Chapter Text
Dick woke up.
He wasn’t in his own bed, but he’d expected that; he hadn’t slept in his own bed for over a week. Bruce’s bed had been the most frequent location, buried beneath a pile of siblings and the occasional pet, but he’d also woken in various siblings’ beds and on what must have been almost every couch in the manor.
On one notable occasion, he’d even woken in Steph’s bed, which should have been a lot more awkward than it was. He’d had his weekly chat with her mom the night before, been dragged up to Steph’s room to be shown some school project, and woken to her mom coming to fetch Steph for school. Mrs. Brown had smiled, repeated how nice it was that Steph had siblings now and how much happier her daughter was lately. Steph’s mom had also fed Dick waffles, patted him on the cheek, and told him to bring ‘his magic young man’ around with him one of these days.
Steph had cackled all the way to school, her arms wrapped tight around Dick’s waist as he drove her on his bike (he was already there, so there was no reason he couldn’t have just a bit more time with his baby sister).
All the family’s hugs had been tight, lately. Dick didn’t really mind.
They’d talked about it, a little. The future that wasn’t. Here and there. Dick and Damian and Constantine had written a bare-bones report that had been circulated through the League and the Titans. They’d answered questions, too. Careful questions that stuck mostly to incoming threats and methods of preparation.
No one had really felt like risking a tread into painful territory, not with Jason glowing over his shoulder and standing guard over Dick with Damian in his lap and their halting sentences. Or with Cass sitting on the arm of his chair, perched with violence in her eyes.
There were also the implicit threat of the Titans. Dick had spent one night at Titans Tower and hadn’t said a single word. Just basked in the love and support of his friends and texted several of his Aunts and Uncles a warning that the Titans might be a bit more protective (violently so) in the near future. The responses Dick had gotten back were perhaps a little concerning in their immediate agreement with the Titans and the complete lack of worry or promises of mitigation.
There were no questions at home. Not even from Bruce. There were careful expressions of interest and promises of attentive ears if he did ever want to talk. It was uncomfortable, honestly, the sense his family was walking around eggshells, but it was also very fucking appreciated.
Damian certainly appreciated not having to act his age. Not that he really had been previously, what with the genius thing and the League of Assassins thing and the no-one-here-actually-knows-what-a-normal-child-acts-like thing. But he’d been running comms the last few nights and sharing his, often abrupt, opinions on their fighting styles. No one missed the tiny smile and occasional shock when those opinions were taken seriously and treated with full respect.
Dick turned his head to study his baby, Damian once again the only other person in the room. This time he was slowly cutting up an apple while sitting on one of Bruce’s pillows.
“Good morning, baby.”
“Good morning, Richard.”
Dick considered his next course of action for a moment, then heaved himself up so he was also sitting on a pillow and draped himself over Damian. Damian huffed, but switched to leaning into Dick instead of the headboard. He offered Dick and apple slice and Dick accepted.
“You okay, Dami?” Dick asked after he finished munching.
“No. They keep looking at me like I’ll disappear.”
“They do,” Dick agreed. Because they did.
Damian finished with he knife and tucked it back into his sleeve after carefully wiping it down on a napkin he’d brought up with him. “Why don’t they know they were the ones who disappeared?”
Dick stared at the ceiling, one he’d gotten very familiar with due to the various illnesses and fear-gas-induced nightmares that had sent him crawling into Bruce’s space.
“They do, baby. But knowing isn’t understanding. To them, we did disappear. I’m never going to be who I was before we came back, and even Tim and Cass and Steph who never knew that person still lost who they thought I was.” Dick rested his head on Damian’s.
“And that’s the same with you, Baby Bat. Last week you were a child. A genius child who’d survived something awful, yes. But a child. Now you’re a child who’s been a vigilante longer than any of them. They trust you and love you and know you lost a childhood twice. Despite the fact you’re still young with a child’s physiology and emotions, you did disappear on them.”
Dick drew in a deep breath and felt in rattle through his bones. Damian was wearing his thinking face, the one with the scowl that meant he was listening and trying very hard to understand. Dick wished he wouldn’t have to. Dick wished he didn’t have memories upon memories of his siblings disappearing, sometimes quickly into death and sometimes insidiously slowly as heroics and time chipped scars into their skin.
