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Bruce had been noticing this for quite some time now. At first, he didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t the worse thing in the world, Jason hanging out with friends. The boy needed to get out more.
But he started to notice certain behaviors before and after Jason left. He was skittish around Bruce before he left, never making eye contact, fumbling to get out the door. And when he came home again, he was closed off, dismissive, even angry.
So, of course, Bruce started doing some snooping around. Who exactly was Jason hanging out with? Every time Bruce had asked, Jason replied dismissively, “Oh, just some friends from the team.” Now Bruce wanted names, not just broad statements like “the team.”
He lurked across the manor, finally finding Jason curled up in a chair in the library. Bruce could see part of the book title: Gatsby. He walked over to Jason, sitting down in the chair opposite from him. He didn’t say anything, just stared at him.
“Do you mind? I’m trying to read. What are you staring at?”
Jason was met with silence, Bruce still staring at him. It was making him uncomfortable.
“You know it’s not polite to stare at people? It’s pretty fucking weird actually.”
Finally Bruce said, “You’ve been acting strange every time you go out. I want to know why.”
Jason didn’t say anything, but his hands clenched into fists. He stared down intently at the floor, refusing to meet Bruce’s eyes. Bruce didn’t push, and just sat there, waiting.
Finally, when Jason saw Bruce wasn’t going to leave him alone, he sighed angrily, and slammed his book shut, “Fine, since you’re so nosy, I’m not hanging out with the team, I’m going on dates… with Conner.”
Bruce didn’t buy it. Going on dates didn’t make someone hostile and angry, “I don’t believe you.”
“Of course you don’t. You don’t believe anything I say because I’m not perfect like Dick or smart and obedient like Tim. Are you done interrogating me? I would like to finish my book in peace.”
Bruce didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t good at this, feelings. He tried though, he tried so hard for his kids. He never wanted to make any of them feel like he loved one more than the other. He guessed he just didn’t reiterate that enough with Jason. He assumed too much, assumed that the boy was like him, emotionally distant, assumed he didn’t need assurance every once in a while. Sometimes it was easy for Bruce to forget that his kids were just that, kids.
He got up from his chair, watched as Jason tracked his every movement. He stopped right in front of the boy, kneeling so that their eyes could meet. Jason looked stunned, confused. Bruce gently placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder and said, “I trust you Jay, I trust you with my life. I’ve just noticed that when you come back, you seem upset and I was worried. That’s all sweetheart. It has nothing to do with your brothers.”
Jason looked like he wanted to say something. But he didn’t, he just nodded his head before looking pointedly in the direction of his book. Bruce sighed before getting up. He made his way over to the doorway, stopping for a moment and turning to Jason, “Just… if you need anything, or you need to talk, just know I’m here.”
It had been a week since the “conversation” in the library. Jason had been much more careful to conceal his emotions since then. He no longer came home angry, and forced himself to relax before he left. Bruce felt out of his depth here, and didn’t know what to do. So, of course, he called Clark.
He sat in his office, drumming his fingers across the long, mahogany desk, waiting anxiously for Clark to pick up. ‘Pick up the damn phone.’ Clark finally picked up right before the phone was supposed to go to voicemail. He could hear some rustling noise in the background. He raised an eyebrow, “Clark?”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry Bruce. I was talking to Conner, what’s up?”
“Conner’s not with Jason?”
“Uh… well he was, but he just came home. He said Jason was on his way back to the manor.”
“Alright, I need to talk to you… privately.”
There was some more rustling on the phone. Bruce could hear Conner in the background for a few moments before the sound of someone shutting a door.
“Alright, I’m alone, what’s up?”
“Jason told me he and Conner are dating.”
There was a long pause on the other end.
“What do you mean dating?”
“Do I need to give you the dictionary definition for the verb dating?”
Bruce could hear Clark rolling his eyes.
“No, obviously. But they’re not dating, Kon told me they just hang out.”
Now this was getting interesting. He knew Jason was lying, of course. The boy had a perfect poker face on the field, but when it came to Bruce, he lied about as efficiently as… well Clark.
“Really? Because Jason explicitly told me they were dating.”
“Well why would Jason say that?”
Bruce didn’t know the answer to that. None of this made any sense. Why didn’t Jason just say the two were hanging out together?
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out and I want your help.”
There was another pause on the line, and then a long, exasperated sigh.
“Ok, what do you want me to do?”
The plan would be simple: they’d wait for the boys to plan another “hangout”, and then they would follow them. It was a simple mission, and the boys wouldn’t know a thing about it.
Clark seemed a little hesitant. He had just gotten Conner to feel safe around him, and this felt like a huge violation of privacy. But, Bruce assured him that Conner wouldn’t even know. He finally got Clark to agree to the plan. Now all they needed to do was wait.
