Robin one shot part 3!

I promise

Morally_Gray was sharing some headcanons and i love this one so much 

The reports had to be wrong. There had to be something lost in translation. There had to be, there needed to be, because there was no way that Commissioner Gordon just heard through the radio that Batman had a child running around by his side fighting crime. Unfortunately, it didn't seem very likely for these reports to be both through the radio and everywhere on social media. His blood boiled when he saw a video of the suspected sidekick. He looked young, maybe six or seven, and certainly wasn't very strong looking. Of course, he didn't, he was a child! A child fighting crime! As a father himself, Gordon couldn't believe what he was seeing. Presumably, this boy had a parent somewhere and if not then Batman was his parent which was somehow worse than if he wasn't. To make things worse, he wasn't wearing protective gear other than gloves and his suit that didn't cover nearly enough in the first place. Gordon didn't even know if the suit itself was made out of some kind of protective material. He did know that the kid wouldn't last a night in Gotham without catching mild frostbite. When he got a second video of the boy fighting without Batman's eye on him, he knew he couldn't let this go on. He turned on the bat signal and waited on the familiar rooftop ready to give the vigilante a piece of his mind.  

Not ten minutes later, Batman showed up with his new sidekick in tow. The child looked even smaller in person. He hopped from one foot to another with the brightest smile Gordon had ever seen. He looked like he'd just got through the gates of Disneyland and had an all-access pass. Unfortunately, he just had a pass to see his mentor be chewed out by Gordon. "What is it?" Batman asked. 

"What- You have a child running around in spandex! You can't possibly think that I was going to let that happen!" Gordon shouted. 

"It's not spandex, it's more like a cotton and graphene mix," the boy corrected. Gordon looked down at him with a blank expression. He was impressed the kid had the guts to correct him but guts weren't going to keep him safe. "Oh, I'm D-Robin. Robin. Hero names. 'Cuz I'm a hero." Why did he have to be the most un-intimidating creature to walk the world? He was simply the cutest little kid Gordon had seen and he was being put in the worst place for a child to be.

"Nice to meet you kid," he greeted, briefly dropping his serious tone so as not to scare him. Robin waved to him with a grin. He then went back to the serious tone and returned his gaze to Batman. "You need to take him home to his parents." The pair grew awkward at that comment, Robin moving close to the vigilante and receiving a head pat to calm him. Gordon wasn't an idiot and could take a wild guess as to why he got that reaction. He felt his heartache for the poor kid but that didn't dissuade him from the reason he'd summoned Batman. Whatever happened to his parents, putting the boy in shorts and sending him into battle wouldn't do anything to help. "Right. Well, even so, he should be at home."

"He doesn't stay out for very long. He only helps with the few robberies here and there," Batman argued. As though that was a valid argument. A person could be walking down the street for only a few minutes and still get hurt. Not to mention, that person wasn't actively looking for crime to fight. They were quite literally looking for trouble.

"Robbers have guns, Batman."

"Not all of them shoot though," Robin defended. "And the first time I ever went out, I saved B. Didn't I?" Batman nodded with a proud smile, giving his hair a quick ruffle. "If I can do that, I can keep safe!"

"He's being trained to do-" Gordon put his hand up.

"Stop right there. He is a child. No ifs, no buts, he's a little kid who needs to be at home." The pair looked at one another and then at the police officer, shaking their heads. "What do you mean- THIS IS BASIC ETHICS!"

There was silence as Gordon paced the rooftop before he tried to deck Batman. He knew it wouldn't go well and he didn't want to get his ass beat in front of a child. That wouldn't do much for his ego. He couldn't even look at Batman. He was far too mad to see him let alone hear any more excuses. This wasn't right, this could never be right. He didn't want to arrest the man and he definitely didn't want to arrest him in front of Robin. There was hopefully someone in the household who could look after the boy if he needed to but he didn't really want to leave him without a dad. Then again, was he better without Batman putting him in danger? He kept pacing until he felt a small hand wrap around his and he looked down to find Robin staring up at him. "I'm gonna do it anyway sir. Even if Batman didn't train me. I'm very stubborn," the younger insisted. 

"Robin, you are so young and tiny and you can't be subjected to what we face when keeping the city safe. No one should but especially not someone as young as you," Gordon told him. He knelt down and held onto the kid's hand tightly. He looked the boy in the eye with all the sincerity he could muster. "Please. You can't fight crime. You can do it when you're older but not now. You'll get hurt." Robin stared back at him before looking down at Gordon's old hand. He pulled away and offered his pinky finger.

"I pinky promise that I won't get hurt. You don't need to worry about me." Gordon sighed. He didn't want to offer up his pinky and agree to this because he knew the promise wasn't one that could be kept if he went down this path. The domino effect would be real and if someone found out that he'd been able to do something to stop Robin from being on the streets then he could lose his job. There was no conceivable way a child running around punching criminals would not end badly yet there he was wrapping his pinky finger around the others to seal the promise. He stood up with a sigh as Robin skipped back to stand beside his mentor. 

"If anything, and I mean anything happens to that boy, I'll make sure you spend your life behind bars. Got that?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Batman assured him.

And so it became a tradition. Batman would bring out his shiny new apprentice, and Gordon would disagree with letting someone so young do their job only to be won over and let it happen. Gordon didn't know if it was the right thing to do. He knew the family of young heroes had done so much good and had inspired people to do more than he could ever do but at what cost? No childhood, no downtime, no chances to be a kid without some form of trauma haunting them. Thinking about it would never give him a good night's sleep so, over the years, he learned to just accept that even if he did interject it wouldn't do anything. The most he could do was hope for the best and do what he could.