fair warning that i am very european and had to consult multiple americans for this chapter. if i still messed up, tant pis bc i do not respect this holiday at all

November 27

Conner thought he knew what these holidays meant. He had spent some of it with M'gann, Zatanna and Artemis, while Wally stopped by for a second at first and Kal later on. M'gann had seen some videos about Friendsgiving and wanted to try it out a day before since most were celebrating the actual holiday with their families the day of.

Since Zatanna was spending the day with Artemis in Gotham, and M'gann was invited at J'onn's, he thought it meant he could just sleep in and do whatever. The thoughts about yesterday's little field trip and the box hidden in his nightstand swarming too much for him to even consider being lucid for the next 24 hours. Sleep and some mind numbing actives were all that was on his schedule.

The incessant knocking and ringing of his doorbell begged the differ.

With sleep still in his eyes, he carefully pulled himself out of bed, mindful of where Shminky had been napping next to him, and towards the door. Trying to not trip over Wolf, he really hoped he could just send away whoever wanted his attention and just go back to bed. Opening the door, his eyes were assaulted by the far too bright hallway lights and two blurry figures. "What the-"

"Oh, you're awake." Robin mused innocently as if he hadn't been trying to perform a drum solo on his poor door.

"Come on, you're late." Phantom grabbed him by the arm as Conner had no choice but to follow them as he was pushed and pulled along. Not even Wolf was spared as Cujo yipped at the hound until he, too, got up.

Groggily he trudged towards the kitchen, silently lamenting his lack of sleep and a morning shower before being forced into lucidity. He stifled a yawn as Wolf followed along with dragged feet, well, paws. For as strong as both enhanced beings were, sleep was evidently stronger. But atlas, any hope for a swift return to their warm comfort was thrown out the window when they walked into the kitchen to see an older man they didn't recognize.

With a kitchen towel draped over his shoulder, the masked man turned to them. "I see you did not give the young man any chance to get ready." Though the man's formal attire seemed to contrast the two Batling's casual hoodies, he clearly was still a part of their ensemble as the pair looked away from his gaze.

Robin shuffled his feet, kicking imaginary rocks as he mumbled, "you said bring him, you didn't say in what state."

"I asked to go wake him up, not abduct him from his room." The raised eyebrow was just as audible as when Batman was glaring at people. It didn't last too long, however, as he visibly softened as he approached Conner. "Do feel free to wash up and rejoin us. There is much more work to do and I have been told you wished to learn how to make chocolate oat cookies." The comforting aura around the man immediately dissipated any lingering distrust.

Clearly this man knew about their letters. If he'd have to wager a guess, he'd even be willing to bet this is where Phantom got his cookie supply from. With a nod, Conner turned back around to go get ready to face whatever he was dragged into. One quick shower and a change of clothes later, the ones Selina gifted felt like the right fit for the occasion, he found himself back in the kitchen questioning if he was really awake or just in a very realistic dream.

At least now he knew it wasn't just M'gann who managed to get him in some sort of mess when helping out with food prep. Phantom seemed just as bad, struggling with the glove tied to his hand with a hairband. His sleeves were pushed up enough his scarring was fully visible, but the boy didn't seem to mind. His main gripe being the oversized plastic glove that would just not stop moving around or get stuck on the dough. It was no surprise he needed extra assistance since Agent A did not believe in using electronical anything for his confectionary production.

No, Conner did not care about what those two demons tried to convince him of, he would never call the man he just met 'grandpa'.

Surprisingly enough, the cookie prep was going rather smooth. Under the supervision of Agent A, Phantom was even able to help with the batter. "The eggs are unfertilized so not a problem this time." Robin assured when asked, still remembering having to help them out when they made those nuggets a few weeks back. Something about not having a rooster so they were sure it was safe. He could never imagine Batman living on a farm but who was he to question where they kept their chickens.

The logic of what was and wasn't safe for Phantom to be around didn't logic in his brain at all, however. Grocery store eggs were a danger, but these eggs were fine. Cut chicken breast was a no go, yet he was keenly aware of the two mostly whole turkeys on one of the counters closer to the cooking plate.

