Batfam Week 2020

Day 3 Prompts: Injuries | Bonding During A Mission | No Capes/Civilian AU

Jason would have been more than happy to keep making out with Steph, despite the slight awkwardness of being chaperoned by Batcow and the charming aroma of the barn, but Steph was nothing if not energetically determined once she had her mind set on something.

"Can we leave tonight?" she asked him happily as she palmed his stubbled cheek with her hand.

"To steal the cows?" he asked her, finding it a little easier to follow her speeding trains of thought this time around. "Where is there even a dairy farm around here?" he asked her.

"There's one two hours away," she said. "I've already looked into it." Jason looked at her.

"Been planning this heist for awhile, Blondie?" he asked her with a slow grin as he wound a piece of her hair around his fingers and leaned forward to nuzzle her neck, doing his damnedest not to totally lose the moment.

"Well, yeah," she said with a giggle. "I've been working on it. But I couldn't figure out where to get a pickup truck from. To hitch the trailer to."

"Where are you going to get the trailer from?" Jason asked her as he started pressing little kisses along her jaw.

"I figured they'd have one at the dairy farm we could steal," she said, scrunching her fingers through the back of his hair.

"Mmf," Jason said thoughtfully, actually distracted now. "We'll have to do recon to confirm that."

"Well, we were gonna have to do that anyway to figure out how to nab the cows," she said pragmatically and Jason burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you've got me in on a cow heist," he said. Batcow swished him with her tail.

"You said you wanted to make up for being an ass," Steph pointed out.

"I'm not complaining," Jason said with a chuckle. "But I had something else in mind."

"Yeah, well, I'm not opposed to that, too. Afterwards," Steph said, giving him another kiss. "But first you have to complete my quest and prove your worth," she teased as Jason's hands got more enthusiastic upon hearing her first statement.

"Well, if we leave now, we're gonna have to stay over somewhere so we can properly scope out the situation in daylight," Jason said seductively.

"Oh. About that," Steph said. "Don't get too upset, but we have to take Damian with us."

"What?" Jason spluttered, drawing back from her. "Oh, my God," he moaned. "That was worse than a cold shower, Blondie," he said. "Why do we have to take the kid?"

"Well, I don't know how to get cows to move where you want them to go," Steph said. "Like, look at Batcow, here," she said. Jason turned to look over their shoulders at the cow who they were cozily leaning against. "She's kneeling on the ground," Steph said. "How do you get her up? I don't know. How do we get her in a trailer? I don't know. And cows are heavy."

"Pretty sure that's where a cattle prod comes in handy," Jason smirked.

"No!" Steph said. "That's mean. No cattle prods."

"You think terrorizing the poor cows with a demon child is kinder?" Jason said with a hint of a giggle in the back of his voice. "I can see it now. A whole barn of cows fleeing in terror," he started to laugh. "It'll be a stampede."

"Hey," Steph said, but she was giggling, too. "He's an animal whisperer. And he's used to taking care of Batcow. I think he'll know what to do."

"All right, all right," Jason said. "Let's go grab him and get started on this craziness."

"Yeah?" Steph said with pleasure.

"Yeah," Jason said, tugging her to her feet.

And that was how Jason found himself two hours later, speeding out of Gotham, packed three abreast into the cab of a pristinely cared for pickup truck, with a large black dog on the floor of the passenger side.

"You were wise to request my assistance," Damian said approvingly as he petted Titus's head.

"You're sure you and the dog can herd the cows ok?" Jason asked him as he munched on one of the cookies that Agent A had thoughtfully supplied them with. "He's not a sheepdog."

"We are not stealing sheep. We are stealing cows," Damian sniffed. "And Titus is more than capable of performing his task. If a pig can do it, my dog can."

"That was a fake pig, you know," Steph said. Damian frowned. "It was a movie, Damian," she said. "The pig wasn't real."

