Entry tags:

!complete, clark kent (superman), dick grayson (nightwing)

Who:Clark and Dick
What:Backdated to Dick's reoccuring nightmare.
When:A couple weeks ago
Where:His house
Warnings:talk of parental death, but otherwise G rated.



Dick appreciated the distraction from his recent onslaught of nightmares. His cereal cabinet was all full up and he’d succeeded in taunting Clark about his truck for the day. He felt accomplished whenever that happened. He got such a reaction out of Clark, he couldn’t help but be amused. He wondered if Clark was from his own world and would eventually dream of him, or if he was from another timeline-whatever it was he was happy to be accepted.

The first thing Clark would notice was that the property Dick owned was quite large. Not exactly a townhouse but not entirely a mansion either. Somewhere in between. The grounds were enough to park several cars in the front, but there were none parked there. His own was off in a garage nobody got to know about considering the other bat and dream related things it contained. The house was a five bedroom, three bath with an amazing entrance that someone kept up.(obviously not him as he’d mentioned he wasn’t handy with that kind of work). Though, there was one room he’d designed there that he was quite proud of and wanted to show off when Clark’s truck eventually got there. He stared down at his phone clock impatiently.

---

Despite the fact that Clark worked, tirelessly, he was still willing to help out his friends. Dick Grayson had wormed his way into that somehow. He can't even remember how that happened. It just had and he didn't regret it. Ten to one said that he really did know how they became friends. The fire station and police station ended up in the same places sometimes.

True to his word, Clark shows up at the Grayson house less than a half hour later. In fact, it probably only took him about fifteen minutes or so. The place before him looked nice and he couldn't help but smile a bit. He preferred his place to something that looked far too damn expensive.

He turns off the truck and heads up to the door, giving it a knock. Might as well let Dick know that he was finally there.

---

With a house like that, he’d also installed a nice security system. So he knew Clark had arrived even before that message. But what he didn’t have was automatic doors. He didn’t trust them not to malfunction. He got up from where he’d been lounging on the couch to get the door.

“Hey CK.” He stepped aside to let him in, the entryway was probably a little too grand for just two people living there. Two was putting it loosely, Donna was only there sometimes. When he needed a friend mainly. Mostly it was just him. “Make yourself at home, I just ordered Thai if that works for you?” He asked as he led him in. It wasn’t overly decorated to the point of ridiculousness, but it did have a modern vibe to it.

---

The inside of the place didn't look that bad. Even as he walks inside, he lets his eyes roam around the place for a moment. It definitely seemed a bit big for only a few people to live in. Some preferred that kind of thing. Clark? He preferred his nice little house that he had. It had a garage, four walls and everything that he needed. It kept a roof over his head.

"Hey," he tells him before moving over and sitting down on the couch, giving a soft smile. "Thai works for me." Even if he couldn't remember the last time that he'd had Thai food. It had been a while. "You been doing alright since before?" He was pretty sure that he didn't have to elaborate on what he meant.

---

He clearly had help when it came to decorating, it looked like it could have been one of those magazine homes. Dick wasn’t all that savvy, but he had just recently begun to actually live his life and decide to do something with his home. It didn’t quite feel homey yet, but maybe one day it would get there. As he followed Clark, he glanced over at him and couldn’t help but return that smile. The man knew how to make him feel better without even trying. Even on the roughest days.

“I’m better anyway, not sleep walking or..wake walking? Whatever I was doing.” He shook his head with a bit of a frown and reached over to the little box that sat on the countertop in front of them. “Got some dream gifts.” He stated as he touched the little silver item, it looked like a small jewelry box but metal and a bit more masculine. Out of it came a poster for Haley’s Circus that obviously wasn’t from their time. It was old.. He handed it over to Clark carefully. It read Haly’s Circus Presents the Flying Graysons, and there were three figures there.

---

If someone told Clark that he made people feel better just by being in a room, without even try, he'd probably look at them like they'd lost it. He never paid attention to how he did things. There had always been this upbeat attitude to the Kryptonian. It even took a lot to get him upset over something. The guys at the fire station even tried to rile him up sometimes. He told them that they'd needed to give up trying, they still hadn't given up.

