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- Jaybin
“Oh, come on! I can walk just fine!” Robin pouted, before attempting to walk away from Nightwing. Nightwing just sighed and watched as Robin hobbled away, the kid clearly favouring his left leg though he tried to hide it as much as possible.
“Okay, enough of this,” Nightwing muttered as he tiredly rubbed at his forehead. He strode forward and scruffed Robin by his cape.
“Hey! Put me down!” Robin yelled as he tried hitting Nightwing’s arms by swinging his own backwards but he wasn’t successful in the least. In fact, all it seemed to do was cause Robin’s body to swing with the momentum, causing his wrenched ankle to swing as well.
“Okay, enough of that,” Nightwing gently admonished and maneuvered Robin to stand on his uninjured leg and lean against him until the some of the pain had receded from his expression. “Look, I know you can make it back on your own, but you’ll make the injury worse and it’ll hurt like a bi- banging drum.”
“What’s your brilliant idea then?” Robin winced as he shifted his leg slightly.
Nightwing hummed as he considered the kid with him. For all the pain he must have been in, he was still stubbornly holding himself as separate from Nightwing as he could manage. He needed a way to get Robin, Jason, to agree to accept help without feeling coerced into it. “How about I be your legs and you be my eyes?” he finally offered.
“Yeah? And what’s that going to involve? Carrying me like a fainting damsel?” Robin huffed as he straightened up. “No thanks. I can manage getting back by myself without loosing my dignity.”
“I was thinking more of a piggy back situation. You’d be able to see further that way. Spot any trouble headed our way.”
Robin hummed as he squinted at Nightwing, the lenses of his domino narrowing with the motion. Nightwing waited as Robin very obviously deliberated his options. The distant screeching of sirens seemed to help make the decision.
“Fine. But the minute you start acting too cuddly, I’m going to kick you where it hurts,” Robin grumbled as he let Nightwing hoist him onto his back.
Nightwing made sure Robin was secure in his position before he started moving to get them both home. It was as they were passing a small 24-hour convenience store that Dick had an idea.
“Hey Robin?” he gently asked. When Jason just hummed in response, Dick went on. “You still like Neapolitan ice cream?”
“Why do you want to know?” came the suspicious response.
Dick pointed at the store and carefully shrugged, mindful of the precious cargo he had. “I figured we could get some sustenance for the road.”
“I’m not sure what Agent A would think of us eating ice cream during patrol,” he responded softly, though Dick could hear the underlying want in his voice.
“I think Agent A would understand a little ice cream given the situation. If there’s any problem, I’ll take care of it, alright?” when Dick felt Jason nod, he smiled and walked in. He was sure they made a funny sight, Robin riding on Nightwing’s back, Nightwing’s arms hooked under the little green kneepads as Robin held onto the two pint-sized containers of ice cream, but the tired Gothamite behind the counter didn’t bat an eye beyond asking if they needed any extra spoons or napkins.
It wasn’t until they walked back out that the problem became apparent.
“Nightwing you’re going to need your hands to eat the ice cream,” Jason murmured as they walked out.
“Hmm?” Dick tilted his head to look at Jason out of the corner of his eye. “Oh, how about we try something different?” Some manoeuvring later, Jason was sitting on Dick’s shoulders, Dick’s hands wrapped around Jason’s calves. “You comfortable up there?” he asked as he looked up.
Jason nodded and rested his hands in Dick’s hair. Jason’s non-verbal response made Dick concerned. As long he’d known the kid, he’d always had a smart retort or witticism ready to fly. The only times when Jason had been reserved or silent, were because he was uncertain, felt like anger or any kind of response would backfire on him.
“Here, some Neapolitan for you to enjoy. Just don’t drop any in my hair, alright?” Dick teased as he passed a container with a spoon to Jason. He hoped his teasing would be taken well. Jason took them and rested the carton on his head if the sudden cold weight was any indication.
“Just don’t drop me, dick,” Jason muttered as he tucked into his ice cream.
Dick gently patted his brother’s knee. “Never Little Wing. I got you.”
- Tim
“Jesus Tim, why didn’t you tell me you had such a bad migraine?” Dick sighed as he studied Tim’s eyes.
“’ts n’t tha bad,” he slurred. Dick comfortingly ran his hand through Tim’s messy hair as he tried to figure out how to get them someplace where Tim could rest.
“Come on baby bird, up you get,” Dick murmured as he guided Tim to sit on his shoulders. He pushed down the thought about how the last time he’d done this was with a different little brother. Tim awkwardly sat on his shoulders, holding himself rigidly. Almost like he didn’t know what to do or make of his new position.
