Dick grimaced and sighed. "I hate this thing." he muttered as he adjusted his tie in front of the mirror.
"You might hate it, but it looks really good on you." smirked Dinah as she leaned against the wall and looked at him with much interest.
"I bet you like it better when I have nothing on." he gave his typical grin as he looked at her from the mirror.
"True." she confirmed with a shrug.
The elder Wayne chuckled. Immediately his laughter ceased and a sigh escaped his lips. "I hate these fucking events."
A gala had been organized by Wayne Enterprises for a fundraiser in which Gotham's wealthiest figures would attend.
And of course the Wayne family was to attend.
And it was no news that they all hated this kind of event.
Even Bruce hated the shit out of them!
And, asshole that he was, he forced all his children to attend every time, so that he would not suffer alone.
Dick laughed to himself at that memory, although a slight pang in his heart still struck him.
This would be his first gala without Bruce Wayne. Now it was up to him to orchestrate the entire event, including the speech he had already prepared.
And trust that he would seriously rather have fought a whole army of the Joker's henchmen than organize and attend these galas.
The sentiment also applies to the rest of his family, of course.
"So do I." nodded Dinah.
The young woman attended these events essentially for three reasons:
1) she was the girlfriend of the heir (now owner) of Wayne Enterprises;
2) other women were too friendly with him (if they ventured any flirtation about him she might even break some arms);
3) she would scare off anyone brave (or stupid) enough to insult Dick Grayson or any of his/her family members (and unfortunately it happened more times than one could imagine).
"Well? How do I look?" the 20 year old asked, turning toward her.
Dinah let out a deep sigh, trying to calm her own hormones. Each time she was amazed by the beauty of her boyfriend and how lucky she was to have him constantly in her life.
"A wonder." she winked at him. "Just..." she adjusted his tie. "et voila!" she nodded with satisfaction.
They smiled at each other and Dinah hugged him, resting her head on his muscular shoulder. Dick emitted a soft laugh "Mind you, don't let anyone see you like that. It would ruin Black Canary's tough reputation." he stated with a smile.
"Shut up, Boy Wonder," she admonished him playfully.
Dick laughed, and the sound of his laughter cheered the young woman. It was a warm, sincere laugh: the kind of laugh that makes you smile or laugh accordingly.
"Come on." the acrobat motioned for her to follow him. "Let's go see the others and keep them from killing themselves."
"Have a little faith in them." Dinah joked as they began to walk.
"With Jason and Damian present? No thanks."
The couple made their way into the living room, watching the rest of their family with interest.
"Pennyworth, explain to me once again why I am compelled to attend such an unprofitable and futile event." scowled Damian.
Alfred, who was adjusting his tie, sighed for what seemed like the millionth time. "You do look a lot like your father when he was your age, Master Damian." he muttered with a certain amount of heat.
"Really?" this sparked interest in the younger Wayne.
After all, he was the one who knew Bruce Wayne the least. In fact, he had been least emotionally affected by the billionaire's death, having known him for only a few months and having gotten nothing but fights and yelling with his father.
"Exactly, young master." nodded the elder. "Besides being externally very similar for obvious reasons, you certainly inherited stubbornness from your father."
Damian's curiosity turned into a fierce frown directed at the British butler, the latter not at all perturbed by his nephew.
Stephanie chuckled. "I think we all inherited the hard head from Bruce." she commented with a smile on her lips, albeit slightly wobbly but it was still a genuine smile.
A growl came from one side of the room and the attention of everyone in the room shifted to Jason. "This shit," he pointed to his tuxedo. "is one of the few reasons I preferred to stay six feet underground."
The room was filled with laughter. "So Jason, what are the other reasons?" asked Dick making his presence known (although he knew the others had already noticed: they were Bats after all).
"Having to deal with all of you." declared the second son in a flat tone.
Tim gasped and dramatically brought a hand to his heart. "That really hurt, Jason."
"Leave the drama to Dickhead. It's not for you, replacement."
"Thanks Little Wing!" the acrobat's blue eyes shone with their own light.
The second Robin grimaced and Cass spoke for him. "I guess it shouldn't have been a compliment."
Dick shrugged and smiled.
Dick faked a smile at a businessman and, with a smile on his lips, excused himself and walked away from the very boring conversation the two were having.
He looked down to his right and a sincere smile broke out on his face. About an hour and a half had passed and Damian never left his side.
The youngest of the Wayne's had said something along the lines that it was Robin's job to protect Batman even as a civilian and, therefore, he would not leave him alone at the mercy of these lower-class plebs.
