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Dick has been growing out his hair since he was fired from being Robin. He thought of it as a way to rebel against social norms as well as Bruce's strict hair policies for men. When he was a kid, Bruce hated whenever he had too long hair, as well as Alfred. Maybe it's something to do with being apart of the upper class because it wasn't just them either, it was people at Galas as well.
"That hair is very unacceptable, young man!"
"Hairdressers should be affordable now that you live with Bruce Wayne!"
"You look homeless!"
"I would never let my son have hair like that!"
Blah, blah, blah.
But now it's been a few years after becoming Nightwing and it's already touching his ass, his main feature! He just had to do something about it. So that's when he decided to go in his apartment bathroom, searching through youtube videos on how to cut hair for men.
Most of the haircuts were like shaved sides and shit like that which Dick seriously hates to do. It's something about any type of razor or blade on his head that makes him feel like he hears someone scratching on a chalkboard.
He just can't do that type of shit, so he ends up looking through women's haircuts. Well.. more like long pixie cuts.
It took him a while to scroll through videos to find the perfect haircut. It was almost exactly like Brad Pitts hair in 'Moneyball'. He remembers watching it with Bruce and looking beside him to see him falling asleep half way through the movie. Bruce has zero patience. But he did have patience through 'Frozen' which was very interesting....
Anyways, he played the video and got cutting. It took longer than he expected but it actually turned out pretty nice. Almost like a professional, he might add.
Looking at himself, he gained enough confidence to add some eyeliner under his eyes but afterwards he looked at himself and muttered, “Oh, shit” when he realized that he has to go to a family dinner tonight. Why did he have to find confidence in himself as well as cut his hair, of all days!
Some might say that Dick is lives off of attention but that’s not true. Sure, he’s a social butterfly that likes to show off his acrobatics but he rather have a conversation with someone about them and instead of him.
He curses at himself as he wiped off the makeup on a wet towel which looked dirty as fuck afterwards. His eyes also looked dirty as fuck. Not all of the makeup came off from the towel but at least it’s not that noticeable!
Dick sighed before going out of the bathroom to get his wallet and keys to head out to the manor.
—
It took about twenty minutes before he finally arrived at the manor and another five to finally get enough courage to knock on the door. He just knows all the attention is gonna be leaned at him from his new haircut.
The front door opened with absolutely no noise at all (Alfred must’ve oiled the hinges) and was met with—as he was just talking about—Alfred.
Alfred looked at him, not showing any emotion as usual but Dick has known him long enough to see surprise. He scratched the back of his neck, feeling the now short strands beneath his fingers.
The elder man clears his throat, seemingly to grab himself together before speaking, “Ah, Master Richard. It’s always a pleasure to see you young sir” Alfred says in his thick British accent with a slight smile.
“I could say the same thing about you, Alfie” He says with his signature smile, quieting down his own anxiety.
He moves out of the way to welcome in Dick, “Make your way towards the dining room, I shall join you in a few short minutes” Dick gives him a smile and gladly complies, walking inside. He can practically feel Alfred’s eyes on him as he walks himself towards the dining room.
Dick ignores the feeling of Alfreds eyes, opening the dining room to see his entire family—Bruce, Cass, Steph, Jason, Tim and Damian—sitting at the table, talking to each other, waiting patiently for their food to arrive.
All their heads turn towards Dick which is expected due to their awareness training. They all look at him plainly before changing their expressions in seconds once they get a good look at him.
Bruce looks at him surprised but silently pleased.
Cass doesn’t show her emotion but he can tell that she’s surprised as well.
Steph looks at him with her mouth wide open with her eyebrows almost touching her hairline with excitement.
Jason looks at him with his mouth hanging slightly open, looking like Dick just stole his kill.
Tim stares at him with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, most likely trying to think of a reason for this drastic decision.
Damian looks him up and down and nods, seemingly approving of the change.
“Hi” Dick says shyly with one hands waving awkwardly at them.
All of them immediately start talking over each other.
“What was the reason?!”
“Is this a prank? Did Zatanna do something?”
“POP OFF, QUEEN!”
“Nice”
“Finally”
“Everyone, quiet down”, Alfred spoke up, scooting a cart towards them with plates and drinks on top of them. Of course everyone quieted down immediately, it’s Alfred, what did you expect? But they were all still staring at him as he walked over to Dami to sit next to him.
He placed an arm on Dami’s shoulder with a smile and Dami’s hand twitched looking like he wanted to touch something.
“What is it?” Dick whispered to him, pointing to his hand.
Dami’s face reddened and looked away, mumbling a “Nothing” as he did so.
Dick just looked at him confused before looking up towards the rest of his family. All of them were still staring at him, even Alfred as he placed everyone’s plates in-front of them.
The first to speak up was Bruce, “What made you decide to chop your hair off like that?” He said giving Alfred a little ‘thanks’ as he placed his plate on the table. Everyone just stared at him expectantly.
“I dunno, I just wanted a chance” He said while looking down fiddling with his fingers.
“Well, this is a HUGE change. This is the first time i’ve actually seen your hair short besides from the pictures around the manor of you as a kid” Jason said expressively, moving his arms around and everything.
“Yeah, that’s only because I decided to grow it out ever since becoming Nightwing” Dick said
“I know, but why now?”
“It was hiding my best feature” Dick said honestly, still looking towards his fidgeting fingers.
Everyone groaned, in disbelief. Damian even slammed his head on the table. Dick tried to move his head up but he just looked at him slowly with a grimace.
“Oh, Jesus Christ” Jason said under his breath.
Steph started laughing so hard it started to shake the table, even Cass held her laugh in by holding her hands to her mouth. Tim looked at him, shaking his head before looking down back at his food. Bruce pinched his eyebrows and Alfred just sighed loudly before going back into the kitchen.
“I live with a bunch of hooligans” Damian mumbled with his eyes closed, annoyed.
“You love me” Dick moved over to kiss him on the back of his head before Damian moved his head up from the table to have a cat fight with him. Dick started laughing at Damian’s expression of anger and the way that Damian had upper hand advantage by pulling his hair.
He loves his family.