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Jason anxiously scans the cave, staring at the vigilantes all gathered around the batcomputer, the kid (princess?) he found on patrol wrapped around his right leg, his hand gently resting on her head in a protective gesture. Bruce types something into the computer, pulling up complicated looking schematics for a device related to dimension travel, ignoring the stuffy silence of the cave. Everyone is still wearing their suits, as Bruce is still worried that she’s a threat, even if she’s a literal child, but alas, they’re still in their sweaty suits as Bruce tries to speedrun the building of this machine because ‘why would he ask for help when he can do it all by himself,’ even if star labs already has basically the same device built
As the night (or rather, morning) drags on, the family watching Bruce work out problems with the occasional help from Barbara or Tim, Jason can start to feel Sofia (the first? Does he have to call her ‘Sofia the first’ every time he says her name?) sleepily lean against his legs, and that’s when Jason snaps.
“Okay, you can do this on your own time, the kid is obviously tired, so how about we reconvene in, say, a few days?” Jason semi-sarcastically proposes. Bruce freezes.
“What are you going to do with the kid?” He asks, sceptically.
“Take her home? What do you mean?” Jason gives Bruce a dirty look.
“Are you going to sleep with your domino on?” Bruce asks.
“No?” Jason sighs. “She isn’t a threat, for gods sake, you found me on the side of the road, stealing your tires, and took me in immediately. Don’t give me shit for giving the kid even a somewhat comfortable home while we try to find a way to get her home.” Jason rolls his eyes. Bruce purses his lips, which looks utterly ridiculous with his cowl on.
“You cannot raise a child.” Bruce argues, but Jason scoffs.
“I helped Roy raise Lian.”
“So did Dick. He would be a far better fit to care for the child.” Jason tenses.
“We will return in three days for an update. I do not want any of you in my territory until then. Understood?” Jason picks Sofia up from where she’s attached to his leg, her falling limp with exhaustion nearly as soon as she’s off her feet. Jason exits the cave, movements stiff and angry. Placing the sleepy girl in front of him, making sure she’s secure enough to not fall off, her crown in his bag, he starts the motorcycle and starts the road to his main safehouse.
~~~
Jason pulls up to the apartment building and, having the forethought to put a hoodie and sweatpants over his Red Hood suit and his helmet in his back, he parks his cycle in the tenant parking lot. He carefully plucks Sofia from the seat of the motorcycle, carrying her into his house as quietly as he can. He thinks about what he’s agreed to. She’s ten, not completely helpless, but still in major need for guidance and parental supervision. She’s obviously touch starved, given how she melted into his touch within moments of meeting him and, speaking of which, she also needs a crash course in stranger danger, especially if she’s going to be staying with him in Crime Alley. Right as Jason is about to put her down to bed, he realises that she is still, in fact, wearing her dress. After a moment of careful contemplation, Jason wakes her up from her sleep, rather regretfully, but he doesn’t want to change her into more comfortable clothes without her permission, especially if she’s asleep.
“Huh?” She mumbles.
“I need you to change into sleeping clothes; your dress will be really uncomfortable to sleep in.” Jason quietly explains. She scrunches her nose as she processes his words.
“I don’t have any clothes?” She reminds him.
“I know, I’ll give you one of my shirts that you can sleep in until we get you some more clothes tomorrow.” Jason hands her one of his sleep shirts, a soft fabric that would hopefully work as a sort of sleep dress while she sleeps. Sofia nods slowly, swinging her legs off the bed and slowly trudging to the bathroom with tired steps. Not even thirty seconds later, he heard a crash followed by a shout. Jason jumps up from his crouched position beside the bed, running to the bathroom.
“Kid?” Jason bangs on the door, panic shooting through his veins. Sofia answers with a cry, a thud following shortly. Jason knocks on the door again, movements urgent. “Hey, I’m gonna come in, okay?” Jason twists the handle, waiting a few moments for a sound, any sound that would mean acknowledgement.
