A Soul Gone Astray

Nico gets adopted

Curled up tightly in one of the corners of the attic, Nico di Angelo was fast asleep. He was securely wrapped in his trusty aviator jacket, his head resting on his backpack. For some reason or another, his body was trembling slightly. The shadows around him seemed to shroud the small boy, almost as if aspiring to comfort him, to keep out the coldness of the world; almost like a mother shielding her despaired child.

Two very peculiar eyes gazed upon the child. They belonged to a creature who had stalked dear Nico for quite a while, ever since it had sniffed his unconventional scent.

Curiously observing the extraordinary behaviour of the shadows, the creature hoisted itself up upon the windowsill and ever so slightly dipped its head to the side, its penetrating stare still firmly set on the sleeping child. Its whole body language spoke of a silent evaluation of the situation; from the stiffness of Nico's body, the dark circles around his eyes, his gaunt figure and small size for a teenager so young, how his his body appeared to be twitching in discomfort from time to time, how he seemed to be ready to jump up and run as fast as possible, to the way the shadows reacted to him. It observed and judged, and finally seemed to come to a conclusion.

After a few more minutes of its silent presence, it elegantly hopped of the windowsill and fluidly strode over to Nico and delicately caressed his hand. Whatever reaction it was hoping to elicit, it evidently achieved, as it carefully and slowly snuggled up close to Nico, emitting a comforting warmth and a soft purr. Slowly but surely, the tension melted away and Nico seemed to relax at last, smiling slightly in his sleep, unconsciously cuddling up close to the soft ball of fur in his arms.

When morning came and Nico woke up, however, the cat was gone. However, throughout the day there remained a pair of eyes watching over the child; Nico unaware of their presence.

Deciding that not consuming any food for a seemingly incessant amount of time was not a good idea, especially when he kept up his habits of getting into trouble and barely getting away, or worse: not getting away at all, Nico snatched his backpack and set off to find something edible.

After using some windowsills and a conveniently placed balconies to lower himself onto the ground, Nico pulled up his hood once more and started strolling through the city. Thankfully, he had woken up some time before sunrise, which resulted in more than enough time to get to one of the pitiful restaurants or diners in the area. They were a fairly reliable food source, as they often disposed of many acceptable edibles in the morning as a result of miscalculated demand or simply the need to be stocked at all times. However, one had to be swift to acquire said goods, because other people are aware of these circumstances too. In addition, looting the waste containers was considered theft and thus illegal, but since Nico could not be deemed a particularly law-abiding citizen, he was not overly concerned. Considering the fact that almost no employee cared enough to intervene, nor were they usually paid enough to care, Nico had good chances of actually managing to obtain some food.

Of course, there was still the issue of competition.

Here in Gotham, there were lots of other people who were either homeless, neglected children or not earning enough to afford a suitable amount of food every day. Should he run into them, Nico would have to decide between fight and flight, which were both not preferable solutions if he was entirely honest with himself.

Nico wanted to have a bit of food so he would not have to worry about that dilemma for awhile and could maybe even scout the city for some satisfactory hideout, since the last time he was on the run he was only in Gotham for a short while before he deemed it inhabitable and moved on. Ever since returning, which was, by the way, not very long as had only left Camp a few days ago, he wondered why he wanted to stay in this awful excuse for a city inhabited even worse excuses for human beings, but every time he passed a police officer or someone obviously form child services and was not even glanced at in the slightest; he remembered why: