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“Master Jason, if you don’t stand still, I won’t be able to make the correct adjustments.” Alfred did his level best to pin Master Jason down as he tacked the temporary cape into place, but it was an uphill battle, even after the admonishment.
“Sorry, Alfie. It’s just— really cool. I like how swishy you made it.”
“Hm. Well, after all these years, I have something of a handle on it.” With the fabric finally in place, Alfred released his hold of the squirmy, overexcited boy.
Jason rocketed away instantly, sweeping the cape with him as he leapt towards his brother.
Master Damian was leaning against the railing, arms crossed. Although he tried to retain a distant air, the slight upturn of his mouth betrayed him. “Remember you’ll need to account for the additional fabric when you are fighting.”
“Yeah, I know, Dami! I used to wear a cape before, remember?” Master Jason climbed up onto the railing, letting the cape flutter in his brother’s face. “This is gonna be really cozy when it’s cold outside, too.”
Alfred nodded. “Yes, it is lined with the same climate-adaptive material that is used for all the capes.”
“And my dumb ass was still wearing that leather jacket all the time!”
“I did offer to make adjustments to your old uniform. Multiple times.”
From his perch, Master Jason tossed an easy grin back to Alfred. Then, he leapt off the railing, flaring the cape dramatically as he flipped through the air. He landed, but the chunky boots didn’t make a sound. A true credit to his training and effort.
“Your brother is right,” Alfred cautioned. “It’s best to practice as much as possible with all the elements in place.”
“You mean the whole outfit, right?” Jason pivoted on one foot, swirling the cape outwards again.
“Yes, as soon as the alterations are complete.” They were still in the process of determining fit for some of the accessories such as knee pads and gloves. Alfred hoped to design items that would last a few growth spurts, but he also couldn’t sacrifice the safety that came from getting an exact fit.
One important item was nearly complete, though, so he plucked the helmet that was waiting on a nearby table and handed it over to his excited charge. The more eye-catching design elements had yet to be decided on, but the basic engineering was solid. The smooth outward surface was capable of withstanding great force, and the large mirrored visor covering Master Jason’s eyes would effectively conceal his identity, although a mask would also be worn for the sake of security.
With a smile, Master Jason took the helmet and fit it into place, shaking his head side to side to make sure it was going to stay. The movement was a little like one of those silly bobblehead toys. He drew in a breath to say something, but before he could, Master Damian snuck up and tugged the edge of his cape.
“Hey!” Jason whipped around to face his brother’s smug expression.
“I am merely checking your peripheral vision. It is limited by any sort of headpiece and—”
“I can see fine, Dami! You just need to—” Quick as a flash, Master Jason dove down low, ducking under Master Damian’s arms and finally tugging on his boots before rolling sideways and popping up several feet away.
Damian’s mouth flattened.
Alfred went to review his work, keeping only half an eye on the tussling brothers. They’d both claim it was for training purposes, but it looked an awful lot like a schoolyard game of tag.
The uniform fitting had gone well, though. Only a few minor alterations were needed. Well, a few minor alterations plus a very important decision.
It was a moment later when Alfred got the chance to ask about it. The game had slowed, and Master Jason appeared in front of Alfred with his bright smile poking out from under the helmet. He threw his arms around Alfred in a hug.
“Thanks, Alfie. This is perfect.”
“It is my pleasure, dear boy. Now, have you thought any more about a colour scheme?”
With a grimace, Jason lifted his visor. “No. I still haven’t picked a name and— Well, I figure I gotta have that before I decide on colours and stuff.”
“Hm. It is a difficult decision indeed.”
“Yeah! There’s just— a ton of cool stuff it could be.” With his plain, unbranded uniform still on, he bent down to fetch the battered notebook he’d brought with him to this little fitting session. Both Alfred and Master Damian gathered closer to see as Master Jason flipped through the pages, but Alfred caught only snippets: lists of names, doodled emblems, sketches of potential accessories.
