Petrified: a dash of Trauma

Zepter diez

It's been about a week since he had left home. Almost three to four days since he last ate, and that was only a sixth of half a loaf of bread. Stale bread.

While he was sitting on one of the public benches between several busy stores and traffic jammed streets, a man passed by, tossing the bit of bread towards his direction. By the looks of it, the man seemed well-off with expensive clothes and all that what-not.

Of course, it was most likely that the man wouldn't be able to compare with Bruce.

He curled into himself further, hoping to get some feeling back into his feet. They were quite numb from the cold of the night and from staying in one position for so long with lack of blood circulation.

Dick sighed and stared up at the clear night sky.

It was less busy than it was during the day. He learned that numerous stores that stood against the sidwalk closed nearly at the same time, so it felt like it took less than an hour for people to desert the area. Maybe even 20 minutes.

He also learned that the owners of the stores were all buddy buddy with each other, and most of them were young woman around the age of 20 to 30 years.

He met one of them the second day he was alone outside. She ran the clothes store at the end of the sidewalk. Her name, she told him, is Annie.

Annie was kind, Dick knew that the moment he realized that she was walking towards him holding a glass of something faint green.

'It's green tea. It's my favorite kind of tea. You looked like you needed something warm, too.'

He stopped seeing her after that. The 'closed' sign was constantly hung behind the large glass window, which framed two mannequins. One in long red dress and the other in what looked to be a taylored black suit. There was a pair of polished dress shoes beneath it and a large briefcase

The mannequins looked stylish and full of life when the small spotlights were turned on behind the glass. Now they looked abandoned, dead.

Useless. And worthless.

.. Just like him.

~~~~

Jason growled. He was frustrated. He was never this anjoyed, angry, or irritated before.

Literally, how hard was it to find just one kid? He doubted Dick even took his mask along with him.

"ARGGGHHH!!" Jason kicked a piece of furniture lying around. Hard.

It broke.

"I think you should rest tonight, Jason."

He swiveled from where he stood towards the door behind him. Leaning against the door's frame was Bruce. Like Jason, his eyes also held exhaust in them and underneath, you could see dark bags.

"Piss off, no one asked you," Jason muttered.

Bruce frowned. His voice held comcerned. "Dick wouldn't want you to stay up like this."

Jason slammed his foot down.

"Do you THINK I care about that!? It's HIS fault that I'm like this!" Jason took a moment to calm down. He sat down in his chair before pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Dick's been gone for almost 8 days now. The nights here aren't that enjoyable. The temperature drops down drastically. If Dick is alone out there with no where to go, he could catch hypothermia long before we even find him. Or he could starve to death first, if that isn't the case."

Bruce's heart softened. He already knew that Jason cared for Dick. But after hearing him say that, Bruce understood that Jason's love for him was greater than he expected it to be. (There's no slash btw.. Just saying)

"Okay. I'll try and get the others' help-"

"The Justice League." Jason interupted. It wasn't even a question.

True, that could help the search in other cities.

"... Yes.. To search for him in other cities."

Jason smirked. 'nailed it.'

Before Bruce sighed and left the doorframe, he glanced at Jason. "Just, don't forget to sleep a few hours. It would be inconvenient if you passed out all of a sudden."

Jason coughed. "Fine. Now go already. This is getting uncomfortable."

"Fine fine." Bruce smiled and he left. Jason knew where he was headed. The batcave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

How long was it now? He didn't know.

Dick sighed and looked at the once again busy streets. People were starting to crowd the sidewalk.

Now that he thought of it. It probably wasn't a great idea to 'hide' in such a busy area like this. Dick slowly got up from the bench and started hobbling to where he knew was the park.

There, he could at least find a hiding spot in case the others had located him.

He suspected that by now, Jason was cursing and yelling at everyone to piss off.

Dick smirked. The last time he saw Jason like that was when somebody stole his favorite blueberry pie from him and hid it somewhere.

The joy.

SORRY. I totally fell asleep yesterday XD.