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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 26 days

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This Is Home

Welp since todays my birthday and I still am trying to work on an action pack fic featuring Dick and Bruce, I thought today might be my chance to showcase what I consider quality wise probably my worst fic I ever made; a blithering and shameful amount of family and adoptive family fluff and tooth rotting sugary sweetness that’ll make unicorns drool. I actually debated for years putting this one out in public because it’s not only fluffy as hell but it rather super weird so I best put up content warnings anyways for your sakes.

Thanks a lot to my buddy @confusedhummingbird for giving me the encouragement to put this one up and giving me the chance to edit it for making it less weird as heck

Constructive Criticisms are welcome and then some and I thank you for your considerations

Dedicated to my other mutuals @pin-crusher2000 @celaenaeiln @spider-jaysart @camo-wolf @lightdusk96 @moonundernostalgia @starlightbelle @adalineozie @wisegirlandseaweedbrainforever

Warnings: SFW Tickling, Family Fluff, Quasi Family Bonding

The moon shined brightly on the simple, brown painted trailer with few windows on it. It was a bright, cool and calm night all around. A few mud puddles from today’s earlier rain showers dotted some parts of grassy fields the tents and other temporary buildings are set on. The ambiance of owls hooting, hearty laughs from the roustabouts and even the chuckles from a variety of younger talents across the grounds are a true delight to hear for any visitor of this one area, let alone those who work and live their lives here. Cracking open the trailer door slowly, a woman with dark crimson follicles tied into a ponytail that reaches to her shoulders, clad in a simple black cotton t shirt with and gray sweatpants, takes one simple step out of the trailer doorway, closes her bright ocean blue eyes and inhales a nice whiff of that air through her nose. That old smell, whether from the decent sized cages of the animals or the burning embers of lighted juggling sticks, reaches in, bringing a satisfactory feeling. This is her home; this is her life; this is what Mary Elizabeth Lloyd-Grayson thought for what a nice evening looks like. Lo and behold, it truly was.

For about a good 20 something years by now, ever since an integrating of her family’s own carnival act with this place, Haly’s Circus always remains the one traveling show Mary finds herself being reminded that she’s a part of. She cannot be any more happier; ever since her childhood of practicing on the ropes and bars of the flying trapeze alongside her own mother and their relatives, Mary always dreamed of being part of the show, no matter her act’s place on the runtime, whether opening act or the grand finale. Here she was now; her family act being the grand finale thanks a combination of their truly amazing acrobatic talent, charisma and the fact the patriarch, her husband John, acts as second in command for this circus. Now while some might claim draconian bull on that last bit, it takes a brief history lesson in knowing the Graysons ever since their far back roots in the mid 1800s always played a role in making this circus operate and continue to entertain hundreds of thousands globally. John is simply the latest of them to inherit the legacy and the responsibilities placed on him. Or rather, the latest grown member of the Grayson bloodline to do so since through her love for him and their marital bond, there is one other Grayson.

“Hey! You get back here, Calvin!” speaking of whom.

Mary notes of the two bundles chasing each other right in front of the trailer door and can’t help but laugh sweetly. One young lad sporting a black mop of hair with her bright blue eyes, clad in a red tunic covering a green scaly leotard and on his feet green pixie boots, was her son Richard, or Dick for short. The eight year old was now in hot pursuit of a ten year old lad with sporting light brown hair with similarly brown eyes, clad in turn in a white t shirt with grey sweat pants and simple sandals on his feet. Both boys have a mischievous grin on their faces as they dart past Mary and make their way carefully scaling up the trailer’s walls up to the rooftops, no doubt their game of tag escalating once more.

As Calvin lightly tags Dick on their rooftop of the trailer and the two safely descend back to the ground before resuming the chase, Mary can’t help but sigh surprisingly sadly for the kid her son was hanging out with at this moment. Poor, poor Calvin; about two years ago, during their latest stop at Haly’s Circus’ home city of Gotham, the little guy approached their trailer door looking in more ways than one, pretty miserable. Not too long ago, the man who was his father locked the kid into a dog kennel for whatever bull reason. From what Calvin told them that man simply walked away and never came back, leaving the boy simply to live out the rest of his days in the cage with no chance for escape. Except beyond expectation and with some good luck, Calvin did escape. Noticing a small chink in the chain holding the kennel door in place, Calvin used a decent sized rock into pounding away that chink in a calm state before finally the chain collapsed. The kennel door swung open, allowing the then eight year old Calvin to make a run for it. The kid ran in the cold and desolate rain storm that poured over Gotham that night, far away from that damn cage until at one point, his legs can’t run anymore.

