[Edited  April15 , 2023]

After his strange encounter with Damian, Nico headed back upstairs after grabbing a pomegranate from a fruit basket on the counter (why they had one was beyond him). There had been a large variety of choices, but he had chosen a pomegranate sort of as a joke but also because he actually enjoyed the fruit. He found it strangely satisfying to eat the pulp off of each individual seed. He also grabbed a napkin since they were really juicy sometimes. Hopefully, it was ok to have fruit around computers.

While he appreciated that the others were clearly trying to welcome him in their own ways, Nico wondered why Tim felt any particular need to show him his computers. Well, it was more the computers that he didn't understand. Modern technology baffled him and usually was more trouble than it was worth. Unless you knew what you were doing, it wasn't really worth the risk, especially as a child of the Big Three.

Computers hadn't existed before he went into the hotel, therefore he had no idea how they worked. Beckendorf had shown him how to turn one on before and explained the concept of the internet, saying that it was the internet connection that the monsters could sense. He also explained that his computer wasn't connected to the internet so it wouldn't emit a signal that the monsters could sense.

Nico got to Tim's door and knocked lightly. Moments later Tim opened the door and invited him inside. The younger boy's room was well-organized. He had 2 shelving units along the left wall near the door. They were out of the way and somehow didn't seem to make the room feel cluttered. The rest of the room was very similar to Nico's but with a ton of personal touches such as pictures, news articles, the color scheme, and the piles of papers on every flat surface. With all the space it didn't really feel like much of a mess.

All of the shelves were filled to the brim with what he could only assume were computer parts and police evidence lockup boxes. He could see papers sticking out of the tops of most of them so he assumed they were mostly full of case files or that sort of thing. The computer parts all seemed to be grouped by types of components. There seemed to be an organized system with everything in it's place. 

While Nico wanted to ask what Tim was doing with all this stuff, he didn't ask. He didn't want to pry or distract from what the other boy had been planning to show him. 

"Wow... this is way too technical for me," Nico said as he slowly  looked over the shelves. He honestly was interested, even though he couldn't tell the difference between a mouse and a hard drive.

"Well, we can talk about the cold cases I'm looking at instead if computers don't really interest you," Tim offered. He plopped into a spinny chair and rolled himself over to a desk on the far side of the room. 

"Cold cases?" Nico asked. He'd heard the term before, but he couldn't remember where. 

"Yeah. The cases that went unsolved for so long that people stopped working on them. Sometimes they go cold because there isn't enough evidence or because the technology needed to properly look at the evidence hasn't been invented yet," Tim explained. He returned to the shelves and grabbed a file out of a box on the third shelf down.

"Like DNA testing?" Nico asked. Tim was thumbing through the file absently.

"Exactly. In this case, for instance, the only thing that seems to be standing in the way of an arrest is the fact that a photo can't be enhanced enough for positive identification. They got a reflection of a person's face off of the side of a car. It was taken by the victim on their smartphone. If they could enhance the photo, they may be able to see who it was in the reflection."  Tim set the case back down on the stack. 

"That must be frustrating to the police," Nico speculated. He would assume it would be, anyway. 

"Definitely," Tim agreed. 

"Why do you have all of these cases, anyway? Are you a murder mystery junkie?" Nico found himself next to a box. He thumbed through the first few files and stopped when he found one he recognized. The name on the file was Jason Todd. So, he really had faked his death, then. To respect the boy's privacy, he let go and lost the file back in the stack.

"I guess you could say that. I hate the idea that all these cases are being forgotten about. The victims deserve better. And I've always been good at puzzles, so maybe I can find something that the police missed." Tim pushed his way back to his computer, the wheels got caught on the edge of a rug and nearly dumped the younger boy on the floor. He quickly righted himself and carried on as though nothing had happened.

"I guess, but why do you feel responsible?" Tim stilled.

"What do you mean?" His words were carefully measured and Nico got the feeling that he'd hit a touchy subject. 

" I guess I just don't understand why you seem to have such a stake in this." Nico shrugged. He wished he hadn't said anything at all, but it was too late to back down now.

Tim sighed. "I don't know. I know that I can help so It almost feels like..."

"Like you owe it to them?" Nico finished for him. He understood the feeling. He'd spent many sleepless nights wondering how he could help the families of the recently deceased. He could visit them, tell them where their loved one had ended up, or he could tell the soul what was happening with their family back on Earth. The problem was that there were just too many souls. Thousands died each day all over the globe and Nico would be lucky if he could help a handful of them find peace. He knew it wasn't realistic, but that didn't make it any easier to bear.

Tim nodded morosely. Nico felt bad for bringing down his mood, but he did feel closer to this boy somehow. They may have come from entirely different backgrounds, but they had some common ground. It was nice to know that Tim was still just a kid. 

"So, have you had any success?" Nico asked lightly. Tim's expression brightened, if only marginally.

"Some," he agreed, "I was able to help the GCPD crack open a 20 -year-old cold case a few months ago." Nico was immediately impressed. He felt like the boy was holding something back, but he couldn't imagine what that would be.

"How'd you do that?" Tim seemed to have been waiting for him to ask. Without pause, he launched into a detailed explanation of the case, the holes in the defendant's testimony, and how he hunted down a trail for more than a month trying to find new evidence. Nico didn't understand most of it, but it was good to see Tim back in good spirits. Besides, he didn't have to understand in order to be impressed. 

After Tim had finished his explanation of the case, the two started digging into a new case that Tim was working on. Tim seemed to think that Nico would be able to help. The demigod himself doubted that very much. The prospect of looking at a cold case appealed to him, but Nico wasn't in tune with this day and age, he wasn't sure how much good he could do. However, he was touched that Tim felt comfortable enough to share this with him, so he'd agreed to help however he could.

 While they were sorting through old evidence, Jason came in and asked if Nico wanted to play a game on the Xbox. That, of course, led to a long explanation that he had no idea what 'the box' was or how to operate the controls.

" How have you not played Xbox?" Jason frowned.

" I've never had the opportunity." Nico shrugged uncomfortably. 

"Well, you are now! C'mon! I'll teach you."

"Ha! This I gotta see!" Tim said, jumping off his spinning chair. He was definitely in a better mood now, and for that the son of Hades was grateful. 

"Shut up Drake!" Jason shouted without any real fire. Without further delay, Jason grabbed Nico's shoulder, steering him out the door. Nico tried not to shudder at the physical contact, though he didn't think he succeeded, as Jason quickly let go and glanced at Nico curiously. Luckily, he didn't question it.

"Ok, so this button..." Jason gave him a quick tutorial on what buttons to push and what the idea of the game was. Basically, you were trying to kill the other player using strategy. If there was one thing that Nico knew inside and out, it was death. In the first couple of games, Jason crushed Nico. What Jason didn't know was that Nico had just been getting used to the controls and learning about the map. In the next two games, Nico did much better, still not winning any. In the last two games, Nico almost managed to beat Jason, having familiarized himself with the controls and the map. 

Jason was a skilled opponent and had clearly put more hours into the game than Nico had. He had the advantage, but  Nico was also very skilled in strategy, being fresh out of a war. With some more time to familiarize himself with the controls and to get a lay of the land, Nico might even surpass Jason in skill someday. Today was not that day. 

"How did you improve that much so quickly?" Jason eyed the stats for the last game. Nico really wasn't doing all that poorly.

"He's actually really good." A new voice commented. Nico's head snapped toward the direction of the voice. He saw that everyone except Alfred had congregated in the game room to watch. He had been too focused on the game to pay attention to what had been going on around him. Was it normal for the whole family to watch Jason play video games or had they done something to attract their attention? 

"You must be slipping, Jay." Tim grinned at his older brother smugly. Jason growled at him before turning off his controller. He took the controller out of Nico's hands and went to put them away. There had been no discussion about playing again and the demigod felt that it was probably because Jason didn't like that he was catching up. Nico just hoped that he hadn't made Jason mad. He had just been trying to play a friendly game, after all.

"Are you losing your touch, Jay?" Dick raised an eyebrow at his younger brother.

"Shut up both of you! I was going easy on him!" They all knew he was lying. Nico couldn't tell if he was actually angry or not, since his back was to him. Dick and Tim didn't seem bothered by Jason's behavior and Damian had already left. Bruce was watching Nico carefully and the demigod was very uncomfortable under the older man's gaze. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked out of the room. He made his way out into the backyard and to the part furthest from the manor. On his way, he kicked a stone that he stumbled on, taking out all of his anger on it. Nico sat himself down beneath a weeping willow and leaned his head back against the leaves.

