YJ: 25 Sweet Christmas Day 16-25

A/N: Because I apparently cannot count rather than posting every 5 days written I did 10 days on this one... anyways enjoy!

::Peanut Brittle::

As the little boy slunk towards the car it was not hard to miss the black eye forming on Richard's left eye and a split lip. The boy held a crumpled envelope in his hand. Alfred calmed his protective instincts of wanting to rush to the boy's side and seriously hurt whoever did this to his precious little boy. Richard climbed into the back seat of the car wordlessly. Alfred looked at the little boy through the rear-view mirror and watched the boy quietly waiting for Richard to open up to him first. The entire drive back to the manor the boy remained silent. Even as they reached home Richard remained silent sulking. The boy dutifully set the crumpled envelope on Bruce's desk before heading up to his room.

Once the boy was gone Alfred eyed the envelope. Richard was clearly troubled but for once he was not willing to confide in Alfred. With his duty, and pride as a butler and his love for the child Alfred simply must find out what was wrong with the boy. Had Richard got into a fight with other children on the school ground? Alfred was sure Richard was not one to raise his hand against other children. It was part of Richard's agreement with Bruce that he would never use his skills against another civilian. Alfred took out the letter on in the unsealed envelope. Scanning over the words on the page Alfred finally knew why the child was sulking. Richard had been in a fight, but true to his promise the boy never raised a hand and had suffered a beating at the hands of the bullies before teachers stopped them. All the other boys got was a verbal reprimand, a letter informing their parents, and all Richard got was this letter of apology addressed to Bruce. Any other nine-year-old boy would have fought back, especially if they were as capable as Richard was, but Richard was not just any nine-year-old. It must have been infuriating. Alfred instantly knew what he must do.

An hour later Alfred had finished his preparations and he headed out to locate Richard. Alfred did not have to look very hard, as he expected the boy was in the gym wailing on a punching bag. From the look of the boy's knuckles Alfred could tell that the boy has been at this for far too long.

"Master Richard." Alfred's voice made the boy stop and look up at the old man.

"Yes Alfred?" Richard responded trying hard to keep the frustration out of his voice.

"Would you like to help me out in the kitchen?" Alfred asked walking up to the boy with a silver tray with a damp and a dry towel and a bottle of water. "I think I have something more productive we can put your frustrations towards other than destroying your knuckles." That was when the little boy looked down at his bloody knuckles. The boy said nothing but took the towel and cleaned himself up a little. Alfred took this opportunity to bring over the first aid kit.

"You read the letter?" Richard asked as he let Alfred dress his wounds. Alfred smiled, the boy was perceptive as ever. Alfred didn't reply until they were cleaned up in the gym and en route to the kitchen.

"You upheld your vow admirably." Alfred said leading the boy towards the kitchen.

"I didn't want to." Richard murmured as the pair walked through the halls. "The whole time I was think about how I could hurt them. Like they were hurting me. Hurt them many times worse than they hurt me."

"Thoughts do not dictate the character of a man, it is the thoughts he chooses to action that defines him." Alfred said showing the boy a large slab of peanut brittle. "Now want to help me break this candy up?"

"I don't really feel like it." The boy sighed sitting on the stool letting his head droop onto his hands, his elbows propped up on the counter.

"Would it help if you pictured the brittle had their faces on it?" Alfred asked turning the large slab around so the boy could see the patterns of peanuts on the candy. Alfred had taken the liberty to make likeness of each of the three boys that had been picking on Richard out of peanuts on the brittle. Richard's eyes lit up a little and a small smile appeared as he took the rubber mallet from the old man's hand.

"Take that Johnny Newman." Richard said bringing it down on the slab on the middle of one of the figure's faces. "That's what you get for making fun of my mom." The little boy brought the mallet down once again on the other face. "Chad Weller that is what you get for making fun of my dad. And that is for calling me a charity case." As Richard brought the mallet down again and again the tears began to fall. Soon Richard's words dissolved into sobs. The boy was smashing the brittle in way too tiny bits, but Alfred does not stop him.

