Archive of Our Own

It was a quiet, boring night in Gotham the first time Jason met them. He and B had separated when Catwoman had dropped in, leading a chase that Batman had charged into a bit too excitedly. Jason had cut out as soon as he possibly could have. He didn’t need to be present for whatever weird flirting rituals they had. 

There hadn’t been any recent break-outs in Gotham, and their most recent case had hit a dead end. Jason instead took this time to practice his rooftop jumping. Golden Boy was off on a mission from space, but before he had left, he had promised to take Jason jumping on the subways in Bludhaven, as long as Jason worked on his balance. This just meant that Jason had a justifiable reason to go soaring through Gotham.

He was in the process of reworking his mental map of the city, testing himself on which shortcuts on top of buildings led where. 

B had just radioed in and confirmed that he was still in pursuit of Catwoman, to which Jason jeered at him. 

If nothing interesting happened soon, he was going to go back to the manor. It was summer, which meant that B couldn’t make him go to bed at a “reasonable” time after patrol, which meant he could stay up all night in the library if he wanted to. Jason had just started reading Don Quixote , a story that Alfred had recommended to him. He was just at the part where Quixote had convinced Sancho to join him and—

There was someone on the roof across the street from Jason. He paused, standing up straight from his crouch. There were two someones on the rooftop. They were too small to be Batman and Catwoman, and even from here, he could tell that they weren’t wearing any sort of body armor. They looked… little.

He wouldn’t have seen them if one of the figures hadn’t stood up and done a cartwheel which had immediately caught his attention.  

Jason changed directions. His curiosity was piqued, and with B probably halfway across the city, Jason had the time. He had to use his grapple gun to cross the street, but soon enough he was peering over the edge.

There were two kids up on the roof. They couldn’t have been older than ten, but frankly, they looked like babies. The boy had dark hair and a red jacket, while the girl was dressed in all purple with blond hair poking out from under her hood. 

Jason was pushing himself over the ledge before he could really think about it. What were two kids doing on a rooftop, in the middle of the night, in Gotham?

He heard snippets of their conversation but nothing that was coherent enough to make sense.

They were so consumed in their discussion that they didn’t notice Jason until he was standing only a few feet away from them. 

He purposely let the rooftop gravel crunch under his feet, alerting the kids to his presence. 

They both jumped, the boy making a squeaking noise as the girl leapt into what looked like a defensive pose, slightly crouched in front of her friend.

“What are you two doing up here?” Jason asked, putting his hands on his hips. 

There was no way that he would ever be as scary or as intimidating as B, but he tried to put some force behind his words. Otherwise, no one would ever listen to him. 

When the kids didn’t answer, he took a moment to survey them a bit closer. The girl was wearing elbow pads, while the boy was wearing dingy jeans and light-up sneakers. He also was clutching a large fabric case to his chest and was staring at Jason with wide eyes. 

The girl also looked like she was snarling at him, but Jason decided to kindly ignore that for the time being. 

“Okay, let’s start with a different question. What are your names?” 

The boy and girl exchanged a brief look with each other. 

“I’m-” the boy started, but the girl stamped on his foot hard, making the next part of his statement die in a pained whimper. 

“He’s Shutter. I’m Spoiler. What do you want?” 

Jason took a double take; suddenly, it was all making sense, the cape, the elbow pads, and the dark hood that was pulled low on her face. Oh, God. 

“Please tell me you two aren’t teeny tiny vigilantes. I don’t get paid enough to deal with infant vigilantes. Where are your parents?” 

“Wait, does Batman actually pay you-” Once again, the boy- Shutter, apparently- was cut off by the girl, Spoiler, though this time when she stamped on his foot, he moved out of the way quickly enough. 

“We aren’t tiny! And that’s none of your business!” 

Her voice was high-pitched, but she was loud. They would be lucky if half of Gotham didn’t hear her. 

“Sure, yeah. Let’s make a deal. I won’t tell Batman about your little rooftop excursion, and you kiddies scoot along home.” 

“We don’t have to listen to you!” Spoiler puffed out her chest. Shutter tugged at her cape, holding the black case to his chest. Spoiler leant back just enough for Shutter to whisper something into her ear. “Fine,” she said after a moment. “You never saw us, alright? And don’t try to follow us either. We don’t trust weirdos in bright colors. You may be wearing pants now, but that’s not much of an upgrade.” 

Jason’s jaw dropped in shock. Before he could find a satisfactory comeback, as he was being roasted by a literal kindergartener , his comm clicked on. 

“Robin. Meet me at the Batmobile, or I will have to come to retrieve you.”

“Jeez, B, I know how to use my own legs. Give me a sec; I’m wrapping something up.” Jason sniped back, pressing at his earpiece. Batman’s only response was to grunt before the comms clicked off again. When Jason spun around, the rooftop was empty. There were no tiny vigilantes to be seen. 

Huh. At least that was the end of that. 

-.-

“I can’t believe we actually met Robin. ”

“I can’t believe it took Robin this long to notice us. We’ve been out here for three weeks already.”

“Robin! We actually talked to Robin!”

“Yeah, and he asked where our parents were. If we run into him again, he’s going to get more suspicious. We need a better cover story.” 

“You think of one. I want to see if we can develop these photos.”

“You are such a fanboy. Should we break into that Gotham Prep again, use their darkroom?”

“If we stop by the library, I can hack their security code, so we could get in tonight. Do you think we will see Robin again?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” 

“ Cool. ”

-.-

Batman was just wrapping up talking to the police when Jason saw her. He gave a random and vague excuse to B before grappling to the roof, where he darted down the block.

“You, again!” Jason cried, as soon as he was on the same roof as that tiny child from before— Spoiler , he thought it was. The girl spun around, once again stepping back into a defensive position. Her form wasn’t all that bad, and Jason was certain that if he tried to get any closer, she would try to attack him. 

He and Batman had just faced down with Killer Croc, and now he was once again being threatened by a pre-schooler. What joy. 

“What are you doing here? Where is the other one?” 

“What other one?” Spoiler bluffed, but Jason just rolled his eyes. 

“Seriously, where are your parents? It’s not safe for you to be out here so late.”

“Like we haven’t heard that one before. One could say the same about you! You only recently got pants! You can’t lecture us on anything!”

“Actually, I think I could lecture you on anything I wanted,” Jason snarked back. “You guys are literal babies , and I am not only highly trained, but I’m not out here without supervision!”

Spoiler huffed at him, seemingly without a comeback. 

It had been a while since he had seen a kid this young with this much spark in their system. He was the same way when he was that young, though, so it wasn’t like he could judge. 

He had almost entirely forgotten the experience over the past week, but now that he was standing in front of one out of two kiddos, he wondered again how old they were. He joked about them being babies, but they did look scarily young. No older than ten, at the very most. And that Shutter boy, he was even more pint-sized than his friend. Or sister? Were they siblings?

There wasn’t really a way to tell, especially if Spoiler wasn’t going to let him get any closer.

They stood in that standoff for a few more moments. Any move that Jason tried to make caused Spoiler to tense up until she was low to the ground and nearly vibrating. She looked prepared to launch at Jason at any moment. 

The radio that was hanging off of her belt clicked. “ Spoiler, this is Shutter. Been spotted by Bravo Mike, attempting to withdraw.” The tinny voice on the other side said.

Jason squinted. 

“Is that a Blue Beetle walkie-talkie? I just saw those at Walmart.”

“No it isn’t!” Spoiler shot back. 

“I’m pretty sure it is. Look, it’s even his exact shade of blue and kind of shiny, just like him. They are kid’s radios, which means that your friend must be close by.” Jason looked around the rooftop one more time, but they were alone. “What the hell kind of code was that?”  

“That’s none of your business!”

“I am pretty sure it is my business, seeing how two kids are just running around Gotham at night. Didn’t you know Croc was out, and just in this area? You or your friend could have gotten seriously hurt.” 

Spoiler scowled at him and unclipped the walkie-talkie from her belt. As she lifted it to her mouth, though, there was another pair of footsteps stepping onto the rooftop. 

Batman was holding the boy, Shutter, by the collar of his shirt. The boy was staring with wide eyes at his captor, without making any attempts to escape. Shutter was a few good feet off of the ground until B put him down. Just like last time, he was clutching the black case to his chest. 

“Robin,” Batman said, though his low tone made it impossible to tell if B was actually surprised to see Jason here or not. “I found this one on the fire escape, on the side of this building.”

Shutter raced to Spoiler’s side, nearly running into her in his haste to get away from Batman. 

“You said that you wouldn’t tell Batman!” Spoiler accused, still facing Jason. 

Now, the cowl covered the upper half of Bruce’s face, but Jason could feel the eyebrow raise from his father. 

“I said I wouldn’t tell Batman if you two went home. And clearly, you didn’t. Plus, that was like a week ago!” Jason wanted to put his hands on his hips just like Spoiler, but he had the feeling that it wouldn’t help his case. He was arguing with a baby, after all, not to mention one who was dressed up in mis-matched armor. Where did she even find any of those pieces?

“You know them?” Batman grumbled. Jason raised his arms in the air. 

“I met them out on a roof last week! And I sent them home!”

“That’s um, true, Mister Batman, sir,” Shutter squeaked out. Spoiler elbowed him in the side, and he elbowed her back. 

“Where do you live?” Batman asked. He came closer to the kids, getting down on one knee so he could meet them at eye level. Strangely, Spoiler shoved Shutter behind her as if she was trying to hide him. “I will need to have a talk with your parents.” 

“Good luck with that, Batty.” Spoiler sneered at him, the expression strange on her cherub face. 

Batman opened his mouth, presumably to reply, but was cut off when his and Jason’s comms clicked on. 

“Batman, sir,” Alfred greeted. “There is a building infrastructure threat in the business district, seemingly related to Killer Croc’s grand plans for the evening. Commissioner Gordon is requesting your presence.” 

Batman sighed heavily and murmured an affirmative back. He pushed himself off of the ground, giving the kids one last serious look before turning to Jason. 

“Get them back home . No detours,” Batman instructed. Jason nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Batman spared one last look at the kids before stepping off of the rooftop, the whirl of his grapple gun the only noise in the dark night. 

When Jason turned back to the kids, they were whispering to each other. 

“Hey!” Jason snapped, feeling marginally bad when they both flinched and turned to attention. “Okay, we can make this easy. Just tell me where you guys live, and we can all go there. Together. ” 

“We don’t have to listen to you!” Spoiler cried at him. 

“You don’t have to listen to me, sure, but you have to listen to Batman. That’s like a Gotham-wide rule.”

“Do you listen to Batman all of the time?” Shutter piped up, though he hid back behind Spoiler the moment that the words were out of his mouth. 

Surprised, Jason had to cover up a laugh. In the dark night, he thought he saw a hint of a smile coming from both Spoiler and Shutter, but they both went back to whispering to each other immediately after.

“Come on. We don’t have to make this hard. Just tell me where you guys live, and you will get your very own special Robin-escort. How does that sound?”

Spoiler was slowly reaching behind her, her hand hidden underneath her cape. Jason squinted, trying to see what she was going for. 

“Run!” Spoiler suddenly screamed. Shutter immediately turned around and peeled off the roof, gravel scattering in the wake of his path. He began to scramble down the fire escape. 

Jason jumped forward, about to grab Spoiler, but she pulled a large object out from behind her and lobbed it at Jason. He had to dodge to avoid—

“Did you just throw a brick at me?!” Jason sputtered incredulously. “Why the fu-dge are you carrying around a brick?” 

Spoiler didn’t respond, as she was already halfway across the rooftop, following Shutter. 

Jason was nearly frozen where he stood for a few brief seconds. That baby just threw a brick at him! What the hell! 

By the time that he reached the edge of the rooftop and looked down, both of the kids were gone. The alleyway underneath was empty, and there wasn’t any hiding spot that was immediately obvious. 

Jason sighed heavily (immediately regretting it when he realized that he sounded just like Bruce) and grappled down the side of the building. 

There was no one there, not even a trace of a little kiddo. The street was empty as well. 

“Fuck, shit, damnit.” How could he have lost them? They must have gone into a building nearby, but which one? And how? Everyone in Gotham locked their doors, and those who could afford it had elaborate and varying forms of security. No one would just leave a window on the ground floor cracked open; that was basically asking for someone to come crawling in through.  

