a request by luxuriousmisery and we all know I'll do pretty much everything they ask of me and we know this will be reverse batfam

TW: CHILD ABUSE IS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL AT SOME POINTS AND IS A MAIN THEME THROUGHOUT 

https://www.childhelp.org/hotline/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/reporting-abuse/report/

https://www.legalmomentum.org/referral-directory/childhelp-usa-national-child-abuse-hotline

Clark was having a rather lovely night with Lois when there was a knock at the door. He looked at her in confusion as he'd cooked their meal so it couldn't be takeaway and it was certainly too late for it to be a package but she looked just as bewildered. "Stay here," he told her. All he wanted was one night without some criminal pulling him back to work. He deserved a break. He strained his ears to listen to what was going on in the hallway and heard quiet sniffles. A whimper. Whoever was at his door certainly wasn't anything intimidating. When he got closer to the door, he looked through it with his X-Ray vision. A child? A child on their own. 

"C'mon Clark please be in." Dick was here. On his own. Sniffling. Clark wasted no time rushing to open the door and looking down at the boy. "Hey," the acrobat greeted awkwardly. He fiddled with the straps of his backpack and kept his head down for the most part which was extremely worrying. 

"Hey Dickie, what brings you here?"

"Uhm I uhm," he paused and raised his head a little. That's when the older saw his bloodshot eyes and sickly appearance. He looked exhausted and skinny.Dick teared up a little as he opened his mouth again only to shut it immediately. He was moments from breaking down and the alien simply couldn't have that. He knelt down and opened his arms up for the teen to run into them. "Please don't let him hurt me again!" Dick wailed, burying his face in the hero's chest. Clark picked him up and brought him inside, closing the door behind him, then walking backto the living room. Lois immediately tensed upon hearing crying and whipped around to see her lover holding the small boy she knew to be Dick. She was the only journalist allowed to thoroughly interview him and through that as well as her hero boyfriend, she'd come to know him rather well. Hearing him cry would be horrible even without that connection but with it, the cries were heartbreaking. 

"Clark?" He gave her a look to be patient and she nodded. He walked over to the couch and sat down, rubbing soothing circles on the acrobat's back. They waited quietly for Dick to calm down a little more and when he did, Clark asked who this person was hurting him. 

"You have to promise me I'll be safe. Please," he sniffled. He sounded so desperate for comfort that they didn't know how much more they could take. He was such a happy soul usually that seeing him so distraught was awful. 

"We promise," Lois insisted.

"It-it's Bruce." 

Upon revealing who it was, the couple froze. Bruce? Bruce had him this scared? More importantly, Bruce was hurting him? Dick watched their expressions. They didn't know what was running through his mind but he seemed to think that they didn't believe him. He leaned back and pulled up the sleeve of his jacket to reveal a ring of bruises in the shape of a hand around his wrist. He must've been grabbed tightly for that to happen. Far too tightly. Lois gently brought his arm closer and nodded to Clark to examine it. His eyes began at the younger's wrist, finding some cracks in the bone. He then moved his eyes up the arm and focused on the shoulder. "Had to pop it back in," Dick told him when he felt his stare linger. 

"He did this to you?" He nodded. "We need to get the police involved and you to a hospital."

"It's no use. Bruce is a billionaire, you know he can just pay them off. If I go to hospital, he'll figure out where I went and make me come home," the teen argued. "You can't do anything."

"We can do something. I'm sure we have something to use as a cast for your wrist and you can stay with us for the time being," Lois stated. Her voice was stern and comforting. 

"You can't tell my brothers where I am either. No one can know. If Bruce figures out that I ran off and told someone what was going on I-I-"

"It won't come to that but I need to know what happened. How long has this been going on for? What else has been done?"

"Well, it all started around a month ago..."

Dick didn't know what was going on with his mentor but he was worried. Every night he was up with work and on patrol he was silent. He asked Alfred what could be happening but the butler told him just to keep his distance from Bruce. His brothers proved better for information and told him that Bruce most likely had some important business stuff going on. Each assured him he didn't need to worry about these things and just get on with his own things. Occasionally, Bruce would snap at him and call him something like stupid or idiotic but it wasn't enough to make him particularly worried. He knew when people were stressed they said things they didn't mean. Besides, he could escape to Young Justice when he needed the time away. Even on patrol, he didn't need to stay with Batman. The problems only got worse when he went on a mission with his mentor.

The mission itself was heading for failure before it even began. He and Batman were planning it out but if he were honest it was only Batman. He tried offering his ideas and suggesting ways that would give a better chance at success but he was told to either shut up or that he didn't know anything. Every piece of input was thrown out as quickly as he gave it. It got to the point where he knew this plan wouldn't work. Even if they followed it to the last letter it wouldn't guarantee success. He knew there was a better way to go about it but he wasn't being listened to. He got frustrated. "B, this isn't going to work! You're causing more damage this way but if we avoid the-"

"I didn't ask for your opinion Robin," Batman told him gruffly.

