I was taking a run through Brooklyn, enjoying the slight breeze and the nature around the path, when I saw a small child in an old World War 2 aviators jacket with a sword in hand and getting ready to fight a huge beast. The "beast," had three heads and was a brown color that reminded me of bog water. I was Captain America, Leader of the Avengers and War hero, so I needed to handle this.

"Hey kid! Run!" I yelled but instead of running like I hoped the kid would, the kid yelled back with fear and confusion in his voice.

"No! Get out of here!"

The kid had an accent that I couldn't place, but that didn't matter, people were staring and coming over to see what was going on. I knew that I couldn't fight this… thing without my shield, and there was no time to call for backup, by the time they got here, it would be too late. Instead I tried to make sure that everyone was out of harms way. As I got the crowd to a safe distance and was getting ready to get the kid out, but the "beast" was on the ground, dark green blood seeping through a wound in its chest.

I watched in awe and fear as the "beast's" body sunk into the shadows around it. The kid sighed and looked at his blood covered sword in annoyance. I wondered why this kid, who couldn't have been no more than 13 years old, had a sword. What kind of parents let their child walk around with sword and fight monsters? The kid stuck his sword back in his belt and was about to walk away but I ran forward and stopped him.

"Hey! Are you okay?" I yelled but the kid huffed in annoyance.

"Im fine!" He yelled back, his back still facing me.

"Look kid, I don't know what that was or why you were fighting it, but it's kinda my job to make sure people are safe, so if you could please look at me?" I called out, trying to make my voice as soft as possible but still kept the "Captain America" facade. People were staring and the kid turned around and he looked livid his eyes staring into mine and my body went cold.

"I said I'm fine!" His face was covered in blood and his arm was gashed, he most certainly wasn't fine, but he took off in the opposite direction before I could say anything else I chased after him but as soon as he hit the grass he disappeared.

Now, I thought about taking this to Fury but he would have sent a search for a kid that he didn't have any information for besides the accent and hair color. So I didn't take this to Fury, I didn't even tell the Avengers.

It had been two weeks later that I heard a knock on my apartment door. I lived in a small, one bedroom, one bathroom apartment in brooklyn. It was close to the old brick building that Bucky and I shared an apartment in back before the war, they got our living situation all wrong.

When I opened the door I was surprised to see a Five foot Three boy with dark brown eyes and black hair. It took me a moment to realize that it was the kid from the "Beast incident."

The kid stuck out his hand before introducing himself, "Hi, Im Nico di Angelo, we sorta met two weeks ago."

I was very confused, Nico, was the kid that was killing the "beast."

"Uhh, yes?" I responded and Nico let out a huff.

"My… Friend, told me to apologize. He says I shouldn't have brushed you off." Nico said as though it pained him.

I didn't say anything and Nico rolled his eyes before starting to leave, but I couldn't let a young man leave like this, if he did have parents they weren't really good, letting their child run around with a sword. So I called out to him, "Wait! Would you like to come in? Breakfast is on the stove."

Nico looked hesitant but his stomach growled . I smiled at him before opening up the front door completely to let the kid inside.

"So Nico, how old are you?" I asked, he didn't look that old, maybe around 11 or 12.

"12, I turn 13 in January." Nico replied as I set down a plate in front of him.

"Why were you out fighting that… thing?" I asked, curious on what the hell that was.

"What is this? 21 questions? And, that was a baby Hydra. It was pretty easy to kill since it was so small." Nico replied nonchalantly as he took a bite of scrambled eggs.

'Hydra?' I thought to myself and Nico must have seen my confused face because he said, "Greek mythology."

That just confused me even more so instead of saying anything, I just nodded and sent Nico an awkward smile.

"You're Captain America right?" Nico asked, not looking up from his plate. Nico looked like he was remembering a distant memory.

I chuckled to myself, "yeah, don't really hide it I guess."

"My S- My dad? My dad was a huge fan of yours." Nico said.

"Yeah, I guess being an Avenger makes people like you-" I tried to say before Nico interrupted me.

"No, I mean, s- HE was a huge fan of yours during the… war."

"You sound unsure of yourself Nico."

Nico didn't reply.

"Listen hear Nico, I know when someone is hiding something, so are you gonna tell me who you are?" I said, putting on my good cop face.

Nicos eyes scanned the room before his hand gripped his sword.

"Hey, theres no need for that, just tell me, whatever it is, your secret is safe with me."

Nico sighed before looking me in the eyes, "Are you familiar with Greek Mythology?"

"Barley, I know of the gods." I said, remembering that one history lesson I had in school.

"Yeah, well, they are real, they still come down and mess with women AND men and have children." He said. I was wondering what this child's beliefs had to do with any of his secrets.

"I am a product of one of those affairs." Now that got me, I was confused, I went along with what he was saying though, I needed to know more about him.

"My dad is the god of the underworld, Hades." Nico said before looking at me with a glare that made my blood go cold, and as he said the name the room seemed to get darker.

"Nico, give me a reason to believe you." I knew that the Norse gods were real so I didn't have a reason to NOT believe in the greek gods, but I also didn't have a reason TO belive in them. Nico got up before stepping into a shadow and walking out of a completely different shadow. I froze, how did he do that? He stumbled his was back to the chair and plopped down, leaning back into it.

