Chapter Text
Aiden woke up with a content and deep exhale. His eyes blinked open slowly and the warmth of the plush covers tried to pull him back into sleep. Sleep, in fact, did not pull him back into its grasps.
He stared at the ceiling for a long while; he couldn’t actually tell if it were two seconds or two hours.
Finally, he pulled himself up into a sitting position and shivered when the covers slipped off his shoulders.
Aiden’s eyes drifted around the room until he catches sight of neatly folded clothes on a chair right by a door. He hadn’t noticed this door yesterday and curiosity drags Aiden into moving his body. He lightly scratches his sternum area as he pulls his legs over the bed and onto the floor.
Aiden grabs the crutches and stands up, leaning most of his weight onto them. He sways in place for a moment, his barely conscious brain begging Aiden for more sleep, but he pushes forward anyway.
When he gets to the clothes sitting on a chair, he realizes that it’s clothes for him to wear and change into. They smell like laundry detergent(they almost have a pleasant citrusy scent to it? It definitely doesn’t smell like the rest of the manor).
Right, he’s going to be here for a bit. He needs a change of clothes.
The fact had flown right over his head when he’d been dropped off to bed. The chaos of the previous day weighing heavy on his shoulders. Going from a hospital to Tim’s house and then having a movie night with his family? It felt like forever ago despite it all happening just yesterday.
He opens the door right by the clothes and is met with a bathroom bigger than his parent’s rooms. It’s…lavish. The large, overhead lights are bright and make his eye water. He opts for showering in the dark.
He grabs the clothes on the chair and grabs them inside. He throws them half hazardously onto the counter and half of the clothes drop into the sink. Thankfully, the sink is dry so his clothing stay nice and dry.
He shuts the door behind him, locks it, and stands there for a moment. His muddled brain taking its sweet time to function and give him the next step.
He doesn’t feel that usual ache of jitter that sits with him. That clawing of needing to move usually plagues him and he’s so used to the jittery feeling that crawls underneath his skin 24/7 that he isn’t particularly sure what to do now.
His gaze turns to the large mirror as if it had the answered and his eyes rake over himself. He’s mortified to learn that his roots are more than “just coming in” and are actually about two inches visible. His hair is longer and covers his ears now.
His hair is also dirty and lacks its usual bounce and fluffiness he’s used to. Ben would have scoffed at him in that disappointed way he does and force him to shower.
Everything about him is relatively normal looking otherwise. He takes time to look at his teeth—sharp as ever either even sharper K9s—and decides that he should brush his teeth before considering a shower.
As he’s searching for a toothbrush(it was hidden in a shelf right above the toilet which, what?? Who puts it there?), his eyes catch onto what might just be his lord and savior:
A box of bleach, blonde hair dye, and an absurd amount of bowls and other things he would need to dye his hair.
Aiden’s tired look of what could be described as melancholy is changed into a look of glee.
He grabs a toothbrush(he feels odd now that he’s aware of how long it’s been since he’s brushed his teeth[a week? Maybe a month? He kinda forgot. Not as bad as his depressive days but still]) and quickly sets himself to brushing his teeth.
Aiden’s eyes water when the minty toothpaste stings the tip of his tongue but powers through it. The moment he’s done and rinses the toothpaste out, he’s charging out of the bathroom with vigor.
He first locks the bedroom door(it’s his alone time now!! If he’s interrupted he’ll be distracted and never finish re-dyeing his hair!) then searches through the various amounts of drawers until he finds a black shirt with a few holes in it. He’s pretty sure this shirt is at least a decade old considering it was found behind the drawer rather than in it.
With an old shirt acquired, he enters the bathroom again and flicks the lights on. He’s much more prepared for it now and the lights don’t sting as much.
It’s a good thing he hadn’t gone into the shower yet; last he did that Ashlyn almost ripped him a new one.
“Don’t tell me you’re about to shower before dyeing your hair?” Ashlyn asks, tone incredulous and annoyed.
“Huh? Yeah, I am why? I always do that,” Aiden shrugs his shirt off and just barely holds back a giggle when Ashlyn turns her gaze away with a flush on her cheeks.
“Because you’re not supposed to do that?” Ashlyn huffs, “it’s literally a known thing? Oils build up on your scalp, which helps protect against irritation that can be caused by hair dye.”
She sounds like she’s reciting a a quote or something. Aiden actually chuckles at that but it’s not a teasing sound. Almost soft and appreciative is a better description.
“And where’d you learn that?” Aiden asks, a coy smirk spread across his face.
“A day ago when you asked me to come over,” Ashlyn bluntly replied.
Aiden blinks, faltering in his movements. The towel he had in his hands and the clothes he was leaning down to grab get dropped onto the floor. Aiden stands up straight and eyes Ashlyn.
