The Birthday Present

I don't own PJ series or any of the Batman content.

"..." Talking
'...' Thoughts
——————————————-

Will

Will had to remind himself who he was doing this for as he stepped off the bus. He took a deep breath and instantly regretted it. The smell of Gotham's air was rancid. It smelt as if something had crawled into a hole and died. Maybe he was just being dramatic seeing as he was used to the fresh air of camp or his small hometown in Texas. Which were places that didn't get pollution, or at least this amount of it.

Looking around he saw the dreary streets of Gotham, the gray and brown of the buildings and noticed that barely any sunlight filters through the layers of smoke, smog and clouds in the sky.
Will had started to feel the effects of the blocked sunlight as soon as the bus crossed into this depressing city.

But Will had to focus, he had a limited amount of time and needed to get that present for Nico before it became too late. He really didn't want to be here at nighttime. He had fought actual monsters and had fought in two different wars and he was still scared of this place. Maybe the lack of sunlight had a part in it? And the coldness of the January air probably.

Nico had been here before for his dad, a hellhound had somehow mutated because of something in this city and Nico's dad had wanted him to get rid of it. Nico had come back with a bite mark around his calf, even ambrosia didn't get rid of the scar completely.

Nico had later told Will that it felt like home. It had felt like the Underworld on Earth. And he had felt at ease while he was there.

But Nico said that, that was a problem in of itself, no place on Earth should ever feel like the place where the dead rested (or got tortured) for eternity.

Pulling out his phone (approved by Leo Valdez) and typed in the name of the place. It said that it was around a 30 minute walk from the bus stop.

Adjusting his backpack on his back, Will began his trek to the shop through the patches of dirty snow on the ground, better not waste... daylight? Was that the correct word? Will didn't know.

—————Line Break——————

Steph

Okay, so what if she hadn't gotten Damian a present yet? She was working on it. But Damian was the son of the richest guy in Gotham (and the fucking Batman) and a fully trained assassin.

Not to mention that the little brat was also a trained assassin. He could get anything he ever really wanted.

Do you know how hard the little demon was to shop for?

All of her last presents had been fails. First birthday she was around for she got him a cute little teddy bear dressed as Batman. Got its head cut off. Second birthday, Steph had gotten him a multitude of video game CD's, used as target practice for Damian's knife throwing. Next birthday another teddy bear, this time dressed as Robin. Surely this one wouldn't get its head cut off seeing as Damian was Robin. Right? Wrong, he gave the bear to BatCow to keep her company when he was gone. Steph never went into that barn to see what happened to it since then.

And there were the points that Steph hadn't been there for his birthday (Thank the lords!) on account of being busy with her own superhero stuff away from Gotham.

Traveling with Cass, good times.

But Damian's birthday was coming up soon, like in a few days, and that was why she was on her way to one of Gotham's very few malls to get him a gift. A cheap gift because knowing Damian, he will eventually completely obliterate anything she gives him. Sometimes she thought he did it just to spite her. He was turning 15, how long could he keep doing this all!