Manor-Dad lets me drive the Batmobile - lostletters (loosingletters) (2024)

Chapter 1: "You're dating Batman!" (revised)

Chapter Text

1.

Bruce might not have thought things through when he decided to become a foster parent. Alfred had told him he was making that decision with his heart and not his head, but Bruce had steadfastly refused to consider his comment.

He’d seen himself in Dick, angry, afraid, and, above all, alone.

Bruce had wanted to give Dick the support he’d needed after his parents had died.

Clearly, he just hadn’t considered all angles.

Such as a tiny, excited nine-year-old dressed in Batman PJs jumping around the Batcave.

The outfit had been a gift from Clark and Bruce hadn’t had the heart to make them disappear after Dick had accepted them so cheerfully, proclaiming Batman to be his favorite hero. Bruce hadn’t thought he might care about being anyone’s favorite until Dick had said so and clearly it had impacted his decision-making skills.

Much the same now, Bruce didn’t have the heart to use any of his proven methods to erase Dick’s memory. The boy hadn’t cried much after his parents’ deaths but, unlike Bruce, picked himself up again quickly. Bruce hadn’t smiled for a year, Dick was doing cartwheels on the dining table when Alfred wasn’t looking. There were already miles of difference between Dick and Bruce, and he’d decided to take it as a personal victory.

Still, Bruce hadn’t known what pale imitations Dick’s smiles and laughs were to the pure joy he expressed now.

Wide-eyed, Dick looked around the Cave, vibrating with energy yet hesitant to truly move forward and discover this treasure trove. Maybe Bruce wouldn’t have to steal these memories from Dick, but let him keep this first genuine cheer. Dick was a bright boy; he could be convinced to keep a secret, especially when he knew it was necessary.

And Batman was his favorite, after all.

Mind made up, an explanation half-formed, Bruce stepped out of the shadows. The suit was already back in its case, safely locked away, and he’d traded its protection for sweatpants and hoodie. They didn’t heat the Cave – Bruce still had to figure out how to achieve something like it without noticeably wasting energy – and hours in front of the computer in a simple tank top ended with him getting sick.

Or annoying Alfred, which was a far greater danger on most days.

“Bruce!” Dick shouted when he finally spotted him. “Look! This has to be the Batcave!”

The what Cave?

“Can you believe it? Did you know it was right here under the manor all this time? This must have taken years to set up and look at all that cool tech! Of course, Batman has the best. Have you seen him…”

Dick trailed off and studied Bruce cautiously. His gaze lingered on Bruce’s neck, where this night’s fights had resulted in a small bruise, and the coffee mug in Bruce’s hands.

“Look, Dick, I know this is a lot to take in—” Bruce began to speak, but Dick interrupted him.

“You’re dating Batman!” he exclaimed, his voice somehow rising to even higher octaves.

Bruce blinked.

That wasn’t exactly the conclusion he had expected Dick to reach.

Or anywhere near it, really.

Before he could set the boy on the right path, Dick was already talking again.

“Of course! It makes so much sense! That’s why he immediately knew who I was and found me so fast when I was trying to find Zucco. You sent him after me, right? Can I meet him again? Please, please, please, I haven’t thanked him properly yet, and Alfred said it’s important to do that always.”

Dick jumped up and down, vibrating with energy. Behind him, Alfred stood with another tray of treats for Bruce, and for once, he looked about as caught off-guard as Bruce felt. There was a small victory in that.

Bruce shared a look with Alfred, but he just shrugged and indicated with a hand wave that Bruce should reply to his still rambling ward.

Right.

Looking back at Dick, Bruce could see him smiling brightly. He should correct Dick’s false assumptions, but then again, it would be a good cover.

If anybody ever got too close to the truth and Dick accidentally talked – not that Bruce assumed he would, but he didn’t earn his title as ‘The World’s Greatest Detective and Most Paranoid Bastard’ by being unprepared – Batman’s identity would be safe still. Once Dick got older, Bruce could tell him the truth. For now, though...

“It’s a secret,” Bruce said seriously. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t!” Dick promised earnestly.

Bruce nodded and kneeled in front of Dick. When he’d been a kid, he loved swearing oaths, taking them as serious as the fealty a knight pleaded to their king.

“You have to swear an oath,” he told Dick.

Nowadays, he knew that they had just been his parents’ convenient way of getting him to avoid telling Alfred about how many sweets he’d already eaten before dinner, but they had been fun regardless.

And they also worked like a charm on Dick. After the promise was made, Dick begged until Bruce showed him around the Cave. They lingered at the rack keeping Batman’s uniforms, Dick hesitantly running his fingers over the armor.

“Say,” Dick started to speak. “Do you think I can accompany Batman in the future?”

“Absolutely not.”

2.

“Bruce said I could join you on patrol.”

Bruce, dressed as Batman, nearly burned his tongue on his coffee as he’d been in the middle of swallowing the drink when Dick approached. Dick’s expression was utterly innocent and if not for the slight twitch of his hand – a tell that could be trained away easily – and the fact that Bruce was not in a committed relationship with himself, he wouldn’t be able to tell Dick was lying. Lately, Dick had been spending a lot of time in the newly christened Batcave. Whenever Bruce was supposed to be sleeping or out in the city working for Wayne Enterprises, Dick went down to the Cave and Batman.

Sometimes Bruce thought that Dick had finally figured it out and was trying to prank him by feigning ignorance, but then he’d paraphrase something to Batman or Bruce that neither had said, and Bruce would know Dick was still in the dark.

“He did not,” Bruce replied.

Dick raised his chin in defiance. “Bet.”

3.

Bruce enjoyed Sunday mornings. They all slept in and ate breakfast together, Alfred for once abandoning his role of a butler and falling more into parenthood. Bruce had no WE work to be done, didn’t allow last night’s horrors to follow him to morning sunlight, and Dick didn’t have school.

After his parents’ passing, the manor had always been a quiet place, but it had never been calm. Alfred taught him self-defense, Bruce blew something up with his chemistry set, or they listened to the wind blowing through his mother’s gardens. Even though Dick’s gleeful shrieks echoed through the halls, Bruce felt at peace. He’d expected to get annoyed with Dick, but that hadn’t happened—

“Batman said I’d be safe in the city patrolling with him!”

—yet.

Bruce opened his eyes, staring directly into Dick’s blue ones. He had wondered about the sudden weight on his chest.

“No.”

“Awww, come on, B!”

4.

Dick kept on asking, Bruce kept on protesting, Alfred raised a brow at their antics, and somehow it ended with Robin following Batman on the streets. Bruce still couldn’t believe he had let a child, practically a baby, talk him into taking him out to fight crime.

Not that Dick was doing any of that until he was at least thirteen. For now, Batman would make his rounds first, then take Dick out for an hour to accompany vulnerable people home in the dark, carry food to the homeless and track down lost pets.

Dick didn’t complain about it but poured all his energy into his task. He knew his job was serious and that the goal was to help people. If Dick dedicated as much motivation to his homework, he could skip several grades. Honestly, it was like Dick simply enjoyed spending time with Batman, which was weird, to say the least.

Batman wasn’t exactly the most sociable.

Bruce tried to go out more with his public persona as the last Wayne and was more or less successful in crafting an image standing in contrast to Batman. And, as he loathed to admit it, part of it was the mindset he got into when he was out as Batman. He focused on the mission, the city he had to protect. It left very little room for the man behind the mask.

Dick’s presence made it easier to remember himself. He got more careless about his posture as well the more often they patrolled together.

And then, one night, after an almost fun patrol, he took off the cowl. It would be better if Dick knew the truth, even if he hadn’t deduced it himself. After all, his detection skills were something they were still working on.

“Bruce!” Dick gasped. “You were fighting with me tonight?”

“Of course. It’s always been—”

Dick rushed over to Bruce’s side, worry written all over his face.

“Is Batman alright?! Has he gotten hurt? He should have told me, I’d have been fine without going on patrol, and you shouldn’t endanger yourself. You’re already doing enough for Gotham during the day. Can I see him? Do you always jump in for him when he can’t fight? Has he gotten hurt often?”

Bruce took a deep breath and pinched his nose.

Maybe it was too early still.

“Sure,” he said, unknowing that this would be the beginning of a life-long commitment to self-love. “I stand in for Batman when he can’t patrol Gotham. What’s the purpose of funding all of this if I don’t contribute?”

Dick nodded, though Bruce could tell he wasn’t satisfied with his answer. Maybe he would try again in another six months.

5.

“Do you think Dad’s worried about us when we’re out on patrol?”

Batman very nearly crashed into the next building. Only his iron grip on his grappling hook and his years of training made his landing on the next roof look as professional as always.

Robin settled on the gargoyle next to him, still deep in thought.

“I mean, we don’t come back hurt often, but he always makes sure to check me for injuries again after you’ve done it. He is worrying, isn’t he?”

Batman was still stuck on Robin’s first sentence.

“… Dad?” He questioned.

Robin looked up at him in confusion before promptly blushing red.

“Don’t tell B I call him that! I’m practicing it still ‘cause it sounds weird, and the first time I say it to his face needs to be perfect. I know I told him I don’t want a new father, and I don’t, I love my Papa. But he could be another dad, you know? Like, everyone has two sets of grandparents as well and I know that’s not the same, and I know he hasn’t adopted me, but I’m pretty sure he does love me like a son, he’s called me that before. I know he didn’t do it consciously or whatever, and Grayson-Wayne would be like super-duper long, and all teachers would hate it, but—”

“Robin .”

His ward, his son, stopped talking, nervously looking down at his gloved hands.

“I am sure B will be thrilled to hear that and call you his son. You just have to tell him.”

Okay, so maybe this whole ‘Batman wasn’t Bruce’ thing did have some positive sides.

6.

Dick grew with every passing month. He got stronger and taller, although he steadily remained the shortest in his class. He didn’t mind at all, citing acrobat wisdom at him and claiming the small statue helped him with his gymnastics. Bruce trusted him with more and more responsibilities, allowing Dick to be a part of more dangerous cases, carefully keeping watch of his progress.

Satisfied with his son’s accomplishments and thoroughly annoyed by his teammates’ pestering, Bruce even took Dick to the Watchtower for his own little recon mission. It was a delight to see him collect clues about everyone’s identity, remembering even small details like Green Arrow’s preferred coffee brand, and inform Bruce of everyone’s identity within a week.

At thirteen, however, Dick still hadn’t figured out who Bruce was.

It was a little frustrating, never mind concerning. Nothing seemed to shake Dick’s belief that they were two separate people.

Alfred, of course, did nothing to aid Bruce in clearing up the misunderstanding.

“Robin,” Bruce growled in his Batman voice before switching to his softer and natural tone. “I’m Batman.”

Dick stared at Bruce, cowl-less and serious, before being overtaken with laughter.

“Oh, jeez, B— you— Holy hell—”

The tears running down his cheeks were only a little insulting.

“Language.”

“That was perfect. Exactly how Batman says it!”

The direct approach really wasn’t working out for Bruce.

Even worse, Dick didn’t seem interested in who Batman was. As long as he was kind to Dick, spent enough time with him, and “treated Bruce right”, he didn’t care about who was behind the mask. Bruce was confident that Dick had theories, he’d peaked at the League files a little too long for just a curious glance, but he’d never voiced a single one.

“The Bat’s the Bat,” he had heard Dick tell Barbara once like that was a proper explanation for anything.

7.

Barbara Gordon was a capital M Menace. An intelligent, blackmailing, innovative, and confident menace hell-bent on putting herself in danger.

Bruce could go to her father, he really should, but Barbara hadn’t even been fazed by the threat. She’d looked right up at him, seeming years older than she was, and crossed her arms.

“I know you’re just trying to look out for us, Mr. Wayne, but I promise you, we’ll be safe with Batman. I just need him to teach me some more kick-ass moves. Training with Dick is good, but he’s only learning himself still. And it would be a bit hypocritical to allow Robin to work alongside Batman but deny Batgirl the same rights.”

Bruce didn’t even know where to start with that line of argumentation. He most certainly could keep track of two children at night, but he didn’t want to. One was dangerous enough to keep with him, two might ease some of the workload, but also added a lot more in other places.

Yet, somehow, he found himself keeping watch over a little bird and bat during nighttime and playing Mario Kart with his son and his best friend during the daytime.

Maybe they’d be alright.

Chapter 2: "I can’t believe he just dropped a kid on you for f*ck’s sake!"

Chapter Text

When Bruce got up, he picked out his clothes for the day, went down for breakfast and apologized toAlfred for his moodiness as a teenager.

Bruce had read parenting books. He had watched all the TV Shows, talked to Leslie, spoke to Jim and watched how the other Justice League members were handling their children, wards and side-kicks and vowed to do better.

As Bruce Wayne, he was doing a pretty good job. Dick had finished high school early so he could get out of that system as soon as possible and applied to the Police Academy, because a boring and safe day job wouldn’t cut it for Richard John Grayson-Wayne. He was currently switching between living at the manor, the Titans Tower and Roy to help him out with Lian. Every weekend though, without fail, he’d stay at the manor and spend the days with Alfred and Bruce being the best son Bruce could have ever asked for.

