Chapter Text
Jason 18
Dick 15
Tim 13
Damian 11
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...
Dick's fingers tapped on the kitchen table, soft taps but it still made enough sound to piss Jason off. He could handle a lot of Dick's patterns but tapping against wood was not one of them.
”Yeah, okay. This is taking too long. Bruce is basically adopting a kid every other week, so why do we have to sit and wait for him?" Jason leaned back in his chair, arm's crossed as he asked.
"Leave if you want to, but I for one do not want to deal with Batman's wrath tonight" Tim stated equally as bored. Jason rolled his eyes and continued his bored sulking. The soft noise of Dick's fingers against the wood were slowly but surely starting to drive him insane. Nine taps, pause, thirteen taps, pause, then repeat. It was one of Jason's biggest pet peeves. He could deal with Dick's counting and tapping, patterns and obsessive cleaning. But the constant sound of fingers tapping against wood always drove him insane. That was apparently very unfortunate for Jason though, because one of Dick's most frequent coercive actions were that fucking wood tapping. Jason really tried to tolerate it, he really did, but after twenty minutes of that shit, he was done.
”Okay, Dick- go and get some fucking air before I rip your arm off" tap, tap, tap. Dick flipped him of before standing up and heading to the backyard. Tim raised an eyebrow at him, and shot him a look. Jason chose to ignore it and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.
"Should we check on him?" Tim asked after a couple of minutes without Dick coming back in. Jason gave him a side glance before giving in and standing up. He walked towards the backyard where he found Dick standing against the manor wall, eyes closed, and taking deep breaths. Jason casually leaned against the doorframe giving Dick a once over.
"What obsessive thoughts are spinning in that head of yours?" Dick opened his eyes looking straight at him. He squinted slightly before he looked out into the dark night.
" 'Have a lighter Dickie?" Jason said after some seconds of silence. Dick sighed and reached into his pocket. He flipped the lid off and on again four times before handing the lighter to Jason. Jason took it and lit his cigarette quietly. He took a big drag before throwing the lighter back to Dick.
"You shouldn't smoke 'ya know" Dick said after watching Jason take another drag. Jason scuffed and offered the cigarette to his little brother. He knew that he probably shouldn't make a fifteen year old addicted to nicotine, but hey, Goldie was already sort of addicted and one more puff wasn’t going to change that. Dick accepted the cigarette and brought it up to his lips, sucking in the smoke, holding it in and looking down, before letting it out in a sigh. He handed the smoke back to Jason not meeting his eyes.
"You know-" Dick looked up from his shoes and over at him. "- we don't have to do this today. We could just go out on patrol and take it tomorrow" He took one last puff, before throwing it on the ground and stomping his boot on it, making the cigarette crumble into the dirt.
"...No" Dick shook his head while answering. He pushed off from the wall and walked back into the manor, Jason following behind. They took the same seats that they always took, and continued to wait.
“Alfred's ‘gonna have your heads, when he smells the smoke" Tim said scrunching his nose. Jason scoffed and grabbed the pack of cigarettes from his pocket and smacked it down onto the middle of the table. He then proceeded to wink at Tim who straight up facepalmed. Dick carefully leaned over and straightened up the pack a little. At this point Jason didn't really care, sometimes he would mess a little with Dick and put it back into a crooked position, with the keyword being; little. Dick's OCD wasn't there to entertain anybody, so if somebody else even dared to mess with his kid brother, he would make sure that they wouldn't be able to walk the next day. He was also careful to not take it too far, and especially in situations where Dick's OCD already was spiraling.
"Boys!" Bruce called from the door. He stepped into the kitchen shortly after, with a short kid in tow. The kid had some similarities to Bruce but he was slightly tanner and his mom’s nose. "Boys this is Damian. Damian this is Tim, Dick and Jason" Each boy gave a nod or a wave to the kid, but the death glare and frown remained on his face. He eyed them all carefully before opening his mouth to speak.
