Don't Fear the Reaper

32) Lemme Tell You a Thing or Two About Dante's Inferno

A/N: this one is shorter than I usually will accept, but I really like it how it is so...

A/N2: I actually made it longer lol. It's still short, but it used to be like 800 words, and now it's 1300 so... I'm calling that a win

Bruce had watched his kids as the week passed and each of them individually seemed to come to him and state that they thought Nico was opening up again. They never went into too many details, but each story they told him gave the man a glimpse of who the kid had been.

There was rematch between Duke and Nico in Mythomagic (Duke got his ass handed to him once again) and, though no words were spoken by the Italian, Duke swore that he almost saw him smile.

Damian told him about how he and Nico had gone through his art portfolio together, the younger forcing him to pick his favorite to help him decide which one to submit for an art show.

Nico had helped Jason make dinner one night because the 21 year old insisted that Alfred take the night off.

Steph had mentioned that Nico joined her for floor time in the library one day, however she seemed to be both thankful and remorseful about the interaction. When Bruce tried to ask, she would just brush him off and say it was complicated.

Tim said that Nico sat with him for at least an hour as he went through old cold case murders he had been working on.

Nico had apparently brought Dick a coffee and a plate of reheated leftovers while he was up late in the cave working on a case.

Cass had told him about how he joined her while she was laying on in the garden. He stayed in the porch, for some reason not willing to step foot on the grass, however they had sat together in the evening sun until it had become dark.

One by one, they each came to Bruce to tell him about how they really thought they were making progress. They each told him not to tell the others, not wanting to get their hopes up, but he could tell it wasn't what they were thinking.

Bruce had been studying the kid and, though he was being more responsive than usual, the man could tell that it wasn't because he was opening up. He was preparing to leave. He was trying to say goodbye and give them a sense of closure. He was trying to let them down easy by giving them one last good memory of him.

Bruce wanted to be wrong. He wanted his kids to be right about Nico warming up to them, but he couldn't ignore the feeling in his chest that told him that Nico would soon disappear.

The feeling only solidified one day when Bruce had been wandering the manor out of boredom, his work for Wayne Enterprises done for the day and Alfred refused to allow him to enter the cave until the others went on patrol as to not 'overexert himself'. He was planning on walking through the stacks, hoping that a book would call out to him, when he saw Nico exit a row of the tall shelves with three books in hand.

Nico glanced up at him, apparently not expecting to see the man, but still gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

"Find anything good?" Bruce asked as he sat down on one of the plush couches in the library, sending a silent offer for Nico to join him at the sitting area.

Nico seemed to hesitate before crossing the room to sit in the armchair across from Bruce. He held out the books to the man so that he could see what he grabbed.

Bruce's eyes skimmed the covers. "Dante Alighieri's Devine Comedy," he said with a thoughtful nod, surprised by the book choice. "I didn't realize we had the translated texts in the library."

Nico seemed like he was about to sign something before he hesitated and cleared his throat lightly. "You don't. These are in the original Italian," he said, his voice quiet and rough, but it still made Bruce's heart clench.

Bruce forced himself not to look surprised at the Italian's choice to actually speak to him and just hummed. "I envy you for being able to read it in it's original language. I read it for the first time a few years ago, but reading the translated text is never quite the same, is it?"

Nico shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I can't read English."

Bruce raised an eyebrow at that. He didn't expect him to not be able to read English, but he especially didn't expect for him to admit it so freely. Nico seemed like the type of person who would keep his inabilities to himself. "Well, I can't read Italian, so I guess we even out."

Nico seemed to chuckle lightly at that, though there was no joy in his eyes as he looked down at the tomes in his hands. "My Mamma read me Dante's Inferno when I was very young."

"A strange choice to read to a child, but I supposed the morals are good. It teaches about faith, charity, love, human nature— all things that we have to learn at some point."

Nico was silent for a moment before he muttered, "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate." He seemed to take a moment to translate it in his head before he spoke again. "Abandon all hope, you who enter here."

"The inscription on the gates of hell," Bruce said with a nod. "Arguably the most famous line from Inferno, though I always preferred the line, Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places, And come to re-behold the beauteous stars, When it shall pleasure thee to say, 'I was,'."

Nico closed his eyes in concentration for a moment before he spoke again. "Però, se campi d'esti luoghi bui e torni a riveder le belle stelle, quando ti gioverà dicere 'I fui'".

Bruce smiled lightly. Nico was going out of his way to let Bruce experience what it was like to understand the original text. "I always thought that line was beautiful. It means that after you have gone through the worst of it, you can finally look around and once again see all the beauty that exists around you. You can look up and finally be at peace with your past and everything that has happened to you— and within that peace, you can admit and accept who you truly are. It means that beyond all the pain and suffering, there are still stars."

Nico didn't respond after that, eyes just locked on the covers of the books in his lap. After a while the boy stood up, putting the books under his arm and muttering, "quanto la cosa è più perfetta, più senta il bene, e così la doglienza."

And with that, he left the room. Bruce grabbed a pen and paper from his pocket and tried to write down what he though Nico said, though he still didn't know Italian so it was just bold guesses on the spellings, and stood up. He went to his office, trying his best to plug in to a translator what he had written down in hopes of understanding what it meant, but it wasn't quite working. He had been able to translate maybe 3 of the words Nico had said, and he doubted it was enough to go off of, but he still tried.

He pulled up a virtual copy of Inferno that had both original text and the translated version side by side and plugged in the few words he had: Perfect, Good, and More. He expected to have to sift through at least a hundred lines of text in order to find the right one, but it came up immediately.

quanto la cosa è più perfetta, più senta il bene, e così la doglienza.

The more perfect the thing is, the more it feels of good, and of pain.

A/N: I know this was pretty short, but I didn't want to try to extend it and I didn't want to merge it with another chapter so...

Vote. Comment. Tell me what you think of Dante (I want to talk about Dante so fucking bad, so please tell me your favorite quote if you have one, and if you don't, then google one and lie to me please).