[Edited April 15, 2023]

After Damian had finished showing the demigod his collection and discussing combat techniques, Dick came upstairs to tell Nico it was time to go shopping. This was something that Nico was thoroughly dreading. He had never imagined in even his wildest demigod dreams that he would ever go tux shopping. Especially not with a chauffeur and a rather large budget. 

Nico reluctantly let Dick lead him to the car where Alfred waited for them. Alfred opened the back door of the car and Richard motioned for Nico to get in. The boy obeyed, though reluctantly, thanking Alfred as he went. Alfred closed the door behind Dick and got in himself. He didn't know how he felt about basic tasks being done for him. It felt like he was taking advantage of Alfred's time, though he supposed this was what he was being paid to do. 

Nico looked around at the interior of the car, noting that everything was very high in quality. He guessed that he shouldn't be surprised, it was Bruce's car. It was nice, but not showy, just like the rest of Bruce's things. Bruce lived in luxury, there was no doubt, but he didn't live in excess and Nico could respect that.

Dick and Alfred started talking about some play that he had read during his time at Gotham Academy and left Nico to his own devices.  The son of Hades chose to spend the ride staring out the window, caught up in thoughts about camp and what the other demigods would think if they saw him now. He was comforted by the idea that the children of Aphrodite would be jealous. Several of them had aspirations of becoming famous by becoming actors or models. He got picked up off the street by an eccentric billionaire without lifting a finger.

"Nico?" Nico glanced over, he hadn't realized that the subject of conversation had changed.

"You ok?" 

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking." He sat back in the seat, sensing that this was going to be more involved than a few seconds.

"About what?" Nico considered the question, trying not to take so long that it was obvious that he was coming up with a lie. 

"I was thinking about how I'm going to be sort of a public figure now. I don't think I'll like it," he said eventually. Dick nodded empathetically. 

"It does take some getting used to, but after a while, the buzz dies down and you only get in the news if you do something noteworthy," the older boy assured him.

"What's considered noteworthy?" The last thing Nico needed was for a monster to find him, destroy a public monument or part of the manor, and for him to get blamed. He'd seen what had happened to Percy on his first quest and he wasn't anxious to follow in the older boy's footsteps. He also had no idea how he would explain that one to Bruce. At that point, he'd probably have to fake his death and drop off the face of the Earth again.

"The last time we were in the news it was at a gala and all of us were trying to discreetly flip off the paparazzi and Bruce was trying to stop us. We ended up on a Yahoo list for that one. It was pretty funny. Not really noteworthy, I guess, but we had fun." Dick was smiling as he recounted the tale, the son of Hades couldn't help but smile along at the imagery. 

"So I shouldn't do that?" 

"Do what you want to. Just know that there will be talk about you and you need to learn not to care. They'll get bored of you if you don't give them a reaction or if they think that you're uninteresting," he advised. Nico considered this. He could do that. His backstory was mostly fake anyway so how could they bother him with it? 

"I'll try." 

"The rest of us will be there to back you up, too. You won't be alone." Nico didn't reply. 

"We'll probably need to get you an entirely new wardrobe. Oh, and some dress clothes." Dick changed the subject. Nico recognized it for what it was but didn't mention it. When he comprehended what Dick had said, he wrinkled his nose. He had never thought he'd live to see the day when he needed to wear dress clothes.

 His annoyance only got worse when Dick added, "And some clothes that aren't black. Maybe reds or greens?" Nico thought about this for a while before slowly nodding in acceptance. If he had to wear some color, those would probably be the ones he hated the least.  Nico's mind wandered down the scales of the shades of red. He'd be ok with anything as long as it wasn't bright. Bright and warm colors tended to wash him out.

Nico felt the car slow and he figured that they must be here. His thoughts were confirmed by Dick mere seconds later. When Alfred had parked the car and let the boys out, Nico reluctantly followed the older boy into the mall. He had never been to one before and really had no idea what to expect.

When he entered the building, his first impression was how many people were there. It was a Monday, didn't most of these people have jobs? There were families with strollers, kids at an indoor playground, couples holding hands, and older people going on fitness walks. It was loud and the skylights made it bright as well. There weren't many shadows to use and it made him feel exposed.

"Com'on Nico, we'll get this over with as quickly as possible," Richard said, almost reading his mind. Nico nodded and followed Richard into a store that he forgot to catch the name of. 

