Archive of Our Own ^beta

His plan wasn't as air tight as he'd intended, but if Jason could do anything, it was adapt and overcome. Finally returning to Gotham was bittersweet; he loved his city, he really did, but more and more he'd started dreading the idea of stepping foot back onto her cracked sidewalks and streets riddled with potholes. Yet, when he'd taken the step, crossed the undrawn border, a sense of euphoria washed over him. He'd suddenly become once again aware of the thickness of the air, the smell of decay and the sounds of sirens. Home.

Crime Alley was no different than he remembered, and that was no big surprise. Despite how long he was away, recovering from his death and training in the League of Assassins, he never once forgot his home, as much as he wanted to sometimes. He wondered if maybe he could forget the whole thing then his revenge plot could be forgotten. He could stay with his new found family, with Taliah and Damian. But in the end, his soul yearned for its mother, for Lady Gotham. So maybe he didn't have a hugely sorted plan, but he had time to figure it out. What he really needed was a starting point, a place to lay low and begin. A place to sleep and live, even if temporarily. He loved Crime Alley, but he sure as hell didn't intend to return to living on the streets, he'd had enough of that before he'd met Bruce. Taliah had tried to give him some ideas, even offered to buy him some place, but he’d refused. He didn’t need to stand out like that, and besides, this was his turf, he was going to earn it’s respect.

Jason mulled things over while he sipped his tea, sitting at the computers in the library. He needed intel, good intel about what had happened while he’d been gone, about this new Robin. Because of course there was already a new one. Bruce just can’t seem to keep his hands off of young boys. Okay, maybe that sounded wrong. He wondered how the big bad bat would react when he found out that he had a blood son, that would be a sight to see. Jason hoped he was around to see it. In the meantime, Jason swirled the tea around in his thermos as he scrolled and scrolled. Craigslist, he’d figured it was as good a place as any to look for the thing he needed. Taliah thought it was a bad idea, but Jason figured it’d help him seem more normal, help him blend in a bit among the masses. So there he was, searching for a roommate of all things. As much as it pained him, Jason had become a bit pompous. He was a stickler when it came to reading and writing comprehension, and he kept coming across ads that were poorly written. It drove him nuts, but he was even more pissed off by the fact that it bothered him so much. He was just as much a street rat as anyone else who grew up here, but ever since the day that he’d stolen the tires from the Batmobile, he’d become something else. He’d been given an education and, even after his death, he’d gotten even more. He had training, he knew things, he’d gotten to explore that part of himself freely because he’d lived somewhere with the funds to do so. He thought of Alfred, the man he considered his grandfather, Jason felt he related to him in a way. They were cultured. Alfred started off pretending not to notice when Jason stole one of the old novels from his collection, but eventually he’d just let Jason in.

“No need to take them, my boy,” he’d said. “You may read whatever you like, just don’t go spilling tea on any of them.” That had been the beginning of the end, the beginning of Jason being able to figure out who he actually was. Now he felt a bit bad about how he saw things, about how he didn’t even give any thought to the ads from people who didn’t know the differences between there, their, and they’re, but it had been subconsciously ingrained into him, and he simply couldn’t let it slide. 

That night he hadn’t come across any, so he’d taken his leave for the night as the library began to close. He’d go back the next day and look some more. For now, he needed something real to eat. Jason Todd didn’t expect himself to ever set foot in a Batburger, but it was the first thing he saw that sounded good. The past several years had been filled with incredible homemade meals in the League, his palette had really expanded by eating foods he’d considered foreign. He loved the food he’d been eating, but when he finally seriously considered returning to Gotham, his mind instantly went to needing to get his hands on a good, all-American cheeseburger. 

There was a tired looking teenager behind the counter that looked past him as he said, “Hello and welcome to Batburger, what can I get for you today…”

Jason looked at the menu, everything had a ridiculous name and he was suddenly regretting his choice to be here. “Uhh…” He started, completely forgetting any common sense. “Can’t I just get a normal burger? Just something with regular toppings?”

“I mean, we can customize your order…”

“I just want a double cheeseburger with… I don’t know, lettuce, tomato, and mayo?”

“That would be our Laughing Joker burger.”

Jason froze. What. The. Fuck?! “What?!”

“It’s because of the colors, you know, green, red, and white? We don’t have anything purple so they dye the bun, it’s okay if you ask me. Also the cheese is pepper jack.”

“I, uh-”

“I’ll go ahead and put in that order for you,” the teen droned, not acknowledging Jason’s shocked expression. “Your total comes to seven dollars and seventeen cents.”

