AN: Inspired by Yale Stewart's JL8 comic series. A friend and I were fangirling over the latest strip (#134 for those of you reading this in the future) and then somehow this popped into my head. I think Yale said that Robin would always be in stuffed animal form, but here is a take if he were to exist in the comic series. Enjoy! :D
This one-shot was mainly inspired by strip #51.
And if you don't know what I'm talking about, please go to his DeviantArt (name: YaleStewart) account where you can read the whole thing!
On a final note, all characters belong to DC comics. Concept belongs to Yale Stewart…and I am just a fan writing fan fiction for a fan comic.
JL8 Gotham…or Metropolis…or wherever all these heroes currently reside in this universe.
Eight-year-old Bruce Wayne had now completely severed any romantic feelings he had for Karen. Of course they would continue being friends, but it just didn't work out—he wanted him for his ponies, not for him. He saw the limousine arrive. He thought about the talk he would have with his little robin toy that was neatly hidden in a hole in the wall behind the Gray Ghost poster in his room. It had been a pretty crummy day. He didn't want to burden Alfred with his juvenile love issues—his robin would understand.
"How was your day, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked from the driver's seat.
"It was fine." The little bat boy answered.
They didn't say much on the way back to the mansion. As soon as they got home, Bruce went straight up to his room. He settled his backpack on the floor, took off his boots, and went immediately to the Gray Ghost poster and took out his toy. "It's been quite a day, Robin" he started as he sat himself on the floor with his back against bed.
Meanwhile, Alfred headed back to the kitchen to finish a pile of dishes he had to leave undone to go pick up the young master. He did not fail to notice the melancholy look on Bruce's face. He had assumed that the more-than-usual-brooding was of Miss Karen's doing.
The pains of young love. Also "Bruce and Karen Wayne" does not have that much of a nice ring to it. Suddenly his train of thought was interrupted by a rapid knocking on the door. "Now I wonder who that could be?" he thought aloud as he dried his hands with a dish towel. "At this rate, I'll never get the dishes done."
He walked from the kitchen towards the front door. He straightened his apron and twisted the knob. "Yes?" then realized he was speaking to nothing, but the air and a random feather in the air.
He looked to his right and then his left. "Hello?" he called out. He then looked down and immediately his eyes widened in surprise. "Heavens!" he gasped.
Bruce had spent a good five to ten minutes talking to the bird, before being unexpectedly interrupted by the sound of Alfred's voice. "Master Bruce, could you please come down to the living room for a moment?"
He raised an eyebrow and settled the toy on the floor and walked towards the door.
That's weird, snack time isn't for another half hour, he thought. He then paused at the entrance of his room and suddenly felt panicked. "What if he found out about that incident from gym class?!" he said in a quiet trembling voice.
He swallowed his fear. If he was in trouble with Alfred…well gosh darn it, he was going to take it like The Batman! He turned the knob on the door and proceeded to walk down a small flight of stairs and saw Alfred standing in the entrance of the living room. "Yes, Alfred?" the young boy asked as he twiddled with his fingers under the cape.
"It seems that we have…a guest joining us today." The butler said as he carefully kneeled to the ground to see eye to eye with the boy.
"It's Coach Darkseid isn't it?!" Bruce suddenly blurted out. "He's here isn't he?!"
The totally threw Alfred off guard. With a puzzled look on his face he asked "Pardon, sir?"
"I didn't mean to make fun of his shorts! It's just he wears them in such a silly manner! I could no longer keep the opinion to myself!" he continued as he embarrassingly covered his face with his gloved hands. "I tried so hard! I tried to relieve myself by making fun of Clark's costume, but that just did no good!"
As Bruce continued with his confession, Alfred couldn't help but scrunch his face to keep himself from laughing. This is precious. "Young sir, please calm your nerves. It has nothing to do with Mr. Darkseid."
Bruce took his face out of his hands. "Really?" he gasped. "Then who's here?"
In that instant, they both heard a noise coming from the room. The boy looked up to his father figure. "What was that?"
Alfred smiled, put a hand on his shoulder, and led him towards the couch. "Come see for yourself, sir."
He led the bat boy into the living room. The back of the couch was visible to the entrance of the room. There was obviously someone sitting on it.
Bruce now feeling a little more confident—and relieved that he wasn't in trouble walked around the couch. Sitting on one of the cushions, was a basket. The basket was covered with a knit yellow blanket with red and green specs decorated all over it. He eyed the basket with curiosity and didn't continue moving forward. Breaking the silence he finally said: "Are there cookies in there? Are we going on a picnic or something?"