Right as he’s about to open the door, Sofia lets out a soft hum. Jason opens the door fully, seeing Sofia on the floor, his glass soap bottle beside her, shattered. She has her hand wrapped around her back and tears on her cheeks. The shirt that Jason gave her is on the lid of the toilet.
“You need some help there, kid?” Jason smiles faintly, amusement evident in his tone. Sofia glares at him halfheartedly, and Jason resists the urge to coo at her adorable scrunched up face and pout.
“...Yeah.” She admits. “I can’t un-zip my dress.” Her voice grows quiet. Jason nods.
“Let’s get you out of the bathroom, I’ll help you get out of your dress and you can finish changing in your room while I clean up the glass, I don’t want you getting hurt.” Jason explains, bending down to her level as he talks. She nods, grabbing his arm to give her leverage to stand up without tripping on her dress. Jason picks her up, much to her confusion, and carefully steps over the broken glass. When he sets her down on her bed, he checks over her arms and hands for any injuries. After ensuring that she doesn’t have any there, he moves into her legs, pushing the dress up to her mid-thigh, where her bloomers start, and checks both of them. She shifts awkwardly.
“What are you doing?” She asks nervously. Jason glances up at her, sending her a small smile.
“I’m checking you over for any injuries, since you might have touched the glass and glass is sharp.” He pauses.” Do you hurt anywhere? I won’t check any further but I need to know if you got hurt anywhere.” Jason stands up. Sofia shakes her head.
“No, I didn’t touch it anywhere.” She whispers, jumping off the bed. Jason nods. He goes behind her, unzipping her dress and stepping away.
“Do you need any more help?” He offers. Sofia shakes her head, her eyes glancing at the door repeatedly. Jason sighs, leaving the room and walking back to the bathroom, making a quick stop at the kitchen to grab a bag and gloves. He hums to himself as he carefully picks up all the large pieces of glass before sweeping the smaller pieces into a dustpan that typically resides in the bathroom cabinets. Jason brings the bag to the trash before walking back to his guest room. He knocks on the door.
“You can come in.” She calls out, Jason opens the door. Sofia is sitting in front of the bed, Jason’s shirt on her and reaching her mid-calf. Her dress is on the dresser, folding nicely up.
“You can get in the bed.” Jason points out. Sofia slowly nods her head.
“Okay.” She hesitates before getting in the bed, slowly getting under the covers.
“I’ll wake you up in the morning and we’ll go get you some clothes.” Jason waits for her nod before leaving the room, shutting the door quietly and heading to his room.
That night, he sleeps lightly, listening out for any sound that might mean that something happened to the kid.
~~~
When Sofia wakes up, she looks around the room in confusion. It’s unfamiliar, dark with minimal furnishings. Despite that, the bed is comfortable, perhaps even more comfortable than her normal bed at home, and the blanket that covers her is soft and warm. Right, home. Where is her home? When she told the man where she’s from, he looked confused. Maybe she’s a long way from home? When the man took her to the dark cave, the other guy, the one wearing a bat costume, kept talking about finding a way to get her home. Why did he act like it was such a hard feat? Couldn’t they just use a boat and carriage? Or that scary weird thing that he used to bring her to the cave and probably the castle (?) she’s in now. She doesn’t remember much after the cave. She thinks she fell asleep, but she remembers being cold and some broken glass, maybe? She just wants to go home, where she has her family and friends and where she doesn’t forget periods of time, but with how the scary bat-guy was talking, that doesn’t seem like an option.
Sofia pushes the blankets off of her and jumps down to the floor, readjusting the shirt she’s wearing. It’s soft, feeling like a blanket on her skin, much unlike her usual, uncomfortably tight and scratchy royal dresses. Even though it’s been almost a year, she’s still getting used to being a princess. It’s cool and all, she thinks, but it’s a lot to relearn her manners and make new friends and learn how to act like royalty. It’s a lot, and every mistake she makes is blown up and put under a magnifying glass for everyone to see, making her feel like a failure because she forgot what fork she was supposed to use. She misses when her mom was normal, and when her dad was alive, and her old friends with her old school.
