Hey everyone! I'm back with a new chapter to, "Taking Chances". First I'd like to thank you all so much fro reviewing/favoriting/alerting this story. That made me sooooo happy. Now to clear things up a bit, at first this will seem like it has a plot but after this chapter, i'll have Bruce adopt Elliot, and then let the collection of stories commence! I hope it doesn't seem to quick, but i'll have like, a few weeks time skip, so it doesn't seem completley out of the blue.

I do not own Young Justice...

Taking Chances

Chapter two: Friends

"Bruce... don't you think you're being just a bit overprotective?" Barry Allen, also known as the Flash questioned.

"Yeah, you should be glad Robin's made a new friend." Ollie or Green Arrow added.

"I didn't ask for either of you to be here." Bruce replied coldly, casting a glare at the two men.

"Hey! Robin's like a son to me! If he got a new friend then I want to meet them!" Barry protested, while Ollie nodded in response.

"Then be quiet." Bruce growled, peeking over the side of the tree in almost childish manor.

But of course, no one would dare call Batman childish.

Dick stood in front of the bench he had met the boy from yesterday. His feet shifted nervously, hoping that the other boy had not forgotten, or decided to ditch the plans to meet him, while completely unaware of the three men watching him. Keeping out of his line of sight, but keeping him in theirs.

Dick sighed, he had been waiting for at least sixteen minutes now, and he began to feel his hope deflate like a balloon. He had all of the right mind to go get his father and leave-

"Hey Dick! Sorry I'm late!" Elliot shouted, approaching the boy on his black skateboard.

Dick's face instantly brightened and a large smile made his way to his face.

"Doesn't he look kind of girly?" Barry questioned, looking over the side of the tree in a similar fashion to Bruce's, "Or maybe he just looks kind of skinny...but he's got really-"

"Barry?"

"Yeah Brucey?"

"Shut up."

"Hey Elliot." Dick said happily, watching as the year older boy came to a stop, and flipped his skateboard into his waiting hands.

"Right...teaching you hoe to skateboard..." Elliot mumbled... rubbing his hand behind his neck, lifting his elbow up into the air in what would later be his signature pose.

"Hmm, I've never taught anyone anything before, but it's really easy once you get the hang of it! So let's start with balance."

"That's easy." Dick said proudly, and Elliot raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course it is. Now just- whoa." Elliot's eyes widened as the younger boy easily got onto the skateboard, no trips, no slips, he was on it perfectly fine.

"...Nice, it took me days to get an even balance on that thing, still does." Elliot commented, "Right, since you've got balance down let's try actually moving the board."

"See! Nothing to worry about!" Barry nodded his head and Bruce cast him a glare.

"Yeah, this kid seems like a nice guy." Ollie commented, "... And probably a better influence too..." he added, thinking back to the time he and Roy were on that one trip...

Though the two men accompanying *cough* forcefully tagging along *cough* Bruce understood the man's worries. Being the adoptive son of a playboy billionaire had its ups and downs.

And one of those downs was children lying to be little Robin's friends just to get to the toys, games, and so on, so on...

"If you're going to stay, then be quiet." Bruce growled, turning his gaze back to his charge.

"Nice! You've got it so far." Elliot grinned, cheering the boy on as he skated back and forth like a pro...

Or as 'pro' as an eight-year-old boy could be...

"It's pretty easy isn't it?" Dick grinned.

"Yeah, you've just got to be-"

"Ow!"

"Careful..." Elliot said watching as the little boy fell off the skateboard and onto the ground.

Barry and Ollie winced, casting a wary glance at the stiff Bruce who was already up and ready to intervene-

"Dude, don't be such a crybaby." Elliot snorted, poking the sniffling boy in the forehead.

The boy blinked in surprise, "Wha?"

"The fall wasn't that bad. I've seen much worse." Elliot nodded, a slightly pained look entering his amber orbs before vanishing just as quickly as it had come, "Plus, when you skateboard, you will fall. No question about it."

"Really?" Dick asked, his earlier pain already ebbing away.

"Yeah! When first started I fell backwards and slammed my head against a pole. I actually and to get stitches!" the child laughed, saying all of this as if it he had simply gotten a paper cut.

Dick looked at the other child, mouth agape. He had gotten stitches and was laughing about it.

