Sally leaned against a counter in the kitchen contemplating life. She held her mug like it's the only thing that mattered, when Alfred was suddenly next to her, onions and knife in hand, ready to cook the next meal.
She'd say he walked in, but he was a ninja butler and , frankly, she didn't notice him entering.
Choking on her tea, she went into a coughing fit. She swears this man could successfully sneak up on Batman he was so quiet.
"U-uncle Alfred! I- when did you get here?" She asked,clearing her throat, and putting down the drink. Then she paused. "I mean it is your house I just meant the kitchen"
Alfred looked at her, amused. "Well, I was just starting on dinner..." he gestured with the knife in his hand towards the cutting board. "It'll be fried rice."
"Oh.." she low key snapped out of her daze, "oh!", she rushed next to him. "Let me help you with that." She took, or rather snatched the knife from his hand, swirling it around like a demigod would a dagger.
You could definitely say she learned a few tricks over the years. How could she not?
She ended her elaborate knife twirling by stabbing an onion, definitely taking out some of her aggression on it. Or as she would call it,' taking over' cutting it.
Alfred gave her a pointed look, Recognizing the look in her eyes. He decided not to comment on the blunt knife snatch, and went to get a new cutting board and a knife to cut some Bell-peppers instead.
Even if she was going through some stuff involving kids getting shot, injured and going missing, (A thing he definitely could say he relates to.) it was nice having someone in the kitchen with him that knew how to use something other than the coffee machine (Tim drake if you're seeing this this is a sign to stop. Get some help.) , not to blow up eggs in the microwave. (Dick Grayson.), or use a katana as a kitchen utensil, and scratch half of the pans (Damian.)
Jason being the exception, could cook, but he wasn't there enough to actually keep him company in the kitchen. Seriously, he made killer empanadas. Like- 'Bruce would not approve of this' level of killer empanadas.
Not that he really needed company in the kitchen. Cooking always calmed him down. He assumed it was the same for his niece, seeing as she was on the verge of crying, and it looked as if she wanted to blame it on the onions. Not that he minded though.
She started slicing them, leaving Alfred to cut up the bell peppers silently, side glancing at his long lost niece. He debated what to say- even if he has been comforting and advising for years, he didn't quite know how to approach her.
Maybe it's the fact he barely knew her at all. On the surface, she was the woman he's been talking on the phone with for the past few months, but he couldn't help wondering what was under all of that.
The secrets she so badly kept (literally badly.), the group of people after her daughter, the bad cover ups when it comes to Percy...
Heavens, if she was a hero her identity would have been blown.
Not that they've been keeping a low profile anyway, blowing up National monuments and going missing. It just seems like since Percy came back, the woman he's been talking to on the phone, his niece, has been questioning her place in percy's life, and her place as a mother.
(...but no need to man-splane the situation right? Because there's enough exposition and angst in the air that you could get an allergic reaction. Percy, obviously got brain damage from my inability to write, and it's apparent since she decided throwing away the mental support ring was a good idea. Good job Percy, we are so proud of you. Ok I'll stop bothering you guys now. Back to master chef ft. Alfred and Sally.)
Alfred put down the knife for a moment, listening in on the white noise of the kitchen. He saw how the gears were turning in her head. He saw she was stuck, trying to balance the day to day dramas and her daughter being a magnet of chaos, so he did the best thing he could think of.
"How are you doing?"
She froze, just staring at the onions for a minute. Her breath was getting a bit unsteady, but she tried to steady it.
"I'm managing. Living my life right now...." She remarked, sarcasm apparent in her voice.
She put down the knife,the 'clang' sound, creating a pause in the monologue she was giving.
"It's stupid that this is not even that much of a special event."
Alfred, who still didn't know much about the situation, wanted to assure her, but he knew he didn't know enough. He knew she wouldn't full heartedly believe him if he said everything is going to be ok when he only knew so much.
Sally took a moment. She took a moment to decide if spilling her guts out to an uncle that she only recently met, her only other living family member except for percy, was a good idea.
She took a moment to consider why she felt like she resonated with him, like she knew him her whole life.
She took a moment to decide that it may be good to tell him. He seemed trustworthy enough. She at least, trusted him enough.
She took another shaky breath, gliding her thumb over her palm, finally making eye contact with her newly found family.
It couldn't hurt. She already caused enough drama, in a household she was a guest in, and they've all been lying about everything since they got here.
Continuing to rub circles in her palm, sally tried to decide.
