Fic: Comfort, Fandom: DCU, Character: Dick, Rated: G
Title: Comfort Object
Author: in_excelsis_dea
Characters: Dick Grayson
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Summary: Dick reminisces over Christmas with his family and Christmas at the Manor
Disclaimer: Not mine. Simply borrowing with no intent to make a profit.
AN Written for 24xmas promt 1. Tree. It’s close to the deadline actually an hour past in my part of the world but it’s still Dec. 1 somewhere so I’m posting anyways, and I spent most of the day freaking out over a competition sign-up that I ended up screwing up anyways, so I’m very keyed. Hopefully Dick and Christmas Music will help me calm down… First time writing an actual Dick-fic. Weird. As much as I like him, I’ve never written a fic where he’s more than a secondary character. Time to change that.
The Manor Christmas tree is magnificent; a truly splendid specimen of its kind, but he can’t help miss the Christmas trees of his childhood. Bruce has always tried to make Christmas special for him, going out of his way to decorate the Manor, attend the candle-light midnight Christmas Eve Mass his parents made a tradition of attending. But no matter what Bruce does, there’s always something missing at Christmas- and it’s taken him nearly two decades of Bruce’s Christmases to realize what it was.
The tree.
Usually Alfred orders a massive Evergreen right after Thanksgiving and it’s decorated professionally along with the rest of the mansion. It’s a beautiful tree- it always is- but it’s not a family tree. Sure, he got to help decorate it when he was little, and at least a fourth of the ornaments covering it are his own. But it’s so perfect.
He wants one of the lonely, crooked, missing-half-the-needles trees he grew up with. His parents crammed it into their trailer, used ornaments that were largely handmade or secondhand, and spent the evening decorating it with freshly-popped popcorn and cranberries, sipping cocoa, singing along with the radio as it spewed Christmas carols, joking about the upcoming holiday and what everyone wanted for Christmas. His father would kiss his mother as a distraction while Dick stole popcorn for them both. His mother gave him marshmallows for his cocoa and his father would lift him up so he could reach the top of the tree and place the star there.
There was always a feeling of merriment, of family while they decorated. They didn’t have a lot of material possessions, but the tree looked gorgeous and they had decorated it together. Christmas is a family holiday after all.
He hasn’t been around the Manor much lately, and he feels slightly guilty. Christmas is coming up faster than expected, and it will be Tim’s true first Christmas at the Manor, since the previous Christmas didn’t count. It needs to be special. It needs to be everything Christmas is supposed to embody- family and warmth and love.
And the usual masterpiece trees don’t help much in that department.
“Alfred?” He peeks into the kitchen and finds the butler stirring a pot of soup.
“Why, Master Dick. Do come in and sit down.” Alfred doesn’t turn away from the pot, but Dick can tell he’s smiling.
“I’d love to, but I have to get back to New York. I just wanted to make a request for Christmas this year. You haven’t ordered the tree yet, have you?”
Author: in_excelsis_dea
Characters: Dick Grayson
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Summary: Dick reminisces over Christmas with his family and Christmas at the Manor
Disclaimer: Not mine. Simply borrowing with no intent to make a profit.
AN Written for 24xmas promt 1. Tree. It’s close to the deadline actually an hour past in my part of the world but it’s still Dec. 1 somewhere so I’m posting anyways, and I spent most of the day freaking out over a competition sign-up that I ended up screwing up anyways, so I’m very keyed. Hopefully Dick and Christmas Music will help me calm down… First time writing an actual Dick-fic. Weird. As much as I like him, I’ve never written a fic where he’s more than a secondary character. Time to change that.
The Manor Christmas tree is magnificent; a truly splendid specimen of its kind, but he can’t help miss the Christmas trees of his childhood. Bruce has always tried to make Christmas special for him, going out of his way to decorate the Manor, attend the candle-light midnight Christmas Eve Mass his parents made a tradition of attending. But no matter what Bruce does, there’s always something missing at Christmas- and it’s taken him nearly two decades of Bruce’s Christmases to realize what it was.
The tree.
Usually Alfred orders a massive Evergreen right after Thanksgiving and it’s decorated professionally along with the rest of the mansion. It’s a beautiful tree- it always is- but it’s not a family tree. Sure, he got to help decorate it when he was little, and at least a fourth of the ornaments covering it are his own. But it’s so perfect.
He wants one of the lonely, crooked, missing-half-the-needles trees he grew up with. His parents crammed it into their trailer, used ornaments that were largely handmade or secondhand, and spent the evening decorating it with freshly-popped popcorn and cranberries, sipping cocoa, singing along with the radio as it spewed Christmas carols, joking about the upcoming holiday and what everyone wanted for Christmas. His father would kiss his mother as a distraction while Dick stole popcorn for them both. His mother gave him marshmallows for his cocoa and his father would lift him up so he could reach the top of the tree and place the star there.
There was always a feeling of merriment, of family while they decorated. They didn’t have a lot of material possessions, but the tree looked gorgeous and they had decorated it together. Christmas is a family holiday after all.
He hasn’t been around the Manor much lately, and he feels slightly guilty. Christmas is coming up faster than expected, and it will be Tim’s true first Christmas at the Manor, since the previous Christmas didn’t count. It needs to be special. It needs to be everything Christmas is supposed to embody- family and warmth and love.
And the usual masterpiece trees don’t help much in that department.
“Alfred?” He peeks into the kitchen and finds the butler stirring a pot of soup.
“Why, Master Dick. Do come in and sit down.” Alfred doesn’t turn away from the pot, but Dick can tell he’s smiling.
“I’d love to, but I have to get back to New York. I just wanted to make a request for Christmas this year. You haven’t ordered the tree yet, have you?”