This is for a little special someone's birthday. You know who you are.

Standard disclaimers apply.

Oedipus Complex **

Robin sat next to Nightwing, looking out the window of the older vigilante's muscle car. The rain pelted the windows and left globing streaks down the glass.

"So. we're reading this play in school in school."

Nightwing never looked up from the road. "Does this have anything to do with the case?"

"No. Geeze. You going Bat on me? We can only talk about work stuff?" Robin glanced from the glass to his pal Nightwing.

"No, I'm not. I was just wondering if you had some kind of inspiration as to what happened to the drug shipment. Figured you had some weird twisted idea about crime families and some great work of American Literature, and could magically divine from that where a warehouse full of guns could disappear to all in one night." Nightwing shrugged with frustration, then a bit of a smile cracked at the edges of his lips. "Sue me, I read too much into it. So what's on your mind?"

Robin shrugged, and went back to looking out the window. "Never mind."

"No, really. You brought it up. I didn't mean to be all. psycho about it. For real. What's up with school?"

"Umm. ok. Anyways, I was just thinking. Here's what I was thinking. Like. Bruce officially adopted you. And you're really his son now."

Nightwing glanced from the road to the boy beside him. "Well, yeah. What's that have to do with school?"

"Eww. road kill," Robin pointed out. Nightwing swerved to miss what was left of the buck lining the highway. They were ten miles from Gotham, and that somehow meant that the roadkill had to get bigger with each road post. "So anyways, me and Cass were talking."

"Wow. Talking like using actual words?"

"Yeah. For like twenty minutes. But anyways, we were thinking. Oracle's always watching out for us, and she bugs us about making sure we have everything we need, and making sure we're watching out for ourselves. She's a nag. But we kinda look up to her as our Bat-mom. I mean. we wait for her to be a pest about stuff."

Nightwing smiled warmly. "Aww, that's really nice. I'm sure Babs'd be flattered to hear that. I keep telling her she's got all these motherly qualities."

"You two thinking about making little Bat-puppies? Cause you know Bruce'll kill you and kill you until you're dead." They drove onto the ramp that lead to the Coast Shore Avenue bridge.

"Shutup. What does this have to do with your school work?"

"You and me're brothers, right? We're pals. Since even before you moved out of New York and back this way, we've talked and fought and stuff."

"Yup. I knew you were brother material because from the moment I met you, I felt this instinctive desire to beat the living crap out of you," Nightwing said with a grin.

"Hey!"

"Robin, when you were a little kid, you were the single biggest spaz in the entire world. But now comes the part where you wrap it all up in a nice neat bow for me, cause we're like five minutes off of the cave and explaining to Batman just HOW we lost a warehouse full of guns."

"So, we're reading Oedipus in school and I was wondering how it feels to be sleeping with our mom." Robin never saw the hand coming at him, and Nightwing never took his eyes off the road. The back of the driver's hand connected with the forehead of the younger vigilante almost in an instinctive manner. "OUCH."

"You scare me, Timmy. Sometimes you scare me a LOT."

"What? I just told you, we were reading Oedipus--"

Nightwing scowled. "DON'T repeat it. Don't make me relive it."

"But you're sleep--"

"ZIP IT!"

"I just meant--"

"SHHHT!"

Robin went back to staring out the window. "So. Think he'll be mad about losing the guns?"

"The phrase killing us and killing us until we're dead comes to mind," Nightwing answered distastefully. "God. You're DEMENTED."

"I was just saying." Robin didn't finish the thought.

"This is why I live in terror of you. Shit like that."

"What's the last demented thing I said?" Robin questioned in earnest. "You make it sound like I'm always being weird or something. This was just something I was thinking of, ok?"

"Timmy, you know why you got the job as Robin, right?"

"Cause I proved myself to you and Bruce?" Robin asked sarcastically.

"No. We gave it to you because we were SCARED of you. You were this freaky little kid who stalks me and Batman for like years because you're bored, your parents pay no attention to you, and you're too smart for your own damned good. We figured if we didn't train you and give you something productive to do, we'd be aquiring a new arch-nemisis."

"HEY! I wouldn't have come after you guys."

"You probably only started stalking us because you were bored with building your fusion generator in you dorm room at boarding school." The car shot through the holographic façade of the cliff, and they entered the long tunnel leading into the cave.

"I was not building a fusion generator." Robin folded his arms over his chest. "They were missiles that shot off vegetables. But that doesn't mean." the boy paused, some sort of crisis playing upon his face. "Oh man. I AM a freak."

"You're a freak. You're a freak and you scare me."

The car came to a stop next to Batman's vehicle. Both young men sat in silence for a moment, neither moving to get out. After a few moments, both opened their doors simultaneously, getting out of the car.

"Can someone explain to me where those guns are?" Batman demanded of his charges.

"It's Nightwing's fault!"

"It's my-why you little." Nightwing slid over the hood of the car, attempting to grab his counterpart.

Robin backed up two leaps, putting distance between them. "You were in charge! I'm just a sidekick!" Robin called out defensively. "And he called me a freak, Bruce! Nightwing called me a freak!"

Nightwing continued chasing Robin around the cave. They raced through the lab and out again, then back towards the vaults. "I shoulda beat you up the first time I met you! I shoulda let Kory beat you up! You little. Bruce! He said I have an Oedipal complex! He said--"

Batman sighed, turning in his chair. "Nightwing-it's an Oedipus Complex, and. if the shoe fits." he trailed off, turning to the younger of the two boys. "And Robin. Stop running at let him hit you. You deserve it."

THE END

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLENE.