Archive of Our Own ^beta

Wally knew that his husband had no biological relationship with his father. Despite this, he couldn’t help but see the resemblance between the two men: Black hair, blue eyes, a penchant for picking up stray children…

Wally’s eyes narrowed on the small child in Dick’s arms.

“What have you got there, babe?” He asked with faux casualness.

“A blanket,” Dick replied. And that was true, he was holding a blanket. A blanket wrapped around a toddler .

“Is that all?” Dick paused rocking the child in contemplation. “Anything else? Anything…” small, breathing, and child-like? “Larger? Say something… more delicate?” Wally prompted.

Dick’s face contorted as he looked down at his arms, resuming his rocking. “Oh, that. This is John.”

“...John,” Wally repeated at Dick’s lack of elaboration. “And what is John doing here?”

Dick pouted. “Well I couldn’t just leave him on the streets!”

There were so many places between leaving him outside and what was sure to be adoption, but this man had been raised by Bruce Thomas Wayne, so maybe there weren't.

— —

Wally was right. Before the week was up, the spare bedroom Dick’s siblings crashed in more often than not had been painted light blue - “grey’s too boring for a toddler,” Dick had argued - all of the stashed vigilante equipment from what looked to be Jason’s gloves that went missing a year ago to three of Tim’s spare bo staffs to what was more knives than Wally thought existed in the world let alone his apartment had been disposed of, a crib and an excessive amount of Ikea furniture had been built using the speedforce - Dick had claimed he couldn’t let John out of his arms or he would start bailing; Wally had seen the kid free and he was more likely to climb the counters and cabinets - and Dick had used a very impressive display of acrobatics to paint the ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars because apparently light blue was “too boring” now.

All in all, it had been a very exhausting week. Dick had definitely placed a phone call to Babs during it and Wally did not want to see whether John was officially part of their family now, had always been, or some other witchcraft the Bats employed.

Then John came running into the room giggling - sometimes Wally cursed whoever had taught him to Wally; even with his superspeed he couldn’t catch or find the child sometimes - and Wally immediately perked up. He couldn’t help it; the child’s laughter was infectious. It also helped that Dick, trailing behind the four-year-old, had a matching grin on his face.

“Dick said I could meet his brothers!” John said excitedly.

Wally narrowed his eyes at his husband. “Really?”

John nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! He said we would get along great!”

Wally could just imagine: Jason would teach John to shoot and swear, Tim would teach John to hack school records so he could wag, Damian… Wally could imagine the ensuing sword marks on the walls. Steph… nope. Thinking about that would result in an attempted escape of the in-laws that would inevitably bring them closer.

“Why don’t we leave Wally alone for now,” Dick suggested, seeing his face turn pale. “I think your elephant drawing could use some friends.”

“But you can’t have more than one elephant in such a small space!” John protested as Dick led him out.

Wally collapsed on the bed. He had known what he was getting into when he married Dick, but he still had maybe one more blissful hour where his son had yet to meet his extended family. He was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

— —

Wally may not have had a bat’s sixth sense, but he liked to think he still had an intuition. If not that, then he definitely noticed Dick slipping out of bed in the middle of the night. Silently the pair made it to John’s room.

The boy was silently thrashing in his sleep. The lack of noise was definitely a learned behaviour that made Wally’s heart pang. Unanimously but without speaking the pair moved to either side of John, snuggling in under the blankets.

Dick started to sing a lullaby in Romani and Wally pet the boy’s hair. When John woke up, it was surrounded by love and comfort and when he quickly fell back asleep, the nightmares were gone.

— —

Wally should have known there would be trouble. A child of him and Dick would always have trouble following him. Maybe Dick shouldn’t have started the acrobatics training so soon, but he’d been dealing with some new rogue in Central and by the time he’d gotten back, John’s face had been so bright…

Okay, so maybe he was a sucker for seeing joy on his two boys’ faces, but who could blame him? They were cute, and Dick’s puppy eyes and John’s grin was an irresistible combination. Even Alfred let them have extra slices of cake!

…totally not because he was running for favourite grandparent.

But now here Wally was, sitting in the principal's office with Dick and John.

“So explain to me what happened again?” Wally asked, trying to reign in his anger.

“Your son got into a fight and subsequently hid in the gymnasium rafters,” the principal explained. Well, Wally knew that last part; Dick had had to bring him down after signing multiple insurance wavers.

There was no blood or bruises on John; they’d both checked.

“What about the other kids?” Wally asked. “You can’t have a one-sided fight.”

“They,” the principal said tersely, “are in the medbay.”

“And their parents?” Dick enquired.

“Filing several lawsuits for the damage that befell their children. We are a no-tolerance school for violence, so at the moment we’re looking at suspension for a first offence, but next time it will be immediate expulsion.”

“What about the evidence?” Wally asked. There was no way John would have started a fight unprovoked.

“I think the evidence on those poor children’s bodies speak well enough.”

Wally turned to John. “What’s your story?”

John shrugged, glancing at the principal. Dick turned himself and John so John could only see his parents. “What’s your side?”

“They were picking on Alina,” John said after a moment. Wally glanced sharply at the principal. She hadn’t mentioned that. “Called her a-” Wally blanked out the next bit. “I told them to stop and they turned on me. I just did what you told me to do!” he brought his knees up to his chest, defensive.

“You did a great job, sweetie,” Dick said, pulling John into his side. He turned to the principal, all niceness vanishing. “What it sounds like to me is these boys were bullying another student and John stepped in. I expect my child to be welcome here on Monday and the real perpetrators to be suspended or, if this is not their first infringement which I wouldn’t think it to be, expelled.” He stood up and Wally followed. Dick turned to John. “Now, I think you deserve some ice cream for standing up for Alina.”

John beamed.

— —

Wally had been exorbitantly proud when John had made it onto the team. Sure, it was just a community soccer team that didn’t deny entry based on skill, but he had a cute littler jersey and today he was actually going to play! And it wasn’t like the rest of the family was no less excited.

He and Dick doubled their team’s cheers whenever John was on the field. Not that they didn’t cheer when John was on the field, but they were just mildly more subdued.

One of the other dada sidled up to him. “That your kid?” he asked, pointing at John. Wally nodded proudly. “He’s good.” The man slapped Wally on the shoulder. “You must be a proud dad.” He left before Wally could say anything in return.

Dick returned from where he’d been getting more chips. “All good?”

Wally nodded. “We are good dads, aren’t we.”

Dick slung an arm around his waist. “The best.”

— —

Wally had cried a lot since John’s adoption. At the certificate - now proudly framed in the living room - on John’s first day of school, when he had won his first soccer game - and every time since - and when Steph had been the only choice for babysitting.

He was about to add another tally to the list.

“We’re home!” Dick yelled as he entered, John behind him.

Wally was in the living room in a second, work-out forgotten. He hugged Dick and gave him a raspberry-kiss. John made a face as he set his bag down.

Wally descended on John next, giving him a sweaty hug and more kisses than was probably necessary.

“Ew, that’s gross Dad,” John said.

Wally and Dick froze.

“What was that?” Dick asked slowly. After all this time, it couldn’t be…

“Dad?” John said hesitantly. “I was thinking, and Mary said I should try it-”

John didn’t get any further as he was wrapped up in one of Dick’s octopus hugs.

“Of course,” Wally said, stepping into the hug.

“We love you,” Dick added.

“Thanks… Dad and Dat,” John said, relaxing into the embrace.