-Dedicated to those fanartists who know that Kaldur's hair is textured/curly, not straight-

Kaldur felt a bit left out. Batman was Cuddling and playing with Robin, and the other person there, an older man named Alfred, kept holding the baby and admiring him. Kaldur just sat there, a little uncomfortable. 

I mean, he was five, he still needed attention and entertainment. 
He didn't want to feel jealous of his baby teammate, after all, Robin needed constant attention for safety and it was his house. But Kaldur did kind of want some affection. 

He never got affection. Everyone was so focussed on Robin and Wally's antics, or Artemis and Conner's tempers, or M'gann living in a fantasy world... Kaldur was just there to be the responsible one who took care of everyone and set an example. 

He wanted attention too. Sure, he wasn't as troublesome, or loud, or mischievous, or exaggeratedly adorable or in need of protecting, or constantly injured... 

Kaldur decided to go see if Robin was okay. 
Yep, even as a five year old he was a bit protective of his friends. I mean, Batman was being nice now, but he'd seen how upset Robin was when Batman hurt him and made him cry.

"Daddy!" The infant squealed. Squirming to be set down. He called out a word that couldn't be written out, even frenetically, but sounded vaguely like Kaldur's name.

"Can I play with Robin?" Kaldur asked politely, eager to hold his friend again. "Please?"

The big bad bat set down Robin, suspiciously. He'd known Aqualad since he was fourteen, and he'd always been relatively polite and responsible (I mean, as much as a kid that age could be).

"You can play for five minutes." Bruce warned, eyes glued to his son. He wasn't letting Dick out of his sight, even with the responsible Aqualad. Kaldur'ahm clearly wanted to keep Dick safe as well, but he's practically a baby himself. How could he keep Dick safe when he couldn't even reach the bathroom sink?

"Let's play, Robin."

"Yea!" Dick bounced. The more excited he got, the more confident he was speaking. "P'ay!"

"What do we play?" Kaldur walked him to the comfy rug in the living room, batman following at a distance.

Bruce got a text and pulled out his phone, hesitant to look away from the babies (He counted Kaldur as a baby, deal with it).

Glasses: Hey Bruce, Ma and Pa can't take them tomorrow. Sorry. Maybe Hal  knows someone.

Bruce called him immediately. Clark didn't pick up. It might be because he was at work, but Bruce thought he was just a coward. He tried to find Alfred without leaving the kids.

"Alfred, where did we save our secondary numbers for the league?"

"Who do you wish to contact, Master Bruce?"

"We- uhh," Bruce leaned back into the hall to ensure the babies are staying put. "...we... we need to contact Ms. Lois Lane."

"Yes, sir."

"But first," Bruce stopped in his train of thought, neither Batman nor Bruce Wayne could hover over two kids all day. "Get Barbara on the phone."

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"Do you want me to pay your college tuition?" He asked seriously.

"No it was- I mean, I don't know. Ask me in a couple years."

"So can you watch them?"

"Uh, sure, but it is a school night."

Before Bruce could try to convince her that Kaldur was obedient and would be easy to babysit, she'd hung up.

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"Hey kiddo, Aqualad, right?" She took Dick from his father's arms and lowered herself to greet the five year old.

"Hello." He replied, a little timidly. 

He was a real cute kid, Barbara thought, small (Though that was probably just his age), with teal eyes and short, frizzy, blond hair. The gills and webbed fingers would be something to get used to, as would the eel-like tattoos that snaked down his arms, but overall, he was quite adorable.

"I hear we're using hero names here tonight, so you can call me Batgirl."

"Batgirl?"

"Yeah?" She realized after a second that he didn't have a full question. "Oh, I didn't want to join your team, I'm more of a freelancer, honestly. But I hear your team is really good."

The child nodded, very proud of his team. "We are!"

"I know..." She turned back up to Bruce. "So forty an hour for ONE kid... you might as well pay my college tuition."

"Do you want me to pay your college tuition?"

The redhead stumbled over her answer. "Uh, ask me in a couple years..." She laughed. "So? What are we doing tonight?" She asked, half to the kids, half to Bruce. 

"Alfred's handling dinner, get them in bed by seven and eight. Just make sure that you keep them both in sight." Bruce ordered. "I put a list on the table of what to do if Aqualad has trouble breathing."

"Asthma?"

"Amphibian."

"Ah." The redhead replied. "Well, we can play, or watch a movie, it'll be fun." She adjusted Dick higher on her hip.

