Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jason quickly made his way through the halls. His steps were swift and silent and he honestly took pride in that, he was one of the best members of the league for a reason after all.

It was a beautiful day outside, the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming and like any other day, the recruits were slaughtering each other in the backyard. That was the League of Assassins, what else could you possibly expect?

Normally he would've been outside with the others, making dibs on who would die and who would survive, but at that moment he was making his way to Talia's room for some important matter or some shit like that.

He honestly didn't really care but whatever kept him away from all that blood and death for just ten minutes would've been very well accepted by the fifteen year old.

Don't get him wrong, he was actually all for beating the shit out of people who deserved it and if you made him mad he would absolutely throw hands, but whenever he saw blood being spilled needlessly he could just hear Batman's voice berating him for not preserving the life around him like he had always taught him.

At the end of the day, he didn't really hate Bruce, he was just constantly fighting the urge to burst into Wayne Manor, politely greet Alfred and hug him (because he's Alfred and he deserves it), Naruto-running up to his adopted father at full speed, kick him straight in the balls and leave by jumping out of a window to look cooler.

Yeah okay maybe he didn't hate him but he was absolutely livid because of him, and unlike all the other times when he was an angsty teenager with raging hormones (which he kinda still was, but telling him that would get you a punch in the gut and nobody there was truly that daring), he had an actual good reasoning to be whiny.

What was his reason, you may ask?

Well Batman left him to fucking die and rot in his grave without even looking back.

Now, he wasn't exactly mad about dying since he would've needed to do quite a lot of mental gymnastics to actually pin his death on him: he told him to stay put, he didn't do that and decided to follow the Joker into what was clearly a trap. That was his fault because he was a stubborn bitch.

What he was truly angry about was how the Joker suffered literally no consequences for what he did, they literally sent him back to the Arkham Asylum and he just chilled there until he just broke out again!

Batman should've known by then that putting the Joker in Arkham was like placing an energetic toddler in a crib, it might've looked like he was trapped when in reality he was just waiting menacingly for you to leave the room so that he could climb up and throw himself face first against the ground.

To make matters worse, not even a month after his death he came to find out that Batman had found himself a new Robin. A MONTH. It took him a month for that motherfucker to replace him. Of course he was gonna be pissed about it!

He had no idea how he would've been received if he were to go back there and so he decided to do the most mature thing that a moody teenager with an emotional baggage as big as the number of people that worshipped Nightwing’s bottom and that was just brought back to life by a magical highlighter green puddle by a cult of ninjas could think of, which was joining said cult and letting a psychotic terrorist adopt him.

His train of thoughts stopped as he reached the room he was looking for. There were two guards standing still in front of it and upon seeing him, their positions stiffened.

“Gentlemen.” Jason greeted them with a snarky smile as he nonchalantly placed his hand on his hips. “I was told that lady Talia wanted to see me and you know how much she hates waiting, mind letting her know I have arrived?” He might’ve been a bit of a narcissist, but seeing other assassins scowl at the privileged position he found himself in was very much amusing to him.

Having been forced to live in the streets from a very young age, he felt on top of the world for once. Living with Bruce was definitely a step up from his previous conditions, but being flocked by paparazzi and having to constantly watch every single thing he said or did in public to not start weird ass rumors that were hard to debunk, when coupled with having to wear a suit so colorful that made hiding around Gotham nearly impossible and that had no pants for some reason and having to stand in Batman’s shadow 24/7 was just unbearable for him.

In the League of Assassins on the other hand, nobody truly gave a shit about each other and honestly, he was okay with living in that kind of environment. One of the main reasons why Talia had taken him in was definitely because he was Bruce’s kid, and although he hated that bond from his core, nobody outside of the Al Ghul family seemed to care about it.

They were forced to respect him because he was close to the Demon’s Head, regardless of how he behaved or what he did and, unlike everything he went through until that moment, it was easy.

At the end of the day, if would've honestly been a pretty awful and sad environment for a normal child to grow up in, but Jason had some pretty serious mental issues and he was okay with it.

“Lady Al Ghul.” One of the guards grunted silently after opening the door slightly. “Your ward is here.”

There were a few moments of silence in which none of the three spoke but then suddenly a female voice interrupted their very awkward staring contest. "Let him in, then leave."

The two guards looked at each other and nodded briefly and then stepped aside to let Jason in. The boy pushed the door open without even looking the two in the eyes, despite feeling their own gazes drilling into his skull. People there simply didn't have manners, did they?

He was met with a somberly dark room with a woman standing in the middle of it, with her back turned at the door. Whatever Talia wanted to tell him, she surely was playing the dramatic card right then and there.

"Talia." He greeted her. "I heard that you wanted to speak with me, do you need something?"

He genuinely didn't have any idea of why he had been called. He hadn't caused any trouble and whenever he was sent on missions, Talia didn't ask him to meet in her own personal room.

That question of his was answered the moment she turned around.

She was holding what he initially thought was just a bundle of silk, but upon closer inspection he realized what it was that she was actually holding.

A baby.

Talia was holding a baby.

Did the universe just listen to that whole inner monologue about the League being a shitty place for a baby and decide to slap him in the face like that? Well universe, fuck you too then.

"That…that's a baby." Jason finally managed to spit out, cringing slightly at how unsure he sounded.

"I am well aware of that."

"Why do you have an infant, here, in a place where people get killed on the daily- also wait whose baby even is that?! Like you didn't just steal it did you?!"

Talia seemed a bit annoyed with the younger's behavior, as nobody in the League would even dream of speaking to her that way, but Jason's demeanor had remained unchanged throughout all the time he had been there so she decided to just let that go. "This isn't just any infant, this is my son."

"Your son." "Son as in adopted son? Like how you sometimes say that you consider me your son or…?"

"He's my biological son. The blood of the Al Ghuls runs through his veins."

"That's…okay, I mean I guess I could cope with that." Jason cracked a nervous smirk as he unconsciously stayed scratching the back of his head. "Who's the father?"

