You come on with a come on, you don't fight fair, but that's okay, see if I care
"The was a cheap shot, Jason." Bruce snarled at the sheepish grin the young boy in front of him was sporting as he wiped the blood from the corner of his lip. His ocean blue eyes narrowed into a glare, staring at the wide eyes of the younger child who gave a peace sign and stuck out his tongue.
"You said if I get you down then I get to go on patrol with you." Jason's sang in a mocking tone, "you never said what was off limits " He cracked his knuckles, hoping to look half as intimidating as when Bruce does it, "not my fault you never specified"
Bruce glare soften, replacing with a smirk as he patted Jason's hair, "You know, you're kind of adorable when you try to be like me."
Jason scowled and crossed his arm pouting, shaking his head away from Bruce's fingers. "I'm not cute Bruce! I'm tough and fearless!"
"With your tooth missing?"
Couple nights ago Jason had lost a baby tooth while eating a slice of watermelon. Of course, He didn't believe in the tooth fairy and said it was for children. Alfred, however, convinced him to place it under the pillow and sure enough, tomorrow there was a nice fifty dollar bill folded up all pretty and tight.
"Hey! That's not fair I'm only eleven…"
Jason wrinkled his nose, huffing at Bruce, causing his mentor to laugh.
"How about we spar again? And this time no cheap shots alright?"
Jason quickly lost his dismay, and instead perked up into a smirk, "Alright!" He jumped away from Bruce, getting into a stance that Bruce taught him, "but when I kick your butt you can't claim that it was because I cheated! You old man."
"Hit me with your best shot, kiddo".
"Cause you're coming down hard and your joints are all stuck, I tried to say that's not the only way"
"Tell me Bird-Boy, I've asked this question to many abused victims but all of them seem to be afraid of me." He paused to make a dramatic pose of placing his hand on his chest, "I mean can you imagine someone afraid of me?" He shook his head and sighed, looking up to the boy with a sick, twisted smile and a compensating tone, "but since you have quite a big mouth on you I'm sure you'll answer me."
Yellow teeth and green hair, white claws and bad breath gripped onto black hair to haul him up and hold him in the air. Yellow teeth stretched into a grin, and red eyes widen into balls, his free hand held a crowbar already with blood splattered and the boy had tethered clothing and a couple of broken bones already. His Robin uniform was torn, one eye was pulsed black, his jaw was slightly out of place, and his arms were broken in odd places.
Yellow, black, green, and blue covered the flesh parts, and blood covered him completely. It painful, but the boy, Jason, never cried. He didn't cry when his mother left him for the Joker, and he won't cry being beaten by the Joker. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"Does a forehand hurt more."
The Joker struck his crowbar against Jason's shoulders, sending him to the ground with a grunt.
"Or does a backhand?" With Joker's hand behind him, he brought it down onto Jason's cheek, causing the boy to roll over and spit out blood. Jason groaned.
"Why are you smiling?"
Joker kicked Jason, rolling him onto his back. Joker stepped onto Jason's stomach to get to the other end of the room. The short seconds allowed Jason some recover time. Broken, bloodied, bruised, stepped, and cut all over. He was on the verge of death.
Even if Batman were to come to save him it wouldn't be enough to save Jason.
You can heal his bones but not a psyche.
"Now I would love to continue to play with you Robin, but I have other business to attend to I'm sure you can understand, after all, you are a boy of business."
Joker laughed, setting down a timer and flicking it on. "Have fun, I'm sure Daddy-Bats will have a surprise waiting for him when he gets here. Ha Ha Ha Ha".
With the last laugh, Joker left, locking the door behind him. Leaving Jason and the timer completely alone, he even took the crowbar with him. The bomb started ticking from thirty. Thirty seconds for Jason to be saved, but Jason knew Batman wouldn't get in there in time. Instead, Jason opts to close his eyes and hoped he would die before the explosion would tear him into parts.
He dreamed about his earlier days, he dreamed about the first time he had a home cooked meal, the first time Bruce cuddled him after a nightmare, the first time he was Robin, and the first time he saved a child from a homicidal maniac. He thought about anything other than the time, and Bat an.
ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, on-
Jason smirked.
"Looks like you're too late this time, Bruce"
"Promise me, when you see, a white rose you'll think of me I love you so. Never let go. I will be your ghost of a rose."
The Wayne Manor was not supposed to be a graveyard. Yet here she was, holding Bruce's young hamster, and his parents. Thomas and Martha Wayne. Alfred knew that the grounds of the Wayne Manor was not new to having bodies being buried six feet under, he knew of death and of sadness.
The Wayne Manor then turned into a mourning place for it also held the bodies of John Grayson and Mary Grayson. The parents of another eight-year-old who had lost his parents in a Circus murder.
