Chapter Text
1664 Words
Nightwing’s boots slid across the concrete as he continued to flip from roof to roof. The rain beat down on his back as water trickled down the bridge of his nose. Batman’s shadow was just behind him, keeping up with much less grace.
Patrol that night had been relatively uneventful (aside from regular muggings, as it was Gotham after all). Nightwing was feeling restless and antsy, something that jumping from roof to roof couldn’t fix. He always had a certain need to be in constant movement. He was grateful that nothing bad was happening, but he was bored out of his mind.
Deciding he needed something to do, Nightwing decided to check up on a lead in a case he was working on with a certain shifty magician.
He slid to a stop on the roof of a pie shop and waited for Batman to land beside him. With the splash of a well-placed puddle, Batman landed and gave an approving grunt, signaling for Nightwing to say his piece.
“The night’s quiet, so I’m gonna follow a lead to the magician case I’m working. With any luck, I’ll find my lucky rabbit.”
“Hn.”
“Don’t follow the lead or find a better joke?” Nightwing responded cheekily.
“Where?”
“In Kansas and down the yellow brick road.”
“Nightwing.”
“There was a break-in in a warehouse by the Docks. Witnesses mentioned seeing a magic user with a similar uniform to the one I’m tracking.”
A pause.
“That lead will most likely turn out to be a dead end. It’d be more efficient to just finish patrol with me first.”
Cass was off the grid again, so Batman was going through another “overprotective parent” episode he developed after Damian had died. He understood why Batman was being overbearing, but Nightwing had been dealing with it for a week now with no breaks. He valued closeness with his family, of course, but also he valued his independence.
Not that the rest of his family wanted to be close with him. Not after Spyral.
“B, you’re the one who’s always saying to leave no stone unturned. Nothing big's happening tonight, so I’ll just go check it out real quick, no biggie.”
Before Nightwing could reach for his grapple, Batman grunted again, “You will have time to follow your lead after patrol.”
Nightwing paused for a moment before jumping off the roof anyways and grappling towards his destination. Just before Batman could lecture him over comms, he flipped them off and quickly made his way to the docks.
Swinging through the Gotham night air freed Nightwing in a way that nothing else could. Sure, the smog burned his nostrils and the city was the only thing providing light due to the overcast, but with every flip Nightwing gained more momentum and got closer to the stars with every swing.
The stars peeking through the clouds brought him back to a couple of years ago when he and his brothers would travel like this together. He had to slow down for them to keep up, sure, but it was well worth it to be able to teach them different flips. Tim was always starstruck, Jason would call him a show-off, and Damian would deem the extra flips unnecessary.
After Damian had died, everyone had taken a strange sort of break from each other. Everyone had their own way of grieving and, unfortunately, the Bat Family grieved by distancing and throwing themselves into work until their bodies gave out on them. Though Nightwing usually has the healthiest mental state out of anyone in the family, he too falls victim to the spiraling.
Speaking of Spyral.
There was pretty much no way any of his brothers would speak to him again after he “faked his death to play super spy” as Jason had put it. Bruce is the only one who will even talk to him anymore, which leads him to tonight’s patrol.
“You know, I’m pretty sick of playing mediator between you two.” Oracle must have remotely switched his comms back on, as Nightwing almost flinched in surprise at the sudden voice in his ear.
He came to a stop on a LexCorp billboard to catch his breath. Seriously, why was Lex trying to set up in Gotham of all places?
“You don’t mediate, you just take away our toys until one of us apologizes.”
That earned a chuckle from Babs, “I’m not afraid to do it again if you don’t work this out yourself.”
“Tell B to just meet me by the docks.”
Thank the Lord that Barbara at least still tolerates him. He fired his grapple to fly again.
. . . . . . . . . .
