The Justice League thought Batman and all Gotham spawned vigilantes were just that, vigilantes 24/7, so when Bruce Wayne is unable to attend a League meeting and sends Nightwing in his stead the League doesn't know how to react.
Meanwhile Dick Grayson is trying not to laugh.
It was just a bad coincidence really. Bruce is usually able to manage and organize the League meetings and any Wayne Enterprises event. Bruce Wayne was well known for arriving late or never showing up to his own events after all so it fit the character. It’s not that he didn’t try, more than a few times he would send Dick to the monthly League meeting whenever Bruce Wayne specifically was needed, he had to stop when Nightwing officially joined the Justice League and, to his disappointment, Tim could definitely not pass as Batman, yet.
To the problem at hand, there happened to be scheduled at the same day, same time, two different occasions where both Batman and Bruce Wayne were needed.
This time, for what he hoped to be the first and last, the greatest detective, thought the appearance of the billionaire of Gotham mattered more, as he had to attend and help prepare a personal interview of the Wayne Enterprises most important executives, which of course meant the CEO had to be there, alongside the newly appointed successor, Tim Wayne, who again was also called at the Watchtower.
To his credit he had tried to make up a last minute off-world mission, only to encounter an annoying obstacle: Hal and John, who, as green lanterns, had to supervise any and all interplanetary travels.
So, Bruce had no choice but to only send Nightwing, and get him to record the meeting so Batman would still be up to date. After years of working together the League had never pestered him much about his identity, sure in the early days it was rough and annoying but now as the years passed he was overall free of any bother.
He even theorized the League thought he didn’t have a secret identity, and he was just Batman all the time. Granted before Dick joined him he spent most of his time in the Batsuit, in and out of patrol, but now? With 8 kids? They all gang up on him to make sure he gets even an hour of rest when they think it is needed, Alfred too. Rest was never really needed obviously, he’s Batman for christ sake he can take missing some sleep.
All he can do now is hope. Hope the interview Lois Lane had planned out in the WE headquarters would be quick, although he highly doubted that possibility. Hope the League has nothing important to report, hope Dick can survive the flood of questions he would receive, and, most of all, hope Nightwing wouldn’t reveal everyone’s identity for the sake of it. Bruce knew Dick was better than that but hoping just a bit wouldn't hurt him, too much.
Dick didn’t like this plan. He had obviously attended meetings even before it became public knowledge about the Blüdhaven and Ghotham’s vigilante “friendship”. So the absence of Batman wasn’t what utterly unnerved him, however having to tell the entire Justice League Batman couldn’t come because he had a life outside of just vigilantism, that was scary, or hilarious, it really depended on how the League would react.
Nightwing arrived at the Watchtower 5 minutes before the specified time of the monthly meeting, like always. Most members arrived at the same time, others were already there, and a few arrived one minute after the supposed start. Speedsters really could not keep track of time.
As he walked towards his seat Diana, or Wonder Woman, stopped him.
“Nightwing, as punctual as always I see. May I ask you where I could find Batman?” She spoke casually yet the sense of royalty always accompanied, Dick liked Diana, she had helped out with a few rouge attacks in Blüdhaven when he had first started in the League. She also had a tendency in keeping the peace during meetings whenever needed.
“Batman has asked me to relay his apologies, he won’t be able to attend as he’s needed as a civilian today, as well as Red Robin I fear. However I’ll give him a recording of the meeting as soon as possible” His normal playful tone filled the, still empty, conference room with earth as the view.
She looked confused, shocked almost. Maybe this situation could turn out to be fun after all. “I see, thank you for passing it along, I’ll be sure to inform the other members if questioned.”
If this was going in the direction Dick hoped for he knew the whole manor would never recover from laughing so hard, hell he wasn’t sure he’d be able to contain himself either.
The meeting started and progressed as usual, Flash and Wally barged in a few minutes late as routine, and now the attention was directed at some graphic about criminal activity and potential threats, overall a fairly normal meeting, the only point out of the ordinary would have been Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Arrow and Acquaman, who had been staring at Nightwing like had just grown another head.
He didn’t get it, he really didn’t. Even if it was rare for Batman to ever miss a meeting he didn’t think the other members would keep their eyes on Nightwing the whole time, staring him down as if he had killed Batman to take his place, because apparently that seemed like a more possible option to the League than Batman having anything else to do.
John (or ‘green lantern 2.0 fake version ihopehefallsonhisass’ as Jason had once called him while angry at the guy for God knows what reason) was the last to do his monthly report on interplanetary affairs, and so the meeting ended. Officially at least.
Some members like Hawkman and Zatanna left quickly after, yet most stayed to catch up, hang out, or to discuss more serious matters. Dick is one to usually stay and hang out casually with Wally or Kaldur’ahm, but today he finds himself cornered by most of the oldest Justice League members, for what he can only assume is going to be a weird conversation, all that’s left to figure out is in what way it's going to be weird this time.
Superman initiated the conversation, probably to not make the situation escalate. “Nightwing, do you know where Batman currently is?” Superman’s natural voice comes off more questioning than usual.
“He’s busy with civilian matters, so he asked me to bring him a recording of the meeting.” Dick, to his credit, tried to wander off and escape before he could spill any information he wasn’t supposed to, he couldn’t explain it but he had an itch it would happen had the conversation (or interrogation) continued, whether of his own will or not.
“Please stop lying, it’s common knowledge Batman doesn’t have a civilian identity.” Aquaman stood in his way but what really swung Dick off his feet was the sentence that just came out of the other hero. Because, really how should Nightwing react?
He came to one conclusion, he could not laugh in the other members face, of that he was sure.
“Yeah, none of you from Gotham have civilian identities, right?” It was Flash who interrupted this time, he wasn't there when Dick had been put into the corner but apparently the speedster had tuned in to understand enough context to intervene.
“You- You…” Dick was struggling to find words to reply, what was he even supposed to say to something like that?! He took a deep breath hoping it’d make the laughing instinct disappear.
“I can assure you we all have normal lives too.” He put on a confident face, not that there was much face visible with his mask, but he tried nonetheless, the amusement in his voice was growing by the second.
“Kid I’ve been to Gotham countless times, I’m sure I haven't met everyone in the city but most of you barely have a mask on your face, that’s not nearly enough to cover an identity. After all the time we’ve worked together I know I’d recognise you.” Oliver, the Green Arrow said so very confidently. Dick was ready to bet he had been the one he and his family had interacted more out of costume, even if at some point in time he had met and spoke to all of the oldest members while off duty. He was technically a Wayne after all.
The big question now was, should he tell them? He knows Batman would be pissed if he did, but he also knows Bruce had planned to tell the League about his identity when Nightwing became an official member, so he wouldn’t be too mad…right?
Screw that, Dick just decided he is totally going to fuck with the other heroes now that he has a chance.
“We all have another identity, I’m not sure how you haven’t figured it out by now, we just know how to hide it. Bat’s orders, you know?” He isn’t lying there, Bruce had to be begged day and night before Nightwing could reveal his identity to Wally or any of his friends.
“If you’re telling the truth I believe it’s right you share at least your identity with the League. All of the oldest members and their partners don’t keep their civilian name a secret, it should be the same with you and Batman, you’d agree with me right?” Arrow intervened again, Dick could see all the irritation in his eyes as he tried to make sense of the new information.
“Oh Uncle Ollie, you’ve known Bruce longer than me so I’m sure you’re aware of his terrible attitude problems and come on you should know he doesn’t like when we kids act without permission.”
Oliver Queen was left silenced.
At the Wayne Enterprises conference room a photographer just got the best shot of his career: Bruce Wayne sneezing.
