It seems like forever since I submitted something to this sight...

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

So I was inspired to write this after thinking about how I would have liked to see a younger version of the League hanging out and watching Smallville and Arrow. This story has a lot of ideas and themes taken from Smallville, Arrow, and the Runaways (Marvel comic) that I've put my own twist on.

Please, review and tell me what you think. Feel free to ask any questions if anything confuses you.

A League of Our Own

Chapter 1: Clowns

July, 2013

July 12, 2013

Nadine West and Martha Wayne approached Martha Kent who was leaning over the railing of the porch, looking down to where the two boys were playing. There was smile plastered to her face as her friends came up next to her and offered her a glass of champagne. Martha Kent gladly accepted it, never taking her eyes off the kids.

"It's such a shame that Jonathon couldn't make it," Nadine placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

Martha Kent chuckled, "You know that this isn't really Jonathon's scene. He's just not comfortable with these types of parties. I didn't want to force him into doing anything that he's not fine with."

"It's truly amazing how well your marriage works, Martha," Martha Wayne commented, "You two are the most different from each other out of all of us, and yet your marriage is the strongest and apparently seamless. There mush be an incredibly strong love between you two."

"There's that," Martha Kent nodded in agreement, "But there's also the reason why all of us are so strongly bonded. We want to protect are son, at all costs. And no matter what happens, if someday we fall out of love with each other –"

"God forbid," Nadine interjected causing Martha to smile warmly before continuing.

"We will always be connected by Clark, our love for him and how much we want to keep him safe. But, that is what we all have in common."

"Amen to that, honey," Nadine's eyes twinkled brightly as she watched Bruce run after Clark who had grabbed the Frisbee out of his hand and sprinted down the yard. "Clark's a devious one, isn't he? Devious but sweet and innocent at the same time. I swear, your son maybe the only one who can pull that combination off. "

"He's going to grow into a fine man," Martha Wayne commented thoughtfully.

"I can say the same thing about Bruce," Martha Kent added, watching as Bruce fell to his knees and Clark dropped the ball and rushed over to him to make sure he was okay. Just as Clark put his hand on his shoulder, Bruce leaped up and sprinted to the ball, scooping it up and running. For a few moments, Clark just watched, dumbstruck like he was trying to comprehend what just happened. The mothers started to giggle as Clark began to run after his friend. "He's a brilliant kid."

"Takes after his father," Martha Wayne shook her head, a smile plastered on her lips. She leaned over the railing further, peering down at her son who had sprinted over to the back porch where the mothers were lounging above. "Bruce, play nicely."

Bruce bounced the ball up and down in his hands as he looked up to his mom. He then glanced at Clark who had caught up. The young Wayne made a face at his mom's order causing Clark to start to giggle. "Yes, mother," Bruce answered, clearly not going to follow through on what she said to do. Clark attempted to cover his mouth to keep the mothers from seeing his laughter but failed terribly.

Sighing, though amused, Martha Wayne turned to her friends and shook her head again, "If the sass continue to grow with him, I just might need to stunt his growth. Keep him eight for the rest of his life."

"It only gets worse as they get older," Nadine added unhelpfully. "But I hear that they eventually grow out of it. I'm still waiting for Rudy to grow out of his attitude."

"He will, eventually," Martha Kent reassured the two women, but wondered quietly to herself when her son would develop an attitude or when the first time that he would talk back to her would be.

"God, she's so embarrassing," Bruce looked annoyed as he led Clark to towards the playground area. The two young boys settled onto the swings and swung back and forth a little.

"You're excited, aren't you?" Clark inquired brightly causing Bruce to raise an eyebrow. "About your party next week?"

"Eh, it'll be alright," Bruce shrugged, throwing the ball up and down.

"Really?" Clark looked disappointed causing Bruce to break out into a wide grin as he tossed the ball to his friend.

"No way, Clark, it's going to be awesome!" Bruce beamed. "Mom hired Haley's Circus to come perform for us. It's going to be the best birthday ever! Ollie's going to be so jealous!"

