i was fucking around with the snapchat AI and got this prompt so here we go 

It was very rare that within stepping foot of Wayne Manor, Dick wasn't accosted by one of his siblings telling him how his foster father failed to meet their expectations once again. It was a nice change even if it left him a little confused on what to do. He eventually found himself in the library, picking up a book he started a long time ago that he never got to finish. He got about three pages in before he was interrupted.

"Father is an imbecile," Damian announced as he dramatically threw himself onto the lounge couch in the library. He would argue that he was well within reason to do so even if the display got an eye roll from Dick.

"Glad you're finally on the same page," the acrobat teased lightly. He put his book aside and waited for the incoming rant. Not a second later, Damian did as expected.

"This family is full of them-"

"Ouch."

"-but he is certainly the head of stupidity. All I required of him was a hike to take photos for my photography class by September and now, on the last day of summer, he refuses to go due to obligations at Wayne Enterprises. Now I'm left with no photos and I have to come up with some way to make this place meet my nature requirements. I'm the son of a billionaire and a master assassin, I can't go to class with pictures from my garden!" He sat up and pouted, his eyes stormy and welling slightly. He wouldn't cry, Dick knew that because he wouldn't want to give Bruce the satisfaction of upsetting him. Of course, Bruce hadn't meant to upset him and probably had all intentions of doing this but once again got caught up with a life that included his children so little. "It's not fair that he has all this time for training but not for civilian engagements."

"Don't I know it," Dick said quietly. He batted away memories of sitting at the bottom of the stairs, dressed as nicely as he could without feeling like he was portraying someone else, only to be told they couldn't go wherever they were supposed to go because something had come up. Sometimes he wondered if anything did come up or if it was just an excuse to not hang around him. 

He took note of Damian's appearance, his expensive walking boots, his black hiking pants and a runner's hoodie. No doubt there was a thinner long sleeve underneath it in case it was too warm halfway up. He was prepared to go today and yet here he was sitting in the library with his plans ruined. Now, their garden was no horror show. It was perfectly kept and the plants were well cared for. If Damian did take photos, they would come out amazing but he didn't want that. He wanted the thing he'd been thinking about all summer and Dick understood why the garden wasn't ideal in comparison. 

"Why don't I take you?" The teen made a face that Dick couldn't quite work out the meaning of. 

"Father is supposed to take me. He promised and he shouldn't be able to get out of it by shoving his duties onto someone else."

"Well, he didn't ask me and I didn't ask him. I asked you." Damian hummed with a frown firm on his face. The acrobat had no idea why though. 

It wasn't the first time that he'd taken over a duty meant for Bruce and they were comfortable enough with one another that they could spend one-on-one time without too many awkward silences. A hike sounded fun too. So why was he so hesitant? Did Dick do something wrong? He hadn't visited that much in the last month but he'd been busy with work and helping Kori with the Titans. Perhaps that had been misunderstood as an intentional avoidance. 

"I suppose this will do. Do you have gear here or must we stop at your pig stye of an apartment?"

"I can conjure some stuff up here and FYI it's not that bad. I cleaned it last month."

"We are nearing the end of this month, Grayson."

The car ride was quiet which wasn't unusual. Sometimes they just liked to listen to the radio and enjoy the peace in their otherwise unpeaceful lives. Damian spent most of his time on his phone, texting someone Dick couldn't see. He seemed frustrated so maybe it was Bruce trying to make amends with more empty promises. Dick wanted to ask but he felt like that would ruin the nice thing they had going. 

Occasionally, Damian would break out of his silence to give directions. The trail wasn't a popular one but Dick had memories of walking it when he was little. He remembered running it for training and then walking down, having a rare conversation with Bruce that didn't leave him feeling like things were never going to change. He hadn't been back in years yet it still looked the same as he was parking up. There were no other cars there which seemed to please Damian. No people to walk through the photos or disturb them. 