He wasn't really sure of what he was expecting when he asked that question so nonchalantly. It could've been anyone to him, really, but the silence that had suddenly dropped on the two of them was anything but a good sign. "Why am I getting the feeling that I'm really not gonna like the answer…?"

"The father is Bruce Wayne."

At that point, Jason just burst out laughing.

Bruce Wayne, really? Man, would've that been a real nightmare to live through! As if Talia could actually manage to seduce the dark knight and convince him to sleep with her! That was genuinely such a funny thought, too bad the woman didn't seem to find it as hilarious as he did.

His nervous laughter dropped. She was being serious. "Holy shit you aren't joking."

"I know what you-"

"HOLY SHIT YOU HAD SEX WITH BRUCE WAYNE!"

On Jason's part, that was extremely uncalled for, he realized that, but at that moment he just couldn't hold himself back.

The little child became a bit rigid upon hearing the scream but he almost immediately went back to sleep peacefully. Boy did Jason wish the two of them could've just switched places.

"You're just this, assasin-ninja princess and Bruce is literally Batman, that child has got to be a bundle of pure edge and-" He stopped his rambling as he noticed that she was just staring at him, disappointedly, might he have added. "An 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 bundle of pure edge."

"Could you at least try to control yourself? You're acting very inappropriately." Talia said, quite irritated by the boy's lack of self control.

"You just told me you banged-" Jason stopped mid-sentence as he felt her gaze literally melting him. "…you had sexual intercourse with my adoptive father, who you know I have very mixed feelings about. You do realize that is a lot to process for me right?"

"Yes, I know. But right now I need you to be composed as I have something I want you to do."

"Alright, what is it exactly?"

"I want you to be his caretaker."

"You want me to WHAT-"

"Did I stutter?" Talia asked, clearly unmoved by Jason's little outburst.

"No, but I did hope you did." He admitted. "I can't look after him Talia, I just can't."

"Jason." The woman's tone seemed to shift suddenly, now displaying just a tad of compassion. "I know it's going to be challenging for you because of his ties to Bruce, but you're the only person who can do something like this."

"But why me out of all people?!"

"The people that live here have a very limited understanding of life outside of these walls, as do I. We don't and will never be able to fully display concepts like family or just love in general." Talia said, never once looking away from Jason's unsure form. "You, on the other hand, have felt those things first hand."

"If he's raised sorely by the League, he will be only seen as a living weapon, as an object meant to be used to conquer power. I don't want that for him." "If he had someone like you, a brother like you, he'd be able to grow up freer from the anger and bitterness that this environment might instill in him." She continued.

Jason stared at the bundle of silk silently, a whirlwind of thoughts filled his mind, yet he couldn't voice any. He was speechless, to say the least.

He knew what it was like to grow up in circumstances in which nobody, not his parents nor the people around him, gave a single shit about him. They couldn't help him and he knew that even if they could've, they most likely wouldn't have done that. In the streets it's every man for himself.

You either lived by that code or you perished, and the same exact thing was going to happen to that boy, who was currently sleeping wrapped in his crimson blanket, so innocent and unaware of the hellhole he was born into.

He had never expected for someone like Talia to understand those feelings. Hell, he had never expected for Talia to actually care so much about something that couldn't be used in her schemes, or at least not yet. Perhaps he was part of some greater scheme, but until he could learn to at least walk he would've been considered unusable.

Not adding another word, he extended his hands towards her and stared quietly as he waited. The woman's eyes widened slightly but she quickly pushed what little surprise she felt aside and nodded slowly before handing the baby over.

"What's his name?"

"Damian Al Ghul Wayne." Talia responded.

"Damian uh?" Almost as if he was responding to his name being called, the baby opened his eyes and stared up at the boy holding him.

The moment their gazes locked, a chill ran down Jason's spine. The infant had emerald green eyes, definitely Talia's, but even though they were the very same, his eyes were just so different from hers. They held that hint of determination that he had been able to see in only a single stare during his entire life.

A smile graced his lips. That was definitely Bruce's kid.

"Well then Dames, it looks like you got yourself an older brother."

Chapter Text

He felt the sword slipping by next to his head as he barely dodged it. His hand moved towards his opponent’s arm and he gripped it tightly. Dropping the sword he was holding with his right hand, he clenched it and hit him square in the face.

His challenger fell on the ground with a cry and Jason could swear he had heard a crack. He picked up his weapon with a swift movement and put it against the guy’s neck.

“Is this an okay demonstration? Do you still consider me a spineless and privileged fucker?” He mocked him. “Cause if you do…” His tone lowered as he pressed the sword against his neck. “…I'm sure I could convince you in some other way."

His opponent sucked in a breath and Jason could tell he wasn’t the only one. The two were surrounded by a bunch of other assassins who were watching everything go down quite intently.

It wasn’t that rare for some jealous minor member of the league to challenge him. He wasn't sure why they found it so satisfying getting their asses handed to them and being shamed publicly each time. Maybe they were masochists and, although he found it hard to believe that over fifty people there were into that, Jason wasn’t gonna kink-shame anyone.

He would've pressed the weapon further into the guy's neck, and probably wouldn't have felt bad for it, but suddenly a familiar echo started bubbling up from the back of his mind, almost making his head pound.

Justice.

Not.

Vengeance.

Why did motherfucking Batman always have to be in his head?!

“Whatever, I’m done playing with you.” He finally stated as he lowered his sword. "Crawl back to whatever hole you came from and go back to…jerk off or whatever it is that you guys do all day, I don't care."

"You aren't going to finish him?" A voice rang from the back of the crown.

Oh god, not that shit again.

"Don't you know? Todd never kills his challengers!" Another unidentified voice responded. "I'm starting to think he's too weak to kill them! Why in the world would Lady Al Ghul choose someone like him as her protogé?!"

"Because, unlike the whole lot of you, I get shit done quickly and efficiently." Jason growled as he put his sword back in its scabbard. "I am so efficient that I am able to take down targets and steal precious items without needing to kill anyone else. I think that takes way more skill than just grabbing a gun and going on a rampage, don't ya think?"

