Chapter Text
Red Robin was perched carefully on the edge of a building, right around Red Hood's patrol route. Hood -both as a civilian and a vigilante- had been acting rather odd lately. Since Red hadn't had many important cases lately, Batman had stuck him on recon duty. Fun. Truthfully, he was pretty sure Jason was on to them at this point, but Tim had gone along with it regardless, just to add to his list of things knew for sure about Jason's behavior.
For one; Jason had been to the manor more than three times in the past month, having unintentionally run into Dick almost every time.
Jason sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Dick was positively unbothered, just giving Jason a grin that seemed innocent enough.
"Jay!" He started, steeping closer. It wasn't unheard of for Jason to visit the manor, just uncommon. "I didn't expect to see you here."
Jason shrugged, continuing to walk. "Yeah, I'm not staying."
"Aw, why not? I'm pretty sure Alfred's making-"
"I'm not staying, Dickface." Jason repeated more forcefully this time, only stopping to send a pointed glare at Dick. ..who averted eye contact by glancing at the full duffel slung over Jason's shoulder.
"..there's no heads in there this time, right?" Dick poked at the bag, giving a small sigh of relief when it had a soft give instead of anything firm. Jason responded by tossing it over his other shoulder, out of Dick's reach.
"None of your business what's in it. I've got stuff to do." And with that, Jason had made his way away from the Manor. Dick noticed he parked his bike visibly in the driveway, rather than stashing it out of sight so no one knew he had come. He smiled at that.
Two; Jason had recently acquired an actual apartment.
"Jay, not to be rude or anything-"
"If you have to say that, then its obviously rude."
Tim rolled his eyes, ignoring Jason's interruption. "Since when did you have an actual apartment?"
The place was well furnished, and actually seemed lived in. The fuzzy throw blanket Alfred had given Jason a few Christmases ago laid strewn over the couch, one of Jason's favorite novels on the coffee table, his boots by the door. It was actually.. homey. For lack of a better word.
Jason scoffed from the kitchen. "What? I get tired of safe houses sometimes. Is that a crime?"
Tim laughed slightly, putting his hands in his pockets. "No, I guess not. My bad." He walked into the kitchen, sliding into a barstool. He tossed a glance at the rather unsightly floral pattern on the wall. "..Though, this wallpaper might be."
Jason rolled his eyes, sliding a plate of eggs in Tim's direction. "Can it, Replacement. I'm workin' on it."
Tim chuckled, taking a bite of his eggs.
And third, most importantly, Jason is totally hiding something. The only problem was, what is it?
Red Robin realized he may not have to wait much longer to find out when heard the familiar rumble of Jason's bike, seeing him skirt around a corner and speed down the street. Red shot a grapple over to the next roof, swinging across the rooftops in order to trail behind him.
Red Robin managed to follow him for a few blocks, but eventually lost him. He sighed and just grappled to a large building across from the Gotham Bay, since it was a decent spot to regain his bearings and retrace his steps. He still wasn't sure what to do, just then he suddenly saw a flash of red and a splash of something hitting the water.
Red gasped, sliding to a stop in front of the waist-height stone fencing. He was silent, not entirely sure what to do. What was he supposed to do? What was he even going to say to Bruce? 'Hey, so remember that kid of yours that kinda died once already and probably didn't want to die again? Funny story!’
Red sighed heavily, dragging his hands over his face. Not the point. He needed to calm down, assess the situation, and make a calculated decision. He couldn't think like this. It had only been a few seconds.. if he hurried, he could still reach-
Red Robin let out an unfortunately girly shriek as a pair of arms clamped (albeit gently) around his midsection, effectively stopping him from jumping into the water. He started thrashing and kicking, trying his best to get to dislodge his supposed assailant's arms. At least, he was, until the man spoke.
"Jeez, cut it out, kid. You'd think I was some crazy murderer or something with how much you're freaking out."
Jason.
Of course it was Jason.
Stupid Jason.
Red Robin sighed, calming down and willing himself to go limp in Hood's arms. "You are a crazy murderer." He deadpanned.
Hood gave a gruff chuckle, carefully setting the kid down. He ruffled Red's hair. "Correction, I was a crazy murderer. Now I'm only a slightly unstable occasional murderer!" Hood replied with sarcastic enthusiasm, subconsciously replicating Dick’s manner as he held his pointer finger up in a matter-of-fact gesture.
Red sighed, pushing Red Hood away to try and fix the atrocities that he had inflicted upon his hair. "Too many words. Crazy murderer is way better."
"Whatever, kid." Hood crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at Red Robin with a suspicious glare. "Hell're you following me for?"
Red Robin fixed Hood with a similar look, arms pressed to his sides. "I could ask you the same!"
"..I wasn't following you."
Red Robin blinked, his posture softening. "..oh. Uh, sorry, I'm tired. But, I meant- what's up with you?"
"What's up with me? What's up with you? You've been following me all week." Hood shot back, and Tim could practically hear the suspicious eyebrow raise.
Red smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "I was that obvious?" He muttered.
"Yeah. Work on that." Hood chuckled.
Red huffed in response. "Still," He started. "Didn't answer my question."
"Yeah. Wasn't plannin' on it, Tweetie Bird."
"Tweetie Bird? Seriously?" Red Robin sighed with heavy annoyance. He looked down as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's gotta be the worst nickname you've ever-" He cut himself off, sighing deeply yet again when he looked up and saw Jason was just gone.
Jason says he hates the Bat, and yet he has so many of his habits, disappearing out of nowhere.
What a hypocrite.