yorulun asked: Prompt 12. "Let go." Because I am evil and I know it. I want it between Bruce and Dick where Bruce hangs over a cliff etc with only Dick's hand holding him between death but Dick has a broken arm or something unable to pull Bruce up himself and the enemies are approaching. The utility belt and gadgets were lost and the cape was torn, so Bruce is unable to do it himself. So he tells Dick to let go and save himself. Cheesy but I need it.
"Let go."
"Yeah, sure," Dick says, straining to keep his grip on Bruce's cape. He knows he's probably half-choking Bruce with how it's making Bruce dangle over the street, but it's hard to keep both his own grip on the ledge of the roof and Bruce below him, so he hopes that Bruce can live with it for a few more seconds until he can figure out a way to pull them both up. "Just as soon as you stop being a gigantic ass."
Bruce gurgles a half-chuckle beneath him, and Dick winces at the sound. He's running out of time. "Nightwing," Bruce coughs. "You have to let go. You can't pull us both up like this."
"Watch me," Dick snarls, and because he's never liked being told what to do, Dick takes a deep breath and starts to pull himself upward. It's just like doing a one-handed chin up. A really hard, one-handed chin up with a lot more weight than one person should be able to lift. Dick does it anyways, managing to get himself high enough to hook his elbow around the ledge, too.
Below him, Bruce is swinging a bit, and he's gone quiet, and Dick worries as he leans his cheek against the ledge and pants for breath. He could go for a nap right about now, but unfortunately, the nap will become the eternal kind if he doesn't find the strength to get himself and Bruce the rest of the way over the ledge.
Just as he starts to pull himself up again, he slips, and barely manages to scrabble for the ledge again. There's a pain in his hand and his arm jerks awkwardly, causing Dick to cry out in pain, and Bruce grunts at the movement. And they're right back where they started. The worst part is that Dick doesn't think that he can pull either of them up any farther.
"Let go of him!" Tim yells over the comm., and Dick, despite everything in him screaming that he shouldn't—couldn't—let go of Bruce, to leave this parent to the same fate as his others, trusts his brother. He lets go of the cape, and his lifeline to Bruce slips through his fingers.
There's a moment, just a heartbeat, where the world stills and Dick is completely convinced that he'd just let his father fall to his death—again—but then time moves forward again and Jason comes swinging in to grab Bruce before he can hit the street, and Dick almost lets go of the ledge in his exhaustion and relief.
Cass grabs his wrist before his hand can slip, though, and with her help, Dick climbs back over the ledge and onto the safety of the roof. He collapses before he can swing his legs over the edge.
"Bruce," Dick breathes. "Bruce was shot. And then pushed. He needs help."
Dick had barely managed to catch him, but it had led to that situation, the one where Dick would have hung there until he couldn't hold on any longer, and then he would have fallen with Bruce as soon as he ran out of willpower and Bruce ran out of blood to lose. They would have died had their family not come.
Cass nods, though. "Jason and Tim have the car. Alfred is waiting."
And Dick closes his eyes and lets himself go, just for a second. He lets himself feel some sort of twisted relief, because Bruce hadn't fallen to his death. Dick doesn't have to see blood splattered on the ground around a broken and mangled body of someone he loves, and he almost doesn't care that Bruce was shot.
Almost. Bruce still was shot, and Dick needs to make sure he isn't going to die from that, too. So, he rolls to his feet and lets Cass help him over to the fire escape. Dick's not going to lose anybody tonight. Not if he can help it.