Cereta's Web: Loitering With Intent

Loitering With Intent
by Lucy Gillam

Of all the things Dick had picked up as a child in the circus, he'd never thought that the basic sewing he'd learned from the lady who made the costumes would be an important survival skill. And yet, as he looked at the third tear his costume had acquired in the last month, he cast a grateful thought in her direction. At least this one was on the sleeve, and small enough to fix. Sooner or later he was going to have to replace the whole outfit, and strangely enough, black, tear-resistant, body-fitting outfits that fit grown men were hard to come by in No Man's Land. As he trudged tiredly into the abandoned doctor's office they'd been using as a base of operations, he made a mental note to ask Huntress where she'd gotten hers.

Except that hers was now lying on the floor of the common room. Costume, belt, bat-shaped weapons, all of it.

Another Bat had left. Left Gotham, left him.

"Okay, maybe just a little melodramatic, there, Dick," he muttered. But something had happened. Huntress was well-nigh pathological about keeping her supplies away from others. She'd moved them twice when it became obvious he'd found them, and would probably have moved them again if she'd known he found the third hiding place. She wouldn't have just left them here, in the middle of the room. There were no other signs of a struggle, or anything to indicate where she'd gone.

"Excuse me, sir."

Dick nearly jumped through ceiling. Really, he was getting sloppy, hanging out with the good guys. Selina would have his head when he saw her again.

The polite statement and cultured accent seemed utterly incongruous with the rumpled clothing and dirty face, but the middle-aged man standing near the receptionist's desk was the only other person Dick could see in the room.

"Forgive me for startling you, sir, but I was just about to leave this for you." He held out a folded piece of paper. "It seems now I can deliver it in person."

Dick cautiously stepped forward and took the note. It wasn't the strangest thing that had happened in the last four months, but it was close. He opened the folded sheet--

It was a stick figure drawing. With cat ears.

Shit. Ohshitohshitoh…

This was bad.

No, this was good.

This was really bad.

Batman was back; that was a good thing.

He knew Dick was still here. He almost certainly knew Dick had been working with Huntress. From the abandoned costume, he had not been pleased. That was very much not a good thing.

He had sent a message. He must…

"So, I gather he's back at, um, the old place?" he asked the messenger. And he wants to see me, he thought, but didn't say. He wasn't entirely sure he trusted his voice.

"The warehouse, yes, sir. I believe he would be most appreciative if you would join him there."

Dick looked at the man, smiling tiredly. "He didn't actually say that, did he?" It was really a rhetorical question.

"Not in so many words, sir. However," the man added with a faint smile, "suffice to say I am rather adept at reading between his lines."

Dick nodded slowly. "Are you…" he gestured to the door.

"I have another errand to run at the moment, sir, but I believe you'll find him there."

"Right." So all he had to do was go meet him.

