Mask of Glass

Ch 5

"Sad?" Dick asked, looking concerned.

"No bud, I'm fine." Bruce replied, ruffling Dick's raven hair. Bruce suddenly noticed that Dick was now at least the same height as him, perhaps taller. 'I wonder if that was a side effect of the process that turned him into a talon?' Bruce wondered to himself. He considered asking Dick about it, but he doubted that his son would know, and even if he did that he would be able to speak the answer with his limited vocabulary.

"This is your room." Bruce said instead, grabbing the boxes of Dick's things and moving them from their spot on his bed.

Dick looked flabbergasted. He stared at Bruce for a minute, as if he was suddenly going to say it was all a joke and return Dick to the cell in the Batcave. "Thank you... Ba'man... Batman." Dick smiled widely after saying this and gave Bruce a tentative hug.

"Call me Bruce..." Bruce said, wrapping his arms around his son.

If he had to tell the truth Dick never wanted the hug to end. He had loved the one he received from Bruce earlier, and was glad the man was willing to hug him again now. Dick had never been hugged or received any positive physical touch while he had been with the court and he was starved for it now.

When Bruce released him from the hug Dick wanted nothing more than to return to the kind and comforting embrace. He suspected that Bruce might object to that so instead he followed the man back downstairs where Alfred and his brothers were.

As soon as they were downstairs Alfred brought over a plate of warm cookies and offered one to Dick. He took one and nearly fainted after the first bite from the sheer goodness of the taste. Dick was quite sure he had never tasted anything as good as that in his entire life. Well... in the part of it he could remember at least.

"Thank you." Dick said to Alfred around a mouthful of cookie.

"You are very welcome Master Dick." Alfred replied with a smile. He had missed Dick rather fiercely over the past 5 years, and had to resist the urge to wrap the man in a hug.

"Do you remember anything else Dick?" Tim said, walking up behind his older brother and snatching a cookie from off of the plate Alfred was holding.

Dick only shook his head no. The entire manor seemed so familiar to him, yet still foreign. So far his entire day had felt like one giant episode of déjà vu.
—
There wasn't much to do around the manor, so eventually Tim and Dick ended up in the Batcave.

The Batcave had a large and well equipped training area. When Dick saw it he excitedly ran over to the gymnastics equipment and hopped onto a balance beam, standing on his hands and walking down the length of the beam before launching himself off into a backflip. Instead of landing he grabbed onto a pair of gymnastic rings that were hanging close by and hauled himself up to a horizontal position which he held for a while before flipping around and letting go of the rings.

Dick continued messing around on the various equipment, eventually inviting Tim to join him, even showing the younger a few tricks.

Eventually the two ended up on the trapeze. Dick had just taught Tim how to do a knee hang catch and they were now attempting it again, this time with Tim making the catch.

Dick let out a joyous laugh as he swung through the air with his legs hooked over the bar. Tim swung towards him and Dick grabbed his wrists, releasing the bar with his legs and swinging back towards the platform. He landed solidly on the platform and watched as Tim swung over to the other one and got off there.

"Good." Dick said to Tim, sending him a bright smile.

"Not too bad yourself." Tim replied with a cheeky wink.