Step One: Recruitment
Dick's POV
"There is absolutely no way that I would ever go camping with you," Jason tells me, turning away from the night sky view of Gotham in front of us to look at me, making me realise just how intimidating his helmet can be.
"Awww come on, Hood," I reply, "we never get to do fun civilian stuff together anymore."
I've been planning this camping trip for a month, I know exactly the location and all the best activities for us to do. I've been looking forward to this so much I couldn't stop myself from telling basically anyone who would listen all about it, as long as they promised to keep it a secret. The only thing left is to get my brothers on board to join me, which is already turning out to be harder than I'd hoped. I figured being in costume, on a rooftop with a great view, after a night of beating up criminals together was the perfect time to ask Jason... guess not.
"That's because our night activities are way more entertaining than- I don't know, roasting marshmallows," he shrugs, turning back away from me.
"Have you ever tried a roasted marshmallow? I feel like you wouldn't be able to say that if you had."
"I haven't and I won't. So-"
"Please?" I beg, pouting and holding my hands together, "it would really mean a lot to me if you came."
He looks at me for a second, "You know, that face doesn't work nearly as well with you in costume. But, I guess we could make a deal-"
"YES!" I yell, raising my arms in the air and swinging my legs from over the edge of the roof.
"You didn't hear what the deal is yet..."
"I'm sure whatever it is, I'll accept it."
"You shouldn't have said that."
"Nah, I can trust you, Hood. It can't be that bad," I give him a smile.
"Okay. If I go, you have to for a week of my choosing, complete all of your patrols wearing your old Robin outfit."
Ah, that's- uhm... pretty bad. Okay, play it cool, maybe I can make this a little more bearable.
"Fine. But why do you even want me to do that anyway? What do you get out of it? I would have thought a month without me being able to ask you for any favors would be pretty useful," I shrug, trying to keep my smile from dropping. Must. Look. Calm. Take the bait, Jason.
"Yeah, that would be good. But this way I get to follow you around and watch people react to you in those undies. That should make the camping all worth it. Glad we've made a deal though," he says as he gets up and readies his grappling hook.
I have made a huge mistake...
Damian's POV
"Camping? Why? Is this a training exercise?" I ask.
"Not really, but you can look at it that way if you prefer," Grayson replies.
"So you want to leave the manor to go and sleep in some forest, for fun?"
"Well it's not just any forest, Haly's circus camped out there once when I was a kid. I have really great memories of it. Plus I think it would be really nice for us to go on our first vacation together, no missions or costumes, just us having fun."
"Ah, I understand. You seek to relive those memories, and for that you require my company," I suppose I could sacrifice my time for such a cause, for Grayson at least.
"Kinda," he nods before rubbing the back of his neck, "but it's not just your company I require..."
I knew this sounded too reasonable to be true.
"No."
"Really, Dami? It seemed like you were on board a second ago."
"I will admit, I was considering it. But I refuse to go anywhere with Todd and Drake for an extended period of time," especially not as a civilians, in costume they can sometimes be useful... on occasion.
"I didn't even say it was them."
"Is it?"
"Well yeah, but-"
"No," I cross my arms.
Grayson drops his head and sighs, "so I guess nothing will convince you to come?" he asks, sounding defeated already. He's giving up much faster than usual in fact, that's very unlike him.
I eye Grayson suspiciously, "Is something wrong?"
He lifts his head back up and I can tell from his face he's trying to hide his disappointment, "I just figured my brothers wouldn't be so reluctant to spend some time with me, I guess I'm what's wrong..."
Damn you, Grayson.
"-tt- Stop thinking such ridiculous things... I'll attend your stupid camping trip."
"YOU WILL?" he yells, his face lighting up.
"If it's the only way for you to stop this ridiculous self pity act, but I don't promise to enjoy it."
He grabs me from under my arms and lifts me above him, "Thanks, Dami. I promise you won't regret it."
"Put me down, Grayson," I demand, trying to wiggle myself free.
"Not yet," he says, pulling me into his chest as he swings around, "I want to savour this moment, we're going on our first proper vacation together."
I may have made a mistake...
Dick's POV
I'm going to feel really bad about the way I got Damian on board if he doesn't have a great time. Worst case I'm sure I can find a way to make it up to him though, he seemed pretty up for a trip with just me and him, I could always do that. Regardless, this has been exhausting, but that's two down and only one more to go, plus Tim should be the easiest to convince. I shouldn't owe him a really embarrassing favor by the end of it anyway.
So why am sitting in front of him right now, too nervous to ask him such a simple question?
"Uh... Dick?"
"Sorry, just a little nervous. This is kinda make or break I guess."
"What are you talking about?" he asks.
Here we go.
"Tim, would you like to come on a camping trip with me, Jason and Damian?"
There's a pause.
"That's out of nowhere," he replies before looking into the distance, clearly considering his answer.
"Well for you it is, yeah. I've been planning this for a while though..."
