Putting a pause to hero work didn't help Dick get more rest like he thought it would. With no financial backing from Bruce, Dick was left working as many hours as he could to afford rent and time off once the baby came. He was exhausted beyond belief and sore all over. His due date was still a solid month away and it might as well have been an eternity. He was done.
Once home, he cooked and told himself he'd worry about the dishes later. As he went to the couch, something moved in his peripheral vision. His reaction time was slow, body jerking and tripping over his own feet. The bowl fell from his hands as he prioritized catching himself on the counter. The porcelain bowl shattered as it hit the ground.
Dick glanced to his side to see Slade staring at him and his head hung with a heavy sigh. Of course he invited himself over. Why not. Looking at the broken remains of his dinner, the only thing he could currently stomach, he felt his eyes burn with incoming tears. He should've been able to catch that.
Don't be ridiculous, Dick scolded himself, it's just some noodles and a bowl. Getting angry at himself only served to make his eyes water more. He straightened up and swallowed hard.
"It's not spilt milk, but are we really going to cry over this, Grayson?" Slade asked.
Dick squeezed his hands into fists, eyes closing and taking in a deep breath. "I'm not in the mood, Slade." He hadn't been in the mood for Slade's taunts for a while now.
"No kidding."
Something in Dick snaps. "Oh fuck you!" He snarled. "Get out!
Slade seemed taken aback, hands half raised. "As ease-"
"NO! Get the fuck out of my apartment!" Dick started to storm forward, ready throw Slade out by force. "How many times do I have to tell you-"
Slade's eye narrowed and rushed forward, grabbing Dick by the shoulder. He forced the other man back a step and Dick heard the crunch of Slade's boot against broken porcelain.
Dick stared down at the floor, at the remains of his dinner and how close he had been to stepping in it bare footed.
The anger deflates into a sob.
Once the tears spill he couldn't stop them, defeated and exhausted.
"Please just go," Dick begged, hating himself for crying in front of Slade, hating the way the man was looking at him.
Unsurprisingly, Slade didn't listen. He moved Dick around the broken plate and gently pushed him towards the couch. "Go sit down. I'll clean this up."
With his breath hiccuping with sobs, Dick wasn't in the place to argue, and he really didn't feel like bending down to clean up the mess himself. He sat on the couch but continued to watch Slade as he went to open up the pantry and grabbed a broom and dustpan.
"Your due date must be getting close if you're getting this worked up over nothing," Slade unhelpfully commented as he began to sweep.
Through tears, Dick glared at him. "Well maybe I'm just tired of some weird old man not listening to me when I tell him to leave me alone."
Slade gave Dick an unimpressed look. "You've sought me out before, don't give me that." The dustpan is emptied in a trashcan before a rag was grabbed, wiping up the remainder of the mess. "Did you really just make yourself plain boiled noodles?"
"They had butter and salt..." Dick said, tensing at the judgement he felt coming from Slade. "Listen, right now I will throw up if anything has too strong of a taste or a smell." He sighed heavily, fresh tears welling up in his eyes. "And I'm out of butter." So great. Couldn't even remake the meal Slade startled him into dropping.
He could hear Slade approaching, but didn't look up at him.
"Do you want me to go to the store or pick something up?"
Dick buried his face into his hands. "I want you to leave."
"Not one of the options I just gave you," Slade said, unbothered.
One of the last things Dick wanted to do was rely on Slade. He didn't want to owe him anything, he didn't want Slade to think he was needed. But Dick knew he wouldn't be able to drag himself to the store. Shame coiled heavy in his chest at the thought of reaching out to his friends for something so dumb. Slade was already here and couldn't think any lower of him.
Shoulders drooping and hands dropping away from his face, Dick relented. "Okay."
"Store?" Slade asked, continuing when Dick nodded, "Do you need anything else?"
Dick shook his head.
"The corner store is on a few minutes walk away, go ahead and boil the noodles, I won't take long."
///
Dick had calmed down by the time Slade returned and he finally got to eat. He was too tired to shrug Slade off as he joined him on the couch. Whether he liked to admit it or not, Slade was warm and was so easy to melt into.
He jolts slightly as Slade's hand touched his swollen stomach.
"When's your due date?"
Dick sighed heavily, not lifting his head from Slade's shoulder. "She's not yours," he said instead of answering the question. To be fair, there was a nearly non-existant chance that the father was a man Dick hooked up with for a one-night stand. They used protection, but that was never 100%. However... Dick knew she was Slade's. It was barely a doubt in his mind. All he could do was pray that she'd have dark hair and look nothing like Slade. Maybe if Dick kept telling him that the baby wasn't his, he'd loose interest.
"So it's a girl?"
Dick finally lifted his head to give Slade a stern look. "Whatever the baby is doesn't concern you."
Slade met Dick's gaze unwaveringly, reaching up to brush some hair out of Dick's face. "You keep telling yourself that, kid."
Dick grimaced. "Don't call me kid."
With a muttered, half-hearted apology, his hand cupped Dick's cheek and he pulled him close. Dick knew he should push Slade away, but leaned into the kiss.
More than he liked to admit, he missed being kissed. Dating and hook-ups were obviously off the table, but Dick wanted to feel the press of another body against his own. The stroke of a hand through his hair, the warm press of lips, and the caress of calloused fingers against him.
The guilt in indulging himself and Slade caught up a couple minutes later and he broke the kiss with a sigh and a turn of his head.
"Why are you here?"
"It doesn't seem like you and the Bat have made up and you're, what, seven? Eight months pregnant?" Slade tilted his head slightly. "And I imagine you haven't told many, if any, of your friends about me, so you've likely cut yourself off from them. Someone has to check on you."
At times like this, Dick was reminded how much he hated that Slade knew him, at least just enough to be entirely correct. The only people who knew about Slade were Roy and Donna. Things were already in a rough patch with Bruce before he got pregnant.
"Do you have a contract in Blüdhaven?" Dick asked, deciding to ignore what Slade said.
"No. I'm not taking contracts in Blüdhaven or surrounding cities right now."
Dick blinked, baffled. "Why?"
"You're pregnant, you can't be Nightwing," Slade answered.
For a moment, Dick stared at Slade as if waiting for the man to realize how ridiculous he sounded. Right now was literally the perfect time to take advantage of the fact that Dick physically couldn't stop him.
But there it was. With what Slade lacked in respecting boundaries, he made up for in respecting Dick as a hero. A thorn in his side he'd never actually try to take out for reasons Dick couldn't entirely understand.
"What?"
Dick felt the urge to cry again, but this time his eyes didn't water. "Why are doing this?"
Slade huffed. "You could just say thank you." He doesn't seem particularly annoyed.
You make it hard to hate you, are the words that don't leave Dick's mouth. Slade had done unforgivable things. He's hurt him, he's hurt his friends. But they've also worked together, he's seen Slade draw lines and do good. If he were a full blooded monster, it'd be easy for Dick to hate him enough to shut him out. Maybe then Slade would take him seriously when he asked him to stay away.
It wasn't love... so why was this so hard?
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