"There is no reason to bench me!" Dick argued into the comms, as he sat down against a gargoyle moodily.
"I'm just saying I don't think you're in a state right now to be patrolling. At least take tonight off," Bruce said.
"I'm fine! There's nothing wrong with me, and I can decide to patrol if I damn well want to."
"Nightwing," Bruce sighed, and Dick could tell he was pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm not trying to be your enemy here. You were clearly shaken up last night, and you still refuse to come to the Cave—"
"Batman," Dick interrupted, mimicking his tone patronisingly. "I'm a grown ass man and I can make my own decisions. I'm. Fine."
"Come on B," Jason said, before Bruce could respond. "How much does it take to get you to take a night off?"
Jason wasn't thrilled that Dick refused to take any time off from vigilante business, but he wasn't gonna take his choices away. If Dick wanted to throw himself into his work and ignore everything else for now, then Jason would back him. And he'd be there if things started to get bad. "How would you like it—"
"I allow A to screen me for injuries or complications if something like that happens!" Bruce retorted.
"The fuck you do. You're the master of brushing off serious—"
"Hey." Barbara snapped, interrupting them. "Does anyone have a secondary comm turned on?"
They all responded in the negative.
"There's an extra signal coming in, hold on, I'm changing…okay I think I've blocked them from listening—"
"You think?" Bruce butted in.
"Batman," Barbara said, tightly. "I'm trying, but I'll need to leave it on to try and track the signal, so I can't be sure they won't find a way to listen in if they know what they're doing."
"You're right, I'm sorry Oracle." Bruce sounded tired. "Thank you. Are you certain it's someone using one of our comms?"
"Yes," she said. "Nightwing, did you recover the one you lost last night?"
"Uh. Crap, no, sorry. I was just out of it and I wasn't thinking—"
"Hey. Babydoll. It's okay, it's not on you," Jason interrupted him. "I looked briefly, but these things are so damn small and it was too dark, I figured it didn't matter. We've lost 'em before," he said to the rest.
"Names, Hood" Bruce reminded him tersely.
"You need help getting that giant stick out of your ass, B?" Jason retorted.
"If someone is listening in right now, we do not need to give them any extra information about ourselves. Oracle, have you found the location of the signal?"
"No. They did something to the tracker, and it's making the location ping in all different places. Hold on."
"I'm heading back toward Gotham General to look around the area. The woman had a gun, and I kicked it off the building. Gonna check if it's gone too," Dick said.
"You left a gun lying on the street last night?" Bruce demanded.
"Batman," several of them warned at once.
"Leave him alone," Tim added, before addressing Dick. "The gun's probably gone anyway — it's Gotham — but it's still probably a good idea to scope out the area. And if you find your comm, then we know someone got ahold of someone else's."
"Absolutely not," Bruce said authoritatively. "You shouldn't be out here anyway and you definitely shouldn't be going back over there, especially if there could be someone potentially dangerous — potentially the same woman from last night — around there."
"Well you can't fucking stop me, B. I'm already on my way."
"Damn, Nightwing's really been spending too much time with Hood."
"Red Robin," Bruce gritted out. "That is not helpful."
Jason laughed. "Naw, babybird, that's all him. It's like you don't know some of the stuff he said when he quit being Robin— oh wait," he said, with mock shock. "You weren't there, you were still off being a little stalker."
"Boys," Bruce warned.
"Hey!" Tim complained. "You weren't there when he quit either. You were still off being a delinquent—"
"Boys!" Bruce repeated, more firmly.
"Can we not rehash the family drama right now?" Dick asked.
"Can you agree to take the night off, and stay away from Gotham General?" Bruce shot back.
"Damn, let it go, old man," Jason said.
"I wasn't talking to you, Red Hood. Nightwing—"
"I really don't know why you think my answer's gonna change," Dick said. "I'm almost there anyway, and if you ask me one more time, I'm just gonna tell you to go suck a—"
"I lost the signal," Barbara broke in. "They turned it off completely."
