-Requested by the great WallyandDick -

-Happy Chanukah y'all!-

Roy banged on the door, Jason had told him to hurry over, but he wasn't sure why. Jason yanked the door open. "Hey, why'd you-"

"The kids are having a breakdown." Jason told him, holding the door open.

"Kids?" The redhead asked. "Like, plural?"

Jason nodded. "Dickie was having an emergency sleepover."

"Oh yeah," Roy recalled, following his boyfriend into the house and shutting the door after him. "I remember Wally mentioning it was his aunt and uncle's anniversary."

"Yeah." Jason lead him down one of the halls. "They were sitting in the living room, and spontaneously crashed together."

"...Huh?"

"You know when Sidekicks just break down and cry and stuff?"

"Oh no." Roy sighed. "How are they holding up?"

"Not too well, we're helping them cope." Jason lead him to the living room.

Roy peaked in. Wally lay on an air mattress, shoving ice cream in his mouth, and Dick was curled on the against Tim, and next to them...

He grabbed Jason's sleeve and yanked him back out of the door way. "Artemis is here?"

"Yep."

Roy groaned, pressing his palms into his eyes. "She's my replacement!" Roy exclaimed. 

"Well you know her more than me, Tim, and Demon combined!" Jason pleaded. "It's super awkward, we can comfort Dick and Wally, but we don't know her enough."

"Jay, I barely know her."

"Please?" Jason begged. "Demon went out on patrol, and Tim's going soon too! I need someone to help take care of them."

Roy sighed. "Alright, fine." The duo strolled back into the living room.

"Hey guys. "Jason called. "We've got someone here."

"Hey." Roy waved, as the kids turned to him. He noticed that all three of their faces were damp and glistening with sweat and tears. "How are you three holding up?"

Wally shakily raised his sleeve and tried to dry his sweat and tear drenched face. "Okay." He croaked.

Roy shrugged off his bag and strode over, fluffing up Dick's hair. "How bout you two?" 

Dick nodded tearfully. "Okay."

"Roy?" Artemis asked, her voice cracking. The girl was curled up by herself on the couch, gripping a pillow against her chest. She swallowed hard and cleared her throat. "What are you doing here?" She tried not to sound like she'd crying all evening.

"Jason called me. He didn't tell me why until I got here, though." He grumbled, throwing a glare at his boyfriend. 

"Why are you here?" Dick asked shyly. 

"Well," Roy reasoned turning to the boy. "I hear you three having a rough night." Wally shoved a big spoonful of ice cream in his mouth, nodding. "Do you? Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Artemis replied, burying her face in the pillow. Now that Roy could see her better, he could see that the girl's hair was damp, the lower six inches or so had been died hot pink.

God, it must be bad is there was hair dying...

"Look, I need to go." Tim gently, pushed his little brother off him, and lying him down on the couch.  "Jason and Roy will be here, and call if there's an emergency." Dick pouted exhaustedly was he was rested down on the couch.

Roy sat on the mattress with Wally. "So is anyone going to tell me how this started?"

Wally sniffed, leaning on the other redhead's shoulder. "We were just talking..."

"About what?" Roy asked him. Wally stared into his ice cream, Roy turned to the other boy. Dick rolled face-down on the sofa. Finally, Roy looked at Artemis, who'd buried herself in her pillow. "Guys, what were you talking about?"

Jason sighed. "I'm gonna go shower, be back in a few."

Roy didn't know if Jason was hinting at something, or just ditching him with babysitting. Left alone with the kids, he asked again. "Seriously, what were you talking about?"

"Just. Childhood." Wally sniffled. 

OH UH.

"Oh damn. What parts of your childhood?" Roy asked quickly.

"Just stuff." Wally replied. "Learned a lot." He giggled sadly.

"Like what...?" Roy said. Dick rolled off the couch and joined them on the mattress. The three of them were basically family. Roy rested a hand on Dick's arm and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Artemis' sister stabbed her." The youngest murmured back.

"What?" Roy exclaimed, looking up at the girl, who was still curled on the couch, hiding. "What else?"

"Wally's dad sucks."

"Well DUH." Roy replied. "Come on, get it out."

"I had to miss recess for a month because he called me a little shit in front of my teacher." Wally explained shakily.

"Go on."

Roy listened intently as Wally recited his story, segway-ing a few times into different stories, getting increasingly tearful. Roy hugged the boy's shoulder with one arm, letting Wally vent into his half-melted ice cream.

"And I was- always was so scared going to see 'em because they'd always talk like I was in trouble." The younger redhead squinted into the back of his wrist to stop the tears, recounting the many times he'd been unable to explain anything to his school counsellor. 

"I know." It was now very clear to Roy that Jason had ditched them on purpose, he probably knew that the boys wouldn't tell him what the issue was.