"You too?" He asks sitting up once Dick went over to pick up the silver item. The small box that looked like it should be behind glass. Something to use for safe keeping. When he's given the the poster for Haley's Circus, he takes in the figures that were on the poster.

"Your parents?"

It was just a wild guess, but seeing as his friend's last name was attached to it made things a bit obvious.

---

It was just silhouettes of them, but essentially it was them. “Yeah. I’ve had this for a while, but that same dream has been haunting me lately...and then the poster showed.” The box he meant, he’d been given it years past as a dream gift, it belonged to his father apparently. A polaroid was taken out of it, but then Clark said “too” and Dick raised an eyebrow. “What did you get?” He asked curiously as he handed over the photo as well. This one had more detail and was in faded color. It was the three of them standing on the top of a trapeze drop bar. The angle was taken from quite a distance, but Dick wasn’t surprised. There were photographers everywhere that night. Newspapers, news stations. Everything.

“Bit strange, dreaming of another family. One that actually wanted me.” He gave a sort of wistful smile at the photo before also handing it over. They were all in tights of various dark blues. Came with the circus thing. Dick wasn’t phased aside from the memory of them. “I have some vague memories of them but not a lot.” He was probably ten in that picture, quite young to remember any of it. But most people would remember a circus. It’s a strong memory.

---

Clark takes the picture and runs his fingers lightly over it. The thing was worn and looked well loved. Like it had been put in storage and saved for years, to be given to someone. A memory within a memory. A picture of a memory, more like it. He gives a bit of a smile even as he stares down at the photo that Dick hands him.

"I bet that it is," he says softly. A part of him wasn't sure what that would feel like. He couldn't picture his parents being anything but his parents. As for the answer to Dick's question, he shakes his head," I got the pod that I was sent to Earth in." He pauses for a moment. "I also have the superhero costume. Both are at home right now. I'll have to take you to see them some time."

---

"They died after that was taken. Fell from the high wire." Dick had stood there on the drop bar just watching his entire world fall apart. "All I could do was watch." He'd been reliving it night after night. Among his worst nightmares. "Can't get them out of my head lately." all he wanted to do was go back to that Circus, but it only existed in his dreams. Sometimes these things weren't fair.

But then he was distracted again by Clark's response. "Um hell yes I want to see them." it seemed to bring a little life back into his eyes, talking about that suit. "My name, I mean my other name is from an old kryptonian story you told me once. The you from my dream. He gave me advice and the name Nightwing when I had nothing. It belonged to a legendary vigilante from krypton cast out from his family who devoted his life to fighting injustice and crime."

---

Clark sat silently and listened as he was told the story of what had happened that night. How his friend could do nothing but watch from where he'd been. Something that he couldn't imagine any child going through. Then again, he'd been sent away from an exploding planet. Something that he kept seeing every time he closed his eyes. Not that too many people knew much about that. Nor would that be put on them. The stuff that happened in the here and now was enough.

He gives the other a bit of a smile," You'll have to pick a date then and I'll show you, it might end up after I'm off work on that night." Which meant it would probably be at some ungodly hour of the night or ass crack of dawn. "This other me gave you the name? Were you close with him?" 'As you are with me' gets left unsaid.

---

"It was cut, they were murdered." the high wire act had been sabotaged. They hadn't just died. He remembered that part very clearly. They died publicly, and Dick had been too young to even react properly. That night had gone by in a numb blurr for him. He wished that feeling was numbness now, but it wasn't. It was raw, every time.

"Dawn is my bedtime." he gave him a slight laugh. "I'm better at night." hence Nightwing. He paused when Clark asked him about their relationship and nodded. "whenever we got to be. You knew me as a kid, always were kind to me even when Batman was not. You always made time for me. Guess it's meant to be even in this universe." he laughed, but it was a fond thing, more than a funny one.

---

He hadn't asked Dick about what had happened, but he was glad that his friend was comfortable enough to tell him. Even if they didn't need the night to become dark and twisted. Just the thought of losing parents like that hurt. It would break just about anyone and he knew that.