“You studied? For me? Awee!” Aiden coos.
He just barely dodges a pillow that gets thrown at his face.
That hair dye session ended with Ashlyn having a streak of white in her hair like Anna from Elsa. It was pretty funny although Ashlyn’s mom had that awkward smile she usually wore when she disapproved of something they did.
He shuts the bathroom door and locks it. He needs undivided focus to do this. That or he might start painting the walls with bleach like he did last time.
It…wasn’t a fun thing to explain to his parents. He’s fixed the damage since then but even now he can still see remnants of the damage under the new paint job he did.
Aiden turns to the shower and leans forward into it. He looks around until he finds the conditioner. He grabs it, triple checks its conditioner, and then turns back to the sink.
He sets everything up; the bowls, brushes, old T-shirt, a plastic bag(but no gloves??), and combs.
When he’s finally ready, he throws the old black tee on and hops up onto the counter. He pours a decent amount of conditioner onto his hands and laces it throughout the blonde parts of his hair.
Then, he grabs the lightener he saw and mentally thanks Alfred for saving him time and energy. He just needs to lighten it and then tone it. He stares at the other dye stuff and shrugs. He’s working for time convenience here.
With his hair throughly conditioned, he washes the excess off and grabs a brush. He squirts some of the lightener into a bowl and mixes the brush into it to lather it up.
Using the rat-tail end of the comb, he parts a thin section of his hair and begins to apply the lightener. He does the other side after that and smiles when his hair doesn’t randomly combust into flames.
Nice! So far so good!
Aiden flips the section of hair over to the other side so he can keep lightening his hair. It takes him what he thinks is about an hour and a half, maybe two hours before he’s done with this .
It took him a bit longer with the amount of maneuvering he had to do to get the back of his head but he’d managed to do it. His leg had gone numb with how he had to hold up his encased leg at some point but whatever.
Now he just has to sit for god knows how long let the hair lighten.
With a huff, he hops off the counter(carefully, of course. His cast is heavy and unforgettable) and takes his time cleaning up what he won’t need. He leaves the bowl of lightener and the brush just in case he does need it but everything else was cleaned up.
Once he’s done, he examines his hair and frowns. He’s gonna have to waste a lot more time.
He decides to spend a long hour cleaning his room. He moves things around, examines them, does his bed, folds clothes, unfolds, refolds, and so on until he’s bored and about to throw himself out of the window.
He knows he should leave the room(his stomach growls in agreement about it) but he can’t bring himself to leave the room. It almost feels like he’s stuck in some backwards way.
It’s not his first rodeo with an injury but he’s never had people so concerned and happy to house Aiden. He’s sure in any other circumstances that this wouldn’t be happening.
He can remember four separate occasions where he had been injured and ‘taken care of’ by friends.
The cast over his leg is proof to that and aids his feeling of ‘trapped.’ The lingering gazes on him is making his skin crawl. The unnecessary gentleness from Tim who Aiden knows can be ruthless.m with his words and actions.
It’s all too much and too little at once.
And so, Aiden occupies himself however he can until finally, another hour later, his roots are as light as he wants them to be. He kneels in front of bathtub(because of course his bathroom has both a shower and a tub. They’re separated too! Not even a combo!) and turns the water on.
Aiden’s not sure if the shower head comes off; he’s pretty sure it doesn’t so he opts for just shoving his head under the running water.
His knees are spread slightly so it’s easier to balance himself and he uses his left arm to brace himself. With his right hand, he runs it through his hair. He keeps his eyes shut the whole time as droplets of water graze over his eyelids.
At some point, he pushes his head forward until there’s a thunk! and hisses with the full throb of pain. He pulls back with a frown but continues to rinse out his hair.
He lets the pressure of the water run across the nape of his neck and makes sure to angle himself so no water dribbles down his back.
He’s done within the next few minutes. Using a random towel, he lightly dries off most of the water that drips from his hair. He takes time to organize his hair again and flip it around until it’s styled the way it usually is.
His hair isn’t puffy at all considering how damp it still is but that’s alright. It’ll be back once his hair dries fully.
He grabs the toner and pours it into another bowl. With a new brush, he mixes it for a moment and then he finally begins the process of putting it onto the roots of his hair.
He takes his time making sure to not put any toner on his already bleached and dyed hair. Within an hour, the toner is in and evenly distributed throughout his hair.
Aiden smiles with pride and eyes himself in the mirror. His hair is still long, longer than he’d like, but not being able to see his dark roots anymore made him feel a lot lighter.
Now he just has to wait another twenty minutes before rinsing out the toner and he should be good to go! Aiden’s smile turns giddy and he can’t help the way he bounced on the balls of his feet.
