-My brother lives seven hours away and woke up this morning (October 25th)  to a foot of snow... Whoo Canada! Our country sucks!-

-Didn't mean to make this so long, but I'm procrastinating on my homework-

Ages:

Damian - 17

Tim - 13

Jason - 9

Dick - 5

"Get out!" Damian angst-ed as Jason pushed his door open. After a few seconds of silence, the eldest brother impatiently pulled off his headphones. "What?"

"It's snowing." Jason said, eyes glowing with excitement.

Damian scoffed. "Leave me alone. And close the door!"

Jason carefully left the door ajar, and hurried to Tim's room. "Tim! It's snowing!" He exclaimed, shoving Tim's door open.

"Hmm?" Tim pulled out his earbud. "What?"

"IT. IS. SNOWING." The boy yelled.

"Oh, awesome!" Tim remarked, excited on his little brother's behalf. "I bet Dick will be excited too."

Jason frowned. "Yeah. Maybe." Why did everyone always have to make it about his stupid little brother? Dick wasn't even at home yet! Bruce had to bring him along to a JL meeting since he 'didn't trust them after last time' and 'didn't want scissors anywhere near Dick's face again'.

"Well he'll be back soon, you can show him." Tim suggested. 

"Tim, he won't understand!" Jason argued. "He's too little!"

"He's not that little, Jay, he'll get it."

"Whatever. You can't have real fight with him." Jason moped.

Tim sighed. Pausing the youtube video he'd been listening to. "Well, maybe we can ambush Demon tomorrow if you want."

"Really?"

"Maybe." Tim reiterated. "I'm super busy this weekend, I'll try to make time."

"Fine, just... do it before the snow melts!" Jason slammed Tim's door shut. Whatever, even if he wasn't the youngest Wayne kid anymore, at least they had snow this winter. That was something.

Jason trailed downstairs and stared out one of the the living rooms window. The snow had picked up, and was practically a blizzard. The winter had been on the colder side because of climent change. That's what Tim said at least.

Jason had spent the last week trailing behind Bruce, trying to convince him to provide more dry clothes and jackets to the overwhelming homeless population in Gotham. Bruce hadn't done it yet, he barely even slept, overwhelmed by the new child in the house.

Thats another reason Jason didn't like his new younger brother, the kid distracted Bruce from everything. Their father was up all night with the kid and patrol, he spent at least half the day carrying the kid since he had really bad separation anxiety... He never got anything done anymore!

Jason shook out his head, refusing to let that ruin the night for him, even though he couldn't look at the snow without the voice in the back of his head screaming that there were people were dying out in that ice.

He tried to ignore his guilty conscience and intrusive thoughts, and ran to the foyer to pull on his boots. He had a favorite pair of shoes that he usually wore in all weather, even snow, but Alfred had made it very clear that he wasn't allowed to wear them everyday this winter. It was the same thing with jackets. He'd been formally ordered to wear layers outside.

He pulled on a coat and opened the door. He wasn't technically allowed to leave the house; Bruce's actual words were: 'Jason can't leave the house unless Me or Alfred are home because this will happen!'

That was the day Jason almost died via electric fence.

Still, the (previously) youngest Wayne child could not be deterred. He scurried from the house, snapping the door shut after him. The frost on the front step was slick under the thin layer of snow that had snuck under the rain stopper.

Jason stumbled out into the flurry. It was like walking into a Christmas card. Sure, Jason was a rambunctious kid, and it was fun to play in the snow when you had siblings to fight, but let it not be said that a preteen cannot self reflect. And by self reflect, I mean that he wandered aimlessly through the snowstorm, staring into the sky, and blinking snowflakes out of his eyes.

He had to admit, this whole 'being alone' thing did have its perks.

Back inside the manor, Damian headed downstairs for a glass of cold water. Yes, during a snowstorm. Because his siblings were pathetic and warmblooded, and had turned the heating up so high that the electricity bill would have more digits than a phone number.

He was just giving his beverage the semi-formal safety sip when he felt his phone buzzing. Frustrated that his calming white noise had been interrupted, Damian tore his phone out and answered.

"What."

"Damian. I cant make it back. You're in charge indefinitely."

Damian looked at the caller ID suspiciously. "...Father?"

