Work Text:
Dick sat in front of the TV and watched the movie that was currently on. He usually didn’t have time to sit and watch TV with school in the day and vigilante work and night, but he had done his homework early and wanted to relax.
Dick was watching lazily, half asleep on the couch, when a beach scene came up. The camera panned over the sparkling sand and seashells before panning over to the lovely ocean, splitting the horizon with the sky. The movie’s protagonist got into the water to swim while the side characters began collecting seashells and building a sandcastle. Dick watched carefully, his eyes sparkling.
The beach scene didn’t last very long, it was only meant to be used to show that the movie was taking place during summer break. Dick, however, was invigorated. He got up and ran towards Damian’s in-home office. Damian had gotten home a short while ago and surely wouldn’t be napping.
Dick knocked three times and Damian called, “Come in, Grayson.” Dick almost swung open the door in his excitement, but he knew that Damian might scold him. Instead, he opened the door quickly, but with control. Damian looked up from the solid wood desk, petting Alfred the cat as he addressed his baby brother, “What is it, Grayson?”
Dick didn’t sugar-coat his idea, asking outright, “Can we go to the beach?”
Damian raised an eyebrow, asking to make sure he heard correctly, “You want to go to the beach?”
Dick almost bounced in excitement, “I want to go to the beach! Please, baro phral, please! I’ve never been to a beach before! I want to build a sandcastle and collect seashells!”
Damian looked shocked at the news, but when he thought about it, it made sense. Dick had been working at Haley’s Circus practically since the day he was born. While he must’ve traveled a lot, it was highly unlikely that Dick would’ve gone swimming. Gotham didn’t present many opportunities to go to the beach either - all the beaches were outside city limits. Dick had also been working as Robin for over a year without any chance to go to the beach. It was no wonder that the boy really wanted to go. Damian asked, “Do you wish to go this Saturday? I can wrangle Drake and Todd so we can all go together.”
Dick nearly jumped at the sound of that, saying “Thank you, thank you baro phral !”
~~~
Alfred had made sure that everything was perfect for Dick’s first time at the beach. He made sure all four boys got their swim trunks ready (with Dick getting a new pair as he didn’t have one) and he packed a full lunch spread for them. Alfred also made sure to gather Damian’s old beach toys so that Dick would have supplies to make a sandcastle.
Damian set off with his brothers early that Saturday morning. They left Gotham on the freeway, which was luckily not too crowded. Dick eagerly looked outside the entire car ride as Jason read a book and Tim spent time applying copious amounts of sunscreen. When they finally arrived, Tim held onto Dick’s arm to prevent him from bolting for the ocean.
Damian and Jason helped set up a spot on the beach where they’d be eating later. They spread a sheet on the sand and set up a huge umbrella and cooler with soft drinks and water bottles. Once that was done, Dick applied sunscreen on himself, as did all his brothers. Dick then took out the sandcastle supplies and started trying to build a sandcastle. At first, he attempted this with all dry sand, confused as to why it wouldn’t stay upright.
Jason stepped in and told him, “You gotta use the wet sand, Goldie. Let's get some water.” Jason filled a bucket with the salty water and brought it back. The two of them began working on making a massive sandcastle, complete with a moat around it and three sand stories. It began teetering when they tried to make it higher than three sand stories. In the end, the castle was about as tall as Dick’s knees, which made him really happy.
Jason told him, “I’m going to make little sand alligators for our moat. Go find some seashells that we can use to decorate the castle.” Dick nodded and grabbed an empty bucket to go look. He went out to where Tim and several others were looking for seashells.
Tim noticed Dick running up to him, telling him, “Put your shoes on, Dick. You could get poked by a stray seashell.” Dick stopped and turned around, grabbing his sandals and putting them on before running back to where Tim was.
Tim emptied his hands into Dick’s bucket, which showed that he had about a dozen shells of his own. Tim showed Dick as he squatted, “You want to go for the bigger, whole seashells. The cracked, broken, and wormy seashells aren’t ideal. Here, let’s look in the shade, I don't want us to get a sunburn.” Dick spent a while with Tim hunting down seashells. Admittedly, he wasn’t too good at finding them, but Tim gave him all the shells he picked up. Soon, Dick had a half-full bucket of lovely seashells.
Dick ran back to the sandcastle and decorated the walls of their castle with the shells he found. Jason had made a few little sand alligators in the meanwhile.
Once the sandcastles were finished, Dick noticed Tim taking his place under the umbrella and Damian heading for the ocean. Dick ran after him.
Damian noticed Dick sprinting towards the ocean and tried to warn him, “Grayson-” Dick tackled Damian around the midsection, causing them both to fall into the ocean.
Dick stuck his head out of the water, sticking his tongue out, “Salty!”
Damian stuck his head out of the water and rubbed his eyes, saying, “Grayson, ocean water is salty. Come here.” Damian stood up in the water, which only came up to his lower thighs, He gently rubbed Dick’s eyes until the salty feeling went away. Damian then showed Dick how to paddle in the water and keep his head above the water.
Damian instructed Dick, “Not too fast, you will get tired. Like that, well done. When we get back to the manor, I will teach you how to swim properly myself.”
Jason called the two of them after a short while, saying, “Lunch time!”
Dick paddled back to shore and ran for the umbrella. As he dug into the spread that Alfred packed, Dick believed that this was shaping up to be the best beach day that he had ever had - and probably ever would. He couldn’t wait to come back.