Chapter Text
After the Olympics, there was a lot of buzz around Dick and Percy. Bruce set up a meeting with them and one of his PR agent type people at WE.
The PR person, Rachel, spoke, “So, there’s been a lot of interview requests for the two of you and there’s been a lot of endorsement offers as well.”
“I don’t want to do a bunch of interviews,” Percy said, already tired of the Media.
“I’m not eager to do interviews but I do have experience and am willing to do some as needed,” Dick replied.
“So, first of all, some Gotham news organizations are upset that Bruce took in a new kid and the news for it broke as part of national Olympic media coverage rather than them getting an exclusive. So, we probably will need for you, Percy, to participate in a press conference or interview with some Gotham reporters, though it can be done with Bruce and Dick,” Rachel explained.
“What are our options?” Bruce asked.
“Well, on one hand we could go the press conference route and invite all of Gotham’s main media. On the other hand, you could do an interview with a well-known Gotham based reporter, I would recommend Vicki Vale,” Rachel said, and Bruce’s expression soured slightly at the name which Percy picked up on.
“What are your thoughts, Percy?” Bruce asked.
“Um, a press conference sounds more overwhelming, the interview would probably be better, but I get the impression you don’t like that reporter?” Percy prompted to Bruce.
Bruce just sighed but Dick chimed in, “Bruce and Vicki used to date a very long time ago when I was a kid, so he’s a bit sour on her. She’s also a more, hmm, aggressive reporter? She tries to get all the juicy details and she writes a lot of celebrity gossip type articles.”
“So it would be a newspaper interview? That sounds better than anything live,” Percy said.
“Yes, newspaper article is an option though they likely will want pictures as part of that,” Rachel explained, “So, if we’re all agreed, I can get that one set up?”
“Yes, I suppose that is acceptable,” Bruce agreed.
“And Dick, you said you were willing to do some more national media interviews?” Rachel asked.
“Not a lot, but maybe a few in New York, on a Thursday or Friday?” Dick offered.
“Yes, perhaps the Today show, the View, and one of the late night shows, does that sound okay?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Dick agreed casually.
“So, the other thing we should discuss is endorsements, you’ve both received several endorsement deals, are you interested in those or should we do a flat refusal across the board?” Rachel said. Percy was curious about these.
“From what I understand, collegiate sports has a ban on paid athletes, so if Percy accepted an endorsement it could jeopardize his ability to compete collegiately?”
“Yes, that is correct,” Rachel said.
“Well I’m definitely interested in doing college sports, so while endorsement money would be nice, the ability to compete is more important for me currently,” Percy replied.
“Okay, so no endorsements for you, citing the college rules,” Rachel replied.
“Which, Percy, you should be aware that team USA compensates its medalists, you won $25,000 for each gold medal, so that works out to $200,000 for your 8 medals. We’ve set up a bank account for you with that. It is taxable income, we can discuss donating to charity for tax deductions later," Bruce informed him.
“Huh, I didn’t realize that,” Percy said, feeling slightly overwhelmed but pleasantly surprised by the news, “Is that a violation of the collegiate thing?”
“There’s an exception for prize money, meeting other conditions, it should be accepted since it’s the Olympics,” Rachel explained. Percy nodded, he had faith in Bruce’s rich person legal team for such things.
“Dick, what about you? What are your thoughts regarding endorsements?” Rachel asked.
“I suppose I’m not strictly opposed, but I’m not desperate for money such that I would blindly accept stuff, it would depend on the specific thing and if I would actually want to endorse it,” Dick reasoned. Rachel gave him a list to look over, “Oh, I do really like that cereal brand, I eat a lot of it, and I do drink a lot of that sports drink brand as well, so I suppose I would be willing to endorse those,” Dick said.
“Alright, I’ll go over the details for those with you later,” Rachel said. They finished going over some things for scheduling the interviews as well.
It was time for the interview; all of them would be present for the interview, Percy, Dick, Bruce, and even Tim, though Tim wouldn’t be talking very much. They were having the interview in one of the sitting rooms in the Manor.
“So, Bruce, tell me how you came to foster Percy here,” Vicki asked.
“Well, Richard met him and he convinced me to foster Percy,” Bruce replied simply.
“Richard, how did you meet him and decide you wanted your family to foster him?” Vicki asked.
“Well, he was homeless and I met him, he was injured at the time so I convinced him it wasn’t safe to stay on the streets, that he should give fostering a chance at least while his injuries heal, and I was able to convince him. And then once he was here he decided to stay which I’m very happy about, I’m glad to call him my little brother,” Dick explained.
