Chapter Text
“So this is rich people food, huh?” Lisa said, holding a canapé spoon full of tomato flavoured foam. “I thought it would be, like… better.”
Jason snorted into his drink, which was unfortunately non-alcoholic due to Jason being both in public and under the legal drinking age. “That’s what I thought the first time Bruce dragged me to one of these galas too,” he said. It was a real step down to go from Alfred’s cooking to whatever weird catering companies rich people liked to hire.
“Hey, it’s not like the food is all bad,” Susie said, always the optimist. “Look, they have macarons.” She took a purple macaron with a raspberry on top from a passing tray and bit into it. Then she made a face full of regret.
“What’s wrong?” Matt asked, wandering over from where he’d been chatting about engineering with Tim.
“I think the middle of this macaron is full of chicken liver,” Susie replied stiffly. “But like, in a vomit-y way.”
“Why would someone do that to a macaron??” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know!” Susie said, looking like she wanted to start crying.
“How about we ditch this place and get Batburger?” Jason proposed hopefully.
“Jason, this gala is for you,” Matt reminded him.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t ask Bruce to throw a freaking gala to announce that my death was ‘greatly exaggerated’. He could have put an add in the paper or something. Like a reverse-obituary. That’s just as classy, right?”
“It is not,” Matt said.
“So… Batburger?”
“You can’t leave your own gala.”
“Come on, who’s gonna know?”
“Literally everyone. Half the room is gawking at you as we speak.”
“We just need to cause a distraction. Dick’ll do it if I make myself look tragic enough.”
A warm hand came down on Jason’s shoulder from behind. The person cleared their throat, which was enough for Jason to know it was Bruce. “Is something the matter, Jaylad?” Which was Bruce for, ‘don’t start any shit’ (affectionate).
Not one to back down, Jason turned to face Bruce and crossed his arms. “Yeah, B. The food sucks and everyone is staring at me.” Which was Jason for ‘how could you make me be here, you monster’ (derogatory).
Bruce just fucking grinned fondly at him. Bruce had been grinning fondly at him a lot since they’d reconnected. That smug bastard. “Alfred will have dinner for us all when we get back to the manor,” Bruce reminded.
Jason scowled, knowing that the gala wouldn’t end for at least another three hours. But he also knew he couldn’t offend Alfie by eating Batburger instead of whatever the butler was making, nor could he let his friends do the same. By the satisfied look on Bruce’s face, he knew it too.
Suddenly Susie darted away, approaching where Damian was standing nearby.
“Damian, no!” she gasped as she grabbed his arm to stop him lifting a macron to his mouth.
The fact that Damian didn’t immediately reach for something sharp showed how much the boy had grown to like Susie. He blinked at her in surprise for a moment before asking, “Is it poisoned?”
“It has meat in it,” Susie told the vegetarian.
Damian’s face twisted into a horrified scowl. “Why?”
“I know, right?!”
The commotion drew Dick over. “Is everything alright, Little D?”
Wordlessly, Damian handed the macaron over to Dick. Susie looked like she was about to warn him off it before Damian shot her a look. With a shrug Dick took a bite. Then he ate the rest of it, much to their disgust. “Thanks!” he said as he grinned at Damian.
“What the hell?” Lisa whispered from where they were watching.
“Dick has weird taste,” Jason explained.
Bruce grunted, but didn’t disagree. Then Steph came towards them and Bruce frantically signalled Cass to intercept the blonde. Everyone had quickly learned that Lisa, Jason and Steph were a trio of pure chaos and should not be allowed together in polite company. Cass did her job well, keeping Steph distracted and drawing a pout from Lisa.
The redhead turned to Bruce, looking vengeful, and asked very loudly, “Has anyone ever told you that you and Batman have identical looking butts?”
Bruce choked on his champagne.
Jason loved his friends.
