Ok, I swear I meant this for a one shot, but well, this popped into my head, and then the power went out so I had nothing to do but type this up, because I couldn't see my notebook to type Reuniting and I'm just procrastinating with Wayne Manor. Partly because I don't know what to do next. Anyway...

I decided to show when the team meets Alfie. It's mostly in Artemis' POV, because I like her sarcasm :)

Enjoy!

I really don't have a good history with keeping one-shots as one-shots, do I...

DISCLAIMER: I don't own YJ. I don't think I even own the idea, because I'm sure there's another story like this somewhere. Oh well.

The team had been on a long, tiring mission for almost a week and were, quite frankly, ready to collapse. Which is exactly what they did, once they got back to the cave. No debrief, no dinner even- they just went straight to their rooms and crashed, hard. None of them woke up until late the next day.

Artemis stumbled blearily into the kitchen. Living in Gotham, she was more used to little sleep than most of her teammates, and so woke up before them. The only exception to that was Robin, but he wasn't up yet. She knew that that was because he, after everyone else had already gone to sleep, had sifted through the intel that they had recovered from the mission and extracted what Batman needed from the useless info surrounding it. Only when Batman had received what he needed had the bird gone to bed. Artemis didn't count on him waking up anytime soon.

In any case, she was walking into the kitchen, still half asleep. She stepped through the door and froze.

There was a strange man in the kitchen.

There was also a huge breakfast buffet-thing being assembled on the counter, but that wasn't as important right then, even if she was starving.

Back to the man.

He was an elderly man, dressed in a suit with a clean white apron covering his front. He was busily cracking eggs into a mixing bowl, no doubt for the aforementioned breakfast buffet thing. Artemis had never seen him in her life, and had no idea why he was in a super-secret hero hideout cooking breakfast.

And of course, since she was the Queen of Eloquent, she ever-so-intelligently said, "Huuuuh?"

Give her a break. She was tired. Week long mission, hello?

The man turned and smiled at her. "Good morning, Miss Artemis." He said pleasantly. "Would you care for some breakfast?"

"Not right now, thanks." She said, eyeing him. The silent I don't know if you poisoned it is heard loud and clear.

The man didn't seem to be offended. "You may call me A." He said in his British accent. "Master… Batman asked me to help you this morning. I believe he thought you all would be too tired to cook without posing a safety hazard… to yourself and possibly the entire city."

"Oookaaay." Artemis drew out, still suspicious. The man looked like he would roll his eyes if he wasn't, you know, all gentlemanly and British and stuff. He took out a note from his apron (which, upon closer inspection, had little pink flowers on it) and handed it to Artemis. She scanned it quickly.

Artemis,

You can trust him. Eat the food. Ask Robin if you are still skeptical.

It was signed only with a small Bat symbol. Artemis stared at the note. "How did he…"

"Well, given your background, personality, and habits, it would be quite easy to predict that you would prove to be the most suspicious." The man said casually. Artemis blinked at him. "Right…" She sighed. "Sorry, I'm still half asleep. What did you say your name is?"

"You may address me as 'A' for now." The man, A, said kindly. "Toast?"

"Uh, sure." She sat down and accepted a plate which, despite his simple question regarding toast, arrived full of eggs, fruit, sausages, and yes, toast. She stared at it, a little overwhelmed, while trying to remember why the name 'A' seemed familiar. "Um…" She stammered. "I'm pretty sure you just asked about toast. I can't possibly eat all this."

"Nonsense." He said briskly, putting a glass of orange juice in front of her as Megan and Conner wandered, wide-eyed, into the kitchen. "You will every bite, Miss Artemis. I am not letting you leave this kitchen without a proper breakfast." He turned to greet the new arrivals, leaving Artemis wondering whether or not they were facing some kind of British Breakfast villain, note from Batman or no.

Soon, both Conner and Megan were sitting with Artemis as well, eating the most delicious breakfast they had ever tasted and chatting with A. He was very closed mouthed about who he was, but regaled them with various stories of patching up/driving around/cooking for various members of the League. Eventually Kaldur joined them as well. Only Wally and Robin remained asleep, and Robin actually had an excuse. Wally was just lazy.

At long last, Robin entered the kitchen. Unlike all the others, he didn't look tired at all. He seemed just as hyper and cheery as always which Artemis found a little annoying. Just a little.

He stopped short in the doorway, gaping at the man. After a moment, however, a blinding grin spread across his face. "A!" He exclaimed, hurtling over to give the man a hug. "What're you doing here?"

"Master Batman asked me to assist you this morning." A said calmly. "He thought you would be tired after your mission."

"Uh huh." Robin said skeptically. "That's funny, because I'm pretty sure he said that you were never going to come to the cave last week when you suggested this whole thing."

The kitchen went silent. A smiled slightly. "Yes, well." He turned and busied himself with cooking some more eggs.

"But, but- the note!" Artemis burst out.

"What note?"

Artemis handed it to him. Robin looked at it, the looked at her incredulously. "Dude, this isn't even his handwriting. We've really got to teach you guys some Detecting 101."

"The signature-"

"How hard is it to draw a bat on a piece of paper?" Robin raised an eyebrow under his mask. "Not very. You're just lucky that A really is a good guy. Speaking of which, Bats is going to flip, A."

"Thank you for the warning, Master Robin, but I am quite sure that I can handle it. Breakfast?"

"In a minute." He darted out of the room. A moment later they heard a crash, a girly scream, and an eerie cackle.

"It seems Master Robin decided to wake Master Wallace up." A remarked. Artemis rounded on him. "You forged a note from Batman?"

"Yes." He raised an eyebrow at her. "I admit, it was more as a test than anything. You failed dismally."

Artemis gaped at him indignantly as he began to scramble the eggs he had been cracking. By the sheer volume of egg, Artemis assumed they were for Wally.

A second later, Robin reappeared, towing the speedster behind him. "A!" Wally exclaimed, and flashed to A's side to give him a hug. "What're you doing here?"

Artemis had a sense of deja vu.

An hour later, the team was chilling in the main room. A had shooed them out of the kitchen, refusing to let Megan help with the dishes.

Recognized: Batman, 0-2

The team looked up as Batman entered the room. Robin grinned at him. "Morning." He said cheerfully. "How was Gotham?"

"There was a conspicuous absence of one 'A'." Batman answered. "I don't suppose you know why that was?"

Robin smirked. "He may or may not be washing dishes in the kitchen after cooking us a huge breakfast." Robin said cheekily.

"Brat." Batman muttered. He walked into the kitchen, and the team heard snatches of a heated debate going on.

"A, you are not…"

"Nonsense, Master Batman…"

"Black Canary can take care of…"

"Need someone to take care…"

Finally, Batman walked out of the kitchen, looking frustrated. "Agent A will be visiting every so often to check up on you in the future." He informed them. "A second 'den mother', so to speak." Robin snickered. "He beat you again, didn't he." Batman didn't grace this with a response and swept out of the cave.

Silence filled the room.

"Did… did Batman just lose an argument?"

"I told you." Robin leaned back against the couch cushions. "A is the only one who can boss around the Batman. Rule of the Batclan number 2, although it really should be number 1. In bold with stars surrounding it."

The puzzle pieces fell into place. Robin smirked.

"So, what do you think of Batman's dad?"

Artemis choked on air.

Yeah... it just kind of happened. Whatever.

REVIEW!