#dick grayson needs a hug

[tiger-grace]

every time I try to discuss the Spyral arc with someone for the Nightwing comics I have to take the Sisyphus route of going “one must imagine Bruce Wayne to be a bad father…”

[strayswolf]

Bruce absolutely breaking down over the loss of Jason and taking it out on Dick, the most available and easy target in this moment. Blaming anyone else because he can’t bear the weight nor admit the guilt he feels—that his statements should be directed at himself. Bruce feels resentment at himself that he never adopted Dick like he did Jason.

Full Pages:

Also, I appreciate the slowly distancing fade out of the last several panels as a visual display of the emotional reflection Dick’s living in this moment with the batcave as an allegory of the tumultuous upheaval the bat mantel has wrought on the family in the here and now.

Comic: New Teen Titans #55

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Artist: George Perez

[aprocessionofthoughts]

To Sleep

whumptober24 day 8- sleep deprivation fandom- batman tw- Dick mentions the rain which is a reference to the Tarantula incident, nothing about the incident is mentioned but stay safe my darlings summary- Dick can't sleep

masterlist ao3

It’s raining, and Dick can’t sleep. He’s in the manor. He should be fine. It’s been years.

He should be fine.

He turns again in bed, throws the sheets off, then pulls them back on a few seconds later. He lays on his back and stares at his dark ceiling, then twists to lay on his side, then his stomach, then his side again. He fluffs his pillow, then tries laying down without it, then with two pillows.

He can’t sleep.

He presses a pillow against his face. He wants to scream into it, but in a family of vigilantes even a muffled scream won’t go unnoticed.

He tries doing the fibonacci sequence in his head but only makes it to 10946 before his mind wanders off. Counting sheep has never worked because his mind has always taken it as a challenge to see how far he can go.

He rolls over and grabs his phone, hoping soothing music will help.

He’s still restless. He gets up, goes to the bathroom and takes a drink of water from the cup on his bedside table. He sits on the edge of the bed and tries some mindful breathing and thought clearing exercises.

He can’t stop thinking about everything bad that’s happened, about all his mistakes.

He shakes his head hoping to dispel the negative thoughts, he whispers ‘shut up, shut up, shut up’ to himself in the darkness. Why won’t his mind shut up? 

He’s tired. He wants to sleep. Why can’t he sleep?

He flops back into bed, pulls the sheets up, tosses them off. He groans as he immediately feels chilled and has to pull the sheets back on.

Why can’t he–

His door creaks open and he freezes, holding his breath.

“–go of me, Todd! I will gouge out your eyes and shove them down your throat!’ 

Dick starts to sit up, because what is happening–

Then a body falls on top of him, and Dick can’t stop himself from wrapping his arms around the person on top of him. Damian. It’s Damian that Jason seems to have dropped on top of him.

“Wha–” he starts to say, but Jason interrupts.

“Could hear you tossing and turning from my room.”

Dick feels embarrassment heat his cheeks. “Sorry, I–”

“Shut it.” Jason says.

Damian is surprisingly quiet. Dick shifts, he tries to let go of Damian, but his arms won’t listen. “Sorry, Dami, you don’t have to stay.”

“Tt.” Damian squirms on top of him, and Dick’s heart rate spikes thinking he’ll leave him. But Damian settles again so he’s only half laying on Dick. “I do not mind.” he says. “Afterall, you have to sleep so that you can have the energy to keep up with me on tomorrow’s patrol.”

Dick’s eyes water slightly, and he squeezes Damian tighter.

“Well, now that my good deed of the week is done…” Jason says, and Dick’s eyes dart to him.

He manages to extract an arm from where it’s curled around Damian. He extends his hand to his little brother. Jason hesitates, and Dick pulls up his best puppy dog eyes until Jason relents.

“Fine.” Jason lays down on the very edge of the bed, but Dick extends an arm, wraps it around Jason and pulls him closer.

This is nice. Dick’s got two of his brothers here with him. He closes his eyes.

He still hasn’t fallen asleep yet when he hears his door creak open again. He cracks his eyes open to see two faces peak in. Dick smiles gently and extends a hand toward Tim and Steph. They slink in quietly crawling onto the bed, and Dick’s only regret is that he doesn't have enough arms to hug them all at the same time.