She likes her new siblings, and the kids at school are nice enough, but she always feels like she doesn’t fit in, like she’s an imposter, and she knows that, eventually, she won’t be the new girl anymore and she’ll have friends that she can confide in, but no matter what, nobody will ever understand what she’s going through.
A loud bang stirs her from her thoughts.
The sound comes from outside her window, and it’s followed by a scream and a stream of loud curses. Sofia backs herself into the furthest corner away from the window as her breathing picks up. Moments later, the red-clad man from the night before bursts in the room, scanning it with worry apparent on his face until he makes eye contact with Sofia. He rushes over to her, pulling her into his chest.
“Are you okay?” He asks, letting out a stressed breath.
“What was that?” Sofia asks, tears welling up in her eyes for the umpteenth time within 24 hours. Jason rubs her back, comforting her in a way that she’s never experienced before, and making her feel warm in a way she’s never felt before. He bends his legs enough for her to wrap her arms around his neck, allowing him to pick her up and cradle her to his chest. She nuzzles her face into the man’s neck, feeling safer in his arms than she ever had before, despite not even knowing the man’s name. She should probably ask him what his name was, actually. Although, the man with the bat ears did say that she couldn’t know their names, but the man who took her in seemed to be a little irritated by that… so maybe he’ll tell her his name? She should at least ask, and even if he doesn’t give her his name, he might give her a nickname or something to call him. That would be nice, she thinks.
“That was a gunshot. I forgot to warn you about that… I definitely should’ve chosen one of my safe houses that were a little ways out of crime alley; I didn’t think of that.” The man explained, although he seemed to be talking mostly to himself. Sofia lifts her head from the man’s neck and tilts it, confused.
“What’s a gunshot?” She asks. The man halts his comforting back rubs, much to Sofia’s dismay, but he starts them back up after he seems to have gotten over the shock, presumedly.
“It means when someone fires a gun.” He explains. She still doesn’t understand.
“What’s a gun? And why would someone fire them? Did they do their job wrong?” She is startled when the man lets out a sharp laugh.
“No, a gun is a type of weapon, and it’s used to hurt people, but when you fire one, it means you’re shooting a bullet at someone or something. Sorta like a slingshot. It’s because, when you press the trigger of a gun, it sends a spark of fire to the bullet, which holds this thing called gunpowder, and the gunpowder expands when it gets hot, which lets the bullet shoot out.” The man walks towards the bedroom door as he speaks, beelining towards the kitchen.
“But why would someone want to hurt someone else? I know that slingshots hurt lots, and these things sound even worse.” The man’s face sobers, and he takes a moment to answer, putting her down on the counter as he seemingly rifles through his kitchen, pulling out several odd contraptions, along with some basic ingredients.
“Sometimes, people get really mad at others, and they want to hurt the person they’re mad at, even if they aren’t actually mad at that person.” He pauses. “Like, I hurt my younger brother really badly, because I was mad at him for stealing my place in the family after I d– got sent away. Except, I wasn't actually mad at him, as much as I was mad at my dad, but the person who I lived with when I went away for a while, she got it into my head that my younger brother, Tim, deserved to get hurt.” He starts to add some of the ingredients to one bowl, and the others to the other bowl. “Tim didn’t deserve to get hurt, I see that now, but sometimes, people don’t see that, and they truly think that someone deserves to get shot, even if most of the time, they don’t.” The man finishes. Sofia kicks her legs against the wooden cabinet that supports the countertop she’s sitting on.
“Most of the time?” She asks innocently. The man gives her a dry laugh.
“Yeah, most of the time. There are some really bad people out there, people who hurt kids like you for fun. That’s why we’re gonna get you some new clothes, because your dress that you came in would catch far too much attention, and, where we are right now, attention is not a good thing.” The man turns a dial on the metal box beside her, a small flame starting on the circular black thing that’s above it. Sofia yelps, scrambling to get away from the fire. The man chuckles. “Don’t worry, kid. The flame won’t hurt ‘ya.” He places a pan on the black lines that cover the flame before turning back to the bowls with the mixtures in them, pouring the one with wet stuff in it to the one with dry stuff, mixing it all together.
