Bludhaven's two vigilantes blended into the shadows of the alley without being seen by anyone. The young man, Nightwing, in his early twenties, looked at his girlfriend, Black Canary, to make sure she was ready.

She nodded and the two interrupted the drug dealing that was going on between five people.

"You know, you should find a better hiding place to do your illegal business." smiled Nightwing. He didn't even give them time to open their mouths when he jumped on top of two drug dealers and painfully knocked their heads together.

A third man pulled out a knife and took a step toward Batman's former partner. Only he didn't get far when a kick connected with his arm causing him to lose his grip on the weapon

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Don't you know that's a very dangerous toy?" scolded Black Canary as she elbowed him in the chest followed by a roundhouse kick to the temple.

In the meantime Nightwing was having fun avoiding another criminal's weak attempts to hit him. "No, you don't do it that way but" he threw a hard uppercut right in his face sending him sprawling "like this." he finished with satisfaction.

Green Arrow's ex-girlfriend punched the last remaining criminal in the stomach and then immediately swept his legs.

Afterwards, the two vigilantes tied up the five drug dealers waiting for them to be arrested by the Bludhaven police. Black Canary shot her own grappling hook onto the roof of the nearest building and climbed in, followed by her boyfriend.

Nightwing looked at the horizon of his city, lost in thought about what had happened in the past two years.

A few months before he turned eighteen, the surprising mutual breakup between Green Arrow and Black Canary occurred, shocking the entire Justice League. They both no longer felt anything toward each other and yet still remained on good terms.

Nightwing did not know how to feel from the news, since he has always had a tiny crush (okay, maybe not so tiny but details) on Dinah Lance ever since he first met her as Robin.

Of course, he has done nothing to show his crush and he certainly hasn't told anyone, although he has always suspected that Bruce has known from the beginning (after all, he is Batman, what doesn't he know?) and perhaps Alfred as well.

At best you can get away with Bruce (if you're lucky) but Alfred?

Not a chance.

So he buried his crush in the back of his heart (ignoring how it was growing year by year) and his only serious relationship he had was with Barbara which didn't go beyond a year and a half.

Be that as it may, he did not know how to act accordingly when he heard the news. After all, he always thought she regarded him as a nephew (and it hurt a lot. A lot).

After the breakup between the archer and the canary, Dick and Dinah became very close and one thing led to another and they eventually got engaged, shocking again the League and the Batfamily (except Batman and Alfred).

Sure, it was a little awkward at first with his "uncle" Ollie, but nothing that couldn't be resolved with a good discussion with him.

More awkward was with Roy Harper because, you know, his best friend got engaged to his mother figure, but even that was resolved (and certainly Wally, Garth, and Donna laughing every time about the awkwardness between the two didn't help).

The criminals of Bludhaven and Gotham (the latter also with the super-villains of Arkham Asylum) soon learned at their own expense to fear and respect Black Canary.

They also learned (again at their own expense) that hurting one member of the pair was not too bright an idea since the other would immediately kick the perpetrator's ass but they kept doing it anyway.

Fools.

Be that as it may, his relationship with Dinah was going swimmingly and for that he was very happy. Their age difference (which is then only nine years) was not causing any problems, fortunately.

For the past two years he had also been doing many good things in the Bludhaven Police Department together with his friend and partner Amy Rohrbach.

Another addition had arrived in the family nine months ago in the form of Damian Al Ghul-Wayne, the biological son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. Dick gave him the mantle of Robin and Timothy switched to Red Robin.

Although Damian acted arrogant and brash, Dick was able to see beyond the walls he created to see the ten year old boy that he is. That is why he mentored him for the first six months when Bruce initially refused to do so claiming it was too dangerous.

On the one hand he could understand it, since the first day he set foot in the manor he tried to kill Tim, but Bruce was still his father.

Fortunately his little brother softened slightly with everyone and did not attempt or actually kill anyone (this is a big step forward) and Jason, Tim, Cassandra, Stephanie, and even Katherine seemed to accept him (or at least put up with him adequately).

