Dick Grayson-Wayne awoke happily to the sound of the alarm clock. He turned it off and turned to his girlfriend, who turned to the other side with a mutter. He shook her gently by the shoulders. "Get up pretty sleepyhead."
Dinah Lance sighed and turned to the other side and Dick had to remind himself how lucky he was to have Dinah as his fiancée. She was beautiful even if her hair was messy and it was a sight the acrobat wanted to memorize forever in his mind.
Dinah's expression softened as she saw the bright, excited smile on her fiancé's face. It was really nice to see him smile continuously over the past week. The blonde feared that since they were in the Christmas season, Dick would fall into a state of sadness since this would be the first Christmas without his adoptive father after a good eleven years of celebrating it together.
Fortunately, her worried thoughts were disproved. Sure, every now and then she noticed that her boyfriend's eyes turned sad and sorrowful, but that was normal. Instead, Richard pranced around the manor with a smile brighter than the star and lights that graced the Christmas tree in the main living room.
She almost burst out laughing remembering the confusion the four Bat brothers created just to prepare and set up the Christmas tree. Instead, Dinah, Cassandra and Stephanie, like the good responsible people they are, merely recorded with their phones the chaos the four created.
Alfred was decidedly unhappy with their action or, rather, lack of action.
"What are you thinking about?"
Her fiancé's voice distracted her from her thoughts, and Dinah found herself drawn to his beautiful curious and slightly amused eyes. "About the mess you and the other fools made with the Christmas tree."
Dick laughed. "At least we managed just in time to keep the tree from catching fire."
Dinah gave an amused smile and shook her head in mock exasperation. "Only you can make the tree risk catch fire."
The acrobat smiled and kissed her softly. "Merry Christmas, love."
"Merry Christmas to you, my love."
Jason suddenly turned around and began to laugh hysterically. Dinah, Alfred, Cassandra, Kate and Stephanie turned toward the direction the second Robin was looking and watched Dick walk down the stairs carrying both Damian and Tim by the neck of their shirt, both flushed with embarrassment.
Finally the elder Wayne put them down when they reached their destination. "Why were you carrying them?" asked Stephanie between giggles.
Meanwhile, Tim and Damian lowered their flushed heads and quickly walked away from the last Flying Grayson, muttering incoherently.
"Because Timmy, sleepy as he is, kept saying "five more minutes" while Damian refused to participate in a festivity that was, to use his words, "childish and useless."'" huffed Dick, casting a stern look at his two younger brothers who did not meet his gaze.
"Geez, that child's vocabulary is impressive." muttered Cassandra and beside her Steph stifled a laugh.
"I am not a child!" protested Damian looking fiercely at the second Batgirl.
"Yes you are." confirmed Cass with a smile.
Dick intervened before Damian could argue again. "Now that we are all finally here," a huge smile appeared on his face and his eyes shone with pure happiness. "we can open presents!" he dramatically raised a fist in the air with a shout and most people imitated him.
Alfred sighed affectionately.
The acrobat with the bright smile theatrically rubbed his hands together. "Time to open presents!" he repeated even louder.
His sentence was accompanied by other excited shouts and Alfred mentally thanked the Lord that his hearing still worked.
"Who the hell gave me a pink blanket?" growled Jason looking at his gift as if it could kill him at any moment.
"Me." Cassandra blinked at him innocently before her smile slipped away. "Why? Don't you like it?" she whispered sadly, her lower lip beginning to tremble.
"Your lessons have paid off, boss!" whispered conspiratorial Stephanie to Dick who brought a hand to his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.
"No one can ever get to my level, though." whispered the acrobat in response as Jason stammered in panic an answer that made Cassandra smile.
"True." nodded his Batgirl.
Dick walked over and was found crushed in a fierce hug by Tim who thanked him for the gift: a highly sophisticated computer released a few days ago exclusively in China and strictly with the Wayne Tech logo.
One of the privileges of being the owner of one of the richest multibillion-dollar companies in the world.
Richard smiled sweetly noticing the excited smile on his Baby Bird's face that was squirting happiness from every pore. He reciprocated the hug for a couple of seconds before his little brother slipped away and ran, probably to his room to safely store his gift.
The acrobat isolated himself momentarily and watched with a happy, satisfied smile as his family exchanged gifts. He noticed the typical joy of the holiday season present in each of them and it warmed his heart.
