Whumptober 2021- day twenty-eight
Hide & Seek
Escape, Flight, hiding

Slade takes Dick on a camping trip, and they play hide and seek.

For Blizzardwing47 the queen of father-son Dick and Slade

The forest was quiet around Dick.

He walked through the underbrush with a careful eye for sticks, leaves, anything that could make noise. Shadows danced over his face, speckles of sunlight breaking through the canopy high above.

He could hear insects and birds, animals all around him, life existing around him.

But that's not what he was looking for.

Footsteps were in the mud. Shallow, and covered over in places. But not covered over well enough- on purpose? Was he supposed to find them? He crouched on the ground as he looked at the tracks, then turned his eye on the bushes around him, trying to find other signs that someone had been through the area. He stood slowly, walking carefully around the tracks so he didn't disturb them. The forest wasn't sparse but there was plenty of visibility between the trees, the understorey leaving plenty of area for people to see a good distance ahead.

He peered around, looking for a shadow, and found nothing. He could feel someone's eyes on him-

Correction. Someone's eye.

Dick stopped walking, relaxing his muscles and straining his ears.

He heard a twig snap.

He pointed, eyes closed, towards the sound and grinned, "found you!"

"That you did," Slade said.

Dick opened his eyes and watched Slade drop from the tree he'd been hiding in.

"My turn to hide?" Dick asked.

Slade rose an eyebrow, and then pulled something from his belt and flicked it out to reveal a bo staff, "not yet."

Dick laughed as he dodged Slade's first few hits, and then pulled his own bo staff out.

Slade only gave him a halfhour head start, so Dick had to find a good hiding place quickly without leaving any tracks. Slade would look for him in the trees, which was annoying because that was his original plan.

He couldn't just pick a direction and run because he'd leave tracks everywhere, he needed to think about this.

He did get up into the trees so he could travel without leaving footprints, but he couldn't stay up there. Luckily for him, he was much smaller and therefore lighter than Slade, so he could get higher up in the canopy. Slade would probably find it harder to find a sign that he'd travelled from one tree to the other if he couldn't even get up to his level without breaking branches.

He swung from one tree to the other, and then froze, backtracking and looking towards the thing he'd seen in his peripheral vision.

The cabin they were staying in was elevated, it was in the middle of a range. Most of this area of the forest was decently level, but he was now looking at a slope downwards towards a small river. The canopy got sparser due to the fact that the trees disappeared to make way for the water, but there were plenty of bushes, lower level small trees.

He could hide in the underbrush and Slade wouldn't see him. and there were no tracks on the ground leading there, and if Slade went by Dick would hear him.

He climbed down from the tree and found a spot where the slope was less steep.

He slipped, the leaves all over the ground were slippery and the dirt gave way easily, falling down till it reach the river. He was able to grab hold of a tree root that had been revealed thanks to erosion, and he grimaced as he looked at the ground warily.

Maybe he should try and walk over the areas that were held together by plants and not about to break away from erosion. That might be safer.

He ducked into the bushes, the ground was still sloped but he was able to hold onto some tree roots and brace himself against the smaller trees. He couldn't keep his weight on them forever, though, because they swayed when he leaned on them, Slade would notice.

He stepped forwards once more, and he thought he heard something hiss.

He flinched back, expecting a snake. He saw nothing, but he was already moving and he slipped, the ground gave way, he felt his boot drop through the dirt and into a mess of roots, but he'd lost balance and wheeled his arms as he fell backwards, head slamming against a tree as he fell.

He bit down on a yelp as his ankle screamed, but before he could worry about that he was falling down the slope, tumbling over himself, over rocks and roots, and down towards the river.

He braced himself as he hit the water, the cold chilled him immediately, and then his ankle lit up in pain.

The bottom of the river felt like silt, and trying to kick towards the sand made his foot hurt more but he forced himself to get there. He could feel his skin stinging, cuts and scrapes made raw by the water. he pulled himself up onto the shore with a huff.

He shivered; the light breeze was enough to turn his sodden clothes into a glorified fridge. His ankle throbbed.

He wanted to curl up in front of the fire, he wanted Slade to make him a hot chocolate.

He tried to get himself to his feet, but his ankle screamed at him and his hands were shaking.

If he walked on his ankle it would make the injury worse- whether it was just a sprain or a fracture.

He just needed to sit tight and wait for Slade to find him.

Slade handed the shivering boy a mug of hot chocolate. Dick had been pouting dramatically on the couch ever since Slade had said no more training while he healed. He now lit up and cupped the mug close and breathed in the sweet chocolate smell while Slade stoked the fireplace.

It had been too close. Slade had taken too long to find Dick and he'd been shivering and shaking when he did. He carried him back to the cabin and helped Dick get the sodden clothes off and let him have a warm shower and found him some comfy clothes to snuggle in.

"Okay," Dick said once Slade stood up from stoking the fire, "but what about like, light training?"

"You are not training with a sprained ankle," Slade said, crossing his arms over his chest with an unimpressed eyebrow raise.

Dick hid his pout in the mug and took a sip.

Slade sighed, "we'll do some computer work."

Dick lit up, "I can learn more about hacking?"

"only," Slade said, pointing a finger in his face, "if you let your ankle heal. I expect crutches and bed rest."

Dick groaned dramatically but said, "fine." Slade turned towards the kitchen but Dick called out, "where are you going?"

"making dinner."

Dick pouted, "but I want cuddles."

"no."

"Slade."

"you need more food than just hot chocolate."

"dinner later, I want cuddles."

"no."

Dick shot him his sad puppy dog eyes and snuggled into his blanket, "but I'm cold."

Slade tried not to look at his puppy dog eyes but it was unavoidable and he had to give in.

"fine, okay," Slade said, joining Dick on the couch and tucking him into his side, "you're insufferable."

"love you too."