It was there Calvin came across the Flying Graysons’ trailer in the adjacent Gotham Memorial Park, as part of the circus preparing for their performances the upcoming weekend. Upon noticing the windows of the trailer with the lights on, indicating someone inside, Calvin at first was tempted to knock on their front door before realizing that maybe they won’t take him since he is for intents and purposes a complete stranger. So, he just lied next to the steps of the trailer door until the rain clears up. Or at least he was until suddenly the door opens, a six year old Dick Grayson peering his head outside the door and seeing the shivering, bloodied fisted and soaked Calvin Rose right in front of him. Now cracking the door slightly more open upon realizing who it was, Dick calls for his parents in a thick language Calvin doesn’t understand. Next thing he knows, the two parents almost immediately have Calvin walk in, Mary draping a thick warm blanket over his shoulders, John lightly telling him to sit at the nearby couch and Dick heating up a bowl of his mother’s chicken soup she made earlier just for him.

Ever since that night, Calvin became a very welcome addition to the greater family. Not only does he possess an amazing ability to escape from any trap and restraint on par with the great Harry Houdini, Dick had found a friend next to his age he can go to, someone who understands his own plights and words they way no grown-ups can. In a way, Dick had gotten a pseudo older brother that day. While Calvin’s escape act and the Flying Graysons’ trapeze have their own distinct places on the show time, those two are nearly inseparable.

A squeal belonging to Dick snapped Mary out of her thoughts. Looking to her right, she can see the two kids tussling with each other in the nearby mud puddle. She chuckles heartily as Calvin and Dick take turns pinning each other playfully, poking at each other’s ribcages and bellies and lightly slapping some mud on their faces. As the old saying goes, ‘boys will be boys’. Though, looking at her watch and taking of the time, it was indeed getting a bit late for the boys being boys. Wasting no time, Mary heads for her son’s bedroom, opening the dresser next to his bed, fetching out a clean black t shirt with grey sweat pants not unlike hers and his indoor sandals. Mary gets back to the door just as the two kids lay on their backs on the grassy field, panting heavily with smiles on their faces, covered head to toe in mud and just looking at each other before doing a fist bump. Taking it as her cue, Mary lightly knocks on the steel door of the trailer, drawing their attention.

“Alright you two, you should probably get to the showers. It’s almost 8 pm right now”

While Calvin might not speak lovari Romanes chib like Mrs. Grayson and Dickie can, he does understand it to get what they say.

“Really?” he asks.

“Uh huh”, Dick nods, “You better go first and…”

Mary lightly chuckles and presents the fresh clothes on her hand, “Actually Little Robin, while you two were having your brawl, I got these for you. No son of mine would wait for his chance to rinse off before his buddy does”

While Calvin was having a good laugh at the apparent blushing on Dick’s face, the latter almost shrugs it off and makes sure his hands are clean of mud before grabbing the clothes from his mother and makes his ways to the shower trailer. As Dick makes his way, Calvin gives a quick thumb up to Mary as he heads back to his own trailer to grab his own clean laundry. Or rather, right before he does so, he slows down his walking speed and has a pondering look on his face. Mary takes immediate note of it and walks over to him. The grass lightly brushes her bare feet as she reaches her right hand on Calvin’s right shoulder.

“Is there something on your mind, sweetie?” she asks with a tad bit of concern on her part. Being more or less a mother for him, of course she would.

Calvin brushes the toe of his sandal on the grass before having his brown eyes look up to Mrs. Grayson’s blue ones. “It’s nothing Mrs. Grayson, really just some thought about something but nah; don’t wanna bug you about it”

“Did you think about spending tonight with us, a sleepover?” Calvin’s eyes slightly widen a bit upon realizing Mrs. Grayson knew exactly what he was thinking. But before he can start trying to brush it off, Mary just gives him a warm smile and starts lightly ruffling his hair instead.

“Well,” Calvin asks before once more having a sincere look on his face as stares up to Mary, honestly expecting the worst, “can I?”

Mary almost wastes no time in giving an answer. “John’s out to town with Mr. Haly for tonight and we have a day off from practice tomorrow. So pretty much….Yeah, you can”

Calvin leapt into the air in joy with a fist in the air and was about to hug Mary before realizing how mud covered he was, instead simply rubbing the back of his head with slightly embarrassment. “Just make sure you get your laundry ready for your turn in the showers after Dick rinses up and try not to tell him if you run into him. How about we keep it a surprise?” Mary whispers the last part to him with a wink of her eye. Apparently, she has a bit of mischievous side too. With his own eye wink and a thumb up, Calvin darts back to his trailer. Mary walks back to the door, wiping her bare soles on the front carpet before steeping back in.

