head.
“Huh,” he said. “You know, I thought it was obvious, but now that you mention it, no one has said anything implying that. But I thought it was kinda the next step once you know one of us, it’s not that big a leap to make, especially if Jason is the one you figure out.”
“Why’s that?” Percy asked, relaxing a little as Duke talked.
“Well, he takes every opportunity he can get to complain about or make fun of Batman,” Duke answered, grinning. “So once you knew his identity, I figured it was only a matter of time before he made a joke implying Batman was his dad, and then that’s it, really.”
“And you really don’t think I’m using some kind of ‘spooky dark magic’ on him anymore?” Percy checked again, making Duke shrug.
“A magic expert didn’t find anything weird except for whatever weird vow he made, and she knows her magic. The others are just stubborn and paranoid.”
“You’re not?”
“Not as much,” Duke corrected with a grin. “It gets worse the more I train with them, admittedly. I can’t tell if it's a vigilante thing or a bat thing. Probably the latter.”
“Well in that case,” Percy said, trying to salvage his mom’s teachings on how to be a good host (none of her lessons included what to do if your guest used the window as an entrance, but they probably should have after they realized that was Nico’s favorite mode of ingress), “do you want anything to drink? I’ve got...uh...juice? I think Jason left some tea over here too if you want that.”
Duke made a face. “Jason gets particular about his tea, I don’t want to mess with that. Some juice would be great actually, do you have apple?”
“Of course I do, I’m not a barbarian,” Percy shot back, making his way over to his fridge. He noticed Duke leaning on the kitchen island, but he didn’t say anything for a bit. Until he let out a soft ‘huh’.
“Why are those cookies blue?” he asked, making Percy laugh as he poured the juice.
“What, a guy can’t feel like dying his cookies blue?” he asked.
“Of course he can, I support it,” Duke defended himself, “I think everyone should be able to dye whatever food they want. Go ham, my dude. I was just wondering if they were blue for a specific reason, but there doesn’t have to be.”
“‘Go ham’?” Percy muttered under his breath. With each wave of young campers, there was an influx of the generational jokes that most demigods missed with their lack of internet use, but even still, Percy was thrown by how fast the language quirks could change. He knew that one of Annabeth’s siblings was currently obsessed with the ever-shifting world of internet lingo and meme-speak, but they spoke so fast about it that Percy barely caught half of what they said during their rants.
He handed Duke a glass with a grin. “Well, there is a reason. Unfortunately, you have to reach friendship level five to unlock it.”
Duke got a thoughtful look on his face. “Hm. How many experience points do I get if I tell you an embarrassing story about Jason?”
Percy’s grin widened. “Depending on the story, you might skip right up to level six .”
Duke leaned onto the island with a conspiratorial smile. “How about the time that he didn’t know Wonder Woman was visiting the manor, since he was at his apartment all week, so when he came down for breakfast that Saturday, he walked into the kitchen in full Wonder Woman pajamas as Diana was sitting right there?”
Percy tried to keep a straight face, he really did. But when Duke started laughing? He broke pretty easily.
“He was so red ,” Duke said through his laughter. “And she just complimented him and said she was flattered! She said—she said that he was her favorite of the bats too, with B sitting right there!”
“What did Jason do?” Percy asked, leaning against the other side of the island and trying to calm his own laughter. But that question just set Duke off into giggles.
“He—he fucking left , man,” he laughed. “He practically squeaked a thank you to Diana and just left the room immediately. I didn’t see him for the rest of the day. But I did notice that he wore Wonder Woman socks the next day.”
“I don’t think I would have pegged him as a Wonder Woman fanboy,” Percy admitted, “but it makes sense.”
“Oh they get along great,” Duke said. “Jason just usually tries to act cool around her, despite the fact that she knew him as a kid too. He thinks the Amazons are incredibly cool, which, I mean, he’s not wrong.”
“They are pretty cool,” Percy agreed, despite the fact that they seemed to really like trying to kill him. Sure, Hylla was cool with him now, but they still seemed to have a policy of ‘oh it’s Percy, let’s say hi by trying to kill him a little bit’. That said, they were all badass warriors, and Percy totally got idolizing them. Again, he often wondered if Wonder Woman was aware of the Amazon sect in America, or if she thought that the population on Themyscira was all there was. Maybe he’d ask Hylla. Or, more likely, ask Reyna to ask Hylla.
“So, did I level up enough?” Duke asked. Percy pretended to think for a bit.
“...almost,” he said. “But you’ll reach level five if you actually tell me the names of all your family members and give me some of the nicknames Jason uses for them so I don’t have to keep asking him for clarification.”
“Oh that’s easy,” Duke said. Then he hesitated. “But you might want to get a notepad or something. There are a lot of us. Also, do you just want legal family or emotional family?”
“Gotta love that distinction,” Percy laughed. “Emotional. Legal paperwork isn’t the only thing to make a family.”
“In that case, yeah, get a notepad,” Duke said. “You’re gonna want it.”
“I’m pretty good at handling large families, I think,” Percy said, but grabbed a piece of paper anyway. He knew how much time it took for him to get ‘pretty good’ at handling his own massive family, so Duke was probably right that he’d want to write this down. “Just, uh, go slow. I don’t write that fast.”
“No problem. So at the top you’re gonna want to just write Alfred . He’s the most important member of the family, hands down.”
“You seem distracted.” The matter-of-fact tone of the small, intense teenager sitting across from Jason brought him immediately back to the present moment. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how he had left the present moment at all, but there were a lot of different thoughts vying for attention in his head. For sure, though, the present moment was high up there on the priorities list.
“Yeah, sorry,” Jason replied, blinking away the fact list he had been making in his head. “Lots of stuff going on.”
“Does it have anything to do with the contents of that package I can feel in your bag?” the kid raised his eyebrows, and Jason frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Well it’s mine , isn’t it?” di Angelo smirked, reminding him far too much of a smug Damian for comfort. “I assume that’s what’s distracting you?”
“You can feel that?” Jason asked, incredulous. He’d learned some weird shit about demigods since discovering that world existed, and it was really saying something that this wasn’t even top ten. Well, okay, maybe it was number ten. Di Angelo’s grin widened.
“Nah, I just snooped. Percy could probably feel it, though.”
“Don’t yank my chain like that, I can’t tell what’s true with you demigods,” Jason scolded, leaning back onto the couch. “For all I know, that’s just another thing you all can do.”
“If you’re that easily convinced after learning just some of the weirdest demigod traits, then if you ever meet Leo, don’t listen to a word he says,” di Angelo said. “He’ll spout a bunch of fake abilities just to mess with you.”
“Oh, like you, Percy, and Annabeth already do?” Jason asked, raising his eyebrows. Di Angelo made a face.
“Touche, I guess. Now, are you ready?”
Just like that, Jason felt anxious again. “This is it, you said? The last time?”
“Should be,” he replied. “I should be able to extract the rest of it today.”
“What have you been doing with it?” Jason had to ask, he’d been wondering every time the young demigod left through the shadows with a container of luminescent green mist.
“Dumping it into the River Styx,” di Angelo said, moving to stand next to Jason. “The hatred in that river is stronger than the Lazarus pits, it neutralizes it almost immediately, and it’s not as if a little extra rage is going to affect the river. That way, it can’t try to find you again. I could feel it wanting to get out of the container and back to you the whole time I was traveling.”
“Fuck, that’s creepy,” Jason muttered, making the kid huff a laugh.
“You’ve got that right,” he said. “Now can you try and feel the rest of it? Since there’s not that much left, I will need you to let it out just a little bit, just to get it to the surface where I can drag it out.”
Jason was nervous about intentionally reaching out to the pit rage still lingering inside him, but he figured that if the worst-case scenario happened and he lost control, the kid could escape through the same shadowed corner he had entered through. He hadn’t lost it yet, though, and di Angelo had popped into his apartment four other times prior to drag the Lazarus pit kicking and screaming out of Jason’s body. Seriously, Jason swore he could hear it yelling the first time. It had gotten fainter after each visit, but Jason could still feel it in the edges of his mind, and he sometimes found it hard to believe it would ever fully disappear.
He settled back into the couch, letting di Angelo walk over and stand by his shoulder. The kid reached out a hand, but paused before setting it down.
“One other thing,” he said, frowning slightly. “I know you said that this wasn’t voluntary at all, but I also know that the residue from the Lazarus pits isn’t entirely negative. Once it’s gone completely, you’ll lose the healing factor, the enhanced strength, the cool glowing eyes, the higher metabolism. My father has also theorized that it has such a saturation of magic that it lessens the effect of the Mist. Without it, we might find out you aren’t clearsighted. Of course, exposure to the aura of the pit might have that same effect anyway and so depending on how long you were around the pit, this might be a moot point. Just warning you.”
Jason sighed. “I want it gone,” he said. “The rest of my family heals like normal people, and at least I’d be able to use pain meds again. As for the sight…we’ll deal with that if it's an issue. I was around the pit for a year, so maybe that had some effect, but either way it’s worth it to get it off my fucking soul.”
The kid’s lips twitched in what might have been a smile. “I agree. The Hecate cabin has also been working on charms to help non-clearsighted mortals see through the Mist easier, so it most likely wouldn’t be that big of an issue.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed. “So that was, what, a test?”
“Maybe a little,” di Angelo shrugged slightly. “If any of the good of the pit outweighed the bad for you, then it would make me rethink my opinion of you, that’s all.”
“The only good thing that stupid pit ever gave me was making me not brain-dead,” Jason retorted.
“And that wasn’t exactly your choice, so it doesn’t count,” the kid returned. “Now that you have the choice, you aren’t choosing the pit. That means I was right.”
“...about what?”
That time, the small smile was more than a twitch. Not anywhere close to the wide smile of the faded picture Jason had seen, but it was still something real. “I was right in thinking that you and Percy are very similar. I had to work to convince Percy to take on the curse of Achilles, and I think he’s still of the mind that it did more harm than good despite the fact that it probably won us the Titan war. When he lost it, he said he was relieved, even though it meant he was no longer invulnerable.”
“That curse nearly got Annabeth killed, right?” Jason asked, making di Angelo’s smile flicker.
“Yes. And that’s all the harm it had to do for it to not be worth it for Percy.”
Before he really thought about it, Jason felt the words leave him as he felt for the hot rage deep inside him.
“This pit nearly got me to kill my brother,” he said, steel in his voice as di Angelo’s gaze sharpened. “That’s all it had to do to make nothing it could give me worth it.”
Broken bones and a shattered staff flashed through his mind as the taste of blood entered his mouth. He couldn’t tell if it was a phantom taste or if he bit his tongue with how hard he was clenching his teeth, but he knew it didn’t matter. It was there either way, and it fed the green haze that was steadily encroaching on the edge of his vision. It had been so long since he felt this haze and didn’t immediately shove it away. Didn’t do everything in his power to keep it from getting worse. And as he didn’t immediately stamp down the rage, it grew brighter and greener and louder .
Jason felt like he was drowning in it. Like he was in the pit again, choking on the sickly green water as he tried to process that he wasn’t in a warehouse in Ethiopia. It burned in his veins, and he knew that whatever his expression was at the moment, his eyes were a flaming toxic green. He was vaguely aware of the kid standing next to him, and the cold aura that he seemed to be emanating to try and beat back some of the fiery rage. He couldn’t see the kid, though. He could just feel him. He was so cold . Was he trying to put out the heat inside of Jason’s veins? Who was he to think that he could do that? Jason felt a growl start to build in his throat as he shifted away from the freezing aura. Jason’s rage was righteous , it was the result of betrayal and replacement and Jason was not going to let some ice-blooded child tear it away from him. He reached for the knife in his boot and—
The cold suddenly landed on Jason’s shoulder, and it burned . It seared right through the green fire and froze his veins solid. Jason gasped at the feeling, like being defrosted after getting on the wrong end of Mr. Freeze in the winter. It soaked into his limbs, but rather than being uncomfortable, it was calming and almost soothing.
It had never felt so good to be cold .
Jason looked over as the green faded from his vision, breathing slightly heavier than normal, to see di Angelo manhandling the non-Newtonian fluid of his pit residue into the pitch black iron container that he’d brought with him every time. It was fighting back more than every other time, winding through the kid’s fingers as it tried to reach out to Jason. If Jason looked directly at it, he could almost believe that he could hear it screaming for him. But for the first time in almost three years, he realized that he couldn’t hear it at all.
His head was silent. His heart was steady. His thoughts were easily, naturally his own.
“I apologize,” di Angelo strained to say as he shoved his whole hand into the container to try and get the residue into it. “I figured that drawing out the symptoms on purpose would result in a stronger reaction than normal, but it had to be done. Now if only this toxic piece of shit would get the fuck off my hand, we can get it away from you for good.”
“Need any help?” Jason offered, slowing his breathing as he settled back into his own mind. The boy scowled, but moved a little closer.
“If it touches you, it’ll be able to latch back onto you, and then it’ll definitely be harder to get it back out. But if you could hold the Stygian Iron, that would help.”
Jason made a note in his head to ask Percy what Stygian Iron was, and then reached out to grip the bottom of the container, angling his hands away from where the Pit immediately tried to aim itself at. With two available hands, now, the kid managed to scrape the Pit off his own hand and into the iron box, slamming it closed with a huff.
“ Finally ,” he said, glaring at the box. He took it from Jason, tucking it under his arm and stepping away from the couch. His glare lessened as he looked back up at Jason. “That should be it. If you feel it again, tell Percy and he’ll call me.”
The kid was acting like this was all business, which…for him it was. But for Jason, he felt like the world was off his shoulders. Not that he knew the kid well enough to say any of that out loud. So he just nodded.
“Thanks,” he said, feeling like that was way too small of a thanks for what had been done. “It feels…quieter.”
Now that the pit was gone, it made him realize that even when it wasn’t shoving its way against his consciousness, it was adding noise to his head. White noise that, if he made the bad decision to listen to, was made up of hissing whispers. He felt like this kind of silence shouldn’t be possible, having lived with the pit for so long now, he couldn’t even remember if it was this quiet before he died. The kid looked at him, though, and he seemed to get what Jason couldn’t put into words. He inclined his head slightly, not quite a nod.
“No problem,” he said. “I don’t like manipulation, be it magical or ghostly or otherwise. Your mind should be your own. Percy helped me when I was being manipulated, so I’m returning the favor.”
Jason had been surprised at the inclusion of ghostly manipulations, but if his own was the magical kind, then the boy must have been talking about his own experiences. He wanted to ask about it, but he knew he hated answering questions about the Pit and figured the kid would be the same. He’d ask if Percy was comfortable talking about it. If not, he figured it wasn’t that important. The kid didn’t need to know about his time with the league, after all. The kid gave him another half-smile (still nothing even close to that megawatt grin in the grayscale photo of his. What had happened between then and now?) and started walking back to the other side of Jason’s apartment, where his bedroom was shadowed in preparation for the kid’s weird shadow teleportation. Jason stood up from the couch, stretching out the muscles that had tensed horribly in the throes of the pit.
The kid stopped in the doorway of Jason’s room, seeming abnormally comfortable surrounded by darkness, a kind of ease that even Batman only wished for. He turned his head over his shoulder to look at Jason, his expression suddenly a little more serious.
“Jason?” he started, making Jason realize that this was the first time the kid had used his name. Jason tilted his head in acknowledgement, and the kid continued. “Thank you for sticking by Percy. He filled me in on what you did to protect our world from the other vigilantes, but I’m sure he never told you how much it meant to him that you chose him like that. We’ve all had our fair share of betrayals, Percy and Annabeth especially. He doesn’t necessarily need it, he’s incredibly powerful, but thank you for looking out for him. He sometimes forgets to look out for himself.”
Jason was silent at first. That was the most words he had heard the kid ( Nico , he deserved to have Jason use his name) say at once while alone with Jason. And from what Percy said, Nico didn’t get sentimental very often. It was unexpected, but it was nice to hear that Nico worried as much about Percy as Percy did him.
Jason nodded, a small smile flickering on his face.
“I plan on continuing to do so,” he said. “No need to thank me. Percy talks about you a lot, you know. He cares a lot, so…thanks for caring just as much about him, Nico. I know you’ve known him longer than I have, but even I can tell that he doesn’t always have as many people in his corner as he deserves.”
Nico’s smile got a bit wider. His eyes looked at Jason in something akin to approval, and Jason felt like he’d just passed a test. Nico really was a little brother, Jason realized with amusement. He was testing if Jason was worthy of being with Percy.
“I’m sure I’ll see you again before too long, Percy rarely lets me go very long without seeing him,” Nico said, stepping further into the darkened room. “Until then.”
“‘Till then,” Jason echoed, and Nico took another step, vanishing into the ripple of a shadow like he had never been in the room. With him gone, the room was silent . Jason closed his eyes and let his body relax. He explored his mind, he reached for that deep part of his gut that always flared up first with the toxic rage of the pit. He searched, and he prodded, and he reached out for the whispers that he no longer heard.
He felt nothing. No haze of green reared its head, no phantom fingers tugged him into the back of his brain, no voices dragged him into memories he didn’t want to see, and nothing stole his voice to whisper thoughts he didn’t want to have.
He was free.
His next breath was a shudder as he collapsed into his armchair like his strings were cut. His eyes trailed to the bag resting by his door. He had plans, things he wanted to do after Nico finished leeching out the Pit. But that could wait. He couldn’t bring himself to leave the endless silence of his living room.
He felt tears prick at his eyes as he fully processed the weight that had been taken from his shoulders. He wasn’t a new person, he was still the same Jason who crawled his way back into life violently and lethally. He was still the Red Hood, and he knew he still wouldn’t hesitate if someone managed to break his rules enough to make him resort to lethal measures. He hadn’t magically reverted to the boy he had been before death.
But without the Pit, he realized, his memories felt a lot more real. They weren’t colored with anxiety that hadn’t been present originally, sneaking whispers of abandonment and pain that undermined even the most loving of memories.
No, he wasn’t a new person, and he wasn’t his old self either. But now, Jason knew that whoever he was, it was wholly and entirely him .
And that thought allowed the tears to start falling.
For the first time in far too long, Jason cried.
For the first time in even longer, Jason realized that he wanted to call his dad.
“And you’re eating alright?”
“Yes, mom, I promise,” Percy laughed, leaning onto his knees. “You know me, I like to feed people. That means I get to eat too.”
Sally sighed in relief. “I know, honey. I just worry. At least at camp I don’t have to worry about you running out of groceries. Do you need more money?”
“Not yet, I’m good,” Percy said. “How’s the new book coming?”
“Ah, moving the conversation onto me, I see,” Sally said, smiling. “It’s going well. I’m working on an outline right now, but I’m planning on starting to actually write it by Wednesday.”
“Awesome,” Percy said, grinning at his mom. “Can’t wait for the audiobook.”
His mom laughed gently. She had pushed so hard for her first book to be made into an audiobook, even going so far as to say that she would record it herself if she had to. She didn’t want anyone to miss out on a good story just because they didn’t like to or couldn’t read. She did end up recording it herself, but that wasn’t the official version. That was just Percy’s version, and nothing calmed him down better than his mom’s voice reading her work.
“How’s Stella?” Percy asked, seeing his mom glance off to the side with a soft smile on her face.
“She’s wonderful,” Sally answered, “She’s asleep right now, or you know she’d love to see you. She won’t let go of the Nemo plush you got her for Christmas.”
Percy’s heart ached with affection for his baby sister. The worst part of not going to college in New York was not being able to hold her whenever he wanted. There had been a while there where they weren’t sure if she was clearsighted like her mother, but Percy could still remember the relief when they realized that she was. While Paul sometimes struggled with Iris Messages, having to focus hard in order to see the rainbow mist, Estelle was able to see and hear Percy easily—although she sometimes got upset when she tried to reach out to him and wasn’t able to touch him.
“Nico stopped by the other day,” Sally said, smiling. She always got happier when Nico dropped by without a prior invitation, like it was finally sinking in that he was always welcome. “He said that he’s been helping Jason with something? He didn’t seem to want to say more than that.”
“Yeah, he has been,” Percy said. Jason hadn’t wanted to talk much about those Lazarus Pits, but he had told Percy more about what Nico was doing to help him. It had been slow, Nico had visited Gotham around four times solely to see Jason, and Percy wasn’t sure how many more times he would need. “It’s not really something I can talk about, though, it’s pretty personal for him.”
“I understand,” Sally replied, her smile not wavering. “I admit, I know he has a rather large family, but I was a little disappointed he couldn’t join us for Christmas. You’ve been dating for months now and I’ve never even spoken to him.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” Percy said, wincing slightly. “I’m sure he would have visited with me if I had asked, but things are…tense, with his family. I didn’t exactly give them the best first impression.”
His mom eyed him through the mist. “Percy. How bad was this first impression?”
Percy winced harder. His mom knew exactly what kind of first impressions Percy and his friends were capable of. “Uh…they might be under the slightest impression that I’m a metahuman who is magically influencing Jason in some way?”
His mom gave him a flat look, and he fell back against the couch cushions, groaning.
“I know , I didn’t do it on purpose! It’s just that—”
A knock on his door cut him off, and given that Annabeth never knocked, there was only one person it could be. Percy felt a smile on his face.
“Speak of the devil, I guess,” he said. “You can meet him now.”
He called for Jason to come in, and his door swung open to let his boyfriend inside. Jason was carrying a small satchel on his shoulder, and his face looked lighter than usual. He paused in the doorway, looking between Percy and the screen of mist hanging in front of him.
“Oh, sorry, I can come back later?” he offered, but Percy waved him off.
“Nah, you’re good. Come meet my mom, and please tell her that it’s really not that big of a deal that your family hates me and it’ll blow over soon.”
Jason frowned, lightly dropping the satchel by the arm of the couch and sitting down next to Percy. “You want me to lie to your mom in my first conversation with her? I was raised to be polite , not be a heathen.”
“Technically, Annabeth’s cousin is the heathen,” Percy noted offhandedly, before scooting over on the couch so that Jason was in the frame of the IM. “Anyway, it’s not lying. They’ll eventually figure out I’m not brainwashing you somehow. Didn’t they already have some magic person look at you?”
Jason looked startled. “How did you know that? It didn’t actually change anything, so I know I haven’t gotten around to telling you that story yet.”
“Oh, your brother stopped by a few days ago. Duke, I think? If you want to be specific, he broke in through my window, but we had a lovely conversation about you idolizing Wonder Woman, which honestly I can relate.”
Jason blinked. “Alright then. He has officially lost his title of ‘the Sane Sibling’. I told him he could meet you if he wanted to, but I didn’t think I said anything that could be translated as ‘ go ahead and break into his apartment ’.”
“Eh, he was nice,” Percy shrugged. “Nico uses a window all the time, if he doesn’t shadowtravel. I’m used to it.”
“Yeah, but Duke was supposed to be better than the rest of my siblings,” Jason sighed, shaking his head. Percy just laughed.
“Little brothers are just like that, I guess,” he said, looking back to where his mom had been watching the two of them with a fond look in her eyes. “Anyway, mom, this is Jason! Jason, my mom.”
Jason gave a slightly awkward wave at the IM, as his mom gave him The Look. The same look she had given all Percy’s friends the first time they stopped by, the kind glance that had even Thalia nearly slip and accidentally call her ‘mom’.
“It’s nice to meet you, Jason,” she said, “please call me Sally. Mrs. Jackson-Blofis is a bit of a mouthful.”
“Um, it’s nice to meet you too, Sally,” Jason said, and Percy could only see his nerves in the way that his leg began to bounce slightly. “And I get it, Jason Todd-Wayne isn’t that much better.”
“So I know you two are neighbors,” Sally started, “but how did you two meet? Percy hasn’t told me much about before you started dating.”
“I kind of figured the whole dating stuff was more relevant,” Percy mumbled, leaning back into his couch. Jason just laughed at him, the traitor.
“It was actually the first day he moved in,” he said, “he couldn’t get his door open because he was holding too many boxes.”
“I would have put them down eventually!” Percy defended himself. “You just got there first.”
“I told you to take more trips with fewer boxes,” Sally chided gently. Percy pouted.
“I didn’t want to tire out Mrs. O’Leary!” he said. Jason cocked his head.
“Who?” he asked, making Sally laugh.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll meet her sooner or later,” she said, giving Percy a teasing glance. “Percy babies her so much she can’t go that long without seeing him.”
“She’s perfect and she deserves all my babying,” Percy said definitively. “Nico does it too, even if he says he doesn’t. And to answer your question, Jay, she’s my dog. Me and Nico co-parent her.”
“‘Nico and I’,” Jason corrected automatically, grinning. Percy rolled his eyes.
“Thank you, Professor Jason,” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “If you’re gonna correct my grammar, you might as well proof-read my essays next semester.”
Instead of snarking back, Jason perked up. “Wait, can I?” he asked. “I look over Steph’s essays sometimes, when she remembers to ask me.”
Percy blinked. “Really? Yeah, of course you can. If you do, though, Annabeth will probably want you to read hers too.”
Jason shrugged. “Okay.”
“Jason, are you in school?” Sally asked, drawing Jason’s attention back to the IM. Percy wondered, for a moment, why his mom was asking that question, as Percy had told her that Jason had chosen not to go to college. Then it hit him as he glanced back at Jason—he had never finished High School, had he? Percy hadn’t put that together until just now, even hearing the full story of Jason’s early death and troubled resurrection. He hadn’t told his mom everything , since he was keeping his promise not to tell anyone but Annabeth about Jason’s identity and his mom understood that he was keeping Jason’s secrets, but she had clearly learned enough to be skeptical of the story Percy had told her. Which made sense, as now Percy was curious too. He remembered the day they met, and how Jason had seemed a little amused at that same question when Percy had asked it, but also…there was something slightly off about his voice. Almost bitter, in a way. At the time, Percy didn’t know him well enough to ask, and by the time they were closer, the subject never came up again. Percy wasn’t quite sure how to ask about it. Now, he wondered if it was because Jason felt like he couldn’t go to college.
But this time, when his mom asked, Jason didn’t seem bitter. He seemed startled at the question, but when he opened his mouth to answer, he hesitated. There wasn’t a trace of that crooked grin that had answered Percy months ago, just…uncertainty?
“Um, no,” he said eventually, his eyebrows furrowing. “No, it, uh, wasn’t a good time.”
His mom’s answering smile was sympathetic. “I hope it becomes a good time. When my first husband… vanished ,” her smile turned wry with the inside joke, “I finally got to go back to school, and it was a wonderful experience. You seem like a bright young man, I think you’d do great things at university.”
“Oh,” Jason said, and Percy couldn’t help but smile at the slight flush that rose in his cheeks. “Thank you.”
From Sally’s right, there was a small shuffling, and then the unmistakable sound of a little girl starting to cry. Sally laughed fondly, reaching out of frame for a moment and coming back with a half-awake Estelle burrowing into her arms. She was turned face-first into his mom’s arms, so Percy couldn’t see her face, but he melted at the sight of her anyway, and at seeing his mom so happy. She looked from Estelle back up at the IM, and there was a small hint of regret in her eyes.
“I’m sorry boys, but I think someone needs to be fed,” she said. “Call soon, okay Percy? And don’t be a stranger, Jason. You can get my number from Percy, and call if you need anything. Sometimes my phone isn’t in the room, since Percy doesn’t call it anyway, but if you call I’ll get back to you.”
“I—thank you, Sally,” Jason said, seeming just slightly overwhelmed.
“Bye mom,” Percy said, waving. “Tell Paul I say hi, I promise I’ll come visit soon so that he doesn’t have to strain to talk to me.”
“He’ll appreciate it,” his mom replied, shifting to stand up with Estelle held close. “Bye, Percy. I love you.”
“Love you too,” Percy said, and his mom ended the IM with one last fond smile. Percy let out a relaxed breath. Not only did he get to talk to his mom, but he finally got to introduce her to Jason. He didn’t want to make it a thing , so he hadn’t planned an IM for them to meet, and it had just never worked out that Jason was around when he called his mom. Until today. He glanced over at Jason.
“You just got the Sally Jackson Experience,” he said, grinning as Jason turned to him. “All of my friends have almost called her mom at least once. And those are just the ones that try to stop themselves. My half-brother Tyson started calling her that as soon as she told him he was welcome to.”
“She’s so… nice ,” Jason said, and Percy got what he was saying. He laughed.
“My mom is the strongest person I know. She’s also the nicest person I know. I don’t know if it’ll make you feel better to hear this, but you really didn’t get any special treatment for being my boyfriend,” he said. “If anything, you got special treatment for being mortal, because my mom has no reason to give her phone number to most of my friends.”
Jason hummed thoughtfully. “That…actually does help. She’s like that with everyone?”
“Absolutely,” Percy said. “If you were meeting her as just my friend, the only difference would probably just be that she wouldn’t have done the ‘how did you meet’ question.”
Jason looked over at him. “I wasn’t sure what to expect from your mom, but now that I’ve met her, it makes perfect sense.”
Percy cocked his head. He knew his mom was great, but he liked when other people realized how awesome she was too. “In what way?”
Jason’s grin was shark-like. “She had to be a saint in order to raise you.”
Percy squawked in offense, hitting Jason in the arm. He started to laugh, barely raising his arm to block Percy. If they weren’t in the middle of Percy’s apartment, he would have instigated an actual fight for the fun of it, but unfortunately, he would rather this room not get destroyed. He hadn’t sparred with anyone since getting back from the holidays, and sure that wasn’t very long, but he was used to fighting far more often. It was a minute before Jason finally batted his hand away with a laugh, holding his own hands up in surrender.
“Okay, okay! I actually have something for you, it’s why I came over.”
Percy stopped immediately, lighting up. “You do? What is it?”
Jason leaned over the arm of the couch to grab the satchel he had brought in.
“I know it’s after both Hanukkah and Christmas, and honestly I forgot to ask if you even celebrate either one given the whole…gods thing, but I couldn’t get this until you were already on your way back to New York. Uh, alibis, you know,” he finished awkwardly, shrugging noncommittally as if that would mask the way Percy could hear his heartbeat kick up a beat. Come to think about it, had Percy ever told him that he could hear heartbeats? He probably should, shouldn’t he? Since he took the time to tune into Jason’s heartbeat in particular so he could hear it easier, Jason should probably know that.
“Alibis?” he repeated, taking the bag from Jason. Jason’s lips quirked into a small smile.
“You’ll see.”
Percy frowned, but opened the bag to see a pile of papers, some VHS tapes, and—
“Jason, is there blood in this bag?” He said suddenly, freezing. “Don’t answer that, I know the answer is yes, I can feel it. Why is there blood in this bag?”
He didn’t expect Jason to start laughing.
“You know, the kid said you’d probably be able to feel it, but I still didn’t expect it to be so quickly,” he said, instead of actually answering Percy’s question. Percy frowned harder, but if Jason was talking about Nico, then whatever this was was probably fine. Not that he thought Jason would give him something weird, but…the sharp realization that he could feel blood moving at the bottom of the satchel had really thrown him off. He shook his head slightly, picking up the papers first.
Squinting slightly, he focused on the bolded words in the top corner, pausing when he realized what they said.
“...is this what I think it is?” he asked, his voice getting soft. Jason shifted closer, taking the VHS tapes out of the bag and reaching in again.
“It’s all the interview records, arrest and institution records, their attempts at identification, video footage, and—” he paused to hold out a hand to Percy. Without even looking up, Percy could feel that he was holding the blood that had been in the bag. “—the samples.”
Percy finally looked over, his eyes wide, to see three small vials in Jason’s hand, filled with a thick rusted red liquid. He met Jason’s eyes. He knew his mouth was dropped open, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t forgotten that Arkham had Nico’s blood, but with focusing on Nico recovering and then getting back into their investigation, they hadn’t wanted to risk breaking in again. But Jason had…
Jason gave him a small smile.
“There’s no record that Nico was ever in Arkham. I wasn’t able to wipe the files in the Batcave, or else they’d know it was me, but Tim wasn’t supposed to download those files anyway, so they can’t give them back to the Asylum,” he said. "I can wipe those once I have some kind of alibi."
Percy was suddenly hyperaware of his own heartbeat, pounding in his veins.
“Holy Hades , Jason,” was all he could say, setting the papers down on his coffee table. He’d let Nico burn those later. He absently took the vials from Jason and set them down next to the papers, then grabbed Jason’s face and leaned over to firmly kiss him. Jason laughed lightly against his mouth, before his hand ran through Percy’s hair and he kissed him back.
When Percy pulled back, Jason was grinning.
“So you liked it, then?” he asked, teasing. Percy scoffed, kissing him quickly again.
“I didn’t expect you to break back in for me, Cowboy,” he retorted. “We were planning on doing it eventually, but…”
“I get it. It was safer for me to do it, so I did it,” Jason said, shrugging. “I’m…pretty sure Cass knows it was me, but she doesn’t suspect you of anything anymore, so it’s okay.”
“Oh, I like Cass,” Percy said, smiling brightly. Jason frowned.
“What do you mean, you like Cass?”
Percy laughed, sitting back against the arm of the couch. “She also broke in, like, two days ago. She really didn’t stay long, just enough to steal a cookie, sign that she liked me and to not hurt you, and then jump back out my window.”
“You know sign?” Jason asked, before focusing on the main part of the sentence and asking, “Cass broke in too ? How many of my siblings have broken into your apartment now?”
“Just the two,” Percy said. “And I really only talked to Duke, I think Cass was just…getting the vibe of me? I think? That’s what it seemed like.”
She had actually scared the shit out of him, but he wasn’t telling Jason that. He had come back from the store to find her sitting on his counter, and he didn’t know how he hadn’t felt her in his apartment, but he had nearly instinctively started fighting her when she began signing and he realized it was Jason’s sister. She had brightened when he easily understood her, and Percy felt like he had passed some kind of test. Sign language was readily taught at camp, as it wasn’t uncommon for demigods to get some kind of hearing issue from an injury, and they also had their fair share of selectively mute or fully mute campers.
Jason just shook his head. “I think both of them heard ‘you don’t hate him, so you can meet him’ and completely forgot that you’re not supposed to know their secret identities.”
“Well, I’m not sure about Cass, I couldn’t read her all that well, but Duke was pretty up front about the fact that he assumed I knew already,” Percy said. “But he said he doesn’t think the rest of your family has made the same assumption.”
“I expect this from the rest of my family at this point, but I kind of assumed Duke would, you know, tell me he was doing that, at least,” Jason complained. “I really don’t want everyone assuming you brainwashed them too.”
“Maybe if they, like, actually met me? Like Duke and Cass,” Percy suggested. “Right now all they have is hearing about me from you, and the Arkham incident. Plus my background check, which we both know isn’t the greatest.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Jason sighed, pinching his nose. “I know my brothers, and I’m pretty sure that Damian is one provocation away from genuinely trying to cut out your spine.”
Percy blinked. “Huh. That’s a new one. I guess I’m lucky that I won’t die if you scratch my spine anymore.”
Jason’s eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, what?”
“The Curse of Achilles,” Percy said, feeling his old vulnerable spot start to tingle with phantom importance. “My ‘Achilles heel’ was on the small of my back.”
“Oh,” Jason frowned, “right. Yeah, I’d really like it if we avoided my little brother murdering you, so I think you coming to family dinner is a bad idea right now.”
Percy deflated slightly against the couch. He knew this was mostly his fault, but he still hated that Jason’s family thought he was hurting Jason. If they just got to know him, they’d see that he would never! But in order for them to get to know him, they’d have to believe that they could trust a word out of his mouth, and that probably wasn’t true just yet. Then he perked up slightly, remembering something he had learned when writing out all of Jason’s family.
“What about your aunts?” he said. “Do they hate me already?”
Jason looked at him, slightly baffled. “How much did you and Duke talk about?”
“He basically gave me a rundown on your family because I didn’t recognize half the names he used in our conversation,” Percy said, shifting to perch on the arm of the couch. “They’re the Sirens, right? Do they know about the Arkham thing?”
Jason struggled to answer for a moment, his face pinching. “I…I don’t know? I haven’t heard anyone say they told them, but Selina is at the manor pretty often. Do you really want to meet the Sirens, though? If they do end up not liking you, they will make that very clear. Do you like plants? I already know you have a dog, so Selina will dock points for that, but Harley will probably like you? Honestly, I’m not sure if that’s a great idea either, because if my family realizes that the three of them like you, then they might start to think you’re gonna do more crime.”
Percy pouted. “They already think I’m doing crime, right?”
“Yeah, but—” Jason cut himself off with a sigh. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to fix this, because they seem dead set on trying to catch you in something, and I’m 90% sure the only reason they haven’t abducted you to interrogate you in the Batcave is because it would piss me off, and they don’t know that I don’t have the Pit residue anymore.”
Percy was about to say something about the abduction thing, when the end of Jason’s sentence registered. “Wait, it’s gone? Did Nico finish?”
At Jason’s small smile and nod—it seemed almost shy—Percy beamed, jumping off the arm of the couch in a fluid motion. The serious conversation could wait . He had seen firsthand how hopeful Jason was at getting rid of whatever remnants of that Lazarus Pit were still clinging to his soul, and Percy was not about to brush off the fact that it was finally done.
“Jason, that’s amazing! We’re celebrating, I’m making dinner, what do you want?”
Jason’s smile grew, but he shook his head and stood up. “Nah, I think it’s my turn. If we’re celebrating this, then I want to make dinner this time.”
Percy froze, leveling him with a flat look. “Jason. Listen, I’d love to let you handle your own celebration if that’s what you want, but—”
“—Fun fact,” Jason cut him off, walking around the couch towards the kitchen, “all four times I destroyed a microwave, it was because I was twelve, recently adopted, and had never actually used a microwave before. I did not know you couldn’t put forks in them, and I didn’t realize that was the issue the first time it happened. Or the second.”
Percy’s eyes narrowed, and Jason just grinned. “I’m the only Wayne not banned from the manor kitchen. Alfred teaches me his secret recipes.”
Somehow, Percy’s eyes narrowed even more. “You can cook ?”
“You never actually asked if I still couldn’t cook,” Jason shot back, almost gleeful. “And my apartment has a truly terrible kitchen, so I don’t want to ruin Alfred’s recipes by making them in a shithole. Also, your mom’s recipes are practically on par with Alfred’s, so I wasn’t complaining.”
“ Practically ?” Percy echoed, offended on his mom’s behalf. “Just for that, you’re cooking for at least the next two weeks. I’ve been the chef in this relationship for months, and now I find out you can cook ? Put your money where your mouth is, Cowboy.”
“Gladly, Ariel,” Jason’s grin turned sharp and competitive as he turned towards the kitchen. “You’d better have tomatoes in here, because I’m gonna need ‘em.”
Percy scoffed. “Do I have tomatoes . What do I look like, an amateur?”
“You look like a gaping fish right now, actually.”
Jason’s stifled yelp as the sink suddenly splashed him was justice to Percy’s ears. He moved to hop up and sit on his counter, watching as Jason made himself at home in Percy’s kitchen and found his fresh produce. Part of him—the part raised by Sally Jackson—wanted to offer to sous chef, but the larger part of him was petty and was absolutely making Jason cook on his own. At least tonight. He couldn’t immediately tell what Jason was making, but he started chopping vegetables with a knife that definitely hadn’t been in Percy’s kitchen, and he had an ease to his shoulders that told Percy he really was comfortable cooking. As much as he had played up his annoyance, he felt his lips curl into a fond smile as he watched Jason work. He loved cooking, and he always wished he could cook with Annabeth without something going wrong. To know that now he could drag Jason into the kitchen with him? It was kind of nice.
Not that he’d tell Jason that for a while, though. He’d pretend to be annoyed for at least another week first.
Jason was in the middle of quartering carrots when he froze, and blinked at the cutting board. Setting the knife down, he looked up to Percy, his mouth twisted thoughtfully.
“Oh, I, uh, I forgot about something,” he said, the humor gone from his voice. But it didn’t sound like he was upset, so Percy tried to keep calm, leaning forward onto his knees. He made a questioning noise, and Jason continued. “Our conversation just now reminded me. There was something I’d been meaning to bring up, but I wasn’t sure , but then I realized I should just ask the expert instead, so…”
“What is it, Jay?” Percy asked. Jason took a breath before meeting Percy’s eyes.
“I know you want to meet my family, and we both know I think that's a bad idea,” he started, gesturing with the knife in his hand. “But…I do think that there’s maybe a member of my family that you should meet anyway.”
Percy frowned. He didn’t know where Jason was going with this. Was there someone Duke hadn’t told him about? Or maybe someone Jason thought might believe them?
But when Jason kept talking, he realized what was going on.
Jason’s eyes were serious, a firm sky blue that pinned Percy in place.
“For his own sake, I think you should meet my little brother. Because recently, I’ve noticed that Tim reminds me a bit too much of Annabeth.”
Notes:
yeah so i dont really have a good reason for being gone so long? The holidays kinda screwed with my productivity and my mental state, and then january was spent trying to fix that! I realized that i actually had to make some changes in my life to be more stable, and that took time. But i got a job, got put on meds, and am in the process of trying to get an adhd diagnosis, so wish me luck with that lol. so hopefully things are looking up! i truly cannot promise just yet to get back on my 2 week schedule, but i want to assure all of you guys that even if it takes a while between updates, i am NOT abandoning this story. i have no intentions of doing so, and have places I want to get to with these boys. thank you for all the support during my absence, and i appreciate all of you guys and your love of this story so much! it truly brightened my day whenever i saw someone comment.
i hope you liked this chapter :) never written duke before so i hope he wasn't too ooc lol. also i know there are amazon groups other than themyscira but i dont think percy does haha. Annabeth probably would, though.
see you next time, hopefully not in two months <3
Chapter 16
Notes:
here i come, crawling out of my cave to leave this chapter at your doorstep like a dead bird on your porch. i have no excuses. please enjoy this pit-free Jason and some more Annabeth POV, along with three characters that i really hope i characterized right lmao.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Jason was training in the cave, trying to keep straight the many plans currently being made in his head for both vigilante business and The Tim Investigation (name in progress), when he realized he wasn’t alone anymore by the punching bags. He could tell who it was. They hadn’t immediately made themselves known, which meant they just wanted to watch Jason for a moment, but they felt different than Cass did, and they weren’t as large of a presence as Bruce. He sighed, but didn’t stop training.
“What’s up, Dickie?” he asked, hearing Dick huff a laugh from behind him.
“Should’ve known you knew I was there,” he said, coming around from behind Jason to stand at his right side, immediately starting to spot his training. He didn’t say anything for a long while, choosing to let Jason keep going, just watching as Jason hit the bags over and over. Jason wondered if Dick could tell that his hits weren’t magically enhanced anymore—sure, Jason was using about the same force he usually did when training with these punching bags, but he wasn’t pulling his strength anymore. It felt good to not have to calculate how hard he could hit without breaking the bags entirely. He was finding it a little hard to get used to fighting people without his enhanced strength, but he hadn’t always had it. Sure, the Red Hood might not be able to break someone’s arm with a punch anymore, but Jason could still put fear into the hearts of the Hood’s enemies. And god damn, was the quiet worth it. He could hear the bats flying around in the cave so much easier than he remembered. He couldn’t quite remember if it had been this clear when he was a kid, but it felt like night and day compared to just a week ago. He could hear the creaking of the chain on the punching bag, he actually felt the burn on his knuckles, and when he thought back to training in this exact position with Dick as a kid…his first thought was no longer pointing out how Dick was clearly judging him, and finding him not worthy of being Robin’s successor.
When he took a break, something that he had gotten out of the habit of doing with the Pit blocking his pain and speeding his healing, Dick handed him a water bottle. Jason froze, glancing from the bottle up towards Dick.
“...what did you do?” he asked, wary. Dick pretended to be offended, but his mannerisms weren’t as exaggerated as they normally would be.
“What? What do you mean, ‘what did I do’?” he scoffed, a hand at his heart. “Can’t I help my baby brother train?”
Jason sighed and set the bottle on a table. “Okay, something’s up. Seriously, what did you do? Did you spill something on one of my books? Are you trying to bribe me for something?”
Dick’s eyes moved to the water bottle, looking away from Jason’s face as he stuck his hands in his pockets.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said, but this time his voice was quieter, and Jason now knew for sure that he was right. That was Dick’s apology tone. “At least, not recently.”
Jason frowned. Whatever this was, Dick seemed really upset about it. He looked back up at Jason, his eyebrows furrowed.
“I know you don’t like us talking about this,” he started, already clueing Jason in on the fact that this had something to do with Percy, “but it’s really been eating at me and I have to say something. I’m sorry, Jason. I feel like I pushed you towards dating Jackson, and after all this, I can’t help but feel it’s kind of on me.”
Jason’s apprehension fell away as his shoulders dropped, replaced instead with slight exasperation. Of course Dick was taking the blame on himself.
“Dick,” he said, “you do realize that you didn’t make me like him, right?”
“I know, but if I hadn’t said anything then maybe you wouldn’t have been dating when he broke into Arkham,” Dick said, sighing. Jason couldn’t help but laugh slightly.
“I’m not as emotionally illiterate as Bruce , Dickie,” he shot back. “Sure, you made me actually think about it, but I would have realized myself way before the whole Arkham thing happened. And, as I have to keep saying, he has not messed with my head in any way, so you don’t have anything to feel guilty over.”
Dick huffed a slight laugh, but he eyed Jason regretfully. “Right, of course. Because you and Bruce are so different.”
Jason gave him a side-eye. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
That time, Dick’s laugh was a bit more genuine. “You’ll figure it out, I’m sure.”
“Not sure I like what you’re implying there, dickhead,” Jason countered, pretending to not care by making sure the wrapping on his hands was still intact. Dick knocked their shoulders together, but didn’t rise to Jason’s bait. Instead, he almost softened more.
“B said you called him the other day,” Dick said, smiling at him. “You should have seen his face.”
Jason shrugged. “So? Isn’t that what you all keep bugging me to do more? Make a big deal of it and I might just not do it again.”
He hoped that losing the Lazarus pit residue didn’t also mean he lost his ability to lie through his teeth with a mask of his anger. Sue him, he could hear exactly what Dick was talking about in Bruce’s voice when he called, and it made him feel emotions that he thought the pit had taken from him permanently.
“Not making a big deal,” Dick promised, raising his hands. “Just saying. And even if you don’t agree or don’t want to hear it, I meant what I said and I’m sorry.”
Jason sighed. “I appreciate the concern, Big Bird. I also appreciate you all not just tranq-ing and abducting Percy off the streets, because I know you’ve discussed it.”
To his credit, Dick didn’t try to deny it.
“That was mostly Damian’s plan,” Dick said, shrugging. “Tim almost backed him up before he realized he’d be agreeing with Dami , and they’ve got that whole feud going on, so then he argued against it.”
Right, the feud. The feud that revolved around Damian’s pet, which had spurred Jason into talking to Percy in the first place.
Damian’s fucking pet tarantula.
Making another few underlines on his mental list, Jason pushed that topic aside in his head and looked back at Dick.
“So it’s Tim’s spite I have to thank for you all not kidnapping my boyfriend?” Jason asked.
“I wouldn’t have let them,” Dick assured him, although it was clear in his voice that wasn’t thrilled to have to tell them no. “The last thing I want our worry to do is hurt you more, Jaybird.”
Jason remembered Percy’s face when they were talking about Percy meeting his family, and he looked at Dick out of the corner of his eye. “You know that's kind of already happening, right?”
When Dick frowned, he continued. “He wants to meet you all. He wants to get to know my family. Do you expect me to say ‘sorry Percy, they all think you’re an evil metahuman playing the piano with my brain, you can’t meet them until they stop trying to arrest you’?”
From the conflicted wince that flashed across Dick’s face, they really didn’t think that Annabeth and Percy had connected the dots about the identities of Gotham’s other vigilantes. Sure, Jason knew that he had already told Percy basically that exact sentence, but clearly Dick didn't think he had. Annabeth was going to absolutely hate that little bit of information, and absolutely take it as his family underestimating her intelligence. Dick glanced at Jason slightly sheepishly, running a hand through his hair.
“I mean…I wouldn’t mind meeting him?” he offered. Jason sighed.
“Dick,” he said flatly. “No. You’re not convincing me that you genuinely just want to meet my boyfriend when literally five minutes ago you apologized for telling me I like him.”
Dick deflated. “Jay…”
“Dickie, I’m not mad at any of you,” Jason said, drawing a slightly stunned and confused look—and sure, maybe he didn’t mean to say that, because a week ago he might have been. “I’m frustrated, yeah, but just because your side of this shit makes sense . And that’s annoying , because I know you’re wrong. But if our family is anything , we’re all stubborn shitheads. So you’re gonna keep being stubborn, and I’m gonna keep being stubborn, and eventually you’ll realize I’m completely fine .”
Dick watched him for a moment, his eyes scanning Jason’s face the same way that he used to scan a younger Jason for injuries when he wore the red, yellow, and green. Rather than making him bristle, his mind hissing that Dick was still seeing the child who died, the gaze instead made Jason’s shoulders settle as his older brother checked to make sure he was okay. Dick gave him a slightly conflicted smile, resting a hand on Jason’s shoulder.
“Okay,” he acquiesced, at least for the moment, and motioned with his head to the equipment around them. “You gonna keep training?”
At Jason's nod, Dick walked back over to help spot him again.
It was an unintended side effect of losing the Pit, Jason thought. He wasn’t surprised that he had a longer fuse than he used to, he wasn’t surprised that he no longer had a hair-pin trigger and that he was able to actually feel his honest emotions rather than any influenced ones. He wasn’t surprised that he could speak more candidly, especially to family, or that when it came to the topic of Percy, he was more frustrated than infuriated. But he wasn’t expecting that without the Pit making his first thoughts be that his family was angry with him, or disappointed, or thinking he couldn’t handle things on his own…he wasn’t just frustrated. He was actually hurt . And not that they didn’t believe him, or that they kept pushing him about it. Just like Percy, he was hurt that his boyfriend couldn’t meet his family. His whole family, not just his two siblings who took a chance to trust him.
He watched Dick give him a smile as he waved Jason back to the training equipment, and he held in another sigh.
If Dick asked again to meet Percy, he wasn’t sure he’d find it so easy to say no.
Annabeth had been in the demigod world since she was seven. Potentially before, if you count the times she was besieged by spiders, but she considered her entrance to the Greek world to be when she first met Thalia and Luke. For over a decade, she lived alongside mythical beings and bled for ancient soil that she only stepped foot on once. She sometimes felt more comfortable speaking Greek than English, definitely felt more comfortable reading Greek, and relaxed when her hand wrapped around the hilt of a knife and her body found a fighting position. Percy might be the more powerful demigod, in terms of raw strength, but Annabeth had been in the world longer than he had. She knew the rules, the risks, and the things engrained in her not-quite-whole DNA. Sure, she did have a cell phone, but it was tucked securely in a celestial bronze box under her bed at camp, reserved exclusively for quests. It was a flip phone, too, as far from technologically advanced as she could get. That being said, she had spent over a decade with zero desire for a more advanced phone. It just wasn’t worth the danger.
But Brilliant Athena , Annabeth wanted to text Percy about the way Tim was staring at her.
It was the most not-subtle yet unnoticeable staring she had ever been on the other end of. She had absolutely no doubt that the other WE employees and anyone who came to meet with Tim were completely oblivious to the fact that he was sending her suspicious looks every few minutes. It had been somewhat like this since the incident in Arkham, the glances as Tim tried to find any evidence of guilt in her mannerisms or behaviors. Honestly, she was impressed by his ability to keep it up for this long, and to keep a straight face whenever he tried to dig through subtle questions and Annabeth sidestepped them with the grace of someone who had been lying about demigod activities since she was seven. She hid a smile behind her pen as she made notations on the speech Tim had asked her to read over. A Batman-trained detective versus a daughter of Athena who could lie through her teeth to anyone except maybe Percy. Who would win?
Annabeth was going to make sure it was her. Especially if Jason’s recent hunch had any merit to it. Percy had called her just the past night, a thoughtful furrow between his eyebrows, as Jason repeated to her what he had apparently just told Percy. Percy had asked what she thought, and Annabeth was forced to honestly say she hadn’t considered it.
Tim, a demigod? Her boss, the sixteen-year-old vigilante who clearly had no idea what was up with Nico, her brother ?
But she couldn’t tell Jason he was wrong. She almost did, offhandedly brushing away his concerns because of course , if Tim was one of Athena’s children, Annabeth would know. Surely, she would have been the one to notice. But it made sense that Annabeth wouldn’t have even considered the possibility. Tim was sixteen, three years past the age that the gods promised to claim their children. He didn’t look like most of her siblings, either. But she looked through the Iris Message at Jason’s genuine belief that Tim could have more of a connection to her than she had thought, and…she couldn’t say he was wrong. Because maybe Athena couldn’t claim Tim in Gotham. Because maybe no monsters had found him in the tainted Mist of the city. Because she had seen some of her siblings arrive unclaimed at camp, and she sometimes forgot that not all of them had arrived with grey in their eyes. Annabeth’s eyes had been stormy from the moment she arrived on Frederick Chase’s doorstep, but her younger brother had been claimed with muddy brown irises that slowly gained a shade of slate. An unclaimed demigod was a demigod who more often than not couldn’t protect themselves, and the Mist helped them hide some of their more suspicious traits before they could do it themselves.
So now she was far more aware of the stares Tim was sending her way. It had started off amusing, but Annabeth was now looking so deeply into each suspicious look for something that felt familiar that it was starting to distract her from doing her work. Which didn’t then help the suspicious looks at all. It also didn’t help that Annabeth was asking her own coded questions in response to Tim’s, only he clearly didn’t know what she was probing about. His blank look in response to her casually asking him what his thoughts were on owls meant that either he was just as good at lying on the spot as she was—not unlikely, given his night job—or he had absolutely no idea about his potential heritage. Which, while Annabeth already knew that was most likely the case, was nice to confirm. If he did know, that would mean that she had been missing out on another brother for potentially years, and she’d have some words for her mom for keeping this from their whole cabin. However, if he did somehow know and was keeping it from his family, that would make her life easier. It would mean she didn’t have to be coy anymore. Since he didn’t know, though, she had to figure it out herself, and somehow tell him without getting arrested in the process.
Her mind was all over the place as she juggled her various responsibilities. From still managing to complete her internship responsibilities, to keeping an eye on Tim, to dodging his own glances, to— shit , she also had dinner with Percy and Jason after work. Annabeth huffed slightly, grabbing a corner of one of the papers sticking out of her folder and jotting down a reminder. She hated when things slipped through the cracks of her memory. When she was on a quest and everything felt life-or-death (and often was) she rarely forgot things, her adrenaline helping her keep everything straight in her head. But now, when she was just sitting at her desk doing paperwork that she was struggling to read? Apparently she forgot things as simple as ‘head to Percy’s apartment after work’.
She can’t say that she was thrilled to go to dinner, though. She loved spending time with Percy, of course, and she was always happy to see Jason too. But she knew they’d both be interested in if she noticed anything. And she dreaded telling them that she wasn’t sure. She had never actually spent a lot of time around any of her siblings before they were claimed. If her siblings weren’t claimed, they spent a lot of time with the Hermes cabin, and even then she knew that they were a demigod in general. She wasn’t sure how to pinpoint what about Tim might be feeling like an unclaimed demigod. Percy had suggested asking Grover to visit, but if no monsters had found their way to unclaimed demigods in Gotham, it wasn’t out of the question that his scent was masked enough even to fool a satyr.
“Annabeth?” Tim broke her out of her thoughts with the sound of her name, standing out of his desk and making his way to hers. When she looked up at him, he held out a file towards her. “Can you take this down to R&D? They should be expecting it.”
“Of course,” Annabeth replied, giving him a small smile as she took the file from him. Anything to let her stop staring at the same letters swimming in front of her eyes. Tim’s eyes briefly scanned the papers she had scattered over her desk—she never claimed to be a normal person’s idea of ‘organized’, but she still knew where everything was—and then cocked his head slightly. She followed his gaze to find the hastily scribbled note she had just written.
“We’ve never talked about the fact that you’re friends with my brother’s boyfriend, have we?” he broached, and Annabeth knew perfectly well that they were both aware they hadn’t. She supposed that Tim had been waiting for an organic way to bring it up, and she had just handed him one.
“No, I guess we haven’t,” she responded smoothly, keeping her gaze and shoulders open instead of calculating. “I assumed it was for the best, given that I’m your employee. Isn’t something like that considered a conflict of interest?”
Tim gave a short laugh. “Annabeth, my dad named me co-CEO. I think if anyone in WE was going to be concerned about a ‘conflict of interest’, they’d be way more focused on what amounts to actual nepotism.”
She gave him a slight side-eye. “You say that like you haven’t proven you’re perfectly capable and competent in the role. Any nepotism that led to you gaining the title has long since lost its impact on the way people look at the work you do.”
Tim rolled his eyes, but Annabeth noticed the way he was trying to hide the slight tinge of pink on his cheekbones. She wasn’t going to let any potential brother of hers talk down about his abilities. “And any ‘conflict of interest’ is negated by the fact that my brother started dating your friend after you got this internship. I’m not giving you any special treatment, so it doesn’t matter. We can discuss it if we want to.”
“You’d better not be giving me special treatment,” Annabeth replied. “Did you want to discuss it? I promise that any stories Jason may or may not have told me haven’t impacted the way I see you as my supervisor.”
The flush on Tim’s face grew far more pronounced. “I don’t think I want to know the stories he’s been telling. I can’t believe he hasn’t told me anything about you though, if he’s embarrassing me behind my back.”
Yeah, I bet you wish he’d tell you about me , Annabeth thought, hiding a grin. “Percy knows better than to tell any embarrassing stories about me, Jason doesn’t have any to share with you.”
“You made that sound like you have a lot of dirt on Percy,” Tim said, raising his eyebrows at her. Annabeth laughed.
“I’ve known him since we were twelve,” she said, knowing that Tim already knew that. “You don’t have a best friend that long without gaining some good blackmail material. Not that I’d share it with just anyone.”
“Not even someone who has dirt on Jason?” Tim offered. Annabeth hated that she knew he wasn’t completely sincere. Both of them were fishing for information, but at least she still genuinely wanted to be friends with Tim, coded questions aside. She wished she could give Tim the stories he wanted. She wished that doing so would actually make them better friends, and not just make Tim go home to overthink and overanalyze every word she said. In the end, though, she’d put Percy before a budding friendship with a potential little brother. If she had proof, maybe she’d extend a small, disguised olive branch. But for now? It was time for her to back off slightly.
“Sorry, Tim, but Percy and I have an understanding of mutually assured destruction,” she said, shaking her head. “Telling you any stories would give him free reign to embarrass me right back.”
Standing up from her desk, she held the file he had given her under her arm. “I’ll get these down to R&D for you. Would you like me to pick up tea on my way back?”
Tim made a face. “It’s only five in the afternoon, coffee is fine.”
“Jason may have mentioned that you’ve been forced into a caffeine cutback,” Annabeth countered, making Tim groan.
“Now this is a conflict of interest. Any limitations that may or may not have been put in place in my personal residence have no bearings on my work habits.”
