Hah, you thought this was dead. You thought wrong!

SO much fluff.

xXx

"Bruce? BRUCE?"

"Dick, stop shouting. I'm sure he's around here somewhere."

"I need to show him this cake I made!"

"I'm sure he's going to see it eventually, regardless of whether you make the effort to show it to him or not."

"Tim, I just want to show off my handiwork before somebody ruins it."

"Ooh! Cake!"

"JASON! I wanted to show that to Bruce! You don't just stick your finger in-- NO! Don't put your-- aw, man."

"He just put his face in it, didn't he?"

"JAAAAASOOOOOONNNN! That was for Bruce!"

"It's cake. How could you expect me not to-- OW! Watch it!"

"That was supposed to be for Bruce! Now you've gone and--"

"Oh, shut up."

"Grow up!"

"Grayson, what happened to that cake?"

"Jason happened, that's what."

"It's a cake! How could you expect--"

"GUYS! Quiet down! I'm trying to read Othello!"

"Seriously, Drake?"

"Yes, seriously! Now SHUT UP!"

Everyone glared at each other. (Jason didn't look very intimidating with frosting all over his face.)

"Where's Bruce?" Dick whined after a long moment of intense scowling. Everyone groaned.

Tim slammed his book shut and stood up abruptly. "I told you, he's around here somewhere!" He went to the kitchen and got right in his elder brother's face. "If you're so worried about where he is, then go look for him! He's probably just in the Cave!"

A loud bang resounded from beneath them. Everyone jumped.

Jason frowned, still eating what was left of the cake. "That was unusual."

"Aren't we going to investigate?" Damian asked loudly.

Tim groaned and walked off, presumably to the Batcave. Everyone else fell in behind him as he opened the grandfather clock entrance.

Before they could enter, however, they heard an unfamiliar, childlike whimper. Tim's eyes widened. He looked back, and his three brothers just shook their heads, looking just as confused and concerned as he felt. Since no one else seemed ready to take the lead, he took a deep breath and proceeded slowly down the stairs, guard up against whatever demonic childlike terror awaited them, if horror movies served any example.

The Cave looked perfectly normal. The lights were on, and the only mess was from when Tim and Damian had gotten into a fight by the training equipment an hour ago. Not a soul was in sight.

Since they knew they'd heard something earlier, they split up to look for it. They looked around display cases, behind equipment, in the t-rex's mouth. Nothing.

Until Jason looked under the Batcomputer.

"Ah, geez. Guys?" he called. "You might want to see this." They gathered around to see what he'd found.

Under the table, curled up in a ball, eyes wide, was a small, dark-haired boy in an oversized Batsuit.

"W-where's Alfred?" he asked quietly.

All of their jaws dropped. They all knew exactly who it was, but Dick asked, just to be sure.

"What's your name?"

"Bruce."

Damian scowled. "What happened to you?" Bruce just scooted farther back into his corner.

Dick sighed and pulled Damian away from the now-young Bruce. "Listen, Bruce, I'm gonna need you to come out of there. It's okay, Damian won't hurt you. He's just grumpy."

Bruce came out cautiously, looking at all of them warily and clutching the giant cape tightly around himself. "Who are you?"

"I'm Dick. This is Jason, that's Tim, and you've already met Damian."

Bruce looked around, clearly apprehensive of those around him. "Where am I?" Dick and Tim shared an uneasy look. "What am I wearing?"

"You're under your house. Just up those stairs over there is the hallway with the grandfather clock. You know that one, don't you?" Bruce nodded. "Let's go up there now."

Bruce followed closely behind Dick up the stairs. When they emerged from the entrance, Bruce seemed to relax slightly. "What's going on? And why is there so much stuff in a secret cave in my house?"

Dick sighed and looked at Tim. This was where things got complicated.

Tim decided to take over the conversation. He squatted in front of Bruce. "How much do you remember?"

"My-- my parents died. Just a couple days ago." He wiped his nose. "Everything else is kinda fuzzy. Where's Alfred?"

"Alfred's out running errands right now. He'll be back soon, but until then, you have to help us help you."

"Help me with what?"

Tim drew a deep breath. "I think... I think you got de-aged. We need to figure out what happened and get you back to normal."

"But... I'm the same age I was yesterday," Bruce said, sounding confused.

