Chapter Text
“May I be excused?” Dick asked, perfectly polite as he ignored everyone else, only looking at human-Bruce until the man nodded.
Dick hopped off of his chair, biting his cheek to keep from snapping when the lady-demon— Cassandra, got up to follow him.
…He had kind of told them that he could and would leave. So he sort of understood why he had to have Adult Supervision until they could trust him, but that didn’t mean that he had to like it.
Dick wound his way through the halls, ignoring the automatic impulse to go to what had been his room back in his world, forcing himself to go to the impersonal guest room they’d shunted him off into. Whatever. It was fine.
Dick kindly decided not to shut the door in Cassandra’s face when they got there, though she hovered in the doorway instead of coming inside, so maybe he could have gotten away with it.
But Dick wasn’t that rude.
“What?” Dick asked suspiciously. “May I come in?” Cassandra asked, waiting until Dick blinked and nodded before stepping through the threshold.
Weird. Only Alfred and Bruce did that. Wait for permission before they came into his den.
This wasn’t even his den, not really. It was just a room that happened to have a nest that he’d slept in inside of it.
So it just surprised him a little bit.
Still, she didn’t do anything, she just settled into the desk chair, watching him with an unreadable expression. In fact, Dick couldn’t get a read on her at all. She seemed to be trying to be friendly, but her emotions were all closed off and it made him feel a little uneasy.
Instead of saying that, Dick set about remaking his nest, rearranging the blankets and pillows until his brain told him he’d found a better place for them all. It was still messy, showing his inexperience, and devoid of any pack scents, which made it feel wrong in ways that Dick couldn’t even describe.
Dick bit back a whine, he wanted to go home.
“Do you want us to look for your mother?” Cassandra asked, her voice soft and nonjudgmental, like she wouldn’t mind either answer.
Dick shook his head “She’s gone.” He said, calm in his certainty.
Cassandra nodded, frowning “I’m sorry,” She said gently. Dick kept his eyes from watering with sheer force of will. He couldn’t totally trust these people yet, no matter if they were trying to be nice or not.
So Dick just nodded silently, going back to smoothing the blankets out as an excuse to keep from having to look at her.
“Bed time,” Cassandra said right before Dick caught himself yawning. He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, but gave in when another yawn caught him by surprise.
Cassandra at least didn’t follow him when he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, trusting him to do at least that much on his own.
In his nest, facing away from her, it was almost impossible to tell that she was even there. It kind of made the hairs on the back of Dick’s neck rise, aware that he was being watched but not able to detect much more than that despite knowing where Cassandra was.
He thought that it would make it difficult for him to fall asleep, but he found himself drifting off anyway, exhaustion dragging at his limbs as he snuggled deeper into his nest.