This was going to be embarrassing to tell Bruce. But something told him that this wasn’t the last they had seen of the kids, so there was no sense in trying to convince B that he had gotten them home successfully. Fuck. Maybe he should stop a mugging or something on his way over to Batman so B wouldn’t be as disappointed in him.

-.-

“How are we doing on food?”

“Okay. Though I’m getting kinda tired of BatBurger.”

“If we get some burgers, we can try to cut them up and put them in Hamburger Helper.”

“You have Hamburger Helper? Where did you get that?”

“I stole some out of someone’s home grocery delivery— come on, don’t give me that look. They had like, ten things of Hamburger Helper, and not even the good kinds! I was doing them a favor.”

“That is a lot of Hamburger Helper.”

“See? Now we just have to find a place that has a working stove. And you are cooking this time, okay?” 

“Aw, but—”

“I stole us the Hamburger Helper! It’s only fair if you put in some of the work too.”

“Some of the work? I’m the one who taught you how to pick locks so we could stay in whatever apartment we wanted! Also, who’s the one who has been using the library computer to work us enough internet scams to make sure we have an emergency fund of cash?”

“You, fine. Did you at least get any good photos tonight?”

“I did! Here, look at this one I got of Batman right before he noticed me on the fire escape.”

-.-

 “Across the street,” Batman muttered to Jason. That was the last thing that he said before taking off into the night sky. Jason, who had been kicking rocks off of the roof and watching them sail towards the ground, scrambled to grab his grapple gun and follow the older man. 

It wasn’t until they reached the rooftop that Jason noticed what B had spotted. 

It was those damn kids again! 

Shutter was laying flat on his stomach, holding what looked to be a fancy camera in his hands. It was aimed at Spoiler, who was doing a series of backflips in the air. 

“They just disappeared,” Shutter was saying, hitting seemingly random buttons on the camera. “Was there a break-out?”

“Maybe they just-” Spoiler replied, between backflips, her chest heaving with pants. “-went off course for a minute. You aren’t even watching me; how are you going to learn how to do a flip if you aren’t even watching me?” 

Shutter grumbled to himself but lowered the camera. Spoiler continued her series of backflips.

Neither of them had noticed the Dynamic Duo stepping onto the rooftop, although it might have been better if they had. Jason watched in horror as Spoiler’s backflip trajectory took her right to the edge of the roof, and she was about to flip off—

Batman snagged her by the back of her cape, just barely saving her in time from going splat on the Gotham streets. 

Shutter squeaked, sitting straight up, while Spoiler immediately began to yell at Batman to put her down. Bruce was holding her an arm’s length away, so all of her thrown punches were at least a half-foot away from meeting their targets.

“St- Spoiler!” Shutter cried. Seeing that the girl was safe, Jason walked over to Shutter. 

“Do you kids ever sleep? Don’t you have a bedtime?” He heard Spoiler snarl at Batman, or possibly the both of them, but kept his attention on Shutter. These kids were tricky, and he wasn’t going to lose them this time. 

“Let her go!” Shutter squeaked out. 

“She nearly flipped off the edge of a five-story building,” Batman replied, deadpan. “The only reason she didn’t was because I caught her.” 

“Is that your camera?” Jason asked. The black case that the kid had been carrying around was beside him, and the camera looked fancy enough to require such a case. At least that was one mystery solved.

Great, Jason thought to himself. You still don’t know who these kids are, where their parents are, or even where they live, but at least you solved the mystery of what was in the case. Nice work, Detective . 

“No!” Shutter squeaked, cradling the camera to his chest. 

“Shutter, huh? Like a camera shutter? That’s creative.” 

Jason watched as Shutter’s eyes studied him, a series of emotions flickering over his face. This was the closest that Jason had ever been to the boy, and there was something eerie about him. Looking at him, Jason had the sense that he had forgotten something, though he didn’t know what it was.

“Shutterbug. That’s the full name,” he eventually said quietly.

“Hm,” Jason replied before holding his hand out. “Can I see your camera?”

“No!” Shutter said so quickly it almost seemed to surprise him as well. “U-hm, no.”

“No?” Jason repeated. Shutter’s eyes were wide, but he shook his head. Jason frowned but didn’t snatch it out of his hands. That would just be rude and perhaps would give the boy a whole heart attack. “Why not?”

“Because it’s not yours?” It could have perhaps been a cutting remark, but Shutter sounded so uncertain of himself that any effect was ruined. 

“But you just told me that it’s not your camera. So if it’s not yours, and it’s not mine, it doesn’t belong to either of us. I should be able to just take a look at it.”

Shutter was already a pretty pale kid, but at those words, the blood drained from his face even more. Jason winced internally— it probably wouldn’t be a good thing to make the kid pass out from fear. 

“Leave him alone!” Spoiler’s voice cut in. Jason turned to her just in time to see her reach behind her back and come out with a half-crumbled brick. Before he could warn Batman, she was lobbing it at him. 

Fortunately for Batman, she didn’t have great aim, and bricks were heavy, so even with her best throw, the brick gently tapped his chest armor before falling to the ground. 

A startled laugh broke out of Jason before he could stop himself.

Stunned, Batman dropped Spoiler. The moment her feet hit the ground, she was grabbing Shutter by the arm and running. 

Jason had to kneel to the ground, he was laughing so hard. Both of his arms were wrapped around his stomach, and he genuinely felt like he was going to pass out. That was the funniest thing he had seen in a month. If only B hadn’t been wearing the cowl, then Jason could have seen his entire shocked expression. God, that was priceless. 

The kids were long gone, Jason knew, but this time, he didn’t feel too bitter about it. It was a good trade-off, this time at least. Plus, the blame for losing them wasn’t entirely on Jason: B was the one who let a toddler with a brick get the upper hand on him. 

Once Batman seemed to shake himself out of his shock, he leaned down and picked up the brick.

“They went through the rooftop access door.” 

Jason got to his feet again and tried the door. It was locked and was pretty sturdy. Did the kids have a key?

“Should we break it down?” Jason asked. Batman shook his head.

“No. I’ll check the tenants in the building, see if any kids matching those descriptions fit.”

“B, I doubt they actually live here. Every time we’ve seen them, they’ve been in a different spot of Gotham.”

Batman sighed, heavily. 

-.-

“You just assaulted Batman! We are going to go to jail!”

“We aren’t going to go to jail!”

“We are going to be put in Blackgate! Or Arkham! They are going to separate us, and take away my camera, and-”

“We aren’t going to be put in jail! Pull yourself together! To put us in jail, they would have to know where we are, or even just who we are.” 

“If they find out who we are, they are going to call our parents!” 

“Breathe! Breathe! They aren’t going to find out who we are! But I might have to start carrying around more bricks.”

“… I can’t believe you actually hit Batman with a brick.”

“I know, awesome, right? I wish we could have seen his face; he must have been totally surprised.” 

-.-

Before Jason could even fully step onto the roof, Spoiler was bouncing towards him. Any attempt he was going to make at taking them home was thrown out the window at her next words.

“Want to race?”

“I shouldn’t-” Jason tried to hedge, but Spoiler was running around in circles on the roof, her arms spread out. 

“Come on! Just a little race! Get to the other end of this block without touching the streets.” 

“No, not-”

“Sounds like he’s just saying no because he’s scared,” Shutter said quietly. He was sitting on the edge of the roof, his feet dangling off the side, but still watching Spoiler run in circles. 

“Yeah, that checks out,” Spoiler replied. 

Jason had to work to hold back a gasp of outrage. 

“Scared of losing, probably. Because I’m so fast, especially getting around Gotham.” Spoiler continued. She did a somersault, to which Shutter clapped politely for. 

“I’m not scared of losing! Not to some pre-schooler like you!” Jason shot back. 

Spoiler and Shutter exchanged a look with each other, and Jason knew that he had been played like a damn fiddle. 

“Prove it, then,” Spoiler challenged. She drew a line in the gravel in the middle of the roof. “Start here, and without touching the streets, get to the end of this block.” 

Jason stepped up to the starting line, surveying the path ahead of him. There were a few large gaps in the buildings between, and one apartment that was covered with scaffolding all the way to the roof. Robin could make it easily, with the help of the grapple gun, but how was Spoiler so confident that she would win? 

“This will be easy,” Jason said. He reached behind and grabbed one of his legs, stretching it out. “Are you ready to taste my dust?” 

“He says it’s going to be easy, Shutter!” Spoiler reported to her friend delightedly, as if Shutter wasn’t four feet away. “Should we give him an extra challenge?” 

“If you are about to say what I think you are about to say—” Shutter started, but Spoiler cut him off. 

“See if you can win while giving Shutter a piggy-back ride.” 

“Spoiler!” Shutter squeaked. Even in the dark, Jason could see the boy’s face redden in a blush. “Robin isn’t going to give me—”

“I’ll do it.” Jason decided easily. He knelt to one knee. “Get on, kid.” When Shutter hesitated, Jason rolled his eyes. “I won’t drop you, promise. And we’ll still win.”

His promise did the trick, as Shutter got to his feet and awkwardly climbed onto Jason’s back. His little hands came around his neck as Jason hooked his little legs above his hips. “Holding on?”

“Yeah,” Shutter said, his voice muffled by Jason’s hair. 

“Hold on tighter,” Jason instructed. Shutter complied, squeezing around Jason’s neck. 

“Ready?” Spoiler asked. She was posed, ready to take off in a dead sprint. She was so low to the ground that she was nearly prone, with her hands keeping her up and legs spread apart. Jason huffed a laugh but got into a similar sprint position. “Count us down, Shutter.”

“Ten, nine, eight—”

“Start from three!” Spoiler interrupted. Shutter ignored her and kept counting. 

“—seven, six, five, four, three,” 

Jason surveyed the scene in front of him. The biggest issue would be the scaffolding, as there was no way of telling how sturdy it was, with the addition of it being more difficult to navigate. But other than that, this would be easy. Perhaps he should slow it down a bit, just so he didn’t crush the kid entirely. 

“Two, one, GO!” Shutter’s voice raised dramatically on the last word, nearly making Jason wince. Jason began to run, but before he could make the first jump across rooftops, there was a skitter of gravel as Spoiler launched herself across the gap. 

So she had gotten a good head start, Jason reasoned. He pushed his legs, following the young girl cloaked in purple. That was alright. He slowed his gait just long enough to calculate the next jump in front of him. It was larger than the previous one, but still no hassle. 

Shutter made a strange squeaking noise into Jason’s hair. Jason immediately slowed even further, checking to see if the kid was alright, but when he did, he realized that Spoiler had disappeared. 

“Where the fu-dge did she go?” Jason asked, his heart rate picking up as he imagined the girl splattered on the floor of some Gotham alleyway. 

“She’s ahead of you,” Shutter said. Jason realized belatedly that the boy was giggling . “Sorry, Robin, I don’t know if you are going to win this one.” 

“What!” Jason had fully stopped on the second rooftop, giving him a perfect view of Spoiler appearing on the rooftop in front of them, running through the roof-access door. She spun around just long enough to wave wildly at Jason and Shutter, before taking off again. This time she jumped across, increasing her already large lead. “Fuck!” Jason sputtered, taking off after her. 

This time, he didn’t stop. Shutter was still clinging onto him, small bursts of giggles coming out every time Jason made a particularly large or impressive leap. 

A few rooftops later, Jason was rapidly gaining on Spoiler. But before he could overtake her, she crouched on a ledge before pushing herself off. She was too low to reach the neighboring building’s ledge, and Jason’s heart swooped into his stomach again. But instead of hitting a brick wall, she deftly landed onto a random balcony. From there, she shoved open a cracked window and disappeared into the building. 

Jason nearly faltered in shock. 

“It’s not breaking and entering,” Shutter was quick to say. “Nobody lives there.” 

“Did you guys plot this route out just to beat me at a race?!” 

The pause before Shutter’s answer told Jason everything he wanted to know. “God! This was rigged by toddlers!”

“No!” Shutter protested. “She has to slow down, going through doors and stuff. You have a shot, you’re Robin!” 

Shutter sounded so earnest and genuine that Jason couldn’t help but take the words to heart. That’s right— he was Robin! He could totally do this! 

He ripped out his grapple gun and shot it at the next building. Shutter let out a shriek of joy, one that Jason joined in with. 

