Archive of Our Own ^beta

Damian Wayne was very sure the Batmobile had had four wheels on it when it had raced out of the cave earlier that night, so coming back to find only one on the vehicle was…irritating.

He had to inhale and count to ten two times to calm his still roiling emotions. It was just his luck that the first night he officially takes over for his father it gets fucked up by petty thieves. 

What was it called when things just had to go wrong? Murphy’s Law? It should be called Gotham’s Law at this point, really, if it was set to go right, every detail planned to go right, it would still fail in Gotham. 

Damian had lived most of his life now in this city and seen the rule at play first hand. He’d had to be flexible, think on his feet, change and adapt, it had only helped him in life after all of the things that had happened that resulted in everything current. Especially now.

He was Batman, and he would be for the foreseeable future. It was the only logical choice for keeping a promise to a city for protection and keeping a promise to a family that needed a break. 

Of course he'd supported his father's endeavor to search for their missing family member so far as to take over the mantle of Batman while he searched. Damian had taken it over a few times in the past when Batman and Bruce Wayne needed to be in the same place at once, or if his father was elsewhere, just to keep up appearances, it was a role he was well versed in after so many years in the game, but not on such a permanent basis. He'd had to insist to his father that he need not strain himself and consider too many duties before his health, a long and hard fought battle alongside Alfred, who really was only saying everything he’d always said for both of them, but the support was still nice. He had won, likely because his father knew him well enough to see Damian considered this his own penance for his past actions. They were a morbid set, the pair of them.

Damian wasn’t sure how he felt knowing he was the Batman now, it had always been an unconscious end goal for him in his vigilante career. He would one day take over for his father, but how that happened never really crossed his mind, and Damian had never made moves for the cape. He was of the age, and knowledge that he’d much rather have his father than have his cape.

It had taken far too long for him to fully realize that, after all he’d been doing this for nearly as long as his father, and it had taken a long while to recognize what he really wanted out of it, but that had taken time, mistakes, new perspectives and it had resulted in a new lot in life.

But now, after a great tragedy, pushing that point to the forefront of his mind, he knew even more now, that he still preferred having his father as Batman than himself, because that meant he was present, and okay. 

At the moment, he was not okay.

He was broken, in heart and in purpose. Damian, normally the one to point this out in a scathing tone, or sarcastic jibe, kept his mouth firmly shut, his own guilt and regret burning. 

It had been so routine, to check warehouse activity on the edge of the docks, Batman went one way, and Robin the other, following the goons hiding something awful of some kind. It was all normal bullshit villain scheming dramatics, until it wasn’t. A vortex of energy and targeting technology that prevented escape. A trap sprung for the wrong vigilante, leading to the tragic loss of a child. 

Because he was a child, Damian knew that, even if he himself was an adult, 20 years old and living on his own (well on paper anyway), with a city of his own to protect, a vigilante name and legacy to grow. He was still a child himself in some ways, and how he’d treated Tim up until weeks before his loss definitely reflected that, which was why his guilt was so strong. Tim had deserved better, and Damian felt that shame sting every time he saw the grief on his father’s face.

Bruce had watched as he reached out for him, Tim vanished into the ether as the boy had called out for him, desperate to be saved by his dad. Bruce’s hand had closed on empty air. Damian had seen the feed from the bodycam. Tim had looked so scared, and of course, of course this had to happen only weeks after Damian had gotten over himself, had managed to pull the stick out of his ass, and accept him as a member of the family, of which he’d been a part of for years already. But Damian had been so young, so stupid and selfish and so very jealous, letting old buried ideologies color how he treated the other boy for too long. But finally he'd gotten over himself with some help from Jonathan after his own…experiences with ‘replacements’. Only for Tim to vanish into nothing and be impossible to find. It was hard not to blame himself, but logically he knew it was not his fault that one of the Rogue’s traps for Batman ended up taking out Robin instead. It was not the first time, but it was absolutely the worst.

It had been devastating, Bruce had gone so far as to beg the Justice League for help locating him, or rather Superman, but not even the man of steel could locate the missing teen. Damian had even tried to ask Jonathan to help, but he also came up with nothing. Neither set of super hearing ears could hear Tim’s heartbeat. Constantine, and Zatana were also left with nothing but theories. They had no real leads to go on, as they still had no true knowledge of what had happened and every bit of useful evidence had vanished in the implosion. For a detective that was the worst kind of mystery.

It had been three months since then and he was still completely not okay. But he was doing better than his father who spent morning, noon and night searching for the missing boy. After weeks of no leads, finally, he’d gotten something, a ping of similar energy on radar that led to a feral Batman hunting down the source. It resulted in an absolutely demolished group of Rogues who’d put the plan in motion, apparently it was a subsect of Brother Blood’s cult, they thought they’d found some kind of talisman that needed a sacrifice, only it wasn’t, it was advanced alien technology that presumably was used for travel. Green Lantern had taken it with a reverence not normally seen from the man, promising he’d look into it to try and provide answers. He left the planet, and that was it for Bruce, he couldn’t find any more information on what had happened and where the implosion had sent Tim. 

He would not stop searching until he had solid proof that Tim was actually dead, and even then he’d only accept the body was Tim after dozens of tests. Until then he would never stop looking for his missing son. He only slept when he dropped of exhaustion, he only ate when forced, needless to say; Bruce was not in a good place. Which meant Batman was not an option for Bruce, but Gotham still needed her Dark Knight regardless of his mental stability, thus Damian was there to take up the Mantel. It was not easy when he had to hop back and forth between Blüdhaven and Gotham. He was already exhausted. Luckily his…Jonathan was willing to cover for him as Shadow Knight in Blüdhaven when he couldn’t be there. Being able to get from Metropolis to Blüdhaven in about thirty seconds was very helpful when you had to be in two places at once. He had to remember to get him that new videogame he’d been eyeing as a thank you.

Damian took one more breath to refocus on the problem he was facing now and set his hands on his hip and glared at the Batmobile as if it’s lack of wheels was its own fault, when really it was his father’s fault, what did he expect from these people? He should have more security for a vehicle that was probably worth several million dollars.

He was still debating what to do when he heard a set of footsteps approaching and he kept still, keeping to the shadows like only his League training had taught him. It had been close to fifteen years since then but some things he’d learned had translated quite well to the life of a vigilante. 

Damian wanted to say he was surprised when he saw a twitchy looking preteen holding a tire iron coming back for the last tire, but this was Gotham and children committing crimes was not new, in fact, it was expected.

The kid scuttled over to the last tire, clearly nervous, and also clearly starving and homeless. The red hoodie he wore was so dirty it was turning brown, and he was so skinny Damian could see bones where they were not supposed to be seen.

He honestly couldn’t even work up any anger, annoyance certainly, but no anger, this kid was clearly desperate, but well...Damian was Batman. He moved forward intentionally making noise so his presence was known right as he stepped up behind him.

The kid whipped around, the tire iron held up to protect his face from an expected blow, Damian only crossed his arms, “Do you mind?” he asked, “I would appreciate my tires back.”

The kid was obviously terrified, but he was still a Crime Alley Brat. He swung the tire iron as hard as he could towards him and then bolted when Damian grunted as it nailed him right in the gut. Cheeky little shit .

It hadn’t hurt to get whapped by the tire iron as the kid barely had much muscle to put behind the swing, but it was annoying. He’d caught it on reflex, and then reached out and grabbed the boy's shoulder also on reflex before he could get far.

"Why you little-" He wanted to be pissed, really, but he was mostly just impressed the kid had even considered retaliating in such a way, but also what the hell? The little shit had hit him with a tire iron!

“No! I didn’ do nuthin’! Lemme go! Lemme go!” he cried and Damian realized how young the kid actually was, he had to be no older than ten, maybe, he was pretty small, malnourished probably from living on the streets. Damian could hold both of his wrists in one hand.

“The tires didn’t exactly hijack themselves, did they? Come on you brat, what’s your name so I can take you home?"

That garnered a reaction he should have expected and thus should have prevented him from saying it at all, but Damian did try to be a good Batman, and Batman made sure kids were safe when he got his hands on them, and logically most kids were safe at home. Most.

Clearly the idea of home for this kid was not safe, as the struggle to get away increased tenfold, he twisted and turned and even tried to kick his shins, not even bothering to shout his way out. He was vicious and desperate.

“Kid, sto- Kid! Okay I won’t take you home! Enough! Just stop!”

The kid struggled for a moment more then slumped, and then glared up at him, it was almost cute, his eyes were blue, and his hair, while greasy and unwashed, was black, he looked shockingly similar to T- no. No.

Damian gave him a moment to gather himself then asked, “Better?”

“Your Batman voice sucks,” was all the kid grunted. Damian blinked.

“Excuse me?”

“Batman sounds way meaner than you do, he growls at criminals, you’re kinda a bad Batman.” 

Damian had to use every ounce of his will not to smack the kid, but did as the kid asked and lowered his voice into the growl his father used when he confronted criminals that he could mimic to near perfection, “Is this better? Do you want me to treat you like a criminal?”

The kid offered him narrow eyes to cover up the tears that he was clearly holding back, “I thought I was a criminal, I’m stealin’ yer tires, bozo.”

“Not well,” he replied, making the kid scowl indignantly at him, he opened his mouth to refute when his body betrayed him and his stomach let out a loud growl, Damian sighed, “Go get them and put them back on and I’ll buy you some damn food, you insufferably obnoxious brat.”

The kid looked surprised for one moment then suspicious again, “Really?” Damian offered a sharp nod, his eyes narrowed further, “I wanna burger.”

“I’ll get you a burger, get my tires without a fuss and I won’t even drop you off at your neighborhood,” he scowled, jeez this kid.

“Yer not bein’ a very good protector, ain’t ya suppose’ ta make sure I’m back home safe or whatevah,” he asked, and honestly the level of suspicion in a child so young was either devastating or hilarious, Damian was going to focus on the latter so he didn’t have to consider why.

“Kid…I just want my tires back on, if it means I have to buy you a burger and fries and help you avoid whatever hellhole you crawled out of to get it, I will,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose even with the cowl on.

The kid shrugged, “Milkshake too and I’ll do it.” 

Damian wanted to smack this kid more than he’d ever wanted to punch a criminal, he took a deep breath and reminded himself he was not allowed to hurt civilians or children. Even if they were as annoying as this kid.

“ Fine. ”

The kid smirked and that was that. 

After Damian had fed him while he jabbered on about whatever came across his mind, which was not endearing, absolutely not, he dropped him off at the children’s home he knew was nearby, there was much protesting and some swearing, but in the end Damian knew the kid would be okay, even if he wished he could do more, he knew the kid had the will and the spark of fight to make it through the hell that was Gotham’s foster system.

Damian didn’t really give the kid much thought, but seeing the tires back on every night with scratches on the lugnuts and wheel well made him snort in amusement. It was almost fond, he did hope the kid was okay, knowing him though he’d likely run away from the group home. There wasn’t much Damian could do about that unless he came across him again, which he hadn’t so far, thus he’d put the kid from his mind.

It wasn’t until many weeks later, when Bruce had to go out as Batman due to colliding emergencies, Damian had to head back to Blüdhaven in his Shadow Knight persona due to a gang war incident and thus couldn’t be Batman in Gotham, and a giant robot in Metropolis that Jonathan had to take care of while his own father was off fighting a tsunami or something, leaving every post filled, which was a perfectly good time for the kid to crash into their lives again.

