A/N: Don't know how to make Switched Lives chapter any better at this moment, so I'm going to work on this chapter for a few minutes till I get the other one down. I have this fan fiction's plot all planned out and it is really a Writer's Block or Plan B fic. So I'm sorry if the writing is kind of crappy at times. I don't spend much time on it. But thanks for the reviews and please keep them up! Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: You know the drill. Don't own them!

Chapter 5 New Friend Fluffy

"And please," Dick pleaded with his team, "Don't use your powers here! And don't make me go all Nazi on you guys for doing something stupid. Got it?"

Lilly smiled when he used her nickname for him as they all nodded. They were just glad that they had a day off after having ice cream the other day. It must have been because of Dick's new cold that he had suddenly gotten over night. His team guessed it was from school or because of something he did on patrol. Lilly said that the ice cream had been too much for him and that was where he had gotten the cold.

The kids quickly took off into the field with smiles. Alex was the only one not grinning from ear to ear. He sat off to the side of the field under a tree and banged his head to his music playing as loud as he wanted it to. The other three quickly picked up a game of soccer that looked like it wouldn't go very far with the way they were acting. Josh kept screaming every time he had to kick the ball, and Lilly yelled at him every time from annoyance. Amelia would always scold her for that. And it would go round and round.

Richard shook his head as he watched the kids in action. All their personalities collided with a huge explosion. He just knew that Batman did that on purpose. He had to somehow pull them together and bond. The poor boy gave a sigh as he wondered how the heck he was going to do that.

The teen sat down while blowing his nose. He had a small tissue box in one hand, the morning paper in the other. Richard had taken about ten pain killing pills to at lease feel okay to get out and go to the park with his team. He could barely read the paper as he sat there sniffing every so often. This was just torture!

"This sucks!" he thought while opening up the paper. "I'm sick, I have school and grades to keep up, I have patrol every night, and I also have a team to train. How could it get any worse? Wait. I don't want to answer that question. Bruce would defiantly have answer for it."

The head lines quickly caught the boy's attention. Serial Killer Strikes Again! Dick's eyes went wide with surprise as he started to read the rest intently with interest on his face. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the lady who sat next to him was staring at him.

"A little young to be reading things like that," the lady said suddenly.

Richard gave a small jump and looked over to her. The lady looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties and had perfectly straight black hair and deep green eyes that could take any man's breath away. She wore a small gray skirt and white shirt. Small, oval glasses rested on the tip of her cute nose. She looked very classy and had to be a young business woman. She was only married to her work.

"The rest of the paper is too boring," Dick said with a sweet smile. He then sneezed loudly and blowed his nose once again while apologizing to the lady for his sick state just to be polite like he had been taught.

"Where did you get the cold?" the lady asked him with a small chuckle at his actions.

"Must have been school," Richard lied with a small shrug. He was a pretty good liar in front of anyone besides Alfred or Bruce. Those two were like Sherlock Holmes at that kind of stuff. It just amazed the boy.

"Hey, I know who you are!" the lady said with a smile coming to her lips. "You're Bruce Wayne's kid!"

"Yep!" Dick answered with a nod. "How many times have a heard that one? Too many to count! She must be some new reporter who wants information about dad's work. Too bad she will only get bombed from a thirteen- year-old instead of getting her stupid information."

"I know what you're thinking, Richard," the lady said. Dick glanced over to her with suspicion, and she smiled slyly at him. "You must think that I'm a reporter or journalist trying to make you spill the beans about your daddy. Well, yes, I'm a journalist. But I'm off duty. So let's just talk like normal people for now. But don't think that I won't pester you after this. It is my job, you know?"

Richard smiled. He liked this lady. She knew how to treat kids and teens his age. She didn't act like they were so lower to her, but she treated them like they were on her level, and he liked that a lot.

"So you know my name," Dick said while folding up his paper. "But I don't know you yours."

"Susan Miller," she said with a nod. "I'm a journalist. That story you were reading was mine. You like it?"

"You wrote this?" Richard asked her with surprise in his voice. "Cool! Then you must have been there to see the last victim. I wonder why she targets young male teens."

