Chapter Text
Jason is quick to rummage through another cabinet. He had already put bandages, hemostatic agents and whatever medical equipment he worried might be needed in the black bag behind him. Now he was rummaging for emergency provisions.
Sure the kid from the picture didn’t look starved, but the teen got the dried vegetable porridge anyway.
“And here I believed you despised the mush, young master.”
“It’s nutritious, long-lastin’ and easy to eat.”
He threw in a final water purifier before sipping up the bag.
“Even if it tastes horseshait.”
He heaved the strap over his shoulder and passed the elderly. Steps firm and certain.
“Richard and Timothy assume that you won’t be taking action before morning.”
The teen stops his stride, but he doesn’t turn. He keeps his head high and looks forward. “I know.”
And with that he starts walking again.
-----
“RISE AND SHINE, LITTLE WING.”
The man had barley knocked once on the door before bursting into the bedroom.
Dick wasn’t discouraged by the lack of answer, as it was normal. Finding the bed already tidied up was however a little out of expectation. It was after all the teen that had insisted that they’d all be fully rested before coming to any hurried conclusion.
He guessed his brother couldn’t have gotten much rest after all. It was clear that Jason was really invested in this kid. At moments, Jason seemed to have the need to hold on to this toddler for dear life to just to cope. And maybe he had once.
None of them knew much of the two’s past. Jason had told of what little he remembered, but it wasn’t much. Sometimes it was barley information at all. Don’t get him wrong, he absolutely adored how the teen told his brothers of how he re-learned to tie shoelaces and somehow remembering an old tune from it, but it didn’t really help them.
A ray of hope in this was how Jason seemed to get better at retrieving his memories. As the teen lived his life, old stories seemed to more and more naturally weave themselves into his thoughts. Slowly, the boy himself became a source of information for them. Giving small bits just by remembering while tasting a sandwich or petting an exited dog. And Dick was overjoyed by this. His brother was healing while he himself got to spend time just… living with him. Sure, not always in the same house or place, but still living. Both of them.
For things to be like this, Dick would patiently wait, happily in fact. Spending fun times and waiting for Jason to remember and the brothers solving their kidnapping-case.
Sure, he wouldn’t want anything to happen to some poor toddler, but he didn’t mind the case taking so long as he knew he should. He was still worried, a little kid was kidnapped and missing after all, but he knew he outweighed his brother over this stranger kid. (That had changed only a little after knowing the kid might also be family, but still a stranger.)
All in all, his brothers were closer than ever. Even Bruce had started talking to the teen again. Properly talking, not just missions.
Dick felt giddy thinking about the family being happy together as he made his way to the connected bathroom. Again, he barely knocked before opening the door. He looked around the small room, finding it equally empty. Not even a towel hand by the sink like usual. The man frowned, suspicion creeping into his thoughts.
He turned quickly and exited the teen’s room.
----
Tim sat in front of his computer. He looked through some of the newer photos on the screen. Getting little sleep, he got up early and digitalized the older pictures of Bruce. Sure, they’d only had use of one for their case, but it was nice to have a backup of these mementos of the man’s youth. Pics of before the bat and sorrow entered the mansion.
The boy just finished sorting through the new folder when his bedroom door slammed open. He instinctively turned to see his eldest brother stopping from what must have been a sprint.
“Baby bird.” The man panted. “Do you know where Jason is?”
Cocking his head, the kid turned fully in his chair. “He’s not in his room?”
Dick fully entered the room and started pacing. “No. He’s not there, not in the kitchen, not the cave, the living room, the office, not Anywhere.” He raised his voice at the end in exasperation.
Tim took in the pacing man before looking down. He knew from when Dick asked about their brother’s whereabouts. It was normal after all. Everybody left eventually.
It was irrational for Tim to feel that tugging on his hearth, like it was being squeezed. Jason was free to go where he wanted just like anybody else. It’s not like just because they’d spent time together the teen had obligation to bother with him.
“Why didn’t he say anything?”
Apparently Dick had come to the same conclusion as he kept pacing. “He said we’d talk in the morning.”
Tim looked back down, feeling numb inside. And with a quiet voice answered: “He never planned to meet us in the morning.”
Dick spun on his heels, staring daggers at the slouched boy. “Then why the fuck did he say that? What’s the point of even lying about it instead of just saying ‘bye guys, I’m off’?”
