Work Text:
Robin shivers.
Not a little one like the kind that creeps up your spine when a cool breeze hits you or when you get a sense of uneasiness. No, Robin shivers with his whole being, muscles uncontrollable as they twitch in tandem desperately trying to produce heat, shakes wracking his body. Grimacing against the cold, he ducks his head to shield his face from the icy wind and wills himself to take another step.
This was not what he'd expected when Bruce had told him they were going to Hawaii.
When the older man had come down to breakfast two days ago and delivered news about their "vacation" with that familiar hint of mirth in his tone, Dick had known there was more to the trip than a simple get away. And he had been excited. He rarely gets the chance to don his Robin costume outside of Gotham City, so he was looking forward to the opportunity to take his hero work on the road. And being a vigilante in a tropical paradise didn't sound half bad. He'd even joked to Bruce about getting out his old Robin costume with the short shorts to accommodate for the warm weather.
He is very glad he did not actually go through with that plan now. His lightweight tights do almost nothing against the near waist deep snow they are trudging through as it is. Batman plows on ahead, making some semblance of a path for Robin to follow, but with the height of the snow and the howling wind it barely does anything to ease Robin's own trek. Nor does it stop ice from clinging to every inch of his uniform.
In the list of "unpleasant Batman and Robin experiences'' this might be one of Dick's top spots. He can't stop walking though, can't complain about the cold to Bruce. Robin is Batman's partner. His equal. So If Batman can keep going through this then so can Dick. Even if every inch of Batman's body aside from his chin is protected from the snow while Robin's body is decidedly… not.
He finds himself desperately wishing he'd been smart enough to include a hood on his cape as another gust of icy wind buffets his poor exposed ears. Or smart enough to include full length sleeves on his arms that are now bundled tightly into what of the cape he's managed to wrap around them.
It was supposed to be an easy mission. Someone had broken into Gotham University's bio research lab and stolen one of their new research projects. Something that could be dangerous if put into the wrong hands. Batman had tracked the thief and discovered he had boarded a flight to Hawaii not two hours after pulling off the heist. Clearly good at what he does and smart enough to try and put himself out of the range of the Bat.
He wouldn't expect the Bat to follow him though. He would be caught off guard, Batman and Robin would take him down easily, and then Dick and Bruce would spend a nice Hawaiian vacation on the beach together before returning to Gotham. That was how things were supposed to have gone.
And if things went really well , then Robin might be the one to take the thief down himself. He'd be the hero and Batman would praise him. Tell him how mature he's become. And then Dick and Bruce would get to spend a few days alone enjoying a leisurely vacation, and with the romantic honeymooners background of Hawaii as a setting Dick would finally confess his feelings and he and Bruce would make out on the beach and it would be perfect.
Well. That's how it went in Dick's fantasies anyways. A teenage boy can dream.
Maybe it wouldn't have gone exactly like that, but Dick had never expected the situation to turn out this remarkably bad.
Neither of them had counted on the fact that the man who had hired the thief was one Victor Fries. Now all of Oahu was covered in a massive snowstorm the likes of which would make even the most hardened Canadians cower, and they still hadn't recovered the bio-research.
Instead their target has switched to the mountain observatory where Batman deduced the weather machine was being housed, trudging through the snow in the opposite direction of the villains making their escape with the stolen property.
And Dick is freezing.
Another large shiver wracks him, halting his movement for a moment and he can do nothing with his body but surrender to its shakes. Ahead of him Batman keeps moving on. Robin tries to force his legs forward, but they don't cooperate. His body shakes again and his frozen limbs simply give out. His arms fly out on reflex to catch him, but the snow is deep and all it accomplishes is to sink his bare flesh shoulder deep into the icy snow before his face meets the same fate.
He rolls immediately, pulling his face out of the snow and gasping at the shock as he sucks in a deep breath that nearly freezes his lungs. He stares up at the sky for a moment, dazed, before remembering that he needs to get up and keep moving. Batman isn't even in his line of sight anymore.
He has to get up. But his body doesn't listen. Dick has long since lost the feeling in his extremities. Every part of his body has gone numb, limbs cold and uncooperative. Tears well up in his eyes as an icy wind pummels his face again, the mask offering little protection.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
Robin isn't supposed to be weak.
