Archive of Our Own ^beta

“He’s younger than me, lives in Gotham of all places, I never wanted to go there, now I get to search the whole city for one boy.” Percy told Annabeth and Grover. His father had come to him earlier that day to tell him of a brother he’d never known, one who had been hidden in the stench of Gotham his whole life, one who had just discovered his powers and demigod status. Poor kid must be so scared, Percy wondered how old he was, his father hadn’t said. He couldn’t be too old or surely he would have been claimed already and would have been part of the last few wars.

“Gotham,” Grover shuttered, “no wonder he’s never been found, satyrs won’t go there. It’s awful, cursed several times over.”

“I guess that means you aren’t coming with me,” Percy joked.

“No way, sorry, you’re on your own with this one.” Grover said seriously. Percy just laughed.

“So, what do you actually know about him that would help you find him?” Annabeth asked.

“His name is Jason Peter Todd, he was adopted by Bruce Wayne and that’s about it.” Percy said with a sigh, this wasn’t going to be easy. Annabeth had her smart phone out in a flash, probably running his brother’s name.

“Ah ha, I knew he sounded familiar. Percy, Jason Todd died, he was killed in a terrorist attack in Ethiopia,” Annabeth told him gently.

“Yeah, dad said he was brought back somehow, that he didn’t stay dead, whatever that means.” Percy said, an immortal little brother, Percy wondered if he’d been dipped in the Styx too, or if there were higher powers at play, but who other than Hades could release a soul from the Underworld? Whatever had brought his brother back he wanted no part in it.

“So what, you’re just gonna wander Gotham until you find him, somehow?” Grover asked, skeptical.

“Yeah, I figure if I look for more than a week I’ll just find some way to talk to Wayne, he might know where his son is.” Percy said, not looking forward to this trip.

“Or he has no idea Jason was brought back from the dead and will call the cops on you.” Annabeth said.

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Percy shrugged it off.

“Good luck I guess,” Grover said, “you should bring him back to Camp when you find him, introduce him around.” Hm, that wasn’t a bad idea. He’d probably want to meet the others and see what being a demi-god was all about. Hell he might even be homeless and need a place to stay. Nodding Percy straightened his shoulders, he’d leave in the morning.

Percy tried to use his head, a Poseidon kid would probably be attracted to water, and might be staying close to the harbor. Only Gotham was an island and there was a ton of waterfront to search. Percy had been searching for days, trying to stay under the radar of both the monsters in the city and the Bats. New York had its fair share of superheroes, but the Bats had always freaked Percy out. Another reason to stay out of Gotham.

It was on the fifth day that Percy got lucky.

He was strolling along some docks idly searching the faces of passersby, he knew most likely Jason would look like him, most demi-gods favored their siblings, or at least had similar features. So he was looking for dark hair and ocean eyes, too bad he didn’t have an age range. He should have done his own internet search, there would have probably been pictures, maybe even a date of birth.

He heard the roar of a monster and started running, there next to a half-destroyed warehouse was a hydra. Climbing out of the harbor on a dock ladder was what looked to be a costumed hero. He was in leather, with gun holsters, and a shiny red helmet. He squared up to the hydra without a weapon. Percy already had Riptide in hand about to jump in when the guy summoned flaming swords out of nowhere.

Holy crap! The guy weaved and dodged, slicing heads, but not all the way through, killing them but not allowing them to grow another one. Smart. He made his way past the heads and drove the swords into the monster’s body. Percy watched as it erupted into golden dust and blew away.

“Mother of the Gods, that was so cool!” Percy shouted in his excitement, he didn’t know what those swords were, they definitely weren’t celestial bronze, but they’d killed a monster, Percy wanted a closer look.

It seemed for a moment he might get one as the guy turned on him and held the swords up and ready to fight.

“Who the hell are you?” the guy asked, voice coming out robotic and mechanized.

“My name is Percy, I was coming to help you with the hydra, but you totally didn’t need my help, that was awesome by the way.” Percy explained, with a big smile, the guy let go of the swords, and they vanished, so cool. Then he reached up and did something to the helmet and pulled it off, he was wearing a mask underneath, but that didn’t stop Percy from recognizing him.

