Going back to the apartment felt weird. Dick had no memory of the place and held no real care for it even though he knew his siblings were holding some kind of emotion towards it. To him, it was just another apartment. There was nothing too special aside from the few personal things on display. It looked lived in despite nobody being there for nearly half a year now with no one stepping inside. 

Christmas had been close when they found out there was no changing him back so they spent the holidays ignoring the pressing issue of figuring out how to change their lives to accommodate the new change and what to do with everything he'd unintentionally left behind. He didn't mind their quiet Christmas although he did mind the month after it when everyone who'd known him as an adult came to visit him either for the nostalgia as they'd known him as a child or to confirm the rumours. Still, he tried not to kick up a fuss when people came to visit despite only knowing a few from his time. They were grieving he reasoned. 

In March they held a sort of funeral for his older self. It was mostly for public reasons as they couldn't explain how else a member of the Wayne family disappeared into the night for no reason. To cover up the lack of there being a body, the family made up a story about him going travelling but dropping off somewhere after reaching the Amazon forest. The public assumed he died to the elements or something along those lines. Dick didn't go to his own funeral. For one, that would be weird and horribly morbid for someone so tiny and second, it would bring up questions about who he was. 

The following month, he'd been revealed to the public because Bruce had brought him out to buy clothes and toys. Dick was still Dick Grayson to the public although with the added Jr and a story about being a secret child who had come under Bruce's care through mysterious means. The mysterious part came from none of them deciding on a cool enough back story and planning to agree with the best one the papers could make up. Dick let them take over most of that stuff since he thought it must be rather cathartic for them to work through their loss like this. 

Catharsis had brought them to finally deal with Dick's abandoned apartment he guessed. Not everyone could make it to help the move-out process but he couldn't decide if that was because they genuinely couldn't be there or couldn't handle seeing a place so well lived in torn apart. Those part of the moving committee was Bruce, Jason, Damian and Selina. He'd taken quite a shine to her and all the cats she kept. They hadn't spoken much since he was overwhelmed with meeting everybody who didn't get to say goodbye to his old self but from their short interactions, he liked her just as much as he had when he was solving her crimes. Bruce needed someone who could keep him on his toes and he'd probably grow bored of whatever a civilian could provide for him since he'd never shown that much interest in domestic life. Dick wasn't sure why he'd been brought along to pack up the flat but assumed it was an attempt at giving him closure. 

Dick watched as his family moved around the apartment like ghosts and he couldn't help but want to be anywhere else. They'd pick up pictures that were hung up or share a comment about a story Dick didn't know about and they'd laugh but he couldn't laugh along nor could he offer that much comfort when the laughter faded to a tense silence. He eventually slipped away into a different room to avoid them, finding his office. It was caked in dust from not being used in half a year but from what he could tell, it was used a lot. There was even a roll-out bed underneath the desk for what he guessed were late nights working on cases. His bed wasn't far away but from what he knew about this version of himself he was a hardcore workaholic so it came as no surprise. Dick walked around the room in search of anything he wanted to keep. On his desk were a few case files he'd left behind and he lazily looked over the notes, finding nothing of interest. He should probably leave them where they were in case it was important. Though surely if it were important then they'd already be collected by whoever needed them. He shrugged at the thought and continued to drag his eyes over the desk. There were a few photos there, each featuring people he'd met in the previous months. Immediately, he recognised his family and it took him a minute to register who the Teen Titans were alongside a picture of him and Wally. Dick collected them from their places, wiping away the dust, before going back to the living room to put them in the box labelled KEEP. 

"Find something?" Selina asked as he carefully placed them inside.

"Just photos. I'll probably give them to the people who are in them since I uh...don't...remember." He felt awkward admitting it and quickly busied himself with finding another room to explore. He felt her watching him and heard her mutter something when Bruce walked in.

Next up was the bathroom. He didn't expect to find anything of value in there but everyone else was occupying the other rooms and he still didn't want to see them so disheartened. There was nothing of note right away about it. The walls were plain and the bathtub was a little grimey if he was honest like something you'd find in a serial killer's semi-abandoned house. There was a ring of red-brown almost copper around the edge as though someone had been basking in their own blood. He didn't have any injuries when he appeared in this time so he guessed the blood was pretty old. He absentmindedly looked through the cabinets, throwing various expired things in the bin until he found something crammed right at the back of the drawer. It took some fiddling to finally get it out and when he did, he discovered the object was a small plain box that smelt funny. He'd smelt it before when he was on patrol. A group of people had stunk of the stuff and when he asked Batman about it, he said they were smoking bad cigarettes. As though there was a good kind of cigarette. He placed the box to the side for now before continuing his inspection. Alongside more expired medication, he discovered some weapons that had been stashed away perhaps for surprise attacks. 