The kid covered at the angry tone in his brother’s voice. He couldn’t answer. And even if he could, he knew it wouldn’t calm the man. So in silence, he watched Dick turn his back on him in anger and exit the room.
Alone once again, Tim turned back to his screen. A picture of a small Bruce held by his mother occupied most of it. He let his eyes rest on it, trying not to think too much as he slid his own arms up, wrapping himself in them as good as he could bother without moving too much.
----
A new picture is added to an ever-growing file. Quite a few had managed to capture a snap of what had happened after the explosion in an apartment building in the middle of Gotham. The Joker had been caught and send back behind bars and quite a few of the city’s dark protectors had been spotted.
The picture shown on screen was a rather high quality one from high up, showing all of six figures in a trashed apartment. They seemed to be conversing, even if one was holding a gun pointed at the known clown and an equally known female standing on top of the maniac. ‘All in all, not too bad’, the kid thought to himself.
The boy closed the window and pulled up another picture from the folder. This one was of Robin and the Red Hood, taken on someone’s dated phone (or maybe that was just the kid’s opinion). Robin was smiling, mid jump, at the taller vigilante. ‘Really not bad’ he though.
For the two to get along so well after such a short period of time, it exceeded his expectations by far. All of them did. Batman had been seen working alone with the new player, and working well. They had captured two criminal groups in one night before disappearing out of sight near the docs. They had gotten along, and everybody knows that not just anyone can get along with the bat.
(They had really gotten far. HE had gotten far.)
Sure, the kid had been worried when he’d heard about the new vigilante calling himself “Red Hod” shooting up criminals, but then the statements from the victims about the almost caring nature of the murderer had caught the boy’s eye and he felt a little better. He supposed he couldn’t change too much about a person that had already been through so much. Todd was, and would still be, Todd no matter what.
The teen had even found back to his old “outlawed” friend. Or rather, 'he had found this new reckless friend for the first time' was the correct statement. The two must be like some sort of magnets for each other, always finding the other and getting into each other’s messes.
The kid lent back as he humored himself with the thought. Todd had made a friend. He had lived with his own family. Sure, he moved out, but again, Todd was Todd. All of the bats were independent, and the teen was a strong representation of that. He was still spending time with his family. With his father, pseudo-grandfather and brothers.
Brothers. The small kid twisted a little of the though before shaking himself. He moved forward again and clicked to show the next picture, one taken and posted by Arsenal. It was of himself and Red Hood. Todd had friends and family. People that cared for him. People to help him. Everything was as it should be. Everyone was in their places.
“Gremlin, the food is ready!” a female voice sounded from behind the closed door.
Ok, maybe not everything and everyone was where they should be. He certainly wasn’t.
The kid held in a click of his tongue before jumping from the chair and to the floor far below. On that note, he was a little worried for where Quinn had run off to. There seldom was so little from either the news or social media when she was out and about in Gotham. Ever since the confrontation with Joker a few days ago, she’d been silent. The clown was still alive, even if both her and Todd had been there. And neither had she been thrown behind bars or sent to any institutions.
For the first time in months, Damian felt out of the loop. Todd had been silent on twitter for a while, now even gone from the streets of Gotham, it seemed, by what he’d dug up. Quinn had gone silent after kicking up a storm, and the behavior of the bats seemed even more sullen than usual.
Something was clearly going on, but the toddler hadn’t heard of any new villains or cases since the one with Joker. And perhaps that was it. The incident with the Joker might have opened more scars and wounded harder than the kid had assumed.
He stopped in front of the wooden door. The handle was placed unusually low, but it was still higher than the kid’s head. Had he slammed a door in the face of the healing teen? He had orchestrated the whole thing… or he was supposed to. Todd had found the Joker on his own, but everything before that was on the toddler’s small shoulders. Sending Quinn, pointing to the clown, both of those were on him.
Even on an entirely other continent Damian couldn’t help but bring misfortune and pain to his- to the family. Again, he had to shake himself from his thoughts. He clicked his tongue and reached for the padded handle. How he let the two women control so much was beyond him. (Really, a padded handle?) How he always managed to bring pain, even when getting a whole new shot at life, was beyond him.
Pulling on the handle, he had to walk backwards a few steps to open the door. He smelt the scent of grilled veggies and was sure to pull on a neutral mask before entering the hallway.