Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Flying Graysons had their tragic accident in the middle of August. The news of the terrible fall from a trapeze in the middle of the show was the headline for one night only. The very next night it was replaced with ‘Young millionaire takes in a circus orphan’. Everyone and their mother was talking about how the only twenty year old Bruce Wayne had decided to have an eight year old as his ward.

The ward himself, Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson had been as thrilled as a child who’d just watched his parents die could be. He explored the giant manor with awe, and delighted in all the treats that Alfred, the butler, offered him.

Bruce wasn’t the most generous caregiver in the world. He enjoyed being grumpy and locking himself away in his office it seemed. He would frequently get calls from his business which he’d complain loudly about at the dinner table before storming away. At least he’d always say that Dick was his number one priority in life. He made sure that Dick got the best tutors in all of New Jersey so he could carry on learning without any disruptions. He’d ruffle Dick’s hair as he left the dinner table and he’d always lean in the door frame of Dick’s massive bedroom to say goodnight. Well, for the first year he did.

After Bruce turned twenty-one he seemed to have a lot more going on. Wayne Enterprises seemed to be falling into chaos every other day meaning more often than not Bruce had to arrive early to work and leave later than everyone else. Dick started marking each day that he didn’t even speak to Bruce on his calendar that year, and his small heart broke that he only spoke to his guardian a handful of days each month. Even after everything seemed to calm down there was still the small problem of Selina Kyle. Selina was a woman that - from what Dick could gather - had known Bruce since they were young teenagers. She showed up to dinner every night in November and Bruce fell over himself at the way she purred his way. She only tried to make small talk with Dick a couple times before getting the hint that he really didn’t like her all that much.

By the time the new year came around Bruce frowned when Dick asked where Selina had gone. It was clearly not an amicable break up.

That year there were more and more business meetings, and one day Dick returned from school to find that Bruce had gone on an unexpected business trip to London. Dick ate dinner with Alfred and tried not to be sad when there was no one to tell him goodnight. A week later Bruce was back and distractedly agreed that Dick could join a gymnastics club as he rushed to pick up a call. Bruce didn’t manage to make it to Dick’s first club competition where he won a gold medal. He didn’t make it to his second competition either, or his third, or his fourth.

On Dick’s thirteenth birthday he told Alfred they had to wait for Bruce until they could eat. They waited for three hours past their usual dining time. The food was cold and no good when Dick realised that Bruce wasn’t going to make it. He was just happy that Alfred let him eat the cake instead for dinner. Dick lay awake in his room all night as he waited for Bruce to get home. He waited until he heard the front door creak open at two in the morning. He waited with baited breath to see if Bruce would come in to wish him a happy birthday like his own parents would when he was younger.

Bruce ended up wishing him a happy birthday two days later.

–

One of Dick’s favourite parts about living with Bruce was getting to go to the galas. He got to dress up fancy and have ladies giggle as he told them jokes. Old men would chuckle and ask him about his life, and Dick loved getting to meet new people. Eventually he even figured out what the strange things people would say actually meant.

“You look like you could be a Wayne yourself!” meant that he didn’t look like he grew up poor.

“You’re quite handsome!” meant that they were going to make creepy comments about how he’d look as a grownup.

“He even looks like he could be from Gotham!” meant they thought he should be more tan.

It was easy to get used to the comments compared to some of the other aspects of his life with Bruce. He even started to like going to the galas a bit more when another boy his age started to get invites as well. It turned out that Oliver Queen - another young millionaire with nothing else to do - had taken in a ward of his own, Roy Harper. Roy was quick witted and brave and knew just what to do to get them into the most trouble possible. Roy encouraged mischief and charm in equal measures and together the two of them were irresistible to the dramatic older women that attended those events.

His rallying friendship with Roy was probably why Bruce agreed to let him go to the same boarding school as him. The boy’s were thrilled to find that there was a gymnastics team for Dick and an archery club for Roy. They each packed a bag and Oliver drove them both to the school on their first day. Bruce couldn’t make it because he had something else to do. Dick didn’t mind that much but maybe his guardian could’ve pretended to care that their already limited time together was being cut down again.

It took them less than a week to adopt a group of friends that were just as chaotic themselves. First were their other two roommates at the school - Wally West and Garth Smith. Each had taken up spots in the schools track and Swim teams at the first opportunity. Then they were somehow introduced to Donna Troy and Kori Anders. The ladies were both on the school’s boxing team. The six of them bonded over their sporty dispositions and quickly took to hanging out.

Donna was the type of girl who always looked kept together without ever having put on makeup in her life. Her black hair shined with promises and she was the first person to teach Dick how to throw a punch without breaking his thumb. She showed him how to put his weight behind each stance and how to flirt with girls without panicking.

Garth taught him how to slide a folded piece of paper into a door lock so that it can’t lock completely. Garth also taught him how to code switch more easily so that nobody could tell where he was from. He was also the one to encourage Dick to let his hair grow so that it curled around his ears and made him look like a fairy as he did his performance on the bars.

Kori was the first girl he kissed and the first person to make him realise that he seemed to love red-heads in particular. She showed him that despite the ability to flatten someone in less than one blow he could just as easily get them to back down with a charming look. He taught her how to do a flip and how to trick the high society into thinking you were worth more than they thought.

Then there was Wally.

Wally seemed to smile just as easily as he breathed. He spent his spare time running laps of the school ground and never seemed to lose any energy. Even when he was enthralled with Kori Dick knew that Wally would always be in his life. Maybe it was that Dick felt like he could tell the ginger boy anything or the way that Wally gave out hugs so easily.

–

It was approximately three days before the Christmas break of their senior year when Dick got the call from Alfred.

“Master Dick, It’s good to hear from you.”

“Hey Alfie, what’s up?”

Dick greeted as soon as he picked up his phone.

“I was hoping master Bruce would have called you already but he’s been too busy.”

Dick tried not to laugh at that. Bruce was always too busy. The day Bruce wasn’t too busy would be the day the world ended.

“Why was Bruce going to call me?”

Roy and Wally looked up from where they were sitting on the floor between Roy and Dick’s beds. The two of them waggled their eyebrows and tried to communicate their questions through a series of weird head movements.

“Master Bruce was going to call you so that you found out before the papers. You see, Bruce adopted another boy last month.”

Dick felt the cold plummet through his skin.

“I have a brother?”

“Yes, Master Jason is twelve and he’s been waiting to meet you.”

“Jason? How is he?” Dick asked quietly.

His two friends quit their wild movements and got up slowly to huddle around him. Together the three of them listened as Alfred described how Jason met Bruce.

(Bruce had gone to a charity event at a group foster home and Jason had had the gall to try to steal the hubcaps off of his car. Of course, this meant that the now thirty year old Bruce had decided that Jason was just the kid he wanted to help raise.)

Alfred told them about how Jason loved reading more than anything and how he drank tea with Alfred most afternoons. Dick agreed to go home for the break straight away when Alfred asked and even asked if could have access to one of Bruce’s credit cards so that he could bring gifts with him.

–

When Dick first met Jason he brought three gifts with him. One gift was a limited edition copy of the princess bride, signed by the author himself. It had always been Dick’s favourite book and he just knew that a kid from the wrong side of the tracks with an interest in books would appreciate the adventure and romance of it. Besides if Jason really hated it he could just keep the book himself.

The next gift he brought with him was several tins of premium tea imported from England as well as a picture album for Alfred. He knew Alfred could just go back to England at any time he wanted, but he also knew that Alfred had a kinder heart than most people. Alfred had left his wife and teenage daughter to work for the Waynes and then two years later had been pushed into raising a millionaire and then a circus brat right afterwards. He could’ve given up when social services said that he wasn’t fit to raise Bruce but he didn’t. He could’ve moved back home once Bruce was old enough to be left alone, but he stayed. He could’ve made Bruce hire a nanny instead of helping to raise Dick, but he refused. Alfred was a good man.

The final gift he brought with him was a portrait of the four of them: Dick, Jason, Alfred and Bruce. He’d had to ask for many pictures of Jason and had to pay almost ten times the usual worth of the already expensive painting in order to get it done. Dick had hoped that Bruce would like the picture of their odd little family.

–

Bruce hadn’t made it to Christmas. Selina Kyle had seemingly organised a meet-up during one of Bruce’s business trips which meant that Jason didn’t get to see his new father on his first Christmas there. Dick could tell it hurt the young boy to be left alone there. So he tried to make up for it however he could.

“It’s by S. Morgenstern,” Dick explained as he watched Jason unwrap his gift, “I know it looks kind of girly but it’s a good book.”

“It’s an abridged version,” Jason responded, frowning at the hardcover of the book. “I’m not dumb, I can understand the real version easily.”

“I didn’t say you were dumb.” Dick held his hands up in defence, “Just read that version first and then I’ll get you a proper one.”

Jason grumbled but agreed and happily sat to read his ‘dumb, kiddy version’ of the book. Dick only felt slightly satisfied when Jason came to him the very next day to complain about the book.

“Where can I find the original? Dick this isn’t funny, whenever I search for S Morgenstern nothing comes up!”

Dick couldn't help but laugh at his younger brother's anger.

He spent the rest of the day explaining S Morgenstern's work and then making Jason watch Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid. The rest of that week passed much the same, with the two doing activities together and Dick frequently taking out his brother to go to various diners and hotspots amongst the Gotham elite.

A month or so later Jason admitted how worried had been at the start, how he had been afraid that Dick wouldn't want him as a brother, and that was the reason why he hadn't come home from boarding school to visit him. Dick had hugged him and assured him that wasn’t the reason at all.

Eventually Wally and Roy annoyed Dick enough to make him take them home for a weekend. Wally was amazed by the Wayne family manor because he had never seen a house that big before. Wally had only gotten into the boarding school on a scholarship for his running abilities and had never been around the sort of wealth that Roy and Dick had.. Roy instead was just fascinated by Jason. Jason was equally as fascinated by Roy. Roy with biceps the size of small tree trunks and who had scars running over his jaw. It was safe to say that Jason was slightly in love with him since he first saw him. He was also in love with the way that Roy pulled back his hair into a messy bun because Jason had never seen a boy with long enough hair to be tied back. It was just so new to him and it was so much more fascinating than anything else could be in that big lonely house that he was stuck in.

Roy was fascinated with Jason because Roy had never had a younger sibling and had never been around anyone that much younger than him and there was something fascinating about the kid that grew up on the Gotham streets, especially one that had the nerve to try and rob a millionaire.

Unfortunately that was the last time those two spoke for a long while. During that Easter break, when they were all at home, Oliver came into Roy's room to find a needle in his arm. He’d been furious, yelling and screaming asking what the hell he thought he was doing before slapping him and throwing him out the door. That was the last time Dick heard from his best friend in many, many years.

It took Dick a long time to get used to his best friend just being gone. He went to school but it was quiet and then he graduated and there was nowhere to go. Originally the plan was that he and Roy would get a bachelor pad and spend their millions of dollars on parties and living the high life. But that was no longer an option. He could always go back to the manor but that sounded miserable. He’d spent six year alone in that house with nothing for company except a butler who was paid to be there and a guardian who was more like a shadow than a companion. Instead, he packed a suitcase immediately after arriving home from school and drove the car that Bruce had given him for his birthday to the penthouse.

The penthouse was large enough to be a mansion in its own right. It expanded across three floors and had fancy technology in each room. There were five bedrooms each with an ensuite. The kitchen had a butler’s pantry and there was access to a private spa pool on the roof. Bruce had supposedly bought it in case he ever needed to stay in town after work - Dick was fairly certain he’d actually bought it so that he could get laid without the knowledge that there was a child in the house.

The first thing that Dick did as he was moving in was set a photo of all his friends on the counter in the kitchen. The second thing he did was hang the painting of him, Jason, Alfred and Bruce on one of the empty walls of the living room. Maybe it was presumptuous of him to assume that Bruce didn’t want it, but seeing as since he gave it to him almost a half of a year ago and it was still half in its wrappings on the floor of Bruce’s office, Dick felt it was safe to take it back as his own.

It was quiet in the penthouse and the stark whiteness of the wall gave him a headache to look at. Still, it was better than the manor. He painted the walls in pale blues and blasted music through the house any chance he could. Wally came over as often as he could and Donna quickly decided which room she wanted to be her room for whenever she was in town.

Dick still went over to the manor every weekend. He’d spend Saturdays showing Jason how to do his homework or how to do a flip or throw a punch. On Sundays he’d drink tea with Alfred and sneak Jason out to go do something fun - an admittedly hard activity in Gotham. They did manage to have fun though. Dick would sneak Jason into different movie theatres or the two would have boxing matches in the penthouse. It was stupid and carefree stuff that teenage boys do. They loved it.

That was probably why Dick had suggested that Jason came to stay with him in the first place. He knew how lonely it got in the manor and he also knew how much he loved getting to be a big brother to Jason. It started slowly at first. Jason still wasn’t used to trusting people without caution and Alfred wasn’t entirely ready to let both boys go. Jason would stay a night or two whilst Bruce was out of town. Then he’d stay over when he had to get to school early and he knew that Dick had a morning shift at the gym. Soon it became a week here and week there when Bruce was just too wrapped up in work to remember that he had a child.

It finally came to a head when Dick got home from university one evening two years later to find Jason sitting in the living room. A suitcase sat beside his feet.

“I’m not going back there. You can’t make me,” He declared stiffly.

Dick just nodded in return. He didn’t like that Jason felt like it was a better option to move out at fifteen rather than staying with his adoptive father. There was nothing he could do to stop him though.

The two of them still went to the manor every weekend and Dick made Jason stay at the manor when he was out of town visiting friends. Bruce seemed to be making more of an effort after he realised that Jason had left after only two years at the manor. Dick didn’t know if it was because Alfred had talked some sense to him or if it was because he actually cared. Either way it was too little too late in his opinion. That thought only worsened when Bruce announced that Jason would be going to the same boarding school that Dick had gone to starting the following week. It was ludicrous in the boys' opinions and only a way of controlling Jason.

