Title: Dough
Characters: Artemis Crock, Damian Wayne, and Dick Grayson. Mentions of Oliver Queen, Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake.
Pairings: friendship!ArtemisDamian and slight Traught(or bro!Traught if you want)
Summary: Just because Artemis loves children, doesn't mean she'll jump at every opportunity to take care of one. Much less on a Friday night where she can be doing something about her teenage social life.
Word Count: 2,171
Notes: Babysitter AU. Special thanks to tumblr user laraemi for proofreading it for me. IF YOU'RE NOT GONNA GIVE ME LOVE, GIVE IT TO HER BECAUSE SHE'S THAT NICE.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea(and knowledge of 3/4-year old children)

—

"Ollie, for the love of all that is good, it's a Friday night. I'm 19. I should be out living my life, not stuck with babysitting."

Artemis tries to reason with her guardian, Oliver Queen, on the car on the way to Wayne Manor. Apparently, Oliver had arranged for her to babysit the son of the elite Mr Wayne. When she could be with friends and meeting cute boys, like a normal teenager.

"I don't know why you're so upset about this," Oliver starts, "You love children! This is going to be a piece of cake to you, and don't forget about the pay."

She was about to continue the argument, but opted to sigh in defeat instead. She knows when she's lost, and the topic of money is her defeat. After Ollie had been her official guardian, she had refused to take pocket money from him. Simply put, she's broke. And there really is not point in going out if she's out of dough.

She slumps in her seat instead and readies herself to change into her babysitting mode. She can meet cute boys her age another day, then. Tonight, she has a date with a young Wayne.

—

"Don't worry, Mr. Wayne! You can leave him to me."

"And if she can't," Oliver comes up behind her, "I'll pay for the damages."

Artemis swats her guardian and gives him the evil-eye. He had filled her in on the details. Mr. Wayne and him were going to a party so he's pick her up on the way home. The boy's name is Damian Wayne, 4 years old. Supposedly, he has 3 other brothers and they're usually the ones who'll look after him but they're all got plans tonight. How convenient.

Artemis bends down to the 4-year old Wayne's eye level and offers him an open palm. He reflexively tightens his grip on his father's dress pants as he meets her sharp gray eyes.

"Hey," she greets him cautiously yet invitingly, "my name's Artemis. What's yours?"

She watches the boy patiently, as his expression continues to be cemented on annoyance with just a little bit of child-like fear, as he looks at her hand like he expects it to suddenly burst into flames. He looks up at his father, who Artemis sees at the corner of her eye give a firm nod, and then straight at her with those clouded blue eyes, as if questioning her liability.

Artemis crosses her arms on top of her knees and scoots closer to the youngest Wayne. She thinks back to previous babysitting experiences, trying to remember which strategy she can use on this boy here. A brief second later, she cups the side of her face, which faced the two adults who were watching them, so only Damian could see her mouth. On instinct, the boy leans his upper body towards her.

"I have," she mock whispered, and moves just a little bit closer to him, "a pit bull named Brucely."

Damian's mouth twitches as he visibly loosens his death-grip on his father's pants.

He likes this one. Perhaps he should keep her.

—

Damian sits cross-legged on the black leather couch as he watches Artemis move the huge coffee table in front of him, out to the very edge of the gigantic carpet. His eyes followed her every move, and he gives no indication of helping the girl. Not that she needs any form of help anyway. Artemis pushes the couch a few feet to his left, narrowly missing the lamp, with him still on top of it. He cocks an eyebrow at her as she disappears to the hallway with a "stay there" and comes back dragging four of the dining chairs.

What was this woman up to?

Artemis lines the four chairs along the open space between the couch the nearest one-seater sofa to his right. She puts the two floor lamps in the empty space, in the middle of the furniture, and stands back to inspect her work. He eyes her warily when she turns to him with an ecstatic grin.

"Hey Damian," her excitement practically bubbling out of her as her gray eyes twinkled with mischief, "do you know where we can get blankets and pillows. Lots and lots of pillows."

—

Damian tugs her towards his room by the hand. He's quiet, all throughout since his father left with that other blonde person with the stupid-looking goatee. He answered her previous question about the pillows by simply getting off his comfortable position on the couch, and silently walking out of the living room. He was surprised when the blonde girl suddenly grabbed his hand grinning, halfway out the room.

There was something different about this girl that his father brought over. Well, for one, he left her here. He usually brought some lady over and spends majority of his time with her. And then she was incredibly energetic, probably too much. But he liked that. She has as much bounce in her steps as that annoying blonde hair in her ponytail. She smiled a lot too, which should be creepy but somehow he couldn't seem to imagine her with any expression but that.

She starts swinging their joined hands lightly as they walk through the hallways and he thinks he probably should shake her hand off right then.

He doesn't.

—

After years and years of experience with children from as young as 2 years old to as old as 7 year-olds, Artemis had concluded long ago that there's only one sure-fire way to get children to sleep on time and have fun doing it.

Pillow forts, of course.

Artemis gathers as much pillow from Damian's room as she could, and leaves the blankets for the kid to carry. She's sure Mr. Wayne wouldn't mind having his living room temporarily turned into their own personal wonderland for one night. Besides, these were Damian's stuff anyway. She had total permission to use them.

She looks over to Damian, who was trying to figure the best way to carry a pile of blankets with his small body. He hadn't spoken a single word since she arrived, but she figures it doesn't matter. He seems fond of her, she noticed. She imagined the young Wayne to be an exact replica of his father, character-wise, but she was proved wrong from the moment she saw his small little figure hiding behind his precious daddy's legs. It was adorable. Though, she isn't that surprised since Damian is only a 4 year-old child. And if children aren't Artemis' forte besides archery, she doesn't know what is.