"We don't think you are." Tim looked at his brothers for confirmation.

Surprisingly, it was Jason who spoke. "Listen, kid, this might be confusing and scary, but we'll get through this. We'll help you through every step of the way."

Bruce looked at Jason. Jason could see the trust in his eyes toward him-- toward all of them. "Thank you," the boy millionaire said quietly.

"Now what?" Dick asked Tim quietly. "We don't even know how this happened. For all we know, Bruce could have actually been switched with his younger self, and now a forty-something-year-old Bruce is hiding from Alfred in the past."

"I'm pretty sure he just got de-aged and lost his corresponding memories. He's still wearing the Batsuit, isn't he?"

Dick glanced at Bruce, who was still talking to Jason. "Okay, I'll give you that. But how did he get de-aged?"

"My bet? He was checking out some laser that he found. He pushed the wrong button, and boom. He's suddenly the boy who just lost his parents." Tim frowned slightly. "He said he'd just lost his parents a couple days ago. So he's what, seven, eight years old?"

"Give or take."

"...and you can bet your bottom dollar that Tim is already figuring out some genius plan to get you back to normal," Jason was finishing. He stood up and put a hand on Tim's shoulder. "Right, Timmy?"

Tim smiled uncomfortably. "I have some ideas."

Jason put his mouth next to Tim's ear. "You are really bad at this," he whispered.

Tim brushed his hand away. "Yes, I am," he whispered back. "My adoptive father isn't even in his double digits, and I don't even know how it happened. What am I supposed to say? 'Oh, yeah, I already know how to age you thirty years and give you back your memories, despite the fact that I just learned about the predicament'?"

Jason spoke louder and louder as he spoke: "Something better than 'I have some ideas'!" By the time he finished, he was shouting.

They glared at each other. After a tense moment, Dick stepped between them. "Guys, can we argue after we figure this out?"

Tim gestured in Jason's general direction as he stomped back down to the cave. "Tell that to Pew Pew McDeathface!"

Dick sighed. Jason rubbed his chin, chuckling quietly. "Pew Pew McDeathface. Never heard that one before."

xXx

"Alrighty, Bruce. Can you look right here? Right at the middle. There you go. Now just talk to me."

"About what?"

"Anything."

"But I don't know what to talk about."

"Well, what did you do yesterday?"

"...I read. Alfred made me a sandwich. I ate some of that."

"Is that all?"

"I slept a while. And... I found this cool thing..." He frowned in concentration. "I don't remember what it was."

Tim watched the screen of the Batcomputer intently. "That's all right. Uh... What's your favorite thing to do in your free time?"

"My dad... used to take me on hikes through the woods. That was always fun."

"Good, good... go on."

"Once a year, we would go camping. We would climb this hill, and when we got to the top, we would put a rock on top of the pile."

Tim typed something into the computer. "That'll be all. Thank you, Bruce. You can go now."

Bruce slid off the table where he was perched and excused himself from the cave. As he reached the entrance, Dick was about to enter and slid to the side to allow Bruce to pass.

Dick walked over to Tim. "News?"

"They're long-term memories!" Tim told him with a hint of excitement.

"Meaning...?"

"His brain is getting these memories from long-term-- not short-term. His brain is still hardwired the same way, it just treats the memories past a certain point as if they don't exist. We just need to get his brain to access those memories, and that's one problem solved."

"And what about the fact that he's in a nine-year-old's body?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. And if we're lucky, the whole problem will conveniently and instantly solve itself as soon as we make any progress because the mechanics of this predicament are already too convoluted."

Dick blinked. "I'll just take your word for it."

"Great. Now go away. I have to come up with a poor excuse for his memories to suddenly come back on their own."

xXx

"JASON!!"

Everyone ran to Bruce in the living room. He was on his knees, clutching his hair and staring at the ground. His eyes were wide, and his breath came in shuddering gasps.

Jason knelt in front of him. "I'm right here," he said quietly.

Bruce slowly raised his eyes to meet Jason's. He looked at him for a moment, then sobbed. He launched himself forward and wrapped his arms around him.

"I'm sorry," the young Bruce whispered. "I'm so sorry."

When he recovered from his shock, Jason returned the embrace. "Hey, it's okay." He found himself gently rubbing Bruce's back. "It's all okay."

