Batman fic: Robin-Talk (Dick, Steph)
May. 13th, 2009 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficTitle: Robin-Talk
Fandom: Batman comics
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,749
Author’s Notes: Betaed by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lurkslikefox
Characters/Pairings: Dick, Steph, references to Tim/Steph and Dick/Babs
Summary: Steph is the new Robin. Dick thinks he should be on at least a first-name basis with any Robin.
Dick Grayson had always believed that if you stayed in a place long enough, it became part of you. That’s the way it had been with the circus, even though it had moved from place to place. And even though he didn’t have that with Gotham anymore, he still regarded the Batcave like other kids would an old treehouse. He could feel a tenor to it, all the thoughts and feelings of its boys pulsing against each other. Right now there was awkwardness, anxiety, worry. Just like with Tim, and just like with Jason.
Dick somersaulted off the old still rings he’d been playing on and padded through the cave to the science section, where he saw the familiar yellow-rimmed black of Robin’s cape sweeping through the crime lab. What warranted the double-take was the matching stripe of blonde hair curling away from Robin’s head.
He’d heard it from Babs that Tim had been replaced, but it was still a weird sight. He’d gotten used to Tim being Robin in a way he never really had with Jason’s brief stint. Although really that was him not being used to himself not being Robin. He could only imagine what Tim was going through.
With an aggravated cry, Steph swept all the beakers off the table and screamed at the top of her lungs. Dick cleared his throat loudly when she was done and Steph turned, ready for action. Good reflexes.
“I was just…” She ran a hand through her hair in adolescent self-consciousness that Dick remembered all too well. “I’m going to clean it up!”
“Need a hand?”
“Uh, yeah.” She smiled a little. “Really, how often is knowing where a soil sample came from going to come in handy?”
“You’d be surprised.”
With him wielding the broomstick and her the paper towels, the mess was soon a thing of the past. Steph pulled her mask off, rubbing at her face to get at phantom spirit gum. “I am never going to get used to this domino mask thing.”
“It helps if you chew gum. I don’t know why.” Dick glanced leadingly at the Batcycles. “You wanna go play?”
“I’m supposed to do the chemical thing until it turns purple… or violet… maybe lavender? Which is crap anyway because Cass doesn’t even have to read…”
“You’re Robin,” Dick said simply. “C’mon, just a quick patrol around the city. We’ll be back before Bats even knows we’re gone. I won’t let him fire you or anything.”
“He really does that?”
“He doesn’t… mean it?” Dick tried to be reassuring. “Don’t worry about it. Show me how you put the mask on, there’ll a lot of ways to get it wrong, which irritates the skin.”
“Are you going to talk to me about pore cleansing next?”
“You learn a lot about make-up when you have to cover up bruises. The right shade of lipstick can shift perception of skin tone, which can make a discoloration less prominent.”
“Oh.” Steph laughed, oddly high. “Oh, all that stuff’s really real, huh? I mean, Robin… Tim always says that you guys are the real deal, but I thought he was getting in a bit of hero worship.”
“I don’t think Tim lets himself be fooled by nostalgia and that kind of thing…” Dick thought about her words. The real deal. “Batman and I?”
“Well, yeah. Of course.”
“Never actually thought I’d be lumped in with him. C’mon, is this a borderline legal vigilante club or a Tupperware party? Let’s solve some crime.”
***
“This is so, so, so, so, so, so, so stupid!” Steph squeezed her eyes shut and turned away before forcing herself to look off the bridge again. “I was just getting used to rooftops!”
“Hey, first time for everything.” Nightwing smiled at her. “Come on, I’m not letting anything happen to a Robin on my watch. Just look for your opening, be patient, wait to feel ready… then you just go.”
“You just go.” Steph laughed nervously. “How have you lived this long?”
“God looks after fools, little children, and people who wear form-fitting spandex.”
They were on the Lamont Overpass, perched atop the chainlink fencing that ran along its sides. Traffic was rare and their dark costumes left them invisible to it at any rate. Below them was the last stretch of grounded train track before the 3 AM train from City Hall District to Moon Isle. The only thing Steph knew about Moon Isle was that Commissioner Gordon lived there. She really hoped they weren’t going to visit Commissioner Gordon. She was so not quite ready for that.
