"I think you could give Arthur a run for his money," teased Kara,

"Oh please," snorted Percy, "Could we not continue the comparisons with that overgrown goldfish,"

Kara giggled and nudged Percy teasingly with her shoulder. He smirked down at her, before grabbing her by the hand dragging her in a different direction.

It had been Percy's idea to go and visit the aquarium. Their spring break had begun a few days ago, and both of them had decided that it made more sense for the pair of them to stay in Metropolis. The universities spring break was earlier in the semester than the high school that Percy was doing his student teaching at, so he was able to work and Kara didn't want to go too far from Metropolis or safety reasons.

True, she could have been anywhere in the world and gotten to Metropolis in a matter of moments, but it was the principal of the matter as far as she was concerned.

So, instead of lounging on a beach in Miami, they were wandering around the relatively empty Metropolis aquarium. It wasn't necessarily Kara's first idea for a fun afternoon, but it always made Percy happy to see the fish, and that made her happy.

Percy dragged Kara over to the dolphin exhibit, but appeared to almost immediately regret it. When they were within a few feet of the tank, two beautiful dolphins swam over and swarmed around Percy, chittering excitedly to one another. It was really rather cute, and Kara didn't fight the giggle of delight that escaped her. Percy however, didn't seem to be enjoying the attention nearly as much,

"That's fucking disgusting," he muttered to himself, and Kara looked at him,

"What are they saying?" She asked,

"I don't think you want to know," grunted Percy, flicking the glass of the tank in agitation,

"Hey!" He snapped at the dolphins, "I don't want to hear that nasty shit you horny bastards!"

The dolphins chittered back at him, and his expression darkened even further,

"Watch it…" he growled, "Yes, yes she is very pretty." The dolphins chittered again, "Say that again and I'll break my rule on ordering seafood and I'll be having you for dinner with a side of seaweed!" He snapped. The dolphins let out a high-pitched sound that seemed almost like a giggle before they swam away in a flurry of noise.

"Horny little shits," Percy grumbled to himself,

"What were they saying?" Kara asked again,

"You really, really don't want to know," sighed Percy,

Kara giggled and looped her arm through Percy's as they meandered around the aquarium,

"You know," said Kara, "I'm surprised you like coming here. I figured that given your…connection to ocean life, you'd be opposed to something like this,"

Percy shrugged, "Most aquariums are trash, but I did some digging and the Metropolis Aquarium is pretty above the board. I'm not against zoos and aquariums as a rule. If done correctly they can conserve and protect important endangered species. But they also are ripe for abuse."

"That makes sense I suppose," said Kara "I know that-" She was cut off as a large shockwave rocked the building. Kara could feel something shifting the earth beneath her feet, and the ear piece that she always wore in her ear crackled to life.

"Kara!" Came her cousin's face, he sounded frantic and concerned, "Got a bit of a situation downtown. This might be an all hands on deck kind of situation."

"Understood," said Kara, already looking around for someplace she could disappear to. Percy was already dragging her away from the atrium,

"There's an alley behind the aquarium that should work for you," said Percy, and Kara shot him a thankful look. Percy, bless him, was incredibly understanding about her alter ego. True to Percy's word, there was an alley behind the aquarium. She scanned the alley briefly, and then in a burst of super-human speed she had changed into her uniform.

"Be careful," said Percy softly, and Kara wrapped her arms around him,

"You too," she said, resting her head against his chest, "Do me a favor and maybe get out of the city for a bit?" She looked up at him, "I know you're more than capable of taking care of yourself but…"

"I get it," said Percy, smiling wanly down at her, "I'll go for a swim. Get out town for a couple of hours. Call when you're safe?"

"Always," smiled Kara, and she leaned up and kissed him briefly. Then in a blast of air, she rocketed skywards and made her way off to the city.

Life could never be simple.

