It only took him six months to finally put the entire puzzle together. Dick (and by extent, Robin) was gay.
Bruce should have known, but he didn't know what made him realize. The lack of interest when a younger women would flirt with him after saving them, having a keen eye for men's tennis, the ballet or gymnastics, the bit too long glances at muscular men on the streets, the clear bottles of nail polish and rose hand cream he "secretly" kept in his desk drawers (Bruce had found them while looking for a stapler. No wonder Dick had such soft hands), It could have been any kind of thing. Bruce had played with the idea now and then but had never considered questioning his son about the thought.
The only real reason Bruce started to get more curious was the letters. It had been common for Bruce to see a sealed envelope on Dicks desk, slightly scented with some kind of fruit perfume. Bruce guessed strawberry, Alfred said it was more of a cherry to him. They had a small heart either drawn on in red ink or in the shape of a sticker stuck onto the beak of the envelopes backing. The name "Charlie" was written on the front in Dicks flowy cursive, sometimes the name ended with a little heart or smiley face. No stamp or return on the front indicated they were swapped in person. Most likely at school, as Dick sandwiched it between his homework when he packed for school. Dick, of course, was very defensive over the letters, saying that he was either sending the notes to another friend from a 'secret lady' or that he was interested in a girl named Charlie. The story changed between those two depending on the day. Bruce brushed it off as young love, and knew to hold himself back from even considering opening a letter. But the box under the bed got the better of him.
Alfred dropped something under Dicks bed while cleaning at one point. While looking under there he discovered the box. It was an old shoe box, the corners were a bit wonky and the top had some dents in it. Bruce was worried it held something like cigarettes or some form of drug, but what was inside was more addictive to Bruce.
Love letters. Many many love letters. From Charlie no less.
Bruce knew he shouldn't, but reading one couldn't have hurt. Maybe even two was fine. Three couldn't possibly leave a mark. Soon there was a pile of love letters sitting next to him on the floor of his sons bedroom. Even Alfred had come in to take a quick peek into the young teens love life. Charlie's handwriting was plain script, slightly messy but not hard to read. The letter 'E' was always written in an uppercase form, just slightly down scaled to make it lowercase. Each letter was written on lined loose leaf paper, the side holes torn, making Bruce guess it was written in school. He wrote in plain pencil and did not scent the letters like Dick did.
Charlie drew small pictures at the bottom of his letters, mostly ones consisting of him and Dick doing something affectionate. He wasn't very good at draw hands though, as they had four fingers and when they were "holding hands" the hands just overlapped. Charlie wrote about many things. School work, football (he was the quarterback for the football team at their school), family, or whatever was on his mind. He always ended his letters with a question. Bruce collected that Dick had also ended his letters with a question, as each letter had an out of context answer at the start.
Bruce became engrossed in the letters. Bruce had never much interest in love plots, but watching another kid dote over his son sucked him in. But it got even better; outside of letters, there were pictures. Photobooth pictures of them sharing a quick kiss, instant prints of them holding hands or Dick being held in his boyfriends arms, laughing or kissing him on the cheek. Charlie didn't look half bad. He was tall, muscle built, covered in dark flat moles. He had slightly messy brown hair and a nice pair of green eyes. In the box There were even small gifts like plastic animals or small sticky notes either folded into paper airplanes, drawings, or notes. Some even had batman on it. But the more and more he explored the box, the more he wanted. Soon, the contents of the box were all all the floor and Bruce was left hungry.
"Master Bruce!" Alfred slid into the doorway, startling Bruce. "Master Dick! He's home!"
Bruce, panicking, shoved everything back into the box messily and kicked it back under the bed before stumbling out of the room.
"What's all the racket about?" Dick called out playfully. "Hiding a body or somethin?"
"Oh Dick you're such a jokester!" Bruce flashed a worried smile, Alfred walked away briskly. Dick raised his eyebrow. He knew something was up.
"Okayyyy….well i'm going to do my homework and see a friend after." Dick walked past him and shut the door.
"What friend?!" Bruce impulsively opened the door, Alfred peeked his head backout from around the corner, Dick was taken back by the sudden burst.
"Charlie? Charlie Desage." Dink responded, unzipping his backpack. Bruce sucked his lip in at the sight of an envelope peeking out of a notebook. "We're working on a project together."
"Seem to have a lot of friends named Charlie huh Chum?" Dick stiffened, Alfred facepalmed.
"I'll let you know Charlie is a very popular name!" Dick folded his arms. "Now if you'll excuse me?"
Bruce stepped out of the room and shut the door. He looked at Alfred, Alfred signaled him over.
"I say we stop digging into this. Master Dick is catching on I believe. Your comment almost got us caught."
"Alright alright" Bruce laughed, knowing he was going to not do that.
The sound of a car pulled into the driveway, Bruce dropped his newspaper.
"I'm gonna go now, I'll be back soon!"
Bruce couldn't help but notice the pep in Dicks step as he went to the door. Bruce rushed to steal a look out the window. He ducked more behind the curtain when he saw Dick give a quick glance at the house before kissing Charlie on the cheek. Bruce couldn't help but give a warm smile out of pride for his son.
And he really should have stopped there, like Alfred said.
There was letter on the desk one night. Dick had written it. It had no envelope.
