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When Jason had moved into Wayne Manor, he found it hard to shake his eating habits.
Alfred made lovely meals, the smells were something Jason couldn’t recall ever experiencing before. He remembered when his mother had made him food, when he was young, and the ones coming from Alfred's food? Well.. The difference was clear.
But despite this, everything tasted chalky, or plain tasteless and Jason just couldn’t stomach it. The portions were too big and he felt sick after a few nibbles. He felt awful, because wasting food was a clear no. His entire ethos was not to waste anything, especially when he’d had so little.
The Wayne Manor had huge areas of land though, it was plenty of foliage and dirt and Jason was left mostly to his own devices when he mentioned going out into the yard. He always came back muddy and Bruce was mostly stupid enough to believe he was just being a typical preteen boy.
Jason liked that they didn’t ask many questions.
It meant he was left undisturbed while he found lunch. While he found something that didn’t taste like chalk, that didn’t leave his stomach churning or the feel of bile threatening to spill.
The gardens had plenty of bugs. The last traces of a downpour left the soul damp and Jason had little problem seeking out the worms that had come to the surface. They were slow and Jason found them one of the easier creatures to catch when hunger struck. His issue was, Central Gotham had very few places worms would reside, besides Ivy’s park and he… didn’t like going there if possible. It was usually ground zero for a lot of gases and pollens and Jason had gotten caught up only once in the after effects of one of Ivy's Sex Pollens and he'd had to ride out the confusing feelings and the burning agony alone, because he knew exactly how little inhibitions he'd have if someone found him, let alone touched him, and he didn't want that even if the Pollen made him think he did.
Really, he knew worms should be cooked. Anything he caught he did try and cook, sometimes he’d manage to lay claim to abandoned fires by other inhabitants on the street and he could cook some of the catches over the diminishing heat. Most of the time he ate them raw.
He still had the crumpled filthy bottle on him, the one thing he’d kept hold of, to store his catches.
He found several with ease, one was held up to his mouth, wriggling to escape. Jason frowned, tried to brush a bit of dirt off and then squeezed. The worm flailed before succumbing to the fact Jason had squashed half of its body. The worm was shoved into his mouth before he felt too badly about his insect murdering, catching a couple more to drop into the bottle as he sucked and chomped on the worm. This was better. A taste he was accustomed to, nutritious and yet not so heavy on his small stomach. He wasn’t used to big amounts of food.
He felt his grin widened as he swallowed the worm and located an earwig. Another bug that he found he preferred, and with little effort and a practised skill, Jason caught the quick little creature and instantly dropped it in his mouth to consume. The bug flailed dramatically between teeth as Jason chomped it down, a satisfied noise elicited from his throat. The soil before him was mostly turned over now, and he’d gotten most of the easiest to find worms. He ventured on further, coming across the wall that divided the Wayne Estate to the Drakes and dug up against the wall, knowing for sure he’d find something along the cool wet rocks.
He found a clear line of ants as he scurried along the line, catching as many as he could to catch in his bottle, occasionally swallowing some down as he went. It wouldn’t do to eat his entire provisions in one go, but he also wanted to just eat the entire bottle full, his stomach churning for substance after he’d picked and picked and barely touched the steak Alfie had made.
He grinned when he found a caterpillar along a bit of plant growing up the wall, catching the curling green bug and sucking it between his teeth. Caterpillars were more of a gamble, but the typical green ones had never done him harm.
“Why are you eating bugs?” A voice asked and Jason whirled in fear and panic. He found nobody behind him though. A creak overhead. He looked up.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
There, in the tree hanging over the fence, rooted on the Drake property, was a kid, a kid climbing a wet tree. That wasn’t safe.
“You didn’t scare me.” Jason scoffed, lying as he swallowed the caterpillar, still hungry.
“I.. did. You jumped!” The kid accused, hesitantly. Jason shook his head.
“No way. I couldn’t be scared of you, you’re a baby!” Jason argued, earning an affronted look from the child who couldn’t be older than 8 at the very very most.
“I’m seven, I’m not a baby!” The child yelped and then slipped, on the wet branch and tumbled from the tree, over the fence and into Jason’s arms.
Jason wasn’t strong, not like Bruce and Dick were, but he wasn’t a complete weakling either, sometimes he had to fight his way out of trouble on the street… so he had his arms out to catch the kid, expecting his knees to hurt when he inevitably buckled under the weight of a seven year old.
He didn’t. He caught the kid easily.
