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“So you’ve got a sidekick now?” Clark asked for what felt like the twelfth time in the past ten minutes. “You always said…”
“Yes, I know, I know.” Bruce somehow managed to sound even more deadpan than usual, his voice dry enough to cause desertification over the phone. “But you try telling this kid n— Hey! Get down from there, I am not replacing another chandelier, Alfred will kill me! Dick, I swear—”
A horrific crash sounded in the background, metal tearing and the sad tinkling of broken glass scattering across a marble floor. Clark winced; something told him the chandelier did not survive. “Everyone okay?”
“Physically, we’re fine,” Bruce replied shortly. “I’ll call you back later.”
Later, as it turned out, was that night when non-Bats and people who worked nine to fives were in bed. Clark groaned as he flailed blindly for his phone, hitting the answer button for what was apparently a video call. He blinked blearily at the screen before frowning in growing alarm.
“You look like shit.”
Bruce, who indeed looked like shit, grunted. He sat in the Cave, looking almost as limp and lifeless as the cowl and cape hanging sadly off the back of his chair. His hair was a ruffled mess, and the circles on his eyes could rival any raccoon’s. Bruce didn’t just look like shit, he looked exhausted . Clark had once seen the man on a four-night stakeout and remain completely unbothered. Whatever was going on… It had to be world ending in its severity.
“Everything okay?” Clark asked, instinctively used into the voice he reserved for scared children and horses.
Dropping his face into his hands, Bruce groaned. “I owe Alfred so many apologies. I don’t know how he ever put up with my bullshit.” He sounded dangerously close to whining, which was ridiculous because Batman never whined.
“It can’t be that bad,” Clark said slowly. “Dick’s such a sweetheart!”
“A sweetheart, yes. Also a magnet for trouble and a vessel for some of the most unhinged, volatile rage I have ever witnessed,” Bruce said with a piercing glare. “Yesterday I had four separate members of Penguin’s goon squad beg me to keep him away from them! There are multiple high-priority posts in the Goonion forums warning other members about him. They are terrified of him! He's eight! ” He slumped back down in his chair, dragging a hand down his face with a sigh. When he finally looked back at Clark, a small, reluctant smile tugged the corner of his lips.
“He made the Joker cry, Clark.”
Clark blinked. Reran the statement in his mind. Blinked again. “... What.”
The smile grew bigger. “Dick– Robin– made the Joker cry. By critiquing his clown act ,” Bruce huffed, unable to hide his amusement despite his exasperation. “He kept asking him whether or not he had an egg.”
“An egg??”
“Something to do with official clowning.” Bruce shrugged before sobering again. He sat a little straighter in his chair with a grave expression on his face.
“I didn't want a sidekick, Clark. I never wanted to bring a child into this.”
“Then why did you?”
“When Dick first came here, he was… Angry. The type of anger that can burn a person from the inside out. I told him about everything in the hopes it'd make him feel less alone. To convince him he doesn't have to follow this path.” Bruce paused, staring past the camera. “Instead he wanted in. Started sneaking out to do his own patrols.”
Clark winced. “... Got it.”
“So I gave him the cape, let him choose the name in the hopes that at least I could keep an eye on him. And it’s worked but it's worked too well.” Bruce sighed. “He's good at it.”
“It suits him?”
“Like a bird to air, Clark,” Bruce said. “There’s now an entire gymnasium in the Batcave after I caught him trying to do some flips off Rexy. With aerials. He’s even taught me some tricks.”
Bruce sighed again, leaning back and covering his face, looking more weary than Clark had ever seen him. His enhanced vision didn’t exactly work very well over video feeds, but he didn’t need it. His friend was exhausted, worn down both emotionally and physically trying to handle single-parentdom.
“I’m… afraid, Clark,” he said softly. “I don’t know if what I’m doing is right, but it’s all I know how to do. He’s so bright out there, like a beacon in the night. He’s brilliant, but I just… I never wanted a child to follow my path, you know that. I never–”
“Bruce?”
Both Bruce and Clark straightened at the small voice sounding from beyond the camera. Bruce turned his chair, revealing a not-exactly-awake Dick rubbing at his eyes with a yawn. And Clark watched Bruce, the Batman, the Dark Knight do something he’d never seen before.
He melted, softening into something Clark was tempted to call fatherhood. He was struck with a sudden image of a different time, a different place. A place without tragedy where Bruce would’ve been a true family man and thrived. A pang went through his heart at the loss of what would never pass, and he tucked the thought away. No good to dwell on what-ifs.
“You okay, chum?” Bruce was asking. “Bad dream?”
“Mhm.” Dick nodded and moved to Bruce’s outstretched arms, climbing into his lap and snuggling in like an overgrown kitten. “‘S better now,” he mumbled. “Y’ caught me.” He yawned again, tucking his head against Bruce’s chest and almost immediately fell back to sleep.
Bruce’s face went through several emotions in rapid succession. Clark was tempted to name them– disbelief, fear, fondness. Love. But he decided against it; his friend was already struggling, no need to add more complications on top. Though, as he watched Bruce yawn himself and hold Dick a little tighter, he made a mental note to speak with Diana and see what they could do to support their friend on this journey. Maybe his parents would have ideas as well.
“Bruce, I…” Clark trailed off, watching his friend’s eyes drift shut. He still held onto his ward even as sleep overtook him. Clark smiled, his heart painfully fond, as he closed out the call and texted Alfred to keep an eye on his charges. He settled back into his own bed and closed his own eyes. He had a busy day in the morning, late night calls or no.
But if he kept an extra ear out towards Gotham for the next few days, well. No one had to know.