Chapter Text
Jason woke up in time to switch off his alarm just before it rang.
5:59 a.m.
Jay was still sleeping peacefully , undisturbed by the movement. Curled up in a tiny ball. Cocooned in blankets. He had stayed up for way too long. He needed the sleep.
Jason slipped out of the blankets with intense deliberation. So as to not wake Jay up.
He's just pulling on his socks when he catches the smell.
Something was fucking burning.
He rushed to the kitchen. Several scenarios made themselves known in his head. Each more grisly than the other. Jay's project gone awry. Faulty wiring from his security measures. He skidded to a halt just infront of the kitchen.
Little was attempting to make breakfast.
The pan was on fire. And the poor kid was trying his hardest to salvage whatever he was attempting to fry on it. The only issue being the fact that it was still on fire.
He sighed in relief. No hurt kids. And reached for the fire extinguisher in the lower cabinets. They were stashed all over the place. With Jay. Not preparing for a sudden fire was a genuine death sentence.
"Morning Little ,sleep well?" He said. As he pointed the nozzle and pressed release.
"AGH- Jason, hi, you're awake. I, uh, wanted to do something nice. Bone apple teeth?", he spoke over the spurt of white foam.
It was the fucking good one. He let put a breath and counted to ten. The kid had tried his best, "Will Red be joining us for breakfast?"
Little donned a deer in the headlights look. "Please don't tell him?"
Jason looked at the state of the poor pan. It had melted in the middle. And was glowing slightly. The kid had somehow cooked up mini-nuclear reaction.
"Can't promise "
The ability to absently make lethal explosives was a Jason-thing. Good to know. He staunchly ignored the prickle of warmth in his chest.
"Go wake him up then."
Little shot off to wake his older counterpart up. As Jason shut the pan in the toxic hazard box. He had just emptied it of Jay's older projects a day ago.
He pulled out another pan from the cabinets and snapped the tag. Jay loved hash browns. So he'd make them. Some old american breakfast too. There might be some beef bacon in the freezer. He had recently stocked OJ too. Might as well throw some french toast.
Little raced out, then returned not even a minute later, dragging a kicking snd screaming Red by the ankles.
"I woke him up," Little stated, and Jason raised an eyebrow.
"I can see that. And hear it.", pinched the bridge of his nose. "Little, please release your brother", he could feel a headache growing already. And it was just 6:30 a.m.
"Red ,are you alright?",from what he'd heard from Jay, the poor kid's nerves must be overshot from being stranded in a completely different dimension.
"HNNG-"
Huh. Weird kid. " I'll take your word for it."He shook the hash browns off the pan into the plate. Jay came in shuffling as he placed it on the table. Rubbing at his eyes.Posture slouched. "M'rning" ,he mumbled. And sat down on the table. Something glittery made an appearance next to Red's plate soon after.
"Hey Jaaasssoooonnn, can we raid a pharmacy?" Little spoke up, and Jason turned to see Red hitting his head off the table.
"Why? What's wrong?",his concern for the kid's well being was kicking up notches.
"I'd prefer to keep my brother alive, and I'm not sure how well dropping off his meds cold turkey will deal for him."
"Meds?"
"Sertraline."
Red had overcome his fear of substances meddling with his cognition. He had to bake a congratulatory cake. Huh , where had that thought come from.
" Sure."
"Thanks Jason." Red sniffed. "Hey, did something burn?" He turned slowly to look at Little, who quickly averted his eyes.
"Hey Red, what's that next to your plate?",he changed the subject. Little shot him a grateful look.
It's red and glittery. With Sorry for punching you spelled out in squiggly lines.
Jay had apologized. This was a milestone in social development. Only if Talia was here to brag to.
Looking closer, it looks like it was made when Jay was half asleep.
"The fuck? When? That's so sweet actually."
Jay was pointedly not looking at Red. Staring a hole into his plate of hashbrowns. Only the steadily reddening ears gave away that he had registered what Red had said. To add insult to the injury. Jason reached out to ruffle his hair. Jay growled. But leaned into the touch. Yup. His coffee maker would be paying for his indiscretion later. But it was worth it. Embarrassing kids was a father's older brother's prerogative after all.
Jason took a deep breath. Steeling himself for gauging exactly how fucked up the kids were.
"So, uh, are you two doing okay? Like, this isn't the absolute worst thing that's ever happened to you, sort of okay? I don't have to call a therapist, sort of okay?"
" Are we talking about our top ten traumatic experiences?", Jay asked earnestly. The little shit.
