A/N: This is the first one-shot collections for this series and will be updated once a week. It details Roy meeting the Bat-kids who joined during the 5 year gap.

This one technically takes place before the epilogue chapter of To Wear A Shadow. If the timeline of the series gets too confusing, please let me know.

Enjoy!

"Hey bro! You should come home this weekend! There's a…surprise I want you to see!"

Roy sighed as he climbed the stairs from the Bat Cave into the Manor; his younger brother's voicemail replaying in his head. "A surprise, hm…" he muttered as he climbed the stairs to his bedroom. "And yet neither he or Bruce is nowhere to be found." Figures. Roy dumped his bag in his bedroom, then left supposing he could look for Dick in the Manor's gym. Just as he turned into the hall though, he stopped.

There was a kid in the hall. A thin boy whose arms were crossed over his chest and his face contorted in a scowl. Roy opened his mouth to say something, but before he could the kid suddenly said, "Who the fuck are you and what the hell are you doing here?"

'Did he just swear at me?!' Roy demanded silently, taken aback for a moment. 'He's what…11?! 12 maybe?!' He finally closed his mouth and swallowed. "I think I should be asking you that…"

The kid seemed to get even angrier. He narrowed his eyes like he was sizing Roy up. "I live here." His tone was challenging; like he was daring Roy to argue with him.

"Well…so do I. Kind of." The kid continued to glare. "Uh…"

"Roy!" Dick yelled down the hall, apparently while also forgetting all of Alfred's rules about running inside. He practically skidded to a halt next to the boy, who he glanced at…nervously? "I see you two have met." Roy gave Dick an 'explain this now!' look. "Roy, this is Jason Todd. We…found him."

"You found him? Where?!"

"…Crime Alley." Roy blinked, his mouth open a little bit and his eyes wide.

This didn't go unnoticed by Jason, who practically bared his teeth. "You got a problem with that?!" the kid demanded, once again looking like he was sizing Roy up.

"Nope."

"Jason," Dick said gently, reaching out to put his arm around the boy. His arm rested across Jason's thin shoulders for only a second before the latter was simultaneously ducking away and shoving Dick. Roy felt something picking at his brain due to Jason's behavior. Dick took it in stride though, still smiling at Jason, who had now stepped two feet away. "This is Roy Harper. I told you about him…remember?"

"Oh yeah…the archer." Jason looked Roy up and down once before turning away and walking down the hall.

"He's probably just going to the library. He likes to hang out there for some reason." Dick turned to Roy, who was staring at him with a mixture of disbelief and shock. "What?"

"What?!" Roy demand. "You called me and told me that you had a surprise for me!"

"…Well you're surprised, aren't you?"

"Dick, a surprise is a new motorcycle or a new weapon! Not a kid you guys just…found! When did this happen anyways!?"

"Like three days ago. We were on patrol and we let the Batmobile in Crime Alley. When we returned we discovered that someone had taken the tires."

"Let me guess…Jason?"

"Yup."

"…He stole the tires…off the Batmobile?!"

"Uh-huh."

"And Bruce just decided…what? To keep him?"

"Pretty much." He could tell how confused Roy still was. "Jason was living on the street, Roy! He was hungry and alone and…I mean we couldn't just not keep him!"

"He's a person, Dick; not a stray cat." Roy sighed a little and rubbed his face. "What's he like?"

"Uh…hard to tell. I think he likes books and…that's it."

"Really?" Given Dick's social prowess, Roy would've figured he'd know everything about Jason by now.

"He's kind of hard to get to know. I mean…he's probably a nice kid once you get to know him, but he's a little rough around the edges."

'That I definitely noticed.' Roy nodded a bit. "How does Alfred feel about all this?"

"Alfie seems to like him."

"And Bruce?"

"Bruce has been really busy at work the last few days. He hasn't been around to you know…get to know Jay."

'Really, Bruce?' Roy thought, shaking his head. 'You take the kid in, then ignore him for three days? Yeah, that's not going to mess with his head at all.' There was a pang of sympathy in his chest for Jason, despite their…rocky meeting. "Good to know."

"Yeah. Come on, let's go downstairs and you can tell about what's been going on in Star. What happened with that smuggling ring you were tracking down?"

"Ugh! It was awful!"

The two of them spent the next few hours down in the Bat Cave with Dick working on his utility belt and Roy talking him about what he'd been up to in Star. Alfred came to retrieve them when it was time for dinner. When they walked into the dining room, Jason was already sitting there, head down. as he passed, Roy could see the book open in the boy's lap.

"No reading at the table, Master Jason," Alfred said. Jason huffed and closed the book, then set it aside on the table.

