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Jason is a man of action. At least that’s what he tells himself, but laying on a rooftop for hours hoping to catch a glimpse of his replacement is not very action packed. “This will all pay off” He tells himself. Just as his body starts going numb from laying on the hard concrete he sees a flash of color.
Jason moves swiftly through the sky going from rooftop to rooftop following Robin just far enough behind that he doesn’t notice him. Robin stops a convenience store from being robbed Jason admires his skill just for a second before remembering the purpose for stalking the kid in the first place. No more dead Robins.
Jason thought his death would be enough for Bruce to realize that kids don’t belong in suits fighting the scum of the night but apparently Bruce just assumed he was incompetent and that upgrading to a newer model would be the end of it.
Jason snaps out of his anger when he realizes that the kid got away. “Fuck” He curses himself for getting caught up in his thoughts. Jason ultimately decides to give up on stalking the kid for the night besides he had an entrance to make.
Jason goes to his apartment and exchanges the black camouflage for his Red Hood gear before leaving to chop off some heads.
A month after his grand entrance and it's getting harder to stalk Robin, he rarely patrols alone now that Jason is running around killing all the people Batman won’t. And apparently this Robin is worth Batman’s full time surveillance. Jason hadn’t really considered this possibility when he was forming his plan but it won’t stop him, only slow him down.
In the end Jason sees his opportunity. Bruce Wayne is going on a very public business trip. Jason knows it means he’ll be off-world with the Justice League which means either he’s trusting Robin to patrol the city alone or that Robin is going to sneak out and patrol the city and Jason is fine with either option so he waits.
The day after Bruce leaves Robin is patrolling alone. Jason follows carefully taking in every detail of the new Robin’s fighting style and attitude. Near the middle of the night though, Jason loses Robin again after he goes into a jewelry store to stop a robbery, he must leave out of a back door because Jason never sees him exit from his place on the roof across the street.
“God fucking damnit.” Jason curses out loud, pissed at once again losing track of Robin. He doesn’t look for him because he has at least a week before Bruce comes back and he’s got other stuff to do anyways.
The next day Jason wakes up and goes to make himself breakfast he stops halfway to the kitchen when he notices what looks like a piece of paper on the floor near the front door to his apartment. He picks them up cautiously and realizes that they are all pictures of him from the night before as Red Hood. The concerning part though is the fact that the pictures were taken alarmingly close to him. The person taking the pictures can’t have been more than 3 yards away for some of them.
Jason just stands there for a minute attempting to figure out who could have possibly taken the pictures without him noticing in addition to that they also know where he lives which is concerning.
The photos occupy Jason’s mind for the entire day but he pushes it to the back of his mind during the night because he has a bird to track.
Jason blames himself being distracted for the way Robin gets away this time. Jason had been making good progress tracking Robin’s movements but all of a sudden Robin had taken off with a sudden burst of speed startling Jason who immediately began to follow only to lose sight of him within a couple of minutes.
Jason curses internally before reminding himself that he still has time to track the kid within the next couple of days while Bruce is gone.
Jason’s heart drops into his stomach when he sees more photos that have been slid under his door the next morning. The new ones are of him in and out of costume and they're all from the day before he recognizes himself in a grocery carefully looking at two different bags of apples, judging which one has better quality fruit, he recognizes himself eating at the table of a small diner. Both of the photos are taken as if the person was only feet away from him Jason wracks his brain trying to remember if he saw the same person twice but he comes up empty.
The cycle repeats over the next three days Jason goes out to follow Robin, loses him and wakes up the next morning to pictures of him slid under his door. Jason has moved locations twice throughout this whole ordeal but the person stalking him never misses a day. Jason is terrified; he is constantly paranoid and there is a prickle at the back of his neck that he can’t get rid of; it feels like there are always eyes on him.
Some small part of Jason calls out for Bruce to protect him but he resists it besides it’s not like he can get Bruce’s help anyways since he’s still off-world. Jason stops stalking Robin; he no longer wants to put on a grand show to prove to everyone that Robin shouldn’t exist; he just wants to feel safe.
The day before Bruce is scheduled to come back to Gotham Jason gets one singular photo; it's a picture of him in his kitchen cooking it. Jason tries to reason that it must have been taken from outside a window but none of his windows would allow a picture to be taken from that angle.
It was taken from inside.
Jason panics. He has no idea how someone managed to get in and bug his apartment without him noticing. He turns over the photo in an attempt to get some kind of clue to what’s going on instead he finds a handwritten note. I know who you are. It’s followed by a location and a time.
Jason isn’t exactly panicking about someone knowing his identity legally he is dead after all so it holds no real leverage but he wants to know who’s been following him and if he’s lucky he’ll get a good enough shot in to kill the bastard.
The area Jason has been asked to meet his stalker in is an open area there is no place for Jason to hide to initiate a surprise attack it leaves him feeling oddly exposed and vulnerable.
“I thought you wouldn’t show I’m surprised.” An amused says from somewhere just out of Jason’s line of vision, the voice is surprisingly young.
Jason unholsters one of his guns and points it towards where the voice sounds like it's coming from.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Robin says as he emerges from the darkness.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Replacement?” Jason snarls at the boy.
“Setting the record straight and giving you a taste of your own medicine.” Robin replies easily.
“What?” Jason asks.
“You followed me because you thought Bruce replaced you I got tired of it so I followed you back and made you come here so I could tell you that Bruce didn’t replace you and that he didn’t even want me to be Robin but I blackmailed him so he would let me because he was being unnecessarily violent when taking down criminals and had little regard for his own life.” Robin is still smiling at Jason.
“Joker still isn’t dead.” Jason says breathlessly he’s desperate to be mad about something so that all the anger that has been building up in him since the minute he emerged screaming from the Lazarus Pit has somewhere to go.
“Bruce can’t kill because he knows that if he does there’s no coming back for him. He actually almost killed Joker but Superman stopped him.”
The new information makes Jason dizzy and all at once the flame of anger he has been tending to for so long extinguishes because Bruce had almost killed for him he tried to avenge him. Jason lifts his helmet off his head and feels the tears of frustration and relief that he hadn’t even known had been building up spill over. Distantly he hears Robin suck in a breath.
“You weren’t supposed to cry.” Robin says as he slowly makes his way over to Jason before standing in front of him and awkwardly moving his arms in an attempt to offer the older boy comfort.
Jason closes the distance between them and wraps the kid in a hug.
“Thanks…” Jason pauses realizing he doesn’t know the kid’s name.
“Tim.” Tim answers after he notices Jason’s hesitation.
“Thanks Tim.” Jason whispered softly.
Tim smiles from his place tucked into Jason’s chest. “They miss you.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet.” Jason confesses softly as he pulls away from the hug.
“That’s okay. It can be our secret I can even pretend to be scared of you if you want.” Tim offers.
Jason laughs.
“Whenever you are ready just know I’m on your side.” Tim calls over his shoulder as he walks away.
Jason smiles at Tim’s back as he leaves. He’s glad he has someone on his side.