He feels himself sinking deeper into rest when the door creaks open again. This time Cass comes in dragging Duke behind her. She smiles gently at him before they’re both climbing onto the bed as well.

Dick’s heart could burst from joy. All his siblings, here together with him.

Like this, he can rest.

He feels sleep pulling at him. His door creaks open again, but he’s too tired to open his eyes. He feels a hand run fingers through his hair, scratching soothingly at his scalp. Bruce presses a kiss to his forehead.

“Love you, chum.” 

Dick feels him pull away and darts out a hand to grab his wrist.

He hears a soft chuckle, but then the bed dips, and the hand returns to his hair.

“Go to sleep.” his dad whispers.

And here, surrounded by his family, Dick finally does.

[oldmannapping]

Fic: Too Much (1/1)

Summary: Dick gets dosed with truth serum. Everyone has a miserable time.

Excerpt:

“You know I ignore your calls sometimes?” Dick told them casually.

Tim’s jaw dropped. “You- What?” Jason looked equally stunned.

Dick held a hand in front of his face and picked at his nails. “I ignore your calls. Sometimes it’s just so… UGH. Haha.” He scratched his jaw. “’S’like, no. Not today. Fix your own fucking problems.”

[magnoliasandarson]

1 Voicemail- Delete (final installment)

“Long time, no see, Dickhead.”

His escrima sticks slipped through his slackened fingers, and his knees nearly gave out. He knew that voice. He listened to a recording of it every night. A red helmet was tossed to the ground, and suddenly the world around him was thrown into flux. 

The ground beneath his feet felt like it was shaking, the sky was spinning around him, and his pulse was loud and staccato in his own ears. He felt like he was standing in the center of a tornado. 

Staring at him, mere feet away, was his brother. 

Jason. 

He was taller now, distantly Dick remembered a tiny grave; his eyes were more green. There were new scars traced into his tan face, and some part of Dick’s soul screamed for blood. More important than all of that, Dick could see the rise and fall of Jason’s chest. He was breathing. He was alive. 

Dick Grayson was in two places all at once. He was standing on a rooftop staring at his dead brother, and he was crumpled at the same brother’s grave. He was staring into blue-green eyes and clawing at dirt. He was biting into his own tongue so hard that he tasted his blood, and he was vomiting onto dewy grass. He was listening to the roar of the flames from a burning warehouse a roof away, and he was listening to that cursed fucking voicemail. His very soul was cleaved in half, and his world was shattering and mending all at once.

His body moved of its own accord, his mouth spewing forth words he’d sobbed at a cold headstone: “Jason, Jay—fuck, Jason.” 

Jason’s face crumpled, but he didn’t move, and that was all Dick needed to yank the now towering frame of his baby brother into his arms. “Oh fuck, Little Wing,” the words leaving his mouth were no more a conscious decision than the bile had been so many years ago. “You were the best Robin—Jason—my baby brother—my brother.” 

The body trapped in his arms was trembling, and there was a wet spot forming on Dick’s collarbone. “You were the best, Jay, and you were good—you were so good. I’m so sorry, so fucking sorry.” He was begging for forgiveness, for love, for recognition, for Jason. 

Dick was holding his brother like he’d dreamed of for years. He’d only hugged Jason a handful of times before his death, he could remember each time. He’d sobbed at the grave, knowing his brother had died not knowing how loved he was, “I love you so much, Jay; we all love you so much. You were never a replacement, you were my brother- you are my brother.”

His brother was home. He was alive and home. Dick was shaking, and Jason was shaking, and they were both crying, but none of that mattered because Jason was alive. Jason was back, and Dick could finally stop listening to that fucking voicemail.

[brucewaynehater101]

Dick Grayson is crying, screaming, throwing up with that elder sibling angst.

Does anyone else think about how he moved out before he even knew he'd be an older brother?

His dad is being a complete ass to him and bam! A kid, a child that can actually understand what's going on, is thrown into his life. A teenager his dad is dragging into the role Bruce had pushed Dick out of.

Then, when he, as a not quite an adult himself, can finally process and put away that grief to help his suprise sibling: his brother dies.

