Title: Flying to Redemption
Genre: Crime, Romance, Supernatural, Family, Friendship, Hurt/ Comfort, Angst
Pairing: Bruce Wayne X Dick Grayson (OC Semi Self-Insert)
Summary: It was only as he stared at his new guardian dressed as a giant bat that he realised that he had not simply been reborn. No, it was much worst.
Warning: Slash (Yaoi, Boy X Boy…), Reincarnation, Semi Self-Insert, OC as Dick Grayson (Sort of), Age Difference, OOC! Dick Grayson, Bat Family will not include Cass and Steph, Follows its own timeline (This is mostly its own dimension, different from any seen in the comics but also holds similarities).
Chapter Thirteen – Dick's Teen Years: The First Negotiations Part 3
"I'm mad at you," was the first thing Dick said to Bruce. He had returned a couple of hours before from Central City and had enough time for dinner before going to the Cave to get dressed and prepare for patrol. While they were not going to leave for another hour, he still needed to talk to Bruce before. As much as he wanted to sulk some more, Dick was reasonable enough to know that they could not leave for patrol while they were having a disagreement. This might very well after all be life and death. And while the both of them would be perfectly happy to ignore their disagreement and pretend as if everything was fine, he knew that this would just make things worst in the future.
As such, as Dick sat on the dinosaur head in the cave watching his partner check his equipment, he decided that he might as well do this now while they still had time before patrol. Alfred was upstairs cleaning up after dinner so the two of them were alone for the moment.
"I cannot allow for the young heroes to operate independently and out of the League's protection," was Bruce answer as he continued checking his equipment and without turning back to look at Dick.
Said young boy frowned, stilling his previously swinging legs. "It's not that," he said, jumping from his perch to land lightly at the base of the dinosaur. With quiet steps, he padded over to his mentor, stopping at his elbow. The man finally stopped what he was doing and turned his attention to Dick. "I'm not mad because of your decisions about the team. I understand them and agree with most of what you said."
"Then what are you mad about?" Bruce finally asked after a moment of contemplative silence. His expression was lightly confused. With a frown, Dick stared at his mentor and then sighed. The man really did not know, did he? With a hop, he hoisted himself on the table in front of them and sat facing Bruce, bringing him closer to eye level with the man.
"I'm mad," he said slowly, "because of the way you said it. You talked about me in front of the whole League as if you don't care about my opinions or how I feel –"
"– That's not –" Bruce tried to protest but Dick placed a hand over his mouth gently, not to forcefully shut him up but to show that he wanted him to listen to everything he wanted to say.
"Do you know how I felt when you said that I 'know my place'?" he asked Bruce quietly. "I understood what you said about the team and I was not going to protest about anything, least of all in front the League. But then you talked about me as if I'm just a commodity."
Bruce frowned and opened his mouth under Dick's hand but the boy tightened his grip lightly to tell the man that he was not done. Thankfully, Bruce complied and did not protest though his frown did not leave his face.
"Bruce, you keep saying I'm your partner and not your sidekick, and yet you talked about me as if I – I'm not worth anything in your eyes –"
Bruce removed his hand from his mouth and immediately protested, "Dick of course not! You know that's not it."
Dick shrugged. "Maybe I do or maybe I don't but back then that's how you made me feel. You could have said it in another way but you chose instead to undermine my own voice in front of everyone. I felt like you don't respect me, neither as your partner nor as a person."
This time Bruce looked contrite, realising how his words had really hurt his ward. With a pained frown on his face, his cupped Dick's cheek with a hand and told him firmly, "I respect you, both as my partner and as who you are. I… apologise for hurting you. That was never my intention. I…" He sighed. "I did not want to put you in a position where you were to chose between my decisions and your friend. I… might not, however, have done this in the right way."
Dick's lips twisted painfully. He tried to ignore the fact that Roy was still ignoring him and that whatever Bruce had done, Dick had still been hurt.
"Maybe next time you should trust me to take care of things like that myself," he said instead.
"You're twelve –"
"– And this twelve years old has been fighting crime for years." He watched Bruce's frown deepened and sighed. "Bruce you've trusted me for years to fight crime by your side, to listen to you when we're out."
"It's not about trust, Dick," Bruce replied. "I do trust you. But you are twelve and all I wanted was to protect you."
