"Care to explain?" Bruce asked, seemingly exasperated but interested nonetheless.

Dick sucked on the straw to his juice box nervously and he sat on a bench to a park. Alfred had insisted that they all take a free day to relax and 'have fun'. Bruce wasn't having much fun; he had to swat a fly every two minutes because it tried to steal their food, and some random single moms tried to spark a conversation with him. To be frank, he wasn't in the mood.

He was glad that they took a trip outside the manor, though. Dick needed to move around and let out all his energy, and take his mind off of his worries. It was also a nice day- for Gotham, at least. It was almost sunny, and there was a nice breeze in the air that day.

Dick had taken a break from playing around and Alfred had told Bruce about the time the boy almost tried sliding down the stairs' handrail.

The eight-year-old smile sheepishly. "I don't know...I was just bored! And it's hard not to want to do something cool when you see Superman doing a bunch of twirls in the air."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Superman?"

Alfred brought a hand up to his mouth to cover his growing smile. How he had been waiting for this conversation!

"Um, yeah, Superman. You know who he is, right?" Dick questioned as he took another sip of his juice.

"Of course I do," Bruce responded. "I'm just curious as to how Superman has anything to do with with this?"

Dick straightened up. "He has everything to do with this! Alfred told me everything about him and showed me something with him on TV. He's sooo cool. I think he's my favorite Superhero. He-"

"Superman is your favorite hero?" Bruce interjected with an absurd look on his face. "But.. erm-" he cleared his throat and recomposed himself. "Shouldn't Batman be your favorite. I mean, psh, it's not a competition or anything, but Batman is Gotham's hero."

Dick shrugged. "Yeah, I guess, but Superman has super powers and is from outer space! Batman is cool- and I like him even more after he helped me- but he's just a normal person. I'll say he's my second favorite hero!" He decided with a satisfied smile while Bruce's posture drooped, defeated. He'd convince Dick one way or another that Batman was better than Superman. Really, Clark of all people. Of all people!

Bruce shot Alfred a weak glare when Dick wasn't looking. The old butler only smiled mischievously and looked the other way. Dick got up from the bench after finishing his juice box and swung on the monkey bars.

Dick was definitely lithe from being an acrobat most, if not all, of his life. He was also smart and quick on his feet. His main weakness, however, was that he didn't have much body strength. Even for his age, he didn't have as much weight or muscle as his peers. It was probably from the general malnutrition he suffered in the juvenile detention center. It wasn't as bad anymore, but it still was a weakness. One that made him very vulnerable to attacks, and one of the biggest reasons Bruce refused to allow Dick to return to school.

There was just no way he could leave Dick there, in the open, susceptible to harm.

Unless he were to get training...

No, no, no. He was a child. He shouldn't be training for anything.

But it could come in handy, and Bruce and Dick could be more at ease if they knew he could defend himself.

Self defense... self defense only.

...Maybe he'd teach him. Just a bit...

- - - - - - - - -

After the picnic, they headed back to the manor. Dick expected Bruce to say that he had work to finish and that he'd be in his office if he needed anything: blah blah; the usual. Instead, the billionaire said that he was taking the day off and he wanted to spent it entirely with Dick.

"I was thinking.. how about we train or something in the gym?" Bruce tried to suggest casually, like he hadn't been overthinking about it for an hour, "I could show you some ways to get stronger, and maybe even some self defense? I can see that Selina taught you a bit already, so I thought maybe you'd want me to as well."

Dick blinked. How did Bruce know that Selina had taught him a bit of moves? Did Alfred tell him about how he disarmed the kidnapper's gun? But even then, how would he know that Selina knew how to technique? The feline-lover was Dick's friend, not Bruce's.

Bruce noticed Dick's confusion and mistook it as something else. "Ah, um, in case you're wondering, I took martial arts lessons when I was younger. So that's how I know how to fight.. so.. yeah.."

Dick wanted to laugh. Bruce was so awkward sometimes! He himself was as well, so he couldn't talk- but still!

"I see," is all Dick said.

"So.. are you interested?" Bruce questioned. "If not it's totally fine. I just wanted to teach you in case another situation-"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. What ever you want, I'm cool with," Dick stated laxly. It's not like he had any plans for the day.

Bruce smiled. "Alright let's go to the gym then."

Bruce said that it would be better to work on his cardiovascular endurance, then muscle strength, and then muscle endurance. Whatever all of that meant anyways. Dick just nodded and followed Bruce's lead. The man seemed to be an expert, mainly because he said big words and had all the equipment. He also was in really good shape, so Dick believed that Bruce knew what he was doing.

Dick found himself out of breath within minutes of running on the treadmill. Bruce was disappointed but unsurprised. It would take longer than he thought to get Dick into shape until he was ready for the actually training.

