March. The long and unexpected story behind Dick's school records p.3

Dick and Rex were greeted by the smell of cigarettes and the sound of raucous laughter before their eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"I told you he'd bring his little friend," a voice laughed.

Every mob-like office was the same, thought Dick. Every one of them imitated the movies. There was a fat boss sitting to a desk, two goons at either side of him, and another by the door.

"What's the matter, kid? Afraid to come alone to talk to your old friends?" Randy from the diner teased. He was standing at the boss' left.

The boss spoke jovially. "Why would he be afraid? Alexander has my money. Don't you, boy?"

Rex looked at Dick. Dick nodded at him. Rex swallowed and took out the five thousand dollars from his bag. On the table it looked like a particularly pathetic pile, clearly short of anywhere near enough.

"What's this?" asked the boss in a disgusted tone.

The room tensed up. No one was laughing anymore.

"I needed the rest of the money," tried Rex. "My mom's medical bills-"

"You spent my money, and you brought this other boy to protect you?" the boss asked, pointing a fat finger at Dick. "All you did was sign his death sentence, too."

Dick went forward. "Look, he'll work the debt off. There's no need to-"

The boss waved him off. "I'm not interested. Alexander was paying off a credit to another when he came to me in the first place."

Dick looked at Rex. Rex grinned sheepishly.

"He'll be a good worker this time," insisted Dick. "I'll vouch for him."

"And who are you?"

"This is Dick Grayson," said Rex, clasping Dick's shoulders and bringing him forward. "He's Bruce Wayne's ward."

The boss observed Dick, and his face didn't betray any change. But then, Dick knew from experience, they never did. It didn't mean Bruce's name didn't have an effect.

"We can come to an agreement," Dick tried again. "We'll sign a contract. Rex can make partial payments and we'll set a final time he'll have the rest of the money by."

The boss sounded like he was listening to Dick, puffing his cigar and looking off in the distance. When Dick had said his piece, however, he shook his head. "He wasn't that good of an employee. Not interested."

He raised his hand and made a swift movement at his goons. Dick's body tensed with muscle memory—he knew how this was ending.

Dick and Rex were plopped down in the hospital lobby's chairs, staring at white walls. Thankfully the ER wasn't crowded a Thursday afternoon.

"If you smell alcohol, does that mean you have a concussion?" asked Rex, holding his head.

"It's a hospital, it does smell like alcohol," Dick told him, his voice muffled by the flyer he was pressing to his bloody nose. "But you can go in first."

"I'm really glad their secret lair is within walking distance of a hospital," said Rex.

"Yeah, that was considerate of them," said Dick.

Dick tried taking the flyer from his face. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, so he left it off. He inspected the paper for the first time. "What's this flyer you gave me? Electric Vibes Festival? What is that?"

"Look, man, it was meant to stop your nose bleeding, not enrich you culturally."

Rex shifted in the seat, wincing at the pain from his abdomen. The goons had gone to town kicking him, but he could tell nothing was broken. "Should've known they'd take the bike."

"We got off lucky. The five K, the bike, and a bit of a roughing up. Could've been worse."

"Would have been, if we hadn't mentioned your uncle in the nick of time."

"Works every time," said Dick, bitterness dripping from his tone.

"Bet it made you miss the old days, huh?"

The slight undertone of uncertainty nearly broke Dick's heart. He knew Rex was hanging on his answer. "Rex, I know you want things to just go back to how it was. But they can't."

Rex snickered. "Psh. Yeah. I know. 'Cause you're all straight-laced now." He shook his head, laughing to hide his frustration. "We did so much shit, and the one time we get caught… you get all spooked and call it quits. All of it. Even us."

Dick closed his eyes. "It's not like that."

"I went to Juvie," Rex muttered, "and that was alright. I was relieved you weren't going with me. I was happy you could be spared. I come out, and I'm not allowed in your house. Fine, I saw that coming. Your uncle had finally banned me. But then you stopped answering your phone. You didn't wanna see me."

"I needed a clean break."

"I'm not some drug or something!" he snapped. "I was your goddamn best friend. You were my brother. Four years, Dick. You threw away four years of friendship."

"I wasn't myself back then," Dick said, turning to face him. "I was crazy. My parents had just died…. There were things I needed to get out of my system. But that wasn't me. I'm more than a juvenile delinquent."

"And I'm not? Is that what you're saying?"

