I came up with this story while writing a new chapter for my other story. I realized that, as a nine year old, Dick was practically still a baby when he joined Batman's crusade. Aww! It made me want to huggle him. Anyway, enjoy!

Dick Grayson bounded into the kitchen, barely holding on to his excitement. "Alfred? Alfred!" Dick called as he began to search the kitchen high and low. The butler was nowhere to be seen. Undaunted, Dick moved into the hall. Nothing and no one.

Scrunching his nose, Dick turned a cartwheel and raced over to the staircase. "Alfred! I'm going to slide down the banister and jump onto the chandelier!" Dick hollered as loudly as he could. With a grin, Dick flipped onto his hands and pushed himself into the air. He landed with a twirl at the top of the banister. Looking around, Dick shrugged and used his fingers to frame the staircase, plotting exactly how his plan would work. If he leapt off the banister at just the right point, he could-

"Any attempt to slide down that banister and I assure you, you will be scrubbing and polishing pots and pans for a week."

Dick gracefully spun on his toes to see Alfred standing behind him, duster in hand. Dick back-flipped off the banister with a grin. "What took you so long?" he asked as Alfred began dusting the spot he had just vacated.

"I assume this was your attempt to gain my attention," he said, dodging Dick's question.

"Yeah. I wanted to show you something. Look!" Dick grinned broadly, showing off his teeth.

"A very nice smile, Master Dick."

"No! Look!" Dick wiggled his front tooth with his tongue. "Do you think it's almost ready to come out?"

"Well, let's see." Alfred crouched down to Dick's level and inspected his teeth. Dick widened his smile a little a wiggled his tooth again. "May I?" Alfred asked. Dick nodded and Alfred gently jiggled the tooth with a finger. "It's not quite ready to come out on his own. However, there are ways to help it along."

"What? What ways?" Dick asked curiously. The sooner this tooth came out, the sooner he could get money from the tooth fairy. Not that he was convinced the tooth fairy existed, but when money was involved it was better to be safe than sorry. The same principle applied to a belief in Santa Claus.

Alfred pushed himself up and started walking towards the nearest washroom. "It's quite simple actually. All we need is some floss and a door."

"Really?" Dick said, trailing behind the old man. "How does that work?"

"We simply tie one end of the floss around your tooth-"

"Uh-huh."

Alfred began rooting through the cupboards and pulled out a roll of floss. "And then we tie the other end to a door handle."

"Uh-huh. Then what?" Dick asked curiously, tilting his head to the side as Alfred pulled out a foot of floss.

"And then we slam the door shut and pop- out it will come."

"What?" Dick's hands flew to his mouth, protecting it from Alfred's evil plot. "No way! I can wait!" And with that, Dick turned and high-tailed it out of there.

Maybe Bruce would have a better idea. Dick found him in the Batcave, under the Batmobile with only his feet sticking out. A toolbox sat next to his feet and Dick could hear him grumbling about something.

"Bruce?" Dick asked, bending to the side to try and see underneath the car.

There was a clang and then more grumbling before Bruce rolled out. "Dick?"

"What chya doin'?" Dick asked, rocking back and forth on his heels nonchalantly.

"Maintenance," Bruce replied gruffly. The older man raised an eyebrow, as if waiting for an explanation as to why Dick was there, interrupting his work.

"Oh, yeah. Look!" Dick showed off his tooth. "I asked Alfred if there was some way to get it out and do you know what he wanted to do? He wanted to tie some floss around it and then-"

"Dick can you pass me some pliers."

"Oh, sure." Dick rummaged through the toolbox and pulled out the tool, handing it off to Bruce. "And then he was going to tie it to a door and-"

Before Dick could react, Bruce had the pliers on his tooth and pulled. The tooth came out a second later. Dick stood stock-still, stunned. Bruce grabbed his hand and dropped the tooth into his palm before sliding back under the Batmobile.

Dick blinked, his mouth hanging open in surprise. He looked back and forth between his tooth and Bruce's feet.

"Anything else, Dick?" Bruce asked.

Dick blinked again and then shook his head. "No, I guess not… Thanks…" He turned to leave but Bruce's voice made him pause.

