Prompt Post - Part Ten

[yj_anon]

I am REALLY, REALLY SORRY about taking so long, guys, and about not being around much recently. I've been busier than I have in a while, and it just kept slipping my mind between uni applications and volunteering and all sorts- for some reason I thought we were much further off a new post.

If there is anything I haven't responded to, as of now, I'm

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Fill - A Fair Price 8/?

[anonymous]

For many years, the prince continued to bring justice to the land with the boy at his side. The prince had come to love the boy as his own son and he wanted for nothing but his son’s happiness. He doted upon the boy with all manner of lavish things and punished all those that brought harm to the boy or wished him injury.

But this only saddened the boy.

Time and again, the prince tried to cheer him, but of no avail, for the boy only became more distant.

At a loss, the prince fashioned a doll in the likeness of a boy from an old yew tree and brought it to life with his magic.

"Surely, this shall mend his heart!" the prince said.

The criminals are getting wilder, more dangerous, less sane. And it’s getting harder and harder to let the boy who has become his son in all but the flesh go into danger.

But Dick isn’t a little boy any more. He’s coming into his own, both as a superhero and a teenager, and as much as he adores Bruce, he is starting to chafe under the authority.

Bruce notices it most clearly off the field, when their lives aren’t on the line. It’s a grimace here, a roll of the eyes there, and a huff of disagreement as his back is turned. It’s the little things Dick fights him on that he wouldn’t before and it’s frustrating.

Half the time, Dick is driving him up the walls, but Bruce can’t, - won’t take it out on him: it’s the criminals that feel it, instead. Bruce knows that it worries Dick and makes him fight Bruce even harder on the point of restraint (he's not slipping, he's not, he's still in control), but he needs to get it out of his system somewhere. He’s afraid of what he might do if he doesn’t and, god help him, Dick’s his son - he doesn’t want to hurt him. All he wants is for Dick to be safe and happy.

And yet…

It’s not always bad. They still play pickup games and watch movies. And when they do, it’s for one moment like the world is perfect again and he can pretend that maybe he is just a normal civilian dad with his son, no worries about Gotham or the Justice League or those missing hours to haunt him.

Then, there was Jason.