Chapter Text
Jason stretched up high on tiptoe, craned his neck back, and reached his arms as high as he could. He still could only barely touch the box that he was trying to get. It was only on the third shelf, too, which was even more pathetic.
There were a million little step stools all over the manor for him, but none up here in this storage room, so he didn’t have a lot of options. He could go downstairs and try to find something to drag up here, but that’d take forever and be so annoying. He could kinda touch the box already. Maybe he could sorta slide it off the shelf and onto his hands. Then he could lower it to the floor and go from there.
He took a deep breath and stretched up again. The box slid to the side when he pushed it with his fingers, and it got a little closer to the edge at the same time. Awesome. He wiggled it back and forth a few more times as he inched it closer and closer to the edge. Soon, it was almost there.
That’s when he was interrupted.
“Jason!” Damian stormed into the storage room, big and loud and fast. In barely a second, he was right there beside Jason. He shoved the box back all the way onto the shelf.
“Dami! I was trying to get that down!”
Damian didn’t even complain about how whiny Jason sounded. He just frowned even more as he grabbed the box and lifted it down like it wasn’t hard at all.
“If that was the case, you should have asked for help. You know I’m available.”
Jason shrugged. Yeah. he knew Damian was around, but sometimes he wanted to do things by himself. And especially this box because it was kinda… well…
Damian was still frowning as he tilted it side to side. A weird rattling sound made it totally obvious what it was, even if you didn’t see the label that said ‘Dick: Lego’.
“This is Richard’s.”
“Yeah, he said I could, um, borrow them.” Actually, Dick had straight up given his entire collection of Legos to Jason when they had texted about them this morning, and he had seemed really excited about it. Jason wasn’t as sure about it, though. The whole thing still made him feel weird.
Bruce had wanted to buy Jason Legos back when he was twelve, and back then Jason had already felt ‘too old’ to want to do that. Apparently, both Tim and Damian felt the same when they first came to live at the manor, so it really was an actual, real ‘kid’ thing that Jason was doing right now.
“Are they meant to be for today?” Damian asked.
Jason felt his face heat up. “Um, yeah. We don’t actually have a lot of sports stuff that isn’t for the cave so, uh… And, uh, me and Ethan do Legos at school a lot of the time, so I figured…”
And it kinda made it worse that Jason was embarrassed about this. If he was gonna be a kid, it’d be better if he could at least own it. But even though this was what it had been like for months and everyone knew it, he still felt his stomach get all knotted and his face get all hot when he tried to talk about something as basic as having a friend over and playing with toys.
Damian was staring at him with that really intense way he had, which was sorta making it even harder. Then he nodded even more seriously and turned back to the shelves.
“There is also a box of what Richard calls K’Nex. I believe they will be suitable for your current fine motor skills, although it may be best to perform a trial run before you bring them out for your friend.”
“Shut up,” Jason muttered, even though Damian had a really good point. Ethan was older than Jason, and it would really suck if Jason was too little to do something that Ethan could. Plus, he was kinda planning to pretend that he was a normal kid who played with these toys all the time. That wouldn’t work if he couldn’t even connect the fucking pieces.
Damian had found the other box and stacked it on top of the Lego one. Then he lifted them both like it was the easiest thing in the world.
“Were you planning on taking these to the den?”
“Uh, no, just my bedroom.” Jason had to put a little skip in his step to keep up with Damian’s long legs. He was so busy with that that he almost missed how Damian's frown got a bit bigger.
“Your bedroom is not a central location.”
“Um, I guess not?”
“It will be difficult for the situation to be monitored and for someone to intervene, if needed.”
“What?! Dami, c’mon, it’s not a big deal! I’m just—” Jason gritted his teeth and forced himself to say it. “Just playing with another kid.”
And even that didn’t seem to make a difference. Damian was still frowning, and he still wasn’t bringing the box towards the family wing. It was all so stupid. Yeah, things hadn’t been great when he was at Ethan’s house a week ago, but it had all ended up fine in the end, and it wasn’t Ethan’s fault at all! Jason should have never told Damian about any of it because Damian ended up telling Dick who told Tim who told Steph and then Cass and then everyone knew, and they were all weird about it.
Jason had gotten a million texts over the last couple days with his siblings ‘checking in on him’ and asking if he felt okay about things today. He’d feel a lot better about it if they didn’t keep freaking him out! And now Damian wasn’t even gonna let him hang out with Ethan in his own room?
