I own nothing.

Damien scowled grandly. Why did Father have to be so stubborn at times?

His kicked the snow-laden ground with his boot as he made his way to the stables. He opened the door and slipped inside. He heard a grunt and a munch and followed the sound to find a brown and white cow happily eating her straw. Bat-Cow.

He patted her nose and sighed, grabbing a brush and taking his annoyance out on her dusty hide. He muttered annoyed comments under his breath as her shoulders went from shaggy to shiny, followed by her back and sides. He didn't know how long he'd been out here taking his frustration out on the now spick and spam cow, but it must have been quite some time because suddenly his arms were stopped in an impossibly strong grip that could only belong to an acrobat, or in this case, one Richard Wayne.

"Dami?"

Damien trailed his evergreen eyes to Dick's electric as his sixteen year old brother turned him around. "What happened while I was gone? When I got back with Jason, Bruce was in one of his 'moods,' Cass was nowhere to be found along with Steph, and Tim just sighed and told us it wasn't his business."

Damien looked away from his Dick's piercing gaze. It always felt like his favorite brother could see right through him, and despite his mother's dislike that his father had taken in a "worthless gyp," he felt nothing like unto his mother, and he felt like no one was more worthy for the legacy of Batman than Dick, and that was really quite hard for the presumed heir to the Bat to admit.

"Dami?" He insisted. Damien took a deep breath, blinking slowly and locking his gaze onto the golden straw on the ground.

"We got into a fight. Father and I."

"And…?"

"None of your business, Grayson."

"Dami, do you… I have a present for you, but you can't tell Bruce, ok?"

"Grayson, I swear-"

"Daaaaami! Come on, Jason and I… found… them on the way here."

Damien huffed, but felt secretly happy as his brother scooped him into his lithe arms and barreled through the storm into the house. They took deep breaths as they peeled off the wet clothes. The storm must've really picked up while Damien had been taking out his troubles through the brush.

Dick's black hair was sticking all over the place, but his eyes were alight in excitement as he took his brother upstairs to his room. Jason was inside, sitting on the bed, cradling a…

Damien's eyes widened.

It was a cat.

He looked up at Dick who grinned toothily, shutting the door behind him and pushing a still slightly wet brother to the bed. There were two more, but the interesting thing about them was they were white. And had stripes.

He looked back to Dick. "What?"

"Weell… we had a mission, and found these little guys. They were being bred, but white tigers aren't really real so they were being mated with each other, and it's kind of illegal, so we got them out and, um, well, they need a home so… here we go!"

Jason looked up. "I want this one. I name the little fricker Tod."

"Todd…" Damien growled, offended. He sat on the bed and reached to pick one up. It hissed at him loudly, and Damien noticed it was refusing to touch Jason as well, opting to nervously pacing.

It started mewling and whining, crawling to the end of the bed, searching desperately for a way down. Damien frowned. "It doesn't like it here."

"Not true," Jason smirked. "It just hates everybody but Dick, just like you! I'n't cute?"

True to Jason's words, it kept whining until it simply leapt off the bed, tumbling and stumbling until it bumped into Dick, where it immediately curled up and quieted down.

"It's the only girl of the litter," Dick said fondly, picking it up. He turned it to face him and it yawned hugely. "They're two months old, but their mom was killed protecting them from the experiments that did this to them." He showed Dami the cat's face to reveal huge violet eyes. They were quite adorable, really, but her eyes weren't supposed to be purple.

Dami noticed that the last one was under Jason's knee, sitting straight with neatly crossed paws. It stared at him superiorly with bright green eyes. Damien tentatively reached out a fist for it to sniff. It did, turning his head in rejection. Damien frowned. "Why doesn't any of them like me?"
"Well, Tod likes everybody, and then Kora only likes me, and he's exactly like you, so, yeah, he only likes me." Dick shrugged, scooping up the grumpy kitten and handing him to Dami. The two stared at each other in surprise a moment before the tiger hissed at him and settled down, as if saying "Don't disturb me. Now, I am going to sit on you."

Damien smiled, carefully stroking the kitten. The smile turned to a scowl as an unwelcome thought filled his head. "Grayson? What are Father and Pennyworth going to say?"

Dick looked up from his spot leaning against the bed. "Uh… yeah, we don't know. Buuuutt… Jay and I have already called Mo- Selina, and she is on our side. She also offered to take them if we end up still not able to keep them."

Damien nodded, not missing Dick's stutter. He knew most of the Wayne kids viewed Selina as their second mom, but he actually had a mother. This made for some uncomfortable moments, especially because all the Wayne kids and even Selina viewed her as the Mother of the Batfamily.

"Good." He conceded, stroking the cat. "I shall name him… Claw."

"Cool… but I like Tod the Second more." Jason suggested.

"How 'bout… no." Dick snickered. "Hey, the storm is pretty bad. You think that-" Suddenly the lights went out. "Yep there it is."

"What is this?" Damien scowled.

"I's called a power outage, oh Great One." Jason snorted.

"I have been through the occurrence before, Todd, just why is it now?"

