Inspired by my friend's ramblings about the interview with a vampire tv series and dc vs vampires but in a more cuddly way

Bruce didn't know a lot about kids but he knew Dick wasn't like most kids. 

First of all, he had a condition that meant he couldn't be in the sun for too long. He burned easily and his skin was spotted with old burns that didn't quite go away from before anyone knew about his condition. Bruce had initially feared that it was a cover-up for some abuse the boy had been facing in the circus but he'd seen it happen for himself. He let Dick play outside unsupervised and an hour later, he came running inside cradling his arm that had a bad burn as though his skin had caught alight. Dick went out only in long sleeves after that and never at midday when the sun was at its highest.

Second of all, his canine teeth were sharp. Unnaturally sharp. They couldn't be sharp from birth and Bruce had asked if they'd been shaved into that shape. That had made Dick giggle and call him silly. When he tried to press further, the boy found a way to get out of the conversation and avoid the topic whenever it came up again. Looking at pictures of his parents resulted in finding that his mother had shared the same sharp teeth whilst his father seemed to develop them years later. 

Third of all, and most worryingly, Dick remained thin once he left the circus. It didn't matter how much they gave him to eat or how often they gave him protein drinks between meals to keep him healthy. It did nothing either way. He didn't become malnourished or so thin they thought about taking him to the doctor but he was on the wrong side of slim. His face still held some baby fat but the rest of his body was tiny which made him look far younger. He was ravenous too and got frustrated around meal times yet never said why he was unhappy with the meals. When asked why he wasn't gaining weight on the off chance he knew there was something going on as he did about his skin condition, he said he wasn't allowed to tell anyone. When pressed, he got upset and stated that he "just had to know" what it was.

Bruce knew Dick wasn't normal. He knew there was something happening but he couldn't figure it out. The pieces were all there but without the instructions or a picture of how it was supposed to look in the end, he was going in blind. 

One night, he got a gut instinct to check on Dick. He couldn't explain why but as he wearily scaled the stairs to go to bed, he found himself being pulled to Dick's bedroom and being unable to convince himself to do otherwise. Some nights he popped his head in just to ensure the boy was sleeping well but this didn't feel like a little check-in to ensure he was okay. It felt like a check-in to know he was there which was weird because Dick was good about staying in his room at night. The few times he wandered were to search for his mentor after a nightmare or get food in the middle of the night. The latter of which had been solved by letting him keep some snacks in his room. 

The door to the room was open slightly, almost inviting him in, and he pushed it open further to peer inside. He first noticed a soft breeze against his face and saw that the window had been opened. He didn't remember it being open when he put Dick to bed but the room could get rather warm during the night and Dick would find a way to make himself more comfortable without the help of an adult. He then drifted his eyes back to the bed. The covers had been thrown back and there was a noticeable lack of Dick Grayson snuggled up beneath them. His stuffed elephant was missing too. He frowned and glanced over to the ensuite bathroom. The door was shut but there was no light leaking underneath it. 

"Dick? Are you alright in there?" he called. He knew that Dick had awful nightmares or rather what Leslie had suspected to be night terrors when he mentioned it to her. Perhaps he'd had one so bad that he needed to take refuge somewhere small and controllable, maybe he was sitting in the dark trying to will his breathing to even out. "It's just me. Can I get you anything?" He cautiously put his hand on the doorknob. "I need you to answer me, chum. Even if it's just a knock. I need to know you're not dying in there so if you don't reply, I'll have to come in." He waited a moment. No answer. "Alright, I'm coming in."

The door opened easily, letting him know it had never been locked in the first place and, much to his horror, he found there was no reason for it to be locked. Dick wasn't in there. The room was empty. 

Bruce knew not to panic even though this was his own child missing and not some stranger he was tasked with tracking down. He stepped back and stormed over to the window. Dick was a climber and would climb anything he set his mind on. He wouldn't wait until he got permission or someone to watch him as he still held that childish sense of invincibility. There were some vines by the window and a long drain pipe that seemed climbable if he put himself in the same position as a circus kid who grew up being encouraged to find such things. He stuck his head out and looked up to the roof, not noticing anything out of order like snapped vines or clumps of moss that had been pushed by bare feet. 

