A/N: Roses are red, Violets are Blue, Here finally comes chapter two. Violets are Blue, and Roses are Red, I'm sorry if you thought it was chapter three instead. Roses are Red and Violets are blue, I'm not even done with chapter three, but I'm half way through! Violets are Blue, and Roses are Red, if you read through all this, Can I be you're new best friend?
Enjoy!
Dick rolled over to turn off his alarm. It was 4:30 and he had work in a little over an hour. Groaning he got out of bed and made his way through his morning routine. First he got his morning work-out out of the way, then a quick shower, shave, and brushing his teeth, and lastly a small breakfast before he started for the door. Or was before a loud thump on the window distracted him.
Dick walked over to see the red robin from the roof had flown into the glass. Dick sighed and brought the feathered creature in from the cold. The bird looked stunned, but otherwise shook it off and made itself comfortable in his hands.
"Sorry little guy, I have to go to work." Dick muttered to it as he used the pad of his figure to pet his friend.
"Dick, who are you talking to?" Barbara's voice came from behind him. Dick turned to the girl, still in her flannel pajama's and showed her the bird. Barbara's face melted into a coo'ing, animal loving, six year old. "Oooh, he's so cute! But why is a bird still here? He should have flown off for the winter!"
"I guess he didn't want to leave me behind." Dick chuckled. "He seems a bit attached to me."
"He's such a pretty color too. Oh, can I hold him?" Barbara asked, walking up to the two.
"I wish I could say 'yes', but I don't think I should." Dick furrowed his brow trying to think about why he thought that.
"Why not?" Barbara sounded almost offended.
"I spent the past year and a half earning the trust of this little guy, I don't want to scare him by handing him off to a stranger." Dick gave an apologetic smile. Barbara sighed and shrugged.
"What is going on?" Wally asked, stumbling down the hallway, rubbing his eyes.
"Dick has a friend over." Barbara called over her shoulder as she reached over and petted the top of the red robin's head. Dick smirked as the bird looked like he was uncomfortable with Barbara's petting, but tolerated it to be polite.
"A friend? Oh, he got a new pet?" Wally smiled wide and walked over. He got to five feet away and stopped dead in his tracks. He paled instantly and his eyes grew wide.
"Wal? What is it? Not a bird person?" Dick chuckled.
"Erm, I, I think I'll go back to bed. Cute bird. Night!" Wally made a mad dash back to his bedroom in a speed that would have seemed almost inhumanly capable.
"Think he has an aphobia?" Dick asked curiously.
"Ornithophobia? I doubt it. He doesn't exactly keep an eye on the sky claiming the evil of the birds." Barbara shrugged.
"Maybe he's just screwing with us. It's a very 'Wally' type thing to do. Remember when he tried to convince us he could see the future?"
Barb laughed at the memory, "He walked around the apartment with a towel-turban and an over sized purple robe with a red dot drawn on his forehead."
"He talked in non-stop alliterations." Dick smirked.
The bird in Dick's hands started chirping loudly in a almost warning like way. Dick snapped his head toward the clock. "Shit! I'm late!" He walked over to the window sat the robin on the seal. "Babs, if or when he starts pecking on the glass, let him out? I don't want to shove him into the cold before he's ready." Dick gave her half smile as an apology.
"Alright. Sure, get going before you get fired." The red head smirked.
"Thanks!" Dick called before heading out the door.
Dick managed to get to the bar in time, he usually had the nightshift, but Sandra had the next week off, and so Dick got to replace her while Cory took his shift, and the kid Cory just trained kept to the one he trained on. All in all, long story short, Dick had the shift right after the newb and thus, got to fix everything the kid left undone, broken, or misplaced, which took about fifteen minutes out of his own time to set up.