"Shouldn't you-" Dick panted as he sat down on a bench, "-shouldn't you put down the speed. I-it's.. really fast."

"If you ever need to run from danger, you'll need to be fast. If you get tired that quickly, you're chances of getting escape are much slimmer." Bruce explained sternly.

Dick was taken aback. He agreed to work out with Bruce just for fun. Yeah, he knew his motive was to make sure Dick could have the skills to defend himself if he ever was put in danger again, but now the man was acting like he'd get snatched if he even left the house on his own. And this was more physically requiring than he had expected.

Bruce sighed. "Sorry. I know this is a lot. I'll take it down a notch." He had sounded like Batman for a moment, and he didn't like it. Batman was cold and distant while Bruce was supposed to be generally nice person. A playboy, maybe, but not one who jumped over buildings dressed as a bat.

He didn't mean to be so harsh on the kid. Sometimes he forgot that he was literally eight years old. Well, almost nine.. but that was a topic for another day..

"Okay," Dick imputed, "So that was cardy-vast-allure stuff, and I guess that's for breathing, so I'll practice on it more by running more often. So what about the- um- muscles stuff."

Bruce looked at the weights. No. "We're going to do things the old fashioned way. Push-ups."

Dick groaned.

By the end of the session his arms felt like jelly. His form had been wrong almost half of the time, so Bruce showed him the right way and made him start over. Dick asked if he could do girl push-ups, but Bruce replied with, "the proper term is called a modified push-up, and you can do it, but it'll hinder your growth." Of course, Dick didn't want that so he pushed himself harder.

Bruce walked up to Dick, who lied on his back on the floor with sweat dripping down his forehead, and gave him a cold bottle of water. Dick gladly accepted it and gulped it down.

Bruce crouched down to get closer to Dick's level. "You okay, kiddo?"

Dick wiped the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."

"Tell me if you need a break, alright?" Bruce asked. His eyes pierced into Dick's with concern.

Dick smiled and nodded. Despite how much effort it took, the exercise was sorta fun. He looked forward to feeling stronger in the distant future. Woah, Superman probably does stuff like this all the time! He realized.

The thought encouraged Dick as he did a series of other exercises with Bruce at his side.

After the exhausting workout, Dick took a shower. Bruce told him to meet him at the study afterwards, which was where Dick was heading to now.

When he walked in, he saw Bruce looking through some books. Dick cleared his threat to announce his presence.

"Ah, Dick. Come here," Bruce ordered when he noticed he was in the room. He gestured with his hand to come. "This section over here is all yours."

A whole new bookcase was added to the study, and filling the shelves were colorful books that were clearly for kids.

"Oh wow, Bruce, thanks so much!" Dick said in surprise. He had asked for the books just the other day; this had happened so quickly!

"Anytime, Dick," Bruce assured. "I just wanted to show you where they are so you can go read the, whenever you'd like."

Dick gazed at them. There was a lot; it would take him a while to read them all. That's probably what Bruce wanted..

"So, Bruce, umm.. am I.. going to go back to school?" Dick hesitantly questioned.

Bruce knitted his eyebrows. "I'd prefer if you didn't. It's not safe-"

"But, Bruce-! I have friends now!" Dick argued, "I made myself feel comfortable there, and now I'll have to leave? What's the point in training if I'm going to stay trapped in here anyways!?"

The boy's eyes widened after realizing what he just blurted. He didn't mean to say that. He didn't feel trapped in the manor, but it was only him, Bruce, and Alfred. It got lonely and boring, truth be told. He wanted to be around kids his age! He couldn't lose school, too. Not when he finally felt welcomed there.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that. It's just... it would mean I lot to me if you could please let me go back," Dick restated. "I'll be extra careful for now on! Really! I pinky promise!"

Bruce stared at the floor and considered it. "Okay, yeah. You're right. Sorry, I'm just.. paranoid, I guess. I should've known that school means a lot to you now. But will you wait at least a week until returning? A week to continue training and get you in minimal shape?"

Dick scratched his still wet hair. "Sure.. I can wait a week." He then grinned and picked out a book at random. "Until then, I should probably catch up on my reading, huh?"

He looked at the book title: Mr. Popper's Penguins

Heh, Penguin.

His smiled fell momentarily. He wondered how Oswald was doing. Same went for Selina. He hadn't seen her in a while, he missed her. His smile returned, however.

He was going to exercise a bunch so that when he got his new skills, they'd be surprised and impressed. That's right, he was going to show them that he wasn't a little kid who always needed to be protected!

Dick opened the book and began reading it while Bruce sat across from him, reading his own.

Yeah, he could wait a week.

