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Now Bruce did not believe that his childhood was so messed up, he had not understood how wrong it all had been as he had not known anything else. It was all of the comments about him, his sex life since he was fourteen years old. Now when he was twenty-nine, he still got the same comments.
It was just a part of his life; he remembered that people had put in their calendar that he turned eighteen so that they could now legally sleep with him. He had just thought it was all normal, this was the reality of his life that Alfred could not help with. He was just a butler. He could tell Bruce that it was wrong that they were doing it but he could not stop it.
When he took Dick into his care Bruce started to come to the realization about how fucked up his childhood was because of predators. He remembered that when he was fourteen, he slept with a girl who was twenty, and when he looked at Dick who was turning fourteen, he felt like he was going to throw up.
It was not a nice realization that a lot of your partners had just been interested in his fame, his name and his money but realizing that he had been a minor abused by all of these adults… it broke something in him. So, when Dick turned fourteen Bruce made a promise, no one… no one in this world would make Dick feel like that.
Every sexual advance was pushed down; he took people off the guest lists from his galas. He started to black list businesses that had people who made lewd comments about Dick. He himself was a lost cause everyone so used to treating him like this that Bruce did not believe that he could ever stop it. But if it never started with Dick, then maybe… maybe he could protect his boy from some of it.
Now they were going to a price ceremony and Bruce decided that Dick would come with him. Dick his son now seventeen years old, Bruce felt like he could cry when he saw him. He was looking so grown up in his suit and it broke his heart. His son would soon leave his nest and he had no idea on how to deal with that.
They walked the red carpet and spoke with the reporters; Bruce spoke about his charity and the reporter asked Dick for what he had planned for his birthday party.
“Oh, you know something small, going to celebrate with dad and then go out with my close friends I think.”
“Oh, so you’re not throwing a big party? How else are you going to meet some girls?” Bruce glared at that reporter with all his strength and while people did not respect him, they knew now to mess with his kid by now. He put his arm around Dick and walked off, but he made sure to get the reporter's name, he would have called his boss about this kind of behaviour.
“Dad, you're being a bit dramatic.” Dick groaned, feeling embarrassed by his dad’s protection feeling like he could handle his own he was after all soon eighteen.
“No, I am not, that woman was thirty years old, that is no way to speak to a child.” Dick just groaned knowing that he would not win this argument. It was not that he did not like his dads protection, it was just that he felt like his dad over reacted sometimes. But he leaned in a bit closer as they walked, it felt nice knowing that even though he was becoming a legal adult he still had his dads protection.
They mingled for a bit before it was time to go in and find their seats. They sat there talking to their neighbours. It all was really quite dull according to Dick but it would be cool to say to his friends that he had been here. He looked over at his dad and saw that the older man also thought this was dull as well and almost laughed. Sometimes his dad felt so young, there was only twelve years apart after all.
The prizes started to get handed out and the comedian Casper was doing a big show of it all. Now Dick did not like Casper at all; his gaze always felt like he wanted something from Dick, something he did not want to give. It felt like Casper was hunting him down like a prey but it was ridiculous as the man was forty.
“Oh, and remember that on the twentieth is when Dick Grayson Wayne will officially turn eighteen ladies that it will be fully legal to pursue him. I wonder how many women he has already taken to bed.” Casper tried to look scandalous and Dick felt like he had cold water thrown over him. He felt frozen in space and could feel the cameras turn to him.
He felt his dad pull away and some part of his brain knew what was going to happen before it happened. He made a feeble attempt to grab his dads hand but the man was off, now the cameras were following his dad as he walked up to the stage.
“Oh, does his father have any words to say?” Casper tried to play it off while looking a bit nervous.
That was when Bruce got in front of the man, and that was when he threw the punch. It hit Casper right in the jaw. One could see and hear that it was a powerful punch. It was after all Batman who hit him. Dick watched as the man fell to the floor unconscious just hearing the flow of his blood.
Soon his dad was in front of him grabbing his hand saying that they were leaving. So, they walked out in front of everyone with all the cameras on them. Bruce put his arm around his kissing the side of his head as they walked out. Dick did not know if he had ever felt more loved in that moment.
They left the galla and ended up in a twenty-four hour ice cream place. Now there Dick sat with a banana split in front of him and his dad with an ice cream cone. Dick let himself calm down, it was not so bad really, he was robin he could handle some sexualisation, he would turn eighteen and he would love if his crush would find him sexy. But this… this had been different, callus, calculated it had made him feel sick. He leaned into his dad while eating his dessert. He felt safe, and that was enough for now.
Clark did not follow galas and things like this; it was not what he did it was what Cat did. But Cat had a family emergency and Clark could not tell her no so here he was at a gala doing mindless reporting getting his quotes from everyone. He wanted to get one from Bruce Wayne who was there with his son.
Now Clark knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman and he did have a bit of a crush on the man but that would not stop him from doing fair reporting. He took his own integrity seriously, but all he saw was Bruce giving the batglare to a reporter and pulling Dick away.
Now Clark did not have time to grumble over that as he had a lot of people to talk to but he filed it away, there might be a story in that. Now the daily planet was not allowed a seat inside of the gala as it was being live streamed so now it was just him looking at the live stream outside of the building where the gala was.
Clark heard the pore excuse of a joke and he felt the hair on his arms rise. One could hear people laughing uncomfortably and the camera moved to Dick. Clark felt his heart break at the look on his face; he was frozen with his eyes just going a bit too watery. He also knew what was going to happen before it happened. He looked at Bruce, punched him, knocked him unconscious. How he took Dick and he got out of there.
Clark wanted to follow and to ask Dick if he was okay as he watched them leave but the other reporters flooded them. Bruce looked so mad that they decided to keep some distance and he drove away. Clark knew that those two needed to be alone for a while, so he went home and started to work on the story.
