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Chapter Text

"Wow, I still can't believe that actually worked." The ridiculousness of their ruse struck Piper once more with powerful force as he struggled to wriggle out of his borrowed shiny red spandex. Wally was in the next room, having changed into street clothes much more quickly and efficiently, and not just owing to the superspeed. The costume was obviously designed with his sleekly muscled form in mind, not Piper's recently acquired chub.

"Eh, I told you, the guy was only going to give you a passing glance. Adrenaline's funny that way." Wally sounded utterly dismissive and as confident as ever. Piper could only shrug. Clearly the kid's methods worked for him, and Piper did have a tendency to sabotage his old projects by over-thinking them.

He finally finished ridding himself of the clingy fabric, threw on his more accustomed grubby sweats, and joined Wally in the main room. He wadded up the costume into a ball and tossed it on the kid's lap, where he was lounging on his couch.

"Dude, you're wrinkling the hell out of it! C'mon, aren't you guys supposed to be good with clothes?"

Piper quirked an eyebrow. "You guys?"

Wally winced. "Did I put my foot in my mouth again already?"

"Kind of, yeah. I'd appreciate you not reducing me to stereotypes just because you know about my sexual orientation now. I mean, geeze Wally..." Piper stepped around the couch so that he was in full view of his friend. More specifically, so that his grungy grey sweatpants with the rips and sealer stains, as well as the stretched out band t-shirt complete with tiny burns from careless moments during his tech work, were on full view. As well as his broken and stubby fingernails, his messy orange ponytail, and unflattering but environmentally friendly footwear. "I'd say it's rather obvious that I'm not now, nor have I ever been, one of the obsessively over groomed and fashion conscious gays you're thinking of. I'm still me. There's no reason to suddenly reevaluate everything you knew about me before."

"I know, I know. You're not actually the first gay guy I've been friends with."

That got his attention. "Really?" Piper frowned thoughtfully. "But...but you ran down the side of the building to get away when I told you."

"Is that what it looked like?" Wally sat up a little straighter, looking mildly horrified. "No, no-no-no, I swear it wasn't a hasty retreat. I actually did have a meet up with Superman I was late for. I mean, c'mon, I called you less than twenty four hours later to pull you in on the team up. That should exonerate me, shouldn't it?"

"I'd thought you just needed some space to process it. I didn't weird you out?"

"I didn't see it coming, but people say I'm kinda dense, so...yeah. You don't think much of me, do you Piper?" Wally teased.

"It's not that. People just...don't always respond that well when they find out. I've come to expect the worst." Piper sat down on the arm of the couch. Wally looked intrigued.

"Coming out to supervillains must have been something, huh?"

"I was thinking of my parents, actually. But you're right. It wasn't exactly a treat when the Rogues found out. So wait, you've got other gay friends?" And he was still that unintentionally insensitive?

Wally smirked and nodded. "Yeah. One of my best buddies is bi. He came out to me back when we were kids. So, y'know, as far as the putting my foot in my mouth thing goes, that's probably never going to go away because I still say stupid shit now and I've been besties with a bisexual guy for ages."

"I'll keep that in mind," Piper said dryly. "Is your friend cute?" He'd said it teasingly, but Wally looked to be taking the throwaway comment seriously.

"He's supposed to be, yeah...and he's single at the moment and you're not that much older than us..."

"Wally, I was kidding. I don't want to date a twenty year old kid."

"You sure? Us twenty year old kids can be a lot of fun. Besides...this is my best friend we're talking about. I'd kind of like to see him set up with someone who wasn't an asshole to him, intentionally or otherwise. He keeps winding up with girls who mess with his head, and then this one asshole he's been on-again off-again with since we were in high school. I found out the other kid was bi when I walked in on him examining my friend's tonsils in the old Titans HQ. We had meetings in that room. You should not go that far with someone on a couch that's communal. We all had to sit there, and I don't care if you scotchguard it; that was still really inconsiderate."

"Wait, you're talking about setting me up with one of the former Teen Titans?" Piper had just assumed he was talking about one of his old friends from Nebraska or something. He couldn't for the life of him imagine which of the Titans Wally was referring to. Obviously one of the originals, if they went back that far...

Oh. Oh, Nightwing was one of the original Teen Titans...but no, even if the rumors were true and the kid was also into guys...Wally would never think to set the two of them up, would he? 

Wally picked up on Piper's sudden interest in the idea, and he laughed. "Yeah, I'm not the best judge of male beauty or anything, but from what I hear my friend is quite the looker. You think you could see past youth and immaturity for one date?"

"I might...um, well...I'll give it some thought."

"Cool. I'll float the idea by him and see what he says. Maybe me and Connie could double with you guys."

Piper just managed to keep his displeasure at that suggestion from showing on his face, but it was a near miss. He didn't exactly have anything against Connie. She was a sweet girl, and when Piper talked to her one on one he actually rather liked her...but her and Wally together were a miserable combination. Quite possibly the last thing he wanted to do was be stuck in a confined space ostensibly trying to get to know an attractive superhero while Wally and Connie bickered with each other and tried to get any and all bystanders to take their side in the quarrel. Because Piper was friends with Wally, he'd be expected to side with the kid, but the thick skulled idiot was almost always in the wrong regarding how he treated women.

"That's...certainly an idea," Piper said, only slightly haltingly.

"She's been bugging me to take her someplace nice. Yeah, the more I think about this, the more fun it sounds. I'll let you know what Dick and Connie say."

Piper left Wally's place shortly thereafter, puzzling over his possible blind date with a former Teen Titan.

Chapter Text

The date with Wally's friend never ended up happening.

Wally disappeared for a couple of weeks, as was his habit. He was one of those friends who dropped off peoples' radars for long stretches, but when he showed up again it felt like no time had been lost at all. During the couple of weeks Wally was off saving the world with other friends, Piper overthought the idea of going on a date with an ex-Titan, and decided that the age difference was creepy. It was only actually about five or six years, and he'd have no qualms about dating someone five or six years older than him, but still. If it was one of Wally's friends then it was going to feel creepy; the kid was starting to feel like a kid brother to him.

During that time, Piper also met Michael the chef, and by the time Wally pestered him about the double date he felt committed enough not to want to go out to dinner with another guy. Wally took the news harder than Piper expected. He seemed genuinely upset that Piper didn't want to go out with his buddy.

"But...but he's hot. Why wouldn't you want to go out with a hot younger man?"

Piper shrugged. "Right now I'm the hot younger man. I'm sorry, Wally, but I'm really hitting it off with Michael and I want to see how things go."

"But it's Nightwing. He's gotta be better than some stupid chef you've just met. Just who is this guy anyway? Do you have anyone to vouch for him? How do you know he's not secretly a supervillain trying to get close to you so he can attack you or something?"

Piper stared at him in stunned silence, and Wally had the sense to look a bit embarrassed. "Sorry. But that sort of thing does happen. And I still think you're being a bit stupid about this. Some civilian guy you just met is not more of a catch than my superhero longtime friend."

"Wally, I'm very flattered that you think I have enough going for me to interest a young man like Nightwing, but I promise you, I've given this some thought and I think I'm better off sticking with someone more my speed. Michael's not as glamorous as Nightwing, of course..." Piper couldn't help but wince a little as he said it. Truthfully, he'd had a crush on the younger hero from about the time he'd dropped the childish Robin persona in favor of his spandex clad walking-wet-dream persona. "But Michael's a nice enough man and we've got chemistry. I don't feel it's fair to walk away from that."

"But-but-"

"Is there any particular reason you're so dead set against me dating Michael?" Piper asked, finally starting to feel genuine irritation with his friend.

Wally pouted. "No, it's not really about you. I just want Nightwing to go out with someone who doesn't suck and isn't going to jerk him around for once. Not that I really have anything against the old Batgirl or Starfire...but those relationships sucked and I'm sick of hearing him bitch about his love life. I'd rather hear him exult about it, y'know?"

Piper felt a little thrown. "And...you think we'd be good together?"

"Well yeah. You're both awesome, so if I put you together that'd only add more awesome, right? Plus Arsenal's been flirting with him again, and I seriously might run headfirst into a wall at full speed if they start that tangled mess of fucked-up-edness again."

"Oh..." Piper wasn't quite sure what to make of that. On the one hand, his low sense of self-worth was being nicely appeased by Wally's easy, even thoughtless insistence that he'd be a good boyfriend for his close friend. On the other hand, the thoughtless impulsivity by which Wally had come to this conclusion was far from comforting. Just because Wally got along well with the two of them as friends didn't necessarily mean they'd make a good couple.

In his continued difficulty accepting Piper's refusal, Wally started bringing Nightwing around. He said it was just a coincidence that the frequency of his teamups with his friend coincided with his attempt to fix him up with Piper, but seeing as Piper was neither stupid nor suffering a recent head injury, he of course didn't believe him. Still, he played ball. When the Flash and Nightwing showed up in his workshop, Piper helped them with their gear without drawing attention to the thinness of Wally's ruse. He made conversation with the guys, checked Nightwing out a little because he was only human, and then happily sent them on their way with their improved tech.

One day they stopped by with hopelessly smashed comm devices. Piper took a look at the things, arched a skeptical eyebrow, and then swept the pieces into a spare pencil box he happened to have lying on his workbench. "I don't know what kind of abilities you think I have, but those poor things are past the point of no return."

"The guy who had us hostage for a little while really didn't want us calling in the League," Wally explained. "So you can't fix them?"

"Nope. I could probably build you new ones based on them, but that's not going to be a while-you-wait kind of project."

"Kay. Guess we'll get out of your hair then." Wally stood to leave, but they both noticed that Nightwing was looking a little worse the wear for his recent adventure. He'd been leaning heavily against the wall where he was sitting, and when he climbed to his feet he let out a weary groan. Piper reflected that unlike Wally, this hero was only human and possessed no superhuman abilities to help him out with healing and just general fatigue.

"You guys don't have to take off right this second. If you want to...uh, what's a good social sounding pretext for telling you you should change into comfy clothes and take a nap? Should we call that watching a movie?"

"That sounds perfect," Nightwing said. "I don't have any civilian stuff with me. Can I borrow something?"

"Absolutely. I have almost nothing but scruffy comfortable clothing." Piper led them out of his workshop and into the main house. He waved Nightwing into the downstairs bathroom so he could clean up, and snuck in some sweats that were probably going to be a little loose fitting, but very comfortable, once he was in the shower.

Wally had switched into civilian clothing and was sitting on the couch with takeout menus arranged in front of him when Piper got to the living room. "Just make yourself at home," Piper teased.

"Working on it. I haven't tried the new Chinese place yet. Is it any good?"

Piper made an iffy motion with his hand. "I didn't care for their veggie delight with tofu, but the greasy fried stuff will probably be right up your alley."

"Cool." Wally looked at the menu with renewed interest, and meanwhile Piper's attention was pulled away by his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Hartley. Do you have a minute?"

Piper felt a warm smile form of its own accord at the sound of his boyfriend's voice. "Of course, Michael. How's everything going? Did you get that work drama sorted out?" He started walking towards the doorway, putting some space between him and Wally in case the conversation turned personal.

It went that way decidedly quickly.

"Work is work. Listen, I'm sorry to do this over the phone-"

"Then don't do this over the phone. That's a terrible phrase," Piper said, smile evaporating instantly. He'd actually heard that one before, several times. "Is this seriously a breakup phone call?"

"Well, we haven't been seeing each other that long. It didn't seem necessary to do it in person."

"We haven't been seeing each other for that long, but I thought we had at least enough of a connection to require courtesy!"

Michael stuttered out some kind of guilt-ridden apology, but Piper was too irritated to really hear him. In addition to the indignation he felt at once more being unceremoniously dumped in a rather rude manner, he could see Wally smirking at him from the couch.

Piper hung up on Michael while he was in the middle of his long winded apology and stalked over to the couch. He flopped down and crossed his arms over his chest. "Say nothing."

"What, did you expect me to tease you or something? Maybe throw in a comment about all that connection and chemistry you two had and how that trumped your close, personal friend's good intentions in his match-making attempt?"

"I will seriously smother you with this couch cushion."

"No you won't. You're not fast enough."

The two of them were childishly smacking each other and calling each other names when Nightwing walked into the room. Piper immediately forgot what he was doing at the sight of the half-naked man (he'd forgone the t-shirt, and Piper's sweats were riding rather low on his hips), whose hair was dripping rivulets of water down his perfectly sculpted torso. Piper was so busy ogling Nightwing's perfect body that it took him a second to notice the man wasn't wearing his mask and oh...oh those eyes were just as pretty as the rest of him.

Of course Wally caught him in the face while he was distracted.

"For fuck's sake!" Piper clutched at his nose and fell back against the couch. "Dammit, Wally! You're not supposed to actually hit during a slap fight!"

"Sorry! I thought you were going to block. Are you okay?"

Piper hunched over, still clutching at his face, but went still when warm, slightly damp skin covered his wrists and gently eased his hands down. Suddenly very blue eyes were very close to him and it was kind of hard to think. Thank goodness his deer-in-headlights mode kicked in, because otherwise he would have babbled something idiotic about how pretty Nightwing was.

And kind of familiar looking, come to think of it. He'd definitely seen those baby blues somewhere before.

"I think you'll be okay," Nightwing said, flashing a perfect smile at him. Piper grinned back, even though his nose was still killing him from the smack.

"Yeah...I know what would help though."

Wally looked positively giddy. Later, Piper would realize that the boy was expecting him to ask Nightwing out, what with having just become single and therefore available. So even with his superspeed, distracted as he was he didn't see it coming at all when Piper hit him with a retaliatory smack.

"Ow! Dammit, Piper! That hurt."

"Funny that, isn't it?"

Nightwing sat back on his heels and rolled his eyes. "Children, both of you. Seriously though, Wally said you were reluctant to go on a date with me because I'm younger than you. From the looks of it, our maturity level is hovering around the same area."

Piper's eyes widened. "Wally talked to you about that?"

"Haven't you been friends with Wally long enough to know what his filter's like?"

"Non-existent," Wally said with a nod. "Speaking of which, Piper's boyfriend just dumped him so he's single now."

"I will seriously hit you again."

"Please. Like you could land it this time."

"Piper, is he being serious or is he being an insolent shit right now?" Nightwing asked.

Piper found himself once again mesmerized by the gorgeous young man kneeling across from him. Which was just frustrating, since he was supposed to be the hypnotist. "H-huh?"

"Are you really single now?"

"Yeah, dude. He is." Wally looked absolutely insufferable.

"In that case...are you doing anything on Saturday?"

Piper blinked a few times. "R-really? Uh, I mean no...I'm free on Saturday. Wait, really?"

Wally snorted, then turned it into a cough. Piper would have been more embarrassed, but he was still suffering some kind of hypnotic daze in the wake of that pearly-smile baby-blue-gaze combo. He was too distracted to care how ridiculous he sounded.

"Cool. Assuming nothing cape-related comes up, I'll pick you up at seven. In the meantime, I am all about that nap disguised as watching a movie plan." Nightwing joined them on the couch, sitting closer to Piper than Wally. He periodically flashed flirty smiles at Piper throughout the first half of the movie, then he konked out and ended up napping curled up to Piper's side.

Still feeling dazed, Piper stared at the gorgeous half-naked man snuggling against him, and then gaped at Wally. "I'm sorry I hit you. You're a much better friend than I give you credit for."

Wally stuck his tongue out at him. "Don't I know it."

Chapter Text

To Piper's great surprise, the date with Nightwing went really, really well. Despite his idiotic manner in getting them there, Wally was clearly onto something when he decided that setting up his two best friends was a good idea. 

Piper didn't really know the other hero. There was a lot of gossip about Nightwing, certainly, so he'd heard about him, but he also knew that that wasn't the same thing as knowing anything of substance about the young man. Having a certain weakness for sexy brunettes (but really, who doesn't?), Piper knew he was interested in Nightwing on a physical level...he just wasn't sure that that would translate to any kind of connection. He'd dated pretty boys before and unless there was a decent brain to go along with the package his interest never lasted.

Well, except for Earl, but that was a different story. A story loaded down with much baggage that he was doing his best to forget.

At any rate, Dick turned out to have nerd interests comparable to Piper's own. They discussed literature, radical politics, the LGBT movement, music theory, and all other manner of intellectual goodies over the course of the date. Dick professed himself a total history nerd, so tentative plans were formed to do a museum crawl through Gotham.

Wally came up a few times throughout the date, which couldn't really be helped what with him being the only important person they had in common. To Piper's immense amusement it turned out that despite them being the same age, Dick took a similar stance to Wally in regards to seeing him as a dense younger brother.

Dick shrugged his shoulders while Piper laughed about it. "I can't help it. I think Wally's even a couple of months older than me, but you'd never be able to tell from the way he acts. Well no, that's not fair. He's been doing amazing things since he became the Flash. I always knew he had it in him, but he needed to get his butt kicked in gear."

"He certainly has matured a lot in the time I've known him," Piper agreed. "I worry sometimes about him getting ground down. The lifestyle can be difficult, and as irritating as some of his immaturity can be...I wouldn't want him to change too much."

Dick nodded his agreement.

"So how does he take mentoring attempts from someone his own age?" Piper asked.

Dick made a face. "About as well as every other Titan. Well no. He listens to me way more than Ro-than Arsenal did. But yeah, at first everyone chafed about taking orders from the kid with no powers. Wally was a pest at first because he wanted to impress the girls on the team, but after Wonder Girl and Speedy started going out he calmed down a little. Enough for me to teach him what I knew about superheroics and have him actually listen to me, anyway." Dick looked a bit uncomfortable, and not just because he'd almost given the real name of one of his friends. Piper diplomatically changed the subject by bringing up an article he'd read on a female abolitionist society that had operated out of Gotham, and that provided them with conversation fodder through dinner.

The date ended with them "watching a movie" at Piper's, but without Wally present they pretty much just made out with a movie on in the background. Piper was wondering if he should break his personal rule, instated after a series of poor choices in his latter teen years, about how far to go with a guy on the first date (it seemed like the rule could use a bendy acrobat exception) when some sort of signal device sounded from the pair of black jeans Dick had kicked onto the floor (okay, so Piper had already pretty much decided on making a bendy acrobat exception).

"Sorry. I should probably get that." Dick reluctantly disentangled himself from Piper and snagged his jeans. Piper awkwardly rearranged his clothing and redid his ponytail while Dick dug out the signal device. "Little busy right now. What is it?"

"You're needed," a gruff voice answered. Piper involuntarily shuddered when he realized that that was most likely Batman on the other end of the line.

He'd put his finger on where he recognized Dick from within a couple hours of seeing him mask-less for the first time and was still grappling with the fact that Bruce Wayne was most likely Batman. Piper had met Bruce Wayne in his civilian life. Sure, he had the build to be Batman, but...but...

The man must have been one hell of an actor, because even with the picture of the ditzy playboy in his mind Piper still felt a lurch of terror from hearing that voice. He wasn't sure he was ever going to be on the right side of the law long enough to overcome his fear of Batman.

"Listen, I'm on a really fabulous date and I fucking need this right now. I'm not taking off for the Cave unless you give me a valid reason."

"Nightwing-"

"I don't owe you any favors. It's actually the other way around at the moment."

There was a moment of tense silence. Piper fiddled with his clothing some more, trying to smooth wrinkles that likely weren't coming out of his one nice dress shirt without ironing.

"...Robin would benefit from your presence."

Dick let out a long suffering sigh. "On my way." He shut off the comm or signal device or whatever it was and stuffed it back into his pocket. "God dammit. There's every chance in the world that he's full of shit and he's just using the kid because he knows I'll come running for Robin every time, but if it is legit...aargh. Damn him. I'm not going to let him screw up another poor adolescent with a hero worship complex."

"Is everything okay?" 

Dick scrubbed a hand through his hair and let out a self-deprecating laugh. "Either Gotham's in danger or Batman got in over his head trying to mentor an eighth grader. Personally, I believe him when he says it's the latter. He doesn't call me when Gotham's in danger anymore. He doesn't trust himself to handle the messy stuff with the kid on his own though, and he knows I'm good for co-mentoring. I'm sorry. I was hoping to leave this shit on the back burner for the night."

"Hey, the spandex life doesn't always let you. Don't worry about it."

Dick smiled in relief. "Ah, the benefits of dating another Cape. You get this shit. I'm sorry to run out on you though."

Piper watched Dick wriggle into the tight black jeans and silently agreed with him. "It's fine. Take care of your sort-of sidekick."

"Thanks. This was fun. Seriously, Piper, I am very bummed about walking out on this date early. You're good if I call you for date number two the next time I'm free, right?"

"Of course."

"Great."

Dick pulled him close for another incredible kiss, murmured a goodbye, and then he was gone, leaving a very dazed Pied Piper in his wake.

Chapter Text

"Dick, hi. I was wondering when you'd..." Piper trailed off when his sort-of boyfriend (maybe? They hadn't discussed it yet despite seeing each other, exclusively on Piper's side, for over a month) stalked past him into his apartment and started moving furniture around in the living room, intently looking for something. He was visibly tense and scowling. "Um...is there something I can help you with?" Piper shut and locked the door and joined Dick in the living room, thoroughly confused.

"Hold on. This will only take a sec." Dick peered at Piper's sound system, then went to stand in front of it and held his arm out in front of him, slowly turning until he apparently found an angle he liked. Then he crossed the room, bent down in front of an end table, and felt along under the tabletop. Scowling once more, he pulled off a little metal bat symbol with a blinking red light. "Not funny, Bruce." The light abruptly switched off. Dick tossed it to Piper. "I'd take a blow torch to it, but it'd serve the jerk right if you reverse-engineered it instead."

"I just might do that." Piper was exceptionally discomfited. He had super-hearing from his robot ears. He should have heard the surveillance device working. In addition, how the hell had it been placed in his apartment to begin with? He'd designed his home security system himself.

"There are at least two more in here, but that's just what I know about. I'm sorry to start the date this way, but I think we'd better search the place."

"Oh god. Dick, I'm a pack rat. That could take hours." If not days.

"Then let's just go upstairs for now. He, uh...he's got paranoid tendencies when it comes to us ex-sidekicks but he doesn't bug bedrooms. Even his creeping respects some boundaries."

Piper wanted to point out that they'd had sex on the couch before, so that was a flaw in Dick's logic, but he was also trying really hard not to think about the fact that Batman had possibly listened in on him having sex with the original Robin.

No, he couldn't have listened in. Piper was still alive, after all.

They went upstairs, and as soon as Piper shut the door behind him Dick enveloped him in a tight hug. "Hartley I am so, so sorry. I swear, I had no idea about the bugs. I mean, it's not the first time he's done that to someone I've dated but I honestly didn't expect it this time. I mean, I'm not a teenager anymore and we're barely speaking right now."

"It's okay."

"No, it's not. You're trembling. It's very clearly not okay."

Piper glanced down at his hands and saw that Dick was right. His anxiety and paranoia was amped up to eleven at the moment, but he hadn't noticed the way he was shaking. That was a worrying sign. "I suppose I should have mentioned this earlier. Um, where I've spent some time on the wrong side of the law...Batman terrifies me."

"That's what he's going for. There's no shame in it, trust me." He ran his hands down Piper's arms, took both his hands and gave them a squeeze. "God, Hartley. I'm so sorry about all of this. If I had known-"

"Dick, it's okay. It's not your fault. I'll have Wally help me check the rest of the house later. I'm sure the search won't take nearly as long with a speedster's help." They went to sit down on the end of the bed, and Piper ended up anxiously tapping his hands against his knees. "I guess now's as good a time to ask as any. Does...he seem to have a problem with us dating?"

"I don't know, and frankly I don't care if he does."

Piper arched a brow. Dick's personality, he'd come to learn, was generally on the playful side. The man adored puns, so-bad-it's-good movies, and nerding out over music and museums, which made dating very compatible for them. He did have a broody side, but it didn't come out nearly as often as Piper's. When it did though...Batman was definitely the most obvious trigger Piper had detected thus far.

