A Part of The Family (Nico Di Angelo meets the batfam)

5

Nico had expected everyone to ask him more questions about what had happened, he had been dreading facing everyone in the morning. To his surprise they did not interrogate him first thing in the morning, though Damian looked like he wanted to. 

Then again, he almost always looked like he wanted to interrogate Nico. Nico was pretty sure that he was used to needing to know everything about the people around him and now that Nico, who had many secrets, most that they did not know he kept, was a wild card and something Damian was not used to. Nico sort of understood that. He had at least met other demigods with the same mind set, but it didn't mean he enjoyed it. He didn't blame them though. It wasn't their fault.

Nico sat down at the dining room table where everyone was eating their breakfast. He kept waiting for them to start talking about it, but they just talked about normal things. 

How did he sleep? 

Was there anything that he needed? 

Nico was grateful that they left the topic alone. He was still processing the dream and what it meant. 

Nico picked at his cereal in front of him. It was turning soggy. Bruce opened his mouth, probably to try and coax him into eating a little more but thought better of it. Nico was probably still a little too nervous to eat. 

"Nico, would you like to try going to school?" Bruce asks suddenly. Nico looks up startled. "What?" 

"Would you like to go to school?" Bruce asked again calmly.

Nico thought about it. There was a lot of things that he was behind in and with his dyslexia he'd have even more trouble catching up, but he wanted to at least try to experience what normal kids do. He could always drop out or something if it didn't work out. Going to school would make his stay here more permanent though. 

"You'll still have to do online lessons if you decide you don't want to go to school. I can't just let you not do school. I just wanted to at least give you a chance to decide if you wanted to try going to a school with other kids. You could go to a small school, or you can go to Damian, Tim, Duke, and Terry's school," Bruce said. 

Well, if he was going to have to do the work anyway then he guessed he could give it a try, at least until he could leave. "Sure, I guess it would be cool," Nico said eventually. 

"Yes! Nico's going to school with us," Terry said. He was ecstatic. He got to spend even more time with his new little brother. 

"He won't be going today. We'll have to wait a little bit to enroll him and get him the things he needs," Bruce said. "I'll let you guys stay home for school today. Nico needs some new clothes and he'll probably want to decorate his room. I would like you guys to take him shopping." 

Dick smiled and Jason, who had decided to stay for breakfast, scoffed. Nico didn't think he was actually annoyed, he just wanted Bruce to think that he was. Nico hadn't been here long, but he could already see the tension between Bruce and Jason. He wondered what had happened.

Nico found himself being dragged to the mall by Dick and Terry. Nico sat in the back of the car with a bewildered look on his face. How did he even get here? 

Duke, who was sitting beside him, smiled at him. His smile was almost apologetic. "Sorry about them. They are just really excited. Dick doesn't want to look back on this time and regret that he didn't do more with you and I think Terry is excited because he thinks that he'll be able to connect with you a little more." Nico snorted, "I very much doubt that he'll be able to 'connect' with me." 

Duke shrugged, "Well, that's what he's hoping, I think. Tim has his... friend group and when he's not with them he can get sort of distracted by any of his current projects, Damian is, well, he's really serious and has a certain way of thinking that although Terry might try, he can't understand like Dick seems to be able to understand sometimes, with Jason and Dick there's the age gap and the fact that they've been through a little more than he has. Until you came along, I was the only one he really hung out with. I'm not saying that he thinks that you guys will be best friends or that he will understand everything, I'm just saying that he's hoping and willing to try and become your friend. Besides you don't have to completely understand someone in order to connect with them, you just have to be there for someone and that's what he's trying to do."