"She?" Susan asked him with suspicion in her voice. "How do you know that the Serial Killer is female?"

Richard kicked himself for letting that information slip off his tongue like that. "I just guessed it was a girl," Dick said with a simple shrug. "I like to use my imagination."

"Imagination is a wonderful thing," Susan said while staring at Richard with a smile spreading across her face. The boy didn't notice the lady watching him so closely because he was so focused on the kids starting to kill each other.

"Hey, Lilly!" Richard yelled at the girl from his seat. "Get off Amelia right now!" Josh wasn't in sight and this only made Dick made. He must have turned invisible, and he had ordered him not to use his powers. Of course, Alex was only watching Amelia and Lilly duel it out with fists and kicks.

"Don't make me come out there and make you get off each other!" Richard shouted to them again.

"Since when did you have to take care of these kids, Richard?" Susan asked him with confusion.

"The orphanage is a bit full, so my dad is taking care of these four," Richard answered quickly. "It's only for a little while, though."

"Bruce already has one teen to deal with," Susan said with a chuckle, "How is going to take care of these three?"

"Four," corrected her as his face somehow got paler than before. "The other one is gone."

They were all freaks that belonged to an insane asylum. That Lilly girl should have been the first to go. She was a total nut job that had many problems. She scared the crap out of poor Josh. She demanded power over the group if Alex wasn't saying anything, which was most of the time.

Josh walked down the small, dirt pathway in the park with a small smile coming to his lips. It was one of the first times he had smiled for that week he had stayed at Wayne Manor. School was boring because he was number one at everything. But he liked boring most of the time. His parents just wanted him to be a superhero because of his useful powers. He never wanted to be one. It was just way too scary.

The day was truly beautiful. The weather was just right, and a small wind picked up after a few seconds to cool the small boy off. He loved nature so much, and this park was a perfect oasis from the hectic world. After a few minutes of walking, the boy was slowly coming back to his normal self.

Suddenly there was some rustling from a bush behind Josh. He gave a short gasp of fright while turning around to see what it was. But he saw nothing there. Josh shrugged his shoulders and told himself that he was just being paranoid like he always was. After a few minutes he heard the same rustling, and he turned around once again. And again, there was nothing and he thought it had to an evil squirrel out to get him.

The rustling kept going, and it was starting to bug Josh. He finally summed up the courage to see exactly what it was that was making all the annoying sounds. He bent down next to the bush and bit his lower lip while questioning himself. He would have never done this before, but training to be a superhero was testing his wisdom. He wasn't getting scared as easily now.

Josh took a deep breath and pulled the thorny branches away. Two big, blue eyes looked up into his. Josh screamed loudly while turning invisible, and the gray fuzzy thing took off to another bush out of fright. Josh then realized that it was just as scared as he was of it. He had read that somewhere in a book.

The boy slowly scooted up to the bush the fuzzy thing had hid in while becoming visible again, and held out his hand to get the thing to come. Slowly but surely, the animal came out and inched towards his hand. Josh smiled widely when he saw that it was a small, fuzzy kitten. His eyes light up with happiness as the cute kitten decided to trust him as he picked it up and held it in his arms carefully.

"You're the only one nice to me in this whole city," Josh said to it while scratching it behind the ears. It stared to purr loudly and licked his fingers as if to repay him for his nice deed. Josh kept thinking and decided to bring the fuzz ball home with him. The others would never know if he put the kitten in the closet or something. He could feed it table scraps.

"Now, you need a name before I take you home," Josh said to the kitten. He looked her over and smiled while saying, "Fluffy would be perfect!" He then put Fluffy into his backpack and walked slowly back to where his team was.

"Where were you today, Josh?" Richard asked the boy at the dinner table. Bruce was gone for a few hours because it was real busy at work. Alfred was eating with Richard and his team that night and was finding it almost unbearable. They really didn't know very many table manners.

"Yeah, freak!" Lilly said while punching him in the arm.