The only thing that Dick could think to do to try and ease the situation was to invite Wally to Jason’s last dinner with the family. This was a win-win in his eyes as it meant that he got to see his boyfriend and Jason got the assurance that he could make friends at a poncy boarding school.

You see, Dick finally got around to asking Wally out a few months after graduation. Wally had easily agreed and they’d gone on a date that night. Then they'd gone a few months without seeing each other due to the distance and their schedules. Dick hated being rooted to one spot though so he easily made the decision to make the five hour drive to see Wally, only to kiss him until he felt like passing out and then get back in the car and drive right back. Over the last two years they’d figured out how to make it work. Wally would make the drive up once a month and Dick would go down on the days that he could. They called every day and it felt like there was no distance between them.

Jason knew all about them and thought it was hilarious that Dick seemed to only like people with fiery hair.

The dinner did not end up going well. For one thing Bruce was already in the dining room when they arrived and he didn’t even have his phone in sight. That was unusual in itself but then when he greeted both Dick and Jason and asked about their days Dick just knew the night would go wrong. Give him an antisocial Bruce who was on his phone constantly and Dick could navigate the situation like a pro. Give him Bruce acting like a normal human-being and Dick was thrown in the deep end.

Dick supposes that’s why the night turned to shit. The universe couldn’t handle Bruce Wayne acting like a functioning member of society for more than an hour at a time.

“Dick, this is Jason’s last night here.”

“I’m aware of that Bruce,” Dick sighed.

“So, why did you think it was appropriate to invite your friend here?” Bruce snapped.

“Bruce you know Wally’s not just my friend - ” Dick started.

“I don’t care. He doesn’t belong here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Wally’s around all the time hanging out with Jason. The two get on fine.”

Bruce was silent for a long moment before he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his ward.

“I don’t want either of you influencing Jason anymore. When Jason comes back for breaks he’ll be staying here, at the manor.”

Dick sucked on his teeth and shook his head. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Bruce didn’t want him around his younger brother in case his sexuality ‘influences’ him. Dick didn’t stick around to listen to anything more from Bruce. He stormed out of the house and left with Wally. He texted Jason an apology later for not staying.

Chapter Text

Jason didn’t like his new school. The boarding school was stuffy and annoying, and it was the last place he wanted to be. The dark maroon tie refused to sit as it was meant to around his neck and he had to resort to tying it loosely. The blazer was always itching at his skin and the stupid hair gel that Dick had given him always made him look dumb.

The people at the school were just as annoying. Everyone either sneered at him as if he didn’t deserve to be there, or they skirted around him as if they were scared of him. The only person who didn’t constantly act odd around him, at least after the first year, was a boy called Conner Kent.

Conner Kent was the fifteen year old son of some reporter in Metropolis who had been lucky enough to get his son a scholarship for his football abilities. He looked like the typical jock and had already punched several holes into the walls of the school before the end of the first school year. He enjoyed rock music and going to the gym and had never read a book by Jane Austen in his life. For some unfathomable reason the school had decided to put the two together in the same room.

At first it was like pulling teeth. Jason couldn’t be bothered with putting up with a jock like Conner. He spent half his time avoiding their room and the other half blatantly ignoring his roommate. Conner, in turn, made sure to have his music turned up as loud as possible whenever Jason was in the room. The two finally sorted their shit out when they were paired together during a P.E. lesson.

Jason had learnt how to fight from Dick, so when presented with Conner’s smirk as they were told to practise passes he really couldn’t be blamed for his harsh response.

“Does the billionaire even know how to pass a ball?” Conner chuckled loudly.

And Jason just couldn’t hold back anymore.

He was tired of being angry at his father for beating the shit out of him and his mum for no reason. He was tired of being angry that his mum took the easy way out of life. He was tired of being angry that his father was so shitty that he got sent to a foster home. He was tired of being angry at Bruce for not accepting Dick. He was tired of being angry at Bruce for never being there. He was tired of being angry at everything all the time.

So, he took every little piece of rage that was inside him and he threw it at the other boy. Conner straightened up from where he had doubled over after being hit in the stomach by the ball. He lobbed the ball at Jason’s head. He just managed to dodge in time.

“Fuck you,” Jason growled.

“Not in my worst fucking nightmares,” Conner responded.

Jason dived for Conner and the two fell to the ground. Conner managed to get a grip on Jason’s hair and pulled the slightly shorter boy around so that he was on the ground. He only got one punch in before Jason kneed him heavily enough in the back that he rolled off. Jason got in a few more good hits before Conner won back the lead in the fight.

A crowd was gathering around them as Conner punched Jason in the nose. Blood dripped into the other boy's mouth as he grabbed at Conner’s hair. People cheered as the boys grunted in pain. The gym teacher seemed to notice the fight as Jason pushed Conner off him and the two stood to start circling each other.

“Look at that. Your daddy gonna sue me for bloodying up his precious son?” Conner taunted.

“I don’t know. Is your daddy gonna cry when you get kicked out of school and have to live on the streets?” Jason spat in response.

Conner’s lip twitched and his nose crinkled in annoyance. Then he dove for Jason just as the teacher tried to grab his arm. Jason landed with a thud on the ground. He brought his arm up and elbowed Conner on the back, hard. The students around them were chanting and cheering whilst the teacher tried to hold them back. Finally, whilst Conner had pulled himself back to throw a punch, the teacher managed to grab a hold of him around his middle to pull him away from Jason. Another teacher ran in and pulled Jason away as well.

The teachers practically showed them out of the room and forced them into the small area outside the principal’s office. Each of them was sat on separate sides where they wouldn't be able to face each other. Ice packs and paper towels were shoved into their hands. The teachers folded their arms over their chests and glared at the two boys.

Seconds stretched into minutes that stretched into silence. The clock on the wall ticked slowly as each boy glared at the mahogany floors.

Once the teachers were sure that neither boy was going to start something they stepped outside of the room to talk.

They were barely alone for a minute before the silence was broken.

“This is your fault,” Conner announced as he leaned back in his chair.

“How is this my fault?” Jason scoffed.

“Are you kidding me? You started it by throwing the fucking basketball at me!” Conner hissed.

“You threw it at my head!”

The two lapsed into silence. Neither of them wanted to back down but equally so neither of them wanted to insight the wrath of their parents if the news got back to them.

“You think they’ll make us switch roommates?” Jason asked after a minute.

He didn’t particularly want to start a conversation with the other boy, but the silence was deafening and if they talked about anything else the teachers would hear and come back in.

“If they don’t revoke my scholarship.”

Jason turned to look at his roommate. Conner had one arm curled around his ribs protectively and the other holding the ice pack to his cheek. His P.E shirt was covered in blood from his lip. He didn’t look like the smug boy that Jason associated him with, he looked worried and embarrassed.

“I’ll tell them it was my fault.” Jason decided as he resolutely stared ahead.

He ignored the other boy gaping at him and scratched at his chin instead.

“Why would you do that?”

“You were right,” He shrugged as he pressed the ice pack to his face slightly harder, “I started it.”

Conner blinked at him in disbelief for a moment.

“Well, why the fuck did you?” He asked.

“I was angry. I hate that the only thing I’ll ever be known for is Bruce's son. He isn’t even there half the time.”

Conner paused as he processed the other boy's words before responding.

“You call your dad Bruce?”

“He’s my adoptive father, I wasn’t even living with him before I came here, I was living with my brother.”

Jason explained. Conner nodded and turned slightly so that he was facing his roommate. He bit his lip in thought for a second.

“My dad had me when he was nineteen.”

Conner started and Jason turned to look at him as well.

“We grew up poor and I guess I thought you were gonna be like every other posh rich kid here. Sorry.”

The halting apology and explanation was worth more than anything else in Jason’s life. Nobody had ever apologised for their misconceptions of him before. The rich would laugh in his face for mistakes they made whilst the kids in foster homes would spread rumours behind his back about his parents. Conner Kent was the first person to ever make Jason accept an apology and forgive them.

Jason offered his hand to the other boy and nodded as the other boy accepted it.

From that day forth they were allies. Both of them claimed that they started the fight when asked by the teachers and both of them requested that they stay roommates, and somehow it was allowed. They fought regularly and had more yelling matches than anyone else in the school. But if anybody else tried to create an argument they were quick to defend each other.

That Christmas he gave Connor a copy of Fight Club and promised to watch the movie with him when they got back from the holidays.

At home he was welcomed to a surprise. A small boy a few years younger than him sat in his seat at the dining table. Tim Drake had been adopted by Bruce roughly three months after Jason had been sent away to school. Tim wasn’t like Dick and Jason. He’d grown up in one of the neighbouring mansions and had never known what it was like to sleep without a blanket. His parents had died in a car accident back in November and the story had been so sad that Bruce had no choice but to adopt the boy.

He smiled nervously at Jason and frowned when the older boy turned away from him to ask where Dick was. It wasn't Jason's fault that he didn't want to acknowledge the kid. How was he meant to accept someone after they had taken his seat the table - literally - and didn't even have a worthy story as to why. Dick had suffered the loss of his parents and had been forced to witness their deaths in front of over a hundred people. Jason watched his mother fall into drugs and then never get back up. He'd watched his dad get dragged to jail after beating him to a pulp. Tim had just been left alone in his fancy house one day. He hadn't earnt any sort of empathy from Jason.

Dick disagreed though. After listening to Jason complain for close to an hour Dick suggested that they try to get to know the new boy. Jason vehemently disagreed but Dick insisted. The next day Dick swung by the house to pick the two younger boys up. Jason spent the entire day glaring at the younger boy. He couldn’t stand the brat. He had replaced him after he’d left and now he was getting close to Dick as well. It was as close to a living nightmare as it got for Jason.

But then Dick had decided they should go out the next day too. They went to a funfair and Tim had looked so nerdy with his glasses and his camera that Jason just had mocked him the entire time. The kid hadn’t even blinked at him though. He’d just asked if he could get a picture with Jason like he was the best person that he’d ever met. Dick had practically forced him to agree and Jason couldn’t help but smile when he saw the photo. He looked so uncomfortable whilst the kid looked so ridiculously excited.

Throughout the day Tim took as many pictures as possible and slowly Jason smiled more and more in each one. Eventually, Jason admitted to himself that maybe the kid wasn’t all that bad. Even when he saw paparazzi pictures of them all over magazines a few days later speculating about how the ‘Wayne Boys’ were getting on he didn’t mind that much.

Jason kind of felt bad when he went back to school after the new year. He and Dick had both hated being stuck alone in that house and Tim didn’t even get the option of going to Dick’s considering Bruce thought he was such a bad influence.

Over the years his resentment for Tim waned. Every time he came home the kid would ask about his school and spend every moment chasing after Jason. He pretended to be annoyed but anyone could see that he liked being able to teach Tim how to do different things. He taught Tim how to throw a punch and how to do a pull up. He taught the kid how to open a book without cracking the spine and how to convince Alfred to make your favourite food. Eventually, it got to the point where Jason even forgave Bruce for not letting him stay with Dick. Being at home was even fun when he stopped hating Tim.

At school he hung out with Conner and joined the boxing club. They organised fights around the back of the English block and made money from the posh kids who thought they were better than them. A kid called Garfield was the only one who could throw a punch as good as them, and considering his dyed green hair already made him an outcast he was a perfect friend for them. Garfield introduced them to Kal - a star member of the swim team. Garfield also introduced them to cigarettes which he snuck in with him at the end of each holiday. Kal showed Jason how to blow a ring of smoke and how to ignore people when they said something which deserved a beating. The four of them snuck out of the school at night and stayed out until the sun was painting the sky. Kal bought Jason his first leather jacket and Garfield helped him realised that he loved motorbikes. And Conner, ever the most surprising person in Jason's life, helped him discover that he liked men when he drunkenly kissed him one Christmas.

Dick was the first person he came out to. His older brother practically picked him up to spin him around when he heard and the very next day Dick and Wally took him out to dinner. He came out to Alfred next. He merely congratulated him and asked him if he would like a cake to celebrate. Bruce was the next person he had to tell but the one he was least looking forward to. He still remembered vividly how he’d reacted to Dick. He decided the best way to do it was in a public space so that he could ruin Bruce’s reputation if he tried anything.

For his eighteenth Bruce threw a gala in honour of him. Every millionaire in the East of America came and every rich spoiled brat that he hated at school came to sneer at him. He got gifts worth thousands of dollars but he liked the ones from his family best. Tim gave him ten original copies of Jane Austen’s works and Bruce gave him a car that he dreamt of owning as a boy. Dick bought him a pair of boxing gloves and a case of beer that he pretended was legal.

The gala in itself wasn’t that great. Dick couldn’t come because there was some important episode of a cooking show that Wally liked on the same night, and well, it wasn’t like Bruce invited him anyway. Tim was quickly distracted by a blonde girl that was helping to waitress the event. Jason’s friends - who Bruce grudgingly allowed him to invite - were also easily distracted. Conner passed the night by making sly comments about Tim to aggravate Jason whilst Garfield gladly flirted with the various rich wives in attendance. Kal merely found his way to the unmonitored liquor bottles in the corner before anyone could stop him. All in all Jason ended up alone mostly throughout the night.

Older ladies flirted with him and tried to get him to drink from their champagne glasses whilst older men asked him what universities he was looking at as if the answer was life or death. The whole night he stayed close to Bruce and let him show him off like a prize horse. At some point he looked around and noticed a woman a few years older than him eyeing him lustily. Bruce noticed too.

“I could introduce you to her,” He offered with a wink towards his son.

And Jason thought it was the perfect opportunity. Tim was over by the drinks table and there was no one else around to overhear them.

“I’d rather you introduce me to Oliver,” Jason nodded at the man in question on the other side of the room. “He’s more my type.”

Suddenly, Bruce’s whole mood shifted. He glared at Oliver and then at Jason. He swallowed harshly and looked away as Bruce responded.

“I think you should go home Jay.”