“Relax. Don’t stress. Breathe even, concentrate on controlling that. You’re a Bat, I’m with you, and as long as a single one of us is left, you’re not going to fall.”
The train roared underneath. Steph’s quiet squeak of fear was lost beneath its pistoning.
“Okay, on three,” Dick said.
“Wait, I thought you said I was supposed to wait and be patient… possibly take a bathroom break…”
“There’s only so long a moving train is going to be under us. On. Three. One, two—“
Steph jumped, bursting out of her black-caped cocoon and into flight. Her hair flew out, curling and whipping with the wind that wrecked havoc with its pomade. Dick reeled back in shock and pleased surprise, then lunged after her. She landed on the train in a roll-tuck, coming up near the edge of the roof. Dick crouch-dropped beside her, shooting his hand out to help her before realizing she didn’t need it. Steph giggled.
“First try!”
“Don’t start sending out invites to your pizza party just yet. Getting off the train is the really tricky part.”
Steph frowned at him, taking out her barrette and running its comb through her hair to tame it somewhat.
“So, being Robin…” Dick said experimentally. “How’s that working out for you?”
Steph thought about the wind in her hair and in her cape. “Pretty good so far.”
“Cool beans. Put any thought into, ya know, long-term?”
“Long-term? I fight bad guys, save the days… maybe get back together with Tim.”
“A little more long-term than that.” Dick crouched low to the train. “Robin doesn’t last forever. I think it’d be healthier if you looked at it like a stepping stone. It was for me.”
“Hey, just because other people have… had their things doesn’t mean I will. If I’m doing good, I shouldn’t have to flake out.”
“This isn’t for years and years, I’m just saying there should be a contingency plan…”
“I’ll get to it. Crap, I haven’t even finished training and you’re telling me to get ready for retirement.”
Dick shrugged. Mea culpa. “To be fair, training never really ends.”
“Oh, great.”
Dick put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, bright side is, you never stop getting better. This is far enough. Dismount time.”
“Dismount…?” Steph looked off the monorail at the buildings rushing by. “Oh, oh you know the train stops on its own, right?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“Did you used to do this with Tim?”
Dick nodded. “Blindfolded.”
“Great. That’s just perfect.” She jumped, flying to a passing rooftop, kicking off the parapet to bleed off velocity and then logrolling down the rooftop into a skid that flayed her pant-legs.
Dick touched down beside her, boot-heels grinding on the roof almost hard enough to throw up sparks. He came to a stop against the parapet. Helped Steph up, dusted off her green pants. Their finish was shredded to the armor plating underneath.
“You didn’t wait for my signal.”
“Maybe you’re just getting slow in your old age.” Steph panted. “Worked, didn’t it?”
Dick grinned. “Yeah. That was pretty awesome for a first-timer. But the thing is, you can’t just jump, you have to jump. Don’t be afraid of it. Respect it, ride it. You’ve been trained on how to take a fall, throw out a grappling hook, all that?”
“Yeah.”
“So trust your training. It’s fun. It’s art. Just, you know… listen up. Your body’s telling you what to do. Your mind’s just being a worrywart. Ignore it.”
“I’m gonna tell Oracle you said that.”
“And I’ll let you… if you catch me.” Dick took off, running for the edge, taking an AC unit like a springboard, soaring, then contorting his body to overshoot the parapet and roll to his feet on the next rooftop. He gestured for Steph to follow.
She ran toward him, willing her body into the perfect machine sprint that seemed to come to everyone else like second nature, jumped before the parapet, then weightless, then landing. She hit the parapet in a crouch which slipped her off and into an undignified heap on the rooftop. Steph got up, dusting herself off again.
“Tell me you sucked this much when you were starting out? Please?”
“I was in the circus, so… that’s actually not a joke. Next rooftop.”
The next one was closer, more of the distance Steph was used to jumping (the last one would’ve been strictly grappling hook just a month ago). Dick was right. There was fun, and art, in the way he moved. Even when he hit the ground, even when he was in the air, he was ready for action and enjoying himself. Steph tried to follow suit, curving her body to the wind like he did. Her cape ruffled approvingly.
