Chapter 25
Another day, the start of another week.
Consciously aware that the only thing that awaited him was four more years of this, Dick climbed into the gleaming car, forcibly reminding himself of the trip coming up, the brief escape, and focusing on that. He said hello to the chauffeur, who didn't even look at him as he obligatorily returned his greeting. It was the same man he had had on Friday, which he found odd. Monday was mostly Ms. Dominatrix's day, so he leaned forward towards the driving seat to ask about her, trying not to appear interested. However, it occurred to him in the middle of the sentence that he didn't actually know her name.
"Usually it's... the female driver on Mondays," he said shortly. His voice was quiet but in the silence of the car, the driver seemed to hear it anyway.
"... She... was relieved of her position, Sir," the man replied after a hesitant pause that suggested he wasn't sure he was allowed to be talking to him. Dick sunk back in the seat upon hearing that information, and one of his hands raised itself up to his hair, playing with the short spikes.
Fired. Huh. He didn't really know how to feel about that. It wasn't as if he particularly liked her, but... The last thing he remembered was him shouting at her to let him get out of the car... The explosion... Joker...
He wondered if he was the reason that was fired. He wondered if she hated him right now and blamed the rich, spoiled Wayne kid for her misfortune. Bruce must have found out about their little argument in the car... What was Dick thinking? Of course he had; Bruce found about everything, with his fucking cameras and spies. He always made sure that his ward was protected from the outside world, not caring if he was trapped in the process. He probably thought the woman overstepped her boundaries, while in reality she was just doing her job, just doing exactly what Bruce had told her to when she hadn't let him out of the car.
"Thank you," he replied politely to the driver's answer and leaned back against his seat. He felt strangely disappointed. The rest of the ride was spent in silence.
Once he arrived at the Academy, he could feel a hot blush creep up his neck as he walked down the halls, catching double-takes, nudges and little whispers out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't like the first few months of his time in the school, when people didn't hesitate to shout abuse at him, or deliberately walk into him. No, now he was Bruce Wayne's Chosen One, and nobody dared to comment on his new too-short haircut, but it was painfully obvious everybody noticed. Why couldn't anything ever go right for him? Even a haircut, so simple for everyone else, had to turn into a painful disaster for him.
Dick tried to avoid the stares of his schoolmates as he made his way through the corridors, pretending he didn't care. He was used to the Academy boys' eyes following him wherever he went on school property, some of them content just watching, as if he was some kind of celebrity, some trying to make small talk in hopes of getting on his good side, and then there were the few jealous ones whose aggressive, bullying attitudes hadn't changed.
But it had got better since he'd started to hang out with Richard. The thought crossed his mind now that this wouldn't be happening if the older boy was there with him, standing by his side, making Dick seem normal. Since Richard had started talking to him, people were less obvious about their opinions of him, and tended to make their self-serving offers more subtle, and almost nobody looked at him when he was in the blonde's presence. He wondered if Richard had told anyone about his visit to Wayne Manor. He was sure that it would be a big hit among the boys if it ever got around.
Although this was nothing compared to the time that gossip magazine article had exposed him, Dick was still aware that people were staring, and he supposed it was because of the drastic hair change. When he had looked at his reflection that morning, it was like staring at a stranger that looked younger than the years he knew him to have. He'd never realised that his ears stuck out so much, and he felt vulnerable without his fringe to hide his eyes when he lowered his face. He desperately tried to save the situation by using some of the hair gel Alfred had put in his bathroom to create spikes, like the butler had the night before, but he didn't really know what was fashionable at the moment and was sure that it still looked disastrously lame.
He glared at the floor as he heard one of the passing boys laugh behind him, and quietly made his way through the hallway that would lead him to the parking lot and outside where he could hide until classes began. He was sick and tired of this academy and its immature students. He remembered that Bruce graduated from here too, top of his class at that - with his perfect marks and Wayne fortune, he'd probably ruled this school just like he now ruled over Gotham. Nobody would have messed with him the same way they messed with Dick. Bruce was untouchable.
