[ Does that include him or not, Dick can't help but wonder.

But there's something else there in his denial. Something there just beyond what he can reach just by watching. If he regrets not knowing Bruce, why can't he get started now? ]

He has Tim to look after him. And he's still all alone right now. I mean, when I got here, I-

[ He'd been alone in everything. Alone in exploring this place, alone in facing the tunnels for the first time, alone in setting up the cave so it was livable, just barely livable. Alone every night with only his own terrifying, desperately lonely thoughts for company.

And it's all his fault. His fault for panicking, his fault for taking it out on Damian, his fault for not switching clothes before he'd visited the housing block for the first time. But even as things get easier with Damian and Tim, he'll never know what they really see when they look at him.

But those are all things he can't explain. Damian will feel bad if he tries, and Dick wants anything but that.

Cautiously: ]

Was it, uh- was it worse than that?

Than just not knowing him? [ Is there some lurking rift he doesn't know about? ]