Dick looked at Tim, who was grinning.

I told you so, the younger mouthed, then walked to the grandfather clock to continue his work in the cave.

Damian followed, presumably to beat up practice dummies.

Dick smiled at the two on the floor hugging. He sighed and turned to follow Tim and Damian, but felt his com vibrate. He put it in his ear, and it was Tim calling.

"Send Bruce down when he's done having his moment. I need to see him."

"Alright, but it might be a little bit," Dick answered quietly. "I'm not planning on interrupting anytime soon."

"Fine. But when they wrap it up, I actually do need to see him. It's important."

As he said that, Bruce released Jason and sniffed, wiping his nose. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "You didn't-- You were--"

Jason gave him a reassuring smile. "But I'm all right now."

Seeing that the moment was about over, Dick stepped closer to the two. "Tim's waiting for you downstairs when you're ready," he told Bruce.

Bruce wiped his eyes and nodded, and with one last glance at Jason, followed Dick downstairs.

"That was sooner than I expected," Tim said loudly as they came down the stairs. "Damian went out on patrol."

Dick lifted Bruce onto the examination table where they'd been checking him before.

"You remembered his death, didn't you?" Tim asked bluntly.

Bruce nodded, and for a moment, it looked like he was going to cry again.

"That's a good thing, right?" Dick asked, desperate to keep that from happening.

Tim leaned against the Batcomputer. "Well, it means that his psyche is mostly unaffected."

"And that's good."

"Yes, I suppose it is."

Dick glanced back at Bruce. "Any ideas, genius?" he asked without a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, I was looking around the cave for anything that could have done this to him, and guess what I found?"

"What you were looking for?"

Tim seesawed his hand. "Sort of. I found a few different devices, all in various stages of disassembly, and I've figured out what all of them do. Except one." He held up a futuristic-looking ray gun. "This thing remains a mystery to me still."

"And... where are you going with this?" Dick asked.

"I'm fairly certain that this is what turned Bruce back in time. It was pointed toward the Batcomputer, and it's clearly designed to shoot some powerful energy."

"So? You said you don't know what it does. What good does that do us? You can't reverse-engineer it."

"But I can know what kind of energy we'll need to fix him."

"Okay. But you still don't know how to fix him."

"That is, admittedly, true. BUT! I am no longer clueless."

"Great. Why are we down here, then?"

Tim smiled and sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Oh. Heh. Well... Long story short... I'll need to run a couple tests."

Dick raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "On Bruce."

"Well, that was the idea, anyway. But now that I say it out loud, it sounds a lot worse." He put his head down on the Batcomputer desk. "It's getting late. Bruce should get some sleep. I should come up with something tonight if I start brewing the coffee now."

Dick pressed the button to start the Bat-Coffeepot. "I'll take him up to bed, then." Without lifting his head, Tim nodded.

Dick went to get Bruce down from the table, but found him already asleep. He chuckled, then gently picked up his small body and carried him upstairs.

Jason was in the living room reading Tim's copy of Othello. As Dick passed, he glanced up and nodded a silent greeting. Dick smiled back and started toward the stairs, but changed his mind.

Jason was startled to find Dick sitting on the couch next to him with the young sleeping Bruce. "What are you doing?" he whispered loudly.

Dick held a finger to his lips. "I didn't want to carry him that far when he would sleep just as well out here. Plus, this way he won't be sleeping alone." He settled back on the couch, getting comfortable for the night.

Jason rolled his eyes and continued reading as Dick closed his eyes to sleep.

xXx

Morning found five sleeping figures on the couch.

Jason had fallen asleep with Othello resting on his chest. At one point during the night, Damian had come home from patrol and collapsed on the couch next to Dick, only bothering to take off his mask. Eventually, Tim had made his way upstairs and, too tired to get to his own room, joined the others on the couch.

Bruce awoke and found himself surrounded by his four sons, all of them sleeping soundly. He remembered everything, including how he'd turned into his younger self.

He was glad that no one had had the sense to have him change out of the Batsuit and into something that fit his eight-year-old body. If they had, he would probably have ruined the clothes overnight.

Alfred smiled as he walked into the living room after his week-long vacation. "Good morning, master Bruce," he said softly.

"Yes, it is," Bruce whispered back.