“Hello, my name is Damian Wayne. I am the only rightfully inherited of father's company, fortune and legacy. You three will no longer be needed" Damian stated obnoxiously.
"Ahh, Hell no!" (Tim)
"Who the fuck does this kid think he is?!”(Jason)
"That's...Uhm... something" (Dick)
They all stated in unison.
"Boys, please. And Damian they are just as much my children, as you are. You four is going to have to learn to get along" Bruce said frustrated.
"Now, why don't we all get to know each other a bit more?" He asked, slightly calmer. He only got a raised brow and two scoffs in return, but apparently to 'The big B' that was the same as a yes. Damian took a seat next to Tim, while Bruce took his usual seat at the head of the table.
"Who wants to start?" Bruce asked. Dick got a mischievous grin before saying:
"Jason surely wants to. He's got plenty of experience from rehab" Tim had to hold a hand in front of his mouth to stop himself from bursting out into laughter. Jason flipped Dick off before returning with:
"With all the therapists you've been to, I'm sure you could start too Goldie" Dick answered this with shoving his elbow into Jason's side. Jason reached to grab Dick into a headlock, but Dick managed to swat his hand at the last moment.
"Stop it both of you! Okay...Tim you start" Bruce said stern, clearly getting agitated. Tim rolled his eyes but proceeded to introduce himself.
"'M Tim Drake aka Red Robin, thirteen years old. And I have two annoying ass brothers who both should be admitted into Arkham" Both Dick and Jason smirked at the last comment. Bruce gave Jason a look that clearly said ‘don’t piss me off’ and made a hand gesture for him to proceed.
"Hey, My name is Jason and I'm an alcoholic" Jason said mimicking the AA pledge. Tim and Dick bursted out laughing, while Bruce just looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world.
"Dick your turn" Bruce said followed by a sigh, interrupting their laughter fit.
"Okay, so I'm Dick- well Richard, Grayson, but I go by Dick. I'm fifteen, I really want to spend my Thursday night doing homework with Babs instead of being here... but here I am. I'm Nightwing by the way" Dick said casually and adding a smile at the end. Damian's eyes inspected him before carefully landing on his fingers that were tapping a pattern on his jeans.
"You should collect yourself while talking to a potential enemy, Grayson. This is unprofessional and I really expected more of one of the children father trained" Damian stated coldly.
"Damian..."
"You want to take it outside Gremlin?"
Bruce and Jason let out at the same time. Damian didn't look fazed at all though. He just sat there with the cocky smirk that he had, had plastered on his face the entire night.
"Guys chill. Ehm... Dami, may I call you Dami?" Dick said with a welcoming smile.
"You may not"
"Okay, Dami, I have this thing that forces me to do certain actions, over and over again, or in a specific pattern" Dick gave a small shrug at the end. Jason was seriously starting to be proud of him. He couldn't even admit that he had OCD two years ago, let alone explain it in one sentence.
"Hmm, and this thing is clearly lack of self control. And you do not get to call me Dami" Damian answered with a venomous tone. Jason felt the anger starting to burn inside of him.
"Actually it's called Obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. I've had it since I was a kid. It makes my brain come up with ideas such as tapping my foot thirty five times, or else Bruce might die. Or it can be that I have to clean the entire kitchen, and place the utensils in a specific order, because if I don't we're all going to get really sick" Dick explained, fingers still tapping. His fake American accent always drowned out his normal way of speaking when he spoke about stuff he had read up on. Jason noticed the way Dick had simplified what the intrusive thoughts made him think was going to happen. He scoffed slightly ‘making OCD more child-friendly, Dick… really’ Jason thought almost a little amused.
"Don't be foolish. You know that no such thing will happen Grayson" Damian said, but this time his frown started to loosen a bit and his tone was more unsure.
"Of course I know deep down that it isn't going to happen. But the feeling that it is, takes over, and I just can't fight the instinct. The more I fight the instinct, the bigger it gets, and it gets quite overwhelming and scary" Dick explained with a smile, the entire time seeming unfazed.
