Sladin or Bust! Explicit One Shots from the Vault of Sladin –

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So…. winter fic. Bit dark but no Slade until end. Thomas Wayne Alt – very and missing Bruce while Dick is only twelve before going to Titans in alt version where Owlman impersonate Bruce and the Batman. Wait on it!! Might make him fourteen if this gets ugly. No smut.

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A BLEAK MIDWINTER HAPPENING

After an important Wayne family Christmas party, Richard Grayson felt off about how laid back his partner in crime was when off - the - clock. He'd spent time with him and Alfred, more than most days in November for sure(Dick's twelve year old perspective so grammar is sloppy.) For the first time, the office could wait a bit while B was on vacation. Selina Kyle had shown her gorgeous mug that same New Years Eve bash, but he'd noticed how she avoided him like the plague.

And so, that had Dick wondering…

What was up with the bat?

A week ended and New Year's Day left over a graying January to drench the already depressing Gotham city into even more slush and sleet and hail. The snow that fell one night while the two were on patrol, just him and B, was a strange sort of chill in the air to Robin, as he clung to his thoughts until…

Naturally, any child would be curious to know more about their hero. It had been less than three years and even so, Dick knew very little about the private life of this Dark Knight.

"Batman?" His face perked up, masking no second glances at the figure that he followed across rooftops that night.

"Why did Miss Kyle leave? Are you two breaking up?"

This bat was no one to speak his emotions aloud as the man chuckled with a small smirk in the dead of this bleak midwinter night. "She has too much…. history, a bad one. And I wanted to spend more time with my ne – son. You, son."

"Oh…." Dick looked to the side, a bit bashful and worried that he'd come between the pair. As Catwoman, she wasn't so bad. Not as mad as the Joker, or as twisted and bold as Ivy on a good day…

"Are we on a distress call?" Dick finally had the courage to control himself and ask.

"Patience." Bruce sent his grapple off, looking to be concentrating on not going splat on the sidewalks before them. "Um, but she wasn't all bad. For a burglar" Dick was young, impulsive and sometimes he ran on autopilot with his questions. "I mean." Dick caught up to his mentor, unrelenting as the man wrinkled his brow beneath the dark cowl. "I think she was like your polar opposite and you really got along – minus Catwoman ruining things …. some of the time. You sure that it's a good idea to let her storm off like that? She seemed really –

Bruce's supposed cape swung right around as Dick stood bewildered and taken aback at the man's imposing force. "You need to learn to be quiet." Bruce said in a snipped tone of voice, dangerously serious as Robin nodded, rubbing his neck nervously as Batman then pointed to another route on the street. Another alley, while he was getting ready to tail after a ski mask wearing perp headed in the opposite direction. "Go that way and stay hidden." Bruce told the twelve-year-old, who almost let a protest roll off of his tongue when he shouldn't have. "But B –

"NOW." The dark knight shot at the young hero, his knees rocking before he fled to hide and for some reason wait for the Bat's signal. Was it a trap? Was some bigger player involved in stopping Bruce, or…. he seemed madder than usual. Was it about Selina dumping him??

Curious after ten minutes of no calls, Dick tapped his foot impatiently. He had opted for longer tights since his Flying Grayson years were not far behind, and his new outfit screamed "pre – teen, coming through!" If anyone messed with him –

It, was quiet though. He frowned. "B is supposed be done and going with me onto the next patrol…. What the heck is going on?" He felt it his duty to protect his mentor. What if they had mugged him? Dragged him off to some abandoned warehouse in the dirtiest, seediest spots in old Gotham? Dick moved as a shadow against the brick wall of the alley he'd been forced to cling to. His mentor was in trouble, he had to b –

Snow had started to flake across the streets as he hid and watched. That man…. The Bat. Was….

/

"You like that you dirty animal??? Mongrel is more your style. Come on, those little balls will get you off or I'll be happy to oblige."

(There is a mention of an orange ski mask, anyone? That is from Slade's days after he started boxing for money in fight clubs in his rebirth origin arcs last couple years, so we played on it.)

