Short Stories and Oneshots

It Runs in the Family

Author: DoctorMerlinReid

Platform: Fanfiction.net

Type: Percy Jackson x DC

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Before Sally had even met Poseidon, she met a man and had a child named Jason Todd with him. Years later, Jason reaches out in the hope of getting to know her. Jason meets her and his apparent kid brother, Percy.

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For all that Percy was technically in the middle of a war, it didn't always feel like it. He still – occasionally – went to school and he still had to deal with the thought of his mother marrying Paul and he still had to deal with normal person drama.

Or, well, semi-normal person drama.

"He's what?" Percy squeaked.

Sally wrung her hands somewhat nervously. "I'm sorry, Percy. I was going to tell you when you were older, but then everything with your father came to light and you ended up in a war and there was the prophecy and it just – wasn't the right time."

Percy sighed at the reminder of the mess his life had become. "It's fine, Mom, really. I'm just surprised is all. I wasn't expecting to have another brother. Or, well, another – another brother. How many brothers do I have?" Percy frowned and tried again. "I wasn't expecting to have another brother from a different father." He frowned deeper, rubbing his forehead. "I'm so confused."

Sally's expression had lightened a little at Percy's acceptance, and she pulled him into her arms, pressing the side of his head into her neck. "Your father...wasn't my first. I think he's the first man I loved, but there was another man before him. He wasn't a good man, but we had a child together, named Jason. Then Jason's father decided to move to Gotham, and I didn't. We went to court over custody of Jason and – well, he won. I had almost nothing to my name. I was between jobs. I had been living with him, so I was going to have nowhere to live; I lived in a hotel for a while. And, yes, Gotham is dangerous, but New York isn't the safest place either. At the time, he had a lot more going for him than I did. The court figured Jason's father had a better chance of taking care of him than I did."

"And," Percy said slowly, struggling to take everything in, feeling like more of a seaweed brain than usual. "Why tell me now? If you didn't want to tell me during the war, you'd have to wait until I'm sixteen. But...I'm not sixteen. The war's still happening. Percy finished with a lame little shrug, idly messing with his pen.

Sally smiled softly at him. "He reached out to me, actually. He ended up being taken in by Bruce Wayne if you can believe it! Apparently, Wayne and the other ward – Richard Grayson, was it? – convinced him to reach out to me. I'm going to visit him this weekend. Are you free?"

A crushing feeling of guilt took over Percy at the obvious hope on his mother's face. "I'm so sorry, Mom. We're having a meeting at camp this weekend. We think we got a sighting of Luke and I have to help lead a search party. Some of us smaller cabins split the people in the Hermes cabin, so I'm leading a group of them in a search. With everything that's been happening with the war and with the day of the prophecy coming up...I'm really, really sorry." Percy felt a dull stab of fury at Luke. He wasn't just messing with Percy's camp life. He was messing with Percy's home life too, and that wasn't alright.

Tremulously, Sally offered a smile. "It's alright. It might be better to see him alone. The first time, anyways. I wouldn't want to overwhelm him." She paused. "Are you overwhelmed?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Percy answered immediately. He laughed at Sally's suspicious look. "Really, Mom. I think I'm numb to shock at this point in my life. And I really would like to meet him at some point. It'll be nice to have a sibling that's not involved in all this gods mess."