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Jason dug through his backpack to do one more check of everything he had packed. So far, it was looking good.
He had his headphones, a couple books, and his school laptop. That should be everything he needed for today; it wasn’t like the apartment didn’t have a bunch of emergency supplies already stashed there. And even though he couldn’t get food delivered there because of the whole ‘secret safehouse’ thing, there was a really good convenience store just a couple blocks away, so he’d be set.
Just as he was zipping it up, Bruce knocked on the door and stuck his head into Jason’s bedroom. “Hey, Jay. Do you have a second?”
“Yeah. Uh, sorry, I thought we weren’t leaving for another half hour.”
“We’re not. I was just hoping that we could… talk. Before.”
“Okay…” Jason sat cross-legged on his bed, letting his half-open backpack flop against his knee. Shit. Was Bruce gonna end up changing his mind about this? There had already been so many weird conversations about the whole plan, but Jason thought it was all settled now.
Bruce came over, moving all slow and seriously like the giant weirdo that he was. He sat stiffly on the end of the bed. “I just want to make sure… That is, if there’s anything that was… Well, I know that you’re growing up. I respect that you’re growing up. If there’s something that’s…”
“Bruce, I have no idea what the hell you’re trying to say.”
“Right.” He blew out a short sigh, gave his head a shake, and then looked at Jason in that eerily direct way he did whenever he was trying really hard. “It’s about this plan you have. To spend the day alone.”
“Yeah…” Jason felt an itch under his skin. Fuck, this was it, wasn’t it? Bruce was going to change his mind literally half an hour before they were supposed to leave.
“If it’s because you feel I’m not giving you enough privacy or… agency or… or something, we could talk about it. I promise I’ll listen. I don’t want—”
“What? No, Dad, that’s not— It’s not about that at all, okay?”
Bruce’s shoulders loosened. “No?”
“No. That’s all fine. I guess. I dunno, I haven’t even really thought about it at all.”
“Oh.” Bruce swallowed.
“It’s just… Well, I’m twelve now. For the second time.”
His forehead puckered. “Yes.”
“And the last time I was twelve, I had lived totally on my own. Before you found me.” Jason’s restless hands found a strap on his backpack, and he started twisting it around his one finger. No matter how many years passed, there was some stuff he still felt weird talking about. “But now I’m literally never home alone on my own. I just kinda got to thinking that I should… you know… make sure I could do it.”
“Oh.” Bruce let out a soft sigh. “Jay, you know that’s not something you’ll ever need to worry about.”
“I know. We have a giant-ass family, so there’s literally always someone there, but— That’s kind of the problem, you know? And it’s not just because I used to be a street kid. Ethan’s home alone all the time!”
Bruce frowned. “I can’t exactly see that as a good thing.”
Jason scoffed, but let it go. “Fine. And I— I do like that someone’s always here. Usually. I just… want to practice some of the other stuff, too.”
This was all because he was the fucking baby of the family. Jason really didn’t like thinking of if anything ever happened to Bruce, but if something did, he’d still have a whole lineup of people wanting to take care of him. It was nice, sure, but he didn’t want to be coddled his whole life. He needed to make sure he could still handle himself.
“Anyway, it’s like I told you before, it’s my safehouse that I pay for with my own money. I should be able to visit it on my own without this being a big thing!”
“Hm. I’m pretty sure Tim is the one who pays for it with your money.” Bruce’s tone was grumpy, but there was a little upward tilt on his mouth that Jason could see, which meant the heavy part of this conversation was done.
Jason rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, having a twelve-year-old actually pay the bills would draw way too much attention to it.”
“Probably.” The grin on Bruce’s face got wider as he reached out to ruffle Jason’s hair.
Jason let him. Those sappy moments helped Bruce get through whatever emotional stuff he was dealing with, and so there’d be a better chance of Jason actually being left alone like he wanted.
…and he didn’t mind the hair ruffles all that much, anyway.
What was annoying was that even though he wanted to try to be independent today, he still needed his dad to drive him over to the apartment and drop him off because you couldn’t take the bus from Wayne Manor, and once Jason got all the way into Gotham proper, it make more sense to just stay in the car for the extra ten minutes to get to the safehouse.
Bruce pulled over a block away and cut the engine. From the car, you could see Jason’s apartment, the one that he’d started renting out years ago that was right above the pharmacy. There was enough foot traffic in the area that you could come and go from the unit without drawing a ton of attention, but not so much that it felt crowded. Big Jason really had picked a good location when he’d chosen this place a bunch of years ago. And now Little Jason— Or, wait, Medium Jason was going to get his use out of the space, too.