"Nice," one of the older boys nodded at him with a smile, pretending to be sincere but Dick could just tell that this wasn't another attempt to suck up to him, this was a joke at his expense, just like before. Fucking idiots. All of them. The next person that-
"Hey, Circus Boy!"
That was IT!
Dick spun around and dropped his bag, fully prepared to take the asshole and whoever was with him on, consequences be damned. However, what greeted him instead was the cheerful sight of Richard's blue eyes laughing down at him. The blonde held up his hands defensively.
"Whoa! Easy, Tiger! I was just messing around," he said, still smiling, amused and thankfully not offended by Dick's violent behaviour.
The younger boy relaxed and awkwardly picked up his bag. His heart was overcome by relief as he blushed at embarrassing himself in front of his friend.
"H-hey," he stammered.
"So explain this to me..." The blonde quickly stepped towards him, and casually slung his arm around Dick's shoulders as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Dick flinched slightly, not expecting the contact, but Richard didn't seem to notice, or just decided not to react to it. They started walking towards the exit, the older boy gently steering the smaller along with him.
"How was it that I knew that Dick Grayson got a new haircut before I even made it to my car this morning? Is this an all-girls school or what? With the amount of gossip junkmail going on; I swear to God every one keeps checking their Facebook page every two damn seconds."
Richard didn't seem to care that he could be easily overheard in the crowded halls, and Dick found himself liking how publicly the senior was taking his side.
"What's Facebook?" Dick asked and Richard stopped walking at the words as if nobody had ever asked him that question before. He stared at Dick for a while with a blank expression on his face and then resumed walking again, one-handedly putting his sports bag over his shoulder without letting go of Dick. His grip was firm and familiar.
"In this case, I would have to say 'Ignorance is Bliss'. I don't even want to know what kind of messages you would get if you got a Facebook page. That site is evil, take it from me."
"So… how could they write about me while I'm in school? Did they use school computers?"
"iPhones, Blackberries, whatever," Richard replied, and at the return of another blank look, took an expensive looking mobile phone from his pocket and activated the screen. He didn't even need to look at the phone to do it, a clear sign that he had done it many times before.
"You can get on the internet from your phone?"
"Ok, seriously?" Richard asked with the same shock he displayed before at Dick's ignorance of Facebook and they stopped in the middle of the parking lot, on their way to… God knows where. There was a group of boys by one of the cars but they didn't seem to be paying them any attention. Dick hoped it stayed that way.
"Gimme your phone," Richard ordered with a determined look on his face, and without thinking Dick turned towards his schoolbag, blindly grabbing for the device.
Quite typically it was at the very bottom and took ages to find, so when Dick finally got hold of it, the older boy impatiently reached for it with the hand that was previously on his shoulder and immediately started to navigate from the menu, leaning very close to Dick so that the younger boy could watch what he was doing. Dick ducked his head, trying to make the strange claustrophobic position better - Richard's body pressed closely into his side made him embarrassed and defensive.
However, he knew better than to flinch away from the contact like the last time in Wayne Manor. Richard was already under the impression that there was something up with him, and he wanted to convince his friend that he was wrong so that he wouldn't get involved, or think his underclassman was a freak or a pervert. So Dick stayed still and forced himself to relax, and after a while he had to admit that the sensation wasn't that bad. It was just… really warm.
"There you go," Richard interrupted his thoughts and Dick's eyes fell on the screen of his phone that currently showed a white and blue internet site. Huh, he didn't know he could do that. He was quite behind the popular teenage technology these days, it seemed.
"'Loling at Grayson's new hair' 'Better than that high school musical wannabe shit before' 'OMG LOL have u guyz seen graysons hair?'" the blonde read out-loud and sighed at the comments, shaking his head. Dick recognized Josh McTravis' name attached to some of indecipherable posts.
Barely understanding what was being said, Dick decided not to ask anymore so that he didn't look like a complete retard and went ahead and assumed it was something negative.