Or rather helped Bruce take down the child soldier training Ma Gunn was using her home for boys for. Bruce also took him out to eat too, as a thank you for pushing her out of the window and into the garbage. Well, sort of. He'd stopped her from shooting Batman with a shotgun while he'd been swarmed by a gang of child soldiers. It had been enough to get them all to stop as well, and she was fine, mostly.

Jason would take it as a win, he’d certainly accept the offer of food too.

“You’re the other Batman, right?” Jason asked halfway through his second burger, feet kicking out from the hood of the Batmobile, making Bruce pause.

“Other Batman?”

“Yeah, the one from before was different,” he said, stuffing fries in his mouth, “I dunno, like you’re both pretty close, but not the same. His voice wasn’t as gravely as yours, his angry growl was like grrr, and yours is like grooouuu, ya know?”

“Sure,” he said, trying not to sound amused, but also was impressed. Not too many people could tell there was a difference between him and Damian, it was a blessing that Damian had grown to be as tall as him and almost as broad, it made their switching a lot less likely to be noticed. It wasn’t shocking to know someone had noticed though, seeing as there were several shades of skin tone between them, but luckily they were both good at what they did, so it didn’t seem to really be a bad thing. After all, two Batmans was much more terrifying in the grand scheme of things. The fact a kid had noticed simply from their voices was a bit of a surprise, however.

“You’re nicer too,” he grinned, it was cheeky and Bruce had to let out a laugh in surprise. There was something about this kid, the sparkling blue eyes and the spark of intelligence…well. Bruce was always a bit of a sucker for that kind of thing. 

He also had a history of bringing home black haired and blue eyed smart mouthed kids.

Damian wasn’t impressed or surprised, but he didn’t exactly argue either. He had been wondering about the kid with enough spunk to try and steal the tires off of the one car that likely would lead to the very worst of consequences in this city. 

Jason Todd was on the fast track to Wayne pretty shortly after that.

Jason didn't know how to deal with this life, he'd gone from desperately trying to keep his mom alive in their shabby apartment to losing her and then desperately trying to keep himself alive on the streets of the highest crime rate city in the country, to suddenly living in the lapse of luxury with two grown men who work by day as a CEO of the largest and richest company in the city and a paralegal and dress like giant bat people at night. (They had tried hiding it, but Jason was observant enough to recognise their faces, similarities and the coincidences of his sudden adoption to come to the conclusion.) There was also a butler. A real life butler who called him 'Master Jason' and made sure he had clean clothes, a clean room and gave him snacks every day after school.

That was another thing, Jason was in school and if he ignored the jerks there who liked to call him ‘Crime Alley Trash’ it was amazing. He hadn’t been to school in ages, but he'd always liked it. He'd only needed to take a few remedial classes to catch up to his peers too, so that was nice. He had to remember to stop by the corner shop in the Bowery to thank Mr. Lake for his reading, writing and math tutoring/yelling. He'd made it his life goal to make sure Jason didn't let those skills slip even when he was a street urchin. 

But now he was living a seemingly normal life and it was weird .

He had his own room, the only chores expected of him was keeping his laundry in the basket so Alfred could take it on laundry day, and to make his bed in the morning, and it wasn’t like Jason was particularly messy to begin with. He had three meals a day, and snacks, he had clothes and shelter and he was fairly sure if he asked Bruce for anything right now the man would say yes without question.

But he was conflicted. 

Jason was pretty damn observant, he'd had to be to stay alive on the streets at his age, he'd noticed there was something going on with Bruce. He wasn’t quick to smile even if he did try for Jason, and he always seemed distracted when he was with Jason.

He’d asked Alfred and the man had said he was likely just feeling empty nest syndrome. Which had made Jason a little confused until he’d learned that Jason’s presence was not a shock to the old butler. Oh no, it was expected. Because Bruce had a problem .

When Bruce had gotten custody of Damian when he was 6, apparently he’d had to formally adopt him in order to make sure his mother couldn’t get custody of him again, which she had tried to do when he was 12, apparently that had been a very rough time in their relationship. But they’d made it through but then Damian had some existential angst at 14, went to meet his mother and Grandfather in the middle of nowhere Asia and then came back only two months later realizing that had been a mistake. Damian and Bruce had worked it out, and were now stronger for it. At least, that’s what Alfred said, even though they tended to still argue a lot. But it wasn’t bad arguing, Jason had heard screaming arguments in his old apartment before his mom died and that was scary to be around, but Damian and Bruce mostly just argued about dumb stuff which tended to end with someone rolling their eyes. So it was okay.

But there was more, apparently when Damian was 15 they encountered a meta child, born and raised in Gotham, his parents had been hurt badly by Joker and weren’t sure of their recovery,  Bruce took him in until his parents were better or until a more permanent solution came about, it didn’t really matter as in the end, Duke turned 18 while in Bruce’s custody and Bruce was willing to pay for his college if he wanted. And that’s what he did, he was being put through a college on the west coast and Jason suddenly remembered there was a group of supers, young ones, out on the west coast too.

“Is he with the Titans?!” he gasped, that was actually really exciting. Alfred had only smiled and carried on. Neither confirming nor denying.

After that, it had been Stephanie, on an anonymous tip Bruce had found the home of the rookie vigilante running around in too much purple trying to stop crimes at only 13 years old. She’d been trying to stop her father, who was a minor villain, and Bruce took her under his wing (“Oh my god Alfie, not the puns!”) and fostered her until her mother got back on her feet, she had just started her last year of highschool and was taking nursing classes for college too, apparently some other things had happened to her, but Alfred wasn’t going to expand on it. 

“And then there was Master Tim…he…” Alfred paused, his hands tightened on the rag he’d been using to polish the silver, “He turned out to be the one to give us the tip about Mistress Stephanie, Bruce took him in as well, when it was discovered he had no true parental supervision. He is the only one Bruce adopted, the other two were only fostered.”

“Really? So…Tim and then…me?” Jason asked but Alfred had only offered him a sad smile, a gentle pat to his hand and reminded him to finish his maths homework. He would say no more.

It wasn’t until Jason had harassed Damian relentlessly for answers did he learn about Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, the second son, the missing Robin.

Jason was sure he'd heard about Tim going missing in the news now that he had his full name, but he hadn't thought much of it, considering kids went missing in Gotham all the time. But now that he knew it was Robin, that the kid he’d looked up to as a little kid had vanished and had hurt Bruce Wayne so deeply, had left a hole so wide, he was like a phantom these days.

It kind of made more sense now, why he’d only met Bruce for five minutes and then suddenly he was adopted like a week later.

Bruce was trying to find his missing son and Jason was just a placeholder, or maybe a bandaid for a gaping wound. 

But...Jason found he was a little too selfish to make it easy on them by leaving. He couldn’t leave, his heart was already too attached to the library, and the idea of school. God he would be able to get into a really good college with his attendance at Gotham Academy. If he did really well, maybe he could even get a scholarship and Bruce wouldn’t have to worry about him after that, he could just do better, and be better.

He wanted to make it all worth it, Bruce was so worried about Tim, Damian was so worried about Bruce and Gotham and his own life, Jason heard him talking to his boyfriend nearly every night when he wasn’t in Blüdhaven, he didn’t need to worry about Jason too. Alfred made sure he was fed and seemed to enjoy it whenever Jason spent time with him, so Jason thought it was probably okay to stay, at least for a bit, but when they found Tim, he’d leave, so they wouldn’t have to worry anymore and they could focus on the boy they wanted.

That made perfect sense to him. 

It would be fine, in theory at least.

Except Jason quickly grew to love being at the manor, and even more quickly grew to love Damian who was nearly always there to talk to, or read with or play a video game, Damian would take him to the park and zoo and out for ice cream and spoil him absolutely rotten, it was the most kidlike joy and fun Jason could ever really remember having and Damian seemed to enjoy being able to give that to him in his own quiet way. He wasn’t that talkative really, compared to Jason at least who could talk for hours about his favorite books, but he had expressive eyes, and that was how Jason knew Damian was okay and not bored by his babbling. His eyes were always wistful and seemed even fond at times, even if his words were usually droll and sarcastic. 

Alfred was also so amazing, he was kind and understanding, and made sure he ate, he showed him how to do laundry and let him help with other chores around the house because honestly, Jason liked making things clean, it was hard to stay clean when you lived on the streets, but now that he could be clean, he liked making other things clean too.

Bruce was confusing. He made time for him, despite how busy he was, when he wasn’t in the Cave or his office, he would sit with Jason in the library as he read and ask questions about which books he was reading and act like he really cared, and sometimes even picked him up from school and took him to one of the locally owned bookstores and let him get some new ones for the library. He also took him out to eat once a week just the two of them to make sure he was doing okay and to get him out of the manor for a little bit, he would listen as Jason talked about school and ask inviting questions.  He did all of that, and it was a wonder, but it always seemed to be done with an air of sadness, like he was doing it out of obligation, rather than because he wanted to.

Jason knew he really just wanted Tim back, he’d seen what some of the computers in the Cave were searching for (before he’d been kicked out after sneaking down), and that was Tim. Jason didn’t really mind being a placeholder, because it meant he was here, but truly, he wouldn’t mind actually having a dad. Maybe, someday, he would.

It all together kept him very occupied and unable to take on anything more for quite a long time, but Jason was a smart boy, and the best thing to do with smart boys was to keep them interested and occupied in things, so even if he appeared disinterested in Batman and vigilantes now, it wouldn't last forever.

Which naturally led to his own piquing interest in doing a bit of vigilante work himself. 

It took a lot of badgering. A lot.

Damian and Bruce were very firmly against it. Sternly and impossibly, stubbornly against it. No amount of pouting would change their minds. It was incredibly frustrating. But they were both of the same opinion that it was not a role for children. They did not want any more hurt children in their family.

Which, okay, fair.

Jason let up a little after that, but he did nag Damian about self-defense, because he could still use that even not as a vigilante. Damian was still unsure, but with a lot more pouting and begging and Alfred backing him up with ‘at least you will be able to supervise, Master Damian’, before he relented.

Jason knew the basics of throwing a punch and dodging, but that was really it. In Crime Alley, if you weren’t easy to catch you were too much effort, so getting out of a tight spot was more important than fighting back. But if you could break a trafficker’s nose then that was a bonus. 

Damian apparently was taking Jason’s interest in everything as a challenge. He did not hold back. He was brutal, but not in the physical sense, but more like the military instructor sense. They started with the basics and repeated them again and again and again and again, until he was doing them in his frigging sleep, and then some more, until Jason was going to go crazy.

And then they moved onto the next step, which still wasn’t punching apparently. It was aggravating, but he was good at the things he was taught at least.

He could fall without hurting himself, he could dodge so quickly he almost got whiplash, he could crouch at the drop of a hat, he was an expert dodger, really. Damian was drilling the reflexes he already had but to the point that he didn’t even have to think, it just happened, it was second nature. 

Jason could admit after a while it was very helpful knowing how to avoid getting hurt, which was clearly what Damian was going for. But he wasn’t going to settle, he wanted to know how to defend too. And even punch a jerkfaced goony trafficker in the face so hard he cried. 

He’d work up to it. Even if Damian didn’t seem to agree.

“Dami pleeeeeeeease, I’m gonna lose it, please teach me something fun?” he pouted, “ We’ve been doin’ this for aaages, years! I’m so good at dodging I dodged you in the kitchen, come on!”

Damian gave him a look, “ It’s been seven months and you were half asleep and jumped away from my hand reaching for the cream,” he said, clearly amused.

