Chapter Text
Jason didn’t bother going back to his own room after the fireworks. He went straight to Bruce’s, where he let Bruce put an arm around him again and they watched the first few episodes of The Mandalorian until Jason slipped into sleep.
When he startled awake, Bruce was right there, awake too, illuminated by the glow of his phone. He appeared to be texting Alfred. When he felt Jason stir, he gave Jason’s shoulder a squeeze. “You okay?”
A week ago Jason would’ve bitten Bruce’s head off just for asking that question.“Yeah,” he said. “I’m okay. You?”
“Just fine.”
“You wanna watch another episode?”
Bruce smiled indulgently. “Sure.”
On the plane ride back, Jason really wanted to take a nap, but he stayed awake and kept Bruce engaged in conversation the whole time. He figured Bruce could use the distraction. He shared all his most controversial Star Wars opinions, the ones Dick would vehemently disagree with, but Bruce nodded along, not enough of a fan to care one way or the other.
By the time Jason finally ran out of Star Wars steam, they were almost back to Gotham. He changed the subject. “What made you decide to take us all on trips, anyway?”
“It was Alfred’s idea,” Bruce said.
“I knew it.” Point for Jason.
“I was trying to come up with ways to bond with you all on an individual level. Activities involving the whole family can be fun, but Tim and Damian always end up arguing, Dick feels like he has to be ‘on’ for everyone and can’t relax, Cass can barely get a word in, and you rarely attend.”
Jason raised his eyebrows. He knew Bruce was observant, but sometimes it didn’t seem like he paid that much attention to his family. It was surprising to discover how well he knew and understood each of them.
“What?” Bruce asked, seeing the look Jason gave him.
“I don’t know how to say this in a way that doesn’t sound insulting,” Jason warned him.
Bruce smirked. “That’s never stopped you.”
Jason tried to phrase it delicately (something he’d never been very good at). “How do you know so much about your kids and still…?”
“Fuck it up all the time?” Bruce finished for him.
Jason held up his hands. “You said it, not me.”
“Knowing what the problem is in a relationship and knowing how to solve it are two very different skill sets,” Bruce explained. “Sometimes one of you kids wants something from me that I can’t give. Or sometimes you don’t know what you want. Which is okay. I spent most of my life not knowing what I wanted.”
“How did you figure it out?”
“Trial and error.”
Jason scowled. “That’s not what I wanted to hear.” He felt like he’d been in an endless cycle of trial and error his whole life. He wanted Bruce to give him some secret way out, a cheat code that would let him skip to the part where he knew what he was doing. But apparently that didn’t exist. Or if it did, Bruce didn’t know what it was.
“I know. I’m sorry,” Bruce said. “If it helps, you’re at about the right age to start figuring it out. Nineteen was when your brother and I both started establishing ourselves.” As Nightwing and Batman, Jason knew Bruce meant. “It’s the age when you start finding your way.”
“How am I supposed to find it when I don’t even know what I’m looking for?”
Bruce smiled. “You will. I have faith in you.”
Dick picked them up from the airport. Jason took the front seat again.
“How was the trip?” Dick asked, all smiles. He probably found the fact that Bruce and Jason weren’t at each other’s throats promising.
“Fun,” Jason said blandly.
“‘Fun’?” Dick repeated, prodding Jason for more detail.
“That’s all you’re getting.”
Dick turned his attention to Bruce. As if he’d have any more luck there. “Did you survive, B?”
“I had a great time.” Bruce said this in such a monotone that Dick would have no way of knowing whether he was being sarcastic.
Dick apparently decided to take Bruce’s statement at face value, at least for the purposes of teasing him. “Really?” he said with a grin. “So what you’re saying is, we should start planning a trip with the whole family?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Dick laughed. Jason allowed himself a small smile. Truthfully, he wouldn’t mind going back, not even with all his siblings there to drive him crazy. He didn’t think Bruce would mind it either.
Jason went back to his apartment. He half-expected to find someone had broken in and stolen his TV, the only thing he had in there worth stealing. But the place was untouched. And quiet. And lonely.
Night came too quickly, and Jason suited up and went out into the dark. He rode around aimlessly for about an hour, the usual surge of vengeance and fury that fueled him conspicuously absent, before Barbara’s voice came over his earpiece: “Nightwing needs backup in Blüdhaven if anyone’s available.”
“I do not,” Dick protested, just as stubborn as all the rest of the family.
The side of Gotham that Jason lived in and patrolled most nights was closest to Blüdhaven. “I can be there in fifteen,” Jason said. “Give me his location.”
“Oracle, do not—” Dick began, but Babs cut him off.
“Transmitting Nightwing’s coordinates to you, Red Hood.”
Jason pulled up the coordinates and started heading in that direction. “What are we up against, Wing?” he asked when he was almost there.
“Gang war,” Dick told him. “It started while you were out of town and I couldn’t take care of it because I was covering for Batman in Gotham, so of course it only got worse. But seriously, Hood, I can take care of this.”