Finally Richard stopped letting the mallet fall for his hand. Richard looked up at Alfred and Alfred could see the boy's beautiful blue eyes glistening with tears of grief.

"I ruined it." Richard said looking down at the nearly powdered brittle.

"You did great." Alfred said pulling the little boy into a hug. Richard sobbed into Alfred's apron and the old man let him. He wished there was more he could do for the boy, the precious little boy that had lost his family only just a little over a year ago. From experience Alfred knew the first few Christmases would be especially hard, but Bruce never had to face the adversity at school to remind him of his loss. "No matter what they say. Just remember you are not alone. And even though we are not your real family by blood we are still family. We love you all the same."

"I know."

::Fudge::

"Oh Fudge!" Wally yelled throwing his controller down for what must be the twenty-ninth time that night.

"You surrender yet?" Robin cackled triumphantly.

"No! Never!" Wally said picking up his controller only to have his stomach growl loudly. "Snack break!" And before the younger boy could argue the speedster was off.

"Wally must have been really hungry." M'gann commented from her spot on the couch.

"Kid mouth is like a endless black hole for food. Being hungry implies he was full at one point." Artemis jabbed.

"Well he kept talking about fudge while he was playing the game." M'gann was confused. The two humans stared at the Martian for a moment the burst out laughing when they realized she was being serious.

"He was not actually trying to say Fudge Miss M." Robin explained between snickers.

"Yeah, he is just using it instead of a swear word that starts with F for the sake of the rugrat here." Artemis laughed ruffling Robin's hair.

"Hey!" Robin protested swatting her hand away. "God I am not even that much younger than you guys." Robin said indignantly smoothing out his hair. "Besides it's not like I haven't heard those words before. The whole reason he has the habit is Batman scared him straight when we were younger and he swore in front of me." Robin giggled at the memory.

"Wait so you mean when he says Fudge he really mean F*** ?" M'gann asked finally putting two and two together. The two other teens stared surprised to hear the word from M'gann. Before they could recover Wally returned.

"M'gann wanta Fudge?" Wally said his mouth full of fudge. M'gann's face turned a red as a tomato."

"You pervert!" M'gann slapped the teen across the face before taking off leaving a very confused Wally with a armful of fudge. Artemis and Robin were on the ground laughing.

"What? What did I say?"

::M'n'Ms::

Robin walked into Mount Justice's living room and found something very peculiar. Conner was sitting on the ground next to the coffee table with a large bowl of what looks like various types of M&Ms. Occasionally Conner would take one out and scrutinize it carefully staring at it like he was trying to burn a hole in it. After a while the teen would give up on it and toss the colourful candy aside to get a fresh one to look at.

"Hey Con what are you doing?" Robin asked hopping over the couch back to sit on the couch behind the older boy.

"Practicing." Conner grumbled.

"X-ray vision or heat?" Robin asked peering over Conner's shoulder at the red M&M.

"X-ray. But heat vision wouldn't be so bad now." Conner growled setting the bowl down. "It was M'gann's idea that if I practiced the powers may come faster. Wally thought of the candy thing." Robin smiled count on Wally to work M&Ms into a training exercise.

"So what are you trying to do?" Robin asked.

"I am supposed to look into the candy and serrated them into piles of the same kinds." Conner explained looking down annoyed at the sticky candy stains on his hands. "So much for melt in your mouth not your hands..." Robin smirked handing Conner a napkin.

"That's easy. This one is the peanut kind." Robin said plucking a red M&M out of the bowl. "And this one is just plain." Robin said taking a blue one. "And this one has a pretzel inside." Robin said finally taking out an orange one. Conner eyed the younger boy sceptically. Especially since Robin barely glanced at each of them. Sensing Conner's doubt Robin held out the candy for him. "Go on. Test them."

"How did you do it? X-ray glasses?" Conner asked after he ate each of the M&Ms Robin was right on all of them.

