#astratask03

“Here,” a voice said, followed by a loud thud of something being dropped onto his desk missing his fingers by mere inches. Dick looked up from his work, blinking at Damian hovering by his side before looking back at the book that he’d apparently bought for him.

“Um, thank you?” He said, pulling it closer to him for a closer look, “What exactly is it?”

The younger boy let out a huff of air and leant over him to open the book – which wasn’t actually a book but a photo album  – to the front page where in, Alfred’s tell-tale script had been written an inscription;

To Dick,

We wish you well on your new adventures,

and hope these photos allow you to take

a little of home with you.

Love,

The family.

Dick furrowed his brow as he read it before looking back up at Damian with a raised brow only to find him looking anywhere but at him, which only helped to clear up Dick’s confusion. He knew his leaving hadn’t been taken all that well by the youngest Wayne, so he supposed this was his way of giving his blessing. Though a photo album didn’t really seem Damian’s way. Throwing one of his favourite knives at him with a note saying he could keep it seemed more his style.

From the corridor he could hear the sounds of people whispering and the squeak of a door being pushed open just a little further so they could all peer round to see him opening their present. How Damian had been chosen to give him the album, he didn’t know. Tim seemed like the better choice to him, but he guessed the decision had been made via some kind of game. How he was going to miss his idiots.

Smiling, Dick turned his eyes back to the album and turned the page to find the worn photo of his parents stuck to the front page, their smiling faces frozen in their youth always brought a bitter sweet smile to his face. His fingers traced gently over the image before he turned to the next page which bought a laugh out of him at the sight of the haphazard christmas photo Stephanie had made them take two years previously. The cringey jumpers looked even worse than he remembered them and though the look of vengeance on Jason’s face he had seen just last night.

“Dami, this is amazing,” Dick said as he turned to the next page only to find it covered in twelve cut out photos of the the family members faces, with their names written underneath. He gave gave the boy a small nudge with his elbow, “But, I’m only moving to Cali you know, I’m not about to forget all your names. And is this meant to mean Ace is the family or did you mix the photos up?”

“I know that Grayson,” Damian said finally looking back at him with a glare, “We couldn’t find a small enough photo to go there so I volunteered a picture of Ace.”

He continued flipping through the pages with a smile, sometimes letting out a laugh at some of the photos they had found to fill the space. Dick was fairly certain the people in them didn’t know half the photos where being taken, which made them even better.

Dick had always known that none of the members of this family were very good at expressing their emotions, but it was nice to see that they did care. Even if none of them were going to say it verbally. Turning to the last page (a very old photo of him and Bruce from when he had first moved in with the billionaire and was still hopeful for some kind of normal childhood), Dick closed the book and grinned as he rested his hands on top of it, tapping his fingers on the simple blue covering.

“I’m going to miss you too, Dami,” Dick said quietly, and then while leaning backwards in his chair and tilting his head back he said a little more loudly, “I’ll miss all of you too.” He heard the mumbled cursing and shoving off the wall in response and grinned wider. None of them knew how to express an emotion to save their lives, but Dick always knew they cared.

DICK GRASYON (25)– Jesus Castro

BRUCE WAYNE (47) – Anson Mount

ALFRED PENNYWORTH (?) – Peter Capaldi

JASON TODD (19) – Brandon Perea

CASSANDRA CAIN (19) – Natasha Liu Bordizzo

STEPHANIE BROWN (18) – Natalie Alyn Lind

TIM DRAKE (17) – Seo Kong-Joon

DAMIAN WAYNE (15) – Finn Wolfhard

CLARK KENT (43) – Tom Welling

DONNA TROY (26) – Connor Leslie

BARBARA GORDON (23) – Lindsay Morgan