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Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Tumblr Fics
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Published:
2014-08-04
Completed:
2020-10-17
Words:
17,560
Chapters:
38/38
Comments:
65
Kudos:
584
Bookmarks:
29
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17,611

Tumblr Prompts

Chapter 37: Orphans - DC Comics

Summary:

Prompt: "You died and left me your children, even though they’re only a few years younger than me"

Notes:

As with all the inheritance prompts, warning for past off-screen character death.

Chapter Text

“And another thing!” Jason yelled, getting right up in Dick’s face, so it’s impossible to ignore just how physically imposing he is, even by the standards of their family. “You need to keep your nose the fuck out of my business! Just because he’s dead doesn’t make you my fucking dad!”

“I know!” Dick hadn’t meant to yell, but sometimes Jason makes it impossible for him to keep his cool. There’s no one like little brothers for getting under your skin, even if he and Jason have never quite been family the way the others are. There’s a lot of things Dick regrets, but none of them more than the fact that he’d allowed his issues with Bruce to push him and Jay apart when Jay was just a kid desperately looking for any family he could get. “God, Jay, I know, okay? You think I don’t?!”

He slumps back to lean against the rough brick of the wall behind them, and fuck everything about this but most especially the fact that Jason had wanted to do it in public. They’re not even on a rooftop, anyone could walk past and hear them, hear Jay airing all the families dirty laundry. “You think I wanted to be the head of the family?! I’m not even Batman this time, and still somehow I’ve ended up having to be the one keeping this fucking family from imploding and it’s hard! You want to know why Bruce did such a bad job most of the time? It’s because getting you lot to actually talk about anything is like herding cats! The last time all six of us were in one room was the funeral!”

“Hate to break it to you, Dickie bird, but we’re not exactly the Ricardos here! Playing happy families isn’t what we do!”

“You think I don’t know that?! I’ve been there for half the fights you’ve started with Dami, remember? I just…” He sighs, all the anger vanishing, leaving him tired and sad. “When Bruce was alive, there was always something to bring us together, even if it was just for Arkham breakouts. Now he’s gone… I worry that we’re just going to go our separate ways, and I don’t want that. We might be a fucked up family, but we are still a family, and I don’t want to loose that. And not just for myself. Wearing the cowl is hell, and Cass deserves to have a family to support her. Dami deserves to grow up with us as his siblings, not as strangers. And you, and Duke, and Tim, you all need us, even if you don’t want to admit it. And I’m the oldest, so it’s my job to try and hold everything together, and it’s…” He’s not surprised to feel the tears start. “It’s fucking killing me, Jay. Being the old who has to hold us together. Being the one who has to keep his cool, even though you all make me want to scream sometimes.

“I… I lost him too, you know? He was my best friend, he was my dad, I loved him even when I wanted to strangle him, and he’s gone and everyone expects me to hold it together even when the rest of you are pulling me in five different directions at once and I just…”

He covers his face and lets himself cry, in great heaving sobs that shake his whole body, clog his throat with tears until he can barely breath.

He starts when he feels hands on his shoulders, but he doesn't resist when Jay pulls him into an embrace and just holds him. He hugs like Bruce, quiet strength and palpable emotional discomfort, and after a moment Dick hugs him back and hides his tears in Jason’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Jay says, quietly. “I didn’t mean… None of us meant to make things hard on you. We’re just messed up. Even I… Even I am. He was a bastard, but he was my dad too.”

“I know. God Jay, of course I know, I know better than anyone, that’s why I want you with me. That’s why the others need you.”

“They don’t.”

“They do.” He pulls back, just enough that he can look Jay in the eye, make sure he’s hearing what Dick is saying. “Tim doesn’t know how to grieve, and Cass is figuring out how to wear the cowl, and Duke keeps thinking he’s not one of us just because he’s the newest, and Damian is fifteen and he just lost his dad! They need their big brothers, and I need you. I can’t do this by myself and I can’t ask Alfred to do it, not when he’s just buried the man who was in son in all but name. I need you with me, for them... and for me. I don’t want to be anyone’s dad, but someone’s got to be! And you’re the only one I can just… I don’t have to be the grown-up with you, because you’re a whole-ass adult, I can be…”

“A boy who’s lost his dad,” Jason says quietly.

Dick sighs. “Yeah. You’d think it would get easier with time, but this… I don’t think he’s coming back this time.”

Jason nods. “Me either. I didn’t think it would hurt this much.”

“He was your parent.”

“Yeah well, I’ve had a few of those.”

“Me too. Doesn’t make it any easier.”

“No. It doesn’t.”

“I’m not asking you to, I don’t know, forgive Bruce for all the stuff you two fought about, or magically stop finding Dami annoying. I love him, I love him so much, but he can be the most obnoxious person on the planet when he wants to be. But he’s also a kid who’s grieving, and he needs you.”

“He needs us,” Jason says, and Dick sighs with relief.

“Yeah. He really really does.”

“Jesus.” Jason lets out something that’s not quite a laugh, not quite a sob. “I can’t believe Bruce died and left us his fucking orphan collection.”