"Yes." Bruce sounded tired and impatiently. "What?"

"What are you doing?" Damian knew better from years of parental trust issues.

"Damian, I dont know what you're trying to accuse me of tonight, but The snowstorms in Gotham are causing trouble with the Zetabeam's connection. Just make sure your brothers are alive for me."

"Drake's in his bedroom, Todd is... somewhere, rambling about the snow."

"Where is he specifically?"

"I dont know! It's not my job to watch him!"

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE BABYSITTING HIM."

"FINE. I'll call you when I've located him!" Damian snapped.

"Just make sure they're stay alive! And don't go out unless theres a specific call. No patrolling."

"Why not?"

"Damian- I am stuck with Diana Prince and the fourteen of the most frustrating people on the planet right now, while trying to keep Richard from crying. You can afford to do one thing for me!"

"Alright! I'll find them!" Damian hung up impatiently. Why did he have to be the oldest one?

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Bruce sighed and tucked his phone away. This night was ending up worse than terrible. He fekt Dick cling to his leg.

"We're not going home?" He said softly, looking shaky.

"We are. It will just take longer." Bruce stated, his demeanor firmly between Batman and tired mom. 

Dick silently clung to his leg. The poor boy did not do well with sudden changes, but that was to be expected. He was recently orphaned and was swiftly moved from his unorthodox home-schooled life at the circus, to... whatever his life was at the moment. He wasn't enrolled in kindergarten yet, just because he couldn't be away from his new family without having a full-on panic attack.

"When can we go home?" Dick asked shakily.

"I'm not sure yet."

Dick nodded a little, sitting on the floor at Bruce's feet. Dick wasn't Robin yet (I mean, his parents only died like, a month ago), he was just wearing the mask for tonight while he was in the Watchtower.

Bruce was pretty sure Jason knew that Dick was likely going to steal the Robin title from him at some point, but luckily the boy was only six, so it likely wouldn't be soon.

The bat lowered himself to the boy's side, speaking softly. He didn't like to blur the lines between Batman and daddybats around the Justice League. "Try and get a little rest."

Dick shook his head. "No!"

"It's late, you're going to have to sleep eventually, and we might not get back before morning." He cautioned. 

"I won't sleep." Dick squeezed his leg securely. Bruce knew that Dick was exhausted, but experience had thought him that the boy couldn't rest until he was certain, and assured several times that everything was okay, and as it should be.

"Okay then. Let's at least take you out of the way so you can rest." Bruce gently pulled the five-year-old to his feet, and walked him out of the primary meeting room.

He found a quiet nearby side-room with a couch and walked the boy over to it. As prompted, Dick sat on the couch. He looked up at Bruce. "I won't sleep..." he said, grabbing his father's cape pitifully. "You're going to go away."

"I won't. I'll stay with you." Bruce assured, planning to return to their interrupted meeting as soon as the boy was asleep. If Dick wakes up too early, it might take him a while to forgive Bruce, but each of the bat's sons had that experience at least once a month.

"I still won't sleep. I can't." Dick explained, already half-asleep.

"I'll stay here  the whole time." Bruce said, already planning how he'd deal with the fallout of this lie. God, he was so tired.

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Damian stormed around the manor, calling out for his little brother. Where the hell was Jason? The brat couldn't have gotten that far, it was a fucking blizzard.

Damian turned and ran downstairs to the foyer. He knew his dumbass brother.

Sure enough, Jason's shoes and jacket were missing. Huffing, Damian pulled open the door and screamed into the night like a fucking werewolf. "TODD!"
He pulled on his shoes and strode out into the snowstorm, shouting his brother's name. god, Jason was dumb.
It was cold. Not deathly so, but cold enough to make you're fingers and cheeks go numb and icy. "Todd! Get inside! Now!" 

He wandered through the thick flurries, shouting out into the slightly muffled world beyond. eventually, dusting piling snowflakes off his face for the billionth time, finally, he spotted a dark shape in the flat white world. Damian ran through the (now over ankle deep) snow, stumbling a little

The short figure was walking  in the opposite direction, unaware that his big brother was chasing him down. Unwilling to let Jason get away, Damian ran the last two steps and tackled his little brother into the snow.

