Took me a lil bit for this one just 'cause of a little writer's block and other shit goin on. Sorry about that. Don't worry, I'm still here, and soon enough I'll have Percy interacting with different people in this universe and finding his way.
This chapter's a little rushed and mostly fluff, but next chapter will see Percy interact with Barry/Flash so I hope you guys are looking forward to that.
Enjoy.
Mirror Flirting
verb.
An interaction between two people where one party is oblivious or otherwise unaware of the fact that they're indeed flirting.
"Ow."
"Yield?"
Percy sighed, which was difficult to do considering his cheek was painfully squished against the mat below him and his jaw could barely move. "I yield."
"Good." Dinah released the hold she had on his arm and he instantly felt the relief of not having an overwhelming amount of pressure on his body.
"Thank gods." Percy muttered, groaning as he struggled to right himself off the floor.
"That wasn't bad, honestly." Dinah placated.
"I'm sure," he responded dryly.
"I've seen Dinah beat people worse." Diana said, helping Percy to his feet and placing a bottle of water in his hands.
"Oh, stop smiling." Percy shot a mock glare at Diana, only making her shit-eating grin widen further. "Might I remind you of what happened last time we sparred?"
She shrugged good-naturedly, "You won. I'm not ashamed. I'll win next time."
"Not likely." Percy mumbled and took a sip of his water. Instantly, he felt refreshed, that familiar feeling of something akin to rebirth washing over his body and subtly healing his fatigue.
"You said you've had no hand-to-hand training?" Dinah asked. He nodded reluctantly and went to join her on the group of wooden benches off to the side of the sparring mat.
"Yeah. There was really never any need to learn it." Percy affirmed. "Mostly trained with a sword, but I'm competent with some other weapons."
"You still performed quite well." Dinah admitted. "If you ever want to learn, I can help teach you. It's a good skill to have."
"I'll probably take you up on that." He smiled appreciably. "I've learned to control my strength as I've matured, but I think getting better at honing it would come in handy."
"Definitely," she nodded. "In fact, I have an appointment helping someone do just that. I'll see you guys later?"
"For sure."
"We'll catch up later, Dinah." Diana gave her a quick hug.
"Soon," she responded with a knowing smile. "I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about."
Diana rolled her eyes as the blonde made her way towards the exit, waving a quick goodbye towards the pair of them.
"Well," Percy said once she'd fully left. "That was fun."
"Yes." Diana nodded. "It was extremely fun to watch you get your ass kicked."
"Haha." Percy turned towards her. "I didn't see you getting in the ring."
"It's my day off." Diana shrugged. "Did you like her?"
"Yeah. She was cool." Percy nodded. "I don't know about the old guy, though."
"Wildcat tends to keep to himself. Don't take it personally." Diana said matter-of-factly. "Anything else you wanna do before we get lunch?"
"You guys have a cafeteria?"
"Of course!" Diana huffed. "The food here is great. Sometimes, I swear that I'm eating food made directly from the gods."
"Well, if you actually knew them, you'd know their food isn't all that spectacular." Percy said offhandedly. "They don't even really taste mortal food, honestly."
"What about ambrosia and nectar?" Diana asked. "Surely they can taste those?"
"I think they do. It's just mortal food they don't care for. I think my dad told me once that they can't even really taste their sacrifices so much as they can feel what it was."
"Hmmm. Interesting." Diana tapped her chin. She shook her head. "Well, anyways, nothing you want to do? Anybody you want to meet? I think there's supposed to be a meeting later today, so J'onn and Hal might be here. Barry and Clark probably won't get here until later. And there's others you might be able to meet if we just walk around."
"Barry, huh?"
"Barry Allen, yes." Diana nodded.
"You said he'll be here later?"
"Why, do you want to meet him?"
"I suppose." Percy shrugged. "It's more like I wanna discuss something with him."
"What about?" Diana asked, although she looked at the very least happy he was willing to socialize with someone in the League.
"I got to reading about an interview someone did with him." Percy said. "There was a part where he explained how over time, he discovered different ways to use his abilities other than just running fast. I was just gonna ask how and maybe if he could help me."
Diana's eyebrows rose, and after a moment, she smiled brightly, "That actually sounds like a really great idea. If we don't catch him today, I'll make sure to ask him if he'll help you some other time."
