𝙼𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝙶𝚘 𝙰𝚠𝚊𝚢 - H&S

It was hard for Nico to laugh, now. He hadn’t laughed easily since Bianca had died, but it was as though Tartarus had sucked all of the humor out of him. It had taken Kelsier to make it come back. He was learning how to enjoy life now. He was learning how to live, not just to survive. He hadn’t really known there was a difference before he had gotten out of Tartarus. Before he had met Kelsier. He had been encouraged to stay alive by his friends before, of course. He had found a home with them, too, but… nobody had shared an experience that was anything like Tartarus. That was what made Kelsier so different. He had Hathsin. It wasn’t exatly Tartarus, but it was close enough that they could connect on a level very few others could. Nobody on Scadrial. Nobody that Nico knew in his world or even in the House. Kelsier had recovered. He had been able to help Nico start that journey, too.
He climbed higher, doing his best to keep moving quickly. He wasn’t going to let Kelsier catch up to him, even as the branches started to get smaller and more precarious.
“You have to catch me first,” Nico called back down, his grin audible. He knew Kelsier was showing off. He also had no intention of stopping him.

Nico gave a quiet laugh, pulling himself up even higher. He was fairly fast, but he had less experience than Kelsier. He was also a lot lighter. In the end, it seemed that they were fairly evenly matched. He grinned down at Kelsier, doing his best to ascend faster than Kelsier. He stared up, eyes wide as he realized there were no longer any branches he could reach. He frowned, daring to glance down at Kelsier before wrapping his arms around the trunk and trying to shimmy his way up. It worked for a little bit, but it wasn’t as effective as he had anticipated. Could he shadow travel a little higher? He shot another quick glance at Kelsier, then decided that was… probably not his brightest idea. He couldn’t shadow travel that frivolously, especially since it might encourage Kelsier to use his metals up to prove a point. They were both annoyingly stubborn.
Finally, Nico let himself drop back down to the branch he’d gotten stuck on. It was higher up than he’d anticipated, and he didn’t dare look directly down. He could look out, though. While still not as impressive as the view from any of the skyscrapers, it felt… a little bit more earned, now that they had climbed this high for it.

Nico knew Kelsier was used to heights. Far more used to them than Nico was. They both knew that. But now, with the two of them standing in a tree looking out at the city… it was easy to forget that. It was easy to pretend that there was nothing to be afraid of, here. It was the two of them together, and hadn’t they proven that there was no enemy they couldn’t beat when they fought as one? If Zeus decided to strike Nico down, Nico had no doubt that Kelsier would attack him without a second thought. The scary thing about Kelsier was that, if anyone could win against a god, it was him. As long as Zeus wasn’t keen on attacking, Nico was safe regardless of how high up he went. He was in Zeus’ domain, but he wasn’t truly risking his wrath.
“It’s a view,” Nico agreed, not entirely certain if he could describe it as good. Like Kelsier, he was used to much higher. He had seen the city from the top of skyscrapers before. It was a completely different experience from this. Would a skyscraper be high enough to provide even Kelsier a knew view?
“No, you’re right,” he murmured after a moment. “It’s good. It’s… it’s high up enough that you can see a lot, but not so high that you can’t see individual people’s expressions as they go about their day. And they have no idea we’re up here.”

“Literally all tourists spend their time doing is looking up,” Nico retorted, but there was nothing cold or hard in his tone. Kelsier was right in this case, anyway. Trees were commonplace. The only people who might look up were kids who were interested in climbing the tree. Their parents would likely discourage it, but that probably wouldn’t stop them. The chances were low that of all the trees in Central Park, a child would choose this one to climb. For all intents and purposes, they were invisible.
“You know,” Nico whispered (well, said loudly enough that the breeze wouldn’t completely carry it away), “I think this might be one of the only up high places in the city where you can see the view without having security cameras or something looking at you in return.”
Security cameras had been a shock to Nico when he had first become aware of how life was in the 21st century. “They want to make sure that nobody does anything illegal, so they put out little devices that watch everything that goes on in an area. They wouldn’t put those in trees. It’s nice, knowing that we’re in public, but there’s absolutely nobody watching.” Except maybe the gods. Nico elected to leave that bit out. No need to make Kelsier hate them more.