“It sounds similar to how you took Jason in, he was also a homeless street kid. Would you say you were trying to replace the brother, the son you lost?” Vicki said pointedly, causing Bruce to inhale sharply. Dick put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and glared at Vicki.
“We’re not here to talk about Jason, Percy is a different person,” Dick said firmly.
“Are you worried something bad will happen to him like what happened to Jason? Is that why you kept him secret for so long?” Vicki asked.
Dick took a deep breath, “Security concerns were certainly a consideration for why we didn’t initially go public about fostering him, we didn’t want him getting attacked. All of us have been frequent targets for kidnappings for being Waynes and we wanted to try and avoid that with him. We also didn’t want all the media attention to scare him off, but he’s more settled in now.”
“So, Percy, you aren’t fond of the media attention?” Vicki asked, addressing him directly.
“Not really, I prefer to be more of a private person. I didn’t expect to become so famous from swimming,” Percy said.
“So, I wanted to follow up on something you’d previously addressed, you said you didn’t know your actual age. It seemed implied that you were found when you were young and didn’t know your age, but it sounds like there wasn’t an extensive foster record of you before coming to live with the Waynes, in fact it doesn’t seem like there’s any record of you at all before last summer. Would you care to explain that?” Vicki asked.
Percy looked at Dick uncertainly. Dick sighed, Vicki would keep digging until she found something. “Percy has amnesia, he doesn’t remember specifics before last summer, so that’s why he doesn’t know his age. We were able to estimate his age, especially because he was still actively growing, but that’s why we aren’t sure about his age. There’s a process for getting papers made for John doe’s so that’s what we did.”
“So you don’t remember anything at all?” Vicki asked, she seemed excited with the scoop.
“At first I remembered nothing, some things came back with time. Like I’m pretty sure the name I’m using is my real name to some extent, though it’s possible that Jackson was my middle name instead of my last name like I’m using it as. I remembered that my mom, my parents were dead so I’m an orphan, I didn’t have anyone to try and go home to. I’m content to remember bits and pieces with time and if I never remember everything that’s okay, I’m happy with the life I have now, I don’t want to dwell on the past,” Percy explained.
“So what’s it like to go from being homeless to living with Billionaire Bruce Wayne?” Vicki asked.
“Well, I didn’t really know who he was at first, because of the amnesia I’d never really heard of him before, so it was a surprise to learn he was so famous and rich and stuff. It’s nice being able to eat as much as I want, which is important when I’m doing a lot of exercise. There’s rules and stuff which can be hard at times since I got used to being on my own and doing whatever, but I know they’re just worried about my safety and stuff. It’s fun spending time with my brothers,” Percy explained.
“So, you consider Tim and Dick to be your brothers?” Vicki said.
“Yeah,” Percy replied simply.
“But you don’t consider Bruce to be your father. Would you want him to adopt you?” Vicki asked.
“I mean, he’s certainly a parental figure but I don’t call him my father, that would just feel weird to me, so would being adopted. I’m happy as his ward,” Percy explained.
“And how do you feel about that, Bruce?” Vicki asked.
“I’m used to it, when taking in teenagers they often take time to adjusting to seeing me as a father figure at all and sometimes they don’t want to feel like they are replacing their birth parents by calling someone else Dad,” Bruce said with a nod at Dick, “I view them as my kids regardless and I’m fine with them calling me by name instead.”
“So, Timothy, what is it like having a new older brother, who came so soon after Bruce adopted you. Was it weird having a new sibling in the house, did it make you feel replaced?” Vicki asked, including him in the conversation at last.
“I mean it always takes time to adjust to a new person being around but Percy is cool, it’s nice having a sibling closer in age to me, we’re in the same grade of school. I never felt insecure about my place here,” Tim answered.
After that, the interview wrapped up. They took photographs of the 4 of them as a family. They stood with Bruce in the back on the bottom step, Percy and Dick on the floor on his sides, then Tim between them since he was shortest. Then they switched Percy and Tim around so Percy would be in the center, though Bruce had to move to the second step up since Percy was taller, so Tim and Dick stood on the 1st step up to balance out the photo more. Then they took individual photos of Percy, he was wearing a light blue polo shirt which brought out his eyes. Lastly, they took a photo of Dick and Percy sitting on the couch, with Dick’s arm wrapped around Percy’s shoulder and the both of them smiling happily.