Healer (Fem. Percy x Young Justice)

This Probably isn't a Good Idea

"We're back." Canary's voice echoed through the halls of the Cave. A few shopping bags hung from her arms, all of them in fact, because despite my offers she refused to let me carry one. That might have been because I was balancing enough food to feed a blue whale, but I wasn't sure.

It wouldn't have been the first time I had to carry something on top of that.

Canary frowned. She sat the bags on the ground, nudging one back upright with her foot. "Kid, do you remember what I taught you about fighting?" she asked.

"Hit the other person more than they hit you?"

"The other thing."

"If I'm fighting a guy?"

"The other other thing."

"Oh. The one where there's a lot of value in sneak attacks? Which if there's someone with superhearing and another with a big mouth we would have already lost our advantage too?"

She snorted. She gestured for me to put the still warm food on the ground and then to follow her. For all the silence in the Cave, it didn't set off any instinct I had. Sure, maybe my instincts were at the point where nothing was going to register as an actual threat anymore, maybe this could be some deep commentary about how 'our mind is our only threat'. But more likely than not, the teenagers here did what most teenagers tended to do: something stupid.

Still the creeping dread crawled up my spine. You could only hear footsteps and the rumble of the generators. I frowned. Something crawled under my skin: fear, anxiety, a craving for nachos. Whatever it was, I couldn't place it. It lurked there even as we neared the living room. That same feeling that hung around me as we made our way through the labyrinth. It was getting easier to place it the longer it persisted. The fear of the unknown, that at any second I could be ambushed, or that the people around me could be taken out by a single trap.

Of course, all of that disappeared the moment we entered the living room and found everyone laying asleep. The TV, with a movie onscreen but paused, cast bright light over the people sleeping. Wally and Robin laid sprawled out. Artemis and Megan leaned against each other, huddled in dark purple blankets. Conner slept...sitting up? Kaldur, the last of them, laid across the top of the couch, one arm draping down to be smack dab in the middle of Artemis's face. The pile of papers on a lap desk under his head didn't escape my notice, or Canary's for that matter either.

With a soft sigh, her posture relaxed and her shoulders fell. She didn't say anything, only walked to the couch and lifted Kaldur's head to grab the papers from under it. She brushed her hand over his head. He leaned into the touch, and I held a hand over my mouth to stifle my reaction. He was trained to be a soldier. He'd have to be a light sleeper, if not because of that then because of him being the leader of this team. Being responsible for others adds a whole new layer of anxiety onto your shoulders. And that weight only becomes greater with every dangerous situation you find yourself in. If I were the one in his position, well, I wasn't sure how he had let his guard down enough to fall asleep in the first place.

Canary smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his head. She glared at me, a silent threat to never tell anyone. And she didn't just do it for Kaldur. She moved with practiced efficiency, moving arms and legs and gently laying Conner down until his head rested on a pillow. Canary slipped her arms under Robin and picked him up. She didn't set him down anywhere in the living room, and instead disappeared down a hallway. Frowning, I followed her.

Most of the walls of the Cave were, no surprise, made out of stone. The room Canary stepped into, however, was an exception. Floor to ceiling windows let the light from the hallway fade into the dimmer room. A waterfall trickled along the back wall. Situated nearly in the middle of the room, two plush green chairs. It was one of those chairs that Canary sat Robin in. She crouched before him and tousled his hair. She took a step back and opened the drawer to an end table. Out of it, she pulled a black piece of cloth. It was too thin to- Oh.

Well, nice to know I have blackmail material on Batman now.

Running a hand through her hair, Canary walked out and let the door shut behind her. I had no warning as she pulled me towards her in a hug. Her head pressed against mine. Her hands rested on my back. She didn't say anything, just held me in the embrace.

"Be careful, kid," she eventually said. "I don't want you doing anything stupid."

"And how are you going to make me? I can easily tell them about you being a total momma bird."

She snorted. "Robin already knows, believe me." The pressure on my head lessened. My hair fell loose around my shoulders; I couldn't help the sigh that fell from my lips. There was just something about that feeling when you take your hair down from a tight ponytail. "But I'm serious. They do some stupid things. I can't even say on occasion because it's one stupid thing after another. And then just when you think they've learned their lesson they'll go out and try to fight a demon cat."

"A demon cat? Come on, can't they go fight gods or something?" That's much more up my alley than fighting demon cats. Now if they were fighting demon dogs, that would be a different story.

"Please don't give them ideas."

"Oh, I shall."

"Kid," groaned Canary. She swatted my head, and I laughed. "You're going to be the death of me."

"You're the one who arranged this. Your actions, your consequences."

Canary rolled her eyes and shoved me towards the living room, following a step behind. "Come on. Let's eat, and then I can show you around the place."

"Do you think I could eat more than Wally."

"Please for the love of God, don't."

Is it a bit later than I wanted to post it? Yes, but I had to do a lot of studying because I have the day off tomorrow and I'm not spending that watching three hours of videos.

Hope you enjoyed

See yah