"Yo, Barkeep, I would like a dry one, right over here." An elderly cop sat at the bar next to his buddies. Dick smiled politely at the man and got him a scotch. He didn't really know if that's what the guy wanted, but it wasn't like the man specified, and usually Dick was pretty sure the men just said random things like that so Dick would choose for them. It kept everyone happy, so he didn't bother it, he just wished they would stop trying to sound 'tough', or 'young', or like they knew what they were talking about.
As Dick expected, the cop was happy with his drink and tipped him big. Actually, very big, that was a twenty. He usually got ones or fives.
"Sir, you realize that's a bit much?" Dick politely pointed out. Something he couldn't bring himself to do is let someone accidently waste money like that. He would say it's because he was tending Cops and this made him much less likely to get a speeding ticket or something. But then again, he doesn't drive.
"We're startin' to learn to appreciate you a good deal, Dick. That new kid is all sorts of sorts." The cops grimaced.
"Yeah? He just finished training, be a bit pacient with him, he'll get it eventually." Dick tried to defend the rookie.
"Have you met this kid?" The cop's face went serious.
"Erm, not really. It's not like everyone knows everyone here, I've only met Sandy once and we've both been here for a little over a year now." Dick admitted.
"This kid isn't just slow, he's disrespectful, he's rude, and he doesn't have the faintest clue of the sewage that spills out of his God damned mouth." The cop growled.
"Hu, I know someone like that." Dick nodded.
"Either way, you, my friend, are going to have to get use to seeing a few more of these," The cop pulled his twenty out of the jar and waved it around before putting it back, "for a while now." The man winked at Dick and went back to his conversation with the woman cop next to him.
So that morning went pretty well for Dick. He got a few more larger bills in his tip jar, not that he really needed the money, he usually left it for the shift after him instead of cleaning it out for himself like everyone else does. Cory was complaining that the roof to his garage caved in a while ago, now that Dick thought about it.
For however long you have, try to be at least a 'little' selfish
The voice, that constantly repeated the letter, rang out to him.
Learn Some SELFISHNESS!
Dick shook his head. 'Sorry, Jaybird, maybe next time.' Dick sighed and went back to his job. He was starting to enjoy himself a little, getting drinks for the officers, chatting some of them up a bit and getting his social fix, when someone walked in that caused all that happy mood to just drain away.
"Hey, Dumbass, I left my jacket behind the bar, fetch it." The devil's son himself. 'Devil' of course being the kid's mother. Dick would never insult Jim like that.
"James, you're the newb?" Dick asked a bit stunned.
"I said 'get my jacket'. Are you deaf or something?" James Jr. sneered. Dick rolled his eyes and went to get the brat's coat. The sooner the ass left, the better, Dick could've swore he saw a couple of the cop's holsters unlatch.
"Here you go, James." Dick handed the thing over to the, well, thing. He smelt something on the jacket that could probably be lots of bad decisions and Dick decided to wash his hands after dealing with it.
"Oh, and I forgot to drain the 'Tip Jar' before I left." James smirked at the small mound of twenties and tens in the mansion jar. He went straight for it. The older cop, that Dick spoke with at the beginning of his shift, made a step toward James, but Dick held his hand up and shook his head. He didn't need the money and it wasn't worth starting a fight over.
"James, you're dragging you feet." Dick pointed out as the kid started counting the bills.
"Oh, would you just shut up? You're even worse then my bitch sister." James snarled. Okay, red flag in front of a bull! It was so beyond time for Dick to get evil.
"Why because I have aspirations to be something? Because I would like to do good work one day? Because I would like to be a cop?" 'take the bait, take the bait you little shit'.
"You think being a cop is being something? Look at these delusional losers! The highlight of their day is sitting in this dump, drinking themselves stupid, and then making up stories to make idiots like you want to be like them! Good work? Yeah, because being a hypocrite, ticket dealing, moron is great work." James, the stupidest kind of fool didn't seem to know, or care, about the offense people around him were taking to his little speech.
"Excuse me, Sonny, I think it's about time you left." The elder Officer stepped forward. Dick could see his hand was dangerously close to his taser. 'Please, USE it!'
