Some time earlier:

'Robin?' The dark knight landed next to Dick on the rooftop, the black cape a stark contrast to Robin's bright colours of yellow, red and green.

'Yeah…' Dick replied hesitantly, looking up, the bright blue eyes meeting his mentor's gaze.

Batman refrained from sighing as the boy's apparently innocent eyes sparkled with mischief and hope that his mentor wouldn't notice. Batman thought back to the wreck he had seen by the side of the road where Robin was supposed to have been, and the panic he had felt that he might have been hurt and sudden relief when he realised there wasn't any sign of the boy 'Did you crash the bike?'

'Uh… no… not exactly' Robin shifted slightly and dropt his gaze to the warehouse that was in front of them. Acrobatic genius or not he was not a very good liar when talking to Bruce.

This time Bruce did sigh. 'What happened?'

Robin grumbled for a moment before explaining, 'well, I was going after Riddler like you told me too and then I had to stop his truck while you freed the hostages…'

'And you used the bike?' Batman asked incredulously, raising his eyebrow.

Robin shifted defensively, 'It was armoured so I couldn't take out the tires with my batarangs. Besides I liked the bike and I didn't even get scratched.'

Batman had to admit it was true and felt a sting of pride at his boy's capabilities, but nonetheless it had taken the Dark Knight, following a few minutes behind in the Bat-mobile, to get a proper handle on the situation. He had made a plan for when Riddler chose to stop- not when Robin stopped him. It had endangered him, especially as he was a few minutes behind the boy he hated to think what would have happened if anything had gone wrong and he wasn't there.

The Riddler had taken an old warehouse and was occasioning yelling, no prizes for originality here, riddles out of the window and taken shots outside with a rifle at shadows he thought might be Batman. The caped crusader hated dealing with the insane ones, but regrettably he admitted this was Gotham city and the homicidal maniacs were what made it famous...

They both looked up as they heard the familiar voice shouting at them, the Riddler's sharp face visible through a window 'See if you get this one! What do you call-' before he could finish Batman had hit him with a bat-a-rang and he lay twitching underneath the window ledge.

The green suit with the black question marks dotted all over it appeared faded murkily into the shadows, and Edward Nigma's head lolled to one side as he drifted into unconsciousness beneath the rim of his bowler hat. All Batman had to do with these guys were take opportunities when they came and they could go down with one punch, but when they took hostages like earlier...

As they watched Police Commissioner Gordon's men arrest the Riddler, Batman turned to his junior partner. Robin stopped himself from gulping and leaned his head back slightly, knowing what was coming next.

'Robin, I told you to tail the Riddler to his hideout, not to stop the truck and not that way it's why there's a special feature in the car. You put yourself at unnecessary risk-'

'I still didn't get hurt,' Robin grumbled crossing his arms. Batman ignored the comment and continued.

'And you destroyed your bike in the process. It took days to customise it to specifications.' Batman paused to study his ward's resigned expression before he delivered the final punishment. You're grounded for three weeks, no meeting the titans, and you're not going into the city except for patrol. Understand?'

'Yes sir,' Even though it was fully expected, Dick couldn't help but feel dejected and found himself scowling on most of the drive back to the manor. Alfred's cookies didn't cheer him up much and he was in a bad mood when he got called by Roy in the morning.

'You're grounded?' The surprise was evident in his friend's voice.

'Yes…' Dick replied, resigned to the fact his friend would gloat about this for weeks. He was sitting on his bed in his room in the manor whilst Alfred and Bruce were busy downstairs with another 'social event.' At least being grounded meant he didn't have to attend the stupid thing because all he'd be doing was glaring at Bruce. Three weeks…

'Bird-boy got grounded?' Roy's muffled laughter was obvious 'how?'

'Um… I sort of smashed up my bike?' he asked wonderingly, trying to decide if it would impress the infamous troublemaker.

'That's all?' Roy sounded disappointed. 'Man that stinks. When I… accidentally… blew up Ollie's garage he only took away a month's allowance and grounded me for a couple of days. He was actually impressed… besides…' Dick could practically see Roy's cheeky grin 'It was his fault for leaving that bomb in there in the first place after we stopped what's-his-name-'

'Some guy with a Mohican.' Dick inserted tiresomely. He'd heard this story before.

'That's the one. So when are we meeting up?' His voice sounded hopeful.

'We're not.' Dick replied shortly.

'What?' The junior archer nearly yelled down the phone.

'That's the point- I'm grounded.' Dick rolled his eyes.

'But- oh.' Realisation sunk in. Roy put on a whiny voice 'but what are the Titans supposed to do? You're the one who always finds the trouble with that bat-computer of yours.'

'Actually feather-head, most of the time I watch the news,' Dick replied wryly. 'You should try it sometime.'

Roy paused as if considering it, while in actual fact grabbing a snack from the kitchen. Dick groaned as the inevitable 'No way short pants,' came.

'Donna's in charge while I'm away so you-' Dick stopped as he heard a noise from down the phone that sounded oddly like Roy was choking. He asked unsympathetically but curiously 'Roy?'

'Donna?' Roy managed to gasp as he coughed up the chocolate bar that had lodged in the back of his throat.

'Yes, Donna.' Dick rolled his eyes; Roy could be such an idiot sometimes. 'She's got Amazon training and discipline and doesn't choke on candy bars.'

'Aw come on, I'm sure I could handle Wally and Garth.' Roy said defensively. Dick's comment had hurt him more than he was willing to admit.

'With or without killing them?' Dick replied sarcastically.

'I'd do fine.' He snapped; it seemed Roy had run out of witty remarks. 'Well, talk to you later bird-boy.'

'Look Roy I'm sorry.' The phone clicked dead, in what he imagined was an almost resentful way and Dick resisted the urge to smash it across the wall. He growled in frustration and rolled over on his bed. Checking the time he clicked his jaw as he realised he had nothing to do all day except for patrol… in eight hours. Damn it… three weeks

To be continued

Hope you like the first chapter, thanks for reading, but please review so I know there's enough interest to carry on.