He slouched in the recliner, his back laying against the seat cushion, his large brawny frame feeling a little tight between the arms of the leather seat. His head was forced forward by the back of the chair, his chin resting on his chest as he flipped channels, dark blue eyes blankly watching for something of interest.
"You have been here little more than four days and you are already bored?" Tim asked incredulously as he walked into the theater room.
His muscular shoulders lifted and then dropped as he flipped the channel again. "Eh."
"While I am glad that you are trying to get to know our family and become part of the fold, I have to admit I wasn't expecting this." Tim frowned as he took a seat in a second recliner. "I mean, you were potentially the most dangerous and clever villain that the bat family has ever known and yet here you are being a couch potato."
Barely turning to look at his 'little brother', Jason's eyes moved to him. He looked as though he was about to say something but instead aimed the remote at him and hit the mute button.
"Ha, ha." Tim rolled his eyes.
Jason hid his smirk well as he set the remote down and flipped the replacement off. He ignored the lecture on his maturity as he went back to the changing channels. He was so bored he was contemplating throwing the controller at Timothy's head, but Alfred wasn't far from the theater room and he knew that old man was not to be tangled with in his own home. Still...
Just as he finally decided that he wanted to see the plastic remote bounce off of the replacement's head a large white feline jumped onto his chest. It mewed up at him and then pressed it's head against his jaw, clearly wanting the man's attention. Jason grabbed hold of the animal by the scruff and without taking his eyes off the the television gently set the cat on the floor.
"Are you really watching this?" Tim frowned as he realized The Red Hood had stopped on some show about bride's trying to find their dream wedding dress.
"She has nice tits." Jason shrugged.
"You haven't spoken in nearly eight hours and your first words of the day are 'she has nice tits?' What is wrong with you?"
"I'm horny?" He guessed.
Tim blushed and walked away angrily. It was amazing how easy it was to rile the kid up without doing a damned thing to him. Jason would remember that for future reference. Truth was, he was having a lazy day combined with trying to get over some emotional trauma. Here he was sitting in Wayne Manor as if he belonged there while he his right foot healed from a nasty fracture that left him out of work and off of his patrol. He and dear old 'Dad' had yet to utter one syllable to the other; only narrowed eyes and grunts of acknowledgment had been passed between the two. All he really wanted to do was kick Bruce's ass, but with the broken foot and all...
"Still lazing about in our home, Todd?" Damian snarled as he walked into the room.
"I am about to start a movie, how about Pride and Prejudice, wanna watch it with me?" Jason smiled, sounding and appearing sincere.
Damian glared, his gray blue eyes searching for any signs of trickery, not that he would ever watch something like that. "Please, I am not about to watch some brainless romantic drivel with the likes of you. Grayson may be the type to sit and watch movies with you or Drake, but I have much better things to do with my time."
Jason finally pulled himself up out of the recliner and carefully hobbled over to the middle of the theater room. He sat carefully on the wooden floor boards and after knocking here and there, Damian's attention was pulled back to Todd by the sound of a hollowed knock. Within a few minutes Jason had carefully removed the board and pulled up an old metal DVD case with a large silver cross and the words Boondock Saints.
"What is that, Todd?" Damian didn't ask, he demanded.
"A movie, Demon Brat. It shares a lot of my ideals." Jason placed the board back and limped over to the DVD player and started his movie before getting himself back on the couch and reclining this time. "You definitely should leave the room. The movie is rated R and Dickie-Bird and B will have a coronary if they find you watching this with me."
"I am not a baby, despite what so many of you seem to think." Damian growled as he sat beside his smirking older brother.
"Whatever, just realize, it's got a lot of a adult themes." Jason warned, knowing full well the boy would stay just to spite him, which was what he really wanted. Bruce was going to go ape shit and being an injured prisoner of war, Alfred wasn't going to let him lay a single finger on him.
Dick and Bruce arrived at the manor within a few minutes of each other. They had been making sure to do this ever since Jason had returned. Safety in numbers or something to that effect. They had both put in a hard day's work and were aching for a relaxing evening and a home cooked meal. Both men immediately went to their rooms, Bruce changing out of his suit while Dick changed out of his GCPD uniform.