"That's mean, Bruce," Clark knitted his eyebrows together, frowning.

Bruce stopped swinging and stared at the younger boy for a few seconds before shaking his head, "Never change, Clark. Never change." Bruce stood up and began walking towards the house. A confused Clark jumped off the swing and ran after him.

"What do you mean, Bruce?"

Thomas Wayne paced back and forth in his study, deep in thought. Finally, he stopped and began to rub his temples, aggravated, "Robert, tell your wife to stop being paranoid! Just because a plane's landing gear malfunctioned when it was still grounded does not mean the next airplane that she will get on will crash. This is not some conspiracy against us. We are safe and well protected."

"I know, Thomas," Robert' voice came through on the speaker. "But you know Moira, she gets incredibly protective of the kids. She's terrified that something will happen to them when we fly down next week."

"Find a way to get here," Thomas's voice came out to sound almost like an order. But Robert wasn't offended because he was well aware as to why the man was on such an edge lately. Cooling off a little bit, Thomas retracted, "Sorry, it's just I…" He trailed off, knowing that his friend understood.

"I understand. You want everything to be perfect for your son's birthday. I promise that we'll all be there. We'll drive down or take a train or something. I'll make sure that we're there," Robert's balanced voice calmed Thomas down and he wondered why it never worked on Moira. Martha had entered as Robert talked but kept her silence, mouthing her question to Thomas who filled her in wordlessly.

Martha nodded to her husband before moving towards the desk, "Robert, dear, could you put Moira on the phone?"

"Of course, Martha," Robert's voice faded out and in a few moments a woman's voice came through instead.

"Martha?" Moira's voice sounded relieved.

"Moira, honey," Martha's lips curled into a warm smile that was translated into her words as she took the telephone in her hand and turned off the speaker. "I wanted to see if you were alright," as she spoke the brunette waved her husband out of his office. Thomas grunted but obeyed her command and headed out of office, no longer worrying about the problem at hand. Closing the door behind him, he overheard laughs from down the hall.

Following the voices, Thomas came across Bruce and Clark who were hiding behind a rather large houseplant. They had no idea that he was watching them as they talked in hushed whispered. "Are you sure he won't find us?" Clark whispered softly, biting back a giggle.

"Positive, this is where I always hide from Alfred," Bruce reassured him.

"Well, then, I guess I should tell Alfred about this," the two boys' eyes widened as they turned to see Thomas smirking down on them.

"Hi, Mr. Wayne," Clark hastily greeted, his eyes two innocent orbs of blue.

Bruce made another face –quite similar to the one that he made to his mom earlier that day –before pouting, "You ruin everything."

"You bet I do," Thomas winked playfully to the two kids who crawled out from behind the plant and stood in front of him. He ruffled their hair, "Now stay out of trouble you two or I'm inviting clowns to your party, Bruce."

Bruce shuddered, "I hate clowns!"

"I know," his father replied. "Now be good or else I'm telling them to fill a whole car full of them and to stop by your party. And be polite to your mom." His tone was serious making Bruce well aware that he was not joking –it actually was a legitimate threat. "Yes, father."

"Yes, Mr. Wayne!" Clark added quickly, looking terrified.

Raising an eyebrow, Thomas turned to his son, gesturing to Clark as he spoke, "Is he always like that?"

"Yup," Bruce nodded his head, rolling his eyes at his friend's reaction to his father's threat.

July 19, 2013

The day of Bruce's birthday, the Wayne Mansion was a literal circus. All of Bruce's friends and their families along with other wealthy and powerful families were gathered along with an entire circus that was set up in their backyard. Haley's Circus had gone all out at Thomas's request, actually pitching a huge circus tent complete with Trapeze acts and demonstrations and other shows that were scheduled throughout the day. There were booths selling a plethora of foods that any eight year old would adore surrounding the tent. A large number of circus performers were roaming through, offering demonstrations for the crowd of people.

