-Merry Christmas to all whom celebrate it! It's currently Christmas eve where I am, but I wanted to allow for you beautiful  folks in different time zones-

-Mild TW for mention of a past su*cide attempt, but don't worry, this is a feelgood Fluff story-

Ages:

Damian - 18

Tim - 16

Jason - 12

Dick - 5

Dec 22st    11:34am

"Ugh. Fine." Jason groaned at Alfred's command, but reluctantly unbuckled his little brother's car seat on his way out of the car. Dick hopped out of the car after his family.

"Dick, don't get lost." Bruce called, pausing in the front of the airport to grab his youngest's hand. 

"Are you coming back?" Dick asked him quietly as Bruce began leading the way to the gate. 

"Of course, Dick." He assured his youngest. "We'll only be gone two days, and we'll be back on Christmas eve." Dick nodded, still gripping his hand. "And in the meantime, the others will be home." Bruce reminded. "You can spend some time with your brothers." Dick nodded again, mutely. 

The holidays were always tough for the Waynes: Damian felt obligated to contact his mother, even though they'd been no-contact for months, Jason's despise for capitalism made it hard to enjoy the season when he knew what it was like to see others celebrate lavishly while you can't afford a pillow. 
...Then there was also the fact that Tim's last major overdose was on Christmas day last year, which always made it tough to render any joy for the season.

Still, they'd try their best for Dickie. They knew he was really missing his parents, so they'd do their best.

"Bruce is right, Dick." Tim told him. "We'll be here to take care of you until Bruce gets back."

Bruce looked his second-oldest in the eye. "You Will be here to take care of him." He said, sounding monotone, but with a hint of concern behind the veil.

"Yeah." Tim said firmly, ignoring the slight choke in his voice. Bruce didn't have to do that right now.

"Don't worry, Dick, if there's an emergency, we'll call Dr. Leslie, or WonderWoman." Jason reminded him.

"OR me, or Alfred." Bruce reminded. "Just because we're across the country doesn't mean we won't hurry back if there's any trouble." He looked over his four sons, who stared back at him. "Well, if there's any Major trouble."

"I can assure you that you won't know if anything goes wrong." Tim told him, hands shoved in his pockets.

"Reassuring." He said. "Goodbye Damian, Tim, keep these two safe."

"Lower your expectations." Damian told him.

Bruce ignored that quip. "Goodbye Jason, I'll see you on Thursday."

"Have fun on your privet jet to your expensive business trip!" Jason spat.

"I told you, Jason, redistributing wealth takes time, and I want to fund a few reform and education programs before we get there."

"You get a pass for now." The boy growled.

Bruce gave him a tired smile before moving on. "Dick, I have to go now, but your new brothers will take care of you, and I'll call every night, okay?"

Dick refused to let go of his hand for a few seconds longer. It was always like this when Bruce had to go away, Dick was worried he'd never come home, and would start coming to terms with that before Bruce even left. "Okay." He said finally. "Come back."

"I promise." Bruce bent down to plant a kiss on the top of the little boy's head. "How about you go hold Tim's hand instead.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 22nd    07:15pm

"Don't leave." Dick pleaded, practically hanging off Damian's arm.

Damian forced his kid brother to let go of him. "I need to. I can't take you with me."

"Why?"

Damian looked seriously. "I'm meeting with someone who won't like you."  He said rather honestly. "She'd hurt you."

"Why?" Dick asked again.

"Because she'd my mother." Damian told him, his words dripping with mommy issues. "How about you go sit with Drake in his room."

"When will you be here?" Dick asked, not wrapped around Damian's leg.

"After you're bedtime." He told the boy. "and when I am done, Nightwing is needed on patrol in Batman's absence."

"Why do you have to leave?" Dick pleaded.

"Because if I don't reach out to her, she'll seek me out." He said bitterly. "I always have to contact her around the holidays."

"Why?"

"Self preservation." Damian grumbled. Then, louder. "To be civil."

"Why."

"Because it's what I'm supposed to do." 

"Why?"

That one actually got Damian. He honest to god didn't know. He always had to hunt down his mother around the holidays for passive aggressive word exchanges, until the fight escalated, Damian ran back home, and they went no-contact again. 

He always did it out of fear that his mother would hunt him down if he didn't, but that only happened once, when he was Jason's age. and now he was an adult, surely his mother had her own things to worry about and wouldn't miss their annual fight, which usually ended with her saying that Bruce could very well keep custody if he pleased.