“You have your phone on you,” Bruce said.
Jason just barely kept from rolling his eyes. “Yeah, of course. And my emergency beacon. Plus the GPS tracker you’re still making me carry around.”
“The one that you agree to carry around. And I’m very grateful for that.”
“Yeah, well, I already knew you were paranoid when I let you adopt me the second time around, so I knew what I was getting into.” With a grin, Jason made a face at his dad and didn’t duck away from another hair ruffle.
He liked doing all this bantery stuff with Bruce; it’d been a really long time since he’d been able to do it. When he’d been really little, his brain hadn’t been able to figure it out, and when he’d been big, things were always way too tense to have fun with it. It had felt like they were always just one word or weird look away from an argument, so it hadn’t been worth trying to joke around.
Things were better now, though, and it was fun playing off of his dad in this kind of way. There were a lot of things he liked about being with his dad, so today really wasn’t about needing ‘space’ or whatever else Bruce was worried about. It was just about Jason proving something to himself.
After a hug goodbye, Jason climbed out of the car, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and strolled down the street to his apartment. As he put his key in the lock, he stole one last look towards Bruce’s car, and then he slipped into the building. The stairwell was narrow and dark and dingy, so Jason went right on up to the door of his unit. He fit his key in the deadbolt, turned the lock, and went inside.
But he wasn’t alone. Someone else was already there.
“Tim!” Jason threw his backpack onto the lumpy blue sofa and crossed his arms. A thudding pressure built up inside his head. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Me? What are— What are you doing here? Did something happen?”
Jason glared at Tim. Bruce had told about what Jason was doing? There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else who knew except for Cass, and that was only because she was picking him up for patrol tonight.
But… Tim didn’t look like he was lying. It looked more like he was confused.
“I’m just… having some alone time today,” Jason explained awkwardly. “Making sure I can figure my own shit out.”
Tim tilted his head. “B was okay with that?”
“I mean, it took some work.”
“No kidding. And— Oh, you thought I was some sort of double agent? C’mon, Jay, I wouldn’t do that to you. I was just stopping by to refresh supplies, I swear.”
That was what it looked like. There was a big first aid kit on the table, and there were a few groceries lined up on the counter. All of it was nonperishables in cans and boxes because it was hard to tell when it’d actually get used.
“Okay, fine,” Jason finally decided. “But… you’re just dropping stuff off. You have to let me figure things out by myself for today.”
“Okay… But, you know, if you need anything, then—”
“I know! I have a whole phone full of people who’d love to come hover over me all day long.”
Tim winced sympathetically. “Okay, fair. I promise I’ll give you your space.”
“Good.” Jason eyed the fresh stock of supplies. “You paid for that stuff out of my accounts, right?”
“Yeah, just like always. But that reminds me, you were almost out of funds in your spending account, so I transferred some money into there for you.”
“Oh.” Jason frowned. Fuck, he actually hadn’t realized he was running out of money there. He didn’t even buy all that much stuff!
Alfred and Bruce still bought absolutely everything he ‘needed’, and now that Jason was getting older, Bruce kept bringing up the idea of an allowance, which felt really dumb when Jason didn’t need it and had a bunch of his own money from his crime lord days that Tim had invested. There was zero need for an allowance, so instead Jason had asked Tim to give him a little money in a chequing account for when he wanted to go watch a movie with friends or whatever. But then apparently Tim just went ahead and topped it up all the time? What was the difference between that and his billionaire dad paying for everything?
“Sorry if I overstepped.” Tim folded up one of the cloth tote bags he’d brought with him. “I just wanted to avoid you getting an overdraft charge.”
“A what?”
“It’s when you spend more money that’s in your account and the bank gives you a fine.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’d be stupid, but… Ugh, I just need to get better at paying attention to how much money is there and if you go ahead and dump more in when I don’t even realize… Maybe it could be, like, a certain amount every couple weeks or something? Like—” Like an allowance. Fuck.
Tim smiled, totally reading Jason’s mind with that. “It’s a good idea, Jay. It’s budgeting, which is good for you to, uh, relearn.”
With a scowl, Jason stuck a sharp elbow into Tim’s side. Tim twisted away from it and then got a sneaky punch onto Jason’s shoulder. They tussled for a little bit longer, but didn’t do anything too serious because they were in a tiny kitchen with a business below them that was still open.
“Have a good time today,” Tim finally said as he picked up his tote bags and headed for the door.
