Nico sat in him room, forcing himself to be calm. He told the others he wanted to be alone, but he started regretting it the minute they finally agreed and left.
He knew it was only for an hour (Alfred said that no matter what Nico said, he was going to check on him), but his room felt hostile. After that night with Will in the garden, he gave in and told them he would take a week off in order to recover. None of them were too happy that he only agreed to a week, but beggars couldn't be choosers. After the first day, he had gotten okay with a night light in his room. Day two, they installed a dimmer switch in his bedroom and he could bear to be in the lowest setting. It was day three and he decided it would be a great idea to conquer his fear of being alone again...
It wasn't going well.
The minute Bruce left his room, he felt like he was drowning. The lights were too bright, the room was both too big and too small, and his brain went into over drive. The voices he had been working on tuning out came back with a vengeance, dragging him into the depths of his mind.
By the five minute mark, he was about ready to tap out and yell for one of them to come back (he was sure that at least one person was waiting outside his door, if not the whole family), but then his phone rang.
He hadn't used his phone since before being taken, the bright light still too much, but all that went out the window at the prospect of being saved from the black hole that was his mind.
"Hello?" He said after answering the phone and putting it on speaker, showing it face down on the bed as soon as he could. He probably should have checked the caller ID... well, too late for that now.
"Oh," a familiar voice said, sounding surprised. "I was expecting to get your voice mail. I... I was just gonna leave a message for whenever you got to it. You know— no rush and all that"
Nico mustered a small smile. "Hi Garf. What do you need?"
The line was quiet for a moment, Nico already knowing that the green teen was silently panicking, before he finally spoke. "Advise."
Nico laid back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling that was still too bright, but it was at least more bearable than it was a few minutes prior. "Shoot."
"It's kinda secret," Garf muttered, sounding unsure of himself.
Nico hummed before standing up and walking towards his bedroom door. "Bruce?"
The other side of the door was silent for a minute before the man's voice called back.
"Yeah?"
"Can you leave?" Nico asked, smiling a little bit about how timid Bruce had sounded after he realized Nico knew he was there. "I'm on the phone."
Bruce's anxious sigh could be heard through the door before a defeated, "Yeah," was heard.
"And the others" Nico added, hearing at least 4 more voices mutter begrudging 'fine's. Nico smiled lightly as he heard them walk down the hall before returning to his bed and going back to looking at the ceiling. "They're all gone."
Garf, despite the anxious tone that was still laced in his voice, laughed. "Were they just waiting outside your door?"
"Yep," Nico said causally. "We're— or, I guess, I'm trying to be okay with being alone again. I... I-" he didn't know what to say. "I'm getting better."
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Not even a little," Nico said honestly. "Though, I could use a distraction, so..."
YOU ARE READING
When Worlds Collide
FanfictionBook 2 of the 'Demigod in Gotham' Series When Nico moved to Gotham, all he wanted was to do good. He never asked to be adopted by Bruce Wayne. He never asked for Slade to come after him. He never asked to die. And more than anything else, he never...
