Don't Fear the Reaper

89) Not Abusing Your Children: Princess Treatment or Bare Minimum?

A/N: pic is completely unrelated, but I stumbled upon it and it made me cackle

Nico stood frozen on the sidewalk, people brushing past him as they made their way to their destinations, not even sparing him a glance.

"You don't have to go in," Bruce said softly from his place beside the demigod. "Just coming here was a big step. If you don't feel ready-"

Nico stepped forward, moving past the others on the sidewalk as he opened the door to the café. He saw Bruce in his peripheral, the man following him while still keeping a distance.

"Hi, welcome to the Cracked Teapot," the barista said as soon as her eyes landed on him. "What can I get for you?"

Nico swallowed, anxiety thrumming through him. "I... um..."

Bruce stepped up to the counter, giving him a quick look of reassurance before looking at the barista with his signature Wayne Smile™️. "He's meeting someone, but I'll have a..."

Nico stopped listening as he spotted the familiar person, sitting alone at the back of the cafe, eyes locked intently on a computer screen.

The demigod stood frozen for another long moment before he steeled himself, subconsciously pulling his sleeves down further over his wrists to make sure the ringlets were fully covered. He forced himself to take the first step, and then the next, and then the next, and before he knew it, he was standing next to the small table that was tucked into the back corner.

The woman didn't notice him for a long moment, and Nico briefly considered just turning around and running, but then she looked away from the computer. At first, she didn't actually see him—or, she didn't realize who he was, only that a person was now silently standing by her.

"Oh, sorry, do you need a place to sit?" she asked, quickly collecting her stuff so it didn't cover the entire table, barely even glancing at him. "This place can fill up so fast and I don't have anyone joining me today so-"

"No... I um... I just..." Nico couldn't figure out how to tell her who he was, but apparently he didn't need to.

At the sound of his voice, the woman had frozen, her hands were still holding an assortment of notebooks and journals as she slowly turned her head to look at him. The second she met his eyes, her hands dropped the books back onto the table and she moved to cover her mouth, tears suddenly falling down her face. "Nico?" she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Nico remained frozen, his body unyieldingly tense. "Hey Aunt Sally," he said quietly, completely terrified.

The woman remained staring at him, tears slowly creeping down her face as she looked at him as if he were a ghost. "I... Percy said that you were alive but... I thought..."

Nico didn't know how to respond to that, so he settled for stiffly gesturing at the chair that was across from her. "Do you mind if I join you?" he asked, clinging to the words he had mentally rehearsed the entire drive there like a lifeline.

Sally just nodded, one hand still clasped over her mouth in shock as she weakly gestured to the chair.

Nico sat down, staring at his hands that rested on the table rather than meeting her eyes any longer.

"Where have you been?" Sally asked, her voice no longer as weak as before, but it was still coated in shock and sorrow.

Nico took a deep breath, counting in his head like Steph had taught him, before he willed himself to talk. "I... after the war, I needed an out. I just... I couldn't handle it anymore, so I left. There were some people I had stayed with off and on again in the past... they weren't great people, but they were the only people I really knew who didn't have any connections to the camps so..."