He finds out after the funeral is over. He barely started to be an older sibling to the kid, couldn't even bid him goodbye, and he has to live with the fact that he has failed his brother. There's nothing that can change that.

Then, Bruce is being an ass again. Another child is dragged into that same godsdamned role. That role he crafted from the bones of his parents. The outfit he was pushed from. The funeral shroud that wrapped the kid he isn't sure he can call his brother.

So Dick tries again. He tries to be better, do better. He can't quite protect Tim from Bruce, especially because Tim isn't legally Bruce's kid. He still tries. He loves his youngest brother.

Then Jason comes back to life, but he's so angry. He's bitter and hurting and lashing out. Dick knows it's partly his fault.

Then Damian comes into the fold. This kid is angry and hurting and lashing out. He tries to be an older brother to these two despite how they push him away. It's painful to be rejected, but he still tries.

He is reassured that he's been there for Tim. He's been the older brother that Tim needs. So he tries to be there for Damian too. He really tries.

He tries even when he becomes the kid's father instead of his brother. He succeeds. He became the family that the kid didn't want at first but so desperately needed.

It's only when his dad comes back that he realizes he failed Tim and Cass.

Anyways, Dick's definitely tugging on his hair and rocking himself back and forth on his bathroom floor as he contemplates how little he knew about being a brother and how much he hates himself for not being enough for his siblings.

[scuze]

My drawings of the Bat-Boys so far

[ao3statistics]

This is self-made. Date: 08.01.2024.

Not very spectacular results if I'm being honest.

I assume no guarantee or liability for the completeness, correctness and accuracy of this chart despite my best efforts.

Includes fanfictions in all languages available, NOT English only. Includes all fandoms on Ao3 connected to DC, Batman etc.

The sibling tags in the chart above are all metatags.

More charts will follow. :)

Want to have a chart for different pairings, headcanons etc. in your favourite fandom? Send me an ask!

Guys... come on... give him a break

[fleur-de-violette]

“I’m Batman,” and all the lies one tells themself

AO3

Summary:

Dick doesn’t take long to realize he’s in some kind of dream or hallucination. The issue is getting out of it. Prompt: “I could be worse; I could be you.”

Note:

I hope you enjoy the fic! Warning for hallucinations/dream and general angst.

“Robin?”

Dick turns, tries to get his comm to work, tries to locate Damian without success. He’s in a corridor, with no memories of how he got there. He walks, but the place is never-ending. It turns, and closes on him, and moves around.

Lucid dream then. That, or he’s drugged.

“Robin?” he tries again. Only an unnatural echo replies to him.

“Robin,” says a voice behind him. “My little Robin, my spring bird, please look at me, please come to me.”

He’s not going to turn around. He knows what he will see if he does. He keeps walking. He knows all too well what the corpse of his mother looks like.

The cape becomes heavier and heavier as he walks. It’s suffocating. He tries to remove it, but the more he claws at it, the tighter it gets. Until there is no fabric behind his hands, and he’s fighting with gloved hands trying to strangle him. He looks up to see…

“Jason.”

“Surprised?”

“Not really. It’s not a secret you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you,” Jason says with a voice he associates with Jason. Not Red Hood. “I could never hate you, man! You’re so cool. When you were Robin, I always admired you! And now… look at me. Sure, B gave me the training, and the gadgets, but the idea, the magic! It’s all you. You made me who I am!”

“You made me who I am,” Red Hood repeats, with the voice of Red Hood, and his face deforms to take the shape of the mask, an inhuman form, shaped only by hate. “It’s your fault, it’s all your fault.”

He tries to fight, tries to get the hand to let him go until they finally do, and he falls backward.

Except there is no floor to meet him. Only the infinity of nothingness.

And he falls. 

(Somewhere, there is a gunshot. Rain.)

He falls.

And falls.

And falls.

Until a hand catches him. He looks up to a familiar cowl.

“B?”

“You disappointed me,” Bruce says. “All you do is disappoint me over and over again. There is not a day where I don’t regret picking up that day. Damn that pity that made me keep you around so long.”

