This was a fun one. I got to have "The Dynamic Duo Thing"! And some plot even! And headcannon and background! (Also, Wally has been invading this story quite frequently. That was unforeseen.)

I own nothing. If you sue, you can have my student loans.

"It's not fair!"

Dick looked from the picture he was drawing with Damian at the sound of Jason's shout. Tim, Cass, and Steph all froze, glancing nervously at the door to the hallway. Alfred paused at the stove.

Jason didn't actually fight with Bruce that much, usually it was Dick doing that. Most people wouldn't believe it but of the two oldest "Wayne Boys," both of whom had what Alfred described as "flash-fire" tempers, it was Jason who had better control of his. But when he did lose his temper, it was spectacular.

"You're ten."

"So's Cass!"

There was a moment of silence.

"Okay, so Cass is special, yeah. But Dick was eight!"

"Nine."

"He was eight when you let him go after Zucco!"

Dick flinched and felt very aware of everyone else in the kitchen very carefully not looking at him.

"He was trained!"

"As an acrobat. Not a fighter! I have more training now than he did then!"

Alfred wiped his hands and disappeared into the other room where the volume dropped significantly as if a flip had been switched. Everyone released the breath they had apparently been holding and exchanged nervous looks.

Before there was time for anyone to say anything, the door flew open and Jason stormed in, scowling, and flung himself into the chair next to Stephanie. "What are you looking at?" He snarled at Timmy, who seemed ready to ask what was wrong. Timmy shrunk down silently in his seat and Cass leaned around and slapped Jason on the side of the head.

"What the-" Even an angry Jason fell silent in the ace of Cass' disapproving frown. He glared back for a moment before ducking his head. "Whatever. Sorry Timmers, I'm not mad at you. Promise."

Bruce came in, looking tired, and Jason straightened in his chair. Bruce looked at him for a long moment, before sighing. "You will spend a year with intensified training. Offensive training instead of what you have received up to this point which has been focused mostly on self-defense and escape and evade. You will also have an increased focus on forensics and deduction. At the end of the year, when you are eleven, we will discuss this again."

"Really!" Jason was practically glowing, he was so excited.

Bruce inclined his head. "Really."

Instead of going to the mountain that night, Dick went on patrol with Bruce. They were investigating corruption in City Hall and were going after some information that it would be a lot easier for Robin to reach than Batman. (No matter how good a detective and crime fighter Bruce was, he just didn't fit through ventilation shafts.)

Black Bat had gone out an hour earlier to meet up with Batgirl on the edges of the East End and Robin had a sneaking suspicion they were also planning on helping out Catwoman with some of the cat burglar's non-felonious pursuits. (Well, non-felonious in the sense of not stealing things anyway.)

The ride out in the Batmobile was quiet, Robin not really saying anything, lost in thought. They parked in Crime Alley and took to the roofs until they arrived at their destination. Despite his racing thoughts, Robin was in and out with little trouble, lifting the copied flash drive in triumph as he rejoined Batman on the roof across the street from their target.

Outside of brief detours to stop two muggings and a break-in, they had finished in the streets for the night and headed back into the Cave with the intel. While it was being decripted Dick approached Bruce. "What was that about, with Jason earlier. You're going to let him out?"

Bruce sighed, and slumped ever so slightly in his seat, as much as the Batsuit allowed. "Jason is too much like you. I knew that I would not be able to keep him out of it forever, but I had hoped for more time." The look he gave Dick was almost pleading. "I never wanted this. For any of you."

Dick did what he did best and lunged in to give Bruce a hug. "I know, B. We all know." He pulled back a little. "You gave us a family, Bruce. We were already fighting, me, Jason, Cass, we were already fighting. You gave us something to fight for."

"I'm telling you, dude." Wally said, shoving another handful of popcorn in his mouth. "It was weird. I'm pretty sure that most of the stuff is actually only theoretical yet. Unless Wayne Tech's developed something you haven't told me about yet." He gave Dick a sidelong glance, slightly worried by the unnatural silence. His friend hadn't said a single word during his recounting of last night's mission.

Dick wasn't even looking at him or the movie, instead staring blankly at one of the walls. Before Wally could ask if he was okay, he finally said something.

"I met Kent Nelson once."

Wally blinked.

"I was...six, maybe? It was before my Puri daj died. We were in...France? I think? He came to talk to my Puri daj and Beebee Karla. They were both filefilidh. True-seers"

Wally, despite what some people (Artemis) thought, was not a completely insensitive idiot and managed to keep his mouth shut. Dick laid a gentle hand on the toddler curled up asleep beside him on the sofa, an action that would have been greeted with violent wakefulness had it been performed by anyone else.

"Without him, we wouldn't even know that Dami existed, let alone actually have him."

"I'm not tracking." Wally admitted. "I thought you have him because you took a wrong turn inside a Shadows base and saved his life? Not because you met Kent Nelson three years before he was even born."

"It wasn't a 'wrong turn.'" Dick said softly. Before Nelson left our camp, he told me 'When you are supposed to go left and up, go right and down instead.'" He was stroking Damian now, like a cat. "I forgot all about it until B and I got separated in that fortress and I was running for the courtyard. Then it was like I heard his voice in my head, telling me to go the opposite way I needed to."

He shrugged. "So I did. And found one of the rogues (they were having internal problems in the League of Shadows) trying to kill a little kid. So I knocked out the ninja and asked the kid where his parents were. He pulls himself up, as regal as you please, and announces that he is the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul and someday he will kill me and take my place by his father's side."

Dick's speech had dropped into a mimicry of Damian's peculiar blend of lisping British stiffness and the sing-song lilt that comes from the Shadows' primary dialect. "He looked about ready to try and kill me right there and then, which we didn't have time for, and I was a little in shock because, you know, Talia. So I just said that he couldn't kill me 'cause I'd just saved him and he owed me a life debt."

Dick flashed him one of his ridiculously innocent and charming grins that Jason claimed were why he didn't get in as much trouble in school as he should. "He pitched a fit over that, screaming about how I was unworthy, blah, blah, blah, Talia's opinion of me as regurgitated by a brainwashed baby, blah, blah. That's when the League ninjas came in and dragged us both off to Talia and Ra's. Bruce showed up and saved me and I took Damian with us. I explained what I knew to B on the way back to the Batwing. I don't think I've ever seen him look so mad. He sent us home with the autopilot and went back to talk to Talia. They fought pretty badly and she hates me even more now but we got to keep Damian, so I think it was a pretty good trade off."

"When did he stop hating you?" Wally asked through a mouthful of popcorn. "I don't think he hates you anyway. it's a little hard to tell sometimes."

Dick gave him a reproachful look "He's trying alright. It's not like Talia gave him healthy emotional role models."

Wally threw his hands up in an "I come in peace" gesture. "Hey! I'm not sayin' he hasn't gotten better over the past few months!"

Dick glared, but let it go. "I don't really know. It didn't take long, all he really wanted was for someone to care about him. Not 'The Son of the Bat,' but him, Damian."

Wally grinned and patted his shoulder. "Well, you've done good with him, Mama Bird."

Dick threw popcorn at him. "You're not allowed to talk to Jason anymore without supervision."

Wally grinned wider.

Random aside, guess who was Dr. Fate in the Flashpoint reality. You might have heard of him a couple times, this minor character known as Dick Grayson. (Also, Jason was a drug-lordling-minion-of-Jason-Blood-turned-priest and Selina was Oracle. Wally was murdered.)
Anywho, on that cheerful note, let me know what you think in the lovely little review box below! Thanks for reading!