Chapter Text
Things have been going well for Jason recently. Really well.
He had settled into Star City with more ease than he ever would have thought. He had a great part-time job fixing and customising motorcycles at a family-run mechanic garage. He had all his paperwork set to start online classes in a few months so he could finally get that English degree he’s been dreaming of since he was old enough to read. He had an amazing boyfriend whom he shared a cosy three-bedroom apartment with, and a rascal of a step-daughter who knew how to twist the men in her life around her little finger. While Star City was no Gotham, it still had enough crime that he went out as Red Hood almost every night, just to scratch that itch that had been born in him since the first night he went out as Robin.
Hell, he was even on okay-ish terms with the obnoxious idiots he supposed were his family. He’d texted Dick two nights ago. Unprompted. Just to chat. If Jason wasn’t as content with his life currently as he was, he’d be grumbling that he was getting soft.
“We can’t have that now, can we? The big bad Red Hood caring enough to want to talk with his brother. No siree!” Roy chittered when Jason made the mistake of verbalising his thoughts.
Roy just laughed at the glower Jason threw at him. He’s known Jason too long to be affected by his glowers, glares, scowls and sneers. Roy no longer even pretended to be affected by them, and had the audacity to lean over and kiss Jason’s cheek, still laughing.
“Just for that, I won’t be replying to Dickface’s texts for at least a week. If he calls you to complain about me, you’re gonna have to tell him it was your fault.”
Roy pulled back and playfully hit him on the shoulder.
“You asshole! You know once Dick starts moaning about how nobody loves him, and how he’s going to die from neglect, he won’t stop for at least an hour. My poor ears”.
Roy did a pretty good job of mimicking the whiny, childish lilt Dick’s voice took on when he was being melodramatic. Despite his complaints, Roy was still chuckling, a bright smile on his face. Jason crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the kitchen counter, trying to keep up a serious front. It took all of his willpower not to wrap his arms around the redhead and lay a few kisses of his own all over the man’s face.
Roy’s laugh never ceased to make his knees weak, and his heart to have strange palpitations, even when the man was laughing at him. If anyone was to blame for how soft Jason had become, it was Roy Harper. The other Harper in his life was equally to blame, though. It was pretty hard to stay an angry, cruel asshole when there was a six-year-old always smiling at you and calling you Papa with the warmest brown eyes known to man. Jason loved these two so much. Every night he wondered what on earth he had ever done to deserve them, and every night he prayed to God, begging to be allowed to keep them in his life.
So, yeah, things were going really well. Which should have been Jason’s first clue that life was about to throw a curveball his way. Jason was still leaning against the counter with his attention locked on Roy. The older man had started rambling about a new invention he wanted to try as he flitted about the kitchen, pulling cups from the cupboard for coffee.
“I’m telling you, Jaybird, I feel good about this one. Some of the parts might be a bit pricier than I’d usually work with, but it will be so worth it.”
Before Jason could throw in his two cents on the topic, his phone started ringing. He frowned as he pulled the device from his pocket. It was his civilian phone that was blaring one of the generic ringtones the thing came out with, which means it wasn’t any of the Gotham brood or his friends. He had custom ringtones for all the people close to him, sue him. The screen showed a number he didn’t recognise. Jason was tempted to ignore it, but with his luck this might actually be something important. With an annoyed huff, Jason swiped his finger across the screen and brought the phone to his ear.
“Yeah? Who’s this?”
No reply followed Jason’s words, causing his frown to deepen. He could hear breathing on the other end of the line, so he knew there was someone there; they just refused to talk. Jason could feel irritation brewing in him. He didn’t have the patience for prank calls. He was busy enjoying a quiet afternoon with his boyfriend, and they were wasting his precious time, dammit.
“Listen,” he growled out, the irritation he felt bleeding into his voice. Roy shot him a concerned look, picking up on his souring mood, but Jason waved him off.
“I ain’t got time for shit. So, either you tell me what you want in the next ten seconds, or I’m hangin’ up and blocking your number. Got it?”
The person on the other side took in an audible breath, let it out slowly, and finally spoke in a very recognisable voice.
“Jason?”
“Tim?”
Jason was not expecting to hear Tim’s voice for multiple reasons. First off, Tim was not big on calling. He either texted or, in an emergency, he would comm. The kid always complained about how old-fashioned normal calling was. He was fine with things like group video calls, but he tended to avoid plain ole calling with a phone like the plague.
