Robin one shot part 3!

I'm technically his dad

gigifecci asked for this one

"He's my son Richard," Bruce huffed out. Once again, Dick had critiqued his parenting methods and although everybody did that probably for good reason, it felt particularly disparaging when it came from his own son. From Alfred, it was warranted. The man was like his father so it made sense that he'd be critical of how he parented but there was something disconcerting about Dick doing so. Bruce appreciated the work he did when he was away but now things were back to normal, and the dad title needed to be returned to him. Their small back and forth was usually over small things that shouldn't cause that much drama. In this case, Bruce said Damian needed to do his homework and he could get it done at the dinner table. Dick argued that Damian needed some time to cool down from training and he could do the homework on the stakeout since it involved a lot of sitting around. 

"That's where you're wrong," Dick replied, folding his arms. Damian paused his writing, dropping his pencil immediately to turn to his brother, Bruce physically moved in his chair to stare right at his ward whilst Alfred nearly dropped a plate on the floor but luckily the shock made him freeze which tightened his grip. A pin could drop in the room and they all would've heard it. Forget whether dinner table homework was acceptable, they had a much bigger fish to fry.  

"Grayson?" Damian began, unable to truly comprehend what he heard. Talia had horrible morals but could they be that horrible? He would've only been twelve if that were the case. They didn't share many traits but then again, it wasn't entirely implausible that there were a few rogue genes here and there. "Are you saying you're my father?" The older seemed to suddenly remember that there were two other people in the room right now that weren't Bruce. He stammered for a moment, tripping and stumbling over an explanation and dread was settling into everyone's stomachs. They'd silently come to the same conclusion as Damian and the very thought made them feel sick.

"Legally yes." There was a sigh of relief from each of them at the clarification. Talia lived another day. Yet that made them question his wording.

"What do you mean legally?" Bruce inquired. Dick glanced around trying to gauge some kind of reaction but everyone still looked shocked. He licked his lips nervously as he tried to think about how to phrase his explanation. He didn't want to sound like he was held at gunpoint to adopt Damian because if he had to do it again, he would and definitely would do it now that he and Damian were much closer.

"We thought you were dead and to the public, your disappearance was super fishy. Someone must've leaked something and CPS were threatening to take him into foster care. I've been in foster care and I didn't want Damian to be subjected to that when I was already looking after him and I definitely wasn't giving him back to Talia." He spoke calmly but he felt anything but calm when he spoke with them. The moment he heard that Damian could be taken out of his hands, he'd asked what could be done. Luckily the woman he was speaking with was rather lovely and helped him understand the options. He refused any option that didn't involve Damian staying in the manor which left him with very few roads to go down. "At first, I silently fostered him. Made up some lie that his mum had died and forged some papers so that there wouldn't be any chance of a custody battle. Then I felt bad about taking money for fostering so I just adopted him and everyone got off of our backs. Technically Damian is still my kid even if you're back in his life."

"I had no idea this was happening. You didn't think to tell me about any of this?" Damian asked. He couldn't tell if he was angry or not but this was Damian so he was probably angry. Anger management classes might have had some effect on the usual ball of anger with how he expressed his emotions. 

"You were dealing with so much already. I knew you'd hate the idea too because you hated me back then. The plan was to tell you when things calmed down but they never calmed down and I just decided to keep it quiet," he explained. "Then Bruce came back and I thought it was better not to talk about it with either of you. B kinda replaced me immediately and you seemed fine with it, I didn't want to cause any issues." 

They sat in silence for a good few minutes as they let the information soak in. "Are you mad?" Dick asked the room. 

"No," Alfred said immediately, finally breaking free of freezing. He had a warm smile on his face as he finally placed the plate on the dining room table. Pride was evident in his voice as he spoke and cemented with a squeeze of Dick's shoulder. "You did the right thing." Of course, Dick knew that. He would never suggest that his actions weren't right. He simply wanted to know how they were received and if he was in the dog house for the next week or so. The longer the Waynes waited to say their take on his actions, the more he thought about his barring from the Manor. Maybe it would be more like a month in the dog house. Still, he wouldn't regret a thing. Damian deserved a safe place to stay and he wouldn't have been alright in foster care. Dick knew for a fact it would be too much of a shock to the system and he'd be placed with the wrong family because he called his social care agent stupid. 

"You adopted me even after the way I treated you. After I insulted you and your connection to this family. I belittled you for your status as ward and yet you never said anything about me being adopted by you. You just took it," Damian stated. He didn't know where he was going with that.

"I did because that's what adults do."

"No, it's what parents should do," Bruce corrected. "I see now why you comment so much on my parenting. You really did more than replace me as Batman. You replaced me as a father too."

"I didn't mean to-"

"I'm not saying that disparagingly. You did what was right to protect him and I could never discourage you from that," he interrupted. Dick seemed just as shocked as they were when they found out Damian was adopted at receiving such a surface level compliment. It wasn't even a compliment, it was a statement but it was the best he'd gotten in a while. "I won't ask you to give up your guardianship of him if you don't want to relinquish it."

"It's not up to me," Dick told him before turning to his younger brother/child. Even when he adopted the teen, he never thought of him as his child. He saw it as a brotherly relationship and that they were only legally a father and son. That didn't stop him from teetering into the fatherly position but with a father like Bruce, that wasn't too surprising. "Damian, if you want me to return your guardianship to B then you just say the word."

"Will anything change?" the teen asked cautiously.

"Nothing but a piece of paper," Bruce assured him. 

"Then I see no need to change the circumstances of our relation," he stated, confident in his decision. "Grayson adopted me and I will honour that. I see it as proof of his commitment to this family. I will still refer to you as Grayson."

"You're damn right you'll still call me Grayson. I'm too young to be called dad."

"Perhaps I should honour the adoption too. Your advice might be good to have."

"You better not suddenly call him my kid when he gets in trouble. He's always your kid."

"And you're always his guardian."