[Dick hears that. Hears it and even knows what it means, something that's apparently universal, despite the fact that the man who'd created it and taught it to a young child, bright eyed and hip height- wasn't quite this one. Looking at him now confirms that it isn't a Bruce from Dick's past. It isn't one who expects a wide collared suit and a temper that doesn't really see a cooling down period.
It's one that looks older, tired in a way that his Bruce hadn't quite managed to hit yet, even with all the grief and the hard hits they've taken as a collective over the years. The voice is nearly the same- still deep, still carries that authoritative edge that always made a young, restless version of him take notice, even if he didn't particularly want to listen. That has a shade of warmth in it, if one knows where to find it.
Even the way he only turns partially, is the same. But there's something different in his features- just that slightly something off, that marks him different. Different but he knows Dick. Different and a new world, and he's still his father. Still a version that knows how to read him and that he can read, too. One that makes the well of that grief go from hidden in the left side of his chest, neglected, spring up into his throat. Make it tight and hard to swallow.
Makes him ignore that order entirely, and do the first instinctive thing he can think of- which is, rush him. Knows if everything he's seen so far is exactly as he thinks- Bruce is going to turn around in time to catch him up]
no subject
It's one that looks older, tired in a way that his Bruce hadn't quite managed to hit yet, even with all the grief and the hard hits they've taken as a collective over the years. The voice is nearly the same- still deep, still carries that authoritative edge that always made a young, restless version of him take notice, even if he didn't particularly want to listen. That has a shade of warmth in it, if one knows where to find it.
Even the way he only turns partially, is the same. But there's something different in his features- just that slightly something off, that marks him different. Different but he knows Dick. Different and a new world, and he's still his father. Still a version that knows how to read him and that he can read, too. One that makes the well of that grief go from hidden in the left side of his chest, neglected, spring up into his throat. Make it tight and hard to swallow.
Makes him ignore that order entirely, and do the first instinctive thing he can think of- which is, rush him. Knows if everything he's seen so far is exactly as he thinks- Bruce is going to turn around in time to catch him up]