“Dad said it was okay!” Jason tried. “We talked about contid— cotin— contingencies.” Fuck, one of the things they should have gone through was actually saying the word right, but at least he managed it in the end.
Damian stared for another second, still holding the boxes.
“Alright,” he finally agreed. “As long as you add me to your list of contingencies. I will be nearby if you need anything.”
And, okay, that was nice, but Jason was really hoping he wouldn’t need any help. Damian helped him with tons of stuff now, but it was kinda lame to need a big brother to help with just playing, right? Kids Jason’s age were supposed to be able to do that for themselves.
But it was good to have Damian’s help for right now, at least. He brought the boxes of toys into Jason’s room and helped to make space for them on the shelves so it looked like Jason already kept them there. They were just about to open up the K’Nex and see if Jason’s stupid fingers could handle them when Tim knocked on the door and stuck his head in.
“Hey, Jay, is Gavin’s last name Roberts like Mark Roberts the hedge fund manager?”
Jason blinked. “I dunno. We don’t really spend a lot of time at school talking about what our dads do.”
“Just wait a few more years,” Tim muttered. “But never mind, I can figure it out easy enough. You’ve got Ethan coming over soon, right?”
“Yeah…” If Tim was going to offer to ‘supervise’ like Damian, then Jason was gonna lose it.
But he didn’t say anything about that. Tim just nodded and flashed Jason a smile.
“Cool. Hey, I was thinking. I have the afternoon off today. I could teach you guys some skateboarding stuff. Ethan would probably be into that, right? Most kids are?”
Jason thought about it for a bit. Yeah, Ethan would probably like that. And honestly… it sounded pretty cool to Jason, too. He hadn’t done any skateboarding before, but he knew Tim was really good at it. And, well, he kinda liked when Tim taught him stuff. He was good at explaining things without making Jason feel bad he didn’t know them, and he didn’t hover too much.
“Your stuff’s probably too big for me,” Jason said. That’s what literally everything was like for him now.
“Nah, I’ve got things in storage. Won’t take me long to get them out.”
But just before Jason could reply, Damian cut in.
“Jason does not need supervision for this visit! He is capable of handling it independently.”
Well, duh. That’s what Jason had literally just said to Damian. But why was he… Oh. Shit. Tim was offering skateboard lessons just so he could watch out for Jason, wasn’t he? That had to be why.
“I don’t need a big brother babysitting me,” he muttered.
“No, it’s not about that, Jay,” Tim explained. “Well, okay, maybe I do want to watch out a little, but I do honestly think it would be fun.”
Jason thought about it for a second longer. It didn’t look like Tim was lying; it looked like he actually did want to do the skateboarding thing. And as stupid as it was, his plan had totally worked. Jason wanted to do the stupid skateboarding and wanted Tim to be there for that, and he didn’t even care if it kinda sorta maybe counted as babysitting at the same time.
“Whatever. Just— you really think it’s something I could be okay at?” He really didn’t want to do it if he just ended up looking like a little kid in front of Ethan, and there was a lot of stuff that he was too small for right now. Better to just avoid it if he was going to suck.
But Tim smiled as he ruffled Jason’s hair. “Yeah, you can totally handle it. Trust me. I’m gonna run and grab my stuff, okay? I’ll be back soon!”
He left right away, so it was only Jason and Damian in the room. Damian was really quiet, and—
Oh, shit. Jason felt something twist inside his stomach. As weird as it was, Damian actually really liked helping Jason out. And sometimes if other people did stuff with Jason instead of him, he got kinda…
“Are you mad?” Jason asked.
Damian scoffed. It wasn’t really an answer, but Jason kinda knew what the answer was anyway.
“I’m sorry, Dami! It’s just— the skateboarding does sound really cool; that’s all it was.”
“Tt.”
“And… I’d ask you to do something, but it can’t be anything about fighting and Ethan doesn’t really like drawing.”
“He what?”
“Whatever! Just— is it okay?” He didn’t really know what he was asking. It wasn’t like he needed Damian’s permission to hang out with Tim. But he really didn’t like the idea of Damian being mad or sad or whatever and he wanted to make sure that wasn’t happening.
Damian huffed out a sigh and then nodded. “I understand. Even if you are with Drake, you should keep your phone on you for the afternoon. You can call if you need me in any way.”