Except if they didn’t have the memories they couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t save them and he’d never wish for that, not after wishing so hard for so long for just one more chance. And getting that chance.
“Damian. Surely you, surely we, of all people, can understand what it’s like to loose someone, or parts of someone, and cling all the harder to what remains?”
Damian stiffened but nodded.
They stayed like that, wrapped together, for long moments as Damian slowly relaxed again.
“Baba?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Are you okay?”
Dick closed his eyes, because he hated lying to Damian, to any of his family, and he was pretty much out of lies regardless.
“No. I’m not.” Dick place his head on top of Damian’s hair. “I’m afraid.”
Damian let Dick sit for another long moment, but eventually raised one hand to his cheek. “Why?”
Dick leaned into the small, cool fingers. “Because it’s going to stop being good. The hugs and care and the eggshells and the coddling. I love it, I love our family and how considerate they’re being, but it’s going to turn suffocating at some point. It, I don’t know how to do this anymore. Not for so long. Not without initiating and dragging it out and knowing as soon as I let go so will everyone else. And I lash out, when I’m cornered, I always have, with my temper, and I’m afraid of ruining everything, of being the one to ruin everything.”
Damian tilted his head. “You’re being ridiculous.”
Dick laughed, a little wetly, but obediently sat up so his son could tell him all the ways he was being ridiculous.
“If it gets too much, you’ll communicate. Like you’re always trying to get everyone else to do. And they’ll listen, because they love you.” Damian gave Dick a look that very only Dick would recognize meant that Damian also loved him. “And then we’ll go find Constantine and a slime cult or foolish necromancer and destroy them utterly.”
Dick blinked, but well. That was pretty much what he should have been expecting. He let a smile creep on his face, one that had Damian looking for exit routes because it meant Feelings were imminent. Dick took pity and, once he’d pounced on the smaller boy using his significant height advantage, only slung Damian onto his back and headed out of the room.
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
Damian grumbled, but wrapped his arms around Dick’s neck. He let himself be carried into the dinning room where a wary Constantine was being offered a cup of tea by a calmly smiling Alfred.
Dick raised an eyebrow even as he let Dami slide to the floor and proceeded to make the rounds and greet his siblings with hugs or kisses to the cheek.
“I have been threatened,” Constantine announced.
Alfred didn’t roll his eyes, but he also didn’t actually deny the claim. “It is Sunday brunch. You had missed the pre-set number and thus required retrieval.”
Tim blinked. “Wait, it’s Alfred who makes the retrievals?”
Jason shared a look with Cass. “That’s actually far more terrifying.”
Tim frowned, his nose scrunching up as he looked between Alfred and Dick and back to his coffee. “Tracks, though. Joint patriarchs. Right.”
“I wasn’t warned about missing brunches.”
“You should not have needed to be,” Damian informed Constantine, before climbing onto his lap and stealing his tea.
Constantine looked up at Dick, alarmed by the baby assassin in his lap and therefore not eying bothering to bat Dick’s octopus arms away as they wrapped around Constantine’s shoulders for his good morning hug.
“Dami’s a little miffed at the Bats. He’s still in trouble for sneaking away.”
“So much trouble,” said Bruce, but his voice was fond.
Dick sat next to Constantine as Steph got Damian into a rant about the dog park, Tim and Babs started arguing about coding protocol, and Bruce insisted Alfred sit down and start enjoying the food.
Jason’s shoulder knocked into Dick’s and he breathed. His family was safe and protected and alive. They’d eat and watch a movie picked out of a hat and half the room would accuse the others of cheating the selection process. He’d help the kids with homework and work on acrobatics with Damian and spar with Jason.
Later, Dick would go on patrol. He’d fight and he’d help people and he’d do so with his family at his side. He’d fly with the kind of confidence that only came when you had somewhere safe to land. He’d live. And he’d protect and never be alone again.
His family wouldn't allow any other outcome.
Plan Secret Surprise is a GO
Steph: What’s the status update, C?
Constantine sent a picture: [Nightwing, sitting on top of a roof with one leg folded and one dangling into the sky, silhouetted by the rising sun as he tries to eat cheap packaged ice cream before it melted.]
