dollymixtures | I Solemnly Swear I'm Up To No Good (Dick and Clark)

It is very, very difficult to sneak around in a house containing a man with super hearing. Translation; It was impossible to sneak around in a house containing a man with superhearing, as Dick had discovered repeatedly on increasingly ingenious cookie-stealing kitchen missions. There really was no way to do it without Clark catching you.

It is, however, much easier to do said sneaking when the house didn't contain aforementioned owner of super hearing, which is why Dick would engage in his little extra-curricular activities only on days when Clark was away on 'business trips', preferably ones that took him far away from Metropolis.

Today was one of those days, or it had been one of those days, until he'd caught a glimpse of Superman in the sky over the city.

"Oh crap. Wow, that's my curfew, I better get home." he quipped to the mugger he'd just interrupted "Hate to leave it like this but it really is past my bedtime."

Throwing jokes about his youth always put the bad guys on the back foot, it robbed them of their material. It also gave him the precious few seconds of confusion that he needed to swing himself up onto the fire escape and climb up to the roof. He wished he could have done more, but it was at least one woman who was heading home with her purse tonight thanks to him. Now he just had to worry about getting home before Clark. Ha, like that was going to happen.

He tried to figure out what he was going to do as he ran across the rooftops. If he could change quick enough after he was inevitably caught sneaking in, he could maybe claim he'd been at a party or something equally innocuous. If only he'd brought a change of clothes out with him... nothing for it, he'd have to just take his chances.

Reaching the house, he slipped in through the bedroom window as silently as he could manage, immediately shedding his costume and shoving it under the bed as quickly as possible. Now he just had to pray he'd gotten away with it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

justlikeacircus

Bruce glared at Clark slightly, of course it was typical of the man, in his opinion, let Bruce come and be the bad cop while he ate - he sniffed the air - waffles, and gave the kid puppy eyes. It wasn't much of a glare, he knew there was no point wasting his best glares on Clark, they never had any effect.

"Alright," he said, marching through to where Dick was waiting nervously.

Dick did his best to look contrite.

From:

stands_for_hope

The glare didn't have much of an effect and Clark frowned as if to say that he wasn't leaving Bruce to have the whole talk himself. He'd just wanted him to be a part of it. Then he tilted his head, because he knew Bruce wouldn't have been satisfied that the discussion had been had if he wasn't present.

That was why he walked over with Bruce, doing his best to keep in step. No good cop, bad cop. Just two concerned parents.

From:

justlikeacircus

With the two of them there, looming over him, Dick shrank back a little in his seat. Even though he knew, now, that they were going to let him do this, they were going to help him do this, he still wasn't exactly looking forward to this conversation. His eyes flicked between them and he realised that he wasn't going to be able to count on Clark to keep Bruce from being too firm, this was definitely a united front they were presenting, and he was definitely about to get his ear talked off he was quite certain of that.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, too," He said quickly, before Bruce could start. It felt important to get that out there "I know I disappointed you both."

"You did," Bruce nodded "And I know Clark has already told you why you shouldn't have lied to us. You're very, very lucky we knew anyway - do you know what could have happened to you, if we hadn't?"

"...It was dangerous?" Dick tried hesitantly, suddenly wondering if they'd ever had to intervene without him knowing.

From:

stands_for_hope

Bruce raised one eyebrow, as if to ask Dick whether he'd considered how easily he'd gone to and from every crime he'd stopped. And why none of the criminals had seemed particularly intelligent or well-trained. It was a searching look that asked, no demanded, that he consider how smoothly the whole thing had been, especially when he considered that the both of them regularly had bad nights where things had gone wrong or one of them had ended up injured (though the second was usually Bruce). It was also clear that in some respect, it was a first test.

"You're going to need training," Bruce said after a long moment. "And now just physical training. There are parts of what both of us do" and that was diplomacy at it's finest since it was clear Bruce really thought it was more of what he did, "that have as much to do with the mind as the body. And you clearly need to learn the basics of investigation."

From:

justlikeacircus

With a sinking feeling, Dick realised that was exactly what had happened. They'd been following him around keeping him safe. He hadn't done anything particularly impressive, in fact all he'd probably done was get in the way of them doing their actual job. He wondered how many people had been put in danger because they were busy keeping an eye on him. He didn't even feel good about what he'd been doing anymore, it all just seemed like a big mistake.

"Ok," he nodded, voice subdued and staring at the floor "I... I'll train really hard, I'll do better."

From:

stands_for_hope

Bruce looked at him for a moment and seemed to be peering straight into his soul for a moment before lifting his chin.

"Why?"

And the question was loaded, as most of Bruce's words were. Why would he do better? Why did he want to do this at all? He had to know. Had to hear it from Dick before any of this started.

From:

justlikeacircus

Why? Dick stared back at him, looking uncertainly between Bruce and Clark like he didn't understand the question. He opened his mouth to reply and then closed it again, brow furrowing as he tried to find the right words to express how he was feeling. It just seemed so obvious to him that he wasn't sure why Bruce was actually asking him to say it, it was like asking why he went to sleep at night.

"Because... Because people need helping. Somebody has to stop the people who want to hurt others, and.. and I can't sit at home knowing that you're both out there putting yourselves at risk saving other people and not... not want to help? I can help, I know I can. I did bad, I know that, I was wrong, but I can do it! I can save people too! I don't... I don't want..." he trailed off, helpless "I don't want anybody else to... to feel..." he couldn't get the words out.

