Chapter Text
Dick
Bruce Wayne was well known as an eccentric man, he threw big parties, bought fancy cars and all the newest tech for his company and family. Batman was also a bit eccentric.. Aside from the obvious cape crusader shtick he was the JLA’s personal piggy bank. There were very few issues that Bruce or Batman weren’t able to solve by throwing a little money at it
That being said Bruce as a dad did have a hard time figuring out what called for that money throwing. When Dick had first come into his life Bruce was more than a little excited to spoil this little boy and bought him everything his heart could desire in order to make his transition into his new life a little easier. Of course there were things that money couldn’t fix.. The hurt of losing his parents would always be there. But Bruce went to bed every night grateful he was able to provide as much as he could for that little boy.
It did take a while for Dick to grow comfortable enough around Bruce to make requests for more than what would be considered necessities though. The boy was content shadowing Bruce or Alfred or entertaining himself with the many toys that Bruce bought upon his arrival, never complaining or asking for something else. So when Dick timidly came to Bruce with a request one Saturday morning a few months after he came to live in the manor Bruce was elated.
“B?” The small 8 year old asked one morning over breakfast.
“Yes kiddo?” Bruce looked up from his newspaper.
“Do you like to go to the zoo…?”
Bruce smiled gently at the little boy across from him, who was timidly spinning his spoon around his cereal bowl as he looked up at Bruce with hopeful eyes.
“You know I used to love going to the zoo. It was one of my favorite places to visit. I haven’t gone in some time though… Do you like to go to the zoo?”
“I dunno.. I’ve never been to one. But I like elephants. They are my favorite animals. And zoos have them.”
“They do indeed. Would you like to go to the zoo sometime Dick?”
Dicks face lit up. “Could we? Could we really go and see the elephants?”
Bruce would have bought him an elephant on the spot if he thought Alfred would let him get away with it. But taking him to see them would definitely be the next best thing.
“Of course! Tell you what, if you finish your breakfast and get dressed I’ll get us tickets to go today if you’d like?”
“Really?! Alfred, we are going to the zoo!” Dick looked up to the butler who had just come in with a pitcher of orange juice.
“Is that so? Well you and master Bruce will have to take pictures of all the animals” Alfred smiled down at Dick.
“You’ll come too right? Alfred can come too?”
“If Alfred would like to come and join us he is more than welcome to.” Bruce’s heart swelled as Dick cheered and proceeded to cartwheel around the room before scarfing down his breakfast and darting up to his room to get ready.
“The young master seems very enthused” Alfred smiled at Bruce “This will be very good for the boy if I do say so myself. Just try to remember to not over do it… He is still adjusting. Take things slow.”
“I will, I will. I just want him to have something to wake up looking forward to.. I know how hard this time can be. I don’t want to replace his parents, I don;t think i could even if I tried but I don’t want him missing out on thing’s kid’s his age should have either. I don’t want him growing up feeling like he lost a childhood as well as his parents…” Bruce new Alfred understood. Of all the people inn the world Alfred would understand why this was so important to him. Its the same reason he was so adamant on bringing Dick home in the first place. When he saw Dick he was a little bit of himself.. The part of himself he lost the night he lost his parents. The young innocents and joy that faded from him so quickly.. And Bruce would be damned if he let that joy leave this little boy like it left him.
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“Bruce Bruce look, do you see the monkeys?! I’ve never seen ones like that before! They are so cool! Did you see how they were jumping around? They are lemurs B that's what the sign says!”
Bruce smiled as Dick ran back and forth in front of the lemur’s exhibit trying to keep pace with the exuberant primates on the other side of the glass. Dick was holding a small disposable camera Alfred had picked up from the gift shop on their way in which Dick had very excitedly accepted and immediately got to work snapping pictures of all the animals they had seen so far. As well as several pictures of himself, Bruce and Alfred. They saw the giraffes lions and primates so far Bruce was thrilled to see how happy Dick was. He talked to anyone that would listen and asked the zoo keepers about all the animals eagerly listening to all the stories the keepers had to tell. He had gotten his hands on the map of the zoo pretty quickly and had plotted the most direct course to the elephants, but had insisted the stop at all the animals on the way there.
Bruce happily let Dick set the pace, watching him chatter happily to the zoo keepers as Alfred stood by Bruce’s side smiling with just as much pride as Bruce was feeling.
“Hey! Aren’t you that Grayson kid?”
Dicks smile faltered as a young man interrupted his conversation with the lemurs keeper, stepping between Dick and the bench Bruce was sitting on.
“Yea..” He answered hesitantly, stepping to the side to try to get back closer to Bruce.
“Are you really living with Bruce Wayne now?? Is he your new dad now? Is he here with you?”
Dick shifted nervously, feeling his breathing start to get a little faster. The man kept shooting more and more questions at him, not giving him the chance to respond to any of them. He didn’t want to talk to him about any of this.
“I-I should go-”
“Wait hold on kid just a second,” The man grabbed Dicks wrist, keeping him from walking away. “I just want to talk to you. Why don’t you tell me about your parents? Is Bruce anything like them? Is he treating you nicely or-”
“Get your hands off my kid now.”
“Come master Richard Master Bruce will be meeting us by the elephants shortly.” Alfred gently hurried Dick away from the man who was now backing away quickly from a very angry looking Bruce.
Dick held onto Alfred's hand tightly and blinked away tears as they made their way through the crowd of people. He didn;t really understand what that guy wanted from him.. Why did he care if he lived with Bruce? What was he asking him about his parents for? That was none of his business and he didn’t want to talk about his mom and dad to a stranger at the zoo.