"I was not aware that it was a movie," Damian said. "I had merely heard tell of the exploits of the pig named Babe." He furrowed his brows. "How disappointing."

"I bet you could train a pig to do it for real, kiddo," Jason said comfortingly. "We could stop at a pork farm, too, and pick one up for you." Steph giggled.

"Perhaps next time," Damian said seriously. "I would not like to alarm the cows if they are unused to a pig's presence."

"Wise precaution," Jason said back equally as seriously, although his eyes were twinkling over at Steph, who was sitting - or squashed - next to him with her legs around either side of the gear shift. Jason had insisted that Damian take the window seat so that he could pay more attention to Titus as they drove. Steph wasn't fooled. She wasn't upset, either

Especially when Jason's right hand kept finding its way down to rest on her thigh.

Alfred had caught them in the kitchen collecting snacks before they left.

"Oh! Alfred," Steph had said with surprise when he flicked the lights on to reveal three guilty looking Bats tip-toeing around by the light of the open refrigerator.

"We have a mission of utmost importance, Alfred," Damian had said calmly as Titus thumped his tail on the floor at his feet. "Please inform my Father that we will return in two days' time."

Alfred had looked from Damian, dressed all in black, to Steph, still in her Batgirl suit, to Jason, whose hood was on the counter but was otherwise still in his gear, guns and all. Alfred's eyebrow rose upon noticing that Jason had frozen in the process of stuffing a tupperware container full of leftover turkey and gravy into a pocket of his cargo pants.

"I see," Alfred had said dryly. "And might Agent A know the details of this mission, Master Damian? So that your Father does not ride out after you in worry?" The three had glanced at each other.

"Um," Jason had said slowly, racking his brains for a logical explanation.

"Jason is feeling sad," Steph said in a rush. He turned to stare at her. "And we're going to take him camping. To cheer him up. Just a few hours outside of Gotham, not too far. But we'll stay a few days. Until the sunshine and forest air make him feel better."

Jason was giving her a hard look, but that only served to make Alfred fuss over him all the more.

"Oh, Master Jason," Alfred had beamed at him, coming up to him to plant a kiss on his cheek before patting his shoulder kindly. "It does my heart good to know that you reached out to your siblings for help in your time of need."

"Steph isn't my sister," Jason said forcefully. She blushed. Alfred's lips quirked the tiniest bit.

"Indeed, Master Jason. Your teammate and your sibling, I should have said," he corrected himself. "Now let me put together some proper food for your trip."

"Does Bruce have a pickup truck?" Steph asked him on an inspiration. "We can't all ride on Jason's bike back to his place to pick up his clothes and we need space to stow our food and gear on the trip."

"Indeed he does, Miss Stephanie," Alfred had said. "I'll get the keys for you after I get your meals sorted. Master Damian, run upstairs and pull the sleeping bags out of the attic in the meantime. Will you be taking a tent as well?"

Steph's eyes had started to go wide in panic.

"No tent," Jason said. "We're going to rough it. I want to see the stars," he sighed, a tad too dramatically, earning him a sharp look behind Alfred's back from Steph.

"Ah, to be young again," Alfred had mused, loading up the huge cooler that he had produced from a kitchen cabinet with more food than they would have needed for a week. "And what lovely weather we're having," he added.

Steph had to choke back a giggle and buried her mouth in her shoulder.

"Yes, Steph, it's lovely weather for camping," Jason murmured in her ear as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I'm so glad you suggested it," he said.

"City slickers like us need to get out into the country more," Steph agreed amiably as she leaned back against his chest while running her hands over his arms. "And I've heard that sometimes you see the most amazing species of wildlife in a forest," she teased.

Jason coughed. Although his stomach didn't stop shaking for several seconds after. Damian and Titus came scampering back into the kitchen with three compressed sleeping bags slung over Damian's shoulder.

