Who: Dick and Damian What:A night off, chance encounter and some adrenaline sport. When:Backdated to the beginning of the month sometime. Where:The city Warnings:None STATUS:Complete
Finally a night off. Dick couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen one of those, on instinct he’d picked up his phone to dial Zee-but then he remembered. She wanted space, she got it. They weren’t a thing anymore. That near feeling of completion was gone again and that was a thing he was entirely too used to. He didn’t really feel like talking about it, or thinking about it. He stuffed his phone in his pocket and continued to trudge aimlessly down a street of Orange County.
Raven was going through things of her own, Ruby had gone back to Granny, he didn’t know Roy that well but he hadn’t heard much from him lately either. If he was a smoker he’d be lighting up about now, stress levels were off the charts. He had zero outlet except to stare upward at a growing city.
All around him were buildings, tall ones but not nearly as tall as the ones he’d seen in Gotham or Bludhaven. Still, maybe they’d do.
What are you thinking? You aren’t some kind of vigilante, you’re a police officer. He mentally scolded himself as the skyscrapers taunted him. He longed to feel the wind in his hair the way he felt it in his dreams. He only felt at home on the high wire. The skyscrapers weren’t much different, and honestly he could use a taste of home about now. He was lonely. He was taught never to pay much mind to loneliness, but he couldn’t ignore it.
Like his legs were on autopilot he entered a building near by, riding the elevator to the top floor and stepped out onto the roof. Birds eye view, and what exactly did he have to lose?
Nothing.
A gust of wind blew through his dark hair and for a split second he didn’t think about Zee. His mind instantly began calculating the next step to take after the first leap of fate. His feet did the rest, stepping off that rooftop in the middle of the city with the moon and night as his only witness he was aware of he took the plunge.
Eyes wide open, he watched the world pass by fifty miles an hour and smiled. This was living.
Strong hands found a flagpole several yards below, and then another, and a fire escape before he finally touched right back down on the side walk below. Unblinking eyes watching the world through a new perspective.
Damian had been out patrolling, as he did most nights, when he saw someone basically jump from a nearby rooftop. At first he’d sprang into action to try and save the guy, but as he got closer to the edge of the rooftop he realized that the guy knew exactly what he was doing. Then upon further inspection he realized that he knew the guy. Dick.
Ever since Dick had shown up on Valarnet, Damian had been waiting for him to start dreaming of him. Of course Damian knew that Dick had quite a lot of dreams to get through before he got to anything, but Damian and chances were, he’d think that dream Damian was the biggest brat on the planet for a time and Damian couldn’t fault anyone who dreamt of him for thinking that. In the dreams Damian was pretty much devil’s spawn for quite awhile. Up until Bruce died that is and Dick took him under his wing. It was these dreams that Damian wanted Dick to have, because as far as Damian was concerned, he thought of Dick like an older brother and now that he realized that the Bruce that Dick sometimes spoke of was in fact his own father, they kind of her actually brothers in real life too.
Deciding that he couldn’t pass up this chance to talk to Dick, Damian secured a zipline to the roof then swung down along the same path that Dick had taken until he landed just behind him, “You’re not too bad, ya know that?” Tonight Damian had opted for jeans and a hoodie with his utility belt under the hoodie instead of his full costume.
Dick hadn’t realized he had an audience that night, but that didn’t cause him any real alarm. Nope, he managed to keep that shock under key thanks to Bruce’s favorite saying, paraphrased of course: Never let em see you sweat.. Dick had adopted that to the best of his ability, so a pair of blue eyes turned toward the voice.
“Heh, wasn’t expecting an audience. Should have put out a tip jar.” Ever the comedian, even when his life was going to pieces under his nose. His feet were now stable under the hard ground. “Coulda landed it better, but it’ll do.” He gave Damian a calculating once over and raised an eyebrow. “So this is your night job huh?”
Damian had thought about landing on the fire escape above where Dick had landed and perching on the railing before revealing his presence, but he’d been in too much of a hurry to catch up to the other man before he lost him, “Sorry, I don’t have any spare change.” Damian smirked and wound up the zipline. “I guess you could say that. I mean, I don’t get paid for it, but I enjoy it.” Not that Damian really needed any extra money; not since he’d received Talia’s money after he’d turned eighteen. He still had no idea where that amount of money had come from and how he’d never known about it, but he wasn’t complaining.
“What rip.” Dick said with a shrug and leaned up against a nearby wall. “Hn.” He said in thoughtful response, he’d been giving things some careful consideration lately. His job at the station wasn’t keeping his attention half the time these days, he felt more restless the more these dreams came flooding in. With lack of Zatanna around, Dick had little to do but think. An exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he looked over at him and gave his outfit a second glance. “So you’re the third Robin?..” Jeeze Bruce goes through us like candy. He thought, but managed to refrain from thinking so out loud by some miracle. “I have to admit..that just now felt more normal than anything has in weeks. Duno what that says about me.”
