I own nothing, except maybe the trail. I also make no money from this, so please enjoy for free.

Bruce jogged on ahead. The boy, almost half his height, managed to catch up. Bruce glanced down at the top of the dark head right before it tilted up to reveal a smiling face. Dick Greyson was athletic, cheerful, and used to getting up in the mornings. Of course, Bruce wasn't trying to run all out himself or show his own true state of exhaustion and discouragement.

Gotham's criminal empires might have fallen, but supervillains and small-timers set free from organized crime restraints still filled the streets and his nights. Bruce feared he was many years from retirement from the cape and cowl. For now, Lucius picked up the slack Bruce Wayne couldn't while being Batman so many hours of the night. Despite all this, he'd also taken up fostering this young orphan during his night and day hours at home.

He hoped his study in psychiatry could help him do a decent job looking out for Dick's mental health, as well as physical. He'd concentrated on "criminal" psychology, though, and Dick's psyche didn't veer much in that direction. Thank God.

Dick was pro-social, optimistic, and resilient. Despite losing his whole family to death and his community from birth by moving out of the circus and into Wayne manor Dick's extroverted nature helped him bond with him, Alfred, and others. His ability to entertain and read a room often made him act the clown, but that was better than being the recluse Bruce had been at his age in his foster-father's mind.

Dick was also an early riser due to his performing family's own training routine. So, he'd also adapted to this addition to their lives with enthusiasm, curiosity, and a frightening lack of caution. They now turned the corner in the trail and came to the drop off of the path overlooking the forest that stretched out several acres behind Wayne Manor.

Bruce recalled their first visit. Despite his warnings and descriptions beforehand, he'd thought Dick had both forgotten and gone blind. He'd seemed to "pick up" his pace after turning this corner. Bruce had grabbed the back of his shirt to pull him back. Dick had looked back and up at him wide eyed and tight lipped. "I just wanted to see the view."

"Approach it 'carefully'."

Dick had shrugged. When Bruce had let him go, he almost wished he'd said nothing. Instead of watching his feet as he walked more slowly toward the edge, Dick kept glancing back at him. Once he stopped closer to that edge than Bruce liked, Dick had raised his face fully to the sun rising above the treetops. "Whoa."

Bruce came near and dared, while firmly planting his feet, to lean forward enough to see Dick's face. The boy had had an open-mouthed grin and eye-peeled stare. They now did this every morning he didn't return injured to the cave after a night out as Batman.

While not as curious and eager as that first morning, Dick always met him in the cave wearing shorts, tennis shoes, and a grin. After Bruce changed, they went out a back way through a tunnel and unobvious door from an ancient storeroom built into a hill behind the manor. Then they exited a back gate used for little else but their morning jogs into the woods. From there, they went up the tallest hill in the area to this outlook and watched the sunrise turn a gray world golden. Bruce thought it good for both of them mentally and physically. Sometimes, during the run or taking in of the view, he asked Dick questions about his schoolwork, his school friends, and anything Alfred had mentioned as either a potential concern or point of pride for their young ward.

Alfred was even more present in Dick's life than Bruce. This, though, was near guaranteed alone time for foster son and father they could have every day. He'd noticed the past two months since they started this tradition, Dick had asked him a few questions beyond the topic of their immediate surroundings, activities, or his activities as Batman. He tried hard to steer his ward away from that last topic, but Dick was not to be easily deterred. Dick had so far on these runs and sunrise-watches, brought up a crush on a girl at school, a bad grade Bruce had already learned about from Alfred, and a school bully who seemed very angry Dick had taken his spot as star of the school basketball team. The majority owner of Wayne Enterprises and Gotham's caped crusader took this as a sign his fellow orphan trusted him. Bruce tried to give him the best answers during those talks he could come up with. Afterwards, he contacted his psychiatrist godmother for her judgment on how he did.

Bruce studied the grinning boy only releasing he'd been smiling too, when said child looked at him and wiped it away with one question. "Can I start helping you as a fellow crime-fighter?"

Bruce frowned down at the boy, for him their morning was partially ruined. "No." It was a short conversation they'd had before and would have again with several variations until Robin made his first appearance on the streets.

After Dick became Robin, their morning jogs only happened when they "both" arrived at the cave without a bad physical injury. More invisible and serious injuries to their souls seemed to necessitate their morning jogs. About a year and a half into the tradition, they freed a group of people in bad shape from a bad situation.

The memory of the smell, the dirty faces and wide eyes, and hands reaching for them as pleas already reached their ears still haunted Bruce as he jogged up the trail hours later. He knew it had to be worse for Dick. He'd tried leaving his partner standing guard some yards away before going inside the place holding those people. But Dick had gotten worried waiting. Batman had spent longer freeing the prisoners from their chains than he'd told Robin he would. It had taken longer than expected due to the deteriorating condition of the cuffs and the wrists and ankles they were keeping encased. So, Dick had been a witness to some of the worst humanity had to offer its own.

Now, they both approached the lip of the trail's end and paused some steps from it. There, they watched the world go from gray to gold again. They also heard a muted world fill with bird song and squirrel chattering.

Bruce soon looked down to study Dick's long face. He saw a corner of the boy's mouth twitch up. Soon, Dick's eyes grew wet, but a slight chuckle reverberated through and escaped his chest. "I guess the whole world isn't so bad. Just some corners of it."

Bruce himself, then gave a full smile and laid a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder. He gave it a brief and careful squeeze that felt strong and unbreakable to the boy. Dick looked back up and gave him a grin not nearly as full as he "could" give, but much greater than what the man had expected. Bruce returned it with interest.

Soon they both began walking back. They did so side by side when the width of the trail allowed it. Bruce slowed his steps to let the boy go ahead, when the path narrowed, so he could study Dick's posture and tightness or looseness in his movements. Thus, he observed the continual improvement of his partner and son's mood all the way to their waiting breakfast.

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes