Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Watchtower was relatively deserted when Dick walked in. It was around 1am, so for vigilante hours it wasn't that late. But Dick was someone who prided himself on getting 6 whole hours of sleep. At least on weekends... So he already knew that if he stayed up much longer he'd wake up with a killer headache the next day. 

But some things are more important than his morning migraine to be...such as getting Bruce to get his head out of his ass. For the past 3 weeks, all of Dick's siblings had been crashing at his place in Bludhaven for 1 or 2 nights complaining about Bruce being touchy and in a constant state of irritation. Last weekend Dick himself had dropped by, only to get yelled at for not polishing the batarangs. (Since when do we polish those anyway Bruce?) 

The last straw for everyone was when after an Arkham Breakout instead of letting the youngsters trade out for patrol the next day, he forced everyone out on the streets. Except Steph who was healing from a knee injury. So all of the Birds decided that Bruce needed an intervention. And that apparently Dick of all people was the best one to do that. 

So thus Dick finds himself dressed in one of Bruce's old Gotham Knights hoodies and a pair of sweatpants with his domino. He was definitely risking someone finding out about his affiliation with Gotham. One of Bruce's rules is to stay in uniform when at the Watchtower at all times unless you're in one of the private rooms. But it was too late at night for any of the other leaguers to be there, and honestly, if Dick was gonna be forced to mess up his sleep schedule for Bruce then he'd at least be comfortable doing it. The only leaguer that was there was luckily Dick's best friend. 

"Hey, Boy Wonderful! What're you doing here so late? I thought you didn't have monitor duty tonight?" Wally West a.k.a Barry Allen's nephew asks as he claps Dick’s hand and pulls him into a hug.

"I don't. I'm being sent here on an Intervention Mission." Wally nods. The 2 heroes had known each other since Dick's time as Robin and Wally's time as Kid Flash. 

"Thank God. You didn't hear it from me but Uncle Barry and Uncle Hal were saying that apparently, The Dark Knight has been incredibly pissy. Pissier than usual I guess." 

Dick sighs. He was hoping to have a quick talk with Bruce and then head out before 2am. But that was probably not gonna happen. 

"Is anyone else here?" 

"Nope. Besides the Bat, everyone else retired for the night. I saw him in the monitor room earlier." 

"K thanks!" The speedster nods before running off. 

Dick takes a resigned breath. Here goes nothing... 

--- 

Bruce hated to admit it, but he only realized someone had come into the monitor room when the person sat down in a chair next to him…. AFTER pulling it over. Regardless he easily recognized his oldest son.

"Nightwing." Dick didn't have monitor duty tonight….. Why was he here? Was someone hurt? Did something happen? Bruce took a second to look his First Robin over. He didn't seem to be injured. He was in Bruce's old hoodie and a domino. He looked cozy, and adorable in a way that made Bruce want to wrap him up in blankets and protect him from everything that could hurt him. Distantly Bruce wondered when his son had grown up. 

"Whatcha working on B?" Dick breaks the silence. 

"Names." Even with the domino on Bruce could tell that Dick was rolling his eyes. 

"Relax. Wally told me everyone else already left for the night. You can drop your whole 'I don't know who you are act' "  Dick apparently was in the mood to talk because he started chattering about anything and everything. Bruce felt himself subconsciously relax. He turned back to his work and let Dick's voice wash over him. Bruce usually hated unwanted chatter. Preferring quiet to get his work done. But there was something endearing with the way Dick was so enthusiastic when talking. Bruce realized that it had been a while since he had actually had a conversation with one of his kids. Guilt churns in his stomach. 

He knew that for the past couple days, he had been a bit… harsh in a sense to the people around him. His latest case was overwhelmingly frustrating. Every time he figured something out it was as if the trail changed direction completely and none of it was fitting together anymore. Dick's chatter soon starts to get interrupted by frequent yawns. 

Bruce couldn't understand how it was possible for Dick to get 6 full hours of sleep… ever. With how their lives were, Bruce was lucky to get 4 hours on a good day. But however Dick managed to do that, clearly being here at the Watchtower was going to ruin his sleep schedule. The chairs they were sitting on weren't exactly the most comfortable to take a nap in anyway. Bruce stands up and walks over to the couch that is by the coffee machine.

"B." Dick yawns, standing up. "Where’re you goin’?" 

Bruce settles himself on the couch, after taking off his cape, and looks at Dick who was still standing by the monitor. Bruce hopes that Dick understood what he was trying to do. When it came to explaining his actions, that could become as awkward as Jason when he tries to ask for comfort.

 Luckily Dick seems to get the message. Because the next thing he knows a weight settles over his legs and torso as Dick's arms hug his waist and he snuggles into Bruce's chest. How any of his kids managed to get comfortable against the rough kevlar was beyond him. But as soon as Dick settles, Bruce grabs his discarded cape and drapes it over his snoozing robin. 