“Whoop!” 

They were picking up speed again. Spoiler, as predicted, appeared on the other side of the next building, scaling the wall with an uncomfortable amount of speed and an alarming lack of caution. Batman would die if he saw this, not to mention what he would do if he saw that Robin was participating in it. Maybe Jason could say that he and Shutter were trying to stop her? 

Though, judging by the way that Jason was kicking into his highest speed with a competitive look in his eyes, B would probably figure him out pretty quickly. 

Finally, they had reached the building under construction. Jason certainly had the speed, but it would be more difficult to navigate, especially with Shutter on his back. He once again used his grapple gun to shoot to the top, where he only had to jump over a couple of sets of hurdles before dropping down onto the roof. Only a few moments behind him, Spoiler squirmed through the bars, and also reached the roof. 

She was panting heavily, but even with the hood on, Jason could see her bright smile. 

“Shutter, I’ll give you the last Milky Way bar if you tickle Robin!” Spoiler yelled, not looking back to see if Shutter was going to comply. 

“Hey!” Jason tried to interject. Shutter was too busy giggling and clinging on for dear life to follow his compatriot’s orders. 

In the very end, it was a tight race. Spoiler touched down onto the final rooftop only moments before Jason did. She curled and rolled into a somersault before ending in a starfish sprawl against the rooftop. Her little chest heaved with panting breaths. 

Jason skid across the roof next to her, breathing just as hard. Even Shutter was panting, though that was probably because of laughter rather than physical exertion. 

“I win!” Spoiler shouted between huffs. She fist pumped the air with both fists. Shutter slid off of Jason’s back, rushing over to give her fist bumps and high fives. That devolved into Shutter collapsing his entire body weight onto Spoiler, who shrieked and cried uncle. 

“I can’t believe,” Jason huffed. “That I was defeated by…” 

“Don’t say pre-schoolers,” Shutter tried to protest.

“Toddlers! This was rigged!” 

Spoiler eventually shoved Shutter off of her torso and sat up. 

“We can just consider it training for me, right? Because a teacher shouldn’t always win against the student, because then the student won’t learn anything.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Jason tried to backtrack. He straightened up, pointing a stern finger at Spoiler. “No teaching going on in here, alright? You are too young to be a baby-vigilante.”

“Wouldn’t she be too old to be a baby-vigilante?” Shutter cut in. “Since she’s not a baby, so she’s like. A kid-vigilante.” 

“How old are you guys, anyway?” 

At that, both Shutter and Spoiler clammed up, suddenly looking at everything else in the night sky except for Jason. 

Jason groaned loudly, but he couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face. Dick tried to come to Gotham when he could, but Jason knew it was hard for him to tear himself away from Bludhaven. It had been a while since he had had this much fun consistently on patrol.

“Listen,” Jason had to fight to keep the laughter out of his voice. “Stop throwing bricks at Batman. Stop running around at night unsupervised.” 

“We aren’t unsupervised!” Spoiler squeaked, Shutter nodding in agreement. When Jason raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing them, the two kids pointed at Jason in unison. “You are supervising us!” 

“Oh my God,” Jason slapped his face into his hands. “If you are going to use me as a supervisor, then you have to let me escort you guys home. Deal?” 

“Boo,” Spoiler called. She got up to her feet before turning around and helping Shutter up as well. 

“Thanks for the ride, Robin,” Shutter said. 

“I think we all know how this is going to go down,” Spoiler continued. “We will see you next time, alright?” 

“If I try to follow you guys, will I get a brick thrown at my face?” Jason asked, tiredly. Shutter shrugged while Spoiler nodded her head vigorously. “Fine. I expect a rematch in the future, alright?” 

“Deal!” Shutter chirped. He was smiling more than he had the entire time that Jason had known him. There was almost a golden cheerful glow around him, which was only expanded upon when paired with Spoiler’s bouncing-off-the-walls-energy.

-.-

“Hey, S?”

“Yeah?” 

“Do you miss anything about before?”

“Yeah, course I do. I miss taking bubble baths. And not having to watch cartoons through the window of someone else’s apartment.”

“I miss my mom.”

“Me too. But we are doing alright out here, aren’t we? We don’t need anyone.”

“Right. We don’t need anyone— except for maybe Robin.” 

“Okay, fine , maybe Robin. But definitely not the Bat.”

“He’s not that bad, really—”

“He’s an adult, and we can’t trust adults! Don’t you remember why we are out here in the first place?” 

“Yeah, I guess.” 

“I miss my Captain Underpants books.” 

“That’s a cool adult. We could trust him probably.”

“Yeah. Okay, fine, Captain Underpants is the one adult allowed.”

“Cool.”  

-.-

Batman was rushing. No. Bruce was rushing, the wind whipping at his face as he soared through the air. Jason had split off from him only briefly, something that Bruce was forcing himself to be more comfortable with. But with a loosened leash in Gotham, Bruce had made his son swear up and down that if Jason, even for the briefest second, thought that he might need help, or God forbid, was in over his head, that he would call for assistance. After a lot of eye-rolling and griping about how Bruce was a mother-hen, Jason agreed. 

Jason had claimed that he would never need it, but as Batman was perched on a rooftop’s ledge, surveying the city below him, his comm lit up. Alfred was immediately on the other side, calmly reporting Robin’s location. 

Jason hadn’t responded to Bruce’s direct calls, which only made Bruce move faster. He was all out sprinting, following Alfred’s instructions to where his son was. 

It wasn’t until he was practically on top of Jason’s signal that he found him. Bruce nearly slid against the rooftop as he pulled himself to a stop, fingers clutching a Batarang. First, his eyes found Jason: on first glance, he looked fine, other than a mildly distressed expression on his face. Next, Bruce surveyed the scene around them. 

It was then that his rapid heartbeat slowed. 

“A, I’ve found Robin. He’s alright.” Bruce said into his comm. There was a small sigh of relief on the other side as Bruce took his finger off of his ear and turned to Jason. “Are you alright?” 

“Fine!” Jason said loudly, though his fists were planted on his hips, and he was staring intently at the others on the roof.

Yes. The others. The two children who were currently keeping Bruce up at night, even outside of costume. In spite of Bruce’s best efforts, all attempts to discover the identity of these children were effortless. Any reports of missing children who matched Shutter and Spoiler’s description never panned out, and searching the school records for every school in Gotham was a lengthy project. 

Jason was no help either. Somehow, he had fallen under the thrall of the children and cared more about hanging out with the kids instead of finding their home and making sure they were safe.

Well, Bruce thought to himself. That was a bit harsh. Alfred had brought up the fact that Jason might be lonely, with school out for summer, and Dick with the Titans more often than not lately. 

That did not mean that patrol was the time for making friends, though, Bruce reminded himself. He walked over to Jason, who was gesturing wildly, and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“What seems to be the problem?” Bruce used his problem solving voice. Shutter had gone silent, his eyes wide and fixated on Bruce, but Spoiler clearly lacked that shyness. 

Her armor appeared to be a blend of Halloween costume pieces, and dirty pieces that were shoddily painted purple. At least she was wearing some semblance of armor. Shutter was missing his typical red hoodie, but it was an unusually warm summer night.

“It’s crucial! Im- Imperable!” Spoiler cried out. Jason was nodding along vigorously. 

“Imperative?” Shutter corrected softly. 

“Imperative!” Jason echoed. He finally turned to Bruce. “We must go to BatBurger!” 

Bruce blinked. Whatever he had been expecting, it certainly wasn’t that. Though, to be fair, Bruce wasn’t sure what he was expecting, exactly. 

“BatBurger?” 

“It’s an emergency. We need to get milkshakes.” Jason continued to insist. 

“You pressed your emergency beacon for milkshakes,” Bruce said slowly. Jason was nodding so intensely, Bruce had the brief worry that his head was going to fall off. “May I ask why?” 

“No-” Shutter started to say, but then shoved his face into his hands when Spoiler cut him off. 

“It’s his birthday! And we haven’t celebrated!” 

“We don’t need to celebrate,” Shutter moaned. 

“Hey, it’s not every day you turn eight years old,” Jason said to Shutter. Bruce had to fight to keep his expression neutral. This child was eight years old? What was he doing out here? Where were his parents? 

He also looked tiny for eight years old, a tiny voice in the back of his head chimed in. Shutter drowned in the hoodie that he typically wore. 

“BatBurger has that birthday cake milkshake, remember?” Jason needled. “Come on, B. We have to celebrate!” 

“Wouldn’t you rather celebrate at home—” Bruce started to say, but Jason and Spoiler rolled their eyes in such a hauntingly similar way that he stopped himself. 

“Sorry I didn’t get you anything for your birthday, kid,” Jason said to Shutter. He slipped out from Bruce’s grasp and hugged the kid. Shutter squeaked, his face turning a deeper red and his eyes going even wider. “But to make up for it, now Batman is going to buy burgers and milkshakes for all of us!” 

“Burgers now?” Bruce asked as Jason pulled out his grapple gun and instructed Shutter to hold on tight to him. For some reason, Jason said just like last time , which was something that he would certainly have to bring up with him after patrol .

Shutter climbed onto Robin’s back, holding on tightly. 

“Don’t tell me you are going to start pinching pennies now, old man,” Jason snarked. Bruce only sighed heavily, and knelt down so Spoiler could climb onto his back in a similar fashion. “There’s a BatBurger a few blocks from here— but it would be faster if we flew.” 

Bruce had just enough time to see Jason waggle his eyebrows behind his domino mask before taking off into the night sky. 

He stood there for a brief second, watching Jason, with Shutter clinging to his back, leap across the gap in the rooftops. Spoiler swung her foot the best that she could in her current position, jabbing her foot into Batman’s torso armor. 

“Giddy-up!” she called. Bruce resisted the urge to sigh again. 

But even he had to admit that the young girl’s shriek of delight next to Bruce’s ear as he took off into the air after Robin brought a smile to his face. 

The BatBurger that they reached was completely empty. Shutter dropped off of Jason’s back once they touched ground, but Spoiler clung tighter, kicking at Bruce again when he paused at the threshold. 

“I want a Two-Face Twist!” Spoiler insisted. 

That was how Batman found himself inside of a BatBurger, in the middle of the night, with three children, two of which were in costume, and only one of which was his own son.

Spoiler had insisted on staying on Bruce’s back up until they reached the counter, where the toys in the Robin Meals were displayed behind a thick layer of plexiglass. The young man behind the register looked unfazed, if not bored, by the Dark Knight’s appearance. 

“Welcome to BatBurger; may I interest you in our new special, the Penguin Burger?” 

The four of them stopped. It was Jason who broke the silence: “You’re saying there are fucking penguins in that burger?” 

Bruce cast a look at Jason, who shrugged apologetically. 

“No, it’s cod, or something like that. I don’t know. Corporate just needed something Penguin themed.” The cashier lifted his hands in a what can you do sort of way. “What can I get started for you guys?” 

Bruce opened his mouth to order, but Jason beat him to it. 

“Three Robin meals please! One with a burger, and the others…” Shutter said something so softly that Bruce couldn’t even hear him. Spoiler shouted “burger” loud enough to make up for it. “One chicken nuggets and another burger. And then we need one extra-large Birthday Boy milkshake, one extra-large Two-Face Twist shake, a Flash Strawberry shake, and then…” Jason looked at Bruce. Bruce realized belatedly that he was smiling down at his son and his friends. He quickly shot a glance at the menu, picking the first thing that he saw. 

“I’ll do a—” Bruce had to clear his throat, before saying a low voice, “ Superman Salad. Please.” If Clark ever caught wind of this, Bruce was sure he would never hear the end of it. 

“Is that Birthday Boy shake for a special birthday boy?” 

Bruce resisted the urge to remind everyone present that the Birthday Boy was a costumed villain who killed people. That might have put a damper on things. 

“Yup!” Jason and Spoiler chimed in unison. 

“His,” Jason added, pointing at Shutter. Shutter went red again, stepping behind Jason. Bruce shifted his arms, letting a bit of his cape billow out enough to give the boy a bit more to hide behind. 

“Happy birthday, kid,” the cashier said, punching in their order. Bruce took that moment to shoo the kids off to the tables so he could pay. Spoiler and Shutter followed Jason like ducklings to a booth on the other side of the diner, a sight that was so cute that it nearly made Bruce’s heart hurt. 