Sure. Nothing to it.

~~~

He wasn't surprised to find Batman was standing in front of a map of Gotham, which was hanging in exactly the same place on the office wall that it had before. He did not look over when Dick entered, nor did he speak.

Of course. If he had been a trifle less nervous, Dick would have rolled his eyes.

"So. You're back," he said, and then did roll his eyes, at himself this time. Dick took off his goggles. "I suppose you're wondering why I'm still here."

"The question crossed my mind," Batman replied, still not looking at him.

"Yeah, well. Funny story, really." Dick pondered all the different ways he could explain, and then sighed. "Look, I stayed because I had to. Now I don't suppose you want to tell me where Huntress is?"

"Gone," Batman replied, finally turning around. His expression was as grimly non-revealing as always, but the way his hand was gripping the marker he'd been using told a very different story. Dick felt a little less nervous.

"Informative as always. Gone where? And why?"

"Back to her own neighborhood."

Which most likely meant back to her old costume, but at least-- "So, what, she's just going to stay there? I mean, I don't know if you've looked around the city, but whatever you have planned, you're going to need help."

"She's unreliable. She can't be trusted not to take things too far."

Dick pushed down his irritation. Losing his temper wasn't going to help matters. "Look, I know you didn't approve of her before the quake, but that was before the quake. I'm not saying I exactly love her methods sometimes, but I was working on that. Is this about the costume? Because--"

"I know her reasons," Batman interrupted him. "She still had no business wearing it."

"If you know her reasons, then you know she was right! Somebody needed to be wearing it!"

"And it had to be her?" For the first time in the entire conversation, Dick heard a trace of emotion in Batman's voice, and more, an accusation.

"Well, who… Oh, wait, wait, wait." Dick took a deep breath. Maybe losing his temper wasn't such a bad idea. "You, you told me to leave. You left me a note and a pile of cash and ordered me to get out of Gotham, and now you're mad that I didn't take your place? Oh, that's priceless. You stand there all high and mighty about her wearing it…" He could tell he was losing it.

"She had. No. Business. Wearing it," Batman ground out. "And you had no business being with her."

"So, what, now you're going to control who I associate with? I thought you gave up on that ten years ago! Or are you going to meet her on a rooftop and order…" His jaw dropped. "You did, didn't you? Who the hell do you think you are?"

For a moment, he thought Batman was going to hit him again, but he just clenched his fists and turned back to the map.

He grabbed Batman's shoulder to pull him around, even if it was like trying to pull a mountain. "Don't just stand there like..."

Before he could think of an appropriately insulting term for "stupid, cold-hearted lump of arrogant, soulless crap," hands like vices grabbed his shoulders and his breath was knocked out of his body as he was slammed against the wall.

"Don't ever," Batman said, his face near enough for Dick to feel the heat of his breath, "do that again."

Faced with an angry Bat inches away, Dick did the first thing that occurred to him: he kissed him. And before he could reflect on what a truly stupid idea that was, he realized Batman was kissing him back.

Not just kissing him back, but kissing him back with the same focus and intensity he brought to everything he did. Not just kissing him, but devouring him, locking his hands in Dick's hair, pressing him back against the wall, owning him.

Someday, Selina had told him, going for the obvious is going to get you into big trouble.

Oh yeah. Big trouble. Dick shuddered.

She'd probably have a few words to say about this particular situation, come to think of it.

Dick grabbed Batman's shoulders and used them to lift himself until his feet were barely touching the floor. “Always knew,” he managed to gasp as Batman's mouth found the corner of his jaw, “those pull-ups would have their uses.” And then Batman's mouth was back on his, and a hand was grasping his ass, pulling him up even further until their faces were level.

Dick reached between them, trying to find an opening in the costume, somewhere, anywhere he could touch, and having little success. He wryly reflected that ease of access was probably not a priority for Bat-costumes, and oh, God, how was he supposed to concentrate when the man was doing that?

Batman pulled back, only a few inches, but much too far for Dick's taste. When he tried to follow, he was answered with a quiet, "Wait." He settled Dick back on his feet with a gentleness Dick hadn't known he was capable of.

"Wait? Oh, come on, you're not going to get all broody on me now, are you?" Batman raised a gloved hand between them, but didn't pull back any further. Instead, he moved both hands to his cowl and slowly, carefully, pulled it off.

The face underneath was flushed, tired, and extremely familiar, a face more often seen on television screens and newspaper pages than so close.

Oh.

"I guess that explains where you've been," was all Dick could think of to say.

Batman...Wayne...Bruce simply nodded, but the weight of all those hearings, of that failure, was evident.

Dick nodded in return. "Well." He knew this was an enormous moment, an enormous thing, and that everything was going to depend on what he did next. The temptation to make a joke, to put them back on their old, familiar ground, was almost overwhelming.

