Just to make that clear, since Bianca died in December, and Nico was born in January, Nico's 11 when he's being adopted.
Also please forgive me my writing, English isn't my first language.
The Solace', that was Callie and Kevin's last name, apparently, lived in a small house in a suburb. It was plain white from the outside, apart from a bright, smiling sun, painted over the wall.
"That was painted by our son. When he was seven, he decided that our house looked boring and stole my acrylic paint to make it more friendly." Callie hesitated for a moment and looked at the smiley-sun, a rather disturbed look crossing her face. "Don't tell him, but I think it's rather looking creepy than friendly."
At that Nico had to smile. He had known about Callie and Kevin having a son. But Nico never quite got the name of said boy. He only remembered Callie once telling him, that he was a year and a half older than him.
Callie seemed a little surprised by that reaction, but covered it up quickly, and replaced it with a small smile herself.
"You can also paint something on the wall, if you want to.", she said.
Now it was Nico's turn to be surprised. He definitely did not suspect them offering him to paint something on their wall. It was still a mystery to him, why they took him in the first place. He didn't want to bother them more than was absolutely necessary. Nico felt like a burden, being handed to them, because he had to be put into some place.
Before he could even question why Callie would offer him such a thing, Nico caught himself wondering about what he would paint, if he actually wanted to. Which he irrationally did.
No, he could not do that. He could not intrude into their lives like that. And even more important; He could not get attached to them. Not after what happened, not when he knew what would happen if he did.
So Nico just kept walking behind Callie, as Kevin opened the door and held it open for them to walk into the house.
He was nervous. What if their son didn't like Nico? What if they found out about what horrible things Nico was able to? What if he would start to like the family and there would be another fire?
Nico didn't know what to do. Maybe he should run, before he had the chance to ruin their lives as well.
"Mom, Dad? Are you back? Have you brought him home?", he heard an excited voice, shout from afar, as someone ran down the stairs.
Nico's hold tightened around the handle of his backpack. The door was still open. He still had the chance to run.
But before he could finish that thought, Nico was staring into the most addictive eyes, he had ever seen. In front of him was standing... it. He wasn't sure what it exactly was, but he knew, that the boy with the messy blond hair and lopsided smile, was just that. It.
"Hi, I'm William Solace. Or just William. Wait. No. I mean Will. You can call me Will." The boy, Will, was almost tripping over his own words, as he held out his hand in front of him.
Nico looked at him for a moment – His hair looked as if he had run his hand through it a million times, he looked kinda... nervous – before he held out his own hand and shook Will's.
"N-nice to meet you.", Nico said, trying to over sound his own heart beating. "I'm...-"
"-Nico. I know. Mom and Dad have told me so much about you. I'm so happy to finally meet you." The words came just flying out of his mouth, as if he had prepared something to say in front of his mirror, a thousand times, but then forgot everything and started babbling nervously instead. "Let me show you your room.", Will said, as he took Nico's other hand and pulled him upstairs, were he assumed, his room would be.
There were some paintings and two or three pictures of the Solaces hanging on the walls. The house looked... comfy. It wasn't one of these houses, that were filled with family pictures and flowers, just to shove into other people's faces, what a happy family they were.
The Solaces were different from all the people that came to talk to Nico, because they thought about adopting him, and then never came back. They were... real.
Nico felt himself smile. He really liked that about them.
No. He didn't. He's been in their house for like a minute. He couldn't start to like these people already. That wasn't going to end well.
Will had stopped in front of a closed door. He let Nico's hand go, which made him feel a little disappointed, and opened the door.
There was standing a giant bed in the middle of the room, covered in black sheets with skulls and little ghosts printed on it. Nico remembered the day he and Callie had talked about that. They had just joked about the sheets, but he felt a warm feeling rising inside his chest, as he was looking at the furniture now.
There has also been a desk, a chair and a closet.
"The best thing about your room is definitely the chair.", Will said excited as he led himself plumb down onto it and started to spin around. After two or three spins, he stopped. A big smile was covering his face.
"Come on, you have to try it out, too."
Nico was standing near enough to the chair, for Will to just grab his hand and pull him onto his lap.
Nico just froze from the sudden contact and nearly fell from Will's legs, as he began to spin around again. When he finally stopped to gain speed with his feet, the two boys stared at each other, for a solid minute. While Will was smiling brightly and obviously enjoying all of this, Nico was utterly horrified. So as soon the chair completely stopped moving, he jumped away from Will, got out of the room, and ran as fast as he could, to where he thought Will had said the bathroom was.