Chapter Text
Dick had bad days. There have been fewer and fewer sinc Jason and Tim arrived, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get bad days. Sometimes he would wake up in a cold sweat, the sounds of bodies hitting the floor echoing in his ears. Sometimes his body felt too heavy to get out of bed or move at all, so he spends the day staring blankly at the ceiling.
But Dick also had good days. Really good days. And he’s had more and more good days since his brothers came into his life.
And today was a good day.
It was the middle of Spring. A soft breeze blew through the open windows of the orphanage, and the sun seemed to beckon them to join it outside. Dick just couldn’t resist. Now all he had to do was convince his brothers to join him…
Jason was reading aloud to a bundled up Tim, and he paused as Dick bounded up the ladder to the top bunk.
It was hard to believe it had been two years since Tim’s arrival at the orphanage. The boy hadn’t grown much in that time, but he was far healthier now than he had been when he’d first arrived. Jason was different too, his white hair was growing out, a flash amidst the rest of his black hair. He’d probably need it cut soon.
“Hey guys! Wanna go outside?”
Jason marked his page and nodded at Dick, “Sure, Dickie. What’dya have in mind?”
Dick only beamed at them before jumping off the top bunk. He grabbed one of their ratty sheets, and packed the berry basket with bread from their lunches.
He hoisted everything he needed over his shoulder, turning back to the two younger boys as they descended the ladder, “Follow me!”
Dick took them to the base of the familiar old oak tree where Jason had spent many spring afternoons nestled in its branches. He threw the sheet off of his shoulder and onto the ground, spreading it out so the three of them could fit comfortably before he pulled out the basket.
“I thought today was a good day for a picnic!” Dick smiled brightly at his brothers.
Tim stared at him, brows pinched in confusion, “Wha’s a pignik?”
“A picnic is just a nice way to eat lunch with people you’re close to. It’s a good way to spend some time outside.”
Dick sat down and patted the blanket, and Jason and Tim followed his lead.
He riffled through the berry basket, handing Jason and Tim each a slice of bread and a handful of berries they had collected days ago. The bread was stale, and the berries bitter and a bit past ripe, but they scarfed down the food without hesitation. You couldn’r be picky in a place like this.
They ate in comfortable silence for a while before Jason cracked open the book he had been reading earlier and slid it next to Tim, showing the younger boy some of the words he hadn’t understood.
Time passed and Dick basked in the sun, eyes closed as he listened to his brothers as they read. It was peaceful, he wished he could stay there forever.
A sudden silence broke the moment.
Dick sat up confused, seeing Jason sitting frozen in place, staring at something in the distance.
Dick frowned, “What’s wrong, Jay?”
Jason’s gaze flicked to his before returning to the distance, “City Guard… th’re here.”
Dick turned to look in the direction Jason had been staring, but saw nothing. A few moments later, the sun glinting off of something metallic caught his eye.
Sure enough, two members of the Gotham City guard were riding towards the orphanage on horseback. The City Guard showing up usually wasn’t a good sign. Jason had some history with running into them when he lived on the streets, and from what he’d told Dick, it hadn’t been pleasant.
Dick quickly moved to pack up their things, “C’mon, let’s get inside.”
Dick watched from the rafters as the Guardsmen entered the orphanage. Jason and Tim had stayed back in the bunkroom, on account of Jason wanting nothing to do with the Guards, and Tim being sleepy.
The gangly orphanage director greeted the men at the door, “Afternoon, gentlemen. How can I help you?”
“We have a drop off. Kid was found in the woods, this was the only identification left with him.”
The guards handed something to the Director that Dick couldn’t make out from his perch, but he did notice the green bundle wrapped up in the second guards arms.
“Very well, I’ll add him to the books. We will take him.”
The matron of the orphanage took the bundle from the guards and headed towards the bunkroom.
That was Dick’s cue.
He scrambled out of the window and back into the bunkroom, slipping into his bunk between his brothers just as the door slid open.
Sure enough, the matron walks in and deposits the bundle on the empty bunk below them.
Once the matron leaves and the door closes behind her, three curious pairs of eyes peek over the edge of the top bunk down at the bunk below.