He spent the next fifteen minutes cleaning what was left to clean. Aiden shut the toilet lid and sat onto it happily. He wasn’t sure what to do now. The last five minutes he had to wait weren’t long but his patience was already running thin.
His stomach was grumbling and it was starting to hurt now as well. Aiden pursed his lips with thought.
He could just wash it out now. His hair might a little discolored—that was already a given considering the product he’s using isn’t one he’s seen before—but it’ll be fine yeah?
His internal debating answered him itself when Aiden realized that it had, in fact, been five minutes of silent debate.
“Well,” Aiden blinks up at the ceiling, “that answers it.”
Aiden sinks to his knees in front of the tub again and lets the warm water rinse out any product still in his hair.
He might as well shower now that he’s here. Well, he can’t shower , not with the cast still on his leg, but he could just grab the very fluffy loofa and run it over his skin, yeah?
Or he could let the tub fill and bathe. Bathing sounds much more comfortable than kneeling.
Aiden sighs, throwing the white shirt on. The brown cargo pants he wears are baggy enough to fit somewhat over the cast and have lots of pockets to use.
He has no idea what time it is but he’s sure it’s past twelve PM.
Aiden grabs his crutches and unlocks the bedroom door. He stares into the hallway and its eerily quiet walls.
He steps out of the room fully and shuts the door. His hair is still damp after his bath but he’s feeling amazing now. Clean, soft clothes that don’t have to be rinsed in a sink rather than washed. Clean skin that isn’t dry and dirty with dirt.
It feels like Aiden can finally think, as if cleaning the gunk in his hair and washing his skin had actually unclogged his brain.
“Young Sir,” Alfred appears out of nowhere, scaring the hell out of Aiden.
“Christ! What the hell!?” He exclaims.
“Language,” Alfred interrupts, a frown tugging his lips downwards.
“Sorry,” Aiden mutters, eyes avoiding Alfred’s.
“Young lad, I was just about to check up on you,” the man begins to walk and a short pat on Aiden’s shoulder leads him to follow the butler.
“Sorry, I was busy,” Aiden nods upwards, his eyes staring at the stray strands in his face.
“That I can see,” Alfred examines Aiden’s work. Even with damp hair it’s easy to tell that his hair is lighter. “You’ve done well. I assume we must arrange a day to trim your hair?”
Aiden preens at the praise but he quickly shoves the feeling away. He nods and keeps his eyes forward.
The two walk in silence then. They walk into the elevator, take it down, walk for a few more seconds and finally enter the kitchen.
Aiden’s eyes immediately turn to the clock: three forty-three(2:43) PM. Aiden internally winces, was he really asleep and busy that long?
Alfred pulls a chair out for Aiden and he eases down into it. The butler moves into the kitchen, just out of sight but the clatter of cabinets is enough to make it feel less awkward.
Two minutes later, footsteps grab his attention. A tired looking Tim walks into the kitchen and sits down next to him.
His hair is disheveled and sticking upwards. His shirt and pants are wrinkled as if he’d been tossing and turning all night.
“Sleep well?” Aiden smirks.
“Regretfully so,” he sighs. Tim leans his head down until it dully thumps onto the table.
Alfred comes out then with scrambled eggs and toast. Aiden’s mouth waters and he gives Alfred a quick ‘thank you’ and begins to eat his food.
He has to nudge Tim a few times before he even realizes there’s food in front of him. He chuckles at the way Tim can barely coordinate his hands.
He feels content, he realizes. And Aiden doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not but for now, he’ll let himself think of it as good.
The next week and a half at the manor went well. He sleeps in until one PM, eats breakfast and interacts with whoever comes across him.
The manor is big and unfamiliar but Aiden thinks he’s explored enough to feel comfortable. He feels content near Jason and Tim. Even more so with Duke! The way the light circled the teen is satisfying to watch and Duke has caught him staring at the shadows by his feet multiple times now. For some reason, he hadn’t called Aiden out on it yet.
Despite this though, the one person he finds himself unable to relax around is Dick fucking Grayson.
His bright blue eyes stare into Aiden’s soul, trying to uncover all his secrets. Secrets like how Aiden’s dead, secrets like how he’s pretty sure he’s a universal anomaly, secrets like where he lives.
Dick is looking at him like he’s a social service case. Like a little kid who needs saving. It…definitely throws him off.
Aiden grumbles over his eggs and toast. He doesn’t understand why Dick throws him off like this. It’s not like the mans done anything to earn the mistrust Aiden feels towards him.
“Sir Aiden,” Alfred clears his throat.
“Just Aiden. And yeah?” He looks up.
“Your name had been called, sir,” Alfred gestures to the entrance of the kitchen where—oh.
