Just a trigger warning for offscreen transphobia and a minor getting kicked out of their home because of it.

Stay safe!

Little Red pulled his scarf down as he slipped out of the rooftop access of the warehouse Hood was meeting in. He pulled the comms that were disguised as earbuds out of his pocket and put them in his ears. He connected them to Batwave to see what the others were up to and give Oracle a heads up in case Hood's and Two-Face's goons came to blows.

"Got her in my sights," Spoiler announced and he frowned.

He knew the girls were doing recon that night, but he thought they were investigating a warehouse. Steph hadn't mentioned anyone in particular Oracle was having her look into.

"You're good to engage, but this is non-confrontation, remember. Fall back the moment you sense a fight."

She'd made it seem like it'd be entirely waiting and watching, no engagement at all.

"I know, O."

He brought his hand to the comm to switch on his audio and ask about the change.

Boots hit the roof behind him with the distinctive soft scuffle of someone who normally moved silently, but wanted others to know they were there.

As far as he was aware, there were only six people in Gotham who could walk quietly enough that they'd need to make an effort to be heard, not including himself. Cass never made the effort to be heard (and wasn't currently in Gotham besides). Despite his best efforts, Bruce had two volumes of footsteps: undetectable and obnoxiously loud, with no in-between. Red Hood strangely had a Robin's grace and would sometimes purposely make himself known, but he made even less of an effort to do so for Little Red than Dick did for Tim (the assholes liked sneaking up on him to scare him). Alfred probably wouldn't have any reason to be on a semi-abandoned warehouse on the edge of the Narrows, and wouldn't be wearing combat boots even still. Which only left Dick or…

"Hey."

Little Red spun around as he heard Spoiler's voice both in person and through his comm. He couldn't see her face behind her mask, but he could see the way she stiffened at the sight of his face.

He darted forward.

"You're -"

She cut off as he slapped his hand over her mouth.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Spoiler?" Oracle asked.

After smacking his hand away, Spoiler signed, "What the fuck?"

"Spoiler?"

"What are you doing here?" he signed back.

"Come in, Spoiler."

"Me!? What are you doing here!?" She punched his chest, then frowned. "Are you wearing armor? Please tell me you are not Little Red and we got some bad info."

"Spoiler, respond!"

He grabbed her wrist when she opened her mouth, then quickly signed, "I'll explain later. Don't tell O!"

"Nightwing, I've lost contact with Spoiler."

"I'm here, Oracle," Spoiler said, glaring at him. "Sorry. The target freaked out and started crying."

He frowned at the excuse and she flipped him off.

"I was trying to calm her down, but she just booked it back into the warehouse. I'm going to fall back before I get company."

"Alright. Don't go radio silent like that again. Fall back to Seventh and Jacob."

"On it." She punched him in the arm and signed, "You owe me. Big."

"Thank you! Breakfast tomorrow? My place?"

She nodded, then grappled off the roof.

Tim fidgeted under Stephanie's glare as she finished off the waffles he'd gotten delivered.

She'd explained that Oracle had sent her to Two-Face's warehouse, not realizing Hood's meeting had gotten pushed up. When Spoiler spotted Little Red splitting off, Oracle had recognized him from chatter about Hood's "sugar baby" so she sent Spoiler in for a wellness check and to see if they could get any info.

He'd explained how he'd met Hood and their subsequent meetings that had resulted in him becoming Little Red.

Judging by her glare, Stephanie hadn't approved of any of his actions.

"So…"

"You're an idiot."

"Steph-"

"You do realize Hood has talked about how he wants to kill you, like, multiple times, right? I know the others are trying to hide the specifics, but I overheard Babs listening to one of the recordings. He was very descriptive."

He rolled his eyes. "Hood doesn't hurt kids. He protects them. He probably just said those things to freak out B because he's one of those people who think B dragged us into this instead of the other way around."

"Lame." She took a sip from her smoothie. "As if I'd ever let an emo furry tell me what to do."

"Don't call him a furry," he groaned.

"Who's a furry?"

Stephanie jumped and the two turned to see Red Hood climbing through the window Stephanie had left open after using it for the same purpose.

"Batman," Tim answered.

"He's an emo furry," Stephanie emphasized and Hood snorted.

He leaned back against the window frame and looked them over. He pointed at Stephanie. "You're Stephanie Brown, right? Cluemaster's kid?"

Oh no. Tim knew that face. That was the face she'd made the first time they'd met.

The one she'd made right before she decked him with a brick.

"And you're Red Hood, the Joker fanboy."

And that was the particular way Hood stiffened which meant Little Red needed to quickly de-escalate or a lot of people were going to get shot, most of them fatally.

He gently kicked Stephanie's leg. "Would you not antagonize the crime lord, please?"

"You're the one who said he's harmless."