Jason Todd’s plan to be a regular college student had been shot in the face way back in his freshman year. As he’d progressed with his degree, it had only gotten worse. Case in point, right now Jason was missing copious classes to bounce around the multiverse with Donna Troy and some Green Lantern who hated his guts. He was trying to work on his assignments in his spare time but it was difficult without a consistent internet connection or any contact with his own universe. Jason was going to have so much catching up to do when he got back. He didn’t even want to think about it. Plus, the rapport he’d been developing with Professor Simons was going to be difficult to salvage after this prolonged unexcused absence. His family was probably freaking out about his disappearance too.
As Jason returned from his supermarket run, he moved silently. Food shopping and cooking was his mental break, so he didn’t want Kyle Rayner to notice his presence and start bitching again. He could already hear the man complaining to Donna as he slipped silently into the place the team was squatting in.
“He think’s he’s so fucking hot with his magic swords and snark,” Rayner was ranting to Donna. “I swear that angst ridden magical boy routine never fails. On girls, I mean. I could make glowing swords too if I wanted. I just don’t because I can make much cooler stuff. You can’t fall for his bullshit Donna.”
Jason rolled his eyes while he slipped towards the kitchen. As he passed behind Rayner, Donna shot him an apologetic look. Donna had already tried explaining that there was nothing going on between her and Jason but Rayner seemed to believe Jason was trying to move in on her. So, of course, Jason had started flirting with Donna to mess with him. He’d thought about explaining that Donna was like a sister to him, but he shouldn’t have to. Donna was her own fucking person and Rayner could piss right off with his jealous bullshit.
“Kyle,” Donna sighed. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t notice how built he is,” Rayner continued. “Who the hell looks that hot in a fucking hoodie anyway? It’s a trap. He’s just going to break your heart.”
Yeah, Jason wasn’t in the mood to deal with Rayner’s distain for him right now. He shut himself in the kitchen and tuned out the Green Lantern’s ranting.
For the record, it had taken Jason two weeks of working flat out to catch up on his missed classes when he got back. Somehow he, Donna and Kyle had parted on friendly terms. The three of them met for coffee every month.
Batman was dead. Jason had always known that being Batman was a dangerous job. So why did he feel so blindsided? Batman was dead. How could Batman be dead? He was Batman. Bruce was dead. Bruce couldn’t be dead. Bruce was dead. Dad was dead. They’d had a funeral. Dad was dead. Damian and Tim had been eerily blank faced about it. Cass had left. Babs and Steph were carrying on as best they could. Jason had held Dick while Dick had broken down. Clark had held Jason while Jason had broken down. They’d all heard Alfred sobbing when he thought they couldn’t hear him. Jason hadn’t been able to bring himself to visit Gotham since.
Dick had been talked into being Batman. Tim had insisted Gotham needed Batman. Jason had promised to sub-in if necessary, and wasn’t that a crazy thought.
“There’s more,” Dick was saying over the phone. “Something you’re not going to like.”
“Alright, what is it?” Jason asked.
“I’m going to give Robin to Damian,” Dick said. He rushed to continue before Jason could reply, “I know you made him promise ‘no night job until thirteen’, but we both know he’s just been slipping out during the day. He needs more guidance and if he’s Robin then I can give him that guidance. I know you’re worried he’ll get hurt, but I promise I’ll keep him safe.”
“You know you can’t promise that, Dick,” Jason said.
“He needs this. You don’t understand how withdrawn he’s been since Bruce died. You’re not here.”
Jason sucked in a sharp breath.
“Sorry,” Dick said, immediately. “That… I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s alright,” Jason said. “You’re right. I’m not there.”
“No, I get why you can’t… I shouldn’t have said that. It was—”
“Dick,” Jason said. “I’m sorry I haven’t been back to Gotham in a while. I’ll… I’ll come by the manor tomorrow night. We can talk to Damian about Robin together. I trust you to look after him.”
“…Thanks, Little Wing.”
“It’ll be nice for the Robin mantel to be passed on without any hard feelings for a change,” Jason joked, trying to lighten the mood. “Knowing Tim, he’s probably made Damian a handbook or a powerpoint or something.”
“I haven’t told him yet,” Dick laughed. “But I wouldn’t put it past Tim to make a powerpoint.”