He had thick black curls, with a white streak in the front. He couldn’t see his eyes but he’d put money down on them matching Percy’s. His face was one Percy saw in the mirror every day. Jason! This had to be Jason. He definitely wasn’t a kid. He had to be in his late teens, early twenties, why the hell had it taken Poseidon this long to claim him, they had a deal in place with the gods to avoid this very situation.

Jason accused him of being a face stealer, which Percy denied, then Percy had the awkward job of explaining that Jason was a demi-god, and his father was Poseidon, something he seemed to already have guessed. Jason looked deep in thought and broody the whole time, Percy wondered if he pulled off sultry cologne ad when he was in thought like Jason did. He doubted it.

Jason seemed completely shocked however to learn that they were brothers. His jaw going slack and his eyebrows raising nearly to his hairline. It couldn’t be that surprising, they did look exactly alike.

Percy explained the monsters, and the mist, edging closer to a skittish Jason the whole time, until he could clap him on the shoulder, and accept his claim of brotherhood.

Percy stayed with Jason in his apartment for a few days getting to know him. He was different than expected, most demi-gods were hyper and energetic, rarely sitting still. But Jason could curl up on the couch and read for hours. Books in all sorts of languages. Percy was intrigued.

He was also an excellent cook, something Percy had never taken up himself. And when they went out he seemed to know everyone, stopping to talk to kids playing soccer in the alleyways, slipping money to girls on the street corners that Percy suspected were prostitutes, and helping the elderly carry their grocery bags.

“So you don’t know how you came back, just dead one minute then boom- tapped in your coffin?” Percy asked to clarify, they were sharing stories of their pasts. Percy thought his life was fucked up, but jeez.

“Yeah, I was catatonic for like a year until an assassin lady dunked me in something called the Lazarus Pit, it elongates your life and can heal nearly anything. It brought my mind back.” Jason said like it was a common occurrence everyone went through, not a serious source of trauma.

“Then you decided to become a hero, and take on Batman?”

“Well, I would say a hero exactly, I was a Crime Lord first, just trying to bring out Batman, but when that fell apart, yeah, I started trying to clean up the Alley.” A Crime Lord? That was a new one.

“But you’re solidly a good guy now?” Percy pushed. Jason pursed his lips, thinking, then he nodded.

“I mean I still control the drug trade in the Alley, but that’s only to keep them from selling to kids.” Jason defended himself, and Percy could see his perspective, he didn’t like it, but what other choice did a legally dead kid have but to turn to crime, he couldn’t get a job or go to school.

“He goes by the Red Hood,” Percy told his mom. She coughed on one of the blue M&M’s she’d been eating.

“Red Hood, Percy, he's a psycho and a villain.” She screeched.

“He’s misunderstood, he’s trying to clean up the neighborhood he was raised in.” Percy defended.

“He decapitated eight people and put their heads in a duffel bag, it was all over the news.” Percy hadn’t seen that, but Jason had explained it.

“They were selling drugs to kids, and when the kids couldn’t pay they were forcing them into prostitution to pay off their debts, kids, like 12 year olds mom, they were disgusting.” Percy said. Jason had chosen them just because of that. Mom just hummed, and picked out another M&M.

“He stopped doing that sort of thing these days, plus he was pretty traumatized at the time, he’d just died then been brought back, he woke up in his coffin.” Percy stressed, “he had to unbury himself, then he was held by a group of assassins for over a year. No one would leave that alright in the head.” Mom seemed to waver.

“I want to meet him.” She demanded. Percy blew out a long breath, he could probably arrange that.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Jackson,” Jason said, holding out a cake he’d baked when mom answered the door, suck-up.

“It’s Sally, please.” Mom said, Percy was hovering nervously behind her. Jason smiled at him, and Mom gasped. “You two look so much alike, you could be twins.” She said really looking between them.

“I know right, I bet we could get away with some neat pranks,” Percy mused.

“Don’t you go getting your brother in trouble, young man.” Mom admonished and Jason laughed. “Hm, you just need Tyson here to round out the trio.” Mom said after another moment of studying the two of them.

