Percy sighed, as he rested one arm against the window of their shared bedroom. Nejire, after a bit of pestering, had convinced Percy that the time had been right to move in together. Truth be told, it hadn't been nearly as hard to convince him than Nejire had been expecting.
She was sitting patiently on the bed, her legs crossed over one another as she watched Percy pace back and forth. He was stressed, she noted idly, she could tell by the way he pulled at his ear, and scratched at the webbing of skin between his thumb and pointer-finger. Nejire was curious, but she thought it odd that Percy was so worked up over something relatively trivial.
Sure, using one's quirk in public and against a villain was against the law, but it was typically different when lives were in danger. They had already been to the police office, and had the entire ordeal smoothed over, so Nejire couldn't understand why Percy looked so agitated.
She stood up, and walked over to him. His shoulders immediately relaxed as she wrapped her arms around his middle, and rested her cheek against his back.
"Percy," She said gently, "Take a breath for me…please…"
She felt his back shudder slightly, and he took a deep breath. Shifting, he swiveled around and wrapped his arms around her. Drawing her close and pressing her head snugly against his heart. It was pounding quickly, and Nejire bit back a sigh. He was still beyond stressed about something.
"Talk to me," she said quietly, "I can't help you if you won't talk to me love,"
"I know," He replied gently, "I just…" He sighed and broke the contact, "Can…can we sit down for this?" Nejire nodded, and wrapped her fingers in his and led him to the bed. They sat down, and Nejire didn't relinquish her hold on him, providing him with an anchor should he need it.
"I knew that one day I'd have to talk to you about this, but I just thought…I hoped that I would have more time…" He bit his lip. Nejire had questions, a million of them, but she knew that wasn't what Percy needed at the moment. He just needed her to be there, he needed her to listen, and he needed her to understand.
So she would.
She would be those things.
A listening understander. No wait, an understanding listener.
Whatever was worrying him, she doubted that it was bad enough that she would feel like she needed to leave him. She was too good of a judge for a person's character for that.
"I…I haven't been completely up front with you about what I am." Percy said softly, "About how I got here."
"You said you were traveling the world right?" Nejire asked, and Percy nodded,
"I was," He admitted, "But that's…not exactly what I meant." His face squished in thought for a moment, before he abruptly stood up, breaking his contact with her. He strode across the room, and to the closet they shared. He opened the door to the closet, and pushed the hanging linens away, as he knelt down on the ground.
He felt around on the ground for a moment, until he pressed down on something, and a hidden hatch appeared, revealing a small hole in the floor. Percy rummaged around in the opening for a moment, before he stood back up, a bundle of items in his hands. Without a word, he walked back over to her, and pressed a small picture frame into her hands. Confused, yet wildly curious, she looked at the photo. It was a picture of him when he was much younger, he must have been only fourteen or fifteen. Yet it was undoubtedly him. He was standing arm in arm with a beautiful woman, maybe in her late thirties, with fine features, and long raven hair. As Nejire looked at the photo, she could see the similarities in the faces of both Percy and the woman, and Nejire realized with a start who the woman must have been.
It was his mother.
But that wasn't the end of the surprises. There was a timestamp on the photograph, in the bottom corner.
08/18/2010
That…that couldn't be right…could it? That was…that was a mistake. There was no way, absolutely no way that…but maybe? Maybe it made some sense…things began to click in her brain, outliers about Percy and his personality that hadn't made sense until that moment.
Percy gently pried the photograph out of her hand, and pressed a new photograph into her hand. It was taken a few years later, made obvious by the considerably older Percy in the frame. He was maybe eighteen or nineteen this time. But Nejire was more focused on what he was wearing. Gone were the casual and comfortable clothes that she associated with the man she loved, and in its place were undoubtedly military fatigues. The backdrop of the photo was an American flag, and the timestamp on that photo was 03/30/2014.
"Percy…" She breathed out, but he wasn't done yet. He pulled the photo away from her again, and handed a small paper over to her. It was rather novel, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen an actual newspaper. But more interesting than the antiquated form of news, was the headline on the front page of the paper. The paper was dated, like the photo of Percy, in the year 2014. It was a picture of some destroyed city, Nejire couldn't make out where it was, but the headline was the real attention grabber.
"SUPER POWERED HUMANS BECOME SUPER POWERED WEAPONS! CONGRESS DECLARES WAR ON 'QUIRKS,' DRAFT HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED."
"It started in China," Percy said, his voice soft. "There were all these strange accidents…up until then. There was…what people thought was an attack of some kind. An entire city was vaporized in an instant. Then it started appearing more and more frequently. People with strange powers, strange abilities, they were popping up all over the place. It wasn't long until world governments began using them and weaponizing them. I don't remember where the term started, but one day people just started calling them quirks, and the next thing I knew, I had been drafted and was on my way to Europe to help with the growing crisis."
Nejire's head was spinning. This couldn't be…the implications of what Percy was suggesting were-were ridiculous. It was an impossibility, and yet there she was, holding the proof in her hands.
Percy was from the time before quirks.
"Y-you…" She stammered, looking up at him, and he nodded.
