Chapter Text
In the first ten seconds after he wakes, Dick barely notices anything’s different. He’s too preoccupied indulging in how much softer his blankets feel today, and how bouncy the mattress is underneath him. Still worn from years of use, of course, but suddenly such better quality.
And how the pillow he’s buried his head into smells amazing. Rich and warm like amber, a scent that oddly reminds him of an ointment that Koriand’r used to use on her hair when they were dating.
And then, when he feels the slight pressure of a kiss against the back of his head, he somehow knows, just from the sound of her lips make smacking the crown of his head, that it’s—
“Kori?”
His speech comes out a little groggy and slurred, courtesy of his face being jammed into a silk-cased pillow and him still being in a sleepy-haze.
He blinks and shifts his head, seeing Kori — yes, it is her — with her back towards him in an unfamiliar room, changing into pieces of her armour.
Kori’s talking about something, but certain words and phrases aren’t quite clicking in his head.
“—League emergency, and I know I said I would but could you drop Mar’i off today for me, please?” She’s talking faster than she’s changing, so it must be a startling emergency.
Dick adjusts himself, and then realises that his entire body is aching like he was thrown under a bus.
He is also in nothing but his boxers. In a bed. With (previously) Kori.
“Did, um—“ He clears his throat, “Did we—“
It’s only because she’s messing with a neck guard (Dick doesn’t know the name for it) in the mirror that he sees her concerned expression.
“Are you feeling alright, my love?”
Damn it, Dick’s stomach should not be flipping at sweet pet names from his ex-girlfriend. He shouldn’t even be in her bedroom like this, definitely shouldn’t be in her bed—
“Oh.” Kori says so loudly it disrupts his train of thought. “You look.. younger.”
Dick finally sees her whole, real face staring back at him. He’s no expert on how people age on Tamaran, but Kori looks significantly older.
She sighs, walking towards the bed. “That’s two crises on our hands.”
Dick sits up on pure instinct as she moves to place a bat-issued comm in his hand. Then she moves to scribble something down a sheet of paper that’s sitting on a bedside table.
She hand’s him a note with two addresses. Dick recognises neither of them.
“I know you’re a little lost right now, but can you please drive Mar’i to school? The address is the first one.” He sees it, labelled; SCHOOL. The second one; JASON. “You were going to see your brother today. I think he could probably help you. I’m sorry I can’t, my— uh— Richard.”
Dick looks up at her. She gives him an apologetic smile.
“What year is it?” He asks, finally speaking like a rational man.
“20XX.” Kori answers helpfully.
“I’m in the future.” He sighs. “And, um, who’s Mar’i?”
Kori opens her mouth to answer and just a second before she can get a syllable in there their (their! Dick and Kori’s!) bedroom door slams open at the insistence of a teenage black-haired girl.
“Dad!” She shouts, “How much longer—“ And then she sees them together and slaps her hands over her eyes, “Oh my god, put a shirt on!”
Kori gives him another sorry smile. This time, with teeth. “Sorry.”
Dick nods at her. “It’s fine.” It’s not.
She leans forward for a second, almost as if to kiss him. Then, she bolts out the door, barely missing Mar’i on her way.
“Don’t be late!” She calls out. He hears the front door shut.
Mar’i turns to look back at him, and then remembers that he’s shirtless and flinches, running off. “I’ll wait in the car.”
Dick sighs. His eyes land on a framed photograph on top of the dresser, of what he now knows is Mar’i, holding a ‘mathlete’ award. He supposes there are worse futures to end up in.
He gets dressed quickly - just a t-shirt and pants, he’d rather not linger lest he sees anything not for him - and shoves the note in his pocket, moving to meet Mar’i in the car.
She’s waiting in the passenger seat by the time he’s buckled in. She doesn’t say a word when he starts the car, nor when he begins to drive her. She’s too busy on her phone.
“Are you mad at me?” She asks suddenly.
Dick blinks. Should he pretend to be mad for the sake of his future self? It seems awfully unfair on his present (currently stuck in the future) self to start an argument over something he doesn’t remember.
He glances at Mar’i in the rear view mirror. Her round, freckled cheeks. Her big, poof-y hair. He can’t imagine ever looking at her and getting angry.
“No. Of course not.”
Mar’i looks at the road ahead and huffs. “I know I was up really late but it was important. Courtney and Lacey were fighting in the group chat again--“
“Mhm.”
