Prompt Post - Part Nine [CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS]
THIS PART IS NOW CLOSED. YOU CAN CONTINUE POSTING FILLS, BUT PLEASE PROMPT ALL NEW THINGS HERE.
Part one here!
Part two here!
Part three here!
Part four here!
Part five here!
Part six here!
Part seven here!
Part eight here!
Feel free to reprompt posts from previous parts once. If you do so, I'd recommend leaving a link to your fill on the original prompt, ( Read more... )
So what was odd about this visit was that it wasn't Alfred who had called, but Bruce. Even more surprisingly, Bruce was waiting for him down by the Manor gates. Dick slowed his motorcycle to a halt and turned off the ignition, then pulled off his helmet. “What's the occasion Bruce?”
“I didn't want Alfred to know you were here,” Bruce said with the same sullen expression he regularly wore. Only this time there was something different about it, possibly... hope? Hope of a plan, or an idea?
“Then I take it you don't want to go up to the Manor,” Dick assumed, and Bruce nodded. “Okay then. I'll leave my bike just inside the gate and we can go for a walk around the grounds, how does that sound?”
“Good,” Bruce replied, and they did as Dick suggested. They walked in silence for the first fifteen minutes, then suddenly Bruce interrupted the silence. “Batman tried to save my parents.”
“Oh?” Dick tried not to overreact. They'd talked about all kinds of things, important and trivial, but never the night Bruce's parents had died. He didn't want to spook him off the subject. “I didn't know that.”
“He did, but... he couldn't. I wasn't really paying attention, but I think his equipment malfunctioned. That's why he couldn't save them. That's what it looks like anyway, in my nightmares.”
Bruce had never mentioned nightmares before, but Alfred had. The day was just full of surprise confessions. “Do you think maybe if Batman had had working equipment he would have been able to save your parents?”
“Definitely. He's Batman, he saves everyone, so that had to be the reason.”
“So why do you think Batman didn't have his equipment in prime condition?”
Bruce looked up at Dick. “I don't think he can afford it. Crime fighting can't be cheap, and not everyone's a billionaire. He's probably got some pretty run-down equipment, stuff that's just begging to be replaced.”
Dick ruffled Bruce's hair. “You're lucky in that regard, kid.”
“Yeah, well you grew up in a circus surrounded by other people who loved you, Batman.”
Dick froze. The kid did not just say what he think he just said. Dick adopted a joking smile. “Don't be ridiculous Bruce! Why would I be Batman?”
“Don't lie to me!” Bruce suddenly shouted, angry, backing out of reach of a calming touch from Dick. “You're Batman, I know you are! And I know you tried to save my parents, you tried and you couldn't! They said they'd never leave me, don't lie to me!”
Dick sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry. I just... yeah, I'm Batman. But you can't tell anyone that you know. It might put you in danger.”
“Why would I tell anyone? You tried to save my parents.”
“And I couldn't, Bruce.” Bruce just folded his arms and continued to stare at him. “Don't you hate me for that?”
Bruce's eyes were hard, stubborn. “That wasn't your fault, it was your equipment's. Right?”
Dick nodded. “Right. Got it in one. Grappling hook didn't hold, joints don't clamp shut like they used to. Some of us aren't billionaires.”
“Some of us are.” There it was, Dick could see it again. That hope of an idea, a plan. Bruce took a few steps forward and grabbed on to Dick's arm, hugging it tight, the largest token of affection he'd ever given Dick. “Batman saves people. I want to help him save more people. Please, let me help. I don't want anyone else's parents to die.”
Dick had argued with him. Oh, he'd argued with Bruce long and hard. To this day he's still not entirely sure how he lost the argument and not only accepted funding, ended up with a partner in crime fighting to boot.
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Though, it does make you wonder how Bruce arrived at "Robin" and what else the age change affects...
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