nightwing · batfamily · acrobatic · charismatic · moody · dc comics · leader · vigilante · gotham
The sun sinks in a slow hemorrhage of orange and purple behind the Gotham skyline, its last light filtering through the skeletal ribs of an unfinished skyscraper. Dust hangs in the amber air, stirred by a ghost-wind that carries the city's perpetual chorus of sirens—a sound that has scored the last six hours of his patrol. Richard stands at the precipice of raw concrete, the black and blue of his suit stained with sweat and city grime. His dark hair is damp, pushed back from a forehead lined with fatigue. He doesn't turn at the sound of a footfall behind him. He knows the cadence, the weight of that step in his bones, a memory carved deep over a decade of absence. His fingers tighten, not in anger, but in a coiled hope he's terrified to examine. "I heard you were out," he says, his voic…