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Percy Jackson doesn't go around thinking that he's better than other people. Sure, he might be better at some things, and he's definitely better than rapists and child abusers just like every other normal person. He doesn't even think he's that good of a person. He's done things that normal people wouldn't condone, even though he never really wanted to hurt anyone to begin with, but he did consider himself better than Bruce.
At parenting.
Surely, that's not a wrong assumption. His own kids will agree, he swears.
Kid. His own kid. He gritted his teeth.
Then why does it feel like he's about to be proven wrong?
“Richard.”
There's an intake of breath heard over the phone. It's understandable. Percy rarely calls his son by his full name. Even when he's been disappointed at Dick, most of the time Percy took it personally and would be too emotional to reprimand him with his full name. And when he did, it was at least with a little bit of amusement.
This was none of that. It's specifically meant for him to understand the seriousness of the situation.
“Tell me it's a joke.” He said through the mix of emotions flowing through him and his sound, making it very obvious what he's feeling to his son even if it's only a phone call. “A very poor one, but a joke.”
Dick took a breath, like he's getting ready for an argument. Which he was, in all fairness.
“It’s not. I didn't think you would agree and you and B don't talk anymore, so he wasn't going to tell you but I didn't want to do it anymore.” He rambled sensing how upset Percy was about this. “I know what you did for me now. I knew then too, but it's clear now that I'm older and I know you were there for Jay but I knew you wouldn't agree with it again, but dad,”
He was using his pleading tone, the one he uses when he wants Percy to believe something.
“Gotham needs Robin.”
No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. No, it doe–
Another child. Another child soldier.
“Especially with how B’s been behaving and the kid is so determined. He was going to do it anyway. He figured it out himself and proved he'd be a good fit.”
Percy breathes in, then breathes out.
It does nothing to calm him down. The pipes are rattling in the walls and he forces it to stop.
No, he's not going to lose control.
Dick's still rambling. “I just, I'm sorry I didn't tell you but I didn't want you to make it harder for Tim.”
Tim. The next Robin. And his own son thought that Percy would make it harder for the kid. Really? As opposed to Bruce Wayne? Was he that bad of a father?
“It's not that you wouldn't care about him, but I know you would have done anything to not let there be another Robin.”
He's not wrong about that. He thought Dick would understand now that he knows what being a child soldier did to him and he saw what it did to his brother. Percy understood when he was younger than Dick, but maybe there's something more to it. Dick chose his fate, Percy was forced.
“You wouldn't talk to B anymore, and even if you did, I didn't think you would calm him down.” Dick justified . “When I told you about how he's treating criminals, you said ‘good’.”
He took another breath. When he spoke again, his tone was much calmer. Steady.
“I know you've tried to be there for me, helped me with my grief and tried to make sure that I was safe but you're not doing much good either. You always brush it off when I ask you and give me a vague answer. I know you're struggling,dad.” Here his voice broke a little, but he smoothed it out fast enough.
“Sometimes it feels like I'm the only thing keeping you going. You can't keep doing that, it's not fair to me. You weren't stable enough, no matter how much you didn't want me to see it. You wouldn't have been any help to Tim. I'm sorry I didn't tell you because it makes you upset, not because I think I was wrong.”
Percy honestly doesn't know how to feel about the fact that Dick just used his team leader voice on him. Not only did his son just say that he's been spiraling, but that he would not have been any help to another child who's going to go through the same things both of his children did.
It doesn't matter if Dick thought he was right. What does he know, he's a child. Percy's been the team leader too, way too many times. He's been a war general.
Fine. He'll admit that none of what Dick said was wrong. Except for that he wouldn't have been any help . Dick doesn't know that, it's just his opinion.
Now, another child is going to risk his life. Percy was careless again. He stupidly thought that even Batman would have more sense than to allow another child to fight.
He thought their son's death would have been enough.
How could he even stand it, how could he allow it when Jason never got to grow up?
“..Dad?... say something, please.” The team leader voice is gone. This is his son, asking him to tell him that he was right. To tell him that it's okay. But it's not, and Dick is an adult now. He knows when Percy is not being good enough.
Percy will give him the same answer he would have given any team leader.
“You don't know that. That I wouldn't have been any help. You made the choice to keep it from me and now it's too late. I'll be at the manor tonight, if you think I'm going to make everything worse, you can be there to stop me.”