But he can't get up.
"Batman!" he shouts through an aching throat.
The wind swallows his noise and his heart drops. Batman won't be able to hear him. No one will be able to find him. He's going to die here buried under the snow.
He looks up towards the sky but his view is encompassed by swirling white.
Dick closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in through his nose.
"Robin," crackles through his earpiece and his eyes snap open faster than a lightning strike. A huff of relieved laughter leaves his mouth but he doesn't even have the energy to marvel at his own stupidity of forgetting about the comms because he's still facing the dangerously realistic possibility of being buried by the falling snow before Batman can come back for him.
"B-Bat m-man. I c-can'ttt-" Dick's teeth chatter so hard that he can barely speak, can barely get the words out. Thankfully Bruce seems to understand his meaning.
"Don't move," comes through the comms. As if Robin could.
He waits.
And waits.
And tries to brush the falling snow off his face with a shaky and uncooperative arm. Bright circus colors slowly disappear under the white blanket.
It feels like hours but has probably only actually been a few minutes when he finally hears Bruce's voice calling his name, not through the comms but with his own ears.
"Here!" he tries to scream in response, but all that leaves his mouth is a weak puff of steam, warmth of his breath visible against the cold outside air.
But Bruce is Bruce and he wouldn't be Batman if he couldn't do something simple like find a fallen Robin in the snow.
"I've got you," he hears as strong, kevlar-clad arms wrap around him. A gloved hand cradles his head as he's lifted from the snow.
Perhaps Dick is naive, assigning too much grandiose onto Bruce - who is, for all his abilities and accomplishments, still just a man - but he had truly thought in his mind that once Batman found him he would feel better. That Bruce could somehow make all the hurt go away. But as Bruce continues up the mountain, Dick clutched to his chest, Dick's body is still wracked with horrible shivers, his limbs still numb, the unforgiving kevlar preventing any body heat to warm him despite their proximity. Dick may have let out a whine, but if he did it goes unheard, swallowed up by the roaring wind that even Batman's wrapped cape can't prevent from chilling Dick's skin even further.
"Just hold on a bit longer," Batman's deep voice rumbles. Dick clings to it like a lifeline as Batman keeps trudging through the snow, getting deeper by the minute. He can feel Bruce slowing down, can tell by the jerky movements that the snow is deepening, making it harder for Bruce to move forward through it.
He's beginning to wonder if either of them will make it. Debating whether to tell Batman to dump him back in the snow and go on without him. Then his frozen body is being shifted uncomfortably as Batman maneuvers him into one arm so he can use the other to pull open a door.
They've made it to the observatory.
If it were any situation other than one in which Dick's entire being had been thoroughly drained of its heat he would certainly be feeling a warm flush from the fact that Bruce is able to manhandle him so easily to carry him around with one arm . As the situation is now though, he finds it a miracle just to be alive and takes a small comfort in the shelter of the observatory.
It's not warm by any means, building not designed to withstand the current subzero temperatures that are usually a stranger to the island, but the mere fact that it blocks the wind is a vast improvement to being outdoors.
There's not much inside, the building designed for star gazing and the subsequent work that accompanies it. A massive telescope fills the center of the room, with desks and computers scattered about in the rest of the space. Not much that looks useful for keeping warm.
Bruce lays Dick down next to one of the desks, and as unforgiving as the chilled kevlar had been, the cold tile floor is a thousand times worse. A cry escapes him when his body meets the frigid tiling, and he would be embarrassed about it if he could think anything past cold cold cold.
Batman removes his cape and Dick allows himself to be swaddled up like a human burrito. It's mildly better, but he's so frozen at this point that he can't feel much difference.
"I need to stop it," Bruce says, referring to Fries' weather machine that's causing this whole mess. "I'll be back soon. Don't fall asleep."
Dick tries to nod but even his neck seems frozen stiff. His response is irrelevant though, as all he can do is allow Batman to tuck him in next to one of the desks before he runs out of Dick's narrow line of sight.
He doesn't know how much time passes. Batman told him to stay awake but he's so cold and so miserable that he can't help but let his eyes fall shut. It's only the shivering tremors that occasionally wrack his body that keep him from going under completely. It isn't until he's being shifted that he realizes how quiet it's become, the end of the rushing wind signaling that Batman must have stopped the machine successfully.