Jason bit the inside of his cheek and nodded as tears sprung in his eyes. He didn’t know what he expected, but maybe he thought that Bruce would at least acknowledge his words. He called Dick to pick him up and texted Alfred not to worry about him. He was already seventeen and was only home for a few weeks at a time. He could stay with Dick and Wally whilst out of school. He could care less about Bruce.

Except he cried whilst his older brother hugged him that night. Except he almost got suspended for fighting when he got back to school because he needed to get his anger out.

Maybe he still cared because he couldn’t forgive Bruce. At least his biological father he knew he could hate. The man had spent his life beating his wife and son and had driven his wife to the point of suicide. Jason knew he could hate the man because he never hid who he was. Bruce was worse though. Bruce pretended to be a good man and threw parties for his son and then kicked him out for loving a man.

He hated Bruce.

Chapter Text

Tim wasn’t forced to go to the same boarding school that Dick and Jason went to. Instead he was allowed to go to the same boring old school as most of Gotham’s elite. Bruce liked to sit down with him in the mornings to have breakfast and decided that it was only right that they did a movie night every Sunday.

It would be a lie to say that Tim wasn’t suspicious when he first came to live at Wayne manor. He’d heard rumours about Bruce Wayne and the two boys he raised despite barely having been an adult. He knew to be cautious but he ended up surprised by how good of a person Bruce Wayne was. He’d gotten the hang of running a business and was assured in the knowledge that he could sit back and let others take care of it. It meant that he was home most of the time when he wasn’t in meetings or on trips and he always listened when Tim needed to talk about his parents. Every night he’d ruffle Tim’s hair and remind him not to stay up too long. As he got older he got to show off more of his tech skills and Bruce allowed him to look into the company’s work. The pair of them prepared for upcoming problems before they had the chance to start.

That was why he was so shocked that Jason and Dick didn’t seem to like Bruce all that much. Dick only came around for dinner when Bruce was out of town and sometime around his second year of living there Jason stopped coming all together. He still got to see the two frequently when Dick took them out to lunch or when they visited Alfred but he missed them. He was never lonely though. When he was sixteen Jason introduced him to his best friend - Conner Kent - and despite being in a committed relationship to his girlfriend, Stephanie, he realised that he might not have been as straight as he thought.

Despite his love for Stephanie Tim found himself wanting closure to his thoughts more than anything else. He broke up with Stephanie a year later and started his journey of finding himself. Said journey was quickly disrupted by an addition to the family. One day he came home from school to find a kid sitting on the couch with his arms crossed as he glared at Bruce. If looks could kill then he was fairly certain he would’ve been six feet under from how the kid looked at him.

If he had to say he’d say that the kid was around eleven years old. He had dark skin and eyes like the blue of a bottomless ocean. His hair was black and unkempt. His mouth was perpetually turned down in a deep frown that matched the one on Bruce’s face.

“Tim,” Bruce started, “This is Damian, my son.”

Tim had hesitantly raised a hand to wave at the kid who just scowled at him in response. Alfred had ushered him out of the room and made him tea as he explained where Damian had come from. Apparently, a while back, on a business trip to the middle east Bruce had messed around with the daughter of the world famous tech mogul Ra’s Al Ghul. Damian had been the result. Ra’s had decided that Bruce would be an unfit parent and had banned his daughter, Talia, from contacting him - not that she tried to. However, after an investigation into Ra’s Al Ghul’s business he and his daughter had gone on the run, leaving Damian on doorstep to Wayne Enterprises headquarters.

At first Tim didn’t really have any opinions about Damian. The only time they interacted was at breakfast and at dinner, on the weekends Tim would spend as much time out as possible. He’d either hang out with his friends or he’d call Jason or Dick as an excuse to not have to talk to Damian. He knew it was a bit immature of him but he’d never had to talk to someone so much younger than him before.

Then about two months passed and Tim realised that he hated Damian. They were at a gala when he overheard one of the ladies talking to Damian.

“You must love having so many older brothers, dear. It must be like having another set of friends!” She teased him.

“They are all imposters,” Damian had responded stiffly. “I am my father’s only true son. Drake and the other’s were only taken in out of pity.”

Tim had to turn away before he throttled the kid. Logically he knew that Damian was wrong. Bruce had been there for him after his parents died and he’d always made time for him when he could. But there was always that creeping feeling that he had pushed in where he didn’t belong.

After that Tim didn’t bother being cordial with Damian anymore. He ignored him when they were in the same room together and gave short, stilted answers to any questions directed at him. Bruce noticed but didn’t bother saying anything. He probably figured that it would all sort itself out. It didn’t.

Tim watched as Damian became the most important person in Bruce’s life. He spent his free time sorting out birth certificates and schooling and how to get Damian to start trusting them. Bruce spent months trying to get to know Damian. In fact, he was so busy with decorating Damian’s room that he forgot Tim’s graduation.

With sudden clarity Tim knew why his older brother’s didn’t appreciate Bruce that much. If this was how focused on work he’d been when he was younger, he could easily imagine how they came to believe that he didn’t care about them.

At the very least Dick, Jason and Alfred all stood and watched him get his highschool diploma. Dick cheered and clapped as if he was at a concert and Jason whistled loudly to embarrass him. Alfred insisted they take pictures together and Tim blushed as his brothers threw their arms around him. Dick drove the four of them out to a small diner which he insisted had the best burgers in all of Gotham. Jason ended up with sauce all over his face and Tim’s nice suit was completely crinkled but it was fun. Alfred smiled and watched them the entire time and none of them could find it in themselves to be too upset when they noticed a person taking photos of them. They had gotten used to the media coverage over the years, after all they were the strange adopted sons of one of the world's richest men. Jason just held up his middle finger as they walked out.

The three of them were still reeling from the excitement of the day when they walked back into the manor. Dick was holding the door open for them as Jason kept Tim in a headlock. All three were laughing raucously as they came face to face with Bruce.

Bruce had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring at the three young men.

“Jason,” He sighed loudly as he zeroed in on the man, “I needed Tim’s help today. You guys have to check with me before you just go out.”

They could all hear as Jason cracked his knuckles and Dick practically dragged him back. Jason stormed out of the house whilst Alfred admonished his employer quietly. Bruce muttered a small apology before turning around and trying to act as if nothing had happened. Tim frowned and followed his father.

–

It got a bit better after that. Bruce tried to make Tim and Damian get along but neither were interested in it. Damian glared at Tim whenever he saw him and Tim pretended that he couldn’t see him. It felt like he was talking to a brick wall whenever he tried to interact with Damian. At one point the animosity got so bad that Tim called Dick to see if he could live in his spare room just so he could escape Damian.

“You want to live with me?” Dick had asked.

“Trust me, it will be better for everyone. Damian is the most annoying person on earth.”

“Did you ask Bruce?” Dick responded.

“I’m eighteen, I don’t need to ask Bruce. Besides, Jason came to live with you when he was fifteen.”

Dick had sighed so deeply that Tim could hear it over the phone. He could tell he wasn’t going to get the answer he wanted. Dick was the type of person who agreed to anything and everything. If he was hesitating then the answer was almost definitely no.

“Tim, you know I’d let you live with me, right? It’s just, Bruce really doesn’t like my roommate. I don’t think he’d be too happy with you if you came to live with us and you deserve to still be in his good books.”

Tim hadn’t bothered responding, he just hung up. He’d heard from Bruce all about Dick’s roommate already. Some ginger kid that Dick had gone to school with that Bruce was certain meant bad news for some reason.

He thought about calling Jason, finding out where he was and asking to live with him. But at the back of his mind he remembered the way that Jason used to complain when Tim had first been adopted. Tim had always been nervous about what Jason thought about him ever since. He decided not to bother Jason. Besides, maybe he could find a way to get along with Damian.

He could not.

Tim tried to invite Damian to do things with him like Dick but Damian refused every time. He tried eating meals with the kid but he would remain silent and then stomp away. Tim even asked Damian if he wanted help with his homework to which Damians responded by threatening his life.

Bruce wasn’t any help. He spent a third of his time at work and another third helping Damian integrate into his new life. The other third that was reserved for Tim seemed to keep getting cut down. He fell into a deep rivalry with Kord industries which required most of his attention. Then, once he’d finally bought the other company in a buy-out there were reporter’s filing in and out of the manor constantly to get private interviews. Tim felt the world closing in around him as he realised that the manor, that had once been his safe haven, wasn’t somewhere he wanted to be anymore.

It got so bad that at one point he threw on his favourite hoodie and snuck out of the house long before anyone else had woken up. He thought about going back to his old house but the thought made him shiver to think about. He’d rather do anything other than go back there. So, he walked into Central Gotham and found a small café to waste the day away in. He had ordered three cups of coffee to compensate for his early start and had picked the table furthest out of sight of the counter. He slipped his earbuds in and prepared to be as antisocial as possible.

And that was when he was approached by Bernard Dowd.

Chapter Text

Jason travelled a bit after highschool. For a while he stayed with Dick and Wally and then he got tired of being around them too. Everything was too loud and if he stayed then it wouldn’t have ended well for anybody. So, he bought a motorcycle and a leather jacket and drove as far as he could. He ended up in southern Illinois where he bothered Conner for a while.

Conner’s family lived in the outer suburbs of Metropolis where Conner’s parents worked as the Daily Planet’s top journalists. During the day Conner and Jason would walk around the city and occasionally harass Conner’s younger brother, Jon. The two enjoyed being roommates again for a short while before Jason decided that Metropolis wasn’t where he wanted to be either. He packed up all his gear after almost a month with the Kent’s and drove North.

In New York he properly enjoyed himself for what was probably the first time in his life. He checked into the most expensive hotel he could find under Bruce’s name and spent every day flashing out money wherever he could. He visited every gay club in Manhattan and then some. He used Bruce’s money to get enough alcohol to knock out an elephant which he then used as an excuse for beating up older men that leered at him. Before he knew it a year had passed and he felt like maybe New York was his place. He could act however he wanted there. He could get into fights and wave it off because none of the torrid fifty year olds he fought would admit to trying to grope a teen. He could throw his cash around like what was expected of him as a billionaire's adopted child. He could drink, fuck and smoke and Dick and Alfred couldn’t tell him off because of how far away they were.

It was as he decided to look into highrise penthouse apartments that his plans of New York as a forever home got ruined in the form of a six year old.

Jason had been wearing a black hoodie under his brown leather jacket. He’d pulled up his hood to avoid a suspicious looking gaggle of girls with their cameras in hand and had ducked inside a small corner store. The owner looked very unimpressed by his sudden entrance, so much so that Jason had sheepishly started walking down one of the two aisles to look as if he’d come in for something. It was a perfect excuse, really, seeing as he did need to stock up on food. He had just finished paying and bagging the armful of food he’d grabbed when he spotted her.

This small brunette girl was sitting on the curb outside the store with tear tracks running down her face. She was hardly old enough to be left alone by herself, let alone in New York where hipsters and weirdos alike ran about. Jason could see everyone walking past her, not even sparing her a glance, all except a burly looking man on the other side of the street. He stood beside a green truck and kept glancing over at the girl and then at the people around them.

Realistically Jason knew that the man could easily be the little girl's father who had just been parking the car, but somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, Jason recognised the look he was giving her as far more predatorial than protective.

It took Jason less than a second to decide what to do, and in the next moment he was setting his grocery bags down beside the kid and crouching to talk to her.

“Hey, are you okay kid?”

She shook her head vigorously.

Now that he was closer to her he could see that her clothes were all an off pink colour like they’d been run through a washer too many times. Her hair was tied back into asymmetrical pigtails and her bottom lip wobbled dangerously.

“I can’t find daddy!” She whimpered.

Jason nodded along thoughtfully before glancing around him as if the man would appear. But still everyone kept walking past, all except the guy across the street. He had a steel knuckled grip on his car door and a look that promised… something. Jason eyed the man before turning back to the girl.

“What’s your dad look like?” He asked as he straightened up.

“He’s got orange hair and he’s tall!” The girl sobbed.

Unfortunately, looking around he couldn’t see anyone that matched that description. Especially not the man who had gotten back in his car. Jason knew he’d made the right decision by going over to the girl. He didn’t want to imagine what would’ve happened if he didn’t spot her.

Slowly, so as not to alarm the girl, he sank down to the ground next to her. He opened up one of the bags and brought out a bag of grapes which he offered to the girl. She picked a few from the bag and nibbled on them whilst Jason thought.

“Do you know when you last saw him?” He asked quietly.

“We were in the park and then he went on his phone and I saw this ice cream van and now he’s gone!”

Fuck. The nearest park was at least ten minutes away. He considered his options carefully. A. leave the girl - this one he didn’t really consider an option at all, she was better off with him than whoever else tried to help her. B. Take her to a police station - The nearest police station was even further away and if her father was in tough times the last thing the girl would want would be to be separated from him forcibly. Or C. Find the girl's father himself.

He chose the latter option for obvious reasons.

“Hey kid, what’s your name?”

“Lee…” She mumbled around a grape.

“Okay, Lee. Why don’t we go back to the park, yeah? We’ll see if we can find your dad.”

Lee nodded and the two of them stood up. In one hand Jason held his bags of groceries and in the other he held the little girl's hand. Together the two of them made their way to the park. The whole time Jason asked the girl questions to distract her from any impending tantrums.

They got to know each other fairly well during their ten minute walk to the park. Jason learnt that she hated eggs after he mistakenly offered her an egg sandwich from his groceries and he also learnt that her dad was a horrible cook. Her favourite book was Molly Moon and her favourite movie was The Lion King. She loved to draw but she wanted to be a vet when she was older. She didn’t have any siblings and her mum wasn’t around but that was okay because her dad was ‘the bestest of all time!’

She learnt that Jason would love to draw with her some time and he liked someone called Jane Austen and loved some movie called Wes Anderson. He didn’t know who Rapunzel was but she supposed she could forgive him for that.

She was just beginning to explain why he should think that Flounder was the best character in the little mermaid when she was suddenly interrupted. Her hand was ripped away from Jason’s and before he could begin to register that she was gone he was on the ground with someone shouting in his face.

“Stay the fuck away from my daughter you fucking pedo.”

