Don't Fear the Reaper

54) #DoubleDeadSisters

A/N: I made this art and I fully wrote this chapter because I learned how to draw and shade braids, so do me a favor and zoom in because it's kinda hard to see since the hair is black, and then tell me it's pretty. I need so much validation at all times. ALSO I am trying something new with shading, so give me notes plz <33

Bruce had never wanted a meeting to end as much as he did in that moment. His brain was giving him worse case scenarios of everything that could have been going wrong in his office. What if the LoA had managed to track Nico there and they attacked? Mythical monsters were real, so that meant that they could attack Nico at any moment, but the demigod had no way to defend himself. Should Bruce have left him with a weapon? Or would that only end poorly considering Nico was very off and on again about being a danger to himself?

The meeting was nearly done when his phone began to buzz on the table, the fake name telling him that it was a faux phone call, meaning someone pushed the button on his desk. Bruce's heartbeat immediately doubled as he quickly excused himself, pretending to pick up the call until the door was closed behind him and he was quietly sprinting towards his office— immensely glad that everyone on the floor was currently in the meeting he just left.

He was about to burst into the room to see what was wrong, but he stopped himself. There was a decent chance that the kid had just pushed it because she was hungry or needed to use the bathroom and didn't know where it was. Granted there was still a decent chance that both kids were bleeding out in his office, so he still ended the room quickly.

He expected chaos: broken objects, a mythical monster, and/or Nico fighting for his life; however only the last one was true, and it wasn't in the way Bruce expected as he stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the scene with wide eyes.

"Bruce!" Nico yelled, standing on top of the man's desk, using what was probably a very important stack of documents to ward off a little girl with scissors that was giggling maniacally. "Are you just going to stand there and watch, or are you gonna help me?!"

Bruce snapped out of his shock and moved forward, quickly grabbing the scissors out of Lilith's hand.

"Awwwww," the girl said, looking disappointed.

Nico let out a sigh of relief, climbing off the desk and setting the slightly crumbled papers back on the desk. "Thank you," he muttered as he passed the man.

Bruce's eyes caught on Nico's hair, done in multiple dutch braids and half pulled back into a bun. "You... you have braids..."

Lilith smiled proudly. "I did it. My friend Katrina taught me how, and Nico let me practice on him."

Nico didn't look at the man, just silently moving back to the couch to continue his knitting, though Bruce could see a ting of pink creeping out from under his mask.

"How?" Bruce muttered in a mystified tone, mostly to himself, but the little girl was still standing close to him so she heard.

Lilith moved to sit in the desk chair, slowly beginning to spin. "He didn't know what legos were, so I said I would tell him if I could braid his hair, and then he said no, so I said I would teach him how to make a lego flower if I could, and he said no again, so I said he could keep the flower if I could—and I really like the flowers, but I really wanted to braid his hair— and he said yes. Isn't his hair extra pretty now?"

Bruce smiled at the girl, knowing she didn't understand how big of a deal with was that Nico had let her touch him. "Very pretty—though why were you chasing him with scissors?"

The girl huffed, crossing her arms as if the act would make Nico give in. "I wanted to show my mom what I did, so I went to click the button, but he said not to because we shouldn't bother you. I said fine, but only if I could keep doing his hair and he agreed, and then he didn't let me."