“If you pull down your hoodie, you can lean forward and block out some of the light,” Dick suggested as he gently tugged Tim to lean forward a little bit. Tim followed his guidance and soon slumped over Dick’s head, Tim’s head buried in his arms and hoodie.
“’m not too heavy?” Tim said as he got comfortable.
“No baby bird, you’re as light as a feather,” Dick said patting Tim’s leg, where he held him.
“Oh good.”
“Your hair smells nice,” Tim muttered a few minutes later.
Dick laughed at the strange comment as he walked out of the park with Tim. “Yeah? Glad it meets your expectations Timmy.”
- Stephanie
“Oh god everything hurts. Why does everything hurt?” Batgirl groaned from where she lay sprawled across the warehouse floor, a few feet away.
“It’s because you got thrown into a pile of boxes,” Nightwing groaned as he stretched out his lower back where he stood.
“Is that why there’s a pile of destroyed toys everywhere,” she grumbled as she slowly levered herself upright. “Oh fuck, ow,” she muttered, adjusting her weight.
“No, those are from the boxes I got tossed into,” Nightwing said as he gave Batgirl a once over. “What hurts?” he asked walking closer.
“Everything hurts. Didn’t I say this already?” she grumbled as she squinted at Nightwing in return. “Did you hit your head when you got tossed? And where’s Croc?”
“He slipped into the sewers again. Where on your leg specifically does it hurt?”
“Great, a rematch for later. Remind me to pack more croc repellent. Does Batman have croc repellent? He’s definitely got shark repellent, he should have croc repellent.”
“Batgirl. Your leg. Where does it hurt?”
“I think my knee got the worst of it,” she said as she pulled off her cape and tied it around her knee. “God the next few days are going to be a pain.”
Nightwing crouched in front of her. “Come on, I’ll take you back and we can get your knee wrapped up properly.”
“Are you offering me a piggy back ride, Nightwing?” she teased as she gingerly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Offering to be your chariot my lady. Promise not to turn into a pumpkin when it strikes midnight,” he teased in return as he stood up and headed to where he knew the Batmobile would be parked.
“Lucky me,” she sighed as she adjusted her hold around his neck. Nightwing helped her settle into the passenger seat and leaned her seat back so she could rest her knee comfortably. He got into the driver’s seat and let the computer system drive them back to the cave.
“I’ll ask Alfred to send some of his magic balm back with you for the knee. It’s like magic when it comes to knee injuries,” Dick murmured as he peeled his domino off.
“Thanks Dick. You’re a good sort-of brother,” Stephanie smiled as she pushed her cowl off.
Dick smiled at her in response.
- Cass
Cass was looking at all the parents walking around in the zoo rather than at the animals themselves. Dick wondered what exactly she saw when she observed people. They’d occasionally talked about what they both noticed when they people watched. He was always intrigued by her perspective and take aways.
He turned to look at the people wandering between the different animal enclosures. A few young couples obviously on dates were clustered around some of the hyenas currently dozing in the sun. There was a small group of kids feeding the giraffes as a tired set of adults kept an eye on them; Dick figured the poor adults were stuck on watch-the-kids duty. Though given how loudly three of the seven kids were screeching when the giraffe licked their palms he could understand why they looked so tired. Seven kids in the 8 to 12-year-range was a lot to manage. There were a few other different parents with their kids watching different animals.
Dick glanced at Cass again and noticed her paying special attention to the parents who had kids perched on their shoulders and on their hips as they carried them around. He gently nudged her shoulder and tilted his head.
Cass pointed at a woman standing with her kid on her shoulders. “Why?” she asked softly.
Dick hummed as he considered how to answer. “It’s a thing parents do sometimes. Let’s the children feel tall so they can see further.”
Cass pointed at a father carrying a boy on his hip two enclosures over and looked to Dick again.
“That’s mainly because sometimes the kids get tired. Or don’t want to be in their strollers anymore,” Dick answered. He watched her for a moment as Cass turned to look back at the people while she processed what he’d just said. A few minutes later, Cass tugged his shirt sleeve and when Dick looked back at her, she pointed at herself.
“You want to be tall?” he clarified, trying to understand her point.
Cass shook her head and pointed at herself again before pointing to him. Rather, at his shoulders.
“Oh, you want to climb up?” Dick asked with half a laugh.
Cass nodded enthusiastically and as soon as Dick said, “Sure” she jumped up and clambered up onto his shoulders.