"No, but when lives are at risk, I have to say something" he snapped.

"You are far too naive to know that. I want to hear no more from you for the rest of the night unless I ask to, got that?" Robin scowled at his mentor but nodded all the same. If he protested further, he'd be benched but if he went along with it then he could step in when everything inevitably went wrong. He'd do more good saving the old man from his own stubbornness than arguing now. "Good. Now stop being bratty and get in the car." This had to be one of the first time his insults actually hurt. Batman had been open to suggestions before but now he was angry? It wasn't even warranted! Robin could admit that he could be a pain but he was voicing a real opinion here. Why was that now a bad thing? Maybe he just got too used to Kaldur's style of leadership. He was always open and willing to suggestion. Though Robin swore that his mentor had been the same, maybe he'd just been looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses. "Robin!" Batman yelled, making him jump. "Get your ass in the car. You better not be this slow all night."

"Sorry I just zoned out."

"If I wanted your excuses I would ask, wouldn't I?" Robin went to reply but closed his mouth, thinking better of it. He ran to the car and got in. He prayed his night would get better.

A cry ripped from Robin's throat as he was thrown against a wall. His head slammed against the brick hard enough to be unbelievably painful but not enough to knock him out to spare him the experience. His eyesight flooded with black dots as he collapsed to the floor. Through the pinhole size hole in the field of black, he saw the criminal this whole mission saught to capture escape. He groaned and tried to pick himself up but he slumped back down to the floor. There was no way he could get after the criminal so what was the point in getting up? He may as well take the time to breathe through it and gathering himself. Hopefully, he didn't have a concussion. Those were far too annoying to deal with especially with his mentor being pissy all the time. For a few minutes, he was blessed with the time to recoup and at least sit up without the whole world spinning. Those moments were broken by the sound of shouting. Batman shouting. "Robin? Where are you?" 

"Over here B," he replied, waving his hand up. He held his head in his free hand only to feel the older standing over him. It wasn't the usual protective feeling either that he got from him. It was intimidating. Slightly terrifying. Okay, a lot terrifying. Robin slowly raised his head to look at Batman but shrank under his gaze. "Got thrown heh."

"Nothing funny about failure. You let them get away. What's the point of having you around if you're only a detriment to everything I do?" Batman snapped. He grabbed the back of the acrobat's cape and dragged him to his feet, ignoring the pained whine he got thanks to Robin's head swimming. He had to have known that the boy wasn't alright. He had to know that especially when, once back on his feet, his ward fell back down. "Get up."

"I can't. I hit my head I-"

"If you can talk then you can walk. You have five seconds to get up or I'm dragging you out of here."

"B-"

"Five." The time limit was set and Robin had to summon all his energy to get back up. "Four." He blinked rapidly to try to clear his vision and tried to step forward but stumbled. "Three." He couldn't see. "Two." Everything was spinning and warped, not helped by the tears forming in his eyes from being scolded for something he couldn't help. "One. Tt." Batman grabbed his arm and stayed true to his word by dragging him out. 

The drive home was silent and Robin was doing everything in his power not to cry. He knew shedding a single tear or letting his breath hitch once would bring some awful reaction. He was practically pressing himself against the passenger door, making himself as small as possible to hopefully avoid the wrath of his mentor. "You're weak Richard," Batman began. "That back there was pitiful. That was a stain on the Robin legacy." They kept their eyes on the road, Robin because he couldn't stand the sight of the older out of fear and Batman for the same but only out of shame. "You're benched until I see fit. I'm going to make sure you train until I see improvement."

"But B-" A hand clamped around his mouth, making him jump and let out a muffled shriek.

"That will be nipped in the bud too. You wait for permission to speak." Batman pulled his hand away and was happy to hear no further comments. "No Young Justice. No friends. No school. Don't like it? Don't stick around. You're my ward, not my child. People like you go missing every other minute and your presence won't be missed." Robin's heart shattered. How was this man the one that saved him? That brought him in and helped him through his grief. He gulped and held his hands against his chest. He fiddled with his gloves, trying to occupy his mind so it wouldn't linger on what was being said to him. "If you tell anyone, you can say goodbye to Robin and to the others. You'll be shipped off to that failing circus of yours. That's if they'll even take a runt like you." The acrobat nodded and somehow shrank further into his seat. So all those thoughts that this was a honeymoon stage was true. Every kind word, every encouraging action, everything was a lie. It was just to tempt him into this abusive partnership that would at best taint him and at worst kill him. He wondered how long it would take for the latter upon this new regime. He found himself hoping it was soon.

