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He’s standing IN the doorway yelling back and forth with bruce for almost 10 minute before it dawns on him how genuinely stupid this argument is,
Bruce had been in the cave when Dick had gotten back from patrol, Bruce had cracked his kneecap a month before and was in a constant state of pissed off since he was forced to manage comms instead of patrolling with the others.
Dick was the last to get back after being stopped by some teenagers who begged him to show them a couple of tricks and well he IS a flying Grayson, it’d be a shame to pass up a performance. So when he walked into the cave, out of breath with a big goofy smile on his face, telling Bruce it took him almost 10 minutes to figure out the new grappling hook extension the older man had been working on, with a laugh on his lips.
The last thing he was expecting was an argument.
Bruce was convinced this was an insult on his craftsmanship and abilities and an “example of Dick always berating him” of “Dick always thinking hes better than him” and Dick was trying to explain that he was only making fun of himself for how long he took to figure it out. They went back and forth for a few minutes with Bruce clearly on the defense and Dick being forced on the offence. It seemed like any remarks from Dick were only fueling Bruce's rage and Dick eventually decides he's had enough and this genuinely isn't worth it. If Bruce wants to be convinced that he's being insulted then let him.
Dick had quickly stripped out of his uniform and put on the clothes he'd left in his locker before leaving the cave completely, he was initially planning on spreading the night but after his “conversation” with Bruce he just wanted to go home to his apartment.
He makes it ONE step into the doorway before Bruce appears behind him asking to talk to him for a minute
And for one blissful stupid second Dick thinks Bruce might ACTUALLY APOLOGIZE.
Instead
“Dick I need you to understand why what you said was extremely disrespectful”
And Dick thinks if this were a cartoon you’d see the exact moment he loses his temper.
And that's how we get to Bruce and Dick yelling in the doorway and Dick is possibly having deja vu to doing this every other week from ages 15 to 19 and Dick is FINALLY stepping fully out of the doorway and slamming it shut behind him and before he can even figure out what's happening he’s sitting in his car hands gripping the wheel, tears streaming down his face.
He probably sits in his car for 10 minutes before realizing he does not want to be in this driveway any more and should probably like go somewhere, it takes another 5 for him to actually start his car and stop crying enough to be able to like see.
He starts driving before realizing he does not want to be alone right now.
He drives in the direction of home anyways.
The longer he spends behind the wheel the more his skin starts to burn, he’s upset and he's never been one to handle being upset very well. He wants to DO something, he wants to jump off a building and shoot his grappling hook at the last possible second, he wants to rip the charms Damian made off his car mirror, he wants to scream, he wants to pull the hair out of his head.
He wants to do something self destructive.
He does NOT make it home, instead he finds himself in a bar ordering a disgusting drink because it has a high alcohol count and he needs to be drunk as soon as possible. The taste almost instantly makes him nauseous.
He orders 3 more and puts it all on Bruce’s card.
–
He has no idea how long he's been at this bat but he loves it and he loves his bartender who keeps on making him these amazing drinks and he's definitely going to ask him out the next time he comes by and he loves this bar, maybe he’ll like become a regular here and he can be like Norman from cheers and everytime he comes in they’ll all be like “Dick!” or maybe he’ll tell them to yell “Richard” because “Dick” might sound weird if someone's here who doesn't know him or maybe he could have them say “Grayson”. He doesn't hear his last name enough anymore, did Norman have a last name? He doesn't th-
“-call someone for you?”
Dick is pulled from his thoughts by the cute bartender yelling at him over the noise.
“I LOVE YOUR HAIR” he yells back, not having paid any attention to what was said in the first place.
“Ah thanks” the bartender holds the end of his long bright orange braid while he talks “Do you want me to call someone for you or like a cab because I think you've had too much to drink sir”
“MY NAME IS DICK” he feels like he might be louder than the bartender but he's not sure.
“Okay Dick did you want me to call someone for you?”
“NO NO ITS OKAY I CAN CALL MY DAD” Dick is fumbling to pull out his phone he briefly sees a missed call from Babs but ignores it “MY DAD MY DAD LOVES ME SO MUCH” He yells as he finally finds the “call” button on Bruce's contact.
He holds the phone to his ear and hears three rings before he's sent to voice mail. Dick makes a face before looking back at the bartender.
“WE GOT INTO A FIGHT EARLIERER BUT HE'S GONNA PICK UP’ he calls three more times and is sent straight to voicemail each time. He's about to press call for the 4th time when the bartender puts his hand over the phone.