Tyson! He’d forgotten to explain Tyson to Jason!

“Who’s Tyson?” Jason asked, curious tilt to his head. Mom side eyed Percy pretty hard.

“You didn’t tell him about his other brother?” Mom asked, well it was a question but her voice was hard and it came out more like a demand.

“I forgot,” Percy said holding his hands up, “it was a hectic week.”

“I have another brother?” Jason asked, excitement tinging his voice.

“Yeah,” Percy said rubbing the back of his neck, “Tyson, he’s special,” Percy hedged, he knew Jason’s first interaction with cyclops hadn't been very positive. “I’ll introduce you tomorrow at Camp.” Jason had decided to visit Camp Halfblood for a few days. Mom just hummed and glared, she knew he wasn’t explaining things correctly. But luckily she got distracted by a timer going off.

Dinner had been pretty good, mom had asked some leading and very personal questions but Jason had answered honestly, not ashamed of his actions. By the time he left mom seemed pretty accepting.

Now they were on the outskirts of Camp, Percy wanted to warn Jason, though he wasn’t sure what to warn him about. But Jason handled everything really well. He just laughed when one of the younger Hermes kids stole his wallet, stealing it back with a neat sleight of hand trick that the kid demanded he show him. Apparently he learned it from Catwoman. He seemed wary of the Aphrodite kids, but asked a million questions of the Hephestus kids. Percy was worried for no reason. Finally he got everyone to give them some space and pulled Jason along to meet Tyson.

Jason startled for a second at the sight of a cyclops, tensing up and Percy saw him rotate his wrists, like he was preparing to pull his fancy blades out.

“This is Tyson,” Percy rushed to introduce them. “My little brother, well I guess he’s your older brother.”

“No fucking way.” Jason remarked, both Percy and Tyson tensed, Tyson had been so excited to meet his other brother, Percy hoped this wasn’t about to be heartbreaking for him. “I am not the youngest child, I refused to be, congratulations Tyson, you get to be the honorary baby.” Jason announced before thrusting out a hand for Tyson to shake, Tyson of course knocked away his hand and pulled him into an enthusiastic hug.

“That’s fine, Percy treats me like a baby most of the time anyway.” Tyson said with a smirk directed at Percy.

“You’re both babies to me,” Percy said with a laugh.

“You’re like two years or something older, not that much of a gap really.” Jason said and Tyson nodded.

“Are you two going to gang up on me now?” Percy asked, foreseeing trouble in his future. Tyson and Jason looked at each other and smiled.

“Definitely,” Jason answered for the both of them, Percy just blew out a sigh, what else could he do?

Okay, okay, he could admit his pride was a little bit hurt. Jason had just beat him in a sword fight, sure it was a long battle and they’d been pretty evenly matched most of the time, but that didn’t stop his ego from being wounded. It didn’t help that Clarisse was making the most of his failure and heckling the hell out of him.

He did not run away, he enacted a strategic retreat, and found Annabeth to try and get a little sympathy. When he was feeling a little less sore about it he went to find Jason. He was back in the ring, this time with Clarisse, they had staffs and were beating the hell out of each other.

Percy went to intervene but noticed Jason’s wild smile and Clarisse’s whoops and hollers. Those crazy kids were apparently having the time of their lives. He sat back with the others and watched. Jason put up a pretty good fight but this time he lost, it was a narrow margin, but still a decisive defeat.

He rose from his prone position and shook Clarisse’s hand.

“I’d love to see you and Tim spar one day, he’s my adopted brother, human, but he’s been studying the staff for years, he’s better than me.” Jason said and Clarisse nodded.

“Any time, I love taking pretty boys down a peg or two.” Clarisse said with a laugh.

“Aww, you think I’m pretty,” Jason joked, and Clarisse turned a little pink before she swept out her staff and took Jason’s feet out from under him.

“Pretty lame,” She growled. Jason just laughed and laughed. Percy couldn’t help but join him in his amusement.