“Hey Dick,” Aiden greets, turning his gaze down towards the plate again. He can sense Alfred’s eyes on him and Dicks prying worry.
“Mornin’! I came down to ask you something,” Aiden can hear the man’s smile, “do you wanna head down to the shelter with me? I promised DD that I would take over his volunteer hours at the shelter and I was hoping you’d wanna come along,” Dick offered, leaning on the wall casually, “get you out of the manor for a bit? Can’t be easy being holed up in here.”
Aiden snickered; it’s true. He’s been getting antsy the longer he stays in the manor(that or he’s getting bored. At this point it might be both). He doesn’t think even going outside will helped. It probably won’t help, not if he can’t climb the trees(not that there are many).
“DD?” He inquired curiously, the name unfamiliar.
“Oh! Yeah, Damian,” Dick sheepishly chuckles and Aiden nods.
Aiden mulls it over. He picks at his eggs before taking a bite out of his toast. On one hand, Aiden doesn’t think he can handle being examined like an injured puppy. On the other hand though, Aiden doesn’t think he can handle being holed up in the manor any longer.
So the question here is a simple one: go insane in the manor or go out into the smog filled city to pet animals?
The answer was easy to find.
“Sure, what time d’ya gotta be there?” He then in his chair, his interest more obvious now.
“Around three o’ clock,” Dick says, checking his wrist watch. Aiden’s eyes fall to the over clock.
“You’re running late,” Aiden snickers, eyeing the clock that reads three o’clock(3:00).
Dick sighs and has a look of defeat and acceptance. The man has already accepted his fate, a wise thing to do rather than stress over rushing.
“Yeah…take your time though. When you’re ready just meet me by the car,” Dick nodded, already turning to leave, “I’ll be there!”
Before Aiden could ask how long the two would be at the shelter, Dick had already left.
Aiden turned back to his food and made eye contact with Alfred. He smiled at Aiden.
“Perhaps this will be good for you, Sir Aiden,” he speaks, the sentence coming out more like a question, “I will escort you out to Master Dicks car once you are done.”
Aiden hummed, acknowledging the other but offering no more words. He finished chewing on his bread and finished his breakfast.
Aiden took his time; he made his way back to the guest room, brushed his teeth, put on wearable clothing that aren’t pajama pants and an oversized tee. Then, once he was done, he grabbed his crutches and made his way downstairs.
Alfred had been waiting for him and escorted him outside to Dick rickety car. What was its name? Susan? Yes. Her name is Susan!
Dick was already in the car and Aiden opted to take the passenger seat rather than the backseat.
“Hey, kid!” Dick greeted, putting his phone down. He waved goodbye to Alfred with Aiden copying the action.
The engine rumbled a few times before Susan finally came to life. They pulled out of the (frankly too long) driveway.
The first few minutes in the car were silent. The radio was on but it sounded more like muddled static than audio for some reason.
“Mhm, we better stay away from tricorner today. Susan’s radio is staticky,” Dick mutters, speaking more to himself than Aiden.
“What?” Aidens brows furrow and he turns his head to look at Dick. What the fuck is he in about?
“Erh, Susan has this thing. Depending on—oh man I sound crazy,” he frowns, “Susan’s radio gets staticky based on where the most crime is gonna take place. Home base is the manor so with how the radio is sounding now, it means that tricorner—right by the harbor—is gonna be dangerous.”
Aiden stares at Dick with disbelief. Next thing you know Dicks gonna tell him that the toaster is sentient.
“Right…” Aiden slowly turns his head towards the window.
“You don’t believe me do you?” Dick sighed.
“Would you believe yourself in my position? Actually, you know what?” Aiden suddenly turned to the radio, “Susan, how dangerous is the upper east side for the next…four hours?”
Aiden waited a few seconds and hummed. He stared at the radio and on a whim, changed the station to ‘106.14’. The radio played music as if it had never been broken. There was a soft undertone of static but it played fine.
“And what about the diamond district?” Aiden stared at the radio as the radio crackled more. It settled on a half voices-half static mix.
Aiden turned to Dick then. He stared at his face examining the way his brows furrows and a confused wrinkle etched into his face. His mouth was slightly agape and his eyes kept flicking from the road to the radio.
“I…did not know she could do that,” Dick said after a loud bout of static echoed through the car. Music played right after that.
“Dick, I think your car is haunted,” Aiden smirked, tapping the window, “wait do you have an ouija board? Oh my god we need to have an ouija session in here.”
“Okay wait, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves!” He called out, frantic chuckles escaping his lips.
Aiden just cackled as he thought about the possibilities. He’s sure that Tim can find a board somewhere. He needs candles too if he’s doing this. He’s so gonna drag Jason into this too. He seems like a ghost magnet with the way the light bounces off him in the dark.
