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Jim took a gulp of his coffee as he let the stairwell door shut behind him. After all these years, the movements were so ingrained that he could observe them from a distance: hunch the shoulders against the smoggy night air, walk ten paces straight ahead, flick on the batsignal. Then, turn away from the clanking, aged HVAC system and stare out at the city.
He waited for a moment, and then gave in, switching his hold on his coffee cup so he could grab the pack of smokes out of his pocket. He got the cigarette in his mouth, flicked his lighter—
Then the flame blew out.
Jim grimaced. Figured.
He’d stopped turning around to look for where Batman was. That had never gone well for him, anyway, and he’d eventually learned to accept his role in their usual back-and-forth encounters. Batman would make himself known when he was good and ready. Instead, Jim got the lighter going again, and shook his head when it blew out for a second time.
“I didn’t know you were so concerned for my health,” Jim said into the night sky. “My smoking habit’s not exactly new.”
A shadow fell across his back. “Tonight’s different.”
“Really.” Jim pulled the smoke out of his mouth, rolling it in his fingers as he took a drink from his coffee. He knew better than to ask questions, but he let the comment hang in the air for a moment in the hopes that Batman would expand on that.
He didn’t. “What do you have for me?”
Burying a sigh, Jim shrugged. “Not much. But I got a, uh, tip that said I should request a meeting tonight. I thought you might have something for me.”
“A tip,” Batman echoed.
Jim held his gaze steady. Maybe he’d been the one to light the signal, but he sure as hell wasn’t the organizer of this little meeting; that was squarely on the Bats. And Batman had to know where this particular message came from.
Then, a voice piped up. “Was it Oracle?”
Jim’s coffee sloshed wildly as he whipped around. He swore.
The small child who had appeared out of nowhere grinned. “Hey, Commish.”
Jim swore again.
Batman gave him a disappointed look, because apparently the juvenile crime fighter shouldn’t be exposed to foul language. Then he turned to the kid. “You were supposed to wait for my cue.”
The boy grinned. “I thought you gave it.”
“Hn.”
Jim stared. He’d been introduced to a parade of Batman’s team members over the years, but it had been a long time since he’d met someone this young. Although, given certain events in the last year or two, Jim should have known this was coming.
The boy was wearing a helmet, at least, which was a trend that Jim could get behind. The bright smile poking out beneath the mirrored visor had a gap towards the back where there was a missing baby tooth. A earthy red mohawk crested the top of the helmet, which matched the knee pads and utility belt the kid also wore. The thick-soled boots made him seem more grounded than the first Robin had ever been, but it didn’t change the fact that this kid was so young.
“This is Sparrow,” Batman introduced.
“Of course he is,” Jim muttered. His fingers moved the unlit smoke back to his mouth, but a disapproving look from Batman made him course-correct.
So. No swearing or smoking around the kid, huh? The irony wasn’t lost on Jim at all.
“Oracle probably just wanted us to be able to meet,” the kid (Sparrow) said as his wandering feet zig-zagged him across the rooftop. He swished his cape in time with every step. “Cause I’m gonna be with Batman lots now!”
“Sometimes,” Batman corrected.
With a huff and an eyeroll you could read even behind that visor, Sparrow hopped up onto the railing on the edge of the roof and started walking across it like a balance beam.
Jim eyed the Dark Knight but, no, apparently that wasn’t a safety concern at all.
“Sparrow is correct,” Batman said. “Oracle would have wanted you to be… introduced.”
“And it’s my first time out!” Sparrow chirped. “This is part of the experience.”
“It doesn’t happen as often as it used to,” Batman cautioned. Like he was managing expectations that had somehow been set in the past.
Sparrow didn’t acknowledge it, though, and instead started practicing handstands on the railing.
Jim’s eye twitched, but still nothing was said. Stifling a sigh, he tucked his unused cigarette back into his pocket. Yeah, these rooftop meetings didn’t happen nearly as much as they had in the old days. Part of it was because the Bats were a large team and often knew things before Jim even did. Technology also made it easier to share intel.
Mostly, it was because Jim was losing interest in freezing his ass off in the middle of the night, especially when he couldn’t even get a smoke break out of it.
That didn’t seem to be a concern at all for Sparrow, who was still twisting around with boundless energy.
“I’ll update the GCPD files,” Jim said, suddenly feeling very old.
Batman nodded. “Sparrow will always be working with me. And… in the case that he is alone, every effort should be made to contact one of my associates and inform them.”
Ah, so that’s where the line was. Good to know that there was one.
