milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Dick wasn't expecting to see the bar.

Ever again, really. He had become used to the bar being somewhere he could access through tents and doors in the circus. It was a new part of his world, sure, but it was a part of it.

Then his world collapsed in front of him and everything changed and suddenly he found himself living in an orphanage in Gotham City run by nuns.

He's had to deal with that new, horrible world, and he hates everything about it. Hates how it's not the circus, but at the same time, he's sort of pleased that he doesn't have to be at the circus, to see Mister Haly or the animals or any of his friends, and not see his parents. This new world is horrible, but because it's missing everything, it's not missing them specifically.

That's what he'd think if he was capable of coherent thought on the subject right now.

As it is, Dick couldn't explain exactly why finding the bar appear on the way to his dorm feels like a betrayal.

The boy stands in the doorway, fists clenching at his side as he glares at the bar for daring to still exist, and still be bright and loud and friendly when everything on the other side of the door is broken.

He glares for one second,
two seconds,
three seconds...

And then he vanishes into the rafters.

[OOC: If you can find him, completely open! But be open to very short threads, if he doesn't want to talk. DCU!Dick.]

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Almanzo nods. Well, his mother makes fabric that isn't all that itchy, but he doesn't want to mention mothers again.

"It's cold out." he says. "The lake being frozen and all. You need a hat with flaps and a warm coat."

Bar provides those things, and Dick wraps himself up in them, pulling the hat down hard over his ears.

He smiles slyly at Almanzo. "How d'I look?"

"You look good!" Almanzo says. "I know they ain't as shiny as a-dee-das."

He takes his hand and pulls him towards the door. "Let's go!"

Dick lets his hand be grabbed and trails behind him, towards the door.

At least this is better than that stupid orphanage.

The cold bites as they step out into the snow.

"You go around the back of the shed then appear." Almanzo whispers, before running over to distract Royal from looking their way.

"Where be your ice?" Royal asks.

"In the ice house, of course." Almanzo says.

"That was fast." Royal says, but thinks nothing of it. Where else could an ice block have gone?

Dick disappears around the back of the shed as requested, and spends a few seconds jumping up and down in the snow to make himself look like he's been running in the cold weather for a while.

Then he jogs back around.

"Hey!" he yells, in a not bad approximation of Almanzo's accent. "Manzo!"

Almanzo feigns surprise, and waves.

"Dick!"

"No time for playing, 'Manzo." Royal says, but not especially sternly. "Who's this then?"

"Someone from school's cousin." Almanzo says. "I met him at break."

"Well we got to stack the ice before you play." Royal says. "But we're nearly done."

Dick grins shyly at Royal something he finds it easier to do now he's pretending to be 'Dick from school' rather than 'Dick whose parents are dead.'

"You want I should help with that?"

"Oh, sure, that would be good." Royal grins back. "Ah'm Royal. Careful lifting the blocks if you ain't used to it, they be heavy."

"Dick's real strong." Almanzo says.

Dick shrugs at that, modestly. He is pretty strong, he guesses, compared to most kids his age.

He certainly doesn't have too many problems heaving up the nearest block of ice.

"Where d'I put this, 'Manzo?"

Almanzo shows him the inside of the ice house, where all the big cubes are stacked and packed with sawdust.

"It's to last all year." he explains quietly. "We don't have we-freezer-ators."

"Oh!"

Dick blinks and looks around now he's in there, taking in the entire barn and the stacked, packed ice.

"So that's how you did it."

"Whenever we need some we just dig it out." Almanzo says. "And we get it by sawing on the lake with a big saw."

"It's a lot of work."

Dick hauls his block into a convenient place and looks around for sawdust to pack over it.

"Farming is, I guess." Almanzo says, shrugging. "Father has to get up in the night to make sure the cows don't freeze, when I at least got to sleep in until five."

"That's a sleep in?"

He thinks of that as an early morning, on long travelling days.

Almanzo nods.

"Mother was calling me for being late."

"What time do you go to bed?"

"Nine, usually." Almanzo says.

"That's early," Dick says, vehemently. He's not usually in bed until midnight, eleven at the earliest.

But then, they're trying to get him in bed at nine at the orphanage. It's another reason that place sucks.

"Saves on candles I guess." Almanzo says.

"Keep stacking, 'Manzo." Royal says, handing him another block. Then to Dick. "Being a farmer is a mug's game. When I grow up, I'm going to be a storekeeper."

"You'd still have to get up early," Dick points out, picking up his second block. "To open the store."

"Nothing like as early, and I wouldn't spend all day outdoors in the muck." Royal says. "I'd have a lot more money too."

"Boring." Almanzo comments. "I want to break colts when I'm older."

Dick smirks at Almanzo.

"That does sound more exciting."

"See?" Almanzo sticks his tongue out at Royal, stacking the last ice block and packing it in.

"Want to come see them cutting it at the lake?" he asks Dick.