Dick woke up sleepy after a long patrol. He yawned and slowly got out of bed. After taking a quick shower and preparing breakfast, he checked his phone and unexpectedly found a message from Selina. He smiled softly, remembering the beautiful evening they had spent the night before.

Good morning :)

He texted her back saying good morning and got ready to put on his uniform. Next he opened the garage where his car and his civilian motorcycle were parked and, as he started his car, he thought about the idea of telling Will about his meeting with Selina and, after contemplating the idea for a while, decided to discard it.

It was still early to tell him about it.

"Good morning Will." Richard greeted his partner with a small smile.

Will hugely returned the smile. "Good morning to you too Dick!" he chirped happily, his eyes bright.

Dick slowly sat down at his workplace and looked at his partner with a confused look. Will just kept smiling.

"All right, that's very strange." commented Dick after a minute of a kind of staring contest.

"What?" asked Will too innocently, still with a strange smile present on his face.

"You're too cheerful, even by your standards. It's kind of creepy when I think about it." reflected the younger man.

Will continued to smile like an idiot. "What? Can't a man be happy?"

"Of course but your smile is too scary. Are you by any chance a relative of the Joker?"

The older man laughed out loud. "My God!" he began once he had calmed down. "That was too funny!" then looked up to meet his friend's serious face. "Wait a minute! Were you serious?"

"I told you. Your smile could rival the Joker's." he replied with a smirk.

Will chuckled. "Fortunately, I'm not related to that crazy clown."

"Then why are you so happy, man?" he asked curiously.

Dick would never have bet on it being possible but Will's smile grew wider. "Guess what!" he said, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

Richard thought about it for a while, racking his brain for plausible options to explain why his friend was smiling. After not even a minute an idea occurred to him. "You're getting married to Emily!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers for emphasis.

Will's eyes went wide and he almost choked. After he cleared his throat and recovered, he spoke. "No man! Or at least not yet." he mumbled the last statement.

"Then tell me brother!"

Will smiled. "I'll tell you two words that count as clues." Dick nodded in agreement. "Selina Kyle."

Dick almost comically fell out of his chair in shock and amazement. "Man, what the hell?" he sent him a look in bat-glare style.

Will flinched uncomfortably under his gaze. "Man, I hate it when you send me that dirty look. It makes me too nervous." he murmured, getting a small smile from his colleague.

"How do you know about her?" asked Dick suspiciously, squinting his eyes. His partner whistled innocently. "Wait, let me rephrase the question: who told you about her?"

"No one!" he answered too quickly.

Dick began to think of the various suspects.

Bruce? No, he merely talks to Will about my condition. Tim? He might, but I doubt it since I know he knows I would play a trick on him to get back at him and would be too scared to suffer the consequences. Damian? No, he doesn't even have Will's number. I guess. But he doesn't even care to tell him anyway. Alfred? My God, I hope not. Cassandra? Nah, she would never betray me like that. Stephanie doesn't even know. Jason? He-that bastard!

"It was Jason, wasn't it?"

Will chuckled nervously, pulling on his uniform. "N-no, of course not man! Why would he tell me something like that?" he continued to laugh nervously but when he saw his partner's insistent gaze, he confessed. "Yes, he did it. But don't tell him I told you!"

Dick nodded slowly and smiled, already thinking of the joke for his little brother.

"So" Will began with a wicked twinkle in his eye. "tell me about your new girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend yet." replied Dick distractedly as he contemplated the idea. Except for her name, he knew nothing about her except that she liked to dance and was a very pretty and graceful girl. And he planned to make up for this lack of information by perhaps inviting her on a date to get to know her better. He smiled to himself at the idea.

"I don't know much about her." admitted Bruce's eldest son. "But I plan to get to know her better by inviting her on a date." he confessed with a small smile.

Will looked at him for a moment and smiled broadly, patting him on the back. "Hopefully I'll want to get to know her." he said.

"I don't know if that's a good idea." his colleague began slowly.

"Why?" asked Will frowning, genuinely offended.

"Because if I let you introduce her, sooner or later she'll meet Emily, too, and we'll be fucked at that point."

Will paled slightly at the idea, and Dick chuckled. "But didn't you just say you don't know her very well? Maybe not-"

"Man, one of my opinions about Selina is that she is a playful girl. She will also get used to not only my brothers' jokes, but especially mine." he emphasized the last word emphatically. "So she and Emily will get us into a lot of trouble." he admitted dramatically.

At that point Will's complexion turned slightly paler. "Everyone in this police station knows your reputation." he murmured distractedly.

"My reputation?" echoed Dick, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, you're known as Dick-Grayson-never-bother-him-ever-because-otherwise-you're-fucked-with-his-jokes."

The 19 year old blinked a couple of times before chuckling. "A little long for a nickname, don't you think?" Will simply shrugged. "Anyway" he began, returning to the previous topic. "if all goes well, I'll introduce her to you, man."

"Even if that turns out to be our death?" asked the elder.

"Even if that turns out to be our death."

"Fine." then Will huffed. "I hate filling out paperwork." he muttered irritably.

"The better question would be, who doesn't hate them?"

"You're right, Dick."

A smirk appeared on Dick's face. "When am I not right?"

"Oh shut up!"

The exclamation was followed by a loud laugh.

Nightwing was observing the scene unfolding above a building. There was a group of four drug dealers who were selling their stuff to a fifth person. He decided to intervene by falling gracefully (after all, he was an acrobat) in front of the men.

"Am I interrupting something?" he joked as he enjoyed watching the surprised and frightened faces of the drug dealers. He enjoyed making jokes with criminals, unlike his mentor, from his days as Robin.