“Wait. You didn’t ask Tim if he was okay with giving up Robin?”
“He’s way outgrown Robin at this point,” Dick said. “I’m sure he’ll be glad to kick off the training wheels. I’m going to offer him Nightwing.”
“I… Dick, don’t you think you’re being a little blasé about this? Outgrowing Robin doesn’t mean being ready for someone else to snatch the colours. You know that firsthand. Robin means a lot to Tim. You need to make sure that he understands why you’re giving it to Damian.”
“Yeah… You’re right. You’re right, I didn’t put enough thought into this. You’ll talk to Tim with me right?”
“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “We can talk to him before we talk to Damian.”
A week later, Tim showed up at Jason’s door in Metropolis. Jason’s big brother senses were immediately blaring. Tim had seemed alright with the Robin handover when they’d talked about it. He hadn’t accepted Nightwing, but he’d been supportive of Damian taking up Robin. Gotham’s magic had shared a smidge of sadness from Tim, but there had also been understanding and acceptance mixed in. Jason had thought it was okay. Only now Tim was here, soaked to the bone from the rain, and looking like he hadn’t slept since Jason had last seen him. Now Jason was worried he’d been wrong.
“I think Bruce is alive,” Tim said. No ‘hello’. No ‘how are you’. Just that as soon as he’d registered Jason’s presence at the door.
“Okay,” Jason said, because the glint in Tim’s eye was telling Jason that anything else would end badly. “Come in, dry yourself off, and then we can talk about that, alright?”
Tim nodded.
It took a few minutes to coax Tim into changing into some of Jason’s sweats. It took a few minutes more to make Tim accept a sandwich and some calming tea. After Tim had been dried and fed, Jason broached Tim’s unconventional greeting.
“Why do you think Bruce is alive?”
“I just do,” Tim said, with a wince. “I know it’s c-crazy, I just…” Shit, Jason had a bad feeling that he had to have a talk with Dick about humouring the baby bird.
“Hey,” Jason said gently, “I fucking clawed my way out of my grave. Nothing is crazy when it comes to vigilante shit. Bruce could be alive. It doesn’t hurt to investigate.” Jason made sure Tim was looking at him before he continued. “Bruce could also be truly dead. Most people don’t pop out of the grave like I did. The difference between an investigation and an unhealthy fixation is knowing when to stop. I will support you in however you want to investigate, but if you exhaust your options and don’t find what you’re looking for, you need to promise to let it go. You won’t be able to grieve properly if you don’t make it past the first stage.”
Tim nodded, determination clear on his face. “Thanks, Jay.”
“Always, Timtam,” Jason said, reaching across the table to ruffle Tim’s hair. “Now let’s start making calls. Between the two of us, I’m sure we have enough contacts to get a team together to help you. My two week break starts in a few days so I’ll be all yours for a bit.”
Two weeks hadn’t been enough time to make much progress on Tim’s investigation. However, it had been enough time to recruit Starfire and break Roy Harper out of prison. Jason had needed to get back to Metropolis after that, but he’d felt better leaving Tim while knowing he had Kori and Roy to back him up. Tim and Kori were pretty bad at communication, but Roy kept Jason up to date with Tim’s mission. If it wasn’t for the archer, then Jason would have been tearing his hair out over not knowing.
Batman was alive. Tim and his team had found the evidence. Bruce was alive. He’d been lost in the time stream. Dad was alive. He was back at the manor. Jason barely hung up the phone before letting Gotham drag him directly into the Batcave.
‘Jason Peter Todd’ it said. His diploma. Jason stared at it as he and his friends waited outside the auditorium for their families to find them in the crowd of fresh graduates. He’d spent four years on this expensive bit of paper. It had been so very worth it. Going to college was the best decision he’d ever made.
“Street rats don’t get to go to college,” he murmured to himself. “And dead street rats definitely don’t get to go to college.”
He had never been happier to be wrong.
A stray tear slipped down his face and he frantically moved the paper away before he could mark it with his emotions. Never mind that it was currently protected by a waterproof clear-file. He couldn’t risk the possibility of damage. Not when he planned to frame it and hang it on a wall somewhere.