The man spat as he hauled her up to sit on his hip. His clothes were rumpled and his ginger hair was frazzled from stress. He fit the poor description that he’d been given well enough for Jason to let go of some of the tension in his body.

“The fuck man? I’m not a pedo.” Jason raised his hands in surrender, “I was helping Lee find her dad, alright. Tell him kid.”

The girl titled her head to the side before she started giggling and pointed towards where Jason was on the ground.

“Daddy, that's Jayjay. He swears a lot but he helped me get back to the park!”

The man looked between his daughter and Jason before slowly letting his glare dissipate. Without the threat of an angry father Jason finally had the chance to inspect the man. He had fiery red hair and was tall enough that he seemed to loom over Jason. His arms were strong and covered in lean muscle that told of countless hours working out. Somehow, despite living in New York he had a slight tan that highlighted familiar scars that scratched across his jaw. Jason just knew that he had seen that man before but where? Then it came to him, a memory from years ago, of Dick hanging out with two different red heads back when Jason first joined the family.

"Roy?" He asked hesitantly.

The use of his name instantly got the man's attention. He stepped back and tilted his torso so that Lee was partially hidden from Jason’s view.

"How do you know my name?" He asked.

"Fuck, you probably don't remember me. I'm Dick’s little brother. Jason."

Jason watched as the words ticked over in the other man’s brain. He could literally see the lightbulb moment happening behind Roy’s eyes as he realised who he was.

“Dick’s brother? You were twelve when I last saw you!”

Jason chuckled at his astonishment and nodded. He stood up and found that he was slightly taller than the older boy now.

“Daddy? You know Jayjay?” Lee asked curiously.

“Yeah, Jayjay and I used to be friends before I had you Lian.”

Jason smiled at the girl as she looked over at him. It really made him wonder though. No one had seen Roy in seven years and now here he was with a six year old daughter. Jason looked away as Roy raised his eyebrows at him and he realised he’d been staring.

“You got somewhere to be?” Roy asked after a minute.

Jason shook his head and gestured vaguely to the spilt grocery bags on the ground.

“Those were my only plans for today,” He lied.

He had other plans too but they mostly involved calling his younger brother to annoy him, this was something he chose not to disclose purely because of the fact that a very hot man was standing before him and he thought that grocery shopping was somewhat more suave than calling one’s little brother.

“Shit, sorry.” Roy frowned at the mess on the ground. “How about Lian and I buy you dinner to make up for it?”

Jason glanced between the little girl and the handsome man and knew that decision really wasn’t his to make. He had been enamoured by the little girl ever since he realised how vast the workings of her brain were and he had been ready to follow Roy to the end of the planet ever since he had smiled at him. Sure, call him easy, but Jason was a sucker for men with kind smiles, charming eyes and just the right dash of mystery.

“You sure?”

“It’s the least we could do. Besides, I've been wanting to hear how everyone’s been doing.”

Roy turned and nodded his head towards a beat up old car and Jason felt his heart beat wildly against his chest. He was a tiny bit in love with Roy Harper without him having done a thing.

–

They found a small Italian restaurant and the three of them sat down to eat. Lee - whose actual name was Lian it turned out - spent her time drawing in a small notebook that Roy produced out of nowhere.

“Dick and Wally? No shit,” Roy grinned excitedly.

“Yeah, they’re coming up six years now. Last time I saw Donna and Kori we took bets on who was gonna propose first.”

Roy chuckled and shook his head. Jason could tell he was in complete disbelief that his old two best friends were dating now.

“Wow. And Bruce? He still a total workaholic?” Roy questioned.

“Not so much now apparently. He even has time for the new kid, sorry kids, plural.”

Jason mused bitterly. He didn’t mind Tim or Damian that much. In fact Tim would probably be on equal batting with Dick for favourite brother if he weren’t such a know-it-all. Damian though, Damian wasn’t someone he’d interacted with much. The kid had been taken in whilst he was in Illinois and he only heard stories of him from Dick or Tim. From what he could gather the kid had an ego the size of Texas and an inferiority complex disguised as contempt for others twice as big.

Either way, he resented the both of them a bit. They got a version of Bruce that did homework with them and had movie nights. It made Jason vaguely wonder if Bruce had been swapped with a pod person.

“He adopted more? He has a problem. At least Oliver only took in me off the streets before he gave up.”

Roy commented with a laugh. Jason bellowed with mirth and nodded his head.

“Yeah, now there’s Tim who’s a few years younger than me and Damian who's about eleven I think.”

“At this rate he’s trying to create an army of orphans,” Roy chuckled and Jason nodded.

–

That night Jason gave Roy his number so they could keep in touch. Then they happened to run into each other at the park where they first met. Jason bought both Roy and Lian an ice cream cone and offered to walk them home as an apology when Lian started bouncing around like a bunny from the sugar. Roy insisted on paying him back the next week and then Jason insisted he pay forward the kindness a week later. By the end of the month the two were texting every day and Lian insisted she get to video call ‘her Jayjay’ on the weekends. Even when Jason went back to Gotham for Tim’s graduation Roy made sure they stayed in contact.

When Roy revealed he was planning on moving out of New York a month later Jason offered to help them pack. The three of them drove the movers truck to a small house on the other side of New Jersey to Gotham and Roy bought beers for them whilst Jason read a story to an almost passed out Lian. Jason didn’t protest when Roy asked him to stay nor did he protest when Roy silently kissed him.

After almost six months of Jason commuting between New Jersey and New York every weekend Roy asked him to stay once more and Jason easily agreed.

Jason would like to say that he was the happiest at finding out that he’d be moving in with Roy but alas he wasn’t even in the top three.

Lian held second place for being the happiest about the new development. She had been beyond ecstatic to find out and viewed the whole thing as one big giant sleepover for them in which she could force him to watch all the Disney movies she owned. She was also incredibly happy because Jason, as they had quickly found out, was a much better cook than Roy and was less likely to poison her.

The positions for first and third happiest people came in the forms of Dick and Wally. Dick and Wally had practically led an entire celebratory force as they were reunited with Roy and had spent the whole time cooing about how proud they were that he was now sober and a father. This celebration decreased significantly when Dick realised that this reunion was brought about by Roy ‘defiling his precious baby brother’.

Eventually he got over it when he realised that the union suitably prevented Roy from just dropping out of their lives again as well as solidified Jason’s improving maturity. He was still only third happiest, though, because Wally brought out an entire wedding planner when they told him and was practically bouncing off the walls as he asked if he could help Jason move or if they needed him to help Lian pick a flower girl dress.

–

A month or so later Lian's babysitter swung around their house at seven which gave them just enough time to get down to the bar to meet Wally and Dick. The four of them waited about two hours for Donna to show up and then they really started celebrating. Donna had officially lost the bet with Jason. Wally had proposed in their apartment on a Saturday night not the other way around. Donna toasted her friends and Jason jokingly threatened Wally. The five of them drank half their weight in beer and laughed when no one told any jokes.

Dick beamed the entire night as he held his fiance's hand. Jason pulled his boyfriend up to dance and ignored the whistles that Wally sent their way. Donna hugged Wally and Dick pretended to have a sword fight with her when Wally protested.

All was going well until Donna brought something up that had been playing around her drunken mind.

“Is it true,” She hiccupped as she swung an arm around Wally and used her bottle to point at Dick, “Your dad adopted another one?”

“Damian? He’s not even adopted. He’s Bruce’s only bio son.” Jason answered with a scoff as he leant heavily against Roy.

“Nah, word is,” she gestured vaguely to the air around her whimsically. “Word is there's a girl now.”

Jason and Dick met eyes and instantly grimaced. Of course Bruce would adopt another kid without telling them.

Chapter Text

Cassie Cain was born into a life of solitude.

Her start in life came from her father coercing her mother into having a baby with him; from that moment on nothing had quite gone right for her. Her mother wanted nothing to do with her and her father wanted complete control over her. This resulted in her being both figuratively, and literally, locked away from the world for the majority of her life. Her father raised her to be the perfect daughter. This in itself proved to be a recurring problem in her life. He pictured 'perfect' as someone who was seen and not heard, someone who couldn't argue back or read the signs that they were in trouble. He viewed ‘perfect’ as a daughter who didn't rely on others and could defend themselves but would always need her father to be able to communicate.

Cassie tried to be the perfect daughter for him for the first sixteen years of her life. She would practice playing the violin until her fingers bled. She'd try her hardest in martial arts until she sprained a limb. She smiled in the mirror a thousand and one times to get it just right. But she was never good enough in his eyes.

She needed to be more creative, less intimidating, or less brutish and why was she even smiling in the first place. She didn't deserve food when she made small noises of disagreement and she certainly didn't need her father's pity when she fractured her wrist trying to make him proud.

In the end, the breaking point had been when she met the almost 30-year-old daughter of the police commissioner, Jim Gordan. Barbara Gordan had been waiting for her father outside the Police commission when Cassie had walked past. She'd been picking at the cast on her wrist and scowling at the ground when she accidentally barged into Barbara. The coffee in Barbara's hand had gone everywhere and in a state of panic all Cassie could do was frantically try to brush off some of the liquid from the other woman's top. Barbara had merely shrugged her off and frowned at her.

Cassie didn't know how Barbara knew that she was mute but somehow she did. Almost instantly Barbara signed,

'It's fine.'

Cassie's eyes lit up as she realized she could communicate with her and instantly started signing sorry over and over again

She only stopped when Barbara haltingly agreed to let her buy her a coffee in return. (After all, that's what people did in the movies that Cassie sometimes found on Youtube when her father wasn't home)

Over coffee and muffins, Cassie got to know Barbara. Barbara was proud and smart and well-spoken. She talked like she knew the answer to the universe and had decided that hers was better. She glared at men that looked like they'd hit on her and preferred to raise the middle finger to those that criticised her rather than listen. She was everything that Cassie's father hated and everything that Cassie wanted to be.

Barbara also got to know Cassie in those thirty minutes. She learned that Cassie was fascinated by any opportunity to learn and doodled on the corners of napkins when she was bored. She learned that Cassie was amazingly talented, in both martial arts and the violin, the beats of songs constantly being tapped out on the table without her even realising it. She learned that Cassie hated coffee unless it had a ridiculous amount of milk and sugar in it, and didn’t really watch movies. She learned that Cassie could read better than she could write and that Cassie could hear perfectly despite her lack of speech. She learned that Cassie desperately loved to imagine what the world was like but for some reason didn’t think she had a place in it. All this, coupled with a few vague comments made by Cassie, made Barbara decide that she was going to do all she could to save her from her father.

Barbara insisted that they meet up once a week. Each time Barbara would buy them food and offer to buy her anything else she wanted. Cassie refused each time but gradually she started to trust the red-headed woman. Then one day Cassie woke up and it had been months since she first met Barbara. Months of talking over donuts and visiting shops and looking at museums together and not being scared. Months of looking into a life that Cassie had always wanted but never dared get close to. Months of wanting to escape her father.

Barbara greeted her in their usual cafe with a donut, a steaming hot chocolate, and a smile, and it was all Cassie could do not to cry. Barbara understood instantly and her eyes softened as she told the younger girl it was okay.

Less than a week later Cassie climbed out of her bedroom window in the dead of night, a black backpack strapped tightly to her. Her black hair whipped at her face in the Gotham winds whilst she stepped lightly onto the fire escape. Her black boots chimed loudly against the metal, her heart stopping, she glanced back to her apartment but no lights turned on. She thudded onto the ground as she made the final jump and there, right in front of her, was a sleek black car. Hesitantly, she pulled open the back door to find a smiling Barbara Gordan. Hope was reflected in both their eyes and Barbara moved herself over to make room for Cassie and the courage she was bringing with her.

–

As they drove away Barbara introduced her to their getaway driver, Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred smiled warmly at her and offered his services to stop her father from ever bothering her again. Cassie blinked at him twice and shook her head. Despite his grandfatherly looks and balding head, Cassie could tell that he had meant his offer.

As he drove Alfred explained that he was a veteran from London. He was also the respected butler of the man who had agreed to take her in.

It would be a lie to say that Cassie wasn't disappointed that she wouldn't be living with Barbara, but she supposed that a millionaire and a manor would do in her stead.

Bruce met them at the door and ushered them in out of the cold. He was a friend of the police commissioner, apparently, and liked to live up to his reputation of having a bleeding heart for orphans in need of a place to stay. This also apparently extended to deprived and mute teen girls that needed to escape their abusive fathers.

The next morning she was introduced to Tim and Damian, two of Bruce's adoptive children. Tim was almost two years older than her and was smart as a whip. Within two minutes of meeting her, he was talking about creating a program that would be able to memorise her sentence patterns and allow her to type out any thoughts she had quicker as well as automatically translating anything she signed. In the meantime, he gave her his tablet to let her communicate and rambled into the silence whilst she typed out answers to his many questions. (He really did have a lot of questions, so much so that Cassie decided to just let him say all of them and then just answer whatever he last said.) Tim explained everything and anything that Bruce forgot and then re-explained what Bruce had already told her in more detail.

The way he spoke reminded Cassie a bit of Barbara. Both of them always spoke like they’d found the secrets of the world, but whilst Barbara spoke like an expert that had decided her answers were better, Tim spoke like he knew the secrets of the universe and was just waiting to share them. He was a fountain of unending knowledge and she was a girl who only had a cup to collect it in.

Damian meanwhile was about four years younger than her and was possibly the most intimidating child that she'd ever met. From the first moment they met, he was eyeing her like he was considering whether she’d make a good chopping block or not. He glared at her like she was dirt beneath his shoe and when she didn’t so much as flinch at his foul looks he scowled deeply. Throughout her first morning there he kept his eyes narrowed in her direction. Every movement she made was carefully considered by him. Every reaction was scrutinised right up until he spotted the sheer confusion filling her eyes as she tried to keep up with Tim's fast-paced explanations.