“Thanks. I know it’s, well, kind of dumb…”
“Nah, I get it. People in this family hover. It’s okay to want to prove to yourself that you can do something.”
That’s really all it was, and when Tim finally left, Jason got right to work proving it. He set his laptop up on the kitchen table, grabbed a can of soda from the fridge, and started working on his history project. There were also a few leftover meals in the fridge, and Jason could tell that Alfred had made them based on the way the tin foil was wrapped.
Great, so Alfred had figured out what Jason was planning to do today, too. Of course he had. And, sure, Jason liked Alfred’s cooking and it was nice to have it and all, but he had other plans for his food today! Maybe he’d give it to Cass when she came by tonight. For now, Jason grabbed a sleeve of crackers and a jar of peanut butter to snack on while he did his history research project.
It only took about an hour before he got to the point where he needed to check in with Mr. Ruiz about it, so it didn’t make sense to continue. He shut his laptop, grabbed another soda, and flopped down onto the sofa with his novel. It was the exact same as what he’d do most Saturdays at home when he had some extra time, but today it was harder than normal to concentrate on his book.
The apartment was so quiet. There weren’t any footsteps or shuffling papers or quiet voices coming from a few rooms over. All you could hear were a few cars driving past outside and some strange creaks coming from the walls.
It shouldn’t freak him out; it was just the building settling. It was old, but a different kind of old from the manor. From home.
Giving his head a shake, Jason shut his book and got up from the sofa. He had plans for today, so he didn’t have time to get wigged out. He chugged the last of his Zesti in a few gulps, found the keys, and went out the door.
The corner store was a three minute walk away, and as soon as Jason got inside, he grabbed a basket and went for the aisles. He had a list planned out in his head, so it didn’t take him long to find M&Ms, pizza pockets, and a big bag of Ruffles. Before he hit the checkout counter, he added a Slurpee for good measure.
The clerk didn’t give a single weird look to Jason about him being by himself, which was awesome, and made up for the fact that the only reason Jason could pay for this stuff was because Tim had been doing his budgeting for him. He saved his receipt and promised to himself that he’d watch his account better, and then he was back out on the street heading to the apartment the other way around the block just to mix it up.
His good mood completely disappeared when he saw the little coffee shop halfway down the street. Fucking hell. Seriously? With a scowl back on his face, he stomped over and, with enough weight to shake the whole thing, plopped his bag of groceries onto the closest patio table.
“What the hell, Dami?”
With that really annoying blank look that he got on his face, Damian shut off his tablet and moved his coffee cup away from Jason’s bag. “Jason. I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“Yeah, right! Dad totally put you up to this, didn’t he?”
“I promise you, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Where is Father, anyway?”
“At home! Or he better be.” Jason whipped his head around and scanned the streets. He didn’t see anyone, but that didn’t always mean anything.
And now Damian was starting to frown. “You’re not here on your own, are you?”
“So what if I am? I can look after myself for a few hours. And that’s what I keep telling Bruce, but then he sent you here to, what, be on standby in case I get myself kidnapped?”
He couldn’t fucking believe it. Bruce really thought he could get away with someone monitoring the perimeter? And it had almost worked!
But Damian was looking totally calm, and maybe just a little bit confused. “I’m here because this cafe is exactly halfway between campus and my new hospital placement. The coffee is also excellent.”
“Oh.” Some of the huffy energy inside of Jason drained away. “I didn’t know you started volunteering at the new place yet.”
“Well, I have no intention of buying my acceptance into medical school; I need to create a strong, well-rounded application.”
There was no way in hell that Damian Wayne wasn’t getting into med school in Gotham, but Jason still got the idea of wanting to earn it fairly. And… maybe it made sense that Damian was hanging out here on a Saturday. He was probably studying. He liked going different places to do that.
“So, we’ve established that I am not doing anything suspicious. What exactly are you doing in this neighbourhood while unsupervised?”
“Oh, well…” Jason shifted in his chair. “I’m just, you know, hanging out. At the apartment.”
Damian lifted his eyebrow. “Alone?”
“Yeah! I’m not six years old anymore; I can look after myself. I mean, I could if…” If he ever got the chance to prove it.
“Ah.” Damian’s face cleared. “I see.”
“I know it’s kind of stupid.”
“No, definitely not. Father has a tendency to… smother.”
“I think it’s a genetic thing,” Jason teased, nudging Damian’s shoe under the table.
“Tt. I have always been very respectful of your independence.”
Jason outright laughed at that one, and then he grabbed his bag off the table. “I’ll see you tonight? Me and Cass are right beside your section.”