To Dick’s surprise, Tim is the first to scramble down and inspect the little green bundle on the bottom bunk. Dick and Jason scrambled down after him.
Tim had picked up a piece of parchment attached to the bundle written in a messy scrawl and was peering at it, “D–– Dam–– Dam-ian. Damian.”
Dick pulled back some of the cloth covering the bundle, revealing the a sleeping face. The boy had brown skin and dark hair.
Tim leaned against Dick’s left shoulder, and Jason against his right, peering down at the small sleeping boy. The kid was small–– smaller than Tim small, and probably just barely a toddler. And he was freaking adorable.
“Can we keep him?” Tim whispered as they stared down at the boy in awe.
Dick glanced at Jason who shot him a coy smile.
Dick smiled back and turned back to the little green bundle.
Damian, huh?
“Yeah, ‘course we can keep him, baby bird.”
Damian was a quiet kid. He didn’t really seem to understand what’s going on his first few months at the orphanage, often regarding Jason with a guarded expression, guarded for a toddler at least. What was more concerning was the fact that the kid never cried. The kid should cry. Crying should be his thing, but he barely made any noise at all.
Instead, Damian watched them all with sharp green eyes, took his food when it was given and slept. A lot. Jason guessed that was normal for 2 or 3 year olds at least.
One thing that Jason noticed was the fact that the kid loved the outdoors. Or at least, Jason guessed he did from the way the kids' eyes brightened whenever he spotted a rabbit or a bird flying overhead.
So, they make a point of spending time outside when the weather permits. And that’s how they find themselves back at the waterfal at the end of spring.
The weather had started to cool off, and they were here to collect the last of the berries for the season before the plants went dormant in the fall and winter.
Jason is picking the berries off the bush, leaving some for the birds and planting the seeds from the berries that are too rotten to eat.
Damian was sitting on a rock at the edge of the stream, watching as Tim poked around the bank with a stick, trying to dig up who knows what. Dick was across the stream, picking berries on the other bank.
Jason heard the sounds of birds chirpin around him in the forest, echoing around them in a natural chorus.
“Damian?” Tim’s voice, low and curious caught his attention, and he turned to see Tim staring wide eyed at the smaller boy perched on a rock.
Jason glanced at Dick who raised a confused eyebrow back at him before the chirping started coming from the rock. More specifically from Damian . Jason stared dumbfounded as Damian, who had never once said a word to anyone, mimicked the sounds of the forest perfectly.
“What the fuck.”
“Jay! Language!”
“Dickie, Dami sounds like a fuckin’ bird.”
“Still… he’s literally a baby!”
“Toddler.”
“Whatever!”
Before Jason could respond, chirping from above caught their attention as a red breasted Robin flew down from the trees, perching in a berry bush next to Damian.
“Holy shit.”
“Jay. Language.”
Tim stared up in awe from the bank, “Is he a wizard?”
As far as Jason could tell, there was nothing arcane about the boy.
“Nah, Timmy. Dami doesn’t smell like any magic I know of. He’s just weird.”
“Jay, you can’t just call Damian weird. You can literally smell magic.”
“Fair ‘nough.”
Tim stared at Jason with his big owlish eyes, “You can smell magic? How?”
“Um… yeah kinda. I don’t really like to talk ‘bout it,” Jason rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. Magic was always a touchy subject.
“Oh… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to—“
“No, no. Yer fineTimmers. It ain’t your fault, “ Jason ruffled the smaller boys hair in an attempt to comfort him.
Tim squeaked and tried to pull himself free from Jason’s grip, which only encouraged Jason to bring the smaller boy into a full blown noogie.
“Eep! Jay! Lemme go!”
“No can do, Timbit. Yet trapped forever!”
Tim giggled in his grip as he tried to slip free. Dick moved to sit, smiling as he pulled Damian into his lap watching his younger brothers mess around.
Tim managed to slip free and latch himself onto Jason’s back like a leach, and Jason tried hard to buck him off, unable to shake free from Tim’s vice grip.
Dick and Damian watched as Jason tripped, landing both boys in some muddy water.