They were inside for far too long for Nico's taste. They got several pairs of pants in a range of dark colors, several graphic tees with things like skulls or logos of bands that Nico had never listened to, and some sweatshirts and sweatpants. Dick also snagged a nice military jacket that he insisted that Nico get. It was a lot of clothes and, if it weren't for the fact that Bruce was rich and had literally given them a budget for this, Nico would have felt bad for spending that much money at one time. And they weren't even close to being done.

The next store that they went into had mainly dress attire. Dick managed to talk him into getting got 2 sets of normal dress clothes and a monochrome black suit before they left. They even got some dress shoes that sort of fit. Nico wasn't sure how he was supposed to fight in those and hoped that it wouldn't come to that. He'd almost have to fight shoeless.

By the time they had finished up in the second store, Nico was getting somewhat irritable. He allowed himself to be dragged to two more stores for various things like toiletries, bedding, and some decorative touches before he had had enough. There were only so many crying children and LEDs that he could handle before he felt like he wanted to scream and they had long exceeded that limit.

Nico excused himself to the restrooms, getting away from most of the people for at least a few minutes. He slipped himself into one of the single-stalled rooms and just stood by the sink, trying to regulate his breathing. Malls were frustrating. Nico let himself calm down from the hustle and bustle of the shoppers. Sort of like recharging his batteries. He wasn't used to being around so many living mortals.

He was so out of it that he didn't realize that he was getting an Iris message until Percy yelled at him. Being startled, Nico scrambled back from the sink, hand going to his pocket for his sword. When Nico looked up, he could see the message hovering in front of the sink and that Percy looked mad.

"Nico! Where in Hades are you? I was worried! Chiron IMed me and told me that someone had taken you to Gotham! Gotham of all places! What are you doing there? Are you alright? Did they kidnap you?" Percy's voice wasn't quite at the point of yelling, but it was close. Nico felt attacked, it wasn't Percy's place to decide where he could go. He never seemed to care before now. Nico's temper flared at what he saw as hypocrisy.

"Don't be stupid," Nico countered impatiently. His temper was already flaring and he could feel the energy he had to filter his words waning.

"Me? Haven't you ever heard of stranger danger?" Percy asked incredulously. Nico bristled at the older boy's tone.

"Don't you think I thought about that? Bruce is a regular mortal who has decided to take me in because he thinks I've been living on the streets. I'm perfectly safe. Hades even told me he approved of my decision so get off my back." Nico hissed, trying to keep his voice down in case Dick was waiting for him in the hall outside. When Bruce had told him that he had called Chiron to get his stuff transferred to the manor, Nico hadn't considered that that would raise any red flags. His cousin took a second to breathe and collect himself before continuing.

"I'm not trying to start a fight. I just think you'd be safer here at camp. Or even in the Underworld." 

"Your opinion has been noted, but I'm starting over here. With the Waynes." Nico folded his arms over his chest and stared at his sneakers. He could see why Dick had insisted that they get him a pair of Converse. His shoes were in rough shape.

"What? Nico, you have to come back to camp, people here are worried about you!"

Nico snorted with derision, "Percy, no one at camp cares about me. They all think I'm a freak. The Waynes don't. I have a chance to just be a regular teenager for a while." Percy seemed conflicted. As a demigod with his own teen years stolen from him, he could understand the desire to just be normal. If anyone understood that, it was him. 

"Fine. If even Hades thinks this is ok, then I'll have to trust your judgment. I just don't want you to end up like..." The son of Poseidon trailed off but he'd said enough. A pang of hurt stabbed through Nico's chest. Like Bianca.

 "The Waynes are mortals so don't IM me unless there is an apocalypse. Don't ruin this for me." Nico then cut off the feed before Percy could reply. He sighed and exited the bathroom. He'd been in there for too long already to linger any longer. Then he left with a suspicious batboy who had thought he heard voices in the single-stalled bathroom. Dick also knew for a fact that Nico didn't have a phone.

++++

On the way back to the manor, Dick could tell that Nico was feeling depressed, though he had no idea why. They had just gotten him a ton of new things to decorate his room and make it more to his liking. If anything, he had thought Nico would have been excited to get back to the manor and get everything put away. 

 Dick decided to tell him about the prank wars in hopes of getting his spirits up.

