Don't You Have Enough Edgy Kids, Bruce?

An attempt is made, and a picnic is ruined

As he arranged human bones, gems, and happy meals in a circle, Nico couldn’t help but feel some strange, twisted form of nostalgia.
Should it have bothered him, that while other teens would be nostalgic towards Mario kart, he felt that way toward summoning the undead?

Well, it was too late to change that now. all he could do was focus on the task ahead.

It had been a while since he had done this, but he was pretty sure the bones were supposed to be angled that way, and the gems spread in equal distance from each other like so…
And the skull went in the middle, that was just common sense…

He hummed while working, the activity strangely soothing.

Though he hadn’t done this particular ritual in a while, he had been involved in many others.
Burials at camp half-blood were a painful memory, but not a very distant one, what with the Gaea war having just ended recently.
And there were also memorials, for those who have died long ago but were made sure not to be forgotten. Those weren’t so bad.

Nico startled when suddenly someone cleared their throat behind him, turning around.

Dick was there, leaning against a moss-covered stone wall.
Nico hadn’t heard him approach.
He really was good.

“Do you always sound so cheerful while raising the dead?”, Dick asked Nico, amused.

“That’s not what I’m doing”, he answered carefully.

Dick chuckled.

“Jason told me not to bother you if I see something weird going on here”, he said. “So I had to check it out. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No, but I haven’t started yet”, Nico answered. “It’s going to take a while”.

It was true. Though he had made progress, he still had more to arrange, not to mention all the chanting he was going to have to do.
Gods, his throat was going to be so sore tonight.

Dick hummed and turned to walk back inside.

Nico was almost disappointed, a bit - while having company was certainly awkward, being alone when he finally reached his father was not very appealing either.

That wasn’t really something he could ask for, though: ‘hey do you mind keeping me company while I try to call the king of the underworld?’ sounded pretty bad even inside his head.

Instead, he threw himself back into his work, arranging an array of french fries around a pelvis.

Where did Jason even find all those bones for him? He was grateful, sure, but also quite concerned.

“Oh, things couldn’t be worse, when your folks run the universe”, he found himself humming quietly once again.

It was one of those stupid campfire songs the apollo cabin would always obnoxiously sing at the top of their lungs, especially the ones whose specialty wasn’t even music at all but instead archery or healing.

This time he wasn’t as surprised when he heard footsteps behind him.

He was starting to realize that the Wayne manor, as enormous as it was, was so full of bat-children that it was impossible to have a quiet moment.

He was surprised, however, when instead of one batkid he saw an entire pack of them behind him.

Barbara and Dick had a picnic blanket and Stephanie was carrying a basket with her.

Though Damian didn’t offer any help, he did watch them all from the grass, with a big dog in his lap.

Tim held a pot of coffee in each hand. At the confused look on Nico’s face, he shrugged.