“It was easy. The running, the fighting, the investigating. I guess the real problem was turning it off. There are a lot of people I can only hope know how I feel about them, because I have no clue how to tell them.”
“Have you tried… telling them?”
Dick hurdled the next gap. “Try to keep up.”
Steph followed after him, once more feeling the wind on her face as she seized it. Wasn’t so hard, once she started thinking of it like a dance, like gymnastics. No competition, just motion.
“Okay, so I’m a human being first, crimefighter second, la-de-dah. What about Jason?”
Dick skidded to a stop, looking at her.
Steph stopped too. “Oracle told me about him.”
“Good. That was good of her.” Dick tossed her something.
“Power bar?”
“Keeps your energy up on a long night. What’s your diet on days?”
“Alfred’s teaching me to cook vegetables so they actually taste good.”
“Oh, you spoil him. Even Al couldn’t wean me off Crocky Bits. Eat.”
Steph ripped open the packaging and nibbled at it. “So… Jason?”
Eyes downcast, Dick answered. “He was a good kid. He had problems. Those aren’t mutually exclusive, okay?”
Steph nodded.
Dick walked to the edge of the rooftop, kneeling down to look over it. “He was reckless, he was ferocious, he was… a hero. Just led astray. We failed him, all of us. We were so busy with our own little dramas and missions that we forgot he was just a kid.”
“Is that why you wanted to take me out here?”
“A little,” Dick admitted. “You’re different, though. You’ve seen your share of Gotham, but you haven’t let it beat you. That’s lesson one and you did it all by yourself. Don’t forget that.”
Steph crumpled up the wrapper and stuffed it into her utility belt. “And Tim?”
“Tim’s smart. Smarter than me, even. But he had to work at things. I think… I think before his mom died, he tended to see the best in people. He had to train himself to stop that, for this line of work.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, it does. I’m sorry if he hasn’t been… the best friend to you lately. He cares.”
“I know.” Steph hunched down beside Dick. “Anything?”
“No. Funny, this is usually a hot spot. Let’s move on. You know how to use a grapple-gun?”
“I’m Robin, not Bat-baby.”
“You know how to use it after you jump?” Dick grinned challengingly and stepped off the side of the building. Steph looked off in time to hear the muted pffht of his grapple-gun firing, then the lighter ding of his line catching.
“This is child endangerment. I should have him arrested,” Steph muttered just before she dived off the building and John Wooed her grapple line into the same target Dick had hit. She saw him swinging forward, running off the side of a building, then kicking off it to swing onto a billboard. Somehow, she managed to do the same.
“Nice moves,” Dick complimented. “You put any thought into joining the Titans?”
“No! Why?”
“It’s good to have friends you can talk to about all this stuff. I don’t know where I’d be without Wonder Girl and Speedy.”
“I talk to Cass.”
“What about Tim?”
“What am I supposed to talk to him about? All the stuff he can’t do?”
Dick sat down on the top of the billboard and patted the space beside him. Steph crouched down, one hand on her utility belt.
“Tim doesn’t resent you. I didn’t resent him.”
“He wasn’t dating you. I mean, I didn’t even think to ask him before I said yes…”
Dick shook his head and said something about Bruce under his breath. “Look, don’t waste time. You never know how much you have with someone. You never know when something will come up or something will happen and someone who’s there one day maybe won’t be the next.”
He hopped down onto the walkway in front of the billboard. Steph followed him.
“You lost someone?”
“I left someone behind. I don’t know if I can get her back.” He shook his head. “Not important. Look, go to Tim, don’t go to Tim… you’ll be a great Robin either way. It’s not about jumping off the highest rooftops or beating up the biggest thugs or solving the toughest cases. It’s about heart. You can’t just want to punish evil, that’s where Jay went wrong. You have to want to help people. You have to love them. Forget the people… and you’re just another thug.”
“I, uh…” Steph blushed. “No one ever told me that before. About being great.”
“Hey, no one deserves to wait five years for Batman to tell them he’s proud.”
“Five years? That long?”