“Sure you can,” Jason said. He left his motorcycle in an alley and scaled the side of a building. It wasn’t hard to find Dick; Jason followed the sound of bullets and spotted a black-and-blue figure protecting a homeless encampment that had gotten caught in the crossfire. “You need help with those civilians or do you want me to break up the fight?”
“Only if you can do it without killing anyone.”
Jason rolled his eyes and entered the fray. It took a lot longer to neutralize the shooters without killing them, but he hadn’t made any promises about grievous bodily harm; he broke a few arms and knocked a few skulls together, destroyed a few guns and confiscated any that were worth taking. The remaining assailants retreated on their own once they realized they were outmatched.
“You’re gonna ruin my reputation,” Jason told Dick as they waited for the police.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you just got back from Disney World,” Dick teased. “That would ruin your reputation.” Dick paused. “You and B did have a good time, right?”
“Sure,” Jason said.
“I mean it. It was fun?”
“Yes. Get off my back about it. Christ.”
They stood in silence for a moment before Dick added, “Thanks for the help.”
Jason raised an eyebrow. Not that Dick could see him under the helmet. “Thought you didn’t need it,” he said.
“I have to say that,” Dick replied. “You’re not the only one with a reputation. I can’t have my little brother losing all respect for me.”
That could never happen, Jason thought. “You think I still have any respect for you?” he said.
“Shut up.” Dick laughed.
Jason didn’t actually expect Bruce to have any interest in watching the rest of The Mandalorian. They’d made it about halfway through the first season in their hotel, and Bruce had paid attention the whole time and asked relevant questions that Jason answered, but Jason was pretty sure Bruce had only been humoring him.
But a few days after their return to Gotham, he got a text from Bruce asking if and when Jason wanted to come over to finish season one.
JASON TODD: you don’t actually have to do this
BRUCE WAYNE: I want to. But if you’re not interested, that’s okay.
JASON TODD: i’m free thursday evening
BRUCE WAYNE: So am I. I should be home by 7.
JASON TODD liked a message.
Jason rolled up to the front door of Wayne Manor feeling as uncertain as when Bruce had first picked him up off the street.
Bruce was waiting for him in the kitchen. “Alfred left you dinner in the fridge if you haven’t eaten,” he said.
Jason hadn’t eaten. He warmed up the plate Alfred had left him and followed Bruce into the Manor’s home theater.
“You remember where we left off?” he asked Bruce.
“I think so.”
Bruce put on the show, and they settled into the sofa next to each other, a polite distance between them. Jason kind of wanted Bruce to put his arm around him again, but he didn’t want to ask for it.
After the first episode they watched, Jason got up to take his dishes back to the kitchen. When he returned, with a freshly-popped bag of microwave popcorn, he settled in a few inches closer to Bruce than he had been before.
After another episode, Jason scooted a little closer, ostensibly to offer Bruce the last remnants of his popcorn. Bruce turned him down politely.
Two more episodes later, Bruce put an arm around Jason. Jason leaned into him and curled up with his feet underneath him. He felt Bruce let out a breath.
“Who is that?”
“Bruce.” Jason shot Bruce a look. “That’s Boba Fett.”
Bruce frowned. “It doesn’t look like him.”
“He’s older,” Jason explained. “And he’s not wearing his armor. Mando has his armor, remember?”
“Is that what that was?”
“Yes. Bruce, I told you that.” Jason did his best to sound exasperated.
There was a brief pause. “Didn’t Boba Fett die?” Bruce asked.
“No one ever really dies in Star Wars.”
“Who is that?”
“Bo-Katan. I won’t even bother explaining her backstory to you. You won’t care.”
Bruce reached for the remote and paused the episode. “I want to know,” he insisted.
Jason looked at Bruce. He seemed sincere, so Jason launched into his explanation: “Okay, so in the Clone Wars animated TV show—”
“Who is that?”
“Ahsoka. I told you about her.”
“Remind me.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “How is your memory so good in real life and so shit when it comes to anything fictional?”
He expected Bruce to say something about how real life was important and fiction didn’t matter, but he didn’t. Instead he smiled at Jason and said, “I know one of you kids will always be able to remind me.”
Jason bit back an answering smile. “Ahsoka was Anakin’s Padawan in The Clone Wars. She’s one of the few Jedi who survived the Purge after Revenge of the Sith.”
After three evenings together in Wayne Manor and a seemingly endless series of questions and explanations, Jason and Bruce made it to the finale. When Luke showed up with his black cloak and green lightsaber, Jason said, “I swear to God, Bruce, if you ask me who that is—”
“I know Luke Skywalker,” Bruce said.
“Thank you.”
When the episode ended, Jason turned to Bruce. “What did you think?”
“It was good,” Bruce said. Then, “It’s not over, is it? They’re making another season?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll watch it with me?”
“Yeah, Bruce. I will.”