Bruce sighed as he continued searching through cameras, though he knew it was futile. These kids were smarter than average; no way in hell were they going to let themselves be caught on camera if they could help it.
"Still no luck, Master Bruce?" Alfred questioned, bringing down a strong cup of coffee for the man.
"... They're smart kids, Alfred; I should've known they wouldn't be easy to find if they ever ran away like this. At this point, they could be anywhere, or even dead," Bruce said bluntly.
"Master Bruce, if they were dead, you and I both know that someone would take credit for it or announce it. Miss Alexandra and Master Wesley are likely fine and well; we just need to find their whereabouts. Have you tried speaking with that demigod girl?" the butler offered. "You know her camp exists, and you never saw the young children's mother again after she dropped off Alexandra and Wesley."
"Yeah, meaning that it's entirely possible Alex and Wes's mom was a greek goddess; I've definitely thought about it a few times, but how in the world would you explain it away without giving up my secret identity or arousing suspicion?" the dark knight questioned.
"Just ask her, Master Bruce," Alfred insisted. "If she questions it, you can just say that you owe your alter ego a favor."
~*~
"So, Bruce Wayne is looking for his twins, and you thought to ask me if they might be at Camp Half-Blood?" Ana summarized. "Alexandra and Wesley Wayne, huh?... They might be at camp, but there's a lot of Alexandras there, and most prefer nicknames to their full name, like Alex, Lexi, or Ally. And on the topic of Wesleys, I'm not sure. You can go your entire life at camp without knowing anyone, just because there's so many of us."
"Can you try?" Batman said simply.
"Sure. I don't have anything else going today, since I'm banned from the oven again, so I'll head over to check right now and let you know what I find," the brunette reassured, taking off her holo-watch to let her true form shine through. "And no offense to the teleporting tubes, but I think I'll get there faster if I swim there. I should be back roughly by sunset."
The Bat nodded, letting the girl dive into the water in the landing bay and take off at top speed.
As Ana arrived at the dock outside the Poseidon cabin and rose above water, she let out a contented sigh. It felt like forever since she'd last been here, and she missed it. The nice, woody and salty smell of the cabin, the sweet smell emanating from the strawberry fields, and the seventeen-year-old, punk ass kid with a mop of black hair hugging her midsection.
"Missed me that much, huh, Perce?" Ana teased. Seeing how he started to panic, the brunette immediately ruffled his hair lovingly and kissed his forehead. "Relax, Bathroom Lord; I'm just teasing. And I hate to break it to you, but I'm actually here on business for Batman. Any idea where Alex is?"
"Which one? There's at least one Alex in almost every cabin," the sire of Poseidon pointed out.
"One of the ones from cabin 10; the one with black hair and blue eyes that hangs around with Annabeth and is really good at getting what she wants if it's important to her," Ana clarified, digging out her secret stash of brownies from under a floorboard.
"Oh, Lexi? I think she and Annabeth were going to spar together," Percy explained.
"Great, I guess I'd better catch up," the Halfling smiled, returning her brownies to their hiding spot before catching the look on Percy's face. "Hey, I'll catch up with you after I talk to Alex, okay? I promise."
"... I've just been worried ever since you left camp," he admitted, crossing his arms as he let the unease show in his ocean-colored eyes. "You're the only sibling I get to see semi-regularly with Tyson off in Dad's forges; I don't wanna lose you while you're out fighting supervillains."
"Hey, Percy, look at me. I'm not going anywhere," Ana said firmly, taking a keychain out of her pocket. "See? It's the good luck charm you made me. It's my promise to you that I'll always come back, no matter how hard things get, so don't worry about a thing. I love you, Perce."
"... I guess I kinda like you too," Percy teased.
Ana chuckled a bit, playfully punching his arm. "At the very least, I should be staying for dinner. I just need to talk to Alex."
The boy nodded, letting his sister go to look for the pair.
When she finally caught up, she found Annabeth and Alex going back and forth at the Amphitheater, trading knife and sword combo blows with neither giving an inch. Ana sighed, watching for a few minutes before stepping in and separating them. "As much fun as it is to watch Love and Wisdom duke it out, I need to talk to Alex."
