I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In (Dick and Clark)

[justlikeacircus]

 "Dick, we've called your father, he's sending somebody to pick you up." the detention teacher motioned for Dick to gather his things. That was the rule now, especially when he'd gotten detention, he stayed in school with the teacher's watchful eye on him until they delivered him straight into the waiting hands of whatever minder or security detail Bruce had hired at the time. It was equal parts protection and punishment - he couldn't be trusted not to disappear off to cause trouble all his own if they took their eyes off him for a second. 

It didn't exactly work, Dick had a knack for slipping out of the clutches of assorted bodyguards and nannies, Bruce was yet to find one that could actually keep their eyes on him - well, that wasn't strictly to, there had been a couple of them, but Dick had managed to be such a holy terror to them that they'd quit of their own volition, leaving him with somebody who, once again, couldn't keep track of him.

He wasn't expecting much today, the previous nanny had only left yesterday, there was no way Bruce had found somebody that quick, which meant it was probably some luckless Wayne Enterprises intern who was being sent with the car, or maybe Alfred. If it was the latter he might actually consent to going all the way home before sneaking out again, but whatever happened he was going out this evening, he had things to do, people to see - ridiculously high buildings to climb so he could perform death-defying acts of vandalism for the amusement of his friends, that kind of thing.

The teacher ushered him out of the school gate and together they stood at the entrance, waiting for the car.

Comments

[justlikeacircus]

Take a walk? What kind of an idiot was this guy? He wouldn't last five minutes. By the sounds of him, he wasn't from Gotham, which meant he probably wouldn't know these streets particularly well, whereas Dick knew them like the back of his hand. The friendliness was cute, but it was nothing he hadn't seen before, it wouldn't last.

Feigning obedience, Dick walked down the street with him, waiting for the opportune moment.

"You're right," he agreed "It doesn't have to be tha-" mid sentence he darted away, it was a well practiced move, it always took people a moment when they were expecting the rest of the words, and it usually gave him the split second head start he needed. There was an alley just here with a fire escape low enough for him to flip his way onto, from there it would be off across the rooftops before you could say 'hey wait come back here'.

[stands_for_hope]

The attempt was cute, really. But his reflexes were... well, a little faster than even a spry little boy's. He darted and Clark's hand shot out so fast it wasn't even visible before his fingers closed on Dick's shirt collar.

"Pull that one a lot?" he asked, still calm and friendly. "I'll give you credit; you're faster than most. But unless you're the type who really appreciates banging their head against a wall, I wouldn't try it again.

"You're not faster than me."

[justlikeacircus]

Dick's feet actually kept moving for a second or two before he realised he wasn't moving forward anymore, and it nearly caused him to fall over. Clark's solid grip on his collar actually managed to keep him on his feet and he stopped moving with an embarrassed scowl. This had certainly never happened before, he'd dealt with efficient guards before but this was something else, the guy had moved like lightning.

"Yea, okay, you got me, well done you..." he paused, the guy was fast, but how good was his grip? He pushed himself off with his feet, flipping himself backwards. Either the flip would cause him to lose his grip as the full weight of Dick (which, admittedly, was not that much) dragged the collar from his hands, or the collar itself would potentially rip - either way he'd be free.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark let go of the collar almost immediately, since it didn't make any sense to rip good clothing (good expensive clothing, he could tell both from looking and from the feel of the cloth in his hand). But he wasn't about to let the kid get away. He'd been warned of the boy's athletic and gymnastic ability. It still wasn't going to work, but it would be interesting.

Dick ended up upside down with Clark's hand the gentlest kind of iron wrapped implacably around his ankle. He didn't even seem to pause this time, starting to walk with the boy suspended upside down from one hand.

"You almost ripped your uniform. Careful, now."