His voice was flat at the start, but it didn't stay that way. This is his kid, the same one who would use his puppy dog eyes to get cookies from him. This is his only remaining son. Even if it's wrong, he is the only thing keeping Percy going.
“Dad, that's not what–”
But Percy wasn't listening anymore, he'd already cut the connection.
Why does it matter that Percy was struggling? He was right. How could Dick not understand that?
Percy has been avoiding the manor like the plague and everyone took advantage of it. Dick only told him now, because the new Robin will start patrolling the next day and he didn't want Percy to be surprised. It was a good idea, Percy probably would have done something he would end up regretting.
And Dick doesn't even know about his powers. Was he really that big of a problem? Is that why Jason didn't tell him when he went to Ethiopia? Because he thought Percy would have made everything worse?
He doesn't know. He'll never know.
He's not going to let Batman take another Robin in without any opposition from him though.
The kid is doing something on the computer when he enters the cave, because of course he's in the cave.
Batman is nowhere to be seen, probably not back yet.
He tenses up first when he notices Percy and then slowly calms down when recognition lights his eyes. There are plenty of photos of him and the kids at the manor, especially for someone who lives there. Dick must've warned him of Percy at some point as well, he reminds himself.
“Hey.” The kid starts, probably because Percy was just staring at him without saying anything. He looks familiar, Percy thinks. Dick said he figured out their identities by himself. Must be a really smart kid.
“I was looking into the Joker's disappearance. It's weird.” He went back to looking at the screen, which now that Percy squinted shows the last known location of Joker. Witnessed by Batman himself.
“He was last seen at a warehouse by Batman with some goons, and then nothing. The goons were caught by the GCPD but they claimed that they didn't know what happened. One minute they were fine and then everyone fainted at once.”
The kid was nervous at first but when he got into the case, his voice cleared. Sharpened. Oh, yeah. It's a real mini Bruce Wayne. The kid's probably even smarter than him.
He checked the cowl footage but it didn't show anything suspicious. By his expression, it's not the first time he's been doing it. The kid kept muttering to himself and started typing, which was completely lost on Percy, not that he cared to know what he's doing.
He honestly couldn't care less about that investigation.
Percy sighed. Best to get it out of the way.
“Kid, are you sure you want to do this?”
The kid blinked at him, like he forgot that Percy was there, and then when he realised what he asked, grimaced.
“Yes.” He said. Determined and strong. Excited.
Gods. Gods.
“After what happened?” He wanted to be blunt, but looking at the kid with his blue eyes and black hair, he couldn't. Didn't want to ask him what happens when he dies.
The wound in his heart was open, it was bleeding. Percy's going to start crying. Gods, the kid looks thirteen or fourteen at best.
“Especially after what happened.” He said. “Dick said that you won't approve, but I'm sure. I'll make sure Jason's legacy is a good one.” He hesitated on Jason's name and looked at Percy with apprehension.
“Jason is dead.” Percy told him, his voice hard, broken and dragged out of his throat with the grief he carried within. “I don't want you to have the same fate, child.”
The kid looked at him in surprise. Why, he didn't know. If anyone knows that death is a possibility, it's the one who takes on the mantle of a dead hero. And the kid looked smart, why would he be surprised? Maybe it's the bluntness with which he said it, but he can't imagine Bruce being gentle when their son was dead and he was going around breaking people's spines.
“I…” he swallowed, as if he didn't know how to answer. “I want to do it, I understand the risks.”
Again, that determination. He could do nothing but look at the kid in grief. His face must have shown exactly what he felt, because the kid looked out of his depth. What's he supposed to do about Percy's grief, anyway.
He doesn't know what to do, how does he stop this? He has no right to forbid him, and if what Dick said was right, he'll only make things worse.
His answer came in the form of a car entering the garage. He listened to the footsteps echoing through the cave and waited, turning to face where he'd come.
He saw the kid going a bit tense through the corner of his eye, and watched him do something with his phone.
Batman stopped when he saw them. Him. He hasn't been in the cave in so long (they have a shiny new Robin to show for it, good job, Percy), that may be why looked like he's gearing up for a fight. His stance is defensive, loose but intentional.
No one is going to win that staredown and he's not here to play games either.
“You're allowing this?”
He gives no response, no visible reaction. It makes Percy angry, makes him want to see if the Bat could fight if he drowned him in his own blood. He doesn't bother with a poker face.
