Protecting the Batbrothers

Chapter eighteen

It took two weeks, one day, three hours, thirty minutes and eight seconds to convince Bruce to let Dick and Jason out of bed. They had been bored out of their minds and had finally recovered enough to move around the manor. Bruce still didn't allow them to go outside, much less on patrol, but at least they weren't bedridden anymore. It had been driving them crazy!
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A knock on the door startled Dick awake. "Come in," he slurred, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He quickly threw a glance at the clock on his nightstand and groaned once he realised that he had slept in again. The door opened and Damian appeared in the threshold. "Grayson. Can we talk?" Dick nodded and patted the empty space beside him.

There was something in his baby brother's voice that was unnerving Dick; uncertainty. Damian was never uncertain, always self-confident, sometimes even too self confident for his own good- or the good of others. The young boy- sometimes Dick forgot that Damian was just ten years old- hopped onto the bed and sat cross-legged in front of his older brother. "I- uh..." He fidgeted with his hands and wouldn't meet Dick's eyes, his body tense.

"Dami?" Dick was really starting to get worried now.
"While you were away, father offered- he said- uh, I just mean..."
"That you could be Robin?" muttered Dick softly, smiling at Damian reassuringly. So that's what this was all about. Damian didn't want to stop being Robin, but was afraid of Dick's reaction. "Hey, I'm not angry," laughed Dick, smiling and leaning back into the soft pillows. "I was expecting this to happen someday soon, anyways." Damian seemed puzzled. "But I stole your identity... I was Robin only one time and it is already a part if me. You've been Robin for seven years now, how can you just give it up?" Dick just shrugged. "I am not giving anything up, I just kinda... outgrew Robin, you know."

Damian looked up, hope sparkling in his ice blue eyes. "Father said something similar. That you wanted to be your own hero, out of Batman's shadow." Then he frowned and cocked his head to the side. Dick resisted the urge to coo. Damian just looked too adorable, but said boy would probably skewer him if he'd ever say that out loud, so Dick just chuckled lightly. "But don't you need a new hero persona then? I mean, you aren't going to quit the team, are you, not after they took Jason, Tim and I in."
Dick quickly shook his head. "Of course not. I'll figure something out, don't worry, Robin." Damian smiled at him, a real, toothy smile. "Thank you, Grayson."
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Dick sighed as he stared at the ceiling from where he was lying on his bed. It was somewhat after midnight and Bruce, Tim and Damian were on patrol, while Alfred and Jason were probably sound asleep. His eyes followed the lights that shone through his window whenever a car drove past the manor (which wasn't very often, considering that it was the middle of the night). Since they were back, Dick had insisted on sleeping without open curtains. It may sound childish, but he tried to avoid dark places. Dick sighed and ran a hand through his thick, black hair.

It had never been like this before. Kidnappings had never really scared him, except for the first few times and when it had been the real big bads. He was no stranger to pain and defenitifly no stranger to kidnappings.

Most of the time, his captors were after Richard Grayson, not Robin the Boy Wonder and expected the whole thing to end with a lot of money on their bank accounts (never really worked out well for them).

When he was kidnapped during his night job, he was a bit jumpy all the time, but most villains were just using him as bait for Batman (which didn't work out well for them either) and didn't lay a hand on him (Well, he did get knocked out a lot, but that was about it). And then there was- had been the Joker and the other regular Arkham inmates.

Dick briefly closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
Joker had always scared him, especially after what he'd done to Jason. In his first year as Robin, Batman was careful he didn't meet the Joker and Robin never really understood what was so dangerous about him. He had never been afraid of clowns before, until his first encounter with the maniac... He shuddered at the thought. Not a pleasant memory.