"Fifth actually." Damian ran a ran through his dark hair as he watched Dick. He was curious where exactly Dick was in his dreams, but it was obvious it was prior to Tim becoming Robin so he had no idea about Stephanie as well. "I know what you mean. When I'm out here, stopping crimes or just sitting on a rooftop and watching everything going on below, I feel at home." It really was quite strange, but it was true.
“..That many, jesus christ.” Dick couldn’t help but show his annoyance in his tone with Bruce. He didn’t know what had happened to spawn that many Robin’s but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know all the grim details either. He already was aware of what had become of Jason Todd. He seriously hoped that wasn’t the fate of Tim Drake. That kid had grown on him. “At least you’ve found something, still lookin for home. I had it for a while, but I’m not so sure now.” He shrugged as he folded his arms uncomfortably. “I’ve been thinking..if Bruce is both of our dads, that kinda makes us brothers then.” He gave him a scruffy sort of smile. “I mean..if you want one. I’m around.”
“Spoiler alert, only one dies. Well…” Okay, so Jason had come back, but Dick clearly wasn’t there yet and he didn’t really know how much to say. He knew that had someone told him everything in advance, he wouldn’t have been too happy, as much as some of his dreams had sucked. “I’m sure you’ll find something. It took me awhile to really get into this whole thing. It just feels natural now.” He shrugged a little then a smile slowly crossed his lips as Dick spoke again and he nodded, “Yeah. Actually I’d like that.” For the longest time Damian had hoped that Dick was a real person because he’d always wanted a brother and in the dreams he’d ended up with two; not that dream Damian had liked Tim at all, but if he showed up in the waking world, Damian wouldn’t mind. And then there was Damian’s last dream that had scared him enough that he’d been worried something would happen to Dick in the waking world, “Just try not to hate me and change your mind when you eventually dream about me.”
“Well what?” That was sort of almost a relief, maybe? Dick really didn’t know what to make of that response. Did that mean something terrible still happened to the others? He seriously doubted they lived on in a happily ever after setting of ponies and unicorns given how grim Gotham was, and yet at times he found himself missing it like it were a real place. Even Bludhaven. All of it really, he was restless lately. “I don’t know that I see myself hanging around roof tops with gargoyles as friends, but who the hell knows.” He looked up at the night sky and the few faded stars in it that he could actually see thanks to pollution and city lights. “I’d like to think I’m not that immature. I’m sure I’ll be able to separate.”
“Okay, so as crazy as it sounds, the one of us who dies eventually comes back. But different.” Damian still wasn’t so sure what he thought about Jason. He’d hadn’t been all bad, but he had shot him which had led to the spinal transplant and now the reason why Damian had a scar down his own spinal in the waking world. So if Jason ever did show up, Damian didn’t think that he’d try to attack him on sight or anything. Not unless the dreams made Jason into dream Jason. “That’s good. But in the beginning, I am a pretty big brat. I think if there were awards for brattiness, I’d have won.”
“And yet somehow, not entirely surprised. When in Gotham and all that.” It should be their motto, on the welcome sign and everything. Gotham, city of weird shit. Very little surprised Dick anymore after the things he’d dreamt. Some were just plain weird. He ran a hand through dark hair and pushed it out of his face. A frown crept into his features. “Dying does that.” He knew from experience. He too felt like he was living on borrowed time.
“Heh we all have our moments in the sun. “ Dick teased and shook his head some.
“Gotham City: Even during the day it’s dark.” Damian didn’t know how it was possible, but somehow it felt like even when the sun was out it was still dark in Gotham City. There was something about the way the larger buildings were built that caused it to appear that they were crowding the city and blocking out the light. Nighttime was even worse.
When Dick mentioned dying it caused Damian to recall his last dream, but he tried not to show it on his face, which he had become quite good at as a result of the dreams, “Just wait until you get there. Trust me.”
“Goodie.” Dick said with an exasperated sigh and shook his head. “Got any civvies with you, wanna get dinner or something?”
“My car’s nearby. I can stow my belt and ditch the hoodie there.” He was glad that he’d opted for jeans instead of the whole costume tonight, “There’s also a diner nearby, if you don’t mind diner food.” It might have just been a quick bite to eat, but Damian was excited about the thought of hanging out with Dick for awhile. He couldn’t help it.
“Sounds like a plan.” One day he would be less awkward about the whole vigilante thing and sitting around in a diner with one-but that day was not today. He was glad for regular civilian clad meals. “I basically live on diner food without Alfred around. It’s on me. You lead the way.”