The Sea's Warrior (Fem Percy x YJ) [REWRITE]

43

"How are you here?" Dick asked, voice low. It was a testament to Bruce's training that he hadn't immediately decked me. "And where'd you go?"

I hummed and squinted against the flashing police lights. Why were they always so much worse at night? The cops forced half conscious criminals into different cruisers. One had five sets of handcuffs. "My dad's side doesn't really take no as an answer." It wasn't a lie, because like Triton said, my choices never mattered. Sure, there were things Bruce and Dick didn't need to know, like how the parts of me that were so wholly Dad were just as hard to refuse. Things like how hard it was to tear myself away from him when he was willingly to let me curl up and cry against him. Things like how I didn't want to leave because Dad wanted me there.

No one was around to see him grab my hand. He squeezed it. "He's not going to like that."

"It doesn't matter what he likes. I don't even like it, and I'm the one who has to deal with it. Doubt he's going to be enough to change anyone's mind." I sighed. Not without him being killed for trying, anyway. There were plenty of gods who'd kill a mortal for daring to speak with them, much less change their stance on something.

"Money talks." His grin was almost too bright. 

The last of the police cars pulled away, leaving us in the dim light of one working streetlamp. Bruce walked over, cape swishing behind him. In his suit, he towered over me. My fingers slid along Riptide's casing. It soothed me, even if I knew it wouldn't do anything.

"Get in the car. Your uncle's been looking for you." He stalked past us, deeper into the alley. The doors of the Batmobile hissed open. I stared. Had it been there the entire time? Dick bumped me with his shoulder before following after Bruce. He saved me a seat in the back, tossed me a tangerine, and threw his legs over my lap. 

Absently, I peeled it and stuck the peel in my mouth. Bitter, it stopped some of the nausea threatening me. In the corner of my vision, Dick made a face.

"Do you not want yours?" I asked. He forked it over with no hesitation. Before I could eat it, and before Dick asked why I was eating them, the driver's seat swung around. Bruce removed his cowl, tossing it into the passenger seat.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" He raised an eyebrow.

"That I'm incredibly anxious that you aren't looking at the road?" My ring finger was tapping the seat at a mile a minute. It sounded like the world's least effective woodpecker. Though if I kept at it, I'd probably punch a hole in the leather. Was it too late to go back to Dad's?

"You can't disappear like that. You could've gotten kidnapped."

"Technically speaking, it was kidnapping. My family doesn't like being told no, Bruce."

"That's another thing," he said, too calm. "You need to stop lying to me. The blood disorder, the missing father, all of that needs to stop. This isn't a place where you can keep secrets without someone like the Joker getting wind of them." The car slowed to the stop at a red light.

"Do you think I want the constant risk of dying? Do you think I want to go to bed not knowing if I'll wake up?" It might make things worse but---"Part of the reason they wanted me was so I could get my medicine." The flask Dad gave me shone in the interior light, and the nectar sloshed around inside. "This isn't exactly whisky." I tucked it between my knees, fiddling with the lid.

"I've never seen you take that before." His brow was furrowed.

"It's for when the symptoms get bad." I should feel bad for lying, but this wasn't really a lie, was it? "No one actually expected me to make it this long, and my dad's doing what he can to make sure I live a little longer." I twisted the lid off, flipped it up, then back down. Bruce's eyes focused on the motion, so my hands folded on my lap. "I just told you the same thing Mom told me. He went missing before I was born, and he didn't bother interacting with me until he was literally forced to. Paul was more of my dad, and two years into knowing me, he's dead." Was there something about me that just made teachers et hurt or die? Like sure, I was responsible for Mrs Dodds, but I'm not even sure she had a teaching license.