“Over Kyle even though it’s super awkward because Craig’s his brother and he’s on there.”
Dick tunes in thoughtlessly. “Well they shouldn’t be falling out over a guy anyway.”
Mar’i throws her hands into the air. “Exactly! And Lacey knows Craig used to have a thing for Courtney too, so bringing it up is just insensitive—“
“Totally.”
“And I don’t think Kyle even wants to date girls.” Mary crosses her arms and slouches back in her seat. “Or anyone.”
Dick hums. “What makes you think that?”
“Just because he’s nice to everyone doesn’t mean he’s interested in everyone.”
“Felt that one before.” Dick mumbles.
“To be honest, I feel like it means the opposite. He treats everyone the exact same way.”
Dick looks at Mar’i in the rear view mirror, pointedly raising an eyebrow at her. “Isn’t that how you should treat people?”
“Well, yeah, but.. Kyle does it differently. Like he’s nice. But he’s not interested. In anyone.”
“Maybe Courtney and Lacey should accept that and move on.” He offers.
“I hope so.” Mar’i huffs. “I feel like I should talk to them about it, but I don’t want them to get mad at me.”
“No.” Dick reassures her. “Talk to them. They’ll be mad, at first, but when they realise how silly they were acting, they’ll get over it. And then they’ll thank you. That’s what real friends do.”
Mar’i hums this time, scratching her chin. “Maybe you’re right. I will. Thanks, dad.”
Dick makes a noncommittal sound as if to be like no problem, even though the casual use of the word ‘dad’ makes his stomach do a somersault, and pulls the car up onto the sidewalk beside her high-school.
“Alright, we’re here.”
He waits. But Mar’i doesn’t get at the car. Just sits and stares at him like she’s waiting for something.
“Are you..” she shifts towards the door, “not going to..”
She doesn’t open it. She waits. Dick’s mind begins to itch. Does she need something? Does she have pack lunches?
Mar’i seems to frowning a little, and that won’t do. He leans in and gives her a little peck on the forehead.
“Are you okay, dad? You’re acting weird.”
Dick leans back. “I think you’re the best daughter a dad could ask for and you deserve the whole world.” He blurts out.
Mar’i rolls her eyes and pushes the door open. “Never mind, then.”
Dick watches her walk up the long ascending stairs on the entrance of her high school. Her big curly hair bounces. She’s taller than half the boys around her. She looks just like her mother, Dick thinks, and if he’s honest, a bit of his too.
When he arrives at Jason’s house, he’s a little lost. He’d assume this is another safe house — he can’t have a permanent address, being FBI’s most wanted crime lord and all — but this isn’t a small, shabby apartment. This is like. A home.
Dick stands on the porch and rings the doorbell. Waits. It sounds pretty noisy from the outside. Maybe Jason has other friends around?
The door opens, and Dick’s first thought is; Shit, Jason got old. His second thought is; whose baby is that?
He assumes that, since the admittedly adorable toddler is perched on Jason’s hip, the baby is his. But despite that observation, they don’t actually look alike.
This Jason is like his Jason. Except that white streak in his hair has started to branch out to be less of a streak and more of a stripe. And that little scowl has permanently fixed itself on his face in a form of a little wrinkle between his eyebrows.
The toddler has messy dark brown hair and tanned skin that might be a sign of Jason’s parentage, but the kid also seems to have some Asian heritage, too.
Behind Dick’s little brother, he sees the source of all the noise. A children’s show is playing on the TV — Pokémon, if Dick’s eyesight isn’t tricking him. There’s another little figure on the couch in front of it, but Dick can’t see much except a big head of curls.
He’s starting to believe the most hilarious thing has happened.
“You inherited the adoption bug from Bruce.” He deduces.
Jason looks at him with a deadpan face. “You’re not funny.” He steps aside, a silent invitation to let Dick into the house.
It’s definitely not a safe house. The kitchen is messy and the walls are lined with paintings and drawings and there are even some photographs on surfaces.
Dick even walks over a ‘You’re not welcome’ welcome mat to get into the house. Nobody spends that kind of money on a safe house.
Wordlessly, Jason drops the toddler into Dick’s arms.
“This is Tommy.” He says in lieu of explanation. He walks over to the kitchen countertop where he has a laptop open.
Dick looks down at the baby now perched on his hip. He smiles at Dick, but most of his teeth are either little or missing.
Adorable.
“Dickface.” Tommy says innocently.