- - - - - - - - -

Selina huffed before knocking on the Wayne Manor's front door. Alfred, the butler, opened it with a smile, however, she noticed that it was a little forced, almost as if he were expecting something unpleasant to happen.

Smart man, Selina thought as she gently pushed past him and stormed to Bruce who was sitting on the dining table with his laptop in front of him, talking on the phone. It was not business related.

"Hey, maybe you and I can go meet up for dinn-" Bruce said into the phone with a small smile before the short haired female interrupted him by snatching his phone.

"He's not interested," She spat and immediately hung up. Bruce stared at her, his alarm shifting into annoyance.

"Really?" He uttered as Selina returned his phone.

"Listen, playboy," Selina began as she propped herself onto the table to the right of the man's laptop, "You already have enough on your plate. I'm sure you can go a day or two without being the media's favorite hot topic."

Bruce closed his laptop and leaned back into his chair. "I could have been scheduling a business meet up."

"Pfft. Yeah, right," Selina sarcastically remarked, "and I could be here to make a snowman with you."

The billionaire had expected this. "Dick's in the study, reading, if you're wondering."

"Is that close enough to hear our conversation?" Selina asked.

"No," Bruce responded.

"Good. That means he won't here me when I rip your head off!" She hissed.

Bruce sighed. "Here comes the scolding..."

Selina kicked his arm with her leg a little harder than could be called playful. "Aren't you supposed to protect him? For Pete's sake, you're the god damn Batman! You're supposed to be smart about these things."

A phone rang in the distance but neither of the adults conversing gave it any mind.

"I know, Selina, I know. I didn't think things through, or consider that something like this could've happened, but now Dick and I have decided what precautions to take," Bruce explained.

Selina raised an eyebrow dramatically and pretended to be shocked. "You of all people didn't think things through? What have you done to the real Bruce?"

"Hilarious," Bruce muttered.

"Back on topic, though. So out of the blue, Batman came to the rescue. Isn't that convenient? Dick must've felt so lucky." Selina said. Her voice dropped to a serious whisper and she lowered her head to get closer to Bruce so he could hear her. "Bruce, he got kidnapped. He's eight years old! That could seriously traumatize him."

The same phone rang again.

Bruce put a hand on Selina's and gazed into her eyes with the same amount of concern. "I'm not going to be as careless anymore and- and I'm going to be more open with him for now on. I'll never allow something like that to happen again, and I think he's okay with being more open with me. I'm keeping my eye on him, but I think he'll be alright. You don't have to worry, Selina. I'm taking this parenting thing more seriously now."

Selina inspected his face and leaned in slightly, Bruce did the same. Before anything happened though, Selina froze and moved back. "More seriously, huh? By flirting with women?"

Bruce face palmed.

"Mhm. If Dick suddenly becomes popular with the ladies, I'll know why," The thief stated.

The familiar ring tone echoed the house. Shortly after, Dick stepped into the hallway. He walked towards the stairs but stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed Selina. And.... she.. was on the table... next to Bruce...

"Uh.. hi, Selina..?" Dick greeted with a confused smile.

The woman jumped and got away from Bruce as fast as possible. Once off the table, she tried to hide her embarrassment and took the attention away from her. "Hey, buddy, what's up? How're you feeling? I heard about what happened."

The boy scratched his head. "Oh, um- well, I'm fine now." His face lit up as a thought came to him. "Can I tell you something? I think you'll be happy to hear it!"

"Sure, go ahead," Selina insisted. Dick blinked. "Oh, you mean in private. Gotcha," she realized and followed him down the hall where Bruce couldn't hear. The man frowned at the fact that he was so easily left out of the conversation.

"So," Dick started, "Batman came to save me-"

"Yeah, I think everyone knows that," Selina informed.

"But what people don't know, is that I managed to escape a bit in my own!" Dick declared. "The guy held a gun to my head or whatever-" Selina inhaled sharply at that, "- and while he was distracted, I disarmed him! Just like you taught me! I did it, I really did it! And I didn't even need your help!"

Selina stared at him and her mouth grew into a smile. "Wow, kid. Now that- that's pretty darn epic of you." Dick giggled at the praise.

A small part of her pessimistically wondered what would have happened if she had never taught him the move. Things could have ended much differently. She forced the thought away. Dick was brave and smart. A trouble maker, sure, but he had a knack for finding a way out of a tricky situation.

The annoying phone rang again.

"Ugh, sorry," Dick groaned, "it's Oswald. He's been calling a thousand times. I guess he's just as worried as you."

Before Selina could complain about the fact that Dick still spoke with Oswald, the boy ran off upstairs to answer the phone at last.

Did I really just get ditched for Cobblepot? She thought hopelessly.