" So, Nico." The others and I have decided to hold a 'welcome to the family' prank war. You in?" Dick asked leaning forward anxiously in his seat, a mischievous smile plastered on his usually innocent face.

Nico looked at the older boy suspiciously. Nico had gotten a lot of training from the Stolls on pranks, but something told him not to underestimate his new brothers. Hesitantly, he agreed. The look on Dick's face was enough to make him regret consenting. Nico felt like he may have signed his own death warrant, and he knew what he was talking about.

"What are the rules?" Nico asked, hoping that there were some ground rules already laid out. He didn't know what he'd do if there was just supposed to be unbridled chaos.

" None of those bathroom pranks, dyeing of clothes, and nothing that could cause injury. Also, If you aren't willing to help clean it up, don't do it... I think that's it." Richard said listing them off as the brothers had agreed on them.

" Since it is already late, we will start the war tomorrow," Dick added as an afterthought. Nico grinned evilly, which left a lot of options open still. He was going to have a lot of fun. 

 Alfred pulled the car into the manor's drive and the boys both headed inside. Once inside they were swarmed by the other three boys, each ready to start the pranks as soon as possible. After some chatter, they all agreed to start the prank war the next morning because of the Gala and because of the unspoken conversation they had about Nico's mood.

Nico excused himself from the group early and headed to his room, the conversation with Percy still fresh in his mind. He stewed over it as he made his way to the top of the stairs. Alfred had told him he'd have the things brought up to the second floor a little at a time via the dumbwaiter. He waited at the top of the stairs and unloaded the luggage bit by bit. That had left him a lot of time to think. 

[A dumbwaiter is one of those little elevators that old manors and mansions would have so that servants and house staff could easily send things to different floors without having to take it up the stairs themselves.]

Percy's disapproval almost made Nico want to stay even more, though that probably wasn't the rational response. Nico comforted himself with the knowledge that Percy couldn't possibly know the intricacies of the situation or what his life was like at camp. The son of the sea god was well-liked, or at least respected, by most of the campers. Of course, he wouldn't understand Nico's need to escape it all. He'd thought he'd at least understand the need to have someone who wanted him around.

Percy had grown up knowing that Sally loved him. It wasn't the same for Nico. No one, not even his own biological family seemed to have wanted him. Bianca had left him for a group of immortal maidens the minute she got the hint of freedom. Once he'd found out who his father was, he'd been met with the cold truth that Hades had preferred Bianca to him. His father would play favorites without shame. It was hard to bear, but he'd managed.

When he thought about it, he couldn't come to accept that the Waynes wanted him either. They had such a big family already, why would they want him? Why risk what they had? That was just considering him being a normal child with normal emotional and age-appropriate problems. He was a demigod child of the Big Three. When they discovered he had death powers and attracted literal monsters, they'd drop him and he'd be alone again. 

While his mind wandered, his hands had been keeping busy, unloading the dumbwaiter and sending it back down to where the butler waited downstairs. Soon enough he'd received the final load. It took him several trips, but he eventually got everything to his room and found that it had been dismantled while he was gone. 

There weren't any sheets on his bed, no curtains in the window,  or pictures on the wall. Everything was a blank canvas for him to leave his mark. It was nice and intimidating in equal measure. Nico began to unpack the items that they had gotten from the stores. 

He put new black sheets, blanket, and comforter on the bed and the pillowcases he'd picked out had little bones on them. It had been funny at the time, drawing a smirk from Dick when he'd seen the selection. Now the cases seemed to be a little too on the nose and Nico started to regret the purchase. It was all he had, though so he'd use them for now. His duvet was a dark grey and covered the black sheets nicely.

Dick had insisted he gets something that had some color so his new lampshades, towels, curtains, and rugs were a rich dark green. It had been a good compromise since most of his wardrobe was also dark. Dick had also snuck in some matching green throw pillows and blankets for the bed that Nico still wasn't sure how to use. Were they just for decoration? 

He'd a simple wristwatch as well since he didn't have a phone and had refused one when Dick suggested he pick one out from a tech store of some kind. He'd also refused a laptop, tablet, several gaming consoles, and a smartwatch. Dick told him he should at least have something to help him tell the time and he finally relented. It was small, simple, and black so it wasn't bad. 

