Dick Grayson one shots

Happy Birthday

PJandDfan  You wanted some fluff?

Unless there was something seriously wrong with him, Dick was always up before Bruce. He believed this to be an effect of having been turned into a talon. It seemed to the 9 year old as if he didn't need much of any of the things normal people required to stay alive. In fact, while Bruce was a sleepy mess with any less than 6 hours of sleep, Dick could get off of patrol at 4 and still wake up at 6 with enough energy for the day.

That morning, as per usual, Dick was eating breakfast with Alfred long before Bruce had even contemplated rolling out of bed, and the butler had said, "Today is Master Bruce's birthday."

The problem was that Dick didn't know what a birthday was. It always embarrassed him when he didn't know something that everyone else obviously did, so he simply smiled at the butler and nodded.

But now that word just wouldn't stop ringing in Dick's head... birthday...

It sounded important, and the way Alfred had said it made it seem like something special, so Dick found himself at the computer, using his limited English to figure out what a birthday was.

'Birthday,' he typed into the search.

Birthday: The anniversary of the birth of a person...

Dick opened a dictionary and read the entry on birthday. He wasn't able to make out most of the words, so eventually he turned to pictures, most of which looked like they were of large cylindrical white blocks with colorful spots on them. They were labeled 'cake', and it seemed like a traditional offering for the one who's birthday it was.

The more Dick looked into what a birthday was the more confused he became. Why did everyone give gifts to the one who's birthday it was instead of the mother who was the one who actually gave birth? What made cake so desirable? And more importantly, did he have a birthday too?

From what Dick could gather he judged that a birthday was a celebration of surviving another year, something others acknowledged by bringing gifts and cake.

'I don't have a cake... I need a cake for Bruce...' he worried to himself.

The nine year old talon made his way to the empty manor's kitchen and started looking for the instructions to summon a cake.

Dick soon found a creased and dog eared book that contained the ancient cake summoning instructions.

Despite not knowing how to read English well, Dick started on the recipe, gathering bowls, ingredients, and even preheating the oven.

Since he couldn't read the individual steps, he simply combined the amounts of each ingredient and mixed the batter up.

After an internal debate over whether he should use a circular pan or a square one, Dick eventually decided on the circular ones and began pouring the liquid batter into the molds after spraying them with some nonstick spray.

Dick stared at the batter in the pans for a while. He'd followed the instructions as best he could, double checking ingredients by the names on the boxes and how they'd been written in the book... but the cake didn't look right. For one, it was all gooey, not at all like the pictures, and Dick didn't understand how putting it in the oven was going to help that...

When the oven reached the correct temperature, Dick slid the different pans inside despite his doubt and started a timer.

While the cake was baking Dick decided to start on another thing that was popular on birthdays, a gift for Bruce.

Dick sat at the kitchen's island for a while, thinking about what he could possibly get for Bruce.

—

By the time the cake's timer dinged Dick had his present neatly wrapped up in white printer paper, and a batch of something called frosting made to cover the cake with.

Dick opened the oven and peered in at the cakes, eyes widening when he caught sight of the beautiful golden brown cakes in their pans. 'They must've evolved in the oven,' he reasoned to himself before reaching in and grabbing one of the pans.

A cry abruptly disturbed the relative silence of the manor when Dick felt the burning heat of the pan on his bare hand.

A tear made its way down his face as Dick looked at his red hands. The skin that was already starting to blister faded back to its original color as Dick's advanced healing kicked in.

Dick wiped the tears from his golden eyes and started looking around the kitchen. He needed something to help him get the cakes out of the oven... something like the things Bruce had given him to keep his hands warm in the winter... What were they called? Hand shoes?

He needed cooking hand shoes... did they even have those? Dick had never seen Alfred cook before, but he could definitely see the butler grabbing things out of the oven barehanded...

A brief exploration of the kitchen proved useful when Dick found two oven mitts. The mitts reached almost to the top of Dick's tiny arms, but they seemed to do the trick in protecting his arms and hands from the heat.

After cooling the cake, Dick spread frosting all over it and stacked the layers up to make a tall beautiful cake. The instructions said to spread on the remaining frosting, and though Dick prided himself on his skill with knives, he finally resorted to simply using his fingers to spread the sweet white cream over the cake.

When the cake was finally frosted to Dick's standard of childish perfection, the talon colored a crayon picture on another piece of printer paper and stuck it to the frosting on the side of the cake.

Taking a step back, the 9 year old reviewed his work. Perfect, he decided. It was absolutely perfect.

—

"Bruce," Dick called out.

"What is it Dickie?" Bruce asked, turning to look at his son from his seat at his desk.

"I need you," Dick said, tugging on Bruce's large hand.

"Ok ok," Bruce said with a chuckle, standing up and following his ward through the winding hallways of the manor.

Dick led Bruce into the dining room where his cake and present were set on the large table.

"Happy Birthday!" Dick called excitedly, wrapping himself around Bruce's waist in a tight hug.

"Thanks Dickie," Bruce said as he ruffled Dick's hair.

"I made the cake myself! You have to try it!" Dick said, a wide smile on his face as he dragged Bruce to the table.

"Oh, did you draw that too?" Bruce asked, gesturing to the drawing that was slowly peeling off of the cake.

"I did! It's of you and me and Alfred," Dick said, pointing at the three different stick figures on the page. "I know Alfred doesn't have a sword, but I added one cuz it's cool... and I gave you a mustache cuz it's cool too."

"Wow!" Bruce said, separating the picture the rest of the way from the cake. "We really should put this in a frame or something, it's excellent work."

"Oh!" Dick suddenly said. "You have to open your present!"

Dick handed Bruce the messily wrapped box he'd prepared earlier. "Don't open it all the way, cuz you don't want them all to get out at once," the small boy said, standing excitedly at Bruce's side, nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Alright," Bruce replied, carefully removing the wrapping before opening the box a crack. He'd been expecting the box to be filled with bugs, or perhaps bats from the cave, but he definitely hadn't been expecting the box to be empty... "What's in there?" He asked Dick.

"I filled it all up with kisses and hugs for when you get sad," Dick said, grabbing on to Bruce's arm. "Do you like it?"

"I love it," Bruce said, crouching down to Dick's level to give him a big hug. "But the best gift this year... the best gift was getting to have you here with me... now, let's go dig into that delicious looking cake you made."