"It doesn't really take x-ray vision to do this. And practicing by staring at M&Ms won't give you x-ray vision." Robin giggled. "Look at the shapes. The ones that have stuff inside are a bit larger and shaped differently." Robin said holding up two different shaped M&Ms.

"And the one that has a peanut inside smells like peanuts." Robin tossed the plain one in his mouth and found a peanut one as an example next to the pretzel one.

"Who needs x-ray vision when you have the power of deduction." Robin grinned. "That's why Batman is better than Superman. It's not the power that makes the hero it's the man."Robin patted Conner on the shoulder. "Now let me show you what practice CAN teach you." Robin flicked an M&M in the air and caught it in his mouth.

Finally Conner smiled and joined in. After a few tries Conner was able to catch the candy in his mouth successfully.
"Like that?"

"Exactly." Robin grinned. "You've learned well my young Padawan."

::Peppermint Bark::

A man sat at the his small dining room table his four month old baby in his lap. The man didn't have a lot as a circus performer, but this Christmas he was the luckiest man in the world with his new born son. The man took a piece of his favourite candy from the plate on the table hand made by his loving wife. This was when the man noticed the blue eyed babe staring intently at the candy in his hand.

"You want some buddy?" The man cooed handing the candy to the baby who grabbed it with both of his tiny hands and brought it to his mouth.

"John! What are you doing?" His wife cried seeing the baby with the candy. "Who in their right mind gives a baby peppermint bark?"

"But he likes it Mary." John said in his own defence. The woman was not convinced the baby's face and hands were covered in chocolate. "You like Mama's peppermint bark don't you Dickie?" Mary shook her head and took the slobbery candy from the baby's hand. As she did that the little baby gave her a toothless grin his baby blue eyes sparkling.

"Mm... Mama!"

All messes forgotten the woman lifted the baby into her arms in joy not even caring the baby's hands were leaving tiny chocolaty prints all over her Sunday dress. This was the happiest moment of their lives.

"Master Richard are you alright?" Alfred's voice snapped Dick back to reality the sweet taste of chocolate and peppermint still in his mouth.

"Yeah." Dick said nibbling on the candy, slightly taken aback by this unknown nostalgia.

"Then why are you crying?" Dick hadn't realized he was crying until Alfred mentioned it.

"I am not sure."

::Buckeyes::

"What in the world are you eating?" Artemis mades a face in disgust as Wally shoved handfuls of brown and tan lumps into his mouth.

"Buckeyes." Wally said with his mouth full so it came out more like 'Bughais' but the team had long since learned to understand Wally with his mouth full.

"Buckeyes, a variety of chestnuts that may be poisonous to humans in large quantities." Conner stated looking at the speedster with concern.

"Oh no! Wally stop!" M'gann cried distressed by the amount Wally has eaten.

"It's okay Miss M, he is not eating that kind of Buckeyes." Robin smiled popping one into his mouth as the others watched in horror.

"Do you have a death wish?" Artemis said whacking both boys on the back of the head.

"Whoa chill." Robin said rubbing the back of his head. "It's a candy. They call them Buckeyes because they LOOK like Buckeyes. It's only peanut butter, sugar and chocolate."

"So these are NOT real Buckeyes? I was just hungry and thought it wouldn't hurt on the account of my metabolism. I thought they were a little too sweet and nutty." Wally confessed making the group groan.

"Wally!"

::Mochi::

"Why exactly are we doing this again?" Artemis asked as the group stood in pairs in the field just outside of Mount Justice.

"You mean other than because Batman told us to and we really don't want to piss him off? Not a clue." Wally said looking at the mortar filled with rice.

"And why do I have to be paired with Kid Mouth?" Artemis rolled her eyes at Wally who was unfortunately her partner. Personally Artemis would rather work with Robin who was paired with Conner. Or even M'gann but she was teamed up with Kaldur.

"This is a very good exercise to build synergy between two people. Your assigned pairs are carefully designed by Batman himself." Black Canary told the kids. "The task is to make mochi, Japanese rice cake. One of you will pound the rice with the mallet and the other will moisten and turn the rice in between each stroke. You must be careful and establish a rhythm to complete this task and not injure each other."