"Fine, but we're settling this later," Annabeth insisted.
"Agreed," Alex smirked. "We need to make a decision on which Pixar movie is sadder; Up, or Coco?"
"Dude, that's easy; it's Up," Ana scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Oh, come on, why are you on her side?!" Annabeth demanded.
"Simple; she's right," the brunette smirked, steering Alex towards the dining area to snag some drinks.
"So, what'd you wanna talk to me about, Aeli?" Alex beamed, her goblet filling up with pineapple juice.
"Your dad," Ana admitted, wincing as Alex began to choke on her juice. "I know you don't like to talk about him, Lexi, but Batman is looking for Bruce Wayne's daughter as a favor, and the description was too much like you to be a coincidence. From what I've heard, the board forced him to give up on looking because the funds were getting so low."
"... Why didn't he put in this much effort before I left?" Alex questioned. "Why wait until I was gone to show that he cared?"
"... I don't know. But I do know that your Dad loves and misses you more than anything," the brunette said gently, scooting closer to mess with her hair. "I know that he was willing to use a favor from Batman to find you. If that's not dedication, I don't know what is."
"... Fine, I'll give it a chance. Can you aqua-travel me to Gotham? I know it takes a lot out of you, but you can stay the night to get your energy back; Hades set up a monster block because he thought Gotham had enough problems without adding monsters to the mix," Alex pleaded. "Plus, it'd give me a temporary buffer in case things get... heated."
Ana smiled. "Thank you for being easy to convince, Lexi. You wanna finish your juice first?"
The girl shrugged downing the rest before sighing. "Give me a second to grab my stuff and I'll be ready; I'll meet you at the dock by the Poseidon cabin."
"Deal, but one more thing; where's your brother; Wesley?" Ana said quickly.
"Wes? Uh... he's gonna be a lot harder to convince."
~*~
"So Dad sent you instead of coming after me himself, huh?" Wesley said bluntly, throwing another dart at his board.
"No, Batman sent me as a favor to your dad," Ana corrected. "He's been searching ever since you and Alex ran away."
"If he'd been so dedicated to begin with, we might not have run away," the raven said bluntly.
"Your sister has agreed to give him another chance," the brunette pointed out. "Don't you trust her judgement?"
"No, actually. Ally is soft-hearted; it comes with the territory of being in cabin 10," he said bluntly, throwing another dart without so much as a glance in the daughter of Poseidon's direction.
"You're in cabin 10 too, Wes," the Atlantean pointed out.
"Aeli, they call me the black sheep of cabin 10 for a reason; I'm emotionally dead," the son of Aphrodite said, finally looking as he threw his last dart. "I love very few people."
"Your boyfriend and sister being among those select few, I'm aware, but shouldn't your dad be counted among those few?" she questioned. "I know it probably hurt when he couldn't make time for you guys, but he wants a chance to do better. Is there anything that would convince you to give him that chance?"
As he moved to collect his darts, Wes paused for a moment. "... There might be one way. If he proves himself by coming to camp without anyone except maybe you, then I'll at least consider it.
"If he can't do that, I'm content to live at this camp for the rest of my life."
~*~
"Alex?" Bruce murmured, seeing the nervous-looking teen on his doorstep and rushing to hug her. "I-I'm not dreaming, right? You're actually here?"
"I'm here, Dad, and I'm okay," Alex insisted, though it took a moment of shock before she hugged him back. "I just got sick of you ignoring me all the time, so when being a little brat didn't work, I ran away instead."
"I know, sweetie; I'm sorry. I promise, I'll try to do better now, and set aside at least an hour for you each day," the billionaire promised, kissing her head softly before looking around. "... Where is your brother?"
"Wesley... he said the only way... he'd even consider coming home... was if you came for him... by yourself," Ana panted out, just floating in the manor's fountain exhaustedly.
"Are you alright, young lady?" Alfred questioned in concern, glancing over the exhausted Atlantean. In spite of how she'd gotten here and the fact that she was floating in a fountain, he was quite certain that most of the liquid soaking her body was sweat. "You look as though you just swam the English channel."