"Hey!" Dick reprimanded the girl sharply. "Act civilized at the table at least." He then focused his attention back to Josh and put on a stern frown. He wasn't too happy that Josh had gone against his wishes and turned invisible. He had reappeared after they had looked for the boy for a full hour.

"I wanted some space," Josh answered quietly. He looked up at Richard with his face innocent and looking very sorry with himself. Richard sighed and gave him a nod of understanding. He would have done the same thing, really. Plus, it wasn't like Josh was troublesome like the others.

"Okay," Dick said while getting up. He started to collect the empty plates of the others while giving the kids some orders. "Either shower tonight or tomorrow morning. One hour free time in the house. Lights out at nine, though. Now off with you all, and don't bother Alfred with homework. Come to me if you need help. I'll be in the shower for a while."

The four scattered without a single word. All of them went different directions for reasons only they knew. Alfred stood up and took the plates Richard was collecting out of his hands with a faint smile. Dick smiled up at him while muttering thanks to the butler. He turned to leave, but Alfred put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you feeling okay, Master Dick?" he asked the teen with concern in his voice. "You look paler than this morning. Maybe you should skip patrol tonight."

"After a shower I'll be better," Dick answered with a small sniff. "And the dinner was great, Alfred. The kids seemed to enjoy it as well." With that said, he took off to the main living room where the front door was along with the stairs to his room. He stopped when Bruce came in through the front door.

"You look sick," Bruce told Richard while looking at him closely.

"You didn't notice my condition this morning," Richard said while slowly climbing the stairs.

"I was busy," Bruce said in a rush of words. He avoided his son's stare because the boy had been right. Bruce didn't notice that his son had a cold that morning before he went to school.

"Busy drinking your coffee," Richard muttered under his breath. He then sneezed loudly and gave a small moan while covering his nose and running off to the bathroom with disgust. Bruce winced while watching him leave and walked into the giant kitchen where Alfred was washing dishes.

"Did you know that Richard was sick, Alfred?" Bruce asked the butler.

"Yes, Master Bruce," Alfred answered with a nod. He turned around with a sigh and said, "Maybe in his current condition he shouldn't go on patrol with you tonight. I've been worrying about him lately. He is…different."

"Different?" Bruce asked Alfred with confusion. He got out his cold dinner and heated it up in the microwave. "Alfred, he's just a teen. They change a lot. This is good for him. He needs to know who in charge of this house. He's been getting too cocky. Knocking off a few bars on his pride is not going to kill him."

"But what about his health?" Alfred asked. "And his cheery spirit is gone. I just don't see how this could help him. I…"

The butler stopped when Richard walked into the kitchen with his face blank of any emotion. He took an apple out of a dish on the counter and realized that the two men in the room were staring at him. "What?" he asked them with a confused look on his face. "I'm just a little hungry." He gave a small sniff and shrugged when no one said anything still.

Alfred looked to Bruce and gave him a look. Bruce crumbled under this look and walked over to his son. "You're not coming on patrol tonight, Dick," he told the teen sternly.

"What?" Richard yelled loudly. "I'm fine! Don't listen to Alfred! I can do this!"

"What did you say, Master Dick?" Alfred asked Richard while standing up. He was so angry with the boy he didn't give him time to answer. The butler lightly pushed Bruce away and yelled down to Richard, "For the past week I've been saying that you are being pushed too hard, but you have never once listened to me and did what I say. Are you daft, Richard? You're going to get yourself killed if you keep going on like this!"

Dick looked a bit freaked out from Alfred's sudden burst of anger. He had never once seen the man like this except for the one time he went on a shower fast and stunk so bad. The butler had to scream in his face like this to get his point across that the boy smelled like three thousand pigs.

Bruce stared at Alfred a bit shocked because he had rarely seen him do that as well. He covered up a small smile when he saw Richard totally crumble under the butler's fury. They both stared at each other for a while before Richard announced his defeat.

"Fine," he sighed while looking to the floor. "I'll skip patrol for just tonight. Happy now?"

Alfred smiled down at the boy and said, "Yes, very much, Master Dick. And I'm so sorry for my outburst."