"And If I did tell them the truth-" He sobbed shakily. "If I told them why I was hurt, they'd have to tell my parents-" He struggled to get air in. "Even though they were doing it!"

"Shh." Roy leaned Wally against him reassuringly. "I know." He was trying to listen to both Wally and Dick at the same time, since both were bursting with trauma, and trusted him to let them vent. "Can you repeat that, Dickie?"

Dick nodded a little, he was already curled up against Roy's other side. He was just trying to get out a list of the things he had to do as part of his Robin training. He could never vent to his brothers about it, because they'd gone through the  same training, and it never seemed to bother them...

"The video we had to watch- with the person being shot..." He sniffled into Roy's shirt. "And I kept crying, so Bruce would make me watch it again!" He cried. "And I had to sit through the video ten times! and if I cried, I had to restart!" He sobbed pathetically. 

"Oh Dickie." Roy told him softly. "I know, Bruce made you go through a lot of bad stuff."

Dick shook his head. "Batman did."

"Is there a difference?"

The boy looked up at him, eyes glossy. "Bruce wouldn't do that. Only Batman would."

Roy sighed sadly, pulling the boy in tighter while his other arm did the same for Wally. What Wally and Dick were telling him was horrific and terrible, and sad, but he had to be their anchor until they were stable enough to manage themselves.

The only piece lost in this was Artemis, who remained curled on the couch, shaking a little. "Artemis?" Roy asked. She didn't respond. "Artemis?" He repeated, a little louder. 

The girl turned away. "Stop." She whimpered pitifully.

"Come here." He requested. 

"No."

"If you're here for a 'last minute sleep over', something is up." He told her. "So just get it out and don't make me drag you to Star and make you stay at Ollie's until things blow over." The girl didn't move or speak. "Does he know you're staying here by the way? Does he know you aren't on for patrol?" 

After a few seconds, the girl shook her head. "No."

Roy checked the clock; it was getting late. "Okay, I'll text him that you're busy so he won't blow up your phone." Once he'd done so, he tried calling her again. "Arty, at least tell me about how your sister stabbed you."

She raised her head from the pillow a little. "When I was seven we got in a fight and she severed my artery while we were home alone."

"Whoa." Roy replied, that was a little more than he expected. "Was that a one off, or...?"

Artemis shook her head a little. "We fought a lot. Mostly without a point."

"Punching bag sibling?" Dick asked. His brothers would occasionally beat the shit out of each other because they were mad about something else.

Artemis shrugged. "I...Guess. Sometimes we'd just beat each other about unrelated stuff."

"Like what?" Roy asked.

Artemis sniffed, drying under one eye. "When she found out dad tried to sell porn of us. He wasn't home yet, so she-"

"WHAT?" Roy practically shouted. "Wait, what? You dad sold pornography of you two?!"

"Tried." Artemis corrected, shrinking back a little. "We only found out when mom lost her trial. But he tried to do it a long time ago..."

"When?"

She shrugged. "I think when we were four and ten? Mom stopped him though." She muttered.

"HOLY shit." Roy stated. The boys also seemed shocked. Uncomfortable with the attention, and realizing that she'd just shared that out loud, with other people, Artemis quickly retreated back into her pillow.

"Artemis." Wally groaned. "Com on. Join us."

"Yeah." Dick rolled his eyes up to try and stop any tears from falling.  "You're so far away."

After a couple minutes, Artemis reluctantly clambered onto the air mattress, hugging her pillow like a life preserver. 

"Here," Roy shifted so Dick and Wally were both on his left. he pat the spot freed up on his right side. "Come'ere." The blond reluctantly settled there. She started as Roy put his free arm around her, but didn't pull away or object when she was pulled in to a side-hug like the boys.

Within ten minutes, the three were asleep.

Roy rested his eyes closed for a minute, he wasn't around the team much, and argued everytime he saw Artemis,  so he rarely got a chance to, as Jason put it: mother them through their daddy issues.

"Psst." He looked up, Jason was in the doorway. "Hows it going down here?"

"Thanks for ditching me!" Roy whispered back. 

"You saw them! They didn't want to talk around me." Jason defended. "So are they all..."

"Out cold." Roy confirmed. "You invited me over. You're an awful host."

"Do you want Alcohol?" Jason whispered back. "I've also got some candy."

Roy frowned. "Like, Candy, or Candy."

"Both."

"Can you grab blankets too? and put on a movie or something." Roy asked.

Jason grabbed a few throw blankets off the couch and draped them over Roy and his three baby-hens. "Alright. and I guess the least I can do is stay and keep you company."

"Good, because I don't think I'm getting up for a while..." The redhead chuckled, pulling the three in a little closer.