Without a word, he shoved Tim out of the way and stated shortly that they had a pet cow that she was under no circumstances meant to touch. (This was a much shorter explanation than Tim's long-winded story about why it wasn't a publicity stunt and that cows are cute but he'd totally understand if she didn't think so but they didn't want a horse but maybe they should've gotten a horse but cows are actually more practical than horses and-)

Cassie had smiled at him and he had nodded before walking away. When she looked back to Tim he just shrugged as if to say ‘that’s Damian for you.’ Later, at dinner, Damian gave up his glaring to ask her where she was from. She told him about the little house her father owned back in Hong Kong and about the few times she had actually been back there in broken sign language and was delighted to find that he could easily understand her. Damian in turn told her about his grandfather’s numerous houses across Asia. He spoke quietly and never quite met her eyes, Bruce was busy talking to Tim about something to do with Wayne Enterprises and she knew in that moment that Damian was going to be her person. Bruce had four kids, five now, he couldn’t be expected to give them all the attention they needed. Cassie was fine with that but she’d be damned if she didn’t protect the precious child that was Damian Wayne with her life.

–

She met Bruce's other two children about a month later

Dick was, in one word, bright. He radiated happiness and easily hugged her like he'd known her his whole life. He brought her his Netflix password, popcorn, and the threat of more hugs if she didn't join him for a movie night. She easily agreed and quickly found out that he loved making jokes and singing terribly through musicals just as much as he loved watching cute dog videos that he found online. He introduced her to his pet dog, Haley - a pit bull that was just as friendly as its owner. He let her help train Haley and often sent her pictures of the Pitbull throughout the week to 'add some cuteness back into her day.'

In comparison, if she had to describe Jason in one word she'd probably say: Strange. From what she'd heard of him from Damian and Tim he was known for getting into fights and imitating Bruce. Gossip magazines seemed to think that he was an alcoholic that ran amuck with the troubled members of the New York elite. However, when she met him he gave her books and ruffled her hair, and made tea for her and Alfred. He had purple hair ties around his wrist and a shrug as an explanation. He could care less what other people thought and often told her that when she let bad thoughts take over her mind.

Both of them were nice. Neither of them acted like they expected anything of her and neither of them acted like she was any worse off for coming from a psychopath for a father. In fact, she rather thought that maybe they liked her slightly more for that.

When all five of them went out together she found that the four brothers naturally formed a secure force around her. Jason glared at anyone that dared look their way and Damian practically threatened anyone that tried to speak to them. Tim walked next to her the entire time and Dick made jokes to distract her from people that whispered about the group of them.

Dick and Jason were different around Bruce though. They barely came to the house when they knew he'd be there and smiled haltingly when any of the others complimented him. The worst of it was at the family dinners where Dick would constantly try to keep the conversation flowing between the siblings to prevent Bruce from talking. Jason would murderously look at his food rather than participate and Damian would roll his eyes the entire time at his siblings.

One night, late into August, Tim organised a family dinner. Dick and Jason showed up ten minutes early and Bruce got back from work just as Alfred slid the plates onto the table. All of them talked about their days and joked around. Friendly threats were made and jibes were exchanged between the siblings whilst Alfred shook his head. Bruce watched on with fond admiration as his children bonded.

Then, as Alfred was serving the desserts, the doorbell rang.

This was unusual for two reasons. One, it was already eight at night so no one should have been ringing the doorbell. Two, they were quite literally billionaires, no one should be ringing a billionaire's doorbell without their knowledge at night.

In an instant though Tim was standing up and heading for the door. Cautiously they all followed him to find him letting in a friendly-looking boy with hair the colour of sunflowers. He wore designer jeans and a branded hoodie and he looked like he belonged on a catwalk rather than in a house in Gotham. He smiled brightly and he seemed to outshine the chandelier that hung in the entryway. He was slightly taller than Tim but the other boy took no notice as he smiled at him.

Cassie glanced at Damian and the younger boy shrugged before tilting his head to the pair with a small hitch in his eyebrow. He was definitely right. Tim had some explaining to do. Bruce seemingly also agreed.

"Tim, who's your friend?"

Tim looked at his family then back to the boy and grabbed his hand.

"Everyone, this is Bernard."

Bernard gave a little wave to them all and Cassie waved back slightly. Jason also waved but his was accompanied by a raised eyebrow.

"Hello Bernard, " Bruce responded, "How can we help you?"

Cassie watched as the blonde boy squeezed Tim's hand and Tim took a gulp of fresh air.

"Bernard is here because I invited him. He's my boyfriend, and he's amazing."

Bernard's smile brightened and Tim slumped slightly into him.

The whole room was quiet as everyone took in his words. Finally, it was Alfred who broke the silence.

"Thank you for telling us Master Timothy," Alfred smiled politely, "how long have the two of you been going out?"

"Around seven months now," Tim grinned at Bernard.

Cassie smiled at the pair. She could see how happy they were together from the unyielding optimism in their eyes alone. She glanced at Damian and could tell that he agreed from the absence of his usual scowl towards Tim. Then, without any preamble, Bruce marched forward. Dick and Jason stiffened behind her and they all waited to see what he would do.

They watched as Tim's eyes widened and Bruce brought his arm up… and lowered it gently around his son in a warm hug. Slowly, Tim raised his arms to reciprocate it.

"I love you, Tim. I hope you know that, and you being gay would never change that, ever."

Bruce announced and tightened his hold on his middle child. Tim sniffed and clutched Bruce tighter. A single tear dripped down his cheek and then Cassie was there placing her hand on his shoulder to show her support. Damian stood just behind her and with a nod of his head indicated his own feelings around the matter. Alfred smiled widely and Tim didn't even have to wonder about the man's support.

The only ones who didn't move at all were Dick and Jason.

Cassie didn't know what she expected them to do but doing nothing had never presented itself as an option in her mind. Jason had always been so caring around her, he always seemed to be watching out whenever all of them went out together. He gave each of them books and life advice in the same minute despite only being a few years their senior. He glared at people with cameras and swore when he saw her and Tim looking uncomfortable because of somebody else. He was a good big brother even when he was hardly there. Dick on the other hand embodied supportiveness. He made her brownies when she cried because she finally managed to say a full sentence in her speech therapy classes. He bought Damian boxes of art supplies when the boy showed the slightest interest in them. He beamed whenever he saw photos of the five of them in gossip magazines because he loved that they looked like siblings. The man gave his whole heart to them and asked nothing in return.

Yet neither of them moved.

"I'm bi actually," Tim nervously laughed as he spoke into Bruce's shoulder.

He hadn't noticed the non-reactions yet, Damian had though. He was glaring at the two older boys with every mite of fury that he had in his body. The tension grew in the room as Bernard followed the small boy’s gaze as well. Finally, Tim noticed as he saw his boyfriend stiffen. Tim’s eyes still didn’t lose hope though. He lifted the corner of his mouth in a half-smile at Jason and Dick.

The movement seemed to break them out of their trance. Jason stepped forward towards Tim, his mouth opening to speak. No words came out though. He exhaled deeply through his nose and then shoved past the group in the middle of the room and up the stairs before anyone could react.

Dick stood there by himself for a moment before he too walked past Tim and Bruce. A small apologetic look thrown over his shoulder was his only acknowledgment of Tim's coming out.

It didn't make sense. Dick and Jason were the best people you could ask to have around you. They were supportive and nice and the best brothers that you could ask for. They were there when it counted even when it put them into uncomfortable positions. Except now they all knew what had to have been staring them in the face the entire time. Dick and Jason were homophobic.

Chapter Text

Dick didn’t bother closing the door behind him as he entered Jason’s old room. He had barely left a minute after the younger man but already the room was in complete disarray. The pillows and blankets were strewn across the floor. A glass paper weight was smashed on the ground whilst years-old school papers littered the carpet like leaves in autumn. Jason’s desk chair lay forlornly on its side next to a seething Jason.

His clothes were rumpled, his fists clenched into an ever tightening grip, his hair standing on end. His chest pushed up and down uncontrollably as he tried to let the cool air calm him. He barely noticed as Dick stepped closer to him, one hand raised out in front of him.

“Jason?”

The man cracked his knuckles and turned away from his brother. A small framed photograph of Tim’s graduation stared out at him. Tim was smiling wide, one arm throwing the camera a peace sign whilst the other was around Dick. Jason was smiling unabashedly for once in the photo, holding Tim in a headlock and throwing his head back as he laughed at something Dick said. It was a perfect photo captured at a happy time.

With a crack the glass ripped a hole straight into the middle of the photo, Tim’s face ripping in two as the glass of the frame hit the wall and joined the remains of the paperweight on the ground.

“Jay…” Dick tried again.

He watched as Jason continued to take deep, unsettling breaths. His shoulders jolting up and down. Dick took a step closer and Jason’s nails bit into his hand. Dick went to speak again when he heard a dramatic sniff and Jason turned his head to the left to inspect the pile of glass by the wall.

“It’s not fair.”

A stray fragment of glass sliced through Dick’s sock and into his foot as he stepped forward but he didn’t flinch.

“I know,” Dick lowered his hand onto Jason’s shoulder.

“He hated me,” Jason’s voice cracked. “He sent me home. He kicked you out.”

Dick winced and hummed in response. He hated seeing Jason like this. He wasn’t the type to cry. He was strong when he didn’t have to be, he was confident even when he didn’t know what he was doing. He acted before he asked. He’d lived through horror after horror and every time he’d come back stronger and looking less effected than before. The only other time Dick had seen his younger brother cry was that night when Bruce rejected him. All he’d ever wanted was to have a father that loved him and a family that would always choose him. Unfortunately, so far it looked like the universe didn’t want that for Jason.

“I know Jay,” Dick rubbed his brother’s shoulder and finally he turned to face him.

“It’s not fair.”

Dick wrapped his arms around his little brother and held him tight.

Neither of them were okay. The only reason Dick was coping ‘better’ than Jason was because he had to. One of them had to keep their heads clear and Dick had long ago resolved to be the calm sibling. He always had to be there for his younger siblings because no one was there for him. They deserved someone who would always choose them first. They deserved someone who would let them be angry at the world even if that meant he wasn’t allowed to be angry.

Inside Dick just kept replaying everything in his mind. How almost eight years ago he brought his boyfriend over for dinner. How Bruce had reacted and how he had been kicked out, how Jason had been banned from seeing him. He remembered getting the call from Jason after he tried to come out to Bruce. He remembered how annoyed Bruce always was with him and Jason compared to the others and none of it made sense. Bruce kicks them out but loves Tim when he comes out as gay? Why?

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Jason pulled away quickly and rubbed his eyes with his fist before turning to glare at whoever was at the door. Alfred just raised one unimpressed eyebrow before stepping in to the room. His eyes trailed over the glass, the chair and the blood from Dick’s foot that stained the carpet. His eyes landed on the two boys and instantly softened.

“Master Jason, I appreciate the mess you’ve made for me to clean later.”

Jason rolled his eyes and muttered a small apology whilst Dick frowned. His questions kept bouncing around his head. Alfred knew everything. He knew that Dick had figured out he liked guys in his last year of highschool after watching one too many Rob Lowe movies with Kori and Donna. He had been the first person Dick had called after he finally got together with Roy and he’d been the one to suggest that he bring Roy around for dinner to ease Bruce into the idea of them together. Alfred had seen him cry on his birthdays and had cheered at his gymnastics competitions. Alfred had watched him punch walls when he learnt he had brothers and Bruce was never the one with the guts to tell him. He’d watched him break down as he got closer to his eighteenth birthday and realised that Bruce never had plans to officially adopt him - that he’d only ever be the ward of Bruce Wayne despite the man going on to adopt three other kids within months of meeting them.

“Alfred?” Dick spoke the man’s name quietly. “What’s wrong with Bruce?”

The silence stretched as the butler pursed his lips and Jason clenched his fists again at the mention of their father. It was the question of a lifetime. Their lifetime. Dick had been wanting the answer since he was around twelve years old and Bruce started absencing himself. Jason had been wondering it since he was fifteen years old and realised that Bruce wasn’t on his side.

“Master Bruce has always seemed to make strange decisions when it comes to you two,” Alfred frowned. “I don’t know why he does the things he does. I wish I did.”

None of them spoke for a minute before Jason started speaking in a quiet voice.

“Alfred?”

Jason’s face showed no emotion. He was a stone wall with a tear stained facade and cracks tht didnt get anywhere near the surface but ran deep within him.

“Why is Tim better than us?”

Dick sucked in a deep breath anf fought against the water that was stinging his cheeks. Because that was it, wasn’t it? It all came down to that one question. What was different about Tim? What made him more worthy in Bruce’s eyes than them?

“Jason,” Alfred sighed, dropping the formality that he always used for him, “I don’t know why Bruce has acted like he has, but I do know one thing. You are worth just as much as him, both of you are. I have watched both of you grow up and I could not be prouder of the men you two have become.”

Jason practically folded in half around the old man as he was enveloped into a hug. It was all Dick could do to not be overwhelmed by tears as Alfred eyed him and held out one of his arms for him.

So maybe Bruce didn’t love them. Maybe Bruce never could fins it in his heart to love and accept the street orphans he picked up and instead only loved the millionaire child he found. Maybe they just weren’t good enough. But Dick knew they’d be okay because they had this. They had each other and Alfred, they had their brothers and they had Cassie. They had Wally, Roy and Lian waiting at home and they had their network of friends who would gladly be there for the if they needed them.

“I will always support you, no matter what,” Alfred stepped back and met each of their eyes.

The boys nodded and Alfred turned to leave the room.

“Come down when you’re ready. We’ll get this sorted.”

The silence hovered over them like a comforting hand, smothering their thoughts. Jason glanced around the room and finally took in the mess he’d made in his anger.

“Fuck.”

“It’s fine,” Dick shook his head and walked over to the bed.

The sheets had a faint layer of dust from the lack of use but it was comfortable. Jason carefully sat next to him and shook his head.

“None of this has ever been fine Dick.”

The air was stale and both of them knew he was saying the truth. They deserved better. They always did and they always would.

Chapter Text

Damian nodded at Tim before turning and marching toward the stairs to the rest of the house.

“Damian, don’t,” Bruce ordered before he could walk out.