“Comfy?” Dick laughed as he held her legs.
“Comfy,” Cass said as she patted the top of his head. Dick smiled and spent the rest of their visit ignoring the looks people shot their way as he walked around with his sister on his shoulders.
- Damian
“Come on Robin, answer me,” Batman growled as he dug through a collapsed pile of half rotten crates. Ugh why did these warehouses always have an excessive pile of shit to fall into? They always seemed to multiply too. Batman checked a different collapsed pile of half rotten crates as he ignored the rising dread and fear that threatened to drown him.
“What are you doing?”
Batman spun around and breathed deep in what felt like hours.
“Robin report!” he barked instead as he strode towards the young vigilante. He resisted the urge to pat Robin down and check him over for injuries.
Robin drew himself up straighter if that were possible, and crossed his hands behind his back. “The guards were incapacitated when I arrived, and two different groups were engaged in an altercation over the goods. I chose to let them deal with each other and instead focused on rounding up all the runners as they made their escape. I’ve secured them all in a shipping container two rows over and informed the cops about their location and condition. Those who needed first aid have been given the necessary medical attention.”
Batman nodded and scanned Robin. “Injuries were limited to mostly knife wounds and some bullet wounds. Three perpetrators had varying grades of head injuries and potential concussions but nothing overly dangerous.”
“And your injuries?” Batman growled. Dick hated how the cowl felt on him most days, but the worst part was that while he wore it, he couldn’t express emotions the way he used to. As Dick or Nightwing, he would’ve already patted Damian down and hugged the kid a few times. As Batman, he was limited to growling or brooding, neither of which served his purposes most times.
Case in point; nothing in Robin’s facial expression or tone changed, but Dick got the sense that he was more closed off, uncertainty covered by stoicism. A habit Dick had been working hard to break to little success.
“Superficial scrapes for the most part.” When Dick kept quiet, Robin pressed his lips together before continuing. “Possible mildly sprained lateral ligament in my left tibiotalar joint.”
Dick nodded. In Damian speak, that meant mild to moderate sprained left ankle. He crouched so his back was to Robin. “Climb on.”
“There’s no need, Batman. I can continue the rest of our patrol without my performance being affected,” Robin said without moving from his position.
Dick looked back over his shoulder at his littlest brother, his almost-son and his heart hurt with all the feelings he felt. “You remember that conversation about how sometimes people use worry and concern to express positive emotional connections?”
“Oh,” Damian murmured softly, and climbed onto Dick’s back. Dick straightened and adjusted his cloak to cover his partner. As he walked towards the warehouse entrance, he said, “I’ll talk to Gordon for minute then we can head home and tuck in with some ice cream and Cheese Vikings. Does that sound okay?”
Damian nodded his head where it leaned against his back and Dick gave what he hoped was a comforting squeeze to his leg. Maybe he was making more progress than he’d thought.
- Jason (again)
“Are you going to be stubborn like you used to be?” Dick asked as he smirked at Jason hobbling along on his injured foot as they walked away from the grocery store where a couple of over enthusiastic twelve-year-olds had run over his foot.
“You’ve got the bag, don’t you?” Jason grumbled as he hobbled further.
“Oh yeah, the two loaves of bread and a carton of eggs. Such a heavy load to carry,” Dick snarked. Jason just flipped him off and kept hobbling.
Dick sighed and moved closer to let Jason lean on him a little more. “You’re a stubborn idiot, Jason,” Dick sighed as he took more of Jason’s weight and wrapped an arm around the other man’s back.
“Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know,” Jason grumbled but leaned a little more on Dick nonetheless. They hobbled along together for a few minutes, until Dick noticed Jason flagging. After the long few weeks he’d had, this wasn’t a surprise. They’d dealt with two separate Arkham breakouts and an attempted alien invasion which had proved to be a misunderstanding. And before that, Dick knew Jason had just come back from a long mission with the Outlaws and had no time to recuperate before everything had happened.
After a few more minutes, Dick silently held the bag of groceries out to Jason. When he’d grabbed it, Dick leaned down in front of Jason. “Hop on Jay. I hate seeing you in pain.”
With a grumbled “Fucking fine,” Jason settled against Dick’s back. Dick adjusted his grip and stood up. The arms around his neck, his hands gripping Jason’s legs, the whole thing felt a little surreal. Jason was much larger than the last time Dick had done this, Jason’s frame dwarfing Dick’s lithe figure. Jason had come a long way from the sort of skinny kid he used to be. He had a fair amount of muscle mass now, though Dick would gladly carry him everywhere if he got to have Jason in his life again.