“Same difference, come on just a little bit more? I can do it, I won’t use it for evil!” he pushed his bottom lip out even further and Damian sighed, rolling his eyes.

“...fine-”

“Yeeeesss!”

“On one condition!” he added more loudly, ignoring the face Jason made at him, “You last two minutes against me, not holding back. Only defensive maneuvers, no punching, no kicking, only blocking, dodging and escape.”

Jason bit his lip, he’d seen Damian and Bruce spar, and they were stupid fast, it was almost scary how they could move their bodies. But if all he had to do was just…not get hit, maybe he could do that. He nodded.

“And if I hit you, you go through everything again from the beginning,” he added and Jason scoffed.

“That’s two conditions and adding on after the agreement was already stated! You can’t do that, I thought you were a lawyer.”

“I’m a paralegal,” he shrugged, “I don’t need to uphold the laws, just know them, and know how to loophole them.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Not a full lawyer yet, but I don’t think I will be, I only really became one as a favor to one of the family friends, you remember Mr. Dent?”

“Yeah, he was funny,” Jason agreed, he’d talked to the man at one of the recent galas he’d been forced to attend, it was terrible, but the man had been nice and told him dumb jokes that were still amusing.  

“Yes, he’s technically my boss, but he knows about…some of the activities we’re involved in, so it lets me get away with missing work and not get in trouble.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” he nodded, “Now come ooon! I’m ready!”

“Alright alright,” Damian sighed and moved over to the training mats, and gestured for Jason to take his stance, trying not to smile as the boy bounced onto the mat, his energy was palpable.

“Remember, only defense, nothing else.”

“Right,” Jason nodded, his eyebrows pushed together in concentration.

“Good, your two minutes begin…now!” and then he struck. Of course he wasn’t going all out, he would never do that to Jason it would just not be fair, considering he was ten (almost eleven) and absolutely nowhere near skilled enough to handle that. But he did go a little harder than what he was used to.  

It was fast and furious, and Jason had to stop himself from striking more than once, but he did, and he jumped and ducked, and dodged. He was doing very well, Damian could easily say he was proud.

At two minutes and thirteen seconds, Damian cheated by speeding up and grabbing Jason around the middle and rolled with him in a protective hug. 

“Cheater!” Jason squeaked from his arm cage, “That was cheating!” 

“You did it, gremlin,” Damian drawled, “And there is no cheating in life or death situations, I want you to do anything and everything you need to do if you’re ever in that situation, which you won’t be, but if…”

Jason looked up at him, his eyes were big and blue and Damian knew he was nothing like Tim, but he could see that look, the one that was a little like worship that he’d nearly beaten out of the other boy and- no. 

He was going to do better, he would not let his feelings get in the way again. He’d sworn it to himself the moment his father had mentioned Jason was going to be adopted.

He was going to be the brother Tim had deserved and never got. 

“Right, so teach me all the things!”

“Get in your stance,” he drawled and Jason cheered, more than happy to do as told and hopped around as he listened to Damian’s instruction.

Jason was very intent to do well still, and while Damian was demonstrating something as he spoke, he turned around before spinning and surprise leg swept him, but Jason knew he was a weirdo by now and easily jumped over it with a cackle.

“What the hell?!” a voice demanded from the door. Jason turned after Damian had frozen for only half a second. Jason saw a blonde lady, her hair tied back in a ponytail, she was wearing jeans and a purple shirt. 

“Damian!” she snapped and then her hands started moving furiously quickly, Jason had no idea what was happening and thought it might be a threat but then he saw Damian start making hand gestures back, and then it clicked. Sign language! 

He only knew two things in ASL and they were both bad words, so he probably shouldn’t do them, instead he looked back and forth between them until the lady crossed her arms and glared.

Damian sighed, “Jason, this is Stephanie Brown,” he introduced, he looked tired, “She’s one of the people Bruce fostered, and he’s helping her through college.”

“Oh, hi!” he offered a smile, and a wave, he saw her shoulders slump a little, and she waved back.

“Hello,” she replied, but her voice was a little loud.

“She’s deaf, so she mainly talks in sign, but she is a skilled lip reader,” Damian explained.

“Oh, okay, nice to meet you, I don’t know any sign except for-” he paused and shook his head, “I probably shouldn’t do it, Alfred would make me put money in the swear jar.”

This had the woman laughing, “Nice to meet you,” she said slowly, while also signing it, Jason watched closely and tried to mimic it, which only made her laugh again, she moved over to them, and very pointedly hip checked Damian away before throwing her arm around Jason’s shoulders.

“I want to meet the new addition,” she said, smiling, and Jason nodded, glancing at Damian who was only shaking his head and then looking up to the bats on the ceiling as if asking for guidance.

Jason decided immediately after that he liked her.

Stephanie was awesome, Jason thought she was the best thing since sliced bread. She spent time with him when she could, she was currently working to get her doctorate in medicine. She’d started taking classes in high school in nursing and upon graduation decided to go all out instead, but with all of that it meant she really didn’t have much time to herself. 

But she was now making time to at least spare some time for Jason, checking in on his self study of ASL and just chatted with him when she had the chance.

It turned out Steph was a great source of information, she mentioned that she used to be Batgirl which was amazing, but she’d chosen to retire because of the event that had resulted in her deafness. She was now focusing on learning how to keep the rest of them alive when they fucked themselves up in fights instead. Jason, after sneaking down to the cave again, had seen her work on Bruce when he’d sprained his ankle while fighting Mr. Freeze and Damian was on the other side of the city fighting Riddler as Shadow Knight, she’d been efficient and calm with steady and sure hands, and yelled at him the whole time, it had been awesome. But apparently she had every right to yell at them.

It turned out about a month before Tim disappeared Steph had been caught in another explosion, and it had been so bad it had made her deaf and she’d had to recover from some other injuries, so she hadn’t been out when Tim had vanished.

She and Tim had been very close, apparently, and well…her seeing Jason training had scared her, and thus she’d panicked a little and yelled at Damian about it, now though she knew he was only learning self-defense. Which she wouldn’t argue against, but she was of the same opinion that he was way too young to fight as a vigilante. She pointedly mentioned that as someone who definitely shouldn’t have done it, she wasn’t going to let him make the same mistake.

He understood, he did, but it was still a bit frustrating, as Jason was kind of hoping she’d be on his side, he wanted to be Robin. He wanted to just taste it once!

He’d seen a lot of videos of Tim’s Robin, how he fought, how he was quick on his feet and had a sharp wit, every time he had an encounter with a rogue he had the best rebukes. He remembered stories of him in the Alley, of helping those who needed it, finding lost wallets, or helping old ladies with their missing cats. Defending the allies that were considered the most dangerous parts of the area, but he was never afraid, he was there to do something about it all. Jason wanted that, he wanted to be just like Robin. Smart, strong and brave, and ready to defend anyone who needed protecting in the blink of an eye.

He already knew he’d use the bo staff like Tim had and would change the costume only a little, make the cape brighter, a bright yellow instead of green so he could distract the bad guys, at this point, it seemed to be what he’d be best at.

And with the next set of training Damian put him through, he’d be able to defend himself and disarm anyone who tried to hurt him.

He thought he was doing really well, but of course when he’d tentatively brought up the desire, after months of not mentioning it, he was shot down again. It was so frustrating, he was doing so well. He knew why they didn’t want him out there, but well…it worried him. If Bruce didn’t need to go out, he didn’t, he stayed in and manned the comms while also religiously checking the system he set up to find Tim. 

It had only taken Jason ten minutes of snooping in the cave when he first got here to realize that’s what he was doing, and honestly it was kind of devastating after being here for so long and seeing no solution. There had been a moment of hope, Jason wasn’t sure what happened, but it had crashed shortly after and it was evident in Bruce’d behavior. Bruce was so desperate for his lost son to return home, that he was losing the plot a little bit, he was back to so much focus on it he barely did anything else save go to work and go to the cave. He didn’t even hang out with Jason much anymore. He tried not to feel hurt, but no, no he understood, Bruce needed to save Tim. But that left Damian out on the streets of Gotham by himself more and more, with hardly any backup. Sure his Superboy best friend could get to him in seconds, but sometimes, you didn’t have enough seconds. Damian was also wearing himself thin trying to do it all. They needed help, and sure he was just a kid, and barely knew what he was doing, but at least he could watch Damian’s back, or something! But they refused to listen.

Jason didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. He knew something bad was going to happen, because something bad happened without fail in Gotham, always.

He wasn’t going to say ‘I told you so’. He really wasn’t, except he totally was. 

Massive Arkham Breakout, the first in almost ten years. Riddler, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and the Joker, so many big names unaccounted for and a few dozen smaller ones, the police were worn thin, and Batman and Shadow Knight were desperately trying to round up the big names while the police handled the littles, they were overwhelmed and clearly flagging by the early hours of the morning.

Jason was at the Batcomputer next to Alfred, having refused to go to bed every time Alfred told him to because he couldn’t go when he knew his big brother and his da- and Bruce were out there in very real danger.

Steph arrived an hour later, and headed straight to the medical bay to get ready, she didn’t say a word, but Jason knew she felt helpless. She didn’t feel like she could go out there while she wasn’t able to hear. She was still contemplating cochlear implants but had so far refused Bruce’s offers to pay for it, she was likely giving it serious thought at the moment however.

The fights seemed to go on and on, but slowly, one by one, they were caught again, and transported back to Arkham, but with each fight, both vigilantes were flagging with injuries ranging from minimal to serious. 

Injured and exhausted it was almost child’s play that got them caught, really it wouldn’t have happened if they were at their peak. 

It seemed the whole thing had happened because of the mobster Falcone, he’d been wanting to expand further into Crime Alley after the fall of Ma Gunn, but Batman had made a point of patrolling there regularly after a little bird had requested his street friends be looked after. Falcone had apparently taken that personally, and orchestrated and funded the whole breakout, leaving Batman and Shadow Knight exhausted and easily trapped by Joker, who didn’t care who broke him out, he just wanted to play with his favorite playmates. 

Jason couldn’t just stand there and watch when Joker threatened to drop them in a vat of hazardous chemicals. The same hazardous chemicals that had made him the Joker, apparently. The very thought of- no. He was not going to think about it because he was going to save them! 

He spun on his heel and rushed away from the computer screen that had the cowl footage from each of them, Joker’s madly cackling face front and center. He was not going to just sit and watch!

“Master Jason-”

“No Alfie! I gotta help!” he insisted, moving to the closet he knew held spare Robin costumes, apparently Tim liked to design them for fun, but only wore one or two before he’d- well there were plenty for Jason to try on.

Alfred sighed and he must have said something to Steph because several minutes later after he’d found a few armor pieces that fit, she set her hand on his shoulder and he spun around to try and convince her he was going, but his mouth stopped to gape, his eyes wide, because she was in costume, one he’d never seen before but was unmistakably Batgirl. 

“Together,” she said and signed simultaneously, he nodded decisively, and quickly pulled a cape on to complete his ragtag Robin costume, it wasn’t all that cohesive considering the yellow cape, the red kevlar vest top and the green armored pants and black steel toed shoes and finally a red domino, but it all fit well enough and that was what was important. 

“We do have a plan, Master Jason,” Alfred explained, “Mistress Stephanie will attempt to distract the goons, while you go in to free- ah,” he paused to watch Steph’s rapidly moving fingers. “Oh yes, you will sneak in to free Shadow Knight and then Batman, as Shadow Knight is in better shape.”