“Oh lookie!! We’re here!” Dick said as the radio sputtered static and shut off on its own. That thing is definitely haunted.
He parked the car and exited. Before Aiden could open his car door though, Dick beat him to it. He pulled the door open and stood off to the side until Aiden had gotten out of the car. He shut the door when Aiden moved to the sidewalk.
“Alrighty, from what Damian told me, today we’re just gonna feed the dogs, walk them—if you’re up for it, and…that’s it mostly,” Dick shrugs, “I told Teri—the manager—that I might come with a friend so we don’t have too much to do. Especially with your leg; can’t strain it or Leslie’ll have my head.”
Aiden nods in acknowledgement. He looks down at his cast which is more like a really heavy boot than anything. He’ll prove that a broken leg won’t hinder him.
Dick then begins to walk towards the entrance. Aiden follows behind him, his crutches clacking.
Once inside, Dick is greeted by a tall man with dark colored skin. There’s patches of pale skin across his face—vitiligo.
“Teri!” Dick smiles, wide and happy, “you know that friend I was talking about? This is Aiden!”
Dick gestured back to Aiden who smiled at the man. Aiden’s focus was dragged to the sound of loud barking and he found himself unconsciously leaning towards the sound.
Teri laughed, “hey, welcome to the shelter. That’s Jasper who’s barking back there.”
“Sounds like a sweetie,” Aiden snickered.
“Me n’ Aiden are gonna go get the kibble now,” Dick tells Teri, “then we’ll walk the older dogs and see what needs to be done from there.”
Teri and Dick exchanged a few words after that. Once they’d finished, Dick tapped Aiden’s shoulder and began leading him away.
They entered a back room with an “employees only” sign on it. Aiden looks around at the area. It isn’t too large but it’s not small. Dick is rummaging around and with an ‘aha!’ he stands up straight holding a bag of dogfood.
He grabs two scoopers and motions Aiden to follow him.
Aiden’s a little surprised; Dick acts a lot different around a crowd of people than when they’re in the manor. Aiden almost feels normal now.
Dick hasn’t looked at Aiden as if he would break. In fact, Dicks been looking at him the way he’s been looking at Teri: normally.
Dick, to Aiden, is an enigma. When Aiden thinks about him, his fingers twitch to solve him like a puzzle. Dick feels a little uncanny as well. It’s like Aiden has seen Dick, spoken to him before but has never been subjected to his looks.
The light flits around him like a spotlight but if Dick wanted to disappear, the spotlight would shut off and he wouldn’t be seen. It’s a thing he’s noticed over the past few days actually. It’s made the whole uncanny thing ten times worse.
If Dick was open to being seen, to being spoken to, the light shined on him like a spotlight. It beckoned people to speak to him and to return Dicks warm smile.
That light flickered when Dick was worried. It flickered when he was nervous about something. When his mind was scattered and unfocused the spotlight wasn’t sure if Dick wanted to be seen or not. Aiden isn’t sure Dick would’ve known either.
But when he really doesn’t want to speak to people? The spotlight flickers off and the shadows swarm around him, hiding him.
Weird shit like this has been happening with everyone. Dick has one of the most serious reactions though. Other than Duke that is. It almost seems like Duke can control the light and shadows around him.
Aiden still hasn’t asked Duke about it, he isn’t sure he wants to.
“Aiden?” Dick pokes his head back into the room.
“Sorry, I was looking at something’,” Aiden shakes out of his thoughts and exits the room.
He follows Dick down into the corridor of kennels and watches as Dick coos at the dogs. He sets the bag of kibble down at the first kennel and baby talks the puppy in it.
Dick then unlocks the cage and chuckles when the puppy is immediately crawling onto his lap.
“C’mon, Patches!” He smiles, “fetch your bowl, yeah?”
The puppy let out a bark and spun in a circle and then ran to grab the bowl. Patches returned and dropped it at Dicks knees.
“Good boy!” He ruffles the puppy and gets a happy yip back.
Aiden stands there, watching. His eyes are glued to the happy puppy with white fur. His fur was short and his eyes were a deep brown color.
The light bounces off of the dogs fur the same way a disco ball does. It’s not bright but Patches’ still looks radiating. Aiden smiles; Patches is definitely a good pup.
Once Dick finished with Patches, he shut the kennel and moved down the row. They did that few more times and Dick even let Aiden feed a few puppers as long as the dog was known to be calm.
He said it was to make sure Aiden didn’t jostle his leg but Aiden’s pretty sure Dick was just hogging the hyper dogs for himself. Don’t tell him Aiden thinks that though, Dick would probably give him a subtle look of displeasure and then smile.
