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“…And all of it will be cleaned up by the time I come back, understood?”
There was a chorus of mumbled, “Yes, sir.” from all five boys before Bruce turned around and thundered up the stairs out of the Cave.
There was a moment of awkward silence as the brothers looked around the room at their…event. Silly string was hanging from every surface, covering the floor and walls and, most notably, the Batmobile. The group, lined up for Bruce’s scolding, slowly dissipated, wandering around the Cave and trying to decide where to start.
Duke started cleaning off the computer, pulling silly string from between the keys of the keyboard, while Damian clambered on top of Tim’s shoulders to tug it off the lights.
That left Jason and Dick to de-silly string the Batmobile.
Dick sat on one side of the car, wiping pink and green from the wheels. Jason took to clearing the windshield of bright orange and blue.
It was silent for a moment, except for Tim’s grunts of effort holding Damian on his shoulders.
Then it happened.
A snicker.
From Jason, specifically. Dick looked up and glared at him, so Jason swallowed the rest of his laughter and continued his work.
There were a few more moments of silence, and then again, Jason started snickering. This time, though, Jason’s laughter didn’t cease with Dick’s stern look. If anything, it exacerbated it; after another few seconds, Jason was howling with laughter and wiping tears from his eyes.
Then Dick heard a chuckle from behind him and caught Duke doing his best not to join Jason.
“It’s not funny,” Dick said sternly.
“N-no, no it’s not,” Duke replied, grin still plastered on his face.
“Timothy, stop moving!”
Tim’s face was buried in his hands, his shoulders shaking, and Dick immediately felt bad. He knew his little brother didn’t take kindly to being yelled at, so he hoisted himself up and walked over to him, “Timmy, it’s okay…” He soothed.
Only for Tim to remove his hands from his face and reveal that he too was crying with laughter. Dick groaned, “Oh my god.”
And finally, much to his dismay, Damian let out a noise that usually made Dick’s heart soar: a giggle.
Damian. Giggled.
Now, all four boys were laughing hysterically and Jason was barely choking out the words, “H-his face! He was so—” His sentence was cut off by another fit of laughter. Duke was had collapsed into the computer chair, holding his chest. Damian got off Tim’s shoulders and crossed his arms, still giggling (which, for Damian, may as well have been being hit with Joker toxin).
Tim, sobbing, dropped a hand on Dick’s shoulder, “Oh! Oh my god, he—pffft!” Another wave of laughter hit the boys full force.
And Dick, standing in the center of the room with his hands on his hips, couldn’t help it. A smile tugged on his lips, and try as he might, he couldn’t fight it. He bit his lip to keep from laughing, but as Jason fell to the ground, clutching his sides, Dick began to laugh.
Duke wiped tears from his eyes, “I have never seen his face turn that color.”
That set Tim off again, laughing so hard he could barely hold himself up.
All five boys continued to trade breathless half-sentences, each one sending a fit of laughter harder than the last. The silly string was forgotten, still mostly plastering the Cave.
After what felt like hours, the laughter finally slowed, allowing the brothers to wipe tears from their eyes and catch their breaths.
Jason sighed loudly, “Ahh, oh my god, you guys.”
All at once, the door to the Cave slammed, “You all better be done down there!” Bruce’s voice was sharp.
All five boys stopped laughing immediately, then they saw Bruce appear at the top of the stairs. Bruce took in the scene, clearly seeing that no work had been done. Leaning on the stair rail, he dropped his head, heaving a sigh.
And all at once, all five boys started laughing again.