Raising Robins

Damian, Danger, and the Drug Deal.

Damian was moping at dinner. He was just told that he was grounded from that night's mission for his behavior. The table held a normal conversation, as "mission talk" was forbidden at the table. Bruce believed that the boys should have some times that were safe spaces for them to just be themselves. Damian often didn't like that.

"So I can't go just because I was going to stab Drake?" Damian asked, face smushed against his left hand, elbow propped on the table's edge. "I wasn't going to do it hard. And it was a PLASTIC knife."

Bruce and his brothers ignored him. That was what Bruce said to do: ignore Damian when he talked about the missions. 

"I mean, I could stab him with an actual-"

"Damian Thomas." Bruce said, lowering his voice. "Finish your meal and wait on the edge of your bed."

Damian threw his hands up in the air. "Great." He pushed himself away and hopped off the chair to march straight up to his impending doom. "Bloody wonderful."

Tim hid a smile. "He's picking up Alfred's vernacular." 

Once dinner was finished, the boys left to go and gear up before a final debrief. They were collaborating with Batwoman, Kate Kane. After all, the drug bust was in her family's end of Gotham. The Kane Family and Wayne Family owned most of the city. It helped that Kate was Bruce's cousin, too. Family ties run tight.

Upstairs, Damian was reading on the edge of his bed. A textbook- Jason's to be exact. Damian figured Jason wouldn't read it, anyways. 

The Wayne Head of House took his time going up the stairs. He intended to talk to Damian, but he could tell that talking was not the boy's strong suit. He knocked and opened the door. Damian set the book down.

"I'm going whether or not you tell me I can go." Damian said, arms crossed.

"Wrong answer." Bruce said, sitting in the armchair across from his son's bed. "Damian, you know that fighting with your brothers is against the rules and your violence against Timothy is unacceptable and you will be disciplined for it."

The youngest Wayne boy pouted. "It's not fair. Drake's an idiot and I hate him."

"No. You don't. Now. You're grounded. Don't make me add to that."

"You can't ground me! I am built to be Robin!" Damian yelled.

"You don't get to yell at me, Damian. You don't get to yell at anyone."

"But you get to yell?!"

Bruce frowned. He also thought. Had he yelled recently? No. He almost laughed. He hadn't actually raised his voice in a long time. Now changed his tone? By God he did that everyday.

"I want you to put on your pajamas and go to bed. Alfred will be in the Cave. If you leave, believe me- you will get the spanking of a lifetime."

"Yeah, right." Damian muttered.

"Count on it." Bruce promised. He left to leave but spoke once more before closing the door. "Go to bed."

---

Back in the Cave, the older boys were getting ready to be briefed. Tim took the liberty to pass out the files."

"This is all hands on deck." Bruce said, pulling on his cowl. "And if any of you see Damian. Report it immediately." He sighed. "Now there's a shipment of Narcotics in Kane County. It's already made it past the docks on New Year's Day."

The boys looked guilty.

"Hey." Bruce redirected. "There's nothing wrong with taking a night off. We can correct this. The thing is- this is a more dangerous mission. A case-filed criminal is onto this one."

"Joker?" Jason asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Bane." Batman explained. "Drugs aren't his regular M.O. so something is up. It's usually pharmaceuticals. It's likely he will be selling them to make a trade. Watch your heads and torso. His blows pack a punch. Better yet- don't. get. hit. Leave him to me."

 The boys nodded.

Damian watched as the Batmobile lights came out the other side of the tunnel in the lower half of the city from a pair of binoculars. He jumped to his feet and undid the buttons on his nightwear and pulled on his tunic that he had moved under his bed.

The fighting was hours long. Tim got shot in the shoulder, but it only grazed the skin, which is why he only thought that he had gotten slashed. He rode back in pain, but was mostly unscathed. Dick may have sustained a concussion and was lucky that he was off work for a week to recuperate, and Jason got a cut on his back. Bruce had a straight punch to the side of his ribs but a bio-scan from his suit uploaded to his cowl said that he was fine.

An alert came from Tim over the earpiece.

"Robin's gone."

It didn't take long for Damian to make an entrance and even quicker than he arrived, Jason was sent to bring him back. They fought the whole ride home.

"You can't listen to one thing, can you, Demon Wayne?!" Jason yelled. "You could have been killed!"

"YEAH, and you would know what that's like because you WERE actually killed." Damian threw back. A LOW blow.

"At least people wanted me alive."

"You can thank my grandfather." Damian grumbled, arms crossed.

By the time Bruce arrived, it was 3am. Damian was in bed. He had been in bed for all of fifteen minutes before Bruce came in. Damian had never seen his father so angry. He was in for a walloping...