Dick Grayson Trash

Lost! (New kid 5)

-thank you to @JRyszarda for the request. I'm finally starting to get around to my requests. I'm also very sleepy cause it's 2:30am, and I spend all night vandalizing park benches-

-side note: are yall wanting updates on "The Man I Saw on The Stairs"? Or should I leave that for later?-

"He, just.." Tim sighed so heavily the very ground beneath them shuddered. "He just followed me down here. He saw the clock move, and... this one's my fault. Sorry."

"No, it's not your fault, this was going to happen eventually." Bruce sighed, pinching between his eyes, thinking carefully through his next moves. He lowered himself closer to the height of the little boy who cowered behind Tin's leg. "Hey Dick. you found something, didn't you?"

Dick looked around the huge dark cavern nervously, then looked back at Bruce. "Batman?" He asked. Jason told him about Gotham's hero, and he was largely the focus of Terry's bedtime stories. Dick had wanted to see Batman one day, but this wasn't how he expected it to happen.

"Yeah that's right, Batman." Bruce smiled as calmly as he could. it was always hard to explain the whole Bruce Wayne/Batman thing to a kid. 

A part of him wished they could have gone on the way they did forever. with Dick not knowing, but he knew that part was stupid. Dick was going to find out eventually, but three months living at the manor felt too soon. He was only five! He was already traumatized and didn't need to worry about his new family at night. Then, there was always the possibility he could tell....

"I'll go get the others, maybe it'll be easier if we explain together." Tim shook Dick from his leg, and hurried back upstairs.

Dick glanced around the dark, dank, empty space. Even with Bruce feet from him, Dick felt so alone in here.

Bruce reached out and for once the boy didn't try to escape, he let Bruce hold him gently by the shoulder. "This is a big secret. Okay, Dick? You can't tell anyone the secret."

Dick's brain was working overtime, trying to process everything. "Why...?"

shoot, Bruce thought, that's a good question: How do I explain this to a five year old? Bruce never had to explain this to a child so young. Usually by eight or nine they understand wat he means by 'If everyone knows, the people I love will be in danger', but Dick was so young, and barely understood half of what he says in English.

"Because if everyone knows, it won't be fun anymore." 

Dick seemed to see this as a valid explanation, nodding understandingly. Meanwhile, Bruce patted himself on the back for what must have been some of his best improvised parenting to date.

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It had been a week or so, and Dick had actually started to enjoy hanging around the batcave. When the others were in there, he wasn't even scared of the monsters in the dark. Tim showed him how to do cool things on the computer, Terry and Jason showed him the padded weapons he could play with (though Jason himself liked the real ones), and overall, Dick was starting to like the place.

One Friday night, Dick had been told he could play in the cave until they headed out at his bedtime. 

Count on them to forget he was napping in the batcomputer chair. 

Dick awoke when he heard the batmobile roar from the cave. He couldn't get up and go to bed, it was all dark now, the monsters would get him. Dick looked around the dark, dark, cave, He was not taking his feet off this chair. He would try to go back to sleep, and hope that Alfred would notice he hadn't been put to bed, and come looking for him.