Dick's POV

"Who were they, Grayson?"

I don't want to tell him. He doesn't trust me as is.

"I'll ask Cain."

...I guess he's going to find out eventually.

"Child Services."

He tensed and looked away. Probably wasn't expecting that. At least I don't have to explain who they are; anyone who lives in Gotham knows what Child Services are.

"…What do they want?"

"They want to know if I'm going to-"

"Leave?"

I jerked my head around to stare at him. He thought I was going to leave? Just like that? But from the way I didn't deny it, he obviously took it as a yes.

"You are, aren't you? You're just going to go back to your stupid friends back in Jump City! You never planned on staying!"

He ran. And honestly, I don't blame him. There wasn't anything I could do to stop him, but maybe Cass was right. But how am I supposed to help him when the more he says, the more confused I get about what hurts him the most?

Worried, I walked back over to the people from Child Services. They were watching me expectantly, probably thinking about how I couldn't even keep track of Ben for an afternoon. Ignoring the looks they were giving me, I decided to give them a piece of my mind.

"Seeing as I have more important things to do, I'll talk to you tomorrow at eight. My place, I guess."

My snarky attitude probably didn't help, but hey, they got an answer. Might not be the one they wanted, but they'll just have to suck it up and deal with it.

I already know my answer, but that's not the only one I'm gonna need.

Bens' POV

When I woke up the next morning, I knew he was already gone. He hates lying around for too long, because he gets bored easily.

I shoved the covers off me and rolled off Grayson's bed. I could hear people talking down the hall when I walked out, towards my room. Probably Grayson and those idiots. Their villains are jokes, and they have problems with them! Unbelievable.

Compared to mine, Grayson's room is a pig sty. Sometimes I wonder how he can live like that.

As I jerked my hoodie off the wardrobe door handle, something fell out of the pocket. I glanced down at the back of a photo. I pulled my hoodie on, flipping the hood down, as I bent to pick the photo up.

The sloppy handwriting was obviously Grayson's: Remember this? Best Snow Day, Little Bird.

It was taken about a month after I started as Robin. It had been snowing really hard, so Grayson had dragged Gordon, Todd, Cain, Drake and me outside for a snowball fight. It went on for almost the whole day. I never said, but I think Grayson knew I had sort of enjoyed it. Gordon had been acting like a little girl and complained about sore arms afterwards, while Grayson had just laughed at her.

"Stop it Dick! My arms are dying!"

"Aww, come on Babs; do you see anyone else complaining?"

"Don't you 'come on Babs' me."

"Just did."

"Would you two shut up already?"

"Don't be like that, Little Bird! I know you enjoyed it."

"…Don't be ridiculous Grayson; it was a waste of time that I will not be repeating."

The photo had been taken by Pennyworth, after we'd finished.

We all had flushed cheeks and red noses, but everyone was grinning, even me. We had padded jackets zipped up under our chins and beanies pulled down over our ears. Drake was on the far left, with his arm reaching up over Grayson's shoulder. I was in front, with Grayson's arms hanging around my neck and his chin resting on the top of my head. Todd stood next to us, with his hand tucked in Grayson's front pocket. I could still remember it digging into my back. Cain was leaning back against his chest, with his other arm slung around her. Gordon was on the far right, arms folded on Jason's shoulder.

All our eyes were shining, and it wasn't just from the snowball fight.

It had taken a while, but Grayson had somehow managed to make us into a pretty dysfunctional family. But it was still a family, and we were all determined to keep it that way.

The hardest person for me to get along with had been Drake. We managed though; with a lot of glares from Cain, and Gordon pulling more than one fight apart. But it still worked.

I stared at the photo. Definitely one of the best days I've ever had. We were all together then. Not like now.

My good mood faded as I thought about our newly arrived 'guests'. I wonder if Grayso-

"Bro! Get your butt down here or I swear, I will eat your breakfast!"

My stomach growled at the thought of food. I hope he was joking.

I ran out my room, dropping the photo onto my bed as I shot past. I'd put it somewhere later.

"Grayson! Keep your hands off the food or you'll lose them!"

Dicks' POV

The sad thing is, I probably would lose them. My poor, teenaged brother still isn't out of his 'kill first, ask questions later' phase. I'm sure he's not the only on- oh who am I kidding. He is the only one.

