Chapter Text
Jason was starting to think that Bruce’s adoption problem was worse than they all thought. Honestly, they’d just gotten Duke not that long ago and he was already taking in some kid named Perseus. Weird name. Though, to be fair, this kid was Bruce’s nephew and had nowhere else to go. Bruce didn’t want to get into the details of it but his mom had died of cancer and there was no dad to speak of. There had been a step-dad but he had gone missing and pronounced dead years ago, when Perseus was twelve. The only option was Bruce and, well, the man had never been one to turn away a kid in need.
If he hadn’t looked like he’d just been hit by a train, Jason might have joked that the new kid fit right in visually speaking. He had black hair that fell in messy waves across his brow and green-blue eyes that reminded Jason of the ocean. His skin was tanned and he had a swimmers build, muscular but lean. His clothes were worn down with time, fraying at the edges and losing their color. The kid’s shoes were hanging on by a thread, beaten all to hell and falling apart a little bit. Around his neck, he wore a leather cord that was worn from the years and the sun with little hand-painted clay beads on it.
Jason wasn’t really sure what to say to the kid. He could handle adults and he could handle little kids but this inbetween stage was something he’d never quite gotten a hold of. He wasn’t sure why Bruce had decided to send him. “Uh, Perseus, right?” he asks once the teen had drawn closer, luggage in tow.
Sea glass eyes narrow at him as Perseus stops walking. “Percy,” he corrects.
“Ah, right.” This isn't going well. The kid clearly didn’t trust him. “Sorry, Bruce only told us your full name.”
Percy nods his acceptance of the answer and follows Jason out to the car. They hadn’t sent Alfred, figuring that the appearance of a butler would be a big change from what Percy was used to. They wanted to ease him into this as nicely as they could, his whole life had just been flipped on its head, after all.
“Have you ever been to Gotham before?” Jason asks, well aware that he was sucking abysmally at small talk at the moment.
The kid drums his fingers against his thigh. “No. Not exactly one of my top ten vacation spots.”
Jason snorts. “Yeah, can’t blame you there.”
The rest of the ride was more or less silent. Every so often, Jason would ask Percy a question and Percy would give him a short answer and the silence would settle again. He didn’t seem very interested in conversation and Jason couldn’t exactly blame him.
Something about the kid was interesting, though. He gave off a weird sort of vibe and Jason got the sense that he was stronger than he looked. He had one insane case of RBF, as well. If Jason were a lesser man, he may have been terrified by the glowering look on Percy’s face. He wasn’t angry, though. Jason could tell by the loose set of his shoulders and lazy tilt of his head as he gazed out the window that Percy was bored, if anything.
As the manor rolled into view, Percy’s eyes scanned the ground with vague interest but otherwise he didn’t respond. “Cool, huh?” Jason probes.
“Yeah,” Percy agrees passively. “Dark, though.”
Jason hums. “Yeah, I think Tim called it emo architecture.”
“Gothic,” Percy corrects with a small smile.
“You an architecture buff?”
“Nah. My girlfriend is an architect.”
Jason doubted that unless he was dating a cougar. Kids his age didn’t have jobs like that. He didn’t bother to correct him, though. No sense in starting an argument with the kid on his first day. He parked the car on the side of the house where the door only family and friends used was and helped Percy with his bags.
“Bruce and Alfred are here, but everyone else is out for the day so you’ll either meet them tonight or tomorrow. Alfred is our butler, by the way, but he’s more like a grandfather to us,” Jason tells Percy as he hoists his suitcase out of the trunk.
Percy nods in acceptance, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and grabbing his duffle by the smaller straps. “That’s fine.”
Alfred opens the door for him when they draw closer because he had sensed them coming or something. Jason was convinced that the man was magic or something. The man smiled kindly at Percy and stepped back to let them in.