In short, Damian was (as always) overprotective of his mentor.
"You know, Little D, you're really cute when you're protective over me." Richard's eyes sparkled and the 20 year old used all his self-control not to mess up the minor's neatly coiffed hair.
Alfred would have killed him.
Instead he merely pinched his cheek good-naturedly.
Damian looked at him with a murderous frown, muffled however by the blush that was covering his cheeks. "-tt. I just need to make sure you don't do anything idiotic like you're wont to do, Grayson."
The acrobat rolled his eyes. "Keep saying that, Dami."
A few minutes later, while the two remained in comfortable silence, a woman in her early thirties, brown eyes and red hair approached the two Wayne men.
Damian immediately straightened into a more alert, prepared position and squinted his eyes at the woman.
He could see a mile away that the woman had ill-timed intentions from the way she was looking at the head of Wayne Enterprises.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Wayne." greeted the redhead, her eyes examining the body of the last Flying Grayson a little too closely.
"Please Miss Anne White, go ahead and call me Grayson. Wayne was my father." smiled the now billionaire, though Damian noticed he was slightly shaky.
Obviously Grayson knew who the woman in front of them was. Talia's son was sure his mentor knew the first and last name of every person present at the gala.
After all, he could not help but know them (he was the C.E.O. of W.E.), although Damian thought it unnecessary to know people inferior to him and his family.
"Whatever you say, Mr. Grayson. I heard the news about your father; it was a very sad event. Gotham will miss the White Knight greatly." the woman shook her head with a deep sigh, her eyes reflecting the sincerest sadness.
But the two Wayne's were Bats and noticed a slight twitch in her right eye, a sign that she was lying and therefore did not give a damn about the billionaire playboy's death.
Dick simply nodded at her in response, already wanting to change the subject (and possibly the person he is talking too).
"But," the woman approached the 20 year old and rested her hands on his shoulders, purposely allowing him to see her cleavage. "I know a way to make your pain go away." she whispered sensuously.
Dick sighed silently when he saw Dinah clenching her fists menacingly about ten meters away.
He did not want the situation to end in a fight.
He didn't even have to shake White's hands off his shoulders when his "savior" was revealed.
"You stupid harlot! Get your cursed paws off Grayson! NOW!" snarled Damian fiercely.
Dick would have laughed if it had not occurred to him that Damian might have maimed the woman.
Anne gasped and her eyes landed on Damian, who had clenched his fists dangerously on his hips and was staring menacingly at the redhead, as if he wanted to rip her head off her neck for even flirting with his mentor.
Anne winced at his cold stare, but a smile that neither Wayne could decipher popped up on her lips. "Mr. Grayson, your son is really cute when he's jealous of you."
The two stiffened and the redhead took advantage of the moment to walk away.
Dick and Damian looked at each other and an awkward silence came over the two.
Dinah raised an eyebrow when she saw her boyfriend and his younger brother exchange a glance before directing their eyes elsewhere, both clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable.
"Wow, I never thought the Demon Child and Dick could ever fall into an awkward silence." observed Katherine as she placed herself beside the blonde.
Dinah nodded to her before returning her gaze to the two young men, watching them carefully.
"Now I'm curious about what happened." Tim appeared out of nowhere, jolting the two women.
"Although it's been more than two years since I've been engaged to Dick, I still can't get used to your stealthy methods." sighed Dinah, casting a dirty look at the third-born who smiled in response.
"Apparently neither am I." muttered Kate.
They heard an expletive and turned to see Jason hand Stephanie a $10 banknote, with Cassandra giggling at their side.
"Really? You made a bet?" asked Oliver Queen's ex in a flat tone.
"Yes, and you just lost me $10." grunted Jason in annoyance.
"Back to the main issue." intervened Kate, casting a glance at Damian and Dick.
"What are you doing, replacement?"
All eyes turned to the second son who was looking with a raised eyebrow at Tim.
The latter had pulled out his phone (strictly manufactured by Wayne Enterprises). "Wait a minute...here you go." he nodded contentedly.
The other family members crowded around the Timothy to see what he was doing. "Is this a recording obtained from the cameras?" asked Cass and her brother nodded and, in a silence, they began to watch the recording.
"I'm surprised you didn't go over there and kick that woman's ass." stated Stephanie addressing Dinah as they watched Anne flirt with Richard.
"You have no idea how tempted I was." Kate giggled at Dinah's comment.
"I'd like to say I'm amazed at how threatening Damian was" Jason began with a smirk. "but I'm not."