I felt bad for 'inviting' the Titans up for breakfast. Of course, that involved telling them who I am. Their expressions were priceless. I'm just glad I 'borrowed' Tim's camera. I am so going to blackmail them with this.

Their expressions at the sound of my last name being used instead of my first one, and the threat to my hands, brought slightly different reactions. They all seemed pretty confused about my last name, but the last part got a few glares. 'Old friends' or not, if they do anything to my little brother, I will personally send them back to Jump City the hard way.

When Ben came out, he looked slightly surprised to see the Amazing Teen Titans (I'm never going to let them live that down) sitting at the table. He shot me an annoyed glare, but other than that, it's going alright.

"I told you you're too soft, Grayson."

I shot him a lopsided grin. Honestly, I think having a little brother Ben's age has made me even more childish than I used to be. He's been great help for the 'family'. I don't know how we survived this long without him.

"Love you too, Jam."

The result was freaking awesome.

I only just managed to dodge the butter knife he threw at me. I dived to the right, cackling. Saying he hates it when I call him that is the understatement of the century. The thing I love most, is that it's actually part of his name; Ben'jam'in. Am I the only one who noticed?

But the thing that pissed me off to a whole new level, was having the Titans point their weapons at my little brother.

I glared at them.

"No weapons or uniforms in the house."

My incredulous look slid to Ben. He was standing beside me, arms folded; the picture of defiance.

"I sure hope you have some other clothes, or you will probably be walking around naked. I don't know about Grayson, but that is not something I want to see."

It took me a second, but I got round to smacking him upside the head.

"What was that for?!" He hissed, rubbing the sore spot.

"Inappropriate subject," I answered distractedly. "The other troublemakers are coming home today. You better not have left anything that shouldn't be there lying around in Tim's room, or I'm gonna have to ground you. Again."

He gave me a smirk, and I've known him long enough not to be fooled. I can easily see the look in his eyes that tells me to 'run like hell or you will regret it.' It's one of the traits he didn't get from his father.

"Who, me?"

I gave him a mock glare as he rolled under the table to the other side for his breakfast. Little demon. Oh, so that's why Tim calls him that. Can't see why I didn't notice before.

The Titans sat down warily, still looking confused about the conversation. Must have lost them back at 'weapons and uniforms.'

Wow, that was rude. Oh well, I just hope Tim's ready to put up with this lot as well as Ben, otherwise I'm screwed. Hopefully he'll be able to help me keep Ben in line, or things could get pretty bad with both of them and the Titans in the house. Ok, now that I think about it, this has 'Disaster' written all over it. My 'old friends' are still pretty childish and not as understanding of the worlds' cruelty as my little brothers, so they'll probably say the wrong thing and tick one or both of them off.

I think the main thing is what the Titans are missing but don't realise it; Family.

Sure, they say they're close enough for it, but they don't even know each others secrets. And they still think they can trust each other?

Cyborg opened his mouth, probably to ask what-or who-we were talking about, when the phone rang.

Raven's POV

He's so different.

The same person, sure, but other than that…

I felt it when we first met him. He was…happy. I guess I didn't recognise him at the start because he never felt happy. Angry, sad, impatient…

And he never laughed. I don't think I ever heard him laugh before last night. It was nice, I guess, but it was at us, not with us. Maybe he never was our friend.

I only recognised him when he got angry. I know it was at us, but it was familiar. I easily figured out where I remembered it from, because I used to feel it all the time.

At first, he seemed like an easy going kind of guy. But when he saw us, he started getting distressed, and a bit annoyed. The more we talked, the more his annoyance turned to anger. And he started getting impatient; like he had somewhere important to be and we were holding him up.

But the thing that really set him off, was when he got a call on his Comm. He was worried, and I could tell we had been pushed out of his mind while he talked to whoever it was. But when the others started talking, he just seemed to…explode, I guess. Inside and outside.

I can understand why. He seems to really care about his little brother. I'm still not sure if I really believe it, but I can tell they share the same origin in their dislike towards us.

I'm a bit suspicious about the phone call, though. He seems to know the person from a long time ago…

"Hello? Oh, hey Wally."

I can tell he knows this 'Wally' well. Kind of like how he knows his brother…

"How'd it go?"

As he listens to the reply, Spa-Richard looks like he's about to laugh.

"Wow, that bad, huh?"

He's laughing softly at the person on the other end of the line.

"I told you not to put those two in the same room. You know how they get."

There's another break, and this time he does laugh.

