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Lian had decided, in the middle of a conversation over lunch, that there was a chance that perhaps her dad was a little bit lonely, but she denied it slightly, deciding that she and her uncle and all of her father’s archery students meant he couldn’t be.
Then, she observed him over the evening, a scribbled checklist hidden in her pocket, and decided that perhaps he was.
According to Jon’s fairytale books, and Jon’s older brother’s books that he wasn’t supposed to read but had snuck into anyway, the solution to that was that her dad needed to go on a date.
And who better to decide on who that should be than Lian?
A month later, Lian had whittled down the list of adults she knew who might work well down to one perfect option, with the assistance of her Jon and Damian, the second of who claimed he had no interest in this project and yet kept participating anyway.
It was time to set up her dad with the school librarian, Jason Todd.
Step one, of course, is making sure they have their meet cute, and Lian was not willing to wait to leave this to chance.
Luckily, she already had a book that was overdue, and that gave her the perfect opportunity.
---
Just after Lian arrived at school in the bus in the morning, she called her father in tears.
She’d initially planned to have a bee sting her, as that would definitely make her cry, but Damian had strongly rejected that idea, but volunteered to kick her really hard to cause the same effect.
“Dad!” Lian sobbed into the phone.
“Sweetheart? What’s wrong?” Roy’s voice was alert over the phone. Lian almost felt bad. Almost.
“I left my book at home.”
“What?”
“I left my book at home.” She repeated.
“Sweetheart, I’m not quite sure why-“
“I’m going to get a fine from the library if I don’t bring it back today.”
“Lian, calm down, please? Can you just bring it in tomorrow.”
“I can’t.” She gestured for Damian to kick her again, to keep the upset voice up. “I meant to bring it in and I just left in on my bed and it’s- it’s-“
“I can bring it in for you, if you really need it.”
“I do.”
“I’m free at lunchtime? But… Your lunch period’s changed, hasn’t it, Lian?”
“You could bring it in for me?” Lian definitely couldn’t keep up the sobs now, but at least she was covering the slight glee at the conversation going the right way from her voice. “Drop it in at the library? Then I wouldn’t get in trouble?”
“Are you sure I need to?”
“Yes, daddy.” She said brightly.
Lian heard a small, slight sigh over the phone. “Alright. I’ll see you after school?”
“Of course! Thanks! Bye”
Lian hung up before the smugness in her voice was too obvious, before turning to Damian and Jon and giving them a thumbs up.
---
Lian didn’t manage to see her dad and her favourite librarian meeting, as much as she wanted to, she was still bound to her school time table and as such had to attend class.
She did however manage to get a decent enough idea of what happened from Jon, who on her request had peered through the books and reported back in their last lesson when they should’ve been learning maths.
Roy had walked into the library, book in hand, having been let in by the reception, and looked around, seeming wildly out of his element for a split second, before spotting Jason’s desk, and heading over.
“I, ah, have a book.”
“I can see that,” Mr Todd had responded, looking at Roy, and the small paper sticker proclaiming he was a visitor with slight amusement. “This is a library. That’s expected.”
“Oh! My daughter asked me to bring it in it. Lian- she didn’t want it to be overdue- she was worried about a fine or something?”
“We don’t actually have fines- it’s a clause in our funding from the Martha Wayne Foundation. But, I do always appreciate getting an overdue book back.”
That seemed to throw Roy for a bit of a loop. “You… don’t have fines? Then…”
“Some of the kids forget it. Not the ones who manage to get books so overdue usually, but some do.”
“Wait, so overdue?”
“Lian Harper, right? That’s the third Narnia you’ve got, I’ll just check it back in for you.”
Roy muttered something that Jon wasn’t able to hear, but seemed to make Jason give a brief surprised laugh as he handed the book back over.
“I haven’t seen this one in three months, I think. Lian always says she’ll remember it tomorrow.” Jason mused. “I was starting to think I’d need to buy a replacement, but it’s not like we only had one copy.”
Roy let out a sigh. “I’ll try not to let this happen again.”
Jason waved a dismissive but not unfriendly hand at Roy. “Don’t worry about it. As long as they come back eventually.”
