Robin's Egg

Gr-Egg-yson's peptalk

"Why?! Just WHY would he do that!" Steph exclaimed in dismay, falling backward onto the couch in the gaming room. "He had it in his hands! Are you sure that's what happened, Barbara?"

The redhead chuckled as she popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth while watching all of the batclan who bet on Jason go through the five stages of grief over their loss. "I didn't see it happen but I did hear it over Jason's coms when he went to retrieve Damian. The fact that they came back without fighting as soon as they entered the Batcave is more proof of that."

"Yeah, if Jason had stolen the stone then he probably would have lost his other shoulder," Tim replied as he leaned to the left in an attempt to get his character in Mario Kart (Toad) to drift in the same direction. He cried out in outrage when Cass hit him with a red shell and flew past him taking first.

Duke was laid out on the ground by Steph's feet. The loss of the bet getting to him as well. "But he had it in his hands! Why would he give it up so easily?"

Leaning back in his chair, Dick took a sip of his coffee as he watched his siblings complain about Jason and Damian's latest escapade. It had been a couple of days since Damian was kidnapped and the fact that the two weren't at each other's throats when they got home had been a surprise. Instead, they had seemed to reach a mutual understanding and had returned home amicably.

Well... somewhat amicably.

Jason had not let it go that Damian had been kidnapped by Egghead, of all people, because he had an egg of his own. Other than some snide comments, Damian hadn't really lashed out which had the rest of the bat family perplexed. Barbara had hacked into Jason's coms and body camera to see what had happened. The simple task had turned into a chore because the video and audio were corrupted at points. The audio was recoverable though and everyone had been dismayed by the outcome. Dick was just happy that whatever was going on between them had been solved without further bloodshed.

Honestly, he was happy with how everything was going on with his family, in general. The manor had become a lot livelier. Originally, it was Bruce, Alfred, Tim, Damian, and Duke living in the manor with the others coming and going as they pleased. Now it was almost as if everyone had decided to come back, himself included. JASON included. This would normally mean one of two things: something world-ending was happening and everyone needed to gather together in one place or, something traumatic happened and everyone gathered together for support. Just wanting to make sure the ones involved were okay. It was rare when they gathered together for long periods of time for anything else.

So Dick hummed to himself with a smile on his face. Thanking the stars that Damian had found that stone when he did. It had been the trigger that had helped pushed everyone together as a family instead of trauma. He would take that win any time.

"Oh, stop grinning like that Dick. Just because you won the bet doesn't mean you get to be so smug about it." Steph groused from the couch.

There was also that.

Primarily that for today but he was still very happy with how close his family had gotten in the past three months.

"It's not my fault that I was the only one that bet that Jason would give it back if he ever got a hold of our nephew." The oldest responded with glee. "Speaking of, I take cash only, no credit."

"AGH! Would you please stop calling it that?!" Tim cried then dropped his controller at his feet as Cass won the round. "I swear that it's escalated to this point because you keep indulging Damian."

"Says the sweet, caring brother who made a case for it." Duke chuckled having to roll out of the way when Tim threw his controller at him.

"You have no proof!"