Dick Grayson one shots

Hostage situation

Bruce had a rule about going out as Batman during the day. Alfred had been the one to mandate it when he started out as a vigilante all those years ago.

There'd only been a few exceptions to said rule over the years, one of which was today. A mass breakout from Arkham Asylum less than 24 hours prior being the reason.

—

Bruce's head was on a swivel, looking for Damian as he landed in front of the crowd of police officers who were systematically evacuating classrooms.

He should be there somewhere... this was his school after all, part of the reason Bruce was there in the first place.

"Mr. Batman," a little voice called, a small hand reaching up to tug at his cape.

Bruce looked down at the child who must've been no more than 5 years old.  "What's wrong?" He asked upon seeing the tears gathering in her eyes, none of the usual harshness in his voice.

"Mr. Grayson hasn't come out of the building yet," she said, lower lip trembling. "He said he was going to stop the mean man with the gun."

Bruce's heart seemed to skip a beat when he registered what had been said... surely it couldn't be his son being held inside the school. He was at Gotham University as far as he knew. In fact, he hadn't even seen the boy in more than a month.

"Mr Grayson was helping me with my cartwheels today in gym class," she spoke, her voice trembling. "He said he comes sometimes for his class at big kid school."

"It'll be alright," Bruce tried to comfort, crouching down to the girl's level like he'd seen Dick do so many times when he interacted with children. "I'm going to save him."

The little girl nodded, giving Bruce a hug before he stood.

Bruce turned toward the school, worry clawing at his heart.

—

Bruce breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his son's curly mop of hair, his body tied securely to a fold-out chair.

He couldn't see the acrobat's face, but he didn't look too worse for wear from the back.

"Thank goodness you're alright," Bruce said, using a batarang to saw through the ropes looped around his son's chest.

As soon as the ropes were cut Dick slumped forward, sliding off the chair and onto the ground.

"What are you..." Bruce trailed off when he saw the blood saturating the front of his son's shirt. "Dick?" He called tentatively, moving around the chair and kneeling at his son's side.

"He was so adamant that you would save him too," a voice spoke a man stepping out from the shadows, a gun held loosely in his hand.

Bruce growled, rising from the floor with his fists clenched.

"Hero worship just doesn't get you as far as it used to."

The joker stood there, a sick grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"He was an innocent... why...?" Bruce mumbled, looking up at the clown.

"I've killed innocents before," Joker said nonchalantly. "But I had a feeling this one would be a bit more... personal."

Bruce froze...

"Who knew a random college kid would turn out to be Nightwing," Joker chuckled. "Now doesn't that break the big bad Batman's heart?"

Bruce did feel like something was breaking...

"You should've paid more attention to me Batman!" Joker shouted. "Then maybe I wouldn't have been so eager to kill your little baby bird."