"Is this your attempt to get me to shut up?" Dick mutters against his chest. "Cuz it won't work." Bruce chuckles. Dick was in a losing battle with sleep and Bruce had gone with weeks of no sleep before. They both knew who would win if it came to staying awake. 

"Rest Chum. I promise that if I wake you up it's because we're going home." Dick mutters something incoherently against his chest before going silent. All too quickly his breathing evens out. Bruce could feel the steady beating of his heart through the suit. It was centering. Dick's entire body was easily covered by the cape. All that was really sticking out was a tuffet of his hair. Bruce resisted the urge to take his gauntlet off and card his hand through the thick locks, opting instead to finish the last of his report quickly so that he could take Dick back to the manor and cuddle his kid. 

Chapter Text

Hal and Barry were panicking. Batman had told them to log in their findings from the recent scouting mission by the end of the day…. it was 1am….. and it wasn't done. 

"HOW COULD YOU FORGET TO LOG IT IN?!" Hal screeches, as Barry speeds around trying to grab his suit.

"I DON’T KNOW?! I THOUGHT YOU ALREADY DID IT!" Barry screams, from somewhere in his apartment. The 2 of them had gone back to Barry's place after a bit of bar hopping. They were just getting ready to crash when they spotted their findings from the recent scouting case they were sent on and realized that they never filed them in.

"ME?! I ASKED YOU TO DO IT BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TODAY?!" Hal yells "HURRY UP WE NEED TO GET IT TURNED IN BEFORE HE FINDS OUT!" 

The Dark Knight had been in a horrible mood for the past couple of weeks. Not even Wonder Woman and Superman had managed to figure out what exactly was wrong, and as much as Hal enjoyed making fun of him…. there was a big difference between irritating him when he was in a good mood, and pissing him off even more when he was in a bad mood. 

Spooky in a good mood meant at most an irritated look and a sigh of resignation. The Dark Knight in a bad mood meant snapping and a constant reminder of their failures…. Which both Hal and Barry had a lot of. Thus they found themselves rushing to the Central City zetas to go up to the watchtower at around 30 minutes past 1. 

The Watchtower was eerily silent this late. The hallways and rooms were quiet. Most of the heroes had either retired to their rooms or were back in their earth homes. With how quiet it was, the last thing either Hal or Barry expected to see when they walked into the monitor room was Batman with his feet up on the couch by the coffee machine and his cape thrown over his legs while he worked on a holographic screen. 

Both the Speedster and Lantern froze at the sight. Shit. What's Batman doing here? Does he not have a home or something? He is so going to rip us a new one and… the cape on his legs just… shifted. Hal shoots a look at Barry to confirm that he had seen it too. The wide-eyed look he got in return meant yes. There was something underneath Batman's cape. But before they could say anything Batman saw them. 

They all stared at each other. This was it. Batman is going to break his no-killing rule and kill them. Barry opened his mouth, no doubt to speed force out an apology. 

"Jesus Batman we're so-"Just as quickly Batman's face shifted and he put a finger up to his mouth. Oh. Batman wanted them to be quiet. But it was too late whatever was under the cape moved again and the cape was pulled down just enough for them to see a mop of black hair and a domino. Hal's brain green-screened. 

Because that was Nightwing. Both Hal and Barry knew the newest JLA member. Not to mention Nightwing was Wally's best friend. What stunned them was that the new recruit was currently napping in the Dark Knight’s cape. If that wasn't enough to Batman's apparent horror, Nightwing spoke. 

"B. Are we leaving?" His voice was still heavily laced in sleep implying that he had been using the Dark Knight as his pillow for at least an hour if not more. Barry stares at the 2 vigilantes. Nightwing called Batman a nickname. What the fuck? Hal was positive that Nightwing was gonna get his ass kicked. Not only had he napped on fucking BATMAN of all people but he also called him a nickname. Batman barely let Hal himself call him Spooky. 

The silence stretched on until Nightwing broke it again and what he said killed the last of Hal and Barry's brain cells.

"B….." He whined, actually whined. "You promised that if you woke me up it's cuz we were going hoooome." Oh My Fucking God. Home. The kid said Home. What the fuck? To Hal and Barry's utter befuddlement instead of drop-kicking Nightwing off of him, Batman sighed and with an ease that showed he had done this many times before, he hefted Nightwing up into a princess carry. A fucking princess carry. 

Immediately the younger vigilante snuggled actually snuggled into Batman's suit. What the ever-flying fuck was going on? Batman glares at them. Then without a single word or explanation, he swoops out of the monitor room with the snoozing young adult in his arms. There was silence for what seemed like ages until Hal finally spoke. 