"It doesn't help if I tried to explain it because we don't quite know why some things react and others don't." Phantom sighed as he washed the collection of dishes they already conjured up. As if the universe wanted to taunt them, it prepared a little lesson of cause and effect not a single one of them would understand. Being distracted with the conversation, Phantom managed to accidentally cut himself on one of the knives hiding in the sudsy water.

Agent A was by his side in a second, checking the injury and clearing the sink of any contaminated water. Pressing a tissue to his hand, they carefully checked for bleeding. Unfortunately they didn't seem fast enough as enough ambient ecto released from that one cut to do it's magic.

As all eyes were on Phantom and Agent A, only the keen nosed canines noticed the changes in the turkey closer to the pair. Even Shminky made her dislike known as she puffed up and hissed at the offending bird. Fighting free from its restraints, the headless, organless carcass started on its mad dash across the kitchen as it tried to evade snapping teeth.

Robin jumped up, dodging their crazed dogs by climbing onto Conner's shoulder. Hands covered in batter now leaving prints on Conner's sweatshirt as he instinctively reached to support the boy clinging to him. Phantom tried to move away from the chaos as well, leaving Agent A by himself at the sink. Only poor Shminky remained where she was, frozen in terror as chaos erupted around her.

"I can't tell if this is worse than the Hotdog uprising or not." The boy cringed as Wolf slid across the now slickened tiles, the carcass dripping brine and melted butter everywhere. With a heavy thud against the cabinets next to Agent A, and narrowly having missed Shminky, Wolf got up to rejoin the chase once again but from the other direction.

Sensing the impending danger, the zombified turkey climbed its way up the island. Using Conner's quick rescue of the cookie batter as an invitation to do more, it used its plucked wings as hooks to climb up remarkably fast. Having found itself in a proverbial corner, the damned headless thing had the gall to turn around as if looking for a way to escape. Trying to position itself for its next escape attempt, the turkey prepared to jump straight for Phantom's side of the wall mounted cabinets.

As it jumped, remarkably nimble for a crippled carcass, it wasn't left to enjoy its short flight as a carving fork was sent flying through the air and lodged itself and the turkey solidly into the opposing wall.

Heads turned to Agent A as he calmly straightened his dress shirt out and took off the towel from his shoulder. Walking up to the struggling zombified bird, he made quick work of getting it pried off of the wall. It's struggling ceased not long after, the ecto fueling it's revival finally burning up. "As you can see, my boy," turning to face the shocked clone, Agent A's calm demeanor did not falter. "It is not because we do not understand, that facts cease to be true."

Conner slowly lowered Robin back down to the ground, making sure he had his footing and didn't slip on the mess left behind. Phantom's eyes remained downcast, blaming himself for the waste of Agent's A prep work. "Nonsense." The man silenced muttered apologies with a single word. Making quick work of the rekilled bird, he glanced back to the child. "Accidents happen, that does not man fault should be taken beyond proportion."

"But your work-"

"There is still a second turkey." The complaints were shut down once more as the now reprepped bird was placed into a bowl. "This one may serve our more furry companions, so it is not a total waste if that is your concern." The man stashed the pet-designated turkey back into the fridge with adequate covering to prevent any risk of contamination. "Now, I will make a quick trip for a new turkey. I believe I can entrust the clean up to you three." It wasn't even a question, the full trust in the three boys blanketing Conner in a way he hasn't quite expected.

He only met the man a handful of hours ago. From what little he knew from either being told or witnessing it himself, he knew the elder took kitchen discipline very serious. Almost as serious as Batman took mission assignment and execution. It was not to be taken lightly when such trust was given.

With the promise of being back in just a couple of hours, something about a family friend's farmstead up in New Brunswick and a jet, they set to cleaning.

Conner took over the dishes, rinsing everything off before letting hot soapy water fill up once more. The focus on the dishes, and not having to worry about a cut like Phantom or Robin, helped speed things up on his end. The only thing slowing his progress down being his own mind once more as seeing Phantom and Robin work so well together tugged at that annoying bit of his soul once again. The fact he failed to acquire something like that for himself despite having the necessary components, on paper at least, souring his mood quite a bit.

