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At the back of the alleyway, in plain brightly-coloured sight, was Robin. He was lying on his back, having had fallen from the rooftop, and if the shouting overhead meant anything then the vigilante had been chased. He was unconscious and barely moving.
Jason stared at Robin for a few more seconds. He was crouched in his current home; a small abandoned block of flats that had been deemed ‘too structurally unsound’ to be of any use to the city. While he hadn’t dared to go much higher than the second floor, it was good enough to squat in and the sealed windows were a godsend with winter steadily approaching. He was safe there, and would probably be a lot safer if he ignored Robin altogether and went to sleep. That would be the smart thing to do.
He flinched as the shouting got a little louder, his eyes darting between the roofs and the unconscious vigilante. Jason cursed under his breath and darted out from his hiding place, coming to a halt by Robins head. The kid was a lot bigger than him and heavier too factoring all his equipment and the beefy uniform.
Jason grabbed the gloved hands tightly and took a deep breath. Moving slowly, he stepped further back until he was dragging Robin out of sight, in through the doorway to the building, and shoving the wooden panel back over the hole. Still wary of the people giving Robin chase, he continued to drag him inside until he could roll Robin onto Jason's makeshift bed (a few blankets, two lumpy pillows, and a sleeping bag). He used the sleeping bag as the mattress, hoping the padding was enough to hide the lumpy stone floors, and tucked the blankets over Robin to fight against the chill in the air.
The shouting was right outside the door after a minute as a group of men complained from the alleyway. They stayed uncomfortably wrong and Jason had grabbed a broken bottle, just in case he needed to defend himself and Robin, but thankfully they moved on.
Letting out a sigh, Jason hid the bottle in his backpack, and shuffled closer to the sleeping Robin. The vigilante’s face was screwed up in pain and he was restless. Jason gingerly put his grubby hand across his forehead, only to yank it away a beat later. Robin was burning up- no wonder he’d fallen into the alley.
Jason looked around in a panic. He’d be done for if he was the thing that killed Robin- what if Batman found him? Would he go to jail? Jason shivered at the thought of ending up in the same place as Willis and tried to come up with a plan. If he helped Robin, managed to bring the fever down, then maybe Batman would leave him alone. He’d need something cold, medicine too- actual medicine, not drugs.
He scooped up his backpack and hesitated at the sight of the feverish Robin, before bolting off through the back exit. The open clinic wasn’t too far away, and the sign promised their doors would be open 24/7. It was his best shot.
No one spared him a glance as Jason ran down the streets in a rush. Even the cars on the road pretended as if he were not there and almost hit him twice on his way. He didn’t’ bother flipping the drivers off as he usually would, he was on a mission and the clinic was in his sights.
He skidded to a halt outside the doors and caught his breath while they automatically slid open. One hand on each bag-strap so no one could snatch it away, he built up his bravery and walked inside.
It was unusually quiet for a Gotham clinic. The waiting room was over half-empty and the worst looking sucker was a teenager with a slash wound up his arm, and even he already had a nurse standing by him. The same nurse glanced up at the sound of the doors and smiled at Jason kindly, shaking the boy out of his distracted stare.
He strode up to the front desk and just barely could see over the counter. A young man, yawning and leafing through a magazine, looked down at him.
“What can I help you with, kiddo?”
Frowning at the ‘kiddo’ comment, Jason huffed “I need ice and something to help with fevers.”
The man shouted over his shoulder, calling for an ice pack, and scooted his office chair back to the shelves of tablets and such behind him. His fingers drummed against the metal shelving until he found what he wanted. It was a bottle, the size of his hand, and held bright red liquid inside. Jason couldn’t see much from where he was standing on his toes, let alone the label.
The receptionist rolled back over to the desk and slid the bottle closer to Jason “That’ll keep them hydrated, and-” A nurse appeared next to him and passed along two ice packs in their packaging “these will cool them down. You got a thermometer, kid?”
Jason shook his head. He swung his backpack off and quickly pushed the packs and drink inside before the man had the chance to take them back.
The guy leaned down and pulled out a cheap thermometer in its plastic packaging “You’re lucky, we got these in last night. The batteries will last for two hours altogether, so make sure it’s turned off when you’re not using it. You want it below 104, anything above 106 is pretty bad. If the fever doesn’t go down, bring them in and we can check them over, no questions asked. Alright?”
Jason snatched up the thermometer and nodded, before running out of the clinic. The receptionist sighed behind him, more than used to that type of reaction.
-
With one of the ice packs on Robins forehead and a slow but steady trickle of the red-drink into the boy’s mouth, the fever slowly worked its way down. He didn’t wake up, but he’d stopped fidgeting so much and mumbling something not in English under his breath. Jason was checking the temperature every ten minutes and only pulled one of the blankets back over Robin when they reached 103.