“Is there someone else you can call? Or i can get you a taxi”
Dick looks to his side where he had put down his keys when he came in to see that their gone, he looks back at the bartender and tries to read his name tag for the first time and finds the letters too blurry to see clearly and he tries to answer but all he manages is a noise that sounds like a wounded animal and he watches something liquidy fall onto his phone and the bartender hands him a tissue.
He wants Bruce.
Actually he wants his parents but Bruce is kinda the next best thing.
He stares at the blurry outline of the bartender's name tag (he thinks it says Jordan) when he hears someone yell his name.
Or maybe they're just yelling “dick” but it sounds like his name.
“I think that big guy is looking for you” maybe Jordan says
Dick whips his head around and see the outline of a tall built like a brick wall looking man and starts talking before he really comes into focus “B I KNEW YOU DIDNT IGNORE ME OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU”
Bruce takes a few steps forward and Dick can suddenly see his leather jacket and cargo pants and
“Hey Dickiebrid why dont we get you out of here” Jason says and Dick can only look down at his phone he presses the call button one more time.
“Hi this is Bru-”
–
Dick is in Jason's apartment for about 15 seconds before he starts throwing up, luckily thats enough time to make it to the bathroom, unluckily that's not enough time for a drunk Dick to make it to the bathroom.
It takes an hour for Dick to stop throwing and let himself be cleaned up by Jason and Jason spends another 20 trying to get the vomit out of his carpet (before giving up and declaring he’ll just move), before they're both sitting on Jason’s couch. Well Jason is sitting and Dick is curled up with a blanket sipping on a glass of water.
“You got into a fight with Bruce?” and Jason is clearly trying to broach the subject carefully which is so unlike him Dick can only assume it's because he's drunk.
“Yeah but it was my fault, it's like you know how I am” because he doesn't want jason to be mad a bruce too and he doesnt want to talk about what happened “ and like it doesn't even matter and it was stupid and its over”
“You went out and got drunk off your ass when you were supposed to spend the night at the manor that doesn't seem like nothing”
“No its like Bruce was in a bad mood and I was being mean to him” and it's kinda true.”and like i dont know why but bruce is so convinced that i think hes doing everything wrong and like he’s not but hes doing better and im like proud of him” Jason doesn't say anything just looks at him “I love Bruce so much and i know he loves me like as much as he can but its like I know how he sees me and I know who I am and I’m not stupid enough to think I can ever actually make those two thing like match up.” he can feeling the tears streaming down his face once again and he just wipes it off on Jason's blanket.
“Maybe you should stop going back” is the only thing that Jason says and it's not with the bitter malice that he usually carries, it’s genuine like maybe it would really be the best thing for Dick.
They sit in silence for a few minutes before Dick speaks up again.
“I don't even care, you know how Bruce is, you could give him the skin off your body and he’d ask why you didn't offer your bones too. He’s just like that”
Dick is out cold before Jason even gets a chance to respond.
–
Jason wakes up in the morning to a call from Babs, he glances at his clock which reads 9:17 and he internally curses her for having a normal person job.
“Barbie you know i love you but this is so early”
“You never called me last night after you picked up Dick”
That was… true, after she had called him with the information that Dick and Bruce got into a fight and Dicks location showed a bar near Jason’s apartment he’d quickly grabbed his jacket and hung up on Babs with a promise to call her once he had the boy wonder in his possession.
He had unfortunately not fulfilled that promise.
“Sorry Babs, Dick threw up like as soon as we got to my place and i was a little distracted after that”
“He was that drunk?” he could faintly hear the tapping of computer keys on her end “did he even say what they argued about?”
“Nope just something about Bruce being in a bad mood and Dick being mean to him” they both knew there was more to it than that but he let that go unsaid.
“Is he still there?”
Jason stepped out of his room careful of the squeaky floors (he was definitely gonna move)
“He was absolutely wrecked so i can’t imagine he’ll be up for a few hours” Jason stepped fully into the living room “seriously you should ha-”
Jason stood in the middle of the room looking down at the couch that should've held one Richard Grayson but instead held only a note and a folded up blanket.
“Jay you good?”
He picked up the note,
Hey Jay thanks for coming to get me, didn't mean to crash your night by being all dramatic. Anyways I promised Damian I’d be at breakfast today so I’ll be at the manor all morning if you need me.
Sorry about your carpet man,
Love Dick
“JASON?” and Jason feels bad because Babs sounds genuinely worried
“Yeah sorry i was just ah, Dick’s not here. He left already”
“What do you mean he left already? Where did he go?”
“He went back” is all he gets out, note crumpled in his hand.