Constantine: Vampire impersonators caught and magically bound.
Constantine: I’ve officially caved to ice cream before breakfast.
Constantine: Hurry up before I need to resort to a distraction he’ll recognize as such.
Constantine: Or that will set Alfred on me.
Tim: Good work.
Alfred: You are excused this one time, Mr. Constantine.
Constantine: Oh, good.
Constantine: Hello Alfred.
Constantine: Lovely to know you’re in the chat.
Steph: Dude.
Steph: All the Bats are in this chat.
Steph: It’s really damn hard to surprise Big Bird.
Tim: All hands are on deck!
Cass: :)
Babs: I have confirmation from Kon, Kori, and Roy.
Babs: As well as J’onn.
Babs: He and Kori are looking forward to the chance to work together and talk about alien botany as they patrol.
Babs: I’m ready to coordinate and will provide your specific instructions after you drop off Big Bird.
Constantine: Joy.
Jason: You agreed to help patrol, Hell Sparkles.
Constantine: I’m aware.
Constantine: Time for rendezvous?
Jason: Nah.
Jason: Still need confirmation from Big Bat and Baby Bat.
Bruce: Big Bat.
Bruce: Really, Jason?
Jason: Really.
Bruce: Damian and I are finished meeting with H.
Bruce: We’re good to go.
Bruce: Please pick up Dick and head over.
Damian: Do not forget the change of clothes.
Cass: :)
Jason: Yeah, the Nightwing suit might be a bit much.
Steph: Great!
Steph: I’ll drive!
Constantine: Aren’t you taking the jet?
Constantine: I didn’t think Dick had gotten around to teaching her that yet.
Bruce: …
Bruce: Alfred?
Alfred: Everything is fine, Master Bruce.
Alfred: The children and I will pick up our eldest and join you and Young Master Damian shortly.
Constantine: Good.
Constantine: Because Dick just told me to tell everyone hello.
Constantine: And to ask if he can stop pretending he doesn’t see your general suspiciousness yet.
Dick’s family was adorable.
They couldn’t keep a communal secret from him at all, but it was cute that they tried. And they’d tried so hard. Hard enough that Dick had decided not to investigate and pretend he didn’t see Jay lurking or Tim stuttering or Steph dragging him away from rooms or Constantine dragging him onto a mission that man really didn’t need help with handling.
Dick really didn’t need to know, not when they were working so hard in their attempts to be sneaky. Not when he trusted them all.
Still, he was never a particularly patient man and B’s hand was possibly a bit fondly exasperated as it pressed into Dick’s shoulder. Dick settled back into the seat of the car with a smile and turned to look at his variously smirking family. No one had spilled exactly where they were going, but the car full of all the Bats except for Babs.
Babs was apparently coordinating Gotham where Kon, Kori, Roy, Constantine, and J’onn were all watching over Gotham. Bruce had called to check in on them earlier, where he’d been told to get off the comms unless he wanted an in-depth explanation on the biology of carnivorous plants from Tamaran.
Kori, who hadn’t been able to seen the interested twitch in either Bruce’s or Timmy’s faces, was still more than passing familiar with the Bat tendency to obsess and hoard information. She’d laughed and cut Roy off with a promise to send over a written report on said carnivorous plants only after they’d all returned home.
Bruce had actually smiled, thanked her, and got off the comms. Dick had stared at his father for one long moment. Perhaps too long a moment, because Bruce had briefly looked sad before reaching across the seat to rest one large palm against Dick’s cheek, callouses brushing against smooth skin.
Dick opened his mouth to say something, anything, because not asking was hard, when he closed his teeth with a clack. He felt his head tilt and he took a deep breath. There was something familiar in the air. A scent he just barely recognized.
The scent wasn’t blood or pain or weapon-steel, which was why he was having trouble placing it. He’d gotten really used to a certain palette of scents in the future that wasn’t and in the lairs of villains he was taking down ahead of time. This scent wasn’t found in any of those places. This scent was kinder. Livelier.
Warm.
Dick blinked as he heard a sound, too distant through the closed car windows to name, but also familiar. He flung himself across the seat and practically into Jay’s lap, the man squawking about sharp elbows but still wrapping steady arms around Dick’s waist as he lowered the window and stuck his head outside.
