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

[justlikeacircus]

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.

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[justlikeacircus]

Ah. There it was. He froze with a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth, expression immediately turning guilty. It wasn't that he was ashamed of what he'd been doing, after all Clark and Bruce did it too, and Bruce didn't even have powers! The thing was, he couldn't exactly argue that, because he knew Clark was going to be angry with him for doing it, that was why he hadn't said anything about it. What he hadn't banked on, was the disappointed face. It was almost impossible to fight against the disappointed face.

"....I'm sorry?" he tried, hoping it might help to get it out there right off the bat.

[stands_for_hope]

"Are you?"

Oh, that was the very disappointed face. It was close to the heartbroken face, and Dick had only seen that one once. Usually only Batman could do the kind of thing that would illicit that face.

[justlikeacircus]

This shouldn't be allowed. This was torture, cruel and unusual punishment. Yelling he could deal with - he almost wanted to ask for Bruce to come and yell at him instead of this, that would have been much more bearable than this. Dick was not used to the disappointed face, even less to the very disappointed face, he so rarely did anything to deserve it. Shrinking a little in his chair, he stared down at his breakfast, suddenly not hungry, and nodded, not daring to look at Clark or speak again.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark calmly turned off the oven, moved his plate of pancakes over to the spot beside where Dick was sitting, and walked around the breakfast counter. He took his spot and leaned down to look at Dick.

"Are you sorry you got caught... or are you sorry you were doing it?"

[justlikeacircus]

Prodding his eggs with his fork, he sighed deeply. This conversation had begun with Clark mentioning honesty, and he didn't think the man would be particularly impressed if he decided to lie to him now.

"I'm not sorry for doing it," he admitted, still not daring to look up "I am sorry I didn't tell you." It wasn't quite that he was sorry he got caught, even though he knew if he had told Clark he probably wouldn't have been allowed to do it, but he did feel genuinely guilty that he'd been keeping the secret.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark just nodded and slung an arm around Dick's shoulders before leaning over and kissing the top of his head.

"I'm sorry you didn't tell me too. Especially since Bruce has been telling me I should talk to you about this for a while now. It's not as if we're unreasonable, Dick."

[justlikeacircus]

Dick leaned into the embrace, feeling a lot better for it even if he did still feel horribly guilty - it at least meant that Clark might actually forgive him, that he still cared and wasn't just going to kick him out onto the streets. He didn't dare voice worries like that to the man, but that didn't mean they weren't there, lingering beneath the surface.

His head jerked up when Clark mentioned 'for a while' and he finally met his guardian's gaze with wide, slightly teary eyes.

"For a while? How long have you known about it?"

[stands_for_hope]

Clark raised an eyebrow, then spared a hand to rub at his chin.

"Well, something like... the first time you went out. Around then."

He leaned over and used that hand to ruffle his hair.

"You're my kid, kiddo. I have your heartbeat on speaker 24/7. Just because I was off taking care of business didn't mean I thought you were snoozing at home. I was just hoping you'd come around and tell me about it eventually."

He smoothed the hair back down.

"When I saw you last night, I was hoping you'd take the opportunity to talk to me about it. When you didn't, I decided it was time to say something."

[justlikeacircus]

Well, didn't that just make Dick feel even worse. He'd never been subtle or sneaky at all, Clark had just been waiting for him to say something about it. Everything was a test, and this was one he felt like he'd failed. He also felt kind of like an idiot for thinking he could get one over on Clark.

"I'm really sorry, dad, I-" he stopped, surprised by himself. He'd never said that before, but it had just happened, and it... it felt sort of natural. Clark was his dad now, in pretty much every way that mattered, it didn't mean he'd forgotten his actual father, or that he loved or missed him any less, but Clark (and Bruce) had gone quite a long way to filling the gap left by the loss of his parents.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," he plunged on, feeling it was important to finish despite his epiphany "I just really wanted to help people, like you do, and I was worried that if I told you, you'd make me stop doing it..."

