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Who: Dick Grayson/Nightwing

forceforlight and YOU!
What: April catch all
When: During April
Where: Rooftops around the city; a park
Content Warnings: Updated as needed

He knows better than to complain, especially after the past few months in Blüdhaven. It's been a long time since he's had a quiet, even after coming to this world.

Which is why Nightwing sits on the edge of a high rooftop, a bag of bagels on the rooftop behind him and a cup of coffee warming his hands. After all, early spring isn't any warmer in Michigan than it is in New Jersey.

"I'm going to jinx myself if I say it," he says to whomever shows up, without looking their direction. He's just really used to listening for people coming up behind him. "But, damn, it's quiet."

The name "circusbrat" wasn't taken on TikTok. Not that Dick had any real plans of what to do with it. So far, he'd posted a few short videos of him at a local circus school, doing some tricks on the silks and the lines. There were also a few from the park, with him doing some simple, if impressive, gymnastics.

Which is what he's doing now: filming himself doing handstands.

However, every time he starts, he ends up in a heap of giggles as Haley runs in and hops up to lick his face. "Haley, no," he says, gathering the puppy up and ruffling her ears. "We really need to work on your stay, don't we?"

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“He’d better.”

Who shoots a dog? It’s not like Tim doesn’t see terrible shit every day, but there’s still little things that throw him now and then. Looking at a little cutie like Haley and trying to shoot her is apparently one of those.

He rewards her for still being alive with some more scritches. “And then you couldn’t bring yourself to give her up?”

"According to Babs, the minute I took her home, she wasn't going to the shelter."

And...honestly, she'd probably been right even at the time. If he could have taken her directly to the shelter, she might not have ended up staying with him. But once he had her for a night, there was no way he was going to give her up.

"Apparently, this is a known thing about me."

“That sounds correct.”

She gets in a few more good licks at his chin before he sets Haley down. Well. Sits down with Haley so that she ends up in his lap. Same difference. “What did Bruce think?”

"Well, considering the menagerie that Damian has, he can't really say much about me having a dog in 'Haven." Dick puts the bowl out so that Haley can get a drink, then offers the bottle to Tim first.

“Damian has pets?” There’s limited things he knows about that particular Bat, given that he apparently prefers to keep to himself here.

He shrugs off the bottle - he’s not particularly thirsty right now - and gives Haley a little nudge in the direction of her water bowl so she can get herself hydrated.

"Back home, yeah. I'm not sure about here." Because, like Tim, Dick doesn't know much about the Damian here. He's yet to meet him.

Haley clambers out of Tim's lap and puts her head down into the bowl to get a drink. It's been a bright day, after all, so Dick also takes a good swig of water himself.

Much as getting Haley to drink some water was the intended point, Tim maybe still looks a little abandoned when she leaves him. Hopefully she'll come back when she's done. Until then, he's just a boy, sitting on the ground, hoping a dog will return to his lap.

Well, okay, he's also a little brother with some questions for the alternate universe version of his big brother. "How old are you?" He's just putting together a little timeline in his head, don't mind him.

She'll come back. But needs must be taken care of, first.

Dick stretches his legs out, glancing over at Tim. "26. No, wait. 27. I've had a birthday since I've been here." Not that they'd really celebrated it, but it had happened. "And you? My guess is about fourteen." Because he had seen his own brother at that age and it probably didn't change much. "And how long have you been working with B?"

"Happy birthday."

Dick hasn't even been here that long, has he? Must be kind of weird, having a birthday here and just having it pass you while you were getting used to the place. "Fourteen. And a couple years." Less if you don't count training time before he got to wear the suit, but he's had that conversation already.

"Thanks. It's kinda weird, honestly, but time runs weird in the multiverse and I assume we'll probably go back to when we were taken from when this place lets us go." It's the only thing that makes sense, unless breaking whatever brings the Starfallen here deposits them ages later.

He's really hoping that doesn't happen.

Dick nods at the answers to his questions. "So, about the same as my Tim at that age." And Dick can't say anything because he was younger than 11-12 when he started his training.

“I guess so.”

Haley finishes drinking her water for now and wanders back over to flop her head onto Tim’s lap, which he obliges by providing more head scritches. “You’re only nineteen where I’m from.” So it’s kind of weird that he’s. Older.

That makes Dick look up toward the branches, doing just a quick moment of math in his head. "That makes the gap between you less than the one between me and my Tim by about two years," he says after a moment. "So, that makes you the second Robin?"

Interesting the way that would have worked out. Dick didn't stop being Robin until he was eighteen. With Tim having been trained for a couple of years, he must have overlapped with Dick for a bit.

