"Thanks for sending me that video of Robin, its one of the best ones yet." Diana told Dinah as they headed towards the zeta tubes, getting ready to exit the Cave. Overhearing the word 'video' and Robin's name, this caught the attention of Artemis, who was training with Kaldur.
"Yet?" she asked the two older heroines. M'gann and Connor paused in their combat as well to see where this was going.
The two women shared a look as all attention was suddenly on them. "Nothing," Dinah told them quickly, "It's really nothing."
"Wait, do you guys have, like, home videos of Robin?" Artemis asked, smirking as she connected the dots.
"They're not really 'home videos' cause he wasn't actually at his home," - "We've known him a long time, I'm sure he doesn't mind" - "Besides, he was such a cute kid!" they both talked over each other, making excuses.
Excited at the mental image of a cute, 9 year old Robin, M'gann squealed a little as she asked, "Could we see one?"
Diana gave her blonde friend a contemplative look. "As long as his ID wasn't revealed..." she trailed off, and Dinah finished with "I wouldn't really see the harm in it. Except for Robin being embarrased... but hey, that's what Aunts are for, right? "
Dinah got her phone out and started scrolling through her photo library. Picking the album dedicated to her favorite acrobat, she chose a video as the team crowded around her.
The video was unsteady for a moment as the person holding the camera-phone, Dinah, pointed the lens discreetly at Robin.
He was 9 years old, and shockingly small. Sitting at a table, he restlessly kicked his feet back and forth as he looked at his hand of cards, then gave those sitting around him a sharp, assessing look.
Cheez-its were distributed all around the table, with a big pile in the middle, apparently replacing actual currency in the card game.
To Robin's right was Green Arrow, wearing a very pained grimace, and who was losing badly. Flash was on Robin's left, frustrated as he threw a card down much harder than necessary. Superman, and Wonder Woman also sat at the table, their poker faces in various stages of breaking down.
Robin was humming 'Stuck in the Middle With You', the part of the song that went 'Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you' over and over again. Green Arrow was giving him dirty looks because of it.
Robin smirked at he scrutinized the players, then in a higher and more childish voice, told the Leaguers to "Read 'em and weep" as he layed his cards on the table. Because he was short, the kid stood on his chair, leaned over the table, and scooped the huge pile of cheez-its towards himself. Everyone else either flung their cards at the table in frustration, swore, or did both to vent their aggravation.
The 9 year old let out his signature cackle right before the video was ended.
All of the teens were laughing at the older heroes, who just told them to "Try is sometime and see how you like it."
"And the worst part,", Diana added, "Was that Batman warned us against playing cards with him." The dark haired woman then chose the next video.
The video showed Robin sitting on a beige couch from a bit of a distance, but not so far away that the camera couldn't pick up the audio. The 9 year old was talking on his phone.
"But why?" he asked the person on the other side of the call.
"No." he said, aggravated.
"I'm fine. But they banned hide and seek." he complained.
"Hey Batman, I was wondering, why do the girls not wear much?"
"I'm not going to ask them!" Robin exclaimed, annoyed.
"Cause you're supposed to know everything, duh."
He silently listened for about 20 seconds.
"A distraction?"
"Oh."
"No, I'm just glad the guy heroes don't wear outfits like the girls."
Everyone was amused at this as Dinah chose another video. Kaldur and Connor were simply in agreement with Robin, and thankful their hero outfits were not like the girls'.
The video was blurred for a moment while fingers were in front of the camera lens, but it was steadied as it focused on Robin...
Who was doing a handstand on the back of a kitchen chair. How the chair didn't fall over from it was a mystery, especially when he started using only one arm to support himself, switching from one side to the other.
Green Arrow walked by, giving him a bemused look as he typed on a datapad.
"Hey Ollie." Robin casually greeted, causing Green Arrow to drop the datapad and look at the child in shock.
"How did you-" he started to ask in alarm, but Robin cut him off as he non-chalantly told him, "I pickpocketed your wallet earlier and looked at your drivers license."
Green Arrow continued to stare at him, even more stunned at this revelation.
Robin then switched to supporting himself with only 1 thumb as calmly remarked, "Might be wantin' to have that picture retaken."
As the video ended, Artemis started to say, "That little shi-" but with a reproachful look from Dinah, shut her mouth.
"Oh, do this one," Diana spoke up, choosing another video.
The video showed a table, with robin resting his head in folded arms on it. He was completely motionless, and appeared to be...pouting.
From behind the camera lens, Flash asked Diana, "What's wrong with the kid?"
"He's sulking." she replied.
"Why?" the speedster asked.
Diana sighed. "He was casually throwing knives because he was bored, and ended up creating a ten foot wide bat-signa - made of knives embedded in the wall. I confiscated them."
Flash snorted in laughter, then said, "I'll see if I can cheer him up."
"Well, good luck." she told him.
Flash started heading towards Robin, and reassured Diana with a confident, "Don't worry, I have a very dramatic nephew - I got this."
And true to his word, 10 seconds later Flash had Robin shrieking from laughter.
After all, piggyback rides from speedsters are insanely fun.
M'gann started laughing. "Robin is dramatic!" she agreed, then mumbled something about Robin and his silences for absent comrades.
Artemis was snickering as she realized Flash was talking about Wally when he mentioned his 'dramatic nephew'.
The zeta tubes suddenly activated, and the group realized how odd they looked, huddled around Dinah's phone watching the videos...they didn't have more than two seconds to scatter as the computer announced 'Robin, B01, Kid Flash, B03"
Upon seeing Wonder Woman and Black Canary, Kid Flash smirked and immediately started flirting. "Hello ladies," he greeted.
Robin smacked his best friend upside the head and asked, "Dude, don't you remember what happened last time you hit on Canary?"
"Shut it, bird-brain," Wally muttered.
"You got served," Robin answered the question, laughing as he dodged Wally's attempted headlock, then elbowed the redhead. This erupted into a full blown tussle between the two, and 10 seconds later "Kid Flash, Fail" rang out across the room.
Right before catching the zeta with Diana, Dinah clicked 'save' on the new video.
Shoutout to AthenaMonaLisa, who I get a real laugh out of - thanks for your funny reviews, booyah ;)
Before everyone asks: my story Young Justice Watches Young Justice (lets call it YJWYJ for short) will be updated more towards the end of the month - I'm 1/3 done with the next chapter.
Needed a small break from it, so wrote this.
We're hanging out at this place with a ping pong table, its so much fun to do the Drake and Josh thing where you go, "Are you prepared, to ping the pong?" "Your pong is no match for my ping" and so forth. Except we don't break any windows.
Will be doing one more different story update to fill in the time between this and the next chapter of YJWYJ, so hang in there guys :)