"Don't forget to put that under your pillow. I hear the price of teeth went up- a dollar a tooth."

Dick grinned and nodded vigorously. "Okay! Thanks Bruce!" And with that, he raced out of the Batcave.

Robin fidgeted in his spot atop a gargoyle. He cast a quick glance at Batman, who was motionless at the edge of the roof, holding a set of binoculars up to his eyes. Robin took a deep breath and leaned forward, mimicking Batman's stance, trying to stay as still as he could. It wasn't easy. Surveillance was the most boring part of this job.

They were tracking a drug shipment. Tonight there was supposed to be a big exchange. Batman hoped to catch Two-Face in the take-down.

A car suddenly pulled up to the Docks. Robin felt rather than saw Batman tense. "Get ready," Batman's deep voice broke through the two hour-long silence.

"Is Two-Face there?" Robin asked.

"No," Batman growled.

"But we're going down anyway?"

"Unless you want three million worth of drugs on the street, yes." Batman looked at Robin expectantly, as if he had a choice in the matter.

"Oh, yeah, no, of course not," Robin mumbled.

Without a word, Batman took out his grappling gun and shot off a line. Robin immediately followed.

It was always a thrill when they surprised a group of thugs. They never really expected Batman to show up and when he did, the first few moments were one of pure panic and terror. But then, as always, the bad guys got their act together. First they would start shooting. But both Batman and Robin were too quick to get hit and more often than not, one of the criminals ended up getting hit with their friend's bullet.

Then it turned to fisticuffs. Robin liked that the best. It gave him a chance to really show off. No one expected such a small boy to be so adept at hand to hand combat. But all the training Batman had given him in the martial arts coupled with his years of experience as an acrobat made him surprisingly lethal.

Of course, every now and then some guy got in a lucky shot. Like now. A meaty fist to the chest sent Robin crashing into a few crates. As he pushed aside the debris, he looked up to find a few thugs standing over him. He could hear Batman in the background, fighting another group which meant, for the moment, he was on his own.

"Well hello there, Tinkerbell," one of the men sneered. "Ain't you up past your bed time?"

"A little boy like you ought to be asleep," another agreed.

"You know what happens to kiddies who stay up past their beddy-bye time? They end up sleeping with the fishes!"

Robin growled, baring his teeth at the thugs. But instead of intimidating them, the men broke into laughter. "Would you look at that! He's missing his front tooth!"

"Someone probably knocked it out of his head."

"Are you kidding? Look at him! He's what, seven? He probably has it tucked under his pillow right now, hoping the tooth fairy will pay him a visit. Ain't that sweet."

"Adorable. What a cute little baby he is!"

Robin had had just about enough of their teasing. Reaching into his belt, he pulled out a smoke capsule. They didn't seem to notice, too content to continue jeering. Robin smirked and tossed the capsule. It immediately exploded, filling the area with smoke. Robin jumped to his feet and jumped into the air, crashing down onto one of the thug's shoulders. A few flips, twists, punches and kicks later, the men were on the ground, dazed and confused. Robin stood over them triumphantly, hands on his hips. A moment later, Batman emerged through the smoke.

"All taken care of, Boss," Robin crowed.

Batman smirked and nodded, filling Robin with pride. Together, the two vigilantes dragged the crooks together. As Batman tied them up, Robin ambled about the scene. Something caught his attention and he knelt down to take a closer look. A bloodied tooth lay on the ground, right by where he had fought the group of bad guy. Grinning broadly, Robin scooped it up and hurried to the tied up group of criminals.

"Who lost a tooth?" he asked, holding it out. One of them men he had fought sneered and spat out a mouthful of blood. Robin stuck his tongue out at him. "Well ain't that adorable! What are you, like seven?" Robin looked up at Batman. "Do you think the tooth fairy will give me money for this one too?"

One of the criminals snorted at the question but quickly fell quiet when Batman smacked him upside the head. Batman looked at Robin seriously and nodded. "I think it's worth double," he said without a hint of amusement. But Robin didn't miss the slight twitch of the man's lips.

Robin grinned mischievously. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go! For two dollars a tooth, I'm ready to knock some heads together!" And with that, Robin shot off a line and disappeared, his cheerful cackle filling the air.