"Besides I don't see why I should kill any of you." He continued. "You're just a bunch of weaklings who like to dress up as ninjas and stab shit. Putting you out of your misery would be an act of mercy."

With that said, and a bunch of both offended and intimidated gasps coming from the group of assassins, he turned around and headed straight to his room, not stopping or looking back once.

He shut the door pretty hard and took a deep breath. He had just gotten back from a fairly long mission and being bothered by those guys was certainly the last thing he wanted to do.

He glanced longingly at his bed. After hours of travel, he could finally rest. There was nothing that could get in the way of him and his much deserved afternoon nap. He just had to get that shitty armor off of him and-

"Why do you always do that?"

"JESUS FU-" Jason whirled around as his hand immediately flew to his sword. His grip loosened as he recognized the three foot seven figure standing by his door.

"Damian what the actual hell."

Damian’s five year old self stood proudly against the door he was sure he had shut before anyone else could get in. If it wasn’t a kid and towering over him was an adult man, he probably would’ve been pretty creeped out.

"I asked you a question Jason." He insisted with what was probably supposed to be a demanding and maybe aggressive tone. The fact that his voice reflected his age surely didn't help with that.

"And you scared the crap out of me in the process too!" Jason laughed. "What do you even mean?"

"How come you never kill your opponents whenever they challenge you to a duel?" Oh. Oh no. Jason was NOT ready to have 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 talk with Damian.

Talia had told him not to reveal any particular information about Bruce to Damian and so far it was probably the only rule he hadn't broken yet, but he didn't not do it out of respect, he did it because he wanted to forget him.

"I don't know, why should I kill them? I just don't have a good reason to do it." The young adult responded as he slipped the chest plate of his armor off his body, throwing it not so gently on his bed.

"Slade kills them and following your logic, he doesn't have a reason either."

Oh yeah, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 guy.

Although Jason had mixed feelings about pretty much every member of the League, Slade was one of the few exceptions: he hated his fucking guts.

It wasn't only the fact that he had always scoffed upon seeing him, he was used to the fact that 90% of the people there didn't respect him, what truly made him pissed was how he had been eyeing Damian from the day he was officially presented to the League.

The dude was clearly aspiring to be leader one day and it was pretty much obvious that for him to do that, the kid had to be taken out of the equation. Needless to say, Jason was keeping an eye on him.

"Slade sucks." He simply said.

"I know there's another motivation, don't lie to me." Damian whined. Screw that five year old boy and his scarily sharp ability to read people.

"Even if there was a motive, I don't see why I should tell you about it."

"You were assigned to be my brother and caretaker, if it's so important to you then I should know about it." He wasn't really sure if that was the child's way of displaying care and interest for his brother's wishes or if he was just being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn.

"I don't think your mother would be happy if I told you about it. In her eyes you're destined to be an assassin."

"Why just in her eyes? You don't think I should be my grandfather's successor?!" It course he was gonna get defensive about it immediately, gosh the League of Assassins was 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 a healthy environment to grow up in.

“Honestly? No.” Jason said as he picked the chest plate up and threw it inside of his closet. “You could be doing so much more than commanding this league of losers, especially with a father like yours.”

“You know my father?!” The kid's anger immediately turned into pure and utter surprise.

“Pretty darn well actually.” Jason said nonchalantly as he closed the closet's doors. He tilted his head slightly to send a sideways glance towards the child's direction and, upon seeing his expression, he decided to throw in a little comment to see if those eyes of his could widen even further. “You know, the two of you are actually very alike.”

With that phrase alone, Damian’s emerald eyes started glow- nah, what was he saying, they were fucking BEAMING with excitement.

“Can you tell me more about him?!” He cried as he started tugging on Jason's clothes. “Please!”

He just stared at the kid for a moment: did his ears just fail him or did he actually say please?

“Hasn’t your mother told you anything about him before?”

“No, she says that if I wish to meet or even hear anything about him I must earn it first.” He pouted slightly as he finished his sentence.

Jason couldn't help but smirk at the sight as he gently pushed Damian away to make him stop. “Why should I tell you then?”

“Because you never listen to what mother says and more often than not, whenever she gives you an order you deliberately do the opposite just for the sake of being rebellious, which is a behaviour that I can only assume comes from the lack of a prominent parental figure in your life and your need to compensate for something that you either miss or that is too small for your own liking.”

Damn. Being told that he was lacking in the bedroom department by a five year old hurt way more than he had ever imagined it would.

Welp, screw the drama he had with Bruce or the orders Talia gave them, that kid had just earned the right to know about his father.

“Well, can’t argue with that statement, ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ᵗʰᵒᵘᵍʰ ᵐʸ ᵖᵉⁿᶦˢ ᶦˢ ᵒᶠ ᵃᵛᵉʳᵃᵍᵉ ˢᶦᶻᵉ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶠᵘᶜᵏ ʸᵒᵘ ʸᵒᵘ ˡᶦᵗᵗˡᵉ ˢʰᶦᵗ.” Jason gritted his teeth while saying that last part to purposely make it less hearible. He probably shouldn't go around calling five year olds little shits, but usually five year olds don't go around telling young adults that they have small penises either so he felt justified to at least say it.

He let himself fall on his bed and patted the space next to him. “Come on kiddo, you’re about to hear the best story of your life.”

Damian immediately speed walked towards his brother and sat down beside him. He stood still, observing him expectedly.

“I could tell you about the billionaire philanthropist playboy Bruce Wayne, Gotham City’s greatest benefactor, who picks orphans up from the street and owns hundreds of charities…” Jason said. “…But who would even want to hear a story about someone like that?! Like, charities? No people dying and blood being spilled? Boooooooooring.”

“The story I’m about to tell you is about the much, much cooler side of your dad.” He suddenly became silent as an idea popped up inside of his head. His smirk widened as he looked at the kid. If he was gonna have to be a storyteller, why not have fun with it?

