Author's note: Disclaimer - I own nothing. I have a Late Night Occurrences update scheduled for Wednesday, but I wanted to get this out there first. Thanks to a-really-angry-sorceress for the beta, you should go read her stuff too.
Robin protects Batman. Dick had vowed that after Batman had promised Robin he would always protect him. Bruce had ruffled his hair and told him that he didn't doubt it one bit, then Alfred had told them fondly to change out of their costumes and come upstairs for some hot cocoa. Dick had raced upstairs to help Alfred, forgetting to remove his mask in the process, causing both men to laugh. It was the first time Dick had made Bruce properly laugh while he was wearing the cowl, and was one of his favourite memories.
But despite the light hearted tone that made the memory so precious to him, he still took his vow completely seriously.
So when Batman ordered him to check on the curator of a museum whose silent alarm had sounded while he checked on the valuable artifacts, Dick had done what he asked, despite his fears of letting Batman go and face an unknown threat alone. Dick hurried to find the woman's office, desperate to get back to his partner, anxious after having been ordered to split up. He soon realised, when he found two women in the office, that he should have spent a little more time worrying about himself being alone.
Dick had crashed through the doors without clearing the room properly first, so the element of surprise was a long distant memory at that point. However, the curator did seem frozen with shock, or perhaps she was just tied too tightly to her chair to move at all. The masked woman just seemed completely disbelieving of the small figure in front of her, staring as if she were sure he was a trick of the light, going to disappear if anyone moved.
"Who are you?" she asked, regaining her composure, draping herself across the back of an armchair, as if the appearance of a pint sized crime fighter were of no concern whatsoever to her.
"I'm Robin," Dick said proudly. "I'm Batman's partner."
"Are you?" she said, with a small smirk that made Dick feel a little put out for some reason. "Well, while you've done a wonderful job, I think you should run home and let the grown ups deal with this. Let Batman finish up, hmmm?"
As if summoned by her uttering his name, the double doors flung open to reveal the Dark Knight. Robin wondered how he managed to make it look so powerful and intimidating, while all he could manage was skepticism.
"Robin, stay behind me," Batman told him. Dick did as he said, wondering when and how Batman had already met the lady, that put the Caped Crusader on edge as soon as as he saw her.
"You know about him?" she asked Batman directly, the emotion in her voice sounding genuine for the first time, not the patronisingly sugar-coated tone she'd spoken to Robin with.
"Robin is my partner," Batman said. Dick noticed he spoke with the same tone that Bruce used whenever he had done something that he knew Alfred wouldn't really approve of, but was still stubbornly trying to insist he was right.
"You brought a child into this?"
"It's not your concern, Catwoman," Batman told her stiffly.
The wicked smirk was back after he said that. "You really can't think of any reason why a child following you round the rooftops would affect us?"
Dick couldn't quite understand why she stressed the question in such a strange way. He also wondered why Batman seemed to be flushing slightly, and made a small choking noise. What on earth did Catwoman mean?
Batman seemed especially irritated when he next spoke. "The police are on their way, Catwoman, now return whatever you've already taken."
She seemed affronted by his order. "Did you think everyone's going to stop putting up a fight just because children are present?" she said scathingly, reaching behind her and grabbing something in her gloved hand.
She threw whatever she had retrieved straight at Dick's face. He heard Batman start to yell, and reach for Dick, to protect him from the threat, but he found himself clutching at air. Dick had already gotten himself clear of the danger, hand springing to the relative safety of Batman's other side. Dick checked to see what she had thrown, worried something was about to explode, or start pouring smoke to cover Catwoman's escape. He felt silly when he realised it was just a pen that she'd grabbed off the desk behind her.
Dick could feel his face reddening, embarrassed at his extreme reaction to a non-existent threat. Catwoman however was studying him intensely.
"Hmmm…" she drew out the noise, risking a quick glance at Batman, before returning to scrutinizing Robin. "Perhaps you will be able to keep up with him."
Robin felt offended that she had to wonder at all.
"But you won't be able to keep up with me," she taunted, before throwing herself out of an open window.
Dick rushed forward, scared for the lady, who seemed to have forgotten about the four story drop. Then he heard a loud crack, and saw her swing away to another building, which she began to scale with perfect ease and grace.
Dick turned to Batman, expecting him to give the order to give chase to the thief. However, he was surprised when Batman gave a slight shake of his head.
"Help the curator, Robin," Bruce said, nodding towards the curator, "then wait for me on the roof. I'll retrieve Catwoman and whatever she's stolen.
He set off straight away, leaving Dick behind to untie the poor woman. After Dick had reassured her that Batman would recover anything stolen, he went to wait on the roof as Batman had instructed. Batman took over half an hour to return; Dick was beside himself with worry, wanting to go after him, but unsure which direction to take.
But he did eventually return, carrying a small bag, of what Dick assumed was the stolen goods.
"Where's Catwoman?" Dick asked.
"She- got away," Bruce said gruffly.
"But you got the stuff back?" Dick pointed to the bag, feeling a little confused. "You must have caught her." Something strange was happening here.
"Yes well… How would you like some ice-cream when we get back, as a reward for doing so well?"
Batman's distraction worked on Robin, who became too focused on the important choice between chocolate and strawberry to worry about a few things that didn't make sense about a thief. Across town however, Selina Kyle was not so easily swayed from her concerns. Although she would not admit it until years after, that was the moment she declared herself the unofficial mother of Robin. She made her first job explaining to Batman that school nights were for sleeping, not fighting crime.