Love Does Not Fix Everything

Barry looked down at his watch. They had been there for almost an entire hour and yet Bruce didn't arrive at the League meeting. Good thing Oliver and Hal had brought the kid with them too, otherwise Wally’d be already bored to death and nagging him to leave.

“Could we just leave?” Thankfully Hal spoke everyone’s mind, “We needed Bat’s report for the meeting and he’s not here. I have stuff to do at home and Kyle’s got homework.”

“Yeah, Wally too. Maybe we could reschedule…”

“LET MEE GOOOOO!” a loud wailing interrupted the speedster.

“Stop it, Jason!” Everyone turned to the door. Bruce was not known for losing his temper.

“YOU STOP HURTING ME!” the boy cried even harder, and some of the other League members were unable to restrain themselves and peeked outside. 

“What is he doing, Uncle Barry?” Wally zoomed to his uncle’s side, just as worried as the others because of the kid’s words.

“Nothing, Wally, Bruce’s just… holding Jason’s arm,” more like dragging him through the hall.

Bruce let go off him, cursing under his breath and totally ignoring the way Jason sat crying on the floor.

“I’ve had ENOUGH of you for today, Jason… Just stop with the damn tantrum already.” He had done nothing to the child, Jason… had just proved to be way more difficult than previously thought, not that Bruce could blame him, but still… “And stop crying, no one has done anything to you.”

“Bruce, we were waiting for you,” Diana decided it was just the right moment to intervene. She loved watching Bruce’s kids and had had the opportunity to get to know the man’s youngest child a little bit more, “Come on, the kids can come too and play with the other children.”

The tired man ran a hand through his face. He knew he shouldn’t be mad at the little boy, it was obvious that he wouldn’t act like any other child due his past, but it was still impossible to deal with sudden tantrums for no reason on a daily basis and never get upset about it.

“Both of you behave,” he told both kids, ignoring the hurt look Dick shot him… He felt bad for Dick, it had been impossible for him to pay the child the same ammount of attention as before Jason’s arrival, but what could he do? He had his hands full with his second son at the moment.

“Come on, Dick,” Barry took advantage of the moment Bruce went inside to grab Dick’s and Wally’s hand and get back in the meeting room. Bruce usually didn’t talk a lot about Jason, but he wouldn’t have imagined those kind of scenes either.

“Let’s go, sweetie,”Diana approached the crying child on the floor and offered her hand for him to took, which he did after “cleaning” some of the tears and snot of his face with the sleeve of his shirt. He was still very upset, but the child could never say no to Diana. “Would you like to play with the other kids?” Jason nodded, still cleaning his face with his free arm and trying to stop his wobbling lip. He liked the others and he had wanted to go, so he might as well play with them now.

“Is everything ok?” Dinah couldn’t help but ask as they sat down again.

“Just a tantrum,” Bruce mumbled. It was way more common for them than it should.

“Woah, didn’t look like ‘just a tantrum’,” Hal didn’t bother holding back. Kyle was no angel, but he never behaved like that either.

“Well, it was. Can we just start the meeting?”

“Come on, Bruce, don’t be like that, we just want to help.” Clark didn’t like how sad Dick looked lately.

“That’s rich coming from the man that refused to aknowledge his son’s existence for months.”

“That’s different!”

“Woah, guys, let’s calm down,” Bary cut in.

“Yeah, let’s just drop it. All kids throw fits once in a while,” Oliver didn’t see what the big deal was. Roy behaved almost the same as Jason every other day. “Let’s just let Bruce handle his kid.”

“Thank you,” Bruce didn’t think Oliver had been more right before, “So, to open the meeting…”

“Are you feeling alright, Jay?” Diana kneeled in frontof the child, who was still sniffling a little when they reached the part of the room the kids where playing at.

“Yes, thank you, Miss Wonder Woman.”

“You can call me Diana,” she smiled at him before standing up again, “Go play with your friends.”

.

“Fine, so you want to know what happened?” Bruce snapped after more insistence and nagging from the other mentors, “The boys had just had breakfast, and Dick was already ready to go, Jason wasn’t, I told him to take a shower, he didn’t want to do as told, so I tried to take him to the bathroom and he didn’t react well. That’s it, he threw a tantrum, so I had to let him come here like that,” and indeed, the boy was still in his pijamas, “And even then, he didn’t want to get out of the Batmovile, so he started a new tantrum. That’s it. It’s nothing to worry about, he does it almost everyday.” Even though Dick had NEVER acted out like that…

“Bruce, I’m sorry, but that’s not the best…”

“I know, Dinah, but Jason has struggled a bit before…”

“Exactly, that’s why you should pay special attention to Jason’s behaviour. I can recommend you someone if you’d like.”

“Come on, Dinah, for you no child’s behaviour is fine.” Usually Oliver didn’t talk to her like that, but they had had a fight a couple of days ago exactly because she didn’t mind her own business. “He’s a kid, just say something like ‘I’m going to count to three before taking my belt off’, and you’ll see how fast he shapes up.”

“What?!” Barry looked at him as if the archer were out of his mind.

“Oliver!” Diana actually gaped at the man’s barbarious idea.

“See? That’s why we never agree on anything, Oliver!” Dinah took a deep breath to try to calm down.

“What? It’s just a warning, and it works.”

“That’s an awful idea, Queen, I’m not hitting my sons, especially Jason,” not with the child’s background.

“You don’t have to, he’ll just hear that and end up the tantrum.”

“I don’t think that’s the best idea, man.” Hal had to say. He knew Oliver cared about Roy, but neither of them had exactly good tempers.

“That’s why Roy behaves like he does, Oliver.”

“Would you cut it? My boy’s fine.” The blonde man glared at Dinah. Like she could handle a kid with Roy’s temper.

“As if… That’s why you hit him the other day?”

“You what?!” Clark looked at Oliver unbelievingly. 

“Don’t get your red panties in a twist, Kansas, I didn’t hit him… I smacked his butt with my hand so he’d behave, no big deal, that’s what they have it for.”

Bruce shook his head.

“Jason’s a good kid, he just have bad days sometimes… And we’re learning how to deal with them,” Bruce still had no idea how he’d do that, but he was not about to admit that to the other mentors.

“As you prefer, Bruce, just keep in mind Dinah’s offer.” Barry preferred that than the man considering Oliver’s suggestion.

“Whatever.” Oliver rolled his eyes. Not everyone’s kid was perfect like Barry’s.