“...I have…a kinda better plan…maybe?” he offered, his mind was going fast, but there had been a few things he’d spotted while watching the cowl footage that he thought might help.

“Oh?” 

“Okay so…hear me out…we make a distraction, set off some flash bombs down the way, make it look like the police are coming, I’m gonna pin my cape up by the window, so it’s yellow and flapping and very distracting while Steph goes for the drains for the vat, those vats have bigger vats set underneath them, I know that warehouse, I slept in it for a whole winter, and it’s a lot nicer than some of the other ones, it was actually built to standard, so that hazardous stuff won’t go into the river, it’ll go into the drainage tanks underneath where they can be destroyed or whatever. But if Steph can get them drained first while the goons are distracted by the fake cops and Joker is distracted by my cape, we should be able to then get to Dami and Bruce…you know…cause…yeah.”

Alfred offered him a smile, “That is a sound plan, Master Jason, but know that it might not go as intended.”

“I know, thanks Alfie,” he smiled back, and looked over at Steph when she set her hand on his shoulder, she nodded and then gestured over to the exit where a black motorcycle with fancy painted purple bat wings on the sides.

“Cooool!” Jason gasped, making the woman laugh, then she was dragging him over to the bike, putting a helmet on his head and setting him up to sit behind her, holding on tight and moments later they were zooming out of the cave and off to the rescue.

Of course, it all didn’t go to plan, which was to be expected, only about half of the goons left to go check out the lights and then the half of those went to go check out Jason’s cape, but it was still enough to get Steph and Jason inside. They went for the drains at the bottom of the vats, luckily those were well hidden away at the moment, and they started slowly so it wasn’t easy to tell the level was slowly lowering, Jason kept watch over Steph’s shoulder eyes peeled and ears twitching. Ready and poised for- well defense. But whatever, he’d be able to help, he could still punch goons in the face, Damian never said he couldn’t do that.

It was absolutely agonizing waiting for the vat to drain and naturally someone was going to notice before it was empty and they were out of the danger zone, but that was okay, as soon as someone mentioned it Jason would tell Steph who would then take out as many goons as possible in another distraction while Jason slipped up to the top and tried to get Damian free.

It was like watching a knife on its point before it fell over the edge of a cliff. Jason was sure his heart was racing but he had to keep calm, he was not going to lose his new family.

“Hey what’s that?!” one of the goons demanded and Jason tensed peeking ever so slowly around the vat and was a bit relieved to see one of the goons had his cape, and there was a big discussion happening about it.

“It seems we’re no longer alone, gentlemen!” the Joker cackled from above them, “New players have arrived!”

“Spread out!” one of the other goons yelled and now, now was the time for another distraction, Jason moved back to Steph he gently touched her shoulder to alert her to the change she looked up at him and he signed that they had to move. She nodded and twisted the valves to allow for a total freeflow of the chemicals, making them come out much faster now and obvious where they were. Steph stood up and gestured for him to go the other direction, while she straightened and prepared herself to take out the goons.

He nodded, trying not to worry too hard, Steph wasn’t an active vigilante anymore, but she still kept in shape, she and Damian sparred at least once a week, Jason didn’t have to worry about her.

She moved quickly then, grabbing onto the bar above them, a part of the catwalks above, she swung up and then used the momentum to flip up and then land on the shoulders of one of the goons, knocking him out with a kick, and then moving onto the others. All while the Joker started cackling madly.

“Batgirl!” he sounded utterly thrilled to see her again, “It’s been ages! I was almost starting to think you’d forgotten about little ol’ me!”

She didn’t reply of course, as she hadn’t heard him, Jason swallowed as he slowly made his way up the ladder to the top of the catwalk, there were two levels, and he went up to the top one, glad the Joker was leaning over the railing to watch the fight below him and more or less ignoring his captives. He made it to the crane and pulley system that Damian was hanging from. Normally, it would be simple enough for him to get out of the trap, but the Joker seemed to want him to fall into the chemicals, and had put both him and Bruce in long thick cuffs that wouldn’t allow them to twist up and grab the crane. It didn’t help that they were both so exhausted they just seemed to be hanging there and from the looks of it, potentially suffering from mild exposure to Scarecrow’s gas. He hoped it wasn’t too bad, he’d only ever suffered from Fear Toxin once while he was on the streets and it had been awful.

He laid down on the catwalk and braced his feet against the neck and slowly and carefully started pushing Damian’s crane, it was way too hard really, but by going slow and with his legs he was able to move it inch by inch until it wasn’t directly over the quickly draining vat. It was going well and Jason was keeping his breathing even so he didn’t gasp, trying to be as quiet as possible, but of course, things never went easy. The metal screeched right at the most inopportune moment, of course it helped Steph as it made many of the goons look up and it allowed her to take out five of them in quick succession.

But of course that made Joker look up too.

“Ohoho! What’s this? A little birdie high in the sky~! Little Robin’s come home to roost!” He cackled high and loud and Jason pushed the crane as hard as he could with as much force as he possibly could to get it away from the vat and hopefully with enough room for Damian to get himself free. Because after that he had to scramble, the Joker used a cartoonish looking grapple to get up to the next catwalk and Jason was not going to get anywhere near the stupid clown. He had some self preservation, thank you. Instead he threw a Batarang at him to distract him as his aim still left a lot to be desired, before moving to the ladder and sliding down it and onto the next catwalk, with a glance he saw that the chemicals were almost completely drained from the vats, he ran over to the control panel, and slapped the release on the hooks holding both Shadow Knight and Batman, both vigilantes moved the second they were falling and made their abilities to save themselves look easy, Batman grabbed the edge of the vat not touching the pool of chemicals at the bottom even with his cape, pulled himself up and flipped over it to land behind it, while Shadow Knight flipped midair already past the vat and landed next to Batgirl and proceeded to help her take out the rest of the goons.

Jason let out a relieved breath, so glad they were safe, but the relief was very short-lived as Joker jumped from the top catwalk next to where Jason was catching his breath. He squeaked in surprise and tripped backwards, landing on his butt. 

“Now now, little birdie that wasn’t in the rules! We can’t have that, you’ll have to make it up to me,” his eyes flashed with a vicious glee, then he cocked his head to the side, “You…you’re a new little Bird. We haven’t had the pleasure, I’ll have to introduce myself properly.” 

Luckily, Jason didn’t have to deal with the crazy clown as a second later, Batman flew over him, using a line from his grapple to propel himself swiftly over the catwalk to kick Joker as hard as possible. His cape swishing over Jason’s body with how close he passed by. He swallowed and watched in awe as Batman took the Joker down with brutal efficiency. It took less than a minute, but it was fast and furious and crazy. The Joker was not in a position to fight back when Batman put cuffs on him. But he still cackled, needing, so desperately to have the last laugh.  

Finally, Batman turned to him, and Jason couldn’t read his expression through his mask. His mouth was set in a grim line however. He didn’t say anything, only grabbed Jason and slung him over his shoulder before heading to the ground floor where Shadow Knight and Batgirl were tying up the goons. 

“Br-Batman, put me down, I can walk!” he cried after realizing he was very much not being put down. Bruce didn’t reply at all, “Batman!”

“J!” Damian said looking at them, the yellow cape in his clenched hand, “What the hell were you thinking?!” 

“Oh I dunno, just relaxing at home, eating some popcorn and thinking that I didn’t want to watch you both DIE?!” Jason screeched, trying to swat at Batman’s cape so it wasn’t in his mouth, he would follow that up with a glare if he could, but Bruce was still not putting him down.

“That doesn’t mean-” he was cut off and Jason couldn’t see anything still, but he had a feeling Steph was chewing them out, at least he hoped so.

Batman tensed and then nodded, “Let’s go, the GCPD will be on their way,” he grunted, and moved without waiting for an answer, he left the warehouse, Jason still on his shoulder, grumbling to himself about feeling like a sack of potatoes, when he was righted and then immediately shoved into the back seat of the Batmobile.

“B-” he started but the man only grunted, and buckled him in, “I’m not a baby!” 

But he still didn’t reply, he closed the door and then got into the driver’s seat and they drove off, presumably back to the cave, all the while Bruce said absolutely nothing.

Jason wouldn’t lie, he was suddenly very worried, what if Bruce was so mad he kicked him out?

He wasn’t really aware of the rest of the ride, but he came back to awareness when the Batmobile screeched to a halt inside the cave, and he really hadn’t noticed that he’d started shaking. He didn’t want to be kicked out, he hadn’t had that fear for months, thinking just maybe he wouldn’t be kicked out if he messed up, but if Bruce was really mad…

He tensed when the driver’s door slammed shut, but after a moment he wasn’t dragged out of the back seat, another moment later and the back door hadn’t even opened.

He tentatively took off the seatbelt, and waited. Nothing.

Had Bruce just left him in here? Was he-

Before his anxiety could really ratchet up, the door opened and Damian’s worried and bloodied face appeared, he pulled Jason into his arms and squeezed until it hurt.

"Dami!' He squeaked, flailing as much as possible to get free.

"What were you thinking?!" He demanded, pulling back to glare at him.

Jason pushed at his shoulders, "I was thinkin' I didn't wanna see someone I care about die again, asshole! Especially when I could help this time!"

Damian stepped back and stared at him, "Jay…"

"NO! You don't getta be mad!" He stomped his foot and felt the tears he'd desperately been holding back start to slide down his face, he couldn’t wipe them away very easily due to the domino. "I can help! I want to help! I can save you this time!"

"Oh Jay," Damian said softly and then pulled him in for another hug, which was really saying something as Damian wasn’t typically physically affectionate. "Okay," He said softly, "Okay, but you have to listen to me, I don't want you to ever get hurt when it was needless."

“I won’t! I just wanna help! I can help!” he insisted, wiping at his face uselessly trying to mope up his tears.

“Damian,” Bruce growled in his Batman voice and Jason tensed up.

Damian sighed and set his hand on Jason’s shoulder and turned to his father, “There’s no stopping him, father, just like there was no stopping me, and…and Timothy, the least we can do is prepare him so he stays safe.”

He glanced at Stephanie who was glaring at them with her arms crossed, then she signed very crisply, Jason only recognized a few of them ‘safe’ and ‘end’ and Damian nodded.

“I’ll do my very best to keep him safe, but…Timothy was right, Batman does need a Robin, with more back up we would be better, we need help. Jason is…he can do it,” he said, then turned to Jason who was gazing at them in surprise.

“Really?” he asked, “I really get to be Robin?”

“...yes, but-”

“With conditions, I knoooow,” he groaned, “But I get to make my own costume, right?! And choose the bo staff?! And do I get a motorcycle?!” 

All of the adults present couldn’t help but feel a twinge of fondness at the excitement, so very similar to another black haired boy who had stood in the cave not so long ago, also so eager to help.

“We’ll see,” Damian said, “But first…more training.”

Jason groaned dramatically, but wouldn’t be deterred.

He was going to be Robin.

And Robin was magic.

It took ages before Damian was satisfied enough in his training to even let him leave the cave, and even longer before Bruce agreed, insisting he needed to brush up on a few things every time he insisted he was ready to go on patrol.

But finally, finally he was able to go on his first patrol.

It was magnificent.

The city was almost beautiful at night, the smog made it impossible to see the stars so it was dark and mysterious but that made it more exciting.

Except…It was so boring .

Magnificent in that he’d learned how to grapple and it was like flying. 

