An Assassin's Guide to Family

Chapter 22: Past

-------------- Jason's POV: ----------------

"You WHAT?!" Tim yelled, not minding the fact that he had yelled at the top of his lungs.

I put my hands up, letting out a sigh as I shook my head. "I told you, Tim, she found out on her own, she caught me and that's that!" I said, trying my best to calm him down. "Plus, you weren't that sneaky either, she told me bout the time she saw some dude go in through the window Mr. Hamburgler," I said, watching as Tim's eyes narrowed.

"Sure, but at least I tried to keep the charade up, she hasn't even been here for a full year yet and she already knows!" He yelled, throwing his hand out to the side to make his point seem more extreme. "Jason! Villains attack us all the time, of course, we're prepared at all times for what's to come, but Percy is a normal girl. Her biggest concerns right now are her tests for God's sake, they shouldn't be based around her paranoia and fear of getting KIDNAPPED." He lowered his voice on kidnapped, sounding suspiciously like the girls at school talking about how hot they thought a boy looked.

"Yes, but wouldn't it also be better to prepare her for if she was going to get kidnapped!" I argued, leaning forwards as Tim crossed his arms over his chest.

"Jason. If she knows our identity, it gives them something to look for. We don't even know if she's a good liar, forget if she would be able to withstand what they might do to get information out of her. If she were to get tortured could we really depend on her to keep our secret a secret?" He asked, his argument actually beginning to make sense. I took in a shallow breath, I hung my head, staring at my hands which were placed together in my lap. Maybe sitting had been the right move here.

Tim stayed silent for a while before sighing.

"How did she take it when she found out?" I looked up to see a much more worried Tim, his anger dissolved into almost nothing.

I half shrugged, unhooking my hands from each other as I placed them on my knees. "She was upset. I remember her being specifically upset with you..." I smiled sheepishly as Tim gained an uncomfortable look. "But you wouldn't believe what she yelled when she saw me," I'd only realized after our conversation that night the language Percy had used. I admit it made me laugh to think back to.

"What did she say?"

"You fuckers- I caught you!" I said, imitating her voice as my smile continued to grow. Tim's face also eased into a small smile, a chuckle escaping him.

We went quiet, the silence in the room heavy and shifting from its lighter air to a darker one.

"Maybe we can train her..." I looked up, Tim's hand on his chin as he looked a bit lost in thought. "then she'll be safe and we won't have to worry about leaving her by surprise anymore." I stopped, pondering the notion for a moment. It was true that we would all feel safer with Percy knowing how to defend herself.

"I'm...not opposed."

"Opposed to what?" Tim and I's faces shot to the door, Dick was standing in the doorway, half leaning inside like in the cartoons. He looked between the two of us with silent unease, like he was waiting for one of us to fess up on a crime. I could see even from here the bruises that had developed, their dark splotches littering the skin that was on display.

"Uhhh..." I turned to Tim who looked at me with an angry look. Sure Uhhh wasn't the most unsuspicious thing to say but hey! Your brother's not supposed to sneak into your room so why am I the bad guy now?

"We were just discussing going out with Percy to say sorry!" Tim said, laughing sheepishly and adding a twinge of guilt into the tone to make it seem like he was trying to cover up his guilt. It was a good show, truly, but we were also facing Dick.

"Timbo, you know I don't like it when you lie, just spit it out." Dick walked inside completely, closing the door behind him with his foot as he placed his arms over his chest.

Tim sent me another look but I just rolled my eyes. Well, I suppose telling everyone but Bruce tonight would be fine.

" It's about your birthday"

"Percy found out about our identities."

Tim and I's necks snapped to face each other with Tim's glare of wrath returning. I narrowed my eyes back, a mini yet silent feud ensuing.

"Ahem" We turned back to Dick. His hand lowered from his mouth with his unimpressed look. "One at a time now, and I know for a fact it isn't my birthday, that's not for another month and I'm very sure that Alfred's the one that plans that most of the time."

Dick looked at me and I just shook my head, pointing to Tim. I'd explained too much tonight, it was time for somebody else to do the heavy lifting.

Dick's gaze turned to Tim who sighed. "Percy knows about the bats, and our identities and this dimwit was the one she caught." There was a pause when Tim pointed back at me. "So we were thinking about training her so that we can make sure she's safe when we're away."

Dick went to open his mouth to speak but I put my hand up. "We're not telling Bruce either. He seems to have a weird obsession with keeping Percy out of this so we can't just recruit her, no matter how good she is." Dick closed his mouth, pursing his lips as he gave me a side glare.

"Fine. So how were you planning to do this training without alerting Bruce to the situation?" Dick asked, uncurling his arms

"We hadn't quite gotten that far," I mumbled, "You kinda caught us off guard." Dick shrugged.

"It's kinda my thing."

"In no way is it 'your thing' if anything it's a bat thing," Tim argued.

Dick held his hand up, closing his eyes as he ignored everything Tim said. "Right, so since our dear sister is involved, I want to help." He said, smiling at the end as he walked over, taking a seat beside me.

"Alright cool," Tim said, his smile returning. "So, how do we propose the idea to her? I mean surely we can't just say, 'Hey! I think you should totally train with us!'" Tim said, mocking a happy and cheery tone.

"Why not?" I asked. "I mean she already knows what we do?" I said, removing my hands from my knees and placing them behind me so I could lean back on them.

"While that's true, we also need to consider the fact that it's safer to keep her as far away from that world as possible, meaning that it's better to not treat this like a hero thing and more like... a game!" I nodded. I mean she already knew, and being a robin happened to be quite awesome, but I suppose we needed to convince Bruce to allow her to be a robin first otherwise she could be in some hot water without tools.

"Games actually don't seem all that bad. She seems to like the more active activities, plus it gives us some more relaxation time." Dick nodded, his bright smile returning and the small dimple on the side of his face showing itself.

"We could start tomorrow, I'd love to practice my acrobati-"

"Dick, you just got back from a mission, where, mind my observation, but you were beaten pretty bad." He gestured to his chin, the location of one of the worst bruises he'd received, it also accompanied a small but deep cut. "You're in no shape to be jumping around at the moment." Dick huffed, crossing his arms back over his chest as he rolled his eyes.

"I've worked under worse conditions." He complained.

"Because you had to Dick, you need to rest now because there is no overarching evil waiting for us. This is training, but since you want to help, I figure we can work on something a bit more laid back..." Tim tapped his chin, seemingly searching his mind for a result.

I raised my hand, putting all my weight on my other arm. "How about we swim?"

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