Bruce was doing something, really weird to that ski mask guy. He was no more than his early twenties, the mask rolled partly up orange and his body turned into a tied - up strung - up pretzel as the Bat's staff was….in the guy's mouth, Bruce was just playing with it there. The man tied up also had his sweats pulled down and two smoke bola balls were twisted around the man's –

Dick gaped and put his hands over his mouth, crouching back as snow fell onto his mentor's cowled smile. His joker – sized grin as Dick's eyes watered by the weather and his broken trust. Bruce was…torturing that man, obscenely! That…that wasn't a Batman thing to do…no. He'd…. he'd go and wait…. try to get to the bat mobile when he had a chance.

"Who's there?"

Too late. Dick moved. His legs were jellylike as the impassive face of the man he barely knew left the ski masked perp a minute to check on his ward's unmasked expression. "B…what are you doing to him?" Dick naïvely asked, his blue eyes getting weary just from seeing the slickened rod wetted from the perp's dripping saliva.

"He was bad, Robin." The bat spoke in a chipped sentence, his words not to overwhelm as the sight of a man in pain had been enough to briefly traumatize the lad. "He needed to be punished and he was mocking my mantle. Saying Justice wasn't good enough. This is also MY justice." He lied. "To men like that, they are worth far less than you or I, Robin."

"He's a person too, Batman!" Dick protested. "Let him go, Gordon has that power, not either of us." Stepping back, Bruce nodded, a bit unsettled by his decision. He returned to the ski masked to drop his toy's mouth accessory and wiped his hands away, unseen beneath the large black cape. A dirty deed unfinished, the man was however left strung up, the unit is B's pocket emitting a bright flicker as he made sure to do what the boy had wanted. The man's strung up face turned to Dick, one eye looking sharply as blue as the sky had around the kid's birthday. But not in this dreary a season as Dick swallowed his fear of being punished, once they were home…Would he be in trouble?

"Let's go, the Commish will be here in the next few moments."

"Bat –

Dick saw the man side step his ward and swerve back towards the alleyway, his darkened features needed to speak as loudly as they could. To a boy that small, how it seemed hopeless to run into anyone when no one else would have him. "Sorry, I…. I won't tell anyone." Dick swallowed again, thickly. "I promise."

/

Another night a few days later, and it had happened again, this time to Harley Quinn was tightly bound in an abandoned factory. He'd used parts of a rusty machine to wrench open her jaw until Dick swung in to do the same, his hands holding a mouth bit that didn't belong in Batman's utility belt. One he'd confiscated while being told another obvious fib by the boy's hero.

Dick sat down one evening for supper alone, while Bruce was away on a conference call. Alfred stood by and watched as the mortified, worn and bedraggled features of the once bright-eyed Grayson progeny had simply flickered and dimmed over his plate of morsels fit for a growing prince. "Alfie?"

Ah, it spoke. "Yes, young Master Dick?"

"I was wondering…" The boy barely lifted a soup spoon to his lips before setting it down again, exhaling softly as the butler readied for some form of confrontation. "Have you noticed anything, weird about…. about, B lately? Since Selina, or before that night on Christmas Eve?"

The butler mentally chewed at his lip and looked away to run his hand over his chin and to ponder the question further. "He's been more tense." Dick went on. "And…he treats the criminals we face ah…a bit…. different than how he used to." Dick shifted the soup spoon, yet did not take his fill. He wasn't hungry, Harleen had been a blathering mess when they'd gotten to her. Gordon had gotten her sedated. It was more painful than the man sucking on the staff…

"Master Bruce is only worried about your safety; I can assure you. Selina Kyle was a criminal at heart, so I believe it best he let go of her when he did."

"But she was one of the more moralistically sane ones." Dick sat up and spoke. "She wasn't Harley, and she isn't Ivy. They got along while…I thought she had a soft spot and would even become a really great heroine on our team. But, maybe you're right. I know he's trying…but…he's tough."