“The nightmare of every criminal that ever dared to grace the floors of Gotham City, the one man that demands fear and respect from villains and superheroes alike, the one, the ONLY-” He moved his arms around in the most Shakespearean possible way he could manage. “Batman!”

Curiosity immediately flooded Damian's green eyes. Jason was quite proud of how his horrible dramatic impression had somehow managed to make the kid seem even more interested.

He supposed it wouldn't have hurt to throw in some extra details.

“And also the story of the two Robins, the first one being his sidekick who basically does nothing but jump around and do corny and trashy puns, and the second one being an amazing fighter and Batman's partner, not sidekick, in crime fighting, capable of spitting amazing one-liners and-”

He stopped as he noticed the confused and disinterested look his little brother was giving him and decided to cut the description of his many and varied qualities, which were definitely a lot more than the ones he had listed, to not completely lose his audience. “Which in case you haven’t guessed, is yours truly.”

“I figured.”

“I didn’t just kill the mood, did I?”

“Heh, a bit.”

“Well, would you like to hear about that one time Batman and I broke into a warehouse and took out around thirty people all by ourselves?”

With his audience's interest recaptured, his adventures with h̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶a̶d the dark knight started slipping out of his mouth and Damian absolutely ate them up as if they were the first piece of food he had seen in months. If Jason didn’t know the kid any better, he would’ve called him adorable.

Needless to say, when the time for his evening training came, the young Al Ghul needed to be dragged out of the room by three grown ass men and the only reason why those three were enough was because Jason had finally managed to persuade him into caving by promising that he would’ve eventually told him more stories.

When he found himself alone in his room, the raven haired boy couldn’t hold back anymore and a bigger than normal smile found its way on his face.

Not only was seeing Damian in a mood that wasn’t negative for once and actually displaying a childish and curious behaviour fucking precious, but he couldn’t express in words how reliefed he was that the child found so much admiration for someone who didn’t slaughter all of his enemies.

Truth was, though at first he tried to deny it, he sort of saw himself in him. He was a confused kid in a bad environment and surrounded by bad people, sure he was treated like a prince while Jason didn’t have such luck, but at the end of the day that didn’t really change much.

No matter how much he struggled to say that and how much he hated it, Bruce had definitely saved him.

Unfortunately, there were lots of children out there who couldn’t even dream of ever seeing a brighter future, lots of children like Damian who were just puppets in the hands of criminals, outlaws and other types of outcasts of society and who, thanks to those negative influences by people they looked up to had little to no chance to integrate themselves and have positive interactions with normal people.

That was probably the reason why he accepted his younger brother so quickly and why he was so eager to look after that demon, so that he wouldn’t turn out like him or like anyone else that lived in that hellhole.

Wait-

He could’ve sworn that he had heard Bruce saying something like that about Dick at least once.

Jason couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He had already come to terms with the fact that he would always hear his “justice not vengeance” in the back of his head, but he wasn’t ready to accept that his twenty year old soul sounded so old.

He decided to shove those thoughts away to clear his mind so that he could get up and be an actual functioning member of the league. Not that he actually cared about how much he contributed to that weird ninja cult he was in, but mostly so that other minor assassins wouldn’t bother him because of it.

For a moment he wondered how much more annoying they would get if they were to find out that, unlike them, he didn’t judge the shit out of Damian and genuinely cared for him.

Of course, none of them would’ve found out whether or not Damian had broken into his room in the middle of the night, demanding for more stories about the dark knight.

None of them would’ve known about how Damian fell asleep on his shoulder midway through one of his stories.

And obviously none of them would’ve discovered how Jason had carried him all the way back to his room and had tucked him into bed.

Did Jason smile the whole time?

Of course not! And even if he did, it was his business alone and nobody else’s…

…Although he had to admit, Damian was definitely adorable.

No, he totally didn't wish he could've just stayed there and cuddled with him all night long. He totally didn't wish that. Stop assuming he did. Because he didn't. Never. Ever. Ever.

Ever.

Chapter Text

“I hate to be that guy, buuuut…I did tell you Slade was an asshole.” Jason mumbled as he carefully walked over one of the many assassin corpses that was laying on the ground. He wasn’t about to say that he expected that, but he absolutely expected that.

It had been around a week since Slade, or Deathstroke since he also made people call him that apparently, had gathered a bunch of assassins and had attacked the league, killing Ra’ Al Ghul in the process.

He wasn’t really that upset about that whole situation since he pretty much saw the guy’s betrayal from like a mile away, what he actually considered rather concerning was how Damian was definitely on his hit list.

Well the kid did stab one of his eyes so he couldn’t completely blame him, but then again he could completely blame him since he murdered his grandfather and then attacked the literal seven year old so fuck that dude.

To cut it short, the waters were anything but calm so of course he wasn’t exactly confident when he left Damian alone to go on a mission. It wasn’t anything too big, just a short mission in which he had to take out a target, some big mafia boss or something, just a hit and run that would take him a few hours at most.

You could’ve said that he was paranoid, like come on, what were the chances that Slade was going to strike during the three hours he was gone?

Well, if there was something that he had learned from all of his life experiences was that, in the life of Jason Todd, if something could go wrong it was CERTAINLY gonna go wrong, so was he truly that surprised when he literally found the dead bodies of some of the guards at the entrance of the building? Nope.

"Is the situation really that bad?" Talia’s voice rang through his communicator. She almost sounded genuinely worried.

"There's around a dozen dead assassins in the hallway and the walls are almost completely red, I think that should answer your question." He commented as he stepped in and took a good look around. The scent of blood that filled his nostrils was making his stomach turn.

“You know, if I wasn’t already told that Damian is mostly alright I would really be scared for his safety, and that’s saying something since he’s a literal demon.” He crouched down and grabbed one of the bodies, raising by it's hair to take a closer look at it.

He stared at those wide and emotionless eyes for just a few seconds before dropping the corpse with a disgusted scowl, immediately cleaning off his bloody hand on his clothes. "Some of these guy's throats have been slit before they could even think about fighting back. These guys certainly knew what they were doing, it looks like the world really is out to get you Al Ghuls, isn't it?"

