Aquagirl (Fem. Percy x YJ)

70

"Percy," Mother sat beside me, her hands still and where I could see them. "Please let me see."

I stared at her with my jaw clenched and my hands gripping my arms. I do not know how she found out, perhaps Dad told her, but that did not mean I would be willing to show her my injuries. 

"If you are truly injured, you need to let us see it, princess," Father said. "Water cannot heal you fully, so you must allow us to help you heal. Neither of us want anything to happen to you." He moved from the door over to the empty space on my bed, the space directly beside me. Terror built in my gut. Thoughts raced through my head. None of them were good. I doubted any of them were true, and yet, I found myself terrified anyway. 

Mother lifted her had, slowly and with telegraphed movements. I could see her hand rise to my cheek, so I should not have flinched. The moment the soft skin of her palm touched my face, I pulled away, face twisting. Pipes in the wall groaned.

Father pulled me towards him, enveloping my hands with his. He worked his fingers under mine, prying my nails out my arms. "Sha'lain'a, you may want to look at them while I am holding her," he said. My arms jostled as I flailed, trying to pull away. Father hushed me. Shifting both my wrists to one hand, he used his now freed hand to brush through my hair. I whimpered and struggled harder. Panic flooded through my veins, while images and memories filled my mind. 

Warm, wet tears slid down my cheeks. I wanted it to stop. I wanted everything to stop. I wanted the pain to stop. I wanted him to stop touching me. 

"Princess, I am not going to hurt you. You are safe here."

Make this easy and I will not hurt you too much.

The pressure around my arms lessened, serving only to make my panicking worse. Muffled whines broke free from my throat, sounding like something which would come from a caged, abused animal before a human being.

"Perseus..." she mumbled. "My baby, why would- why would you not tell me about this?" Her fingers trailed along the raised scratches on my skin. They were raised and inflamed and they would not have been there had they told me they wanted to look at my arms. Her own arms, warm and thin, wrapped around me, drawing me close to her chest. My arms hung limp by my side, and I stared unseeing over her shoulder. The terror ebbed away into the dull, accepting nothing I was so used to. Tremors, barely noticeable, shook my body as tears continued down my face. A large hand brushed over my hair, Father's I knew, but just as I could not keep myself from recoiling from Mother, I could not keep from flinching. He withdrew his hand and sighed. 

"Do you want us to leave?" he asked. I nodded. "Sha'lain-"

"I am not leaving her, Calvin."

"My love, our daughter needs to rest."

"I know that.  I know she does not want us around, but I cannot bear to leave her like this." Mother pressed a kiss to my hair; my hands curled. I scrunched my eyes closed, willing away the memories. 

"May we come in?" 

My neck cracked with how fast I whipped my head towards the door. I did not flinch at the pain that caused, or at the pain from aggressively nodding my head. Tula breezed into the room and clambered onto my bed, while Garth's near silent footsteps stalled in the middle of the room where he sat himself.

I slid out of Mother's arms, her grip having slackened with the arrival of my friends. I sat on the floor with Garth. Warmth radiated off of him and it only grew when I leaned against him. Tula slid off of my bed with a loud thud and a sharp 'ow', before coming over and leaning against me in turn. Me and my friends sat there on the floor. We sat underneath the gaze of my parents, with me not responding to anything Tula and Garth said or did the entire time. Mother and Father left the room.

The second the door shut, I could hear Mother crying on the other side.

My shoulders sunk, both from relief and regret and all sorts of other emotions I could not feel properly at the moment. Tula exhaled. It was not a sigh, not quite, but it carried the same heaviness. 

"They are only worried about you," she said.

"I know."

"They are not mad at you."

"I know."

"They will understand anything you tell them."

"I know."

"They will not hurt you."

Silence.

"Percy," Garth spoke with his voice low. "I need you to answer this, do you trust us?"

"Yes."

"Do you know we will not hurt you?"

Silence.

"That is what I was afraid of. Percy, we are your friends. We are not going to harm you, we will do our best to keep you safe. I will do my best to keep you safe, and so will Tula. So if you cannot trust us together then perhaps you can trust us individually. I know....something happened, something bad, but there is no reason for you to not trust us. We have-"

"You- You don't get it," I said, staring down at my hands, at my arms, at the scars. "You have no idea what I was put through, so don't pretend to know why I don't trust you. I can't- I can't trust anyone. Not after what he did, not after months of that- that hell. I refuse to allow myself to be hurt again, so i apologize but I will never, never, be able to trust that you won't hurt me. Because I trusted Kaldur wouldn't and look where that got me."

 its kinda crap cause I rushed the ending so I could get my mind to calm down so i can get to sleep 

Fun fact: This is a (kinda) reprise of chapter 37

Also i have to get tested for covid tomorrow, Thanks randomly selecting students. 

Anyway

See yah