This is in JLU continuity, though I'm altering JLU canon a little to fit this in that Wally West isn't the JL's founding Flash. Barry Allen is.

Batman sat down at his usual place in the Watchtower cafeteria, at a table for four across from Green Lantern. Sometimes another person, usually Hawkgirl or Wonder Woman, joined them, but it didn't seem like it'd happen that day.

Of course, this was based around the assumption that the Flash wouldn't be done his mission until after lunch. Barry Allen was a regular third member of their unofficial meal club.

The Scarlet Speedster came zooming in and sat down to Batman's right.

"Hey Bats, guess what your former sidekick is up to?" He asked. Batman, who wasn't particularly in the mood having just heard that Two-Face had escaped from Arkham, sighed.

"What?" The Dark Knight asked flatly, through partially clenched teeth.

"He's founded a new team and fought off a potential Gordanian invasion!" The Flash replied, beaming. Batman shrugged.

"Don't we do stuff like that every other week?" He deadpanned.

"Y'know, it's alright to admit you miss him." Green Lantern said.

"I don't." Batman replied, giving both his friends glares that told them the conversation was over.

~(one year later)~

"Hey, Batman? I think you might want to hear this." Superman knocked on the door of Batman's room in the Watchtower. The Dark Knight, who had been in the middle of examining a supposedly-important (but admittedly not very time-sensitive) case file, responded with an irritated grunt. The Man of Steel sighed and tapped his foot about once a second as he waited for his friend to come around and listen. Anyway, according to Green Lantern (who, aside from Question, was the only one who really knew much about Batman's private life), Batman was only examining the case file for his own brand of fun and fulfillment. Apparently the criminal they concerned died long before capture or even having an identity found.

"What?" It took Bruce a whole ten minutes to give his annoyed, one-word response.

"Robin's been kidnapped by some guy called Slade and forced to commit crimes." Clark replied.

"I know. You're forgetting he stole from my company last night. I do monitor these things, remember." Bruce smirked, thinking that maybe he could get back to those case files.

"You sure you don't want to... You know... DO anything about it?" Clark inquired.

"No. Robin left about a year ago, and hasn't contacted me since. If he wanted my help, he'd have asked for it." Bruce attempted to rationalize his decision, but Clark could tell he was hiding the real reason.

"In other words, you're upset he left." Clark said to his friend, who stifled an annoyed groan in response.

"What in the world gave you that idea?" Bruce asked flatly. Clark smirked in victory: when Bruce Wayne started using that tone of voice, the Man of Steel knew he was gaining ground in the argument.

"Well, let me see," Clark pretended to think before continuing, "for starters, you usually aren't this unreasonable."

"I'm not being unreasonable, I'm just saying, if the boy wanted me back in his life for this he would ask for help." Bruce inwardly groaned, knowing he had probably assured his loss of the debate.

"And I'm just saying if you were in my position and having this conversation with, say, Green Arrow over Speedy, you'd be the first to point out he can't call you if he's been kidnapped." Clark rebutted calmly. Bruce sighed and conceded. After all, though it was hard to admit, Clark was one of his best friends and it was probably safe to tell him.

"Alright, come in and close the door." Bruce shoved the case file into a desk drawer. Once Clark was in and the door was closed, he put the extra soundproofing door up and took a deep breath, preparing to continue.

"So, what's wrong, Bruce?" Clark asked, noting the anti-eavesdropping precaution and deeming it safe to use civilian names. "Other than the fact your former protégé and adopted son has been kidnapped by a violent madman, I mean."

"You're not helping, Clark." Bruce grumbled.

"Sorry." Clark apologized.

"It's fine. I've just... Well, he ran away from home one day without telling me, after we had a disagreement. I only heard his whereabouts from Flash a week later, and it turned out he went all the way across the continent. And it's been a whole year, and he hasn't even called me once." Bruce felt himself getting more and more emotional, so he took a deep breath to help himself calm down. "He left his Bat-Com in pieces on the roof of Wayne manor, so I can't call him. I've never gotten to say that yes, he did have a point with what he said about my methods, and I've never gotten to tell him I'm proud of him, and I've never gotten to tell him I really do think of him as a son."

"Bruce..." Clark said softly, not sure how to respond to his friend. Bruce Wayne rarely poured out his emotions as Bruce Wayne, and Clark was fairly certain he added some anti-sharing filters to his Batman costume or something.

"And now, I'm wondering if I might never get the chance." Bruce coughed and willed himself to return to Batman mode.

"And not one word of this had better leave this room, alright?"

"Deal. But, Bruce..."