“Yes, I saw that. Until then, enjoy your… groceries.”
Jason grinned. “I for sure will.”
He got back to the apartment right away after that, and then he got to work trying the pizza pocket hack he’d seen online weeks ago. There was no way Alfred would even buy pizza pockets, so this seemed like the perfect time to try it.
It really didn’t work. Jason barely managed to get his food out of the oven before the smoke alarm went off, and then he spent a few minutes scraping burnt chunks off into the trash can.
With the baking sheet soaking in the sink, Jason munched on the pieces that weren’t burned to a crisp. Okay, maybe that had been a total fail, but at least now he knew, right? And he’d tried it, which was something he definitely couldn’t have done at home with Alfred always keeping an eye on the kitchen.
He slurped down the last of his slushie and was just about to make a plan for the next few hours when he heard a thump at the window.
Shit. Had someone followed him? Or seen him coming in? You never really knew what you were getting in Gotham and—
And oh. It was Duke. Another stupid big brother busting into Jason’s apartment.
He was in his Signal outfit and he was trying to jimmy the window open, but he was doing a really bad job of it. Jason put his slurpee cup down and stomped over to pull the window open and get it all over with.
“What the hell, Duke? Since when are you the one that Bruce—”
He cut himself off as soon as he got a good look at the situation.
Duke was all sweaty and ashen, and his lips were pressed tightly together. He was breathing really heavily and not even trying to talk. Plus, there was blood dripping all the way down his leg.
“Fuck, Duke! What happened?”
“You should see the other guy,” he muttered back. Then he paused for a second. “Wait, Jay? What are you… you’re here.”
“Yeah, no shit.” Jason pushed himself underneath Duke’s shoulder and helped him through the window and over to one of the kitchen chairs. Fuck, he was heavy. Just when Jason started thinking he was finally getting back some of his old strength, he got a wakeup call like this.
‘Where’s Bruce?” Duke asked.
“I’m here alone.” Jason hit the button on Duke’s helmet to release the mask, and it felt better to finally see his eyes. They were a little pinched from the pain, but nothing that looked like he was way out of it. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
But Duke didn’t even seem to be paying attention to that. “Why are you here alone? Is everything okay with Bruce and Alfred?”
“What— Yeah, it’s fine! Why are you bleeding everywhere?”
“Oh.” Duke frowned down at his gross leg. “S’not that bad.”
Jason rolled his eyes and then stomped off to the kitchen cabinet closest to them. Those fresh supplies from Tim were gonna get used right away, huh?
It was a bit awkward to wrestle with Duke’s uniform and get enough of it off to expose the cut. Once Jason saw it, he knew the job was going to take even longer because it definitely needed stitches. The gash was a few inches long and right along the side of Duke’s leg. Blood was still sluggishly trickling out of it, but at least the edges looked clean.
“What was this, a knife?”
“Yeah. Got distracted—” Duke hissed when a cleaning pad hit his skin. “It slipped right between the protective plates.”
With a grunt, Jason bent his head lower. It was nasty, yeah, and it was annoying that there was blood getting all over everywhere, but it wouldn’t be that hard to stitch up. A little rest, some monitoring, and then Duke would make a full recovery.
“I’ll be okay, Jason. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
Jason rolled his eyes as he got out the suture kit. “Yeah, I know.”
“You don’t have to be the one to—”
“I’ve been doing stitches way longer than you have, Duke, remember? I’m the best after Alfred.” It was one of the only things he had been allowed to do when he was too little to go out into the field, so he’d had a ton of practice. Even Damian admitted that Jason was better than him., although that’d probably change once he became a real doctor.
Duke waffled for a second longer (like he even had a choice) and then finally agreed. He relaxed as best as he could in his spot and watched while Jason put the numbing cream on.
But he was never good at sitting in silence, so it didn’t take long before he started talking. “So. I still don’t get why you’re here alone.”
Jason ducked his head down. “It’s just— an idea I had.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I… gotta make sure I can hack it, you know? Twelve is old enough to be a little independent with that, but everyone’s always dropping in all the time, so…”
“Right.” All of a sudden, Duke was looking weirdly guilty. “So, if, say, someone else also came by…”
Jason frowned. “What?” He didn’t have to wait long to figure out what that meant because right that second, a key rattled in the lock and the front door swung open.
Dick came in.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jason used the back of his wrist to push his floppy hair out of his eyes, keeping his gloved hands clear of his face.
Dick stared. “I… was with Babs. Duke said he needed medical.”
