Work Text:
Red Hood from the rooftop was watching a scene unfold in front of him, he went to see what was going on—he finished patrol in the Crime Alley, so he thought he’d check on other spots. This wasn't something he usually did, because Bats usually covered this area but they were busy and he happened to hear it on the police scanner so here he is, just in case.
There’s a firefighter who’s probably older than him that waves at him but they don’t know he’s younger, everyone probably thinks he’s thirty five or something—which Jason finds incredibly hilarious.
Him living that long? The thought of that is just so ridiculous.
Jason waves back, he imagines how he looks from someone else’s perspective.
The firefighter who was waving at him seems fulfilled and goes back to doing his job.
Huh, he wonders how people perceive him while he’s doing patrol. People in Crime Alley don’t seem to be scared of him but they’re tough motherfuckers, so they're probably not even scared of Joker.
When he first started out as Red Hood, they were distrustful of him, he had to make it clear that this was a permanent arrangement—that he wouldn’t abandon Crime Alley and leave them behind like all the others have.
Trust had to be earned and he earned it but it can just as easily be broken.
When he killed, though less common than before, he made sure he was meticulous during it because he didn't want to get the wrong person. There’s always that fear, probably from his bat days that makes him cautious while pulling the trigger. It’s not about him being hesitant about taking a life, more of I have to make sure they truly deserve it, I have to be careful about every decision I make.
If he messes up, the trust he’s earned—it can fall apart so fast.
Crime Alley doesn’t trust bats for a multitude of reasons, they’re tolerant of Spoiler at best.
They had to be strong since birth because if you aren’t tough in Crime Alley, you get eaten alive—people take advantage of that gentleness and it fucking sucks.
Kids should get to be kids, they shouldn’t have to be scared to go to school and be afraid their class might get kidnapped or their parents might get kidnapped, like it’s a daily occurrence.
Goons, they use people as hostages—collateral damages. Phrases ’let me go and I’ll let them live’ are heard around Crime Alley a lot.
What he got was that GFD responded to a call where some guy who collected military antiques was injured by an M203 grenade. Insane shit just happens in Gotham, all the fucking time. Jason is used to it, it’s just a normal Tuesday for him. The sky is blue and Gotham is Gotham, but it’s his city, it’s where he grew up.
It’s the place where both of his parents died, it’s the place who made him into who he was, it wasn’t league or Bruce or the teachers he murdered after acquiring the skills they taught him. It was Gotham, he loves this city, he thinks it deserves better. It’s doomed but so was he once upon a time. He can take care of himself just fine but Gotham needs someone who gets their hands dirty, he’ll be the one to do it. The result makes it worth it, people walk with their shoulders loose in Crime Alley these days. They know he’ll come and he’ll make it. He doesn’t want to let Crime Alley down. He did return for a reason, he decided to stay. He could’ve gone on his merry way after his show down with Batman but he stayed.
As he’s focusing on the firefighters doing their jobs from the rooftop, Batman sneaks upon him. Jason feels it immediately, the way he’s probably making his typical facial expression. Batman is grouchy, it’s his natural state at this point.
Jason has no idea why he came, Batman and Red Hood rarely worked cases together—even after Bruce’s resurrection. It’s not really him coming back alive, Bruce was lost in time but to him Bruce felt dead.
“You’ve been avoiding me.” Batman stated hesitantly, the Bat wasn’t supposed to hesitate but this wasn’t Batman, this was Bruce talking.
“That’s old news, I do avoid you, a lot.” Jason replied cautiously. Why deny the obvious? He did avoid Bruce a lot, Bruce did the same in return. It was a thing they did.
He just couldn’t hold conversations with Bruce anymore, there’d been fights first, lots of angry words from both of them but at some point he realized; yeah I’m fighting with you, but is anything changing? Are you changing or am I just settling myself for disappointment?
He stopped seeing Bruce out, they always ended up fighting over something mundane. Bruce was just so frustrating, his stupid dad frustrated him.
Bruce has emotional constipation so of course he wouldn’t bring up the elephant in the room, at least Jason was betting on that working out in his favor, until now.
Bruce always decided to create problems, when the solution was working perfectly, Jason worked with Bats, he did his own thing in Crime Alley and managed to ignore Bruce’s existence in the process.