Dick is still dangling in the air. But he can’t stay there. He has to fight. He will fight. He will come back to reality. He won’t lose now. He swore it on Bruce’s grave. He would protect Gotham. He would protect Robin. He would protect Damian.  

“No, you’re not… you’re not him. Bruce is…” he said it to Tim, he can say it again. “Bruce is dead. And you’re not him. You’re just a result of whatever is happening to me. The worst knockoff imitation of Batman I’ve ever seen.”

“The worst?” Batman asks, and then he laughs, something unnatural with his face. “Oh, no. I’m not the worst.”

He pulls up Dick to whispers in his ear, “I could be worse. I could be you.”    

[miles-morxales]

like father like son.

Dick Grayson x fem!reader

warnings! :child neglect, bruce needa do better😬, arguing, slight obsession, attachment issues

IN WHICH, Dick Grayson feels like since he doesn’t feel enough love at home from bruce, maybe attaching himself to catgirl to fill his slightly empty heart could work.

part 1: first time meeting.

“Whose that?” A young 15 year old Dick asked Bruce. Next to Catwoman was a shorter and younger girl. “Catgirl, apparently catwoman has a new sidekick. I assume you know what to do?” Bruce said in a all too familiar monotone voice. Catwoman was doing a different  job than usual. No stealing jewelry or robbing a bank. No no no.. This time, she was stealing.. fertilizer? And she brought a friend too.

“I know I know. Distract with the girl while u go and flirt with Catwoman blah blah blah.” “i do not- you know what, just do it.” (We all know you on her bad brucey bruce, it’s ok🙂).

While Batman went to go stop Catwoman’s shitty plan (pun intended🤭) Dick had to go stop Catgirl. Of course he got stuck doing the easy job! So fun. Catwoman and Batman were having a full on cat chase (I’m full of puns today🤭) and he to distract some new chick on the block.Except, maybe it wasn’t as easy as he thought.

IN THE WAREHOUSE (still full of shit)

Dick’s POV:

So I walk in right? No, I kick the fucking door down, trying to do you know a cool entrance. Just for no one to be seen. “Come out kitty kitty kitty.” I looked around for a good 3 minutes, then just as I was about to tell Batman no one was there I felt a breath on my neck. “Boo.” I gasped and almost fell over. Where tf did she come from?

“I’ve heard a lot about you Boy Wonder. Let me guess, while Batman goes and chase around Catwoman, you got sent to distract me from loading more fertilizer into the truck?” Damn I didn’t know it was that obvious ☹️. “Uh, no?” It came out more like a question than a answer. “Sure..” She said. “So, you gonna try and turn me in or what?” She said circling me. “Um, that is kinda my job. So if you wouldn’t mind.” I tried to grab her arms and hold her but she quickly turned to the side and kicked me in my stomach. Uhmmm, ouchhh?

“First thing you need to know about me, I’m nothing like Catwoman. I’m not into the long game. Number two, what made you think it would be that easy in the first place?” She said as I was taken aback by her swiftness. “Well Catgirl, I apologize for underestimating you. Friends.” I said walking closer and putting my hand out. She scoffed, but eventually shook my hand with a fake smile on her face.

I them twisted her hand behind her back, taking the other in my grasp. “Fuck you.” She said, I chuckled at her statement. “Just doing me job. You shouldn’t be trying to fall into a life of crime with Catwoman anyway.” “Is this the part where you try and convince me to “Do better!” and “to make better choices!”Robin?” She says in this weird type of voice. I don’t know why but it catches me off guard and she slips away, try’s to kick me again but I catch her foot. “Nice try, but this is not gonna take long. We’re in a huge warehouse, in the middle of the mountains full of shit. I don’t wanna be here as much as you don’t.”

She flips off my hand and lands on her feet swiftly. “Well i don’t wanna be here more. She said if I don’t go she’ll take my door off of the hinges and that I can’t do anymore jobs with her for a week. You think I wanna be here in the cold, in a place full of horse dookie?” I snort at the word dookie. She’s funny. I take a minute to take in her features. She has longer hair than Catwoman, in a ponytail coming out her suit. Beautiful really, and perfect y/e/c eyes.  “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” She says, I snap out of my staring and I can feel heat creeping up my neck. How embarrassing.. 