The sounds of bubbling laughter made the three boys freeze. Damian was giggling. Fully giggling from his spot on Dick’s lap.
Tim stared in shock at the smallest boy, “Holy shit.”
“Tim! Not you too! Jay, look what you’ve done!”
Jason only barked a laugh in response, shoulders shaking with the force of his laughter.
Soon enough, all four boys were laughing, either hunched over or rolling around on the muddy bank. They’d have to wash the mud out later, but that was a problem for a later time.
Jason wasn’t sure how long they had been walking, but his legs were starting to ache, especially with a sleeping Damian tied around him on his back, a wool cap pulled over his small head.
Dick was walking ahead of him, carrying a very tired Tim who had given up on walking about 5 minutes ago.
“Dickieeee. Where are we goin’?” Tim whined, leaning his head on Dick’s shoulder.
Dick chuckled, “Don’t worry, Timmy. We’re almost there.”
“But where are we goin’?”
“It’s a surprise!”
They walked for another mile before Jason saw the city skyline come into view.
Jason stopped in his tracks, “Dickie. Why’r we goin’ to the city?”
Dick turned and smiled widley back at him, “Because the market’s open today, and I’ve got some coin saved up.”
“Where the hell’d you get coin?”
Dick shrugged, “I’ve been doin some small chores round the orphanage over the past couple a years. Finally made enough worth spending.”
Jason’s face lit up at that. He hadn’t been to the market in ages, not since his mother died and he’d been shipped off to the orphanage. True, he had some bad memories in the city, but Gotham had always been his home.
“Ok, Dickiebird, but warn me next time.”
The market was just as busy and bustling as Dick remembered.
Market stalls lined up in long rows, selling goods of all kinds from all sorts of places. The few gold coins he’d gathered suddenly felt lighter in his pockets at the sight of all the fancy goods scattered about.
“Stay with me, and make sure you’re holding onto one another at all times. We don’t wanna get separated,” Dick had transferred the sleepy Damian to his back, tied down with his king green scarf, and was holding each of his other little brothers' hands.
He didn’t have a plan in mind for what to get, hoping his brothers would either find something or something would catch his eye and hopefully be cheap enough for the four of them.
He was sure they wouldn’t be able to get much, but he wanted to get them something they could hang onto for a while.
They walked around the market for a couple hours, finding most of the material beyond food to be far too expensive. Tim and Damian stared curiously at all the colorful stalls around them, and Jason would point out all the old places he’d used to hang out, or a merchant he’d stolen from once or twice when he was younger.
Dick elbowed him in the ribs for that, “Don’t encourage them!”
Jason just shrugged “What? S’not like we’re here that often.”
Dick sighed and shook his head.
They walked around, only stopping to eat the food they had brought along with them. They scrambled up a nearby rooftop, keeping themselves hidden as they munched on stale bread and what was probably some kind of dried meat.
“Hey… Dickie?” Jason was staring off into the distance, his brows furrowed, “What’s that?”
Confused, Dick turned around to see what Jason was looking at.
Over the horizon in the distance, a black cloud of smoke billowed up beyond the tree line.
Dick stood, staring in horror as the cloud of smoke grew thicker and darker, rising up into the sky.
It was coming from the direction of the orphanage.
There was nothing left.
Nothing but ruins, smoldering and wisps of white smoke as the last of the building burnt to the ground.
Dick stood at the edge of the fire line, careful not to get too close as the embers burned down to ash.
He fought back any tears that threatened to well up in his eyes. As awful as this place had been, it had been their home. It had been the place where he’d met his brothers. A place that had kept them sheltered and fed— albeit poorly, it was better than being left out in the cold.
He felt something tugging at the hem of his shirt, looking down to see Tim staring up at him. He grabbed his little brother's hand in his own, pulling Tim against his side as he continued to stare at the smoldering ashes.
“What happens now, Dickie?”
“I— I don’t know Timmy, but I promise we’re gonna be ok.”
There was nothing left for them here. He pulled Tim along, heading back towards the main road where Jason and Damian were waiting for them.
There was only one place left to go.
They walked back down the main road, towards the darkening Gotham skyline.