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[goldeneyedflash]

Bart knew he was trying to distract himself from recent events, just to not think at all. The thing was, having a pet made that easier, even one as unusual and rambunctious as Bob. Even at his lowest, the little guy made him smile. Right now, he needed to. He was actually up a tree at the edge of one of the scattered clearings, far from the

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[cantstopmoving]

Dick's been looking for Bart for the better part of an hour. He's been in better moods. But he's worried about Bart, so his issues can wait. Bart's not who he needs to discuss them with anyway.

He ducks into the shade of a tree out of sight and watches Bart with Bob the bat who is not actually a bat but a flying fox. Sometimes, Dick feels like Bob, a hedonist in a family of ascetics. He smiles when the creature dives, and Bart's laugh doesn't sound as hollow as he expected, so he arches up out of his lean and steps into the clearing.

"I see what you mean about the flying stomach."

[goldeneyedflash]

Bart tried not to start at the new voice. He wondered how long Dick had been watching him, how long he'd been oblivious. "He's lucky he can still fly, the glutton," he said, shaking his head slightly.

Some days he could just do this until Bob got too tired to chase down elusive raisins. It was amazing to watch, considering the average flying fox didn't have to chase down rogue mangoes. "Drives Tim crazy that he only does this kind of thing when it's food. Would be nice if he could relay messages or something."

[cantstopmoving]

"I'm sure he's already tried sticking fruit to the message envelopes." If he'd thought of it, Tim's thought of it five times over and tried it three. Dick's brilliant with blazing intuition, and he knows it. Tim makes him feel slow.

That pretty much exhausts his interest in Bob the fruit bat-not. He tucks his hands into his pockets, looks at Bart, and shrugs. "Now that we've talked about the bat in the clearing, how about we move on to the elephant or Robin in the living room?"

[goldeneyedflash]

Bart chuckled at the idea, but shrugged. It was more a matter of getting him to go to the other and let go of whatever he'd been given. Keep-away was one of his favorite games.

Then he sobered at the question. He wasn't sure he really wanted to talk about that problem, but he couldn't avoid it. "Which one is that? I'm pretty sure by now there's a whole herd we're not mentioning."