About half an hour or so later, Dick entered the trailer door, clad in his clean clothes and his jet black hair moistened though not nearly as much before Dick dried most of it with his towel the showers had. Mary notices however, of Dick preparing to just simply walk in before she gestures to him a certain something. Pointing to her soles, Dick gets that his mother says to wipe the soles of his sandals before walking in or take them off since while he avoided the mud puddles on his way back, the grass wasn’t going to do favors for this family trailer’s carpet. Rather than what he usually does in which actually involves wiping said sandals, Dick just lets them slide off his otherwise bare feet before stepping into the trailer. Dick makes then his way to the kitchen, climbing up the countertop right underneath the cupboards where the plastic glasses are then upon grabbing one, back flipping off said countertop and opening up the fridge door behind him for the jug full of simple water. As her son pours some of the clear liquid into his cup, no doubt for a drink before and/or after getting some sleep, Mary suddenly picks up on a few knocks on their trailer door. The pattern of said knocks is familiar; she knows who’s waiting at the front. Her surprise had arrived.

“Dickie, can you please get the door? I think there’s someone waiting for us”

With a quick salute, Dick raced back to the front door, proceeding to lightly open it, being on his guard while showing a friendly face just in case. Mary simply has a soft smirk in her face without even looking behind her to the scene playing out as Dick lets out an excited gasp for their visitor. There was Calvin, his hair similarly wet and now clad in a clean set of fleece pajamas with sandals on his feet, having a small backpack with his night stuff on his right shoulder and smiling equally as excitedly due to the look on Dick’s face. As the young Rose takes off his sandals out of courtesy before stepping inside, the little Grayson was able to piece together that Calvin will be crashing in with them for the night; looking back to his mother and getting a silent yet all too happy nod from her only confirms such. Dick also remembers it was a day off from practice for tomorrow and a weekend on top of that meaning that Calvin and he have the night to themselves.

Over the next hour, Mary can hear all sorts of chatter and noise coming from Dick’s bedroom, most of them was the two playing on Dick’s game system trying to either outdo one another if playing against each other or give each other aid and instruction to help each other if paired as a team. In the middle of their fingers slamming the controller buttons or hoping on and off Dick’s bed on a moment of excitement, the two engage in small talk on a variety of things. Whether it is the how the elephants can use some free roam every once in a while in spite of what kind of trouble they can get into should said elephants stampede on accident, which of these ‘superheroes’ is better, being either this ‘Woman of Wonder’ that apparently travels the world or Metropolis’ ‘Superman’. Both conclude though one thing: there’s no way this ‘Batman’ in Gotham can be real. Maybe he’s just a bedtime story to get the kids over there to behave like the Court of Owls or something. At one point, Calvin and Dick thought that maybe they can try combing their respective acts into one. Like say, Calvin is in a straight jacket suspended about 30 to 40 ft in the air while Dick stands by at a nearby platform with a trapeze bar in hand. From there, once Calvin of course frees himself from the straight jacket within a few minutes, Dick swings over to him, does the triple or even the quadruple flip and right as Calvin slips out and begins to drop from the height. When Calvin starts dropping by a single inch, He reaches out with his arms for Dick to catch him and swing them both back to safety. ‘The Great Swinging Escape’ they call it as Dick and Calvin laugh it off. Mary chuckles to herself when hearing that from her own room next door, actually finding herself intrigued and maybe with some heavy practice and a safety net for even their actual performance that can work. Of course, all parties involved will need a good convincing to Mr. Haly for that to happen.

By the time, an hour goes by; Mary can clearly hear her son and his friend apparently lacking any tiredness on their part. While they have the night to themselves, the two will have to start lying down for the night at some point. Those two are just full of such energy and stamina, only something than can tire them out can do the job. At least though, their energy finds itself expended on either their chatter with each other or Dick’s videogame.

Wait a minute….game, Mary thought to herself. She starts piecing something in her mind and thinking back to something. In particular, her childhood is what she thinks about…..hey yeah. She remembers that during her days as a Soaring Lloyd the way her own mother would tire her out. Her son’s maternal grandmother will play one type of game nearly every night up till her teenage years. It was a game of endurance and stamina. All needed were their family blankets, bits of string, a feather or two, their own hands, and a jar to place their bets, whether being money tips from their shows or necklace beads. One crux of this game though would mean someone who knows how to wrap blankets around a person that’s mostly inescapable. It cannot commence fully if the participant moves out of the way. Mary though of how her own mother trains the way she wraps her daughter in those blankets neatly and tightly enough to an extent Mary cannot simply run away should her endurance in this game fails but always felt as if she can just bail out if she wriggles enough for the blankets to loosen. To ensure the willing participant cannot escape one the flimsiest of movement and fully use their endurance, Mary will need someone who knows a thing or not about inescapable. What better choice than the Youngest Escape Artist in the World who just right now beaten Dick on their round on that videogame.