That wasn't the reaction I was expecting. "Uncover the basket, sir." he told him. Bruce did as he was told. He immediately removed the blanket expecting to find an assortment of baked goods inside-but was proven wrong. He found himself staring face to face...with an infant. He couldn't deny that it was one of the cutest things he had ever laid his eyes on- the messy black hair, the bright baby blue eyes, and even the delighted squeal the small creature released once the blanket was taken away- but why was a random baby sitting on his couch?
"Alfred, what's the meaning of this?" he immediately demanded.
"This," he said with much emphasis, "is Richard Grayson, Master Bruce." the butler answered as he handed a folded up note to the child.
Bruce looked at the note, then back up to Alfred, then towards the child who was currently trying to attempt to shove his left foot into his mouth. The boy unfolded the note and started reading.
"Please take care of this child. His name is Richard Grayson and he is a year old. He used to live with us in the circus. His parents recently died and due that and other recent circumstances it has become much too dangerous for him to continue traveling on the road with us. Please take care of our precious Dickie. He's a good kid.
Yours truly,
~ J.H.
P.S. He has a tendency to do some curious things for a child his age…you'll see what I mean soon."
"He's from the circus!" Bruce said excitedly. "That means he could have the ability to suddenly grow a beard or something!" he turned back to look at the basket…only to see that the baby wasn't sitting in it anymore.
"Oh my! Where did he go?" Alfred asked as he looked around the room.
Seconds later, they both heard his giggling. The baby's giggling rang all throughout the room, but neither of them could find him crawling on the floor or even on a piece of furniture. "Well, it seems that this child is a master of invisibility." Alfred commented. "Master Richard?" he called out.
That sounded weird to Bruce. All throughout his life he had always heard "Master Bruce". Sometimes he would occasionally call his friends like Clark and Hal in such a way, but that was expected. He had just met this young stranger and was already calling him "Master" instead of just "sir". He wasn't sure if he liked that…
They kept looking around. Bruce sighed and tilted his head back in frustration- in which he loudly gasped the moment he did that. "What are you doing up there?!" he demanded.
Alfred then looked upwards and saw what the boy was looking at, in which he let out an even louder gasp. "My word!"
Little baby Dickie, dressed in only just a white cloth diaper and little green baby booties, had somehow managed to defy gravity and was hanging upside down by his legs and swinging around the central chandelier without a single care in the world. "Was he a bird-human at the circus or something?"
"At the sight of it, looks like he and his family were trapeze artists." Alfred worryingly concluded. "Now the problem is how do we get him down from there?"
Instantly there was no time to think. The baby uncurled his legs and started plummeting to the ground.
Bruce's eyes widened behind the cowl and through basic instinct he sprang into action. He jumped on the couch—much to his dear butler's dismay—grabbed the basket, and jumped over the coffee table catching the laughing baby in the process. The landing was a little hard on his feet, but they were both safe.
Alfred wiped his brow with the back of his hand and sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness!"
Dickie sat in his basket and clapped his hands happily while looking up at his rescuer. Bruce glared back at him. That was really dangerous! How can a one year old do something like that?!
"Why don't you take him up to your room, sir?" the older man suggested. "I shall begin to prepare a room for our new resident right after I finish up cooking dinner." Then he walked back into the kitchen to finish the pile of dishes that were somehow getting away from becoming clean.
"You mean we're keeping him?!" the little boy cried. "He's only been here for ten minutes and looked at the trouble he's caused!" Since when are babies left on door steps? Does anyone do that anymore?!
There was no answer. He was left alone in the living room with a squirming basket in his hands. "I guess I'll bring you to my room." He said morosely as he began climbing back up the stairs with basket and baby in hand. "Quit moving around! You're making it harder to walk." He commanded.
At that moment, the baby stopped moving around. It actually listened to me! He looked inside only to see it smiling at him. This is one happy kid.
They finally arrived to his room where he set the basket down near his bed. "Alright kid, if you're gonna be living with us we need to set a few ground rules here." He started pacing around the basket and then walked toward the door he left open. "First, I pretty much run things around here so you must always listen to me." He closed to door and turned around on his heel. "And second—"
When he turned around, Dickie had not only managed to get out of the basket, but he managed to sit himself in the middle of the bed…cuddling with Bruce's robin toy.
Bruce wasn't completely happy with the fact that a complete stranger that he literally just met a few minutes ago—even if said stranger was an infant—was going to be living in the same house as him, but that infant just touched one of most prized possessions. That's the final straw!
He stomped over to the bed and snatched it forcefully right out of his hands. "Who said you could touch him?!" he yelled with a hurt tone in his voice.
The expression on Dick's face—obviously normally smiling and happy—changed to the complete opposite of that. He frowned and scrunched up his face as tears already began streaming down his cheeks.
