Work Text:
Damian glared at Todd.
Jason looked as he had in his first life. His hair was a mess of waves, desperately coated in product in an attempt to control it. His cheeks had smatters of freckles, with a few on his nose as well. He was round in the face, not all the baby fat quite faded away, but no one would exactly call the boy himself over weight. Indeed, the other Robin was almost dangerously thin, his muscles barely stretching over his ribs at all. His legs dangled over the side of the building, bright and tan and bare. The ridiculous scale panties were there, as was the neon yellow cape, which hung over the building along with his legs. His mask was black, concealing the blue-green eyes that Damian knew the mask hid. The other boy grinned at him recklessly, blowing a puff of cigarette smoke into the air. It spun slowly, twisting itself into a Bat Symbol before fading into nothing.
“Do you have to do that?” The girl asked Todd. Damian was certain he’d never seen her before, but there was something about her that was undeniably familiar. She wore a Robin tunic, armored green leggings, and a green domino mask. Her cape was thrown back, pooling behind her. She leaned back on her arms, her face tilted toward the cloudy night sky, lit only by the Bat Signal. Her hair was blonde, and it fell past her shoulders in gentle waves, almost reaching the ground because of the angle of her head. It was held back by a bright red headband, keeping it out of her face. Damian was struck by a sudden thought, that if he reached over and ripped off her mask, her eyes would be dark blue, almost the color of the night sky.
He wondered how he knew that.
Damian sat next to Todd, the other boy functioning as a shield from the strange girl. He was dressed in his own Robin outfit, his hood drawn over his hair, throwing his face into shadows. He didn’t trust these two.
“Ah c’mon,” Todd said to the girl, blowing a smoke-ring this time. Then another. And another. They formed a traditional target. Laughing, the girl threw a pebble right through the middle. Bulls-eye. The smoke formation once again, faded into nothing. “What’s it going to do? Kill me?”
Damian started, as he realized what was wrong with this picture. “You’re dead!”
“No shit,” Todd said, lowering his cigarette after another long drag. He blew out the smoke into Damian’s face. Damian tried to bat it away with his hands, but the smoke clung to his face, giving him a goatee and glasses.
“You’re dead too,” the girl said cheerfully. “So am I. Sort of. Kind of. It’s complicated.”
Todd threw back his head and laughed, the cigarette falling from his fingers, landing between the boy and the mysterious girl. “Ah, not like he’s going anywhere, Blondie!”
“Curly,” the girl said, sticking out her tongue out at him.
“Hey, we have enough for the Three Stooges now!” Todd said with a grin. “Hey brat,” he addressed Damian with a smirk. “You wanna be Larry or Moe?”
“What are you blathering about Todd?” Damian snapped.
“Jeeze, Dickface neglected your education,” Todd snorted. “Typical.”
“Aww, don’t be so hard on him,” the girl said, nudging Todd with her combat boot in his bare thigh. “He’s been busy.”
“Very true,” Todd said. He picked up his cigarette and took another drag. “I guess we probably should explain, shouldn’t we?”
Something clicked in Damian’s mind. “Why aren’t we responding to the Bat Signal?” He demanded, leaping to his feet.
“No one’s there,” the girl said quietly. “I mean, sometimes Crispus is there. But he’s usually off being the Spectre, so…”
“No crime,” Todd said, swinging his legs. “Not really.”
“Then why is the signal there?” Damian demanded angrily.
The girl smiled distantly. “Because. We’re dead.”
“I’m not…” the memories crashed over him suddenly, catching him up in the wave of reality. The feel of his chest being pierced, of his back being broken, of his mother…
Gloved hands caught him, lowering him down to the roof top gently. “Easy kid,” Todd said quietly.
“Don’t worry,” the girl soothed. “We’ve got you.”
“Who are you?” Damian yelled, tears starting to leak down his face, much to his shame. He tried to brush them away, but they kept coming, hot and fast and itchy.
“Don’t you remember me?” She asked, tilting her head.
“If I did would I ask, Brown?”
Todd laughed, setting Damian on the ground gently.
“But… Brown… dead…”
“Like I said,” Stephanie Brown said. “Complicated.”
“Think of this place… not as the land of the dead… but as the land of memories,” Jason said. “I mean, I’m alive.”
“But Robin died,” Steph said, nodding. “Same with me. I might not have died, but the idea of Robin died. That’s what mattered, really.”
“Even if you come back,” Jason said, shrugging. “It’s not the same. After this… you can’t be Robin.”
“It’s not the same,” Steph’s voice was soft. “You’re not the same.”
Damian sat there, on the roof top, just thinking, for a very long time. Jason started to blow smoke rings again, twisting them into various shapes and images. Sometimes he even made them move. Steph drew circles on the ground with chalk, and made them move as well. She drew nine of the circles, which moved at random, in colored chalk. She stood in the center of them, and then began a sort of pattern dance, avoiding the lines of the circles as she spun around and moved. Damian wondered why she did it.
“What else is here?” Damian finally asked, after what felt like a lifetime.
“Grandma and Grandpa are at the Manor,” Jason said. “Joe Chill… he’s still in that alley.”
“Just avoid the East End,” Steph said, plopping down next to Damian, throwing her arm over his shoulder. She smelled of smoke and gunpowder and blood. “Our memories form this place. It’s not like the East End has a lot of those.”
“Avoid the Drakes too,” Jason said, wrinkling his nose. “Janet yells a lot.”
“There’s Haley’s though,” Steph said. “We should go there soon. The Grayson’s are nice.”
“They are,” Jason agreed. “Then there’s the rooftops. Can usually get in a good fight there.”
“Rooftops are fun,” Steph laughed. “Good things happen on the rooftops. It’s when you’re down in the street that it gets dirty.”
“Just… stay where the good memories are, kid,” Jason said, blowing a smoke cloud. It looked like Batman. “Good memories can keep you safe.”