Dick Grayson one shots

Emotional support plant

Dick was in mourning... but he was also in denial, which is how he found himself with an aloe vera plant about the size of his pinky sitting in a pot by his window, lovingly placed where it would get just the right amount of sun.

'I should name it,' he thought to himself, fixating for a whole 15 minutes on thinking of the perfect name... he eventually gave up and flopped down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling until thoughts of his recently murdered brother inevitably found their way into his mind.

Tears streamed down his cheeks and he found himself talking out loud. "Jay," he sobbed. "Wh- why'd you have to go? I'll admit... I-I didn't like y-you very much at first... b-but you won me o-over... It's not fair. I-it should've been me." Dick curled in on himself, finding that he was talking in the direction of his new plant... as if it could hear him... as if it were Jason...

Dick cried for a bit longer, mumbling apologies to the plant. He eventually started drifting towards sleep. Before his eyes closed completely he took one more look at the plant. Jason, he decided, was a perfect name.

—

"I feel like I should get a therapist Jason," Dick mumbled, glancing at his plant. "I probably look crazy for talking to a plant... I probably am..."

Dick sighed and rubbed at his eyes. He didn't want to cry again... you'd think he'd have run out of tears by now.

He took a shaky breath, "I miss you," he said, looking over at the little plant. He hadn't had it long, but it had already grown a good inch or so. "Remember... remember when we painted a smiley face out of glow in the dark paint on the back of Bruce's cowl... he didn't notice until more than halfway through patrol," Dick said, a smile appearing on his face for a moment.

The smile didn't last long however. "He got so mad at you and me... and then we got in a fight..."

Tears dripped slowly down Dick's face. "I should've been around more... should've been better at keeping you safe like a good big brother."

Dick looked at the plant. The sun was shining through it, making it seem to almost glow. It seemed to say 'Everything's going to be alright,' and Dick found he could believe it. It would be hard, it always is when you lose a loved one, but over time he'd get better at dealing with the pain.

—

Two years later

—

Dick was swinging around Blüdhaven when a voice buzzed through his earpiece. "Apartment security breached," the robotic voice announced. "Defense mechanisms disabled."

'Why do things like this always happen on the worst days?' Dick thought to himself as he adjusted his course.

He entered his house through the same window he'd left through earlier, eyes narrowing when he noticed it had been left slightly open by whoever had broken in. Rude. Sure, they were breaking into his apartment, but did they have to leave the window open? There were enough bugs in his apartment as is.

Dick stepped inside, noting a smear of what looked like blood on the window sill... that was weird.

His breath caught, tears pricking his eyes when he noticed the dirt on the ground. "No... no no no no no," he mumbled as he stepped over the stool his plant had been sitting on. Eyes drifting to the shards of the pot his plant had once been growing in.

Dick whimpered when he saw what had become of the plant itself. Over the past few years it had grown to be somewhere past two feet tall, multiple smaller plants growing off of it. It was now on the floor, a part of it smashed into the hardwood.