Honestly, what would Damian be missing if he skipped this one.

"It doesn't matter." He bent down and untied his shoes, kicking them off again. Dick watched him curiously, but also a little concerned.

"Where now?" He asked nervously.

"I'm not going." Damian pulled his leg away from Dick to put his coat back in the closet.

"Why?" Dick asked. It seemed to be his word of the day.

Damian finished putting away his things and scooped his newest brother off the floor. "What do you want to do?"

By the time that Bruce even called, they were half asleep on the sofa, under a mountain of blankets, watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 23rd    09:38am

"Good morning." Tim slid his youngest brother a piece of peanut butter toast. Yep, he'd gotten up early during winter break (actually, he hadn't slept at all), and made his little bros a little breakfast. It wasn't that he was particularly responsible right now, it's just that the responsibility of watching his little brothers would hopefully keep him alive until the new year.

"Th'nkyou." Dick took the toast quietly and took a bite. He seemed kind of sad, which was to be expected. He always got this way when Bruce was away, and it was only amplified by living out the first Christmas since his parent's death.

"Is Jason awake yet?" Dick shrugged, continue to focus of his toast. God, Tim felt pathetic that even a rejection that miniscule was sending down a preemptive spiral. He tried to shake out of it, trying to ignore his first-response thoughts telling him to end it all. "Can you wake him up for me? Please? It'd be so helpful!"

Dick slid off his chair and began to wander across the room, just as Jason entered.  Dick turned back to Tim. "Here."

"Sup." Jason grunted, he went to the fridge and took out the milk. He uncapped it and raised the jug to his lips.

"NO." Tim scolded, smacking his brother with a fly swatter. "You're going to contaminate it!"

"Right, because we drink from glasses here like civilized people, unlike those filthy working class." Jason said sarcastically, going to another swig.

"Cut that! Or I'm telling Alfred!"

"What's he gon' do? Fly all the way back here to beat my ass for drinking the milk?"

Tim thrust a plate at his pesky little brother. "Eat. it's getting cold."

"No." Jason thrust the plate back at him. "I don't want you doing things for me." He spat. "I'm capable on my own, without literally everyone in this dysfunctional, extended family trying to do shit for me."

"Language." Tim told him.

"Oh fuckin' sorry I swore in front of the favorite child!"

"Stop being a dick, Jay." Tim hissed. Jason had a habit of getting in these... Moods, where if you did anything for him, he took it as an insanely personal insult. He wouldn't even eat what Alfred made him, and if you stopped him from getting peppered with bullets on patrol, he'd tell you to mind your own business.

"Oooh you swore." Jason snarked.  "Maybe I should tell Alfred on YOU!"

"Jason, don't be like this." Tim sighed, speaking quietly. "Dick is having it hard enough this Christmas, and, honestly, so am I. Please just. Let us have this? After the year we've had?"

Jason frowned at him. "Don't act like I'm ruining Christmas! You're the one who overdosed on sleeping pills last year!" He spat. no sooner had the words left his mouth, Jason realized he'd said the wrong thing.

"Just eat your breakfast." Tim slipped from the room quickly, not wanting to break in front of Dick. He wanted so badly to be mad at Jason, but he wasn't. Jason had the right to be upset with him.

He was such a selfish asshole. Why did he have to ruin the holidays for everyone by doing that? He'd traumatized everyone. They could not enjoy Christmas ever again because last year they'd found Tim unconscious in the bathtub. He barely remembered why he did it, which means it wasn't even a big deal! He traumatized his whole family and ruined everything for ever because of some minor thing that upset him!

His first, invasive thoughts were that he needed to be punished. He needed to do a better job this time, without being rushed to the ER last minute! Shouldn't be hard since Bruce and Alfred are away, and Damian doesn't care.

No. Dick. He had to keep Dick safe until Bruce got home.

So maybe not end it all, maybe just hurt himself? No! That wasn't right. It was full send or nothing. He'd just do something with a fifty-fifty chance.

He popped the lock off of Bruce's medicine cabinet and began searching.

"Don't."

Tim's insides leapt, but he was surprisingly still on the outside. He turned around to face Damian. He brushed away his tears with his sleeve, glaring at his older brother. "What?" He didn't mean for it to have as much malice as it did.

"Don't do this." Damian said. "Richard is right downstairs and to can't handle this."