“I think your kid just swore at me.” Dick says to Jay.
“Yeah,” His brother drawls, “Can’t help that. He got it from me.”
He begins tapping something in. “Kori called me to tell me about your situation. I’m guessing you’re from, what..” he looks Dick over, “Twenty years ago?”
“Something like that.” Dick agrees. “Do you know what caused it?”
“If I had to guess, it’s probably something that happened on that mission you did last night. Duke and Tim were with you.”
Duke? Out at night?
Dick doesn’t ask that question. Instead he asks; “Have they written a report yet?”
Jason scoffs. “If they have, they haven’t shared it me. And believe me,” He says, “if Duke had done it, I’d be the first person he told.” Then he sighs. “I feel like we should probably keep you contained somewhere. You know, so you don’t know that much—“
“Jay, I met my wife and daughter this morning. I know you have two kids. I think enough damage has been done.”
Jason’s mouth sets into a firm line. “Okay, then.”
He reaches for Tommy, who makes grabby hands at him. Jason picks him up immediately.
“Papa!” He burbles.
“Adorable.” Dick coos.
It even gets a smile out of Dick’s little brother. He gives Tommy a finger to wrap his little hand around.
“Soo..” Dick whistles, leaning back on the dining table (Jay has a dining table and everything!) in an attempt to look nonchalant, “Am I allowed to ask questions?”
Jason sighs. It’s hardly heard under the cartoonish voices coming out of the TV, but he mumbles anyway; “I guess if reality hasn’t already collapsed around us, sure.”
“Can I meet your kids?” Dick asks immediately.
“You already have.” Jason answers dryly.
“Only Tommy.” He smiles, teasing. “If you’re anything like Bruce — and I have a feeling you are —“ He aims a very pointed look at the shadow in front of the TV, “You probably have like what, five? Six?”
There’s a long pause, and then Jason bows his head in defeat and sighs. “Six.”
“Six?” Dick laughs, “I was right?”
“You’ve already met Tommy,” Jason gestures to the cute chubby baby (toddler?) in his arms, “Billy!” He calls to the head of hair that’s watching been the TV unmoving since Dick came in, “Come say hi to your uncle Dick.”
The kid — Billy, Jason had said — seems to perk up at his uncle’s name. He twists his body around and Dick sees his big, curly afro and wide brown eyes looking back at Jason. “Uncle Dick’s here?” He gasps. Then his eyes land on Dick. “Oh.”
“He’s your uncle, alright.” Jason nods, “From the past.”
Billy gasps. “Cool!”
He hops off the back of the couch in a similar move to what Dick’s seen in old skateboarding commercials and runs over. His head reaches around Dick’s elbow.
“Hi!” He says, putting his hand out. “I’m Billy.”
Dick spares a quick glance towards Jason before moving to shake his hand. “Hi, Billy.” He crouches down to meet the kid’s height. “You’re Jason’s son?”
Billy snorts. “Yeah, obviously. You look just like my uncle Dick. Except less wrinkly. And fat.”
“Fat?” Dick repeats.
Jason pulls him up with a hand on his shoulder. “He’s joking.”
Billy giggles evilly.
“You said you had four other kids?” Dick asks instead.
Jason hums. His hand drops back onto his side, where he isn’t holding Tommy - the little one doesn’t seem to enjoy being put down.
“Yeah. Carrie and Lance are at school, and Drake’s down at the garage.”
“So that’s Carrie, Lance, Drake-“ He turns to look at the ball of energy who’s practically buzzing, “And why aren’t you in school, Billy?”
“Jay‘s letting me stay at home so I can see my other dad.” Billy says. It explains little to nothing.
“Your other dad?” Dick’s starting to feel like a broken record. “Jay—“
“Um.” Jason moves to awkwardly scratch the back of his head. In doing so, Dick sees a flash of gold, just on his ring finger—
“Jason!” Dick yelps, “You’re married!”
“Yeah.” He laughs, a little nervously. “Surprise?”
He seems to be waiting for some other shoe to drop. Dick isn’t too sure on what — he’s juggling too much information to connect any dots between them at the moment. He’s trying to think when he might’ve said something wrong, but..
Jason clears his throat (loudly), dispersing his thoughts. “Billy’s other dad is.. my husband.”
“Oh.” Dick smiles. “That’s great. I mean — I had no idea you, uh, swung that way (to be truthful, Dick didn’t know Jason swung into anyone at all) but I’m happy for you.” He pauses for a second. “Oh! Do I know him? How’d you meet?”
