"Here's to another bloody year," Jason raised his wine glass to the dark sky. It was cold on the rooftop of the manor, Jason's tux jacket was not nearly warm enough to block out the cold but he had already climbed up two stories so he convinced himself that he didn't need a blanket.
"You're not British Jason please shut up," Tim was holding a glass as well and Jason glanced at his three other brothers and his sisters who were sitting next to him.
"How is it that there's the biggest party in Gotham going on downstairs and were sitting on the roof of the manor with each other?" Dick downed his glass and set it down on the roof.
"Parties big, loud. Bats and birds, quiet," Cass explained.
Schhhhhhhh. Jason glanced at Dick's glass, which was sliding off the roof as they spoke.
"You gonna get that?" Damian asked.
"Let's see how far it goes," Dick mumbled. Jason sighed. Dick got drunk on two occasions, his birthday and New Years Eve. Jason hadn't been counting but based on the relaxed set of his shoulders and the Christmas song he was mumbling Jason was going to go with 3 or 4 glasses of the Wayne's expensive wine.
All 6 of the batkids watched as Dick's glass slid off the roof and listened for the crash when it hit the ground.
"Hm, shit. I hope Alfred doesn't make me clean that."
"I hope you don't make Alfred clean it."
"You're right Tim. Jason, go clean up my glass," Dick stood up and immediately needed to regain his balance on the roof. Damian was up in a half a second to make sure his older brother wouldn't end up the same way his glass had.
"Hey!" Everyone turned as Steph shouted and pointed up at the sky, shooting stars. Two or three actually. Jason assumed that this event probably had some scientific name, but didn't really care much.
"I wish that Bruce would let me add light up sketchers to my Nightwing uniform," Dick raised his arms to the sky.
"Well since you said it aloud its not going to happen," Only Jason heard the 'Thank god' under Tim's breath.
"Hey Jaybird, this isn't even the first shooting star we've seen on this roof," Dick tried to grab Tim's glass but the younger kept it far away from his reach. But Dick was right, about 5 or so years ago it had just been Dick him, Tim and Steph. The numbers kept getting larger by the year. But Dick was talking about 15 years ago when it was just them two. Dick was rarely at the manor and when he was it was chaos between Bruce and him. Once and awhile Dick would actually make time for him, and that usually was only New Years, when Dick had first found Jason hiding in his usual hiding spot. That was the start of the tradition he supposed. The duo would greet their guests and as soon as they had an opening, off to the roof to get away. The first time it happened, their had been shooting stars, and now, the same event but with a bigger family.
He had talked to Dick about doing an initiation when Cass joined. She hated parties. To many people and back then her English was even worse. Sooner than Jason's usual time he had offered her an escape and she agreed hastily. She hadn't complained about scaling the Manor walls in heels (which Jason found incredibly impressive) and he had rather enjoyed the silence that came with Cass, which lasted until drunk Dick nearly fell off the third story trying to scale the wall.
Stephanie and Tim had actually been "initiated" together. Tim had just taken up the mantle of Robin, and although Jason despised him, Stephanie was really cool, and she could speak fluent English. Dick said if they were going to bring Stephanie, they had to bring Tim. Jason remembered snickering as Stephanie scaled the wall (in heels no less) with much more ease than Tim. He remembered for once not hating the new kid and remembered giving the 13 year old his first taste of alcohol. Tim absolutely hated how it tasted but through some influencing on Steph's part he took a few more small sips. He remembered how Cass and Stephanie finally got their girl bonding time as Cass had been undercover for months and the girls had not officially met.
He remembered the years that some of the family wasn't there too. He remembered his shaking hands as he climbed up the wall without Cass. She had been gone for weeks but Bruce needed to keep up appearances and threw a party anyways. He remembered Dick not being their one-year and although he wasn't scared for him he hated being the big brother suddenly. He recalled Tim going out on patrol alone for the first time and how Jason had constantly checked his phone for messages even though he knew he wouldn't get any.
Soon enough everything went back to their usual group and for a year or two Jason actually looked forward to New Years Eve. He didn't have to make up some lame excuse to see everyone (as Alfred used harsh threats to make sure everyone attended) and he wouldn't be wondering about their safety like he would if they were on the job.
Then the brat came along. Oh god that was a rough night. Jason laughed to himself as he thought about Damian's suspecting expressions as Tim and him explained the roof meetings. The kid had tried to go straight to Bruce, probably to ask if this was true, but as far as they knew Bruce didn't suspect them, and they had liked it that way. Before Damian could reach Bruce, Cass and Dick came around him and grabbed him, Cass's hand covering his mouth. They pulled him into the corner where Tim and Jason had been standing.
"What are you idiots doing? You're not siding with them are you Grayson? I simply wanted to make sure that Drake and Todd weren't going to kidnap me," Cass was suppressing giggles.
"No D, not at all, look every year we go up on the roof during the party. They weren't lying to you, they were trying to be nice," Dick explained. The slightly confused expression left a little hole in Jason's heart. Damian wasn't used to people being nice to him. Nice is always a lie, always a cover. He truly believed that he was going to be tested or betrayed.
"Why do you go on the roof?"
"Uh, you know Babybird, I'm not so sure why," Jason answered as he opened up the window and swung his legs over the side. He always went first, then Tim and Steph then Cass, the newbie, and then Dick. Jason scanned the area; you never know what could happen. And wasn't surprised when he didn't hear or see anything.
It had been about an hour when Jason heard the first gunshot. The second sound he heard was Tim gasp and then a groan from pain.