“Hello, Percy.” Ah, good. Bruce had seen his text concerning Percy’s name. The kid clearly had a negative reaction to hearing his full name. Best to avoid it. “Welcome to the manor. My name is Alfred Pennyworth.”
Percy offers a thin-lipped smile. “Hey. Nice to meet you,” he adds after a moment.
Alfred nods in return and leads them further into the house. “Master Bruce,” he calls as they enter the family room. “Percy and Jason have arrived.”
Bruce stands from where he’d been perched on the couch and thrusts his hand at Percy. The teen backs up slightly at the sudden motion, shoulders tensing, before settling and accepting the gesture. “Hi, Percy. It’s a pleasure to meet you but I regret that it's under such circumstances.”
“Yeah, you too,” Percy replies, pulling his hand back and adjusting the strap of his backpack.
“May I ask how the plane ride was?”
“Unnecessary?” Percy offers. “I was in Manhattan, I could’ve taken a taxi.”
Bruce nods. “Yes, I understand. It’s unfortunate but many taxi companies don’t run through Gotham. I can’t necessarily say that I blame them, all things considered.”
Percy nods, shoving his hands into his pocket. After a while of dead silence as Bruce flounders - you think he’d be better at this after adopting so many children, honestly - Percy clears his throat. “I kinda want to unpack…”
“Oh!” Bruce exclaims, clapping his hands together. “Yes! Of course, not a problem. Jason, could you show Percy to his room, please?”
Jason gives a two finger salute and turns to lead Percy to his room. Not hearing any footsteps, he looks back and is surprised to find Percy only a step behind him. Odd. Percy cocks an eyebrow at him, giving the older boy a confused look. Jason shook it off and kept walking.
Percy spends the rest of the day in his room. Jason knew he didn’t have enough things for it to take this long and jet lag was hardly an excuse but he let the kid be. A few hours after he arrives, Damian returns from school and Tim returns from work. The youngest Wayne frowns at the lack of their newest housemate. “And where is Perseus? I was under the impression that he would have arrived by now.”
“He did,” Jason confirms. “He’s unpacking. And hiding, I think.”
Damian scowls. “Why on Earth would he be hiding?”
“This is a big change, Demon Spawn, be nice,” Jason scowls. What a farce, him promoting good manners. “And, for the record, he prefers Percy.”
“I don’t do nicknames,” Damian refutes instantly.
Jason shakes his head and pulls his brothers into a corner, giving them some guise of privacy. Tim finally looks up from his work phone, giving the other two a baffled look. “Look,” Jason whispers. “I can’t say for sure but Percy shows some signs of abuse. Nothing I could really nail down but he flinched when Bruce moved too fast and he got really defensive when I called him by his full name at the airport.”
“That’s all you have to go on?” Tim asks. “I’m not saying it’s impossible but, c’mon Jay, you know that’s hardly substantial evidence.”
“I know,” Jason replies. “But combined with his mysterious stepfather? I don’t want to jump to conclusions but I do want to look into it.”
Damian crosses his arms. “I suppose I will simply call him by his last name, then.”
Jason knew better than to try and argue with the kid. Damian was one of the most stubborn assholes Jason had ever met, he’d die before he gave into one of Jason’s orders/requests. “Is there anything else we should know about before meeting him?”
“Nothing that’s not obvious,” Jason says. “I wouldn’t mention his mom but I didn’t think anyone was going to do that, so. He seems sentimental, he has a necklace that’s at least a few years old and I saw him playing with a pen on the drive over. A good luck thing, I think. Other than that, from the state of his clothes and the amount of luggage he had, I don’t think he grew up with money so a lot of this is bound to be weird to him.”
Tim nods. “We’ll definitely have to ease him into all of this, not to mention hiding our extra curriculars.” Damian scoffs at the wording. “When is Dick getting back, he’s much better at this than we are.”
Jason would be offended if it wasn’t true. Dick was the most suited to talk to new people by far. “He gets in tomorrow, Kor’i and Mar’i leave early tomorrow and he wanted to spend the night with them.”
