Lost Hero

Party

Once they moved further inside and Bruce and Dick started socializing, Percy slips away. Grabbing a glass of champagne to at least look like she was part of the party, she situates herself up a set of steps so she is looking out over the top of the party. She has a feeling she wasn't supposed to be there, but at least she could say she needed a minute away if she got caught.

"Your highness, forgive me about earlier, I had no clue you would be here," Orin's voice comes from behind her.

Percy turns to see the two Atlantians and sighs before returning her eyes back to Bruce and Dick who were down on the floor, socializing.

"It's fine, there wasn't any reason why you would have thought to expect me. And please, right now I just want to be Percy. I'm tolerant enough while in Atlantis. Gotham is the only place I'm free from my parentage, please let me have that,"

Orin and Kaldur couldn't see her face, but they couldn't imagine what she felt. Her voice sounded so soft, so broken. This wasn't the voice that commanded armies, it was that of the victims left in their wake. The voice of one who was tired and yet didn't know how not to be. It pained both Atlantians, to hear their princess in such pain.

"Of course...Percy," Orin says, a sad note to his voice.

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Orin and Kaldur left Percy staring out at the crowd. They didn't know what to do other than let her be Percy and leave her alone. Kaldur didn't understand what was going on, it was rare that anyone saw Princess Prosephone in Atlantis, let alone on the surface. He would never have expected to see her in Gotham. She was so unknown that he hadn't recognized her at Wayne Enterprises and needed his king to point out who she really was. And what was the princess of the seas doing working a mortal security job in the first place?

"My king, are we really letting them believe she is ordinary? She is a princess! She should be treated as such! Bruce and Dick should be her bodyguards, not the other way around!" Kaldurs voice rose.

"Kaldur, calm yourself. While in Atlantis and the sea, she is a princess, but on the surface, she is merely Percy Jackson, a normal girl. Even though she deserves us to treat her with the respect of a princess, we will treat her like any other woman. It is what she has requested, we will honor her wishes," Orin says in Atlantian, making sure that even if they were overheard, the eavesdropper would not understand his words.

"So be it, my king," Kaldur days, looking up at Percy.

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Dick watched Kaldur and Arthur exchange words after leaving Percy. Both seemed uncomfortable while Kaldur seemed agitated as well. He didn't know what was going on, but it seemed as if Kaldur, Arthur, and Percy all knew each other, although it seemed as if they were trying to hide that fact. Dick couldn't understand what was going on with Percy. Hell, he didn't understand her in the slightest. Even though she was staying at his house, even though he and Bruce were watching her and trying to figure her out, she was still a complete mystery.

Looking up at Percy, he saw the level she was on, and not just physically at the moment. Something was cut off and different from her, like she was placing herself behind a wall that no one was allowed past. She had moments where she let the wall falter, where she showed herself slightly, but those were few and far between. Dick had a nagging feeling that they would never really understand her, not truly. Although it did make him wonder what Kaldur and Arthur knew about her that they didn't.

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It was going so so well, so of course, it went so so wrong.

"This is amazing," Percy says, cutting into her steak.