Ghost King Meets Batman

Meeting The Family

[Edited April 15, 2023]

It was only once they had pulled away from the curb that the Son of Hades realized he hadn't thought this through very well. It would seem that Bruce intended to do this the legal way and Nico didn't legally exist. He wasn't sure how the Furies had enrolled him in that military academy, but he was sure that it hadn't been the legal or official way. Did he have a school record? A medical record? A social security number? US Citizenship? There was so much about himself that he didn't know and needed to create in the time it took for their chauffeur to get them to their next destination.

in sheer desperation, Nico prayed to Hades, Hermes, and Hera to make up his background papers. It was all he could think of to do, though he wasn't particularly ecstatic about the plan as he had never asked the gods for something so specific. Considering that they usually didn't even respond to basic prayers, he didn't have much hope that this request would be met either. Consequentially, Nico was trying to come up with anything he could say when they couldn't find his name in the system and was coming up blank.

To his surprise, Hades felt it necessary to speak directly into his mind in response to his plea. It was something that the god had recently discovered he was capable of.  It tended to give Nico a massive headache if the connection was open for long or if his father was in a foul mood, so they hadn't used it very often. Hades found it more convenient for Nico to shadow travel to him, anyway.  

"Nico, I approve of your decision to stay with this mortal. Spending some time away from camp and the Underworld could help you to socialize and learn how to live in the modern world. Your cover is that you and Bianca moved to America from Italy in 1998 when you were 5. Your mother and sister died in an apartment fire and your dad became distant and eventually committed suicide. Then you ran away and lived on the streets. Your father's name was Haden di Angelo. Understood?" The god debriefed him. Nico confirmed that he understood and he felt his father's presence leave his mind. He hadn't expected a response, much less an entire backstory. He was suddenly very grateful that he had thought to pray in the first place. Maybe the Greek pantheon wasn't useless.

He did think that the name Haden was a bit on the nose, but at least it wouldn't be difficult to remember. Nico liked to think that it was his father's sense of humor that made him choose that name but he couldn't be sure. Some days he thought he'd finally pulled out a softer side of the god and other days he was forcefully reminded that this was an Ancient Greek deity that had been there much longer than he had and would exist long after he was dead and gone. The difference could have given Janus whiplash.

"I never did get your name," Bruce said suddenly. That felt like a red flag, but Hades hadn't warned him against this mortal. Surely, if this man was dangerous, Hades would have known about it, right? If anything happened, he still had his dagger on him and he could probably manage to shadow travel far enough away if he had to. For now, he would just wait to see what was going to happen.

"Nico Di Angelo," Tthe demigod replied simply. He watched the older man for a few minutes, hoping he wouldn't see some spark of recognition in those eyes. There wasn't any and Nico turned his attention back out the window to watch the light foot traffic of the morning commuters.

"Well, Nico, why don't we head down to the station and get you registered? It will be a while before the paperwork officially goes through, I'm sure, but I think I can convince them to let you stay with me until that happens." He asked, Bruce seemed genuinely content at the idea of having another person enter his life. Nico would have thought that it would be pretty anxiety-inducing to just open your home to someone. Bruce seemed to think no more of it than adopting a pet. That was an uncomfortable thought.

"You mentioned you had other sons?" Nico inquired. Bruce seemed surprised that he had initiated conversation but still answered the question as though it were as normal as breathing.