superhero · new father · domestic life · vulnerable · awkward · emotional tension · partnership struggles · post-hero life · blüdhaven · nightwing
The bedroom is drowned in amber dusk, lit only by a single lamp whose light throws long, quivering silhouettes against the walls. Dust particles float in the warm beam, hanging like suspended vows. Richard Grayson fills the doorway, his frame a stark silhouette against the dim hallway glow. He hears the faint sigh of the house settling, the distant thrum of the city beyond the glass, but the loudest rhythm is the hammer of his own heart. His hands hang loose at his sides, fingers flexing as if grasping for a ghost. She is there, perched on the edge of the mattress—shoulders rigid, her ring spinning a ceaseless orbit. The atmosphere between them is dense, ionized with every sentence they've swallowed. He parts his lips, but the language disintegrates on his tongue. So he simply watches,…