Percy regained some standing the next day when he, Jason and Tyson went on a three man rampage, destroying the Athena kids in Capture the Flag. That victory would live in his heart for years.

“You know him well, how should I approach him?” Percy felt a little surreal, talking to his father about how he should approach his little brother.

“Cautiously, he’s probably going to take a swing at you.” Percy said honestly, he and Jason hadn’t really talked about their dad, but Jason had daddy issues embedded in his DNA. Poseidon nodded, at least he could understand why Jason might want to punch him.

“I want to make him a weapon, like yours, do you know what he’d like?” Part of Percy was jealous, he didn’t think his father had spent this much time agonizing over him, he had barely helped him during his first mission. But he shoved that down, it wasn’t Jason’s fault.

“Swords, he uses a two-handed method, he’s good, better than me.” His father raised an eyebrow.

“You’re very good.”

“Jason’s better.” Percy said plainly. “You should probably wait to give him the swords until after he’s gotten his anger out, you might get stabbed.” Percy did pass on, Poseidon nodded like it was sage advice.

“So, I met our dad,” Jason said once Percy answered the phone.

“Alright, how did it go?” Knowing demi-gods didn’t always have the best relationships with their godly parents. He hoped Poseidon had been careful with Jason like he’d suggested, he’d been messed up a lot by his other parents.

“He, uh, told me about my mother, my real mother, not that bitch Sheila. She wasn’t my mother after all.” Jason said, sounding poleaxed.

“That’s a good thing right? I know how you feel about Sheila,” they had talked about the awful woman when Jason explained his death.

“Yeah, I mean my mother’s dead, I still won’t get to meet her, but dad told me about her. Her family is still alive, so I thought I might go find them.” That sounded more like a plea for reassurance than a statement.

“You should,” Percy encouraged, he knew Jason would need a little push. “It sounds like a good idea, they probably don’t know about you, it would be good for them and you to get that closure.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Jason sighed, “what if they hate me?”

“Then fuck them,” Percy said, he didn’t curse often but he thought the situation warranted it. “If they can’t see how awesome you are then you don’t need them. You already have two families. But Jason, they're gonna love you.”

“You think so?” Jason hedged.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t they, the rest of your family loves you, it’s kind of how families work. Love them even when you don’t like them,” Percy hoped that was helpful.

“I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna go find them.” Jason decided.

“Good, do you want me to come with?” Percy asked, it would be hard to get more time off from class but he’d arrange it if Jason needed him.

“Naw, I want to do this alone.” Jason replied.

“If you change your mind let me know.” Percy said and they changed the subject.

 A week later Jason called raving about how cool his grandparents were, and how many cousins he had. Percy was relieved to know everything had gone so well.

“Damian will probably be an asshole, he doesn’t mean it though, acting like a little dick is his love language.” That wasn’t as reassuring as Jason obviously thought it was. “Speaking of Dicks, he’ll be polite and charming but watch out, he’s super jealous, Tim only knows how to speak in snark, just bitch back at him. Cass, Steph and Duke are all super cool though, you’ll like them.” Jason was preparing him for dinner with the Wayne clan.

Jason had put off the invitation for as long as he could, Percy had heard him complain often about his other family and knew they loved Jason but weren’t the best at expressing that.

Tyson had been invited too but was super busy having a break through on one of his projects, so had declined. Percy wished he had a safety buffer.

The Wayne’s had been very polite for the first few minutes, letting him get acclimated to meeting so many people at once. Then Damian turned to him.

“Jason says you practice the sword, would you care for a spar?” The kid asked, was he serious?

“Are you as good as Jason?” Damian’s forehead creased.

“What do you mean, Todd does not practice the blade,” behind the kid Jason was fervently shaking his head with wide pleading eyes. Percy smirked, just last week Jason had embarrassed the hell out of him in front of his college friends, pay back time.

“What do you mean? Jason’s one of the best swordsmen I’ve ever met.” Percy said innocently, ignoring Jason’s glare and threatening gesture. Damian spun around to face his brother.

“Is that true? Do you know how to use a sword?” Damian demanded to know.

“Yes,” Jason said begrudgingly.

