I Am Not Your Sidekick

Its muffin time!

Percy POV
Two days later

We hadn't done anything exciting yet and I wasn't allowed to have contact with anyone outside. Robin called it "insurance" I called it stupid.

I had a lot of training with the black canary and I seemed to catch on quickly with my sword fighting. So every night I would pass out in my bed before anyone else and I would wake up the next morning with toothpaste on my face.

Greenie tried to cheer me up with her baking, but it was never blue, so it made me sad and I never took one of the cookies.

Kaldur and I were back to normal and we helped each other train. Arthur even came to visit from time to time.

I got new gear and some kind of uniform. A bodysuit that was meant for surfing waith sneakers (because why not), a belt with water pistols and two canisters of water. It had a pocket for Riptide and a watch that turned into a shield (courtesy of Tyson, a cyclops that's apparently my little half brother. Long story.)

All this training and the new uniform was great and all, but was starting to miss Annabeth. I really just wanted to go home for today.

And of course Kaldur would see that I was feeling down today, being my best friend and all. Let's just say, today was different.

So of course he asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing." I said a little too quickly.

"Percy, if you need to go out, I'd be happy to take you to the beach. We were planning on going there anyways."

"Actually, I was thinking of maybe checking in with Annabeth or maybe going back to Poseidonis for today. I feel bad for leaving her alone in the hospital." I tried not to meet Kaldur's eyes. I really didn't want to tell him. I didn't want him or anyone else here feel guilty.

"That's fine. The team can go with you to Annabeth and I can take you back to Poseidonis just in case the Manta decides to attack. "

"Actually,  I kind of wanted to do it alone today. I just..." I couldn't find the right words.

"I understand." He said. If only he did understand exactly what it was.

Usually around this time of year, my dad and I would go to the surface and go get a burger and make fun of Zeus and my mom would bring me something blue. It didn't look like it was going to happen this time. Last year my mom got me a phone so that I can keep in contact with her.

"You think I could go out for a bit today?" I asked sceptically.

"I can arrange something like that. Do you want me to accompany you to Poseidonis?" He questioned. I nodded. Kaldur was good company.

I spent the next hour baking blue muffins, while Kaldur was talking to Batman, because why the hell not! This kitchen didn't just belong to Greenie (that's just her nickname. I know her name is Megan, but I call hr Greenie because I can.)

When I yelled, " IT'S MUFFIN TIME!" the whole team seemed surprised to say the very least. Megan looked delighted to have a cooking buddy on the team and SBS still looked angry, but he seemed to enjoy the muffins. KF, of course, gobbled his muffin up the second he got it in his hands. Robin was, as usual, nowhere to be seen.

"This is sooo good!" KF made weird noises as he said it. I frowned. I was NOT a good cook.

"Thanks?" I said in scepticism. 

"Really. It is good. " Megan commented. At that moment, Kaldur and Robin showed up, grinning..

"Good news Perseus. You can take the day off today." Kaldur grinned. Everybody stared at Kaldur and then at me.

"Seriously? " I asked.

"Yeah, he said something about today being a good day for you to take off. "

"Thanks, dude. " I cleaned up quickly and got ready for a day at the beach. My phone was left at the beach with my other stuff.

Everybody joined me, but as soon as I was underwater,  Kaldur was next to me. As we made our way to Poseidonis, Kaldur gave me a necklace with three beads on it, each with an illustration of a big even that happened in the last three years.

"What's this?" I asked in confusion.

"You didn't think I would forget my best friend's birthday,  did you?"

"I didn't think you would know."

"Your mom called last night. You left your phone on the couch in the rec room. Lucky for you, I didn't put it on speaker or else you'd probably have woken up to a cake and a birthday song." I smiled.

"Gods, we can't have that." I was never the kind of person to like surprise parties. Like I said before, I couldn't see the point of rubber bags full of gass and seasponges with toothpaste on it. Muffins were alright. My mom sometimes brought blue muffins with her when I secretly met her on the surface.

A moment of silence fell between the two of us, but this time, Kaldur broke it.

"Perseus, why didn't you tell the team that today was your birthday?"  I furrowed my brows.

"It didn't seem important." I muttered.

"Percy-" I stopped swimming.

"Look, I never tell anyone about my birtday date, because somehow they always end up bad. I didn't want my eighteenth birthday to end badly, so I didn't tell anyone. If it isn't even something I can tell you, then how am I supposed to tell the team? " kaldur looked slightly hurt when I said these words, but replaced the look of hurt with a sincere smile.

"I understand completely."