Boring in that nothing actually happened.

“That’s what we want,” Damian- Batman insisted, “If there’s nothing happening it means we’re doing our job effectively.”

Jason only sighed in dramatic reply, but he was still happily kicking his feet over the side of the building they had landed on to rest, looking up at the sky in awe. Damian couldn’t help but appreciate the juxtaposition of his childlike awe with the position of protector he was in. 

While Jason hadn’t actually had to beat anyone up, he had helped a little girl find her way home leading her there by the hand and returning her to her frantic but grateful father, and returned someone’s dropped wallet by setting it on the windowsill of their apartment with a little note reminding them to be careful and a little stylized -R at the end. It was a good reintroduction of Robin back to the people. Damian knew he was a presence missed by the people of Gotham. 

Damian also couldn’t help but feel a soft joy and relief at having Robin back, his heart had ached for so long he hadn’t realized he’d missed there being one on the streets. Tim had been better at it than he had, he would admit that now, Tim was very good at being the distraction, and his tactical skills were unmatched, he was also better at comforting victims and children especially. 

Damian would admit now he’d been very stiff in his own approach at the beginning, he was not good at socializing, it had taken him years to unlearn some League fundamentals, and years more to actually learn who he was as a person. It had made him not the best at some things, but very good at being Batman’s back up, his shadow in all but name. No one expected Batman to attack and then there to suddenly be a smaller, more furious attacker right after. Back then it had worked, they were a violently effective team in the beginning when the streets were overrun with misery and filth.

But as that slowly changed, Robin changed too, Tim made Robin the light, the one who really made a difference to the people. He would keep Justice League bandaids and candy in one of his pouches for children. He flew through the air with a joy Damian had never had, and a hope that the people of Gotham had reveled in. 

Damian knew, watching Jason, he would be even better. He would make Tim’s legacy shine, and he was ready to see it.

“That was awesome! ” Jason bounced into the main cave as they both exited the Batmobile, Damian rolled his eyes but it was definitely fond. The fact that Jason could still be so thrilled by being Robin after doing it for six months was pretty cute.

“It’d be even more awesome if you actually listened to me,” he grumbled, “But fine, you did decently well.” He jerked forward to flick the kid’s forehead when he flipped him off.

“Jerk,” Jason whined as he rubbed his forehead, “I was great!”

“You ran off, you could have been hurt, you’re not fully trained yet, and a part of the deal for Robin is you’re not allowed out on your own until you’re fully trained,” Damian insisted, despite the seriously intense training Jason had been through, Damian still was not satisfied. But that could be his big brother symptoms manifesting, not that he’d ever admit that. But it was true, as good as Jason was turning out to be, he was still an eleven (almost twelve!) year old flying around a crime infested city. Damian worried.

“B was in my ear the whole time, he knew I was doing okay,” Jason said, sticking his tongue out. “He said he had me on video too, so I wasn’t alone, ha!”

“You are incorrigible,” Damian told him with another eyeroll.

“Thank you~” Jason said primly, Damian had to stop his lips from twitching, but it clearly didn’t fool Jason who cackled at his victory.

Damian reached over and ruffled his already unruly hair into more of a mess making Jason squawk and swat at his hand. 

“How cute,” a voice that was not familiar to Jason said from the computer terminal, it was just a few steps where they could see who it was and Jason ran right into Damian who had frozen.

Jason scowled at him and peeked out from behind him only for his eyes to widen. Bruce was sitting at the computer still, but completely frozen, hands resting on the arm rests, back ramrod straight and feet firmly on the ground, the only thing twitching were his fingers like he wanted to move but was keeping himself still instead which was likely due to the blade of a sword resting casually against his throat. 

It was held by an intruder that seemed almost relaxed, he wore something like ninja garb, robes in muted red and black, goggles and his long black hair was in a messy topknot, with a mask over the lower half of his face. 

“What do you want?” Damian demanded in a low Batman growl. “The League has no business-”

“I’m not with the League, I suppose you could say I’ve broken away from them, but someone had to break the rules, to take out the pretender, the false Batman. There are whispers among the shadows, discontent rolling off the al Guhls, apparently you are not worthy, Damian Ibn al Xu'ffasch .”

Damian stiffened more, but said nothing. Jason looked between him and the stranger, clearly that meant something, he didn’t really know what, he knew the al Guhls were the leaders of the League of Assassins, but he didn’t know the connection.

“You know, there was a whole plan, a big magnificent plot to expose you, to reveal your weakness and inability to provide, to prove Batman worthless, but I’m not sure I have the patience for that. I decided to come to the source and ask for myself. To get answers.”

“You may not have any right to those answers,” Damian growled.

“We’ll see,” he replied calmly. His face cocked to look more at Bruce, focusing on him.

“It’s a little strange isn’t it? There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with you Bruce, and yet you handed over your mantel to one unworthy?”

“Damian is not unworthy,” Bruce said quietly, “He took over to allow me to work on other things more important to me.”

“What could be more important than Batman to you? Isn’t that your entire purpose? To save Gotham?” His hand tightened on the sword and it pressed further into his neck. “What could have you, the Dark Knight savior of Gotham, stepping down?”

When there was no answer immediately he moved his sword ever so slightly, a threat, clearly he wanted answers, even if neither Damian or Bruce seemed willing to give them up to some random ninja.

“What’s it to ya?” Jason said loudly, trying to distract him.

“Robin!” Damian hissed. “Quiet!”

“No! He’s standing there sword out, threatin’ Bruce! We can’t just- eep!” a throwing knife he hadn’t even seen being thrown was quickly diverted by Damian knocking it away with an armor reinforced gauntlet.

“And another thing,” the ninja said, angling his body again, his wrist twisting and blade pressing just a touch more into Bruce's throat, “The brat, replacing the boy wonder, what a great show of poor judgment, I didn’t think you were that reckless Bruce, after what happened to the last one. How many children can you end up losing?”

Bruce’s hands fisted, his knuckles going white, but he said nothing. Jason swallowed, he knew that was a low blow, this guy was an asshole .

“What right do you have to judge?” Damian hissed, clearly pissed, more angry than Jason had ever heard him before, he even had an accent peeking out, “You are nothing but an inconsequential pissant! You have no right to pass judgment on what you know nothing of! I care not what discontent rolls off of the al Ghuls! You have no standing you-” 

“Damian,” Bruce’s voice was soft, Damian’s jaw snapped shut, “You feel strongly about Damian’s placement…why?”

“Because he is not worthy, he never has been, has he? His mother knew, as did his grandfather, they told me so themselves, but they made no move to remind him when he took up the post. So I had to do it for them.”

“What does it matter to you? You must not be loyal to the League if you would so blatantly disregard their rulings,” Damian demanded. “What my mother and grandfather think has no bearing on Gotham, I made sure of it.”

“Really? You made sure they would not interfere with anything to do with Gotham?” the ninja hissed.

“Not with me,” Damian said stiffly, his fists clenched, “I can not control them, just as they could not control me, which was why I was sent to my Father to begin with, if you were a loyal League Shadow you would know this.” 

The ninja’s mouth opened to retort in rage if the faint green glow in behind his goggles was anything to go by.

Damian instead interrupted quickly looking shocked, “You have been exposed to the Pit,” he said, the ninja scoffed.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “But I’m not sure why you’d care-”

“Well it would certainly explain why you’d go rogue and ask discordant questions,” Damian replied, stepping forward. “If you want out of the League, we can help you, you do not need to follow that doctrine.”

“As if I would,” the voice scoffed again, “I stayed until the usefulness ran out, now I can carry out what is needed.”

“Needed for what?” Bruce asked, “If you are not here for the League then why?”

“Answers!” the ninja snapped, his hands tightening on this sword so much his knuckles went white, showing through the fingerless gloves he wore. “You gave up your mantel! To him! Why?! You are not one to simply abandon it without reason, I demand to know why!”

Damian opened his mouth to retort, but Bruce shot him a warning look then glanced at Jason. He was going to try and solve this without violence if he could. Jason didn’t realize he’d snagged onto the cape during the whole thing, he let it go when Bruce’s eyes glanced over to him. He tried not to flush in embarrassment, he wasn’t a baby, he was Robin he didn’t need a safety blanket!

“You want the truth?” he sighed to the ninja, “I was unable to carry out my promise to the city, to protect it to the best of my ability because my focus was on something else, so I chose another to carry out that duty when I couldn’t.”

“What could be more important than that?” the ninja scoffed, “For the man who only preaches of protecting Gotham, what could you possibly be more focused on?”

“Finding my son,” he said simply.

“What?” that seemed to throw the ninja off.

“I…I had another who could carry out one duty, I would trust only my family with watching over Gotham, Damian has done a good job. I am not concerned…so I can focus on a more pressing matter. My son…I can finally find him. He vanished before my eyes, I had been torn between saving the city and finding him, but since I know the city is in good hands…until I know my son is unsavable…I will not stop trying.”

“If you really know anything about him you wouldn’t be surprised by that,” Damian muttered quietly, and then had to quickly block another thrown knife. Damian scowled at the ninja and Jason just watched on wide eyed, this was all way more drama than he was used to. He watched some of Alfred’s shows with him sometimes.

“And what about you? Weren’t you running off to protect Blüdhaven?”

“I was needed more here,” he bit out, “Now get to the point, this stalemate is growing tiresome.”

“Tiresome? How quaint, I can’t imagine how irritated you’d be if it had been dragged out like the original plan, I bet you would have grown awfully frustrated.”

“If you are here for a purpose other than empty threats and trivial questioning, yes please get to it,” he drawled back.

“Always the same,” the ninja sighed, “I really don’t know why you would let him take over, even with the sorry excuse of finding an easily replaced child sidekick.”

“He is not easily replaced!” Bruce said insistently.

“Oh but isn’t he?” the ninja gestured at Jason, “There’s Robin 3.0, trained up to be the perfect little son, yes? The perfect replacement since the last was clearly not what you wanted.”
“One child can never replace another,” Damian said harshly, “You should know that by now, Timothy.” 

The ninja and Bruce froze, though Bruce’s eyes did widen and his body jerked as if he wanted to twist around, not that it would do him much good yet.

“That is not-”

“Do not try and lie your way out, I know you are a brilliant liar, but cease, just tell us what you want! I know your quarrel must truly just be with me-”

“Not everything is about you!” the ninja yelled, his voice echoing loud enough it disturbed the bats above.

“No, it’s not,” Damian agreed quietly, “This is about you, Timothy…let us…rectify it.”

There was a long silence, so long Jason had to glance around to make sure he hadn’t suddenly lost hearing or had slipped into a mirror dimension or something.

“How did you know it was me?” the ninja asked after far too long.

“The scar on your hand is seared into my memories,” Damian said, “And you used to refer to yourself as ‘Robin 2.0’.” 

“Those are pretty weak assumptions to go on,” the ninja replied, then he took off the mask and goggles in one clean hook of his fingers over his face, his face was very familiar, Jason had seen it several times, his face was a mask of indifference, but the nose, and the brow, the black hair, they were exactly those of Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, the only difference was his eyes, they were blue before, but now sometimes flares of sickly glowing green appeared briefly before returning to blue. 

“But I suppose you would be the one to remember this scar, after all, you are the one who gave it to me,” he replied, holding up his hand where an almost impossible to see scar sat on his middle finger between his knuckles, right above where his gloves cut off.

“I was,” Damian agreed, “I’m not sure I can apologize enough now for the actions that caused it.”

