Batman & Robin And Me .:rewritten:.

IV. Soup & Incredible Reflexes

ALFRED SET A BOWL of chicken noodle soup in front of me, and a plate of strange-looking finger sandwiches next to Bruce and Dick before he left the room as quickly as he had entered it. I wondered if he ever ate.

"Uh..." I leaned over and mumbled out of the corner of my mouth. "What's that?"

Dick grimaced, shoving another into his mouth. "Ish ah pwuseh."

"What?"

"Present. It's a present. The people next door, the Queens, they're fond of sending us expensive food. I hate living in a rich neighborhood sometimes. Alfred makes Bruce and I eat it. Something about etiquette and protocol. I'd rather have that." He stared at my bowl in envy.

"You can have it." I pushed the soup in his direction. "I'm really not hungry."

"At least try it," he coaxed. "Maybe you'll find you've suddenly developed a voracious appetite."

I shrugged and put a spoonful in my mouth, deciding that it tasted as good as it looked.

The rectangular dining hall was full of light, with huge glass windows on one side overlooking a view worthy of a painting, with luscious grass that was dotted with wildflowers and a smudge of dark trees in the background that stretched beyond what could be seen.

The furnishings were entirely tasteful too, with a solid oak table that stretched the length of the room, white, pillowy chairs pushed into the sides at regular intervals. Everything was well-made, high quality, and very expensive. The chandelier alone probably cost a small fortune, and would have paid both my parents' salaries for a handful of months.

My eyes slid to the young man next to me, who was debating last night's baseball game heatedly with Bruce.

Maybe I would be alright here. I missed my family horribly, but the Wayne household was entirely welcoming and friendly. There could be some semblance of a normal life here, at least until my brothers were found and my parents were out of the hospital.

My face fell as I remembered the state of our home. We would have to move, leave behind the house we had lived in since I was a small child. Mom and Dad had built it from the ground, carefully laying out plans and working for years before they had any children. We had played and cried and laughed in that house. And now it was gone.

The thought was too painful, and I tore my mind away, instead focusing on the conundrum that had been lurking in the back of my mind ever since I woke up. I knew they were Batman and Robin.

Now this, in and of itself, could be overcome. I would just hide it from them, and hope they could eventually trust me enough to tell me of their own accord. But the fact that I knew was what was bothering me.

I knew from the comics. And there had been movies as well, and rebooted comics and books, and merchandise and toys and tv series and a hundred other things, all in the name of fiction.

How in the Holy Batman had the Dynamic Duo turned out to actually exist?

"...Harmony?"

"Ah!" I pushed my chair back and tried to stop my ears from turning chartreuse, realizing that I must have been staring at the table in front of me for several minutes now. "Uh, hi."

Dick watched me closely for a moment and I turned my eyes away, feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny.

Just as the moment was stretched so long that it was about to snap, and saving me from certain discovery (I can't hold my tongue to save my life), Alfred stepped in.

"Master Bruce, I'm so sorry to interrupt. We have news."

Bruce snapped his eyes from me and Dick, mouth hardening. "Area and coordinates?'

Alfred gave a barely imperceptible nod.

Pushing his chair back, Bruce caught Dick's gaze. "Well, I'm sorry to leave you so soon, Harmony, but unfortunately Dick and I have some business to take care of."

Dick shrugged apologetically at me. "Billionares." The charmer's smile came out again, but it was a little thinner this time. "Catch you later."

"Bye?" I replied, the confused squeak in my voice unintentionally phrasing as a question. I raised my hand to wave farewell, but he had already dashed from the room with his mentor and their butler, leaving me sitting alone in the grand, spacious dining room that already seemed quiet and lonely.

What are they...?

My thoughts seemed be mostly questions these days.

After waiting a moment and poking halfheartedly at the soup, which had gone cold, I stood up and dashed after them, taking care to make no noise with my bare feet.

Out of the dining room. Into the spacious living area. Up the winding staircase. Down the balcony hall. Down another flight of stairs, this one positioned at the most extreme end of the house.

I really wasn't sure where I was going, but they obviously weren't in where we had just been, and I could faintly hear hurried, low voices down at the bottom of the stairs.

Sucking in a breath and hoping that I wasn't making a horrible mistake, I pelted downstairs to greet--

...nothing. There was only an empty, ornate sitting room that opened out onto the main driveway.

I sprinted to the window to see if they had somehow gotten outside without my hearing it, but the massive front lawn was completely empty.

"I don't understand." I murmured, falling back and taking another look around the room. "I could've sworn..."

My eyes fell on a thick set of bookcases that were set into the wall. There was an opening in between two of them, with a dark hole behind it.

And to my horror, I realized that it was closing. Fast.

Before I had time to think about what I was doing, I swiped a pencil off of a table near me and threw it, laughing at myself even as I did so. It would either make it, and fly through, or it would fail, and bounce off. There was no way it could wedge the door open.

Except it did.

"Noooo..." I grinned, putting my hands over my mouth in disbelief. "I'm...so...awesome..."

In the next moment, I had rushed to the door and with a bit of pushing and grunting, I had pushed it open again, barely squeezing through before it shut again, for real this time.

I started to laugh in disbelief, and then thought better of it.

The door was completely shut now, and even though I tried out of curiosity, nothing was going to open it again. There was obvious some kind of passcode or something, but whatever it was, I didn't have it. There wouldn't be any coming back out of this door unless I had someone with me that knew how to open it.

Whatever happened after this, there was no turning back now.

Go ahead. Click on the star. You know you want to.

Aethea out.