Ghost King Meets Batman

The Great Escape

"I'm just frustrated. I didn't want to ruin your trust in me earlier. I want to tell you what is wrong, but I can't," he started, "Now I doubt that Bruce will let me leave to see a friend from camp. I can't blame him, but I haven't seen him in a while." Nico said with a sigh. He rubbed his hand down his face.

"Who, Percy?" Nico shot the older boy a look. "You don't exactly have a lot of friends." 

"Yeah, Percy."

 "Is he at camp?" Nico shrugged.

"If he was he would have tried to get in contact with me by now," he said, knowing that he didn't have any mortal means of communicating, "He would know that I wasn't at camp. He must still be in Manhattan." he reasoned. Nico didn't mention getting in contact with him at the mall, because he couldn't very well tell Dick about Iris Messages. 

"Can you call him?" Without thinking, Nico violently shook his head no. Richard looked at the younger boy in confusion and some concern. His voice went gentle as he spoke, "ok, ok... no calling." Nico felt silly, Dick probably thought he was afraid of the device itself now.

"Yeah, never mind I'll just send him a letter I guess. He will get it when he gets back to camp, I'm sure," he said, thinking of Iris messaging him later that night. He'd have to actually send a letter or something and wait for a long enough time for it to have actually made it to Percy to keep the others from getting suspicious, but at least he could talk to someone for now. It was better than nothing, that's for sure.

That night Nico waited until the others left on patrol to IM Percy. He was in the middle of dinner and was stuffing his face with pizza. This was nothing new-- the boy could eat like one of his father's creations. Though this told Nico that the older demigod was definitely at camp because he would never eat like that in front of Sally.

"Percy!" he called. Percy's eyes shot up from his food and his eyes widened almost comically at the sight of him. did he really look different or was he just surprised? Nico looked down at his outfit. It was a simple black T-shirt and a pair of dark gray sweatpants. Maybe he did look a little odd.

"Nico! Chiron told me you were actually being adopted. I thought this was temporary?"

"There's nothing official yet, "Nico assured him, "But it's a possibility. Bruce Wayne offered to make it official. I've been living with him and his family for a while now."

"So you're living with mortals?" Percy scrunched up his nose. He had lived with mortals way longer than Nico had. Longer than most of the kids at camp had. He of all people had a reason to mistrust mortals. Nico could tell that his stepfather Gabe hadn't exactly been a good experience from the hints that Percy had dropped over the years. The son of Hades felt it fitting that man had been turned to stone.

"Yeah." He didn't elaborate-- feeling awkward. Nico didn't want to talk about the situation he was currently in. He knew that Percy wouldn't react well to knowing that Bruce was suspicious of him. Percy's loyalty would be the death of him someday. Apparently, his apprehension was clear because Percy frowned.

"Why did you IM me? Are you in trouble? Do you need help?" Nico waved away his question. He didn't want him to get the wrong ideas. Bruce may be mad at him right now, but Nico didn't think that he was in any real danger. Wouldn't Bruce have done something to him already if he were angry? Wouldn't he have already tried to force it out of him as Batman or lecture him as Bruce? Nico wasn't sure what constituted normal punishments these days. It had been a long time since he had had a parental figure around to enact discipline. Hades' version of punishment was to send him to his room at the palace or lecture him. Was that a typical father thing to do?

"I'm fine, Percy. I just wanted to let you know that I am ok. This was all pretty unexpected but I don't think I'm in danger here. I'm in Gotham, with Bruce Wayne. It's not a bad set-up if you ask me." He mused, gesturing around the room. He didn't share any of his other concerns with Percy-- he didn't want to worry him. Plus, anytime he brought up things from his past, people gave him a pitying look. He couldn't stand that look.