Don't Fear the Reaper

69) hehe... noice

A/N: This is an iteration of some art I did earlier, and it will make sense later in the chapter. Also, since I didn't do a complete redraw, just ignore that the clothes are different lol. 

Nico sat in his temporary room in the mountain, bored out of his mind. He had run out of yarn and, ever since then, life wasn't worth living. Steph said she would bring him some stuff from the manor soon, but that just meant he had to wait an unknown amount of time.

A knock sounded at the door. "Yo, Spooky! It's time for lunch and Kaldur said you had to join us!"

Nico rolled his eyes, begrudgingly getting out of bed and putting on his mask that was hanging around his neck before opening the door. "Don't call me Spooky," he muttered as he stepped past the speedster.

Bart looked momentarily surprised at actually hearing his voice for the first time, but was otherwise unaffected by Nico's very apparent bad mood and just fell into step next to him. "Well, we still don't know your name, so..."

"You don't need to."

Bart rolled his eyes, looking like he was about to elbow the demigod slightly before he froze and put it arm down, no doubt remembering the Bats warnings about Nico's boundaries. "Okay, then that leaves nicknames... How about... Shadow Man?"

"No."

"Death guy?"

"No."

"Zombie Boy."

Nico froze, a chill running through him as the memory of Percy calling him that began echoing in his mind. "Never call me that again," he said with a sharp glare.

Bart put his hands up in surrender, looking genuinely sorry. "I swear I won't. I didn't mean to cross a line."

Nico let out a breath, forcing himself to drop his glare and begin walking again. "You didn't know. It's fine. I just... someone I used to know called me that and I'd prefer to forget."

Bart nodded in understanding. "Okay, how about something to do with Ghosts? You kinda just appear and disappear silently, so I feel like it fits."

They got into the kitchen and Nico sighed. "Fine."

Bart smiled excitedly before looking to the others. "I brought Ghostie McScary!"

"Die," Nico said simply as he went and sat on the empty couch that was in the connecting living room.

Bart just chuckled. "Okay, fair. How about just Ghost?"

Nico shrugged, knowing it was probably the best he was gonna get.

"Okay then, our mysterious guest is now called Ghost," Bart announced to the others, looking very proud of himself.

The team just looked at Bart in surprise, probably not expecting for him  to the be the first person to actually get any sort of information/opinion out of the kid. They all quickly rid themselves of the confused/shocked looks and offered Nico small smiles.

"It's nice to finally have a name to call you Ghost," M'gann said with a smile. "Would you like a sandwich? I made a whole bunch for everyone."

Nico opened his mouth to turn her down, but the alien was already walking over with a plate, sitting it on the coffee table in front of him.

"They're just PB and Js, so nothing fancy," M'gann said, moving back to the kitchen as everyone else began grabbing their own sandwiches and spreading out in the two connected rooms.

Bart sat on the other side of the couch, leaving a large gap between, while Jaime, M'gann, Garf, and Cassie all sat on the other chairs and couches; everyone else sitting in the kitchen.