"No. That's not you either." Dick looked at the other boy intently. "But you have to figure that out yourself. The two of us, together? That's moving backwards. We bring the worst out on each other." He turned to stare ahead. "At least for now it's like that." Dick knew what was right for him. He knew he wasn't himself when he was with Rex. He hardly knew what had even happened today. He had to get rid of the guilt, the nagging fear that Rex might go even more astray without him, and let him go. "…I'm sorry. I really am."

Rex stayed silent for a while. Dick didn't look at him. He knew Rex—if he was processing Dick's words, he wouldn't want Dick to look at him right now.

The next time Rex spoke, his voice sounded subdued, like he'd reached an end of acceptance. "Sorry. Right."

And they fell into another spell of silence.

The next thing he said was, "Your gang's here."

Dick turned to the door. Sure enough, his four friends had entered the hospital.

"What are you guys doing here?" Dick asked when they approached him.

"Your uncle called us," said Gar.

Dick suppressed a groan. He could just see the scene. The hospital had called Bruce, Bruce had gotten a déjà vu of when Rex was in their lives, he'd called Dick's friends to see if they were with him—and when he saw they weren't, he'd sent them to Dick. It was just like Bruce to send people as a message: 'I know you're with Rex, because you're not with these four.'

Discomfort was palpable in the hall. Raven was frowning, Gar scratched his arm awkwardly, Vic was glaring at nothing, and Kori had her hands clasped in front of her chest, like when she was conflicted over something.

Rex must have sensed it too. He stood. "Alright! I'll let you kids talk, I've gotta go a man about a concussion." And he made for the main desk.

When he was gone, Dick addressed his friends. "Everything alright?"

"Alright?" echoed Raven. "You went behind our backs to do a mission, which you told us was a non-issue to begin with."

"Guys, this wasn't a real mission," Dick said. "It was just a thing I had to do so Rex would stop tagging the halls."

"A thing you didn't trust us with," said Gar, in a small voice.

"We could've helped you, man," said Vic, "we could have kept you from ending up in hospital."

"Are we in this together, or aren't we?" asked Raven.

Dick frowned. He had known this would be jarring for them. But they didn't understand that the way he'd gone about things made things easier and cleaner. "This was my old friend. My problem to solve. It had nothing to do with you."

"I guess that's a no, then," surmised Raven. "I'm glad you're fine. I'm going home."

She turned and walked out. Gar and Vic followed her. Kori was left standing there.

"Why did you not tell us?" she asked after a pause.

"Rex is part of my past," Dick responded, calmer. "I didn't want him to seep into my present." He could always talk honestly to Kori. When he said was talking to her, things seemed cleaner, purer, realer.

"Is that all?"

He was lost. "What do you mean?"

"The reason why you did not trust us," Kori clarified. She sat next to him, folded her hands over her lap and looked at him. Her eyes were solemn and serious. "Dick. I believe you act as if forming this club was your idea, instead of something that came from all of us. Do not misunderstand—we know you are our leader. We never discussed, and Vic may not recognize it, but we know it is true. But that does not mean you are the only one who wants to do this work. And it does not mean you are able to pick what things to hide from us." Her eyes shone. "We are your friends, and we are part of this club. We are next to you. Not under you."

Dick looked at her, stunned.

Kori was so gentle and nice that it was startling to get this quiet no-nonsense calling out from her. It was the first time, but itwould not be the last, that Dick was floored by how much she perceived, and how swiftly she could put things in perspective for him.

"Kori, I never meant…" he trailed off. He was rethinking all his actions up to that point, all the things he'd been sure of since the start of the Club. Did he see his friends as unequal to him? Did he think he cared more for the work than they did? Was that why he took over the decisions, why he thought he knew better?

…How could he know so well what was right for him about Rex's bad influence on him, and screw up so grandly with his brand new friends?

"You should tell us more things," she said, as if to spare him from his evident crisis. With that she got up.

As he watched her leave, Dick thought that, at least, he could be sure he'd do better from now on. She had left him no option but to.

Victor was having lunch with Jenny when he saw Dick walk through the cafeteria and approach their usual table. Vic saw him say a few words to Kori, Gar and Raven. The three of them looked at him, exchanged looks with each other, and said something back to him. Then Raven scooted over. Dick smiled in relief and sat with them.

Vic smiled approvingly.

"I still don't get what the big deal is," Jenny was saying, also watching the scene. "Just a little paint on the walls. I mean you did Blood's dirty work for him. And for what? You could have just left the damn X's alone. I thought they were pretty. And I always say a little chaos is welcome in a place like this."

"Yeah, you made the way you felt about it very clear," Vic said, turning to face her.

Jen stopped mid-bite and stared at him, watchful, expressionless.