Batman's face is blank, hard. He stared at Percy.
The air is getting humid. Moisture condenses and Batman's shoulders tenses, minutely. It shouldn't be as satisfying as it is. There was water in the waterfall, so close to his reach. There are pipes running through parts of the cave. Percy knows that he doesn't need it. Even if he hasn't explicitly detailed every single thing he can do with his powers, Batman is smart enough to deduce exactly how powerful a child of the Gods is, even if he's not immortal like Diana.
He absently wonders what the contingency plan is for Percy.
Weaknesses : Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson
: Jason Todd (deceased)
: A bullet to the head.
Oh, if only he actually bothered to kill him. He wanted to laugh, if he wasn't going to kill that thing right when he was too late to save Jason, then he was never going to kill anyone.
“Haven't you learnt your lesson?” He's spitting venom at him. Uncaring of the hurt it might bring.
“You've already cost one Robin his life.” He said, as if it wasn't his fault. As if it wasn't Percy's carelessness, his stupidity, his inaction that caused Jason's death.
The bat remains stubbornly silent but there's a tension in his jaw that wasn't there before. He's probably gritting his teeth.
“I warned you.” He's aware of his sound going cold, vindictive. His brows are furrowed and there's a scowl on his face, he knows how he looks. He looks angry, like his father, wrathful. There's power simmering under his skin, it calls for a storm, for blood, for death and devastation but Batman remains unimpressed. It's the closest to feeling normal he's ever experienced, people are always scared of him when he's angry, when he's powerful. Even other demigods had that problem with the big three kids.
If only he wasn't too angry to enjoy it.
“I've stood by, doing nothing, let you make my kids into child soldiers, and now that he's dead, you're going to… what? Let another child fight?” His sound comes scratchy, angry and desperate.
Batman doesn't answer for a beat. Only a beat. He doesn't move forward, or backward. Doesn't move a muscle. His face remains tellingly blank.
A beat. That's all it takes. When he talks, his voice is flat. No emotions in it, like he's simply stating a fact.
“They're not your kids.”
The draft in the cave stops. His breathing stops.
Zeus himself couldn't have stopped his fist.
He doesn't observe enough to know if the bat tensed, if he anticipated the attack, if he said something, if Percy let his powers loose. He doesn't know any of that. He can't hear anything, his vision tunnels.
All that exists is the cowl covered face that he's pinned to the floor so he could keep hitting it. He doesn't fight back, he notes in some part of his brain. Occasionally defends his face with his hands that should hurt Percy but he can't tell if it does, can't feel anything in his anger.
He's aware of someone's hands on him, but whoever they are isn't strong enough to make him move. Suddenly, there's another pair of hands on him, this one stronger.
They're saying something, he thinks. It doesn't matter, nothing matters. He can't feel, can't see, anything except his rage. It soaks through his eyebrows, following a path down to his eyelashes. He can feel it, like it's a part of him. No, that's not rage, that's blood. His own blood, that he felt. It joins the tears in his eyes that drips onto Bruce's face and mixes with his blood. Blood that he drew with his fists.
There are hands on him, he remembers. He stops.
“–ad, Dad.” It's Dick. He sounds panicked. Percy lets him move him, haul him up.
He looks around, finds a disgruntled and upset Dick and a vaguely frightened Tim, but the cave seems intact. Thank the Gods. No earthquakes, no water explosions. That's very good.
His fists are bloody, split.
“What is wrong with you two?” He zones back in at the anger in Dick's voice.
He looks at Percy in disappointment. Like he couldn't believe what Percy's done, but there is sadness and anger too, in his eyes.
“This is exactly why I didn't tell you.” He pointed at Percy. He felt scolded. By his own son.
“Don't get me wrong, I understand the temptation, but seriously?”
Dick looked so done, so tired with his lot in life. He was angry, like he used to get at Bruce.
“I already have to force him” he points at Bruce who was cleaning up his face like nothing happened “to behave at least a little bit healthy, I don't want to force you too.”
Percy breathes in, and then out. He repeats it until it feels like he can talk again.
“Dick,” he starts but he gets interrupted.
“No. I don't want to hear it. This is exactly why I didn't tell you. How would this help Tim? Or anyone? Just, go take care of your injuries.” He sighs, suddenly tired and turns to the kid– Tim, and then Percy's dismissed.