“You weight nothing, what the fuck.” Jason whispered, because didn’t this kid live next door, in the big fancy house Jason could only just barely see from his window.
“I’m still growing!” The child snapped and wriggled out of Jason’s arms and onto his feet, clothes dirty and ragged, looking like he was the street kid out of the two and not Jason.
“Whatever. I’m Jason.” Jason introduced because if this kid wasn’t going to be leaving anytime soon, he needed to at least know his name.
“Timothy.” The child offered up and held out a muddy hand. Jason shook it after a little hesitation because shaking hands wasn’t what street kids did. It was a posh person thing.
“Well, Timothy… why exactly were you in a tree?”
“I was practising.” He offered shyly. Jason frowned.
“Practising climbing a tree?” He asked. Why would you need to practise that…
“Uh huh. I wanna get better at climbing.” Tim nodded eagerly and Jason found it weird but was he that bothered about the daily life of a strange boy who lived next door?
“Okay…” Jason wasn’t that invested. He just wanted to finish finding his dinner, so he turned, ignored the child, and went back to finding the best bugs.
“Why are you catching bugs?” Tim asked timidly from where he was watching. Jason rolled his eyes.
“To eat duh.” Jason scoffed, as if the kid didn’t know how good bugs were for you.
“Eat?! Isn’t that… bad for you?” Tim asked, eyes wide and Jason shook his head in response.
“No way, I’ve been eating them for years and I’m fine.” Jason grinned, because was he really fine.. Probably not, but he wasn’t dead so that was good enough for him. He neglected to tell Tim his experience was trial and error, he’d learned over the last two years on the streets what bugs he could eat and what would make him ill. He’d never look at a snail the same way again after the most unbearable stomach ache for a solid week. He genuinely thought he’d die.
“Oh… are they… nice?” Tim questioned, and Jason rolled his eyes again as he plucked up a couple of scurrying woodlice.
“Yeah. They are. Try one.” Jason plucked a worm from his bottle, a little sad to be losing a bit of his meal but the kid before him looked even skinnier than Jason did… maybe his parents were assholes. Jason wouldn’t be surprised, Gotham's adults sucked.
“W-What?” Tim recoiled a little while Jason held out the worm, wriggling and dirty, between two fingers.
“Try it.” Jason repeated and Tim screwed up his nose and reached for the insect.
“These are good?”
“Yep. Worms are my favourite.” Jason responded and pulled another from the bottle, remembering to cap it after. He held his own worm carefully, brushed some dirt off with a finger and watched as the bug curled and writhed to escape.
“If you don’t want it wriggling when you swallow, squash it a bit.” Jason directed, showing Tim how he did it, applying pressure with his two fingers until the pinkish worm flopped and succumbed. Jason then happily plonked it on his tongue and then tilted his head back to swallow. “You don’t have to of course.” Jason continued, because he didn’t always kill the worms before he ate them, it just felt a little odd sometimes as it squirmed in his mouth.
Tim, given his due, gave a deep breath, a little bit of pressure on his own worm and then it was in his mouth. Tim didn’t cough it up or anything like Jason had on his first bug experience, but he did shudder. He swallowed the bug though. Jason was impressed.
“And… what did you think?” Jason asked, curiously. He liked the kid a bit more. He might be rich but he seemed pretty chill. Rich kids who were assholes wouldn’t eat worms.
“It… wasn’t that bad.” Tim shrugged. He’d expected worse.
“See!” Jason exclaimed. “If you ever find yourself without food, bugs are good. But uh, there’s some you shouldn’t eat too… you’ve gotta know what not to eat and some you should probably cook…” Jason went off on a tangent.
“I- I see.” Tim nodded, eagerly, grateful for the company, the socialising.
“I.. would you like to help me catch some?” Jason asked and Tim beamed.
“Please! You… could teach me more?” Tim hesitantly offered and Jason gave his first real smile.
“Sure. Stick with me. I’ll teach you what I know.”
And so, Jason spent the afternoon in the gardens with his new friend Tim, hunting down bugs to eat and sharing his wisdom with the clearly malnourished child.
They parted ways when Alfred came out to find Jason, Tim hiding in a bush so quickly, Jason was mostly certain Alfie hadn’t seen his new friend.
“Coming Alfie!” Jason hollered and Alfred turned to head back to the manor.
“Bye Tim… Let's hang out again sometime.” Jason suggested and Tim nodded from where his head peeked out of the bushes.
“I’d love that.” He whispered back.
“Me too.” Jason had spoken softly, to himself, once he’d reached the safety of his room in the manor.