“I don’t actually know if there are cameras in the park,” Nico admitted, looking around. “You’d probably be better at that than me. I mean… the cameras are metal, so you might be able to spot them better than I would. But there are enough cameras that if someone is trying to avoid the cameras, they just look more suspicious. So it’s harder for people to commit crimes, because they look suspicious if they try too hard to avoid being seen on the cameras, but if they are seen on the cameras, then their crime is visible to whoever has access to the footage.” He shrugged, then looked around before looking back up at Kelsier. “This… isn’t supposed to encourage you to commit a crime here, but a good way to avoid being seen by the cameras is to find a way to disable them. It’s suspicious and will make whoever is watching aware that something is going wrong, but they’ll probably think it’s technical difficulties instead of immediately assuming someone is trying to commit a crime.”

“If you wanted to avoid all of them,” Nico replied, rolling his eyes, “You’d need to know exactly where all of them were beforehand, and you’d need to know what all they could see. It would be extraordinarily difficult, and you would need someone on the inside to help. People have done it before, of course, but it requires a lot of planning. We have no idea how long you’re going to be here, and I’d rather spend our time showing you around than helping you plot a heist on a building you hadn’t even heard of before now.” He crossed his arms, raising a brow at Kelsier before his attention back towards the view laid out in front of them. It really was beautiful… he took in a breath, then shifted so he could see Kelsier just a little bit better.
“If you want to try disabling the cameras, I won’t stop you. But stealing here isn’t going to be as useful as stealing is on Scadrial. It’s not like we have atium, and our currency would be useless on Scadrial.”

“Being Mistborn doesn’t change that you don’t exactly know what angle all the cameras are at!” Nico replied, a bit of exasperation creeping into his tone. “You’d still need to know that before you can actually destroy the cameras. And you still need to figure out where they all are. Are you absolutely confident that you can do that just from using Iron? Because you have no idea how many cameras might be in a building, and all it takes it one to spot you. You need to plan it out better if you’re thinking about stealing something, especially if you’re planning on stealing something valuable.” If Kelsier decided to steal something while here… well, he was a thief by trade. Nico couldn’t actually fault him for that. It was just that he would really prefer to keep them both out of jail while Kelsier was visiting. The more they had to deal with the ramifications of breaking the law, the less time they had to do fun things. Ideas kept popping into Nico’s head of things that Kelsier had likely never done before that might be fun to do here. He didn’t know if he had enough money to afford some of them, but… Hades could spot him all of this. If Hades had been a good enough dad, then there wouldn’t be a Kelsier here. The least Hades could do was pay for their adventures.

Nico knew what he was signing up for when he agreed to this relationship with Kelsier. When he had decided that this was the man he wanted to see as a father figure. Okay, so it hadn’t been a decision so much as it had been Kelsier acting more like a father than Hades ever had, and Nico’s heart going along with it. Kelsier was everything Nico had needed at that point in his life. He was everything Nico still needed, if he were honest with himself. This… being able to exist in the same space as Kelsier on their own time… it felt an awful lot like a gift.
“You’re really giving this a lot of thought,” Nico commented calmly. He knew that Kelsier could easily pull off a heist while he was here. It wouldn’t be that hard to find people who knew what they were doing and who were more than happy to pull it off with him. Kelsier was charismatic enough that he might even be able to convince an upstanding citizen to join in. Hopefully, the language barrier would be enough of an obstacle that it wouldn’t be an issue.
“Maybe one day I’ll get to see you in your world and I’ll join you on a heist,” he added after a moment, a small smile touching his lips. He thought he might like that, the ability to participate in Kelsier’s world in a way Kel was familiar with. Especially since Nico’s world wasn’t exactly designed to show off Kelsier’s talents.

“You’re going to lose your shit when you learn that plenty of trees grow flowers in the spring.” It was odd to think that Kelsier likely wouldn’t know that. How would he know which plants grew flowers and which didn’t? There was no way for him to find out. “I mean… they’re not like Mare’s flower, but they’re pretty anyway. Sometimes, when the wind is right, you can see it blowing down petals. It’s like it’s raining, but it’s flowers.” Nico wished he could make Kelsier stay here through the spring, but… there was no chance this visit was going to last that long. The only way Kelsier was going to be able to see those flowers would be if Nico could get pictures that were high quality enough to send. The pictures he had sent in the past were enough to get across the idea of flowers, but not enough to really capture them.
“I’ve heard that the flowers in DC are even prettier than the ones here in the spring. There are more of them, there. The way they built the city means there’s more room for plants and flowers and things. It’s sort of built into the infrastructure. I guess… I haven’t spent very much time in DC.”
Nico glanced back down at the ground, considering. “We could go see some more plants while you’re here, if you want. You might not be able to choose a favorite after that. Especially if you see California redwoods… they’re huge. They’re also really far away, but I’m sure we could manage it.”