"Okay. Generally I agree, it's just...the man took you in when you were a child, right? My family's started asking questions about you. I'd just wondered if anything like that was going on on your end, and if we should talk about it. Where my identity's public and yours isn't, things could get complicated."

"Oh, right." Dick bit his lip as he thought, which was very distracting. As was the fact that they were sitting on Piper's bed, but he took the effort to keep his attention focused. This was important, and making out with the bendy acrobat had gotten him off track on this discussion too many times already. "Hm...well, considering we've spent the most time together in our civilian identities, I think that's how we should be official. You should pretend not to know me when I'm Nightwing."

"No one would believe I was dating Nightwing anyway. Hell, I'm not sure I believe it most of the time."

"Oh, and is dating Dick Grayson not exciting in any way?"

"Something about the clingy black spandex with the finger stripes lends your alter ego more bragging rights in the gay community, but you're right. You're still well out of my league in your civilian identity. It's just slightly more plausible sounding since we've got that society background we conceivably could have met through."

"As opposed to a loud mouthed ginger."

"Exactly."

Dick took his hand again. "You're still shaking. Overall I think you're taking this stalked by Batman thing really well. I wish he hadn't upset you like this though. It's not fair. And also, I am not out of your league, Hartley. As Nightwing or Dick Grayson."

"Hm...I think any remotely reflective surface proves otherwise, but thank you for humoring me."

Dick's eyes narrowed, an annoyed pout on his face. "Kay. So I won't pretend I don't know I'm good looking. That's disingenuous, to say the least, especially given how much time I spend playing it up. And I do put kind of an embarrassing amount of work into it. That being said, you're good looking too, Hartley."

Piper rolled his eyes. "I'm average looking at best." His feelings about his looks tended to change based on whether he was in a relationship or not, and with whom. Sometimes he felt like hot shit indeed, but definitely not lately.

"You've got some self-esteem issues, which makes perfect sense based on what I've heard about your background," Dick said, clearly launching into one of those eerily on-point mentored-by-Batman detective analyses he sometimes did. "You don't dress well and it looks almost defensive to me. Like a can't win, don't try sort of fashion sense. And you clearly focus your efforts on projects that are less frivolous than figuring out which colors and suit cuts flatter you the most. I like that in a guy."

Piper took a deep breath. "I have a feeling I'm going to regret asking, but what do you know about my background?"

It might have been his imagination but it looked like Dick was blushing a little. "Look, I'm a detective and Wally doesn't have a filter. I wouldn't do anything as bad as bugging your house, but I might come across like a creeper if I...shit. I already sound like a creeper."

Piper leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on his lips. "If you've looked into me with Bat-family style scrutiny and you're still here, I'll choose to consider that a good sign."

"Oh believe me, I'm very invested in making this work. It's not often I get to date someone as unabashedly nerdy as I am. I always had to downplay it with my last boyfriend. And my most recent ex-girlfriend..."

"My ex asked me why I had so many books. He said I should just use the library instead of throwing away so much money, never mind the fact that I'm independently wealthy. Also, he doubted my ability to actually read enough of them for it to be worth it."

"Ugh. You should have dumped him on the spot."

"Come to think of it, I really should have." Piper frowned. "The more I think on it, Wally was probably right. Michael was kind of a jerk."

"He did say something about your low sense of self-worth contributing to your dating decisions. Was he actually right about something?"

"I think that new girlfriend of his probably helped him with that insight. It doesn't seem like something he could have come up with without Linda's help. By the way, isn't she a nice change of pace from Connie? I think he might actually be growing up."

Dick rubbed his thumb over the palm of Piper's hand. "I've only met her once so far, but she seemed nice. Piper, I'm not here to discuss Wally's love life."

"I didn't think you were." Piper shrugged. "I know I talk about him a lot, but I didn't think you minded. Where you're his other best friend and all."

"I've got a different sort of friendship with him than you, I think. I go months at a time without seeing him sometimes, but when you've been friends with a guy since you were twelve you still feel like brothers the next time you see him, even if you're clueless about a lot of the things going on in his life. I never actually even met Connie. I heard the most about her after she dumped Wally for Chunk."

"Ugh, you dodged so many bullets then. That was a terrible relationship. I did a happy dance when they finally broke up." Piper gave a small shudder. "When Wally first pitched setting us up on a date he wanted us to double with him and Connie. Finger stripes be damned, that was not happening."

"I want to cycle back to something from earlier in the conversation. You said your parents were asking questions about me. I was under the impression you didn't talk to your parents."

"Oh, that. We reconciled a few months ago." Piper frowned, considering how much he really wanted to say on the subject. "It's a bit...it's a bit tense right now, but I've been going over for the occasional family dinner and whatnot. And they're letting me take my sister out for day trips and stuff, which is nice. The worst part of being cut off from them was being separated from my baby sister."

"I can't even imagine. The closest thing I've got to a younger sibling is the new Robin. Actually, I'm really liking this kid, but where we've only known each other for like a year and a half it's not remotely the same thing." Dick frowned. "They really kept you from seeing your sister?"

"I almost don't blame them. I mean, I was an unstable supervillain. Although I wasn't at first. At first I was just a scared gay kid sleeping in his car because his parents threw him out. Ah, shit, there's the bitterness again. I don't want to start on this tangent again." He got up and started pacing, all kinds of nervous energy coming to the surface. "Maybe we should go out and do something tonight. I'm getting antsy just sitting here talking about upsetting things. Talking about my parents isn't supposed to be upsetting anymore. Shit. Damn bitterness."

"Believe me, I have nothing but sympathy on this particular topic." Dick walked over to him and placed his hands on Piper's shoulders, stilling his restless movements. "I don't think we should go out. You're really jittery right now, so being around people probably isn't a great idea, right? Let's order food and watch a movie or something."

Piper blinked a few times, caught off guard by Dick's insight. "Good call."

"I'll run downstairs for the take out menus. I'll let you know if I see anymore of the bugs while I'm down there."

Some hours later, Piper was awake but pleasantly drowsy in bed with his bendy acrobat snuggled up behind him, dead to the world and lightly snoring (really, if one didn't have super-hearing they probably wouldn't have heard snoring of any kind). The building anxiety that began with Dick's frantic entrance and discovery of bat-bug had disappeared entirely, replaced by contentment.

Piper wasn't used to that. Normally, if he started down the road to panic it stayed with him for a few days, making his skin crawl and his limbs feel heavy while he felt a constant weight in his chest. Sometimes it erupted into an actual panic attack, but not always. It never went away so quickly of its own accord.

The television was still on, though Piper was barely paying attention to it, instead focusing on the feel of the warm body pressed against him. He felt incredibly lucky, to have somehow drawn this man's attention to him and somehow keep it. He knew who some of Nightwing's exes were, after all. He was thankful he apparently had more in the way of nerdery going for him than Starfire or Arsenal (the rational part of his brain knew that having so very many exes, all of whom seemed perfectly desirable if one were bisexual, was a red flag but Piper was choosing to ignore that). Piper had been infatuated with Dick for a good long while already, and now he felt in danger of falling in love.

"Dick, are you still awake?" he asked, even though he knew Dick had fallen asleep. But the sound of Piper's voice roused him, since he was an incredibly light sleeper, and he groggily planted a kiss on Piper's neck.

"Something wrong?"

"No, actually. I was just wondering, um...would you be free to meet my mother and I for lunch on Sunday? She...she just really wants to meet you." Piper suspected she thought meeting a boyfriend and having a nice day out together would exonerate her from any future charges of homophobia. It wouldn't, but he could still see how this was important to her. Much to his surprise, Piper realized it was important to him, too. He finally had a boyfriend he actually wanted to show off to his parents (as opposed to the ones in the past, whom he'd dated knowing they'd infuriate his parents.)

"I'll try my damndest to keep Sunday open, but you know how the life goes."

"You really don't have to. If it's weird. Or too much trouble. It probably is weird, right? Since we haven't been...uh..."

"Together long?" Dick gave him a little squeeze. "I've managed more dates with you this month than I usually manage to pull off around the Costume, and that's because I've really wanted to be here. I really like you, Hartley, and I'd love to start meeting the important people in your life. If you're ready for it, I've got a couple people I'd like to introduce to you-not Batman!"

He must have felt the way Piper tensed up.

"I'm barely talking to him myself right now. I promise, meeting Batman is far, far into the future."

"O-okay. Who were you thinking of, then?"

"Tim, at the very least. He's the new Robin, and like I said, the kid's important to me. But I've got a couple of others too..."

And that's how, for the second time in as many weeks, Piper found himself in the same room as Superman. 

Chapter Text

Superman, it turned out, was really, really nice. Piper's slightly broken cynical brain wasn't quite sure what to do with so much good nature and geniality. At first he assumed he was being mocked somehow, though he couldn't detect anything but sincerity in the Kents' earnest expressions (Superman's parents were possibly the most adorable little old couple Piper had ever met, which was also a shock to the emotionally damaged young man).

They were sitting down at the kitchen table of the Kent family home for an honest to god home cooked meal, much of it grown by the Kents themselves. Mrs. Kent and Dick were doing most of the talking, reminiscing about days gone by. The whole thing reminded Piper of TV movies he'd happened on when he was a kid. This was what families were supposed to look like. That was what houses were supposed to look like, as opposed to the elaborate mansions he'd honest to god gotten lost in a few times when he was a kid (eventually the maid always noticed he was gone and helped him back to the nursery, but it always took her a few hours). The Kents had some of Superman's Daily Planet articles cut out and stuck to the fridge with magnets. Not the ones about Superman's heroics, since those were written by other people. The boring stuff Clark Kent had written about Metropolis local politics and a farmer's market the city was unsuccessfully attempting to launch.

Piper almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a tap against his calf. He looked up and realized Dick was eying him nervously. “You okay? You're being unusually quiet.”

“Food coma,” Mr. Kent said with a laugh. “They must not feed you like this in the city.”

There were an awful lot of carbs on his plate. If Piper had had much of an appetite, Mr. Kent's guess would have been a good one . As it was, he was just feeling reticent and a bit intimidated.

Which was ridiculous and he knew it. There was absolutely nothing off-putting at all about the Kents (unless one found the lack of off-putting-ness off-putting) . Even knowing Clark Kent was Superman (Piper couldn't get himself to mentally refer to the guy as Clark, and as such there had been a slight delay every time he'd addressed him by name so he could make sure he actually said Clark) didn't explain anything. Superman, though an impressive superhero, wasn't a terrifying one. He didn't scare people, Piper had never faced him as a villain, and even if he had he'd never have panicked about it. Kind of like he'd never been afraid of Barry Allen. Those two had enough integrity that you knew nothing scarier than a jail cell was waiting for you if you got busted (as a skinny little gay kid, the jail cell might have been terrifying in its own right but Piper had been very good at breaking himself out of Iron Heights).

Piper was starting to realize just how screwed up he was from his dysfunctional life. It was the normalcy of the whole thing that scared him. Nothing in his life had ever prepared him for a sit down dinner with friendly people who wanted to hear about his day because they cared about the people around them. He was out of his comfort zone, and he didn't know how to respond. The cues he'd taken in from TV shows were only going to get him so far in a setting this completely alien .

Dick lightly touched his wrist under the table and smirked at him. Piper frowned, unable to guess what he was trying to communicate, and went back to stumbling his way through the dinner as best he could. Making conversation with the Kents was difficult. This part of Kansas was so far removed from Keystone City that Piper had nothing to latch onto to even try to relate to the pleasant family in front of him, and they were completely ignoring superheroics so he couldn't even chat about that with Superma-Clark. Clark . They weren't talking about superheroics so he really needed to use the guy's actual name.

What a nightmare. Piper was learning an awful lot about himself, including the unfortunate fact that he was more comfortable with open hostility than healthy social interaction.

After dinner the guests retreated to the family room while the Kents washed up. Dick immediately offered to help and was shooed away for his efforts. Superman didn't even try, just smiled knowingly.

“Of course I could clear everything up for them in seconds, but that's not the point,” he said, once they were seated on the comfy, faded furnishings that would have given Rachel Rathaway an aneurism if she saw them.

“Oh, speaking of speed,” Dick said. “Hartley, did you and Wally get around to searching your building?”

“We did.” Piper happily latched onto the new turn in conversation. “We found seventeen more bugs, mostly concentrated in my workshop, which I thought was amusing. Does he think I'm still a supervillain or something?”

“Possibly.”

“Well, I probably bored him out of his mind if he took the time to listen in to me fixing Wally's busted tech. He just heard me arguing with NPR broadcasts and badly singing along with the college radio station.”

Dick grinned. “Maybe he learned his lesson.”

“At this point I've been reformed longer than my villain career lasted. Why would he think I'm still a supervillain? I mean, this would be a very long con, wouldn't it?”

“You'll have to have some patience with Bruce,” Clark advised. “None of the villains in Gotham ever actually reform, and he's suffered from longer cons than this. I don't like it, of course, but I also don't blame him for being as cautious as he is. And though it is invasive and out of line, Dick, you do understand why he's so uncomfortable with you dating a reformed supervillain, right?”

Dick crossed his arms over his chest and scowled, the picture of youthful indignation. “Because he's a pompous hypocrite? My boyfriend's actually reformed. Can we talk about Catwoman and Talia? Oh god, and frickin' Talia. I've read up on all of Piper's super crimes and he has absolutely nothing on Bruce's trysts with super criminals. Like, seriously, he's giving me crap for dating an ex-gimmick thief who donated most of his loot to underfunded LGBT charities. But Talia's work with R'as al-Ghul is way more innocent, right? Self-righteous, stubborn, insufferable-”

“I'm going to stop you there before you use language Ma wouldn't approve of under this roof,” Clark said. “I know Bruce is being hypocritical and obviously you know that, but all he sees is his desire to protect you from mistakes he's made himself. Besides, he's too smart to let his prejudices against criminals blind him to Hartley's good qualities for much longer. His investigations will sway him. He's too logical to ignore facts forever. You just need to give him a little more time.”

“I'm just going to keep quiet so I don't upset your mom with my choice of words.” Dick's tone was light, and it looked like he was actually considering Superman's advice.

Piper was certainly caught on his words. From the sounds of it, Superman respected him. It was an odd thought and honestly a bit unsettling. Piper was prepared for all the costumes to hate him for his past, especially the big names in the Justice League. This revelation caught him off guard as much as the cheerful family dinner.

And he just wasn't going to think about the fact that, from the sounds of it, Batman was all but stalking him. That thought was best left alone, buried as far in his subconscious as it would go.

By the time the Kents joined them in the living room they were having a lighter conversation about the Metropolis Jazz Fesitval. The Daily Planet was having Superman cover it, and Piper had been invited to run a table. They made tentative plans to meet up again, and Dick lamented that he most likely wouldn't be able to attend since Bruce was going to be out of town that weekend and he anticipated having to help Robin patrol Gotham.

They played Trivial Pursuit, and once dinner was a bit more digested cookies and cocoa appeared. It was nice. An hour into boardgames, Piper even started relaxing a little, and made a few more efforts at participating in the conversation.

Mr. Kent and Dick started trading amusing anecdotes back and forth about Clark and Dick's respective experiences of being the smart, nerdy kids in high school. Hartley felt safe enough to jump in, and told the story about the time his science fair project got him in the local paper and offered a visit to a nearby branch of S.T.A.R. labs, but his parents were away at the time and he'd needed a guardian with him to get into the facility. “My grades were always atrocious, but that was behavior based. Building my own hearing aid from scratch was the first indication any of my teachers got that I was actually a total nerd and they just hadn't been holding my interest . Unfortunately, it also clued in the bullies about the nerdom .”

Dick winced sympathetically. “As any kind of over-achieving will.”

“Let me get this straight, son. You earned yourself an honor like that with no support or outside help, and your folks wouldn't cut their vacation short a few days to come home and celebrate with you?” Mr. Kent looked heartbroken.

“Uh...they actually got mad at me for asking.” Hartley frowned, and was starting to regret having told the story. He'd always thought it amusing. Back when he was in with the Rogues, he and Mark and James would go back and forth with stories of parental neglect trying to one up each other. James usually won, since he'd been out and out abused by his parents, but Piper always impressed the others with his ability to compete despite his privileged upbringing. Although to be fair, the fact that the Rathaways hadn't noticed he was born deaf until he was two years old usually won him a lot of points.

The Kents were all staring at him with an unnerving amount of sympathy. It felt like the metaphorical crickets should have been chirping. Oh wait, there were actual crickets chirping, although Hartley and Superman were probably the only people who could hear them from the living room.

“Well, uh, anyway it wasn't so bad. I got shoved into lockers for the rest of the quarter and was duct taped into a recycling bin and rolled around the parking lot until I threw up, but then I got the principal implicated in a scandal and I won some respect from the bullies for it. I wasn't popular, but they stopped beating me up.” His epilogue didn't seem to help. If anything, the crickets sounded louder.

“What was the scandal?” Dick asked, apparently trying to help.

“Oh, he wouldn't approve the GSA I was trying to get off the ground, but a white power student group was meeting in the band room. They called it something else, of course, but if you spent even five minutes looking into it you knew what they really were. Central City might not have been very supportive of the LGBT community back in the day, but that hypocrisy still struck people as too much.”

“Did you get your GSA?”

“Nope. I still wasn't out at the time, which was honestly kind of the point. I wanted a safe space where we could meet and support each other, so I was claiming to be a straight member of the GSA.” Piper rolled his eyes, thinking back on his insecure youth. He could barely remember what it was like to even want to fit in with the straights. Oh the joys of no longer living with his parents, and not having to give thought to the weight of their expectations. Even rebelling against those expectations had taken up too much space in his consciousness. “I think my supposed heterosexuality made my call for the GSA seem less urgent. Plus, you know, the rampant homophobia of the times. As opposed to the quieter, more respectful middle class sort of homophobia the kids at school are dealing with now.”

“Yeah, just look at how far we've come since then,” Dick said with a laugh.

Once again, the Kents were very quiet, and also quietly heartbroken from the looks of it.

“It isn't right,” Mrs. Kent finally said, voice soft and full of unwavering conviction. “No one should have the gall to make a child feel unwanted or alone, no matter how different they are from other children. It's good that you tried to make a difference, Hartley. If you'd been my son, I'd have been proud of you.”

“Th-thank you,” he mumbled, not really sure what else to say.

The evening was definitely winding down. Piper was greatly looking forward to getting home and hiding in his bedroom with some over-ear headphones and his music collection. He'd probably spend the next day or so recovering from the uncomfortable social outing, and hopefully be confident enough to face people again before his next Keystone Out! meet up.

Dick hugged Mr. and Mrs. Kent and was sent off with a plastic container full of leftovers. Mrs. Kent tried to hug Piper, but he jumped at the contact. Mr. Kent settled for an awkward handshake. They'd driven in from Keystone, so Dick was waiting in the car when Superman pulled Piper aside to talk to him for a few minutes.

He wondered if this was going to be the, 'hurt my friend and I'll destroy you,' speech. It didn't really seem like Clark Kent's thing, but then, people who realized he was Superman probably didn't need a speech to be on their best behavior.

“I just wanted to apologize about how tonight went.”

Well that wasn't anything Piper was expecting. “S-sorry? I mean, what? Nothing went wrong.”

“And yet you were really uncomfortable the entire time. Don't patronize me, Hartley. I could hear your vitals just as well as you could. You were nervous and off-center. It was short sighted of me. This is usually a good setting for people, honestly. My folks are good at putting people at ease, and when we have people to dinner they usually get an unguarded, relaxed sort of night. But there's always so much nostalgia around. It doesn't always work with people with certain...unpleasantness in their background, I guess is the best way to put that. So I'm sorry for not thinking that through. Next time we'll have you and Dick come and visit in Metropolis. I'm sure you'll feel more comfortable with Lois. She has a certain witty cynicism in common with you.”

“It's fine, really. Your parents are very nice people.” And he felt like even more of a freak than usual for finding that so ridiculously uncomfortable. “I guess I'm still getting used to interacting with people like them. I haven't known that many people who are that honest and still pleasant.”

“Mm. Bruce doesn't like visiting me here that much either. Like I said, you'll probably feel more comfortable if you visit us in Metropolis.”

Piper blinked a few times. “Bruce…?” Did Superman just imply he had something in common with Batman?

And then he made it worse by outright stating it. “You know, Hartley, it's a shame you and Bruce are starting off on the wrong foot. I think you'll get along once you get to know each other. You have so much in common. I mean, assuming things keep going the way they are with you and Dick.” He smiled, which was both very handsome, almost reassuring, and kind of terrifying. “He seems very happy with you, by the way. I've seen him through some tough romantic woes in the past, so this is a nice change of pace. I'm glad Wally set you two up.”

“You...are?”

Superman laughed. “Yes, though I'm guessing you're going to have a hard time believing that. I think the two of you will be good for each other. Well, I'd better not keep you. I'll see you at the Jazz Festival, okay?”

“Absolutely. Good night.”

He must have looked dazed when he got into the car. Dick shot him a concerned look. “He didn't do the 'be good or else,' speech, did he?”

“No. It was kind of the opposite. He said he was happy for us and he thought we'd be good for each other.”

Dick visibly relaxed. “Good. I didn't think he would. He's only tried to intimidate one of my exes and honestly...I'm not sorry he did. Roy was being a total ass at the time and being flown laps around the cornfield at superspeed by his ankles really straightened him out. For a couple weeks, anyway. ”

That sounded like a bit more than a threatening speech but Piper decided to let that go.

“So he thinks we're going to be good for each other? That's interesting. I'd been worrying the different ways we're damaged might set each other off.” Dick turned in his seat to face Piper. “You've been so nervous lately.”

“I'm just kind of a nervous person. I'm pretty good at hiding it, under normal circumstances. Most people don't pick up on it.” He reached over and bopped Dick's nose. “Stop being such a detective.”

“Sorry, can't help it at this point. So...what should I do? Shut up about it and let you deal because you've got coping strategies at this point in your life, or is there anything I can do to actually help?”

“Hm...considering my coping strategies have had me suiting up in spandex and robbing banks to Robin Hood in the past, I think it's safe to say they're not always the best. You can check up on me if you feel like it. I don't mind.”

“Cool.” Dick turned on the radio sat back in his seat. Smallville was a good two hour drive from Keystone, so they had a bit of a road trip ahead of them.

“So...I assume meeting your mom on Sunday's going to be a bit different from dinner with the Kents.”

Piper smirked. “That's a bit of an understatement. I'd try to prepare you but I don't think that's possible. If nothing else, at least it won't last long. Mom's never had much of an attention span when it comes to me, so I'm sure she'll be off to some other social engagement as soon as brunch i s finished.”

“That's...”

Piper sighed. “I always end up doing that around normal people. I'm sorry. I have a...I guess a complicated relationship with my parents. We love each other, really. I just had to stop expecting things from them that aren't going to happen to be able to see it. They're very self-absorbed, and their emotional range is a bit limited, but they're not bad people. I'm sure it sounds really different when I talk about the past though. Dick…?” He'd gone very quiet, and there was an interesting expression on his face that Piper couldn't quite read.

“You just referred to me as a normal person. I'm a circus brat who was taken in by an unstable Cape to start fighting crime in fish scale underpants when I was eleven. Like, our childhoods were different, but I've introduced many an awkward pause into conversations by trying to tell funny stories from my childhood. Don't worry so much, okay Hartley?”

Piper laughed and gave himself a little shake. “I can't always help it, but I'll certainly try.”

Chapter Text

Of course, nothing went wrong when Piper and Dick were supposed to meet up with the Kents, who knew all about their double lives and would have perfectly understood having dinner pushed back because of superheroics. Hell, since they were nice, sympathetic people seemingly without a judgmental bone in their body, they probably would have been cool with an excuse as mundane as a flat tire.

No, the superheroics had to crop up when they were supposed to meet with Rachel, who was always on the lookout for a reason to be displeased, especially when it came to her gay son's love life (she claimed she'd accepted his homosexuality and wasn't secretly hoping he'd change his mind, yet she still let him know about every eligible, age appropriate daughter her friends had).