Aiden gave a small bitter look towards Dick and the dog he held in his arms. Yeah, he’s definitely hogging.
Dick finally finished up with the dog—Raspberry was her name if Aiden remembers correctly. She was named Raspberry for the berry shaped birthmark right by her ear and her deep brown-red fur color.
Dick stood up but instead of meeting Aiden’s eyes with a smile, his expression was more…sad.
“Barkley is a senior dog, he’s next,” Dick warned, “he’s a sweetie but he’s got a nasty food guarding instinct.”
“Can I feed him?” Aiden immediately asks. Dick gives him a look, studying Aiden’s face. His eyes glance down to his cast and back up.
There’s clear apprehension in his posture but after a stare down, Dicks shoulders fell. Victory!
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Dick sighed, “‘just don’t want you getting bitten.”
“Don’t worry about it, Dick,” Aiden reassures, already moving towards Barkley, “I got this.”
He opens the kennel door and kneels down. The bag of kibble is dropped beside him and Aiden stares at the dog who lay in the bed in the corner.
The light doesn’t bounce off the old dog’s fur like patches had. In fact, it’s almost as if the shadows curl around Barkley.
“Can I have your bowl?” Aiden asks, glancing at the bowl.
His hand reaches towards the bowl slowly and Dick sits tense behind him. Barkley lets out a low, grumbling growl.
“I need to refill your bowl,” Aiden tells, flicking his eyes between the bowl and the dog.
Aiden frowns when Barkley continues to growl. The shadows curl around the dog and sink its grasp into his fur. Aiden suddenly shuffles into the kennel much to Dicks dismay. The short, cut off noise he let out sounded nervous.
“Okay Barkley, I’m gonna pick you up then. Please don’t chew my fingers off,” Aiden knows this is a terrible idea, Dick is already moving to try and stop him.
Before he could though, Aiden wraps his hands around the dog and lifts Barkley just long enough to get the dog into his lap. The shadows shift, unsure and Aiden feels as if he’s won.
“Barkley’s a good name for you,” Aiden hums, amused, “you’re all bark, no bite. Kinda. I still haven’t touched your bowl.”
Barkley looks up at Aiden. His beady black eyes stare into Aiden’s brown eyes and he can’t help but notice the way the shadows fall away, its grasp looser.
“Oh. Oh, you just needed to be held,” Aiden mumbles quietly.
Dick is looking at him astonished. He isn’t sure why but Aiden feels as if that’s warranted. He feels like Snow White! This has to be the greatest moment of Aiden’s life. He’s literally the chosen one.
Aiden still moves slowly when he grabs the bowl. The shadows around Barkley spike, a low murmur of a grumble through the dogs chest but nothing else.
Aiden fills the bowl with kibble and places it back in its respective spot. Barkley watches but doesn’t move towards the bowl. The old dogs gaze turns to Aiden again and those beady eyes are just begging Aiden to stay.
“How about I feed the rest of the dogs and finish up, yeah?” Dick suggests, “do you want my phone? I don’t know how long we’ll be here.”
Aiden snickers, “I haven’t touched a phone in, like, a million years. I can entertain myself,” he tells. A moment later, as Dick is shrugging and moving to leave, he changes his mind. “Wait, no. Gimme.”
He makes grabby hands and leans forward towards Dick. He softly chuckles in response and fishes his phone out of his pocket.
“The password is one-two-three-four,” he informs.
“That’s a terrible password,” Aiden immediately says. Dick simply shrugs again, grabs the kibble, and leaves.
Aiden stares at Dicks phone for a few moments. It’s been way too long since he’s had access to a phone. Sure, Kyle had let him borrow his phone during one of his shifts but after nearly breaking it in a mishap, he hadn’t really been given any phone after that.
Tim’s computer was something he’s never touched either; he isn’t too keen on letting anyone touch it anyway. But here Dick is, just, giving his phone to him.
Barkley makes a ‘hm’ like noise that sounds odd from his old throat and looks up at Aiden. Aiden hums back in agreement.
“Yeah, he’s pretty weird isn’t he?” Aiden mulls with an amused huff.
He puts in the password and the phone opened. It was relatively basic if he’s being honest. The background is a deep blue color and there’s a few widgets of who he assumes is family or friends.
A man with freckles and orange hair is eating a burger in one widget. Another widget is of Tim asleep on the couch, his computer still on and shining its light onto him.
And there’s a few more with other people he doesn’t recognize: a short, black haired girl and a long, blonde girl are talking to each other with mischievous glints in their eyes. There’s also a widget of a small child who’s looking almost sheepish but unapologetic for the pile of katanas and knives in front of him.
Aiden stares at that one for a few moments longer. Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to give a, what? Twelve year old kid? A katana?
