(Untitled)

[goldeneyedflash]

Training with Tim. Lab work. Training with Dick. More work. Sleep until dawn. Then start over. That was Bart's life in a nutshell. Except that it was going to change because Dick had informed him he was signing up for his gymnastics class. The words were Dick's, but it was an order from Nightwing. And Jill was still worried

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[cantstopmoving]

For a long minute, Dick sits quietly thinking through what he knows about Bart, separating it from Bart Tim's best friend who Tim needs, and Bart the ex-Flash and Impulse, winnowing out his suspicions about some of what happened in Bart's relationship with Tim, and consulting his own instincts about the young man he's been training.

"That would be an easier question at home, where it isn't tangled up with the question of whether there's any point to what we're doing here or whether we're just addicted to our pasts," Dick answers, a quiet sigh shaping his mouth into a small, painfully honest smile.

"Your life has been helping others, putting them first. Even if you faltered once, you said it yourself, you can't stop. You're still made of Flash energy--" The Chariot in Tarot, or the Herald archetype, but he rarely brought up the mystical aspects of what they did. Very few people understood them, himself included, and not even a Rom many times removed took fortunetelling tools lightly. "Forward motion, progress, movement is who and what you are. The reason you're miserable right now is that that's gotten inverted and tangled. But you're smart, you're still faster than most men alive, you have strategic combat training, you're outgoing and like people. I see that you need to something to run toward, like all of us."

Lifting his gaze to Bart, he smiles and shrugs. "I see that you're standing at the edge of precipice, and I believe you can fly."

[goldeneyedflash]

If it were Tim or Kon, he would have made some comment about preferring to keep his feet on the ground, but he might never be that comfortable with Nightwing. So he didn't.

"It's not pointless to be prepared," Bart said, quietly. "You haven't been here for any of the truly disruptive stuff, but I'm sure Robin would have covered the bases. There's so much put into not letting the situation get to you by most people that they don't want to think outside the box. The system works for the usual things, but anything major goes down, and folks fall to pieces. There was a bit of an earthquake, and power in the compound was out for maybe ten or twelve hours, and you would have thought the world was ending.

"That's what Tim and I talked about, when I first showed. When it was just the three of us."

[cantstopmoving]

"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail." There's no thought involved in that answer and a twitch of a smile accompanies the Bat koan. He shifts and settles again more comfortably. "It's more the costumed vigilantes part that I'm questioning, but that's neither here nor there."

Of all the people he might have that conversation with, Bart who can barely be convinced to keep their identities secret is not at the top of the list. Not today anyhow, but when he lifts his hand, a smile accompanies it, no censure for Bart in it. Just a redirect.

"I don't have answers for you. I have faith in you. Different beasts. All I know is that giving 100% in your training will help you come unstuck mentally. Commit to it, and give it a chance to work for you."