From:

stands_for_hope

Which was when Bruce reached forward and pulled Dick into his arms. There was anger and there was frustration but mostly there'd been worry, and heartsickness, and mild terror. Bruce of all people remembered what it was like to be where Dick was, knew that pain so intimately he sometimes wondered how anything else could fit inside of him. But he'd needed to know as much as he'd needed Dick to say it, to be honest about it.

"I understand," was all he said.

From:

justlikeacircus

That startled him. It wasn't often he got a hug from Bruce, so he guessed he'd probably given the right answer. Hugs from Clark, they were excellent hugs of course, but they were much more common. A hug from Bruce was something special. He hugged back tightly, glad that Bruce wasn't still angry at him, and buried his face in the man's shoulder to hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

"I'll learn to do it right, I will."

From:

stands_for_hope

"I know you will," Bruce said, and his voice was still soft, but there was iron underneath, "because I'm going to train you."

He glanced over at Clark in an expression that was half irritation and half prompt and Clark stepped up a little closer to speak.

"Bruce is going to cover the training and your gear, since he's better equipped to help you, but once you're done, you're going to be accompanying one or the other of us when it comes to actual patrols. And that is iron clad.

"No going out by yourself. One time and it ends. Is that understood?"

From:

justlikeacircus

Gear. He was getting gear. He could only imagine what sort of gadgets Bruce might give him, he'd seen news footage of some of the things he had and they were all pretty exciting, he couldn't wait to see what there was that the cameras hadn't caught. He looked up at the both of them with wide, excited eyes. They were slightly shiny from the teariness, but he couldn't hide his new enthusiasm.

"Yes! I understand!" he nodded eagerly. Much fun as it was going out by himself, he was more excited by the idea of working by their side.

From:

stands_for_hope

Bruce gave him a very smug sort of smile as he heard the excitement, because he was reasonably certain that by the time the training was over, he'd be far less enthusiastic. Clark glanced over at him as if asking him not to crush the poor boy's soul too much.

"For now, though," Clark said with a glance at the kitchen, "we're going to have breakfast and Bruce is going to spend the day with us."

Bruce almost seemed to be chuckling.

"Lesson number one: patience is key."

From:

justlikeacircus

Well, that brought him down a bit, he'd been so excited to get started right then and there, he probably would have dropped to the floor to do press ups if Bruce had told him to. That enthusiasm... probably wasn't going to last, but it was hard to tell with Dick, he was a pretty determined kid.

Still, he couldn't be too disappointed, even if he wanted to rush out and fight crime before you could say 'No Dick that's not how it works', because Bruce was spending the day with them, and that was rare enough that it perked him up all by itself.

"Really? The three of us hanging out together? For the whole day?"

From:

stands_for_hope

Bruce looked like he was going to say something before Clark cut in with a nod and a warm smile.

"Yes, the whole day. I thought it might be a good time to spend a little quality time together for fun before you two go off into the cave for a few weeks."

...Bruce definitely looked skeptical of this whole thing, but he nodded.

"I cleared my schedule for the day."

From:

justlikeacircus

The cave. The cave! He was going to get to see Batman's secret lair! That got him excited all over again, but he at least managed to transfer most of his energy to the thought of spending the day with Bruce and Clark, and he rushed back to his waffles to start wolfing them down. The quicker he finished his breakfast, the quicker they could get started!

"So what are we doing today?" he asked between mouthfuls "Bruce do you want some waffles?"

From:

stands_for_hope

Bruce looked at the waffles as if they might poison him before Clark sighed and went to the fridge. The liquid breakfast he passed over to the other man seemed much more to his speed.

"Today," Clark said with an excited little smile, "I was thinking maybe we could do a couple of the museums. The Natural History Museum has a new exhibit up with modern and ancient weaponry, which I thought you both might find interesting."

From:

justlikeacircus

"That sounds really cool," Dick agreed cheerfully as he polished off his breakfast. The mood he was in now, he probably would have said the same about visiting a paint drying factory, but he genuinely would find that interesting even if he wasn't hyped up. Given the amount of sugar he just consumed, it was only going to get worse.

From:

stands_for_hope

Clark rolled his eyes a little and couldn't help a laugh.

"Well, I should hope so. I didn't pick it to be boring."

Bruce muttered something literally too soft for anyone but Clark to hear. Clark nudged him in the shoulder for it.

From:

justlikeacircus

Dick waited impatiently for what amounted to roughly five seconds for them to be finished, and then jumped off his chair.

"I'm going to go and get ready, I hope you're done when I get back." he told them, practically running upstairs to get changed for the day.

From:

stands_for_hope

"'Done' with what?" Clark asked with a blink and a glance over at Bruce.

From:

justlikeacircus

"Breakfast? Getting ready?" Bruce shrugged "Who knows..." he glanced back up the stairs to make sure Dick was out of earshot "He's... excitable. Why did you feed him so much sugar?"

From:

stands_for_hope

"Ma used to make me waffles all the time. There's nothing wrong with waffles. And there were eggs and hash browns to balance it out, after all."

Clark may have forgotten that not everyone had his metabolism.

"And Dick is generally a pretty high energy kid, you know."

From:

justlikeacircus

"Nothing wrong with waffles for you maybe," Bruce glanced him up and down "But if he's going to start a training regime he's going to have to start on a better diet as well."

From:

stands_for_hope

"I was thinking I was going to probably have to introduce some animal protein into the daily cooking," he admitted with a scratch to one ear. "Especially since he'll be building muscle."