𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐀; p jackson x d grayson ¹

𝙸𝚇.

Percy is greeted into Mariana's room with a phone launched at his face. He catches it just inches from his nose. "What the fuck—"

"Cocaine! I'm doing cocaine, I swear!"

Mariana curls herself into a ball on her bed, holding her hands out in front of her. From the look of horror on her face, Percy could believe she's actually doing cocaine, if not for the suspicious lack of suspicious substances. He turns the phone to check. Mariana's unholy scream stops him, but by then it's already too late.

"'Robin fanfiction'?" he reads aloud from the orange and white search bar (which he recognises mortifyingly quickly).

Mariana lays straight like a corpse in a casket and stares blankly at the ceiling, dead to the world for anyone who asks. But then she resurrects again, with determination in her pursed lips and furrowed brows.

"Why should I feel embarrassed over my interests?" she whispers to herself, pressing her cold hands to her flushed cheeks. Then she speaks louder, addressing Percy. "Do you know what fanfiction is, Perce?"

He's slightly ashamed to say that he knows a lot more than he would like. It was Leo and Piper who first introduced him to the genre. With cheeky grins and a hint of insanity in their eyes, they pulled him under the covers during a sleepover and shoved a phone in his hands. The two demigods taught him the terminology and inside jokes within the community. There were some stories that were crazily well-written, while others were just... weird. Percy didn't read much of it since he dislikes reading in the first place (and stories with either horrifyingly bad grammar or horrifyingly long words do wonders for his dyslexia), but he knows what's up whenever they giggle with their heads together over a phone. He nods slowly in response.

"But... Robin? Really?" he questions. He can't hold back his minor frown of judgement.

"I just think he's neat!" she argues back. "I like his katana! Besides, he's the only one that could be close to me in age, so it's not that weird..."

Percy holds his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. I guess Robin is kinda cool..." Even though he yelled ye olde swears at me that one time.

"Y'know, Robin isn't the only one they write fanfiction about! There's stuff about the other Bats, like Nightwing, and Red Hood, and Red Robin, and Batgirl, and there's a shit ton about Batman too," she rambles on. "But it's kinda odd 'cause no one knows their identities so the authors either make up OC's for the people behind the mask, or they just use any real-life celebrities that they want, like a headcanon or something. Oh and major ew, I read one where Robin was Damian Wayne and it showed him acting all sweet to no one but the MC, which is so incredibly fake because he's the bitchiest bitch around actually. Also, he's like twelve — which is crazy because why are we in the same year, why is the nepo baby actually smart — and so like the author's kinda weird for that not gonna lie. Oh and, speaking of Damian Wayne, we need to go stationery shopping before Máma kills me."

If Percy didn't also have ADHD, that entire thread of words would have been lost on him. Whenever she gets nervous, Mariana tends to jump across her trains of thought like an impatient driver switching lanes. He mentally shifts through the jumble of information thrown at him, focusing on the most important.

"There's Nightwing fanfiction?"

She nods vigorously and Percy hums to himself. Maybe reading isn't all that bad...

Then comes the not so important issues: "Your school year has already started, what do you mean you haven't bought your stationery yet?"

"I was supposed to buy them online, but I, uh, got a little sidetracked..." She glances at her phone with a grimacing smile.