Don't Fear the Reaper

74) Nico is Nicoing Again

A/N: just a quick side note, Bart has yet to inherit the KF mantel, but that is him in the art lol

Nico rolled his eyes as Canary sat at the kitchen island, a shit eating grin on her face. He was making lunch since Bart apparently decided to start the morning by 'accidentally' setting off the fire alarm. The speedster said he was 'working on a new trick and it went wrong', but Nico had a suspicion that the teen was actually scheming with Blue Beetle and Beast Boy to get him out of his room.

Suffice to say that they were pretty surprised when they walked into the kitchen and saw Nico and Canary already at the table, both of them glaring as the alarm blared. The entire team was actually pretty stunned when they saw Nico in the kitchen, but those three looked shocked and  guilty, so he thought it was pretty damning.

"Oh, Ghost," M'gann said, walking into the room and freezing with surprise. "I, uh, I didn't know you were still out here—wait, that sounded rude. I just meant that I didn't know you were cooking lunch. I was about to do that."

Nico looked up from his cooking, glancing at Canary for a moment before signing, "It's fine. I lost a bet, so I have to cook for the team."

Canary gave him a subtle nod of praise before turning to M'gann and interpreting for him.

"What was the bet?" the Martian asked, looking intrigued.

Nico raised his hands to sign, but froze for a moment. He was making pasta—since it was kinda the only thing he actually knew how to make—and he'd just begun kneading the dough... his hands were covered in the stuff.

Canary laughed at that, poorly covering it up with a cough. "We made a bet about who would break the peace and quiet of the Mountain had this morning. I said it would be Impulse, but he said that one of the bats would show up. The fire alarm also acted as the sound of my victory," the woman explained with a mocking smirk sent to Nico.

The demigod just rolled his eyes and flipped her off with a dough covered hand before returning his focus to his kneading. He hadn't made noodles from scratch in some time and had to focus in order to knead the dough correctly.

His mind narrowed in on just the task at hand, tuning out the sounds of Canary and M'gann quietly chatting across the counter from him. He finished the dough, rolled it out, and began cutting it into strips, muscle memory from his childhood finally taking over. He moved about the kitchen without thinking, his brain going on autopilot. He boiled water in the largest pot he could find before tossing the heap of noodles into it and finishing the chicken and sauce that had been cooking on the stove.

He felt weirdly calm for once, not even noticing the presence of the others in the room as he finished putting everything together. He muttered to himself mindlessly, his brain repeating the words his mother had said to him years and years ago while teaching him to make the meal. The words weren't said in mourning or with a bitter-sweet edge—they were simply said as part of the process of making the meal.

When he finally finished and set the heaping bowl of food on the part of the counter he'd seen M'gann put food, he noticed that the kitchen was already full. The entirety of the team—or, all the ones that lived at the mountain/were there for the day—sat around the room silently watching him with looks of surprise and intrigue.

"What?" Nico said, forcing his face to look neutral despite the spike of anxiety he felt when he realized they'd probably been watching him for a while.

"You were muttering in Italian," Artemis said, sounding confused about if she was stating something or asking a question.

Nico just blinked at her, not expecting that to be the first thing said. "I was born in Italy."