Jason cringes. “Um—“
Suddenly there’s a loud crash from off-shooting room. It sounds like a table falling, or something.
“Jay?” A voice calls out from the same offending area. It sounds like a younger woman, but Dick can’t exactly pin it down. “Shit.” She hisses.
Jason hands Tommy off to Billy, who seems all to happy to cuddle with his younger brother (again; adorable), and Dick wordlessly follows him towards the source of the noise.
He sees a masked woman who’s fallen in from a window. Dick still can’t recognise her or quite pin her down, but from the bow and quiver that’s strapped over her shoulder he guesses she might be one of the arrows he’s never heard of. But why would an arrow come to Jason’s house, or know where it is, for that matter? Dick supposes Jason and Roy are quite close back in his time. Perhaps Jason’s given some of Roy’s family and friends his address in emergencies.
Jason comes over to help the woman onto her feet. She hisses, brushing long black hair out of her face to tear off her mask, revealing a set of grass green eyes that look eerily familiar.
“Lian?” Dick chokes.
“Yeah?” She responds, casually, as Jason sets her down on a chair.
Dick gapes at her.
She turns back to Jason. “What’s up with him?”
“Time travel,” He waves it off, “Don’t worry about it.” He begins working off some straps on her armour. “What happened to you, Cục Nợ?”
“It’s just some bruising, Jay,” Lian groans, “Stop doting, I’m fine.”
“If you’re injured, Lian,” Dick’s brain finally alights enough for him to speak up, “Why not go to Roy’s house? Or—“
Lian raises an eyebrow at him. Next to her, Jason freezes.
“Wait.” Dick says. He begins counting on his fingers; “Tommy, Billy, Lance, Carrie, Drake. You said you had six children.”
“Yep.” Jason sighs.
“And you’re married.”
“Yeah, Dickface.” Jason says curtly, “Look, can we get back to this later? Lian’s injured—“
“I’m fine, Jay, really—“
“I know you’re not, Li — and this is the last thing you need to worry about, okay?” Jason looks back at Lian. He pauses.
Lian’s shoulders slump. “I can do the stitches myself. Really.”
“Fine.” Jason acquiesces. He stands and follows Dick out the room. “But I don’t want to see a single stitch out of place, young lady.”
Lian laughs (it sounds so much like Roy’s).
Now that Dick’s not following Jason around his own house, he’s actually paying attention to the surroundings. It’s very homey, he knows that. Still, it’s a little disconcerting to see all the kids’ drawings on the fridge and report cards pinned up on the walls. What makes Dick stop pacing the most is a wall in the hallway that’s lined up with pictures.
There’s one of himself there. Older and in a tux and god, is that a grey hair? He’s grinning widely, and it makes the smile lines around his eyes pop too. He has an arm thrown around Jason’s shoulder — Jason, who’s wearing an all-black suit with a white tie, and is smiling the same smile Dick has seen him try to hide before when he’s been really happy to be home but too pissed at Bruce to admit it.
There’s a lot more of all the kids. The least of Tommy, but Dick assumes that’s cause he’s the youngest. There’s one of Billy playing football with a way older boy who has cropped black hair. He’s in another photo underneath a car with a wrench in hand, so he might be the Drake Jay mentioned before. There’s also a ginger teenaged boy and ginger preteen girl who don’t seem to be directly related but are pretty similar looks wise. There’s a myriad of photos of Lian. One that stands out in particular is her dancing with Roy, who’s wearing an all-white suit with a black tie, at a wedding.
Jason appears by his side. “Are you mad? You were furious when you first found out.” Dick turns to look at him, and he’s smirking, “I think you broke one of Roy’s old vases or something. If it makes you feel better, you were best man.”
Dick smiles down at the one photograph he’s holding — of Roy and Lian at the wedding. “It’s kind of hard to be mad seeing how well you two go together.” He turns to Jason, “So you’ve be married, for what, five years?”
“Seven.” Jason corrects.
“That’s only thirteen years away from my time.” Dick comments.
He does his best to make his voice void of any emotion — he doesn’t want Jason to think he’s judging him. He isn’t. He can hardly believe this is what the future looks like.
Dick isn’t too sure he believes it at all.
He adds another point as he sets the photo down on the side table; “You and Roy are best friends when I’m from, but nothing more than that.”
