Nico didn't think having his measurements taken would be so awkward. And yet here he was, inside a strangely big dressing room, having his measurements taken in a t-shirt that wasn't his, wishing the floor would open up and swallow him.

The man talking him through the process wasn't the issue, neither was the dressing room, the tailoring shop or the ungodly amount of money Bruce had set as buget for Nico's suit.

The issue was the T-Shirt Nico was wearing.

You see, nobody had told Nico that measurements were usually taken in tight fitting clothes, and since Nico was already wearing a relatively tight pair of jeans, everyone in the Wayne Family thought someone else had told him. Unfortunately, Nico wasn't wearing a tight-fitting shirt, he was wearing an oversized hoodie and a loose-fitting shirt underneath his jacket.

The people who worked at the tailoring shop said that was no problem, they had several different t-shirts in the back, since "these kinds of situations happen more than you'd think".

Nico didn't like wearing t-shirts. They showed not only how skinny his arms where but also the scars on his arms he'd gotten in all of the different battles he was a part of. If Bruce asked about his scars or his malnourishment, his plan was to say something about living on the streets and that he didn't want to talk about it.

Nico told himself he'd be fine, he'd survive, because he didn't know how to communicate that he didn't like wearing t-shirts, and he didn't want to be the reason they'd come for nothing. After all, he helped Apollo defeat the triumvirate, he had bought the Athena Parthenos across the Pacific Ocean and he was the reason the demigods won the battle of Manhattan; he would survive having his measurements taken in a t-shirt.

The poorly disguised worried look he'd gotten from the tailor and the better disguised worried look he'd gotten from Bruce almost changed his mind. He was sure now, although he'd survive the act of having his measurements taken, he wouldn't survive the awkwardness of the situation. Although he had survived gruesome battle wounds, he would not survive the careful treatment he would be getting now, as if a too hard grip or a too loud noise could kill him.

To be fair, those things would probably trigger his PTSD, but he didn't ask them to be careful around him and he didn't want them to start now.

"You know, you're not the first Wayne boy to come in here with scars? That kid Jason also had loads of 'em when he had his first appointment for measurements. He wasn't very keen on people toughing him, so I told him he could take the measurements himself. I could talk him through it, stand next to him to see if he did it right. He would tell me the measurements and I'd write 'em down. That worked for the two of us. If you want to, we can do that too.", the tailor told Nico in the dressing room.

"Yes, please. I would like that.", Nico said after short consideration. Following instructions would be a way more pleasant experience than having a stranger touch him.

It took them about 40 Minutes, but then they had every measurement the Tailor could think of, most of which wouldn't change anymore, so if Nico ever had to get his measurements taken again, the process would be significantly shorter.

Once they were finished with the measurements, the tailor and Nico started talking about different suit designs. Nico noticed how passionate the tailor was about his work, since he knew exactly what kind of design would look good on Nico and which ones would look ridiculous. He was also really passionate about Nico not getting an all-black suit, because that would make him look "even paler than he already was".

Bruce ended up ordering two suits for Nico, because Nico was indecisive about the materials he wanted.

"We have enough money for it anyways, so you might as well get two while we're at it."

After Bruce had finished up the order for the two suits, him and Nico went back into Bruce's car and Bruce drove them to a shopping center. To Nico's surprise, Bruce didn't ask about Nico's body or his scars, he just wanted to know if he was happy with the colours they'd picked out for the suits and what part of his wardrobe he wanted to buy first.

The shopping center was big and almost exclusively had shops inside Nico had never heard of before. The few ones he did recognise, he recognised for being incredibly expensive, at least back in 2014. It shouldn't have surprised Nico, given the fact that Bruce was at least a billionaire, but it still did.

"So, where do you want to go to first?", Bruce asked.

"Good question.", Nico said as if that answered the question.

"I don't know any of these shops.", Nico said after a short while of silence.

"Oh yes, right. How about you just tell me that you want, I don't know, to get a new pair of shoes and I can take you to the shop we get them from?", Bruce suggested.

"Sounds good to me. Let's start with a new backpack."

Nico just wanted one Backpack, Bruce told him to get at least two; one for school and one for travel. At the end of the day, Nico had 3: One for school, one for travel and the last one was for his free time, because he didn't want to use the same old one all the time. He made sure to pick the ones that cost less than $500, which was already too much to spend on a backpack if you asked him, but there wasn't anything priced normally and if he actually endet up leaving the Waynes, he would't feel guilty for essentially stealing the $1000 backpack.

Eventually, he just tried to not look at the price tags while they were shopping. He already felt bad about how much money Bruce had spent at the tailoring shop, especially since he was still considering leaving them, and now it seemed like Bruce was going to spend at least three times that money on clothes for Nico. Just not thinking about it didn't mean he ended up spending up less money, but it did mean that he felt at least a bit less guilty about that.

Bruce also tried to get Nico a phone, but Nico denied.

"It's a religion thing. I'm not allowed to have a portable device that can connect to the internet or to the phone network.", Nico explained.

"Oh, alright. You never mentioned any religion, aside from saying 'Oh my Gods' yesterday so would it be okay for you to tell me what your religion is?", Bruce asked. He seemed genuinely interested, so Nico decided to tell the truth.

