Work Text:
It’s Dick’s idea. Tim is in Central City, and Bruce is in Asia. He’s been spending a lot of time with Barbara, and with friends from BPD and his apartment...but it’s not the same. The truth is, he’s feeling lonely. So he puts the calls.
***
“I’m gonna be on call,” Wally says apologetically. “I mean—you know, I know that’s a given—for all of us—but you know—Central City and—it's just me now and no one else around really--”
“'s alright, Wally,” Dick assures him. He thinks of that weird time with Jean-Paul when Bruce had been off to God-knows-where and Tim had come to get Dick because Bruce’s chosen replacement-Batman was going off the rails.
But. His mentor—his father figure—hadn't been dead. (He dreads the thought of the next time he might have to take Batman’s mantle—but that is something he doesn’t let himself think of often, never, really.) So he doesn’t say “I get it.”
Instead, he says, “We know. You need to go, hell, we’d all be willing to be company. But it’ll be great to see you again buddy, even if it’s just a few minutes.”
It’s at this point that Tim would probably laugh and tell him he’d better stop before he got to real cheese-sauce levels. Barbara would snort and tell him, ‘Careful, quesadilla, your insides are showing.’ (he swore his little brother and girlfriend had been talking.) Bruce would look uncomfortable and either change the subject or say something jerkish. Cass or Alfred would probably smile, and that was good to know. (He figured it was good for him, to have a few people who didn’t mind him being open.)
(Jason would probably hit him and tell him to ‘shut up, wierdo’, and Dick stuffs that thought back into a box to focus on Wally.)
Wally, who does none of that. Simply says, “Thanks man, we’ve got a plan then yeah?”
“Definitely. So how’s Linda doing?”
He can hear Wally perk up.
It’s actually an hour later that Wally tells Dick he needs to get ready for work.
“It’s been too long,” Dick says quietly.
“Yeah,” Wally agrees. “We should talk more often. At least a text convo every week, yeah? Deal?”
Dick smiles, thinking of ‘deals’ sealed with secret handshakes as kids. “Deal.”
***
"I’ll be certain to be there,” Garth vows.
Dick grins, deciding today is his lucky day. For one thing Garth, who lives in freaking Atlantis, was actually ‘on the surface’ to answer the phone, which meant Dick hadn’t had to go through the painstaking process of accessing Justice League equipment to make the call, which would certainly cause raised eyebrows and questions from Bruce (even on the other side of the globe.) For another, Garth’s slightly absentminded manner had dropped as soon as Dick had mentioned his plan.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Of course—wait, give me a moment, Dick--” his voice was muffled, but Dick made out the words ‘king’, ‘squid’ and ‘whirlpool’ before Garth’s voice cleared. “Sorry about that.”
“Sounds important,” Dick huffed, grinning.
“Indeed.” Dick could imagine the slightly bashful smile on Garth’s face. “I’m so sorry, Dick, but I really need to go deal with...”
“A king and squids and a whirlpool?” Dick laughed as Garth chuckled too.
“In a nutshell, yes.”
“Course Garth. Duty calls when duty calls.”
“I’ll see you soon, friend.”
“See you, Garth.”
***
Roy asks, “Is this a oh-yeah-bring-Lian kind of thing, a whatever-the-hell-you-do-don't-bring-Lian kinda thing, or a it’s-up-to-you kind of thing?”
“We’re meeting at a restaurant in Michigan?” Dick offers a little uncertainly. He’s not sure where the dividers are in those categories.
“Not a bar, yeah?”
“No.”
"No plans to get drunk or do some stupid shit.”
“Not at present, no.” It’s all he can guarantee. They’ve never had the best luck with avoiding situations.
Roy snorts. “And maybe we’ll all be lucky. Well, live life and all that. I’ll bring Lian. Babysitter’s on vacation and I’d rather not just dump her with someone new.”
Dick nods cause it seems to make sense. “It’ll be great seeing you both. How old is Lian now, again?”
“Three,” Roy says warmly, and Dick settles in to hear all the milestones a three-year-old could hit in the last two months.
***
“That’s a wonderful idea, Dick,” Donna says. After doubt, absentmindedness, and suspicion, it’s good to hear someone sound plain excited.
“It’ll be good to see each other again,” Dick agrees.
“I’ve missed you all.”
“Same. Bet it’s true of the others too except they’d never admit it.”
She laughs.
“It’s been lonely out here,” he admits. Donna has always been easy to talk to.
“Well, maybe a little less after Friday,” she says. “You know you can call me any time you want to talk. Or just hear a familiar voice.”
“Thanks Donna.” And yeah, he’s missed having a ‘big sister’. It’s been a long time since he was the youngest but he’s learning it’s hard to be the oldest. It’s been quite the leap.
“Wally says he might have to leave early if something comes up,” Dick offers after a moment of comfortable silence. “But he’ll be there for sure. Same with Garth. And Roy is coming with Lian.”
“That’s nice,” Donna says. And Dick can hear the hint of wistfulness and pain in her voice. “I’d love to see Lian again. She must have gotten so big now.”
“Yeah,” Dick says softly. He twists the cord of his hoodie between his fingers. “It goes both ways, you know,” he says. He thinks of Tim.
“Hm?”
“You ever need someone to talk to. Or to talk.”
“Thanks Dick. Oh my God, Dick Grayson is it five o’clock over there?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t tell me. You have work tomorrow.”
“Yeah...”
“Why are you awake, Dick?”
“To talk to you, of course.”
“You could have called me tomorrow.”
“Good point. Actually, I have no idea why I’m still awake.”
Donna snorts. He can just see her rolling her eyes and shaking her head.
“I really should get to bed, though,” he chuckles, thinking ruefully of the ten-hour shift waiting for him the next day. “See you Friday?”
“Definitely,” Donna confirms. “Night, Dick.”
“Afternoon, Donna.”
He can hear her laughing as she hangs up.
***
“Roy, please don’t order the fish sticks.”
“But maybe I want the fish sticks,” Roy grins across the table at Garth, who makes a pained face.
“--just not like you, Dick!” Donna is saying.
Dick grimaces. “I--it seemed like a good idea at the time...”
Wally saves him when he breaks into their conversation. “Not avoiding my question about G.L., are you Donna?” he grins and sends a wink at Dick as Donna blinks, purses her lips, opens her mouth and shuts it again.
Roy suddenly drops under the table. When he reemerges, he’s pulling along a three-year-old-girl. “Hey, you! Leave Daddy’s boots alone!”
Lian beams at him. “I dropped a fishy!”
Roy plops her down into the space between him and Dick as the waitress approaches their table. “Alright. Everyone know what they want?”
She’s immediately met with five beaming faces.
“World peace!” Dick, Donna, Wally and Garth all announce, in sync.
“Fish sticks,” Roy says politely.
The poor girl just blinks at them.
Dick smiles at her. “I think we need another minute here, thanks.” She nods at him, looking a little flustered, and hurries away.
“I was going to lord it over that, thanks to that time I spent training in another dimension, I’m actually older than you now,” Garth is telling Roy, “but I guess that would be overkill, considering that you haven’t matured one bit.”
“Fishy?” Lian offers.
Dick bends down to bite the cracker out of her hand. “Yumyumyumyum!”
Lian stares up at him with wide eyes. “No, no!” she exclaims, shaking a hand at him. “Fishies for Gillhead!”
Dick smiles at his oldest friends sitting around the table as Garth tries to convince Lian his name is not Gillhead whilst Roy looks on in amusement and Wally and Donna begin to teasingly argue about something.
It’s not old times, really. But whatever it is, it feels good.