milliways_bar | (no subject)

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

"Yeah."

He smiles again, finding this much easier now he's two worlds away from his problems.

"Let's go see."

Almanzo leads him down to the lake with the cart.

"It's a two man saw." he says. "But you don't got to go under the water."

Dick tries to work out the logistics of this as they walk, and shakes his head. "How's it work, then?"

"It just pulls down by itself." Almanzo says, pointing at the lake where his father and two other men are cutting ice.

"Oh."

He grins when he understands, and hangs back now he can see the process - no need to disturb them.

"That's kinda cool. Hope they don't fall in."

Almanzo bites his lip slightly.

"I nearly fell in earlier. Father said I ought to get a thrashing but he decided not to."

"Probably 'cause you would've had it bad enough if you had," Dick says.

"I would've drowned if French Joe hadn't caught me." Almanzo says, very quietly.

Dick's smile freezes and he looks up over the ice to Almanzo's dad.

"Maybe he was just scared."

Almanzo nods.

"I be too old to be doing stupid things without thinking."

"What were you doing?"

"I ran forward to look at the saw and slipped." Almanzo says.

"That's Father on the lake. The two sawing are French Joe and Lazy John, they don't have farms so Father hires them when we have a big job." he adds. "We got just one more load before chores, and then it's dinner."

The three adults soon have the bobsled loaded again, and Almanzo leads it up to the ice house. There, he and Royal stack the ice, packing it with sawdust.

"Good to have an extra pair of hands, you came just in time Dick." Royal comments.

Dick grins at him.

"Glad I could help," he says. "I never done this before."

"Well we be thankful for it in the summer." Almanzo says. "And it's free to harvest, if you think about it."

He smoothes sawdust over the last block.

"Time to milk the cows now."

"Yeah?"

Dick brightens, and his posture shifts forward on his feet, but he represses the urge to leap away into the air. Because he's undercover.

"Can I help with that?"

"Sure."

Royal is putting away the bobsled, so Almanzo takes Dick to the barn and shows him how to milk a cow.

"Now you try." he says. "You got to keep the pail between your feet so the cow don't knock it over."

"Like this?"

Dick grips the pail with his calves and pats the cow on the flank to be friendly before he reaches out to her udder and gives a firm squeeze.

When milk comes out, he grins. "Hey, look at that!"

Almanzo giggles.

"Where be you getting milk from at home?"

"The store," Dick says simply. "Like everything else."

"So they keep the cows in the store?" Almanzo asks. "Like out back?"

"No," Dick says, confused. "They take the milk from the cows and put it on ice and take it to the store."

"In a re-freezer-ator?" Almanzo asks.

"Yeah."

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