Work Text:
“Jason, the only things in your cupboards are two boxes of cereal and ramen noodles. I'm concerned.” Stephanie said, peering into his rather bare cupboards. “And hungry, too,” she added, grabbing one of the cereal boxes.
“Get out my ass,” Jason groaned, glancing through the hole in the wall from the lounge with irritation.
Despite the fact that Jason had only moved into his new apartment a few days ago, it was already an undeniable mess. Bloodied bandages, shoes and an unimaginable amount of torn gloves lay discarded on the floor. Footprints marked the wall below the window to the fire escape, due to Jason’s tendency to miss the frame when leaving for his patrols. Jason thought he was making it more homely with all the junk.
The only thing that seemed to be kept tidy was his bookshelf. What can he say? He takes pride in his impressive collection.
“I haven't been able to go grocery shopping yet.” Jason confessed, flicking over to the next channel on the television.
“Oh, yeah, because you've been so busy with much more important things than grocery shopping. Like watching TV and sleeping.” Stephanie said, which earned a grin from Cassandra.
“Exactly.”
Stephanie scoffed, walking out of the kitchen, her hand already stuffed in a cereal box and her mouth filled with Lucky Charms. She suddenly scrunched upher nose, before reluctantly swallowing the sugary cereal. “This must be like,” she paused, sticking out her tongue in disgust, “ at least five months old.”
“What? I had a bowl of them this morning. Tasted fine to me.” Jason said, looking at Stephanie’s distaste with disbelief.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow at Jason.
“C’mon,” Stephanie said, abandoning the stale cereal on the counter as she grabbed her cost. “Let's go buy some actual food.”
Jason sighed, leaning his head back against the couch. “I’d rather not,” he confessed. Wasn't he supposed to be the responsible, older one in this situation? The one who didn't need two younger girls to tell him what to do? "Your girlfriend is a pain in the ass," Jason told Cass with sincerety. She grinned.
“Can't live off stale Lucky Charms for the rest of your life,” Cassandra said, obediently flying from the sofa, unhooking her yellow raincoat that was hanging from the open door.
Stephanie waited by the door, watching expectantly.
“I regret inviting the both of you.”
"I can buy things for myself, y’know,” Jason reminded Stephanie as he wheeled the shopping cart down the food aisle. “I don't need you guys’ help.”
“We know, you just, uh - you lack the motivation to actually buy anything for yourself.” Stephanie explained, taking three loaves of bread from the side.
Cassandra moved ahead of the two, grabbing a pack of pop tarts. “Ever had these?” she asked, throwing them into the cart.
“Of course I have, Cass,” Jason replied, looking offended. “What do you think I am, a barbarian?”
Cassandra shrugged, hooking her fingers under the edge of the metal cart, dragging it at a faster pace down the aisle.
The flickering overheads lights of the Walmart the trio were currently occupying only provided a scarce glow for the few customers. Several people wandered the aisles, the large store feeling oddly vacant due to the late hour. The only noises that came from the store were the occasional squeak of the cart wheels, and the cheesy eighties songs played faintly in the background.
It’d been several days since Jason had moved into the apartment, and several days since he had last seen Dick, Tim or Damian. They’d left things off on a good foot, Jason hoped.
“So,” Jason began, tightening his grip on the cart. “How's Tim?”
“Bruised,” came Cassandra’s reply. “Got into a fight. Nasty black eye.”
Jason feigned a wince, refraining from smiling. A fight, huh?
“Damian laughs every time it's brought up.” Stephanie said in addition, frowning. “And he won’t tell us what’s so funny about it,”
Jason grinned breezily, and it felt good how easy the expression came to him. “I wonder why.”
Jason’s cart was gradually beginning to fill with food-essentials, like bread, rice, pasta, and y’know, the stuff that’s useful for various meals. It was becoming heavier to navigate, especially when Stephanie hopped inside after complaining her legs were too weak to walk any further. (Cassandra promptly yanked the blonde out, in fear they’d all get kicked out of Walmart.)