Jason was pretty sure that wasn’t gonna happen, but he didn’t mind doing it, even though it was always annoying to shove a giant-sized phone into his kid-sized pocket. When he checked his phone, he saw he had a whole bunch of messages from Steph.
They were GIFs of all kinds of punches and kicks. Some were actual ones that you could do, but most of them were really stupid moves from really stupid action movies.
Just in case you need ideas, her message said.
And it was pretty dumb, but it helped to get rid of a bit of that tight worried feeling that was in Jason’s stomach. Steph cared about him, but she wasn’t gonna bust into the manor and do anything weird. He wasn’t gonna need any fighting ideas, anyway. Ethan was nice, and that’s why Jason had invited only him today. He could figure out how to do this with other kids another time.
With a little smile on his face, Jason shot back a quick reply before he went downstairs. There was noise coming from the kitchen, so he went to check it out.
Dick and Bruce were both there, leaning against the island while Alfred measured cookie dough out and plopped it onto a baking sheet. Then, when Dick started reaching for the bowl to grab a sample, Alfred gave his knuckles a little hit with the spoon.
“There will be plenty to go around once they have all baked, Master Dick.”
Dick grinned. “Aw, but it tastes good this way.”
“I didn’t know you were making cookies,” Jason said. He came over to the counter and lifted up on his toes to get a better look. They were chocolate chip, which was his favourite.
“It felt like the thing to do, seeing as we are about to have company.” Alfred stopped working just long enough to give Jason’s shoulder a squeeze.
Oh. Wow. Alfred was making cookies for Jason and Ethan just because… because he wanted things to go good? And he wanted Jason to be happy? That tight feeling inside him didn’t totally go away, but something warm and buzzy and light floated up inside him, too. It was a lot and— and he couldn’t figure out any words to explain it, so instead he reached forward and gave Alfred a tight hug right around his middle.
He had to say something, so he mumbled a little ‘thank you’ to Alfred before he let go and took a step back. His face felt warm, and his insides felt all melty, but he didn’t hate it.
Then Bruce smoothed his hand over Jason’s hair, and everything settled a little bit. “Ethan’s mom just texted. They’re heading out right away so they should be here soon.”
Jason nodded. His stomach flipped. “Okay. Cool.”
He was still excited for it. He was. It was just that ‘excited’ and ‘nervous’ were getting all mixed up in his head, and everything felt like it was a lot.
“Hey, Jay, did you find those Legos?” Dick asked. “Because I was thinking my old K’Nex might also be good.”
“Yeah, uh… Dami said that, too. They’re in my room right now.”
“Great! I could show you and Ethan how they work, if you want. There’re some pretty cool projects, and—.”
“You’re supposed to be helping me with Charlene,” Bruce interrupted.
“Yeah, I know, Bruce. And I will! This would only take a few minutes.”
Bruce stared at Dick and Dick stared back. They were having some silent conversation that went over Jason’s head in two ways: one because they were both so stupid tall, and two because there was something Jason wasn’t getting about the whole thing.
Why did Bruce need help with Ethan’s mom? He had said he was gonna ‘work something out’ with her so that she’d be okay with Ethan playing with Jason even after Jason punched another kid. Bruce hadn’t really said what that was, though.
Well, it didn’t really matter about the K’Nex anyway because Jason already had a different plan.
“I think me and Ethan are gonna be outside most of the time,” he said. “Tim’s gonna teach us how to skateboard.”
Bruce snapped his head down to Jason. “What? Since when?”
“Uh, I dunno, like ten minutes ago?” And why was that such a big deal? It wasn’t like there was a rule against skateboarding. Or at least there didn’t used to be one.
Bruce frowned at his phone as he typed into it, and it was just— Was he gonna say no? That Jason couldn’t skateboard? Because he hadn’t actually done something like that before and… and Jason wasn’t really sure what he’d do if Bruce told him he couldn’t do something he really wanted to.
“Dad?” Jason bit his lip and took a step closer to Bruce.
And that’s all it took for his dad to snap out of it.
“Sorry, bud, I didn’t mean to make you worry. It’s fine if you and Ethan want to do that. I just need to touch base with Tim about a couple things.” He flashed a quick smile and cupped his hand on the side of Jason’s face.
