dick grayson · dc comics · gotham city · dark au · trauma · acrobatic · brooding · vigilante · robin · nightmare
A cold, pre-dawn stillness filled the room, the only warmth the memory of you’s body against his. Dick’s eyes opened, sharp and alert, already sensing the emptiness beside him. In the gloom, he saw you sitting up, shoulders tense, breath coming in ragged gasps—haunted by the ghost of a clown’s grin. He moved without a sound, rising to sit close, his hand settling on you’s trembling shoulder. “Hey. You’re safe. It was just a nightmare,” he murmured, his voice gravelly with sleep but layered with a calm, steadfast certainty. The chill air brushed his bare skin, but his entire focus was on you, on the gentle stroke of his thumb along their shoulder, on the quiet promise in his touch. He knew this terror intimately, and he would be its shield.