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News has come around of the penguin quitting crime and removing himself from his involvement of illegal activity. Organized crime went down slightly since the penguin. Since he’s stopped funding the gangs in his territory as much. He hasn’t sent any men to sabotage or hurt anybody.
Since he’s left jail and made the decision to turn over a new leaf the penguin attended more charity gatherings. Giving a healthy sum of money. Bruce couldn’t help but to find his change in behavior suspicious. Of course Batman couldn’t apprehend him for doing nothing wrong. But it was still unsettling to him that the penguin of all people had decided to stop being bad.
The penguin garners large sums of royalty for his control over various street gangs and criminals. For him to just choose to give all that up is…weird. So Batman and Robin watch over Cobblepot to see if he really sticks to his change and that all this talk isn’t just an elaborate ruse.
“I dunno what if he actually did reform?” Robin fiddled with his gear. He’s been fidgeting a lot lately. He’s been carrying a small pouch of peanuts with him too. He’s been trying to quit and keeping his fingers busy is better than him reaching for a cigarette that wasn’t with him. The action of putting the cigarette to his lips was replaced with eating peanuts. Bruce knows that it’s developed into a nervous habit for the boy to play with things on his utility belt.
“People like him don’t reform” Well not at a drop of a hat he just had to be sure that Penguin wasn’t pulling something. The streets have been quiet with not much about penguin except the reform. He’d gotten out of prison and now he doesn’t want anything to do with the Gotham underground. He still owns the Iceberg Lounge but now it’s just a regular rich people bar.
“Should we give him a chance?”
“Robin” he said warningly
“I dunno sorry never mind” He folded his arms and sunk in his seat
“Jason no you’re not like the penguin” Jason still had his doubts. He wasn’t a good person either. He was a little criminal on the streets like the rest of them. He stole he lied he cheated to get by. The street robin just couldn’t help to feel like Bruce was talking about him when he talked about the penguin. He wasn’t that much different than any other criminals they faced, except he was just a kid. He would’ve been sure that Bruce would have sent him off to Juvi like any other bad kid. But he didn’t.
Jason fiddled with his weapons in the car. This was the fifth time they went out to check up on Penguin. Bruce would break in have a chat with Cobblepot while robin waited outside in case he needed backup. But Jason could help to have the feeling that Bruce didn’t trust him to be alone in the manor or trust him to work well on the field.
He just wasn’t an acrobat like the previous robin. He was told he was raised in the circus that that was the reason he could do all the cool tricks but Jason he could barely skip across buildings fast enough. Sometimes he would misjudge the jump and end up hanging off a window. He was able to climb up and sit on the window but it still worried Bruce that he would end up seriously hurting himself. He sometimes trailed behind too slow that Batman had to go back and look for him.
He wasn’t afraid he just couldn’t be afraid. He had to prove he was good enough to stand by Batman. He had to prove he could be a good person and he wasn’t just a sorry good-for-nothing street rat. He had to prove he would never be anything like his father.
So he trained harder and did his best to be a great of a robin as he could. Bruce was impressed with his progress as a robin. He learned all fighting moves of robin from the best way to jump and land to maneuvering while in the air. However Bruce noticed Jason really liked using objects in the environment as weapons using a trash can lid as a shield and charging enemies or kicking over boxes or bins to trip thugs sometimes throwing garbage bags to distract before pushing the bag further into the thugs face with a flying kick and occasionally landing on it to soften the fall. The boy was so embarrassed when Batman saw him do it and promised to never to it again.
Instead Bruce told him he was impressed though would comment on Alfred being annoyed with cleaning out the smell of garbage from his suit.
“Alfred says that garbage stink is better to clean out than blood stains” Bruce smiled at that. Well he wasn’t wrong. “Besides I clean my own costume and Alfred says you need to wear more deodorant because you got serious bat BO”
He snatched up the little robin and he shrieked “No! You’re gonna suffocate me with your stink!” he continued to struggle while he was already wrapped up in his cape. When he finally let go of him Jason quite overdramatically gasped for air.
He rolled his eyes “Oh stop it I don’t smell that bad”
“I wasn’t sure before but up close I swear you could weaponize your smell” He had the biggest goofiest grin on his face. He bounced around him but keeping far enough that he would be able to snatch him up again “I don’t remember who it was but they were not kidding when they said they could smell you coming from a mile away”
“Alright alright settle down we’re heading back to the cave to get you hosed down”
“You too. Well maybe before we can ask Lucius to-“
“Jason”
“Okay okay I’ll stop” they made their way to the batmobile to drive off until half way into the ride bruce heard Jason humming a song "jingle bells batman smells nightwing laid an egg the batmobile lost a wheel" "Thanks to robin" Robin giggle at that clearly amused at taunting Bruce. The boy seemed to be getting more comfortable around him. At first the kid was on edge around Bruce; like he thought batman was going to hurt him or Bruce was going to throw him back off on the streets. He spent a lot of time with Alfred. He's sure he got Jason to calm down and get better adjusted with his new life. He even heard from the boy that the butler had tried to sword fight him with an umbrella. He has Alfred to thank for taking care of Jason and training him when he goes to work. However he has reason to believe Alfred's been making the kid his protege or little copy. If it wasn't bad enough that when he first arrived he did his best to be "good" as to not be thrown back on the streets. That included waiting on Bruce's almost every command completing his homework in a timely fashion and listening closely to his instructions. What mostly bother him and apparently Alfred too was weirded out byand appreciated was around the manor. Dick rarely helped around he house. However the new kid, he rearrange the ENTIRE wayne library. It was unbelievable. He could see earlier that day he was in a bad mood. When he saw him go into the library he thought reading was an odd way to blow off steam, considering he didn't let him be in the bat cave without adult supervision he wasn't allowed in the bat cave gym. His trip to the library resulted in all the books put in a dewey decimal system "like how it's supposed to be". It's like he'd inherited some of Alfred's sass, wit, and unapologetic attitude. Perhaps he was like that before he picked him up.