Jason hums noncommittally. “You think I would tell you if we were, though?”
“Maybe.” Dick mumbles. “I just— I get that I’m a younger Dick than what you’re used to, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m from the past.”
“You think you’re from an alternate dimension.”
Dick shrugs. “Reality hasn’t collapsed around us. It makes sense.”
There’s a long pause.
“Okay.” Jason relents with a sigh, “We’ll go see the labrat.”
Jason brings him to what Dick first assumes is a Wayne Enterprises building, except the route they take isn’t exactly the same, and the building is less corporate and more.. hospital-like?
The logo over the overhead doors say ‘Wayne Labs’, so huh, that makes sense.
Jason and Dick enter into the reception room where the woman behind the desk doesn’t even spare them a glance.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Harper-Todd and Mr…” She trails off when she finally sees Dick, “Grayson?”
“Robbie here is Dick’s better-looking cousin.” Jason answers. Dick bites back an offended ‘hey!’ in reply because even though that’s a compliment to him, he still feels like he should stick up for his future self, right?
Dick smiles politely to her. “Nice to meet you, uh—“
“It’s Grace.” She answers quickly, her hands over the keyboard in front of her never wavering. “Mr. Drake recently suggested we remove our name tags for personal safety.” She smirks, which, what? “I’m inclined to agree.” Grace turns to look at Jason, “If you’re here to see him, you know where to find him.”
Jason nods to her. “Thanks, Grace.”
Dick follows him down a complex road of empty corridors and then very busy waiting rooms, down the stairs into a part of the building that seems a bit more cold and isolated.
“So is this like a hospital or what?” Dick asks, skirting past some exposed wires.
“Medical centre.” Jason answers wryly, eyes not straying from the path ahead, “Tim started up his own branch of Wayne Enterprises that specialises in healthcare and more specifically mental healthcare, to compete with Arkham Asylum. It was kind of an old idea of his anyway, but I think his own shitty experience there kind of added fuel to the fire.”
Dick freezes. Not that it matters, because Jason comes to a stop outside a large set of doors anyway. He rings the buzzer and snaps out a; “Let us in, bird face.”
Dick still doesn’t much an inch.
“Tim was in Arkham?”
Jason finally looks back at him, eyes blown out wide, “Oh. Um—“
The doors slide open to reveal their subject of conversation standing there. Tim grunts and rips off a pair of goggles that are tied over his face. His eyes look between a panicked Jason and a very confused Dick.
“You’re been teleported from twenty years ago into the future because of that crazy box we found last night?” He deduces.
“Have you been taking your meds?” Jason snipes back immediately.
Tim rolls his eyes and falls back into the laboratory behind him, signalling for Jason and Dick to follow.
“Yes, Jay, I’m medicated.” He strains the last word in a sort of sarcastic way, which Dick finds a little troubling for the management of a medical company.
Dick is lagging significantly behind them both, his mind going a mile a minute. Seeing his own future and Jason’s was startling, of course, but at least he’s been comforted by the fact they’re both happy. The fact that Tim might be sentenced to Arkham sometime in the next twenty years is… troubling.
Future Tim himself seems fine. It looks to Dick like he’s never finding the curing to his eternal baby face, and he seems like he’s eating well. But his skin is almost translucently pale and as he walks through the otherwise empty lab Dick can’t help but notice he’s sort of jittering.
Tim’s rambling about something that’s probably important to Dick’s whole time-travelling situation. Dick interrupts when they finally reach the table Tim’s been working on.
“Tim,” Dick says, drawing both his brothers’ eyes on him, “You went to Arkham?”
Tim immediately straightens. He throws a look towards Jason, who simply shrugs at him, and sighs. “Yeah, I was.. it wasn’t your fault.”
“How? We all know how horrible it is there, why would we-“
Tim cuts him off. “Dick, you didn’t know, okay? Nobody did. I didn’t tell anyone and I wasn’t in the right mind and I thought it was the only option for me.” He places a hand on Dick’s shoulder. “I’m fine now, yeah?” He smiles, “Besides, I didn’t come out of it with nothing. I’ve got completely legal medically prescribed marijuana now.”
Dick chokes. “Your medication.”
“Yeah.” Tim flicks him on the head, “Now pay attention.” He takes a step back, addressing the both of them, “Considering how much of the future Dick’s uncovered and the fact that everything seems fine we can safely assume that he’s not from the past but more of a.. identical dimension that’s slightly behind.”