Once their food had arrived at their table, all of the kids dug into their meals with a ferocity that would have alarmed Bruce if he hadn’t been witness to Jason at mealtime. Spoiler and Shutter dumped the contents of their two bags onto one tray, fries spilling out as Spoiler unwrapped the burger and tore into it. 

“Wait!” Jason shouted, as Shutter reached for his milkshake. Bruce wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or impressed by the size of the cup: it was at least the size of the child’s head. “We have to sing!”

“No, you don’t!” Shutter rushed to say, but it was too late, for Spoiler and Jason had started in a pitchy rendition of happy birthday. 

Bruce watched for a moment, seeing the wide smile that burst out on the boy’s face despite his pleas for the song to stop. Bruce joined in on the next line. 

“ Happy birthday, dear Shu-tter,” they all sang together. For a brief moment, there was a glint in his eyes, something that looked like tears, but his smile was so wide that Bruce decided not to push it. 

Jason whooped as they finished the song, shoving his milkshake into the middle of the table for a toast. 

Earlier, Bruce had considered how Jason was under the thrall of these two kids, but Bruce was rapidly finding himself under the same spell. 

This only increased his need to find all of the information that he could on these kids. Spoiler took another bite of her burger before passing it off to Shutter. In response, Shutter slid a nugget in front of her. This was all done without communication of any sort. 

He knew Shutter’s birthday and birth year. That was a start, at least. Bruce stole a sip of Jason’s strawberry milkshake, his resolve hardened.

“Do not tell Agent A about this,” Bruce found himself saying later on in the meal. Jason scowled at him, yanking his cup of fries out of Bruce’s reach. 

“I will if you keep stealing my fries. You should have ordered your own instead of that lame salad.” 

“Gah,” Spoiler gargled, clutching at her head. “Brain-freeze.” 

“Press your tongue to the top of your mouth,” Bruce advised. Spoiler narrowed her eyes at him, like she didn’t believe his words, but nodded seriously. 

Shutter was dismantling the bag that his Robin meal had come in, folding the flaps according to the instructions before pulling it over his head. 

“Nice, kid.” Jason chuckled. One of the selling points for the Robin Meals was how the bag turned into a Bat-cowl, once you were done with it. It sat up tall and covered Shutter’s eyes, but he hummed contentedly, slurping on his milkshake.

Seeing what her companion was doing, Spoiler hurried to copy him with her own bag. Bruce laughed alongside Jason, looking at the two kids in front of them.  Spoiler smiled widely, reaching up to make sure the bat ears were sticking up properly. 

“This is the best birthday ever,” Shutter said. Spoiler reached her arm out and wrapped it around his shoulders, dragging their heads together so the paper bags crinkled. “Thank you.” 

Bruce wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what his other birthdays were like if this one constituted as his best. 

But for the night, he kept his worries to himself. The kids were having fun, and Jason was lighting up in a way that Bruce hadn’t seen in weeks. Him investigating the kids was not only the responsible thing to do, but it was the right thing to do, for all of them.

-.-

“Can you believe we’ve been out here for two months? I can’t believe we are still alive.”

“Wh- why would you say that! Don’t jinx us!” 

“I’m not jinxing us!” 

“You have to hold your breath and knock on wood three times, then we won’t be jinxed.” 

“Where do you even hear about this stuff?!” 

“Hold your breath!” 

“Fine.” 

“I heard it from Alex in first grade. He told me that you have to do that, or else you will get bad luck. I didn’t believe him, but then the class hamster died that week.” 

“Rough.” 

“You didn’t knock three times! Hold your breath again!” 

-.-

Dick liked to think that he was fairly hardened in the face of weird shit in Gotham. Not as much as Bruce, but more than Jason. After all, Dick was running around Gotham at night long before Jason was, and he was doing it without pants. But he had been so tied up in Bludhaven lately that it seemed as though new developments had happened in Gotham. 

Case in point, Dick was crouched on a rooftop, watching two little kids dance around on a roof. There was no adult supervision, and from here, it looked like one of them was dressed in a hooded cape, with elbow and knee pads. 

“B,” Dick said, pressing the button on his comm. Batman and Robin had been pulled away for one reason or another, and Dick had said that he would be fine on his own. Sure, he was a little annoyed that he came all this way to Gotham just to not patrol with his little brother, but realistically, Gotham’s night activities did not tailor itself to it’s vigilantes. “There are… a couple of kids out here. On a roof, but I can’t tell how they got up there.” 

Bruce’s sigh was interrupted by Jason making a cheering sound. 

“Dickface, go over and say hi. Tell them I’m on my way; where are ya at?” 

Dick blinked in confusion but rattled off his location to Jason. Jason confirmed that he was only a few minutes away. Bruce, noticeably, didn’t say anything. 

But Dick was intrigued now, so he crossed over to the roof. 

The kid in the hood was singing a Disney song as they both danced to it in an adorable, little kid way, completely free of embarrassment or self-consciousness.

But the singing stopped once he touched down. The other kid, who was wearing a ratty red hoodie, stopped in his tracks, his mouth hanging open. 

“Robin, you are finally here!” The purple-hooded one said, their back still to Dick. The boy in the hoodie shook his head frantically. 

“S, that isn’t Robin. That’s-” his voice dropped low to a hushed whisper. “ Nightwing. ” 

“Nightwing!” the other child spun around on their heel. The hood came flying off, revealing a head of bright blond hair. “Ohmygosh, Nightwing!” 

“Uh.” Dick said eloquently. “Hi?” 

“Hi!” the girl bounded up to him, sticking out her hand. Dick automatically copied her, shaking her tiny hand. 

“Is Robin coming?” the boy asked, looking around Dick, as if Jason was just behind him. 

“No, uh-” Dick had to swallow his confusion just to attempt to follow the conversation. “He said he was on his way.”

“Last time we saw him, he promised he would play Ninja with us.” 

“Ninja?” 

“Yeah. You know, the game where you try to hit each other, and you lose a limb every time you get hit?” The girl suddenly lashed out, making a karate chop motion towards Dick’s arm. Dick automatically pulled himself out of the way. The girl looked impressed for a moment, as if Dick had done something truly interesting. “It’s no fun to play with two people.”

“Uh huh.” 

Behind them, there was a whirring noise, one that Dick immediately recognized as a grapple gun. Jason popped up over the side of the building just as Dick turned around. 

“Kiddies,” Jason said, only slightly out of breath. “You want to know how to do a backflip, this is your guy.” 

Dick didn’t think it was possible, but the girl lit up even more. Dick found himself smiling back, her enthusiasm contagious. 

“But first,” Jason continued. “You need to make sure your body weight is evenly distributed.” He pointed at the girl. “You know what I mean by that, Spoiler.” 

The little boy made a muffled laughing noise, his hand covering his mouth. The girl - Spoiler? -  pouted obviously, but reached to the oversized tool belt that was hanging from her waist. 

Apparently, Dick could still be surprised, as his jaw dropped when Spoiler began to produce bricks from her belt, dropping them onto the ground around her. She had dropped three, all of them in varying conditions of crumbling, when she stopped, looking hopefully at Jason. 

“Nope,” Jason said, shaking his head again. “All of them.” When Spoiler opened her mouth, presumably to protest, Jason cut in again. “You can get them back once we are done. But if you want to backflip, you can’t have extra weight on you.” 

“Fine,” Spoiler said, with a surprising amount of angst for a tiny child. “Shutter, watch my bricks.”

“But I want Nightwing to show me how to do backflips too!” the boy protested. “Why can’t Robin watch them?” 

“Yes, let Robin watch them,” Jason said. He picked up the bricks as Spoiler dropped them, the count going up from three to five. Jason moved the bricks to a little pile on the side, out of their way. 

Bruce took that moment to appear on the rooftop in his typical silent manner. Spoiler was still bickering with Jason about her bricks, but Shutter shyly waved at him. 

To Dick’s surprise, Bruce’s lips twitched, and he raised a hand back at him. To anyone else, that might look like him holding off a sneeze, but Dick knew well enough that Bruce just smiled back at this kid and waved at him. 

It wasn’t that Batman was mean to kids or whatever. It was the familiarity that these kids were treating the Dynamic Duo with, and how that was being reciprocated back to them, that was shocking Dick. Clearly, he had missed some things. 

“Wing,” Jason called in a whining voice. “Can you please tell Spoiler that if she wants to learn how to do a backflip, she can’t hold onto her bricks?” 

“Nightwing could do it holding onto bricks,” Spoiler responded petulantly. 

“Maybe,” Dick conceded. “But I have had a lot of practice, and I am a little bit bigger than you.” By that, Dick meant that he towered over the tiny child, but she still puffed up her chest indignantly. Jason finally pried what Dick hoped was the last brick out of her hands, setting it on top of the pile. 

“Alright.” Dick knelt down to meet Spoiler at eye-level. “Have you done a backflip before?”

“Yeah! I’m getting better at doing them. Watch!” Spoiler darted across the rooftop, only to be caught by the cape by Batman. “Hey!”

“Cape off. The goal is to eliminate any risk,” Bruce said calmly. Spoiler pouted and stuck her tongue out at him, but untied the cape. Bruce took the piece of fabric, and held it in his hands.

Dick wondered, if he went back to the manor, if he would find two new bedrooms set up. But Spoiler was calling his attention back.

He watched as she did a backflip, tucking her legs up to her chest.

“That was good!” Dick praised. “Can I spot you, and make a few adjustments?” Spoiler was nodding before he had finished his question.

Aw hell. These kids were really cute.

"Have either of you ever done any sort of gymnastics?" Dick asked. Shutter nodded vigorously, while Spoiler shrugged.

"I am self taught," the young girl said matter of factly. Dick and Bruce laughed at the same time, which sent vertigo through Dick because he was too young and beautiful to start becoming anything like Bruce.

Joke, mostly. Mostly. They were working through it.

"Now, of course, I would encourage doing this in a gym, where there are safety mats, and lots of instructors who can make sure that you are doing everything right, but I can show you some basics here, huh?"

"I mean," Shutter said in a sly voice. "If there are any gymnastic teachers that you would recommend—"

Spoiler's hand lashed out and punched Shutter in the arm. He grabbed at his arm, glaring at the other girl, but he shut up. Dick glanced at Bruce, who only gave a very unhelpful shrug.

"Uh," Dick started, but Spoiler was bouncing forward. She grabbed Dick by the hand and pulled him to the center of the roof.

"Show us your flips!" At that, Dick couldn't help but grin. Why, he could never say no to a fan.

-.-

“Nightwing is so cool .” 

“I told you so! He was the first Robin, of course he was cool.”

“You are such a fanboy.” 

“Says you!”

“Psh, whatever.”

“I can’t believe Dick Grayson showed us how to do backflips.”

“You know how you figured out who Robin was because of the backflips? What if they can figure out who we are through our backflips.”

“I don’t think our backflips are recognizable enough.”

“Says you.”

“If Batman could have figured out who we were, he would have done it by now. I would love to see his file on us, though.”

“You really think he has a file on us?”

“Duh, he’s Batman. The World’s Greatest Detective.”

“He’s not that great, if he hasn’t figured out who we are by now.”

“Fair point. Robin is still cool though. So is Nightwing.”

“Agreed.”

-.-

Frankly, this might be Jason’s best idea yet. Not including the time he swapped all of the photos in the manor that he could with pictures of Superman. No, this was his best idea as Robin.

There was an elbow jabbing into his side. He instinctively squirmed to get out of reach, but was pulled back by his cape.

“You need a cape like Batman,” Shutter grumbled, though he didn’t seem too upset with the current situation. “Yours is too yellow, and small.”

“Wait,” Jason reached for a latch in the floor of the Batmobile. “Here.” Spoiler cheered softly as he produced a dark blanket and draped it over the two. “Now no one can find you guys.”

When Jason had met up with the kiddos, he had been brimming with excited energy. Batman had a meeting with the Commissioner, which left Jason with the perfect opening to smuggle Spoiler and Shutter into the Batmobile.

Shutter had nearly passed out when Jason opened the door, and hadn’t stopped poking around the backseat once they were settled in there.

They were all huddled in the back seat. At first, Jason had tried to have them lay as flat as they could as he draped his cape over them, but the two were too squirmy for that to work.