"I'm ready," Damian said, moving to pick up his bag of clothes which he had brought down to the kitchen before Mission: Snack Food had been interrupted and upgraded by Agent A. Damian looked at Jason and Steph curiously, who were still cuddled together in the middle of the kitchen.

"Are you dating?" he said.

"Yes," they both said at the same time. Alfred smiled, but Damian's smile was bigger.

"Timothy Drake will be most displeased," he commented. Steph snorted and Jason laughed.

"Good," he said as he let go of Steph with a kiss to her neck. He moved to pick up the cooler from Alfred. "Let's go get the truck loaded up and get going," he said. "We have to stop by Blondie's house first so she can change and then stop at my place."

As Jason's hand crept a little higher on her thigh while he drove, Steph smiled and laid her head down on his shoulder. He glanced at her.

"I would have asked you out sooner if I'd known you were this into me," he smirked.

"I wasn't," Steph said, puncturing his ego. "I didn't even like you that much," she said and Damian cackled.

"What changed your mind?" Jason asked her in a sexy undertone. Only to have Damian respond with a loud sound of disgust.

"Save your inane flirtation for your own time, Todd. We have a mission to prepare for. Distraction leads to death." Jason huffed but Steph giggled.

"You're right, Damian," she said. "Back to business, Mr. Todd," she scolded him playfully. "We have cows to liberate." Jason sighed. But he kept his hand on her leg.

Damian and Steph spent the next two hours hammering out the mission tacticals and hypotheticals and parentheses, with occasional tangents into the social habits of cattle, only pausing when Jason forced another one of Alfred's cookies on them. Which he began doing more and more frequently the longer he drove, because how much planning did this heist really take?

Find a trailer. Dismantle the probably minimal cow security - he couldn't imagine that cow theft was a big problem at dairy farms. Sneak in at night, herd the cows, flee the scene. Basic. But Damian and Steph were enjoying themselves and even if it was annoying, Steph was awfully cute when she was excited about something and it was nice to see the kid so happy for a change.

But it was still with a sense of relief that Jason pulled into the Comfort Inn parking lot at 4 a.m.

"Come on, bovine burglars," he said to them with a yawn. "Sleepy time."

"Does this hotel accept dogs?" Damian asked.

"Does it have a waffle bar for breakfast?" Steph said.

"Yes and yes," Jason said.

"Really?" Steph asked in surprise.

"Yes, really," he said as they got out of the truck. "I looked it up back in Gotham while we were at your house waiting for you to get changed."

"You knew I liked waffles?" Steph said to him, now really curious, because in all honesty, she and Jason had rarely interacted since his resurrection. The fact that he'd tried to kill her then-boyfriend Tim Drake had put quite the damper on their friendship potential, even if he had been hopped up on Lazarus Pit rage at the time, and since then, the Bats had done nothing but warn her away from him.

So even after she and Tim had broken up, Steph certainly wasn't going to go out of her way to spend time with the lone wolf of the Batclan, not that he would have welcomed her company in the first place. When they did cross paths as Red Hood and Batgirl, Jason was usually aloof if not dismissive. Tonight's rapid reversal of that situation had been a shock, but a smoking hot one that she didn't mind at. all.

Steph hadn't dated since Tim had dumped her six months ago, telling her not once but twice that he no longer trusted her. Which was a load of bullshit if Steph had ever heard one. She had been nothing but loyal - but Tim couldn't forgive her for doing everything B had asked her to. Even if he did the exact same thing when it came to B!

To be honest, Tim had broken her heart. He had been not only her longtime boyfriend, but her best friend. For him to accuse her of betrayal - and refuse to understand her actions - Steph had been raw inside for months afterwards. She hadn't felt like dating at first, and when she finally started to think about it a few months ago, her blanket of scars from Black Mask made her tamp that desire right back down. How could she explain those to any normal person?

