Family

Chapter five

"So you are forbidden by the Batman from revealing your identity yes?" Kaldur asked.

"Um yeah"

"How come Wally gets to know the big secret but the team doesn't?" Artemis whined.

"Because Wally found out years ago, when I first started out as robin, and Amethyst has only been an official hero for like two weeks."

"Rob is just sour because poison ivy likes me more than him"

"What no I'm not"

"Wait I'm confused, why would he be sour about that?" M'gann asked.

"Because if you get a villain to like you, then during fights they won't hurt you, and it's more likely that they will team up with the bats in a city wide crisis" robin explained.

"Why would they team up with Batman, don't they put the city in a crisis every time they decided to commit a crime?" Artemis asked.

"It's an agreement between the villains and Batman that in the event of aliens, or something that Batman would struggle to handle, they would team up to protect their city, and then they could go back to their petty squabbles after that" i said.

"But Batman has the justice league, us, and you guys, why would he need to make that deal?" Connor asked

"Because Batman likes to defend the city on his own with the people from Gotham, have you ever even seen Batman ask Superman for something to do with Gotham? Unless he can't handle it with himself, the villains, and us then he calls in the justice league and you guys as a last resort, but that's like absolute last option" robin answered.

"It's much like flash's deal with the rogues, city wide panic = superhero and villain team up. But flash also deals with villains differently, they actually have a relationship, whereas Batman would much rather punch them in the face, robin and I are more likely to have a conversation with the villains than Batman." I supplied. Everyone turned to kidflash.

"What it's true, but it's a friendlier approach than say punching them in the face." Wally defended.

After eating some of M'gann's burnt cookies, we went to the couches, when we sat, I sat in between dick and Wally, as we all talked to each other.

After a few hours at the cave, we got a few blips from Batman, and we had to go.

"Alright well, it was fun but Amethyst and I have to go back to the batcave so, bye"

"Yeah it was really fun meeting everyone" dick and I walked to the zeta tubes, and dick put in the location for where we were going.

"Recognized Robin B0-1, Amethyst B0-8"

We walked through the beam after everyone's goodbyes, and I got the same strange feeling as last time, and then we were at the cave.

"So how was meeting the team" dad was in the Batman costume but his cowl was down, a sign that he wasn't dark and brooding right now, well less so than when he's Batman.

"It was awesome, Wally figured out who I was in like the first ten minutes, and we all just talked. Thank you for letting me join the team dad"

"You're welcome, but dick also played a part"

"Aw man so maybe I shouldn't have destroyed him in the cave"

"What"

"Oh Wally challenged us against each other, and I totally won"

"Whatever I don't wanna talk about it" he playfully stuck his tongue out at me and I returned the gesture.

"Alright well you two are gonna go through the training simulator, and then go to bed, no patrolling for you two tonight, got it"

"Yes sir" dick and I said at the same time. Dad used one of those tones that left no room for arguing, no matter how much I hated the training simulator.

Hours, bruises, and much tiredness later, dick and I made our way to our rooms. I took my costume off, peeling the domino mask off my face, and changed into some sweats. I climbed into the massive bed, pulling the comforter over my shoulder, only leaving my head showing, and drifted off into a quiet sleep.

I woke up to a storm raging outside, thunder being the source of waking up. I heard my door open, and footsteps moving swiftly over to my bed.

Damian's little face peeks out from the corner of my bed

"Hey dami, did the storm scare you?"

"Yeah"

I nodded, understanding what he wanted. I pulled the edge of my comforter up and Damian crawled in.

We fell asleep next to each other, Damian loving it because he fell asleep feeling safe.

When we awoke the next morning dick was leaning against the door jam, with a smirk on his face. I untangled myself from Damian's grip, and pushed dick out of my room, leaving the sleeping boy stay that way.

After the door was successfully closed and we were down the hall, I had to ask.

"What's with the smirk?"

"Oh nothing, just the fact that even Damian loves to cuddle"

"It's not a weird thing, he was just scared"

"I know, it's just how do you do it?"

"Are you kidding me, Tim comes running to you every time he scrapes his knee."

"Not the others, plus that's only if you're not there"

"That's beside the point. Anyway, what are you doing up?"

"Thought we could go to the cave, you know in our civies, and you can set up your room just the way you like it."

"I have a room there?"

"Yeah of coarse, it's your own little private space, except I have the codes, so your own private space plus me. Sometimes I sleep at the cave after a mission, and I also have clothes, and swiming stuff there, because sometimes Kaldur does a whole team bonding thing and we go to the beach or something, but your stuff is already there, you just have to arrange it"

"Ok, so how does the civies work if we're trying to keep our identities a secret?"

Dick held up a pair of black sunglasses, pulling out another pair matching to the ones he already held.

"Wear your normal clothes, nobody will recognize you, and they haven't done it for me yet, so it works"

"Okay" I was still a little skeptical, but I took the shades going to my room to change.

When I got there, Damian was still asleep, so I snuck around, grabbing my clothes and made my way to the bathroom.

After changing I opened the door to find Damian standing just outside it, clearly still groggy and rubbing his small fists in his eyes.

Damian was really clingy when he first wakes up, so I hold him until he's ready to go down.

Picking up the relatively small and light seven year old he laid his head down on my shoulder and tucked his arms on his chest so he was snuggling against me.

I walked to the kitchen and started getting some breakfast one handed. Generally Alfred liked to cook for us but on Saturdays we made our own food, because it was almost always a free for all, since everyone always got up at erratic times of the day.

Dick walked in and just sighed, knowing we couldn't leave until Damian wanted to be put down, or else someone would have a melt down.

An hour later Damian jumped down from my arms and ran to his room.

"Bye dami, see you soon" Damian ran back into the room hugging my legs, and saying farewell to 'Grayson'. I just laughed.

"Alright we can go now." I placed the glasses on my face, seeing that dick had already done so, and we walked down to the batcave, that held the zeta tubes.