He sat by himself for a while, wondering why Jason's mood had affected him so much. He didn't really think that Jason was mad at him, not really. So why was he so worried? Why did he feel bad about it? When there were less than friendly competitions at camp he didn't feel like this, even when he won. Though at camp, he wasn't as worried about whether or not any one person would like him. Maybe it wasn't a good comparison.

Nico sat there for an unknown amount of time, feeling better by the minute. The more he thought about it, the more he was able to realize that his feelings didn't make sense. Once he had done that, it was easier to push them aside. Jason hadn't meant anything by it, and frustration didn't have to be anyone's fault. It was just a game, after all.

Sometime after he'd escaped into the trees, Nico heard footsteps approaching. They sounded almost like a high-heeled shoe but the pitch wasn't right, it was much too deep. It must be a man's dress shoe. That means it was either Bruce or Alfred. Nico didn't want to talk to either of them so he pulled himself up into the willow and hid among the branches. It wouldn't hide him if Bruce gave the orchard any real scrutiny, but it would buy him a few seconds.

"Nico?" It was definitely Bruce. Nico was confused that Bruce sounded genuinely concerned. Bruce walked into the grove, looking virtually everywhere except up. This confused Nico because Bruce seemed to be a very smart man, smart enough to look up. That was when Nico decided that Bruce was pretending not to know where he was. Why he would bother, Nico wasn't sure.

"Come off it Bruce, you know where I am," Nico called. Bruce's shoulders slumped slightly and he turned around. His eyes met Nico's immediately, even though he was up in the tree. He really had known where he had been hidden all that time.

"How'd you know?"

"We're in Gotham City and you looked everywhere except up." Bruce chuckled and looked at Nico out of the corner of his eye slyly.

"You're pretty smart you know?" Bruce said suddenly. Nico snorted in derision. "No! It's true! I've seen it and you've only been here two days."

"Thanks," Nico said because it was the proper response. 

So, why'd you leave so suddenly?"

"I was feeling a little overwhelmed." Nico lowered himself down from the tree, though he really would have rather stayed up there for a while longer.

"I see..." Bruce trailed off. 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry anyone." Nico apologized. He didn't know why he felt the urge to fill the silence but he knew he didn't want the space between them to grow.

"No, it's ok. I just wanted to make sure you were ok. It will probably take you a few weeks or even a few months to adjust and I want to make sure that you know that you don't have to go through it alone." The billionaire had managed to make that declaration sound much more nonchalant than Nico imagined anyone else could. 

"I'm ok."

"Good." The silence grew again.

"Is there anything else you wanted from me?"

"Not really. Though I should warn you that I'm not always the most attentive parent. If you need something, you're going to have to ask. I'm very busy and have a lot of children so you're going to need to advocate for yourself sometimes. If something is important to you, you will need to let me know." 

"Ok," Nico replied, though he tried picturing himself walking into Bruce's office to ask for something and couldn't imagine it. He'd never really been one to advocate for himself. Maybe this would be good for him, though. It might force him to ask for what he wanted. He guessed only time would tell. 

"Come on, it's just about time for lunch. Then I believe that Dick and Damian want to show you their hobbies." Nico followed Bruce inside and sat with the other boys at the table. Tim and Damian seemed to be in an argument about ninjas and Richard was arguing with Jason that Deathstroke was worse than the Joker. Why the boys had a preference was beyond his grasp.

"What do you think Nico?" Jason said suddenly. Nico looked up from the soup that he had been playing with.

"Err about what?" Nico asked.

"Who's worse? The Joker or Deathstroke?" Dick butted in. Nico looked back and forth between the two. They seemed to be serious about their question. Though Nico had no idea who either of those people was. He knew they were villains, but that was about it. He just shrugged and hoped that they would drop the subject. No such luck.

"You don't know? What do you mean you don't know?" Damian asked incredulously.

"Well err, I'm not from Gotham originally. I don't have much of an idea about the criminals around here." Nico avoided eye contact and scratched the back of his neck. He stopped as soon as he realized that he was doing it. It was a habit that he had picked up from Percy.

"Oh, I see," Dick said. His voice seemed strained but it was hard to tell.

"Well Nico, I called your camp and they are shipping your items here. They should be here sometime in the next two days." Nico's eyes widened. He had forgotten that Chiron had a phone.

"Thanks."

