Honestly? Dick's still just a bit surprised he even got invited to the gala.

It's not like he hates them or anything. Not like Jason does, at least. He doesn't exactly love them either, though. The problem is, they're just kind of boring? Nobody can tell him they aren't. He's pretty sure even Bruce finds them boring - if not outright annoying - so it's basically just fact. So really, he can't be blamed for the... chandelier incident. He was just providing entertainment! For himself, and the other guests!

But that got him banned from galas for a while. He complained - a little - but they were token complaints. Because he didn't really love galas. He mostly just went because he figured Bruce could use the company, since he didn't want to be here either, you know? So he wasn't really too upset to stop getting invited along.

Except now he had been. Invited. Bruce must've been desperate - or maybe just enough time had passed. Maybe somebody'd been asking questions about how Bruce's eldest was doing. Maybe Bruce had just been committed to this party before he'd known Dick would be in town and didn't want to completely give up the chance to spend some time together. Who knew? Either way, here he was. Galas weren't the most conducive to familial bonding - Bruce was expected to actively socialize, after all. But Dick didn't mind much - they'd get their moments. If nothing else, they'd commiserate about the evening together on the car ride home, which was always kind of fun really.

The problem right now was that galas are, well... boring. Dick is bored. Bored enough that he's kinda side-eyeing the chandelier. He knew better than to repeat... past mistakes, ahem, but he couldn't say the temptation wasn't there, you know? He's an acrobat at heart, he really is.

He'd been lost in thought about potential entertainment long enough that he almost didn't notice the person behind him until he went to turn around and nearly bumped right into them. "Oh! Excuse me."