He walks up the stairs with Bruce's words echoing through his head.
That's the worse thing he could've told Percy. He can't–
Maybe he wouldn't have felt like that if he wasn't always a little afraid that it was gonna happen. That he's going to take the kids from him. He has no legal claims to his kids.
Kid. His only kid.
No, that's a lie. He would have reacted that way regardless of the legality of his claims.
Besides, Dick is an adult now, so he can choose to talk to Percy. Whether or not he'll choose it after that display is another matter entirely. He has hope. Dick won't stop talking to him for that, would he?
It's fine. Fuck whatever Bruce said. They're both his kids.
Dick and Jason. Even if it's just Dick that's alive now. Jason was his just as much as he was Bruce's. Maybe more so. Whatever he said doesn't matter.
Then why does it hurt so much?
He cleaned up his cuts and bandaged them. It's a habit to not use his powers unless he's not alone. He's not entirely sure what keeps him from telling Dick anymore. Half of his friends are aliens and metahumans. What would a demigod dad change?
But he couldn't bring himself to, he hasn't even thought about telling Dick since Jason died. It feels a little wrong that Dick will get to know when Jason won't, even though it's not his fault.
He needs to apologise to Dick, to Tim for scaring him.
When he enters the kitchen, Alfred's already there.
“Master Percy,” he greets, as warm as ever. “You have been missed.” He's telling the truth, Percy knows.
“I missed you too, Alfred.” He smiled a little. He really did miss that, maybe he should have been back sooner. Jason's absence hurts a little less this time.
“Did the kids eat?” Percy asked.
“No, they haven't. Are you planning to cook?”
Percy smiled. Alfred can read him like a book.
“May I?”
“Of course.” He moves a little to the outskirts of the kitchen but doesn't leave.
Alfred stayed with him in the kitchen, quietly helping the whole time. He ignored the bandages on his hands. It was nice. To have someone just stay with you without any expectations. He took his leave when the kids made their way to the kitchen.
Tim looked surprised when he put a plate in front of him. Dick looked like he expected it, as if he was waiting for Percy to clean up his act and actually be his father again as opposed to whatever husk he was in the months following Jason's death.
It's a little embarrassing, but fair. He can't run himself to the ground for his dead child while the one who's alive suffers. Unacceptable.
He took a breath.
“I'm sorry, Dick. I'm sorry I made you take care of me, I know you already have too much responsibility. I wasn't aware I added to that. I'll be better.” He didn't lie, he never does to his children in serious situations. He never makes apologies he doesn't mean, it only makes things worse.
Dick gave him a small smile. He nodded, relieved. Oh, his poor baby.
“I'm sorry, Tim.” Tim looked at him in shock. Eyes wide and mouth open. Dick almost laughed at him, by his face. “For scaring you.”
“For scaring him, but not for doing it?” Dick asked, but his face made it clear that even he thought that was a stupid question.
Percy didn't bother to look ashamed or regretful. He didn't regret it and there's no point in lying. Dick knows he doesn't regret it.
“See why I didn't tell you about Tim’s training? The first thing you do after seeing him is try to break his face.” Dick didn't look that angry, so he figured he had already been forgiven.
Percy didn't respond.
“Oh, um…” Tim squirmed in his seat. “It's okay.” He said. There was something wrong in the way he said it, though Percy couldn't put his finger on it.
He looked like he was telling the truth, but there was something that annoyed Percy about how he said that. Percy shot Dick a look and by his son's mouth tightening minutely, Percy figured he knew something. That'll have to wait though.
“No it's not.” Tim looked ready to disagree but Percy wasn't going to hear any of that. “Do you know how to work the microwave, Tim?”
“What?” He was surprised by the change of topic, and looked so adorably confused. “I know how microwaves work!” He said, indignant at Percy's presumed assumption.
“And it wasn't the first thing he did, he only started hitting B when B said that you weren't his kids.” He said to Dick and turned back to Percy.
Oh. Oh! Dick didn't hear that. Percy wanted to be a little happy that Dick wouldn't think that he's gone completely crazy but he couldn't. Not when his son stopped eating. Not when he looked as if he was going to give Bruce a round two himself. His hands tightened around the fork and his eyes became hard. Furious.
“Sweetheart,” Percy called. “Take a breath.”
