Work Text:
Making It Work Ain’t Easy
There were too many kids around. Granted, the DEO brats weren’t at the Tower anymore, and Rose wasn’t a child, but… And Dick had never had problems with Lian. He loved Lian. But Cerdian…well, no. To be fair, Cer was pretty cute, and amazingly well-behaved for a one-year-old. Dolphin didn’t really fit in with the team, but Rose wasn’t a part of the team, either. Garth…well, he was one of Dick’s oldest friends, and of course he had nothing against him.
Except for this babysitter exchange he’d set up with Roy. Now Dick rarely ever got to see Roy and Lian without Cerdian in tow. He rarely got to see Lian without Dolphin and Cerdian around, and even with Rose to nanny Lian, he rarely saw Roy alone anymore.
It had been easier not to begrudge Roy time with Donna when it looked as if they might be getting back together, but to hear that she’d been basically using Roy…and Roy hadn’t minded. Dick could admit, if only to himself, that while he felt hurt on Roy’s behalf, he also felt jealous that Roy had blown him off for Donna when it wasn’t even serious.
Dick wondered what it was about him and Roy that he and Kory broke up and got back together only after years apart, same as with Roy and Donna, but that he and Roy would only part for a few months, barring other relationships.
Watching as Lian chased her father through the sprinklers, pelting him with the yellow foam darts from a Nerf blaster, Dick smiled. Maybe it was because he and Roy had always been scared of what was between them, scared of how it intense it was and how good it felt.
Things had never been as easy for them in their respective relationships with the girls – well, women, now – as they had been with each other. Still, it seemed sort of odd. But then, love wasn’t supposed to be easy – except, apparently, when it was.
“Uncle Nightwing!” Lian called. “Come play with us.” She pouted adorably, plying his guilt for spacing out on their afternoon together. Especially when he’d just been mentally bemoaning the fact that such time happened too infrequently for his tastes.
Roy grinned at him with that rakish flared he’d perfected back when he wore a dorky hat to match Ollie’s, and Dick tried to force the flush from his cheeks. He cleared his throat and rose to his feet. “Sure, Lian,” he said, with a smile for them both. He stripped out of his shirt and kicked off his shoes before running out to join them in the spray from the sprinklers. Days when just the three of them could be together were rare these days, especially with Roy and Lian living in the Tower and him not.
And hour later, totaling two bruised shins (both Roy’s), one jarred shoulder (all Dick’s), and four lost Nerf arrows (that would undoubtedly turn up amidst a supervillain battle to trip them up the day after Roy got around to replacing them), Lian was finally tuckered out.
They all lay sprawled beneath the spreading branches a large oak tree, the girl settling down for a nap between them.
“Hey, ‘Wing?”
Dick turned lazily to face his friend. “Yeah?”
“What’s been up with you lately?” Roy asked, proving once more than he wasn’t as self-involved as his actions sometimes made it seem.
Dick fought the urge to shrug and laugh Roy off by saying something about Batman. It was perfect time to tell him the truth. “I’ve been thinking,” he said, and before Roy could make a joke, he added, “about us.”
Roy stilled, then raised an eyebrow questioningly. “What about us?” he asked. His tone was diffident, but he didn’t object when Dick took his hand, even squeezing back once.
“I’ve been thinking that I…I want us to try and make things work. Really work.”
Roy’s eyes flickered, his hand tensing in Dick’s grip as if he wanted to run away. Dick held his gaze steady, and finally Roy seemed to let himself relax. “Yeah?”
Dick nodded ever-so-slightly. “Yeah.”
Roy’s tongue flicked across his lips and he gave a sharp nod. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Dick asked, not quite daring to believe it was that easy. Even though it always had been, with them.
Roy nodded again. “Okay,” he repeated, confirming Dick’s thoughts.
A grin spread across Dick’s face, almost of its own accord. “Great,” he said, and sealed his words with a kiss.
Roy returned it with interest, and they didn’t stop kissing until a sleep voice asked from between them, “Does this mean Uncle Nightwing is gonna sleep over more often?”
They pulled back from each other, staring abashed at the impish little girl grinning up at them. Roy sent Dick a helpless glance, which Dick returned tenfold. Sighing, Roy bent down to look his daughter in the eye. “Yeah, etai yazi, it does.”
“Yay!” Lian cheered, and did her best to wrap her small arms around both of the men.
Roy sent a wink at Dick, who snorted, then grinned and cuddled his new family close.