Oh no! Bruce thought, he's gonna blow!
He didn't want to risk getting in trouble with Alfred! He had already almost crossed that line when he confessed about the Coach Darkseid incident. He wasn't about to let that happen again.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he said in a hushed tone as he stretched his cheeks to try make various kinds of funny faces at him. Ugh! What else do babies like?! He went through his mind what he had seen on TV. Then he remembered a scene from a movie Alfred was watching a few days ago.
Crazy enough that it might just work!
He picked him up when it looked like he was about to wail and started lightly tossing him in the air. That seemed to work because the sad look on his face was turning back to the normal happy one. It was working, but he was heavier than he looked. "My arms are getting tired." Bruce said to mainly himself. He would never admit this to anyone—Good, no one is watching—but seeing Dick laugh and smile at him made him feel warm, and also made a smile, admittedly a small one, appear on his face.
Bedtime
Alfred had managed to find his young master's old crib in the attic, but it took so long to find it that he didn't have enough time to prepare a room for the new child. He was originally going to set it up in his own bedroom in case he woke up in the middle of the night, but it seemed that within the hours Dick had spent in the manor, he had taken a great liking to Bruce.
He had politely asked him to let Dick sleep in his room for the night until the next day when he would have a room ready. The response he got was not as bad as he expected. Bruce responded with a small grumble and a heavy sigh. "Sure" He expected a cascade of pretexts and justifications as to why the baby could, would, and should not be allowed to be in his room.
They must be getting along.
After a final diaper change, Dick was then settled in the crib and fell asleep minutes later. After watching an episode of Gray Ghost with Alfred, Bruce then went to his room to get ready for bed himself. He walked with much caution on his tippy-toes.
He succeeded in brushing his teeth and changing into his pajamas in his bathroom. He stood on his toes again and he walked towards his bed, but paused to look at the crib. Through the bars he could see Dick curled up in fetal position and sucking his thumb.
Every fiber of his being was forcing himself to not react…but he couldn't help it! He cracked a smile at the sight of something so cute. Suddenly feeling disgusted with himself, he quickly crawled into bed and fell asleep.
Two hours later
Standing on a rooftop of a high building in the middle of the evening—the night, the vengeance, also known as the Batman glared into the streets of Gotham City. He stood high and mighty as his cape flittered dramatically in the wind and rain. He heard police sirens in the distance. "We finally get a little action." He thought to himself as he reached into his utility belt.
A strike of thunder boomed behind him and shot out the grappling gun. As he was about to swing into the darkness, he heard what sounded like a whimper. He looked around him and saw nothing, but the stone rooftop. His vision suddenly began to blur and then—
Bruce suddenly found himself in his bedroom, certainly not in the strong fit adult body he was dreaming in. He scrubbed the sleeping dust away from his eyes and saw that the young house guest was staring intently at him—not looking very happy. That was when he realized that the thunder was not only a part of his dream, but was happening out in the real world.
This kid had somehow managed to get out of his crib and into Bruce's bed. "How is it that you don't know how to walk, but you can do flips in the air and climb things?" he asked not really expecting any reaction from Dick.
He assumed that Dick would have continued staring at him if it weren't for the thunder clap and caused him to let out a scared yelp. "You afraid of the thunder?" he asked.
The answer he received the baby cuddling up against him. Man, he wants to sleep in my bed! He sighed heavily. It was too late to deal with this type of thing. It was midnight, and there was school tomorrow and he had to prepare for show and tell! "Just for tonight." He told him as he set up a pillow and blanket for him. He was about to fall back asleep when he thought of something. "Stay here."
Dick sat up as he saw Bruce get out and walk around the bed towards the Gray Ghost poster. He watched him lift the bottom right corner which revealed the hole where he kept the robin. He took it out and handed it to the baby. "That should make you feel better. I know how much you liked it when you saw it. I'm sorry for yelling." he mumbled.
Dick was no longer scared. He smiled widely at the toy bird in his hands as Bruce helped him settle comfortably in the bed. "Good night, Dickie." He heard him say.
When Bruce concluded that he was finally asleep, he sneakily slipped out of bed and walked towards his desk and turned on the desk lamp, making sure it wasn't aiming directly towards the bed. He started working on a special project.
Morning
It was approximately 5:30 in the morning, which was the usual time Alfred woke up. Early enough to make his morning tea and get a head start on some of his duties. As he tied his robe he was about to walk past Bruce's (and Dick's temporary) room when he noticed something taped to the door.
It was an envelope and written in Bruce's crude handwriting, in black crayon was: Alfred. He took it and opened up the note and began to read.