"Kill him!" a man, probably the leader, pointed at the vigilante and gave the order to his men.

Nightwing huffed. "That's a bit cliché, don't you think?" he teased as he easily avoided a punch from one of the men and kicked him in the chest as he leapt into the air to knock him out with a roundhouse kick to the face. He used the momentum to reach another thug by jumping on his shoulders and knocking him violently to the ground.

While in the air, he performed showcasing backflips with a unique and special grace.

He deftly landed in front of one of the men and, without even giving him time to react, struck his abdomen taking his breath away and subsequently swept his legs.

He turned in time to block a punch, turned his wrist painfully and, with his free hand, struck his opponent's temple sending him flying a few meters. He pulled the escrima sticks from his back and approached a man who had just gotten up.

The thug pulled out a knife and attempted to stab the vigilante. Nightwing dodged a few lunges and violently struck the hand holding the knife with a stick, shattering it and causing the criminal to scream in pain and later hit him with a right hook.

Standing there remained only the alleged leader who, behind the bravado, the hero could easily see fear. The first Robin put back one escrima stick. The drug dealer approached the vigilante trying to punch him.

Wrong move.

Nightwing blocked the attack with obvious ease and painfully twisted his arm to behind his back. With his other free arm, carrying one of the sticks, he brought it close to the enemy's neck and pressed a button found on the weapon. The stick was coated with electric sparks that made contact with the enemy's neck, filling him with high voltage electric shocks, knocking him unconscious.

He put the other escrima stick back in place and sighed contentedly. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke aloud. "Robin, I know you're there. You can come out."

Exactly three seconds later out of the darkness came the current Boy Wonder and positioned himself in front of his former mentor.

Nightwing raised an eyebrow, curious. It was not uncommon for Robin to come to Bludhaven at night to meet his big brother. Especially after he had had a verbal altercation with Batman. It had happened before. "Let's go to the roof, Robin." and having said that, without even waiting to see if he would follow, he grabbed his grappling hook and climbed to the roof.

Nightwing crouched on the edge of the roof and waited for Robin to approach him. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked gently.

His former partner shook his head negatively. "Let's just continue the patrol, Nightwing."

His former mentor nodded and the two continued to search for crimes. At one point, Nightwing stopped Robin with one hand, who looked at him questioningly. The older man simply pointed in a direction with his head, and his partner followed the movement. There was a woman with a handbag surrounded by four thieves.

"This is your chance to vent whatever you're upset about, Robin."

"Are you sending me alone?" there was an affirmative nod. Robin tilted his head to the side, as if examining him. "Do you trust me not to kill those low level criminals?"

Nightwing arched an eyebrow under his mask, secretly wondering where this question came from. Robin asked the question with his usual arrogance but the more experienced could see his insecurity. It was ... wrong. Damian rarely showed that emotion and those few times he always went to confront him specifically.

It warmed his heart to know that his little brother trusted him enough to tell him about his uncertainties.

Moreover, the question confused him. He knew that the boy had been trained by the League of Assassins since he was younger (how the Hell did they dare do this to a child?) but since he had arrived at Wayne Manor he had been making a great effort not to kill, and in the short but significant time he had been under the wing of Nightwing himself, he knew that the little boy was slowly giving up the habit of killing.

Then he came to the conclusion. Surely that night Batman had said or done something to make him doubt himself. He sighed inwardly.

Damn you Batman!

"Yes Robin. I trust you." he replied calmly and gently as he ruffled his little brother's hair. Robin hunted, as usual, his hand but Nightwing could see the smallest of smiles present on his face.

Robin muttered something but went to stop the criminals. Nightwing watched the fight with a small smile as Robin knocked out the last thief.

"You did good, Robin." he complimented as soon as he got to his side.

"-tt. Like that was a hard feat. Brown could have done it too." he waved his hand dismissively but the older vigilante did not miss the little blush on his little brother's cheeks.

He found it adorable!

Not that he would have said that, anyway. He wanted to go home with both arms.

"Come on Little D, let's go to a rooftop and you tell me what's going on." when he saw that Robin was on the verge of protesting, he climbed over a rooftop of the building, sure that he would follow, and in fact he was not proven wrong. He noticed that his little brother opened his mouth but closed it again. "You know you can tell me anything, Robin." he urged him softly.

After a few moments, in which Nightwing waited patiently, Robin spoke. "Father does not trust me." he stated simply in a clipped tone of voice.

I would have guessed that. The elder thought sadly.

"You know that's not true." he began slowly. "It's just that he's only known you for a short time and it's been a few weeks since you started working together. Besides you know he is the most paranoid in our family. Give him some time and you will see how he will trust you."

Robin remained silent contemplating her former mentor's words. After seconds of reflection, he spoke. "It may be that it will be as you said. But" he froze, carefully mulling over the words to choose "you will always be my partner, no matter what. We have been the best, Grayson. You are my Batman, better even than father." he said shyly. His body was tense, as if he expected Nightwing to reject him.

To say Nightwing was shocked was an understatement. Never had he expected those words from Robin - Damian - before (although he did not much believe that he could be a better Batman than Bruce).

The moment of shock passed, a big smile appeared on his face and he caught his little brother by surprise, hugging him. "Thank you so much, Dami! You will always be my partner, too!" he whispered softly.

Robin, slightly shocking him a second time within seconds, relaxed and hugged him back, resting his head on his big brother's shoulder.

He might not mind Grayson pulling him into a hug and running his fingers through his hair. There was no point in stopping the man, after all. He would do it anyway, with or without Damian's permission.

...All right maybe he likes being cuddled by Dick.

Not that he would ever admit it out loud, of course.