Work Text:
In one quiet night, Bruce Wayne is sitting on his Batcomputer looking into a recent heist scene as a newspaper is thrown into the screen and falls in front of him.
In the first page, there is a picture of Jason, Stephanie and Damian as Robin and the words " DID ANY ROBIN REALLY DIE? GOTHAM BELIEVES HE DIDN'T" on top of it.
"GOTHAM FUCKING SUCKS!"
"Language, Jason..."
"You don't look suprised, did you know people think this way about my...our deaths, i just feel like hacking every screen and yelling at people and here you are acting like nothing happened!"
"Jason, i try to keep up with what people think of heroes around the world, people have refused to believe any of us have ever died since the start, same goes for villains too if i must be honest, it's just a belief that doesn't really hurt anyone..."
"DOESN'T HURT ANYONE!?
How do you think I or the others that died feel reading this, i died because of the Joker and so many others died saving the world or because of villains...when it happened, i thought i would be gone forever and now people believe i was just on vacation, the worst moment of my life is a pretend joke to many people, forgive me for not being exactly happy right now."
Bruce gets up and hugs Jason for a while
"I know it's hard, don't forget i grieved you and so many too, but to most people, death is final, it's just us heroes and villains that seem to revive no matter what, for reasons i am still trying to find...sorry, i think people just don't want to think about a large group of people being unable to die while everyone else dies forever, i think it may be just jealousy or an attempt to rationalize and see the world through through old beliefs about death."
"...It doesn't matter, Bruce, i am still pissed off, dying isn't exactly fun or painless, Bruce, i know the two times you died weren't exactly that, but to most people in our community, it just brings back bad memories, i also...can't accept the idea we may die for good and people think we just got lazy, or stop caring, Bruce, it hurt when Pariah seemingly vaporized you into a skeleton and no one cared, Dick barely blinked and asked Superman why he should care since you would just come back from being a skeleton, which you did, eventually, and it terrifies me that not only are we getting too used to death...but that even civilians won't care when we die and if we die for good...there won't be grief anywhere, in our community people will just keep waiting for us to come back and civilians will think we went away now rather than being thankful and respectful of people who sacrificed everything..."
"Jason, i and i think others don't really care if we will make an impact on history."
"I know that, but after we saved the literal world so many times and sacrificed so much, it just feels unfair that our deaths get treated as jokes...that me dying is considered as just a vacation."
"I wish i knew what to say to make it feel better...want to come upstairs, Alfred is about to come back and we would be delighted if you stayed here, we could chat and maybe watch something together...if you want."
"...Fine, but could you stop suggesting Jane Austen adaptations, i feel like punching someone so let's watch John Wick instead."