*cue fight scene where he ends up catching you outside the warehouse and they are both out of breath*

“Fina-fucking-lly, you know for Batman’s sidekick you’re really bad at shutting up and just catching ppl.” She says, damn that kinda hurt. “Says the one whose hands are literally roped together?” “Touché.” She says smirking and winking at me. I feel my stomach flutter a little. Just as I’m about to say something, Batman shows up behind me, Catwoman nowhere to be found. “Good work Robin, now let’s get her somewhere safe.” I take her hand and walk towards the batmobile with Batman. As we approach it, I turn around and she’s nowhere to be found anymore.. whatttt😱.

Okay okay.. so I might have let go of her hand on while she untied the knot without noticing.. but can you blame me?? I could barely feel my hands in the first place in this weather, let alone hers?? When we notice, both catwoman, Catgirl and the truck are gone. Let’s just say Batman was not happy on the ride home..

When we got back, he sent me to my room. Whispering how I should’ve noticed to himself, as if I don’t already feel bad. First, it’s freezing. Second, I get stuck in a warehouse full of shit fighting off some catwoman sidekick, then the minute he actually says I did a good job she gets away. As if Catwoman didn’t get away either?? “Would you like some hot chocolate Master Dick?” Alfred says, peeking through my room door. “No thank you Alfred, I’m off to bed.” 

a/n: it’s currently 2:45 in the morning rn- anyways this is part one of a 5 part lil series, hope y’all enjoyed, I haven’t written in ages. bye bye! Muah

[madigan-thompson]

Chapters: 32 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson & John Grayson & Mary Grayson, Dick Grayson & Raya Vestri Characters: Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Mary Grayson, John Grayson, Richard (Uncle Rick) Grayson, Barbara Gordon, James Gordon Jr., Ace the Bat-Hound, Tony Zucco, Joker, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Vicki Vale, Lucius Fox, Penguin, C. C. Haly, Raya Vestri, Original Characters Series: Part 1 of Robin Summary:

Tragedy, Training, Triumph: A Little Bird takes Flight

Richard Grayson had it all. A loving family, a promising future in his family’s circus act and the thrill of seeing the world. But life seldom goes as planned. During a performance in the city of Gotham, the equipment that held the Flying Graysons safe for countless years inexplicably fails. Richard’s family is gone. But is there more to the story? And now, as the ward of the Prince of Gotham, Richard has a home again. But could the perpetrator of his family’s fate be coming for him?

[emo-batboy]

A Wild Battinson (Social Media AU)

Part 56 (Masterlist)

(Part 57)

@bruciemilf LOL

Here’s the link to the SNL episode post! Yes, there will be more about it tomorrow. And here’s the link to the actual hot dog skit Robert Pattinson filmed with GQ!

That’s all :) Bye now

[timmydraker]

CW: amputation

Tim was born with wings.

There were tiny at first, so small the doctors didn’t even notice. It was after a few months the little nubs became visible and as soon as they noticed, that was it. They were growing.

By two years old they were three times his size and he wasn’t allowed to leave the house. His parents own a medical company yet they couldn’t figure out how the hell such a deformity could ever exist. They hired very specific doctors to help them and forced them to sign NDA’s, though even if they did people would probably just think it was usual Gotham horse shit.

So, they cut them off.

At two years old his wings were removed and shut away in a box in the basement and after that, Tim Drake stopped being the happy little boy he was. His second year of life was spent in agony as the wounds healed and he learnt to walk again without the normal weight, and that slight discomfort and phantom pain didn’t leave even after he met Batman.

It got worse when he became Robin and knew he was hiding his two disgusting humerus bone nubs left protruding his middle back.

He manages to keep it hidden for several years, but it’s when he’s newly seventeen that he gets hit too bad. A grenade he managed to dodge the explosion from, but that knocked him off a roof and onto a railing.

It’s agony as he lands on his left and feels his ribs shatter and snap, but luckily he passes out and doesn’t feel much of it.

Unfortunately, that also means he can’t insist on doing his own medical assessment like he usually does and Alfred and Dick do it themself.

Alfred notices first and freezes, which makes Dick come over to see.

