The Boy king and The Dark Knights

IX

DICK LEARNED from his mistakes.

While many people would say otherwise, Dick liked to think he was in fact very good at learning from his mistakes.

That was why, this time, he was going to break into Jason's apartment through the front door.

And he had Cass with him!

Cass would totally protect him!

Not that he needed protection, he was Nightwing, and he had defeated people way scarier than some kid with a thermos.

The kid had just caught him by surprise. He wouldn't be able to do it again.

But Cass was good to have. Just in case.

It was also mid-day, and if things got awkward Dick could leave claiming he was hungry for lunch.

Alfred would tell Dick he was running away from his problems.

Dick preferred the term 'tactical retreat'.

Alfred was probably right.

Dick was surprised when the door knob turned easily under his grasp, and he was able to push open the door without any resistance.

He was even more surprised to see Damian sitting with Danny on the floor, playing with a green(?) dog as Jason watched them with a fond look on his face.

Damian, looked up at Dick as he walked in, nodded in recognition, and then refocused on the excited puppy he was playing tug-of-war with.

"Hi Dick!" Danny grinned warmly, and Dick couldn't help but smile back. "How's your face?" He asked, and Dick could feel his smile grow a bit more strained.

"It's cool, there weren't any hits that were too bad." Dick waved his hand nonchalantly, deliberately ignoring the twinging bruise on his forearm.

"Don't you guys have a mansion to hang out in? One that's like, bigger than my apartment?" Jason asked as Dick let himself in, willfully ignoring his brothers words to bend down and pet the excitable puppy.

"Cass wanted to meet Danny." Dick says, gesturing behind him to where Cass was standing by the door.

"Cass?" Danny asked, before looking over to the woman at the door.

'You didn't tell him about me? I thought I was your favorite sister.' Cass signed, her face torn between a grin and mock offense.

"How many siblings do you have?" Danny turned to Jason, who looked startled.

"You know sign language?" Jason asked, surprise apparent on his face.

"Yeah. A pretty decent chunk of the ghost community is mute, so I got Sam to teach me." Danny responded, as if having nonverbal conversations with the spirits of the dead was a normal thing.

'Ghost community?' Cass signed, and Dick realized that no one had told her about the ghost thing.

"Again, I had a portal to the ghost realm in my basement. Ghosts were flying in and out of my house like, all the time. Ignoring them would be kind of a jerk move." Danny shrugged. "Are there any more surprise siblings I need to look out for?"

"You've met all the ones that were legally adopted." Jason said, before pausing and turning to Dick. "B hasn't adopted any new kids I don't know about, right?"

"Saying all the legally adopted ones makes me think that there are some who aren't legally adopted." Danny frowned as Jason gave him a grin and a shrug.

Danny turned to look at Cass again before furrowing his eyebrows. "So is the Black-hair Blue-eyes thing something he does on purpose? There's like 4 of you and this feels purposeful."

Cass grinned at Danny. 'You're included.'

"So you inherited your Dads adopting problems and his preferred adopting type? How unoriginal." Danny teased Jason.

"Do you have any siblings Daniel?" Damian asked the boy sitting next to him.

"Yeah, I have two sisters! Jazz is older than me and she's really smart. Dani isn't technically my sister, but I just kind of call her that anyways." Danny talked about his sisters in such a happy way, and Dick felt a flash of envy at the boy's good relationship with his sisters. Maybe he could ask the kid for some tips.

"Was she adopted by your parents or something?" Dick asked. Jason scowled at the notion, and Dick wondered what Jason knew that made him react that way.

"No, my parents don't know about her. She's my clone."

Huh.

So Tim's clone theory had some merit.

"What!?"

-

Bruce's children were hiding something from him.

Tim had been lost in his thoughts for the past five days, muttering something about amity and ghosts.

Damian had been complaining about school, which wasn't unusual, but he hadn't been spending as much time in the manor as he usually did. When Bruce asked him, Damian told him he was taking Titus to the dog-park, but Bruce had driven by the park and seen no sign of Damian or Titus.

Dick had been patrolling at seemingly random patterns, being seen in Crime Alley two times, and he somehow hadn't even been shot at yet.

Cass was in town, and every time Bruce saw her she had a mysterious smile on her face, obviously happy with whatever secretive thing that was effecting her siblings lives.

Bruce hadn't seen Jason since the last time Scarecrow had attacked, and according to the people in crime alley, Red Hood had been patrolling for shorter periods of time, and in a more concentrated area.

Alfred probably knew what was going on too, but he wasn't offering up any information, so Bruce needed to figure it out on his own.

Bruce's children were hiding something from him, and Bruce was going to figure it out.

After all, he wasn't called The Worlds Greatest Detective for nothing.