A/N [I do not own Young Justice, and you know that I don't because if I did, I wouldn't be shoving the god damn ships (especially Wallart/Spitfire or whatever you want to call it) down everybody's throats and pretend I'm being subtle. CUT THAT CRAP OUT. I like subtly building relationships that MEAN something not "Omigod you almost froze to death, let me make out with you and COMPLETELY blow our cover in front of a guy who could freeze us BOTH to death. Gee I'm smart" (nothing against any of the characters, but seriously, someone needs to teach those writers a thing or two about romance.)]
[mini rant over. enjoy.]
It was Dick's biggest secret: bigger than the identity of his alter-egos: bigger than that he, somewhat, maybe had a crush on Wally: or that he kinda, perhaps thought Artemis looked really fine in a Gotham Academy uniform: or that he technically may have dreamt that he and Zatanna kissed: or that Roy's arms made him blush a little, tiny bit: or that he was having a really hard time controlling his hormones as of late. Yep. Dick had a secret bigger than all of those. Bigger than the secret that he, to this day, wears superman pajamas.
Dick loved scrap-booking.
Of course, he'd never admit it. Not to Wally, not to Batman, not to Alfred - he wouldn't even admit it Batdog.
It started when he moved in with Batman, after his parents died. He brought all his mom's old scrap books. There were clippings from the newspaper of the "Flying Grayson"'s escapades and then there were family pictures of all their Christmases and birthdays. Sometimes the pictures were just of random days in their trailer or rehearsing in the tent.
The first few weeks at Wayne Manor, Dick couldn't even look at the pictures. He couldn't look at what he'd lost. He just couldn't. But, as the weeks went by, he longed too much to see his parents' faces and cracked.
The scrap books were laid out so neatly, decorated with such care and spirit. He cried and laughed simultaneously when he thought about all the two-in-the-mornings his mother must have spent on them. The last scrap book only had a handful of pages left. They left off with an incredibly short news clipping about their second to last performance.
In that moment, Dick decided the most appropriate thing was to finish the story. He took the news articles about the death of his family, and the horrible "accident" that it had been. With delicate care, Dick had cut out each article and picture he could find from the newspapers laying around Wayne Manor and attached them to the end pages.
He was hooked from then on.
Alfred didn't ask why Dick received so many packages from Amazon. Batman didn't question Dick about the purchases on his credit card (didn't Alfred take care of the financial stuff anyway; so Bruce wouldn't see this stuff right?) Dick pretended to himself neither of the older men knew or cared, and started laying out the pages of his first scrap book, only to be horribly dissappointed when he realized he had two pictures he even cared to use. One being a picture of THE batman, the second being a picture of him from an article about his adoption into the Wayne family.
A package from Amazon came with a new digital camera inside. Alfred didn't question.
-some hours later-
"Master Richard, I beg your pardon, but my I ask what you're doing?"
"Uh... nuthin, Alfred, just... testing... out my new camera. Say cheese?"
"Cheese, Master Richard."
Dick added a photo of his stoic-faced butler to the scrap book.
-that night-
"Dick, what are you doing? Sit down; its time for dinner."
"Sorry, Bruce, just uh..."
"Is that a new camera?"
"...Yeah..."
"...Just don't take a picture of me while I'm eating."
"Sure thing Bruce..." /click/flash/
"Dick!"
Bruce looked really funny with his mouth full of lobster.
-a weeks later-
"Robin, put that camera down."
"But, Bats!"
"Camera. Down."
Dick swore that someday he would have pictures of him on a mission. Someday.
-quite some time later-
Wally was walking along through Central City, he'd become Kid Flash recently. Even met THE Batman and THE Boy Wonder(ful)! Basically, he was happy as a clam. Actually, probably much happier than a clam because clams don't get to fist-bump Robin.
"Hey there!" Some high-pitched but clearly male voice appeared out of no where.
"Whu?" Wally only barely had time to turn when a flash of light hit his eyes.
"Thanks for the pic, see ya!" As Wally's eyes readjusted from the bright flash, he heard footsteps running away. Looking after the sound he stood in baffled silence.
"What the f-?"
-at the cave some years later-
"I got ambushed by some freshman today," Artemis muttered as she talked with M'gann. The archer would never admit it, but she loved her talks with the Martian.