"You think I want to stick around? This dump smells like stale donuts and old coffee anyway." James gave a look of disgust as he started for the door. Dick was a little disappointed when no violence came to the boy and shrugged it off for the better. Until the idiot turned on his heel, ten feet from the exit and shouted "I bet I can take all you fat lards on anyway!"
Barbara had set up her laptop in the living room as she went through the necessary online training program for her new job in the informative unite. She figured it'd be better to keep an eye on the robin so that she could let him out when he finally decided to leave, and she also wanted to be there incase he decided to fly about the apartment and destroy everything. Not that she figured she could do much about it, but maybe if she kept her camera phone on standby, she could win a million dollars on AFV.
Said phone started to ring at that moment.
"Buckeye's Black Eye's, Where You Pay Us To Punch You." Barb answered her phone the way she's always done.
"Hey Barb, it's Kelly, I know this is your personal time and you haven't quite finished your training, but Joilene just called in sick, we need someone to run the phones. Do you think you could possibly come in?" Barb's new boss asked from the other end of the line.
"Sure! I'll be right over. See you in a bit." Barbara hung up the phone and started to get ready for work. "Wally!"
"What?" The third of the roommates stuck his head out his door.
"I've got to go into work, watch after the bird and let him out when you hear a tapping, k?" Barb spoke as she rushed around the apartment.
"Er, you sure?" Wally asked.
"He's a sweet bird, and hasn't gotten into any trouble yet, just don't mess with him and things should be fine." Barbara reassured him. Or tried. And with that she was out the door.
Dick watched in mild amusment at the dog-pile in the middle of the bar. He had the passing thought 'Should I call the police'. Then he remembered who he was surrounded by and then shrugged the thought off. He then figured to at least call Babs, but he only got her voice mail. Oh, well. Maybe he should try calling Jim.
"Someone get these overweight freaks off of me!" a muffled whine came from the dog-pile. Nah, Jim's probably busy too. Best not bug him.
Barbara made it to work where they sat her at Joilene's desk, it had twice as many phones as everyone else, but only one computer instead of the two that was given out. 'Probably their way of evening things out?' Barbara shrugged. She got a quick lesson at how things worked. She answered the phones, categorized the call, and transphered them to the different departments. Whenever there wasn't a call to be answered, Barbara was told that she could just spend the down time playing on the computer.
"Joilene usually uses the time to catch up on paper work and such, but that's a whole other job to be trained for so she said she'd just get to it when she gets back." Kelly explained. "Thanks again for coming in and if you have any questions, I'm just over there." Kelly pointed to the glass office in the back.
"Thanks Kelly." Barbara smiled.
Slade was running out of idea's. How on earth was he going to find this kid? It was going to be damn near impossible. He had tried every alias he could think of and damn the boy for being smart and going for something that was so damn common that the lists were endless! He was now heading to Gotham, because for some reason, every time he can't find his target, he seems to either find a lead or the person themselves in Gotham. It was like a magnet for people trying to hide.
He was only two hours away and on a quarter tank of gas when he decided to fill up before the last stretch.
To say she got bored was an understatement. In the past two and a half hours, the only calls that came through was one domestic violence, involving an elderly woman threatening her husband with a toaster, and a distress call. Apparently you can call 911 when you have flooded your kitchen with three liters of diet zetsi and mints. Barbara was now going through files on the police issued computer and decided to check out the reports from when her father was commissioner. She didn't think she'd get much, she was in the Bulhaven department and her father's stories based in Gotham, but she ended up with a demon story of her own for the town. The attaching new clip of this new creature was defiantly eye catching.
DEMONIC HERO SHINES HOPE FOR HAVEN!