Dick did as he asked and turned to Percy with an apologetic look. Percy waved it away before he could put it into words. Regardless of why he did that, Dick was right. And if his own son got as mad at that statement as Percy did, then he's got nothing to be scared of, Jason and Dick are both his. And that's that.
He turned his attention back to Tim who just realised exactly what was about to happen because of what he said. Poor kid looked out of his depth.
“I didn't ask if you knew how microwaves work. I asked if you can work one.”
Tim turned to Dick for instruction, like he didn't understand what was happening or how to deal with senile old men who talk about microwaves.
Dick decided to be entirely unhelpful judging by the little amused smile he shot Tim. He didn't seem to think it was funny, though.
“Um, yes?” He said.
“Is that a question?” Percy asked.
“No?”
Jesus. This kid. He sighed, the same one he used when he was trying to teach Dick to not burn the kitchen. His kid narrowed his eyes at him, like he knew Percy was thinking about his kitchen adventures.
Can the bat telepathy be inherited? Dick is going to use his powers for evil, Percy just knows. To embarrass him, or his brothe–
Fuck. Fuck.
What was he talking about? Right, Tim.
“Just come here.” He said. Tim did, but only after getting assurance from Dick.
To his absolute horror, the idea that Percy didn't want Tim to starve, for reasons that he didn't want to know or think about for the sake of the manor's plumbing, was alien to the kid.
He made sure that Tim knew how to heat food. Made sure he knew there were leftovers in the fridge and where everything is, just in case. Alfred will make sure the kid is fed, but Percy always taught his kids where everything was and that they knew how to do basic tasks. He didn't want his kids to starve.
Well, he didn't want Dick to starve. Jason knew how to cook. He soaked up all the knowledge Alfred and Percy gave like a sponge. Jason even knew how to make his mom's cookies and he–
Anyway, Tim. Not starving. Hopefully.
The only thing he knew how to do was make coffee. Because of course the thirteen year old kid drinks coffee.
Oh, he's going to make him move back, isn't he? The kid's gonna make him fucking move back.
“I need coffee, I need to stay awake for one more day.” He said while making his coffee.
Percy's eye twitched. Dick actually looked like he was having the best time. He's probably happy that Percy will stop fussing on him so much.
“What do you mean, one more day?” he asked. Tim just looked at him with a slightly sheepish expression.
Gods, grant him patience.
Tim doesn't live at the manor, most of the time. Tim has parents. Who leaves him alone to go on trips.
Percy's fine. Percy's absolutely fine and his blood is not boiling with the need to kill the Drakes.
It took him an embarrassingly long time to understand that Tim doesn't think of himself as part of the family. It really gives credit to Dick’s ‘you wouldn't have been able to help Tim’ theory.
It's been a while since Tim took up Robin and he's doing well, Percy thinks. For someone who's son died being Robin, he's doing rather well too, at not locking Tim up so he wouldn't go out.
It wasn't his call anyway. They don't listen to him. Dick has started considering him as someone who is anti- vigilante as opposed to child soldiers, but he does seem to be mad at Bruce at times. Tim told him that Dick's been mad at Bruce since he came back and even more when he found out about Tim, but has been nice to him.
It's good. But Percy knows he's doing what he thinks he should have done for Jason. He doesn't want another Robin dead and apparently, ‘Gotham needs Robin' is a direct quote from Tim.
Batman is less violent, if only because Tim nags him into it, into not killing himself. Percy's less involved in Tim's life because he still couldn't stay at the manor, and it's not like Tim does either. He couldn't bear to look at Bruce after what he said to him that he doesn't bother to wait around in the cave.
When Tim started staying at the manor more, so did Percy. Dick's being a good big brother as much as he can while not actually living there.
Things are not bad, he thinks.
Tim is surprisingly similar to Bruce in a scary way. Percy doesn't think Tim knows it, or Dick for that matter. He's sure Bruce caught it though. It could be why he let Tim be Robin in the first place. He knows Alfred sees it just like Percy does.
He's also just a kid. A kid who deserves so much better. So, Percy resolved to give him the better life he deserves.
The problem is, Tim takes care of Bruce and Percy takes care of Tim. Meaning that for Tim, a thirteen year old kid to not have the responsibility of taking care of an adult, no matter how mentally unwell he is, Percy has to be the one to do it.