[justlikeacircus]

Exactly as planned, Clark let go of his collar and he...did not end up on his feet like he expected. There was actually a brief moment of disorientation when the world didn't right itself the way he'd expected it to. It didn't take him too long to get over it, after all he spent almost as much time upside down as he did rightside up, but while he was relatively comfortable hanging upside down from Clark's hand, he was still pretty taken aback. Not only had the guy been fast enough to grab him before he ran, he was also quick enough to catch his foot in mid-flip, and strong enough to hold him upside down by it without any apparent effort. Clearly he was dealing with something a little extraordinary here. He folded his arms in annoyance and glared up at the man.

"I bet you're feeling pretty smug right about now, aren't you?" he challenged "I've had bodyguards like you before... you're quicker than most I'll give you that, but you'll slip up sooner or later, trust me on that. They all do."

[stands_for_hope]

"Don't think so," he said peaceably enough as he kept walking, Dick suspended in one hand. "But I'm not smug."

And it was true. He wasn't smiling.

"I'm mostly just confused. I mean," he used his other hand to scratch at the back of his neck, "I don't really see what I did that's so objectionable. And I do want to be friends, or as much friends as we can be, given the circumstances.

"And if I didn't do something objectionable, then I'm worried about you and why you'd want to run off so much. Your father seemed like a decent enough man to me. He definitely loves you very much."

[justlikeacircus]

"The friendly act is cute and all but I've seen it before." Dick shrugged, there was an edge of bitterness to his tone as he continued, much as he tried to hide it "Never lasts."

"Yea, dad is a great guy, and I don't need you to tell me he loves me," he shot back, but that was the problem, he didn't need Clark to tell him, he needed Bruce to tell him. It wasn't that he didn't know, and while he wasn't the most emotional man in the world he wasn't completely hopeless, but a good 75% of his affection was expressed in money and handlers, and Dick didn't want either, he just wanted his dad. He'd gone from a world where he had always been with his parents to one where work kept Bruce away more often than it didn't, from complete freedom (because who needed one individual person to keep an eye on a child in a circus where there was always somebody near enough to spot him) to somebody who was paid to trail after him every day. It had been a few years since the accident and Bruce taking him in, but that didn't make the adjustment any easier. Avoiding his handlers had become a game almost, testing his limits until they broke - and they always broke.

"You don't need to psycho-analyse me, you just need to watch me."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark just kept carrying him.

"You know, it may not last because you're bein' awful," he pointed out, still mild, "I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I pretty much told you my name and why I'm here and you decided to act up. But folks're 'terrible' because they don't act nice forever when you play tricks and try and get them in trouble?"

He just gave a soft snort, but he didn't seem angry. Or, honestly, any less friendly. He was just chatting with Dick.

"So do you like Richard or Dick best? Or something else; I don't want to call you something you don't like."

[justlikeacircus]

Dick could barely believe this guy, not only did he take offence at what Clark was saying, but he was amazed that the guy had managed to carry him by his ankle this far without any obvious signs of tiredness, his arm hadn't drooped even a little bit. Dick was fine hanging upside down, and he knew he wasn't the heaviest kid in the world, but his whole wait hanging off one hand? With the arm held up? He had to be feeling the strain...

"I never called anybody terrible. Maybe I'm just testing, making sure you're good enough to look after me." he retorted, ever the quick thinker. The fact that Clark was still staying relaxed and friendly was almost more annoying than if he'd gotten angry.

"...'s Dick." he muttered grumpily.

[stands_for_hope]

"Well, all right then, Dick," he continued, and they were almost at the car. Alfred didn't look the least bit troubled by the situation. If anything, he was probably impressed that Dick hadn't managed to run off.

"That'd be a good line if your father hadn't already warned me," Clark pointed out as they walked up. "But you're just going to frustrate yourself if you keep up with it. I'm not your enemy. And you're not getting past me."

[justlikeacircus]

"So what, you're just going to drag me back home to sit in the house on my own bored out of my mind?" Dick demanded, scowling. If he had the choice, it was entirely possible he would go back to the house - in fact sometimes he'd ended up beating the bodyguards back even after slipping away from their clutches - but he objected to being forced to go just about anywhere, whether he wanted to go there or not.

