Chapter Text
Hal was so late and it was all Barry’s fault. And fine, Hal shouldn’t have expected the speedster to be on time. The man was probably late to his own wedding. But couldn’t he be on time when they were supposed to meet Batman at the Teen Titan’s tower? Whatever, Hal reasoned, it wasn’t like the Bat wouldn’t just find something else to scowl at them about. Hal stepped out of the zeta with Barry in tow. And stopped in his tracks, Barry crashing into his back before he could realize the other hero had stopped moving. There in the middle of the big circular couch was Batman surrounded by smiling teenage superheroes with textbooks and notebooks opened in front of them on the coffee table.
“What the?” Barry started quietly, but stopped, too stunned to continue with the thought.
“You are late”, Robin scolded imperiously from his spot snuggled into Batman’s side. He looked like an angry cat.
“For like two minutes”, Raven mumbled with a roll of her eyes. It seemed like she was more trying to poke fun at Robin than come to the heroes’ defence, which Hal didn’t mind.
“Exactly!” Barry agreed quickly, “Besides, it looks like you’re having fun doing…” Barry took another look at the gathering, “What are you doing with Batman?”
“He’s helping us with our science homework”, Bart exclaimed excitedly.
“We could also help”, Hal offered, less out of politeness and more for everyone’s sake really. The poor kids didn’t need to be frightened into learning and it would do good for the leaguers to spend more time with the kids.
“That will not be necessary”, Robin sniffed.
“You sure buddy? Lantern here is an engineer and I’m a forensic scientist. I’m sure we could help.”
“It’s alright Gramps, with B’s help we’re done anyway”, Bart zipped up to his grandpa and hugged him. Barry was very confused about the whole scene he’d walked into, yet he hugged Bart back. And then he caught up with what the younger speedster had said, most specifically the nickname he had decided to use, and his mind almost short circuited. Why oh why did all his family want to risk maiming via Bat?
Superman was confused. Apprehensive, but also confused. When Flash had called him, Clark had expected a lot of things. A crisis of some sort, an emergency at the tower, or maybe a request for help in Central City. What he did not expect was Flash informing him that he had to go to the Watchtower to save his son from Batman. One could say this was unexpected, confusing and curious and neither would be an understatement. Yet Clark wasn’t exactly in the mood to rush to the Watchtower. Mainly because he didn’t need whatever lecture that Jon was deservedly getting to be spilling over on to him. Cowardly? Lois might think so. But Clark knew the dark knight never gave lectures undeservedly, and he wouldn’t want to accidentally shield his son from one that was probably needed.
Yet as Clark slowly walked to the common room, he didn’t hear any lecturing. Instead Jon was laughing? Clark turned the corner to find his son finishing a small bowl of ice cream and smiling up at the cowled hero. For a moment he found himself wanting to use his x-ray vision to make sure it was actually Batman sitting there. But then he remembered he didn’t know who Batman was underneath the cowl, respecting people’s privacy and all that, so he refrained from doing that.
“Dad! B let me ride in the Batmobile!” Jon called out excitedly.
“He did?” Superman asked cautiously reluctantly while trying to understand why his son had been in Gotham and how Batman was apparently fine with it.
“Yeah!” the young superhero confirmed with a big smile and then turned to Batman. “Can dad join us next time?”
“Jon…” Superman tried to intervene before whatever calm spell Batman was under broke and his scowl returned.
“Please B!” Jon pleaded and damn was Superman going to be into trouble once the kid left.
“Hmm” Batman hummed with his usually gravelled voice, “We’ll see.”
Batman ruffled the kid’s hair and stood up to make his way towards the zetas. To Superman’s astonishment, Jon flew up from his chair and right into Batman’s chest, wrapping the caped crusader in a hug. An actual hug, not the half hug Troia had gone for that day in training. And Batman hugged the kid back. That was it! Clark was going to find Flash immediately. Whatever he’d done to the timeline again, he was going to have to fix it! For the leaguers’ mental health if nothing else.
Oliver was on edge. It wasn’t a good day really. Roy had just informed him that he was leaving Star City and taking Lian with him. They didn’t get a chance to talk about it more because their phones beeped in an emergency. The following fight wasn’t a good one for Oliver either. His arrows were useless in the kind of close quarters the villains had forced them into. And now Oliver was sporting a black eye, that he was going to have to hide from the paparazzi, and three broken ribs. Possibly. He didn’t know, the third might just be cracked a bit.
Roy didn’t talk to him the whole fight, which he could understand. And didn’t even say a word when Oliver tried to approach him before debriefing either, which Oliver didn’t understand. He thought things between them were well enough that they were past this. When the debrief was over, Oliver tried to get to Roy again. Only Roy didn’t even turn to look at him, instead he walked up to Batman. And that’s how Oliver found himself eavesdropping to his son’s conversation with Batman. So yes, one could say that Oliver was very much on edge.
“Sorry to be coming to you with this here”, Roy was telling Batman, who apparently wasn’t scowling at the younger archer.
“Is this about Hood’s case?” Batman asked quietly.
“Um kinda”, Roy admitted, “I’m joining the outlaws permanently.”
“You know you don’t need my permission, right?” Batman sounded supportive? What kind of alternate reality had Oliver walked into this time?
“Yeah I know. What I’m trying to say is that I’m going to be moving to Gotham permanently.”
