Author's Note- This is my first story, I hope you enjoy. Feedback, positive or negative, is very much appreciated. Thanks.
Dick looks at his mentor through his rage filled eyes, and does the only thing that seems logical, he screams. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Bruce looks alarmed at Dicks outburst amongst the quiet awkward air.
"I was doing what I thought was…" Bruce begins, but before he can finish, Dick cuts him off.
"Don't you dare play that card," Dick tells him aggravated, "you were spying on me."
Bruce looks saddened and almost ashamed at his actions, then his face turns stern and competes with Dick's seriousness. "I was protecting you. In this life people get hurt you know that!" Bruce says trying to reason with Dick, though also sounding as if he is trying to convince himself.
Dick looks at him with disgusted hatred. "First of all, it was my mission! I thought you trusted me enough to be able to carry it out by myself! We're partners Bruce, I'm not your sidekick, we are PARTNERS!" Dicks takes a breath before continuing. "Second of all, I didn't even ask for this life, why the hell couldn't I be adopted my normal parents, that didn't just want a soldier?!"
"I was trying to help you…"
"What by turning me into YOU? I DON'T want to be like YOU! I wish I never met you!" Dick shouts, and goes to throw a punch aimed directly at Bruce's face. Bruce lets it hit him, then turns his face back towards Dick.
He growls and wipes the blood from his lip, before snarling back, "Get the hell OUT!" Bruce looks at him, anger evident by his typical 'Batman' scowl, and his reddening face, which boils with anger.
"No, you can't kick me out," Dick shouts back just as enraged, "because I quit." He takes his Robin emblem off his chest and throws it at Bruce. "I'm not gonna be the partner to anyone, who doesn't understand what a partnership is." Dick turns away, breathing in deeply before going to his motorcycle, putting his helmet on, and revving the engine. He presses the button on the bike and the outside entrance to the Batcave opens. Before Bruce has time to think, he drives out of the batcave.
Bruce stares dumbfounded at the still open hatch to the Batcave, before hearing a metal tray fall and hit the ground. He turns around to see Alfred's shocked expression. He turns away from his father figure in shame, but not before he notices tears welling up in the older man's eyes. Bruce's owl eyes become watery as he is unsure of what will become of his relationship with Dick, with his son.
Dick drives until he is until his motorcycle is low on gas. He doesn't even know exactly where he is right away when he stops. He's been driving for over well over a few hours, and the argument is just settling in. He does the only thing he can think of, he calls Wally West, AKA Kid Flash. The phone rings and eventually goes to voicemail and it takes him a minute to realize why. He stares down at his watch and realizes it's 3 o'clock in the morning. For him and Bruce, it's normal working hours, though for almost every other hero, it's time to sleep.
He knows he can try and call Wally again, though in Keystone it'll still be 2 and Wally really likes his sleep. And it's not like he'll wake up anyway, Wally has slept through louder things than a cellphone ringing.
He thinks for a few minutes and decides to go to the closest hero's house, Clark's. He feels bad for having to go to Clark's apartment, but he already ended up in Metropolis, and he knows Clark will be annoyed if he didn't come to him when he's already close.
When he gets close to Clark's apartment he runs out of gas. Still being in his Robin uniform, he doesn't have any money on him so he can't get gas. He leaves his motorcycle in some parking lot, and jogs the rest of the way to Clark's apartment. By the time he arrives it's 3:45, and he is starting to think about leaving now, but he still knocks.
Before he even has the chance to knock a second time, the door flings open. "Dick!" Clark says through a yawn. Nevertheless, he is still grinning, even though his hair is disheveled, and his clothes were obviously just thrown on.
"Hey Clark, I'm really sorry, but I was wondering if I could just stay the rest of the night?" Dick asks only slightly embarrassed.
Clark looks concerned, and tired. Still though, he opens the door wider and his grin grows. Dick steps in and Clark shuts the door behind them. "Of course Dick, I'll ready the guest room."
"You really don't have to." Dick quickly responds, but just as quickly as the response leaves his mouth, the older man speeds away and readies the room then speeds back in almost no time.
Clark returns smiling and leads Dick to the guest room. It waste complete opposite of his room at the manor, and Dick was glad, he didn't want to be reminded of Bruce. "I hope this is fine." Clark tells him.
"More than fine Clark." As Clark turns to leave Dick, Dick stops him. "Clark… thank you." Clark turns his head toward the young man standing before him and nods.
As Clark leaves he stops himself, "and Dick, try to get some rest please." This time Dick nods.
Dick wakes up to the smell of pancakes he checks his watch that lay on the nightstand, 10:00 am. He gets up and walks toward the kitchen only half awake. He is half surprised to see Clark standing in the kitchen cooking breakfast rather than Alfred. What surprises him more is what Clark is wearing. Clark stands in the middle of the kitchen with a Superman apron and Superman pajama bottoms.