He'd also gotten several new pairs of shoes, some more suited to combat than others. he had two pairs of generic black Converse, one pair of nice dress shoes, one pair of black combat boots, and two pairs of running shoes, one black with green accents and the other red with black accents. He wasn't sure how he felt about the last two, but he was just glad to finally retire his busted shoes he'd gotten hand-me-down from a thrift store two years prior.

He'd gotten several outfits two and Nico was overwhelmed by suddenly having choices. he was used to only having two or three sets of clothes that he was continuously washing, patching, and replacing. Having about a dozen options was foreign. 

He pulled out the clothes and the wire hangars that he'd gotten so he could start hanging everything up. He hung up the suits first which had been wrapped in plastic at the store. He was going to leave them in the plastic for now. He stuck the fancy stuff at the back of his closet for the time being. 

Next, he started on the pants. He'd gotten several pairs of black jeans, black dress slacks, khakis, green cargo pants, black cargo pants, sweatpants in a variety of blacks and greys, some pajama pants, some basketball shorts (Dick had insisted for some reason), and some joggers. He hung up the nice pants and the jeans and folded everything else to put in his dresser with his underwear, socks, and other PJs. 

He then started in on the shirts. A surprising amount of them was what Dick called Graphic Tees, covered in pop culture references that he couldn't hope to understand. Some were 'anime' characters, some were album covers to bands Nico had never heard of, and some were essentially gibberish. Most of these shirts, a variety of short and long-sleeved, Dick had picked out for him. The ones that Nico had selected were all monochrome black, green, or grey. There were a few dark blue shirts in there at Dick's insistence, though. There were also some nice button-ups in a variety of colors, also selected by the older boy.

He moved on to the dressed and put everything else away in the drawers. Then he was down to the towels, bath mat, and toiletries. He went into the bathroom and was pleased to find that, while it was mostly white with the countertops, bathtub, and ceiling, the shower was made out of grey slate tile and the flooring was the same hardwood as the rest of his room. The walls themselves were also white but hopefully, he could convince Bruce to let him paint it dark green or something. He put all of the items where he thought they should go and returned to the main room to survey his work.

While it felt like he'd been unpacking forever, the room didn't really look like it had become much fuller. Part of that had to do with the size of the room and the rest of it was probably because most of what he had gotten were clothes. The walls were still a strange burgundy (seriously?) that he'd need to change later and the walls were notably empty of decoration or pictures, but Nico figured that would change in time.

Once everything had been hung up, laid out, or put away, Nico got himself ready for bed. The PJs he picked out were the ones Dick had made him get. It was a simple black cotton T-Shirt with a pair of grey cotton pants with little black skulls and bones on them. Dick had laughed when he saw that they were Nico's size and told him if he didn't get them, Dick would give them to him for Christmas. He caved. Annoyingly, they were really comfortable.

He then brushed his teeth and washed his face, something Dick had informed him that he was supposed to be doing every night. He'd been embarrassed that he hadn't known that, but he hadn't really grown up with anyone to tell him what to do. The boys at Camp weren't exactly known for their hygiene, either. He'd do better from this point on. 

Eventually, Nico deemed himself clean and crawled into bed. He spent a long while staring at the ceiling and trying to decide what the chances of a monster attack in the night were. After running several unlikely scenarios in his head, he finally slipped into a fitful sleep. Of course, he dreamed.

This dream was different than most of his others. This time he was running through the streets of Gotham, desperately running from someone. He ran down the street but it felt like he was running through molasses. His legs were heavy and the rest of the world was going by slowly. There was no way he could outrun anyone like this and he knew it.

With each second his pursuer was getting closer. Each turn he took felt as though a hand was going to take hold of him. He didn't know how far behind the danger was, but he didn't think it was far. Nico didn't know who was after him, but he knew that getting caught was a death sentence. Running was a losing battle, but he didn't stop. The scene changed as he tried to look behind him to catch a glimpse of what he was running from.

In this part of the dream, Nico was stuck in place, being an unwilling bystander. He was planted on a roof, watching an odd group of boys in front of him. They were all wearing hero get-ups and watching the streets silently. Nico saw that the night was calm and there really wasn't any reason for him to be there. Suddenly, an acute sense of danger washed over him and he knew that these boys were in grave danger. He opened his mouth to warn them but moments later the roof exploded, scattering the boys every which way.

