All parents are protective of their first child. At least that's what Bruce told himself.

Dick had already suffered a lifetime of trauma watching his parents fall, and Bruce wanted nothing more than to protect him. But even through his tragedy, Dick soldiered on. He was doing well in school. He had friends. He was a junior crime fighter. Most importantly, he was happy with Bruce as his second father.

Even so, Bruce had his apprehensions as he pulled up in front of Oliver Queen's mansion. Dick had had a few sleepovers with his two best friends, Wally and Roy, but somehow this felt different. Bruce was almost overly aware of the upcoming anniversary of Dick's adoption, and even though Dick insisted he was fine, Bruce didn't like the idea of letting the boy spend the night away from home.

"You're sure you have everything you need?" Bruce asked as he had every ten minutes since they'd left Wayne Manor. "Sleeping bag? Flashlight? Extra clothes?"

"Check, check, and check." Dick assured. "Și ești sigur că nu vei avea nevoie de lumina ta de noapte?" (And you're sure you won't need your nightlight?) Bruce whispered in Romanian even though there was no one around to hear. "Bruce." Dick groaned.

"Alright." Bruce relented. "Go have fun and call me if you're not." Dick nodded his promise before accepting his Daddy's hug collecting his overnight bag and heading to the door.


"What movie should we watch?" Roy asked as he dug through the DVD boxes lining the walls of the TV room. "How bout this one?" Dick suggested, holding up a case that said 'Scream.' "No way." Wally breathed, snatching the movie. "What if Oliver comes down and catches us?"

Wally wasn't really too concerned about Green Arrow catching them. After all, they weren't breaking any rules. Truth be told, Wally was just trying to protect Dick.

They often forgot, but Dick was two years younger than Wally and five years younger than Roy, and while Wally was hardly the type to worry, he didn't want to scare Dick to tears with a stupid movie.

"Ollie's having his own sleepover with Dinah." Roy grinned. "Trust me, they are not coming down. So the real question is: can you two handle this?"

Dick snatched the box back and loaded the disk into the player. "I see scarier stuff in Gotham every night." He smirked.

III

As it turned out, none of the boys were phased by the movie. Dick was right. They all faced psychotic madmen on a regular basis. What was some staged blood by comparison?

Once the movie was over, the boys all had energy to burn from the sugary snacks they'd scarfed down. Naturally, play fighting and light roughhousing ensued until their yelling made Oliver pointedly suggested they take their games to the backyard.

For a while, they played an odd kind of dodgeball where Roy and Dick tried to hit a speeding Wally with arrows and birdarangs. Eventually, though, they got bored and found themselves wandering around the yard looking for some form of entertainment.

"What's this junk?" Wally asked, kicking at a few wooden posts sticking out of the ground. "My new obstacle course." Roy announced proudly. "Ollie's having it build so I can get some target practice."

They looked around the half-built course. The basic elements of a typical obstacle course were there, zip lines, rope swings, and the like. But it was the unfinished parts of the course that seemed to pique the boys' interest.

"Betcha neither of you could walk across." Roy smirked, pointing up at a thin wire strung between two posts. "Are you kidding?" Wally laughed. "I betcha a weeks allowance that Boy Wonder here could backflip across that in his sleep."

"And what do I get out of this?" Dick jokingly piped up. The older boys thought for a second. "You get bragging rights and half my cut." Wally offered, and Dick grinned. It wasn't a big prize, but it wasn't too big a risk either. The post wasn't so high. Certainly not as high as the buildings he scaled as Robin.

Dick steeled himself as he began his ascent. His first few steps were tentative and slow as he tested his footing, but then he began to get into a flow. It had been a while since he had been on a tight rope. Bruce had bought him equipment to keep his trapeze skills sharp, but somehow this felt different.

As Dick neared the center of the rope, he could hear Roy and Wally cheering him on from below, and the sound of their excited yelling seemed to trigger something within him.