As Bruce came down the stairs he was surprised to see Tim in the kitchen reading quietly. It wasn't Tim, or the book that surprised him but the lack of a certain pestering little brother that startled him. Every evening without fail his two youngest sons were usually locked in some sort of mortal combat as they shouted and insulted one another.
"Alright, what have you done to him, Tim?" Bruce asked, wondering if he should be fearing the worst.
"To who?" Tim asked as he looked up and then as comprehension lit up his face he smiled. "Nothing, Damian is watching a movie with Jason."
That was definitely concerning; Bruce decided as he moved quickly to his theater room. He entered the doorway to see both boys munching on popcorn, Jason laughing happily while Damian did his best to hide the smile that wanted to form across his young face. Bruce turned his own eyes to the television and frowned as he immediately recognized his second son's favorite movie.
"Fuckin'-What the fuckin'...Fuck. Who the fuck fucked this fucking...How did you two fucking fucks...FUCK!" The voice of a character screamed away on the movie.
"Well that clearly illustrates the diversity of the word." Another character remarked.
"Jason Peter Todd-Wayne, how many times have I told you that you are not to watch this movie under my roof?" Bruce growled angrily.
Two sets of blue eyes focused on their father, neither seemed very concerned or intimidated by the man's growl or leer. Jason and Damian stared for a only a moment before they turned their attention back to the movie.
Bruce grabbed the remote with speed that would make The Flash jealous and turned off the television. "I am not playing, Jason. How dare you bring this garbage into my home and allow your youngest brother to watch it? We do NOT kill in this family, we do NOT gun criminals down. It's not funny, it's not a game and it's not going to be tolerated!"
Jason was on his feet, ignoring the pain that surged through his cast, as he stood toe to toe with his father. His blue eyes narrowed as he lips curled into a sneer. "Just because it isn't your way doesn't mean it's the wrong way! You may have this rule about not killing a man who rapes four year olds, you may flinch at the idea of putting a bullet into the head of a serial killer clown who has the lives of thousands on his hands, but I DON'T!"
"Ever since Damian has come to live with me, I have done everything in my power to teach him the value of life. To teach him that his mother and grandfather's way is wrong! Yet here you sit allowing him to watch a movie that not only idolizes murderers but makes it seem comedic!" Bruce shouted in return, his face bright red with rage.
"THE VALUE OF LIFE?" Jason sputtered, his temper flaring to meet his father's. "You are teaching him to value the life of murderers, rapists and monsters above the lives of their victims! By letting men like the Joker live, you teach Damian that a four year old boy and his mother matter less than the man who triggered the bomb in their taxi cab! No wonder the little demon has no value for anyone other than himself and a bunch of animals! How can he look at a young family and see their lives as precious when the only thing you have taught him is that they are collateral damage to madmen whose lives he must value over theirs? You are teaching him no better than Talia or Ra's."
Damian took a step back as he watched Todd argue with his father. Both men were so angry they were practically trembling, their faces red and their own shades of blue eyes flashing dangerously. It wasn't that Damian cared for Todd, but there was some truth to his words. Damian frowned as he gently took his father's hand into his own.
"Father," He spoke the word carefully and waited until they were both looking at him. "Father, Todd may not be right, but he isn't wrong either. I understand that you are trying to teach me not to kill and to have a moral code that is as strong as you are, but perhaps your way of seeing things is not the only way. While Todd is a ruthless Neanderthal, you can't deny that he has a point."
"Killing doesn't just stop with one, it's a power trip, it's corrupting and it makes you no better than those you execute." Bruce countered, trying to stay calm.
"The Hell it doesn't make me better than them! Tell that to the parents of a serial killer's NEXT victim." Jason snarled. "You go and talk with every single victim of The Joker, to their family and explain to them why valuing his life is more important than valuing the INNOCENT lives of their loved ones! I guarantee that they will find me much better than The Joker, even if I tortured him for months on end. This mickey mouse bullshit about being no better than the criminals I hunt is just that. Bull shit.
"Who are you to call Clark a boy scout? Even he has killed when necessary. Sure it tore him up but he was willing to dirty his fucking hands to protect the innocent. Everytime you and Supes get together I hear you insult him. You call him Boy Scout as if you were so much more hardcore than him and yet from where I am standing, you are the real Boy Scout."
