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Babs and Dickie were decidedly going to be very grounded when Brucie found them.
They hadn’t meant to get caught! It’s just Babs had made herself a Batgirl costume, modeled after Steph, and of course when Dick found out he used his super cool and amazing acrobat skills to sneak into the batcave and steal one of Jason’s old Robin suits. Dick wasn’t going to let Babs go alone, what kind of an amazing and fabulous best friend would do that?
They were doing great out there, Babs had been able to pick all the locks to get to the roofs and Dick had helped someone by dropping a brick on a mugger's head!
The issue came up when they saw a bunch of shady looking men loitering around a building, talking in low voices and looking around all suspicious like. When they had broken away from each other Babs and Dick just had to follow!
It didn’t go as planned…
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
The hand gripping Dick’s arm was bruising, pulling him around with no care if Dick had his legs under him or not. Dick could see he was being just as rough with Babs, and his heart did a funny flip, not liking the idea of Babs being hurt.
“Damn kids, always sneaking and snooping.” The man growled out, tugging both of them harshly as they crossed another doorway. This time, his hands let go sending Dick to the ground and Bab’s into what looked like a prison bed. “You two, shut up and don’t even bother calling for help.”
Dick scrambled up, ready to throw himself at the guy, before a door slammed in his face. Instead, Dick settled for glaring angrily at the metal door. Beside him, Babs stood fully, looking around and peering at every edge and corner.
They hadn’t even tried to take off their masks! Sounds like incompetent villains to Dick.
Turning to face Babs, Dick bit his lower lip in worry, eyeing her arm. “Batgirl, are you okay?”
With her own expression of worry, Babs nodded. “I’m fine.” Her cowled head peered over Dick’s shoulder, looking at the big metal door. “We need to find a way out of here!”
With a noise of agreement, Dick spun around and started poking and pushing at the door, looking to see if there was a weak spot. He remembered at Hayley’s Circus there were lots and lots of props that would have fake doors and trick mirrors to make it look like there was no way out of the trap, but really the performer was safe and sound! Maybe, if he could find the right way, this door might be the same.
As Dick did that, Babs had already hauled herself onto the raised platform for the bed. She was pressing her hands against the glass and running a palm on the edges of the glass.
“I don’t think there’s a way out.” Barbara sighed, hopping down from the bed and sitting down with a dejected sigh. “If only I was a little stronger I might be able to break the glass…”
Dick pressed his mouth into a thin line, not wanting to admit defeat but not really seeing a way out either. “I hate this.” He grumbled, kicking at the ground.
“We’re gonna just have to wait for B or someone else.” Babs made room for Dick next to her, placing her chin in her hands. “We’re so grounded…”
Dick scooched closer to Babs and pulled his knees to his chest. He hated waiting.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
The sound of the metal door opening had Dick bolting upright, startling Babs from where her head had been resting on his shoulder.
Sick recognised the man as the one who had taken them, unfriendly face glaring down at them.
“Alright, I need answers right now, I don’t care which one of you vigilante wannabes stole the package from the drop site, but you’re going to have to tell me where you greasy kids put it.”
Dick bristled at the insinuation that he and Babs weren’t the real deal before his words actually caught up with Dick. Sharing a glance with Babs, Dick spoke up. “What package?”
Letting out a growl, the man took a rapid step forward and pulled Dick off the bed with a hand in his hair. He yelped, tears springing in his eyes under the mask. His legs stumbled under him and he nearly went crashing into the man. His head was pulled back by the fist in his hair, forcing him to meet the man’s eyes.
“I’m not playing around with you, I’m not afraid to hurt you, kids or not. Where did you little shits put the package?” Spittle flew into Dick’s face with every angry word.
“He wasn’t lying!” Dick couldn’t see Bab’s face, but he could hear the shake in her voice. “We— we didn’t take any packages!”
“Shuddup!” He turned his face towards Barbara, and Dick’s heart leaped.
Dick wouldn’t– couldn’t let Babs get hurt!
Pulling his legs under him, Dick reached for the man’s other arm, wrenching it with all his strength just close enough to–
“FUCK– You little shit–” The man pulled his arm back, the hand in Dick’s hair loosening. “Did you just bite me?” Using the distraction, Dick ducked, dislodging the hand in his hair and moved so he was behind the figure.
