"Terry." Oh, he could practically see the frown in his voice.
"Yeah?" He flexed his wrists, guiding himself up and over some cars. He heard a few startled screams from behind him but carried on.
"You have watchtower duty tomorrow." Terry cursed under his breath at that. He hated watchtower duty. It was part of his stupid agreement with the justice league. He may have been a part-time member, but he had to spend at least 48 hours on watchtower duty every month. And since he was way too busy,
Terry always ended up just doing the entire 48 hours all in one go. It was way easier for him to be gone for two days than be gone for two hours every day. he was just lucky that as a senior, he had Friday afternoons off, so as soon as he was done with school, he just needed to get to the watchtower, stay until Sunday afternoon, then go home and crash for the night.
It was the perfect plan for him that annoyed the living shit out of him but it was less suspicious for him to be with Bruce for a weekend than for him to be gone for a few hours every day before going to his "job"
"Damn, I forgot about it."
"I know." If Terry hadn't known Bruce for the past two years, he would have been annoyed by his causal response. "Is there going to be a problem?" He didn't need to be with Bruce to know that he was raising his eyebrow. Terry scoffed in response.
"No, if you don't count me having a few research essays due as a problem."
"It comes with- "
"Yeah yeah, I know, it comes with the job. Doesn't mean I like it though." Terry scowled further when he remembered just how much homework he has. He would be hard-pressed to finish a single, six-paged research essay in a single weekend. Now he had to figure out how to finish three six-page research essays while working at the watchtower. Which meant he had to keep his real age a secret since the other members of the league thought he was in his early to mid-twenties and not an 18-year-old who was still in high school.
"Go ahead and head home, try and finish one of those essays."
"Ok, thanks." He would have appreciated the gesture more if it wasn't almost three in the morning on a school night.
"Batman, here for monitor duty?"
"Yeah," He practically marched into the small room with his backpack over his shoulder," Anything I should know about?" Mareena hummed as she flipped between monitors.
"No, its been calm all day, you're going to stay here for the next two days, right?"
"Yeah." He sat down at the desk with a quiet sigh and a scowl on his face. He still wasn't happy to be there.
"Ok, Superman just restocked the snacks so go ahead and grab some if you want." Terry grunted in response, he almost snarled when Mareena playfully nudged his head with her hand.
"You have fun Batman, call us if anything happens." Terry waved her off without looking, only remembering his manners enough to give her a curt farewell.
He let out a quiet sigh as soon as the door closed behind her. Flipping through the monitors, he let himself smile the tiniest bit when he noticed that he was currently the only one in the watchtower.
Without wasting any time, he took out his personal computer and started to work on one of the essays that was due the coming Monday. He made himself check the monitors every five minutes, which was extremely annoying since he would get into the zone to write and be interrupted every time he started to pick up speed.
After a few minutes of just staring at the screen, completely stumped on how he was supposed to type another paragraph to reach the minimum length, Terry sighed again.
"I hate literature class."
"I'm sure it's not that bad." If Terry wasn't already used it to, he would have jumped in his seat at the sudden voice that came on in his cowl.
"I don't know, have you ever had to bullshit an entire essay about the symbols and connotation in Beowulf?"
" I did that when I was your age, you don't have my sympathies." Terry scowled for the umpteenth time.
"Well last time I checked, you weren't running around in a mask when you were my age. Besides, I doubt computers even existed when you were my age-ow!" Terry shook out his hand as he got a sudden shock in his pointer finger. He could have sworn that he heard a quiet chuckle from the other side of the radio.
"You want to say that one more time? I don't think I heard you right." Terry let out a chuckle at that.
"I got it old man, how bout you just do your crossword puzzles and I'll do my homework." He was fully expecting the second shock and let out another chuckle as soon as the pain faded away. With a sigh of annoyance, he checked on the monitors one more time before going back to work on his essay.
Well, that was one essay down, two more to go.
"Hey, isn't Batman supposed to be on monitor duty right now?" Warhawk walked into the watchtower with a scowl, Mareena walking in next to him with a gentler look on her face.
"He's been up since Friday, maybe he's taking a break?"
"He's not supposed to take any breaks. That's what he gets for pushing off monitor duty until the end of the month." Mareena shook her head.
"Give him a break Rex, he's younger than all of us and doesn't have any powers to help him, He probably has it tougher than us." They walked into the monitor room, where Batman was.
"You say that like he's some stupid teenager, he's not a kid, he's a- "
"Shh!" Mareena shushed Warhawk, much to his annoyance. He rose an eyebrow in return. Silently, Mareena pointed at the desk, which only made Warhawks scowl deepen at the sight.
The person who was supposed to be keeping an eye on the monitors was instead leaning his head against his arms. Quiet snores were escaping from the young hero as he was surrounded by empty coffee cups, some books, and a laptop that had long turned off. The two of them walked quietly into the room, the two of them raising an eyebrow at everything.
Mareena was sure that it wasn't healthy for a human to drink-one, two three, four- five expresso shots in a row. And that was assuming he hadn't thrown away more expresso shots.
"Tch, Beowulf? I haven't seen a copy of this since I was…" Warhawk trailed off as he realized something.
He hadn't seen a copy of Beowulf since he was in high school.
"…This moron…he's just a kid." That made Mareena tilt her head curiously.
"What?"
"Hey, moron, get up." Warhawk nudged Batman with his hand, which immediately woke up the hero and made him wake up with a small gasp," If you need to sleep that bad, just go to the nap room." Warhawk stuffed everything back into the backpack while Mareena started to clean up all of the trash.
"Warhawk! Mareena," Batman groaned as he rubbed his eyes, trying to figure out what was happening," When did you two get here?"
"Just now," Warhawk shoved the backpack into his chest. Based on the way the hero just grabbed it and looked at Warhawk, he could tell that Batman was exhausted," Hurry up and go to the nap room, I don't want to deal with you if you pass out." Even when tired, he was as stubborn as ever. Batman shook his head while
"No, I'm almost done, I just need some coffee."
"Don't make me make you go to the nap room."
"I don't need to go to the nap room Warhawk. I'm. Fine." The two of them were staring each other down as Mareena just stood there, trying to diffuse the situation.
"Now now, there's no need to be so hostile. Warhawk, if he says that he doesn't need to go to sleep, then just let him be." Batman threw a grateful nod her way, much to Warhawks annoyance. "And Batman, if you really don't need the nap room, we'll leave you alone. But I'll make you go myself if I see you sleeping again." This time, it was Batman who gave Mareena an annoyed look.
Batman stared at the two of them for a few seconds before huffing in annoyance. But with the way his shoulders were slumping, it was hard to take the younger hero seriously.
"Fine," he slung the backpack over his shoulder before walking towards the door," But if anything happens, call me." Trying to preserve what little dignity he has, he walked out of the room with a huff. The two heroes stared at him as he left and as soon as he was gone, Mareena turned to Warhawk.
"I thought you said he wasn't a kid?" Warhawk looked at her out of the corner of his eye before huffing and crossing his arms.
"I know what I said."
If Warhawk saw Batman, curled up in the blankets with only the top of his ears poking out under the blankets while he was sleeping like the dead in the nap room, he didn't say anything.