"Yeah." Tim was devastated that Damian was right. What piece of shit was he to want to end it all, like it wouldn't hurt his baby brother. Poor kid had enough to deal with without...

and the thoughts returned: Death- no-hurt-no- fifty-fifty- no- Death....

"Snap out of it." Damian ordered, snatching the bottle from Tim's fist. "Not until  Bruce gets home." Tim didn't seem onboard, that seemed forever in the future. He couldn't mute the urges that long.
"Until tonight." Damian reasoned. "Do whatever you want tonight, just force through today."

"Fine." Tim groaned, choked with a little emotion. "Fine. Today."

"Good, to make sure you hold up your end." Damian emptied Bruce's medicine cabinet into his hoodie pocket and left. Tim didn't know about the hiding hole under the closet floorboards in the older bat's bedroom. He returned to find Tim, sitting miserably on the bathroom floor. "Follow me, I need your opinion."

"No." Tim seriously doubted it.

"I need to do some last minute shopping." Damian continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I have nothing for Richard yet, but you know what he likes."

"I dunno." Tim sniffed a little.

"Come on. Dress." Damian hauled Tim off the floor. "We're leaving in ten minutes."

"But Jason can't watch Dick alone!"

"Then we'll bring them."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 23rd    10:00am

Jason had felt terrible for  doing that to Tim. He didn't say it, but he'd been really scared for Tim last year, and he did NOT want that to happen again.

"What're you lookin' at?" He asked Dick, who was quietly chewing on his toast (Except the crusts)

"Tim mad?" He asked innocently.

Jason sighed. "Yeah. He's mad."

"Oh." Dick shut up again.

"No, not at you!" Jason said impatiently. "Not everything is about you! He'd pissed at me for..." He let out an angry breath. "Being a jerk." He censored himself, almost unintentionally, for his little brother.

After a minute or so of silence, Dick held out a small triangular piece of his toast. "Jay?"

Jason looked at him. Well, emancipation, independence, and freedom from devotion only apply to parents and society and stuff, not little brothers. He took the toast.

"Thanks Dickie." He didn't realize how hungry he was. Jason hated having things just given to him, he felt like if he let Bruce give him the food he needed, it would make him some entitled rich kid. 

If he wasn't at least half starving, he'd be abandoning everyone like who he used to be. It was all he thought about. Day and night. Kids starving on the street, if he ate a proper meal around the holidays, it was like abandoning them for the bourgeois class. 

"More?" Dick offered Jason the rest of his toast.

Goddammit, Jason was SO hungry. He wolfed down the remaining breakfast. His fast of solidarity had gone on for weeks; weeks of him barely eating, sleeping, refusing to let himself be warm...

Jason realized he'd eaten half his little brothers toast. "Oh, sorry Dickie. Let me get you some more. What kind do you want?"

"Alfred's" Dick chirruped, glad to see Jason a little better.

"I'll do my best to live up to those standards..." Jason muttered. "That's the cinnamon toast, right?"

Jason made the toast, recounting to Dick the story of that time someone tripped the alarm at the museum on Christmas, and when Batman got there, it was just a small box with a cat print on it.

"Kitty?" Dick asked as a plate of toast was placed in front of him

"Catwoman." Jason said. "And we never really found out what she gave batman.

"yeah?" Dick asked, snack half-raised to his mouth. 

"Yeah." Jason said with gusto. "It's a mystery."

Dick perked up. "Like presents!"

"Yeah!" Jason confirmed. "Our presents are mysteries too. Until Christmas."

Just then, they heard the older brothers hurry down the stairs. "Dickie, Jay, Jackets! We're going shopping!" Tim called.

"But it's so early!" Jason complained. 

"We're both going and we can't leave you home alone." Damian told them, yanking on his boots for the trek through the snow to the car.

"FINE!" Jason whined. "But first. Come." He grabbed Tim's arm and hauled him from the room.

Dick turned to his oldest brother. "Toast?" He offered.

"No thank you Richard." Damian told him. "You finish while I put your boots on."

Jason hauled Tim into the Foyer. He wasn't great at apologies, but even he felt guilty about what he'd said. He took a deep break and gave it a try. "I didn't mean to blame you for overdosing." Alright Todd, strong start... "It's not your fault. You didn't ruin Christmas by being depressed." And he sticks the landing!

Tim stared down at his little brother. It genuinely took him a moment to realize that Jason was trying to apologize. "Oh. Thanks."

"I'm just angry that we're comfortable and other people aren't." Jason tried to explain. "Like, we can eat, but a lot of people can't."