She does owe them an explanation... and if he thinks she's crazy she could just brush it off as a joke?
She suddenly let out a half laugh, putting her hand down on the counter, as to compose herself.
״I mean it's crazy..." sally moved her hair behind her ear with her other hand, looking at him with slight frustration in her eyes. And what if the gods won't approve of her revealing the godly world to them? Not that it would do anything, they are after all just mortals like her. They don't have any effect on the world right? And neither does she. Only Percy and the others do, and all she can do is support her from the side.
"Its crazy how stupid it is that I'm not used to everything already."
Alfred gave her a questioning look, to compel her to go on, and she did.
״Am I just supposed to let her be in danger? brush it off like an elaborate joke? Even if it's just an aspect of her life, even if to her it's normal, even if I've been doing whatever I can to support her, to protect her- is it right?" She shook slightly.
"How can I just let her put herself in danger? I know I can't act over protective, I don't want to burden her, and I know this isn't about me, but honestly-"
she picked up the knife with her right hand, just kinda gripping the handle as it leant on the cutting board. "How am I just supposed to watch from the side as she's being hunted down? How-"
Tears streamed down her face as she leaned back on the counter. "Alfred, how can I just let her be just after she got kidnapped for six months? How can I sit here, knowing that there's absolutely nothing I can do to help her when she's out there just-"
She paused, her face frozen.
Sally was a strong woman. She did so much over the years for her family. Heck she married gabe, and suffered abuse for years just to keep Percy safe, and she'd do it again in a heartbeat just to protect her child. But... she can't. Percy saved the world and has been facing monsters sally could never handle. And she was so, SO proud of the girl Percy has become... it's just-
"I'm going to come home one day... and she'll be dead. And there's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is provide her with the closest thing to normalcy she has, and i can't even do that right- look what happened-"
"Sally." A hand touched her shoulder. She raised her face, looking up at Alfred.
"Yeah?" She looked at him, glassy wet eyes looking into the warm understanding eyes of her uncle.
"What you're doing is enough. What you are doing is important, and I do believe Percy thinks so as well."
Sally sniffled at this.
"Now, I do not know the specifics about the dangers Percy is in, but I do know how it feels to watch from aside as your family is in danger, and what you are doing, what you are is vital for her. You make a difference if percy's life, and even if it doesn't feel that way you are a great mother."
She looked him in the eyes, taking the words in. He was Sincere, and she could feel her mind sobering up, as a calm passed through her.
Everything was still. It was warm, and she was there with her family.
She wiped her eyes with her forearm, careful not to get onion juice in her eyes, and looked up again at her uncle, a smile now on her face.
"Thank you."
She took a breath a looked up at her uncle, a small smile on her face now, and even though she did still kind of look like a mess, she looked beautiful nonetheless.
She turned to her cutting board, picking it up and heading towards the stove.
"We better get cooking then."
—
He rubbed his wrist, that was still slightly sore from the lasso. "Yea that's basically that. Now can I leave? I got to find sunshine." He tried to push past Diana, who was just kinda looking at him and at her mom and a dazed look, only to feel weak, and almost fall down. Great. Who doesn't like power side effects.
...Will doesn't. Will would bloody murder him if he found out he shadow traveled that much.
..Will...damn mortals and their boyfriend kidnapping bullshit.
Diana rushed to help him out. "Cousin! Save your strength." She put her hand on his shoulder, only for him to look up at her with a tired expression. Why is she acting like his aunt if they literally just met. "We have much to talk about."
Her grip on his shoulder was strong, so naturally he pulled back a bit, trying to shake this confused demigod off of him. Not that it helped, since her grip remained as strong and firm as it was before. Nico raised an eyebrow at her. He needed to find Will, but right now, he could barely move, and he literally had no leads about wills location. Well... he could go back to where they took him, but shadow traveling right now wouldn't be possible without melting into shadow...
"Cousin?" He focused back on Diana who apparently never heard of personal space. She looked like a lost puppy who was also a giant muscular Amazonian warrior lady.
Suddenly he had the slight regret of not carrying a random copy of the Orientation film with him everywhere he goes. He could just kinda YEET it at confused demigods and go on with his life. It would have made this so much easier.
...who is he kidding? The orientation film needs to be remade. It'll just make this harder.
Instead of doing that though, He gently removed her hand from his shoulder, straightening his jacket, he sighed.
"Fine. let's talk."
