Chapter Text
The ride back to the city had been relatively quiet. A comfortable silence had settled around the Team, the stress of their desperate scramble to save the Justice League finally catching up as they all settled into what snacks could be scrounged from their supplies on the ship, leaning against each other and enjoying the moment of peace together.
Artemis had insisted on redressing Nightwing’s wounds as they went, carefully re-wrapping his bandages and applying the bruise salve they kept on the plane for such occasions. Nightwing was thankful for the help – he honestly wasn’t even sure he’d be able to take care of his back properly for the next few days, what with his current painfully limited mobility.
They landed in Blüdhaven, on the rooftop of his apartment building, much faster than he’d felt they should have.
It probably felt faster simply because there was going to be a decision at the end. A decision he wasn’t ready to make, but was going to make anyway.
For a minute, no one moved, everyone unwilling to be the first to break the tranquility and comfortable quiet of their newly expanded team.
Finally, knowing he’d back out if he gave himself any more time to overthink, Nightwing broke the silence.
“Thank you,” he murmured, voice a little hoarser than he’d wanted, but honest nonetheless, “for having my back. I...I don’t think I would have been able to get out of this one unscathed without your help.”
“It was our genuine pleasure, my friend.” Aqualad replied warmly. “Though,” he added ruefully, “it might have gone smoother if you had used less words at times.”
“I’m chatty. It’s a part of my charm.” Nightwing shrugged, wincing at the pull against his stitches and carefully ignoring the chastising glare from Artemis.
“A part of you, definitely.” Kid Flash agreed with a grin. “Charming? That part’s debatable.” The speedster winced as Artemis elbowed him in the side from her position leaning against him. Nightwing smiled to see them so settled into each other. That looked like it had potential to develop into something much deeper, given time.
“Oh, I don’t know, I think you’re charming enough for a human.” Miss Martian teased lightly, her giggle bubbling up in her words. Superboy rolled his eyes, and Artemis snickered behind a hand.
“Seriously though, dude, you’re diagnosibly insane. Going up against the Justice League and not even flinching like that, no matter how scared you were, that was crazy, dude.” Kid Flash shook his head. “Gotham’s gotta be something else, producing crazy people like you.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” Nightwing admitted, “but there’s a saying in my native tongue that describes us Bats and Gotham pretty well: Jekh dilo kerel but dile hai but dile keren dilimata. One madman makes many madmen, and many madmen make madness.”
“That does seem accurate.” Superboy rumbled, his lips quirked in the barest hint of amusement.
“One last accent guess, before you go?” Kid Flash asked, hopeful.
“Sure, why not?” Nightwing tried for chill, and wasn’t sure if he’d made it. He’d dropped the phrase knowing the direction they’d go. And he couldn’t lose courage now.
“Is it Sanskrit?” The speedster asked hopefully.
“Sorry, KF, a swing and a miss.” Nightwing smirked as Kid Flash muttered something disgruntled under his breath.
“There is something I need to tell you guys, though. Before I hop off and get abducted back to Gotham by my entirely overprotective siblings who I’m sure are already waiting for me inside.” Nightwing grinned nervously. “It’s, ah, it’s kind of important. And a bit of a big deal.”
The heroes sat up straighter, picking up on his anxiety.
“Whatever it is, won’t change our opinion of you.” Artemis asserted, her voice firm and certain.
“Oh, it’s definitely going to change your opinion.” Nightwing laughed awkwardly. “I just hope it won’t be in a bad way.”
This was it. The moment of truth. The moment where he’d test the legs of their newborn team, where he’d see if he could outrun the trained neuroses he’d been fighting so hard to escape recently. The part of his mind that still sounded like the Bat growled unintelligible paranoid advice, and he resolutely refused to make out the words.
They’d accept him. He was sure of it.
They hadn’t rejected him over anything else he’d done yet.
So why was this so terrifying?
He turned to meet Kid Flash’s eyes, and felt something positively giddy bubble up through his chest, pushing aside the fear to settle in alongside it, twisting his stomach into something nauseously excited and anxious.
“It’s Romani, KF.” Nightwing stated, feeling the grin spread uncontrollably across his face.
“Romani?! I was so close!” Kid Flash despaired, before freezing, understanding dawning in his eyes.
“Wait, Romani?” Artemis repeated slowly, narrowing her eyes.
“But that would mean you’re…” Kid Flash stared at him openly as his voice trailed off.
“A bit of a Dick?” Nightwing grinned mischeviously.
He peeled his domino mask off of his face, having already discreetly sprayed the solvent earlier when they hadn’t been paying close attention to him, back when he’d made the decision to reveal himself at the end of the flight.
Honestly, he was just grateful the mask had held long enough for his dramatic reveal, because it would have been rather anti-climactic for it to just fall off his face halfway through instead, and Dick was nothing if not a Dramatic Bitch, as Jay liked to inform him. As if he isn’t just as bad as me.