The kid seemed totally unbothered by that restriction, which was also a relief. Given his age, Jim figured they had maybe a couple years before it would become a problem. Hopefully.
“Hey, B!” Sparrow twisted to change directions and then threw himself off the railing in a backwards flip that had him landing on the concrete rooftop right in front of Batman. “Can we go by the zoo before we go home?”
Batman looked down at his young ‘associate’. “We’ve already planned our route for the night.”
“Yeah, but we’re so close from here! And it’s good to change things up, right? Keep the bad guys on their toes.”
“Hn.”
Jim hid a smirk. “Well. I should let you two go. Seems like you’ve got a full night ahead of you.”
Sparrow’s helmet bobbed as he nodded vigourously. “Yeah, cause I told B we need to stop at least three crimes before it counts as being out for the night and we’ve only done two so far! And I still don’t think the first one really counts because—”
He stopped when Batman put a large, heavy hand on his helmet. A sheepish smile appeared on his face. Probably for the best. Jim couldn’t feign ignorance about their activities tonight if he’d heard it all from the excited ramblings of a child vigilante.
Jim knew what was supposed to come next. He’d rehearsed the rhythm of these meetings countless times, and by now they were intuitive. He was supposed to look towards the Gotham skyline, turning his gaze away for just a fraction of a second, only to have Batman disappear into the night.
But tonight, he felt something different. Maybe it was the conversation and constant movement from the newest team member; maybe it was the way that unlit cigarette still somehow burned in Jim’s pocket. Whatever it was, Jim gave into the moment.
“You know,” he said, sticking his free hand into his coat pocket. “We’ve been hearing some chatter about Grant Park. Seems like there’s some kind of counterfeit operation going on. Selling fake designer goods to clueless tourists, that sort of thing”
You could never completely tell with the cowl, but Jim was pretty sure he felt Batman’s eyes narrow. “It’s unlikely there will be any tourists near the area this time of night.”
“Well, sure, but it makes you wonder what’s going on there after dark, right?”
“We should check it out!” Sparrow decided. “I mean, if we’re going there anyway…”
“Hn,” Batman replied.
“Guess I better leave you two to it,” Jim said. He turned around, reaching for the switch for the signal. “But while you’re here, you could also—”
But it was too late. Batman and his little partner had disappeared without a trace into the inky night.
Although Jim had a solid theory for where they were heading.
Carmen hitched her bag higher onto her shoulder and quickened her pace, walking down the sidewalk as fast as she could without showing how freaked out she actually was. She’d known this wasn’t the best plan, and if she’d realized how late it was getting, she obviously would have gone home hours ago. Instead, she’d gotten totally sucked into drafting that stupid Marlowe paper until she’d been forced to choose: spend the night in her cramped TA office or walk fifteen minutes across campus and sleep in an actual bed.
But walking across campus this late at night was starting to feel more and more sketchy. She’d heard all kinds of rumours about campus crime, and she knew that being twenty-two and a girl painted an awful target on her back. It was totally unfair, but that’s also just how the world was.
Shadows from the trees started to shift into eerie shapes, and a wave a prickles crawled up her back. She shoved her hand into her pocket and reached for her keys. That’s what people always said to do, right? Put the keys in between your fingers and make a fist?
Fuck, she was totally out of her depth. She should have camped out. She should have set an alarm. She should have done a whole pile of things instead of—
Suddenly, she could hear a voice coming from around the corner of the CompSci building.
“It’s not that bad, B.”
She stopped in her tracks and blew out a stuttering breath. It sounded like… a kid? And even though it was crazy late and a little weird to see a kid here on campus, it was probably a good sign, right? He didn’t seem upset or anything.
“No, seriously!” the boy continued. “You know I’ve had way worse. I’m barely even bleeding!”
“Still,” another voice replied. A man. “We need to consider more padding.”
“Aw, c’mon, I already have a ton of stuff on!”
“We’ll discuss it later.”
“Like, actually discuss it? Or are you just gonna decide all on your own?”
“Actually,” the man said. “But now isn’t the time for this; we have an audience.”
Carmen froze. Shit, how had they known she was there? She hadn’t even meant to be listening in, but something about those voices had pinged her interest and—
And now two figures were coming out onto the pathway and, holy shit, it was Batman and Sparrow! Carmen had heard all about it on the Gotham vigilante watch subreddit she was on, and a lot of people still thought it was rumours but here he was: Batman’s new kid.
He had a bandage on his arm and a rip in his sleeve, but everything else matched all the rumours she’d read. God, he was tiny, wasn’t he?