"Great," he said darkly as Richard returned the phone with a wry smile.
"What can I say? This school is full of idiots, so don't worry about it. The hair's fine, short's better for sports anyhow."
When Dick gave him an eyeroll, Richard laughed.
"It is! Besides, the spikes are cool. I liiiiikeeee," he said loudly, the 'I like' butchered up by some sort of fake European accent. Realizing it was a reference to something he didn't get, Dick just shook his head. This made Richard laugh even harder.
"Ok, ok, I get it, you don't watch TV," he said. He let out a comically heavy sigh, his arm once again reaching for Dick's shoulders. "I just don't know what I'm going to do with you, Grayson."
OoO OoO OoO
Dick managed to survive the morning's classes. He guessed he must have toughened up quite a lot over the past year. Made sense, given what he'd had to go through. He was at his locker, sorting out his books, when the one next to him suddenly popped, crushed by the weight of a larger body. Dick looked up in alarm, but it wasn't someone come to cause trouble with him, it was his friend.
"Good afternoon, young Richard," Richard said with a crooked smile and an attempt at a posh English accent, which Dick could tell from his experience of Alfred was nowhere near. His blue eyes were sparkling.
"Hey... Does the team have practice?" Dick asked, closing his locker, unsure how to react to the nickname.
"No, I was just hoping we could go for lunch," the blonde replied. "Always so serious! We can hang out without it being about gymnastics, you know," Richard chastised him, widening his eyes teasingly as if his feelings were hurt.
"What about your friends?" Dick said. He'd gone to lunch with Richard before, but that had been arranged beforehand so they could talk about Dick joining the gymnastics team. Other than that, Dick assumed a popular guy like Richard had cooler friends his own age that he'd rather hang out with than the outcast freshman.
"Who do you mean?" Richard asked. Dick tried to think, but he realised he couldn't think of anyone in particular that he'd seen Richard with a lot, and couldn't name any of the seniors except the ones on the team. But before he could answer, Richard spoke again. "I don't have any plans, so if you're free..."
Dick let himself be led away with a surprised smile on his face that he immediately tried to hide. The older boy took them outside, but not in the direction of the various restaurants and cafes supplied for the boys on campus. He seemed to be heading for the main gate.
"Where are we going?" Dick asked, trying not to sound unwilling.
"I thought I'd take you to this place I know that's good to get away from these douchebags sometimes. It's nearby but noooobody goes there," he said, and wiggled his eyebrows at Dick.
"Are we allowed out?" Dick asked in surprise.
"I'll just tell them we have some official errand to run. I do it all the time, and they totally buy it 'cause I'm in loads of teams and societies anyway. Or maybe it's just my innocent face," Richard explained, finishing with a wink.
And he was right. While the guards weren't too sure about Dick, Richard gave them some story about meeting with a journalist for the school paper, and they were let out with no problem.
The place Richard was talking about turned out to be some kind of fast food restaurant with a strange layout. It must have been converted from some kind of pub or something, because there was the standard order counter with young people in stupid hats and hairnets handing out burgers and drinks below large, lit up menus hung on the wall, but the decor was all treated wood and black leather, and there were two floors, the second over-looking the first from a balcony. In the dark corners, young adults drank coffee while staring at their laptops thoughtfully, or let their muffins sit untouched, engrossed in heavy, well-thumbed books.
They were clearly the only Academy students in the whole place, as Dick couldn't see any other uniforms. He was really glad for that; the last thing he wanted was some jerk making stupid comments about Bruce or his hair or trying to suck up to him. And he was glad that Richard hadn't wanted to bring anyone with him, and had shielded him from the rest of the school. It looked like he could relax for the next hour or so.
Richard ordered what he wanted from memory, then turned to the smaller boy.
"What do you want?"
Unprepared, Dick tried to find something nice, but all he could see were adverts for special deals, no actual menus, so he just picked the simplest burger he could read the name for, and when the woman asked if he wanted the meal, he agreed for ease's sake.
He pulled out his wallet but Richard stopped him.