As Batman, he was one tiny argument away from chasing Robin – Sorry, it was Nightwing now – out of Gotham forever. Dick had gotten hurt one night, they had argued and Bruce had said a multitude of things he hadn’t meant, or at least not in the way Dick had interpreted them, and it had ended with Dick storming out of the Cave in the middle of the night.

Bruce had gotten a call thirty minutes later, from a furious and frustrated crying Dick that he doesn’t “have to worry. I’m sleeping over at Roy’s tonight. I’m sorry I just ran off, but I couldn’t deal with that bastard’s attitude.”

And ever since Nightwing had started working in Blüdhaven, Batman had been robin-less, and Bruce was regretting everything.

They didn’t talk about Batman when Dick was at the manor. They spoke about job possibilities, WE charities, and going apartment hunting in Blüdhaven.

Even if Bruce was convinced that seventeen was much too young to live on your own.

(“I remember another young man leaving the house at such an age.”

“It’s ‘do as I say’, Alfred, not ‘as I did’-“)

Worst of all, though, Bruce didn’t know how to fix things. Barbara was also no help as she had taken Dick’s side in their argument and only still helped Batman out because Gotham would suffer otherwise.

Bruce hadn’t noticed how lonely patrol was without his two partners by his side.

X

A kid was trying to steal his tires, though going by his progress, maybe he wasn’t just trying anymore. Batman stood at the edge of the roof of the building he’d parked the Batmobile next to. The boy working on the fourth tire was doing an excellent job of getting it loose. Crime Alley kids tended to try to make themselves seem older than they were while simultaneously looking much younger due to a distinct lack of a healthy home.

The boy in the red jacket seemed to be ten, so Batman guessed he must be around thirteen.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He asked the boy.

He squealed and promptly threw his tire iron at Batman.

“Don’t just appear outta thin-air!” The boy shouted.

He had a lot of spirit, Batman had to admit.

“Did you steal my tires?”

“Well, duh.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You deserve it. Who the f*ck parks this goldmine in Crime Alley?”

“Language,” Batman corrected absentmindedly as he picked the tire iron up again.

The boy was thin, and no child of his age should be out at this time. Chances were his parents were either dead or unable to care for him.

“What’s your name?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Do you always answer a question with another question?”

The boy grinned. “When I feel like it. I’m Jason, and if you kidnap me, I’ll scream so loud that every gang member in reach will wake up and come looking and everyone will think Batman is a pedophile.”

“Right.”

Batman couldn’t help but smile. He liked the kid, and he most definitely couldn’t send him his way without making sure he was safe.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

“Didn’t you just hear what I said?”

X

Jason, as it turned out, could eat a lot. Batman still had a patrol to finish – technically speaking. He didn’t really think he’d move from Jason’s side anytime soon – and therefore didn’t eat as much. Jason, on the other hand, was well on his way through his third hamburger. Given his small form, Bruce thought he should probably stop Jason before he had to throw up.

“You should slow down a little if you don’t want to get nauseous.”

Jason just glared at him and took a bite out of his hamburger, chewing obnoxiously loud on purpose. It would have looked quite threatening if Jason weren’t sitting on the roof of the batmobile, drowning in his too big sweater and Batman’s cape.

“Message received,” Batman snorted. “Do you have anywhere to go? I’ll drive you wherever you want.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed, but then he slowly shook his head. “Got no one waiting on me. And if you take me to the social f*ckers, I’m outta here faster than you can say ‘Robin’.”

Batman had observed plenty of street kids calling ‘Batman’ or ‘Robin’ to get the bigger and meaner guys attacking them to hesitate for the split-second they needed to escape. Whether or not Gotham’s vigilantes were actually there didn’t seem to matter at that moment, their reputation was good enough.

“Do you usually call for Robin?”

Jason clicked his tongue. “Not often, I’m smart enough to get away on my own. But Robin hasn’t been listening to your call either lately, has he?”

It was an innocent question, but Jason hadn’t been able to keep the slightest hint of anxiety out of his voice. It didn’t surprise Batman. Robin and Batgirl were known to be the ones who stayed behind with the victim until the police arrived, or they reached the next police station, while Batman was the heavy hitter who took care of the criminals. Robin’s lack of appearance had a distinct and possibly measurable effect on Gotham.

“He’s fine,” Batman reassured Jason. “We’ve just had a disagreement.”

“Will he come back?”

Batman’s throat tightened. For all that he wanted to believe that Dick and he could go back to being Batman-and-Robin, Dick was already creating a new name and persona for himself in Blüdhaven. He could understand why Dick was doing it, Alfred had reminded him of his teenage years multiple times over the last two months, but that didn’t mean that Bruce liked it. He wanted his son somewhere he could keep an eye on him and didn’t have to drive for thirty minutes. In Gotham, he could get a Dick, who had been shot, to medical care within ten minutes. If Dick was in Blüdhaven, he was already dead by the time Bruce arrived.

“Do you have a place for the night, Jason? I know someone who would be willing to take you in.”

“Is this the moment where you’re going to kill me?” Jason replied, though his wariness had been dialed down to a bare minimum. Instead, he sounded amused, like he had just told the best joke in the century.

“Get in the car, Jason.”

X

The drive to the manor was silent right up until the moment they’re actually standing in front of the gates of Wayne Manor. Jason had grown more anxious once they crossed the Robert Kane Memorial Bridge, which connected Gotham’s inner city to the mainland. Nevertheless, he had kept quiet right until the moment they came to a standstill in front of Wayne Manor.

“You’re sh*tting me.”

“Language. And no. I know Bruce Wayne. No harm will come to you there.”

Jason’s grip around the tire iron tightened as he drummed it on his leg. “Yeah, sure, because nothing ever happens to some poor black kid who wants a warm bed for a night in some rich white guy’s home. I’m not dumb.”

Fury hissed in anger at the back of his head.

“Who?” Batman demanded.

“What?”

“Which kids have been hurt by whom?”

Jason’s expression was blank, but then he began listing the names of a few friend or acquaintances who came back to the streets with red eyes and warm clothes, as well as the people who picked them up.

“No harm will come to you here,” Batman promised again, though his mind was already halfway across the city, beating the hell out of some penthouse owners in the diamond district.

He took one of his batarangs out of his belt and gave it Jason, before offering his other hand. Jason reluctantly took it and followed Batman up to the path to Wayne Manor.

When Alfred opened the door, he took one look at Jason, the ushered him into the kitchen with the promise of hot chocolate.

As soon as he was out of sight, Batman rushed to the Cave to get changed. Time to make his entrance as Bruce Wayne.

X

Jason didn’t trust Bruce whatsoever. Whenever Bruce was in the room, Jason did his best to appear small and disappear into the wall until he could sneak out when he thought nobody was looking. He wasn’t skilled enough to trick Bruce yet, and he was nowhere near the level of skill needed for Robin, but Jason had talent.

Maybe, Bruce thought, maybe he should tell Jason sometime in the future. First, he had to make sure that Jason was happy and settled here and made the old building his home. Afterward, he could start thinking about whether Jason had what it took to be Robin. Jason already understood what Robin’s purpose was, and that was already half the battle.

Bruce was only glad that Dick had been undercover with the Titans in the past month. Jason would have probably already bolted if he had been confronted with three strangers at once.

X

“Jason.”

“Jesus f*ckin’ Christ!”

So maybe sneaking into Jason’s room from the window as Batman wasn’t his brightest idea, but he didn’t know how else to reassure Jason that he was safe here besides dropping in as the Bat.

“Ring a bell the next time!” Jason hissed and lowered the pocket knife he had pulled from beneath his pillow.

The handle was a shiny white, and Bruce was fairly sure that it was from his grandmother’s knife collection.

“Your friends are safe and the men will be in prison come morning.”

Batman had left them beaten and with quite incriminating evidence in front of Gordon, while all the kids had been taken in by a Wayne Children’s Shelter.

“Uh, what?”

“I took care of the ‘rich white guys’. It should be on the news tomorrow morning.”

“Right…” Jason nodded, leaving them both standing in his room at one in the morning, staring awkwardly at each other.

“Take care, Jason. You’ll be safe here.”

Batman turned around, ready to leave and retire for the night when a small body crashed into him. And thin arms wrapped themselves around Batman’s waist.

“Thank you, Batman.”

“You’re welcome, Jason.”

X

After his little appearance as Batman, Jason calmed down even more and even started initiating conversations with Bruce. Things started looking up and Bruce was content. Sure, he still had to figure out his relationship with Dick, but at least his second child was beginning to feel at home.

X

Dick’s reaction to Jason was interesting.

“Let me get this straight: You stole the tires off the batmobile.”

“Uhu.”

“And Batman caught you and you hit him with your iron.”

“Yep.”

“And then he took you to buy fast food and brought you here.”

“You’re a really smart cookie, aren’t you?”

Bruce hadn’t expected Dick back for another week at least, so it was quite a surprise to catch him in the kitchen, drinking hot chocolate while Jason was eating ice cream straight from the bucket. Alfred hated it when they did that. It wasn’t ‘proper’.

Bruce had done it with his parents, then with Dick, and two nights ago he had continued the tradition with Jason. It had been their first true instance of bonding and Bruce had been so happy, he’d let the Riddler finish his riddle for once instead of just taking him back to Arkham without the trouble.

“Yeah, I’m…” Dick stopped talking when he spotted Bruce in the kitchen entrance. “Hey, B! I just met Jay-”

“It’s Jason.”

“-here and he told me the most interesting story.”

“I’ve tried to tell you-“

Dick shook his head. “Stop. No more of that, Bruce.”

Alright, it seemed like it was finally time for the truth.

“I can’t believe he just dropped a kid on you for f*ck’s sake!”

Or not.

“Language, Dick.”

But Dick just kept on ranting, completely ignoring Bruce’s reprimand. Bruce was getting the feeling that his kids just overheard him when he remarked on their choice of words. How could he get on Alfred’s demanding authority level?

“This isn’t your fault, of course, Jason. I’m super happy you’re here, I’ve always wanted a little brother.”

Jason didn’t look like he believed Dick, but then again, Jason was still hoarding silverware beneath his bed. Suddenly being claimed as a little brother by someone he met at best an hour ago was overwhelming him. Not that the statement didn’t confuse Bruce. Since when had Dick wanted a little brother?

“But Batman!” Dick continued. “He never asks for permission. He just does whatever he feels is right and doesn’t give you a single chance to explain yourself. Did he even ask if you were alright with it?”

Bruce apparently wasn’t fast enough for Dick, as his eldest seemed to take the slight hesitance in replying as a “no” and went on another rant.

“Next you know he’ll try to make him Robin,” Dick muttered towards the end of the rant.

Bruce frowned. “You’re not alright with that?”

“Of course not! Well-“ Dick shot Jason, who was steadily looking more confused, a look. “Not yet. Robin was my idea. My costume, my symbol, my name. If it turns into some kind of legacy, I should be the one to decide that.”

Bruce hadn’t even considered that. To him, Robin the role of his partner, the protégé he was teaching, and Dick simply wasn’t that child anymore, no matter how much Bruce wanted him to return to that role.

“And as much Batman sucks right now, I can’t just let anybody watch his back, right?”

Bruce smiled. “Of course you’re right, chum.”

Dick beamed under the praise, grinning triumphantly. On the inside, Bruce was already growing weary of the next time Batman and Nightwing would meet each other. There would be hell to pay about this.

“What are you talking about?”

Bruce and Dick both turned to Jason, who was still sitting on the kitchen counter. The ice cream sat beside him, abandoned, and melting away in the summer heat.

“…He doesn’t know, does he?”

If Bruce were a lesser man, he’d ask Dick which secret the young man was referring to. At least Dick had enough sense to be embarrassed about causally revealing his secret identity.

“Right, Little Wing-“

“My name is Jason.”

“You see, if an emotionally stunted bat vigilante and a billionaire love each other very much, the latter adopts a child and the former has some seriously cool gadgets…”

X

“Couldn’t you have just told me that you were banging Bruce?”

Batman wanted to smack his head against his desk. Like Dick, Jason had taken to spending a lot of time in the Cave. He loved the tech, and Bruce knew that Jason got along better with Batman than he got with Bruce.

It probably had something to do with the fact that one persona was just a boring rich guy and the other Gotham’s vigilante, but Bruce couldn’t help but be slightly jealous of himself. Was it too much to ask for some father-son bonding out of the costume?

“Like, seriously, I would have trusted Bruce way earlier if had known this. You should consider telling this your future Robins first.”

“You’re not becoming Robin, Jason.”

“Yet, B-man. I’m not becoming Robin yet.”

X

Jason Todd became the second Robin. On the streets, he was famous for his quick thinking, heavy hitting and dirty fighting style.

And, on top of that, it was well known that he’d take every opportunity to call Batman “Bat-dad”.

Chapter 3: “Alright then, keep your secrets.”

