From Camp Half-Blood to Gotham (Nico x Batfam)

Now Everything Hurts For Real (59)

Getting his eyes checked was probably one of the top thirty strangest experiences Nico had ever had.

The weird stand goggles had so many little lenses attached that he had to peer through his eyes seemed worse afterward and his head ached. The doctor herself was a squat old lady with glasses so thick Nico wondered if she could even see. But she was nice, offering Nico stale strawberry-flavored candy every chance she got.

After the appointment, the old lady spent several minutes tapping things into a computer that looked as old as she was, and Bruce was handed several sheets of paper fresh off the printer. The man read over them quickly and sent Nico off with Alfred to sit in the car while he stayed behind to talk with the doctor.

"What do you wish to have for lunch, Master Nico?" Alfred asked, his kind old eyes looking back at Nico through the rear-view mirror.

Nico wrinkled his nose, the feeling of that sticky candy still lingered in his gums and the back of his throat. It didn't do much for his appetite.

"I'll have to think about it, Alfred." He mumbled, wiping his teeth down with his tongue. Alfred nodded and started the car, turning on the heat, which Nico was very grateful for.

He stared out the window at the fairly full parking lot. It must have been a very busy day, even if the waiting room had been rather empty. He huddled closer to the vent, enjoying the feeling of the hot air being pumped over him. It was a very chilly day, and Nico was actually slightly surprised there wasn't any snow littering the ground, even if he remembered listening to some school lesson about Gotham pollution heating the atmosphere so snow literally couldn't form.

Thankfully Bruce exited the building not too long after they did. Nico wasn't sure he would have been able to sit in the car much longer, he was getting antsy and felt the need to train, something he hadn't done in a while.

"I'm ordering your lenses now; we can pick them up here on Friday if we get the form filled out today," Bruce said mostly to Nico but directed the date toward Alfred. "But you need to pick your frames."

Nico accepted Bruce's phone, slightly worried he would drop it. His hands were shaking pretty badly. All that candy was so not a good idea.

"What do I do?" He asked, looking at a pair of glasses that looked like they were designed for a five-year-old.

"Just find a few that you like and click the 'add to cart' button. I'll look over them and fill out the proper paperwork for transition lenses." Bruce replied, miming scrolling on a screen and clicking a button. It was a little weird to see, the actions didn't fit well with the mental picture Nico had of the man.

He sat in silence, scrolling through the seemingly endless list of frames. Some of them were ridiculous but most of them were pretty decent. Nico wanted something low-key, preferably black. And there were plenty of black glasses. He tried to stay away from rectangular frames, they looked too much like Jason's. Not that he had anything against the other boy, he just didn't want to seem like a copycat.

Nico eventually settled on two pairs, one oval-shaped glasses where the bottom part of the glasses was clear, and another circular pair with slightly thinner frames, pressing the button

"Here." He mumbled, handing Bruce his phone back. The man pressed a few buttons before Nico lost interest and returned his attention to watch the trees zooming by. They had made it out of the main part of the city and were probably only about ten minutes away from the manor.

"You only picked out two," Bruce noted, tapping on the first pair of frames he picked and started looking over a chart.

"I didn't like the others," Nico mumbled, finally shifting away from the vent, leaving his skin slightly pink with the imprint. He needed to put a long-sleeve shirt on.