At least that was the case, until he decided to get lost in the time—Tim brought him back, he was the one who kickstarted the investigation. Jason was unavailable at the time, for reasons classified.
Jason sent him a fruit basket with the food he made, he heard Tim moved to live on his own and was emancipated, which he has lots of opinions on but that seems to be a pattern with his siblings.
Dick left for Blüdhaven, he did return but Bruce drove him insane with his overprotection, so he had to leave.
Bruce also made him run away, it means something when a 15 year old kid gets on a plane to leave the country and then ends up dead.
Bruce didn’t really even acknowledge that part of his death, it was all about how much Jason dying hurt him, which makes sense but Jason thinks there’s more to it, he doesn’t bother because Bruce always gets choked up talking about it.
Dick told him he and Bruce couldn’t talk about him being dead—it was a sensitive object. Jason concluded that with that damn thing in the cave and his room being untouched.
That’s not the point though, the point is that his siblings just leave the nest earlier than expected. Tim isn’t even 18 and emancipated and living on his own, Cass was living on her own.
There really is a reason she gravitated towards Babs than Bruce, Barbara was much better at the parent thing at Bruce. That’s why she and Cass had such a good relationship.
Jason hopes he does better by Damian, but he saw what a good job Dick did, so he’ll wait for Bruce to prove himself.
Now Bruce is here, in the same proximity as him. That’s just great, isn’t it?
Red Hood and Batman in the same place ever since he died. Bruce and Jason.
He didn’t see Bruce after he found out he was alive. He did rejoice internally but it felt awkward, it felt unnatural to just stand against him and try talking to him without the cowl on. It was just really hard for some god ridden reason.
“I would like you to not,” Bruce told him after a moment of excruciating silence.
Jason stopped to look at him. He had the audacity to say that after calling Jason his greatest failure? Nope, Jason was going to avoid him for the rest of eternity because if he didn’t, if he faced Bruce and confronted what Bruce said during that message and left him with an aching heart, Bruce would win. Jason would be the loser, who let it be known Bruce’s words had the ability to still affect him.
“You don’t get to do that. Not after everything.” Jason said firmly.
“What‘s the problem this time?” Bruce questioned, and then continued. “I don’t understand this, no matter what I say—you’re always angry at me,” Bruce said.
“The problem is that you always say shit Bruce! Maybe I would like for you to say, lot fucking less—that’d be better for both of us.” Jason replied; bitterness evident in his tone.
Bruce blinked at that, then his eyes widened when he got what Jason was talking about.
“You weren’t meant to see that.” Bruce stated.
He wasn’t meant to see? He furrowed his brow at that, Bruce’s message he made in case of his absence, told him he was a failure.
Would it have been better to not know what Bruce thought of him and live in blissful ignorance or find out the truth—Is that what Bruce is implying?
Jason solemnly disagrees, he’d rather know what Bruce thinks about him—so he doesn’t waste any time if these are Bruce’s honest thoughts.
“Wasn’t I meant to see what failure you consider me?” Jason shook his head at that, he was angry—but mostly hurt, he still hadn’t gotten over it. My biggest failure.
“You aren’t a failure, Jason. You’re my son. I didn’t mean that…I meant that letting you die, not getting there fast enough is my biggest failure. I could never regret you. I have never regretted you.” Bruce’s voice broke as he continued, as he confessed.
Jason’s heart cracked open at that, he was lucky he was wearing his helmet because he did tear up hearing that. He finally let himself relax, he let his shoulders loose. Bruce didn’t consider him a failure, that was all he wanted to hear.
He wanted to be reassured without begging for it. He didn’t want to beg for Bruce’s love, there’s a lot of reasons why. If Bruce didn’t want to do anything with him, he’d survive it.
He would hate it probably, but maybe at some point it wouldn’t hurt as much anymore. He had a mom who’d sold him out to Joker, he was pretty sure if Bruce didn’t love him anymore, he would be fine enough.
He just wanted Bruce to love him and Bruce loved him, that confirmed it for him.
Bruce makes a move to hug him appropriately, which is confusing to Jason.
Yeah, they did talk. It did go surprisingly okay but it doesn’t mean Jason is ready for a hug.