"Well, Brucie, I never knew that you were this popular," Bruce turned to see a blonde boy approach him. The Birthday boy smirked at the boy as he came up next to him.

"Ollie," Bruce greeted, "I hope you're enjoying yourself."

"I am. Nice party," Ollie cocked his head to one side, "I'll admit defeat on this one. This is a great party, nice theme. You really went all out on this one. But next year, my party will kick this one's butt."

"Good luck with that one," Bruce smirked at the challenge, "But I'm coming right back with another that will make yours look like child play."

"We'll see about that one," Ollie laughed before offering his hand which Bruce shook, "But seriously, nice work, this party is awesome!"

"I know," Bruce's smirk widened but fell into a frown as a brightly dressed clown walked by them, waving happily to them before moving on. The dark haired boy glared angrily after the clown, "Ugh, I hate clowns."

"You are so weird," Ollie rolled his eyes. "Who hates clowns?" He rested his elbow on Bruce's shoulder but the birthday boy was too busy glaring at the clown to notice. His distraction also led him to not see Clark approach him, a red head trailing after him. As Bruce's eyes narrowed to deepen the glare, the redhead next to Clark reached forward and ran a hand in front of Bruce' glare. Bruce grabbed the hand and shook Ollie's elbow off of his shoulder.

The red head grinned as he shook Bruce's hand off of his wrist, "What is your deal with clowns?"

Ollie cut Bruce off before he could speak, "He has this weird idea that in another world his arch-nemesis is a clown, Lex." Bruce shoved his elbow into Ollie's gut causing the blonde to double over in pain.

"Shut up," Bruce pouted, crossing his arms. Then he added seriously, "But clowns are evil." His blue eyes narrowed again at the thought of them, "I can see it their beady eyes."

Lex looked to Clark for back up on how ridiculous Bruce was acting but much to his dismay, the other boy looked like he completely believed Bruce and was registering the idea of evil clowns. Rolling his eyes, Lex slapped his forehead, "Stop feeding Clark this nonsense, Bruce."

"It's not nonsense," Bruce snapped, "It's true! I've done my research!"

"All I know is that I want some cotton candy before Barry gorges it all," Ollie, who had apparently recovered, pointed his thumb to the cotton candy booth where Barry and Hal were ordering some more, having finished their first order.

"If he throws up on the moon bounce, I'll kill him," Bruce declared.

"I think Lois will beat you to it," Lex pointed out the dark haired girl who snatched the cotton candy out of Barry's hand before he could take another bite. The blonde boy began to whimper, begging her to give it back.

"Lois, stealing candy from kids?" Clark quipped as the four boys reached the small group.

"Hey!" Barry made a face at being called a kid. "I'm older than you!"

Ignoring the blonde, Lois turned to Clark and crossed her arms, "I'm surprised to see you here, Smallville, I thought you were afraid of circuses."

Clark jutted his bottom lip out in a dignified pout, "I'm not afraid of circuses." He then tilted his chin up slightly, adding, "Just clowns." Lois gave him a strange look as Lex interjected.

"And that weird phobia, he gets from Bruce."

"Could you get any lamer, Kent?" Lois demanded, becoming so distracted with Clark that Barry had managed to get the cotton candy back. Meanwhile, half listening to this little fight but half wanting food, Ollie was ordering cotton candy for himself.

"At least people like me!" Clark retorted childishly causing Lois laugh dryly.

"Nice retort. I'm sorry, I forgot that they don't teach good language usage on the farm," Lois smirked proud of herself for that last one.

Blinking with confused eyes, Clark tried to register what she just said, "Why would they teach language on a farm? I mean, what would you do with it? Talk to the animals?" Lois let out an aggravated sigh.

"You're hopeless, Smallville."

"Guys," the group of kids turned to see Iris running towards them. "They're starting the Trapeze show inside the tent."

Barry polished off the last bit of the cotton candy, licking his fingers before rubbing them on his jeans. He grinned widely at the red haired girl before grabbing her hand and dragging her towards the tent, "Come on, Irey! I don't want to miss that!"