“It’ll be good for Mar’i to learn about her heritage,” Damian says approvingly. “What’s his ETA?”
Jason scowls. “I don’t spend every waking moment up the man’s ass, Demon Spawn. Ask him yourself.”
Tim interjects before Damian could start a fight. “The important thing is to make him feel welcome. It’s safe to say that none of us have the best track record with new additions to the family.” He levels them with pointed looks - they had both tried to kill him, after all.
Damian avoids eye contact. “Don’t live in the past, Drake, it’s unbecoming.” Tim splutters in indignation and Damian ignores him. “I’m going to go introduce myself.”
“He’s busy,” Tim objects.
“No, Todd said he was hiding,” Damian refutes.
“Exactly!” Tim says. “Don’t go bother him when he clearly doesn’t want to be bothered!”
Jason sighs. Arguments were more fun when Dick had to be the mediator. “Just wait until dinner.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Damian protests. “He’s upstairs doing nothing, why should I wait hours?”
Someone clears their throat and all three brothers freeze where they stand. Percy cocks an eyebrow at them, looking vaguely amused. “Do you always shout when talking about someone?”
“Uh,” Tim stutters. “Sorry, we were just- we wanted to- we thought that-” Damian lands a punch to his spine to jolt him back into his mind. “Sorry! We weren’t sure if you were up for visitors.”
Percy’s lips quirk up. “It’s your house.”
“It’s yours now, too,” Tim blurts and they all watch as Percy’s guard raises visibly. Gone was the playful glint in his eyes, replaced with a wall of bored disinterest. “Sorry. That wasn’t- I didn’t mean to-”
“Relax,” Percy interrupts. “You don’t have to be weird about it. My mom is dead. I knew it was coming, it wasn’t a surprise.”
None of them were quite sure what to say to that. Knowing it was coming didn’t make it hurt less but, well, they were sure he didn’t want to hear that. Damian steps forward and extends his hand. “I am Damian Wayne.”
Percy looks amused again as he looks down at the offered hand for a moment before taking it. “Percy Jackson.”
“I’m aware.”
Before Jason could smack the kid upside his head, Percy snickers. “You don’t get out much, do you?”
Damian squints at him, like he wasn’t sure if he was being insulted or not, before ultimately deciding that no, Percy wasn’t trying to pick a fight with him. “Friends are frivolous distractions of which I have no need.”
“Tight,” Percy replies, not seeming at all put off by the weird nature of Jason’s youngest brother. He was a New Yorker, though. No doubt he’d run into plenty of weirdos in his time. “I’m gonna go find Alfred, catch you guys later.”
Tim didn’t bother to try and introduce himself, well aware that he’d missed his window and resolving himself to wait until dinner. “Did…” he trails off, frowning. “Did you guys hear him coming? How long was he standing there?”
Jason presses his lips together. “That’s the other thing,” he says. “He’s quiet. Like insanely quiet.”
“That could be a problem,” Damian says, frowning at where Percy had rounded the corner. “We’ll have to be careful about who’s around when discussing our nightly routine.”
Tim scoffs. “Oh okay, me calling it an extra curricular is ridiculous but ‘nightly routine’ is okay?”
“Yes,” Damian tells him bluntly. “I am the only one of us in school, ergo calling what we do an extra curricular is untrue and juvenile.”
Tim stares at him for a long time. “I hate you.”
“Noted.”
Jason snorts and walks away, leaving the two youngest to bicker in peace. He stumbled across Bruce looking over something on his laptop in his office, the door open to indicate that he wasn’t doing anything important and was available to talk. He didn’t say anything, just stood in the doorway until Bruce was at a good stopping point. Jason was aware that Bruce knew he was there, the man was nigh impossible to sneak up on.
“Yes, Jason?” he asks after a few moments, pulling his eyes away from the screen.