"Oh? We are?" There's a tiny glint in Red's eyes. Slowly, his mouth twitches up into a smirk. "Count down from ten?"
Oh dear. It already sounded like a bad idea.
He steeled himself
"Sure"
The room burst into chaos. —"MY SKIN FELT LIKE IT WAS BOILING —"Shouts and shrieks. "OH WELL ATLEAST YOU HAD SKIN. HE PEELED MINE OFF —" Someone had bitten the other.
Jason looked at Jay. Wondering if it was an extension of his hallucination. Or if Jay was seeing this too. Except Jay was not there. He was perched on the sofa next to the tangle of kids. Fascinated. If he had been spooked by the sudden commotion before, he had completely recovered now. He looked as if he was ready to pounce.
He did not like the look of this. And nope. He grabbed his kid by the waist just in time. and slung him over his shoulder. He gave a startled squeak. "Kids?" Both of them looked positively fratricidal. Jay was trying to wriggle out of the hold.
"Kids?",Fists were getting involved now. Jay had given up trying to escape.
"KIDS—",He finally raised his volume a fraction. The kids finally paused. Red's fist an inch from Little's face. He exhaled ,"—one at a time".
Red and Little got up, dusting themselves.
"Why didn't'cha say so".
They both took seats at the couch. Arms slung around each other as they hadn't been trying to re-enact Cain and Abel a few moments ago.
Jason carried his younger counterpart to the other couch. Who was doing trying his nest to appear boneless .And plopped him down on the seat. Jay gave a muffled grunt and slid down. As if he was offended Jason hadn't let him get crushed.
"So, backstories."
Red cackled, and Little slapped a hand over his brother's mouth. "I'LL GO FIRST," he declared, then reeled back, "ew, did you just lick my hand?" "You were askin' for it, shithead." "Alrighty, number ten: that, that right there. I will never recover."
Little, the deceivingly innocent seeming one, took a second to fling Red off the back of the couch.
"I'll go first," he decided, "my number ten most traumatising thing was getting him as a brother."
Red slowly rose from behind the back of the sofa.
"One time I beat a man so bad that my knuckles were stained with his blood for the next week. No matter how hard I scrubbed, it wouldn't wash out," his voice was barely above a whisper, muted grey eyes wide, "sometimes I still get glimpses of the red."
Okay... not good already.
"if it's alright, can we not talk about that stuff? I don't want to come off as needy or rude, but..." and Jay trailed off for a moment.
"Sure, Jay, no it's not needy or rude."
"Long story short, I was homeless, then taken in by Batman, then kidnapped, stuff happened, I raised a militia and stormed Gotham, it didn't go too well cuz B-man guilted me a bit, then I did some other stuff as Red Hood, became AK again, did more stuff with the militia, then got stranded in Little's world, his Bruce adopted me, the militia is also pulled into that world, we've worked together ever since."
Jay continued, "Same as Red. I thought I was gonna die there. But Jason got me out. He's been an overbearing pare—adult figure ever since." Pare—parent.There was warmth growing underneath his ribs. Jay was avoiding looking at him.
"Same start as Red, but my world's Bruce is really nice, and actually a good dad, so I was Robin for a long while until I found Red, pretty much pulled him into the family, then I also got kidnapped but for less time, and got dosed with lazarus so I wouldn't die, and I had a growth spurt which majorly sucked but now I'm tall, and I took the name Red Hood from Red, and now everything's great."
"Mhmmm", he looked up to see three expectant faces gazing at him.
"My Bruce sucked.Talia Al Ghul took me in." That's all he had to offer. " I was investigating gravitational discrepancies when I got sucked in and ended up in Jay's world. Was scouring every inch of Gotham looking for the person responsible. And then Arkham...." He paused."Been here since."
"—The gravitational disturbances were being detected all over Gotham. But there had been no reports of people going missing near them. They were only indication that something was amiss."
"What about you, Red?"
"A while back, in my original world, one of my guys managed to trip something, started some weird machine a cultist was working on, and I got pulled through into Little's world," Red was explaining, writing something down in what had to be the worst handwriting Jason had ever seen from one of his variants.
"What brought the rest of them through was our attempt to get me home, a machine, though it had to work on both sides, but I bet Jodie'll've figured out what's happened and gotten the one in our new world up and running, we just need to make one here, but that'll take a lot of work. Here, I've made a list of what we'll need."
"Alright then", Most of the materials were easily accessible. He'd have to call in favors to get the rest. The rest— he'd burn that bridge when he got to it.
Today was going to be a busy day.