"Batman."

"Ok, Batman... If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here. And so is Diana, I might add..."

"No."

"Barry?"

"No offence to him, but I'd rather talk to Wally."

"That's a surprise. He's too much the sunshine and joking type."

"Point taken."

"John?"

"Already do, more often than anyone else at least."

"I didn't mean about your feelings for Diana."

"NO! I mean, no. That's not what we talk about. That's not even a thing. I mean, I don't... We aren't... Oh, you know me well enough to know what I mean."

"Sure, sure..." Clark chuckled a bit, and was pleased to see Batman crack a tiny trace of a smile.

Five minutes and twenty more JL members later, they were still at it.

"Booster Gold?"

"Absolutely not! Don't you have to write an article on Lexcorp or something?"

"I'm going, I'm going..."

~(a few months later)~

"Back so soon?" Batman asked Wonder Woman as she— along with Superman, Martian Manhunter, Huntress, Fire, Ice, and Hawkgirl— walked over to him from the teleport pad.

"Wasn't much to do, seeing as Robin and his team had already taken down the demon and stopped the end of the world." Diana smiled. "You must be pretty proud of him. It wasn't that long ago when he had to wait out the apocalypse scenarios in the Batcave."

"I'd prefer it if that was still what he was doing." Batman muttered.

"Oh, come on. I know you miss your little birdie, but aren't you glad he's doing well?"

"One, I don't miss him. Two, I'm glad he's doing well, but he's fifteen. He's too young to be doing this without adult supervision."

"He's been doing this with loose supervision at best since he was nine."

"Eight actually, and I know, but—"

"No buts. Anyway, we both know Captain Marvel is around three or four years younger."

"He's different!"

"Not mentally."

"Fine, point taken. But Robin doesn't have superpowers." By this point, both founding JL members had walked to the privacy of Wonder Woman's room.

"His teammates do, and they all seem more than ready to protect him if he needs it. Not that that stops him from being very annoyed if they do so prematurely."

"You seem to have been keeping tabs on them."

"I knew you'd be to stubborn to do it yourself."

"I'm not stubborn.

"Yes you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"See?"

"I still say I'm not."

"You're just proving my point more, Bruce."

"Alright, I guess I am. Oh, and I still think Robin should stop putting himself in danger to begin with."

"Relax, I already told you his friends keep him safe." Diana chuckled at the news footage she had seen a few months ago about his battle with Fang and Killer Moth's daughter. "Sometimes a bit too much."

"What's so funny?"

"Let's just say your family must have a thing for princesses." An awkward silence followed.

"Oh. Hm... Who is his team, by the way?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"He made it quite clear he didn't want me in his life anymore. I've made a point of giving him space."

"In other words, you avoid any information about him except for what we tell you." It wasn't a question.

"Exactly."

"Well, first of all, the team is called the Teen Titans. It has five members, and an eastern division with another five. Robin's the leader of his team, which is based in a very obvious T-shaped tower in Jump Bay."

"Members?"

"I was getting to that. Beast Boy joined shortly after quitting the Doom Patrol. Apparently Mento was just as adamant as you are that he didn't miss Beast Boy, only he wasn't lying."

"I'm not either. I have Alfred and sometimes Batgirl, ergo I am not lonely."

"Suuuure you aren't."

"Continue, please. Before this gets more awkward."

"It isn't already awkward that you're pretty much being passive-aggressive about wanting Barry and me to stalk your son?"

"Getting awkward..." Bruce said through clenched teeth. Diana laughed.

"Of course. Anyway, Cyborg has also joined Robin's team. He's like a big brother to all of them, according to what Ollie's heard from Roy."

"Roy's involved in this as well? He and Robin haven't been getting along so well in the past few years..."

"They're still rivals, but friends too. Roy's been complaining everyone mistakes him for Robin just because they both wear the same kind of mask. And actually, he's a member of the east branch."

"I see. Carry on."

"Alright. So next is Raven, a powerful magician. Other than that, I don't really know much about her. And finally Starfire, who's an alien. I asked GL about her, and he said she's actually the princess of a planet called Tamaran, and had previously been captured by Gordanian slavers." Diana took a moment to express her disgust at slavery by pressing her bracelets together, a Themiscyran sign of solemn recognition(1). Bruce didn't have any bracelets, but knew what she was doing and made the gesture with just his wrists. The silence had an unfortunate side effect of letting him fully register the information, though...

"Robin has a girlfriend?!" Bruce immediately regretted shouting so loudly, but it was a certain fatherly instinct that told him he should be nervous when his son started dating.

