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Bruce woke with a start when his bedroom door creaked open. He blinked blearily into the darkness, at the tiny figure hesitating at the threshold.
“Jason?” he asked, sitting up and rubbing at an eye, trying to clear his vision more, “What’s wrong?” Jason had never come into his room.
Well… he had. During his first week with Bruce. When he was still convinced Bruce would…
Bruce shook his head once, to dislodged that awful memory from his brain. Jason was far beyond believing Bruce wanted him for harm. Jason coming to him in the middle of the night meant something was wrong.
“I—“ Jason started, his voice a harsh whisper. He stiffened, and shuffled further into the room. The closer he got, the easier Bruce could see actual fear on Jason’s face, reflecting off the light his bedside clock emitted. “I think someone’s in the manor.”
Adrenaline rushed through Bruce in a familiar boost at hearing that.
He was certainly awake, now.
Throwing his blanket off himself, he grabbed his tablet off the side table. “The security system didn’t react,” he said, as he jumped up. There would have been alarms going off. His watch would have woken him with its insistent buzzing.
But there had been no alarm.
Nothing had tripped the system.
In fact… the system didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary at all.
Jason stared at him with wide, tear stained eyes, so Bruce motioned with his head for Jason to follow.
“Come on. Let’s get you to the cave to figure this out.”
With an absent nod, Jason quickly followed after Bruce, his right hand reaching out to grip at the hem of Bruce’s t-shirt, like it was his anchor in the dark.
Bruce stuck his head out the hallway, before entering it, but was met with an empty hall way.
And an empty stairwell.
And an empty downstairs hallway.
Nothing was looking out of the ordinary, except for the scared 13-year-old at his side.
“What did you hear?” Bruce asked, as he led Jason to the cave’s entrance in the study. His security system only detected three life forms in the manor, the two of them walking down the hall, and one, up in Alfred’s quarters. Fast asleep, right where Alfred’s bed was.
“I heard stomping,” Jason said, his voice shaking, “And a door slam.”
“Where at?” Bruce hadn’t heard anything until Jason opened his door.
Although he had had a bit of a rough patrol, and had been so exhausted upon getting home, he barely remembered pulling his own blanket over himself before he was out. It was very easy he had slept through whatever it was.
Jason paused, and admitted, “I don’t know. Down the hall?”
Bruce nodded. “Okay,” he whispered back, as they reached the study and he quickly crossed over to the clock, “We’ll figure it out.” He made quick work of opening the hidden door, and ushered Jason through first, before closing the door behind them.
A quick survey of the cave from the stairs above showed Bruce it was exactly as he’d left it, an hour previous. Undisturbed and unoccupied.
“You stay in here,” he told Jason, “I’ll go check everything out, okay?”
“And check on Alfred?” Jason asked, unsteadily.
“Yes, of course. I’m going to lock the cave down so no one but me or Alfred can come in or out until that is disabled. You remember where everything is, right?”
Alfred had given Jason a grand tour, not too long ago. When Jason had trouble sleeping one night and wanted to stay up with someone, rather than his normal habit of hiding away in his room by himself.
Jason had actually been getting clingier as the weeks had gone on, and while it was, in a way, a welcomed change from Jason’s refusal of any and all attention, sometimes it worried Bruce. Was there something wrong?
Was there something Bruce could do to help?
“Yeah,” Jason said, looking down the stairs at the well-lit cave below. Despite knowing it was safe, he still looked extremely nervous, so Bruce reached out and set a hand on top of his head.
Jason flinched, but quickly relaxed, leaning in toward Bruce’s side a bit more.
“It’ll be okay,” he promised, “I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Okay.”
And with that, Bruce went back out of the cave and officially hit the lockdown button.
The very first thing he did was grab a batarang from one of the false books on his shelves and pocket it, before making his way quickly up to Alfred’s quarters. He checked all the open rooms on his way, but not a single thing was seeming out of place.
Alfred, of course, startled awake the second Bruce opened his door, just as he’d always done for as long as Bruce could remember.
Though, it had been well over a decade since the last time Bruce had woken him like this.
“Master Bruce, what is the matter?” Alfred asked immediately, as Bruce scanned the large quarters with his eyes.
“Jason thought he heard someone break in,” he explained quickly, as he crossed the room and stuck his head into the sitting room.
It, too, was empty.
“Oh dear,” Alfred said, grabbing his robe off the hook near his bed and wrapping it around himself.
“I’m not seeing ay signs of one, though,” he admitted. There wasn’t any sign anywhere.
Alfred blinked, then asked, “Is Jason all right?”
“I sent him to the cave and put it into lockdown so I could check over everything, just in case. Thought I’d check on you first.”
“I didn’t hear anything, sir,” Alfred said firmly, “it has been a quiet night.”
Bruce sighed. “That’s what I figured.”
“Is the poor lad having nightmares,” Alfred asked, echoing Bruce’s own thoughts.
“Perhaps,” he said. He knew Jason had nightmares, and based on some very uncomfortable questions he’d asked Bruce in the past, Bruce would completely buy that Jason had a hard time distinguishing between nightmares and reality, but he’d never once come to Bruce with his fears before.
And what if he was right?
“I’ll do a sweep of the house, just in case, if you want to go down with him. He was pretty shaken up when I left him.”
“Of course,” Alfred said easily, slipping his feet into his slippers, “you be careful, sir.”
Bruce took an hour sweeping the entire house from top to bottom. He checked every room and every closet, but found no sign of anyone having been in the manor.
By the time he was done, it was nearing 5am, and quite frankly he was exhausted. The adrenaline rush had long since abandoned him, leaving behind just a tired shell of a man who got less than an hour of sleep in the previous 24 hours.