Dear Alfred,
I know that you're up very early on school days. Do you think you can make the following things by the time I go to school? I'm willing to not eat breakfast if it means getting it done in time. I can put a snack in my belt or something.
Bruce
Alfred then looked at the drawings the boy attached to the note and couldn't help but smile widely by himself. "It shall be done, Master Bruce."
Later that day…
Hal had just finished his show and tell presentation of his ring…again, but this time on how he could will a green glowing boxing glove from it.
"Very nice, Hal," Mr. Schwartz said ", but maybe next time you can present something else other than what you can conjure up from your ring. Now up next is…Bruce!"
The rest of the class clapped politely as Hal sat down in his chair and Bruce got up to the front of the room carrying something covered with a sheet. When everyone quieted down, Mr. Schwartz allowed Bruce to begin.
Without saying a word, he removed the sheet revealing something that caused a lot of positive reactions from the students. A large majority of the class—especially from Karen—squee'd in delight at the sight of a baby sitting in a portable car seat.
Yes, said baby was Dickie Grayson, but wasn't just wearing the white cloth diaper, but was wearing a red tunic with short green sleeves coming out of the arm holes. The white diaper was replaced with a green one and was still wearing the green baby booties from the previous day. The red tunic had yellow ties coming down the middle with a matching yellow cape, and set right on the left side of his chest was a black R in a yellow circle. To further complete the look, a black domino mask.
"This is Dickie. He was left at my house in a basket yesterday and now I guess he's going to be living with me from now on." Bruce said in a matter-of-fact way. "I've seen many of his skills first hand, and he's pretty good."
"What skills? He's a baby!" Hal said from the back of the room.
"Yeah!" Bruce agreed with a smirk. "A circus baby!"
From another corner of the room Barry called out: "Oh snap!" which caused the class to start snickering.
"Class, please let Bruce finish his presentation." Mr. Schwartz said. "Go on."
"Where are his pants?!" Hal once again interrupted.
Bruce sighed and rubbed his face—quit getting on my nerves Hal! "He will be graduated into pants once he is over the diaper phase!"
Throughout this whole presentation, Dick watched in delight. The room was so wonderfully colorful and bright. As he turned his head around the room he clapped his hands lightly as he discovered new the things within his new surroundings.
"Bah!" he squeaked which seemed to have caused Karen to have the happiest heart attack anyone ever saw. As people continued to coo at him, he himself started squirming around in his seat as if he was trying to reach something.
"When he is in my care, I shall treat him like a son and train him to be my partner"
Clark raised an eyebrow. "Wait…don't you mean like a brother?"
Bruce looked back at him and crossed his arms. "I know what I said."
"But—"
"Like. A. Son." He enunciated and glared at his classmate.
Dick broke the awkward silence that followed. "Rah bah!" he said. Bruce looked down at the car seat on the floor and saw that Dick had somehow managed to sneak his toy robin to school. How did I not notice that? No one is supposed to know about Robin!
"Aww, what a cute little toy he has!" Diana said from her seat. "It's a robin!"
Alright, remain calm. Everyone thinks it belongs to him. "Yup, he really likes that toy." Bruce said. "That's why there is an R on his costume…for Robin." Yeah, that works. It originally stands for "Richard", but this definitely works too...
The rest of the presentations went very well. Alfred had also come early to pick up Dick from school. Throughout the rest of the day, Bruce was bombarded with questions from his fellow classmates about his new family member. He was glad to get home. Alfred had finished preparing a room for him.
Bruce went into his room—he didn't fail to notice that the crib was no longer there—and set down his backpack, but instead of staying there…he decided to visit his new partner-in-training. When he entered Dickie's new room and saw that he was barely waking up from a nap.
"Hi, Dickie!" he greeted through the bars.
"Bah!" the baby greeted back as he held onto the robin.
…you can keep it. I don't need it anymore.
Bruce took him out of the crib—even though he could have probably done it himself—and sat on the floor with a happy Dickie in his lap. He was still wearing the black domino mask, but Bruce could tell that he staring right up at him.
"People really liked you this morning." Bruce started and proceeded to talk about his day.
AN: Badda-boom! There you go! I really hope you enjoyed this! This was done because I am currently suffering a bad case of writer's block for my other story. Those of you waiting for an update on "Everybody Loves a Clown", please be a little more patient! I am trying my best!
And yeah…I am ignoring any adoption processes and stuff because I can. And it's not like writers did that in the early comics anyways. Like there is one where as part of a plan, Bruce gives away Dick and after a series of events, he re-adopts him and no one questions it.
I hope you have a nice day! :D and give Yale's JL8 comic a try! It's one of the best things on the internet! xD