"Being tough is sometimes expected of this job as the Batman, Master Dick." Alfred's wisdom at times was too true to counteract – but this? The fact that this new Bruce was secretly into vengeance? What if he just…. hinted it. Said it in the most subtle way imaginable? He could have Alf vouch but not use his name. He wanted to get to the bottom of B's addiction. It could be another villain controlling him, but he'd never hurt Dick…

In fact, he'd never…

"Alf, please…. please ask Bruce, but don't say my name. Ask, ask if he still remembers swearing me in as Robin!"

"Master Richard? What is this all-in question over your mentor's teaching meth –

"It's not, though!" Dick broke down in tears, his acting enough to make him believe that they were real. "Ask, him…. for me, if he's still the same Bruce who saved me…. Please, Alfie…"

/

Two nights, and one patrol at night that time in their January turn out, Batman took Robin to a similar spot to track down as he put it "a mess of a human being." He'd said it with a distant glance, barely letting Dick take one peek as they set their steps onwards down a snowy, piss drenched alley in Downtown Gotham. Dick shivered as he held his arms around himself. A small Robin themed coat that Bruce had specially designed for him before the holidays was what he'd decided to wear. This person was cold, and so the night felt colder all around as Dick moved gingerly and cautiously down the walls of the disgusting alleyway.

Then, then, the dark knight simply vanished.

He panicked at first, cold and near hypothermic as the last rays of how it had happened, dwindled in-between his blurred vision. Dick called out, yet footsteps had him moving away from the sound. As predator to prey as this primal emotion was, the wolves gave chase.

" Help ! Somebody –

"The Bat'll be here, Bird Boy." Chuckled a handsy thug as he dragged the kid's hood to him, the kid pinned to his chest as the scent of a rag soaked in chloroform filled his nostrils.

/

The boy didn't feel cold once he'd woken up to the sound rattling metal chains, of his body off the bare ground and inside a warehouse well away from Jack Frost's embrace. It was generating heat in here, until he found that he was completely naked – save for his mask and briefs of a twelve-year-old.

"LET me GO!" He screamed at the men in shadow. Only those chuckling faces had a ringleader it looked as he moved in on Dick, his heart fluttering to pieces, that he hated being right.

"I told you before, you little brat." A snarl. Also, the voice that the heroic child recognized killed him completely, as Robin sobbed and choked back tears in knowing its barer. "P- please. Let me go!"

"Aw, but you broke your promise ta me, son."

Dick hiccupped, the perp's hand coming out and as warm and iron clad as he didn't want to remember.

"Don't do this…. please, you're not a criminal –

"He's not, but I can't be anything else." The hand fell away and Dick struggled in his binds. "What's happened? Was it Hugo Strange? Can –

"I, can't be fixed…Robin, and quite frankly, I don't want to be."

The room awoke with lights to brighten faces outside of shadowy places in the background. Five to seven adults, all goons with no aspiring qualities as they looked, thirsty?

Shaking, Dick remembered that his uniform was missing and then it struck.

Piss stained streets, bad part of town.

"Stop! Tell them, no! Batman! Please !"

"You don't get it, kiddo." Snickered the bleeding riot of a man as he rose and wrenched back the boy's raven locks to look him dead in the eye. "I'm not your papa. Never was, never wanna see you without a pair a teeth marks from my claim around that pretty neck." His lips moved to clench that exposed throat of his false ward's as Dick seethed through the shock, eyes wide while not getting to kick back as the man sucked a noticeable hickie into the kid's collarbone. Sweaty and red as his soon to be tortured lips and eyes. Fresh tears had instantly prickled up.

It was already happening, as the man pulled back and licked his lips. "Your fear is tasty, maybe I should share it around. Not hog all the credit for whipping you into shape. I told you to leave my secret alone. But, what did you do?" He tugged at Dick's scalp as the kid bit back a rough growl. "Went and told the help I was up to no good, made me look like the bad guy. Kid, this city is a cesspool and these good men want brats like you to do their damn job and let the real punishers, punish the wicked."

"No, vengeance…B…. never hurt like that…. it's demented…you're an imposter!"