His hand was big and warm like always, and it helped get rid of a bit more of that tightness inside of Jason. Then he gave Jason’s earlobe a little tug before he turned to leave the kitchen.
Alfred raised his voice to call after him. “May I remind you, Master Bruce, that the Dekkers are less than twenty minutes away?”
Bruce waved his hand at Alfred but didn’t look back as he kept walking.
“Skateboarding sounds fun,” Dick said as he tried to sneak his hand towards the cookie dough bowl again. “That was a good idea for Tim to suggest it.” He snapped his fingers back just before Alfred got them again.
“Yeah, I guess.” Jason watched as Alfred finished up the last tray of cookies. Usually, he liked to help with that kind of stuff, but there were too many thoughts in his brain right now. “I know it was just because everyone thinks I’m gonna punch another kid.”
“That’s not what we think, Jay.”
Jason didn’t really believe it, though. He had all these people working really hard to help out with his visit; didn’t that mean it was a big deal? And what would Ethan think about Jason’s stupid smothering big brothers? They kinda babied him now and… and, okay, sometimes Jason needed that. He was a kid, so he liked things like hugs and playing stupid games and even being carried sometimes.
But was it stuff that a nine-year-old like Ethan would think was lame? Knowing what people did when they were certain ages was all mixed up in Jason’s head now. The only thing he knew for sure was that he never felt like a little kid hanging out with Ethan, and he didn’t want that to start today.
“Everyone simply wants this visit to proceed smoothly,” Alfred said. The last of the cookies were in the oven, so he took off his apron and hung it on the hook just inside the pantry. Then he took two of the cookies that were cooling on the counter, put them on plates, and handed one to Dick and one to Jason.
Maybe it was dumb, but the cookie actually helped. It was good just like Alfred’s baking always was, and Jason felt a little better about everything by the time he had finished eating it. At least he got fresh cookies out of all of this, plus skateboard lessons.
And things were gonna go fine. Jason always got along with Ethan if it was just the two of them. They would have fun today, and then his mom wouldn’t be as worried about them playing together. And if there was any trouble, Jason could bring Ethan inside for cookies and that would solve pretty much anything.
He was feeling almost confident about the whole thing when Ethan and his mom got there. They parked their giant, white SUV in the front drive and then rang the really loud doorbell at the main entrance. Alfred answered the door like he always did, and Jason stood in the entryway right beside Bruce as Ethan came in.
“Your house is giant!” Ethan said.
His mom shushed him and then pulled on a really big, bright smile. “Bruce! We’re so glad to be here. Thank you for the invitation.”
“I’m glad we could make it work.” Bruce shook her hand like it was some kind of business deal. “I don’t believe you’ve had a chance to meet my oldest yet. This is Dick.”
Jason didn’t really know how Dick did it. No matter who he was talking to, everyone ended up liking him so much. They smiled and laughed and looked totally relaxed. Jason hadn’t been able to do that at all when he had been big, and he knew Bruce wasn’t all that good at it, either.
And that was probably why Bruce wanted Dick to help out, because Ethan’s mom kept smiling even more and seemed really happy to talk to Dick.
“I think Jason wanted to play outside for a bit,” Dick said. “How about we show you into the sitting room, Mrs. Dekker?”
“Please call me Char,” she said with a weird sort of giggle. “And that would be lovely. You boys be safe, alright?”
Ethan nodded, and Jason tried to look like he had never punched a kid ever in his life. When the grownups were gone, he turned back to Ethan.
“You wanna go outside? My brother said he’d give us skateboard lessons.”
Ethan lit up. “Cool! But wait, he’s with your dad and my mom.”
“No, not Dick. My other brother. Tim. He’s the one who picks me up from school on Wednesdays.”
“Oh.” Ethan shrugged and then followed Jason out the front door and around to the side of the house where the gardens were. “Right, you got a lot of brothers and sisters, huh?”
“Yeah.” And they were his big brothers and big sister. Jason was still getting used to that part.
“I don’t have any,” Ethan said.
“I didn’t used to, either. But, um, it’s pretty cool sometimes.”
Like right now: Tim was waiting for them right by the paved path that went past Alfred’s vegetable garden. He had a ton of stuff for Jason and Ethan: three different skateboards of different sizes, helmets, and a bunch of pads. Jason was pretty sure some of the pads were only there because Bruce said for Tim to have them, but it wasn’t that bad at all.