“You son of a bitch!” Artemis burst out, freezing Dick for one moment with the heat in her tone.
For one heart-stopping moment, he feared he’d made a terrible mistake.
Then she burst into incredulous laughter, falling back into Kid Flash as she lost control. The relief Dick felt was such a punch in the gut, he couldn’t help but start to laugh along with her, quickly drawing the rest of the Team into an unstoppable wave of laughter so strong, he almost feared Joker Gas was involved.
“There were so many clues!” The archer gasped out between peals of laughter.
“That’s what happens when you interact with clever heroes too much on too little sleep.” Nightwing agreed. “I’m just lucky I never accidentally let it slip with how little time I’ve actually spent in my bed this past week. When I get home, I’m going to crash for two days straight.”
“How do your scars disappear?” Superboy asked with a confused frown.
Dick grinned, and pulled a battered silver ring from his utility belt.
“You think you’re the only ones with this nifty technology?” He asked, pulling off a glove and slipping the ring on. He’d seen the illusion dozens of times, but it never failed to amuse him when he got to see others watch it happen.
It had only ever been his family and select trusted individuals – really just Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who the family always called in when injuries proved too much for them to treat alone – and getting to see the wonder on the heroes’ faces as his many old injuries simply vanished from view, leaving behind the smooth-skinned detective they’d come to know separate from his vigilante identity was hilarious.
Miss Martian gasped in delight, immediately gushing about how it looked just as good as Martian shapeshifting.
Artemis muttered something about not getting nearly as cool of an effect out of her own ring.
Aqualad and Superboy both nodded as though the world had suddenly come into focus and everything made sense.
Kid Flash just stared, open-mouthed.
“Well that explains so much!” He declared loudly. “All those times we met at our apartment...you really just came across the hall?”
“Well, I usually went up and over the building to make sure it didn’t look so suspicious, but yeah.” Dick laughed, pulling back up his Gothamite accent that accompanied his Dick Grayson mask.
“That is just eerie, dude.” Kid Flash muttered, unsettled.
“It’s impressive, is what it is.” Artemis corrected. “You wish you could do that so smoothly.”
“The lady isn’t wrong.” Kid Flash admitted.
“This certainly does explain a lot about both sides of you, my friend.” Aqualad smiled.
“Wait, wait, wait. But if you’re Nightwing, and the first Robin, then does that mean…” Kid Flash’s eyes widened comically. “Bruce Wayne is Batman.” He breathed the words like saying them too loudly would make them impossibly true.
“And the rest of your family in the spotlight...Timothy Drake, Damian Wayne...but...that means Jason Todd isn’t dead?” Artemis frowned.
“He was. But he isn’t anymore.” Dick replied, resenting the pain in his back that was keeping him from being able to rub his neck to relieve the awkwardness of this conversation. “It’s a really long story.”
“The playboy patchwork family of Gotham...is the Bat and his brood.” Artemis’ incredulity was tinged with an almost hysterical laugh.
“And that reaction right there is why the cover works so very, very well.” Dick chuckled. “But look, guys, you need to understand that this is beyond secret. If this got out, my family would be in more danger than they already are. We’re doing good in the city, even if it’s not the Justice League’s style.”
“Of course.” Superboy didn’t even hesitate. “You’re our friend. We wont’ tell.”
“Not a soul!” Miss Martian confirmed brightly.
“Thank you for sharing this with us. For trusting us with this.” Aqualad dipped his head softly, ever the diplomat. “We understand that these secrets are important to you. That you took many steps to protect them from us until you were ready to trust us.”
His words sobered the group for a moment, the heroes collectively reflecting on the trust he’d just given them. Dick shifted uncomfortably under the weight of the silence, until Aqualad took pity on him, and spoke.
“Though, perhaps next time you want to know what we discuss and what we know, you could simply come to the Cave, rather than put listening bugs in our apartment.” The Atlantean leader smirked.
Kid Flash made an indignant noise, and started a new round of banter.
Dick Grayson let it wash over him, and marveled that, standing there in his Nightwing uniform, having worn every mask he had in front of these heroes, they accepted him into their ranks so easily. He’d expected the collision of his identities, of the masks he wore to face the different pieces of his world, to end much more explosively.
Instead he was met with acceptance. With a new family and new friends.
And standing there, unmasked before these heroes in so many of the ways that matter, still clinging onto the shards of the masks he’d worn so often before, stuck between vulnerability and protection, Detective Dick Grayson, son of Bruce Wayne, Nightwing of Blüdhaven and of the Young Justice League, found peace.
And if that peace were to be found when his masks were left strewn about, if he found support in the young heroes around him, if he watched as they accepted all that he had shown them so far, and considered with hope the acceptance he’d receive as he opened up further…
Well.
Maybe maskless wasn’t such a bad way to be.