He hates it. He really doesn't want to do it, but it took a while for him to understand that that's the role Tim has given himself and Percy has been unwittingly putting that kind of responsibility on a kid because he didn't want to do it. Because he was angry, grieving.
So Percy tells Tim in no uncertain terms that it's not his responsibility to take care of Bruce, that that's why he and Alfred are here, and if he has to do anything, it's only to make sure that Batman is being good.
Percy also made it clear that he doesn't have to do that either. It's not his responsibility. But of course, no one listens to him.
Tim is smart, as in one of the smartest people he's ever met and he is only just a child still. He doesn't however understand the importance of sleep. Percy feels like he has an actual toddler who has to be forced to nap, except for the fact that his toddler can talk, and argue, and can make himself coffee.
It's a nightmare. Percy loves it a little bit.
Dick loves it too, because Percy's fussing over him has considerably decreased.
Tim's a bit sociopathic? Percy isn't qualified to make an actual diagnosis but as time went on, he became more sure of the fact. He is logical, and quick thinking. Even his fighting style reflects it. He readily accepted Percy's sword lessons even though it's clear that the Bo-staff is not only what he studied but also the best suited for him.
He's detached in a way that is a little unnerving when it comes to cases, but empathetic and kind in a way that even he doesn't understand.
Because he has promised himself that he'll make sure that Bruce sleeps occasionally, so Tim doesn't have to do it, Percy starts spending time in the cave. He mostly hangs around Tim, listens to his theories, his obsessions and he has to admit, the kid knows his stuff.
Tim's intelligent, scarily so sometimes, capable and a fighter. He's also a stalker but so are all the bats, so Percy digresses.
Percy decides to teach him strategy. Actual war strategies. The kind that he studied in camp. Greek, Roman, whatever he can find, whatever he could remember.
He's always been interested in them even if he never bothered to study myths that well. After coming to the manor, he rectified that in a fit of nostalgia. In a bid to have something of home, he studied all the myths, strategies, and magic. He's never been that good with magic but then again, he never bothered to study. He regretted it a little bit but eventually found solutions in the form of magic users of this world. He's not an expert by any means, but if there's a demon needed to be sent back to hell, he can do it, or kill whatever creatures that thought they could take him on.
It's a fight he's used to, one he misses at times.
Tim's a good student. He takes to strategy like a fish to water. He studies more wars, more strategies from different cultures and dynasties throughout history so he could teach Tim. He tells him how to use powered individuals in a fight. The need for versatility, how to coordinate them and drills into him when and the need to pull back in a battle.
He tells Tim a story, of a boy who felt invincible in battle lust and powered through when he should have pulled back, he tells him a story of a poisoned dagger aimed to kill him only prevented by a friend who took the hit, of a broken bridge and a dead ally, a dead friend.
Tim isn't going to war, but Percy won't leave anything to chance. Dick and Jason never got a class as extensive as the one Tim got, but he is interested, so Percy doesn't feel bad.
He tells him the importance of information, of knowledge, but also the importance of when and if they should use it. Tim is intimately aware of that, given that he's a stalker but listens patiently anyway. He also lectures him on privacy, because you know, Percy's a responsible parent.
Percy thinks Tim could grow up to be the most powerful person in the world if he wants. He could be a supervillain, or he could be the next Batman.
Percy isn't going to let either of those happen. Sure, Tim is too far gone to stop being a vigilante now that he knows he can help people, but Percy's not gonna let him turn into the mess that's Batman. As for being the supervillain, well he knows better than to kill innocent people but that's not all there is to it and someone with Tim's caliber needs special attention.
Percy starts reading him the Odyssey. He tells him of mutually assured destruction. Of Odysseus, the clever king who was the real power on the Greeks' side and favoured by the Grey eyed wisdom goddess. He tells him not to consider people as pieces on a board and even if he could, to consider their perspectives.
He tells him a story of a simple game that he played in the past. He explained how he was used as bait by a girl obsessed with winning without any care of what happened to him, when he was barely trained. How much danger he was in, and only succeeded in not being seriously injured because of luck. How upset he was at the time, how much he hates being betrayed.
Tim is smart, astonishingly so, and he understood that Percy's stories are all meant to make him understand something.
He tells him of Achilles, about how he chose glory over a quiet and peaceful life with his beloved and later regretted it.