"I am afraid it is." She couldn't help but let out a long and exasperated sigh. "This can't keep on happening."

"That's something we can both agree with. I haven't seen the kid yet but if they were able to take out a dozen grown ass men, I can't imagine what they could do to a seven year old if they were to catch him off guard." Jason's tone shifted from one of slight concern to a rather pissed one. "You really need to understand that, no matter how many individuals you force him to skin alive, Damian is a fucking child."

"Damian isn't just a simple child, he was bred to take over the throne of the League of Assassins. He's far stronger than any kid of his age could even dream of-"

"Listen, we both know that the only reason he's actually complying is because his little gremlin mind isn't developed enough to see through all the bullshit you've been spoon-feeding him for all of his fucking life." Jason cut her off bluntly. "He is smart Talia, if you don't start acting like a true mother just give him a few years and he'll ditch you the moment he'll get the chance and he won't look back even once, I should know."

Silence fell on that call as Talia seemed to silently reflect on what she had just been told. What came next was something that left Jason quite surprised, to say the least.

"You're right Jason."

"Look, I know it will be hard to get it though that thick skull of yo- 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦…?"

"I did." She responded almost emotionlessly. "You out of all people should know what you're talking about: you were able to predict Deathstroke's betrayal and it appears clear to me that you know way more than anyone about emotions, so I trust your judgement."

"That's…not something I thought I'd ever hear, especially coming from you."

"I guess you could say you underestimated me." Jason could basically feel her smile even though the call. Welp, that was just uncalled for.

"Well, what's the plan then?"

"I might have an idea, although I am sure you won't like it."

"You simply had to ruin this beautiful bonding moment between us, didn't you?" The boy took a deep breath. "Alright, I've prepared myself mentally. Come on, shoot."

"You must bring Damian to his father."

"𝘈𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰𝘵."

"Jason." Talia said calmly, her tone pretty much staying unchanged. "Bruce will be able to keep him safe."

"Well duh, but so could lots of other people! You're the leader of the friggin League of Assassins, isn't there some powerful person that would be willing to help us?!" Jason exclaimed frantically.

"Are you suggesting that it would be safer to associate ourselves with some gang rather than with the Dark Knight himself?"

"When you put it like that it does sound pretty bad." He admitted, his tone lowering slightly. "But seriously though, there must be someone else you can contact, hell even I'd be willing to just handcuff myself to him to keep him protected 24/7, I'd do that for him!"

"Jason, listen to me." Talia stated firmly. "You must recognize that it's our best chance at keeping Damian safe."

Jason dragged out a deep and defeated sigh. "I hate you so much when you're right."

"I know that you don't trust him. It's understandable." She said. "That's why I've decided to not take you back by my side."

"Wait what-"

"I want you to stay with Damian, even after he meets my beloved."

"I honestly don't know if I feel relieved or contrived by this."

"Feel however you want, just know that that wasn't me giving you a suggestion as a mother figure, that was me giving you an order as the heir to the throne of the League of Assassins."

"Yes, 𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘈𝘭 𝘎𝘩𝘶𝘭." He gritted his teeth slightly as he said the last part of his sentence in the saltiest way he could manage.

"I will organize a vehicle and a group of highly trained assassins to follow you so that the two of you can reach Gotham city without any trouble." Talia continued, clearly ignoring Jason's attitude.

"Actually, maybe don't do that?" The raven haired boy objected. "Slade knows the League pretty well so technically speaking he should be able to recognize a bunch of assassins on a mission right?"

"I suppose you're right, what were you planning on doing then?"

"How about you prepare that vehicle but instead you tell your subjects to go to the coordinates I will give them."

"You're not going to use it as an excuse to permanently avoid Gotham City, are you?"

"I know that it sounds suspicious, but you'll have to trust me on this one. Going to Gotham would be the most predictable thing we could ever do. There is this city, pretty close to Gotham, in which an ally of mine lives. I want to visit him."

"I don't think bringing other people in this would be wise, especially since there is not guarantee this ally of yours will-"

"Well he's more than an ally to me, I'd absolutely trust him with my own life."

There was a painfully long moment of silence, until Talia's tired voice finally answered.

"Alright Jason, I trust you will do what's best for Damian."

Jason couldn't help himself as his lips curled up in a proud smile: he had somehow managed to persuade Talia fucking Al Ghul, of course he was gonna be proud of himself!

"I will." He answered. "I'm going to check on Damian now and then I'll start packing, we're leaving tonight."

Jason was about to end the call, when he heard a soft whisper coming through.

"Be careful."

"I will."

At the end of the day, that psychotic lady did care about him.

He quickly made his way towards Damian's room. The door was closed and there were two guards, who surely weren't in their best condition themselves, guarding it.

Barely acknowledging them, he turned the handle and opened the door rather aggressively. Although he wasn't expecting to be met with a pretty sight, what he saw still felt like a stab in the heart.

Damian was sitting still on his bed with his back turned away from the door, yet Jason could still see how the kid's limbs were basically covered in bandages.

The child jumped upon hearing his door being slammed open, but he promptly relaxed upon seeing who it was. He locked eyes with Jason for a few short moments before turning his back on him.

It didn't take a genius to notice that there was something wrong with him.

"I am…sorry Jason. I know you don't like it when I kill my opponents."

Oh, so that was what it was all about. If he had to be honest, he felt a bit touched by the fact that Damian respected him so much to the point where he had taken his no killing rule so close to his heart, although at the same time he felt kind of bad because of it, especially since in that place it was inevitable to slip by without killing anyone.

"Dames." Jason said with the steadiest tone he could muster up. "That was self-defense. If an asshole comes up to you and tries to stab you, you shouldn't feel bad for stabbing the fucker back."

"Usually I don't feel the necessity to…stab back." Damian said shamefully, not daring to turn around. "It just felt so different from all the training I have been doing."

Jason sighed. He wasn't really good at having those kinds of talks but well, it was make or break he supposed.

"…were you scared?"