Regardless, he made his way back down to the cave to check on the occupants there, and to hopefully reassure his kid there was no reason to be scared.
Downstairs, Bruce found Jason curled up in the Batcomputer chair, a blanket wrapped tightly around his shoulders. Alfred was busy cleaning the batarangs Bruce had used out on patrol, and Bruce wasn’t even going to ask why he’d found busy work rather than sitting with Jason.
It’d been an hour.
Jason looked over at Bruce once he hit the bottom of the stairs, and Bruce could see the tears swell up fast in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he rushed out, a slight whine in his voice warning Bruce of the full on crying that was about to hit, “I thought it was real. I swear. I thought I really heard it.”
“Oh, Jason,” Bruce sighed. His heart ached for his kid sometimes. For how scared his kid could get. He closed the distance between them, then knelt down in front of the chair, so he was looking up at Jason. Gently, he took Jason’s hands into his own and said, “It’s all right, lad. It’s okay.”
“It’s not,” Jason cried, “It’s— I—“ but his face absolutely crumpled, and whatever he’d been trying to say got drowned out by the sobs that took over his whole body.
Bruce ached all the more.
“Shhh,” he said, running his thumbs across the back of Jason’s hands, “Can I hug you?”
Jason had been allowing physical contact more and more lately. He’d actually given a snappish ‘stop asking’ the last time Bruce had asked permission to touch his face.
It’d been hard, finding the balance between making sure Jason was consenting to any form of physical touch, and not annoying Jason with asking permission to comfort him.
But Jason nodded stoutly, and slipped off the chair straight into Bruce’s arms the second he opened them in offering. Like Jason belonged there, Bruce wrapped his arms around him tightly and rested his cheek down on top of Jason’s head.
“I’m sorry,” Jason said again, even as he melted into Bruce’s hold.
“It’s okay, Jason,” he promised, “I’m not mad about this.
Jason made a noise of disagreement, then said, “You should be,” between his sniffles.
“No, I shouldn’t,” he reiterated, pressing a kiss into Jason’s crown. “Buddy, if you woke me up every single night for the next year, I still would not be mad.”
Bruce would be weary, sure. Maybe annoyed, on the surface.
But deep down, he’d be touched.
He was touched, now. That Jason came to him.
Jason had a fear, and came to him. So he could fix it.
“I would take you just as seriously every single time,” he promised.
“That’s dumb,” Jason grumbled, but he’d mostly quit crying, so Bruce was counting it as a win. He readjusted his hold, as Jason had started to slip, and rested his chin back down in Jason’s hair.
He hummed, then said, “It’s not dumb. I just want you to feel safe, Jason. I’ll do anything to make that happen.”
Jason hesitated for a long minute, but he reached up with one of his hands and fisted Bruce’s shirt in his hand as he pressed his head into Bruce’s chest further. “I do feel safe,” he finally mumbled, “I’ve got Batman protecting me.”
Tears threatened to fill Bruce’s eyes as he tightened his hold on Jason, so he spent a minute blinking them back, trying to keep control of his own emotions.
He could be emotional about that later. Not right now, when he was trying to comfort his boy.
“Come on,” Bruce finally said, long after Jason had stilled and his sniffles had ceased. He gently pulled Jason back, and helped him stand to his feet. “Let’s go back up stairs. Maybe we can watch a movie?”
Jason gave him a quizzical look, and asked, “At five in the morning?”
It was a Sunday morning, so Bruce saw absolutely no harm in that.
Except maybe the crick in his neck he’d wake up with, when he inevitably fell asleep sitting up.
“Are you going to get any more sleep tonight, alone in your room,” Bruce asked, a hint of challenge in his voice.
He knew for a fact Jason would likely be jumpy and scared for the next day or two. And Bruce wasn’t keen on making him deal with that on his own.
Jason hesitated, but did shake his head.
“That’s what I thought. Yes, at five in the morning,” Bruce said, finally pushing himself back up to his feet. He motioned with his hand for Jason to follow, and set it on Jason’s back once he scrambled to Bruce’s side so they could climb the stairs.
Looking around the cave revealed Alfred had likely already gone back upstairs. Perhaps to get started on his day, perhaps to get some more sleep himself.
Bruce really hoped he went and got more sleep.
“I apologize now if I doze off,” Bruce said, with a soft chuckle as they climbed the steps, “You can wake me back up if you want.”
Jason didn’t reply, but he did smile, so hopefully he’d take Bruce up on the offer, should he need it.
Bruce had a feeling simply being in the room with him would be enough, though. If Jason truly did feel safe with Batman protecting him.
He couldn’t think about that.
Emotions.
In the living room, Bruce picked the end of the couch with the large ottoman in front of it, just so he could kick his feet up.
Ordinarily Bruce chose an armchair, so Jason could stretch out on the couch and not feel crowded by Bruce, but he’d picked the large living room, so there was a large sectional and several armchairs for Jason to choose from.
To Bruce’s absolute surprise, Jason fished a blanket out of the storage basket, then made his way right to Bruce’s side, where he flopped down and curled up under the blanket. He looked up at Bruce for half a second, before he looked away and just… fell sideways.
Right into Bruce’s side.
The pesky tears were back in Bruce’s eyes as he gently wrapped his arm around Jason and fidgeted until they were both comfortable.
“Anything in particular you want to watch?” Bruce asked, as he flipped the TV on and navigated to one of the streaming apps.
Jason shrugged, but mumbled, “Something funny.”
So Bruce started up a comedy, and gladly settled down to nap with Jason at his side.
He absolutely hated that Jason had to get so scared for this development, but he was so damn proud Jason felt as comfortable as he did.
Bruce would gladly give up sleep for the rest of his life, if this was the outcome.