Caffeine Withdrawal | T. Drake ✔

[06] Nightwing's Special Ingredient

The city had dissolved into darkness of the night but the protectors were out on their duties; the Bat vigilantes were patrolling every nook and cranny of Gotham. Their sole task was to make sure the citizens were safe and the criminals were brought to justice.

And among them was Tim, in his Red Robin suit, his system fully upgraded to deal with whatever chaos the night had in store for him. He had been assigned patrol with Damian, aka the Demon Robin, as his partner.

To say that he was dreading each second of it would be merely an understatement.

Robin was the new addition to their team because Bruce had very recently discovered that his son existed. And ever since then, Damian Al Ghul Wayne had launched himself as an everlasting threat upon the remaining Wayne boys.

The only two people the kid could act decently with were Bruce and Alfred. Other than that he was on slightly tolerable terms with Richard but quite hostile towards Tim and Jay.

It had been almost two years since Damian had become a part of the family but he had been allowed to go out on patrol just then, not because of his age but due to his inability to control his anger. And surely Batman didn't want his reputation to get tarnished by his own son with anger management issues.

Though Red Hood was kept clearly out of the question in that topic.

"Looks like no one wants to get beaten up today," Robin remarked, his eyes trained on the city streets through the binoculars in his hand.

"That's a good thing," Red Robin remarked offhandedly, unscrewing the tiny flask of coffee he kept with him.

"Speak for yourself. You're so lazy I bet Mother would have dumped you in the ocean if you were her son instead of me," Robin remarked sourly.

He shrugged it off because by then he had begun to get accustomed to Damian's attitude, "seems like you've gotten that threat multiple times as well."

"But I'm here, aren't I?"

"Unfortunately," he had placed his flask back and was focusing through his binoculars at the intricate network of alleys spread below, "or maybe you did get dumped with us instead of the ocean, think about it."

The boy's eyes narrowed into slits though concealed by the mask covering his face as he muttered in a low threatening growl, "I swear, Drake..."

"No names on the field," he interrupted him, "and oh look, you're lucky. Look at the alley behind the Iceberg Lounge. Potential mugging."

Robin quickly looked where he had been directed and stood up from his perch, deciding to deal with the criminals first then give Red Robin the treats he deserved, "let's go."

"On it."

Despite their persistent arguments, the two made a great team. Damian was the aggressive one and Tim was quite aware of all his moves so he let him vent out his anger on the poor criminals mostly while keeping a low profile himself. But of course he made sure that the younger one didn't spiral out of control.

Damian preferred patrol with him for that very reason because with Batman, he had to follow the rules, with Nightwing he had to be less violent, with Red Hood he couldn't decide whether to kick the thug's ass or Hood's, but with Red Robin he felt most at ease.

Plus he got to taunt him for the whole night but the fun in that had started to decrease because Tim had gotten used to his insults and abandoned his habit of retaliating.

Red Robin escorted the woman and her little boy to safety while Robin took care of the mugger in the meanwhile. When he returned though, the thug was down and not in the state to get up. 

"Alright, alright that's enough. May I take the cuffs out now, Robin?"

Robin left the terrified criminal though his stare was cold and hard, not leaving the man's eyes, "sure. Bet this taught you not to judge anything on its size."

Red Robin had slammed the handcuffs on the criminal, "truer words haven't been spoken. Did you know, the Anglo Saxon King Aethelwulf died from a bee sting?"

Robin was shaking his head as if disappointed, "you never leave an opportunity to show off."

"What?" He smiled playfully, "I was just sharing some knowledge, they say spread knowledge like love."

"Keep both to yourself please, that would be more appreciated," the latter took one long look at him as if he had said something unbelievable, "and tell me again what's in your flask?"

"Coffee," he replied nonchalantly, "but it went cold ages ago and now doesn't taste that good."

"I highly doubt that it's just coffee."

"Though I had asked Nightwing to brew it for me tonight so maybe his optimism is seeping inside as well," Red Robin remarked after a short pause.

"Oh," Robin straightened, "I see. So it's Nightwing's special happy ingredient not some sort of drug overdose." 

"There's no special ingredient, he just adds twice the amount of sugar," he laughed, "but I assure you, kiddo, I may as well get high on coffee than anything else. So if you're thinking I nicked Hood's alcohol supply, you're wrong."

Robin's head snapped towards him in alarm, "he has an alcohol supply?"

"Wait, you didn't know?" Red Robin leaned back dramatically at which the other kicked him in the shin, making him lose his balance and stumble, "damn, that's rude."

"And you're being insufferable so it's justified," he mumbled, handing over the thug to the GCPD who had arrived on the scene as well and then left rather soon.

There was a gust of wind and Nightwing landed right in front of the two vigilantes, the blue on his suit gleaming brightly in the streetlight, "I heard someone summon me?"

"Do you try to pop up each time you hear the word Nightwing? It would get hard because you aren't a Kryptonian and don't have super hearing."

"I try though," he smiled brightly, "anyway, came here to tell you guys that we're wrapping up."

Damian let out a sigh of relief, "oh good finally. This night was boring."

Richard's gaze flickered towards his companion who merely shrugged, "Robin only got to beat one person's ass tonight so he's in a mood. I bet he was expecting some major gang fight but sadly nothing else happened."

"No I was not."

"Yes you were."

Though before the argument could reach peak, Nightwing interrupted, "aaaand I almost forgot that I had brought donuts for you guys as well on my way here."

He handed them their donut bags and a small smile flickered on Robin's face as well. Nightwing was quite unarguably the mother hen of the Bat vigilantes who believed that donuts on stake outs helped in functioning better.

"What about Hood? Has he gotten his share?" Tim spoke up.

"Of course he has. He stole my donut bag as well," Nightwing shrugged though a fond smile played upon his lips. 

Red Robin had quickly flung an arm over his shoulders, offering him his donut bag, "we can always share, there's plenty for both of us."

The smile on Nightwing's face widened but he burst out laughing when he tried to ruffle Tim's hair but found that the cowl had covered it all up so he had to resort to giving a simple affectionate pat on the head, "thanks buddy."

"Anytime."

***