Chapter Text
“I want to go to school,” Damian suddenly announces at Bruce striding inside his office in the afternoon.
Damian’s steps falter a bit when he sees Dick sitting on the carpet with colored pencils and paper, but he quickly recovers squaring up his shoulders and straightening his posture, focusing all his attention on Bruce’s figure working over his desk.
Dick offers him a quick smile before going back to his drawing, trying to give him at least a bit of sense of privacy. He catches Bruce’s surprised expression before he looks away, and he wonders -as he colors his bad drawn tiger- what does Damian even mean with his words.
“School,” Bruce repeats as he has never heard the word before.
Yes, Dick was actually wondering about that. He knows school is going on only because he has caught Tim coming back to the Manor in his uniform, but he has never seen Damian going out. They eat every meal together, and they spar and spend time together when Dick is pretty sure Damian’s supposed to be in school or at least studying.
He hasn’t seen Cass in uniform too, but he rarely has caught glimpses of her since he met her so he’s not so sure about her.
“I was hoping you could enroll me soon,” Damian keeps going, “you will find my scholar studies are more than sufficient.”
There is a long silence.
Dick takes a pink pencil to put a hat on his tiger.
“Damian…” Bruce’s voice is pained, and Dick knows his answer before he says it, “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”
There are a lot of things Dick has put up with Bruce without complaining. Things that Dick hasn’t thought as important enough to get into a fight.
Other people are not in that category.
Damian can be weirdly serious, aggressive, and rude, but Dick has been on the Manor for almost two weeks, and he has noticed how little things Damian gets, from toys to interaction. His room is barer than Dick’s, cold and impersonal, and Dick has yet to see Bruce sitting for a meal with him instead of Tim and Cass.
Dick drops his pencils on the carpet.
“Enrolling your kid to school is a legal requirement,” Dick interjects, raising his head to watch them, “It’s not like you have an option, B.”
Dick would know it better than anyone, he was used to changing schools regularly when he was in the circus because of the law.
Damian’s face is blank.
“Dickie…” Bruce says like he doesn’t know how to start.
But Dick knows exactly how, and he knows exactly how to push .
“You don’t let Damian fight, you don’t talk to him or play with him,” Dick states flatly, “It gets boring, lonely, and frustrating when you don’t have anyone to talk to or nothing to do during the whole day. When was the last time you spend time with Damian, Bruce? Tell me, because I’ve been hanging around him all day and I’ve never seen you there.”
His tone is turning accusingly, but he doesn’t care.
He’s been playing nice because he hasn’t wanted to shatter the peace, he had wanted it to last as long as it could. He hasn’t brought up any topics that could ensue a fight, but he has limits.
Dick already talked to him about this when it applied to him. Bruce should know better.
Bruce’s face falls.
“At school at least you are doing something,” Dick softens his voice, “just something to think about.”
Dick can see Bruce’s resolve crumbling on his face quickly, and Damian must see it too because his face spams back to life. Something ugly flicks on his eyes.
“I don’t need your help,” he spits at Dick, “this is nothing of your concern, Grayson, stay out of this.”
Bruce’s eyes harden at Damian’s words, he opens his mouth -to argue, to lecture, to admonish, Dick is not sure- but before he can say start a fight Dick sends him a warning look to shut him up.
“Sorry,” Dick mumbles easily, backing down.
He goes back to his tiger to add a purple bow to his tail.
There is another long silence.
Bruce clears his throat.
“School,” Bruce repeats, “I think we could arrange something about it.”
Dick lets the corner of his mouth lift.
***
“You sure you don’t want to come with us?” Bruce asks for the hundredth time, fixing Dick’s hair.
Dick does. He wants to choose his own school going to see them to know what they have to offer, he wants to go out in the middle of the day without worrying that someone is going to recognize him and bug Bruce until he buys him an ice cream.
He shakes his head with a bright smile.
“No, thank you,” he tells him cheerfully, “you two have fun.”
He wants to go, but Damian has been too excited for the whole week for the trip to even think about sticking along.