[stands_for_hope]

The word 'dad' utterly transformed his face, lifting his expression from the disappointed sadness to something clearly joyful. Honored. He swallowed, though, and carefully settled his emotions, facing Dick with something that was closer to neutral. He wouldn't dismiss the gift of that word used for him, but neither could it erase what they were talking about.

"Believe it or not, Dick, but Bruce and I both understand that driving need pretty well," he pointed out, and his tone was still gentle. "But we also understand the dangers and what that kind of life requires. He's on his way over, and when he gets here, we're going to have a talk about training, patrol schedules, your schoolwork, trust, honesty, and how we all take care of one another. Understood?"

[justlikeacircus]

The gentle tone was the worst, like Clark was building up to telling him he had to stop. His heart sank even more when Clark told him Bruce was coming, Bruce was definitely the stricter of the two (with some things anyway, there were definite things that Bruce was unexpectedly ok with, but Clark put his foot down), there was no way they were going to let him- wait, what?

He mentally played over the last couple of sentences in his head and his eyes widened, that... that actually sounded like they were going to let him do this. Like they were going to help and support him and maybe, just maybe he'd get his hands on some of those gadgets Batman was always using. He wanted training, he wanted their help, wanted to help them. He did his very best to not look as excited as he felt at the possibility of being able to do this without lying to them, with their support.

"Yes, completely. I won't let you down again, I promise."

[stands_for_hope]

"You will," he said with a rub to Dick's shoulder, "and I'll let you down. We're all going to make mistakes along the way. But the most important thing to remember is that no matter what mistakes we make, we can trust each other. Depend on one another.

"Don't ever be ashamed or scared to come to me, or Bruce, all right? There's nothing you can do that will make either of us stop caring about you. But if you really want to do this, we have to know we can trust you. Do you understand?"

[justlikeacircus]

That was part of what made Clark such a good dad, he always knew the right thing to say to make Dick feel simultaneously better and worse about a situation - he was so supportive and understanding, but that just made him feel more guilty for letting him down.

"You can trust me, no more lies." He said sincerely, and he meant it, if this experience proved anything it was that it was better to tell the truth than keep hiding things.

[stands_for_hope]

"Good," which was when the doorbell rang.

"And that would be Bruce. I'm sure he'll be glad to hear that you're willing to do what we ask if you want to start going on patrol with him."

And with that, he slipped away to head to the door.

Want me to be Bruce for a bit while he talks to Clark?

[justlikeacircus]

Dick was definitely glad he'd mostly smoothed things over with Clark, he definitely needed to keep him on side while talking to Bruce - hopefully Clark would be able to keep the lecturing to a minimum since he'd already been over it. Hopefully.

He stayed obediently in his seat and ate his breakfast, if only because sneaking to listen in to their conversation when they'd just had a conversation about trust was pretty much guaranteed to get him benched before he'd even gotten on the team, but he still strained to hear what they were saying from where he sat.

Sounds like the best plan!

[stands_for_hope]

Clark made his way to the door and opened it easily enough, moving out of the way to let Bruce make his way in.

"We've already had the talk about honesty, and trying to trick me. Dick's very sorry he didn't come to me, to us, and he's promised he won't make the same mistake again."

Then he gave Dick a little smile.

"Or at least he'll try not to."

Re: Sounds like the best plan!

[justlikeacircus]

"How about the talk about responsibility, proper planning and taking precautions against danger, did you have those yet?" Bruce questioned, looking suspiciously at Clark like he suspected the other man of going easy on Dick.

Dick winced slightly at those words, seemed like maybe the lecturing wasn't actually over just yet.

[stands_for_hope]

"Actually, I figured I'd leave that to when you got here since you're going to be a big part of teaching him about those things," Clark admitted as he gave Bruce a gentle smile. He knew how hard the lesson earlier had hit Dick. He didn't want to blast him too hard, after all.

[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.

[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.

Do you want to take over Bruce while he's talking to Dick or do you want me to keep him?

[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.

Oh no, I've got him. I just wanted to get a feel for the opening salvo

[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."

Re: Oh no, I've got him. I just wanted to get a feel for the opening salvo

[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."

[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.

[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.