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Try outs for the Young Justice team had concluded, and it looked like they would be getting a few new members. One of the standouts had been the new Robin. In Roy’s opinion, and he was sure that M’gann and Dick agreed, the Robin had performed the best, despite being (to the bests of Roy’s knowledge) powerless.
But of course it hadn’t been perfect, couldn’t have ever been perfect. Dick had been quick to point out all the flaws to the younger boy, despite (or perhaps because of) Roy and Mgann’s impressed reactions.
In typical Robin fashion, he had disappeared not long after that. Hadn’t hung around to watch the rest of the try outs, or to find out if he had made the team. Dick had seemed unperturbed by the boys absence, and had swiftly moved to handle the other duties required.
But the teen’s absence had bothered Roy.
And he knew a thing or two about never feeling good enough.
Batman and Green Arrow had both been quick to criticise, and while it was certainly done with the intent of improving, the words could still sting. He had struggled with the method of feedback in his training, and knew Dick had a little too, but coming from the Circus training background, he seemed to have handled it better. Or maybe it was just Dick’s personality, his way of reacting to challenges was always to try harder, be louder, brighter, better. He’d deal with his emotions later if that didn’t get him through it.
Roy doesn’t know the kid that well, has only met him a few times, and Dick hasn’t been too forthcoming with what he knows either, if Dick knows much about him anyway, but knows that he likes to hide. He goes high and open (like a roof) or he goes low and boxes himself in (like a cupboard). Roy feels like today might be a high day. It’s not nice outside, a little overcast, looks like it could rain, but he thinks that might help Robin’s desire to go high. He’s not the detective, but he’s backing himself on his hunch.
Roy knows it was Dick that pushed him to try out for the team. Wants him to make friends, he’s been worried about Robin 2.0. He also knows that despite the words he told the kid, he was also impressed with him, had seen Dick puff out his chest in pride when he’d easily taken down the robot droids.
It’s just that none of his words or actions to Robin supported those feelings. Robin heard out Dicks’ criticisms, and then he was gone.
So now Roy’s looking for him. Not that he knows what he’ll say, or how he can make it any better. But the point is he’ll try. And he’s not planning to leave him on his own.
It’s the third balcony Roy’s checked, and he when he glances out he thinks it’s empty, is about to go back inside until he smells the smoke. It burns his nostrils, pricks at his eyes. It’s not smoke from a fire, he knows the distinct set of scents that make up different types of smoke, and this could only be smoke from a cigarette. To his knowledge there’s only one smoker at the Mountain currently.
“Robin?” he calls out softly, making his way out onto the balcony. He doesn’t get any response, but he wasn’t expecting one. He’s confident the Robin is out here though, but he doubts the Robin will give himself away easily.
There’s not a whole lot of options on the balcony, Robins not hiding in the furniture, so Roy checks over the edge of the balcony, to no avail. He turns around leaning back onto the brick wall.
It’s then he sees Robin 2.0, the little punk has climbed up the rock face to find himself a perch. He has a cigarette hanging from his mouth and he looks far too comfortable with it for someone his age.
He’s watching Roy, and although Roy can’t see his eyes behind the domino mask, the look on his face feels like it’s challenging him, daring him to say something, either about the position he’s taken, or the cigarette he’s smoking.
He’s definitely not going there, instead he just huffs out the only name he knows the teen by.
“Robin.”
It earns him no response.
Roy huffs. “Are you gonna make me come up there?”
This time he gets a shrug for his effort.
He’s sure he’s not as good at this as Robin would have been, not even as good as Nightwing would be if he was there. But he makes his way awkwardly to where the boy sits.
“You know those things will kill you right?” he says to the Robin
He gets a puff of smoke in his face in response.
The intrusion catches in his throat forcing a cough.
“Jerk,” he says, and tries to swipe the cigarette from Robin’s mouth.
The boy just leans deftly away from him, and Roy figures it’s a losing battle, his position is not secure enough to put any more effort into foiling the Robin’s activities, illegal as they may be, and really, they’re hardly the worst thing Robin or any of the rest of them have done. Besides, he knows to pick his battles.
Instead he tears his gaze away from Robin and outwards, looking over the view of the ocean that he has. The overcast clouds seem to be getting more serious, dark enough to be threatening rain in the near future. From the vantage point he has now, he can see the town, where before he could just see the ocean. None of the other balconies would let them see the town, even with some creative seating arrangements. It could be why Robin chose this one, or it could be for any other reason. Roy’s not sure if the other balconies had a spot like the one they’ve taken up, so it could just be this had the best climbing and sitting space, or maybe it was the first one Robin came to.
Robin taps the cigarette against the rockface, leaving little piles of ash.
“You did really well today you know.”
He gets a little huff in response, but other than that there is no change or reaction from the Robin.
“Dick thinks you did well today too.” That earns him a snort in response.
The Robin slowly removes the cigarette from his lips, and blows the smoke out slowly.
“I don’t even really want this you know.” He’s not looking at Roy, just watching the cigarette held between his fingers. The silence stretches on, but just as Roy is trying to figure out how to respond to that he continues, “Dick wanted it for me, but I didn’t really care. I figure I belong in Gotham you know? But even if I didn’t wanna do it, I still wanted to be good at it. I don’t want to let Batman down.” He huffs out a sigh. “I wanna be better than Dick too.”
Roy laughed lightly. “Don’t we all.” He shakes his head a bit. Not that he ever will be, Roy focuses on getting by. He’s not dumb, even if he lets people think it so they underestimate him, but he’s no Dick Grayson. Not many are. But this kid, he is good.
“Look, Dick did think you did really well.” He ignores the snort this time and continues, “You may not have realised, but he was puffing his chest at how well you did. But he wouldn’t say that in front of everyone. And sometimes he takes the Batman route of feedback a little too much.”
Jason snorts again. “He’d make a terrible Batman.”
“Probably,” Roy agrees effortlessly. It’s not so much that he agrees, just that he hopes it never comes to pass. “You’ll like it.”
“Mmm,” Jason hums, noncommittally.
“The league. It’s good. It’s fun. You’ll make friends Robin.”
“Mmm.”
“It’ll be good, plus the league membership comes with your own room here, and you can hang out here anytime.”
“Yeah.” He takes one more long puff of the cig, then grinds it out on the rockface. “Roy,” he says, before pausing, but the silence feels pregnant in the moment, Roy doesn’t want to interrupt him, he’s willing to wait him out this time. Robin turns to face him, his eyes still hidden behind the domino mask, but beneath them he’s sure the younger kid is watching his eyes “My names Jason.”
Huh.
“Guess that explains Jaybird hey?”