Title: And now you know Series: The only immortality Fandom: DCU Rating: Follows something adult, but is not explicit Summary: Some things don't change. Notes: Maelgets an object lesson in why one should not ask me for epilogues. The timeline is completely muddled in my head, what with the Crisis and all. Bruce used to send him away, his voice apprehensive. He used to be afraid of Dick because Dick was just a kid. He gave up after a while and let himself be in love, body, heart, and soul. The memory of falling asleep sated and adored in Bruce's arms can comfort Dick into sleep no matter how cold the night is. No one else has ever held him like that, and maybe no one else can. That didn't make it right. Bruce didn't mean it when he said, "You should see people your own age," but he said it enough that they both figured it was probably true. There was Patty, and there was Sarah, and there was that thing with Roy, and there was Beth. It would have been dishonest to get off the phone with them at nine, patrol, and then sleep with Bruce, however good it would have felt. When they dumped him, though, there was always somewhere to go. On those nights, Bruce was just as in love as he ever was, just as skilled and careful. For a while, they'd both forget that it was basically not going to last. Then Dick would find someone else, and it would stop again. He never gave Bruce a word of apology; Bruce never said anything regretful. It would have been too much pressure in the wrong place. Sex had nothing to do with partnership, not really. That was the way it was -- separate from arguments, separate from costumes, separate from being fired or being angry. After Kory -- and the wedding that wasn't -- He hadn't called ahead, hadn't thought it would be necessary. He knows the Manor security systems as well as anyone. He'd never figured that anyone else would have the stones to sneak into Bruce's bed in the middle of the night, or that they'd be distracting enough to stop Bruce from noticing that there was someone at the window. He sat there for a minute, feeling like an entirely overgrown Peter Pan. He considered knocking. He considered breaking in. He abandoned both possibilities when he focused enough to lipread the things Bruce had never said to him -- things about Robin. Things about love. There was nothing in that room for him, and so he left. In the minds of later generations
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