"No, actually. It's obvious to everyone but them that they both feel that way, though." Diana chuckled.

"Like with you two?" Green Arrow's voice came in through the door. He entered, having made his prescence known and eliminated any reason to stay outside, though he hadn't been eavesdropping the whole time. It was honestly just that he had been passing by when Batman shouted.

"How long have you been listening? Oh, and no, it's not like that. Diana and I... We're not... I mean, I don't... I don't see her as anything but a close friend and respected colleague." The portion of the Dark Knight's face that wasn't covered by his cowl was red as the Flash's costume.

"Sure, Bats... I'd believe that if your faces weren't only like three inches apart." Green Arrow said cheerfully, causing the Themiscyran Princess to join her friend in blushing. They had been so caught up in keeping the majority of their conversation unheard that they hadn't noticed themselves creeping closer.

"Out of my room, Arrow!"

"But—"

"You heard her, Arrow."

"But—"

"OUT!" Diana and Bruce yelled in sync, making Green Arrow shrink a little.

"Yes'm. Have a nice day." He waved stiffly, walking to his room. Batman was scary, and Wonder Woman could be too if she wanted to, but together... Yeeesh.

~(a week later)~

"Hey Bats, just wanted to congratulate you on your little baby bird being all grown up now." This time, the voice of Wally West interrupted his attempts to solve the now-irrelevant case.

"Shut up Wally, Diana already assured me Robin isn't in a relationship."

"Don't want him to beat you to the punch, huh? I'm so glad I'm already married, it'd be embarrassing if Wally were to get a girlfriend before me. I feel for you my friend, I really do."

"Uncle Barry! You decided to join the fun!"

"Of course I did, Walls. It's always satisfying to get the world's greatest detective flustered."

"Flash, Kid Flash, don't go spouting your secret ID in the hallway." Batman immediately regretted saying that as he found two speedsters sitting on either side of him. The Dark Knight sighed and put the anti-eavesdropping measures into place; last time's debacle would not be repeated.

"So, you were saying Diana said Robin's not in a relationship?" Barry asked. Bruce nodded.

"Yes. Though she did say he's fallen for her 'harder than a skydiver carrying Sisyphus's rock', which I think translates to pretty hard." Bruce felt a small surge of alarm at Wally's guffaws.

"Heh... Heh... I'll just be in the washroom." Wally managed between peals of very obviously faked laughter. He didn't really care that neither older hero would fall for the laughing; he needed to get out of there before Barry broke the news to Bats. Soundproofing extra door or not, there was no way anyone in the room, if not the entire Watchtower, would be able to avoid getting their ears blasted out. After all, if hearing Robin might have a girlfriend among one of his trusted teammates and friends had caused the reported incident last week, what would hearing they had KISSED before even having spoken to eachother do?

Meanwhile, back in Batman's room, Barry Allen was still dancing around the matter he had come to report to Bruce. After all, if he didn't tell then Shayera, who had been with him and seen it too, had said she would. And Barry, being a closer friend of Bruce, would get a ton of flack from the world's greatest detective of he put it off until then.

"Look, Bruce... I have something to tell you."

"Go on."

"Well... You know how Robin isn't in a relationship but could be, with one of his closest friends and teammates?"

"Stop dancing around it, Barry. I promise I won't be mad."

"Are you sure? Okay, then... You might want to sit down on your bed."

"I'm not even going to ask this time." Bruce recalled the last time his friend had told him to sit on his bed for a piece of news. He had refused. To say the least, it was not a good experience, and not really one he cared to repeat. He raised an eyebrow as Barry took a deep breath.

"Alright... Well, I have some reason to believe Diana's description may not be entirely acccurate. You know how Shayera and I were doing recon on that reported Gordanian ship?"

"Uh-huh. Continue."

"Okay... Well at first Starfire didn't seem to be able to speak English, and she and Robin were fighting for some reason though I wasn't there in time to see why and then Cyborg and Beast Boy joined in and Raven stopped them from fighting and... AndStarfirekissedRobinonthelipsforliketenwholeseco nds. Phew, it sure was good to get that off my chest. Seeya Bats!" Barry, who was by this point sweating buckets, ran out of the room at Mach Five. Right after, Shayera Hol entered the room, closing the door and the soundproofing door behind her.

"Hey, Bruce. I have something to tell you."

"Two in one night? If it's the same thing Barry was trying to tell me about, then I'd be happy if you clarified. He's the fastest man alive, but when he's nervous—which he seemed to be for some reason—he becomes the fastest-talking man alive too." Bruce joked, earning a smile from Shayera.

