Disclaimer: I own none of the Batboys.
Robin's First Snowday
Damian scowls as he stares out the window. All of Gotham was covered in over a foot of snow, with more flakes adding to that every second. Damian hated the snow. It was completely impractical. It was wet, cold, hard to maneuver in, and worst of all, you can't cover your tracks when travelling in the snow. Needless to say, Damian was not excited to see the world covered in white. Unfortunately, he was the only one.
"Damian! Why are you still in your pajamas? Come on, we have a lot to get done today," Dick exclaimed when he saw the boy curled up on the chair next to the window. Damian glanced up to see Dick dressed from head to toe in thick, puffy layers, complete with a knitted hat and a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck. Damian scoffed and turned the volume up on his iPod. "Oh, no you don't!" Dick said, grabbing Damian's hand. "You aren't skipping out on this, Dami!"
"I hate the snow, Grayson," Damian said, jerking his hand back.
"But who am I going to play with?" Dick pouted. "Who will build a snowman with me? And go sledding with me? And I certainly can't have a snowball fight by myself." Damian looked up at the mention of a fight. Dick noticed. "I'll give you a free hit in the face if you come with me!"
"I get to hit you in the face?" Damian asked.
"With snow, yes," Dick said, smirking. "Consider it a training exercise for combat in the snow."
Damian considered it. Snow could be quite painful and it would give him great pleasure to see Grayson squirm…. Finally, Damian stood up. "Alright, fine. I'll participate in your stupid activities." Dick beamed.
"Better get dressed then! We're leaving in ten minutes!"
Ten minutes later and Dick and Damian were standing in front of the closet. Dick had insisted that Damian wear a heavy winter jacket and was now searching for gloves, a hat, and a scarf for the boy. "Alfred will kill me if you get sick because you didn't wear enough layers."
Only when Dick was sure that Damian would be warm enough did they grab the sleds and leave. They headed down the elevator and outside. Dick led Damian down the street to a nearby park. "I've always thought that the grounds around the Manor were the most fun for snowdays, but it would be nearly impossible to get there without using the snowmobiles that are supposed to be for Batman and Robin," Dick said as they walked. "So for now, we'll just head over to the park. One day, though, I promise I'll take you sledding on that hill behind the Manor." Damian allowed Dick to make that promise. He had no intentions, however, of letting him follow through with it.
Damian trudged along behind Dick in silence. Internally, he was complaining about how terrible the snow was and how horrible it was to have to walk in it, (why hadn't the sidewalk been shoveled and salted yet?), but he didn't dare say a word out loud. He knew that Dick would only respond with how ridiculous he was being and begin a long, involved speech about how wonderful the snow was.
They soon arrived at the park and Damian looked around disdainfully. There were a few other children crazy enough to venture out in this weather, but for the most part, the snow was still untouched. Dick's eyes lit up as he grabbed Damian's hand and ran further into the park, picking a spot for the pair of them to play.
"Let go, Grayson!" Damian yelled. Damian's wish was granted, but only because Dick had to let go of Damian before falling straight back into the snow. Dick moved his arms and legs in a way that made it look like he was trying to do jumping jacks flat on his back. "Grayson, what are you doing?"
"I'm making a snow angel, Dami. Why don't you join me?" Dick continued his frolicking, but Damian did not join in. Instead, Damian picked up a handful of snow and began to shape it into a ball. Now was the perfect time to attack Grayson, while he was distracted by the making of his angel. Smirking, Damian tossed the ball directly at Dick's face.
When the snow hit him, Dick froze. He was so still that Damian was starting to worry that he'd actually harmed him. Then, "Ahhhh! Damian, that's really cold!"
"You told me I was allowed to hit you in the face with some snow, Grayson," Damian said nonchalantly as Dick sat up, rubbing his now-red face.
"Yes, I did say that, but I wasn't done with my snow angel yet." Damian shrugged. That wasn't his problem. He turned, hoping to go find a bench, brush off the snow, and sit down. He didn't get very far before he was tackled from behind and fell face-first into the snow, his attacker falling with him.
"Grayson," Damian growled. Dick's only response was to laugh.
"Hey, you attacked first." Dick stood up, then held out his hand to help Damian up, a wide smile on his face. Despite how cold the snow was, that smile seemed to fill Damian with a sense of warmth. Damian took his offered hand and allowed himself to be helped to his feet. "Come on, let's go sledding."
Dick bent over, picked up the discarded sleds and led Damian towards a small hill nearby. "It's nowhere near as big as the hill at your dad's place, but it'll do for now," Dick said, beginning his trek up the hill. There were a few other people already sledding down. At the top he turned to Damian. "Do you want to race?"
"A race? I will win of course," Damian challenged.
Dick shrugged. "Sure you will, Damian." He leaned over, placing his sled on the snow and got into a ready position. Damian copied his movements. "Ready." Damian turned from Dick to the hill, already calculating just how hard he would need to push off to make it to the bottom first. "Set." Damian's muscles tensed in preparation. "Go!"
Both boys pushed off from the ground and leapt onto their sleds. The bottom of the hill wasn't too far away. Damian was sure he could beat Dick. Unfortunately, controlling this blasted sled was a lot harder than he thought it would be and he soon found himself involuntarily veering off to the side while Dick continued straight down the hill. Realizing that he'd already lost, Damian stopped and got up from the sled. He watched as Dick made it to the bottom of the hill and also stood up, picking up his sled, clutching his stomach as he laughed.