Dick only half contains his laugh as he walks into the kitchen. "I see you're awake." Clark responds putting the last pancake on the plate. "Here eat something. And while you're at it, maybe you can tell me why you're all the way in Metropolis."
Dick sits down and looks up at him as he fills his mouth with food. "You see," he takes another bite, "I… 'ould," another bite, "but Alfie… 'ould yell… at me if I 'alked wit my mout full." He finishes as he stuffs another pancake in his mouth. Dick goes to grab another pancake, but Clark uses his super speed to grab the plate before Dick can. Dick looks at him unamused, "Fine, Bruce and I got into an argument. I said some things, then I quit and left."
Clark did his best to keep the surprised look off his face. "What'd you argue about?"
"You know Bruce, he trusts no one. I was on a solo mission, and he installed a bunch of spyware on my stuff. I realized this and thought I was compromised, so I tried to work quicker. Except when I caught the guy, I realized it wasn't him who bugged me. I confronted Bruce after the fact and he wouldn't even admit it was him until I told him I checked the bat computer records." Dick looked almost saddened by his recollection of the last night's events. "But the worst part, is that he doesn't trust me." Dick caught a lump in his throat. "When I checked the bat computer records, I also found out he's had all my phone bugged for the past how many years we worked together. And it just stings that he didn't trust me as much as I thought he did." Clark looks distraught over Dick's revelation.
Clark sees the look in Dick's eyes. Betrayal, sadness, anger, all boiling up. Clark for one of the few times in his life, other than all the times he's with Lois, doesn't know what to do. He wants to cheer up Dick but he doesn't… then an idea clicks in his head. He super speeds into his room and grabs a winter jacket. "Here put this on." Dick looks at him puzzled, but does as he's told.
They walk outside, then Clark grabs a hold of Dick and flies as fast as possible, while carrying Dick, to the Fortress of Solitude. They land and Superman places Dick down. "This is where I come when I need to think." Clark tells him. Dick looks around the giant ice sculpture slightly shivering. Clark pushes open the door and the both enter. As soon as he entered, Dick saw two giant statues holding what appeared to be a globe. But not of Earth, it was of, what Dick assumed to be, Krypton.
To the left there were stairs that seemed to lead to a sort of intergalactic zoo. And on the right there were two staircases. One that led upward, while the other led down. He could see the staircase leading up led to a trophy room, not dissimilar to Batman's.
Clark continued walking forward, and Dick could see next to either side of the statue was a staircase that led to a main area. Dick while observing, hadn't even realized Clark had stopped in front of the giant statue. "It's of my birth parents holding the planet Krypton." He looked at it pensively, then continued walking up the staircase to the left of the statue.
The main area contains a large amount of crystals and many hallways that lead to different rooms. A specific room catches Dick's eye, and he walks over almost subconsciously.
He stares mesmerized, at the miniature city in the glass bottle. "That's Kandor. It's a city from Krypton."
"How'd you create it?" Dick asks without taking his eyes off of the glass contained.
"I didn't, that's an actual city from Krypton." Dick's eyes finally stray from the bottle, to look at Clark, confused. Clark realizing he should have explained better back pedals a little. "Well, you know Brainiac. Brainiac likes to steal cities from dying civilizations, miniaturize them, and preserve them. Well before Krypton exploded, Brainiac stole Kandor. There are millions of people inside that tiny little bottle.
"Come to think of it, there was actually, a sort of urban myth, that I heard about Kandor." Clark continues, "The myth goes that, 'a Kandorian was cast out by his family. Disowned by his family and family friends, he has nowhere to go. One day someone tries to mug a lady in an alley. Unlucky for the mugger, that's the alley where, the now homeless man, was staying. The man attacked the mugger and saved the woman. Loving the adrenaline rush that came from helping others, he decided to become a hero.
"He became a hero called Nightwing, which is basically the equivalent to a black hawk on Earth. He continued to save people and outgrew his family's name.' Interesting story in my opinion." Dick looks at Clark intrigued by the story the older hero had just told him. Clark smiles his signature smile back at Dick, and then proceeds to stare at the city of Kandor.
"So what did Nightwing look like?" Dick asks out of curiosity.
Clark turns back to him, then puts his hand to his chin pondering. "If I remember correctly he work black with a blue emblem and a blue cape. He was so much of a hero, that the colors of black and blue became synonymous with Nightwing. He even got his own holiday."
Clark finishes and as he does he feels another body wrapped around his. He looks down to see Dick tightly grasping Clark. "Thank you." Dick whispers to the Kryptonian.
"Anytime."