The original plan was for Dick to come by Saturday night after his patrol in Bludhaven. They'd spend the night together, head out to Chez Ennui in the morning, and then after the awkward obligatory meal swing by Wally's house to hang with him and Linda and wait for superhero stuff to come up (because three costumes in one room meant superhero stuff would inevitably come up). Really, the plan sounded far too idealistic to work out but Piper was trying to be more optimistic. Dick said he didn't mind his cynicism, but Piper also suspected that was a bit of a fib.

Saturday evening, when Piper got home from his shift at the soup kitchen he went upstairs to shower, put on clothes he found almost flattering, limited himself to five minutes staring at his reflection and wishing his nose wasn't such an odd shape, and then sat down in the living room to wait for his boyfriend.

Four hours later he was asleep on the couch, his nice pants had chocolate ice cream stains on them, and a carton of half eaten ice cream had melted a new ring onto his coffee table.

He still hadn't heard from Dick the next morning, and they were supposed to be meeting up with Rachel at eleven. With a resigned sigh, Piper cleaned up the living room, got changed into chocolate-stain free clothes, and started mentally preparing himself for the prospect of spending nearly an hour in his mother's company without anyone else to buffer. He thought about brushing out his hair, which had gotten rumpled in his sleep, but ultimately decided against it. Rachel hated his ponytail so it didn't much matter if it was messy or sleek.

For the hell of it, he tried giving Dick a call but of course it went straight to voicemail.

“Darling, good morning. Come here, dearest.” Rachel kissed both of Piper's cheeks, a charming smile on her face that had fooled many an unsuspecting acquaintance into thinking her a doting mother. Piper shakily returned the smile and sat down across from her at the table. “So where's this new beau of yours?”

“Stuck in Gotham, I'm afraid. Family business came up.”

“Oh, that's right. You said you were dating the Grayson boy now?” To his great surprise his mother actually looked happy. “The next time you do manage to get him to yourself, do tell him that your father and I send our best to Bruce, and we'd love to chat with him some time about a possible collaboration. You know he owns the Daily Planet now? If he's interested in publishing, he really ought to renew his business relationship with Osgood. We do have something of a history with the Waynes.”

Huh. Piper felt a bit foolish for not anticipating this. Rachel couldn't care less that he was dating someone he was happy with. Dick had connections to their society circles. He was a networking opportunity. That's why she cared.

Well at least her desire for said networking was keeping her from calling attention to being stood up.

They placed their orders and the next fifteen minutes passed in slightly awkward small talk, the two of them dancing around all the subjects they knew were going to set the other off.

“Darling, I'm so sorry your, er, partner couldn't make it out today. Do you think he'll be able to free up some time next month for your sister's birthday party? Jerrie's determined to meet him. Of course, I'd hoped for a chance to talk to him myself first, as I'm sure Jerrie will secure all his attention to herself. She has that way about her, you know. That charming innocence.”

Piper smiled, thinking of his baby sister. “Dick's going to love her. I can't make any promises without talking to him first. You know, it's already a long distance relationship and he's always got so many commitments, but I'll pitch it to him. And I'll definitely be at Jerrie's party. Thanks for inviting me.”

Rachel's smile almost slipped. “Oh come now, Hartley. This can't be the first I've mentioned it to you.”

“Actually this really is. I'd assumed you guys were doing something for the sweet sixteen but somehow it always seems to have slipped your mind when you've been talking to me. I guess it's a good thing I've got a boyfriend that's more interesting than me now.”

“Really, Hartley. You always take everything in the most unflattering way possible.”

Piper quirked an eyebrow. “And how should I take my parents forgetting to invite me to my baby sister's birthday party until I landed a boyfriend they wanted to meet? Seriously, spin that in a flattering light for me. I'll wait.”

Rachel narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps we got into the habit of excluding you during those long years you spent doing your absolute best to humiliate your family and ruin every social engagement you were involved in, including your sister's parties. Or do you not remember Jerrie hiding in the pantry sobbing her eyes out on her fifth birthday when you lost your temper and punched the magician we hired?”

“The bigot you hired did a super fey mean imitation of me to give the parents a cheap laugh at my expense. I just showed him that some of us sissies could hit.”

“Hartley, no one knew you were gay then. You were just being too sensitive, like you always are. Look, this party is for Jerrie. I don't want you spoiling it by making it about yourself and this air of victimhood you're always carrying with you. We're family and we love you, darling. I'd love to be able to send you as many invitations as I can think of without this awful anxiety that you'll act out. You know how Jerrie is. She doesn't understand half of what you're always ranting and raving about. All she sees is that her brother is upset and she ends up thinking she did something wrong. She shouldn't have to worry about your tantrums on her special day.”

Piper balled his shaking hands into fists. The words had struck home, but damned if he would let Rachel see that. “Right. Because god forbid you just not invite horrible people to your inane parties to begin with. But I know me feeling safe and welcome has never been especially important to you and Dad.”

“You're twisting my words.”

“You're guilt tripping me for standing up for myself. Just say it, Mom. You're still ashamed of me and you always have been.”

“Hartley, that's not...can we talk about this later?” Rachel shot a quick look around the restaurant, reassuring herself that no one was paying attention to them.

Piper balled his napkin up and tossed it on his plate. He stood up, took out his wallet, and tossed some bills onto the table. “I'm not doing this.”

“Perhaps that's for the best. After you've cooled down please give me a call, darling. We should talk about this.”

He bit back a retort he'd probably regret later and then stormed out of the restaurant.

Dick stumbled into Wally's living room later that night. Piper was in comfortable, scrubby clothes playing video games with Linda. He'd spent the whole day trying not to be mad at Dick, but considering how the solo brunch date with his mother had gone, he was hoping for one hell of a story.

The fact that Dick was shaky on his feet and almost as pale as Piper when his skin tone was normally tan and healthy was already buying back some sympathy points. Linda shut off the TV and Piper jumped to his feet. “What happened?”

“Sorry about the...about being off the grid. Tim got in over his head on a case and called me in for support. Poison Ivy hit me with something. I think it's out of my system now but I'm still not feeling my best. I'd have called, I swear, but I was in a coma. I only woke up an hour ago.”

Piper stared at him incredulously while Linda awkwardly collected up the controllers, scrupulously avoiding eye contact with either member of the couple. Wally helped Dick sit down on the sofa and handed him a few throw pillows.

“Why are you here?” Piper was very proud of himself for keeping his voice low and even.

“Um...what?”

“Dick, why are you here? You were poisoned into a coma, you could have died. You should be home resting, not...fuck, but that's a perfectly valid reason to blow off a date, okay?”

“Is it?” Dick blinked a few times and then rubbed his forehead. “Sorry, head's spinning a little. Look, I know the costume infringes on the civilian life a lot. I seriously do try my best, and I'm sorry I wasn't there to meet your mother. I know you weren't looking forward to it and I shouldn't have left you alone for that-”

“Well you made up for it by not actually dying.”

Wally rubbed Dick's shoulder. “He's not mad at you, dude. He wasn't even mad before you got here.”

“I don't know about that,” Linda said. “Hartley was definitely simmering. If the excuse had been less serious than near fatal encounter with a dangerous supervillain we'd be having a very different conversation.”

“We would, but as is...you should be home resting.” Piper frowned, upset with Dick for taking unnecessary risks on top of the ones that already came with superheroics and upset with himself for how personally he'd taken the lack of phone calls while being blown off. Hell, he hadn't even been blown off, really. It was a coma. That was perfectly valid. Why on earth did Dick feel guilty about it?

“I'm already here though. Can we rest together at your place?” Dick threw him the puppy eyes, which he really should have looked into weaponizing somehow. Piper probably wouldn't have needed the help of modified flutes to hypnotize people if his baby-blues could do that. “I've had a miserable day. I'd like to cuddle with my boyfriend.”

Linda smiled. “I was losing at Mariokart anyway. You can have him.”

“Thanks.” Dick's gaze didn't leave Piper. “You're really not mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

Wally looked awfully smug about something. “Yeah, Dick. Only a real asshole would get mad at you for missing a date because you got your ass handed to you.”

“Or a sixteen year old going through some serious shit.”

“Hey, the two of us were both sixteen year olds going through serious shit, and yet came out capable of empathy.”

“Slow down there, red,” Linda said. “You're easily the most obtuse person in the room so I'm not sure you should be bragging about this supposed empathy.”

“I had to bail on Roy an awful lot when he really needed me,” Dick said, frowning. “He had plenty of empathy the first ten or twelve times it happened. You saw him blow up when it was literally like the twentieth time I left him hanging.” He sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “I really wish we weren't still snarking at each other about a relationship that ended when I was seventeen. Ostensibly you're friends with Roy.”

“Ostensibly. It's mostly because so many of my friends have had the misfortune of falling in love with him. Fucking mystery to me, how he's managed that. You and Donna are so smart. You should know so much better.”

“Look, can we not drag out my relationship drama in front of Piper, please? Especially since I'm feeling like utter crap?”

“Yeah, this is about as crap as I've seen you look,” Linda pointed out. “You almost look like a normal human being.”

Dick put on a cheery, over the top smile in an attempt at snarking back at her, but it barely lasted a second. He did look really wiped. Piper helped him up. “Come on. I might not have been poisoned, but my day wasn't exactly stellar. Cuddling sounds good.”

“See you guys later,” Wally called. Piper could hear him and Linda discussing his relationship while he helped Dick into his car. He did his best to tune them out, but it was a bit of a challenge.

Apparently Wally had decided they were frickin' adorable together. It was a little patronizing, but not actually a bad thing. Dick did bring some of his warm and fuzzy tendencies to the surface. Maybe Wally was actually being observant for once.

Some hours in bed and a few bad movies later and Dick was starting to look more like himself. His face had a little more color and he wasn't nearly as lethargic. Piper was glad to see it, though still generally discomfited.

“You really shouldn't have pushed yourself to travel while you were still under the weather.” He brushed Dick's bangs back and placed a kiss at his temple. “Next time, just text.”

“Sorry. To be fair, I didn't know you were going to be so compassionate about this.” Dick snuggled more firmly into Piper's arms and let out a contented sigh. “I keep forgetting that just because I don't see you at team ups, it doesn't mean you're new to this stuff. Like, you're one of few people who actually gets what it's like to have bouts of unconsciousness and being taken unexpectedly hostage and flown to a supervillain base in the middle of fucking nowhere interfere with your social obligations. Even other superheroes don't always get it.”

Piper wrinkled his brow in confusion. “Why on earth not? It must happen to them too.”

“It happens in Gotham a lot more than in other cities. My exes always assumed I had to be lying about it at least some of the time.”

“Huh. Wally has literally disappeared on me for weeks at a time. I never hold it against him. Maybe they just need to spend some time with someone whose powers involve accidental time traveling and parallel universe hopping.”

“You know, come to think of it Wally's pretty much the only friend I've got who doesn't get mad over that stuff.” Dick was quiet for a moment and Piper enjoyed running his hands through his shiny black hair. “I'm still sorry I wasn't there for you today, excusable circumstances aside. You said one on one time with your mom is still hard for you guys. Was it a total shit show?”

“It...no, I can't even pretend. It didn't go well at all. She managed to get under my skin again, and I honestly thought I'd figured out how to deal with every avenue of emotional attack she's got left. But she...urgh. She made it out like I've hurt my sister by being the problem child in the family. And I know it's bullshit. I know she's just deflecting her responsibility for failing me back onto me. Like, I wouldn't have made so many scenes if I'd been supported and protected. I know that. But she's right. At the end of the day, Jerrie has been hurt by my behavior.”

“How does your sister feel about that?”

Piper shrugged. “Who knows? I never get to talk to Jerrie without Mom and Dad around. I haven't seen her one on one since I was nineteen, when they kicked me out. Oh, sorry, according to Mom and Dad I ran away and chose to live in my car. Of course, that makes Dad reporting my car as stolen and having me arrested an odd detail in their reconstructed narrative. Because they only wanted the best for me, ever, and I kept refusing their help and support like the willful brat I am, you see.”

“God, that sucks. Hartley, I'm so sorry. Um...have you ever thought...this is kind of hard for me to gauge here, being an orphan who had supportive parents. But, um...is reconciling with them actually worth it? It sounds like you might actually need some space from them, just to heal.”

Piper closed his eyes, focusing on the silken hair sliding through his fingers and the steady rhythm of Dick's heartbeat. “I don't know. Maybe. It's just...I'm afraid we might not get the chance if we don't fix it now. We only started talking again when they got taken hostage by some upstart super criminals. Wally helped me save them, and then there's the fact that my work puts me in danger. Mom told me that...that she watches news reports in the guest house whenever Wally and I are fighting someone so that Jerrie can't hear and be upset by it, but that she can't think straight until she knows for sure that I'm safe. They do care about me. They're just...complicated people.”

“Sounds it. It also sounds like you'd never hurt your sister on purpose, so I hope you can shake your mom's barbs off. That wasn't fair of her.”

Piper nodded, and wished that feeling of guilt would dissolve under the weight of reason. He still felt bad about all the years he hadn't been allowed to see Jerrie, even though he knew it wasn't his fault.

“Um...so, um, Jerrie's turning sixteen next month. Mom and Dad are throwing her a huge, elaborate party. They're all dying to meet you, so we've been invited.”

“Sixteen? Your sister's a lot younger than you.” Jerrie was only a few years older than the new Robin. To Piper's amusement, Dick talked about the kid in a similar fond manner to how Piper talked about his sister.

“There's eleven years between us,” Piper said. “Neither of us were planned, thus the lengthy gap.”

“Ah. Yeah, I guess I was an accident too, but Mom liked to call me her special surprise. I think it was just hard to keep your birth control filled on the road.” Dick smirked. “It's a good thing I was an acrobatic prodigy. Mr. Haly eventually forgave Mom for getting pregnant once I proved to be adorable and have stage presence.”

“When did you start performing?”

“I started doing simple stuff when I was three. I was out on the swings by the time I was seven. Good times.” Something in Dick's expression turned sad, and even a bit guarded. Piper gently steered the conversation away from either of their childhood traumas until they eventually fell asleep with a new bad movie playing for background noise.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Mr. Rathaway! Are you the adult on for the meeting tonight?”

“Hm?”

Piper finished typing out a sentence on the email he was working on, then turned his attention to the intern hanging out in his doorway. He was working a shift with Keystone Out!, an underfunded nonprofit that served LGBTQ+ youth. At the moment, most of their work involved social support but they were hoping to expand to areas such as mental health counseling and securing housing. Piper was also seeing a growing need for transition related supports for the trans kiddos, but so far the rest of the board had been pushing back on that (“Let’s help the regular kids before we get too specialized, Rathaway.”)

The intern, Mattie, took a shy step into the office and set one of the fancy gold foil thank you cards they sent out to donors who gave them at least a hundred dollars on the desk. “Kerrie asked me to give this to whoever’s running the group tonight. We got a really big donation in and she thought it’d be nice if the kids signed the card this time.”

“Considering the first rule of our organization is confidentiality, that’s quite an ask. I suppose as long as they don’t sign their last names, that’ll be fine. How much was the donation?”

Mattie shrugged. “I’m just an intern. I don’t have access to that kind of info. But you’re on the board, aren’t you? Maybe there’s an email or something?”

“That makes sense. Thanks, Mattie.”

Mattie lit up, the way some of the younger volunteers and interns did when Piper addressed them by name. He was something of a celebrity among a certain set of queer activists, which amused and unnerved him in turn. Piper hoped they were taking the right lessons from his life story - there was a certain amount of pressure that came with being an openly gay adult working with impressionable youth. Whether he wanted to be or not, he was considered a role model, which generally terrified him. He wanted the kids to have a much better queer adolescence than he’d had.

Once Mattie left, Piper finished writing his email and then refreshed his inbox. Sure enough, there was a group message sent out to the board waiting for him. He clicked it open and read about the $500,000 one-time donation from the Martha Wayne foundation, with a sustaining $10,000 monthly donation to follow.

Holy shit. His parents had given them a begrudging $1,000 monthly, after much begging, groveling, and guilt tripping. Granted, Wayne was worth more than the Rathaways, but still. Not by this much. Not by nearly this much.

Speechless, Piper just stared at his work computer in amazement for a few minutes. Then he picked up the foil gift card and scribbled his signature near the top.

“I can’t even begin to-you have no idea-the things we can do-Wally. He paid our entire operating costs for the next five years, and he’s throwing another ten grand at us every month on top of it. We called an emergency meeting for Thursday to discuss the future because obviously we need to make sure we’re using this money correctly. I can’t believe it.”

“Does this make you a prostitute?” Wally asked with a snort.

“Sex worker,” Piper answered reflexively.

Linda smacked Wally upside the head with a throw pillow, then winked at Piper. “He really is stunned. Look at him, letting you run your mouth on autopilot. But hon, I sincerely doubt Bruce Wayne donated all that money to Piper’s pet charity just because he’s dating Dick.”

“Oh yeah, this is more than that.” Wally glanced at his watch and then changed into his Flash outfit. “Hold on a sec, our pizza’s ready.” He raced out of the Wests’ living room and returned in a fraction of a second with two large pizza boxes. Linda wasn’t even back from the kitchen with the plates and napkins before he was on the couch in his scrubby, post-superhero-battle clothes again. “Bruce isn’t the kind of guy to just come out and say that he likes someone. Consider this as him giving you his seal of approval.”

“And maybe a teensy apology for violating your privacy,” Linda added.

“Teensy? He can violate my privacy anytime he wants if this is the apology. Seriously, you guys have no idea what this means. He just completely changed the scope of the work we can do. Now the board has no grounds at all to fight me on moving forward with transgender specific programming. Even if we lose transphobic donors in the process, who cares? We’re completely funded for five years.”

“And if things keep going this good with you and Dick, maybe we can get you funded for life. Bruce has deep pockets. I’ve seen what the batarang budget looks like.” Wally helped himself to a slice of pepperoni and sausage, nudging the eggplant and mushroom towards Piper and Linda’s side of the coffee table. “I’m a pretty good matchmaker. Maybe I should do this more often.”

“Let’s not get carried away,” Linda said with a smirk. “I still think you got lucky. But I’m glad it’s working out.” She gave Piper’s shoulder a squeeze. “I couldn’t think of two guys more deserving of the happiness Wally fumbled his way into bestowing on you.”

“Why does everyone think I didn’t know what I was doing?” Wally set his plate down and then held out his hands in demonstration. “Dick is one of the coolest, nicest, and best nerds in the world.” Here he gestured with one hand. “And Piper is also cool, nice, and equally nerdy.” He wiggled his other hand to indicate that it was Piper and then brought them both together. “Combine, and awesomeness is achieved. It’s basically math. Plus they have the shared hobby of giving me shit even when I’m trying to help them.”

“We do, don’t we? It’s great fun, swapping anecdotes and strategies.” Piper smiled sweetly at Wally before biting into his pizza.

“You’ve truly done so much to help them bond.” Linda gave Wally’s shoulder a patronizing squeeze. “So Hartley, are you going to tell your parents about the donation at the party?”

“Hey yeah,” Wally chimed in. “Maybe you can play your folks off of Bruce and begin a cycle of escalating donations. Homophobia will be completely vanquished in the Cities under the strain of unsurmountable piles of cash.”

Piper let out a dreamy sigh. “That sounds nice, but while money helps a lot I think we’ve got a ways to go on that goal, regardless. No, I probably won’t bring it up. If Dick’s able to make it this time, I’m going to talk to him about it. I have to figure out a better way to say thank you than using the fancy greeting card.” He frowned thoughtfully. “This donation caused so much excitement and fuss, I’d actually forgotten to be nervous about the birthday party for a few hours.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Wally said, speaking with the confidence of an only child who’d never been used as a weapon against siblings he didn’t have. “I mean, it’s your sister’s day, not yours. You can fade into the background if you need to, right?”

Piper traded a quick look of exasperation with Linda and then made a noncommittal noise before returning to his pizza.

At least he was confident that, however much of a shit show the party turned out to be, Dick wouldn’t hold anything against him. It was so nice to have a partner he could communicate with and relax around.

Chapter Text

“Okay. One more time. How long have you guys known each other?”

“Certainly not since we were tweens and in a questionably organized team for underaged costumed vigilantes. Because that would be incredibly inappropriate,” Wally said. He paused for a moment and then scowled. “I forgot already. We met through you, right? Wait, how are we saying you two met if it wasn’t through me?”

“It turns out we actually were both at the Gotham by Night Gala this year, so we decided to go with that,” Dick answered. “I don’t actually remember seeing you there though.”

“I mostly hung back by the fringes of the crowd and waited for the night to be over. I was there on behalf of an old friend. He’s been trying to get his couture exhibited for ages but he hasn’t been able to break in. It turns out I’m not as helpful connection as he’d hoped. I should have given his business cards to my mother instead.” Piper had tried to explain all that to Gambi, and that if anything he’d want to do as much as possible to distance himself from his campy supervillain clientele as possible, but once he’d heard that Piper had an invite to such an important fashion event his blinders had been on and he wouldn’t hear a word of opposition. “I assume you spent some time on the red carpet?”

“I stopped for a few photos but I’m not an actual celebrity. Thankfully, they give me a little more space than Bruce. Okay, so Piper and I met at a gala and hit it off. You two are friends, so I’ve become friends with you through him. Wally, you and I have known each other for three and a half months.” Dick frowned. “Are you gonna be able to stick to the story?”

“For a couple of hours? Yes, even I can handle lying and subterfuge for an afternoon birthday party.”

The three of them had decided to ride into Jerrie’s party together. Wally had been a bit surprised by his invitation, but Piper was under the impression that Wally was one of very few people that Jerrie had actually chosen to invite. As was her habit, Rachel had managed nearly everything about the party, including the guest list. But Jerrie had been very taken with the superhero who rescued their parents and helped the family reconcile with her big brother. Her admiration for him wasn’t unlike the enthusiasm Wally had shown for Barry back when he’d been president of the Flash fan club in his youth.

“This would be so much easier to navigate without the secret identity. And that’s not hypothetical. Take it from experience. It is so much easier going through life as a superhero without having to constantly lie my ass off,” Wally grumbled.

“Well, there are other identities tied to mine so I can’t make that decision without a lot of one on one discussions.” Dick turned in his seat so that he could throw Wally a sarcastic smirk in the back seat. “But if it’s really that tricky for you, just ask for help. I’m sure Piper and I can help bail you out when you get in over your head, okay chum?”

Wally kicked the back of his seat, so Dick reclined onto his knees.

“Children, I will turn this car around,” Piper threatened. “Seriously. Feel free to give me an excuse to turn this car around.”

“Relax, dude. We’re almost there, aren’t we?” Wally peered out the window, and let out a low whistle as they passed a particularly gaudy McMansion. “I can’t believe this is still Central. You weren’t kidding when you said your folks lived on the edge of the city.”

“It’s called White Flight, and my grandfather may have started the trend for our community. He contracted some of the first mansions in the area. In addition to publishing, we also owe a lot of our wealth to real estate. You can’t properly exploit the masses if you don’t hoard up non-negotiable necessities like housing.”

“Dick, change the subject. We shouldn’t bring him to his parents fresh off an anti-capitalism tirade,” Wally stage whispered.

Piper rolled his eyes, though Wally did have a point. “I’ll behave. What did you end up getting Jerrie for her birthday, anyway?” Piper had insisted, multiple times, that just showing up for the party was gift enough for the teen, who didn’t exactly lack for creature comforts. But Wally had insisted just as hard that it was bad form to show up for a birthday party empty handed. He was trying to grow past the selfishness he’d exhibited in abundance as a young adult, and treating his mere presence as a gift didn’t align with his goals.

“A one year membership to the Flash museum and a hoodie.”

Dick let out a snort.

“What? Piper said she’s a fan and I thought maybe it’d be cool if she learned about the other Flashes too. If she thinks I’m hot shit, she’ll really be knocked out by Barry’s legacy. Besides, she’s rich. What the hell was I supposed to get her?”

