Robin one shot part 3!

Boys in skirts

peachrcses requested this and we all love Dick being feminine because what? BOYS CAN WEAR SKIRTS 

Gotham was quite a traditional city. Well traditional as it could be with crazed villains with outlandish themes could be. Anything that was considered new was suppressed and anything that wasn't deemed normal was despised. Dick wasn't the usual boy. He embraced feminine things, often preferring them over traditionally male things. This made him the centre of teasing and now at fourteen, soon to be fifteen, he'd learned to hide it. He now kept a diary where he spoke his mind and everything in there was a secret. Only secrets don't stay secret for long in the Wayne Manor. Especially not with a snoopy Bruce Wayne wanting to make sure his ward wasn't hiding important things from him. 

"I'll be back in an hour," Dick announced. He was going out with his teammates since quite a few of them weren't going to be able to attend his birthday party. They still wanted to celebrate so they were doing it early. "Alright, be safe," Bruce called back.  

"I will," he replied before disappearing to the Batcave to use the Zetatube. Bruce kept an ear out for him then cautiously got up when he heard him enter the Cave. Was what he was about to do a violation of the younger's privacy? Yes according to everyone he'd told about the idea but to Bruce it was necessary. Birthdays were always hard on Dick and he wanted to make sure everything was okay. With each year he got older, he got ever more secretive and that was worrying, to say the least. So searching his room for a diary and then reading it to see what was going on was a necessary evil. He crept upstairs and into Dick's room then began his search. He checked obvious areas first just in case like the bedside table and under the bed. He looked under the pillows and in the drawers. It was whilst he was searching one of the clothes cabinets that he noticed the beginning of the clothes pile didn't begin at the bottom of the drawer. He took the clothes out and found a small hole at the side that he could fit his fingers through. "Smart," Bruce mumbled as he lifted it up. The panel revealed a book and a few other things that he decided he didn't want to take any notice of. He was invading someone's privacy, yes but he didn't want to go that far. He put the panel down and walked over to the bed. Luckily the book didn't have a lock on it. 

As he was about to open it, he paused. If Dick found out, he'd be in the dog house for ages. Then again, if there was something important in here maybe he'd be thankful that he didn't need to say anything for changes to be made for the better. Bruce was an open-minded guy so if he found something to do with sexuality or gender he wouldn't care. Weighing up the possibility of a fourteen-year-old killing him in his sleep only to make it seem like a natural death and the possibility of the person he would gladly die for suffering in silence, he went ahead with the plan. He opened up the book and confirmed it was a diary. He skimmed through the pages of general school drama, pausing at things that would be even slightly worrying only to find they were resolved issues. As he got closer and closer to the current date, he noticed a theme coming up a lot. The theme being an issue of femininity. He settled on the page that had been written around six months ago and looked at it in more depth. "The boys at school say boys wear pants not skirts or dresses. They said I was weird for saying I wouldn't mind wearing either." Bruce frowned to himself. Typical Gotham. Although a massive part of him wanted Dick to stay by his side where he could keep an eye on him, he knew the boy couldn't stay in Gotham forever. He didn't fit in here and that took it out of him half the time. Maybe he'd do better somewhere else. Bruce continued to flick through where he found a list. The date was fairly recent too. "Here's what I would ask for if boys didn't have to wear pants." The list was made up of skirts, dresses, makeup, and heels. Typical girl stuff he'd expect Barbara to ask for. He wondered if she was letting him wear her stuff though he suspected Dick hadn't told anyone. Maybe she did know but he couldn't be certain. The final pages were sort of sad. They were about how Dick saw certain things and he had to keep biting his tongue whenever he was asked what he wanted for his birthday. Bruce was an open-minded guy and like the open-minded guy he was, he was going to make sure Dick got what he wanted.

The plan for Dick's birthday was to have breakfast, train then he'd go to the Mountain and hang out there before going to a party with everyone back home. The team knew his identity now which meant they could actually celebrate together. He didn't suspect much on the lead up to his birthday. Bruce had replaced everything in the exact same place as it had been beforehand and left the room. He knew exactly what his ward wanted and, if he wanted it, then he'd get it. "Master Richard would you like to open a few gifts now?" Alfred asked. Dick glanced at his mentor with an excited look.

"You don't have to ask me chum; it's your birthday," he said, smiling to himself. "In fact, I have a few that you could use for tonight. Alfred, could you get them for me?" The butler nodded and disappeared into the other room. Bruce had told him prior to breakfast which presents he wanted to be brought to Dick. He could see Dick trying to work out what it was but he knew he wouldn't be able to guess. Should he film it? No that would make it obvious. He'd be able to remember this well, he just knew it. "Here you are, sir." He put the three wrapped boxes on the table beside the teen. 

"Why are you looking so smug?" Dick asked as he took one to unwrap. 

"I'm just sure that I got you great gifts," Bruce answered.

"Hm, we'll see." Dick took off the wrapping and slid off the lid of the box only to stop dead in his tracks. He laughed softly and glanced up at his mentor. "How did you know?" Inside the box was a light pink pleated skirt. A skirt he'd seen Barbara wear one time and had fallen in love with. He never had the confidence to ask her for it when she gave it away to a charity shop nor did he have the confidence to buy it for himself. "A father knows. Do you like it?" 

"I love it! And you said I could use this tonight? I can wear it?" he asked, a smile firmly set on his features. He hadn't looked this happy in a while and it simply warmed both Alfred's and Bruce's hearts. 

"Absolutely, though you might want to look at what else I got to go with it," Bruce answered. 

Dick opened the next two and gasped in delight at each one. He looked genuinely astounded. The second box had a long-sleeved white cropped hoodie in it that would go with the skirt. It had a little pink milk carton with a cute face on it too. In the last box were baby pink platformers. The platformers that when Dick had mentioned them to Barbara a group of boys told him they were for girls. She insisted that he should still get them but he didn't have the confidence anymore. It also had some tights that had little cats on them. "B this is amazing! I can't believe you got me all this!" he exclaimed. He put the boxes down and ran over to hug him. "You really don't mind?"

"Why would I mind? It's just material at the end of the day," Bruce assured him.

"But they're girl stuff and I'm not a girl."

"So what? It's great that you're in touch with your feminine side. Whoever you date will love that about you. And what am I going to do about you liking girly clothes? Ground you for it?" he joked. He pulled away so Dick could look at him since what he was about to say is very important. "I'm going to love you no matter what. Clothes won't change that. If you wanna wear a skirt, wear it. You want Robin to wear skorts or something, I'm fine with that. I don't care as long as it makes you happy."

"You're the best dad ever."