Mary calls out to the two after she can hear Dick’s game system turning off. “Alright you two, I think it be a smart idea to brush your teeth if I were you. You don’t wanna sleep with germs in your mouth tonight.”

“Aw, come on”, she can hear Calvin groan; “we really have to do it now? How about another hour? ”

“Well Rose, I didn’t say go to bed right away afterwards now did I?” Mary responds cheekily.

Calvin opened to reply only to realize on what he heard before she clarified herself. “Yeah, my bad Mrs. Grayson”, he says sheepishly and a soft chuckle.

Letting a chuckle of own in kind, Mary then calls to her son while in her room, looking through her necklace making kit for strong enough bits of string to use. “Richard, you go in first while your friend gets his toothbrush okay?”

“Sure thing, Momma” Dick replies happily before quickly turning to his friend, “I won’t take too long okay Cal?”

“Take your time, Dickie” Calvin says, “I can wait. I saw enough bad teeth around here that make my own teeth get cavities. Don’t wanna see you get it too” he remarks, making Dick laugh as the latter heads toward the trailer’s bathroom.

While Calvin looks through his travel backpack for that toothbrush, he notices Mary at the bedroom. Tellingly, she sports a bit of a smirk on her face. She recent has an idea, an idea for some mischief, and Calvin mostly has a role in it. At first, he sports a curious look on his face, thinking he’ll be the target for something. That immediately exits out of his thoughts as Mary approaches him regularly; no, what she has in mind is something completely different.

“Calvin, if you don’t mind at all, I need you help in something. It’s a little idea I have in mind for Dick but I’m sure you both are going to like this” Mary whispers excitedly to him, low enough in which Dick can’t hear them.

Calvin, now knowing that Dick will be the target instead of him, raises an eyebrow raised and a small smirk grows on his lips as well. “So, you do you have in mind Mrs. Grayson?”

“Well…” Mary says before almost muting her words via very softly stating them in his ear. As she explains her secret plan to Calvin in full detail, that smirk on his face grows into a more mischievous grin. Oh yeah, now that sounds like something he can do. As Calvin, nods his head, indicating a yes, Mary hands Calvin the piece of string she brought with her from her necklace set and begins loosening some of Dick’s blankets and bed sheets.

Around five minutes later, Dick finally steps out of the bathroom after rinsing off his teeth and makes his way back to bedroom. Along the way though, he can hears some whispered chatter between Calvin and his mother coming from there. He wonders what those two are up to since among the whispers, he can hear some light hearted laughter, meaning it was a plan alright. Most likely, it has him in the center of it. He might be only 8, but Dick’s not dumb. With a smirk on his face, he can try surprising his mother and his friend before they can do whatever they wish with him. Now stepping on his tip toes, Dick sneakily makes his way to the door to his room completely out of sight from his mother and Calvin, quietly standing next to the door out of sight. Should either his mother or Calvin start making their way out to check on him, he can unleash an ambush via a playful tackle and using his fingertips on their ticklish spots to pin them. As he spots Calvin making his way to the door after hearing his mother tell the former to check if he was doing okay, Dick snickers lightly, sticks to the shadows….

“Nice Try, Dickie!” happily exclaims Calvin while playfully grabbing Dick in a bear hug, causing the latter to squeal laughing, out of the shadows and onto his bedroom floor, trying to pin him. Of course having play wrestle him earlier tonight, Dick picks up on his friend’s pattern on how he pins him via pokes on his sensitive ribs. Not this time though as Dick cleverly slides out of Calvin’s reach and targets his own fingers on Calvin’s soles. Upon the first poke of that fingertip on his soft skin on his left foot’s arch, immediately Calvin yelps into a bubbling laugh of his own and topples face first onto the floor. Seizing the chance, Dick sits on his knees upon Calvin’s pinned legs, wraps his left arm around Calvin’s ankles, bringing these feet up to him and using his free hand, starts scribbling his fingers all across whatever spots on Calvin’s bare feet he can find.