Neither of them have the chance to hide it from Bruce who surpassingly accepts it quickly and is instead crushed that his son didn’t trust him with such a vital part of he he is.

Tim tells them the real story when he wakes and admits that’s why he didn’t take his parents house after they died and just left it vacant, so he wouldn’t have to accidentally find the bones of his lost life.

When Jason and Dick go with him, Damian as well though he tries to say it’s because he’s bored when really he doesn’t want to be left out on his brothers new chapter.

As requested, Jason goes to find the box for him and he finds it after an hour of looking, only… the wings haven’t decayed.

They’re also moving.

[fleur-de-violette]

Dad Reflexes

AO3

Summary:

“Nice dad reflexes!”

The words, from a nearby window, take Dick aback.

What does that man mean by dad reflexes?

Note:

The prompt was “dad reflexes”. I hope you’ll enjoy the story!

-

“What were you thinking?”

Damian, as expected, didn’t say anything, just looked away in that half shame half disdain way of his. Dick felt his blood boil. He needed to be able to trust Robin not to jump of a building without securing his line first. He had been there to catch him and cushion the fall with the cape but what about next time? He couldn’t even think about it.

“We’re going home,” he said.

That got a reaction out of his Robin. “But-”

“Don’t talk back to me! Get into the Batmobile!”

He immediately winced internally at his tone. He hated when his patience ran out. Thankfully, Damian responded well to orders. It was maybe the only thing he responded well to. The kid got into the car and just as Dick was ready to join him, he heard a laugh above him.

What now?

“Don’t be too harsh on him, kid is doing his best,” said a civilian from his window, a bottle of beer in his hand. Oh, good. He was getting unsolicited Robin raising advice from citizens, now. He wondered if Bruce had to deal with that kind of things too. “And, hey, I saw the fall,” the man continued. He did a cheer movement with his bottle. “Nice dad reflexes.”

Dick didn’t say anything to that, just went into the car. It was only alone in the bunker that the man’s words came back to him.

Nice dad reflexes

Damian was Bruce’s son. That much was obvious. Dick was nothing but a pitiful replacement for a guardian, for a Batman.

He couldn’t pretend to be Damian’s father. He wouldn’t replace Bruce.

But, deep down, he knew Bruce hadn’t replaced John Grayson. He was just something else, something between a brother, a mentor, and yes, a father.

“And for what,” he said to the empty room. “So, I could be orphaned twice?”

He wasn’t thinking right. He was tired.

Damian wasn’t his son.

Yet, why had he printed adoption papers then?

No, no, adoption papers were a different thing. Bruce had been his father long before the papers. They hadn’t changed anything. Not really. But he still remembered how he felt when he first held them, so maybe they had changed things.

He looked at the Batman suit in the case.

“Was it,” he asked, “was it that complicated for you as well?”

Batman doesn’t answer, but Dick wasn’t expecting him to. Even when he had been there, Bruce hadn’t been very talkative, after all.

[thevoidstaredback]

How To Balance Your Daytime and Nighttime Activities So That You Don't Burn Yourself Out More Than You Already Have

It had been a long few minutes since he'd opened the door and there were a lot of questions running through Dick's head. Most pressing of which was how this kid seems to have information he should not have.

"How did you..?" he asked, but the words wouldn't leave completely. There's so much he wants to know, so much he wants to ask.

"How do I what?" Danny tilted his head like the child he seems to be is.

"How do you know?" Dick knows he sounds weak. There's no hiding that, but there are a lot of implications in what the kid has said so far and none of it is painting a very happy picture for him.

"Oh!" Danny had the audacity to smile, "You want to know how I know you moonlight as a vigilante!" And of course he knows. Dick knows he knows, but he'd held a little bit of hope that the child Danny was mistaken. Danny's smile softened a bit as he explained, "Your hair and voice match up in both jobs almost perfectly. Not to mention your build and how you hold yourself. There's also the matter of your overall vibes, but that's not something living beings can normally pick up on." Excuse him? "Well, not living humans, at least, so no worries on that end!"

"Excuse me?" Dick was fairly sure his heart just stopped beating for a moment there.

