Chapter Text
Peter came flying out of the portal in the Batcave with a whoop. He let himself land in a roll and pop up to his feet in a near-perfect landing. After catching his breath for a moment, he turned and ‘closed the door’ to his home dimension, so to speak, by hitting a button that shut the wormhole down.
No need to let potential stragglers come through, after all.
“Hey, kiddo, you’re back! Patrol go well?”
“Dad!” Peter spun around with a grin to see his dad working on something over at the computer. There were an array of holograms scattered around that Dick waved to one side as Peter approached.
Peter threw his arms around him in a short but tight hug, then jumped up to perch lightly on the back of the chair as his dad tipped his head back to look at him.
“Patrol was great! I started out by helping Mrs. Hernandez cross the road again - you remember me mentioning her before, right? Then I stopped an armed robbery at the local bank - they were wearing those silly Avengers masks again - where do they even sell those? Anyway, then I helped this group of middle schoolers get a kitten out of a tree - it was apparently a new pet one of them had got, and her name is Treeguile Bane of Mice, but they just call her Gilly. Then I did some recon work for a weapons smuggling case I’m collabing on with Daredevil, and -”
“Peter, you’re home,” Bruce said, coming down the stairs. He looked pleasantly surprised at the sight of him, and passed a hand over his head as he came up to the both of them. There was a moment of hesitation, before he gave Dick’s shoulder a short squeeze as well.
Peter rolled his eyes with an exasperated smile behind his mask at the action. The Bats had gotten better about physical affection since Peter had started living with them full time, now that they’d had two people who enjoyed it, but they still weren’t used to it yet and it showed. They were even worse about verbal affection, but Peter had hope he could wear them down sooner or later, given all they progress they’d made already.
“Hey, Grandpa,” he said, glancing over. “I finished up a little early today since I have a big project for History due tomorrow that needs some final touches. It was a slow night as well, and Daredevil still has to follow up on his end for my biggest case right now, so I was able to wrap up a little sooner than normal.”
“I’m proud of you, chum,” Bruce said, with a hint of a smile. “You’ll probably have a better balance than the rest of us soon, if you keep that up. The rest of us could take a page from your book.”
“Peter, I want you to know that your grandfather is not the same man that raised me,” Dick announced dramatically, looking a little weirded out at Bruce. “I’ve been running tests for mind control and the like, but they keep coming up negative. I’ll figure it out eventually, though, don’t worry.”
At this, Peter’s grandfather really did roll his eyes as he dropped into a nearby chair and began pulling up his own holograms for a different case. The whole thing was hilarious to Peter, and he snickered at his family’s dramatics. Dick glanced up at him with a quick mischevious grin.
“You guys give me too much credit anyway, like always,” Peter laughed. “I was on the verge of getting into serious trouble with my school before my identity got revealed to the world and I had to go poof. I… didn’t mention it before, but I was cutting school and skipping out on homework a lot , until I was kind of forced to get more responsible about things.”
“Well, you’ve been doing great despite that, kiddo, and you have more of a support system now anyway,” his dad said, tapping his head lightly against Peter’s calf. “Just. Maybe let me know if it gets that bad before you get into that much trouble, okay sweetheart? You’re giving me enough grey hairs as it is.”
“Dickie’s going grey? This I’ve got to see.”
“Uncle Jason!” Peter exclaimed, his head snapping up. “You’re back from the Caribbean! How was your mission?”
“Hey, squirt, looks like you had a busy day today,” Jason said, coming up and reaching to ruffle Peter’s hair, pausing at the mask he was still wearing. “Why are you still in uniform? I thought you’d be done for the day.”
“I am! I just got back,” Peter said, disengaging his mask and shaking his hair out from the flat press it had ended up in. He grinned up at his uncle, who finished his intended hair ruffle.
“Hey, there’s my nephew. Anyway, yeah, we finished the mission. That bookkeeping issue for that nonprofit in Crime Alley that we traced to that tiny, uninhabited island? Turned out to be a much bigger operation. Thankfully that money is going to the people it’s supposed to be, now.”
“Oh! Before I forget,” Peter said, shifting his weight carefully to better face Jason. “Matt wanted to talk to you sometime soon - something about a weapons ring? He wanted to consult with you about - well, I wasn’t quite following, since we were in the middle of a fight when he asked.”
Jason hummed, looking intrigued and mumbling about checking his calendar as he wandered off to change out of his gear. The sound of clattering from the stairway and caught Peter and his dad’s attentions.
“Oh, Peter, you’re back,” Tim said as he rounded the corner. “Did you get your suit yet? Alfred said it was delivered yesterday morning, but since the gala is tomorrow, I want to make sure you're prepared. The media can be rough, but we won’t let you flounder, so don’t worry about it too much, okay?”
“I almost forgot that was happening tomorrow,” his dad said, and Peter glanced down at him. Dick had a look of mild concern as well as an unusual hint of excitement in his features. “How are you feeling, so close to being announced as an official part of the family, after so long?”
“A little nervous,” Peter admitted. “Not as bad as I would have been without Mister Stark’s media training, though. It’ll be nice to be able to go places with you all without all of us needing to be in disguise for once, though.”
“Yeah,” Dick agreed with a smile. “First place we should go together is to that new museum exhibit. If you want to include Damian too, he’ll be happy to tag along as long as we can stop by the art museum right next door too.”
“That sounds like it would be a lot of fun,” Peter smiled down at him. Dick stood carefully, and Peter swayed with the chair as it tipped a bit under his slight weight. Dick wrapped an arm around his waist and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.
“Happy you’re home, kiddo,” he murmured quietly. “Now, let’s get upstairs in time for our evening snack, or Alfred will come looking.”
“And we don’t want that,” Peter grinned as he leaned into his dad. “Great grandpa is intimidating when he’s upset!”
“That he is,” Bruce said, standing himself as well. “Best get up there then, as Dick said. Can’t keep him waiting.”
Peter glanced up just in time to see the glint in his dad’s eyes. He sprang away on instinct, and was mid-leap when he was caught around the waist and thrown over his dad’s shoulders. He shrieked even as he laughed, scrambling at the abrupt change in momentum.
“Dad!” he complained, engaging his sticky abilities to make sure he didn’t fall. Not that he thought his dad would let him - Dick would sooner fall down the stairs himself than let Peter fall. Still, it was the principle of the matter.
Dick’s famous evil cackle rang out, and over his dad’s shoulder Peter saw his grandpa watching them with a fond smile before they disappeared from sight, heading upstairs for the night.