"Perfect." Percy smiled back. "In the meantime, wanna meet up with J'onn? I still owe him an apology."
"Sounds good." Diana replied. "You have work in a bit though, don't you?"
"Eh, I'll call in a vacation day," he relented and waved an arm nonchalantly. "They'll be fine without me."
"Feeling delinquent today, are we?"
"You must be rubbing off on me."
"Me?" Diana laughed. "I'm a model citizen."
"Sure," he said dryly. "You and I both know that underneath the prim and proper ambassador of Themyscira, you're a vivacious witch."
"I find that insulting."
"You'll get over it."
"You'd think that they'd know by now to just stop trying." Percy groaned out and flopped onto Diana's hardwood floor as soon as he entered through her doorway.
They had just patrolled her city for a couple of hours, and his body was not happy. It was less than his first time as he was slightly less excitable, but he still wasn't used to such an intense amount of physical exertion practically nonstop. He might be content to simply lay on the cold, wood floor for the rest of eternity.
"If they haven't stopped by now, they never will." Diana responded with a tired smile. "What, you think the addition of you would suddenly change their minds?"
"Why not?" Percy asked, his voice muffled due to the fact that his face was pressed against the edge of her olive green carpeting. Diana nudged him in the ribs with her toes, causing him to flinch to the side. "Hey! What gives?"
"You're dirtying my carpet." Diana said dryly. "Take a shower first. You've got dirt and grime and gods' only know what else all over you."
"I can take a shower here?" Percy shifted his head onto its side and looked at her.
"I'd hope so." Diana faked contemplation. "Considering I invited you over and I'm not in the habit of allowing trash-piles into my house."
"Alright, alright." Percy flopped his arm pathetically in reluctance. "I get it. You got a change of clothes?"
"Only the ones you changed out of before we left." Diana hummed. "Maybe we should go shopping tomorrow. If we're gonna come back here after some of our patrols, we should probably keep a change of clothes here."
"I'm perfectly capable of buying my own clothes, thank you very much."
"Doubtful."
"You've gotten more sarcastic since I've met you." Percy noted with a mock frown.
"Must be your bad influence." Diana said. She nudged him in the ribs once more, this time with just a little more force. "Now get going, or next time I'm kicking you all the way down the hall."
"You wanna join me?" Percy asked and awkwardly pushed himself up onto his feet. His mind must've been still slightly buzzing and only half-awake from the high of the night's activities, otherwise that comment would've most definitely never been uttered. What was even more improbable though was the fact that Diana didn't immediately break a handful of his ribs.
"In your dreams, maybe," she simply said with an eyeroll. Despite his surprise, Percy quickly decided to take the opportunity to flee and began his way toward her guest bathroom in search of that refreshing shower.
While he soaked under the lukewarm water and relished the refreshing feeling that it imbued him with, his mind couldn't help but linger on his and Diana's relationship.
She was his best friend at this point in his life, there was no doubt about it. One of his only friends, in fact, and loath as he was to admit it, Diana was right in that he should attempt to branch out and make some more.
But… they weren't just friends. Well, they were, but it didn't feel like it. Granted, the only semblance of a non-platonic relationship he ever had was with Annabeth, and that was the furthest thing from conventional possible, so he didn't have a full grasp about the "inner workings" of the fairer sex. Yet even for his admittedly obtuse self, it was plainly in front of him.
Diana didn't seem to hide from any sarcastic and/or mockingly flirtatious comments, in fact she was the instigator at times. It wasn't like she was constantly hinting at it, but every now and again, he'd find himself in similar territory. As in, either too shocked or too embarrassed to respond to one of her overly-flirtatious comments.
And he couldn't deny that he wasn't attracted to Diana. He felt a pull towards her after the first couple of conversations he had with her. From practically that first night on the beach, he had known that they understood each other. It wasn't just that their fathers were brothers (what a weird thing to think about. Thank goodness he'd long since come to terms with the fact that they weren't actually related) and they came from the same, albeit slightly differing worlds.
Diana and he understood each other far better than other demigods from neighboring cabins might. They gelled together like they'd known each other for years when in fact it had only been a few months.
He turned the shower off, the absence of the constant downpour of water suddenly sobering.
He'd spent a good portion of his life succeeding through trusting his gut. Through quick-action and working off feeling rather than some computation or well-thought out plan. A lot of the time, he found that he didn't have to think all that much about his decisions.