"I got it," he said with a smile, handing the cashier a twenty.
"Are you sure?" Dick asked worriedly, watching Richard's change be returned, fully realising it was too late to do anything about it now.
"Dick, this isn't exactly the Ritz. I think I can afford it," he replied, picking up his tray and waiting for Dick to follow him.
It was only after Richard and Dick had got their food and sat down that the boy noticed a large group of prettily-dressed girls in heels and skirts were looking their way from across the restaurant. They seemed to be talking about Richard, who had his back to them, as they kept looking back at him and nodding to each other.
Dick unwrapped his burger and began eating it slowly. He smiled to himself as he pictured Alfred's face if the butler could see him eating fast food.
His eyes shifting back to the girls, Dick thought he knew what was going on. Girls like that would be interested in a boy like Richard. He could have passed for a college student, but then again the uniform itself was a clear give-away and they had to know he was still in school. It got harder and harder to keep ignoring the staring girls, and Dick only realised too late that he hadn't heard a word Richard had said.
"Hey, are you listening to me? You keep looking at -"
Before Dick could do anything to stop him, Richard turned to see what had caught Dick's attention.
"Oh," Richard said, his face falling. He turned back to Dick. "Easily distracted, I see?" he said with a teasing tone that sounded insincere. Dick tugged at his short locks self-consciously and tried to return the smile.
"No... They're staring at you, not me," he explained with a shrug, trying to appear uninterested.
"Just ignore them." Richard seemed to think it was no big deal and really, it probably wasn't. Dick was used to people staring at him everywhere he went; first in the circus when he performed, when the local kids called him a gypsy and chased him away from them, then when he went to the Academy, looked down upon as the scholarship student and finally labelled as the Wayne boy and used for his connection to Bruce. But this was different, more natural. The girls weren't staring at Richard because they knew who his father was or because he had good contacts or anything as complicated as that.
They were staring because he was… good-looking.
Richard changed the subject.
"Anyway, as I was saying, normally we train twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday, but like a month before a competition we start to train every day. Since that would be coming up pretty soon..." At Dick's alarmed expression, he smiled reassuringly and moved forward in his chair. "Don't worry, we still have plenty of time. But yes, it's Wednesdays and Fridays for now. I won't be able to make it this week, though."
Dick leaned forward with a surprised face. "Really? Me neither."
Richard blinked at the words and raised a hand between them, motioning for the younger boy to stop.
"Wait… You're in 's class? Advanced English?"
At Dick's nod he shook his head in amazement. "I thought you had to be at least a junior to get into that class."
"No," Dick lied, not really knowing if that was the case or not. He only went to the classes Bruce assigned him, and in a lot of them he was surrounded by older students. He didn't want Richard to make a big deal of it, though.
"Well, hey! Then we're going on this trip together!" Richard leaned forward again with a sunny smile and before Dick could dodge or stop him, he burrowed his hand in the boy's hair and ruffled it with a laugh.
He stopped pretty quickly.
"Ew. Hair gel."
"Serves you right." Now it was Dick's turn to gloat as he leaned back trying to save what was left of his now half-ruined hairstyle. "But you're not in that class. I would have seen you."
"Yeah, I'm not. I'm just helping out with the trip. Looking after you kiddies," Richard retorted as he unsuccessfully tried to find something to wipe the gel off onto. "I help around a lot with trips, organizing stuff, sports events, that sort of thing. Looks good on the resume, you know? That's why I actually joined the Debate Club in the first place. Mr. Drew used to be the head of the Philosophy Club and they did a lot of these cool trips, and I started to help out, like, three years ago."
Dick nodded, content to keep listening to his friend as he casually peered behind him to check if they were still being observed. But what he saw made him quickly turn back to Richard with a beating heart.
Oh no.
One of the girls was coming over.
Dick automatically drew himself away, leaning away from the talking boy who hadn't realized yet that the brave girl was heading in their direction, her eyes plastered to Richard's back.