Chapter Text

Jason was lying in the armchair, his legs thrown over the armrest while Dick was sitting on the backrest of the sofa. Bruce himself was leaning against the table because he couldn’t block out the previous thirty-two years of his life and the Alfred shaped good-manners that told him that sitting on a table was rude.

Each of his sons had a ring binder in their hands, eyeing the title of the volume skeptically.

“Is this really necessary?” Dick asked.

“Taking your previous actions into consideration? Yes,” Bruce replied and started flipping over the first page of the ring binder.

X

List of Punishable Offenses in Wayne Manor (and Below)

1) Rearranging anyone’s appointments for a “date night” is neither acceptable nor necessary.

“Now that’s just mean,” Dick protested. “We put so much effort into clearing your WE work and solving B-man’s case before him so you could have a romantic evening and this is the thanks we get?”

“Yeah!” Jason added. “Solved it all on our own too. I should get a promotion.”

“From what? Robin to Robin?” Bruce asked drily.

“Weeeeell, I think Robin-who-can-fly-solo-further-than-two-blocks would also be a pretty neat idea.”

Jason had been begging for weeks for Batman to loosen the grip he had on him. He used every well-exercised move, every successful detection, and every praise to encourage Batman to give him more autonomy, but Bruce was far from ready to let Jason move from his side. He had no doubts that Jason was prepared for it – he wouldn’t be on the streets otherwise – but that didn’t mean that he should be forced to fight on his own yet. That was a burden Bruce hoped to spare his youngest for a while.

“We talked about this, and the answer is still ‘no’.”

Dick, who had spent years begging Bruce for the same thing and shouldn’t look so smug now, grinned, which caused Jason to lash out and kick his older brother. He missed, but like everything else in this family, the thought counted, and so Dick pretended to fall off the sofa.

“I’m wounded!”

It would take hours to get through this list, Bruce figured. He was glad he had decided to do this when Alfred was on his yearly trip to England. Otherwise, the man would be laughing at his attempt at establishing a bit more order from behind a cup of tea and polite sarcasm.

“Moving on,” Bruce said, hoping to stop Dick and Jason from upgrading to play-fighting.

2) Calling in an emergency at a sleepover to get B. to pick you up and go on patrol will not be tolerated.

The ‘B’, previously just a regular comic sans size 22 capital ‘B’ was now decorated with little bat wings. Bruce had deduced that Dick had drawn them, even though he had tried to subtly put the blame on Jason by sticking the black marker in his pocket.

“I never did that!” Jason immediately rose to defend himself, only to remember that Dick might be legally an adult by now, but he had also been a child once upon a time.

“No way.”

“It was only once, okay?”

“Three times.”

Dick rolled his eyes. “Plus/minus once or twice. Listen, all these rich kids’ sleepover birthday parties were super annoying. Rolex this, expensive car you can’t even drive that, and if I had to hear one more thing about Edmund’s silk PJs, I would have thrown a batarang at him.”

“You have silk shirts.”

Which Jason knew because he had a habit of stealing clothes and claiming them as his own. The softer, the better.

“Well, yes, but I’m not obnoxious about them. And if not for Bruce’s soft clothes fetish, I wouldn’t even have them.”

Because Dick, too, was a big fan of stealing clothes. It must run in the family, be something inheritable like the Bat-glareTM since Bruce remembered quite clearly running around in his father’s sweaters, his mother’s skirts and Alfred’s jackets when he had been younger.

“Makes you wonder about B and his ar-“

“Rule #3, Dick. Pay attention.”

3) If there’s a problem, we sit down and talk about it calmly, instead of running away in the middle of the night.

“This is victim blaming,” Dick said. “B was being a total ass. And I called you afterward.”

Bruce massaged his temples. He was well aware that this rule wouldn’t exactly be the easiest to follow. He avoided talking about his problems as Bruce and as Batman, and he knew he hadn’t taught Dick how to be open about his emotions unless it was necessary. Dick tended to bottle everything up until he let go of his anger all at once in a fiery explosion. They really had to get better at this.

Jason would benefit from a brother at his side within the mask as well, not just out of the uniform. And frankly speaking, Bruce was sick of the animosity between Nightwing and Batman and above even that he was worried. Nightwing didn’t have the resources he needed to be safe on his patrols. The Titans undoubtedly contributed, and Dick’s trust fund was full, but using different tech after growing up around Batman standards was a safety hazard.

So making amends, it was.

X

Dick and Nightwing stayed in Blüdhaven during his school days. He patrolled his streets, studied law and how to handle everything from drunks to serial killers (and was quite distraught about how much police training sucked. Batman had taught him better methods when he was ten) and went on missions with the Titans.

Weekends he spent in Gotham, at home. He teased his little brother about his crushes, made fun of his Dad and made Alfred show him for the hundredth time how exactly he made these fantastic ten-minute snacks.

And once the sun was beginning to set, he’d leave the living room together with Jason after Bruce told them to be careful.

The Cave looked just like always, except not really, because a new row of glass cases stood next to the Robin, Batman and Batgirl ones. Different variations of the same baseline uniform dutifully waited for their wearer.

“They’ve been here for weeks,” Jason told him, already wearing his shoes, leg guards and pants, while still being in Dick’s police academy sweater.

“Standard issues. Summer and winter suits, ballerina slippers to heavy combat boots and all the newest toys.”

Jason sounded a bit bitter and eyed the various belts the same way he had looked at the jewelry when he had first come to the manor. Intrigued, Dick reached for the belt and slowly went through the pockets.

“He’s trying to buy back my love with cool gadgets, isn’t he?” Dick muttered.

He had sat down on the floor to do inventory and he was pretty sure he looked like he always did around Christmas with his gifts spread around him. Jason was leaning over his shoulder and got pretty close to touching one of the toxins Robin wasn’t allowed to handle.

Batman standard uniforms with Batman level gadgets.

“Oh, man. Do you think I’ll get the same things if I throw a tantrum?”

X

Dick had missed flying with Batman. It was almost too easy to fall back into the old rhythm and then account for Robin’s presence. His younger brother was adorable, really. He missed the elegance of the first Robin, but he didn’t lack in skill.

The city was almost eerily quiet tonight, much like it had been when Dick had started out as Robin.

“You already did your rounds, old man, didn’t you?” Nightwing asked while he and Batman were watching Jason cuff a robber to a lamppost.

“Hngh.”

Nightwing smiled, impish and mischievously like a Boy Wonder ought to. “Alright then, keep your secrets.”

The sound of a cape behind his back made Nightwing jump up.

“The family’s all back together again it seems,” Batgirl mused.

Her uniform looked worn, far too used to be anything Batman allowed on the streets. Then again, hadn’t the Batgirl suits in the cave also looked very shiny and new? And while he and Barbara had avoided talking about their nightlife, she had let it drop that she was showing solidarity.

“And all dressed up too. I want a new suit, B. Your benefactor-“ Huh, had they downgraded Bruce’s codename to PG again since Jason joined? “-already got me a pretty cool gift for my birthday. New suit and a belt like the Boy Blunder’s here and I’ll consider us even.”

“Hngh.”

Batman was, of course, as taciturn as always, but Nightwing was sure that the corner of his mouth resembled a smile.

“I’m no Boy Blunder, BG. 100% grace and beauty.”

“Of course-“

“HEY!” Robin shouted from below. “When you’re done flirting, can we get on with patrol?”

Batman stood up from the roof and rose to his usual towering stance, before handing out orders. That was another thing Dick had missed. As much as he enjoyed his freedom and making his own decisions, it was nice to be pointed in a direction without having to be the one accounting for everything.

“Reconnaissance tonight only. No going after the big guns. Refamiliarize yourself with Gotham, ... Nightwing. Batgirl, inform him of the new safe houses and territories.”

Batman angled his grapple gun at the next building and took off, Robin following him eagerly. Nightwing watched the two head towards the Diamond district, the standard patrol route.

“Wow. That must have hurt,” Batgirl snorted. “Well, then, Beauty and Grace, ready to show the baby Boy Blunder the ropes?”

Nightwing grinned. “No need to ask.”

And then they followed the rest of the family.

X

Dick used to think that he was a bit of a nerd. He hadn’t liked school, but otherwise, he had loved learning. Jason, however, took that to a whole new level. He even stayed back from patrol, after hesitantly asking Batman if that were alright, to work on extra credit for his classes.

Watching Jason move from one grade to the next, participating in the theatre club’s performances and all but running the book club was the absolute best. Being a big brother was amazing. Honestly, it almost made Dick wish Batman would drop another kid on Bruce.

But then again, maybe one kid brother was enough.

“What happened to you!?” Dick shouted when he saw Jason enter the kitchen.

The fifteen-year-old was sporting a blue eye and missing his jacket.

“Sssh!” Jason said and immediately jumped to cover Dick’s mouth with his right hand. In his left hand, he was holding an old looking carton.

“You’re going to make Alfred come looking!”

Dick frowned and licked Jason’s hand to make him pull it away.

“What the hell!? You’re so gross!”

Dick rolled his eyes. “Don’t be a baby. Alfred should take a look at the bruise. What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Jason replied. “I just- I took a stroll through my old neighborhood. They don’t like posh folk there.”

“Right.”

Jason put his box on the table and walked over to the freezer. He opened it and pulled out a package of frozen peas for his eye.

Jason was hiding something, of that Dick was sure. He was a good liar, but Dick was the best performer of the house with Bruce being a close second. His Batman impressions were terrific, but then again, old couples were supposed to be able to copy each other’s manners fairly well, weren’t they?

“What’s in the box?” Dick opted to ask.

“Nothing,” Jason repeated.

What was it with this family not being willing to talk? Urgh, alright. Dick was the older brother, time to put effort into this.

“Rule #3, Little Wing. ‘If there’s a problem, we sit down and talk about it calmly- ‘”

“I know, dickhe*d!” Jason shot back and sat down on the kitchen table.

“Sooooo?”

Jason sighed and mustered Dick. Then he wordlessly pushed the box over to Dick.

X

Barbara Gordon had always known that she was a part of the Wayne family from the night on she stepped into the streets wearing Batman’s symbol and was driven home by Bruce. Growing up, she had spent as much time on the manor grounds as she had at home since her Dad was always working and his then new girlfriend, now new wife, wasn’t exactly who Barbara would have picked for her father. But she made him happy, so Barbara passed her time studying in the manor library or in the Cave with Alfred’s treats at her side and one of her mentors/uncle figures lingering in the background.

Neither Bruce nor Batman was the kind of person who approached others openly and continuously. It had made her wonder how these two had even met. Barbara was fairly sure Bruce had picked Batman up on his training trip around the world. Maybe stole him from Ra’s al Ghul? That would explain the mad man’s obsession with both.

She didn’t particularly care about who was hiding behind Batman’s mask, but unlike Dick and Jason, she wanted to know at least the basics. It was in her nature. Barbara Gordon was curious. She wanted to learn, to study, to investigate and account for every little thing.

And curious things scar in a city like Gotham.

X

The Joker was not quite a dead man when Batman handed him over to the police, but for once, he wasn’t laughing when put back behind bars. Nobody said a word. Gotham’s police were corrupt, but even the dirtiest of the cops had no lost love for the Joker or didn’t feel at least somewhat angry at themselves. Barbara Gordon was the Commissioner’s daughter, they should have been able to prevent this, or help out later.

Instead, Batman had caught the clown, and Bruce Wayne had filled Barbara’s hospital room with all her favorite sweets and flowers.

The whole family tried to support their healing member, be it during the day or the night. Neither Nightwing nor Robin minded staying behind to guard a room or read to her during the day.

X

“Why did you really stop being Robin?” Jason asked.

At fifteen, he was taller than Dick already and nearly Bruce’s height. If he kept growing at the same speed, he might even surpass Batman. Dick had taken a look at Jason’s parents. Willis Todd had been a quite tall man and neither of the candidates for his mother could be called small.

“I had a fight with Batman-“

Jason shook his head. “Yeah, no. You could have taken Robin with you to Blüdhaven, but you didn’t. Why?”

Once more, Dick wished Jason would have taken more after Bruce instead of Batman. He was such a blunt and harsh kid, always asking the questions Dick didn’t want to answer out loud.

“I had been toying with the idea of a new uniform before leaving Gotham. Robin is, in the end, Batman’s partner. Sure, it’s partially because teeny tiny kids can’t fly solo, but the whole gig is shaped to that particular role. Just look at the colors! Robin’s a walking traffic light. Dark enough to be able to hide in the shadows, but bright enough to draw attention when necessary and distract from the big bad Bat coming from above. I was getting sick of people asking after the Bat like I was an annoying accessory at best. When I left Gotham, it was finally possible to make a new identity.”

Jason nodded along, silent, and lost in thought. The only thing missing was a cowl and he could pass as Batman from the shadows.

Dick had always known that on some level Batman was training them not just to be partners but the next generation, the first of a legacy of heroes. Dick didn’t want to be Batman, he wasn’t cut out for it, but Jason had potential. Though he was sure that neither Batman nor Bruce (especially not Bruce), wanted them to become Batman.