That had the ninja- Tim blinking at him, likely in shock, “Apologize?” he repeated, sounding surprised, “Apologize?” This time it was with increasing incredulity, “Now, you stand helpless against a threat, a sword to your father’s neck and you apologize for trying to kill me when I first stepped into this stupid house?!”

“Yes,” Damian said simply. “I was wrong to do it and I am sorry, Timothy, you did not deserve any of the things I said or put you through.”

“You- you piece of shit! You cowardly, shameless- aahg asshole!” he was getting worked up and that sickly green suddenly flared up again, making his eyes glow and the grip on his sword turn his knuckles white

“Tim,” Bruce said, sounding strained. Tim snarled, the grip on his sword tightening painfully and twisting enough to nick Bruce’s throat, and Jason could see exactly what he needed to do. Everyone had extremely high tensions and could likely use a big distraction, and well…he was basically meant for this. He was a walking distraction.

“Are you really him? Are you really Tim the second Robin?” he asked, popping around the cape he’d definitely not been hiding behind, and moving forward quickly, dodging the hand Damian threw out to block him. 

“Ja-”

“You’re my favorite!”

That seemed to throw Tim off, his eyes flickered, but he just stared, the shock winning out, “What?”

“You’re the reason I chose the bo staff!” he said excitedly, pulling it out and waving it around, “Damian says it’s not suited for me, but I don’t care, you’re the best! Ya’ probably don’t remember but you saved me one time out in the Bowery, beat up a guy that was tryin’a steal my food, and then poked him with the staff to make me laugh, it was the most awesome thing! But you’re smart and cool and talented so that’s why you’re my favorite!” He said it way too quickly, and his heart was racing and it was a completely true story. Tim had done that, years ago, when Jason had desperately been trying to survive while his mother was wasting away. It had been a very bright moment for him that he’d cherished so much he’d never told anyone.

“...favorite?” he repeated, clearly very confused, it was enough that his grip on his sword was loosening ever so slightly. The green flickered again, but it seemed to be draining, and Jason had the sudden understanding that it was definitely affecting his emotions.

“Yeah, my favorite Robin! You were the best!”

“Favorite…Robin?”

“Yeah! You’re awesome, you could, like, take down a dude twice your size but solve all riddles Riddler threw at you in seconds! You’d fly through the city and the cape would swoosh so good and Dami told me you designed it that way! It’s soooo cool!”

“I…what?” he repeated, sounding almost lost.

“Really, I’m happy to finally get to meet you too,” he said, already starting to run out of things to say, he didn’t know what else to do to distract him.

“Hey, what does that make me?” Damian asked, seeming to pick up on it, sounding playfully offended, but his eyes were still trained on Tim’s sword, now ever so slightly tinged with blood.

“Favorite Batman, duh.”

“You said I suck at being Batman,” Damian finally turned to eye Jason with suspicion.

“Well I hafta say that don’t I? Expected, ain’t it?” Jason rolled his eyes, seeing out of the corner of his eye the way Tim was watching them, the green slowly fading from his eyes now, instead replaced by confusion, "Can't let you know I like you. Duh."

"Of course," Damian said and then he flicked his wrist and nailed the hand holding the sword with a Batarang. It tinged off of the hand guard but was enough of a shock that Tim dropped the sword.

He didn't try to stop it and let the sword clatter to the floor despite knowing, and the others likely knowing he easily could have caught it if he’d tried, but it was very clear he was emotionally drained.

Bruce took the opportunity to move, but only enough to stand up and turn so he could look at the ninja full on.

“Tim,” he breathed, his hands rising then falling like he wanted to touch him, but couldn’t, and wouldn’t, not knowing if the reaction was going to be positive.

Tim was staring at Damian, face completely void of emotion, as if the idea of looking at Bruce was unbearable and he’d prefer to look at his detested older brother instead, but the older man shrugged, unrepentant.

“Don’t look at me like that Timothy, you should have known your ruse wouldn’t last, father has had far too much experience with League dramatics raising me to fall for it,” he said, tilting his head up as he slipped the cowl off. “I am truly happy to know you aren’t dead.”

Tim’s mouth turned down and he looked at Bruce finally, his whole body was tensed, for what, it was hard to say, but clearly he was having a very hard time dealing with everything and was on the verge of losing it. 

“...you were looking for me?” he finally asked, and Bruce nodded, his hands fluttering around again, clearly wanting to touch, to just confirm that Tim was really there. It really went to show how desperate he’d been to find him, after two years and he was still desperate.

“Yes,” was all he said, Bruce tried, but words were still pretty hard for him. “I never stopped.”

And that was enough, Tim seemed to break, a tear fell and then he was wrapped up in Bruce’s arms and sobbing, quiet and breathless, but it was clearly just the break he needed. 

Damian threw an arm over Jason’s shoulders and started dragging him away to give them some privacy, he was trying not to shake from the adrenaline and his own emotions, he had to make sure Jason was settled and safe first.

He saw Alfred waiting for them at the doorway to the showers, he wiped a tear from his own eye, but smiled at the two of them, and gestured them in. 

It was nice to finally have the whole family back under the same roof.

Jason was super curious about the new person in the manor, he wanted to talk to him all the time because Tim really was his favorite Robin, that hadn’t been a lie. He’d watched videos of him fighting with his bo staff trying to recreate it, but he just couldn’t get it through videos alone, he really needed a teacher for it. But neither Damian or Bruce felt comfortable sending him off to train on the other side of the world, like Tim had done. 

Jason was more skilled than Tim had been at this point in his Robin training due to Damian’s insane training plans, but Tim had had specialized and extensive training later, after asking for the chance to have more skills from Bruce who reluctantly let him go off and train with an assassin for several months. Which sounded awesome, but both Bruce and Damian had vetoed that when he’d asked about it. Didn’t really seem fair, but Tim had been older at the time too. Still. He wanted awesome assassin skills too! Especially now that Tim had even more.

He was going to ask Tim if he’d teach him the bo, and also the sword, and throwing knives. Damian knew how to use swords, but he’d gotten a look on his face when Jason had asked to learn. 

Honestly, why were all the people in this family emotionally constipated?

At least they’d seemed to have talked everything out, not around Jason of course, because clearly he was too young to know sensitive things. Dammit, he was almost twelve, he’d helped with lots of stuff already! 

Anytime he tried to eavesdrop they’d switch languages which was totally unfair, because it wasn’t Spanish, which Jason was fluent in thanks to the nice Abuela who had lived across from him and his mom teaching him every time his mom asked her to babysit, he even knew a little Italian thanks to one of the old farts down the hall too, it was mostly insults though.

He was learning French in school, but of course it sounded like they were speaking Arabic? That wasn’t an option in Gotham Academy’s curriculum. Rude.

Either way, he was trying to at least sort of see what was going on just so he could ask Tim for some tips.

Tim seemed to avoid him though, he’d vanish anytime Jason came into the room, he was taking the whole Ninja thing to an extreme, and he didn’t even look at him most of the time. It kinda sucked, because it meant he probably didn’t like Jason.

Well it wouldn’t be the first time Jason had been disappointed by someone he looked up to, so he just carried on. Going to school, patrolling with Damian and Bruce who was slowly working his way back to being Batman most of the time while Damian was transitioning back to Shadow Knight, apparently he wanted to go back to Blüdhaven because things had gone to shit and there was only so much he could do while trying to patrol two cities. He was ready to go back to his city, and his boyfriend (even if denied it, profusely).

Jason got it, he did, but he was still upset by it. 

He liked Bruce, he really did, he was nice, and clearly he knew what he was doing, the original Batman and all that, he knew how to work with a partner maybe a little better than Damian even, but…well, he wasn’t Damian. Jason had a rapport with Damian built up from months of being his partner, he could sass him and razz him, and jump on his back mid patrol in a ‘surprise’ attack and it would just be all fun and games and Damian would call him a Brat, but it was with that fond tone he only ever used with Jason. Damian would take him out to breakfast after and they would talk about cases or Jason’s classes or the other kids or the movies or just anything. And Jason could talk to him about other stuff whenever on top of it.

He didn’t really have that with Bruce. Yes, the man was legally his adoptive father, and he did care for him, Jason did notice when he checked on him in the mornings before his alarm went off on the mornings before school, and he’d drive him everyday so Damian could sleep in, and he’d ask about his school work and take him to the bookstore and get him extra books after getting his report card, and they would talk about books and other things, but even then he always just seemed…distant. Like he was just trying to make up for not doing those things until Tim came back. Like, he’d realized he’d put Jason at a distance.

Which he supposed he understood, he’d lost one kid, and Jason knew Damian and Bruce had had a…fight or something before Tim had vanished thanks to something Steph had mentioned, and had only reconciled out of obligation. 

Jason really didn’t know what to do, he wanted to get to know his family, because really…what else was he supposed to do? 

He couldn’t solve their problems, he barely even knew what to do about his own.

He could just carry on with Bruce for now, because he had no idea what else to do there.

Tim though? He determined to at least talk to him, because he just needed to make sure he knew Jason wasn’t replacing him, and that Jason thought he was cool. He wasn’t quite sure how to do that though. He’d have to think on it.

He decided cornering Tim was the best course of action to get him to at least talk to him, but that was basically impossible, because ninja. He ended up whining about it to Steph during one of their video calls, he hadn’t talked to her in weeks because she was busy with her residency, and that was super hard according to Bruce. But still she always listened to him when he had things to say. 

And well, that ended up making things happen he didn’t know needed to happen.

Stephanie Brown was apparently extremely pissed no one had told her that Tim was back. She’d been very focused on school the past few months and recovering from her implant surgery for her cochlear implants, she had been checking in periodically with Jason to make sure his ASL learning was still up to snuff however.

She had finally decided to get the implants mostly because she didn’t want to be caught out again like they had been before and because Bruce was more than willing to cover the costs for them so that wasn’t an issue for her. She tended to only use them when she needed to, otherwise she used ASL, seeing as they’d all been taught to use it in the field to communicate silently it was a good way to keep up their skills. Jason wasn’t fluent yet but he was getting way better.

She was getting used to hearing again, noting the differences between the artificial and natural, which was somewhat interesting, so they talked regularly on video phone these days, which Jason still thought was awesome, and appreciated all of the attention she gave him, even if it was only a little bit of her time, he knew she was busy. But it was enough time for them to catch up and for her to find out what nonsense they got up to while she was at school.

Apparently, she and Tim had sort of been an item at one point and he hadn’t told her he was back, when Jason had mentioned him to her when they were catching up the other day she’d been furious.

It turned out she and Tim had been very close, friends first with a lot of shit they’d gone through together before they’d dated, they’d ended up breaking up for other reasons, a few months before the shit hit the fan, but they were still very close friends and now to know he was back and he hadn’t told her? Well Jason would be pissed too. So he’d offered to help her confront him. If only to get a few tips to try and do it himself. 

Naturally, it did not turn out as he’d hoped, he ended up cornering Tim in the cave one night, okay cornering was a bit dramatic, he’d run into him more like. He and Bruce had finished patrol, it had been a good round too, Bruce had even squeezed his shoulder before he went off to shower. Jason wasn’t too far behind, beaming, but he was still hyped up from the last fight, he’d dodged three hits in a row and then tripped the guy, it was so cool! So, definitely had adrenaline burning through his veins, so decided to burn off a bit of extra energy in the training room. 

Half an hour later he was toweling off his hair after his shower when he spotted Tim at the computer console, doing something. And well, Jason wasn’t going to let this chance go to waste.

