Gala Gone Wrong

Red Dot

"Do we have to go to another gala? There have been far too many lately. I don't like being a show pony for father's business pawns," complained Damian, picking up a fancy suit that had been spread out on his bed.

Damian and Dick had just been told that they had to attend another fancy gala. Bruce was feeling worried that they weren't spending enough time keeping up their rich kid personas and his remedy for this was to force them to go to an ungodly amount of parties for members of high society.

"It's business partners- not pawns and stop talking like that, it's weird. I know it's super annoying to have to go to all of these, but I think it might be the last one for a while. And besides Matt is going to be there, you like him," Dick said. Dick disliked fancy parties as much as Damian, but they were always better with a friend there. It's not like they had a choice of not going anyway.

"He is okay. He is not as insufferable as the others. Despite his flaws, he is useful and intelligent," stated Damian.

"It's okay to say that you think someone is cool, you know. He is. We can just hang around him the whole time so that we're less bothered by people trying to get favors from Bruce," Dick suggested, knowing how much his brother hated grandiose parties. They were just going to be ogled the whole time, but it would help to have a real conversation. People tended to bother them less if they hanging out with someone who wasn't considered part of high society.

"I'll do that. Do you know why Mr. Murdock is attending this gala? He normally doesn't come because of how those pompous people treat him," questioned Damian. The last time Matt was at a party he was surrounded by people who either pitied him past the extreme as well as people who made fun of him (a lot of tripping)

"Yeah, they're ableist assholes. If we hang together the guests won't bother us or him, or at least I hope so. Matt's coming this time because he's working with Bruce to help keep the guys we catch actually in jail. They're working on a major project together, but Bruce won't help me what it's about though. I think it has to do with Lex Luthor," said Dick.

"Father shouldn't involve Mr. Murdock with our problems. We should handle our problems ourselves and it could bring trouble to Mr. Murdock. Father knows that he is at a disadvantage. We don't want another Harvey Dent," said Damian.

"Just because he's a lawyer helping us out doesn't mean he's going to go crazy like Harvey. You know that Matt is always looking for a way to help people. He can't do it the way we can, but he still helps others," Dick expressed, tying his tie.

"Yeah, and look where that got him," Damian muttered, referring to the accident that blinded Matt. "If Father has any more of these after tonight, he's going to regret it."

"Relax, I don't know why you're so uptight," Dick groaned.

"I hate parties. Let's just get this over with."

Dick laughed and dragged his brother by the arm out the door.
___________
"Thanks for coming Matt, I know this isn't really your kind of thing." Bruce and Matt were talking in the main hall. Guests were starting to flood the place and there was less space to occupy comfortably, but many of the guests seemed to be avoiding Matt like the plague, they had no reason to want to involve themselves with someone who was disabled.

"It's fine. I needed to get out anyway, been cooped up in the office too much. It'll be nice to talk to the kids too. Oh, I'm done with the documents you wanted. Had to pull a few strings to get the information though. Do you want them now or later?" Matt said taking a large, important looking folder out of his bag.

"Now's fine," Bruce took the folder. "Thanks, this is really going to help. I hope this doesn't put you in any trouble, you know how vicious those men can be."