“What does this button do?” Shutter— or the blanket covered figure of Shutter— asked.

“Don’t press any buttons,” Jason hissed, watching as the small hand crept towards a button on the door. “But that one is just a seat warmer.”

“Oooh!” Spoiler said, squirming out from under the blanket until her head popped out. “Fancy.”

“What’s this button do?” Shutter asked.

“That rolls down the window.” Shutter poked his head out from under the blanket as well, and sent a wide-eyed look to Jason as he pressed on the button. As Jason had said, the window began to roll down, and Shutter snatched his hand back as if he had been burned.

“Turn on the butt warmers,” Spoiler requested. Shutter jabbed at that button with his thumb.

“But it’s summer, it’s already hot,” Jason complained, and was ignored by both of the kids.

Shutter rolled up the window, but then crawled across the seats, poking his head into the front half of the car.

“Don’t press anything up there!” Jason called. “Batman could be coming back at any moment now.”

“We are super stealthy,” Spoiler snarked as she pushed Shutter to the side, so she could poke around as well. “He will never even know that we where here.”

“He’s the world’s greatest detective!” Jason shot back, even though he knew that argument was thin as all hell.

“He hasn’t even figured out our real names yet,” Shutter said softly. “Does he ever let you drive?”

“Batman? Let me drive? Never.” Jason scoffed. “Sometimes he lets Nightwing drive it, but most of the time Nightwing will just take it when B isn’t paying attention. And Nightwing’s like a full adult.”

“I bet I could drive it,” Spoiler said confidently. Shutter and Jason gave her matching looks of disbelief, which she ignored.

Jason's entire life flashed before his eyes as Spoiler clicked a button.

At almost a deafening volume, a piano started to play. The three of them froze, as the song began. It was so loud, that it sounded as though it was coming from outside the Batmobile as well.

Their seats were practically vibrating with the sound.

"When I was, a young boy, my father, took me—"

"Oh hell no," Jason said, hitting the button in the back seat to turn it off. "You guys are too little to become emos like Batman."

Shutter squirmed around to give Jason a look, but went back to poking around up front.

“S, get out of the way, you are squeezing me,” Shutter complained. They were both trying to squeeze through the gap between the driver and passenger seat, with minimal success. Still, neither of them tried to withdraw. “Ow!”

“You have boney elbows!” Spoiler cried. “Move!”

When Spoiler shoved all of her weight onto Shutter in attempts to get him to move, Shutter slipped, his hands splaying out as he tried to keep his balance.

“No!” Jason called, but it was if it was happening in slow motion: as Shutter slipped, his hand landing directly over the button that Bruce had made Jason to swear to never touch.

“Oops.” Tim uttered. “Wait, it didn’t do anything.”

Jason pressed a hand to his chest, breathing heavily, ice cold relief washing over him.

“I guess the car needs to be turned on for it to work.” Jason reached up, grabbing both Spoiler and Shutter by the ends of their shirts.

But before he could pull them back, there was a whirring noise. Jason’s heart dropped into his stomach as two missiles suddenly fired from the Batmobile, swirling in the air until they hit the garbage can that was in the alleyway in front of them.

They were silent as the garbage can exploded.

Jason flinched as a banana peel soared through the air until it landed on the front window of the Batmobile.

“Oh fuck.” Jason said softly. Shutter was frozen, while Spoiler began to immediately chatter about how cool that was. “B is going to kill me.”

“Uh. Robin?” Shutter squeaked.

“Hm?”

"I think. If he's going to kill you—" Shutter gulped audibly. "It's going to happen. Now."

"What?" Jason asked, turning to the boy, but Shutter was staring out the window.

If this was a movie, then this would have happened in slow motion: Jason following Shutter's gaze, and seeing something in the shadows move, and the dawning realization that Batman was standing on the other side of the street. He had just watched the whole thing.

"Oh fuck fuck fuck—" Jason chanted, but before he could do more than pull the kids under his arms, Batman was opening the back door.

"Robin." Batman growled. Jason tried to sit casually, and pretend like the kiddie-sized-lumps under his cape weren't shaking with giggles. "Children."

"What are you talking about, Batman?" Jason asked, having to bite his lower lip to hold back his own laughter. "There are no children in here, other than me. But I wouldn't say that I am a child, I think I am a young man."

"Hn."

Beside him, the lump that was Shutter froze, before letting out a violent sneeze. Jason automatically reared back. His cape went with him, revealing Shutter. He blinked at Batman, before giving a small wave.

"Hi Batman."

It was so tiny that even Jason nearly missed it. But the corner of Bruce's mouth creased. He was smiling.

"Hello Shutter."

"Hi Batman!" Spoiler called, poking her head out from under Robin's cape as well. If anything, Bruce's tiny smile grew a bit more.

"Hello Spoiler." He stepped back to open the car door wider. "Now, if you do not mind."

"Aw, B!" Jason whined. He gave Bruce his best puppy dog eyes, but Bruce only held out a hand to help Shutter scramble out of the car. "I didn't know you had CDs in the car."

"I don't." Bruce said. Once Shutter was safely out of the car, he reached back in to help Spoiler out. She groaned, but took his hand. Jason scrunched up his nose.

"Wait, does that mean that you have a button that's specially programmed just to play My Chemical Romance?"

Bruce froze for a brief moment, before looking at Jason.

"No," he said, in a voice and tone that totally meant the opposite. Jason grinned, and followed the kids out.

"Okay, kiddies, this plan was a fail. You know if you just give up your identities, we could take you wherever in the Batmobile."

Spoiler and Shutter shrugged in unison.

“Nah, I’m good,” Spoiler said at the same time that Shutter chirped, “no thanks!”

“Hey, at least I tried,” Jason said. Bruce gave him an unimpressed look, so Jason stuck his tongue out. He wasn’t going to let the whole My Chemical Romance thing go for a while, that was for sure.

-.-

Two months ago:

"It's a sad situation, really," Margaret said. Stephanie was sitting on the plastic chair outside of her office, listening as closely as she could. Margaret had closed the door fully, after the incident where Stephanie's eavesdropping attempt ended with her toppling straight into the office, but this time Stephanie had made sure to crack open one of the windows.

Margaret did her best, but she still wasn't smarter than Stephanie. Stephanie secretly pretended to be Batgirl, gathering intel for a super important mission.

"Her mom's in rehab. Her court case is still ongoing, we don't know if she's going to get any jail time, but for right now she's not allowed to see her daughter at all." Margaret paused, and then hummed in response to whatever the person on the other side of the phone said.

See, this was why Stephanie had to get good at listening in. Margaret said that she would see her mom soon, but that was obviously a lie. Stephanie could have called that from a million miles away though, because grown-ups always lie.

"No, we haven't been able to place her yet. She's been staying in a group home downtown, but it's overcrowded, and I've been getting calls all week about her getting into fights. Uh-huh. I know. Yeah. Well, it's all Bruce Wayne's doing. He's decided that the system needs to be completely overhauled. And while I agree, this whole process is even more of a mess than usual. Yeah. Good intentions of course, and Lord knows he has the money, but we are still scrambling here."

Margaret suddenly lowered her voice. Stephanie checked to make sure that no one was coming down the hallway, and pressed her ear against the crack in the window. "... out of state. Yeah, I know. Of course that's not the first option, we wouldn't want to do that to the poor girl, but what choice do we have? If we are lucky, I can pull a few strings to get in contact with Metropolis's foster care system."

Stephanie's heart was thudding so loudly in her ears that she couldn't hear Margaret anymore. Out of state? Metropolis? They couldn't send her away. If they sent her away, she would never see Tim again. She would never see her mom again.

Stephanie was slipping off of the chair, and down the hallway before she could think about it. There was only one option left for her: running away. Her mom would probably be worried, yeah, but it wasn't like they were allowed to see each other anyway.

There was just one thought as she pushed through the front doors of the Child Protection Services building: this was all Bruce Wayne's fault.

-.-

Jason was running.

He duck and wove through the streets and alleyways of Gotham, swiftly and silently. If he wasn’t so encompassed in his task, he would have felt a smidge of pride with how similar his lithe form matched Bruce’s movements in the suit.

But Jason had somewhere to be, and there was nothing that was about to distract him or get in his head.

He had slipped Spoiler an emergency comm weeks ago. It was only out of an overabundance of caution, and she clearly didn’t appreciate the gift, but after a bit of wheedling she relented, and promised to use it if there was ever an emergency that they needed Robin for.

In truth, Jason wanted to tell them that if there was an emergency that they needed Robin or Jason for, he would be there in an instant. But that was too soon, and no matter how close he was to the kids he needed to maintain his secret identity, yadda yadda, and all of the other hallmarks of a Bruce Lecture.

But none of that really mattered, because Spoiler— Shutter, there was no way to really be sure who had pressed the button— had pressed the button. Jason had made sure to give them a device that had a couple of failsafes: If you needed help, all you had to do is press and hold the big red button. If it was an accidental press, you could flip a lever, which would cancel the request for help.

Jason had waited a few moments after his communicator lit up, just to see if they would flip the switch and cancel it. But they hadn’t. Instead, a ping in the middle of the warehouse district blinked rapidly on the map.

Of course this was the night that they needed help. Robin was on the other side of town with Batman, still trying to recapture Poison Ivy, who had been going on a spree of destruction all night. Batman was focused on actually following Ivy, while Robin trailed behind, helping out those who had been caught in the wake of Ivy’s tirade.

But now the kids needed help. They needed Robin. Jason might not know their real names, but he knew them. Spoiler would rather chew her own leg off than ask for help, though over time she had warmed up to Robin considerably.

There was always the chance that the ping was a mistake, that maybe one of the kids hit the button without realizing it, so they didn’t know to flip the switch to cancel it. Or it could be them goofing around, even though Jason thought the chances of that were pretty low. They were young, yeah, but Jason had impressed upon them the importance of using the communicator for emergencies only.

There was always the chance that nothing was wrong— but something in Jason’s gut told him otherwise.

He barely spared a moment to rush out a few words to Bruce, telling him that he had to go, before he took off into the night.

The closer he got to the warehouse district, and the blinking dot, the more that the knot in his stomach tightened. Ivy had been here, probably early enough in her night of destruction that Batman and Robin hadn’t found her yet.

Instead of massive vines tearing through the roads and destroying walls, everything that was green was decorated with brightly colored flowers.

They were pretty, with vibrant yellows, pinks, and even purples, but Jason knew to stay far away.

Everyone in Gotham knew to stay away from Ivy’s flowers. In the best case scenario, the pollen coming from the flower would do nothing more than make you sneeze. In the worst case scenario, an Ivy flower would eat you, whole. That was true, Jason knew someone who knew someone who had seen it happen to their cousin. One moment they had been standing there, stupidly poking at a giant flower, and the next, the flower opened up, and gobbled him up.

It was one of the many unspoken rules of Gotham, like, the pizza parlor on Eighth street was most certainly a front for mafia operations, but the pizza was genuinely so good that no one wanted to report it to the police, and inflicting any harm to a cat in Gotham is essentially signing a death warrant, because Catwoman knew and saw all.

People knew all of those things, and yet, mistakes still happened. People still got hurt. People still got hurt, but if Spoiler and Shutter did, if they got hurt when Jason could have been there, could have done something about it, he would never forgive himself.

Frankly, he would go full Batman-mode, and just be goth and edgy for the rest of his life.

There wasn’t any obvious entrance to the warehouse, so he shoved open the first window he saw and dropped through.

The interior was silent, and dark. The only light was coming from the moon that still was hanging high in the sky.

Still, it was just enough for Jason to find his way through the mess of abandoned crates and other junk. He kept one hand on his communicator, the one that was still blinking, but tried to be as quiet as he could.

He snapped his head when he heard a rustling, but a few squeaks revealed it to be a rat scurrying along.

A horrifying thought occurred to Jason. The beacon might be leading him here, but that didn’t mean that the kids were actually here.

Fear sunk his stomach, but before it could fester, there was a sigh, coming from deeper within the warehouse. A sigh, followed by a few rattling coughs, and a voice saying words too quietly to make out.

But it was enough for him. Jason wove through the obstacles at a faster rate, until he stumbled upon a clearing in the crates.

He nearly tripped over Spoiler, but was too relieved to care. Her hood was down, revealing a shock of blond hair that Jason would recognize from a mile away at this point.