Second, the number that popped up on Jason’s phone was definitely not Tim’s number. The fact that “Teenagers scare the living shit out of me” didn’t play when his phone rang confirms that.
And third, and most importantly, Tim was supposed to be working a case that would leave him out of contact with the bats and birds for a few months. It was all hush-hush, and not even Babs knew what the case entailed or where Tim was going, but they had all been briefed that Red Robin would be radio silent for the foreseeable future.
So why the hell was the kid calling him after he’d barely been out of Gotham for a month?
“Jason Hi. I, uhm...” Tim’s voice was weak over the phone as his sentence trailed off. Jason was immediately on alert. He hadn’t heard the kid’s voice this unsure and weak in years. Something was up.
“Hey, Timbit, I’m here. Wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon, kid.”
Roy had sidled up to Jason’s side when he heard Tim’s voice. He didn’t try to hear what Tim was saying, just standing by Jason’s side and offering silent support should he need it. Jason took the man’s hand in his and squeezed it gently before offering up his hand for Roy to play with. Roy showed support through physical contact, letting the other person feel that he was there. Jason didn’t always like having his hand held or being trapped in a hug when he was stressed, but having the archer play with his fingers worked.
“Yeah, I… I wasn’t planning on calling so soon either. But I just really wanted to hear your voice. Talk a bit.”
Alarm bells were starting to go off in Jason’s head. Tim didn’t do “just wanted to talk” calls or texts. If the kid wanted to talk, he’d either show up at your apartment or send you security footage showing you make a fool of yourself, which usually led to the person showing up at his apartment. Even if he was currently on a mission outside of Gotham, he usually would comm and bitch about how much of a pain his mission was if he wanted to hear someone's voice. Not call and directly say he wanted to talk.
Jason didn’t know what was going on, but he had to get to the bottom of this. If Tim was in trouble, he needed to go help his brother asap. And if the kid was in some type of emotional distress, he needed to call Dick so he could go help him asap.
“Ain’t like you to wanna just chat, but guess there’s a first time for everythin’. So what’s up?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was feeling a bit lonely and wanted to hear a friendly voice.”
The alarm bells were getting louder. Lonely? Tim? After only being gone a month? Not likely. The kid could go weeks without seeing another human being and not be bothered. And friendly voice? No way in hell did Tim associate Jason’s voice with friendly. If he wanted friendly, he would have called Dick or Steph.
Those were not normal Tim words. Those… almost sounded like Tim was trying to tell him something else.
Lonely… was the kid trying to tell Jason that he was alone? That would make sense. Jason still had no idea what the friendly voice comment was about, though. Maybe it was to make Jason realise that Tim was speaking in code?
“Well it’s your lucky day, Timtam. I’m just a well of friendliness and shit, and I ain’t afraid to share. I bet you ten jillion bucks I can even make friends with the walking dead with all these positive vibes I have.”
Jason would never again get on Dick’s case for choosing jillion as Robin’s codeword for “something is wrong, but I can’t tell you what”. It was really easy to slip into sentences, even if the word was stupid. And Jason only made walking dead comments when he was in a situation where he couldn’t speak freely and wanted to let the other Bats know. He knew Tim would pick up what Jason was trying to say here – I know something’s wrong. I know you can’t tell me. But I’ll be listening for your code, so lay it on me.
Tim chuckled, and even through the phone speaker, Jason could tell it was fake, the same type of chuckle Tim reserved for galas and board meetings.
“I’m not taking that bet, Jay. Knowing you, you’d start a zombie revolution or something if you ever befriended them. Then next thing you know, the cops would show up, you’d be locked up in a cell, and you’d have to serenade the poor cop keeping watch so he’d release you and your new buddies.”
Revolution. Cops. Tim was saying he did something and was currently on the run.
Locked in a cell. Serenade. Someone might be able to hear their cell phone calls.
Dammit. What did the baby bird get himself into?
“Hmm, sounds about right. It could even work, I’ve been told I have the voice of an angel.”
Roy snorted softly at that, and Jason couldn’t help the cheeky smirk he sent him. Roy regularly complained about how atrocious Jason’s singing was, joking that if Jason wasn’t as hot as he was hot, that voice would have had him packing ages ago.
“Anyway, Timmers, you still on that holiday of yours?” Are you still busy with your case?
“Yeah, but I think I’ll be taking a break for a bit. All of this travelling is exhausting. Say, maybe I can stop by your place and visit sometime next month? For funsies. I know you’re probably busy, though, so I won’t stay long. Maybe a day or two. I might even splurge and book a penthouse suite. You said there was a great hotel near you, right? Sun, Moon, and More Hotel? The place that reviewer for Apollo Magazine keeps forgetting about?”
