Plink.
"Eep!" Ten-year old Robin cried, jumping back. Batman turned from where he was watching the warehouse, a reprimand on his lips. He forgot all about it when he saw Robin just staring at the overcast sky in wonder.
"What is it?" he hissed, trying to clue the young boy into the situation they currently were in.
"What is these?" Dick asked in wonder, dragging his gaze to look at Bruce. His face was still awestruck, and not by the scary bat mentor that towered above him.
"What are these," Bruce corrected in a murmur, looking around to see what had Robin so impressed. The ugly grey building they were crouched on. The broken and empty warehouse they were supposed to be monitoring. A flash of red from the forest behind(and the league said he wasn't the only one with stealth!)The snow that now fell heavily around them, making visibility limited and his boy cold. Batman scowled, glaring at Robin. This wasn't another one of his games, was it?
"You don't see it?" The young boy asked, looking and sounding slightly crushed. He gestured to the air in front of him. Batman looked.
Nothing.
"See what?" Batman asked gruffly.
"The white stuff," Robin practically whispered.
The white stuff? What white-oooh. "The snow?"
"Is that what it's called?" Robin asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Yeah," Batman tilted his head in thought, his black costume being taken over by the evil white beings known as snowflakes. "You've never seen it before?"
"No," Robin murmured distractedly. "We-we always went to the South of France for winter. Or to Florida."
Batman turned back to the warehouse. Never seen snow before? Why, that was a necessity of childhood. Of course, Batman had stopped when he was eight, but he was Batman. Batman does not play in snow. (Not that Gotham had any snow in recent years) Period. But, Robin should…
Bruce didn't want Robin to lose that spark of childhood he had managed to maintain for so very long. He wanted to keep that spark going as long as he could, which was hard in the cruel underworld of Gotham Robin ventured out into ever night. No childhood was complete without a day in the snow. In fact-
"Hey!" Batman cried, grabbing Robin's cape and pulling the boy to his chest. Dick was jumping around, trying to catch the tiny crystals as they drifted lazily and thickly down to the ground. Which would be completely fine if they were on a slippery roof top edge.
"Ack! Br-Batman, not the cape!" Robin cried, overdramatically.
Batman put the boy down, knowing how frustrating it was the be caught by the cape from some unfortunate experiences. "Don't jump around. You might fall." Batman ordered, maybe a bit too gruffly.
"Okay," the boy said quietly, riding along with the change with perfect ease.
Batman stared at Dick for several long seconds, conflicted, before making up his mind. He would probably regret it later, but only if anybody else saw. Dick better consider himself lucky that Bruce l-cared for him enough to show him how to catch snowflakes. "Like this."
He leaned back his and, feeling more than slightly foolish, stuck out his tongue. Snowflakes landed on his exposed mouth with tiny, cold, sharp pinpricks. Dick copied his movements with amusing seriousness, and cried in delight when one landed on his tongue.
He looked up at Batman with pure, contagious joy that had Bruce smiling back(in the cowl, too, which is unheard of!). "Ooh! I got one!"
Maybe the Christmas spirit was still alive inside Bruce, even though he declared it dead eighteen long years ago. It came alive again with Dick, who seemed to have a mysterious superpower that made everything better, somehow.
Bruce wished the moment had lasted forever, when childish joy had peeked out from the dark folds, but the world had to go and decide to ruin it. Down below, the warehouse exploded in a brilliant firework display of orange and yellow. Vigilantism had pulled him back in and, for once, Bruce wished it hadn't.
"Let's go," he growled, grappling down with Robin following.
But, maybe, afterwards and if Bruce wasn't too busy, they could do something together. In the snow. Then, maybe afterwards, they could watch a Christmas classic with some of Alfred's hot chocolate…
But, there was no way the big tough Batman would ever admit to that being his idea. And, if anybody asks, it never happened…
BONUS:
Pff.
A snowball exploded against the back of Bruce's head, soaking his hair and leaving cold water drip down under his jacket. He turned, angry. Not at the thrower, but at himself for hot seeing it coming.
Dick was frozen in a throwing position(ah, so he was the culprit! Batman wasn't called the world's greatest detective for no reason), a giant grin so big it was a wonder the ten year old's face hadn't broken. "Gotcha?" the boy squeaked.
"I thought you hadn't seen snow before," Bruce accused, but he was smiling(er, the corner of his lips were tilted upwards in a not-actually-smiling way) and his voice was humored.
"I haven't," Dick said honestly, scooping up another handful of snow to throw. But Bruce wasn't gonna be caught by this one, and he started to plan his own attack.
"Then how-" A horrible realization came to Bruce's mind, and he couldn't believe he missed it before. "Wally."
The junior speedster had been with his uncle in Batman's 'team up' (as the media liked to call it) with the Flash. Afterwards, the teen had pulled Robin away for just a minute-a single minute, mind you-while Batman and Flash finished tying the baddies up. Just sixty seconds and Kid Flash had managed to teach Dick all about the art of snow wars. First snowballs, then giant nuclear missiles. Batman made a mental note to keep Robin away from Kid Flash. He wouldn't have anybody, least of all that speedster, corrupt his baby bird.
Robin nodded solemnly, rounding his hunk of snow into a sphere. "Wally."
Needless to say, Bruce totally beat Dick in the snowball fight. Sometimes all that training as Batman had it's benefits.
A/N: Not much plot, just some fluff-ish stuff. It's my birthday :D, so I thought I'd just gift all you wonderful readers with this.