"Sounds simple enough." Wally said taking the mallet. "Just follow my lead."

"Think again Baywatch. I am not trusting you to swing that where my hand could be!" Artemis protested snatching the mallet away from the speedster.

"The stronger person should swing the mallet." Wally said taking it back gesturing over at Conner who was swung the mallet while Robin turned the rice. "You are a girl and therefore I am stronger than you. So I should swing the mallet."

"What the hell are you saying? I use a bow on a regular basis when it comes to upper body strength I bet you I am stronger than you are." Artemis ripped the mallet from his hand. "See?"

"Why don't you two just take turns?" Black Canary sighed feeling a headache coming on.

"Fine." Artemis growled.

"Fine." Wally sighed in defeat.

Twenty minutes later they were no closer to making mochi than they were twenty minutes ago while the other teams have gotten completely in sync. Conner and Robin had finished their batch first being perfectly in sync Conner keeping in mind Robin's human pace and Robin watching for Conner's lead. Kaldur and M'gann were making great progress both communicating efficiently to each other. Artemis and Wally's rice were simply smashed pieces nothing resembling the smooth dough like ball the others had achieved.

"Okay... this is not working." Artemis admitted. They were both exhausted but nothing has really been achieved.

"Tell me about it." Wally sighed.

"The sooner we get this done the sooner we will be out of each other's hair." Artemis said handing the mallet to Wally. "I am tired of swinging that thing. You swing I will turn. Hit my hand and I will castrate you." Wally was too tired to argue.

"Fine."

"Done!" Artemis announced as the mochi formed in perfect consistency in the mortar.

"Finally!" Wally collapsed onto the grass next to the mortar. "Do we get to eat it now?"

"Always thinking about your stomach." Artemis chuckled handing him a bowl of sweet red bean paste. "You are supposed to put this in the middle."

"Dis ish goo." Wally said shoving the mochi into his mouth.

"Not bad." Artemis said after taking a bite and swallowing her mochi.

"What do you know?" Wally said swallowing his food he held up his fist to Artemis and the girl obliged him. "We made a fine team in the end."

::Jawbreaker::

"Do you think a Jawbreaker can break a Kryptonian jaw?" Wally asked as he laid in his sleeping bag under the stars sucking on a Jawbreaker.

"Of course not. It can't really even break a human jaw." Roy sighed form next on the other side of Dick tasting the smooth candy in his mouth.

"That's because you are not chewing on it." Wally clicked his teeth against the candy. The teens laid under the stars one of their rare camping trips together.

"The pain will make you stop biting before you actually break your jaw. Plus I don't think human jaw has the strength to break itself." Dick piped up from his spot in the middle.

"You are like the least fun ten-year-old I've ever met." Wally made a face.

"No he is just smart than you." Roy laughed.

"A Kryptonite laced Jawbreaker probably could though." Dick continued as his Jawbreaker changed flavour in his mouth. "Though it would likely just poison the Kryptonian rather than break his jaw." Dick giggled at his own conclusion.

"I take that back." Wally made a face. "You are like the creepiest ten-year-old I have ever met."

::Chocolate-covered Coffee Beans::

It was six o'clock on Christmas morning and Bruce Wayne had finally just gotten out of his suit and into his pyjamas to head to bed. After a long night of Christmas parties as Bruce Wayne and later a party out on the streets with the crooks of Gotham as Batman it was time for a well deserved rest.

"Bruce!" Dick's voice made Bruce peel opened his tired eyes to see the ecstatic little boy come into his room.

"Dick what is it?" Bruce groan sitting up.

"It is Christmas morning." Dick said jumping onto Bruce's bed. "It's time to open presents!" The boy was bouncing off the walls and it was not really a figure of speech. Too tired to argue Bruce let Dick drag him down stairs to the living room.

"Good morning sir." Alfred said handing Bruce a cup of coffee as the man slumped down tiredly on the couch as Dick distributed the presents and began working on the very large pile he had to open. Bruce opened his presents and watched Dick play happily with all the toys and presents he got from friends and family.