He allowed himself a grin, then reached up and tugged at Bruce's hair to pull him back down. Sometimes, words were redundant.

Batman's…Bruce's kiss was almost tentative this time, as if without the mask he'd lost his surety in his own desire. Or maybe in Dick's. Well, that wouldn't do at all. Dick wrapped a leg around Bruce's waist to pull him in tighter, and was rewarded with an indrawn breath that was almost a hiss. That seemed to do the trick, because he found himself pressed between the wall and a man who might as well have been and those hands were lifting him again, urging his other leg, oh, yeah, he'd just known the man could be taught.

Gravity taken care of for the moment, Dick reached again between their bodies, using his other hand to pull Batman's cowl even further down to expose his throat. He felt several days worth of stubble and tasted salt and knew he'd never wanted anything more in his whole life, not since he'd found a home with Selina, not since he'd made himself stop wanting his parents back.

By the efficient fervor with which Batman...Bruce was tugging at his shirt, the feeling was mutual. And then his hand was moving down the front of Dick's pants and oh, God he still had the gloves on. There was no finesse to it, just desperation and pressure and that mouth on his smothering Dick's cry as he came.

Dick was still shaking and just realizing that he'd never even gotten Batman's belt off when he was lifted just a few inches, and Batman was pressing against him, pushing and straining against Dick's hips. Dick braced himself on the wall and pressed back, it wasn't long before Batman stiffened and made an almost imperceptible sound against Dick's throat.

After a minute of heavy breathing, Batman eased him down again, less steadily this time, but did not pull back. Dick made no move to urge him.

In just a few seconds, he thought, he's going to step away. And then he's going to get that blank look again, or pull up his mask, or…

Bruce did step back, but he did none of those things. Instead, he brought one hand up to Dick's throat and gently rubbed a thumb over a spot that was already stinging from a bite. "Are you…?" He didn't finish the question, but it wasn't hard to guess.

Dick smiled. "Never better. Really." He still wasn't entirely steady, and there would be bruises tomorrow, but he felt better than he had in months, better than he had since the quake, or maybe even since the day Batman had stopped him from robbing Markel's Jewelry Store. Now, with Bruce Wayne staring down at him, he finally allowed himself to say, "You couldn't have said something, I don't know, three, maybe four years ago?"

To his astonishment, Bruce smiled at him. "There were…complications."

"Well, true. I mean, the whole you crime stopper, me thief thing." Dick felt himself flush. That wasn't an idea he particularly wanted to bring up right now, when he could still almost feel Batman's hand on his...

"That was one of them."

"And yeah," Dick hurriedly said, "that's one helluva secret identity you have there. I mean, you're…" Shit. Bruce Wayne. He'd just had sex with Bruce Wayne. The same Bruce Wayne Selina had… Oh, shit.

"She's going to kill me," he heard come out of his mouth before he could stop it. Well, she wouldn't, of course, but she would look at him, and she'd have words. Definitely words.

To his credit, Bruce did not pretend to misunderstand. "I think she's more likely to kill me."

"True enough." Dick shook his head. "Not something I want to deal with now." What he would tell her, if he told, if there was anything to tell her beyond just this moment. There was plenty to deal with already, not the least of which that he was standing here looking at the face Batman kept hidden from the rest of the world.

There was plenty to think about in what would happen in the next few minutes, let alone a future he couldn't even imagine.

He'd just had sex with Batman. With Bruce Wayne. He'd come here expecting… Well, at best to be glared at, and instead…

Dick shook his head to clear it. "Speaking of which," he added, pushing Batman back a few inches, "this did not solve the problem we were discussing, the one where you don't just get to make decisions for me."

Now Batman's face did shut down. "She's not a good influence."

Dick tried very hard to keep the laughter in. He failed. "Oh, God. I'm sorry. I know, bad time to be laughing, but it's just you have that guidance counselor voice again, and man, you just had me pinned against the wall with your hand on my…" With considerable effort, he got control of himself. "Honestly, Ba…Bruce, who do you think you're talking to?"

Bruce's jaw tightened again, and Dick sighed.

"Look, either you trust me, or you don't, but I can't be your partner if you don't trust me even that much."

Something shifted in Batman's expression, and he nodded. "You…may have to remind me of that. Fairly often."

Dick smiled again. "If you say so." He grinned. "If it's anything like the first time, that could be fun." He was rewarded with what he was learning to identify as a blinding smile, where Batman was concerned. He pulled his costume into as much order as he could. "So…now what?" he asked, as he had so many times after the quake.

Bruce pulled his cowl up, and Batman replied, "Now we take back Gotham."

Dick knew a moment when he heard one. "Sounds like a plan." He tugged his own shirt down in what certainly felt like an impressive manner. Except…"Um, I don't suppose you'd know where I could get a new shirt?"