“I’m checking on Alfred, the cat.”

Damian lied as he left the room. He sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He didn’t like Tim particularly much but he respected him enough to know that his allegiance had changed to his side. There was no way in hell that Damian was going to let this pass.

The door to Jason’s room was half open already and Damian didn’t hesitate to kick it the rest of the way open. Dick stood in an attempt to stop him from reaching his destination but Damian easily shrugged him off.

“Todd, explain yourself.”

Damian glared at the older boy. Jason just shrugged and shook his head at the 5 foot 6 inches of rage in front of him. Neither of them was impressed by the other. In each of their eyes, the other was just an murderous idiot.

Damian didn’t really talk to Jason. The older boy had fled to New York before Damian had even arrived in America. The first time they’d met was at one of Dick’s ‘Brotherly Bonding Days’. Dick had invited them all out to see some superhero movie that Damian hardly remembered. He hadn’t wanted to go but Alfred had insisted that he should. Dick had been entirely too smiley for Damian to handle and he found out rather quickly that Tim was unbearable in large quantities. That left Jason as his only source of real company during the whole harrowing experience. Jason was mainly quiet but he made sarcastic quips under his breath and immediately agreed with Damian that salty popcorn was better than sweet popcorn. Jason also quietly offered to house any of the stray animals that Damian found if Bruce ever actually decided to stop putting up with the many that he had already bought home. The two had bonded whilst their brothers talked and Jason seemed to understand easily why Damian didn’t feel like constantly holding a conversation. Then the next time they saw each other Jason had handed him a worn copy of The Princess Birde and despite the cheesy title ha knew Jason had good taste in books after that. This was generally a sign of intelligence to Damian who had thus decided that Jason was a respectable man despite what he’d heard being muttered by Bruce. His opinion of Jason was being swayed, though, by the events of that night.

“Get out Demon brat this has nothing to do with you.”

Damian clenched his fist and jutted his chin out at the other boy. Damian didn’t care how much he preferred Jason to the other imbeciles he was forced to call family, he was just another homophobic asshole in his book.

“Maybe not,” Damian snarled. “But Drake deserves respect from people he considers family, which is the two of you assholes. You will explain yourself or leave.”

Damian glared at the two older boys who just looked between each other in contemplation. Finally, Dick stepped forward to respond.

“Dami, this is more complex than you think, and you shouldn’t be using that sort of language.”

“It’s not complicated at all, Grayson.” Damian snapped. “I can’t believe I thought you were good people.”

Whilst Damian had no excuse to talk to Jason outside of his visits he did stay in constant contact with Dick.

Dick picked him up after school and stayed over at the manor when Bruce went on week-long trips out of town. Dick was the first person he told that he wasn’t confident in school and he was the first person that Damian went to when he first tried to sneak an animal into the manor. Dick helped him to settle into the American school system and reassured him when he started feeling like running away. Dick told him it was okay to not know how to talk to people, that it was okay to just sit in the back of the school library rather than try to make friends during lunch. He showed him how to pronounce difficult words in English when Damian found out that was why new articles were picking apart his grades at school. Dick always picked up the phone when Damian called - even if it was in the middle of the night and Damian was only calling to ask about a scene in a tv show that didn’t fully make sense to him. Dick created playlists for Damian and stayed even when Damian was screaming at him in frustration. Dick bought ice cream for Damian even when it was meant to be Damian apologising and not the other way around. Dick was thirteen and a half years older than him and didn’t even live in the same house as him. They had no blood relation or even any legal relation seeing as Bruce had never officially adopted Dick, but despite that Dick had always been the best big brother he could be for Damian.

“Dami,” Dick started.

“Shut up, Grayson. You’re just as bad as Todd. Father should have banned the both of you from the manor,” Damian sniffed.

“Fuck you, Demon Brat,” Jason growled. “Leave Dick out of this.”

“Your defence means nothing to me, Todd,” He sneered in response. “You’re even worse. The two of you have no place in this family.”

“Come on, Damian, let’s all calm down.”

Dick tried to pacify the situation but Damian's words had grated on Jason’s resolve. He’d always been quick to anger and an insult to his pride from someone who he’d seen as one of his own was quick to set him off.

“You think I want to be part of this family anymore? Fuck Bruce, fuck Tim, fuck all of you. None of you mean a thing to me.”

Jason shoved his middle finger towards the thirteen-year-old viciously. It was petty but a common trait within their family was pettiness.

Damian stiffened at the insult before straightening up. He didn’t need to put up with people of such low intellect as Jason. He didn’t care about either of them anymore. Damian had always been good at shutting off his emotion and as soon as he decided something it was near impossible to change his mind. As of that moment Dick Grayson was just a name that had once existed in his vicinity. Jason Todd was a face that had once passed him in a crowd. They spoke a few times and why should that matter to him, of all people, in the great expanse that is the known universe.

“Leave then.” The teenager sneered. “I, for one, never wanted either of you here.”

The boy turned towards the doorway and glared over his shoulder at the two men. He could’ve just walked out but instead he stayed a moment longer to pour salt onto the wound. He had to, really, after all pettiness ran in the family.

“Go back to living on the streets, will you? It’ll be better with the two of you gone anyway. And if you want one more reason to not stick around you should know I’m asexual.”

He watched as Dick took half a step forward before Jason stopped him. Marching out of the room and down the stairs Damian couldn’t help a small frown that settled on his face.

He was planning on coming out, he even thought that he might that nigh, but then everything went to shit. He always thought that Dick would be his biggest supporter, but maybe not.

What did it matter anyway? Who cared what stupid Dick Grayson thought with his dumb smile and his warm hugs?

Bruce and Cassie were waiting at the bottom for him. Bruce with a scowl and Cass with a curious look. Damian stormed past them to where both Alfred, the butler, and Alfred, the cat, stood in the doorway to the dining room. Neither of them looked very happy but Alfred (the butler) offered him a hug and Alfred (the cat) put his paws up on his legs so that Damian would pick him up.

Thundering footsteps came down the stairs and then Dick appeared with a panicked look on his face. Jason was a few steps behind him. Dick looked around for a moment before he spotted Damian by the two Alfred's. His eyes skimmed right past an angry Bruce and a disappointed looking Cassie.

"Dami," He tried as he stepped towards the young boy.

A hand stopped him though. Bruce stood before him with his arm out as if to say that Dick wasn't allowed to pass. Dick glanced at the man before pushing forward but Bruce stepped to the right so that his path was still blocked.

"Bruce move," Jason ordered but the man just glared in response.

"No."

Dick sighed and stepped around the man to try to get to Damian. Bruce grabbed his wrist and hauled him back before he could get anywhere though. They were the same height and twelve years apart in age.

Once upon a time, Dick had been younger than Damian and had looked up to Bruce as if he was a messiah. Once upon a time, Bruce had been the same age as Jason and all he’d wanted to do was take care of the kid in his care. That time was too long ago for either of them to remember what that was like.

Tension filled the space between them, thick as concrete and fragile as ice.

"I want the two of you to get out," Bruce glared at them.

At this point, Tim and Bernard had appeared to watch the spectacle before them. Bernard had an arm around Tim's shoulders and there was a suspicious red tint to Tim’s cheeks that stabbed at his brothers hearts. Damian glanced over at the sniffling older boy and immediately placed Alfred, the cat, into his arms. All of them watched as Bruce shifted his grip on Dick’s arm to bring his attention away from Tim.

"If you can't respect Tim, then I think it's high time you leave. I've ignored the disrespect from the two of you for so long only for the sake of Tim and Damian, but if the two of you are going to be homophobic then get out of my house."

Bruce stared down Dick and then Jason to convey his point. No one spoke, no one moved, no one knew what was going to happen next. It was just as Jason had decided to argue back that Dick stepped back to stop him. It forced Bruce to let go of him and allowed him to act as a shield between Bruce and Jason. Dick shook his head, at Bruce, Jason, or the situation in general, though, it was impossible to say. Damian watched as Dick took a deep breath and tried to settle the growing pit of anger within him.

"Bruce, you - "

Damian cut him off though.

"Grayson, he told you to get out. No one wants either of you here."

The repetition of his sentiment from earlier seemed to be the thing to get through to him. The subtext of them not being welcome in the family either wasn’t missed by either man. Bruce marched towards the front door and threw it open. He raised an eyebrow condescendingly at his two oldest. Jason growled towards Damian under his breath and grabbed Dick to drag him towards the door.

"Don't come back until you've learnt some respect."

Bruce told them stiffly as they passed. The door shut and the two were gone.

Damian turned to face Tim only to see tears brewing in the older boy's eyes. Steph and Bernard were clearly panicking either side of him as they tried to figure out the best way to resolve the situation. Damian barely hesitated as he wrapped his arms around Tim. The action shocked the other boy enough that he momentarily forgot he was sad. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around Damian and buried his face in the other boy's hair.

They didn't need Dick or Jason anymore.

Chapter Text

The weight of that afternoon sat heavily on everyone in the room. None of them knew what to do or say. There were maybe a handful of things that they had expected to happen over the course of the dinner. Maybe a few arguments, maybe a few brawls and disagreements, a food fight if Damian was feeling antagonistic enough or a broken chair if Jason felt too vindicated over a loss at a quiz that Dick found online. None of them expected Dick and Jason to be forced to cut ties with the family.

The air was bitter and stale around them.

Dick had always been undoubtedly that light of the family. He smiled when no one else had the strength to and he kept his head up when everyone else felt beaten down. He saw movie nights where others saw times to relive bad memories. Dick was wholly good and happy and now he had gone and done what he’d always promised himself and everybody else what he wouldn’t do. He’d left them behind. He’d let them down. He had done to Tim exactly what he never wanted to do. He walked away.

Jason on the other hand was slightly different. Jason was never the one who knew how to make people smile. He was never the one who had a quick joke and a hug ready for those who didn’t want a hug but needed one nonetheless. Jason didn’t know how to do encouragements that weren’t awkward enough to make everyone involved cringe. Jason was their brother though. He went to graduations and competitions. He bought them books and taught them life skills. He sent them gifts from New York and drove over two hours to Gotham from the other side of New Jersey whenever they needed him to. He showed how he cared in actions rather than words. He offered places to go for Cassie when she was nervous about the press and threatened multiple journalists who released anything remotely xenophobic about any of his siblings. Jason wasn’t afraid to be loud and annoying and sarcastic and he wasn’t ashamed of the romantic books he read of the stupid kids movies he loved. Jason was their main example for being unapologetically human. Except that had its downsides.

Jason was never over at the house because he wanted to be. He was only ever at the manor for his siblings because for some unfathomable reason he and Bruce had never gotten along. Jason for some reason never liked or respected Bruce. Neither of the men ever explained their tense relationships to Tim or the younger ones so it was just a fact of the family. Just like it was a fact of the family that sometimes Dick was just really uncomfortable with being in the manor.

Damian decided it was probably to do with them not having respectable jobs whilst Tim had long ago brushed it off with something to do with them being too cool to hang out with their dad or more likely the fact that neither man had been keen to take over Wayne Enterprises which had left Bruce still in need for an heir. Cassie did not care one bit but had politely told the other two that the reasoning could possibly be more complex. This was quickly dismissed by Tim, who liked his own reasoning, and Damian, who didn’t want anyone else to be right.

The only one that knew for certain what was going on was Alfred.

Alfred who was now marching towards his employer with a very stern look on his face that spoke of years of frustration and disappointment.

“Bruce, go and get your sons.”

Alfred ordered. His tone was straight and to the point. He had over thirty years of raising Bruce and then Bruce’s children under his belt as well as a good ten years in the British military to work with. He wasn’t talking to his forty-year-old employer, he was ordering the impulsive eighteen-year-old that had taken in an orphan on a whim.

“I’m not letting them back in here until they’ve learnt some respect Alfred,” Bruce snapped in return.

“Bruce, you and I both know that this situation has been building for years and those two boys are not the only ones at fault here.” Alfred straightened his back and looked down at Bruce carefully. “If you don’t go out there and get them back to fix this, you will regret it for the rest of your life.”

Bruce considered the man before him before tilting his head slightly.

“They did this to themselves.”

“Bruce Thomas Wayne. Those two may have royally messed up but this was not a situation they caused. You never gave them a chance to do anything differently yet you’re going to blame them? Master Bruce, if you don’t try to fix this then consider this my last day at Wayne Manor.”

Bruce gaped. Tim gaped. Damian, Cassandra and even Bernard gaped. Alfred was as much a part of Wayne Manor as the ornate fixtures throughout the house. Without Alfred, the Wayne Manor was just another mansion.

Bruce stared at Alfred but the older man didn’t quiver. Bruce ticked his head to the right slightly in his annoyance and Alfred raised one eyebrow artfully. The game was over before it had begun.

Bruce marched out the front door without lowering his head even slightly. If he was going to give in to the orders of his butler he’d do it proudly.

All of them watched as the door was left swinging open. The minutes ticked past slowly. One, two, then five minutes had passed with the Butler standing proudly in the foyer whilst the teenagers surrounding him stared incredulously.

Damian was fuming silently but he respected Alfred enough not to unleash his growing tantrum on him. Cassie was scratching at the inside of her thumb nervously whilst Tim and Bernard took turns staring at Alfred, then the door before whispering to each other. The only way to describe the turmoil of emotions was as a mess.

Occasionally, raised voices from outside would flow through the open door. Generally, it was Bruce yelling at them to ‘just come back in the house, there’s no reason to be so dramatic’ and Jason seething back that Bruce just needed to ‘make up his fucking mind about whether he cared about them or not.’ It was like watching a bad drama unfold as they argued over and over again. It was a continuous cycle of the same words being shouted in different sentences.

Finally, it was disrupted by the slam of a car door and two new voices joining the fray telling Bruce to back off. All four teenagers inside perked up and peeked through the doorway whilst the right side of Alfred’s moustache just twitched upwards, as if he knew something that they didn’t.

Somehow, whoever had arrived managed to settle the situation enough to rally the three men through the door and into the foyer.

