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It’s raining, and Dick can’t sleep. He’s in the manor. He should be fine. It’s been years.
He should be fine.
He turns again in bed, throws the sheets off, then pulls them back on a few seconds later. He lays on his back and stares at his dark ceiling, then twists to lay on his side, then his stomach, then his side again. He fluffs his pillow, then tries laying down without it, then with two pillows.
He can’t sleep.
He presses a pillow against his face. He wants to scream into it, but in a family of vigilantes even a muffled scream won’t go unnoticed.
He tries doing the fibonacci sequence in his head but only makes it to 10946 before his mind wanders off. Counting sheep has never worked because his mind has always taken it as a challenge to see how far he can go.
He rolls over and grabs his phone, hoping soothing music will help.
He’s still restless. He gets up, goes to the bathroom and takes a drink of water from the cup on his bedside table. He sits on the edge of the bed and tries some mindful breathing and thought clearing exercises.
He can’t stop thinking about everything bad that’s happened, about all his mistakes.
He shakes his head hoping to dispel the negative thoughts, he whispers ‘shut up, shut up, shut up’ to himself in the darkness. Why won’t his mind shut up?
He’s tired. He wants to sleep. Why can’t he sleep?
He flops back into bed, pulls the sheets up, tosses them off. He groans as he immediately feels chilled and has to pull the sheets back on.
Why can’t he–
His door creaks open and he freezes, holding his breath.
“–go of me, Todd! I will gouge out your eyes and shove them down your throat!’
Dick starts to sit up, because what is happening–
Then a body falls on top of him, and Dick can’t stop himself from wrapping his arms around the person on top of him. Damian. It’s Damian that Jason seems to have dropped on top of him.
“Wha–” he starts to say, but Jason interrupts.
“Could hear you tossing and turning from my room.”
Dick feels embarrassment heat his cheeks. “Sorry, I–”
“Shut it.” Jason says.
Damian is surprisingly quiet. Dick shifts, he tries to let go of Damian, but his arms won’t listen. “Sorry, Dami, you don’t have to stay.”
“Tt.” Damian squirms on top of him, and Dick’s heart rate spikes thinking he’ll leave him. But Damian settles again so he’s only half laying on Dick. “I do not mind.” he says. “Afterall, you have to sleep so that you can have the energy to keep up with me on tomorrow’s patrol.”
Dick’s eyes water slightly, and he squeezes Damian tighter.
“Well, now that my good deed of the week is done…” Jason says, and Dick’s eyes dart to him.
He manages to extract an arm from where it’s curled around Damian. He extends his hand to his little brother. Jason hesitates, and Dick pulls up his best puppy dog eyes until Jason relents.
“Fine.” Jason lays down on the very edge of the bed, but Dick extends an arm, wraps it around Jason and pulls him closer.
This is nice. Dick’s got two of his brothers here with him. He closes his eyes.
He still hasn’t fallen asleep yet when he hears his door creak open again. He cracks his eyes open to see two faces peak in. Dick smiles gently and extends a hand toward Tim and Steph. They slink in quietly crawling onto the bed, and Dick’s only regret is that he doesn't have enough arms to hug them all at the same time.
He feels himself sinking deeper into rest when the door creaks open again. This time Cass comes in dragging Duke behind her. She smiles gently at him before they’re both climbing onto the bed as well.
Dick’s heart could burst from joy. All his siblings, here together with him.
Like this, he can rest.
He feels sleep pulling at him. His door creaks open again, but he’s too tired to open his eyes. He feels a hand run fingers through his hair, scratching soothingly at his scalp. Bruce presses a kiss to his forehead.
“Love you, chum.”
Dick feels him pull away and darts out a hand to grab his wrist.
He hears a soft chuckle, but then the bed dips, and the hand returns to his hair.
“Go to sleep.” his dad whispers.
And here, surrounded by his family, Dick finally does.