"I still think that you could get your act together" Dick kept on his façade and answered lighthearted with:
"Yeah, I'm working on it" and another smile. ‘How can he be so calm and... nice to that demon?’ Jason thought confused. The kid Bruce had brought home was a brat.
"Master Jason is that cigarettes?!" Alfred asked flabbergasted when he put down a kettle of tea.
"No" Jason said dumbfounded with a smirk. However the smirk fell fast when Alfred took the pack.
"Alfred I'm eighteen!" He said and stood up when the butler started walking to the kitchen.
"No, no, no, no, no, Alfred, please, no, wait!" Jason was now desperately scrambling to get the cigarette pack back from the butler. Jason's begging didn't help. Alfred put the pack in the dirty dish water and smiled at Jason.
"Now master Jason, I will not stand here and watch you destroy your lungs" He said while guiding Jason back towards the table.
"In my days, we at least had the decency to hide it" Alfred quipped in. Jason was a little stunned, so it took a few seconds for him to realize that he now needed to buy new ones if he wanted to smoke more tonight.
"Ahhh... fine, you know what. Dick, with me. We have to go to the store, because we have a fucking babysitter"
"Language" Bruce an Alfred stated annoyed. Dick smiled apologetically to Alfred before following along.
"Hey I want to come too!" Tim said, standing up from his chair and running after them.
"Why? You just got a new baby brother to play with" Jason shouted back at him before throwing Dick his jacket and walking further towards the garage.
"You guys suck, you always do this-" They both went down to the garage before Tim could finish his complaining.
They took their seats in the black BMW i8. Dick, as always unbuckled his seatbelt six times before he let it be in its holder.
"You done?" Dick nodded and Jason started the car. The dark Gotham streets were almost empty except for a couple of stray kids and late night drivers.
"How long are you staying?" Dick said after a few moments of silence. He kept his eyes on the road, almost like if he didn't he might not have had the courage to ask. Jason might have threatened to move out earlier that week if Bruce took in another kid, and Dick had probably thought that he was going to leave him… again.
Jason gave him small quick glances before answering.
"Well we both know that I'm not goin' to college. So if Bruce doesn't kick me out before, at least out senior year. But I'm not planning on sticking to your little "batfam" as 'hood, so let's just see how much killing the old man tolerates" Jason said relaxing in his seat.
"Or you could just not kill... 'ya know, it would probably help B, with not getting a heart attack before he turns forty five" Dick’s accent was heavy... well not really heavy, but heavy for Dick. It usually showed more when he was tired, or just around people he felt safe with. Probably another reason for his annoying ass forced American accent around the little gremlin.
"We've been over this Dick. They deserve it. Besides his new toy is an assassin, so who knows... maybe the rules finally gets a bit more bent" Jason said, almost hopefully. He would take any excuse he could get to be able to take care of his younger brothers for a little longer… not that he ever would admit it if anyone asked.
*Flashback to two years ago*
"No... y-you don't under...stand" An almost fourteen year old Dick screamed between sobs
"N-Na, tu na haćares... M-trebul te... Muk les! Mukh les! trubul te-"
(N-No, you don't understand... Y-you have to... Leave it alone! Leave it alone! you need to-)
Dick screamed and cried, barely forcing the words out between sobs.
"Shhh, shhhhh, it's okay Dickie... you're okay" Jason cooed while helping Bruce hold Dick.
"Champ you need to calm down. Tu san mishto Dickie, Tu san mishto. Breathe, breathe,"
(You're okay Dickie, You're okay.)
Bruce said while rubbing circle on his son's back. Tim, barely ten years old watched in horror as his big brother, completely broke down. He didn't know that he could mess up that bad. That he could do that to a person...
"I'm sorry" Escaped Tim's lips. It was barley above a whisper but all three of them heard it.
"It's not your fault Tim. We all know that you just tried to help" Bruce said, while still holding firmly around his adopted son. Dick had finally started to calm down to a level of quiet sobs and shaking.