"Anyway, I was a hero back home for a while, too. I know what it's like to have to walk the tightrope between maintaining a civilian cover and a hero persona. I know how it feels to have to keep secrets from everyone because anyone who knows will be in danger." he rambled, Though, admittedly, our circumstances are quite different. I was working as a hero all hours of the day as well as going to school. You only have to worry about properly balancing between day and night jobs. Either way, me having more to bounce between just makes me al the more qualified to help you!"

Oh. Oh he did not like that. He didn't like a single thing that just came out of the kid's mouth. Because that's what he is, a kid. "Are you...Are you alright?"

"Not in the slightest," Danny admitted with an even smaller smile. Then, it brightened, not quite to a grin, but to something similar, "But I'm here to make sure you are."

He gets points for being honest, but Dick felt his heart shatter. He knew for a fact that he'd never worked with this kid before. He also knew that the Justice League didn't know about him. If they did, he would've been picked up and dropped with either the Young Justice team or the Titans.

Dick wasn't going to ask why he became a hero because that's not his place. It's more of a 'third mission with the team' kind of questions, anyway. Most of the heroes didn't have many options when they took up the mantle. Asking what Danny can do is a more appropriate question, but he wasn't going to ask that, either.

"Now that that's out of the way," Danny turned a few pages from the table of contents to another one that was topped with 'Why Sleep Scheduling Is Important' in the blue glitter pen that Dick was starting to suspect he favored. "You're not getting enough sleep. Following you around - no one's been able to find me for a while, so don't worry about that - for the last two weeks has given me some really worrisome information on you."

Dick was worrying. He was worrying a lot and even more questions were coming to the forefront of his mind.

"Your dayjob is as an officer on the Bludhaven Police Force, or BPD for short." He was looking over the page he'd turned to very aptly and Dick realized that the kid had notes written on him. "The average hours per week for police across the country is forty hours. Gotham and Bludhaven are the exceptions. As a member of the BPD, you work a solid two days and two hours. Six nights a week, you work as Nightwing from eight in the evening to three in the morning. The last day, you take off, which is good. No deserable pattern, so good on you for that. Regardless, that's seven hour nights and ten hour days, with one day off and one day on call as an officer. Seven hours are now left in your day for personal time, eating, and sleeping. That's not a healthy way to live."

Oh, god, the kid had honest to god notes on him! What the hell!

Danny didn't even skip a beat as he pulled Dick's attention back to him and his binder. "I've drawn up a schedule for you to follow." The back of the page had a meticulously drawn schedule, complete with blocks of time to eat, sleep, work both jobs, travel, personal time, and still have a bit extra left over. It was titled 'Ideal End Result' in green marker. "Drastic changes right away will only affect you negatively, so we're starting off smaller." The next page over had another schedule titled 'Where To Begin'. "I've only pulled one hour from your Nightwing hours because I know important that time is to you and the city. I am, however, going to be having you submit an appeal to your boss to cut back your hours from fifty a week to forty a week. That way, you'll only be working eight hours a day and not ten. You'll still be on call for one day, and you'll have that last day off. Altogether, you'll be going be going from working seventeen hours a day to fourteen hours a day. Nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, and eight in the evening to two in the morning. Not including breaks at work or travel time. It opens up a few more hours for you to sleep!"

"You really think the chief is going to pull back my hours?" Dick raised an eyebrow in question.

"He will if he knows what's good for him."

"You know I can arrest you for that threat, right?"

"Yeah, but you won't." And, damn it, he's right.

Although, there was now another thing he had to know. "How to you plan on enforcing this schedule of yours?"

Danny seemed to have been waiting for this. He got a gleam in his eye as he pulled a black folder from his bag, not breaking eye contact with Dick. He placed it on the table and pushed it across. "Congratulations, it's a boy."

Part 1 Part 3

[arkangelo-7]

I need Battison to have a Robin.

I need him to carry around a little bundle of joy in his arms. I need him to risk his life saving him from the movie’s big bad. I need him to hold his tiny hands or cradle his tiny face. I need him to crack the smallest of smiles when Robin makes a pun.

I need him to walk into the penthouse, tired and anger and sad, and see his little Robin sprawled across the floor, giggling as his crayons draw him and Alfie and B—their little family.

I him to crawl out of the darkness with Robin. His Robin.