"Slow down, Barry!" Iris looked desperately at the rest of the group who were smiling innocently, not moving to save her from the sugar high blonde. She stuck out her tongue at them before yelling at Barry to stop pulling her so fast. Finally, Barry stopped right in front of the entrance and began to hop up and down on one leg.

"I'm so excited!" He beamed. "Mom took me to a one of Haley's Circus's shows last month! It was so awesome!" Iris couldn't help but giggle at the boy's excitement. She reached over and patted him on the head.

"Calm down, you'll freak out the animals," she nudged her head to the trainer who was leading an elephant into the tent. The blonde boy watched the majestic animal with awe as it walked by. During this time, the rest of the group had caught up. Bruce moved past Barry and into the doorway of the tent, stopping to look at his friends and nodding to them to follow him in.

The group of kids moved towards the stands, searching for a place to sit. Hal turned his head and saw standing up and waving towards them was Carol. The brunette grinned at her and raised a hand in greeting before telling the rest of the group that she had saved them all seats. Once they reached her, Bruce slid into the row, ending up next to Diana who was chatting with John. The dark skinned boy leaned forward so that he could see Bruce before saying, "Happy birthday, Bruce."

"Thanks," Bruce nodded, watching out of the corner of his eye as Clark and Lois continued their fight. He always found that relationship interesting –she was the only person that Clark ever got sassy with.

"This better be good," Bruce turned to see Hal was seated behind him.

"Just shut up and watch, Jordan," Bruce ordered before feeling a finger flick his forehead. He turned to give Diana an angry, questioningly look.

"Even though it's your 'birthday' party, you don't have the right to be mean," Diana informed him, as if he should have known better. Turning his back to the front, Bruce rubbed his forehead, grumbling under his breath causing Diana to give him a threatening look and Clark, who was seated in front of them, to start giggling.

"And now ladies and gentlemen!" The ring master's voice boomed through the tent. "And the birthday boy of course," he nodded to Bruce who turned his attention to the middle. "Let me introduce our best trapeze artists, the father and son pair, the Flying Graysons!" Two men from the extremely high platform waved down to the crowd from opposite ends of the tent before they began.

Wide-eyed and speechless, Bruce watched as the two men flipped through the air gracefully, reminding him of a bird. They seemed to be flying as they somersaulted towards each other and grabbed hold of the bars. Then the younger man leaped off the bar, flipped in the air, only to be caught by his father.

"How amazing would it be to be able to do that?" Bruce didn't tear his eyes away from the sight before him to answer Ollie but nodded slowly even though he found it hard to believe that he would ever be able to do something like that.

"I don't know," Clark commented, "It seems kind of scary." Lois punched him in the arm.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Lois asked incredulously.

"Yes, it's a legitimate fear!" Clark declared sulkily.

"No it's not," Hal interjected.

Bursting into the mansion, Thomas growled under his breath, cursing angrily. "The party's a hit, Thomas. So why are you fuming?" Thomas looked at Robert Queen and Lionel Luthor who had been previously chatting by the window.

"That idiot Haley brought clowns! I told him that I didn't want any clowns! And he brought them anyways. Bruce hates clowns!" Thomas ranted, letting his anger seep out as he vented to his friends and business partners. Robert exchanged a look with Lionel before the latter cleared his throat.

"Thomas," Lionel placed a hand on Thomas's shoulder. "I saw your boy in the audience during the trapeze show. I think that he's enjoying himself greatly. You shouldn't be worried about the clowns that are walking about."

"I'm more worried about what Bruce might do to one of those clowns," Robert joked, "Remember what happened at Hal's seventh birthday?"

"Yes, I'm remembering it now," Lionel scratched his beard, deep in thought. "As I recall, a clown approached your son and then he proceeded to kick him in a very unfavorable place." Robert burst out laugh heartily.