"That takes a lot out of me," He said as he closed his eyes. "That was Shadow Travel, children of Hades can do it." I stared at him, hoping my eyes were speaking for me saying 'I need more.'

"Okay, World War Three, it was a huge battle between Demi-gods. Children of Poseidon and Zeus on one side, children of Hades on the other. Hitler? Hes my half brother. But uhh, don't worry, i'm not a mini Hitler." Nico said.

"I need more than that Nico." I said with a smile.

"Do you ever see something that cant really be explained? Or something that people have multiple beliefs on? That is probably because of the mist. Did you wonder why the Hydra incident was not all over the news? That's because the mist changed everyone's views. You can probably see through it because of the experience you have with the Norse gods." That's when I decided to believe him, I was going to say something but he kept on talking.

"After the war the gods made a… peace treaty of sorts. None of the big three could have any more children, but then Zeus and Posiden went and messed up and-" I cut him off.

"What about Hades? I mean, you exist,"

Nico looked down before saying, "No I don't."

"Nico, what do you mean?"

"According to the world I died in the 40s along with my mother and my sister." He said before looking at me.

"How?" I asked, I am the only person I know who had the serum, and this kid, he didn't look like he had it.

"My dad put my sister and I in a time stopping hotel. We didn't age until we got taken out and went to a military school in Maine. My sister was obsessed with you." Nico said with a shaky voice every time he mentioned his sister.

"Well, the future really is something huh?" I said while taking a sip of orange juice and looking Nico in the eyes.

"Yeah, it sure is." Nico's tone was breathy as he looked out the window.

"You know, before the serum, I had my friend, Bucky. I think he is the only thing I really wish came with me. You're lucky you had something familiar with you" I told him.

"Yeah, I guess, didn't have her for long though. She joined a group of hunters, became immortal, she couldn't ever take care of me again when she took the deal. Then she died not long after."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay, I- I've gotten over it." Nico said with a small smile.

"Nico, where do you stay? Do you stay with your father?" I asked, remembering that his immediate family was dead.

"No, I stay at a camp, all the children of the Greek gods stay there. There's a Roman camp also. My friend who made me come here, he's the son of Jupiter, or Zeus." Nico said.

"Mmh." I gave a hum of understanding.

"Where did you live? In the 30s I mean." Nico asked.

"Brooklyn, my Mama and I lived in an apartment not too far from here. Bucky and I actually lived in those after we moved out." I said while pointing out the window at the old brick building.

"I was born in Italy, I don't remember when we moved." Nico said.

I nodded and an uncomfortable silence filled the room. Nico got up and walked over to a shadow, "Well, I better get back, it was nice talking to you?"

"Nico, if you ever need a place to stay, im open, the couch is a pull out." I said, he gave me a nod before falling into the shadow behind him.

I sighed to myself and was confused when I looked at his plate and saw that he had written "Sorry" with the hot sauce.

The next day he came back, it was late at night, around 11:00 PM and he stumbled onto the couch, waved at me and passed out. I was frozen in my spot, he looked sick and pale. I walked over to him and slowly pulled his legs up onto the couch, pulling off his shoes as I did so. He was cold to the touch. I threw a blanket from the linen closet over him before going to bed myself.

In the morning he was still passed out. It was cold outside so I started a fire because the heater broke and it was nice to be warm. I made breakfast and by the time I finished he was still asleep. At first I was scared he was dead, but he still had a pulse. So I waited, and I waited. He finally woke up at 4:00 PM, I had already thrown his breakfast that I had made for him this morning out and restarted the fire multiple times.

"Hey, are you hungry?" I asked him.

"No, I don't really eat." He said.

"Okay, well, are you gonna tell me what happened?" I asked, sitting on the coffee table with my hands folded in front of me and my elbows resting on my knees.

He shrugged and said, "I don't know." His voice cracked.

"I- I got mad, they were telling me lies, so I left, and I know I shouldn't have but I needed to and im only supposed to travel a couple feet at a time and then I passed out!"

He had a few tears rolling down his face, I sat down next to him and rubbed his back,

"Hey, you're okay, shhh." Then he did something unexpected and leaned into my side.

"No! I'm not! Jason lies to me and says that nobody cares but they do! Why would anyone want a child of the litteral lord of the dead around them!" I slowly leaned and brought him with me so that my back was against the arm rest and he was laying on me.

"Why would Jason lie to you?" I asked him.

"To make me stay at camp."

"Who is Jason?"

"My friend, he's kind of my cousin actually, hes the one who made me apologize."

"He sounds like he cares about you."

"I dont know."

We stopped talking and the silence was filled with Nicos hiccups as he slowly fell back asleep.

It was strange to have a 12 year old fall asleep on me, but it was nice, I could have had this if I hadn't been frozen. I could have had kids and comforted myself like this.

I didn't fall asleep with him, the super soldier serum prevented that. So I scooted down and let him sleep.

Him sleeping at the apartment became a daily occurance. He was here for breakfast and dinner and sometimes he came back around for lunch. I had money from being Captain America and a member of the Avengers and somewhere in my head I had the idea to get a bigger apartment. But for now this was fine. We seemed to work out a routine. He was still a weird kid, burning his food before he ate it and "Shadow Traveling" around the apartment when he could, but I cooked him food and he slept on my couch and he gave me company. It worked out just fine.