Dick already spends all the time he wants with Bruce, he has bedtime stories and kisses on the forehead. He has time with Bruce sitting while he reads or draws, and Bruce works. Damian only seems like he has had awkward short interactions with Bruce, they don’t seem like they know each other, and Dick is starting to question how long Damian has actually been living with Bruce.
Damian needs this, Dick can wait.
Bruce doesn’t seem so convinced, his gaze flickers quickly to the car where Damian is already waiting inside to Dick standing in the entrance door of the Manor side by side with Tim.
“He’ll be fine, B,” Tim says with exasperation for the fifth time in the day, “I can handle him for a couple of hours, he’s a good kid.”
That makes Bruce look dubiously at Dick. Dick has been behaving since he came back, but both know he can be a pain when he gets into a mood. Bruce is probably remembering Dick ripping up his things, breaking his tech in the cave, screaming, and biting at Bruce's arm in rage.
They know Dick has a tempter on his own, Tim doesn’t, but that hardly matters when Dick doesn’t feel like he is going to have one of those days.
Dick offers him the most innocent fake smile he can muster.
“I’ll behave. Cross my heart,” Dick promises, making a cross across his chest.
Bruce huffs a laugh, but he finally straightens himself to go.
“Brat,” he says fondly and kisses Dick’s forehead before heading out to his car.
Tim's eyebrows rise up, but he doesn't say anything as he and Dick look at Bruce getting into the car and driving away.
***
Tim lasts exactly thirty minutes watching Dick color a book and listening to his chatter about his favorite cereals before he gets distracted with his phone. Dick tries to not feel offended, truly, but it upsets him a little.
With Damian and Bruce gone for at least a couple of hours, Alfred using his free day to go out, and Cass being elusive as always Dick doesn’t have more company options. He is not even sure why Tim offered to watch him over, or why Bruce didn’t just let him stay alone in the Manor as before, but being with Tim just answering him with monosyllables it’s irking him.
He still keeps his chatter up, because he’s not irritated enough to choose to be alone over Tim’s company.
At the hour mark, Tim’s phone rings and Dick stops his chatter just to be polite while Tim talks.
It would be fine if it only wasn’t for how long it starts to get Tim’s call
“Yeah, Steph, I already check it out,” Tim says into the twenty-minute mark, getting quiet as the other person talks, “Shit, really?”
Dick sighs.
To think he was actually excited to get to know Tim without having him running away at Damian’s sight.
“Yeah, I’m not busy right now,” Tim keeps going, standing up and opening the laptop he had brought with him into the living room at the beginning, “Just give me a sec,”
Slipping out of the room without Tim noticing is easy, Dick doesn’t even use part of his training, he just walks out while Tim types absorbed on whatever is on his screen.
***
The Manor being silent and empty is almost nostalgic. Dick rums along the hallways in the kitchen’s direction humming under his breath and feeling his shoulders relax a little. He feather touches the new pictures on the wall as he passes them.
Birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloweens, and festivities he never got to be part of pass quickly through his fingers. He hasn’t wanted to stop to analyze them. Not when he knows it’ll just hurt.
By the time he arrives in the kitchen he is in a weird mood and regretting leaving Tim behind.
Every thought flies away from his mind when he enters the kitchen, though, because there is a very tall and broad man in a red jacked rooming through the cabinet’s kitchen. Dick watches him in silence for a few minutes, unsure if he should be worried because the man moves like he is familiar with the kitchen.
“What are you looking for?” Dick pipes out after watching the man’s growing frustration for a while.
The man frozens in his place. He turns very slowly to Dick and then frowns.
He has strands of white hair on the front of his hair, and very blue eyes.
Dick blinks, then squints at the man.
“Are you Jason?” Dick asks because he’ll eat his socks if that’s not Bruce’s older son.
The man stares at him for a long time.
“Who the hell are you,” he asks flatly, and yup, that’s definitely Bruce’s son. He even has his manners from before.
