Hey Birdie

Chapter 8: We're Horrible People

I don't own Percy Jackson or Young Justice.

So Wattpad didn't upload the author's note which had important information. Had to republish. Sorry!

She took a deep breath. Wally was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue.

They had been sitting on the bench for almost an hour by now. She had told Wally everything up to the final battle with Gaea. The whole time, he payed her rapt attention, not speaking or moving much at all.

This was a great feat for the speedster. One she greatly appreciated.

She ended her story. "When I came back home, I kinda threatened B to let me on the team, and here I am."

Wally stared at her for a bit before speaking. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" His voice sounded sad, almost betrayed.

Percy winced, she knew that was coming. "I-I'm sorry. It's just..." She sighed, holding in the tears that were begging to form in her eyes.

"I left and completely cut contact with you guys. I was so sure that I was gonna die. And then I didn't, but contacting you guys was impossible with the new prophecy. And once I finally got back, I was afraid of how you would react." By the end, her voice was panicky, on the verge of hyperventilating.

Wally frowned, which Percy took as a bad sign. Through watery eyes, she spoke. "I get if you don't want to be with me anymore, or even be friends. I'm a horrible person."

Wally turned to look at her, stunned. It took him a bit to find his voice. "Steph, of course I still want to be friends and of course I still want to be with you. You are not a horrible person. If anything, I am. I literally flirted with every girl I saw! Except Artemis. Just no."

This caused Percy to release the tiniest of laughs, encouraging Wally to keep talking. "It's not your fault that you couldn't call or talk to us. From everything you've told me, it's the gods f-ing up your life." His tone was soft and comforting.

"You're right. The gods are the worst." She responded. "But you also can't call yourself a horrible person."

"But I am!" Wally argued.

She just shook her head. "Walls, I've known you long enough to know your habits and mannerisms. You use flirting as a type of coping mechanism. From what I've seen, it distracts you from your feelings to pretend you're fine."

And it was true. Whenever something was bothering Wally, he covered it up with flirting. Kind of like a false front to keep others from worrying about him, from becoming a burden. Percy often did this too, but used sarcasm instead.

Wally sighed, this girl knew a lot about him. Just like he knew a lot about her.

A grin found it's way onto his face. "I guess that's true. We're both just horrible, horrible people." The amount of sarcasm dripping from his voice causing Percy to laugh.

"Yeah. I guess we are." Percy leaned her head on his shoulder.

"So are we fine? Do we just go back to how we were or...?" Wally asked, voice uncertain.

Percy thought for a moment before speaking. "No, I don't think we can. I mean, I want to. But with the changes we've both gone through, we'll have to adjust. Just like I need to adjust with Dick and Bruce. I don't want to lose the dynamic we had as a couple though."

Wally just nodded. He didn't want to lose that dynamic he had with Percy either. "Hey, it's been almost 2 hours. I think we need to head back if you want to be officially introduced to the team."