Bruce stood with his arms crossed in front of Dick, Jason and two tall gingers that both seemed equally murderous except for the small girl that stood between them with her own arms crossed.

Okay so maybe Bruce completely failed at fixing/deescalating the situation but at least he’d done what Alfred had asked and gotten them back into the house.

“Dick, Jason, Bruce.” Alfred took a step forward and eyed the respective members of the family. “It’s time you all talk without all this squabbling.”

None of them moved from their positions to speak or to break the distance separating them. Then finally one of the unknown gingers stepped forward.

“Look, why don’t we sort this out,” The man suggested with his hands up placatingly.

Dick sighed and grabbed the man to pull him back slightly. The motion immediately caught Bruce’s eye.

“Dick, how many times do you have to tell you? You can’t just bring your friends into my house.”

“Are you really going to do this?” Dick snapped at the older man.

His friend turned slightly beside him and shook his head at Dick, whispering for him to solve things calmly. Bruce rolled his eyes at his ward and walked towards them.

Apparently, Alfred’s reminder to solve things by talking them out was going to involve Bruce making a lot of assumptions.

“Dick, I just want to stop all this fighting. I want you and Jason to respect this family and that won’t happen when you keep hanging around miscreants!”

Dick inhaled deeply and tried not to want to hit Bruce. It was a very hard thing to do.

“Bruce, stop. I don’t care what you’ve got going on in your head right now, but I won’t let you talk about Wally like that.”

“So you care more about him than your family?” Bruce snapped snidely.

“I do care about my family! That’s why I’m here Bruce!” Dick yelled back.

He could see Tim, Damian and Cassie looking at him over Bruce’s shoulder. He could see Tim’s uncertainty and the matching frowns on Cassie and Damian’s faces. Wally touched his back and he focused on the contact as he took deep breaths.

“Bruce, you know that Wally isn’t just my friend. That’s why I’m here. You can make me out to be the bad guy all you want but I’m done. They’re my siblings,” He pointed to the three that stood behind Bruce, “and they deserve to know that I’m here for them.”

“Here for them? You ran out when Tim tried to come out to you tonight,” Bruce snarled.

The silence was palpable as Roy whispered ‘what the fuck’ under his breath. Dick gritted his teeth and thanked every deity that he knew of that Jason agreed to let him talk first. If not then Bruce may well be sporting a bloody nose by now. Dick took several deep breaths before speaking to make sure that he didn’t lose his temper.

Behind Bruce Alfred had his eyebrows pitched in frustration. No one quite knew what to believe. Alfred, the best and most loyal man anyone knew threw his trust behind Dick. Dick was still pushing his usual trustworthiness and love for his siblings. And there, in the middle of it all, was Bruce with his defiance and protectiveness. Tim couldn’t help but feel like there was a key detail that was being hidden behind all the yelling and arguments.

“How dare you.” Dick glared at his father figure. “You’re really going to act as if you haven’t done far worse?”

Bernard felt like his neck was going to get a cramp from watching the conversation. It was like a tennis rally filled with awkwardness and confusion from both sides.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Bruce squinted his eyes and for some odd reason, Jason felt like there was genuine confusion behind Bruce’s stony features.

Several things happened after Jason realised that Bruce was confused. One, Roy nudged Wally to point out the confusion filtering through from the other side of the room. Two, Alfred quite visibly came to the conclusion that he had raised an idiot who really lacked perception skills despite having wanted to be a detective for a good five years in his teens. Three, Wally grabbed Dick’s hand to show support and Bruce immediately zeroed in on it. Four, Tim also noticed and slowly his stomach filled with dread as the pieces started to align. Five, Jason felt a small body collide with his leg. Six, Bruce watched as the small girl cried for ‘her Jayjay’ to pick her up and his son did so without hesitation. Seven, Bruce realised that the men before him that he had raised weren’t kids anymore and that maybe not everything they did was to spite him.

Jason held Lian close to him and they all watched as she hid her face in his shoulder to avoid all the shouting. The reminder of the child let everyone in the room take a deep breath and try to calm down. Slowly Dick tried to calmly explain exactly what he’d meant.

“Bruce, when I was twenty three I brought my boyfriend over for dinner to introduce you two and you kicked us out.” The announcement caused the room to stiffen as Roy squeezed Dick’s hand. “ You told me to my face that you didn’t want me around my younger brother in case I made him gay.”

He watched as Tim’s mouth fell open and Damian’s eyes darted between Bruce and him. Wally’s hand gripped his tightly and his thumb traced patterns onto the back of his hand.

“Dick…” Bruce started. “I don’t remember that happening. I’d remember something like that. I’d,” He took a deep breath, a wounded look on his face. “I’d never do something like that. You’re my son.”

“You don’t remember? The dinner before Jason got sent off to school. You pulled me aside and told me that you didn’t approve of Wally and I.”

Bruce instantly started shaking his head. Disbelief was cemented to his features as well as a wounded look that didn’t quite suit him.

“No, that’s not what happened. You’d spent weeks stealing Jason away so that whenever I was home I didn’t get to see him, or you, and then you invited that friend of yours from school to an important family dinner! And I know that your friends were into drugs for a while in school so I was not going to allow you to expose him to that sort of influence!”

The revelation made Wally and Roy both take in a sharp breath of air. Roy because he knew he was that ‘bad influence’ Bruce was worried about. That all this time Bruce had been trying to protect Jason from ending up in another drug adled household and in the end he’d landed in the lap of the very ‘friend’ that Bruce had been afraid of. Wally on the other hand had just found out that his fiancé's father had not disowned his fiancé because of him specifically and that maybe there was a chance for everything to turn out better.

Dick stared at Bruce. He didn’t know what to say. It had been five long years of him knowing that Bruce didn’t approve of him. He’d accepted a decade ago that Bruce never really liked him, that was proven by Bruce adopting a kid off the streets after refusing to ever adopt Dick. And now… now everything was different. Because Dick had forgotten one thing when he accepted all those things about Bruce all those years ago. Bruce was a stubborn fucking idiot who couldn’t see past his own stress levels long enough to realise that something other than his own assumptions could be going on.

The silence in the room was palpable. Dick didn’t have anything he could say without totally blowing up and Bruce didn’t know what else he could say to clear up his point of view.

“Hi,” Wally chose to speak up, seeing as Bruce was beginning to glance at them all nervously. “I’m the boyfriend - fiancé now actually - also not involved with drugs in any way.”

Hesitantly Roy stepped away from Jason and Lian to raise his hand slightly.

“The one involved with the drugs would probably be me. I quit ages ago sir and they were never around Jason.”

Bruce glanced between the two gingers before turning back to his eldest son.

“Dick, I love you. I’d accept you no matter what. I’m so sorry that I made you feel like I wouldn’t.”

Bruce took a step forward and suddenly Dick was falling forward. Bruce wrapped his arms around his son and hugged him tightly. It didn’t make anything okay, it didn’t change anything other than the fact that Dick finally knew he was good enough. All his life he’d been waiting for someone to tell him that they loved him. Or maybe, more specifically he’d been waiting for Bruce to tell him that. It had been twenty long years since he first met Bruce and for the first time in a long, long while he felt like Bruce was finally listening to his cries for attention.

Finally, he pulled away and relinked his hand with Wally’s. Water tracks marked his cheeks and all he could do was hold onto Wally as if he was a lifeline in the middle of a dark and storming sea.

Not everyone in the room was as happy about the revelations as Dick though.

“Fuck you, Bruce.”

Jason seethed. He had one hand curled protectively in Lian’s hair as he held her with his other arm. Roy’s warm presence next to him was the only thing preventing him from marching over and clocking Bruce in the face.

Years of anger bubbled to the surface. He hated the idea that it was all a mistake. That Dick had been avoiding his home for half a decade because Bruce had misinterpreted something on his behalf. What did that mean about his own coming out? Was Dick good enough and Jason wasn’t? How was he meant to act now that all his reasons for being mad at Bruce were no longer relevant? Jason had long ago accepted that he was destined to have shitty parental figures. Except… Except nothing. Jason had every right to be mad and there was no way in hell he was letting Bruce take that away from him.

“You think you can just choose to be a good father now? That’s not how it works. If you couldn’t be there for Dick or me why are you pretending you can for them?” Jason snapped, gesturing wildly to his three younger siblings.

“Jason, I was there for you when you needed me,” Bruce shook his head desperately as he realised just how much damage he’d caused over the years.

“When I needed you? I needed you to be around. I didn’t need a mother that killed herself rather than stay with me. I didn’t need a father who beat me half to death when he got bored. I didn’t need some rich fucking billionaire to adopt me and then never be there. I didn’t need you to take me away from the only person I saw as family to send me to some shitty school because of assumptions you decided to make instead of talking to us.”

He breathed deeply as Roy rubbed his back and Lian shifted so that her arms circled his neck in a half choke hold/half hug. Bruce looked like he’d been stabbed through the heart with an arrow, his face showing both shock and hurt in equal measures.

“Jay…” Bruce took half a step forward, his voice pleading.

Jason wanted to glare back, he did, but in that moment he saw Bruce’s walls fall. Bruce who had always been what the press had wanted him to be even in front of his family. Bruce who had never been shown that it was okay to show emotions, who looked like he was ready to crawl on his knees to beg his son’s forgiveness.

“II deserve better than you Bruce,” Jason blinked back tears that were trying to prick at his eyes, “You kicked me out when I came out as gay to you. You missed my graduation. You use me as a scapegoat more often than not because I’m already the fuck up in your eyes despite never having done anything to you! I just wanted a real father Bruce.”

Roy’s hand grabbed tightly at the back of his shirt. Lian sniffled into his shoulder and Dick made that awful face that he made when he wanted to protect his siblings from the world but couldn’t. Cassie and Tim both looked as if they’d heard the most awful news in the world whilst Damian had an indecipherable face that spoke volumes of his conflicting feelings.

Bruce had his own sort-of reaction.

He shook his head, then he blinked and then he shook his head again. His voice shook when he finally spoke and Jason couldn’t find it in himself to feel any sympathy.

“Jaybird, you’re gay?” Bruce asked huskily.

His eyes shone in the entryway light and suddenly Jason felt… disbelief? Anger? Happy? Sad? Like doubling over and laughing because what the fuck?

He clutched Lian tighter to his body and squeezed his eyes shut for a couple of seconds. Despite his whole face being scrunched up a few tear drops managed to escape and land on Lian's hair.

“Bruce,” Jason sighed shakily. “On my eighteenth birthday you hosted a gala for me and I came out to you and you kicked me out.”

Bruce shook his head quickly and took another step toward Jason.

“Jay, I don’t - I wouldn’t do that. I don’t remember you coming out to me Jay. And I know I didn’t kick you out. I suggested you go home and you ran away to Dick’s.”

Bruce’s eyes were wide as he tried to convince Jason but he adamantly looked away, refusing to meet his father’s eyes.

“You tried to set me with up a girl and I told you that my preference was men and then you told me to go home, so I went home Bruce, to Dick and Wally’s place.”

“Jay, that’s not what happened, or it’s not how I saw it.”
Bruce took another step forward.

“You told me you’d prefer if I set you up with Oliver Queen, who I was in the middle of negotiation deals with. I thought you were trying to annoy me by saying you would’ve wanted him to adopt you instead of me, Jay. I, - I thought you were trying to, I don’t know, piss me off because you were mad at me for missing your graduation. I shouldn’t have sent you home but you have to know I wouldn’t have kicked you out, ever, for being gay.”

“Bruce…”

Bruce took one more step forward and close the distance between them to hug Jason. Slowly Jason lifted his free arm and hugged Bruce back. Somehow, through the years and the distance, Jason had gotten taller than his father. Tears fell freely between them as Bruce rubbed his back.

“I love you Jaybird. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry Jay. I’ll be better, I’m so sorry my son.”

Jason didn’t realise that Lian had moved from him to Roy until he was clutching Bruce to him like a kid who had just gotten its first pet.

He felt as Bruce lifted his other arm and a third body joined them. Dick wrapped his arms around them both and Bruce whispered apologies to his two eldest sons.

Eventually, Jason pulled away and Roy and Lian were both by his side without any delay. Bruce smiled at the three of them before turning to face the other side of the room where Alfred stood with a small smile on his face.

“You knew that I’ve been a stubborn asshole this entire time?” Bruce asked.

“I knew that both of those two took a long time discovering themselves and that you weren’t acting how I’d raised you to act,”

Alfred responded with a raised eyebrow.

“Now,” he continued, “Boy’s don’t you think you have some explanations to make to your siblings as well.”

Quickly Tim stepped forward before they could offer any sort of reason as to why they had reacted as they had.

“You two have been gay this entire time, you never properly came out as Bruce and because of assumptions he made you thought he was homophobic and you got upset earlier because you thought Bruce loved me more than you since he reacted well to my coming out as compared to your own?”

Quietly Jason and Dick nodded.

“Then I forgive you, but you’ve got to introduce me to them,” he nodded at Wally, Roy and Lian, “And you’ve got to meet Bernard.”

The blonde teen shyly waved his hand at them and Jason narrowed his eyes. Bernard quickly stepped slightly behind Tim. Jason was going to enjoy messing with him.

“This,” Dick brought Wally forward with their linked hands, “is Wally, my fiancé who I’ve been with for about seven years now.

Wally waved and then Roy stepped forward as well.

“I’m Roy, and this is Lian, we’re…” Roy trailed off as he tried to figure out how to end that sentence.

“They’re my people,” Jason finished for him with a smile.

Everyone greeted each other amicably. Thankfully nobody mentioned the tears that stained the faces of Dick, Jason and Bruce. They also all ignored the way Dick clung to Wally and the way Jason held Lian to him as if she was a precious stone to protect. Alfred brought out tea for everyone and Cassie smiled as Lian told her she looked like a princess. Bruce constantly tittered around the edges of the room. He kept coming back to his eldest two sons and asking them if they wanted something else to drink or to eat before he flitted back to talking to Tim or Cassie or Damian. For the first time it was clearly apparent that he was making a conscious effort to give everyone an equal amount of attention.