While pinned and finding himself outmaneuvered by his younger counterpart, Calvin barely focuses on such a turn of events since those laughs are erupting out of his mouth like there’s no tomorrow. For good reason though, since out of all the places on his body he was sensitive, it was his bare feet. Now his friend goes all out with the velvet like skin on his soles, the pads of his ten toes and perhaps worst of all, the stems of said toes in which just tiny poke on them sets off a certifiable explosion of nerves being tickled all across Calvin’s body. Thankfully, before Dick’s free hand can make it to those stems on his toes, Mary cheekily tells her son to stop.

“Now, now Little Robin, let’s save tickling Calvin for a little later. We can’t have him pass out right now.”

Dick looks back to his mother with wide grin on his face before loosening his grip on Calvin’s ankles, letting his feet drop to the ground and giving the older boy a chance to breathe. It’s then though that Dick also notices his mother sitting on his own bed, more or less confirming what he had been hearing on his way back from the bathroom.

“So”, Dicks asks the two as they both smile mischievously picking up on the fact he’s onto them, “what do you to have in mind for right now?”

As Calvin grabs his toothbrush and makes his way to the bathroom for his own teeth brushing, Mary pats her hands on Dick’s bed, saving a seat for him. “Oh, nothing too big at all son; I just noticed both Calvin and you seem like you two can stay up all night if you want too, right?”

Dick nodded his head happily, “Yeah, Cal and I can stay up till the sun goes up Mom. There isn’t anything make us tired. No sir-ee.” That little boast more or less had Dick firmly in exactly where Mary wants him, easy prey for her little game. It was time to let the cat slip out of the bag for this one.

“Well, Little Robin, when I was your age, I thought the same thing on nights like this. So you would like to know what my mom did to me whenever I said I can stay up till to the sun came up?” she asks with a cheeky grin in her face.

“Nope, what was it?” Dick asks now genuinely curious.

Now for the bombshell, “Oh, Your grandma and I would bet something in a jar then she’ll have me wrapped up very tightly in the blankets.”

Dick asks, figuring out where this might be going, “Does the bet say something about how long you can last without getting too tired?”

Mary nods happily, as she fills in the blanks, “More or less, how long can you handle like say, your feet getting a good tickling until you either fall asleep or say you quit.”

Dick’s eyes widen with excitement upon hearing the answer but before he can act, Mary quickly slips her hand onto the soles of Dick’s right foot and begins lightly scratching it, ‘Like this!”

Almost immediately, a squealing laughter bubbles out of Dick’s mouth and he falls backward onto his bed, kicking his legs frantically to get his mother’s fingertips off his sensitive skin on that area. Quickly calming down and in-taking some air, Dick smiles happily towards his mother, now knowing the full picture of what Calvin and she have in mind. With that in mind, sure, he’s sensitive, the fact is Dick’s a Grayson through and through, he can handle soaring through the air on some ropes without a safety net below, and he can handle this for sure.

“So, want to give a try Little Robin?” Mary asks sweetly while cracking her fingers. “It’ll be perfectly fine with me if you don’t want…”

Rather than wait for her answer, Dick simply got underneath the blankets, place his head on the pillow on one end of the bed and stuck his two soft velvet soled bare feet out of the other end of the blankets where his mother was.

“Now just wait a minute Dickie” Mary says while playfully grabbing one of her son’s big toes lightly causing the latter to giggle lightly in turn, “I’d say we spice this up a bit by making it a game of who can last longer.”

Within the next minute, Calvin had stepped back into the bedroom out of his teeth brushing, noting almost immediately of Dick already in position. Now with his own smirk upon realizing what this means, he cracks his fingers and he too trudges unto the bed. Rather than go underneath the blankets, Calvin begins grabbing the ends of the bundle Dick is within and begins wrapping them up in a zigzag like pattern across the acrobat’s swaddled torso, arms and legs. Finally, after nearly two minutes of careful wrapping, he finishes off Dick’s fluffy restraints with a simply tucking in of a corner in his right side.

“Alright, Dick” Calvin says with his arms crossed and proud of his work, “try getting out of that.”

Sure enough, as Dick attempts doing so via wriggling around and trying to slide the blankets off him, nothing moved by a single inch. Indeed, Calvin’s restraining technique had worked, the little Grayson finds himself more or less completely trapped. All that Dick move at all were his head against his pillow and the toes of his two feet in which even then can only fan out or clench tightly, the latter of which he was doing now in anticipation for both his mother and his friend’s next move.