"Finally figured it out, mini-Sherlock?" Chuckled the man as he let his hand cup the boy's chin instead. "I'm not from you, location. I might be like your mentor, but we don't check up on each other very often. Whenever baby Brucie steps into my world, he always gets an eyeful….and boy." The man purred as he wrapped his head around such a precariously wrapped spectacle within his grasp. "I'm surprised your Bat in this dimension didn't plow his Robin to relieve any built-up tension on a mission before. You are just too cute; it's why I was so nice ta ya, want you ta be nice to me and my fellas here."

"What? Who are you then, and where is the real Batman? You won't get away with this!"

"If you don't shut that yappy lil beak up soon…" The man was back on him and a hand to his throat this time, jaws like a shark's bite as he mimicked an animal's movements to frighten the boy wonder horribly. "I'm gonna bite it off. Chomp, chomp."

The other men chuckled and snorted, Dick going quieter to listen as the fake imposter moved his hands to brush at Dick's exposed nubs. He soon was brought back into the world with a yelp when one exposed bud was twisted against his say. "Hey! Don't touch me there –

"Why?" The hiss back the man give had the twelve-year-old son writhing, as the man's tongue drew back to his ear and throat, with those gloved hands working methodically to get him to stay wide awake. "In my universe, you're a good little boy. He does everything I tell em, even this….and, you wear a much cooler costume." His smile was sharp as tack and bled along Dick's hollowed senses. Robin fidgeted, but the touch and tug of his nipples really stung if he resisted. The man's one hand vanished, his fingers trailing down towards the kid's navel as Dick started to thrash. "Tommy? Got a few minutes of your time handy?" The fake called back to a burly bald thug, a weird item in his hands that was the length of a yard stick, with some types of cuffs on each end. "Yep, keep em open fer' this. He's gonna be docile as a lamb once daddy sets the record straight."

The men worked as if they were on autopilot, Dick's two legs spead eagle position as the bar's cuffs would not allow him to close them back together, the kid's ass being dropped carefully onto the cold floor as one thug had another item in hand.

A bit, like the one Harley had almost been forced to wear. He wasn't eating anything delicious and they didn't look that hospitable to offer. Dick squirmed and couldn't even talk right as the damned bit was latched to his face; the muzzle quite bad as he wondered if the real bat would ever show up.

"You look tense, don't be." The fake was covering his view of an exit with his entire cowl. Bruce's cowl.

"Daddy's here and he's gonna get you nice and warmed up. We aren't where your friends are, you can give up on hoping for a rescue."

Dick shuddered as the man started up by letting his hands move to the boy's waist to finger right into the kid's waist band, and -

Rrip !!

The elastic barely resisted as the domineering fingers challenged the flimsy, remaining covering, the man giving his all to take it back with a snarl. The mask coming next as it was roughly stripped off of the cowering, frozen and twirled out – of – his - mind child's face. Blue eyes flashed back at the men as the rag fell over his eyes, nothing but a black silk cloth for the rich boy to feel. He was a child! How could any universe's Bruce be so…so…

SADISTIC.

"Bruce was about as good a knight in your universe as he probably is in my fucked up dystopian future." Snarkliy remarked the madman who didn't stop there. His fingers moved to grip something priceless and private. Dick whimpered as his boyhood was found. As it was stroked at the tip and squeezed with one single unrelenting hand, the fingers tough as sandpaper possibly if he ever took off his gloves. Bruce's.

Dick's eyes prickled full of fire and the last time that Bruce, the real Bruce had told him to be strong. With a sniffle, and a flick from the man's thumb against his peeking slit's head, now was one of those times.

"Bein' brave for that attention whore of a man? Hey, Tommy! I want him looking up fer this part." The bit was dragged up as the man Tommy should have waited, yet his front was unbuckled as a swinging red veined cock went in, out for some action from a possibly, young and talented set of jaws. Dick was that subject, as he writhed in his binds, tears flowing and his nose running more. The false Batman just tugged at his cheek as this thug came out to land his cock's head at the tip of the 'o' shape Dick had been forced into making. "Nice an' easy." The bat instructed in a voice not as sleazy as he was making it out to be. More like, worse. Sionas's kind of cruel. "He's gonna get broken in sooner or later. Don't jam it all in one go, big boy." Teased the bat, as Dick was given a new taste; so soured and vile that his gag reflux threatened to kick in. The hot think pressed as the back of his throat and the thug Tommy, made sure to drag the kid's hair by his scalp for better access. "NO teeth. I want a clean blowjob for my buddy before we pack up for returning home."

