Nightwing, (accidental?) Agent of SHIELD.

Three

Maybe Dick wasn't the only one to have a rough night?

"Really, Grayson," And exasperated Roy Harper huffs from the other end of the hallway, quickly turning around to walk back towards the three unlikely neighbours. "You'd think you, of all people, would be a little more graceful than this."

Dick snarks something crude and mouth+soap worthy back in Vlax Romani under his breath, and twists himself upwards until he's sitting crosslegged. Rogers just stares hopelessly for a moment until his manners kick in and he's extending both hands down towards Dick to help him up. Gratefully, Dick clasps on for just a moment - prolonged contact with a national treasure seems blasphemous, for some reason, akin to making paper aeroplanes out of a Bible - and propels himself back up. Roy announces his presence by running both of his hands through the back of Dick's hair, almost making him startle, to check for any lumps or cuts. (He's fine, of course. His skull's kind of thick. He's hit enough times - or rather, other people have hit it enough times - for him to know that it'd take more than a tumble to the floor to concuss him.)

"I'm not a cat, Roy." Dick huffs as he pats down his ass from any dust from the floor. "I don't always land on my feet."

"Right," Roy says dryly, "sometimes it's your hands."

"You okay there, son?" Captain Rogers asks, as typically gentlemanly as is expected, and Dick bottles up his inner fanboy before he gets too excited at being in Captain America's presence. It's more than just a history-book/comic-book/documentary-born admiration Dick has for this man, it's a personal and very treasured respect. This man had saved countless hundreds of Dick's people from Nazi Camps and Nazi Slavery, and considering that almost 1/4 of Romani people were unforgivably killed (but apparently not all that unforgettably, according to every history lesson Dick's had in America), every fucking one of them counted.

And now he's just been absolutely steamrollered by the man, and boy if it isn't the best day of his life.

"Nothing's broken or bleeding, so that's good."

Both men look slightly wary at Dick's not-so-assurance. Roy huffs at him, and says for him, "He's fine. Don't worry about it."

"Alright, then." Rogers is sceptic, Barnes looks like he wants to crawl out of his own skin (and boy, has Dick been there before), Roy seems pleased with their progressing neighbourly relationship, and Dick just wants to go and stock their damn fridge.

"Hey, so, do either of you know where the nearest grocery store is?" Roy asks them, which has Dick a little suspicious, because he's pretty sure Roy knows where everything is in this neighbourhood. But he also really wouldn't mind having these guys show them around, even if Rogers is a little awkward in person and Barnes is obviously not quite reformed to the point which most people would consider socially and morally acceptable. This is more for Roy than it is for Dick, because Roy's been his best friend for years now and Dick knows that he needs to show Ollie that he can be independent. Do things for himself. That he's not a kid anymore, damnit!

If he's honest...Dick doesn't really know what compelled him to leave the Justice League's fake HQ (which, well, he'd been aware of but had still felt slighted that the four of them weren't treated with same respect as minor Leaguers) in the first place. Maybe it was a knee jerk reaction, maybe it was something that had been festering inside of him without his knowledge, but Dick is pretty sure that he's not going invest any time in trying to 'stick it' to Bruce. He wants to teach Bruce a lesson, for once; that Dick isn't going to go and try to raise himself, and then sit quietly and pretend it's Bruce's who's been doing the good job.

It's too late to get Ollie involved with Roy, the animosity is too deep and Roy's just too old for it to have any much of an affect. But Dick is 13, and Bruce was still very young when he'd taken him in, so this is the time for Bruce to decide if he's going to get over whatever aversion to normal parenting he has, or if he's just going to sit on his hands and make his disapproval known in petty ways.

At the moment, Dick is pretty sure it could go either way. He's not that masochistic as to wait around under Batman's thumb until everything comes to a head, so what's the harm in buddying up a little with some Avengers? (Rhetorical questions tend to lead to complications, in Dick's experience, but he's gonna say 'screw it' for now and just deal with the consequences later. Like a normal kid.)

"Yes, we do. We were just heading there ourselves, it's only like 10 minutes by foot."

"Do you mind if we tag along?" Roy asks a little reluctantly, obviously preferring independence even in the little things but also not an antisocial jerk. Well. Not too much of an antisocial jerk.

"Fine with me." Rogers says kindly. He's a kind man, it's easy to tell, but Dick also knows there's much more to any man than just kindness. Especially Captain America. "Buck?"

Barnes' eyes - gunmetal gray, sharp like the scope of a sniper rifle, a little bit frosty 'round the edges - swoop over Roy almost like an assessment. It takes barely a second before he does the same quick overlook of Dick, though his gaze lingers on Dick's neck, for some reason. (He'll realise, later, is that whilst his sweatshirt before had covered it as he tended pick the neck until it frayed all over his skin; there's a burn on his throat - under his jugular, easy to hide with the make up he'd not used that morning - in the distinctive shape of the barrel of a smoking gun, that his shirt and undershirt doesn't cover. It's probably the only reason Barnes doesn't turn back to his apartment and leave them in awkward silence like he obviously wants to - he's curious, now.)

"It's 8 minutes if we cut through the alley next to Maxwin's Pub."

And on the Sergeant's hoarse and unofficial prompt, the four of them set off for the staircase, and Dick realises not even a quarter of the way down that Roy's plan might be fun. It might be cool, getting to know two guys in their 20's that had been born in the 20's, and it might be refreshing to not be surrounded by JL-approved company.

It might be fun, and it will definitely be somewhat of a tragedy.

And Dick is the embodiment of a fun tragedy, so. Bring it on.

Here we go!! Soz it's taken a bit, this time of year is stressful for us Brit's ((who are still in school in July, FYI))

Comment!! Vote!! DM me if you need!!! Thank you for reading ilysm