The only one who hadn’t really reacted was Damian. Damian stood stiffly in the corner of the room as if he was trying to become one of the ornate statues that sometimes resided there. His features were screwed up in a grimace that could of easily been caused by the affection being shared by the others or by the lack of fighting and yelling.

Whilst Bruce was in a harrying conversation with Wally about what he did for work (self employed technician) Dick stepped away stealthily. Damian didn’t stop his glaring as Dick stopped beside him and nudged his shoulder.

“What’s up little D?” Dick asked quietly so as not to be overheard.

Damian crossed his arms and stared at something interesting by his shoes. Dick was about to declare it a lost cause and find desert to cheer up the young teen when he finally looked up and started to talk.

“I shouldn’t have said what I did. I should not have told Jason to go back to the streets, it was callous and inconsiderate of me,” Damian huffed.

“Damian, we don’t care about that, you were angry and you said what you knew would piss Jason off the most,” Dick smiled down at his little brother to reassure him.

“It wasn’t fair of me though. I did what father did, I made assumptions about the two of you despite what I already knew about your character.” Damian bit his lip and looked away. “I’d understand if you didn’t want to speak to me anymore.”

Dick looked at Damian, shocked and bewildered. The young teen refused to meet his eye though. His words and behaviour though… He really was a mini Bruce.

“Dami… You’re making another assumption. The only way we’re all going to move past this, is if we all stop making so many assumptions. Jay and I aren’t just your brothers because we have to be. We drive out here every few weeks because we want to be your brothers. We choose to stick around and just because you got angry at us and said some stupid shit doesn’t mean that’s ever going to change.”

Slowly Damian looked up and he knew that Dick meant what he’d said. He glanced at Cassie to see her sitting on the ground with Lian, Tim had Alfred, Roy and Bernard listening as he told a story about something from college, and Jason stood next to Wally and Bruce. It was the first time he’d seen Bruce standing with Jason like normal people, not ignoring each other and not in a stand off. There was still tension between them, there were still many arguments to come, but things would be better after this.

Chapter Text

The day had started like any other. The birds were chirping, the cicadas were humming and Jason woke with his arms around his boyfriend. It was veritably perfect.

He kissed across the constellation of freckles that littered Roy’s shoulders before slipping out of bed to wake up Lian. The small girl woke without a fuss for once and eagerly followed him to the small living room area. She happily sat and hummed to herself as Jason poured her and Roy cups of orange juice and waited for the coffee machine to produce his own drink. The slow whir of the machine drew Roy from his slumber. Jason pretended not to notice as the other man walked in, if only for the pleasure of having Roy hug him from behind and whisper “Surprise” in his ear. They stayed like that as they watched the coffee machine slowly do its job before Lian started yelling for her Dad to come see whatever she’d noticed out the window.

Jason smiled as he brought the three drinks over to the small table that separated the Kitchen area and the living room. His two favourite people were standing by the window pointing out at cars that passed on the street. Roy glanced over his shoulder and met his eye with a wink before he turned back to his daughter to try to convince her to come sit with them. At eight years old she was very strongly opinionated about the idea of sitting with her parental figures for long periods of time, luckily though she accepted easily enough with the bribe of Jason making her cupcakes on the weekend.

(Jason was not as happy about this bribe considering he was planning on going to the gym on the weekend but he supposed he could skip that to put a smile on Lian’s face.)

The three of them ate their cereal and had their drinks whilst passing idle chatter about this, that or the other.

Jason was just about to suggest that they sit down and watch a movie when the front door was harassed by a barragement of knocking. Roy and Jason shared a glance before Jason was quickly moving over to distract Lian whilst Roy made his way to the door. He opened it slowly to find a very grumpy Timothy Drake on the other side as well as a very annoyed Damian Wayne.

“You’re late!” Tim screeched as soon as the door opened.

“What?” Roy asked, confused.

“Wally doesn’t know how to tie a tie, the car arrives in less than two hours to get us there and we had to leave Dick with Bruce to calm him down! We need to get going yesterday!”

Immediately realisation dawned on Jason and Roy. Without any hesitation, Jason sprinted to their room to grab their suits whilst Roy bundled Lian, her dress and all of their shoes up. Damian led the way down the hall where he promptly kicked open a door, and roughly shoved Roy in. Jason had barely a second to hand his boyfriend the hanger with his suit on it and catch a glimpse of Wally lying on the floor before the door was slammed shut again.

Tim quickly caught him by the shoulders and pushed him along three different corridors until they came upon a door marked 321. Jason opened the door and was quickly hit with an

“Oh thank god”

From inside.

Dick stood with his wrinkled dress shirt in his hands and his hair sticking up wildly. Bruce stood behind him with a tub of hair gel and far too little sense to be of any actual help. Cassie sat on the bed shaking her head at the two of them whilst Barbara looked on in horror from her wheelchair. Jason had the feeling that this had been going on for a while if the sounds of exasperation were anything to go off of.

As soon as Cassie noticed him, or more accurately Lian standing beside him, she stood up, walked over, plucked Lian from his side and left the room. Barbara quickly followed the two and he could barely call out that Roy had her dress before they had disappeared.

He turned back to the two struggling men before him and tutted.

“Help?” Dick asked.

Jason set his own suit down before grabbing the wrinkled shirt from his brother's hands and setting it aside on the bed. He peered at Dick’s hair before shaking his head.

“Go to the bathroom and put your head in the sink, get all that shit out whilst I sort your shirt.”

Dick swiftly followed Jason’s orders as he started opening cupboards to find an ironing board and an iron. Tim and Damian closed the door behind themselves as they moved to sit down next to where Bruce had flopped when he was no longer in control of his son’s hair.

“Tim,” Jason pointed at the boy, “You iron Dick faces shirt. There better not be a single wrinkle. Damian,” Damian raised one inquisitive eyebrow, “Go help the idiot - make sure he brushes his hair out to make sure he gets all that stupid gel out. Bruce,” Bruce instantly sat up straight, eager to avoid making his son mad, “Grab us some deodorant from your room, knowing Dick he’s going to sweat through his damn tuxedo.”

The four of them all split up, Damian was already yelling at Dick before he’d reached the bathroom. Bruce marched into the corridor with all the confidence that a man sent for more deodorant could have. Tim lay out the, incredibly wrinkled, shirt with practised ease whilst Jason pulled his own suit out from its bag.

By the time Dick had reemerged Jason was mostly dressed - his suit jacket was still off and his shirt was only half buttoned but it was fine - Tim had ironed the dress shirt back into its pristine state, and Damian had an evil grin on his face.

“Put your shirt on and don’t you dare wrinkle it,” Tim proffered the shirt and Dick carefully pulled it on.

“Now sit down and I’ll fix your hair, Damian make sure his shoes are ready and Tim go check that Alfred has the rings.”

All of them moved around each other like a carefully oiled machine. Even when Cassie slipped back in none of them were disturbed, she slot right into the flow of the boys as Jason moved around her to grab hair spray and she tiptoes around where Damian sat on the floor polishing Dick’s shoes.

“Hi,” She muttered quietly as she observed him trying to defeat Dick’s cowlick.

Over the last few years, she’d spent a lot of time in speech therapy, normal therapy and then family therapy with the rest of them. It means that she had the ability to speak a bit and converse, although she often found herself slipping into sign or going completely mute for days at a time. It was easier, she had explained to him once, to only speak when she had to. She often felt that because of how she was raised she only had a limited number of words she could say and that some days that number felt so minuscule that the idea of speaking aloud felt suffocating. It made him all the more proud of her when she could speak to him and their brothers freely most of the time.

“Hi, how’s Lian doing with Kori and Donna?” He asked.

Talking to Cassie was a welcome distraction from the way Dick’s hair seemed to defy the laws of physics that said it should stick the fuck down with the amount of hair spray Jason was applying.

“They’re fine, we want to know which two of us Dick wants on his side.”

“I want you and maybe Kori,” Dick responded from where he sat on the bed.

“Okay,” she smiled at him and reached around Jason to twist Dick’s cowlick behind another piece of his hair slightly. Annoyingly it stayed there and Jason glared at his brother’s hair.

Cassie smiled at them and drifted around the edge of the room pausing just slightly when the door opened and Bruce and Tim burst in before stepping around them.

Bruce hurried to Dick’s side and gave him the aerosol can of deodorant. Dick stared at it quizzically before Jason smacked him upside the head.

“Dick you sweat more than a pig when you’re nervous, If you show up with massive pit stains in your photos you’ll get upset and then I’ll get blamed and I think, as your best man, we should avoid that.”

Dick frowned at him but liberally sprayed his armpits anyway.

“T - minus 30 minutes before we’ve got to go down,” Tim announced to the room.

“Alright,” Jason surveyed the group of them. “Someone will need to go down to help direct the cars where to wait and ensure everyone gets in one.”

Damian rapidly stood up and left the room to do just that, he could sense Dick’s panic and definitely did not want to be caught in the cross-hairs.

“One of you will need to go make sure Wally’s sorted and that they know when to go down - and you’ll have to check on the girls, all five of them were going to go over in Babs’s van so they should get going soon so they can get there and prepare the rest of the guests before we arrive.”

Tim shrugged and volunteered easily.

“Bruce, can you call ahead to the reception venue and make sure they’ve got it all set up?”

Bruce easily agreed and all too soon it was just Jason and Dick left in the room.

“Nervous?” Jason asked, straightening Dick’s collar.

Dick shook his head easily. A grin settled on his face and excitement pumped into his eyes.

“Never. I’ve been waiting for this for years, having everyone there with me makes it that much better.”

And everyone was going to be there.

Tim had been helping make sure all the right things were hired out, Cassie had been the most helpful with sorting out the seating arrangements and designing invitations. Bruce had even insisted that he pay for everything, much to the surprise and collective gratitude of Wally and Dick. Shockingly, though, the most involved had been Damian. The teenager had gone above and beyond to design table decorations and decide on archways and even to force the two men to have a rehearsal despite Wally insisting they didn’t need one.

The guest list was somewhat small considering how social they both were. Only their family and friends had been invited - a hard decision that they’d argued about for months seeing as neither wanted to offend anyone by cutting off their invite.

“We should go down soon, yeah?” Jason smiled at his older brother who nodded in response.

“Yeah,” Dick smiled dopily. “I’m marrying Wally.”

–

Neither of the men wanted to walk down the aisle but they did want something special, which is why Tim suggested an alternative. Roy stood just behind the left side of the aisle; Jason smiling on the opposite side. They watched as Donna and Tim walked down the centre before splitting at the end to stand and wait. Next went Kori and Damian, the height difference between the two so comical that a few people started giggling before the teenager sent them all glares. Finally, Cassie and Lian slowly walked down, each of them wearing pristine lilac dresses that made them look a bit like they belonged with the fae. Finally, Roy and Jason stepped forward onto the aisle.

Roy had slicked his hair back and Jason couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if this was their day. If they would be wearing matching suits and would have their whole family there, or if maybe they’d just elope instead, have Lian as their only witness and throw a party in the later weeks to celebrate. Roy smiled at him - that special little smile that told Jason that his boyfriend knew exactly what was on his mind.

Dick and Wally were the last to walk down the aisle, the two of them each had white blindfolds tied around their heads and a third white ribbon wrapped around their hands to keep them together. They’d had to practice their walk at least twenty times before they got it right. They slowly walked down together, Dick’s smile singlehandedly lighting up the whole space.

As soon as they stopped at the front and turned to face each other, their respective best men took off their blindfolds. Dick laughed as he watched tears well up in Wally’s eyes.

“Hey,” Dick whispered as he took in his soon-to-be-husband’s appearance.

“Hey,” Wally laughed as he lifted his free hand to cup the other man’s face.

The ceremony was beautiful.

Barbara’s wheelchair had been decorated with ribbons and flowers so that it almost blended into their surrounding as she officiated the wedding. Lian shyly presented the rings to the men and everyone laughed as Cassie untied the ribbons from their hands to allow them to be placed on their fingers. Bruce and Alfred cheered the loudest out of anyone in the church as Wally kissed Dick as if his life depended on it.

–

The reception was hosted in a huge banquet hall. All of their friends filled every inch of the room and music floated past all the dancing bodies. Dick hung on to Wally the whole night, proudly proclaiming that the redhead was his husband to anyone that decided to strike up a conversation with them.

The only time that Dick was away from Wally, even for a second, was when he spotted his three brothers sitting together with their heads bowed as if they were all thinking deeply. Wally’s uncle had just meandered over and was asking Wally about something sciency, giving Dick the perfect excuse to squeeze his husband’s (god, did he love saying husband) arm and make his own way over to his brothers.

“Finally let go of Wally?” Tim joked.

“He’s my husband now,” Dick shrugged, “I never want to let him go.”

Damian and Jason snickered at his dopy grin.

“You’re so corny, Grayson,” Damian tutted.

“That’s Grayson-West now,” Dick announced and all three of his brothers groaned in annoyance.

“You’re happy then, Dickface?” Jason asked contemplatively.

“I think this might just be the best day of my life, at least until tomorrow, then that will probably be the best day of my life because it’ll be my first day of forever with Wally, you know?”

Dick had this way of sharing an entire conversation with the way his face lit up. And at that moment, even Damian could recognise what Dick was telling them. Dick had his eyes filled with love and admiration and anticipation. His lips curved up at the thought of his husband and, in what could have only been an act of divine intervention, his cowlick sprung back up like a dog perking up when its owner was around.

“I think…” Jason hummed, “I think that I might want that with Roy.”

All of them looked to where the aforementioned man was on the dance floor. His daughter stood on his feet and spun around as he twirled her. His suit jacket had disappeared and his sleeves had been pulled up to show off his forearms. As if sensing their gazes he glanced up and sent them a wave.

“I’m going to ask him to marry me soon,” Jason said as he waved back at his boyfriend.

Tim carefully inspected his brothers’ face and found no trace of dishonesty there. It made him shake his head in disbelief.

“I can’t believe I ever thought either of you was homophobic,” He snarked.