Later that night
"You know, I'm not doing this for you. And I'm especially not doing it for the replacement" Jason said while carrying the rest of his bags through the door.
"I know Jason, trust me. I know. But still, you moving back is going to help Dick... adjust... to Tim, so thank you" Jason scoffed while carrying his bags up the stairs towards his old/new room. 'The things I do for that kid' Jason thought
*End of flashback*
"You missed the turn" Dick said casually. Snapping Jason out of his thoughts.
"Fuck" Jason muttered calmly and took a u-turn on the empty road. He parked in one of the closest parking spaces, before exiting the car. Dick followed along and they entered the the slightly run down 7/11. Pretty much everything in Gotham was slightly run down though.
There wasn't anybody, except for the cashier, inside of the store- which was reassuring. The less people the lesser the chance of getting taken photos of gets. But apparently he jinxed it... A group of four girls came into the store right after them whispering and blushing. Normally the two brothers would be more than open for cute teenage girls who wanted to take pictures with them, but this time they both just wanted to get what they came there for and get the hell out of there. Maybe they would get lucky and the girls wouldn't take pictures... but that just wasn't their luck. Dick pulled his hood up and grabbed a white Monster from the fridge. Jason pulled up his hood too when two of the girls came closer.
"Hi... Uhm... could, could we possibly get a picture with you two, please?" A short, blond girl asked in a high pitched voice. Jason sighed and bent down to pick up a Red Bull before he turned around to face the girl who was now standing right beside the open fridge door.
"Sorry, not today" He said walking up to Dick who was standing by the register. The sound of phones taking pictures was loud enough for both of them to hear. Jason chose to try to ignore it for the moment.
"This and a twenty pack of Marlboro gold" He said to the cashier. The cashier turned around, unlocked the cabinet and took out a pack of cigarettes.
"ID?" He said dryly. Jason showed him his ID, before swiping his card and grabbing his stuff.
"He smokes?!" One of the girls whispered loudly. Right after came a bunch of camera sounds.
"Are you guys slow or something? I said not today" Jason said while motioning for Dick to walk. Dick of course got hung up on the three steps at the exit. He walked down one step, before going up one. Then two down and one up, before taking the last step of the stairs.
"What was that?" One of the girls snickered. Dick blushed slightly while picking up the speed to the car.
"Don't mind them, they were brats anyway. Can’t respect someone's privacy" Jason said when he saw the flushed expression on Dick's face. They entered the car, without Dick replying, just buckled and unbuckled his seatbelt six times. After getting away from the parking spot, Jason really got the urge to smoke.
"Light one for me, will 'ya" Dick reached for the pack while smirking.
"Bruce is going to kill you if you smoke in the car" Dick said while pulling up his lighter.
"It's my car, isn't it?" Dick still didn't look convinced as he flipped the lid on his lighter off and on.
"See" Jason said while opening a window and dramatically gesturing towards it. "He won't even notice" Dick gave him a halfhearted shrug before lighting the cigarette. Dick took a puff of it and kept it instead of giving it to Jason.
"Okay brat, that's mine. Give me" Jason made a grabby hand motion as Dick handed the smoke over to him with a smirk that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"You don't actually give a fuck about those girls right?" Jason said after breathing out the smoke. He looked over at Dick who was repetitively moving the small beeds on his bracelet.
"Dick?" Jason said when the kid didn't show any sign that he heard Jason.
"Hmm?" He said, still focused on his bracelet. Jason took that as a yes, he did care about what those fucking girls thought about him. Or at least it piled on to the rest of the tower Dick had in his head right now. Let's just say that it didn't end that well the last time they got a new sibling.
Dick was most likely just one tiny little step away from his tower falling over and shattering into those million little pieces that he originally came in. They all knew it. Dick could act as happy and tough as he wanted... but he always ended up broken in one way or another.