“Well… on average.” Dick looked down at the city block below them. “Okay, still no crime? This is BS. Let’s go hassle the Penguin, see if he knows anything.”
“Oh, awesome!” Steph brought out her grapple-gun. “Does he really do that ‘wak wak wak’ thing?”
“Sometimes, but you have to really get him steamed.”
“Awesome.”
***
In time, Bruce would teach Steph how to meditate so she only needed to sleep about an hour a night. For now, she got home around four AM and crawled into bed. Batman and Nightwing watched through the window as she pulled the covers over her thin body, a Batarang in her hand. She rubbed her thumb over its scalloped edges before sliding it under her pillow.
Dick wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, it was a little cute, like Lian with a stuffed animal. On the other, home should be someplace safe, like the circus or Titans Tower. Not somewhere you had to hold a weapon in your hand just to get to sleep.
Batman was on the branch beside him, not disturbing a single leaf. “Is she ready?”
“She has potential.”
“Is she ready?”
Dick sighed. He didn’t hate Bruce, but sometimes he hated the results Bruce so desperately craved. Or needed. “She’s ready.”
“Good. Gotham’s tumbling toward anarchy.”
Dick snorted. What else was new?
“It’s different this time. There’s someone new drawing the crime families together, working behind the scenes, pulling the strings. Not flashy, not crazy, just evil. I could use a Robin for it.”
“That’d be a first.” The look Batman gave him didn’t confirm or deny, just asked. “You admitting it. Just go easy on her, huh? You can’t expect everyone to be Tim.”
“I can’t expect everyone to be you,” Bruce said, either correcting or praising. Maybe both. “I appreciate your opinion.”
“Thanks. And for, you know… letting me talk to her.”
“You’re Robin. It was your call.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Dick said, with Batman in mid-disappearance. He’d always loved spoiling that trick, though he only got to do it once in a great while. “You don’t still think of me like that, do you?”
“I think of you as Dick Grayson, the same as I have for a long time.”
“Since I left?”
“A long time,” Bruce repeated.
Fandom: Batman comics
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,749
Author’s Notes: Betaed by
lurkslikefoxCharacters/Pairings: Dick, Steph, references to Tim/Steph and Dick/Babs
Summary: Steph is the new Robin. Dick thinks he should be on at least a first-name basis with any Robin.
Dick Grayson had always believed that if you stayed in a place long enough, it became part of you. That’s the way it had been with the circus, even though it had moved from place to place. And even though he didn’t have that with Gotham anymore, he still regarded the Batcave like other kids would an old treehouse. He could feel a tenor to it, all the thoughts and feelings of its boys pulsing against each other. Right now there was awkwardness, anxiety, worry. Just like with Tim, and just like with Jason.
Dick somersaulted off the old still rings he’d been playing on and padded through the cave to the science section, where he saw the familiar yellow-rimmed black of Robin’s cape sweeping through the crime lab. What warranted the double-take was the matching stripe of blonde hair curling away from Robin’s head.
He’d heard it from Babs that Tim had been replaced, but it was still a weird sight. He’d gotten used to Tim being Robin in a way he never really had with Jason’s brief stint. Although really that was him not being used to himself not being Robin. He could only imagine what Tim was going through.
With an aggravated cry, Steph swept all the beakers off the table and screamed at the top of her lungs. Dick cleared his throat loudly when she was done and Steph turned, ready for action. Good reflexes.
“I was just…” She ran a hand through her hair in adolescent self-consciousness that Dick remembered all too well. “I’m going to clean it up!”
“Need a hand?”
“Uh, yeah.” She smiled a little. “Really, how often is knowing where a soil sample came from going to come in handy?”
“You’d be surprised.”
With him wielding the broomstick and her the paper towels, the mess was soon a thing of the past. Steph pulled her mask off, rubbing at her face to get at phantom spirit gum. “I am never going to get used to this domino mask thing.”
“It helps if you chew gum. I don’t know why.” Dick glanced leadingly at the Batcycles. “You wanna go play?”
“I’m supposed to do the chemical thing until it turns purple… or violet… maybe lavender? Which is crap anyway because Cass doesn’t even have to read…”
“You’re Robin,” Dick said simply. “C’mon, just a quick patrol around the city. We’ll be back before Bats even knows we’re gone. I won’t let him fire you or anything.”