Roy had looked like he was going to say something else, but was stopped when the library phone had rang. After a minute of waiting to see if Mr Todd would come off anytime soon, he gave up, and instead gave a small wave goodbye before heading back out.
Jason had waved back.
This secondhand knowledge was all Lian needed to know the plan must continue.
---
After a few days of subtly and not so subtly trying to tell her dad that he needed to go on a date and she could supply someone for that, Lian sat down in defeat in front of her friends.
“I don’t know how to reach the next step of the plan.” She admitted.
“Wait, how many steps are in this plan even? You’ve not been very clear.” Jon questioned.
“Any ideas?” Lian asked. “On how we can get Mr Todd and my Dad to go on a date? Any information on either of them we could use?”
Damian set his sandwich down. “You do know Jason is my older brother, right?”
Lian and Jon both looked at him with wide eyes.
“No. You’ve never mentioned this?”
“We can work with this.” Lian decided, bringing her notebook back out to continue planning.
---
The next Saturday, Jason had been dragged down to the local park by a surprisingly insistent younger brother, and he couldn’t help but wonder what Damian’s ulterior motive could’ve been this time.
His confusion only greatened when he saw there was a small fayre set up there. Not that he didn’t think that was a small bit interesting- but it very much more Dick’s thing.
Damian wasn’t even pulling him off to anything, like a normal kid was, instead making them wait at the entrance as if he was waiting for something, flicking his eyes around like something should be that wasn’t.
“Are you.. okay, demon?”
“I’m fine!” Damian snapped.
“Do you want to do anything? Isn’t that why you brought me here?”
“Silence, Todd. Everything will be clear soon.”
Everything was not clear soon, as Damian’s search ending when he spotted Lian Harper, and her father that had brought in a book midday for some reason, walking towards them.
“Hello, Lian. Hello, Mr Harper,” He greeted.
“It’s Roy.”
“Roy, then. Are you two having fun?”
“We just got here,” Lian piped up. “We were nearly late, sorry Damian.”
“Late for what I’m not quite sure.” Roy spoke with a small amount of laughter in his voice. He was obviously used to his kid by now.
“Late for your date, of course.” Lian announced.
“What?”
“What?”
“We brought you here for a date,” Lian announced. Damian nodded. He knew that kid had had something planned, but he hadn’t expected this.
Damian and Lian nodded at each other, before pushing the pair towards each other. Jason managed to stay up, but Roy toppled forward, leaving Jason to catch him.
“Damian Wayne!”
“Lian I swear-“
Lian giggled, “Good luck! We’ll pick you up later! Have fun at the fayre!”
“Good luck, Todd.”
The two children slipped away before Jason or Roy could really catch them, or even take a step towards.
Roy sighed. “I am so so sorry. Lian isn’t normally like this. Well…. This is-“
“Don’t worry about it. I can’t believe my brother did something like this,” Jason commiserated.
“Think we can find them?”
Jason snorted. “He’s an expert at evasion. We’re not finding those two til they want to be found.”
“Ah.”
There was an awkward second of silence.
“I guess…. We’re here anyway? Want to go round and see what we can do?”
“Like what?”
“Well, I have been told I’m an excellent shot at fairground games.”
“You won’t beat me, I bet.”
“Bet?”
“I’m an archery instructor. I will win, I warn you.”
“Competition, I like that, but you won’t.”
For a date set up for a middle schooler, with very little planned about the actual thing itself, it went surprisingly well.
By the time Damian and Lian reappeared, it wasn’t starting to get dark out yet, but it was definitely starting to edge onto the evening. Jon and his brother had somehow appeared and joined the pair, and Roy was somewhat relieved that someone slightly more sensible had been present.
Lian yawned, and Roy picked her up almost by instinct.
“Thanks.”
“It was my pleasure. Um… Do you want my number?”
“Please. Um… sorry. Lian’s- grab my phone out of my pocket? I don’t have a lock code, you should be able to find it-“
Jason gave an amused laugh.
Later that night, once Lian was asleep, Roy finally had time to check his phone.
A few messages later, the contact for “Jason Todd” changed to the contact for “Jason (<3 ?)”, and a second date, without children organising it behind their backs, had been decided.