Nico awoke with the intense feeling that his new family was in danger. He sat up in his bed, threw off the covers, and slipped into a pair of black cargo pants (these actually fit) and a long-sleeved (supposed to be skin-tight) shirt. He put on one of his new pairs of shoes. He tightened his belt and grabbed his military jacket and camp necklace before going out into the hall.

He stood right outside Dick's door. Instead of trying to go in and risking waking him, Nico practiced one of the new skills that he had discovered. He thought of it as 'Soul Searching'. He pressed his hands on Dick's door to steady himself and he reached out with his mind to see if he could sense Richard's soul in the room.

Soul Searching would be best described as thermal imaging. Nico couldn't tell what objects were in the room, or what the room looked like, but normally Nico would be able to 'see' the person's soul. A soul would appear as a humanoid blob of color. Sort of like colored ghosts. They had no definition, except maybe a silhouette. At most, he could tell whether they were male or female. Without anything to clue him in, Nico could still tell whose soul he was looking at, even if he had never met the person. The skill had come in handy many times before but he didn't do it often because it usually gave him a massive headache.

After several minutes of searching, Nico concluded that not only was Dick not in his room, he wasn't even in the manor. Neither was Bruce or the other boys. Alfred, however, was still in his room. Where were they? Why was he the only boy still in the manor? 

Nico was feeling panicky now. With the dream and the intense feeling of danger in his gut, Nico traveled through the pitch-black manor. It was lucky that he was accustomed to the dark or he would have been bumping into absolutely every table until he got to a room on the second floor that he could escape from through the window. The boys had shown it to him when he first arrived as a spare guest bedroom. Jason had apparently used it once to sneak out.

Nico could always shadow travel of course, but he didn't know how much more he would be needing his powers that night and didn't want to take the risk. If the boys were in danger, he needed to be ready to fight. He jumped down from the balcony, tucking and rolling to safely disperse his momentum, just as he had learned at Camp for jumping off the lava wall. He cloaked himself in shadows and ran several blocks towards the main city.

Nico had no idea where to start looking, Gotham was a large and crime-ridden city. Taking a risk, Nico used his powers to search for Dick anywhere in the city. Nico instantly felt a stab of pain in his brain, he had never attempted a search this big before. It took a lot of concentration to keep up the search despite the pain.

Luckily, Nico was quickly able to pinpoint Dick's soul. Dick's soul was a glowing blue color. Around him, there was a green blotch, Damian. Next to Damian, there was a charcoal grey soul, Bruce. Then one crimson red one, Jason. The last was a bright cherry red, Tim. He didn't know whether he should feel worried or relieved that they were all together. Maybe they were safe but they were excluding him from something important. Or, maybe they were all in danger at the same time and whoever took them just hadn't known about him. Either way, he needed to find them if he could.

Nico let the search drop and raced towards their general direction, being sure to keep his footfalls as silent as he could and keeping to the shadows. It was a cool night, seeing as it still was the fall season in Gotham. Nico shivered, despite the clothes that he had picked out specifically for their insulating properties.

Nico felt on edge as he slunk around Gotham's creepy streets. Several times he had to completely cloak himself in shadows to avoid the detection of your average petty crook. Every so often, he would stop and re-adjust his course to follow them to their new location. They were moving around quite a bit. After quite a while of searching, Nico came upon the area where he sensed them. If his powers weren't failing, they should be just around this corner. Nico silently edged himself up to the corner, glancing around it cautiously. He didn't want Bruce to catch him and get mad at him on his second day at the manor.

To his surprise, no one was on the street. Nico conducted his search again but came up with the same results. The five of them were on that street. Nico, being the ground-dweller that he is never thought to look up. If he had he may have found out the secret that the Batfam kept so closely guarded.

Feeling confused and somewhat angry, Nico made a small shadow jump to the cemetery where he had first landed. Nico didn't feel like going home quite yet, and he wanted to see if he could still sense souls. His powers had yet to fail him before tonight. He stepped numbly out of the shadows of the mausoleum, relaxing as he walked through his own element. 

Nico checked his watch, seeing that it was well past time to get back to the manor. Deeming it safe, he shadow-traveled back to his room, collapsing on his bed as soon as he had slipped out of his heavy clothing and back into his pajamas. Almost instantly he was asleep.

Luckily for him, he was asleep only minutes before Bruce came in the check on him before laying down the mantle for the night.