Chapter Text
The Flying Graysons had their tragic accident in the middle of August. The news of the terrible fall from a trapeze in the middle of the show was the headline for one night only. The very next night it was replaced with ‘Young millionaire takes in a circus orphan’. Everyone and their mother was talking about how the only twenty year old Bruce Wayne had decided to have an eight year old as his ward.
The ward himself, Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson had been as thrilled as a child who’d just watched his parents die could be. He explored the giant manor with awe, and delighted in all the treats that Alfred, the butler, offered him.
Bruce wasn’t the most generous caregiver in the world. He enjoyed being grumpy and locking himself away in his office it seemed. He would frequently get calls from his business which he’d complain loudly about at the dinner table before storming away. At least he’d always say that Dick was his number one priority in life. He made sure that Dick got the best tutors in all of New Jersey so he could carry on learning without any disruptions. He’d ruffle Dick’s hair as he left the dinner table and he’d always lean in the door frame of Dick’s massive bedroom to say goodnight. Well, for the first year he did.
After Bruce turned twenty-one he seemed to have a lot more going on. Wayne Enterprises seemed to be falling into chaos every other day meaning more often than not Bruce had to arrive early to work and leave later than everyone else. Dick started marking each day that he didn’t even speak to Bruce on his calendar that year, and his small heart broke that he only spoke to his guardian a handful of days each month. Even after everything seemed to calm down there was still the small problem of Selina Kyle. Selina was a woman that - from what Dick could gather - had known Bruce since they were young teenagers. She showed up to dinner every night in November and Bruce fell over himself at the way she purred his way. She only tried to make small talk with Dick a couple times before getting the hint that he really didn’t like her all that much.
By the time the new year came around Bruce frowned when Dick asked where Selina had gone. It was clearly not an amicable break up.
That year there were more and more business meetings, and one day Dick returned from school to find that Bruce had gone on an unexpected business trip to London. Dick ate dinner with Alfred and tried not to be sad when there was no one to tell him goodnight. A week later Bruce was back and distractedly agreed that Dick could join a gymnastics club as he rushed to pick up a call. Bruce didn’t manage to make it to Dick’s first club competition where he won a gold medal. He didn’t make it to his second competition either, or his third, or his fourth.
On Dick’s thirteenth birthday he told Alfred they had to wait for Bruce until they could eat. They waited for three hours past their usual dining time. The food was cold and no good when Dick realised that Bruce wasn’t going to make it. He was just happy that Alfred let him eat the cake instead for dinner. Dick lay awake in his room all night as he waited for Bruce to get home. He waited until he heard the front door creak open at two in the morning. He waited with baited breath to see if Bruce would come in to wish him a happy birthday like his own parents would when he was younger.
Bruce ended up wishing him a happy birthday two days later.
–
One of Dick’s favourite parts about living with Bruce was getting to go to the galas. He got to dress up fancy and have ladies giggle as he told them jokes. Old men would chuckle and ask him about his life, and Dick loved getting to meet new people. Eventually he even figured out what the strange things people would say actually meant.
“You look like you could be a Wayne yourself!” meant that he didn’t look like he grew up poor.
“You’re quite handsome!” meant that they were going to make creepy comments about how he’d look as a grownup.
“He even looks like he could be from Gotham!” meant they thought he should be more tan.
It was easy to get used to the comments compared to some of the other aspects of his life with Bruce. He even started to like going to the galas a bit more when another boy his age started to get invites as well. It turned out that Oliver Queen - another young millionaire with nothing else to do - had taken in a ward of his own, Roy Harper. Roy was quick witted and brave and knew just what to do to get them into the most trouble possible. Roy encouraged mischief and charm in equal measures and together the two of them were irresistible to the dramatic older women that attended those events.
His rallying friendship with Roy was probably why Bruce agreed to let him go to the same boarding school as him. The boy’s were thrilled to find that there was a gymnastics team for Dick and an archery club for Roy. They each packed a bag and Oliver drove them both to the school on their first day. Bruce couldn’t make it because he had something else to do. Dick didn’t mind that much but maybe his guardian could’ve pretended to care that their already limited time together was being cut down again.