When he pulled back into the car, Dick stayed partially on Jay’s lap, looking at his beaming family with a blank expression on his own face. Their faces started falling one by one as Dick didn’t speak, didn’t move. He could feel Jay’s arms tightening around his waist and Tim’s thin fingers grasp his wrist. He could see Cass signing quickly and Steph’s worried frown. He could hear his baby call him Baba and his Dad call him Chum.
They’d all been dead. Every single person in this car had been dead. Been gone. Left him alone. And the grief from that had been all-encompassing, had turned every step he took into a march through a graveyard. But there had been other losses.
He didn’t remember when Haly’s Circus had fallen hard enough that no money and no effort could get it back off the ground. He did remember that almost none of his first family, none of the people who’d raised him and loved him, had been left the last time he managed to visit. He remembered the taste of ash in the air and the sound of wind through tattered tents.
He remembered he walked through the remnants alone. Damian and Cass had been the only ones left and they’d been on mission with the League that had not gone well. He’d walked through the end of his childhood even as his friends and allies died elsewhere. Died without him knowing.
Dick breathed, and the scent of scorched earth was replaced by popcorn and people and burnished joy.
“I wasn’t homesick,” Dick told Bruce. The shadow of their conversation from the Batcave, the one where he’d told Bruce to be better and Bruce had actually listened swirling at the edges of the car. “You didn’t need to fly us halfway around the world to catch their next show.”
“I might not have needed to but I wanted to,” Bruce said. “And I think you’ve been nothing but homesick for a very long time.”
“You’re, all of you, you’re my home.” Dick felt both Jay’s and Tim’s hands tighten again.
Bruce smiled a small and soft smile of woven starlight. “That’s why we’re here, too.”
Dick purposely took in another deep breath, forcing himself to feel how real this was. How true. He’d never brought his family to the circus, not altogether, not just for a visit. This was something entirely new and entirely good and entirely real. Present.
Dick flung himself across the car so he could wrap himself in his father’s arms. The hug didn’t last long, but only because Alfred had brought the car to stop and Dick had switched tracks to drag both a grumbling Dami and a laughing Steph out of the car by their hands.
He froze only a foot from the car, since they weren’t just in a parking lot. They were in a spot meant for the crew and there was a large group of people clustered a short distance away. He didn’t really need the push to his back that could only be Jason but he rocketed forward anyway, throwing himself into his first family.
Large arms and tinkling laughs passed him around with exclamations on his health and size and the few times he used shoulders to spring him forward just like he used to when he was a child. He leaped off the Strongman’s back when he saw a flash of red coat and soon found himself ensconced in it’s warmth as Haly wrapped both arms around Dick’s shoulders.
“Welcome home, Dick,” the man murmured.
Dick smiled and stepped partially back. He smiled and looked to his Bats, clustered together just far enough to be giving him and Haly polite space while reasonably pretending they weren’t shamelessly eavesdropping. His Bats that were together and alive and and had spent weeks planning this just for Dick. Just to make him happy. As if he didn’t already have enough trouble figuring out what to do with the amount of happiness he had each day that he woke up and had them at his side.
The Bats weren’t as strong as the once were (would be). Not with so many still so young and barely trained. But they were together. They’d always been so much stronger together. Dick had called (and hadn’t called) and they’d come together.
There were still things to do. Villains to capture. Big Bads to circumvent and small ones to remember. Jason’s Superfriend to find. Ra’s to kick in the teeth.
But they had time.
Dick felt his smile soften as he tucked his arm into Haly’s and led him forward. “I want to introduce you to my family.”
Damian didn’t think he’d ever forget the moment when Richard had realized they were going to the circus, when they were going to Haly’s. The slow smile on his Baba’s face the instant before he’d thrown himself at Father was an expression Damian had once thought to never see again. Damian knew, however, with the sharp certainty of an incoming blade, that he’d never forget the moment when Richard had introduced that Bats as his family.
Richard had been so proud, bouncing over with Haly in hand, various performers trailing in their wake who seemed unable to step out of Richard’s orbit once they’d been returned there after so long.
