Disclaimer: I don't own anyone.

A/N:Yeah, I'm alive.Here's a oneshot that takes place between Northern Star and Eastern Sky. Don't expect this to become a fully-formed story. This is just a collection of oneshots. I'll be posting these whenever I feel like it.

-DG-

Dick spent most of his time hovering between Gotham and Bludhaven. He felt obligated to check into Bludhaven a few times a week, since people expected Nightwing to be there. Dick sat at his desk in his bedroom, fiddling with a robotics project he had started a few days ago.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

He turned around in his seat and saw Bruce standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Dick. I'm back. You got your college applications done?"

"Yup, finished them this morning."

Hardest thing he had to do was fill out his FASFA, and even that didn't take long. Filling out forms and writing application essays was easy compared to the stuff he was used to. Bruce smiled.

"That's great. Are you still going to Bludhaven tonight?"

"Yeah, I haven't gone in a few days." Dick turned back to his work. "I need to talk to a Daily Planet reporter, one who's not Clark."

Bruce said nothing. He didn't like talking to reporters under the mask, and he especially didn't like it for Nightwing. After several months of being pestered by Daily Planet reporters, Dick relented and arranged meeting with one as Nightwing. People had to know, right?

"What are you working on?" Bruce asked, leaning over Dick's shoulder.

Dick gave the exposed wire one last tweak. The tiny robot sparked to life. It turned its head shakily, studying its creator with metallic eyes. Dick hadn't expected Bruce to come in here. If Dick had known, then he would have put the thing away. Everything about its design stank of Sladebot.

"Did he teach you this?"

Dick looked up briefly. "I was bored."

Anything Dick did that echoed Slade's influence irritated Bruce. For good reason, Dick supposed. Though, seeing the world now without a corrupted lens wasn't the easiest thing. Everything seemed tainted. Little things others did—things Dick would have never noticed before—triggered him.

"Does it help? To do this, I mean." Bruce gestured towards the robot. "Or does it bring back bad memories?"

Dick's shoulders slumped. After the incident in Bludhaven, Dick had tried to forget, tried to suppress all of the bad memories, but it didn't work. When he wasn't out on patrol (sparsely, these days), he found himself floundering with his free time. Time to think allowed his bad memories to pile up, to bubble angrily until he could no longer contain them. Destroying punching bags only helped him so much. And while he had swept up the remnants of his anger from the Bat Cave floor, Dick realized that he needed to stop his destruction.

So he had gathered some scrap metal and started to build. True, the only design he knew was the Sladebot one, but why should he allow that to stop him? Building, creating—it challenged him, occupied him. It was a way for Dick to confront his fears in ways he could not possibly describe at the moment.

"I'm better today."

Dick shut down the robot and put it away quickly. It seemed as though Bruce found out something new about the apprenticeship everyday just from observing Dick. Sometimes he said something, sometimes he didn't. It all depended on Dick's mood.

"Good. I'm glad to hear it."

An uncomfortable knot formed in Dick's stomach. Talking about the apprenticeship was still hard, even after three months at home. Alfred had told him over and over that there was nothing weak about feeling uncomfortable, of feeling like he was displaced, in a world where he didn't belong anymore.

"I know what the reporter's going to ask," Dick said. "She's going to ask me if I was really Deathstroke's apprentice."

"What are you going to tell her?"

"The truth."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Everyone suspects it. At this point it doesn't matter. I might as well embrace it."

Dick sidled past Bruce and left the room. Relations with Bruce were better, but Dick always limited the conversation, especially when Bruce wanted to talk about the apprenticeship. It was time to leave for Bludhaven, anyway. He would finish the robot later.

A/N: I got this idea during class, but couldn't write it down until now! Review!

P.S: very important links on my profile! Lots of exciting shenanigans are happening right now!