True to form, their relationship didn't change with the sudden revelations. If anything, there seemed to be an even deeper connection between them. An understanding and a closeness that hadn't been there before. They'd spent the last several weeks speaking with the other, regaling them with stories and tales of their youth, about their times in their own respective worlds.

Percy cherished these conversations and this new understanding to a degree that was difficult to fathom. He hadn't realized just how much he'd been holding back, just how much he'd wanted to be able to talk to someone, anyone, who might actually be able to understand what it was like, what it meant to lose everything, to find themselves lost and trapped in this strange new world that he barely understood.

But he had that with Kara. He had someone who did understand, who had lost, and could share in Percy's grief and could offer sympathy that was far more meaningful than simple platitudes and empty words of pity.

And Kara truly did understand, Percy was certain of that. She was one of the last of her very kind. Still had fresh and lingering memories of a life before Earth, of a family and friends that were no longer with her. Of a time where things made sense, and she seemed to have a clear purpose.

These conversations and this new understanding only seemed to draw them closer. They had been close with another before, but they were nigh on inseparable these days. Kara hardly seemed willing to let Percy out of her sight, in spite of the fact that he was by now fully recovered from his prevailing injuries, not that he was complaining.

True to Percy's word, he called off his arrangement with Kent. Calling the old man up and telling him that there were circumstances that now prevented him from keeping up with their previous arrangement. To Percy's surprise, the old man had simply laughed,

"Finally got your head out of your ass and got some sense knocked into you by that pretty friend of yours eh?" He'd laughed, and Percy had spluttered an incoherent reply.

Kent had told him not to worry about it, and thanked Percy for his good work, congratulating him on several jobs well done. He also told Percy that he would be in touch and that Percy should do the same.

There was a strange sense of liberation in not constantly chasing death at every corner. It had been odd at first, and he'd been antsy, and fidgety. Kara had taken it completely in stride, and had been unendingly helpful in keeping Percy occupied.

It was like recovering from an addiction he decided. Constantly fidgeting, and twitchy. Checking his phone every few minutes for a message that wouldn't come. For three days, he couldn't sit still for more than five minutes at a time, getting up and pacing, or tapping irregular rhythms into the table with his pencil or finger.

Kara, bless her heart, simply took it all in stride, understanding exactly what was happening and what it was that Percy needed and what he was going through. When he was feeling especially agitated, she was patient. When he was anxious, she was calm. And when Percy jumped at the smallest sound, prepared to fight some invisible enemy, she was there as a calming presence, to keep him grounded.

Percy lacked the vocabulary to express exactly how much it meant to him that she was there, that she protected him from himself. When he'd expressed as much to her, she'd simply laughed and smiled at him,

"You do the same for me,"

But not all was well for him, for Kara could not be with him at all hours of the day, as she had her own duties and responsibilities. In addition to a wildly different course load, Supergirl was finally coming into her own, and Kara seemed to find herself more and more frequently being pressed into increasingly dangerous situations.

Every day, at least two or three times, Kara would look at him apologetically before dashing off, either to fight some evil freak of nature or to help in one catastrophe or another, leaving Percy alone with his thoughts.

Watching Kara on the television one night as she aided in the cleanup effort of a forest fire in Australia, Percy had been once again struck with the realization of just how stunningly beautiful his friend was. It was not the first time he'd had such thoughts, he had them at least once a day, but there was something different about seeing her in action. The way her hair billowed through the air as she flew, the confident and self-assured grin that always seemed to be in place on her fine face when she was in uniform.

It was something Percy wished he could see more from her. The sense of pride, of happiness, and sheer confidence that exuded from her with that symbol of her family on her chest, but it all seemed to disappear when she removed the uniform. It hurt him to see such sorrow, to see her doubting herself, to see her question her own worthiness to live up to her family and to live in the large shadow cast by her cousin; which was a realization that had nearly left Percy on the floor when he realized he'd spent Thanksgiving with the Man of Steel himself.

She reminded him of Annabeth at times. His once best friend had always seemed so confident and assured that what she was doing was right, but in the quiet confidences of Percy she had always seemed to bear the weight of the world on her shoulders, and never felt that she was good enough to shoulder those burdens.

Percy's heart clenched at the thoughts. He'd always harbored a fondness for his best friend, the kindling of what he realized now was likely love and he was fairly certain that she'd felt the same. However, the wars and Percy's kidnapping by Hera had separated them before either had had the chance to act on their potential interest.

That had been the first time that Percy had realized that perhaps his feelings for his best friend, for Kara, went a bit further than simple platonic friendship. He recognized the feeling his chest when he saw her, the feeling of desire that coursed through him at the sight of her, it was the same feelings he'd gotten when he'd laid eyes on Annabeth, only the feelings for Kara were far more intense.