"How dare you compare Kent to Father. He is ten times the man that Kent is." Damian hissed at Jason, not appreciating the insult to his father.
"Well yeah, he's an alien, Damian. Everyone is at least ten times the man Clark is." Jason rolled his eyes.
"Very clever, Todd." The baby bat's voice dripped with sarcasm as he glared at his older brother.
"Jason, I know what it's like to decide that killing is the only way to make the scourge of this city pay. I know what it's like to want death for the lives of those you love...
"No, Bruce, see that's where you are wrong. This isn't about vengeance for me, like it is for you. Sure at one time,that may have been my goal." Jason interrupted. "I wanted to know that you loved me enough that you would never let the Joker live to regret his choice to take me from you and also prevent him for doing so in the future. I admit it fully, that's what I had wanted.
"But now...Now it's different. Despite what you all think of me, I have learned something from my own homicidal rage. I don't kill mob bosses because they killed, tortured or hurt innocent people, it's not an act of vengeance. It's to prevent it from ever happening again, it's to give justice to those who will always somehow side step the law or even manipulate it to make themselves appear to be the victims.
"Bruce Wayne, you may not like my code. If you think it's the same as it was, you probably have a good reason, but I have changed. I don't kill anyone who gets in my way, I don't kill EVERY criminal. They have to meet a certain criteria. Murderers, child rapists, serial killers, serial rapists, shit like that." Jason tried to explain. "And yeah there is a law against what I do, but there is a law against what you do to. Your crimes are no less than mine. You are every bit a criminal as I am. What is that you used to tell me? 'What we do, may be deemed wrong by those who make laws, but it is deemed right by every life we save from whatever tragedy they were about to suffer or endure'. With all due respect Dad; What I do may be deemed wrong by you and my brothers, but it is deemed right by every life I save and prevent from enduring or suffering a tragedy at the hands of serial mad men."
Damien blinked in disbelief as his father seemed speechless. The two men still stood facing one another, neither seeming to notice that Dick had joined Damien, watching with just as much concern and shock as the youngest of Bruce's boys. It wasn't so much that the two men were arguing or ever what they were arguing about, it was more the fact that it hadn't escalated into a physical confrontation between the two as it always had in the past. That they were actually talking, even if it was with anger and heated volume, was almost miraculous given the short tempers of each man.
While he stared Bruce couldn't help but smile inwardly. He still believed his second oldest was wrong. Completely wrong, but it was heartwarming and comforting to see that passion alive in Jason's eyes. His son believed he was doing the right thing and for once it was for the right reasons, though again, still wrong. When Jason had returned he had been the same passionate boy, but that was brought on by his pain, not by his conviction.
"You have evaded the point completely, Jason so just let me reiterate. That movie will not ever be played again in my home. Damien," His steel blue eyes moved to his youngest as he was clearly addressing him as well. "will not watch that movie until he is of age and again, never in my home."
Feeling a little lost, Dick looked to Damien for an answer. The boy waited until his father looked back to Jason before he looked toward the DVD case that was still laying on the couch. Dick followed the boy's eyes and then grimaced when he saw the movie that Jason had loved as a young teenager. Now it all made sense.
"Do I make myself clear Jason. Get that movie out of my home and don't you hide it back under that floor board." Bruce warned before he stepped out of the theater room. He paused, however as he looked back. "I will have Alfred bring you some Tylenol and water, I'd suggest getting off that foot before you do more damage to it."
"I can't believe you were watching that here!" Dick exclaimed as soon as their father was out of earshot. "What the Hell were you thinking, Jaybird?"
Jason smiled. "The kid didn't want to watch Pride & Prejudice and I figured he needed to see things from another perspective."
"How far did you get through the movie?" Dick asked in a whisper.
"Auto-play feature. The movie had started over and we were to lazy to get up and change it." Jason grinned smugly. "The boy saw the whole thing."
Damien smirked as he looked to the older boys. "It was immature and completely ludicrous. I am not surprised that Todd admired such characters and I see wholly where he got his foul language from. The acting during certain scenes was overdone and poor."
Ruffling a protesting baby bat's hair, Jason chuckled. "Well, if any good came out of this, I think it's that Dad got just a little bit closer to understanding me."
"As if anyone could understand a demented being like you, Todd." Damien shot.