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

Sleep? What's That? (63)

Nico had said it many times before and he would say it many times again; waiting was agony.

And waiting while you were tired, anxious, and maybe a little bit paranoid was a special kind of torture, maybe he should recommend it to his father. It would be a great asset to the field of punishment. Or maybe it was just his eternal punishment disguised as some sort of horrible vision.

Yes. Nico could picture it as clear as Zoë's constellation in the night sky. He would be chained to a rough rock within the confines of the fields of punishment, his eyes glazed over in some kind of haze, his lips moving in a desperate plea for it to all end, that he had done nothing wrong and didn't deserve this. However he knew that wasn't true, everyone knew that wasn't true, especially the people suffering in there along with him.

The sound of the soft sliding of a door and loud voices jerked Nico out of his thoughts, stilling his ever-bouncing leg and the fingers twisting his mug of tea around, and around, and around.

"Welcome home young heroes." Alfred smiled and pulled out a chair for each of them.

"Morning Alfred! That patrol kicked my-" Dick faltered, his smile freezing on his face as he dropped his arm, which he had been stretching high above his head.

"Welcome back." Nico offered meekly, dropping his eyes to the deep burgundy liquid in his cup.

The rest of the group filed into the room in complete silence, taking their seats at the table with stiff postures. If he hadn't been so nervous, he would have thought it was funny to see them all in neon-colored costumes sipping tea like they had manners.

"Where's Bruce?" Nico asked, trying to ignore how dry his throat felt despite him drenching it in tea every five seconds.

"He's finishing up a few things in the Batcave," Jason answered, staring up at the ceiling.

"What are you doing up, Nico?" Dick asked kindly before Nico could even open his mouth again.

"Couldn't sleep. I want to talk with Bruce." His eyes shot down to study his feet, and the sneakers he still hadn't taken off. He winced as he realized they were caked in mud. Alfred was so not going to be happy with him.

"We can talk after you've gotten some more sleep. You don't look well." Bruce suddenly emerged from the hidden staircase leading up from the cave, pressing a disguised wall panel to close it as he walked over to them. The man's hair was slick with sweat and stuck to his forehead and his eyes looked exhausted.

"I can't go back to sleep," Nico repeated, trying to keep his voice level. It wasn't that he couldn't, he just didn't want to go back to sleep.

"Is that why you left the manor?" Alfred said suddenly, kettle in hand to fill Tim's cup.

Nico froze, his eyes going wide. The table went silent again and he could tell all eyes were on him.

"I just went to Camp Jupiter to drop Stormy Mc- The venti off. I figured it would be stupid to keep it around the manor at the moment. And I talked with Hazel about some stuff while she figured out where she was going to keep him." He explained quickly, still refusing to look up.

"So, the creature has been taken care of?" Damian was calmly dipping his tea bag up and down in his drink, which didn't match his frowny facial expression.

"I guess, it's being housed in an empty unicorn pasture." He mumbled, his legs going back to bouncing restlessly under the table.

"Unicorns are real?" Jason sat up quickly, smirking. Nico was a little taken aback. "Does that mean dragons are too?"