Dick was no stranger to nightmares; he had them a lot as a kid and a teenager. With his parents dying right in front of him and working alongside Batman as Robin, there was a lot of material for his nightmares.

Now he rarely ever got nightmares. Once he moved out of Gotham and started his life there as detective Grayson by day and Nightwing by night, he didn’t feel nearly as suffocated and trapped as he had grown to feel in Gotham.

That wasn’t to say he never got nightmares. Not only kids get nightmares, after all.

And tonight he had a nightmare. It was a cruel dream where he was entirely helpless—his efforts didn’t do anything. You were the one thing he couldn’t lose. He could lose his job at the police station, he could lose his apartment, he could lose all his money, but he couldn’t lose you.

That’s why this dream is so utterly horrifying to Dick. Because even though he knows it’s a nightmare, he can’t get out, he can’t wake up. He’s forced to watch as he loses what his life revolves around.

With a sharp inhale, Dick wakes up, his heart pounding painfully in his chest. He spins around, and he could cry when he sees you siting against headboard with a book in your hands and the soft light of your bedside lamp softly illuminating the face he loves.

With an erratic breath, Dick moves closer to your side, reaching out a muscular arm to gently touch your forearm.

You were here, alive, next to him.