Having finally arrived at the docks, Nightwing did one last graceful flip, rolling and landing next to some containers. He snuck into the blue warehouse to his left through a window and softly closed it behind him. The warehouse was mostly empty, apart from a few crates and ladders leaned up against the wall. The crates look new in contrast to everything else in the room and were branded with a LexCorp logo on their side. Walking through the warehouse, he stepped on a few shards of glass. One glance at the broken skylight told him what he needed to know on how the magician managed to break in (only question is how they got to the skylight). Nightwing approached the crates and opened a few up. To his surprise, they were still filled with all of their contents.
He had been tracking a magician, supposedly female, for the past month who was wearing an orange outfit and a funky hat (the witnesses didn’t care to be more specific). Her plan still isn’t clear, as she has only been spotted turning a couple plants into coffee mugs and breaking into small local businesses, but lately she has been more specific in targeting LexCorp products.
He opened a new container. This one held all of its items as well.
Seeing a shadow in his peripheral vision, Nightwing was not surprised when Batman materialized beside him, “Don’t do that.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Nightwing continued to look through the crates for stolen merchandise, “This warehouse was broken into last night. Who I am assuming is the magician I’m tracking, broke in through the skylight and took some of the shipment heading for Lex-”
“Nightwing. Why have you been so agitated?”
“I’m not agitated, B. Just trying to solve the case.” Nightwing lied through his teeth.
“You have been upset with me lately and…” Batman took a deep breath, supposedly centering himself, “you have been compromising the mission.”
Leave it to Batman to be emotionally stunted. Nightwing understood what Batman was trying to say, but he really didn’t feel like talking in riddles the rest of the night. Even if he knew better, Nightwing decided to pick a fight.
“‘Cause that’s all you care about, right? The mission?”
“Nightwing-”
“No, B. I am upset with you. You’ve been totally in my business lately and maybe I’m a little sick of it.” Nightwing slammed down the container he had opened, causing the wall of boxes behind it to wobble a little. He noticed a box at the top was slightly opened. Having no footprints leading towards it, our magician is either a ghost or she can levitate. He is going with the former.
“It’s not my fault you failed to inform me of your whereabouts. If you would just listen-”
“No, you listen! I’m sorry that you miss Cass and that you’re having trouble keeping Jason on a short leash, but don’t take it out on me. I am a grown man and I deserve to have my own privacy.”
They both stood still for a moment. There was a leak in the roof somewhere in the warehouse and the constant dripping of the water droplets was giving him a headache. Batman seemed to be avoiding his gaze, but Nightwing noticed the way his shoulders were stiff.
“I just want to protect you.”
Batman’s shoulders sagged at the admission.
Those six words struck Nightwing’s core. He immediately turned away from Batman, pretending to be more interested in the opened crate. Seeing as he couldn’t reach it, Nightwing dragged over a ladder and motioned for Batman to assist in the investigation. Together they managed to get the crate on to the ground and peek inside. This one was empty.
After taking pictures of the crate, lack of contents, and the shipping details painted on the side, Nightwing finally turned to face Batman, “I… I appreciate you looking out for me. But I think I need space for the weekend. I know it’s hard to get the boys to come over when I’m around, so I’m going to go to my place for a couple days and you can waste your mother hen energy on them.”
Batman reached out a comforting hand, but pulled it back as fast as he had stuck it out, “Nightwing. Your brothers care about you just as much as I do.”
Nightwing let out a small chuckle, “I know, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re still mad at me.” Even if Nightwing knew it in his heart to be true, the love his brothers once had for him feels farther and farther away with each passing day. He knows that if anything happened to him that his brothers would care, but he doubts that they would care as much as they would have prior to Spyral. If Nightwing needed a few days out of the manor to allow his father to see his sons, he would do that.
Nightwing strode past Batman, “I’ll see you next week, B” and climbed up the wall to exit out the window he came in through. It creaked as he opened it. Not even questioning how Batman managed to enter the warehouse so soundlessly, he climbs out of the warehouse and onto the roof.
Nightwing raised his grapple and flew once more.
. . . . . . . . . .