Dick had introduced everyone by name. By name and at least one thing Richard found wonderful about each person, ranging from Jason’s ability to recite entire plays to Cassandra’s penchant for all dance to Timothy’s advanced photography to Alfred’s fruit pies to Father’s hugs. When Richard got to Damian, he swung Damian up into his arms already talking about Damian’s art. Then he looked at Haly and said that Damian was also his son. He didn’t offer any explanation, just a smile.
Haly had nodded, a twinkle in his eyes, and told Dick that Mary and John would have be proud. Damian decided not to escape Richard’s hold at that point because he could feel the man tremble. Damian knew how much it meant to him when Richard and Father were proud, and he imagined in this situation sentiment carried significant additional weight from the man who’d actually known Damian’s grandparents.
Perhaps that was why, the next day, after the show and the introductions and Richard’s constant laughter, Haly led them to a tent empty of people with a mischievous smile. The Waynes and the Graysons had returned to the circus early enough in the day that most of the performers were still asleep or just beginning to prepare for the next show that evening, so the grounds were quiet. They’d told Richard they were returning to spend more time with the people of the circus, time when they weren’t actively putting on a show, but Haly and a smirking Father had clearly planned something.
“Perhaps, young Dick, you could show your family what it really means to be a Flying Grayson.”
Richard lit up, eyes immediately tracking to the trapeze equipment high in the tent. Damian, on the other hand, had found himself bristling. A situation that, apparently, was similar to the rest of his siblings.
Father stepped forward, blocking a scowling Jason and frowning Timothy. “I assure you, he already has.”
Haly blinked, then looked back to where Richard had pulled Steph and Cass forward and was excitedly gesturing. He returned his gaze to Father, who was standing just in front of Damian with both Timothy and Jason at his shoulders.
“Ah,” said Haly. “I suppose he has. I’m certainly not surprised. There never was a heart quite like Dick Grayson.”
Haly left with a smile and wave to Richard, who was already halfway up to the top, but not before he tossed over his shoulder, “Maybe one day he’ll teach you the quadruple somersault, kid. That’s the kind of move that gets passed through the family.”
Damian felt his Father’s restraining hand on his shoulder, which was wise, since it would not have been conducive to their secret identities for Damian to assert he’d already mastered the Grayson’s family move.
It took a moment longer to realize that Father had done the same to Timothy and Alfred had placed a light hand on both Jason’s and Stephanie’s arms. All the kids were bristling in Haly’s wake.
“I’ll get there,” Stephanie muttered. Timothy nodded and crossed his arms while Jason just huffed. Even Cassandra nodded from one of the lower platforms where she was already sitting and watching Dick climb higher.
“Then you’d better get practicing,” Alfred announced as he placed a bag full of exercise gear in front of them.
All heads whipped to Bruce, who nodded. “I asked Haly for use of a tent so Dick could show off and show us some moves. He thinks the privacy is a caution against reporters.”
The kids dove for the clothes. Quickly rushing to change while laughing and throwing taunts at each other. Damian looked at his Father and the quiet smile on his face.
“Will you be joining us, Father?”
A large hand, different in weight but equally gentle brushed over his hair. “Yes, Damian, I will be.”
In no time at all they ended up spinning and leaping across the empty tent. Richard laughed and laughed and Damian anchored each sound as deeply into his soul as he could manage. He possibly included his siblings laughter as well, but only because it was so abundant and easily done.
Richard’s hands were strong as they held Damian’s own and steady as they released Damian so he could fly up and grasp Cassandra’s hands as she hung off a bar. It was a quick flip of his own that had him landing on another bar where he hung for a moment, building up momentum.
Richard laughed again, doing a quadruple somersault with ease and smiling as he stuck the landing with flair, just because everything was okay and he could.“Look at all of you. Such talented children.”
“Course we are! Because we’re the best, right Dami?” Steph called as she flew above him, hair as wild as her smile.
Damian smiled back. He couldn’t help it. They were. They were the best and they were alive and they were Damian’s.
Damian heard Jason cackling as he dumped Tim into the net below. He saw Cass execute a perfect flip as Alfred took a photo from one of the landings. He felt the air shift as Bruce swung by, trying to follow instructions and make his moves pretty instead of efficient.
Damian breathed and smiled and let go. His Baba would catch him.
(Their timing was perfect.)