It'd been so long. Dick hadn't slept and he doubted he'd be able to any time soon. He'd been training pretty much non stop. A few times he thought he could get away with sleeping during the day whilst Bruce was at work only to find out that there were cameras watching him. That had been a really bad night. It was just yelling and yelling. He tried to run away but Bruce grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted in his face. Dick was sure his ears were still ringing from it. 

One of his hopes had been the elderly butler. Sure Alfred didn't always make the best decisions like not sending Bruce to therapy as a child but he still had more common sense than a lot of people. Yet the man never came downstairs to the Batcave. Dick guessed there were a lot of chores to do. Maybe he didn't know but surely he had to wonder why he wasn't seeing him as much and why the school run wasn't a thing anymore. Did he think it was some holiday? Perhaps he simply didn't care. That was a rather painful thought. 

Dick's escape would come what had to have been at least a month or so later. Bruce stormed into the Batcave and Dick gulped, waiting for his next session of yelling. He was shaking from fear but still stood to attention with perfect posture. "Don't take this as you being good enough but you're allowed to leave the gym. Alfred is sick and perhaps you'll do better as his replacement than Robin's. Upstairs and make some food, got it?"

"Yes sir," Dick replied. He'd spent so much time in the gym that he felt like he'd forgotten what upstairs looked like. He wasted no time running upstairs to the kitchen where he made a meal a good and as quickly as possible. He felt Bruce's eyes burning holes in the back of his head the entire time. Of course, he wouldn't be allowed to be alone. Now that he was upstairs he had more opportunities to leave or tell someone what was going on. Bruce knew he was doing wrong yet he was still going with it. He could've stopped by now. He could've returned to the better version of himself but he was sticking with it. Dick reached to grab a plate but it slipped through his fingers. If he hadn't been so exhausted, he would've caught it. Unfortunately, he'd been training with extreme sleep deprivation so it crashed to the floor and broke into pieces. He jumped out of his skin but that wasn't as bad as the fright he got when Bruce grabbed his wrist. He pulled him close harshly and ripped a strangled cry from the boy. 

"You stupid boy! You can't even get the simplest of tasks right! How much of a fuck up could you be?" Bruce yelled. His grip got tighter and drew out another yelp. "Go to your room and stay there. I'll deal with you thoroughly. Maybe then you'll feel half the pain I go through trying to deal with your stupidity." As soon as he was let go, Dick dashed up to his room. He shut the door quickly and sucked in a deep breath. His shoulder was out of its socket, his whole body was aching and he felt like his heart was going to leap out from his throat to pulsate on the floor. In conclusion, he needed to get the fuck out of dodge.

"And that's how I got here," Dick finished. The couple were horrified by the end of his story and in some way, he was glad for that. At least he was now incredibly sure that they were going to be on his side. 

"Oh, Dickie. You poor boy," Lois stated. She pulled him into a hug which he gratefully accepted. "Let's get you to bed hm? You must be exhausted."

"Would that be okay?"

"Of course," Clark assured him. "Lois, would you mind helping him to bed?" 

"I wouldn't want to cause a fuss," the teenager objected. He was asking enough of them for putting him up for the time being and for keeping him protected from the man that was supposed to protect him. Even though he could do with a presence that didn't make him want to jump out a window to escape it, he didn't want her to go out of her way. 

"Ah-ah not another word. You've gone through enough and I think it's high time you get some care," she insisted. He smiled softly and nodded. If she wanted to do it then he guessed there wasn't an issue in letting her. "C'mon, I'm sure we have some of Jon's pyjamas laying around. Unless there are some in that backpack?"

"Uh no. In here I just have essentials," he explained. He took it off his shoulders and opened it, taking out a few objects upon naming them. "Y'know, my wallet, first aid kit, a knife-"

"There'll be no need for that. You can leave your bag here," she laughed nervously, taking the knife from him. She then gestured for him to follow her and the pair went on the hunt for pyjamas. Clark waited until he could hear the door close before letting out a sigh. He ran his hand over his face and thought about what their next move was. He loved having Dick around but this wasn't the most stable living situation he could be in. Then again, he hadn't been somewhere stable in a long time. He wasn't putting the acrobat through the foster system that was for sure. Maybe Barry would be useful. Wally had been in a similar situation and Barry had taken him in. He probably had some good insight. That did give him an idea though. Dick could stay with the rest of Young Justice. They could keep an eye on him, it was safe there and he could keep being a hero since Clark knew how much it meant to him. He'd make arrangements for that in the morning. Right now, he'd focus on getting Dick comfortable for the night. God knows the kid needed sleep.