Jason dropped to his knees beside her, reaching out to check and make sure she wasn’t wounded, but froze when she drew back.

Or, she drew back the best that she could, which wasn’t all that far. Jason couldn’t find any injuries, but the sight in front of him made his heart thud all the same.

Spoiler was cradling Shutter in her arms, as well as a kid could cradle another kid. Shutter’s face was pallid, more than usual, and his eyes were half-lidded.

He was covered in a fine layer of dust— pollen, Jason realized. The coloring was familiar enough that Jason felt comfortable assuming it was some of Ivy’s specialized cuddle pollen, but the tremors that were wracking through Shutter’s body seemed extreme beyond what was typical.

“He got hit with something, and he’s too heavy for me to pick up.” Spoiler said quietly. Jason was already patting down his suit to find the disposable gloves that B made him pack on patrol for moments just like these. “So I just need you to help us to our safe house, and then we will be okay.”

Jason pursed his lips, staring at Shutter. The kid looked miserable, even though being held so closely to Spoiler should have alleviated some of the symptoms, especially with her rubbing his arm with her own bare hand.

His doubt didn’t go unnoticed by Spoiler, for she was already shaking her head before Jason could even say anything. Spoiler’s eyes were ringed with red, and Jason’s heart clenched. She was just a kid, but here she was, clearly fighting to hold back tears.

“It’s fine, we can handle it, I just need help getting him—” Spoiler insisted, but was cut off by Shutter groaning weakly. Sweat was beading on his forehead, and with it, Jason’s concern grew.

“Handle it?” he echoed faintly.

The comm on his belt crackled. “Robin, come in”. Both Spoiler and Jason froze at the sound of Batman’s voice.

“Don’t tell Batman. We don’t need him.”

“B’man?” Shutter murmured.

“Please, Robin,” Spoiler pleaded, her expression desperate. Conflict tore through Jason’s mind, and he knew he had to make a decision.

He picked up his radio and took a few steps away from the kids. Thankfully, Shutter started coughing at that exact moment, which covered up his words to Bruce.

Spoiler eyed him suspiciously when he came back, but didn’t pull away when Jason snapped his gloves on and came to sit beside her.

Shutter’s coughing fit had died down, but his eyes were glassy. Jason reached out and checked his pulse point— it was fast, but that was okay. Fast was better than nothing at all.

“Shutter, you idiot,” Spoiler said softly.

Next, Jason pressed a hand to Shutter’s forehead. “He’s got a bit of a fever.” Without thought, he seamlessly transitioned into carding his fingers through Shutter’s dark hair. “Not super common with cuddle pollen, but—” Spoiler squeaked. “Not dangerous. Not yet. We will get some help.”

“But you are the help,” Spoiler croaked. Horror dawned on her expression as she realized what Jason meant. “You didn’t call Batman, did you? You promised you wouldn’t!”

“I didn’t promise,” Jason started to say in a halting voice, but Spoiler was already trying to scramble away with Shutter in tow.

She was giving furious looks to all of the shadowy corners in the warehouse, as if Batman was about to skulk out of them at that very moment.

Batman was, in fact, only a few minutes away, but Jason wasn’t about to tell her that.

Spoiler dropped her head, muttering something to Shutter, though Jason doubted the other boy could hear, or comprehend her words.

After a few silent minutes, Batman came striding through the shadows. Spoiler's trembling ramped up, shaking Shutter along with her. When the masked crusader came closer, he crouched in front of her. 

"Spoiler, report."

He said it in the same way he said Robin, report. Soft, but stern, demanding an answer.

"It's, it's—" Spoiler pulled one arm away to wipe at her nose, but when Shutter made a pained noise, she wrapped herself around him once more. Her eyes were glinting with tears, though none fell over her cheeks just yet. "We don't need you. You can go away. I just need Robin's help."

Her expression was one of true panic. Jason felt his chest seize, not knowing what to do, or how to help. Spoiler had refused to look at him since Batman had appeared, even though he was still sitting only a few feet away.

"Spoiler," Batman started, but Spoiler hissed at him. "Spoiler. You both are not safe. Robin will help you, but I need to make sure that all of you remain out of harm's way."

"We have a safe house!"

Jason didn't want to see whatever Spoiler's definition of a safe house was. From where he was sitting, he could see Batman's lips tighten ever so slightly.

"If I take you there, will there be an adult who will look after you?" Jason winced as Spoiler's scowl deepened. Batman was talking to her like he would a scared animal, or really, a scared little kid. It still made her bristle.

"We don't need any adults—"

"That is not what I am asking," Batman corrected. "I know that you will take very good care of Shutter."

"No!" Spoiler buried her face into Shutter's chest. Jason winced again as he watched the pollen transfer seamlessly from Shutter to Spoiler.

"I am not going to take you away."

"You are going to separate us, and then we are going to be sent away, and we will never see each other again—"

"Spoiler." Batman's voice was firm, but Spoiler's next words still rang out clearly.

"If you take us away, I'm going to tell everyone who you really are!" Her shriek echoed through the empty warehouse.

Jason stilled entirely. His eyes darted from Batman, to Spoiler. The corners of her lips were set, and Jason knew that this wasn't a bluff. She knew something, and she clearly believed that whatever information she had would be enough to scare them off.

"So you can't take us away," Spoiler continued. "Just help me get him to a safe place, and I won't tell anyone."

"Spoiler." He readjusted his position, the leather in his suit creaking as he settled onto the floor. "You know who we really are."

It wasn't a question, judging by his tone. Still, Spoiler nodded. It was clear she was trying to put on a brave face, and was only semi-successful.

"I do," Spoiler confirmed. "And I'm not afraid to tell everyone else. Shutter wouldn't, but I would."

Batman spared a look at Jason, who gave a minute shrug.

"B, we don't even know if they really—" Jason started, but Spoiler spoke over him assuredly.

"I do really know who you are." Spoiler's tone was cross. "Starts with a B, ends with something that sounds like pain?"

"Bowser?" It popped out of Jason's mouth before he could stop it. Both Spoiler and Batman paused, staring at him. He shrugged.

Batman took a deep breath, steadying himself. "Okay. Spoiler, can you look at me?"

When Spoiler complied, they could see the tears that had finally spilled past her eyes. She hiccuped and rubbed at her face again, but held Batman's gaze.

"I am not going to separate you or Shutter, nor am I going to let anything happen to you. What I want to do is take you both to the Cave, where we can take care of Shutter. He is reacting to the pollen in a way that could potentially be dangerous, and we need to monitor it."

"Plus," Jason chimed in, motioning to his chest. Spoiler frowned in confusion for a moment before looking down at herself, presumably noticing all of the pollen on her for the first time.

It was as if the realization triggered the actual effects of the pollen. That, or whatever adrenaline rush that she was on was crashing. She looked down at Shutter.

When Spoiler muttered her permission for Batman to help, Batman only nodded. He waited for a few seconds before getting to his feet, and Jason followed him closely.

Both Jason and Batman were careful to not transfer any pollen onto themselves as they helped Spoiler and Shutter out of the warehouse. By the time they gotten outside, dawn was close to breaking.

Without question, Jason helped Shutter onto his back, looping the boy's arms around his neck, and holding onto his thighs. Shutter hardly stirred, and continued to shiver against Jason's back.

It reminded him of when the kids challenged him to a race. It wasn't all that long ago, but it felt like ages.

Batman was in the process of scooping Spoiler into his arms. She looked like she wanted to object, badly, but it was clear that she was losing her capability of standing on her own two feet.

Jason let his eyes linger on her worriedly, though his words were directed at Batman. "If they know our identities," he started to say, but Batman shook his head.

"We will handle it at the cave."

Reassured, Jason turned around and kept walking, but was quickly interrupted by a scuffling noise. He spun back around.

Spoiler's face was buried in the crook of Batman's arm, at a weird angle. Batman's jaw was tight. Jason opened his mouth to question the situation, but Batman beat him to it.

"Please do not bite me."

"You aren't going to take us to a secondary location just to kill us!" Spoiler shrieked, her form suddenly exploding into a flurry of limbs. Somehow, Batman managed to keep his grip on her, though he winced when she went in for another bite.

Jason had to bite down hard on his lip to keep from laughing. He spun back around on his heel, trusting Batman to have the situation handled.

Once they reached the Batmobile, which was conveniently parked at the end of the block, Jason gently arranged Shutter to sit in the backseat. Spoiler was placed beside him by Batman, and though she was still giving him a deadly stare, she didn't object when he sat on the other side of Shutter.

It wasn't like he could have gone anywhere else— at some point Shutter had gotten ahold of Jason's cape, and was gripping onto it with all of his might. Jason briefly considered taking his cape off and wrapping it around the kid, but opted for slinging his arm around Shutter's shoulders instead, drawing him closer.

Batman started the car, and Jason tried to let the roar of the engine sooth him, with Shutter's body pressed against him and Spoiler gently resting her head on Shutter's shoulder.

Jason had nearly torn through the skin on his lower lip without realizing it. He worried the lip between his teeth standing at the foot of the cot in the med-bay. It wasn't the normal set up for this area of the cave, but Bruce had helped Jason push the cots together to give the kids enough space to curl up together.

Jason had been poking at the machinery that the kids were hooked up to, until Bruce told him off. Then Bruce started poking at the machinery, and gave Jason a heated glare when Jason called him out on it.

Whatever argument they were about to go right into was interrupted by Shutter stirring on the bed, a soft moan slipping out of his mouth. Jason stood up straight while Bruce went back to his bedside.

They had brought the kids back to the Cave, cleaned them down to the best of their abilities. Spoiler had fallen asleep during the car ride, so both of the the kids remained unresponsive and unconscious during the attempts at cleaning them up. Finally, both of them got the antidote to cuddle pollen.

Jason had just enough time to change out of his costume into something more comfortable before his increasing anxiety demanded that he get back to the kids. He arrived just in time to watch as Alfred set up their IVs, Shutter’s with the proper antibiotics.

Shutter's fever had broken, thankfully. Then it just became a waiting game for both of the kids to wake up.

"Shutter," Bruce called gently. Jason felt torn between jumping onto the cot and wrapping his arms around the kid, or giving him space. He compromised by filling a glass of water for him. 

It took a few times of calling his name, but Shutter finally responded, his eyes fluttering open and half lidded.

"Careful," Bruce murmured, helping Shutter sit up against the pillows. He looked down at the IV that was taped to his arm, but didn't try to poke at it or pull it out. He also took the glass of water from Jason, thanking him quietly. 

Now with his hands empty, Jason fidgeted as Bruce calmly explained the situation, how he had been infected with cuddle pollen, and that he had also been fighting a viral infection in his lungs which made the cuddle pollen's effects worse.

"Shutter," Bruce called the boy's attention back to him.

"Yeah?" His eyes were wide, as he tried to take in his surroundings while also paying attention to Bruce. Even as they spoke, Shutter’s gaze continued to drift up and around the Cave’s walls. 

"Spoiler said something to us, before we came here." He was talking slowly, keeping the tone of his voice calm and neutral. "And I would like to confirm it with you."

Jason watched as Shutter's hand curled around his glass even tighter. An array of emotions flickered over his face, before landing on a carefully blank expression.

"She said she knows our identities, and that you do as well."

Jason panicked, as Shutter's eyes immediately filled with tears. He wanted to jump right onto the cot, and pull the kid into his arms, give him a hug that even Dickface would be proud of. But Bruce placed his hand on Jason's arm, holding him back.

Shutter blinked rapidly, trying to clear his eyes.

The cave was silent, until Shutter spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce exhaled softly, but Jason couldn't tell if it was a sigh of relief, disappointment, or something else entirely. He couldn't help but freeze as Bruce reached up to his own face. Shutter flinched at his movement, regardless of the fact that Bruce couldn't reach the boy, even if he leaned forward.

Slowly and gingerly, Bruce took off his cowl. Alfred had only been able to pull him away from the med-bay just long enough to change into sweats and take the bulkier pieces of his chest armor off, but it was the cowl that really took Batman back to Bruce.

Shutter did not seem to be reassured by that, though. He shrank further back into the pillows, looking like he wanted to melt away. Bruce's expression softened.

