Project Shikon

Chapter 15

Later that afternoon they had all split up from Shi's, or rather now Shion's, improv family meeting. Jason had split from the group first and hours later was not hiding in a nice private corner of the library that nobody usually wandered to. He was passing texts with Roy, both on any possible relevant information on Shi's case and testing the waters about finally telling his best friend about her. He'd been pretty vague about the information he'd been giving Roy the past couple of days. He's been trying to avoid the unbridled teasing he would end up receiving about taking in a stray kid. He just knew that Roy would tease him about starting to adopt kids just like Bruce.

With a stretch to pop his back from sitting on the chair sidewise for so long, he glanced at the time. He's been hiding in the library for over two hours now. It took him a moment but he realized just how quiet it was in the manor. He hadn't overheard a single fight in the time he'd been hiding in here. With how many of them were currently within the manor he should have heard something by now. A small frown tilted his lips as a thought popped into his head, where was the kid?

With a sigh, he threw his legs off the side of the chair and stood up to start looking. He didn't know why he was so bothered by not knowing where she was. It wasn't like she'd get in any trouble within the manor. Not since all of the Batfamily knew about her now, even the more extended members. They hadn't wanted another possible Tim incident so Dick had sent out a mass text to all of their members about the temporary resident. Now that Shi was apparently good with Tim he really shouldn't have to worry about her, yet here he was exiting his safe haven to try and find a kid who was obviously going to be fine. It was a small nagging need in him however that he needed to make sure she truly was alright.

It took him a while but he finally found her down in the Batcave. She was playing a virtual game of checkers with Tim while sitting on Barbara's lap. Both Tim and Barbara were multitasking. Barbara was sneaking in cuddle sessions with Shion, who was basking in the attention, while doing some intense-looking hacking. Tim was keeping up with a surprisingly fast-paced game of checkers and flipping through many different camera feeds looking for information.

"Where the hell is everybody?" he asked forgoing any greetings as he walked up. He gave Shion a pat on her head and she beamed up at him before turning her attention back to her game. He had searched practically the entire manor before deciding to check the cave. The only person he had found was Alfred in the kitchen cooking up a storm for meals for him to take home.

Tim didn't even turn from his screen as he answered, "Damian invited Jon over to do something, so we brought Shion down here so he wouldn't see her. He didn't say what it was about, but he kidnapped Dick to be their driver. Bruce got an emergency call from WI and he went to go fix the problem. Alfred's been cooking since early this morning. Is there anything we can help you with?"

Jason shook his head, "Naw, not really." There was something that he had wanted to ask Dick, but that could wait. With a lack of anything better to do, Jason plopped into one of the chairs to watch the checkers game. To his amusement, Shion was winning.

"Checkers?" Jason asked, a why was clear in his tone.

"I wanted to see how fast she could catch onto something and she's never played before. I figured the easiest and safest way was through a strategy game. So, I started off small with connect four which she caught onto almost immediately. Then we moved to checkers, which as you can see she is catching onto with little issue. I plan on drawing up a lesson plan for her to learn how to read and write and possibly learn sign language. Before I do that though I needed to see how basic or fast-paced I should make it. I should be able to make a decently fast-paced one for her. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she was a genius. She learns strategy very quickly and she should learn letters and words with no problem. I'm thinking about introducing her to chess." Tim rattled off.