"Shit," Dick and Jason scrambled over to Tim and carried him to other side of the roof while the others followed with their heads down.
"How ya feeling Timmy," Jason exhaled already seeing blood soak through the shirt near his stomach.
"Ah, fuck you Jason," Tim clenched his teeth as Dick removed his own jacket and pressed down on the open wound.
"Cass I need you to get Bruce or Alfred," Jason ordered. They had to be quick about this, Tim needed medical help and there were tons of guests downstairs who needed to be evacuated. He watched as the girl swung down from the roof and jumped through a window. "Damian, Steph you two need to get out of here."
"We can't just leave you guys!" Stephanie argued but was cut short by the sound of more gunshots and shouts from downstairs.
"We are under fire Brown I believe our services would be more helpful in the main hall," Damian said before he followed Cass through the window. Stephanie took one last look at Tim before jumping as well.
"How's he looking Dick," Jason was scanning for any more weapons pointed in his direction.
"Definitely a lot of blood loss, not to mention damage of internal organs but if we get him to Alfred soon enough I'll think he will be fine," Tim was breathing rather heavily and coughed as Dick spoke.
"How do we get him downstairs though? He can't climb-"
"I-I can climb to the first window and you guys can help me the rest of the way," Tim sat up.
Jason frowned, Tim could easily lose his footing and fall or even manage to worsen the current wound, but at the moment he saw no other way to get Tim downstairs.
Dick went first and was halfway out the window so that he could hopefully catch Tim; Jason was there to watch him from above. He was only able to breath once he saw Tim's head safely through the window before he jumped through himself.
The party had become chaos as six men stood in a circle firing at anything that moved. Finally people stopped moving when one of the men shouted.
"Where is Bruce Wayne?" the man shouted again and stepped forward. Distracted by the men in the center neither Dick nor Jason saw the man behind them and he was caught by surprise as he hit Dick upside the head and grabbed Jason. Another one of the intruders came up and grabbed Tim and managed to drag Dick behind him as they made their way to the center of the room. Jason fought against the man holding him and really should have one, this guy was puny, however, his biceps were not and they held Jason in place.
"I suppose if the millionaire himself wont show, his children will do just fine. How many orphans equals one Bruce Wayne?" The man laughed to himself and Jason saw Cass dart across the hallway out of the corner of his eye. Well at least one of them had made it out. With no sign of Stephanie or Damian Jason had to assume the worst, which meant he would need to find his own way out and hopefully get Tim and Dick out as well.
"We'll give you three seconds to show yourself Wayne," the man pointed the gun at Tim's head, "One."
Before the man could fire one of the pieces of cake Bruce had been serving flew across the room and smacked the man in the face. Jason heard laughter belonging to Stephanie, okay, food fight it is.
Jason used the distraction to run over to one of tables and grabbed several different dips and spoon. He began flinging the dip at any one who came near; being Red Hood he had perfect aim.
But Dick and Tim were still down. Jason ran up to one of the staircases and jumped onto the side of it and began climbing upwards. Once out of reach he aimed for Dick instead of the men.
He hit Dick square in the face, "First try," and watched as Dick stirred awake.
His brother's tongue darted out to lick what had landed on his face.
"Hummus?"
"Who cares! Grab some food and throw!" Stephanie launched herself out from her hiding place to assist Jason with more pieces of cake.
"You know we can't beat armed men with cake and hummus right?" Stephanie said as she struck a man in the face.
Jason did in fact know this and was currently trying to figure out a plan. One of the men had recovered quicker than the others and charged Jason. He dropped his only weapon and hit the man hard in the face and he crumpled to the floor.
"You also realize we're not supposed to reveal ourselves right?"
"I figured punches can't be that revealing, I mean we're both from the bad parts of Gotham, shouldn't we know how to fight at least?" Jason allowed another man to charge him before knocking him out as well. He glanced and saw that Stephanie as well had knocked her opponent unconscious. One of the men caught Jason off guard for a moment and he ended up grappling with him. He kicked the man in the stomach but not before another had charged him from behind. Suddenly Damian jumped down from the floor above them and landed on the man.
"You're welcome Todd," Damian checked to make sure the man was unconscious. "Sorry to take so long, I had to locate Pennyworth," Tim. Jason had momentarily forgotten about his younger brother and saw Alfred across the room trying to make his way through the people.
"Any sign of Bruce?" Damian shook his head. Jason sighed and ran up to Tim, he picked him up and met Alfred half way. With no explanation he dropped Tim at Alfred's feet and ran back to rejoin the fight.
Only the fight was over. The apparent eight men who had attacked them were all unconscious. Cass and Steph were busy picking up all the weapons while Damian and Dick tied off the intruders. Clapping began amongst the crowd of invitees and Dick was vain enough to turn around and bow…
"Jason!"
Jason blinked as the memory faded. He was back on the roof with everyone okay and Dick trying to convince Damian to waltz with him. Tim was waving a hand in front of him and Jason swatted it away.
"Thirty seconds till midnight," Stephanie stated.
Dick gave up on getting Damian to dance with him and instead formed a circle with everyone. Jason had Stephanie and Tim standing next to him and Steph began to count down on her watch.
"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2…1. Happy New year."
"You lack so much enthusiasm Steph!" Dick punched her lightly. "Your supposed to say it like this," Dick ran to the edge of the manor roof facing the street and cupped his hands around his mouth, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
Seconds after that fireworks went off near Gotham's downtown area, really only visible if you were on top of the building, Dick turned around clearing proud of drunk self.
Happy New Year. Jason thought with a sigh, and may our hangovers be less painful in 2016.