No longer listening to his friend's explanations, Dick awkwardly stood up, not really knowing what to do. There was something inside of him that hated the idea of having to be there when that girl arrived, and in his mind the scenery abruptly changed and turned into one of Bruce's private parties with models and actresses throwing themselves at the handsome billionaire. He could never stand to watch or listen to it, all those giggles, smiles and flirting always made him so feel angry and worthless.
Richard stopped in the middle of his sentence and stared up at him, confused. Dick scratched his nose, quickly thinking of what to say.
"I'm getting a milkshake, do you want anything?"
"Oh, nothing thanks." Richard replied with a smile and then changed his mind immediately. "Actually just get a big one and we can share. Whatever flavour you want." The blonde snatched up a few of Dick's left over fries and popped them in his mouth.
Dick nodded and without a second glance made his way to the front of the restaurant as fast as he could. He could hear the girl's voice behind him and sighed in relief; he almost didn't make it in time and he could not have imagined how awkward that could have been if he stayed.
He tried to think of what the girl probably thought of him, or if she noticed him at all. They probably only had eyes for Richard anyway, Dick thought bitterly. In comparison to the senior, he was a kid; a stiff-looking kid with a bad haircut and nervous eyes and almost non-existent nails that were raw and nasty from biting.
He could not understand how Bruce could find him attractive in any way and briefly wondered if he should try messing up his appearance on purpose - perhaps put a knife to his face or… or fire.
But then for the damage to really last it would have to be something brutal and permanent. After all, Wayne Tech was coming up with incredible technology these days and Bruce was rich enough to reconstruct a whole body, not only a face. It was surreal but Dick knew he would end up regretting it in the end. His situation was truly extreme if even disfigurement wouldn't save him.
But who was he to say that Bruce would be willing to do any of that? Perhaps he would let him suffer as a cripple, a freak, even more cut off from the outside world because normal people wouldn't be able to stand to look at him, and Bruce would continue doing all those terrible things to him anyway. Because it wasn't like Dick was even a real person in Bruce's eyes. Dolls don't need faces as long as you can still play with them. This couldn't be about superficial looks; the Wayne heir was constantly surrounded by the pretty faces of Gotham's elite, and he could have anyone he wanted. Willingly.
And yet he wanted Dick's face, sometimes even grabbing it forcefully so that he can see the boy's expression as he hovers above him, large, seemingly larger than life, consuming him. Dick always used to close his eyes during those times at first, shutting them tight and pretending it was the pain but really just feeling humiliated, blocking the sights of the monster like a scared child pretending that seeing and being seen was the same.
But these last four months, it was different. A person can be humiliated only so many times until their ego wears away and they stop caring. His fear of Bruce still kept his eyes shut with fear, but it was usually a practiced gesture and he tried to keep his face hidden as often as he could, preferring to be taken on the desk where he could hide his wretched self in the dusty wood and old papers... Trying to pretend he was only one of the objects in the forbidden room to be used by its eager master, unable to feel anything, neither the physical pain nor the nauseating disgrace.
He slowly learned to stop struggling and most of his attempts were only half-hearted and really just served to get Bruce off quicker so that the whole experience would be done with that much faster. The Wayne heir had probably sensed that too, because as the days went by, he was becoming tougher, and crueller, but something that would have made the boy scream out in agony in the beginning only made him let out a soft groan or wince at this point.
If this is what a single year had done to him, Dick had trouble imagining himself at the age of eighteen. That fact itself sent violent shivers down his spine. Unable to imagine his future - even in the vaguest terms - it was like it wasn't there, like he didn't have one.
"Is that everything?"
The boy blinked as he was interrupted from his brooding and faced the bored looking woman behind the counter. Her face was telling him he must have been lost in his thoughts for quite some time. He checked his table; the girl was now sitting at his seat but slowly getting up. Richard caught his eyes and Dick quickly looked away, not really knowing why. All those thoughts of Bruce made him nervous.