People do not go to the Wayne Manor to heal. It was not for healing, but for mourning.
And that is what was happening right now. Another coffin, another body, but one of a child was being placed next to the parents of Bruce Wayne and in between the parents of Richard Grayson.
Alfred knew of adults dying and leaving behind their children, but it was never supposed to be a child dying— leaving behind a grieving, mourning parent.
Richard, Wally, Alfred, Bruce, Clark, Diana, Barry, and Barbara were around his grave. Watching his coffin lowered down into the Earth. The Earth that belonged to Wayne Manor. Alfred watches Clark and Diana comfort Bruce, and watch Bruce shove them away. Alfred watches Wally rub Richard's back as he cried onto Barbara's shoulder. He watched Barry pull Bruce into a hug, despite Bruce going limp. Alfred also heard the sobs of a finally broken father muttering "notagainnotagainnotagain" as the soil covered the coffin finally becoming a reality.
Bruce was broken. Richard was heartbroken; and, Alfred could only make his chocolate chip cookies and coffee in hopes to heal.
No, the Wayne Manor is not meant to heal. Not to heal the child of the street. It was meant to mourn. The mourning of the children, and the mourning of the parents. Bruce had taken off duty, Richard and Barbara stayed at the Manor with Bruce. For weeks they were in hiding, only speaking to their friends here and there, but mostly they spent in Bruce's room, grieving as a family.
But as with every mourning, there must be a light. A mission brought the family out of hiding, and a brand of time struck a lightning cord into the Earth of a child buried six feet under and brought the child back to life.
The child woke up in his own coffin, his own death.
He remembered being blown apart, he remembered thinking the last thing was Batman, and he woke up in an enclosed area, a box. He was under ground and he was scared.
He started hitting against the wood, smacking it and tearing at it. He needed out, he needed to find Bruce. He felt his fingers tear as wood chipped underneath his nails, and dirt piling onto him as he broke from the confinements and dug his way from his own grave. He was free, he was Jason Todd, but he was alone.
He was a boy. He wanted Bruce. He wanted his brother. He wanted his father.
"Hush, child."
Jason snapped to attention. A woman, tall, Arabian, sleek brown hair reached her hand out to him and pulled him to her.
She lightly brushed his hair with her fingers, swaying the dirty away and making sure it wouldn't get onto his eyes.
She held him carefully, but close, not wanting to break him. She had witnessed it all from start to end, and she would be the one who would piece this young scared soul back together, if only better. She would train him, and heal him, and fix him.
Then send him back to Bruce.
"Can't you help me as I'm starting' to burn all alone, too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction."
Jason Todd.
Jason Mother-Fucking Todd.
A kid born into a family where the father teaches the son on how to escape a hit and run; and, where the mother cared more about her needles than her son.
Jason Todd a kid who turned into life on the streets, and was picked up by Batman thrown into a rich family like some poverty Todd a kid on the streets turned into a defender of Justice as Robin, the second boy wonder.
Jason Todd a boy who died because he cared for the family a little bit too much and was brought back to heal the wounds of a broken father. Jason Todd, a person who died as a kid but was brought back as a man who went from Robin the Boy Wonder to Red Hood, a defender with a killer's Todd operating now as Red Hood chuckled as he sent bullets to a male's chest, flinging him off his friend.
"Roy if I didn't know you any better, I would assume you get into fights on purpose"
"H-hey! Watch it! It could have hit me!" Roy shouted.
Jason Todd was once again saving Roy Harpers, a friend he had picked up earlier in his second life from a few angry terrorists that were out for his head.
"I'm kind of jealous of you, Harper," Jason told Roy as he slammed the blunt end of his gun into a guy's neck.
"Oh?" Roy kicked a few other assaults, "Why is that?"
"Because it seems like you managed to get a pretty hefty price in Asia, not even I have a price on my head"
"Oh come on Jay, don't tell me you don't enjoy the action."Roy rolled his eyes, bringing his boot down onto the guy's chest
"Please, only an idiot like you could get himself on the mercenary list of just about every country in the world, dumbass."
Jason shot the rest of the attackers, effectively killing them.
"An idiot that gives you all the fun that Bat's could never give you."
"Hey hey" Jason wagged his finger at Roy, "You don't get to bring him up like that, got it?"
Roy rolled his eyes, not feeling the tiniest bit threatened and pulled one of his arrows out from the bodies he had shot it too.
Cleaning the blood off with someone's shirt, and putting it back into its proper place. "Kori is still off with the Teen Titans, let's say we hit the showers and have pizza?"
Jason shrugged, cleaning off his guns and followed Roy out the bar.
"Anything for you Harper." He swung an arm over Roy's shoulder, sending a kiss to the red-heads cheek.
"You maybe a dumbass, but you're my dumbass."