“He really does that?”
“He doesn’t… mean it?” Dick tried to be reassuring. “Don’t worry about it. Show me how you put the mask on, there’ll a lot of ways to get it wrong, which irritates the skin.”
“Are you going to talk to me about pore cleansing next?”
“You learn a lot about make-up when you have to cover up bruises. The right shade of lipstick can shift perception of skin tone, which can make a discoloration less prominent.”
“Oh.” Steph laughed, oddly high. “Oh, all that stuff’s really real, huh? I mean, Robin… Tim always says that you guys are the real deal, but I thought he was getting in a bit of hero worship.”
“I don’t think Tim lets himself be fooled by nostalgia and that kind of thing…” Dick thought about her words. The real deal. “Batman and I?”
“Well, yeah. Of course.”
“Never actually thought I’d be lumped in with him. C’mon, is this a borderline legal vigilante club or a Tupperware party? Let’s solve some crime.”
***
“This is so, so, so, so, so, so, so stupid!” Steph squeezed her eyes shut and turned away before forcing herself to look off the bridge again. “I was just getting used to rooftops!”
“Hey, first time for everything.” Nightwing smiled at her. “Come on, I’m not letting anything happen to a Robin on my watch. Just look for your opening, be patient, wait to feel ready… then you just go.”
“You just go.” Steph laughed nervously. “How have you lived this long?”
“God looks after fools, little children, and people who wear form-fitting spandex.”
They were on the Lamont Overpass, perched atop the chainlink fencing that ran along its sides. Traffic was rare and their dark costumes left them invisible to it at any rate. Below them was the last stretch of grounded train track before the 3 AM train from City Hall District to Moon Isle. The only thing Steph knew about Moon Isle was that Commissioner Gordon lived there. She really hoped they weren’t going to visit Commissioner Gordon. She was so not quite ready for that.
“Relax. Don’t stress. Breathe even, concentrate on controlling that. You’re a Bat, I’m with you, and as long as a single one of us is left, you’re not going to fall.”
The train roared underneath. Steph’s quiet squeak of fear was lost beneath its pistoning.
“Okay, on three,” Dick said.
“Wait, I thought you said I was supposed to wait and be patient… possibly take a bathroom break…”
“There’s only so long a moving train is going to be under us. On. Three. One, two—“
Steph jumped, bursting out of her black-caped cocoon and into flight. Her hair flew out, curling and whipping with the wind that wrecked havoc with its pomade. Dick reeled back in shock and pleased surprise, then lunged after her. She landed on the train in a roll-tuck, coming up near the edge of the roof. Dick crouch-dropped beside her, shooting his hand out to help her before realizing she didn’t need it. Steph giggled.
“First try!”
“Don’t start sending out invites to your pizza party just yet. Getting off the train is the really tricky part.”
Steph frowned at him, taking out her barrette and running its comb through her hair to tame it somewhat.
“So, being Robin…” Dick said experimentally. “How’s that working out for you?”
Steph thought about the wind in her hair and in her cape. “Pretty good so far.”
“Cool beans. Put any thought into, ya know, long-term?”
“Long-term? I fight bad guys, save the days… maybe get back together with Tim.”
“A little more long-term than that.” Dick crouched low to the train. “Robin doesn’t last forever. I think it’d be healthier if you looked at it like a stepping stone. It was for me.”
“Hey, just because other people have… had their things doesn’t mean I will. If I’m doing good, I shouldn’t have to flake out.”
“This isn’t for years and years, I’m just saying there should be a contingency plan…”
“I’ll get to it. Crap, I haven’t even finished training and you’re telling me to get ready for retirement.”
Dick shrugged. Mea culpa. “To be fair, training never really ends.”
“Oh, great.”
Dick put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, bright side is, you never stop getting better. This is far enough. Dismount time.”
“Dismount…?” Steph looked off the monorail at the buildings rushing by. “Oh, oh you know the train stops on its own, right?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“Did you used to do this with Tim?”
Dick nodded. “Blindfolded.”