"I'll contact you every hour." Bruce said. "I'll expect you to send a photo of the children."

"Got it!" Barbara rolled her eyes playfully.

"One more thing." Bruce beckoned her slightly away. Barbara followed, turning so Dick could looked back at Kaldur while they discussed. "We have reason to suspect someone is after the team, especially in this venerable state. I doubt they'll find us here, but..."

"I'll keep my belt on me." She finished.

"Keep a close eye on them." The bat annunciated.

"Got it!"

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"Soo... you wanna put on some tv?" Barbara asked, studying the emergency breathing sheet for the five year old. 

"okay." Aqualad, who had the corner of his t-shirt in his mouth, confirmed. 

She wracked her mind for something an infant and a child may both like. Dick probably just wanted something non-scary to watch mindlessly. Luckily, Bruce had like, EVERY streaming service. Barbara assumed neither kid had strong opinions on this, so she popped on an episode of Pingu.

The kids loved it, Dick laughed throughout basically the whole thing, he was too young to fully comprehend anything. Aqualad was old enough to understand what was happening and seemed pleased with the lack of English dialogue, she was pretty sure he was ESL, so that made sense

Surprisingly, Barbara found herself mesmerized: Pingu, Baby Van Gogh, even Bob the Builder... These baby shows were hypnotizing! In a daze, she passed Dick the teether he dropped, yet again. Dick managed to keep the teether in his grip for a whole minute and a half before dropping it once more.

Barbara just finished returning it, when her phone buzzed. Bruce. Had it already been an hour? She flipped out the phone and took a selfie to get both kids in frame. She send it off and felt a tiny palm grasp her sleeve. 

"What's up, baby?" She tried to return Dick's teether, but he shook his head, refusing. "C'mere." She watched as the child crawled up onto her, he played, admiring her shirt and hair (Both of which she had to remove from his mouth multiple times). Next up, Dick was fascinated with her blue-light rejection glasses, and began playing with them.
"OKAYY- please don't break those..." Her phone buzzed again. "Oop, that's Bru-Ba- That's your daddy!" She pulled ouf her phone again. 

"Daddy!" Dick exclaimed. 

"...yeah! Daddy says that he'll be back once your asleep." She continued to let him treat her like a jungle gym for about ten minutes, until he wasn't satisfied anymore. Barbara stood, clutching the crying infant. "I gotta change Di-Robin." That sounded weird to her. "Be right back."

Kaldur turned reluctantly back to the tv. He was still feeling kind of neglected. He pushed up off the floor and wandered around to find that Alfred person to ask when Dinner was. The smell of food and oil cooking hurt. It was hard to breath. This is why no one on the team was allowed to wear perfume.

He snuck into the kitchen, watching the old man move about handsomely, he was clearly very experienced. Kaldur leaned around the corner, a little worried that Alfred would trip over him.

"Excuse me?" He muttered, shyly raising his hand. He was surprised that the old man heard him. 

"Can I help you?" The man asked, looking down at him.

"I wanna help?" Kaldur said, trying not to sound as timid as he felt. He did feel small. 

"I see, and how do you think you can do that?" The man adjusted a pot over the stove.

"I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders a little, eyes on the floor. "Am I allowed?" 

The man's demeanor changed, suddenly more affectionate. "I'm sure I can find something for you to do."

Kaldur's face lit up.

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Bruce got home a bit early, around three am. He wanted to see his boy. He trusted Alfred and Barbara, and the girl had sent him hourly updates, but he wanted to see Dickie. Maybe Bruce was the one with separation anxiety.

Of course Alfred was still awake when he got back. Alfred usually stayed up to be sure Dick got to bed and Barbara got home safe, but tonight he seemed to be there just to ensure Bruce got home.

"Is he in bed?"

"They are all in bed." The elderly butler lead the way to Dick's bedroom, gently pushing the door open, exposing the room to echoes of the hallway's light. Dick was swaddled, pressed between the wall and a pillow, Kaldur had kicked off his blanket and had splayed his arms across his young teammate, protectively.

Barbara, for her part, was dead asleep, half-off the bed, about three story books resting on her chest.

"We should get Dick into his pop up." 

"May I suggest that the dark night removes his terror suit before picking up the easily frightened infant?" Alfred observed.

"You're always ahead of me, old friend." Bruce smiled, shedding his cowl on the walk to his room.