Although one item in particular caught his eye. “I wasn’t aware you were planning on carrying a blade with you.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Jason traced his finger over the pencil lines. “It was a new thing I thought of, but I haven’t asked Dad yet. Or Dami.”
“It will be up to your father,” Alfred said. Carrying a knife like the one illustrated could be helpful, of course, but it could also be seen as an invitation for a more escalated response from the criminal element.
Jason nodded. “Yeah, but also the knife I wanna take is one of Dami’s old ones, so…” He turned to look at his brother. “And I promise I’m gonna keep really good care of it and everything! I just— Well, I thought it’d be really good to…”
Master Damian looked intently at the little sketch. “Is that the one I first gave you?”
Master Jason nodded as a faint blush grew on his cheeks. “Yeah. On that very first night after I got turned into a kid. I didn’t even know back then that you were gonna end up being my big brother, but it still helped me feel better to have something that actually felt like it fit and… And I like the idea of, you know… keeping that feeling. When I’m out in Gotham.”
Damian nodded stiffly. “I see. Then… it would be a wise idea. For you to use it.”
“Yeah? So… maybe you’d like it, too?” Wide, innocent eyes angled expertly up to Master Damian.
He frowned. “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”
“Yep!”
There was a sigh, and then Master Damian recalibrated. “I would be honoured, Jason, if you brought my blade into battle with you.”
Master Jason beamed. “See? I knew you could do it, Dami.”
“Tt. Brat.”
Alfred hid a smile of his own as he watched Master Damian tug his younger brother into a hug. Then, he added another note to his list. Although a name had not yet been chosen, it seemed like a minor adjustment should be made to Master Jason’s utility belt.
Dick took another sip from his milkshake and then leaned back, stretching his legs out as far as he could in the cramped diner booth. They’d been to this exact spot several times in the past, but it had been when Jason was older. Back then, having a neutral place to meet up had been helpful, and the food gave them a good distraction when they needed it. Plus, the diner had high-backed booths and a slow-paced atmosphere, so it led to a good balance for what they talked about. You didn’t have to watch every word that came out of your mouth, but you also couldn’t get too deep into stuff that might end up in an argument.
Not that that was really a concern anymore. From across the table, Jason grinned at Dick, totally content and happy. Well, he was until Dick reached out and stole a french fry from his plate.
“Hey!”
“You weren’t going to finish them all anyway,” Dick said as he popped the fry into his mouth.
“I could; you don’t know.”
“You already ate your burger and you’ve still got your whole milkshake to finish, which we both know you’re going to pick over the fries.”
“Well— maybe I’m gonna have both! I’m a growing kid! And I’m doing tons of exercise all the time.”
“Yeah, you are.” Dick pushed his plate of onion rings out towards Jason as a silent apology. “I heard you passed Cass’ latest obstacle course.”
Jason smiled again. “Yeah. She made it really hard, but I still did it.”
“Of course you did.” Dick nudged his knee against Jason’s leg. “You’re going to be all ready for the summer.”
Jason’s smile grew bigger. It still terrified Dick to think of a kid who this little going out at night, but he knew he was in no position to judge. He remembered how it felt to be this age, and also how it felt to need something like this, no matter how young you were. Dick hadn’t been a normal child, and Jason definitely wasn’t one either. And there was no doubt that Jason would be protected.
“I still need to figure out a name,” Jason admitted as he picked an onion ring off of Dick’s plate.
“Still stuck on it, huh?”
“It’s just hard! I think I’m, like—” He frowned at the onion ring as he broke it apart, letting the noodly, cooked onion slither out of the breading and fall onto the plate.
“Gross,” Dick complained. “You think you’re what?”
“Well, just— I keep changing my mind. I think it’s… you know, another kid thing.” With a shrug, Jason nibbled away at the broken pieces of breading.
“Really?”