While Mary grabs a small empty nearby jar and placing it on top of Dick’s dresser, Calvin gets a small notepad and a pen to write down their bets. They are made rather quickly since let’s face it; they just want to get started already. Dick bets he can last for 1 hour of nonstop scribbling and poking on his feet, saying that should he lose, he owes his mother three straight nights in a row of doing the dishes after dinner and getting Calvin any ice cream next time they see a place to get some. Then the other shoe drops. “You have anything in mind you want to bet on for yourself, Calvin dear?” Mary asks. Cal’s face brightens up almost instantly since he knows he can participate as well. It was a chance he wasn’t going to back down on. Using a second small note paper, he write a bet of his own: Whereas Dick supposedly can last 1 hour, Calvin bets he can last 2 hours, should he lose, he owes the Graysons an entire dinner from a nearby take out joint one day and be the one getting ice cream for Dick instead.

Mary takes the two bets written in note paper, placing them that jar while Calvin hops onto the bed right next to Dick, getting his own set of blankets he brought with him to wrap himself in, and likewise poking his head out one end and his bare feet on the other. Mary tucks Calvin’s blankets around him tightly yet comfortably thanks to Calvin instructing her on the same technique he used to restrain Dick beforehand. Sure enough, like Dick, Calvin finds himself only capable of moving his head on his pillow and his ten toes, the latter only able to fan out or clench.

All preparations done, Mary finds herself staring at quite a sight indeed: before her blue eyes was what seems being a massive of well woven cotton and fabric sheets with two tousled heads poking out of one end and four perfectly formed feet out of the other. One pair of those feet was only a mere centimeter bigger than the other, with a tiny bit of callus on the balls and heels but otherwise was perfectly normal with their smooth curving arches and soft texture everywhere else for a growing lad like Calvin Rose. For the other pair, while slightly if at all smaller, the soles, arches and stems of the toes uniquely had a lighter skin tone in comparison to the tops, and with slightly longer toes in comparison to Calvin’s in which while not stubby, they had less space to poke those stems of said toes. Otherwise, Dick’s own feet, usually well maintained via applying skin lotion on them every other few nights before bed, had the same features as Calvin’s had. Overall, the two pairs of feet poking out of the mass of blankets before her made them all the enticing Mary’s mind to give in to them a nice motherly rub and then some. Frankly, with the addition of all twenty toes wriggling, fanning out and clenched in anticipation, really it was just those four feet saying ‘hey, give us your best shot, we dare you’ right to her. So, with her two hands descending on those four lovely feet, her left set upon Calvin’s and her right on Dick’s, Mary was indeed giving it her best.

She starts slow and methodical; running her index fingertips on the smooth soles of Calvin’s left foot and Dick’s right foot. The toes on each respective one clenched down followed by fanning outward and from there repeat slowly. Already, soft and bubbling giggles erupt from both boys, Calvin even clenching his mouth shut to prevent those precious giggles from escaping completely. Dick fared slightly worse with an ability in holding back the giggles already bubbling out of his mouth. Of course, though, Mary was just merely warming up. Next thing, the speed and number of her fingertips rubbing against the soles of all four feet grow per minute, leaving both Calvin and Dick now laughing slightly louder and far less ability to control it.

There was practically no spot on those soles, heels, or the balls of their feet left untouched by Mary’s darting fingertips. No matter how clenched or fanned out those four feet were, she continues onward. By now, the laughing from the two boys was at a consistent yet loud enough level that said laughter starts blending in a synchronized manner. From the looks of it to further this whole thing, neither showed any sign of fatigue so far. Mary does have to give Calvin and her son credit, about twenty minutes in, they have no quit in them. So now, it was time to escalate things a tad bit.

“Calvin, dear”, the mother asks while calming the frequency of her fingertips, softening a bit of the immense tickling and allowing the two to breathe a bit while still laughing their heads off, “do still have that string from earlier?”

“On…the…drawer….behind you…” Calvin was barely able to say in between his laughing, bopping his head to his right slightly to point Mrs. Grayson in that direction. Sure enough, there was the necklace just sitting on the corner of the piece of wooden furniture, perfectly intact. Originally, the string would find use for one person’s pair of bare feet on this occasion but now that they’re two, Mary decides to very quickly grab another one from her necklace in her room, giving the boys a chance to catch their breath. Not easy considering that scratching from Mary’s fingertips left phantom tickles they can still feel, causing them to still giggle intensely.

Calvin turns his head slightly to Dick’s direction, breathing out some giggles while having a slight smirk on his face. “Ready….to quit….Dickie?”

“…Nope…Cal….I…can still…last longer”, Dick responds with a small smirk of his own while also breathing through giggles

“I don’t know, Little Robin”, Mary hums happily as she re-enters the bedroom with two strings in her hands; “this next part will test you alright.”