Now, Annabeth had never met the ‘Alfred’ that Jason had mentioned quite a few times, but from what she’s heard, he would heartily disagree. That wasn’t her job, though, not when she was just an intern. Should she become a half-sister? Then maybe she’d do what she did to some of her other siblings and forcibly remove their various caffeine crutches when she felt she had to. For now, though, she just laughed and said, “coffee it is,” and started walking down to the R&D department.
It wasn’t until she was halfway down the elevator ride that something occurred to her, and made her spine go rigid. Sure, she was meticulous about making sure that all her paperwork was done in neat, correctly spelled , English. But she didn’t care that much about anything she wrote for herself. When she wrote for herself, she wrote something she could read just as easily.
Her grip on the file under her arm grew tighter, until she became faintly worried that she was crumpling the papers. But she really couldn’t bring herself to care that much about it, not when her brain kicked into overdrive and left her staring at the closed doors of the elevator with her heart picking up speed. She didn’t know how else to take what had just happened. She didn’t know how she didn’t notice it sooner.
She wrote her note in Greek.
Tim had read it with nothing more than a glance.
Did he even know it wasn’t in English? Did it occur to him that he shouldn’t be able to read Ancient Greek with the ease that he did?
Annabeth was half in her own head as she handed off the folder to the head of the R&D department, moving on autopilot as she made her way to the cafe on the ground floor. Usually, she was fairly strict about her own caffeine intake, hating the way it made her crash.
But the memory of Tim looking down at her scrawled, barely legible Greek and responding to it easily was playing on loop to her frantically analyzing brain. She figured she’d earned a coffee of her own.
Percy sometimes wondered if he’d been in Gotham for too long. The only demigod he had regular contact with was Annabeth, and he had realized that it might have been long enough that he was growing accustomed to more normal behaviors that his demigod family seemed to lack.
For instance, people using his door to access his apartment .
After meeting Duke and Cass, he supposed he should have realized that his reprieve from people simply entering through his window was over, but when neither of them came back again, the incidents had slipped from his mind. However, it was still recent enough that when he was walking down the hallway and heard muffled talking from his apartment, he was more exasperated than anything. Some part of him hoped that it was someone he already knew—perhaps Duke or Cass had come back to see him again, or maybe Nico had popped in for a visit and someone else from camp had tagged along. It had been a while since he’d seen some of the others of the Seven, so he began to hope that was the case, but he also knew that his luck wasn’t that good. When he got closer and heard three female voices discussing his interior decorating skills, he knew that something else was going on.
Pushing open his apartment door, he felt a mix of apprehension and excitement to see the three women that he recognized as both Jason’s aunts and the Gotham City Sirens. They were in casual clothes, but it was hard to not recognize Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. They looked over as Percy entered, and Harley gave him a bright grin and a little finger wave. Despite that, though, he saw very clearly the bat lying by his window and the gloves with attached claws hanging from Catwoman’s belt. They were here in peace, from what he could gather, but they weren’t very trusting either. Percy could understand that.
“Uh, hi,” Percy greeted, shutting the door behind him. “You’re Jason’s aunts, right?”
“Aw, he talks about us?” Harley cooed, and Percy couldn’t help but laugh a little.
“Honestly, no, not really,” he admitted. “I talked to Duke, though.”
“That sounds more like Jason,” Catwoman said with a small smile. “You’re Percy, right?”
“That’s me,” Percy answered, setting his bag down by the door and walking further into his apartment. “It’s nice to meet you all, I asked Jason to introduce us, but he wanted to wait a little longer.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Poison Ivy said with raised eyebrows. Percy winced with a self-deprecating grin.
“Ah, you’ve, uh, heard what the rest of his family thinks of me, then?”
“Can’t say I disagree with what ya did in Arkham,” Harley shrugged. “But we ain’t here for an interrogation. You’re our little nephew’s boyfriend! We wanna get to know ya.”
“I’d love that,” Percy said, smiling as he made his way to his kitchen. “And, interrogation or not, I’d like for you to know that I’d never hurt Jason in any way. There are extenuating circumstances to why Jason is protecting me from the Arkham incident and any suspicion from his family, and I really hate that it’s caused any kind of rift between him and his siblings. But…I have people to protect too. Jason is just helping me do that.”
“He is the protective type,” Catwoman agreed, following Percy to the counter. “I’m Selina, by the way. Tell us about yourself, Percy.”
Just from the way she was watching him, Percy could tell that Selina Kyle was going to be the tough one to win over.
“Well, I’m New York born and raised, my birth father disappeared at sea and my first step-father was a piece of shit, but then my mom married her current husband and he’s awesome,” Percy started. “I’ve got a baby half-sister named Estelle, and I spend my summers at a camp on Long Island for kids with ADHD where I’m a counselor and a mentor for a lot of the younger kids. Right now I’m studying marine biology at Gotham University with my best friend.”
He turned around to look at his impromptu guests. “Do you want anything to eat or drink? I don’t have anything alcoholic, but I’ve got sparkling water?”
“Aren’t you eighteen?” Pamela asked wryly. “You shouldn’t have alcohol to begin with.”
“Well, yeah,” Percy agreed, “but this is Gotham. I don’t plan on ever drinking, though. See again—piece of shit first step-father.”
“I don’t think Jason plans on ever drinking either,” Selina noted, and Percy smiled fondly.
“Yeah, we really liked that we had that in common. Not that I would ask him to never drink for my sake, but it makes us both feel better.”
“Sorry ‘bout your step-dad,” Harley said with a frown. “Seems like you’ve got a better one now, though. Do ya have a pic of your baby sister?”
Percy lit up. “Absolutely,” he said. “She’s adorable, my mom sends pictures all the time.”
He went through his kitchen to his bedroom, aware of the women following behind him. His dresser was cluttered, like always, but the many framed pictures on top of it was his focus at the moment. Grabbing his favorite, from Estelle’s first birthday, he proudly showed it to the Sirens. Harley squealed immediately, taking the frame from his hands and staring at the picture of Estelle in a grinning Percy’s arms.
“Oh, she's a gem !” she exclaimed, her bi-colored pigtails bouncing as she smiled widely. “I’m her auntie now too, alright? Ya can both call me Auntie Harley!”
“Harley,” Pamela chided with a laugh, shaking her head at the other woman’s antics. “She really is a cute little sprout, though.”
She seemed about to say something else, but was cut off by Harley gasping.
“And who is this beautiful baby?” she cooed, setting down Estelle’s picture and picking up one that Percy usually kept a little bit out of the way due to its contents. But he couldn’t help but smile at it as he watched Harley’s eyes widen.
“That’s Mrs. O’Leary,” he answered, wondering what exactly Harley was seeing. “My cousin and I co-parent her. She’s a sweetheart.”
“Aww, she’s such a baby,” Harley gushed, and Selina looked over her shoulder only to wrinkle her nose.
“Harley, she’s more than twice the size of your hyenas,” she commented, answering Percy’s question for at least one of them. She glanced at Percy. “What type of dog is she?”
Percy debated for a moment what to say. It was fairly obvious to anyone who could see through the Mist that Mrs. O’Leary wasn’t any normal type of dog. And he figured that a little bit of the truth wouldn’t lead them too much in the right direction. In the end, he just couldn’t turn down the sparkle in Harley’s eyes. She loved Mrs. O’Leary. He couldn’t lie to her.
“She’s a hellhound,” he answered, grinning a little sheepishly at the wide eyes he got in response. “I promise she’s a gentle giant.”
“A hellhound ?” Selina repeated, her eyebrows raised to her hairline. Meanwhile, Harley was clutching the frame to her chest.
“ I want one ,” she breathed, making Percy laugh.
“Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure she’s the only tame hellhound out there,” he said, making Harley wrinkle her nose. “I wasn’t the one who tamed her, but when her original owner died, he gave her to me.”
“Well,” Pamela said, an odd look on her face. “I suppose that explains why you accepted Jason’s identity so easily.”
Percy grinned. “I’m not exactly a stranger to weird things. Jason tries to surprise me, I try to surprise him. It’s a fun game.”
“Who’s winning?” Harley asked, matching his grin.
“Oh, me,” Percy said easily. “But I’m sure Jason’s got some stuff up his sleeve still. I just had a head start. He really did get me with the whole ‘I still have goons who try and get me to do crime again’ thing.”
“Hood’s goons are just the sweetest, aren’t they?” Harley said, setting Mrs. O’Leary’s picture back on the dresser. “Have ya met Jeffrey yet?”
“Haven’t met any of them, actually,” Percy corrected. “I just found out when one of them left a gift basket of baked goods outside Jason’s apartment with a very detailed report tucked inside of what his goons have been up to.”
Percy had, at first, been uncomfortable with the word ‘goon’. It sounded so weird, and from the way Jason ran his more… legally gray endeavors, it seemed like it would be more accurate to just call them employees. But when he said so to Jason, his boyfriend had just laughed and said that his goons insisted on calling themselves goons. He had tried to get them to stop, too, but the only time he brought it up it seemed to make the goons think he was firing them, and Jason had to backpedal.
He was about to keep talking when he noticed Pamela’s head tilt slightly as her eyes drifted to a point over his shoulder.
“Ah, there it is,” she murmured, sliding past Percy towards his window. “I could feel her all the way from the living room, but hadn’t seen her yet.”
Gently, she slid open Percy’s bedroom window and reached out to the small windowbox Percy had determinedly found a way to install outside. In it rested a small sprout of a flower, transplanted from his carefully tended patch of moonlace back at home. The one flower gifted to him all those years ago by Calypso had spread to fill the box outside his apartment window in New York, and he knew he couldn’t imagine not bringing a piece of it with him to Gotham.
“Where did you find her?” Pamela asked, her fingers trailing gently over the small flower’s leaves. “This isn’t a flower I’m familiar with.”
“That’s moonlace,” Percy answered, his smile turning fond as he looked at the plant. The moon was just starting to rise in the sky, so the petals hadn’t opened yet, but the white bud still angled itself towards the horizon as if seeking the moonlight. “I have a larger garden of it back in New York, but it seems to like it here, too. It was a gift from an old friend, a native plant to where she lived. She gave it to me when she thought it would be the last time I ever saw her, and made me promise to plant it. It’s the only plant I haven’t killed.”
He wondered if he should mention his brown thumb in front of Poison Ivy, but he was proud of the fact that he managed to make the moonlace flourish despite his lack of gardening prowess. He never even needed to ask the Demeter cabin for help! Calypso had seen his small garden, the one time she visited his apartment after Leo brought her back from Ogygia. Percy’s relationship with her was…strained, at first, and Percy didn’t blame her for being upset with him. But Leo hadn’t wanted his new close friend to be avoiding one of the demigods he saw as family, so he had gotten Piper to help him facilitate a conversation between Percy and the hurt immortal woman. He wouldn’t say that he and Calypso were as close as her and Leo, despite the fact that he had known her long before Leo had landed on her island, but he was happy with where they were. The small, forgiving smile that she had given him as she complimented his garden of moonlace had told him that they were okay. They would never have the relationship that Calypso had wanted when he washed up on her shore, but they could be friends. The glowing white blooms that greeted him every night were always a reminder of that.
Pamela’s smile was soft as the plant seemed to preen under her touch.
“She’s very healthy,” she said. “And happy. You talk to her?”
Percy flushed slightly. “Yeah. It started as a way to talk to my friend, when she was so far away, and I just…never stopped. Plants are good listeners, and they don’t always take my side like fish do.”
Pamela gave him a side-eye. “Ignoring the part about the fish, because I have no idea what you’re talking about, I heartily agree. I keep trying to get Jason to keep more than just a single succulent, but the boy is hopeless with anything green. But you have promise. I can fix you.”
Percy didn’t know whether to be flattered or threatened. Harley nudged him in the arm, going up on her toes to lean onto his shoulder.
“She likes ya!” Harley stage-whispered. “Don’t matter if ya just have one plant, treating it well is the way to Pam’s heart!”
“Plants are honest with me,” Pamela replied, stepping back from the window and letting the moonlace turn back towards the rising moon. “If they say that he is kind, genuine, and call him heroic, then I believe them. It seems to me that Jason chose well.”
“...she called me heroic?” Percy repeated, his eyes trailing back to the moonlace. Sure, he’s talked about his quests sometimes after nightmares, leaning halfway out his window to watch the petals glow, but he never thought that the plant would have an opinion on him. Pamela gave him a smile.
“Emphatically,” she said. “You seem to inspire fierce loyalty all around you, if Jason and your moonlace are any indication.”
“Well, I tend to return that loyalty even fiercer,” Percy said, his mouth quirking into a wry grin back at Pamela.
“I would never imply that Jason doesn’t deserve that, because he certainly does,” Selina cut in, watching Percy carefully from her position by his bedroom door where she still hadn’t moved from. Her sharp green eyes were watching him like a predator, and she clearly hadn’t been as swayed as Harley and Pamela had been. But Percy wasn’t playing any kind of game here, and he genuinely wanted Jason’s aunts to like him. So he stayed tall under Selina’s intense gaze, and waited for what she was trying to say. “But loyalty that strong isn’t usually an innate quality of a person. What led you to place such an importance on standing between the world and those you consider yours?”
Percy didn’t even have to think.
“My mom,” he said easily. Selina’s harsh eyes became ever so slightly softer as she cocked her head in question. “She gave up her dreams and her freedom to make sure I grew up safely, staying in a shitty marriage for reasons that I didn’t understand until I was twelve. Without her, I would have died before I reached double digits, I’m absolutely sure of it. But even in that shitty marriage, with a man who stank like rotten underwear and unironically told her to get back in the kitchen, she made sure I had a good childhood. We found the little things, and she made sure I cherished them. She gave everything for me because she loves me, and I know that if I ever need anything, even if it uproots her life, she would give it to me. Is it any wonder that I grew up to stick by those I love no matter what?”
By the time he finished talking, Selina had stopped glaring at him and was even smiling softly.
“Well, that makes perfect sense to me, kitten,” she said. “Your mother sounds like an incredible woman.”
Percy couldn’t help the smile on his face. “She is. If I grow up to be even a fraction of the parent she was to me, then I know my kids will be okay. And, well, the other aspect of my protective nature comes from her, too.”
He figured that if there was anyone else safe to tell besides Jason, it was the Gotham City Sirens.
“She stayed in that awful marriage for me, but…” he grinned. “As soon as she no longer needed to stay for my sake, my step-father went mysteriously missing and tragically was never found.”
Harley let out a loud cackle, Pamela hid a smile, and Selina stared at him with a slow smirk building on her face.
“Oh he went missing, did he?” she asked. “How terrible. My condolences.”
“My mom was distraught,” Percy said, widening his eyes and placing a hand over his heart. “She was grieving so much that she just had to get away, and ended up going all the way back to college!”
That finally got a laugh from Selina, and she pushed herself off of his door frame to stride over to him. She was tall, matching him eye-to-eye, and something in her eyes reminded Percy of Zoë Nightshade. A huntress through and through, who liked him despite her best attempts not to, very much wished that she still wanted to kill him, and would plant her feet between any threat and the people that she had decided had earned her protection. He had already liked her from the stories Duke had told him, and he had liked her for being Jason’s aunt and for caring about him, but anyone with that look in their eyes easily earned Percy’s respect too. When she was standing next to him, her smirk became a genuine smile, and he let her reach up and run her finger over the grey streak in his hair.
“Hmm,” she said, “you two really are very similar, aren’t you?”
“It’s why we got along so well when we first met,” Percy agreed, shrugging. Selina met his eyes with her now-softer smile, and stepped back.
“I have to say I was slightly concerned by the stories the rest of those boys are telling about you,” she said, “but I’m glad we came to see for ourselves. I think you’re good for him. Welcome to the family, kitten. Call me Aunt Selina.”
“Harley insisted I match her, so I’m Auntie Pam,” Pamela—or, Pam, Percy supposed—added with a fond roll of her eyes and a hand clasped with Harley’s.
“If ya call me anything but Auntie Harley, I’m stealin’ your dog,” Harley said, a mock-serious look on her face. “She’ll get along great with Bud and Lou, I just know she will.”
“We’ll have to arrange a play-date for them,” Percy said, smiling widely as he realized that he had earned the approval of all three of Jason’s aunts. “And don’t worry, Auntie Harley. I know when not to argue with strong women.”
“Well I’m glad Jason found someone who was raised right,” Selina said. “We’ll see you again soon, Percy. Tell Jason we said hello.”
“I will,” Percy agreed, and followed the women back out to his living room, where Harley collected her baseball bat and slid his living room window open. Percy wasn’t even surprised. Of course they used the window, it turned out that Gotham was just as insane as demigods were. One by one they left, until it was just Selina sitting on his windowsill with her legs outside.
“Take care of him for us, kitten,” she said. “We lost him once. I’d like to never go through that again.”
“Nothing is going to happen to him if I have any say in it,” Percy promised. “I’ve lost too many people too.”
Selina nodded, then slipped fully out his window, somehow managing to close it behind her. Again, Percy wasn’t surprised. She was a cat burglar, after all.
Percy stood for a moment in his empty apartment and felt his shoulders relax. Slowly but surely, he was showing Jason’s family that they could trust him. Sure, he was starting on the edges and moving his way in, but he had to start somewhere. If Percy managed to facilitate peace between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, he was sure he could figure this out. He had handled way worse than his boyfriend’s family not liking him. Hell, he had managed it when Annabeth’s mom hated him, and that was Athena ! He survived so many deities hating him, it was practically inevitable that he would figure this out. And he still had Jason, so he wasn’t dealing with it by himself.
He flopped down onto his couch, letting out a satisfied sigh, and melted into the cushions. He decided that he wasn’t moving for the rest of the night.
An hour later, there was a knock on Percy’s door. Through the wood, he heard Jason’s exasperated voice.
“Perce, can you please tell me why Harley Quinn just left me a voicemail about setting up a fucking playdate for your dogs? She doesn’t have dogs. She has hyenas .”
Percy laughed so hard he fell off the couch.
Notes:
:) i really do love harley, i hope she seemed in character. i dont have much to say in these end notes except to apologize again for my absence. unfortunately, the next chapter is promising to absolutely NOT want to cooperate with me, but ill do my best to get it to yall asap. happy pride month, enjoy my favorite boys, and be queer as fuck! sincerely, your favorite genderfluid ace lesbian author.
Hope you enjoyed :) Thank you all for sticking with me on this, your comments truly mean the world <3
Chapter 17
Notes:
its been a while but I'm back!! hello!!
Also: I appreciate all of you. Way back in chapter 5 i mentioned that Percy was stabbed by Kronos and literally just when I was doing research for this chapter did i realize that never happened???? why did my brain invent that?? I thought for sure he did, but nope! Anyway, none of you called me out on that and i very much appreciate it lol. So now for this fic, i guess he did get stabbed in his weak point! When? idk! How did he survive? idk! Apollo healed him i guess! My brain decided on a fact that was simply a lie and now im running with it. its super not important for the story at all, but figured id let you guys know that i am now well aware that this injury is noncanonical. Thank you brain, you did nothing helpful.EDIT, LIKE HALF AN HOUR LATER: OH MY GODS ITS PERCY'S BIRTHDAY. I COMPLETELY FORGOT!!! happy birthday blue boy!!!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Why did I let you talk me into this,” Jason sighed, leaning against the wall of his apartment with his crimson helmet tucked under his arm. Percy was shrugging on one of Jason’s backup leather jackets (reinforced with kevlar, obviously), and sticking a small bag of ambrosia into the pocket just in case. He had refused Jason’s offer of carrying a gun, but he knew that Riptide would be no help, so he had accepted a small mortal dagger that hung from his belt. He grinned across the room at his boyfriend.
“Because I said I wanted to see you in action?” he said cheekily. “And you can’t say no to me.”
“I’ve said no to you so many times, Perce,” Jason shot back, rolling his eyes. “You know I only said yes because I know you can handle yourself, right?”
“Of course,” Percy scoffed. “I’d be concerned if you would let an untrained civilian follow you on patrol.”
“You remember my conditions?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow. Percy huffed.
“ Yes , Jay. Despite being able to talk to them, I don’t actually have the memory of a goldfish,” he replied. “Stick behind you on patrol, but don’t follow if you engage with anyone. You have a ‘meeting’ with a gang you’re taking out, and I am not to enter the building.”
Jason nodded. “Are you ready, then? I’ve got about two hours until that gang meeting.”
Percy grinned. “Born ready, cowboy.”
Jason flipped him off, making Percy laugh. He then slid open the window and motioned for Percy to go first.
“After you, Your Royal Fishness,” he teased, bowing deeply. Percy straightened his back, looking haughtily down at Jason.
“Why thank you, Sir Red Hood,” he said, barely able to hold back his laughter as he passed Jason and slipped out the window, spotting the small handholds worn into the brick by Jason’s frequent usage. He easily scrambled up to the rooftop, rocking back and forth on his feet as he waited for Jason to join him. The sky was cloudy, like normal in Gotham, but the moonlight still made it easy for Percy to see across the other rooftops around him. Percy felt for the Mist swirling through Gotham, drifting through the smog of the city, and pulled on all the lessons Thalia and Hazel had tried to get through his head. He drew some of the Mist closer to him, wrinkling his nose slightly at the sick feeling entangled with it, and snapped his fingers.
When the sound echoed around him, he relaxed slightly. He knew no one should see him, given how he was staying out of Jason’s actual work as Red Hood, but having the familiar feeling of Mist covering him made him feel better. He turned as he heard the sound of boots hitting the roof, and grinned at the sight of Jason with the helmet on. Without the anger tensing his body like it had in Arkham, the Red Hood looked so different to Percy. He could appreciate how intimidating the sight would be to most people, without worrying about what Jason looked like under the helmet. Now, he could tell that Jason was grinning at him.
“Where to first, Mr. Crime Lord?” Percy asked. Jason huffed a laugh, the sound distorted through the helmet, and walked to the edge of the roof.
“Time for you to see Crime Alley,” Jason said, spreading his arms out in a way that Percy knew meant he had a cocky look on his face. “Keep up, gladiator.”
Then he turned and took a leap off the roof, landing in a run on the other side of the gap. Percy grinned and took off after him. He followed Jason’s condition about staying behind him, but once he started running across the rooftops, it took a lot of effort to not start running at his full speed. He felt the wind blowing his hair around his face, he felt weightless for a few moments each time he jumped between two roofs, and he loved it . It had the adrenaline of fights or quests, but he knew he wasn’t in danger. He got why the bats did this almost every night. He might take up roof-running as a hobby, now.
On their way to the warehouse where Jason was meeting that gang, Percy perched on the edges of the roofs whenever Jason dropped down to take on a criminal. The name ‘Crime Alley’ was very accurate, as Percy came to see. Within an hour, Jason had intercepted three different muggings, an attempted assault, two robberies, and one attempted kidnapping. Most were quick; Jason would drop in, knock the perpetrator out in a very one-sided fight (if the criminal didn’t immediately start shaking at the sight of the Red Hood, that is), make sure the victim was okay, then scale back up to where Percy waited on the roof. One encounter, however, went slightly differently. Percy probably should have expected it, considering that he knew Jason, but it still surprised him.
The victim of the attempted kidnapping was a ten-year-old. Percy watched as the kid hid behind a trashcan while Jason took care of the large men, eventually leaving them ziptied and unconscious outside the alleyway. As soon as the last man was dropped to the ground, the kid sped from their hiding spot and latched around Jason’s waist. Percy knew something was going on as soon as Jason wasn’t startled in the slightest by the kid going in for a tight hug. Jason wrapped a jacket-clad arm around the kid’s shoulders, kneeling down to make sure they weren’t hurt.
“Lex, you alright?” his voice was soft, even through the slightly robotic tones of his helmet. The kid quickly stopped shaking as Jason spoke, leaning into his arm.
“Bruise on my arm,” they mumbled. “I kicked ‘em in the dick.”
Jason laughed. “Good one, just like I taught you. Were you alone?”
The kid, Lex, nodded. “I was with Ginger, but I told her to run. Nora was checkin’ dumpsters a few streets down, so she went that way.”
“You did good, Lex,” Jason said, pride evident in his voice. “Ginger couldn’t kick them right anyway, she’s still pretty small. Once she gets older, maybe. You want to go find Nora now?”
Lex nodded again, firmer this time. “She’s prob’ly worried. Damn mother hen.”
Jason lightly cuffed the kid on the shoulder, but Lex didn’t even move an inch, betraying how little force Jason put into it. “Hey, I put her in charge, remember? You listen to her and Tyler, alright? They want to keep you safe.”
“ You keep us safe,” Lex corrected almost petulantly. Percy wanted to melt into the rooftop at the scene he was watching, especially as Jason ruffled Lex’s hair.
“I do my best, kid,” he said. “But I can’t live there with you, so you let them take care of you, ‘kay?”
Lex flushed slightly, nodding.
“I know, Hood. I will, I promise. You gonna come visit soon?”
“I’ll try and visit soon,” Jason promised. “You know you kids are always on my mind, right? Even when I’m not there.”
Lex wrinkled their nose, a grin on their face. “Nobody would be scared of you if they knew how sappy you are, Hood.”
Jason laughed. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m only sappy with you and the others, then, huh? Go on, now, Lex. Tell Nora and the rest I say hi, okay?”
“I will,” Lex said, giving Jason another tight hug before running off down the alleyway and vanishing down the other side of the street. Percy watched with a fond, amused smile on his face as Jason kept a sharp eye on Lex all the way until they were out of sight. Only then did his shoulders relax. Percy kept his mouth shut until Jason was back on the roof with him, but then he wasted no time in grinning at his boyfriend.
“So, do you have kids you forgot to tell me about, birdie?” he teased, and he heard Jason’s heart stutter slightly. Jason laughed, fondness audible even through the distortion.
“Someone’s gotta watch out for the street kids,” he answered, clearly trying to brush off what he did. “Who better than someone that used to be one of them?”
“Seems like you do more than just look out for them,” Percy countered, his voice softening as he stood up to look Jason in the eyes of the helmet. “That kid doesn’t just trust you, they care about you. And you care about them, too. It’s good that they know someone cares about them as much as you do.”
“I’d do more for them, but the foster care system here is as corrupt as the police,” Jason sighed. “I gotta vet people myself, and so many of the kids have been burned too many times to trust a family to take care of them. But they have each other, and I kitted out a warehouse to be as much of a home for them as I could. It’s more than I had.”
“I get it,” Percy said. “I mean, not exactly, but I’m doing all I can to make sure that the kids arriving at camp have a better time than I did. I’ve lectured the gods on being better parents, I train them so they can survive a monster fight, and as much as I hate it, I’d go on a thousand more quests if it means a ten-year-old doesn’t have to even go on one . I wish I could make sure their lives are completely safe, but I just can’t. You’re doing more for these kids than anyone else has, and I could tell in Lex’s eyes that they love you. You’re doing great, Red.”
It was so strange not being able to call Jason by his name, but Percy was well-versed in nicknames. Jason lightly knocked their shoulders together, and the way he ducked his head told Percy that he was blushing.
“I’m sure you are too, Ariel,” he said. “From what you’ve said, those kids look up to you a hell of a lot.”
“From what I’ve seen, yours do too,” Percy replied. “Can I meet them sometime?”
“I’ll see if they’re comfortable with it,” Jason said. “Would you need to wear a mask? Or will that Mist stuff work with that too?”
“It should work,” Percy said. “They’ll see me clearly in the moment, but afterwards they’ll struggle to remember what I looked like.”
“Then I’ll see what their thoughts are,” Jason answered. “So long as I get to meet your kids too.”
“I’m planning on taking you to camp at some point, don’t worry,” Percy promised. “You will get swarmed by pre-teens who want to spar with you. And also teenagers. And probably some people around our age, too.”
Jason laughed. “I think I can handle that. You ready to keep going?”
Percy grinned. “I could do this all night.”
Jason didn’t wait for him before jumping to the next roof, and Percy immediately followed, hot on his heels.
When it came time for Jason to meet with the gang, he led Percy down towards Gotham Harbor, where warehouses lined the water. Percy relaxed as the water grew closer, the proximity filling him with strength. He knew Jason had made him promise to stay out of the warehouse no matter what happened, but Percy was well versed at ignoring what people told him to do. It was nice to know that if things went south enough in Jason’s meeting that Percy wanted to intervene, he’d have the water so close by. But Jason had been doing this for a while, and was way better versed in the whole ‘vigilante business’ stuff than Percy, so he trusted that there would be no need for demigodly intervention.
So he just sat on the edge of a nearby roof, an open window giving him a view into the next warehouse over, as Jason snuck in through a different window to make an entrance. At least one thing was the same between vigilantes and demigods—the dramatics. Percy could appreciate a good dramatic entrance.
Even with his enhanced hearing, the rooftop he was on was just slightly too far away from the warehouse floor for him to hear what the gang was saying, but he could see just fine. Jason dropped from one of the rafters across the roof of the warehouse, landing with what had to be a heavy thud on the table set right in the middle of the floor, and Percy saw the gang members scatter . He counted twelve members spread out around the warehouse, although he knew there could be some hidden from his viewpoint through the window, and no less than three of them fell straight out of their seats when Jason dropped in. Percy settled in with a grin. It was fun to watch his bookworm of a boyfriend literally scare hardened gang members out of their seats. Sure, yeah, ‘dangerous vigilante’ and all that, but dangerous people were par for the course in Percy’s life. Hell, depending who you ask, he’s pretty dangerous himself. He still didn’t always see that, but Annabeth said that he was ‘oblivious’ and ‘you can make people scared shitless’, so he trusted her judgment over his own.
A large man who was clearly the gang leader stepped up to Jason, as his underlings ( goons , Percy thought with a small laugh) all put their hands on weapons and backed up from Jason. Percy had been given a brief rundown on Jason’s current issue with this gang, apparently the leader had been making moves to cut in on the harder drug trade and had connections that were manufacturing new products. He was giving the guy one chance to fess up, while spending the meeting figuring out which members of the gang were the most complicit, and which ones were likely just in it for the money or due to pressure from the boss. Percy hadn’t realized how much work, research, and diplomacy was involved in being a part-time crime lord, full-time vigilante.
All in all, Percy was having a blast. Sure, he wished Jason wasn’t wearing the helmet and Percy could see his face, but he enjoyed seeing the side of Jason that he showed to the underbelly of Gotham.
Then he felt eyes on him. Straightening up slowly from where he had been peering at the warehouse, he looked over his shoulder to catch a flash of blue on an adjacent roof.
He sighed, getting up and reluctantly turning away from watching Jason’s show. He stood in between the figure watching him and the harbor, just in case, but didn’t take out Riptide or the knife Jason had given him. Riptide would do nothing, and Percy would love to get out of this without a fight.
“Nightwing,” he greeted, the older vigilante crossing the gap between the warehouses when it became obvious that Percy knew he was there. “Are you here to arrest me?”
Nightwing’s eyebrows raised above his mask. “And here I thought we had no cause to arrest you.”
Percy grinned, unable to help himself. “I never said you did. Just thought you might try anyway.”
“As tempting as that sounds,” Nightwing replied dryly, “the answer is actually no.”
Percy blinked, surprised.
“Oh,” he said. “I mean, great? Thank you? I gotta ask, though, if you aren’t here for that, why are you here?”
“Maybe I just wanted to check up on Hood during his patrol,” Nightwing offered. “In which case, why are you here?”
Percy shrugged. “I’ve been asking to follow him on patrol for a while now, I just finally wore him down. He made me promise to stay on this roof while he does gang shit, though.”
“I thought he might be done with that by now, I was gonna ask how that went,” Nightwing admitted, leaning slightly over the edge of the roof to look in the other warehouse. “Only, as I was coming over here, I saw you . And I—wait, is that one of his jackets?”
Percy laughed as Nightwing cut himself off. “None of mine have kevlar in them, and I think he’s convinced I’m gonna somehow get myself shot standing on a roof.”
A beat, and Percy wrinkled his nose. “Although I do have a habit of annoying people into attacking me, so I guess that’s not that far out of the question. Super hope that doesn’t happen right now, though.”
“Well I didn’t approach with the intention of fighting you,” Nightwing said. “I actually just want to talk.”
Percy forced his stance into something a little more casual, allowing himself to hope that Jason’s brother was telling the truth. This was Dick, and Jason had told him a lot about his older brother.
“I thought all of you vigilantes hated me,” Percy said. “What changed?”
“Nothing, really,” Nightwing said, leaning against the roof access door. “Except we care about Hood. And clearly we were affecting him in some way by distrusting you. So I decided to give you a chance.”
Percy smiled at the man, wishing that he was actually talking to Jason’s brother and not Nightwing, but he’d take what he could get. “I care about him too,” he said. “And he cares about you guys, but he kept saying that me meeting you to try and smooth things over wouldn’t go well.”
“Why does he think that?” Nightwing asked. Percy huffed a laugh.
“Something about Robin cutting out my spine?”
Nightwing made a face. “Hm. Yeah. He might have a point about that. Robin is…a vigilante of his word.”
"I did want to, though," Percy said, trying to sound as sincere as he could. "I wanted to meet you guys properly, not in the allegedly terrible situation that I allegedly first saw you."
"You can stop saying allegedly," Nightwing said, the small quirk of his lips contrasting his dry voice. "We both know you're bullshitting."
Percy bit back his instinctive correction of 'horseshitting' and instead just grinned sheepishly at the hero.
"Well, can you blame me?" he said. "I mean, it technically is just alleged. I would prefer to not accidentally incriminate myself for things that I definitely didn't do."
"That doesn't sound like a sentence you came up with, no offense," Nightwing said, and Percy laughed. He wondered how much Jason had mentioned outside of trying to clear his name, but it sounded like it was enough to give his brothers a decent impression of Percy's personality.
"Oh absolutely not, and no offense taken," Percy said. "That was all my best friend."
"The girl who was definitely not allegedly there with you on the night of your alleged crime?"
"Allegedly, perhaps," Percy admitted, relaxing a bit more as Nightwing seemed to play along with the joke Percy had started. He knew that Nightwing was a bit more genial than the rest of the vigilantes, but also that he was quite protective of the younger ones. Which Percy couldn't blame him for in the slightest, as an older brother himself. He would love to use that as a bonding point, but Nightwing had no idea that Percy knew he was Jason's brother. Gods, this was complicated. He wished Annabeth could just figure this out for everyone and they could all sit down for a healthy conversation.
He held in a laugh. Vigilantes and demigods having a healthy and communicative conversation to fix their problems instead of fighting it out. Wouldn't that be a fucking miracle. He was pretty sure even Tyche didn't have enough good fortune to make that happen.
"So, you know why none of us trust you, then?" Nightwing got back to the point, and Percy sighed, sticking his hands in his pockets.
"Unfortunately, yeah," he answered. "And honestly, I have no idea how to earn your trust. I can't tell you what secret Hood is keeping for me, because it's not just mine. I can't undo the vow he made for me. But I didn't tell him to do that. In fact, I told him not to. But I'd bet you know as well as I do that he's as stubborn as a brick wall when he gets an idea."
"I do know that," Nightwing said. "Which is why it was so suspicious that you told him something that had him making that magical vow so quickly."
"I know," Percy said. "I know it looks bad. But...I don't know any of you. I only know Hood, and so I knew that he would take the secret I told him with the weight that it deserved and he would hear me out. I knew I could trust him with it. And while I know, logically, that you and the rest of your group are heroes, I don't know you. I can't tell you a secret that has lives on the line."
"Lives?" Nightwing repeated, his stance growing ever so slightly tighter. "Whose lives?"
"Not hostages, if that's where your mind went," Percy assured the older man. "Although given what I've seen in Gotham, I can't blame you for going there. It's the lives of people who work very hard to keep their secret. For reasons that I also can't tell you. But I can tell you that they aren't a danger to other people. They're the ones in danger, just keeping themselves safe."
"You keep saying 'they'," Nightwing said, and Percy could almost see his eyes narrowing behind the white lenses of his mask. "Are you not involved in this secret? You said earlier that it's not just yours, implying that it is your secret too."
Percy wrinkled his nose. "Ah, shit. I did say that, didn't I? Damn it, this is why I need Annabeth here, she can peer review my thoughts before I say them."
As Nightwing was silent, Percy said, "Not literally. That'd be so fucking cool, though. She just has some kind of sixth sense for when I'm about to say or do something stupid, and she stops me."
Percy's rambling didn't seem to distract Nightwing at all, and the older hero just stared at him. "You didn't answer my question."
"No, I didn't," Percy said. "But sure, yeah. It's my secret. And we keep it a secret to protect ourselves. Hood is just protecting me too. Not necessarily from you guys, but you just unfortunately fell into the category of 'telling anyone'."
"So what you're saying is that we just have to deal with the fact that there's apparently this massive secret that he's keeping from us on penalty of death?" Nightwing asked, and Percy held in a wince at yet another reminder of what they thought Jason promised. He was so glad he had talked Jason out of actually swearing on the Styx.
"I'm not asking you to forget about that," Percy said honestly. "It's really nice to see how much you care about him. It might be something that he can't share with you, but personally, I'd love to get to know you all and learn for myself if I can trust you like I trust him. All I'm asking is that you don't think I'd hurt him. That you don't think I am hurting him. You don't have to trust me, or like me. I'd understand. A lot of people have not liked me over the years. I just..."
He shook his head with a sigh. "I don't hurt people I care about. I couldn't . To do so would hurt me just as badly if not worse . Hood earned my friendship when we met, my affection when we got together, and my undying loyalty when he said that he wanted to make that vow to protect me and mine. So you can think that I don't deserve him, or that I'm a criminal, or whatever. But I did nothing to influence him, and I will never hurt him."
His voice got progressively harder as he got firmer with his words, and he hoped that Nightwing believed him. Quite frankly, even if he never met Jason's family properly for the rest of his life, he could deal with that if he knew that they didn't think he was hurting Jason. If they just didn't like him? Fine! Sure! He could handle that no problem. But when someone insinuated that he had used magic to coerce Jason into anything, or that he was hurting his boyfriend, he suddenly smelled sweaty gym shorts and stale beer, and he fucking hated it.
Nightwing was silent for a moment. He just watched Percy. Percy watched him back.
"...'me and mine'," Nightwing echoed eventually. "Interesting choice of words. Who do you think is yours ?"
Percy huffed.
"Alright, bad choice of words," he said. "I'm protective, sue me."
"Sounds more possessive to me," came the reply that made Percy's hackles raise.
"Is it really possessive when the people I'm putting in that category are my mother, step-father, baby sister, best friends, and boyfriend?" he shot back, trying and slightly failing not to snap at Nightwing. "When I've been kidnapped twice and nearly died at twelve? When my first kidnapper took my mother , too? I call that common sense , Nightwing. I keep the people I care about close to me, because when they aren't, shit happens to them. I'm no Annabeth, but I can recognize that pattern."
Okay, he definitely failed at not snapping at Nightwing. He tried, he really did. But then he started talking, and then he remembered how it felt to watch his mother dissolve into golden mist with the Minotaur's massive hand around her throat. He remembered how it felt to sit in the back of that animal trafficker's truck with Annabeth and Grover, silence settling heavy between them, wondering if they would survive past the summer solstice. He remembered waking up in the woods with Lupa standing over him, nothing in his brain but Annabeth's name. He remembered letting Annabeth go alone on her mother's quest, and ending up holding her hand as they plummeted down into the depths of darkness.
"I see that pattern too," Nightwing said, his eyes narrowing again at the sudden heat in Percy's voice. "See, I left Hood alone once. I came back to a headstone."
Percy's heart stuttered at the reminder of the stone angel that marked Jason's grave. He couldn't help but put himself in Nightwing's shoes. The image of a tiny stone slab with the engraving of 'Estelle Penelope Jackson-Blofis' made his heart crack in two.
"I left him alone again after there was a break-in at Arkham, and you happened," Nightwing continued. "So if your pattern holds true, then nothing good could have happened."
"What will it take?" Percy asked, unable to take the emotion out of his voice. The image of coming home to an empty crib wouldn't leave his head. "What will it take for you to believe that I will never hurt him?"
"I don't know," Nightwing said. "Because before, your past seemed like a series of bad luck and awful coincidences. But you're involved in something, and that makes them look like red flags now. You say you won't hurt him, but will whatever you're protecting yourself from hurt him? Would we be wrong to look back at you if that happens? He can protect himself, but does everyone on your list have that ability?"
"Are you trying to say that I can't protect my family from this secret?" Percy said, the ocean in him roaring at the indignity. At the audacity to suggest that he wouldn't put his life on the line for them. "Are you trying to say that it would be my fault if something hurt Hood, despite the fact that I would plant myself between him and the danger in a heartbeat, and he's fully informed about what those dangers might be? He's told me about you, Nightwing. And you never seemed like the type to accuse someone of failing to protect when I'm doing everything in my power to keep people safe."
"If he's told you about me, then he's likely mentioned that I'm protective as well," Nightwing said, and Percy groaned internally at the tighter stance he took in response to Percy's rising emotion. He knew he had volatile emotions, thank Poseidon for that! That's on him, not Sally.
"He has," Percy said. "So I hoped you might understand. I hoped you might see from my perspective. You have your secret, right? Nightwing is your secret? And if your secret gets out, doesn't that put others in danger too? That's the same thing that I'm working with here."
"How many people?" Nightwing asked. "Just your family? Annabeth? The kid from Arkham?"
"Allegedly, all of them," Percy said. But the return of the joke did nothing to lessen the tension. "And more. Some of which have nothing to do with the secret we're keeping except being close to those of us involved."
"Like who?"
"My sister," Percy said. "To name one."
"How old is she?"
"Barely a year," Percy answered, his fingers itching to hold Riptide. He didn't want to fight, but he didn't like Nightwing's stance, and he wished Jason were here to interpret his brother's body language. He wished Annabeth were here to talk circles around Nightwing until he left.
But there was just Percy, an empty rooftop, and the harbor singing behind him.
"Barely a year old, and she's in danger because of this secret?" Nightwing asked, his voice far too flat for Percy's comfort. If they were both yelling, he'd prefer that. He knew how to handle high emotions. "Why?"
"Because she's my sister," Percy retorted, holding back the wolf-stare by fraying threads. "I love her. I loved her when it was just my mom talking about how excited she was to be pregnant. What was I supposed to do, let her grow up never having met me? Abandon my mother with nothing but stories of me for Estelle? The world will have to tear me to pieces to get at her, and I don't appreciate you insinuating that I'm being selfish by wanting to be in my baby sister's life."
He could feel his body wanting to fight. He knew that Nightwing wasn't a threat to his family, he knew that . Jason would never let it happen even if he didn't know that Dick wouldn't hurt innocent people, and especially not infants. But there was a mask between them, and Nightwing's body language was closed and harsh, nothing Percy was saying was getting through to him, and he couldn't help but hear danger in every sentence. His body wasn't made for talking, it was made for fighting. He let out a heavy sigh.
Before he could say anything, heavy boots landed on the side of the rooftop.
"Wanna tell me why you're making my boyfriend look like a spooked horse?" came Jason's modified voice, and the tension flooded from Percy's body as a snort left him in place of words. Nightwing raised his eyebrows.
"Spooked horse? I'd call him more a snarling wolf."
Percy wished he could laugh at that. Nightwing truly had no idea how close he really was.
"Didn't answer my question, dickwing," Jason said. "I heard you talking about his sister. You know you're being super hypocritical, right?"
As Nightwing turned more to face Jason, Percy realized he needed to get off the roof. The two brothers could finish the discussion if they wanted, but this had not gone how Percy had wanted it to, and he needed to leave .
"Thanks for the chat, Nightwing," he said, drawing the vigilante's eyes back towards him. "Glad you didn't fight me, hope you don't hate me. I gotta take a swim. See you when you're done, Red."
Without waiting for either of them to respond, Percy turned around and swan-dove off the warehouse, the water of Gotham Harbor welcoming him into safety.
"Wait!" Dick called as Percy dove over the side of the warehouse, but Jason stepped in front of him before he could move. He got the concern, though. He knew that Percy was almost more at home underwater than on land, but it still made his breath catch to watch his boyfriend jump off a building into the harbor.
"He's fine," Jason said. "Better now than when you were talking, that's for sure."
"He just jumped into the harbor , Hood!" Nightwing said, his volume rising back to his normal cadence, unlike the flat, cold tone he had while talking to Percy. "I don't care how good a swimmer he is, that drop is gonna hurt."
"Are you worried about him now?" Jason asked. "Didn't see that coming. Did you come here to find him?"
"No, I came to find you," Dick said. "Just saw him watching you and took the opportunity. I know you said you didn't want me to, but that was without the mask on. I wanted to feel him out."
Jason sighed. "And? What did you feel?"
Dick was silent for a minute. He stared over Jason's shoulder where Percy had disappeared, frowning.
"Nothing," he said. Jason frowned too.
"Nothing? What do you mean?"
"I mean, I still don't like him. We were talking for a good amount of time, alone, my comms were off, and I still don't like him."
Jason just blinked. "Uh, okay? Glad to know that. What's your point?"
Dick sighed. "My point is that if he messed with your head, he had ample opportunity to do the same thing to me. But I still don't trust him. Which means he didn't ."
Jason let his shoulders drop slightly as he walked closer to his brother.
"Ah, that makes sense now," he said. "Makes me wish you didn't go all Scary Nightwing on him, since now he definitely has no idea that was what was happening in your head, but glad you realized that. Why did you keep pushing him? Word to the wise about Percy, don't imply he can't protect people. Bit of a sore spot."
"Yeah, I could see that," Dick replied dryly. "Kid's got a hell of a glare on him. Do his eyes glow? I swear they glowed when he started talking about his sister."
"Couldn't tell you," Jason brushed the question off. "You know you'd act the same way if someone asked you how you planned on keeping any of us safe if our identities got out?"
"Yeah, I know," Dick said. "I know I was being hypocritical, I was doing it on purpose. He said he was a big brother. Just wanted to test that."
" Wow ," Jason said. "You have no idea what kind of line you were walking. I kinda wish I hadn't intervened, now. It would've been fun to watch him kick your ass."
Dick punched Jason in the shoulder. "You have that little faith in me? I'm wounded. I'm no Cass, I know, but he's a swordfighter with no sword. I could take him."
Jason held in his laughter. If they were deeper into the center of Gotham, maybe the fight would be a bit more even. But they were literally standing next to the largest body of water in Gotham. No one in their family stood a chance, and Jason knew it.
"Keep telling yourself that," was all he said. "So, you still don't like him and that's weirdly enough a good thing. Do you still think I have a bad judge of character?"
Dick gave him a flat look. "Little Wing, your best friend is Roy Harper ."
Jason snorted a laugh. "You realize you're insulting yourself with that too, right?"
Dick sighed. "I am aware of my own failings."
"I'm gonna tell him you said that."
"I'll tell him what you told me that Lian told you," Dick retorted, and Jason made a face behind his helmet.
"Touche, dickhead."
They were quiet for a moment before Dick seemed to break.
"Are you seriously not worried about him?" he said throwing an arm towards the water. "We can see the dock from here. I haven't seen him since he jumped."
Jason tried not to sigh. Percy seriously couldn't remember to act slightly normal and not swim all the way out of sight? And he said Jason forgot to turn off his 'vigilante-mode'?
"Maybe I just don't want to go find him while you're still here so that we don't end up restarting the shitshow that was your conversation?" he offered. "Admittedly it went better than I expected, but I could practically feel the fight brewing."
Dick might not have noticed, but the water behind Percy had started to grow choppy. It was what first alerted Jason to the situation on the roof and led to him wrapping up his meeting a little quicker.
"So if he drowned?" Dick asked, trying to step around Jason.
"Then that's a win for you all, I guess," he said, admittedly only not freaking out because Percy had drilled it into his head that he breathed in water as easily as he did air and he physically couldn't drown. Jason really wished he had been aware of that fact during the whole fiasco with the Riddler. No wonder Percy had absolutely zero fear. Dick made a face.
"Well that makes us sound like assholes," he said. "I don't want your boyfriend dead , Hood."
Jason shook his head. "I know, 'Wing. Now are you planning on filling the rest of our family in on the fact that you weren't brainwashed?"
"I'll tell them what happened," Dick said. "It's up to them whether they think that means anything, though."
"Are you gonna tell them that you two basically threatened each other?"
"Well, that didn't happen in that many words," Dick said, trying to downplay how badly he had purposefully riled Percy up. Jason wasn't fooled.
"That's a no, then," Jason inferred. "Cool. Be aware that if you try and spin this into Percy picking a fight, I will make everyone aware of the fact that you were inches from losing that fight."
"Still don't see why you're so confident about that," Dick replied. "But that's fair. I am sorry for basically ambushing him, I wasn't expecting to see him here."
"I'm not annoyed about that ," Jason clarified, "it's the fact that you put on your criminal face for him. But thanks, I'll tell him you don't actually think he's a shitty older brother and you were just pushing his buttons."
Dick shook his head. "Alright, you're not letting this go for a while, I guess I deserve that. I'll see you back at the cave?"
"I'll see you tomorrow," Jason corrected. "I'll stop by the cave in the morning to make my patrol report. I'm gonna go find Percy now."
Dick nodded, and jostled their shoulders together. They couldn't say much in the masks, even when they were positive no one could overhear them on the warehouse roof, but a lot was said in the gestures of the bats. Jason knew that Dick really did feel bad for the things he said, knowing how he would feel if they were turned on him, and Jason's returning hit to the arm told Dick that they were fine. Sure, Jason would milk this for a week or so, but he wasn't mad. He knew Percy wasn't mad either. He likely wasn't as close to a fight as Jason had made it sound, but Jason couldn't say that he wasn't slightly worried by how fast Percy had jumped off the roof after Jason arrived. Dick left first, running off back in the direction of his normal patrol area and the manor, and Jason watched him go. Not entirely to make sure that he didn't stick around to watch when Jason found Percy. He also just needed a second to breathe. He wondered if Dick was surprised at how calm he was. Had Dick expected the fight to break out after Jason arrived? He still hadn't told his family that the Pit was gone. He felt slightly bad about keeping them in the dark, but there would be too many followup questions. If anyone asked, he'd just say that he hasn't felt it in a while, and he was trying a new meditation that seemed to be working. Something like that. They had noticed that something was different, but didn't seem able to pinpoint what it was, just occasionally giving him odd looks when they thought he wasn't looking. He knew they'd be thrilled if he told them. Bruce might even cry. Dick would definitely cry. Steph and Tim would probably immediately start conspiring about ways to piss him off now that the Pit wasn't in the picture, and Alfred would insist on making a special dinner.
But he'd love it if Percy were there. Annabeth, too. It was thanks to them that it happened, after all. He didn't even consider inviting Nico, assuming the idea of a large gathering of a family he wasn't a part of sounded like torture to the kid.
Jason sighed and turned towards the water. He didn't see any signs of Percy surfacing yet, but he might just be waiting for Jason to give the all-clear. Jason scaled down the side of the warehouse, careful of the slight slash to his leg that one of the gang members managed to get in, and made his way to the edge of the water.
He didn't even have time to look into the harbor before a hand was darting out and grabbing the edge of the dock, Percy hauling himself out of the water. It was clear immediately that something was wrong. Percy's skin was pale, he was breathing heavily, his shoulders were trembling slightly—and he was soaking wet. Percy had told him that he only got wet when he wanted to. Like in the fish tank with the Riddler. Percy fell into Jason, and a sharp cough left him as he tried to push himself to his feet.
"Percy?" Jason said, quickly ripping a glove off to grab Percy's hand. It was freezing. "Shit, Perce, are you okay?"
"This water—" Percy cut himself off again with a cough. "What kind of fucking pollution..."
Oh. Oh, Jason probably should have warned him. Gotham did not take care of its harbor. The lake was only as clean as it was because Wayne Industries had started an anti-pollution sector at the request of Pam, but it hadn't managed to make a dent in the harbor water yet.
"Fuck," Jason cursed, helping to steady Percy. "Yeah, this water is probably only 10 percent actual water. Are you better now that you're out of it?"
He seemed to be slowly getting his weight back on his feet, instead of leaning against Jason. Percy nodded shakily.
"Much," he said. "What in my father's name happened in there?"
Jason winced. "Uh...years and years and years of people not giving a shit and dumping everything from trash to drugs and probably more than a few bodies in the water? The lake used to be pretty bad, too."
He tried not to fuss too much, despite the awful pallor of Percy's face, since he seemed to be regaining strength, but he still very much wanted to fuss. Percy gave a heavy sigh, pressing his forehead against Jason's jacket.
"I hate mortals sometimes."
"Me too, seashell, me too," Jason agreed. "Let's get you back to the apartment, yeah?"
"I'm going to burn my skin off in the shower," Percy groaned. "That was disgusting . I can taste it!"
"I'll make you tea," Jason promised. "Can you walk?"
Percy groaned again. "Yeah. Felt like I was swimming through concrete, so my legs aren't very happy, but I can walk."
"Cool," Jason said. "Because you aren't."
Before Percy could protest, Jason reached down and put an arm behind Percy's knees, sweeping him up into a princess carry. Percy laughed in surprise, only interrupted by a small cough, and half-heartedly hit Jason's chest.
"Hey!" he said, but the laughter ruined the effect of the word.
"His Highness the Fish Lord is not walking back to the apartment," Jason said in a fake accent, imitating Alfred as best he could. Which, given the nature of all their undercover training, was basically perfect. Percy kept laughing, turning his face against Jason's shoulder.
"You're a fucking crime lord ," he said through giggles. "How are people fucking terrified of you?"
"Percy, have you seen yourself?" Jason retorted as he started walking away from the harbor. "I could say the exact same thing about you."
He felt Percy shake his head against his jacket, but the start of the walk back was in silence. After a moment, Jason instructed Percy on how to remove his helmet, having him hold it so that it just looked like a guy was carrying his boyfriend down the street, not the Red Hood carrying a random civilian. That would lead to...just a few more questions than Jason wanted to answer at the moment. Luckily, they hadn't gone far from the Narrows during his patrol, and so they weren't horribly far from their building.
"How'd the gang thing go?" Percy asked as they got closer, the cough having subsided after a few minutes outside the water. "Your brother distracted me halfway through."
"He's very distracting," Jason agreed. "It went fine. Pretty much exactly what I was expecting. The leader was a shithead who didn't like my terms anymore, and a decent few of his men had absolutely no desire to go along with him and were in it out of fear or a need for money. I'll find them a new place to go sometime this week. Jerry should be able to dig something up."
"Ah, Jerry," Percy said teasingly. "Your favorite goon."
Jason scoffed. "I don't have favorites . He just earned Goon of the Month for the past four months, so he gets more responsibilities."
"Sure," Percy replied slowly, making it very clear that he didn't believe Jason. "And I don't have a favorite sibling on my dad's side. Tyson is just the only one that never tried to kill me."
"Are you counting horses now? Sometimes you do and sometimes you don't."
"Absolutely not. If every single horse I met tried to kill me, my internet fame would somehow be even worse," Percy said, shuddering. "Gods, can you imagine? I blow up monuments, fight little old ladies, set off an old cannon, explode a volcano, go missing a few times, and keep getting attacked by horses?"
"Sorry, what was that middle one?" Jason asked, frowning down at Percy, who suddenly got a very fake-innocent look on his face.
"Huh? I know we've talked about the cannon before," he said, clearly deflecting. "They talked about it in my Buzzfeed episode."
"Ariel," Jason said flatly. Percy broke, grinning sheepishly.
"It wasn't my fault?" he offered. "It's really not a big deal, there's a reason that wasn't a real accusation I got, no one even noticed! Ask Annabeth if you don't believe me, she knows all the stupid shit I've done."
He was lying about something, but Jason couldn't pin down what it was. He couldn't really care to think about it too much, not when Percy's skin was still clammy and pale. He really should have mentioned the pollution in the harbor. He hadn't really considered that filthy water would be so bad for Percy to be in. It probably should have been obvious, but it just never occurred to him.
They reached the building, and Percy insisted on walking up the steps himself so that Jason didn't have to awkwardly shoulder every door open. Jason still kept an arm around him, though, because despite Percy walking a lot steadier, he was still a little worried.
He opened the door to Percy's apartment—which was finally locked for once, Jason might have actually gotten through to him—after taking the keys from Percy's still shaking hand, and led him inside. Finally in a safe space, both of them relaxed. Percy set Jason's helmet down on the counter, and Jason hung his jacket on a chair by the door, both of them taking off their weapons. Percy seemed to deflate, shaking out his hands like that would fling the pollution off of him.
" Ugh ," he complained. "Never tell Annabeth I made this comparison, but I feel like spiders are all over me."
"Your shirt is still wet," Jason pointed out. "That probably isn't helping. Go take a shower, I'll make some tea."
As soon as Jason mentioned the shirt, Percy was bee-lining towards his bedroom, tearing the offending shirt off like it was actively burning him. Which, thankfully, it didn't seem like the pollution was doing to Percy.
It was only after his shirt was entirely off that Percy went still, looking over his shoulder to where Jason was watching him. He didn't seem self-conscious, but there was definitely an element of some emotion that had led to him not wanting Jason to see his torso. Jason couldn't say he had expected the sight. Percy's face had a few barely noticeable scars, his arms had more, but even those were small and scattered. They were clearly training scars, especially to someone like Jason who knew the difference well.
Percy's back...was not training scars. Two in particular stood out to Jason. One was a burn, right on his side underneath his left arm, reaching a good six inches down his skin. The second was directly in the center of his back, a thin line that Jason unfortunately recognized. It was a stab wound. A bad one. In that location, it would have severed Percy's spine, and that was if Percy survived. And Jason had once been given the answer to a question by Percy guiding his hand gently to that exact spot on his back. It couldn't be a coincidence that this stabbing scar was directly on the small of Percy's back, the exact spot that he said a single scratch would kill him.
Percy turned around with a slightly sheepish smile, revealing a few more—thankfully smaller—burn scars across his chest and hips. There were blade scars too, but none as bad as the one that Jason knew was a fatal wound. He did, however, see the exit wound for that same stab.
"So...there's a reason scars are normal to demigods," he said. "We, uh, tend to collect a few. You should meet Clarisse."
Jason didn't want to ask how Percy got scars when he said that water healed him, demigod kids of Apollo had magical healing, and there was that magic food he carried with him. He figured he wouldn't like the answer. Instead of asking, he just gave Percy a smile.
"What was it you said to me?" he started. "'Scars don't scare me'? I figure I don't have to return the favor, right? It's obvious from looking at me that I think they're normal?"
Percy rolled his eyes, that minute bit of tension leaving him. "No, actually, I was worried you'd be disgusted even after I gave that whole sweet speech on our very first date. It just surprised me to realize that even after all this time I never actually mentioned my own scars. You can ask about them if you want, I can see you're curious."
Jason wasn't, not really. The main question he had was just... why . Why were these the wounds that ended up permanent? He didn't care about how they got there. After all, only one scar stuck with him through his dip in the pit, and he was pretty sure it was some mental reason that kept it with him. He couldn't help but wonder if it was the same for Percy.
"Nah," he answered instead of asking anything. "But, uh, if we're talking about scars we never mentioned..."