“Yeah, cause— Well, a lot of stuff is like that now. I get bored way faster or pick something and end up not liking it as much as I thought I would.” His eyes flicked over to Dick’s chocolate milkshake.
“Oh,” Dick realized. It had been weird that Jason had barely touched the literal ice cream drink that was right in front of him, but now it suddenly made sense. With a grin, Dick pushed his milkshake across the table and grabbed Jason’s glass for himself, handling the switch between chocolate and strawberry in under a second.
“Dick!” Jason straightened up in his seat. “You didn’t have to— I was fine with drinking mine.”
“Yeah, but you changed your mind, right? I don’t mind switching.”
“But you can’t always— just… give me whatever I want. I’m gonna get spoiled.”
“That’s what happens when you’re the baby of the family.”
Jason drew in a breath to object, paused, and then slumped back in his spot. “Well… then it’s gonna be your guys’ fault when I grow up to be an asshole.”
“Not possible,” Dick said confidently, nudging his knee against Jason again.
It took a moment, but eventually Jason pulled the chocolate milkshake glass closer to him and took a sip. An adorable little smile snuck onto his face, which was exactly why Dick had done that move in the first place.
That, and the fact that now Jason couldn’t say anything when Dick ate more of the fries.
They sat there in silence, eating and drinking. Jason’s heels bumped softly against the foot of the bench, drumming out an unsteady rhythm.
“Maybe it’s not a kid thing,” he finally said. “Cause you picked a name when you were younger, and it’s pretty much the best one out there.”
Dick swallowed his bite. “Okay, Jay, I love that you think that, but it wasn’t some… I dunno, magical naming ability I had back then. That name…” He remembered where they were and kept himself from saying it out loud. “You know. It became what it was because of what I put into it. And what you did, too, and all the others after. That was the important part.”
Jason mangled another onion ring, mind visibly at work. “But you still picked something and went with it. I’m just… stuck.”
“It probably helped because it was connected to my mom,” Dick shared. “It meant something personal to me.”
“Oh. Right.” Jason flashed him a brief, sympathetic smile. One that actually felt genuine compared to the thousands of sympathetic looks Dick had been hit with over the years.
It was funny how that worked. Jason was such a sweet little kid, but there were still those moments where Dick felt a connection between them that went deeper than that. A connection that felt like they were close to equals in some way.
Jason knew exactly how it felt to lose your parents and your home at too young of an age. He knew how much those small remnants mattered: a picture, a keepsake, a nickname.
“Having that name helped me feel… you know, protected. And inspired,” Dick said. “That’s why I wanted to use it. If I hadn’t had that, I might have struggled just like you are.”
“Maybe.” Jason shrugged. “Anyway, I don’t have a nickname like that. My mom just called me Jay. And— well, there’s Blue Jay, I guess, but I don’t think Dad’s gonna let me do that.”
A bark of laughter escaped Dick. “Yeah, no way in hell.”
Jason sighed his acceptance. “Yeah. Even though it’d be really—”
“—cute.”
“—badass. Wait… cute?” He turned a slightly lost face up at Dick. “Really?”
“Well, not like— It’s not automatically cute. It’s just that you’re…” Not like that was any better, Dick realized too late. “Sorry.”
Jason shrugged one shoulder. “S’okay. I’m… used to it.” He stared at the milkshake glass as he slowly rotated it.
“But if you don’t like it—”
“I— Sometimes I… don’t hate it,” he admitted, eyes flicking up to Dick sheepishly. “Just… other times it sucks when I think something’s cool and then I find out that people think different. But I don’t want you to not say anything! I wanna know.”
“Okay,” Dick agreed cautiously, searching his brother’s expression for any hint that the answer might actually be something else.
Jason seemed settled about it, though, as he dunked a fry into his milkshake.
With more confidence, Dick nodded. Then he knocked his knee against Jason’s dangling foot. “You know, back when I was your age, doing… what you’re about to do…”
Jason swallowed his bite. “Yeah?”
