PJO x Gotham Crossover

Duke Thomas makes a friend (and regrets it later)

Nico was a bit of an odd fella, in Duke's opinion.
He didn't mean it in any bad sort of way, it was just the things he noticed Nico subtly doing, small things most people would've missed.

Duke wasn't one to talk of course, he was literally a vigilante, but still. There were quite a few things he picked up about Nico that, to any ordinary person, would seem weird.

Like the way Nico seemingly subconsciously gravitated towards shadows, the amount of thin pale scars on his face, the almost completely concealed accent and how Duke had never once seen him use a phone the few weeks they'd been 'friends'.

Another thing was that every attempt at introducing either Tim, Steph or Cass (or all three) to Nico had been foiled.
Nico always disappeared during lunch time after acquiring food, most of the time Duke didn't even see him enter and leave the cafeteria. So he gave up trying to get Nico to sit with them during lunch and moved onto a new strategy, catching him after school so they could hang out together (then he'd unsuspiciously invite Tim and maybe Steph and Cass). Except every time he tried to ask Nico would be on the bus and off, before he could utter a single word. There were few occasions where he actually managed to ask, like the Books-and-staircase incident (we don't talk about the books-and-stairs incident. Ever), but something always went wrong.

Needless to say, Duke was getting sorta frustrated, it didn't even seem like Nico was doing it on purpose! He was definitely Nico's friend (right?), but for whatever reason the universe was dead set on not allowing him to hang out with Nico on other occasions outside of school.

Today was probably no different, but Duke was still gonna try inviting him to play video games or something, he just needed to stop him before he left (should be simple right?).

He tuned back into reality, hearing the scratch of pencils on paper and the distant yells from the courtyard. Nico was sitting silently next to him, writing on the worksheet diligently whilst tapping his foot rhythmically.

The bell rang and the teacher collected their worksheets. Bags were packed hurriedly, and the majority of students were shoving themselves through the door all at once in a frenzied escape. Duke sat back in his chair and waited a bit with Nico till most of his classmates had left, but it wasn't long before he was headed out walking side by side with Nico.

"-hy did they even schedule that in the first place, I don't get it!" Nico ranted angrily with frustrated gestures.

"Mhmm" Duke had literally no idea what they were talking about.

"So Nico, you doing anything this afternoon" Finally, no interruptions so far, everything was going according to plan "cause if you aren't maybe we could hang-"

Then, to the not-so-wonderful surprise of both Duke and Nico, a truck slammed straight through the school's front doors, tearing down half the wall with it.

"Oh my gods" Nico commented with a complete poker face, though this was pretty much an average Tuesday (gods?).

The pair stood there awkwardly for quite a while before spurring into action.

"Uhhhh- I think I left my fridge on, gotta go" Duke turned his heel and ran in the opposite direction

"What-"

Duke sprinted away towards the nearest bathroom, leaving an utterly confused Nico behind.

Now one might think (including Duke) that Nico was confused about him running away so suddenly, but in reality, Nico was in severe distress, wondering if fridges had been modernized enough that it was required to be turned off once out of the house. Like a stove, but with the house getting frostbite instead.
That offhand excuse furthermore was the beginning of a sentient fridge revolution led by Leo Valdez later down the timeline (though that's a story for another time).

Duke skidded around the corner and away from the perplexed boy he had left behind (of course unaware of the future revolution he'd sparked), the bathroom door was practically kicked off its hinges as Duke made his dramatic entrance. He took less than a second to analyze the room before digging out his uniform buried in his school bag (he knew it was reckless but he also knew better than to ignore his gut feelings of when to bring it).

Changing into his uniform with lightning speed, Duke was already headed out to join the fray.

There were several cop cars stationed around the school, a robbery out in the open, not a completely unusual sight for Duke but not common either. The truck from earlier didn't seem part of the plan though, and there were several men in clown masks trying to keep distance from the police by waving their guns around. Joker's men. Great. He'd have to report that to B later, it'd been quiet for too long so he should've expected it.

Dropping down behind the nearest goon, he knocked them out with a swift punch and turned to the rest of them.
He fought methodically, refusing to waste anymore energy than needed, within a short amount of time the police were already arresting the goons.

Duke was just finished zip-tying the hands of a goon and (even with his bright costume) managed to slip away from the crowd that had formed, he stealthily reentered the bathroom and found his school bag.
Which was about the time he realised he'd forgotten all about Nico. God damnit. Duke cursed and dropped his head into his hands as a sign of defeat. He couldn't even blame Nico for leaving with everything that'd just happened.
After about twenty minutes of contemplating whether or not stalking Nico in suit would be too creepy, eventually deciding that it wasn't worth it, Duke was heading home.

He might've also kicked the sink in frustration a few times, which to the despair of future Duke had actually broken the water system and would in several hours time start flooding the school's bathroom.

In the meanwhile, Nico was frantically Iris messaging Leo for a course on modern kitchenwares and equipment and even further into the city, a man by the name Jason Todd was starting a file up on the teen he stumbled upon the previous day.

Although Jason was getting increasingly aggravated at the security cameras he hacked into, because there was not a single non blurry shot of footage with the teen and his poodle(?) included.

Unrelated but also related to all of the current events, Bruce Wayne was turning increasingly paranoid due to the sinking feeling in his gut that something was about to happen.

End note: Sorry this took so long, had a bit of a writer's block;-;
Also, I'm going on summer break now!!! So I should have much more time to write on this story, these few weeks have been kinda busy with one thing after another... As always i hope the chapter was enjoyable!

Words: 1125