Disclaimer: I don't own Batman, Young Justice or any of its characters. Really, I don't.

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Chapter 3.

Surprisingly, or not, it was Bruce who finished first. He was so excited by the promise of being read to that he picked up the pace and cleaned his plate, much to Alfred's pleasure. And, maybe that was helped by the fact Dick was stalling; taking small bites and spending a lot of time chatting with Alfred about nothing and everything, all in hope of having a moment alone with the older man.

Seeing little Bruce bounce a bit in his seat and send him urgent looks to hurry up was a very welcome bonus. For him, and for Alfred too.

"Master Bruce. Why don't you go brush your teeth while Master Richard finishes his meal?"

"Come on, Alfie, I told you to just call me Dick," He complained, with a pout and a twinkle in his eyes.

It was something of a running joke now, 'try' to convince Alfred to drop the 'master' part. When he had first come to live at the Manor, he had quietly and shyly told the kind man he could call him just Dick, like his parents and his friends at the circus did. But later on, once he was more at ease with being around him and Bruce, it had turned into a bit of a game to keep insisting, even if he knew Alfred wasn't going to change his mind about it.

"Of course, Master Dick."

The teenager sighed dramatically, turning to Bruce with such a theatrically crushed expression on his face that it made the young boy smile.

Bruce turned to the butler. "Thank you, Alfred."

"Of course, young sir."

With a nod, Bruce slid down from his stool. He hesitated, chewing on his lip slightly as he looked up at Dick. "Hurry up, okay?" He added, taking off before the older boy could answer.

A bright smile lighted up Dick's face. He turned his head, looking after him to make sure the small boy had truly disappeared from view before looking back at Alfred.

"Oh. My. Gosh. Alfie, he's so precious! And so cute and so tiny! He acts so much like Bruce Bruce, but not really because he's less grumpy and more open about showing real emotions. But well, kids aren't that good at hiding things so," Dick shrugged, pausing to take a breath. "You have to remind me to ask for cute baby pics once this is over, Alfie. I need to see them."

Alfred smiled kindly, already used to Dick's animated ramblings to be fazed. "I will be sure to provide them, Master Dick."

"Awesome!" The boy grinned before turning serious. "So, I don't suppose you know what happened."

"I haven't the slightest idea, I'm afraid. I found Master Bruce in that particular condition when I went to the master bedroom to wake him up this morning." Alfred paused. "It was quite difficult to explain suitably why he was wearing pajamas too large for him and sleeping in a room that was not his own."

"I can imagine. I got quite the interrogatory when he saw me," Dick said with a grimace. He supposed it was actually a good thing he spent the night on the mountain last night, otherwise it would have been him going to wake Bruce up and he didn't think that would have gone too well.

But, if he hadn't listened to Wally about doing the sleepover in the first place, he would have been in Gotham last night, and would have gone out on patrol to watch Batman's back like he was supposed to and so this wouldn't have happened.

Not that he wasn't giddy just seeing Bruce like this; it was totally asterous and so much fun to meet kid Bruce, but it was also bad when they knew nothing about what happened. He would be all too happy to enjoy and go along with this if he knew Bruce was going to be fine and nothing bad was going to come from all this. But he didn't, so he had to think and worry a bit too.

"He was fine when he came back from patrol, right?" Dick questioned, even if he already knew the answer. B called him when he got in from patrol -like Dick had asked him to- and they talked a little bit.

"Yes. Master Bruce looked just fine when he returned. He did not require medical assistance, therefore, he dismissed me and stayed in the cave to work in his report of the night's activities."

Dick looked over his shoulder to make sure Bruce wasn't on his way back before speaking. "Looks like read last night's report could be a good start to try to figure out what happened."

"That was my thought, yes, but taking care of Master Bruce has left me with no time to spare."

He nodded distractedly, chewing on his lower lip in thought. "Maybe we should check the Batmobile's GPS records too. Get last night's patrol route and access the surveillance cameras to try to find out who did this. And we probably should contact the League too," He added. "Or at least Uncle Clark. B is going to be annoyed when he gets back to normal, but I think we're going to need help with this."

Dick furrowed his brow at the look Alfred was giving it. Right. He probably had thought about all that already. "I shall go downstairs to take care of it, sir."

"I can-"

"I believe, Master Dick, that you have more important matters to attend to." Alfred countered.

"What? I- Oh, right," He had promised little Bruce to read to him. And, that would also help keep him busy while Alfred went down to the Batcave. "Okay. But you'll keep me posted, right?"

Alfred bowed slightly. "Of course, sir."

"Good," Dick replied with a nod. "Oh! And, like I said, he kind of interrogated me when he saw me so I had to improvise. I told him I'm his cousin and my parents are on a trip so that's why I'm staying here. I also told him I don't live in Gotham so that's why he doesn't know me."

"That was very clever of you, young sir. I realize I should have prevented you of the situation when I contacted you."

"Nah, it's okay, Alfie. It was totally asterous to come home to find a mini-Bruce waiting for me. Telling me would have kinda ruined the surprise," Dick gave the butler a toothy grin. "Anything I should know about?"

"Nothing particularly pressing, I believe. You would not be able to use your bedroom for the time being, of course, but I would make sure to put anything you may need for the foreseeable future in one of the guest rooms."

"Oh. Okay." Dick agreed easily. He hadn't thought that far yet, but it made perfect sense. He couldn't use a room filled with his stuff if he was supposed to be just visiting. That brought him back to something he had wanted to ask before.

"What did you tell him about his room?"

"Ah. Well, young sir, I fear I had to tell Master Bruce his room was closed off due to a small infestation of termites, and that is why he could not use it at the moment." Dick snorted. But of course Alfred could handle something this crazy without even batting an eye.

"You're the best, Alfie. The very, very best."

...

a/n: This chapter was supposed to be up last week, but I got busy working on something else. Sorry!

The good news is, I've had plenty of time to think about this fic and I can now proudly announce I have a pretty good idea of where this story is going (yes, this isn't just a fluffy and angsty mess anymore, even if there's going to be plenty of it) and you can expect a few characters to pop up along the way, so the fic is staying in this section after all. I'm thinking it would extend like ten chapters or so. Hope you enjoy it!