Gently taking the two big toes of her son’s feet in her fingers, Mary carefully takes one of the string pieces and proceeds to wrap it around the toes. After as much loops as it can do, Mary toes the string in a nifty little knot. Now suddenly, Dick can barely clench his toes at all, leaving the stems completely vulnerable and practically defenseless. In a quick few seconds, Calvin too has a string piece wrapped and tied around his two big toes so now he too can barely clench his toes at all and now his stems are defenseless.

Sure enough, Mary cracks his fingers and presses a loving kiss on each of the boys’ temples before having a mischievous grin on her face as she goes face to face with four bare feet sticking out of the tightly wrapped blankets. Enter Mary’s fingertips as they begin lightly scratching within the toe stems of Dick and Calvin. To say the laughter came back with a vengeance, a tad bit louder than before and most sincerely full of energy would be a gigantic understatement.

Once more as before, no spot of those twenty toe stems and the toes themselves are untouched by Mary’s loving scratches and pokes. Both of the boys’ heads are now tossing and turning all over their soft pillows with little tears forming in their eyes. No matter hard the two Circus youths try holding it in by closing their mouths shut, their laughter still escaped. They are determined however; there is no way either of them will have to pay for the other one’s ice cream just because they lost a tickling game nor do all those dishes nor stand in line at next Red Robin restaurant they come across. As such, in spite of the utter expending of their energy and possibly their sanity, Calvin and Dick still do not quit.

About the forty-five minute mark of this whole thing, Mary still cannot help but admire the sheer amount of willpower the two boys have in the face of their bare feet receiving the treatment they get. So, once more, it was time to escalate things to basic all out war. The mischievous grin on her face going slightly bigger since now comes in that feather. Both Calvin and Dick are able to peeking through their otherwise shut eyes and suddenly their laughter changed it note slightly.

“Oh….no…” Calvin laughed out in somewhat dread.

“Oh yes” Mary proudly stated as the feather descends upon Dick’s right foot and Calvin’s left foot at the same time. Very lightly, the feather begins rubbing on the two pale feet. Already, the laughing is beginning to build up in volume. Sure enough, Mary strokes the feather slightly faster and accordingly, the laughter from the two reaches another decibel. From there, about fifty minutes in, the feather now strikes at random on both pairs of bare feet. If the feather stroke on the ball of Dick’s left foot, his laugh rises. If it strikes, Calvin right heel, his does. The tips of their toes prove being no exception since one glide across all twenty toes was enough to crank the laughter’s volume up a tad bit. As hard they try, neither Dick nor Calvin can clench their stout toes completely thanks to the strings tying their big ones. This happens while Mary’s fingertips dart around on spots the feather isn’t hitting.

Now at one hour and fifteen minutes, the nuclear option finally comes in, the feather now placed in the toe stems of both boys’ exposed feet. A simple stroke going rightward and back, rightward and back, up and down the stems, circling around the pads of the toes before coming back to the stems, rightward and…

“OK! OK!” screeches Calvin between his exhausted laughter, “I QUIT! I QUIT!”

Dick yelps happily in spite of his immobility in joy.

“I won! I actually won!” He yells, exhaustively yet ecstatically in his native tongue.

Mary has bubbling laughter of her own as she finally puts away the feather and loosens the strings on the boys’ big toes, finally giving their feet to move around more freely again. She leans over the winner’s tousled head and plants a few victory kisses on him, much to Dick’s slight embarrassment and Calvin’s light snickering.

Other than all that, both boys are just flat out exhausted. The scribbling, poking and feather stroking was apparently too much for their stamina to bear as Dick and Calvin both pant heavily and have small tears leak from their eyes onto the soft pillows they lie on. In between their panting, were still giggles since once more phantom tickles persist on their bare feet. Nonetheless those lingering nerves of theirs were fading out fast once they have a chance to be left be, yet so was the ability for the boys’ to stay awake as Mary can tell as she puts away the stings and jar containing their bets. Their panting had softened to deep and relaxed breathing as her ears can attest, just like how she felt once her mother stopped.

Remembering Calvin’s instructions on the blankets from earlier, Mary finds the one flap on both Dick and Calvin’s restraining bundles and gently tugs away, undoing all the tightening in one swift motion. Now the blankets are simply draped over each of the two, allowing their arms and legs underneath both the move freely. Not that they can though, given that one look on their faces, the two circus lads are starting to drift into deep and relaxing sleep.

“Looks…like (yawn)…I…owe…you…” With those words, Calvin was the first for sleep to claim as his eyes close, his breathing evens and his head tilts to the side with a peaceful smile on his face.

One quick kiss on Calvin’s temple and Mary pulls the folded part of his blanket to the bridge of his nose, doing so making the now asleep Calvin moan happily before shifting so that the blanket covers his entire face. Now, he was out cold. It looks like Dick was next.

