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Fiddler On The Roof didn’t come until the next year during the week of Jason’s fourteenth birthday. Bruce didn’t do theaters, he hadn’t been in one since he was a child. Working himself to go in one was difficult but when he showed Jason the tickets Jason had literally screamed. He decided then that he’d do whatever it took to sit through that performance,
“No way! No way, Bruce, you didn’t!” But Bruce had, and Jason ran by his side and hugged him tight enough to make Bruce wheeze. “This is gonna be so much fun.”
Jason’s excitement was contagious, and Bruce hugged him back.
“I even got Dick to come along.”
And Jason got even more excited. He and Dick were never particularly close but it didn’t take a blind man to see that Jason wanted Dick to be a part of his life.
“No way!” Jason hugged him harder and let go, pacing around in the study, tossing his book this way and that. Jason had finally gotten taller but with the onset of puberty he was awkwardly gangly. He was still relearning his center of balance.
“This is gonna be so cool Bruce, you’ll love it! I’m almost positive, and you don’t have to worry about nobody. I’ll rough ‘em up,” Jason punched the air, then kicked.
“Watch the pottery,” Bruce blew the steam off his cup of coffee. “I’ll be fine.”
Jason nodded, “It’s gonna be great, don’t worry,” and he hugged Bruce one last time before running out of study and yelling for Alfred about the good news.
Getting to the theater had been uneventful, Bruce realized for the first time that he hadn’t seen Jason and Dick in the same place for longer than an hour. On the car ride there Jason had talked about everything and anything, rambling on about school, and then something he did as Robin (Poision Ivy had given him a rose bush and Jason took care of it like it was his child. Bruce checked it every day to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. It ended up being a plain bush, to Bruce and Alfred’s shock).
“That’s cool Little Wing. Roses are fantastic, have you read Of Mice and Men Yet?”
Jason cringed, “Don’t talk to me about that.”
“Oho, so you have opinions?”
“Lots,” Jason nodded, “But there’s not enough time to get through all of them,” he murmured something under his breath and leaned into Bruce a little more. The pressure jarred him from how his thoughts drifted.
By the time they got situated in their seats Bruce had to do several head counts, Alfred was on his left, Jason was on his right, and Dick was next to Jason.
He exhaled in a count of eight and waited as the house lights dimmed. He focused on anything else and what he focused on was Jason.
He gasped when the curtains were drawn back, revealing the set. It was a spectacular piece and Bruce could see the mechanics of each and every way it was built.
“Do you see that,” Jason whispered quietly, pointing to a part of the set that moved as the music started. Jason was already on the edge of the seat. If they weren’t in public Bruce would figure that Jason would be bouncing. He was just that excited about it.
“I do,” he whispered back and Jason grinned, leaning against his arm.
It was hard to focus on what was going on in the musical, his brain turning to static as he tried to focus on the performance. He’d listened to recordings over a hundred times, and he could read the actor’s lips.
He didn’t snap back into reality until he heard whispering and he thought Jason was talking to him but his boy’s eyes were locked on the stage and he was whispering every single word that the actor’s were saying, and eventually singing. He knew the entire musical by heart, memorized from god knows how many times he had listened to it.
Jason looked up at him at the end of the first song and whispered, “Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as a fiddler on the roof,” and he leaned against Bruce more as the scene changed.
Bruce didn’t listen to the musical but he listened to Jason’s take on it, and watched the choreography and acting. It was a beautiful mix, Jason did a different voice for all of the characters and by the time it was over Jason was already talking about it like it hadn’t just happened.
Adjusting to the light once they were outside was an experience but he was being flanked on either side by Jason and Dick. Alfred walked in front, leading them back to the car.
“It was just so cool, the way the set moved! I finally get the metaphor that’s in the musical though which is great. I’ll talk to my teacher about it tomorrow, she likes when we talk theories.”
Bruce nodded and Jason pressed against him harder, “You weren’t listening but that’s okay.”
“I can read lips.”
“But the music was soo good, Bruce. Like, super good. They did a good job at keeping it accurate with the way they talked. I think the cast was all Jewish which is even better because it is a Jewish play.”
“Mhm.”
Jason laughed, “Thank you so much for getting the tickets. Wasn’t it fun, Dick?”
“Oh,” Dick grinned, “It was absolutely spectacular. Very good performance, you have good tastes in musicals.”
“I know I do! We should do this again sometime.”
“See a play?” Dick raised his brows, eyes darting to Bruce’s but Bruce didn’t say anything.
“No,” Jason rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest, “Hanging out as a family. We don’t do it at all, it was.. Really fun today,” and Jason said it so seriously, sighing and leaning against Bruce again.
Bruce put his arm over his shoulders and pulled him in close, “We can definitely do something like this more often, chum. We’ll just have to plan.”
“Oh! I can plan something great, I promise.”