Work Text:
Under a loose shingle on the roof of Wayne Manor, Richard Grayson carved his name into the wood the moment he realized he had a home there. A few years later, once his younger brother learned he didn't need to hoard food away or keep water secreted in the back of his closet, Jason Todd carved his name underneath the first with uncertain hands. The workmanship shows the nervousness Jason had when Dick had shown him how to etch the letters. Jason had felt every line as he carved each letter.
They stayed up there for hours as Dick taught Jason how to whistle after his name became a permanent fixture to the home. It had taken a long time for Jason to get the hang of whistling. Even with Dick's direction, he couldn't figure out exactly how to shape his mouth. The first whistle that split through the air had Jason grinning, staring down at Alfred who had followed both the boys once he caught onto Dick's plan.
"Did you hear that?!" Jason called down. Alfred had nodded. Though Jason couldn't see, he could hear the smile in Alfred's response.
"Master Grayson will have a pro of you yet, Master Todd!" he shouted. It took less time after the first whistle for Jason to get a handle of it. Dick continued teaching Jason different methods: how to whistle with both hands, how to encircle his fingers to whistle with one, and showed Jason how he could whistle two notes at once.
"Whoa!" Jason said, poking fingers at Dick's teeth. "I wanna do that!" Dick laughed.
"You gotta get the hang of all the codes first," he said.
"Codes?" Jason said, wide eyed. Dick nodded.
"Yeah," Dick said, "Out on patrol, me and B use codes to talk with each other. Gotta be a whistle, though." Jason set his face and nodded.
"I can learn." They stayed on the roof with Alfred listening in. The sun long set before the two finally made they're way back into the Manor.
After that day, whistles around the place became a common occurrence. Jason whistled "help" from the kitchen table whenever he got stuck on homework. From Dick, "look here" whenever dinner was ready and Bruce whistled out "status" to check in on where everyone had found themselves in the Manor. Dick and Jason whistled back "all clear", one after the other. Jason didn't miss the lines around Alfred's eyes crinkling more often than not at the sounds that split the air.
On his first patrol out, Jason got lost. He'd kept up with Bruce almost the whole time. The moments he stumbled or slipped, Bruce would slow down, sometimes stopping completely to check on Jason. It hadn't been Bruce's fault. Jason had just barely missed the ledge of a roof. He'd been laughing before the fall. His foot hit the ledge before it slipped out from under him.
Jason didn't remember the fall. He remembered the pain in his head and wrist when he woke up on the asphalt. Then the pain radiating from his ribs.
He scrambled away from the middle of the alleyway, instincts kicking in as he hid behind the dumpster and in the shadows. He took in deep, sucking breath's as he tried to remember where he was and what had happened.
"Batman?" Jason said. The comm in his ear had gone quiet. "Nightwing?" When no answer came, Jason raised his finger to his ear, ready to press against the comm in the way Bruce had shown him to reset the device. His finger didn't press against a comm. Only his own ear.
Jason choked on a sob. His ribs protested the movement, and he knew if he tried to stand, his headache would only worsen. His wrist still hurt as he brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He swallowed and licked his lips. The first attempt turned into sputtering.
"Look here!" the second attempt sang into the night. Jason hiccupped as he tried to keep the tears from spilling. Dick had told him to stay calm and stay put. Jason's head hurt.
"Help!" the third attempt split through the still air. Jason repeated the two calls. He started when he heard a whistle in the distance; Dick's whistle calling out "here" in response. Jason laughed as he wiped away the tears. He repeated the call for "here" and Dick repeated it back, closer this time.
"Hey, Jaybird," Dick said when he found Jason behind the trash. Jason lurched forward, whining at the pain in his ribs as he attached himself to Dick, arms wrapped wound the older boys middle. Dick wrapped gentle arms around Jason.
"Hey," Dick said, "It's alright. I've got you." He smoothed his hand through Jason's hair as Jason tried to control his breathing. He'd buried his face in Dick's chest and clung to the Nightwing suit ,the pounding in his head subsiding at the familiar hug he'd found himself in. He'd been through worse at younger, but when he'd been younger, he'd only had himself to rely on. Crying now is less of the luxury he'd allowed himself than it had been then.
"My wrist hurts," Jason complained, giving a report even in his state, "And my ribs hurt and I have a headache." Dick pulled away, keeping one hand on Jason's shoulder as he looked at Jason wrist.
"Looks like you sprained it!" Dick said. He ran a thumb under Jason's eye to wipe away the tears. "We're gonna have to amputate it." Dick poked at Jason's ribs next and Jason squirmed away from the touch.
"Oh no," Dick said, "You bruised your ribs! We're gonna have to remove those, too." Jason giggled at Dick's antics and shook his head.
"Nuh uh!" he said. "B said Alfred would take care of me if I got hurt." The weight in his chest grew lighter as he Dick poked around the injury on his ribs to tickle Jason. The younger boy pushed his brother's hands away as he laughed and hiccupped.
"Alright, alright," Dick said as he pulled Jason in close again, looking him over again to check for any injuries Jason might not have noticed himself. "Let's get you home, okay?" Jason nodded as Dick wiped off the excess dirt from the Robin suit. Dick whistled through the air as he stood, picking up Jason as he went. Bruce's response was distant, but quick. Jason yawned as Dick started walking them back in the direction of the Batcave. He let himself drift off, trusting Dick to get him back home and patched up in no time.