It took them less than a week to adopt a group of friends that were just as chaotic themselves. First were their other two roommates at the school - Wally West and Garth Smith. Each had taken up spots in the schools track and Swim teams at the first opportunity. Then they were somehow introduced to Donna Troy and Kori Anders. The ladies were both on the school’s boxing team. The six of them bonded over their sporty dispositions and quickly took to hanging out.
Donna was the type of girl who always looked kept together without ever having put on makeup in her life. Her black hair shined with promises and she was the first person to teach Dick how to throw a punch without breaking his thumb. She showed him how to put his weight behind each stance and how to flirt with girls without panicking.
Garth taught him how to slide a folded piece of paper into a door lock so that it can’t lock completely. Garth also taught him how to code switch more easily so that nobody could tell where he was from. He was also the one to encourage Dick to let his hair grow so that it curled around his ears and made him look like a fairy as he did his performance on the bars.
Kori was the first girl he kissed and the first person to make him realise that he seemed to love red-heads in particular. She showed him that despite the ability to flatten someone in less than one blow he could just as easily get them to back down with a charming look. He taught her how to do a flip and how to trick the high society into thinking you were worth more than they thought.
Then there was Wally.
Wally seemed to smile just as easily as he breathed. He spent his spare time running laps of the school ground and never seemed to lose any energy. Even when he was enthralled with Kori Dick knew that Wally would always be in his life. Maybe it was that Dick felt like he could tell the ginger boy anything or the way that Wally gave out hugs so easily.
–
It was approximately three days before the Christmas break of their senior year when Dick got the call from Alfred.
“Master Dick, It’s good to hear from you.”
“Hey Alfie, what’s up?”
Dick greeted as soon as he picked up his phone.
“I was hoping master Bruce would have called you already but he’s been too busy.”
Dick tried not to laugh at that. Bruce was always too busy. The day Bruce wasn’t too busy would be the day the world ended.
“Why was Bruce going to call me?”
Roy and Wally looked up from where they were sitting on the floor between Roy and Dick’s beds. The two of them waggled their eyebrows and tried to communicate their questions through a series of weird head movements.
“Master Bruce was going to call you so that you found out before the papers. You see, Bruce adopted another boy last month.”
Dick felt the cold plummet through his skin.
“I have a brother?”
“Yes, Master Jason is twelve and he’s been waiting to meet you.”
“Jason? How is he?” Dick asked quietly.
His two friends quit their wild movements and got up slowly to huddle around him. Together the three of them listened as Alfred described how Jason met Bruce.
(Bruce had gone to a charity event at a group foster home and Jason had had the gall to try to steal the hubcaps off of his car. Of course, this meant that the now thirty year old Bruce had decided that Jason was just the kid he wanted to help raise.)
Alfred told them about how Jason loved reading more than anything and how he drank tea with Alfred most afternoons. Dick agreed to go home for the break straight away when Alfred asked and even asked if could have access to one of Bruce’s credit cards so that he could bring gifts with him.
–
When Dick first met Jason he brought three gifts with him. One gift was a limited edition copy of the princess bride, signed by the author himself. It had always been Dick’s favourite book and he just knew that a kid from the wrong side of the tracks with an interest in books would appreciate the adventure and romance of it. Besides if Jason really hated it he could just keep the book himself.
The next gift he brought with him was several tins of premium tea imported from England as well as a picture album for Alfred. He knew Alfred could just go back to England at any time he wanted, but he also knew that Alfred had a kinder heart than most people. Alfred had left his wife and teenage daughter to work for the Waynes and then two years later had been pushed into raising a millionaire and then a circus brat right afterwards. He could’ve given up when social services said that he wasn’t fit to raise Bruce but he didn’t. He could’ve moved back home once Bruce was old enough to be left alone, but he stayed. He could’ve made Bruce hire a nanny instead of helping to raise Dick, but he refused. Alfred was a good man.
The final gift he brought with him was a portrait of the four of them: Dick, Jason, Alfred and Bruce. He’d had to ask for many pictures of Jason and had to pay almost ten times the usual worth of the already expensive painting in order to get it done. Dick had hoped that Bruce would like the picture of their odd little family.
