Don't Fear the Reaper

37) Y'all Wanted More Dante... Right?

Bruce had been in his office for nearly an hour when there was a knock at the door. He called for the person to come in before watching Will and Percy enter the room cautiously.

"Your kids... they, uh, they said Nico left something for us?" Will said, his voice filled with anxiety.

Bruce gestured for them to sit down in the chairs facing his desk as he reached into the breast pocket of his suit jacket and pulled the three letters out. He stared at them for a long moment before looking back to the duo across from him.

"He— Nico — asked me to give you these. He wrote me a letter to basically warn me that someone he knew would be coming the the manor and... anyways, he said he expected that more of you would come despite only asking for one." Bruce handed each of them their designated letter before looking at the last one. "He said this one if for his mentor, I am assuming you know who that is?"

Percy nodded, a grim look in his eyes as he took the third letter. "Did he say anything else?"

Bruce let out a breath. "He wished my family peace and safety... and he said that he hoped he never saw us again."

Will's eyebrows furrowed. "Did he leave on bad terms?"

"No, it wasn't that kind of wish," Bruce said after a moment. "He... he said my kids had become too attached to him. He had tried to leave before, but my youngest got him to return. Him saying he hoped to never see us again, it wasn't about hating us— or at least, I don't believe it was. I think... I think it was more about him being glad to be free from us caring about him."

Both of them were quiet for a minute before Percy looking at him, caution clear in his face. "He isn't alone right now," he said, the sentence both a question and a statement.

Bruce, trying his best to be aware of the information he was giving them, shook his head. "No— or, at least, he stays with some people at least part time, if not full time."

Will's neutral, bordering on anxious face turned into one of desolation as he seemed to understand what Percy was getting at. "So, the people he is with don't care about him at all."

Bruce knew the statement was probably meant to be a question, but it was hard to answer considering the blonde was pretty on the nose with it. "They care about keeping him alive but..."

Percy's breathing got slightly harsher as anger contorted onto his face, but he kept it in check. "Can I see the letter he gave you?"

Bruce nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the letter he had taken to staring at multiple times a day. He handed it over carefully, the feeling of it leaving his person unsettlingly nerve wracking.

He had never been a materialistic person— he only really kept trophies from his cases because he liked that he had physical representations of all the things he had done. He never cared for keepsakes or mementos that reminded him of 'the good old days' or anything like that— that was more of Alfred's wheelhouse— but that letter... something about it made him feel like he needed it. It was the only thing he had that gave proof that Nico had even been there— that he had been real. Sure, they had his old room that was still full of the clothes Dick had ordered for him, but those could have been anyone's clothes. They had no pictures with him and watching the security footage that had him in it did nothing in comparison to the unchanging feel of having that letter in his pocket.

"What does this say?" Percy asked, pointing to the small line of text on the back of the paper.

Bruce shook himself, trying to silence his thoughts, "It's a line from Dante's Inferno. The day before he left, him and I talked about the book. It was... I mean, I never new him before... but, I mean, it felt  like I got a glimpse of who he had been. The conversation was short and maybe I have just built it up in my head since it was the last time I saw him, but... I don't know. It have me a spark of hope."