Jason was thankful for Stephanie and Cassandra’s company. It was comforting, the way the three would fire funny retorts from one and other, giggling uncontrollably as they searched the empty aisles. He didn’t know whether he prefered hanging out with his brothers or the girls - (always team robin or team batgirls, though. He never understood why the entirety of them didn’t socialise with each other much.) They were all his family, he knew for a fact. But sometimes their interactions felt forced - like they were only with him out of pity.
The rejected, broken corpse of a boy. Outcasted by his own family. Can count the amount of friends he has on one hand. Of course they’d spend time with him. It was their courtesy to do so.
That nagging voice was a constant in the back of his mind, reminding him of his failures and everything he’d done to fuck up the relationships he had with his adoptive relatives.
“Oh my god, these are literally the best.” Stephanie exclaimed, dragging Jason from his morbid thoughts as she ran forward to yank two blue cans of Pringles from a stall. She proceeded to dump them both in the cart, which resulted in Jason glaring at her.
“Are we shopping for you, or for me?” Jason asked indignantly, peering curiously at the new items.
Stephanie’s reply came with a sheepish smile. “Both,” she answered, “because I figured I’d be spending a lot more time at your new place, seeing as it doesn’t smell like a dead body anymore.”
“It doesn’t smell like a dead body yet.” Jason corrected.
Cass, quiet always, pulled her lips into a mischievous grin. “Hey, Steph - remember rooftop tag, wh -”
“- Wait, what? Rooftop tag?” Jason asked, looking between the two. He wasn’t all that surprised. Jason had seen the two frantically diving off the edges of buildings, rolling around in the gravel while darting left and right. He’d offered to help with. . . whatever they had going on, but they’d only shrugged him off with generic excuses. (“We thought there was a sniper,” and “There was a bat attacking us,” seemed to be their favorites.)
“I told you not to tell him,” sighed Steph. “He would never understand the fun that us youths get up to.”
“I don’t know whether to be offended about you calling me old or the both of you not inviting me to join.”
Maybe it’s because they don’t want you to join, hissed the persistent voice in his head. They’re only here with you right now because they have nothing else t -
“Oh. We never knew you’d be up to play.” Stephanie told him, briefly exchanging glances with Cassandra. She fiddled with the hem of her pink shirt, but beamed reassuringly nonetheless. “We usually play when nights on patrol are particularly slow. You can join in next time -”
“- if you think you can actually win.” Cassandra added with a sly smile, theatrically examining her chipped, black nails. Her knuckles were purple and raw, Jason noted, much like his own. “I’m kind of the champion.”
Jason grinned fondly with the sense of acceptance warming his chest. “I'd love to play. I'm gonna beat the both of you - and you know it.”
“I don't think so, Todd,” Cassandra laughed, probably internally scolding herself for spending too much time with the Bat Brat and picking up his tendency to refer to people by their surnames.
Stephanie sighed in defeat. “Basically, we were playing rooftop tag and I found, what I thought was , a dead body. After some panicking, Cass eventually found out it was just a pile of trash bags.” She explained, rather reluctantly. “She thought it was a pretty hilarious ordeal, but I beg to differ.” Stephanie grumbled, only making Jason’s laughter rise in volume, much to her chagrin. They laughed and she turned away, her face burning.
“I understand, Steph. Dead bodies look exactly like trash bags. Or at least, mine sure did.” He laughed, barely able to finish his own joke.
“ Shut up .” Her cheeks tinged with red, Stephanie raked her eyes over all the food in the cart. Searching for a different subject, she asked: “Right, what else do we - I mean, you - need?
Cassandra and Jason both - gradually - ceased their laughter to look over the items. “A list,” Cassandra thought aloud, as the trio racked their brains for other necessary food items. “I knew we should’ve wrote a list.” Cass pursed her lips, her arms crossed against her chest as she scanned the cart, her calculating gaze acknowledging each item. “ Milk,” she said, her eyes widening as if a light bulb had switched on inside her head.