Jason figured it had to come up at some point. And anyway, his shirt was damp too from carrying Percy all the way from the harbor.
He saw Percy's eyes lock onto the distinctive shape as soon as Jason lifted off his shirt. He saw the way his boyfriend froze again, but it wasn't horror on his face. It was pure sympathy.
"Holy Hestia," he breathed. "Again, I hadn't even...I mean, demigods don't do autopsies. Does it still hurt?"
Jason shook his head. "No. It's never hurt that I can remember. It's the only scar that stayed after the Lazarus Pits."
"Well, it certainly adds to your zombie jokes," Percy added, making Jason laugh in surprise. Not even his family brushed off the autopsy scar that quickly.
"I know, right?" he agreed. "Now come on, too many emotions for when you're still covered in Gotham Harbor's disgusting shit. Go shower, you're still shaking."
If Percy hadn't been so pale, then Jason wouldn't necessarily have minded his boyfriend remaining shirtless as they had tea and probably watched something together to relax. But the first order of business was getting the polluted water off his skin. He never wanted to see Percy that pale and shaky ever again. Percy matched Jason's small smile, walked over to give him a short but sweet kiss, and then vanished into his bedroom. It wasn't even two minutes later that Jason heard the shower start up, and he slowly took his time going into the kitchen and finding the tea he had stashed in Percy's apartment. He could tell the shower would take a while. He had time.
He hoped that when he went to the manor in the morning, Dick's encounter with Percy would have lessened the seemingly ever-present tension that appeared around Jason. He had no illusions that everything would be perfect, but a step in the right direction would be nice. In the morning, he also wanted to actually ask the only question he had about Percy's scars, and he'd answer any Percy had about his.
But for now, Jason just put the water on. Right now, Dick and the rest of Jason's family didn't matter. None of the scars scattered across either of their bodies mattered. They were both fighters, both protectors, of course they were scarred. None of that was important.
Right now, all that was important was the teabags in the mugs on the counter, the blankets Jason tossed onto the couch, and the sound of Percy singing in the shower.
The rest could wait.
Notes:
and now i disappear back into my hole until the next chapter is done lmao. I hope you enjoyed! These bitches just keep getting sappier! I hope Dick was in character, too, he gave me some issues this chapter, the bastard.
Jasons street kids mean the absolute world to me.
Jason Todd's Autopsy Scar My Beloved. Scar Reveal Scar Reveal Scar Reveal!!!!Also about Estelle's middle name: idk, i just figured that Sally's reasoning for naming Percy Perseus was bc he was a rare hero to get a happy ending, and I figured despite the fact that Estelle is fully mortal, she'd stick with that for good luck. Mortal or not, Estelle is gonna be very close to the demigod world. So since Penelope is pretty fucking awesome, and gets a happier ending than most women in myth, I chose her!
Fun fact: my original outline for this chapter had Dick and Percy getting way closer to an actual fight, and I had planned to have Percy somehow think that Dick was threatening Estelle? Still don't know how I was gonna do that, lol. But anyway, then the conversation last chapter with Dick and Jason happened, and I realized i had to scrap that because Dick was actually trying now. So somewhere out there, theres a version of this chapter where Dick got faced with full Scary Percy...
perhaps someday Scary Percy will enter this story :)I hope you enjoyed!!! See you next time!!
Chapter 18
Notes:
Me????? updating again within a month????? unheard of.
here is a gift of a fun light-hearted chapter :)
happy september yall! how is the summer already over. im super happy its the fall months now, but where did summer go. that seems illegal.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
To be honest, Percy was getting a bit excited. Hopeful, even. He hadn't been feeling particularly optimistic about his status among Jason's family, but Jason had come back from the manor with a small smile tugging at his lips, and he had told Percy that Dick had asked if he was okay after jumping into the harbor. Dick had asked if he was okay ! Percy thought he was allowed a bit of optimism about that, wasn't he? He knew there was still a ways to go in regards to the rest of the family, but according to Jason, Dick's approval would mean a lot in winning over everyone else. Now, Dick was also very clear about the fact that he still didn't trust Percy—perhaps there wasn't any manipulation, but Percy was still hiding something and he didn't like that. Which was far more understandable a reason to dislike him in Percy's book. At least that was something he actually did! He really wished people would stop judging him for things he never even did.
On top of that, too, they actually had a plan regarding Tim. Annabeth had been a whirlwind when she burst into Percy's apartment holding a small scrawled scrap of Greek, but her excitement and anxiety were both palpable in the air. Percy was positive that if she had been either Jason or Thalia, the smell of ozone would have been thick around them. She had shoved the paper at Percy, and said four words that had his boyfriend going still.
"Tim could read it," was all she said, and all she had to say.
(Percy took a little longer to realize what was important about that, but hey! He could read the Greek with no issue, and it took him just a little too long to realize that meant the note wasn't written in English. Annabeth starting to laugh at him certainly helped speed up his realization.)
With those four words, their planning had started. They had discussed the fact that Tim could have just taught himself a dead language for fun, but Percy figured that if that was the case, he would have asked Annabeth why her scrawl wasn't in English, rather than playing along like it was a normal thing to do.
"I can bring it up tomorrow," Jason said as they finished hashing out the details of their admittedly not airtight plan. "Family dinner seems like a good time to try and make it not suspicious that I'm picking him to come with, right?"
"Just make sure no one else tries to volunteer," Annabeth added, nodding. "We can't make this same plan too many times if people other than Tim finagle their way into the car with us. We'd have to come up with some other way to definitively test."
"If only we were sure that Grover could help," Percy sighed. "But you have a point about Gotham being fucking weird."
"If this doesn't work and we still need to test him, we'll invite Grover for a visit," Annabeth said, tapping her pen on the notepad that she would be burning after they finished their planning. "He'll be plan B. And we might see him when we head up, but if Gotham clings to Tim, then that can't be relied on either."
She huffed, leaning onto her knees.
"We really need to keep investigating Chaos, too," she said, her voice growing tired. "I know that Chiron would agree that a potential new demigod takes precedence, getting him to a safe place where we can arm him properly and teach him, but that just lets Chaos keep running free here. What if their seed in Gotham is too firmly planted and we're too late already?"
"I feel like something would have changed here if that was the case, right?" Jason countered. "Like, something would get noticeably worse?"
"Maybe, maybe not," Annabeth sighed, rubbing her temples. "This is Chaos, they don't exactly play by any rules."
"Annabeth, please hit me for thinking this," Percy started, wrinkling his nose, "but I just had the thought that I'd prefer if Rachel had a prophecy about this because then it would give us some direction."
Annabeth dutifully leaned over to punch him hard on the arm, and he nodded in thanks as he winced and rubbed the sore spot.
"Thanks," he said. "Anyway, I am fully in support of you being selfish and figuring out your potential half-brother before we move forward with Chaos. And not just because then we could have more help figuring this out. With two children of Athena? This'll be solved in minutes."
"And Tim knows Gotham as well as I do. We can help with that side of things," Jason added. "I think it makes sense that we're focusing on this first."
"And you're positive that your part of this plan will go fine?" Annabeth asked for the fifth time, setting down her pen.
Percy laughed, making Jason sigh and pinch his nose.
"Oh, Annabeth, Jason can definitely do his spy part of the plan just fine," he teased, leaning back into his chair. Annabeth's chairs were so much comfier than his own, given the part of town she was shopping in, and he took every opportunity he got to sink into the cushions. He knew that Jason could turn his teasing right back onto Percy, but did Percy care? No, he rarely got the chance to make fun of Jason for this, so he took it when he could. Annabeth raised her eyebrows.
"Is this a story you somehow haven't told me yet?" she said. "This sounds like a story."
"Nope, no story," Jason said. "Absolutely no story."
"Aw, c'mon, Jay," Percy cajoled, "We worked it all out, it's fair game now!"
Jason huffed. "I guess I do make fun of you for doing a crime."
"Exactly," Percy said, pointing at him. "That means I can make fun of you for spying on me."
Annabeth laughed. "Spying on you? When did that happen?"
"A long time ago," Jason clarified, still leaning into his hand and not looking up. "It was not my finest moment."
"It makes sense from your perspective, I get it," Percy waved him off. "This was way back when we had, like, barely been dating. Maybe a month in? I'm not sure, time is stupid."
"It was about a month," Jason confirmed. "I walked past his apartment, heard him talking to you in a language I didn't know, and didn't realize I was recording it until I'd already caught a good few minutes."
"Vigilante instincts hard to shake?" Annabeth asked with a wry grin. "What conversation did you catch?"
"Well, at the time I had no idea what you were talking about, even after using Tim's translator, but now it's obvious that you were talking about Nico," Jason answered. "I did get the impression it wasn't something I was supposed to hear, though, so I deleted everything pretty quickly."
"He told me this a while ago, worried I'd be pissed that he spied on me," Percy added. "But, like, we did commit a crime right in front of him and his family. So we're even now."
"It wasn't like anything truly came of it anyway," Annabeth agreed. "Now, you said Tim had a translator?"
"Yeah, he's got dozens of languages in there," Jason explained. "He said the Ancient Greek was a pet project, but he never finished it. There was enough for me to get the gist of your conversation, but he hadn't worked on it in over a year."
"I wonder why," Annabeth mused, leaning back against the couch. "Was it too hard, being naturally fluent, or too easy? Did he think anything was strange?"
"We can ask next weekend," Percy said, nodding down at their plan. "My bet is on it being too easy. If he's an Athena kid, then he picked Greek for a challenge and was disappointed when it was simpler than he thought."
Annabeth laughed. "Yeah, that sounds about right."
"I know you well enough to predict that, Wise Girl," Percy said, grinning. "Which is why I'm pretty confident our plan will work."
After all, who better to trick an Athena kid than another Athena kid? Percy was pretty sure that Annabeth was the only person who could reliably make a plan to get Tim exactly where they needed him, especially with Jason helping as a member of Tim’s family. Percy certainly couldn't, not unless it involved trapping Tim on a boat. Which he would entertain as a thought, if he didn't know that Annabeth would stab him for suggesting stranding Tim in a body of water. He wasn't even sure how that would help, honestly, just that it was a plan he could easily help with. As it was, his part of the plan was mostly playing backup to Annabeth, and one of the biggest jobs fell to Jason. But Jason knew Tim better than either Percy or Annabeth, and he was really the only one who could complete those parts of the plan.
After a few more minutes, Jason had to leave, taking some time at the car shop since they had a difficult fix that they had wanted his help on, and then it was just Percy and Annabeth. As much as Percy enjoyed having Jason around, there was something different in the silence that settled between the two demigods. Neither of them needed to speak. Percy usually didn't do well with silence, unless it was with Annabeth. But her apartment was quiet, and all Percy could hear was her steady breathing.
Without prompting, both of them moved from their chairs to the couch, and their shoulders pressed against each other. He listened for her heartbeat, knowing she was doing the same to him.
"Percy, will this work?" Annabeth asked, expressing a nervousness that she could only voice when no one but him was around. "If we're right, then it's mostly foolproof. But if we're wrong..."
"Annabeth, I saw your face when you came running into my apartment with that note," Percy said quietly, leaning his head on top of hers. "You weren't acting rashly. You were excited . Thrilled, even. I trust your gut more than my own most days, and yours was saying that Tim should not have been able to read that. I agree."
"But if we're wrong, it could make everything worse," she pressed. "Maybe we should start with Grover. Maybe this should be plan B, it's more drastic."
"Grover will most likely see us before the main plan starts," Percy said. "If he smells something, he'll find a way to let us know. If he doesn't..."
"If he doesn't, then that still doesn't mean Tim isn't my brother," Annabeth sighed. "It could be Gotham. So we'd need the drastic plan anyway."
"If this plan goes really badly, we can hurry and grab Lou Ellen or someone," Percy said. "The Hekate cabin would help fix it."
Annabeth made a face. "I hate the idea of doing that. But if we have to, it would work."
"Have you told any of your siblings about this?" Percy asked. Annabeth was quiet for a moment, reaching over to take Percy's hand to ground them both more in the moment.
"Not yet," she answered. "I hated the idea of telling them and being wrong. Getting their hopes up."
"They'll love him, from what you've told me."
Annabeth laughed, brushing her hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. "They will. He'll fit right in."
Then she sighed heavily again, squeezing Percy's hand.
"I don't know what to do if we're wrong. At first, I kept things normal, because it was just a hunch. But now we're planning, we're trying to get him claimed and take him to camp, and..." she reached up with her free hand to fidget with her camp necklace, rubbing her thumb over the bead with Thalia’s pine tree. "I don't know how to go back to normal if it turns out he's fully mortal."
Percy was never sure whether to be sad that he had so few half-siblings, or glad that he didn't have as many as the Hermes cabin or the Athena cabin. Right now, though, he wished that he at least could understand the dilemma Annabeth was facing. Every half-sibling he's met has been so clearly not mortal—seeing Tyson's large singular eye as the Mist cleared from his face, the other monsters scattered in the sea, Triton in their father's palace with his twin fishtails. He never had that uncertainty that he knew Annabeth wasn't used to feeling.
She hadn’t said it in as many words, but she didn’t have to. She had already started calling Tim her brother.
“Annie, things will work out,” Percy assured her. “If he’s mortal, then we’ll just have to do it the hard way of winning over Jason’s family and letting him feel comfortable in actually being friends with us. From there, you two will get along great, demigod or not.”
Annabeth laughed softly, the thumb on her hand holding Percy’s ending up over the small scorpion scar on his palm.
“Thanks, Percy,” she said. “The last thing I expected when we came to Gotham was both of us finding new family. But here we are.”
“Eh, you know our family,” Percy said wryly. “Always growing bigger.”
“You can say that again,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes as a smile tugged at her mouth.
Percy wished he could help more. He would give Annabeth anything she asked of him, without question, but he was doing all he could for this plan and it didn’t feel like enough. He knew how much this meant to her, even if she tried to say she was invested in this just to keep Tim safe, and he wanted to be able to tell her it would go perfect. It was an Annabeth Plan, after all, and those were ones that he would regularly put his life into without hesitation.
But before he could figure out how to reassure her, a rainbow shimmered into view in front of them, drawing both of their eyes away from their laps.
Percy saw the moment Annabeth’s face softened, and he felt his own heart settle at the sight.
“Rachel,” she greeted, shifting to sit up slightly while keeping their shoulders together. “It’s good to see you. Is everything okay?”
Rachel was grinning in the mist, her hair curtaining her face in curls, a smear of pink paint on her forearm when she raised her hand to wave at the two of them.
“Hey, you two,” she said. “I feel like I should be asking you if everything’s alright. Percy has his thinking face on, and that means trouble.”
“Hey!” Percy defended, laughing despite himself. “I think often, thank you very much!”
“I think I heard some brain cells shorting out, which isn’t a good sign for all that water in his head,” Annabeth teased, playing along with Rachel without a moment’s hesitation.
“Just because all the women in my life are geniuses doesn’t mean I can’t think ,” Percy retorted, sticking his tongue out at Annabeth and Rachel.
“You’re very smart, Percy,” Annabeth assured him, patting his leg. He rolled his eyes.
“As much as I love making fun of Percy,” Rachel started, making Percy flip her off with a grin, “is everything actually alright?”
“We’re fine,” Annabeth replied, her eyebrows narrowing. “Did you—”
“—No prophecy,” Rachel cut her off, easily able to tell where she was going, and both Percy and Annabeth relaxed. “I just…got a feeling I should check in. It’s still strange that you guys are so far away. I mean, you’re one state away, but it feels like Gotham is another country.”
“Feels the same for us,” Annabeth answered. “I’m glad you called, Rach.”
“We’re just dealing with every demigod’s favorite thing,” Percy added. “Emotions.”
Rachel made a face. “Gross.”
“Percy, you rarely—if ever— hide how you’re feeling,” Annabeth sighed. “And you , ɑγαπητή μου Ρέιτσελ , are literally dating me. You both love emotions.”
“Guilty as charged,” Rachel said, her grin widening as she looked at Annabeth fondly. “What emotions are we talking about today?”
“Just what’s going on next weekend,” Percy answered. “Annie told you what’s happening?”
“I’ve heard all about it,” Rachel confirmed. “The kid does sound like he’d fit into cabin six pretty well.”
Suddenly, her eyes lit up—thankfully not with the vivid green haze that heralded a prophecy, just an excited glint as she moved closer to the mist screen.
“Oh! The Hunters are gonna be at camp next weekend, too!” she said. “Thalia called to make sure that I checked nothing had been moved in cabin eight since their last visit, or she’d break into the Apollo cabin and cause chaos. Thankfully, it’s all in order still.”
“It’ll be a full house, then,” Annabeth said, her fingers still running over the green paint on the bead that memorialized Thalia’s sacrifice. “Good. All we’ll be missing is Reyna, and the few siblings of mine who are back at school. Peter and Liz will be mad they missed him, but I am not interfering with their education.”
“I told Tyson he’s welcome to stop by, but he and Ella are busy between the underwater forges and helping Camp Jupiter with the Sibylline Books,” Percy added. “Too bad Reyna can’t make it.”
“Well, we’re stealing Hazel, Frank, and Jason from her,” Annabeth admitted with a shrug. “Someone has to keep the Romans in line, and she is the best at it.”
“Speaking of a Jason,” Rachel said, turning her piercing eyes onto Percy. “Your boyfriend is gonna come too?”
“Yeah, if all goes well,” Percy answered. Rachel nodded firmly.
“Good,” she said. “I’m preparing a shovel talk worthy of my hairbrush.”
“Oh Gods,” Percy groaned. “How many people are preparing one?”
“We could form a line,” Rachel answered, smirking. “C’mon, Perce, we have to make sure our Great Savior of Olympus found a good guy. He has Annabeth’s approval, which basically means none of us need to do this, but if he can’t handle a few demigod threats then can he handle dating you?”
Percy sighed. “Just please tell me the whole camp doesn’t know about this.”
“Oh, of course not,” Rachel assured him, but something in her tone didn’t let him relax. “There was really only one extra person who found out, but don’t worry, we made Clarisse promise not to tell anyone else.”
Annabeth let out a snort of laughter as Percy froze.
“If my boyfriend gets murdered next weekend, I’m blaming you,” he said, but he couldn't help the smile pulling at his face when Rachel started giggling.
She brought her hand up to cover her mouth, inadvertently getting paint on her nose, and Percy was not about to point it out. Especially not when the sight of it made Annabeth's smile widen to the point where her eyes were creasing, and she squeezed Percy's hand. He would never have expected his platonic other half to end up so happily with the girl that Percy had met through accidentally stabbing her, especially after their rocky start. But they had grown close as friends while he was missing with the Romans, leaning on each other for support as Annabeth tried not to drive herself crazy searching for him, and so when Annabeth and Percy figured out where their own relationship fell, it all slowly fell into place. He first noticed that Annabeth was spending more time in Rachel's cave, but while he might be completely oblivious to attention focused on him —he began to recognize when Annabeth looked at Rachel the same way she had looked at him after the Battle of Manhattan. It didn't hurt as much as he thought it might, seeing her smile like that at someone else. But why did he ever think he'd be hurt when it meant that Annabeth was so happy? The first time he saw Annabeth holding Rachel's hand, walking through the camp on their way to the Dining Pavilion, he smiled so widely his face hurt. Annabeth deserved the best, and if she had found that in someone that Percy already cared about and trusted? It felt right. And now that he had met Jason, he knew that he and Annabeth had made the best decision for both of them when they decided to just be their own brand of best friends.
Looking back over at Annabeth, he realized finally how he could help her. His place in their plan was support, but if there was one thing he knew well, it was Annabeth. And if they had a week to wait until they could solve this puzzle? He had to do all he could to not let her think about it.
He noticed a familiar figure dressed all in black walking past Rachel, and called out to get his attention, accidentally startling Rachel as he did.
"Nico!" he called, making the younger boy pause and turn with a frown on his face. It smoothed out as he realized that Percy was talking through an Iris Message, but he still looked annoyed as he approached to stand at Rachel's shoulder.
"What?" he asked. "I'm busy."
"No you aren't," Percy countered. "If you really had somewhere to be, you wouldn't have walked."
"Actually, Will banned him from unnecessary shadow travel within the camp limits," Rachel cut in. Nico scowled up at her. "And it turns out, everyone is more scared of Will now then Nico, so if anyone sees Nico shadow travel just inside the camp, they're expected to tell Will."
"You never want to piss off your doctor," Annabeth agreed with a smirk in Nico's direction.
"Will is only scary when you do something stupid to injure yourself," Percy said, nodding. "Anyway, Neeks, any chance you could pop over here and grab Annabeth and I?"
Annabeth looked over at him curiously. Nico just glared. "You're already coming here next week, you can't wait until then?"
"C'mon," Percy prodded, "Saturday bonfires are always the best, and we've missed too many! Next week will be dominated by the Athena cabin, because they'll be all thrilled about their new brother, so come bring us to camp!"
"Ooh, Nico, go get them!" Rachel said, her eyes shining a brighter emerald. "It's not fair, Percy basically lives with his boyfriend, I haven't seen Annabeth since the holidays!"
"Don't be biphobic, Nico," Annabeth teased.
"Just call Mrs. O'Leary," Nico said, his glare turning to Annabeth.
"There's no area empty enough near Annabeth's apartment," Percy countered. "There are so many alleys near my place that Lea would have no issue shadow traveling to, but Annie's area is nicer. You can come directly to her apartment!"
"Y'know, I visited this cool vintage shop the other day," Rachel started, apropos of nothing, sticking her stained hands in her jean pockets in faux-nonchalance. "And it was a bit pricey, but you know I'm always down to spend my dad's money on things he'd hate. Anyway, I saw this thing that I thought you might like, it's some card game thing?"
Nico's eyes narrowed in interest as his head whipped to face Rachel.
"What card?" he demanded. Percy hid a smile as Rachel got a smug glint in her eyes.
"See, it wasn't Greek, so I figured you didn't have it already. Was I right?" She took a card out of her pocket and held it up for Nico to see. Percy couldn't make it out too well through the Iris Message, but he thought he saw a goddess dressed in black, with three birds circling her head. Nico's eyes widened, a rare brightness entering them that Percy always treasured when he saw it. He remembered that excitable, wide-eyed kid that he had met, clutching his Mythomagic cards as he stared at the real mythical creatures around him. He remembered that kid disappearing, shattering with the news of Bianca's death, and the sullen, hurt kid that he had next seen in the Labyrinth. Slowly, Nico was finding that ten-year-old again, but only around certain people, and only once in a while. Percy was pretty sure this was the first time he'd seen it around Rachel.
"The Morrigan?" he exclaimed, quickly schooling his face to try and not seem like he desperately wanted to snatch the card from Rachel's hand. "I saw they were coming out with a Tuatha Dé Danann expansion pack before...the hotel, but I haven't seen any from it."
"There's a matching figurine, too," Rachel added, a smirk appearing on her face as Nico began to fidget with the bottom of his jacket.
After a moment, his scowl returned, and he stalked out of view of the mist. Rachel started laughing, but before Percy could ask where Nico had gone, the shadows in Annabeth's bedroom warped.
"Hurry up," Nico said impatiently, crossing his arms as he stared at Percy and Annabeth. "This bribery will only work once."
"Somehow, I doubt that," Percy teased, focusing on Nico as Annabeth gave Rachel a soft wave and a 'see you in a moment' before swiping through the mist and ending the call. "Say, does Mythomagic including other pantheons mean that those gods are real too? They've got the Romans, right?"
Annabeth frowned thoughtfully as Nico wrinkled his nose. "I'm not sure," she said. "I couldn't rule it out, but I've never considered Celtic demigods. I should have, considering Cú Chulainn."
"Bless you," Percy said, and Annabeth gave him an unimpressed look that was betrayed by her clear amusement. She turned back to Nico after a moment.
"Nico, are there Norse cards?"
"I've only been able to find a Thor card," Nico answered automatically. "His lightning attack isn't quite as strong as Zeus, but he also has his hammer attack that adds 200 attack power."
"But they do exist," Annabeth mused. "I wonder if the game was made by a demigod. Perhaps a child of Apollo had some visions of the other pantheons?"
"If I meet a Celtic demigod, I'm sending them right to you so you can ask all the questions, and then I'm promptly forgetting their existence," Percy promised. "The Egyptians were the final straw for me."
"Carter and Sadie aren't that bad," Annabeth said with a grin.
"Oh, no, Carter and Sadie are great," Percy corrected, "I've been meaning to make plans to get lunch with Sadie next time I'm free to go to Brooklyn. But their gods are in them? They're magicians ? It's too much, Annie."
"If the creator of Mythomagic knew about the pantheons they included, I doubt they'd include the Egyptians," Nico said, ignoring Percy. "It seems too close to shabti for comfort. I doubt Anubis or Osiris would like all those statuettes scattered around with potential magical energy."
"I'd ask how you know all that, but those are death things, right?" Percy asked. Nico glared at him flatly.
"You got involved with the Egyptian pantheon. Anubis reached out to me since I was already a representative of Pluto for the Romans, and we figured this was a much different situation and that our pantheons should still remain mostly separate from each other. So yes, I know about Egyptian funerary rites, we had a very informative conversation."
Before Percy could tease him about having a casual chat with another Pantheon's death god, Nico cut in again.
"Now can we get going?" he said. "I have things to do."
"Sorry, sorry," Percy said. "We'll let you take your new figurine back to your cabin."
Nico flipped him off.
Percy just laughed and prepared for the familiar chill of Nico's shadow travel, knowing that he felt it worse than most. He had talked to Jason and Thalia about it, who said that it felt suffocating to them, but for Percy it was colder than the deepest depths of the ocean and drier than sand. He wondered if it felt as bad for Nico to be underwater, relying on Percy to help him breathe.
Percy prepared to hold his breath in the shadows, and glanced over at Annabeth's excited face. He smiled.
He'd make this next week as distracting as possible for her. And then, next weekend, he'd be able to show her that there was nothing to worry about.
The shadows enveloped them, and Percy went home.
It’s not like Jason expected everything to be different after Percy both convinced Dick he wasn’t a mind-controlling meta while also nearly fighting him on a rooftop. Jason was very aware of the kinds of people his family was, and their minds were not changed easily. That was made even more clear by the months that they spent convinced that Jason was under some kind of magic influence. It was hard for him to guess what kind of effect Dick’s… slight change of heart would have on the rest of the family. He knew that Percy was kind of hoping it would have a real impact, but every demigod he’s met has had a healthy dose of pessimism to counter any optimistic thoughts. From what he’s heard about how quests usually go, it was a fair reflex to develop. Most vigilantes had it too.
What did change, however, was that everyone was finally treating him like normal again. No more badly hidden guilt at not figuring out how to undo his mind control, no more conversations ending when he walked into the room, no more worrying that his family would get fed up and just try to abduct Percy. Sure, yes, they still didn’t like him, and they didn’t like that he was clearly the culprit of the Arkham break-in and they still couldn’t prove it and Jason couldn’t tell them why he was on Percy’s side for that incident…but without the magic as a factor, things were maybe starting to calm down. Even if Percy really didn’t do himself any favors with rising to Dick’s bait during their ‘conversation’, it had at least solved one problem.
Now, for Jason to solve another.
“So I’ll be gone next weekend, if someone could cover the Alley for me, that would be ideal,” Jason said, interrupting the usual family dinner conversation of making fun of each other’s different failures on patrol. Immediately, all eyes turned to him.
“You’re taking a vacation?” Tim asked, shocked. “Have you even left Gotham without the Outlaws in like…years?”
“I can take vacations,” Jason defended, crossing his arms over his chest. “And if an emergency happens, I’m not going that far. Percy is going back to New York for the weekend, and he asked if I wanted to go with him.”
He could feel the slight tension that entered the conversation at the mention of Percy, but he had expected it. It was far less than it would have been if this happened right after the Arkham Incident, too, so it was definitely an improvement. It had a different feeling to it, too. Instead of making everyone listen to what Jason said with a bit more suspicion and disbelief, it was regular run-of-the-mill tension. It was, though, one of the reasons he needed to make it clear that he was leaving with Percy. After all, he needed to make Tim curious enough to accept coming along. His nosy little brother just couldn’t resist the chance to potentially find out more about Percy. It also wasn’t unlike him to purposefully bring up Percy and make things tense, pushing his family’s buttons was one of his most trained skills, and one of his favorite hobbies.
“There’s another reason I brought this up, though,” he continued before anyone could bring up their continued (if slightly different) distrust of Percy again, “and that’s that since Annabeth is going with him too, and he’ll probably be seeing a bunch of his friends, he extended the offer of bringing someone with me.”
A beat, and then— “Timbo, you’re it. Wanna see New York?”
Tim blinked, staring at Jason. “Uh, I’m sorry, me ? Of all the people in this room, why the fuck do you want me to go with you?”
“Language, Master Tim,” Alfred spoke up, passing by the doorway on his way to the kitchen. Tim sighed.
“Sorry Alfred.”
“The answer’s easy, runt,” Jason said, “Dick stole my sandwich last week and I haven’t forgiven him yet—” Dick’s whine of ‘I said I was sorry!’ went unacknowledged “—Cass is probably the best one to cover my patrol areas while I’m gone, I don’t want to subject Duke to the interrogation he would get after coming back, Demon Spawn probably wouldn’t go three minutes in a car with Percy without pulling a sword, and while I’d love to call Roy instead of dealing with any of you being annoyingly suspicious, he’s busy. Besides, you already know Annabeth.”
“...and I don’t trust her anymore,” Tim added, speaking slowly like Jason was a kindergartner. “Or Percy.”
Jason was mostly just glad his family had stopped taking the Damian approach and had actually started calling him Percy. Hearing them all call him Jackson was getting annoying.
“Is that statement different for anyone in this house except Cass because she’s my favorite sister?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow. Cass sent him a bright grin from across the table. “I know anyone here would be subtly snooping the entire time.”
“Cass trusting him doesn’t mean anything since Dick is the only one of us to actually meet him again,” Tim countered. Jason saw Duke stare intently at his dinner while Cass just watched the conversation with a smile. “And you’re cool with me definitely snooping?”
“At least if you do it, I don’t have to deal with it,” Jason shrugged. He couldn’t seem too interested in having Tim coming with him, otherwise it might be suspicious. But he wasn’t lying. Anyone but Tim would be snooping through subtle interrogation, and that was something Jason would have to actually witness and be a part of. He would also have to deal with Annabeth definitely noticing the interrogation and messing with whatever family member was unfortunate enough to try and outthink her. Tim was more of an observer and hacker. “And I don’t have to deal with introducing someone new for Percy’s weirdly observant best friend to inspect.”
There was a beat of silence as Tim searched Jason’s face. Jason tried to keep a neutral expression, like he didn’t care what Tim decided. He knew his little brother, and he knew how to get him to agree. He had to make Tim curious. If he tried too hard to convince him, it wouldn’t work. In fact, he couldn’t try to convince Tim. He had to leave breadcrumbs and let Tim follow them himself. His whole family was too smart, they’d figure it out if he was trying to lead Tim into a decision. For once, his patterns of behavior with the Pit might work in his favor. Of course he was flippant, he struggled with actually feeling positive emotions. Of course he made the choice of who was coming for them, his feelings about his family members flipped on a dime.
Of course he picked Tim. He was always trying to make up for what he did.
Tim gave a sharp exhale. “You know what? Sure. You being okay with me using this to dig into the two of them is definitely not the weirdest thing you’ve done. New York it is.”
“Cool. Be at my apartment by five Friday afternoon,” Jason said, and that was that. After a brief period of awkward silence, Dick told Damian to stop kicking him under the table and just like that, the chaos restarted. Jason knew it was going to be an awkward few days as Tim tried to find out if he had ulterior motives—which he did—but that hopefully most of the weekend would actually be pretty nice. He’d been hearing a lot about Percy’s friends, he had seen a few of them in those weird rainbow messages, whatever they were called again, and so he was strangely interested to meet them. He usually wasn’t one for meeting new people unless he had to, but...Percy looked so excited at the prospect of introducing him to people he considered family. How could Jason not look forward to that too?
After dinner, most of his siblings retreated to the game room to take out their grievances through Mario Party, but Jason let them go ahead without him. He wanted to get at least some of the stuff he was bringing with him to New York out of his room and into his apartment. The last thing he wanted was to be packing at the last minute instead of making sure everything with Tim was going smoothly.
Before he could make it down the hallway with their bedrooms, though, Bruce ended up next to him and turned into his office. He glanced at Jason over his shoulder, and didn’t need to say a word. He never did. Jason didn’t know whether to be exasperated or nervous. Was Bruce being emotionally stunted again, or was Jason in trouble?
In trouble . He sounded like he was eleven again, trying his level best to lie to Alfred about what happened to one of the china plates.
Jason shut the door behind him at another look from Bruce, and sat down in the chair next to the desk. He crossed his arms, pretending that he wasn’t trying to figure out what this conversation would be about.
Bruce sat down in his own seat and turned to face Jason. His face was…guilty? Bruce didn’t get guilty.
“Jaylad,” he started, “I heard from Dick that he had a conversation with your boyfriend a few nights ago on patrol.”
Ah. So that was what this was about. Jason huffed a laugh.
“Conversation is not the word I’d use, but yeah, he did,” he replied. “I assumed he told everyone.”
“He did,” Bruce confirmed. “He didn’t answer my follow up question of exactly how close it got to a fight, however.”
“Probably because he’s embarrassed about the line of questioning he had,” Jason suggested, shrugging. “What did he expect to happen when he, an older brother, implied that Percy, also an older brother, was putting his sister in danger?”
Bruce chuckled, "that certainly does sound like Dick."
"If you heard this from him, why did you want to talk to me?" Jason asked, getting to the point. Bruce was silent for a moment before he sighed.
"Dick told us that we were wrong," he said, raising his eyes to meet Jason's gaze head-on. Jason went still, staring at Bruce. "We were wrong, and you've been dealing with our suspicion for months now. I hope you know that it was all out of worry for you, and that we love you."
The words left Jason stunned. Bruce had been doing a lot better recently, that was for sure, but he hadn't expected him to drop that 'we love you' with no preamble.
"Yeah, I—I know, B," Jason said. "I always knew that was why you guys didn't let it go."
"Still," Bruce said, "you told us that we were wrong, and we ignored that. We should have at least given Percy a chance to prove us wrong, instead of brushing off everything you tried to tell us. I'm sorry, Jason."
He felt like a kid again, finally growing used to a home that cared about him, and seeing this same look in Bruce's eyes whenever they had a rare fight and his dad came to apologize. He wasn't sure if this was going to be a Bruce conversation or a Batman conversation, but it had become obvious pretty quickly. He was a kid again, listening to his dad tell him that he was safe. That he was loved.
"...thank you, B," he managed to say. "That...means a lot."
"If you'd like, you're welcome to invite him to dinner one of these nights," Bruce offered. "I promise I'll do my level best to keep Damian from bringing a sword to the table."
Jason couldn't help his grin. "Don't even try to promise that, we both know it won't work."
Bruce smiled too, his eyes crinkling at the edges. "It's always worth a shot," he said. "I do mean it, though. It's been months now, and I've never met your boyfriend properly. What kind of father am I if I don't fix that as soon as possible?"
"A paranoid father who has seen way too many allies get their heads messed with?" Jason suggested. "A father with a complex about bats and a penchant for stubbornness? A father who conveniently ignored the relationship that he had with a criminal who has committed way more than one alleged crime?"
"Alright, alright, I get your point," Bruce cut in, shaking his head as his smile widened. "And don't bring Selina into this, she's already chewed me out."
"Ooh," Jason said, eyes widening in interest. "What'd she say?"
"She said, and I quote, 'that boy thinks his mom is a goddess—" Jason desperately tried to hold in his bark of laughter "—and will place himself between Jason and the world. What the fuck is your problem with him?'" Bruce answered, chuckling. "And, well, if she's right about all that, and we were wrong about what magic he might have access to, then I can't imagine I'll have many other issues with your choice in partner, Jaylad. My only rule has always been not to date a lantern, and as far as I know, Percy isn't."
"Definitely not a lantern," Jason assured him, trying to hold back the smile that threatened to spread across his face. Sue him, alright? He's wanted to hear those words for a while now. "You remain untethered to Hal Jordan. Don't worry, he's not a Queen, either."
"In that case, bring him to dinner, Jason," Bruce said, his eyes soft even as his smile remained teasing. "I know there are still...conflicts, but we've made a mistake in never even giving him a chance. I would like to learn that I can trust the person that makes you as happy as you've been."
Jason couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Shit, B, what self-help book did you read? Did Alfred help you write a script?"
"Fathers are always learning, Jay," Bruce answered. "You kids always give me new reasons to improve myself. I just wish more of it was this emotional stuff and not pushing me to stay strong enough to be able to carry you all when you inevitably get injured fighting a villain."
"You? Wanting more emotional stuff?" Jason teased, eyebrows raising. "Are you dying, Bruce?"
"You're not getting rid of me yet, chum," Bruce shot back, his eyes sharp and amused.
"I'll ask Percy," Jason said before he even realized he'd made a decision. He knew Percy would accept, he'd been wanting this since they started dating. "Maybe some night next week. I'm sure he'll want to come to dinner."
"Alfred will want to know his favorite food," Bruce reminded him. Jason laughed.
"Alfred will be scandalized," he said. "Percy will eat anything if you put blue food dye in it."
Bruce raised his eyebrows. "Perhaps don't share that with Alfred," he agreed. "It sounds like there's a story behind that."
"There definitely is, but its not mine to tell," Jason said, raising his hands. "Suffice to say, it's slightly similar to me having that habit of hiding food in my room as a kid."
Bruce's face softened. "Ah. Well, who am I to deny someone what brings them comfort? Maybe we can coerce Alfred to make a blue dessert."
Jason grinned. "I think that's doable. He's got at least a week to figure it out."
"Speaking of next week," Bruce said, his voice turning slightly more serious. "I know you, Jay. You're good, but not good enough to fool me. Should I be concerned about why you want Tim to accompany you to New York?"
Jason found that he wasn't that surprised Bruce figured him out. He was the World's Greatest Detective, after all. And he'd known Jason since he was just figuring out who he could be when he wasn't worried about surviving on the streets. He just hoped that Bruce would trust him on this.
"No," he said. "I promise, Bruce, it's nothing bad."
"But there is something, and you can't tell me," Bruce surmised. Jason winced.
"No," he said. "I can't. And you know Tim, if he thinks there's a reason I chose him, then he just won't come."
"He is quite stubborn, even for us," Bruce admitted. "I won't say it's easy to let this go, but...I do trust you, Jason. I haven't shown it well these past months, but I do. I know you wouldn't let anything happen to Tim."
"I won't," Jason promised. "Nothing is going to happen to him."
Bruce nodded, and Jason tried not to notice how much it affected him that Bruce was letting it go with no answers. Batman? Not getting an answer?
But Jason wasn't talking to Batman right now.
"Alright, then," Bruce said, despite the tiny glimmer of uncertainty in his eyes. Bruce didn't like it, but he was letting Jason handle it. "Are you starting to pack, now?"
"Yeah, I was gonna," Jason answered, standing up from the seat as if their conversation was perfectly normal and had no effect on him. "Thanks for the chat, B."
It was when Jason's hand hit the doorknob that Bruce spoke again.
"I love you, Jason," he said, making Jason freeze. "Never forget that."
Jason knew how he should respond to that. While it wasn't exactly common , Bruce had said that before. Jason should respond with a Star Wars-esque 'I know', and then leave the room before more emotions could be brought up. The Pit had never liked being countered by kind words like that. Words that were dissonant with the worldview it warped in Jason's mind. To answer in any other way would be a giant red flag that something had changed in Jason's head.
But he could actually hear the sincerity in Bruce's voice now.
But he could feel the weight of Bruce's trust.
But he was a kid again, realizing he had a father who cared.
"I love you too, dad," he said, before he could argue with himself.
Then he left, catching a glimpse of Bruce frozen in his chair, an impossibly soft look on his face.
Jason packed with a fog in his brain, unable to stop thinking about Bruce’s words. He anticipated someone interrupting him at some point, knowing his family too well to think they’d just leave him alone all night to run his thoughts in circles in his brain. He couldn’t say he wasn’t kind of thankful that someone would eventually pull him from his mind.
He was expecting, however, to at least have one day of Tim stewing before he was cornered for more questioning about the following weekend. He wasn’t anticipating that happening only an hour after he left Bruce’s office, with Tim barging his way into Jason’s rarely used room in the manor. But all he did was sigh, having lost the instinct to pull a gun when startled, at least when in the manor. He still probably would have pinned Tim against the wall, had he been close to the door when it slammed open, but lucky for Tim he was dragging a suitcase out from under his bed, and just ended up dropping it loudly to grab a knife from his bedside table and send it flying towards the door. Tim ducked easily, and stared up at the dagger sticking out of the doorframe.
“Your aim is off,” was all he said, and Jason snorted.
“Wouldn’t be if I was actually trying to kill you.”
“ Again ,” Tim added, yanking the dagger from the wood and tossing it back to Jason, who placed it back by his bed. He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, ‘again’. Don’t worry, runt, I’ve got no plans to try and kill you again any time soon.” You would have to get Jason at point-blank gunpoint, suspended over a waterfall, and tied with Superman-level chains before he maybe considered admitting this, but the fact that he could throw a knife at Tim when startled and Tim wouldn’t flinch anymore? Actually made him feel a lot better about the fiasco with the Lazarus sickness. Gods, the period where Jason was trying to work past that intense rage and hatred that bubbled up at the slightest inconvenience was the worst . Tim had seemed unaffected by what Jason had tried to do, masking it well behind Bat Training, but sometimes Jason let the anger into his voice, or he did what all Bats did and reacted to surprise with violence, or his eyes tinged just a little too green, and he saw that Tim was scared of him. Just slightly, but the fact remained that Tim was genuinely worried at times that Jason would try to kill him again. And that made both the anger worse, and it made Jason feel like absolute shit at the same time.
But that was two years ago. Jason had gotten the Lazarus sickness at least to the point where he could let the anger roll off of him most of the time, and while he and Tim weren’t always the closest for sure, they weren’t walking on eggshells either. And now...now Jason was free . He still hadn’t fully processed that the anger, the rage, that pit inside him was gone. Every time he realized a new change, it was like he was feeling that freedom for the first time. He looked at Tim and for the first time since Tim was just the tiny kid who he sometimes caught taking pictures of him as Robin, he felt none of that hissing voice that insisted Tim thought he was better, Tim replaced him, Tim this and Tim that. None of it.
It was just Tim. His dumbshit little brother who was too smart for his own good and yet so stupid at the same time. So he didn’t demand that Tim get the fuck out of his room like he might have just a few weeks ago. He just raised his eyebrows at where his brother was crossing his arms and seemingly waiting for something.
“Well?” he asked, impatient, “did you need something?”
“Seriously, why me?” Tim asked. “I know you don’t hate me, but like….Dick stealing your sandwich is not a good enough reason for you to not pick him for this. He gets along with everyone even if he doesn’t trust or like them. He can easily make them think he does.”
Jason sighed heavily, toeing the suitcase open and dropping a pile of clothes haphazardly into it. “Dick knows what he did. Anyways, this isn’t a mission , Timbo. Just because you’re gonna be nosey and snooping the whole weekend doesn’t make it a mission. I am going to meet my boyfriend’s mom and friends, and he asked if I wanted to bring anyone so I wasn’t horribly outnumbered. I’ll be blunt here, this mostly comes down to the fact that you already know Annabeth. I know you don’t trust her anymore, because you guys are still coming to terms with the fact that I was right and you all were wrong, but you know her. So you know that it’s like she can read you like a book with one look.”
Tim couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. “Yeah, it’s a little creepy almost. When I first met her she didn’t even wait for me to introduce myself to address me as ‘Mr. Drake-Wayne’ when most non-Gothamite employees expect me to be older, and she managed to guess my coffee order. It was bizarre.”
“Can you imagine her meeting Dick for the first time if he’s pretending that he doesn’t still distrust them? Or worse, Damian ?” Jason asked, and Tim winced.
“Ooh, yeah,” he said. “Although, it’s not the first time she would have met either of them.”
“Same goes for you, dipshit,” Jason said, shutting the suitcase. “In a mask doesn’t count. I don’t want to deal with introducing her or Percy to some new batshit dynamic of this family. And so, inviting you.”
“... bat shit?” Tim repeated, a sly grin spreading across his face. Jason glared at him.
“Another word and I rethink my statement about not planning on killing you.”
“Alright, alright, pun ignored,” Tim put his hands up in surrender. “Another question, though.”
“I'm assuming you aren’t going to leave my room until I answer?”
“You already know the answer to that,” Tim said. “Now, do they know the rest of our identities? Obviously, Percy figured you out somehow, but do they know who I am?”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “Is there a reason you want to know this besides just knowing if your identity is compromised? Why are you asking this now ?”
“Frankly I think that’s a valid enough reason on its own, but yes,” Tim elaborated, “Because if they know, then I don’t need to hide as much suspicion and also I’ll know that I’ll need to be even sneakier in the recon department.”
“...A normal person should be offended that you’re asking me how best you should spy on my boyfriend and his best friend, but we passed ‘normal’ so long ago it’s not even funny,” Jason said. “Quite frankly, I don’t think any of us were ever normal. And honestly? I don’t know. I never told Percy, but I know Annabeth knows about me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she figured it all out. I haven’t brought it up at all, in case they didn’t and I would connect some dots just by asking.”
There were only a few lies in there. Jason really didn’t bring it up, he had planned on keeping his family’s identities as secret as he could if they didn’t already know them, but Annabeth had acted as if it wasn’t a secret anymore and so he did know that they knew. But he wasn’t about to let Tim know just how much the two of them knew, otherwise he might suspect that they were planning something.
Tim frowned. “That makes sense. Probably best you didn’t give her any more hints. I’ve found it's hard to balance asking her questions with trying to seem like a civilian. I’ll have to think about how best to do this. Thanks Jason, see you Friday.”
Again, too smart for his own good, but so dumb sometimes. Jason was so glad that this was a plan with good intentions, otherwise he’d be way more disappointed that Tim was falling for it.
“Don’t be late,” Jason replied.
Then Tim left, and just like that, Plan ‘Give His Idiot Genius Brother Some More Siblings’ was officially in motion.
Notes:
rubs my gay little hands together
where doing this. where making it hapen.
(im so sorry. i have to make a homestuck reference once a week or i shrivel up and die. a wizard cursed me.)basically queerplatonic percabeth my beloved. they r not officially in a qpr but lets be real here. they totally are. also nico elbowed his way into this chapter to be a dork and i love that for him. let him be a kid.
i realized bruce had been shockingly absent in this fic so i made him have emotions :) he is Good Father, i am love him. Also the problem with writing scenes in advance is then sometimes you write something for a previous chapter that just completely messes with what you have pre-written lol. I had jotted down that ending dinner scene a long time ago, but then Dick had to go and cross off mind control last chapter and make me rework all the batfams attitudes towards percy lmao. Dick living up to his name once again. Also these next few chapters might be a bit dialogue heavy like this one, im not sure why these assholes just keep talking. I cannot stop them.
Hope you guys enjoyed!!! i'll see you in the next chapter, as the plan is in motion!
Chapter 19
Notes:
So.....how are we all feeling about that trailer? I am incoherent. it finally hit me that i will be able to watch percabeth grow up (as opposed to the MOVIES do not get me STARTED) and i am not a person anymore. i refuse to apologize for the person i am going to become when this show comes out, and quite frankly i wouldnt be surprised if i black out the first time i hear someone address Percy in the show and ill wake up to all the food in my kitchen dyed blue.
Anyway. In honor of my unhinged ramblings about this show that I've subjected all my friends and family to, have a chapter. Hope you enjoy!
(also theres kind of a reference to toa in this chapter?? but that series didnt happen in this universe fyi. so it sounds like a reference but its not. i am looking away, I do not see Jason Grace's canon experiences in that series)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“You know the plan, right?”
“Yes, Annie, he knows the plan,” Percy laughed as Annabeth tapped her foot impatiently. Jason set the last of their bags in the trunk of Annabeth’s car and turned to look at her.
“I know the plan, Annabeth,” he said. “Just leave the stealing to me, I can do it without him noticing.”
“Alright,” she breathed deeply and exhaled sharply.
“Hey, Wise Girl,” Percy said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You know this is gonna go fine. We’ll get to explain everything, you’ll get to show him around and introduce everyone, then we’ll invite Jay in and it’ll be great.”
“You are infuriatingly optimistic sometimes,” Annabeth said, but a smile appeared on her face. “How come you’re never this optimistic when our lives are actually in danger?”
“Because my thought process during those moments is usually just one long screech,” Percy answered.
“Good to know you’re thinking real hard about the plans I make to try and keep us all alive,” Annabeth knocked her shoulder against his, and he laughed.
“Hey, I trust that you’ll kick my ass if I go off script and mess something up.”
“If you mess this up, I’ll kick your ass right into my cabin, and then I’ll tell my siblings what you messed up,” Annabeth grinned. Percy leaned heavily onto her shoulder.
“No, please, have mercy! Dump me in the lake instead, let me drown.”
“Heads up, one annoying little brother coming in from six o’clock,” Jason interrupted Percy’s lamenting, spotting Tim coming down the sidewalk. Annabeth paused, a retort on her lips, and instead shoved Percy off of her.
“Hang off your boyfriend if you’re feeling clingy, I’m the one who hasn’t seen my girlfriend recently,” she said, acting like they hadn’t been talking about something else just before Tim arrived.
“You have a girlfriend?” Jason asked, his eyebrows raising, “How did I not know this, I feel like this has probably come up before.”
Annabeth laughed, “It probably has, you were just preoccupied by a certain idiot standing next to me. Hey, Tim,” the last part was directed behind her as Tim got within conversation range, but it caused him to stop walking.
“Uh, hey, Annabeth,” he returned, “how did you know it was me?”
“I recognized your footsteps,” Annabeth bullshit smoothly, and Jason schooled his face into something vaguely impressed as Tim turned to him for more information.
“Tim, have you met Percy yet?” Jason asked, ignoring the question that Tim was silently asking him. He knew perfectly well that Percy only met Tim in a mask, but the annoyed glance that Tim sent him was so worth it. Percy beamed, reaching out a hand.
“It’s great to meet you! Getting Jay to tell me things about his siblings is like pulling teeth sometimes,” he laughed, and Tim’s grin actually looked pretty genuine.
“Well, at least he’s better at that than Damian,” Tim replied, shaking Percy’s hand, “but you did have to end up with one of the least socially adjusted out of us all.”
“This was a terrible idea,” Jason said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “can we go back to Annabeth’s girlfriend before you two insult me the whole drive up?”
“Hey, bold of you to assume it wouldn’t be all three of us,” Annabeth retorted, slipping into the driver’s seat of the car. Jason, just to be an asshole, stole shotgun while Tim was distracted and left him sitting in the backseat with Percy. He could feel the glare being leveled at his back, but he didn’t even blink.
“Even more reason to change the subject immediately,” he said, “Now, girlfriend?”
He heard Percy muffle a laugh from the backseat, “Yeah, Annabeth, tell them how you met your girlfriend.”
“You shut your damn mouth, Jackson.”
“My dam mouth?” Percy repeated, his grin widening, and Annabeth groaned.
“The one time I wasn’t there for supervision…” she sighed. “Anyway, sure, let’s talk about my girlfriend. Don't think we won’t get back to insulting you later, Jason. But for now, my girlfriend’s name is Rachel, and while she’s taking a gap year this year, she’s planning on applying to NYU to major in art, she wants to stick close to home.”
“I think you’re forgetting an important fact that these two might actually know,” Percy said.
“I’m not forgetting anything, I’m just not saying an important fact.”
“You know Dare Enterprises?” Percy asked, and Tim frowned.
“...yeah? Our dad isn’t super happy with how environmentally unfriendly they are.”
“Oh trust us, we aren’t either, or our friends, or Annie’s girlfriend. Who, by the way, is—”
“—Percy, I swear—”
“—none other than Rachel Dare.” Percy’s shit-eating grin was one that just radiated mischief.
“Perseus Jackson, I’m teaming up with Clarisse for the next capture the flag game,” Annabeth’s grip had tightened on the steering wheel, but a small grin betrayed her amusement. Percy’s eyes widened.
“Ah. Well, Jason, if you never hear from me again, it’s because two very badass women have murdered me. Your suspects can be my best friend and a girl who hates my guts.”
“Oh bullshit, you two are friends now,” Annabeth scoffed.
“She pushed me off the rock wall literally the last time I saw her!”
“And you landed fine, you big baby, you didn’t even break anything.”
“I broke my ego,” Percy pouted, leaning against the window as Annabeth lost her composure and started laughing at him.
“As sad as Percy’s impending murder is,” Jason cut in, “can we go back to you dating Rachel Dare ?”
“I’m rather interested too,” Tim added, “how did you even meet her? I’ve heard she stays way out of the public eye, unlike her family.”
“You realize I could ask the same question of how the hell Percy managed to start dating the reclusive Jason Todd-Wayne ?” Annabeth countered, making both Tim and Jason reluctantly nod in acquiescence, “And as much as I really do hate to say it, we did meet because of Percy.”
“And you hated her at first!” Percy added gleefully. Annabeth groaned.
“Because I thought I liked you , idiot.”
“Aw, Annie, you had a crush on me?” Percy leaned forward onto his knees, which he had to know was within range for Annabeth to reach back and slap the back of his head without looking.
“We dated for, like, four months, you had a crush on me too,” she shot back.
“Irrelevant,” Percy brushed it off. “Anyway, I met Rachel when I was fourteen, when I was at the Hoover Dam with some friends and quite literally ran into her. Nearly wiped us both out, but she was super chill about it, even talked me out of getting into trouble with security. Then I didn’t see her for a few months until I went to school with her for approximately thirty seconds, then I saw her participating in some art installation, asked for her help navigating the area because I had no idea where I was going, and then she ended up throwing a hairbrush at this guy who was being an asshole. Needless to say, we became friends.” Watering down Kronos to ‘being an asshole’ gave Percy a bad taste in his mouth, but there was no other way to describe it without getting into things that Tim didn’t know yet.
“I did, annoyingly enough, dislike her at first,” Annabeth sighed, “Here I am, calling myself smart, and I fall right into the trope of a jealous girl who hates another girl just because a waterlogged dumbass memorizes her phone number.”
“...you memorized her number?” Jason asked wryly, looking at a sheepish Percy through the rearview mirror.
“I mean...yes?” he halfheartedly defended himself, shrugging, “I had to if I ever wanted to use it, I don’t have a phone!”
“Okay, fair, I guess,” Jason admitted, but Tim was staring at Percy like he had one eye— Sorry, Tim, that’s my half-brother , Percy thought with a suppressed grin.
“You don’t have a phone? Not even a flip phone?” Tim asked, indignant.
“I don’t either, I thought you knew this?” Annabeth said, glancing back at him through the rear-view mirror with a slight frown. “All my correspondences are answered during work hours because I need to use the company computers.”
“...I knew that, but I thought you just stuck strictly to work hours and didn’t like using your phone,” Tim said, looking slightly embarrassed that he had missed this. “Why don’t you two have phones?”
“I don’t have a computer, either,” Percy added, just to watch Tim’s eyes widen to a comical degree. “I really don’t need one. Homework gets done in the library, payphones still exist in Gotham, Annabeth is here if I want to see her, Jason lives across from me, and I haven’t needed to call 911 yet, so…”
“You have a death wish,” Tim stated bluntly, “You don’t see any of the social media announcements of Rogue attacks, you can’t call 911, no one has a way of knowing your location, you can’t use your phone to get a map of the city, and you can’t record any suspicious behavior to give to the GCPD or the bats. You have a death wish .”
“That’s what I keep telling him,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. Tim’s eyes somehow widened even more.
“You are just as bad! You leave WE when it’s getting dark out, I figured you at least had a phone to call someone on while you walked home! You’re at least not living in the Narrows, sure, but you have to know how bad Gotham is for women walking on their own!”
“I can handle myself, Tim,” Annabeth shrugged.
“She has kicked my ass so many times,” Percy said proudly, “If I didn’t think she was perfectly capable of keeping herself safe, I would not be as comfortable living so far from her.”
“Percy, no offense, you know I love you, but you could not pay me to live with you even if I couldn’t protect myself in Gotham,” Annabeth said. “I know for an absolute fact that the only reason your cabin ever passed inspection at camp is because either Tyson was there or I bullied you into cleaning. I refuse to live in a pigsty.”
“...Will I get punched if I mention that you always have to rush to clean the papers off your desk every year?” Percy broached cautiously.
“Yes.”
“Duly noted, I said nothing.”
“Camp?” Tim asked, and Jason looked back to see his gaze turn into a calculating one before Percy turned to look at him brightly.
“Annie and I have been going to the same summer camp since I was twelve,” he said, “We technically still go, but we’re counselors now because we’re older. It’s basically a second home at this point, even the people I don’t get along with.”
“That’s just family sometimes,” Annabeth said, her smile turning fond, “Take Clarisse for example, she and Percy get in at least one fistfight every summer. But if push came to shove, they’d defend each other from anything. And even the older kids who aren’t counselors band together to help take care of the younger ones. It...it has been my home, since I was seven.”
A silence descended on the car after her slightly wistful statement, no one quite sure what to say. Tim was thoughtful, but he didn’t want to ask questions and press too hard, despite his distrust. Jason just glanced at Annabeth and got the sudden feeling that she would understand him if he told her about his own childhood. And Percy...Percy was smiling at her with a vague sadness on his face. He was happy that Annabeth had been at camp for him to meet, because she was one of the best people in his life, but whenever she thought about her early years at camp or before she got there she got melancholic—or, on a very bad day, incredibly sad. Thalia might be alive, but her eternal age of fifteen sometimes reminded Annabeth of the emotions she felt when she saw Thalia fall to monsters. And that’s not even talking about Luke.
When the conversation started back up again, it was a casual argument about what fast food to pick up for dinner, until Percy cut in to say that his mom was cooking and they had better not eat before they got to his house.
“Wait, does your mom know I invited the runt back there?” Jason asked, turning around to face Percy so he could see the glare sent his way by Tim. Percy laughed.
“Oh don’t worry about having enough food. My mom will be making enough to feed her, Paul, the four of us, and any of our friends that decide to randomly drop by if they remember we’re visiting. I would expect….Jason if he’s free,” he started the list off with Jason to see Tim startle with confusion briefly, it was always funny when he talked about Jason with Jason just to be confusing, “and if Jason comes then Thalia is a definite, Leo and Piper a maybe, I’d bet money that Grover is already at my apartment and helping my mom cook, and Rachel might show up at some point if she feels like it.”
“I love Grover, but if he convinced your mom to make enchiladas, I am going to leave and get fast food instead,” Annabeth said.
“Nah, mom is making a casserole, it's the easiest to make in large quantities,” Percy assured her.
“Thank fuck for Sally Jackson,” Annabeth said.
