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It was a really slow night, and Jason wasn’t expecting much excitement beyond stopping a few muggings and helping a girl a few years older than him get home safe. But then, because he’s him, life threw him a curveball and gifted him a child-shaped lump on a rooftop with sniffling sounds coming from it.
He landed on the rooftop and stood there for about a minute, waiting for the kid to notice him, before simply saying, “Hey.”
If they could, Jason was sure the kid would’ve jumped ten feet into the air at how hard they flinched.
The kid looked at him, jumped again, before aggressively scrubbing at their teary eyes. Jason kinda felt bad for them, so he crouched down to be less threatening.
“Hey, kid,” Jason said, voice soft. Uh, shit, what’s the first thing you do when you see crying children. Establish a connection? Jason’s also a kid, it wouldn’t be creepy to ask for their name, right? “Can I ask what your name is?”
The kid was looking at him with wide eyes, but eventually he nodded and stuttered out, “Tim. I’m Tim.”
Jason nodded in acknowledgement. “Okay, Tim. Now can I ask how you got up here?”
The kid - Tim, his name was Tim - just looked at him confusedly. “You don’t want to know why I’m crying?”
That almost startled a laugh out of Jason, but he stopped it. “Well, yeah, but I wasn’t gonna just straight up ask right off the bat.” A pause, then, “But you can go ahead and tell me if ya want.” He sat down all the way to emphasize that he was willing to listen.
Tim kept staring at him for a few more moments of silence before going, “I, uh, I was thinking. And I realized I wanted a pride flag. And I have the money for it! But my parents might find out and I don’t - I don’t know -” He cut himself off with a hiccup that turned into a sob, and he was back to crying and curling in on himself. “I’m scared of what they’d do if they found out.”
That confession prompted Jason to ask himself two questions:
1) Why would a ten year old (at least, that’s what he’s guessing) want a pride flag? Like, good on him for figuring that out so early in life, that shit is a bitch and a half to figure out, but man , Jason would’ve given his soul to have the guts to even contemplate considering that shit at this kid’s assumed age.
And 2) What kind of ten year old is scared of what their parents would do over a fucking rainbow flag . Except Jason knows exactly what kind of ten year old and it’s making him pissed off. Good thing he doesn’t know this kid’s last name, or else shit was gonna hit the fan.
But touching that load of bullshit isn’t what the kid needs right now.
But the fact that this kid trusted Robin enough to semi-come out to him? That was something Jason could work with.
“Look, Tim,” he started. He paused, contemplating his word choice. “I want you to listen close to me, ‘cause I’m gonna tell you the same thing Batman told me.” That caused Tim to look up sharply.
Jason could kinda understand it. This kid was caught crying on a rooftop only for Robin to find him? And Robin was okay with him being gay of some sort or other? And then Robin was going to give him advice from Batman??
Jason would be beyond shocked too, if he didn’t know how much of a loser B was. But the advice still meant a lot to him, and he was hoping it would strike a chord with Tim as well.
“He told me,” he continued, then purposely pitched his voice higher in an obviously purposefully awful attempt at a Batman expression, “‘ Robin, I want you to listen to me. ’”
Tim laughed and then looked surprised he had. “I think his voice is a little deeper.”
Jason snorted. “Yeah, probably. That was too high for my voice anyway.” He sobered his expression and continued, “Y’know what he told me? He told me that I should never be ashamed of wanting to be myself, of wanting to express myself. Never. Sure, you can be scared. You can be fu- freaking terrified. And that’s okay. But never, not even for a second , think it’s wrong to be who you are. Doesn’t matter who you like, what you identify as. Hell, you could only like one person your entire life and identify as some obscure gender that nobody’s ever heard of. And nobody could tell you a damn thing that could make you change that. Live your own life.”
Tim looked at him for a long time, and he looked like he was about to burst into tears again at any second, but then he lunged forward and hugged Jason. “Did he really tell you all that?”
“Well, my sperm donor sure as hell didn’t.” Which, okay, maybe he shouldn’t say that, for security reasons or some shit, but Batman can shut it. If he can show that Batman can care about gay kids when their parents can’t? It’d be worth it.
And it looked like he’d said the right thing. “Really?” Tim said, sniffling. “Batman accepted you even when your own dad didn’t?”
Jason hugged him back and said, “Yeah, kid. He did. You’re not gonna be alone no matter what your parents say.”
“Hey, B.”
A grunt.