“But I’m a princess. I have to draw attention.” Sofia responds quietly. The man takes a breath.
“Where you’re from, yeah, you are, but where we are now, you aren’t a princess, you’re just a normal girl.” The man’s words are short, not meeting her eyes as he pours the cream-coloured batter into the pan. Sofia purses her lips. She doesn't know why, but she feels like she can confide in the man, like he’s safe, and he’ll protect her.
“I don’t wanna be a princess.” She starts. “Mom married the king, after dad died, and now I’m a princess and I have an older brother and an older sister now, but my older sister in mean to me sometimes, and all the people at school act like I’m dumb because I don’t know how to balance four books on my head without dropping them.” Sofia pouts when she sees the man trying to hold down a laugh. “Don’t laugh,” She mumbles, and the man at least tries to hold them down.
“I’m not laughing at you, I swear, I just– I get what you mean. I grew up on the streets, y’know? I was homeless for a few years, and one day, I tried to steal something from this guy, and the guy decided to take me home and eventually adopt me. He’s the closest thing we have to royalty here, his nickname is ‘the prince of Gotham’ because he basically is. He’s one of the richest people in the country, so going from living on the streets to having to act like a prince, it was hard to adjust to, for sure. I don’t think I ever really did fully adjust to the expectations that everyone else had for me, just because my dad was Bruce Wayne.” He flips the cream-coloured circle, the other side being a pretty brown colour. Sofia nods.
“What’s your name?” She asks rather suddenly. The man raises an eyebrow, huffing out a laugh before responding.
“I never did give you that, huh. My name’s Jason.” He introduces and Sofia smiles.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jason.” Sofia jumps down from the counter, giving him another curtsey, just like the night before, although this time, it was far more graceful since she wasn’t wearing heels on uneven grounds. The man, Jason nods his head towards her.
“You can just call me Jason.” He replied, amused. Sofia shakes her head.
“That’s impolite.” She states factually. Jason shrugs.
“You don’t gotta worry about bein’ polite here, kid. You shouldn’t ever have to worry ‘bout that, not until you’re older.” Jason puts the now-brown circle on a plate, adding more of the cream batter to the pan after the other one is taken out. Sofia doesn’t respond; she doesn’t know what to say to that. After Jason repeats the process a few more times and, after there was a fair amount of the plate, Jason hands it to Sofia.
“Pancakes?” She asks, eyeing the stack of perfectly-cooked pancakes. Jason nods.
“Hope you enjoy them.” He turns back to the pan, flipping the pancake that was already on there.
“Thank you.” Sofia says, munching on the plain pancakes. After a few moments, Jason turns around and looks at her with confusion.
“I have utensils… and syrup if you want something more than plain pancakes.” Jason furrows his eyebrows with baffled amusement. Sofia places down her pancake as her cheeks grow pink.
“I would like some utensils, please.” She blushes, embarrassed. Jason hands her a fork and knife, simple cutlery, no engravings or fancy hilts, far different from what she was slowly getting used to at home. She liked the simpler stuff, though. The fancy-ness of everything in her castle, it was a little exhausting. Everything had to be intricate and expensive, nothing could ever be simple. Jason builds himself a stack of pancakes, pouring a bit of syrup on the top and eating them.
After the two finish their breakfast and Jason washes the dishes, he glances at his glowing rectangle that she saw the night before, his jaw clenched, and begins talking.
“There’s a thrift store a few blocks away that we can get clothes at, or there’s a shopping mall a little ways away, but we’d have to drive there and you don’t have shoes, so we’d have to find a solution to that, but it’s your choice.” Jason sits down on the kitchen stool, eyes trained on her. Sofia shrugs, looking at the ground.
“I have my shoes that go with my dress.” She points out, but Jason shakes his head.