“No cursing around Estelle, I refuse to be the reason she learns curse words,” Percy reminded her, “I want to see which of our friends forgets and has to live with the knowledge that they taught my baby sister the fuck word.”
“...you know it’s gonna be Leo,” Annabeth deadpanned. “Either him or Thalia.”
“I know, but there’s always the chance it could be Jason or Nico, and I would love to hold that over their heads forever.”
No one in the car missed the way Tim stiffened at Nico’s name, but they all pretended they didn’t see it, except for Jason who just met Tim’s eyes in the mirror. It turned out to Tim that he didn’t actually have to talk that much to either Annabeth or Percy, not as much as he was thinking he would. He was a little concerned that the more he talked to them, the more one of them might be able to tell he was suspicious of them. But instead, he could sit back and listen to Percy and Annabeth bicker back and forth, inadvertently giving him information that he could look into once he had his computer and some privacy.
Percy and Annabeth, who were used to having to make conversation on day-long or even week-long road trips for quests, knew exactly what they were doing with their bickering. They kept any actual information out of their words but dropped new information into each topic to keep Tim intrigued. After all, he would know the things they were omitting within a day anyway if everything went according to plan. It did mean, however, that they reached Manhattan before they realized how close they were getting, and suddenly the reality of their plan started to sink in. If they were wrong…
But they weren’t wrong. Jason’s gut feeling was mixed with Annabeth’s intuition, and those two things were rarely wrong. Even Percy was starting to feel it, sitting next to Tim in the backseat for nearly two hours. They just had to wait a little longer.
Annabeth pulled into the parking garage of the Jackson’s apartment building and found a spot in record time, leaving them perfectly on track to be at dinner at seven-thirty. Percy would have called his mom to let her know they were almost there, but he liked surprising her. As long as the surprise visit wasn’t preceded by a year of being missing, she would always enjoy it too.
“Oh, Jason, a word of warning,” Annabeth said as they walked down the hall towards the Jackson’s apartment. Jason looked over, eyebrows raised. “If Grover is here, be prepared to third-wheel your own boyfriend. If you thought the two of us were annoyingly close, those two are even worse, he knew Grover before he even met me.”
“He would not be third-wheeling , Annabeth,” Percy defended, scoffing. Annabeth blinked.
“Oh, so when we were sixteen and dating, he didn’t accidentally stumble onto one of our dates, and you didn’t invite him to join us and hang out? And you didn’t then keep telling me stories of the chaos you dragged him into at your old school?”
Percy flushed. “Okay, so...maybe a little bit of a third-wheel. In my defense, I did not realize we were that bad.”
“That’s a terrible defense, Ariel,” Jason said, grinning, “No worries, if you ever meet Roy, you’ll probably be a third-wheel too.”
“Oh, gods, there are two of them,” Annabeth muttered, quiet enough that she was certain Tim didn’t hear the plural form.
Percy stopped in front of the familiar door and rocked back on his heels as he knocked sharply in a fun pattern. He never did the same one, but his mom knew that a weird pattern meant it was probably him. And when the door was thrown open and he was wrapped in a hug as his mom called his name, he truly had no idea how he ever managed to leave this apartment and go back to Gotham each time he visited. There was nothing like his mom’s hugs. She pulled back, attempted to fix his hair (a losing battle she refused to give up on), and then noticed the two other boys both attempting to not look awkward.
“Oh, you must be Jason!” She exclaimed, perfectly acting like she had never seen him before. She knew everything they were doing, of course she did, and was very used to going along with various demigod shenanigans. “I’m Percy’s mom, please call me Sally. Is it alright if I hug you?”
Jason seemed startled at being asked, but Sally Jackson could read the body language of kids who had been through too much for their age like a book—and yes, they might be technically adults, but her son and his friends would always be kids to her—and she could practically see the tension curled in both Jason and Tim’s muscles at meeting a new person. Jason hesitantly nodded, because he had spoken with Sally before and she had immediately treated him like a son, and was swept up in just as tight a hug as Percy had been given. Tim especially could see the conflicting emotions in Jason’s eyes at being touched by someone outside the family and Percy, but there was absolutely no hint of the faint green that still sometimes entered his eyes when strangers touched him. And when Sally pulled away and turned to Tim, he realized that he got it. Whatever suspicions and misgivings he had about Percy, his mom just radiated kindness. The kind of kindness that someone fought tooth and nail to keep. He wondered if she knew whatever was going on with Percy. He wondered if Percy learned how to act bright and kind from her.
“You must be his brother, Tim, right?” she asked, “It’s so nice to meet you both, I was worried that Percy would only hang around Annabeth in a new city.”
“ Mom !” Percy said, his face flushing slightly. When Sally asked if she could hug him too, Tim kind of wanted to say no. He wanted to distrust Percy’s whole family because he knew Percy’s friends were in on whatever the secret was, and so it made sense for his mom to at least have an idea. But damn it, his mom just seemed so nice , and not at all in a suspicious way! She seemed normal ! Even when he didn’t distrust Percy or Annabeth, neither of them screamed ‘normal suburban mom’ like Sally Jackson did. So he let her hug him, and immediately wished that he wasn’t here to investigate so that he couldn’t risk losing the chance to get a hug like that again.
“Please, come on in, dinner is just cooling a bit on the counter,” Sally said, moving aside to clear the doorway, “Paul and Estelle are on the couch, and Grover just stepped out for a moment but he’s been here helping me.”
“Called it!” Percy exclaimed, excited, as he made a beeline for his step-dad and baby sister. And as he made his way to follow, Jason would never in his technically un-dead life ever admit to the small cooing noise he made upon seeing Estelle making grabby-hands at her older brother. Sue him, he was a sucker for kids. And Estelle was adorable .
“Hey, Stella!” Percy said fondly, taking her from Paul’s arms and holding her carefully. She giggled and tried to grab his hair where it was curling around his ears. Percy laughed and let her tug on the curls a few times before gently pulling her hand away and moving closer to Jason. He looked over to Jason with a fond, relaxed smile on his face and Jason couldn’t breathe for a moment. Percy’s eyes shifted color from moment to moment like the ocean he was born from, and right now they were a clear blue-green like a piece of sea glass, shining with how happy he was to be home and to be holding his little sister. And he was looking at Jason with that look. Jason had been looked at with fondness, sure, especially exasperated fondness when it came to Dick, and especially back in his...not often thought about Robin years (although he'd been letting himself think about them more recently). But that was his family. That was different. This was...no one had looked at Jason like this.
“Stella, this is Jason!” Percy said, letting Jason see Estelle’s face and meet her wide green eyes. “Not cousin Jason, because I’m dating this one, and it would be weird if I was dating your cousin Jason.”
“Percy, Jason isn’t Estelle’s cousin,” Annabeth corrected with an exasperated laugh, but Jason was barely paying attention to that. How could he, with Percy looking like that right in front of him?
“Honorary cousin, same thing! Don’t listen to mean Annie, Stella, your cousin Jason loves you,” Percy kept talking, bouncing Estelle gently as he stood next to Jason and let him reach out towards her. She wrapped her small hand around Jason’s finger, and Jason was ready to burn the world to the ground for this little girl. Percy’s fond grin turned amused at the corners.
“She’s already won you over, hasn’t she?” he asked, staring at Jason’s face as he shook Estelle’s tiny hand with the care of someone who knew his own strength and was terrified to break something. Percy knew when he started dating Jason that there was something serious there. It had started off as a feeling born from how they got together—peacefully falling asleep in a bed together after stitching up a knife wound isn’t a normal way for couples to get together, but it was something that reassured Percy that Jason wouldn’t be ‘normal’. Percy didn’t think he could ever date someone normal, not with his life. Even if he didn't end up scaring them away, he wasn’t sure if he would want to drag someone into his messes like that. But then Arkham happened, and Jason was even further from normal, and then he knew who Percy was, and Percy just got the feeling that there was just one more thing he needed to know before he settled with the fact that he could see himself with Jason for a long time.
Hey, demigods were lucky to reach legal adulthood, Percy was asking a lot to even imagine a far-off future, thinking in short-term relationships isn’t very common. Some demigods were happy with short flings and fleeting relationships, but Percy always knew he wanted more. And the instant that Jason had insisted on making a vow to Percy’s father just to protect him and his family...well, all Percy needed then was to see how Jason interacted with Estelle. He couldn’t see a future with someone who wouldn’t love his baby sister. But Jason looked at Estelle like she was a blank page in an ink-stained world. Like Percy introducing them had softened another one of Jason’s sharp edges. And when Estelle shook his hand...well, it wasn’t physically noticeable to anyone who could be considered a ‘civilian’ (so, Paul), but Jason melted . Percy saw a familiar fire in his eyes.
Jason would kill for Estelle within two minutes of knowing her, and since Percy knew he was the Red Hood, that wasn’t an exaggeration.
“She could win anyone over,” Jason replied eventually. Percy smiled down at her, watching how she was transfixed by the white patch in Jason’s hair.
“Yeah,” he said softly, “yeah, she could.”
Then he glanced up and saw that Tim had been distracted by Annabeth, so he turned back to Jason with a wry grin. “You know, she’s already got a god’s vote of approval to take over the world.”
Jason startled, glancing quickly over to Tim before seeing the same thing Percy had, and then Percy’s words sunk in. He blinked. “Wait what ? What god? How?”
“Yeah, Apollo thinks she could totally take over the world, and that’s the one time I’ll agree with him,” Percy laughed, “The guy could use some work on his poetry, and has seriously bad timing, but his prophecies are usually accurate, for better or for worse. This wasn’t a prophecy , thank the gods, but still.”
“You’re so f—” Jason cut himself off before he cursed, a hint of a flush on his cheeks, and Percy laughed. “You’re so freaking weird.”
“In a good way?” Percy prodded, nudging Jason with his shoulder and raising his eyebrows. Jason rolled his eyes and nudged Percy back, careful of Estelle.
“Yeah, Ariel, in a good way. ‘Weird’ is the tagline to my life at this point.”
“Percy!” A shout came from the doorway, and Percy immediately looked up with a bright grin on his face. In the doorway was a shorter boy with wild curly hair shoved under a rasta cap, with two crutches propped under his arms and a thrilled smile on his face.
“Grover!” Percy exclaimed, just as excited. He gently passed Estelle back to an amused Paul, and then shot over to hug the new arrival. He seemed to remember the crutches at the last minute, and his hug was a lot gentler than his approach would imply, something that Jason saw Tim narrow his eyes at. If Jason remembered Percy’s ramblings about his friends correctly, then Grover was...the satyr, he was pretty sure. That probably explained the crutches.
Even knowing what he did about Percy, and knowing some of the things he had been through, he still caught himself sometimes worrying that his rather intimidating physique would actually affect Percy’s friends and their opinion of him. Not that his physique was just for show, but...well, it was reassuring when Grover didn't even bat an eye as Percy dragged him over to Jason and introduced him as ‘my badass boyfriend’. He just grinned at Jason and said, “So did you lose a bet or what? Is he blackmailing you? Blink twice if he’s keeping you hostage.”
Jason laughed, “Unfortunately, no, this is all of my own volition. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m so sorry for your bad decision-making,” Grover replied, “But nice to meet you too. Percy really does have a type, huh.”
“Why do people keep saying that?” Percy protested. Grover looked over at him blankly, amusement threatening to break through his expression.
“Annabeth beats you in a fight nine times out of ten, Rachel might not be able to fight you but she wastes no time in making fun of you and is incredibly cool, and now he looks like he could bench press you and be totally fine,” he listed, Percy’s face growing redder as Jason grew more amused.
“For the record, I can,” he added, grinning at Percy’s betrayed look.
“Jay!”
As Grover lost composure and had to lean on Percy, he was laughing so hard, Jason glanced over at Tim. His nosey little brother was watching with a calculating expression, trying to get every bit of information out of this interaction as possible. Just like he was trained. If he thought he could get Tim here without his Red Robin gear and without tricking him, then yeah, he’d do it. He didn’t want to have Tim analyzing all their interactions instead of actually being friends with Jason’s boyfriend, but he knew that Tim would never just agree to leave his gear behind when he was still missing answers about Percy and Annabeth that his detective brain was desperately looking for.
As they made their way into the kitchen when Sally called for dinner, Jason clapped Tim on the shoulder, sneaking his brother’s comms out of his pocket as he did so.
“Lighten up, Timbo,” he said, grinning. “We’re all friends here, right?”
And as he saw Tim remember that he had to act like he wanted to be around these people he didn’t trust, he just hoped Tim didn’t check his pockets, and that Jason got an opportunity to swipe his phone before Tim inevitably didn’t fall asleep.
Just a few more hours. Then it was up to Percy and Annabeth.
Notes:
Just wanted to say—i am not anti-jercy at all! I think it can be cute, actually. I know Percy's line about dating jason (grace) might sound like it, but thats just bc in this particular universe, the Big Three kids all kinda latched onto the familial terms like cousin. So he definitely considers JG family in this one, and so this Percy thinks it would be weird. just wanted to clarify in case anyone was wondering.
Hope you enjoyed!! Estelle makes her first appearance and immediately crashes her way into Jason's list of 'people he would kill for without hesitation'. He is so valid for that.
again, i swear there was something else i wanted to say here but i completely forgot it so sorry if it was important lol. See you guys next time <3
Chapter 20
Notes:
spooky month best month spooky month best month
happy october!!!! Happy friday the 13th!!!! i hope everyone is having a spooky day. i know we are almost halfway through october already but the first half of this month has been a DOOZY for me, yall. ill ramble in the end notes but i hope you enjoy this chapter!!! this started out as one chapter but i ended up having to split it into 20 and 21 it just Kept Going.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Percy should have seen this coming. It should have been so glaringly obvious what was going to happen, and he was disappointed in himself for thinking that it wouldn’t. He and Annabeth had IM'ed their friends just the previous day to remind them what was happening over the weekend—as if any of them could forget—and they had asked to please, please not show up for dinner. Sure, they had made it sound to Tim like anyone could pop by at any time, but in reality, they wanted nothing to be obviously strange before they could actually give Tim the full explanation. Grover was an exception, since Percy never turned down an opportunity to catch up with him and hang out, and Grover had been off finding new demigods for a while now. Iris Messages just weren’t the same. Percy was never going to tell Grover not to show up for dinner. He normally never told Nico not to show up either, but he figured these were extenuating circumstances.
But why Percy ever thought Nico would listen to him , he didn’t know. Maybe he had relied too much on Nico's antisocial personality, and thought he'd want to avoid the tension that came from him being in the same room as Tim. But then again, Nico was a little shit.
So Percy couldn’t say he was surprised when Nico wandered out from Percy’s old room right as his mom was starting to plate dinner. His hands were in the pockets of his jacket, the epitome of casual, but Percy knew him too well for that. He saw the mischief in Nico’s dark eyes. His mom lit up as she saw him, though, and Percy couldn’t be too annoyed. Tim was facing away from the entrance to Percy's room, and so Percy enjoyed the last few seconds of peace before Nico pushed every button he possibly could.
Percy locked eyes with Annabeth, and they shared an exasperated sigh.
"Nico!" his mom said brightly, and Percy saw Tim's grip on his fork tighten. "You're just in time. I was beginning to think it would just be us tonight."
"Eh, camp was getting a bit loud tonight," Nico said, shrugging. "The others send their regards, but they're busy. Leo blew something up again."
Percy snorted a laugh despite himself. "What was he trying to make this time?"
"I'm not sure," Nico said, pulling a spare chair from the corner and sitting in between Sally and Annabeth. "I heard him yelling something about a paintball cannon?"
Annabeth sighed heavily. "Someone in cabin 11 must have paid him to make that. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else in cabin 9 sabotaged the project for the peace of the camp."
“Oh wait, I think I heard about that when I stopped by camp earlier today,” Grover said, frowning slightly. “I’m pretty sure that whole thing was actually Austin’s fault.”
“That would explain why Will was so annoyed,” Nico said.
“Why would Austin ask for that, though?” Percy asked, and it was Annabeth who sighed.
“It’s not because Thalia and the others were coming, was it?”
Grover laughed. “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly why. I don’t think cabin 7 will ever learn to stop messing with them when they visit.”
Grover was sitting on Paul’s other side, right next to Tim. It was the hope that Grover could give them some sort of confirmation before they had to test themselves, but so far, it seemed like his satyr senses were being blocked. Meanwhile, Nico's placement at the round table left him directly across from Tim. Percy was positive that wasn't a coincidence. The younger vigilante was acting incredibly nonchalant—if Percy didn't know to look for the tension, he wouldn't see it. But he was watching out for it, and he saw the way Tim never quite looked away from Nico entirely.
"Is Will not coming, then?" Sally asked, handing Nico a plate of casserole. He gave her a small smile and thanked her, with a politeness he never showed to anyone else, before shaking his head.
"No. Paolo took a fall down a hill during capture the flag this afternoon, skinned his knee pretty bad. Will was preparing for a late night in the infirmary."
Translation: Paolo lost his leg. Again.
"I hope he's alright," Sally said, her eyebrows furrowing. "Will hasn't been working too hard, has he?"
Nico cracked a grin. "If I say yes, will you tell him to take more breaks? You're the only one he listens to, I bet his dad couldn't even drag him out of the infirmary."
"If his dad told him to leave the infirmary, he'd stay even longer just to prove he could," Percy said. None of Apollo's kids would let anything tear them away from their art of choice, even the god himself. "Has he stopped saying that he's worried about med school? He's practically a doctor already."
Nico rolled his eyes. "No, he has not stopped worrying. I tell him he's being stupid every time he brings it up."
Percy looked next to him at Jason, and found his boyfriend watching the conversation with intrigue and only the slightest bit of confusion. Luckily, it didn't take Percy very long to figure out what was confusing him.
"Oh, Jason, this is Nico," he said, remembering that Jason wasn't supposed to have met him outside the mask before, as that would require Nico being back in Gotham. "He's basically a feral dog that broke into my house and never left."
"Percy!" his mom chided, but Nico bared his teeth as he glared at Percy.
"Hypocrite," he shot back. "You're the one who keeps dragging me back here."
"Boys, boys, you're both pretty," Annabeth cut in, laughing. "Jason, the real answer is that Nico is family. Will is Nico's boyfriend, and practically runs first-aid at camp. Nico, you've heard about Jason, and that's his brother Tim, who is also my boss at my internship."
Nico nodded a greeting to Tim, who stiffly returned it. Then he turned to Jason.
"Is it true that your aunt wants to set up a playdate between her dogs and Mrs. O'Leary?" he said. Percy saw the sudden concern on Tim's face as he turned to stare at Jason too, who sighed and eyed Percy in exasperation.
"I told you that's not happening," he said. "It's not a good idea. Her dogs are..."
"Violent," Tim finished. "They're ex-fighting dogs, she rescued them. But they still aren't that friendly towards other dogs."
"Mrs. O'Leary can handle it," Nico answered easily. "She's actually a retrained fighting dog too, it just wasn't us who trained her."
"You never mentioned that," Jason said to Percy, who shrugged.
"I didn't think it was important," he said. "She's a sweetheart, that's all that matters."
“A sweetheart who still terrifies my girlfriend,” Grover pouted, but Percy waved him off.
“Juniper is terrified of dogs in general, and we keep Mrs. O’Leary away from her, G-man, you know this.”
"Wait, you met our aunts?" Tim asked, pointedly looking away from Nico. Percy maybe felt a little bad about how on edge he must be, but Nico was enjoying himself, and Percy couldn't bring himself to cut that off. He did, however, need to cut off any secret identity-related trains of thought that Tim might be having about Percy meeting the Sirens. Not yet. Just a little longer, and then all that wouldn't matter anymore. Nothing big was going to happen when they were sitting around the Jackson-Blofis dinner table.
"Yeah, they dropped by my apartment a little while ago," he said. "Luckily Jason had given me the whole rundown already about how your dad dated Selina for a while, because otherwise it might have been a little...surprising."
"Yeah," Tim agreed, leaning back slightly in his seat. "That is a good thing."
Percy couldn't tell what he was thinking, or if his deflection had worked. It barely had to. He only needed, like, three hours! Three hours of Tim not trying to contact the other bats, that was all they needed.
"So Tim," Nico said, and Percy held in a preemptive sigh as Tim looked back to Nico with forced calm. "How much better is Annabeth than the other interns you've had?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. Tim smiled a little, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Quite a bit," he said. "Sure makes my job easier, that's for sure."
"I can't say I'm surprised," Sally said, smiling at Annabeth. "I do hope you're not overworking yourself either, though. It's not just the younger ones I worry about."
Annabeth flushed slightly, but shook her head.
"I'm not, Sally, I promise."
"When does your next semester start?" Paul asked. "Are you excited for any classes?"
"I've got a class that might include an trip to the ocean," Percy said, grinning. "And Annie has the most Gotham class I've ever heard."
"The history and art of gargoyles," Annabeth answered Paul's inquisitive look. She grinned. "I'm actually quite interested. I think some of my more personal designs could benefit from a gargoyle or two."
"Every Gothamite knows the value of a good gargoyle," Jason agreed, nodding. "No building is complete without them."
"The gargoyles on the manor all have names," Tim added. "We all have our favorites."
"Gotham sounds like my kind of place," Nico said, hiding a twitch of a smile as Tim stiffened again. "Dark, shadowy, and chaotic? If only I liked bats."
Percy kicked Nico under the table. Nico looked at him, completely unrepentant.
"They might seem a little unpleasant, but bats are wonderfully helpful animals," Paul said. "I think vampire stories have given them a bad rep, honestly."
Percy didn't laugh. He didn't . But Paul was just...so serious. Percy hadn't told his mom or Paul about Jason's identity, not wanting to without discussing it first, and so he knew that Paul definitely didn't pick up on the hidden meaning of Nico's words.
"I agree," he said, though, hearing the amusement in his own voice. "You're completely right, Paul."
"I rather like bats," Annabeth added, hiding her own humor far better than Percy. "I think you're just being unfair, Nico. They're very helpful. And they're nocturnal, like owls."
"Eh," Nico shrugged. "I think my dislike is just as justified as my dislike of wolves. I'd be happy to change my mind, though."
The brief silence that settled over the table was loaded. Jason was looking between Nico and Tim, and Percy saw that his mom was watching the demigods with exasperation. She might not have known what wasn't being said, but she knew them well enough to hear that there was subtext causing the tension. Also, a room with three and a half demigods and a satyr was a recipe for some level of chaos.
"Well," she said, cutting off the conversation before Percy, Nico, or Annabeth could say any other double-edged comments, "Tim, what do you do for fun?"
Percy saw Nico look slightly disappointed, but he didn't try and rerail the barbed conversation. Percy just hoped that Tim thought they were only talking about Jason's identity, not his own. Some part of him doubted that, though.
He just sighed slightly and let the conversation continue around him. His mom and Paul, and Estelle's presence in her high chair, would keep the dinner table civil. No one dared to actually start a fight in Sally Jackson-Blofis's household, and Percy was pretty sure Tim and Jason felt those vibes already. So he wasn’t worried about the rest of dinner, even with Nico stirring the pot.
No, it was what came after that he couldn’t stop thinking about.
Tim had never been happier for his habit of not going the hell to sleep when he was supposed to. He had pretended, picking a spot on the floor and hoping that Jason hadn’t mentioned his bad habit, and sure enough it was only an hour before he heard soft shuffling around him.
“Could you be any louder,” Annabeth hissed, quietly enough that it wouldn’t have woken him if he was actually asleep. Percy answered equally as quiet, his voice no longer the humorous, relaxed tone he had gotten during dinner.
“Well sorry, Nico was just here! I’m allowed to be a little concerned when he calls only a few hours later.”
And suddenly Tim was even more wide awake.
“If you want to wake Estelle, then keep stumbling into your own damn furniture.”
He heard Percy sigh heavily, but he didn’t respond. Instead, the two of them silently shuffled out of the room that had been set aside for the four of them to sleep in (Percy’s old room, apparently, although it had been cleaned a lot to fit the four of them), the door clicking shut behind them. Immediately, Tim was on his feet, reaching into his pocket to grab his comms as he dug into his bag for his suit and mask.
“Tim, what the fuck are you doing?” Jason’s half-asleep voice grumbled from the bed. Tim glared up at him, fairly certain that the Lazarus waters in Jason’s veins made him able to see better in the dark.
“I’m going to go figure out where the hell your boyfriend is sneaking off to at this hour. Like you knew I was here to do.”
“Do you really want Red Robin to be potentially seen in New York when Tim Drake is also here?” Jason replied, a little more awake-sounding but still not sitting up. Tim stared down at the suit he had brought with him, hating that Jason had a point. “What if they see you and haven’t already put it together?”
“What do you expect me to do?” Tim asked. “Swing around New York City in my pajamas? Where the fuck are my comms?”
Jason groaned. “Why the fuck should I know, you’re the one here on bat business. I didn’t even bring my damn comms. Are you gonna go or not? You’re gonna lose them at this rate.”
Tim narrowed his eyes, halfway through strapping on his suit over his pajama shirt. “You know more than you’re telling me.”
“I’m sorry, what part of ‘if I tell you I’ll die again’ still hasn’t clicked? Yes I know more than I’m saying, but I can’t say it ,” Jason retorted. “I don’t know where the hell they’re going if that’s what you’re wondering. And the most I can say is that I know they have ways to move places very fast, so…”
“Where the fuck is my phone ?” Tim demanded, frantically checking his pockets. He knew he had his phone. He knew it was in his pocket. His comms, maybe he put those in a pocket in his bag and forgot which one, but he knew his phone was on his person. “They took my fucking phone? Do they know I’ve been watching them?”
Jason groaned again and rolled over to throw the pillow not under his head at Tim. “Are you stalking them or not? If not, awesome, be a normal person and go to sleep. If you are, just go already, and if you need backup, give up on the secrecy and tell one of them to contact me because they aren’t doing anything evil or illegal .”
Tim scowled and made his way to the door, just taking his grappling hook and utility belt, feeling way more vulnerable than he’d like without his comms, although his suit was a welcome shield. “I’m going. Sorry in advance for when I find Percy doing something criminal.”
Then he slipped out of the room silently, leaving the apartment completely and making his way to the roof of the apartment building. He perched on the edge of the roof, but there were no gargoyles around for him to blend in with. He hoped he’d be swinging at fast enough speeds that no one could pinpoint him as Red Robin. He scanned the streets below the building, knowing that while he had wasted important time looking for his gear—he still didn’t know how they managed to steal from him—Percy and Annabeth couldn’t have gotten that far on foot after needing to get out of the building.
Sure enough, he spotted Annabeth’s blonde hair at the end of the street, ducking into an alleyway behind someone who was most likely Percy. Tim quickly leapt across the rooftops to get above the alley, thankful that the buildings were the same height.
“Are we getting a cab?” Percy asked quietly, but a lot louder than they had been talking in the room. Tim only had to strain a little bit to hear him. Annabeth sighed.
“Well we can’t take the car, otherwise it’ll be too obvious that we left walking distance,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’m not calling the Grey Sisters, I don’t think my stomach could handle that either right now.”
Percy looked relieved, and walked to the other end of the alley to hail a taxi. Tim frowned. Following a car wasn’t that much harder than a person, especially if there were other people on the road and the car was following laws, but it was annoying. Especially in a city where he very much needed to stay in the shadows. Did Percy have to live in New York? It was so... bright .
“Do you have cash?” Annabeth asked. “I have some, but all the way to Long Island is gonna add up.”
Long Island ? Tim suppressed a groan. His arms were gonna be killing him tomorrow. But he didn’t turn around and go back to Percy’s old room where Jason would say ‘I told you so’ if he was still half-awake. No, he was seeing this through, now. If this finally gave their family the answers that Jason couldn’t tell them, then it was worth it. This could finally tell them what the hell was going on with the first person Jason has seemed serious about. So he watched as Percy finally got a cab and the two of them climbed inside. And he set himself swinging through the shadows he could find, keeping an eye on the yellow car, thinking the whole way along.
It wasn’t that Tim wanted Percy to be up to something. Hell, if this turned out to be the two of them fucking around and getting ice cream at one in the morning, he’d be perfectly happy. Sore and slightly annoyed, but happy. Because he liked Annabeth, and had clicked with her in a way he never had with WE interns before. Because he wasn’t cruel, and for all their bickering and fights and the very rocky start, Jason was his older brother. Jason looked happy around Percy, he looked almost relaxed, and that was more than could be said for any other non-cape Jason had known over the years. It just had to happen that the first person Jason seemed to really like then decided to break a patient out of Arkham while figuring out the identity of Red Hood. And then Jason of all people, after sounding pissed over the comms, suddenly decided that all of that was perfectly fine while being conveniently unable to tell them why, thanks to a fucking death oath?? So yeah. Tim didn’t want Percy to be anything but what Jason thought he was. His brother was happy, and that was already rare enough as it was. Tim believed Dick when he said that he didn’t think Percy had some kind of influencing magic, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a secret. That didn’t mean the secret couldn’t potentially hurt Jason. So if Jason couldn’t tell them, it was up to his siblings to find out for themselves. And right now, it was up to Tim.
Throughout the night there had been an annoying mix of perfectly normal interactions and weird statements that were completely brushed under the rug. Especially once the kid from Arkham arrived, walking in as though he knew exactly what he was doing by being in the apartment. Tim had stayed as far away from Percy’s baby sister as possible, because he saw the way Jason got wrapped around her finger immediately and he couldn’t risk a cute baby lessening his suspicion, but he had to admit that seeing Percy interact with his sister threw him off. But then he reasoned that Percy could genuinely love his family as much as his face implied while also being up to something nefarious on the side. Percy’s friend was weird too. He certainly walked with an odd sort of limp, but he also sometimes seemed like he was about to forget his own crutches. And that wasn’t even talking about the di Angelo kid. Tim hadn’t been there the night he was picked up, but Dick had told him how the shadows seemed to move closer to him, and Tim was pretty sure he saw that happening throughout dinner.
And then there were the bat comments. Tim knew that Percy and most likely Annabeth were aware of Jason’s identity, so it wouldn’t be farfetched to assume they’d tell di Angelo too, but was that just the kid being bitter about Jason’s involvement in his time in Arkham, or was it directed at Tim, too? The kid had never looked towards Tim, but he couldn’t be positive that it was only directed towards Jason.
Either way, there was more happening here even if it wasn’t criminal, and Tim was going to find out what the fuck it was.
He was right, his arms were aflame by the time the cab began to slow down, but Tim had long since been forced to abandon rooftops by that point since the cab had left the city entirely and was on a back road that looked like it was leading to farmland. Instead, he had taken to trees, practically running across branches to keep up with the car. But he stopped suddenly as the cab pulled over, freezing in the treetops as Percy and Annabeth stepped out and paid the driver. Then, as the taxi did a k-turn and drove back the other way, they sighed.
“Well, that was annoying,” Annabeth grumbled, the two of them starting to walk further down the road.
“It’s not even that much further, the guy couldn’t drive a few more minutes away from the city?” Percy agreed. “He’s already gone this far!”
“Did he have to keep commenting on us being ‘two kids on their own this late at night’, too? I was starting to think he might try and attack us,” Annabeth kept complaining, kicking a rock into the trees. Tim was silent on his feet even standing on branches, making no more noise than a squirrel might.
“It’s kinda nice walking, though, as long as we don't get...interrupted,” Percy said, shrugging. “At least we didn’t get interrupted on the drive up from Gotham, though, that would have gone pretty badly.”
“Are you kidding?” Annabeth shot back, shaking her head. “That could have ended terribly . With Tim in the car?”
“Oof, yeah, at least Jason would know what was going on, kinda.”
“Tim was watching Grover pretty heavily tonight,” Annabeth commented, and Tim cursed mentally. Was she watching him through dinner? “You don’t think he noticed anything, do you?”
“Well...he is very smart,” Percy said, wincing slightly, “and we know Grover hasn’t really been around...normal people for very long recently? I don’t know what Tim saw or didn’t see, but I did have to nudge the G-man a few times to remind him about his crutches.”
“I guess all we can do is be thankful that no one other than Nico actually showed up,” Annabeth sighed. “He was bad enough, but none of our friends can be normal to save their lives.”
“If you separate Jason from Leo and Piper then maybe he can be,” Percy laughed, “and same with Piper. But if all three of them came? There would be no chance.”
“You’re right, Piper could probably pretend to be normal,” Annabeth agreed. “I’m not sure if I’d agree about Jason, though, he spent way more time with Lupa than you did.”
Percy laughed, bumping his shoulder into Annabeth’s. “What, you think he acts like he was raised by wolves?”
“He bit you the last time you two sparred.”
“And I bit him right back!” Percy replied proudly, making Annabeth chuckle in exasperation but clear amusement.
There were a few moments of silence before Annabeth sighed contentedly and spoke again.
“You know, as much as I love Gotham’s architecture, and I’ve come to like living there…it’s nice to see the stars again.”
“Yeah,” Percy agreed. “The smog definitely adds ambiance, but I doubt Jace could ever visit with all the pollution. Just touching the harbor was disgusting, I could feel it on my skin for, like, two days. I can’t imagine what the air quality would do to him or Thalia.”
“Can we see…” Annabeth trailed off as she scanned the sky for something. After a second, she relaxed and pointed up at the sky. “We can. There she is.”
Tim followed Annabeth’s finger up into the sky, but it seemed like she was just pointing at a random collection of stars. Tim knew the constellations, and while she was pointing right next to Orion, there wasn’t anything in that area. Percy, though, seemed to soften as he looked at the sky with a slightly sad smile.
“There she is,” he echoed. “Hi, Zoë.”
Tim didn’t know what the fuck they were talking about.
After a few more minutes of walking, the two of them began to peer into the trees, and Percy grinned. “I think we’re here, right?”
Annabeth relaxed as she nodded, tugging Percy gently into the woods where Tim was hiding. He stood as still as a gargoyle, waiting for them to pass underneath him.
“We’re here,” Annabeth confirmed. “It’s been too long.”
“It’s only been a week, Annie,” Percy said, laughing lightly. “But yeah, I get what you mean. It always feels different, leaving because we actually moved out of the city, not just left for one school year.”
They passed under Tim without even looking up, and he kept his eyes carefully trained on them as he followed right behind them. Where were they going? This was the middle of a patch of woods on Long Island, what was here for them? He tried to peer ahead through the trees, but all he saw was...were those strawberries? It was dark, and there were trees everywhere, but he swore that was—
Wait, no. That wasn’t strawberries, why did he think that was a farm? It was a fucking wide open clearing, there were buildings , where the hell was this? And holy shit was that a fucking dragon ? Tim nearly fell out of the tree as his eyes landed on a scaled, very dragon-like creature curled sleeping at the base of a large pine tree near the edge of the clearing. Percy and Annabeth looked over at the creature too, oblivious to Tim scrambling for purchase behind them, and just smiled.
“I’d say hi, but he seems comfortable,” Annabeth said softly. “He’s getting big.”
“Yeah, Peleus might like us, but waking him up still seems like a recipe for losing a hand,” Percy agreed. Tim just stared at the dragon, nearly forgetting to follow the two of them as they passed the pine tree and kept making their way to the clearing. Tim didn’t know what he was going to do once the trees ran out, but he’d figure something out. This was big. This was something that he could report back, a place that he could bring the others if he needed to, and something that made him really wish he had his comms. He was on his own right now, no one knew where he was—Jason knew he was following them, but not where they were going! If anything happened to him...that was it. There was no backup, no other bat swooping in to save him. No older brothers or sister to kick someone's ass for hurting him. No feral younger brother to eagerly join in. No Stephanie to do something completely unhinged in his defense. Why did he do this on his own? Should he have dragged Jason out of bed and insisted he come along? How long would Jason wait before panicking? Would it be before or after Percy and Annabeth returned without him?
Tim shook his head, that train of thought wasn’t helpful. He was good at hand to hand; if it came to it, he figured he’d be able to take the two of them, or at least long enough for him to get away. He didn’t know what abilities they had, but Tim had fought Killer Croc by himself before. It might not be smart for him to fight alone, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do it.
“We made it,” Percy said, almost disbelieving as the two of them breached the treeline, leaving Tim in one of the last few trees, watching for a chance to dart behind a building. “It worked .”
“It did,” Annabeth said, and she sounded nearly giddy. “I thought near the end there that we had been wrong, but...we were right.”
Then she turned around, looking back into the trees, a wide smile on her face. She didn’t look at Tim, but the next words out of her mouth turned his blood to ice.
“You can come out now, Tim,” she said, making him freeze. “We know you’re there. We can explain everything now.”
Notes:
tim time tim time tim time tim time!!! i dont think you guys understand how long ive been waiting to get here lmao, its been since i started writing this dang fic. And yeah, there were definitely easier ways for percy and annabeth to test him, but this was more fun :) my metric for this fic truly does have 'but is it fun' ranked above 'is it accurate/canon/does it make sense' lol. also tim can make some not-so-smart decisions, as a treat. he's earned ignoring his brain cells for a little bit.
anyway yeah me updating today is kinda to celebrate the fact that I just got tested for adhd this week and am currently awaiting results :) sure itll be a few weeks, but my anxiety has been THROUGH the roof for the past week or so, so today truly feels like a weight is off my back lol. Given the cliffhanger of this chapter, i can tell you that i def will update in two weeks, both because 21 is done already, and because the 27th happens to be my birthday :)
I hope you guys enjoyed!!!! to be completely honest i had originally skipped past the dinner scene, but then some of yall commented last chapter and i realized you all were so completely correct that nico would be a little shit and show up, so then i had to add it lmao. i wish i could be inside tim's head when he heard nico say 'if only i liked bats'. hes such an asshole i adore him.
See you next time <3
Chapter 21
Notes:
as promised :) tim time tim time tim time babieeeeee
hope yall enjoy it :)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tim’s heart was racing in his ears. She knew. They both knew, this whole time, this was a fucking trap . He had fallen for their trap hook, line, and sinker even when he saw his means of communication were gone. And now he was stranded on Long Island. He didn’t move. Annabeth sighed, the smile dropping a bit.
“Tim, we aren’t going to hurt you. I know you don’t trust us, I know your family doesn’t trust us, but we aren’t going to hurt you. You want to know what Jason knows, right? We led you here so we could check if we could tell you. And the fact that you’re here right now means we can. So please come out?”
Tim did want to know. But they could be lying. They could kidnap him or hurt him as soon as he left the tree.
But Tim was Red Robin, and this information could prove someone in his family right, be it Jason or not. He wasn’t a coward, and he could handle most terrible things thrown at him.
Fuck it, he had come this far already.
“Why should I trust you now , after you tricked me out here alone and stole my fucking phone?” he called from the tree, his vigilante-voice instinctively kicking in.
Annabeth winced slightly. “Yes, we did, but we had a reason. We needed to see if we could tell you, and we want to explain everything, but we can only explain it to you and if you had your comms or your phone then we couldn’t guarantee that it was only you hearing it. And honestly, if we just asked you to come somewhere with us without your phone or anything, would you do it?”
“...” Tim didn’t need to answer. The answer was clearly no. But this did confirm something, at least. He’d worked with Annabeth for how long now? He really should have assumed this. “So you do know who I am.”
“I figured it out pretty fast,” Annabeth admitted. “Once you know Jason...it all falls together. I admire your fighting style, you fight very intelligently. You see your opponent’s weaknesses and use them expertly.”
Tim sighed, and steeled himself. He dropped out of the tree, landing lightly on his feet. Neither Percy or Annabeth were fazed by the sight of him in full gear—or, mostly full, as his ear still felt way too empty. He crossed his arms over his suit and scowled at the two of them, feeling very much like how Damian must feel all the time.
“You can hopefully spar later, Annie,” Percy said, trying to act casual. He wasn’t doing that great of a job, his hands in his pockets but his posture tense. “But for now...Tim, we can’t explain here. The only reason we can even be standing in this clearing without raising an alarm is because we told them we’d be arriving late with a guest, but we still shouldn’t push it. But if you’ll follow us to the Big House, we’ll tell you everything and answer all your questions. Even some you might not know you need answered. We swear. We aren’t going to fight you, or keep you here against your will, but you’ll need to give us a little bit of trust if you want us to tell you everything.”
“...give me something , first,” Tim said eventually, narrowing his eyes behind his mask. “Something to get me to trust you that little bit.”
Percy and Annabeth shared a glance. Annabeth pursed her lips. “Your phone and communicator are both safe, underneath Jason’s pillow back in the apartment. He’s probably put them back in your bag by now.”
So Jason knew about this. Jason stole them. Tim’s scowl deepened. Since this apparently wasn’t mind control…
“In the role reversal of the century, I am going to fucking kill him.”
“Please don’t,” Percy said quickly. “He’s just helping us, and he’s trying to help you too. This is going to make no sense until after we explain everything, but there are people here that we want you to meet, and...hopefully, you’ll want to meet them too after we explain. Just...please. Let us help you understand.”
Bruce would probably tell him to head back to the apartment now that he knew his comms were there, and wait until he could get backup. He didn’t know what he would be walking into, or if he’d be walking out. He was fairly certain that no matter what illegal thing might be going on, the two of them weren’t murderers , but Tim wasn’t one to ever rule out an option without proof. But Bruce wasn’t here, and Tim had a feeling that there would be no better opportunities to try and find out what had changed Jason’s mind so quickly that fateful night at Arkham. He got the feeling that if he left now, none of them would ever know the truth. So he sighed, and stepped out of the woods.
“Fine,” he said. “But know that if something does happen to me, you’ll be a prime target for every bat and bird out there, and the JL too.”
Annabeth smiled, relieved. “Nothing is going to happen to you. If anything tries to happen to you, I will personally make sure it doesn’t.”
Then she turned and began to walk across the clearing, past buildings arranged in a horseshoe shape that all looked radically different. Percy grinned at Tim and waved for him to follow, before he jogged to catch up with Annabeth. Tim walked slowly, observing everything around him as he stayed a few feet behind the pair. Each small building that he could see in the clearing looked so different from each other. Two at the end were large and marble, looking more like museums than anything, but another one looked more like a beach cabin, another had flowers growing wild along the walls, another had—was that blood on the door? It was still a bright red without oozing down the door, so it had to be paint, right? There was another one, though, a plain grey building with some animal carving that he couldn’t quite make out, that seemed to catch his eye. He quickly looked away, keeping an eye on Percy and Annabeth. He counted about twenty in total, plus a few more half-built shells, but Annabeth and Percy weren’t leading him towards any of them, instead leading him around all of them and off towards a large house that didn’t look like any of the smaller cabins. In the distance he saw a lake, a volleyball court, archery targets, and a rock wall.
Oh. It hit him suddenly that this was the camp the two of them had talked about on the car ride up. He probably should have realized that sooner. So...whatever was off about Percy and Annabeth was off about this camp too. Everyone here, they were involved. This was so much bigger than he had thought.
Before he had gotten a good look at all the things he could see, his two guides had stopped on the stairs of the house and were waiting for him to reluctantly join them.
“Welcome to the Big House,” Percy said, his smile still nervous and awkward. “Thankfully we’ll have it to ourselves while we explain, usually Chiron and Mr. D are here, but we told them we’d have a guest to show around and so they left it empty.”
“This is where camp counselor meetings happen,” Annabeth said, swinging open the door and stepping inside. “Along with orientations and...serious decision making.”
Percy flipped on the light switch as Tim followed Annabeth, revealing a main room with a long table in the center, like a low-budget version of the WE conference tables. Along the walls were what looked like fake grape vines, and there was a stuffed leopard head by one of the doors. Annabeth took a seat seemingly at random, and Percy sat beside her, leaving Tim to pick from the many empty seats. He sat directly across from the two of them, shifting the chair around to be in between the two instead of in front of one of them. After a moment of deliberation, he huffed and slowly peeled off his mask, knowing it wasn’t doing any good anyway. He tucked it into a pocket on his belt, and leveled his gaze at Percy and Annabeth.
“Alright,” Annabeth started, tenting her fingers on the table. “I’m going to start this off the same way we started explaining to Jason, by explaining the reason that we keep this so secret. The reasons that led to him making the oath he did.”
“Are you going to make me make that oath too?” Tim asked, ready to leave if he had to. Annabeth shook her head.
“No. And we didn’t make Jason make it, in fact Percy tried to tell him not to, but Jason insisted. There admittedly is a bit more nuance to the oath situation than what he told you, but the base reasoning remains the same. He said that his family wouldn’t accept him not wanting to tell them anything unless he literally couldn’t.” Her words made Tim frown, but he couldn’t exactly say Jason was wrong . The past few months proved that pretty well. That is, if Annabeth was telling the truth. She kept talking as a soft, fond smile flickered on her face. “This camp...it’s a home for a lot of people, me included. It’s grown so much bigger over the past few years, as more people realize they belong here and as we keep making it safer, but that just means that the secrecy is even more important. The youngest person here, who was brought here just a few months ago, is four years old.”
Tim blinked. Four ? Oh, no wonder Jason got so invested so quickly.
“Her father brought her here because he was worried for her safety and had heard about our camp from another camper who he had run into,” Percy continued. “When his daughter, Marcy, started showing signs of...being different, he began to worry that he couldn’t protect her, so he brought her here. We can protect her here, and teach her how to protect herself. She’s safe here. We all are.”
“Most people here are between the ages of eight and sixteen, with outliers on both ends. Percy and I are both outliers, as well as all of our friends, because people like us…” Annabeth grew quiet. “People like us don’t tend to make it to eighteen very often. It’s getting better, but…not very quickly. The older we get, the less likely it is that we’ll get even older. There are around three hundred people who call this camp home, and the oldest one is only twenty-six. Our—I mean my —well—” She cut herself off with a groan, but Percy picked up seamlessly.
“Annabeth’s youngest half-sister is six,” he said. “And the secrecy keeps her and everyone else safe. We aren’t meta, Tim. We aren’t aliens, either. And if scientists or the government, or any supervillains got wind that we exist...people that we care about could get experimented on, or vivisected, or worse. That’s why we broke Nico out of Arkham, and why Jason got his bloodwork back for us. He’s fifteen , and he’s my little brother in all but paperwork. I couldn’t let that happen to him. Not to mention, there’s another community like this, but that one is even bigger. That one has over a thousand people, and there are families . Infants.”
They were quiet for a moment, giving Tim time to think. He only really had one thought so far, filing away the knowledge that they were something other than metas or aliens. Mutants of some kind, perhaps?
“Well,” he said, “I get how you got Jason on board so easily.”
Percy laughed, “Yeah, once I brought up that kids were involved, he was already promising to keep the secret.” Then his smile dropped a bit. “Estelle could be in danger too, if this secret got out. She’s not involved, not for any reason other than being related to me, but if she got hurt because someone thinks she’s like me...I’d never forgive myself.”
“She’ll be fine, Percy,” Annabeth said softly, a hand on his arm. “She’s got you to protect her, and all the rest of us too. She will be the safest little girl in history.”
Percy smiled at her, his eyes still conflicted. Tim wasn’t sure what to think. Unless they were masters at faking emotion...this was real. They were telling the truth, and there were infants relying on this secret being kept safe. Tim swallowed, realizing that he was starting to be tempted to do the same thing Jason did and promise to keep the secret. He might have come here not trusting them, and thinking they were up to something, but...Tim wasn’t about to risk the lives of kids . Even if this was something criminal, kids weren’t born criminals. And from the sound of it...whatever Percy and Annabeth were, it was something that made them inherently interesting to anyone who wanted power. It sounded like kids would be hunted if this got out, and that was something that made Tim feel sick.
Annabeth took a breath and turned back to Tim.
“Tim...there’s a reason that we wanted to explain this to you and not the rest of your family,” she said. “And you might not believe us at first, which makes perfect sense. This is...a lot. But the reason that we’re explaining this to you is the same reason that we aren’t going to insist you don’t tell the rest of your family. We did insist that for Jason, but we aren’t for you because it will be your choice who you trust enough to tell.”
Tim frowned. “Why? What makes me different from Jason?”
Percy and Annabeth looked at each other before turning back to him.
“Because,” Annabeth said, “this...this is your secret too.”
“You can’t enter camp if you aren’t like us, Tim,” Percy said gently, as Tim froze in his seat. “Anyone who isn’t one of us needs special, verbal permission to pass through the magical barrier by that pine tree out front. That was the reason we led you out here, we needed to see if you could enter camp on your own.”
“Uhh, no,” Tim said. “No. Other than the vigilantism thing, I am perfectly normal.”
Annabeth’s smile was understanding. “You’re like us, Tim, and I get how difficult that can be to accept. But it’s not a bad thing. My siblings and I especially can help you get used to it, I promise.”
“Your siblings?” Tim asked. “Is everyone here related?”
“Not everyone , technically,” Annabeth said. “But the cabins are separated in such a way that means each of the kids in one cabin are siblings.”
“...So if you’re claiming that I’m like you guys, which I still don’t believe, then are you claiming that I’m related to someone here? My parents didn’t have any other kids.”
“...yes,” Annabeth said, but she didn’t elaborate. Tim’s frown deepened.
“Tim, how much do you know about Greek Mythology?” Percy asked, the subject change startling Tim.
“Uh, not as much as Jason probably, but a decent amount? Why does that matter?”
“It actually matters a lot. You probably believe that the Greek gods existed back in their prime time, when Themyscira was created and Wonder Woman was made by Zeus, right?” Percy asked, and Tim hesitantly nodded. That was the logical thing to believe. Obviously he believed Diana when she said she was made by Zeus himself, but they had to have faded away or something centuries ago. Annabeth leaned a little more onto the table, pinning Tim with sharp grey eyes.
“They’re still around,” she said, gentle but blunt, and Tim felt his brain simultaneously go to static and start to work overtime. Was she serious? Was she lying to him, or was she crazy? The Justice League would definitely know if gods were still around. She saw the expression on his face and chuckled. “I know, it’s a lot. But they’re around, all of them, and so are Mount Olympus and the monsters and the Underworld. It’s real, Tim.”
“...what the fuck are you two on?” Tim asked, trying to ignore the sincere look on both of their faces. Percy laughed, and placed his hand out on the table as if he wanted to shake Tim’s hand.
“Hi, Tim, I’m Percy Jackson,” he said, “I’m not on any drugs. You’ve met my mom Sally, but you know that Paul is my step-father. My dad isn’t human. I’m actually the son of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea.”
Tim stared at Percy’s face, looking for literally any trace of falsehood or humor. But Percy was completely serious. If this wasn’t true, it wasn’t that Percy was lying to him, because Percy believed what he was saying one hundred percent. Tim actually wasn’t purposefully ignoring Percy’s outstretched hand, he just genuinely forgot it was there as he stared at Percy with wide eyes.
“You—I’m sorry, what ?” Tim felt lost, and he hated it. Was this one big scheme to pull the rug from under him? Was this payback for not just believing Jason from the start? “You’re—you’re half god ?”
Percy’s smile returned, wryly quirking the side of his mouth. “Weird, I know. You get used to it.” He took his hand back, not offended that Tim had ignored it.
“Prove it,” Tim said immediately, unsure what answer he was even looking for. If Percy could prove it, then that meant Tim had to add this to his worldview. If Percy couldn’t, then what was he supposed to do? But Percy just glanced at Annabeth, shrugged, and used a hand to make a motion towards one of the open doors in the back of the room. Tim watched for a moment, going still when he saw a small bubble of water floating out of the room and drifting through the air to stop in front of Percy. Now, Tim had seen hydrokinesis before, that wasn’t a shock. The shock was that Percy had it, and that it was definitely a point in favor of him telling the truth. Tim pulled his eyes away from where Percy was making the water into a fish swimming through the air, and glanced at Annabeth questioningly.
“I’m a daughter of Athena,” Annabeth answered his wordless question, clearly trying to not overwhelm Tim. But at that, Tim shook his head.
“Alright, now I know you’re lying about something. I might not know everything about Greek mythology, but I do know that Athena is a maiden goddess. She never had kids.”
Percy snorted a laugh as Annabeth groaned, dropping her head into her hands.
“Go on, Annie, tell him how Athena has kids,” he teased, and Annabeth shot him a death glare from between her fingers. She muttered something, but it was too soft for Tim to hear. It only took a few more seconds for Percy to break, though, and repeat what she had said much louder.
“She’s a brain child ,” he said, grinning widely. “Literally! Athena’s kids are literally born from her thoughts, and she sends them down as rewards for people she considers ‘brilliant minds’.”
He paused, before leaning forward as if letting Tim in on a secret.
“ She doesn’t have a belly button ,” he hissed in a loud stage-whisper, making Annabeth whirl around and smack his arm. But Tim had just gotten a pit in his gut. Memories of his parents had been rare since he’d become a Wayne and been a part of a (however dysfunctional) caring family. But there was one that stuck out at this moment. His mom, insisting that he was perfectly normal after he learned one day that other kids had belly buttons, and her insisting that his own had just healed over oddly after his birth. He remembered scouring the library for medical reasons that someone might not have a belly button, and none of them quite feeling right, but nothing else making sense. He remembered each time one of his siblings patched him up for the first time, and how each one of them asked how he didn’t have one. And how each time, his insistence that it was a freak medical thing grew more annoyed. The pit grew larger as he remembered what Annabeth had said earlier.
He shook his head.
“Nope,” he said, pushing back his chair and getting up, startling Percy and Annabeth out of their light bickering. “Sorry, I don’t know what kind of cult is going on here, but I’ve dealt with a few before and those were more than enough. Cool hydrokinesis, Percy, but that's all it is. I’m out.”
Was avoidance a healthy coping mechanism? Not necessarily. But the bats were damn good at it.
His words seemed to register as he made his way back to the front door, and Annabeth scrambled out of her chair.
“Wait, Tim—” she started, but he cut her off.
“—See you at work, I’ll find a way back to Gotham, enjoy the rest of the weekend. Glad nothing nefarious is happening here, glad we figured that out, glad we’re on the same page.”
He looked away from her to open the door, and nearly hesitated at the realization that her face wasn’t annoyed that he was leaving, it was… scared ? But he was not dealing with this. His mom said he was normal, and he was fucking normal . His nighttime job aside.
He left the ‘Big House’, hearing both of them following him, and sped up slightly until he was down on the grass and headed back towards the big pine tree he could still kind of see in the distance.
“Tim, please, it’s past the curfew,” Annabeth said from the door, but Tim ignored her. “You can sleep here and head out in the morning, just please come inside.”
“I thought you said this place was safe, huh?” he said without turning around. “What’s so bad about curfew?”
As if answering him, a screech split the air.
“ Shit ,” Percy said, and Tim spun around to face the noise, his hand grabbing his staff on instinct. What he saw, though, made his eyes widen.
“ Demigods out of bed !” the creature screeched, swooping down from the sky. It looked like a woman, but with large wings sprouting from its arms, its hands ending in clawed talons that matched its bird-like legs and feet. Its face was pinched and bird-like too, with fangs that he could see as it bared its teeth at him. Its eyes were a gleaming yellow, and Tim was very familiar with what a desire for violence looked like in something else’s eyes.
Tim raised his staff as it swooped down towards him, but the blow to its clawed feet didn’t seem to faze it at all. In fact, his eyebrows furrowed as he realized…his staff had gone through its talons. It hadn’t been batted away or glanced off the sharp claws, it just…didn’t connect. Tim didn’t miss , that much he knew.
“What the fuck ,” he said, adjusting his grip on the staff anyway. The creature wasn’t a hologram , that much was clear just from looking at it, and so there had to be a way for him to hit it even though his first attempt clearly didn’t work.
When it came by for a second pass, Tim prepared to strike again, but suddenly found Annabeth standing in front of him, between him and the creature. She had confidence in her stance, the same kind of confidence that Tim and his family held on the rooftops of Gotham, and she had a bronze dagger held in her hand that seemed to glow in the moonlight.
“Come on , Aello!” she said, annoyance laced in her stature and her voice. “We said we had a guest! You pushed the curfew back already, just give us a break!”
“ Dinner time for harpies !” The fucking harpy cried in response, and Annabeth groaned loudly.
“Hey Aello!” Tim heard Percy call, “This is, what, the third time I’ve snuck out? I bet you really want to eat me, huh?”
The harpy let out an angry screech and whirled away from Annabeth and her shining dagger, towards Percy, who was holding the faintly glowing sword that Tim realized was the same one he had briefly seen that night in Arkham. Tim wasn’t sure where the sword came from, as Percy definitely hadn’t been holding one earlier, but he didn’t particularly care at the moment. His staff clearly wasn’t doing anything to deter the creature at all, while Annabeth and her knife had held it at bay, and Percy twirling that sword in his hands seemed to make it falter slightly.
“ Perseus,” the creature hissed, and Percy heaved a sigh.
“That’s what they all say,” he said, shaking his head. “C’mon, we’re going inside, alright? You can eat us if we leave again, how’s that? I don’t want to get into a fight tonight.”
“ Demigods out past curfew ,” the harpy snarled instead, swooping down towards Percy this time. Percy huffed and readied the sword, but the harpy instead was intercepted by Annabeth’s dagger thrown perfectly at its wing. The blade was a glancing blow, but it was clear that was Annabeth’s intention, as it made the harpy screech again and lift back into the air.
“Tim, come on,” she urged, waving him back towards the house. “She doesn’t seem to be open to bribes tonight.”
Between being outside with that thing, or inside with Percy and Annabeth, Tim felt like that wasn’t much of a choice. He collapsed his staff again and followed Annabeth back up the steps to the house, where Percy was holding the door open. Once Tim was inside, Percy joined them, shutting the door behind him as the harpy screeched one last time and finally seemed to fly away. The room was silent as Percy leaned against the wall by the door and—
Turned his sword into a pen. Percy turned his sword into a pen. He pulled a small cap out from his pocket, touched it to the tip of his sword, and then the next thing Tim knew, Percy was merely holding a small pen in his hands, twirling it between his fingers. He noticed Tim's wide eyes and grinned sheepishly, holding up the pen.
"Uh, her name is Riptide," he said. "A talking sword told me she's a girl, so I guess that has to be true. She's pretty special." he said, answering so many and also absolutely none of Tim's questions. Then he blinked, straightening up and turning to Annabeth.
"Annie, do you want me to run back out and grab your dagger?"
Annabeth shook her head, perching on the back of one of the wooden chairs, her feet on the table as she leaned back precariously onto the back legs of the chair.
"I'll get it in the morning," she said. "It's not going anywhere right now, and anyone who might find it before me knows it's mine, and knows what will happen if they touch it."
Tim watched them bicker for a moment, taking in what had just happened. Again, he'd seen things that could be described as monsters before, so that wasn't the issue. What was running through his head was the ease with which Percy and Annabeth griped at and dealt with the Greek monster, and how Annabeth stepped in front of Tim like a shield despite knowing how trained he was.
Suddenly exhausted, Tim walked backwards until he hit the wall, then slid down into a seated position. He had left because he had seen where the conversation was headed and he hadn't wanted to deal with it. He hadn't wanted to hear Annabeth confirm where his mind had gone. But...Tim had been a bat for a while now. Each and every one of his siblings had stood in between him and an enemy before, whether he needed them to or not, whether they acknowledged it or not.
Whether she knew it or not, Annabeth had already confirmed his train of thought, just by trying to protect him. It felt…familiar.
