Demigod in Gotham

6) Nico Has No Self-Preservation Skills

-Nightwing POV-

The last thing he remembered was getting caught off guard during a fight with Penguin and getting knocked out. By all accounts, he should be dead. Bruce was away with the League, Jason and Damian were sidelined by Alfred after a fight that morning, Tim had been put under earlier that day after being awake for 78 hours, and Duke had patrolled during the day so he was off comms. Plus Cass, Steph, and Babs had the night off for girls night, so he was fully alone.

However, despite the fact that he should be dead, he felt bandages being rapped around his multiple injuries across his body. For a moment he thought that perhaps Alfred had somehow managed to save him, but he felt his mask still secured on his face and if he were back in the cave, Alfred would have taken it off.

As he opened his eyes and tried to sit up, a blurry figure in black gently pushed him back down. "Don't sit up yet. I haven't been able to suture the stab wound on your abdomen yet and it'll only make it worse." He was shocked by how young the voice sounded, not like child young, but definitely a teen.

"Who are you?" He said as his eyes finally adjusted to the lights in the apartment. "And what happened with Penguin?"

The boy's hands halted their movement before continuing on with wrapping his forearm. "I'm Nico, I just moved in here. I locked myself out of the building so I climbed the fire escape to get in and heard the fight." He cut the wrapping and tucked the extra part under the rest to secure it. He then grabbed the bag behind him and began sifting through the contents as he spoke. "I know I shouldn't have, but curiosity got the better of me and I checked it out. I saw you on the ground about to get shot by the fat dude so I grabbed the pipe things you fight with and hit him in the head."

"You knocked him out?" Dick stared in shock as the boy just nodded simply. 'Nico' pulled out what looked like a suture packet and began putting on gloves. "Woah there, do you really think it's smart for you to be doing this? Shouldn't you at least wait for your parents or sibling or someone a bit older to get here?"

The boy seemed to find that funny as he smirked and continued readying the supplies around his spot kneeling next to the mattress. "Yes, I knocked him out. Hope you don't mind but I took one of your zip tie things and trapped him on the fire escape and anonymously called it in. They picked him up a few minutes ago. As for waiting for someone else, there's no one to wait for. I live alone, but don't worry I've done this hundreds of times."

His words did not calm Dick at all and only made him more worried. "How old are you? You can't be alone, you're too young. Also, why have you done this hundreds of times?"

"I'm gonna need you to stop stressing yourself out. You need to be as calm as possible because I have no pain meds and you're going to make yourself bleed out." The teen rolled his eyes and then began his stitching. Dick didn't process feeling the pain because he was too shocked about the skill the boy was displaying. It was as if Alfred himself was doing it and god knows the butler has done it too many times to count. "As for my age, let's just say I'm old enough to be fine on my own."

"You didn't answer why you know how to suture so well."

The boy finished the large wound on his stomach and moved on to the one his chest. "Same reason I'm old enough to be here on my own."

Dick opened his mouth to respond but realized he had nothing to say. He wanted to tell him he was wrong, but who was he to pretend to know what he was going through. Jason was 12 when Bruce found him and had been living on the streets for a while by then. This kid had managed to get an apartment on his own, so there had to be some truth to his statement. The only thing he was able to say was, "How long have you been on your own?"

Nico didn't respond for a while, focused on the task at hand. Dick was about to repeat his question when the boy spoke up. "Depends on your definition I guess. Some would say since I was 10, others would say we're never really alone. I move around a lot, I have friends all over, so I wasn't alone for a bit."

Dick watched him again, the way the boy's face was focused but a look of pain was in his eyes. "Then why are you alone now?"

"I got too comfortable," The boy said quietly. "I was going to leave sooner, but they talked me into staying. I told them that I that I wasn't gonna run away anymore, but it just didn't feel right"

"So you lied to them?"

"I didn't lie. I wasn't running away, per se; I was running to something. I guess you could say I run towards solitude." With that he finished wrapping all of the stitches and sat back. "You're all stitched up. I would usually tell you to remain stationary for the night, but I assume that Batman or one of the others is expecting you."

Dick slowly sat up, careful not to immediately tear the stitches. He was about to stand when he saw Nico rise and offer his hand. Dick took it and was surprised at the strength the young boy had as he was pulled to his feet.

Originally Dick was going to tell the boy that he should talk or go to someone, but when he looked him in the eyes, he froze. He saw not only determination and strength in them, but also the brokenness he had seen in the rest of his family's eyes. "Is there anything I can do to help you settle?"

Nico seemed to be surprised by this question, probably expecting the lecture that he had originally planned to give. "Nah, I have everything I need to get by. You're lucky I stay well stocked for first aid," he said with a grin. "I'll have to restock of sutures soon since I went through 4 on you, but other than that I'm good."

Dick nodded and went to the window attached to the fire escape. Right before he was about to leave he turned back with a smile. "I'll see you around Nico, stay safe. If you ever need anything, I'll find a way for you to reach me."

And with that, Nightwing was gone; his mind filled with thoughts of the mysterious boy who saved his life.

~~~~~~~

*Bonus*

Dick pulled into the batcave to be met with a gaggle of nervous bats.

Tim immediately began speaking, obviously back at the same habit of chugging coffee when he was nervous. "Where have you been? Your tracker went down an hour ago over crime alley and then Penguin was picked up by the GCPD— wait, why are you bandaged?!"

Dick got off his motorcycle and ruffled Tim's hair as he walked by. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Things went bad with Penguin but an ally helped me out."

"An ally?" Jason said, hopping off one of the raised platforms to land in front of him. "Which ally is this? Do they happen to be yet another stunning ginger you plan on falling in love with?"

Dick scoffed as he took off his mask and put it in his utility belt. "No on both parts, and their identity is secret."

"Tt-" Damian sounded from the chair in front of the batcomputer. "There are no secret identities in this family Grayson. So, who is this ally of yours?"

Dick rolled his eyes with a smile. "I wasn't kidding, I'm keeping their identity secret. They are a citizen so I won't put them at risk. However, if you ever find yourself in danger near Crime Ally they apparently have a bad habit of heroism in risky situations."

With that, Dick headed to the shower. He took off his ruined uniform, carful not to mess up any of Nico's stitches, and was about to throw it in the 'unfixable' pile when he stopped. He set it to the side and quickly washed off the parts of his body that were not bandaged before drying off. After, when he was sure the other boys had gone upstairs already, he snuck into the archives and put the destroyed uniform on a Mannequin. The automated system scanned it and a screen appeared before him with the prompt of the name of the suit. Usually it was simply '1st Robin' or 'Batman: Arkham break out '08', but he quickly typed in 'Nightwing: Nico's Solitude'. He didn't know why he chose that wording, but something about it felt right. He clicked enter and walked away, knowing that the boy would stay in the front of his mind for a while. 

A/N: chapter! I am currently editing all of these at the same time and setting them up for automatic posting at 12:15 each morning so you'll get to see how much I had already written based on how many daily posts you get. Also, its weird writing these because so far only one person has read the first chapter other than me, so cheers to my one reader.