“You are not wearing your glass shoes while walking through crime alley. I’ll be carrying you.” Jason states, leaving no room for arguments.
“What’s a thrift store?” Sofia changes the topic.
“It’s a place where people give things that they don’t want anymore, or if it’s for clothes and shoes, things that don’t fit them anymore.” Jason explains. Sofia is surprised, he’s teaching her so much, and answering so many of her questions without even hinting at getting irritated. Usually, adults get mad when she asks too many questions, so she’s surprised that Jason seems so unbothered by her questions, if even excited to answer them. “We can go there.” Sofia resolves, noticing the small sigh of relief that Jason lets out at her answer.
“I’m gonna go grab ya’ a hoodie, since it’s cold outside.” Jason turns towards his room, coming out a minute later with a red jacket that he tosses to her. She looks at the article of clothing with curiosity, holding it out in front of her as she studies the jacket. Hesitantly, she puts the hoodie, as he called it, and is surprised to see that it’s fairly comfy, just like the shirt she’s wearing underneath it, but the hoodie has a layer of soft fluff on the inside, providing a warm bubble around her arms and torso. Jason smiles at the sight, grabbing his keys and glowing rectangle, depositing them in his own hoodie’s pockets, before he picks her up.
Jason brings the two out of the apartment, walking down the stairs and out into the snow covered streets. Sofia glances around at the passersby anxiously as Jason leads her through the unfamiliar streets. After seemingly a few moments (Sofia loses track of time, she closes her eyes for just a moment and, when she opens them back up again, she’s in a completely new environment and Jason is holding the door open for a mom and her kid. Sofia really hates how she’s losing track of time, she just wants time to move normally again, not in the speeding way it seems to move while she’s here.) They reach the store that Jason was talking about, a thrift store or something? Sofia can’t remember.
Sofia is drawn out of her thoughts by a bell chiming as she and Jason walk through the (frankly shabby) doorway. She looks around the shop in awe, seeing clothes everywhere she looks with other random items, like vases and books and whatnot, mixed in with it all. Jason leads her (despite the fact that she is still in his arms) to the area with smaller, more colourful clothing filling the racks. Jason runs his foot over one specific spot, likely making sure it was clean before he sets her socked feet on the ground. Jason starts to rummage through the racks, mumbling to himself while Sofia stands there nervously, unsure about what to say.
After a moment, Jason holds up a shirt and a pair of purple pants that seem to be overly baggy around the legs, although, even without touching the pants, she can tell that they're very soft. The shirt, too, looks like it's made from a soft material, although not the same material, and it's fully a dark, navy blue shirt with a yellow 'W' on it. Jason puts them against each other, envisioning the outfit before throwing both articles of clothing over his shoulder.
"You need a few outfits, probably like three pairs of pants and four shirts minimum. Oh! And shoes, some really comfortable ones, maybe tennis shoes?" Jason excitedly looks through the clothes again, pulling about another pink shirt with little pineapples on them and a pair of blue shorts with an odd shape attached to a pair of straps. He throws those over his shoulders and starts digging. Sofia, curious, begins shifting the clothes around as well, glancing at all the pretty colours with pretty patterns, but one catches her eye. It's a dress, her favorite form of clothing, and it's purple with puffy sleeves (reminding her of the home), and there was an absurdly large pink bow smack dab in the middle in the rubbin that wraps around the waist of the dress. Sofia gasps, immediately reaching towards it and presenting it to Jason. Jason looks at her and sighs
"Oh how the pageant moms would love you." Jason mumbles under his breath, and Sofia ignores the comment, not knowing if it was an insult or a compliment, also unsure as to what a 'pageant mom' is, so she continues gawking at the pretty dress, noticing the sparkles that adorn the ribbon. After a moment, Jason takes a deep breath and looks at Sofia, bending down to her level. "The reason we are here is to get you clothes that'll help you blend in. Where you come from, it might be normal to wear all these fancy dresses, but here, that'll get you killed." He gently explains, voice soft as he places a hand on her shoulder. Sofia bites her lip, her eyes jumping back and forth between Jason and the dress. It's like an invisible decision; she knows that Jason is right, and that, from the little she's seen of this unknown place, people don't dress the way they do back in Enchantia, but even then, even when all her dresses are uncomfortable, it feels like the only thing she had left from home, and if she goes with what Jason says (and she knows that, deep down, she will), it'll be like she's letting the only thing that connects her to home go.