With Annabeth, the thought of her had left him feeling warm, and elicited a strange tingling sensation in the pit of his stomach, a tightening and clenching that left him feeling queasy. But that was not the feelings he got when he thought of Kara. Though…perhaps that wasn't strictly true, the feelings were similar but were amplified to such a degree that it left him feeling light-heated. Thinking of Kara did not leave him feeling warm, it left him feeling as though there were an inferno raging in his breast. His stomach fluttered so painfully when she smiled at him, that he felt slightly sick.

When he'd been away from Annabeth, he'd once found his thoughts occasionally drifting to and from the daughter of Athena. But from the moment Kara left, to the moment she returned, Percy's consciousness was maligned with thoughts of her. He'd worry, he'd pace, he'd daydream and fantasize. He'd become so pre-occupied with thoughts of her in class one day, that he'd hardly even noticed until it was the end of the lesson and he was the last one remaining in the room. He even dreamed about the woman, though his dreams of late were of a far more intimate nature than they had been previously.

Percy didn't know how to deal with these sudden realizations. On the one hand, he felt at least somewhat confident that Kara felt the same, or at least he certainly hoped so. But he was far too cowardly to act upon these desires. It wasn't necessarily the fear of rejection in and of itself that gave him pause however, but the fear of what might happen to their relationship should he be rejected.

Kara was his sole anchor in this world. The one thing keeping him tethered to sanity. She brought order, stability, and light to his life. She gave him hope for a future, a real future. One where he could be at peace, could have a life of his own; a life not overshadowed by the ghosts of the lives he was no longer a part of. But if she should reject him, or if they should join together only to realize that they weren't compatible, what would happen to him then? Percy didn't think their relationship could survive a potential breakup.

He was conflicted, and he was scared. He was ashamed of himself; he could face down an enemy in combat and not even blink, had faced gods, titans, giants, and more and had not faltered. But the moment a beautiful woman walks into his life he suddenly began to question everything.

It was a living hell, but one that he was willing to content himself to. It was worth it, because the mere matter of having Kara in his life, even as his friend and nothing more, was enough for him at the moment.

At least it had been.

It was nearing the middle of February when it happened. Kara had dashed out of his apartment, where they'd been arguing good-naturedly over the realism of some nondescript action movie that Percy didn't even remember the name to, when something beeped in her bag. Groaning, Kara had reach over Percy, and retrieved the small device that Percy had come to understand as her Justice League communicator, a fact that Percy was still somewhat coming to terms with.

"Some robot nut job is smashing downtown," She said, flashing Percy an apologetic look, "I'm sorry Percy-" She started to say but Percy waved her off, a smile on his face,

"Go be a hero," He said, "And be safe,"

She flashed him the confident grin he adored so much, "Come on," She smirked, "It's me." And then she was gone, zooming away faster than Percy could see, and suddenly he was all alone. He tried, unsuccessfully, to distract himself from his nagging worry by setting about finishing up some homework for his youth education class. But he gave that up as a bad job after thirty minutes of fruitless work in which he did nothing but stare blankly at the pages in his book.

Throwing the book aside, he gave up his attempts of distracting himself and grabbed the remote and turned the television on to the local news network. What he saw caused his blood to run cold in his veins. Kara was fighting a horrific battle with a metal monster. Percy judged the monstrosity to be nearly seven feet tall, with smooth and glistening metal that had been dented and damaged from the combat.

Though Kara was most certainly looking the worse for wear between the pair of them; her lip was swollen, and blood was trickling from a wound on her head and streaked across her bruised and dirtied face. Her uniform was tattered and ripped, and one of her arms was bent at an odd angle, most likely broken.

"What in the hell," Percy whispered. What on earth could be strong enough to do something like that to a Kryptonian?

His question was soon answered, as Kara blurred into motion, streaking across the ruined city street and in the direction of the metal monster, which stood its ground. Faster than the human eye could comprehend, the monster's chest opened, and a strange sickly green light flooded the darkening city street, and Percy's heart fell as he watched Kara suddenly scream out in pain and fall to the ground, skidding painfully across the city street.

Kryptonite.

One of the few true weaknesses of Kryptonian physiology. Radioactive remnants of the home world that sapped a Kryptonian of the powers they were gifted by the power of a yellow sun. Kara had told him of the strange mineral once, and that she'd never actually been exposed to the strange rock, but her cousin had explained it to her.