The younger man steps into the room and closes the door behind him, causing Bruce to raise a curious eyebrow. “I think we need to keep an eye on Percy.”
“You think he’s dangerous?”
Something made him hesitate. The feeling the kid gave off was intense but, ultimately, Jason decided that it wasn’t malevolent. “No, I don’t think so. Just…you saw the way he reacted when you went to shake his hand.”
Bruce didn’t seem at all surprised by the conversation. His eyes flicked down to his computer for a second and he sighed. “Your cousin has had an interesting life. He and his mother were kidnapped when he was twelve and he was wrongfully accused and therefore hunted across the nation until an altercation with his captor was finally reported and recorded,” Bruce says and Jason’s eyebrows fly up to his hairline. “His step-father disappeared not long after the two were returned to their home. CPS was called against that same man four separate times over the course of his marriage to my sister and each time they found nothing but circumstantial evidence. Percy has a quite frankly terrible track record with schools, having been kicked out of every school he’s ever attended with a notable amount of property damage to boot. He’s been wanted by the police several times and each time the resolution has been less than satisfactory. He goes off the grid every summer with no records of where he goes and a little less than a year ago he disappeared for eight months only to reappear in California, commit a string of crimes including grand theft auto, shoplifting, and public disturbance and then be seen in Alaska, Greece, and Italy amongst other European countries with no record of how he got there. Percy has no phone, no computer, no email address, and no credit or debit cards.”
“So you think he’s dangerous,” Jason concluds. And holy shit, all of this and Percy was only seventeen? He’d seemed relatively harmless when he’d picked him up from the airport.
Bruce’s lips thin. “I’m not sure yet. What I do know is that he’s hurting. The only constant that can be found about Percy Jackson is that his mother is his rock. And now she is gone. We’ll have to tread lightly.”
“Not too lightly. He got offended earlier when Tim tried to handle him with safety mitts. Also, I’m not sure if you noticed earlier but his footsteps are dead silent.”
“I did,” the billionaire confirms. “A part of that I will chalk up to his experience with his stepfather but that’s more than likely not the only cause. Judging from his records and observation, the boy doesn’t trust authority figures. It’ll be difficult for me to get anything out of him. Damian may very well be our best bet.”
Jason scoffs. “Well, you can kiss it goodbye. You’d have better luck getting Tim on a normal sleep schedule.”
Whether Bruce’s answering scowl was about Tim’s lack of sleep or Jason’s lack of belief in his plan, Jason wasn’t sure.
“If I frame it as a mission, he’ll be more receptive,” Bruce says. He wasn’t wrong. “For now, we’ll simply have to see how he gets along with everyone. Has he finished unpacking?”
Jason snorts. “Yeah, like two hours ago. I think he was hiding from us, to be honest. He came out a while ago to find Alfred, said he had a question.”
Bruce hums. “Well, I suppose we’ll have to track him down then.”
They found Percy in the kitchen helping Alfred cook. Despite everything he’d just learned about the kid, he didn’t seem dangerous at all when he had seasoning powder on his cheek and what looked like a stain from a tomato on his sleeve. Percy was rambling away about his girlfriend while Alfred listened intently as he put food into the oven. Whatever they were making smelled great.
“She sounds lovely, Master Percy.”
Percy’s nose wrinkles. “Do I have to, like, pay you to get you to drop the master thing? ‘Cause I will.”
Jason wasn’t sure where he’d get the money. To his knowledge, the kid didn’t have a bank account. Alfred smiles. “That won’t be necessary.”
Percy didn’t seem convinced which was fair considering he’d never get out of it entirely. Jason was pretty sure that Alfred did it to mess with them because he and Dick had both tried to get him to knock it off as well. Tim and Damian had never made an effort but Jason supposed that they were used to it.
“Where’s the cumin?” Percy asks suddenly, opening cabinets at random.
Alfred gives him a confused look. “Behind that door there on the second row of the spice rack. What do you need cumin for?”