He looks back at me with an interested expression, "how long?"
"About a month. It started when I thought of this place the circus went to when I was a kid, then I thought I'd see what was around there just out of interest. It turned out there was lots of cool stuff, then I thought about doing all of that with you guys..." I realise I forgot about being nervous for a second as I started to get excited about my plans.
"Wow, I guess you've really thought this out. Have you gotten Jason and Damian to agree to go yet?"
"Yeah, it wasn't easy but they agreed to come. If you do, that is, it wouldn't be the same if anyone was missing," I try to discern Tim's decision from his face, but he doesn't give anything away until he looks me in the eyes and says-
"Of course I'll join you," before giving me a grin, "I could never say no to something you've worked so hard on. I mean, dealing with being in close contact with Damian for a few days will be... interesting. But-"
I can't help myself, I leap into Tim for a hug, "thank you so much. I guarantee we'll have lots of fun together."
"Uh, you're welcome, I guess. Were you really that worried I was going to say no?" he asks.
It does seem silly now that he mentions it, I guess how it went with Damian and Jason got me worked up. But it's fine, my work didn't go to waste. So now I can just look
forward to us having a great vacation.
Step Two: The Trip
Tim's POV
I take one last look at everything I've prepared on top of my bed, making sure I haven't missed anything before I put it all in my backpack. I like to have something available for every possible situation, that's why I've always loved utility belts, I can't count the amount of times my preparation has come in handy, or even saved my life. The only problem is it takes forever to get ready to go anywhere. I usually make up for it by planning enough time ahead, but camping is kind of a new situation, so my estimations were off and I really need to get packing or the others are going to be waiting for me. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure I haven't forgotten anything, so I start to fill my backpack as swiftly as possible. If I do this right, there should be just enough space to fit everything in, but I start to panic as my alarm I set to leave goes off. I know Dick won't mind waiting for me, but I don't want to give Damian or Jason any more reason to be cranky on the drive, it's important for Dick that this all goes well and I don't want to be the one to screw that up.
I brush the sweat off my forehead and breathe a sigh of relief as I close the final zip on my backpack. I hoist it onto my back and run out of my room and down the stairs towards the garage, hoping I don't bump into Alfred so he can't scold me for rushing around the manor. When I finally get to the door of the garage, I slow down and calmly open the door to see everyone waiting at the car. Even Bruce and Alfred are there ready to wave us off.
"Sorry I'm late guys, didn't want to leave anything important behind."
"No worries, Timmy," Dick waves off with a smile, "Jason only got here a minute ago."
Well, that's two people who won't be angry at me. But I can tell Damian is clearly unimpressed as he looks at me with his arms folded as he leans against the car.
"Here, I'll help you with that bag, Master Timothy," Alfred says as he walks up to me and helps me take off my backpack. Thankfully it fits inside the trunk just fine even with everyone else's stuff already in there. As I close it, Jason yells-
"Shotgun," as he makes his way over to the front passenger seat. But Damian walks in front of the door and refuses to budge.
"Hey, that's my seat. I called shotgun," Jason says.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Damian asks.
"I will move you out of the way if I have to."
"-tt- I'd like to see you try."
"Okay," Dick tries to separate them, "Jason, I know you called shotgun, and if it was just you and me-"
"Then I wouldn't have to, there'd only be two people, that would be stupid," he replies.
"Well, right. But the point is, if you sit in the front, then that leaves Damian in the back with Tim... I don't think anyone wants that."
"Is he even tall enough to ride in the front?" Jason asks, clearly trying to work his way around the argument.
"I ride in the Batmobile and on my own motorcycle," Damian points out.
"Yeah but that's as Robin," Jason reminds him, "if we're going as normal civilians, I'm not sure it's legal for you to sit in the front."
As Damian starts to growl, Bruce decides to step in, "Damian is in fact just above the legal height restriction for passengers under twelve."
"Classic Bruce, playing favourites again," Jason replies.
"Okay," Dick tries to defuse the situation, "if there are no legal issues here, then I'm sorry Jason but either Damian or Tim should sit in the front, you'll be thanking me when we get on the road, trust me."
"I don't mind sitting in the back," I say as I walk to the rear door. We should just get going, if we're already having problems I can only imagine what the next few days will be like.
"That's settled then," Dick says as he turns back to his side of the car.
Jason and Damian give each other glares as they make their way into their respective seats.
"Have a nice trip," waves Alfred.
"I expect you not to have killed each other when you return," Bruce adds.
As we finally get going, the tension seems to disappear as Dick puts on some music. A fun fact about Dick is that he's always been a surprisingly good DJ. Well, I don't know if he'd be great for a club or something like that. But he's always been good with people and that extends to him playing music for them, he remembers what everyone likes and cycles around their tastes with ease. Plus when he starts to sing along, it's kind of contagious.