After he’d been walking a few minutes, Jason snickered in his ear. “We’re attracting quite the crowd Dick.”
Dick looked around and noticed all the askance and shocked looks they were getting from civilians. “Guess we know what the headlines tomorrow will say. Should we warn everyone?”
“Nah, imagine Tim’s face as he looks at the picture on the front page,” Jason said as he dropped his chin on Dick’s head.
Dick snickered as he imagined it. A barely awake Tim stumbling into the kitchen and pouring himself a cup of coffee, sitting at the table just as Bruce opened the paper, and blue screening hard when he saw the front page.
“Hmm that would be funny. I’ll get the papers if you’ll get the camera to record it, deal?”
Dick could hear the grin in Jason’s agreement.
- Dick
Everything hurt. And his ears were ringing. Dick coughed and immediately regretted it as his head throbbed, and his throat felt like it was covered in sandpaper. The world was one giant smear of blurry colour. Someone touched his shoulder and Dick struck out before he could even check to see who it was.
A familiar hand grabbed his wrist before it could hit anything.
Dick stopped struggling. If Jason was here, then things would be okay. Dick was hit by another coughing fit, one where his ribs protested every muscle twitch and his body felt like one giant bruise. As soon as it was over, something was pressed over his mouth and nose. It wasn’t until he was breathing in the fresher air that he realised that the reason his throat was hurting and he’d been coughing, was because of the smoke in the air.
The hand that had been gently rubbing circles on his back started pulling him up and Dick followed with a groan. The ringing was now an annoying tinny noise that was fading very slowly. Other sounds sluggishly filtered in, though they were muffled.
“-me on-”
“-wing we-!”
Boom!
Dick suddenly found himself on the ground again, face down. The weight on top of him shifted and with a start Dick realised it was Jason. Jason had thrown himself over Dick when the explosion occurred.
Dick looked around and found himself surrounded by shipping containers. Oh good, he could see now. Was he at the docks? Why was- Oh! Suddenly everything came rushing back to him. He’d been on a take down with Hood. Black Mask was supposed to receive some kind of shipment and then things had taken a turn for the worse when the Bats had moved in. There was an explosion of some kind that had knocked him back.
Dick looked around again and noticed the fire. He shoved at Jason who was still lying over him. He yelled Hood’s name though he could barely hear himself over the tinny ringing.
Jason rolled over and levered himself up. He pulled Dick after him and they started moving again. Until Dick stumbled; Jason steadied him, and they resumed moving until Dick stumbled again. He was having a hard time keeping his balance with the ringing and his injuries. Jason looked at him before he nodded. Jason turned and crouched in front of Dick, his hands in position to support Dick’s legs.
Dick hesitated. He didn’t want to slow Jason down by being a burden.
Jason wriggled his fingers and looked over his shoulder at Dick, even going as far as to jerk his head. Dick pressed his lips together and leaned forward to let Jason take his weight. Jason easily managed to stand and jog away with Dick on his back.
Once they’d cleared the docks, Jason slowed down. He squeezed Dick’s leg and brought one hand up to sign at him. You okay?
Dick used one hand to sign in front of Jason’s face in response. Mostly. Can’t hear properly.
Jason shot him a thumbs up and kept walking. After a few minutes, Jason turned down an alley, and then another one and another one. He kept going until he reached a backdoor and walked in. Five flights later, Jason slipped inside an unremarkable door. He gently let Dick down and made sure he was settled on the couch. Jason flashed his palm in the universal sign for wait and disappeared further into the apartment.
Dick looked around while he waited and came to the startling realisation, he was in Jason’s home, not a safehouse. There were books piled up in the bookshelf, coasters on the coffee table. Dick turned when he heard Jason’s footsteps, and saw that Jason had changed out of his uniform and carried spare clothes and a med kit. Jason stopped short when he noticed Dick looking right at him.
“Can you hear now?” he asked as he came closer.
Dick nodded. “For the most part. The ringing is still there but it’s almost gone.”
“Good,” Jason grinned as he set the med kit on the coffee table and passed the spare clothes to Dick. “Get changed and then we can patch you up.”
Dick nodded. “Thanks for bringing me to your home.”
Jason shrugged as he moved towards the open kitchen Dick could see from his place on the couch. “You carry all of us home when we need it. Figured I could return the favour. Now go change, before the rest of the brats get here and start demanding a status update.”
Dick huffed a laugh and nodded. “Thanks Jay.”