It'd probably do him well to not think all that much at this particular crossroads.
After willing himself dry and changing into his set of clothes, he made his way back to Diana's living room and found her leaning against her kitchen counter and staring out the window. A streetlight from outside subtly lit up her face, revealing her expression to be contemplative and rather gentle.
"Your turn." Percy said, startling Diana out of her reverie.
After a brief moment, "You care to join me?" In a tone that was too serious to not be mocking but also with a good-enough straight face so that he wasn't actually positive if she was simply mimicking him or not.
"Funny," he finally settled on. He smiled somewhat awkwardly and flopped onto her couch that was way too comfortable to be legal. "You have any food?"
"Miden" Diana responded. Percy nodded. Diana had the same gods-given (literally) talent of being fluent in Greek, so sometimes they found themselves dipping their toes into their technically native language. "We can order something here. I don't have the energy to find a dress up and dine out right now."
"Sounds good." Percy shot her a thumbs up even though she couldn't see it as she had already rounded the corner into the hallway. His arm slumped uselessly along the back of the couch and he sunk into the cushions.
Now was as good a time as any to relax himself and close his eyes. He hadn't had much sleep the past few days, and the only explanation was that he'd had too much to do. He didn't think he needed to quit his job or anything that drastic, but it was a very real option if he continued to be stressed and stretched thin. As it was, he felt like he only needed to adapt to his new role as Wonder Woman's protege (how he hated that title) and reconfigure his life, as crude as that sounded.
Percy relaxed his joints, his muscles, every appendage in his body. The water from his short shower had rejuvenated his body, but his mind was still humming with activity. A short nap and a few minutes spent with his head in the clouds would do him well.
A short while later, he felt a weight fall onto the couch beside him. Diana let out a breath of satisfaction and leaned her head half on his shoulder, half on the couch's back-edge. Her arm was wrapped around the back of the couch in such a way so that his own head was in contact with the crook of her elbow.
"Comfortable?" Percy mumbled, his eyes still closed. Diana simply hummed. "Hungry?" Again, she hummed.
"There's a Big Belly Burger that we can order from right now." Diana said quietly.
"I could go for a burger right now." Percy said. His stomach felt like it was practically a void right now. He hadn't eaten in well over 5 hours. Note to self, bring a snack next patrol.
"Here." Diana slipped her phone out of her pocket and tossed it into his lap. "I'll take whatever you have. You already know I hate pickles."
"Uh… yeah." Percy said, taking her phone and navigating towards Big Belly Burger takeout.
While he ordered for them, he felt the back of his neck tingle where Diana's arm touched it. He became increasingly more conscious of where their bodies were touching even while he was trying to ignore it. Their legs were just slightly pressed against each other. Her head was leaned against his shoulder and he could feel her rhythmic breaths tickling his jawline.
"You make a pretty good pillow." Diana muttered.
"Mhm." Percy nodded.
"Not the best I've had," she shifted a little bit, causing her jaw to now hook along his deltoid. "8 out of 10."
"8 out of 10?" Percy raised his eyebrows. He finished ordering their food and handed the phone to Diana to pay. He felt uncomfortable about how she paid for like 90% of the things they did together, but he knew Diana probably hated it more when he complained, so he had begun to concede more frequently. "I'm doing this for free, you know.."
"8.2," she amended.
"I'll take it." Percy relented. She laughed, causing his own body to vibrate, and he felt her smile against his shoulder. "Food should be here in about 20 minutes. You want me to set the table?"
"For fast food?" Diana questioned. "Nah. And anyways, we can just eat on the floor."
"Really?"
"Yeah, why not," she shrugged. "I've done it before when I'm too tired, and I don't have the energy to do anything else right now."
"Sounds uncomfortable." Percy admitted honestly.
"The carpet's actually pretty nice." Diana said. "And don't worry about making a mess, I can clean it pretty easily."
"Weren't you complaining like 30 seconds ago that I was dirtying your precious carpet?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"You were." Diana stated clearly. Percy blinked. "This is different."
"How exactly is this different?"
"It just is." Diana lifted her hand to ruffle up his hair. He shook his head out of her grasp and softly yelped in annoyance.
"Whatever," he dropped the subject. "What do you wanna do until the food gets here?"
"Just…" she sighed and stretched her arms above her head. "Let's just stay here for a bit. We can go over some superhero stuff when the food gets here."