Vic chuckled. "Please, Jenny. Like I wouldn't know it was youwith the X's in the girls' bathroom."

Her face broke into a devilish smile. "Did the pink give it away?"

"That, and who else do I know that can possibly balance on top of a stall to paint something on the ceiling?"

Jenny laughed like it was a compliment, and drew in closer to him. "Okay, here's my prank idea. When they clean the X's in the halls, we paint new ones, but red. Pretend like it's still that Rex guy doing it. What'd you say? Ruffle Dick's feathers a bit?"

Victor looked at her with a tender smile and didn't say anything.

Jen's smile waned. "Babe? Hello, Earth to Vic?"

"You know the day we bailed from my dad's party, that thing you asked me? If I wanted to be a goody-goody my whole life?" Vic was talking slowly, as if to delay this as much as he could. "I think that's exactly what I want, yeah."

Jen's face went through a series of considerations of emotions. It began to make confusion, then indignation, then teasing, then sadness, then anger. She closed her eyes tight as if to clean the slate, went "Whoa," and jumped to stand by the table, turning her back to Vic. When she turned around, she'd settled on proud disbelief. "Are you actually telling me we're on opposite sides of good and evil and thus we can't be together?"

"Mm, more like, you almost threw the search because we thought the culprit was a girl, and you'll probably try to sabotage missions in the future, wherein I'm gonna have to choose between going against my friends and turning you in." Vic made a sad smile. "And I don't wanna do either."

Victor had seen his new friends throw themselves into the idea to make the Club a place to help people. He had been a little slower to take to it. In fact, so far, he'd grumbled every step of the way.

They were younger than him. He'd seen their comings and goings with a degree of detachment, amusement even. But perhaps in this they had been more mature than him—going into something with all their hearts, while Vic was still at a crossroads, with a foot in each world. He'd thought his circumstances gave him a free pass to go wild for a while; he still thought that was true. But he had to make a choice sometime.

Right now his life could go either way. He could go off the rails with his cute girlfriend, or he could follow his idealistic group of freshmen friends into a better tomorrow, maybe. And Vic had chosen his path.

Jen stared at him, then let out a forced laugh. "Damn." She shook her head at him. "I had high hopes for you, Stone. I was gonna make you into a cool vandal like me." She cupped his face, smiling wide. "It was fun, though."

"Oh, it was a blast," Vic returned, smiling up at her. He hoped she would kiss him one last time.

But she let go of his face instead. "And now I'm officially you ex," she said, never dropping her smile. "I can't wait to make your life miserable for dumping me."

With that she danced away, and Vic's smiled froze. Should he regret the last few weeks of his life?

…Eh, whatever. He'd live and learn.

He took his tray to his friends' table to shake the dread off.

He made his entrance with a, "Ha! Look what the cat dragged in!" directed at Dick.

"They already told me off, Vic," said Dick.

"I didn't," Victor replied, sitting next to him. "I just wanna say one thing. Dick."

"Yeah, I'm listening."

"Nope, that was it," Vic said, smiling wide at him. "Dick."

Gar let out raucous laughter. Raven smirked.

"Very funny," said Dick.

"With the name you have, you deserve it," Vic laughed.

Kori finally asked, "Why?" She'd been lost for the last ten seconds.

Gar stopped laughing. Everybody froze; they'd forgotten about Kori. The four looked at each other in askance, before Raven finally turned to Kori and spoke matter-of-factly, "Because Dick also means penis."

"Raven!" protested Dick, as Vic gasped at her.

"What? If I didn't tell her, she would have googled it, and that would have been worse," she argued.

"Ah, fair point," accepted Vic.

But Kori was now more confused, as well as alarmed. "What?" she made out. "Why did that… become a… name?"

"No, no, it was a nickname ages before it meant…" Dick tried before he trailed off, frustrated. He was bright red and he contented himself with hiding his face from Kori.

Vic turned to Raven and Gar. "I was gonna say we had to find a way to make him pay for sneaking behind our backs, but I think this is enough for me."

Raven and Gar agreed.

End of March.

Thursday update because it's a shortish chapter!

It's the end of CyxJinx, but definitely not the end of Jinx!

Eris: Mmmmmmm don't hold your breath for Jinx's redemption, she's gonna be a delightful and extra villain for a long time before that happens. Her narrative is going to be like, 90% mischief, a modicum of a Freudian excuse, and then... more mischief and THEN redemption. :D

Next up: April. A very successful and romantic camping trip. (Depending on whether you're more of a RobxStar or BBxRae shipper, you're either gonna suffer in April or thrive… and *then* suffer. :) )