He’d made his way over to the computer, his mouth open to say something, to get some kind of conversation going when a loud screech from behind him had them both twisting around.

“TIMOTHY JACKSON IDIOT WAYNE,” a loud voice yelled which had them both twisting around to look at a vengeful Stephanie Brown as she marched down the stairs from the manor. “You have SO much explaining to do!”

“Oh shit,” Tim muttered under his breath, and Jason had to choke on a laugh. Steph marched over to them.

“Jay, go upstairs and meet your new sister. YOU, however, are going to talk, and it better be good fucking words out of your mouth,” she snapped at Tim, her eyes bright. Jason reeled.

“But I was gonna talk to- wait, did you say new sister?! What?!” he blinked.

“I found a new orphan for Bruce’s collection, she’s about your age, mute but we’ve been working on it, raised as an assassin, named Cass, you’ll love her, now if you don’t mind I need to rip Timothy a new asshole, you can have him when I’m done.” she smiled at Jason, it was much nicer than the one she turned to Tim which made him go white.

“Steph I-”

“Good. Words. Only,” she hissed, “Preferably starting with an ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you I was alive, Steph!’” 

Jason looked at Tim who glanced at him then gestured at him to go, Jason made a face, and sighed, he was never going to learn how to use swords at this rate. Let alone talk to Tim at all.

He moved on and let them talk because yeah, okay, fair. He supposed Steph did have more of a right to talk to Tim than he did right now. 

And apparently a new sister was a bit more exciting than listening in on a lovers spat.

So random, but then again, Steph was like that.

He made his way up through the clock and down the hall, he didn’t hear anything from any of the rooms nearby, and peeked into the Library, there was no one there and so naturally it had to be the kitchen where people were.

He opened the door and popped his head in first to make sure everything was well and was a little surprised to see there was in fact a new person in the house.

She had long black hair that was a total mess, her knees were knobby, and she was tiny, Jason knew he wasn’t that big himself yet, malnutrition took awhile to cure, so he knew the signs, but she was just so tiny. 

She turned from where she sat on the counter the moment he stepped in and stared at him, a cracker in between her lips, her hand hovering over the knife on the counter top, covered in butter. 

“Um…hi?” he offered, and wondered where Alfred was, he never left people in the Kitchen unsupervised, even Jason was only left rarely and for very short periods of time but well, still, new sister? Weird, but he was open to it. Steph was already his pseudo sister, and she was pretty awesome, he was open to having another.

“My name’s Jason, what’s yours- oh wait, Steph said it was Cass? Is it Cass?” 

She stared at him and didn’t reply, only stared, her face completely blank, and he remembered what else Steph said. She was mute. Oh! Steph was smart, she had to be teaching her ASL! He started signing along with his speaking, just hopefully, to keep it familiar.

“Oh! You can’t talk, sorry, you can nod or shake your head, I’ll try to ask yes or no stuff instead, kay?”

She continued to stare at him and he suddenly felt like maybe she didn’t understand at all and that just didn’t seem fair. He wondered how she’d managed to get here without being able to talk.

She cocked her head to the side and then reached her hand out, and Jason looked at her confused, she reached a little further and he stepped closer, when he was in arms reach, she gently rested her hand on his head and ruffled his hair, it was a familiar gesture, Steph did it to him all the time, to convey a lot of things, from thanks to telling him he was ornery and to comfort. And Jason smiled. He was being silly, just because she couldn’t talk, didn’t mean she couldn’t communicate, as long as they could do that, then they’d be great friends.

He grinned at her, “You wanna explore the house?” he asked, gesturing around. She slid off the counter, and then reached forward and took his hand, letting him take the lead. He was more than happy to do so, having a little sister was going to be awesome~!

Exploring the house with Cass had been informative and also clearly the best way to endear her to him, they had found new places Jason had never been before, now they had secrets, and that was the best way to bond in Jason’s humble opinion. Now whenever Cass came over to the Manor she stuck close by him, and really, it was kinda nice to have another kid that wanted to be around him. She was happy to explore more with him or to sit with him on the couch as he read outloud to her. Or they would both come help Alfred with chores or cooking, it was peak normal family behavior and Jason was living for it. But of course it wasn’t an always thing. Bruce was putting the process through to adopt her, but she was very clingy to Steph, more so than with Jason, so stayed with her half the time, as she did seem to do well there as well, but it did mean Steph was over more often too. But she was still in school, so most of the week she and Cass were at her apartment. Damian had already moved back to Bludhaven, he still visited and was by every few days, as his job was still in Gotham, but Jason couldn’t blame him, Damian had wanted to go back to Blud for ages, as that was where his main base for Shadow Knight was, which had definitely taken the backburner. He had stayed for as long as he had specifically for him and then Tim and whatever reasons, but he was back now, sharing the apartment he had there with Jonathan Kent his not really boyfriend but definitely really something, so he was around some, but not really. Jason got a text from him daily but it really wasn’t the same as having the big brother he was used to. Tim…well, Tim was around, but not really. He wasn’t avoiding Jason as much before, but he wasn’t actively trying to participate with him or Cass either.

Jason finally decided to just confront him the next time he was within earshot, it didn’t matter who was nearby, he was tired of feeling like he was hated.

“Why don’t you like me?” he asked the very next chance he got, when Tim was retreating from the kitchen.

“What?”

“Why don’t you like me? I…if you want to be Robin again, you can, I don’t- well I just…” he huffed at himself. This was not how he wanted it to go. “I dunno what I did that made you hate me…so I just don’t want to…yeah.”

“Stop,” Tim said with a sigh, “I don’t hate or dislike you, I just…don’t think that…being around me is a good influence for you.”

Jason stared at him, incredulous, “Good influence? Are you for real? See now I know that’s bullshit, like…you know I grew up on the streets right? Bad Influence is my middle name.” He shook his head, “I mean, I get that must make me annoying to be around, but just say that instead of being all ‘waaah I’m a bad influence.’ I think I’d prefer it if you just say you hate me cause I replaced you even instead of you thinking you’re saving my feelings or something.”

Tim’s mouth opened and then closed, “Okay,” he said, and a little mean glint seemed to cross it and Jason could see it because he had a cheat. He’d been watching Tim for months at this point, and when he was feeling particularly emotional, the Lazarus Pit liked to just…exacerbate it. He knew it pushed him, it made him go further, be meaner, than he’d likely already intended, because he did it to Bruce basically every time they talked. And then he’d snap out of it and be quietly horrified but too proud to take it back. Bruce always forgave him though. 

But before the little sheen of green came over his eyes he’d tense, or make a fist or his mouth would turn down, it was always little, like he was thinking about whether or not he should just let the Lazarus Pit take over, and sometimes he probably did because it was cathartic. Jason knew keeping feelings inside was bad, so Tim letting them out was a good thing, but the whole barbed words and angry jabs thing could probably be better.

Jason crossed his arms and stared at him, trying to put on the ‘try it’ face he remembered one of his neighbors used to use on her kids (and him) when they got into trouble.

“You are annoying,” Tim started and Jason snorted.

“I’m s’posed to be annoying, I’m the little brother,” he said, “Try again.” 

“You’re an irresponsible brat, a Crime Alley-”

“You learned that from my classmates, boooring!” he’d definitely not admit that bullshit still annoyed him, but he was better at letting it go than he used to be.

“Are you taking this seriously?”

“More serious than you!” he huffed, “I just wanna be friends! I wanna learn how to do the bo staff and swords and- and how to annoy Damian the most and- I dunno! But you avoid me and haven’t even tried! I know you’ve got bad shit in your head, but I dunno…I could help.”

“How could you possibly help?” Tim scoffed.

“I can tell when you’re about to be all green glowy dickish,” he said, “So I could, I dunno, give you a warning ahead of time or something.”

Tim sighed, “It’s not too difficult when my eyes decide to be green for a second,” he said dismissively. and Jasson shook his head quickly.

“No, before that, you get all I dunno, tense, right? Maybe like you’re fighting the thought? So I could…distract you when I see it!” He wiggled his fingers around as if to demonstrate.

Tim let out a sigh, “You’re not going to give up about it are you?”

“Nope!” Jason chirped, but only because he had the feeling he was going to win, if Tim really truly didn’t want anything to do with him, he’d back off, he knew better than to poke a bear. 

“...fine,” he said, “But don’t try to snap me out of anything yet, I don’t know what the Pit might decide to do with you.”

“Okay,” he said, he could deal with that, and just take more notes. “Does that mean you’re gonna teach me more with the bo staff?”

Tim glanced at him again and his mouth looked like it was fighting a smile, “You’re a stubborn little shit, hm?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda my whole thing,” he grinned. 

“Fine,” Tim conceded, “But just that, only because your form is horrible and embarrassing. I can’t have that of the legacy I started.”

“Yes!” Jason whooped, “Let’s go!”

He felt himself almost burst with joy, he grinned at Tim, and knew things were going to be okay when the other boy finally gave him a small smile back.

Jason was flying high. He didn’t think he’d ever been happier in his life, not ever. His birthday was only two weeks away, and because Cass didn’t know when her birthday was Jason had declared they now had the same birthday and were twins and no one could argue. No one did because they all knew better than to try and talk him out of things at this point, and really no one would try when Cass had been thrilled by the declaration. She exclusively called Jason ‘Twin’ now, and it just made him burst with joy. 

He was training every day with Tim to learn more bo staff moves, and how to use a sword which he freaking loved, he didn’t want to admit it yet but he thought the sword was the coolest ever, even better than the bo staff. He’d hinted he might be getting him something special for his birthday too, and that was super exciting too. Tim, now that he wasn’t avoiding him was great, he was sarcastic and a bit dark, but he never seemed to dislike having Jason around, he would tease him and help him like a big brother should, even if he was still a little distant. 

Damian was coming and he was even bringing his best not-boyfriend, Steph was coming too, she promised especially now that it was Cass’s new birthday too.

Alfred had promised to make them each a cake of their choice along with lots of good food, decorations and everything that made a birthday party special.

He was a rolling ball of excitement counting down the days, and then something happened in space. Green Lantern had frantically called the Justice League for assistance, and only a day before Jason’s birthday, Bruce had to go because Batman was needed on a cosmic level. 

He offered regrets to Jason, but then the next moment he was gone, and it left the whole family in a mood.

Of course they still celebrated, Alfred making every effort to ensure everything was even more special now that it would be clouded by worry.

Jason had insisted they could just wait, even though it was just to cover some of his insecurities, Alfred and Damian insisted. They would celebrate and Bruce would just have to make it up to him later.

The day of was fine, the skies were clear and crisp August air flowed through the windows, not yet too cold. Alfred had covered the more traveled areas of the manor in decorations, red and purple balloons, streamers and silver draping things were tastefully tacked everywhere, even from the chandelier. A big ‘Happy Birthday’ sign hung in the dining room which held a beautiful cake for each of the ‘Twins’, Jason’s was a confetti cake with chocolate frosting, as that had been the kind his mom used to make him and Cass had red velvet with cream cheese frosting. There was a large selection of snacks on a table to the side as well. 

