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For all his busy schedule with the Team and the League, and whatever else Dick has going on in his life – and there's always something going on because the man can't help but, well, offer his help – he somehow manages to make time every year before Halloween to join in the seasonal decorating fun in the Harper household.
It's a huge load off of Artemis and Will's backs to have another set of hands to go around and hold up streamers or fairy lights. Paula sometimes helps with the cabinets and the candy and the low wall stickers, but she's no Dick Grayson. None of them are. Dick practically does the work of three people in one night, the way he bounces up ladders and clambers up the roof to hang up more lights as though he's just been waiting to make himself useful.
"You didn't have to do all that," Will says as he watches Dick take off yet another layer of clothing. In a way, it's reassuring to see Dick's brow shine with a faint sheen of sweat and know that even he gets winded like the rest of them.
Dick's t-shirt rides high enough to show off his chiseled abs and Will feels the sharpest tug in his gut yet. He's been distracted by the sliver of skin Dick shows whenever he reaches up to fix something overhead. It's been an exercise in restraint to keep his hands to himself, to not reach out and grip his waist – just to hold him steady! – or to pull him back against his own body and start kissing his neck while Dick's hands are still sticky with glitter and glue and he has no other choice but to let it happen or get the mess all over Will, too.
It's happened before. Will has not always shown as much restraint as he's showing this year.
Will is as attracted to Dick as he's ever been, but since hanging up his own cape to be a father full-time, he no longer gets the superhero workout and it's starting to show.
It's not like him to be self-conscious, but Dick makes even that easy to be when he's around.
"Of course I did," Dick says and dances up to Will on light feet, all but falling into his arms. "The sooner we're done, the more time we have until Artemis and Lian are back."
Dick's smile is sweet and his voice even sweeter, and if Will hadn't known him as long as he did, he might have missed that slightly naughty twang at the end.
He finally allows himself to rest his hands on Dick's narrow hips, just shy of cupping his ass.
"Didn't I tell you that Artemis is staying with her mother tonight?" Will asks, rubbing his beard along Dick's jaw in an approximation of a kiss.
Dick exhales a soft moan, and his arms wind tighter around Will's broad back. "Are you saying I shouldn't have rushed just because we have all night?"
Dick doesn't climb onto Will but it's a near thing. One of his legs is hooked around Will's thigh, and the other might as well jump up to do the same going by the way Dick presses himself against Will.
Screw it, Will thinks as Dick kisses him, and uses the excuse of bracing for Dick's weight to grab his ass. He may not get the superhero workout anymore, but he'll be damned if he can't carry Dick to bed anymore. Dick is no longer as scrawny as he used to be, when it was easy to flip him over one's shoulder, but it will never be any less thrilling to hold Dick in his arms and have him entrust his body to Will.
Even if he's puffing heavily by the time he can let Dick down onto the bed.
"Such a gentlemen," Dick laughs, unwilling to let Will go just yet.
"If you expected me to throw you, I have disappointing news for you. I'm a single father who works for a living and beds are expensive."
"Guess we'll have to decorate Wayne Manor next time," Dick muses teasingly. "The beds there are robust, and even if they're not, having to buy a new one is not going to hurt Bruce."
"Is this your idea of dirty talk? Humiliating me with all the things I can't offer you but your sugar daddy can?"
"Don't feel bad," Dick says and brushes his finger over Will's short hair. "This is more than enough."
Dick kisses him like he's thirsting for it, and in a way, he might be. They hardly ever meet except for these occasions when Dick helps him spruce up the house and if Will is not mistaken, the last time they did just that was before Halloween the previous year. Sometimes they get so caught up in their own lives they don't notice how the months roll by.
Still, it's strange for Dick to still be into this thing that they have. Dick doesn't need to waste his time with dear old Will; he could have anyone he wanted. There's certainly no shortage of heroes to go around.