“She’s not rich, Mom and Dad are. There’s a difference.” Piper heaved a weary sigh, and steered his car into the massive driveway that insulated the family home from the street. “We’re here.”

Dick gave his shoulder a squeeze.

There were a few cars ahead of them but mostly it looked like they’d beat the majority of the guests. They each grabbed their gift bags, and Piper showed them through the house and out to the backyard where the tent and tables had been set up.

“Oh, there you are! Hartley, come here, darling.” Rachel strode over towards him, extending her hand in an imperious manner. He braced himself for her to say something oily to Dick, figuring she would still be trying to court his influence for business. But she didn’t even seem to see him. She grabbed Piper by the wrist and started marching him across the yard. “Randall has made a terrible mess of the sound system. I knew we should have hired a live band, but of course I was overruled. Osgood thought the children would want a DJ that played their own music. But the DJ wasn’t prepared to work outside, even though I explicitly stated that if the weather was fine, we would be in the garden. Can you get this equipment working, dearest?”

“Uh…sure.”

“Excellent. Disaster averted. Come this way.” Rachel showed him to a small platform beside a portable dance floor where a clueless looking college kid was repeatedly plugging in and unplugging the same three or four pieces of equipment. Piper had his gear set up for him in a manner of minutes. All things considered, he probably could have DJed the party just fine himself (and actually enjoyed himself doing it), but he could kinda see why his parents hadn’t asked him.

When he finished with that, he scanned the growing crowd, looking for Dick, Wally, or even just his sister. But mostly, the garden seemed to be filling up with his parents’ acquaintances and business connections, their children, and an assortment of bored looking teenagers who must have been Jerrie’s classmates.

He found the gift table and set his bag amongst a growing pile, then took another lap around the yard.

Wally was pretty easy to spot. He’d been cornered by a large group of teenagers who were asking for pictures and autographs. Piper smirked, looking forward to throwing Wally’s words about the inconvenience of a secret identity back on him during the ride home (assuming he didn’t have to leave early to avert a crisis). Try as he may, he couldn’t find the birthday girl anywhere.

To his horror, he spotted Dick in a literal corner wedged between the tent and the food table, with Osgood blocking his exit. Dick’s handsome face was just as relaxed and charming as ever, though that meant little considering how good the man was with people. Meanwhile, Osgood was animated in a way he seldom appeared while conversing with others…unless it was about business. Thanks to all the ambient noise from the music and the guests, Piper couldn’t filter enough to decipher exactly what he was saying. He maneuvered his way through the party guests until he could get up beside his father.

“Dad, hi. I see you’ve met Dick.”

“Oh, hello, son. Good to see you.” Osgood actually sounded like he meant that. Who knew he could defeat his family’s deep-seated homophobia by appealing to their class interests? “I was just telling your young friend here how delighted your mother and I are to hear about how happy you children have been together. It seems like a wonderful match, wouldn’t you say?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Dick answered, using the opportunity of Piper’s arrival to angle himself away from the corner and more towards his boyfriend’s side. He took Piper’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m so glad we hit it off. Your son is an amazing person.”

“Oh yes, we’re quite proud of him. Especially lately.” Osgood turned a warm smile on his baffled looking son. “The headlines we’ve been printing about you since you became friends with young West over there are far more agreeable than the old sort, wouldn’t you say? You’re a regular superhero these days, off saving the city, and then there’s that charity work. Not as glamorous, but just as important.” Osgood turned another satisfied smile back towards Dick. “It must be exciting for you, meeting these costumed fellows through Hartley. Why, I know it’s given even my old bones a flurry of excitement to get to rub elbows with the Flash from time to time.”

“Oh yeah,” Dick said, not missing a beat but sneaking an amused glance at his boyfriend, who had gone speechless. “But I promise, I’m not just dating your son so I can meet superheroes. That’s just a perk. Hart’s a draw all on his own.”

“Wonderful. Well, I won’t keep the two of you. Oh, just, one question. Obviously, we know Hartley’s preference on…being known. But among your community, I understand it’s a faux pas to speak on your proclivities without stated permission, isn’t it?”

Dick’s brow furrowed as he tried to decipher what the hell Osgood was talking about. “He’s asking if you’re out of the closet,” Piper filled in.

“Oh! Yeah, I guess the tabloids never really made a fuss about that. I’m openly bisexual. You can tell people I’m dating your son.”

“Splendid. Well, my boys, enjoy the party.” Osgood nodded at them with another uncharacteristic smile, and walked off to accost another acquaintance.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Dick said. “Actually, he seemed kind of nice. Odd, but I’ve met more eccentric old money than that.”

“Yeah, he’s in a good mood.” Piper gave Dick’s hand a desperate squeeze, and took a slow, calming breath.

“Piper, do you think you could introduce me to some real superheroes? I’ve always wanted to meet the Justice League.” Dick batted his lashes at him, and Piper let out a startled laugh. “So where’s your sister? I’ve talked to your dad, seen your mom, however briefly-”

“That’s probably for the best-”

“But I still haven’t met Jerrie.”

Piper frowned. “I haven’t seen her yet either. I don’t think she’s out here.”

Dick glanced towards the house. “Would she still be inside?”

“I’m almost sure of it. If you don’t mind me leaving you defenseless for a few minutes, I’d like to go check on her.”

“Hey, I’ve been mingling with society folks for half my life at this point. They’re only slightly more scary than supervillains. I’ll be okay. Go help your sister.”

Piper wanted to kiss him and thank him for being basically perfect, but he also wasn’t sure how much physical affection he could get away with showing his partner around his parents. This was the most accepting they’d ever been of him and he didn’t want to push his luck. So he gave Dick’s hand another squeeze before walking off for the house.

Once he was inside and had some distance from the party noise he could hear Jerrie’s soft breathing from her bedroom on the second floor. He strode through the house, jogged up the stairs, and knocked on her door. “Jerrie? It’s Hartley. May I come in?”

He heard some movement in the room, and then Jerrie opened the door. She was wearing a floor length halter dress with sequins sewn over the bust, with a pink zip up sweatshirt that had cat ears on the hood. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing a little fast.

“Hey, kiddo.”

Jerrie dove into his arms and squeezed him tightly. “Hartley! Oh, I’m so glad you came. It’s so loud out there and everyone wants me to talk to them but I don’t know what to say. Uncle Roger asked why I wasn’t smiling and I didn’t even know I wasn’t smiling. And Auntie Hazel said I looked like I was scared. I had to come back in, but, but Mom’s going to be so mad. She worked so hard on the party and I don’t want it. I never wanted it. Being at home instead of a ballroom was supposed to help but it’s still too much. I don’t want all those people to stare at me.”

“Oh, Jerrie…” Piper rubbed her back. He’d felt nearly the same about his own sixteenth birthday, though his overwhelmed emotions had manifested as more haughty indignation than fear.

“Do you think they’ll be too mad if I just sit up here and wait for everyone to go home?”

“Let’s go over to your window and take a look.” Helpfully, Jerrie’s bedroom had a perfect view of the backyard. Piper walked her over and they looked down at the party. “Look, see? Now that the music’s been fixed and the food has been served, all the guests have a lot more things to hold their interest than greeting the host. See all those kids dancing? Are any of them your friends?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know a bunch of them. They go to school with me. And I think…I think that’s our cousin down there in the blue dress, isn’t it? Is that Mariah?”

“Is it?” Piper hadn’t seen Mariah since she was an infant, owing to the split with the family. It was disorienting to see an entire middle schooler and realize that it was a baby he’d once held in his arms. “She’s a pretty good dancer, isn’t she?”

“Yeah. I like her dress. It looks more comfortable than the one Mom made me get.” Jerrie squeezed her eyes shut and let out a short, high pitched noise of frustration. “I don’t like the way the spangles scratch at my arms.”

“I’m sure we can do something about that. I assume that’s why you put on the sweatshirt?”

Jerrie nodded. “It’s my favorite. But Mom…Mom won’t like it for the party.”

“Wait here a moment, darling. I’ll find you something that Mom won’t mind. You keep watching all the people and see how many of them you know. If they were here one at a time instead of all at once, I’m sure you’d be happier to see them.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Oh! That’s the Flash! The Flash came to my party?” Jerrie’s face lit up. She pressed her hands against the glass, peering down at the gathering with renewed interest.

Piper picked through Jerrie’s closet, and found a fitted cardigan that matched the dress a bit better than the cat hoodie. It would offer her arms some protection from the sequins, which Rachel really should have known better than to stick her daughter in. They also swapped out the strappy heels Rachel had selected for a pair of ballet flats. Jerrie threw a longing glance at the stuffies on her bed, but turned with determination towards her bedroom door. “I think I’m ready now. I want to thank Mr. West for coming to my party, in person. I can do it.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then started walking towards the door.

“Jerrie, I don’t think anyone would mind if you brought one of your stuffed animals down with you. It’s your party, after all. They’re not allowed to say anything.”

“No, Mom’s right. I’m getting too old for that. I’ll be okay. But Hartley…can you stay with me?”

“Of course. Believe me, I’ll take just as much comfort from the arrangement as you will.” He took Jerrie’s arm, and the two of them walked downstairs.

They almost made it across the yard to the spot where Wally was still signing autographs, and looking much less cheerful about it than when he’d started, before Rachel accosted them. “Oh, there you are. Jerrie, dear, were you cold? That cardigan looks lovely with the dress. I can’t believe I didn’t consider that. It is a bit brisk for a sleeveless dress, isn’t it? But you look so lovely, darling. You’re positively glowing. Oh, the two of you look so wonderful together. It’s so nice having the family all in one place again, isn’t it? We’ll have to do some pictures later. Are you ready for cake and presents? I’ll just get the DJ’s attention. Excuse me.” She gave Jerrie’s arm a pat, then ran off before either of them could get a word in.

Jerrie kept a death grip on Piper’s arm while he escorted her to the present table. He nudged his gift bag to the front of the stack so that it was the first one Jerrie opened after blowing out her birthday candles (she did very well while the intimidating crowd sang Happy Birthday to her, but she was a little green afterwards). Jerrie opened the bag and pulled out an FAO Schwarz unicorn stuffed animal that actually got her to drop her brother’s hand in favor of hugging it to her chest. The comfort stuffie helped tremendously, as did the fact that most of her presents were gift cards that involved very little display or acknowledgment.

Once that was over, the upbeat pop music went back on and the guests went back to tactfully ignoring their shy little hostess. Jerrie, now wearing the Flash hoodie instead of the cardigan, grabbed Wally for herself before another line of autograph seekers could form. Considering she was the birthday girl, they seemed to feel it necessary to give her some one-on-one time with her favorite hero.

“Thanks for the save, Jerrie. I was getting sick of signing my name over and over again.” He wrapped an arm around her in a half hug that had her smiling so wide it looked like it might have hurt. “How’s the hoodie fit? It’s not too big, is it?”

“I, I like big ones. Th-thanks, Mr. Flash-I mean, Mr. West.”

“Hey, Wally’s fine. I think we’ve known each other long enough to be on a first name basis.” Wally gave her a fist bump that she returned with enthusiasm.

“Can I hide out with you guys for a bit?” Dick walked up to them, his pleasant smile slipping a little once he was away from the crowd and among his people again. “Hart, your parents have been really sweet actually, but their friends. Dear god. It’s like they all think I can get them an appointment with Bruce if they find the right way to ask. I’m his ex-ward, not his personal assistant.”

“Jerrie, this is my boyfriend, Dick. Dick, this is my sister. And of course you can hide out with us.”

Jerrie reluctantly turned her gaze away from Wally and picked up the skirt of her dress, ready to do a curtsy for her introduction. But she stopped mid motion, her mouth dropping open. Dick regarded her with kind curiosity. “Hi, Jerrie. Nice to meet you.”

“You’re so pretty…”

Wally had to run down the street to let out a loud laugh that would have embarrassed the teen if he’d done it in her presence, which her protective big brother appreciated. He reappeared before she could notice he’d left.

“Yes, he really is, isn’t he?” Piper grinned at Dick, who was actually blushing a little. “Well, I’m going to get some cake. Anyone else want a piece?”

Chapter Text

Piper let himself into Dick’s loft condo in the tastefully converted (gentrified) former industrial district in Bludhaven, already aware before he got inside that he’d beat his boyfriend home. He set his travel bag down by Dick’s dresser, then poked around the kitchen to see if the boy had actually gone grocery shopping that week. The fridge was just as empty as he’d expected, probably owing to an abundance of team-ups that week, so Piper grabbed the phone and ordered some take out. Then he camped out on the couch with his work computer to wait for the food or his boyfriend, whichever showed up first being fine by him.

The first footsteps he heard approaching the front door definitely weren’t Dick’s, and since it was more than one person he doubted it was the delivery driver either. He stopped typing for a moment, attention trained on the hallway. Then he heard a key in the lock.

“I’m just saying, if he can make it to Titans meetings, help Tim with Young Justice, and patrol Bludhaven while providing backup for the Gothamites, he can swing a night out with his oldest friends now and then.”

“Roy, I’m pretty sure that schedule is exactly why he can’t. Plus isn’t he trying to nurture a new relation…oh. Speak of the devil.” A tall black haired woman who looked like a slightly younger Wonder Woman was standing in the doorway with a buff guy with douchebag looking tattoos. She smiled warmly at Piper, while the guy scowled. “You must be Piper.”

“Yeah.” Well she obviously wasn’t Wonder Woman. Was this Wonder Girl? No, she couldn’t still be calling herself that. Dick had moved on from Robin. She had to be something else by now.

“He gave you a key? Already?”

Not-Wonder Woman elbowed her companion in the ribs. “Come on, Roy. They’ve been together for a few months now, and Wally’s known Piper for ages. I think we can trust-”

“Wally West’s judgment?” Roy rubbed his side, and then threw a quick look in Piper’s direction. “No offense, dude.”

“None taken. I’m very close with Wally so I understand completely.” He shut his laptop down, despairing of getting any work done. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been thoroughly stalked by Batman by now and he seems to be warming up to me.”

“Honestly, Piper. We’re not concerned.”

Roy’s eyebrows shot up. “You were incredibly concerned when this started. I distinctly remember hearing something along the lines of, ‘here we go again,’ and ‘why can’t he just make it work with Kory?’”

The woman’s face colored a bit. She looked like she would have elbowed him again if he were standing closer. Thankfully, there was a knock on the door that allowed Piper a peaceful few minutes to greet the delivery driver, collect his food, and disappear into the kitchen. While he was grabbing utensils, he heard Dick walk in and greet his friends.

“Oh, hey Donna. Wait, did we make plans I forgot about?”

“Apparently, but we won’t hold it against you-”

“That’s a little strong, Roy. Dick said maybe when you asked him.”

Piper hovered in the kitchen doorway, watching the three of them and weighing whether he wanted to approach or find some excuse to putter around a little longer. Maybe he could empty the Pad Thai from the containers onto plates? He wasn’t one hundred percent sure Dick actually had plates as he’d never seen any, but surely he’d been set up with the ability to cook and eat homemade meals if he ever had the time and desire to do so.

“Oh shit. The Great Frog anniversary show’s tonight, isn’t it?”

“Yep. And you did said you’d try to make it.”

“He did,” Donna said. “And you promised not to hassle him if he couldn’t be there.”

“I believe the exact promise was that you wouldn’t be a whiny little bitch about it,” Dick added. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and sighed, taking the temperature of the room and weighing the likelihood of whiny bitchiness. The conditions didn’t look favorable. “Hey, Piper. How would you feel about going out tonight instead of hanging around here? You’re a music guy. An unexpected concert wouldn’t be a terrible imposition, right?”

Piper took a few steps away from the doorway, since he’d been directly addressed and couldn’t plausibly pretend he had any reason to still be in the kitchen. “I’m always down for live music. Of course, I don’t mind waiting here if you’d rather keep this restricted to your social circle.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Piper. We’re happy to have you along.” Donna looked sincere enough, at least. “Roy, why don’t we head down to the venue now and they can meet us there? You said Mal was already on his way for soundcheck.”

“Yeah. Yeah, we can head out now. Give them a chance to get ready.” Roy nodded at Dick. “See you in a couple hours.”

“Bye.” Dick waved them along, while Piper glanced down at his outfit in confusion. Did he not look ready to go out? He wasn’t even wearing sweatpants. “Did you get enough takeout for both of us? I’m starving.”

“Yep. There’s another helping of Pad Thai waiting for you, and I got scallion pancakes.”

“Yes! Best boyfriend ever.” Dick kissed his cheek on his way to the kitchen, a spring in his step.

Piper went back to the sofa, and tried to ignore the not quite hushed conversation he could make out with his superhearing that Roy and Donna were having in the stairwell. It was pretty hard to ignore though, since it was about him.

“You were being rude-”

“I wasn’t! I absolutely was not. I mean, I wasn’t being friendly, but that’s not the same thing as being rude.”

“Whatever. Just try to be nicer when they join us. I don’t want to spend the entire night running interference between you and Dick’s new boyfriend, just because you’re jealous.”

“Hey, I am not jealous. Dick soundly rejected the idea of getting back together before Wally dumped his damaged buddy on his lap. By the by, the fact that Wally was scared enough of the prospect of us dating again that he grabbed the first gay guy he saw and threw him at Dick in a panic is kind of insulting, don’t you think?”

“Not really, since I don’t think that’s what happened. C’mon, Harper. They’re pretty cute together.”

“Dick’s cute. Piper’s kinda…”

“That wasn’t what I was saying. But I suppose you’re right. He’s a little plain compared to Dick’s usual partners. Still, they seem happy. Don’t jinx it, okay?”

“Hartley, everything okay?” Dick sat down next to Piper on the sofa with his plate of food and a concerned expression.

“Oh, yes. Fine. Absolutely fine. So what kind of music does your friend’s band play?” Piper half listened to Dick’s reply, quietly stewing over what he’d accidentally overheard.

They weren’t wrong, exactly. Piper was pretty plain compared to the average superhero; most of them could have modeled. But he was getting back in shape, and he definitely wasn’t ugly. Dick was (thankfully) attracted to him, and his was the only opinion that mattered on the subject anyway. And he would keep telling himself that for as long as it took to sink in.

While Piper was waiting for Dick to finish getting ready, he called Wally to see if he’d been invited to the show as well, as it seemed to be an ex-Teen Titans get-together.

“Oh, fuck. I knew I was forgetting about something. Well, I’m not off-planet or anything so I guess I’m down. I’ll meet you guys at Dick’s and we can head in together?”

“Sure, that should be-” Piper hung up the phone, since Wally had appeared in the living room as soon as he’d finished saying ‘sure.’ “Do you have a key as well, or did you run through the wall?”

Wally held up his keys and gave them a little shake. “The Bat-Family has some security measures that make it uncomfortable to arrive by superspeed unannounced. Not impossible, mind you. They do call on us in emergencies. But yeah, when I visit I try to use the door. Just, y’know, more quickly than you do. So did you already meet Roy? What’d you think?”

“He’s…fine.”

Wally’s grin was troubling. Clearly, he sensed an ally. “Uh huh.”

“Look, I barely spoke to him. We were in the same room for maybe ten minutes, tops.”

“And you already think he’s a prick too.”

“You could look less happy about that.”

Dick walked into the room, looking especially good in designer jeans, a faded band shirt, and a leather jacket. His hair was mussed in a way that was probably supposed to look casual, but had been carefully styled. “Oh, hey Wally. So you were free tonight too?”

“Yeah, for now.” Wally glanced down at his watch, which also held his current JLA communicator. “I mean, between the three of us, Roy, Mal, and Donna, that is way too many heroes for nothing to go wrong tonight. Someone’s gonna blow up the music venue at this rate.”

“This many of us? Someone could blow up the entire city,” Dick agreed. “Still. Let’s try to have some fun while we can, shall we?”

Maybe it’s because they went in expecting it, but the evening was pleasantly supervillain free. Roy’s band was pretty good, to Piper’s annoyance. Having been insulted by the man earlier that day, he was feeling a bit petty and wanted to find something to slight him over in return. But he was a skilled musician and a solid performer, something that Piper couldn’t say for himself and it was incredibly frustrating. Wally tried to meet his eye a few times during the show, and after it finished he finally grabbed Piper’s attention. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“C’mon, you know I’m not a sophisticated music listener. Is Great Frog any good?”

Dick laughed when he realized what they were talking about. “Yes, Wally. They’re good-”

“I already know you think so, but Piper’s the music expert. I want his opinion.”

“…yes, they’re very good. Actually, I was thinking of hitting up the merch table and grabbing a CD. I particularly liked the trumpet player. He’s one of your friends too, isn’t he?” As tempting as it was to be petty, being gracious felt like the most sensible option. 

Dick looked like he was struggling not to laugh again as Wally’s face fell.

“Yeah, that’s Mal and he’s always been incredible. After the band initially split up he kept going with it on his own and he does a lot of studio session work now. You could probably find him in the liner notes for some albums you already have.”

“Oh, I’ll have to keep an eye out for him. I’m sorry, Wally. Did you want me to pretend that they’re bad?”

“No,” Wally said, in something very near a pout. “I mean, I never thought Mal was bad…”

Piper did end up heading over to the merch table while the others mingled, greeting old friends in the crowd and reminiscing about the short-lived band’s glory days. Considering Great Frog was just playing a few shows in cities the members were connected to and not actually getting back together, they didn’t have much merchandise to speak of. But they’d put out two albums and Piper scanned the backs of them, trying to guess which one had more of the songs he’d enjoyed during the show.

“Get the second one.”

He looked up and saw the trumpet player they’d just been talking about. “The first one’s okay. I mean, I think we did pretty good for a bunch of seventeen year olds who barely knew what we were doing. But we were working with an actual producer on the second one. The vocals are much more intelligible.”

“All right then, I’ll take the sophomore album.” Piper handed some money over to the man running the table, who he thought might have been the guitarist, and then stepped aside. “Mal, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, you’re Wally’s buddy, right? The Piper? Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand for a shake and Piper took it. “You’re a sound guy too, aren’t you?”

“I thought you looked familiar. Hornblower?” There were only so many costumes he was aware of that worked with sonics.

“Sometimes, but mostly I’m trying to stay out of all that mess. Those idiots over there though, they have a way of dragging you back into things.” He smiled fondly and shrugged his shoulders. “Still, we should compare notes sometime. It doesn’t hurt to keep the skillset sharp, y’know?”

“Oh, certainly. I’d love to pick your brain.”

“Cool. I’ll be in touch then.” Mal leaned forward a little, and Piper perked up, expecting him to say something costume related. “Don’t worry about Harper, okay? He’s a good guy, really. He just gets kinda stupid when it comes to Dick Grayson. He’ll cool off soon enough, and if he does anything especially stupid the rest of us will get him in line.”

“I wasn’t worried,” Piper said, because being annoyed wasn't the same thing as being worried. “But thank you, all the same.”

Mal clapped him on the arm. “Cool. I’m gonna try to sell more CDs. My wife’s been on my butt about how much space they’re taking up in the garage. See you around, Piper.”

Piper drifted back over to his friends, who had migrated to the bar and been joined by Roy. Everyone looked happy enough, but he still felt a bit unsure of himself as he approached the group. He stood a bit closer to Wally than Dick, who immediately undercut his effort to avoid tension by greeting Piper with a quick kiss. “Hey, did you get your CD?”

Piper held up the CD case, carefully avoiding Harper’s gaze (he did catch Donna elbowing the guy in the ribs out of the corner of his eye though). “Yes, Mal said that this was the better of the two.”

“Oh, yeah, we had an actual producer for that one. Turns out those are important. Wait, did you really spend money on our merch?”

Piper nodded. “I liked the show. You’re talented.”

“Oh. Well, thanks.”

Dick wrapped an arm around Piper and leaned against him, but turned his attention towards Roy and Donna. “I’m glad you guys reminded me about the show. I’ve been so busy lately, it completely slipped my mind. But this was a great way to introduce my new boyfriend to my oldest friends. Shared interests and all that, right?”

“Yeah, I’m a pretty easy sell when it comes to good music.”