“Great. That’s just perfect.” She jumped, flying to a passing rooftop, kicking off the parapet to bleed off velocity and then logrolling down the rooftop into a skid that flayed her pant-legs.
Dick touched down beside her, boot-heels grinding on the roof almost hard enough to throw up sparks. He came to a stop against the parapet. Helped Steph up, dusted off her green pants. Their finish was shredded to the armor plating underneath.
“You didn’t wait for my signal.”
“Maybe you’re just getting slow in your old age.” Steph panted. “Worked, didn’t it?”
Dick grinned. “Yeah. That was pretty awesome for a first-timer. But the thing is, you can’t just jump, you have to jump. Don’t be afraid of it. Respect it, ride it. You’ve been trained on how to take a fall, throw out a grappling hook, all that?”
“Yeah.”
“So trust your training. It’s fun. It’s art. Just, you know… listen up. Your body’s telling you what to do. Your mind’s just being a worrywart. Ignore it.”
“I’m gonna tell Oracle you said that.”
“And I’ll let you… if you catch me.” Dick took off, running for the edge, taking an AC unit like a springboard, soaring, then contorting his body to overshoot the parapet and roll to his feet on the next rooftop. He gestured for Steph to follow.
She ran toward him, willing her body into the perfect machine sprint that seemed to come to everyone else like second nature, jumped before the parapet, then weightless, then landing. She hit the parapet in a crouch which slipped her off and into an undignified heap on the rooftop. Steph got up, dusting herself off again.
“Tell me you sucked this much when you were starting out? Please?”
“I was in the circus, so… that’s actually not a joke. Next rooftop.”
The next one was closer, more of the distance Steph was used to jumping (the last one would’ve been strictly grappling hook just a month ago). Dick was right. There was fun, and art, in the way he moved. Even when he hit the ground, even when he was in the air, he was ready for action and enjoying himself. Steph tried to follow suit, curving her body to the wind like he did. Her cape ruffled approvingly.
“It was easy. The running, the fighting, the investigating. I guess the real problem was turning it off. There are a lot of people I can only hope know how I feel about them, because I have no clue how to tell them.”
“Have you tried… telling them?”
Dick hurdled the next gap. “Try to keep up.”
Steph followed after him, once more feeling the wind on her face as she seized it. Wasn’t so hard, once she started thinking of it like a dance, like gymnastics. No competition, just motion.
“Okay, so I’m a human being first, crimefighter second, la-de-dah. What about Jason?”
Dick skidded to a stop, looking at her.
Steph stopped too. “Oracle told me about him.”
“Good. That was good of her.” Dick tossed her something.
“Power bar?”
“Keeps your energy up on a long night. What’s your diet on days?”
“Alfred’s teaching me to cook vegetables so they actually taste good.”
“Oh, you spoil him. Even Al couldn’t wean me off Crocky Bits. Eat.”
Steph ripped open the packaging and nibbled at it. “So… Jason?”
Eyes downcast, Dick answered. “He was a good kid. He had problems. Those aren’t mutually exclusive, okay?”
Steph nodded.
Dick walked to the edge of the rooftop, kneeling down to look over it. “He was reckless, he was ferocious, he was… a hero. Just led astray. We failed him, all of us. We were so busy with our own little dramas and missions that we forgot he was just a kid.”
“Is that why you wanted to take me out here?”
“A little,” Dick admitted. “You’re different, though. You’ve seen your share of Gotham, but you haven’t let it beat you. That’s lesson one and you did it all by yourself. Don’t forget that.”
Steph crumpled up the wrapper and stuffed it into her utility belt. “And Tim?”
“Tim’s smart. Smarter than me, even. But he had to work at things. I think… I think before his mom died, he tended to see the best in people. He had to train himself to stop that, for this line of work.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, it does. I’m sorry if he hasn’t been… the best friend to you lately. He cares.”
“I know.” Steph hunched down beside Dick. “Anything?”
“No. Funny, this is usually a hot spot. Let’s move on. You know how to use a grapple-gun?”
“I’m Robin, not Bat-baby.”
