To say that Dick had been feeling stressed out lately was the understatement of the year. Between having to keep up his social reputation and maintain his double life as Nightwing, it was bound to take a toll on anybody sooner or later. Thus, he'd sometimes forget to take care of himself—who was he kidding, he neglected himself most of the time, really.

After endless nights of him eating cold takeout in his messy apartment, hair greasy from not showering the entire day, wearing nothing but the clothes he'd been stalling all week to do laundry, he had enough of this pathetic lifestyle. Dick decided that he was finally going to start prioritizing his health for the first time in his life.

So, what was the most reasonable thing to do? Go on a camping trip in the woods, of course! What could go wrong?

Never in his entire almost-three-decades-but-not-quite years of life had he ever regretted his own words so much, and that was saying a lot. Everything had gone wrong.

Dick originally planned for this trip to take a step back from all the chaos in his life and unwind. He even woke up early and double-checked the things he packed just for this!

First, the journey was a mess. He got lost a dozen times on the way to the destination, having to check his faulty GPS over and over as well as shyly having to ask locals on directions. By the time it took him to actually get there, he'd lost a ton of light, and it was already nearing sunset.

Which led to the second thing. He got the actual destination wrong. What was supposed to be a comfortable camping site within the forest, with a nice, cozy cabin and a beautiful lake like he saw in the pictures, ended up being in the middle of the woods. But since it was already dusk, he didn't have any time to book some other place last minute, so he was just stuck there with nowhere else to go.

Still, he tried making it work, he really did. Dick diligently set up the tent and started a campfire while snacking on some granola bars he had packed. The sight made for a depressing one, he was sure, but he tried to see the silver lining in the situation.

At least he was still connecting with nature, wasn't he? And connect with nature he did.

Because after coming to the stupid decision to wander around and explore a bit, he—unsurprisingly—got lost in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere.

Dick was tired and dirty from aimlessly wandering around the dense woods for what felt like hours now, stuck in pitch black because the sun had set hours ago. He genuinely wanted to cry, to scream, to yell. Why did things never work out for him?

Feeling his motivation go down the drain, he just... sat down on the ground and leaned against a nearby tree, uncaring of the mud and dirt on him as he brought his knees up to his chest. Hugging his legs, he buried his face in his arms, feeling the exhaustion weigh down on him.

But the sound of a twig snapping from someone's—or something's—footsteps caught his attention. Dick's instincts kicking in, he turned his head to the source of the noise, body tensing in anticipation as though he was preparing for a fight, though he remained rooted in his spot.

"Who's there?" He said quietly.