(Untitled)

[goddamnrobin]

WHO: Dick and Bruce.
WHERE: Dick's apartment omg.
WHEN: Thursday afternoon.
WARNINGS: None.
SUMMARY: Bruce knows how to respect personal space/alone time. He just chooses not to.
FORMAT: Paragraph.

Comments

[darkknightfall]

"Ah, just put that over there. Good, good. That just leaves the tables and the chair for the dining room."

Well. Joint dining room-kitchen. It is a small apartment. Smiling broadly and generally acting nothing like Batman, Bruce turns to Dick, completely ignoring the question, and in doing so, answering it.

"Dick! How was school?"

[goddamnrobin]

He doesn't say anything when Bruce completely fails to answer his question. The highly probable answer is that Dick can be stalked and followed through more than one tracker, and that Bruce wouldn't have stopped himself from doing so. Tim probably has been following him that way, too.

And he's being anything but Bruce right now, and Dick isn't feeling like playing any games.

He shrugs, which is enough of an answer to the banalities Bruce is asking him.

"Did you do this so you could install cameras everywhere?"

[darkknightfall]

Bruce laughs-- it really wouldn't do to have the movers overhear that, and if he had, they would have noticed-- though, as always, it doesn't reach his eyes. He can tell Dick is in no mood for this, but as long as there are others around, the act is still important to maintain.

"No, nothing like that. I just wanted to make sure you were properly situated. If you don't like the furniture I picked out, though, I'm sure we can find some more to your liking."

[goddamnrobin]

Dick isn't being careless, he knows they're too far to hear and he's not exactly happy with the situation. And talking to a made up persona that is nothing like Batman or Bruce is at all is only making it all even more frustrating.

And, of course, he has no idea if the answer is sincere or not.

"The furniture's good." He hasn't seen half of it but it doesn't matter. "I'm gonna drop my bag in my room." And stay there until the movers are done. And possibly that will make Bruce go away, too, but that's miracle thinking. He's not nearly that optimistic.

[darkknightfall]

Bruce waits until the movers are gone-- maybe even a little longer, but then again, maybe not-- before knocking on Dick's door... and entering without bothering to wait for an answer. He's thankful the Boy Wonder didn't, at least, try to head out the window while no one was looking. He knows there was a good chance of that. He had honestly been hoping to get everything in and go, simply leaving a note before Dick could come by, but that obviously didn't go as planned, and now he has to make the best of the situation.

"The movers would have noticed if I were setting up cameras, Dick."

[goddamnrobin]

It would have been creepier if he'd furnished Dick's apartment and left, really. Not unusual or surprising, because it would have been completely in character for him, but still creepier.

Dick also has more chances of believing his place might not be bugged this way, because leaving a note saying he passed by would have looked a lot like 'I just planted cameras everywhere.'

Bruce apparently has the keys, though, and could pass by anytime and do whatever he wished. Or he doesn't have any keys at all but it's not going to change the second part of that statement.

He was half-lying in his bed before Bruce came in, and he sits up when he does. He still doesn't look especially happy, and Bruce will have to get used to that because he's not going to look happy anytime soon. "I'm sure you know how to bug a place while being subtle enough not to be seen."

[darkknightfall]

He doesn't expect Dick to be happy after all that's happened, not if he feels the need to go so far as to quit both working with Bruce and the Titans in any official capacity. Bruce has relied on the Titans as somewhere where he knows Dick will be safe and cared for, even when he's not comfortable working with Bruce. But now he's making a move to push everyone away, and Bruce can't afford to fall back on that.

Ultimately, Dick is still his ward, still his responsibility, and though Dick may want space after what's happened, he's only going to get as much as Bruce thinks he needs-- which, to be fair, is a great deal more freedom and space than most teenagers get from their guardians.

Bruce gives a small nod of assent to Dick's flat statement. If he wanted to, he could have.

"Not well enough that you wouldn't eventually notice."

[goddamnrobin]

Dick would like to think that this is true. He's gotten way better at... everything since he arrived in the City, he knows he did, but he still feels inadequate most of the time because he mostly works with Bruce or Tim and they're just way out of his league.

He's not sure if leaving like this -- and basically not being Tim's teammate or Bruce's partner anymore -- isn't going to slow the crime fighting development. He's hoping not and he'll work on it. He's also confident that he won't feel horrible for hanging out with Bats or Titans later anymore, and he'll resume training with them then.

He shrugs and frowns. "So... is this enough small talk? Why are you still there, really?" He's asking a question he knows the answer to; the point isn't to receive an answer, not really. It's to get that conversation going so it ends faster.

[darkknightfall]

"To make sure you've thought your decision through, and that you're making it on rational grounds rather than emotional ones."

And to make sure you're going to be okay without me.

But there it was. Dick would have to defend his decision to Bruce. Stand his ground. Defend it like it were a thesis. Bruce didn't expect Dick to change his mind, even if his reasons weren't good, even if they didn't convince him; that wasn't the point. The point was to make sure Dick understood himself and why he was doing what he was doing.

[goddamnrobin]

Dick stares at Bruce for a moment and tries very, very hard not to roll his eyes. It wouldn't be quite the right moment to do this.

He has a good idea of what Bruce is trying to have him do, and it won't be working. Dick doesn't share Bruce's (or Tim's, really) point of view on what a good decision is, and on what 'understanding oneself' means, either. He understands why he's feeling the way he does, and he knows how others are feeling well enough that staying with either the Bats or the Titans is just going to be bad and inefficient.

"I've thought about it, but yeah, the decision's mostly emotional and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. You're the one thinking that a good decision has to be all rational and objective, not me."