"Oh, that'd be a dream... compared to this," Ana chuckled in a self-deprecating tone. "I-I'll be fine, I promise... just need... some rest."
Bruce nodded slowly, pretending not to get why she was tired before looking to Alex with a small smile. "Any topics I should avoid with your brother?"
"Well... don't try telling him the company or anything else took your attention from us; people trying to justify it that way posses him off more than anything else," Alex said as she rubbed the back of her neck. "If you want him to listen, you need to own up to it instead and listen to what's on his mind. Most importantly, you need to let him come to you."
"Alright. Since your friend is apparently exhausted, why don't we head inside and have dinner while she recovers her energy?" Bruce offered, wrapping an arm around his daughter's neck. "Is your favorite still cheese pizza?"
"Actually, I'm more of a 'pasta with butter sauce' kind of girl these days," Alex said softly. "But... some homemade cheese pizza actually sounds pretty good right now."
"Alfred? Care to join us for some pizza-making in the kitchen?"
"I believe my talents will be better served taking care of the young lady in the fountain, as Master Dick is out at Master Wallace's tonight, but do have fun, sir."
"Oh, almost forgot!" Alex realized, taking a red solo cup from her bag and filling it with a golden-colored liquid in her flask and popping a straw in as well. She then turned and handed the cup to Alfred. "Try to get her to drink this once she can get up; it'll give her some energy back. Just don't let her have more than what's in the cup; too much of it isn't good for her."
"Of course. It's good to have you back, Miss Alexandra," Alfred said warmly.
Alex smiled back, returning to her father's side as she responded.
"Happy to be back, Alf."
~*~
"You want me to stay?" Nico offered, arms lazily hung around Wesley's neck with his chin resting on the other's head. "Cause I'm cool to stick around for moral support."
"No, you go ahead and meet with Ana for lunch; I know you've been looking forward to your Happy Meal all month," Wes teased, a barely existent smirk on his face.
"You get caught using Happy Meals to raise spirits one time, and suddenly it's a running gag," the son of Hades grumbled, letting go of his boyfriend.
"It's also because your moral support sucks; last time I needed moral support, you played 'Spooky Scary Skeletons' on the ribcage of a skeleton you summoned," the son of Aphrodite pointed out. "Using his femurs as mallets to do it."
"It worked, didn't it?"
"Goodbye Nico."
"Fuck you, too, Lover Boy."
Bruce sort of just watched the exchange go down until Nico finally left, leaving Wesley to find a seat on the front steps next to his father. However, the boy all too eagerly took the chance to sharpen and polish his sword while they talked. "I'm actually kinda surprised you came; I thought you only cared about work and, well, your other work."
Bruce bit his tongue a bit. Alex had told him he needed to listen to Wesley if he wanted his son to come anywhere near home, so he did his best to just listen, though he did throw in, "I deserve that. There's no excuse for leaving you two by yourselves as often as I did."
"No, there isn't," the younger of the pair agreed, tightening his hold on the hilt of his sword ever so slightly. "And I know you'll probably say some bullshit like 'I was making a living for you guys', or 'I was making Gotham safer for you', but save it. We didn't want money or a protector; we wanted our father around. Do you have any idea how many times work ran late for you and me and Alex ended up either walking home from school or begging Alfred to tell us where the Hades you were? I lost count at about 57! And that's not even the worst part, no, whenever we begged you to take it easy because you're all we had and you'd come home with broken ribs or really bloody wounds, you would insist on patrolling the next night anyways! DO you have any idea how terrifying it is for a nine-year-old to see their father come home with blood gushing out their gut or barely able to breathe?!"
Bruce bit his lip, trying to stay silent and just listen to the boy. "But you know, even that isn't the worst part. The worst part is that I can't hate you. I want to hate you, I wish I could hate you, but I can't," Wesley informed. "I'm in a constant cycle of wanting to hate you, feeling guilty for feeling that way, and then hating myself for feeling guilty! And it sucks, because I know that grudges can be fatal to people like me, but I just can't let go of all the hurt that you caused!"