He’s not even sure what he is exactly ready for, even being on tolerant terms with Bruce wasn’t something he expected tonight.
He prepares for the outcomes, then he plans how he’d react to them. He doesn’t want to get caught off guard, okay?
This is all just very new and sudden to him. He didn’t even expect Bruce to come and try talking things out.
He recoils from the almost physical contact and takes a step back. Bruce stops in his tracks, so that means he noticed Jason’s apprehension.
They both jump at the sudden noise. Jason quickly looks at where it’s coming from. It seems a vehicle blew up, probably from that grenade.
Batman and Red Hood both look to see the injured man is being carried to the ambulance.
They both sigh out of relief. It seems sorted out—Jason doesn’t really care what happens to the vehicle, someone will probably take care of it.
“That just blew up…” Batman said warily.
“Yeah, no shit sherlock.”
“Should we go check it out?” Batman offered.
Red Hood shook his head in disagreement. “No, it looks like firefighters got it, besides I don’t want to get involved unless necessary. Plus there’s way too many people there.” Red Hood explained.
“That makes sense,” Batman responded.
“If you want to help, go.”
“No, I’m busy,” He replied as he looked at Jason, he was choosing Jason this time for some reason. Batman always helped but they both knew authorities got it, so he let it slide.
Jason had no idea how to respond to that, so he decided to take off—the situation seemed to be under control, if it wouldn’t be, he’d come back.
Batman was here and he wasn’t busy so he could help, this wasn’t Jason’s spot anyways—he came in the first place because he was curious about the grenades part. People don’t just get grenades stuck in their legs but it was Gotham, so he’s mostly not surprised.
“I’m gonna go.” Red Hood said.
Batman, Bruce simply nodded in acknowledgment. He didn’t ask Jason to stay, which he appreciated. Bruce was really bad at giving him space or knowing when enough is enough, so to see him get it around this time—it meant something to Jason. The effort was appreciated.
Maybe that was why he let Tim and Cass leave the nest, make their own choices—make their own paths. Maybe he knows he messed up in the past and he’s trying to be different? Jason can’t read Bruce’s mind, he’s good at being a detective but Bruce is impossible to read. No one really knows what goes in his mind, what his reasons for things are.
That’s part of many reasons he can’t ever understand why Batman doesn’t kill, he disagrees with it but if he can exist in the same proximity as Bruce, if he can stand beside him and not want to make him hurt like before, he’d say it’s not a dealbreaker anymore.
They’ve both changed a lot but Jason won’t change himself for Bruce, the changes he did undergo happened, not in spite of Bruce or because of Bruce, they had nothing to do with him.
Not everything is about him, if Bruce asked him to stop killing, if he ever made it an ultimatum—Jason would tell him to go fuck off.
That’s probably the reason they can never go back to what they were, whoever they are now, this is going to be them—their new relationship.
Jason’s not the 15 year old version of himself, that kid died in that warehouse. He still sees glimpses of that tiny boy but it’s not fully him, he would lack a lot if he shredded these parts of himself off. It wouldn’t be fully him, it would just be some mask of him, that’d be just a pretense.
He thinks if he never met Bruce and met him as Red Hood only Bruce wouldn’t spare him a glance.
Jason wouldn’t love Bruce either, so it’s not like the hypothetical scenarios matter in the end.
It’s just something he thinks about from time to time.
Is the fact that they love each other enough?
People say sometimes love isn’t enough but Jason can’t find it in himself to guess what the case is for him and Bruce. Maybe he’s better off without Bruce, maybe not—it doesn’t matter because right now he felt in his gut that he didn’t have to leave.
He could stay but he chose to leave, he’s still thinking about B—if he’s ready to give Bruce a chance, if Bruce is even serious about trying.
Before he leaves he decides to tell Bruce one last thing. “I’m glad you came tonight and I’m glad you told all of this, B.” It’s not forgiveness but it’s a start.
Bruce nodded, making a motion he’d heard what Jason said. Jason waves goodbye at Bruce, he doesn’t know why but when that firefighter waved at him, it felt like a solution—he didn’t wanna say goodbye, it sounded so dramatic. He was just leaving, it wasn’t a goodbye even in the slightest.
Bruce chuckled at that.
Jason was already leaving, having him unable to notice Bruce’s reaction.