Brothers Reunited

Chapter Fourteen: Nico PoV

      AN: I'm a terrible person. I'm not going to even try to make an excuse. I haven't updated in four months and I'm really sorry. Thank you for all the kind comments! Please vote if you're enjoying the story, and thanks for reading this far. It means a lot!! For those of you who haven't read this in a while, I've got a quick recap below.

To summarize the events of the story until now:

Nico and Bucky are half brothers through their mother. Nico found his brother and is living with him in Avengers tower. Civil War never happened and Peter fought in Sokovia, so Pietro's alive. No one knows Nico's a demigod (other than Clint and Thor). There's this big Death Gods Conference coming up and Nico has to decide whether or not to leave the Avengers and become Hades' heir.

 I don't know what I'm doing. I really don't. It's Sunday morning, and I've been up since 6:00 am just staring at the wall, thinking.

The Death Day conference starts in an hour. That's 60 minutes, 3,600 seconds. It's funny how when you write a large amount of time in a smaller increments it seems shorter. 24 hours feels shorter than a day. 60 minutes feel shorter than an hour. 60 seconds less than a minute.

I painted the walls of my room black yesterday. Peter and Pietro helped; it was supposed to be some sort of bonding exercise. I'm not the best conversationalist, but I was civil. We had...fun. Peter kept things extremely awkward with his rambling, and Pietro wouldn't stop moving, but I enjoyed myself.

Wanda's also been really friendly. She tried to–actually I'm not entirely sure what she wanted, but she kept asking questions about my past and tried to introduce me to a therapist. I nearly bit her head off, so she's been avoiding me like the plague recently.

Clint's been...weird. He forced me to join a demigod club (with literally two members and sometimes Thor). We meet in the vents very other day at 5:00, and he just pelts me with questions on the recent wars (that I force Thor to answer).

Chess and Steve forced me to go to school, so I'm now a student at Goode. Well, technically. Percy's stepdad just signs me in every day, and I show up just in time for my brother to pick me up. When my brother thinks I'm in 'school,' I'm spending time with my dear old dad training.

To sum up the past week: I'm fine, I'm great, I'm screwed.

I like the Avengers. I do. Yes, they're naive, annoying, and freakishly involved, but they care. They're thoughtful and kind. Even Natasha's given me space and accepted me into the group. A week ago, I was ready to join my father. Now, I'm unsure. I haven't told Will about the Death Gods Conference, but I know he'd tell me not to go. I can't though, Hades is my dad. Yes, he's done some messed up things, but he took me in and gave me a place in the Underworld. He might not love me, but he needs me. And I need him.

Only Clint and Thor know I'm a demigod. I don't know how everyone else would react, but I have to assume the worst. Hades understands my powers and my past. He's far from perfect, but out of all the people in the world, he understands me best.

I don't want to leave, but I can't stay. Again, I'm screwed.

Sometimes I wish I could just abandon reality and hide under a giant stone for the rest of eternity, preferably a gravestone. The great thing about dead people's that they can't touch you, can't intervene, can't force you to do anything. They're just there.

"Master Nico, the others are looking for you. They've asked that you join them for breakfast."

"Thank you, Jarvis. I'll be right up," I groan into my pillow. We've been trying to eat breakfast together on weekends, so I expected the others to start looking for me. It's 9:15; I've got 45 minutes to make up my mind.