"He's so overprotective about Dick." smiled Cass.
"So are the rest of us." said Dinah with a shrug. "I can't blame the kid more."
"Careful you don't let Damian hear you call him a kid." joked Tim.
They continued to watch the video until they got to the part where Anne White calls Dick as Damian's father. All the remaining Bats were left speechless.
A laugh escaped Jason's lips. "Oh my God, I can't believe it! The golden boy father of Demon Spawn!" he laughed so hard he had to lean on his knees to catch his breath.
"Dick as Damian's father." whispered Kate, her eyes wide with disbelief, and Steph at her side nodded wordlessly.
"I would never have thought of that." Cass shook her head in disbelief.
"I did, actually." admitted Dinah and all eyes focused on her, as if she had grown a second head. "Guys, you may have been raised by the greatest detective in the world but you still haven't figured out that Dick is acting not only like his older brother but, especially after Bruce's death, also like his dad?" when she received silence and wide eyes as a response, she only shook her head. "Sometimes you can be as blind as bats." she muttered to herself.
Ignoring the pun (Dinah was also influenced by Dick in this aspect) Tim squinted his eyes, involuntarily biting his lip. "I don't know what to think of that, though I'm not so sure you're right."
Dinah raised her blue eyes to the sky and sighed. "Come on guys, we shouldn't eavesdrop on their conversation. It's a private thing between the two of them." she said as she took Tim's phone and walked out of the camera recording and handed it back to him.
"What if I'm curious?" asked Jason, raising his chin in defiance.
"I'll kick your ass so hard you won't be able to sit down for a week." threatened Dinah crossing her arms, her blue eyes steely.
In response Jason squinted his eyes and huffed but nevertheless walked away followed by the others.
Dinah took one last look at Dick and Damian before she too walked away.
To say that Dick's thoughts were in turmoil was an understatement.
He, the dad of Damian Al Ghul-Wayne?
The thought alone was so wrong that Richard could make a list of hundreds of reasons for it... but yet he felt warm inside.
He had been the first to see past Damian's facade, to see that he was a ten year old child and not a weapon trained by the League of Assassins.
He had been the one to take Robin's mantle from Tim (by now he had to have his own identity and forge his own path) and hand it over to Bruce's only biological son.
And now Damian was his Robin.
God, Bruce...
Could he really do that?
Could he have been as much of a father figure to Damian as Bruce was to himself?
His thoughts involuntarily went to those two or three times Dinah mentioned that he might be the only one who would do good for Damian by acting as his father, besides mentor and older brother.
He shook his head to dispel his thoughts.
No, he could not be Damian's father figure that Dinah mentioned so much; he could only be his mentor and older brother.
He was not eligible to be a father (he ignored the fact that Bruce had taken him in when he was twenty-three years old and zero experience in the matter and see how he was an amazing father).
A second reason was that Damian would not have accepted him willingly and mocked him at the mere thought of Grayson as his father figure.
This, he admitted to himself, made his heart ache but he chose to ignore it.
Moreover, he could not be it after only a few months had passed since Bruce's death. It would have been a serious shortcoming against him and Dick would never have allowed himself to "steal" his biological son.
Dick looked at Damian. It was evident that the younger Wayne was also completely absorbed in his thoughts.
He was probably insulting Anne White in every possible way for alluding that a fool like Dick could be the father, biological or otherwise, of Damian Wayne.
Once again he ignored the twinge in his heart.
"Dami." the child looked at him with an expression Richard could not decipher. "What Anne said" he cleared his throat a couple of times before continuing. "to the fact that I might be your father-"
"Ignore her, Grayson." Damian interrupted him abruptly. "It is obvious that that harlot had the sole purpose of creating rifts between us and I will not allow her very inappropriate comment to succeed."
Dick nodded, keeping his melancholy and sorrow to himself. He would never admit it to anyone, but he had a little hope that maybe, just maybe, he might be seen by Damian as his father.
Just the thought of it filled him warm inside, and he discovered, therefore, that he really wanted to be his father.
Was this how Bruce felt about him, only a few months after welcoming him and starting the Batman and Robin partnership?
But then reality hit him like a bucket of ice water in the middle of winter.
Damian's comment was basically his (kind enough) way of saying that he would never dream of having him as a father.
Their discussion ended there and they spent the rest of the gala as if nothing had happened.
But if Dick had been more observant, he would have noticed how Damian looked at him when he didn't notice, and how he would frown from time to time; as if he were arguing with himself about a sensitive subject that had struck him to the heart.