Doubting Aside

A Word: Different POVs and things that don't fit in the Doubting main fic. Have some Dick and Steph.

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Dick is tired. He's tired and hungry and in very real danger of contracting a major case of the assholeitis as he pulls into the Cave. Parking his borrowed bike to the side where Bruce disassembles the vehicles they inevitably pick up on patrol. It's a nice bike given he'd gotten it from a pimp who thought a motorcycle was a better investment than a bullet proof vest.

Dick did catch the guys who shot the man because of it, but he still would have gone with a vest personally.

"Dick!" Steph calls out from one of the tables. Voice bright and happy in a way Dick's just not feeling as she devours a sandwich at a terrifying rate. "Alfred got us roast beef."

May the gods bless that man. Dick throws himself into a chair. Bumping his little sister out of the way and tearing into a sandwich. He nearly moans at the taste and Steph snickers at him. "Must've been a busy night if you skipped snack time."

The way she emphasizes the words is shows her derision of the sacred fifteen minutes Dick usually spends eating anything he can get his hands on during patrol. "Just you wait. Some day, you'll grow out of that cute phase and people will stop feeding you on patrol. You'll rue the day you ever mocked snack time then."

Steph nearly chokes on her second sandwich as she laughs. It's totally not fair though. There are people along Steph's normal patrol routes that stay up just to feed the young Robin. Kids who hoard cookies like she's Santa Claus and little old ladies who save slices of homemade pie. Dick knows. He used to be Robin and enjoyed those bounties, but the second he dropped the panties it'd all dried up. Nothing but mace and curses for Nightwing.

They demolish the plate in minutes. Steph reluctantly giving up the last sandwich when Dick flips his lenses down to give her the puppy eyes that've yet to fail him.

"Hey, Dick," Steph starts with a frown as he stands up to shower and change. He gives her an encouraging smile when she hesitates. "There's this guy at school-"

Dick's stomach turns to lead and he sits back down immediately. His smile stretching across his face. Forced and nearly feral. "Really? What's his name?" And his address and his description.

"Not like that," Steph rolls her eyes in exasperation, but Dicks not falling for that move this time. Last time, Steph had brought home an asshole after pulling that line to make him back off. "Seriously, Dick, I'm pretty sure he's gay, and that's not what I want to talk about," she says louder as he opens his mouth because she's tried that one too and it ended just as badly. "I think he's getting hit at home."

That's a new one, Dick thinks before his brain kicks him. That's not a subject that Steph would throw around lightly. "You got proof?"

"He's bruised up a lot," Steph's frown is stubborn now and Dick nearly sighs at the obvious evasion, "and his dad drinks all the time. I don't think I've ever seen him not drunk."

"Anything else?" Dick asks knowing the answer already, but giving her the benefit of the doubt. Steph is silent. "Does this kid admit it's happening?"

"No," Steph grudgingly admits. Her face set and mulish. Which he take to mean the kid probably goes out of his way to say the opposite.

"Steph, you know we can't-"

"I know!" Steph shouts and Dick can hear the frustrated end of several conversations with Bruce in it. "I know it won't do any good without proof, I know we can't help him if he won't admit it, I know we can make it worse if-" Steph slumps down on the table her hair spilling out to hide her face. "It just sucks. I want to help him. But."

Dick reaches out and starts combing some of the tangles out of her hair. "Hey, you talk to this guy at school right?" Steph nods mutely. "Well keep talking to him. You might be helping just by being his friend you know? So just stick around him. Maybe he'll start talking one day. And then?" Dick smiles as she peeks out through her hair at him. "Well, I hear Robin's got a pretty nasty punch these days."

Steph's laugh follows him into the shower.

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