"I think you can call me Bruce," he said. Jason was looking at Bruce, so he caught when the man's expression turned from gentle to alarmed. "Oh, hey, kiddo—"

Jason whirled back around just in time to see tears spill over the kid's cheeks.

"I'm sorry!" Shutter burst out. "I didn't mean to figure it out, I just did! And I didn't tell anyone except for St— except for Spoiler, and she hasn't told anyone—"

"Hey, no," Bruce tried, but Jason decided that it was time for him to intervene.

"B!" Jason chastised, not thinking before he climbed onto the cot, careful of Shutter's IV line. He snagged the water out of Shutter’s hand, before it could tip over and spill. 

"You know his identity as well, correct?" Bruce asked. Shutter nodded, clumsily rubbing his tears away with a fist. Jason paused on the edge of the cot.

"Cool." He decided after a few moments of thought. It took him two seconds to pull the domino mask off of his face. Bruce winced at the way Jason’s skin pulled against the adhesive. "So even though you know this, I'm Jason." He stuck a hand out. Shutter fumbled with the glass he was holding before shaking his hand.

"Hi Jason. I'm—" he took a short breath, as if steeling himself. "I'm Tim."

"Hi Tim," Jason replied simply. He then plopped himself fully next to the boy, wrapping an arm over his shoulders, similar to how they sat in the Batmobile only a few hours ago. Just as he did before, Tim melted against Jason's side.

Once they were properly situated, Jason glanced back at Bruce. His expression was carefully neutral, though the way that his lips were tightened told Jason that there was something going on in his head.

Jason sat forward, to block Tim's line of sight, putting an end to the nervous glances the boy kept sending in Bruce's direction.

"Great to meet you, Tim. How are you feeling?"

"Tim, what's your last name?" Jason twisted around, sending daggers at Bruce.

"You're stressing him out, shut the hell up, Bruce—" Jason hissed, but when Tim spoke up, he cut himself off.

"Uh. Drake. My name is Tim Drake."

It was Jason's turn to frown, because he knew that name.

"Drake? Like—"

"Jack and Janet are your parents," Bruce interrupted. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. Jason briefly considered the possibility that Bruce knew Tim’s identity before this, but then caught the small twitch of his lips. Bruce was just as shocked as Jason was. 

Tim nodded meekishly. "They haven't reported you missing." Bruce said it as a statement, rather than a question. 

So, yes, Drake as in their next door neighbors, Drake. Jason couldn't remember the last time he had seen that family around, but it wasn't as though Jason really paid attention to the guests at the galas Bruce dragged him to.

"Oh." Tim sounded surprised. "That's because they don't know. That I'm gone, I mean."

He said it in a matter-of-fact tone, as if it was the easiest answer that he was going to give them all night. Jason felt his eyes bug out of his head, and he didn't have to look at Bruce to know that he had a similar expression.

"You are telling me that you've been our next door neighbor this whole time? And somehow your parents just happened to miss you sneaking out and going all the way to Gotham every night?"

"Jay," Bruce said, but Tim was already speaking over him.

"No, I don't live there. I live in Gotham, with Spoiler."

"Which doesn't explain why you haven't been reported as missing." Bruce's voice was tight. Tim's eyes shifted to Spoiler, who was still asleep next to him.

"My parents are out of town?" Tim eventually tried, sounding uncertain. Bruce's eyebrows lowered. Jason lived with the guy, and his expression still sent a chill down his own spine. "I told the housekeeper that they were sending me to a summer camp."

"And she didn't follow up on that with your parents at all?"

Tim took to picking at the bandage that was holding his IV in. His fingers were pulled away by Jason almost immediately.

"She's not my babysitter or anything. Plus when my parents work, they can be really hard to reach."

Bruce stared at him for a few more seconds, before nodding. There were more answers that they needed, hell, Jason was half tempted to grab the kid by the shoulders and demand those answers, but if they tried to push it any more Tim would clam up entirely.

"Okay. Thank you for telling us," Bruce said seriously. Tim's eyes were fixed to his lap, but he shrugged. "Who is Spoiler?"

Jason turned back to Bruce, ready to object— Spoiler was sleeping, and she was always more defensive of their identities than Shutter— Tim ever was. But Bruce kept his eyes on Tim.

"Stephanie," Tim eventually said, voice quiet.

"Stephanie?" Bruce repeated encouragingly.

"Stephanie Brown."

Both Jason and Bruce furrowed their brows, trying to place the name with a face, but Tim was already shaking his head.

"She's not from Bristol. She's actually from Gotham."

"Are her parents looking for her as well?" Bruce asked gingerly.

Tim's nose crinkled, as if he didn't agree with the as well part of the question, but he shrugged. He glanced at Spoiler (Stephanie! They had both names, finally!), but she was still asleep.

"It's just her mom, and she's in..." Tim trailed off, lost in thought for a moment before continuing. "I don't know, really. Steph said she was in rehab, and that was a while ago. But the city said that she couldn't take care of Steph anymore."

Tim could have taken out a knife and stabbed it in Jason's heart, and it might have hurt less. He immediately wanted to wake Stephanie up and pull her into a hug. He saw Bruce look at him out the corner of his eye, but carefully kept his own gaze on Tim. This wasn't about him. If he had the chance, he could talk to Stephanie about it later, privately.

"And they were going to send her out of state, because the group homes here were full, or something like that. Stephanie hated them, so we thought that we could just live together. My parents wouldn't notice that I was gone, and they weren't letting her see her mom, so it would work out!"

Whatever Tim read on Jason and Bruce's faces caused him to shrink back even further.

"Do you know if she has been declared missing?" Bruce asked, at the same time that Jason exploded with "You guys thought you could live out in Gotham all on your own? You are babies!"

Tim ignored Jason, answering Bruce's question first. "I would have been able to hack into the city's systems, but it's harder to do that at the library without the right stuff."

Bruce stood up, running a hand through his hair. Both Jason and Tim tracked his movements. After a few moments, he finally spoke again.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen."

Under Jason's arm, Tim suddenly tensed up. If he hadn't been held down, Jason was certain that Tim would have shot himself out of the bed, IV and other machinery be damned.

Bruce sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, close enough to reach out and touch Tim's legs, if he wanted to. "You are going to tell me the whole story. From the beginning, as well as you know it."

Tim's mouth automatically popped open to protest, but Bruce held up a hand. "You will not get in trouble for telling the truth. I just need to know the whole story."

"The whole story?" Tim squeaked. Bruce nodded solemnly. "Uh. Okay."

Jason caught the uneasy glance that Tim sent at Stephanie. She was still asleep, curled up against Tim. They were holding hands under the covers, the sight of which made Jason's heart constrict.

"Okay. Um. I mean, I don't know if I know everything about Stephanie's side, but we met in a gymnastics class a few years ago in Gotham. She eventually had to be pulled out because her mom couldn't take her to the classes anymore, but we had each others numbers so we were still friends. But her mom worked a lot, and her dad wasn't around—" Judging by the way that Tim's face scrunched up, that sounded like it was a whole story on it's own, but Jason didn't interrupt. "so she would come over to my house a lot. Or we would meet somewhere in Gotham."

Bruce didn't take notes, but his fingers twitched minutely as if he wanted to.

"My parents travel a lot for work, so they didn't care what I did, and I stopped needing a babysitter around that time—"

"How old were you when you had your last babysitter?" Bruce interrupted. Tim paused for a moment as he thought.

"Five or six, I think."

Jason couldn't help but huff, a humorless sound. Tim looked up at him, but Jason scrubbed at his own face with his hands, before squeezing Tim's shoulder, encouraging him to keep going.

"Some stuff happened with Steph's mom. I'm not really sure what, she never told me, but she got into a lot of trouble. She had to go to rehab, but like one that was connected to a jail or something. Or maybe she had to go to rehab and then jail. I don't really know. But Steph got put in the foster care system, and then it was a lot harder for us to see each other."

"That must have been very scary," Bruce said softly. Tim shrugged, before nodding, looking back down at his lap.

"And then they said that they would have to send Stephanie out of Gotham, because they couldn't find a place for her here. So we decided that we could live out in Gotham. Steph moved around a lot so she knew where old abandoned apartments were, and I got good at breaking—" It was obvious that Tim realized what he was admitting to halfway through his words, and stumbled. "I got good at finding us safe places. And other stuff." Tim hastily corrected.

"I'm not sure exactly who's idea it was in the beginning." Tim concluded sheepishly. “Like, we did this mostly to protect Stephanie, but it's not her fault. I mean, not really. It was my idea too."

"Neither of you are at fault here," Bruce said. Tim wasn't sure if he believed him, but that didn't matter really. "And your parents?" Tim shrugged.

“They are still out on a dig. Like I told you earlier, I just told the housekeeper that I was being sent to a summer camp, and that was that."

"But you had the whole house to yourself. Why didn't—" Jason felt himself getting fired up, but he couldn't help it. He didn't know how Bruce was capable of acting calm after everything that they had learned.

"Jay," Bruce cut him off. Jason scowled at him, but shut his mouth.

The blankets on the cot shifted, as Stephanie rolled over. Tim froze, but she didn't stir beyond that.

"We were doing okay," Tim said softly. Jason forced himself to take a breath, before pressing his face into the dark head of hair beside him.

"I know, Tim."

Suddenly, the other side of Tim became a flurry of movement. Jason clutched Tim to his chest as Stephanie launched herself upright, dislodging and knocking over the IV stand. Her eyes were wide and wild, darting around the room as she clearly fought to place her surroundings.

Bruce was raising his hands in surrender, while Jason just tried to keep Tim from tipping over.

"S," Tim wiggled his way out of Jason's hold, grabbing his friend by the shoulders. It took a few moments for her to calm down, and by that time all of the blankets on the cot were disrupted.

"We are in the BatCave," Tim whispered to her. He was clearly trying to hold back his excitement. He paused for a moment, before sheepishly admitting, "and I told him our names."

"Tim!" Stephanie hissed, punching him in the arm. It was hard to do that when they were so close together, the fist only tapping Tim slightly.

"They knew that we knew their identities!" Tim protested. "It was only fair!"

"I asked Tim to tell us," Bruce confirmed. Stephanie glared at him, her mouth pursed. "I know that it was important to you both that no one knew who you were, but I am just as concerned with your safety and well-being."

"Are you okay?" Stephanie asked Tim in a low tone. When Tim nodded, she bit her lip.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay," he assured. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep our secret."

Stephanie's shrug radiated forced nonchalance, but Jason wasn't about to call her out on it. He could see Tim squeeze her hand, where their fingers were still intertwined.

Jason knew that it wasn't Bruce's intention, but when he spoke, the quiet moment was ruined. "You guys have been on your own for a while, huh?"

"We were fine," Stephanie snapped at him. "We didn't need your help."

Bruce sighed, placing his hands back into his lap. "I am not sure that I agree with you. But you both did very well taking care of each other, when no one else could."

"It wasn't my mom's fault," Stephanie said, sadness flickering over her face.

"Of course it wasn't," Jason spoke up. For the first time since she had woken, Stephanie turned to face him. He was half expecting to face the same ire that he did a few hours ago, but that was gone, replaced by a young expression of hopelessness. It made his stomach turn. "Addiction, stuff like that, it's no joke. Most people don't get it, especially the state. I get it."

She stared at him, clearly trying to decide whether or not to believe him. Eventually, she nodded. "Yeah." Stephanie pulled her legs up to her chest. Tim was still holding onto one of her hands, so she wrapped the other around her calves.

"I think this came from a series of failures, none of which are your own," Bruce said. "There are a lot of systems in place that are supposed to help people, but oftentimes fall short, or end up doing the exact opposite."

"Well, my parents didn't really fail—" Tim tried, but was cut off.

"Your parents suck," Stephanie insisted, while Jason just booed. Jason was pleased when Stephanie gave him a small smile. Hopefully she would once again recognize him as an ally, instead of the enemy. Tim snapped his mouth shut, his cheeks slightly coloring.

"Oh hey," Jason suddenly said, eyes caught on Stephanie's hand. "Alf?"

As if he was waiting to be summoned, the butler entered the med-bay, with a tray of stuff, varying from bandages to a few mugs of a steaming liquid. He placed it on a counter, before slowly approaching the cot.

Stephanie shrank away as Alfred neared, but he didn't attempt to come any closer. Instead, he righted the IV stand that had been previously knocked down.