Dick's eyes blearily peered up at his captors. He couldn't ask, but the man just kept using him, saliva coating Dick's sore jaw and lips all the same in one night. "Though, you might like it in my side a' Gotham. No rules, and I rule above it, and in the streets?"

The thick, pouring fluid that drenched the boy's chin to his esophagus was so damned heavy…. Dick tried to move his head, but the bat was already undoing his belt. The others hooting in the background, and holding all sorts of instruments up while Dick felt the force of a panic attack on its way. " Shush…. He got you warmed up, but I want to break the mold. The bat in your town is tough, but he's a dummy if you didn't let him play with both of your holes." The man was able to come once more before pulling out, Dick's ass being lifted as his spread legs had little motion with the bar to help him at all. His eyes were wide, head side to side as that was all his mind could follow. While something sickly made him look….

Like filth.

He looked over to see the bat, the fake one rubbing himself to hardness. Dick was not at that age yet, and even if he was starting to know what men did that for, it wasn't like he could ask and live to tell. The fake bat lined up with the kid's unclad ass with a grin, his gloved hands digging into Dick's thighs as if he were a holiday roast ready for carving. "Eh, you could use a good stretch. We have a choice; it's that I finger you open and get inside that plump, tight little ass, or you let us use a toy that I want and we'll make you come in the process. Which will you pick, cause either way." Scoffed the imposter. "I'm still gonna fuck you raw, like he was watchin, Dickie."

/

Dick didn't know how to say, just the toy. It would give him time to formulate a plan. Or –

"Want me now, or wanna play with us first?"

Dick was sure the gag wouldn't come off. The men behind him pulled at the blindfold though as he tried to move his head and chin to point at the men with the thick vibrator. A…. big one. Dick felt sick as he held it down, his nausea only bubbled up for after this was over. "I don't know, baby bird…that is a pretty big size. I'm maybe, what? Three inches an a' few less? What do you say, Wendel? Casey? Wanna help the brat out so he doesn't get skewered by some fat, molded silicone?"

Dick shook his head. NO! That was not an option, but who could hear him but his kidnappers?

"That'll do for us, but you had better get soft enough to make me feel good, just like your deadbeat daddy should 'ave. What a waste, oh. Joey? We could use those magic fingers you've got."

The kid looked too young to be in a gang, yet his digits tickled until they burned, nails bumping inside of Dick's ass as he let out a sharp yelp through the gag. "I wanna hear it sing, boss."

Dick looked at the dirty blonde and growled at the request. "Oh, but he isn't ready ta keep the noise level down." Tommy looked to their ringleader as he shrugged. "Eh, let him talk it out till he can't squawk as loud. I wanna hear what the little bird has to say."

The finger banging of not three, but four digits made Robin's ass tense, as the false bat had Tommy hold out a camcorder to record the kid in his worst act for life . Maybe they'd give him the title of 'cock whisperer' as his new nick name for the video. Gotham sure treated the kid to right to be fair. The boy's cock was teased and even sucked as well as they made sure to have him as slippery as a fish out of the dead sea. "Is he wising up enough to take it, boss?"

The bat made sure to let his cock be remembered as he made a sound as a grunt, before doing what Dick might have called more than criminal to lock the loon up for good. "He'd better be. My cock can get it right the first time…because I am…. batman."

The thugs burst out laughing as the sicko tried against, finding the push easier the second time as Dick's gag was left out, before he was given a bar gag instead of the bit to work on. "After you admit that I'm your one and only daddy…." The psycho pushed past the boy into his one bundle of pink and raw nerves. Eyes bulged as Dick's whole head tipped back on impulse. The…. spot…. what was that???

