An Assassin's Guide to Family

One shot #2

---------------- Percy's POV: ------------------

The others had just left on a mission when a man walked into the cave, his tall stature and bright red suit caught my attention immediately.

His footsteps boomed as he walked into the living room, his eyes scanning the area before landing on me. We held eye contact for a moment before I recognized him to be the hero I'd launched into the water back in my assassin days.

Neither of us talked as we held each other's gaze.

I blinked and suddenly he spoke, "I win." I furrowed my brows as he smiled. "I beat you in the staring contest." I chuckled as I tilted my head slightly.

"I don't remember agreeing to a contest." He frowned.

"Then why did you stare like that. I swear that was a challenging stare." I laughed, pushing myself off the couch as I walked over to him. Some part of me still felt bad for the whole lake thing so I was going to let him accept the win, no matter how unfair it was.

"I'm Riptide, it's nice to meet you...?"

He grabbed my hand excitedly, like someone happy to be acknowledged. "I'm Shazam! One of the members of the Justice league!" He said happily, I swear I saw his chest puff to show off his lightning bolt. I smiled. He was a very childish member of the justice league huh? But he didn't stop there. "I've heard of you from Aquaman! Did you really beat him?" I laughed and nodded.

"Oh 100%! I beat him so hard a dolphin had to carry him back to the castle." He snorted, his goofy grin seemed so happy it was hard to imagine some so old could look so young.

"So why're you here?" he asked with his smile lessening.

I shrugged, removing my hand. "I'm not supposed to go unless it's really important. I'm mainly an instructor. I've trained tons of kids before so I was brought in to help them." He nodded, his smile returning but not completely.

"And you're okay with that? Don't you want to go out there?" I shrugged.

"Yeah, when you're as old as-" I paused. "Well I suppose when you've done as much as I have then staying behind for a while is more of a blessing then anything." He nodded.

"What have you done then?" I froze, my smile stopping halfway to which I'm sure I looked pretty freaky.

"That's not important." I laughed him off as I lightly smacked him on the shoulder. I felt a sudden zap and I quickly retracted my hand. Shazam looked slightly confused as well.

"I'm so sorry, that usually doesn't happen. I don't know why my powers just did that." I just shook my head.

"It's okay, I'm a child of Poseidon, lightning is bound not to like me." Shazam still looked to have felt bad. I sighed and waved for him to follow. "Here, how about I make us some hot chocolate, as some form of apology you have to come with me." He seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding excitedly.

"I guess if I havvveee to." I chuckled as we walked to the kitchen, to which I immediately started on two cups of hot cocoa.

"So, do you always wear that suit around?" I asked, turning to sit on the counter. He looked at me questioningly. I smiled as I pointed down to my sweat pants and tank top.

"I mean seriously, that thing doesn't look comfortable." I motioned to his clothing. He looked down at his best before looking back to me.

"Oh you'd be surprised actually! It's not bad at all." I nodded, not truly believing it but deciding to go along with it. "So how old are you?" He asked innocently, his eyes wide and bright.