“What’s this really about, Jay?”

At first, he said nothing, but then the first word escaped him, followed by a second and soon enough, Jason was talking a mile-a-minute.

X

“You need to talk to Robin.”

Nightwing was flying next to Batman. They were making their way across the city to Batg- Robin’s patrol points.

“Do you hear me, B?”

“Yes.”

Then act like it, Nightwing wanted to shout, but years of dealing with his mentor/Bat-step-father had taught him how to keep his voice even.

“I mean it, Batman. Robin’s ready to step out of the bright colors, and for his sake, I hope you’ll handle it better than you did Nightwing. And there’s something else you need to talk to him about with. Well, maybe less you and more S-”

Dick was getting ready to say a few more words on the topic when the comms stirred.

“This is Robin. Arkham breakout, I’ve got my eyes on the Joker. Moving in.”

For a split second, all Dick could see in front of him was Barbara lying in the hospital bed, crying into their arms.

Next to him, Batman barked orders he could hardly make sense off. Don’t! He wanted to scream, but instead, he picked up the pace, rushing to Robin’s location with the speed of the Flash.

X

“You’re grounded.”

“What!?”

For the record, Bruce thought that grounding was a stupid punishment, much like detention. It encouraged children to break the rules further instead of teaching them to be aware of why certain rules existed and why they shouldn’t break them.

Right now, though, Jason physically could not get out of the manor. Both his legs were broken, his right ankle twisted and his left arm covered in second-degree burns.

Jason was alive, but it had been too close. Bruce could still hear the crying, smell the blood, and see that damned clown hurting yet another one of his children. Robin’s critical condition had been the only reason Batman hadn’t repaid the Joker in kind.

But Jason didn’t know all of this. All he could see was Bruce punishing him. It made Bruce want to scream. He had all but given up on his children ever picking up on the fact that he was Batman, but moments like this drove him crazy.

“You nearly died, Jason.”

If he could, Jason would have jumped up from his bed. Since he couldn’t do that, he had to be satisfied with shouting back.

“That’s the risk that comes with the job! You know that!”

Bruce did and he had let his children get pulled into this world anyway.

“Yes, and I shouldn’t have allowed you to go out on your own in the first place. “

He hadn’t let Dick and Barbara leave his side at that age, had he? He was supposed to protect them, keep them away from all of this, yet he let them fight his war. That had to stop, right now, before his mission became their life like it had become his.

“Batman was there! You’ve never protested before and the risks haven’t changed.”

No, they hadn’t, but Bruce wasn’t willing to tolerate it any longer.

“You’re grounded until you’re healed, and whether you’ll be Robin afterward, remains to be seen.”

And Bruce was very keen to keep Jason away from it all starting today. Dick was too old to be told how to live his life, but Jason was only sixteen still. Just a child with his whole life in front of him.

“You can’t do that!” Jason protested. “What did Batman say about this? Does he agree with you?”

Bruce knew he had never hated this lie of a double-life more before this day.

“I don’t care what Batman says!” Bruce shouted back. “I’m your father and I’m done watching you get hurt!”

Jason’s face was red

“You’re my father? Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t believe I forgot that! Wait. Actually, I can! With how often you’re out on company business, I was under the assumption that Batman was doing the parenting while you’re just paying child support! You only took me in because Batman couldn’t do it legally anyway!”

Bruce froze on the spot. Was that really what Jason thought? Before he could reply, Jason reached for the sandwich Alfred had made for him and tossed it at Bruce’s face.

“Get out! Get out and go f*ck yourself, Dad!”

X

Bruce didn’t know how, but Jason had managed to run out of his room and sneak into the Cave. Since he was officially recovering from a kidnapping, he didn’t have to attend school and could spend the whole time in the Cave. He outright refused to talk to Bruce and only interacted with Batman to get him to rethink Jason’s grounding.

His interactions with Jason as Batman forced Bruce to rethink how much time he had spent with Jason as Batman. It couldn’t have been more than he had as Bruce.

He hadn’t made his son think for four years that he was only the vigilante’s child.

Right?

X

“Jason, do you know what I brought you here for?”

Jason stubbornly refused to look at Batman but kept his gaze focused on the tablet on his lap.

“I wanted you to have a home and a place you’d be safe in,” Batman continued. He knew Jason was paying attention, even if the boy tried to hide it. “When you went up against the Joker, you weren’t safe by any means.”

“But we’ve never been!” Jason shouted.

The tablet fell to the ground, the sound of the impact echoed around the Cave.

“This job is dangerous! It always has been! I could’ve gotten hurt plenty of times before, and it’s only ’cause you were always there before to take a bullet meant for Dick, Babs or me!”

“And now I wasn’t there. I know, Jason. I can’t even tell you how sorry I am. But that’s exactly why you need-“

“You need to teach me how to handle things on my own.”

“Stay at home.”

Jason glared up at Batman. If not for his broken legs, he would be standing, towering at the same height as his father. He hated it. Jason’s fighting style, his whole body language had adapted to using his height for his advantage in every situation, and now that he couldn’t use it, he was getting frustrated.

“I don’t want you to be sorry. I know you taught Dick how to work on his own, but you haven’t taught me.”

Jason had plenty of arguments why Batman hadn’t done that. He still remembered the first months in the Cave. Dick and Batman had been fighting pretty much the whole time, either verbally or through passive-aggressive Bat-glares. Batman probably wanted to avoid that by keeping a tighter leash on Jason.

Well, too bad that Bruce’s parenting style tended to favor guiding him towards independence. All those hours spent in Wayne Enterprise’s Charity Department stealing sweets hadn’t been for nothing.

“I want to be able to run a city by myself.”

“… And if I don’t teach you that?”

Jason crossed his arms and grinned. That was what he’d been waiting for. “Then I’ll tell Bruce you’re letting me help around the Cave when I’m supposed to be in bed and run away to Blüdhaven and do weekend patrols there in Dick’s stead.”

Batman never stood a chance. And in turn, so didn’t Bruce.

X

“Trackers.”

“Only in the suit and in the mask. I don’t want to get chipped.”

“Fine.”

“I get to fly solo.”

“Only once Batman agrees. You’ll listen to every order.”

“The smart ones.”

“You’re not going up against the Joker on your own.”

“Do I look like I want to-“

“Promise me, Jaylad.”

“… Okay. No advances against the Joker. I get to pick my cases and don’t have to give you a weekly update on them.”

“Briefings with Batman about what you’re up to. And none of this happens before you’re the same age as Dick was when he started working on his own.”

“Acceptable.”

X

They shook hands and wrote a contract which both of them had to sign. It was all very formal, and it didn’t miraculously fix everything, but it was a start. But before Jason could sign, Bruce stopped him.

“I have something for you,” Bruce said and pulled a nondescript folder out of his desk. He hadn’t meant to disturb Jason’s privacy, but once he’d seen his recent searches on the computer in the Cave, he couldn’t just turn a blind eye to it.

Thus, Bruce had done his research, called in some old favors, and stopped a crime on another continent from his office chair.

The first document of the stack was Sheila Haywood’s birth record, the last one was a petition for the last name change of an adopted child.

X

“Oracle,” Barbara told Jason.

Jason stopped playing with uniform designs on the tablet Bruce had handed him earlier and turned to Barbara.

She was staring at the Bat-computer, moving around in the archives and reorganizing things. Batman would hate it, but grudgingly accept it after a talk with Bruce. Even though Bruce stayed away from the nightlife of the family, letting Batman take the lead, it was quite evident that he had opinions, even though he rarely voiced them (and when he did, it ended with Jason being grounded for ages. Go figure why they all preferred him away from this).

“What?”

“My new call-sign will be Oracle. I was already doing most of the research besides Batman. I can do this full-time now. Get us more organized and a better overview of the city, predict the rogues’ moves more accurately than by doing just some calculations in my head on the fly.”

Barbara’s voice didn’t waver. It never did once she had made a decision.

“So the almighty Oracle will guide us now?” Jason joked. “Dad will be glad somebody’s gonna be-“

Staying Here. Back. In the Cave. Home. Safe.

f*ck, those were all the wrong words, weren’t they?

“Keeping an eye on us idiots.”

Barbara nodded seriously. “Somebody has to, and Alfred’s too busy keeping check of all the injuries.”

Jason winced, recalling how busy Alfred usually was once they headed out for patrol. He always made sure that everything from Fear Gas antidotes to X-ray was available the moment they returned to the Cave and despite the splendid organization in the Cave, having everything for everyone on hand wasn’t necessarily easy.

“That’s true,” Jason agreed. Somebody running support besides Alfred would help them out immensely. However, that was under the assumption that the big Bat had nothing to say against it. “Who’s gonna break it to B-man?”

“…”

“Dick?”

Barbara raised a brow. “Jason Peter Wayne, did you seriously suggest forcing your older brother to put up with Batman’s stubbornness?”

“Yes.”

Barbara smiled, happy and bright like she ought to.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

X

“Oracle in. Systems up and running. Roll call time, gentlemen. Agent A?”

“Penny-One is bringing refreshments to the Cave, Miss Oracle.”

“N?”

“Nightwing here. Heading towards the Bowery.”

“Swing by East End. Catwoman asked us to take a look.”

“Okidoki!”

“Sugar-“

“Working. You know that, Oracle. Stay on task.”

“Of course, B-man. Where are you?”

“Batman is heading towards the Diamond district with-“

“Super lame. I already did that as Robin on my own.”

“Heading towards the Diamond district with-“

“My turn!”

“Alright, bird of the hour. Roll call?”

“Magpie reporting for duty, O.”

Chapter 4: “Whenexactlywillyourboyfriendcome?”

Chapter Text

For the record, Bruce didn’t make a habit out of getting kidnapped. Of course, he had his quota to fill to assure the people he was not secretly a mob boss. Fortunately, ever since he had adopted Dick, people expected him to get less kidnapped because he had upgraded his security measurements to increase his sons’ safety.

Bruce was quite thankful that Dick and Jason had weaseled their way out of tonight’s gala to go on patrol instead. This way it was only him whom the attackers took for ransom.

“Anybody call the police and the kid dies!”

Or not.

X

They threw him in the back of a nondescript van without a license plate. Two men with guns sat in front him, while the child they had taken hostage was now clinging to Bruce.

“One wrong move and you’re done for,” the man on the left said and pointedly aimed his gun at the kid.

The man’s voice was harsh, but his hand was shaking. His companion didn’t look much better. They must be first-time kidnappers, which made them even more dangerous. Their plan had gone off without a hitch so far, so they probably had a more experienced leader. If the kid wasn’t here, Bruce could have taken them on his own. Now he had to wait for Dick and Jason to pick up on his distress signal and save him.

The van kept driving for a while. Since there were no windows, Bruce tried to pay attention to the noises surrounding him. By the time they came to a stop, an hour had passed. The two men sitting with him and the child, who had kept silent the whole time, had talked rather openly about what they’d do with the money and Bruce wasn’t impressed. All of this trouble for a sports car? Disappointing.

After securing the zip ties holding the still nameless child – Bruce had to ask his name as soon as possible, he couldn’t keep calling him ‘kid’ in his head – the kidnappers opened the doors of the van and pushed the two of them outside and into a warehouse.

By Bruce’s calculations, Jason and Dick should be here in thirty minutes if they threw Bruce’s warnings about safe driving out of the window again. The warehouse was set up as their basem*nt. Another two men were waiting for them.

“Who’s the brat?” A tall man with pale blue eyes and dirty blonde hair asked.

“Uuh, just another insurance, Boss.”

“Idiots, you were supposed to grab only Wayne!” His eyes darted to Bruce. “At least you managed that. Throw them in the back room.”

And then they were dragged off.

X

“Are you okay?” Bruce asked the boy as soon as the door as closed behind them.

Another windowless room with just one way in and out. The door also didn’t look very durable, so Bruce decided against barricading it, it wouldn’t hold against an assault of the whole kidnapping team.

Nevertheless, Bruce got himself out of the zip ties. There was no use in keeping them on when the kidnappers weren’t in the room. As soon as his hands were free, he carefully took off the kid’s ties.

The child rubbed his wrist and pocketed the ties. Smart. Bruce hadn’t even needed to say anything.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m sorry for causing you trouble, Mr. Wayne.”

Unrest crawled up Bruce’s spine and settled in his tensed shoulders. Children, when faced with terrible situations, either went into shock or freaked out. Only in a few cases, most of them vigilante related, they would compartmentalize and move on. Either way, they shouldn’t be apologizing.

“You didn’t cause me any trouble, kiddo. May I ask you what your name is?”

“I’m Timothy Drake.”

Timothy Drake – if the hour in the stuffy van hadn’t messed with Bruce’s memories, the Drakes had already left the gala hours ago. They had basically just shown up to announce they’d be traveling for the next six months and that was it. So how come tiny Timothy Drake had been at the party still?

Bruce sat down next to Timothy and rechecked his watch. Fifteen minutes left, Dick and Jason would be here soon. Bruce couldn’t wait to use this kidnapping as an excuse to stay clear of any parties for the next two months.