Jason let out a scream at he fell into the four-ish inch snow. He kicked his brother off. "DAMIAN?" He shouted, pulling powdery snow off his face and swatting falling flakes out of his eyes.

"You need to get inside and call father to say that you're alive."

"You didn't have to tackle me!" Jason whined, pulling himself off the ground and dusting snow off himself. 

"You didn't hear me calling your name?"

"No!? You were calling my name?" Jason exclaimed.

Damian scoffed, standing up. "Come on! Inside. You don't have permission to leave the manor."

"Sorry, do I have to ask permission to piss too?"

"I told Father that I knew where you were! Just get inside-" Before Damian could wipe the fresh snow from his face, he was smacked in the chin with a snowball. "TODD!"

Jason stuck out his tongue, squinting against the cold. "Make me!"

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There, Bruce had just managed to get Dick to sleep. He almost felt too tired to leave. He forced himself the stand up, carefully pulling the little boy off of him,  and headed softly towards the door.

Just as he reached the door, his escape was cut off by a body in the door. That body was actually a person, one of the only tolerable people in the watch tower that night.

"Is everything going alright in here?" Diana asked quietly.

Bruce locked eyes with her for a second, and glanced back to ensure Dick was still asleep. Luckily, he was. "Fine. He's just tired."

Diana nodded. "I'm sorry you have to stay so long. Hal and Barry are trying to get the zetatubes working."

"It's not your fault." Bruce pointed out, trying to get out of the room in case their quiet conversation was enough to wake Dick up.

"Has Damian got everything handled in Gotham?"

"I'm not sure. He's still trying to find Jason." Bruce checked the time, he and Damian had talked about twenty minutes ago, what was taking his son so long?

Diana gestured to the newest Wayne boy, curiously. "Richard Grayson, correct?"

"Yeah. Dick Grayson." Bruce affirmed.

"Would you like me to watch Richard while you're working?" The amazon proposed. "You seem overwhelmed.

"I can handle it." Bruce protested, he tried to exit again. "He's already asleep, he'll be fine for now."

There was a little whine from the couch behind them. The adults whipped around to face the sound. Half-awake, Dick was turning over on the couch. He turned to them, his lips slightly open, trembling a little.

"You're going!" He whimpered. 

Bruce sighed heavily. "Dick, go back to sleep."

"No! Don't Go! Stop!" Dick objected, struggling upright, and stumbling towards them, tripping on his own feet, disconcerted and scared.

"Richard." Diana said quietly, stooping to pick him up, and keep him from attaching himself to Bruce's leg again. She lifted the boy and carried him back towards the sofa. "How about I sit wit you while Daddy does some work?"

"NO!" Dick shouted, breaking into spontaneous emotion. "No no no no!" He sobbed, wriggling to be let go, desperately reaching out to his father.

Robotically, Bruce swept off his cowl and returned quickly across the room. He took the boy from Diana and held Dick tightly against his chest, shushing him a little. Bruce usually had to do this at least once or twice a day.

"I'm not leaving." He assured. "Dick, I'm not leaving." He bounced the little boy a little to calm him. After several seconds of calming the boy, he looked up at the amazon, who stared back worriedly. 

Bruce didn't look great, and now that his cowl was off, Diana could see that; there were huge, dark, circles beneath his eyes, and looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. He was mostly unshaven, and his hair was a bit of a mess. "Is this common?" She asked, concerned.

Bruce nodded, drained. "Pediatric psychiatrist says that he might have developed an anxiety disorder." He explained exhaustedly, continuing to busy himself calming the five year old.

Diana nodded sympathetically, watching the Dick's breathing slowly even out, both his arms gripping around his father's neck. "You both need to rest, I'll go check on the progress with the zetatube."

Bruce shook his head a little, taking a deep breath. "I'll be out in a minute, after I put him to sleep again." Dick let out another cry and gripped his new father for dear life. 

"There isn't much left to address in the meeting." Diana assured. "I can catch you up later. For now you both need to rest."

After a little persuading, Bruce, nearly being strangled by the five year old, agreed to tag out for a few minutes. "But you'll tell me as soon as the zetabeams are operational, and if I'm needed for anything during the meeting." He checked, sitting down (Relieving the hell out of his back), and resting his son on his lap.