Dick frowned, confused. "Protect me from what?"
"From having to chose between Roy and my decisions."
"But there never was a choice. Of course, I would take your side," Dick protested. "Roy is my best friend and I love him. But I'm not going to go against you in front of people."
"And you agree with all my decisions?"
"Of course not. But I would talk to you about that in private, and yes, that would make Roy angry but you and me, Bruce, we're the Dynamic Duo. We're partners. I'll always take your side and if I don't agree about something, I'll tell you alone."
For a moment, Bruce just stared at him, stared at the pouty glare on his young ward's face and the scowl on his lips. And then, before Dick could even react, he circled the young boy with his arm and gently hugged him close.
"What did I even do to deserve you?"
Dick huffed as he returned the embrace. "Do you even have to ask?" After they both pulled away, Dick added, "Next time trust me to take care of it."
"I will."
"And about the team…"
Bruce regarded his ward with a look. "We'll talk about it after patrol. And if you have good arguments, I will consider them."
"Alright," Dick agreed easily.
After everything was done, Bruce was readier to listen to Dick's opinion. Maybe it was the guilt at having unintentionally hurt him during the League meeting but Bruce listened to him, to his arguments and ideas, all without even interrupting once. He carefully weighted what Dick told him, they argued some more and discussed the team further before they finally came to an agreement.
Dick already agreed with most of his ideas about the team's formation and structure. Thus, the negotiations did not take too long. They did need adults to answer to and mentors to teach them to keep a degree of order in a team full of teenagers. However, instead of completely be dependent on the adults, they would have enough freedom to somewhat operate on their own. Not that they would be completely free to do what they wanted but that they would have enough freedom to at least choose their own missions.
Bruce agreed to Dick's idea about choosing their missions themselves instead of having the adults control everything. However, he only agreed after they decided upon a ranking system for missions. It would take a while to establish it but it would be worth it on the long run; the League needed to take care of a lot of problems around the world but even they were limited due to time and their own limited numbers. As such there were some things they could not do.
Robin, being the only teen whose judgement Batman trusted, would be the one in charge of choosing their missions from the database, and after frequent progress evaluations, they would have access to more difficult missions. An inexperienced team could not after all jump straight into worldwide problems. They both agreed on that. To begin with, the most important thing would be to get used to each other, their fighting styles, their strengths and weaknesses and most importantly, to work together as a team.
Of course, everything would not be without frequent, mandatory reports to the adults in case they were to chew more than they could swallow as teenagers tended to do.
If the team worked, they would be able to get more freedom from their adult counterparts so that they could almost be considered a fully independent team that worked parallel to the Justice League. Of course, that would not be for a long while yet; the team as a whole needed to prove that they were ready for such responsibility and trust. They had years yet until then.
It took a few weeks to get everything ready, Robin being an active participant in the formation of the team and its structure and rules, acting as both a representative of the teenage team-to-be and Batman's partner.
Unfortunately, Roy still did not reply to any of Dick's messages or calls, and it was only through Oliver Queen to Richard Grayson that he learned that the older teenager had moved out of his guardian's home to his own apartment in Star City. After doing his own investigation, Dick found that Roy had renounced 'Speedy' and taken on the new name Red Arrow, becoming an independent hero in his own right. The older teenager was doing good work and was already making a name for himself in the public's eyes, though they were also baffled by his sudden independence from his mentor. Dick wanted to go to Star to find his friend but every time he managed to gather the courage, he found himself not going, afraid of Roy's reaction to him. He feared the older teenager was still angry with him and that he hated him.
So instead, he chose to give Roy space until he was ready to talk to him. He did, however, manage to keep in contact with the other two teenage heroes, Kid Flash and Aqualad, taking into consideration their ideas for the team to be implemented in the negotiations. Since neither of the two heroes were allowed in the meetings, Robin was their voice in front of the League.
This way, their collective idea of having their own base without absolute, constant supervision from the adults got accepted after much discussion. Of course, they could not be left completely alone but that did not mean they were to be constantly supervised by the adults.
After a few weeks and much work done by everyone involved, mainly Batman and Robin who had taken care of most of the work together, they were finally ready to officially found the team.
Weeks after the idea was first acknowledged and after many adjustments with Robin's involvement, the three teenagers were finally called back together. And this time, they were called in together at their own new base of operation.
The new base of operations was a hidden headquarters in the mountain at Happy Harbour. It had once used to be the Leagues' headquarters before they were repeatedly attacked by villains there. Since it was mostly empty and unused since then, it would make for a good base for the teens. Not only was it already equipped since the League's time there but villains would not think to attack what they thought to be an abandoned but still well-protected League base.
It was a Saturday when the three teenagers were made to meet there. They were accompanied by their respective mentors, along with Black Canary, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter as they gathered in the ops room.
"This will be your new base of operation," Batman started as he pulled up a map of the base on the screen in front of them. "For the next couple of weeks, you will meet here to bond and get to know each other. You will not be given missions until you are trained to work together as a team. Black Canary will be your hand-to-hand instructor."
Said woman stepped forward and explained, "We will meet in the training room from three in the afternoon to five for individual and team training. I will not be your only instructor but I will be the only one who will more regularly teach you."
"I will teach you how to fight against someone stronger than you," Wonder Woman said.
"And I against mental attacks," Manhunter added.
"Training is on Mondays to Thursdays," Black Canary continued. "Fridays and Saturdays will be the days you will be doing missions but since for the next few weeks you're not going on missions, you can use these days for bonding among yourselves. It's important for a team to know and trust each other."
"Sundays," Batman continued, "are your free days. After you are more trained to work together as a team you will have access to missions. Robin." He nodded at his partner to come forward. Said boy stepped out of the line and went to stand beside his mentor. With a quick movement, he switched the screen to show a ranking system for missions.
"Batman and I came up with a ranking system for missions so that we can chose our own missions," Robin explained. "Since we're only starting out as a team, we'll start with the easiest missions before working our way up. After each mission, we will enter our reports in the database for the League to review and when they feel that we are ready – or if we collectively decide we are ready for harder missions – the League will evaluate our progress and if we pass – again as a team – we will have access to harder missions."
"Thank you, Robin," with a nod at his mentor, Robin went back to stand with the other two. "Robin will also be the one to choose the missions, and he is your main liaison between your team and the League. Do you have any question so far?"
Kid Flash and Aqualad shared a look.
"How easy exactly are the missions supposed to be?" Aqualad finally asked.
"Robin?"
"To begin with we will be given really easy missions like evacuating people, stopping fires, but that is mostly to get us in the rhythm of working together. It should not be more than a couple of those if we take to working as a team well. Then we'll move on to escorting important people, mostly politicians and royalty, before going on to more covert missions of information gathering and so on. As we progress, we will be able to go on harder missions and even aid the league on worldwide crises."
Batman nodded. "Anything else?"
"What about the League?" Kid Flash asked. "I mean, I know Robin told us that we won't be constantly supervised but how does that work exactly?"
"The only contact you will be having with the League will be during your training and progress evaluations, and someone will check up on you once every month. Otherwise, you have a direct line to the League headquarters that you are to use in case of emergencies only, and of course you will still be working with your respective mentors. As I said previously, Robin is your main liaison to the League; if there is anything of importance, he will let us know and vice versa. You have the base to yourselves which you will also have to take care of. The kitchen is stocked with food for the moment and Robin has the credit card that you are to use for food and other necessities. You will decide your chores among yourselves."
"It is not mandatory for you to stay here after training," Black Canary added. "You are however free to hang out here for as long as you wish but that does not mean you are to neglect your civilian lives. This team is no excuse for you to neglect your studies and you are of course free to go back home to your families at any time. Training is mandatory but you have the liberty to use the rest of your time however you want."
"Each of you will be assigned a room. Make use of it as you wish. Depending on your mentors' and guardians' approval, you a free to stay here in your free time. Keep in mind that while we are giving you as much freedom as we can allow, you are still minors, meaning that you are still under your parents' or guardians' authority. It is your responsibility not to abuse this freedom."
They spent some more time discussing the logistics of the team before the adults left through the newly installed zeta beams, leaving the three teenagers to awkwardly stare at each other.
"Sooooo who wants to check out the kitchen?" Kid Flash finally asked in the awkward silence.
"Good idea," Aqualad agreed. "We should familiarise ourselves with the base."
With an agreeing nod from Robin, the three set off to explore their new headquarters.
AN: Leave behind a comment and tell me your thoughts.
Leight
