Chapter Three• A tour around the Mannor
Trigger warning: this chapter contains scenes describing dislike of the own body.
It starts with "As he was getting ready to shower..." and ends with "Nico didn't want to pay it any more mind, so he covered the mirror and got in the shower."
If you are sentive in that matter please skip that part of the story.
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After being woken up by Alfred the next morning, Nico felt like he desperately needed to change clothes and shower. He asked Alfred where the bathroom was, and Alfred simply opened a door in his room Nico hadn't really paid attention to before.
"Almost every bedroom in this part of the mannor has an en-suite. Hurry a bit, breakfast will start in 30 minutes."
As he was getting ready to shower, Nico noticed how he looked even paler and skinnier than usual. He looked down his body that was covered in scars and noticed a new one that went across his chest, although he didn't know where he had gotten it from. Like most of his scars it had a somewhat dark colour and it stood out from the rest of his very pale skin. He didn't like how his body looked, how the scars made him seem even sicker and even more like a corpse and he especially didn't like how he could clearly see the outline of his ribcage. It was concerning really, and it wasn't something Nico was used to. Maybe this also had to do with the way he got here, or maybe Nico had just avoided mirrors for so long he forgot how his naked body looked like.
While he stood there, thinking about his new scar and his declining weight, Nico realised he didn't want to pay it any more mind, so he covered the mirror and got in the shower.
The shower itself was a small adventure already. There where a lot of options, like scented water and something that felt like foam rain, so it took him a while to actually get started.
He only noticed how long it had been since he last showered when he felt the comforting warm water running down his back. It was nice, especially because there was no danger of running out of said warm water and no limited shower time, something he didn't miss about Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter. Also he knew it was actually his shower so he didn't need to wear Flip-flops out of fear of getting athlete's foot.
Once he was finished, in the Bathroom he looked into his wardrobe, unsure of what he was expecting.
The wardrobe was full of mainly hand-me-downs. It also contained new clothes, but the new stuff was mainly underwear and socks. The clothes looked like they should roughly fit him, although some pieces certainly were too big. He didn't know how they knew his size, and he wanted to ask them later, but for the moment he put on a grey sweatshirt and a black pair of trousers.
The clothes were bigger on him than expected, so he ended up with rolled up sleeves and a belt holding his trousers on his waist. He didn't think the clothes were far too big and he didn't think they looked too bad so he went downstairs into the kitchen.
Since it was a Saturday, everyone was there to eat breakfast. Breakfast was held at a more informal dining place, a table in Alfred's Kichen, however the table was as far away from the actual cooking as the room allowed. Nico was a few minutes late, but nobody said anything about that.
"What would you like to eat? We have cereal, bread, toast, croissants, i can scramble some eggs or an omelet, you could have waffles or pancakes, although you would have to wait a bit for that, I could-", Alfred asked.
"A croissant please.", Nico said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be runde but the more options you give me the harder it is for me to decide.", he said with an apologetic smile.
"No worries, I know that problem. Why don't you sit down, there is a basked with croissants on the table."
Nico sat down, took a croissant and startet eating. He looked around and noticed Dick eating cereal, Cass easing an omelet, Bruce and Damian eating breakfast rolls, and Tim eating nothing except for his cup of black coffee.
"So Nico, like I said yesterday, you'll get a tour of the mannor today. Dick said he could show you around. When you're done with that, we'll be going clothes shopping-"
"But why?", Nico said, interrupting Bruce, "There is like a ton of clothes in my wardrobe already and they are just fine."
Bruce looked at Nico's rolled up sleves and the back into his face.
"They don't seem to fit though, do they? Also you don't need to wear Dick, Cass and Jason's old clothes, you deserve clothes of your own. Also also, you'll need formal attire, there is none of that in your wardrobe yet. If you absolutely don't want to go clothes shopping, we can think of something else to do for the day. We don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to do."
Bruce sounded honest and like he wouldn't be mad or disappointed if Nico said no.
"No, clothes shopping sounds good. It's just been a while since I got new clothes and I figured with perfectly good clothes already in my room that wouldn't happen."
Bruce smiled. "Well, you are getting new ones anyways. If we have time left by the end of today and if you want to, Tim suggested he could play some Mario cart with you."
"The others are welcome to join of course.", Tim said.
Nico had heard kids in Camp talk about the game and while he couldn't imagine why so many people liked it so much he still wanted to find out who.
"Sure. I always wanted to play that game
Tim looked shocked and Nico was feeling like he was also getting stares form the others.
"You never played Mario Kart?", Dick asked, also visibly shocked.
"Living on the streets since I was 10, remember?"
"Oh, yes, sorry."
Silence filled the room and Nico was glad about Damian breaking that silence.
"Has anyone seen Alfred the Cat? He wasn't on my bed this morning and he hasn't eaten anything yet."
They shook their heads and Bruce mentioned seeing the cat in the music room last night, so maybe he still was there.