A pause, then, “Hey, Bruce.”
Bruce turned away from the computer at that. “What?”
Jason tried not to shift under his gaze. “So during patrol -”
“It was a slow night,” Bruce interrupted, “but you still did a good job.”
Jason thinks it might say something about both him and Bruce that that would be his first thought as to what this was about, and a year ago Jason would be floating off to bed at that kind of praise, but this is now and that’s not what this was about.
“That’s not what this is about,” he said, to strengthen his internal point. At Bruce’s eyebrow raise, he continued, “So during patrol I found this kid. And he was crying on a rooftop over wanting a pride flag but being scared of what would happen if his parents found out. So I gave him the same advice you gave me, but I don’t think he’s going to get that pride flag.”
Bruce thought it over for a moment before asking, “What was his name?”
“Tim? He didn’t give a last name. He looked kinda familiar, though. But I couldn’t tell ya where I’ve seen him before.” Bruce has adopted a very thoughtful expression and Jason had to hold back a groan. “You know who he is and you ain’t gonna tell me, are you?”
B allowed a small smile before shrugging and turning back to the computer.
A week later, Jason found Tim on his back on the same rooftop.
He let his landing be loud enough that Tim would know he was there, but all the kid did was raise a hand and wave in his general direction. Huh.
Jason tugged the package out from the back of his pants - and, let the record show, running around alleyways and rooftops with plastic digging into his skin was not pleasant - and tossed it onto Tim’s stomach, who let out a surprised squeak. He sat up and a camera swung around to rest against his chest. Maybe that’s what the kid was doing out on rooftops so late at night.
Tim looked from Jason to the package and back to Jason, looking very noticeably confused. “What’s this?”
Jason smiled, trying to not let his excitement show too much. “Merry Christmas, Tim!”
Tim blinked, somehow looking even more confused. “It’s July...?”
Jason didn’t let his smile waver. “Happy birthday, Tim!”
He saw Tim’s eyes light up before he looked down at the package again, and Jason briefly spared a thought as to whether his birthday actually was in July.
“This is for me?” he asked quietly, barely more than a whisper. It made Jason’s heart hurt a little.
“Yeah, Tim,” he said, just as soft. “It’s for you. Present from me and Batman.”
Tim just kept staring at it in awe, so Jason took it as an opportunity to continue. “Okay, Tim, this is what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna take that home and put it somewhere you can see it daily. Remind yourself that you are who you are and fu- uh, anyone who says anything negative about that is dumb and stupid.”
“That’s redundant,” Tim said offhandedly. Well, at least he was listening.
Jason shook his head. “That’s beside the point. Be proud of who you are. That’s why it’s called a pride flag, yeah? But if you’re scared of your parents finding out? Put it somewhere they don’t look. The back of your closet, the bottom drawer of your dresser, I don’t know. Just put it somewhere safe that you’ll still have access to.”
Tim looked back up at him, eyes shining and smiling a tiny bit, like he was scared of letting it get too big. Then he tentatively asked, “Do you... Do you think we could take a picture? With the flag?”
Jason was sure his eyebrows went so high that it could be seen through his mask, and Tim hurried to continue, “Not if you don’t want to, though! It’s fine if you don’t want to! I can just head on home and you can finish with your patrol and we can pretend I didn’t ask -”
“Tim,” he interrupted, trying to keep his expression under control. “Yeah, we can take a picture. I was just surprised, is all.” He shifted to sit next to Tim then asked, “You want me to get that out of the packaging while you get your camera set up?”
Tim blinked at him. “What?”
Jason let himself laugh. “C’mon. If we’re taking a picture after you got your very first pride flag, we are having the flag be in the picture.”
Tim fumbled with his camera while Jason unfolded the flag and wrapped it around their shoulders, and he didn’t say anything when Tim’s head found itself resting on Jason’s shoulder.
(Later that week, after having found a copy of the picture on that rooftop under a rock but in a protective sleeve, Jason was sticking it up on his bulletin board, next to the polaroid he had of him and Dick, flags painted on their cheeks and a giant rainbow flag wrapped around their shoulders.
That was a few months ago, after Jason had been staying at the manor for a whole year, and he remembers it taking a long time to be able to ask Dick about sexuality. Dick had told him he was brave for going to someone, anyone, brother or not, about it.
But Jason still thinks Tim was braver than he ever was, having the courage to take something that could get him hurt. Having the courage to want to be himself.)