“Well, I got it; it’s not that serious.”
“Okay. Good. But… Where’s Bruce?”
Jason let out a frustrated huff. “He’s not here!”
“Jason’s remembering how to be his own man,” Duke said. “He’s all grown up now and— Ow!”
“Stay still, idiot.”
Dick came closer and leaned in to get a better look at Jason’s work. “Those stitches are looking great, Jay. Good job.”
“Whatever,” Jason said, even though there was a little smile trying to fight its way onto his face. It didn’t matter that he’d been doing this for forever and that he was totally confident; having Dick say he was doing good was still really nice to hear. “If you really want to help, you can get started on cleanup.”
“Sure.” Dick grabbed a plastic bag and started to collect all of Duke’s old, bloody clothes. Then went to get the cleaning kit from the cupboard. “Wait, why is there a cookie sheet soaking in the sink?”
Fuck. “Don’t worry about it; I got it handled.” Jason kept his head down as he tied off Duke’s stitches, and thankfully Dick didn’t push it. After a couple more minute’s work, the cut was finally treated and bandaged safely. “Just be careful putting weight on it and go slow when you walk.”
“Yeah, I know.” Carefully, Duke stood up and took a slow, limping step to test it out. “Thanks, kid, this feels good. Even though wearing just boxers and a massive bandage is the most disturbing fashion statement I’ve ever made.”
“Just grab some of Jay’s old stuff from the bedroom,” Dick suggested.
Duke looked over at Jason for a beat, clearly sizing them both up.
Jason sighed. “He means my old big stuff.” Everyone always did that whenever they crashed here. Everyone except Jason who was still too small for any of it. Although maybe not one of the hoodies? He’d meant to try one on while he was here alone, but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen now.
Duke’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I’ll be back.”
While he was gone, Jason helped Dick with the rest of the cleanup, carefully cleaning and sanitizing every surface that was nearby.
“So,” Dick said, voice kept casual on purpose. “How’d the whole Kevin McCallister thing go?”
“No one even knows who that is anymore,” Jason countered. “And it didn’t go. I was only alone for like one hour total.”
“Yeah, sounds about right for this family.”
Jason let out a sigh and finally flopped down in the freshly cleaned kitchen chair. “Whatever. Do you want a pizza pocket? I still have some that aren’t burned. Oh, and Alfred snuck some food here because even he doesn’t know how to let go.”
With a laugh, Dick nabbed the box of pizza pockets and set two in the microwave. Two minutes later, he brought over a couple plates, putting one in front of Jason and keeping the other for himself.
“Okay, I get why you might want to prove the independence thing for yourself,” he said, gingerly lifting the pizza pocket to avoid the really hot parts. “But from what I can see, you’ve had that skill for a long time now.”
Jason shrugged. He poked his food with his finger. “Maybe…”
“And, hey, today you handled a bonafide medical emergency like it was nothing! That definitely means you’re independent.”
He bit his lip. “Yeah, I guess…”
Duke finally came out of the bedroom. He was still limping but now he had a pair of grey sweatpants on that he had folded over at the cuffs.
“I keep forgetting how giant you used to be,” he said as he took a seat at the table.
“And I’m gonna be giant all over again; just give me a few more years.” Jason slid his plate over to Duke and then hopped out of his chair and went for the fridge.
“Oh, no, I don’t need to take your food—”
Jason waved him off, face still buried in the fridge. “No, it’s— I’m the host, right? You eat that while I get Alfie’s stuff heated up.” Those meals were gonna come in handy after all.
“Dinner at Jay’s,” Dick joked. “Pretty much what I’d expect for a twelve-year-old kid.”
Without turning back, Jason flipped him the bird. “Just for that, I’m not gonna let you have any M&Ms.”
“Aw, c’mon!”
“Play stupid games…”
Dick laughed and then finally bit into his pizza pocket.
Jason held back another smile as he brought the foil-wrapped packages out of the fridge. He’d do the reheating right with these, using the oven and making sure everything was perfect. And maybe he could text Cass and see if she wanted to come over a bit earlier. They could all eat together before Duke went home to rest and everyone else went out for the night.
It wasn’t even close to being all alone in the apartment like he was planning to be. But maybe…
Sneakily, he stole a look over to where Dick and Duke were sitting. They were in the apartment that Jason had decided to rent however many years ago and eating food that Jason had bought all on his own. Duke was all stitched up and dressed in backup clothes because of Jason, too.
Yeah. Okay. Maybe this wasn’t all that bad, either.