Then, albeit slowly out of fear of what he'd see, he turned his head to the ground where he breathed a sigh of relief at not seeing a crumpled child's body. He searched the garden before seeing a grey lump on the ground. He couldn't quite tell what it was thanks to the darkness but it was enough for him to assume it was Dick's stuffed elephant. 

"Dick? Are you out there?" he yelled out. Admittedly, he didn't expect a reply. If Dick thought he was in trouble, he would simply hide until he was sure he could make his way back inside and come up with a good enough lie. Bruce had a lead though and briefly weighed up the option of taking the long way round or propelling himself down the drain pipe he was 90% wouldn't take his weight. He chewed his bottom lip and looked around the room before his eyes landed on Dick's flashlight that he frequently used to read books under the covers past his bedtime. "Short way it is."

After a less-than-graceful shimmying down a drain pipe, Bruce found that he was wrong about it holding his weight for which he was thankful for and flipped on his flashlight. He pointed it in the direction of the grey thing he'd spotted and confirmed it was the stuffed elephant Dick cared for. The darkness had obscured its details but now under the harsh white light of the flashlight, they became clear. Spots of blood stained one of its arms before it had been discarded. If Bruce's stomach didn't drop before, it certainly dropped now. He raced towards it and found footsteps in the wet grass that matched his ward. 

"Dick? Are you hurt? You're not in trouble but I need to know if you're hurt!" There was no reply. Dick was so slim that he'd be freezing about now if he'd gone out in his pyjamas. He could be passed out somewhere either from blood loss or hypothermia. Maybe he'd been snatched from his bedroom and was halfway across town by now in the hands of some grimy c list villain. No, keep on track. He had footprints in front of them and he needed to follow them. Until he reached their end, he wouldn't know either way. 

Bruce had seen a lot of things in his lifetime. Gotham was full of weird-themed villains looking to destroy the world in ways that adhered to their aesthetic. He learned to expect the unexpected but this was a whole other level of unusual.

He'd followed the footprints for a little over five minutes before he finally spotted his ward sitting beneath a tree. In his hands was a small bird. He wasn't sure what species but it was small and common, something he regularly saw weeding his garden of worms. Now it was laying limp in Dick's hands, dark with its own blood that seemed to spread to Dick's face. Speaking of, Dick's eyes were focused on the bird and his teeth, the ones Bruce had come to think of as fangs, were sunk deep into the animal's neck. Dick was so focused on his meal that he barely noticed the flashlight aimed at his feet and only stopped when he finally followed the light to his horrified mentor's face. 

They both froze. Then Dick moved the bird away from his mouth and put it on the ground slowly.

"You didn't feed me," he said quietly, voice thick as though he was about to burst into tears. "I was gonna do something bad."

"What're you talking about?"

"I was starving!"

"I feed you every..." Bruce paused and thought. Blisters under sunlight, sharp teeth, always hungry but never full and feeding on animals to not do something bad. Gotham was a weird place but the world could be far weirder and he'd dealt with magic before. "Dick, are you a vampire?"

"I tried being good! I really did but human food only helps a little. It hurt."

"You're a vampire." 

"Sorta." Bruce nodded slowly, taking it all in.

"Wait, are your parents vampires? Did they actually die?" He knew he should've worded it in a better way but he couldn't stop himself from asking. Were they buried alive whilst he looked after their son? 

"They're gone," Dick whispered. "Dad wasn't my proper dad. A vampire pretended to be my dad."

"So you're half vampire?" The boy shrugged and glanced down at the bird longingly. "Will that bird be enough?" He shook his head. "Alright, follow me."

"Are you mad?"

"No," Bruce said immediately. He couldn't be mad. Dick, despite being starved, hadn't lashed out and attacked him but rather hunted animals. He seemed remorseful and just acted accordingly so nothing bad would happen. 

"Are you scared?"

"No." He wasn't. Dick had been a good kid during his entire stay and he very much doubted that would change now. Was he anxious about what it meant to raise a half-vampire child? Of course. He'd been anxious about raising a child anyway and adding the whole half-vampire thing didn't help but Dick didn't need to know that. He just needed to know he was safe.

"You promise?"

"I promise. Let's get you something to eat."