"Is that why you're on hunger strike?" Tim asked in disbelief. "Jason, how are you supposed to fix those problems when you won't even eat or sleep? You can't overthrow the government if you aren't healthy."

"I'm not old enough to make an actual change!" He ranted, frustration boiling up again. "Robin can, but only by arresting people for Bruce Wayne to try and reform through programs! What about before they have to become criminals? I don't want to arrest people of Christmas because they're poor!"

Tim thought for a second weighing his options. "Go get your boots on."

"What are you planning?" Jason asked.

"Well..." Tim said. "I have an extra fifty dollars from buying gifts if you want to redistribute a little wealth..."

Jason's eyes lit up like fairy lights.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 24th   12:04pm

"We're trying to get back, boys, I promise you." Bruce's voice rattled over the phone. "The snow's closed all the airports in Chicago."

"The batwing?" Damian asked.

"Not in this kind of snow, besides. We're here as ourselves, remember?" Their father reminded. 

"Will you make it back for Christmas?" Jason asked.

"I'm not sure." Bruce admitted. "But we're trying."

"But you promised Dick." Tim reminded. The forth brother was currently taking a warm bath after playing in the snow with Jason all morning.

"That I did." Bruce sighed solemnly. He felt terrible to break a promise to Dick. The poor child could be emotionally crippled by something much smaller. and here was Bruce, ditching him on his first Christmas since his parents died. "But it can't be helped. Tell him we're going to come back eventually, even if you need to have Christmas day without us."

None of the brothers said anything, but a heavy discomfort hung in the air.

"I'll tell Richard when he get's out of his bath." Damian reported. 

"Alright." Bruce sighed. "Just, try to keep him entertained and happy. and keep yourselves busy too."

"Will do." Tim agreed "We'll talk tonight I guess." The four said their good byes, and sent well wishes for Alfred, and hung up. 

The house felt sad. "This feels Hallmark-y." Jason complained.

"Business dad too busy for child because of business?" Tim asked.

"I meant the home-for-the-holidays thing, but you're right." The youngest of the trio agreed. "Business dad trope I guess."

Damian didn't seem nearly as involved in this conversation. "We're doing this alone now. Drake, I want you meal planning. Todd... out of the way. I'll get Richard dried off."

Discontented with the job he was given, Jason stalked off. There had to be something he could do for Dick! But who could he ask for help if Bruce and Alfred weren't there? it wasn't a medical emergency, but it was still an emergency.

The boy lit up, a plan forming. He rushed to the batcave.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 24th    08:48pm

"He didn't call." Dick uttered disappointed. Most kids tonight were waiting up for Santa, but Dick as just waiting up in hopes his foster father wouldn't have abandoned him, 

"I'm sure it's just bad connection." Tim said quickly. "We'll call in the morning."

Dick nodded sadly, trying not to cry yet. He wasn't supposed to cry today, he was supposed to be happy and excited.

"Richard, come, you need to get ready for bed." Damian told him. "They can come upstairs to say good night when you're in bed."

Just as Dick was carried from the room, Jason strut in.

"What are you looking all please about?" Tim asked suspiciously.

"This is an emergency, right?"

"I don't know." Tim admitted cautiously. "Why?"

"Well who did Bruce say we could call if there's an emergency?"

Tim shrugged. "Dr. Leslie or Diana Prince?"

Jason bounced up and down where he stood. "But which one has an invisible jet?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 25h    1237pm

The first thing Bruce did when he arrived was incase each of his sons in a rib-snapping, lung compressing hug.  The next was to take off his snow-covered shoes (Per Alfred's orders), and sprint upstairs, ignoring how exhausted and jet-lagged he was.

"Dickie?" He called out in a whisper, quickly padding across the boy's room. Dick lay asleep in bed, tear streams  dried on his cheeks, clutching Peanuts. Bruce felt a heavy wave of guilt. Poor Dick probably though Bruce had abandoned him. Now, his father had to set tat straight. He bent over to hug the child, gently pulling him off the bed.
"Dick? Dickie, chum, I'n,here. I made it back."

He spoke softly, but it was enough to make his youngest's eyes loll open slightly. "Bruce?" He whispered, half asleep.

"Uh huh, I'm here. It's okay baby." He shushed, not wanting dick fully awake at this time of night. "I'm back. I'm here now."

Dick curled up against his father. "Stay?" He pleaded.

"I'm not going anywhere." Bruce promised. "I'm staying right here."