-It's our 40th part Y'ALL!-
-stock photo appreciation-
Ages
Damian - 19
Tim - 16
Jason - 12
Dick - 9
You know that scene in murder mysteries where everyone is in the lounge and the detective comes is and explains who the killer is? Imagine that.
They were all grounded to the house because of external reasons, but someone had left the upstairs window open and a ladder underneath. an hour or so after this was discovered, the grandfather clock was heard closing, and it looked as though someone had been getting ready to head out on patrol. this was obviously, strictly forbidden. Thus the brothers were assembled in the living room.
Damian was leaning against the wall by the door, watching the proceedings lazily, Tim was laying backwards across a chair, Dick was sitting cross-legged on the floor, and Jason had been pulled into the other room to be interrogated. Each brother was being taken separately and given the prisoner's dilemma; a paradox where each person was offered a chance to get off early if they implicated someone else in the crime.
The thing about brothers is that they all knew that the sibling that snitched was asking get hit by their own source of justice.
Jason strolled in casually, hands in his pocket, Bruce behind him.
"Alright, guys, I'm not mad. I just want to know who was trying to get out of the house." Bruce sighed. "Alright, Dick, let's go." Dick, the last one to be interrogated, crawled up from the floor and followed him. "First, is there anything you want to say?"
"uhh... LAWYER!"
Even his adopted father couldn't keep a straight face. "you think that's funny, but it's not." He took Dick into the next room for questioning, holding back his laughter.
As soon as they left his brothers lost it.
"That fucking child!" Tim gasped for air.
"He's been taught too well." Damian commented, blank faced, but thoroughly entertained.
"He's like a carbon copy!" Tim panted, trying to regain composure after having been so caught off guard.
Jason just snorted with laughter, covering the lower half of his face.
It took a few minutes for them to calm down, though anything as simple as someone coughing would set them off again. Who'd have thought that over the coarse of a year and a half, their youngest could pick up so much through osmosis.
"Alright, alright, chill!" Jason said. They assembled themselves just as their brother and father re-entered.
There was only one way to find out who was responsible... "I know that at least one of you was involved... Jason." He watched their reactions, cursing himself for teaching them how to lie so well.
Jason stood up. "I knew it! I always get blamed!" that's because he was always guilty, "Why am I always the scapegoat? ethnicity? economic background?"
Jason was being dramatic. Causing a scene (and running away) were his go-to ways to get out of trouble. Bruce rolled his eyes. His damn kids spent too much time at his work place.
"Did you know that my client has been discriminated against?" Tim stood, trying to keep a straight face, and slung his arm over his lil bro's shoulder. "What do you base these accusations upon? I'd like to see your evidence. GET READY FOR AUDITS!"
"Sit down!"
"Yes sir." Tim quietly sat back down, pulling his brother with him.
"Since none of you said anything, I'll just have to punish all of you."
Silence.
"If none of you will come forward..." Bruce sighed. "Put your phones on the table and go to your rooms."
Slowly, reluctantly, they did, trumping up the stairs until they were out of sight. Immediately, they sprinted to Tim's room.
"Alright," Damian locked the door "-all jokes aside, How did we get caught?"
"It was Dick, he was barely watching the door." Jason blurted.
"Nuh uh, it wasn't me! It was Jason, he didn't check if the door was greased.'
"That wasn't my job, MY job was to make sure the coast was clear."
"Timmy, You said it was fool proof!" Dick sounded betrayed.
"it- was? I don't know what happened."
Damian sat on the edge of the bed. "Let's exchange notes, we need to find out how we got caught."