Matt, who had apparently been prepared for Jason’s waterworks this time, handed him a tissue. Matt wasn’t even graduating today, as his engineering degree still had another year left, but he’d shown up as Susie’s designated audience member, since Susie’s parents sure as hell weren’t welcome. Jason gladly accepted the tissue and wiped at his eyes.
“Stop it,” Susie whined, “You know I’m a sympathetic crier! My makeup will be ruined.”
“Should have gone for the waterproof mascara like me,” Lisa said.
Jason laughed and gave his eyes a final swipe.
“There they are!” one of Lisa’s dads exclaimed as the two men bulldozed through the crowd to get to them. Jason had only met the two a handful of times, but the rambunctious men had never hesitated to treat him like family. They took turns hugging all four of the young adults before settling beside Lisa. “Congratulations, you brilliant graduates.”
“Except you, of course, Matt,” the other man added. “We’ll have to postpone that until next year.”
Matt rolled his eyes.
Then Dick slammed into Jason in an aggressive side hug, face already full of tears. “Little Wing! You graduated! You have a degree! I’m so proud of you!”
“Ge’ off,” Jason grumbled as the rest of the numerous Waynes made their way over.
Bruce had needed to donate some money to the university to procure enough graduation tickets for their huge ass family. Especially since Jason had given one of his designated tickets to Talia and the remaining two to Clark and Lois, much to Bruce’s displeasure. It wasn’t that Jason hadn’t wanted Bruce or the rest of his family to be there. The indignant look on Bruce’s face when Jason had told him he’d need to obtain his own tickets had just been too good to pass up. Jason had framed it as a challenge, knowing Bruce would figure something out to get the rest of them there. Bruce had managed just fine in the end, despite his forlorn dramatics at the possibility he wouldn’t be able to.
Jason shot a pleading look at the others, indicating Dick’s clinging arms with his head. Instead of being helpful, Cass latched onto Jason’s other side, and it soon became a massive sibling group hug. Dick even managed to pull the new addition, Duke, into the mess. Bruce and Alfred looked on with heart-achingly happy smiles on their faces. Jason made some token attempts to wiggle out of the situation before making a show of accepting his fate. The hug was only broken when Talia strolled over, putting every Wayne onto the defensive except Jason, Damian and Duke, who had no idea who Talia was. Bruce was still pretty pissed at Talia for not telling him Jason was alive when she’d found him. Also for keeping Damian from him all those years.
“Mother,” Damian greeted, trying not to let on how pleased he was to see her.
Talia brushed a hand through her youngest son’s hair. “Habibi.” Then she looked up to give Jason a nod. “My darling. You have both done very well.”
Talia rarely called Jason ‘darling’, and Jason suspected she had done it just to watch Bruce’s eye twitch at the endearment.
“Thanks, mum,” Jason said, enjoying Bruce’s reaction to that as well. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”
Talia regarded him with warmth in her eyes.
Lois and Clark joined them next, wrapping Jason in a hug each. “Well done, son,” Clark said, again causing Bruce’s eye to twitch. “Have you thought anymore about my offer?”
“Yeah,” Jason said with a grin. Apparently the Daily Planet would be happy to take him on in a graduate role. “But I have other plans I think.”
“What might those be?” Alfred inquired.
Jason rubbed the back of his neck as everyone listened intently. “Well I’ve been thinking about it all and I’d like to apply to do a teaching masters at Gotham U.”
“Teaching would suit you I think, Master Jason,” Alfred said.
Jason beamed.
“Hold on,” Lisa said. “You want to do a masters at Gotham University? They have postgrad there?”
“Of course they do,” Jason said. “It’s a university. What are you talking about?”
“But don’t all the Gotham Rogues have PhDs? You’d think the university would stop risking it.”
Steph cackled. “You’re not wrong.”
“Shall we get out of the crowd?” Lois suggested. “Our house is all set up for the party.” The Kents had insisted on hosting a graduation celebration for them all, since Metropolis was their turf.