Tears were dripping down his cheeks by the time they stopped. Alfred knelt in front of him and gently wiped the tears from his face with a handkerchief.
“Are you hurt at all lad?”
Dick shook his head. The man had had a tight grip but it hadn’t hurt him really, just scared him. “N-no..no I.. He was asking about my mom… He .. I didn’t know him and he was asking me and I didn’t want to talk to him, I dunno why he was talking to me at all!” More tears streamed down his cheeks.
“That was a terrible thing for him to do lad and I’m so sorry he did that. He should have never approached you like that and certainly never laid a hand on you.. Master Bruce is dealing with it now though. It will be alright now okay? He won't bother you again. You have my word-”
Dick flung himself into the butler's arms hugging him tightly, crying into his chest.
“Its alright lad.. It’s alright.. Why don’t we sit for a moment and wait for master Bruce to come and find us? Here’s a bench with a nice view of the elephants.. You can look at them when you’re ready if you’d like.” Alfred scooped up the boy gently and carried him to a shaded bench with a nice view of the elephant enclosure. He sat Dick down next to him, keeping an arm wrapped around him gently.
Dick sniffled and cried into the butlers sleeve for a few more minutes before curling into his side peeking out at the enclosure, eyes red and cheeks tear stained and puffy. By the time Bruce got there Dick was seated comfortably in Alfred’s lap quietly telling him about his favorite elephant from the circus.
“Hey there kiddo, you doing okay?” Bruce knelt by him, quickly scanning him for injuries or other signs of distress.
“I'm okay.. We found the elephants.”
“You sure did,” Bruce smiled gently. “The man that scared you was kicked out of the zoo and isn’t allowed back now so he won’t bother you here ever again. Do you want to keep going and see more things? Or are you done for the day?”
Dick took a minute to think it over before his shoulders slumped a bit. “I.. I think I want to be done…” More tears welled up in his eyes and Bruce could hear the heartbreak in the boy's voice. “I.. I wanna go home B.. I wanna go home.. “
“I know you do Dick.. If there was a way for me to make that happen I promise you I would.. But I .. There’s nothing I can do kiddo… I’m so sorry..” Bruce's heart shattered as the boy broke down in tears, sobbing into Alfreds chest. He wanted so badly to take Dick into his arms to hold him and make this all better.. But there was nothing he could do.. He couldn’t take Dick back to his home. He couldn’t bring back his parents.. All he could do was watch his Butler rock him as he cried himself to sleep, then take him and carry him back to the car and drive him to the manor, that hopefully someday he would consider a home of sorts.
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The next few weeks were rough for the Wayne manor residence. Dick was going back and forth between being exceptionally clingy and shutting himself in his room and refusing to come out. Bruce felt terrible every time he had to leave the house to go to work and would alway try to find dick to tell him goodbye before going to Wayne enterprise for the day. He tried to work from home as much as possible but there were just some things he had to be in the office for. But he had been working on a few personal projects as well, which he had just finished.
“I think today is a great day for another try at a day at the zoo. What do you think Dick? I took the day off and everything. I bet we can get Alfred to let us get popcorn and icecream.” Bruce was struggling to keep his grin at bay, he had managed to pull some strings with the zoo, so they would have the entire zoo to themselves.
“You.. You took the whole day off.. ? For the zoo?” Dick asked, looking up from the book he was reading on the big sofa he was curled up on.
“Sure did kiddo. There's a new exhibit I thought you might like. But only if you want to. We can just stay here if you want. That's just fine too.”
“I think.. I think I’d like to go back to the zoo. Cuz.. Cuz that man won’t be there this time right?”
“Right. It will be just us.”
Dick smiled a bit, “Okay.. Okay lets go to the zoo!”
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Bruce would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous to see what Dick was going to think of the surprise. So far he was having a blast, all the zookeeper's were able to give him their undivided attention and even let him help them feed some of the animals. They were almost to the main part of the surprise and Bruce was sweating bullets. He had pulled a lot of strings to make this happen. Both as Bruce Wayne and as Batman. He really didn’t know what he was going to do if Dick hated it. Clark had said it was too much.. But really what did Smallville know?
Dick rounded the corner and stopped, eyes wide and jaw lax as he took in what he was looking at. The indoor viewing building for the elephant exhibit had been completely rebuilt. What used to be a standard gray building meant to simply shelter patrons of the zoo from the heat or rain was now a bright red with gold stripes and flags at the points of the building. The smell of popcorn and peanuts wafted from inside the building. A big sign over the entrance read ‘Elephant Home`
Bruce watched his expression closely. He saw the shine in Dicks eyes and watched the boys lips pull into a big smile.
“Did.. Did you.. Is this.. H-How..?” Dick looked up at Bruce in awe.
“I know how important the circus is to you kiddo. I can’t bring you back there but.. But I can bring a little bit of it here. So now whenever you want to see your elephant friends you can feel a little bit more at home.. Do.. Do you like it? You don't have to like it. I don’t know how fast I can take it down but I-” Bruce was cut off by Dick flinging himself into his arms hugging him tightly.
“This is the best present I ever had! Thank you!!”
“Of course kiddo.. Of course.” Bruce smiled as Dick took his hand and pulled him into the building to look around. He stood back as Dick ran around taking it all in, leaning against the back wall facing the elephants. “Your son is one incredible kid.. You should be proud,” He looked up at the brass plaque on the wall. “I can never even hope to be close to the parents you were… to the parents you would have been. But I swear to you.. Your son is going to be loved. I will love him and care for him and give him everything I can. I promise you…”
The Flying Grayson’s looked on. Eyes fixed on the small boy in front of them, smiling at him with all the love and pride Bruce felt for the son he now shared with their memory.