“People thought I was cute, too. At least, they thought it way more often than I wanted them to.”
Finally, there was a grimace of acknowledgement as Jason took another sip of his drink.
“But, uh, that always ended up changing,” Dick shared. “Sooner or later. And then, those same people were always scared shitless, so that was pretty fun.”
A bright, surprised, effervescent laugh burst out of Jason. Then he pushed himself up onto his knees so he could reach his milkshake better.
Grinning, Dick stole another french fry. “And, hey, I know you’ll figure out the name thing eventually.”
“Well, I better! Cause I can’t go out without one and it’d be so dumb if I’m the reason why I have to wait to get started.”
“You won’t be. I don’t know about the whole changing your mind thing, but it’s definitely a kid thing to get stuck on something and feel like you’re not making any progress. But… just know that you are, and you will, and this will all get sorted out in the way it’s supposed to, okay?”
Jason’s searching eyes stared from across the table. His fingers were greasy from the onion rings and there was a smudge of whipped cream on his upper lip. Then, finally, a weight lifted from his shoulders and he nodded to himself.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll keep working at it and… see.”
“Hey, Dad!”
Bruce turned from the case file he’d been updating just in time to see Jason’s homework folder slap down on the desk surface beside him.
“I got it all done. But I still think it’s dumb we even have homework when there’s only, like, a week left of school.”
“Hn. It’s good you’re still learning, isn’t it?”
“I guess…” His feet carried him away, drifting aimlessly across the platform as Bruce ran his eyes down the page.
“You missed a capital letter here and a period at the end of your sentence. And ‘Beijing’ is spelled with an e-i.”
Like a shot, Jason was back at the desk, cramming in close to Bruce to complete those small corrections. Bruce, meanwhile, turned to the math. It was some kind of geometry work, and although there were several smudged eraser marks on the page, Jason had landed on all of the correct answers eventually.
“Good job, Jay.” Bruce slipped the paper back into the folder and then tugged Jason into a hug. “All done and still another hour left until dinner.”
“Yeah, um, Dami said he’d do an art lesson with me if I got the homework done fast enough.”
“Well, that sounds great.” But Bruce didn’t turn back to his work yet. There was something about the look on Jason’s face that didn’t seem quite settled. “Unless… there’s something else?”
“Um…” Jason bit his lip, eyes cutting off to the side.
“Jay. You can ask me anything, remember?”
“I know. I…” He took a big breath, and then pulled a battered notebook out of his stack of papers.
Bruce recognized it instantly. He’d seen Jason bent over it countless times over the last few weeks, ever since they’d finally agreed on a start date for Jason’s vigilante activities. Bruce knew it was full of Jason’s ideas for what his new identity would be, and it had been very sweet watching how seriously he took the project while still being such a little boy about it.
Jason would often curl up in the corner of the sofa, scribbling away in the pages and protecting his thoughts from any prying eyes. Other times, he’d shove the book under Bruce’s nose, so eager to show off a new idea or a creative thought that he’d forget any principles of personal space. Bruce had been concerned at first about a written record like this existing, but Jason had been very responsible with it. The book had never been left lying around; it had never been taken anywhere like school.
And now Jason was handing it over, completely, to him.
“You know I’ve been trying to figure out a name.”
“Yes.” Bruce’s hand closed onto the notebook. Truthfully, he’d started to become a little concerned about that. They were getting closer and closer to the unofficial, mutually agreed upon debut date, and as much as he didn’t want to push the issue, they needed something to work with in order to set some important security protocols.
“So, uh, I decided,” Jason said, toes curling underneath them.
“You have? That’s great news, Jay. I—”
“I want you to do it.”
Bruce stilled. He mentally reviewed what had just been said, and it still didn’t make sense. “Jay, I… I said you could pick anything you like, within reason. It’s really up to you.”