Now as Casper was the one who made the joke he looked into the man and deep buried with all of his other controversies he found how he had sexualised and harassed Bruce when he was young. That made him do a deep dive into how people treated Bruce when he was a teenager and Clark felt sick. He wondered how people had accepted this, how no one pushed back. This would be his story; about Bruce he went trough and is still going through sexual harassment was doing everything to protect his son from the same fate.
The next day Dick woke up in his dads bed; it took a while to remember what had happened and when he did, he still did not know how to feel. He had cried when they came home, no idea why or what he was feeling and his dad had just held him. It was a while ago Dick had let himself just be in his dads arms and it was nice.
Now his dad was still sleeping with his arm around him and Dick let himself just breath. Everything was fine, his dad had protected him as he always does, so Dick just listened to his dads deep breaths and fell asleep again.
The next time he woke up he was alone in bed looking around and he saw that his dad was now on the balcony talking on the phone.
“You know I do not like this Clark… No, I do trust you to hold an interview but I do not want it to happen… You can ask me whatever you want just leave Dick out of it…” Dick walked up to his dad, taking the phone from his hand and putting it on speaker.
“Hi, Clark.”
“Oh, hi Dick, I just wanted to check in to see how you were doing.”
“I… I am fine, dad took care of me.” Dick said as he was pulled into his dads embrace. “But it seemed like you wanted to get an interview from dad.” He added after a while.
“I… yes I need to write a story about how it always goes, but I wanted to focus on Bruce and how he was treated when he was young, and then how it is for you.” Dick could feel his dad tense as Clark mentioned how he was treated and he wondered what he was talking about.
“You can come over; dad will just kick you out if you step over the line.” Dick said after a while and Bruce laughed.
They had a calm breakfast before they would do the interview, dressing to be more presentable Dick took up his phone for the first time since the incident. It was all over social media, people shocked that Brucie Wayne managed to throw such a punch, people were cheering his dad on. But still others said that it was the biggest over reaction of them all. He threw away the phone he did not need right now.
When Clark came the other man hugged him before anything else, it felt nice knowing that his dad and him had superman on his side. They sat down in the living room with tea and Clark placed the recorder on the table.
“Okay, so I am Clark Kent with the daily mail and with me are Bruce Wayne and Richard Grayson Wayne. Now for my first question, Dick had you ever spoken to Casper before?”
“No, I have never interacted with him before.”
“Now Bruce, have you interacted with Casper before?” Bruce gave him a small glare.
“You know that I have.” He said with an annoyed tone.
“Can you tell me what he did before you turned eighteen?” Now Dick was starting to understand what the story was going to be.
“You know what he did so I don’t understand why you are asking me?”
“Please,”
“Fine, he did a similar stunt when I turned eighteen.”
“Thank you, so you know how it feels to have all of these comments made about you, when did it start?”
“I first started noticing when I turned fourteen but it started earlier than that, it just flew over my head.” Now Dick looked over at his dad, if you did not know him you would not know that he was getting agitated but Dick knew him. He took his dads hand in both of his and got a small smile in return.
“You said in an earlier interview that you would protect Dick from the celebrity world. Is this what you meant by it?”
“Yes, and some more, there was no one to protect me, no one was getting to touch my son.”
“So, you have been working on protecting him this whole time.”
“Yes.”
“But you still let people comment the way they do about you still to this day.”
“I am a lost cause; there is nothing to do now. It is more important to me that my son is safe.” Clark turned off the recorder and looked like he was debating if he was going to ask something.
“Of the record, what does the name Lilly Archer mean to you?” Dick had never heard that name before in his life.
“We had a brief relationship.” Dick felt his dad tense up, leaning into him to calm him down.
“How old were you?” Clark’s blue eyes were filled with sadness as he asked and Dick knew it was bad.
“Thirteen just turning fourteen.”
“How old was she?” It went quiet after that question and Bruce took a deep breath.
“You know math Clark, you know how old she was.”
“I… Can you just say it?”
“Fine, twenty turning into twenty-one.” Dick felt the hair raise on his arms, looking at his dad, he felt a deeper understanding for the older man. This was why he was so over protective of it all, why he would never let anyone sexualise Dick to a ridiculous point. His dad had been the victim of all of these people, and now like Casper they were turning their noses to him. But he had protection; he felt a wave of gratefulness fill him. He hated them all, everyone who hurt his dad, but god he did love his dad so much in that moment.
“Clark, as I said, I am not your victim here, there is no need to dig in the past.”
“You saw what I saw Bruce, the same man who sexually harassed you as young have now started to turn to Dick, I want to hang them out. I want everyone to know what kind of people they are. If not for you then for Dick.” It was a low blow to say it would protect Dick but it was the truth.
“Fine, write your story, I don’t care, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks about me, just don’t throw Dick into the wolves.”
“Bruce, I would never and I won’t be throwing you into the wolves either, I just want to put Casper on the spot with some other people.” At that Bruce let out a small laugh.
When Clark handed in his work to Perry, he also let Jimmy and Lois read what he had written. After his friends were done, they looked so disgusted, and Clark still felt his heart ache for the young Bruce Wayne. The one who was just thrown into the wolves. Sexualised from the moment he went into puberty but then slut shamed every single time people slept with him. How it was clear that people only wanted to sleep with him to be able to tell the tale and sell the story.
Now Clark could not go back and protect Bruce, but he could shine a light to the whole situation, he could make sure that the young Bruce got to tell his story. He could make the grown ups who had abused him squirmed that their friends and family knew just the kind of person they were.
After the story was out people would see who the celebrities that they supported were like. Clark did not believe that he would destroy their careers but he would let them know that just because it happened a long time ago did not mean that he could not dig it up and shine a light on it.