Though Bruce trusted him to go on patrol and fight a few low level street thugs. He even let him lead a few investigations, but against the rogues he’s instructed to stay in the car or at the manor with Alfred keeping an eye on him.
Well he’s not facing a rogue right now, and he’s not looking to go against batman and meet with the penguin himself. B probably won’t mind if he has a walk around for a bit.
Despite of the bright costume he still keeps to shadows. He watches a cat staring at him on the top of a dumpster. The cat jumped on his shoulder and stayed there. He froze. He was afraid that if he moved the cat would claw him. Instead the cat licked his face and mewled. After a few minutes he relaxed and walked about with a cat on his shoulder.
He would have taken to the rooftops by now if it weren’t for the cat. Instead he’s left stalk on ground level. He was on guard the whole time but bored. He was ready to fight if someone came after him.
He wandered the streets some more until he saw a sign on a hoagie shop with the ‘R’ robin symbol with “Robin welcomed” written underneath. It must be trap, He’ll have to ask B about it later. That was the only “robin welcomed” sign he’s seen on his walk.
He guessed it was getting late and he should be heading back. B was probably already done with the penguin so he’s probably wondering where he wandered off. He probably shouldn’t keep him waiting if ever wants to go out as Robin again.
As he made his way back to the Bat mobile when suddenly the cat started mewling loudly. It was alerting his presence to everybody in the hood. He pulled out snacks from his costumes looking for something to feed the cat so it would shut up. He found beef jerky and the cat ate it up before jumping off and rubbing and purring around his legs and scampering away.
Now with the cat off him he makes a mad dash for the car before Batman came back. Though he’s too late Batman had a scowl on his face. He waited for him to take his seat in the car first. He’s not going to be allowed as robin again.
Batman took his seat in the car and gave him a stern look. He’s not going to be allowed out of the manor for patrol for at least a week.
“What if you were to be kidnapped by someone?” Nobody would want to kidnap a street rat like Jason Todd but right now he wasn’t Jason he was robin accomplice of batman. The villains probably see him as easy prey to hurt to get to Batman.
“Nothing happened”
“But what if something did?” He didn’t sound angry mostly irritated
“I have my tracker I’m just fine, besides I didn’t go too far”
Bruce sighed. He’s dealt with this kind of thing before. Dick had a pension for getting kidnapped or trapped a lot. He made an effort to teach this one more about the art of escape. However, it didn’t keep him from worrying about his wards. They’re practically his sons.
Bruce was quiet again he’s probably thinking of a way to punish him.
“Hey B um…when I was walking around I saw a hoagie shop with a sign that said “robin welcome” what’s that about?” Bruce smiled and gave a little chuckle. “What? I swear I didn’t go in in case it was a trap” Bruce laughed a little harder and ruffled his hair.
“Don’t you think you have enough food?” He’s noticed Jason’s habit of stowing away food around the manor like a squirrel and filling his costume with snacks. He even saw him trying to put a few snacks in his bat utility belt. He sees the little robin rounding out a little more in his cheeks, but if he keeps it up he might end up too fat to jump across rooftops.
Jason pouted “No it’s not about that I just wanted to know about the Robin welcome thing at the hoagie shop”
“Robin helps a lot of people and in return the people leave him with something to show their gratitude” Jason wasn’t sure what to think of that was it okay for him to take the food? He wasn’t Dick so it could be like cheating those people, not that he hasn’t cheated his way to get food before. Bruce watched him as he conflicted over whether or not it was okay for him to take the food.
He smiled again “I don’t want to you walking into every robin welcome shop and clean out their food stuffing your face while we’re out patrolling.” He wouldn’t want to put him on a diet when they just started to get him to a healthy weight.
“Okay B” He was trying not to laugh.
“I better not find a hoagie in that vest” Bruce poked around to find a bump in his costume where he would have hidden a hoagie.
“Gah quit it!” Bruce backed off when he knew he was clear
“Can’t have you spoiling your breakfast”
“Is there any “Robin welcomed” ice cream joint?”
“I wouldn’t put it past Dick to save a couple ice cream men, however I’m sure Alfred wouldn’t be happy if you spoiled any of your meals”
“And I’m sure Alfred isn’t happy cleaning your smelly bat suits”