~5 days ago~
The weight of the cold held Robin in it's grip as his unmasked eyes fluttered open. He saw colors blend together into the image of an angry cowled mentor of his.
Blue eyes busted open as the recognition of the trouble he was in, registered in his foggy mind. A silence as cold as the cave lingered on the situation. Robin licked his dry lips as he slowly struggled to rise with his one good arm. He paused for a breath to prepare his battle of words- for he knew he'd need to fight a strong argument.
"Uh," he smiled softly as one of his defenses. "Look, this isn't as bad as it seems..."
No words broke out of Batman's dry mouth that was held so tightly to restrain his anger. His ward stared silently at the cowled man. His aegis smile soon was weakly slaughtered away into a frown to match Batman's.
"I...didn't want to worry you," Dick whispered on a more serious level skipping to the point of concern.
"So this is how you get me not to worry," he asked...or rather stated with a tone icier than the wind that was echoing through the cave.
"I..., it's all for a good cause- a heroic cause," he stared at the bat hoping to ease his anger with these following words- "A cause for justice."
It didn't work.
"What is this 'just cause' that I'm unaware of?"
This part was hard to get past. It was the only problem in the way of his mission. "...I can't tell you," the boy whispered hoping to never start this argument.
No words entered out of Batman's frowned lips. His glare, like always, did the talking...and it didn't have gentle things to say.
"Look...! It's not what you think; I'm only trying to help, but if I tell you, everything will be ruined!"
"How so," Batman asked breaking his silence. "Are you being black-mailed?"
"What," Dick asked a little astonished on how serious Batman thought the situation was. Of coarse, he takes everything seriously. It's kind of in his job description. "No, no, Bruce it's not that...intense."
"So why can't you tell me? Dick, we're a team. As Robin, you have a responsibility to obey a direct order. As both Bruce Wayne AND Batman, I have a responsibility over you," he lectured growing a little more angry.
"Can't you make an exception," Dick asked almost in a begging manner. "...Just this once...?"
Bruce raised one of his bushy eyebrows in a questioning look. Whatever he was doing, must be extremely important. Dick never normally sounded so humble.
"Dick, you can't honestly think that I'm going to let you go out in one of the most dangerous cities without knowing a thing that you're doing, where you'll be, or who's involved in this ...justice cause!"
"It's just for a couple of days- just a couple," he asked.
"Just a couple days of what,"Batman yelled as he slammed his fist on the table beside Dick's bed. Robin flinched slightly by Batman's sudden burst of anger. "You lied to me, you were knocked out, and now you want me to let you go back to do- what I don't even know you were doing?"
"Look, Bruce, I know that I wasn't honest in the beginning..., but that's just because I was afraid of how you'd react..."
"With an almost broken arm! You completely disobeyed-"
"See! SEE! That's what I'm talking about," Dick defended leaving his bashfulness in the past.
"Don't yell at me, Dick. You're in no position to-"
"To WHAT," he interrupted again. "To fend for myself? Look, it's not like you've never excluded me from your own cases! I've had plenty of my share for your-"
"Are you in a position of being my mentor," Bruce stated in sarcasm.
"No, but-"
"Then it's settled; you're no longer sneaking out."
Dick was just about ready to retort another response, but he angrily repressed the idea. Yelling wouldn't help his hopeless case. Not with Batman. He slowly sank back into his covers murmuring/whispering, "Why not you just ground me while you're at it?"
"I am," Bruce answered sternly as he got up and left.
"WHAT," Dick yelled hoping that Bruce would respond to his anger and maybe settle on something else. He couldn't be grounded; not so close to Christmas! This would ruin everything!
Bruce's back remained facing his ward as he had, at this point, gone into the bat-elevator.
Not a millisecond after the elevator had risen, Dick slammed his only good hand on the head of the bed in fury. "Scrooge," he complained to himself, and flew his head back in frustration "If only I could have a couple more nights..."