"He is," he said, ignoring the look Hood sent him. The crime lord wouldn't hurt Stephanie since she was a kid. If she kept it up, though, he'd probably give an empty threat that she'd interpret as real. Then she'd hit her panic button and he'd have to call Barbara to stop her from sending Dick or Bruce, which meant explaining why Hood was in Olivia's apartment threatening Stephanie and… "That doesn't mean needlessly annoying him is a good idea."

"If he's going to bring up my asshole dad, I'm going to bring up his asshole namesake. Fair's fair," she shrugged.

"Or we could all just agree not to bring up any assholes we may be loosely connected to," Tim offered, looking between them.

She snorted but didn't object.

Hood tilted his head in that way which Tim knew meant he was rolling his eyes. "Speaking of assholes we're connected to: How do you two know each other?"

"She's my girlfriend," Tim explained at the same time that Stephanie said, "He's my ex."

They shared a look.

"She's my ex," he said as she said, "He's my boyfriend."

"Right," Hood said slowly with amusement clear in his voice.

"It's complicated," Tim sighed.

"I saw another girl kiss him and automatically assumed he was cheating on me so I ghosted him for a while. He was understandably mad and I realized I might still be going through some stuff after my last boyfriend disappeared off the face of the earth right before I found out I was pregnant, only to show up later to simultaneously try to get back together with me and berate me for giving the kid up for adoption. So we decided to have a break to figure shit out," she offered.

"It's complicated," Tim repeated when Hood just stared at them. "We're not dating, but we haven't broken up either."

"We're in relationship limbo. It's not helped by the fact that he's still coming to terms with his gender and I'm still trying to figure out if I'm into girls."

"Femme girls," Tim corrected with a smirk. "You definitely like girls. I've seen you checking out Cassie. And Kara. And -"

"I'm not checking them out, just their muscles. Of which you have none."

"I have muscles!"

"Baby muscles."

"Lean muscles!"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna go," Hood cut over their bickering.

"See ya," Steph waved him off.

"Sorry, was there something you needed?" Tim asked, turning to him with an apologetic look.

Hood tossed him a thumb drive.

He stared at it blankly, then lit up. "Is this…?"

"Yep, which means you can have a night in. And that's not a suggestion. Take your not-girlfriend on a not-date or try sleeping for once."

"Fine," he huffed, already pulling out his laptop. He'd probably spend the night organizing the info on the Víboras to hand over to Bruce anyways.

"I'm serious."

"Yeah, yeah, Steph's probably going to spike my tea or food anyways."

Hood looked at her. "You're the one drugging him?"

"He has a prescription," she shot back. "He just forgets to take his pills on his own when he gets focused on something so I like to get creative."

"I told you there was nothing to worry about," Tim said distractedly.

"If you say so, kid. Stay in tonight."

"You got it."

Hood shook his head and left.

"Mother hen," Tim snorted. "Bet he thinks I don't know he's meeting with the Cortéses tonight. It's not like I wanted to be in the same room as Ray ever again anyways. Not unless it was to take him down."

"Tim, what the fuck?"

"So what's going on tonight?"

"Why do you think something's going on tonight?"

"Maybe because you're here, cooking me dinner, instead of doing any number of crime lord activities you could be doing instead."

"Maybe I just wanted a night off."

"You're just as much of a workaholic as I am."

"Maybe I wanted to do something for your birthday."

"It's not my birthday. It's not even my fake birthday."

"Well, you didn't tell me your real birthday so I decided to pick one for you."

"So Scarecrow then?"

"Mad Hatter."

"Gross… Can you make those caramel chocolate cookies?"

"Can you take your meds without needling?"

"If my ankle wasn't sprained, I'd kick you out the window."

"Uh-huh, sure ki-Wait, what's wrong with your ankle!?"

Jason was peacefully doing maintenance on one of his pistols with some tea and an audiobook when someone knocked on his door.

He waited a moment to see if they would leave before they knocked again, and this time they didn't stop knocking. Cursing under his breath, he put down the gun, turned off the book, grabbed his other gun, then went to open the door.

"Who the fu-" he cut off, as he cracked the door open to see a familiar kid on the other side.

She looked like she was wearing part of a school uniform with her black pleated skirt, white blouse, navy and silver knee-high argyle socks, and black Mary Janes. Her black shoulder-length hair was even pulled into a neat bun with a silver bow, her red streaks nowhere to be seen. Add in a blazer, tie, and sweater vest and she could have walked right off Gotham Academy's campus. Large black sunglasses hid her eyes, but not the tears falling down her cheeks.

"Olivia? What's wrong? Are you hurt? How did you find this place?" He was positive he hadn't told her about that particular safe house. Five of his most loyal lieutenants knew a couple of his safe houses and Olivia knew a few more on top of those, but the one he was in at that moment was his favorite safe house. It was one of three that he'd reinforced to the point he felt safe enough to sleep in it. It had the best view, just high enough that it caught most of the Alley and out past the docks to the ocean. It had no noisy neighbors since he owned not only the apartments on either side of it, but also the ones above, below, and across the hall from it. Best of all, it had a really good kitchen for the area. He'd made sure not to tell anyone about that safe house. He hadn't even told Talia, though he was sure she still knew. "More importantly, who do I have to kill?"