"Why do I even talk to you two?" Thomas wondered out loud, but was feeling less angry about the clown situation. Then realizing something else, Thomas sighed wearily, "Even if Bruce is fine, Martha's going to kill me for this."

"That sweet girl?" The three men turned to see Nadine West and Jessica Jordan join them. "At most, she'll maim you."

"Nadine, Jessica," Robert nodded politely to the two woman. "Why do I have the feeling that you didn't come all this way to talk about clowns?"

The two women exchanged a look, confused as to what the blonde man was talking about before realization hit them. Jessica began to laugh at the memory of her son's birthday party, "I was taken back when I came and saw the backyard swarming with clowns. I thought maybe little Bruce had gotten over his fear of them –or his hatred. Whichever it may be."

It seemed that Thomas had only heard one word from all that as he repeated, "Swarming? God, are there really that many of them?"

"I was joking, Thomas," Jessica informed him, exasperated. "You hardly notice them." Robert and Nadine snickered at this statement, as they both knew that it wasn't true. There actually were quite a few clowns present at the party.

"But we have more pressing matters right now," Nadine spoke gravely, directing all their attentions to her. "I've just been talking to Marcel and Malcolm. They won't be able to make tomorrow's meeting. Now either we can convene here, right now –"

"No," Thomas broke in roughly, "No business today. Today is about family." The others nodded in agreement.

"Then our meeting will get pushed to two weeks from now since the Jones will be out of the country for that long and we all have our own businesses to take care of first," Nadine declared. She watched the others look uncomfortable with this plan. "Look, we don't have a choice. We agreed at the beginning that either we would all meet at every meeting, or not at all."

"I don't like the amount of time that has passed since our last meeting," Robert confessed. "But it's not like we have much of a choice."

"There really shouldn't be any reason for us to meet urgently," Lionel offered, "Since we are incredibly informed of each other's actions."

"Right, I just feel better knowing for certain that we're all on the same page," Robert shrugged.

"We all do, Robert," Jessica assured him grimly, "We all do."

As they exited the tent, Barry and Hal spoke excitedly about the site that they just seen. Carol walked a few feet behind them, talking more quietly with Diana who had for once, been impressed by the sight they had seen. Breaking off his conversation with Barry, Hal turned around, walking backwards, to look at Carol. "Hey, I'm going to get you that puppy you wanted."

Carol looked at him with amused eyes, "Oh really now? Where are you going to find me a puppy?"

"Right now," Hal's obnoxious smirk widened as he came to a stop. His friends followed his example, all while watching him curiously to see what his next move would be. The brunette turned around and called out, "Hey, clown man, get your shiny, red nose over here!"

Barry shoved him with his elbow, "Don't be rude, Hal."

"What~ever," Hal rolled his eyes just as the clown bounced over. "My lady here," he wrapped his arm around Carol's shoulder, "Would like a doggie. A pink one."

Carol burst out laughing, "This is how you're getting me a puppy?" The clown took out a pink balloon and began to blow air into it in an exaggerated motion. His attention completely engaged by the clown, Barry watched on with glee as he finally finished blowing air into the balloon.

"Well, I can't get you a real a puppy, now can I?" Hal inquired like it was obvious. "Your dad would butcher me." Now with a series of squeaks and scratches, the crown was crafting the long balloon into the intended animal. Diana watched with a disinterested look, not really seeing the appeal. Finally, when the clown was finished, he presented it to Carol with a wide grin on his painted lips.

"It doesn't even look like a dog," Diana commented, scoffing. At this statement, Barry looked horrified.

"Not everyone is as skilled as sculptor as your mother," Hal retorted as Carol accepted the puppy and gave it a once over before hugging it to her chest.

"I actually love this. Thanks Hal, thanks Clown-man," Carol giggled.

"Can you do a monkey?" Barry asked the clown with hopeful, energetic eyes. The clown nodded as he began to blow up another balloon with the same exaggeration as before. Barry turned to his friends and said, "And Bruce says clowns are evil!"

"No, they're just lame," Diana informed him.