“Annabeth,” he said, cutting off the two of them from bickering and trying to keep any nerves out of his voice. But the way both of them paused and looked at him with a hint of worry said that he wasn’t all that successful. He should have been, with his training, but sue him. He just found out that gods were real and that...he cleared his throat. “Why did you say that your siblings especially could help me?”
Annabeth’s face softened, and Tim almost felt offended. He was sixteen, he didn’t need to be looked at like he was a child! But he didn’t feel condescended to. Annabeth wasn’t pitying or babying him, she just...was trying to be gentle about this. She got down from the chair and walked over to where he was sitting on the floor, joining him on the wood. Percy stayed by the table, but watched them both carefully, what seemed like fond memories behind his eyes.
“I think you’ve figured it out, Tim,” she said. A small smile flickered on her lips. “We do tend to be rather smart.”
Tim felt like he was about to pass out. He should not have learned this information after not sleeping for thirty-six hours. He blinked, all too aware of the way his entire body was stiff. “I...I had a mom, though. I had two parents.”
“Athena is...different from other gods,” Annabeth said. “Since her children are born from her brain, it sometimes doesn’t even mean that she came down in person to meet the other parent. She did with my dad, but if your parents were together, then maybe she was more distant. And...your other biological parent could be either one, not just your dad. She’s a goddess, and we are brain children.”
“I’m sorry, I—” Tim cut off, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand. “This is insane. I had two parents, they were both human. I thought you said that people like you didn’t live that long, right? I can’t be like you, then, I made it to sixteen no problem.”
‘No problem’ was an exaggeration, given his lifestyle, but he was digging for every reason they could be wrong. But as soon as the thought had entered his head...some part of him said that it was right. He already knew he was grasping at straws. Prolonging the inevitable proof of what Percy and Annabeth were trying to tell him. Annabeth sighed.
“It’s something about Gotham,” she explained. “Outside of camp, demigods are hunted. Greek monsters hide in plain sight, hidden from mortals by a magical barrier called the Mist, and they try to kill us. They can smell us. But Percy and I haven’t been attacked that often in Gotham, and the only times we have been attacked have been in conjunction with an investigation we’re doing. There’s...some kind of unnatural chaos about Gotham that blocks gods and monsters alike. There could be more demigods there that we were never able to find because they never noticed anything weird about themselves.”
“I know you don’t want to believe us, Tim,” Percy added. “I didn’t want to believe it at first either, when I first came to camp. But Annie’s intuition is never wrong. And it’s okay, because we’ve been in this world for years now, Annabeth for over a decade, and we’ll help you. We just want you to have all the information, and be able to keep yourself safe.”
A beat, and then Annabeth reached over to gently pull his hands away from his face. “Besides,” she said, some kind of relieved resignation entering her voice, “you can’t argue with what Mom says.”
Then she pointed above his head. Both she and Percy were staring, Annabeth with a kind of distant fondness, and Percy with relief and slight amusement. Hesitantly, Tim raised his eyes. And there, floating above his head, was the image of a glowing, grey owl. He froze again. The room suddenly smelled of old books and metal. He stared at the owl, feeling something inside him click into place, until the glowing stopped and it faded away back into nothing. He let out a small, shuddering breath. He wished he was in a state of mind to be more composed about this, but his whole worldview was shifting.
“...what’s happening ,” he whispered, referring to every single thing since he left the apartment. There was a feeling that something big just changed, and Tim wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
“It’s a good thing she did that here,” Annabeth murmured, “since Chiron likes to do that thing where he announces your whole name. Now you can keep some kind of anonymity.” Then she raised her voice back to a normal level. “Tim, that was her claiming you. Sometimes that happens before a demigod makes it to camp, but most often it happens once they’re here and safe. You’re one of us, Tim. You’re my brother.”
The words sunk in for Tim, as the other two went silent to give him time to process. He stared at Annabeth, at her earnest grey eyes, and part of him wanted to freak out. Part of him wanted to try and leave again despite the creature outside, swing back to the apartment, hijack her car, and drive back to Gotham where things were a normal kind of insane and where Greek goddesses didn’t claim him as their son. Where the Drakes were his birth parents, and they weren’t great but they were still his parents , and he was a perfectly human son of Bruce Wayne. But there was another part of him too. A part that saw that owl and felt good . Confused, and a little bit scared that he would never admit to, but good nonetheless. A part that said…
“Okay,” he spoke before he could pick which side to listen to. Annabeth blinked in surprise, but he could see the hope that entered her eyes.
“Really?” she asked, “You’re...you’re okay with this?”
Tim shook his head, “My life is already weird as fuck, this might as well happen. I don’t understand any of this, but...I think it feels right. Now I’m pretty sure I’m going to pass out, because I’ve been awake for thirty-six hours and just found out that gods are real and I’m half of one. Is there a place that isn't on the floor?”
“Oh, yeah,” Percy said under his breath, laughing, “you’ll fit right in.”
“Of course, yeah,” Annabeth answered him, ignoring Percy, “there’s a couch in the room through that door, and eventually you can have a bed in our cabin, but clearly the cleaning harpies aren’t gonna let us go there tonight.”
Tim blinked, and filed away the term ‘ cleaning harpies ’ to ask Annabeth about later once he wasn’t reeling. For now, though, he stood up, following Annabeth’s pointing and opening the door to a small room with a couch and an old television. He looked back over his shoulder to where the other two were watching him, clearly still tense and nervous. Did they think Tim would vanish when he closed the door? Did they care that much? Tim sighed, giving them a small, tight, but still there smile.
“Uh, thanks,” he said awkwardly. He wasn’t sure what else to say. Was this a fact that he’d wish he never learned, or one that he’d look back on and wonder how he went so long without it? He wouldn’t know that for a while, but for now, he was going to do what he did best and learn . He was a Bat, and if they were opening this world up for him, then he’d learn all he could about it before he fully made up his mind about his emotions. “For explaining all this. And for, uh, noticing? I guess? That I was...weird?”
“You’re welcome,” Percy said. “We’ll explain more tomorrow and show you around. But really...it was Jason who noticed. He came to us about it.”
Tim paused. “Oh,” he said, feeling a dull sort of surprise that was muffled by his sudden extreme exhaustion. “I think...I’m going to think about that tomorrow. I’ll ask you about that tomorrow.”
Percy grinned, understanding. “Got it. ‘Night, Tim.”
“Good night, Tim. I’m glad you’re here.”
Tim wasn’t sure how much new information he could take in before his brain shut off completely, and the idea that Annabeth was happy that he was apparently her half-brother—through a
goddess
??—seemed to be a tipping point. So he just nodded his own goodbye and shut the door behind him. And for the first time since Dick last slipped tranquilizer into his coffee, Tim was asleep before he hit the couch.
Notes:
BET YALL THOUGHT THE BELLY BUTTON TAG WAS A FUCKIN JOKE HUH????
lmaooooooo i love that stupid headcanon SO much i couldn't just not include it. timmys a little bird boy :)
also i need all of you to know how much i laughed at my own joke when i wrote the line 'in the role reversal of the century, im going to fucking kill him'. i laugh every time i read it, idk why i find it so fucking funny. let tim be a little homicidal. as a treat.anyway, here were are!!! Timmys at camp, and he's been claimed!! I tried not to end this one on a cliffhanger too lol, because unfortunately i will have to say that i am taking another short hiatus for NaNoWrimo this year. it just takes so much time and effort that i dont want to half-ass chapters or anything like that bc im trying to win nano too. Thank you guys for understanding <3
now im gonna go see a showing of rocky horror picture show for my birthday tonight, and I'll see you all in December!! Good luck to all of you also doing nano, and I hope you have a great november and a happy halloween <3
Chapter 22
Notes:
happy december!!! Hope Nano went well for everyone!!! I got the 50k words but as im sure you all have noticed from this fic, im wordy as fuck and therefore didn't actually finish the story i had planned lmao. But i havent stopped thinking about all these bitches, and im glad to be back with them. This chapter is:
1) so long. it just wouldn't stop.
2) so much dialogue. which is partially why its so long lol.
3) tim time tim time tim time continued :)
4) me pulling shit with the Mist that likely isnt canon but i think makes sense. canon is putty in my hands.
i hope you all enjoy, and thank you so much for your patience between chapters, i know its hard when im not consistent. Thanks for reading <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Percy decided, as he woke up with his arm asleep, his shoulder aching, and wood lines on his skin, that he never wanted to sleep on the Big House floor ever again. He would rather even risk the harpies in a mad dash back to his cabin. He groaned as Annabeth nudged him again with her foot.
“Get up, Seaweed Brain,” she said for the third time. “We’re showing my new brother around and I am not having you half-asleep.”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” he grumbled. “Just let my arm stop stabbing me.”
“The great Savior of Olympus, felled by a wooden floor,” Annabeth teased. “If you don’t wake up, you might end up actually stabbed today.”
Percy pushed himself to a sitting position, running a hand back through his hair to try and fix the awful way it had frozen in his sleep. He wasn’t sure how successful he was, but it was something to focus on that got him waking up a bit more. He looked up at Annabeth, seeing the way she was eyeing the closed door that Tim was sleeping behind. He nudged her leg with his foot, grabbing her attention, and smiled reassuringly.
“He seemed to take it decently well last night,” he said, trying to ease her nerves. “Harpy interlude notwithstanding. I think that this is a huge step forward from him not trusting either of us at all.”
“I know,” Annabeth said, smiling faintly, “but the camp itself is a lot . We’re a hectic bunch.”
“From what Jay’s told me, their family is pretty chaotic too,” Percy said. “Probably a few less powers involved in their chaos, although I do think I felt something a little off about Duke, but I think it won’t be too much for him.”
“I hope so.”
“Why don’t you go wake him?” Percy said, “I’m gonna call Jason and let him know it went okay.”
Annabeth steeled herself and nodded, making her way over to the door. Percy opened the front door just enough to manipulate some of the dew outside so that there was a rainbow in the main room of the Big House. Sure, there was a prism somewhere in the house, but Percy was lazy and using his powers was easier. Searching for the prism would take way longer, and this way it was only a few seconds before he was tossing a drachma into the mist and waiting for Jason’s face to show up. When it connected, Jason was awake, staring at a phone that must be Tim’s with a slightly annoyed expression. He didn’t notice the Iris message at first, and so Percy took a moment to appreciate the way his hair was messy from sleeping and how his t-shirt didn’t cover much of his biceps. Then he grinned.
“Hey, Cowboy,” he said, enjoying in no small amount the way that Jason whirled around in surprise and grabbed the knife off of the bedside table. Tim’s phone had gotten dropped in the shock, but as Jason registered who it was, he sighed and put down the knife.
“ Fuck , Ariel, a little warning next time?”
“And how am I supposed to warn you? I don’t control where the message shows up,” Percy asked, his grin widening. Jason rolled his eyes.
“Well how was I supposed to know that?” he shot back. “Is everything good over there? Where’s the runt?”
“He practically passed out after we explained it to him,” Percy said, “so he’s in the other room. Annie’s getting him now, and we’re gonna show him around.”
“So we were right, then?”
“Yeah, you were right, Jay,” Percy said, seeing how Jason smiled briefly at the news. “He took it...okay, I think. He seems to still be processing, which is completely understandable. Not only did he learn that gods are real, and that they still have kids with mortals, but...he is one.”
“Yeah, I think I was still somewhat hesitant to believe it all until I saw you start using your powers casually,” Jason admitted. “It’s still weird for me to think that he’s not entirely human, and I’m not even him .”
“He’ll be fine, Jason,” Percy assured him. “He’s already got a better start on combat than probably ninety-nine percent of new demigods, and he’ll fit right in with the Athena cabin. They’re probably the best people to answer the many questions I’m sure he has.”
“Have you broken the news yet about tech?” Jason asked, his grin turning mischievous. Percy winced.
“Ahh...not yet. Luckily for him, it shouldn’t be a problem while he’s in Gotham.”
“He’s still gonna hate it.”
“It’ll be fine. Cabin nine has been working on making our own technology for a few years now anyway, so it’s only a matter of time before they figure it out completely,” Percy said. “What were you up to? That wasn’t your phone, which means it was Tim’s.”
Jason made a face, glancing back at the phone now lying on the sheets. “Yeah, Dick texted Tim this morning saying that Tim hadn’t messaged anything yet and he was getting worried. Which makes sense, with how much Tim was planning on snooping he really should have reported something by now, even if it was that he hadn’t found anything.”
“So what did you say?”
“Well, I—”
“—What the fuck is that?” a half-asleep voice entered the conversation and Percy looked up to see Tim following Annabeth back into the room, rubbing his eyes. He wasn’t wearing his Red Robin uniform anymore, instead back in the t-shirt and sweatpants he had been wearing as pajamas in Percy’s apartment. “Am I still asleep?”
“Glad to see you actually slept, Timbo,” Jason said, grinning at the confusion on Tim’s face. “How are you feeling, being half-god and all?”
Tim sighed heavily. “I woke up this morning and was fully prepared to write off last night as a fever dream induced by sleep deprivation had Annabeth not been there in the room. That’s how I’m doing. Now why is Jason talking through a rainbow? How much magic bullshit am I gonna be dealing with from now on?”
“A lot,” the other three of them answered in unison.
“As for the rainbow, it’s called an Iris Message,” Annabeth explained, taking a seat in a chair next to Percy. “It’s how demigods communicate, because the messenger goddess Iris is also the goddess of rainbows. So we toss a coin into a rainbow, ask Iris to send a message, and she makes what is essentially a video call.”
Tim blinked. “Yep, that might as well be a real thing.”
“Also because they can't use phones," Jason added, making Percy groan.
"Jay!" he chastised. "We were gonna get to that!"
"Oh, sorry," Jason said, not sorry at all. He was grinning too smugly to ever pretend to mean that. Tim narrowed his eyes, the effect slightly lessened by the half-awake haze on his face still.
"What the hell does that mean?" he asked. Annabeth sighed, rolling her eyes at Jason.
"What he means is that technology isn't... compatible with demigods," she said delicately. "You know those monsters we mentioned last night? If we use technology for too long, something in the signal begins to alert nearby monsters to our location. Again, you likely haven't been affected by this due to what's going on in Gotham. Which I'm sure you have more questions about, and we can get into that after a tour."
"Sorry, I'm not just letting that go," Tim said, shaking his head to wake himself up more. " Technology is dangerous? That's like...what I do . All the time."
"Cabin nine is working on making our own safe tech," Percy said. At Tim's frown, he continued with, "oh, right. Cabin nine is the kids of Hephaestus. They'll figure it out soon, I'm sure."
"I'm helping," Tim said immediately. "I don't care that I'm barely processing any of this, I'm fucking fixing that issue. If I'm gonna be dealing with this world too, I'm using my damn computer."
"I knew that'd be the line for you," Jason said, laughing. "Enjoy your new project, Timmy."
"I'll figure it out," Tim said firmly, no doubt in his voice. Annabeth grinned, pride in her eyes.
"Now that's the Athena kid attitude," she said. "Welcome to camp, Tim."
Tim flushed a little at the look on her face, looking quickly back to Jason. "So, Jason, you stole my shit?"
Unrepentant, Jason held up Tim's phone. "Your baby is unharmed, don't freak out. Dick texted you, though."
Tim sighed heavily. "Did you text him back pretending to be me?"
"I was about to, until Percy decided to jumpscare me with the rainbow call," Jason said. "What do you want me to tell him?"
"Just—" Tim cut himself off, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ugh. Tell him that I might have found a lead to follow, but everything is frustratingly normal. That should buy me a few more hours to figure out what I'm gonna do about all this."
"You don't have to figure that out right now, you know that, right?" Jason said. "We can head home after this weekend and pretend you spent the whole weekend snooping and got nothing."
"Or," Percy offered, "you might decide that after this weekend, you want to tell your family about your godly heritage to include them in this world with you. That's totally your choice. No need to figure it out right now."
"Percy and I never had to deal with that choice," Annabeth admitted. "Sally and my father both knew exactly who our other parents were, even if they handled it very differently."
"My parents had to know," Tim said, frowning. "You said that you weren't born, right? You were...'sent down'? If my parents found a random baby on their doorstep, they wouldn't just keep it."
"Man, fuck your parents," Jason said. As Tim barked a startled laugh, he held up his hands. "What, it's true! I can say it, I remember Jack and Janet. And personally, my money is on Janet being your other parent."
Tim's frown turned a bit pensive. "Do you think..."
He trailed off, eventually shaking his head. "Never mind. You mentioned a tour? How many people am I gonna have to meet?"
Annabeth and Percy shared a glance, but let it go. She stood up, reaching out a hand to pull Percy up with her, and stretched her arms above her head.
"A full tour is in order, yes," she answered. "And, that depends. You'll eventually meet our whole cabin, but it's up to you if you want to meet Percy and my friends too. We can keep it small, whether that's for now or always."
"And...how many is 'our whole cabin'?" Tim asked, putting air quotes around the words he was clearly still getting used to. Percy laughed.
"Man, you thought you had a lot of siblings already ?" he said. "Get ready for way more."
"We won't overwhelm you," Annabeth assured him, glaring at Percy. "But yes, there are quite a few of us. Not counting us, there's ten other children of Athena at camp right now, and two are away at school."
Tim's eyes widened and he let out a breath. "Thirteen more siblings. Sure. Why the fuck not."
Percy let him process that, and turned back to Jason. "Do you want to start heading over now, or wait a little?"
"I'll head over," Jason replied. "I can always chill outside if you guys are busy when I get there."
"You remember how to find the address?" Annabeth asked, and Jason waved her off.
"Yeah, Delphi Strawberry Services or whatever, I got it," he assured her. "Perce, I'll let your mom know it went well. See you guys soon. And Tim, have fun."
Then he cut off the call, and Percy felt a little pride at how Jason remembered how to work with Iris Messages. He still called them 'those rainbow things', but Percy was pretty sure Jason was refusing to use the proper name just to annoy him. It more often annoyed Annabeth than him, though.
"Alright," Annabeth said, clapping her hands. "First order of business, how low profile do you want to be? I'm assuming you want to keep the vigilante thing a secret, although I can't promise our cabin won't figure it out, but do you want to be Tim Drake-Wayne? That I can promise our cabin will put together, but the rest of the camp likely won't if you don't want them to. Either way, no one will really care. You won’t be treated differently."
Tim thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Uh, if we could not bring that up, that'd be great. People figuring it out is fine, but I don't think I want to, like, advertise it. Also, will my uniform be safe here while we're out?"
"It will," Annabeth promised. "The only people here regularly when there's not a meeting are Mr. D and Chiron. And yes, Chiron is the same one from the myths, he trained Heracles and Achilles, and he's a centaur."
Tim blinked. "And...Mr. D?"
"Dionysus," Percy answered. "He's essentially in time-out as our camp director, forced sobriety and everything. He's only got...what, forty-five years left?"
"Forty-seven or so," Annabeth corrected. "I know the past few years have been a lot, but it has only been almost three years since the second Titanomachy."
"So there's just...a god. Chilling here? At the camp?" Tim asked, his eyebrows raising. "Totally no reason, but is he...connected? To what's going on in Gotham?"
Annabeth shook her head. "No. We're fairly certain that it's Chaos and them alone. Why do you ask?"
Tim made a face. "I've had...encounters with a cult that tried to summon him. Wasn't entirely bad, got one of my boyfriends through that, but still not great."
"Well, if Mr. D had any involvement in that, it was likely just giving a vaguely approving but mostly disinterested thumbs up as you got together with your boyfriend," Percy said. "That cult probably never managed to make him hear them, considering what we think Chaos is doing. Also, the only time I successfully 'summoned' his presence was by dumping a bunch of soda in the ocean while my friend pretended to turn into a dolphin, so unless they did something like that, I doubt he'd listen."
"You guys are just super familiar with a god, then?" Tim asked, a small amount of relief seeming to enter his shoulders.
"It's not that cool," Percy said. "If you ever want a Diet Coke, though, he's your guy. But, back to your question, neither of them will mess with your suit or tell anyone. Mr. D likely couldn't care less, and Chiron will get that you want to keep it a secret."
"You'll meet Chiron at some point today, he cares about every demigod here," Annabeth said, smiling at Tim. "But for now, we'll keep things small. Demigods can be...a lot ."
"So can vigilantes," Tim said, shrugging. "Let's do this, I guess."
"Great," Annabeth said, and Percy could see the excitement in her eyes. There hadn't been a new child of Athena in a while, and Percy could imagine how much she was looking forward to telling the rest of her siblings. "We'll start with a tour of the grounds, then we'll head to the armory and get you a proper demigod weapon, and then we'll deal with introducing you to people."
"A proper demigod weapon?" Tim asked, cocking his head.
"Your vigilante weapons won't work against Greek monsters," Annabeth explained. "Remember last night, when your staff didn’t hit Aello? Only certain materials can hurt them, like what my dagger and Percy’s sword are made of. I know you likely won't get attacked often in Gotham, but you should have one just in case."
"I've... never seen any monsters like that," Tim said, frowning. "Why would they start finding me now?"
Annabeth winced slightly. "Right. Well, a demigod who doesn't know what they are is a demigod in a lot of danger. So...a lot of their more... inhuman traits are hidden until they're either claimed or made aware of their heritage. It's one of the few ways that the Mist undeniably helps demigods, rather than just being neutral. Your scent is somewhat muffled, unless you're Percy—"
"—hey! Not my fault!" Percy interjected, laughing. "And not just me!"
"Alright, alright, children of the eldest gods are a bit...impossible to hide," Annabeth corrected with a teasing grin. "But for those of us who aren't constant monster bait, it takes a bit more for monsters to find us when we're unclaimed and unaware of what we are. It still happens, and it's still dangerous, but it's not an instant death sentence for an unclaimed demigod. But...other things are also hidden, so that mortals don't find our world."
"You remember Nico's blood?" Percy asked, making Tim narrow his eyes. "Demigods only have half our DNA, since gods don't have any."
"My blood has been tested multiple times," Tim said. "With Gotham's villains, it's very necessary."
"That might be something you want to change now," Annabeth said. "The Mist will leave you to protect yourself now, since you know what you are. If you aren't planning on telling them, that is. If you are, then they can learn how to adapt to reading a demigod's vital signs and we can probably get Will or someone to give some medical tips."
Tim sighed. "Well, that's a point for the 'telling them' column. What else will change now?"
"Nothing else should be as drastically noticeable as blood tests suddenly not working," Annabeth assured him. "But in a family of detectives, 'drastic' is a different scale. Your senses will improve slowly, that won't be overnight, and your battle instincts will get stronger—demigods are hardwired for fighting."
"Speaking of hardwired," Percy cut in, "did you stop translating ancient Greek because you thought it was too easy?"
Tim blinked at him, his eyes vacant for just a moment before a sort of realization flickered into his expression and it became indignant.
"Is that why it felt so simple?" he demanded, and Annabeth chuckled.
"You know I write my personal notes at work in ancient Greek, right?"
"What?" Tim asked, turning to her. "No you don't. I've seen them. I've—"
He cut off, his face wrinkling in thought.
"You read them immediately," Annabeth finished for him. "I have dyslexia because I wasn't meant to read English. It seems like you're one of the lucky demigods to not have dyslexia."
"You gotta have something else to replace it though," Percy said, sticking his hands in his pockets and grinning. "Like, our friend Frank isn't dyslexic, but he is lactose intolerant. What's your handicap?"
"Oh, uh," Tim thought for a moment. "I'm missing my spleen?"
"Yeah, that works," Percy replied, nodding.
"We should get going," Annabeth cut in before Tim could say something else. "We can talk on the way, but if we want to get a tour in before getting mobbed by our friends, we should start walking."
Percy didn't even try to argue, letting her herd them out the door, and just turned around to walk backwards and look at Tim.
"So yeah, our brains prefer Greek, and fighting feels natural," he summarized as Annabeth ducked down to find her dagger in the grass. "Depending on your godly parent, you get a few other quirks too. Hermes's kids are incredibly lightfingered and are the best at picking up languages other than Greek, some of Apollo's kids have better than perfect pitch—don't ask me how that works—and others could hit an arrow into a bullseye blindfolded. You'll find your niche in the Athena cabin, they're all different."
"I'm an architect," Annabeth said proudly. "Our brother Malcolm took to weaving. From what I've heard from you, I'd hazard that software and coding could be your niche, which will help a lot with your new mission to make us working technology."
"I could see that," Tim mused. "I'm not as good as Barbara, but no one is."
He paused for a moment before grinning. "Oh my god, wait, her codename is Oracle."
Percy perked up, matching his grin. "Wait, she's the redhead in all of Jason's pictures, right?"
"Yeah," Tim answered, looking confused when Annabeth started laughing along with Percy. What were the odds of another redhead being called an oracle? Rachel was going to find that hysterical . Percy waved him off with the assurance that they'd explain, falling behind as he stopped walking and taking point at the back of their little triangle. After she calmed down, Annabeth clapped her hands and stood tall.
“Alright, let's get started," she said, "I know it can be a lot, so if you get overwhelmed we can take a break."
Percy frowned.
“You never let me take a break when I was overwhelmed during my tour,” he complained, pouting slightly. Annabeth shrugged in response.
“Yeah, well, we were twelve and you were annoying. Also, you weren’t my brother. Call it nepotism.”
Percy stuck out his tongue at her, but let her take the lead in showing Tim around the camp. He didn't want to intrude on her bonding time with her new brother—even though he knew her well enough to know that he was never intruding. He just wanted to watch anyway. He wanted to watch Tim take in the surroundings in the daytime with curious eyes, and Annabeth pointing out each training area and cabin with a fond and relaxed grin on her face. She had been so worried, and he knew there was nothing to worry about. Annabeth was in her element, explaining every aspect of camp to someone just as intelligent as her, and Percy loved to see it. Camp Half-blood was her home in more ways than most demigods, and he knew how much this meant to her. He wasn't positive that Tim had fully believed them the previous night, at least until their encounter with Aello, but he was at least unsure enough that they were lying to let them keep going, and so seeing how intrigued he was by everything and the amount of questions he was asking Annabeth was exciting to see. They hadn't seen too many other demigods, as it was still rather early in the morning and the only people he was certain were awake was the Apollo cabin, and so they hadn't been interrupted yet, but Percy knew it was only a matter of time.
Tim had responded alright to Percy's display of demigod abilities, but he had also been in a state of shock and sleep deprivation, so Percy wasn't sure if he really remembered that he'd seen their magic firsthand beyond the Iris Message. A monster was slightly different than seeing a person having abilities they shouldn’t, and demigod magic worked slightly different from the metahuman abilities Tim might be familiar with. If Tim was at all still on the fence about them telling the truth, then seeing a flaming Leo waving from across the main field would probably be a big push. Also the lava wall. That wasn’t incredibly normal.
Leo was a late sleeper, though, and even though Jason and Piper woke up earlier, they didn't tend to be out and about until Leo was awake too. Quite frankly, the only person Percy really had to worry they'd run into was Thalia or Clarisse. Both of them would likely immediately fight him, and he didn't really want that to happen in front of Tim while they were trying their best to ease him into their insanity. Percy had seen a fair amount of craziness since learning Jason's identity, but he still wasn't quite sure where demigods landed on the weirdness scale for vigilantes—with how often Jason called him weird, he figured it was pretty high. That could just be Jason making fun of him, though. He and Annabeth didn't want Tim to be on edge at camp. It was a home for demigods, whether it was their main one or a summer refuge, and they both wanted it to be one for him too. Obviously Gotham was his home the same way the Jackson-Blofis apartment would always be Percy’s, but he hoped that Tim found another place he could relax among the demigods at camp.
Annabeth visibly lit up as they passed by the Athena cabin, only giving it a brief mention for the moment since Tim wasn't meeting anyone yet, but Percy saw the brightness in her expression when Tim's eyes seemed to catch on the engraved owl above the door. He didn't seem to want to look away, and Percy remembered the moment he laid eyes on the Poseidon cabin for the first time. The way he smelled the sea breeze, and how each fishing net hung on the walls seemed so familiar to him despite his conflicted feelings during his first time at camp. Like a home he'd had forever, but never been in before.
Percy was starting to think that they might just not run into anyone until after the tour, until they passed the infirmary.
"I'm sure you're no stranger to thinking about getting injured with far too little concern," Annabeth said, motioning over to the building that every demigod was way too familiar with. "Luckily, demigods have a few options for medical attention that mortals don't, and they lead to pretty quick healing for most— what the fuck did you do ?"
Connor Stoll froze in his tracks as he left the infirmary, bandages wrapped around his shoulder. After a split second, the startled look left his face and he grinned widely, zeroing in on Tim.
"Hey, fresh meat?" he asked Annabeth, who narrowed her eyes at him.
"Too late, Connor, he's claimed," she said. "Now how are you already injured this early in the morning?"
" Listen ," Connor said, holding up his hands. "Just because Austin couldn't go through with his end of the prank didn't mean I was gonna back out! I can take an arrow in the shoulder."
"How many hunters did you piss off this time?" Percy asked, grinning.
"Only one of them hit me," Connor defended himself, but Percy saw through it.
"How many actually shot at you?"
"...one," Connor grumbled. "The prank was hilarious, anyway. Austin was supposed to get some yellow paintballs inside Cabin 8, and then Alice and I were gonna get some chickens inside for when the hunters got here. It went great , even without the paintball cannon. The chickens all went crazy and feathers were everywhere. But obviously they knew it was me and they're not gonna shoot Alice , 'cuz she's a girl, and also Phoebe still has that grudge against me and Travis, which…valid, so here I am."
“Did you seriously think it was a good idea to indirectly call the hunters chickens?” Percy laughed, shaking his head. “Where did you even get that many? And where did they go ?”
Connor grinned and shrugged. “The Hermes cabin never reveals its secrets, Jackson. As for where they went, the hunters did have a good time using them as target practice, and I’m pretty sure a good portion of them went to Mrs. O’Leary.”
"I'll be nice," Annabeth said, as Percy nodded appreciatively of the attention towards Mrs. O’Leary, "and I won't tell Thalia that you implied multiple hunters shot at you and only one of them hit you."
Connor's eyes widened. "Oh, crap. Yeah, that'd be nice, thanks Annabeth. So, anyway, back to the newbie, he looks older than thirteen. Who messed up?"
Annabeth's lips quirked into a smirk as she stared Connor down. "A goddess who likely wouldn't take kindly to someone saying she messed up. We found him in Gotham, everything's a little fucked there."
" Hermes' stolen Cadillac , I can't win today, can I?" Connor cursed, and waved off Percy's confused look. "I made a bet with Katie that I can't go a week without cursing. No big deal. So we have a new owl boy, then? Too bad you missed out on the fun cabin."
"If you call getting your things messed with on a nightly basis 'fun'," Percy grinned, remembering his own brief time in the Hermes cabin. Cabin 11 was pretty fun, but you could never let the Hermes kids get a big ego about it.
"It's training," Connor claimed, but his wide grin gave him away. He stuck a hand out to Tim. "Connor Stoll, head counselor of the Hermes cabin. We take all the unclaimed demigods and kids of minor gods without cabins too, but there's been a bit less of those recently, which is a good thing. Sorry if all the talk about getting shot with an arrow was a little much for your first day at camp."
Tim didn't seem able to help grinning back a little as he shook Connor's hand. "Tim. And two of my brothers have attempted fratricide on multiple occasions."
Connor's grin widened, if that was possible. "A fun owl? Finally!"
Annabeth cleared her throat, and Connor went sheet-white. "What was that, Connor?"
"Nothing!" Connor backtracked. "Y'know, I think I hear Travis calling me, I gotta go!"
"Travis is at college ," Percy called after him as Connor darted away. "Pick a better excuse!"
When Connor was out of sight, Annabeth shook her head, laughing slightly. "Sorry about him," she said to Tim. "All of Hermes's kids tend to be...wildcards."
"That felt like a normal conversation to me," Tim said, shrugging as he grinned. "Prank wars in the manor can be something else."
"Hmm," Annabeth said thoughtfully. "I might have to recruit you for some help getting back at them, then. Inadvertently or not, he did insult our cabin. That just can't stand."
“What did he mean by hunters?” Tim asked as they started walking again.
“The Hunters of Artemis,” Annabeth answered. “Artemis doesn’t have any children, so the group of huntresses that have sworn an oath to her are the ones to use her cabin here when they visit. They’re a mix of demigods, nymphs, mortals, and even some minor deities, and their oath grants them immortality so long as they don’t break their vow or fall in battle.”
“Only women can join,” Percy added, “and some of them really don’t like men. Which, fair, honestly. Some of them are super old, I bet they’ve had tons of bad experiences with men. Others are fine, like Thalia. She’ll likely pop up at some point, she hasn’t electrocuted me yet and she likes to check that off her list each time she visits.”
“Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, current lieutenant of the Hunters,” Annabeth filled in for Tim, sending Percy a small glare. “ Explain things, Seaweed Brain. She took her oath only a few years ago, I’ve known her since I was seven.”
They kept walking and talking, showing Tim the archery range, the rock wall (which wasn’t running the lava yet, and Percy wasn’t sure if that was fortunate or not), and the pegasus stables from a distance. If Tim wanted to, he’d have plenty of time to meet the pegasi later. If Percy went in there, Blackjack would derail the tour for a good twenty minutes at least, and they had a bit of a schedule to keep.
When they had made basically a full loop, they found themselves at the armory shed. Percy stuck his hands in his pockets, feeling Riptide in its constant location, and decided to let Annabeth handle this.
“I’m gonna go wait for Jason, we’ll meet you back here once I let him in?” he said. Annabeth smiled at him, and he saw the gratitude in her eyes.
“Sounds good, Perce,” she said. Then she turned back to Tim as he walked away, and he heard her start explaining the properties of Celestial Bronze. He smiled to himself as he walked through the camp towards Thalia’s tree, which hadn’t actually been her tree for years now, but they all still called it that anyway. He sometimes wondered what some of the newer campers thought that meant, the ones who hadn’t been around for the Golden Fleece’s healing job. But Thalia seemed to find it funny when people were confused about it, so he wasn’t about to start explaining it.
He reached the tree just in time to hear Peleus start to growl lowly, and he picked up speed. It would really suck if he let Jason get killed by the camp's guard dragon before he could even see inside. Passing through the first row of trees and spotting the pine tree with its glowing golden fleece, he saw Peleus with his reptilian hackles raised as his tail slowly curled more around the trunk of the tree.
"Peleus," he called, drawing the dragon's attention, " Δεν πειράζει, είναι μαζί μου .”
Peleus remained on alert, but his tail relaxed slightly as Percy grew closer, eventually standing right next to the pine tree and reaching down to pet the dragon's head. He looked up to see Jason a few trees away, watching Peleus with raised eyebrows.
"He won't hurt you," Percy assured him. "I told him you're with me."
"Your camp has a guard dragon?" Jason asked, slightly amused, as he took a few steps closer to the pine tree. Peleus remained relaxed as Percy stood next to him.
"Technically he's here to guard the fleece," Percy said, pointing over to the branch of Thalia's tree that it hung on. "Remember I told you about that quest?"
"Oh yeah," Jason said. "The one where your friend Grover fake-married a cyclops."
"Exactly," Percy said, grinning. "Come on, I'll let you in. Annabeth is getting Tim a weapon right now, so I'm not sure how long that'll take."
"How's he taking it?" Jason asked, and Percy let out a relieved laugh.
"Pretty well, actually," he said. "We haven't reached the point of overwhelming him yet, but we've also been focusing on showing him around instead of introducing people."
"He is certainly better with learning information than meeting people," Jason agreed. "At least, people he doesn't need to have a high-society mask on around."
"I hope he can tell he doesn't need that here," Percy said. "Literally no one here will expect that from him. He won’t be the first semi-famous person in camp."
Reaching the edge of the camp barrier, he saw Jason reach out and place his hand on the spot that blocked him from entering camp.
"Huh," he said. "If someone stumbled on the camp, wouldn't an invisible wall be suspicious?"
"If they aren't clearsighted, then the Mist basically makes them wonder what they're doing in the woods and they leave before they can run into the barrier," Percy said. "If they are , and they find camp and keep trying to get in, then yeah that might be an issue. It's never happened, but if it does, there's a reason why the Hekate cabin is the closest to the barrier."
He stood on the other side of the barrier, and said. "I, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, invite Jason Todd-Wayne into Camp Half-Blood."
As if it had never been there, Jason's hand dropped through the invisible wall and he stepped through completely to the other side of Thalia's tree. He looked around at the camp surroundings, and Percy couldn't help but smile. Jason had shown him his element, running along the rooftops of Gotham, and now it was time for Percy to return the favor. If Jason thought demigods were weird when he was just hearing Percy's stories, then he wasn't ready to see camp in action.
"So, do you want to go meet Annie and Tim at the armory, or do a mini-tour while we wait for them?" Percy asked. Jason thought for a moment, looking around at the camp that was slowly starting to wake up as the morning went on. “Our tour with Tim took a little longer than we had expected, so I hope you weren’t waiting out here for too long.”
Jason waved him off. “Nah, I didn’t actually leave your apartment right away. I had a great conversation with Paul for a bit about Jane Eyre. I think you neglected to mention that he was an English teacher, Perce, but I’m sure that was an accident.”
“I think I’m cursed at this point,” Percy said, grinning. “My mom is an author, my stepdad is an English teacher, and you’re just a huge bookworm. And here I am, dyslexic as fuck.”
“Your mom gave me a copy of her book,” Jason said, not disagreeing with Percy. “It’s going right to the top of my list. Now c’mon, show me around before the real nerds get back.”
“Alright, alright,” Percy laughed. “Well, here is the pine tree that used to be my cousin for a few years.”
He motioned dramatically to Thalia’s tree, not elaborating when Jason clearly looked confused. “She got better. Up ahead are the cabins, and right in the middle of them is the bonfire. I’m sure even from here you can tell which cabin is mine.”
Jason pointed easily. “It looks like a fishing hut, Percy.”
“It basically is,” Percy sighed. “Think of the decor of a stereotypical dad whose only personality trait is fishing. You get used to the nets on the walls.”
He could practically feel the way Jason was about to make fun of him, but he had heard it all over the years. That, and Poseidon kinda was the stereotypical fishing dad. Maybe Percy would stop calling him that if he stopped showing up in Hawaiian shirts and straw hats. But before Jason could speak, Percy caught sight of someone in the distance that made his grin grow sly.
“Hey, Jay,” he said, nudging Jason’s arm. “Want to meet another zombie?”
Jason raised his eyebrows. “Huh?”
“A zombie,” Percy elaborated cheekily, “someone who died and came back to life, I thought you knew what that word meant.”
“Fuck off, Ariel, you knew what I meant,” Jason shot back, rolling his eyes. “What other zombies do you know? Are you cheating on me?”
“Leo wishes ,” Percy laughed. “Although Piper would eviscerate me, and then Leo, and then probably resurrect us both to let Jace do it too. C’mon, he’ll be thrilled to meet you, he never shuts up about his death.”
He really didn’t, no matter how much they all begged him to stop casually dropping the fact that he became a half-human fireball. Although, Percy felt like it would probably bother him less now that he was used to Jason’s death jokes, but that didn’t change the fact that he had actually been there to watch Leo explode. Percy began jogging over to where he saw Leo leaving the Hephaestus cabin with his toolbelt over his shoulder.
“Leo!” he called, drawing the shorter boy’s attention easily. “You’re up early.”
“Hey, Aquaman!” Leo greeted, and Percy heard Jason snort a laugh behind him. “I thought you’d be with Annabeth. Pipes and Jace were up early today since Thalia got into camp and Jason wanted to catch up with her, so I figured I’d get some work done.”
“No more pranks for Austin,” Percy chided, and Leo groaned, rolling his eyes.
“It would have worked! Someone sabotaged the propulsion, I did not build it like that.”
“Dude,” Percy said flatly. “You should know that cabins seven and eleven are the only ones that ever want to prank the Hunters. It was absolutely sabotaged. But that’s not why I called you over, I want you to meet my boyfriend, he’s a cooler zombie than you.”
“That’s impossible,” Leo said immediately, before even registering what Percy had said. Then his eyes lit up. “Hey wait! What?”
“Fellow formerly dead person,” Jason said, grinning and holding a hand out. “Nice to meet you.”
Leo excitedly accepted Jason’s hand. “ Sick . I’m sure Percy’s said, but I’m Leo. How’d you die? I spontaneously combusted on purpose in order to save the world.”
“He’s humble, too,” Percy stage-whispered. Leo flipped him off, but otherwise ignored him.
“Murder,” Jason answered, far too brightly for the subject matter, and Percy wasn’t sure whether to be glad that Jason could joke like that, or wish he wouldn’t. “How long were you dead?”
“Oh shit ,” Leo responded, but otherwise taking Jason’s answer in stride. “I’ve got no idea, honestly. Wasn’t able to tell anyone I was alive for a good few months, but I got resurrected basically in midair and then found a magical island outside of time, so I don't think I was dead for super long? I don’t think I could’ve been, or else the cure I used wouldn’t have worked.”
“You planned your resurrection too?” Jason asked, and Percy answered before Leo could.
“Yes, he did, and he didn’t tell anyone ,” he said, glaring at Leo. Leo pouted.
“I told Hazel and Frank, I just asked them not to tell anyone! I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up,” he defended himself. Then he turned back to Jason. “How’d you come back?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” Jason answered with a grin. “No one does, really. Woke up in my coffin six months after I died.”
Leo narrowed his eyes slightly. “Do I win by saying that I woke up on the back of the giant magic robotic dragon that I rebuilt myself inside the flying warship that I also built?”
“Wait, when did this become a competition?” Percy interrupted. Jason patted his shoulder.
“It was always a competition, keep up, Percy,” he said. “I think I can beat you again with the fact that I actually came back pretty much catatonic, and after that was fixed I had fun side effects of periodic bouts of uncontrollable rage.”
“Well if it’s a competition,” Percy said, pouting slightly, “can I at least have third place for going to the same magical island and making everyone think I was dead before crashing my own funeral?”
“Wait, is that when you went to Ogygia?” Leo exclaimed. “Obviously I knew you went there, and I’d heard from Annabeth how pissed she was at you when you showed up at your funeral, but I didn’t realize those were connected! So you landed on Ogygia after—“
“—the tiny minor mishap I had at a volcano, yeah,” Percy cut him off. Leo frowned.
“But wait, I thought—“
“—So do I get third place?” Percy interrupted again, “what are you guys even competing over? How do you win this argument? Is it who has it worse? Who died cooler?”
Distracting Leo worked like a charm, as it always did. He immediately looked thoughtful, considering Percy’s question.
“We’ll know when it happens,” Jason answered eventually, shrugging. “Man, I wish I could’ve crashed my own funeral.”
“I got a new best friend out of dying,” Leo offered to the competition. “But also Piper punched me hard enough to crack my humerus, so those kinda balance out I think.”
“I really don't think this contest has a winner,” Percy argued with a grin, “I mean—
“—Incorrect, Seaweed Brain,” came Annabeth’s voice from behind him. “My cousin beats both of them.”
Leo made a face. “Well that’s not fair.”
“Completely fair, actually, I forgot about Magnus,” Percy admitted. “Kinda hard to beat that.”
Annabeth came to stand next to him as Tim walked on her other side. Percy was glad to see a grin on the younger boy’s face, and he looked over to Jason as it turned mischievous.
“Hey, Jay,” he started, his tone clearly making Jason immediately wary.
“What, runt?”
“Check this out,” Tim continued, holding up a small bronze cylinder not unlike the collapsible staff he had pulled off his belt the night before with Aello. Pressing the nearly-invisible button along the side which Percy knew was on every collapsible weapon made by the Hephaestus cabin, the staff expanded into a spear, which Tim immediately used to stab through Jason’s abdomen. It was only years of experience in watching his friends get casually and playfully stabbed, along with the knowledge that Jason was mortal which stopped Percy from darting forward immediately. Jason started to step backwards in shock, before realizing that the spear was just kind of going through him, and instead glaring flatly at his younger brother.
“ Dude ,” he said. “What the fuck.”
“That’s for enabling them basically kidnapping me last night,” Tim said, his shit-eating grin still wide on his face as he didn’t remove the spear. Jason sighed heavily.
“And how often is this gonna happen?” he asked, motioning to the celestial bronze spear currently impaling him. Tim shrugged, finally collapsing the spear again in a smooth motion and twirling it in his fingers.
“All the time,” he said easily. “Get used to it.”
“They didn’t even kidnap you, you followed them of your own volition,” Jason complained. “Did you interrupt my death competition just to stab me? Annabeth, why does your cousin beat us?”
“Oh, easy,” Annabeth said, a wry smile tugging at her mouth. “He’s still dead.”
Silence sat there for a moment as Jason blinked at her and Tim turned to look at her sharply with shock and a slight bit of concern on his face. After a few moments, she continued with, “and even still being dead, he still has responsibilities and still has to risk his afterlife all the time. No matter what your contest was about, I think he wins.”
“Oh, shit, I think Percy mentioned him at some point,” Jason said, snapping his fingers. “Yeah, no, if I was still dead, and people still expected shit from me, I think I’d go insane.”
Tim seemed about to make another teasing jab towards Jason when there was a caw from Percy’s right, towards the camp border, and he saw Annabeth’s eyes snap up as she immediately sighed a slightly annoyed but mostly fond sound. Percy turned his head to see a raven flying their way, a scroll held tight in its talons. While not the most common sight around camp, it happened often enough that he knew exactly what that meant. There weren’t many people in the Greek world that used messenger ravens, after all.
“Speak of the dead, and they shall appear,” Annabeth said with a slight shake of her head. “What in Hades does he want today ?”
Tim blinked up at the raven. “Your dead cousin communicates by bird?”
Then, as the raven landed on Annabeth’s outstretched arm, he sighed.
“I really wish that was a weirder sentence to me.”
Notes:
i would like to apologize if the ending to this chapter is a bit weaker than the others, i genuinely could NOT make these guys stop talking and so i just had to find a spot to cut it off, and i know its not my strongest but i hope yall still liked it <3
Tim, upon acquiring a weapon that he knows physically cannot hurt his brother: I’m going to be So annoying about this.
it is his gods given right as a younger brother. i know that if i had a weapon that couldn't actually hurt my brothers, i would stab them ALL the time. spear also just felt like the right fit for him, give his staff a pointy end. Jason will no longer know any peace.
you all get three guesses for who is elbowing his way into the next chapter, and your first two dont count lol.
Thank you so much for reading!!! I would like to reiterate that even if i am very inconsistent with my updates, I have Negative plans to abandon this story. in fact, i have way too many plans for how to continue it. i love these idiots so much and im not letting this story drop even if it takes a while between chapters. just wanted to reassure yall. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!!! See you next time <3
Chapter 23
Notes:
Snapcube Fandub Devil Voice: hiiiiiiiii, it's meeeeeeeeee, I'm baaaaaaaaack
im so fucking sorry lmao. i have no excuses. this fic just would not cooperate with me for the longest time, and then i got in my own head about it, then i had original stuff i was working on, then events going on, and it just. wasn't getting done. but please enjoy this extremely dialogue heavy chapter as a thank-you for being so patient with me and the absolutely lovely comments that kept me trying so hard to finish this chapter over the past few months. You all are too kind.
EDIT: oh my gods its been two years since i uploaded the first chapter i cant bELIEVE i just BARELY missed updating on the anniversary im so fucking mad at myself please pretend this was uploaded eighteen days ago so i can be thematic about it
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tim watched with a just slightly overwhelmed brain as Annabeth thanked the raven that had landed on her arm, taking the tight scroll from its talons. It wasn’t that anything he had seen today was too much. Like, a secret world of half-god children who had magic weapons and fought monsters while also doing dumb teenage shit like the guy he had met who got shot in the shoulder for a prank? He could accept that. It was fucking weird, but he could accept it. What he was struggling with was that apparently, this secret world was also his. His real mom (or second mom if Jason was right?) was a goddess, and Tim wasn’t entirely human. He wasn’t sure when that would stop seeming strange, if ever. The Bats—minus Duke—were known for their formidable ability despite not having any powers. Did this count as having powers now? Sure, it didn’t seem like Annabeth had anything like Percy’s hydrokinesis, but she did say he would develop enhanced senses and reflexes.
Then again, Jason kind of had those too, on some level. The pit counted as a type of enhancement, even if it was countered by some heavy negative side effects. Maybe this would become normal at some point. Tim had certainly gotten used to being best friends with aliens and metahumans.
The raven flew off of Annabeth’s arm as she began to break the seal on the scroll, and landed only a bit away on top of the head of the boy Tim didn’t know, who looked around his age. His orange shirt with the camp logo on it had singe marks on the sleeves, and Tim saw Percy raise his eyebrows at the bird.
“Maybe not Leo,” he said, giving Tim a name for the boy currently rocking back and forth on his heels. “You might want to be anywhere except on the guy who spontaneously bursts into flame.”
Leo pouted as the raven cawed and moved from his head to Percy’s. Percy sighed.
“Not what I meant.”
Tim had no doubt that Percy wasn’t exaggerating about Leo’s flammability, and held himself back from asking just how that was the case—what kind of demigod was he for that to be so casual? He’d ask eventually, but Annabeth was starting to squint at the letters on the scroll, and Percy stopped making a face at the bird on his head to look at her.
“Dearest Annabeth,” Annabeth started, sighing deeply and shaking her head as she started to read slowly, her eyes narrowed. “I’m bored and there’s only so many times I can fail to fight a lindworm before I need to get out of the hotel. Even T.J. started laughing at me in battle this week. I’ve been betrayed. Rachel told me something was going on this weekend but wouldn’t tell me what, so I thought it would be a great time for you to see your favorite cousin. I expect to be included in whatever mysterious thing she wouldn’t tell me about, because she was smiling and that means it isn’t related to her weird prophecy shit. I decided to help Hunding with cleaning the lobby before I left, so this letter should arrive a few minutes before I do’.”
“Is he not bringing Alex?” Percy interrupted to ask, cocking his head and making the raven nesting in his hair squawk at the movement.
“Even if he’s not planning on it, I’m expecting the tag-along,” Annabeth said. She huffed, turning back to the letter. “I hate these letters. He knows how to IM me, he’s just being a bitch. ‘Yes, I know I could IM you, but this is more dramatic’, fuck you too, Magnus, ‘Anyway, see you soon. Yours annoyingly—”
Annabeth cut herself off, taking a deep breath and shutting her eyes.
“Alright,” she said. “Which one of you was it?”
“What did I do this time?” Leo asked, grinning at Annabeth as his hands dipped into the worn leather tool belt around his waist to fidget with what looked like random bits of metal. Annabeth looked between him and Percy, a dry, exasperated glare on her face.
“I only mentioned Magnus to Mr. D once, when asking whether I should keep this a secret from the rest of camp. If not one of you, who told Alex what name Mr. D used?” Annabeth asked. Tim had no idea what she was talking about, except for the fact that he now recognized the name ‘Mr. D’ as the god Dionysus—which still made him the slightest bit wary, but Annabeth seemed certain he wasn’t involved with Gotham. He glanced over at Jason, who was watching Annabeth read the letter with amusement and intrigue. He seemed to recognize the cousin Annabeth had mentioned—who was dead? But was coming to visit?—but wasn’t joining in on the conversation, letting Annabeth stare down a suddenly sheepish Percy.
“Oh,” Percy said, making a face. “That was me. She had heard Mr. D call me ‘Peter Johansson’ again, so I told her that was a thing he did, then she found out that you had talked to him about Magnus and threatened to cut my head off if I didn’t tell her what name he used.”
Annabeth’s mouth twisted in amusement. “Percy, Alex wouldn’t—“
“—No, I know,” Percy cut Annabeth off, nodding. “When I called her out on that and said that she wouldn’t cut my head off because that’s how she flirts with Magnus, she said she’d make sure I never got my hands on blue food dye ever again and somehow I do believe she can figure out how to do that.”
Tim blinked. He hadn’t expected the casual talk of decapitation, or the insinuation that it had happened before. To the cousin who was coming to visit. Who was this Alex? He understood why Jason wasn’t trying to join the conversation, though. Watching Annabeth and Percy go back and forth was entertaining, and Tim realized this was the first time he had really seen it, having been distracted that morning with all the information getting dumped on his shoulders. He probably could have enjoyed it if he hadn’t been so on edge over dinner at the Jackson-Blofis apartment, but he didn’t necessarily regret his paranoia.
“So you chose food dye over Magnus’s dignity,” Annabeth surmised, nodding sagely. “I can’t be too mad at you for that. Especially considering it seems like she’s called him that enough for him to embrace it. Anyway, ‘Yours annoyingly, Mango Cheese’.”
Percy snorted as Leo let out a bright laugh, and the raven in Percy’s hair seemed to caw laughter too. Annabeth gave it a slight side eye before turning her attention back to the scroll and continuing, “‘P.s. he finally stopped reading over my shoulder and left the room, thank the gods. Please keep Alex out of trouble until I get there, you’re the best, thanks so much’.”
Annabeth blinked at the scroll for a moment. Slowly, her eyes raised to the bird.
“…Alex,” she said flatly. The raven cawed a laugh again before fluttering off of Percy’s head and turning into a person right next to him, making Tim and Jason both take an instinctive half-step back. The former bird, who Tim assumed was the Alex mentioned in the note, was shorter than Percy, but seemed tall when he was standing next to Leo as well. He was dressed in a pastel green dress shirt with the sleeves rolled over his elbows, and a knee-length pink and white checkered skirt with green converse. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he grinned cheekily at Annabeth, dark green hair falling in front of mismatched eyes.
“Admit it,” he crowed, raising his eyebrows. “I had you for a second there!”
“I’ll give you this,” Annabeth admitted, “you were uncharacteristically quiet, and did quite a good impression of a messenger raven. But the real ravens usually wait in a tree or on someone’s shoulder. Not their head.”
Alex wrinkled his nose. “Shit. I knew there was something I forgot. I thought I was doing good enough not making noise. Helgi hates when I try to teach the ravens to say fuck.”
“I thought it was weird you went right to Leo’s head,” Percy said, his grin betraying the faux indignance in his voice. “Should’ve known it was you.”
Alex turned and punched Percy in the arm. “Damn right you should’ve. Also, not a girl day, Water Boy.”
“I got that, sorry Alex,” Percy said, but Alex waved him off.
“Eh, it’s whatever,” he said. “Mags should be here soon, he’s really curious why Rachel told him you were excited for this weekend.”
Tim was glad that only Jason looked over at him, because he was busy trying to figure out how that sentence made him feel. He had seen Annabeth’s face when she was showing him around, the bright smile when she handed him the spear that now rested on his belt. But to hear that she had been so excited to lead him to this camp that she was telling other people? People besides Percy or Jason? That was…not what he had expected when he decided to accept Jason’s invitation to New York. He knew that he had felt drawn to Annabeth when she started at WE, he had struggled to dislike her even when he didn’t trust her. To know that she had been planning this, just waiting to tell Tim about his real mom, telling her other friends and her girlfriend about Tim even when she didn’t know if he would listen to her…
Well, he couldn’t say he was upset when a sudden rustling from the trees stopped him from having to think about it. He stiffened on instinct, but when a person emerged from the forest and Percy, Annabeth, Leo, and Alex all relaxed, he let his shoulders drop. The newcomer looked like Annabeth, the same steely eyes and blond hair, but his hair reached around his chin and he was clearly shorter than his cousin. He was adjusting a necklace around his neck as he walked towards the group, and he lit up as he caught sight of Annabeth. Annabeth softened when she saw him, too, and Tim could tell that the hug she gave him was a tight one.
“You know, you could’ve given me a heads up,” Annabeth chided lightly, messing up her cousin’s already messy hair as she stepped back from the hug. “What if something had changed and I wasn’t here this weekend?”
“Who’s to say I came here to see you?” Magnus responded cheekily. “Maybe I’m here to say hi to Rachel, I rarely get to see her. Or Will, you know I have to check in on my fellow blond healers.”
“He’s here for you,” Alex piped up before Annabeth could say anything, and Magnus huffed.
“Thanks, Alex.”
“You’re welcome,” Alex ignored the sarcasm, and Annabeth laughed at the look on her cousin’s face.
“It’s good to see you, Magnus,” Annabeth said. “How’s the hotel?”
Magnus groaned as Alex started laughing. “It’s fine,” Magnus complained. “I’ve been having some off days.”
“Someone from another floor pranked ours by poisoning Mags at dinner, and he fell for it,” Alex said, making Magnus turn around and punch him in the shoulder. All that accomplished was making Alex lean his weight onto Magnus in retaliation.
“Isn’t poison kind of…tame, for you guys?” Percy asked, and Magnus shrugged.
“That’s why it was a prank,” he said. “One of my shorter deaths, though, only took about an hour to wake up again.”
Okay, first the decapitation and now this?
“What the fuck?” Tim said, and Magnus finally seemed to notice him and Jason standing off to the side.
“Oh, hi!” He said, smiling at the two of them. “Sorry, that must be confusing. We’re dead. Ghosts, technically.”
If Tim hadn’t already been told that, that would have been the least helpful answer possible.
“No, I got that part,” Tim said. “You died while already dead?”
“Seems excessive,” Jason added, but he was grinning, and Tim noticed Percy continuously glancing over at Jason and smiling each time. Gross. Cute, but gross.
“It’s our duty as einherjar to get ghost-killed every day,” Alex answered with mock-seriousness, nodding at Tim. “Valhalla gives gold stars.”
“Valhalla?” Tim asked, turning a side-eye to Annabeth, who had not mentioned anything outside what Tim knew was Greek myth. Or…Greek reality? Whatever. Either way, he knew that word. “Norse shit too?”
“I was getting to that,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes at Alex. “Tim, meet my cousin Magnus and his partner Alex, they’re Norse demigods and also einherjar, the immortal dead warriors of Odin. Magnus, Alex, this is Tim, he’s my new half-brother.”
It didn’t feel as strange that time to hear it, but Tim figured that was partially because he was too focused on even more new things to add to his worldview. Norse demigods, of fucking course. Magnus brightened, immediately reaching out a hand to Tim.
“Oh shit, a new not-at-all-actually-related-to-me half-cousin!” He greeted, shaking Tim’s hand excitedly. “Welcome to the insanity. Hotel Valhalla has cookies, but unfortunately you’d probably die if you tried to get in. I’m still fighting to get Annabeth an ‘honorary einherji’ hard hat. I’m the son of Frey, god of summer, peace, sunshine, that stuff.”
“Child of Loki,” Alex added, waving slightly. “I doubt I have to introduce him, my mom has a bit of a reputation. He/him today, but that’ll change.”
“Ignore him, he’s an asshole,” Magnus said before Tim could voice one of the many questions both of them had inspired in his head. Only one of them had come from Alex, actually, but he supposed he could infer his own answers to most of them. After all, a hotel full of dead people would be rather resistant to living people entering it, wouldn’t it? Tim noticed Percy’s eyes lock onto something over Tim’s shoulder, and he got a grin on his face, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to, as only a few seconds later, Tim heard a voice that he unfortunately recognized.