The young adult made his way across the room and sat down beside his brother. "Dames, we're alone, you know you can tell me everything." He put his right hand on the kid's shoulder and squeezed it slightly, giving him what he hoped would look like a reassuring smile. "I won't snitch on ya, don't worry."

"…maybe." He admitted shamefully.

"Were there many of them?"

"Not as much as there were…the last time." Damian responded. "But they were very well organized."

"How are you feeling right now?" Jason asked.

"Not calm, that's for sure."

That was all Jason needed to hear. He was gonna get his brother out of there, whether he liked it or not.

"You really hate this place, don't you?"

Damian's eyes widened slightly as his head snapped towards Jason's direction.

"I can't say being assaulted is a fun experience."

"I'm not talking about…them." Jason replied, motioning towards the hallway where some women were currently dragging out the dead bodies. "I'm talking about this place as a whole, you hate it don't you?"

The younger boy looked at him in an almost offended way. "Why would you say something like that?"

"This place just isn't the right environment for a kid to grow up in. Too much training, little to no toys, not enough time to rest properly and crazy bastards trying to kill you. Honestly, this place sucks!"

"I never said anything like this!" Damian protested. Was he getting defensive because he was assuming Jason was saying he was weak? Goddammit, why did everything have to be about pride with that little boy?!

"I know you didn't but I'm sure you're thinking it, and I'm thinking it too!" Jason's loud tone quickly shifted to a more soft and caring one. "You're still young Damian and there's a lot of things that you could and should be doing, defending yourself from ninja assassins or whatever these people call themselves definitely isn't one of them."

"Where are you getting with this?"

"We should ditch this place."

"W-WHAT?!"

"What?"

"H-how could you suggest something like that?!"

"Damian, you're seven and yet you're fighting off highly trained assassins, we both know that's not something you should be doing."

"But what would my mother-"

"It was your mother who suggested that, not even me."

"She did…?"

Damian immediately seemed to cool down upon learning that his mother approved of his plan. Jason was kind of hoping that the kid would've accepted it anyway as he wished he could finally recognize how toxic that place was, but well, he supposed it was still better than him just flat out refusing to leave.

"Yep! Even though you should know me by now: even if she didn't I would've totally just kidnapped you anyway. I'm not gonna let anyone put his hands on my lil wing ever again!"

Damian's cheeks flushed pink out of embarrassment from the cringy nickname, but he was clear that he liked it too much to scol Jason about it. Besides, he had more important things to think about anyway.

"Where will we be going then?"

"Pretty much in the most dangerous yet safest place I've ever known." Jason replied nonchalantly as he got back on his feet. "I mean, I think you'll actually enjoy it, after all, you did say you have wanted to meet your father for the longest time, right?"

"We're going to Gotham City?!" Damian's eyes immediately lit up.

"Eventually, yes." The older replied. "But first we'll need to take a quick stop somewhere else. There's someone I'd like to visit."

The kid's excitement seemed to become a little bit duller. "Who?"

"Obviously I'm not going to tell you, that would spoil the surprise!" Jason chuckled. "Although if you want a hint, let's just say it's someone I told you quite a lot about." He continued as he opened the closet and started rummaging through it, probably looking for a bag of some sorts to pack.

Damian stared at him for a few seconds, trying to reflect on who that mysterious person could possibly be, but he was forcefully brought back to reality when Jason ruffled his hair rather aggressively.

"That's enough thinking for today, you don't want your brain to fry right?"

"If we're not going to Gotham, where are we going?" The child scowled as he pushed Jason's hand away.

"Quit with all these petty questions and get ready!" Jason exclaimed as he shoved a sack straight in Damian's face.

"We're leaving for Blüdhaven!"

Chapter Text

"Sooooo Jeremy, are we there yet?" Jason asked for what was probably the hundredth time. He was aware that he was acting like a little kid despite being twenty-one, but he had been sitting in the back of some truck for hours and he just wanted that terrible journey to end. Also he just enjoyed being obnoxious.

"How many times do I have to tell you?! My name isn't Jeremy!" The driver yelled back, annoyed. He figured that the guy had introduced himself before, when Damian and him had boarded the truck, but in the League it was extremely rare for assassins to actually introduce themselves to him so he had picked up the habit of giving them random names he thought of at the moment.

"Whatever Jake, answer my question."

"My name is- oh forget it." He interrupted himself mid sentence, finally understanding that speaking to the other boy was like talking to a brick wall. "We should be arriving at Blüdhaven in the next seven to twelve minutes."

"Finally! We've been here so long I can't even feel my legs anymore!" Damian exclaimed, suddenly jumping to his feet and almost startling Jason in the process. The kid had been leaning motionlessly on his brother's side for pretty much the whole journey and he had started thinking he was actually sleeping.

"I mean, not that there's much to feel anyway…" Jason joked. Despite it being quite dark, he could still feel Damian's emerald eyes glaring at him and drilling inside his skull.

"I feel offended."

"Feel that way, neither Jacob nor I care."

"My name isn't Jacob." The driver intervened. Jason hoped that he was paying as much attention to the road as he was paying to their conversation.

"Nevermind that, are you excited to meet Dick?" He said as he grabbed his brother's wrist and pulled him back down. "If you say no you're clearly lying~" He changed as he ruffled his hair, much to the younger's displeasure.

"I wouldn't say excited…"

"You stinky little liar."

"...I was about to say I was more enticed to meet him, rather than excited."

Enticed. Really? What was Jason going to do with that kid?

"Don't use all these big words around him though, you'll confuse him."

"Enticed isn't a hard term."

"But it is for a six year old! He'll either think you're a demon possessing a child's body, which isn't too far from the truth honestly, or just a very short man, which is the much less amazing option between the two."

"But I'm six and a half!"

"I mean, it's cute that you think it makes any difference."

"But it does!"

"Whatever lets you sleep better at night, squirt."

"I hate to interrupt this heartfelt conversation, but we've arrived." The driver's tired and sarcastic voice interrupted Damian as he was about to throw out one of his usual snarky replies. It was clear that he was just done with everyone's shit and just wanted to go home. Jason felt that.