Bruce sighed. "Were you able to narrow down the location at all?"
"Just to Gotham, which isn't much help," she said. "Dammit. I'll continue to be on the lookout for if the signal comes back on again."
"No gun, no comm. The pieces of the comm I crushed are gone too," Dick reported.
"Great, so they've been figuring out how the comms work, I'm sure." Bruce sighed again. "Nightwing, could you cover the waterfront with Red Robin? It's supposed to be busy down there tonight."
"What, giving up on yelling at me to go home?"
"Well last time I tried, you were going to tell me to 'go suck a cock', unless I missed my guess," Bruce said dryly. "So yes."
There were several snickers over the line.
Dick smirked. "On my way. ETA fifteen minutes."
When Dick arrived, Tim gave him a high five, starting to laugh again.
"Nice."
"Thanks. Hood owes me twenty bucks now."
"What do I owe you money for?" Jason broke in indignantly.
"Oh, are you saying you don't remember betting me that I couldn't get B to say 'cock?'" Dick asked innocently, and various muffled laughter burst out across the comms again.
"I honestly wish I was surprised." Bruce had never sounded so long-suffering.
Jason spluttered. "That was like two and a half years ago!"
"Oh, does your honor have an expiration date?" Damian needled, gleefully. "Hold to your word, Hood."
"Stay out of this, gremlin. I'm not paying out on an almost three year old bet I made when I was bored."
"But he has a point, Red Hood. I want my money."
Stephanie laughed. "Don't tell me our favorite drug lord is low on funds?"
"No one asked you, blondie. It's not the money, it's the principle!" Jason retorted.
"Sounds like you're just mad he won the bet," Duke chimed in.
"Am not! I was gonna compliment him on it!"
"But you didn't. Suspicious," Cass said.
"Hey Batman?" Barbara asked.
"Yes, Oracle?" he responded wearily.
"Is there any chance you could lend Red Hood twenty dollars? He's in a bit of debt right now."
"Oh fuck off," Jason said, and he heard Damian cackling.
"Fine. I'll pay Nightwing the damn twenty dollars when we get home. You're all the worst. I hope you're happy, babe."
"Exceptionally," Dick grinned.
~*~
"Alright, stay still you squirmy fuck," he said to a burglar the next night as he worked to zip-tie his hands behind his back. "I'm not out to draw blood, but the zip tie's gonna cut into your wrists if you keep doing that."
"Holy pottymouth, Batman!" the burglar said in a teasing approximation of his earnest Robin voice from decades past. "Didn't know Nightwing was allowed to cuss out here."
There was a snort of laughter over the comms, which Dick ignored.
"Allowed? I'm a big boy now." He said, tightening the zip tie and testing its hold. "I can reach the top shelf and everything. It's all very exciting."
The man laughed and tried to squirm out from under the knee on his lower back again.
"Thought I said to stop squirming," Dick said idly, sending out a signal to the police.
"Sorry, we're not all used to being tied up, Boy Hostage."
"Cute," Dick said. "But I was never Robin. Or maybe I was — guess you'll never know."
The man snorted. "Sure," he said sarcastically. "You and your fancy flips are more recognizable than you think."
"Can neither confirm or deny," Dick said lightly, "But between you and me, I've always thought I had the legs for it." He got to his feet and rolled the man over, helping him to sit up against the brick wall.
The man eyed him appreciatively. "Among other things." And yep, okay, he was definitely staring at his ass. Time to go.
"Gross," he commented. "Enjoy your ride in the paddy wagon." The sound of sirens drew closer, and Dick grappled up onto the nearest roof.
"You okay, Nightwing?" Tim asked.
"Yes," Dick said, gritting his teeth. They'd all been asking that way too often when it was completely unnecessary. "Why would I not be? A routine burglar. I've been dealing with those over three times as long as you."
"Just asking," Tim mumbled.