“Uh, right,” Jason stammered, pulling out his wallet. He wasn’t too prideful to not let Taliah give him at least the bare amount of funds. A man’s gotta eat after all. He slid the cash across the counter and turned around to find somewhere to sit. The place was mostly empty, save for one man with ginger hair sitting off to the side with a little girl, smiling as she babbled about her day at school. Jason decided to keep his distance. Another thing Taliah had forced upon him was a cell phone, as much as he resisted.

“You can stick to burners when you put your plan into action. For now, Habibi, please let me help you.” Needless to say, he’d relented. So while he waited for his food, he pulled up the browser and went back to Craigslist, remembering he didn’t fully need a whole computer to look for things. As he scrolled, he didn’t notice his food get dropped in front of him until a smell of beef drifted to his nose. When his eyes locked on the food he froze. God, it really was his colors, wasn’t it. He felt ill just looking at it, but he was hungry. The scar on his cheek tingled, and his fingertips itched as he picked it up. The pit had dealt with a great many things, but not everything is as easy to wipe away. Many of his scars had remained, from the beating, from the autopsy, and a few others. But the worst was his fingertips, they still felt phantom pains from scraping and clawing at the inside of his coffin. Sometimes he still felt like they were full of splinters. His fingernails had never quite properly grown back. When he took a bite of the burger he felt uncomfortable because of how tasty it was. He hated it.

Trying to not think about it, he set the burger down and continued scrolling. He really was becoming less of a fan of the idea of having a roommate, but he'd done some scouting, trying to find a good and proper safe house. Something inconspicuous, out of the way, something closed off that no one would look twice at. But, of course, the bat and his birds had already sucked the streets dry of any good ones. Anything even remotely fitting the qualifications was secretly a bat safehouse or was an apartment building owned by Wayne Enterprises. Of fucking course. He was so sure that there'd be maybe just one that Bruce didn't know about, but perhaps he should have known better than to underestimate him. Then again, he hadn't immediately pinged his presence when Jason had entered Gotham. Barbara was usually all over that when someone came to town, he could swear she put movement sensors at each boundary line. Maybe she already knew. So there he was, forced to find a roommate. At least it would help with the rent, even if just slightly, but Gotham wasn't too pricey of a place when it came to real estate, no one wanted to live in Crime Alley.

It was after taking another bite of his trauma burger that he saw an ad that intrigued him. It looked good enough, well written, friendly, some guy named Richard. His mind wandered to his older brother, but he shook away the thoughts. He looked through the pictures of the apartment, this guy kept things tidy, unless it was just for the sake of taking these pictures. Either way, it seemed like a nice enough place. He'd have his own bedroom, it was in an area he knew well, and this Richard guy seemed to be a normal human, as well as someone who knew how the English language worked. Jason decided to take a look, maybe it would work out. He sent a message to the guy under his assumed identity for his time there, Mark.

“Hey there, I saw your Craigslist ad looking for a roommate and I was interested. When would be a good time for me to come by to check things out? Thanks! Mark”

It was an innocent enough message. He didn't want to sound professional in any way, but he didn't want to be too casual either, he wanted this Richard to understand what kind of guy he was. After a few minutes he got a response.

“Hey man! Glad to see someone is interested! I'm actually available tomorrow if you are!”

The guy seemed friendly enough, casual but not too much so.

“That works for me, say 2 pm?”

“Sounds good man, see you then!”

So far things were going well enough, something about the interaction left Jason feeling lighter than he had in a while. There was something so… normal about texting someone, about finding a roommate of all things. It was something he'd never done before, but it was something that plenty of people his age did. He didn't have a normal childhood, a normal death, or a normal life after death, and here he was, apartment hunting. For the first time, Jason wondered if maybe he was going about this all wrong. Did he really NEED to get his… revenge? Was that even what it was? Revenge? He knew better, didn't he? Bruce would never kill the Joker, not even for him. Bruce didn't kill, that was his whole thing, was Jason really going to change that? Maybe he should stick to what he was getting now. Normalcy. He was never too good at normal, no part of him had ever fit the definition of the word. As he finished up his burger he pondered these ideas. He knew what Taliah would say. 

“What is important is that you are doing what you want to do.”

But what if he no longer knew what it was that he wanted? So maybe this was time for him to really figure that out. He didn’t need to take action right away, did he? Bruce could wait. He hadn’t been living for himself, that needed to change.

…..