"He's not done yet. Keep that pretty look on, tears look good on you…. kid!"

The man's member knew no bounds as it pounded right through, Dick's eyes rolling back as pain turned to shock and involuntary spasms. Not sparks, no, but…. fear that this wouldn't end. That he'd be strung up and impaled up until the man took him away to join his… counterpart in another universe. "Do you think daddy wants to see your cum – happy face again, little bird?" Hissed the greedy, elder. "I sure think he lucked out. After all -

And in a flash, that ended it.

A swing from the rafters, as one shiny sharp batarang took no prisoners. The men fell, some with broken shins and as Dick closed his eyes, the dead…. dead fake flopped over his pale chest. Dick bawled out as he shut his eyes, the man still inside him and sticking it deeper as he panicked and flailed as any rape victim would. "Dick."

The boy had started to hear things…. that wasn't him…he wasn –

"DICK!"

Dick stopped moving, his limbs bent uncomfortably to the side as a face moved and hands grasped both sides of the traumatized boy's face. "It's ok now, son."

That…. Dick blinked, panting out as the pain and panic made him feel too much like shattering. Bruce was there, a Bruce he did not recognize who…who looked to be tired of fighting. He'd just ended so many lives tonight. No, no. his Bruce would never –

"It's ok –

"No….no…. not…..no….no….not…."

He couldn't say it; that the real Batman was not a murderer. The one inside him was yanked back unceremoniously as the cum that splattered wasn't yet where it would have stuck. He'd saved him, but…was it really…

"I'm here, please…just…. you'll be ok, son…. chum…it's ok…" The man dropped the last dead body into a pile on the floor, and took the boy out of his binds, took off any remaining evidence that he wasn't himself. All but those eyes he couldn't remedy. So wide and frightened of the man who wasn't really saving him. The man who'd raped him looking like an exact replica. He was afraid to think Bruce could not be his enemy.

"Don't…. don…. don't leave…. I'm…I…."

Bruce scooped the youth up, small and cold and helpless in his naked attire. His costume was nowhere to be found as Bruce removed his cape and wrapped the boy in it. "We're going to get through this…that wasn't me, not the me that you know now. He's a dopple from an alternate timeline." Bruce used logic to tell the boy, the trembling, bleeding son as his body ached for sleep. In a nice warm bed, away from the cold, he'd have to rest.

"Bruce….is…is….it ok…. if …. we go home…. please…." The bat returned to tense up his hold. Dick was regressing into his younger mind. He had to reverse the process soon, before the effects of this…lingered. He didn't want Dick to grow up knowing that the Bat couldn't stop this from happening. To not associate the boy'd savior as anyone else.

"OK, chum. Anything you want. You'll be fine, I'm here and I won't ever leave you…not again…" Dick smiled as he found that Bruce's real uniform swept off the stink of the imposter in no time. They were soon inside the bat mobile, zooming back to the manor as soon as it had begun to snow. He could sleep, dream and finally bury that dead face within his memories.

/

Richard had begged Bruce that next week of his recovery to tell him the story, about how an imposter had erased the memory of anyone who knew the bat by slipping into their world and becoming him. The only issue was, why Dick? What was the fixation? It wasn't until the recently dismissed case of The Court of Owls when Dick was near grown, he had been mentioned and the duo had gotten into a struggle with these night birds on the streets of Gotham. Here in the darkness, they'd found that a man going by the name of Thomas had been a character called Owlman and Dick, was the catalyst of a war if he was made to realize his destiny as a Talon beside his immortal great – great grandparent. Of course, Dick resisted this and even made sure to do what he'd been taught to do.

Not engage unless necessary. That was, until Dick's memories and his new platonic relationship got in the way of forgetting who the man in black had been.

Dick had never stuck with a partner. No matter how easy it was in the movies, he was impossible to pin down, save for one older gent with a sniper aimed right at the hero's heart.

