The crisp sound of a knock startled Dick awake. He flailed for a moment, getting caught up in his sheets as the events of the previous day rushed through his head. Untangling himself from his massive-seeming sheets, Dick called out, "Yeah?"
"It is time to prepare for the day," Alfred's voice said pleasantly through the door.
Dick sighed. "And by 'for the day,' you mean 'for the school day,' don't you?"
"I'm afraid so," Alfred said just as pleasantly but somehow also apologetically.
Dick scowled, but he scooted to the edge of his bed and swung his legs over the side. He stopped for a moment, looking at how far his feet were from the floor. Huh. That was going to take some getting used to. Hopefully he wouldn't have to be used to it for long, though.
"Are you awake and alert?" Alfred called through the door when Dick sat there for a minute.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm up," Dick said, trying to keep the grumble out of his voice and probably not really succeeding. "I'll be out in just a couple minutes."
The sound of footsteps echoed outside his door, which meant that Alfred was trusting that answer and leaving.
Dick flopped backward onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. For a moment, he considered just snuggling up under the covers and going back to sleep, but he quickly decided against it. Bruce would be ticked, but more importantly, that would mean Dick would've lied to Alfred by saying Dick would be out soon. Nobody got away with lying to Alfred.
Sitting up again, Dick hopped down from his bed and trotted over to the stacks of new kid-size clothes Alfred had gotten. Dick poured over them for a moment, considering what to wear. Then his eyes caught on something that sparkled. As he dug that something out, a grin spread across his face. Perfect.
When Dick came in for breakfast, he did so proudly, sticking his chest out and strutting in as he crowed, "Good morning!"
"No, it's not," Jason said, but the words came out a little muffled because his head hung down low, face pressed against the table.
"Yes, it is," Dick said.
"No, it's-" Jason began, picking his head up off of the table to glare at Dick, but the glare only managed to stay on his face for a moment before it slid off, replaced by bewilderment. "What are you wearing?"
"All kinds of things," Dick said happily, doing a little spin on his toes. "I've got light-up easy-to-put-on shoes, and fuzzy socks, and pants with a whole lot of pockets on them, and-"
"I'm talking about the shirt," Jason said.
"It's so cool, right?" Dick said, gesturing to the sequined elephant on his shirt and the words emblazoned above it. "Look what it says!"
"Multi-tusker," Jason read flatly.
"You get it, right? You get it? 'Cause the elephant's doing one thing with its trunk, and something else with each of its front legs, and balancing on one back leg, and-" Dick said.
"I get it," Jason said just as flatly as before.
Dick paused. "You don't seem like you get it."
"I get it, it just isn't as funny as you seem to think," Jason said.
Dick stuck out his lower lip in a pout and crossed his arms across his chest, covering up part of the shirt. "Well, if you don't like it, you don't get the joy of seeing it."
"Fine by me," Jason said, rolling his eyes.
Skirting around Jason's chair and the empty chair next to him, Dick climbed up onto a chair beside Damian and across from Duke. "Where are Cass and Tim?"
"Cass just left a minute ago," Duke said, scooping up some pancake chunks with his fork. "She was acting kinda weird."
Dick frowned. "Weird?"
"Uh-huh," Duke said absentmindedly, shoveling the pancake chunks into his mouth. Around his mouthful, he added, "She was fussing with her jacket buttons and getting all worried about whether anybody was gonna like her. Of course they're gonna like her. She's Cass!"
"Yeah, they'll like her," Dick agreed. "And if they don't, that won't be very nice of them, but it won't be a big deal for long, 'cause none of this is gonna take long. I hope."
"You hope," Jason sighed, slumping forward with his cheek on one hand. "We all hope."
"And where's Tim?" Dick asked, ignoring Jason.
Duke shrugged and scooped up more pancake chunks.
"When I left my room, his door was still shut. I believe Father was going to speak with him," Damian offered.
"Okay, good," Dick said. "Bruce'll make sure he's ready too."
"Why's that a good thing?" Jason asked.
Dick shrugged. "'Cause then we won't be late. I mean, I don't think that'd be a good thing."
"And why do we care if we're late?" Jason asked. "I thought you were just as against this as the rest of us."
Dick thought about that for a moment. "Well, I am. I'm really against it. But it's not like we're gonna change anything about it any time soon. We'll just have to make the best of it, and put pressure on B as much as we can to get us back to normal as fast as he can. Besides, there's gotta be nice things about it too."
Jason raised his eyebrows. "Like what?"
"Like shirts with elephant puns on them!" Dick exclaimed, spreading his arms wide so Jason could see the shirt Dick was wearing.
Jason groaned and put his face back down on the table.
Satisfied, Dick peered over at Damian. "Are you good?"
"Yes," Damian said shortly, trying to saw his pancakes into smaller pieces and not making much progress. His hands were just struggling too much to grasp and coordinate both the fork and the butter knife.
"Lemme help," Dick suggested, grabbing at Damian's plate.
"No!" Damian refused, slamming his hands down on his plate. "It's mine!"
"I'm not taking it from you. I'm just going to help," Dick said.
"I need none of your help. I will do it myself," Damian said with a scowl.
Dick frowned. "But-"
"I will do it myself!" Damian insisted fiercely.
"Okay, okay, whatever," Dick said, relenting. He served some pancakes onto his own plate and chewed thoughtfully for a few minutes.
"There's Tim!" Duke called, looking past Dick toward the doorway.
Dick started to turn, but even without him turning all the way around, he could hear Tim and Bruce coming.
"But I'm sick," Tim protested. "I think I'm really sick."
"Well, you don't have a fever, and you don't look pale or flushed, and you're moving fine and plenty fast," Bruce said slowly.
"But my stomach hurts," Tim complained.
"How does it hurt?" Bruce asks.
Tim paused, reaching the table and sitting at a chair. "You know. It hurts. I'm sick."
"I don't think you're sick," Bruce said. "I think you're nervous."
"I'm not-" Tim began immediately.
"And that's okay," Bruce said quickly. "It's okay to be nervous. It's a new situation, it's a different environment, and it's a big change. All of that, any of that, really, can make somebody a bit nervous."
"Nervous enough that they think they're going to throw up?" Tim asked, frowning down at the table.
"Do you think you're going to throw up?" Bruce asked in alarm, his head whipping from side to side in a rapid search for a bucket or something, probably.
Tim gave a full-body shrug. "I don't know. Probably not."
Bruce sighed, relaxing a little. "Well, if it becomes more of a 'probably' than a 'probably not,' please let me know immediately."
Now Tim sighed. "Okay."
"Okay. Now, get some breakfast in you, and let's get going," Bruce said briskly. "I need to go figure out where exactly Cass went."
Tim stared blankly down at the table as Bruce left.
Dick leaned toward Tim. "Are you okay?"
"No," Tim said.
"Are any of us?" Jason muttered.
"No," Damian said.
Dick frowned. "Come on, guys. Let's pull it together. We can get through this."
Tim looked up wearily. "Yeah, sure, we can get through this, but at what cost?"
"Our dignity," Jason said promptly, then he snorted a little. "Possibly also our ability to tell time and tie our shoes, if yesterday meant anything."
Dick pointed at Jason. "Hey. Those are just temporary costs."
"You don't know that," Jason said smugly.
"They're temporary," Dick insisted.
"Sure," Jason said, drawing the word out with a smile. "You keep telling yourself that."
Dick huffed at him and crossed his arms over his torso again, looking down at the shirt beneath his arms. Somehow, the elephant pun didn't make him quite as happy as before.
But at least Jason was smiling now.