Sofia relents, nodding sadly but she lets go of the dress nonetheless. Jason leads her away from the section that they were in, bringing her to the other side of the rack to look at more of the colourful clothes. Sofia distantly looks through them, not really processing what she's looking at until she lays her eyes on a bright green shirt with an odd, black symbol adoring the center of the shirt. It reminds Sofia of James, just barely, but the colour of the shirt matches his eyes and James was the last person who she talkes to before coming to this strange place and it's all enough to make her want it. She turns to Jason, holding out the shirt hesitantly. Jason raises an eyebrow, stiffling his laughter as he adds the shirt to the pile on his shoulder. Sofia glances at him curiously, as if asking him why he's laughing, but he just shakes his head, moving on to a different column without explanation.
Eventually, they make their way over to the shoes. Jason narrows his eyes at a pair of plain black adidas, glancing between Sofia's socked feet and the shoes. He huffs, setting the shoe down beside Sofia's foot. He nods towards it.
"Try that on; I don't know what size you are so I wanna see if that fits you well." Jason explains, watching her with careful eyes as she hesitantly bends down and shoves her foot into the shoe. She frowns, wriggling her foot but the shoes remain only half on. She looks up at Jason, shame turning her cheeks pink as she mumbles something about help. Jason nods, sitting on his knees as he pulls the tongue of the shoe out, allowing Sofia to finally stand without needing to be on her tippy toes. Jason ties the laces, patting the shoe once before getting back up. "How does it feel?" He asks.
"Weird." Sofia responds quietly, eying Jason when he huffs out a laugh.
"Try to walk in them; tell me if you think they're big enough or not." Jason instructs, and Sofia does as he says, taking a few cautious steps with them on. She tilts her head sideways, taking a few more steps, though this time they're less cautious and more sure.
"They feel odd… but they're very comfortable. Far more so than my normal heels." Sofia nods. Jason smiles, standing up fully and leading her over to another section a few feet down.
"This is your size, so choose any one you want, just make sure they're comfy." Jason motions to a collection of shelves, all the shoes the same size. Sofia admires every single pair of shoes, all in different states of together-ness, some falling apart at the means and some in near-perfect condition. She doesn't find anything that really calls out to her, looking at every shoe but ultimately putting them back until a pair of bright red with a white tongue and yellow laces. When Sofia takes them off of the shelf and drops them on the floor, they begin to emit light. Jason, who was seemingly zones out, startles at the flash of light in the dimly-lit store. Sophia smiles, her eyes bright as she holds them out to Jason.
"Are you sure you want those ones?" He asks, a small smirk dancing on his lips. Sofia nods rapidly, grinning widely.
"Yes, yes!" She excitedly exclaims. Jason takes the shoes, holding them and leading her to the counter that had a mean looking lady behind it. Jason places the clothes on the counter, making small-talk with the lady as she types something into a glowing rectangle, like what Jason has, only a lot bigger. After a few moments, a much smaller glowing rectangle in front of Jason shows a string of numbers that the lady repeats, and Jason hands her a wad of cash, telling her to keep the change before picking up the bag with Sofia's new clothes with one hand, and Sofia with his other hand, settling her into his arms.
They make their trek back to Jason's apartment, Sofia being far more awake than she was when they were walking to the store. When they get home, Jason throws everything he got into a giant white cube with a cylinder inside it, to wash her clothes and shoes, Jason explains, but Sofia is still wary about it, watching the clothes complete their washing cycle just to make sure the machine doesn't each them up like a monster.