This time, when Piper and Dick were leaving and Piper accidentally overheard Donna and Roy's conversation, he wasn’t affronted by their commentary.

“Okay, Donna, you were right. He’s a pretty chill guy.”

“Mm hm. Wally’s spoken very highly of Piper, and you know how he gets about Dick. He wouldn’t have set them up if he didn’t think it was going to work. It’s time to move on, Harper.”

“Yeah, I guess. So…what have you been up to lately?”

“…that’s not what I meant.”

“You know you’re a good person, right?”

Piper leaned up on his elbows so he could get a better look at Dick, feeling a little thrown. “Um…I guess? Dick, I was just telling a funny story. It’s not that serious.”

Dick was watching him with an unnecessarily earnest expression. They were lounging on his bed, idling away the last hours of Piper’s visit before he had to catch a train and prep for his Keystone Out! board meeting. Piper had thought he was telling an amusing anecdote from his adolescence, but instead of laughing his boyfriend looked mildly heartbroken. Dick hadn’t exactly had a normal upbringing either; Piper hadn’t expected to have quite so many of these moments where his dysfunctions introduced awkward pauses into conversation. That usually happened more with folks who'd had happy, boring home lives. But Dick’s actual parents had been surprisingly grounded for circus folks, and they’d instilled him with quite a bit of emotional intelligence. Couple that with his detective training, and he was eerily perceptive.

“Look, it’s just that you make a lot of self-deprecating jokes, and there are all these throwaway comments about you thinking you’re a problem that other people have to deal with. But like…you’re not mean. I actually find you really respectful of other peoples’ feelings. You get a bit nasty when you think someone else is being unjust, but that’s not a bad thing. Obviously, I’m biased.” Dick ran his fingers over Piper’s forearm, and then reached up to stroke the side of his face, which Piper could feel turning a warm red. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I just thought you should hear it clearly stated.”

“Well, thank you. I’m sorry, I’m not really sure what to say.” Everything in him was rebelling against the assertion. It wasn’t just the years of costumed villainy that had conditioned him to believe he was, well, evil. It went back further than that. He was the problem child, the one that needed to be fixed. The one who couldn’t let things go, who had to make everything a fight. At home, in school, everywhere he’d gone, he’d always been too much, too loud, and considered a raging asshole.

But Dick was right. He’d always been trying to be considerate of those around him. Calling out injustices was part of that, and it tended to make the people committing the injustices unhappy to hear their actions challenged.

“You’re still all flushed. Okay, I’ll change the subject for now. So you’ve got that meeting tonight, right? Are you guys going to discuss how to spend Bruce’s money?”

“I’m sure there are other items on the agenda, but that’s the main objective. Did he…say anything to you before he sent the donation?”

“Nope, the first I heard about it was from Wally, actually, and I assume he got the info from you. Which is very Bruce. He pulls strings in the background all the time. I’ve learned that I’ve got to pick my battles and roll with the stuff that doesn’t actively cross lines if I want to have a relationship with him, and funding a charity that does important work definitely doesn’t qualify as a battle.”

“Not at all. Well, if he ever does acknowledge it to you, please thank him on my behalf.”

“Of course, but you can thank him too.”

Piper laughed, but once again Dick didn’t. “We sent him a card, with a VIP invite to this fundraising holiday party we host every year. Usually the VIP tickets are fifty dollars while general admission is twenty, so obviously he’s paid admission for life. He can come to any Keystone Out! event he desires, though I don’t think anyone’s expecting him to actually show up.”

“Yeah, probably not,” Dick agreed. “Well, I’ll get the two of you in the same room and actually talking to each other someday.” He gave Piper’s hand a squeeze, a pretty sappy looking smile on his face that Piper couldn’t help but return.

“I know it’s only fair, since I’ve subjected you to my parents-”

“Who were surprisingly nice-”

“For selfish reasons. But yes, all the same. You’ve met some of my complicated people. I ought to meet some more of yours. I just think I could use a few more warm ups before we go right for the most difficult person.”

“That’s more than fair. Bruce is intimidating even when he’s not trying to be. Well, you’ve met almost every member of the original Teen Titans now. That’s a good start. I think I’ll throw Robin at you next. He’s a pretty easygoing kid.”

“I appreciate you.”

Needless to say, given the discussion he’d had with his partner, Piper was quite surprised to walk into the Keystone Out! Holigays fundraising party a few weeks later to find Bruce Wayne posing for a picture with their executive director, programming director, and newly hired mental health counselor.

“Oh…boy.”

Chapter Text

Piper walked into the large meeting room in Keystone Out!’s rented commercial space, which was located in a strip mall that was equidistant between Keystone High and the downtown, saw the photo op taking place, and walked back out again. He went out to the parking lot, got into his car, and took a few slow, steady breaths. But when he stopped thinking about his breathing it got fast again. So he opened up the glove box and got out his lorazepam.

He’d shown up. Batman had shown up. He wasn’t actually supposed to accept the invite. Piper and Dick had talked about this, and he was planning on meeting Batman sometime in the early spring. He thought he’d be ready by then. He’d hung out with Tim Drake (who he’d immediately gotten along with, to Dick’s immense pleasure), he’d been introduced to Tempest, the one original Teen Titan who hadn’t been at the Great Frog show, and he and Mal were actually hanging out sometimes without Dick or Wally present. Things had been progressing so nicely. Dick had even done Thanksgiving with the Rathaways, and it hadn’t been a shit show (largely because they’d fled for Wally’s for desserts and had accordingly kept to a strict time limit).

“You’re not a scared kid in a silly polka dotted tunic acting out against society,” Piper whispered to himself. “You’re an adult who is actively contributing to make things better for the marginalized and oppressed. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. He’s a guest in your space. He’s the guest. Just breathe.”

He did a breathing exercise, and when his hands stopped shaking he tried walking into the party again.

“Mr. Rathaway, did you see who’s here?” Mattie spotted him hovering in the doorway first. “Our new donor actually flew out from Gotham for our event. This is so cool! I can’t wait to use the pictures in the newsletter.”

“Yeah, it’s…something.”

Piper spent the first half hour of the night keeping himself busy with the interns and the actual youth attending the event. This dinner was mostly for donors - they had a separate holiday party for the kids themselves, but as a rule the kids they served were always welcome at every Keystone Out! function, especially when food was involved. And inevitably, the kids who made it out for the fundraising events always felt intimidated and out of place when the wealthy, establishment types dominated their queer little oasis. Excepting a couple of ambitious older teens like Mattie, most of the kids ended up hiding in the smaller meeting room with the bean bag chairs and the softer lighting. Piper set himself up as the adult in the room, and joked around with the teens and obliged their requests for stories about queer activism and super heroics.

Then Mattie came to switch places with him because the actual dinner was starting. Piper let out a sigh. “Anyone else joining us in the big room?”

“That’s okay, Mr. Rathaway. They ordered us pizza, so we’re just gonna stay in here,” Yazmin, one of their peer leaders, answered.

A wide eyed kid who’d been testing out different names that week regarded Piper with some amusement. Last he’d heard, she was going by Elinore. “Aren’t you on the board? How are you as scared of the rich weirdos as us kids?”

“I’m not scared,” Piper lied, as even his medicated nerves screamed otherwise. “I just find you kids to be much better company.” Which was one hundred percent true. “Well, I’d better at least make an attempt to glad hand and secure us some more donations. Oh, have any of you talked to the new mental health counselor yet? Isn’t she delightful?”

“Yeah, Monique’s nice. Stop stalling, dude.”

“Dude, don’t call Mr. Rathaway dude.”

“Yeah, show some respect. He’s been beating up bigots and phobes since the olden days.”

“My name’s Hartley. You can call me that,” he said on his way out, as the kids continued to squabble with each other.

The dinner itself wasn’t any more or less awful than it usually was. As Mr. Wayne was being treated as a guest of honor, the other board members and their executive director, Harry, seemed to think it appropriate to do the bulk of the interacting with him. Bruce was at a table with the other VIPs (and looked a bit silly at a folding table with a red plastic table cloth thrown over it being served roast chicken and vegetables from the same grassroots org that worked with the Keystone Pantry, flanked by local business owners who weren’t even millionaires, let alone billionaires). The room was mostly decorated with art projects the kids themselves had made, but they’d tried to class things up a little with some plastic evergreen garlands and potted poinsettias. One of the older kids, who was something of a piano prodigy, played Christmas carols while they were eating.

Then Piper had to get up and make a speech to the donors. He kept his gaze everywhere but on the VIP table, and proceeded with a basic version of the same speech he’d given at every Keystone Out! fundraising event since he’d started working with the organization, shortly after he’d reformed and his friendship with Wally had improved his reputation enough that he could openly contribute to non-profits. He talked about the need for services like theirs and gave it a personal touch by talking about how a group like this could have made a difference for him personally during his youth. Then he introduced Monique to the room, talked about the work she was already doing for the kids against the bleak stats about mental health and the prevalence of suicidal ideation for the community they served, and the work they expected her to do going forward. He finished off by introducing their goals for the coming year; hosting an alternate prom for the kids who couldn’t openly attend the ones at their schools, a series of workshops that would result in the production of a zine written and illustrated by the kids, to be archived at the space, and finally a closet of donated clothes to provide newly transitioned youth with access to gender affirming clothes as soon as they were needed.

He watched the reactions to his last announcement with particular care. It was only the first of several transgender-specific programming pieces that he and the volunteers wanted to roll out, leading up to a legal clinic to help interested kids with name and gender marker changes.

Usually the speeches ended with polite applause, but this time most of the donors were silently staring at Piper with varying shades of discomfort and disapproval on their faces. “Thank you for coming, and once again for making our work possible. I’m going to turn things back over to Harry. Goodnight.”

Piper resumed his seat at a table with the volunteers, who were the ones who worked directly with the kids. Piper was one of two board members who was hands on and actually knew the day to day operations of the place. He received a whispered, “good speech,” from Kerrie.

While Harry told them about some upcoming fundraising opportunities, Piper sipped his drink and tried to ignore the rude whispers he was picking up from the other tables.

“This is what our money is going to now? Confused kids who can’t tell if they’re boys or girls?”

“They shouldn’t be pushing this stuff on kids. I’m fine with adults doing…that…that sort of thing, but this is a group for teenagers, isn’t it?”

“There’s no way this is going to fly. The city’s going to shut us down.”

“I can see why they needed a mental health counselor if this is the tripe the children are coming to them with.”

Piper could feel himself getting madder and madder, and with great effort he held himself in check. But for fuck’s sake - didn’t these assholes know they were repeating the exact same bullshit the bigots always said about the LGBs? Just substitute transgender instead of their own cherished labels, and it was literally the exact same bigotry.

He remembered his mother insisting he was too young to know something like that about himself the first time he’d tried coming out. It was the same goddamn script.

Well, it didn’t matter. The establishment gays, who were living comfortable lives completely removed from the struggling preteens and teens who found refuge in Keystone Out!’s programming, could withdraw all their funding if they wished. The volunteers, the executive director, and most of the board were with him on this. They had the funds, and they were going to use them to help all of the kids who needed it.

Bruce had been far too young when he’d become Dick Grayson’s guardian. If he’d had it to do over again, he’d have made a lot of changes, first and foremost being that he’d have reached out for the help and guidance he’d needed. At the time, he’d only really spoken to Alfred about how the pressure of being responsible for the vulnerable young boy’s life was getting to him, and he’d stubbornly ignored at least half of the advice the older, experienced, and well meaning man had given him.

Taking Dick in hadn’t been a rational impulse - he’d been completely driven by emotion. They’d bonded through a shared trauma, and since then he’d been doing his best to protect Dick from things he hadn’t been able to protect himself from. For awhile, things had worked out well enough, but his best hadn’t been good enough and ultimately he’d pushed Dick away. Then he’d failed another child even more horrifically, vowed never to tempt fate in such a calamitous way again, and somehow wound up with a third sidekick even after that.

At least this child wasn’t living with him. Besides that, Bruce had been humbled in the most brutal manner by Jason’s death. He was asking for help whenever necessary, understanding and accepting that he couldn’t do this work alone. He needed so much help. He needed some redemption. Tim would survive, and he would flourish. Bruce was sick of making the same mistakes over and over again. So this time he was actively seeking Alfred’s guidance and carefully considering everything he had to say. Tim’s presence had gotten him talking to Dick again, and though it smarted to be called to task on everything he’d done wrong during Dick’s adolescence, it was instructive.

Sometimes they even managed civil conversations where neither of them felt the need to prod at each other’s unhealed emotional wounds. They really did know each other too well.

He loved Dick, and truly saw him as family. But they would have been better suited as surrogate brothers than surrogate father and son. In his attempts to help guide the boy, he’d constantly overreached and ultimately damaged their relationship, though hopefully not beyond repair. Alfred had mitigated some of the harm Bruce had done; he’d always had the best of intentions, which was his saving grace. It seemed like they were on their way to a true reconciliation. Every time he and Dick were thrown together for work, or for Tim’s benefit, or just because Dick wanted to swing by and chat with Alfred for a bit, Bruce looked for signs of Dick’s bitterness relenting, and he was encouraged by what he saw.

And then Dick decided to date a supposedly reformed supervillain.

One of the biggest differences between Bruce and Dick’s characters was how easily Dick trusted people and let them into his heart. This foolish openness was a core part of his charisma; he was fascinated by his fellow humans and had a way of making everyone around him feel seen, heard, respected, and valued. Bruce was similarly fascinated by others, but his attention resulted in everyone around him feeling ill at ease. When he had to put on the playboy mask, he actually emulated some of Dick’s natural character traits to soften himself and try to be more likable (something that he was never planning on telling Dick).

Really, Dick’s faith in people, if tempered by discernment, was an admirable trait and it made him a good leader. But it had to be tempered. He couldn’t just open his entire life to a perfect stranger with a questionable past.

And yet, that was exactly what he’d done. He’d been introduced to the Pied Piper as Nightwing, and immediately unmasked himself as Dick Grayson. He spoke to him in a completely unguarded, relaxed manner within minutes of deciding to go on a single date. The man was a hypnotist; Bruce would have thought that called for more caution, not less. Apparently, Dick was placing a lot of faith in the judgment of Wally West, and the way he vouched for Rathaway did speak well to the (former) crook. But West also had questionable judgment, first and foremost being his insistence on doing away with a secret identity. It was one thing for West to put himself and his own family in danger by choosing not to take the necessary precautions that came with super heroics, but he needed to confine that recklessness to his own circle.

So Bruce spent the first months of Dick’s relationship with a (reformed) super-villain (who’d come alarmingly close to murdering Wally’s uncle on multiple occasions) gathering intel about the man. Dick discovering his bugs had been a setback, but not an insurmountable one, and besides that, by then he’d learned pretty much anything he was going to from listening to Rathaway’s comings and goings. He’d consulted with Clark and gotten a stubbornly rose tinted view of the man, which was what he’d expected. He got ahold of Rathaway’s files from the CCPD, Iron Heights, and Breedmore Mental Hospital. He had the Batcomputer regularly scouring databases for any news reports on Rathaway. And ultimately…it looked like Clark was right.

Rathaway had had a troubled adolescence and young adulthood. He’d had a breakdown, received psychiatric care, and after being released from the hospital he’d found a supportive community to aid him in recovery. Even at the height of his supervillainy, there were signs that he was misdirected more than malevolent (the attempts on Barry’s life were uncharacteristic - he never set death traps against anyone who wouldn’t be able to solve them). Begrudgingly, Bruce came to the conclusion that Hartley Rathaway was most likely a good man. And that he’d once more overstepped and damaged his relationship with his former ward while trying to protect him.

Bruce realized that his donation to Rathaway’s pet charity would be construed as an attempt to buy forgiveness (something he’d been fully aware of before Alfred snarked at him about it), but truthfully he’d liked what he’d learned about the charity while conducting his investigation. He’d also instructed the foundation to send similar (if less extravagant) recurring donations to non-profits doing the same type of work in the greater Gotham area. Bruce knew he still needed to actually talk to Rathaway, and that’s why he’d accepted the invite to the Holigays Dinner.

And then he spent most of the event with his attention jealously guarded by well meaning administrators that he couldn’t seem to shake. Besides that, Rathaway was obviously avoiding him. The first time he got a good look at the man was while he was giving a speech that got mixed reception from the other donors, though Bruce thought it was delivered well enough. Generally, the fundraisers he attended didn’t involve folding chairs or strip malls, but there was certainly overlap in the desire to wring as much money as possible from the attendees so the charitable institution could continue its work. Bruce found the brevity and directness of Rathaway’s speech refreshing.

After the dinner, the attendees went back to milling around the room networking with each other and gossiping about the, apparently, new direction the non-profit was taking. Rathaway was just about to slip out of the room again when he was grabbed by Harry, Keystone Out!’s director. “Hartley, has anyone introduced you to our new donor yet? You’re probably the best board member to give him a tour of the space, if he wants it.” Harry smiled at Bruce. “Hartley’s the most hands-on of us old fuddy duddies with the kids. He’s sort of a go between for us business minded folks and the volunteers who do the actual programming.”

Bruce observed the briefest bit of reluctance from Rathaway as he backtracked and fixed a blandly pleasant smile on his face. “We’ve met in passing before. You’re acquainted with my parents, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’ve worked with your father a few times in the past. How are they doing?”

“They’re fine. Busy with the holidays and all that. I’m sure you can relate.”

Harry seemed to think this was going well. Rathaway was a good enough actor to fool someone looking to be pleased with what he saw. But his eyes flickered towards the exit periodically and it looked like he was reminding himself to smile.

“So, how about that tour?” Bruce prompted, and, with further well masked reluctance, Rathaway showed him out into the hallway. He gave an obviously scripted description of the different rooms in the building, and explained what they were hoping to change in light of their improved financial status. “We’re going to condense the supply room and the craft closet into one, and then this is going to become the gender affirming clothes boutique. Well, I think that’s everything. Good seeing you.”

“I think you know why I’m really here. I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise.”

Rathaway pressed his lips together, then turned on his heel and walked back over to Bruce. “I’m at work. Technically this is a volunteer position but on a personal level, this is the most important work I’ve done in my life. I can’t do this right now. Not here.”

“I understand.” That had been shortsighted of him. One thing Rathaway’s mental health files had made abundantly clear, if nothing else, was that he was an anxious young man who expected persecution more readily than good will. “I do need to talk to you at some point though. What would be a better time and place for you?”

Rathaway let out a labored sigh, and nervously flexed his fingers. “I’m not, um…look, why don’t you just meet me at my place after this ends? I know you already know where it is. I’ve got to stay at least until all the kids get picked up.”

Bruce nodded, and left him to his work.

Chapter Text

“I’m not sorry I investigated you. If you and Dick were to break up tomorrow and he wound up in the same circumstances with an identical partner, I would conduct myself exactly the same way.”

Piper gaped at his guest, who was waiting for him to respond, looking perfectly unconcerned as he did so. “You’ll have to give me a moment. That wasn’t remotely what I’d been expecting you to say.”

Wayne smirked, and quickly hid it by taking a sip from the cup of coffee Piper had offered him once they’d gotten settled in his kitchen (he’d almost brought Batman into his living room but at the last moment he’d stopped himself, realizing that he couldn’t have this conversation while seated on a sofa he and Dick had fucked on).

“It’s really nothing personal to you. Dick is…very trusting. And, unlike our acquaintances who have vouched for you, he does not possess godlike powers. As he is only human, it takes work to keep him safe in this field. I will continue to value his safety over his idealistic insistence on looking for the best in everyone he meets.”

Piper frowned, weighing how much he wanted to say in response to that. “Okay…as I’m sure you’re aware, I have a chronic anxiety disorder so I do see where you’re coming from. Truly. But leading with my anxiety has irreparably damaged quite a few of my personal relationships so I try not to let it take over if I can help it. Dick’s an adult. Don’t you think you ought to let him make his own decisions?”

“Of course. I can’t stop him.”

Piper tilted his head to the side, as though the little shake would help him better understand Wayne’s reasoning. He was still coming up blank. “But you’re meddling. That completely undercuts the entire premise that you respect his decisions.”

“I’ve kept my actions in the background.”

“Uh huh. What would you have done if your investigation had turned up something you didn’t approve of?”

“Well, let’s both be glad that didn’t happen.”

Piper started to take a sip of his own coffee, then thought better about consuming caffeine with the night he was having and dumped it in the sink. He put on some water for herbal tea instead.

Then, to his surprise, Wayne made the smallest sound of frustration and rubbed his temple. Busy fussing with the tea kettle, Piper almost missed it.

“This wasn’t supposed to go this way. I am sorry that we’ve gotten off to a tense start. You seem like a nice enough man, you’ve got integrity, and to the point, you’re making him happy. I appreciate the changes I’ve observed in Dick since you’ve started seeing each other. I’d like those changes to progress.”

“Okay…thank you, I suppose. And thank you for what you’ve done for Keystone Out!. The super heroics I engage in with Wally, I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s never been my main focus. The heart of what I do is my local work in my community. Being able to support the kids with what they actually need, right now, in this moment, without having to worry about being palatable to the donors…it means a lot.”

“I understand. That sort of organizing hasn’t been on my radar but I see its value. I’d like your help in implementing similar programming in Gotham, if you’re interested.”

“Oh, certainly. Uh, did you actually need one of these?” Piper reflexively took a business card out of his wallet, since he was in the habit of handing them out whenever he was connecting with someone about the non-profit work.

Again, Wayne fixed him with that unnerving smirk (unnerving because it was just off from being the smarmy smile he used in his tabloid-type pictures. Change it by a degree and apparently it was a Batman expression). “I’ve got one.”

The kettle whistled, interrupting the strained silence. Piper shut it off and fixed his tea, though he remained standing and leaned against the kitchen counter. He wondered how much longer Wayne was intending to stay. They’d probably said everything they needed to…hadn’t they? Wayne wasn’t going to apologize, clearly, since he didn’t see that he’d done anything wrong, and Piper didn’t have it in him to try to argue his case. He could settle for this tentative peace between them, and was frankly just happy that Batman wasn’t actually opposed to his relationship.

The tense silence was spectacularly shattered by someone frantically ringing Piper’s doorbell. His face fell and his stomach twisted in knots as he recognized the childish button pushing. ‘Not now. Why now?’

Wayne watched him, face inscrutable beyond some curiosity. “Shouldn’t you answer that?”

Piper inhaled through his nose and set his mug down. Well, the pest at his front door certainly wasn’t going to go away until he did, and he doubted Batman would leave either. Piper walked through his house to the front door and opened it just enough so that he could fix an urgent glare on one of his oldest friends.

“James, now is not the time.”

“And normally I’d respect the cold shoulder you’re clearly trying to give me,” James Jesse started, throwing his shoulder against the door to try to budge it the rest of the way open. Piper held it firmly in place. “But I’m on a bit of a time crunch. I need your help.”

“If you expect to get it you’ll leave now and let me contact you when I’m ready,” Piper said, careful to keep his voice low.

“Why’re you being so weird? Is someone threatening you or something?” James leaned up on tip toe, trying to see around Piper, who closed the door another inch and leaned forward, trying to block his view.

“Please, just go. I’ll explain everything later-”

“Listen, old pal, you’re looking a little green. Is everything okay?” James did look sincerely worried about him, which made Piper wonder how bad he did look. He could feel his breathing getting fast again, and he was a little light headed.

“Well? Who’s at the door?” Wayne’s voice sounded from far too close by. While Piper jumped, James used that opportunity to get past him and into the living room.

“Oh, I get it,” James said with a grin, his eyes landing on Bruce. “You got the new boy toy’s father figure over for a visit and you’re trying to hide your embarrassing pals, is that it? Well, it doesn’t get much more embarrassing than the Trickster, so we might as well get all the dirty laundry out at once and get it over with.” James held his hand out to his eerily calm looking guest. “James Jesse.”

“I know. You robbed me once, though it was several years ago at this point,” Wayne said as he shook hands.