“I know, but— But I’m deciding this. Dick said he picked his name because that’s what his mom called him and— I don’t have a nickname like that that would work cause… Well, I don’t want you to stop calling me ‘Jaylad’ other times. I… like it for home. For times like now.”
“Hm.” Bruce tugged his son close enough that he could place a kiss on his temple. “I’m glad. I like it too.”
“Yeah.” A sweet, shy smile flickered into view, and then it morphed slightly. “Plus ‘Jaylad’ is a dumb vigilante name.”
Bruce let out a soft laugh and snuck in another kiss. “It’s not meant to be one.”
“No. But… anyway. I think I wanna do it like Dick did. Like, he had something his mom called him and I… I could have something that you pick for me. It’d be close to the same, right?”
Finally, the pieces were starting to come together, but they made a picture that Bruce hadn’t prepared for in the slightest. He’d grown so much as a father since taking in this child version of Jason, and yet this…
“You want me to choose your name,” he said, checking. He needed to be absolutely sure.
“Yeah. If you… I mean, if that’s okay…”
“Of course it’s—” He gave his head a shake, pulling himself together as best as he could. “Jason. I’d be honoured to. It’s just… a lot of trust you’re giving me.”
Jason shrugged. “You’re my dad.”
“Yes. I am.” Bruce pulled them together in another hug, relishing that little moment that always happened when Jason relaxed against him. It was as perfect as always.
After a beat, Jason shifted around, not quite leaving the embrace but moving just enough so he had some freedom. “That’s why I’m giving you the notebook. I like pretty much every single name I have in there, so you can look through the lists and see what you think is gonna be good. Or— I dunno, if there’s something better—”
“I know you’ll have a winner in here.” Bruce plucked the notebook back off the desk and held it, reverently, in his hand. “You’re so creative and thoughtful and—”
“Da-ad! Don’t get all weird about this.”
“Never,” Bruce promised as he stole another hug from his brilliant boy. “I’ll take it seriously, Jaylad, I promise.”
The name brought a wave of peace over Jason’s expression, and he sank easily back into Bruce’s arms. “Okay. Good.”
“I’ll… choose something. And make sure that you like it. And then…”
A smile grew on Jason’s face. “Yeah. Then I’m gonna be ready.”
“Yes.” Bruce kept his arms around his son, shielding him from the world for just a little bit longer. “You will be.”
Jason crouched up in the little hidey-hole he’d found tucked into the cave wall and watched.
Bruce was down there, right beside the Batmobile, wearing his cape and cowl and everything. Cass and Tim were standing there, too, listening to whatever it was he was saying.
If Jason wanted to, he could have probably heard them because his helmet came with the same special microphone that his Red Hood helmet used to have. A ‘unidirectional’ mic that could pick up stuff from super far away if you pointed it in the right spot. He remembered using it lots when he’d been Red Hood, and so he wanted one in his helmet now even though Bruce said he wasn’t going to be doing a ton of spying and he definitely wasn’t going to be doing it by himself.
For right now, Jason didn’t really want to listen in on what Bruce was saying anyway. He was having enough fun flipping through all the different settings on his visor: heat vision, night vision, and… zoom vision? Whatever it was that let him look super close at things that were far away. He was really good at switching back and forth between all the different styles, and he was super excited that tonight he’d finally get to use all of this stuff for real.
Well, he’d get to as soon as everyone stopped talking.
Using his new gloves and his new boots, Jason snuck out of the hidey-hole and started crawling along the wall. All the little rock bits sticking out made for good hand holds, so it was easy to move around to a new spot. He could move super silent even with all his new equipment, so he…
Well, he maybe started to make some of his own sound effects for everything under his breath so no one could hear it. It was just so cool to be climbing all around the cave and think about doing the exact same thing on all the buildings in Gotham, too.