As Nightwing, Dick Grayson found that he was a better acrobat than in his youth - by far, many took note. All in fact, including the rather illusive Deathstroke. (No ttA in this, sorry!) Slade Wilson was a hunter of finer things, and fine was that boy's –

"Are you going to play tag with me all night, DS?"

Slade hated nick names, especially the laziest ones. So, naturally he turned his back on the man and went back to setting up his shot. "Gotham is where you stayed put, but where is the bat these days?

That…. he was off limits to that info. So far, Bruce was in Nanda Parbat in the middle of a rescue mission. Something of that nature, he'd been briefed by Tim. "He's taking a well needed vacation." Dick splayed out his arms with a wide, cocky grin. "It's just you and me, so come play. I have a lot of free time –

"Show me a roof that I can blow up in ten seconds flat while still fulfilling my contract." Slade snorted at the blue bird flitting by his ear. "Can't let you do it, Slade. Bats is out of town, but I can still –

"What? Stop me?" Slade stood and turned on the timer. "You have five minutes."

"Go ahead and make it eleven because I'm feeling generous." Dick moved in as Slade pushed back, the escrima was not as tough as his gauntlets blocked each hit too easily. Coming to this city, he was given distraction after distraction. But…Dick was frustrated and it looked like he was begging for the man's undivided attention.

"Shoot, Grayson. What's crawled up your ass and fermented? Have a falling out with that red head again?"

"We were already out of our minds to even start." Dick huffed, his legs pounding the concreate as he launched himself at the trained killer. "How about you? Find any new underlings to watch your back?"

"I have a few interviews next week, why? Did you want to sign up, Grayson."

"Not on your life."

Dick landed back as he still had five minutes to save Montoya from a near death experience. "We can reschedule this foxtrot for another night, Wing. Are your feet not feeling tired yet?"

"I'm pretty light, like a ballerina on –

No sooner into their dance, the camel was broken. Straw upon its gravesite.

The man's mask was shattered as Slade hunched over, his eye looking out at the ground while Dick did a little victory dance. "Are you done yet? I beat the timer so call off the shot."

"Not how this works, little bird. Can you convince me to stay my hand?"

Dick was sure he'd regret it, the touches from those men still drove him crazy every time Slade put his hands on the hero's most sensitive parts. He wanted to feel that fire burning in him, tonight. Needed it.

Bruce was breaking a promise to never leave, and he was left all alone. He was…. was…

"Come here, Dick." Slade let the boy wallow and lose his spark, his eyes duller as his body swayed and fell into the man's shoulders. Lip wobbling, the escrima were no longer nearby as he tossed them on his own. Those tough, warm hands roamed up his back, his sides and it…sparked something. Dragging himself down into his enemy's chest, he cried as the fact later was that Montoya was not the target. A mole though, well…. Dick let the older man pet his hair as a fire was out there, a stench of burning flesh. No one important was hurt, but one man had been burned alive under the rubble by the next morning.

It was in his arms now that Dick didn't jump into action, frozen by his fears. Slade not trying to kick him out of it. He wanted Dick to find his way back.

"Shush…little bird…I'm here….no one's going to find out. I promise…I'm not going anywhere." Dick sobbed and let the man do what Bruce never would again. Then, he'd never healed then. He clung to dangerous older man, just like the man who had saved him. This one…this one wanted him, and that was all his head told him now.

"I'm staying right by your side, Dick. Forget it…no one needs to know."

No one would, because Dick had always been led back to that cold January where nothing was as it seemed and when Bruce, Bruce had once been the one who was holding him as tightly as Slade did now.

"I know, just…don't stop." The hero sniffed and clutched even tighter. "Don't let me go, never let me go again…Bruce."

/

Yup, so…dark. He associates everyone with Bruce, yipes….and I can only say the timing was more comic themed that animated series themed. I made it between bad blood and before, before Damian came to stay and then Bruce would vanish and Dick would become Batman for a bit. Well…Slade is making sure he's gotten that bird around his finger so he can get paid. And Dick, laid. Apparently, it's a bad trope but it goes kinda hand in hand with the scenario. Let me know what you think? (Also, the orange mask guy WAS Slade. He was younger in this so do as you will.)