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Jason had spent months arguing that he should get to go to the Watchtower. Dick had gotten to go, so it just wasn’t fair that he hadn’t, and if Bruce didn’t listen to him he was going to steal his Zeta access code and go himself.
In the end, of course, it was Alfred that changed his mind.
“Not many children get the opportunity to go to space while they’re studying it, Master Bruce. It would be a shame to deny Master Jason such a thing.”
A day later, Jason was stepping off the transporter platform, barely able to believe what he was seeing around him.
“Woah,” Jason breathed. “We’re like, for real in space.”
“That’s the idea,” Bruce said, the corner of his mouth twitching, which Jason knew meant he was trying not to smile.
Jason wasn’t sure what to look at first. Part of him wanted to glue himself to the nearest window and stare into literal space. Part of him wanted to run over to the nearest computer and put his hacking skills to the test. Part of him wanted to see what the training facilities were like here, because it was cool and all in the cave, but the League had a bunch of super powered metas so he was sure they had cool shit the cave had no need for.
That indecision didn’t stop him from darting down the hall, figuring he’d make a decision when something really caught his eye.
“Don’t run in the hall, Robin,” Bruce shouted after him.
“You’re not the boss of me,” Jason said, turning around to stick out his tongue, still lightly jogging backwards.
“I’m quite literally the boss of you,” Bruce said. Jason could hear him rolling his eyes. Even if he wasn’t physically, he absolutely was emotionally.
“Then where’s my paycheck, boss?” Jason taunted. Bruce’s legs were more than long enough to catch up at barely more than a brisk walk. Someday, Jason hoped he’d be that tall. It was great being boy wonder and all, but no one wanted to look like a little shrimp forever.
“I call it your allowance,” Bruce said. Jason grinned.
“That’s just for being your favorite son,” he said. “Totally doesn’t count.”
“I don’t have a favorite,” Bruce said automatically. He’d give Bruce some points for trying, but there was no way Jason wasn’t the favorite after the last blowup Bruce and Dickie had had. Sure, it would be more satisfying to be the favorite if it was a real competition, but a fact was a fact.
Suddenly, Jason became aware that several people had come up behind him. He turned, wondering if Bruce had given anyone a heads up they were coming.
“Uncle Clark! Aunt Diana!” he practically shouted, once he saw who it was. Bruce might like to pretend he was all cold and preferred being alone or whatever, but Jason knew better. He had definitely texted Clark and Diana ahead of time.
“Jason, welcome,” Diana said warmly, clasping his shoulder.
“Could you all try to remember the point of having secret identities?” Bruce sighed.
“Take the stick out of your butt, at least once in a while,” Hal said, floating down from a floor above them. “I heard a commotion, so I thought I’d come see what the fun was.”
“Green Lantern!” Jason said, delighted. He hadn’t been sure if he would get to see him, because he was well aware of how Bruce felt about the man. Bruce just wasn’t able to appreciate what was cool, sometimes.
“The one and only,” Hal said, smirking.
“One of literally hundreds,” Bruce muttered.
It suddenly made sense why Bruce and Green Lantern didn’t get along. But, Jason wasn’t going to let that stop him.
“Can I see?” he asked, pointing at the ring and trying not to sound too eager.
Hal looked down, and the smirk on his face deepened in a way that probably meant bad news.
“Sure, kid,” he said. A moment later, a fully constructed green Batman stood before them.
“I am the night,” Hal deadpanned.
“Jordan,” Bruce growled.
“Batman,” Hal mimicked.
Look, it wasn’t like Jason had never had a good laugh in his life. His mom had been plenty funny, when she was lucid, and even if he’d rather die than admit it, Dick could pull off a pretty good practical joke.
But none of them came even close to what he felt now. He laughed so hard tears started streaming out of his eyes. He laughed so hard, he was physically bent over, barely able to keep standing upright.
What Jason didn’t see, then, was Bruce smiling.
Jason felt like he could’ve kept laughing forever, except that his stomach let out an embarrassingly loud gurgle, and he suddenly remembered that he’d barely eaten anything at lunch, because he’d been too excited to waste time on something like eating an entire sandwich.
“Where’s the kitchen? Dick said you guys have the best snacks.”
-
Jason had spent weeks arguing that there was absolutely no need for him to go to the Watchtower. In fact, if Bruce didn’t shut the fuck up about it he was going to start killing people again, and probably steal all four tires off the Batmobile for good measure.
In the end, of course, it was Alfred that changed his mind.
“It would be a shame to see you not get the credit you deserve, Master Jason, for all the hard work you’ve done.”
A day later, Jason was stepping off the transporter platform, trying not to grind his teeth into dust.
“Wow, you’ve really made no updates to this place,” he said, looking around.
“It’s a space station,” Bruce said. “The software has been updated plenty.”
“Right,” Jason said. “Sure that’s really made all the new team members feel at home.”
Bruce didn’t say anything, but he was sure giving off rolling his eyes energy hard. They walked in silence to the meeting room where the rest of the team was already waiting. Jason had definitely not dragged his feet a little, pretending he couldn’t find his helmet, or his gloves, or his jacket, because maybe he had to go but he could at least make Batman late.
Everyone sitting at the table already had the information packet printed and ready to go in front of them, and Jason was dying to know who’d been relegated to being Justice League intern that afternoon.
“This is Red Hood,” Batman said, by way of introduction. “He’ll be leading the presentation for today.”
Of course Bruce thought that was enough information. Whatever. Jason didn’t want to spend any more time here than he absolutely had to.
“The tldr version, aliens planning on terraforming Earth again,” he began.
“Fuck me, again?” Hal groaned.
“The longer version, per your packets,” he continued, “is that they were dumb enough to set up one of their headquarters on my turf in Gotham, so I’ve been surveilling them for the past month and we’re reasonably confident we’ve identified the rest of their hideouts globally, as well as their go date. If you turn to page ten you’ll also see the full specs of the machines they plan on using.”
“This is most impressive,” J’onn said, looking over the diagram.
“How is this the first time we’re hearing about you?” Barry asked. “I mean, I can’t keep all the Bats straight at this point, but I feel like I’d remember you.”
“I’m his least favorite kid,” Jason drawled, and sure enough, Bruce flinched right on cue.
“I don’t have favorites or least favorites,” Bruce said. It was more a habit than a real sentiment at this point.
“Then where’s my money, old man? The brat told me how much he gets every week, and it’s more than double what I used to get,” Jason said. Not that it bothered him. Much. But it was fun to watch Bruce squirm, almost certainly furious at having personal matters discussed in front of his work friends.
“Move back home and we’ll talk,” Bruce snapped. “Back to the matter at hand –”
Hal looked between the two of them, and even Jason didn’t like the expression slowly dawning on his face.
“Wait – just hold on a fucking second,” Hal said. “Are you Jason?”
“Sorry, I’ve been trained to know the importance of secret identities,” Jason said airily.
Fuck. Fuck – this was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to come. Now they would all ask questions that he absolutely did not want to answer, and it was bad enough that Clark and Diana knew everything that he’d done, the last thing he needed was –
“Oh,” Barry said. He turned and looked at Bruce before he said, “So that’s why you’ve been less of an asshole lately.”
Jason felt like maybe he’d missed something. The muscle in Bruce’s jaw that spasmed a little when he was trying his hardest not to be embarrassed was practically writing a symphony.
“Hood, you’re free to go,” Bruce said. He didn’t look at Jason when he dismissed him.
Jason wasn’t sure if he wanted to listen to Bruce. He kind of felt like if he stayed the rest of the League was seconds away from blurting out some interesting truths about Bruce.
On the other hand, he wasn’t sure he was down to have an emotional breakthrough today.
So he shrugged and said, “I didn’t come all the way here to leave without snacks.”
And while he didn’t strictly speaking confirm that he was definitely Jason, he did give Hal a thumbs up on the way out.