From Camp Half-Blood to Gotham (Nico x Batfam)

Requiem for a Hero (7)

Breakfast was very tense, and awkward.

Nico stared at the bowl of oatmeal with raspberries sprinkled throughout. The metal spoon clenched tightly in his sweaty palm. Nico had only taken a few bites out of his food and was not intending to eat more. He had never been a breakfast person, and now he was even less motivated to eat.

"Bruce told us all about your 'shiny' detective skills," Jason smirked. Nico looked up at him. He had no clue what 'shiny' had to do with his detective skills, but Nico decided to take it as a compliment.

"I must say." Dick started, setting his own spoon down. "I would love to hear about how you figured it out so quickly."

"I thought Bruce told you?" Nico responded; Dick shrugged.

"He told us you figured it out, but he didn't tell us how," Dick said cheerily. Nico felt his ears grow red again.

"It was stupid," Nico admitted, looking back down at his oatmeal. Nico couldn't understand the logic of putting fruit in a bunch of warm oatmeal, fruit was supposed to be cold. Nico didn't really get oatmeal in general. It was just a bunch of mush oats that didn't taste very good unless you added a whole bunch of other stuff to it. Nico quickly had to remind himself that his grandmother was Demeter and would probably turn him into some sort of oat plant if she ever heard him say that.

"It can't have been very stupid if you could use it to figure out our identities," Tim added, Nico frowned at the irony.

"We must know so we can prevent it from happening with future instances." Damian chimed in, back to his cold demeanor.

"I'm sure Bruce will tell you all eventually," Nico said, not bothering to look up. He didn't really want to talk about this, especially with the reason he discovered everything still in the room. Besides, Bruce had already told Nico that he would like to talk with him down in the Batcave, and Nico didn't want to have more than one serious conversation in a day.

"I guess." Jason sighed, leaning back in his chair and propping his sock-covered feet up on the table. Alfred appeared out of nowhere and wacked Jason's shin with a feather duster. Jason just showed his teeth in the creepiest smile Nico had ever seen.

"What time is it?" Nico asked no one in particular. Nico knew he could have just looked at the large clock hanging above the dining room doorway, but Nico sucked as much at reading clocks as he did actually reading words.

"About nine-thirty," Tim replied, looking down at his watch, which had a digital clock face. Nico needed one of those.

"Why?" Damian asked, his green eyes piercing Nico. Nico didn't know how a child could be so harsh. He guessed being a vigilante at the age of twelve had something to do with it.

"Bruce wants to talk to me," Nico said simply. Setting his spoon down and rising out of his seat. The four other boys nodded and let Nico go without further questions.

Now, Bruce, or Batman, whatever Nico was supposed to call him in the Batcave, hadn't given him instructions on how to actually get into the cave. Nico figured Bruce wanted to see how Nico had gotten into the cave in the first place, which Nico understood. The only problem was Nico had also gotten into the cave in a stupid and embarrassing way.

Nico had been walking along in one of the Manor's halls, not paying attention to anything. That was when Nico tripped, fell, and didn't even think about catching himself. Instead, his body decided that shadow traveling downwards would save him from the impact. So, Nico shadow traveled through the floor and onto the ground of the Batcave. Where he proceeded to sit there for several minutes, debating whether the fates were meddling with his life again or if he just had Percy-level luck.