As we make it out of the city, Dick decides to turn the music off and ask-
"So, what activities would you guys most like to do first when we get there? After we set up the tent and all the essentials of course."
"Well I think hiking in the hills sounds nice, there's meant to be some great views from up there," I say.
"Oh yeah there definitely are, that sounds good. What about you, Jason?"
He doesn't respond, so Dick looks at him in the rear view mirror.
"Come on Jason," he says, "I'm sure there's something you want to do."
"I guess trying the roasted marshmallows you're so fond of," he replies.
"Ha, I knew you wanted to try them," Dick says before turning his head briefly to Damian, "So what do you want to do?"
"How much longer till we get there?" Damian asks in return.
"Quite a while," Dick replies, "so you may as well tell me, I'll get it out of you eventually."
"Well, what do you want to do?"
"Me? Well I think going on a zip line would be fun. I know it sounds similar to the whole grappling hook thing we do every night, but I think doing it in a forest would be quite a different experience."
"Then I suppose I will join you for that."
"We can all choose something, Dami. You don't just have to go along with what I want to do. So what do you think would be fun?" Dick asks, turning to look at him again briefly.
"Perhaps... fishing could be interesting," Damian replies.
"What do you think will be interesting about fishing?" Dick gives him a quick smile.
"You didn't ask anyone else about their choices," Damian retorts as he looks away from Dick.
"I'm not interrogating you, Dami, I like the sound of fishing. But I already know why Tim and Jason want to do their choices, I just want to know what you like about yours."
"Well, I've seen that it's something a lot of families do and Father is yet to take me, so..."
"We can definitely do it then, there's a great lake for all sorts of water related fun. Speaking of which..." Dick says as raindrops start to hit the windows of the car.
"Hopefully it's not like this at the camp site," I say.
"We're miles away, I'm sure it will be fine."
As the conversation dies down, I look out the window at the various views we pass. First there's a wooded area with some huge trees that block out the light so well that it's hard to see past a few of them. Then there's some open fields, with various farm animals. Then we get to the really interesting view as make our way through some mountains, thankfully the rain starts to clear up at that point. There doesn't look like there's any snow on the tips, so it can't be that high, but some clouds seem to pass very close to their level. It takes as quite a while to get around them and I'm so glad it does because as we get further in, the sun starts to set. Dick has always been good at finding spots with great views, but I swear sometimes they come to him. The mixture of colors along the skyline of red and green is incredible. I look around at everyone's reactions and even Jason looks a little amazed.
"Wow," Dick says, "if the views we go hiking for are even half as good as this, they'll be incredible."
From that point I think Dick deliberately takes his time through the mountains, but no one complains. After the sun has set and we've made it back to mostly flat land, there isn't much in terms of view. So I look over at the others and notice that Damian's asleep, his head leaning against the window as he breathes steadily. Jason is on his phone, which surely has no signal. I guess sleeping a bit might be a good idea, yeah... hopefully when I wake up, we'll be there.
Jason's POV
"This looks like the place," Dick says as he slows the car to a halt.
I look out my window, it's completely black. There are no lights here except the ones on either side of the car.
"How can you tell?" I ask.
"The GPS says so," he replies as holds it up to show me, "so I guess we should get out and set up camp for the night. We can do all the fun stuff tomorrow."
"You expect me to set up a tent in this light?"
"Well no, obviously," Dick says as he opens his door and makes his way to the trunk of the car, "there are flashlights in here, even ones you can put on your head."
I slowly make my way out of the car to join him, stretching my whole body after such a long journey.
"Guh!" I say as I'm suddenly blinded by a bright light.
"Sorry," Dick turns his flashlight off, "didn't realise how powerful these things are. Here, put yours on."
He's giving me a smile as he hands it to me.
"You're enjoying this already, aren't you?"
"Just a little."
"So we going to wake up the little genius and the brat?" I ask.
"Nah, let them rest, we can just carry them to the tents to sleep uninterrupted," he says as he starts to remove all the tent materials from the trunk.
"So you want us to do all of this, alone? Just us two?"
"It'll be fine," he tries to assure me, "Look, you take these poles- wait... or is it these poles?"
I roll my eyes and turn away, expecting to see complete darkness. But there's a light, and it's coming towards us...
"Dick, do you see that?"
"What- Oh, guess someone else had the same idea as us."
"They're coming this way," I point out.
"They're probably just being neighbourly campers," he replies as he joins my side.
My curiosity grows as we wait for the stranger to approach. Will it be just an ordinary family welcoming us to the camping spot? That wouldn't be so bad, then again maybe it's an axe murderer. I'm sure we could take him if it was though. Probably more likely it will turn out we're in the wrong location and it's just some old man who wants us off his private property. But as I continue to go through a list of possibilities in my head, I realise nothing could have prepared me for what I see when Dick turns his flashlight back on.
"Hey Dick!" yells Barbara Gordon as she waves at us, "you decided to camp here this weekend too, huh?"
And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, the Batgirls show up...