“Don’t worry, Timothy. Somebody will save us soon.”

Timothy nodded and smiled. It was a frail and shy little thing, but still a happy smile.

“I know, Mr. Wayne,” Timothy replied and subtly moved a little closer to Bruce’s side.

He opened his mouth to speak, then promptly shut it close again to shoot the door a glance. Bruce followed his look, but couldn’t see anything besides its ugly beige color.

“Timothy, I’m serious. Is everything-“

“Whenexactlywillyourboyfriendcome?”

Bruce blinked, two awkward seconds passing in-between them in which Bruce tries to comprehend what he had just heard, and Timothy blushed like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

“My what.”

A hundred things were running through Bruce’ brain, and none of them could connect Timothy’s rushed question.

“Batman,” Timothy finally whispered. “He’s your SO, right? Or will Nightwing and Robin- I mean Magpie, come? That’s Jason’s new name, right? I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

That was so not the problem right now.

X

Batarang-blazing Nightwing and Magpie entered the warehouse. The moment the screams had started, Bruce allowed himself to relax. And as sudden as Gotham’s vigilantes had descendent on the kidnappers, as soon did the fighting stop. Not a single gun had gotten fired in those few seconds.

Bruce stood up, and Timothy followed suit quickly, stumbling over his own feet in his haste.

“Hello, Mr. Wayne,” Jason greeted them cheekily as he opened the door.

Behind him, Dick was tying up the kidnappers. Most of them were knocked out while those still conscious were groaning. Dick looked up from his handiwork to give them a thumbs up, before lightly touching his ear three times.

That was it. Bruce was officially never going anywhere again without having his communicator with him. Being separated from Oracle was a major hindrance.

“Don’t worry, we’ve taken care of all the kidnappers!” Jason continued good-naturedly. “We’ll escort you two home now. We already talked to the police as well.”

Bruce offered Timothy his hand, and the boy took it almost absentmindedly, obviously distracted by Jason, who led the way to the Batmobile.

X

“Magpie, I need to borrow your phone,” Bruce told his oldest as soon as they sat in the car.

His request had caught Jason off-guard, he struggled to find a proper reply.

“I- uhm- I’m sorry, Mr. Wayne, but I can’t.”

“Jay.” Bruce was tired. He had been to the most boring gala in ages, been kidnapped and met a teenager who knew their civilian identities. He just wanted to do a background check on Timothy Drake as fast as he could and be done with it. “Timothy here-“

“Tim is alright,” Tim mumbled, still starry-eyed.

“Tim here knows who we are.”

The car did a sharp turn left but caught itself in the last second before they would have ruined another lamppost. How come that ever since Jason had gotten his driver’s license, he’d actually become a worse driver?

X

Tim Drake, as it turned out, was a relatively normal teenage boy. The thirteen-year-old liked video games and skateboarding, but his main hobby was photography. Like most boys his age, he’d dressed up as Robin at least once for Halloween, though with Tim it seemed to be more of a yearly theme Bruce learned. And every year the Robin costume was slightly different and strikingly similar to what Dick or Jason had been wearing on patrol.

On the other hand, Tim Drake was absolutely nothing like a typical teenager. He genuinely seemed to be unable to handle adults praising him, and he was far more self-sufficient than a teenager his age should be. Not that any of Bruce’s kids had been less autonomous at Tim’s age, but that was partly because of their odd childhoods and Bruce’s training.

Tim Drake should be an exception, yet he wasn’t.

X

“So what’s his deal?” Dick asked.

Halfway across the room, Jason was showing off to Tim, keeping him entertained and distracted. Right now they were going over Jason’s Magpie uniform.

“His parents are gone most of the time, and a housekeeper keeps watch from what I can tell.”

“So we’re keeping him?”

Bruce turned to look Dick in the face and was immediately rewarded with a bright smile.

“He has parents.”

“Absent parents from what you just told me. Besides, he fits right in, doesn’t he?”

Jason had detached the hood and cape of his uniform and put it around Tim. It looked absolutely ridiculous since Jason was about three head taller than Tim and the cape was supposed to reach his ankle. Tim, on the other hand, was drowning in it. It reminded Bruce of tiny little Robins dressed in Batman’s cape.

Bruce sighed. “Feel free to befriend him.”

Dick didn’t have to be told twice and immediately made his way over to the two.

X

Tim was a very polite guest it turned out. Since his parents were already on their plane to China, Bruce had insisted that Tim stayed the night after the whole ordeal. Time didn’t seem to be the kind of boy to have a delayed shock reaction, but Bruce hadn’t wanted to risk it and send a thirteen-year-old back to a lonely house in the middle of the night.

“I have a housekeeper though,” Tim said when they all made their way up to the manor. “She comes by thrice a week.”

Growing up around Alfred, being raised by Alfred meant that Bruce had learned that you should not demand or expect more from a person than precisely the job they had been hired for.

Alfred had been his father’s valet. Thomas Wayne might have been a doctor above all, but he’d been expected to look the part of the elite.

After multiple incidents, one of them being Alfred becoming Bruce’s favorite person in the house through the art of fencing and the other one being Alfred getting fired but still living in the manor, Alfred had become the butler on paper.

A butler made sure the household ran smoothly, but it wasn’t his job to look after the kids. That was what you hired nannies for.

Nevertheless, Bruce hadn’t had a nanny. He’d been looked after by his parents and Alfred.

And finally, a housekeeper’s duty was to look after the house, not the child living in it. Furthermore, Bruce really doubted that this was an Alfred sort of situation.

“So, really, I’m not alone,” Tim continued.

He smiled and shrugged in a What-can-you-do way like he was trying to reassure Bruce that he didn’t need anyone to look after him. Dick had had a phase like that as well when he was thirteen. He had tried to do everything on his own and told Bruce he didn’t need him to check in every night. The whole thing had lasted about a month until Dick decided that more independence didn’t mean loneliness.

Tim Drake was a very independent child.

And an even lonelier boy.

“You can come over whenever you want to,” Bruce told him in the morning when Tim was getting ready to return home. “In case you ever get bored in that house.”

“Thank you, Mr. Wayne.”

X

Bruce stood on the porch of the manor until he couldn’t see Tim anymore. He had asked if Tim wanted to be brought home, but he had denied.

Hadn’t wanted to cause any trouble, as if Tim was a burden.

From what Bruce knew, Jack and Janet Drake were good parents, when they were there.

If they were there at all. Their plane had landed hours ago, and he still hadn’t managed to get into contact with them to inform them about the fact that their son had been kidnapped.

But that wasn’t really a job for Batman, no matter how many unsubtle hints Jason and Dick had dropped over breakfast.

Chapter 5: “I heard about the new kid."

Chapter Text

Against all expectations, Tim Drake came back the very next day with a camera hanging from his neck and a Batman backpack full of curious little things.

Dick had thought it was reckless that Bruce had let the teenager go home again the next morning. He was a security risk and an unsupervised kidnapping victim. They hadn’t even been able to get into contact with his parents until the late afternoon. They hadn’t seemed all too concerned either since Tim had been saved - in record time no less! The unlikely probability of such a fast rescue didn’t even occur to them.

Bruce’s voice had stayed calm and pleasant during the whole phone call, and if not for the broken pencil lying innocently on the kitchen table, Dick would have bought into that tranquil demeanor as well. Tim’s parents were downright incompetent.

Even the police had managed to show up at 2am to take their heavily edited statements. How hard was it to care for your child? The fact that Tim hadn’t seemed bothered by it spoke volumes. Dick definitely would have kept Tim at the manor, Batman probably wouldn’t have let Tim go so quickly either. Too bad he’d been gone until lunchtime. And of course, that was when Bruce had to leave. All these years and they still hadn’t managed to match up their schedules. It was a miracle Dick managed to see both of them as often as he did.

Perhaps it was fro the better that Bruce was gone. He could hardly stay neutral when there was a possibly highly neglected child running around in Gotham who knew their identities. Dick simply couldn’t figure out what Bruce had been thinking when letting Tim go. Maybe he believed a familiar environment to be better for Tim’s state of mind?

But in the end, it didn’t matter because Dick opened the door for Tim and led him into the Cave.

X

“Timothy.”

“Batman.”

There was something to be said about being in awe of someone. Adoration could take many shapes or forms, expressed itself in different ways. For Dick it had always been tugging at Batman’s cape to catch his attention, reassuring himself that he was alright or just confirming that Batman was still by his side.

One. Two. Three. Four, this time stronger.

Jason wasn’t as tactile as Dick, but his message, whether subconscious or not, was as bright as a day in Metropolis. He stood just like Batman, took his fighting style, and adapted some of his speech patterns.

The civilians in their city showed their trust with candle clusters on corners that couldn’t disappear into the night until the Bat appeared, whispered tips and shouted names.

Tim’s adoration manifested as a well-loved camera and dozens upon dozens of photos.

X

“I used to have a lot of nightmares as a kid. In most of them, I was just falling, but it scared me,” Tim admitted carefully. “And I used to be terrified of heights.”

Bruce wanted to stop Tim right there. He’d spotted about a million little tells that spoke of him failing yet another child, starting with the photos that had been taken from impossible heights demanding a highly specific skill set Tim shouldn’t have.

“Mom wouldn’t hear it and Dad always listened to what she said. And then, when I was eight, my parents got an invitation to a charity gala they couldn’t attend because of their planned trip to Brazil. They did start talking about Bruce and Dick though and the circus so I did some research on Haly’s and saw some videos of Dick and his parents, and then I found this.”

Tim put his backpack on the table. Bruce had thought that it was already completely empty, but one item had been left in it. The frame was old and had a few marks, but those didn’t distract from the photo preserved in it. Bruce wordlessly handed the picture of nine-year-old Dick Grayson holding a toddler to his eldest and focused on Tim again.

“I didn’t mean to figure out your identities, I swear. I just saw Robin do the quadruple flip and then everything just connected.”

Tim looked down on his hands and smiled. “And I thought if Dick Grayson could be Robin, then I shouldn’t be scared of heights either. It gave me a bit of courage to see Batman and Robin up there in the sky. I thought if I followed you often enough, I could collect it all and finally be enough.”

Enough for what, Bruce wanted to ask.Enough for who?

Tim was a child who had figured out their identities with mere scraps. Wrong conclusions thrown aside for a moment since Bruce’s own children couldn’t figure it out entirely either, they had fought villains with more information on them who hadn’t managed to come even half as far.

“But how did you figure out Batman and Dad’s relationship?” Jason asked. “We hardly see them together. I can probably count the times I did on one hand and I was concussed for one of them and sick for the other.”

And the other time Bruce had been dealing with a magical clone, which Jason still didn’t know about.

“Oh,” Timothy smiled sheepishly. “That was easy. I thought you were the same person at first. It made sense with Dick being Robin too. But then there was this time the Riddler attacked a charity ball. Batman saved Mr. Wayne.” Tim turned to Batman. “You were acting very protectively, so it all just made sense to me. Especially since Mr. Wayne must already be so busy with WE.”

Jason’s complains about all the time Bruce spent working faded into the background as Bruce recalled the events of the charity Tim was referring to.

X

Bruce hadn’t even been supposed to be out of the hospital bed back then. He had suffered significant injuries on a Justice League mission and only managed to hold a speech since Alfred was whispering in his ear and his body numb due to his pain killers. All Rogues had been detained in Arkham at the time so Gotham could have done without the Bat’s omnipresent all protective presence for a week. Nevertheless, Clark had offered to do light patrols in Bruce’s stead out of guilt. Despite everything, Clark still didn’t seem to understand that Batman was expandable to a degree that Superman wasn’t. Of course, Bruce had taken the hit meant for Clark.

And, like a divine punishment from above, everything had gone wrong during Bruce’s forced vacation time. The Riddler had escaped and planned an attack. Bruce had been taken hostage for mere minutes until Clark as Batman had saved him. Undoubtedly, Clark had felt like he had failed Bruce once more and in righteous fury detained the Riddler.

But that had been it.

Surely, being protective if your best friend couldn’t be misjudged that easily by a child? Not even one who didn’t receive as much parental attention as he should?

…

Who was Bruce even trying to fool?

Even Hal regularly made fun of Bruce and Clarks Lantern Corps famous Bromance.

X

“Oooh, I remember that!” Jason grinned. “You should have seen Batman the weeks after. He was so upset he couldn’t keep Dad safe 24/7.”

Tim frowned and leaned forward in his chair. He had been sitting straight the whole time as if he were one of the young interns working with Bruce.

“You shouldn’t feel guilty, Batman,” he said seriously. “You can’t be everywhere at once. You’re already doing much more than humanly possible, and Gotham is a safer place than it was thirteen years ago.”

It was true, but that didn’t mean Bruce could allow himself to look away from his flaws. Not that he’d say that to the child though.

“Thank you, Timothy.”

Tim blushed as red as Jason’s favorite hoodie. “You can call me Tim, everybody does.”