"Hallucination?" 

"I'll go do a tox scan on that alcohol."

Chapter Text

When 2 weeks go by and Batman doesn't jump out at them to murder them, Hal and Barry relax. Obviously what they saw was just a drunk hallucination. There was no other explanation for it. Because, like before, Nightwing was back to talking with Hal and Barry. And Batman stayed a good 5 feet away from him at all times. 

"I can't imagine how drunk we must have been to hallucinate that…." Barry chuckles,

"You're telling me… I was probably drunk as hell. But I didn't know that Speedsters could get that drunk to hallucinate that kinda shit." Hal says, leaning against the glass panels of the watchtower. 

"Yeah… me neither…" Barry says, thoughtfully looking out. The view from the watchtower was gorgeous. 

"Hey guys! Whatcha talking about?" Speak of the Devil.

"Nothing, just thinking about something that happened a couple of weeks ago when we were turning in a report," Hal says, Barry shoots him a glare. 

"So you were pulling a Batman…" Nightwing grins, Hal starts laughing. 

"What did you just say?" Barry asks, incredulously. 

"I said. You're pulling a Batman. You know with the brooding and thinking about shit that happened a bajillion years ago." Nightwing says, amused. Hal was wheezing. 

"Careful kid, you wouldn't want him to hear you say that. He's reeeeal touchy about it."  Barry grins,

"Touchy? Batman… about his brooding habits? Nooo…." Nightwing's tone was laced with sarcasm and it made Barry laugh. No wonder Nightwing is Wally's best friend. Nightwing was hilarious. 

"Brooding Habits. God kid you're a genius." Hal says in between gasps of air. 

"Hey, what's so funny?" Green Arrow walks up to them. 

"Nothi-" Nightwing was cut off by Barry this time 

"We were just talking about Batman's brooding habits." 

"Batman's what?" Green Arrow sputters, 

"His brooding habits," Batman says dryly. 

They all freeze as Batman seems to materialize out of thin air. He glares at Nightwing. How he knew it was the younger vigilante that had brought it up Barry had no clue. Nightwing resolutely looks back at him. Damn. This kid has guts.  

There was a tense silence. 

“Your such a sourpuss.” Nightwing grumbles, puffing a strand of hair out of his face. “Don’t you have to be anti-social for at least 2 more hours before you come to interact with people?” I DEFINITELY didn’t drink before this… All 3 of them wait with bated breaths as Batman’s face dips into more of a frown. Either Nightwing doesn’t see it. Or he doesn’t care. “You know what… who am I even talking to? Interacting with people involves more than grunting and letting out resigned sighs. Which is apparently all you ca-” 

“Please shut up,” Batman sounds… Tired. There’s no bite in the words like there ought to be. Kinda like Barry after he spends an hour trying to keep Wally from going out when he’s injured. Hal muses. 

“Oh wow. Seems like the Bat can talk.” Nightwing drawls, “I’m sorry I thought all you could do was grunt and look sad.” Green Arrow’s eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of his head. 

“I do not grunt and look sad.” Batman sounds miffed in the way a child would when they got caught by their parents. 

“Yeah whatever you say B,” Nightwing says as he walks out of the door. Batman gives a sigh of expiration before following him out. That nickname again…. The one from 2 weeks ago…Holy shit.  

“Maybe we weren’t drunk 2 weeks ago….” Barry mutters voicing Hal’s horror. 

“You saw that right… PLEASE tell me you guys saw that…” Green Arrow says sounding ready to fall apart. 

Chapter Text

"Yo B!?" How the hell did N get into the cave? Hal shoots Barry a bewildered look. It had been about a week since the last incident. Nightwing appears from a side room. It looked like he had just come from a shower. His hair was wet and he had sweatpants on, but he was shirtless with a towel around his neck. I needed to nearly die to get these abs. And his are still better… Barry thought miserably. 

"Nightwing." Batman greets from his spot on the couch. Apparently a shipment of molly was making routes from Gotham, to Central and Coast so to discuss the case Batman had called both Hal and Barry to his base. Usually Batman hated having people at his base. Even the original 7 JLA members seldom came into the Dark Knight's lair. Yet here was Nightwing walking around as if he lived here.

As if to prove the thought running through both of their heads, Nightwing comes and plops down right.. RIGHT next to Batman completely ignoring the 5ft personal bubble Batman keeps around himself at all times. He leans his back against Batman's left arm, his legs stretching out across the rest of the couch. And Batman doesn't say anything. What the fuck?  Nightwing shakes his hair out a bit spraying Batman with droplets of water. Batman gives him an unimpressed look but doesn't say a word.

"So about tho-" 

"Ok you need to explain this." Hal cuts Batman off. Both vigilantes give him near identical looks. Creepy..