Aiden blows out a breath. Honestly, he’d be a pretty happy baby if he had half of the blades this kid does.
Finally one examining Dicks phone, he opens safari. He clicks the search bar and pauses, fingers hovering just above the keyboard.
Tentatively, he types in the address of Savanah.
‘No results found. Did you mean this?’
Aiden has half a mind to not throw the phone.
He types in his town and only gets the same message. Then he types in his own address; same result.
He grits his teeth together until his jaw hurts and only stops staring at the results when he hears Barkley growl. His paw is tapping at Aiden’s thigh and he immediately loosens his death grip on the phone.
“M’sorry, Barkley,” he sighs, leaning his head back shading the kennel wall and closing his eyes, “I really wanna go home. Do you wanna go home?”
He opens his eyes, glancing at the dog. His focus snaps to Barkley when he realizes the shadows have burrowed in the dogs deepest wrinkles. Barkley shifts in place, gaze now on the bowl of kibble.
Aiden leans towards the bowl and quickly grabs it. Barkley this time doesn’t do anything but stare, a sadness clinging over the shadowed dog.
Aiden rests the bowl further down his legs, just below his knees. Barkley shifts to stand and adjusts himself so he’s laying down facing the bowl. Barkley then starts to eat the kibble, the shadows loosening.
“Did your old owner feed you in their lap?” Aiden asks, tilting his head. Barkley looks back at Aiden with sad eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ll ask Dick what happened to you. Maybe I’ll convince him to adopt you, yeah? I don’t think I can.”
Aiden barks out a laugh. The phones screen had turned off and now sat beside him.
“I mean, I’m living in a shit hole and I doubt Dick’s family would allow me to adopt a dog and leave you at the manor,” Aiden tells Barkley as if the dog understands him. Aiden thinks he can. “I’m also on a mission: I need to find my friends. Google isn’t very helpful, every time I search up home I get nothing. It’s almost like it never existed. I’m like, a left over anomaly or something I don’t know. I was just spat out here.”
Aiden heaves a deep breath and exhales a little shakily. He finally ends his rambling and watches Barkley eat. A few moments later, the senior dog had finished. Half a bowl of kibble is still left but Aiden still moves the bowl to its respective spot.
Barkley curls up into Aiden’s lap again, his head resting on Aiden’s sternum. His hands rest on the dogs back and he begins to pet him.
With his other hand, Aiden enters Dicks password again. He scrolls through the phone until he finds whatever games Dick has.
He ain’t surprised to find out that Dick has games on his phone but he’s definitely surprised by the sheer amount of them. In a folder labeled ‘Games👾,’ Dick has over thirty apps.
Within that, Aiden finds Block Blast.
“Alright, Barkley,” Aiden snickers, “let’s see if I can beat Dicks score, yeah?”
The dog looks up and his tail gently wags once, twice, thrice, then settles. Aiden coos, running a hand over the dogs face.
Now, to beat Dicks score of 56,276.
When Dick returns, Barkley had nearly fallen asleep meanwhile Aiden’s focus was split between Block Blast and petting the dog. Dick smiles at the sight.
“Hey double A,” Dick greets. Aiden raises a brow at the nickname but Dick doesn’t acknowledge it, “I finished up what I had to do. If you’re ready we can leave.”
Aiden looks down at Barkley then to Dick.
“Barkley will eat his food if you let him lay in your lap,” he informs, “I think his old owner did that with him. He just misses them.”
Aiden could relate to that. He’s starting to miss his mom’s cooking and Ashlyn’s parents cooking. In fact, he’s missing Taylor’s delicious brownies. Not even Havens Cafe can replicate the nostalgic taste of Taylor’s Brownies.
Dicks smile turns sullen. He nods, “I’ll let Teri know.”
Aiden puts Dicks phone down, face down, onto the ground. He gently taps Barkley on the top of his head until he gets a tired grumble from the dog.
“Goodnight Barkley,” Aiden whispers as he picks up the dog. Barkley just snorts and curls up again when he’s placed onto the bed within the kennel.
Aiden stands up, pins and needles rubbing through his legs and feeling particularly painful within the cast. He winces and exits the kennel.
He watches Dick close the kennel door and when he turns, Aiden hands Dicks phone back. He stares at the still open game and doesn’t double take.
“Holy shit,” he breathes out, “how the hell did you get to 206,540?!”
Aiden smirks slyly and simply shrugs, “I like puzzles.”
Dick follows Aiden back towards the front where Teri is clacking away at a keyboard. Dick fishes his keys out of his pocket and then hands them over to Aiden.
“Wait in the car? I gotta talk to Teri for a second,” Dick says, already moving and waving to Teri.