"I was there, when the world ended." He said, his voice little more than a hoarse whisper. A haunted expression on his face.
Nejire had so many questions. He had fought in the pre-quirk wars? But-but that didn't make sense….he had a quirk himself! She had seen him use it! But the only one that seemed important at the time, was,
"How?"
Percy sighed, and ran a shaky hand through his hair, "That's where this gets…more complicated."
"More complicated?" She blurted out. How on earth could it get more complicated than it already was?
Percy nodded, and reached into the pocket of his trousers. When he withdrew it, he was holding something, clutched tightly and reverently in his large hands. He held up the item, and met Nejire's eyes seriously,
"What is this?" He asked,
"A…pen?" She asked uncertainly, and Percy nodded, and pressed the pen into her hand.
"Feel that, what does it feel like?"
"…It feels like a pen." She said slowly, as she picked the pen out of his hand and rolled it around in her fingers. Percy nodded, then reached out and grabbed the pen back from her. Then, and making sure the pen was pointed away from her, he flicked the cap off the pen and Nejire's entire world imploded.
The pen disappeared, and in its place a beautiful, bronze sword appeared. Nejire goggled at it, then at Percy. Then, to her immense surprise and alarm, Percy pressed the blade of the weapon against her skin. But there was no searing pain as the blade met flesh, there was no blood. Instead, as though the blade didn't really exist, the weapon passed harmlessly through her arm. As though her world couldn't get any more confusing, Percy then pulled the weapon back to him, and he ran the blade down the palm of his hand.
This time, there really was blood.
The blade sliced a painful looking cut across the flat edge of Percy's palm, but Percy didn't so much as wince. A moment later, the blood stopped flowing from the wound, although the gash remained.
"I'm…not fully human," Percy explained,
"W-what…" Nejire asked, her mind, usually so sharp and so quick, was moving painfully slow.
"My father," Percy began, "He wasn't a man, he wasn't a fisherman, although he would call the sea his home. My father is Poseidon, the Greek God of the seas, storms, earthquakes, horses, and more shit than I can remember. He met my mother, fell in love, and had a child with her. That's me. I'm half mortal, and half-god. My kind is known simply as demi-gods."
Was she going insane? Or was Percy insane? She was leaning more towards that as the most likely possibility. It was the only logical explanation. Gods? Half-gods? It was…it was absurd. There was no way that this was a reality she was living in. There was no way that this was actually happening.
But-but Percy couldn't possibly have gone crazy. There was no way. If he was, he was the most well-functioning, and well-adjusted insane person that Nejire had ever met before.
"And you think I'm crazy," Percy sighed, standing up and walking over to the window, "I knew it, I knew this was a mistake."
"Percy…" Nejire said, her heart hurting. She didn't like the expression on his face. The bitterness, the sadness, the utter shattering of his heart.
It broke her heart.
"No," He said softly, "I get it. It sounds insane. What rational human would ever think that this was a reality," He turned around, his face was all but pleading with her, "But I promise you, I'm not lying to you. I'm not playing with you. I promise that this is the complete and utter truth." He was pleading with her, begging for her to see that he was telling the truth.
And the craziest part of all, was that she was beginning to do just that. It was all of the little things that were doing it for her. All of the little mysteries that were starting to make a little sense. The fact that Percy never referred to his abilities as "quirks," merely just his power. His ability. He almost seemed to go out of his way to call it his quirk. Then, there were the fish. His strange connection to them, their odd reactions to him. It wasn't that it looked as though they were reacting to his presence, maybe they really were. His durability, his strength, what she had seen today. The way that he had dealt with those villains, the sheer power coming from him. People with multiple quirks were rare as a rule, but for someone to have two quirks that were so widely powerful?
Unheard of.
Then there was that strange sword still clutched tightly in his grip. The one that hadn't hurt her, but had hurt him.
"Your sword…" She asked, "Is that…?"
"A weapon of my people," He explained, still not looking at her, "It's made of a material called Celestial Bronze. One of the strongest materials on the planet. Deadly to monsters and demi-gods alike. But harmless to mortals."
"Is…is that why it could hurt you, but not me?"
"Yes," Percy said, turning to look at her, an unreadable expression on his face. "A gift…from my father."
She examined the weapon closely. It looked heavy, and yet Percy was wielding it as though it were a paperweight. He held it loosely, yet confidently, as though he were comforted by its mere presence.
Perhaps he was.
"Can…can I hold it?" She asked, and Percy actually smiled at that,
"You can try," He said, a little life returning to his harrowed face.
Nejire's cheeks puffed out indignantly, "What, you don't think I'm strong enough?" She pouted,
"That's not why," He chuckled, as he expertly turned the sword around to her, holding the handle out for her to try and grip. Right before her finger tips could wrap around the handle, Percy let the weapon drop, and the handle passed harmlessly through her fingers. It clanked on the ground, clattering to a stop. Confused, but determined to get to the bottom of it, she reached down and tried to pick up the weapon again, only for the same thing to happen, and her fingers passed right through the weapon. The tips of her fingers brushed against the cool carpet of their bedroom, and she removed her hand.
