It Runs in the Family

Percy

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 dea with the thought of his mother marrying Paul plus he still had to deal with the normal people 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 that was his life, "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 diffrent 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 coustody 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 Seewead 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 belive 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 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 search. With everything that's happening; the war and with the day of the prophecy coming up...I'm really, relly sorry." Percy felt a dull stab of fury at Luke. He wasn't just messing with Percy's life at camp. He was messing with his 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 schock 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 not involved in all the gods mess."

Thunder crashed outside. Percy rolled his eyes, "What did I say? I wasn't insulting him! I wasn't insulting anyone! It was meant to be an amusing and reassuring statement!"

Sally threw her head back and laughed, "It might have been just a coincidence, sweetie. I'm sure he's not listening all the time. Sometimes thunder is just thunder."

"That's what you think," Percy muttered, "Stalker." Thunder boomed outside again, and Percy flung his hands at the window i exasperation. Shaking his head in mild disbelieve, Percy continued, "Anyways, my point was, it'll be nice to have a mortal, normal brother."