Jack (jackissuperfly) wrote in pup_prompts, @ 2008-09-04 00:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | prompt 1 |
Who: Bruce Wayne and Friends
From: Unofficial Unauthorized Sequel to Mandy's Thing
By: The Illustrious Jack
Prompt: Family
Bruce had been standing in front of the door to Dick's apartment for long enough that he had sunk into the carpet slightly. When he moved--if he moved--his footprints would stay behind, like a piece of furniture left untouched for a while.
It was a strange feeling to be so nervous. He hadn't spoken to Dick in... well, he'd spoken to Dick a couple of months ago. Two of him. But as his mind settled into this universe, it felt more and more like it had been years.
From time to time, he raised his hand, as if to knock on the door, but eventually lowered it. "I shouldn't have come here," he muttered, resting his forehead against the door. "It's been ten years... ten years too long."
Bruce remained there for a some time, breathing deeply and trying to ignore the depressing fact that he could fight Superman to a standstill and yet found himself frightened by the idea of being face to face with his ward. He wasn't certainly how long he'd been there when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hmm?" he said, momentarily forgetting himself.
"Are you looking for me?" asked a woman in a thick French accent.
Bruce straightened up and stepped back. There was a very small old woman who was probably old enough to have changed Charlemagne's diaper. "I don't believe... this isn't Dick Grayson's apartment?" It was odd for Bruce to not be in control of a confrontation, but it was even odder for him to have wrong information.
"This is 4-B. You are looking for 4-D, je pense." To Bruce's horror, she turned around and pounded on the door across the hall. "Richard!" the woman called. Bruce heard movement from behind the door and had a brief, shameful urge to run away. But he stood his ground and waited for the door to open.
"Need help with your groceries, Madame?" asked a voice from behind the door. Then it swung open and Dick was standing there. "I--oh."
"You have a guest, Richard. He was looking for you at my door."
Dick didn't take his eyes off of Bruce. "Yes. Thank you, Madame." The woman smiled at them both, missing the looks on their faces, and went into her apartment. Dick's face was unreadable when Bruce met his gaze. Eventually, after they stood facing each other for what would be an uncomfortable amount of time for anyone else, Dick stepped back, opened the door wide, and gestured for Bruce to come in. Dick's face was still unreadable.
Dick's wife--apparently in this universe he'd ended up married to Starfire--was in the living room. She looked from Bruce to Dick, surprised. "Can we have a few minutes alone?" asked Dick. His tone was polite, but it was clear that he wasn't really expecting her to say no.
"Of course." She stood up and kissed Dick on the cheek. He spared her a brief smile as she walked towards what Bruce assumed was a bedroom, but his face returned quickly to the neutral look he'd been wearing. Dick sat on the couch that Starfire had just vacated and Bruce sat across from him. And then they waited.
They couldn't be more different. They couldn't be more similar.
Bruce wasn't quite the man he had been in his youth. A decade out of the mask had softened his glare and his features somewhat. He was still very fit, very strong, very muscular, but anyone looking at him and thinking these things tended to add an addendum: for his age. Bruce's hair was streaked with white and he couldn't quite hide his body language as well as he once could: another side effect of getting old.
If Bruce had lost anything with age, Dick had found it. His eyes were sharper, if kinder, than Bruce's were. Bruce saw a faint outline on Dick's face and realized that it was a tan line from Nightwing's mask; he probably covered the mark when he left the house. Stage makeup. Dick's body hadn't changed much; he may have gained a bit of bulk with experience, but he was as lean as ever. Dick was, after all an acrobat; the intimidating presence that Bruce favored wouldn't work for him.
Their posture was exactly the same. Silhouetted, they might have been reflections. They sat, each watching the other, waiting for one to crack. With the patience of mountains, they waited.
Bruce spoke first, but only just. "I came--"
"Why are you--?"
They both paused, then smiled despite themselves. Bruce began again. "A few months ago, I wasn't... here. In this world. There are a million universes out there, and I found myself in one that didn't make sense. I wasn't... me. I was... a little bit of every Bruce Wayne of these universes, rolled into one. I still am. But I started to lose myself to the darkness--it was so easy to tempt myself to give in. The Joker brought it to the forefront." Bruce closed his eyes. It was easier, now--not easy, but easier--to face the darkness now that it was ebbing. "In this world, being who I am here, I feel closer to who I want to be. This place feels like home. But it's not quite there yet."