"Superhero stuff," Percy said dryly and nodded. "Wonderful."
"Oh, quiet," she said without any bite.
And so he did. The two of them laid there on her couch in the dark but still slightly lit living room. Everything but a few became tuned out. He only remained conscious of the sounds of their breathing and the spots where their bodies mingled together.
After minutes of them soaking in the peaceful bliss of their own tiny bubble, the door rang and the both of them startled to awareness.
"I got it." Percy groaned as he got up.
"You got drinks, right?" Diana called as he made his way towards her home's entrance.
"Of course." He opened the door and waved after the delivery driver who was ducking into his car. He scooped up the bags of food and lightly tucked the door closed with his foot on his way back in. "Figured we earned it with the extra burned calories."
"That's how you get out of shape," she joked. She had already slid off the couch onto the carpet below and Percy gladly joined her with food in hand. "You use that excuse every time and the next thing you know you can barely lift up your sword."
"You complaining?" He asked as he noticed her taking a rather long sip of her Coke.
"Not particularly," she replied. With both of them sitting on the soft carpet, they laid the food out along the floor. The two sat where the couch formed an L, with Diana leaning against it on one side and Percy the other. "It's been a long day."
"It's gonna be even longer with the caffeine," he pointed out. His point was ruined by the fact that he put his own soda to his lips immediately after.
"It's worth it," she shrugged, unwrapping her burger with one hand and taking a couple of fries with the other. Percy could only chuckle.
"So…" He said after a few minutes of silence past where they only focused on their food. "How'd I do today?"
Diana finished chewing before she answered, tilting her head in thought as she did so, "Better than last time. Honestly, the only things that you need to work on for regular patrols are staying aware and minimizing the damage you cause to structures and the like."
"You're probably right on that." Percy winced as he recalled a particular instance a few hours before where he had quite literally punched a man into an ATM, rendering both the machine and the person rather useless. To be fair though, he had been caught off guard by the fact that people actually still robbed ATMs, so there was that.
There was also an instance where he basically nodded off on a rooftop during a lull in their activities, so that was also something he needed to work on.
"To be honest though, I don't think the day-to-day stuff is something you should focus on." Diana admitted. Percy tilted his head at that. "I think it's going to get easy for you relatively quickly. You're personable enough to work with authorities and you're a quick thinker, so you can assess difficult scenarios."
"Thanks." Percy mumbled quickly. He didn't handle compliments the best.
"You have Anaklusmos right now, but I can tell that sometimes you have to be too careful with it and that can hinder you. You'll get non-lethal weapons soon, so that shouldn't be as much of a problem. You're not quite bulletproof, and hopefully what Bruce makes will help with that, but you're durable and you handle your strength well. I think as time goes on and you learn the different situations that you can sometimes encounter, you'll become really good at this." Diana said. "The thing I want you to focus on once you get good enough is training for the… not so everyday scenarios."
"What do you mean?" He asked after swallowing a mouthful of burger.
"I'm talking about enhanced opponents." Diana said. Percy hummed in acknowledgement. He'd heard about some of the enhanced beings that opposed members of the JL. From common criminals who'd been turned into science experiments to aliens who wanted to conquer the earth, there were existing powers that reached all corners of one's imagination and then some. "I don't want to just throw you to the wolves and see how you do, so I think training exercises with some of my colleagues would be beneficial to your adaptation abilities."
"Sounds good." Percy nodded. "Do you think I should use Anaklusmos for that, or the other batons that I'll have?"
Diana paused in thought, her eyes trained on the ceiling. "We can ask your sparring partners when it comes to it. Hopefully though, we'll get a better understanding of your full capabilities once you talk with Barry."
"True. Hopefully the process he used for his powers can be applied to my own," he said. "Plus, I already know there are some things that I should be able to do. There's tons of forms of water that I don't really focus on but know I can manipulate, so hopefully Barry can help with that."
Just to show an example, he lifted the lid of his drink and levitated the ice cubes a foot above his hand. Not a trace of soda left the cup while the cubes of ice compressed into perfect spheres and twirled around above his open palm.
"Wish I could do something cool like that." Diana said as she stared at the ice in wonder. Percy chuckled at that.
"You can fly and have a lasso that forces anyone to tell the truth." Percy shrugged. "It all evens out."