X

In the distance, police sirens echoed in the night and ships’ horns rumbled. However, the only sound Batman focused on at the moment was Oracle’s voice.

“I heard about the new kid,” Barbara’s voice chimed through a private comm. “Sugar told me about him. Asked me to run another background check on his parents with my servers.”

Bruce stood at the edge of the building, observing how Jason was handling inspecting the meth lab and, when its owners stormed in, the resulting fight. He could hardly keep himself from jumping into the fray, easing the battle for his son, but he reminded himself that he wasn’t to step in unless it became clear that Jason was in over his head.

Bruce already knew that unlike Jason’s first fights as Robin, this was barely a scuffle for Magpie. It had been so many nights ago since Jason had seriously struggled in a way that Bruce had felt like his son needed Batman’s back-up.

Jason was ready to fly solo.

Bruce wasn’t sure if he was.

“And what did you find, Oracle?”

“Well, for one, I calculated that the Drakes are living above their wealth. Drake Industries is on the edge of bankruptcy. They dealt in technology, which was fine up until the point WE stopped producing weapons and Jack Drake’s father – the CEO up until then – died. Jack took over, but he isn’t really interested in the company besides keeping it up so he can finance his and Janet’s lifestyle, which honestly isn’t working out either. Probably stems from the fact that he never wanted the company, but his father pushed him into that direction.”

Below Batman’s watchful eyes, Magpie had finished dealing with drug dealers and was now cheerfully lecturing them while on speaker with the police. They’d need to divide the city up, adjust patrol routes. Magpie could take Batgirl’s old patrol route and on the weekends Dick visited, he could let them check the city on their own while he focused on whatever major case or villain demanded his attention at the time.

“Are they endangering the kid?”

“Beyond emotional neglect? He takes good care of himself and nobody is calling CPS on all the parents in Crime Alley who leave their children alone for days or weeks at a time. But Tim, due to his status, is at risk of being kidnapped again if left to his own devices, especially once somebody learns that he’s alone in that house. School has him marked down as ‘smart but troubled’. He doesn’t seem to respect most of the teachers, but the school hasn’t contacted his parents about it yet. Maybe they know it’s hopeless. I’d recommend getting S to call his parents again. Maybe get them to assign Tim a temporary guardian and throw in some well-meant parenting advice.”

Magpie had finished his work and was scaling up the next building, not even waiting for Batman to follow him.

“Understood, Oracle. Anything else?”

“I could come by tomorrow. Dad’s out of town for a convention and I’m ahead of my university courses anyway.”

“Oracle.”

“Nightwing doesn’t even live here anymore and he got to see the kid before me. He managed to figure out our identities. I want to meet him.”

“He’s not staying.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what you said when Jason first stepped into the Cave as well and here we are. And Tim already knows our identities and you expect him to stay away? What has Bruce said about it?”

“I expect him to be safe.”

Oracle laughed. “I think it’s a little too late for that.”

Batman rushed after Magpie, sticking to the shadows even more than usual to give his protégé at least the impression that he was patrolling on his own. Barbara was right, he had really been a little too late.

X

When Bruce and Jason came home from patrol, he had expected Dick to be out still, Alfred cleaning and Tim Drake asleep in his bed. Instead, he saw Nightwing’s tracker already moving in the direction of Blüdhaven again – Dick must have found the drug trade he was looking for – while Alfred was checking Tim’s medical file and the child in question was sleeping in one of the beds in the med bay.

“Why is Timothy here?”

“Welcome back, Batman,” Alfred greeted him. “How has your patrol been, Master Jason?”

“Awesome!” Jason said. “I took down a meth lab all by myself! And then I tracked down the leader, who wasn’t there when we arrived and I’m super sure that the one guy I let get away will lead us to their major buyers!”

“A quite adventurous night then?”

“Hell yeah!”

Jason took off his black boots and carried them to his locker all while telling Alfred about his night. He shrugged his cape off his shoulders as well and hung it on the clothes hanger together with the first layer of his armor.

When Jason had revealed his new uniform for the first time, Bruce had been surprised. He’d expected more colors, definitely red to be one of the dominant colors at least. Instead, Jason had opted for dark tones. His cape, shoes and pants were all black, except for the knee guards which had been painted a dark blue. The top half of Jason’s uniform was black as well, the only exceptions being the three separate stripes that ran diagonally from beneath his armpits to his stomach in red, blue and finally followed by white, as well as the navy blue lining of the hood attached to his cape.

“And then we went home!” Jason finished his narrative. “And how was your night, Alfred?”

“Well, I prepared your meals as always,” Alfred said and pointed to the table at the other end of the Cave. With a quick “thanks” Jason rushed off to stuff himself. “And I checked up on young Master Tim, who had been upstairs in one of the guest bedrooms.”

“He stayed?” Bruce asked, the ‘after my dismissal’ being implied.

“I believe he took Master Bruce’s welcome to heart. When I asked him if he wanted to go home, he looked at me as if I were an extraterrestrial. Despite what his school files suggest, Tim doesn’t so much have a problem with listening to authority as much as he sorts people into categories according to whether they are worth listening to. Those he deems interesting, have his complete attention. You and Master Bruce have managed to become a part of the small group of people seems to respect.”

Silence followed Alfred’s speech right up until the moment the background noise consisting of Jason’s chewing stopped. “How did you figure all of that out so fast?”

“Well, I told Master Tim that his shots weren’t up to date and when it became apparent that he had a hard time falling asleep, I asked him to come down to the Cave to do them.”

“You checked his official medical file?”

“Not yet, but WE will be releasing the new vaccines against the Fear Gas next week anyway. Timothy trusted me to do them without asking questions. He did chatter a lot about his photography, though, once I asked him.”

It didn’t really surprise Bruce to hear of Tim’s behavior, it was almost textbook-like. Rich genius-level intellect teenager acted out at school because nobody could tell him no and he had all the freedom in the world – which he traded in ultimately once he got the attention he wanted and deserved.

Bruce and Alfred shared a look and Bruce tried not to let Alfred’s gaze lie too heavily on his shoulders.

X

Mr. Wayne – “Please, call me Bruce, Tim. I insist” – and Batman were really cool parents, Tim concluded after his first two weeks at the manor. Going by all the things they did for their two sons, Tim had already been sure that there weren’t many kids as lucky as Dick and Jason in Gotham, or Blüdhaven in Dick’s case. Actually getting a closer insight into their daily going-ons told Tim what an incredible life the two older boys were living.

Jason’s theatre group had final rehearsal on a Wednesday afternoon and Bruce had volunteered to be part of the test audience. Tim had accompanied him since the two of them had been talking to the school director about Tim moving up a grade beforehand. His parents had been meaning to do that, but they’d always been pretty busy when they were home. If Tim was honest, he also didn’t want to spend the weeks, days, hours,minuteshe had with them talking about school.

Bruce had wanted to get his schooling sorted out as soon as possible. He had made Tim sit through a boring placement test and finish the homework Tim had been more or less procrastinating on for a couple months now. Tim still didn’t see the purpose of doing it and was more than happy to put his creative writing exercises on Jason’s desk. The older boy animatedly dictated stories for Tim to write down, even though he was busy with his own high school work. At first, Tim had thought that the whole doing-your-homework case was Bruce trying to be a proper intermediate legal guardian, but apparently, that was just a requirement for any after-school activities of which Jason had a lot.

The theatre group was Jason’s most time-consuming hobby since they were so close to their premiere ofMeasure for Measure. If Jason wasn’t acting out the lines he already knew by heart, he was attending violin lessons or volunteering at the school’s library.

Tim, by comparison, did nothing really. He used to play the piano because his parents enjoyed showing off how talented he was at dinner parties. They had forgotten to keep paying the instructor though and, if given the choice between sitting in a lonely house practicing the piano in an empty room and exploring Gotham’s bright and buzzing streets, Tim would always pick the latter. Gotham had the most stunning scenery and Tim loved trying to capture every detail in his photos.

Neither Bruce nor Batman was too happy with Tim just aimlessly exploring Gotham at all hours. He’d been doing it for ages already. If anything, Tim had never been safer than he was at his current age. But he didn’t mind switching back to piano lessons and attending the school’s photography club too badly. Bruce allowed him to practice on the big piano in the ballroom, but Tim preferred the keyboard he had been gifted. He could carry it everywhere with him and play in the office while Bruce was working for example. Or Tim could record hilarious sounds and create an interpretation ofFür Eliseconsisting wholly of Alfred saying “bloody”.

The people in the photography club were pretty alright too, and two of them even liked DnD. And when the club was done, Alfred was waiting to pick him and Jason up.

His favorite completely new hobby though were the self-defense lessons with Batman.

X

Sweat was running down Tim’s brows and his body ached all over.

It was gross.

It wasglorious.

Batman stood at the other end of the training mat, patiently waiting for Tim to attack him again. Batman didn’t think the offense was also the best defense, but he did expect Tim to be able to retaliate when he was attacked as a way of making sure he couldn’t be hurt again.

An enemy that was down couldn’t get up again.

“Again,” Batman ordered. Tim took a deep breath, then ran towards Batman only to jump to the side and off the mat in the very last second. He used the moment of confusion to pick up the Batarang he had spotted to throw it in Batman’s direction.

The Bat caught it with ease, but Tim celebrated either way.

“Tim-“

“You stepped off the mat!” Tim cheered. “You lost.”

The corners of Batman’s mouth twitched and, yes, Tim was seeing that correctly. He had made the vigilante smile.

To their right, Jason and Dick had stopped sparring as well and curiously observed their interaction.

“He got you there, B,” Dick said. “Well done, Boy Wonder.”

Tim beamed in Dick’s direction.

“You did a good job of using your surroundings for your advantage, but you stepped out of the ring as well and therefore didn’t win,” Batman stated.

Tim pushed himself off the ground and stood up straight. “But I made you lose.”

“The objective wasn’t to make me lose, it was to win. We don’t sacrifice ourselves for the victory in this family. Try again.”

Batman threw the Batarang back to Tim.

“But now you know what’s coming.”

“Then think of another solution.”

Tim fell back into the stance that had been drilled into him over the course of the past weeks.No sacrifices in this family.

Family.

Huh.

So that was what he was supposed to call them.

“Ready?”

Tim raised his arms, the Batarang tucked between the thumb and the index finger of his right hand.

“Ready.”

Chapter 6: "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Chapter Text

Jason felt pretty sh*tty for the first week Tim was staying with them. He knew the sharp claws digging into his throat and head as well as nausea accompanied by them were all symptoms of jealousy trying to establish its place in Jason’s heart. He was sixteen for crying out loud. He should be above feeling jealous of a thirteen-year-old, who, most of the time, wasn’t even trying to get anyone’s attention. It was almost pitiful to witness Tim startling every time someone addressed him because he wasn’t expecting anyone to really ask him about his day at dinner.

And yet Jason was hiding away in his room because he couldn’t stand Bruce paying attention to someone else like a spoiled little brat. He would have gone to the Cave, but Alfred had banned all of them from sulking in there. He figured it was only a question of time until Alfred got Batman to switch into civilian clothes and stay in the manor.

Groaning, Jason buried his head in his pillows.

Don’t be jealous of the new kid, don’t be jealous of the new kid, don’t be jealous of-

The door creaked.

“What’s up, Little Wing?”

Dick .

Right, it was Saturday morning. Of course Dick would be here.

“Nothing,” Jason replied, but even to his ears, his voice sounded wobbly.

Dick honored his horrible nickname and took Jason’s annoyance as an invitation. He let himself fall down onto Jason’s bed and stretched like a cat, taking up all the space. He stayed as silent as a bat while he waited for Jason to gather his courage. It was dumb, but when Dick wasn’t being a dick, he had this annoying quality that made you want to talk to him. He was good at giving advice that didn’t boil down to “money” or “batarangs” or random actually helpful bits about social cues. Jason knew he could trust his brother, he had kept his mouth shut about Sheila for months after all.

“I’m jealous,” Jason finally admitted. It was strange to say it out loud

Dick laughed. “Of my charming good looks? Don’t worry, you’ll get there.”

Jason rolled his eyes but cracked a small smile nevertheless.

“Not of that, dickhe*d. And I’m already taller than you anyway.”

“Lies! Slander! How could you even just attempt to break my heart like that?”

Dramatically, Dick put his right arm to his forehead and closed his eyes, reminiscent of a shocked Victorian lady.

“Uhu, just consult the measurements on the kitchen entrance door. I’ve officially surpassed you.”

Even if Jason couldn’t really believe it. Leslie had estimated his height when he’d first gotten to the manor and back then it had seemed like he’d be lucky if he ever reached Dick’s height. Personally, Jason was blaming that alien plant fertilizer goo he’d gotten dosed with a couple months ago for his growth spurt, but he sure as hell wasn’t telling anyone that. Except for Alfred, in case he ended up growing flowers instead of hair.

“But no, I’m jealous of the kid.”

“Tim?” Dick asked.

His voice wasn’t judgmental or anything, but Jason still felt like apologizing.

