Bruce Wayne was bored. He knew he should be paying attention to the presentation about merging Wayne Industries' labs with CADMUS Labs, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He wanted nothing more than to go back home to play with Jason and Roy, who were most probably already driving Alfred crazy, but he couldn't. Already a whole month had passed since Roy became Bruce's legal ward, and that month was full of pranks, laughs, some tears, and a lot of threats.

He was now stuck in a board meeting in Florida, bored out of his mind. He knew very well that he wasn't going to merge with CADMUS, but his board of directors kept insisting. And now he was here, looking out of the window to the beach, seeing all the beautiful things in life that he was missing. The sea, a few seagulls, children running around with a puppy, a boy getting slapped in the face, a couple of teenagers playing voleyball... Wait. What?

Bruce looked at the scene with wide eyes, taking in the look of sadness and pain that came to the young boy, and quickly sprung up from his chair.

"Mr. Wayne. Is something wrong?" The man that was droning on and on about the benefits of the merge asked.

"I have to go." He said, and not even waiting for an answer, he ran down the stairs, towards the beach and towards the boy.

When he reached the rockiest area of the beach, he finally found the young boy, crying while looking in fear at the sea.

"Kid? Kid, are you okay?" Bruce called, slowly walking towards the boy, careful to not get his feet stuck in between the rocks.

The boy turned around, letting Bruce get a good look at the boy all together. He had dark skin, with some kind of strange marks on his arms, very short blonde hair, and gray eyes that were far too wise for someone his age. He couldn't have been older than nine.

"Y-you should not b-be here." The boy stuttered, getting up from his chair on the rock and slowly backing away.

Bruce gave him a disarming smile, and slowly approached. "There's nothing to worry about. My name's Bruce Wayne, I just want to know what happened just now." Bruce explained. But, when he noticed the boy wouldn't say anything more, he continued. "Was that your father that hit you? That's not very nice."

The boy's eyes widened at the information, then said, "It does not have to be nice. I needed to be taught my place." He mumbled.

Bruce felt the anger slowly start boiling inside of him. No child should think that getting punished means they should be hit. "If you don't mind me asking, what did you do?"

The boy looked from him to the sea again, letting Bruce get an ever better look at his tattoos, then said, "I accidentally broke one of the dishes at my house. This is normal whenever I act out of what is right."

Bruce's eyes widened at the information, but he finally managed to get to where the boy was. "C'mon, chum, sit down." He gestured to the rock next to him.

The boy looked from him to the rock, then decided it couldn't hurt and sat down.

"Now, I don't know what they've been teaching you, but there is never a reason to hit a child." Bruce told the boy, putting a hand on his shoulder. "When does your father come back? I would like to have a chat with him."

And then go make him piss himself as Batman.

"I do not know. He can be gone for days, even weeks at a time. He says I deserve it." The boy whispered, making a part of Bruce's heart crack.

"Well, what if you come stay with me and my family for a time? See if we can contact someone else from your family." He asked.

The boy seemed to think on it, then slowly nodded. He didn't want to go back to his house to begin the harsh training to join the academy again. He was already tired of it.

"Come on. Let's go buy you some new clothes too, we don't want you to freeze, now do we?" Bruce asked, offering the boy his hand while smiling down at him.

The boy smiled back up at him, and grabbed his hand. They walked towards Bruce's car, now that he had said that his final decision was no merging, and headed towards the nearest shop to buy the boy some clothes. "Oh, and kid, what's your name?" Bruce asked, looking back at Kaldur through the rear-view mirror.

"Kaldur'ahm, Mr. Wayne."

"Call me Bruce, Kaldur. Mr. Wayne makes me feel old."

"Cool! New brother!" Roy yelled hyperactively as Kaldur and Bruce walked through the front door, both of them carrying bags.

While Bruce was carrying a lot more than Kaldur, he couldn't help but notice just how strong the ten year old was. Kaldur was now wearing a gray hoodie with camo pants that reached down below his knees, and he seemed to be happier than when Bruce found him.

Bruce sighed as Roy and Jason slid down the banisters, the two thirteen year olds high-fiving at the fact that they were already managing to get Bruce angry.

"Another one, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked as he walked in, eyeing all of the boys in the room.

"It's only until we find him a suitable home, Alfred." Bruce said lamely.

"I take it that means we will have a new adition to the family. Very well, Master Bruce, I'll start preparing his room." Alfred told him, already deciding that Kaldur was going to stay with them, and walked away and up the stairs.

Jason and Roy 'Yeah'd at the information, then ran over to Kaldur, who was now hiding behind Bruce's leg because of the sheer amount of energy.

"Cool, Bruce! I like him already!" Jason yelled, making Kaldur cringe at the volume.

"Jason!" Bruce scolded, even though he knew that none of his boys would listen to him.

"What's your name?" Roy asked, poking Kaldur's arm.

The boy moved even farther into Bruce's leg, and said in a shy voice, "Kaldur'ahm."

Roy and Jason stared at him for a brief moment, then Roy smiled happily. "I'll call you Kaldur!"

Jason smiled and nodded, then they both grabbed Kaldur's bags and threw them at Bruce, who caught them all. "Let's go Kaldur! There's this awesome new game Bruce just bought us!" Jason yelled, making Bruce smile and shake his head.

Had Alfred allowed them to have sugar before lunch?

Well, I had extra time on my hands, so I finished writing this. And I couldn't wait to see what you thought, so I posted it. But don't get used to early updates. Two reviews and I'll update tomorrow. Next chapter: Dick Grayson and Wallace West!