Nico gave a small smile at Kelsier’s question. He knew more about flowers than Kelsier did, but he hadn’t known very much before Kelsier had started to blink in. He had spent time learning everything he could about them since. He wanted to be able to answer any questions the Mistborn had, because… because flowers meant something to him. They didn’t mean anything to Nico other than just being vaguely pretty plants that existed sometimes. They were more than that, now. The knowledge that other world didn’t have them… it made Nico want to protect them. It made him want to ensure that his world never lost them. How many people took them for granted? How many people never realized how lucky they were to live in a world where things bloomed? Where the air was perfumed with something natural and sweet, where flowers grew where it wasn’t realistic.
“I don’t think they do,” Nico said after a moment, shaking his head. “They’re not the kind of trees that produce flowers. I don’t know all of the trees that do, but I think… it’s mostly trees that produce fruit later on. Lots of trees produce fruit in the summer or berries in the fall, and those usually have flowers in the spring. I don’t… really know what the correlation is.” Nico was silent for a long moment, trying to think exactly what to say to Kelsier.
“Some… some plants have flowers that bloom in winter. I think… I don’t know. That sounds like something you’d like. Something… Mare would have liked.”

“Do you have libraries in Scadrial?” Nico asked, frowning a little as he tried to picture a library among everything else Kelsier had told him about. It was hard enough to imagine books in general being available to the Skaa, let alone an entire library. It was entirely possible that Nico’s current level of illiteracy in Scadrial was the same as many of the Skaa. He likely wouldn’t stand out for not knowing how to read. Which… he realized would be a problem on Kelsier’s end here if he decided to take him to a library, but they could get around it.
“Basically,” he continued, trying to keep his thoughts as grounded in one place as possible. He was used to them flying off in all different directions, but he didn’t want to forget his point. “They have a lot of information available to everyone for free, and all you have to do is go and either look it up online or find what you want to know in a book there. There’s bound to be some books on flowers, and even if you can’t read them, we can learn together. If you want, I mean. I…” he blushed, frowning a little as he realized he didn’t actually know exactly what Kelsier wanted to do. Was a library too boring? How much did he really care to learn about flowers? Nico wished he knew exactly how to direct this visit so Kelsier could get as much out of it as possible.
“I… honestly don’t know which flowers bloom in winter, only that I’ve seen a couple. But I bet we could find that out at the library, too.”
He fell silent for just a moment as Kelsier continued. He would have loved to show Mare around, though he wasn’t sure she would like him nearly as much as she would like the world. He wasn’t a flower. He was just a hardened kid who cared too much and had done too much harm in the past. There were reasons he and Kelsier got along, but he couldn’t help but feel that some of those reasons were also reasons why Mare wouldn’t like him. He tried not to dwell on that too much. It didn’t matter what Mare thought of him. Not technically, at least.

“Sometimes I think I hate your world more the more I hear about it,” Nico admitted, shaking his head just a little. He may not have been the biggest fan of books, given how difficult it was to get into them because of his cocktail of neurodivergency, but he appreciated libraries for what they were. “I mean… here, they’re more than just repositories of knowledge. They’re that, too, of course, but… libraries here are also places people can go if they don’t have anywhere else. They don’t provide food or a place to sleep, but they have tools that help people who are unemployed find jobs. They have activities that are built to help out schoolchildren whose parents need to be working when their kids need to be picked up. They’re great for people who can’t afford books on their own, because the books are all free to borrow. I’m sure there are dozens of other reasons why libraries are great for people who might otherwise be disenfranchised. I don’t spend a lot of time in libraries. The point I’m trying to get to is… I don’t think our libraries are very much like noble libraries at all.” Nico tried to give a smile, but he wasn’t sure if that information would be comforting or frustrating to Kelsier.
It had to be frustrating to know that there were worlds where things were better. It had to be infuriating to know that your people were suffering while there were people elsewhere who didn’t have to deal with any of that pain. It had to be inspiring, too. It had to be (at least in some ways) a beacon of hope that things might actually be able to change.
“We’ll visit,” Nico whispered, and it was a promise. “You’ll see what libraries are like, and we can learn as much as you want about anything you’re interested in. Maybe… maybe we can see if there are flowers here that look like Mare’s.”
Nico glanced away, jaw working as he thought of the woman Kelsier had loved.
“I don’t think she’d like me very much,” he admitted, breathing out. “I think… I’m kind of the opposite of everything she would have liked, if everything you’ve said about her is true.”