“A suitable suggestion,” Talia agreed.
They all started making their way out of the crowd and to their cars. Bruce held Jason back by the shoulder as everyone else wandered away. Jason turned to see what the problem was. Bruce just looked at him, eyes a bit glassy. He gave Jason’s shoulder a firm squeeze. “Jaylad.”
Looked like Bruce was struggling with his emotions as usual. Jason decided to throw him a bone. “Yeah, I know, dad. I never thought we’d make it here either.”
“I’m so glad we have.”
Fuck, now Jason was getting a little choked up as well. “Me too.”
“Are you guys coming or what?” Steph called back to them.
“We’re coming,” Jason said. He patted Bruce’s back to urge him forward. “Come on, old man. Now’s not the time to glitch. We have a party to get to.”
Bruce grunted, but walked with Jason towards their family and friends.
“Okay,” Jason said, facing his students. “I think the winner here is ‘you have a February nose’. Congratulations, Sasha.”
He chucked a chocolate bar at the grinning student. To make sure the students would do the reading, he’d told them to pick out their favourite insult from the play so the class could vote on the best one. He did something similar with every book or play the class was reading, although it wasn’t always insults. Sometimes it was funniest or most relatable lines. The strategy seemed to keep the kids engaged well enough.
The bell rung, signalling the end of class and the school day. “See ya, Mr. Todd,” some of the students called as they rushed out. Jason started packing up his things before noticing that one of his students was hanging back.
“Everything alright, Charlie?” he asked. He tried to sound as casual as possible, since he knew Charlie could be skittish. He’d caught the boy trying to steal his wallet a few weeks into the school year, and earned the boy’s trust by giving him pointers on pick pocketing instead of getting mad about it. He knew the kid had a rough home life, although he had yet to open up to Jason about it.
“I umm…” Charlie mumbled.
Jason went back to packing his stuff away to let Charlie gather his thoughts without the pressure of Jason’s eyes on him. As Jason was packing the last of his stuff, his phone started ringing. His JL Dark phone. He silenced the call, hoping it could wait a few minutes. Charlie didn’t often approach him like this and he wasn’t going to let anything else intervene. Surely, whatever world ending emergency that needed his expertise could wait a few minutes. The world had survived this long just fine.
“Don’t you need to get that?” Charlie asked him.
“It can wait,” Jason said, stuffing the phone back into his pocket. “What’s up?”
“You, umm, you said you’d help me out if I needed it.”
“I did.”
“I need money,” Charlie blurted. Then he shrunk in on himself a bit.
“Alright,” Jason said. He knew better than to ask what the money was for. He doubted Charlie would want to tell him. The kid had to be really desperate if he was asking Jason for money. “How much do you need?”
“Three hundred dollars,” the kid said.
Jason regarded him steadily. “My neighbour, granny Woodsmith, needs her lawn mowed and her garden weeded on the regular. Usually I do it, but you could do it this month. If you paint the fence too, I think that’s a few hundred dollars worth of work.”
Just handing Charlie the money would be met with suspicion. There always had to be some sort of trade with kids who were used to looking after themselves. Charlie’s back straightened, a touch of relief crossed his face, before the boy tried to look controlled. “I could do that,” he accepted.
“Is tomorrow after school okay?”
Charlie nodded. “Th-thanks,” the kid said before he rushed out of the room.
Progress was progress. Jason would take it. He was getting pretty good at nudging his students like Charlie into slightly better situations, but it was always a gradual endeavour.
Jason shook off his thoughts as his phone started ringing again and he was finally able to accept the call.
“World ending?” Jason asked as he picked up.
“Oh, now you answer,” Constantine griped. “Yes, the world is ending. Zatanna’s going to pick you up in a few minutes so be ready.”
“Will do,” Jason said. He started taking in some of Gotham’s magic to prepare himself for whatever they were dealing with. As he stored the magic, he grabbed his stuff and teleported back to his flat to get changed into his Red Hood gear. Ain’t no rest for the wicked.