Percy tells him how his invincibility had a cost as all power does. He asks him what he thought about invincibility, about the kind of power that Batman wields and at what cost, and Tim answers correctly. Too precisely.
“You don't have to make sure that I get the correct answer, Tim. That's not the point of this exercise. You don't have to lie to me either, even if you feel like you always have to do it with everyone.”
Tim looked at him a bit panicked, as if he's been going through life by telling people what they needed to hear, and they moved on. Percy now knows that his assumption was true, and it breaks his heart on Tim's behalf. He looked like he didn't have an answer.
“You know I accept you for who you are, right? Even when I know you're lying because you think that's the acceptable response as opposed to what you really want to say?”
Tim's expression only broke his heart further. He didn't seem to believe it, like Percy's offer of acceptance was a lie, a trick.
He hugged Tim after making sure that he's okay with it. He shouldn't have bothered, Tim didn't seem to want to let him go, ever. That's another thing, the kid's touch starved. Percy does his best to give him all the hugs he can give.
“I don't mind you lying, I just want you to know what you really think, not what you think people will accept. You can keep doing it if it makes you feel better in social interactions but I don't want you to have a complex that what you think, that who you are isn't right or acceptable, okay?”
He didn't say anything. Didn't nod. Didn't give any visible reactions.
“You never” he said emphatically, with all the assurance he could put into his words. “and I mean never have to lie to me. At least know that, okay?”
“Okay.” He said in a small voice that reminded Percy of just how young he was. He kept hugging Tim as long as he could.
“Tim won't go to sleep until you do.” Percy said with all the contempt he could muster. “Don't make his life harder than you've already done, just go to sleep. He's sick.”
Bruce looked up at him from where he was obsessively looking at some old files about the League of Shadows. Percy isn't a fan, so he doesn't pay attention.
He's been guilting Bruce into good behaviour because Percy will throw Riptide away before being nice to Bruce unless he at least apologizes. He's been doing nice things for a while. Being better to Tim, to Dick, to Percy but he's not going to let up being horrible until he apologizes. Who does he think he is? To tell Percy that –
Oh, even thinking about it makes him mad.
His face must have shown what he thought because he actually gave him a nod and got up. Or maybe it's bat telepathy, who knows? Percy doesn't.
He paused on his way upstairs near Percy and shifted on his feet.
Wait. What? What's happening?
He looked like he wanted to say something, but then his expression changed to uncertain. Whatever that's about, Percy isn't letting go so he steps squarely in front of him and raises an eyebrow.
“I'm sorry.” It tumbles out of his mouth like he's been holding on to it forever.
He isn't lying. Good. Percy would kill him if he was lying. He stares at him for an uncomfortably long time and then nods. He doesn't get out of the way, though. He's waiting and he makes it obvious by impatiently tapping his foot.
Bruce looked pitiful. Also good.
“You know I'm not good at this.” He started but stopped when Percy scoffed.
Why doesn't he just use his bat telepathy now and tell him what he wants to hea–
“They're your kids.”
Jesus fuck. Can he really hear Percy's thoughts?
“More than they're mine. I'm sorry I said otherwise. I didn't mean it.” He didn't look like he was expecting to be forgiven or anything.
Fine. Fine, Percy said he won't be horrible if he apologized. Well, he didn't tell Bruce that but he did tell himself so he won't be clawing the skin off of Bruce's face tonight. Percy nodded at him in acceptance and made his way upstairs. He had a sick kid to take care of.
“Tim, come on. You said you'll sleep if Bruce does. He went to sleep.”
Percy was in the process of wrangling the little demon into bed after making him some soup while Tim obsessively worked on a case and forcefully made him take medicine.
“I just” he sniffled “want another hour.”
“No. You're going to sleep now.”
Percy shoved him into his room and then his bed which wasn't that hard considering Tim was really sick and the medicine started to make him a little loopy.
He tucked him in while Tim unsuccessfully tried to get back up and couldn't help but laugh at him. He reminded Percy of a cat.
“Sweetheart, go to sleep. I promise, your case will still be here when you wake up.”
Tim mumbled something that wasn't clear to him.
“What?”
“I said, I'm not sweetheart. Jason and Dick are, but I'm not.”
Percy blinked.
At first Percy thought that Tim didn't like being called that and was about to apologise and reassure him that Percy won't be calling him anything he doesn't like but Tim's next sentence stopped him cold.
