After the boys ate for the first time since yesterday morning, Bruce suggested going to the mall to pick up a few things. 

"But what about Joey? He'll be looking for us," Tim reminded him. 

"I'll have security join us. You don't need to worry about him," he assured him. Alfred went away to call for a security escort for them. They felt some comfort in leaving the house if they had protection with them. Joey was a lot of things but he wasn't stupid. He'd know not to mess with security. Especially the kind of security the millionaire had at his disposal. "Trust me, he won't be a problem for you any longer." Jason and Tim grinned at one another. They were very quickly becoming accustomed to this life. 

"Money really can solve all your problems huh?" He chuckled, shaking his head. 

"Not all but quite a lot of them," he admitted. They giggled as Dick smiled to himself.

The mall was rather quiet and they could easily walk around with security. It was probably because it was a Wednesday morning and everyone was most likely at work. The only people other than them were school kids who were skipping that day and stay-at-home parents who wanted to get their shopping over and done with. 

Bruce led them to the children's section of a home furnishing shop and let them choose some decorations for their new rooms. Tim went straight for the dinosaur section, closely followed by Jason. He might be a little old for cuddly toys but you have to understand, these were dinosaurs. They dug through the bin of toys and chose one each before moving over to posters. Every hero alive had their own poster so there was a lot to choose from. Dick watched them with a small smile as they argued over what heroes were better than other ones. 

"Don't you want anything?" Bruce asked suddenly, making him jump. 

"Not really. I'm not too materialistic," he answered. 

"C'mon there's got to be something you want. Just because you're a teenager doesn't mean you can't have toys." Dick hummed, looking around. His eyes fell on a stuffed elephant and his face lit up. He tentatively grabbed it and nervously added it to the trolley Bruce was pushing. He gave the teen a surprised smile. 

"I would've thought you'd go for the snakes," he commented. 

"Elephants are cooler," Dick said, the side of his mouth quirking up in a half-smile.

"Dick, look at this lamp! It's practically indestructible since I threw it at Tim and it didn't break!"

"Jason no-"

In the end, they collectively got three stuffed toys, four superhero posters, three themed lamps, and themed drapes. Bruce paid for it and then headed to the clothes store since they only had six outfits between them. That simply wouldn't do. It also helps that he was getting addicted to seeing the pure excitement that their faces displayed when he saw something remotely interesting. 

"What're you gonna name your toys?"

"Peanuts-"

"Losers name their toys-" Dick and Jason said, interrupting one another. A light pink dusted Dick's cheeks as he nervously scratched his face. 

"Are you blushing?" Tim said, grinning. 

"N-no! I'm just warm," he reasoned. Jason pulled at his arm to see his face. 

"Nah dude, that's a blush if I've ever seen one."

"Don't forget that I can kick your butt five times over," he cautioned. The younger scoffed but let go of his arm. 

"Don't get your boxers in a twist." He tutted, suppressing every temptation to punch him in the face.

The clothes shop wasn't half as fun as the furniture shop. Jason found amusement in hiding in the racks of clothes then popping out scaring the living daylights out of fellow children. Most of them laughed and one screamed but he found it funny anyway. Tim inspected some shirts, dragging the eldest of their trio around for a second opinion. 

"Hey, this would look cool on you," Tim announced. He grabbed a red shirt that had the Flash symbol on. Dick shrugged and took it, looking at the size. The label said thirteen but he was thirteen and it looked massive against him. The younger noticed and frowned. He took another shirt that was his own size and held it up against himself. He had the same problem. "Mr. Wayne, how come these look so big?" he inquired. 

"Well, the clothes will be a little big since you're so small," he explained. They looked at him in confusion. 

"We're small?" To be fair to them, they had no other kids to compare themselves against. Two of them hadn't even looked in the mirror in years. 

"It's just the conditions you grew up in were hardly beneficial so you look a bit different," Bruce assured them. 

"I don't wanna shop anymore," Tim mumbled putting the shirt back. He felt embarrassed almost that he must look so different from kids his age. He didn't want to wear baby clothes because he was too small for things more suitable for his own age. 

"Don't be like that Tim, we'll find you clothes that fit," Dick told him, hinting to Bruce to add in. 

"Of course, you have me on your side and the magazines never shut up about my amazing fashion sense," he informed him. Tim brightened up a little, getting a spark to look for things again. "Is he always so self-conscious?" he whispered to Dick. 

"When you compare him to other kids, yeah. He had a pretty normal life before he stayed with us so I guess it's a shock to the system when he doesn't look like everyone else."

After that, Bruce decided to wrap up the shopping trip rather quickly. In the midst of it all, he forgot that these kids haven't had a normal life. They're not going to react as regular kids do. Hell, they flinched when he gave out his hand for a handshake. He needed to get a good grip on their personalities before they could put their pasts behind them. In the car back home, he did, however, glean a bit of hope that they'd be okay again one day. 

Tim was talking about how fun the furniture store was with small inputs from Jason whilst Dick watched on as any loving brother would. A stranger would never suspect where they were just that morning. They had the basics down. He decided that he'd try to get a one-on-one with all the boys at some point to assess how far each of them had to work to get back to a semi-normal life. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the boys quieten down until it went completely silent. He turned to them and saw Tim fiddling with his fingers as his eyes darted towards him. Jason nudged him and nodded his head towards the man. 

"Something wrong Tim?"

"Erm, my Dad is-is real sick. Joey was paying for it but now," he paused. Bruce grimaced at the fear he saw in his blue eyes. 

"I'll take over the payments. I want you to have no more ties with this Joey. Consider him a thing of the past." Tim's eyes widened in delight, tears pooling at the corners of them. 

"Thank you so much, Mr. Wayne," he replied, almost lost for words.

"Please, call me Bruce."