“I thought I felt death in the camp,” came the flat voice of the di Angelo kid as he came up to stand right behind Magnus’s shoulder, making him jump in surprise as his hand flew to grab the necklace around his neck.
“Fuck!” He shouted, reaching out to steady himself with Alex’s shoulder. “Someone put a bell on him.”
“I’ve tried,” Percy said. “It doesn’t help.”
“Try again and I’ll shove you back into the Styx,” the kid warned, but Percy wasn’t fazed in the slightest.
“So you don’t want the fancy bell Will commissioned from me that sounds like rattling bones?” Leo spoke up from where he was standing off to the side still fiddling with the contraption in his hands, “he’ll be so disappointed, Neeks.”
“One, don’t call me that,” the kid—it was Nico, right?—started, pointing accusatorially at Leo, “two, he absolutely did not ask you to make something like that, and if you made it, burn it or I’ll make the forge haunted.”
“Hey, this feels like discrimination,” Alex said, “ghosts are people too. What if they don’t want to haunt?”
“You’re saying you wouldn’t love to haunt somewhere?” Magnus asked, raising his eyebrows. Alex shrugged.
“This isn’t about me. He can’t order me to haunt anywhere.”
“I’m sure he wishes he could,” Leo said.
Alex patted him on the shoulder. “He can wish all he wants, Super Sized McShizzle.”
Tim thought the expression on Nico’s face would kill Alex if he wasn’t already dead.
“I hate you so much,” he said. “Don’t encourage him.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” Alex said smugly. “I’m out of your jurisdiction, death boy.”
“I can figure it out,” Nico promised. “I don’t just order ghosts around. I turned someone into a ghost, once.”
“Isn’t that just murder?” Jason cut in, and Percy sighed heavily.
“Gods, I wish.”
“Oh, you’re here,” Nico said, noticing Jason and Tim for the first time—or at least acknowledging them for the first time. Despite his words, it didn’t seem like a rude kind of acknowledgement, as Nico seemed to give a small nod of greeting to Jason, who returned it. Had they met before? Besides the shitshow at Arkham? “I suppose all that went well, then.”
Of course he had known what was happening. He was clearly close with Annabeth, she had broken him out of Arkham, so no wonder he was on the list of people she had apparently shared her excitement with. Tim had managed to forget that this world was the reason they had broken into Arkham in the first place. He had thought for so long that something had to be up with the kid they broke out, but it was just…this. He was a demigod. He was family to Percy and Annabeth. Tim supposed he’d be seeing a lot more of him, if he decided to stick around this world.
“It did,” Percy said, something in his voice that made Nico turn to him in apprehension. “Which means you have something to say…?”
“What? No I don’t.”
“No, I think you do,” Percy insisted. “I could remind you through an Annabeth-style numbered list, if you want?”
“Is it alphabetized?” Annabeth asked. Percy scoffed.
“I said Annabeth-style, what do you think?”
“You’d be coming up with this on the spot, you don’t have a list,” Nico said. Percy brightened.
“Ah, but you admit that there would be things on that list!” He said, making Nico scowl. “C’mon, Nico, we’re all well aware that you’re not actually an asshole. Or, at least, most of us are.”
His voice grew pointed, and Tim expected Nico to push back again against whatever Percy was trying to nudge him into doing with lighthearted bullying. But the younger boy huffed, and turned to look at Tim out of the corner of his vision.
“…sorry,” he said, like the act of saying the word pained him. Tim blinked in surprise.
“For?” Percy prodded. Nico rolled his eyes.
“For being an asshole at dinner,” he finished. “It was the last time I knew I could be passive aggressive, and it was funny. You should have seen your face.”
“I don’t think that counts as a good apology,” Alex chimed in, earning Nico’s middle finger in his direction, “but I’m always a supporter of passive aggression.”
“And actual aggression,” Magnus added. “Towards me, usually.”
“I decapitate you because I care,” Alex said. “I did save your life with it once.”
“It’s, uh, it’s fine,” Tim said slightly awkwardly, ignoring Alex and Magnus and the implications of repeated casual decapitation, keeping his eyes on the shorter boy with the dark eyes that looked so different from the picture Tim had spent hours studying in the batcave. It wasn’t that there was no hint of happiness in his eyes, because there was, even when Percy was practically shoving him into an apology, but that age-yellowed image had so much brightness in both of the children. Speaking of which, Tim wondered where his sister was.
“It was pretty funny,” Jason said, and Tim resisted the urge to stab him again with his new spear. Honestly, he hadn’t been one hundred percent positive that he believed Annabeth when she said that metal couldn’t hurt ‘mortals’, but he wasn’t going to let that hold him back from the perfect opportunity to stab his annoying older brother. “I also hate bats.”
“They hate you too,” Tim said. The corner of Nico’s mouth twitched into what might have been a smile, and that just confirmed it for Tim. Whether Percy and Annabeth told him or he figured it out some other way, Nico knew their identities. That thought didn’t bother Tim as much as it would have the previous night, though. As much as he thought it probably should have. Everyone in this camp knew what it was like to have a secret that big.
Nico acknowledged Tim’s acceptance of his apology with a nod, saying, “Since you’re here now, nice to…officially meet you, I guess. Nico di Angelo, son of Hades.”
He then turned to Annabeth without waiting for a response and added, “I was with Rachel when I felt the two of them enter the border,” he motioned to Magnus and Alex, “she said she’d head over soon. She seemed annoyed that she wouldn’t be the first to meet him.”
“I’ve got a bone to pick with her,” Magnus said, exaggerating a frown. “Why didn’t she tell me this was why you were coming to camp this weekend? I can keep a secret.”
“Look me in the eyes and tell me that if you were told about Tim before right now, you wouldn't have come directly to Gotham and risked your afterlife in a very dangerous city?” Annabeth said, deadpan.
“I mean, we can die here too,” Alex said, making Annabeth round on him next.
“And you never act like it,” she said. “Which doesn’t inspire confidence. Please, for the love of the gods, do not antagonize the Ares cabin again this time, Alex.”
“But it’s so easy,” Alex argued.
Tim watched them argue, Annabeth staring down both the Norse demigods as she tried to drill into their heads that they weren’t immortal in the camp—Tim wasn’t completely positive on the details of the argument, but he could put enough together from context—and when Nico involved himself to dryly goad Alex on, he felt Percy move closer to him and Jason. It was strange how differently Tim looked at him now, when a day ago he had read ulterior motives into every move the older boy made. Now, the shifting colors of his eyes wasn’t something to keep an eye on, but something that spoke of crashing waves and swirling tides. The strength in his stance wasn’t a sign of danger, but something much like what the Bats had carefully crafted in order to seem normal in their daily lives. He wasn’t hiding anything, he just wasn’t the kind of person who liked being intimidating all the time. It made Tim wonder what he was like in a fight against the monsters Annabeth had told him about. With the harpy the past night, there wasn’t actually much fighting happening, and all Tim could glean was Annabeth’s skill and Percy’s confidence.
“How are you holding up?” Percy asked him while the others continued arguing. There was nothing but genuine interest and understanding on his face, and Tim didn’t feel condescended to. He shrugged.
“I mean, it’s a lot,” he said. “But it’s all…interesting. Actually getting some answers is fucking nice, even if the answers are wild.”
“Now you know what I’ve been dealing with for months now,” Jason said, grinning as Percy hit his arm lightly.
“You’re the one who asked about the other gorgons. It’s your own fault you learned about the Cheese n’ Wieners.”
Tim shook his head. “I think I’m not going to ask about that.”
“Good choice,” Percy said. “Do you have other questions, though? I’ll answer whatever I can.”
“Do you want a list?” Tim asked dryly. Did he have questions? Does Bruce Wayne ever make a fool of himself? “Lets start with the dragon.”
He hadn’t forgotten seeing it the night before, and while he wasn’t sure he wanted to broach the topic of cleaning harpies, he was definitely ready to ask about the dragon.
“Ah, Peleus,” Percy said, nodding as he looked over to the trees where the large pine could be seen above the other trees. His hand came up in what seemed like an unconscious motion to touch one of the beads on the necklace around his neck. Tim had noticed that he and Annabeth had them on, now, but hadn’t thought much of it until he saw Leo and Nico both wearing them too. Both of them had less beads than both Percy and Annabeth, but some of them clearly matched. “He’s technically just the protector of the tree, since the camp has a barrier that keeps monsters and mortals out, but by protecting the tree he protects the barrier, so he’s seen as the camp’s guardian. The tree got…poisoned a few years ago, weakening the barrier, and there was a quest to save it. We found the Golden Fleece—“
“—The Golden Fleece?” Tim interrupted, raising his eyebrows. Percy grinned.
“The very same. Met Polyphemus and everything. Bitch of a half-brother. Anyway, the fleece cured the tree, de-pined my cousin—long story—, and we needed Peleus to help guard it so no one takes it from the tree.”
“Why are you touching that bead?” Tim asked next, filing away the reminder that he had known the cyclopes were children of Poseidon, and so yes, Percy was technically related to them. He really needed to read more mythology if this was going to be his life now. He’d have to steal some stuff from Jason’s library. At his question, Percy glanced down at the necklace and smiled softly.
“Each camper gets a necklace at the end of their first summer at camp,” he said, memories written on his face, “and each year, the camp decides on an event to immortalize in a bead that every camper gets. This one is the one from that summer.”
“Why haven’t I seen you wearing it before?” Tim questioned, not bothering to pretend he hadn’t been watching Percy. Percy shrugged, but the soft expression on his face didn’t budge.
“Annabeth and I wear them under our shirts outside camp, usually. A lot of demigods do, to avoid the possibility of being asked about them. Sure, we could just brush it off as a random beaded necklace, but…these beads mean things. We don’t want to do that.”
His fingers traveled from one bead to the next, six in total, and from the way he paused on one of them—it looked like it had a building on it, but Tim couldn’t make it out—the beads meant way more than just summer memories. If he hadn’t seen the brief flash of grief in Percy’s eyes, he would have asked about them, wanting to know what each one meant. But Tim had some sense of tact, and this wasn’t the time or place to make Percy think about whatever had caused that look in his eyes. He wanted to change the subject, as Jason reached out to hold Percy’s free hand, and remembered one of the very first questions he had after he looked Percy up for the first time.
“Is this,” he motioned around to the camp as a whole, “why you were wanted by the federal government for terrorism?”
Jason laughed as Percy sighed, his hand leaving the necklace to pinch the bridge of his nose.
“It was the chimera that blew up the side of the arch, not me!” He defended himself. “I’d love to see the faces of the police if I had tried to tell them that.”
“They’d probably react similarly to if they had learned who you really fought on that beach,” Jason teased, and Tim frowned.
“Who did you fight?”
But before Percy could answer, someone called out Annabeth’s name, and Tim turned to see a girl he vaguely recognized from high-society functions walking across the grass with paint smeared across her own orange shirt. Her wild red hair was clearly suffering from an attempt to hold it back off her face, but it hadn’t worked very well. Rachel Dare looked more relaxed than Tim could ever recall from his fuzzy memories—the girl he had seen occasionally in newspapers or the very rare gala that her father attended had never smiled this wide, and he was sure Mr. Dare would hate the casual attire and the streaks of dirt and paint on her skin. Her eyes, a very vivid green that almost had him glancing at Jason out of the corner of his vision, were locked onto Annabeth as she was pulled into a tight hug, but then she spotted Tim. Tim suddenly felt…nervous? He had already met Nico and Leo, two other demigods from this camp that Annabeth clearly cared about heavily, but they had seemed to greet Tim very…casually. Hell, Leo really hadn’t greeted him at all, and he was sure that Nico would have preferred to skip over that whole stage of things if Percy hadn’t shoved him into an apology. And the counselor he had met by the infirmary was casual about it too. But the look in Rachel’s eyes showed him that she wanted to greet him, and he knew he wouldn’t get out of a conversation with her unless he insisted. He’d have to be rude if he insisted, and no one here had actually done anything to make him feel like he had to be rude about it. Which a part of him hated, honestly. It would be a whole lot easier to make up his mind about how he felt about all this if the people around him weren’t as chill with everything and as open to him as they had been.
“Tim, right?” Rachel said, grabbing his hand with both of hers exuberantly. “I’m Rachel, Annabeth’s girlfriend and current host of the Oracle of Delphi.”
Tim’s eyes drifted from her face to her hair. Then he glanced over at Percy.
“That’s why you were laughing at Barbara,” he said, feeling a grin spreading on his own face as some form of realization dawned onto Jason. He turned back to Rachel as his hand was released. “Nice to meet you.”
“Well, officially,” Rachel corrected, thankfully not elaborating in front of everyone Tim had just met, and letting just him and Jason understand that she was lightly referring to those very galas that he had glimpsed her at. “I know these assholes beat me to it, but welcome to camp. Everyone is a little insane here, but in a good way. You’re from Gotham, I’m sure you understand that sentiment.”
Tim would be a massive hypocrite if he disagreed, considering his entire family, so he shrugged slightly sheepishly. He heard Jason laughing quietly next to him, and ignored him.
“In Gotham, you’re suspicious if you’re not a little weird in some way,” he admitted, and Rachel grinned.
“Exactly,” she said. “So, have you met any of your cabinmates, or just this group of idiots over here?”
Percy’s quiet ‘hey’ went unacknowledged by Rachel, but definitely was heard if the glint in her eyes meant anything. Tim kind of appreciated the use of the word ‘cabinmates’ rather than ’siblings’. Sure, he knew it was the same thing, he wasn’t completely unaware of the implications of the other cabinmates also being children of the same goddess, despite how that thought hadn’t fully sunk in yet. He wasn’t a stranger to surprise new siblings. But it was…different when it was just Annabeth. He knew her. And he knew that she knew the other ones, but for now they were just…no one in his head, and he had no idea how to feel about it. He needed to have more time to mull all this over in his head before he could really understand how he felt about suddenly having thirteen half-siblings from a new side of a family that apparently means he only has half his DNA. He wished he was back at the cave just so he could run his own blood test and see how badly it was fucked up now.
He couldn’t do that right now, though, so he had to wait a bit longer before he could sate his curiosity. Which meant that science and experimentation couldn’t distract him from the question at hand, and couldn’t drag his thoughts away from the demigods/cabinmates/siblings that he hadn’t really let himself think about yet.
He shook his head at Rachel. “No, not yet.”
Somehow, in those three words, Rachel seemed to get something. The green of her eyes became a little less piercing, and she stepped a little to the side so that she was closer to Tim than anyone else in the small group. Annabeth was still arguing with her cousin, although now it sounded like it was about something far less serious than his lack of immortality, and Jason had stepped a little away from him to speak with Percy, Nico, and Leo. When Rachel spoke, it was just for Tim to hear.
“It’s a change, to be here,” she said, “I get it. I’m still mortal, but I’m a part of this world for the rest of my life now, and I still struggled to find a place here after I took my oath and accepted the Oracle. I expected that when I was just Percy’s mortal friend who helped him on quests, but I did think it would be easier once I was tied here too. It’s hard to find a place to be yourself when you’re so used to putting on a face for strangers.”
Her hand came up to rub at a patch of dried paint on her neck, and it flaked off as she laughed lightly. Tim didn’t interrupt. He wasn’t quite sure what she was getting at, but he did know that her perspective might be a bit more similar to his own.
“But, Tim,” Rachel said, a deep fondness in her sharp green eyes as she glanced over at the bickering demigods, “I’ll let you in on a secret. No one here gives a single shit who you are.”
She said the words with a thread of relief in her voice, her tone soft. Tim felt his shoulders relax just a little at the sincerity she spoke with.
“I’m not Rachel Elizabeth Dare, daughter of William Dare, who is still on paper to inherit the company no matter how many times I say I’ll just burn it all to the ground. No one looks at me and sees one of the worst mortal men I’ve met in my life. Here, I’m just Rachel. I’m the Oracle who lives up in my cave and paints, I’m Annabeth’s girlfriend, I’m the girl who hit Kronos with a hairbrush. All of that is stuff I made for myself as Rachel. And I know your family isn’t like mine, I’m sure you can just be Tim and I’m sure you have friends already who know the real you, maybe you don’t need more than that, but…if you did, you could find it here. These people here have no expectation for you except to not die.”
She was…almost uncomfortably earnest. And not in the sense that her words made Tim uncomfortable, but in the way that it made him actually think about what he’d been purposely not thinking about. She was smiling slightly, her eyes angled towards Annabeth, Percy, and the other demigods, and Tim could feel that she wasn’t just saying these things to try and make him feel better. She meant every word, and Tim couldn’t help but believe her. In the short time he’d been at this camp, he hadn’t seen a single person look at him the way people in Gotham looked at both Tim Drake-Wayne or Red Robin. And Rachel was right, he was himself around his family and he had friends who saw past the unknowable air that all the bats put on around other heroes and love him because he’s a bit of a mess sometimes. But he had been thinking, as Annabeth walked him around the camp, that he didn’t want to meet all these new people if they were just going to make him act like Tim Drake-Wayne all the time. If they were going to make him feel the same disconnection that he always felt among the high-society of Gotham and pretty much everyone except the cape community.
But every demigod he’d met so far—yes, including Nico—had welcomed him to camp without once questioning if he belonged there. Even when Tim himself wasn’t sure, they never seemed like they were wondering why he had ended up being a demigod. This place felt so…different to all the other places Tim had learned he could set down all his masks. And not in any better or worse way. In all those places, he was still someone people already knew, whether it was because they were his family or they were friends he’d had as Robin for a long time already. So it was…comfortable. Safe. Here, Rachel was right. If no one actually cared who he was, then no one knew him. This was…a completely blank slate with everyone except Annabeth, Percy, and Nico—and to be honest, Tim really didn’t care what the kid thought of him, and it was clear that Nico didn’t care either. Here, he wasn’t a Wayne or a Bat or a genius or a fighter or a Gothamite cryptid.
Rachel seemed to see the thoughts going on behind his eyes, and she nudged him gently.
“And if you’re still worried about it?” She started. “You came in with those two,” she pointed at Percy and Annabeth, “and if you’re standing next to them, you’re basically invisible. There are only five or six other demigods who might stand a chance at being recognized when standing next to Perce or Annie, and while everyone here in camp knows me, that doesn’t really correlate to fame unless I’m actively giving a prophecy. You? No offense, Tim, but nobody is even going to notice you’re there.”
“…they’re famous?” Tim asked, glancing over to his brother’s boyfriend and his personal-intern-turned-half-sister. He knew that Annabeth had a certain…air around her, but taking that night at Arkham out of the equation, the only thing he’d ever really heard about Percy was that he was a bit of a mess and as big of a dork as Jason pretended he wasn’t. Them having this secret wasn’t world shattering, neither was the revelation that Percy had powers from it, but the two of them being as important as Rachel was implying? Had never once crossed his mind. Rachel laughed, though.
“You’ll learn why,” she said, “but yes. I don’t think there’s a demigod alive that doesn’t know the names Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.”
It was honestly kind of…bizarre the way that Tim relaxed at those words. Was it weird for him to be almost glad that he was a nobody at this camp? He didn’t think it was that weird. Wasn’t that why Jason lived in the middle of nowhere in Gotham, so that people rarely recognized him as a Wayne? He got what Rachel was saying, about making her own name for herself completely disconnected from who she was in the normal world. Tim already had a double life, and he definitely didn’t need another secret identity, but that wouldn’t be what happened here. Sure, he’d be keeping secrets, he wasn’t about to completely out the secret of the bat’s identities just because these demigods knew how to keep a secret too, but this would almost be a third time of figuring out who he is. With the only eyes on him that actually cared being those of people he knew…wanted to know him. No matter what. It still was strange to think about how excited everyone said Annabeth was, when he had known her to be very professional with a more hidden humor to her teasing and back-handed comments towards people Tim met with that he clearly didn’t like. Strange in a good way, though, which was almost stranger.
Tim was saved from having to think about this any more by a bell ringing through the camp, and everyone’s head perking up as they looked in that direction. Leo’s grin was wide.
“Food,” he said emphatically, before darting off from their group towards the area that Annabeth had told him was the dining pavilion. Alex lit up and ran after him, followed by a sighing Magnus. Annabeth just laughed, watching them go.
“Lunchtime,” she explained, glancing over at Tim. “Come on, we can sit at Percy’s table for privacy.”
“Each cabin has a table,” Rachel continued, giving a side-eyed grin towards Percy. “So poor Perce is all alone most of the time.”
“No, because you all sit with me anyway,” Percy retorted, rolling his eyes. “Only Nico sits by himself sometimes and that’s because he’s so edgy and a loner.”
Nico elbowed Percy in the gut without looking over at him. Then he sped up slightly as the dining pavilion came into view, headed towards a different table than the one Rachel was leading their group to—the one Nico went towards was full of kids with varying shades of blond hair, and he stood out like a sore thumb. But Rachel was leading them towards a fully empty table, and Tim was glad for that. There were plates and utensils on the tables, and he saw kids getting their lunch from larger tables up front, but despite the full glasses along all the tables, Tim didn’t see any drinks anywhere, even water. And why were kids getting up with their plates and heading towards the big fire pit at the back of the pavilion? Tim held back his questions as they walked towards the empty table, but he couldn’t hold them for very long. As soon as he sat across from Annabeth, with Jason taking the seat next to him, he was talking.
“Okay, so some people have what seems to be soda, others have water, and there’s about a dozen things I can’t recognize on sight while there aren’t any drinks in this tent. What exactly is happening? And what’s with the fire pit?”
Percy laughed as he sat next to Annabeth, Rachel on her other side.
“Oh, man, I remember my first meal here,” he said. “Hey, Tim, watch this.”
Then he looked towards his empty drink glass and said, “Blue cherry coke, please.”
Instantly, the glass filled with an unnaturally blue soda, and Percy grinned in satisfaction. Tim just stared a little. It wasn’t even entirely because of the magical drink glasses, because he was starting to not be as surprised by the new shit thrown at him. No, it was also because Percy had access to those magical drink glasses and used it for that. And this was the guy Jason had chosen to piss off their entire family for?
Actually, no, Tim could see that. He could do without seeing Jason essentially making heart-eyes across the table at Percy’s satisfaction about his neon blue soda, though. Annabeth seemed as unimpressed as he was, rolling her eyes at Percy before looking up towards the back of the pavilion where the fire pit was roaring.
“Yes, well, I don’t think that was Tim’s most important question, Perce,” she said, her words not seeming to dampen Percy’s spirits. “As for the fire, that’s our sacrificial flame. Each meal, we offer a portion of our meals to our parents—and potentially other gods if something is going on. Or if you’re Percy and being petty, you just offer some to Hestia because your father gave you a Hawaiian shirt for your birthday.”
“Aunt Hestia is my favorite family member,” Percy said with an unrepentant shrug. “And Dad knew that would happen. I stopped being petty when he gave me my actual birthday gift a week later.”
“Which was more like a gift for Estelle,” Annabeth added with a grin. “He knew you’d never stay real mad, much less fake-angry, after that.”
“What was the gift?” Jason asked. Percy’s smile turned soft.
“He said that when Estelle turns twelve, the age I was when he claimed me, he’ll give her the ability to speak with marine life, like I do. He must’ve eavesdropped one of the times I mentioned to Annie that I wished I could share that with Stella.”
“It looks like the fire is free for right now,” Annabeth cut in, her eyes focused back on the fire pit. “Tim, I know this might seem like a lot, but it’s easier than it might look. I’ll walk you through it, if you want to go get some food?”
Tim glanced over at the fire pit, where no one was standing around it at the moment, and then back to Annabeth’s waiting—but not impatient—gaze. He felt the same sort of emotions that had swirled around him when he confronted them at the edge of the camp the previous night, where he faced his discomfort and slight fear with the words that he was Red Robin, and even if this was new and something he didn’t know how to deal with yet, he could handle almost anything thrown at him. How could this really be that much different than randomly showing up on Bruce Wayne’s doorstep armed with the knowledge of his secret identity? From the little people-watching Tim had done since entering the dining pavilion, it didn’t seem like there was much responding happening when the ‘offerings’ were made. And, well, this might give a solid answer to that part of Tim’s mind that simply refused to believe this was real. So with a slight bit of steeling himself, Tim gave Annabeth a nod. The smile that spread on her face was an expression that Tim had caused a lot over the course of the day, and each time it happened, it was harder not to smile back.
Annabeth stood up, and he followed her, leaving Percy and Rachel with Jason. Tim felt…exposed, walking through the raucous tables of demigods behind Annabeth, who seemed so at-ease and comfortable in this environment. He saw only a few people glance up at them, including a few people from a table across the pavilion with gazes as sharp as Annabeth’s, but no one said anything or made a move to get up. There were no interruptions as Tim first filled a plate with food and then walked up to the fire to stand next to Annabeth.
“It’s simple, really,” she said quietly, despite the fact that there was no one near them and the pavilion was full of loud conversation that would likely block their words from anyone not specifically trying to eavesdrop. Even with the enhanced hearing that Annabeth implied most people here had. “It doesn’t seem it, I know. Especially when I say that Mom does listen. But all we’re doing is thanking our parents, because now more than ever, they are keeping an eye out for us even if we can’t always tell. They do have rules on how much they can interfere, but those of us who have been on enough quests to last three lifetimes can see it a little easier. I fought alongside Athena two summers ago, and she’s already proud of all of us. While all gods like to be honored, from us it’s more about offering to them to...in a way, include them in our lives when they can’t always actually involve themselves.”
Annabeth was staring at the flames, and Tim wanted to ask about when she fought alongside a goddess, and what she was fighting. But the same way he didn’t think it was the right time to ask about the bead Percy was touching, he didn’t think now was the right time for Annabeth to talk about whatever battle that was. Tim knew that sometimes it never got easier to talk about a time when your life was seriously endangered, even if you were talking with someone who understood. Sometimes even someone who was also there.
Then the blinked, and the look in her eyes was gone. She used a fork to section off a bit of the food she had taken, and moved her plate closer to the flames.
“Hi Mom,” she said, the same volume she had just been using with Tim, “I know you know this already, but…I got him here. I don’t know how much of my prayers you could hear from Gotham, but if you heard any of them…thank you. Our plan went perfectly.” Her smile turned the slightest bit smug. “Wisdom’s daughter wins again. Thank you for claiming him so quickly, too. I’ll make sure he knows how to keep himself safe in our world.”
Would hearing Annabeth talk about him like that ever stop surprising him? Tim had to force his eyes away from her to watch as she deftly shoved the small portion of food off of her plate and into the flames, making smoke curl up into the sky that smelled vaguely of barbecue and vegetables instead of just ash. Then she stepped slightly to the side, giving Tim access to the fire. She didn’t rush him, though, and let him watch the smoke dissipate into the air. After a few moments, Tim let out a breath and stepped closer to the flames. He felt the heat on his skin, but it didn’t feel like it was about to burn him.
“Um, hi,” he started awkwardly. He felt like he was talking to thin air, but he tried to treat this like he was talking to Kon when his boyfriend wasn’t even in the same area. He’d long since stopped feeling strange when he did that. “This is all…really weird, but also kind of explains a lot? So…thank you for…claiming me?” He checked his wording with Annabeth through a sideways glance, and she nodded with an unmistakable look of pride on her face. Tim felt warmer from that than he did from the fire less than a foot away. Words kept coming, before he really knew what he was saying. “I still don’t know how I feel about all this, especially since up until last night I thought I knew who my parents were, but I do know that having Annabeth as a sister seems nice. I think she’d get along great with my other sisters. So, yeah. Thanks, uh…mom.”
As he followed Annabeth’s lead and slid his offering into the fire, the smoke rose up just as it had with her, and some part of Tim that had been sure nothing would happen for him settled down. He watched it for longer than he had watched Annabeth’s smoke, and he wasn’t sure why.
Then a breeze blew through the pavilion, sending the last bits of smoke in Tim’s direction, and it carried with it that same scent of yellowed-books and metal that he remembered from the night before. He blinked at the smell, and before he even looked over to Annabeth, he knew what that was. And the fact that no one had to tell him just made it all the more real.
He had awkwardly called Athena his mother, and she had responded. And it had made something in Tim’s body finally relax. He’d never even called Janet Drake ‘mom’. It felt too casual to use to address a goddess, but Annabeth had done it, and when he did too…she’d done even more than she had done for Annabeth.
He felt Annabeth move closer to him until her arm was nearly touching his, finally jolting his attention away from the flames.
“You know, part of the reason I was so invested in bringing you here wasn’t just because I would want any unclaimed demigod to come to camp and learn to defend themselves,” she admitted as they stood there. “But because it was you. I had thought, before Arkham, that we were approaching something like friendship, and even after all that happened I had hope that someday you’d trust me again and I could keep getting to know you. Even if you weren’t Jason’s brother, I felt drawn to get to know you. But then I get handed the idea that you might be a demigod. A part of the world that’s been mine since I was seven. More than that, you might be my brother. I might focus on probabilities and facts when I make my plans, but…I can’t help hoping for things. And I was really hoping that we were right.”
Tim had no idea what to say to that. But he did know how it made him feel. And it was something he’d only ever felt from Bruce and the rest of his family.
Tim felt wanted.
“All that to say,” Annabeth continued, glancing over at him with a smile, “I’m glad you’re here, and I’ve thought having you as a brother would be nice for a while now.”
While Tim let that sink in, her eyes flicked over his shoulder and her smile turned exasperated.
“And here comes Olympus’s problem child,” she teased, all the warning Tim got before Percy came up on his other side and unceremoniously slid some food into the flames.
“Hey Dad, tell Amphitrite I’ll visit soon, and remind Triton he owes me a spar,” he said. “Also, give Tyson some time off, I miss him. Hope you catch a big one, or whatever fishing lingo is. See you sometime.”
Then he shot Annabeth and Tim a grin. “See? No big deal.”
Annabeth was clearly holding back a smile as she responded, “And that, Tim, is what happens when you try your hardest to piss off every god possible.”
“Not every god,” Percy argued as the three of them left the fire pit behind and began walking back to the table. “Just the ones that I feel are particularly responsible for the directions my childhood took. And I’ve stopped trying to antagonize your mom!”
“Thank you for that,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. “Maybe next time I see her in person, she won’t have words to say about my continued friendship with you.”
“Well if her main problem with me is that Poseidon’s my dad and I’m impertinent, those things aren’t changing,” Percy said. “She’s gonna have to get used to it, because I’m pretty sure we’re too codependent to stop hanging out now.”
“We’re not codependent,” Annabeth argued, and Tim absently wondered if she was encouraging Percy’s rambling to give Tim space again. It was a good distraction, he had to say. “That’s not what that word means. We’re just…”
“Sewn at the hip?” Rachel offered as they entered earshot of the table. “I’d say ‘one brain in two bodies’ but that’s an insult to Annabeth, so maybe more like ‘practically each other’s shadow’?”
“You say that like it’s an insult but I’m well aware that Annabeth is smarter than me,” Percy said, sitting back down across from Jason. When Tim took his own seat back, he felt his older brother shift to be a little closer, and he appreciated the proximity. He knew he wasn’t in danger here, he was fairly confident now that this camp wasn't a place where someone would try to kill him, but knowing that there was someone with him who he knew he fought well with and who he trusted was definitely helping his nerves. It made it easier to feel like this was just him hanging out with his brother, his brother’s boyfriend, and his newly-discovered half-sister that he was getting to know, instead of him being by himself surrounded by people he didn’t really know and who had unknown abilities and a lot of weapons. Tim had seen that armory. He had no doubt that everyone in this dining pavilion (including him and Jason, to be fair) had at least one weapon on them.
As Percy bickered with Rachel, Jason turned to face him.
“Oh, by the way, she’s perfectly safe, just like I promised,” he said, pulling Tim’s phone out of his jacket pocket and handing it over. “I’ve been fielding Dick’s questions for a bit, but I just played up that you’re annoyed we’ve been doing normal New York tourist things.”
“My phone isn’t a she,” Tim countered, snatching the phone out of Jason’s hands. “I’m not that attached to it.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Jason replied with a grin, and Tim punched him in the arm. Then he looked down at his phone and up at Annabeth.
“Wait, is it…fine to have this here?” He asked, remembering what she had said about technology apparently attracting those monsters. Annabeth made some quick furtive glances at the tables around them before leaning more towards Tim.
“It should be fine,” she said. “The barrier around camp blocks some of it, enough that we can keep a computer in the Big House for emergencies, and I’m sure a few campers could use phones at once for a short period of time and not attract anything. But if we told everyone that, then everyone would keep a phone around and we’d never be able to regulate it like that. So keep it quiet, and maybe don’t use it that often, but it shouldn’t be a huge issue. And if it does attract anything, it likely will be something easily handled outside the barrier.”
“So if you want to fight your first dracanae, that’d be an easy way to make it happen,” Percy added, laughing as Annabeth elbowed him. “I’m kidding, Annabeth! You literally keep your phone in a lockbox, I know you’re serious about this.”
“You actually do have a phone, then?” Jason asked. Annabeth made an ‘eh’ motion with her hand.
“Technically,” she said. “But it’s for quests only. In case we can’t IM for whatever reason. It’s in my cabin and stays there.”
“I’m sure you guys can understand the classic demigod paranoia,” Percy said. “I think it’s honestly a good thing for the rest of the world that demigods don’t use the internet. Ares’s cabin alone would cause so many problems, and that’s not even counting the doors that would open for the Hermes cabin or the inevitable rise of little conspiracy theorist Athena kids.”
“I think that would just end up being Penn,” Annabeth added, musing. “I can definitely see them getting caught up in all that, though.”
Tim heard Jason’s shit-eating grin in his voice even without looking over. “Definitely shouldn’t let them meet Tim’s boyfriend, then,” he said. “If you don’t want a budding conspiracy theorist, that is.”
“Oh shit, Bernard would lose his mind with all this,” Tim laughed. “I mean—“
He cut himself off suddenly, a thought hitting him as his eyes shot over to Percy. The older boy frowned at the sudden intensity, but just seemed curious.
“Tim?” He asked. “What’s up?”
“…I don’t think I ever told Bernard the name of Jason’s boyfriend,” Tim said, a slow grin spreading on his face. “I mean, no offense, but I didn’t think highly of you for a while there. And if I saw a few conspiracy pages when I was doing your background check? He definitely knows your name.”
“Holy shit,” Jason grinned back, and normally Tim would start complaining about the fact that his boyfriend got along so well with his most-theorized-about brother. But he had bigger priorities right now. “Can you call him? Is that safe?”
Tim glanced to Annabeth, who was giving an amused side-eye to the suddenly embarrassed Percy.
“Fuck it,” she said. “Go ahead. I’ll fight whatever monster comes if it attracts any, I want to hear this.”
Tim wasn’t going to just decide not to call his boyfriend when given the option. So with Annabeth’s agreement, he quickly pulled up Bernard’s contact and pressed the call button. He didn’t immediately put it on speaker phone, and the call only rang twice before Bernard answered.
“Tim!” He greeted, the sound of his voice making Tim soften a little. “I didn’t expect to hear from you this weekend. Aren’t you out of town?”
“Yeah, New York,” Tim confirmed, a smile spreading involuntarily across his face. “But, uh, I realized there was something I hadn’t told you that I think you’ll want to hear. Are you okay if I put you on speaker? I’m with Jason, his boyfriend, and two of his boyfriend’s friends.”
Tim had no idea how to introduce Annabeth yet, so he just didn’t. ‘Percy’s Friend’ wasn’t nearly accurate enough, but it was true, so it would work for now. He heard Bernard make an intrigued noise, but he didn’t think for too long before answering.
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m just hanging around. What is it you wanted to tell me? It doesn’t sound like bad news.”
Switching to speaker, Tim placed the phone in the center of the table between all of them, leaning onto the table slightly to be closer to it. “Not bad news,” he said. “Also, sorry about the noise, we’re in a park right now. I probably should have waited, but this felt important.”
Jason was grinning in anticipation, and even Percy looked interested underneath his preemptive embarrassment.
“I’ve told you about Jason’s boyfriend, right?” Tim asked, and Bernard laughed.
“Yeah, and I have to say, I’m surprised you said you’re with him right now,” he said. “What happened to the long rants about not trusting him?”
“I met him again and changed my mind,” Tim said, rolling his eyes at the laughter Jason was holding back. “Anyway, did I ever tell you that he’s dating Percy Jackson?”
There was a clattering sound, and then silence. After a few seconds, Tim was preparing to ask Bernard if he was okay when another shuffling noise came through the phone.
“He what?” Bernard managed to voice, his tone high and insistent. “Not the Percy Jackson who blew up the Saint Louis Arch?”
“I swear, can people remember me for anything else?” Percy complained. “I didn’t blow anything up! What about my cool gunfight, no one ever mentions that, it’s all ’domestic terrorist tween’ this and ‘accused of kidnapping his own mom’ that.”
A noise came through the call that sounded too much like a startled squeak for Tim to not laugh.
“Holy shit,” Bernard said, and Tim could picture his wide eyes. “Holy shit I’m talking to Percy Jackson. Uh, wait a second, I have so much to ask, where’s my cork board, I swear I still have it somewhere—“
“—I knew he’d have some kind of board somewhere for you,” Jason said to Percy, whose face had gone completely red at Bernard’s reaction to his voice. To Jason, however, Bernard spoke up again with a slightly muffled voice like he was a bit away from his phone.
“Oh hi Jason!” He called. “I just had a fantastic idea, would you want a combined conspiracy board as like, a relationship thing? Because I think I still have your board somewhere too, I never showed it to Tim because I thought that might be a little bit weird, but I’m pretty proud of it, it’s one of my best I think. Did you guys meet because of your conspiracy stuff? I’ll be so upset if there’s some, like, meetup of people that have had videos made about them and you never invited me. If you’re not gonna answer my questions about your stuff, the least you could do is introduce me to some people who will.”
Rachel had moved away on the bench so that the phone didn’t pick up her full-on cackling, and Annabeth was staring at the phone in what seemed like disbelief as she silently dissolved into her own laughter. Tim would be laughing too, because he found Bernard’s rambling to be very entertaining, but he was too distracted by the fact that Bernard never showed him the apparent research he had on Jason that he clearly found long before he and Tim started dating. He wasn’t mad about it. But did Bernard think he wouldn’t want to read through all the theories himself?
“Uh, no,” Jason said, clearly a little thrown himself. “No cryptid convention or whatever. I don’t know where to start with the whole combined conspiracy board thing, so lets just move on to the fact that Percy and I met through the very mundane coincidence of him moving in right across from me. And who knows, maybe he’ll answer some questions.”
Percy stared at Jason, betrayed, as Bernard’s voice suddenly got louder again.
“You’re so right, how did I already forget you’re right there, Mr. Percy Jackson Sir,” he said, and Percy’s face somehow got even redder.
“Okay, Percy is totally fine,” he cut in before Bernard could say anything else. “Please never call me that again. I’d rather you call me a terrorist again.”
“Sorry, but in the off chance that the theory you’re an immortal alien is real, I wanted to be respectful so maybe you’d take me to your alien planet,” Bernard said. “I never really believed that one, though, so it was more a ‘just in case’ thing. While we’re on the subject, you’re not an alien, right?”
“People think that?” Percy said. “Why? And why do they think I’m immortal?”
“Well, a few reasons,” Bernard answered, and Tim recognized the shift in his voice as he entered what Tim liked to call ‘lecture mode’. “For one, you were in multiple explosions and seemed totally fine afterwards. Two, there are people who claim to have gone to school with you that said when you were younger you would see things in the sky that weren’t there, which people said were UFO’s. Also, if you were an alien, then it would make sense that you got kidnapped by a dude who looked that scary, clearly there was some sketchy shit going on there, and you’re right, I watched the footage and the gunfight is super cool. I couldn’t do that at twelve. I think the alien theory mostly started because people wanted to know about more aliens besides Superman and the other hero aliens. Like, aliens just chilling among humans. But personally, my money has always been on you being some kind of, like, elemental being or something.”
At that, Percy turned away from the phone so it wouldn’t pick up him choking on air, as Annabeth grinned widely at the phone as if she could see Bernard through it.
“What—“ Percy coughed to clear his throat. “What, uh, leads you to that theory?”
“Everything you’ve survived has had something to do with elements. Like Avatar. The explosions are fire, and I know you say you didn’t blow anything up and so I’m not gonna say you did, but if you did, you could totally tell me and I wouldn’t tell anyone. Also, some people say they saw you fall out of the arch after the explosion, which you definitely wouldn’t have survived if you hadn’t landed in water! There’s that girl who claimed she went to school with you too, and she said that you once pushed her into a fountain but she knows you never touched her. And then we have the slightly far-fetched things people pinned on you too, like the whole volcano thing and—“
“—What?” Percy interrupted. “People can’t seriously think that was my fault, right? How would I even do that? Annabeth and I barely survived that explosion, why would people think I managed to somehow do that on purpose?”
But the look on his face was slightly desperate, his face was bright red, and Annabeth had raised her eyebrows at him, completely unimpressed. Jason had stopped laughing too, staring at Percy.
“What incident was this, Bernard?” He asked, making Percy put his head in his hands. “I hadn’t read about those theories.”
“Oh, there are pictures of Percy in Washington right before Mount St. Helens erupted a few years ago, so obviously people tried to come up with ways to connect him to it,” Bernard answered simply, like that didn’t cause Tim to stare at Percy with new eyes. Hydrokinesis was one thing. But from the way he was acting, Percy had been involved, and what the fuck kind of ability did he have that could impact Mount St. Helens?
“I see,” Jason said. Percy didn’t raise his head. “Well, I don’t know how they think Percy could be responsible for that. Even if your elemental theory is right, which I’m obviously not confirming or denying, is magma an element? Are you mixing elements?”
“I never said I had everything figured out for this theory,” Bernard shot back. “I got a bit distracted by other theories once things stopped showing up online about him. Percy, if I were to ask straight out if you’re an elemental being, could you answer me?”
“Uh,” Percy started, still not looking up from staring at the grain of the table. “I mean, I could answer, yeah. The answer is no, sorry.”
“Shit,” Bernard said, disappointed. “Oooh, wait, I forgot about this bit. Are you in a cult?”
“Excuse me?” Percy asked, raising his head just enough to look at the phone.
“A cult,” Bernard repeated, with the confidence and conviction that Tim liked about him so much. “You’re seen with the same people a lot, some of which bear striking resemblance to other conspiracy cases, which makes it seem like you’re all in some sort of group. But what could connect all of you? A cult is the most likely answer. I mean, okay, can you answer this for me? There are pictures of you at the Hoover Dam a few years ago, with someone who looks extremely similar to hypothetical aged pictures of the well-known missing person Thalia Grace. Was that actually her?”
Percy thought for a minute, before reaching over and staring at the phone screen, eventually finding the mute button. Pressing it, he turned to Tim.
“I like this kid,” he said, “and I need to meet him. But I need you to know that what I say next might break him.”
“He can take it,” Tim said, grinning. “This is the boyfriend I met through the whole Dionysus Cult incident.”
Percy matched his expression. “Awesome.”
Then he unmuted the call and responded to Bernard with, “Do you promise that what I say next isn’t going to be told to anyone else?”
“Yes, absolutely, I’ll take it to my grave,” Bernard said immediately. “Please say it was her, holy shit.”
“Not only was that, in fact, Thalia Grace,” Percy said, making Annabeth shake her head before resting her forehead on her hand, “but I also may be very good friends with her younger brother Jason.”
“He’s alive?” Bernard exclaimed. Tim had no idea what he was so excited about, but knew that he’d be interrogating everyone involved in this conversation at his first opportunity.
“Thriving, in fact,” Percy replied. “It’s not my place to tell their story, though. Just like it’s not my place to explain the long and difficult story of my other very good friend, Nico Di Angelo, or get into the fact that both my kidnappings were done by my extended family, or how I met my very sweet friend Hazel Levesque, or—“
“—Percy, I think you’ve listed enough,” Annabeth said, hiding her smile behind her hand. “Or else you’ll be mentioning some of our more famous friends that like to stay off the radar, like Rachel Dare.”
Rachel punched Annabeth in the shoulder, but was still laughing, and Annabeth caught Rachel’s fist as it left her arm, lacing their fingers together. Tim just looked between Percy and Annabeth.
“Both of you are awful,” he said. “Are you purposefully trying to break him?”
“I am better than fine, Tim, where are you and can I come up to meet you?” Bernard asked, making Tim frown slightly.
“Don’t come up here, we’re only here for the weekend anyway,” he said, knowing that if he didn’t dissuade Bernard right now, he’d wake up to his boyfriend having driven up to find him. “Maybe when we get back to Gotham, we can set something up.”
“Please,” Bernard said. “Now, uh, I have about a dozen things to add to a few of my documents and so many questions to write out. But it was amazing to meet you, kind of, over the phone, Percy. And Annabeth…Chase, right?”
“The very same,” Annabeth said. “Nice to meet you too. We’ll have to get coffee or something once Percy and I are back in Gotham.”
“I’d love that,” Bernard said, and Tim could picture the wide smile on his face. He kind of wished he could invite Bernard up to visit, just so he could see him, but he knew he needed to learn more and get used to this whole environment before he started to think about who he wanted to tell. “Call me soon, Tim, I love you.”
Tim preemptively elbowed Jason in the stomach as he responded, “Love you too. Bye, Bernard.”
When Bernard hung up, Tim anticipated some form of teasing from either Jason or anyone else at the table about him being sappy with his boyfriend, but it seemed like Jason had bigger fish to fry. The very first thing he did was turn on Percy and demand, “Not a big deal?”
The flush had faded from Percy’s face over the course of the phone call, but at Jason’s words, it came back full force.
“It was an accident!”
“How do you accidentally cause half a million people to be displaced because of a volcanic eruption?” Jason retorted. “How many times have you said ‘oh, it was a tiny volcano incident, nothing to worry about’. No one noticed, my ass, Percy.”
“In his defense,” Annabeth said, “he didn’t know he could do it either.”
“I mean, it’s not like that was something I was going to think I could do!” Percy added, shrugging with his shoulders up to his ears. “Sure, Poseidon is the god of earthquakes, too, but I never added that up to volcanic eruptions. And I’ve never done it again!”
As Jason rolled his eyes and continued bickering with Percy, Tim let the sounds fade to the background as he just watched. Clearly, what Rachel had mentioned about Percy and Annabeth apparently being famous in the demigod world had a bit more going for it, if Percy had really been behind the Mount St. Helen’s eruption, but Tim definitely wanted to see more of Percy’s abilities for himself before he would be able to reconcile that fact with the person he had come to anticipate through Jason’s stories (once he put aside the Arkham thing, that is). What other things were demigods secretly responsible for, and would Tim end up involved in anything that would be hidden from the rest of the world the same way many vigilante operations were? The thought was…intriguing. How different would those incidents be from the ones he got involved in as a hero?
Tim sat there at a table in the middle of the incredibly chaotic dining pavilion, next to his brother, with his new half-sister right across from him, and he remembered feeling so conflicted and suspicious the night before, and even that very morning when he woke up and was piecing his memories together. But at the moment, he couldn’t find any of those feelings.
He just felt…good.
Notes:
Long end note too as another bonus from my absence: first off, i dont know bernard that well at all really so please be gentle with his character lol. tbh i genuinely have no idea if conspiracy theorist!Bernard is canon or fanon but i could not care less because i love him. and it was too funny in a fic with percy and jason as the main characters. also i know im being pretty generous with the gods parenting skills in this fic, im well aware theyre better than they are in canon, but that wasnt the kind of drama i wanted for this fic and i like the possibilities that come from the gods having better relationships with their children. Also im pagan irl lol so writing the gods as bad parents just doesnt sit right with me (please dont start shit about that in the comments, that aint what we're here for).
Seriously, thank you all so much for the comments over the past five fucking months. when i needed to feel better, or boost my confidence in my writing, id come back here to read them, and while i know ive fallen off with responding to them, please know that i read every single one and i have an entire folder of photos that are basically just screenshots of comments so i dont forget all your kind words. I hate that i can't promise a date for the next chapter, because you all deserve that, but i have hope that the next one will come easier than this one. so ill see you then, enjoy, and have a happy pride month this year <3
Also, if you didn't get my joke in the opening note, please go watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-ZuKp8P7gA&t=2832s
ALSO ALSO: This 120% will not come up in this fic bc it is Years down the line and that’s even if this is actually my headcanon for the far future, which idk if it is! But i had a daydream and it’s fucking hysterical so i had to share with y’all. So, consider that Percy and Annabeth are both dating famous people. Famous people who love to be bitches and i love that for them. Percy and annabeth are not famous unless you count conspiracy theories, so no one Really knows who they are, not like Jason and Rachel. Therefore, concept: Percy and Annabeth get Lavender married at some point. Obv Jason and Rachel are completely behind this, and are probably best man and maid of honor for shits and giggles. But then you have Jason, who thrives on creating chaos for Bruce Wayne, and Rachel, who loves pissing off her father in increasingly chaotic ways, dropping lines in interviews like ‘my boyfriends wife’ and ‘my girlfriends husband’. and not elaborating. I love these bitches so much the brain rot is real. do you all see my vision. please tell me you see my vision here and find it as funny as i do.
Chapter 24
Notes:
i feel like the past. like. eight authors notes have just been me apologizing for how long its been. sorry to say thats probably not gonna change lmao. this chapter is SO much dialogue, but hopefully its some conversations yall wanted to see :) thanks for all your patience and kind comments, i hope you enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tim knew that eventually he’d have to meet people. With so many people in the camp, and the amount of people who had already come to say hello to either Percy or Annabeth? Eventually someone would be there who would ask about him. At least it wasn’t multiple people, he supposed, as Annabeth was stopped from leaving the dining pavilion after lunch finished. The boy who stopped her seemed about Tim’s age, and looked so much like Annabeth that Tim knew without asking that he was looking at another child of Athena. His blond hair was a bit shorter than Tim’s hair, and his matching grey eyes latched onto Tim for only a moment before refocusing on Annabeth.
“What gives?” he asked Annabeth after his shout of her name caused her to stop walking. “You come to visit for the weekend and you don’t call to tell us? If you have other things to do, that’s fine, but I shouldn’t have to realize you’re at camp by seeing you across the pavilion!”
Annabeth winced slightly, but gave the boy a small smile. “Sorry, Malcolm. I, uh, didn’t actually know if I would be spending much time at camp. Just in case, I didn’t want to make you all expect me and then I don’t show up. I know you’d worry about me if that happened.”
Malcolm frowned. “Yeah, you’re right about that. You’re not on a quest, right? I didn’t think Rachel had given a prophecy for a while now. Also, I think I might fistfight the Fates if they gave you another quest.”
“No quest, I promise,” Annabeth said, laughing slightly. “Something a bit more…personal, I guess.”
As Malcolm nodded, Annabeth’s eyes flicked over towards Tim as if to ask what he wanted her to say. And he knew that if he shook his head, Annabeth would deflect, and Tim wouldn’t have to say a word. Given the verbal sparring that he knew the two of them had been in at work for the past few weeks, he knew Annabeth was great at deflecting. But he’d never really know if he wanted to keep being a part of this world if he never talked to anyone else, right? If this went poorly, at least it was just one person. So he gave Annabeth a shrug, and her smile widened a bit.
“Percy and I were bringing a new demigod to camp,” she elaborated, catching Malcolm’s attention again, and making his eyebrows raise in interest. “And this actually works out well, because meeting his Head Counselor first is probably the best option.”
It barely took Malcolm two seconds to figure out where Annabeth was going with her sentence, and he lit up right as Tim reached a similar realization that Annabeth was implying Malcolm was the counselor for Athena’s children. Which he had initially assumed was Annabeth, but she was in Gotham most of the time now, so it would make sense for someone else to be in charge while she was gone. Malcolm laughed a little as he grinned widely.
“Please, I’m Head Counselor in name only, we all know who’s in charge when you’re at camp,” he teased. Then he turned to Tim, his expression bright. “I assume she’s talking about you? I’m Malcolm, it’s great to have you at camp, I’m glad you made it here safely.”
“Tim,” Tim replied, feeling like Malcolm’s visible excitement was infectious as a smile found its way to his own face too. “And yeah, she brought me here last night.”
“With only one encounter with Aello,” Annabeth added. “Mom claimed him last night as I was explaining everything, which was, as usual, perfect timing.”
Somehow, Malcolm’s smile got wider, creasing the area around his flinty eyes.
“All gods know how to make an entrance, but the first thing Athena’s children learn is that Mom is the best at everything,” he said. “It’s been, what, a year since Greta was claimed? They’re all gonna be so excited to have a new sibling, and I know I’m glad to have another brother.”
“Maybe take it down a notch, Malcolm,” Annabeth said, shaking her head as she couldn’t help but smile down at him. “Remember when you first got to camp? It’s a lot to take in.”
“I know, I know,” Malcolm said, but the excitement on his face didn’t lessen. “I can tell the cabin ahead of time so they don’t crowd him the first time they meet him. We can clear out a bed for him too, gods know we’ll need to do some cleaning to fit another person in the cabin.”
“Just get Ben to pick up his comics, that should clear up a whole corner of the cabin,” Annabeth teased.
“It’s not even Ben!” Malcolm argued, seemingly commiserating with Annabeth now that he wasn’t annoyed she had come to camp without telling him. “He’s actually been using that shelf you got him for the holidays. It’s Harriet. She’s taken over one of the empty beds as a ‘work bed’, and then another has her notes on it, and since some of those notes are her translating Ben’s new comics, I can’t just tell her to stop. I do wish she’d stop writing her other notes in English, though, she’s lording her lack of dyslexia over the rest of us.”
“Well, hate to break it to you, but Tim isn’t dyslexic either,” Annabeth said with a grin. “And just tell Harriet to get a second cork board for the walls, she can have one to pin her notes up right next to that ‘work bed’.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Malcolm said with a huff of laughter. “We all know they don’t listen to me like they listen to you.”
“Everyone listens to me,” Annabeth said, a humorous note to her smug smile. Malcolm laughed.
“Alright, we get it, you can make Percy listen to you, don’t get a big head,” he teased, jabbing Annabeth in the ribs. She let him, but grabbed his wrist and twisted him into a hold with her other arm across his chest and pinning his arms. She rested her chin on top of his head.
“Annabeth!” Malcolm protested, wrestling himself out of her grip. Tim watched her as she made him fight for it, and he really couldn’t help the grin on his face. This was a side of Annabeth that he had never anticipated. At work, she seemed…so professional. He got glimpses of sarcasm in her words and the occasional shine of humor in her eyes, but for the most part she did her job and she did it very well. Even knowing that she was best friends with Percy, it seemed to make sense as a sort of ‘opposites’ kind of friendship. Watching her easily pin her younger brother and make him escape the grip, satisfaction and affection swirling in the gray of her eyes, no hint of the stone-like professional air she always had when showing people into the meeting room? It was almost like she was a different person. But really, it was just Tim realizing that this was the first time he was seeing her…relaxed. Because she had said this was her home. Just like all masks came off in the manor, she had nothing to hold back here.
Malcolm finally got away from her, giving her a quick glare and a middle-finger, but it vanished just as fast as it appeared and he went back up to her to hug her tightly.
“Glad you’re here, Annabeth,” he said. “It’s never the same without you.”
Annabeth softened, and this time when she tucked her head over Malcolm’s, it wasn’t as a teasing taunt. This was to make the hug feel even safer. Tim would know, because it was just like how Cass hugged him. That thought made something tug inside him. A fleeting thought, there for one second and gone the next, purposefully brushed off and tucked away to think about much later. A wonder, of what it might feel like to hug Annabeth.
Then Malcolm was stepping back from the hug, and turning back to Tim.
“It’s really great to have you here,” he said. “I can’t wait to get to know you better. And to hear all about how fucked up Gotham really is, but that’s more of a professional curiosity. Seriously, though, welcome to camp. And welcome to this massive, messed up family.”
He passed by Tim as he started to leave the pavilion, and it was obvious that he brushed against Tim’s arm on purpose, like a nudge or a friendly jostle, but barely noticeable.
“Take your time coming to the cabin,” he said. “We’ll be here whenever you’re ready.”
Then, before Tim could say anything, he was speeding up into a light jog, headed straight towards that gray building that kept drawing Tim’s eyes. He heard Annabeth chuckle to his side, and he saw her shake her head.
“Well, that was a nice microcosm of the energy of our cabin,” she said. “Hope it wasn’t too much.”
Tim couldn’t help but snort at that. Sure, Malcolm was energetic and spoke fast, and he had that short tussle with Annabeth, but ‘too much’?
“Annabeth, I really think you’re underestimating the bullshit that happens in my family,” he replied. “We have a counter for how many weeks we can go without Dick breaking a ceiling fixture, and it’s been months since it’s gotten higher than two. I have a very high tolerance for this shit.”
That smile spread across her face again. The one that she kept getting each time Tim didn’t turn tail and leave the camp, each time he got to the next step on the ‘new demigod’ checklist and didn’t say no. The one that kept making him feel warm.
“We have a similar counter,” she said. “Ours is for how many days it’s been since Leo blew something up in the Hephaestus cabin’s forge. As of yesterday, that’s been reset.”
Well, that answered Tim’s question of Leo’s parentage. Hephaestus made sense, from the very little he knew of the other boy. As the two of them started walking again, he figured now was a good time for questions.
“Percy mentioned something about him randomly catching fire?”
“Unfortunately,” Annabeth confirmed, the wry twist to her face contrasting the unimpressed tone of her voice. “Thank the gods for Calypso, honestly. Without her fire-proof clothes, I’d have seen way more of Leo than I ever want to, more times than I can count. Him being pyrokinetic comes in handy a lot, but he also loves using it to be a nuisance.”
“Is that common for children of Hephaestus?” Tim asked, wondering just how many demigods here had powers like what he saw Percy do. Annabeth shook her head, though.
“Not at all, really. He’s the first one I’ve ever known. I’m fairly certain his younger brother Harley has some minor form of ferrokinesis, though. Just a hunch. In terms of visible powers like that, they’re most common for children of Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. You’ll find a few kids of Apollo with light photokinesis and more of them with healing abilities, all of Hekate’s children can do magic that probably counts in the category of ‘powers’, some of Demeter’s children can speed up plant growth, et cetera. While we haven’t had an extraordinarily powerful Demeter kid, I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised to meet one, given the levels I’ve seen Big Three kids reach. I mean, fuck, I’ve seen Nico split open a street to raise a few dozen zombies.” Annabeth laughed to herself at that, as Tim found himself blinking in shock. He was pretty sure it got tucked into his knowledge when Nico introduced himself, but he hadn’t quite registered the whole ‘son of Hades’ thing until he was faced with the image Annabeth just gave him. It made his whole thing with the shadows make way more sense, but Tim definitely struggled a bit to imagine the shorter kid cracking open a street to raise the dead.
…was Percy that powerful? Tim couldn’t really see that either. Nico at least had an aura that fit the possibility of raising the dead, but Percy? Tim was still struggling with the fact that Percy had apparently had a hand in the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and he wasn’t sure how much more he could accept at the moment. He’d have to see it himself to really believe Percy could do that kind of stuff.