He took the other blanket for himself, curling up on the stone floor next to Robin with his eyes wide open. Jason doubted he’d be getting any sleep that night, out of fear of Robin getting sick again, or worse- Batman. He was worse than the damn CPS, and was a sure ticket of getting dragged off the streets.
His eyes rested on the slow rise and fall of Robins chest. Memories drifted back from little over a year ago, watching his mums ragged breaths at night after Willis had started a fight, or she’d come back after taking too much of her ‘medicine’. Jason had always been terrified that he’d wake up in the morning and she’d be dead, so he didn’t sleep. If he was watching her, then she’d be fine.
He hadn’t been watching her the night she died, if he had then she wouldn’t be buried six feet under.
Jason sniffled and burrowed his face further into his arms, which were tucked underneath his head. He was tired, yawning every few moments, but didn’t dare doze off. He had a job to do, a Robin to protect.
Yawn.
He was pretty sleepy though. Surely, it wouldn’t hurt to close his eyes for a little bit? As long as he didn’t fall asleep and listened to their surroundings, it was perfectly fine.
-
He woke up a few minutes later to a hand shaking his shoulder. At first, he scowled in his sleep and batted the hand away, slinking further under his blanket. Then he remembered where he was and snapped his eyes open in fear.
Robin drew his hand back and gave a small wave, kindly smiling down at Jason “Hi there.” He’d folded the blanket Jason had covered him with, it was sat neatly on his backpack “It’s alright, I won’t hurt you, I promise. You helped me, right?”
Jason nodded hesitantly and bunched up his blanket in his fists, still laying down “Yeah.” He whispered “You… you were sick and I found you out there.” He pointed to the ‘door’.
“Huh, thank you. That was very brave of you.” As if by a habit, Robin reached down and ruffled Jasons unruly curls, grinning ear to ear “What’s your name, kid?”
“You’re a kid too.” Jason grumbled, but sighed and gave up his name “I’m Jason.”
“Yeah?” Robin hadn’t moved his hand, instead opting to gently pat his head as if he were a spooked animal “So, Jason, do you know where we are?” He said Jason’s name in a silly voice, probably in an attempt to make him laugh.
He rattled off the address, having remembered it from some of old abandoned letters he’d found in the pigeon holes, and yawned again.
“Okay,” Robin mumbled to himself, taking a look around the place “This place doesn’t look very safe, Jason, how about we find somewhere else to talk, huh?”
“S’ fine, I’ve lived here for-ever and it hasn’t fallen down yet.” Jason grumbled and pushed his head into Robins hand when it suddenly went still.
“Oh yeah?” Robin started playing with his hair again after Jason nudged him a second time “Do you know where your parents are, or the people who are supposed to look after you?”
“Ma’s dead and Dad’s in prison. I look after myself.” He puffed up with pride “They tried to put me in a foster home but they were sending kids off to be trafficked, so I ran away.”
“D-Do you remember what the home was called?”
For a few minutes, Jason sleepily answered more of Robins questions. He didn’t really get why he was bothering to ask; everyone knew about the foster homes- the cops especially. But he still answered the best he could.
Jason wasn’t sure when he’d been moved, but he’d ended up being cuddled by Robin. The older boy had sat up against the wall, pulling Jason half onto his lap and smooshing his face close to his chest, the blanket swaddled around him. He wasn’t complaining, it was quite nice, and reminded him of when his mum would curl up with him on the couch on one of her good days to watch a movie.
As the questions went on, Jason was yawning more than taking, and allowed himself to close his eyes again. Robin hummed softly as he drifted off to sleep again, singing in an unfamiliar language.
Jason was mostly asleep when someone else joined them, heavy boots making their presence known as they crossed the stone floors.
“Robin? Are you hurt?”
“Hey B. I’m alright.”
Something heavy moved across the floor and Jason was vaguely aware of a person leaning over him, stirring a little but stayed asleep when Robin cooed to him gently.
“Who is this?”
“His name is Jason. B, he said he lives here. The foster home he was put in was going to sell him.”
“Hn.”
“He hasn’t got anyone to look after him, B. He saved my life.”
“We cannot just take him, Robin.”
“You took me!”
“Legally. There was paperwork, this would be kidnapping.”
There must have been some kind of staring contest because after a few beats of silence, the stranger sighed and shifted awkwardly.
“Fine. Though you shall be the one explaining this to Agent A, alright? Pass the boy here.”
Strong arms lifted him up and a large maybe-blanket pulled around Jason. His face pressed against something hard, a gloved hand brushing the overgrown hair out of his face, and a small huff of air touched his forehead.
“I always wanted a little brother.”
“Robin.”
-
Jason wakes up to an overeager Dick Grayson hovering over him with a mildly amused Bruce Wayne in the background. After some adoption papers, an accidental identity reveal, and over a year of training, there is a new Robin in Gotham.
It all ends in a burning building.