–
Bruce hadn’t made it to Christmas. Selina Kyle had seemingly organised a meet-up during one of Bruce’s business trips which meant that Jason didn’t get to see his new father on his first Christmas there. Dick could tell it hurt the young boy to be left alone there. So he tried to make up for it however he could.
“It’s by S. Morgenstern,” Dick explained as he watched Jason unwrap his gift, “I know it looks kind of girly but it’s a good book.”
“It’s an abridged version,” Jason responded, frowning at the hardcover of the book. “I’m not dumb, I can understand the real version easily.”
“I didn’t say you were dumb.” Dick held his hands up in defence, “Just read that version first and then I’ll get you a proper one.”
Jason grumbled but agreed and happily sat to read his ‘dumb, kiddy version’ of the book. Dick only felt slightly satisfied when Jason came to him the very next day to complain about the book.
“Where can I find the original? Dick this isn’t funny, whenever I search for S Morgenstern nothing comes up!”
Dick couldn't help but laugh at his younger brother's anger.
He spent the rest of the day explaining S Morgenstern's work and then making Jason watch Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid. The rest of that week passed much the same, with the two doing activities together and Dick frequently taking out his brother to go to various diners and hotspots amongst the Gotham elite.
A month or so later Jason admitted how worried had been at the start, how he had been afraid that Dick wouldn't want him as a brother, and that was the reason why he hadn't come home from boarding school to visit him. Dick had hugged him and assured him that wasn’t the reason at all.
Eventually Wally and Roy annoyed Dick enough to make him take them home for a weekend. Wally was amazed by the Wayne family manor because he had never seen a house that big before. Wally had only gotten into the boarding school on a scholarship for his running abilities and had never been around the sort of wealth that Roy and Dick had.. Roy instead was just fascinated by Jason. Jason was equally as fascinated by Roy. Roy with biceps the size of small tree trunks and who had scars running over his jaw. It was safe to say that Jason was slightly in love with him since he first saw him. He was also in love with the way that Roy pulled back his hair into a messy bun because Jason had never seen a boy with long enough hair to be tied back. It was just so new to him and it was so much more fascinating than anything else could be in that big lonely house that he was stuck in.
Roy was fascinated with Jason because Roy had never had a younger sibling and had never been around anyone that much younger than him and there was something fascinating about the kid that grew up on the Gotham streets, especially one that had the nerve to try and rob a millionaire.
Unfortunately that was the last time those two spoke for a long while. During that Easter break, when they were all at home, Oliver came into Roy's room to find a needle in his arm. He’d been furious, yelling and screaming asking what the hell he thought he was doing before slapping him and throwing him out the door. That was the last time Dick heard from his best friend in many, many years.
It took Dick a long time to get used to his best friend just being gone. He went to school but it was quiet and then he graduated and there was nowhere to go. Originally the plan was that he and Roy would get a bachelor pad and spend their millions of dollars on parties and living the high life. But that was no longer an option. He could always go back to the manor but that sounded miserable. He’d spent six year alone in that house with nothing for company except a butler who was paid to be there and a guardian who was more like a shadow than a companion. Instead, he packed a suitcase immediately after arriving home from school and drove the car that Bruce had given him for his birthday to the penthouse.
The penthouse was large enough to be a mansion in its own right. It expanded across three floors and had fancy technology in each room. There were five bedrooms each with an ensuite. The kitchen had a butler’s pantry and there was access to a private spa pool on the roof. Bruce had supposedly bought it in case he ever needed to stay in town after work - Dick was fairly certain he’d actually bought it so that he could get laid without the knowledge that there was a child in the house.
The first thing that Dick did as he was moving in was set a photo of all his friends on the counter in the kitchen. The second thing he did was hang the painting of him, Jason, Alfred and Bruce on one of the empty walls of the living room. Maybe it was presumptuous of him to assume that Bruce didn’t want it, but seeing as since he gave it to him almost a half of a year ago and it was still half in its wrappings on the floor of Bruce’s office, Dick felt it was safe to take it back as his own.