Babs, in the distraction, was already at the door, letting out a noise of victory when this time, the door opened at her prompting. Just as the furious man was spinning around, both kids had already slipped out the door and slammed it shut behind them. Babs managed to slide the deadlock over just in time for an enraged yell and thudding against the door rang out.
“Come on, let's go!” She whispered, grabbing onto Dick’s hand. His head spun a little as they pattered down the hall.
Sneaking past identical metal doors and through a winding maze of windowless hallways, Dick’s heart jumped when they finally stumbled across a different looking door. This one had scratched up windows on them, revealing a night sky. Dick this time was the one to pull Babs, both of their capes fluttering behind them as Dick, pushed on the door, heart soaring when cool air met their faces.
Within the first steps past the threshold, Bab’s made a noise that had Dick looking back, hand still intwined.
Something metal slammed into Dick’s head. Darkness consumed him.
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Throbbing brought Dickie back to wakefulness, along with the rough pulling of his arms, bent unnaturally behind his back. His head was barely raised from the ground and knees splayed under him.
“Damn bats, makin’ us do all this work.”
Dick raised his head as much as he could, the pavement under him spinning. His eyes could barely shift enough to see a head of red curls on the ground, a cowl discarded haphazardly. That was significant, but his head was too fuzzy and hurt too much for him to put together why that was so, so bad.
Distantly, Dick realised when his arms were dropped and as he started to fall, the building pressure in his arms was from being restrained. Unable to catch himself, Dick’s face thud against the hard concrete, scraping his face.
“Just throw them in the harbour, use weights if you need. It’ll be a message to the bat bastards if nothing else.”
Dick’s blood turned to ice.
Oh no, oh no, please no—
Mustering up all the strength left in his body, Dick was able to pull himself into a sitting up position. His eyes lifted to the two men, one distinctly sporting a bite mark in his arm. He wasn’t able to tell when he was waking up, but tears had been trapped behind his domino mask, now leaking past the cosmetic glue.
He could barely see past the waves of nausea roiling in his gut. Concussion, his mind supplied, sounding suspiciously like Damian. Dick spat out a glob of blood at the bite man’s shoe, having bit the inside of his mouth sometime around his memory slipping.
A hand curls into his cape, pulling him up like a scruffed kitten. He’s brought face to face with bite man, legs dangling off the ground. “Disrespectful little brat–”
Dick’s eyes slip to the side, head flopping back as he struggles to keep himself from throwing up. Any thoughts of antagonizing the man quickly vanished as Dick’s eyes landed on something above them.
“What, you want to die sooner? Pathetic–” The man started shaking Dick like a ragdoll and his eyes moved to land back on the man. There was a twitch to Dick’s lip, a bit of blood dribbling out. “Whattare ya smiling about, huh?”
A tiny, weak laugh escaped Dick, head lulling back again to look at the roofline. “Good luck…”
“What–” The other man pipes up before he lets out a terrified scream as something pulls him into the shadows. The bite man currently holding Dick snaps his head to the side. “Shit–” He doesn’t get anything else out before, from above them, a blue clad figure dropped onto him.
Dick was dropped, but before he could slam into the floor for the thousandth time tonight, an arm caught him and pulled Dick into a warm chest.
In all his moonlit glory stood Damian, foot pressed on the chest of the goon and arms wrapped tightly around Dick’s body, firm but careful. A deep warmth filled Dick at the sight of his big brother and a hitching sob burst out of the boy. Damian faced Dick and pulled him closer, one of his many daggers appearing to slice the rope around Dick’s wrists smoothly. As soon as Dick could move again, Damian’s arms wrapped him in a proper hug and Dick wasted no time in returning it, face pressed into his neck.
“Oracle, best route home?” The serious voice had Dick peeking past Damian’s shoulder to see Tim, fully covered in the Black Bat suit and holding Babs carefully against his chest. Tim was pressing a finger to his ear and he could imagine Duke’s stern voice as he mapped out routes and tracked rouge activity.
Apparently getting his answer, Tim turned his head towards Damian. Dick’s line of sight was limited to the other end of the alleyway as Damian turned to have one of their silent conversations.
Swallowing roughly, Dick placed his face back into Damian’s shoulder. His head was hurting and he knew he wasn’t supposed to sleep until he was able to have a check for concussions, but he was just so tired. Damian was running a hand up and down his back and his voice rumbled through his chest, soothing the aches and hurts he had.
Dick and Babs were so grounded…
A hand carding through his hair lulled him to sleep.