Gasping, Barry pointed an accusing finger at her, "Take that back! Clowns are awesome!"

Approaching his mother who was standing by the cake, Bruce put on a smile before accepting her hug. She kissed the top of his head before smoothing his hair down. "Happy birthday, my love." A tear formed in her eyes, "You're growing up so fast."

"Mooooom," Bruce whined quietly, "You're embarrassing me!" This only made Martha laugh harder .

"So how do you like your party, so far, Bruce?" Martha inquired, but she already knew that answer. She could see the happiness and carefreeness in his eyes. "Is it worth the few month wait?" Bruce nodded, eying the cake out of the corner of his eye. Noticing this, she nodded her head towards it. "Blow out your cake, Bruce," she ordered him softly. "And make a wish."

Bruce turned to the cake. It had a large base cake with two separate towers of cakes emerging from it. The theme was, as the rest of the party, circus, decorated to the smallest detail. It even had a trapeze act going from one of the towers of cake to the other. The rest of the tiers were decorated with all sorts of circus acts –from knife throwers to fire eaters to elephants to lion tamers. And on the base cake, in bright bold layers it read, 'Happy Birthday, Bruce!' and below that were eight candles that were lit. The flames flickered in the light breeze.

Just as he was about to blow out the candles, Bruce stopped himself to think about what he wanted to wish for. He looked back at his mom, who was giving him an encouraging look, and then to his dad who was now standing next to her. Turning back to the cake, Bruce could see that in front of him, all his friends had gathered. Their expressions ranged from patients to Barry's hurry-up-I-want-to-eat look. Smiling happily, Bruce knew what he wanted to wish for.

As he blew out the candles, only one thought was going through his mind.

I wish that things will always be like this.

August 1, 2013

Two weeks later…

Exiting the movie theater, a cold breeze welcoming them into the night, the Wayne family made their way down the alley towards where they had parked their car. Thomas had instructed Alfred to stay home instead of driving them to and from the movie. Rather, he had driven his family to the movie theater himself. As Bruce walked ahead, desperately trying to keep a memory of all the scenes and lines that he like from the movie that they had just seen to tell his friends later, Martha clutched onto her husband's arm.

"Tomorrow's the meeting, right?" She inquired, her tone hushed, not loud enough for her son to hear.

"Yes, Marcel just got back into town with his family," Thomas informed her. "Everything should go smoothly tomorrow."

"Stop where you are," Thomas's blood ran cold as he watched a man step out of the shadows, holding a gun towards Bruce. The eight year old started to step back slowly, terrified at what was happening. Martha wrapped her arms around her son, feeling his heart beat quicken she quickly try to calm him down, telling him everything would be okay in a shaky, unsure voice.

"What do you want?" Thomas demanded.

"I want your money and her purse!" The man announced, "Now!" Thomas threw his wallet to the man and Martha's purse. Then the man came forward. "I'll take those pearls too," he reached up and yanked them off of Martha's neck, causing her to scream.

Lunging forward with a punch, Thomas yelled, "Don't touch my family!" He got one punch in before the sound of a gunshot went off. The middle aged man fell to the ground much to his family's horror, clutching where the bullet had pierced his skin.

"Now look at what you made me do?" The man sighed without remorse. He turned it evil smirk to the two remaining Waynes. Quickly, Martha placed herself in front of Bruce.

"Please don't hurt my son," she begged softly, desperately.

"Shut up!" The man growled, "I hate it when people beg!" And without a warning, he shot her as well. Martha moved her hand to the gunshot wound and looked up at the man with horror and then at her son.

"Run," she mouthed, collapsing.

Eyes welling up with scared tears, Bruce registered his mother's last command before he tried to run off. But the older man had also gotten the message so he grabbed Bruce and slammed him against the wall, twirling the gun around in his hand. "Now I can't just let you go unscathed. It wouldn't be fair to your parents." And with a grin, the man shot one more bullet at the remaining Wayne, piercing the night sky with a blood curling scream.

Please review and tell me what you think!