#this is less a story and more shameless billy appreciation leave me alone

[redrobin-detective]

from the mouths of babes

“Hey there Big Bill, what a nice surprise,” Barry smiled as he walked into the meeting room and found Billy Batson sitting in Marvel’s designated spot. “Hold on a tick,” he commented before zipping to the kitchen and back, depositing a snack in the boy’s hands. “Iris always packs too many hard boiled eggs for my lunch but they’re filling and full of protein.” 

“When are you going to stop giving me food every time you see me?” Billy asked with an eye roll as he bit into the egg anyway. Barry carefully took in the boy’s slightly hollowed cheeks and thin wrists, not nearly as bad when he’d first met the kid but still not good enough.

“Yeesh when my favorite uncle brought me treats, I always said thank you. Kids these days,” Barry teased gently, ruffling Bill’s hair as he passed before going to his own seat. “So why aren’t you Cap right now? You’re almost never on the Watchtower as your charming self.”

“You know I appreciate it, Barry and your guess is as good as mine,” Billy shrugged polishing off the egg and leaning back into the comically big chair. “Bats asked that I come to the meeting but told me specifically to come up as Billy and not Marvel. Maybe he needs a kid’s perspective or something.”

“Or perhaps he wants a filthy mouth,” Diana said with a mildly chastising glare as she entered and took her own seat. “I overheard you talking to Robin earlier. Those are not the sorts of words a young man, much less a member of the Justice League should be using.”

“Sorry,” Billy mumbled, shrinking in his seat. “It’s hard to censor myself around Jay when we get to chatting.”

“You hardly have room to talk, Wonder Woman. You say a great deal of offensive language in the midst of battle, both mentally and out loud.” J’onn countered with a small smile as he took his place. “Flash, William, a pleasure as always.” 

“Dead languages don’t count,” Diana defended sternly but her eyes glittered with mirth. Her small wink in Billy’s direction promised that she’d teach him a few of those forgotten swears before he returned to Earth. 

“Me thinks the lady doth protest too much,” Barry grinned back, elbowing his coworker in the arm. “Now when is Bats going to show up and tell us about this mystery meeting?”

“Now,” Bruce stated, setting a small stack of papers at the head of the table. Most everyone startled save for J’onn who had been the only one to notice Batman’s surprise arrival. 

“Holy shit,” Billy muttered to himself, adjusting himself having half rolled out of his chair at Batman’s sudden appearance. “Warn a kid next time.”

“Language,” Diana, Barry and J’onn all said at the same time. Bruce did not, he’d tried for almost a year to tame Jason’s vocabulary with very little success.

“The first official meeting of the Justice League Morality Committee is now in session,” Bruce continued, handing out various folder packets.

“A morality committee, interesting,” J’onn commented, opening his packet

“The League is expanding by the day, getting involved not just in world ending battles but also politics and day to day problems. You all were carefully selected as the moral backbone of the League, sans Superman who is still with Lantern on Oa but will be at the next meeting. I wish to discuss and debate certain controversial League topics in order to determine the correct path.”

“Ah, that’s why you wanted Bill and not Cap here,” Barry nodded to himself as he flipped through his packet.

“Huh?” Billy questioned, staring at his unopened packet, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I don’t get it, Marvel is literally the embodiment of good and righteousness. He’d probably be way better at this than me.”

“Everything good about Marvel comes from you, Billy,” Diana demurred with fond eyes. “He is an admired and strong teammate with a good heart, but he lacks your human perspective, your weaknesses that grant you such astounding empathy.”

“Marvel is a god,” J’onn concurred. “As are many of the Justice League or as close as one gets to it. You, William, are a boy living a hard won, honest life and thus you can see things from that perspective that we adults cannot.”

“Is that supposed to be some kinda short joke?” Billy mumbled in embarrassment. He brought up his packet to hide his flushed cheeks, missing the brief exchange among the fellow Leaguers. For all that they relied on Captain Marvel for his magic and strength, it was Billy they often sought out for the strength of his heart.

“Moving on,” Bruce interrupted. “One of the US Intelligence Agencies recently reached out regarding our willingness to send some of our more stealthy members in for recognizance into countries and organizations with known ties to terrorist groups.”

“So we’d be spies,” Bill frowned, setting down the pamphlet. “Terrorists kinda suck but that still seems to be crossing some lines.”

“How so?” Bruce questioned. Billy began speaking, not nearly as eloquent or put together as Captain Marvel and yet the world’s most powerful heroes sat there quietly and listened to what the child had to say.