Broken Heater in a Blizzard

Broken Heater in a Blizzard - Oneshot

It was snowing. A lot. It really sucked.

It would have been nice, seeing as he was allowed the day off from work. It would have been nice, seeing as fewer criminals would be on the streets. Dick rarely got to rest, what with both his day job and his night job taking up so much of his time. It would have been nice to have some time off to rest and chill and just relax.

But it wasn't nice. It wasn't nice at all. Instead of spending the day at the Bludhaven Police Department, which had a working heater, Dick was spending the day at home on the sofa, wrapped up in every blanket and sweater he owned, trying to keep away to chill that clung to the apartment due to his broken heater. You know, the one he couldn't afford to fix.

So there he was, trying to maintain some semblance of warmth, when his phone rang. On the other side of the house. Outside of his somewhat warm cacoon of wool and cotton and fleece.

Cursing whoever it was that dared call him, Dick forced himself off the couch and into the frozen wasteland that was his bedroom to retrieve his phone. He answered without looking at the caller ID, and nearly shouted at whoever it was who had the gall to interrupt his attempt at thawing out. "Who is it?"

"It's Wally. Did you lose my number or something?"

As soon as he heard that name, spoken by that voice, imagining the expression on the redhead's face as he said it, Dick immediately felt the anger drain out of him, leaving the slight warmth he always felt when talking to or seeing the speedster. "No, Walls. Sorry, I just didn't check the ID. What's up, man?"

Dick could hear the goofy smile in Wally's reply. "I saw on the weather report that Bludhaven was getting some pretty bad snow. I also saw that the BPD was allowing some people the day off because the roads were so bad. You one of those people?"

Dick's eyebrows furoughed as he wondered what Wally's point was. "Yeah. They called at like 4 in the morning to let me know. Why?"

"Well, I just remembered that you mentioned your heater broke. I wanted to check and see if you got it fixed or not."

Remembering how freezing he was, Dick shivered. "No, Walls. You know how it is, money's tight. It's not like I usually spend that much time at home between work and Nightwing anyway." Dick suddenly felt very stupid, considering he was standing exposed in the cold in order to talk on his mobile phone. He quickly made his way back to the couch as Wally answered.

"Bro, not cool. First of all, you should be spending a decent amount of time at home. You need rest, and if I have to come over there and tie you to a chair every night so you get some, I will. Second of all, I know you don't like asking him for favors, but, hello, you're Bruce Wayne's kid, remember? Sitting in the cold, freezing your ass off is not something you should make yourself suffer through simply because of your pride. Seriously, bro, you have a death wish if you're actually sitting in an apartment with no heater when it's snowing and below zero outside."

Dick held in a scoff. "First things first, Walls. My city needs me, so if that means I don't get much sleep, then I don't get much sleep. And you tying me to a chair wouldn't do much good because, one, how am I supposed to get good rest in a chair and, two, I'm Boy Wonder. Tying me to anything wouldn't do any good. Second of all, did you just lecture me about Bruce? I'll come over there and tie you to a chair just because I can. Good luck getting out of that."

Dick was going to say something else, but the temperature dropped even lower and Dick felt the cold like ice cubes down his shirt. He shivered, his teeth clicking together. Wally obviously heard because his nervous voice sounded over the phone. "Dick, seriously. I'm worried about you. Even Boy Wonder can get a cold. Or Pneumonia. Or something even worse that would definitely kill you."