BREAK

Percy stumbled as the ground beneath his feet shook again. Bracing himself against a nearby car door, he glanced up into the sky behind him and shuddered as he watched as Superman was knocked through the air. He'd been through his fair share of scraps before, and had battled some fairly powerful beings, but some of the shit that went down in this universe was out of this world.

Sometimes quite literally.

Percy had been intent on following through on his promise to Kara. Truly, he had been. But then he'd gotten…a bit side-tracked. He wasn't entirely sure, but he thought that maybe Kara or Superman or whatever they were fighting had severed a main gas line under the city, because explosions began shaking the city streets.

Debris was littering the streets of the city, blocking access to several of parts of the city to members of the emergency services. A nearby apartment building was currently on fire, but a slab of dislodged concrete was blocking the fire engine and ladder truck from getting to the blaze.

Percy hesitated for only a moment before he was racing into the blazing inferno. One of the perks of his heritage was that Percy was all but fire-proof.

At least his skin was.

"And I just got these fucking shoes," he grumbled to himself as he dashed up the stairs, focusing his powers on trying to find any idle masses of water in the building. It was a bit complicated, as he could feel the plumbing of the building and they were screwing with his attempts to try and find anybody still trapped in the building.

He was on the third floor of the apartment however, when he heard the first scream. Changing directions on the fly, Percy barreled out of the stairwell and out into the neighboring corridor. The screaming was coming from an apartment at the end of the hallway. Percy didn't bother being subtle, as he kicked the door down to the apartment and charged in. There was an older woman, nearly seventy or so, who had been thrown out of her wheelchair and was laying on the ground.

"It's okay!" Said Percy, having to yell over the sounds of the sirens outside and the flames in the building. "I'm here to help!"

Percy reached down and wrapped the frail woman's arms around his neck as he scooped her into his arms. With a burst of speed, Percy dashed from the room and back down the stairwell. There were other individuals in the stairwell, and as a single unit they left the apartment building. By the time that they reached the street, the road had been cleared just enough for an ambulance to make its way over.

A group of paramedics met Percy halfway onto the street.

"Hey!" Called out one of the paramedics as they finished strapping the elderly woman onto the gurney, and Percy was making his way back to the building, "Where are you going?"

Percy ignored them, and stormed back into the building.

Truth be told, he didn't really know what he was doing or why. He had simply known that he couldn't sit back and do nothing while there were people who were in danger. He could do something, and if he could do something then that meant that he should do something.

He didn't know how long he had been in the building, it all turned very quickly into a blur for Percy. He was just racing up and down the steps, hauling bodies to and from the building. He was just passing by a nearby window when he saw that the fire truck had finally managed to free itself from the rubble and was making its way in his direction. Wiping a dollop of sweat from his forehead, he decided that he'd done enough and was just about to make his way out of the building when someone outside screamed.

He wasn't given much more of a warning than that, before the wall and windows violently exploded inward. He felt brick, glass, plaster and all manner of other material cut through him as the shockwave from the impact threw him to the ground. He caught a brief flash of blues and grays before there was another shockwave followed by a grunt of pain.

Percy let out a soft groan as he unsteadily tried to push himself to his feet. A large slab of brick had slammed into the side of his head, and he was pretty sure he swallowed at least one of his teeth. As he braced himself against one of the still standing walls, he could barely make out a gravely voice calling out through the din,

"You think that throwing the Main Man through a couple of buildings is enough to hurt him! Come here already Kryptonian!"

"I hate this universe," muttered Percy as his vision steadily began to clear. He turned around in time to see Superman slam forcefully into what Percy could only describe as a gray-skinned biker ripped straight out of the 1980's.

"Yup, I'm done here." he grunted, and unsteadily began running towards the stairwell. However he'd not managed to take three steps before something else slammed into the building. He felt the support frames of the building begin to shift as metal began to groan in protest.

"Today ain't my day," he groaned, as he redoubled his sprint down the stairs. The building shifted again, and Percy was thrown unsteadily down the stairs, sliding painfully on his rear-end down an entire flight.

