Author's note: hey, gang. This being Friday – cue the Easybeats' song Friday On My Mind :D – here's another snippet. There's still 4 left, including the one I'm trying to write right now, but since I seem to be coming down with something it might take a while till the cotton in my head goes away :S Anyway, this is set very early in the series, where it's fun to dissect and comment on usually solo heroes trying to work as a team :o)

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything. Got that Ghost Rider book, an Advent calendar filled with chocolate (yay!) and possibly a cold, but nothing DC-related. Shame, huh :D

Snapshot Collection

10. Nickname

The first time that the Flash calls him 'Bats', they're in the middle of a fight, and while Batman does register, he doesn't give it time to sink in, focusing on immediate survival.

The second time is another matter.

Batman is watching the monitors at the Watchtower, fixing a small bug in the database access, and he hears the now-familiar light thud of the Flash' and Hawkgirl's boots.

"… gotta try this. Thirty-one flavours – and wait till you get to 'cookie dough'. Hi, Bats."

Gloved fingers pause for a second above the elaborate keypad. Batman glowers as both old and recent memories of countless encounters with the Clown Prince of Crime rise, unbidden, in his mind.

"Don't call me that."

He didn't actually mean to snarl, but the low, icy tone is deliberate – after all, he is The Batman. He's got a persona to keep up.

Besides, the kid just gets on his nerves far more often than he should allow him to.

Flash breaks abruptly his conversation with Hawkgirl and turns to him, looking surprised and a little bit hurt. It makes him appear younger than he is, and right now Batman doesn't need the detailed background check he did on all of them to know that the kid is still a year or two short of legal drinking age.

"Why not?" he asks.

Batman keeps his eyes firmly trained on the monitors.

"Just don't."

Thus endeth the conversation.

The third time, he tries to ignore it. And fails.

The fourth time, he throws the Flash a fully-fledged Bat-glare that makes the kid visibly flinch.

The fifth time, they're in the middle of a violent fight (again) against the Injustice Gang, and this time Batman is so aggravated that he uses a second's respite to roar, "Would you stop calling me that!"

Flash skids to a halt and freezes, shock and something like fear on his face. Unfortunately, he has just been circling Solomon Grundy at super-speed, so when he stops, the zombie pounds him into the ground with all the might of his supposedly dead muscles.

This leaves Batman wishing to hell that he could use a second's respite now to find out whether the kid is still alive down there. But he can't afford to worry. Not when there's a fight.

There's always a fight.

So later that night, after the bad guys are safely taken into custody, Batman stops by the medical bay of the Watchtower where Flash is spending the night, because even a hyper-accelerated metabolism can't heal all those bumps and bruises in the blink of an eye.

The kid looks pretty downcast in his bed. Seems he doesn't like hospitals that much.

Batman doesn't apologise, because that's not the sort of thing he does. But when Flash asks him why he reacted that way – actually, the words are "What the hell!?" – he explains. Succinctly, as usual.

The stare Flash pins on him looks halfway between anger and an infuriating impression that he's going to laugh in his face.

He seems to settle on mildly furious. Batman doesn't know whether this is because he's actually too tired to settle on anything stronger.

"And that's it? Well, that's no good reason enough for me."

He stubbornly crosses his arms across his chest, and stares defiantly at the Dark Knight. The effect would probably be more impressive without the numerous scratches and bruises all over his face.

Batman feels tired, and he wonders if it's old age or just one of the perks of team work.

"That's good enough for me. And that's it."

Any minute now, the Flash will blink and he'll be able to make his usual stealth exit. Any minute now …

"Just because this Joker guy called dibs on this stupid nickname doesn't mean nobody else should use it, Bats. 'Sides, I talk fast, friends' names get shorter. Ask Supes – damn."

Flash blinked. Batman's gone.

The sixth time, Batman shrugs it off. The seventh time, he actually smiles a little. Deep down.

Guess I'll just have to get used to it.

Oh, he will, in time :o) Yeah, third time I've put Flash in a hospital bed. At least the first two times were canon. Well, this just goes to show how much I (perhaps being your average vying-for-the-blood-of-her-favourite-character fangirl writer) like the guy :D

I've watched the JL(U) episodes online in English, but not Batman: The Animated Series, so I have no idea whether Robin calls Batman 'Bats' – if he does, then this whole story is rendered pretty pointless. Ah well. At least it was fun to write :o)

And I love the idea of Bats pulling his Stealth Hi Bye (go see http :// tvtropes. Org/ pmwiki/ pmwiki. Php /Main/StealthHiBye and cut the blanks) routine on the Flash. Fastest Man Alive. Who did blink :o]

Next up: It's been two years since the "White House Incident" and the change in the Justice Lords, and Lois wonders where Clark has gone.