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“You’re going to be fine,” Bruce said quietly, seated on the ground with Dick’s head in his lap. “They’re going to find us.”
“You know they’re not,” Dick whispered, blood staining his teeth and building in his lungs, spilling over his lips. “Not in time, anyway.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Bruce ordered. “Focus on staying awake.”
“I’m not tired,” Dick told him, peeling his eyes open to look up at Bruce. “Just...can’t breathe.”
Bruce hummed. “Let me help you sit up,” he murmured, placing his hands under Dick’s shoulders and pushing him up, and ignoring the blood that Dick coughed up. The blood that spilled down his front.
“I don’t regret it,” Dick said suddenly once he’d settled back against Bruce’s chest.
“Regret what?” Bruce asked, picking up Dick’s wrist to check his pulse. It was slow, sluggish. Bruce tried to will Dick to keep breathing, to stay alive.
But not even Batman can control death, no matter how much he wished to.
Dick hummed softly. “Becoming Robin,” he replied, turning to face Bruce with a smile. The older had removed his cowl and flipped Dick’s lenses up several hours earlier, letting him see Dick’s blown pupils.
They were running out of time. The poison had already set in. At this rate...at this rate, the others weren’t going to get here in time and Bruce was going to have to hold his son as he-
“I regret it,” Bruce told him. “Maybe if I hadn’t let you be Robin, you wouldn’t be in this position.”
“What, dying from poison Ivy’s poison?” Dick asked with a grin. “You and I both know you had absolutely no control over me going out as Robin. You’re probably the only reason I’m still alive.”
Bruce was silent. “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I’m sorry we fought so much you felt like the only place for you to be was far away from me. You were fifteen, you shouldn’t have needed to leave the house because of a fight. I shouldn’t have replaced you with Jason without your permission. Robin was yours, not mine, to give him.”
Dick gave a weak laugh, but it sounded scared. “With all this apologizing going on,” Dick mumbled, trying to keep his voice from shaking. “It almost sounds like you’re...trying to make amends before I-”
“You won’t die,” Bruce insisted. “I’ll take you to Ra’s Al Ghul and put you in the Lazarus Pit myself if I have to.”
Dick was quiet. “Bruce?”
“Yes chum?”
“Please don’t.” he sounded close to tears this time. Bruce could feel his shoulders shaking. “Don’t you dare bring me back to life. Please . Once I’m dead, I want to stay dead. I don’t want to come back, Bruce.”
“Dick-”
“Promise me,” Dick pleaded. “Promise me you won’t bring me back. Promise me you won’t let the others resurrect me. Promise me you’ll cremate me to make sure the others can’t go behind your back.”
“Dick-”
“Bruce Wayne,” Dick’s tone was wet yet threatening. Firm.
Nightwing.
“This is my dying wish,” Dick said firmly. “I do not want to come back.”
Bruce closed his eyes, pressing his fingers to Dick’s pulse point. He could almost feel Dick fading away. He’d be dead soon. Bruce could stay silence until the beat stopped. Not promise. Not-
“I promise.”
Dick’s heart stopped.
……………..
Dick peeled his eyes open to the incessant sound of beeping in tune with his steady heart rate. He blinked sluggishly, rolling his head to the side to find Bruce watching him.
“Welcome back.”
Dick smiled. “Good to be back.”