“What?” Tim asks, sounding confused at first as he processes that Dick must’ve stayed Robin for much longer than his Dick to come to that conclusion. “Oh, um, no. Still the third Robin. He was - he was before me.”

He gets both hands involved in petting Haley now, mostly to give himself something to do with his hands. Jason’s still a touchy subject, and it’s even weirder now knowing that there’s not one but two living Jasons that Tim has yet to meet here.

Dick pauses, then glances up again. Having to redo the math. "So. You've really only just started being out on the streets?" 16 is the earliest he can really see himself leaving. Or Bruce allowing him to leave.

He's not sure how Jason fits in, exactly, but he does, and that's pretty clear.

Shaking his head, Dick glances over to Tim and Haley. "Look. I'm going to warn you now because I don't know how many more differences there are between me and your Dick Grayson. But you look like you need a hug right now and I'm usually pretty physically affectionate with my friends and family." Which does drive some of them crazy. "So if you don't want a hug or if you'd rather I ask beforehand until you're more used to me, tell me, all right?"

“A year and a half or so. Not that I was good at staying home before that.” He’s assuming the other Tim also snuck around Gotham to follow Batman and Robin around. “Jason wasn’t - he wasn’t Robin for that long.”

As for the physical affection thing. He just kind of shrugs up a shoulder. He’s not sure what vibes he’s putting out that make Dick think he needs a hug, but he’s fairly used to his Dick Grayson deciding things like that. “It’s fine, you can hug me.”

It's Dick. Sometimes he gives other people hugs because he needs them, himself. Haley is useful for that, too, sometimes. Which is kinda what's giving Dick the idea that Tim might want a hug.

He does shake his head, leaning over to give the kid a one-armed hug. Which doesn't dislodge Haley at all. And also doesn't keep the touch up for long because this may be Tim, but it's not HIS Tim. It's going to take time to figure out where his lines are.

It may be Dick but it's still not his Dick, so it's possible that Tim is putting more effort than usual into being Normal about being hugged. He doesn't tense up or anything, and that's the important part, right? It's not like when he first started being Robin, and he was overwhelmed by Dick's brand of casual touch.

That doesn't mean he quite knows what to do with the half-hug, right now, or what to do once it's over aside from continue to focus on petting Haley, who it turns out makes a pretty good outlet for not quite knowing what to do in a social situation. So that's nice.

Right. He'd forgotten how Tim could be when he first joined the family. One reason he'd put so much work into being the brother that Tim had needed at the time, because his parents were terrible about being...parents, really.

He settles back, letting Tim pet Haley for a while before he broaches the rest of what he's been thinking about. "You're likely going to need a guardian here."

"Oh."

That's not... not something that has come up with the other Tim already, with no solid decisions made either way. He can't help but huff out a breath, aware that this is probably going to be made A Thing in much the same way that the Bats back home made it A Thing when they realized how much of Tim's time that was supposed to be spent under the watchful eye of his parents... wasn't.

"It's okay. I can manage for myself." He'd done it for a while back home. Admittedly, he had his parents' money to fall back on the majority of the time there. He's not quite sure how he's going to make living money as a fourteen-year-old on a new Earth, but he'll figure it out.

"I know you can." And Dick does. He knows the sorts of things that his Tim sorted out for himself during those early years. And, he hates to say it, it seems like this Tim might have been through the same sorts of things. "The Guilds and the government, however, don't know that. They're going to expect you either to have a guardian or live at the dorms of the superpowered school."

Just laying out what's likely to happen for him.

"How closely can they possibly be keeping an eye on minors here?" After all, they literally dropped out of the sky. Sure, the Guilds gave him a hotel room and a credit card, but if he just disappeared, how far would they look? "I could drop off the grid."

"They have at least a few people who are Superman levels of power." Which means that keeping track of people is a lot easier than some would expect. "And you could. Or I could be your guardian."

“You - you don’t have to do that.” If it came down to it, yes, Dick is probably the Bat here that he would be most comfortable with taking that role, but he doesn’t want him to feel obligated just because Tim’s in kind of a tight situation. He can manage. He’s been in tight situations before.

"Who said anything about HAVING to do it?" Dick raises an eyebrow at that. "You're family."

And, really, it's that simple for Dick. Tim is family. Tim will always be family. That means he'll do whatever he can to help out and keep him safe.

It's not that simple, though, because - it just isn't. "Yeah, but - I mean, you don't even need a Robin here, and you already have one, anyway, so it's not like you need me living close by." Which is part of why they took him in back home, as he understands it. Wayne Manor has enough space for three dozen Tims, anyway, and it's convenient. This can't possibly be convenient.

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