They got out of the car and began to hike, keeping the quiet that they had in the car. Dick felt it turn from something mutual to something tense and he wondered if Damian felt it too as he fiddled with his camera. It was from an expensive brand and Bruce had got it for him as soon as he expressed an interest in photography. It was probably an apology gift. 

"I bet Haley would love this," Dick mentioned, tentatively breaking their silence. 

"Ace enjoys it," Damian replied. "It's the only place that I can let him off his leash without comments from the ignorant and uneducated." His face turned thoughtful before he continued. "How is she?"

"She's great. Got all her vaccines since I didn't know if she had an owner before I found her. She must have because the vet said her amputation was clean but maybe it was just a good samaritan."

"Does she help?" 

"Help?"

"Ace helps." Dick gave him a confused expression before realizing what he meant.

"She does. Babs has been training her to be a support dog. Basic things like fetching things for me when I'm injured and recognising signs of a panic attack. Of course, now every time I drink coffee she's biting at my pant leg trying to get me to lie down so she can sit on my chest." The teen smiled to himself at the thought. 

"I'm glad she helps. I...I worry sometimes when you don't visit." It went unsaid why he worried when Dick didn't visit. Memories of thinking he was dead or a long history of disappearing during the lowest points of his life weren't unknown and he hated that Damian worried. He couldn't say not to worry because there were times it was needed. 

"I know. I'm sorry I haven't been around."

"You're allowed your own life," Damian said rather shortly. Angry. Was he resentful or just generally annoyed with how this day had gone? Before he could ask, the younger was already walking ahead to find the spot he was thinking of. 

It was another too-quiet thirty minutes before Damian announced they were at the spot. It was a nice spot. It was a cliff overlooking the small woodland and river that ran through it. The sun seemed to be perfectly captured by the trees that ran along the edge. Dick remembered sitting on the edge with Bruce and eating his packed lunch, chatting about school like they were normal and not vigilantes. He liked those memories. He took a seat on the rocks out of the way of where Damian wanted to shoot. He didn't know what to do with himself as Damian went about getting his photos. The air around them still felt weird and even out in the open, the company seemed oppressive and claustrophobic. 

Dick counted the clicks. 

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

By the fifth, he had to say something. 

"What's up with you?" Dick asked. He tried not to sound too self-conscious but he couldn't help feeling the wall between them. He thought they were past this act where Damian pretended there was never a problem between them only to blow up later. Perhaps the lack of visiting had undone all the work they'd done but that felt too simple of an explanation. The younger didn't reply and continued to take shots of the view. It was a lovely view but it was unusual that he'd refuse to answer a question like that. As though it had never been asked in the first place. Maybe he was concentrating. 

Dick waited another five clicks before talking again. 

"Did I do something?" That caught his attention.

"No," Damian answered softly. Almost regretfully for making him feel like he had done something. He appreciated that. Most wouldn't tell him why he'd upset them, just wait for him to somehow get the answer. 

"Then what is it? You know you can talk to me." Damian put down the camera at this point and looked at him with a forlorn expression.

"I know. That just makes it worse," he replied.

"How so?"

"You're not my dad, Grayson. You shouldn't have to be my dad when I already have one." Oh, he was still angry about what happened with Bruce this morning. No surprise there because he could hold a grudge like the best of them and this was important.

"If Bruce is bothering you, you've got the perfect person to talk to about it. Believe me, I know he can suck as a dad but-" Damian held up his hand so he stopped in his tracks. 

"You're not the perfect person because you make excuses for his behaviour. You're parenting your own parent, do you not see how unfair that is? You're a grown man and still expected to defend someone older than you," he explained irritated. "That's a decade of defending him. That's a decade where Father has had long enough to understand. He can pick up a book and he has the wonders of technology to learn to be a father and yet he still fails and you pick up the pieces. Are you not tired?" 

In all honesty, yes. Dick didn't want to keep telling the new people who come into the family to manage their expectations, that Bruce isn't going to be a great father but he will be a good mentor. He didn't like having to glue their family together. He didn't like that when his dad died, no one else was able to stand in half as well. It was exhausting to keep picking up the slack even if Bruce had improved from when Dick was a kid. Not that anyone but himself had noticed. 

