Tim glares at him, feeling both annoyed and offended by the comment. Instead of retorting Tim goes back to his device and scans the area they are investigating. The two of them are out on patrol and have been sent to this location after reports of a truck full of highly toxic chemicals had recently passed through. Tim and Jason are to investigate and see if they can find any clues on this mysterious truck, Tim also thought this would be a good opportunity to try out his new gadget he built.

“Does it have a name?” Jason asks out of the blue again.

Tim frowns, considering Jason declares he’s not interested in his device he sure does seem curious about it.

“Uh no… why?”

“You should call it the batdar.”

Tim gapes at him, completely bewildered by the comment. His brother is wearing that stupid helmet so Tim couldn’t even get a clue to his facial expression on whether he’s being serious about this or not.

“What?” He gets out in the end, having no idea on what Jason is thinking.

“Yeah y’know, how everything we have has been named bat-something. Batcave, batmobile, batcomputer, batarangs, bat-signal. That could be the batdar.”

Tim just stares at Jason, following the man’s movements as he walks around the alley inspecting it. After several beats Tim shakes his head. “No. Absolutely not. That’s so stupid.”

Jason turns to him. “How so? Everything else works, so this could too. It just doesn’t sound right because it’s new.”

Tim runs a hand over his face in exasperation, not for the first time he worries about Jason’s mental wellbeing and maturity. “You do realise that everything else was named by Dick when he was nine. Bruce only started using those names because Dick kept insisting on it.”

“I know. I don’t see why we can’t keep the tradition going. I mean, in the community we’re known at the batfamily, so it really isn’t too farfetched.”

Tim shakes his head again and decides to drop the subject, it’s probably best to not indulge Jason with this line of thinking, it’ll only encourage him more and it’s already bad enough as it is.

Turns out Jason isn’t giving up the idea of naming Tim’s gadgets any time soon. As soon as they arrive back at the cave he brings it up again, this time dragging Steph and Dick into the conversation who eagerly respond to it.

“I think it’s great!” Steph claims grinning widely, she swivels around in the computer chair with a smiling Dick standing next to her.

Tim rolls his eyes at her. “Of course you would, it’s stupid.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” She challenges him.

“You know exactly what I mean.” Tim retorts raising an eyebrow.

“I think we should label most things starting with ‘bat’. We have a reputation after all.” She says looking around, as if trying to find inspiration from around the cave.

“I mean there’s the batsuit.” Dick inputs from where he’s leaning against the computer desk.

“What about the batvault? Like where Bruce keeps all the hardcore stuff.”

“That could work.” Dick agrees easily. He reaches out and pokes at the chair Steph is sat in. “This could be the batchair.”

Steph hums. “Maybe, but wouldn’t the batchair be more suitable for Bruce’s chair at the Justice League HQ?”

“Good point.”

The two of them continue to throw words starting with bat at each other, each of them debating the suggestion before moving onto the next. After several minutes of this, Tim turns to Jason with an exasperated look on his face. “This is on you, look at what you have done.”

“I have no idea what you mean.” Jason smirks mischievously, his words counteracting his expression. The bastard knows exactly what he’s done.

“Hey, you know what,” Dick starts, getting their attention again, “when I was ten I tried calling Alfred Bruce’s batler.”

Dick receives a few surprised snorts for that statement.

“What was Alfred’s response to that?” Jason queries amusedly. Even Tim has to admit he’s curious to that one.

“All he did was raise an eyebrow at me and sent me that look. You know the one.”

They all snicker at the mental image of a tiny Dick Grayson being on the receiving send of one of Alfred disapproving looks.

“And here I was thinking we were the only ones still up at this time in the morning.”

A new voice interrupts their conversation and gets their attention. The four of them all look over to find Duke and Cass making their way across the cave towards them. The two groups at look at one another respectively, wondering the same thing, after all it is four in the morning and six of them were still up.

“Well we’re discussing the all-important matter of adding ‘bat’ to everything we own, because after all we do have a reputation to uphold.” Steph tells them.

Cass looks amused while Duke looks rightfully confused.

Tim holds up his hands. “I did not agree to this, Jason brought it up and here we are.”

“Ah ah ah,” Jason denies, “if you want to get technical, it’s originally Dick who brought it up, when he was nine. He started this whole ‘bat’ thing.”

Tim sends him a disbelieving look. “You brought it up tonight by calling my gadget the batdar. This is on you!”

His comment goes ignores as Jason addresses the rest of the group. “Did you know that Roy has nicknamed Bruce our bat-dad? I cracked up laughing when I first heard him say it so casually.”

Dick chuckles, nodding, “I do know that, yeah, I think he used it when we were in the Titan’s together a time or two.”

Steph spins on the chair to face Cass and Duke. “Have anything to add, any ideas to share?”

“Batcow.” Cass supplies simply.

Steph clicks her fingers, her face lighting up in recognition. “Oh yeah! How could we forget. Damian’s batcow and then there’s Titus and Ace as our bathounds.”

“I’ve got nothing,” Duke shakes his head seeming apologetic for not coming up with anything, “but all I know is that you’re all batshit crazy.”

A sudden silence envelops the room and everyone turns to stare at Duke. Duke himself is fighting a smile, clearly proud of his quip, but then loses the battle after Jason barks out a laugh, breaking the silence. Jason’s laugh is contagious and soon enough all of them have cracked up over Duke’s comment.

“Oh Duke, I knew there was a reason why I liked you, you dark horse.” Jason says breathlessly.

Duke shrugs sheepishly and seems to accept his words. Once they all calmed down, Tim decides he’s had enough and decides that he wants to go to bed, after all it is late, or early depending how you see it. Also he’s so done with the talk of bat named things.

Wishing everyone a goodnight Tim heads towards the stairs and in hindsight he really should have expected the next lot of comments giving that nights theme.

“Night Timmy, sleep tight-”

“- and don’t let the batbugs bite!”

As Tim groans another round of laughter starts up behind him. Why does he hang around these people again? What is the sole purpose of them? He swears that they lower his IQ bit by bit everyday and that’s saying something considering his best friends are Kon and Bart.