Chapter Text
Nico’s pov
“-id, can… -er me? Nico?" A rough voice caught his attention, he looked towards the voice to find the homeless man, Eraserhead? Looking at him with a neutral frown and a hint of something in his tired eyes. “Are you back with us kid?” Did something happen? The detective offered him a tissue. Wha- oh he had been crying, he didn’t notice. Frowning slightly he accepted the tissue, silently scolding himself for his lack of situational awareness. Half-bloods can’t let their guard down outside of the camp, he had to at least try to avoid dying if only to ease his friend's conscience.
They’re already dead though, no matter what had happened after he’d left they’d still be dead by now. Nico finally decided to answer the man in front of him with a nod.
“You reacted quite strongly to just hearing what year it is, I can’t help but start to assume something or someone has kept you from the outside world. Are you ok to tell us? Or maybe just one of us?” Oh, if only the detective knew how close yet so far off the truth he was. It’s not like he could tell them either right? … Right? If Nico thought about it the mist might cover some things up, if it's still active, and if it wasn't and they inevitably thought he was crazy he could just wait until he was left alone and try to shadow travel to freedom. It’s not like he had anything left to lose. Yeah, he’ll tell them who he is and get a chance to vent and then flee after they lock him up and try to contact his father. Nodding, he looked up at them. “ Alright I’ll tell you, can’t promise you’ll believe me though”
Aizawa’s pov
Shouta didn’t like the look of grief that had washed over the boy, the reaction was illogical to have upon hearing a year. Hopefully whatever he’d tell them now would make more sense.
It did in fact not make ANY sense at all.
The kid, Nido di Angelo, told them he was born in America, so far so good, yeah? No, he claimed to have been born in the 1930s, his uncle killed his mom and would have done the same to him and his older sister had his dad not saved them. Now that was not something Shouta had expected, but to be honest, not much after was any better. Apparently the dad hid his two children in some weird magic casino, that was the first of many times he’d looked over at Tsukauchi in the hope that the man would tell him the boy was just lying, unfortunately for his sanity the detective would only give him a subtle nod.
Di Angelo went on to explain how when they finally left the casino around 70 years had passed, the siblings had to flee from weird monsters and eventually got saved by another couple of teens who brought them to a camp for people like them. People who weren’t fully mortal, another look towards the detective was warranted because now the boy told them that his dad was Hades the Greek god of the underworld, he told them that his sister died soon after that, obviously cutting out a big part because the next thing he told them about was a war among gods, one that he a kid who could’ve at most just turned 13 was fighting in along with other teens and their godly parents. He then continued by shortly explaining that he had been on a quest with a handful of other half-gods that ended up with them in Greece fighting once again by their parent's side to prevent Gaea from being awoken. He’d used one of his powers, shadow travel to avoid an attack when he got stuck in the shadows for what to him felt like 10 minutes until he was spat out in the ally that Shouta had found him in.
“So what now? I’ve told you who I am, not that you’d believe me, and you probably think I’m crazy or something” This problem child, Shouta didn’t blame him for not thinking he'd be believed.
“Don’t worry, my quirk is called Lie detector. Despite how… odd what you told us may sound it all pinged as truth” Hopefully that would reassure the kid a little at least.
"Quirk?" Oh, right he didn’t know.
“People started being born with powers a few hundred years ago, each unique to the individual. Somewhere along the line people started calling them quirks”
“Oh” Yeah that was probably another big pill to swallow. “So everyone has powers now? What’s yours then?” Now Shouta would be the first to admit that he rarely shared his quirk with strangers, there were still times that he had to remind himself that his quirk wasn't evil. Now that being said Nico didn't have anywhere to stay, in fact, the only people that knew of his existence were in this room and Tsukauchi didn’t have the time nor place to have a kid staying with him, even if it’d be temporary. In other words, he’d have to stay with Shouta and his husband while they figured everything out so it would be illogical to keep his quirk a secret. “Around 80% of humans have quirks nowadays, my quirk can erase others when I look at them”.
“Huh, that’s neat. So you said that you won’t lock me away but what would happen if I chose to stay here? I mean if monsters can still reach me here then just being associated with me could make you a target”. The two adults exchanged yet another look, silently confirming that the two had reached a similar conclusion.
“For now you’ll be staying with me and my husband while you get your bearings and we fix new legal documents for you” Shouta fished up his phone out of one of his many pockets and sent a text to his husband giving him a heads up even though he was probably drifting off to sleep.” You can take your time to rest up and do whatever you need to do to decide what you want to do next”.
The kid managed a small barely visible smile “Okay, that sounds better than my other options”. The three decided to call it for the night and shortly thereafter Nico and Shouta started to make their way home.
Nico’s pov
By the time he and Eraserhead had made it to the apartment, exhaustion was threatening to overtake him. Thank the gods, the apartment complex had an elevator, something he was even more thankful for when the man beside him pushed the button on the sixth floor. The ride up was quiet so Nico occupied himself with guessing what kind of person Eraser was married to. He had to admit that he had gotten a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest when the hero casually mentioned having a husband, he had only recently fully accepted himself being gay something that many of the people stuck in The Lotus casino hadn’t exactly helped with and even though he had met some other LGBTQ teens after escaping the casino this was going to be the first married gay couple he’d ever meet. Now don’t get him wrong he knew that it was possible for him to fall in love and marry another man in the future but between being born in the 1930s and being a halfgod it sounded more like a fairytale, an unachievable dream, so he wanted to see Eraser and his husband together, to see that it was possible for two men to live happily together. Yes, Nico realized that he desperately wanted to see that it was possible, but that could wait until tomorrow.
The elevator doors opened and he followed Eraserhead the short walk down the corridor before stopping in front of a door and unlocking it. The apartment was quiet and lowly lit, quietly following the other's lead Nico entered the home and closed the door after him, taking off his well-worn shoes and jacket.
The hero’s home was dark, only being lit up by a few dim lamps that only provided enough light for you to not walk into stuff. From what he could make out the first room he found himself in upon leaving the hallway was the living room. The room looked to be decorated with plants, wooden furniture save from a beige couch. Eraser stopped by another hallway and turned toward Nico.
“The guest room is the second door to the left, mine and Zashi’s room is the first to the right and the bathroom’s at the end of the hallway. I’ll get a toothbrush for you and lend you a change of clothes. Feel free to check the room out while I do that”. With that he was left in the corridor. Nico silently made his way to the room he’d be staying in. Just like one might expect the guest room was pretty barren, with only a bed, a nightstand with a lamp and a small closet. Eraser soon returned with the clothes and a toothbrush. “Here, take a shower before going to bed. You can go first”. He was about to leave before turning back. “You’re not allergic to cats are you?”. Nico shook his head, he’d have to remember that at least one cat was living here. He wanted to avoid any accident involving said cat and a sword that could happen when a traumatized demigod was half-asleep.
With that awful thought promptly being shoved into the back of his mind he entered the bathroom, took a quick shower and brushed his teeth among other things before putting on his borrowed clothes. The sweatpants and the black longsleeved shirt were as most adult clothing on a very skinny teen too big. Well, at least they were clean. He returned to the guest room and put his clothes on the nightstand before quickly deciding to not sleep unarmed and when he heard the shower turn on again he climbed into the bed with his ring still on his finger.