He couldn't say yes though. Saying yes held too many implications and he didn't want Damian to feel like he was an added responsibility he didn't want because he did like caring for him. He enjoyed their time as Batman and Robin even if that era was so hard when he lived it. He missed it sometimes.

"You're not a burden to me," he decided to say. Apparently, that wasn't the right thing because Damian threw his hands up in annoyance. 

"I don't ever fear being a burden to you. I fear he is the burden and you refuse to admit that for some unknown reason."

"You don't need to worry about that."

"Yet I do because I now know you didn't fake your death willingly."

The once cool air now turned freezing, enough so that Dick shivered. He didn't like to think about that night. He often refused to believe that it even happened and was some fake memory his mind made up to make him feel better about leaving. Dick knew that wasn't the case but it was better to think it was fake than real. He didn't really know what to respond with. He couldn't refuse that it happened because it did and if Damian knew then there was no point. So he just sat there completely floored with what he'd heard and that gave Damian the resolve to explain himself.

"It just didn't make sense the more I thought about it. Todd told me to forget it happened and Drake said although it was slightly out of character you've done things before that were unexpected," he began. "I pressed more and they started to agree that the explanation we got didn't make sense. Of course, we knew there were unexpected errors in the plan as Father lost his memory and you were stranded but why would that stop you reaching out to the rest of us?" He sat beside Dick on the rock and fiddled with his camera again. "We asked Pennyworth and he didn't say much, only suggested we look at the footage."

They all knew Dick realised belatedly. None of them said anything yet they all knew what happened. He didn't expect them to say anything but it was still weird that they'd not mentioned anything to anyone. Had they told Barbara?

"We looked. We saw what happened," Damian said, either unwilling or unable to tell him that they saw the fight. "We know what happened. We agreed not to talk about it but I was discontent with leaving it there. I wanted Father to join me on this hike to talk about it but he became busy with work and now you're here. You haven't defended him today but I don't doubt that you would have had I let you."

"I'm sorry you saw it," Dick muttered. 

"I'm not," he replied firmly. "You would have never said a word of it. You would let us continue to think you left because you wanted to and you remained dead because you thought it the right thing to do." He shook his head almost disappointed. "You could have told us. We would have understood. If I can't ask Father why he hurt you then I have to ask you why you didn't say anything when you returned. How was it better to think you willingly hurt us?"

"What was the point? You guys would hate Bruce and it would cause so many problems that I didn't think it was worth it."

"You didn't think the problems it would cause were worth it or you didn't think you were worth it?"

"I don't know," Dick admitted. "I just know it was better this way. Bruce did too. He's not apologized but I know he went to the extreme because he thought it was needed. With people thinking I was dead, I was the best choice to go." He knew Bruce felt bad. He had to or else he would never step foot in the manor again. "He's my dad too."

"I don't think he deserves that title."

"Whether he deserves it or not, that's who he is in my life. I can't just let him be the guy who I lived with for a bit. He's more than that. Besides, we've all fought each other. I mean, the first time we met, I had to get stitches."

"You're defending him again."

"Force of habit, I guess."

They sat silently for a while, neither wanting nor needing to say anything. They were clear with each other without the need to talk. Damian wanted to confront his father and didn't like how Dick constantly picked up the slack with no thanks. Dick never wanted anyone to know so they'd still have a dad and that was better than nothing. He'd keep defending Bruce knowing that there wasn't much he could do to convince them that somewhere deep down, there was a great father but he knew for sure that everyone was chipping closer to that. 

"If he ever intends to do this again, tell us," Damian stated. "I don't want to live with the guilt of hating you for something out of your control again."

"I will," Dick promised. He dreaded when Damian did get the chance to speak with Bruce but he couldn't deny there was a part of him that wanted to see it go down. He'd like to see what he believed for once.