Forgotten Bonds

Forty - Changes and Adjustments

March 13th, 2009. Friday, 6:43 am. 

The wind blew through Slade's pure white hair as he stood on the rooftop of the haunt, which looked over the bay of Jump City. The horizon over the ocean was beginning to lighten as the morning began to rise behind him. The azure rich blue blanketed the sky, melding with the ocean line. 

Slade was pensive; thoroughly deep in thought as he remembered the most recent event. He had been quite shocked to see the Teen Titans bursting into his haunt, but what had surprised him even more was that Dick had been running away from them. 

Slade couldn't understand it. Yes, he knew that the two of them had reached a point beyond anything he could've imagined. Sometimes, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He had actually adopted the Boy Wonder, thus making the boy his son and in turn, Slade his father – and that very same boy had gladly accepted it. In fact, he had signed the papers so fast that it had made Slade's head spin. 

They had come such a long way. 

But Slade hadn't fully realized it until the boy came running back; fleeing from his friends to find solace in Slade. It was unimaginable, but it had happened. And Dick wasn't brainwashed at all. It was of his own free will and choice. Slade could take no credit for that. 

And when the boy took off his mask, Slade had seen his answers. Those crystal blue eyes, that were so dazzling in color, were swarming with fear and shame. Perhaps even a little hope – hope that Slade would read his eyes and understand what words could not speak out loud. That was how much trust Dick had placed in Slade; how much he trusted him fully and completely with all his heart. 

Once again, Slade found himself very sobered by that. 

He had spent an hour sitting on the floor next to the boy. Dick seemed to have melted completely when Slade had extended his arm around him; instantly turning to him for comfort. The boy had gone silent for a long while, until Slade noticed that he'd fallen asleep; his chest rising and settling slowly as he stayed curled up at Slade's side. 

What Slade saw there was a little child dressed up in a grownup suit. 

It was more than apparent to Slade that Dick needed a father more than anything in the world – more than friends, more than hero work, more than life itself. 

And he had chosen Slade for that role. 

Why he had, Slade couldn't even begin to imagine. Slade doubted that any other child would've grown this close to him – no, Dick was unique; special beyond anything Slade had ever encountered. 

Dick was a child – a child who longed for someone to protect him, for someone who would guide him, for someone who would love him, for someone who would do everything in their power to care for him. 

But Dick would never truly admit it. The boy would still try to put on that suit and act like an adult. He'd still try to act like he was a grownup in a child's body – no doubt about that. It had been trained into the boy for far too long, due to the absence of his parents and the training he had received under that bat. The boy had to act like he'd grown up, so that he didn't need to rely on something that wasn't there and that perhaps he believed would never be there. 

But that didn't change the fact that Dick truly needed guidance in the normal ways of life. Despite having a high school degree at such a young age, he still needed someone to push him along in the right direction. He still needed someone to hold him when he felt pain; he still needed the comfort that only a father could bring him. He was young and impressionable. No matter what, he needed the influence that a proper father could give him.