"Yes, thank you," he replied politely and reached into his pocket for a thin wallet, pulling out the only card inside. He could see the woman's eyes widen in disbelief at the sight of it and assumed it had a value he wasn't aware of. He didn't know much about credit cards but the one Bruce had handed him when he'd started school wasn't made out of plastic, but something smoother, hinting at exclusivity, and it was black with an elegant blue design around its edges. He cursed Bruce again. It was typical that he hadn't given his ward a normal credit card that he could just use like anyone else, this was clearly some special card for men like him, the elite. Bruce had given him yet another way to let everyone know just who he belonged to. Fuck, nothing could ever be easy, could it? Nothing could ever go right. And he didn't have any cash on him, this card had always been enough. He didn't even know how to make withdrawals from an ATM.
The woman gave a nervous little laugh, and looked over her shoulder as if hoping for some help. "I'm sorry, Sir," Dick didn't miss how she slipped the 'sir' in there after seeing the card. "But the price needs to be at least five dollars to be paid for by card."
"Oh," Dick answered distractedly, looking back at the table and disappointed to see the girl still hanging around. She had already stood up but was now standing over Richard with one of her hands on the table next to him. Dick wished she would just leave. When he caught his own reflection on one of the glass walls as he was turning around, he was greeted by a face with an intensely ugly expression and he immediately went blank, not realizing that he was quite that angry about the girl. It was strange.
"Then I guess..." He sighed and gave up. "What costs five dollars?" he asked prepared to let the cashier decide for him since he didn't really want anything anyway.
She looked taken back, clearly not used to being asked to make decisions or give advice. "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to... to-"
"Look, I don't care, just give me something."
"The muffin is a dollar forty-nine, and this fruit bag with the milkshake makes a little over five dollars..." the woman suggested, anxiously pulling the items from under a glass display case beside her.
"Fine," Dick replied, angrily putting his card in the little machine on the counter and punching in his code. He grabbed everything off the desk and turned around before the woman could give him his receipt. He wondered if Bruce would find it suspicious when he saw a different restaurant on the bank statement, and not his usual café on campus. He was even off school grounds, which was not allowed. If Bruce found out, he would be in big trouble...
Well, it was too late to do anything about it now.
He looked back at the table, craning his neck to see over the heads of the impatient queue that had formed. The girl had just left. He let out a sigh of relief. He was able to walk back to the table calmly now that Richard was alone, his arms full of stuff he didn't really want. He could still feel the woman's eyes on his back and swore to himself to never use that card in front of any of his classmates.
"You do realize we only have like ten minutes left, right?" Richard greeted him with raised eyebrows as Dick sat down opposite him, uncomfortably aware that the girl had occupied it just a mere minute ago.
"I can always take it with me." Dick replied while looking down at the sweets in his hands, the muffin about to fall apart at the top. None of it really went with anything else, it was an odd, mismatched selection, and there was a brief pause as it seemed to occur to both boys at the same time. Without a word, Richard snatched the muffin from him, leaving Dick with the gross bag of processed fruit, and took a big bite as if it was the most natural thing in the world. At Dick's annoyed expression, he explained with a full mouth and a cheeky grin, "I thought I might help you get rid of it."
Dick faked a smile and wondered why he couldn't stop thinking about the girl. He had a burning curiosity to know what she had said, and surely it was only natural and polite to include Dick since they'd been interrupted by her. It wasn't like it would be a secret or something, right? He wanted to ask Richard about it but didn't really know how to start. He settled for a mumbled "So what was that about?", hiding his embarrassment behind the milkshake.
"Oh, her?"
Dick nodded nonchalantly. Richard acted as if this kind of thing happened every day and who knew, maybe it did. With the boy's face, height and body he could have passed for a model, and Dick didn't really know how the opposite gender acted around his friend since they went to an all-boys school.
