Forgotten Bonds

Fifteen - Cavorting with Fire

October 20th, 2008. Monday, 11:37 am. 

Wintergreen's interference the previous week was still irking Slade even with a full week of time passing by. A play day? Whoever heard of such a ridiculous thing?! This wasn't girl scouts. The old man was seriously going senile – and he had the gall to excuse himself from all the activities! 

That blasted, senile, doddering, old geezer! 

But... if Slade was completely honest with himself, the day had turned out pretty interesting. He hadn't been expecting the boy to open up enough to actually ask about his past. Luckily for the boy, it was a past that Slade hadn't minded sharing with him. He did, however, avoid mentioning anything about meeting his wife during that time period. There was no need to mention such things. 

It had been good; Slade admitted it – even with the bout of disobedience and willfulness that Dick displayed. Mentally counting to ten had truly helped Slade keep his temper and the boy had turned more submissive and cooperative after that. The casual day seemed to do the boy a world of good, especially after going through so much. While Slade didn't really want to admit it, if Wintergreen hadn't forced that relaxing day on them, the boy probably would've cracked under the stress. Now he seemed back to his natural self at times. Also, Slade hadn't heard any more screams in the night, neither had the boy shown any panic attack tendencies. 

But he still seemed skittish at times and confused. He seemed worried that Slade would exact violence against him. Not that Slade could blame him; he had done quite a bit to the boy over the previous month. But Slade had thought that it would've eventually worked. 

But, interestingly enough, Dick seemed more submissive this past week. He obeyed more and without question, which was surprising to Slade. He still showed fire at times when he was getting tired or irritated, but for the most part he did very well. Perhaps the old man knew what he was talking about after all. 

It seemed as if the mere threat of swatting him made the boy squirm, blush, and consent to a command like a meek little child. He had swatted the boy a few times for disrespect, only to get a startled frozen look; which quickly turned into that meek expression of a chastised child. It was really quite amusing to Slade. It also greatly pleased him. If he had known this new discipline technique would've worked this well, he would've done it since day one. 

But it also confused him. Why wouldn't the threat of getting an arm broken scare the boy into submission when a simple hard swat across his backside would? A broken arm hurt far more and was lasting pain. It simply perplexed Slade to no end. He just couldn't comprehend the boy's logic and thinking. 

Another thing Slade noticed, it seemed to only last a little while before the boy got his fire back. Because no matter how many times he threatened today, the boy just would not listen to him; and thus, Slade was beginning to lose his temper with the infernal child. 

Maybe it was because the education was on guns. He thought he'd start the boy off slow with it. He was currently teaching the boy at the kitchen table with an advanced technology tablet he had picked up before it was released to the public. Slade had hoped that the touch screen capabilities would make the boy more interested to learn about it, perhaps bring some interactive interest. He knew Batman's moral code was ingrained in Dick and as such would be extremely hard to break. So, Slade was giving Dick an overview of the history of guns and the different types of the weaponry. 

Dick was just not receptive to it at all. 

"Slade, for the last time," snapped Dick finally. "I don't care. I refuse to learn this."