His tail-bone sore, his temples throbbing, and bleeding from more than a couple of lacerations from the shrapnel of the building when it exploded, Percy finally managed to make it all the way to the bottom of the stairwell. He was just rushing towards the exit, when the building groaned painfully one last time. Something above him snapped, and the air was filled with the worrying sound of brick and mortar shifting. Bits of floor and plaster collapsed from over head, followed immediately by the sound of bricks crunching completely and Percy didn't have much time before the upper floors of the building collapsed entirely overhead.

Acting on pure instinct, he simply held his hands overhead and caught the upper floor as it collapsed downward on him. Crouching on knee, he groaned painfully as dust and debris fell around, coating him in a thick layer of ash and dust. It was painfully reminiscent of holding up the sky, which had been an experience he'd had absolutely no desire to repeat, yet here he was. He was about to simply vapor travel away from the site entirely, but there was just enough space at the end of the corridor for Percy to see out onto the street. The fire department and emergency services had finally noticed that the building had begun to collapse, but were still in the way along with nearly twenty civilians. He was worried that if he let the building fall, it would crush the people on the street outside.

His only option was to try and hold onto the building as long as possible in order to let the people make their escape. He let out a soft, pitiable groan as the building seemed to sink a little lower onto his shoulders.

"Fuck me, is this thing getting heavier?"

Maybe taking up Janus on that offer was a mistake.

BREAK

Kara panted, holding onto her side as she and her cousin watched as the weird bounty hunter, Lobo, escaped high into the sky. Apparently he was some kind of galactic bounty hunter who had heard there were Kryptonians on Earth had wanted to collect on them. What had followed was nearly an hour of prolonged fighting between her, her cousin, and the psychopath who spoke in the third person.

It had been an absolute nightmare. Every time they tried to draw the fight away from the city, the bastard would just draw them deeper into the city with that Rao-damned chain of his. It didn't help that the bastard hit like a Kryptonian either. Kara was all but certain that she would be bruised for at least a week.

"You know," panted Kal-El, "Just when I think I've seen everything, the universe thinks of a new and inventive way to surprise me,"

"The joy of life," said Kara sarcastically, as she fished through her belt for her phone, hoping that it hadn't been destroyed in the fight. "Jackass had to start something in the middle of our date too," she grumbled,

"Percy was here?" Asked Kal,

"We were at the aquarium," said Kara as she tried to call Percy,

"And he was okay with that?" Asked Kal incredulously, "Mr. won't even eat a fish?"

Kara chuckled, "That was what I thought too…goddamnit Percy answer your phone." The early threads of worry beginning to worm their way through her stomach,

"You tell him to leave the city?" Asked Kal,

"Yeah, he said he was going to go for a swim while we sorted this out," said Kara distractedly, as the phone went straight to voicemail again and her worry begin to evolve into outright panic.

"He's not answering!" She said frantically, "Why isn't he answering!"

"Kara!" Said Kal, placing a calming hand on her shoulder, "Breathe, I'm sure he's fine. You know how sturdy he is."

"And you also know what he's like!" Snapped Kara, "You think he would have just stood by and watched as people were in danger? That idiot probably went out to try and help people because he's too much of a good man for his own good!"

Without another word, she shot high into the air and began straining her eyes and her ears for any indication of Percy in the city. She was inundated with the sounds of panicking civilians, frantic emergency services, and the normal sounds of a city in distress. However over the masses she was able to make out one voice, one that she would have been able to recognize from the surface of mars if necessary.

"Oh for fucks sake, can't you guys move just a little faster,"

She spun around, scanning the ground for the source of her boyfriend's distress and her panic turned into outright horror when she saw him. An entire apartment building had begun to collapse and Percy was trapped on the bottom floor and was holding up the entire damn thing on his back. Her heart racing, Kara broke her own record for breaking the sound barrier as she raced off towards him. She landed unsteadily on the street and raced off inside the building, passing by the stunned and confused civilians still trying to scramble out of the way of the collapsing building.