Once everything was squared away, Alfred crouched beside the cot. There was a small speck of blood on the back of Stephanie's hand, from the place where her IV had been torn out. She looked down at her own hand, as if she was noticing it for the first time.

"May I?" Alfred asked, holding a hand out. Stephanie hesitated, sending a glance at Bruce, before extending her own. Alfred gave her a soft smile, before taking her hand and inspecting the wound.

"The IV was only to make sure you remained hydrated, while you were asleep. It was not our intention to alarm you, though your reaction was very reasonable, considering the strange place you woke up in."

It was moments like these when Alfred's status as favorite in the household cemented in Jason's mind. He was the best.

"We needed to bring your body to proper hydration levels. Your friend still has his in, though his included some antibiotics, to help fight his infection."

When Stephanie twisted back around, Tim held up his hand with the IV.

Alfred replaced the bandage on Stephanie's hand swiftly. "Now, if you are feeling up to it, we can skip the IV treatment for the time being, provided that you continue to drink fluids."

Her back was to Jason, so he couldn't see the look she gave him, but he could visualize the suspicious expression pretty well. "Water, mainly. Juice, if you are partial to a specific type."

Jason knew that his crouched position couldn't be comfortable, but still, Alfred remained where he was, calmly keeping eye contact with Stephanie.

"My name is Alfred Pennyworth. I am the butler and caretaker of the Wayne estate. It is a pleasure to finally meet you." Alfred tilted his head, just enough to direct his words at Tim as well. "Master Jason has spoken very highly of the two of you."

Stephanie was silent for a few moments, but Jason could see the blush that was crawling up her neck. "Nice to meet you too," she finally said. Alfred squeezed her hand briefly before standing up.

"I've already told Tim this," Bruce said, calling her attention back to him. "But he had a viral infection in his lungs. That is why the cuddle pollen caused more adverse reactions. He's been given the proper medication, but we need to monitor him as well as make sure you both get proper nutrition and rest." 

Tim's expression turned calculating. It would be difficult to miss the way that Stephanie tensed ever so slightly, as if she was a bird preparing to take off.

"Hey." Jason reached out and poked her shoulder. "Spoiler."

Stephanie tilted her head backwards, just enough to scowl at him. "You know my name."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Fine. Stephanie . You and Timbit can stay with us."

Stephanie froze. Tim reacted enough for the two of them, though.

"What?!" Tim nearly shrieked. Bruce winced at the sudden high pitch. Jason tried, and failed, to hide his smile.

"Yeah. I mean, I got Alfie to set up rooms for you like the second time we met. We just had to wait for the right time to get you to come here."

"But my parent's house is right—"

"Yeah, no," Jason swiftly cut off, though he squeezed Tim's shoulder in apology. "Your parents suck, and I'm not about to let them get even within a thirty mile radius of you."

"Jason," Bruce said in a warning tone, but Jason waved him off.

"Not lying, not sorry," Jason said. "Anyway. It can be like a sleepover, but even better. Do you know how long I've wanted you guys to try Alfred's hot chocolate? It's so good. Don't say no until you've tried it, okay?"

Stephanie's mouth opened, and then closed. Bruce rubbed at his face tiredly.

"That was not how we were going to broach the subject, Jaylad," he said, but Jason shrugged.

"Too bad, so sad."

"To put it into simple terms," Bruce took control of the situation once again. "We would like you to stay with us. Up in the manor. Further steps will have to be taken, regarding your guardianship, but you would be safe here." He locked his eyes onto Tim. "I will be taking your parents' negligence to the state."

"No, it's not that big of a deal—"

"Tim." Bruce cut him off, but his words and expression remained gentle. "It is. No child should be forced to look after themselves, especially at your age. You've both done very good jobs of taking care of each other, but you are children. That shouldn't be your job."

Jason watched as Tim wrestled with something internally. It looked like he wanted to protest, but instead, he leaned back into Jason's side. Bruce turned his focus onto Stephanie.

"Stephanie. I will need to look into it, but with your permission, I would like to assist with your mother's case. Tim told me that you weren't allowed to see her, while you were in the group home, is that correct?"

Stephanie nodded silently.

"I see. I will look into it. Of course, it will eventually be up to the state to make certain decisions, but I am certain that I can at least gain visitation rights."

Stephanie blinked suddenly, and rapidly. Jason could practically feel Bruce's desire to wrap the kids into his arms, but the man held back. "I cannot promise anything right away. I need to look into a few things first. But I will do everything in my power to make sure you can see your mom again,:

Stephanie twisted, hiding her face in Tim's shoulder.

"I don't want to go back into a group home," she protested, her voice weak.

"You wouldn't," Bruce assured. "I am certified by the state to foster children. If you are already residing within my home, they wouldn't take you out just to place you in a group home downtown."

"You can't promise that."

Jason caught the glance that Bruce sent his way. Back when Jason was in the kids' same position, he had said the same thing. Things changed quickly, and without warning. One day, kids were promised homes and families, and the next they were back at the centers. One day, you had your mom, who wasn't perfect but tried her best and loved you, and the next, she was gone.

Jason forced a laugh, drawing everyone's attention. "He's Bruce Wayne. He can really throw money at any sort of situation until it goes the way he wants it to."

Bruce rolled his eyes, but he didn't deny it.

"So is that a yes?" Jason asked. He was being impatient, he knew, but he couldn't wait in suspense any longer.

"You want... the both of us?"

Bruce's expression softened yet again. If Jason wasn't used to this side of Bruce, he would be worried that his guardian was going to turn into a puddle of goo. That wouldn't be a good look for Batman.

"Yes. The both of you." Bruce confirmed. "Jason is not kidding when he says that you've both had rooms here for a while. It was just a matter of letting you know they were available."

"Basically Bruce had to make sure we weren't kidnapping you from actual families," Jason cut in. "Because he kinda has an kidnapping-slash-adoption problem. It's a real thing."

"Jason!" Jason waved Bruce off yet again. Tim and Stephanie turned to each other, clearly having a silent conversation. No actual words were spoken aloud, but their discussion seemed intense. Stephanie furrowed her brows. Tim shrugged, lifting his hand with the IV.

"Fine," Stephanie said suddenly. Jason blinked, once, twice, before a smile broke across his face. He cheered, though Bruce looked a bit shocked.

Jason was quick to pull Stephanie into his arms, beside Tim. She went willingly, but she stuck a finger at Bruce, her face stern.

"But if you try to separate us, or do anything—"

"I won't. You have my word," Bruce promised. Stephanie settled against Jason's chest, squirming until she found a comfortable position. "You will stay together. You are family."

Jason wasn't sure if Bruce meant Stephanie and Tim were family, or if he was already beginning to loop the kids into the Wayne family tree. He privately chose to believe in the latter.

-.-

EPILOGUE: ONE MONTH LATER

"Hey. Hey. Robin, pssst. "

Robin was highly trained. Robin was a professional. He was not easily swayed with distractions.

"Robin, I got fruit snacks. Come eat the orange flavored ones."

Robin was... hungry.

He snapped his mini-binoculars to his belt as he stepped off the ledge of the roof. Batman was somewhere, probably off chasing Catwoman or something, so that meant that he wasn't there to give Robin any disappointed looks as the boy left his position.

Spoiler was sitting on the middle of the flat rooftop, carefully picking through a package of fruit snacks. She smiled cheerily as Robin approached, offering a couple orange-shaped gummies. Robin took them, and popped them into his mouth easily. 

"Where's Shutterbug?" Robin asked. Spoiler shrugged, hyper-focused on her task of sorting the gummies. "Come on, you guys are supposed to stay close to me, or else B won't let you guys come out on patrols?"

Spoiler looked up at him, blinking her eyes innocently. "Don't get mad at me. I stayed close. Shutter said something about..." Spoiler scrunched her nose in thought. "I don't remember. Something nerdy though, probably."

Robin resisted the urge to sigh. He was too young to start acting like B, but his little siblings pushed him closer every day. With a quick tap of his comm, he opened up the line between him, Spoiler, and Shutter.

"Shutter, where are you?" Robin took another orange fruit gummy as it was offered to him.

"I'm close, I promise!" Shutter quickly replied. "Just a few more photos. B isn't going to let us stay out late like this anymore." Spoiler made a few grumbling sounds in agreement. "So I need to get all of the pictures I can."

"We have fruit snacks," Robin said. There was a pause.

"I'll be right there." Shutter clicked off of the comm. Robin couldn't help but smile, sitting down beside Spoiler.

It wasn't their last night of patrol ever, but it was their last night of summer. Batman had already made it clear that patrols were going to be on a more restricted schedule during the school year, and that the kids wouldn't be joining Batman and Robin as often as they had been.

That was something that both Shutter and Spoiler put up a big stink about, but B had remained firm.

"I can't believe we have to go to school, " Spoiler griped. She pulled a second fruit snack pouch out of her belt. Robin knew for a fact that her gear consisted of fifty percent fruit snacks, and fifty percent bricks.

Bruce had tried to dissuade Stephanie's attachment to the bricks, showing her all of the other close combat weapons she could train in, but she remained loyal to her weapon of choice. 

"It won't be that bad," Robin reasoned. "I'll be there." Well, most of the time he would be on the other side of the school, since the kids were still in primary school and Jason was going into the upper levels at Gotham Academy, but he had made sure to adjust his schedule to give him chances to check on them if he needed to. "We can sit together at lunch."

Robin tried to not feel offended when Spoiler frowned at that. "What? Are you already too cool for me?"

"It's not that I'm too cool for you," Spoiler said, clearly choosing her words carefully. "I just don't want to lock myself into a social commitment at the beginning of the year. I need to see what my options are, first."

"Gah!" Robin flung himself onto his back, pressing his hands over his heart. "You really don't hold back." Spoiler made a small sound of amusement.

The fire escape creaked, which was all of the warning they had before Shutter was poking his head over the roof's ledge. "Are there any fruit snacks left?"

"Yeah," Spoiler said, tossing a pouch at him once he had fully pulled himself onto the roof. Shutter thanked her, swiping the snack and coming to sit with his siblings.

"Shutter," Robin pushed himself up onto his elbows, just enough to see Shutter's face. "You would sit with me at lunch, wouldn't you?"

At least, Shutter didn't hesitate. But that didn't help much.

"Don't you have friends your own age?" Shutter said. His face immediately went red, as he hurried to correct himself. "Not in a mean way! I mean, I just thought that you would rather hang out with other people, since you see me all day at home and—"

Robin waved a hand, cutting the spiral off before Shutter had a conniption.

"Nah, I'm just teasing. You can do whatever you want. If you guys want to sit with me, you are totally welcome to, but feel free to—" Robin smirked, though no one could see it in the darkness of night. "Spread your wings."

Spoiler groaned. "You need better jokes. That isn't even funny. It only works if you make bird puns that are actually funny!"

"It wasn't that bad," Shutter quietly defended. Spoiler threw a fruit gummy at his face.

"Hey, did you know, a group of bats is actually called a flock? It's a versatile word, not just for birds. It's very fitting for us." It was Robin's turn to be pelted in the face by a fruit gummy, but he caught it in his mouth. Shutter gave a polite round of applause. 

"Okay, but seriously. If anyone gives you guys any issues, come to me. I mean, tell a teacher probably, but also tell me."

Gravel crunched softly behind Robin. He twisted around, relaxing when he saw the dark brooding figure.

"If someone gives you an issue, you are going to tell a teacher." Batman corrected, walking closer to the kids. "And if Robin, by chance, finds out, he is under strict orders to not get into a fight."

"Come on, B," Robin groaned. Batman fixed him with a stern look. He was then hit in the face with a fruit gummy.

"Plus, if something happens, I can take care of it myself," Spoiler said matter-of-factly. Robin and Batman turned to her.

" No." They said at the same time. Robin gave Batman a look of horror, while Shutter dissolved into giggles.

"You promised Agent A you wouldn't bring any bricks to school," Shutter pointed out to Spoiler. She immediately began to pout.

"Hey," Robin leaned over to Spoiler, lowering his voice to a stage whisper. "I won't tell anyone about you bringing bricks to school if you won't tell anyone about me getting into fights." 

" Robin." The effect of Batman's growl was dampened by Spoiler and Shutter's laughter.

"Oh, come on, B!"

fin