Dick sighed and bit his tongue to keep himself from snapping 'Well don't'.
"Maybe you should head off early tonight, get some rest. It's a quiet night, we'll be fine," Bruce said.
This time, Dick did snap. "Twenty years, B. Twenty damn years I've been doing this, you think I don't know that?"
"Nigh—" Bruce started, but Dick cut him off.
"I'm fine, and I'm not going home. Why are you still trying to bench me? I thought we had this conversation last night!" He threw his hands up, even though nobody could see him. "I'm not eight anymore, Batman. When are you gonna learn that?"
Dick was already missing Jason always being in his corner against B, but he was off dealing with some drug lord business tonight and wasn't on the comms.
"Nightwing," Bruce said patiently. "I'm well aware you aren't a child anymore, but that doesn't mean I can't watch out for you. You shouldn't be out here without letting A check you over—"
"Sure, watching out for me. Not like it's actually about control and things needing to be done your way or no way, right?"
"I am watching out for you, whether you want to acknowledge that or not. I'm sorry you've decided everything has to be some sort of power struggle."
He sounded so classically Batman — gruff and impersonal — and it made Dick's blood boil.
"Oh I've decided?!" Dick said incredulously. "I can't believe in a decade you haven't learned a goddamn thing. Not everything has to go by your rules, B. I'm my own person! We aren't Batman and Robin anymore!"
"This isn't about that!" Bruce's composure finally cracked. "Just let us make sure you're okay! A is worried about you too, are you really going to do this for your pride?"
"Don't try to guilt me with A! He knows I'm fine, and I just talked to him last night. Red Hood and I are perfectly capable of assessing whether I'm alright or not, and you need to learn to trust our judgement."
"You don't have all the resources we have at the Cave—" Bruce started.
Dick cut him off again. "Bullshit!" he said. "We have all the resources we need, and you damn well know that."
"I just want—"
"I don't care! I don't care what you want, I just need you to trust me." He paused. "What happened to us being equals?" he asked, sounding hurt.
Dick may be his son, yes, but he had always been Bruce's equal. He may officially be Bruce's ward, but sometimes, in a lot of ways, he was more like a brother. Dick had never really been a sidekick the way the other Robins had been — he was Batman's crime-fighting partner, and a detective in his own right. He had been doing this whole vigilante thing for just barely less time than Batman had, and they therefore had the same level of experience. Maybe not when it came to bigger, Justice League related things, but when it came to Gotham crime-fighting certainly.
"Nightwing…" Bruce sounded close to giving in and Dick seized on it.
"Please," he pleaded, quieter. "Please just let me be, Batman. Please."
There was a long silence, and then finally a quiet "Hrmph" — as close as Bruce was ever going to get to admitting defeat.
~*~
Dick didn't get home until around five that morning, and after a quick shower, he joined Jason in quietly working on his laptop. They were still working in companionable silence about an hour later, when Damian climbed through the window still in his Robin uniform.
"Hey. Were we...expecting you tonight?" Jason asked.
"Not particularly," Damian said. "I just decided to come over on my way home."
"Cool."
Jason and Dick turned back to their computers and Damian dithered awkwardly, in a very un-Damian way.
"Do you need something?" Dick asked. "You know you're free to the shower or food or whatever."
"...No." Damian said. Dick looked up at him, waiting for him to explain what he was waiting around for. "Just...do you need anything? I can take over some cases for you or…" he trailed off as Dick's expression shuttered.
Dick breathed deeply, his aggravation from earlier coming back full force. "Dami, you know I love you a lot, but, in the nicest way possible, please leave me alone. I'm fine."
"Bruce and Alfred know you're staying over tonight?" Jason asked, changing the subject, which Dick was grateful for.
Damian shrugged. "I'm sixteen, I can stay over if I want without checking with them first."
Jason restrained himself from rolling his eyes, and turned back to his computer. "Take a shower and then call one of them. Or at least text."