It was folded so the bottom two ends would meet in the middle. Dick wrote on plain white paper, but there was erased pencil lines under the neat script, used as guidelines so the writing wouldn't slide down. He chose to write in pen with a more basic cursive that was spaced out rather than his usual squished kind. It hadn't been scented yet. Bruce didn't even know if Dick was home at the time, but he knew the opportunity to read one of this letters was not going to come this easily every again.
Charlie,
Yes I do agree that the young James Dean was attractive. Bruce and I have watched many of his movies before. While I do not deny the fact that "Rebel Without a Cause" is one of his best, my father and I enjoy "the Dark, Dark Hours" more, we enjoy crime movies very much.
On the subject of Bruce, I am in a similar situation as you are with your folks. I wish I could introduce you as my boyfriend to him, but if I told him I was a homosexual his reaction would be less than joyful. This upsets me greatly but it's better off he didn't know. It's hard to keep secrets from him but this is for the best. Do not be alarmed but I believe he is onto me. I noticed my box of cards was a bit messier. Bruce is more of a rusher when it comes cleaning up. He likes things put away but I like things in piles. Other than that, sometimes his eyes catch your name outside the letter. He may be keen but in the love department I think I have the higher grade, I manage to shoo him off before he can ask any questions.
Besides Bruce, I saw the end of the game on Friday. You didn't see me sadly, I was lurking in the shadows. I should show you my ballet moves, they look light but hit heavy. Once I kicked the spit out of a guy trying to mug me with a flying pas de chat. If you did something like that on the field? They wouldn't know what hit 'em.
"Bruce?"
Bruce dropped the letter. He turned to Dick. He had an envelope in his hands.
"It's not what it-"
"You….read my letter" Dick dropped the Envelope. "Bruce-"
"Dick I'm sorry I just couldn't help myself!" Exclaimed Bruce. "You're dating an athlete? Does he know you're-"
"Bruce" Dick said seriously "You went in my box didn't you?"
Bruce's shoulders dropped when he saw the tears forming in his son's eyes. He really should have listened to Alfred.
"Only me and Alfred know if that's any help" Bruce was never very good at comforting people.
"Alfred knows?!" Dick yelled "You both went through my box?!"
"Well to be fair...It was under the bed. Not the best hiding space. You should have tried the closet, I mean you were hiding in there too but I don't know how well you...you know" This situation was over the deep end at this point, and Bruce had jumped right in with no floaties.
"Don't try to turn this on me!" Dick yelled back, startling Bruce. His eyes were watery as he stepped closer to Bruce. "Why do you always have to do this?" He finally sobbed. "Just get out! Go away!"
Bruce was quickly kicked out of the room. He flinched to the slam of the door and cringed to the sound of the lock clicking shut. Bruce looked over at Alfred.
"Teeangers...right?" Bruce nervously laughed. Alfred sighed and shook his head.
"Um...Dick?"
Bruce knocked on the door to his room. Dick had completely missed dinner. And breakfast. Tea time. And Lunch. Bruce slowly realized the issue he brushed off as a teenager overreacting was actually more of a thing Bruce brought on himself.
"Dick come on. It's been a day. Can we talk about this?"
There was silence. He heard a shuffling noise and then the lock clicking open. Opening the door, he found a dark room with Dick lying in his bed with blankets tucked up to his neck, facing his back to Bruce. Bruce looked over to the desk, a crumbled love letter thrown into the trash. He sighed and climbed next to Dick in the bed.
"So…." Bruce started "I messed up. Bad."
Dick muttered something, hesitated before placing his hand on Dicks shoulder.
"You're right. I shouldn't have gone in your stuff." Dick was still silent. "But I'm sorry I ever made you feel like you couldn't be open with me."
Dick moved his head slightly. His hair was messy and he wore his old Beatles t-shirt.
"I would never be mad at you for something like...loving men. I'm proud of everything you do and your lifestyle choices will never change that. I know I'm not the best at showing emotions and I won't be winning any...parent of the year awards...but I love you. I don't say it enough but I really really do. You put up with me when I go see Catwomen."
He knew he had broken through when he heard a soft chuckle.
"But not only that you just...do things you wanna do and you keep going when stuff goes bad. You keep me on my toes and always surprise me. I love you, no matter what."
Bruce didn't get a chance to blink before two arms wrapped around him tightly. Dicks face was stained with tears, his eyes shut. Bruce squeezed back.
"Thank you." Dick said.
"When can I meet him?" Bruce asked.
"Ewww never!" Dick laughed, shoving Bruce a little. "God that'd be so weird! He's scared of batman you know."
"Scared of-? I thought everyone wants to be saved by me?!" Bruce snickered. "You better rewrite that love letter to talk about how great I am."
"I actually changed it to be about Alfred" Dick said smugly. "Maybe you'll get into the next one"
"Yea yea." bruce rolled his eyes and ruffled Dicks hair. "Just make it nice, I have an image to keep up."
"Yea, I'd like to see headline." Dick scoffed. "Billionaire kid is homo, local teenager comes forward with letter slandering Bruce Wayne."
"You know I'd sure Your, his, and Clark's ass?" Bruce said
"You said Uncle Clark would publish it?"
"Believe me...He's been wanting dirt on me for ages."
Dick sighed. And looked at his father.
"I love you...Partner"
"I love you ol' Chum."