A loud yawn pushed past his lips as Dick stumbled out of his room, still half asleep and out of it from the night before. The delicious scent of freshly made pancakes wafted from the kitchen, and he headed in that direction, stomach rumbling hungrily.

Groggily, Dick remembered that he had skipped most of the meals the day before. Oh well. All the more reason to gorge himself on pancakes now. Alfred made the best pancakes.

He slumped into his seat at the table, only vaguely aware that something felt off about this situation. But he had more important things to worry about, namely the plate of steaming deliciousness that had just been set down in front of him.

"Thanks, Alfred," he mumbled, fighting back another yawn as he began drizzling syrup onto his plate.

"Alfred has the day off, actually."

Dick blinked, brows furrowing in confusion as he rubbed at his eyes before blinking up at the person standing next to him. Definitely not Alfred.

Why was Bruce making him pancakes?

"Oh... I didn't know he had days off." Alfred was always around doing things. He even lived in the house. Dick honestly was not sure if he had ever seen the butler doing something that was not work related, and he had lived there for nearly a year at this point.

Bruce simply chuckled and shook his head, reaching down to comb his fingers through Dick's hair in a futile attempt to tame the boy's bedhead. "Of course he has days off. He just doesn't normally take them. I insisted today, however. I was thinking that we could spend the day together."

"Spend the day together? Is that code for going on a mission or something?"

"No. No missions, no costumes. I just figured we could use some bonding time after yesterday."

"Right... okay. Do you have anything planned for this day of bonding?" Dick could not help but feel suspicious. It was awfully convenient for Bruce to want to spend time with him right after he had hacked into his computer system. But then again, maybe Bruce really was more thoughtful than Dick had first pegged him as and he really did just want to bond with his 'son'. He would just have to let things play out.

"I'll let you know once you've eaten your breakfast and gotten dressed."

"So... in other words... you don't have anything planned."

Bruce huffed, shaking his head as he slipped into his normal seat at the head of the table, dishing himself up some pancakes. "Hush. I have things planned."

Dick fought back a snicker. "Uh-huh. Suuuure you do."

"I can always take the pancakes away, Dick."

He gasped, tugging the plate closer to himself to protect it as he bit into his first pancake. "Nebermignd... u'be go'a pwan." Dick reassured him, mouth full of food.

The disgusted look Bruce gave him was enough to make him start laughing which quickly turned into choking which in turn led to him gulping down orange juice.

Bruce made no move to help, simply lifting one eyebrow at him. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." Dick huffed, fighting down the urge to pout as he once again began eating, practically inhaling the pancakes. While they were not as good as Alfred's, they were still quite delicious, especially when drowned in maple syrup.

They finished the meal in relative silence, Dick eating everything on his plate as well as the few remaining on a platter in the center of the table. Once they were all gone, he sat back with a contented sigh, hand rubbing his now full stomach.

"You know, I would never have been able to guess that the Batman knows how to cook."

"Everyone should know how to cook at least a few things. It's part of any basic training. After all, you can't fight if you can't properly take care of yourself."

"Okay then... why haven't you made me learn how to cook then?"

"If you want to learn, all you have to do is ask. Alfred is an excellent teacher." Bruce began gathering up the dirty plates and cutlery, stacking them neatly in front of himself. "Now, you should go get dressed and ready. I should be finished cleaning up by the time you're done."

Dick rolled his eyes, pushing back his chair and standing up. "Right... for this mystery day of bonding which you don't want to tell me anything about."

~•~

As it turned out, Bruce's ingenious idea for a 'father-son bonding day' was for them to go see a movie.

The movie was horrible.

So horrible in fact that the only reason Dick was able to sit through it without wanting to die was because Bruce clearly hated it as well and his reaction was priceless. Honestly, Dick was considering pretending that he enjoyed the movie for the soul purpose of making Bruce watch more of its kind as a form of torture.

It was hilarious to see the famous Bruce Wayne, Batman, brought nearly to tears by a dreadful movie clearly intended for a much younger audience.

Why Bruce thought that watching something clearly meant for kids under the age of ten was a worthwhile thing to do, Dick would never know. The man was so clearly bad with children it made Dick feel almost sorry for him.

Almost.

He would never feel truly sorry for the man that had killed his parents.

As they exited the theater, Dick could not help but grin as he looked up at Bruce, amusement shining in his eyes. "So... can we watch the sequel when it comes out?"

"No. Never again. I... Alfred said the reviews looked good... and... and it was kid friendly, and..." Bruce clearly was out of his element.

"I'm just teasing. Just so you know though, I'm not a child, and I do not need to be sheltered. I've seen things far worse than most adults have in their lifetimes. If you want to watch a movie together, just try to pick something that you think looks interesting next time." Dick looked away, wondering where on earth those words had come from.

Next time?

There would not be a next time. The mission was quickly coming to a close. In fact, this was probably one of the last times he was going to be conversing with Bruce in friendly terms.

Bruce sighed, drawing Dick out of his thoughts. "Well, how would you feel about grabbing some ice cream before we head back? There's a good place near here. It's been around for years, actually. My parents used to take me there."

"Ice cream sounds nice."

Dick fell silent again as he trailed after Bruce, thoughts swirling incessantly in his head. Bruce had only mentioned his parents a few times, and never in such casual conversation. It was strange. Everything about this situation was strange. He did not trust it.

He did not trust it at all.

Bruce had to be up to something, and whatever it was, Dick was not falling for it.

Playing it cool for the rest of their outing was hard, especially when the ice cream turned out to be delicious and Bruce let Dick eat most of his as well as his own. The suspicion was turning into a hard knot in the pit of his stomach, ready to explode into panic at a moment's notice.

There was no way that Bruce was being this nice for no reason. He wanted something. Dick was sure of it.

No one was ever nice for no reason, and even as Dick wished, hoped, that maybe for once, the nice actions could just simply be that, be nice, deep down, he knew better.

Still, he hoped.

And that hope was crushed as soon as they returned the manor and Bruce turned to look at him, uttering the four words that no one ever wanted to hear, no matter the situation.

"We need to talk."

He frowned, doing his best not to go instantly on the defensive. "We have been talking."

"I mean a serious talk. Dick, what have you been doing?"

"Doing with what?"

"Don't play games with me. You can't expect to hack into my computer systems without me finding out about it. I'm Batman. I have backup cameras for my backup cameras. The information that you accessed is sensitive. There's a reason only me and Alfred have access to it."

Bruce's nice tone was gone, replaced by a cold sternness that only made the rising panic worse. Dick had to fix this. He had to somehow talk his way out of this situation. He was not ready to face Batman yet. He had not planned for this.

Slade had not planned for this.

Dick took in a slow breath, doing his best to calm his steadily increasing heartrate. He just needed to come up with a good lie. One that Bruce would buy. He could do this. After all, Bruce had bought the lie that had gotten him into this situation. He could do it again. "I needed to see if you had any information on what was happening. You and the entire League were gone, along with every adult in the world. I just thought that seeing as how you collect information on everything, you might have had some on what was happening."

"And that meant you needed to go through the identity database?" Bruce asked, tone growing even colder.

He was not buying it.

"Well, when I couldn't find any information on what was happening, I thought we might need backup, so I looked for other heroes under the age of eighteen."

Bruce scowled, taking a step closer to Dick. "Don't lie to me. You downloaded that information. Why?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dick gritted his teeth, fighting to stay calm. This was not how things were supposed to go. This had not been part of the plan. There was no script for this.

The rising panic was making it harder to lie smoothly. Bruce was moving further from doting parent with every passing second, and Dick did not understand why that seemed to hurt so much. He understood that Bruce had only taken him out in order to make him more vulnerable for this interrogation. It was an easy tactic. One that Dick should have foreseen. He had grown weak. He had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Bruce actually did care. But this made it all to clear; no one cared, or at least, no one except Slade.

And he had failed Slade.

He had messed up the plan.

This was his fault.

Bruce, no, Batman now, took another step forward, all too conveniently blocking the exit. "Dick, I need you to tell me what is going on. You did something with the computers at the Mountain too. Is someone blackmailing you? Talk to me."

It was too much.

This was not part of the plan, and Dick already knew that he could not lie his way out of this situation.

There was only one possible course of action.

He slumped in on himself, shoulders beginning to tremble.

Batman frowned, closing the distance between them and placing a firm hand on Dick's shoulder. "Dick? What's wrong? How can I help?"

Body continuing to shake, Dick looked up, his brilliant blue eyes glinting darkly. His body shook, but not with tears or fear, no, Dick was laughing. A panicked and slightly crazed cackle slipped past his lips, soft at first, but growing gradually louder as Batman stepped back, clearly confused.

Laugh growing more and more eerie and desperate by the second, Dick attacked.