Bruce had been waiting by the bedroom window when he snuck in.

Dick had gotten back to the manor at nine; by the time Bruce had gotten through with him it was nearly midnight. By that point it was long past time Batman were at work, so he ordered Alfred to make sure Dick got changed and into bed, and stormed off.

That was about when Dick tuned back in.

"You made a very foolish decision today, Master Dick." Alfred said, helping him out of Wally's hoodie and unzipping his tactical unitard.

"Well Bruce shouldn't be treating us like kids!" Dick argued. "It's like they were trying to make us look dumb in front of the cameras!"

"Master Bruce is worried about you," Alfred corrected, getting out Dick's pyjamas, "and I can hardly blame him given your behavior."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This is hardly the first time you and your friends have made an impulsive decision and gotten yourselves into trouble. I'd say you got off easy this time around." Alfred began buttoning up the boy's pyjama shirt.

"I can do it!" Dick said indignantly. "We only break rules because they treat us like babies!"

"and why do you suppose they treat you like babies?" Alfred asked, "is it, perhaps, because you have no regard for the rules?"

Dick would learn later that many of his friends had been put through similar tortures when they'd gotten home, with Artemis getting her phone taken away and Conner and M'gann being grounded. Kaldur had taken back below and hadn't been in contact. 

They didn't even find out about the Artemis thing until later, and spent the entire weekend worrying about her until Dick saw her at school and was able to give her a burner.

It turned out Oliver had done the most little-bitchiest thing and told Paula Nguyen all about what Artemis and her friends had done-- how they'd made fools of the league-- how worried they'd been when the kids hadn't answered their phones. He put on a hell of a performance, and it already didn't take much for Artemis' mother to get carried away. The girl stood there easily half an hour being scolded, compared to Jade, and told that she needed to take this seriously and follow the rules lest she end up like the rest of her family.  

Artemis thought it was a bit thick, I mean, messing around and making fools of your mentors was hardly the same as bombing department stores and assassinating negotiators, but the way her mother was acting you'd think she was going down the same path as her sister.

At first she'd been irked that Oliver stuck around for her scolding, but in the end she was fairly certain his presence was the only thing that kept her from being threatened with a slipper.

The phone thing was just adding injury to insult, taking away her ability to rant to the team about how stupid it was. In fact she'd been so mad she took out her little pink diary from when she was a kid and wrote three whole pages about what she wanted to do to her mentor.

At least she wasn't being tracked to and from school, was still allowed to participate in extracurriculars, and most importantly of all, didn't have a robotic dad who's entire job was to observe and care of her. 

M'gann was disappointed to be missing cheer this week, but honestly, that was nothing compared to being walked to and from school. Tornado never spoke while they walked, but his presence told them all they needed to know: they'd gotten themselves in trouble. 

The worst part was that it was no secret; M'gann had to tell the girls why she couldn't make cheer, and there was no hiding the rather conspicuous man who dropped them off every day.

They'd gotten in trouble, everyone knew it, and it wasn't even the kind of trouble she could complain about to her school friends.

Conner at least didn't lose social obligations, but every time the three of them had to walk together, she could feel him getting more and more frustrated and resentful. She begged him not to let the league get to him, but it was clearly a struggle for someone with such strong opinions on what was and wasn't fair. 

In his eyes all they'd did was leave an uncomfortable situation and seek out a more fun one, and it seemed unjust that they be punished for leaving the stage when the league didn't even need them there to begin with.

But who were they to complain when they could at least they had contact with the rest of the team.

Kaldur had not been allowed out of sight as of yet. Worse than that, he had work he should have been doing on land, monthly reports, but instead he was being dragged along by king Orin so the man could keep an eye on the boy as he fulfilled his duties in Atlantis.

Aquaman had made it clear that this wasn't a punishment, per say, simply consequences. Perhaps he thought being treated like a child would discourage the boy from acting like one,  but if so it wasn't working because to Kaldur this was just a continuing behavior of infantilizing the team that he needed to fight.

Kaldur at least had one escape: daydreaming. From a young age he'd learned to lock his body into simple, repetitive chores or exercises while his mind traveled the world. He was often praised for his ability to sit still for long periods, unlike other youth who tended to fidget, but the truth was half his mind was usually elsewhere. This skill assisted him today as he sat at his king's side through advisories and planning and all the measly little chores that crop up when you're a king.

At least he his inattentiveness helped him; Wally's hyperactivity wasn't helping him.

He wasn't officially grounded, but since all his friends were, he was stuck at home. Barry was trying to keep him busy with chores, but it really didn't help. He needed his people right now, but all he got was the occasional text when they didn't have an adult leaning over their shoulders.

"I'm telling you, if you hadn't been... well, I don't want to call you brats, but if you hadn't been like that about the whole press conference thing, you wouldn't be in trouble right now."

"Yeah, I know." Wally spat.

"Look, we'll treat you like adults when you're adults, but you're not yet." Barry said leading Wally down from the attic, where they'd been sorting boxes, for lunch. "Treating teenagers like complete adults leaves them unprotected and without clear barriers. We need to keep you safe."

"What you're doing is babying us, keeping in our place."

 "That's not true." Barry cooed. "You know we just care about you. I've known you since you were just a little guy, how could I not worry?"

"Still, making us sit at a kids' table in front of everyone was unnecessary." Wally huffed. At least he was with his aunt and uncle this weekend, as angry as he was with Barry, the last thing he needed right now was to see his parents. 

Training was on Tuesday afternoon, after school got out in all their time zones. The teens greeted one another with hugs and murmured words.

"Alright, not so chummy, you're supposed to be ashamed of yourselves," Canary joked. "Alright, I'm not supposed to let any of you out of sight, so Red's setting up the punch bags, we'll do a warmup and jump right into it."

M'gann turned to her. "Are... are you also disappointed in us?"

"None of us are disappointed, just worried," she replied. Honestly, she wasn't one to talk: once her babysitter cancelled and her mother had brought her along to a league meeting, she must have been four or five, and she'd learned very quickly how boring those things were to kids. Frankly, Dinah wasn't surprised that a child's impatience paired with a teenager's nerve would lead to incidents like this. Surely J'onn or Diana could confirm that she'd been a rather disruptive as a youth herself. She reminded herself that the kids were supposed to be in trouble, and wiped her smile away. "Everybody stretch up," she said.