"If you say so." Diana rolled her eyes, obviously disbelieving.
"I say so." Percy replied, returning all the ice to his drink except for one. He floated the remaining ice ball to Diana and had it hover in front of her face.
With all the concentration he could muster, he shaped the ice into a different object. One that was much more complex, and took much more out of him due to the precision he needed.
Within a minute, all while Diana watched soundlessly, the ball transformed into a tiny ice tiara.
"Wow." Diana said softly. Percy lowered the ice and she gently reached out so that it rested in her palm. She laughed disbelievingly. "It doesn't quite fit, but this is amazing!"
"Thanks," he replied breathlessly and wiped some newfound sweat off of his forehead. He'd been able to create complex patterns and shapes and the like with fully liquid water in the past, but had never really tried to consciously form ice shapes. He was honestly quite surprised, and pretty delighted with himself. "It'll probably melt in a few seconds now, though."
"Still, this is incredible." Diana held it up and inspected it carefully under her eye. "Maybe that water pouch is a good idea."
"I told you!" Percy burst out and laughed. Diana joined him mirthfully, and he couldn't help but spell out some of the marvelous and useful things he could do with even a flask of water attached to his hip.
The pair of them continued to talk while they ate their way through their order of Big Belly Burger. It was fun, as it always was. There weren't many lulls in their conversation, and even when there was, he was comfortable in it. He and Diana just knew each other, and even with the extremely different environment, it reminded him of some of their conversations on Themyscira. There was no technology and minimal responsibility on the island, which led to them having multiple memorable conversations about a wide range of subjects at all hours of the day.
Eventually though, they ran out of food, and they were left with only scraps of garbage and wide smiles.
"You need anything else before I go?" Percy asked once they'd cleaned and thrown everything away, revealing a surprisingly small amount of stains on the carpet.
"Go?" Diana frowned. "And where are you planning on going?"
"Home?" Percy said, confused, and pointed behind him as if he knew exactly in which direction he lived.
"And how?"
"The Zeta beam's a few blocks away."
"Nonsense," she responded immediately. "You can stay here."
"In the guest room?" Percy asked, forehead creasing.
"Of course." She smiled and raised a single eyebrow. "Unless you'd like to sleep in my room, that is."
"Uhhhh." Percy stared at her. Diana's smile only got wider and more devilish. "Perhaps another time."
"An acceptable answer," she said finally. "Now go brush your teeth. There should be a new one in the top cabinet of the guest bathroom. If we don't go to bed soon, my mother's going to visit us in our nightmares."
"Yeah, yeah." Percy waved an arm uncaringly, but headed towards the bathroom down the hall nonetheless. "So are we going shopping tomorrow?"
"Yup." Diana called. "I'll help you Zeta beam to Central City tomorrow morning to talk with Barry, but that could take all day knowing him and his friends, so we can go shopping at night."
"Wanna just have dinner as well and call it a date?" He asked flippantly as he rummaged around the cabinet above him for the toothbrush and toothpaste Diana had spoken of.
He didn't get a response for a little bit and got concerned, but before he could pop his head out to see if she was okay, she'd already made her way down and was leaning against the doorway.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" She asked, eyes narrowed.
"Uh." Percy shrugged. "Yes?"
Diana stared at him for a moment in such a manner that made him want to squirm.
"Then I accept," she said. "But in the future, I expect you to be more formal when asking."
"In the future?" Diana nodded. Percy swallowed. Was it just him or had he been strong-armed into going on multiple dates by (and with) the woman in front of him? "Sure. Got it."
"Good." Diana nodded. Before he knew it, she had turned and left back down the hall. "Now get ready for bed. Barry has better things to do than wait around for you to show up because you overslept."
"Yes ma'am," he replied, surprisingly without any mocking or sarcastic tone. No response came after, and he was left staring down the hall with a toothpaste-covered toothbrush in his hand, probably looking like a complete idiot.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, turning toward the bathroom mirror as he did so. He inspected his reflection as he brushed his teeth, and somehow, he noted that he looked pretty healthy.
His skin looked fairer than it had a few weeks ago. The lavender rings under his eyes were still present, but were very much faded, even with his sleeping struggles. His eyes were bright and shone back at him.
It'd been a good day.
And he had a date tomorrow! Even if he hadn't purposefully sought it out, it was going to be the first in… awhile.
It'd been a very, very good day.