They were silent for a long time. Eventually Dick said, "Why are you telling me all this? We haven't spoken in more than a decade. No matter how much I tried." There was no anger, no sadness, not even disappointment. It was a statement of fact, which may have hurt Bruce more.
"Because a couple of months ago, most of who I am talked to you every day. Because these years have been one mistake after another, and I owe you better. And because... there's no man alive I trust as much as you."
Dick closed his eyes and appeared to be in deep meditation. Then, with a sigh, he opened them again. "All right. Tell me everything."
He did. Bruce told Dick about living in New York City, about his marriage to Carrie, about the fact that he'd been falling in love with her since long before he arrived here. He told him about each of the histories he remembered, about the last time he felt so close to Carrie--when she was Catgirl, his partner and, potentially something more. He told him about every Jason Todd that had fallen and about the one that had survived despite the odds. By the end of it, more than an hour had passed, and Bruce knew he hadn't even scratched the surface.
Dick seemed to absorb the information well enough, but he had been taught by... had been taught to be the best. "So," Dick began, in the same tone Bruce had come to expect from him, "you're saying that you've been happiest here and in the universe where I go crazy."
"Something like that."
"And that I was married to the woman you love in another universe."
"Yes."
"So basically, in order for you to be happy, you want to kill me and take my wife." Dick was hiding a smirk, Bruce could tell. "I don't think you're Kory's type, Bruce."
Bruce smiled, but it was brief. "I'm not asking for--"
"I'll stop you right there. More than ten years after I give up hope of talking to you again, you stroll in here. I can help you, but--"
What Dick was going to say, Bruce never found out. Dick was tackled by a black and purple blur. When she stopped moving, a little girl with long black hair and bright green eyes was hugging him. "Hi, Daddy!"
Daddy? Bruce almost gasped. "Hello, Princess. Finish your nap?" Dick's face was softer than Bruce had seen it in years.
"Yep! I had a dream about waffles. They were all made of math." The girl appeared to notice Bruce for the first time. "Hi!" she exclaimed, apparently never having learned not to be friendly. "I'm Mar'i. What's your name?"
"Mar'i--" Dick began, but Bruce waved away his concern. "I'm Bruce."
"You look familiar." She studied his face from Dick's lap, then floated over to Bruce and pinched his cheeks. "I know you! You're my grandpa!"
Dick's cheeks colored a little and Bruce's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "I'm--wha?"
"You're my grandpa! Daddy has a picture of you, and he says that you're my grandpa, and that I probably wouldn't get to meet you! He said you would have loved me very much," Mar'i exclaimed in one breath.
Before Mar'i could go on embarrassing Dick, he pulled her over to his lap. "Mar'i, why don't you go sit with Mommy while Daddy and Bruce finish talking, okay? Big time superhero stuff. Top secret. Shh."
Mar'i put her finger on her lips. "Shhh. Okay, Daddy," she whispered. "Bye, Grandpa!" She added before flying away.
They were silent again, but for very different reasons than before. Finally, Bruce broke the silence again. "'Grandpa?'"
Dick didn't look at Bruce. "Just because I'd given up seeing you again doesn't mean I'd stopped caring."
Bruce swallowed and found that one of the problems of not hiding from his emotions was actually reacting to them. "Listen--" he began, but his voice broke. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Listen. I made a mistake all those years ago in firing you, and another mistake every day since that I didn't talk to you. And I've never been more sorry for anything in my life. But I'm tired of making that mistake."
Dick still didn't look at Bruce. Instead he looked out the window. "You can't expect things to be like old times again."
"I don't."
"And I'm not saying I forgive you."
"I don't expect you to."
Dick sighed. Bruce thought he saw the brief shimmer of tears falling, but he remained silent. When Dick spoke, though, his voice was strong and clear. "I look forward to getting to know this new you, Bruce."
Bruce walked over and put his hand on Dick's now-broader shoulder. "Frankly, so do I."
~^~^^~^~
When he stepped outside, he smiled wide enough that a few of the more cynical New Yorkers stepped around him. Bruce knew, logically, that the sun had gone down since he'd been inside. Despite that, it looked brighter than he'd seen it in ages.
"Bruce!"
Bruce turned around and saw Starfire running after him. It was strange to see her in a sweater and blue jeans--dressed like a housewife, in fact. "Yes?"
Starfire threw her arms around Bruce and hugged him tight. When she pulled away, she was smiling with tears in her eyes. "Dick would never say it, but he's missed you so much." She dabbed at the corner of her eye with a tissue. "Welcome to the family, Bruce."