“You know how to use it after you jump?” Dick grinned challengingly and stepped off the side of the building. Steph looked off in time to hear the muted pffht of his grapple-gun firing, then the lighter ding of his line catching.
“This is child endangerment. I should have him arrested,” Steph muttered just before she dived off the building and John Wooed her grapple line into the same target Dick had hit. She saw him swinging forward, running off the side of a building, then kicking off it to swing onto a billboard. Somehow, she managed to do the same.
“Nice moves,” Dick complimented. “You put any thought into joining the Titans?”
“No! Why?”
“It’s good to have friends you can talk to about all this stuff. I don’t know where I’d be without Wonder Girl and Speedy.”
“I talk to Cass.”
“What about Tim?”
“What am I supposed to talk to him about? All the stuff he can’t do?”
Dick sat down on the top of the billboard and patted the space beside him. Steph crouched down, one hand on her utility belt.
“Tim doesn’t resent you. I didn’t resent him.”
“He wasn’t dating you. I mean, I didn’t even think to ask him before I said yes…”
Dick shook his head and said something about Bruce under his breath. “Look, don’t waste time. You never know how much you have with someone. You never know when something will come up or something will happen and someone who’s there one day maybe won’t be the next.”
He hopped down onto the walkway in front of the billboard. Steph followed him.
“You lost someone?”
“I left someone behind. I don’t know if I can get her back.” He shook his head. “Not important. Look, go to Tim, don’t go to Tim… you’ll be a great Robin either way. It’s not about jumping off the highest rooftops or beating up the biggest thugs or solving the toughest cases. It’s about heart. You can’t just want to punish evil, that’s where Jay went wrong. You have to want to help people. You have to love them. Forget the people… and you’re just another thug.”
“I, uh…” Steph blushed. “No one ever told me that before. About being great.”
“Hey, no one deserves to wait five years for Batman to tell them he’s proud.”
“Five years? That long?”
“Well… on average.” Dick looked down at the city block below them. “Okay, still no crime? This is BS. Let’s go hassle the Penguin, see if he knows anything.”
“Oh, awesome!” Steph brought out her grapple-gun. “Does he really do that ‘wak wak wak’ thing?”
“Sometimes, but you have to really get him steamed.”
“Awesome.”
***
In time, Bruce would teach Steph how to meditate so she only needed to sleep about an hour a night. For now, she got home around four AM and crawled into bed. Batman and Nightwing watched through the window as she pulled the covers over her thin body, a Batarang in her hand. She rubbed her thumb over its scalloped edges before sliding it under her pillow.
Dick wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, it was a little cute, like Lian with a stuffed animal. On the other, home should be someplace safe, like the circus or Titans Tower. Not somewhere you had to hold a weapon in your hand just to get to sleep.
Batman was on the branch beside him, not disturbing a single leaf. “Is she ready?”
“She has potential.”
“Is she ready?”
Dick sighed. He didn’t hate Bruce, but sometimes he hated the results Bruce so desperately craved. Or needed. “She’s ready.”
“Good. Gotham’s tumbling toward anarchy.”
Dick snorted. What else was new?
“It’s different this time. There’s someone new drawing the crime families together, working behind the scenes, pulling the strings. Not flashy, not crazy, just evil. I could use a Robin for it.”
“That’d be a first.” The look Batman gave him didn’t confirm or deny, just asked. “You admitting it. Just go easy on her, huh? You can’t expect everyone to be Tim.”
“I can’t expect everyone to be you,” Bruce said, either correcting or praising. Maybe both. “I appreciate your opinion.”
“Thanks. And for, you know… letting me talk to her.”
“You’re Robin. It was your call.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Dick said, with Batman in mid-disappearance. He’d always loved spoiling that trick, though he only got to do it once in a great while. “You don’t still think of me like that, do you?”
“I think of you as Dick Grayson, the same as I have for a long time.”
“Since I left?”
“A long time,” Bruce repeated.
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Date: 2009-05-13 08:37 pm (UTC)You described them both perfectly.
I'm not usually a big Steph fan, but you really made me like her in this.
Good job!
-Singer
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Date: 2009-05-16 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-13 11:56 pm (UTC)Loved it, really did.