She looked up at Percy, confusion and uncertainty dancing in her eyes. Percy reached down, seemed to contemplate something for a moment, before he picked the weapon back up and slammed it into the ground. Nejire squeaked in surprise, as the weapon cut into the ground viciously. Percy picked the weapon out of the ground with little effort, and pointed at the hole. Nejire bent down, and inspected the damage. Sure enough, there was a crack in the floor where the sword had impacted. Her fingers danced along the uneven grooves of the hole, and then glanced up at Percy, who was eyeing her warily.
He didn't need to say any more.
She believed him.
She walked over, straight through the blade of the weapon, and wrapped her arms around him.
"I love you, and I believe you." She said softly, and Percy's entire body seemed to deflate. All of the stress leaving his body in one exhausted breath of air.
He muttered something under his breath that she suspected was Greek, as he held her tight. They stayed that way for a few moments, before she broke the embrace, and sat back down on the bed.
"So…demigod…okay then, how does that relate to you somehow being from the pre-quirk times?"
"Right," Percy said, distractingly putting the cap back on the pen and shoving the writing implement back into his pocket. He looked restless, and Nejire knew that it wouldn't be of any use trying to get him to sit back down.
"So, I was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the southern Pacific, just a few miles off the coast of Guadalcanal. We'd been fighting for a little over a year, when we were suddenly attacked. I don't even remember what happened, one second everything was fine, and I was asleep in my bunk, the next thing I know, the ship is on fire and we're sinking into the ocean. Normally, that wouldn't have been a problem for me, but something exploded inside the ship, and a chunk of the bulkhead impaled me through the spine."
He turned around and lifted his shirt up, revealing the jagged line of a scar that Nejire had never been able to get him to explain.
She supposed that when he'd told her it was a boating accident, it hadn't exactly been a lie.
He lowered the hem of his shirt and turned back to her.
"My dad…well, the gods aren't supposed to interfere in the lives of mortals, but he took pity on me. Must've felt bad for all the shit I had to deal with as a kid." That sounded like a story, but there would be time for him to answer all of her questions, she knew that now was the time to be quiet.
"I fell into the ocean," Percy shrugged, "And my dad wrapped me up in like…I guess you would call it a cocoon of ice. I was trapped in there for centuries, my body was healing the entire time."
"…Then…then how did you get out?" She asked, and Percy smiled,
"David Shield." Percy said simply, and Nejire blinked,
"The founder of I-Island?"
"One in the same," Percy said, "He's a descendant of an old friend of mine. We'd call him a legacy of the Greek pantheon. Anyways, he found me in the ocean, dragged me out of the ice, and hooked me up with that translation gizmo."
Well…that certainly explained a lot Nejire decided. If there was anybody on the planet who would have the kind of technology needed to build the translation device, then it would have been David Shield.
"Then…what made you decide to live in Japan? Surely you must have some family back in New York?"
"My great-great-grandniece," Percy shrugged, "But that's a hell of a lot of separation. Besides, I don't know if my mom ever told her kids about the Greek World. I doubt it if I'm honest. Wouldn't want to potentially expose them to anything. Besides, I'd spent my entire life in New York. I wasn't lying when I said I did some world traveling. After David thawed me out, I travelled the world for a while. When I came to Japan, I fell in love. David pulled a few strings, and I got my visa and the shop."
"You didn't want to be a hero?" She asked, "With your powers…" She trailed off, she didn't need to tell him that with the kind of strength he possessed, he would be the number one hero in the country without much trouble. Percy shook his head,
"I've done enough fighting for a few lifetimes." he said ominously, "I just wanted to settle down. Have a normal job, a normal life…find myself a family."
He smiled at her, and Nejire's heart fluttered, he reached out and wrapped his hand around hers,
"And with you, with Kōkei…I have that."
Family…the words sent a pleasurable jolt down her spine.
"Yeah," She smiled up at him,
"You do."
B/N: So for those who were confused - and couldn't figure it out until this far into the fic or just chose to not think about it - Nejire is older than canon. It's mentioned she has a job, and that she is also a teacher at UA. She's not that much younger than Percy (who I think we ended up on 27-ish?) so there's no weird shit going on. Cool, take it away dickhead!
AN: My beta is kinda rude to me, huh? Anyway, we only have one chapter left of this which is the epilogue, so we hope you've enjoyed the ride. This was never meant to be anything more than pure and wholesome fluff, so we hope that you've gotten some of the nice, warm fluffy feels that we wanted from you. Thanks again for the love and support for this silly, cute-little story! Double and I had a blast putting this together and who knows, maybe we'll do more of this kinda thing in the future. As always shoutout to Double0Sxvxn for being an awesome Beta and dealing with my bullshit and as always if you enjoyed this but haven't checked out my other work, give them a try you never know you might find something else you like. I'm also on discord now, where I and a bunch of other writers hang out, chat and brainstorm ideas, you just have to copy the link that's in my profile bio if you want to come and hang out with us. Stay safe, stay healthy and have an awesome week
All My Love,
LilDB