The moment Will feels Dick's hands sneak under his sweatshirt, Will tugs it down again and rolls them over so that Dick is on top. Perhaps it was a poor move, because he's struck dumb once again by how pretty Dick is in the soft yellow light of the ceiling lamp. Sometimes it's easier to be myopically close so that he doesn't see the whole of him and instead gets to digest impressions of Dick in bites small enough for him to handle. Like when he focuses on the little nick that cuts up the line of his bottom lip, or the uneven blush that stains his chest, or the birthmarks at the top of his shoulders that he's watched Wally connect into different shapes many a boring afternoon.
"What's wrong?" Dick asks when Will blocks another one of his attempts at removing Will's clothing.
He doesn't really know how to answer that. Is there any way to address the shame he feels about his own body that is not going to make his inadequacy even more apparent? He's no longer as trim as he used to be, and Dick is constantly surrounded by people at the height of their game, who have not an ounce of fat on their bodies. Unlike Will who has let himself go. Who has become flabby. Who now has a paunch he would like to keep hiding from Dick.
Fuck, he can't remember ever having been that self-conscious around anyone. Not even Jade.
When Will doesn't answer and goes so far as to avoid Dick's gaze, Dick sinks to his knees in front of the bed – if Will's body wasn't enough of an indicator of how much he's become a dad, the fact that he worries whether the carpet next to his bed is thick enough to provide adequate cushioning should definitely raise red flags. Not that he has much time to worry about it because Dick tugs down Will's pants, and barely gives him the chance to catch his breath before he's gently stroking Will's erection.
"I've missed this," he murmurs and kisses up the underside of Will's length. "Just you and me."
Dick flicks his tongue out, gives Will a few licks here and there before dragging the flat of his tongue over him. Will nearly chokes when Dick takes him into his mouth, and although Dick could barely wait to engulf him, there is none of his usual urgency in this. Now that he has Will's singular attention, he can drag out the sensation and let Will immerse himself in the heat that is pulsing through his body. It crashes through him in waves, languid at times, sharp at others, depending on the way Dick uses his mouth.
Watching him is a spectacle all by itself, the way he makes Will's length disappear, then reappear, slicker than before. He keeps his mouth so soft, and it's so good, but it's not enough, not by a long shot.
He threads his fingers into Dick's hair, brushing strands of it from his forehead. Dick looks up, eyes glazed and shiny, as shiny as his lips are when he pulls off. Will's other hand caresses Dick's arm, sliding up to his armpit and encouraging him to get onto the bed again. Dick seems to read it in his gestures or on his face, because he kisses his way up Will's torso. That was not exactly what Will wanted, bu at least Dick also rids himself of his clothes as he gets up. First his t-shirt sails across the room, revealing skin paler and more marked up than it used to be the year before – there's a mottled purple bruise spread across his ribs that Will would not have expected from the carefree way Dick moves.
Sometimes Will forgets just how normal injuries become when you get them every time you're out in the field. You just patch up the worst and continue on. There's nothing else to it.
But now is not the time to remark on it, nor does Dick pause longer than for the thought to skirt across the edge of Will's awareness. Dick's pants are the next item to go, and then he's nude, but he's so at home in his skin that no one would know it by the way he carries himself. Will would not have been able to exude the same level of confidence if he were in a similar state of undress.
Still, now that Dick has done the first step and is joining him on the bed again, Will has to follow suit. He kicks off his pants rather inelegantly and nearly ties himself up in his sweatshirt before Dick helps him untangle his beard from it. There's something about the ease with which Dick inhabits his body that makes Will feel like a bumbling fool, as if he somehow had to pick up Wally's slack because he's no longer around to make Will look graceful by comparison.
Will feels himself hunch when he is naked, as if he were trying to shrink away from Dick's gaze, which is nothing if not free of judgment. If anything, it's full of the same hunger and loving mischief as it's always been.
He tangles himself up with Will, letting his hands roam over his skin, their legs brushing each other, and when Will grinds against Dick, there's a delicious slide of wet skin on skin. Dick slots himself with Will, so that they can kiss and continue to feel each other up. Dick's own hips are grinding against Will now, searching out friction.