Even though his eyes flutter to a slow close, Dick had a slight giggle as his mother drapes the blanket up and ruffles his black hair.

“I love you, Momma” Dick yawns dreamily “Good Night”

With a happy and proud sniffle upon hearing those words, Mary leans to give Dick one more kiss on the temple. “Good Night My Little Robin. Sweet Dreams”

Thusly, Dick eyes close completely and finally he falls into a deep and happy sleep as Mary covers his face with the blanket like Calvin has.

About five seconds later, then comes the soft snoring. Yep, both were completely dead asleep. Her game had worked.

Mary finally stands to get a good look at the two sleeping boys, completely covered by their respective blankets, the exceptions being only their crowns of their hair and most tellingly their bare feet on the other end. Normally, any other mother at this point would leave well enough alone, head to their own bed and close for the night. Mary certainly would do just that given her own tiredness kicking in. However, she always has a way to leave her mark on those she tickles. So there was just one tiny thing left to do.

She quietly and excitedly makes her way to her bedroom’s nightstand and after a good few seconds, finds what she was looking for. In her hands were a black marker pen and two cardboard tags with strings attached. Long story incredibly short, while her mother’s side of the family was filled with acrobats and circus folks, on her father’s side, their jobs were a tad bit…morbid. Medical examiners, surgeons, morticians, EMTs, funeral directors or in the case of Dick’s maternal grandfather and perhaps most frightening of all….a dentist; these were Mary’s cousins, aunts and uncles on that side of the family tree and while ultimately deviating from that career, she develops a sense of humor heavily inspired by it. So now both her more-or-less nephew Calvin and her son Dick were ‘dead asleep’ as evidenced by their light snores coming from underneath the blankets covering them, right? Well, as she writes down their ‘details’ on those two tags with strings, why not have them play the first part?

Mary finishes Calvin’s tag first and such with its attached string; she lightly as to not accidentally tickle him awake places it on the big toe of Calvin’s right foot. As to the question of where exactly Mary got such things, it was during a tour in London, during a day off, John and her out of morbid curiosity visited the nearby mortuary, and got the tags as souvenirs in the gift shop. It reads as such:

ATTACH TO TOE

NAME: Rose, Calvin

AGE: 10

GENDER: Male

ETHNICITY: White

WEIGHT: 45 lbs

HEIGHT: 4’ 11’’

FOOT SIZE: 5

HAIR: Brown

EYES: Brown

DATE OF BIRTH: 9/XX/90

PLACE OF DEATH: Bedroom DATE OF DEATH: N/A

CAUSE OF DEATH: Tickling Induced Sleepiness

MEDICAL EXAMINER: Mary Elizabeth Lloyd Grayson

FUNERAL DIRECTOR: John Fredrick Grayson

COMMENTS: Do Not Disturb.

Calvin himself only let out a tiny giggle as the tag brushed very lightly on the sole of his bare foot but otherwise remained in deep sleep.

Sure enough, with that done, Dick too had a written on cardboard tag attached on his right foot’s big toe. While gently settling the string on the toe, Mary very lightly gave a tiny, playful brush to Dick’s sole, causing the acrobat to giggle lightly and very briefly clench his toes before they once more are still as if nothing happened. On his tag, it reads.

ATTACH TO TOE

NAME: Grayson, Richard John

AGE: 8

GENDER: Male

ETHNICITY: Romani

WEIGHT: 35 lbs

HEIGHT: 4’ 5’’

FOOT SIZE: 4.5

HAIR: Black

EYES: Blue

DATE OF BIRTH: 3/21/92

PLACE OF DEATH: Bedroom DATE OF DEATH: N/A

CAUSE OF DEATH: Exhaustion induced Slumber

MEDICAL EXAMINER: Mary Elizabeth Lloyd Grayson

FUNERAL DIRECTOR: John Fredrick Grayson

COMMENTS: Sleep Well, Little Robin. Momma Loves You.

Her work done, Mary caps the pen close and finally makes her way to her bed. Catching a last glimpse of the two sleeping boys with their bare feet poking out of the blankets, snoring away in their dreams and toe tags attached, she gently closes the door. The bright moonlight shines through the bedroom window on the two blanket covered boys while they sleep. This is their home, this is their life, and this is truly, what a nice evening looks like.

#dick grayson #calvin rose #mary grayson #sfw tickle fluff #sfw #family fluff #adoptive family #de facto family #haly circus #content warning #quasi family #mother and son #family bonding #nightwing #talon #dc comics

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