Robin opted to get all the different batter flavors packed up to rest in the fridge as well until Agent A returned to supervise the baking. Out of the three of them, he did have the most experience helping in the kitchen, albeit still very limited. He at least knew how to wrap things up the way Agent A always did back home.

Phantom started on the decontamination of the entire area as juices of all kinds had made it onto nearly every surface below 3 feet. His powers helping on getting every bit wiped down without bothering the other two's work. Only after the floor wasn't a slip hazard anymore did he take Shminky, Cujo and Wolf off for a quick bath. Wolf didn't seem to enjoy the flying all that much, but they didn't have a choice as the hound was much to large for Phantom to carry him in his arms. At least Shminky was considerate enough to be relatively travel sized and anchored herself onto Phantom's shoulder. Though the poor cat was clearly frightened, she wasn't that bad of a flight risk rather than just imitating a statue and hoping for the best.

By the time he returned with the two cleaned up canines, a less fluffed up Shminky and an outfit change, Robin and Conner had already nearly finished up the disinfecting and clean up. The singular plate of cookies Agent A had already baked cooling down as they worked in comfortable silence. The only sound coming from the kitchen being the general cleaning noises and the soft musings of the radio Agent A had left on.

In no time they had everything finished up, practically ready to continue their activities but technically not due to Agent A still being away. Standing awkwardly in the now much too quiet space, Conner's eyes flickered between the two who in turn looked to him. His entire being screaming he wanted to ask something, mouth opening and closing a number of times before he finally gave up and just gestured to the couch.

Calculating eyes scanned his body, his soul, before they finally shrugged in unison. So, to fill the time, they meandered over so they could be found with ease. Sorting through their options, Conner paused on something very blue.

"Lilo And Stitch?" Robin hesitantly looked at Phantom. It was on Bruce's infamous 'Do Not Interact' list. He knew most of the titles by heart but he couldn't just say no to it when Conner looked so intrigued by the description. Leaving it up to chance, more like trial and erroring if they could actually watch it, they got settled in.

Taking up most of the couch directly opposite of the tv, Conner and Shminky took one corner as Phantom and Cujo snuggled on the other side. Robin commandeered the floor, moving the coffee table out of the way to get a proper view of the screen, with Wolf as his cuddle buddy. Well, more like his matrass as the hound was bigger than the boy. Wolf didn't mind his little charge sprawled across his back however, so it was fair game.

As it turned out, it really didn't take long for them to figure out why Bruce had put it on the banned list all those years ago. Robin knew why, at least he thought he did after having found the document ages ago and reading the first few entries, but he appreciated the effort too much to go against it. He thought they could handle a little mention of dead parents as that was the common denominator between the ones he had looked into.

What he didn't expect was the everything else that came with it. But it was far too late to turn off the movie. Conner and his brother were already fully sucked into the movie, the only sign they weren't sleeping with their eyes open being the constant petting of their cuddle buddy.

Wolf had noticed Robin's discomfort, ever so subtly shifting closer to the couch quartet who had subconsciously also shifted closer already. More like Phantom had simply switched his leaning angle and decided to make Conner's knee his pillow as Shminky claimed most of the boy's thighs. The comfort of feeling Conner's leg pressed in his back and Phantom's arm lazily draped over his shoulder was enough to brave the accidental hell he put himself in.

The only part keeping him somewhat sane, and Phantom too he could imagine, was Agent Bubbles being a lot nicer than the social workers they ever came into contact with.

Time ceased to exist as they felt entrapped by the story unfolding before their eyes, each one finding their own thing to capture their minds. They hadn't even noticed Agent A returning until the surprise attack of a certain monochrome pair spooked the 6 souls out of their bodies.

Agent A and Catwoman stood in the kitchen, one keeping himself busy to not add to the embarrassment while the other simply hid her smile behind a hand. "Oh my, it appears we're a little too good at sneaking around."

"It would appear so." Agent A's sneaky little smirk pulled a pout to the two Batling's faces as they climbed up to face the newly arrived pair.

"No fair, we were distracted!"

"As if it's hard to 'sneak' around when the movie was on so loud."

