Chapter Text
Jason was not having a good time. He was tired but everyone was awake and they hadn’t changed out of suits into pyjamas, just into their day clothes even though it was still dark out. They were all stressed too and he didn’t know why and he wanted to leave the kind of home building but no one would let him even though there were exciting things going on outside and Bruce kept talking to him about going somewhere and he didn’t understand. He didn’t want anyone to go anywhere. He decided he was just going to hold onto Bruce until no one went anywhere.
Bruce was trying to feed him cereal right now but Jason didn’t want cereal. He wanted to know what was going on and why Dick was pacing back and forth by the window. He groaned.
“Do you want something else for breakfast?” Bruce asked.
“Dick,” Dick was pacing back and forth.
Tim, who’d come in last night and Jason didn’t know why, snickered.
“Are you worried about Dick’s pacing?” Bruce confirmed with a glower at Tim.
Jason nodded and made anxious noises. He didn’t know why Dick was anxious.
“He’s fine,” Bruce told him. “Everyone is fine.” He waved the spoon near Jason’s mouth again.
Jason opened his mouth.
“Thank you, Jay,” Bruce fed him. “Is the cereal, okay?” he checked.
Jason nodded. He tried to pick up a piece himself, but it kept falling out of his hand. He huffed then opened his mouth again.
“Your coordination’s getting better,” Bruce said.
Jason was fairly sure that was a good thing but he had no idea what coordination was.
Dick paced some more and Jason whinged.
“Dick, sit down,” Bruce ordered.
Dick stepped outside instead. Jason was really worried now.
“He’s okay,” Tim promised. “He’s just meeting with Donna.”
Jason tried to say Donna before humming to himself. She was… Donna… she was one of Dick’s cool friends!
Bruce still looked kind of stressed and Jason didn’t get why. Donna was coming and Donna was cool.
He chewed at his hoodie sleeve nervously again. He really didn’t like it when everyone was anxious, especially when he didn't know why.
“Remember you’re going to Titans Tower for a little while,” Bruce said.
Jason nodded. He liked Titans Tower. Everyone there was cool. He smiled again.
“And if you need anything, just go to Dick, okay?” Bruce added.
“Dick,” Jason couldn’t see him right now.
“He’s just outside,” Bruce said, looking slightly concerned.
Right, with Donna. Donna was cool. Jason noticed that there was still cereal in front of him. He opened his mouth.
“Yeah, let’s finish breakfast,” Bruce said.
“Do you think Donna would be able to give me a lift back?” Tim asked.
“You’d have to hang from her ankle,” Bruce told him. “Unless you have no other way back without compromising your identity, I’d recommend just heading out before Jack wakes up.”
“Good point,” Tim stood up. “I’ll see you soon, hopefully,” he said to Jason.
Jason made a worried hum, he wasn’t sure where Tim was going.
“I’ll see if I can drop by the Tower at some point,” Tim then disappeared off. Jason didn’t really get what was going on with Tim. He’d stayed with them for a long time. Then he’d disappeared and then he’d come back.
“Dad?” he asked.
“Yes, Jay?”
He pointed at where Tim just was.
“Tim just left,” Bruce suddenly looked really worried.
Jason looked towards the door and nodded.
“Yeah, Tim left through that door,” Bruce agreed. “Is that what you were trying to say?”
Jason shook his head and pointed at the space again.
“You have a question about Tim.”
Jason nodded. “Dad?”
“You want to ask me a question about Tim?”
Jason nodded again. He wanted to ask Bruce if he was Tim’s dad too.
“Okay,” Bruce paused for a long moment. “Are you wondering why Tim left?”
That wasn’t what he was asking but he was curious about that too.
“Tim has to head back before his dad wakes up. Neither his dad nor step-mother know he’s Robin.”
“Oh,” so Bruce wasn’t Tim’s dad too. “Dick?”
“Is just outside on the balcony.”
Jason grumbled. That wasn’t what he meant. “Dad?”
“Who’s Dick’s Dad?” Bruce asked, frowning a little.
Jason nodded.
“Dick’s dad was John Grayson; he was an acrobat like Dick.”
“Buh?”
“I was Dick’s foster father but I’m not legally his father,” Bruce looked kind of sad at that. “Do you remember when I fostered you?”
Jason wasn’t really sure what foster meant.
“There was the social worker and then the custody dispute that ended up with me adopting you?” Bruce prompted.
The black and white lady had taken Jason for a while then Bruce had gotten him back. He nodded. “Dad,” He fell into Bruce’s side.
Bruce wrapped an arm around him, “I’m your dad.” He ran a hand through his hair, “Which means I really should make sure you finish breakfast.” He waved another spoonful of cereal at him.
Once he was done with the cereal, Bruce helped Jason put a mask on despite the fact he wasn’t putting his suit on. “Dad?” Jason asked again.
“I’m not going to Titans Tower with you,” Bruce explained. “But I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?”
Jason whined. He didn’t want to be away from Bruce. Bad things happened when Bruce was away.
“Dick will be there,” Bruce said. “Is that okay?”
“Dick,” Jason echoed. Dick was fun to hang out with. He liked Dick. He snickered to himself as he remembered the joke there.
The balcony door then opened again and in walked Dick and… Donna!
Jason thought about running over but it had been a long time since he’d seen Donna and- she was really cool and really pretty and she was one of Dick’s cool friends and suddenly he felt kind of nervous. He wanted to hide a little but there was no where he could go. He leant into Bruce again.
“It’s so good to see you again, Jason,” she said to him.
“Do you remember Donna?” Dick added.
Jason nodded. “Cool,” he murmured.
“Yeah, Donna’s cool,” Dick smiled. “How do you feel about flying with her to Titans Tower?”
Flying with Donna was awesome! Jason grinned.
