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"No."
Dick glared at the taller man leaning against the wall. It didn't stop him from watching in amusement or opening his mouth with the obvious intention of making some sort of smug comment. Likely along the lines of how he'd always known they were very much alike.
"Do not," Dick said emphatically, ratcheting the Bat-Glare up a few notches. "Say a word."
he deliberately turned his back and focused on stacking the paperwork he was here collecting. He had a date tonight with a certain redhead who would skin him alive if he was late again and he had to factor in the extra time it had taken him to get through her security system these past couple of months while he was...adjusting.
There was a knock on the door and he sighed. "Come in." He knew without looking that his visitor would have melted out of sight, even in the confines of the tiny office.
The door opened to show a nervous looking uni who seemed to be trying to look everywhere but at his face as he held out a small stack of files.
"Um, Detective Gage wanted me to, uh, bring these to you, sir."
Dick held back another sigh as he took them. "My eye is up here, Officer Soldati." He injected as much humor into his tone as he could manage at the moment and it startled the kid into looking up.
"Uh, yes sir. Sorry sir."
Dick gave an internal shrug and snagged another file from his desk. "Run this over to the commissioner would you. If she doesn't get it soon she'll come over here and rip out my other eye for it."
Soldati blinked at him, looking unsure if it was a joke or not and if he was allowed to laugh or not. Dick rolled his eye. "She won't eat you you know. Probably. Despite the rumors, Commissioner Rohrbach is not an actual dragon."
Soldati flushed. "Uh, yes sir, Lieutenant Grayson. Sir." and scuttled off.
Dick ignored the dark chuckle from behind him as he resumed shoving files and loose papers into the backpack that he still used, despite the fact that Bruce had been giving him official-looking briefcases for more than fifteen years now. You'd almost think he was trying to hint at something.
"He's greener then you ever were." the older man's voice was filled with amusement. Dick rolled his eye again. (It was kinda fun. Most people gave him weird looks when he did it.)
"He's a good kid, just a little starstruck. Related to the Falcones actually. It took a lot of guts for him to get this far."
"And yet he stutters and stammers when 'Gordon’s Crusaders' use him as a gopher."
"In his defense," Dick rolled his sleeves down and shrugged on his jacket, hiding the shoulder holster that he had just requalified for. "we did just kind of kick him from one to another. It's a lot to take in and Amy's scary."
He glanced at his visitor. "So did you have a reason for dropping in or did you just come to gloat? Because I think Rose has done enough of that for both of you."
Slade Wilson straightened and smiled. "I had heard rumors that a certain little bird was out of the game. I wanted to see if that was true."
Dick smiled back, aware that he was showing more teeth than could be strictly called a 'smile'. "Oh, I'm still in." he reached the door and turned around. "I've been doing a lot of...Birdwatching lately. It's been most illuminating."
Two left eyes, one a cold, pale blue, the other a strikingly brilliant shade of the same color, stared evenly at each other across the small room. Two right patches, identical black, did the same.
A slight twitch at the corner of Slade's lip was the equivalent of an amused grin in anyone else. He leaned back against the wall beside the open window he had entered by. "In that case, until we meet again, kid." He turned towards the window and looked back over his shoulder. "Tell the wife and kids I said hello." He gave what would be called a wink on anyone else. "And congratulations on the grand-brat."
And then he was gone. Dick sighed again and headed out the door, he was going to be late and Babs was going to kill him. Oh well, at least then he wouldn't have to put up with the trolling Slade would be indulging in, in the near future.
It just had to be the eye, didn't it?