Damian narrowed his eyes, making a point of glaring at the older man as he made his way towards Damian. "You cheated somehow," Damian insisted when Dick had gotten close enough to hear him.
"I did not," Dick promised. "You just underestimated my sledding prowess."
"Well I don't want to sled anymore," Damian said, dropping his sled.
"Aw, come on, Damian. Don't be such a sore loser. We should just sled for fun anyways!"
"I'm done. It isn't fun."
Dick was hurt. "But Damian, you-"
"I don't want to sled anymore, Grayson!"
"Okay," Dick said sadly, looking around at the snow. He then turned back to Damian with a hopeful look. "We could make a snowman." Damian did not seem pleased by this idea. "It'll be fun. We can make it look like Batman if you want. Or, you know, whatever you want to make it look like." Damian sighed. Dick was getting into his pouting mood and would not stop whining until Damian agreed to at least try to have fun.
"Fine. I'll help you make a snowman."
Dick's eyes lit up. "Really? Awesome!" Dick turned around and headed for a nice spot with a lot of untouched snow. "I'll start working on the butt if you want to go for the middle section."
Damian rolled his eyes as he watched Dick kneel down in the snow and begin the snow together into a tight ball, a smile ever-present on his face. Honestly, Grayson, you're such a child sometimes. Damian followed the older man's lead and knelt down in the snow next to him, working on packing snow into a ball of his own.
"Have you ever built a snowman before, Damian?" Dick asked as he started rolling the ball around in the snow near him.
"No," was Damian's terse answer.
Dick turned to Damian and smiled. "We'll just have to make this one extra special then."
It took them nearly an hour, but soon they had a finished snowman. Well, almost finished. He was still missing arms because Dick didn't like any of the sticks they had found. They apparently weren't good enough for the snowman, an argument that Damian did not understand. It was a pile of snow. Surely it did not care what sticks were shoved into its side.
"Alright, you stay here and make sure no one knocks him over. I'm going to go see if I can find some better sticks," Dick said, pointing to a tree a few feet away. "That one looks promising."
As Dick walked away, Damian examined the snowman. They had just finished his face. Apparently, Dick had brought along not only a carrot specifically for this purpose, but he also apparently kept rocks in the penthouse for this purpose as well. Dick had ultimately settled on twisting a small twig into a smile for the snowman's mouth, despite Damian's preference that the snowman not be as cheerful as Grayson insisted he should be. Grayson's argument was that all snowmen should be happy and it would be mean for them to make him a sad or angry snowman. Again, Damian did not understand why he was supposed to care so much about the snow's feelings.
Damian turned towards the tree Dick had gone off towards only to see that he was no longer on the ground, but halfway up the tree, reaching for one of the nearby branches. Damian sighed, but watched as Dick stretched his arm as far as he could. Still, he was too short. He dared to put a little more weight on the branch underneath him. This branch would in no way be able to withstand all of his weight, but was somehow holding out for now, much to Damian's surprise. That thought came too soon, however. As soon as Dick grasped the branch he was reaching for, he lost his grip on the tree and fell to the ground.
Dick's fall did not discourage him. He stood right up and turned to Damian. He held up the branches triumphantly as he wiped the snow off of his backside. He returned to the snowman, holding out the branches for Damian to see.
"We'll have to tear off some of the twigs." Dick handed one of the sticks to Damian. "You work on this one. Leave enough at one of the ends so that he has some fingers." Damian stared down at the branch, then looked over at Dick who was tearing the smaller twigs off of his. Damian copied him and did as he had instructed and left a few twigs on the end. "And then we just shove them into the side," Dick said, taking his stick and poking it into the snowman's middle section. "Damian, you put yours on the other side." Damian obeyed and the pair stepped back to admire the snowman. "Oh, wait!" Dick exclaimed. He rushed forward again. He took of his own hat and scarf and put them on the snowman before returning to stand next to Damian again.
"There," he said, draping his arm over Damian's shoulder. "Isn't he great?"
Damian eyed the snowman, then looked up at Dick. "If you say so."
"He is! I'm telling you right now that this is the best snowman I've ever made," Dick said.
"What's so special about it?" Damian asked, honestly not understanding what the big deal was.
Dick laughed. "We built it together, Damian. That's what's special about it." Dick looked down at him and smiled.
Damian blinked, surprised, and turned back to the snowman, while Dick stepped away from Damian. Sure it was just a pile of snow, but he and Dick had built that together. He hadn't realized it at the time, but making this thing had actually been… mildly entertaining. A small smile graced Damian's lips. Maybe the snow wasn't so bad.
Splat!
A chill ran through Damian's whole body as ice cold snow collided with his cheek. Damian clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he turned in the direction the snow had come from to see Dick doubled over in laughter. I take everything back, Damian thought. I hate the snow.
"Got'cha!"
"Grayson!" Damian growled.
"That was payback for earlier," Dick called. Furious, Damian leaned over and began to gather enough snow for another snowball while Dick tried to run away. Damian chased after him, cursing loudly as he pelted his snowball at the back of the older man's head.
They went back home shortly after that, when Dick complained of being too cold and wet to continue their fight. Waiting for them were mugs filled with hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies (it was times like this when Damian swore their butler was secretly psychic). After changing out of their cold, wet clothes, Dick and Damian curled up on the couch with their treats, huddled under several layers of blankets, preparing for when Batman and Robin would venture back out into the snow.
A winter-themed story for a beautiful spring day (well, in New York it is anyways)! I seem to be developing a pattern of uploading on Sundays, so the next chapter will probably be a Mother's Day chapter.