Alfred handed Dick a bag then and Bruce seemed to be holding Jason just a little tighter.
“We should probably head out before the sun starts to rise,” Dick said. “If you’re ready Jay?”
Jason nodded, then looked at Bruce. He seemed stressed still and Jason didn’t know why. He was going with Dick’s cool friends and it was going to be awesome. He hugged Bruce, knocking his head against his until he got a forehead kiss too.
“Keep him safe,” Bruce said to Dick. “And you keep him safe,” he added to Jason.
Jason had saved Dick before, he’d do great.
“We’ll be fine,” Dick chuckled.
Dick messed around with some stuff while they were on the balcony. The first things were important, they were the ear things that, they were important on patrol because… talking to people and not hurting. They stopped something hurting maybe. “Testing, testing,” Dick said a moment later and it was like he was saying it directly into Jason’s ear.
Jason let out a startled laugh.
“Are those okay?” Dick asked.
Jason nodded. He had his mask and he had his ear things, he was just missing his cape. He did a little swish.
“Can we get this watch on you?” Dick asked and Jason wasn’t sure what he was meant to watch but then Dick was holding out a thingy.
He watched Dick lift his arm and then put it in place.
“Perfect,” Dick said. “Ready to go to Titans Tower?”
Jason nodded. He’d missed the Tower.
Not long after they were flying and it was incredible. Jason had… he’d forgotten the feeling of cold air batting at his face and messing up his hair and the force of the wind against his limbs and how awesome everything looked at night through his mask lenses. He squealed as he saw towers of light on the horizon. Donna then rolled onto her back and Jason was staring up at patches of bright white lights and the edges of fluff surrounding them. To one side, he could see a ring of orange and little black outlines standing in it. The orange then started to make them glitter and it was almost like… he couldn’t remember but he murmured “Woah” all the same. It was all so pretty and the wind was cold and Donna’s arm was warm and he found his eyes drifting shut.
Jason stirred as he was turned around. They were landing somewhere and oh there was Titans Tower. He grinned. It had been so long since he was last here. “Glad to be back?” Dick asked, voice sounding a little thick.
He nodded as he was pulled away from Donna and set on the ground again.
“Let’s get inside,” Dick nudged him forwards.
Jason realised they were going down rather than up. He whinged. This wasn’t normal. “What’s up?” Dick asked.
Not the Tower apparently, Jason wanted to reply. He didn’t know what to say so he pointed at the stairs.
Dick then said some stuff that Jason didn’t really get.
He whimpered. They were meant to be going to the Tower and this wasn’t the Tower and why wasn’t this the Tower and what if there were bad things here and he wanted to go to the Tower!
“It’s okay,” Dick said. “It’s a new Tower, but it’s still the Tower. Roy and Wally are still going to be here and I’m not going anywhere. It’s going to be okay.”
Jason still glowered at him. He said they were going to the Tower. He leaned into Donna, Donna didn’t lie.
They headed downwards and then walked until they entered a living room. Dick seemed kind of anxious but Wally and Roy and Garth and Kori and Vic were here. Roy was the coolest! Jason ran towards him.
“Hi,” Roy said, looking really worried about something. The others were also looking really worried too.
“So, No Man’s Land was weirder than I expected,” Dick said. “Jason, Roy might need some space a moment.”
Jason backed off a bit and then looked between all of them worriedly. He didn’t get why everyone was so tense and staring between him and Dick. He walked back over to Donna, letting her pick him up and hug him.
“Jason, do you want to come help make breakfast?” she asked.
Jason looked at all the worried people again and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be here. He nodded.
Donna carried him through to a new kitchen and set him down on the counter. “Do you like-” the last word was just noise.
Jason frowned in confusion.
She pulled out a little glowy box and prodded it a few times. “These?”
The little golden breakfast circle things, Jason definitely liked those. He nodded.
“Okay, let’s make some pancakes,” she said.
Jason got to help mix the ingredients as Donna started to play some sort of music singing about strawberry fields and then another one about the colour black. She sung along softly and Jason rocked to the second one with the stronger beat.
Dick came in as the second song faded out, “Rolling Stones?”
Jason realised that he didn’t have his bottle filled with the things with him. He whinged and mimed rolling it against the table.
“Yeah, I’ll go grab your bottle, Jason,” Dick ran off again.
He came back a couple of moments later with the bottle in his hand. He handed it over and Jason shook it happily, the rocks bounced up and down. Dick made noises that Jason didn’t really get over all the kitchen noises, but he seemed to be interested in the bottle too.
Donna made noises then too, the bottle was making noises too.
Then Dick made noises too and Jason whined. They were all just noises.
A lot of people came in for pancakes, including three people Jason had never seen before, one of whom just looked like a normal guy, one who kind of looked like the black and white lady and the third who was a small child who looked a lot like Roy. Jason shrugged it off. No one looked ready to fight, besides, he had the mask, and the mask gave him magic. He was going to be fine. Dick waved a piece of pancake in front of his mouth and yes, Jason wanted pancakes.
Dick then started talking and Jason really wanted him to keep feeding him pancakes instead. He hit the table.
“Sorry Jay,” Dick said quickly, “Yeah, let’s help you with second breakfast.”
Dick disappeared after breakfast and Jason started to feel really tired. “Do you want to sleep?” Garth asked.
Jason nodded, sleep sounded good.
“Wally’s going to drag Wing to bed once he’s done in the lab,” Roy commented. “Do you want to go to his room?” he asked Jason.
Jason nodded then fell into Garth seeing he was closest. He didn’t want to walk.
“He wants to be carried,” Donna commented. “He’s not heavy at all.”
“Okay, I’ll carry you,” Garth stood and then lifted him, Jason was asleep before he even got to the new space.