Do you fear the big bad Bat in Gotham? Are you running to do your business in Bulhaven to get away from the danger of running into the Demon Bat? Maybe you should go to Metropilis as Bulhaven now has their own demon protector. A shadow that not even the most watchful criminal can catch. Witnesses say that he takes the form of a Blue Eagle as he swoops down, much like the giant Gray Bat found to the west, and he is just as ever watchful. Some have come to call this crusader of justice 'Nightwing', and some have said to have seen this bird take flight with the Demon of the Dark himself.
"I've seen his human form!" claimed Lisa Calrite, an almost rape-victim from the south-east part of Bulhaven. "He is the most beautiful creature in either form! His eyes are the same sky blue as his feathers and his hair was the jet black of night! And That ASS!" No photo yet has captured this hero in action, much like his Gotham counter part, but it is well to know, that evil will be monitored by the hero in blue, Nightwing.
Barbara read the reports on 'Nightwing'. There were hundreds of eye witness accounts, all from almost-victims and criminals, never any on lookers. She still wasn't getting any calls so started hacking into the system to the Gotham department's files. There she went through all the accounts found for the Bat. There were even less. He was usually described as nothing more then a shadow up until a year later when he started to appear as a giant gray bat, and a while later a little blue robin joined him. A blue robin? The witness account confirmed that the feathers were the color of the sky, much like the blue eagle Nightwing was described as. So did all demons start off as strangely colored robins?
Barbara froze. How many robins on this earth did she know that were a blood red? 'Dick'!
Wally was getting hungry. But to get to the kitchen, he had to pass through the living room, and he knew what was waiting for him there. Sighing, he realized there was no getting away from this encounter, Wally finally left his room.
And of course waiting for him in the living, sitting cross-legged on the couch, was him.
"What are you doing around Dick?" The boy asked, his tone was even and emotionless.
"Erm, hi, honor to meet you." Wally stuttered.
"Answer me." The order was smooth and even.
"He's my friend." Wally scratched the back of his neck.
"He doesn't need a friend like you. His family put him here to get him away from the dark world. You have no place to be his 'friend', Speeder." The seemingly teenaged boy on the couch all but growled. Well, he didn't growl, he kept his blank expression, but Wally could tell he wanted to growl.
"Look, I don't know what Dick has to do with the dark world or why you are trying to protect him, but I haven't raised a single suspension to my being a demon. You are prevoking more questions then I am! Really, a bird in December?" Wally cried out.
"Don't take that kind of tone with me." The teen snapped and Wally's mouth snapped shut with a clack. "The clan of the night far out ranks the clan of the wind. Stay away from Dick or I will speak to the Dark Knight on this." The teen stood, and flew out the window, letting his threat hang in the air.
When Wally was certain that the boy was out of hearing rang, he muttered 'daddie's boy' under his breath. However, he still couldn't repress the shiver that came with the thought of the 'Dark Knight'. Yeah, that was one guy you didn't want to piss off. Even if you outranked him.
Slade stepped out of his car just as a rather disheveled looking boy came by. He was grumbling and cussing under his breath. Slade wasn't all too concerned about it until he heard something about sewing cops, and then sewing someone named 'Dick'.
"Excuse me." Slade called out to gather the attention of the boy. The kid turned on him and glared.
"What?" He spat out?
"Did I hear you mention someone named 'Dick'? As in 'Richard'?" Slade asked. The kid looked at him like he was stupid.
"No, not as in 'Richard', as in 'Grayson'. Who the fuck ever heard of someone named 'Dick Richard'? You fucking moron." Slade was almost willing to forgive the boy's tone and words at the name he just gave.
"This 'Dick Grayson' wouldn't be about this tall, with pitch black hair and sky blue eyes, would he?" Slade asked.
"What do I look like to you? Some sort of information desk?"
"I'm an assassin hired to exterminate Mr. Grayson." Slade deadpanned. The kid's eyes widened a fraction.
"Really?" He asked. Slade merely pulled out a hand gun, cocked it, and put it in a hidden holster on the inside of his jacket. "Yes. He's also the bartender at a local cop hole called 'Hogan's Alley'. It's his shift until 5." The kid pointed in the direction he was coming from.