“We have to make the sauce to toss the chicken in,” the teen murmurs, squinting at the labels on the spices.
Bruce clears his throat to gain his attention and points and Jason remembers that Percy has dyslexia. Percy plucks the spice off of the rack along with a few others and tips it toward his uncle in some kind of pseudo-wave. “Thanks.” Then, he starts to move around the kitchen muttering, “Bowls, bowls, bowls,” as his hands flutter through the air.
After a moment, he seems to remember where the bowls are because he opens the correct cabinet and pulls out a metal bowl. Jason gives the kid a baffled look as he begins to dump things into the bowl, seemingly at random. “Do you have a recipe?” he asks.
Percy glances at him before going back to his bowl. “I don’t need one.” He offers no further elaboration as to why but Alfred doesn’t step in so Jason assumes it’s fine. “Stop hovering.”
Bruce makes an aborted movement toward the door and then the breakfast bar. Alfred points to the stools and Bruce sits. Jason sits a few stools away, ignoring the way Percy eyed the distance between him and the other man. “Hovering make you antsy?”
Percy hummed noncommittally but Jason figured that was the case, especially if he had been abused. Looking at him, he didn’t seem like most of the abuse victims Jason had encountered as Red Hood. However he was also older and clearly had his walls up. Jason wouldn’t be necessarily surprised if Percy turned eighteen and disappeared. But he knew it would tear Bruce up, and by extension Dick, so he would try to get the kid to connect with somebody while he was here. He already seemed to like Alfred.
Bruce’s attempts at conversation was…pathetic at best. He clearly had no idea how to approach a grown child who had little to no interest in him and it certainly didn’t help that Percy wasn’t giving him much to feed off of. Jason wouldn’t say that Percy was being necessarily rude, just distant. He would answer any questions that were asked but he offered no background information or follow ups. He didn’t initiate conversation but he didn’t shy away from it either. Percy seemed to know how to toe the line between polite and disengaged very well. It made Jason wonder how many times he’d pushed others away before.
A harsh ringing noise cuts through the semi-awkward silence and Percy’s hand flies to his pocket. Jason exchanges looks with Bruce as the teen pulls a phone with a blue, wave patterned case out. “It’s my girlfriend, sorry,” he murmurs.
As Percy steps out into the hall to take the call, Jason turns to Bruce. “I thought he didn’t have a phone number.”
“He doesn’t. Not one registered to him, anyway,” Bruce frowns.
Alfred frowns at the two of them, peering at them disapprovingly over his glasses. “Whatever nonsense plan you two are concocting, scrap it. That boy has been through enough, he doesn’t need you prying into his business.”
Jason’s nose wrinkles, shame settling like a blanket across his shoulders in the face of Alfred’s scolding. The older man always had a way at disciplining them that Bruce had never truly grasped. “I won’t do anything to the kid.” Jason wasn’t whining, shut up. “I just think we need to keep an eye on him.”
Bruce only nods briskly and glances in the direction Percy had disappeared. The teen returns a moment later, phone still held up to his ear. He was smiling, far more relaxed and happy than they’d seen him so far. It showed how tense he usually was, to see his face completely open.
“Yeah, I’ll talk to you later. Get back to your applications, Wise Girl. I’ll finish mine, I promise. Pinky promise. Alright, alright I’ll set an alarm! Yeah. Love you too. Bye.”
Percy slid the phone back into his pocket as the call disconnected, some of the tension settling back into the planes of his face and set of his shoulders. “That was Ms. Annabeth, yes?” Alfred asks, mixing together the ingredients Percy had thrown into the bowl earlier.
“Yeah,” Percy replies. “She just wanted to see how things were going so far.”
Alfred hummed. “Understandable. Should we expect a visit from her in the future?”
Percy snorted a bit at the thought, tipping more ingredients into the bowl as Alfred stirred. “Probably. She’d love it here.”
“Interesting reaction to Gotham,” Bruce says, smiling a bit.