Rage swept over him. Rage at the creature that dared harm Kara. Rage that no one was coming to her defense. Rage at himself, for cowering in his apartment, rather than standing firm by her side, where he belonged. Watching this woman, the woman he loved, getting hurt, and in mortal peril, brought a fury about him the likes of which he hadn't felt in years.

The weather reflected his fury.

Dark storm clouds suddenly materialized high in the skies, and lightning flashed through the darkened clouds, accompanied by the clap of thunder. A bolt of lightning suddenly shot from the clouds, as though summoned, and struck the ground entirely too close to the metal monster, who yelped in surprise and turned his gaze skyward, unconsciously closing the small hatch in his chest that housed the Kryptonite.

The distraction was all that Kara needed.

Looking up from the ground, her eyes blazed crimson, before jets of fiery light shot forth from her azure orbs. The lasers collided with the surprised monster, which yelped in pain and shock, but Kara pressed the advantage, flying around faster than the speed of sound, she appeared behind the metal monster and with a mighty swing of her fist, knocked the head clean off the shoulders of the metal machine.

It stumbled forward on unsteady legs for a few moments, before it collapsed to the ground, completely still. Kara collapsed to her knees, her shoulders shaking as she took deep and heaving breaths. A few moments later, a bright green light materialized from somewhere in the skies, and enshrouded the frame of the strange machine that had attacked Kara. The camera panned up, just in time to see several members of the Justice League descending down on the street, one of the Green Lanterns was pointing his fist in the direction of the machine, the deep green light connecting from his fist to the machine.

Superman, hurried over to his cousin, placing a calming hand on her back and speaking to her in hushed tones. The camera panned over to the rest of the League, who were speaking in hurried whispers amongst themselves. The Batman was having an intense conversation with Diana and a man that Percy recognized as Shazam. All three had their heads pointed skyward, gazing up at the storm clouds which were only then just starting to disperse themselves. Percy could just make out a small smile on Diana's lips as she glanced over in the direction of the camera, as though she knew Percy was watching and knew what he'd done, before turning her attention back to Shazam and Batman. Shazam seemed to be explaining something to Batman, which the Dark Knight didn't seem too pleased about.

Seeing as the fight was over and there were Justice League members on the scene, Percy shut the television off with a tremendous sigh.

That had been…stressful.

He ran a hand through his hair and to his surprise, realized that he'd been sweating rather profusely. Shucking off his shirt, which was plastered to his back with sweat, he strode into the bathroom and grabbed a stray towel from the rack and dried himself down. Placing the towel back on the rack, he looked at himself in the mirror over the sink.

Watching that had been…it had nearly been more than he could bear. He had been nearly pushed to the point of rushing out to her, of intervening. He didn't know whether he liked the idea…or abhorred it.

He thought he knew how Kara would react to it.

And speaking of Kara. His previous thoughts finally caught up to him, and he realized with a shock that it was the first time he'd honestly admitted it to himself.

He loved her.

He loved Kara Zor-El.

It was more than mere infatuation; of that he was certain. These feelings weren't the infantile manifestations of youth, but the fiery passions of a man who was truly, irrevocably, and hopelessly in love.

But what the hell did he do with this revelation?

Modern conventions called for a fierce declaration, some symbolic or romantic gesture.

But that wasn't him, wasn't who he was.

More importantly still, was he didn't know if that was what he truly wanted. It wasn't that he desired Kara in all ways, but his fears of what might happen still clawed at his thoughts, whispering words of doubt in his ear, and they were impossible to ignore.

He'd lost too much, had sacrificed everything already, and he didn't know if he was prepared to risk that again.

"Fucking coward." He hissed at his reflection, before pulling himself free and stomping away. Huffing, he collapsed into the sofa, his head in his hands. So caught up in his own commiserations, he almost missed the sound of something soft billowing through the open window. Looking up, he immediately stood. Kara was stumbling forward, her wounds still as fresh as if she'd flown straight to him and hadn't bothered with medical attention.

Knowing Kara that was likely true.

"Kara." He breathed out, and before he knew what he was doing he had enveloped the woman in his arms. Clutching desperately at her, his hands wringing through her dirty and matted hair.

"I'm all right," She whispered into him, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to worry-"

"I'm just thankful you're okay," Percy said, pulling her more tightly to him. As she leaned into him, smelling of sweat and smoke, she wrapped her hands as tightly as was comfortable around him.

"I told you Percy, I'm not going anywhere,"

Not for the first time, he prayed to the gods that she was right.

AN: So now both of these lovable idiots understand their feelings. Will they act on it? Will they confess their undying love? Well considering next chapter is the last one in the arc…no. No they will not…unless? Guess you'll just have to read and find out, won't ya? 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 and see you next week,

LilDB