"The Batman, joking? It must be the end of the world."

"I can joke! And anyway, even if it is, it'd only be what, the third time this month?"

"Something like that, yeah. I see you're seated on your bed... I think I know what Barry was trying to tell you."

"Oh see, now you've piqued my interest. What is it?"

"Well... To your knowledge, Robin has never had a crush, sent a Valentine, or kissed a girl?"

"Yeah..." Bruce did NOT like where this was going.

"I'll just put this plainly. Your knowledge on that front has been outdated for over a year."

"You mean Diana was wrong?"

"No, your former sidekick still hasn't gotten the guts to accept that everyone but him and her knows he's madly in love with her and finally ask her on a date."

"Then what?"

"Pretty much the first thing Barry and I saw her doing was kiss him. For impressively long, too."

"Without permission? Or was he just that much of a normal teenager?" Bruce said teenager as though it was a curse word.

"Barry said she didn't seem to be able to speak English before. But he didn't protest, anyhow."

"I see. I'll have to ask John if he knows why a Tamaranean would do this, if kissing is the normal Tamaranean greeting or something."

"You're taking this more calmly than I'd thought."

"Well, an alien usually needs time to adjust to human customs. But if you see Barry..."

"I should tell him he's getting an earful for not telling you sooner?"

"You hit the nail on the head."

"Why do I get the feeling that's not the only thing that'll be hit on the head?"

~(three weeks later)~

"Batman."

"Go away."

"Batman, there's a meeting right now. Come on, all of the other founding members are waiting for you."

"Fine." Batman grumbled, walking to the meeting room.

Once the door was closed, Superman spoke up.

"As all of us may or may not know, the Teen Titans have been creating a global network of teen heroes to combat the Brotherhood of Evil's latest scheme, which seems to be something to do with targeting teen heroes. We've stayed out so far because, frankly, there's only so many people who can work together before a team collapses on itself. However, we're meeting here today to discuss whether we should change that decision."

"The Titans are good guys, and if they're handling it, then why get involved? You just said that too large a team can collapse on itself." Green Lantern pointed out.

"I was just about to get to that. Barry?"

"Wally called me the other day, sounding pretty panicked. As you all know, when any of the three Flashes get panicked, we start talking really, really fast. Usually I can calm Wally down within half a minute, but this time it took until he ran out of breath three minutes later for him to calm down. Afterwards, he explained that he got a distress call from Robin and shortly afterwards his Titans communicator exploded." Barry explained.

"Apparently, Robin and most of the other Titans have been captured by the Brotherhood. We have reason to believe the Brain plans to kill them tomorrow." J'onn's statement caused shocked gasps from all present except Bruce.

"We don't need to intervene. The remaining Titans should be able to handle it." Bruce replied flatly. "Besides, we don't have time to find out their hideout's location."

"About a mile under the Pont D'Iéna in Paris, France." Barry countered. "According to Wally, the secret hideout isn't all that secret. They disclosed their location to all invited villains, and... Well, Wally's girlfriend has connections. That's all he'd tell me."

"I... see. What's the point of having a secret hideout that you can find out from any random former HIVE student?" Bruce asked.

"You figured out who told that fast?"

"Yep. It really wasn't that hard, considering last time he visited his cellphone background was a picture of him and Janička Zíma (2)." Bruce looked around at the blank expressions on his friends' faces and decided to explain further. "I knew who she is because she's a metahuman. She's also gone by Janet Samara, and Jinx." Assorted gasps arose.

"You mean Wally lied?"

"Not technically, seeing as the HIVE Five's leader would have the connections necessary to get invited." Bruce said. He was admittedly a bit impressed at Wally's clever untruth. He hasn't thought the kid would be able to do something like that.

"Wally's life choices aside, we need to make a decision, and soon." Clark reminded them. Everyone murmured agreement.

"Alright. On the count of three, put your hand up if you vote that we go and help. One, two, three!" Hands went up in sync, and a decision was made.

~(to be concluded in the next chapter)~
Footnotes:
(1) It's pretty much what I came up with as the Themiscyran equivalent of a moment of respectful, sympathetic silence.

(2) Janička is a Czech name derived from Johannes, which is derived from Ioannes, which is derived from Yochanan, which means "Yaweh is gracious". It shares a root with John, which is the name of two highly revered saints, and has the connotation of meaning "blessd by God" unless I'm reading into it too much. Zíma means winter. I thought it fit Jinx pretty well.

So, what do you think? What should they decide? Leave your vote in a review or PM it to me! Thank you!