“Did I? Huh. I don’t work Gotham very often. Not the kinda company I like to keep, those guys. Were you over our way in Central at the time?”

“James, I believe there was some kind of emergency?” Piper asked, barely recognizing his voice with the hysterical breathiness it had taken on. He turned a pleading look on Wayne. “He’s reformed, by the way. H-he works with me and Wally now.”

“Yeah…reformed…mostly.”

Piper really wanted to tell him he was talking to Batman. James would not be digging a grave for them like this if he realized he was in the company of more than a tabloid chasing billionaire ditz. But he couldn’t give away Wayne’s identity, and he couldn’t think of a way to get rid of James or get him to shut up.

“Okay, so this thing I need you for, it’s a swell bit of trickery. First, we’re gonna con Captain Cold and the other guys into breaking into a Buddhist temple in Zhutan and stealing a valuable artifact. Then, while they’re doing that, I’m gonna need you to set up some sound gear so we can make it look like the temple and the puppet government of the local dictator is being attacked by a mythical folk hero. It’ll be a diversion so I can kidnap a twelve year old hostage and smuggle him back to the United States-”

Piper didn’t hear the rest of what James said. As his vision went dark, he was somewhat aware of the ground getting closer and James’ oily conman smile slipping into a look of concern.

When Piper came to he was lying on his living room floor with a couch cushion shoved under his knees. James was holding a wet cloth to his forehead, while Batman was counting his pulse. “Did I…I’ve never passed out from anxiety before.”

“Dude, that was scary. You’re still really pale. Are you okay?” James helped him sit up, and steadied him when he almost fell back onto his elbows. He still felt terribly lightheaded.

“I’ll be fine. I’ve just had…had a trying day.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.” James shot Wayne an expectant look and tilted his head towards the front door. “You know, it might not be such a great time for company. Ahem. Cough-cough. Hint-hint.”

Piper involuntarily gripped James’ arm, his fingers digging into his skin.

“Yikes! Relax the grip there, Pipesy old friend. I bruise like a delicate piece of fruit.”

“I probably have overstayed my welcome. But Hartley, I expect an update on this story when you have a chance. Your friend is very interesting.”

“That’s one of the nicer ways you could put it,” James said with a wink, then yelped when Piper squeezed him again. “I mean it! You really are going to leave a bruise at this rate.”

“Then shut up,” Piper tried to mutter while moving his mouth as little as possible. James waved Wayne off expectantly, and once the front door shut behind him Piper dropped his head into his hands and let out a breathy sob. “Oh my god. Oh my god. I don’t know what he even thinks, I, I…I need to call Dick.”

“Well, call your lover boy later. I already told you, I need your help. C’mon, Hart. This kid’s counting on me, and he’s really important to someone who’s important to me. You’re not going to leave me hanging, are you?”

Piper closed his eyes and slowly counted to five. When he opened them James was still watching him expectantly. “Of course I’ll help you rescue a child. But James…did you have to say all that to Bruce Wayne? Couldn’t you have waited five minutes and let me get rid of him on my own first?”

“…look, I know you’re dating the guy’s sort of kid right now, so I get wanting to impress him. But Bruce Wayne’s kind of a doof, isn’t he? I mean, is a himbo like that really that hard to impress? I think you’re freaking out for nothing, buddy.” James slung a companionable arm around his back, clapped him on the shoulder, and then helped him to his feet. “Now c’mon, let’s get your bag packed and I’ll catch you up on the finer details of my plan. We’ve got forty minutes to get to the airport for our flight.”

“Okay. And after we get back from the rescue mission, I’m going to skin you alive.”

“Sure, sure. Assuming you can catch me, you mean.”

Piper was away with James in Zhutan for almost a week. Reception in the mountainous country wasn’t great, so other than a few quick phone calls from airport payphones, Piper didn’t have much of a chance to talk to Dick or Wally, and he didn’t want to say too much about his true concerns in such a public area. If Batman was convinced he was actually still secretly a supervillain and working with other supervillains, then blabbing about his secret identity in an airport in the presence of the Trickster would not get Piper back into the good graces his charity work had fumbled him into.

Before James had shown up, Batman had said Piper had integrity. He’d said he thought Piper was good for Dick. It had been uncomfortable at the time, but actually the conversation really hadn’t been going all that badly. And then James had barged in with his usual tactlessness and blown everything to hell.

Trickster wasn’t still a villain. He’d saved existence from Neron, multiple times now. Why had he said that he was? Because he thought it was funny, obviously, but still, why?

James opted to remain in Zhutan for an extra couple of weeks when he realized that the child he’d just rescued was, in fact, his own biological son. The rest of the Rogues scattered at the first possible opportunity, leaving Piper on a lonely solo flight back around the world to Kansas. He was glad to be home but not in the least looking forward to putting right everything he’d left hanging when James had blown in and yanked him away for an adventure.

Linda was waiting for him at the airport, with a sympathetic smile and a to-go cup of peppermint hot chocolate. “Welcome back.” She pulled him into a hug that he happily returned. “Wally said you guys saved the world from some kind of demon king this time? He was a little fuzzy on the details.”

“Honestly, so am I. But I think it was the same one who just possessed all the Rogues. James seems to have bartered their souls back for them.”

“Well that was nice of him. And hey, you made it back with a few days to spare before Christmas. It could have been worse.”

Piper scowled as he followed Linda out into the parking lot to her car. Not expecting to have been gone as long as he’d been, he’d carried on and didn’t have any checked bags to wait for. “Actually, I think skipping over Christmas would have been the best case scenario.”

“You and Dick aren’t planning on doing anything cute and couple-y?” She took his bag from him and shoved it in the trunk.

“He wants to do Christmas in Gotham. He said something about sacrificing Alfred’s cooking for my parents’ bland food was fine for one Thanksgiving but he wasn’t planning on making a habit of it. And I don’t think I can get out of family Christmas this year without it being a whole thing, so we’re spending it apart. I think he’s planning on coming to you and Wally’s party though, so I’ll see him there.”

Linda gave his arm a bracing pat. “Even with all the resources at your disposal, the distance really bites, doesn’t it?”

“Mm.” Piper rested his forehead against the window and closed his eyes while Linda drove them away from the airport and towards the highway.

“Have you two talked about that yet? I mean, you’re going on what…four months?”

“Closer to five now. No, we haven’t talked about it. We probably should.”

“Yeah. See if you can sell him on the Midwest. I’ll go and visit you in Bludhaven if it comes down to it, but I’d rather not lose you, Hartley. I might have to give that boy of mine a talking to if his matchmaking sends you out to the east coast.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Linda. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.”

“Mm hm. It’s good to see you have your priorities straight.”

Chapter Text

“Goodnight, Hartley. Rest up.”

“Goodnight, Linda. Thanks again for getting me from the airport.”

“Anytime.” Linda threw him a cheery wave, then drove off. Piper grabbed his bag and started up the walkway. He could hear someone in what sounded like the living room, but it was just relaxed breathing and the scratching of paper on paper as the page of a book was turned. Considering the paranoia with which Piper had overhauled his security system after the bugging incident, and who he’d given access to the house, it was most likely either Dick or Wally inside. And part of the reason Linda had been the one to get him from the airport was because Wally was apparently away on a Justice League mission.

Feeling a bit hopeful, eager to see his boyfriend again and reassured that if he’d been waiting up for him, Dick probably wasn’t mad at him, Piper unlocked the door and turned off his alarm. And then he found himself with a sudden armful of excitable acrobat.

Dick had jumped up into his arms, wrapping his legs around Piper’s waist and knocking him backwards into the wall as he initiated a passionate kiss. Piper returned the kiss, and found himself slowly sinking towards the floor from the unexpected extra weight. Dick jumped down before he completely lost balance, and Piper was able to suck in a quick lungful of air before Dick pounced on him again.

“Missed you,” Dick said, before trailing a line of kisses down Piper’s jaw and then lingering on his neck. He unzipped Piper’s jacket and his hands slid under his shirt, roaming over his torso. Piper could feel his brain turning to mush in the wake of all the insistent stimuli.

They shed clothing as they made slow, stumbling progress from the entryway to Piper’s bedroom. Piper landed with his back on the mattress and Dick straddling him. “This is quite the welcome home.”

“I told you. I missed you.”

Piper locked eyes with him, a small, sentimental smile on his face. He trailed his fingers down Dick’s cheek and across his jaw. “I missed you too.” Dick turned his head so that he could suck the tips of Piper’s fingers into his mouth. He groaned, and involuntarily bucked his hips up a little, grinding their crotches together.

Dick’s eyes looked positively wicked. “Sappy romantic drivel later?”

“H-huh...?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Dick ended up staying over for the rest of the weekend. By the end of his visit, Piper reflected that there wasn’t a room in the house he’d be able to comfortably look Batman in the eye in, should the man ever return for some reason.

“So what did you end up thinking of Bruce?” Dick asked while Piper fixed them breakfast (with his limited culinary abilities they were having oatmeal and toast). There was something mischievous in his manner, which made Piper wonder what he’d already heard about the disastrous meeting.

“He’s a very talented actor,” Piper answered, pretty diplomatically, he thought. Dick let out a loud snort. “Well he is! I promise you, if we hadn’t started seeing each other and I hadn’t learned his identity through yours, I never would have put that together on my own. He’s uncannily convincing as a celebrity himbo.”

“Oh, I know. But that isn’t what I meant.”

Piper sighed, and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I honestly still don’t know how I feel about him. Other than that I wanted to make a better impression than I did.”

The microwave beeped, allowing Piper a few minutes of distraction as he finished preparing their humble meal and setting it out on the table. As soon as they were seated, Dick grabbed Piper’s free hand and laced their fingers together. “You honestly did fine. He told me he was impressed with you, actually.”

“Did he?” Piper arched a skeptical brow. “Did he tell you that I fainted?”

“Yes, and he also told me that meeting you put some of the changes he’s observed in Wally into perspective. He thinks you helped Wally mature and become more community minded.”

“Oh.” Piper smiled, and took a bite out of his toast.

“Which you totally did.”

“It’s been a joint effort. Linda did a lot of the heavy lifting there. Besides, Wally’s friendship has done infinitely more for me. I’ve…never had this kind of stability before. It’s really meant a lot, having a steady friend like him who doesn’t brush me off when I’m struggling. Or worse, feed into my spirals and set me off on purpose. Ugh. Speaking of which…I swear, despite how James worded it, we were actually doing superheroics in Zhutan-”

“Piper, I know.” Dick laughed, and gave his hand another reassuring squeeze. “Believe me, I’d have had some questions for you before I dragged you off to the bedroom if I’d thought you’d had a villainous relapse. I do have to say, though, the fact that you ran off to a remote locale with another acrobat…” he gave his head a shake. “That’s the sort of thing that could make a guy jealous.”

Piper let out an incredulous snort, and had to cover his mouth with his hands so his sudden giggle fit didn’t have him spraying the table with half chewed toast. “I know you’re joking, but me and James? Really?”

“Wait, I was joking but only in a, like, I don’t expect you to cheat on me sort of way. In the past, before we got together…the two of you never…?”

“He’s straight.”

“You’re kidding.” Dick was visibly flabbergasted, and Piper started laughing harder. “Oh come on, I am not the only person who thinks the Trickster is gay.”

“No, I get it.” Piper had to wipe at his eyes, as he was laughing so hard they’d started to water. “I did try to flirt with him once back in the day. And that’s how I found out that I was the only queer in the Flash’s Rogues gallery. It still blows my mind to this day. They’re all so campy with the costumes and the gimmicks. And oh, the patter that we all used to do against Barry…but we all went to the same gay tailor, so that accounts for some of the flamboyance, I suppose.”

“Ah, that’s too bad. He’s cute.” Dick stirred his oatmeal, dirty mind likely going to some very dirty places.

“Mm, and very aware of it. The vehemence of his heterosexuality was also an immediate turnoff for me. Still, once he grew up a little and became more secure in his own masculinity he calmed down with the defensive homophobia, and we’ve been good friends ever since. I do know better than to try to depend on him for anything important though. It’s not the same sort of friendship I have with Wally and Linda.”

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Dick got up from the table and disappeared into the bedroom. When he returned, he had a small paper bag with him. “Bruce asked me to give you this.”

Piper uncomfortably swallowed the oatmeal in his mouth and accepted the bag. There was a book on Insight Meditation inside that came with a CD of guided meditations.

Dick looked incredibly amused. “He said this one pairs well with a medication regimen like yours. Which is both thoughtful and creepy, which is a good way to summarize Bruce, I think.”

Piper flipped the book around and scanned the text on the back. “I suppose I do find breathing exercises helpful, so I may as well give this a shot. Um. Tell him thanks, I guess? So James didn’t completely ruin his impression of me?”

“No, he saw that for what it was. An unexpected superhero team up. Hartley…you do know that you don’t actually have to impress him, right? Like, our relationship doesn’t change based on his feelings, okay? You’re dating me, and he doesn’t get a say in that.”

“But life would be undoubtedly easier if your former guardian and complicated family figure wasn’t actively opposed to us being involved. I appreciate what you’re saying though. I’ll try not to give this all more weight than it needs.”

“Kinda like how it’s nice that your parents like me, but it’s also not necessary? Like, some of the finer details are different but it’s still basically the same. I care about you, deeply. And he can’t change that.” Dick kissed the side of his face, then resumed his seat and went back to the toast and oatmeal.

The gentle but insistent reassurance did a lot to quiet the negative little voice in the back of his mind, and Piper was finally able to relax and fully enjoy his boyfriend’s visit.

“You’re back? Did you go anyplace cool this time?”

Piper barely made it through the door to the Keystone Out! youth center before one of the kids stopped him. He liked the distinction; not all of the kids were comfortable approaching all of the adult volunteers, no matter how open and friendly they tried to be. But Piper had his little group of core followers, and he assumed it had something to do with the fact that he didn’t put on airs around them. His misspent youth as a leftist supervillain answered for some of the appeal as well, although he always tried to deflect that subject when it was broached. The kids had a tendency to glamorize what he considered to be a pretty terrible period of his life, and he was still trying to get through to them that being the Pied Piper had involved a lot of suffering until he’d become friends with the Flash and turned things around.

“I was in Zhutan to help an old friend. It’s a small, mountainous country in Southeast Asia. I’m sorry I missed the Christmas party though. Did you make out well during the Yankee Swap?”

Elinore made an iffy gesture with her hand. “I had a gift card to the comic book store for most of the Swap, but Ayden got me at the last minute and swapped me for a box of markers. At least I’ll use the markers. Oh, I changed my name again. I’m trying out Lucille this week. But I won’t mind if you still call me Elinore. I’m still responding to Stacia, and that was three names ago now.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks for updating me, Lucille.” Piper took his jacket off and started walking towards the meeting room. “Did I miss any other big events at Keystone Out! while I was away?”

“We started some new volunteers. Oh, and Nathan’s not allowed near the crafting supplies without adult supervision because of the glitter incident. That’s everything I know about, but I’m just a kid. You should probably check your email, shouldn’t you?”

Piper grinned, and promised to do so. Lucille went to investigate the snack table, leaving Piper to get the room ready for the meeting. They weren’t expecting a very large turnout, it being so close to the holidays, but seeing as it was such a difficult time of the year to be trapped with family that may or may not be accepting, they liked to stay open anyway. Any youth that did show up probably needed the extra support more than they were willing to admit. Piper knew that on a personal level, he benefitted greatly from having a few hours in the company of unapologetically queer folks before he had to shrink himself to be with his family.

One of the new volunteers was setting up folding chairs in a semi-circle. He was a white guy that looked to be about Piper’s age, and his business casual suggested that he’d come to Keystone Out! directly from some kind of office job. Piper approached him to introduce himself, and the volunteer dropped one of the chairs, which made a terrible racket as it knocked over another metal chair on its way to the ground. Lucille clapped her hands over her ears and let out a distressed squeaking noise. She kept her hands over her ears as she left the big room for the small, quiet space with the bean bag chairs and the dim lights.

“Oof, sorry.” The volunteer ducked down to grab the chairs, and Piper helped him fix them. “I’ve noticed that some of the kids are really sensitive about loud noises. Figures I have to go and be such a klutz when I’m trying to help.”

“I’m sure she’ll come back before the meeting starts. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You’re one of the new volunteers, I take it?”

“Yeah. My name’s James.” He held out his hand for a shake.

“Hartley.”

“Yeah, the Pied Piper. I’ve, uh…heard of you.”

“Yeah, he’s heard of you…” a middle schooler named Alex said in a sing-songy sort of voice. “Because he has a c-r-u-s-h on you…”

James’ face went a little red and he let out an awkward laugh. “Boy, these kids sure do like to expose anything and everything they know about the adults who work here, don’t they?”

“Oh yes, you won’t last long at this job at all if you can’t handle being incessantly bullied by children.” Piper turned his attention to Alex. “Don’t you think that’s the sort of thing that James should have been the one to tell me, if he wanted to?”

“Oh, yeah, probably. Well, too late to do anything about it now. Are we ordering pizza tonight?”

“Yes, Kerrie’s picking it up on her way in.”

“Yes! Pizza!” Alex skipped over to the doorway but paused before leaving the room. “Oh, and Mr. Architect dude? Mr. Rathaway’s already got a boyfriend and the guy’s like crazy hot, so don’t bother asking him out. But there are loads of other old guys who volunteer with Keystone Out! and one of them might go out with you. Okay, bye. I’ll be back when the pizza gets here.” The tween took off for the smaller room, and they could hear the kid excitedly telling their friends about the impending pizza arrival.

James’ face was now completely scarlet. “I actually didn’t start volunteering with the youth center as a dating service. Oh my god.” He sounded mortified. “I just said I thought it was neat that there was a superhero on the board. I guess I did tell Mattie that I thought your new costume was flattering, but Alex wasn’t even around when we were talking.”

“Gossip travels fast here. I told one intern that I’d been on a date that went well, and the very next meeting the kids completely derailed it by asking all sorts of invasive personal questions about my new boyfriend. We weren’t even official yet.”

“But you are now…?” James laughed, and immediately turned away, clearly embarrassed but still not able to stop talking. “Okay, Alex wasn’t wrong. I’ve got a teensy crush.”

Piper decided the most diplomatic course of action was to change the subject, though the flustered young man was doing a lot for his self-esteem. “Well, flattered but happily committed. Come on, let’s get some plates and napkins for the pizza.”

“I think the other new volunteer’s on it.”

“Oh, I guess I should go introduce myself to that one, too.”

James frowned. “Don’t you already know each other?”

Piper shrugged. “Maybe we do. I have no idea who the volunteer is.” He set up one last chair, then started walking towards the supply closet, keeping an eye out for someone he hadn’t seen at the space before. He passed a few more kids, another intern, and then he saw a fit looking teen in a clingy red and blue body suit with a leather jacket. He did recognize the kid, but not because they’d ever actually met before. “Superboy?”

He turned around, a bag of paper plates in his hands. “Oh, hey. Piper, right?”

“Yeah, but most of the people here use my civilian name. I hadn’t realized you were going to be working with us.”

“Superman suggested it. He said he thought I might get some benefit out of spending some time in a community center like this and, I dunno. When he wants to give me advice I try to follow up with it. So is this enough plates or should I get more?”

“That should be more than enough. Well, um. Welcome to the space. I’m sure the kids will be excited about having you here.”

“I dunno, man. So far they’ve just been staring at me from doorways.” He tilted his head a little, just in time for Piper to see three kids duck back into the smaller room. “See? Maybe I should have volunteered in my civilian identity. That I don’t actually have yet. Ugh. I gotta get to work on making one of those. So is this like a normal superhero thing, volunteering at places like this? Have you dragged Impulse out to do this yet?”

“It hadn’t really occurred to me to ask him if he was interested, though I suppose I ought to.” Piper frowned, taking in Superboy’s haircut, fingerless gloves, circular sunglasses, and pierced ears. He wondered if the boy was aware of what he was flagging. If the kids could work up the courage to actually talk to him, Piper imagined there were going to be quite a few little gay boys with crushes on their new volunteer.

The Rathaways had a selection of Christmas cards they’d received that year displayed on the mantle in the den with the main Christmas tree in it (they had four trees in total, spread out throughout the house, but the one in the den had the heirloom ornaments on it and was the one Santa put the presents under). Tucked in amongst cards from friends and family, Piper spotted a pretty generic looking card from Wayne Enterprises. It had been signed by hand though, and possibly not by a secretary.

Piper walked around the tree, inspecting all the old ornaments he remembered from childhood. It was his first Christmas back with the family since they’d reconciled, and while there was a niceness to some of it, he knew he was going to have a lot to discuss with his therapist when she was back in the office. Piper searched the branches of the tree, looking for a particular antique glass filigree ornament that he’d always liked and then stopped when he saw a photo ornament made out of gold painted popsicle sticks with pipe cleaner reindeer antlers hot glued on top. A faded picture of five year old Hartley completed the ornament - he’d made it in a kindergarten arts and crafts activity.

After he’d been kicked out, his parents had stopped using his homemade ornaments (he’d broken into the house a few times to leave presents for Jerrie and had checked). He’d assumed they’d thrown them all away.

“Hartley! Merry Christmas!” Jerrie ran into the room and pulled him into a hug. She was wearing her Flash hoodie over a red and green plaid nightgown with lace trim.

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart. How did you make out?”

“Mostly clothes this year.” Jerrie’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “Mom’s trying to make me dress like her. But Auntie Hazel sent me a check in her Christmas card, so I can keep buying the clothes I like with that. Where’s Dick? Isn’t your boyfriend gonna be here for Christmas?”

“No, darling. He’s spending it with his family.”

“Oh.” Jerrie’s face fell. “But he spent Thanksgiving with us.”

“Yes…and you hardly said two words to him.”

“I still liked having him here though. He’s nice, and he makes you smile a lot. You’re not breaking up, are you?”

Piper quickly reassured her that things were still going very well with his boyfriend, and made a mental note to find some gentle way to broach the subject of Jerrie’s mental health with his parents at some point in the future. Now that he was able to spend more time with the family, he was seeing more and more evidence that the anxiety disorder he’d struggled with wasn’t entirely a product of distressing circumstances. There seemed to be a genetic component as well.

By dinnertime, Jerrie changed out of the holiday nightgown in favor of a green and gold dress that did very much call to mind their mother’s taste in fashion over what a sixteen year old might pick for herself. She put the Flash hoodie on as soon as dinner finished, and was hugging her unicorn stuffie by the time they sat down in the den with coffee and desserts.

Having prepared for the old, familiar family dynamic, Piper had shown up in a guarded state, ready to deflect criticism of his life choices and introduce conversation topics that he thought his parents would receive well. But the expected attacks never came. Osgood asked polite, interested questions about his work with the Flash, while Rachel even tested the waters on Keystone Out! (despite the fact that Piper had tried talking to her about the non-profit work multiple times since the reconciliation, she insisted she’d first heard of it after the Martha Wayne Foundation donation had made local news - even though she and Osgood were already recurring donors). And of course, they both expressed disappointment that Dick couldn’t make it out for a second family gathering, but were pleased to hear that the relationship was still doing well.

“He’s such a pleasant young man, Hartley. And you seem so happy together.”

“Thanks, Mom. We are.”

Her answering smile was surprisingly genuine. “That’s the best Christmas gift I could have asked for, dearest. Knowing that you’re finally happy. That’s all a mother ever really wants.”

That line was one of her stock phrases. He’d heard it many a time throughout his teen years, always weaponized against him. This was the first time Piper felt like she might have actually meant it.

He was still trying to figure out something to say when the broadcast of It’s A Wonderful Life cut off for a breaking news story. Osgood shushed them and turned up the volume on the television. “It could be something the Flash needs your help on.”

“Dad, I really don’t think-”

“Breaking news, a daring holiday escape as a group of criminals flees prison in a truck meant to deliver their Christmas dinners. We’ll have more for you after the broadcast, including live coverage from Iron Heights. See it first on seven…pardon.” The anchor scanned an index card that was handed to him from just off camera. “New reports indicate that there were two supervillains among the escapees-really, we’re calling them supervillains? I haven’t even heard of this second one.” There was a muffled command from the studio and the anchor turned back to the camera and continued reciting what must have been written on the card. “Escapees include the Rainbow Raider and Fury. More at eleven. And now, we return you to It’s A Wonderful Life.”