"She's friends with my ex." Richard swallowed and kept his eyes on the dry muffin, picking pieces off with his fingers. "Apparently, Alicia's not over it yet, and that girl was just chewing me out for breaking her heart, but whatever, right? It's not my fault if it wasn't working out. It's not like I should have stayed with her just to make her happy while I suffered." The words themselves sounded harsh, but something about the careless, removed way Richard said them while keeping his eyes averted made Dick think that Richard did feel bad about it, and secretly wanted Dick to reassure him.
"Yeah, it's not your fault. She'll get over it eventually," he replied, saying what he thought Richard probably wanted to hear, but not really knowing what to think. He had no experience of girlfriends himself... Would she get over it? Would he get over it if Richard didn't want to spend time with him anymore? That was an unpleasant thought, so he pushed it away.
Something was still bothering him though; maybe the familiar way Richard had spoken about his ex-girlfriend. But what was he thinking? Richard was a good-looking, popular, social senior in a school for Gotham's next ruling generation, with an actual life outside the school, of course he'd had girlfriends. He was probably beating them off with a stick. It probably wouldn't be long before he got another one.
Dick leaned back uncertainly, wanting to ask about Richard's mystery girlfriend but knowing it wasn't any of his business. It made Dick think about his own prospects, and he had to hold back a derisive snort. A nice girlfriend was a faraway dream for people like him; he wasn't worthy of it because he had been ruined for the rest of his life, and nobody wants (disgustingfilthydamaged!) second-hand goods.
"Dick, you're bleeding."
"What?" he blinked up at Richard who was staring at him with that secretive concerned look he began to associate with trouble. His blue eyes were dark and very different from his usual sunny personality.
Ah, he was biting his nails again.
"Do you do that a lot?" Richard's expression hadn't changed.
"No. Not really. Just when I'm bored, you know. Old habits, I guess." Dick tried to laugh it off, but he guessed it must not have been very convincing, because Richard's face hadn't relaxed.
"Sure looks like you do. Let's see." He held his hand out across the table, and Dick's skin tingled as he forced himself not to flinch away to a safe distance.
"What?"
"Your hand. Give it here," Richard insisted, forcing Dick to obey and hesitantly stretch his stinging hand between them and let Richard wrap the thumb in one of the thin, scratchy restaurant napkins. Watching the blood spread, Dick was reminded of the day before and of Bruce's dark voice as he told him to stop the biting, painfully holding his hand in a way very unlike Richard's gentle grip. He watched his friend's face as he took care of his hand, his expression serious and hard.
"Thanks. I really have to stop doing that," Dick replied with a friendly tone and tugged at Richard's grip until his hand was released and he could bring it back to his lap. Opposite him, Richard took a long deep breath and returned the friendly smile. It was almost disturbing how easily he could smile when his face had looked so dark just a second ago.
"Let's go, we're gonna be late. What's your next lesson?"
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AmberSpirit: RICHARD! MARRY ME!
Ok, so originally this was my chapter but apparently when I sent it I was probably half-asleep or something because when I got the feedback it turned out the whole thing needed to be edited BIG TIME.
So I would say half of this chapter is actually Alchemist's Daughter's especially the ending part. Some great stuff, right? You guys ready for the trip?
I think we just made it halfway into the story! Man, soon this fic will turn into one of those where you have to scroll down to get to the latest chapter. Uh, that's LONG.
I also made some fanart for this story so go ahead and check it out on devianart. Just type in 'Boy in the manor dick' into the search bar and the 'Precious' 'Sunny smile' 'Love me do' 'Magical boy' and the 'Boy in the manor' are all done by me.
Oh, yes and also here are some of the new songs that were suggested for this story:
Into the Ocean- Blue October (Dick)
Made of Glass- Trapt (Dick)
Bruises and Bitemarks- Good with Grenades (Bruce)
Secret- The Pierces (Alfred)
Muse- Showbiz, Citizen erased
Smashed into Pieces- Silverstein
Drag you down- Finger Eleven (Dick)
Darker side of me- Veer union (Bruce)
From first to last – And we all have hell (Bruce)
Castle Walls –T.I. (Dick)
White lies-EST (Dick)
Precious- Depeche mode
Keep them coming!