Warning: Slight BluePulse if you squint really hard

Disclaimer: I own nothing! Young Justice and its characters belong to their rightful owners!

So, Jaime wasn't in a necessarily good mood today.

Why?

Well, after arriving to school one too many days too late, his teachers were finally done with it. The lectures given were only half the problem- the real issue was the punishment at hand. "In order for you to pass school this year," his counselor had said, "you have to earn 80 hours of volunteer work with community service." Which would be completely fine, Jaime wasn't all against community service or anything, but what was so stressful about the situation was that he already spent basically most of his life saving the world from these uprising villains that had suddenly started sprouting around his hometown. Additionally, Batman wouldn't be so eager to hear that the famous Blue Beetle couldn't assist the Justice League simply because he was doing volunteer work.

And he couldn't bare the embarrassment that would emerge if he told Bart.

Nevertheless, Bart would of course be the first one to find out. He did visit Jaime's house basically everyday so in some ways it was unavoidable. The speedster had laughed and told his best friend that the consequences were bound to come from all of the tardies.

"It makes sense why you're in the mode today," Bart said while literally inhaling a bag of chicken whizzies," although if you were faster you wouldn't be in this mess."

"Well I don't see why you never get punished, hermano. You're always late- despite your speed."

Bart simply shrugged and stuffed another handful of his 'snack' into his mouth. "Maybe it's because the school diagnosed me with anxiety." Which makes sense in its own way. Bart's dramatic reaction to slavery that caused him to have a panic attack at his new school led all the students to believe he has some form of PTSD. And that would explain a lot of his peculiar behavior as well. So the school believes he needs personal assistance or should go to some therapist because he has 'anxiety'.

"I don't know, hermano. I just don't think its fair."

"You'll be fine, blue! Besides, at least they're choosing the community assignment for you and you don't have to pick one yourself."

"Yeah, but what if they make me do something stupid?"

"Nah, they won't."

"But what if they do?"

"Well then, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"
A giggle fit full of chicken whizzies follows afterwards.

Jaime stared at his friend questionably before turning around and decided it was time to sleep on the matter. Bart followed soon after he had devoured half of the pantry.

Arriving at the school's office on a Saturday morning was already awkward enough. But his assignment for community service was even more peculiar. Instead of doing what most community service students had to do, which was usually picking up trash or attending soup kitchens- his counselor had submitted Jaime in to the "Our Generations" program. This organization oddly enough was one of those 'mentoring a child/children with troubled lives' organizations.

"Jaime Reyes, these are the 8 year old Castillo twins." his counselor had introduced the two redheaded boys as if she were just stating the weather. "This one," she tapped the slightly taller, more distracted one on the head, "is Sol. And the other," she patted the younger, more quiet and concentrated one on the back, "is Luno." She then looked up at Jaime and smiled warmly, "You will be taking care of them starting today."

Jaime stared at her in disbelief. He was going to argue that this- this wasn't the right job for him. He wanted to complain about how he didn't have the time to take care of two children who obviously needed someone more supportive- someone who could give more than what he could ever possibly could. But no words escaped his mouth because- well, how could he argue when these two children were standing right here?

His counselor could obviously see the emotions displaying on Jaime's face, so she pulled him to the side and said, "They have nowhere to go, Jaime. No one to turn to."

"Yeah, but why me? What can I do that will benefit two children's lives?"

"Jaime, I know it seems tough but they…" she looked back at the two boys who were holding hands and giggling about who-knows-what. "They come from a place where happiness is very limited- and believe it or not, I know you can give them happiness."

Jaime looked at her, still with a worried and hesitant expression. The counselor looked at the floor wistfully before replying very softly.

"They're father and mother died from lightning. The boys were only 4 when that happened. They've only had each other since then. They've had only one foster family, but they were… well, let's just say these boys have suffered from domestic violence as well."

Jaime felt something in him change at that moment. The same feeling he had when he heard about Tye's mom's boyfriend and his abusive behavior. He had the exact same protectiveness sweep over him like a wave. He glanced at the two boys again, this time they were sitting down on the floor and eating what looked to be a bag of chips. When did they get that? He looked at the ground again- not exactly sure what he should do. Waiting for some type of answer to just suddenly appear.

"Jaime Reyes, I believe the Impulse told you that you 'get what you get' and you are to subside from 'throwing a fit'. So I recommend you either go by the advice that was given to you or exterminate the problem at hand"

"I'm not gonna hurt those kids!" Oops. Jaime accidentally said that list bit aloud.

"So you'll take them?" The counselor's face lit up, "here- I have this pamphlet that'll help you understand exactly what you're supposed to do with them." She handed him a neatly folded piece of paper. "Another thing, they only speak Spanish- they came directly from Guatemala, but that won't be much of a problem, right?"

Jaime just nodded in utter awkwardness and took the pamphlet.
What had he gotten himself into?

Thanks for reading! Next chapter to be updated soon~

(Guess who those kids are)