At some point, it became muscle memory. Bruce would whistle for "status" and Jason would whistle back "all clear" or "help". When Batman and Robin got separated, Jason would whistle and receive any number of responses. He learned when Batman whistled "danger", that meant he had to stay back until the "all clear" followed. Responding instantaneously to a whistle became the same as throwing a punch or blocking one. Instinct instead of active thought.
On the nights Dick was in town, his whistle would harmonize with Jason's. It became the norm for Gotham to be filled with whistles as the three of them communicated in rapid fire. Hesitation was never something Jason even considered when he heard those whistles.
It's a cooler night in Gotham when all three of them ended up on the same rooftop together, engaged in a simple fight. It had been Nightwing who whistled for help and, before the goons could try to figure out why Nightwing had whistled in the middle of a fight, Batman and Robin were upon them. They didn't stand a chance.
Jason laughed as the last one of his group went down. When he turned, Dick had a smile on his face. It dropped as his eyes locked on something over Jason's shoulder.
"Danger." short and quick split from Dick's lips. Jason didn't waste a second in dropping. Dick didn't waste a second in rushing the man who'd managed to sneak up on Jason.
"Thanks," Jason said.
"He didn't get you?" Dick said as he cuffed the criminal. Jason shook his head.
"All good, here."
"We should be heading back," Batman said, "Robin still has homework." Jason groaned and slumped his shoulders. Dick laughed.
"Yeah, yeah," Jason said, swatting at Dick.
"See ya next time," Dick said. He disappeared into the night. When Jason lost sight of him, he raised his fingers to his lips whistling out "status". Even as Bruce rested his hand on Jason's shoulder, he didn't move until he heard Dick's "all clear" ring through the night.
Jason never liked galas. They were chockfull of stuffy rich people who had to be convinced to let go of wealth they would never use and the only thing that really got them to donate to the causes was someone telling them it would be good PR. And the ones that weren't for fundraising were always worse. Jason would much rather be on patrol or even sitting at the kitchen table writing an AP History essay about something he would forget in a week.
Still, he had to attend for Wayne family appearances and more often than not, Jason ended up leaned against pillar, watching the floor. Most of the time, Jason watched as Bruce played up his airhead persona and Dick charmed some pretty woman into dancing with him.
Jason had grown bored long before the gala had really filled. Most people didn't know how to approach Jason . With Dick, people were quick to sidle up to him and make conversation. With Jason, people didn't know how to deal with his… intense attitude, as Bruce called it. But Jason didn't know how to mellow out around these people. He knew how to help a kid who had started crying because they were lost in an alleyway, or how to cheer up someone who'd almost been mugged in a different alleyway. Socializing with people almost twice his age as they talked about how awful the crime rates were but how they could buy buildings out for cheap due to said crime rates? Jason much preferred the older ladies who pinched his cheeks and called him a "handsome young man" before handing him a butterscotch and wandering away.
Jason grimaced at the thought. He surveyed the room as he tried to stand up straight to avoid wrinkling the suit. He couldn't see where Dick had danced off to and he knew Bruce was probably letting someone hang of his arm. Despite never getting drunk (Jason still didn't know how Bruce managed that with all the shots he'd seen him take), he knew there was a non-zero chance of his father-figure acting drunk in the water fountain and peeling off his suit jacket in a way that would end up as the front cover of every tabloid in the morning.
Jason earned a few side-eyes from people at the edge of the crowd as if they weren't sure they should approach him or not. His skin itched at the weight of their gazes.
"Status." The whistle escaped from Jason's lips before he could think.
"All clear." One from his left and one dead ahead. An arm shot up from the crowd waving in Jason's direction. A brief window in the crowd and Jason could see Bruce. He grinned and made his way through the crowd.
"There you are, lad!" Bruce said when Jason emerged. Just as Jason thought, a man only a few years younger than Bruce had his arm wrapped through Bruce's. Bruce managed to extricate his arm without the man complaining. He pulled Jason into his side then turned to the group he'd been entertaining.
"I better get this one to bed." Bruce said. "It is a school night after all." They cooed at Bruce being such a good dad for making sure Jason was focusing on his studies. Bruce laughed as they walked off.
"Thanks," Jason said.
"I should thank you," Bruce said, "I thought I would end up in the fountain tonight."
Jason's legs dangled off the roof as he stared at the Gotham skyline. The world had blurred and stayed blurred for a long time. The fight had been… It had been bad. Jason knew he'd crossed a line. Him and Dick had been fighting more and more over the last few months. Jason hadn't meant to punch Dick. But when that hand wrapped around his arm, he hadn't been able to stop the swing already in motion. Hadn't even thought to pull the punch with the anger flowing through his veins.
He hiccupped and wiped at his eyes, the skyline before him gaining a little clarity at the motion. Still Jason isn't really looking. He's not on patrol tonight, but he's in the Robin suit. It had been put on hastily after the fight. He still wanted to go after the Joker for what he'd done. Still needed the man to pay for his crimes in the only way Jason knew would stop him. In the only way, the only line, Dick and Bruce refused to cross. But Barbara… seeing her like that in the hospital had broken something in Jason.
Above the sirens, and the shouts, and general noise of Gotham, a sharp whistle cut through the air. Jason's head snapped up at the sound. It didn't take long for him to make out Nightwing's silhouette on a rooftop a few blocks from him. Jason smiled as the world blurred again.
"All clear." Jason whistled in response to the status check. Dick didn't move closer. He didn't move away, either. Instead, Jason watched the blurry silhouette on the rooftop sit down and stay there. So far away, but still in reach.
Jason knew they'd be okay.
When the "look here" whistle echoes in the dark lot tonight, it's Red Hood who looks at Nightwing.