Gotham's Ghost King

11: Parties suck.

Prev- Bruce returned to please the crowd with his sharp tongue. Putting on a smile again while he kept his eyes peeled for any other signs. Who could it possibly be? His mind roamed through any villain, vigilante, possible politician or rich guy that could have ever wanted to get involved with him and his kids. As he thought, his mind roamed to a certain green haired man with a smile he hated.

'Could it be possible? No... there hasn't been any news of the joker since I sent him to Arkham Asylum.' Bruce thought to himself as he smiled while 'listening' to a guy blabber about owning two businesses.

Nico had noticed the lack of Bruce's presence when he had left for the Batcave, but he maintained his silence as he decided to sit down. His leg shook nervously as Nico picked on the skin around his fingernails. Gosh how bad he wanted to shadow travel the hell out of there.

Damian eyed Nico for a bit before making eye contact with Dick. They both understood Nico wasn't liking this, even before the doors opened. Dick motioned for Damian to go over to him.

As Damian walked over to Dick, his head shot to the window. He had just felt as if a pair of eyes were watching him. His eyes narrowed as he stared out the window, only briefly catching sight of yellow before his attention turned to the fancy car pulling up the driveway, losing the blonde locks of hair.

Damian clicked his tongue. "Those annoying bastards are here." Damian said with a clear displeased tone heavy in his voice.

Dick sighed, "Damian, don't call the guests 'bastards'..Even if they're not in here yet." Dick said as he patted Damians shoulder, not catching sight of Nico tensing and cold sweating at the sounds of the cars coming.

That's when Bruce had come back up and put his hand on Nico's shoulder, whispering to him, making Nico put a hesitant smile up.

Nico stood up and dragged his feet back to the doors with Dick. Damian rolled his eyes and stood back behind Nico, as Bruce opened the doors. Even though these people were high class, aristocratic, business people and walked in an organized manner, the many people that filled up the space made Nico's breath hitch in his throat.

Just the sight of the crowd made Nico want to throw up and have the floor swallow him up. Unconsciously, Nico hunched a bit, making him look even smaller than he already was.

Nico had one of the most tense and fake smiles on his face as he shakingly greeted the people that greeted him. It was clear by how the cold sweat went down his neck, his tense figure, and alert eyes that he did not enjoy any conversations with those aristocrats.

A certain bald man noticed Nico's extreme nervousness. He had a grin as he walked over to him.

"Hm? Why hello. I don't believe I've seen you at any of Mr. Wayne's galas before..." The man said with a smirk.

"Um...hello..." Nico said quietly, his voice cracking.

Damian had glanced over from glaring at a poor random rich man. He had taken a cool drink from Alfred to calm himself. He started listening to the conversation, wary of the man.

With a clearly mocking look in his eyes and a smirk he spoke. "I am Lex Luthor. The owner of Luthor businesses, I guess I could be a rival company of the Wayne businesses." Luthor stretched his hand out for Nico's.

Nico stopped playing with his finger nervously and shook Luthor's hand. "Er...I'm Nico..." He mumbled quietly.

Luthor glanced at Damian listening in from behind Nico. His smirk widened. "Nico... Are you perhaps...a servant?"

Damian spit out the sip he had taken from his drink. A vein popped out from his forehead as he held the glass tightly. Damian directly glared at Luthor while his glass cup broke in his hands.