"... I won't pretend to understand. I won't pretend I did nothing wrong either; I know I did. All I can do now is try to do better," Bruce admitted, standing up and clasping a hand on his son's shoulder. "Wesley, I won't expect you to trust me again right away, because I know that I've betrayed that trust before. I also won't expect you to forgive me right away. Heck, if you or Alexandra decide that you're not seeing any changes from how I was before you ran away, I won't stop you guys from coming back to camp. All I'm asking for is a chance."
The younger of the two ravens sighed, looking at his hand where he'd accidentally cut himself. "... One chance and that's it." The boy said firmly. "If you blow it, I'm gone. Just give me a bit to get this cut fixed up and my stuff packed. Oh, and one other thing."
"Name it."
"I know Alex and I can't convince you to give up your... hobby, so can you at least let us participate?"
~*~
"... Batman, who are these two?" Miss Martian questioned.
"I'm Bronze Bat, and this is my little twin sister, Beyond," Wes explained, crossing his arms. "Pleasure."
"Bronze Bat and Beyond are my newest partners," Batman explained. "And as of today, they'll be joining the team."
"It's nice to meet you all," Alex said softly. "Just a fair warning; my brother is pretty prickly even after you get to know him, and he's happily taken."
"Ah, a fellow ladies man, huh?" Wally smirked, crossing his arms and stepping closer to Wesley. "What's the lucky lady like? A blonde? Or a brunette? Or maybe she's a redhead, like moi?"
Wesley smirked, crossing his arms as he readjusted the sunglasses he was being forced to wear. "My significant other is a raven, actually, and trust me when I say that you really don't want him to hear you saying anything that makes it sound like you're remotely hitting on me."
"He's not wrong; his boyfriend is scary when he's mad," Alex nodded, letting out a small shudder of fear.
"And actually, I promised I'd message him this evening, so I'm gonna go do that if nobody minds too much," Wes decided, crossing his arms behind his neck before going to the showers and locking the door behind him.
He got a shower started and adjusted it so it'd catch the light and make a rainbow, taking a breath. "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept this offering," he said as he tossed in a gold drachma. "Show me Nico di Angelo."
After a few moments, the light fizzled to form an image of Nico, lazing about on a hammock he'd jury-rigged in his cabin, a sleepy smile on the Italian boy's face. "S'up, Pretty boy."
"Hey, it's not my fault I got stuck in Mom's beauty burst as long as I did; you saw me try to shave my head when that was still going," Wesley pointed out with a pout, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yeah, I still can't believe that of every kid your mom has, you were the one that ended up with a beauty burst that lasted almost a year," Nico chuckled, sitting up a bit. "The nicknames of 'Pretty Boy' and 'Pagent King' are never going to go away."
"Yeah, I know. Pretty sure Mom pulled that just to spite me; knew I couldn't give two Minotaur craps about my appearance and set me up like that so I'd start caring or something," Wes admitted.
"I mean, I'm pretty sure she did everyone a favor; I've heard horror stories about the time before you were claimed," the son of hades smirked.
"I'm not taking this when you currently look like death warmed over, pun not intended," the Wayne boy said simply. "Did you overdo it on Shadow travel again?"
"Only slightly, and I'm resting now on Solace's orders," Nico said simply, literally hand-waving the issue. "Geez, ya collapse during dinner one time. I'm starting to think it's a family trait, Wesley. I mean, if I'm the Prince of Darkness, you're the Prince of Pettiness."
"It's not petty to be worried about your boyfriend; the last time you collapsed like that, you were unconscious for almost a week," Wes argued. "... I'm just looking out for you... You're one of the only people on this Gods-forsaken rock I actually care about."
"You can say 'love', babe," the Italian teased, pausing when he noticed the uncomfortable look on Wesley's face. "Sorry, sorry, I forgot that you've got philophobia, especially in regards to actually saying the word."
"D-Don't worry, it's easy to forget," Wesley insisted. "I mean, ironic, right?
"I'm a child of Aphrodite that fears love."