"I've shut it down, but it will still take time before the temperature returns to normal and all this snow melts," Bruce says as if reading Dick's mind. And can't he always. "Going back will take too long. We need to get you warmed up now."
Dick isn't opposed to getting warm, quite the opposite. But Bruce is unwrapping his cape-blanket now which Dick is not enjoying. He lets out a whine when the cold air touches his arms again.
"I know chum. It's just for a minute. We need to get you out of those wet clothes."
Being naked somehow doesn't feel like a proper defense against the cold, but Bruce is right, his frozen uniform is coated in ice crystals that feel like they are clawing their way through the fabric and into his skin. When his tunic is finally peeled off, he does feel mildly better.
Large hands rub over his chest, making him gasp. Bruce must have lost his gloves at some point, now just skin on skin. His hands aren't warm per say, but they are warmer than Dick is, and the friction as Bruce rubs over his torso helps him regain some feeling.
Dick whimpers at the touch, both cursing and blessing a deity he doesn't believe in, because damn if this isn't like something out of his fantasies. One of Bruce's rough fingers presses over his left nipple on the next stroke and he desperately wishes his body was thawed enough to actually feel anything besides the faintest of pressure.
Bruce doesn't linger long on Dick's chest though, even as Dick arches towards his touch as Bruce pulls his hands away. Next he begins working Robin's tights down his legs, the soaked fabric stubbornly clinging to his skin forcing Bruce to work the material down inch by inch. After so much time spent wading through waist deep snow Dick's bottom half is completely numb. It isn't until Bruce pulls back to tug off Dick's boots that he realizes Bruce removed his underwear as well.
He bites his tongue (one of the only parts of his body which still has any feeling) and reminds himself that Bruce has seen him naked before. Changing together in the cave's locker room is a fairly regular occurrence (and also the way Dick has gotten a few peeks in to fuel a certain mental bank ). But he's never just been laid out on display in this way, and especially not when he's experiencing one of the severest episodes of shrinkage known to mankind. He's pretty sure his balls are approximately halfway to his throat by now with their vain attempt to escape the cold. The word mortified comes to mind, but he tries to reassure himself - Bruce isn't looking , he's just trying to get you warm. Even though under normal circumstances Dick would want Bruce to look. Look at him and… and what? Find him attractive? Think Dick's penis is more enticing than anything the women he frequently brings home have going for them? Laying here now, all traces of heat and arousal frozen out of his body, the notion feels ridiculous. He clamps down harder on his tongue and tries to ignore any pressure building up behind his eyes.
You know him better than they do, he reminds himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath through his nose. You're his partner. They mean nothing past the one night.
He's being shifted again and he reopens his eyes, a jolt of surprise hitting him when he's greeted with the sight of Bruce's bare chest. A quick glance down proves that his chest isn't the only thing that's bare; Bruce has gotten himself to a similar state of undress as Dick himself. Only his cowl remains.
"Batman?" he questions, and once again Bruce knows exactly what he means.
"There's no other heat source here. Sharing body heat is the best way to warm you up." Then with a small smile, "Didn't you pay attention to any of that emergency training we went through?"
Oh, Dick had paid attention. He clings religiously to every lecture and lesson Bruce has to give him. But that had not mentally prepared him for the current situation where he is now being pulled flush against Bruce's naked body as the man wraps the Bat Cape back around them both. The heat from Bruce's chest radiates through Dick's own, helping him slowly regain his feeling.
Although his lower half is still numb, he is all too aware of the fact that his penis is currently pressed up against Bruce's stomach, and Bruce's own cock is nestled somewhere around Dick's thighs. He only prays this horrid chill lasts long enough to prevent any embarrassing situations . Being stripped naked after needing to be carried is already humiliating enough, thank you.
Bruce lifts Dick's arm, drawing his attention to the green glove, the only piece of clothing Robin still has on besides his mask. He slowly tugs it off from Dick's fingers.
Dick barely manages to hold back a scream, a muted cry still escaping him. Despite the cold his fingers somehow feel like they are on fire , burning pain running through them. That familiar pressure is building behind his eyes again even as Bruce rapidly rubs his frozen fingers between his hands.
"Hurts-" he manages to get out, and Bruce lets out a sympathetic hum that travels through Dick's chest.
