Robin one shot part 3!

I'll miss saving the world with you

TW: BRUCE IS DEAD and Dick is straight up not having a good time

Bruce was gone. Dead yet again but this time it was permanent. Dick felt it was weird to once again bury a coffin with nobody inside of it. The first instance was with Wally. There was nothing to put inside thanks to his body being stuck in the speed force somewhere. They had to work around it as though there was a body in there. Dick could never see it and never get that closure. The finality of death had been something important to him but he'd only had that with his parents. Thinking of that made having two zombie brothers attending the funeral even odder. Yet he couldn't find it in him to laugh at that fact. He stared at the burial plot as the crowd slowly dissipated. Another father figure in the ground. That didn't feel right. He'd lost so many people in his life but he always suspected the Waynes would be the exception. The cockroaches who wouldn't die no matter how hard the universe tried to snatch them away. He'd been proven wrong. 

Bruce disappeared on a mission at the beginning of the year and by fall they had to give up the fruitless search for him. They assumed one of the villains finally took down Batman and hanging onto the hope of life would only prove to kill them in the long run as they lost themselves in the search instead of moving on. He glanced around him, finding his family standing there. He drank in the bitter sight and refused to cringe as the depressed atmosphere continued to weigh down upon them. Dick knew what he had to do now. He needed to piece together the ruins and patch everyone back together. It was daunting to have to look after so many people, each of them being unique in their grieving processes but he would have to get used to it. Of course, Alfred was there too but he couldn't ask him to take care of everyone. No, this would be his responsibility and his alone. He put his hand on Damian's shoulder to offer him some comfort and partly as an invitation to hug him because God did he need one but the boy shrugged him off. Oh. He didn't make a big deal of it but it made him think just how many of his family members actually liked hugs. He could only think of Cass and Steph but he never really got those. They seemed to like hugs from each other more than anything. It dawned on him that his sources of comfort weren't compatible with theirs. Maybe he could get it from Barbara but she'd be pretty busy. Besides, he shouldn't be thinking of himself. He was head of the family now. He'd have to deal with that. 

So over the months, he worked his ass off to help as much as he could. Alfred was in no shape to do half the things he usually did through no fault of his own. Grief did a number on him which was completely understandable. Bruce was like a son after all. To allow him time to get through the process, Dick took over a lot of chores but the permanent ban on the kitchen stopped him from cooking. Luckily, cooking and baking seemed to be a good coping mechanism for the butler. 

Barbara helped out with Batman work whilst Tim found himself as a little businessman taking over Wayne Industries. Both seemed to take comfort in the work. He put it down to them being able to do something they were good at so it gave them a rush of dopamine. Something everyone needed in times like these. 

Dick took over the school run for Damian, helped him with the homework and sometimes did it for him if it was one of those days. He listened when people need to shout, he was a verbal punching bag if they needed to just yell and he overall tried to be as accommodating as possible. It probably wasn't the best to be a pushover about the second part but he'd said a lot of things in anger when he was younger and he knew there was no real intention to cut him deep. Even if the comments got to him. Jason and Damian were the ones who could really get under his skin. Sometimes he'd get an apology. Other times he wouldn't. He liked the first outcome more than the other. He made sure to keep training when they needed to spar and he watched over them as they went back out into vigilante work.