Nico looked up at Kelsier, uncertainty blossoming in his gaze. He had never really been able to think of himself as deserving of love. He had believed he was, once. A very long time ago. Before he had ever needed to question his place in the world. It had been years since that. He had earned Kelsier’s love because the Mistborn was just as complicated as he was himself.
“It’s not because of Hades,” Nico murmured, trying to sound like it didn’t really matter. It did. “I mean… it is, partially. But not entirely. It’s only partly that I would kill every flower she loved. It’s… I don’t know. You know who I am, and you know what I can be. If the situation calls for it. You know what I’ve done, all the mistakes I made… I don’t… I don’t want to imply that she isn’t open minded or anything, because I know she wasn’t but…” he hesitated, blushing as he realized he’d been gesturing wildly the more worked up he had gotten.
“I just think maybe I don’t deserve for her to see me as the kind of person who’s worth loving.” Nico’s voice was quieter at that. He hadn’t been sure he would even say it out loud, but there it was, out in the open. Mare was… Nico hadn’t known her. He couldn’t say for sure who she had been. He couldn’t say fo sure whether she would have cared for him or not. In his mind, though, she was the embodiment of everything Kelsier strived so hard to bring to his world. She was kindness and light, grace and joy. She had been a person too, of course, but in Nico’s eyes, she was the flame that drove Kelsier’s involvement in freeing the Skaa. She was everything the Lord Ruler tried to snuff out. It didn’t matter that she had been a thief. Wasn’t that the point of the Robin Hood story in his own world? That there were thieves with more moral background than the rich.
He pushed the thought away, instead paying attention to what Kelsier was actually saying.
“I didn’t know she showed you the stars,” he breathed, looking up as though he could see them through the sun stained afternoon sky. “I would love to hear the stories,” he added, breath catching in his chest. “I wish I could have told her the stories of the stars here.” He let out a soft sigh, shifting so he could see Kelsier a little better.

Nico didn’t even seem to realize he was gesticulating. He had grown up doing it, and though he had tried to tone it down around Minos in an attempt to make himself smaller and less noticeable, the gestures still came back when he was with people he trusted or when he spoke about things he was excited about. He trusted Kelsier implicitly. It wasn’t a decision to allow himself to gesture around the Mistborn, but he had quickly become comfortable with it. He trusted that Kelsier didn’t want him to take up less space. In fact, he had a feeling that Kelsier probably wanted him to feel comfortable taking up more space. He was still getting used to the idea that there were people who wanted him around. That there were people who enjoyed his company not just because he was useful, but because he was someone they actually liked being around.
“Oh,” Nico whispered, dark eyes meeting hazel as he turned to look at Kelsier. He had known that, from a conversation the two of them had shared what felt like eons ago, but he hadn’t actually thought about what it meant. If Mare had never seen Kelsier kill, had she even known that he was capable of it? She had a dream about what the world could be. She had found beauty in flowers and small things like that. She had ideals about how the Skaa should be treated that Kelsier was fighting for. Would she have approved of Kelsier’s methods? It was a thought that made Nico distinctly uncomfortable. He had often wondered a similar thing about Bianca, but he had always known the answer. She would have hated the way he went about things. She never would have let him risk his life in all the ways he had. She wouldn’t be proud of him, no matter how much he wanted her to be.
“When I get to your world,” Nico whispered, his voice as firm as though he could speak it into existence, “You might have your answer. If you want. I bet I can raise your spirits as well as I can raise the ones here.” He was silent for a long moment before he moved towards Kelsier, finding an odd comfort in proximity. “But… I believe you. I’d be a fool to think you’re not the expert.”
Nico glanced at Kelsier, trying to force a smile. He wasn’t as good at them as Kelsier was (yet), but he was learning. It wasn’t convincing, but it was a smile.
“I’d like that. Trading stories,” he added, voice genuine. “I can find us somewhere to see the stars tonight.”