Batbros Forever

When the Bat's Away

"Please, Father, don't go!" Damian cried, wrapping himself around Bruce's leg in a feeble attempt to slow him. "Damian, Alfred and I will only be gone a few days." He promised, crouching to detach the boy. "And you know we always come back."

Damian couldn't argue this. Bruce went on trips for Wayne Enterprises and off-world missions with the League from time to time, and Alfred occasionally joined him on the former. "I'm hardly worried about that, Father." The boy scoffed. "There just may not be anything to come back to with Grayson in charge."

No matter how old his children got, Bruce had never left them home alone for more than a day. If he and Alfred couldn't be there, Bruce would call in Clark, Diana, or some other trusted ally to babysit. Unfortunately, no one had been available this time, and Bruce had had no choice but to finally allow the older Batkids to watch the younger.

"You're sure you can handle this?" Bruce asked Dick as he handed over a squirming Damian. "Wow, questioning the golden child?" Jason smirked as he and Barbara came in. "It's like he doesn't trust us."

Bruce ran a hand through his hair as he sighed. Of course, he trusted his oldest son. It was just that the boy had a habit of biting off more than he could chew. Hopefully, having Barbara and Jason share the responsibility would keep Dick grounded.

"We'll be fine Dad." Dick promised as Alfred honked the car horn. Bruce hoped he was right as he ruffled Damian's hair and ran off to catch his ride.

iii

Bruce, as usual, had been over-prepared. Tim and Damian were both double digits now and didn't need as much supervision. Cass had always been rather independent, although she had specific instructions not to let Stephanie talk her into any crazy schemes.

Alfred had done his best to set his young charges up for success on their time on their own. He had cooked two weeks' worth of meals to be warmed up at designated times. He had even made sure that they all had a month's worth of clean clothes.

Barbara was in charge of getting them all to school on time, while Dick would handle life around The Manor. Everything was going to be fine.

-------

"I expect a full apology from the old man when he gets back and finds all of us fine." Red Hood told Nightwing as they watched the streets of Gotham from the rooftops. "You should record it." The older hero smirked.

There was a beat of silence before he turned to his brother. "Do you think it was really a good idea to let Red Robin and Robin go off on their own tonight?" Red Hood rolled his eyes so hard it could practically be seen on his mask.

"Just when I get away from B's worrying, you fill the void. Both of you baby them too much. They are fully trained. They are fine." Nightwing was prepared to argue when the Batsignal lit up the night sky. He sighed as he and Red Hood grappled to the light.

iii

After a whole run around with the officers insisting that this was a job for Batman, Commissioner Gordon explained the details of a drug cartel trying to set roots in the city's underbelly. The GCPD couldn't infiltrate without tipping the bosses off or risking officers' lives, so naturally, they had called Batman for a no-nonsense takedown.

Red Hood grumbled as he stared through a high window into the drug den. Since when were they expendable soldiers for the police? He had half a mind to disable the stupid signal and let them handle their own problems.

"Hood, did you get that?" Nightwing asked, snapping him from his thoughts. "Yeah, yeah. Let's get this done." Nightwing nodded and broke off to slip in through an adjacent window.