Work Text:
Monitor duty on Christmas. When he had volunteered to stay up in the Watchtower on Christmas, the rest of the League had given each other a look. He was pretty sure Flash had even called him a scrooge. A year ago, he wouldn’t have had any reason to celebrate but now he had his own reasons for wanting the tower to himself.
“Woah! I can’t believe you haven’t brought me up here yet!” Robin rushed over to the window, looking down on the Earth.
Robin’s grin was infectious as he glanced back toward Bruce and Bruce moved to ruffle his hair, as he spoke. “Thought it’d be your Christmas gift, chum.” He turned to head toward the computer, though it was looking to be a quiet night. As he turned, he hid a slight smile as he heard the squawk of indignation.
“I thought you were gonna get me the game that I’ve been asking for-!” Robin turned from the window and Bruce heard the patter of his feet as Dick almost flung himself in front of Batman.
Batman looked down, raising one eyebrow. “And why would you think that?” He was quick to let the look of the Dark Knight fall onto his face. The kind of look that warned off even Superman.
Robin looked up at him with the most innocent face he could muster. “You promised you’d get me something fun.” The look slid off his face as he started to laugh, before jumping up to balance on the railing. “I’m a detective.”
Bruce barely held back a snort as he moved to sit down, trying to ignore the anxiety as Robin balanced on the edge. “Hmmm.” Bruce flipped through the different feeds, keeping an eye out for any sign of breakout or holiday themed attack. Meanwhile, Robin explored the Watchtower’s main room for a couple minutes before letting out a sigh. Bruce was only half paying attention as he looked over the intel on Luthor’s latest move. No movement of money. No calls for mercenaries but it almost seemed too quiet. Maybe a look through what they had on Lexcorp’s financials-
A weight suddenly dropped on his lap as Robin dramatically flopped against him, letting out an even bigger sigh.
He pulled up their financials or at least what they had access to. No big movements of money but that only meant that Lex was good at hiding it. While he looked through it, he pulled up the cameras at Arkham flipping through them. Still quiet for Arkham-
“Bruuuuuuce.” Dick looked up at him. “If something’s wrong, there’ll be an alert. Stop working.”
Bruce’s concentration broke as he looked down, a slight frown on his face. “Names-”
“No names in costume, I know.” Now Robin jumped up again leaning against the computer. “You aren’t going to invite me up here just to let me sit here while you work. Especially on Christmas.” Now that was a genuine look of… frustration or sadness if Bruce had ever seen one. He knew this work wasn’t needed but the job- Every time he thought he was starting to get a handle on dealing with- raising a kid, he stumbled. Was this what he had cursed Dick with? Always being let down-
“Let’s watch a movie! Drink hot chocolate and make popcorn! I won’t tell Superman you managed to have fun for once.” Dick’s voice jerked him out of his thoughts though the cheeriness was forced. Robin moved past him, facing away.
Bruce pushed his cowl back and reached out, starting to pull him into a hug. Dick was quick to turn, hugging back so tightly. “That sounds great, chum. Though I get to pick the movie.” Dick groaned but hugged tighter for a second and Bruce smiled. The League was wrong. Being in the Watchtower on Christmas wasn’t bad at all.