Tim pulls a laptop onto the desk, brushing whatever he was just tampering with aside. From the look of it — there being no logo on the back and the grey sheen of the protective case — Dick guesses it’s a bat-specialist device as opposed to a regular kind of laptop. Tim opens it up and proves him right; he opens up what looks like a half-written report of the mission Jason had mentioned they were on the other night.
“This is a very bare bones explanation, but the gist of it is we were taking down an illegal tech smuggling ring and we found a weird box covered in goo in one of the crates.” He points to Dick, and then upon realising his hand is trembling, retracts it, “You took it out. I think that’s what set it off and swapped you and future Dick out.”
Tim scratches his at his chin — is that stubble? “I think we’ll have to go to Batman about this. It seems to run a lot deeper than we thought.”
“Batman?” Dick echoes, “I mean - Bruce must be what, sixty? He can’t still be out fighting crime every night can he?”
Jason doesn’t say anything to him, just smirks.
“Batman needs to know if the ring is dealing with inter-dimensional tech.” Tim says in lieu of explanation.
“Great, so we’ll take it to the Batcave.” Jason slams his hand down on the laptop, closing it. “And you can rest at home.” Tim opens his mouth to argue, but Jason cuts him off. “No buts. You’re speaking too fast. You’re being paranoid towards the receptionist. And I see your hands shaking, Tim. You need a break. Me and Dick can work this out between us.”
Tim works at his jaw, seeming ready to argue. Instead, he just hangs his head and sighs. “You’re right. I’ll.. pack up.”
Jason gives him a nod, and with that they’re seemingly setting off. Dick spares Tim one last glance over his shoulder, to which his little brother smiles.
“Good luck with your time travel.” He smiles faintly, “Keep an eye on your Tim for me, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Dick says quietly.
Then Jason’s shouting at him to pick the damn pace, and he’s out.
The Batcave doesn’t seem to change all that much in the next twenty years, Dick muses. Sure, there are a few new cars and maybe a different set up to the computer than he’s used to, but everything’s in the right place.
The comm calls out an alert when he and Jason enter together, Dick on the back of the motorbike (to which he remarks that Jason should not be driving these when he has children to look after, and Jason laughs at him).
Dick watches as a figure stands up from Bruce’s usual seat, but he knows it isn’t Bruce. They’re a little too lean, a little too short. Of course most of the suit is Batman’s long cape, which drapes the casts the figure in a wide shadow where Dick can’t pinpoint who he’s looking that.
Then he steps forward and, upon seeing the two enter the cave, pulls the cowl back from his head.
“Cass.” Dick says.
A thirty year old Cassandra Cain looks down at him and laughs. “Hello, brother.” She steps down to meet them, pulling Jason in for a quick, one-armed hug.
“You look different.” She says to Dick, “Time travel?”
Dick sighs. “I don’t look that much older in twenty years, do I?”
Cass just chuckles and pats his shoulder.
“You had something to tell me?” She presses.
“Right.” Jason clears his throat, trying to signal Dick to speak. “Uh, the device that future me and Duke and Tim found the other night seemed to swap me with myself from another identical dimension.”
She hums and nods her head. Dick can see her writing a mental tally of the information. “The smuggling ring?” She turns away, her eyes somewhere else, “I’d deduced they were routing between Gotham and Metropolis. I had assumed that meant some stolen alien tech was involved, but if it was enough to cause an inter-dimensional collision..” She trails off into thought.
“Oh, honey!” A voice calls from up and away. “I made dinner.”
Dick’s eyes snap to the cave’s entrance, expecting to see Alfred — except Alfred is most likely..
Well, he looks to see Steph standing there. Her hair is significantly shorter and she honestly looks even fitter than she is in Dick’s time, but is undoubtedly Stephanie.
“You could’ve told me we had guests.” She calls out. “Your brothers eat like pigs.”
Cass smiles up at her fondly. “I wasn’t sure when they were coming.” She looks towards both them, heading towards the entrance, “Come on up. We’ll find something for you two.”
Dick shrugs and lets her lead the way.
When they reach the inside of manor, the dinner table is strangely barren. The only one waiting there is a little girl with two buns in her hair, who’s looking up at Dick expectantly.
“I promised her cookies for a good patrol.” Steph says to Cass, taking a seat next to the little girl.