“Children of Athena don’t tend to have ‘powers’,” Annabeth continued as the lake came in to view, and Tim saw Jason sitting by the pier as Percy seemed to be waving someone over. “But that doesn’t mean anyone underestimates us. And if they do, we prove them wrong. We don’t need them to kick anyone’s ass.”
Her eyes creased in the corners as she sent him a small, confident grin. Tim did kind of like knowing that he was included in her ‘we’. From what Tim had seen so far, she was right in the fact that no one underestimated her. It seemed like every demigod he had met had a lot of respect for Annabeth, and it just made him think about what Rachel had told him. Annabeth had mentioned fighting alongside her mom (their mom), was that what made her famous? What sort of fights did demigods have besides the monsters that hunted them? Were there villains like what Tim usually dealt with?
He noticed Annabeth’s attention get drawn away by the people now approaching Percy, and he took the opportunity to extract himself from what felt like the center of everything and head towards Jason on the dock. After actually meeting another one of his new siblings, he just wanted to watch for now. Jason glanced over as he approached, shifting over slightly to give Tim some room to sit on the edge of the dock, but he didn’t say anything just yet. The both of them just watched as Percy ran full-tilt towards a blond guy in a purple shirt, tackle-hugging him to the ground as two girls laughed at them. One of them, a punk girl in silver and black with a bow across her back, gave the two boys on the ground a kick to send them rolling into a slight wrestle. The other just rolled her eyes, a pretty brunette girl who looked…strangely familiar? He figured he’d remember someone with feathers hanging from the end of their braid, but he couldn’t put his finger on anything more specific than ‘I think I know you’.
Annabeth walked over to join the four of them, giving a short hug to the brunette girl and a longer hug to the punk one. As Percy stopped wrestling the blond guy and both of them got up off the ground, he stuck his tongue out at the punk girl, who flipped him off, and Tim almost felt…something crackle through the air. He knew he wasn’t going nuts because Jason went a little still next to him, and he saw Annabeth roll her eyes as Percy said something about ‘a rematch during capture the flag’. The blond guy now had his arm around the other girl, and was just laughing as the fierce looking girl currently staring down Percy got a sharp, dangerous grin on her face. Tim couldn’t hear everything they were saying, only a few words making it to the dock, but he could read the girl’s lips as she said ‘you’re on, kelp head’.
Jason shifted next to him.
“So,” he said, “how are you feeling about all this?”
And wasn’t that the fucking question? Tim had been asking himself that same thing basically all day. He could say with certainty that he felt almost completely different than he had the past night as he followed Percy and Annabeth into the camp, but as for pinning down a specific emotion? That wasn’t proving to be so easy.
“Still figuring that out myself,” Tim answered honestly, shrugging. He did like it in the camp. The atmosphere was fun and the people he had met were weird and nice. Seeing another side of Annabeth was genuinely really cool, and spending more time with her in general while also not suspecting her of anything was awesome too. But some part of him hated that. Because if he liked it here, if he liked the people and if he liked this side of Annabeth, then that meant he had to actually keep this side of himself and learn how to see it and understand it and live with it. Which he knew he could do, if he wanted to. But that part of him didn't want to. Because of something Percy and Annabeth had mentioned.
“I’m gonna change, now, you know,” he said after a moment of silence, Jason looking over at him instead of where Annabeth was now arm-wrestling the brunette girl as Percy and the blond guy cheered them on. “You know their DNA isn’t whole? Apparently that means mine isn’t either, and now it’s gonna be noticeable. But if I didn’t know, then it would still look totally normal, and I’d be fine in Gotham, since clearly nothing has gotten me there yet.”
He met Jason’s gaze, not angry, but letting himself feel that slight annoyance he’d been trying to ignore. “So why did you bring it up? Why did you all decide to tell me?”
Jason clearly hadn’t expected that line of questioning, but Tim did appreciate that he took a second to think about how to answer. Eventually, he leaned onto his knees and looked out at the lake.
“I don’t know much about how it feels to be a demigod,” Jason started. “I know how it feels to be noticeably not normal, but not the same way you guys are. But what I do know, from getting to know Percy and Annabeth, is that Gotham could only protect you for so long. It’s a bit fucked up, and so it’s true that nothing really finds you there unless you’re Percy, and even that is way rarer than they’re used to. But what about the next time you leave Gotham for a long-term mission, or go somewhere that isn’t as insanely fortified as the Watchtower or Titan’s Tower? Pretty sure whatever is up with Gotham would eventually wear off, and they’d find you.”
When Jason looked back at him, it was with furrowed eyebrows that struck Tim as more openly worried than their family usually let show. It wasn’t overt, and maybe someone else wouldn’t be able to see the worry at all, but for a bat? It was like a neon sign, which wasn’t usually how they did things. Especially not Jason. They tended to be more of a ‘show your worry by stalking and secretly helping on cases’ kind of family. But from the little Tim had seen, Percy seemed to be the kind of person that wore every emotion on his sleeve for everyone to see. It was strange to imagine that rubbing off on Jason, but it seemed to be staring him in the face.
“And if something happened to you because you didn’t have a weapon that could kill those things? If you got killed because of something I could have helped you avoid? Tim, I don’t think I’d ever forgive myself for that. It didn’t really matter to me that we could be wrong and have to play damage control, because if this got you killed and I didn’t say anything? That would be on me.”
Tim thought that most people would probably not think that Jason meant that as strongly as Tim knew he did. After all, of the people in Tim’s current vicinity, Jason was the only one who had actually tried to kill him. And while Tim now knew what had been going on behind-the-scenes to cause that, Jason had still tried pretty damn hard.
But Tim also noticed how whenever one of his cases went a bit too close to Crime Alley, he’d find direct evidence and full names somehow added to his case files without ever even mentioning the case to Jason. And when Jason first moved back into the manor, he barely looked at Tim for weeks—something Tim was eventually able to tell was based in a guilt that he hadn’t expected Jason to feel.
“Not to mention, Annabeth is Percy’s best friend,” Jason continued with a slight shrug, “so she’s become a good friend to me too. Thinking that she might be your sister and imagining keeping that from both of you? You at least deserved to have the choice to get to know more family, even if you choose not to. And the demigod changes…even if you decide not to tell the rest of the family, I’ll know, and I can help. Just because I’m not a complete computer genius like Barbie, doesn’t mean I can’t change a few bloodwork records. And you know I won’t judge if you do decide not to tell them, I’m always a supporter of not telling Bruce shit.”
Well. When he put it like that. Sudden magical changes aside, Tim would probably be pissed if he found out in the future that Jason knew about potential biological family and just never told Tim because he made a decision for him. The fact that in order to be able to make that decision, he had to be exposed to those magical changes…that kind of sucked, but he’d be more angry at a choice being taken away from him. Their family had enough issues of thinking they knew the best for each other. It was…one reason that Tim was considering keeping this to himself for a bit. Just so that he could learn everything before the rest of the family started trying to help him with shit. If this was really going to be an aspect of his life, he wanted to know more than the rest of them.
He sighed, leaning back onto his hands as Jason glanced over at him.
“Part of me wants to thank you,” he admitted. “And the other part wants to make you explain to everyone why I can’t get bloodwork done anymore. Especially since I’m assuming you literally can’t. Oh, and speaking of that, what the fuck kind of oath did you make?”
Jason looked away from him, his eyes going back to where Percy was now engaged in a vibrant conversation with the other three people, Annabeth rolling her eyes at something he was saying. When Jason didn’t answer for a second, Tim’s eyes narrowed.
“Jason,” he said. “What the fuck aren’t you telling me?”
Jason sighed.
“Alright, so, the whole oath thing isn’t exactly what I told you all it was,” he said. Tim stared at the side of his face, daring Jason to look back at him.
“Yeah, Percy and Annabeth said there was ‘nuance’ to it, but what the hell does that mean?”
“It means that the night of the whole Arkham shit, Percy made an oath to me,” Jason said. “Apparently, in this world, demigods and gods and even mortals who know what they’re doing can swear on the river Styx. It’s not lethally binding, but Percy was very adamant that it would lead to a really shitty afterlife if you break the oath, and a pretty bad rest of your life too. He swore that night that he only learned my identity earlier that day, and him breaking Nico out of Arkham was completely unrelated to him knowing and dating me. It’s hard to explain, but I felt it. I couldn’t really tell you what exactly it felt like, but I knew he was telling the truth, which was admittedly very strange to feel when milliseconds before I had been fucking pissed and seeing green.”
Tim frowned. They had all figured the Pit reared its head that night, and had wondered what happened to help Jason push it back. A magical sign that Percy wasn’t lying would probably do the trick. “So…is that what you did? Why did you tell us it would kill you?”
Jason made a face. Finally he looked back over at Tim, as if to gauge his expression.
“Not…exactly,” he said. “I was going to. Percy practically begged me not to, he said it was a very bad idea even if it was something that I never planned on breaking. Eventually, we settled on a compromise, since I knew that if I told you all that I physically couldn’t say anything, you’d call Zatanna or some other magical practitioner and ask for their confirmation and so I couldn’t just outright lie to you guys.”
“Jason, I swear, if you’re trying to tell me that this whole death oath thing we’ve been thinking about for months now was bullshit,” Tim warned, “me stabbing you with my new magic spear is going to be nothing.”
“I mean,” Jason cringed slightly, “if I were to maliciously break the vow I did make, then I doubt it would be pretty, but…the danger that I implied was basically bullshit, yeah.”
“What did you actually vow?” Tim demanded. “If not to this death river?”
“Technically it’s a hate river,” Jason corrected, laughing slightly as Tim punched him hard on the arm. “And, uh, I promised Percy’s dad I wouldn’t say anything to people who didn’t already know about demigod shit.”
“Have you met Percy’s dad?” Tim asked, suddenly faced with the fact that Jason could have met actual gods that their family had no idea existed still. It was still weird to say the words ‘Percy’s dad’ and know that he was talking about a centuries old god. The guy just didn't feel like he was related to anyone but a middle-aged New Yorker swim teacher. Tim knew looks could be deceiving, he had seen Brucie Wayne in action for years now, but still. Jason shook his head, though.
“No,” he said. “But Percy’s pretty sure that’s mostly because I don’t leave Gotham. You should’ve seen him when he just touched the harbor, I can’t imagine that Poseidon would ever want to get within ten miles of that shit.”
Tim made a face at the thought of the harbor water, the things he’d seen dumped in there were enough to make him never want to touch it, and that wasn’t even counting the shit he hadn’t seen.
“Ugh, yeah, that would make sense,” he said. It made sense that dirty water wouldn’t be good for Percy, too, although Tim hadn’t thought about that. After brushing off the thoughts of the many, many rotting bodies that had to be sitting at the bottom of Gotham Harbor, Tim got back to what was really important. Glaring at Jason. “And are you kidding me? You let us think that this thing was going to kill you again.”
Jason at least had the decency to wince.
“Yeah…I really didn’t think you guys were going to go the mind control route and make it all worse, so thanks for that, Timbit,” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t my smartest decision, but I’d just learned about hundreds of kids in hiding from the fucking government and basically everyone. It really was just unfortunate that you all ended up in the definition of telling ‘anyone’.”
Tim glowered at him. “You cannot blame me for the mind control thing. We did get influenced.”
Jason shrugged. “They weren’t even sure it’d work. You broke it pretty damn quick, remember? Percy said that it doesn’t always work on strong-willed people, and that’s kind of our whole schtick.”
Tim narrowed his eyes at his older brother. “You are weirdly okay with that. Out of all of us, you’re the most vehement when someone gets magically influenced, and for good reason too. But you’re just fine with this?”
“I mean, it helped that I met the girl who did it,” Jason said. “She’s also really close with Percy, so I’ve talked to her a few times. I trust him, he trusts her, so…yeah. But also…there’s been some things that I’ve wanted to bring up to you guys but that would open too many questions about all this.”
He motioned with his hands to their entire surroundings.
“Things that made you more okay with mind control?” Tim asked a bit incredulously. Jason cuffed him on the shoulder as he made a face.
“Don’t make it sound like that, you little shit,” he complained. “And no, magical coercion still pisses me off. Just…not to, you know, murder levels. And I got Percy to tell her she better not do that to you guys again, and she promised she wouldn’t to either my family or Gotham’s vigilantes.”
“I gotta say I find that hard to believe,” Tim said, raising his eyebrows slightly. “Your change of heart, I mean.”
“C’mon, a guy can’t decide that he trusts one person not to use magical coercion badly without suddenly losing all his morals?” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “I’ve had changes of heart before, runt.”
Tim pursed his lips at the name. Yeah, Jason had. Those long weeks in the manor when Jason didn’t speak a word to Tim and left a room if Tim entered were a showcase of that. A far cry from a brawl in Titans Tower, and the words that Jason had thrown at him that he’d never repeated since. Hell, even the ones that Tim could see himself not minding now that he and Jason were on better terms. Some of that could be seen as just brothers being shits to each other, without the genuine threat of violence behind it.
“Jay?” Tim asked, drawing Jason’s eyes away from the shore.
“Hmm?”
“Just…why do you call me ‘runt’ now?” Tim had to ask. He’d been thinking about it since the first time he realized it had completely eclipsed the other name Jason called him. And as rare as it was in their family, he and Jason were kind of having a moment right now. It felt like the only time to ask. “Instead of…”
Jason huffed a laugh. “Really? The baby genius of the family can’t figure it out?”
“I mean, I get that you first called me your replacement to be a fucking asshole,” Tim said, making Jason laugh a little louder. “But it’s been years. I’d know you don’t mean it. Or if you did, that you weren’t gonna try and kill me over it. You’d be being a normal asshole about it.”
Jason was quiet for a moment. Tim saw his eyes flick down to the scar on his neck, something he did pretty often and Tim never called him out for. Then he met Tim’s eyes again, and Tim recognized the look in his eyes. That same look of guilt from the early manor days.
“I didn’t,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know that I wouldn’t mean it.”
Tim frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I called you that from the moment Talia told me about you to the moment I saw you in the manor after everything,” Jason said. “It was the only thing I called you, and fuck did the Pit enjoy that. Sure, if I said it now, I wouldn’t mean it, you succeeded me but you all have thoroughly convinced me that it wasn’t a replacement. But…you don’t know what that fucking Pit feels like. I shoved it back, but it wasn’t gone. I wasn't sure that if I said that again, it wouldn’t undo all the fighting I’d done against it, and take me back to that…to that.”
Jason’s lip curled at the words, but at the same time, his shoulders seemed to relax slightly.
“So…from replacement to runt, seemed like a decent exchange. You’re a scrawny shit, after all,” he said. Tim jabbed him in the ribs on reflex, but didn’t verbally retaliate. He was stuck staring at Jason’s face. There’d been something off about it this entire time, since the drive up from Gotham really, and Tim hadn’t been able to put a finger on it. Before the drive, actually, now that he was thinking about it. There was something he’d been looking for, and he wasn’t finding it, but he didn’t know what it was.
“I guess I could say it now, if you really want me to,” Jason continued, sending a teasing grin Tim’s way. “I mean, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Tim froze.
“…what?” He asked. “Why?”
Jason didn’t have to worry about it. The thing that he worried would re-ignite the worst of the Pit. Something that Tim felt he wasn’t overstepping to say was one of Jason’s worst fears. The list of reasons that Jason’s worries would be alleviated was tiny, and Tim didn’t know what Jason was trying to tell him. At least, not until Jason turned to look at him head-on, and smiled. Not smirked, not a teasing grin, not something small and worked for by their family. Tim could count on one hand how many times he’d seen this, and the first time was brought on by Alfred inviting Jason to their first tea together since his return, but even that one had a slight tightness to it. This was a genuine curl of his mouth, tugging at his cheek as he looked at Tim with nothing but calmness in his clear blue eyes.
“The death kid works with souls,” Jason said. “And he cleaned mine. The Pit’s gone, Timmy.”
The Pit. The Lazarus Pit, the thing that kept Ra’s al Ghul a permanent thorn in their side, the thing that gave them back Jason but wrong, that sickly green hell-pool hidden by the League of Assassins. The thing that tormented Jason for two years, sparking emerald in his eyes whenever he got angry, a searing green that Tim remembered from the night that gave him that scar on his neck.
Gone?
With a start, Tim realized what he’d been looking for. It was hard to notice that something suddenly wasn’t there when he didn’t always see it. But now that he was faced with this…Tim realized. Jason’s eyes hadn’t even flickered that toxic green in weeks. He’d even gotten in an argument with Dick after patrol, just a stupid spat about Dick’s overprotectiveness that still would have had his eyes flaring, and it had ended without a hint of green and without any storming off out of the cave.
Tim blinked at Jason, a strange emotion in his chest that brought a slight sting to his eyes.
“Oh,” Tim whispered. “Fuck, Jason, really?”
“Really,” Jason said, like he still couldn’t fully believe it either. “You know, you never really realize that you haven’t been relaxed in years until suddenly you can tell that you are. Or, at least, as relaxed as any of us physically can get.”
Tim could see it. There really was something different in the ever-present tension of Jason’s shoulders, the tension held by pretty much any hero or vigilante. It wasn’t calm, exactly, because as Jason said, Tim was pretty sure no one in their family (or their friends, either) was capable of being truly calm. But it was notably not on edge. Not even annoyed, which seemed to be Jason’s baseline after pushing through the worst of the Pit rage.
“And it feels…better?” Tim asked. He knew it had to feel like a drastic change to Jason; if their research into the pits had told them anything, it was that they permeated almost every aspect of the person who entered them, but Tim himself had never felt that. How did it feel different?
Jason huffed a laugh. “Alright, I can see the gears in your head dusting off their cobwebs. You get three questions, at least for now.”
“That one doesn’t count,” Tim negotiated immediately. Jason rolled his eyes.
“Sure, fine, you get three additional questions. And yes, it feels better. Obviously, shithead.”
“Okay, but how?” Tim pressed. “Is it a constantly noticeable change, or do you notice it when you get angry? And those are one question.”
“All the time,” Jason answered easily, his eyes sliding away from Tim to look out at the water. “It’s like…it wasn’t always an audible thing, but now that it’s gone, I can tell that there’s a noise missing. My head is quiet now. It’s easier for me to not get angry, without that little whisper and without altered memories, and when I do? It’s normal. Which is not a word I’m used to using to describe anything about us.”
Tim could hear nothing but relief in his voice.
“I think we all deserve something normal,” he said. What he couldn’t really get himself to voice was that he thought it was deserved that Jason’s normal thing was finally his own emotions. “What do you mean about your memories, though?”
Jason’s easy expression twisted a bit into a frown.
“It was hard to notice while it was happening, but part of the thing that fucked everything up when I returned to Gotham was that the Pit wasn’t just in my emotions, but in my entire head. It was in my memories. It was in the emotions of my memories. The worst of it was focused on Bruce, twisting everything so that when I thought back to before I died, all I saw was him being disappointed and angry and…like he regretted taking me in. Now, it’s like…fuck, there was never any of that!”
He shook his head. “It’s hard to describe.”
“I think I get it,” Tim mused, an almost matching frown on his face. “And that definitely makes some of the shit you said back then make way more sense. I mean, from an outside perspective, it felt insane to me that you could think B preferred me as Robin, not when I basically blackmailed him into letting me use the suit. But when you add in memory tampering…that explains it.”
They were both quiet for a minute as Tim thought of what else he wanted to ask. He had a lot more questions, about the Pit, about how the di Angelo kid got rid of it, about when Jason was going to tell the rest of the family, et cetera. But pressing questions…
“So…what are you gonna do now? Now that it’s gone?”
Tim wasn’t even really sure what he meant by that. It’s not like the Pit was chaining Jason to Crime Alley. But Jason seemed to understand his question more, and that frown left his face. He looked calm again. His eyes flicked to Tim, almost the same shade of blue as the water around them.
“Easy, runt,” Jason answered, his eyes creasing as his smile grew. “I’m gonna go back to school.”
And Tim just stared. He hadn’t expected that answer at all, but as soon as Jason said it, it made all the sense in the world. Jason practically had a personal library in the manor, after all. If any of them were gonna make it all the way through college, Tim would put his money on Jason. Now that it was in his head, he wasn’t sure why Jason hadn't already.
“Jay, are you trying to make Bruce cry?” was all he could say, though. Jason laughed.
“A nice side effect,” he said. “The guy could use some more practice with feeling emotions. But, uh, I’ve actually been thinking about that exact question since my head got quiet, and it led to a lot of realizations. One of them being that the Pit had made anything other than keeping an eye on my territory feel…really unimportant, even if I wanted to do it. Why should I take time away from the Alley to get a degree if I most likely won’t be using it to get a job, and it would mean that someone could hurt someone while I was gone? And I’m still thinking that, sure, but…I can remember really wanting to go to college. So I’m gonna get my GED, and maybe see if I can still apply for next year.”
Another glaring sign to Tim that the Pit was really gone, and Jason was…different (in ways Tim was struggling to put into words. Better felt insulting to the work Jason had done on his own, healing felt weird to use for anyone in their family, and happy made it sound like Jason had never been happy in the two years with the Pit), was that Jason was actually answering his questions. Without being a dick about it. Or, at least, without being a dick for, like, half an hour before reluctantly and annoyedly answering whatever it was Tim was pestering him about. Tim asked what Jason was going to do without the Pit, and rather than a simple one-sentence answer, he got a whole story about Jason’s sudden resurgence of his desire for a college degree, complete with a genuinely happy glint in his eyes.
Tim liked plans, he liked thinking everything through (overthinking, if you asked some of his friends), he liked knowing every outcome and option before he made a decision on how to act. So he tried not to act impulsively if he could help it. But sometimes, he just couldn’t stop himself.
So before he even knew what he was doing, Tim was already moving.
Jason instinctively went stiff as Tim moved close enough to put an arm around him. After a second, though, he relaxed again. He turned to face Tim, something surprised and amused and fond hidden in his face as he let it move from an awkward side-hug to the real thing. Or, as real as they could get when they were both sitting down.
Tim couldn’t remember if he’d ever actually hugged Jason. He’d hugged Dick, obviously, the guy was what you’d find in the dictionary if you looked up ‘tactile’. Duke liked the occasional hug, and liked to throw his arm around Tim’s shoulders casually. Cass liked being touchy sometimes, and other times refused any contact, and Damian often threatened to stab him if he even thought about ruffling the kid’s hair. Steph had long since decided that Tim’s personal space was her own, so he was used to being hugged and he liked to consider himself one of the less emotionally-repressed bats. But he was pretty sure he’d never hugged Jason. His older brother had messed up his hair, they’d exchanged countless teasing arm-punches and elbows to the gut, and he’d had some embarrassing moments where he’d been carried back to the cave with an injury. But hugging? They didn’t do that. Jason seemed content to not invade Tim’s space after his violent return to Gotham, and Tim had spent so long avoiding the older bat that it just became habit to not get touchy.
Jason had always been bigger than Tim, both taller and simply larger, which had been a source for that embarrassing fear from the early manor days. But now as he hugged Tim back, it just felt…safe.
“I’m really happy for you, Jay,” Tim said, his forehead pressed against Jason’s shoulder. “You should definitely go to college. Alfred would love to have a diploma to hang on the wall, finally.”
Jason’s arms tightened slightly around him.
“Thanks, Tim,” he replied, his voice just as quiet. The sounds of the water lapping gently against the dock below them almost drowned him out, but Tim was close enough to not only hear the words, he could feel the vibrations as Jason spoke above him. And while Tim was sure that if you had asked him even a day or so ago what he’d do if he hugged Jason, he’d probably say it would be a short and awkward thing, it didn’t seem like either of them were in a hurry to move again. Tim had some things he could say. He had more questions, but he also had general statements that he kind of wanted Jason to know. And for now, those felt a bit more important.
“You know, I really looked up to Dick,” Tim started, knowing that Jason could hear him even if he didn’t raise his voice. A questioning hum reverberated through Jason’s chest. “He’s the reason I figured out B’s identity, and I’d been watching him since before he was Robin, of course I looked up to him. What kid didn’t? And I still do. I took tons of photos of him when I watched rogue attacks. But…by the time I started sneaking out to rooftops at night and everything, it wasn’t him I was following.”
“Tim…”
“Pretty sure I still have those pictures, in some box somewhere,” he continued, hopefully convincingly sounding like he didn’t know exactly where all his pre-Robin pictures were in his room. “If you wanted one. Just…thought you should know. Robin will always be Dick’s, no matter how many of us use it after him, but it…wasn’t exactly his legacy I was trying to keep.”
“Fuck,” Jason sighed, and Tim felt his hold loosen, but some stubborn part of Tim refused to move. “…have I ever actually apologized?”
He didn’t need to specify what for. Tim didn’t have to answer, either.
“I know it’s late, and it’s not nearly enough, but for what it’s worth, I really am sorry,” Jason continued, and it really didn’t even sound like he was pulling teeth to say it. Even when their family was allergic to those words. Tim already knew Jason regretted his actions, and maybe that’s why the ease of an actual apology wasn’t a real surprise.
“Eh,” Tim said, because they were all just as allergic to ‘it’s okay’, or god forbid ‘I forgive you’, as they were ‘I’m sorry’, “at least you kind of had a reason. Damian just tried to kill me for existing. Your reason was shit, but it was more than that.”
Maybe with a bit of steeling himself, he’d be able to return the favor of painful emotional honesty that Jason had clearly worked himself up to. Tim wondered if Percy had helped with that. If so, maybe he actually had something to thank the older boy for. For now, though, he just heard Jason laugh.
“I don’t know, I’d say you being annoying is a decent enough reason,” he teased back. “You know, you might just have that in common with Percy. Things love to try and kill him for being obnoxious.”
“Lucky they haven’t gone after you too, or you’d have to add another death to your counter,” Tim shot back. “I’m a middle kid, being obnoxious is an art form.”
“So am I, brat, but we both started out as only children.”
“Do you think this demigod thing is why my parents left me alone all the time?”
The words were out before Tim could stop them, a question that had bounced around his head since the moment Annabeth said that Athena’s children came down to the doorstep of their parents as gifts. His sudden sentence had Jason pulling back from their hug, his hands on Tim’s shoulders, his eyebrows furrowed.
“What the fuck?” He asked. “Where did that come from?”
“My brain, because I think, you should try it sometime,” Tim retorted instinctively. “And it makes sense. I’m already surprised enough that they apparently kept a random baby on their doorstep, it makes total sense that I’d be ‘not their kid’ enough that they’d leave me in Gotham for their expeditions. It definitely wasn’t because Gotham masked anything, since I highly doubt they’d know about that.”
Jason thought for a moment before huffing and shaking his head.
“I’m gonna say it again. Fuck your parents. I really wish I could tell you that doesn’t make sense. And you’re…okay, with that?”
Tim shrugged, sure that once everything settled he’d have some late nights where he overthought everything and got upset about it, but able to push that off for now. “I mean, if they did take me with them all the time, then not only would I probably end up getting caught by those monsters, but I’d be just as shitty as the rest of the Gotham elite, and I’d also never be Robin, which means I’d never meet my friends or…have a big family.”
Jason scoffed.
“You wouldn’t end up like all those assholes, you’d just pretend what you had to while insulting them in ways they couldn’t notice,” he said. Tim snorted a small laugh, leaning back onto his knees as Jason took his hands off his shoulders.
“Thanks, Jason. You’d definitely hate me at galas, though.”
Jason shrugged. “I hate you anyway, runt.”
Tim took the split second opportunity before Jason rested his hands back on the wood of the dock to shift himself backwards and firmly plant his foot on Jason’s back, shoving him forward and into the lake with a loud splash. His older brother quickly surfaced and shoved his hair out of his face, a scowl glaring up at Tim, but he just laughed.
“Payback number one for making us all think you were dying again,” he said, sure that his expression was radiating smugness. “I think a payback for each day you made us worry about you seems fair enough.”
Jason flipped him off with the hand that wasn’t reaching up to grab the dock. Despite the harsh glare being sent his way, something in Tim seemed to settle.
Jason’s eyes were still blue.
Tim refused to help him back up on the dock, but he knew now that with Jason’s help, he could handle whatever this demigod revelation threw at him.
Notes:
soon yall r gonna get to see some of my athena kid OC's, so i hope you like them haha. also i love how the first like. eighteen chapters of this fic took place over a few months with some time skips and all that, then chapter 19-now is over the span of two days and were not even done yet. not quite sure how that happened but im having fun with the camp chapters so i hope you guys are too!
jason and tim my absolute beloveds. it was about time they actually had an important conversation with each other lol.these past few chapters have been very annabeth and tim focused, and thats not changing, but next chapter we'll get back to some percy and jason i promise :) hope you guys enjoyed and ill see you next time!! <3
edit 2/9/25: if yall noticed this story was edited, it was me fixing a grammar issue in this chapter thats been eating at me since i posted it, dont worry about it. sorry it wasnt an update lmao, i promise im working on it
Chapter 25
Notes:
whats this??? it didnt take me six months??? its a holiday miracle.
anyway if this chapter gets a little bit sappy, blame it on the fact that ive seen Wicked twice in the past week and i feel like 13-year-old me again just thinking glinda and elphaba needed to kiss. but also im of the camp that polyamory would have solved at least one of their problems. that bit has nothing to do with this chapter i just need more people to consider glinda/elphaba/fiyero as a thing thanks. if you dont know wicked then just ignore this authors note lmao.
Hope you enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Percy quickly came over to the dock after Jason hit the water, but Tim wasn’t worried about Jason’s (clearly protective, if Dick was honest about their rooftop encounter) boyfriend being mad at him for shoving Jason in. Percy was grinning too widely for that.
“Aw, c’mon, I was gonna suggest we go swimming later!” He teased as he reached the end of the dock. “You’re skipping some activities, Jay.”
“You’re so funny,” Jason replied dryly, pulling himself back up onto the dock easily. “A real comedian.”
“I try my best,” Percy said, but he put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and Tim watched as his hair and clothes immediately dried out, letting Jason stop shaking the water off his hands. He grabbed Percy’s hand as he stood up completely, and gave Tim another middle finger.
“Thanks, fish boy,” he said. Tim might not have shoved Jason into the lake if he had known Percy could do that so easily. It kind of ruined the fun of annoying his older brother. Not too much, though. There would always be some level of fun to being the shitty younger brother.
“Come on, some of my friends are here,” Percy said, tugging Jason’s hand lightly. He grinned down at Tim. “You can stay here, if you want, Tim. Annabeth can come get you before she heads back to her cabin. But if you wanted to come, you can meet two of my cousins and Piper, who’s awesome.”
Tim was kind of on a roll with taking new information in stride today, so it wasn’t a surprise to him when he found himself standing up next to Jason. Why the fuck not, right? If he hated every single interaction he had with these people, he did believe Percy and Annabeth when they said that he could go back to Gotham and only interact with them about this stuff. He kept telling himself that, and he kept not hating what was happening, so clearly it seemed to be working.
“Cousins?” He asked as he started to follow Percy down the dock. “How so?”
“Annie and I mentioned Thalia, right?” Percy asked, and Tim nodded. “She’s a daughter of Zeus, I’m a son of Poseidon, so we say we’re cousins. I really don’t think you want me to get into the whole Greek-Roman shit right now, but her brother Jason is a son of Jupiter, and we ignore any technicalities to say that we’re cousins too.”
“I see that look on your face,” Jason said, narrowing his eyes at Tim. “Percy tried to explain the Roman thing to me, and either it really makes zero sense, or he’s shit at explaining it. You can pester Annabeth later. She was much better at it.”
“I’m not that bad,” Percy pouted. Jason jostled him lightly.
“You’re that bad,” he said. “You tried to speak my language and compare it to Jekyll and Hyde, only to butcher both the plot of the book and your explanation, since neither pantheon is evil and also you immediately backtracked on the ‘split personality’ thing.”
Percy wrinkled his nose, but couldn’t argue with him. Tim’s eyebrows had raised.
“Wait, Thalia and Jason like who you mentioned to Bernard?”
Percy grinned. “The very same. To make a very long story short, Jason vanished when he was a toddler, sent to be raised by wolves in the Roman way, and Thalia ran away when she was still young until she ended up…well, not here, because shit happened, but basically here. I’m sure you’ll hear the full story at some point, but it’s really long.”
They reached the end of the dock, and kept walking towards the small group a little ways in from the water. Now that he was closer to them, Tim couldn’t stop himself from looking at the brunette girl and wracking his brain for why she looked familiar. Luckily, he was a master at hiding he was staring at someone so he didn’t look like a creep. Perks of his stalker tendencies. He heard Jason mutter to Percy from just in front of him.
“Wait, I thought you said she was his older sister,” he said. “He looks older than her. Are they twins or something?”
Percy just laughed. Then, raising his voice, he called out, “Hey, Pinecone Face, how old are you now?”
The punk girl, who Tim assumed had to be Thalia, frowned slightly as she thought for a moment. Then she called back, “Chronologically, biologically, or mentally?”
“They’re different answers?” Jason hissed quietly to Percy. Tim could agree. One or two of those being different answers made sense; if you wanted to get pedantic about it then someone could say that chronologically, Impulse was negative years old. And Aunt Diana was chronologically far older than she had aged biologically or mentally. But for all three to be different? Even Kon felt like his mental and biological age were the same, even if as a clone he hadn’t existed for the same number of years he felt his age was.
“All three?” Percy answered Thalia, who groaned. They were close enough now that no one was yelling.
“Ugh, fuck you, Jackson,” she complained, taking a moment to count out on her fingers. Tim tried not to get impatient, but his curiosity was never something that liked to wait. Thankfully, Thalia only took a second. “Uh, chronologically I’m 24, biologically still 15, mentally I’m 19. I should start writing this down somewhere. Maybe I’ll just put markings on my tree each year.”
Percy grinned. “What, and make new campers even more confused about why it’s your tree?”
“We could just lightly imply the markings are Peleus’s age,” the brunette girl (Piper, probably) spoke up with a matching smirk and undeniable mischief on her face. “It wouldn’t be completely a lie, right?”
Her voice was familiar too. And seeing her standing between Annabeth and Percy felt like the missing piece.
“Hey wait a fucking second,” he said, his memories suddenly clearing of that night in Arkham. He pointed accusingly at Piper. “You were in Arkham. You fucked with my head.”
Jason started muffling laughter next to him, and Piper took a moment to think about his words before her eyes were widening with what looked annoyingly like glee.
“You were in Arkham?” She said, and yeah maybe Tim didn’t think through what he’d be admitting by confronting her like that. But there had been a chance she already knew, given that she was close with Percy and Annabeth and the death kid had already known. “Oh that’s hysterical.”
“It…was kind of funny, ignoring all your suspicious glares at the back of my head,” Annabeth admitted with a small, growing smirk of her own. “Until this got added to the mix and it got slightly frustrating.” She motioned around her at the entire camp.
“I’m not going to apologize for that,” Tim said, but he could hear the slight humor in his own voice.
“I’d expect nothing else,” Annabeth assured him. Piper’s eyes slid from Tim up to Jason.
“You know, I was told that our Aquaman’s boyfriend didn’t like knowing I had charmed the vigilantes,” she said, her tone trailing off as her eyebrows raised. “This makes so much more sense.”
“What, not gonna even ask if I was there too?” Jason said, casually crossing his arms. Piper snorted.
“You kidding? Seeing you in person just confirms it. Only one vigilante matches your body type, and he was definitely there. You chased Perce before I even brought out the charmspeak.”
“Something I definitely saw coming,” Percy said. “You said this confirmed it, though. When did you even start thinking he’s a vigilante, I’ve been great at not mentioning anything!”
“Percy,” Thalia spoke up dryly, “in no world could you ever have a normal partner. I'd get struck by lightning before that happened. Add in the…telling fact that you told him about demigods the day after you guys got Nico out?”
Percy winced. “Ah. Shit.”
Piper rolled her eyes with another laugh, then reached out a hand towards Tim. “Anyway. I’d say sorry for charming you, but I’m really not. I won’t do it again, though, so I hope you don’t hate me for it. Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite. Jason says your brother is a fan of my dad?”
“Tim’s the one that got him the Tristan McLean box set in the first place,” Jason teased him. That was why Piper had always felt a bit familiar, even when Tim could barely recall her face. She did look like her dad. He’d be more surprised at the daughter of a movie star being in this demigod camp, but he’d already spent a while with Rachel, so it wasn’t a total shock to have another famous-adjacent person show up. And, weirdly, the fact that she was unabashed and unrepentant about her ‘charmspeak’ ability made Tim kind of understand what Jason had been talking about when he said he trusted her with it. Tim shook her hand, always glad for an opportunity to make fun of Dick even if he wasn’t there.
“I don’t think you want me to repeat some of the reasons he likes your dad’s movies,” he said. From the expression on Piper’s face, she already knew.
“Oh, I’ve heard it all. The Aphrodite cabin used to have a poster of him before I burned it. Drew’s still pissed at me for that, but she knows that if she buys another one, I’ll burn that one too.”
When Piper pulled her hand back, it was replaced by Thalia’s, her other arm resting on the shoulder of the blond guy—her brother Jason, Tim remembered. They didn’t look incredibly alike, but their features were similar enough that it was clear they were related. And considering how often people forgot that Tim and his siblings were adopted, he knew that ‘looking similar’ wasn’t a requirement for blood relations.
“Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus,” she said. “I heard Percy already mentioned me, apparently we’ve got conspiracy theories?”
“My boyfriend is never going to stop bugging me now about meeting Percy in person,” Tim said in answer. “I hadn’t heard them before, though, and Percy hasn’t said much.”
Thalia shrugged. “Not that much to say, but I can see why there are theories. I ran away, then vanished for six years because I got turned into a pine tree, then just suddenly started showing up again younger than I should be.”
Tim saw Jason blink at her. “Wait, so when Percy said that the tree used to be his cousin…”
Thalia grinned. “That’s me. Goes on the very short list of ‘good things my dad did for me’, since the alternative was dying. Then I took my oath to Artemis at fifteen, so I haven’t aged since then. I really should have thought to look into conspiracies. I could have been having so much fun fucking with those people over the years.”
“You’re clearly doing plenty without even trying,” Tim said, letting this whole conversation wash off his back like a duck. A drake, if he were to channel Dick and be insufferable. Percy’s cousin the daughter of Zeus was turned into a tree instead of dying and was now immortal because she hunted with a goddess. Sure. Nothing bizarre there at all. Tim’s boyfriend was a half-human clone of two men, one of whom insisted vehemently that he hated the other, ignoring the inherent homoeroticism of creating a clone by mixing their DNA. Tim’s spleen was stolen by a crusty immortal assassin who happens to be his little brother’s grandfather. See, he had weird shit in his life, too.
“So imagine how much more I could do,” Thalia retorted, her electric blue eyes seeming to spark with excitement. Wait, no, they literally did spark. Tiny bursts of static electricity were popping in her hair as she grinned widely. “Hey, kelp for brains, race for who can get a conspiracy on the news first?”
Percy groaned. “No! I don’t want to be on the news again, that’ll set back all my progress towards not getting recognized anymore.”
“Coward,” Thalia said. Her brother shoved her slightly as he chuckled, then walked around her towards Tim so he didn’t break the sudden glaring contest between her and Percy. Understandably, he first held out his hand to Jason.
“So you’re the one I need to compete with for the title of Percy’s favorite Jason?” The guy said. Jason snorted a small laugh.
“May the best Jason win,” he returned.
Jason (the blond one, that was gonna get confusing if Tim didn’t figure something out) gave Jason (Tim’s Jason, should he just think of him as Jay? Percy did this on purpose, Tim just knew it) a wide, genuine smile. “Good to finally meet you, man. Percy’s been really happy in Gotham, gods know he deserves it. I’d love it if your city had a bit less air pollution, though, since Perce says it’ll probably make Thalia and I sick.”
Jason winced. “Yeah, I assume he told you what our harbor water did to him?”
Tim decided that they’d had enough of a moment out on the pier, and he’d give Jason a break by not pointing out the flush on the tips of his ears that happened to appear the moment Other Jason said he made Percy happy. He was sure it was a coincidence. He definitely wouldn’t be filing it away for teasing later. Other Jason made a face.
“Sounds like you guys really need to fix that,” he said. “I’ve only seen Percy not completely in control in water once, and that was when a giant was trying to drown him. So…your water seems on par with that.”
“When a giant tried to what?” Jason repeated, shooting a sharp look at Percy, who finally tore his eyes away from Thalia. The static in the air lessened. “You said you couldn’t drown.”
“I can’t! Hey, Jason! Let’s maybe not get into the Kim incident, yeah?” He said, and he had the same look on his face as when Bernard brought up Mount Saint Helens. This seemed to be a very different scenario, and seemed way more plausible to Tim than Percy having the power levels needed to explode a volcano, but it seemed to embarrass Percy in a very similar way. Other Jason just got a shit-eating grin on his face, though, a wildly different expression from the gentle and earnest smile he was giving Regular Jason.
“Oh? You don’t want him knowing I saved you from your half-sister letting you drown? With action figures?”
Tim did not know nearly enough mythology to be able to guess who Other Jason was talking about. These gaps in his knowledge would need to be filled immediately. And he desperately wanted to hear this story to learn how the fuck action figures fit in. Percy looked between Jason and Jason, hands moving to his hips.
“Well, Jason, I’m glad you met Jason, but please ignore what Jason told you because he tells lies. Jason, I think you should tell Jason about the time I definitely nearly beat you in that joust to the death, or maybe the time that brick—“
He was cut off by Annabeth grabbing his shoulders to hold him still while Piper put a hand over his mouth. Her eyes, a vibrant mix of brown and green, were sharp as she glared at him.
“I swear, Jackson, I will make you shut up.” She warned. “And don’t forget, I’m dating Leo. Licking my hand does nothing.”
“Aw, Pipes, c’mon,” Other Jason cajoled lightly. “I’m sure he had a good five more minutes of confusing sentences left to get through.”
“Ten,” Annabeth corrected. “I was there when he practiced them.”
“Percy told me about that joust,” Jason mentioned casually. “I think Piper won that, technically.”
Other Jason gave Jason a calculating glance before nodding. “You’re absolutely correct. Glad Percy found someone who can agree that Piper’s awesome.”
Piper scoffed, rolling her eyes. “You’re biased, Sparky. I mean, thank you, I know I’m great, but you’re completely biased.”
Percy reached up to tap Piper’s hand, and she removed it with a suspicious look.
“So, Jason, does this mean you’re joining forces with Jason? I have to warn you, Jason is great at betrayal, and—“
This time he was cut off by Piper pulling a bronze dagger from her belt and fully stabbing him in the side.
“Ow, fuck!” Percy shouted, his hand pressing on the wound as Piper retreated, satisfied. “Seriously?”
“We’re right by the water, don’t be a baby,” Annabeth said from behind him, and since she wasn’t worried at all about the blood seeping between Percy’s fingers, then Tim guessed he didn’t have to be. Jason had startled at the stabbing, but also seemed to be reading the reactions around them and seeing that this was not something to freak out about. Another point to demigods being weirdly similar to the insanity of Wayne Manor. Complete stabbings had lessened recently, to be fair, but knives were a common occurrence.
“I only betrayed you in capture the flag,” Other Jason defended himself with crossed arms and a very golden-retriever-like pout on his face. “And that was because Nico bribed me.”
“If you meant me, are you talking about the times I ratted you out to Annabeth for not cleaning your apartment?” Jason asked, eyebrows raising.
“Just because you’re a neat freak,” Percy retorted, voice tight as he made a small motion with his free hand. Tim saw a small bit of water rise from the lake and quickly rush through the air to Percy’s stab wound, coalescing around the wound and…
Within a few seconds, Percy removed his hand to reveal a tear in his shirt and no injury to be seen. The water washed away most of the blood, too, making it seem almost like nothing had ever happened.
“Did I hear Percy do something stupid and get injured?” A voice called out from the side, one that Tim now recognized as Rachel. The redhead was grinning widely as she strolled over with her hands in her pockets, and her eyes narrowed in on the rip in Percy’s shirt. “Oh he did, didn’t he?”
“Why do all the girls I’m friends with insist on stabbing me?” Percy complained. Jason patted his arm in faux-consolation. Rachel raised her eyebrows.
“I don’t stab you,” she said. “Unless you count verbally.”
“For you, I do,” Percy shot back.
“We do it as a show of affection,” Piper said offhandedly as she wiped the blood off her dagger and slipped it back into a sheath on her belt.
“What Piper said,” Annabeth agreed, stepping back to meet Rachel and take her hand. “Also because we’ve saved each other’s lives countless times, and you have absolutely stabbed me over your mom’s last cookie before. I have privileges.”
“I do it because you’re annoying,” Thalia added.
“Annabeth is the only valid one here,” Percy said, scowling at Thalia. “You should watch your back, Lieutenant.”
Thalia matched his glare. The static entered the air again, and Tim swore he could actually see the air between them crackle. “You really mean that, Praetor?”
“Ex-praetor,” Other Jason chimed in, but neither of the two acknowledged it. Tim was pretty sure that sounded like a Roman thing, and Percy was Greek, so he didn’t understand how that worked out. He added it to his ever-growing list of questions in his head.
“I beat you last year,” Percy continued, “I’ll beat you this year too. When’s the annual game? I’ll clear my schedule.”
“You did not, I kicked your barnacled ass,” Thalia argued. “And guess what, Kelp Head? Did you forget? It’s not just the annual game anymore. We’re mixing in tonight, so that rematch you promised is happening now. Don’t even think about claiming to win the annual Campers and Hunters game this summer, either. We’re still undefeated.”
“They do this every time,” Rachel stage-whispered as she appeared next to Tim and Jason. “I promise, they’re actually friends.”
“My sister likes to show she cares by being mean sometimes,” Other Jason added with a chuckle. “Percy has adapted to match her. To stop us from being as confusing as Percy, you can call me Jace, by the way. A lot of my friends do.”
That certainly would be helpful. Although Tim doubted that was the end of Percy pushing the confusion, he clearly found it too funny to be deterred by one stab. At least, if that was as common as the reactions made it seem.
“We’ve got a brother who would rather die than admit he’s the same way,” Jason responded, grinning when Jace laughed.
“It’s not sometimes for the demon brat,” Tim added, making Jason roll his eyes with a ‘whatever’ gesture. “I think he’s just allergic to kind words. What game are they arguing about?” He motioned over to where Percy and Thalia were still debating who won in past ‘rematches’. Something violent, from the sounds of their voices. Tim thought Thalia had a bit of an advantage, if the static crackling through the air was a hint at the kinds of powers she had. Between electricity and water, there tended to be a winner. Rachel laughed.
“Capture the flag.” She said it like she knew it was a surprising answer. It just seemed way too…normal, considering all Tim had seen that day and the behavior of Percy and Thalia, but he was sure that the demigods made the game into something more than it sounded. Probably similar to how the bats improved on rooftop tag. “We’re playing tonight. We play a lot, but every Saturday its followed by a big bonfire. It’ll be fun. Well, fun to watch, for me.”
“Why aren’t you playing?” Jason asked. Rachel grinned at him.
“Why aren’t we playing,” she corrected. “And the answer is because we’re mortal. And yes, I know you’re very capable and dangerous and scary and apparently jump on rooftops at night, et cetera. But when people get hurt in the game, the first healing method is ambrosia since Apollo’s kids are also playing and they’re tiring themselves out. Unfortunately, mortals like us will burn to ash if we try and eat ambrosia.”
“Oof, tough break,” Tim said, laughing at the glare Jason sent his way. “Too bad you don’t heal magically anymore, huh?”
It didn’t hit Tim until he said it that Jason had lost the fast healing of the Pit. There had been very few positives to the lasting pit residue, but those were definitely gone too. He added ‘how hard was it to decide to let that stuff go’ to his large list of questions to badger Jason with at a later date.
“Think of it this way, runt,” Jason retorted. “Now, next time I try to kill you, you have no reason to get mad at me. Magical healing food, after all, right?”
Tim narrowed his eyes at his brother. “What happened to ‘I have no plans to try and kill you again’?”
“You were annoying,” Jason answered easily.
Tim noticed Annabeth pulling Percy aside from the group, breaking off his spat with Thalia, but he was drawn right back into Rachel discussing the game that night.
“You’ll do great, I’m sure,” she said to him, her eyes glinting in the light. “And Jason and I will have a great time on the sidelines. Mortal Gang has to stick together, right?”
“Will you tell me embarrassing Percy stories?” Jason asked. Rachel’s grin turned dangerous.
“Oh, will I,” she said. “You and I are going to get along wonderfully.”
Tim felt that he should probably be concerned about the look in her eyes. They were a very similar shade of green to the color that Jason’s eyes were now no longer turning. But Jason grinned back at her, and Tim realized no, he had no reason to be concerned. Percy and Annabeth did. This was why he waited so long to introduce Bernard to Bart and Cassie, after all. Your best friends have the most embarrassing stories and the biggest impulse to tell them. Add on that it was less ‘partner meeting friends’ and more ‘partner teaming up with best friend’s partner’? Tim did not envy Percy and Annabeth.
Rachel turned those vibrant green eyes onto Tim, and the expression softened slightly into something a bit less dangerous.
“You’ll have a great time, though,” she assured him. “It gets nuts, but in a good way.”
Tim felt his own excitement start to grow, and he couldn’t help but believe her.
“We’re in trouble,” Percy cut into Annabeth’s words before she could finish speaking, his eyes trained on where Jason and Rachel were exchanging sharp grins. He gestured shortly over to them, and Annabeth glanced over, her eyes widening slightly.
“Ah,” she said. “Well, I guess it’s good they’re getting along.”
“We knew they would,” Percy said. “Maybe a bit too well. Two rich kids who hate being rich kids and love making chaos? We should have seen this coming.”
“I mean, Rachel hasn’t given any form of a shovel talk, yet,” Annabeth pointed out. “How do you think that will impact a budding dangerous friendship?”
Percy sighed. “Creative threats of violence will make Jay like her more,” he said. “Face it, Annie. Our partners are going to team up against us.”
Annabeth patted his arm. “It’s been an honor, Seaweed Brain.”
She was holding back a smile, though, and it was only a moment before both of them were laughing and leaning on each other. Percy had known that Jason and Rachel would get along, he and Annabeth had looked forward to introducing them, but he couldn’t help that little worry that maybe they’d actually hate each other. Not that it would be the end of the world, considering that he and Clarisse had hated each other for years and now they were…friends? Frenemies? Impromptu sparring partners? Anyway. In the strange lives that both demigods and vigilantes tended to lead, he knew that ‘enemy’ could be a very nebulous label at points. That being said, he was a bit relieved that Jason and Rachel were clearly getting along, even if that spelled trouble for him and Annabeth in the future.
“I have to say,” Annabeth said after their slight giggles subsided and they stayed with their arms pressed together, “I hope Rach doesn’t say anything about the treatment she sometimes gets for dating me.”
“Oh, from non-campers who aren’t used to us?” Percy said, seeing exactly where she was going. “The ‘holy shit you’re dating one of the most famous demigods alive’ treatment? If Jason could understand them, he’d have already gotten it from the fish in Gotham.”
“I’m sure some of the younger campers will make it clear,” Annabeth said. “Once people realize you’re dating and he isn’t just a random mortal you brought to visit.”
Percy noticed her eyes drifting back over to Tim, and he knew she was thinking about her other siblings waiting to meet him. He nudged her gently.
“How are you feeling?” He asked. “He seems to be relaxing a bit.”
Annabeth’s shoulders dropped with a heavy, but relieved, sigh. She leaned further into him, before turning to face him. Her eyes were a clear silvery-grey, and while he wasn’t attracted to her like that anymore, he still thought she was beautiful when she smiled so genuinely.
“I’m…ecstatic,” she breathed, her smile widening. “I know I was hopeful, but I’m still a realist. I knew there was a huge chance he’d have left by now, but…every time he says that things aren’t too much here, I almost can’t handle the relief.”
She reached up, pulling Percy’s head down the few inches he had on her to press their foreheads together. He held the back of her head to match, and he could almost feel her heartbeat next to his own.
“Thank you, Percy,” she said. “For helping with this. For not letting me drive myself nuts over it.”
Percy wanted to shake his head, but settled for knocking his forehead gently against hers.
“Don’t thank me,” he said. “I’d do it a dozen more times, you know that. I’ll do literally anything you need me to do, ever.”
Annabeth laughed.
“Shut up and accept the gratitude, Percy,” she countered. “I mean it. I love you. I can’t imagine where I’d be without you.”
“Well, I’d be dead,” Percy said with a grin. “I love you too, Annabeth.”
She sighed, but it wasn’t a sad sound.
“So much for just going to Gotham for college, huh?” She said, dry amusement in her tone. “Pretty sure neither of us can leave that city for good now after all this.”
Percy shrugged. “I’m not so upset about that. Once we figure out the Chaos thing, it might calm down a bit. And it’s already pretty manageable for a demigod.”
She squeezed his hand and stepped back, her eyes creasing with her smile as she looked up at Percy.
“Let’s give my new brother his first win in Capture the Flag, huh?”
“Definitely,” Percy agreed. “Before the game, though, I want to give Jason more of a tour since we very quickly got sidetracked.”
“You? Sidetracked?” Annabeth teased. “I’m shocked, Perce. Go show Jason around, I want to introduce Tim to the cabin before dinner anyway. The last thing we need is to be distracted by anything during the game.”
“Already strategizing,” Percy teased her right back, watching her roll her eyes before he turned to steal Jason from Rachel before she completely ruined any remaining reputation that Percy hadn’t ruined himself. He was aware that Jason knew he was a mess, he knew Jason was a mess too, but it was the principle of the thing. It was his image to ruin.
Luckily, Rachel seemed perfectly happy to tag along with Annabeth as she gently pulled Tim out of the conversation with a nod towards the horseshoe of cabins. Which meant Percy could sidle next to Jason without finding out what embarrassing shit Rachel was saying about him. Jason was watching Tim walk off, eyes narrowed slightly in a way that Percy recognized from walking in on Jason planning vigilante shit. As Tim got farther away, he nudged Jason’s arm.
“He’ll be okay,” he said. He knew he couldn’t promise that, but he had a good feeling. And Tim was with the person he trusted most in the world. “Annabeth won’t let them overwhelm him.”
“I know,” Jason said. “But I also know he won’t let her notice that he’s nervous. I do, but that’s because I was trained the same way. I don’t know if Annabeth can notice Bat-emotions.”
“Maybe not, but she knows demigod emotions,” Percy said. “And she’s probably picked up enough from you to read Tim at least somewhat.”
Jason huffed a laugh. “Is it true for demigods too that it’s more nerve-wracking to be in a social situation than it is to be inches from dying?”
“Absolutely,” Percy answered immediately. “I was more anxious meeting Paul for the first time, knowing how much my mom liked him, than I was sitting on my dad’s throne to get his attention and very nearly getting incinerated.”
Percy sometimes liked to lightly imply he was going to do that again and make Poseidon give him a tired glare, visibly weighing how likely it was that telling Percy not to do that would either stop him or definitely make him do it. Percy didn’t have any plans to sit on the throne again any time soon, unless the world was imminently in danger, but his father didn’t need to know that.
Jason shook his head. “And here I thought vigilantes and heroes were uniquely fucked up.”
“Sorry to break the news you’re not special,” Percy teased. “Want to take a walk around? We’ve got some time.”
The smile Jason gave him was fond, and Percy felt a warmth in his chest as Jason grabbed his hand. “Lead the way, seashell.”
Percy spared a second to be thankful that Jason had yet to call him Ariel while in earshot of his friends. It would happen eventually, he wasn’t naive, but the longer he could put it off, the better. He tugged Jason’s hand lightly towards the stables—he hadn’t seen Blackjack in way too long, and the pegasus would be unbearable if he found out Percy was at camp and didn’t say hi—flipping Piper off as she noticed them leave and waved them off with waggling fingers and mischief in her grin. He knew he owed her some details, for not telling her about Jason for ages, but he was absolutely going to be annoying about it.
The air was chilled as they walked through the camp, late January leading Percy to keep his arm pressed against Jason’s for a bit more warmth. Jason had always run warmer than Percy, even if he’d noticed that lessen since Nico got rid of that pit stuff. More campers were wandering around now and Percy could see some groups down by the archery range, a few of them giving Percy waves as they passed and giving Jason intrigued looks. He saw one younger camper, he was pretty sure they were a child of Tyche, get wide-eyed as they passed him, making Jason hide a small smile as he squeezed Percy’s hand. Percy had told him that the younger campers looked up to him, but he had maybe left out how much of that could be categorized as ‘hero worship’ given the stories about him. Eh. Jason would find out somehow. Percy had told him about the Titan War, and mentioned that he was spoken about in prophecy and given titles in recognition and all that, he just didn’t mention that one of those was the Savior of Olympus and that he was, unfortunately, kind of a big deal.
The second he opened the door to the stables, he heard the familiar excited whinny of the pegasus that imprinted on him like a baby duck.
Boss!, Blackjack neighed. Headed off on a new deadly adventure? Need a steed?
Percy laughed, briefly letting go of Jason’s hand to stroke Blackjack’s neck fondly. “Sorry, Blackjack, not today. I promise I’ll go flying with you for a bit while I’m here, though.”
Blackjack fanned his wings slightly, as much as he could in the stable, shaking his head slightly.
I’ll hold you to that, Boss, he said. Now who’s the guy looking at you with the stupid expression?
Percy glanced over to see Jason watching him with a small smile, and he couldn’t help matching the expression. How could he? His boyfriend was looking at him like he couldn’t imagine looking at anything else, like watching Percy greet Blackjack excitedly was more interesting than the literal pegasus in front of him. Jason’s face got a little pink as he realized Percy caught him staring, but he didn’t look away.
“Don’t be rude, Blackjack,” Percy admonished, but he knew his voice wasn’t nearly stern enough to sound like a real chiding. “This is Jason. He’s my boyfriend. Jason, this is Blackjack. He’s helped me out a lot over the years.”
“Uh, hi,” Jason said, only slightly awkward, but Percy got it. Jason couldn’t understand Blackjack, after all. Just because he knew Percy could didn’t make Blackjack any less of a horse. Blackjack shuffled closer to the opening of the stall, clearly examining Jason. He chuffed as his wings flared again.
He doesn’t have another pegasus you’ve been flying with, does he, Boss?, Blackjack asked, the blatant suspicion in his voice making Percy laugh.
“No, Jason doesn’t have a pegasus,” he said through his amusement. “You’re the only winged horse for me, even if you’re insufferable sometimes.”
Blackjack practically preened at that, even with the fond insult.
Good, he nickered. He didn't bring me any donuts, though.
Percy rolled his eyes. “Sorry, Jason. Apparently, Blackjack needs donuts before he decides if he likes you or not.”
“Donuts?” Jason asked. “Are those even good for horses?”
“I mean, probably not, no?” Percy replied. “But I think it’s pretty obvious he’s not a normal horse.”
Jason gave him a flat look. “Yeah, the wings kinda give it away.”
“Just saying,” Percy shrugged, “magic horse, different dietary bullshit. Blackjack just has a bit of a sweet tooth for donuts specifically. It’s better than Hazel’s horse Arion, though. He eats gold.”