—-
"So what you're saying, is that if I put on sunglasses, no one would be able to recognise me ever? That's what you're saying right now?" Percy leaned back while making eye contact with dick, who was still dressed as nightwing."hades, what happened to people while I was gone?!"
Dick looked at her, with a "are you fucking kidding me right now" look.
She looked back at him, scrunching her eyebrows. "I mean- you guys were so obvious about your fighting backgrounds, but like- " she gestured with her hand towards dick, who was now leaning on a rooftop rail. "I didn't think you were actually tights wearing superheros-"
They came up there after Percy very publicly and elegantly decided to not even pretend it was hard to recognize him. Now Dick was wondering if that was the right choice. Only that he needed to have that internal debate for long since percy already made a decision.
She rubbed her neck, taking a second to take a breath. Ok, yea, let's pretend this isn't ridiculous. Then she looked up at dick, and decided to accept it.
"Ok then. Why not." She paused for a second and then smirked. "Oh...OH, So the nickname reaction-" if he reacted weirdly to her nicknames, and Bruce had that
bandage, and Jason felt like death- oh...
Maybe they are all comic book cosplayers. Huh.
she looked at dick who at this point who started walking away.
"Di immortales, Of course I missed The existence of superheroes." She looked over the building edge, then turned around quickly, as Dick replied.
"No, yea, let's just go talk about this somewhere else."
"Oh... yea let's not blow your cover, and continue to pretend like no one knows who you are" she chuckled, earning an annoyed look from dick.
He jumped a rooftop and looked to see if she's keeping up. Not surprisingly, he looked back just to see Percy easily following. But after that fight it's not like he didn't know what to expect.
Well. Whatever, they'll talk about it when they get to the batcave.
——
If Diana was Shocked before, this was mind blowing. With all honesty, the last thing she would have expected was a son of hades popping up out of nowhere and practically glowing sass and death energy.
She sat there, tapping her fingers on her thigh taking everything in.
Nico told them the basic outlines of the wars and some general information about camp. And of course, They were shocked. Their expressions showed it well. They sat there, glancing at each other, hesitant to say anything, to break the silence. At some point Diana rubbed her temples and sighed, but other than that there was silence.
Nico didn't mind it though, he had a really bad headache right now and really needed to sleep. Just sleep, no dreams or to be contacted by some deity.
Unless it's about Wills location. In that case it's more than welcome. It's more helpful than Miss Confused Demigod and her mom, who with all honesty was probably cut off by the gods because Zeus broke up with her and didn't want to deal with the consequences.
...but like, just saying. Life's a telenovela. No cap.
"Ok then." Nico gestured towards them with his hand. "How about I go find my boyfriend, and y'all take time to process how your lives have been a total lie. And we can talk after that. Because...Seems like it'll take a while." He jumped off the bed, starting to walk towards the door, brushing off some leaves from his hair.
That seemed to break them out of their daze.
Meanwhile Nico decided that those 5 minutes of talking were sufficient rest and if he just had some ambrosia he could shadow travel again. Probably. Yea, definitely probably maybe.
He'll stay alive as long as will doesn't hear about him doing this.
Speaking of him, He just has to get back to where they got ambushed. He'll figure it out from there.
...wait how far is that from here?
Huh
Where even is here?
"Cousin! You can't! Look at yourself!" Diana called out, once again trying to push him down on the bed, only for him to step back, avoiding her inability to acknowledge personal space.
Why does she care?
He looked at Diana. They said she is the princess of the amazons, but from what he had heard from the seven, the amazons run the company Amazon and are not this polite.more like manslaving Barbadians or something. Eh. He didn't really remember what they said about that, just that they weren't the most pleasant bunch.
...well, if you can call interrogating him with a light lasso polite, they were better than the other Amazons by a mile.. Whatever. We're over that already. Still gonna be salty about it though.
"So." Nico put one of his hands in his pocket. Checking for any bits of ambrosia he maybe missed. It was safe to say there was nothing in his pocket other than a wallet. Delightful."how far away are we from New York?"
Diana walked after him, loud as she always is, and so did Queen Hippolyta silently observing the strange demigod.
As much as Nico had patience for confused demigods and ex fling queens, he gave them enough of his time already.
"Cousin-"
Nico turned around hand half rubbing his temples. " can you stop calling me that? Nico is fine. And where exactly am I?"
Diana looked slightly taken aback, but proceeded nonetheless. "We're in themyscira." She didn't stop after seeing his expression. Obviously he doesn't know where it's located. That's the whole point of it.