His heart began pounding, and his vision seemed to blur as the world around him swayed. He could feel every bead of sweat sliding down his neck, and for whatever reason, he couldn't seem to breathe. His foot slipped, and Dick felt his stomach lurch as he just barely managed to grab the wire before he fell.

He didn't even register the horrified looks on his friends' faces as he peered down. All Dick could see were his parents' limp and bloody corpses in a mangled heap on the circus floor below.

Why had he thought this was a good idea? His parents had known what they were doing more than he did, and they still got hurt. He didn't want to do this anymore. He wanted to get down, but his arms seemed locked in place as if the slightest shift would cause him to plummet the rest of the way down.

"Dick? Dick, are you ok? Do you think you can get down?" Roy was yelling as Dick finally seemed to see them. "No!" Dick yelped as tears began to stream down his cheeks. "I wanna get down. I want Bruce. I want my Daddy!"

Dick was full-on bawling now as the other boys searched for a way to save him. Lucky Roy was able to find a ladder and brought Dick down as quickly as he could. Dick clutched tightly to Roy the entire way down and didn't loosen his hold even when they were safe on the ground.

"Hey buddy, it's ok." Wally said softly as he tried to pry Dick's fingers off of Roy's shirt. "I-I alm-most f-fell." Dick managed through his sobs. "I almost fell l-like M-Mama and Tati."

Roy and Wally had almost identical looks of guilt and worry. How could they have dared their friend into such a dangerous stunt so much like the one that had taken his parents from him?

"Do-do you wanna go home?" Roy asked cautiously. While he didn't want to witness a protectively angry Bruce Wayne, having his adoptive Dad around might make Dick feel better, and after the stunt they'll just pulled, it was the least they could do.

Dick shook his head no as he wiped some of the tears from his face. "Bruce didn't want me to come." Dick sniffed. "I can't call him now cause I got scared. I'm not a baby. I can deal with it."

The boys all sat quietly in the grass for a while, taking a second to calm down. "Ya know I get pretty upset around the time of year my parents died too." Roy sighed. "Don't get me wrong. Ollie's the best, and I know he cares about me, but I still miss them."

"I just thought I was supposed to be over it by now." Dick whispered. "They were your Mom and Dad, Dick. I don't think you're supposed to ever 'get over' them." Wally reasoned. "It's only been like what? A year? If I lost my parents, there's no way a year would be enough time to make it better."

"How long is enough?" Dick asked, and Roy shrugged. "I wish I knew buddy. But until it is, you're always gonna have me and Walls here to catch you when you fall, or talk to or mess around with or whatever makes you feel better."

Dick finally cracked a small smile. He was glad he had such good friends. "Thanks guys." He grinned as he pulled himself to his feet.

The boys all headed back inside and found different ways to keep themselves entertained until Oliver made them go to bed. It may not have been the sleepover any of them had planned, but it had been memorable nonetheless.


Epilogue

None of the boys were ready for their sleepover to end when Bruce and Barry came to pick up their boys the following morning. After much whining and wheedling, the mentors all decided to take their boys to the park to burn off the last of their energy.

The young crime fighters were having a good time except for the fact that Bruce seemed to be in Batman mode the entire time and was watching Dick like a hawk.

"Doesn't get annoying with Bruce babying you all the time?" Wally asked, glancing to where the out of costume heroes were chatting. "He means well." Dick defended then grinned. "Besides, it's pretty fun when you know how to use it."

Dick motioned for his friends to watch as he climbed up the monkey bars, purposely botched a backflip, and made a hard but controlled landing in the gravel below.

Bruce was by his son's side the second he heard his staged scream. "Are you ok Dickie?" He asked worriedly as he picked him up. "It hurts Daddy." Dick whined pathetically although he had barely even sustained a scrape.

"It's ok. Daddy's gonna take you home." Bruce cooed and wiped away Dick's admittedly real-looking tears. "Can we get ice cream?" Dick sniffed hopefully. "We can get whatever you want Dickiebird." Bruce promised.

Dick smirked as he waved to his friends from over Bruce's shoulder. Having a protective Dad wasn't all bad.