It was quiet in the penthouse and the stark whiteness of the wall gave him a headache to look at. Still, it was better than the manor. He painted the walls in pale blues and blasted music through the house any chance he could. Wally came over as often as he could and Donna quickly decided which room she wanted to be her room for whenever she was in town.
Dick still went over to the manor every weekend. He’d spend Saturdays showing Jason how to do his homework or how to do a flip or throw a punch. On Sundays he’d drink tea with Alfred and sneak Jason out to go do something fun - an admittedly hard activity in Gotham. They did manage to have fun though. Dick would sneak Jason into different movie theatres or the two would have boxing matches in the penthouse. It was stupid and carefree stuff that teenage boys do. They loved it.
That was probably why Dick had suggested that Jason came to stay with him in the first place. He knew how lonely it got in the manor and he also knew how much he loved getting to be a big brother to Jason. It started slowly at first. Jason still wasn’t used to trusting people without caution and Alfred wasn’t entirely ready to let both boys go. Jason would stay a night or two whilst Bruce was out of town. Then he’d stay over when he had to get to school early and he knew that Dick had a morning shift at the gym. Soon it became a week here and week there when Bruce was just too wrapped up in work to remember that he had a child.
It finally came to a head when Dick got home from university one evening two years later to find Jason sitting in the living room. A suitcase sat beside his feet.
“I’m not going back there. You can’t make me,” He declared stiffly.
Dick just nodded in return. He didn’t like that Jason felt like it was a better option to move out at fifteen rather than staying with his adoptive father. There was nothing he could do to stop him though.
The two of them still went to the manor every weekend and Dick made Jason stay at the manor when he was out of town visiting friends. Bruce seemed to be making more of an effort after he realised that Jason had left after only two years at the manor. Dick didn’t know if it was because Alfred had talked some sense to him or if it was because he actually cared. Either way it was too little too late in his opinion. That thought only worsened when Bruce announced that Jason would be going to the same boarding school that Dick had gone to starting the following week. It was ludicrous in the boys' opinions and only a way of controlling Jason.
The only thing that Dick could think to do to try and ease the situation was to invite Wally to Jason’s last dinner with the family. This was a win-win in his eyes as it meant that he got to see his boyfriend and Jason got the assurance that he could make friends at a poncy boarding school.
You see, Dick finally got around to asking Wally out a few months after graduation. Wally had easily agreed and they’d gone on a date that night. Then they'd gone a few months without seeing each other due to the distance and their schedules. Dick hated being rooted to one spot though so he easily made the decision to make the five hour drive to see Wally, only to kiss him until he felt like passing out and then get back in the car and drive right back. Over the last two years they’d figured out how to make it work. Wally would make the drive up once a month and Dick would go down on the days that he could. They called every day and it felt like there was no distance between them.
Jason knew all about them and thought it was hilarious that Dick seemed to only like people with fiery hair.
The dinner did not end up going well. For one thing Bruce was already in the dining room when they arrived and he didn’t even have his phone in sight. That was unusual in itself but then when he greeted both Dick and Jason and asked about their days Dick just knew the night would go wrong. Give him an antisocial Bruce who was on his phone constantly and Dick could navigate the situation like a pro. Give him Bruce acting like a normal human-being and Dick was thrown in the deep end.
Dick supposes that’s why the night turned to shit. The universe couldn’t handle Bruce Wayne acting like a functioning member of society for more than an hour at a time.
“Dick, this is Jason’s last night here.”
“I’m aware of that Bruce,” Dick sighed.
“So, why did you think it was appropriate to invite your friend here?” Bruce snapped.
“Bruce you know Wally’s not just my friend - ” Dick started.
“I don’t care. He doesn’t belong here.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Wally’s around all the time hanging out with Jason. The two get on fine.”
Bruce was silent for a long moment before he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his ward.
“I don’t want either of you influencing Jason anymore. When Jason comes back for breaks he’ll be staying here, at the manor.”
Dick sucked on his teeth and shook his head. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Bruce didn’t want him around his younger brother in case his sexuality ‘influences’ him. Dick didn’t stick around to listen to anything more from Bruce. He stormed out of the house and left with Wally. He texted Jason an apology later for not staying.