Jason recognized the pattern he shoved the beeds back and forth in. 2-4-1-2-4-1-2- and so on. Dick could normally focus halfhearted on a conversation while counting, but not now... not when he was this close to breaking apart. Jason carefully slowed the car to a stop in the middle of the road. It wasn't like there was anybody else there anyway.
"Dick?" Dick bit his lip still completely focused on the pattern, unable to stop the cycle. Jason contemplated just grabbing the kid's hands, but that would probably not be the best decision.
"Take a breath... you're like this close to turning blue" He said when he didn't find another solution.
"Dick you're spiralling... I need you to take a breath" God he was starting to sound like Bruce.
"Want me to tap a pattern? Talk about something?" He said when he saw the tears that had started to glaze his little brother's eyes. 'It's official, I'm turning into a fucking mom' He thought to himself.
"Dick you're having an OCD attack... kid you're fucking shaking!" Fuck he was bad at this...
"Okay...okay, take some deep breaths, come on Dick- don't force me to knock the air back into you" Dick finally attempted to take a shuddering breath. His whole frame shaking when he did. Then another one...
'Just stop fucking hyperventilating Dick' Jason thought, worried that Dick wasn’t slowing down.
"Focus on your breathing and count backwards from a hundred, three by three, come on Goldie you must know this like the back of your hand by now"
"Jekh shel... injavardesh thaj efta, injavardesh thaj shtar..."
(one hundred, ninety-seven, ninety-four)
And slowly but surely, Dick started to calm down. Three and three at a time. The tears silently rolled out of his eyes when he reached fifty two. This was when Jason decided to exit the car and walk around to Dick's side. He opened the door and held tightly around Dick. The ONLY time he hugged someone (willingly) was after Dick had a panic attack. Only if nobody else of significance was watching, of course. It was bad for his “bad boy” image.
The kid was trembling in his arms, quiet sobs escaping his lips. Jason continued to hold him until his sobs had quieted down. He gave the kid a once over before shoving his head lightly.
" 'Good?" He asked, Dick nodded- and damn he looked like he was nine again.
"Good" Jason said while standing up. He closed the door and walked around to the other side of the car. Dick was quiet the entire way back, just silent tears rolling down his cheeks. Jason didn't say anything either, just turned on some music and kept a hand on Dick's shoulder to ground him. The fifteen year old had sunken down in his hoodie shaking under his older brother's grip.
———
"Get that thing off of me!" Was the first thing they heard when they entered the manor. Bruce was desperately trying to break up a fight between Tim and Damian, before Damian killed Tim.
"Enough!" Bruce said separating the two boys. "...enough, we do not kill in this household, and we do not fight our siblings unless we are sparing. Is. That. Clear?!" ‘Finally somebody for Tim to fight with’ Jason thought pleased that he had been replaced in that scenario.
"Yes sir..." Tim said keeping his head down. The gremlin just looked murdelous over at Tim.
"What took you so long?" Tim said while pouting, clearly upset that nobody was there to pull the tiny assassin off of him. They both ignored the question and opted for moving out of the room instead.
"Are you feeling alright Master Richard?" Alfred asked when he took their coats.
"'M fine" Alfred gave him a skeptical look but let it be… for now.
———
Dick's room was constantly clean. Too clean if you were to put it in perspective. Covers made perfectly and the same way every single day. Clothes folded perfectly and stacked symmetrical in the closet. His desk was completely empty except for his books, which of course were organized in a specific way, and all of them were the same size. There was never a grain of dust in his room, and it got cleaned at least seven times a week. Dick liked his stuff organized, clean and in perfect symmetry. He was also the one who got his own bathroom. Of course both Tim and Jason had given fuss about it to begin with. Jason had his own bathroom as well as Dick before Tim came along, and he was the oldest after all. Tim had his own bathroom as well, for four days since Jason didn't live there at the time. Neither of them was keen about sharing... but they did, because neither of them really wanted to make sure they didn't mess up anything in Dick's bathroom either. That all changed when Damian came along and was now sharing a bathroom with Dick.