"Because you're not getting your workout tonight," Bruce stepped in quickly with a wicked smile forming on his lips. "How 'bout we have a small training session right now? Leaders always have to be on their toes!"

"Master Bruce…" Alfred started but was cut off by Bruce grabbing Richard's arm and pretty much dragging the poor boy to the Bat Cave.

"Hey!" Alfred could hear Richard protest down the hall. There was a loud sneeze before the teen shouted, "I have homework to do! What the heck? This is so random!" Then the door shut, and that was the last Alfred heard of the two for the night.

"Crap, it hurts!" Richard muttered under his breath. He held onto his side that had gotten kicked a few hundred times in his long and painful training session with his father. The big bruise was a weird and funky looking purple mixed with green.

Bruce had laid down the rules while the two were having combat practice. Richard learned that to become a leader he would have to pass the final test with his team. The test was that the kids had to defeat Batman. But Robin could only give orders and was not aloud to do anything to Batman. Easier said then done, and the worry of it all was now pressuring down on the teen.

It was around eleven at night when Richard finished his shower and started to walk to his room. He stopped when there was a scratching noise coming from behind one of the doors to a supply closet. Richard raised an eyebrow and turned the door handle with much curiosity as to what was behind it.

He opened the door quickly and stepped back in surprise to see a small, fuzzy kitten staring at him with wide eyes. It then started to purr loudly like a tiger as it wove around the confused teen's legs. It meowed up to his as if begging for food.

"Please don't tell," came a soft voice from behind Richard. The teen spun around, almost tripping over the kitten while he was at it, and he saw Josh standing there looking to the floor with his hands behind his back and looking very sorry.

Richard put a finger to his lips as to tell Josh to be quiet. Josh looked at him confused while Dick picked up the fuzz ball of gray fur and quickly tip-toed to his room. He motioned for the kid to follow. Josh hesitated, but then tip-toed to Richard's room.

Dick closed his door and locked it just to make sure. He placed the kitten on his bed and sat down with Josh. The kitten started to purr again uncontrollably as it melted under the scratches behind its ears that Dick was giving him. He smiled down at the animal, and this made Josh smile too. He hadn't seen Richard like this ever before. Maybe there was more to his crazy teacher than what he thought.

"So what's her name?" Richard asked Josh with a smile.

"Fluffy," Josh said with a nod.

"It's perfect," Dick said. "Aw, she's sweet. So that's why you were gone so long in the park. She's a beauty!" He then smiled when he saw Josh relax and give a small giggle. Richard knew Josh probably didn't want to be trained to be a superhero and that the boy lacked boldness and courage. But maybe if this boy had someone who understood him more he would act braver in battles.

"And to answer your question, Josh," Richard said, "I won't tell anyone about Fluffy. You're secrete is safe with me. But you might want to keep her out of the storage closet where Alfred keeps all his supplies. I might be able to keep her here for a while. You can visit her all you want. How does that sound?"

"Um…good," Josh said with a wide grin spreading over his face. "And I don't want to keep her for long because what if she belongs to someone else? I don't want to steal their kitten."

"Hm…" Dick thought out loud. "I could ask around school if they lost a kitten. You can do the same. But I think that's cool that you want to return her to her owner."

"Really?" Josh asked him.

"Yep," Dick answered with a nod. "Now, you need to get to sleep. And if you need help on anything, don't be afraid to ask me. Remember, I'm not just your leader. I'm also a friend on your side."

Josh smiled and walked over to the door. Before leaving he said over his shoulder, "Thanks."

"No problem, Josh," Dick answered. As soon as the door closed he gave a big sigh. He looked down to Fluffy rubbing against his hand for more scratches. "You're cute," he told her, "But you might become a problem. Don't get too attached to the poor boy or he might get hurt when Bruce with his cat allergies finds out. And that will be sooner than later, I can swear to you that."

A/N: Fluffy is so cute! I have two cats and they are so adorable, so I had to put a kitten in here to make my readers say, "AW!" I hoped you liked the chapter and please don't forget to give a review. Thanks!