Jason took a second to parse through Tim’s message.
Yeah, but I’ll be taking a break. Travelling is exhausting. Tim’s mission wasn’t completed, but something went wrong, and he had to retreat.
Visit next month. For funsies. Tim would be coming to Jason within the next week. Jason had no idea who approved Steph’s suggestion of “for funsies” as code for “use the measurement one step below the one I mentioned”. He couldn’t imagine how someone like Cass or Damian would be able to naturally slip that into sentences.
Penthouse suite. He wanted to crash at Jason’s apartment.
Sun, Moon and More. Star. Tim knew Jason was currently in Star City. How the kid knew that Jason had no clue. While he was on speaking terms with the family, he had refused to tell them where he was currently living. He didn’t need their nosy asses snooping around his home.
Is it the place the Apollo reviewer keeps forgetting? Did Oracle “forget” where Jason’s apartment was? Or rather, did she know where it was?
Shit. Okay. So the kid needed to hide out somewhere. He wanted to hide out at Jason’s place in Star City. And he needed Oracle to be unaware of where Jason was living, thus where Tim would be hiding. This sounded like it had the potential to be a real shitshow.
“Yeah, that’s the place. No idea how the reviewer keeps forgetting about the place, but at least us locals know how great it is. We ain’t in no hurry to let them know what they're missing, though. Let ‘em find the place on their own. But anyway, let me know when you’re in town. We can meet at that café you liked.”
Tim and Jason had never been anywhere together in Star, and they sure as hell had never been to a café together. They were not that type of siblings. They were “let’s set this warehouse on fire as a bonding activity” type of siblings. But Jason was just selling their story at this point. If someone was listening in on their call, Jason had to make sure they didn’t suspect Tim would be coming to his apartment. Tim was good at shaking a tail, all the former Robins were, but Jason wanted to make sure his apartment wasn’t in their top four places to look for the kid.
“Great. We can iron out the specifics later. We still have, like, a month.” A noise suddenly interrupted Tim. It was loud, high-pitched. It sounded almost like a cry, or a dog whining.
“Listen, Jason, I gotta go now. My taxi’s here. Thanks for the talk. See in a few weeks. Bye!” Tim rushed out, that high-pitched sound still echoing in the background, and then the call disconnected. Tim didn’t even give Jason time to say his own goodbye.
Slowly, Jason lowered the phone from his ear, staring blankly at it. He had a bad feeling about this whole situation. It wasn’t uncommon for one of the Bats to have to lie low after a mission landed them in hot water, but this felt different. Jason had heard Tim when a mission was giving him issues. He sounded a mixture of annoyed, aggravated, professionally detached and anxious. The Tim he just talked to was none of those. He sounded scared, hunted, unsure and bone-dead tired.
“Jaybird?”
Jasonn lifted his gaze from his phone to look into the concerned green eyes of the man he was spending his life with.
“So, good news. Guess we’ll be having a guest soon.” Roy’s posture relaxed at jason’s blase answer. Still, he raised a brow in question for Jason to elaborate.
“Tim seems to have run into some trouble with that big, out-of-Gotham case he’s busy with, and needs a place to lie low.”
Roy, who has been a vigilante for more than half of his life, took the news in stride.
“I’ll get fresh sheets for the guest room”
Jason gave in to his previous desires and bent down to place a kiss on the older man’s forehead, then his temple, then his cheek, causing Roy to giggle. Only Roy would hear that his boyfriend's vigilante little brother would be hiding out at their house and ask no questions.
Roy smiled and placed a peck on Jason’s lips before heading to the hallway closet. Probably to look for the sheets, Jason reckoned.
His thoughts turned back to Tim. The kid had a knack for attracting danger. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time, always with a target on his back that was never meant for him. Jason would never admit it, but he worried a lot about Tim. Sure, he worried about all of his siblings, even when they drove him up a wall, but Tim especially caused him sleepless nights. He had woken up more than once from a nightmare where he was too late to save Tim from a fight gone wrong. Or where he was the one to kill the boy, where Titan’s Tower ended in tragedy instead of just trauma.
Whatever was going on with Tim, whatever was chasing him, Jason would be there to help. He had wronged his little brother so much in the past, he had so much to make up for. Protecting Tim from whatever situation he’d found himself in was the least Jason could do.