Jason groggily made his way to Dick and Damian's bathroom to get some toothpaste. But what he saw woke him up in an instant. Damian stood confused in the corner, while Dick was "cleaning" the sink that really wasn't dirty. It also looked like he had organized all of Damian's toiletries after expiration date, size and use. The way that kid always organized stuff.
"Todd, your brother is unhinged" Damian said when he regained some composure. Jason sworn he could have killed him right there and then.
"’You trying to wash away the marble pattern?" He said when Dick scrubbed harder.
"Nah" Jason raised an eyebrow at Dick before making a disapproving sound to the answer. "it's just... it's, uhm... it's...dirty?" Dick said unsure and slowly stopping his scrubbing.
"Shit" he said under his breath. "I...I did it again?..." he said looking sceptical over at Jason. Jason had to get his act together to not just turn around and pretend he didn't see it.
"Go to bed Dick. We can handle it in the morning... and you Gremlin, aren't you like five? Shouldn't you've been asleep like hours ago?" He could have sworn Damian's eyes glowed red right there, and Jason lived for it.
"I am not! Just wait till Father hears about this" He shouted agitated. He turned around and walked into his own room. The door slammed shut behind him. Jason gave a laugh the second Damian turned on his heel. Dick even smiled a little at the obnoxious behaviour.
Jason continued to lean at the shared door frame between the bathroom and Dick’s bedroom. He watched as Dick neatly folded his uniform and put it on his desk, ready for the next day.
"You've been taking your coo-coo pills right?" He said casually, toothpaste long forgotten.
"Stop babying me. And of course I take my meds" Jason frowned. Normally he wouldn't sink this low, but hey he could have bad days too...
"Well I'm not the one who had a meltdown over some fucking beads three hours ago" He said pushing away from the door frame.
"Fuck off" Dick said irritated while he untucked his bedsheets.
"I'll be happy to..." Jason turned around and started walking, but stopped and took a deep breath before he turned back and said:
"Wake me up if you need to" He met Dick's eyes, who gave a small halfhearted nod.
"Night, dick" He said, walking back to his room and turning on the TV.
Jason could only cross his fingers and hope that that was the end of it. Because sure, Dick was obsessed with cleaning his room and making sure that nothing could get him sick. And of course he liked the manor spotless, but it had been ages since he cleaned something that was already clean. Scrubbed till his hands were raw, scrubbed at imaginary spots and invisible bacteria. Cleaned because his brain told him it wasn't perfect. His new meds had helped a lot. They made the whole coercive action thing less powerful, and more like an accessory. He had been able to overlook more of his obsessive thoughts, been able to let stuff just be in the place they were, accept change and not make routines out of everything. Then Bruce had to go and find out he forgot to use a condom.
*Flashback*
"What the hell is he doing?" A thirteen year old Jason asked when he entered the kitchen. Bruce sighed, took another sip of his coffee, and raised an eyebrow.
"Dick? The fuck 'ya doing?" Jason asked when Bruce didn’t give a verbal response. Dick didn't even look up from the floor. He was going over the same spot, over and over again. Jason mimicked Bruce's expression and stepped over the kid.
"I found him like that this morning, he has barley moved" Bruce murmured over his coffee cup.
"Shouldn't we like... you know... stop him?" Jason asked while pulling a chair away from the table.
"No, Doctor Campbell says that we are supposed to encourage him to stop, not force him" Bruce said with a sigh. Jason made a hand gesture for him to elaborate.
"The coffee needs to kick in first" Bruce said, continuing to stare at Dick. Jason shrugged, trying his hardest not to watch Dick's raw, red hands.
"Master Richard, I am sure the floor is clean enough now" Alfred said when he walked into the kitchen with the newspaper. When Dick still didn't acknowledge them, Bruce stood up.
"Come on chum. You need to get ready for school, and get some food into you before we leave" Dick made a sound, something extremely close to a quiet sob, but continued his scrubbing nevertheless.
