Let's hope this doesn't glitch out like last time

AmberGreenleif is our first requester and our first shout out is redghs! She does great one-shot stories and I'm sure you'll all love her work. She also helps inspire some of my one-shots so thank her for being there to bounce my ideas off 

The Christmas season was always a cherished time in Wayne Manor. It always brought with it a calm and soothing atmosphere that was like no other. "DICK!" Jason yelled, making Damian grumble at the sudden distraction. Okay maybe it wasn't that calm but it was calm to the Batfamily in comparison to how things normally were. Jason had just found his helmet painted with candy canes. Admittedly they were well painted and anywhere else he would've found them tasteful but on his helmet, a few minutes before patrol he definitely didn't see the bright side of them. He knew it was the eldest sibling of the family because this Christmas was like every other. There was a prank war raging. Tim hadn't really taken to it and Damian never saw the point in the antics but the eldest pair loved it. Well, they loved it until they were subject to the prank. "What's up Jaybird?" Dick replied. He knew full well what was up but he liked to play innocent. 

"You painted candy canes on my helmet!" Jason scolded, waving his helmet around for proof. 

"It couldn't have been me," the older replied.

"It was obviously you," he argued. Dick thought to himself, putting a finger to his chin as he did. He was well aware there was red paint on his hands. He just liked to really milk the reaction to his pranks. "Hmm, you know what, I did have some free time last night but that doesn't mean it was me," he concluded.

"I know it's you."

"But do you though?" Jason squinted his eyes at him.

"Yes," Damian butt in. He hoped his contribution would make the interaction stop so he could get back to doing work in peace. 

"But does he though?"

"Dick, I swear to God I'll shoot you in a minute." Dick shot his hands up in surrender when he saw his younger brother reach for his gun holster. 

"Okay okay, I did it!" His brother continued to take his gun out and aimed, firing as soon as he could.

Everybody froze as the sound of gunfire went through the air. However, no bullet ripped through Dick's flesh and crimson never stained the floor. In fact, the only thing that came from Jason's gun was Christmas tree confetti. "Told you I'd shoot you," he said with a smug smirk. 

"That's not funny Todd," Damian scolded. His scolding was undermined when the acrobat let out a loud cackle at the prank. He was swiftly followed by his prankster who couldn't keep up the act anymore. "You two are imbeciles," the youngest stated, folding his arms in frustration. He didn't see the point in pranks. You do something that would otherwise be annoying but just because you say it's a prank it's suddenly okay? It didn't sit right. Especially when everyone knew once you played a prank, you were opening yourself up to being pranked at any time. He wasn't into engaging in the combat of pranks and he never wanted to be. It was a waste of time. His brothers, however, seemed to thrive off it. "Oh c'mon Dami, have a sense of humour," Dick replied, wiping a tear from his eye because he laughed so hard. He tutted at the older and returned to his work. "I have a fine sense of humour. It's you two without a good sense of it," he defended.

The pair giggled to themselves and he didn't doubt that Jason was mockingly copying him behind his back. "You two are so immature it's a miracle either of you is considered on the same level as me," he stated confidently. The giggling subsided and they walked up behind him. 

"Oh really? Why don't you look at my latest case file? It takes real maturity to listen to that sound bite," Jason offered. Ready to prove his point, Damian took him up on the offer. He went to the older's folder and pulled up his latest case. He didn't take any notice of the name of the sound considering the other had a nasty habit of naming things stupidly. For example, he named the sound clip of an elderly murderer confessing ok boomer. It got rather frustrating when anyone had to look through his stuff and had to decipher how his brain worked to find the right thing. He clicked on the file and was greeted by Jingle Bell Rock being blasted through the speaker. Dick and Jason smirked mischievously and began walking off as Damian desperately tried to turn off the song. "Why can't I turn it off?" he yelled in confusion. 

"Oh, that's just a little trick I learnt when I was a kid, good luck trying to get it off!" Dick responded as he left the cave with his brother.

Jingle Bell Rock continued to play for four hours before Tim entered the cave and turned it off. He always was the tech kid. His ability to easily turn off the music and being greeted with the problem of the music that he couldn't stop made Damian one angry boy. He stomped upstairs, hands curled up in a fist and stormed into every room in search for the devious pair. Both were actually setting up pranks for one another. Dick was trying to figure out how he was going to get a small pine tree into Jason's bed without being seen and Jason was taking some inspiration from the earlier prank by painting Dick's escrima sticks like candy canes. Both were dragged into an impromptu meeting about their behaviour by the miniature killing machine. "It was bad enough when you two were pranking each other then you dragged me into it. What is the point?" he asked, desperate to know. Why were they so amused by this? Why did they love doing this so much? Why was this their ritual? They did it every single year. At some point, they must've spent ages planning new creative ways to prank one another so there had to be a point. "To be fair, that prank was meant for Jay. He just happened to suggest pranking you and I couldn't pass it up," Dick argued.

"I don't give a damn if it was meant for me or not! Why do you do it?" The pair looked at each other. 

"Well, Christmas kinda sucks for us sometimes," the older admitted.

"Why? You two are the happiest at Christmas even with the spike in crime it brings."

"That's because we do the pranks," Jason answered.

"Christmas is about family and we lost ours. Pranking gives us something else to think about," Dick elaborated. "Speaking of, we need to get back to it! It's Christmas Eve so we don't have much time left." Damian opened his mouth to continue asking but found his brothers had already deserted the conversation where it was. He sighed and decided this would be the answer he'd just have to deal with. At least he only had to deal with it for one more day. He could last that long. Was that because he knew the context of the pranks or because he couldn't be bothered staying angry? That decision is up to you.