"No problem. I also thought that I should let you know that there is a gala tomorrow night. You will be expected to attend and you will probably be interviewed." Nico tensed. He did not like the sound of that.

"Dear gods help me," Nico whispered to himself. He took a bite of his soup even though he didn't have much of an appetite at the moment.

"Now, I know that this is out of your comfort zone, just try to smile a little and hang around the boys. Ok?" Bruce advised watching Nico closely. Nico couldn't find any words so he just nodded solemnly.

"Don't freak out. We'll all be there. You can hang with me if you want." Dick offered. Nico glanced at him, judging if he was making fun of him or not. Deciding that he wasn't Nico nodded his thanks.

"Ok, I'm finished. Nico, do you want to see my hobby?" Dick asked standing. Nico nodded and followed Dick out of the room and to the gym area on the second floor.

++Dick++

"Ever done any gymnastics?" Dick asked heading into the bathroom to change. Nico shook his head and began to explore the room. When Dick came back out, he found Nico looking at the boxing mats. He seemed deep in thought. As Dick got closer, he could see Nico sneer at the mats, as though he detested the idea of fighting.

"Hey Nico, over here." Dick gestured with his arm towards the hanging rings. Nico's head snapped in his direction and he came back over to where Dick was.

"Do you know what those are?" Dick asked, gesturing up at the rings, hanging from the ceiling.

" A death trap?" Nico asked, staring at them with mild concern in his eyes.

Dick chuckled lightly, not knowing that Nico was being serious, "Haha not quite, they're gymnastic rings. Watch." With that, Richard skillfully mounted the rings and started doing simple swings and flips to get warmed up. As he went, he started performing more and more complicated stunts. It was all Nico could do not to gape at the boy doing crazy stunts in front of him. He made it look so effortless. When Dick came back down to the Earth, he grabbed a water bottle and chugged some of it.

" That was really cool. Where'd you learn that?" Dick was surprised at the praise, Nico didn't seem like the type to openly give compliments.

"Thanks. I was an acrobat when I was a kid. I performed with my family, The Flying Graysons. I never stopped practicing, even after they died." Dick waited for all the normal responses, like 'I'm so sorry!' And 'my condolences'. What Nico said surprised him even more.

"Mary and John Grayson, right? The only people to successfully perform the quadruple flip? They seemed like... err they would be great people, I bet they would be proud." Nico had to cover for himself, he had almost hinted that he had met them. That would have taken a lot of explaining. Nico had actually met them in Elysium, while he was searching for Bianca.

"...Thanks, Nico. I always hate it when people would say 'I'm sorry' you know?" Nico nodded to show that he did know.

"Yeah, it never seems to quite cover it does it?" Nico agreed wistfully. Richard and Nico spent some more time in the gym, bonding. Nico just got along a lot better with Richard for some reason, and Dick got along well with Nico too.

"Well that was nice, I think that Damian was going to show you his katanas, then you, Alfred, and I, will be going shopping."

" Ok, where is Damian's room again?" Nico asked turning to leave the gym. Dick found it odd that Nico didn't question why Dami had swords or why Dick was going shopping with them. He decided not to question it and instead reaffirmed where the Demon brother's room was.

++Nico++

Nico followed Dick's directions to get to Damian's room. When he got to the room he knocked on the door and got a gruff 'enter' in return. He hesitantly complied.

"Oh Nico, it's you," Damian observed, looking up from polishing one of his swords. Nico didn't respond, since the answer was obvious. Damian set his katana, now finished polishing it, back on the rack.

"I wish to show you my sword collection and maybe show you how to handle a katana; no doubt in which style you are unfamiliar." Nico took several paces into the room, studying it. Upon his examination, he found several odd cuts and scratches on the wall, ceiling, floors, and doors.

"Come this way." Damian led Nico over to his rack of swords that was fixed to the back wall of his walk-in closet. If it hadn't been for the weaponry, Damian could have easily used a much smaller space for clothing.

" Quite the collection you have. What is the purpose of the shape and width of the blade?" Nico was genuinely curious about the possible advantages that a blade like this might have. He and Damian got into a long and intelligent discussion about swords and the advantages and disadvantages of using certain blades. Damian even taught Nico the proper stance for using a katana. He had to admit that Nico was a pretty fast learner and a rather intelligent swordsman. Neither of those qualities was evident under normal circumstances or in regular conversation. Damian feared that he may have seriously underrated and underestimated Nico di Angelo.