Don't Fear the Reaper

101) Good Soup

A/N: pic is completely unrelated, it just made me laugh 

Bruce woke up to pain. His head felt like it was full of cotton and his shoulder and ribs burned, and yet those weren't the first things he fully took notice of. The thing that made him actually open his eyes was the feeling of someone holding onto his good arm. It wasn't overtly uncommon for one of his kids to stay with him after a bad patrol, but it usually only happened when he got extremely injured and, while this wasn't great, it wasn't quite to the level where that was expected.

As he peeled his eyes open to see which of his kids was holding onto him, he froze when he saw it was Nico. The boy was hugging Bruce's arm like a pillow while his other hand was tightly clasped onto the man's, even while he slept.

And that was the most shocking thing to Bruce. Sure, it was surprising to see Nico fully comfortable while he had skin to skin contact with someone, but he'd been through something deeply  traumatic, so it wasn't really surprising that he might crave closeness. However, seeing him not only asleep, but sleeping peacefully—that was the thing that made the man freeze. He expected the teenage to be even more avoidant of sleeping after all he had experienced, and yet, his breathing came easily as he snoozed on Bruce's arm, his face completely relaxed.

And so he decided, no matter what happened, he was not  moving from that bed. He wouldn't be moving an inch until Nico woke up.

And so he didn't.

He stayed exactly where he was.

Hours passed and people silently peeked in, signing to offer him food or coffee, but he would just shake his head. Nico was holding onto his good arm and his other one was in a sling, so there was no way to move either without majorly risking disturbing the kid. Dick even came in to tell him that there was a call for him from the Justice League, but Bruce just mouthed that someone else could play Batman for a call.

It wasn't until nearly 4 hours after the man woke up that Nico began to stir, pressing his face into Bruce's arm like it was an actual pillow he could reshape before seeming to pause in confusion when the muscle didn't give way to his sleepy manipulation.

"You can keep sleeping," Bruce said softly, knowing that the kid probably wouldn't, but he wanted to get ahead of the embarrassment Nico would probably feel by making sure the kid knew he didn't mind at all.

Nico sat up stiffly, his eyes wide as he looked at Bruce, but his hand remained clutched onto his. He seemed to search the man's face for a moment, like he was looking for answers to questions he didn't even know. His eyes were filled with this confused and vaguely distressed look, though it seemed less about the current situation and more internal.

"The brain fog fades after a day or so," Bruce said, understanding what Nico was experiencing. He was no stranger to fear toxin and the way it hazed over your mind after was disorienting to say the least. It was like you could see and hear everything that's going on around you, but your brain wouldn't process it until a full 3 seconds later. Plus, Nico was a demigod, and even with the ringlets, he was used to having heightened reaction time: it was probably more than a little disquieting to wake up to that feeling when he didn't have an obvious explanation for why. "Exposure to fear toxin is excessively taxing on the brain and, even though we were able to give you the antidote, it still took its toll. You just have to take it slow for a few days."

Nico remained silent, his confused look shifting to one of contemplation as he looked away from Bruce, like he was trying to manually gauge each of his senses.

Bruce didn't try to rush him—gods knew the kid deserved to have as much time as he needed to process everything that had happened to him—but after a long while, the man got the idea that this state of staring off probably wasn't the most healing experience as Nico's eyes slowly gained a haunted look.