theknightshift | open post (nsfw)

Skip to Main Content

open post (nsfw)

text. action. audio. video.

CODE BY TESSISAMESS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ For a moment, Bruce's focus shifts. A few quick keystrokes and it seems the tracer's done its job. Dick's signal is faint, weak. Encrypted. Probably anticipated Bruce trying to to access it. But Bruce has already set the computer to start the decryption process.

Finally, he speaks up. ]

This is a temporary fix. Jones isn't known for his patience.

[ It's not lost on Bruce how flat Dick sounds now as if the vibrancy has been smothered out of him. It's not lost on Bruce that it's partially his fault. ]

Are you alright? Did he hurt you?

[ there's a pause and a few taps on the keyboard, but Dick doesn't catch the quiet sound of it over the echoes in the sewers. it's true. he doesn't have a lot of time, and Dick, as always, has promised a big promise. ]

No. Just a few scratches. Nothing like what he did to you.

[ there's a tenderness in his voice, mixed in with all the protectiveness, softening the anger that made him want to hurt Waylon back. ]

Why? You worry about me now?

[ The question sort of stings. Dick had always been important to him. The change in their relationship only amplified it. ]

I will always be concerned about you, Dick.

[ He puts something else on the screen of the computer decrypting Dick's signal. In anticipation of his return. ]

Come back to the cave. I'm accessing Iron Heights' files. I might have a lead.

[ Perhaps it was meant to sting a little, a bit of a prod beneath a cloak of humour. However, he immediately feels bad about it.

Not that he would say as much. ]

You should be resting.

[ He ends the call shortly after and heads back to the cave anyway. He strips off Nightwing and soaks off the sewers in a shower before finally making it down in just a pair of shorts and a towel slung over his shoulders. There’s a tracker left in the suit, and a tracker buried in his upper thigh, both possibilities for Bruce’s decryption. His hair is still damp as he steps up to the desk and pulls Bruce’s attention to himself.

Slowly, he gives Bruce a once-over. ]

I thought you were supposed to be horizontal. What are you doing up?

[ He should be doing a lot of things. There were case files to sift through and organize. Evidence to catalogue. Notes to prepare. None of it he could do if he had resigned himself to being a good patient. He's never been one of those, not when there's work to be done.

There's nothing to say to that, so Bruce doesn't protest the ending of the call and only spares Nightwing a glance when he comes home. He gets more than a glance when he comes back from the showers. For once, he gets Bruce's full attention. No new injuries that he could note. He seemed to be walking fine. No pupil dilation.

Dick is fine and Bruce gets back to work. ]

I'm fine. Come look at this. Medical reports buried under a few outdated security protocols. They were trying to replicate Jones's regenerative ability.

[ For all of about twenty-five seconds, Dick gets Bruce's eyes on him, gets his full, undivided attention that came how it always came: paranoia. As quickly as it came, it went, and Bruce was turning back to his files.

Dick comes when summoned, towelling through his hair as he rolls up a chair beside Bruce. ]

Do we know why? [ He looks at the files Bruce has open across his screens, then to Bruce himself, lingering on the areas he knows are broken. If Bruce started answering him, Dick interrupts: ]

Bruce, I got it from here. Will you rest? [ He's asking for trust, just like he asked a thousand times before. Both hands find the arms of Bruce's chair and pull it until the castors drag him away from the desk. Dick turns Bruce to face him and gingerly cups a hand on his cheek. ]

Please?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only