Robin's First Blanket Fort

Dick wasn't sure exactly how he got the idea, but when he saw Damian on the couch, nearly indistinguishable from the pile of pillows he had sunken into, only one thought crossed his mind: today was a wonderful day for a blanket fort.

With a snicker, he retreated to his bedroom and gathered all of the pillows and blankets he could carry before returning to the living room and dumping his hoard on the carpet in from of Damian. He noticed the single raised eyebrow as Damian briefly looked up from his iPad and the roll of his eyes as he immediately decided that whatever the older man was doing wasn't worth his notice. After emptying his arms, Dick made a second trip, then a third. When he had exhausted all of the resources in his own room, he moved on to Damian's.

Damian's room was sadly lacking in blankets and pillows. Nonetheless, Dick went to work, tearing the black comforter off of Damian's bed and the grabbing the two pillows with the batsymbol on them. It was only when Dick dropped this particular armful onto his ever-growing pile that Damian finally became interested.

"Are those my pillows?" he asked in his usual demanding tone.

"Yes they most certainly are."

"What are you doing with them?"

With a shrug, Dick knelt down in front of his pile. "Oh, you wouldn't be interested."

"I know what you're doing, Grayson, and it's not going to work."

"Oh?" Dick feigned ignorance as he sorted through the pillows.

"Yes, you're trying to get me interested in this new scheme of yours by pretending that it is, in fact, not interesting." Damian leaned back into the couch with a huff. "Well, I assure you, it won't work."

"Whatever you say, Lil' D." Dick scrutinized the pillow he was currently holding then looked to the space between the couch and the armchair. Squinting, he held up the pillow, turning it over in the air. He noticed Damian eyeing him out of the corner of his eye, but trying to hide it. "Oh, hey, Dami, can I borrow that?" Dick asked, pointing to the pillow Damian was currently resting his arm on.

"I'm using it."

"But I need it!" Dick whined. With a growl he tossed the pillow as hard as he could at Dick who then held it up to the space between the couch and the armchair. He turned back to Damian. "Actually, can I have that one?" He now pointed to the one Damian was resting his feet on.

"Alright! I don't know what you're doing, but I'll help."

"Really?"

"Are you going to leave me alone if I don't?"

"No, probably not." Dick stood up, rubbing his hands together. "Alright, so we're building a fort." Dick gestured around the room as he spoke of his plans to his little brother. "We'll pile the pillows up here and hang the blankets from that corner and it's a good thing you're not on the couch now, because we're definitely going to need that and maybe we should move the coffee table over here because it would work nicely as-"

"Grayson! This is ridiculous."

"I know you think that now, but I promise you'll rethink that statement when it's finished." Dick started pulling the coffee table towards the side of the room. "Dami, why don't you start by draping up one of the blankets over the couch and up over the lamp."

"This seems foolish. What is the point?" Dick opened his mouth to respond. "And don't just say 'it's fun' because that tells me nothing. You say that about every one of these childish activities you wrangle me into."

"Hey I didn't even ask you to join, you volunteered all on your own." Dick gave the kid a smug grin. "Now get to hanging up that blanket!"

Muttering something about someone's 'thick-headed skull' under his breath, Damian picked up the blanket and situated one end over the lamp by the doorway then secured the other over the back of the couch. When he turned around, Dick was trying to stabilize an unstable tower of pillows enough so that he could drape his own blanket over it.

"Tt. Grayson, that will never work. Your foundation is structurally unsound."

"Well, what would you suggest, Dami?" Dick asked, happy to hear that he cared enough to give his input.

"Chairs. From the kitchen. The tall ones at the bar." He surveyed the room. "We'll place them here and here. We'll use your comforter and mine to cover the ground between the chairs and the lamp, then use a third chair to secure them in the middle."

Dick stood next to him, imagining it as Damian explained it, filling with pride. "Sounds great. Let's get to it!" Dick disappeared into the kitchen. He shortly returned with three tall kitchen chairs to find that Damian had already begun putting his plan into action, connecting the edges of the blankets together, forming the perimeter of their fort.

"Place one of the chairs here," Damian directed, "and the other will go here." Dick did as he instructed then helped Damian tie the blankets to the backs of the chairs.

"It's looking pretty good," Dick said as they started gathering the blankets in the middle. "You know that chandelier in the den at the manor? I used to hang blankets from that to build my forts."

"Tt. And Father let you?"

Dick chuckled. "It wasn't usually him I had to worry about. Alfred on the other hand…."

They moved a third chair into the middle and fastened the blankets together in a peak in the middle. When they were finished making some final readjustments, they stepped back and admired their creation. "What now?"

"Well, we should decorate the inside with our pillows. Then we'll hang out inside."

"It's a fort, is it not?" Damian asked. "That implies some sort of battle."

"Alright, we can do that. Who's going to man the fort and who's going to raid it?" Dick asked. Their eyes met and Damian smirked.

When Alfred entered the living room ten minutes later, it was to a scene of complete and utter chaos. Dick appeared to be trapped underneath what once may have been a blanket fort that had run into some trouble recently. He was tangled in a large comforter and one of the kitchen chairs was also lying awkwardly on top of him while another was on its side behind him.

Damian crouched a few feet away from him behind a wall of cushions from the couch. He was pelting pillows at his fallen guardian with a smug smile on his face. "Surrender, Grayson! You cannot win this fight."

"Never!" Dick cried, his voice muffled from behind the blankets. "I will never give in to your cruel tyranny!"

With a sigh, Alfred turned to leave. "You boys had better clean all of this up when you're done." As he left, he vaguely heard a muffled, "Sure thing, Al," followed by a loud, "Ow! Damian, not in the face!"