He got all the way over to the other side of Bruce when Cass looked up. Her eyes caught him dead on, and he froze in place. Dammit, of course she was the one who was gonna catch him. His one hand was working really hard to keep a grip on a stalactite, and his legs were pushing out into a section of rock to keep him up, too.
He could try sneaking away. It wasn’t like she was gonna tell on him or anything. But… Screw it. He wanted to get going, didn’t he?
He jumped down, grabbing the edges of his cape to make sure it whooshed out just right as he moved. When he landed, he rolled forward to absorb the impact and then popped up again really quick, right in the middle of the little circle that Bruce, Cass, and Tim all made.
“C’mon! We’re gonna go soon, right?”
“Soon,” Bruce agreed as he tugged Jason’s cape straight.
“Be patient, Sparrow,” Cass said. She had something that almost looked like a smirk on her face.
Jason groaned. “You guys are making me wait just to tease me, aren’t you? This is literally worse than waiting for Christmas!” But even though he was running out of patience, there was a part of him that was still really happy. He liked his new name: Sparrow.
It made him think about Robin, but it was also brand new and fresh and bright. It meant he got to have a uniform that was in sneaky black and brown colours to blend in with Gotham, but also with a splash of really cool red because he’d found a picture of a sparrow that had a red mohawk and of course that’s what he had to put on his helmet, too.
But the best thing about his name was that his dad had given it to him. Bruce had looked through all of those ideas and picked this one because he thought it’d be a good one for Jason. Jason could think about that and remember that every single time he went out and kicked ass and helped people. It was kinda like he was always going to have his dad with him, protecting him and caring for him. Even though he’d also actually have his dad with him for real, too, because that was part of the thing they’d agreed on for when Jason first started up. He was always going to be with Batman.
“We were just double checking routes,” Tim explained. Which seemed important, so Jason stopped swishing his cape around so he could listen better.
“Me and Batman are doing Coventry, right?” he checked.
“Yeah. Cass and I are working nearby if you need anything, and Dick and Damian are covering Robinson Park, so they’ll be close, too.”
Jason nodded. That was another one of the rules. They were gonna call in backup the second Batman thought they should, and sometimes that’d mean that Jason would have to hang back somewhere safe while other people kept fighting.
That one was harder to agree to, but… He knew it was for a good reason. He could follow it.
“Before we go,” Bruce said, “I think we need to go through the inventory—”
Jason groaned really loudly. Inventory was the fucking worst and if they had to do that instead of going out—
“Okay, okay.” Bruce laughed and put his hand on the top of Jason’s helmet. “Don’t worry, I already checked everything. We’re fully stocked and ready for the night.”
“Wait. Really ready? Like…”
Even though the cowl was in the way, Jason could still picture exactly what Bruce’s eyes looked like right now.
“Let’s get going, Sparrow. Gotham awaits.”
A giant, massive wave of happiness and excitement and— and everything filled Jason all the way up to the top, and he let out a loud whoop. Then he raced to the Batmobile, letting his cape fly out behind him and making his feet move as fast as they could—
Bruce’s hand touched his shoulder. “Front seat, Jaylad.”
“What— Really?”
“Yes. I can adjust the seat for your size; it’s perfectly safe.”
“Right! I knew that; I just— I didn’t think about…”
Jason got to sit in the front seat. This night was already even better than he’d imagined. He zoomed around the Batmobile, flung the door open, and flopped down into the front fucking seat of the fucking Batmobile. Then he did up all the buckles of the fancy seatbelt that was up here, making extra sure that he did it all the right way so Bruce would know he could handle this.
Then Batman, Jason’s Dad, settled into the spot right beside him. The screen lit up; you could see the map of Gotham and a bunch of other important stuff like the teams who were already out and where the police were and all of that.
Bruce tapped the top of Jason’s helmet again. “You ready?”
“Yeah.” Jason turned to face forward. If he sat up super straight, he was tall enough to see the road ahead. “Ready.”