Meaning: Friendship, family


He saw her earlier today at the Watchtower. He didn't know why it was so hard.

Were they still dating, he'd have gone right up to her and grabbed her wrist, and she'd have smirked back at him before letting herself get pulled into a passionate kiss. He'd then hold her in his arms, ask her why she was in such a rush, and she'd tell him all about her day before her communicator inevitably forced her to break off and leave, but not before giving him one last kiss on the cheek and asking if he'd come over tonight, to which he'd of course reply yes.

But instead, he just watched her walk past and stared on as her beautifully curved form grew more and more distant, before inevitably turning a corner and leaving sight with not even so much as a smile shared between either of them.

He doesn't like to think it was anything other than amicable when she broke his heart, but he also doesn't know how one can make a heartbreak anything even resembling amicable.

Now he's in his guest room in the Manor, curled up into a ball as he watches the Gotham rain pour under the pale moonlight. Tears are welling in his eyes and he's hugging his knees desperately, clinging to them as if he's trying to pretend something else is in his arms.

Or someone.

The world around him goes dull. He can't hear anything, not even the pattering of raindrops outside his bedroom window. All he can hear is her voice, ringing in his ears like a melody he can't get out of his mind. Her laugh makes his heart twinge, and when he closes his eyes all he sees is her smile.

It's cruel. He doesn't know what he did to deserve it. But he's now trapped in his own thoughts, forever bound to the memory of what he once wished they could be.

He reminds himself of what she told him: it wasn't his fault. She tried to love him, she really did. She would've torn her heart right out of her chest and put it in his hands, where she insisted it would always belong.

But her heart was already somewhere else. She left it with her work.

She was too devoted to freeing her father to give him her all. And for better or worse, she thought he deserved better that someone who couldn't love him the way he deserved to be loved.

Maybe he should've asked for less. Maybe then she'd have understood she was enough for him.

Or maybe there was just nothing he could've done to keep her by his side.

Like a rope being dropped down to pull him out of his misery, he feels a hand on his shoulder. He's immediately brought back to reality, and the rain suddenly is all he can hear. He looks up with hope in his eyes, only to see that it's not Zatanna standing over him now.

It's Tim.

He frowns but can't say anything before Tim pulls him up to his feet. He stares at him in confusion, wanting to know why he's being bothered when he's so clearly preoccupied by his sadness. Tim smiles softly, answering his silent question by simply gesturing to the door. Dick turns around to see everyone standing there, staring back at him with smiles on their faces and massive bags of popcorn in their arms.

Cass holds up a small DVD, and Steph pushes past the others to throw her bags onto the bed and kiss his cheek. Jason and Damian follow them, and pretty soon they all come face to face with Dick.

He looks from them to Tim, who has his hands in his pockets with a soft smirk on his face. He turns back to them and chuckles weakly before they all pull him into a massive group hug, squishing him between their bodies while he lets himself smile. Tim inevitably joins in, and as they start to lift him up into the air while he genuinely laughs at their antics, the emptiness he feels on the inside just starts to seem so small.

Maybe someday, Zatanna could finally free her dad. Maybe then he and she could find a way to make it work. He certainly hopes they could.

But for now, it's okay if they can't. Because as he struggles to breathe under the combined grips of Jason, Tim, Damian, Cass, and Steph, he realizes that right here, in this very room, he has all the support he could ever ask for in life.

Even in his darkest moments, his family will never let him suffer alone.