Aiden nods and leaves the building. He unlocks the car doors and throws his crutches into the backseat. He moves to sit in the front seat and sighs.
Dick isn’t talking for too long thankfully. Aiden was worried it would have been one of those moments where your mom is shopping but sees a friend parked nearby. They talk for what feels like hours on end while Aiden just has to sit there, waiting.
He’s grateful this wasn’t like that. Dick sits down in the drivers seat and shuts the door. Susan shakes even though Dick hadn’t even slammed the door shut at all.
He grabs his keys and puts it into the ignite. Susan is rumbling to life and pulling out of the parking space.
Aiden yawns, head turning to look out the window. He watches the buildings they pass and then stares at the probably radioactive river they cross over.
On the bridge, Dick speaks, “do you wanna watch a movie?”
He seems almost nervous when he asks Aiden. His eyes are trained carefully onto the road and Aiden stares at his side profile intently.
“Why not. Will anyone else be there?” Aiden asks.
“Well, Jason has something to do today and Tim is picking Bruce up. Steph is a hit or miss and I’m not sure about Duke,” Dick shrugs, “it’ll probably just be us. Duke may join us later, though.”
Aiden hums thoughtfully. He wasn’t met with any weird looks from Dick today. Not any that made Aiden’s skin crawl at least. Aiden could probably survive a few movies. He really wanted to get to one of Dicks suggestions but everyone had gone to bed before they got to the movie.
He looks out the window and eyes the setting orange sun. The water gleams an odd red under the rays of the sun. The water is definitely radioactive or something.
He turns back to Dick, “lemme just change first.”
He nods and the car lulls into silence. Other than Susan of course, she’s still sputtering and the radio still teeters off into static randomly.
But by the time they get to the manor, Susan’s radio had calmed significantly. The two got out of the vehicle and entered the manor.
“I’ll grab some snacks snd whenever you’re ready I’ll be in the theatre room,” Dick says, “you can pick the movie again.”
Aiden nods. The two part ways, Dick heading to the kitchen and Aiden heading up to his room.
He pulls open a drawer and grabs a pair of hello kitty pajama pants. He also grabs an oversized t-shirt.
He takes his shirt off and then his pants and quickly changes into the pajama pants and t-shirt.
When he goes back downstairs to the theatre room, Dick is already waiting for him with three bowls.
Two bowls have popcorn in it and the third bowl is full of various candy like Snickers, Twix, and Milkyway.
Dick is sitting on the couch in the center of the room. He’s sitting on the far right corner and Aiden settles on the left end of the couch. He leans over the couches armrest and lays his crutches against the loveseat off to the side. He reaches for the remote and opens Netflix.
He’s in an animated movie mood today. He’s gonna make Dick okay that movie he wanted to see after though. He settled for putting on one of the movies he’s seen with Ben and settles.
Aiden grabs one of the bowls of popcorn and grabs a handful. He tries to keep the popcorn in his mouth despite taking a way too big bite. A piece or two fall onto his lap.
The movie—Nimona—is interesting. The red themed shape shifter is spunky and Aiden finds himself agreeing with her morals and reasons.
By the end of the movie, Aiden’s eyes are hazy with what is definitely not tears. He’s pretty sure Dick actually had shed a tear or two.
The next movie, Dick chose the comedy movie Aiden had wanted to see last time.
And thus, the next few hours were spent watching movies. At some point, Aiden had grabbed a fluffy pink blanket. The popcorn bowl was empty and sat on the counter, untouched.
It was about six by the time Aiden found himself yawning. He isn’t sure how but instead of leaning on the far end of the couch, Aiden found himself sitting in the middle seat. He sat on his legs and his head leaned back on the couch.
Dicks eyes remained on the screen and only sometimes looked over when he thought Aiden wasn’t paying attention. It’s nice; the lack of staring and the ‘I’m a scientist studying you’ manner he’s used to from Dick isn’t as present as it usually is. He can admit that today had been a good day.
Aiden yawned again, his eyes half lidded. The fluffy blanket kept him warm and the gentle hum of the TV was beginning to lull Aiden.
Dick turned his head to Aiden and instead of his prying eyes, his gaze looked soft and not like he was looking for something Aiden didn’t have. Aiden tensed minutely, shoulders locking. After a second, Dicks head turned back to the screen.
Aiden’s body relaxed and he blinked slowly. He yawns again and this time, when he blinks, his eyes stay shut.
This is okay. Dicks gaze, even the more prying ones don’t feel as strong and invasive as they did before.
Maybe dogs really do fix everything. No, they definitely fix things and they make it easier. Aiden misses Barkley. He’ll talk to Dick about it tomorrow. Or Tim.
Aiden’s body feels light again and the TV’s noises fade out.