"You heard the guy Dames, let's get out of here." He gently pushed his younger brother off him and opened the back of the truck. "Thank you Jackson!" He shouted before swiftly slipping out of there on the child's heels.

"Why the fuck can't you get it right?! My name is-" The young man shut the door before he could finish his sentence. He felt like the world wasn't ready to know such a secret and it would've probably collapsed on itself if he had let the guy finish. Also he didn't give two shits.

He turned around and was met by…a wall.

Oh so Jamie over there had just stopped in some completely random ass alleyway. Well, that made his first return to civilization much less dramatic and cool but he guessed he'd have to deal with that.

They had been traveling in the back of that truck for hours on end without any contact with the outside world, so honestly all that Jason really wanted to do was stretch his legs.

Before he could do anything else, the truck drove off, leaving a puff of smoke behind it, sending him in a coughing fit. "Dear old pollution." Jason sighed once the gas had drifted off. "I'm starting to feel at home already." He added sarcastically.

He turned towards the younger, probably expecting some sort of reaction to his remark, but instead he just saw him looking at his surroundings a bit disoriented. "Yeah I know it doesn't look too good but it gets better, I swear."

"It's just that everything looks so…weird."

"You'll get used to it eventually."

Damian looked at him with a gaze that was anything but comforted, until his attention turned towards something else, something that he had somehow not noticed during the entirety of the trip: a bag hanging around his brother's shoulder.

"What do you even have inside that bag?"

"Oh it's nothing, just some stuff that might help us out in the long run, especially now that we'll have to fend for ourselves. Blüdhaven is a pretty big city and finding Dick won't be that easy."

"But isn't an entire squad following us?"

"I'm sorry, there's a what now?" Jason's eyes widened slightly.

Damian was unphased by the other's surprise and simply pointed towards one of the nearby rooftops, where they could very clearly see some swords picking out from behind a wall.

"Oh for fuck's sake." He mumbled as he facepalmed: of course Talia had arranged a group of assassins to follow them without his knowledge.

"Hey, you over there!" He shouted, clearly startling the figure. "You and whoever is with you better get down here!"

There were a few moments of hesitation, before four men leaped forward and landed before them. The leader of the four stepped forward, probably to say something, but he was immediately cut off by Jason.

"So there's four of you? Well I guess I'll nickname you after the ninja turtles." The four exchanged glances.

"So, Leonardo, what the hell are you doing here?" There were a few excruciatingly long moments of awkward silence. "Leonardo is supposed to be the leader! Gosh do you know nothing about the fucking Ninja Turtles?! They're amazing!"

"W-Well you see, we…"

And from that moment on, Jason and those assassins started having a probably very interesting debate full of pop culture references and awkwardness, Damian wouldn't have known, as he had already walked off, tired of their bullcrap

He didn't know how everything had changed so fast, how he went from living with his grandfather and mother, in a noble organization where he was both worshipped or hated by everyone, to being on the run with his older brother, hiding in some dirty and dark city in the middle on the night while going to look for his father.

One thing that he did know was that he didn't really like it, even though the League wasn't really a desirable place to live in, and that he really needed some time alone to think.

The other thing he knew was that he was being followed.

He whirled around as he heard someone behind him and was met with an adult man standing barely a few meters from him. He couldn't really distinguish all of his features due to how dark it was but he surely wasn't gonna let that deranged individual anywhere near him.

"Who are you?!" Damian yelled. "Get away from me!"

"Don't worry kid, I won't hurt you. My name is- IS THAT A FRIGGIN KATANA?!"

In the blink of an eye, Damian had actually embraced his weapon and was now pointing it straight at the stranger's chest. "It sure is, and it will be in your forehead if you take another step."

"Woah woah, easy there!" The man immediately took a large step back and raised his hands. "I didn't mean to scare you-"

"I'm not scared of you!" The kid exclaimed aggressively as he sliced through the air with his sword, barely missing the other's nose.

"Yeah- of course, sorry! You're not scared of me, got it." The older boy put on what was probably supposed to be a reassuring and warm smile, hoping that the little child in front of him would lower the sword before hurting him or even himself. "You should really put that sword down before either of us gets hurt."

"Is that a threat?!"

"Nononono! It's just that, what are you? Eight?"

"Six and a half."

"Six and a half?!" The man shook his head frantically. "I'm sorry but that just makes it all worse. Kids your age shouldn't play around with swords."

"Are you insinuating that I don't know how to use it?!" Damian continued imperturbable. "Because if you are, I'd be very happy to give you a demonstration of my abilities!" He then proceeded to take a step closer, his sword still pointed towards his opponent.

"NO! I'm good!"

"Good." The kid let out a sharp breath, he did it quickly but the man still managed to pick up on it. "Now tell me where my brother is!"

"Your brother…?"

"Yes, if you're trying to capture me you must've obviously taken him out or something, so tell me where he is and I won't hurt you too badly."

"I'm not trying to capture anyone!" He protested loudly.

"If you're not going to be helpful then you might as well do something useful and get out of my sight."

"I'm not going to just leave you here."

"Then I'm going to have to stab you."

"You what-"

He cut himself off as he had to dodge a swift swipe of the child's sword. Promptly he pushed himself forward, narrowly avoiding the blade once more, and ran past the kid's side. Before he was able to turn around, Damian had been picked up by some sort of rope and was dangling a few inches above the ground.

"H-Hey! Let me go!" He tried wiggling himself free but the rope completely incapacitated his limbs so it was certainly a rather hard task.

"The psychos just keep on getting younger and younger." The older man sighed as he walked back in front of the kid.

"W-who are you calling a psycho?!"

"You, and don't act like I didn't have a reason to call you that." He then proceeded to walk closer to him. "Come on, give me that sword, you have a lot to explain."

"Let go of me, you hoodlum!"

"I have absolutely no idea what that word even means, why is your vocabulary better than mine?!" He whined loudly.

"Because maybe you shouldn't have dropped school to go and rob children in dark alleyways."