“Goodness. Hartley, is everything all right?” Rachel set her coffee on the table and went to join him on the sofa. She took his hand and gave it a press. “Dear? Those two villains, they’re not anyone we should worry about, are they? I have to confess, I’ve never heard of them either.”

“No, Mom. Don’t worry.” He mustered up a smile. “I’m sure Wally will have them back in a cell in no time.”

“I should hope so,” Osgood said with a nod. “And you’ll give us the inside scoop on the excitement, won’t you, son?”

“Yeah, of course. You know what, maybe I should get going. I’ll check in with Wally and see if he does need my help on this.” He said his goodnights, gave Jerrie an extra tight hug, then went out to his car and sat in front of the steering wheel, gazing off into space but not really seeing anything in front of him.

Hartley’s mind was very firmly on the past, and on the ex-boyfriend who’d finally managed a jailbreak after so many years of unsuccessful attempts.

Chapter Text

YEARS AGO…

Hartley staggered through the door of his most recent apartment, the intense agony of his headache the only thing keeping what he could tell was going to be a real doozy of a panic attack at bay. He wanted to sit on the floor in a dark room with his most powerful over-ear noise blocking headphones for about a week.

He was good at breaking out of Iron Heights. This time he’d helped a few of the Flash’s other foes sneak out with him, and it had earned him an invite to one of their gatherings. Mirror Master had even expressed interest in a team-up. But the whole thing had been incredibly stressful, and it hadn’t exactly been a breezy two weeks of incarceration. Hartley really wanted to eliminate the necessity of planning and carrying out daring escapes. Maybe team-ups were the solution. If enough of them pooled their resources, surely they’d have a better success rate against the Flash.

Just what was that jerk’s problem, anyway? Did he really think the police and the business owners were the underdogs in the Gem Cities? The Pied Piper and Fury were very clearly targeting their heists against some of the worst, most corrupt members of Central City’s elite (Hartley would know - they were all chummy with his parents) and using their scores to support underfunded social resources...

Well, most of their scores. They worked hard, they deserved some treats. Besides that, Hartley was always tinkering with his sound devices, trying to keep one step ahead of a speedster. Upgrading their equipment all the time wasn’t cheap.

Hartley groaned when he saw the state of their front room. Left to his own devices, Earl had a tendency to let the chores stack up. Generally, Hartley was the one who cooked (mostly with a microwave), tidied, did the laundry, took out the trash, built their gear, networked with the other criminals, staked out targets for future heists…But Earl kept him safe and that counted for a lot. The few times he’d wound up at Iron Heights without Earl, he’d always felt the lack of his supportive protector. Earl had found him on the streets just after his parents had kicked him out. He’d helped Hartley get on his feet again, helped him be able to even picture a future he wanted to live and how to get there. Hartley may have been doing the brunt of the unglamorous grunt work that kept things going, but Earl was the big picture guy. Hartley needed Earl much more than Earl needed him…something he always made sure Hartley was fully aware of.

“Hey, you’re back. What took you so long, music man? You losing your touch?” Earl walked out of the bedroom shirtless, drying his hair with a towel and sending it into wilder disarray than its resting, charmingly disheveled state. He’d probably just gotten back from the gym, based on the pile of sweaty workout clothes Hartley had walked past in the entryway.

“They’ve beefed up on security, I’m afraid. It was much more difficult than usual to get out this time.”

“Yeah.” Earl tossed the towel on top of his smelly clothes and walked up to Hartley. He tilted his face up by his chin and looked him over. “Another headache?”

“I feel abysmal.”

“You look it, kid. Go lie down for awhile, okay? I tried to keep my mess outta the bedroom so you’d have someplace nice to rest up once you got back.”

Hartley leaned forward for a kiss. “Iron Heights is rapidly becoming a maximum security fortress with all the supervillains they keep cramming into it. I love how you just assume I’ll always be able to get out again.”

“Well you always do. Still though, let’s try to keep your skinny little butt outta there to begin with, if we can.”

“Yes, that’s the goal.” Hartley cast a look at the bathroom door. He did want a shower, but he also felt like he was going to drop on his feet and besides that, there was a good chance Earl had used up all the hot water. He continued on, and dropped onto his blessedly clean bed still wearing his prison clothes. Earl walked over to the windows and pulled the curtains for him, then sat down on the mattress beside him and stroked Hartley’s hair. He let his eyes drift shut with a pleased murmur.

“So before you got busted on that last one, we were talking about hitting a few places together.”

“Yes, that theater my godfather just bought, that new jewelry store, and that horrid hotel my mother hosts all her charity dinners at.”

“Yeah, well, you’re going to be out of commission for a little while from the looks of it.”

Hartley snapped his eyes open and frowned at Earl. “I just need to rest. I’ll be fine again in a day or two.”

“Babe, we’ve got expenses. I’ve already been waiting longer than I should have for you to get back. I’ll just hit the theater. I’m guessing they’re not gonna be as tight on security as the other two anyway. I’ll get us a nice little cushion of cash from all the rich assholes in the audience, maybe steal you a fancy souvenir from the costume room for your fruity little disguises, and then when you’re up to it we can hit the other two. Don’t look at me like that. I’m doing this for you. If you hadn’t fucked up against the Flash last time, we’d have finished these hits already and be planning new jobs right now.”

Hartley pouted, then winced and closed his eyes again. It really was hard to concentrate when the headaches got this bad. “Are you taking a crew, at least? You should have someone watching your back.”

“For an artsy little theater?”

“Owned by a very evil, vindictive man. Besides, if the Flash happens to be around-”

“I’m not scared of the Flash.”

That was only because he hadn’t actually fought the man yet.

“He doesn’t lose, Earl. It’s possible to dodge him a couple of times, but he doesn’t give up. Eventually he always catches up with you.”

“Yeah, with you.” Earl leaned over and dropped a kiss on his forehead. “I’ll be fine. If he runs up at me, that’ll be his own funeral cuz once he’s close enough I’ll get him right in the jaw. He’ll go down like that.” He snapped his fingers, and then scowled when he saw that Hartley was still obviously doubtful. “Cut me some slack, music man. You know I’m good in a fight.”

“I know. It’s not your abilities I’m worried about. It’s just…”

“Stop worrying so much.” Earl caressed the side of his face, then stood up and started for the door. “Just get some sleep, okay? I get sick of having to be twice as strong when you can’t pull your weight. You gotta start taking care of yourself, Hart. I can’t always be carrying you like this.”

Hartley rolled onto his side, facing away from the doorway, and tried to go to sleep. Despite his exhaustion, his mind was racing and the pain in his head wouldn’t abate. He felt like throwing up but there hadn’t been anything in his stomach for hours.

He wanted to argue with Earl some more, talk some sense into him. He could definitely wait for Hartley to recover some strength - it never took him very long to bounce back. He might not have been as physically strong as Earl, but he was scrappy in his own way. Doing super crime in the cities had gotten so much more dangerous recently; neither of them should have been pulling solo jobs unless it was absolutely necessary. But at the moment, Hartley couldn’t imagine himself leaving the darkened room or his blessedly comfortable mattress and duvet, let alone try to turn his stubborn partner’s opinions when he was so set on his plan. So eventually, Hartley drifted into a restless sleep.

And the next morning he saw on the news that his lover had been captured by the Flash. Just like when his parents had rejected him and unceremoniously tossed him out into the world without protector or aid, he was alone.

PRESENT DAY

“Hartley, there’s something I really need to talk to you about and I think it’d be better in person, but I’m swamped over here. Is there any chance you can make it out to Bludhaven or even Gotham sometime soon-ish?”

Piper was sitting on his bed, with newspaper articles about Fury spread out around him. Some of them were recent, but most of them had come from an old shoebox in the very back of the closet in his living room (it had taken him several hours of searching to locate it - damn packrat tendencies).  He’d also found an old journal from those days, and reading through his thoughts and feelings from the very beginnings of his costumed career had sent him into something of a spiral. He’d only answered the phone because he’d seen that it was Dick, and so far the man had been incredibly helpful whenever his brain decided to turn on him. He wasn’t even taking calls from Wally and Linda at the moment.

Piper licked his lips, and tried to cobble together a response while his racing heart and panicked brain told him to throw the phone across the room. “I, um, I don’t think I’ll be able to…to make the time just now. Uh, I’ve got a bit of a situation here, unfortunately. Costume stuff.”

“Damn, me too. Okay. Well, whoever resolves their case first, let’s agree to meet up and do an assist on the one that takes longer. Then we can talk afterwards.”

“All right.”

“Hart, are you okay? You sound tense, even for you.” He said it teasingly but it was difficult to take it that way when Piper was so very aware of how badly he was currently doing.

“I’ll be fine. Just tired and stressed. What about you? Are you…um. The thing you need to talk to me about…” He really didn’t want to spend an indeterminate amount of time worrying about that on top of everything else.

It’s not like Piper hadn’t been expecting Dick to dump him at some point. For one thing, that’s how his brain worked. He always had an easier time anticipating the bad than the good. For another, he’d learned enough about Dick’s history and seen enough of the parade of exes to figure out that stable, committed, long term relationships weren’t his habit, however much he may have desired it to be different. Piper didn’t really think he’d be able to keep the engaging younger man’s attention longterm, but since he had fallen harder than was wise, he was hoping to hold onto the boy for as long as he could.

“It’ll keep for now. But I’ve gotta head out soon anyway. Is it cool if I call you after patrol, or do you need the uninterrupted sleep?”

“You can call me. I’d like that.”

“All right, I’ll talk to you later then. Good luck with the case.”

“Yeah, you too. Goodbye.” Piper hung up, then rubbed at his eyes.

Well, it didn’t sound like Dick was ready to dump him just yet. What was it he needed to talk about in person then? Was it the long distance? Linda certainly seemed to think they were heading towards a discussion on that, and she probably wasn’t wrong. Or maybe, despite the fact that so far he’d been handling Piper’s mental health struggles with compassion and respect, it really was getting to him after all. Or maybe Piper’s parents were still being weird about the business networking and he needed some hard boundaries thrown up. Maybe it was actually a problem that he’d fainted in front of Batman. Maybe he did secretly believe that Piper had had an affair with the Trickster in Zhutan…

“Spiraling. You’re spiraling. Redirect.” Piper fixed his eyes on one of the recent newspaper articles, which had a picture of Fury’s mugshot attached to it. The mugshot was so old, Earl looked exactly the same as he had the last time Piper had seen him, the morning when he’d left to do his solo robbery and been busted by Barry Allen.

When it had become apparent that Earl was incapable of escaping from Iron Heights on his own, Piper had been planning on breaking in himself to get his boyfriend out, but he’d been stopped by a contingent of his fellow Flash Rogues. Captain Cold had been especially insistent - let Fury prove his own worth, for once. The biggest stunt he’d ever tried without Piper’s help, he’d been immediately foiled. Earl had always postured that he was the big deal, but Cold accused him of riding another crook’s coattails. Not wanting to hurt his partner’s reputation, Piper had held himself in check, and he’d waited.

And while he’d waited he’d reflected on some things. And he’d noticed that Cold had a point. Piper was good at team-ups, but he was also very good as a solo crook. And maybe…Len had also had a teensy point about how as a romantic partner, Earl could have been treating Piper with a bit more respect too. Weeks passed, then months, and when Piper still hadn’t broken Earl out after a year he started to feel guilty and even a bit fearful whenever his thoughts turned Earl’s way. He wasn’t sure he could ever face the man again. There really hadn’t been a good choice available to him, but he certainly hadn’t made the right one. Whichever way he cut it, just leaving his lover to rot in Iron Heights had been a betrayal.

And now Piper’s life was so different, he couldn’t even imagine confronting Earl again for a whole host of different reasons. He really wasn’t the same person anymore. After this long locked away, Earl probably wasn’t either. It was tempting to just let the CCPD and the KCPD, or Wally, or Jay, or Max Mercury, or anyone else in the cities handle this breakout, but Piper knew that Earl deserved some closure. They’d been so much to each other back in the early days. The right thing to do was to face him one last time, no matter how much his nervous system protested.

Piper spent the next few days either in costume prowling the cities looking for Fury, or at home poring over the newspapers and old journals looking for any insights into what the man might be doing. He wasn’t sleeping enough and probably drinking more coffee than was wise. He knew Wally, and especially Linda would be worried about him if they saw him, so he simply stopped answering the phone. No pesky but well meaning questions to avoid if he didn’t talk to anyone who cared about him.

After almost a week of this, Piper admitted to himself that the constant work, very little sleep, and lack of social support wasn’t sustainable. He pulled the curtains in his room and tried to take a nap, but ended up having terrible flashbacks instead. So he took a shower, put on his headphones, and tried distracting himself with music.

When he started feeling calmer, Piper decided that the social isolation was getting to a worrying point, and he really ought to talk to someone. He tried calling Dick, but there was no answer. “Worry about that later,” Piper muttered to himself. He started to dial Linda but hung up the phone again. Linda was too perceptive for him at the moment. What he really needed was to pretend everything was fine for a few hours. He’d been stewing in stress and bad memories for days; he needed a reset. Being around folks who saw the best sides of him and let him slip into that role sounded good.

With that in mind, Piper put on civilian clothes (though he did pack a bag with his costume and some sound gear and stow it in the backseat of his car), and he drove to Keystone Out!.

The kids were still on winter break, so the youth center was open a few extra hours without any organized meetings, just so the kids could hang out and socialize. Piper figured he’d park himself in one of the meeting rooms with his work computer and catch up on emails, or maybe see if the volunteers needed any help setting up the gender affirming clothing boutique. When he walked through the door he saw Mattie and James chatting in the front room. “Hey, guys. I had some free time. Do you need help with anything?”

“Actually, James is on his way out, so if you want to be the adult in the big room that’d be great,” Mattie answered.

“I’ve got to get back to work, unfortunately. I’d much rather be here than designing facades at the new mall in Central. The kids have been so fun today.” He let out a reluctant sigh, his eyes lingering on Piper for a moment, then hefted his briefcase and started for the exit. “See you guys later.”

“Bye!” Mattie waved after him, then turned his attention to Piper. There was something about his smile that struck Piper as a little odd. “It really has been an exciting day in here. We got some great donations for the boutique, and the kids have been going nuts with them.”

“I thought we were still setting it up. They’re already using it?”

“Yeah, it’s good to go.”

“Oh. Well that’s awesome.” Piper started walking towards the big room. He could feel Mattie watching him and wondered once again what was going on.

Then he turned down the hallway and saw Yazmin and Alex run out of the big room and over towards the clothing boutique. Alex was wearing a baggy Kelly green shirt with white polka dots on it, and Yazmin had a vest on that was made of the same fabric.

Piper immediately stopped walking, his mouth hanging open. He peered into the smaller room and counted four teenagers wearing at least one garment that appeared to be made out of the same material as his original supervillain costume. He counted seven teens in the big room. He blinked a few times, rapidly, then marched into the clothing boutique. The racks were full of all manner of shirts, pants, dresses, vests, jackets, everything one could think of in green and white polka dotted fabric. Most of it was in the larger white polka dots of the original tunic, but some of them had the little polka dots from the last version of that costume.

“What in the ever loving-”

“That donor that runs the tailor shop dropped it all off right before Christmas,” Mattie explained. “He said when he heard about the gender affirming clothes closet that he thought it’d be a great way to make use of a bunch of old bolts of fabric that were just collecting dust, so he made up a bunch of outfits for us. Wasn’t that kind of him? He completely stocked us up before we could even get a call for donations out in the newsletter.”

“I thought I saw you in the doorway!” Lucille ran up to them, with a couple of other kids just behind her. “Look, Hartley! We’ve all got our own Pied Piper outfits now. We can go out and fight capitalists just like you used to.”

“No, we still need him to teach us how to hypnotize people, or build us flute weapons or something,” Ayden chimed in.

“Oh my god. Please don’t talk like that. You’re going to get me fired.”

Ayden laughed. “They can’t fire you. You’re a volunteer. C’mon, Lucille. We were in the middle of plotting out how we’re going to get even with the Young Republicans Club at school. See you later, fellow evil gays!”

Mattie waved after them, clearly enjoying the chaos.

“Remember the Keystone Out! guidelines,” Piper called after them. “For legal purposes, everything we just heard was a joke, right? Right?”

The only answer he got was maniacal sounding laughter, which to be fair, was actually pretty impressive. They would have fit right in with the original Rogues with that kind of performance.

Chapter Text

Piper gave up on the thought of reasoning with the kids pretty quickly - that would only make the game more appealing to them. He sat down in the big room with his work computer and, every time they tried to bait him by asking for help with plotting an Evil Gay Scheme, he answered with an unglamorous but truthful anecdote about his early days.

His detailed recounting of escaping Iron Heights through the sewer system quieted Lucille’s enthusiasm especially. She started rocking back and forth while Piper described the smells and the texture of the waste water he’d had to wade through while only wearing a prison jumpsuit in vivid detail. She turned green when he explained that breathing through his mouth wasn’t an option because he didn’t want to ingest anything by accident and had forced himself to keep his mouth closed while the waste water splashed against his lips with every movement.

“You won,” Ayden pouted, while Lucille ran from the room.

Smirking, Piper turned back to his laptop. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You just asked me a question and I answered it. Besides, I don’t think that route would still be viable. I’m sure they’ve reinforced the toilets and narrowed down the crawl spaces by now. I made that escape seven years ago.”

As he was scrolling, a window popped up from a search he’d programmed that morning. It was a breaking news story about Fury robbing a jewelry store. “Tuppeny’s…oh. Oh, shit.”

Fury had hit that bank that used to be his godfather's theater already. That was the site where he’d originally been taken in by Barry, but if he hadn’t then Tuppeny’s was going to be next, followed by the Fairwelder Arms hotel. Earl was calling Piper out by trying to complete their old itinerary. He must have wanted the confrontation as well.

“Mattie? Mattie, I’ve got to get going. Can someone else cover the big room?” Piper threw his laptop in his bag and started for the exit.

“Superhero stuff?” Mattie strode over to him, Yazmin trotting just behind him. “Yaz, if you stay in the small room, I’ll do the big room and we’ll be covered until Kerrie gets in.”

“If you’re going out to fight crime, you could take a henchman or two with you.” Alex, now wearing polka dots from head to toe, popped out of the boutique and joined them in the hallway.

“You’re only henchmen if you’re committing crimes, not when you’re fighting it,” Ayden snapped. “We’d be sidekicks. And I called dibs on being Piper’s sidekick!”

“Batman has like a zillion sidekicks. You’re not the only one who gets to be a sidekick.”

“I’m a sidekick!” Piper yelled, cutting them off. “I mean, I’m not, but I assist the Flash. Now cut it out, I’ve got to go. None of you are doing anything illegal today, you hear me?”

“Listen to him, guys. I can’t escape through a sewer. I don’t have it in me.” Lucille tapped Ayden on the arm. “Let’s just play D and D.”

“Oh, that sounds cool. I’ll DM you for a one shot campaign.” Yazmin threw Piper a wink, then herded the kids into the small room so he could make his exit.

Piper tried calling Wally while he was en route to the hotel but didn’t get an answer. He thought about trying one of the other speedsters but ultimately decided against it. Socially, Wally was the only one he felt comfortable around. If he really needed to, he knew he could call on one of the others and they’d help him, but he’d rather wait until he was sure he actually needed the back up.

He was almost to the hotel when he got a call from Dick. “Hey, my case finished and I’m getting a teleport back to Earth. I could have them drop me in Central instead of Bludhaven if that works for you. Like, even if you’re still working your thing, maybe we could make it a last minute team up?”

“I’ve just had a break in mine so hopefully it’ll be finished soon. I’m on my way to the Fairwelder Arms to check it out. Actually, having a detective along might be helpful.” Well, practical. Having his current lover around (who needed to have an ominous important talk) while confronting and actively betraying his first love was going to be a special kind of hell. But the universe had already taken quite a few cheap shots at him, between Earl’s escape and Gambi fitting up the vulnerable kids in his care in the uniform of his youthful mistakes, so what was one more psychological blow?

Besides, maybe somehow, despite the way things were trending, his partner would find some way to actually make him feel better.

By the time Piper got through the traffic between Keystone and Central, Earl had already hit the hotel. Actually, there was a police blockade outside it. Mangeluso, the detective working the case, informed Piper that Earl was holed up inside with a bunch of hostages.

“That doesn’t sound like him.” Like Piper, Earl had never actually been in the super crime game to hurt anyone, but he’d never wanted to make that obvious to people either. The threat of violence had been a useful tool. So he’d avoided hostages like the plague, since it was nearly impossible to mask your unwillingness to hurt anyone once you had one.

Then Earl came charging out of the hotel, crashing through a window with a frightened young woman clutched to his chest. He fired a sonic gun at the line of cop cars, and Piper and the detective had to leap back to avoid the blasts.

Piper recognized that gun. It had gone missing from his workbench a few weeks before Earl was arrested.

In the chaos and confusion of the flaming cars and downed officers, Earl raced into a nearby building; the entrance to the Petitte Mall. Piper scrambled to his feet and followed after Earl, through the massive hole he’d blasted through the wall. He could hear Mangeluso yelling after him but his attention was trained solely on Earl, who was ranting and raving at a crowd of terrified shoppers just inside the damaged mall.

This was Piper’s fault. He’d supplied the man, helped start him on this path. He had to take care of this.

“I used to own this town, and nobody’s gonna forget me again after today-you.”

Piper could feel his hands shaking. Earl’s eyes were trained on him with searing hatred and disgust. While he was distracted, the woman he’d dragged in with him from the bank managed to pull away from him, but she only staggered about a foot away before her legs gave out and she collapsed in a heap.

“Earl-“

“Fury. Let’s keep this professional, music boy,” he sneered. “Glad you got my invitation though. Boy, have I had a bone to pick with you.”

Piper swallowed around a suddenly dry throat. “That’s more than fair. But since I’m the one who’s earned your ire, why don’t you let the others go?”

Earl laughed, then fired the sonic gun into the crowd without even looking. Piper watched in horror as one of his weapons discharged into a young man’s chest, sending him crashing against a nearby pillar. The woman he was with shrieked loudly and shook him by the shoulders but he didn’t move.

And Earl laughed.

He’d never been like that. Cruelty had never been the point of what they’d done together.

Well if that’s how he wanted to play it, Piper could play dirty too. He raised a pipe to his lips and played a strain of music that would have Earl surrendering his sonic gun and marching out to the cops. Or, it should have. But nothing happened.

Earl let out a low chuckle and then brushed his tangled hair back from one of his ears, showing off a robotic earplug that he’d probably swiped from Piper’s workbench when he’d taken the sonic gun. “You must think I’m really dumb if you didn’t expect me to prepare for your bullshit. You only have so many tricks, y’know. It wasn’t hard.” Earl hefted the gun and aimed it squarely at Piper’s chest. “I gotta admit, Hartley. The shit I was hearing about you, that you turned on your people, that you’re working for the fucking capes and the cops. I didn’t want to believe it. But you’re a bootlicker now, huh? What happened to trying to tear down the system? You turned your back on me and when you couldn’t hack it on your own, you just folded on everything you said you believed in-”

“Shut up!” Piper took a step forward, and Earl fired a shot just above his shoulder that blew a chunk out of the wall, pelting him with fragments of concrete and overloading his hearing aids with the most awful feedback. He collapsed to his knees, the edges of his vision going white as tinnitus assaulted his brain.

When he could hear again, it was a menacing laugh from Earl, who was standing just in front of him, the sonic gun now trained on his forehead. “Too easy. It was always too easy getting under your skin. You’re such a self-absorbed little brat, you know that? You never should have turned on your partner, music boy. I’m gonna-”

Earl was cut off by a piece of rubble bouncing off of his shoulder. He snapped his head around, which gave Piper the opportunity to roll to the side and scramble to his feet. “Who the fuck threw that? Ow!” Another piece smacked him directly in the face.