"and just how are you intending to get out? We're in the middle of the ocean after all."
Nico paused, considering the options. He could shadow travel, but he didn't know if he could make it that far at his state.
he stood there calculating the distance he could travel and staying unsure of how to get to shore, since Poseidon isn't that nice about him traveling in the ocean. Not that he disliked Poseidon. He wasn't such a bitch like zeus.
...still doesn't mean he's ready to join the fish Percy hangs out with.
Di immortales. How the hades is he gonna get there right now?
In any case, he'll need to recharge. So he looked back at Diana and Hippolyta who seemed way less confused and more worried.
he sighed. "Do you guys have some ambrosia or nectar by any chance?"
——
The walk over to the cave was shorter than she anticipated. Probably because unlike the way out of the house, she wasn't stopping every five seconds to check out an alleyway for a phone booth, or make up stupid excuses for Dick. Also because jumping roofs is quicker than walking the streets of Gotham somehow.
They walked in through some secret entrance and entered a giant cave. Percy stood there for a moment, awe stricken, and slightly uncomfortable being underground. Not that she wasn't on good terms with her uncle H.
But like, all she could say is Dam, Leo would have loved this place.
It was a bunch of platforms in a giant system, and there was a giant coin, and a dinosaur, and a bunch of tech she couldn't even begin to understand.
Ok. Maybe they actually were superheros, or maybe they just have too much money and they don't know what to do with it.
She couldn't get enough. This was a superhero base straight out of comic books.
Dick looked at her amused. "What? NOW you don't have anything to say?"
She looked back at him. "You're one to talk mr. spandex superhero cosplay man. "
He gestured at her with his hand. "Uh huh. Look who's talking, Miss Fabric Soap."
"Oh, ouch!, such painful insults! How could you be so mean to your own mother?!" She gasped dramatically, putting her hand on her forehead, leaning back. "Especially after you blew your own superhero identity just by existing!"
dick gasped right back at her. "Oh wow, You're one to talk about discreteness ms. 'If you value you're life, run.'" . His expression morphed into a smug smirk, while blush crept onto percy's ears.
"I-" she scratched the back of her neck and smiled sheepishly. "How was I supposed to know you could handle-"she paused, and looked him in the eyes."but like, you DO value your life, so that still stands. I'm not talking it back." She put her hands on her hips, slightly wincing at her wounds, but continuing on with a triumphant smile.
He looked amused at that. "Uh huh. Seems like you don't value yours, miss 'im gonna take on three snake ladies and a bunch of giant shadow dogs while I'm injured and in the middle of Gotham alone." Dick walked over to a first aid station, that was situated on one of the platforms. He nodded to Percy to come over, and she complied, following him up.
She chuckled. "Yeah, but I handled it. Clean kills." She snapped her finger at him, and noticed Dick had a strange expression. "Yeah Yeah, as clean as it can go with monster dust poofing everywhere. "
Eh.
dick took out some rubbing alcohol and turned to Percy who had bite marks from that hellhound earlier. "Ah yes. Clean as in let the giant dog chomp your shoulder off."
Percy snorted. "Huh. Forgot about that. Well, I had worse. And by the way you fight I'm guessing you did too."
Dick took off his mask and sighed. He looked her in the eyes, searching for...something? They maintained eye contact, for a silent two seconds. Percy getting what he was thinking about.
"I didn't 'Kill' them" Percy said Matter-of-factly. Dick raised an eyebrow but she continued. "They come back. All I did was send them back to the source, and sooner or later", she flapped her hand to the side, lacing in a slight New York accent, "preferably later, they'll come back." She grabbed the rubbing alcohol from him, since he was just kinda standing around, and she cleaned her wound. "Ok, and that's why Apollo cabin does the first aid-"she winced and muttered, but went on and grabbed more supplies from the cabinet , only to have a hand pull her back towards the medical bed.
Dick nodded with his head once. "Sit down, I got you."
She smiled slightly at him. "Thanks bruh." It was nice of him, even though the wound wasn't that deep and could probably heal within ten minutes in the bath. Ya know. Go all katara on herself.
He paused. "Did you just call me bro?" He asked, his eyes filled with amusement.
He went back to wrapping her shoulder up. She looked back at him and with a look that said 'are you even listening at this point?'.
A smug grin covered her face. "What? No!" She puffed. "I called you bruh. Get it right."