~4 nights ago~
"Did anyone follow you?"
"Only the message."
The two punks crowded around at the edge of an alley. Most criminals had labeled this as a 'safe zone' from the cops. Especially around Christmas. After all, picking a fight with some rooky crooks wasn't exactly on the wish-list of every cop. It was on Dick's though.
Yes, Batman had grounded him, but when had that ever stopped him before? Honestly, he was a little surprised that Bruce would just assume that he would do as he was told. It almost made him feel guilty for going behind Bruce's back to do it...almost.
The whole conversation by the two men was being recorded by the boy wonder cautiously hiding behind the crates of 'merchandise' in the shadows of the night.
"And, the message is...?"
"Dude said he'd be here in a coup'la days. Right now he's hang'n low cause of his 'lil...temper tantrum on'a bullet."
"Man, do I know that...he has a real temper."
"Not like Snapes though..."
"Oooh, man! That guy needs to really lay low."
"Too late. Got arrested last week."
The two men blew in their hands a little to fight off the biting chill in the air.
"Got death penalty?"
"The chair."
"...I thought that was illegal now. They ain't allowed to pull it..."
The taller man loomed in closer to the shorter so that he could smell his drunk breath swirl into the icy air. "You really believe that, Mikey...?"
This conversation was trailing off topic and Robin was losing his patience. He needed info- not small talk of an illicit man's life.
Dick was never the one to have patience for stalking in the shadows. That was obviously Batman's gig. And, quite frankly, he wasn't sure how much more talking he could take.
"Hey, you here something...?"
"C'mon, man! You ain't scar'n me with none of that-"
"Can it-I'm seriously hear'n something!"
Ah, screw it-
The boy wonder pounced out of the shadows and into the spotlight of dangerous attention- where he belonged.
"It's the bat's brat!"
Bullets shot out frantically missing their aim as it summer-saulted around and closer to the criminals. Now that he had been discovered, he could have his fun questioning them with his 'so-very-well mimicked' Bat tone.
Mikey's arm, holding the gun, was broken with Robin's ,only good, arm slicing under his. Then, he back-flipped out of the others' aim and onto his shoulders where the boy hit behind the man's head to knock him unconscious. As Mikey tried to crawl away, Robin got up and leaped onto his back. He pushed the man's head backwards to strain his neck.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your fascinating discussion on your 'boss'." Robin pulled his head back tighter until he could hear the man grunt agony out of his blue lips. "Mind continuing?"
"Don't you know what happens to kids on the naughty list this time of year," he snarled.
"Ooh, do they get put in the electric chair like your buddy?"
"Nah," he managed to breathe out. "Their pretty 'lil blood decorates the walls so nicely.."
Just then a sharp click indicated an aimed gun from behind Robin's turned head. The second before he could turn to see his (almost) last image of life, he saw a dark figure landing on the shadowed gunman. Batman.
Several loud crunching punches could be heard on the crook Batman over-powered. Robin sat there awkwardly watching Batman's well-known brutality thrashing out on the man. The most frightening part was really seeing how angry the bat was and knowing that he was saving some of that raw anger for Robin.
By the time The Dark Knight was done unmercifully hitting the criminal, Robin knew it was 'his turn' for the wrath. Batman arose with his back facing Robin, who was still pinning Mikey.
"Get in the car," Batman ordered without looking at him.
"-But,-"
"NOW!"
As Robin stubbornly arose, he heard a snicker from Mikey. "Bu-usted."
The kid's fist eagerly retorted back causing Mikey to become unconscious with the other two.
"I'm going to ask you this only once; .?"
"I told you I can't tell you, but you won't listen!" Robin through his cape onto the floor in anger as the dynamic duo entered the chilly cave. " How did you even find me anyways? I didn't take my costume!"
"That's aside from the point, Dick!"
"That's exactly the point! You say that I should trust you enough to tell you what's going on, but you're not the one to talk about trust!"
