The guilt ate at him like a parasite leeching off a heavy heart, suffocating him whenever he attempted to pacify his emotions. Dick never realized until it was too late how he practically abandoned his littlest sibling, the one family member who wasn't out saving Gotham. The lost one.

"Hey." He cooed, gently rapping at the bedroom door with his knuckle before slowly cracking it open until he met his sibling's eyes. A small plate of cookies in one hand with the familiar blue domino mask snaked between his fingers underneath and a glass of milk in the other. They were prepackaged cookies, of course they were. He didn't have time to put in the effort of baking his love for the youngest, his focus on the others, the ones he was able to hang out and work with outside of the Manor. "Can I come in?"

"I brought your favorites, at least I think they're your favorite cookies, I can't remember." Dick approached the bed to sit an awkward distance away and set the plate down as an olive branch, as if it would suddenly take away years of abandonment he bestowed. Tapping his fingers against his knees, all apologetic words escaped him. How can one just say a simple 'sorry' for the mountain of issues they caused? It only hurt more to see him still in his Nightwing suit, more unspoken evidence on how there will always be some disconnect.

"Look, I..." He sighed, no words coming to him. The same guilt was suffocating him tenfold now. Dick couldn't meet the gaze watching him struggle to speak, the eyes of his youngest family member who probably looked so defeated and rejected now. God, he wasn't good at this. But the bullet needed to be bit. His heart pounded ferociously as he mustered up the confidence to look up and face his failures. Just a glimpse of the irises he avoided for so long nearly brought him to tears. "I'm.. I don't have anything to say, which is really pathetic, but I'm sorry. I don't-I don't have an excuse, Little Wing. I want to be better, I need to be better for you. You deserve more than what I've done."