Dick holds back his urge to laugh, instead he steps into the kitchen and climbs the counter beside Jason to sit down. He smiles at him and offers him a hand.
“Dick Grayson,” he presents himself. He is delighted when Jason takes the hand he offers to shake it. Bruce wouldn’t have done it.
His hands are just as rough as Bruce’s and just as strong. Dick wonders absently if he’s also a vigilante.
“Did Bruce seriously get another kid?” Jason asks. He looks at him with derision, and he adds muttering, “when will he ever learn ?”
He doesn’t look overly happy about it, but Dick brushes it off.
“He’s fostering me,” he nods and watches Jason start again his search in the kitchen of the mysterious object.
Jason presses his lips in a thin line as he looks at Dick by the corner of his eyes. He doesn’t approve, Dick can tell.
Dick watches him go through the pastry cabinet for the tenth time, sticking a hand into it and moving the things.
“Alfred has started to lock the cookies in the cereal cabinet,” Dick offers him.
Dick still has the bad habit to go down the kitchen to snack on everything sugary when he gets anxious. Alfred would let it slide before, but now he refuses to be the reason Dick is bouncing around the Manor in a sugar rush. Dick would lockpick if he wasn’t afraid of upsetting him.
Jason sends him another glance before moving into the cereal cabinet and lockpicking it with a bobby pin he gets from a pocket. He takes one of those cloth bags Alfred uses now to buy groceries and starts filling it with Alfred’s cookies and pastries. Dick had thought it was weird Alfred had done so many deserts last night, but he must have known Jason was going to pass through the Manor today.
“I think he also left you a casserole,” Dick says like an afterthought.
Shepherd’s pie, to be exact. Which Dick knows neither Bruce nor he likes, nor Damian. He had been dreading eating it during lunch, but if it was meant for Jason, it would be perfect. Even if it weren’t left for Jason but he still takes it away Dick would be over the moon.
Jason takes out the shepherd’s pie from the fridge without hesitation to Dick’s delight and puts it carefully in another bag.
“Did Bruce leave you alone in the Manor?” Jason asks, his mouth curling in disgust at Bruce’s name.
Dick swings his legs over the place he is sitting.
“Tim is supposed to be babysitting me,” Dick answers honestly, “but he’s so busy talking with his girlfriend that he didn’t even notice when I left.”
Jason snorts, leaning into the counter.
“So much for his responsible obedient perfect son,” he bits bitterly, and Dick’s heart drops to his feet.
Are they also fighting ? Do someone in Bruce’s family actually likes each other?
Dick doesn’t know what to say, he just lets himself fall quiet.
Jason takes the bags from the floor, he glances at Dick’s face and then at the door.
He doesn’t go away. His face acquires a thoughtful expression as he hums.
“Have you ever had a batburguer, kid?” He asks with a mischievous expression.
Dick gasps. No, he hasn’t, he hasn’t even gone out in the middle of the light since his parents died.
Did Bruce actually get a themed hamburger ? He knows hopefulness fills his face as he shakes his head, almost vibrating on his place with excitement.
Jason smirks.
“You want one?” Jason asks, as he holds his bags in one hand and offers him his free one.
And- and Dick hesitates. He shouldn’t leave, if Bruce finds out he left the manor without permission he’ll be mad. He’ll ruin Damian’s day if he causes a scene and Tim could get into trouble, but…
He wants to.
And Jason is Bruce’s son, so that has to mean something, right?
Dick takes his hand and lets Jason help him get off the kitchen counter.
Jason’s smirk falters a little when Dick beams at him as they walk out to the kitchen. Outside the sun shines, and Dick follows Bruce’s older son into a motorcycle holding his hand. Jason’s hair moves with the air as they walk into the front yard, where Dick’s Garden gnome isn’t there anymore. Where he can see old swings and slides, telling an old story of a loved kid that wasn’t Dick.
Dick has never seen Tim nor Cass even glancing at the swing and slide and, hand in hand with a blue-eyed man, he has a good guess of who used to sit there and play under the sun.