Neither of their defenses were particularly strong, but it made them feel better. Conner didn't have much to comment on, also not having noticed but minding a lot less as he was more focused on making sure Shminky got along with the two new furballs. Outside of Cicci and that one single time Cheddy came over, he really hadn't tested her sociability with other cats. At least not as actively as this. Though it did seem to be going well enough as no hissing or 'airplane ears' as Catwoman had called it appeared during the introduction.

Only after Phantom and Robin got up to rejoin the cooking, and Shminky claimed the warm spot left by Cujo, did Conner manage to get up as well. Hoping his girl would let him know if she was uncomfortable with the two new faces, he got to work as well.

With Catwoman there to help keep an eye on the cookies and multiple sides, while Agent A focused on getting the replacement turkey ready to cook, the three boys rotated in their helping. With Phantom being out for the count on actually touching either of the turkeys, he was left to the stuffing station before rotating back to cookies and confectionaries. Robin and Conner on the other hand were able to give Agent A the extra set of hands some of his buttery preparations required.

With most of the cookies baked off, it was finally time for the turkeys to go into the ovens. Luckily Mount Justice had an adequately large kitchen for exactly such cooking requirements. One had to have the forethought of making larger scaled meals with multiple enhanced metabolisms running around, quite literally.

It was surprisingly fun.

He had never been in the kitchen for this long without being basically worked out of helping. M'gann liked the idea of Conner's help in the kitchen more than the actual help he could give. Agent A, however, actively searched for Conner's assistance when deciding to show him how to do a thing. Even going as far as letting him feel the butter under the turkey's skin and how the stuffing sat inside to ensure everything was up to his standards. Even with the cookies he explained how to tell when the different flavors were done in a way he could understand.

The only time Agent A seemed remotely upset was when Conner caught a knife that had accidentally fallen off the counter. Catwoman also came up to check, redundantly he thought, to make sure he wasn't injured. The combined speech he got about never catching falling sharp objects was one he would never forget. Even acknowledging his tougher skin, it was still a habit he was encouraged to learn as he would never know if something would actually be capable of hurting him until it was already too late. The little sprinkle of setting a 'good example for others in the kitchen' didn't hurt either.

Something in him told him this man had experience teaching enhanced people a thing or two about cooking, but he didn't dare call it out.

Before long, their entire feast was prepared and cooking. Deciding to pass the time a little more conductive than simply watching movies, Agent A had come prepared with a small collection of board- and card games to play.

It may have been the best part of the entire day in Conner's eyes. Maybe the highlight of his week even. He had expected to lose quite often, being unfamiliar with most of the games beyond a basic understanding of how it worked. Yet here he was, not even sad he lost to Batman's children as they, too, had to take countless of losses.

Agent A absolutely dominated their blackjack games, with Phantom coming in a far distant second. Catwoman, Selina he had to remind himself as she insisted, and himself came in at a near tie when playing Boggle. As ironic as it sounded, it did boggle his mind how the children of the greatest detective lost so often in a simple game of word-pattern recognition. Their demands for playing in other languages went unanswered as they grumpily kept playing anyway. It wasn't until they started playing Uno that Robin could finally claim his revenge against them all and manage a near perfect win streak.

In between games, they still tended to the food. Agent A took great care in teaching Conner how to properly baste the turkey while Phantom got to work on the cranberry sauce and Robin took over the various potato dishes. How they were ever meant to finish this entire feast with just the 5 of them, even with Phantom's metabolism, was beyond him.

As it turned out, that was exactly the point. Having copious amounts of leftovers was another thing they insisted on teaching Conner. Even after setting aside a full plate for M'gann and Zatanna, and counting another off for Batman, they had enough food left over to feed Wally and still be left with enough for another entire meal.

Even the four legged members of their group enjoyed the buffet as Agent A made sure to make animal safe stock with the bones and scraps from the preparation done earlier. It was quite fascinating, he had to admit. The careful choice of every ingredient leading to so many different meals and uses boiling down to the least amount of waste they could have managed for as big of an operation as this was. Not a single stomach was left empty, nor a single bit of food gone to waste.

Discounting the earlier brine and butter mess left on the floor of course.

It wasn't until the Batclan had left, and taken all they homey warmth with them, that Conner realized just how alone it felt at Mount Justice when nobody else was around.