"Thank you. For that, I'm willing to forgive the 'moron' remark." Slade gave a glare to the boy who had the decency to give a sheepish grin.
He had a horrible feeling. It was the same feeling that drove him to going to Dick's home that morning. Something bad was about to happen, about to ruin all the hard work that the dark worlder's had gone through to keep this one human safe.
The red robin flew over to the bar on 21st street, the one Dick worked at. The demon felt reassured that Dick was constantly surrounded by the human's versions of Sentinel Demons. But just as he was about to go decline, the red robin saw him. The hunter.
He knew there probably wasn't another way around it. So he landed in the ally next to the bar, and went into his human form, before he ran into the bar.
"Eh? Hey, Kid! Get out, you ain't old enough to be here." He ignored the officer.
"Dick Grayson?" He called for the bar keep across the counter.
"Hu? Yeah? What is it, you shouldn't be in here kid. You're parents near-by?" Dick asked, innocent as ever.
"I need you to come with me, it's urgent."
"I'm sorry kid, but I'm working, one. And two, I don't even kno-"
"I'm your brother!" He blurted out. He was going to get into so much trouble for this one.
"I'm your brother!"
Dick's heart froze at that. "You're my-?"
"We have to go! Now! Please!" The kid in front of him was pleading. Dick actually looked at him now. He had black hair like his, and his eyes were a teal blue. That was close enough to his own color, right?
"Um, er sure." Dick turned to the elder cop. "Hey, can you call this number and see if Sandy would come in real quick, just explain things to her, will ya, Carl?"
"Erm, sure Dick, but mind explaining it to me first?" The cop looked confused.
"No time!" The boy cried out.
"Alright, let's go." Dick said, pulling on his jacket and heading for the door.
"Not that way, you have a back door?" The kid asked.
"Are you in trouble?" Dick turned in a bit of shock.
"No, but you are." The boy looked him dead in the eye.
"Alright, sure, let's go this way." Dick lead the boy out.
When they were in the ally way the kid started to climb the fire escape. "We have to hurry, he's almost here!"
"Sure Kid, but mind at least telling me your name?" Dick called up as he followed.
"I can't. You know that, I'm breaking like, a million rules even talking to you!" The reply only managed to anger Dick.
"What, so I have to trust you, but you won't trust me even a little?" Dick growled, they both made it to the roof.
The boy sighed. "Fine, my name is 'Tim'. But that's all I'm telling you!" Dick blinked a moment.
"So you aren't 'Jaybird'?" He asked.
"What? Of course not, that's Jason." Tim grimaced a moment before he looked like he wanted to punch himself. "Okay, THAT'S all I'm telling you."
"Can you at least tell me who we are running from?"
"Yes, I can. He's what you would call an 'assassin'. He's been after you for a couple years we think." Tim answered.
"A couple years? So he was after me even before the brain wash?"
"Yes." Tim's face was blank.
"Was he the cause for the brain wash?"
*silence*
"So that a yes?"
"Dick, if I told you anything at that question, you would start getting closer to the trauma that caused you to spiral into a horrible depression. Millions of people would kill for the ability to just, forget, to start fresh. Why can't you be happy with your new life?" Tim started to seem sad.
"Because I can't stand knowing I have a family out there that I can't be with." Dick pouted. Tim's eyes went to the ground, but the he stood straight as a pole.
"What is it?" Dick asked, but he was shushed.
"We have to get going. Now!" The last word came out as a harsh whisper.
Slade made his way into the cop bar, and every officer in the building went silent and turned to him.
"Excuse me, none of you would happen to know where I can find a 'Richard J. Grayson', now would you?" The merc asked trying to be as polite as he could.
"Why you lookin'?" An elderly cop that had just gotten off the phone stood up and asked, his hand fell to his holster.