"Why does everyone keep on assuming I'm a criminal?! I'm wearing tights, see? That's usually a sign that I'm a good gu-"

He couldn't say anything else before Jason ran towards him at full speed and punched him in the face, sending him flying towards the ground.

"Are you alright?" He quickly turned towards Damian, who was still dangling.

"I presume." He said, his annoyance being very clear. Jason let go of a quiet breath he didn't know he was holding.

He turned towards his unknown opponent. The night was dark and he could hardly make out his features, expecept for a pair of white eyes scanning him from the darkness. "I feel nice today so I'll give you the chance to run away before I spill your insides out and use them to choke you."

"Now, that's just unnecessary." The man commented. "Also ew."

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad!"

Jason sent Damian a quick glance, to which the younger boy just answered with a shrug. "Meh."

"Alright fine, I gotta work on threatening people, I got the message." He rolled his eyes. "And I sure hope for your own safety that you also got the message I was trying to give you."

The stranger chuckled. "I did, but I'm just going to ignore it."

"Well then, en garde you bastard."

With that said, he withdrew two dual knives he held in his jacket from his pockets and charged towards him. To avoid his attack, the man used a grappling hook to propel himself in the air and landed on the roof of a nearby house.

Jason was hot on his heels with his own grappling hook that he somehow had…? So he had hidden a grappling hook inside that bag of his? Why the hell would he have done that?!

Those were some of the questions that roamed Damian's mind as he was left alone, still tied to a completely random street light. That was gonna be an excruciatingly long night for him.

Meanwhile, Jason and that surprisingly acrobatic stranger were duking it out, him wielding two knives while the other had pulled out two batons out of…somewhere. He actually didn't catch where he had gotten them from but he came to the conclusion that it wasn't an essential piece of information he needed to know.

Suddenly, while they were jumping towards another roof, the other man brought his grappling hook back out and fired it towards Jason's leg, probably hoping to immobilize him.

Knowing what to do, he whirled around in the air and cut the rope moments before it tightened around his ankle. The good old cut the rope before it tightened trick never failed to assist him. He smirked as he perched on the solid roof.

"That…move that you just used." The stranger looked at him flabbergasted. "Who taught you that?!"

"Well sir, it was someone whose name is None of your and whose surname is fucking business." Jason said before diving towards him once more.

The other man quickly recovered from his initial surprise and dropped to the ground and rapidly swept his leg under his feet, making him fall to the ground. He then got away from him with a backflip and studied him from afar.

He was just flexin on him at that point, Jason thought that the backflip was especially unnecessary. "Wow nice moves you got there, what is this, a circus?"

"What can I say? You can take the boy out of the circus but not the circus out of the boy."

That phrase seemed very familiar, he could've sworn he had heard it before, probably in familiar circumstances…somehow.

Well maybe not entirely familiar, he didn't duke out on the rooftops of random cities at night with acrobatic strangers very often, but something in his fighting style, in his voice, even in his sly grin there was just- 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.

"Wait a second…Dick?!" His fighting stance dropped and his body completely relaxed. He had been fighting for the past ten minutes and yet he somehow didn't even think that he could've been Nightwing. If Batman knew about that he would've probably thrown hands at him.

"Oh my, what an insult, my poor little heart has been shattered to a thousand pieces!" Nightwing chuckled, waving his arms around dramatically.

"That wasn't an insult, that's literally your nickname." Jason had to suppress a laugh. He remembered all the times that they had similar conversations as children, it was just a never ending cycle of misunderstanding. He was glad to see that he hadn't changed a bit.

"Seriously dude? That's the best comeback you could come up with?" Nightwing looked at him smirking. "I've had grade schoolers come up with better offenses than that!" It wasn't really easy to keep track of how the world of criminal to hero comebacks evolved during his seven years of absence when staying in a place forgotten by God himself with a weird ass ninja cult so Jason decided to just ignore that.

"Come on Richard, I know you never passed up opportunities to make dumb jokes about your name, but this is just getting annoying." He rolled his eyes playfully and gave him his best dorky smile, already tasting his brother's reaction. "I've come such a long way to see you and I would be happy if you acknowledged that, thank you very much."

He was certainly not disappointed.

All of the older's sass was immediately drained and was replaced by a mixture of surprise and concern because what the fuck that random ass dude just called him by his name. It was definitely understandable.

"Why did you call me that?"

Jason wasn't sure if that was him trying to preserve his secret identity by pretending that Richard wasn't in fact his name, keyword trying because it was presumably harder to make up a good facade while internally freaking the hell out, or him just being surprised about him knowing his name in the first place. Jason came to the conclusion that he didn't really care.

"Because that's your name? Duh!" Jason replied nonchalantly, knowing full well what revealing to a superhero that his identity had been found out did to them. His brother was clearly shitting his pants but honestly, who even cared? He was enjoying that little exchange way too much to stop. "If you want me to be even more specific, I can also tell you your surname! It's Grayson. Or I guess Wayne. I honestly don't know how it works since like, you were adopted by Bruce but at the same time you never fully dropped the Grayson, which I understand since I've still got mine, but yeah it's just-"

"How do you know my name?!" His eyes widened through his domino mask. Oh yeah, probably not the best time to ramble about surnames.

"Brothers are expected to know each other's names, you know? Otherwise it would just be very sad and I'm sure our relationship wasn't that bad before I, you know, literally fucking died." He replied. He couldn't help but notice how his voice held a somewhat softer and more playful tone to it. He had to admit, he was at least a little bit excited about seeing his brother again. Just a little. If by a little you mean a lot. Definitely a lot.

"B-brothers?" Nightwing was clearly completely enveloped in pure confusion. "But you aren't Robin and aside from him I don't-" Then, as he stared at the younger boy's face a bit longer, the realization hit him. Boy, did it hit him.

"N-no! It can't be!" He exclaimed as his eyes widened even further, if that was even humanly possible. "You're…he's- WHAT?!"

A little smile appeared on Jason's face as he took a step back and bowed dramatically.

"Jason Todd, at your service."