"Of course." Diana reminded. "Just make sure that Dick get's enough sleep." It was an obvious trick, Bruce would easily refuse that he was tired, but if Dick needed him to stay with him while he slept...

"If the boys make contact and I can't answer, yell at Damian for me. I'm starting to think he lost Jason."

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Damian was really good. and that was what Jason had coming, don't challenge a competitive oldest sibling. 
Damian hadn't engaged with Jason's obnoxious challenges and taunts for months. and Boy, the oldest bat sibling had energy and aggression build up.

"Damian! You scumbag!" Jason picked himself off the snow, spitting snow from his mouth. "Ow!" 

"You started this, are you backing out?"

"No way!" Jason gathered an armful of snow, gave a war cry, and stormed at his brother. The two collapsed in a pile of dry, fluffy snow in the icy, completely dark night.

"GUYS? JAY? DEMON?" They faintly heard Tim shouting in the background.

The two brothers looked at each other and grinned. They softly stood up. Damian gave his kid brother a slight nod. Jason shouted into the flurries. "Tim?!"

"Jay? Where are you?" They saw the faint outline of a jacketless Tim wading through the snow, blindly. The other two brothers slipped towards the treeline, sneakily. Then slowly knelt and began packing the snow taught in their hands.  Tim swayed closer, flurries of snaow piling on his shoulders, nose, and eyelashes. "Jay? Seriously, where are-"

The two let out a violent cry, Jason sprang from behind a tree, hefting a huge hunk of snow at his brother. It hit it's target well, knocking Tim backwards off his feet, and pinning his torso down. 

Damian hadn't been as loud as his brother, but was easily as dangerous. He was bombarding Tim with hastily made snowballs at a rapidfire rate. 

On the ground, the young teen struggled to get up, cursing. "JAY! Dammit!"

"It's not just me!" Jason shouted, kicking a small hill of disturbed snow into his brother's face.

"Why are you giving Todd the credit?" Damian ordered, continuing to attempt to bury Tim. 

"Demon?" Tim sounded downright betrayed. He didn't like or get along with Damian, but he'd hoped that he wouldn't be part of his assassination party. "Get off!" He protesting, kicking and pulling his way out of the small mountain he'd been buried under. 

In a movement, Tim snatched up two of Damian's unbroken snowballs, and began lobbying them back. 

"Hey!" Damian objected, blocking his face and dodging. It was still too snowy to see beyond a few feet ahead. 

"Suck it!" Tim jeered, preparing for a second tirade of ice.

The fight went on far longer than it should have, which is to say that they fought until they were too cold, tired, and damp to imagine doing any physical activity. They all just sat in the snow for a few minutes and panted. "It's fucking cold..." Tim remarked, shoving his icy hands in his sweatpants pockets

Damian suddenly shot up, cursing. "What time is it? I said I'd call father back as soon as I found you!" Damian snatched Jason out of the snow by his collar and ragged him back towards Stately Wayne Manor™.

"Hey Timmy! Hurry up!" Jason called. "You gotta make cocoa for me!"

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Bruce stirred awake, not having even realized that he'd dozed off. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone. Without even looking, he answered the call, pressing the phone against his ear.

"Hello?" He grunted.

"Father, I found-Back Here!- I found him."

"Who?"

"Todd!"

"Oh, Jason?" 

"He's here now." There was a rustling sound and some noticeable whispering, presumably as Damian forced the phone against Jason's ear. 

"What do I say?" Jason hissed.

"Just say you're alive!"

"I'm alive."

"Good to know, Jason." Bruce affirmed, starting to wake up. He stretched a little. In their sleep, Dick had curled up around his middle, and claimed Bruce's left arm as a pillow. Bruce let him have the arm. "We don't know when the connection will be clear to come back, so Dick and I will be staying here for the night."

"Demon- give it- How's Dickie doing?"

"He's fine, asleep right now." Bruce reported. "I'm going to hang up so I don't wake him up."

"Okay, Goodnight." Tim passed the phone over.

"Night B!" Jason muttered, passing the phone back to the eldest.

"I'll Make sure they get to bed in time." Damian reported, hanging up the phone.

-Working on my sick ass Halloween costume. D'y'all want me to post pics in my Halloween special?-