“Of course he does,” Jason said.
I have way better taste than him, Blackjack said. Right, Boss?
Percy snorted. “Yeah, you have better taste than Arion. You don’t curse worse than a sailor, either. You just run my wallet dry from donuts.”
“Perce, aquamarine, you know I’m always down to spend my dad’s money on random shit, right?” Jason said, leaning against the wall between stable stalls. “I also have my own money from my night job? Pretty sure your wallet running empty isn’t gonna happen anymore.”
Percy groaned, dropping his head onto his arms as he leaned on the stall door. “Don’t tell him you’re rich, he’ll never stop wanting you to buy him donuts now.”
Blackjack whinnied brightly. I approve, Boss! If he brings me donuts, that is.
“Jason does not have to bring you donuts for you to like him, Blackjack,” Percy said into his arms.
Yes he does.
Percy saw Blackjack shift out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t raise his head. He got enough shit from Blackjack when he was just spending his own money, he was never gonna change the pegasus’s diet now. Sure, that had been a losing battle for years at this point, but Percy hadn’t given up hope. Not until someone told the horse that he had basically unlimited money.
“Okay, I’m being stared down by a pegasus, this might as well happen,” Jason muttered. “Uh…I can buy you donuts in the future?”
Blackjack’s snort was almost hilariously satisfied. Percy looked up to see him practically prancing in the stall.
Good.
“Alright, well, I think we’re leaving before you somehow extort my boyfriend when he can’t even understand you,” Percy sighed. He pushed himself off the stall door, patting Blackjack’s neck as he stepped back. “I did promise a flight, so I’ll be back at some point, maybe tomorrow. See you then, Blackjack.”
Bye, Boss!
Percy looped his arm around Jason’s as he lightly tugged Jason out the doors of the stable again. “You’ve created a monster, cowboy.”
“Sorry, who’s the one with the horse, again?” Jason retorted. “I really think that nickname should get pulled back to the drawing board.”
“Absolutely not, it fits great,” Percy refused. “Blackjack isn’t my horse, either, he just chose to stick around me and help me out. He’s his own pegasus.”
Then, something from their conversation came back to him. He glanced over at Jason. “Speaking of nicknames, aquamarine?”
The flush returned to Jason’s face, but he stared resolutely ahead as he shrugged. Percy wanted to call him cute again.
“I’m trying some stuff,” he defended himself, as if Percy was complaining. “I was thinking sapphire first, but your eyes are too green for that. It’s a bit long, though.”
“This is what I get for dating the romance novel buff, huh?” Percy grinned, ignoring the way his own face felt warm. “I feel like I’m not holding up my end of this relationship.”
“Well you’ve proven you’re terrible at nicknames, so I’m fine with this outcome,” Jason said. Percy gave an exaggerated frown.
“Aw, c’mon, I’m responsible for some of my friend’s nicknames! And anyone is better than Mr. D, if you can even call what he does nicknaming, since he claims it’s just because he can’t be bothered to remember our names.”
“Depending on what this conversation leads you to call me in the future, I can and will call you Peter,” Jason threatened lightly. Percy scoffed.
“Okay, Jameson,” he retorted. He was more than used to Mr. D’s schtick by now, it wouldn’t faze him. Jason made a face, though, his nose wrinkling at the wrong name. But before Jason could retaliate, Percy spotted the climbing wall and began to pull Jason towards it. The lava hadn’t started yet, but there were campers making their way up the sides, so it was only a matter of time. “Ooh, wait, c’mere, I want you to see this.”
Jason was confused as he followed Percy’s pointing finger towards the wall, but Percy had been right that they didn’t have much time before the main event. One of the climbers reached the top right as the lava began to flow down the sides, causing one camper to throw themselves up onto the top of the wall with a singe to their pants, and two more to turn tail and jump back to the ground. Another valiant camper kept trying to climb up, until the person underneath them grabbed their foot and pulled the other camper off with them before they both got burnt. Percy heard the stubborn one arguing as they landed in a roll, clearly upset to have been pulled away from the lava, and he held back a snicker. Probably an Ares kid, or Nike.
He looked over to see Jason staring at the lava making its way down the wall, unblinking.
“…this explains so much about you as a person,” he said eventually.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Percy replied. “The lava wall is very important to camp culture, Phoenix, it helps shape young demigods.”
“And burns the shit out of them, clearly,” Jason added as he pulled his eyes away from the lava wall to look at Percy. “Phoenix? Because I came back?”
“And you’re a bird, and also we were standing in front of lava,” Percy said with a shrug. “Fire was kind of on the mind. Also, if shortened, it could potentially be turned into Nixie, which is a kind of water spirit.”
“You’re not calling me that,” Jason said, but he was clearly hiding a smile. “In no way does that fit me at all.”
“I’m not sure about that,” Percy argued as the two of them started wandering towards the Poseidon cabin. He was mostly arguing for the sake of it, he agreed with Jason that it didn’t fit. “It’s cute, so are you, case closed.”
“You’re never going to stop calling me cute, are you?” Jason said, the pink on his cheeks spreading to his ears and doing nothing to counter Percy’s assessment. “What if I returned the favor?”
“Well I know I’m cute, so I agree with you,” Percy said, grinning. “And no, I’m not stopping.”
“Well,” Jason echoed, “if you know you’re cute, I guess I never need to compliment you again, huh? Good, honestly, I was starting to get a rash from being nice.”
“Hey, wait!”
He pulled away from Percy and stuck both his hands in his jacket pockets, turning around to walk backwards as Percy tried to grab his arm back. He was grinning, and he sped up to avoid Percy trying to catch him. Percy could catch up, if he really tried. But where was the fun in that? It was fun to lightly run after Jason as his boyfriend showed off by running backwards and not eating shit. Percy could be very fast, but he wasn’t positive he wouldn’t ruin any reputation he had if he tried to run backwards. Unless his life was actively on the line, he would definitely trip within ten seconds. Jason kept slowing down to let Percy grab the sleeve of his jacket, only to yank his arm away and pick back up to a run. He was dating an asshole. Luckily, he had known that from the start, and it was part of the reason he liked Jason. Maybe Annabeth had a point about him liking people who made fun of him. He’d never tell her that, but she already knew she was right.
They were getting close to Percy’s cabin, and he could feel the water lapping against the private dock right behind it, reminding him of something he had wanted to do while he had Jason at camp.
“Hey, birdie, can I show you something?” He said, slowing to a jog and prompting Jason to do the same. Jason’s eyebrows quirked.
“Is this a trick to steal my hand back?”
“No, I promise,” Percy laughed. “I’ve, uh, had something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but it wasn’t possible in Gotham.”
Jason got a curious look in his eyes, not quite the look he got when he was trying to figure something out vigilante-style, but definitely still influenced by his nighttime hobbies.
“Alright, lead the way,” he said, stepping to the side as Percy reached him and continued on to his cabin. Jason followed close behind him, but Percy didn’t take him inside the cabin yet. What he had been looking forward to was behind the cabin.
Well, not specifically. But now that they were here, it was.
The small dock came into view, and Percy relaxed at the familiar noises and feelings of his little section of the lake.
Looking over his shoulder at Jason, he faltered only a little.
“So, I know you’ve probably done this before, in some respect,” he hedged. “Since, you know, you’ve done hero shit. But…the lake is really pretty from underneath. I get if you aren’t comfortable, though. Without a ship or equipment or anything keeping you from drowning, just me, I get it. Most people would probably prefer to have control over their own breathing, so—“
“—Percy,” Jason cut him off, laughing quietly. He came up right next to Percy and put an arm around his waist, letting Percy lean against him. “I’m fine with that. Can’t be any worse than the many times I’ve had to put my first-aid in someone else’s hands. Besides, I trust you. You’re not gonna drown me.”
He said it like it was nothing, but Percy felt the weight of it. He’d had his own trust abused, and he knew that in Jason’s line of work, he’d absolutely been betrayed before. He knew Jason, and he knew that trust wasn’t something he just handed out. He felt himself relax, and he knew his face was red.
“Thanks, Jay,” he said. “I trust you too.”
Then, with Jason’s arm still around him, he walked them both to the edge of the dock. He didn’t bother warning Jason, or telling him to hold his breath, since he wouldn’t need it. He just held the arm that was holding him, keeping Jason with him as he took an easy step off the end of the dock and pulled Jason into the lake. Forming a bubble around them so that Jason could breathe was second nature at this point, he’d done it so many times, but he never got tired of a new person experiencing it for the first time. Nico, who had hated every second of it, was an outlier and would not be counted.
Jason was not an outlier. Percy watched his face as Jason stared around them, watching the fish who came to say hi to Percy. The currents of the water were almost visible against the bubble, and they drifted down to the lakebed where deep green plants waved as if they were saying hi too. It was almost dead silent. Percy could hear the fish, Jason’s heartbeat right next to him, and he could hear the movement of water, but he knew that Jason wouldn’t be hearing any of that. To him, Percy figured it felt like all the sound had cut out the second they passed under the surface of the water. Normally, no sound would be something worrying to Percy, because if nothing was making noise then something had clearly gone horribly wrong. If he was anywhere else and suddenly heard nothing, he’d start fearing that he’d come across the body of someone he loved. But under the water like this, especially a body of water he was so familiar with, it was nothing but calming. He had missed this, in Gotham. Going by the lake was great, and even walking next to the harbor was better than nothing, but he really needed to remember to find a place to actually go swimming. How he hadn’t asked Jason if there was a public pool yet, he didn’t know.
Well, he kind of did. He’d had some other things to worry about over the past few months.
While it was dry inside the bubble, it still felt like they were floating, and Percy saw Jason’s hair drifting like there was a breeze passing between them. He knew he looked similar, and he could see Jason growing more comfortable with the fact that he didn’t need to try and tread water despite the instinct to.
He tried not to let his loyalty turn into possessiveness. He knew it very well could take that turn, and he hated the idea of it, so he was careful to keep an eye on it just like Annabeth kept vigilant about tempering her hubris. They kept an eye on each other, too. It was hard, because Percy genuinely thought Annabeth was the best and smartest person he knew and Annabeth loved how deeply Percy loved, but they did their best to keep each other’s fatal flaws in mind. So he was always mindful of his own flaw. But whenever he brought a new person in his circle into the water for the first time, it really did feel like he was giving them a piece of himself, and at the same time cementing that they were one of his people and he’d do anything for them. In some ways, he was the water surrounding them, after all. He could certainly feel and manipulate it as if it were his own body sometimes. He wasn’t claiming Jason, that sounded weird, but he was…
Okay, maybe he was a little bit. But he was fairly confident in saying that Jason wasn’t planning on letting him go at any point soon, either. Jason was the first non-demigod and non-family that he’d introduced to this world since Rachel, after all, and she was pretty intrenched in his life now. And Percy had no idea how many people outside the vigilante community Jason had ever told his identity—although he didn’t really tell Percy, but semantics—and he imagined it was a very small group. There was a level of trust there, in Jason keeping Percy around after he found that out without Jason’s permission, and so Percy felt secure in seeing Jason as one of his people.
Jason’s eyes finally stopped roaming the water around them and landed on Percy, making Percy’s breath catch a little. In the water, with the light filtering around them, Jason’s eyes almost seemed to be shifting colors like Percy knew his own did—all shades of blue, but sometimes so light it was bordering on white, other times the same bright shade as the lake water surrounding the bubble. The watery sunlight nearly made the white strip of his hair glow, and his scars stood out against his skin in a way Percy could only call beautiful.
“Shit,” Jason breathed, sparing another glance around them before adjusting his arm around Percy. “It feels so different without any kind of ship or anything.”
“I admit, it’s better without the bubble, but I do prefer my boyfriend able to breathe, so…” Percy teased, and Jason lightly knocked his head against Percy’s. Percy moved with him, keeping him from moving his head away too far. He worried he was staring, but Jason was watching him right back, so he figured he didn’t mind.
“How often do you do this?” Jason asked softly, like speaking too loudly would pop the bubble. Percy grinned, more relaxed than he’d been since they started planning how to get Tim to camp.
“As often as I can,” he said. “Especially here in camp. I need to find a place in Gotham to swim, though, since I’m pretty sure walking into the lake would be frowned upon.”
Jason laughed. “Yeah, just a bit.”
Then he got thoughtful. Lips pressing together, he looked between the water and Percy’s casual body language, likely reading the genuine calm in every bone in his body. Then his eyes flicked back up.
“Gods, this sounds like the most rich person shit ever,” Jason complained, “but there’s a small pool in the manor, and a small lake on the property. If that would work.”
Percy’s smile spread across his face. “What happened to that being a terrible idea?”
“My dad said I should invite you to dinner,” Jason answered, like that didn’t make Percy do a double-take and watch him with wide eyes. “I was gonna ask when we got back to Gotham, and all this was settled, but…now works too. Annabeth is included in that, too, like hell I wasn’t inviting her with you, even if that definitely wasn’t what B meant.”
“…what changed?” Percy asked, affection tightening in his chest. “Does he…actually just want to meet me?”
He expected Jason to tell him that while his father probably did want to meet him, it would first and foremost be a hidden interrogation. Percy would still go, obviously, but that was something he’d like to know going in. But Jason smiled, so small that Percy didn’t even know if he knew he was doing it.
“I think so, yeah,” he admitted. “I mean, they’re definitely going to ask questions. But…he said that even though they didn’t trust you, they should have given you a chance to prove them wrong. Selina ripping him a new one helped too, though.”
Percy snickered. “I can’t say I’m surprised that she can influence Batman that much. I knew someone once who she reminds me a lot of. And Zoe Nightshade was a fucking force to be reckoned with.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Aunt Selina,” Jason agreed. “If you don’t want to subject yourself to subtle interrogation, though, I definitely get it.”
Percy shook his head. “No, that sounds great. If you say your dad really just wants me to come to dinner, and the interrogation is secondary, then that’s good enough for me. Even if your youngest brother tries to gut me.”
“If you start sword fighting him in the middle of dinner because he pulls his katana, I think he might actually start liking you,” Jason said. “The brat recognized the style of your sword on sight, you could definitely impress him like that.”
Percy knew that he was the one who had been pushing to meet Jason’s family, although he’d drawn back on that since meeting the Sirens and starting this plan for Tim, but he could see how happy Jason was that his dad just wanted to meet Percy. He knew it wasn’t going to be all sunshine and roses, he would be going to dinner with several highly trained vigilantes who, while not thinking he was evil or mind-controlling anymore, still didn’t trust him. But it was a step forward, and Percy just wanted to see Jason interacting with his siblings, when all he had right now was stories. And Tim, but that only happened yesterday.
“And, then, if all goes well and you don’t get murdered by my pint-size assassin brother, I could definitely bring you around to the manor for the pool or the lake whenever you want,” Jason finished, bringing the conversation back around to the start that Percy had completely forgotten about.
“Pool is fine,” he said, his smile wide and soft. “Natural water is better, sure, but a pool is just fine. When is dinner?”
“Next Saturday work?” Jason asked. “Gives you plenty of time to change your mind.”
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, birdie,” Percy scoffed. “Next Saturday sounds great. I’ll let Annie know. Should I bring anything?”
“Alfred would probably be offended if you tried,” Jason said, and Percy wondered if he knew that his smile widened as soon as Percy agreed. “He takes family dinners very seriously. I’m already envisioning the look on his face when I ask him to make something blue for you.”
Percy flushed. “Jay, you don’t have to—“
“—I’m going to,” Jason cut him off. “Hell, I’d make it myself if I didn’t know that would get me suspended from my kitchen privileges.”
“You can’t lose those,” Percy agreed, wondering if it was in his head that the sunlight was making the water around them warmer. He felt like it was definitely warmer.
They sat, floating underwater, for another minute in silence. Percy would bring them to the surface as soon as Jason wanted to, but it seemed he was still happy to drift in their bubble, so Percy wasn’t going anywhere. Jason’s arm was solid against his waist, Percy’s head leaning onto his shoulder, and he could stay there for hours.
“So,” he said eventually, “you’ve been seeing a lot of my weird bullshit this weekend. Any other weird bullshit from your life that I haven’t heard about yet? Gotta even the field right now, I think.”
“Oh, of course,” Jason laughed immediately. “Have I mentioned the time we found out about the alternate universe where one of my brothers is an alien starfish?”
Percy’s breath betrayed him as he choked on a laugh of his own, not at all expecting that.
“What the fuck?” He wheezed slightly. “Which brother?”
“Not one of my current brothers, this one was completely new. His name was Jarro, and yes, he was Robin.”
“Gods, I wish that was this universe,” Percy said. “I want to meet Jarro.”
“You just like that he’s a starfish,” Jason accused. Percy jabbed him in the ribs.
“Lies and slander, maybe I like that he’s an alien!” He retorted. “For all the weird things I’ve done and mythic places I’ve been, I’ve never been to space!”
“I could fix that, someday,” Jason said. “Have I told you that the JL have a base on a space station?”
“I’d love to take you up on that, as soon as I figure out if Zeus would consider that as me ‘flying’,” Percy said. “I’d rather not be somehow hit by lightning in space.”
“Eh, probably a good idea, yeah,” Jason acquiesced. “Oh, another weird bullshit thing that I’ve been meaning to mention but kept forgetting about—I’ve been lying to you.”
Percy’s eyebrows raised. “About what?”
Jason’s grin grew wry. “So, I might actually have a pair of magic swords of my own, and I might be very good with them.”
He stared at Jason, mouth slightly agape.
“You what? Where are they and when the hell were you going to tell me about this?”
“I didn’t mention them because I can’t actually show you,” Jason said, clearly amused by whatever Percy’s expression looked like. “They’re magic magic, I can only summon them ‘in the presence of evil’ or whatever the fuck.”
“So summon them the next time we see Rachel, since she’s clearly gonna try and turn you against me,” Percy said immediately, before Jason’s words fully sank in. He gave Jason an indignant glare. “How dare you not tell me about this! I know you use knives and shit, but if I’d known you could fight with a sword, I’d have sparred with you by now!”
“Better late than never?” Jason offered, the effect ruined by the laughter he was holding back. “You’re still the gladiator here, Ariel.”
“Damn right I am,” Percy countered, hitting Jason lightly on the arm. “I can’t believe I’ve been betrayed by my own boyfriend. I thought I was the criminal here, but you’re killing me—“
“—Perce, I’ve literally killed people—“
“—and I’ll have you know, lying about weapons is punishable by death in Ancient Greece.” Percy finished, holding his chin up as he tried to keep his glare intact. Jason gave him a look.
“You know I know that’s a load of shit,” he said, but his free hand came up to hold Percy’s chin where it was. “Besides, I had a good reason for not telling you.”
“Which was?” Percy asked, eyes locked on Jason’s as he ignored the flush of his face from Jason’s light touch.
Jason’s ears pinked to match, though, and Percy was glad for the privacy of their underwater bubble.
“Swords were your thing,” he said. “And the first time I saw you fight…a part of me never wanted to touch the Allblades ever again so that they stayed your thing. It was…beautiful, to watch.”
“You're beautiful,” Percy said without thinking, before he gave into his impulses and leaned forward to kiss Jason. His hand came up to tangle itself in Jason’s hair, as Jason’s hand around his waist pulled him closer. He heard Jason’s heartbeat pick up as the kiss deepened, and he felt his own racing in his chest as he let himself drift upward slightly so that Jason was the one tilting his head up.
Unfortunately, while he couldn’t drown, he did still need to breathe. But as he pulled back briefly, their noses still brushing, Jason gave a low, breathy laugh.
“I think my nickname was wrong too,” he muttered. “Forget mermaids, you’re a damn siren.”
Percy grinned. “Well, I won’t drown you, but I might just keep you down here.”
“I’d let you,” Jason said, before tugging Percy back down to meet his lips again.
Percy sank into the kiss, and he knew they wouldn’t be surfacing until dinner.
Notes:
I know i implied athena kid ocs for this chapter but then it turned out to be 10k words so thats next time. this got a bit out of hand when percy and jason started being stupid about each other.
Also i know approximately Jack and Shit about jarro but i love him so much i physically couldnt not at least mention him. this was my way to do that without also having to figure out how to write him lol.
i am of the belief that percy gets lovingly attacked by his friends simply because they know water heals him immediately. if they were ever in like. a desert, he would not get affectionately stabbed.
the more pjo characters that show up the more i remember how many of them i was unknowingly very gay for. annabeth, thalia (goddamn how did i not realize i had a massive crush on her when i read titans curse lmao), zoe, piper, reyna, etc etc etc. no offense to the boys bc percy and leo are peak characters to me, but rick really was speaking to my baby unrealized lesbian self lol.
Anyway. hope you liked it! see you next time, whenever that happens. <3
Chapter 26
Notes:
i return. i give you all copious apologies for my months-long absence. then i return to my hole for another few months.
anyway. enjoy meeting nine OCs in quick succession. i made them for flavor text and then got too attached. i hope you like them because i have zero idea how often theyll pop up lmao.
please enjoy the chapter :)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The Athena cabin was a deceptively plain grey building, with that owl emblem right above the door that kept drawing Tim’s eye every time they had passed it that day. While owls might be a bit of a touchy subject in Gotham, Tim was partial to birds in general, and if he refused to let Cobblepot ruin penguins for him, then he could accept the fact that his apparent mother’s symbol was the owl.
Rachel had peeled off from them as they got closer to the cabin, citing a painting in progress back in her cave (was that a nickname or did she really live in a cave?) that she wanted to finish, leaving Annabeth to give her a brief kiss goodbye before turning back to Tim.
“You’re alright with this, right?” She asked, the cabin that housed his newest siblings only a few feet away. “If you’re not, that’s totally fine. You can’t get rid of me now, it’s too late for that, but I’m serious that if you just want to take your bronze spear and head back to Gotham, that’s okay. You’ve got a ton of siblings already, you don’t have to meet nine more if you don’t want to.”
But actually, weirdly, Tim did. He could leave the manor for a few months and come home to at least four new siblings, legally adopted or not, so it wasn’t the high number that would turn him off. At first, it had been that he didn’t want any kind of acknowledgment that he belonged to this place, he didn’t want anyone to have any expectations of him belonging or being like them, he didn’t want to accept any of this. He was sure that unlike when new siblings popped up at the manor, there would be an expectation here to immediately be a family. Annabeth clearly saw the entire cabin as her siblings, not just using the term because by definition they shared a parent, and Tim thought he’d hate having that label put on him so quickly.
But…all day had proven him wrong. It had thrown things at him—first meeting more of Annabeth’s friends and Rachel, then the offering fire at lunch, then Malcolm, then meeting even more of the people close to Annabeth—and each and every one of those encounters had been…fine. Welcoming, but not pushing. Percy even explicitly told him that he could chill on the dock and ignore the conversation happening as Jason met Piper (in person, at least), Thalia, and Jace by himself. And the more he thought about it, the more it made a lot of sense. In the manor, there was no immediate pressure to new siblings because they had all been adopted too, they knew what it was like. When Duke moved in, he had been family, for sure, but while they called him their brother, no one pushed him to reciprocate or spend a ton of time family bonding. It was a lot, and they knew it, and that wasn’t even getting into the fact that their family was insane, the vigilante thing added more layers, and Duke’s parents were technically still alive.
So in retrospect, it made sense that no demigod had pushed him yet. From the way Annabeth was talking, they had all gone through this. The discovery that they weren’t entirely human, the claiming, the slightly reeling sensation of realizing that one of their parents wasn’t actually their parent. While that shouldn’t change any relationships with the people who raised them—or…lack of relationship, in Tim’s case—it was still a jarring thing to learn. It was a lot, and everyone at camp knew it, so Tim was willing to trust that the other children of Athena wouldn’t be expecting him to be thrilled and excited and calling them all family.
Maybe in the morning, waking up in the Big House and remembering the conversation the past night, Tim had been on the fence.
Now, though, he shook his head.
“I’m good,” he assured Annabeth. “I want to meet them.”
Annabeth smiled widely, so wide it made something feel warm in Tim’s chest, and she led him the rest of the way to the door of the cabin. Like every other time he’d looked its way, Tim struggled to tear his eyes from the owl above the entrance, but he made himself look away as Annabeth pushed the door open and Tim heard the telltale sounds—or lack thereof—of a cut-off conversation. Annabeth’s wide smile softened as she looked inside with a vaguely exasperated expression.
“Gremlins, all of you,” she said, with the exact same tone Dick got whenever he caught Tim working at two in the morning. “Back up, didn’t Malcolm tell you to behave?”
“I’m behaving!” A young voice called out, indignant. Annabeth laughed as she entered the cabin and left the door open with a glance over her shoulder to Tim.
“I see that, Penn, thank you,” she said. Tim walked behind her, finally peering inside the cabin, and it was definitely bigger on the inside than the building made it seem. Tim guessed he’d have to get used to a lot of magic stuff now. The cabins working like the TARDIS wasn’t that surprising, though, given how many kids Tim had seen at the camp, and it was pretty cool, so he wasn’t complaining about this magic thing.
The tech thing, that he’d complain about.
In the back of the cabin, Tim saw multiple desks shoved against the walls, with a large loom sitting in the center of them, and about four cork boards interspersed along the walls between the desks. The front of the cabin had the beds, and much like Malcolm had said earlier, one of them was covered completely in papers. Only one of the beds had a kid sitting on it, and Tim assumed that was the one who had called out to Annabeth, since they were the only one not standing right by the door. Eight other kids were now glancing at him, clearly trying not to stare, and Tim saw Malcolm off to the side, arms crossed as he sighed at his siblings.
There was definitely a resemblance between all the kids, a resemblance that Tim did not think he had and wondered if he’d gain along with the rest of the magical changes Annabeth said he was going to experience. Not all of them were blond, but no matter what shade their eyes were, they all looked vaguely grey.
The first to speak was a little girl who was definitely younger than Damian, her long blonde hair in two low pigtails along her shoulders, and sharp eyes that were a strange green-grey mix that Tim couldn’t say he’d ever seen before.
“Hi!” She said, with a brightness that reminded Tim of many years ago when he first saw Jason’s Robin grinning as he roundhouse kicked a Penguin goon. It wasn’t brightness like the tiny Superboy, Jon seeming to radiate sunshine even in Gotham. This brightness came with an earned edge to it. Tim knew the signs of a slightly feral child. “I’m Ivy. Are you better at defense or offense?”
Tim blinked in slight shock at the sudden question. The boy next to her groaned, looking to be only a few years younger than Tim. He had darker blond hair a similar length to Annabeth’s cousin, and dark grey eyes like a storm cloud. “Ives, Capture the Flag isn’t for another, like, six hours. Strategize at dinner.”
Ivy huffed, but crossed her arms as the boy stuck a hand out to Tim.
“Neil,” he introduced himself. “Been a while since we’ve had a new face here, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Tim,” Tim replied, but as he took Neil’s hand to shake, the younger boy tugged him the last small distance into the cabin fully, leading Annabeth to lightly smack him upside the head.
“Again, listen to Malcolm!” She chided. “Space.”
“It’s fine,” Tim said, only slightly awkward as the door fully swung shut behind him. The cabin had plenty of light, mostly from a skylight above them that definitely wasn’t on the outside of the cabin, but Tim saw a few sconces on the walls that made him wonder if electricity in general counted as ‘technology’ for demigods. He really hoped not.
“Let’s run through this so we can skip the awkward part,” another girl said, putting her hands on her hips. “Hi, Tim. I’m Greta, call me Gretchen and I take your kneecaps. Other than Neil and Ivy, we’ve got Harriet, Ben, Nellie, Penn, Oliver, and Amber. Peter and Liz aren’t here right now, but that’s their problem.”
She pointed to each kid as she said their name, and Tim couldn’t help but scan them the same way he was sure they were doing to him. Greta looked older than Ivy but was the same height, dark hair and slate-brown eyes that screamed of a type of ambition that was familiar to vigilantes. She had ideas, Tim was sure about that. Harriet had the same eyes as Greta, but light brown curls that had seen better days if the frizz was anything to go by. She wasn’t sizing him up, but the kid next to her was definitely staring thoughtfully at Tim. Ben, as Greta had labelled, seemed to be looking through him, actually, with pale grey eyes that made the hair falling into his face look more yellow than blond. He wasn’t staring rudely, but he was considering something, and Tim wasn’t sure what he was looking for.
Penn was the kid on the bed, who was now looking at the crowd by the door with an expression that said they regretted listening to Annabeth and Malcolm. They were still leaving space, though, so Tim was considering labelling them as his favorite just to be petulant. In front of them was Nellie, another young girl who was smiling the widest of any of them, despite the bandage on the side of her face that told Tim she had to be pulling at some injury to grin at him. Then, standing slightly behind Neil’s legs were two…very young children. Ivy was small, and Tim would bet she wasn’t any older than eleven, but as he looked at the two kids who were watching him with wide, curious eyes, he remembered something Annabeth had mentioned last night in her explanation. Or rather, something she had tried to mention before Percy finished it for her.
Annabeth’s youngest half-sister is six. And the boy right next to her didn’t look much older. Fuck, Tim knew he was still processing everything that was happening, but he did know that if anything tried to hurt those literal children, he’d put himself in the middle without hesitation. Oliver and Amber, Greta had said, and while Oliver stood out from the other siblings with darker skin and hair, Amber looked like a tiny Annabeth. If Percy hadn’t said half-sister, he’d ask if Amber was actually fully her sibling.
It was strange, looking at the people who were his sudden new siblings, and seeing how young so many of them were. Annabeth had said that demigods struggled to make it to eighteen, but the truth of that was staring Tim in the face right now. He might be a middle child who started off as an only child, and he didn’t spend that long as the youngest in the family before Damian arrived, but…he was still used to feeling young in some capacity compared to his family. With Dick, Cass, Jason, and (unofficially) Babs as older siblings, he never felt like one of the older members of the family. And considering Damian introduced himself to the family by attempting to murder Tim, he didn’t often feel very protective over his youngest brother, knowing that Damian would probably stab him for having those emotions and was more than capable of protecting himself.
Here, though, only Annabeth and probably Malcolm were older than him. He didn’t know how old the two missing Athena children were, but he doubted they were older than Malcolm considering he was the Head Counselor. Tim had nine, potentially eleven younger siblings now.
Shit. He was not going to turn into Dick. The oldest bird would never let him live it down if he found out.
“You’re from Gotham, aren’t you?” Neil asked as they all finished examining each other in a silence that really should have been more awkward than it was. “Are you Tim Drake-Wayne? You look like him.”
Tim blinked. Annabeth snorted. Well, that was fast. She had warned him, to be fair.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, a hand reaching up to the back of his neck briefly, relieved when the new interest he saw in some of their eyes was nothing like the kind of interest paparazzi, tabloids, or fans got. Neil grinned.
“Cool. I try to keep up with Wayne Enterprises, even if I don’t always understand what you all do with the tech you make. That’s not my specialty, but it’s still fascinating. You’re good at that stuff, right?”
This, Tim could do. He was proud of the work he did, and a lot of Waynetech had his fingerprints on it.
“I like to think I’m pretty good,” he said, but the smile he couldn’t help gave away that he was underselling himself. “I work with both the hardware and software of what we make.”
“Jealous,” Ben grumbled, shooting a clearly fake glare at Annabeth. “Annabeth won’t let us visit Gotham, even though maybe we’d finally be able to learn how modern technology works without summoning eight dozen hellhounds!”
“I stand by that,” Annabeth said. “You’re thirteen, Ben, you’re not coming to Gotham until Percy and I figure out what’s up with it.”
“That’s probably a smart idea,” Tim agreed.
“You live in Gotham,” Ivy piped up. Tim shrugged.
“And I get kidnapped maybe twice a month,” he said. “That’s without all this.” He motioned around him to both the cabin and everything surrounding it.
“Is that why you didn’t come back from your lunch two weeks ago?” Annabeth asked, eyebrows raised.
“Oh, that was an easy one,” Tim brushed it off. “Wasn’t even one of the rogues, it was just some new guy trying to get into the crime scene by nabbing a Wayne. Ran as soon as the Signal even showed up.”
Duke had complained about that as he watched Tim get out of his own rope bindings. Apparently, it had been a slow patrol day, and Duke really was looking forward to fighting the kidnappers.
“Okay, well, we wouldn’t have people looking to take us for rich person money,” Ben continued, pouting slightly. “I want to learn, Annabeth.”
“You can’t guilt trip me with that, we all want to learn things,” Annabeth said immediately, turning Ben’s pout from very fake to a bit more real.
“I mean, I don’t know how much…hands-on stuff can happen, but I could try and teach how it works,” Tim found himself saying. He did like helping the new employees and interns learn how their tech worked, and he didn’t have many opportunities to teach people considering that his family was full of people who already understood how to make the complex shit they used each night. “I apparently already decided I’m gonna try and make a phone that doesn’t act as a monster beacon.”
He was faced with ten excited glances, a light in their eyes that Tim knew he’d seen on himself before.
“You’ll give some to us first when you figure it out, right?” Malcolm said, and it was a small thing, but the use of ‘when’ made Tim smile a bit to himself. Like there was no doubt that he’d do it. He was used to his family knowing he knew what he was doing, but these people had just met him.
“And Percy,” Annabeth cut in, making Greta roll her eyes.
“Duh, Percy, he’s basically an extension of you,” she said. “Tim, I want mine in pink.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Tim replied.
As if some small tension had broken at Tim talking about his own interests, he found himself getting drawn further into the cabin, away from the door, as each other kid took turns showing him around and rambling about whatever was in their section of the cabin. When Annabeth had mentioned that each Athena kid had a niche, she really had meant it. In the span of maybe half an hour, Tim found out that the loom in the back was Malcolm’s, Neil didn’t have much in the cabin because he designed weapons with the Hephaestus kids, Harriet was taking advantage of her lack of dyslexia to write a book on the Ancient Greek language, Ben was still exploring his options, Nellie enjoyed complex mathematics, Greta was aiming for politics in her future, Penn was currently following in Malcolm’s shadow after a week of being into herbalism, Ivy was a hell of a battle strategist, Oliver had biology diagrams scattered across his desk, and Amber proudly showed off the tiny to-scale lego model of camp she was building in the corner of the cabin. It was a lot of information, but at the same time it was easy to keep up.
And, well, when Tim couldn’t help but mention one of his own accomplishments of hacking into the Pentagon and other various government organizations (leaving out the ‘why’, of course), attention turned back to him and he was sitting at one of the worktables in the back of the cabin before he could blink. Neil dumped a small pile of celestial bronze scraps on the table in front of him, Harriet set some tools right beside it, Ben perched on another chair with wide eyes, and Tim had a small crowd around him as he was prompted to start explaining his thought processes on incorporating the bronze into technology. Before really thinking about it, he was pulling out his phone and cannibalizing a few of the parts that the Athena cabin didn’t have. He basically built his phone himself, so he knew exactly what he could take out without ruining the functionality. He might be a bit caught up in what was happening, but he wasn’t oblivious to the chaos he’d cause if one of the bats tried to contact him and his phone wasn’t working.
(Annabeth leaned against the wall and watched, her smile small and fond. She’d seen this same scenario over and over again. Hades, she’d lived it. Every time someone new was claimed, no matter who their parent was. A new demigod arrived nervous, unsure about everything they’ve been told and unsure if they belong, positive that meeting a bunch of new people they’re supposedly related to was going to be horribly awkward. Even if no familial terms got used, there’s still a deeper connection there than just cabinmates at a camp. But then, without fail, the little quirks lined up like puzzle pieces, and she watched her new sibling take a breath of fresh air.
Tim was different than her other siblings, he’d already been through the kind of experiences that normally happen after a demigod is claimed—the danger, the fights, the losses. But she had clicked with him, that first day at Wayne Enterprises. She hadn’t recognized it, then, but she had known that her boss was going to be someone who saw her intellect and understood it. Now, though, she saw an empty space get filled in her cabin, yet another bed and desk given an owner, and she couldn’t be happier.
Tim laughed at something Greta said, as he hunched over the bronze pieces on the table and explained the pieces he was missing to build a circuit board. Annabeth felt her heart swell. She was an older sister of thirteen, now. And she couldn’t stop loving all of them with her entire being if she tried.)
The feeling of eyes on his back hadn’t lessened since he got pulled deeper into the cabin, but they weren’t oppressive. It felt like the same gaze as someone spotting him during training. Watchful, sharply observant, but safe. When he took a break to return his recently-downgraded phone to his pocket, he glanced over his shoulder to see Annabeth watching the horde around the table with a small smile that widened when she noticed him looking. He felt a light heat on his face, but grinned back. He wasn’t sure yet if these other demigods were his siblings, but he did know that he didn’t mind being here anymore.
And of all the people who could turn out to be his sibling, he wasn’t upset at all that it was Annabeth.
Jason let Percy pull him back out of the water behind the cabin that looked more like a fishing hut than a gods cabin in a demigod camp. The water lapped gently against the dock and the shore, and after how long they were under the water, Jason knew that he should be soaked to the bone and wrinkled like a raisin. But with Percy’s hand in his, even as the bubble popped when they broke the surface, he was perfectly dry. Which was great, considering he had forgotten he was wearing his leather jacket when he let Percy pull him into the water, and he’d hate to ruin it.
Percy got a few steps towards the cabin before he visibly lit up and whirled to face Jason.
“Oh!” He exclaimed. “I completely forgot. It’s so past the holidays, now, but I got you something and then never remembered to take it out of my cabin when I came back to Gotham. Better late than never, right? Wait here, I’ll go find it, then I’ll call you in, okay?”
He didn’t wait for an answer before he dropped Jason’s hand and darted through the back door of the cabin, but Jason just laughed and shook his head. After knowing Percy and Annabeth for a while now, he was more than used to their habit of shifting topics on a dime. He took a moment to check his phone while Percy was inside—he had forgotten to ask Annabeth if he could use tech safely inside the camp without messing anything up, but if a call to Tim’s boyfriend was fine, then Jason could check his texts—just to make sure Cass didn’t text him that Crime Alley had burned down while he was gone. He had brushed it off during the dinner when he invited Tim, but he really hadn’t taken a vacation. Ever. He was always on some kind of mission when he left Gotham, and as much as they had a plan to get Tim to camp, he had meant it when he said this wasn’t a mission. It felt…wrong, to be gone for more than a few hours and miss even a single patrol of his territory. But he knew he could trust his family to keep his people safe, and now he was even sure that they wouldn’t be doing it because they thought he wasn’t doing a good enough job with the Alley. It hadn’t occurred to him until he was already outside the city, but if Nico hadn’t cleared the Pit away, he wasn’t sure he could have agreed to leave for a few days.
He missed Gotham, the sun was too bright here and the clouds were too white, but it was nice to remember what fresh air felt like and to see Percy’s home.
He replied to Dick’s painfully casual question of what they were doing with a short response that they were checking out a beach Percy liked (he’d heard enough stories of Percy’s favorite cabin on Montauk that if he had to give more detail, he could), then followed it up with ‘oh no, Tim’s drowning, gotta go’. Dick could spam Tim if he wanted, but if he wanted to ask Jason for information he’d have to deal with asking Jason for information. He wasn’t too worried about freaking Dick out. If something as simple as ‘drowning’ ever took out one of them, everyone else would be more disappointed in them than anything. Especially Tim. The kid was like a cockroach.
Then he sent Cass a grateful thumbs-up in response to her brief patrol update, and slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket just in time for Percy to call his name from inside the cabin.
When Percy had described the inside of the Poseidon cabin as ‘fishing dad chic’, it wasn’t that Jason hadn’t believed him. But he couldn’t say he had been expecting fishing nets spanning the ceiling, about three rods hung on one wall, an anchor next to them, and a ship in a bottle on a table in the corner. It was like a tackle shop threw up on the walls, but it somehow managed to be at least slightly tasteful and have a pretty cozy vibe. Although that could have been because of the clear personal touches Percy had added to it. Jason passed by a small bubbling fountain on the wall as he walked inside, which looked newer than the rest of the decor, and there was a large, beautiful dented shield on the wall where Percy’s bed was. Pictures spanned the walls and shelves, and Jason recognized a few of the people in them now, noting with no surprise that Annabeth was in a majority of them. While a lot of the cabin looked generic and ‘Poseidon-ish’, the parts of the cabin that Percy had decorated made it clear that this was a place he loved.
But there, by a small desk next to the bed, was the demigod himself, holding his hands behind his back with a smile that Jason really didn’t like. (That was a lie, he liked all of Percy’s smiles, but when Percy looked as mischievous as he did right then, Jason was never going to tell him that).
“Oh, I’m gonna hate this, aren’t I?” He said instead, eyebrows raising at the roguish look on Percy’s face. It morphed quickly into something attempting to look innocent and failing miserably.
“I have no idea what you mean,” Percy said. “I have a very heartfelt holiday gift that I hope you like.”
In one swift motion, he took his hands from behind his back to reveal what he had been hiding, and—
Jason immediately grabbed the lighter from his pocket and set the cowboy hat on fire. Percy just laughed, and without even a motion from him, water from the bubbling fountain came splashing onto the hat and Jason, putting out the flame that had barely caught yet. Jason crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes petulantly at Percy, who held out for a good few seconds while continuing to laugh at him.
“C’mon, cowboy, it’s even got red on it!” Percy teased through his laughter, finally setting the hat down on his desk and walking over to Jason. “You look like a wet dog.”
He leaned in and kissed Jason on the cheek, the water evaporating like it had never been there.
“Cute,” Percy finished with another grin, one that only got wider as Jason shoved his arm.
“I could buy an entire store’s worth of Ariel merchandise if I wanted to,” Jason warned. “There would be no keeping that from your friends.”
“No, wait, have mercy,” Percy switched tracks, but he was still laughing lightly. “I have a real thing, too.”
He went back to the desk and opened a drawer, pulling out something a lot smaller than a cowboy hat.
“Perce, I swear, if that’s a sheriff’s badge or something…” Jason trailed off. Percy’s eyes widened.
“No, but I really should have done that, that’s so good,” he said. “I meant that this was real, though. Catch.”
He tossed something through the air, Jason easily grabbing it, and finding that it was actually two somethings tied together. Two somethings that Jason immediately recognized. A grin spread across his own face this time as he undid the string holding together the two brass knuckles, small spikes across the backs of them.
“I’ll grab you a knife, too,” Percy said as he watched Jason try them on. “But I wanted you to have something a bit more personal, more like you, and using celestial bronze with any kind of firearm is just more impractical than useful. I thought you’d enjoy punching monsters to dust if you ever have to.”
“You thought right,” Jason said, thrilled to finally have a weapon that worked against Percy’s monsters. He had hated knowing that if a fight broke out while Jason was there, he’d be basically useless. To be fair, he hadn’t tried the All-blades, but having something definite was reassuring.
“Now don’t go punching Tim with these,” Percy said slyly. “Even if he stabs you with his spear.”
“No promises,” Jason said immediately. “The twerp deserves it sometimes.”
“I guess I can’t stop you,” Percy returned, absolutely no real regret in his voice. “I did just get stabbed earlier today, so a punch really isn’t that bad. And I’ll probably get stabbed again tonight. And electrocuted.”
“Tonight?” Jason asked, eyebrows raising. “I thought you were playing Capture the Flag.”
“Jay,” Percy said dryly. “Cowboy, Phoenix, birdie, whatever I call you next, have you really not realized that demigods and vigilantes have another important thing in common? Everything we do turns way more violent than it should. Capture the Flag is like one big war simulator. And Thalia challenged me directly. I will get hit with lightning at least once.”
“Does Tim know this?” Jason asked. Percy shrugged.
“He’ll find out soon enough if he hasn’t been told already. The Athena cabin takes every game very seriously. He’ll be fine. He’s already done way worse fights than the game will have. And whatever injuries happen, the infirmary can handle it.”
“How many times have you been hit with lightning?”
Percy frowned. “I can’t answer that. I’ve known Thalia for almost five years, that number isn’t something I can pin down.”
“Does electrocution hurt you more than other people?” Jason asked, a mix of genuine curiosity and concern for if the answer was ‘yes’. He’d be a lot more concerned if Percy wasn’t talking about it so flippantly, but he still didn’t like the image of his boyfriend being struck by lightning. Multiple times. He was starting to wonder if he even wanted to try and see this spar between him and Thalia, if it was going to go the way Percy was making it sound.
“…I’m not sure?” Percy answered after a moment. “I don’t think so, though. I don’t think Thalia would do it so often if it did, even if it is for sparring’s sake.”
“Well that’s good to hear, at least.”
A bell rang through the camp, then, drawing Percy’s attention. He grinned.
“Dinner,” he said. “Then it’s time for the game.”
He held out a hand to Jason, who slipped the bronze knuckles into a pocket of his jacket and took it to be led out of the cabin and across the camp. The walk to the dining pavilion was staring to look a little familiar, since Jason had been seeing the sights of the camp all day, and they passed by groups of demigods jostling each other or joking around. He caught a few more younger campers stare at Percy as they walked, and he wondered if Percy downplayed how…idolized he seemed to be. If he had, Jason wanted to know what exactly he’d done to earn that. He knew about the wars Percy had fought in, and that he was on the front lines for both of them, but so were other demigods. Maybe it was just that first prophecy he had told Jason about. Those seemed to be a pretty big deal. Then again, Percy had apparently set off Mount Saint Helens, so who the fuck knew anymore. Jason would figure it out eventually.
He followed Percy back to the empty table set aside for Poseidon’s cabin, and was greeted by Rachel sitting alone waiting for them. She looked up as Percy approached, and her smile was gentler than the last one Jason had seen her aim at Percy. This one was more fond than teasing.
“Hey, water boy,” she greeted. “Mind if I crash your date?”
“Never,” Percy said, dropping onto the bench opposite her. “Annie ditch you?”
“For good reason,” Rachel replied. “Check it out.”
She motioned briefly over her shoulder, drawing both their eyes to the table of demigods currently staring at what looked like a map of the campground. Jason spotted Annabeth first, standing behind the tight circle and looking over all of them with a steel in her eyes that Jason was pretty sure he last saw that night in Arkham. But then, his eyes slid over and he saw Tim. His little brother was frowning thoughtfully down at the map as a little girl jabbed a finger at one corner forcefully, arguing with a boy across the table. Another boy glanced over at Tim and said something, prompting Tim to take his eyes off the map and casually answer with what Jason could read as ‘spear’, motioning towards the new weapon at his hip. The two then turned right back to the discussion, even as Tim clearly listened more than spoke, and Jason felt something settle. He knew it would go well. Annabeth said it would, and before Jason even realized he liked Percy, he had already learned that Annabeth was always right. But still, seeing it for himself…Tim was gonna be fine.
As if he could sense eyes on him, Tim glanced up, going a bit still as he noticed Jason watching him. Jason raised his eyebrows in silent question, giving the quick bat-sign for ‘good’. Tim gave a tiny smile, and a short nod. Then he was jabbed in the side by the tiny girl, who was immediately chastised by Annabeth, and drawn right back into watching the heated debate. Jason had gotten his answer, though.
“You did good,” Percy said, following his gaze towards the Athena table. “Your gut was right.”
“I’m impressed you caught this before Annabeth did,” Rachel added, her soft expression now making sense after Jason saw Annabeth’s relaxed and fond position behind her siblings. “Though she explained why she never even thought to look for it, and it makes sense.”
“It was just little things,” Jason said, shrugging. “They used to be ‘Tim things’ until I started seeing them in Annabeth too.”
“Answer honestly,” Percy started, “how much of it was the moment you found out Annabeth doesn’t have a belly button?”
Jason snorted. “…A non-zero amount.”
“Go get dinner, Percy,” Rachel said, “you need to prepare for getting your ass kicked tonight.”
“So much faith you have in me, Rachel,” Percy said, rolling his eyes. “It’s almost like you’ve never seen me fight before.”
“I’ve seen you fight,” Rachel countered. “I’ve also seen you fight Thalia. And I know that no matter who wins, neither of you will admit to losing. You’re both on a winning streak in your own heads, which means that you can win and still get your ass kicked.”
Percy made a face. “I hate that you actually made a point with that,” he said. “I’ve definitely legitimately won before, though.”
“It’s like you’re trying to prove my point even more,” Rachel said, grinning at him. “And I’m only saying this because it’s been a pretty emotional day and I’m feeling a bit sappy, but I’d agree with you on that. Doesn’t change what I said, though. So go get food.”
“Alright, I can tell when I’m not wanted,” Percy said, raising his hands as he stepped back from the table. He walked slowly, though, and he saw how Rachel turned back to Jason as soon as Percy started moving. He saw her eyes narrow, and he sighed, pausing in his path towards the buffet table.
“Wayne,” Rachel said immediately. Jason’s eyebrows raised.
“Todd-Wayne, actually,” he corrected. Rachel pointed at him across the table.
“I’m the one talking here,” she said. “Todd-Wayne. You have Annabeth’s approval, and that’s pretty big, but I threw a hairbrush at a Titan for Percy. I took the oath of the Oracle to help this camp when I had every opportunity to just walk away as a normal mortal, and Percy was a non-zero part of that decision. If he ends up hurt, you’ll have a lot of new enemies with abilities, but I’d dare to say that I’d be one of the ones you should be the most wary of.”
If Rachel wasn’t currently threatening his boyfriend, Percy would feel warm from the way she was talking about him. She normally showed she cared about him by ribbing him and being a general nuisance, but he did have to admit it was nice to hear her say so blatantly that he was as important to her as she was to him. Now if only she was saying it without the attached shovel-talk.
“If, for whatever reason, Percy were to end up hurt, I’d accept murder at the hands of you and Annabeth,” Jason said, seemingly surprised but otherwise unfazed by the threats. Rachel laughed.
“Oh, murder would be tame,” she said. “Also, Percy, I know you’re still listening. Let me threaten your boyfriend in peace.”
She shot a short glare over her shoulder right at him, and he stuck his tongue out at her like a mature demigod. Then, knowing that Jason could handle way worse than a protective Rachel Dare (as much of a force as that was), he made his way past the Athena table towards the buffet and caught Annabeth’s eye. Her tiny smile felt like seeing a god’s true form, almost too bright to look at. He’d get the details later, but he knew all he needed to know at the moment. Clearly, introducing Tim to the rest of the cabin had gone just as well as Percy had assured her it would.
(Back at the table, Rachel leaned across it.
“Now that he’s gone, I’ll say that I do like you and I think you’re good for him. However, you should know that people here listen to me, prophecy or not. And I can fake a prophecy if I really needed to, I doubt Apollo would be too angry with me. So forget about it just being Percy’s friends protecting him. All I’d need to say as the Oracle of Delphi is that you’re an enemy of the Savior of Olympus, and there wouldn’t be a city you could go to where there isn’t a demigod that knows your face.”
Then she sat back and shrugged. “But you seem to be the same as him when it comes to choosing your people. I really don’t think I’ll need to do that.”
“If you do, that means something’s gone very wrong,” Jason agreed. “And I have to say, I respect that you got creative with it, instead of just saying you’ll kill me.”
Rachel snorted. “Are you kidding? I know my strengths, and physical violence is not one of them. I’ll leave that to one of the others.”
“Annabeth, you mean.”
“Most likely,” Rachel said, grinning. “But I know she likes you, too, so don’t make her do that. Now onto the fun stuff. Want to join our betting pool for this game’s Percy/Thalia brawl?”)
The sun had set by the time the horde of demigods left the dining pavilion and made their way to the edge of the forest. Percy had lost track of the Athena cabin as he stuck by Jason and Rachel, but he knew he’d find them surrounded by the Blue Team and laying out their strategy. So he just watched as one by one, demigods from certain cabins peeled off to head towards the Red Team’s starting location, including the Ares, Hephaestus, and Demeter cabins. A few hunters were scattered in the midst, and Percy knew that whatever the outcome of the game tonight was, it was going to be interesting. It always was nowadays, when the hunters visited more often.
He saw the large blue flag come into view, and prepared himself for wearing the Capture the Flag training armor again. He was so used to fighting without any armor on, given the nature of life as a demigod, that sometimes it was stranger to have that barrier between himself and an enemy blade. When he found Annabeth, right by the flag and surrounded by her siblings, he caught her eye again. She took a short glance at the gathering crowd of demigods, before slipping out of the middle and making her way towards Percy.
“You’re almost late,” she said when she got in better earshot. While hypothetically, they could have talked across the field, there were way too many other conversations going on to make that reliable. “Ivy’s got a plan for tonight.”
“Does it involve me drawing most of the Red Team attention by distracting Thalia?” Percy offered. Annabeth hit his arm lightly.
“You won’t know until you actually get ready to play, Seaweed Brain.” She said. “Hurry up, or you’ll be left with the shitty armor.”
“Like you didn’t set some aside for me,” Percy teased.
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t,” Annabeth countered. “You shouldn’t rely on me all the time.”
“Of course I’m gonna rely on you,” Percy said, not missing a beat. Annabeth scowled.
“Don’t do that, I can’t argue with you when you get sincere like that,” she said. “Now come on, we’ve only got so long to plan.”
“One sec,” Percy said, turning back to face Jason with an admittedly mischievous grin. “Jay, a kiss for luck?”
Annabeth snorted a laugh behind him, drawing Jason’s eyes before he could answer Percy.
“Careful, Jason, he might blow up a volcano if you do,” she teased, and Percy felt himself go red as Jason’s eyes widened.
“That's why you blew up fucking Mount Saint Helens?” He asked, turning a disbelieving look onto Percy. “Perce.”
“Again, not like I tried to do that,” Percy defended himself. Jason huffed a laugh, shaking his head.
“Well, I don’t see a volcano around, so I guess I can take that risk,” he said, and he leaned in to give Percy a quick kiss—a bit too quick for Percy’s liking, but he did have a training game to get to. He then waved Jason off towards Rachel, knowing she’d probably be following Annabeth with an Iris Message anyway to watch, and jogged after Annabeth towards the rest of the Blue Team. Sure enough, Annabeth went right over to where her brother Neil was handing out armor, and was handed three sets of the good armor, giving one to Percy straight away and taking another over to where Tim was being talked through a full, detailed map of camp and the forest. Percy began strapping on his chestplate as Annabeth tapped Tim on the shoulder to grab his attention, the very trained vigilante noticing the armor around him for the first time as he looked up from the map. He looked to Annabeth with furrowed eyebrows.
“Really?” He asked, taking the chestplate from her. “Not, like, modern armor? I can get some kevlar.”
Percy laughed.
“It’s the principle of it, Tim,” he said. “It adds to the experience.”
“You’ll be fine,” Annabeth said, grinning as she lightly tossed a helmet to him. “What, think it’ll be too hard for you?”
Tim scoffed. “Come on, I’ve fought in worse.”
Then he looked down at the chestplate, his face gaining a small pink tinge before he glanced back at Annabeth. “Uh, how do I put this on, though?”
Annabeth laughed, but easily moved to help him with the straps.
Once all three of them had their armor on, and the rest of the Blue Team had gathered, attention was drawn by the loud clap of a tiny child’s hands. Percy looked down to find Little Ivy, the scourge of the Capture the Flag field, standing in between Tim and Harriet with her own just-barely-not-oversized armor over her camp shirt. If Percy wasn’t fully aware how dangerous a young demigod could be, it would be adorable. Honestly, it still was, even though he’d seen Ivy slam her bronze mace into the foot of a poor Hermes camper after he asked who gave the feral child a mace. Frankly deserved after a question like that, when any new demigod was given pretty much free reign of the armory no matter their age.
The whole Blue Team turned to face Ivy, having learned by now not to look to an older member of the Athena cabin even when Annabeth was right there, including the few Hunters scattered among the demigods. Now that Thalia was Lieutenant, the Hunters visited camp way more often than just once a year, so they tended to mix among the campers during the games now. It helped with morale a bit, honestly, considering that some of the campers actually managed to win against Hunters now, depending on the teams. Excepting, of course, the special Campers versus Hunters game that was limited to once a summer. Unfortunately, Camp Half-blood’s losing streak had not been broken yet.
“Time to assign offense and defense,” Ivy started, her eyes scanning the rest of the Blue Team, “but first…”
Suddenly, her sharp grey eyes widened into a stunning display of puppy eyes, no doubt perfectly calculated to be just the right amount of pleading as she turned her wide gaze up onto Tim.
“Would you help?” She asked, blinking up at him like she was a normal ten year old. Tim looked a bit like a deer in the headlights at the way she was looking at him, but only for a moment.
“Uh, sure,” he said, predictably unable to say no to an expression like that. Percy didn’t blame him for that one. Even Annabeth wasn’t immune to her younger siblings pulling out the wide eyes all the time. Ivy grinned, the steel immediately returning to her gaze.
“Great!” She said. “We just need two groups.”
Percy didn’t remember too well the specifics of the first game after Greta was claimed, but he was pretty sure that she had also been given the lofty gift of the Taskmaster of the Athena Cabin stepping aside for one night and letting her show off a bit. Normally even Annabeth just let Ivy take the lead, because the kid had a serious competitive edge, even for a demigod. It was well known that no one in the camp wanted to play strategy games with her anymore, and gods forbid anyone pull Risk out of the board game cabinet of the Big House.
To no surprise of Percy’s, though, Tim was good. He hadn’t really met many campers yet besides his own cabin and a few of Percy and Annabeth’s friends, but he took a cursory scan of the team around them and avoided some of the pitfalls that other new campers might make. He pointed over at Butch and assigned him to defense rather than offense, he made the correct decision of splitting up Alex and Magnus to offense and defense respectively, and Percy saw his eyes narrow as he barely scanned the Aphrodite cabin off to the side of the group.
“Offense,” he said decisively.
Piper grinned viciously.
As the offense and defense groups finished being told the plan for the night, a horn sounded through the camp, and Ivy shouted over the clamor for everyone to find their positions. Percy uncapped Riptide, nudging his shoulder into Annabeth’s as they turned to face the forest. She met his eyes with that determined look that he admired more than anything.
“Thalia said Jason could do better than you,” she said under her breath, a grin curling at her mouth. “A joke, sure, but just wrong. Kick her ass, Seaweed Brain.”
Percy matched her expression. “If you insist.”
With another sound of the horn, Percy sprinted into the trees.
Game on.
Notes:
next one should be a fun one, i hope :)
a tiny piece of my notes about the athena kids i made up that probably wont end up in the fic at all but that i personally love, is that Penn's gender is a clusterfuck because: 'one of their first brilliant revelations was that gender is fucking stupid, and they aren't stupid. Ergo, no gender'. i love them. i hope you all enjoyed meeting the kids i didn't expect to actually put into this fic in that capacity, because normally i dont like inserting oc's into my fics. but if yall do actually like them, i can put a full run down of them in the next authors notes, just let me know!
yall think percy will ever manage to get jason to wear that cowboy hat? sound off in the comments, im thinking maybe but only under penalty of death never to tell anyone. I also think percy would have to wear an ariel wig to make it even.
so i hope yall liked the chapter!!! things to look forward to: Tim having his first experience of demigod combat :) see you guys when i see you, hope you have a great few months, hope youre not getting bored of the camp chapters either lmao.
thanks for reading <3
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