Persuasion

Persuasion

Bruce types, his eyes burning. He knows that he should have given up on his work and gone to bed hours ago. Especially with Tim sitting in the corner, working on cold cases. He hasn’t even stopped to make Tim go home like he normally would, but he just wants to be done with it so badly. At least done with enough that he won’t have to get up quite so early later this morning. He glances at the clock in the corner of the screen.

Shit, it’s three a.m. already.

“Tim, you should go home.”

Tim hums without even looking up. Bruce pinches his nose, forcing himself not to roll his eyes at the kid across the room from him who is far too similar to Bruce for his own good. Bruce stands up, stretching.

“Tim, did you hear me?”

Tim hums again, even though he’s obviously not paying attention.

“Tim!”

Tim looks up.

“Yeah, Bruce?”

“You need to go home. It’s late.”

“Can I crash here tonight?”

It’s not the first time Tim has asked Bruce that, but Bruce is always tempted to say no. He knows that Alfred will be angry if he makes Tim go back to his empty house, or make him risk sneaking in if his parents are there. Especially since it’s so late.

“Fine, you can. You’re still sleeping on the couch though.”

Tim nods, and stands up. He stretches, his joints popping. Bruce winces slightly as he grabs his stuff to go up the stairs with him. He heads straight to bed, turning his phone and JL communicator off. He falls asleep almost immediately because of how absolutely exhausted he is. He wakes up a few hours later feeling sore and still so tired.

Why am I awake? I haven’t been asleep long enough.

Then he realizes that there’s a small hand shaking his arm.

Jason?

He’s half-way through asking if Jason had a nightmare when he realizes that it’s Tim standing beside his bed.

“Bruce.”

“What do you want?”

“Someone named Clark is calling the house phone. Is Superman calling you?”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m smart.”

“Did you answer, or did he leave a message?”

“He left two messages, and then I answered. He said that he wanted to talk to you, but your phone was going straight to voicemail. He tried to make it seem like it was something normal, but since I figured that it was Superman, I also figured that it was something to do with Batman.”

“Get out. I’ll be down in a second.”

Tim nods, and runs out. Bruce pulls on a hoodie, and follows Tim down the stairs. Tim is on the phone, smiling.

“What are you doing?”

“Making him uncomfortable by making small talk without divulging anything about myself. I haven’t even told him my name. He’s unnerved, probably because I’m in your house.”

Bruce takes the phone.

“What do you want, Clarke?”

“We need your help. There’s an alien that’s trashing Central right now, and it’s calling for all hands on deck.”

“I can’t. Robin is at my house right now, and I can’t just leave him here.”

“Bring him for all I care. We just really need your intelligence for this. Wait, was I talking to Robin while actively trying not to die?”

“Yep.”

“He’s suited for you, isn’t he? Anyway, I won’t call you for a week if you come down here.”

“Alfred isn’t here to watch Robin, I seriously can’t just leave him.”

“I’m serious too, just bring him. It’ll be fine. He seems smart, so he could even be helpful.”

“Fine, but you’re not calling or talking to me for a week and a half.”

“Sure thing. I got him to come, and he’s bringing his newest kid. I told you I’m persuasive,” Clark yells.

Bruce hangs up.

“I hate my life. Ok, come on. We’re suiting up, and heading down to Central in the plane.”

Tim nods.

“Am I going to meet the Justice League?”

“Yes, unfortunately. There’s an alien that they can’t figure out how to deal with. They’re idiots.”

“I assume you have to play babysitter and save them a lot,” Tim says as he follows Bruce down to the cave.

“Yep.”

Tim snickers. They both get suited up, and fly over to Central. Most of the Justice League is there, flying around this giant blob alien. Bruce lands the plane, and walks out.

“Ok, stay safe, and try not to talk to any of the Justice League members. They haven’t met you, and they’re easily distracted.”

“Oh, that is not how I thought that was going to go. So I can go near them, but I can’t talk to them?”

“Exactly. Just stay safe, ok?”

“I will be super careful with the giant alien blob. It’s like the blue thing off of Monster Vs. Aliens.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying, but ok.”

Bruce grapples over to Clark, leaving Tim by the plane. A wad of alien goo flies towards them immediately, but Bruce just ducks out of the way.

“What’s the situation?” he asks, sounding annoyed and tired.

Clark opens his mouth to respond, but then Tim lands next to them.

“B.”

“What Robin?”

“I figured out the monster’s weakness.”

“Hi, Robin. It’s nice to meet you,” Clark says.

Tim looks at him, cocking his head to the side.

“I’m not allowed to talk to you. Anyway-”

“Robin, what is it?”

“Water. It screamed and started to dissolve when I threw water at it.”

“Why were you doing that?”

Tim just stares at Bruce until Bruce turns back to Clark.

“Well, you heard him. Try to throw a lot of water at it, and see what happens.”

Clark nods, and flies away to tell the others.

“Why were you throwing water at it?”

“I didn’t mean to actually. I was drinking some water by the plane while trying to figure out what I needed to do. Then it started spitting goo at me, and I dropped my water. It spilled everywhere, including on the goo that had already hit the ground. It was hilarious.”

Bruce nods, too tired to care. He grapples over to where the League is congregating.

“Ok, we tried it, and it worked. So, now we have to figure out how to get it over to the water, or we can fill that giant crater with water. We’d have to work on distracting it at the same time, then we’d have to lure it over there,” Clark says.

“Where did this thing even come from?” Barry asks.

“I don’t know. This is your city. Anyway, we can figure that out later,” Hal replies, folding his arms.

“Lantern, fill up the crater. Superman, Flash, you’re with me,” Bruce says, then walks past them.

It’s not a hard process to keep the thing chasing them, and it falls right into the crater when they lead it over there. It’s completely dissolved within three minutes. Bruce turns to say something to Clark when he sees Robin fly past. It looks like something tossed him, and slams into the wall of a building a few feet away.

“Robin!” Bruce yells, taking off towards him.

There’s still no visible threat. Tim’s head is bleeding heavily, and he doesn’t focus on Bruce when Bruce sits him up.

“Robin, status report.”

Tim just blinks lethargically.

“Mh, he hit his head pretty hard.”

“Who is that?” Hal demands.

“That’s Bat’s new Robin. He’s the one who figured out the water,” Clark says.

“Ooooh, you hit Bat’s kid,” Barry says.

Bruce turns around so quickly.

“You did this?”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t even aware you had a new sidekick. He just popped up out of nowhere, and scared me.”

“What are you? A toddler?”

Bruce picks Tim up.

“I’m taking him home. We’re going to be talking about this at the next meeting. Also, you are not “persuading me” into taking him anywhere near you guys again,” Bruce growls, cradling Tim against his chest.

He still doesn’t get much of a response from Tim, so he sits Tim right next to him. He watches him the entire flight home. Leslie is waiting when he gets there, and she checks Tim over. Bruce leaves him there, and goes to his room. He can’t stand to wait around like he’s done so many times before. So, he waits in his room until Leslie comes up to tell him that Tim will be fine.

“Ok, good. Thank you, Leslie.”

Leslie nods, and walks back out. Bruce puts his head in his hands.

I can’t believe that I let my teammates hurt my partner. What would I have even done if he hadn’t been ok?

Bruce spends the rest of the night overthinking with his anxiety overcoming all of his rational thoughts.