Oliver’s hand fisted so tightly his nails bid into his skin. Why didn’t Roy tell him? And why Gotham of all places?
“Then I look forward to working with you”, Batman said and that was practically the warmest welcome coming from the Bat, Oliver knew. When did Batman grow so close with Oliver’s own son?
“Thanks”, Arsenal smiled and Batman nodded, “I uh …”
“You didn’t just want my blessing to come to Gotham, did you?”
“No”, Roy shook his head lightly, “I wouldn’t be asking normally, but I’m taking Lian with me and I don’t want to move to just any neighborhood especially in a city like Gotham.”
“You can move in”, Batman replied unphased, as if a random hero asked him to room with him everyday. As if he was used to having little kids live with him at a moment’s notice! What on earth was going on? Oliver wondered not for the first time since he began listening to this absurd conversation.
“You sure?” Roy insisted and Batman merely nodded as if Roy’s question offended him, “Only until I find a decent apartment.”
“Take your time”, Batman didn’t insist exactly. It sounded more like a gruff order, but Roy’s lips lifted at the corners.
“You might regret this, you know”, Roy teased Batman! That was it, Oliver was completely lost! “Li’s been talking about Alfie’s cookies ever since I told her we were moving to Gotham.”
“And you think you were any better when you were a kid?” Batman teased back and the world stopped with a record scratch as Oliver processed what Batman had said.
“Wait a minute here!” Oliver called out loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the busy conference room. “When did you meet Arsenal as a kid?”
“Are you kidding me?” Roy exclaimed, “I told you I was staying over at Nightwing’s so many times!”
And that was without mentioning all the times he had visited as Oliver Queen’s ward, but Roy had refrained from mentioning that information on purpose.
“What’s Nightwing got to do with this?” Flash asked, eyes glued to his nephew in hopes of a clue or explanation that the redheaded speedster didn’t give.
“I’m his son”, Nightwing said in a bored voice, as if he didn’t just drop the biggest bomb on the entire superhero community. Okay, it was just the original leaguers really, but Oliver, Barry and Hal didn’t quite know that yet.
“His son!” Hal exclaimed in shock.
“Father”, Robin addressed Batman with his head held high like a prince, “I told you they were incompetent.”
“Incompetent!” Flash exclaimed.
“Father!” Oliver yelled at the same time, “Just how many kids do you have?”
“What’s the count at now? Seven? Eight?” Artemis mused in a teasing tone.
“Hey! I’m not his kid!” Spoiler exclaimed, with a playful scowl at the blonde archer’s direction.
“Technically”, Kid Flash smiled like this was an inside joke. Judging by the smiles and snickering produced from the younger generations of heroes, they were all in on it.
“Wait a minute!” Flash interrupted, so shocked it was a miracle he managed to keep himself in normal speed. “Why do all our kids know this?”
“Because we’ve all been to his place” Beast Boy said slowly as if he didn’t believe he had to spell it out for the leaguers, “We’ve been friends with his kids for ages.”
“How?” that was Hal, sounding as if the concept of friendship was foreign to him.
“Wing needed peers to socialize with so I allowed him to invite Kid Flash over”, Batman sighed dramatically, drawing teasing snickers from most of the kids, “and then more kids kept visiting and they never stopped.”
“That’s ‘cause you keep adopting every orphan you come across”, Spoiler teased.
“I’m not an orphan”, Robin insisted haughtily and Hal wondered for a moment which woman would sleep with the Vengeance of Gotham. And then promptly shut this thought down immediately because he didn’t want to know, not really.
“As much as I hate to agree with the demon spawn, I wasn’t an orphan when I became Robin either”, Red Robin added with a frown.
“You still got adopted so it doesn’t count”, Spoiler argued and showed her tongue at him.
There were so many things Oliver wanted to say, but didn’t voice them as he caught sight of the lift of Batman’s lips. Why did that look so familiar? It vanished as quickly as it appeared and with it Oliver’s consideration of it. There was so much more information for him to process at the moment.
“As fun as this is”, Batman’s growled voice almost hid the dry sarcasm dripping from his tone, “I got to get going.”
Batman nodded at Supernam and Wonder Woman and then turned to Roy and even though his eyes were hidden by the lenses of his cowl Roy knew there was a teasing glint in them.
“And tell Li she can have Alfie’s cookies whenever she wants.”
With that little statement, Batman flipped his cape and started to make his way to the zetatubes, half the younger generations’ heroes following behind him at the promise of those cookies.
“Who’s Alfie?” Oliver demanded.
“My butler”, Batman casually said over his shoulder. Roy knew what he was doing. He was giving Oliver a clue, a chance to figure it out so that there would still be a neutral line of communication between the estranged archers.
“Who?” Oliver asked Roy instead.
“If you didn’t figure it out yet you’re hopeless”, Roy shook his head at his father. And really, how many people in Gotham even had butlers anymore? And how many of those could possibly be named Alfred or any of its variations?
A week later Wayne Manor received a call from one Mr. Oliver Queen, who wasn’t calling to talk to his friend but the butler instead.
“What would you like to talk about Mister Queen?” Alfred asked in his usual unfappable manner.
“Alfred? Does Bruce know you’re moonlighting as Batman’s butler?” Oliver demanded, his tone betraying the protectiveness he felt for his friend. It was a testament to the englishman’s impeccable manners that he did not end the call right then and there.