Dick closed the mirror he was searching through and caught sight of himself. He felt weird sitting on the edge of the sink and looking at himself. This is probably where his older self sat when fixing himself up. That version of himself probably stood there staring at what he'd become before reaching inside to get medicine after some fight. There was a freaky sense of deja vu mixed with the uncanny valley. It was like he could see himself in his twenties but then couldn't quite picture it right. The feeling got too much and he had to force his eyes away and then focus them on the tiling. At some point, he'd felt comfortable in this bathroom. It was probably like a small sanctuary after a rough night out and offered him comfort as he fixed himself. Now it felt cold and awkward. It meant nothing, everything here felt like nothing. What was he supposed to do with that?

"Goldie, get off your ass and come help will ya?" Jason called, making the acrobat snap his head up to the doorway. "You alright?" 

"I don't know why you guys brought me here. This isn't my home, it never was," he replied rather pathetically. He knew he wasn't helping to improve the tension that hung over the apartment like a cloud but he didn't much care about keeping this bottled up for much longer. It wasn't fair he was made to come here to bring some closure he didn't need. 

"We know."

"Then why am I here?"

"Are you done in here?" Jason asked seemingly avoiding the question.

"Yeah, I just found this weird box. It smells funny." A smirk broke out on the older's face as he stepped into the room and picked up the box.

"Not so golden after all," he muttered under his breath but there was a fondness there that just broke Dick's heart. He recognised it in his own voice when he spoke about his parents and he understood the pain behind it. He wished he could take it away by just turning back into an adult but there was nothing he could do. Jason put the box in his inner jacket pocket and then turned to him. "We brought you here for selfish reasons. I'm man enough to tell you that."

"What's that mean?"

"You're here to remind us you aren't dead and we're not cleaning up this place to sell because you're gone," he answered simply. Dick liked that about him. He told it like how it was even when it was blunt or cutting. "You wanna come see your Nightwing shrine?"

"I have a shrine to myself?"

"Nah, I'm talking about where you stored everything. We're bringing it all with us anyway for Bruce to put up as his memorabilia corridor but you might be able to snag something before he locks it up to mope over." Dick thought about it for a moment then nodded, doing grabby hands to show he wanted to be carried. The older rolled his eyes and picked him up balancing him on his hip. "You know, at some point, you're gonna get too big to carry."

"Exactly so I gotta make use of it now." He tutted but a smile sat firmly on his features. 

Dick vaguely knew about Nightwing but actually seeing it all was something else entirely and he was in awe of it all. All the cool weapons he'd used lined up on the walls, different suits sitting in cases, and tech he could've only dreamed of displayed like it wasn't the coolest thing ever. Jason let him down so he could have a walk around the room, leaning against the door as he watched him slowly explore. The acrobat kept his hands close to his chest as though even merely breathing on something would break it. His eyes were wide as he got a closer look at everything and he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the Discowing suit. 

"That looks like one of Dad's suits," he whispered. 

"It does?" Jason asked. He felt a little embarrassed not knowing that was his inspiration behind the get up although he should've guessed from how flashy it was. 

"Yeah he wore it in winter usually," Dick replied. He remembered exactly how it twinkled under the lights and how much fun it was to play with the tassels. It probably wasn't as fun now he was older but it was absolutely mesmerizing when he was little. His parents said sometimes it was the only thing that would stop him from crying.

"Oh yeah, because that looks super thermal."

"Don't make fun of my Dad," he snapped, glaring at him.

"Right sorry, I forgot it wasn't that long ago for you." The glare disappeared as soon as he got the apology and he went back to staring at the suits. A thought passed through his mind and he couldn't help but say it aloud.

"Do you think I could be Nightwing?" he asked. "Y'know since Dami is Robin now and our whole story is that I'm Dick's kid."

"I uh, I don't know Goldie. It's something you'd have to ask Bruce about."

"I'm asking you," he insisted. Jason let out a sigh and walked over to be beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"You're a good hero Dick, always have been, but you've got a second chance here. I know you've been training with us but this is your second chance. Do you really wanna use it on being a hero again knowing all the shit you went through?" He looked over at the suit and thought back to the journal. He'd been through so many horrible things thanks to being Robin and then being Nightwing. Yet he also went through a lot of amazing things thanks to his hero career. If this was his second chance of life, he couldn't see it remaining that of a civilian when everyone around him was out there helping. 

"I want to be a hero again," he replied confidently. 

"Then I guess we should let Alfred know he needs to bust out the sewing machine again."

"What's this about a sewing machine?" Bruce asked, appearing in the doorway.

"I'm gonna be Nightwing again."

"Fine but you're actually covering up this time, you're not going out there in bicycle shorts."

And that's it - only took me an uncomfortable amount of time to finish it but here we are!! if you guys want any one shots based off this, it'll be in the one shot book 

I know some of you wanted him to turn back but I like drama and it's a sorta happy ending