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Date: 2009-05-16 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 12:48 am (UTC)Steph pulled her mask off, rubbing at her face to get at phantom spirit gum.
Aha, that's how they keep their masks on! I wasn't quite sure how they did it. Thanks.
Steph followed after him, once more feeling the wind on her face as she seized it. Wasn’t so hard, once she started thinking of it like a dance, like gymnastics. No competition, just motion.
Atta girl, Steph. That's a good way to see it. Dick could and I'm pretty sure *would* sympathize very much with the gymnast's point of view.
I really, really like Dick and Steph's conversations, particularly how practical they are (being about masks and makeup, the value of knowing where soil samples came from, food for long nights) and how matter-of-fact Dick is with his responses. They feel very easy and natural. I also really like Dick's sentiments (he still regarded the Batcave like other kids would an old treehouse = a lovely thought) and the descriptions that I can see in my head if I try (Dick somersaulted off the old still rings he’d been playing on and padded through the cave to the science section, where he saw the familiar yellow-rimmed black of Robin’s cape sweeping through the crime lab.) :)
Dick walked to the edge of the rooftop, kneeling down to look over it. “He was reckless, he was ferocious, he was… a hero. Just led astray. We failed him, all of us. We were so busy with our own little dramas and missions that we forgot he was just a kid.”
I haven't read the comics although I've read the back story (I just found scans_daily not too long ago, and that among other things was what kicked my *passing* interest in these characters into a more *fannish* interest), but what are the dramas and missions that you're referring to? Or is it just the general sort of post-Crisis stuff they all had to deal with?
“Hey, no one deserves to wait five years for Batman to tell them he’s proud.”
“Five years? That long?”
“Well… on average.” Dick looked down at the city block below them. “Okay, still no crime? This is BS. Let’s go hassle the Penguin, see if he knows anything.”
“Oh, awesome!” Steph brought out her grapple-gun. “Does he really do that ‘wak wak wak’ thing?”
“Sometimes, but you have to really get him steamed.”
...
The look Batman gave him didn’t confirm or deny, just asked.
...
“I can’t expect everyone to be you,” Bruce said, either correcting or praising. Maybe both.
...
“Hey, wait a minute,” Dick said, with Batman in mid-disappearance. He’d always loved spoiling that trick, though he only got to do it once in a great while.
All of this = brilliance. The reference to the Penguin's laugh(?) is funny, and the characterization of Bruce is great too. It really is difficult to tell with him, huh, even for someone who knew him like Dick did.
Overall, great job (and I hope you don't mind the lengthy comment!).
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 01:41 am (UTC)I haven't read the comics although I've read the back story (I just found scans_daily not too long ago, and that among other things was what kicked my *passing* interest in these characters into a more *fannish* interest), but what are the dramas and missions that you're referring to? Or is it just the general sort of post-Crisis stuff they all had to deal with?
Just the various Post-Crisis things, especially Bruce's neuroses/willful blindness. Dick in particular was off-world at the time and only found out when he came home and checked the Teen Titans databases.
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Date: 2009-05-14 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 11:31 pm (UTC)And the final dialogue with Bruce, when he admits that he can't expect everyone to be like Dick...priceless!
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Date: 2009-05-16 06:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-18 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 06:34 am (UTC)"There are a lot of people I can only hope know how I feel about them, because I have no clue how to tell them.”
“Have you tried...telling them?”
In a sea of favourite exchanges, I think I like that one best, because it says so much about the two of them.
I loved their conversation about Jason, too. (I, er, may have teared up a little.) It's so true, and something it really would have helped her to hear.
So, well, thank you!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-27 05:37 pm (UTC)/still neutralalienist, just lazy
Date: 2010-07-27 07:50 pm (UTC)Re: /still neutralalienist, just lazy
Date: 2010-07-28 01:28 am (UTC)Mind if I ask who recced me?
Re: /still neutralalienist, just lazy
Date: 2010-07-28 10:07 pm (UTC)Not at all! fuckyeahlongbox (http://fuckyeahlongbox.tumblr.com/post/859944575/fic-robin-talk-by-seriousfic-why-it-is-awesome) over on Tumblr.