Robin one shot part 3!

You're not adopted?

CherryBerry952 requested a follow up so here we are like months after I posted the random dialogue they're referencing :D

here at robin one shots part 3, we'll do your request just around the time you completely forget you requested it

"Okay losers, we're doing wards vers adoptees. Demon can go with adopted. Line up," Jason announced. They were having a snowball battle and he needed a way to split the teams up a little evenly. He watched them line up and made a face when Dick stood with Steph. "No, we're doing wards vers adoptees dumbass."

"Yeah, I know that," the acrobat replied, equally confused.

"But you're adopted," Duke argued. The taller turned to him, his eyebrows knitted together.

"Uhh, last time I checked I wasn't."

"What do you mean?" Tim asked. The group gradually got more concerned about the information they were hearing. Dick was brought to the Manor when he was a kid and left when he was just past his mid-teens. There was so much time to be adopted and to their knowledge, Bruce was his father figure.

"I never got adopted," Dick confirmed with a shrug. "I don't think we have balanced numbers. We should do newbies vers originals."

"No, wait we're not done here. How the fuck are you not adopted?" Jason asked. Again, the acrobat shrugged.

"Never asked I guess? I don't know. It's not too bad, it doesn't hurt anymore." He looked off to the ground somewhere and stared for a moment. He jumped when he felt Cass put a hand on his arm but quickly put on a warm smile. "C'mon let's just play before the snow melts. I'm not becoming an orange otter pop."

"Why an orange otter pop?"

"Orphan orange."

"Wow."

Dick's not being adopted felt wrong. It was like American's and European Kinder eggs or milk and Redbull. It wasn't right and shouldn't be put together. He'd been there the longest and adoption was never on the table? Although the others were content to shrug the fact off given that it didn't seem to upset Dick anymore, Cass seemed to take it personally. Perhaps because she knew Bruce would listen to her the most out of all his kids. That and she felt a certain kind of ick about the whole thing that she didn't want to leave unaddressed. During a break from the snowball fight, she went to the library to find Bruce working on Wayne Tech documents. She didn't care to ask if they were important or if he needed a minute. She just opened the door and walked in then stood in front of his desk until he looked up. "Hi, can I help you?" he asked. She folded her arms and he sat up properly. "What happened?"

"Dick," she stated. "Not adopted." Bruce stared at her for a moment then glanced around the room as he tried to think. "It's a problem."

"Oh, did he say that?" She shook her head. "Then why is it a problem?" She let out an exasperated sigh. 

"He wants to be. You should've done it when he was a child," she explained. He hummed and returned his gaze to his work. "You take advantage of him. Adopt him. It's the least you can do." The great thing about Cass was that she could get right to the problem with so few words but she could make you feel like shit as you would if you'd received a long lecture that dragged out every single thing you did wrong. She could do all of that with a straight face and leave the room with perfect poise that sold that she didn't regret what she said. She said things knowing their gravity. It's what hurt most. Bruce watched her leave and now he had to sit with what was said. Admittedly, he'd had the papers ready for years but then he'd do something to fuck it all up and he couldn't pop up with adoption papers. It would be disingenuous. Problem was that he kept doing it. It's not like he didn't want to adopt Dick and it's not that he didn't appreciate everything he'd done but he supposed in the grand scheme of things it would come across like that. He rubbed his temples as he stared at his work.