"The extremities have the poorest circulation. This is where the worst damage is done," he tells Dick. As if Dick needed the lecture to know that this hurts the most. He tries twitching the fingers in his opposite hand and finds they can't move at all.
A gasp escapes him a moment later when Bruce takes Dick's fingers into his mouth . The heat fights away the chill but makes Dick’s fingers prickle with pain at the same time as they thaw more rapidly in the warm cavern. It is comforting though, better than the sting of the cold air by leaps and bounds. Maybe a bit too comforting, as Dick tries to keep his mind from straying to other things that he would appreciate Bruce warming up with his mouth right now (or after they get home, or any time really).
After a while Bruce finally releases his fingers and Dick tentatively bends them. They still prickle, but at least they are mobile and it's far better than the intense pain from earlier. Bruce pulls the arm across Dick's chest and tucks it into his armpit, forcing it to absorb the heat there. Then he grabs Dick's other hand.
He braces himself for it, the pain that will come this time, but expecting it doesn't make it any better. He whimpers when Bruce tugs the glove off his hand, frozen fingers stuck immobile in a slight curve. Dick can't even get them to twitch.
Bruce quickly pulls them into his mouth in the same manner, the heat adding a momentary burn that Dick grits his teeth against.
Another bout of shivers wracks his body then, causing him to shake with little tremors. He can't stop them, body still far beyond his own control, and he whimpers at the force of his body's gyrations. Bruce wraps his free arm, (the one not currently gripping Dick's hand to keep his fingers in Bruce's mouth), around Dick's body and pulls him in even tighter, trying to calm the shaking. Dick just groans into the man's chest and accepts his fate as his body vibrates against his mentor's. This was really not the kind of vibrations he had fantasized about when he imagined getting to spend alone time with Bruce on this trip. He's pretty sure if his legs weren't numb he'd be able to feel where Bruce is pressed against him, and he's not sure if he's glad or upset that he can't feel anything.
Eventually the larger shakes subside to small tremors, the body heat doing the trick. Bruce slides Dick's fingers out of his mouth, and Dick tries not to focus on the way his tongue accidentally slid against them as Bruce tucks this hand into Dick's other armpit, essentially wrapping the teen in a self-made straight jacket. With that out of the way Bruce wraps both arms around him, pulling Dick in tightly against his body. One hand comes up to cradle the back of Dick's head and he finds himself well and properly tucked in.
"I'll keep watch," Bruce tells him. "You rest now."
And Dick does.
When he wakes up it feels noticeably warmer - almost too warm - the comforting cape blanket now stifling. Dick pulls his hands out from his armpits (and hey, he can move his limbs again, that's cool) to find his fingers coated in sweat, and when he shifts he finds the same sweat is causing him to stick uncomfortably to the warm body he's currently pressed against. Glancing up he sees Bruce looking back at him, a small smile on his face.
"How are you feeling?" he asks. Fingers comb through Dick's sweaty hair.
"Hot," he replies with a small laugh. But despite the admission he doesn't pull away. He never wants to leave Bruce's warmth.
"Well that sounds like a vast improvement from 'on the verge of frostbite and hypothermia'', Bruce jokes, but he can't hide the tinge of concern in his voice. Not from Dick.
"I'm sorry I worried you," he says, pressing into the soothing fingers still playing with his scalp.
"It's not your fault, Robin," Bruce tells him, voice slipping dangerously back into Batman territory, meaning Dick's snuggle time is running short.
"I know," he replies quietly into Bruce's chest. He allows himself another moment of basking in the closeness to his mentor before steeling himself and pulling back. "I guess we should be heading back now?"
"The weather has cleared up considerably while you were asleep," Bruce replies, a hint of laughter behind it. "I dare say it may even be a pleasant walk back."
"In that?" Dick questions, raising an eyebrow and jerking his head to the pile of black material that is Batman's gear. "You better not get heat stroke, because I'm not carrying you back."
They laugh and Bruce helps him stand and they separate in order to start pulling on their respective uniforms. As horrible and miserable as this whole experience has been, Dick would go through it all again if he had to. He can take on anything life (or Gotham's rogues) has to throw at him. He can weather any storm. Withstand any cold.
Because he'll always have Bruce there to warm him up.