And to Piper’s horror, he saw James, the new volunteer from Keystone Out! who had left that morning to do architectural work at the mall, clutching a piece of broken concrete in his hand. He was white in the face and his hands were shaking, but his attention was focused solely on Earl. “Get away from him, you crazy asshole! You don’t know anything about Piper. He hasn’t turned his back on the community. He’s the heart of it.” He threw the piece of concrete but since Earl was looking right at him he blasted it with the sound gun before it could reach him.

James flinched, but didn’t otherwise move, facing Earl and the powerful sonic gun on his feet.

It wasn’t his finest moment, but Piper launched himself at Earl and jumped up onto his back. Earl pulled the trigger as his arm was yanked back, and he ended up firing at the ceiling while Piper clawed at his ears, trying to dislodge the earplugs. While he was doing that, a batarang slashed through the wires holding up a massive plastic prop on the ceiling of the mall. A strong arm snaked around Piper’s waist, pulling him off of Earl and yanking him away just as the decoration landed on top of him.

“Earl!” Piper tried to pull away, but Nightwing kept a firm grip on him. “Let me go. I, I need to-oh my god. Is he dead?”

“Stunned. But calm down, let me get him in restraints before he recovers. Hartley, ssh. Just hang back here for a sec, okay?” With the lenses in his mask filtering out his eyes, Piper lost some of the intensity of Dick’s obvious concern for him, but it was still there. He forced himself to take some deep breaths, and let Dick be the one to examine Earl, cuff him, and hand him off to the cops.

While he was doing that, James approached him, some of the color returning to his face now that the main action was over. “Hey…are you okay? You’ve got some cuts from that wall he blasted.”

“Oh.” Piper gently touched his face and finally noticed the stinging sensation. Now that his attention had been called to the cuts, he wondered how he hadn’t noticed them before. “They’re shallow. I’ll, I’ll be fine. What about you? James, I’m so sorry. It’s my fault you were in that situation. I built that gun. Oh my god. All these people. That man he shot. Oh my god-”

“The paramedics came in as soon as that supervillain was taken out. They’ve already got him on a stretcher. Just keep breathing, Piper. Everything’s going to be okay. It’s not your fault. You didn’t fire the gun.”

“I built it. I made that, and I’m the reason he had it. And I’m the one he was trying to hurt, and it’s my-”

“Breathe.” James gripped his arm and gave it a strong squeeze. “C’mon, Piper. Deep breaths, okay? You just saved everyone in here. It’s okay.”

“Excuse me?” Nighwing tapped James on the shoulder. He jumped, but turned around and flushed a little when he saw the other hero standing behind him. “Do you mind if I take it from here?”

“Oh, of course. I’ll, uh, I’ll see you around then. At the youth center, I mean.”

“James…thank you.” Piper watched as James rejoined the group of bystanders, who were either waiting for medical attention or to give statements to the police.

“I gotta say, Hartley, it is getting increasingly difficult to pretend we’re work acquaintances right now,” Dick muttered out of the side of his mouth. “Can we slip away while everyone’s distracted so I can give you a hug?”

“Yes. Let’s get out of here.”

Being a member of the Bat-family, Dick took him to a rooftop with a breathtaking view of the city to de-escalate post-supervillain battle. He removed Piper’s visor, cleaned his cuts, and helped him through a breathing exercise. And then, when Piper was starting to feel a bit more grounded, he finally took him in his arms and let out his own shuddering breath. They sat leaning against a support column for a billboard, Piper resting with his back against Dick's chest, while Dick held him. “So that guy down there…I take it that was an ex of yours?”

“…yeah. My first serious relationship. It, uh, didn’t end well.”

“Got that from context clues, actually,” Dick said with a smirk. “You guys were already in the thick of it when I got there but I heard him taking some cheap shots at you. Are you going to be okay? I know from experience how much worse the mind games can be than just getting knocked around.”

“I’m coming down. It’s, well, it’s been quite the week. I already did plenty of heavy lifting for Earl in regards to guilt and shame before the actual confrontation. I’m really glad you’re here.” Piper dropped his head on Dick’s shoulder and took a deep breath. He could hear Dick’s heartbeat, and the rhythm was soothing, especially after all the strain his hearing aids had taken during  the battle. And then his throat tightened, as he remembered that Dick was there to have some kind of serious discussion with him. He felt his eyes water, and he squeezed them shut.

God, but he really didn’t want Dick to leave him. He needed to get away, go ground, take some meds, something to even himself out before he ruined this.

But Dick’s arm remained firmly wrapped around him, while his other hand traced some stray hairs out of his face. The rough material of the glove actually felt nice on his skin, as long as he avoided the fresh cuts. “I wish you’d told me how personal this case was. I’d have tried to get here sooner. How come you didn’t look for some backup? You know there’s a lot of people who would have supported you on this, right?”

“I don’t think I can talk about this right now, Dick.”

“Yeah, that’s fair. Sorry. Let me rephrase that a bit. If something like this happens again and you’re going through personal stuff, please reach out. You don’t have to go through something like this alone. And now that I’ve said that, I’ll shut up about it and remind you that you’re amazing and smart and definitely not betraying the gay community, and also your ass looks amazing in green spandex.”

That startled a laugh out of him. “I suppose that last part’s as important as the other things?”

Dick grinned and kissed the top of his head. “I mean, I’m probably more invested than I should be, but as something of an expert in the field I thought you’d appreciate the feedback.”

“Ah. You know, I hadn’t considered the prestige that came with having such an expert weigh in on the niceness of my ass. That does indeed change things.”

“You sound like you’re doing better.” Dick caressed the side of his face again, and Piper snuggled closer to him. The sun was setting over the city, and the dying light looked spectacular on the river. He was safe, he was loved, and there was proof of that in a skintight jumpsuit holding him securely while his heart rate got back down to normal. Yes, he was doing better. “Can I ask you something?”

And here it came. Piper braced for whatever was coming, silently praying that the obstacle was something they could overcome together. “Of course. What is it, love?”

“So you and Fury…how did that work, exactly? Like, what did you even talk about with a guy like that?”

Piper let out a loud, startled laugh, then clapped a hand over his mouth.

“What? I know you like me for my expert level ass, but we also go to museums together and loan each other books and we went to that film festival. Like, we talk. Deep conversations. All the time. I gotta know. What did you talk about with Mr. Macho down there?”

“Oh, I imagine my conversations with Earl were probably similar in character to the deep, meaningful conversations you used to have with Arsenal and Starfire.”

Dick opened his mouth to say something, then gave his head a shake. “Touche.” He lightly punched Piper’s arm. “Just so you know, as much passionate, kinky sex as I had with my exes, I could still have conversations with them too. It wasn’t just about the bedroom.”

Something in Dick’s tone sounded a bit off. Piper realized what he’d meant as gentle teasing had skirted towards a nerve, so he decided to share something vulnerable to make up for it. He laced his fingers through Dick’s, and leaned back against his chest. “Earl and I mostly talked about society and how we thought it ought to be organized. He didn’t have the patience to read all the theory I did, but he liked it when I summarized things for him, and he was always ready to chime in with his thoughts. We wanted to combat heteronormativity and create a society where no one would have to grow up being ashamed of who they were. That’s still my goal, even if it does look like I’ve joined in with the oppressors to some people.”

“From my perspective, it looks like you’ve refined your approach with experience. You’re definitely not part of the oppressive structure.”

“That’s always nice to hear.” Piper sighed. “I used to think the most terrible things about all you superheroes. It looked to me like you and your mentors were in it for the glory, not to actually change anything or risk upsetting the status quo. But then I got to know Wally, and I realized that we are all trying to help people, at the end of the day. There are just different approaches one can take. We’re sort of like different sections of the same orchestra, you know? I’m more boots on the ground, and the Justice League keeps the planet from being blown up. There’s not much point in struggling to get a roof over everyone’s head and food in their fridges if they’re just going to get vaporized the next day.”

“That’s certainly true. But we could definitely be doing more for the community level stuff. You should definitely keep calling us out on that. Well, it’s getting dark out and in my experience, if we keep hanging out on rooftops after sunset then we’re definitely going to get pulled into more superheroics. We should make a break for it while we have the chance.”

“I’m parked in the garage by the hotel. Shall we head back to my place then?”

Dick helped Piper to his feet, and again, there was something not quite right about his smile. Something bittersweet. "Yeah, let's go have that talk."

Chapter Text

“What a miserable day it’s been. Do you know if there’s an established etiquette for how to handle your ex boyfriend taking your new coworker hostage? Should I get James a card, do you think?”

“I think rescuing him from the hostage situation and sending the psycho ex to jail is all you need. I’ve certainly never sent any rescued hostages a card afterwards,” Dick said with a laugh. “I do check up on some of them though. How’re you feeling? You still look a bit shaky.”

Dick had been the one to drive them back. Piper hadn’t wanted to come out and explain that even with medication and breathing exercises, it usually took him a few days to get back to his baseline when his anxiety got that bad. Truthfully though, he was feeling a lot better. He’d probably even be able to get some actual sleep, as long as the dreaded conversation didn’t send him into a new spiral.

Piper held his hand up in front of his face and, with some concentration, he kept it level. “I’m starting to come down. If you don’t mind putting a pin in that conversation you said we need to have, I just want to grab a shower and put on some regular clothes first.” Keeping his composure and pretending to be a put together, reasonably functional human would be an infinitely more attainable goal without the superhero costume, he felt.

Dick leaned against the doorframe, his eyes tracking up and down Piper’s sleek green bodysuit. “If you insist. The new costume gets my enthusiastic seal of approval, by the by. It’s nice to see you wearing something that actually fits you, for once. And so nice and snugly, too.”

Piper felt his face heat up. “I wear clothes that fit me.”

“You have like two pairs of jeans that are actually your size. Everything else-”

“Okay, yes, I do get the majority of my clothing from thrifting and community swaps, which makes it more difficult to find garments that are precisely my size than if I purchased new, but that’s because-”

“Fast fashion, exploitation of the working class, evil capitalism, yes, yes. We’ve been through this. You’re also friends with a tailor, Hartley.” Dick walked up to him and smoothed back an errant strand of hair that had escaped his ponytail. “You look amazing in that bodysuit. You could show yourself off a little more often outside of the superheroics, you know?”

“That’s more your department.” Piper offered him a small smile, and Dick returned it. “I like my scrubby thrifted clothes. They’re comfy, and I don’t have to feel bad when I inevitably destroy them by accident. I went with a form fitting costume this time around because I’m working so closely with Wally now, and having a cape when you’re constantly being grabbed and run places at superspeed is uncomfortable for both of us. Now. I just need ten minutes, okay?”

“Take your time. I’ll order us some food.”

While he showered, Piper tried to puzzle out Dick’s behavior. It didn’t seem like he was about to be broken up with. Dick had brought an overnight bag with him, and he was being just as affectionate as he usually was. But he’d sounded so upset before…Piper tried to come up with other scenarios to explain the behavior but his anxious brain stubbornly reverted to being dumped as the only possible reason a boyfriend would want to have a serious, in-person conversation.

Maybe Dick was behaving affectionately because he knew dumping Piper was going to hurt, and he was trying to be nice? “Shut up, brain,” Piper mumbled. “Don’t go into this expecting the worst. He wants to talk. Which means if there’s a problem, he must want to work it out.” Damn, but this was hard. It was so much easier to be pessimistic and cynical.

In light of the critique he’d just received on his (lack of) fashion sense, Piper considered putting on one of the pairs of jeans that Dick had referred to, but post-superheroics cool-downs and jeans didn’t really go together. Piper really wanted to eat a bunch of carbs and take a nap. He was willing to have whatever heavy discussion Dick had come over for, but Dick would have to have that discussion while Piper was wearing sweatpants and his stretched out Rust Never Sleeps shirt.

When he got back to the living room he spotted Dick sitting on the couch hunched over with his arms resting on his knees, face uncharacteristically somber. Piper sat down beside him and grabbed Dick’s hand, caressing his palm with the pad of his thumb. “What is it, love? What’s bothering you?”

“Hartley, I…I don’t know how to say this.” Dick’s voice was small, and he was talking more to the floor than Piper. “At first I wasn’t going to say anything, but that didn’t feel right, but also I don’t know if I’m going to be able to explain myself well and I don’t, I really don’t want to mess this up. These past few months, I’ve been so happy with you. That first date was a total whim but every date since then, and visit, and everything. It’s just been getting better and better. You’ve been so, so good for me and there hasn’t been any drama, or weirdness, or like, stupid petty stuff. We just talk, and you’re so understanding about everything. I really don’t want to mess this up but I’m pretty sure I did, because I can’t ever just let things be good when they’re good. I have to bring in the drama. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Dick? I’m going to cut you off. You’re going in circles. Just talk to me. What happened?” Piper’s anxiety went back up a tick, and he silently told his brain to cut the crap. It was Dick’s turn to freak out, apparently. He’d been nice and patient, and downright lovely with the reassurance and caresses while Piper was breaking down over his ex. Piper wanted to return the support.

He was a little thrown though. Was Dick upset because he thought Piper was going to break up with him? For what?

“Okay.” Dick closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “When you were gone for that week with Trickster, I-”

The doorbell rang, and Dick went quiet. Piper was fully willing to ignore the delivery driver, but Dick got up to go get the food. Piper wanted to bury his face in his hands and scream.

Carbs would help though.

A few minutes later, Dick was back at his side and they had pizza and garlic bread on the coffee table. Piper eyed the food with some longing, but he didn’t think he could actually eat until he knew what the hell was going on. His nerves weren’t as bad as they might have been. Mostly, he just wanted to soothe his distraught looking boyfriend (well, depending upon what the distraught looking boyfriend had to say). “So, while I was gone…?”

“While you were gone. I had a couple of team ups myself. One of them was with Robin. And…one of them was with Kory. Uh, Starfire. She’s, well, you already know we used to date and yeah, we-we were…serious.” Dick was once again directing his attention to the floor. “More serious than any other relationship I’ve had, actually. We almost got married. Um. So even though we’re trying to be friends now, there’s always a lot of baggage when we see each other. And even though there were a few other people on the team up when it started, by the end of it, it was just the two of us. And you know how when you’re in the moment, and you have all that adrenaline in your system-”

Piper’s face fell. He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. “Dick, are you saying that you cheated on me?”

Dick immediately sat up, eyes wide and fixed on Piper. “No! No, god, no. I didn’t.”

“Oh.” Piper let out a very slow, deliberate breath. “Well you’re an atrocious storyteller then.”

Dick let out a nervous laugh, then covered his face with his hands and made a small sound of exasperation. “She kissed me though, and I pushed her away but I almost kissed back. You’d been gone for five days already, and since we hadn’t seen each other for three days beforehand it had already been longer than a week and I was a little pent up. I wanted to. I really, really wanted to. When we’re both single, Kory and I do hook up. I just, the rest of the time we’ve been together it hasn’t even crossed my mind, even with the long distance. I’ve screwed up so many times before and I thought, I actually thought maybe I was outgrowing that. I’m so sorry, Hartley.”

Piper chewed on his thumbnail, brow knit in confusion as he thought over what Dick had just told him. “I want to make sure I understand this correctly. While I was gone, you worked an adrenaline fueled superheroics case with your incredibly beautiful ex-fiancee that you clearly still have feelings for, she kissed you, and you…didn’t do anything that betrayed your commitment to me. But you still feel bad about yourself. Do I have that right?”

“Physically, I didn’t cheat on you. But mentally-”

“That doesn’t count, at least not to me. Dick, I’m not upset.” Or, not in the way that Dick thought he should be, but he was willing to shelve a discussion about how to communicate with an anxious partner teetering on the edge of a panic attack for another day. “But you very clearly are. Has monogamy been a problem for you in the past?”

Dick had dropped his gaze again and was now fidgeting with his fingers. “There’s something wrong with me. I, I always mess it up. Falling in love is the easy part, but making the relationships actually work. I don’t know if I’m ever going to figure that part out. I thought it was different with you because so far we’ve communicated so well. Like, you don’t freak out about things. You talk things out and you give me the benefit of the doubt. But clearly I don’t deserve it, because as soon as you were gone for too long I still started thinking about other partners. I love you. I want to be with you. So why can’t I just turn these other feelings off?”

“Dick, please. Slow down. Listen to me. Hear what I’m saying.” Piper touched him under the chin and tilted his face so that those incredibly blue eyes were locked with his. “Darling, I’m a queer activist. If you think you’d be better suited for polyamory than monogamy, that’s on the table. And it doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means you love a little differently than how the majority of society does.  Which is something I have no problem relating to and sympathizing with.”

“…you don’t want to be monogamous?” His voice was so small. The poor thing looked lost, and a little hurt.

Piper took his hand again and gave it a firm squeeze. “One partner is all I have the patience and energy for, personally. But I’m not averse to ethical non-monogamy. The thing is, for it to be ethical we have to be honest with each other, and also honest with ourselves about what we want. We talk to each other about what makes us uncomfortable and where our boundaries are. And, seeing as you’re not the misanthrope I am, if you do find yourself interested in having other partners, we can make that work. I’ve known a few throuples and seen other poly arrangements before. If my old friends and acquaintances can manage it, I’m sure we can.”

“Oh, man. I almost feel like crying. So it’s a thing? I’m not just, like, a manipulative asshole when I fall in love with more than one person at the same time?”

“No, darling.” Piper looked him in the eye again and offered him a reassuring smile. “You’re beautiful, actually. I’m happy I get to be one of those ones. So we’re using that word now?”

“What, love? Yeah, I guess we are.” Dick leaned in for a gentle kiss. Piper’s eyes drifted shut, and he let out a pleased murmur as Dick’s arms wrapped around him. “You’re too good to be true, you know that?”

“I have a criminal record, a terrible wardrobe, and one of the most significant mistakes of my youthful misadventures is currently on his way to Iron Heights after having threatened our lives less than an hour ago with an arsenal I customized for him. I think I have more than my fair share of character flaws to keep things interesting. But thank you. I love you too.”

“And you’ve been dying to dig into that garlic bread since this conversation started. I appreciate your restraint. I also know how important the post battle calorie fest is.”

“Oh thank god. I’ll keep reassuring you that you’re actually lovely and perfect if you’d like. Talking about how amazing you are is actually pretty fun. But also, garlic bread.”

Dick watched him tuck into the comfort carbs for a few minutes before grabbing a slice of pizza for himself. He looked a little giddy. “So polyamory. It’s really a thing, and not just something people say when they want to cheat on their partners?”

“Nope. Very real label. The further left you go with your queer politics, the easier it is to bump into poly folks. After a certain level of immersion, they’re actually difficult to avoid.”

“Hm. So I probably could have had this self-discovery ages ago if I’d ventured out into more explicitly LGBT spaces then, huh?” Dick chewed thoughtfully for a second, then set his plate down. “I’ve been calling myself bi for ages but I’ve never really thought about it as a cultural thing like you do. I mean, obviously I’ve been in favor of gay rights and all that, but I’ve never done pride parades or…or been in a room with more gay people than straight people in it.”

“That’s kind of impressive, honestly. I would think it’d be easier to find spaces like those in Gotham than out here. Growing up in Missouri, I had to hunt hard to find queer spaces. I’m happy to be a corrupting influence on you in this regard though. I’ll loan you some books.”

“Yeah, sounds good. And, um. If you’re sure you’re comfortable with this-”

Piper reluctantly set down his garlic bread, wiped his fingers off with a napkin, and then grabbed Dick’s hand for another supportive squeeze. “I am.”

“I…think I’d like to talk to Kory, then. Um. I absolutely still have feelings for her. But I’m definitely in love with you, I swear, I-”

“Dick, I believe you. Everything’s okay.”

“It is. It’s okay.” He licked his lips. “Right. Polyamory. It’s a thing.”

“It’s definitely a thing.”

“Okay then. Oh my god, I thought you were going to break up with me.” He let out a nervous laugh.

“Nope. But we’re going to have to work on your communication, because I’d been dreading this conversation all week thinking you were about to break up with me.”

“Oh.” Dick frowned. “Yeah, in retrospect I can see how you got there. S-sorry.”

Piper would have kissed him but he was mindful of the fact that he’d just wolfed down several pieces of garlic bread, so he settled for caressing the side of his face. “Don’t worry about it. We’ve talked it out, and now we’re on the same page. I’m glad you told me what was troubling you.”

“I’m…actually glad I did too. I still can’t believe that wasn’t a fight. You really are the best boyfriend.”

Piper wasn’t sure what to say. He could feel his face heating up a bit, so he turned away and finished off his pizza, while Dick laughed and teased him about being bashful.

After they finished with the carbs, they migrated to Piper’s bedroom. He fell into a desperately needed, perfectly restful sleep while Dick played with his hair. Dick remained awake, sitting up in bed and reading through a book on queer theory he’d swiped from one of Piper’s bookcases before settling down for the night.

“Okay, so I talked it over with Kory and apparently ethical non-monogamy is actually the default setting for Tamaranean society. She was just doing monogamy with me because she thought that was necessary for dating on Earth.”

“Ah. So I take it she’ll be my first metamour then?”

“…Partner of your partner? Yeah, she’s enthusiastic about rekindling things again. And…um. Has been talking to someone else, so I guess I might already have a metamour through her? Anyway, she wants to meet you.”

Piper was in his workshop with his phone on speaker so he could talk and tinker at the same time. He was in the middle of a project for Wally and was hoping he could make progress on it and enjoy yapping with his boy. But he set down the small torch he’d been using and pushed his goggles up. With this turn in the conversation, Piper wanted to give his boyfriend his full attention.

“Dick. She does know I’m gay, not bisexual, right?”

“Yeah, I told her. She’s not looking for a threesome or anything. She just wants to meet you. Y’know, since you’re important to me.”

“Okay. Yeah, that’s fine. We can grab coffee or something.” Piper was actually curious to meet her too. He couldn’t imagine what, aside from Dick (heh), he was going to have in common with the alien warrior princess supermodel, but he was hoping they’d find some way to bond so they could co-exist peacefully in their partner’s life.

“So, just to check…so you’re not even, like a smidge bisexual?”

“As I’ve explained to my mother many times, at length, no. Not even a smidge.” Piper smirked a little. “So she wasn’t hoping for a threesome-”

“But I was, yeah. Hey, you already know I’m horny. So far I’ve yet to hear any complaints.”

“No, indeed not. So far the horniness has served me well.”

“Damn straight.”

Piper put his goggles back on and reached for the torch. “Well, like I said before, I’m really only interested in having one partner at a time myself. But that’s romantically speaking. Sexually speaking…”

“Oh hell yes!” The excitement was unmistakable in Dick’s voice. Piper smiled in response to it, and almost soldered the wrong part of his project. He was thinking about taking a break until his phone conversation was over, but he also knew that Wally was in a rush for his equipment. “When are you free again? We need to go pick up guys together.”

“I’m in the workshop, love. I know I’ve got some commitments coming up but I’ll call you back after I’ve checked over the calendar. Just try to keep your schedule open, too, if you can. Your cities have been more volatile than mine, lately.”

“True enough.”

As predicted, Wally zipped into the room while Piper was still putting the finishing touches on the sound dampener. He saw that Piper was on the phone, and backed up a bit, dropping into a nearby chair to wait for him to finish his call. He pulled down his cowl, and grinned when he heard Dick’s voice on the speakerphone. Really, he was starting to get insufferable about the whole “expert matchmaker” thing.

“Oh wait, Hartley! What did you think of Roy? I bet he’d be down for a threesome.”

Wally’s face fell, while Piper’s went bright red.

“Dick, I’ve got to let you go. I’ll call you later though, and we can talk about this some more.”

“Okay. Love you, Hartley.”

“Love you too.” He hung up the phone and kept his eyes trained on his torch. “Hi, Wally. I’m just about finished with the sound dampener you asked for.”

“Piper, what the fuck did you do?”