The party was easy and laid back, there were a few party games that were silly but fun and Damian finally admitted he and Jonathan were dating during Truth or Dare, and Jason cackled about it for a full minute. Jonathan had been embarrassed, but very nice about it all. The gifts were all great, Legos and books for Jason, a music box, and new clothes for Cass. Oh and a new set of ballet slippers for Cass as well from Tim, she had been thrilled, throwing herself at him in a hug that seemed to take him by surprise, but he seemed pleased. Then he’d given Jason a sword, which caused a very heated argument (in Arabic) between Damian and Tim, but Jason did not care one bit, because sword!!! They eventually got over it as Mr. Dent and his wife made an appearance, giving Jason and Cass small gifts, and giving Damian grief for finally quitting his job at the firm to pursue other interests. But overall, with the rest of the family, save Duke who Jason had never met in person, only seen on video calls when he wasn’t busy on the West Coast, he had wished him a happy birthday too, it was a good day.

They were able to ignore the worry deep in their guts for a short time to celebrate but it was very hard to know Bruce was away, out of their reach, likely doing something very dangerous and there was literally nothing any of them could do.

It was easy on paper to understand why Bruce wasn’t there, he was called away to go save the galaxy, sure. But Jason had to smother the hurt he still felt about it, on top of how little time Bruce had been spending with him lately. Tim was back, he should be happier right? But well…Jason just wasn’t sure he was considered necessary anymore.

He didn’t tell anyone this of course, but Cass, being Cass, knew he was hurt and crawled into bed with him that night.

“Twin,” she said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tight.

“Twin,” he replied with a returning squeeze, smiling despite himself. It was going to be okay, even if he was hurt, he wasn’t alone, and really that mattered a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

The Justice League returned to the planet with an intergalactic war on their tails. It was pretty dramatic, and also a little terrifying while also being thrilling.

There was an alien race that had been trying to do something to another race but the Lantern Corps had prevented it, but then there had been a revenge plot for the planet the Green Lanterns were from and the Green Lantern from earth, Hal Jordan, had frantically come to Earth to ask for help from the only force he knew might be able to win. They had saved the planet from the alien force trying to conquer them, but apparently that had pissed off the aliens from their original planet, and so they sent another army to conquer Earth as revenge.  

Luckily, Batman had a contingency plan for aliens with the plans to conquer earth.

The Justice League rushed back, and then the whole of the superhero community was put to work, that included Jason.

The Justice League was fairly well prepared, there was Martian Manhunter, Cyborg and Auquaman and with not just three Superman, Clark, Jonathan and another, Conner who Jason had never met but apparently knew Tim, but there was also a Supergirl, granted, she was only 6, but she still had powers and was a bit feral about it. Jason immediately liked her.

Then there was Wonder Woman and her partner Wonder Girl, who Tim also knew, apparently there had been a Mini Justice League before Tim had gone missing, but they’d disbanded when he poofed. Jason totally wanted to have a Justice League!

But that was for another time, there was then Green Lantern Hal, and a new one, Guy Gardiner, who was like so new he still wasn’t sure how to use his powers properly. But he insisted on helping.

There was then the Flashes, The Flash of course, and then Godspeed and Kid Flash, they were able to do a lot of things very quickly so they were highly helpful.

And finally there were Arrows from down the coast, Jason knew that Oliver Queen was the Green Arrow because Damian had made fun of him about it, but there was also Black Canary and one of his sidekicks, Speedy who also seemed new, but she did seem proud to be there and eager to help.  

Batman had his contingency and would ensure it was followed as well as it could be until shit went south as it was wont to do.

Robin and Batgirl (Cass) were paired together to patrol Gotham to ensure no one was doing anything shady once the city (and the rest of the country) was put on lockdown as soon as the alien spaceships made it into the atmosphere. Batwoman (Bruce’s cousin?? Why had she never come to the manor?!) helped coordinate some of the other patrols with the help of the military or something, Jason wasn’t exactly sure he’d been too distracted by all that was going on. Including listening to Flash talk to his own prodigy about not disrupting the space time continuum, but that had all gone out of his head when he’d seen Wonder Woman walk into the room. He could only stare in awe, she was so beautiful, and strong and wow. Cass had to elbow him hard to get him back on track.

Steph was pulled to being the main medical coordinator for them, but had a suit, just in case. Alfred made sure everyone was fed and rested, as he knew how well no one tended to do that.

Damian was with the rest of the League, helping to plan.

Tim had also put together a suit, but didn’t really have a name to go by, he was just there as support and a tactical genius and able to point things out others forgot.

Not that Jason really got to see, seeing as he was stuck in Gotham, patrolling and keeping the petty criminals from doing stupid shit while the city was on lockdown. He stopped a few robberies, helped a few people find lost pets, made sure Riddler kept inside his house arrest with a single look, topped with crossed arms and a tapping foot. Overall, it was pretty easy for him.

He wasn’t there when the alien ships blew up further in space, but he was still worried about his fam- his people. He and Cass returned home happy to see that everyone returned home with some injuries, but nothing life threatening, no one had died, a few had gotten hurt pretty bad, but thankfully no one was lost or likely to die.

It was a victory, and it was a sign to any others in the universe to leave Earth alone, at least, for a while.

It was the most exciting moment of his vigilante career, even if he barely did anything at all. But it was still a whirlwind and he was excited to have been involved.

Going back to regular patrols after seemed like such a let down, but the job of a protector was never done.

And then one night, with no preamble or warning, he vanished off a roof.

Jason gasped as he was suddenly returned to his own universe, he looked around noting he’d been returned to the rooftop he’d been running on before he’d been blooped into a weird white room full of older versions of himself.

He took note of his surroundings more closely, wondering how long he’d been gone, because it surely had been many hours in that room, and it had been about 1AM when he’d last been on the roof, and it had only been twenty minutes after his last check in. He saw in the distance a faint light glowing on the horizon, as in the sun was rising.

“Uh oh, I’m in trouble,” he muttered to himself. He was definitely going to get a big lecture when he got back to the Cave, after being gone for who knew how many hours. At least five it looked like.

“-bin! Come in! I repeat, Robin!” a very frantic voice called in his ear, Bruce was very clearly edging on a panic attack.

“I’m here!” he replied quickly into the com, “I’m sorry I was kidnapped by another universe for a little bit. I’m here! I’m okay!”

“Sitrep!” Shadow snapped, also clearly panicking.

“ Where are you? ” Tim demanded over the comms from their new hub at one of the abandoned towers in the city where he was taking on the role of coordinator, he’d decided to go by Oracle after Jason suggested it from his deep dive into Greek Mythology.

“I’m fine, I swear! I was just blooped to another universe for group therapy,” he insisted, “I’m really okay! I’m sorry I worried yo-oof!”

He hadn’t even heard Batman come onto the roof, let alone noticed him enough to not get crushed in a hug. He squeaked and then wriggled in his hold, trying to free himself though it was futile.

“I’m okay! Batman! Let me gooo!” 

Luckily, he did, only so he could then start inspecting him for injuries. He inspected him at least twice and then Shadow was on the roof and doing the same thing, he was followed almost immediately by Batgirl who was flitting around them, clearly also very worried about her twin.

“Oh my goood, I’m fiiiine!” he swatted away a black gloved hand he didn’t even know whose it was, “Really, I’m sorry I scared you, but really, I’m okay.”

“If you’re sure, you don’t feel dizzy or-” another hand was reaching out for him, he swatted it away again.

“Shadow~!” he whined, feeling more like a child than he had in ages, “I’m really okay, honestly compared to all of the other versions of me I met, I think I’m in the best shape.” 

Shadow knelt a bit, “What do you mean you were…with more versions of you?”

“I dunno, one of them said something about the Multiverse? So like a whole bunch of universes that are similar but with little differences, right?”

“Yes…that…yes we have seen evidence of it,” Batman grunted, “You’re saying you’ve had contact with another one?”

“Yeah, like 12 other ones, but it was all just me,” he shrugged, “One version had a cool futuristic suit that was blue and red and had Batman ears, and then another few had red helmets, and then another one WAS Batman! But his dad was in a coma, so it was kinda sad. Oh I-!” he spun to look at Batman and bit his lip, turning serious, “You’re my dad right?”

“I…yes, of course,” he said, clearly thrown off by the sudden change. “Did you think…I wasn’t?”

“Well no, but like, you got Dami and Tim and Steph and Cass and well I just didn’t wanna be like an add on or something cause I know you got me cause you were sad about Tim, and just you’ve been busy with everyone else and I thought you didn’t want me no more so-” he squeaked when he was swept up into another hug, Batman was holding him very tight.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, “I didn’t mean to make you think I didn’t want you,” he said, “I do, and…it would make me very happy if you considered me…your dad.”

“Really?” Jason asked, a big bubble of happiness growing inside his chest.

“Of course…I already have considered you a son, for a long time, I’m sorry I didn’t notice you were having thoughts about it.”

“I…well, my birthday and…just…”

“Oh J-Robin,” Bruce said, even if he was in the Batman suit, “I’m sorry about that, I was going to make it up to you, but you never really…said anything, which is my fault. Did you want to do something together? You me and Batgirl, or do you want it to be me and you and me and Batgirl?”

Jason glanced at Cass who signed at him quickly, making him grin, “Both,” he said easily, making Damian snort and Bruce chuckle.

“You got it,” he said, “I’m sorry you were so worried about that…so, tell me what else happened with these…other yous?”

“Well, it was a little annoying, they were talking about something but then one of them put magic headphones on me so I couldn’t hear, but Steph’s been teaching me to lip rid and they said something about Joker and an explosion…so…I guess other mes don’t like him at all,” he shrugged, not willing to mention everything he’d managed to lip read because he knew that would make his family freak out for sure.

“...Oracle can you check on Arkham’s current security?” Shadow said to Tim over the comms.

“ Already on it, ” Tim replied crisply. Daminan nodded, pleased at the efficiency.

“And some of them were really cool, one me was a Lantern, and another me was the head of the League of Assassins-”

“ What?! ” Damian and Tim barked, but Jason barreled on.

“And another was even Batman! Though his dad was in a coma, so he was kinda sad about it,”  Jason said with a frown, “But none of them were Robin anymore, because, this is the real crazy part- I wasn’t the Robin after Tim! I was the Robin before Tim! Can you believe that?” 

“Names,” Batman said on reflex and Jason flushed, oops, they were still in open air, “What do you mean?” Bruce asked after a moment.

“So like, we were reversed I guess?” Jason shrugged, “Our births I mean, Damian was last!” 

“How…?” Damian asked, and Jason shrugged.

“I dunno, but but! I was the second Robin, which means…I get a little brother!” he said excitedly.

“Little Brother?” Cass asked, her head popping up over Bruce’s shoulder sounding very eager.

“Yeah! We get a little brother! His name is Dick, but I dunno where to find him…”

“...are you sure that’s his name?” Damian asked and Jason shrugged.

“They all kept talking about him, because he was their older brother, they acted like they hated him but I know me, really they don’t, but that means I get to be the best big brother ever!” Jason declared. “So…how do we find him?”

“We’ll…look into it,” Bruce said slowly, glancing at Damian who shrugged. “I think it’s time to head in for now, the sun is already up.”

“Alright,” Jason said, knowing when to keep it in for the moment, but he was determined, he was going to have the best family ever.

Cass came over and took his hand while Bruce kept a hand on his shoulder, likely in reassurances, Damian took the lead, looking around to make sure they were in the clear, and then with a leap and a click of a grapple gun led the way back home.

Jason couldn’t stop grinning as he flew through the air, surrounded by his family, and looking forward to meeting more members. He was grateful for his older selves, with their foreknowledge and the minute warnings, he knew he’d really be able to do some awesome things. After all…

Robin was Magic.