They didn’t need to wait very long. Jason, the ever responsible child, told Bruce that he would be hanging out with Conner again ahead of time. Bruce immediately called Clark and the two started their plan.
Jason was going to meet Conner at his place. When he got there, Clark quickly called Bruce to let him know the two had left and that he was on his way to Gotham.
They made quick work of getting back to Metropolis, thanks to Clark’s super speed. Bruce had a tracker on Jason so it wasn’t hard to find the boys. Clark thought that was weird. Bruce thought it was necessary.
They followed the boys to a motel parking lot. They watched in confusion (and slight concern) as Jason and Conner grabbed their key from the front desk, and then made their way back outside, and to a room labeled 205.
“What are they doing here? Why did they get a motel?”
Bruce didn’t respond. None of this made any sense. He turned to Clark, “You think we can get a closer look without them seeing us?” Clark nodded and the two made their way closer to the motel. Bruce, for reasons Clark did not understand, whipped out a pair of binoculars. Clark, of course, just used his enhanced vision to take a closer look at the motel.
Jason and Conner were sitting on the bed, and there was a large white plastic bag sitting between them. Neither of them were looking at the bag, they instead chose to stare at the floor. It didn’t look like they were talking.
“I don’t understand what’s going on.” Neither did Bruce.
Conner was the first to move. He slowly pulled open the bag and began pulling a bunch of items out of it. On closer look, Bruce could see the bag contained an array of items for babies. Conner pulled out pacifiers, still concealed in their packaging, plushies modeled after kids TV shows, diapers, baby bottles (super hero themed how cute), and coloring books.
Bruce and Clark turned to look at each other. Neither of them said anything, but they didn’t have to. They were both thinking the same thing, ‘What the hell was going on?”
They turned back towards the motel, noticing for the first time how… at peace the boys looked. Jason was playing with the hem of his shirt, nervous habit, but he had a wide smile plastered across his face. Conner, though not exactly smiling, had a thumb jammed in his mouth and looked very comfortable.
And suddenly they understood what was going on. Jason and Conner weren’t dating, but they were together… REGRESSING together. Age regression wasn’t some new term for Bruce or Clark. Clark actually wrote an article about the mental health benefits of age regression and explained the difference between age regression and ageplay. Bruce had witnessed multiple civilians regress across both careers and thought it was kind of endearing. He almost wished he could do it himself… almost.
Bruce glanced at Clark, noticing the sad expression on his face, “How come they didn’t trust us enough to tell us they regress?”
Bruce couldn’t answer that. Conner was new to the world, and didn’t have much experience with the concept of trust. Jason didn’t have much of a childhood, and constantly had to learn that complete trust in a person could get you killed. Both boys being regressors made complete sense.
“We should talk to them.”
Clark shook his head, “No Bruce, we’re not even supposed to be here right now. They clearly didn’t want us to know. If they find out we snooped on them, they’ll never trust us again.”
Bruce supposed he had a point, but that didn’t mean he agreed.
“You can do what you want, but I’m going to talk to Jason.” He quickly put his binoculars away and began walking towards the motel. He turned to give Clark an expectant look. Clark groaned but got up to follow him.
They walked up to the room the boys were staying in. Clark looked incredibly nervous. Bruce didn’t blame him. Conner was… a very sensitive boy, and he and Clark didn’t exactly have a traditional relationship. But Bruce somehow knew that this little secret needed to be discussed between the four of them. It would do a lot of good… for all of them.
Clark held his breath while Bruce knocked. He still wasn’t convinced that this was a good idea. They heard rustling from behind the door, a little whine that sounded suspiciously like Jason, and then the sound of footsteps.
Conner was the one to answer the door. His face immediately blanched at the sight of Bruce and Clark standing in the doorway. All three just stood there for a second, not saying anything, before Conner finally blurted out, “I promise we weren’t having sex!”
Clark couldn’t help himself, he immediately burst out laughing. Bruce didn’t laugh, but he did smirk, just a bit. Conner didn’t seem to understand what was going on, but the shock of seeing them there was beginning to wear off, and was being replaced with outrage, “You were spying on us?”
Bruce gave him a blank look, while Clark rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “We were just worried.”
“So you had to snoop instead of just talking to us?”
“Who’s that at the door?”
Jason got up from the bed and made his way over to the door. His eyes immediately narrowed at the sight of Bruce and Clark standing in the doorway, “What are you doing here?”
“We wanted to know if you two were alright”, Bruce responded. He could see Jason was getting angrier and angrier as the seconds ticked by. Conner was just as upset. Bruce and Clark noticed how every few seconds, Conner’s left hand would twitch ever so slightly, like he was fighting to keep it away from his mouth. With Jason, it was his right hand. Bruce thought it was cute.