He loved his family too much, and to see them so happy, with no tension or pressure on their shoulders as if they were carrying all the weight of the world on a daily basis (which was actually very true) was enough in itself as a Christmas present.
His heart twisted painfully as he recalled the absence of a man who always gave gifts to his children with a sweet smile. This was his first Christmas without his adoptive father, and he would be lying if he said he did not miss him.
His mind traveled into the past, specifically to his first Christmas without his parents as well as his first with Bruce (and Alfred). At that time he was still settling into the huge mansion and his new family. Bruce, who was still inexperienced as a parent (but still good enough with an eight year old with trauma equal to his own), did not know what to give his then pupil.
(The official adoption would take place when the acrobat turned fourteen, and it was the best birthday present ever, rivaling the Wayne family watch passed down from generation to generation, obtained on his eighteenth birthday.)
So, to be on the safe side, Bruce bought him about 20 different gifts. Dick's eyes grew so wide they could have reached orbit.
He also remembered that he had given his then guardian a gift: a drawing of his new family that he had been working on for a few weeks.
It was the drawing he had worked on the hardest in his entire life.
That drawing still sat in Bruce's room.
Before he could sink further into sadness because of the beautiful memories but only making him miss his father even more, he returned to the real world when he felt a tug at his sleeve.
Shaking his head, the first Robin lowered his gaze to meet his son's green eyes. He offered him a smile, hoping for no trace of sadness. He did not want to ruin Damian's first Christmas with them just because he was lost in memories of the past.
"What is it, Little D?"
Damian frowned, probably at the nickname, but nonetheless brushed it off and instead gave his father figure a small smile and silently raised the gift he received from Grayson himself: a new set of pencils, papers, crayons, watercolor paints and other drawing materials. "Thank you." he whispered, his voice full of gratitude for his mentor who has done so much for him.
Dick smiled, glad that his child appreciated his gift, and opened his arms. Damian did not hesitate and rested his head on the older man's chest, briefly closing his eyes relaxed as he felt the calm rhythm of his heartbeat.
The acrobat held him close and his eyes wandered across the room until they met those of Talia, who had obviously been invited to spend Christmas together with them at the manor during the last week.
Richard was glad that his mother figure was warming up to the other family members as well.
Talia's green eyes softened when she saw her sons gently embracing each other and she sent the acrobat a nod, silently conveying to him all her gratitude for all that her first son had done with her biological son.
Dick smiled at her and Talia smiled back, the latter then engaging in conversation with Dinah. After that the last Flying Grayson focused on his son, who broke away from him. "I know how much you like to draw and your drawings are really great. Keep up the good work, Dami."
Damian lowered his head, slightly embarrassed by his mentor's praise and nodded and then ran away.
The former Robin chuckled and continued to look happily at his family. He had already unwrapped the gifts they gave him and gave them a bone-crushing hug.
His family was truly the best.
Dick slapped Jason's hand that was headed for a fork to start eating. "Wait for Alfie to take the plates to the others!" he scolded him.
Jason retracted his hand and looked at him grimly, though he made no movement to disobey his older brother. "All right." he grumbled disgruntled.
Once everyone had their plate in front of them, and after persuading Alfred to sit with them by breaking British "formalities," Dick cleared his throat rather loudly and got attention from everyone.
"Before we begin to enjoy the delicious food prepared by the best butler in the world," he sent a smile to Alfred who returned it. "I would first like to make a toast.
"We have overcome a difficult year to say the least. A horrible tragedy hit all of us hard, threatening to permanently destroy our family. The world may have lost the best hero it has ever had, but we have lost our rock, our point of reference.
"We suffered, we cried together for the same man and we fell to the ground. Yet despite all the difficulties we encountered along the way, we managed to get up and further cement our family. It was not easy at all and we stumbled a couple of times, but we managed to stick together and we all learned to work together even without the undisputed leader. We created a new partnership, a new Batman, a new Robin and a new Batgirl, and we managed to make our teamwork even better all together.
"We managed to successfully overcome every obstacle that this damn life has offered us. I just want to say that I'm proud of you, each and every one of you, and I wouldn't trade this family for anything, not even to get my biological family back. You are the best, always remember that."
Dick raised his glass, looking at all the touched faces of his family.
"I dedicate my toast to Bruce Thomas Wayne, the best man I have ever known in my entire life but who, sadly, was taken from us unjustly."
"To Bruce Wayne!"