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It was a sleepy post-patrol Saturday night, and the Batboys were chilling in the living room. Jason had claimed the sofa and was reclining languidly across it. Tim had secreted himself inside a blanket fort on the carpet and had fallen asleep clutching a bag of coffee beans. Dick was sat in the armchair in front of the fire with Damian in his lap, while he hummed a tune and stitched.
Damian was reading a book and surrounding himself with Grayson Goodness, and was thus able to ignore Dick’s embroidery right up until the needle poked him in the arm.
“Oops, sorry, Little D,” Dick said, kissing the booboo better.
“Tt. What are you stitching, Grayson?” Damian asked, peering at the delicate cloth that Dick was embroidering.
Dick smiled and continued to stitch. “I’m designing a cummerbund.”
“What for?”
“I make a cummerbund for each of my sibling’s wedding day,” Dick explained, “for them to have for their something old. I make them in advance, so they’ll be ready to go when someone gets married.”
“Did you design one for Todd?” Damian asked, trying to recall what Jason wore on his wedding day.
“I did,” Dick smiled. “It was red satin, with little embroidered bullets and birds decorating the border.”
“Whose is that?” Damian asked, gesturing to the one in Dick’s hands.
“This is Timmy’s,” Dick replied, showing Damian the design. Coffee beans growing from delicate, twisting vines. “For when he and Kon get married.”
“They might not,” Damian said, “they may break up.”
“They won’t,” Dick said, smiling enigmatically. “Trust me. I have a feeling about these kinds of things.”
Damian fell into silence and pondered for the umpteenth time whether Dick was not, in fact, a meta. It did not matter, he decided. Grayson was Grayson.
“Is there one for Cassandra?”
Dick nodded. “I made her a veil.”
“And me?”
Dick grinned and buried his nose in Damian’s hair. “Why are you in such a hurry to get married and leave me, Dami?”
“Tt, don’t be ridiculous, Grayson. I will take you with me as my dowry.”
Dick burst out laughing at Damian’s serious declaration. “What if I’m married by that time?”
“Unlikely,” Damian said. “Father will not give West your hand in marriage until West manages to pass his Trials. I saw father add become a billionaire to the list last night.”
Dick snorted and made a mental note to speak to Bruce later. “I have one for you, Little D,” Dick admitted. “I made it when you first arrived.”
Damian perked up. “Can I see it?”
Dick laughed. “Nuh uh. You’ll have to wait till you’re married. In the meantime, it’s safely stashed in my cupboard.”
“When I wed Colin,” Damian said, “you can be my best man and cry all you want.”
“Aw, thanks, Dami!”
“Ugh. Stupid, emotional, Dick,” Jason grumbled sleepily.
Damian threw a spool of thread at Jason to defend Dick’s honour, and soon, the two were embroiled in a scuffle. Dick continued to stitch, and spied Tim’s blanket fort inching across the carpet, away from where Damian and Jason were squabbling.
It wouldn’t be until ten years later that Damian would recall that night. Dick was fastening Damian’s very own green cummerbund patterned with tiny robins with little swords in their beaks before his wedding to Colin, and Damian would recall with fondness the feeling of being surrounded by Dick’s warmth as he had painstakingly added stitch after stitch of his love to their clothes.
“Grayson.”
“Yes, Little D?”
“Do not forget, I am still taking you as my dowry.”
Dick’s face split into the brightest smile he had ever seen, while Wally - now Mr. Grayson-West - jumped up in horror.
“What! You can’t take my husband!”
“He was mine before yours, West.” That was technically inaccurate, Dick mused, but he wasn’t about to argue with his special little boy.
“I’ll fight you!” Wally cried.
“I’ll win,” Damian replied.
Bruce waved a Team Damian flag.
“Bruce!” Dick scolded his father and smacked the flag aside.
“We all still live in the manor,” Tim pointed out.
“I don’t,” Jason chirped. “I’ve escaped the tyrannical clutches of the Bat overlord.”
“I’m your father,” Bruce scowled.
“I died,” Jason said.
Dick ignored Jason and Bruce’s sniping to focus on Damian. “You remembered after all these years?”
“Tt. Of course. It was a cherished moment, ruined by Todd’s poor manners.”
“Hey!”
“Silence, Todd, lest your gormlessness invade this moment as well.”
Dick watched as the room divided into Team Damian (Damian, Bruce, and Cass) versus Team Wally (Wally, Jason, and Stephanie) as they threw nonsensical taunts at each other, and Tim and Kon escaped the debate by hiding in the corner to have a quick snog.
I’m in heaven, Dick thought happily, as his family continued to jokingly berate each other. I’m in heaven, and I get to have my whole family with me, forever. The brightness of Dick’s smile could have put the sun to shame,
Outside, the clouds parted over Gotham, bringing a little more light into the city of darkness. But surely that was just a coincidence.
Right?