"Seriously?! You got Arty in on it? I know you said it was bad, but I didn't think you meant that bad."

Then, while the other person replies, his smile vanishes.

"No."

His blue eyes slide to us before jumping to the shadowed figure of his brother, who was standing in the doorway, waiting for him to get off the phone.

"Now is…now isn't a good time."

'Wally' replies, and Richard runs his hand through his messy hair.

"Fine, you can come…But you're staying…No, I don't care what she says! You can tell her I said that for all I care. Wally, if I don't get help, it's going to be hell on Earth here."

He glances at us, then turns and pretends to bang his head on the wall. The light coming through the window catches on his bruises, making me wince. It looks horrible. It really must've hurt, if they're still here after over a week…

"Yeah, sure…See ya soon. Don't run into any walls on the way here, 'K?"

The person on the other end starts to yell a reply, probably complaining, but Richard chuckles and hangs up.

"So?"

He turns and gives his little brother a wide grin.

"Hope you don't mind some extra company for a while, coz the Speed Devils are staying here for a while."

I couldn't help but wonder if it was a bad thing, from the way he groaned.

All it did was make Richard's smile widen.

"If anyone needs me…well, just don't need me."

We watched as he raced out of the room before Richard could make him stay.

He turned to put the phone away, grumbling something rude about younger brothers.

"Why does he use your surname?"

His eyes flicked to me in surprise.

"Huh?"

"Your…brother. He uses your last name, not your first name. Why?"

"Coz he's a little…umm, never mind."

I glared at him.

His eyes flickered away. He seems very defensive over the boy…

"How come you never mentioned having a brother?"

He glared at me and I could feel his anger rushing back, before it…vanished. He sighed, turning his head to stare out the way the boy had left.

"I never mentioned him because I didn't know about him back then."

We swapped confused looks. I could see the others didn't understand how you could have a brother but not know about him.

"How does that work?"

I thought it was a reasonable question, but apparently Richard didn't feel the same. His bright blue eyes darkened and slid away from mine to the floor. I didn't think he would answer; he never liked personal questions, so I guess that wasn't fake.

"Isn't it obvious?"

We all stared at Beast Boy, the one who had spoken. His cheeks darkened in embarrassment at all the attention.

"Umm, nevermi-"

"No," Richard's eyes were focused on him now. "What's obvious?"

"Well," his eyes were on the ground as he scuffed his foot on the carpet. "He's your brother, but the only thing you have in common is your hair and eye colour, he calls you by your last name and the age difference between you-"

"Yeah, we know all that, Grass Stain."

Bright green eyes flashed angrily to Cyborg as he hissed "Obviously, Tin Can, they aren't related. You don't have to be related to be a family."

While we were still getting over our slight shock at seeing Beast Boy angry, Richard actually looked impressed. "Not bad, Green Bean…Like I said, I was adopted, but Ben…his last name was always Wayne. He lived with his…mother…and didn't come here until a few months before his father died."

We stared at him as he looked back up at us, laughing softly.

"If you would believe it, we didn't actually hit it off when we first met. He hated me, but I guess…well, he needed someone. He was only nine."

As I looked at the others, I knew. They were sympathetic of the boy and, apart from Beast Boy, they wanted their leader back and from what I could tell they didn't care if he didn't want to come back. They would drag him out of Gotham kicking and screaming if it would work. But I understood. There was nothing that would convince him to come back with us. Speedy and Kid Flash might've been able to convince him, but they dropped off the radar a few weeks after Richard himself did. He had a family here, not back in Jump City with us.

I heard the doorbell go and Ben walked back in. He had his arms around his chest like he was trying to hold himself together.

"The Speed freaks are here."

Richard turned to his little brother and glared at him.

"You should've told me your chest sill hurt!"

"It's fine, Grayson!"

"Is not!"

"Is so!"

"Grow up!"

"I would if you let me!"

And as I watched, as a faint smile twitched at his lips as the younger of the two turned away. Even if the others didn't; I knew. This was his family, his home, his life.

We'd lost him.

A.N: I am so, so sorry it took so long. I am trying to make the chapters longer and...things just got away on me. The next chapter has been started, but I'm not sure when it will be completed. School finishes on Wednesday, so I will have a lot more time to work on it.
Thank you to the people who reviewed on the last chapter! You made me work faster.
Remember; reviews make me happy!- (I forgot to mention that this is also an au YJ crossover I love au's)