Jason's kiss earlier had been more than welcome. Yeah, she'd never thought of dating him before, even though he was objectively hot (those thighs, she thought to herself dreamily) but if he was interested? She definitely was. They could get to know each other. That part wasn't that big of a deal in Steph's mind, because the biggest piece was already there. They were both Bats.

"I informed Todd of your preference for waffles," Damian said, bringing Steph's thoughts back to the present as they each grabbed a duffel bag from the back of the truck. Jason had loaded them up with all of the gear they might conceivably need for a retrieval mission, everything from bolt cutters to smoke grenades to road tacks for disabling pursuing vehicles.

"Oh," Steph said. "Thanks, Damian," she smiled.

She hadn't realized that he knew her that well. She was rewarded with the tiniest of smiles back from Damian as he clipped Titus's leash on in the parking lot. Hm. Maybe Damian was warming up to her, too. Steph supposed that befriending Batcow had raised her up a couple of levels in the tiny Robin's estimation.

The lobby was empty except for the night clerk as they walked in and it was easy to get checked into a double room, which Jason paid for with cash. Of course. The clerk tried to fuss about needing a credit card on file until Jason had handed him another wad of cash "as a retainer" he said with a wink. The fussing had stopped and they had gotten their room keys.

Damian set about putting out water and food for Titus while Steph changed into her pyjamas in the bathroom.

"Breakfast only goes until ten," Jason informed her when she came out and saw him setting the alarm. "We can go back to bed after," he said. "Then do recon."

"Sounds good," Steph said, crawling into one of the double beds and pulling the covers up.

Damian emerged from the bathroom a moment later and took the second bed and Titus jumped on it after him. When Jason finished his turn, he pulled a handgun out before turning off the lights.

"Paranoid much?" Steph asked him with a laugh.

"Pays to be prepared," Jason said calmly, laying the gun on the nightstand before crawling into bed next to her.

"Oh," Steph said softly. "Hi."

"Is this ok?" he asked her quietly. "The dog is in the kid's bed."

"It's fine," Steph said with a smile in her voice. "More than fine," she added as Jason snuggled up behind her to spoon her.

"That's what I like to hear, Blondie," Jason whispered in her ear as he wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and settled her against his legs and chest. "Quite the first date, so far," he added, and Steph giggled.

"Wait until the cow-napping starts," she said.

"Stop flirting and go to sleep," Damian said from across the room. "We all must be fully alert for tomorrow's endeavor."

"Yes, Dad," Jason teased him.

"That's 'yes, Batman,' to you, Todd," Damian said back. Steph snorted.

"You wish, Robin."

"Tt," Damian said. "As the most senior member of the Batfamily present, my role has been upgraded to Batman for this mission."

"No way," Jason said. "I'm the most senior Robin present. That makes me Batman."

"You died as Robin. That eliminates you from contention," Damian explained.

"Rude," said Jason.

"Well, I was Robin, too," Steph said. "And I didn't die," she said. "As Robin. Exactly." Jason was chuckling against the back of her head. "So I'm more senior than you, Damian."

"No," he said. "You were fired as Robin. Then died. Unsuccessfully. You are out of the running. I am Batman."

"Let's put it to a vote," Jason said. "Who says Damian is Robin?"

"Me," Steph said.

"Me," said Jason.

"Not me," said Damian. "And not Titus. It is a tie. And as Batman, I have the right to break the tie. And I say I am Batman."

"I say that I have the truck keys," said Jason. "And only me and Steph can drive the truck because you can't reach the pedals. No truck, no cows. You're Robin." Damian growled.

"We're all Robins, ok?" Steph said. "Titus can be Batman." Damian paused.

"Acceptable," he finally said.

"Good," Jason grumbled, but he sounded like he was trying not to laugh. "Go to sleep."

"Good night, D," Steph added.

"Good night," he said.

Batman thumped his tail on the bed with pride.

Coming tomorrow - The next chapter! For Batfam Week 2020 Day 4 prompt: Robins