𝐂𝐈𝐑𝐂𝐔𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐘 ━ peter parker

ⅰ. "have you ever had an orgy?"

◦

ㅤㅤㅤDICK GRAYSON ADORED the spotlight. How could he not? It was what he'd grown up with. The tabloids had gone crazy when Bruce Wayne first took the newly orphaned boy beneath his wings, irrationally conservative newspapers sprouting unsavoury rumours on the 'truth' of his adoption. Coupled with some scarily intimate knowledge of the twelve-year old's life that journalists had no place in revealing, it made for a spectacle. But that's what came with being the ward of America's most eligible bachelor.

And having spent his earlier teenage years pent up inside to avoid the stalkers and paparazzi being thrown from the grounds of Wayne Manor, Dick relished in the attention. Mostly. The excitement had calmed down as he got older, but the public's interest never did: The gaggle of people gathered on the private landing slip awaiting his and Bruce's arrival proved just that. No doubt they were waiting for some fiasco, a slip up; the flash of the brilliant Wayne smile that the young Grayson had taught himself by copying Bruce to go with a quick scoop for the celebrity columns.

How they'd caught wind of their trip to Washington was beyond him, though. He'd kept it tightly under wraps but apparently modern media was the force that refused to quit. Dick's idea to visit the nation's capital had been a home run in his mind – a couple days away from the gloom and doom of Gotham that just so happened to coincide with his own agenda. He was there for a photoshoot: Teen vogue had been overflowing Bruce's spam with pleads for Dick to be on the cover of their Summer Edition and after a while he had tiredly given up ignoring them.

Of course, Dick had been the one to give the company his email. But what the man didn't know couldn't hurt him.

And, pure happenstance (though some weaseling with Lucius Fox didn't go awry), their little trip to D.C clashed with the grand opening of the new Wayne Enterprises' Washington office. Let Alfred never say Dick never did anything for him. Bruce Wayne was about due another public scandal. In hindsight... maybe it wasn't so hard to anticipate their coming here.

"I still don't see the point in me being here," Bruce grumbled as he straightened his cuffs, peering tiredly towards Dick. The jet lurched as it touched down on the airstrip and the boy grinned easily back at him, fingers gripping the leather arm-rests.

"It's your company, Bruce! The tower's been built with your money and your company's name plastered all over it," Dick condescended. "Which means you need to be there."

The man snorted, muscles shifting beneath his tailored suit as he stretched in his seat. "You're evil, conspiring with Alfred against me."

The boy kicked him indelicately in the shin, fishing a shiny phone from the pocket of his jeans: "It's hardly conspiring if we're both in on it. Here, hold still – I told Alf I'd let him know when we landed." He held the device up towards Bruce, tongue poking from his lips as he captured the man's confused glance in high definition.

"That's exactly what conspiring means, Dick," he said, a gentle frown gracing his handsome face as he watched the boy's rapid thumbs tap out a reply to one of their dear butler's sarcastic quips. "Is that Snapchat? How are you typing so quickly?"

"Do you know how old you just sounded?" the teen chortled, snapping another picture of the man's blank face.

"I'm only thirty."

"That's a poor argument," Dick replied, ducking his head as Bruce reached forward to comb through his dark locks roughly. He chanced a peek through one of the jet's windows, eyeing the bustling crowd poised and waiting outside. Bruce followed his gaze, and Dick watched the slight narrowing of his eyes, the tightening of his shoulders. He stared into the man's outwardly impassive face. "Relax, B. It's just reporters."