Cass nods very seriously, sitting not at the head of the table but to the left of it, where she motions for Dick to seat himself.
“You look different.” The little girl says to him, smiling mischievously.
Stephanie laughs, dishing the food out between their plates. “This is Little Dick. He’s new.”
“Don’t call him that, Jesus.” Jason groans.
“I’m Tiffany.” She says to Dick, giving him a big toothy grin.
“Nice to meet you.” Dick replies.
“Did you start without me?” Someone new says, walking in with a cane in hand, and — shit, Bruce gets old.
Dick feels tears start to prick at his eyes. He couldn’t say what he’s upset about. Maybe he didn’t believe Bruce would make it til retirement, but that’s a thought he’d rather not (and doesn’t need) to explore right now.
He takes a seat at the head of the table, giving everyone a passing smile and a “Thank you, Stephanie” when she dishes him out his plate.
“So,” Bruce says, coughing and turning to Dick, “I heard you got yourself in quite the predicament.”
Dick is too stunned to speak.
It’s just — he never expected to see Bruce so inactive and yet so content. Clearly the cane has something to do with the retirement. If Dick knows anything about his pseudo-father, it’s that next to nothing stops him from putting on the cowl. This Bruce is.. reserved, and open to help.
It’s heartwarming but it’s odd.
“One way to say it, old man.” Jason snorts, taking a bite of some casserole that Steph must’ve prepared.
“So Dick,” Stephanie leans forward over the table, “What’s the future like?”
Dick gapes. “I — Just — Shouldn’t we trying to resolve this instead of chatting about it? I thought this was serious.” He looks to Cass. “You said this was serious.”
Cass shakes her head. “I never said that. I admit it’s an issue, but.. we’ve dealt with it before. And it’s causing no one harm. Are you happy to be here, Dick?”
Suddenly all eyes at the table are on him. “I.. yeah. I guessed I’m just not used to it.” He looks down at everyone’s hands in an attempt to avoid making eye contact with them, which is when his eye catches on some matching rings on Steph’s and Cass’ hands.
And then he thinks back to Steph making her dinner and, oh.
“Was everyone in this family closeted twenty years ago?” He blurts out.
Jason and Steph burst out into laughter.
“Me not talking about it does not constitute me being closeted, Dickface.” Jason says, “It was just never your business.”
“That is the definition of being in the closet, Jay.” Steph laughs.
Bruce turns to look Dick in the eye, “We’ve all come to learn more about ourselves the past twenty years. I hope when you return to your own time you can respect that most of us won’t have yet realised what we are yet.”
“Including you?” Dick dares to ask, eyebrow raised.
Bruce smiles back at him. “No.” He pauses. “I always knew.”
“As if.” Jason scoffs. “None of you had idea Roy and I were together until we got engaged. And we had three kids.”
“That’s because--“
The table breaks off into senseless bickering that’s really more surface level teasing. Dick is able to drown out the conversation(s) enough to let his eyes wander the room, and they drift towards the archway, where someone is walking in..
In the Red Hood costume.
Dick looks back as Jason to make sure he’s still there. Jason, too enraptured in a debate with Cass, doesn’t notice. The offending Red Hood-wearer sighs in a way that sounds robotic over comms.
“Sorry I’m late.” He says, silencing the room. He pulls the helmet off, and Dick sees — Duke’s face.
Duke?
“Duke?”
“Hey, Dick.” Duke says casually. He takes the seat on the other side of him and whistles, “You been working out?”
“Time travel.” Dick answers, strangled.
“Ah.” He nods. “Oh.” His eyes widen. “Sorry, man. I must’ve scared you.”
“No.” Dick shakes his head. “Just..”
He turns back to Jason for answers. Jason just shrugs. “Well, I needed someone to look after the alley whilst I watched the kids.”
Dick hums. That makes sense.
He goes to ask Duke another question, but before he can do so much as speak, his younger brother lets out a loud groan.
“Are you f— I wasn’t even that late.” Duke gestures down to the empty tray at the centre of the table. “Where’s all the casserole gone?”
“It’s gone?” Tiffany gasps. She turns to Steph, hands raised in the air, “Can we have cookies now?”
At the very mention of cookies, the enter table erupts into ecstatic conversation that Dick can hardly keep up with. Tiffany and Steph head out the room and return with a tray of hot baked cookies a few minutes later.
Dick supposes there are probably other things that his family would rather talk about right now, rather than a misplaced eldest son.