"Lantern we really don't have ti-" 

"Bullshit. You 2 have been acting weird for a while now." Hal snaps, 

"Are you okay Lantern? We hav-" 

"Don't deny it N. This is kinda out of character for both of you." Barry interrupts. Batman and Nightwing exchange looks. Nightwing's face looks amused. Batman's was stoic as ever.

"And what exactly is out of character?" Batman drawls, leaning back against the couch completely taking his eyes away from his tablet. Ok we got his full attention…time for the pitch 

"Nightwing keeps making fun of you and you aren't biting his head off " Hal says, 

"Well it's only fair I bully him if he bullies me," Nightwing responds with a teasing grin at Batman, Batman flicks him in the head. 

"You keep calling him B." Barry says, 

"Lantern literally always calls him Spooky or Bats." Nightwing responds evenly. 

"But- But that's different." Hal sputters,

"How exactly is that different?" Batman asks, sounding slightly amused. 

"Look. Ever since 3 weeks ago you 2 have been acting off." Hal snaps,

"We're not crazy." Barry backs Hal up,

"Wait… 3 weeks ago.." Batman's face does something complicated. Ah ha. So there is something..  

"Yeah it was 2 weeks after N said that all you do is brood and look sad," Hal says, Batman glares at him. Nightwing snickers. Oops crossed a line there. 

"I know what you're talking about. B said out of nowhere that we could go back to being normal now with each other at the base. At least in front of you 2." Nightwing says,

"Hold on… be normal?" Hal questions, Batman was still quiet. 

"Wait… B you told me they knew." Nightwing sits up completely and turns to Batman. 

"They do know." Batman responds looking like a confused toddler. 

"Well if we knew whatever it is you think we know I highly doubt we'd be asking about it." Barry rambles, 

"They do know. They heard you say that you wanted to go home." Batman responds, and that's when it hits Hal like a slap in the face. The night we turned the report in late…  Eyes wide he turns to Barry. 

"We weren't drunk that night," Hal says, Barry looks at him blankly. "The night we saw or we thought we saw Nightwing napping on Batman. We weren't drunk then." Barry's eyes widen as he remembers. 

"Of course you weren't drunk. Lantern might have been. But a speedster can't get drunk." Batman says, 

"Ok but what does that night have to do with any of this?" Barry asks, Batman and Nightwing both give Hal and Barry long looks.

"Nightwing's my son." Batman finally says,

"WHAT?!" Barry screeches, Nightwing looks put off and Batman looks irritated now. 

"How the fuck is that possible?" Hal asks,

"You really need me to explain the Birds and the Bees to you Lantern?" Batman asks dryly. Nightwing laughs and Barry and Hal both look mortified.

"Wha- No but." Hal sputters,

"You heard me say that I wanted to go home. Why else would I be telling Batman to take me home if I wasn't his kid?" Nightwing asks, genuinely curious. 

"I don't know… we.. or I don't know what Ha- Lantern thought." Barry barely keeps himself from outing Hal's identity. "I thought that since Blud is close to Gotham you were asking him to drop you home." 

"There's a zeta directly to Bludhaven. He wouldn't exactly need Spooky's help to get to Blud." Hal says, thoughtfully.

"Shut up. Who's side are you on?" Barry snaps, 

"Yours obviously. But I do get what they're trying to say. All the pieces are there… we just never really put it together." Hal says, somehow becoming the more sensible of the 2 of them. "N is incredibly well trained and he always seemed to know a little more about each of the bats than he logically should being the newbie."

"I mean when you put it that way…" Barry mutters thoughtfully. 

"So what about Red Hood?" Hal asks,

"Little Wing? What about him?" Nightwing responds, 

"Wait hold the phone. 'Little Wing'? Red Hood is younger than you?" Barry asks flabbergasted at the idea of the young man who carried guns, who clearly had anger issues, and who constantly fought with Batman being Nightwing's younger brother. 

"They're 3 years apart." Batman replies, nonchalantly as if this is normal information they should know by now. Barry and Hal both stare at the duo.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Barry finally asks,

"You all just assumed on meeting Red Hood that he was my oldest son. With a bit of convincing.."

"A Bit?" Nightwing gives him an unimpressed look. 

"Ok a lot of convincing-"

"A lot?" Nightwing interrupts again. "I say with a lot of convincing AND a good deal of bribes we all agreed to go along with his little facade." 

"It is not a facade." 

"Yes it is. This qualifies as a facade. Or charade actually." Nightwing deadpans, 

"Are you gonna tell the others now that we know?" Hal asks, everyone looks at Batman. 

"We could…. Or-" Then something terrifying happens. Batman smiles. It's hard on the edges and small. But it's there. 

"We could fuck with them…" Nightwing's smile mirrors his father's, and for the first time, Hal and Barry see the resemblance.