She didn't look at him as she pushed past him to flop facedown on his couch, dropping her backpack on the coffee table.

He watched her for a second, then shut and locked the door. He went to put on his helmet, then hung her backpack on the coat rack. Next, he started the electric kettle and grabbed a bottle of water.

He poked her shoulder with it. "Drink. I'm not explaining why I've got the body of a teenager on my couch to my cleaners just because you died from dehydration. I have a reputation."

Snorting, she sat up and took the bottle.

Once she'd gotten through half of it, he nodded to the hall. "Bathroom's the first door on the left if you want to clean up."

"Thanks." She finished the water then grabbed her backpack and disappeared down the hall.

When she returned a half hour later, the schoolgirl outfit was replaced with bright green leggings and an oversized Wonder Woman hoodie. Her makeup had been touched up and the red streaks had reappeared in her hair, which was left down.

"Is that my jacket?" he asked as he handed her a mug of tea.

"No," she lied and curled up on the opposite side of the couch as him.

He stared at her.

She stared back.

"We'll come back to that. How did you find this place?"

She shrugged, then gave a long explanation that included descriptions of spreadsheets and timelines, absolutely unnecessary commentary on the creativity of the aliases he'd used to buy or rent his safe houses, and a fair bit of stalking, both physical and cyber.

By the end of it, he'd lost any remaining sense of guilt he'd still held onto from when he'd first checked her out. She clearly felt no guilt for doing the same and more.

A part of him wondered if he should be more worried about the locations of all his safe houses ending up in the hands of someone whose job revolves around gathering and selling information, but he brushed it off. Considering how easily she explained it and the fact her boss had told her to stay away from him, he figured she hadn't sold him out yet. Which hopefully meant she never would.

"You're unhinged," he said when she finally finished talking. "And also too smart for your own good."

"It's not that hard to figure out if you think about it," she muttered into her tea.

"Sure, kid." It's not like he'd managed to keep hidden from Batman or anything. "So now that we've figured out how you got here, do you feel like talking about why you're here?"

She spun her mug in her hands for a moment before muttering something.

"What?"

"My… My parents came home early."

"Your parents?" He tried to remember if she'd ever told him anything about her parents but came up empty aside from a joking mention of her father teaching her to shoot when he'd first given her gear. He'd mainly heard about her co-workers and boss, treating them like family instead. Honestly, he'd assumed she was an orphan. Or as good as. "They're still in the picture."

She snorted, but it came out more of a sob. "They're still alive if that's what you meant, but… they're out of town a lot for work so I take care of myself."

"They go out of town and just leave you alone?"

"My aunt stays at the house, but she's really just there to watch the house. Unless I don't check in for a while, she doesn't pay much attention."

"So they go out of town and just leave you alone," he reiterated and she sighed. "So they came back early, and that's a bad thing?"

"I don't spend much time at the house when they're not home if I can help it. I'd rather be out with my friends or at my apartment or my boss's house. I usually only go home long enough to check in with my aunt or if I need to grab something. I, uh, needed to grab something today and they weren't supposed to be home until this weekend and I knew my aunt was out so… My parents don't know about Olivia."

He thought about the schoolgirl outfit she'd been wearing when she arrived. "Do you mean the job Olivia or your gender Olivia?"

"Both."

"Shit."

"They only found out about the second, though. Mom seemed upset, but Dad took it well. Or I thought he did, for a moment, but when he was calming mom down he said that it was okay because the trans thing is in right now so they could work with it to seem progressive and he got mad when I tried to explain that I wasn't a trans girl and, well-Anyways, I'm not allowed to come back. Not until I stop messing around and just pick one or whatever."

"Shit." He moved closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"I mean, nothing's changing. I wasn't really living with them anyways and I already knew they wouldn't approve. That's why I told everyone except them and my aunt! This is just confirmation, nothing new. I just - Why does it feel like everything's different? Why does it hurt so much?"

"Parents suck."

He thought about Willis's harsh fists and sharp words. He thought about his mother choosing the escape of a high over spending a bit more of her little time with him. He thought about the Joker, still living it up in Arkham, while little Timothy Drake was running around in Jason's death shroud. He thought about Sheila just standing there.

He thought about the ache when he found out what happened to Willis. He thought about cradling his mother after realizing she wasn't breathing, sobbing into her hair. He thought about the bomb underneath the Batmobile that went undetonated. He thought about trying to free Sheila, even when it hurt so much to move.

"Sometimes parents hurt you or just don't care enough about you and you wish you could not care about them in turn, but it's not always that easy. You can't choose to just stop loving someone like flipping a switch, even if you really want to. Just… Just try to remember that you didn't do anything wrong. They're the ones with issues, not you. You don't deserve to be treated like this."

She nodded and turned to press her face into his chest.

After a startled pause, he wrapped his arms around her.