"Bruce..." Jason said when he noticed the tear that was rolling down his brothers face and the red hands that was know starting to color the sponge with red blood.
"Dick, do you need help stopping?" Bruce asked, now kneeling beside Dick, who was still scrubbing at the tiled floor. Dick shook his head, another tear rolling down his cheek. At this Jasons' brotherly instincts (which he wasn't even aware that he had) kicked in. He squatted down to Dick's level, and slowly laid his hands over Dick's, stopping them.
"It's okay" Dick met his eyes. The look he gave him, was too familiar. Jason understood in that moment what it was Dick was fearing.
"You're not crazy. I feel the urge to have control over something too. I promise you, you aren't crazy Dick" Another tear rolled down his cheek, but this time he looked down at his raw, bleeding hands.
"Let's get you all fixed up, huh, Master Richard?" Alfred said, stepping in and getting Dick up to a standing position.
*End of flashback*
"They are seriously screaming already" Jason said on FaceTime with a sleepy Roy.
"Its six AM and they are already ripping each others heads off" Jason said annoyed.
"Why are you even up? You don’t have school on Friday’s… Even better question is why am I being woken up?" Roy said grumpy from underneath his pillow.
"We are making a little visit to some friends" Jason said, a smirk was plastered on his face.
"What were you thinking?" Roy said, now more awake. Jason exited the app and sent the news report to Roy.
"Red arrow and hood, back at it?" Roy said while standing up, this time the annoyed expression was nowhere to be seen. Jason smiled a mischievous smile before he hung up.
———
"You did what?!" Bruce shouted straight at him. The anger burning in his eyes.
"You killed three men. What were you thinking Jason?! We. Don't. Kill. Hell Jason, you could have gotten yourself or Roy killed!"
"We had it under control" Jason said annoyed. This wan't an uncommon occurrence in the Wayne household. Jason and Bruce, yelling and arguing. It rarely ended good.
"You call that ‘having it under control’? I taught you better than to get yourself caught. I thought we were done with this childish behavior, you know better!" The anger almost overshone the disappointment that was present in his eyes, but not quite. Jason felt the pit in his stomach grow deeper, it was ridiculous. Bruce wasn't in charge of him anymore. So why did this feel exactly like being a kid again?
"I don't have to listen to this. You are not my father so why do you get to disown me Bruce?!" He spat back. They were both standing in the middle of the living room, muscles tense and back straight.
"Under my roof you follow my rules!" Bruce pointed angrily at him.
"And you were the one who chose to raise your kids to be killing machines!" They were staring at each other. Deep, intense glares.
"If you may, gents. Your fit could be done behind closed doors. I think it's time to take a breath before someone says or does something they'll regret" Alfred said stepping in between them. Jason bit down hard locking his jaw, before turning on his heel and walking out. He headed for the staircase but something or rather someone, stopped him in his path.
"You 'gonna move out again?" Dick said quietly from the bottom of the enormous staircase.
"Shit, you heard all of that?" Dick shrugged half-hearted."Dickie..."
"I'm not a kid anymore Jay. You don't have to stick around for my sake" Dick said staring down at his feet.
"Dick" Jason sighed and rubbed his forehead before continuing "I'm not saying that you are a kid, but the last time something big changed here, you kind of lost it" Dick visibly shrunk together at the statement. Jason sighed again and took a seat next to him. "I'm not saying that it's going to be that bad this time too. But you are already starting to show signs of a relapse" Jason said voice calm.
"Still... You don't have to stay here because of me. You don't like it here Jay, I know you try but..." He trailed off letting the sentence speak for itself.
"Dick, the manor is always going to be home. And you and Alfred are my family... ahh that sounded soft" Jason grimaced at the "sob" moment.
"If you ever tell anyone I said that, I'll murder you in your sleep" He stood up, the previous moment gone.
"I'm getting out of here..." He hesitated before saying the next part "But I'm coming back" With that he grabbed his keys and walked out to the garage with an all too familiar feeling in his gut.