"Oh no are you hurt?" M'gann set down her cookies to float over to Artemis, checking the blonde's hands for wounds.
"No, no. That's not what I meant. I meant he like, randomly came up to me, said, 'We'll laugh about this someday,' took a picture of me, and ran away."
"Oh... is that, um, a tradition for humans?" M'gann tilted her head to the side in utter confusion.
"No its no-"
"Actually, Arty," Kid Flash's voice interjected from the couch where he and Robin were attempting to teach Superboy to play video games. Kaldur was napping on a chair near them, "It must be kinda normal, maybe some sort of fad or something? Like a flashmob sorta thing? Cuz I had that happen to me a couple times."
Robin laughed, "Maybe those were just some Wally West fangirls who's goal in life is to get in your pants. Oh wait, there aren't any."
"Dude, uncalled for! Plus, it was a guy!"
"Didn't know you swung that way, Dude."
"Swung... what.. way?" Superboy asked, not understanding the phrase as he stared down the controls, attempting to not break the plastic with his pinkie finger.
The all laughed.
"...Actually... come to think of it, I think that's happened to me too..." M'gann commented thoughtfully as she put her cookies in the oven.
Apparently, Kaldur had been awake the entire time because he remarked, "I have also experienced this."
There was a crack as Superboy broke the controller. "RAAAWR VIDEO GAMES ARE STUPID!" He threw it down in frustration as Kid Flash stared after him as though deeply offended by the comment.
Robin snickered, "Photo-ambushing... must be an Internet meme."
-Wayne Manor some years later-
There was a knock at Dick's bedroom door. The mahogany door swung open gently and trusty, old Alfred stepped in, his wrinkled face creased even further with concern.
"Master Richard?"
"Hey, Alf."
"I thought you left?"
"...Yeah, I was just picking up some things..." Dick was sitting on his bed, a cardboard box lying next to him with childish scribble, "Dick's Stuff! Dont touch under ANY sircumstance!"
Dick flipped the page of the large scrap book sitting in his lap. There were pictures from his first adventures with Batman and his firsts in the Wayne Manor (his birthday had been especially interesting.) He laughed to himself as he came across all the secret (and horribly taken) shots of his missions with Batman. Sure, he had an affinity for those secret pictures he'd taken when he thought no one was looking, but his favorites were the pictures of him and his utterly shocked friends as he photo-ambushed them.
Alfred stepped over to Dick, sitting next to the former Boy Wonder with one of those old man sighs. Dick smiled to himself, knowing he never thought he'd be doing this. He pointed to one particularly sporadically decorated page.
"That's the day I met Wally." Alfred's silence signaled Dick to continue, "I walked right up to him and took a picture, he never saw it coming, and probably still doesn't know it was me." Dick snickered just a bit at that.
He turned through the pages again. There were a few pictures of Cadmus labs when they found Superboy. He laughed as he saw the title of the page, "Hacked the Motion Sensors." He sure had a lot of codes for "I'm taking secret pictures of us for my scrap book, say cheese."
He passed the page with his photo of Artemis on her first day at Gotham Academy. He passed his page dedicated solely to Wally "Fails" in training, then the one for Superboy, then Miss Martian, Artemis, Kaldur, and there were only a couple from him (his scrapbook was the only evidence of these fails left in existence.)
He skimmed the missions, occasionally pointing out particular things to the silent, patient Alfred.
Then he got to THAT page.
The page with a picture of all of them. Together. It had their Thanksgiving party: the one they invited everyone to with the guarantee that all cookies would be store-bought.
Dick looked down at the picture. Staring into his young, masked, smiling face brought back too many emotions. In the picture, Kid Flash had his arm around his shoulders, smiling in that goofily, stupidly charming way. Zatanna stood on his other side (how in hell she convinced her father to let her go to the party, he couldn't remember.) Artemis stood next to Zatanna and Kaldur after that. Next to Wally was Superboy who's arm was being hugged tightly by a certain excited Martian. Captain Marvel stood behind them, along with Black Canary and Red Tornado. Flash, also, was there, giving a big thumbs-up to the camera as he stuffed his face with turkey. Roy was even there. Dick remembered with a bitter laugh how much he, KF, and Kaldur had begged Roy to come to the party. He remembered how the second Green Arrow showed up, Roy left, but not before making a scene. He remembered how awkward Roy and Artemis had been around each other (archers are just solo-creatures Dick supposed.) Aquaman was there, talking to Martian Man-Hunter, and boasting an unbelievably large beard (he took no-shave-November waaay too seriously.) And lastly, Dick's eyes were drawn to Batman, lurking in the background.