The teen shrugs. “She’s an architect. I could take her on a fifty hour tour through every part of the city and she’d be happy.”
“An architect so young?” Alfred asks. “That’s quite impressive.”
At his words, Percy’s eyes widen minutely - the sort of microexpression Jason wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t Bat-trained. “Uh, yeah. She works at her moms company.”
A lie, clearly. Everything about the delivery was practiced, down to the half-smile that punctuated his words. A strange thing to lie about, if you asked Jason. The lying on its own wasn’t the biggest deal, teenagers were weird and lied about weird shit all the time. The problem, so to speak, was the fact that if Jason wasn’t Jason he wouldn’t have even noticed. The kid was a good actor, he knew how to make his words seem legitimate down to the most casual of predetermined movements.
It was something Jason had only ever seen from people from his own family and other people who did the things they did. Jason hadn’t known Percy very long but he already knew that something was going on. He lied better than any civilian had the right to and snuck around with an ease that was nothing less than practiced. Practiced over and over, through the course of years. Hours and hours spent into making sure that he was unable to be heard.
Percy and Alfred continued to make dinner, making a vegan option for Damian as well. Jason observed the whole time, even after Bruce left to go speak with Tim about the meeting he’d attended earlier in the day. The teen didn’t do anything that seemed out of the ordinary but Jason couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something. The kid just exuded the most intense vibes Jason had ever seen. It was like he was standing in the eye of a hurricane. Things were calm. For now.
At dinner, Bruce cleared his throat, turning to the newest edition of the household. “So, Percy, I know that you have your phone but do you have a laptop? You’ll need one for school.”
Percy’s nose wrinkles. “Uh, no. I’ve never needed one.”
“Really?” Tim asks. “Most schools require them these days.”
“These days?” Duke scoffs. “What are you, eighty?”
Percy interjects before the bickering could ramp up. “Yeah, I dunno. I’ve just never stayed in one place long enough to warrant getting one. And when I did need one, I’d borrow my girlfriends.”
“Not a problem,” Bruce tells him. “I’ll get you one before your first day.”
At his words, Percy seems to almost wince. “Yeah, no, that’s alright. My friend is sending me one, actually. It’s, y’know, customized.”
“Customized?” Tim echos. “How so?”
“I have dyslexia like a m-” he cuts himself off, eyes sliding to Bruce. “Like you wouldn’t believe. One of my friends adjusts computers and phones to be less of a pain.”
Dick hums. “Did he do that for your phone? That’s really cool. Timmy, you should get the R&D department to start working on that.”
Tim waves his hand dismissively. “I’ll make a note. How long has your friend been doing that kind of stuff?”
“Before I met him,” Percy shrugs. Tim frowns minutely, recognizing the non-answer for what it was. Percy wasn’t going to discuss details with them. Although Tim couldn’t blame him for not wanting to open up to total strangers, it made his skin crawl that there were answers he had no access to.
That seemed to be common with Percy, though. For all that was able to be found about him via the internet, Tim didn’t really know anything substantial about him. He had a Buzzfeed Unsolved episode dedicated to the nationwide manhunt he was subjected to at twelve years old and various different incident reports filed about him. He was kicked out of nearly every school he’d ever attended and politely asked not to return to the rest of them. He had nothing to his name on record, not even an email address that hadn’t been given to him by the school he attended. Percy Jackson was file upon file of incidents that had been later found to be not his fault and minor troublemaking that was pretty typical of a teenage skateboarder from New York.
There were a few niche Twitter pages dedicated to sightings of Percy. They attributed a few minor explosions and a vaguely disturbing amount of breaking and entering to him, claiming to have seen him all across the world. There would be alleged Percy sightings in California one day and Rome mere hours later, which was flat out impossible. The sightings were far too close together in time and far too far apart in geographical location to be real but a disturbing amount of them appeared to be unedited.
Nothing about Percy Jackson made any sense at all.