“How much do you know?”, Jason asked immediately, voiced laced with anger. How could Bruce disrespect his privacy like this? It was none of his freaking business, what he did with friends.
“I know enough.”
“That’s not an answer, what exactly do you know?”
Bruce sighed, “Can we come in?”
“No, not until you tell me what you know.”
Bruce sighed again, a little softer this time, before replying, “I know that you… both of you… regress.”
Bruce watched as the two somehow managed to look even angrier. “So you spy on us, invade our privacy, and… for what exactly? Why are you even here?”
This time, Clark was the one who spoke up. He was always better at things like this, feelings, “Bruce said you came home upset after hanging out with Conner, and Conner always seemed like he was hiding something so we just wanted to make sure you two were ok. And we don’t care about you two being Littles, we’re not gonna judge you for it, or treat you any differently. We just… we wanted to help.”
None of them said anything for a while. They just stood there, in the doorway, silent. Finally, Jason sighed before gesturing for them to come inside. Bruce was less than happy about the conditions of the motel. His little boy deserved a hell of a lot better than grimy walls.
Bruce and Clark sat down on a couch that was jammed next to the bed, while Jason and Conner took the bed. Both boys blushed slightly as Bruce and Clark glanced at the various baby items scattered across the bed. Bruce made a mental note to get Jason more “supplies” once this was over.
“So… how long have you two…”, Clark trailed off. Jason groaned a little and Conner blushed even harder. Clark waited patiently for someone to speak up. Finally, Conner replied, “Around 2 months… Jason found out about me after an accident.”
“What accident?”
Conner looked down at his hands and squirmed a little. Clark got the message right away, “Ah, that type of accident, ok. So then… how did you find out about Jason?”
“I told him.”
Bruce raised an eyebrow at Jason, who immediately got defensive, “What? I knew he wasn’t gonna judge me, he regresses too!”
“You thought I would judge you?”
Jason didn’t say anything, he just began playing with the hem of his shirt. Bruce took his hands away before he could tear the thread, putting two fingers below the boy’s chin, and forcing him to look up, “Jason sweetheart, I would never judge you, especially about something like this. My love for you doesn’t come with a price tag baby, I love you unconditionally.”
Jason moved his head away from Bruce’s fingers. He stared down at the floor, and Bruce could see tears glistening in his eyes. His hands were clenched into tight fists. Bruce wished with all the world that he could undo all the hurt and suffering his baby had gone through. But maybe, just maybe, he could show Jason that his love really was unconditional, and that he was someone Jason could fully trust.
“You promise?”
Bruce nodded, “I promise little one.”
Conner was quietly watching the interaction between the two, and his eyes too were full of tears. Clark immediately rushed over to the boy, grabbing him gently and placing him in his lap, “Hey buddy, it’s ok. I know we haven’t spent that much time together, but I want you to know that you can trust me. I love you little guy, you being a baby sometimes won’t change that.”
Clark could see the moment something in Conner, the thing that made him so reserved and distant, broke down. The boy buried his head into Clark’s chest and started sobbing. Jason, like most babies, was immediately triggered by Conner’s crying and broke down too.
Clark started bouncing Conner to get him to calm down while Bruce picked up Jason and started lightly rubbing the boy’s back. Clark noticed the pacifiers still unopened sitting on the bed. “Bruce”, he whispered, nodding towards the pacifiers.
Bruce quickly grabbed them, giving the one with the Bat symbol to Jason and the one with the S shield on it to Conner. Both boys quickly calmed down. The sounds of little snuffles echoed across the room.
Clark smiled down at Conner, who looked like he was a yawn away from completely passing out, “They’re so cute.”
Bruce ran a hand through Jason’s long locks, “They’ll need proper accommodations. I’ll need to baby proof the manor, and you should baby proof your apartment. Conner is almost invincible, but he’ll need that sense of security regardless.”
Clark nodded, running a gentle hand across the little boy’s back to help him fall asleep, “When are you going to do that? Baby proof the manor I mean.”
“That depends on Jason. I’m not going to force him into anything, or rush into it. I’ll go at his pace, and he’ll tell me what he needs when he’s ready.”
Clark smiled, “You know, you can be a real sweetheart when you want to be.”
Bruce chuckled a little at that. He glanced down at his little monster who had completely dozed off. A quick glance at Conner told him he, too, was out for the count. Bruce scooched closer to Clark, planting a kiss on the man’s lips, “Oh Clark Kent, there is so much more to me then you could ever know.”
Clark blushed but leaned into the kiss, careful not to wake either of the babies. He was so ready for this.