Don't Fear the Reaper

11) Beatdowns and Breakdowns

"No. No way," Jason said as he walked into the living room, Duke following closely behind. "That game is terrible."

"Come on, please," Duke pleaded. "Riko and I usually play together, but she's on vacation with her parents. I need to practice so that I can finally actually beat her when she gets back."

Jason sat down on one of the couches, gesturing to the other people in the room. "Ask someone else."

All the Waynes, plus Steph, Cass, and Babs, immediately let out a chorus of 'no's. Duke, desperate for anything, looked to Reaper who was sitting on the window seat. "Wanna play mythomagic?"

Nico froze for a second, kinda like a deer in headlights, before, to everyone's surprise, tapping his foot twice.

Duke fist pumped before gesturing for Nico to come over as he sat down in an armchair that had a coffee table right in front of it, across from a sofa.

Nico sat down as Duke set up the game. "Do you want me to explain how the game works?" he offered.

One tape.

Jason glanced at Damian and saw he was equally surprised. Immediately, everyone got interested in the game. Nico had ever so lightly warmed up to them the last few days. He was still mostly non-verbal and whether to not he would make eye contact with you was a 50/50 chance, but it was still comparatively warmer than lurking in the shadows of the manor. This was Nico willingly interacting with one of them for the first time.  

The game was ready and the duo began to play... and then Nico won. Three turns in and he had won.

Duke's jaw dropped. "Best 2 out of 3."

Nico won again.

"Best 3 out of 7."

And again.

"4 out of 9?"

And again.

"5 out of 11."

Duke started to win, and then Nico destroyed him.

"Move over," Tim said, shooing Duke. "I wanna try."

Nico destroyed him in 5 turns.

"Me next!" Steph proclaimed before being absolutely destroyed considering she didn't actually know the rules of how to play.

They all filtered through. They all lost. And then, it was Cass' turn.

The silent duo spent half the game just staring each other down. And then, right before Nico was about to win, Cass placed a card.

Pandora's Box.

They both lost.

Jason got a little nervous when he saw Nico realize what she had done. He had never seen Nico loose at something. He didn't know what to expect.

Nico and Cass both stood up and everyone tensed, but then they did what absolutely no one saw coming. They shook hands.

In all the years Jason had known Nico, he had seen the kid willingly touch 2 people outside of a fight.

While everyone gaped at them, Cass just smiled and signed. "If you can't win, make sure you both lose."

Dick looked like he was about to open his mouth to interpret, when Nico stunned them again.

"I respect the strategy," he signed before smirking slightly.

With that, the teen left the room.