"The blizzard. It knocks out the power. Alfred should start the generator soon, though. It will only power part of the house, though, because it's so amazingly big."

Damien nodded, petting Claw to calm him down. The boys kept talking for a while before Damien frowned. "I thought you said the backup generator would be started."

"You're right, where's Alfred?" Dick frowned. "Come on, I know how to start it up." He stood, Kora whining as she was set down and staying pressed up against Dick's calves faithfully.

Dami followed, setting Claw down. The tiger simply sat there. Damien sighed. Usually animals loved him, not Dick. Jason simply kept holding Tod, laughing as a rough cat tongue lapped his neck. They all exited the Dick's room, making their way to the staircase.

They had almost reached it when suddenly Dick froze, habitually reaching his arm behind him to signify his brothers should stop. His ears twitched, and without warning he was flying over their heads in a furious kick, sending a shadow to the ground.

Dami jumped to into a fighting stance, viciously fighting as more and more assassins appeared. It was quite nightmarish, really, if you think about it. Not going to help one's fear of the dark, storms, or power outages.

Jason was the first to go down. Not that he was any less skilled, but it didn't help the he'd been body slammed by two assassins before Damien even knew what was going on. Then Dick, being surrounded by at least ten assassins at once, was stabbed with a sedative.

Damien fought harder, only to be felled by a quick jab to the chin.

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose, the blue light on his computer flooding his face and making him look ghostly. He sighed, looking at the lightless chandelier. When was Alfred going to turn the generator on?

He turned back to the computer, only to find he had a new email. He opened it, reading over the few words the very short and cryptic email gave:

On the first day of Christmas my Beloved sent to me,

A partridge in a pear tree.

He frowned. What was that supposed to mean? A buzzing came overhead before a burst of light. He squinted his ice blue eyes for a moment before standing up with a stretch.

Bruce hoped Dick had been able to convince Damien to come inside. He decided to check on the boys, guessing that they would be in his eldest son's room. When he got there he peeked in and to his dismay found it empty.

Bruce checked Jason's room, then Dami's. He knew Cassandra and Stephanie had gone to Barbara's, but decided to check anyways, finding both rooms empty. He even went so far to check Barbara's room when she came over, even Terry's and… he shuddered, Clark's. Even Selina's room was empty.

He checked the living room, knocked on the bathroom doors, and eventually found Alfred in the basement, finishing fueling the generator. "It was the strangest thing, Master Bruce." He explained the delay in starting the generator. "The door was locked, from the outside. Then, minutes later it simply clicked and I immediately made my way down here."

Bruce nodded slowly. "I can't find the boys."

"Perhaps Masters Richard and Jason joined Master Damien in the barn?"

"But Timmy's gone to."

"Well, no pain in checking." Alfred said crisply.

"But, it's a blizzard out there-"

"Oh, so the mighty Batman can't handle some heavenly dandruff to insure his children's safety?"

Bruce sighed, but everyone knows Alfred is always right, so he nevertheless made his way upstairs, decking himself in winter gear and rushed to the barn. He breathed deeply as the door slammed behind him, peaking one eye open to see Bat-Cow, with a mouth full of straw and chewing loudly, simply staring at him.

"What do you want?"

The cow didn't answer. Bruce, realizing the barn was empty aside from the rather content Bat-Cow, groaned and rushed back inside, sighing in relief as he took off his heavy winter gear.

He was about to go complain (ch? Complaining? No way! The mighty Batman doesn't complain!) to Alfred about the uselessness of going out in the first place when he heard the doorbell ring.

Bruce frowned. Who would be at the door now? Cars couldn't even drive the snow was so deep for goodness' sake! He spied through the peephole, and to his surprise, all he saw was a branch swaying back and forth, battered by the wind.

Knowing better than to drop his guard, he pulled the door open to find a… pear tree? He heard a squawk. With a partridge? The round little bird cocked its head at the poor, confused, Batman as he picked up the pot and brought it inside.

He looked over the tree, calling out to Alfred. The butler was there soon after, he too staring at the tree. "My word, it is a partridge in a pear tree! On the first day of Christmas!"

Bruce nodded. His eye caught on the rope tethering the bird to a stake by the tree. A stake or a…

"That's a knife." He whispered. He carefully slipped it out of the soil, his heart stopping as he studied it.

There was no denying it was beautiful knife, but the fact was that it was a very specific type that the League of Assassins used. The handle had polished wood, and after closer inspection, one could see a tiny bit of paper sticking out.

But before Bruce noticed this, he noticed the blood. It caked the tip of the weapon. He quickly did a DNA scan, and received the only confirmation he needed:

Richard John Grayson-Wayne:

Age: 16

Gender: Male

Status: MATCH

And the note?

Don't look for them

Me and my annoying love for cliffhangers... *sigh

I know, today is the SECOND day of Christmas, I just can't believe how fast December's gone by... anyway, next chapter (or two, hopefully) SHOULD be up tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled.

Also, this is not my best work, but I have enjoyed it thus far.

Reviews are like Christmas presents

~Universe