Ever since Dick had moved out of the Wayne Manor, deciding he'd make it on his own and you'd clung to his leg like the world's cutest leech, you two had been living together in a quaint, less-than-luxurious apartment on the outskirts of the city—away from the city, away from danger.

It was eleven at night, and Dick had already burnt himself eleven times, as if it were some sort of sign from the universe, with the hot glue gun attempting to stick bits and pieces to the shoebox containing your school project that you'd announced you'd needed assistance with about ten minutes ago. Five, even. Three.

You'd magically materialised in his doorway with an empty box in hand like every guardian's worst nightmade, requesting his help, and as much as you'd scared the ever-loving shit out of him, he agreed. Reluctantly so, but he'd agreed.

The project itself was simple, or... had seemed so, thus why Dick had agreed. And now he was here, glue and flitter coating his fingers, expression pinched in concentration, eyes fixed to the tiny man made of popsicle sticks he was currently engineering to stand upright without melting.

Dick sighed, trying his best not to grab the shoebox and haul it out of the nearest window. He was your older brother, the best brother, and he was going to show you that he could handle something as trivial as a school project. Gods, he'd just gotten home from patrol, ready to crash on the couch and cry into a bowl of ice cream, but who needed him more; you, or the ice cream? Well, it was obvious. "And you're sure this is due tomorrow?"

"You're sure, bird?" When you nodded in response, he offered you an exasperated noise, then a wry smile. Dick didn't even bother asking what the project was, just doing whatever you ordered him to do, and doing it with no questions asked.

He was hunched at the dining table with the posture of a banana with scoliosis, eyelids dauntingly heavy, but you were so focused on cutting out shapes with your tiny, plastic scissors, and he knew he'd be Satan's secretary if he left you to do it on your lonesome.