"I have some business to deal with him. I was told he was working?" Slade crossed his arms.
"Nah, he don't work here no more. Besides, this here is Sandy Newt's shift." The Cop informed him short and sweet and with a bull-faced lie. "Why don't you leave a number, and we'll see if their employer will pass it along."
"I see. My mistake then." Slade turned and left. He didn't want to get in to anything with a bar full of cops. He still needed to keep a relatively low profile. So the boy knew to run and left the cops around him with a type of warning. But the kid shouldn't have had any idea of his coming. So a naughty little bird of the night had to have helped him.
So, his target fled the bar, he has a demon helping him escape. He currently has no idea how to run from a pursuer and neither does his demon companion. Slade smirked as he spotted the fire escape. Where the hell else are they going to go?
"DICK!" Barbara accidently slammed the door as she entered the apartment.
"BARB! ARGH!" Wally fell from the couch in surprise.
"Where's Dick?" Barbara asked quickly, "Where's the Robin!" She started to look around wildly.
"Hu? Erm, he started to peck at the window I let him out and Dick's still at work for another hour." Wally answered, rubbing the back of his head.
"That Robin, other then it's color, it didn't seem weird to you did it?" Barbara asked.
"Erm, uh, not, not really?" Wally started to scratch the back of his neck.
"Wally, what if I told you that red robin was a demon in it's aerial form?" Wally's whole body tensed visibly.
"What? That's- That's crazy Barbara! You're thinking too much into the weather thing. I mean, can't a bird try to brave the bitter cold for it's loyalty to it's human friend?" Wally babbled.
"Wally. You might as well just admit that you knew all along and that the damn thing probably threatened you if you outted it. You are a terrible actor." Barbara deadpanned.
"But I, but," Wally scrambled to his feet quickly. "Aren't you suppose to be at work?"
"We were told we could go home due to a strange viral infection of the system's hardware-"
"You crashed the computers at work so you could get out of work guilt freely." Wally shook his head. That's sounded very, well, it sounded very 'Barb'. "You do realize that someone could die because of this?"
"I decided to chance it." Barbara nodded once, reassured by her one conviction.
"Well, as I pointed out before, Dick's at work, go head him up there." Wally shrugged.
"I tried to call, but all I got was a rather annoyed chick named 'Sandra' who gave me some rather colorful advice of what I should do when I saw Dick next. I'm pretty sure half the times she said his name, she wasn't meaning the short form of 'Richard'." Barbara sighed. "And I saw he had tried to call me sooner, but he isn't answering his cell."
"So you think that the demon bird killed him or something? And why do you suddenly think the bird is a demon anyway?" Wally crossed his arms.
"Oh, don't even act like you don't believe me on the damn bird." Barbara glared. "I think Dick might be in a bit of trouble because that bird obviously has a fixation on him. As for why I think it's a demon, I did some research and found that the Demon Bat from Gotham, the one that disappeared sometime a decade ago, use to have a blue robin with it, that then grew up to be a blue eagle here in Bulhaven. Now there's a robin that's a blood red color?"
"Maybe it isn't a robin after all? It's not like any of us are Bird Watchers or know-"
"WALLY!" Barbara grabbed the man's shoulder's. "Will you just give it a rest already?"
"Fine." Wally sighed, "So the bird is a demon, that is obsessed with Dick. Maybe it's looking out for him?"
"Like some guardian angle?" Barbara sneered.
"If it is a demon, then maybe we shouldn't bother it." Wally suggested. Barbara looked at him like he was a moron. "Or, you know, anger it and face it's wrath head on, that's always a good plan too."
A/N: SOOOO! Dick finally meets a family member, or is it really? Okay, let's say for the sake of the argument, that you guys have read the comics and aren't idgits. So Dick is related to the demon Tim and you can probably figure out where the story is going from here. But don't worry, that surprise wasn't the biggest one I had planned. ;]
Later!
~K R&R
