When Worlds Collide

6) Surprise!

-Jason POV-

Jason sat on an armchair in the living room as the others walked in. It was nearly midnight, but that might as well be midday to his family. Tim and him had arrived first, Dick and Damian close on their tails. Bruce had to call in Steph and Cass to take over his patrol, so they were just waiting for the old man to show up.

"Would you like some coffee Master Jason?" Alfred asked as he came into the room.

"I'm good, Alfred. Thanks," he muttered as he just continued glaring at the door.

Damian huffed from his spot next to Dick on the couch. "Can you at least tell us why you've called us here Drake?"

Tim just shook his head as he stood by the door, keeping an eye out for Bruce. "Once Bruce gets here."

After another fifteen minutes, they finally heard footsteps coming from the direction of the study. Tim moved from the door and to the center of the room as Bruce took his spot on one of the armchairs.

"What's the problem?" Bruce asked, his focus locked onto Tim. "Why did you call the emergency meeting?"

Tim just pulled out his phone and typed for a minute before putting it away. "Oh, I'm not the one who called it."

Jason glared at Tim. "Uh, yeah you are, Replacement."

Tim shook his head. "Nope. I just told you about it."

Damian stood, probably about to walk out, but Dick pulled him back to the couch as he spoke. "Okay, if you didn't call the meeting, then who did?"

Tim was about to speak when something rose from his shadow.

"I did," Nico said, stepping beside Tim, his eyes staring at the ground.

The room was silent for a moment as they all stared at him in shock.

"I know you're probably mad-"

Jason didn't let him finish as he shot out of his seat and nearly tackled his brother in a crushing hug. Then his other brothers and Bruce shot out of their seats too and joined them.

Nico chuckled quietly from his place in the center. "Okay, maybe I was a bit off with predicting your reactions, but I'm gonna die again if you don't let me breathe.

Jason chuckled as he released his grip. Everyone went back to their seats, leaving Nico at the front of the room. Only then did Jason notice the cane clutched in his left hand and the way his face was tilted towards the floor, his eyes never meeting theirs.

"Why do you have a cane?"

Tim slapped Jason's arm. "Dude-"

Nico chuckled a little. "It's fine, Tim." The demigod used his free hand to pull up the leg of the left side of his pants, revealing sleek metal. "Surprise?"

Jason just stared, not expecting that revelation. "You... how did-"

"And while we're on the topic of surprises," Nico said, eyes finally leaving the floor and looking at his family.

Dick took in a sharp breath at the sight of Nico's eyes. Bruce froze. Damian's fists clenched. Jason had a different reaction.

He laughed. He really tried to keep it in, but it came out anyways.

"I'm sorry-" he said, trying to keep it down. "It's not funny. It's very much not  funny. It's just-" he snorted again.

Nico, to the rest of the family's surprise, began laughing too.

Jason began laughing more. "Jesus Christ our family is messed up. We're at 3 out of 5 for being thrown in the pit."

Nico cackled at that, barely catching his breath as he said, "I wasn't even thrown in, they dumped it on me."

That set off Jason and Nico's laughter even more until finally they were able to calm down, though neither could look at each other in case they made eye contact and began laughing again.

As the room calmed, Bruce cleared his throat slightly. "Are you... are you okay now?" His voice was quiet, laced in a kind of anxiety that was rare to see from the old man.

Nico gave him a small smile while he nodded. "I'm okay. I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner."

Bruce shook his head. "It's okay that you needed time away from us-"

"That's not why I didn't come back. I didn't need time away from you guys."

Dick looked at him, a bit confused considering they had all assumed that he just needed space from the chaos that came with being their brother. "Why did you then?"

Nico took a deep breath. "I... I don't know. Part of it was that I was kinda an ass for a while. I still have my moments, but I've gotten a lot better. I was lashing out at everyone around me and I didn't want to say something I would regret. Bitchy— sorry, Kayla— she was in charge of my recovery and she was really good about leveling me out, but I was pretty terrible to be around."

Tim raised an eyebrow. "Did you just accidentally refer to her as bitchy?"

Nico snorted a little. "It was a whole thing. I was Stumpy, Kayla was Bitchy, Percy was Sassy, Will was Sunny, Annabeth was Smarty, Reyna was Scary, and Leo was Gnomey. Kayla called us the Seven Dwarfs of Recovery."

Dick laughed. "Like from Snow White? How do you even know that reference?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "The movie came out in the 30s. I saw it in theaters after it was Dubbed."

"They had dubbing back then?" Damian asked, a bit surprised.

Nico laughed. "Yes, we had dubbing. Mussolini banned all non Italian movies from the country and subtitles weren't allowed so they got pretty good at dubbing. She was called Biancaneve in Italy."

Bruce chuckled as he shook his head at how off topic they got. "What was your other reason for staying away?"

Nico sobered a bit, not looking Bruce in the eyes. "I didn't want to face you guys."

"Why would you be worried to face us?" Damian asked.

Nico let out a breath. "I mean, a lot happened before I died. I hid the fact that I was injured, summoned a shit ton of skeletons, kinda went full 'son of hades' with my powers, basically killed Slade, and then just... died"

There was a silence that fell over the room. If they were honest, the brothers didn't really care that he killed Slade. Yeah, Bruce taught them that killing was never okay, but Slade deserved it.

"It's okay," Bruce said quietly, shocking all of them. "I mean... it's not okay, but I don't care right now. I'm just so glad that you're alive."

Nico smiled slightly. "Thank you. I'm sorry for being gone-"

Bruce shook his head as he got out of his seat and wrapped Nico in a hug. "Don't apologize. We missed you, but I understand. Thank you for coming back to us."

Jason watched Nico clutch onto Bruce tightly, his cane falling from his hand. "You'd have a harder time getting me to stay away." 

A/N: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. that's all. 

Vote. Comment. Tell me if you're excited to see the leg design I made (I am, it took me forever).