"Take what you give; I said you were grounded less than a day ago and you're back on the streets-"
"I have to do this-"
"What are you doing?"
"...," was all that he could say. If only Bruce could know...this was all for him, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a surprise Christmas gift.
"You tracked me, didn't you?"
"If it was so important, than I should know."
"NO! I told you before: no, and I'm telling you again:no!"
"Don't take that attitude with me, young man; you were almost killed...again!"
"You don't have to dramatize it! I almost get killed everyday!"
"At least I can have an eye on you when it almost happens!"
"Apparently, you have that covered!"
"Gentlemen," Alfred interrupted loudly with a tray of egg-nog and cookies. "In all due respect to the Christmas season, that you two fail to express, perhaps we should resolve the solution and make amens."
The two looked at each other both with stubborn expressions smeared on their masked faces.
"Fine," Batman agreed. "But, he's still grounded."
"But, that's not f-"
"That's enough!" Dozens of bats erupted from the stalactites and swarmed away by the sudden echo of fury by the real creature of the night.
"Alfred, get Dick a sleeping bag; he'll be sleeping in the cave tonight."
"WHAT," Dick retorted in an unexpected squeak. "You- I-"
"And, make sure to bring his some homework...he'll be staying in the cave for quite some time."
"Very well," Alfred sighed clearly not wanting Bruce's method of resolving. "Perhaps so much time together will give you the opportunity to compromise together."
Not likely.
"Bruce, please; I really need to do this...!"
A solemn verbalization was graven on the man's face as his emotionless eyes absorbed the information on his computer. The blue light ,from the screen, blanketed Richard's slouching back as he sat down on the rocky floor. His sigh formed into fog as it slipped out of his lips that were perched upon his fist. Christmas was only in a couple of days, and he had a feeling that Bruce's strong stare would hold him captive from escaping!...only three more nights.
~3 nights ago~
It was another night in the batcave with Bruce on his patrol duty over Dick. He could hardly get up for a minute without Bruce questioning what he was doing. For kid so dependent on moving, this was pure torture. In his spare time. He had reviewed ideas of how to escape. With Batman looming over his shoulder, none of them would prove the least bit successful though.
"Where are you going?"
"To the bathroom," Dick mumbled clearly upset about being grounded to such an extreme.
"If you're not back in five minutes-"
"I know, you'll either tape me down to my sleeping bag, wait outside for me, or just give me a bottle to do it in..."
"The bottle's new," Batman observed on a tone with just a bit of humor in.
Although Bruce had been grouchy lately, he was gradually smiling more during the day. Either Robin had a habit of setting the mood brighter, or he just enjoyed torturing the kid.
"Scratch that one out," Dick suggested copying Bruce's humorous tone.
"Only if you're back in five."
Faster than Kid-Flash, he zoomed to the bathroom while the new threat was now hanging in the air.
When he came back out, he heard a familiar signal beeping throughout the cave. The bat signal.
"Alfred, keep an eye on Dick," Bruce shouted as he ran to the Batmobile.
Dick ran out as well to see Batman take off for 'work'.
"I believe it is not part of punishment to miss dinner, Master Dick?"
"I'm afraid I won't be able to make it, Alfie."
"Young sir, I am not abiding with Master Bruce's decision for you to eat dinner in this drafty cave."
"That's not what I mean," Dick looked at him seriously yet humbly. "I need you to let me go." Dick had a way of making this sound like a harmful sentence of punishment.
"I believe I will not, young man."
"Alfred, listen to me." This gained the butler's undivided attention. It was always important if Dick used his actual name instead of something ridiculous like 'Alfie' , or 'Alf'. "This is the one chance that I can actually get Bruce a present that's worth anything!"
"Master Dick, all of this trouble is over a present?"
"Just let me explain," Dick offered as he rolled up his sleeping bag. And, that night, Robin flew back onto the streets.
To be continued~~~~~~