“I saw the old clips with Jason and I've heard you call Dick that but I'm not sweetheart.” He was slurring slightly and he pouted.
It was a complaint ,a grievance that Tim never brought up while being completely in control of his thoughts.
Percy realised with mounting horror that while he never made the conscious decision to do it, he never called Tim that before. Maybe it's because calling anyone that after Jason felt wrong, or maybe that's just not the nickname that he thought felt appropriate for Tim, but the truth is none of it matters.
Tim felt as if he wasn't called that because Percy didn't value him like he did Dick and Jason.
Percy knows that he didn't think of Tim as his kid the second he laid eyes on Tim like he did with Jason and Dick, but he's been thinking of Tim as his kid for a long time now. He just thought Tim didn't want to call him Dad because he already had one and he was old enough to not want anyone else into that role, not because he thought Percy doesn't see him as his son.
“Of course you are, sweetheart.” He held his face in his hands and looked him in the eyes. “You are my little demon child just like Dick and Jason. I'm sorry I made you feel like you're different.”
“You are my son, has been for a long time. Do you understand?” Percy asked seriously.
Tim gave him a wide eyed look and slowly nodded.
“Good. Now go to sleep, sweetheart. We'll talk when you wake up.” Percy kissed him on his forehead and sat near him until he fell asleep.
How could Percy mess up so much? Why didn't he see that Tim would feel that way?
He's going to make sure that Tim knows that he's just as much Percy's kid as Dick is, as Jason was.
Tim and Percy did have their talk and Percy knows that they're doing a lot better. Tim even started telling him the truth when he feels like lying and when Percy didn't get upset or mad, he looked relieved.
Percy explained that he taught Tim strategy because he wanted to and not because he thought it would make Tim useful. He knows Tim feels like he has to prove himself as Robin, but there's not much he can do about that as much as he tries.
It's not his approval they crave.
Percy's taken to annoying the Bat into giving Tim compliments. He has no idea if it worked.
Bruce is being better, he has movie nights with Tim, picks him up from school and he's taken to giving Percy all the blue things he could find. It's a little adorable.
They even talked about Jason once. It ended with Percy storming off and crying in his room, but hey, baby steps. He knows Dick is trying to make him go to therapy.
Things are better, he thinks. If he could make Tim give up Robin, that would be great. But he knows it's not going to happen. Tim loves it.
Percy told Tim that he could be one of the most powerful and dangerous people on the planet one day which of course made the kid look at him incredulously because he doesn't think much of himself, but Percy's actively trying to change that. He told him that there's a reason the Titans listen to him, that there's a reason Batman accepted him as Robin. He told him that he'll grow up to be powerful and that Percy doesn't want to be an irresponsible parent who didn't tell his son how to handle power.
Tim listens to him, it's a little satisfying. Percy told him to make his own conclusions about whatever story he tells him and not to respond with whatever he thinks that Percy wants to hear.
He started slowly, likely testing to see if Percy will accept his answer and when he did, he relaxed. Tim's answers weren't as concerning as he thought they were, but Percy told him what he thought about them. Why he couldn't just think of the world in black and white, and reassured him that Tim already knows how to resolve issues, and that he has every confidence in Tim.
And he does. When Tim stole the batmobile, Percy just looked positively smug which Bruce narrowed his eyes at, but wisely kept quiet.
It's good. He thinks.
Percy reads him the Odyssey again. He told him that Jason used to read to them, that he was so much better at it. He showed him Jason's chaise in the library, his favourite books, told him that Jason would have loved having a little brother.
Tim listened in rapt attention. No one ever talks about him, but Percy's not going to let him be forgotten. Tim should know his brother.
He tells him that he knows Tim already knows all of this because he's a little stalker. (I gather information, dad. It's not … fine, it's stalking, shut up.)
But he still told him stories about his brother. And Tim loves listening to them from him. He loves it even more when Percy refers to Jason as his brother. He knows Tim looked up to him, that he was Tim's Robin, that he's the one Tim followed around with a camera.
It hurts when he talks about Jason, but it helps too, he thinks. Jason is not supposed to be a topic that's never brought up. He should be remembered.
Tim will remember him. He thought that Jason would have approved of his little brother.
“Dad…” Tim's voice came through the phone. He didn't sound good. He sounded broken, in pain. “It's Jason.”