[stands_for_hope]

He very carefully turned Dick around and put him back down on the ground as they reached the car.

"Did you have somewhere else to go?" And it was a genuine question. "I'm not your jailer, Dick. I'm your bodyguard."

And to some degree 'nanny', but he didn't want to ruin any headway he might have made.

[justlikeacircus]

Dick took a couple of moments to regain his balance now that the blood wasn't all rushing to his head before turning a suspicious gaze on Clark. Trying to play nice by letting him do what he wanted, was he? Dick wasn't about to trust him so easily, but he also wasn't enough of an idiot to shoot himself in the foot.

"I was going to go and hang out with some friends..."

[stands_for_hope]

"Which friends?" Clark asked, and he sounded perfectly open to it. "Because our father gave me a list of people you're approved to see off school grounds. So tell me and we'll head there."

[justlikeacircus]

"He what!?" Dick threw his hands up "How does he even know who my friends are? What if I made a new friend, how would they get on this list of his? Why do I have to have approved friends? What's he thinking, that little Timmy in Math class is some kind of plant designed to lure me into a kidnap situation?" he ranted, and there it was, really, the crux of his problem. He'd not exactly had a normal childhood, but he'd felt normal, he was just the same as everybody around him. Now... not so much. Bruce was definitely more paranoid than any of the parents of the other kids in his class, even those who had bodyguards or nannies, none of them were as restrictive as Dick's.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark leaned back into the seat.

"I think," he offered delicately, "that he's afraid something might happen to you."

He waited until Dick seemed to have settled before--

"As for the list, I did ask. Apparently, those are just the places I'm allowed to take you without speaking to him first. If you made new friends or wanted to go new places, all you'd need to do is call him."

Everybody loves kidnapping Robins even when they aren't Robins.

[justlikeacircus]

"No kidding." Dick slouched back with his arms folded "It's not like anything has even happened! One tiny little kidnapping attempt, one! Well...okay, two, sort of three, but they don't really count, and none of them even pulled it off!" Ah the ability of youth to shrug off life threatening situations.

"Yea, call him so he can run a background check or ask them to come to dinner and interrogate them until they don't even want to be my friend anymore."

[stands_for_hope]

"Maybe he'd loosen his grip a little if he knew he could trust you with whoever he hired to watch over you," he ventured with a relatively soft sideways glance.

"My parents didn't give me much freedom at all until I showed them I could be responsible. Maybe if you show him that you can be trusted to do as you're asked, that'll open up some opportunities for you?"

[justlikeacircus]

"Yea, right," Dick snorted "Showing I will actually put up with being followed everywhere every minute of every day is really going to make him stop doing that. He'll probably just be relieved he can get away with it."

"Let's just go home, not like I'm going to get to do anything fun today, is it?"

[stands_for_hope]

Clark rubbed at his chin.

"I dunno. You certainly seemed to be in the mood for some gymnastics earlier. Maybe we could drive around to the workout area Mr. Wayne mentioned. Blow off a little steam?"

[justlikeacircus]

He perked up almost immediately at prospect, before he remembered himself and slumped back into his scowl, shrugging. "Sure, why not."

If he wasn't going to get a chance to flip around on buildings at least he'd get to spend some time doing what he loved somewhere, even if it was by himself.

[stands_for_hope]

Aha. There it was. The kid'd been excited for a moment.

"I'm probably not up to your level," he ventured delicately, "but would you mind if I give the equipment a try myself?"

[justlikeacircus]

"Probably?" Dick scoffed "Try not at all." He turned a suspicious gaze on Clark, looking him up and down. He was a big guy, and while it was good quality equipment he wasn't sure exactly how much weight it could handle.

"...if you're careful."

[stands_for_hope]

"Of course," he said with a bit of a smile, "wouldn't want Mr. Wayne to take it out of my paycheck if I break something, after all."

[justlikeacircus]

"...He probably wouldn't." Dick admitted "He's got enough money he'd just replace it." he might be at odds with Bruce over some things, but he was well aware how generous the man was.