"How is it that he has so much energy?" Bruce marvelled at the ten-year-old boy's excitement. "He was at all the parties and went for patrol with me afterwards. How in the world is he still functioning when I can barely keep my eyes open."

"It's the magic of Christmas Master Bruce." Alfred smiled glad that this Christmas was merrier than the last for his little family.

After an hour of festivities the child finally fell asleep on the floor with a new book he got from Clark. Bruce went over and scooped up the boy into his arms and carried him to his room.

"Looks like the chocolate-covered coffee beans finally wore off." Alfred chuckled as Bruce tucked the boy into bed.

"How in the world did he get his hands on those?" Bruce raised an eye brow.

"I have no idea sir."

::Candied Cherries::

"Please!" Wally begged.

"That is really not the way you learn how to do something." Dick said not looking up from his laptop screen

"But it's due tomorrow!" Wally whined.

"I cannot just do it for you. It's cheating." Dick sighed.

"Can you at least help me with it?" Wally tossed the paper in the air. "How can something that is supposed to be based on logic make so little sense?"

"For the record." Dick said swerving around in his computer chair. "You are asking a ten year old to help you with your sixth grade math homework."

"Yeah yeah, laugh all you want Mr. Mathleet." Wally said dropping to his knees. "Will you help me with my math homework? Pretty please with a cherry on top." Dick giggled.

"Make that a candied cherry and you have a deal."

::Hersey Kisses::

"Artemis!" Robin said cheerfully approaching the girl.

"Yes Robin?" Artemis turned to face the boy.

"Look up." Robin said pointing at the mistletoe hanging over their head. The girl saw it and blushed at the thought of kissing a thirteen year old. "A tradition is a tradition!" Robin leaned in and Artemis squeezed her eyes shut waiting for the kiss, but it never came. Instead she felt something placed in her hand. Artemis opened her eyes again and found a small chocolate wrapped in silver foil in her hand. Robin gave her a wink and giggled. "Merry Christmas Artemis."

Across the room Wally zipped up next to M'gann one hand holding mistletoe over their heads.

"Hey hot stuff! Look what we are standing under." Wally leaned in suggestively.

"Ummm... Wally..." M'gann leaned away uncomfortably at the boy's advance. Conner looked like he was about to snap Wally in half. Suddenly Robin appeared out of nowhere between Wally and M'gann handing them each a Hershey's Kiss.

"Kisses received!" Robin said taking the mistletoe away from Wally to prevent any further disasters.

From the kitchen Robin heard an uncharacteristic giggle and went to investigate. Green Arrow and Black Canary stood together under the mistletoe ready to lock lips. Before their lips connected a Hershey's kiss was placed in between them. Causing the adults to break apart slightly flustered and confused at the appearance of the candy and the disappearance of the mistletoe.

"Hey Robin." Zatanna's voice stopped Robin in his tracks. "Look where we are standing."

"Mistletoe." Robin groaned inwardly, the girl didn't seem to notice as she leaned in for a kiss. For a moment Robin contemplated kissing her but someone cleared their throat from the shadows. Robin held up a Hershey's kiss to her lips instead causing her to open her eyes in surprise. "Merry Christmas!" Robin said disappearing with the mistletoe.

"Report." Batman said stoically as Robin came into the briefing room.

"I have recovered all seventeen mistletoes and successfully kept this Christmas party rated PG." Robin said putting the offensive decorations on the table. "Can I go enjoy the party now? Who the heck put them all up anyways?"

"Very well go on." Batman said as Superman entered the room.

"Batman there is..." Superman stopped as Robin giggled.

"What?" Batman scowled clearly not amused.

"Looks like I missed one." Robin laughed and the adults followed the boy's gaze to see the mistletoe hanging above them. There was an awkward moment and Robin took that opportunity to slip away. . Robin knew he would get a talking to about this afterwards but for now it was hilarious.

Hope everyone enjoyed that! And have a wonderful holidays!