That gets a smile out of him, as well as a laugh," Well, night it is then." Clark listened as his friend explained things to him. How this other him had known him as a kid, how he was nice to him even though this Bruce guy wasn't. "Guess so." Even if he hadn't met Dick Grayson in his world just yet. "I'm glad that you have some version of me in your life, then."

---

No he hadn’t asked, but it’d been clogging his brain for weeks. “Sorry, this got kinda weird.” He admitted with a slightly awkward laugh. “It’s all I’ve been able to think about the last few weeks.” He ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to regain his barings. “Bruce wasn’t too happy about it.” He snickered a little. “He likes you, but I’m pretty sure somehow he thought I’d just immediately start liking him just because he was there.” That wasn’t how it worked. Clark had actually spent time with him. “I hope you’ll get some of the same dreams though, they weren’t all bad.” He folded up the small poster and put it in the box again, he wasn’t quite ready to hang it up or anything and he was pretty sure he never would be.

“Between you and Alfred I had some sanity at least. Someone who wasn’t just dark and brooding all the time.” He stood and shook his head. “I’ll show you the broken stuff?” The food was being delivered so it’d be there within a half hour or so the app read.

---

It had gotten weird, but that didn't bother the Kryptonian much. "You know I don't mind if you need to just get things off your chest, Dick. I'll sit and listen." That was the one thing about Clark Kent that just about anyone knew when it came to him. He'd sit and listen even if he didn't have anything to say about the situation. The shoulder that his friends could lean on.

"I'm glad that you had me and Alfred then," Clark tells him with a soft smile. Honestly? He wasn't entirely sold on this Bruce person. It sounded a bit weird to even think about. Why would he have anything to do with someone that was dark and brooding? There wasn't a time in his life that he knew someone like that, that he was aware of anyway.

He gives a bit of a nod and stands, stretching slightly," Alright. Why don't you show me."

---

“Bruce meant well I think, but it wasn’t ideal..it was..complicated.” Bruce hadn’t been the best guardian for the younger him growing up, he was stern and never around to be involved in his life. Alfred was the one who saved him from going off the deep end more times than he could actually count. “Thanks, it’s kind of a lot and I guess I don’t know where to put it all.” His mental junk built up quickly, and he didn’t want to just dump it on Raven, she was still young. Donna had things to deal with too. Dick often ended up just suffering in silence and dealing on his own, but they’d both seen how that ended up.

“This way.” He motioned as he led him toward the kitchen first, then turned on that garbage disposal. It did indeed make angry noises. “Not that I use it a lot, but figured I should probably keep this place up anyway. In case someone does.” His eating habits mostly included going out to eat.

---

Clark made sure not to comment on the whole Bruce thing. A part of him had a feeling that him and whoever the man was would butt heads. Something that he didn't want to really talk about. "Well, I'm always here," he tells him. He didn't know about anyone else that Dick talked to, but he'd be there for his friend. It's something that he could do.

He follows him into the kitchen and raises a brow at the sound that the garbage disposal made. "What was the last thing you put into the garbage disposal?"

---

That was probably for the best, since the relationship with Bruce and Dick was obviously complicated. Clark really didn’t want to get directly involved in that drama. Hell. Dick didn’t want to be involved either. “You know that goes both ways?” He asked him as he led him towards the first of many broken things in that house. Nothing looked too awful, but just had minor things that needed doing. Dick wasn’t much for handyman type of work. He didn’t have the patience and would end up making it ten times worse than it was.

“Honestly? I don’t remember. I use it so rarely it’s probably not been touched since I moved in, heh.” He grinned and shrugged. “Only fixing it up since Donna’s here now. She might eat more than takeout.” He offered a little grin. “Could be anything...maybe I should call somebody?” He didn’t want to be responsible for his friend losing an arm or something.

---

"I know that it does."

Even if the Kryptonian didn't think that he would need it. He could and would be there for his friends. Though, that didn't mean he wouldn't take Dick up on it if he needed it. Maybe he'd even talk to his friend about work, though he tried to keep that away from home. No one needed to hear about that.

He chuckles and shakes his head," No. What you need to do is find me the tools that I need, so I can fix this."