Tim was really serious about getting them protected, but then he got Jason and Ethan up on the boards right away. He showed them how to stand, how to balance, how to get moving, and how to get off safely.
Ethan was really excited to do it and got right into it. And it turned out it was totally something Jason could do, even with being small. Pretty soon he was zipping up and down the path all on his own. His stops were still a little rough and his turns were kinda slow, but he was getting it and so was Ethan.
“You’re both looking good!” Tim said.
“Yeah, but when can we do some tricks?” Ethan asked.
“Once you’ve got those corners nailed. Sorry, but I’m not budging on that. You need to be able to maneuver safely.”
Ethan heaved a really big sigh but then shrugged.
“I could, you know, show you some things,” Tim offered. “Just so you can see what they look like.”
Ethan seemed like he was into that idea, but Tim waited until Jason said yes, too. And then he was flying down the pavement, doing some kind of fancy thing where the skateboard switched positions underneath his feet.
“Whoa.” Ethan stared at Tim the whole time. “Your brother’s so cool.”
Jason watched as Tim flipped his board around another time. He did it so fast and with barely any effort, but Jason knew he wasn’t even close to doing something like that himself. There was tons of stuff Tim was really good at that Jason wasn’t, but he never made Jason feel bad about it. He explained it or helped Jason learn or said it wasn’t a big deal. It was nice.
“Yeah,” he said to Ethan. “He’s pretty cool.”
Then, right when Tim was starting to make his way back to them, Damian came out of the house. He had Titus beside him and was holding the gross old tennis ball they always played fetch with.
Ethan’s eyes went wide. “That dog is ginormous!”
That’s all it took for Damian to come over. “This is Titus. He is always excellently behaved, so you are welcome to say hello.”
Ethan kept staring, both at the dog and at Damian. And then Jason finally stepped in.
“This is Damian,” he said. “He’s my other, other big brother.”
Ethan’s eyes got even wider. “Cool! Okay, yeah, can I pet Titus, Damian?”
As much as Damian bragged about Titus being a great guard dog, he was a huge pushover with anyone he got actually introduced to, so it took barely no time for Titus to start wagging his tail while Ethan petted him. It was just enough time for Tim to get back with his skateboard.
“Hey. Damian, I thought you were staying inside today.”
There was a little smirk on Damian’s face when he replied. “Titus was in need of a walk. And it occurred to me that Ethan might be interested in meeting him.”
Tim stared Damian down. Damian didn’t budge at all.
And were they seriously fighting over who got to spend time with Jason and his little kid friend? What the hell?
“This is so cool!” Ethan said. “Titus is awesome!”
Damian’s smirk got even bigger. “Yes, he is. If you would like to come inside, I could introduce you to my cat as well.”
And Tim looked almost sad about that, so sad that Jason needed to say something.
“Ethan thinks you’re cool, too, Tim.”
“Oh, yeah, totally! I’m gonna ask my mom for a skateboard so I can practice at home.” Ethan grinned and went back to petting the dog, not even realizing the dumb competition that was happening right now.
Jason noticed, though. And… It was still pretty weird that he had all these siblings trying to hang out with him and his friend just to make sure that things were going okay. But it wasn’t awful, and it was good to know that this wasn’t too much of a little kid thing for a nine-year-old. Maybe it’d even be okay if another time Dick came and played K’Nex with them. Ethan would probably think he was just as cool as Tim and Damian.
Then, just when they started to pack up all the skateboarding stuff, a rustling sound came from the big old oak tree on the other side of the garden. It was loud enough that even Ethan heard it. He dropped his armful of skateboarding pads as he turned towards the tree.
“Is that your cat, Damian?”
A pouty frown grew on Damian’s face. “No. It is not.”
“That’s our big sister Cass,” Jason said. Even though all he could see through the leaves was a dark smudge, he was sure that’s who it was. She had been way too quiet at breakfast this morning, and stalking them the whole time was totally something she’d do.
But if she was letting them notice her now, she must be thinking that everything was going okay. That there wouldn’t be any problems, and that Jason could decide if he wanted to bring Ethan over to her.
And he actually, really did.
“C’mon, let’s go say hi,” he told Ethan. “You’ll like Cass. She’s really cool, too.”
All of his siblings were. And Jason was really lucky to have them.