And to finish on a high note, he had become very protective of Dick himself, which was really super cute for him (not that he would ever admit that to Damian. He still wanted to live, thank you very much) and, thanks to every deity in existence, he tolerated Dinah as his girlfriend.

Now, the last three months have brought news.

Stephanie Brown, now Stephanie Brown-Wayne, had become for all intents and purposes his little sister, though unfortunately in the worst way.

Her father, the supervillain known as Cluemaster, had decided to pay a visit to his daughter and ex-wife's home that ended in the worst way.

He had killed Stephanie's mother.

The girl herself was not in the house at the time but at school and it was also the poor 15 year old girl who found her mother's lifeless body.

When he heard the tragic news Bruce Wayne, who already regarded Stephanie as a daughter, immediately adopted her, which cheered Stephanie slightly.

The first two months were obviously difficult and the most complicated but slowly, thanks mainly to her family, she was getting over the painful loss.

Dick Grayson and Dinah Lance were also visiting the manor more often besides weekends to try to lend a hand and lift her spirits.

Fortunately, it seemed to be working.

There was another problem, however, and as if that were not enough, much more serious and difficult to solve.

The tension between Batman and the current Robin was sky-high and this was causing quite a few problems, so much so that Robin was patrolling more Bludhaven than Gotham and visiting his older brother often.

In fact it often happened that Nightwing and Black Canary, returning home from a long patrol, would find Robin sitting stiffly on the couch and each time Dick had to comfort him and the younger one had to spend the night there and then wake up early so as not to be late for school.

In contrast, in the Wayne household, Damian and Bruce often exchanged very obvious jibes but not in the way they did between the Wayne siblings who were friendly: those between father and son were meant to hurt the other.

While with the various siblings Damian was slowly opening up and relating, with his father this was not happening and this also threatened their night job.

It was all a never-ending cycle: Batman often left Robin behind in the most important cases and when he gave him an order he often disobeyed them.

Dick feared he knew the cause.

Robin had always been a beacon of light to chase away Batman's darkness, only this time the bird was almost as dark as the bat and that was why their dynamic did not work so well.

Richard did not know how to solve this problem. He had tried getting them to interact with father-son activities such as basketball (and it was also one of the activities Dick liked to do most with Bruce when he was younger) but it had not worked.

Once he tried to get them to go out for ice cream but the two returned exactly five minutes later, both with angry faces.

His little siblings also tried to work things out but no dice.

Dick realized they were fucked when Alfred also failed to do so.

At least Damian went to him when he was pissed off instead of going out and killing the first person he met. He could imagine the headline "Damian Wayne is a Homicidal Insane Ninja."

His thoughts went to a phrase Dinah had once said, namely that he was acting as the boy's father figure more than Bruce was (even though both were ultimately to blame).

His response was to choke on his own saliva.

Every time he thought about it he shook his head negatively. The boy's father was Bruce and he knew from experience that the billionaire was an amazing father. Sure, sometimes he makes mistakes but who doesn't?

Before he could go deeper into reflection, Black Canary plucked him from his thoughts. "Are you all right, love?"

He turned a small smile to her. "Just lost in thought."

She nodded in understanding. "You'll see that it will be resolved soon."

"I hope so, Canary, I sincerely hope so." he sighed.

"Shall we finish the patrol here?" she asked, watching him carefully.

He hesitated slightly before nodding. "If that's not a problem for you."

"It's not, don't worry about it." she kissed him softly on the cheek, getting a full-blown smile. " Whoever gets home last sleeps on the couch!" she joked as she fired her own grappling hook at nearby rooftops.

Nightwing laughed openly as he followed her. "I have a strange feeling that's not going to happen!"

"You want to challenge me, pretty boy?"

"You know I don't back down from a challenge."

"You know that's a bad habit right?"

"I don't care."