“Hi!” The kid said as he skipped forward. “I’m Sparrow! Are you okay?”
“I…” Suddenly, all the words she knew had escaped her brain. “I’m, uh…”
“Take a deep breath,” Sparrow coached. “You can match up with me if you want.”
And… yeah, it actually helped to pull in a gulp of air and hold it for a second right along with the kid. The feeling was starting to creep back to her fingers, and her brain came back online.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to, uh… I was just walking home,” she finally explained. “I’ll let you two get back to… fighting crime or… whatever.”
Batman stared her down. “It’s late to be out on your own.”
“Yeah, I, uh… It’s just that Marlowe’s been kicking my ass, you know?”
Batman nodded, like he somehow knew.
“I don’t remember enough about him,” Sparrow said, like that somehow made sense. “But, hey, we should walk you home! So you can be safe, right?”
“Oh, that’s not—”
“It would be wise,” Batman interrupted. “Campus violence is on the rise.”
Carmen hesitated for a second longer while her book bag dug into her shoulder. But it didn’t take long before she gave in. She didn’t want to do the rest of the walk on her own, anyway, and how the hell could she say no to Batman and his kid?
“It’s just, um, student housing on the east side of campus,” she said. “Not too far away.”
“We’ll walk with you,” Batman said. “And then that’s it for the night, Sparrow.”
“Aw… okay, fine.”
So, they set off together. It was probably the weirdest group ever, Carmen with the pile of books she was hauling home, Batman gliding soundlessly beside her, and Sparrow skipping all over. He’d go ahead a few paces and then double back, weaving between Carmen and Batman and then circling around them.
“So, are you a student here?” Sparrow chirped as he stomped his boots on the pavement. “What are you learning?”
Carmen tilted her head. She wouldn’t have guessed that the kid would start making small talk but… It was better than doing this whole thing in silence, right? “Yeah, I’m a grad student here. I’m studying English Literature.”
“That’s so cool!“ Sparrow exclaimed.
There was a shift in Batman’s posture. “How would you rate the program?”
Carmen blinked. “It’s… good.”
His stare somehow got even more intense. “Do you feel the school attracts and retains quality faculty?”
Carmen stared back. So much for small talk, huh?
And Batman still wasn’t done. “Do you think the department is properly funded? If you were to compare your experience now with your undergraduate—”
“B!” Sparrow complained. Like Batman was somehow being embarrassing. Then he looked back up at Carmen. “So, what books do you get to read for school? And are your teachers nice?”
Carmen smiled. “Yeah, they’re mostly nice. They can be pretty passionate, too. And, well, my focus is mostly on the Renaissance era but…”
She kept talking and Sparrow soaked it all in.
The walk home flew by.
Samina stared at the charred, smoking remains of her apartment building. The flames had been extinguished, but reality was still sinking in.
This was everything. Their clothes, their groceries for the week, the boys’ toys and books and stuffed animals. It was all the things they’d brought with them to America, and all the items they’d collected since, and now it was gone.
How did it even work here? Would she get the damage deposit back? Could she use this landlord as a reference? How was she going to get to work tomorrow when there was no apartment that the boys could stay home at?
A dark figure appeared close to her, and then a voice said. “Don’t forget to see the social worker.”
“What?” She turned and found herself staring at the Batman.
She’d heard all the rumours when they’d first came here, of course. Her sister thought she was crazy for settling in Gotham instead of Metropolis, but Samina had shrugged it all off and gone with the promise of a steady job in the city instead of listening to superstition and now she was facing off against—
Well, he was a man, not some mythical creature. At least there was that.
“The social worker,” Batman repeated. “They’ll have important resources for you and your family. Access to temporary housing, an emergency stipend, a clothing bank.”
He spoke in Arabic this time. Samina wanted to object because she could speak English very well, thank you, but also… It was nice not to have to think too hard right now. Not to second guess how she put her sentences together or stumble over an idiom she hadn’t heard before. Tonight had already been hard enough.
“Thank you,” she said. “That would be…” As much as she tried, her voice still wavered.
Batman nodded, still standing beside her.
Something about the stiff set to his shoulders and the way he stayed there, hovering, but not doing much else set Samina even more at ease. Yes, Batman was most certainly a man, wasn’t he?
“I will go speak with them,” she decided, catching sight of the two people Batman had pointed out. They wore matching windbreakers and had pamphlets in their hands with the Wayne Foundation logo on them. “I’ll bring the boys—”
And then that’s when she saw who her sons were talking to.