Dick closed his eyes shut, wishing for these emotions to stop. He felt the comforting hand of Alfred on his shoulder.
"It's okay, Richard." He patted his old charge's back consolingly.
"I don't plan on ever coming back, Alf."
"I know."
After a long moment, Dick inhaled and relaxed his shoulders. He looked down ruefully at the beautiful picture once more before closing the scrap book gently and packing it back in the cardboard box with the others of its kind.
Heaving the weighty box into his well-defined arms, stood up to his full height. He'd grown up a lot, this eighteen year old Dick Grayson. He wasn't the Boy Wonder anymore. He would never go back to that bird namesake. He was leaving the nest - pun intended.
Dick made to exit the near empty room, but Alfred stood up and called after him.
"Richard... this..."
Dick turned curiously to see Alfred handing him a large and overly full envelope. He set down the box to take the gift. Upon opening it, Dick could feel the tears coming back with a vengeance.
Batman stood with his arm pointing up and out of the frame as if holding the camera, there was the slightest trace of a smile on his face as the camera looked down on him and an excited, young Robin peeking over the edge of some skyscraper. "First night as Robin" was scribbled on the back in Bruce's handwriting. Dick flipped through the others, reading all the comments Bruce had made on the back of them.
"Dick and Alfred making cookies"
"Dick's not good at baking"
"First time against the Joker"
"Alfred's birthday"
"First time against the Penguin"
"Fourth of July, Dick sure likes fireworks."
"First time against the Riddler"
"First day at Gotham Academy"
Dick shuffled through the pictures, not even caring as the tears fell down his cheeks.
"Christmas present for Dick: R-cycle"
"Dick's reaction to the R-cycle (money well-spent)"
"First broken arm (from crashing R-cycle)"
"Me and Dick in my office at Wayne Ind."
"First meeting Kid Flash"
"Young Justice is formed"
"First mission with team"
"Dick's first date"
"Dick's first school dance"
"Failed training" (WHERE DID HE GET THAT PHOTO!)
"Me and Dick, middle school graduation"
"Dick eating pie with Superboy, Wally, and Kaldur."
"First day of high school"
"Dick photo-ambushing Artemis"
"Halloween costume after meeting about the mole"
"Dick's first time legally driving a car (still not allowed drive the Batmobile)"
"Me with Dick at National Mathlympics"
"First Place, Mathlympics"
"Studying for SAT's"
"Blowing off stuyding for SAT's to spend time with Wally."
"Dick is getting too old for the Robin outfit..."
"Dick trying to sneak out of the Batcave with the Batmobile (grounded)"
"Alfred and Dick baking"
"Dick is a lot better at baking."
"Mission with Dick, he seems unhappy."
"Dick sneaking out of the house as Nightwing."
Dick's electric blue eyes overflowed with countless tears and he looked up at Alfred with silent sobs.
The butler only smiled compassionately, prompting, "There's a note."
Shaking, Dick took a slip of paper still in the envelope.
It read: "Good bye, Dick. I hope you can find a place for these in one of your scrap books."
Dick choked back a cry as he looked back up at the old, grandfatherly figure. The man nodded patiently with a whelmingly kind smile. "Take care, Dick. Bruce and I wish you well."
It was Dick's biggest secret. Bigger than that his favorite hugs were a toss up between Kaldur's and Alfred's. Bigger than that he had secretly driven the Batmobile six times or that he had a Wonder Woman keychain. Bigger than his crush on Barbara a couple years ago. Yep. Dick had a secret bigger than even that he let M'gann paint his nails once.
Dick loved scrap booking. Especially, he loved his scrap book containing memorabilia from his days in the Wayne Manor.
A/N [I was inspired by the scene where Dick photo-ambushes Artemis and then looks back at the picture with a smile that just expresses to me how much he CARES about ALL his friends. And I got it in my head that he takes pictures of everyone because he always wants to have something to remember them by, its like how Wally always has to get souveniers, he always takes pictures]