“I demand to know where you learned.” Damian said, bristling.

“Your mom,” Jason said only partly in jest, unable to help himself.

“Mother! Then you must be good, she’d never produce a subpar student, I demand a match, I shall defeat you then vanquish your brother.” Damian challenged, Percy thought his determined little face was the cutest thing, but was not going to say that out loud. He caught Cass’s eye and she grinned at him, obviously thinking the same thing.

“Maybe after dinner brat, if you’re good.” Jason conceded, Damian huffed and folded his arms over his chest.

“Do not think you can distract me or get out of this, I will beat you.” Jason just rolled his eyes and clapped Damian on the shoulder.

“You can try kiddo.” Damian looked for a moment like he would bite Jason’s hand, but Dick intervened quickly.

“Any other secrets you’re keeping from us?” Dick asked waspishly.

“Yeah, Tim is my secret love child, I seduced his mom when I was three.” Jason said, Tim squawked in anger, but the others laughed at his insulted face.

“Leave me out of this.” He said, glaring. Dick just rolled his eyes, but Alfred came to get them for dinner before he could say anything.

Dinner itself was nice, tasty as hell, and he was sat by Cass and Duke, who were good, if sporadic conversationalists.

After dinner had digested a while, he was pulled into a spar with Damian, the kid was good, hell he was great even. Jason still beat him, his two-handed approach was hard to fend off. Even when he lost a blade he could switch hands in seconds, confusing and making parrying difficult. Damian was a little tired for their spar but still almost had Percy at a draw, Percy only managed to pull out a victory at the last second. These guys were super bad for his ego.

He left with Damian’s phone number and an open invitation to spar whenever he was in Gotham. Dick had eventually warmed up a little, and he got hugs from the girls before he left. All in all, not too bad.

“Hey, have you told them about meeting your mother’s family yet?” Percy asked as they drove back to Jason’s place. Jason’s face went shockingly pale.

“Oh fuck! Dick is going to murder me.” Jason said, obviously he had not, Percy couldn’t help his laughter, he was so winning in this older brother competition.

Percy was exhausted, he’d been fighting for days, these aliens were fearsome and determined. But with the gods' assistance they were driving them back, slowly but surely. Jason had been a little twitchy ever since leaving New York but Percy had been too busy to really talk. He finally got a moment when the aliens they were fighting in DC packed up and flew back into space giving them a reprieve.

He cornered Jason in the pool of the hotel they were staying in, good idea, water would help.

“So, what has you so withdrawn?” He asked when Jason finally surfaced from his dip.

“Grandma called our last day in New York, said the whole family had seen me on TV fighting aliens as the Red Hood.” Jason said, rubbing his face. Oh hell, did they cut ties with him? Had they thrown him out of the family? That would absolutely crush Jason.

“What did she say?” Percy demanded.

“That if I didn’t have a very good explanation for why my fool butt was fighting aliens she was sending my uncles to kidnap me and bring me back to North Carolina.” Jason said, Percy heaved a relieved sigh, that wasn’t so bad.

“Okay, okay, I was expecting worse, you explained right?” Percy asked, Jason nodded.

“About everything, being a demi-god, a hero, everything, they hadn’t believed at first but I told them I could prove it next time I saw them.” Jason said.

“That should be pretty easy, they live next to the ocean right?” Jason nodded, “Take a beach day, do a few tricks, no problem.”

“Yeah, that’s the easy part, I just don’t want them to think of me differently, you know, they’re my normal family. I like that. Being part of something ordinary.” Jason lamented, sinking back under the water for a second. Percy chuckled at his dramatics for a moment while Jason couldn’t see him.

“It’ll be fine,” he said when Jason resurfaced. “I understand, I like having mom not involved with this stuff too, going to see her and everything about being a demi-god just slipping away.” Jason nodded along. Percy didn’t really have much more to say though, so they just tread water in silence for a little while.

“Do you think Orion would fly me out to see them when we’re done, my little cousins would love to meet a Pegasus, it might get me out of a little bit of trouble.” Jason asked with hope in his voice. This time Percy couldn’t help his laughter, even if it got him dunked.