Damian's found a way to carry the blankets now; balancing them on top of his head and feeling so proud of his ingenuity. It's all Artemis can do but coo at the sight of it, reminding herself that Damian is still a Wayne. And nobody coos at a Wayne.

"You ready to make the greatest pillow fort ever?" she grins at him, instead. She's about to take a step when she hears an unfamiliar voice.

"We can get more from Dick's room," Damian says with a thoughtful expression on his face. Artemis stares for a while, unsure on what kind of reaction she should wear. He finally talked! But did he just say 'dick'? How did he even learn that?

"I'm sorry?" she splutters.

"Dick, my adoptive brother," and Artemis hazily recalls being told of 3 other Wayne boys' names, "He always says I can take pillows from him, anytime I want. He hogs all the pillows. Jason and Tim don't like it but he does it anyway."

"Um, I'm not sure we can, kiddo."

"Why not," Damian asks with genuine child innocence practically glistening in his eyes, "He always said I can take them."

Artemis doesn't really know what to say, because you shouldn't counter child logic. Unless it's warped. She knows Damian's applying prior knowledge to the current situation and doesn't understand the fact that you really shouldn't go in someone else's room if they're away. Even if they're your brothers.Especially if they're your brothers.

But what's life without risks? And an even more kick-ass pillow fort?

—

Dick was expecting to come home to a lot of thing. A chaotic mess, a screaming 4-year old boy, and a traumatized babysitter crying somewhere in the manor, are just some of the infinite possibilities when Damian is left in the care of somebody outside the Wayne family. Lots of things can happen, and that's why he rushed back home as soon as he could.

A gigantic pillow fort in the middle of the living room was far from the list of things he expected to come home to.

The 18-year old boy steps cautiously towards the fort, completely expecting it as some kind of booby trap. It wasn't. He pushes back one of the blankets with elephant prints—is this mine?— and pokes his head in to take a peek inside. He almost reeled back in shock when he finds a peaceful, sleeping Damian Wayne sleeping in a pile of pillows in the middle of the whole thing. He around for another figure, the genius who made his little brother sleep on time. It's barely past 9!

Seeing no other person inside the blanket tent, he retreats to let his brother enjoy his rare early rest. Whoever this person was, maybe they can keep her around for a few more days? Sweet merciful freedom from the demon child's clutches.

Where was this babysitter, anyway?

As if on cue, a delicious smell of pizza wafted through the air and Dick's stomach rumbles in response. He probably should have eaten something before he left, he thinks as his feet carried him to the kitchen. He pauses at the doorframe of the kitchen when he reaches. A girl, probably not far from his age, was cleaning up the kitchen counter of the mess. She was blonde, tall, and tanned. Asian, maybe? Half? She worked with so much concentration that she doesn't even notice his presence. Not until he glances at the oven and his stomach reminds him exactly why they were here in the first place.

She jumps back in a defensive fighting stance and Dick is momentarily impressed before he puts his hands up.

"Friend, not foe!" he chimes and she relaxes her form albeit still a bit cautious.

"I'm guessing you're one of Damian's brothers?" she asks and sticks her hand out to him, "I'm Artemis, by the way. Artemis Crock."

He gives her a charming smile and shakes her hand, "Richard Grayson. But please, call me Dick."

Artemis doesn't stop the laugh that bubbled out of her stomach and gives him a grin that rivaled his own.

"You must get a kick out of introducing yourself, huh?"

"Ladies don't exactly appreciate it but, then again, those are the best parts."

"So why are you here, anyway?" Artemis asks, while she continues cleaning up the place from her dinner preparations, "by the way, Mr. Wayne totally said I can use anything in the kitchen to make dinner so don't think I'm stealing your food or something."

"Definitely not," Dick moves beside the oven and peers inside, "Hey! Is that pizza pull-apart bread?"

He looked so excited that Artemis couldn't help but laugh at him, "Yes, it is. And before you ask, yes I'll share it with you. You didn't think I'd forget that it was stomach that said hello first."

"Sweet!" and he jumps to sit on the clean countertop facing her, "Anyway, about your question, I came home early because I thought the little demon was terrorizing you to tears. What on earth did you do anyway? He's sleeping! On time! Are you a sorceress?"

Artemis finishes up her clean-up, putting away the bottle of pizza sauce, before she hops on the counter across him.

"Are we talking about the same kid here? I thought Damian was kind of sweet today. A little too cold and distant for a 4-year old, but still an adorable 4-year old," she chooses to ignore the incredulous look he was giving her, "also, it's called strategies, not magic. It's really not that hard. A pillow fort solves everything. By the way, he was the one who said it was okay to take your sheets."

"I'll let it slide as long as I get full access to the fort, too," he smirks.

Artemis isn't sure what it is about Dick but she felt instantly comfortable around him. Like there was no ice to break between them, from the start. He was casual, charming, and funny to boot. It feels oddly like they've known each other for years, and they both know that isn't the case. Whatever it is, it's nice and Artemis is sure she shouldn't let this opportunity go to waste.

As the oven timer goes off and she shares her dinner with this boy—"Holy cow, this is amazing! Can we keep you?"— She figures this isn't such a bad Friday night after all.

—

A/N: An attempt to explore what I've learned from school, as a trainee pre-school teacher. If you think Damian's OOC, it's because he's 4 and doesn't fully understand the concept of social graces, on top of it being AU. Also a headcanon that Damian would have a child-crush on Artemis because she's that cool, just saying.