 Jason looked down at his phone, he wasn’t going to show up early, he didn’t need to be unwelcome. 1:59. Just a minute to go before he met his possible future roommate. Something in him was anxious. The apartment itself was nice, but what if they didn’t get along? What if they were much too opposite? Would he really be able to go back to the drawing board?

 2:00

 Jason knocked on the door. He heard some shuffling inside. After a few seconds, footsteps approached and stopped. He felt eyes on him, this Richard guy must be looking through the peephole. Jason heard the sounds of someone doing a spit take before choking aggressively. Coughing and hacking took place on the other side of the door and Jason found himself losing his nerve. Something was wrong. He heard the sound of something being set down, perhaps a mug. Having heightened senses from the pit was really messing with him. He still wasn’t used to being able to hear some extra things. They weren’t super senses by any means, but they certainly weren’t normal. After a moment of heavy breathing Jason began to hear clicking sounds. Locks, at least a dozen of them, being unlocked on the other side of the door. He stiffened. He was about to meet this Richard guy, and in that moment he wanted nothing more than to just bolt like a frightened deer. It was too late though as the door swung inwards to reveal….

Fuck.

 Richard was a common enough name that Jason hadn’t really considered this possibility. After all, plenty of people were named Richard, and even if the profile had said Dick, there were still plenty of people called that as well. Coincidence. But this wasn’t that.

 Before him stood someone he certainly didn’t want to see right now.

 Dick Grayson. Nightwing. His brother. 

 Based on the choking on sight, Jason assumed that at least something about him was familiar. He’d changed, grown, but how much? Was this something he could play off? Convince Dick that he was just seeing something that wasn’t there? It was worth a shot.

 “You must be Richard?” Jason asked, offering a small wave. He tried to smile. Now, last time he’d seen Dick, he was much smaller, a young teenager with a haughty attitude and way too much energy. The last time Dick had seen him was when he was already dead. From what he knew, his body had been pretty fucked up; after all, he’d been beaten half to death and then blown up. Bodies don’t really look pretty after those things happen. Again, the pit had dealt with the main issues, mainly the fact that his skin had been barely holding on in some places, plus all that shit from when he'd been wandering around Gotham brain dead before Taliah found him.

Dick stood there, mouth still agape.

“You alright, man?”

Dick closed his mouth and blinked several times.

“If now's a bad time I can come ba-”

“No!” Dick blurted out before shrinking down in shame. “Shit, I'm sorry it's just, I thought you were someone else I knew. You sure your name's Mark?”

“Pretty sure,” Jason, or Mark, replied. He had documentation and everything, Taliah had made sure his care was so airtight that even the bat himself, the world's greatest detective, wouldn't figure him out. “Why don't you show me around, big bird?”

There. Right there. He'd fucked up almost immediately all on his own. He didn't need Bruce's help to reveal himself. 

Dick stood there frozen again, his eyes somehow wider than before. “Little wing?” He looked like he might start crying. “How-”

“Okay um… how about we talk inside?”

“I'm calling B-”

“DON'T!”

Dick froze, about to pull his phone out. “What?”

“Look uh…”

“Let's go somewhere, B has bugs in my apartment.”

“Seriously?”

“It's his way of showing love, I've just decided to allow it.”

…

That was how Jason ended up following Dick Grayson to one of the local parks and explaining what his deal was.

“I was dead, seriously, it wasn't a ruse or anything,” Jason assured him.

“Is it bad that I find that reassuring?” Dick asked, scratching his neck.

“No,” Jason replied. “I'd feel the same.”

“What was it like? Waking up underground?”

Jason flinched, trying to hide it, but Dick had obviously seen it, they'd both been trained by the bat.

“Or, I mean, you don't have to-”

“Terrifying,” Jason said with a sigh, releasing the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. “It took a bit to register. I don't remember most of it, which I suppose is a relief, oxygen deprivation will do that to a bastard.”

“Jesus…”

Jason held his hand out for Dick to inspect. “The results still show a bit, like some sort of fucked up reminder.”

“Why don't you want B to know?” Dick asked bluntly. Jason had been expecting the question, but he still hadn't fully figured out his answer.

“You know, I came here to get revenge, or, a sort of revenge anyways. But then I got here and everything felt so…. So normal. I was eating a cheeseburger and looking for a roommate. It made me wonder if a normal life was really in the cards for me.”

“It can be.”

“You think so?”

“I do.”

There was a moment of silence, two brothers sitting on a park bench together. 

“Can I still be your roommate?”

“Of course.”