"I'm a Hellenic Pagan."

"As in you believe in and worship the ancient Greek Gods?"

"Yes, exactly.", Nico answered. "Although they will have to wait a long time before I start worshipping them.", Nico thought to himself.

"Hellenic paganism did get a lot of new followers after Wonder Woman made an appereance, but I didn't know it was against Hellenic Paganism to have a phone."

"It's not exactly forbidden, but I'm a Hellenic Pagan because of my dad and like, his side of the family and they say we shouldn't have phones, so I don't have a phone."

"Alright so no phone for you, got it. Do you know if you can have a laptop or a tablet?"

"I think as long as I don't have them on me at all times, I should be fine.", Nico answered, genuinely unsure if laptops or tablets would also amplify his Demigod scent the way phones do.

"Then come on, let's get you a laptop and a tablet."

At the end of the day, Nico was the owner of an entire new wardrobe mainly consisting of black and dark red or dark green clothes (Bruce said he wouldn't let Nico get away with buying just black clothes), as well as 4 new jackets (one for every season), 10 pairs of shoes and 5 new fancy watches (If Nico wasn't getting a phone, he still needed to be able to tell the time).

In the car on their way back to Wayne Mannor, Nico was sitting on the back seat while Bruce drove the car. He was beginning to feel bored, so he started to dig though the pockets of his Jacket. It had been a long time since he actually went through them so he had a lot of old candy wrappers and chewing gum packaging in his pockets. He also felt something else that didn't feel like garbage, so he pulled it out of his pocket.

It was a heavy brown envelope that clearly had more than a letter in it.

He opened the envelope and a prism, a few drachmas and a note written in ancient Greek fell into his hands.

"IM me when you're awake, I need to talk to you."

"How am I supposed to message you if I don't know who you are?", Nico whispered to the note.

The demigods at camp usually didn't leave each other notes like this. He only ever had received notes from Will, but he was sure this wasn't Will's handwriting. So he didn't actually know who had written the note. Regardless, he was sure it was someone affiliated with Camp Half-Blood, because of the ancient Greek but also because neither the Romans, the Egyptians or the Norse used Iris Messages, at least as far as he knew. Since the note wasn't signed, Nico would be unable to follow the author's request, since you can't send Iris messages to unknown people.

He told himself he would visit camp soon. His friends would be old, but if they'd made it, they should still be alive. 2066 should be too early for them to have died of old age. Also, he could ask Chiron about that note, because if anyone at camp would be able to recognise handwriting it would be the teacher for Ancient Greek.

Dinner was simple, Alfred said. "Just some soup and homemade bread". Nico wouldn't have called home made bread simple but he apperently was the only one.

Dick wasn't eating with them, since there was an emergency at the Blüdhaven PD, but everyone else was there.

They talked about their days, apparently Tim had met some friends from school in a skate park, Cass had been at ballet practice and Damian was at the petting zoo with Dick. Nico didn't expect Tim to be a skater, but he didn't know enough about Tim to be seriouly surprised.

"Tim and Percy would get along well.", he thought and hoped, that Percy still was the way Nico remembered him to be.

Like Tim had promised Nico, they met after dinner to play Mario cart, and like Nico expected, Cass and Damian tagged along as well. What Nico didn't expect was that they'd play in the cinema room.

"We're in the majority, Bruce can use the regular TV.", Damian had said after he'd seen Nico's confused look.

Tim explained the game and what buttons Nico had to press to go forwards, and in between every now and then he told Nico that he couldn't believe he had never played Mario Cart before.

Unsurprisingly, Nico always came in last among the four, but he did usually rank 7th or 8th, so he wasn't super bad at it. He best he placed was 4th place. At some point they stopped believing Nico when he told him he was new to the game.

"It took me two weeks to place any higher than 11.", Cass signed.

"And Cass is a fast learner, it took me a month.", Damian said after translating for Nico.

"So, tell us Nico, did you just say you were new because you wanted us to go easy on you?", Tim asked half joking and half serious.

"This is the first time I played, I swear.", Nico said in sarcastic helplessness.

"Is that the answer you want to stick with?", Tim asked in the same sarcastig tone.

"I won't say anything else before I talk to my lawyer."

They laughed and continued to play Mario Cart, until it was about 11:30 pm and Alfred came in.

"Master Bruce send me to tell you kids that it is time to go to bed. You may not have school tomorrow, but breakfast will be the usual 9:30 and if you don't want to miss it, I suggest you go to bed now."

"Alright, will do. We'll just play to the end of the round.", Tim answered.

"I'll check in here in 10 minutes, please be finished by then.", Alfred replied and left.

Nico tried to help with turning everything off once they were finished, but he was just standing next to Tim and Cass as they did all the work (which wasn't a lot but Nico still felt weird), so he just wished them a good night and left.

By the time Nico actually started to get ready for bed, he had already forgotten about the Note in his pocket.

He would have also forgotten about his planned trip to Camp Half-Blood, if it wasn't for his dream that Night.

His first dream of Will in a long time.