How Do I Know to Love You?

He Was Mine, Bruce

"Then he told you his family died?" Bruce leaned on Dick's counter with a Batman mug of coffee in his hand. 

Dick brushed back the lose hair that fell out of his headband. Headbands were his new thing. They felt good and kept his growing locks out of his face. His comfy,home getup was work out sweats, a gray -fitted-T-shirt and a wide runner's headband. 

"Yep." He looked at Bruce who had the same confused face the younger  held when Wally told him the same thing the week before . 

"But, they didn't..."Bruce added. 

"No, duh." 

"What else did he say about it?" The adoptive father questioned, placing his mug on the kitchen island. 

"Besides the fact he has amnesia, nothing." He replied. "He got so upset and...and I-" 

"Didn't want to see him that way?" Bruce finished. "It hurt too much to see your best friend in distress, I bet." Dick nodded, remembering the look in Wally's eyes. It killed him to see the ginger so lost and upset. 

"You've done a bad job." Dick whipped his head towards his father. "You let your emotions get in the way of an investigation. I taught you better than that." 

Richard huffed and rolled his eyes. Of course Bruce only saw this as an investigation. It was obvious that wasn't the case. The whole thing was emotional and he wasn't going to treat Wally as a suspect or informant. 

"Maybe because this situation isn't what we consider our normal kind of  investigation." Dick gritted his teeth. "It's my best friend who everyone thought was dead!"

Bruce came closer to Dick and shook his head. 

"He isn't your best friend." He said. Dick looked at the older man wide eyed and a little more heart broken. How dare he say such a thing! 

"Get out." Dick muttered. 

"Listen to me , Chum." Bruce held onto Dick's shoulder, trying to backtrack to get the boy to clam down while making things realistic for his son. " He may look like him and sound like him, but that boy is not Wally; not the Wally you and I know." 

Tears threatened to spill as Dick prepared to defend his best friend. 

"But it is him, Bruce! You should've seen him. That man I ran into is Wally, my  Wally!" The young hero sobbed. His hands clenched into fists. "Every twitch of his lips when he'd smile, every shake of his head, sneeze, chuckle and even his ticks when he got upset. It was all him!" He rubbed his eyes. He had been crying a lot lately and most of it was about his best friend. "You can't tell me any different. He was mine, Bruce!" 

"I know you want him back." The older man spoke softly. " But, the Wally we have, doesn't remember anything and he might not remember for the rest of his life. We need to prepare for that to be the case. I need you to try and get more information from him and it would be best if you distanced yourself after we have what we need." 

"I'm not leaving him." Dick's head hung. "I left him once and when I saw him again, the only thing he felt for me was hatred and then he died. This time I'll stay and-" 

"And he'll hopefully fall for you?" Bruce said. " Bud, it won't work like that. You need to take your heart out of the situation and act like you would as Nightwing. That's the only way to keep you safe. Stay distant and be realistic." 

Bruce finished and his son stayed silent. No one dared to break the heaviness that sat in the air; no one wanted to. Dick was too angry to speak to the man. His words pierced at his heart and replayed in his mind over and over again. He stayed silent, even as Bruce sighed and left the younger's apartment.