Jason groaned and fell back on his bed. “I know! It’s stupid! But Bruce has been busy with him practically the whole week! I know it’s ‘cause they have to get his guardianship finalized and everything, but still. And he’s so smart too! Even Batman’s noticed! I lived in this house for weeks and I didn’t figure out the big batty secret, but the kid did it from a distance!”

“You know, I was pretty jealous too when you showed up.”

Jason definitely hadn’t known that. Honestly, Dick’s sunny attitude around Jason had almost freaked him out the first times he interacted with Dick.

“What?”

Dick shrugged easily.

“I mean, I wasn’t talking to Batman at all. And then there was you spending so much time down in the Cave with him. Of course, I was jealous. You were all cute and tiny and knew basically everything about Gotham already. I swear, I had to study boring maps for months and you already knew Gotham’s streets.”

“How did you deal with it?”

“I considered your situation and I tried to get to know you. Figure out your interests and stuff.”

Jason frowned.

“Wait. Was that the reason you went everywhere I wanted with me? Passive-aggressive exposure therapy in a mall?”

Dick grinned mischievously. “Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

X

Surprisingly, it didn’t take much to get Tim talking about himself. After reassuring him that, yes, Jason didn’t have anything more important to do and no, Bruce really was expecting Tim to decorate his room, Tim could not be stopped.

He talked.

So much.

About skateboarding, how much fun the keyboard was, his more challenging school classes, photography, Pokémon, his favorite comics, exciting facts he learned, the heroes conspiracy blog he was apparently running, and Robin.

Whenever they were alone, Tim would talk about Robin.

The sky was blue, the sun was hot, Timothy Jackson Drake didn’t shut up about Robin.

He got super excited and cheerful then, retelling Jason cases he had actually worked and wondering about how all the cool gadgets worked and justRobin.

Tim’s case of hero worship hadn’t gone unnoticed by the manor’s other residents either, but Jason wasn’t sure if Alfred or Bruce understood the way Tim talked about Robin. Like he was more than just a vigilante, like the role was asymbol.

“Batman needs Robin,” Tim said seriously. “It makes him better. I mean, Batgirl and Nightwing and Magpie, you’re all amazing! But it’s not Gotham without the Bat and his Robin, right?”

Tim looked unsure, but Jason realized the kidunderstoodit.

And then Jason began to think.

X

Barbara couldn’t believe it took over a month for her to finally get to meet one Timothy Drake in person. She had researched him, even exchanged a few words with him over the comms once, but she had yet to actually meet the kid. Even Dick had met him, and he lived in Blüdhaven.

But Barbara had finally managed to clear enough time in her busy schedule – she was coordinating two vigilante teams and operating as Oracle after all – and driven up to the manor. If she used her time there to update the Bat-Computer as well, then that was only her business. She wasn’t a workaholic and she had a life outside of her duties when they allowed it.

She had the work-life-balance figured out, honestly.

Tim was a cute kid. A bit shy at first, but he warmed up to her quickly enough. Jason must have expected it because he was grinning when Tim started chattering about video games.

“So, what do you think?” Jason asked.

“He’s a good kid.”

“Aaaand?”

“You’re being awfully noisy. What do you want to know?”

“Batman talks to you about my training, doesn’t he? How much longer until I can go solo?”

Barbara leaned forward in her wheelchair. “What do you think?”

Jason deflated. “I don’t know. I feel like I’ve been ready for it for ages. I haven’t needed B’s back up in a long while, but imagining him being halfway across town is… unsettling still.”

Barbara nodded slowly before replying.

“Honestly? You’ve been ready for two months already at least. Batman just has a hard time letting go. He’s never really been without one of us for a very long time.”

“Right,” Jason said. “Which is why we can’t leave him alone.”

“What are you thinking?”

Jason pointed at Timothy, eagerly throwing batarangs at a target.

“He said that Gotham, that Batman, needs Robin. I’m thinking we should take advantage of the kid who already knows our secret and has a hard time falling asleep when we’re out.”

X

Bruce knew something was up, but he allowed himself to live in blissful ignorance a little longer. He let Dick sneak forensics lessons into Tim’s self-defense classes, allowed Jason to teach Tim about the various gangs ruling Gotham.

It wasn’t like these bits of information weren’t useful, the every-day citizen just didn’t particularlyneedthem.

And Bruce definitely wasn’t thinking about who did need this knowledge and more.

Tim Drake was his ward for as long as his parents weren’t in Gotham. Nothing more and nothing less.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Bruce could see Alfred observing him while the kids (“I’m a twenty-three-year-old woman, B.” “And I remember babysitting you as a teenager, your point?”) bickered about some movie.

Ignorance was bliss, that was a lesson Bruce had learned early on. And sometimes you were allowed to indulge in it.

X

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Tim asked from where he was sitting on Jason’s bed.

“Absolutely,” Jason replied, grinning way too cheerfully for six in the morning. He’d only gotten back from patrol two hours ago, he shouldn’t be so awake yet, or so Tim thought, yet Jason looked like he could take on the world.

“But we’re breaking one of The Rules.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about it. They’re more like guidelines than rules. Besides, Aunty Diana and Kate already agreed to help us. This is a surefire plan.”

Tim honestly wasn’t so sure about it. He wanted to trust Jason, but what if Bruce and Batman didn’t think it was funny to be tricked into a date?

“But-“

“Jason’s right, Tim,” Barbara’s voice echoed from the laptop sitting on Jason’s desk. “Besides, the worst that will happen is that you get grounded because Bruce and B are caught up in the romantic bliss that was relaxing on Valentine’s Day in Paris.”

“That’s right!” Jason said. “We’re setting up dates for them at least twice a year if we can. It would be suspicious if we didn’t try to get them away.”

Tim pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head on them. “If you say so… I still don’t get why we need both of them out of Gotham for so long. Can’t they stay here?”

“I do say so, Timbit. Just you wait, they won’t know what hit them. And if they stay here, they’d just take their paperwork to bed.”

“Eeww.”

X

Bruce absolutely knew what hit him. Diana and Kate were good actors, they had to be if they even just wanted to operate as vigilantes, but they didn’t even bother to hide it from him.

“It’s cute,” Diana said. “How much they try to make their parents happy.”

“Very funny. What if something actually happens, though?”

“Then your Super-Bro will pick you up from Paris,” Kate replied. “And ten years ago you were working alone. Now you’ve got me and Dick and Jason and Babs to look over Gotham. We got this.”

Her words would have been more encouraging if they weren’t followed up by her narrowly avoiding a brick being thrown at her.

Nevertheless, he still pretended to buy WE having an emergency in their Paris branch and one of Gotham’s smuggler rings operating from Paris as well.

The kids’ happy expressions were worth it.

X

Dick felt maybe a little guilty for lying to Tim. It was true, they tried to give Bruce and Batman some alone time once in a while and Valentine’s day was perfect for it. This time though, they needed the two men away so they could properly get to Tim.

Truth be told, he’d been skeptical when Barbara and Jason had pitched the idea to him. Training Tim and giving him a home was one thing, bringing him into the active side of the vigilante life a whole other deal.

The longer he watched Tim though, the more could he see it. The teenager was smart, dedicated, skilled and – like Jason had said – he knew what Robin meant.

Though, seeing him be questioned about the law, recent gang activity, weapons, the Justice League, and various Gotham residing companies by Babs all while sparing with Jason, made Dick pity Tim.

Dick’s Robin training had been way more relaxed, but he also hadn’t had three older siblings.

X

If not for the fact that Jason had made Tim’s favorite smoothie for him, Tim would assume the older boy was trying to murder him. It was day three of their spontaneous‘sibling-bonding weekend’and Tim was pretty sure his whole body was dying. He had never had to think or work out this much. He was sore all over. The training mats he was lying on were becoming his favorite spot to be, right after his bathtub and his bed.

“And how do you feel?” Dick asked.

“Like Superman decided I was a threat and went several rounds in the ring with me because I couldn’t recall that the Kryptonite is locked with a special key, and three different locks behind the secret entrance-“

“Woah, woah, Timbit,” Jason interrupted. “That’s enough trivia. Didn’t think you could learn this much in three days.”

“Mhm,” Barbara muttered from the desk of the Bat-Computer. “You own me fifty bucks.”

Tim frowned. “Wait. You bet on this?”

“Oooh, yeah. This has been two months in the making?” Dick glanced at Jason, who nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah, putting together a time table for three days wasn’t fun, I tell you, but the results are pretty amazing.”

Jason smiled and dropped down on the mats right next to Tim to mess up his sweaty hair.

“Urgh, gross,” he cursed and rubbed his hands on his sweat pants.

“But- why did you do this?”

The three heroes in front of Tim shared a look and Tim got the distinct impression that he was missing a big piece labeled ‘context’ in bright neon colors here.

“Your parents will be back in a few hours,” Barbara said.

(Tim wondered what it meant that his first instinct wasn’t to think about his own parents but-)

“I guess that means it’s time,” Dick said and walked over to the display cases in which the various Robin uniforms were kept. From in-between them, he pulled forward a small gift-wrapped box.

“Catch!” He shouted and threw it in Tim’s direction.

Heart beating fast, Tim jumped up to catch it. The package wasn’t bigger than his palm and surrounded by Christmas themed paper.

“Christmas? Really?” Jason snorted, but Dick just shrugged.

“Didn’t have anything better at home. Go on, Tim, open it. If you want it, it’s yours.”

Carefully, Tim unwrapped the gift, revealing a cardboard box. He could feel the others’ stares on him but didn’t dare look up. They had put a lot of thought into this and spend so much time with him. He couldn’t disappoint them.

Tim opened the box and came face to face with a shiny black and gold emblem.

“What…?”

“You said it yourself,” Jason said. “Batman needs a Robin and I’m not putting on the green tights again.”

“What Jasonmeans,” Dick added, “is that we really can’t be responsible for Batman running around without a talented little pipsqueak cracking masterful puns. So if you want to be Robin, you have our blessings. You only need to convince the other two overprotective idiots of this house.”

It took all of Tim’s strength not to burst into tears right then and there. He was thankful though that Jason and Dick dragged him over to Babs for a group hug.

X

Bruce didn’t even know why he had assumed it would end differently. Tim had been skittish the whole week and Bruce had watched the Cave’s security tapes, just to make sure they hadn’t tried to hide an explosion from him again.

“I‘m fairly skilled in a multitude of martial arts now,“ Tim began his speech.

“No,” Batman replied.

At the other end of the Cave, Nightwing and Magpie were supposed to be sparring, but they couldn’t be listening in more obviously.

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

Tim pouted.

“You’re not becoming Robin, Tim.”

Tim crossed his arms and held his chin high. Batman recognized that stance instantly, he did it fairly often himself. Maybe Clark had been right when he said that it was freaky to work alongside his kids because they all had the same body language during missions.

“I already talked to Bruce and he said that Batman needs a Robin.”

Honestly, what was it with his children lying to him?

Nevertheless, Bruce couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Did he really?”

And Tim had the audacity to nod, all serious like he wasn’t lying straight to Bruce’s face. His poker face was pretty already, not too many cracks in the mask. The kids had done an excellent job training and it would be a shame if that training went to waste.

So, Bruce really couldn’t argue against Tim, could he?

Chapter 7: “So, uhm, nice brick-throwing skills?”

Chapter Text

Stephanie Brown hated her father. He was a criminal bastard and she liked him best when he was locked behind bars and not dragging her through Gotham’s streets, sending her on dumb little errands to get his newest schemes together. Steph had dreams and none of them included becoming a criminal. She wanted to get out of Gotham someday, see the world a little, make it a better place for all the little blonde girls who had to hid in closets when their fathers were home.

Not that Stephanie had been one of them in years. Somewhere in-between her father’s last trip to prison and his most recent breakout, Steph had become angry. Rage boiled beneath her skin like an active volcano and she tried to work it off by running. She’d become quite the fast racer, made her way through Gotham’s back alleys wearing her old sports shoes and a hoodie she could pull deep enough into her face that it obscured her features. It was almost etiquette in Gotham to wear clothes like that in certain parts of town after a set time of day, but it only really became useful the first time Steph threw a punch at some slimey bastard who wouldn’t back off. Her heart had been beating so loudly, Steph hadn’t been able to hear anything else. One moment she was standing there, the next, the guy was on the ground. Not dead, but looking up at her in shock and then quickly scrambling away.

Violence, as it turned out, was perfect for getting rid of the restless energy that kept Steph from sleeping at night. She often stayed up until the early morning hours, watching random videos. Lately, she’d taken up learning how to actually throw a punch, then how to kick somebody. She dropped the expensive piano lessons her mother had wanted her to have so she could feel like all the other girls in her school in favor of a monthly fee to a fitness studio. She took up kickboxing, started gymnastics again. Steph kept herself busy until she could fall asleep in her bed and if she couldn’t she took to the streets.

She wasn’t looking for a fight, not really, not then.

But then her father broke out of prison again and decided she was old enough to truly help him and Steph wouldn’t let him.

