A/N: This little extra chapter is my way of saying thank you to everyone who left such amazing reviews to both Cape and Mask. The third story in the little trilogy (now maybe a quartet!) Cowl is officially in the workings, I'm just working around AP testing and end of the year project for AP English right now. Anyways, this little bonus came to me as I was doing some background research for Cowl and I thought it'd be a sweet little add-on to the previous Bruce/Dick chapter. Hope you all like it!
For all the years that Dick had seen his father transform into the cowled hero of Gotham City, he'd never imagined himself someday trading in his own superhero uniform for the dark armored suit of his mentor. Yet here he was, standing in the batcave holding the infamous cowl that he'd seen Bruce pull over his head countless times before to fully become Batman.
As he stood there dressed as Batman, still as a statue and staring down at the cowl and cape that he would never be able to associate with anyone else but his father, Dick felt lonelier than ever before. Bruce was gone, there was nothing he could do about that, but Gotham still needed Batman, and despite the arguments and spats he'd had with his father Dick felt he owed this to the man who'd meant everything to him. Shedding his self-made identity of Nightwing to take up his mentor's mantle was the least he could do when the city he'd grown up protecting was in crisis.
Taking one final fortifying breath, Dick slipped the dark cowl over his head and adjusted the batwing shaped cape before slowly walking to the full length mirror situated in the corner of the cave where the Bat Family kept their superhero costumes. Where years before he'd met Robin for the first time in that exact same mirror, Dick now saw Batman looking back at him. If he imagined really hard, he could almost believe that it was Bruce looking back at him with that dark crest splayed proudly across his broad chest.
No, now was not the time to get sentimental. Gotham needed Batman, and Batman it would get.
"Batman?" A small voice from the other side of the cave made Dick turn away from the mirror to see the small figure of Bruce's ten-year-old son Damian standing there, small frame dressed in a loose long sleeved shirt and pajama pants that half covered bare feet.
Sensing the familiar gaze of his oldest brother coming through the slits in Batman's cowl Damian's deep blue eyes started to fill with moisture. "Dick?"
Hearing his name softly spoken in a small, broken voice that he'd never before heard from the youngest Wayne made Dick step towards the young boy who somehow suddenly reminded him so much of himself. Kneeling down to the boy's height, Dick was about to remove the cowl but was stopped by smaller hands grasping his.
"Make Dad proud."
A large lump developed in Dick's throat upon hearing those three words, unleashing the tidal wave of emotions in him that he'd been resolutely holding back. Not trusting himself to speak without breaking into tears, Dick gave a slight nod of acknowledgment to his brother's request. In a moment of spontaneity, Dick wrapped the cape that had enveloped his own body so many times before around Damian, pulling the younger boy tightly to his chest.
Becoming Robin and Nightwing had been turbulent adventures, but as Richard Grayson-Wayne held a sobbing Damian close under the indestructible protection of a dark cape, he had a feeling that becoming Batman would be the hardest thing he'd ever have to do.