Nobody Said It Was Easy

Chapter 7

A/N:

I just realised that I forgot to add Persephone's song. Hahaha, whoops... Sorry I guess? It's up top if you're interested, and the picture is kind of what I imagined her armour to be like. Okay, yeah anyway. On with the chapter!

"I thought teenagers were supposed to sleep until noon on weekends?", Bruce asked as he walked into the kitchen to find none other than his niece sitting there, nursing a cup of coffee.

She looked up, meeting his blue eyes with her tired sea green ones. "Well I'm no normal teenager", she said, holding her mug up to him and then taking a sip.

Sadness gathered in her eyes as she smiled down at the dark liquid ruefully. She could feel her uncle's concerned and curious eyes on her, but she ignored him.

"Good morning, guys!", Dick exclaimed, practically bouncing into the kitchen.

"Hey, kiddo", she said, ruffling his hair in the way she knew he didn't like as he walked past.

He scowled. "Hey! Bruce, tell her to stop doing that!", he whined.

Bruce didn't answer, though. His eyes were narrowed on Percy and the easiness with which she had just adopted that mask when Dick had walked into the room. He had thought that she was getting better. Was it possible that that was all just a mask? A ruse she was keeping up to keep them off her back? Whatever it was, it made him realise that he was going to have to keep a closer eye on her after all.

"So what's got you all hyped up this morning, Dick?", Percy asked, turning to her younger cousin and filling the awkward silence his lack of response had left.

His azure eyes immediately lit back up again. "Bruce is taking me to see the Justice League Headquarters today!", he said, practically bouncing.

Percy's eyebrows shot up and she turned to look at her uncle. "Oh really?".

Judging from what she'd been able to pick up about the Justice League during her stay here this past week, they were extremely secretive. Percy knew that Bruce trusted Dick, even with his life if it came down to it. But she also knew that Bruce was the most paranoid person she had ever met, and there was no way the Headquarters he was showing them was the real one.

"Yeah! It's in the middle of the city! I walk by it every day, but I've never actually been inside". He looked so excited as he buzzed around the kitchen and grabbed his breakfast from Alfred's offered hand. She couldn't bring herself to crush his dreams and tell him what she suspected was actually going on.

"And when's he going to do that?", she asked. Bruce barely restrained a groan.

She knew. He didn't know how she knew, but she did. That was one of the most infuriating things about his niece, she was so much like Sarah. She would take one look at you, and somehow know everything you had ever tried to hide. Thankfully, it appeared that she was going to keep the secret.

"So what do superheroes like you two do on the weekends?", she asked Dick, thankfully moving on from the topic.

"Well normally we do what anybody else would do", Dick answered, shovelling bites of toast in his mouth between strips of bacon.

Bruce cleared his throat, and the large child-like grin on his face immediately disappeared along with the horrid table manners. "Today we're going on patrol early, though", he said in a much calmer manner.

"Yeah? I bet it'll be weird to see Bats in his all black out in the daylight, huh?". Dick snorted and covered his laughter with another piece of toast, and Alfred chuckled quietly from the kitchen behind them. Bruce just glowered from behind his coffee, only making the two children in his house laugh harder.