X

“Do we have eyes on the new player?” Batman’s voice rang over the comms.

“Nope,” Tim replied, scanning the area. “I could have sworn I saw them escape here…”

Tim hadn’t been Robin for long yet, but he already knew that this was what he wanted to do. Not forever, but right now he needed to be Robin because Gotham needed him. He wasn’t allowed to do everything yet, even though Dick had been at his age – an argument that Jason too brought up quite often in regard to his own autonomy – but Batman was steady in his refusal.

And nobody wanted Bruce to do a full 180° and ban all of them from vigilante work. Tim had only seen Bruce lose his temper once, but it had been scarier than anything he’d ever seen Batman pull. His voice had been so low and sharp, cutting deeper than any knife possibly could and then, moments later or so it seemed, Tim had become a permanent resident at Wayne Manor. He supposed he should be feeling something about the fact that his parents had signed over guardianship, but Tim didn’t, not really. He was kind of sad about it, but he’d also never seen anything wrong with being left alone in his home for months at a time and Bruce had very much objected to that.

It hadn’t been child abuse.

Tim had been fed and clothed and his home was beautiful and clean.

His parents had never hit him either.

(Okay, his Dad had once, but that had been an accident. He hadn’t meant to and he’d apologized.)

But Tim had learned from Dick and Jason that they apparently had very different expectations of what parents should do based on how they behaved around Bruce and Batman. Well, it was more obvious with Bruce because he actually did typical parenting things while Batman showed you how to hotwire a car and analyze DNA. Bruce signed permission slips and came to parent-teacher talks and helped Tim look through his homework.

Nobody had looked at Tim’s homework in years. It was weird, but Bruce apparently didn’t think so. Every time Tim brought something up his parents didn’t or did do, he had this look that kind of really did explain how Gotham’s darling ended up with Batman of all people.

Tim was torn out of his musings by seeing something, or rather someone, move on the other roof.

“I got my eyes on the assailant,” Tim reported. “Moving in.”

“Robin, stay back-“

Tim crossed his rooftop and jumped right to the other, his landing smooth, and as silent as the dead. They hadn’t gotten a good look at the new vigilante in town yet, but Tim was convinced that they were good. They had helped spread information about Cluemaster’s latest schemes, so obviously they wanted to help.

Dressed entirely in black and purple, Tim couldn’t make out their features. Deciding that startling them would be a horrible idea, Tim respectfully cleared his throat.

“Excuse me?”

The other finger jumped up. So much for not startling them then. They turned around, something in their hand and threw it at Tim. Quickly, he ducked and watched as a brick crashed right onto the wall behind him. He looked at the now broken brick lying on the floor, then went back to observing the vigilante. He wanted to say something clever, but what he ended up stuttering out sounded more like: “Dude, what the hell?”

“Robin, what is going on over there?”

“I’m fine,” Tim said.

He couldn’t wait until he’d be allowed to turn off the comm unless he actually wanted to say something.

“Right, eh. I’m Robin.”

The figure studied him. “I know.”

Tim didn’t know what kind of voice he had expected, but not one that sounded like it belonged to a girl his age.

“So, uhm, nice brick-throwing skills?”

Tim supposed that if he could see the vigilante’s face, their eyes would widen comedically now. Since that wasn’t the case, they just took a step back, then charged into a running leap and jumped right off the building.

“Hey!”

Tim ran right after them. The new vigilante wasn’t as skilled as Tim, likely self-taught, so they weren’t prepared for Tim to crash into them. Tim, who was used to people far more talented than him being a part of these stunts, still kind of expected the figure to catch them both.

Instead, they spectacularly crashed to the ground. Tim was pretty sure he had broken at least one of his legs. Batman would be angry and Bruce- Tim didn’t even want to think about it. He’d be grounded forever. Thankfully, he didn’t have to entertain the thought much longer as unconsciousness claimed him.

X

Bruce never should have taken Dick onto the streets. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have had a fight with him, then with Jason and now wouldn’t be faced with two injured kids sleeping soundly in the Cave.

“So, who’s the girl?” Jason asked.

“Stephanie Brown, she’s Cluemaster’s daughter.”

Jason frowned and crossed his arms in front of his chest, similarly to how Bruce tended to do it. Alfred was right, the kids were mirroring him.

“But she’s been helping us.”

“Children are not always like their parents.”

“Don’t I know it,” Jason muttered but turned to look at Tim.

Tim’s custody case had been tiring. At the very beginning, Bruce had been fine with just taking on a temporary guardianship, but then it had become increasingly obvious how very incompetent Jack and Janet Drake were. It was honestly a miracle they hadn’t managed to get their own son killed by their sheer unimaginable level of negligence. Barbara, Dick and Jason had more or less suggested multiple times that Batman should pay the Drakes a visit – to Bruce and to Batman – but Bruce couldn’t let his vigilante identity be in any way related to Batman out in the open. It was bad enough when it was just done at home.

“What are we gonna do with little Spoiler? Is her mother a bitch too or does only her Dad suck?”

“Language,” Bruce told Jason, but then hesitated.

Crystal Brown was doing alright, but she certainly could use some support. If she didn’t notice her daughter sneaking out so often, she was likely overworked. From what his research showed, she was trying her best.

“She’s alright, but could use some help,” he finally settled on saying.

“Mhm,” Jason hummed. “Want me to go wake up Dad and inform him you brought home another kid?”

Bruce sighed. “I have not brought home another kid. In fact, I brought none of you home. You just-“

“Sneaked into your car and got you to buy us batburgers and sign the adoption papers?” Jason interrupted him cheekily.

He supposed from their perspective, Jason did have a point. Not that Bruce would ever admit that out loud.

X

Looking back, Jason would absolutely blame Tim because Tim was young and cute and short and nobody could ever stay mad at the baby of the family. Batman had headed out again after bringing Tim and Steph home to go help Dick out with something. Jason would have gone as well, but his bruised ribs kept him on monitor duty, which brought him back to how this was absolutely not his fault. Jason wasn’t going to wear a freaking mask when he was sitting at home, bundled up in a blanket and drinking hot chocolate while telling Batman and Dick where to find the bad guys. He was a little too distracted with the fight happening on his screens than to notice that Stephanie Brown had woken up and decided to walk around the Cave until she found him.

“You- this- where am I!?” She shouted and Jason wished Alfred would be around with the convenient knock out gas, but no, he was taking a vacation.

“In the Batcave,” Jason replied slowly.

“Well, yeah,” Stephanie replied, a rather large amount of sass contained in such a small statement. “Wouldn’t have guessed by all the bats flying around.”

She pointed towards the right where a bunch of tools were lying around, all with the appropriate bat-print on them. Maybe they were committing a little too much to the birds and bats theme.

“So why are you asking then?” Jason shot back.

“Because you’re not wearing a mask!”

“Well, no! Because I’m home! Unlike you, little spoiling Stephanie Brown.”

“It’s Steph,” she insisted. “And I know you too, lazy uh-“

Jason smiled triumphantly and leaned back in his chaos. She obviously didn’t know who he was. Everybody in Gotham kind of knew who they were, but not in a way that you’d be able to pick them out in a crowd or anything. They weren’t famous actors, they were the children of a rich person.

“Jaaaayyyson,” Tim groaned from somewhere. “My head hurts. Wha’ happened?”

Now Steph smirked. “So, Jason.”

Like Jason had said, this was absolutely not his fault.

“Look, Steph, you’re not doing the interrogating here.” And, hearing Tim call out to him again: “And I’m not either, I got Robin to look after. So just sit here, don’t touch anything and be silent. Copy?”

Jason would try to figure out how to ensure this half-identity reveal didn’t end in a catastrophe after he’d made sure his little brother wasn’t puking his guts out. It was a miracle Steph was looking as steady as she did, but she had landed on Tim, while the little Robin himself had met the unfortunate ground and was likely also concussed.

Steph studied him a couple seconds, then she nodded. “Fine. But I want answers after.”

Somewhere at the back of his head, Jason was accurately aware that the ease by which she accepted this situation wasn’t normal, but the sound of Tim vomiting distracted him quickly enough that he decided not to question it.

Jason hurried over to his brother, who was supposed to be lying still in the med bay, but was instead curled on the ground, holding a bucket.

“Exciting night, kid?” Jason asked and only earned himself a glare instead.

Yeah, the kid had definitely picked something up from the custody fight alright. Batman was all harsh looks, anger, so remarkably similar to Jason’s own, but more controlled. Bruce on the other hand was totally drenched in poison and bitterness.

There was no questioning which parent Tim took more after.

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Jason muttered as he helped Tim out of his uniform and searched for the right pills in the cabinets. They were more well-stocked than most of Gotham’s hospitals even though Jason could count their family members on two hands with some fingers left over,

When he had gotten Tim settled and checked out – he was concussed for sure. That would be fun to explain at school – Jason set out to make him some tea. There was no better medicine than tea, rest and a lecture hidden behind Alfred’s careful and guilt-tripping remarks. Since Jason could only fulfill two out of three requirements, he figured he could wait until Alfred was back for the latter.

Or he could go wake up Bruce upstairs.

He knew their father was upset when they didn’t inform him of all injuries. Always being the last to know who had suffered what damage sucked, but the consensus was that they didn’t want to involve Bruce any further. It wouldn’t be fair to him. He was already pretty damn busy running a company and taking care of their daily life. He shouldn’t have to be torn out of the few hours of rest he did manage to get when they already had had Batman fuss over them.

“Alright, Tim. I need to head back to the monitors. Think I can leave you alone here?”

Tim nodded weakly, his eyes already half-closed again. His little brother looked so pale under the white lights, so thin too. It made Jason want to pinch his cheeks until they had a healthy rosy color, not that it would do anything for Tim. The only purpose such an action could serve was calming Jason down.

Worried, Jason made his way back to the computer. There was always a low background noise as the computer was humming, but Jason thought he could make out some chatter too.

“-and like he’s such a bastard. I didn’t even want to help him. Who even sets out to be a villain? It’s so stupid!”

There, sitting in the chair Jason had been occupying just minutes ago, was tiny spoiling Stephanie Brown, very obviously touching everything and wearing a headset that linked her to their comms. The main screens of the computer still showed the night sky following Batman and Dick, but two of the side screens were dedicated to Jason Peter Wayne and Timothy Jackson Drake and Richard John Grayson.

Well, f*ck.

“Didn’t I just say don’t touch anything?” Jason growled and snatched the headset from her.

Steph didn’t move from the chair, she only looked up to him with an obvious challenge in her eyes. “So? I made spoiling plans my job.”

“The plans of your father, of a villain. Not ours.”

“You could have been a villain!” Steph protested. “It’s your own fault for not securing me properly. Besides, it’s not bad. So you’re Magpie, Robin over there is Timothy and Nightwing is your older brother.”

Steph rattled off their names, sounding incredibly smug. “And Bruce Wayne is Batman.”

Jason’s thoughts came to a sudden stop. Batman and Bruce Wayne had separate files, of course they did, but they were highly encrypted and couldn’t be accessed with the general password. It shouldn’t surprise him that, following that pattern, she had come to the conclusion that Bruce was the Bat. Jason contemplated what he should do. Given that Steph had obviously already chatted with the rest of the family, the truth was bound to come out completely anyway.

Besides, she didn’t strike him as somebody who’d be able to take off the mask and leave it behind. She was in this life now and just like Jason, she wouldn’t be able or even just want to get out. That, in turn, meant that she’d need training, proper training. Not just some online classes or whatever. Someone had to show her how to subdue the bad guys without ending up concussed on the floor.

“Almost,” Jason told her. “Not a bad deduction, but not good enough. You’re Cluemaster’s kid, aren’t you?”

Steph gritted her teeth. Father issues check and anger issues as well. She’d fit right in.

“Well, then, Spoiler. Use your brain.”

X

When Bruce finally came home a second time for the night, every joint was aching. He felt like he was getting too old for this which definitely shouldn’t be the case. He was in his thirties. The worst was yet to come or so. He didn’t know whether he should be happy that Dick had been complaining as well before taking off in the direction of his apartment. Maybe their job was just painful in general, no matter the age.

Tiredly, Bruce noted that tonight wasn’t even finished yet.

Jason’s slip up would need covering up, but Stephanie seemed like a good girl to him. She was strong and smart. There were certainly worse people that could have figured it out. As soon as Bruce and Dick entered the Cave, Jason looked up and waved at them, wincing only ever so slightly.

He was feeling guilty for slipping up.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was fast asleep over some books that looked like the criminology studies he’d used to teach the boys. Jason had gotten her started early then.

“How’s Tim?” Bruce asked.

“Also asleep,” Jason replied. “And concussed, but he’ll be fine. You brought home a smart one here.”

Bruce was well aware of that. Barbara’s quick search into Stephanie’s background had shown that already.

“Only took her three guesses to figure out you and Dad are basically married, too,” Jason continued with a mischievous smile. “Which, by the way, you should really get done. I know Dick, for one, has been planning your wedding since he was a kid and-“

“Another word and you’re grounded until the end of the year.”