Bruce looked at this 'Elliot' with slightly narrowed eyes. He was a man of many things; he knew who he could trust and who he couldn't. The boy currently standing in front of his son didn't give off any harming vibes that he could detect. And looking at them now, he saw Dick smiling brightly, obviously his son was happy.

And if he was happy, he would be happy for him to.

"But seriously, when you fall, you don't cry. You get back up." Elliot grinned, holding out a hand to the younger boy.

Dick looked at the hand, than at Elliot. A wide smile made its way to his face, and he took the boys hand and got back up.

Little did those two kids know, that that simple gesture of help, would be the start of something new, something strong, that would hopefully come to last fro many more years.

The start of a new friendship.

"Oh! My dad's here, you should meet him!" Dick chirped and the three men hiding behind the tree froze.

Except for Bruce because he's Batman.

...Busted...

With whatever dignity a man could have left from emerging out of a clump of bushes behind a tree, Bruce stood up, along with Barry and Ollie, and approached the two kids.

Elliot instinctively tensed up at the sight of the three grown men, and he felt himself take a step back. Readying himself to flee should these men bring him and harm.

Elliot's tenseness had gone unnoticed by Dick, but not by Bruce. He eyed the boy carefully, just a hint of worry at the sight of the boy tensing up like that.

Bruce had seen the child's type of posture before, and for a child to do that had to come from experience. The experience that would actually cause a child to freeze at the sight of adults.

He then turned to Dick, and gave a smile that was only meant for his son.

"Are you ready to go home now?"

"Yeah, but..." Dick looked back at the slightly more relaxed- but still tense Elliot, than back to Bruce. He leaned up and whispered something in his ear and Bruce eyed Elliot once more before nodding.

"Elliot..." Dick started almost shyly and the other child looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to come over to my house and play?"

Elliot glanced from the hopeful eyes of Dick, to the eyes of the three men standing behind him. One had an almost...calculating look on his face with maybe just a hint of...worry? The other man's was warm, and the final man's was...just as hopeful as Dick's?

Elliot's eyes trailed over to the clock atop the black pole, and then with a smile he turned to Dick.

"Sure, I can come over-"

"Yes! I have another son!" Barry shouted, fist pumping before suddenly scooping up the bewildered, and now freaked out Elliot, and happy Dick.

Ollie and Bruce watched as Barry took off, using whatever common sense he had left to go at a seemingly normal pace to the child, who had yet to learn of the groups secret occupations.

"Told he would be fine." Ollie grinned putting a hand on Bruce's shoulder.

Bruce looked at the hand on his shoulder, than looked up at Ollie.

...Ollie took his hand off, and than hastily made his way after the earlier party.

Bruce followed after them, shaking his head and mumbling something under his breath that sounded like "surrounded", and "idiots".

I bit back a pained cry as the glass shattered as it collided with my shoulder.

My father's face was a blotchy red, and he spat at me before stomping off in search of more beer. Slowly, I reached a hand up and touched the new cut above my cheek, with a flinch; I slowly got back up, and limped to my room.

My mother was off doing her 'business' and I was left alone with the man that was supposed to be my father.

I knew this was coming when I let myself stay over at Dick's house. But was it so wrong of me to be deprived of just a little fun? Or happiness in my life?

It was clear as day that Dick didn't exactly have the perfect American family, but he had all those people that cared about him.

I don't exactly feel jealous of him. In a way, I just wanted something of my own. And Dick becoming my friend brought me that little trickle of happiness from the black hole that I had been thrown into.

Gingerly, I patched up the new wounds and sighed. The cut would definitely not go unnoticed, but making an excuse was easy enough, the teachers and believed it so easily before, what was the difference now?

I lay down on my bed, and pulled on my headphones. As the lyrics of "Nothing" by "Script" blared through, I reached over and pulled off a few scrapes of metal and began messing around with them.

It was some kind of habit I had, playing with metal, and then trying to make something out of it. For some reason I felt it represented something.

A wish.

A wish to be taken from scratch, this pile of dirt in a forgotten dump, and be remade, to be given the life of what a child my age deserved.

Little did I know.

That that little wish would soon be granted.

And that concludes chapter two, as said before the next one will be the adoption, and then, onwards to the random stories! If you'd like to start submitting ideas for me to use already, you can, i'llbe happy to take them, though I can't promise that'll i'll use them all, they will all defiently be welcomed, and taken into consideration.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and all I ask is that you review!

Marshmellow-

-OUT!