Sliding to her knees beside Percy, she raised her arms up and took the brunt of the weight of the building onto her own shoulders. Percy, whose eyes had been screwed shut in concentration, finally looked up as bald relief passed over his features.

"Oh thank the gods," he muttered as he allowed his arms to fall to the ground. Kara stared at him in horror, taking in his battered, bruised, and bleeding appearance. He was littered with the debris of the building. His once shining black hair now white with the dust of the collapse. There was an alarming puddle of blood and sweat on the ground, and blood continued to leak slowly from a variety of lacerations on his arms, chest, and cheeks.

A new feeling washed over Kara. More overwhelming and overpowering than her own worry and panic.

Shame.

This was because of her. Percy had been hurt because she hadn't been able to get Lobo out of the city. She was supposed to be a hero, supposed to be the strongest of the strong. Yet here was Percy, dirty and bloody because of her own failures. How could she honestly call herself a hero if she couldn't even protect the people most important to her?

Kara was numbly aware that Kal had appeared on the street and was assisting in the evacuation.

"Percy!" She snapped, her own panic and worry taking over, "What the fuck? You said that you'd go swimming!"

"Good to see you too babe," gasped Percy, still managing to sound sarcastic in spite of how tired he appeared,

"Don't change the subject!" Hissed Kara,

"What the hell did you expect me to do Kara?" Percy snapped back, "The building was on fire and the fire truck was blocked by debris on the street. How was I supposed to know the building was going to collapse?"

"Why didn't you vapor travel!"

"I didn't want the building to collapse!"

"The building would have just collapsed inward! No one was going to get hurt but now we have to wait until the civilians are cleared or else it actually will fall into the street!"

"How the fuck was I supposed to know that!" Snapped Percy, "Do I look like an engineer to you?"

Kara's retort was stopped as Kal called over to her through the comms, and the weight of the building shifted again as she felt something outside begin to hold onto the structure,

"Civilians are cleared Supergirl, and I have the building, you're cleared to get him out of there."

Lowering her arms, she wrapped them around Percy's shoulder and flew him out of the building, jetting high up into the air above the city. She felt him stiffen in her arms as they got higher in the air, but she didn't care.

"You scared the shit out of me," she whispered, as she drew him closer to her chest, but Percy didn't respond. She leaned back and tried to meet his eyes, but he was staring determinately away from her,

"Hey," she said, placing a hand on his cheek, "Talk to me,"

"You didn't need to yell at me," said Percy quietly, "I was just trying to help people."

Kara's chest constricted painfully and she removed her hand from his cheek and tucked herself into the nape of his neck, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes,

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I-I didn't mean to snap at you…I was just so worried. You weren't answering your phone and when I saw you just sitting there, getting crushed by that building…everything just went kind of blank." She held him a little tighter, as her tears began to stain his dirty t-shirt,

"I'm sorry for yelling at you. That was…that was wrong of me. I know you were just being the kind-hearted and loving man that I fell in love with, and I wouldn't change that part of you for the world, but it just scared the hell out of me."

Percy's arms wrapped themselves back around her, "I know I can't throw a car into the sun, but I'm not made of glass Kara."

"I know…" she said, tightening her arms around him, "I just…I've already lost too much. I can't…you're too important. I just…the idea that you…" she couldn't finish the sentence and her tears increased in volume. Percy stayed silent, and simply held her, and Kara relished in the comforting embrace.

"I'm not going anywhere Kara. Not now, not ever."

Kara nodded numbly against his neck. They stayed that way for a few minutes before Percy awkwardly cleared his throat.

"Um…not to ruin the mood or anything babe, but do you think you could fly me over to the ocean, I'm starting to get a little woozy."

"Oh shit! Right hang on!"

"Wait, wait wait not so fas-GODS DAMNIT KARA!"

AN: Happy Valentine's Day!