They talked to each other while finishing breakfast, mainly about Wayne Enterprise and a gala that would be happening soon. Nico made sure to listen to the conversation, but he didn't really say anything.
When they were finished, they stacked the dishes and then Tim put them in the dishwasher, while Damian put the leftover food in the fridge. Nico didn't know why they had a Butler if they were going to do stuff like that anyways, but he didn't question it out loud. Dick told Nico to follow him and they left the kitchen.
"So, how about we start upstairs and work our way down?", Dick suggested.
"Sure, why not.", he answered and followed Dick upstairs.
On their way to the top floor Dick mentioned them having an elevator further down the entrance hall and in the part of the building they had galas in, mainly so that his girlfriend Barbara would be able to properly access the building.
"She was attacked in this horrible incident a couple of months ago and now she uses a wheelchair."
They started in the attic. There were some old paintings, statues and furniture up there, but Dick didn't seem to be interested in that. He went to a big window, opened it and climbed on the roof. Dick held his hand down for Nico to follow him, but Nico was hesitant to take it.
"C'mon Nico, the view up here is amazing and there are stairs up here as well."
Nico climbed out of the window and he had to admit that the view really was beautiful. From up there, they had an almost complete view of the Gotham skyline, and only then Nico realised that they where quite a bit away from the Gotham city centre.
"I wanted to show you this last, but this is an official fire exit, and Alfred told me to show how to get out in case if emergency, so yeah."
"I like it up here.", Nico answered and smiled. It was so quiet and peaceful on the roof, that Nico was sure he would go there again.
"Do you see that big building over there?", Dick asked and pointed at the Gotham Skyline.
"There are a lot of buildings over there.", Nico answered jokingly.
"I mean duh but the tallest one, you can see it, right?", Dick asked again.
"Yes what about it?"
"That's the Wayne Enterprise building. You will get to know that building almost as good as this one, especially if you decide to have your mandatory internship for school there."
They spend a bit more time on the roof until Dick decided it was time to actually start the tour.
During the tour, Dick told Nico that they had about 160 rooms in the mannor and that most of them were unsed, as about 50 of them were old servant rooms and they didn't employ 50 servants. Alfred had his own apartment in the west wing of the mannor.
"If there are so many rooms in this house, how cone all of our bedrooms are on the same corridor?"
"When Bruce first took me in, I insisted that I would have the bedroom right across from his. Before that I had lived in the circus and always shared a wagon with my parents, and while I wanted a room for myself, I wanted to be as close to Bruce as I could. When Jason came he didn't want to be left out and took the room next to Bruce's. Tim took the room next to mine and so on and so forth. Now it's just like this y'know?"
"What about this Duke? Bruce mentioned him on our way here yesterday."
"Oh, Duke's room is the one across the hall from yours. He's doing a student exchange right now, and I honestly forgot when he was supposed to be back, but he will be back eventually."
Nico nodded. He was about to ask who this Jason was, when Dick decided to continue the tour before Nico got the chance to.
On the third floor, which was the real top floor, there was an office for Bruce, a very big Library, and a living room. At least those were the rooms Nico remembered.
After seeing half of the second floor, which included a cinema, another library and a gym, they saw a black cat.
"Oh there you are Alfred.", Dick said and held his hand out for the cat. Alfred the cat actually came towards them, but he didn't go to Dick, he went to Nico.
Alfred the cat went around Nico's legs and purred, which made Nico smile and pet the cat.
"That's weird, he doesn't usually do that around strangers."
"I guess he just likes me."
Dick texted Damian and told him they'd found his cat, then they continued the tour.
As the tour went on, Nico opened up about his personal life and what life was like in Italy before his family came to America. Dick also told him about himself, mainly about his life as a Police officer in Blüdhaven and how his life was when Bruce first took him in.
At the end of the tour, Nico had seen several different secret passages, the most important one being from their corridor to the pantry, although that wasn't much of a secret passage and more of a supposedly unused servant staircase. Dick had also shown Nico several more secret passages, as well as some cool places in the mannor he could go if he wanted to be left alone. Nico made sure to remember where exactly these places were, because he had a sneaking suspicion he'd use them a lot.
Infront of Nico's room again, Dick told Nico they'd probably eat lunch soon, so he'd recommend being somewhere they could easily find him. Nico nodded and Dick went downstairs, probably to get to the kichen.
Inside his rooms, Nico thought about what to make of his situation. He had already thought about it in the hospital but now that he had met the Waynes he was unsure again.
Initially, he wanted to run away as soon as he could and then go back to camp or the underworld or somewhere where he didn't have to hide his Demigod side and also get some information on his new situation. However, there was something about the Waynes that made him want to stay, at least for a little white longer. He didn't know why he wanted to stay exactly, especially after the weird question round last night, but he had the feeling there was something he needed to find out about the Waynes before he could leave.
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