“Jason already has milk, dummy.” Stephanie pointed out. “Remember? I had a bowl of his dusty-ass-lucky charms.”
He looked at her in offence. Jason shrugged his shoulders, his elbows resting on the handle of the cart. “You can never have enough milk,” he informed them both.
Cass nodded abruptly, stuffing her hands in her yellow rain jacket. “I’ll get the milk,” she sighed, when no one else offered to take the trip to the other end of the store. She spun on her heel, slowly distancing herself from Jason and Steph.
“So,” Stephanie started, already hooking her leg over the edge of the cart. “Wanna be my chaperone?”
Stephanie was surrounded in plastic plates, cups and cutlery. It was chaos. Several store employees had rushed to the scene, staring in shock at the chortling girl laying in a cart on the floor and a boy reduced to tears, bracing his arms on his knees as laughter filled his lungs.
Jason hadn’t laughed this hard since Tim came face to face with his magic eight ball. In fact, he thought the whole situation made him laugh even harder. His chest was heaving with each laugh, his head thrown back with tears streaming down his cheeks.
Cassandra casually walked around the corner of an aisle, two cartons of milk in her hands. She froze when she saw the scene in front of her.
She scanned the scene, her eyes wide in alarm. She made her way to the rather-proud looking Jason, raising her eyebrows expectantly at him. “Was there danger?”
“Yeah,” he replied, still wheezing. “It - I was the danger,”
The store employees angrily began picking up the fallen items, one volunteering to drag Stephanie from the cart, seeing that she was too busy laughing to do so herself. “I don’t know what happened,” She explained once she’d - partially - calmed down. “The cart just - it just lost control. J-just, there I go - into the stall.”
Jason bit down on his fist to repress his laughter, standing with a bemused Cassandra while watching Stephanie trying to muster an excuse that contained any sense of logic.
“But Miss, what were you doing in the cart?”
Stephanie’s eyes widened as she gave out a nervous laugh. “You see, my legs were hurting, so I tho-”
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you and that young man to leave the store,” the employee said, unamused by Stephanie’s feeble smile.
Jason stepped forward with his arms spread out. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” he reassured, smiling at the young employee. Jason kept his eyes fixed on the worker, but swiftly slipped his credit card into Stephanie’s hand.
With an abrupt nod, Stephanie took off with Cassandra, beginning to reluctantly pick up all of the discarded items.
“Tell us your secret, Jason Todd.” Stephanie said, straightening her legs out in front of her. “How did you manage to unban us from Walmart for life?”
With a smirk, Jason reached into his hoodie’s pocket and pulled out a crumpled receipt. “Long story short: I got the guy's number,”
Cassandra hooted from the other side of him just as Stephanie nudged at his ribs, waggling her eyebrows. “ Look at you , Jason - who knew you could actually flirt your way out of situations?”
“It's not like it was my first time.”
The two girls burst out laughing, their soft laughter filling the night air, along with the traffic below and the thumping music of a nearby house party.
The three were perched on a rooftop, surrounded in plastic bags filled with Jason’s groceries.
It was easy to forget how crime-riddled Gotham City was when you looked at it from a distance. It all blurred into blocky buildings, glowing windows and cars’ headlights. The city was eerily beautiful, once you managed to ignore the likely possibility that someone was getting mugged at that same moment of time.
Jason stubbed his cigarette into the stone of the roof. “You know what’d be fun right now?” Jason asked, kicking his legs which were dangling over the edge of the building.
“What?” Stephanie questioned, bracing herself on her elbows as she sat up.
Smirking, Jason reached around to prod Cassandra in the leg with his index finger.
“Ouch.” She said, frowning as a grin spread across Jason's face.
“Tag,” he whispered, flying up from his spot between the girls.
The three leapt around the rooftop, enveloped in each other's breathless laughs until the sky welcomed the warm glow of the sun at the crack of dawn. That was when they eventually decided to stop.