It was that new boy, Sparrow. The one who was on the news and who everyone at work was talking about. He looked even younger in person and was chattering away to Kabir and Yaseen, hands moving energetically and feet skipping about on the pavement. He was also speaking in Arabic.
Batman drew in a breath. “I can get him to—”
“No. It’s— it’s very kind of him to talk with the boys. They don’t have anyone else here to speak Arabic with, and with my sister being so far away—” She swallowed back everything else she was going to say. It wouldn’t matter to Batman, would it?
The man cleared his throat. He shifted his weight. “He… isn’t perfectly fluent yet. And too much of it is swear words.”
Samina laughed. “From his brother, I’ll bet. Robin?”
Batman shot her a look, and she shrugged it off.
“That’s how it always is with brothers. I have the same issue with my boys. The things Yaseen has learned from Kabir…”
“Hn,” Batman said.
Sparrow was getting the boys to speak more now, asking questions and pulling out answers from both of them. Then he produced a few lollipops out of his utility belt. Yaseen brightened instantly, and a subtle smile snuck onto Kabir’s face when he took the candy. Sparrow had already started eating one of his own.
Batman checked for something on his own belt, and then let out a stifled sigh.
“Thank you,” Samina said again, this time with even more meaning behind it. “We’ll speak to the social workers. I should take the boys anyway; I’m sure you have other things to do.”
Batman shook his head. “It’s fine. Sparrow is… clearly enjoying himself.”
A peel of youthful giggles rose up from the little group, and Samina found herself smiling. If you ignored the vigilante uniform and the smouldering building in the background, it felt like the sort of scene you’d see at any ordinary playground during the day.
“Go make a plan for your family,” Batman prompted her. “I’ll watch the boys.”
And how on earth could she say no to that?
Brayden stifled a yawn as he shoved a couple ketchup packets into his latest order and folded the paper bag over. The late shift at Bat Burger always sucked, and he still had another whole hour to get through. Moving automatically, he pivoted, took five steps, and then pushed the bag through the window just as it slid open.
“One Riddle-Me-Fish with Bat-fries,” he said. “Have a good—”
“Where’s my Zesti?” the asshole customer demanded.
“Oh, uh, right.” Brayden blinked, and reached for the cup that was waiting on the counter. “Yeah, sorry, I—”
“Whatever. You guys always fuck up here; one of these days I’m gonna quit coming!”
Brayden stared at the asshole. “…and you think that’s supposed to make me sad or something?”
As soon as the words fell out of his mouth, he knew he shouldn’t have said them. He already had one warning from mouthing off at customers and even though it wasn’t liked they’d fire him, Tamera and the other supervisors might start giving him the really shitty jobs instead of just the regular shitty ones.
The look on the asshole’s face made it worth it, though. It turned all red and twisted up into a snarl, but no actual words came out of his mouth because assholes never know what to do when people actually started pushing back against them. A second later, the guy revved his engine and peeled out of the drive-thru lane. You could still hear his motor rumbling from blocks away as he drove off.
“That anything I need to know about?”
Brayden pulled a neutral expression onto his face as he turned to face Tamera. “Uh… no. All good.”
She eyed him skeptically. “Just remember that you’re supposed to let me handle the jerk customers. It’s better for everyone if I do it on shift instead of having to deal with a complaint from corporate.”
“Yeah. I know.” If only his mouth could remember that. “Hey, if I get the milkshake machine cleaned out now, do you think I can get out of here a bit early? I’m trying to catch Dennis before he leaves for work.”
Tamera raised an eyebrow. “Trouble in paradise?”
Brayden rolled his eyes. “No. Just— it’s hard to make time during the week, you know? I work late, he works early…”
“Yeah, I know.” She thought about it for a second. “As long as it’s not busy, I can handle the rest of closing.”
Brayden grinned. “Thanks, Tamera. You’re the best, seriously.”
He’d been telling the truth; things weren’t bad with him and Dennis. It was just hard to actually enjoy time with your boyfriend when you were both getting as many shifts as you could to make rent and pay for food that wasn’t the leftovers at those jobs. There had been a few times that Brayden had been tempted to give up the night shifts, but he knew that’d come with a pay cut and there was no way they could move to an actually nice place if their income dipped.
Unfortunately, Brayden had just taken the nozzles off the milkshake machine when his headset pinged.
Burying a sigh, he hit the button for the microphone. “Welcome to Bat Burger. What can I get for you?”