Will pushes his hand between them, grasping both their lengths and holding them together. Dick's breath is hot against his mouth, as is the rest of him – every part of them that's touching is running with sweat and Will feels the sheets cling to the backs of his arms and his legs. It's a minor sensation in a sea of them, because most of all he's aware of the pleasure that's thrumming through his body. Dick thrusts into Will's grip and moans against him, and Will is positively sizzling with it. He feels like the world might catch on fire and he wouldn't even notice when it did.
All of him is occupied with the sensation of Dick sliding against him, rubbing their hard lengths together, of Dick pulsing and twitching against his fingers and becoming slicker, of winding tighter and tighter until release is only a flick of the wrist away and he wants it, but at the same time he does not want this to end.
It's Dick, ever the leader, who makes the decision for him. All he does is put his warm hand atop Will's, thrust hard enough to jostle both of them, and moan Will's name like it means something.
Will twists his hand around them and comes with a guttural groan, spattering both of them. Dick is not far behind. He tenses atop Will and spasms against his fingers before he, too, comes in hot pulses over Will's stomach.
Dick slumps against Will, but keeps himself propped up on his elbows, lips hovering over Will's own and breathing in the same air.
Will caresses Dick's cooling flanks, and tries to figure out how to maneuver them both under a blanket in as few moves as possible.
"You're smiling," Dick says, doing the same. "It's the first time I've seen you not frown tonight."
Will stops his brows from drawing together again. "It's just that I notice more and more how being a father has taken over my life."
"Meaning what, exactly?"
"That I want to keep you from getting a cold, for example."
"Not likely." Dick laughs softly and slides off of him as if Will were a water slide. He's certainly sweating enough for it and the cool air of the room is curling against his exposed skin. "I'm already sweating out all the pathogens."
Dick lies curled against Will's side, resting his head against his shoulder and tracing patterns over his glistening chest, through the mess they've made.
With a heavy breath that borders on a sigh, Will gathers Dick in his arm and pulls the blanket over them as best he can. Dick doesn't help at all. But at least Will has now somewhat covered both of them.
It's not enough for him to relax, though. He wants to get something for them to wash up with, but at the same time he does not want to leave Dick's warm embrace. Dick already feels like he's drifting off, and Will would rather not disturb him. Who knows when was the last time Dick got any rest at all. He's always pushing himself, trying to be there for everyone.
Even for Will, when he doesn't have to do that.
When Dick's hand traces over Will's flabby hips, Will stops it and brings it back up to his face, rubbing it against his beard and pressing a kiss against the sweat-damp palm.
Dick pulls it back again and runs it over Will's side.
"If I didn't know any better," Dick murmurs against him, "I'd say this is bothering you."
Will nearly jumps when Dick sleepily pinches his muffin top. "Stop that, okay?"
He clutches Dick's hand and twines their fingers together just so that he has a better grip on it, to stop Dick from teasing him any more.
"So it is bothering you."
If Will didn't know any better, he'd say that Dick is pouting as he slides down on the bed to place his head closer to Will's paunch as though Will were pregnant and Dick trying to feel the baby. He surprises Will when he presses a kiss to his stomach. And disgusts him a little when he cleans him off with the edge of the blanket.
"So what if it is?" Will asks, resigned.
"I just... I don't know. I want you to feel comfortable, I guess. Not like you have to hide anything from me." Dick looks up at him from where he's resting lazily against Will. His blue eyes shimmer behind his bangs. "Which is what you've been doing. And that makes me sad to see. I don't know how else to make it clear that you're still you, you know? That's what matters."
Will smiles and ruffles Dick's hair. "You're making this up, kid."
But he can't deny that it puts him at ease to have Dick acknowledge the thoughts that have been running through his head. The worries he's had. That he's no longer good enough for Dick. That Dick would find him less desirable because he doesn't conform to the high standard Dick is surrounded by.
He feels silly having indulged these kinds of thoughts at all. Dick hadn't rejected him when he'd been a bony junkie on the verge of a nervous collapse. (Didn't have a chance to, because Will had done the rejecting all by himself.) Dick hadn't rejected M'gann either after they'd seen her true form.
But this is just like Dick, taking everything in stride without ever questioning it. Once you've earned his trust, you've earned it, and trivialities such as appearances won't impact how he sees you.
Will should never have doubted that.