“A Bat-Mite meal,” a gravelly voice answered. “With the Robin nuggets.”
Brayden’s eyebrows raised. “Really? Can’t say we get a lot of Bat-Mite orders this time of night.” Dammit, there went that mouth again.
Luckily, there was no hint of attitude when the voice replied. “Apple juice for the drink.”
“Sure.” Brayden went to type the order into the computer for Tamera to start. “And do you want to Jokerize your fries?”
“No—”
“Yeah, I do!” A new voice cut through, one that was slightly further away from the microphone. “It’s just a seasoning; don’t be weird about it, B.”
And, okay that explained the Bat-Mite meal. There was a kid in the car. Even though it was kinda late for a kid to be out at night, wasn’t it?
There weren’t any words being spoken, but Brayden sensed a sort of heavy silence coming through his headset. His finger hovered over the button.
“Fine,” the first voice finally answered. “Jokerize the fries.”
“Got it. Is that everything?”
“Yes.”
“No, B, you need to get something, too! C’mon!”
“Hn. A large black coffee.”
The kid let out a sigh. “Boring.”
“But needed. That’s everything for us.”
“Alright” Brayden said. “I’ll have your total at the window.”
He got to work as soon as the car drove away, grabbing a box of apple juice from the fridge and filling the cup of coffee. The pot was old, but Brayden figured this customer knew what they were getting into when they ordered a Bat Burger coffee after midnight, so it probably didn’t matter.
The food would be another minute or two, so Brayden went to the window with the drinks to get the payment part out of the way while they waited for the kitchen. The window slid open as he approached, and he stuck the juice box out first.
“It’s seven eighty— Holy shit, you’re Batman!”
The juice box fell out of Brayden’s hand, but freaking Batman caught it in midair and passed it over to—
“Hey! Sparrow, right? Everyone’s been talking about you, kid!”
The boy in the front seat straightened up. “Really? That’s so cool!”
“Well, you’re cool. My boyfriend’s nephew—” Brayden forced himself to stop when Batman cleared his throat and held out a folded up bill. “Uh, right. Sorry. It’s, uh, seven eighty-three—”
“Keep the change,” Batman said.
It was a freaking hundred dollar bill. Brayden stared at it. They weren’t even supposed to take bills this big but… if it came from Batman then…
“The coffee’s stale,” he blurted out. “Sorry. I can make a fresh—”
“That’s fine.” Batman reached out for the cup. “We can’t stay long.”
Oh, yeah, duh. Of course. They probably had, like… crime to fight and stuff. And they were still waiting on their food!
Brayden turned on his heel and dashed to the pass. “Tamera!”
She didn’t even look up from the fryer. “Okay, when I said to come to me for asshole customers, I didn’t think it’d be literally the next—”
“Batman’s here. And Sparrow!”
Her head snapped up. “Wait, really? They never come to this location!”
“I know! But it’s them and— and Sparrow’s the one who ordered the Bat-Mite meal and—”
“Holy shit!”
With a speed Brayden didn’t even know she had, Tamera loaded the Bat-Mite box with the nuggets and fries. Brayden shoved a toy in before closing it all up and then they both raced back to the window like the idiots they were.
“Here.” Brayden stuck the box out the window.
“Thanks!” Sparrow beamed from underneath his helmet. “What’s the toy?”
“I— don’t know.” He’d just grabbed one at random. Shit.
“S’okay. I have all the classic ones already, anyway. But, hey, who do I gotta talk to to get a Sparrow toy?”
“Uh…” Tamera stared. “Probably corporate?”
“It’d be so cool to have something on the menu, too!” Sparrow said.
“You’d still order the nuggets,” Batman said.
“Well, if it was something with ice cream in it…”
“Hn. Eat your food.”
“I can… reach out. Or something.” Tamera offered.
And at least now Brayden wasn’t the most awkward person here.
“It’s not necessary,” Batman said.
“But it’d be really cool!” Sparrow cut in. “Maybe next time we come—”
“This was a one-off,” Batman interrupted.
“Yeah, I know! But on the next one-off I was thinking we could…”
The rest was lost as the window rolled up. Batman gave a short nod to Brayden and Tamera, and then the Batmobile sped away into the night.
They stood in silence for a moment, still facing the open window. The smell of fry oil mixed with the pungent Gotham air.
“Whoa,” Tamera finally said.
All Brayden could do was nod.
And that settled it.
It didn’t matter how many asshole customers he got or how annoying the schedule was or how frustrating the job was. He was going to stay on the night shift for as long as they’d let him.