Roy sat down in his seat, across from Jason and Dick. It was just then he noticed one of the seats was empty. "Where's Bruce?" he asked.

"Master Bruce got held up at the office." Alfred served the three boys their dinners and they lasted into a strange silence. It wasn't tense, but it wasn't comfortable either. Roy watched Jason, paying particular attention to how he seemed to almost wrap an arm defensively around his plate. His eyes kept darting around, from Dick to Roy, then to his plate, then back to Dick.

'He thinks someone's going to take it,' Roy realized after a few minutes; his stomach plummeting a little bit. 'Poor kid.' It almost physically hurt to see the child so tense. Jason finished first, having practically inhaled his meal, but he didn't move from the table. Roy did he best to seem like he wasn't watching the boy, getting quick glances at him every few seconds. Jason was sitting there stiffly, looking at his plate, then occasionally glancing at Dick's plate then Roy. 'Not me,' Roy realized after a few seconds. 'He's looking at the kitchen…' Sympathy stabbed at him again, twisting Roy's stomach bit. Wanting to do something, Roy looked down at his plate, then made a face. "Hm…green beans. I'm not really a fan of them."

"What?" Dick asked, clearly confused, but Roy ignored him.

"Do you want them, Jason?" Both boys looked at him; Dick in confusion and Jason in suspicion. "I mean….on the down low of course. I don't want Alfred to know I'm pawning my vegetables off on you." There was a few sense of tense silence as Jason eyed him. Roy could practically see the wheels turning int he kid's head and had to bite back the need to assure him it wasn't a trap. Knowing that would probably have the opposite effect though, he simply inched his plate closer to Jason. After another second, Jason's thin arm abruptly snaked out, snagged Roy's plate, dumped the remaining vegetables onto his own, then returned the first plate. Dick still looked confused, but Jason was eating the green beans, so Roy shrugged his brother off and finished the rest of his dinner.

Just as they were finishing, they heard the front door open, the close. A minute later, Bruce entered the dining room. "Roy," he said in surprise upon seeing the red-head. "I didn't know you were coming home this weekend."

"Uh-huh," Roy replied, looking at Dick, who was suddenly very interested in his dinner plate. "There's a lot of surprises around here lately."

"Yeah… Hi Dick…Jason…"

"Hi," Jason mumbled under his breath.

"Hey B," Dick replied. "How was your day?"

"Fine. Uh…Roy, since you're here, are you joining us on patrol?"

"Sure," Roy shrugged.

Dick grinned at him, across the table. "Yes!" he cheered. "Wait until you see my new belt in action! It's fantastic!"

"I'm sure." Roy glanced at Jason who was slipping from the room. He opened his mouth, then closed it. 'Not too fast,' he reminded himself silently. 'You don't want to scare him off.'

Bruce caught Roy's eye watching Jason leave and the two of them shared a moment of awkward eye contact. "I was going to tell you," Bruce said after a moment. "…Eventually."

"Sure."

"I wasn't trying to hide it from you-"

"I know." And he did. Roy didn't believe Bruce was purposefully trying to hide Jason's presence, he was just being….himself. 'I think he's trying. At least…I hope he is.'

— —

After a successful patrol, Roy was changing in his room when he decided to stay up for a bit and read. Unfortunately, any books from his room he'd have interest in reading were at his apartment in Star. 'Well…the library it is.' He walked as silently as possible, not wanting to disturb anyone who'd already gone to sleep. 'Probably most people. Even Alfred's gone to bed by now.' Which is why he was so surprised when he walked into the library and found Jason curled up in an armchair. The boy's head snapped up and his eyes narrowed when he saw Roy.

"I'm allowed to be here," he said defensively before Roy could say anything at all.

"Ok. That's fine," Roy replied. "I was just…looking for something to read." As he slowly approached, Roy could see the title of the book in the child's lap. "Peter Pan? I've never read it. Is it good?"

"It's ok…"

"That's good." Roy sat down in another armchair that was close to Jason's and was quiet for a moment. Then, he quietly said, "…I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

"…What?!" Instead of answering, Roy held out his hand, showing his left palm to Jason. The boy stared at it, his eyes slowly growing wider as he recognized a burn scar. "How…. Did-did Bruce do that?"

"No! No, Bruce didn't do that. This…this was because of someone else. Someone that Bruce rescued me from."

"Oh…" Jason didn't say anything else, but he did look a little less tense. Not knowing what to say next, Roy slowly took his shirt off and turned awkwardly in his chair so Jason could see his back. "Holy shit…." After a minute, Roy put his shirt back on and sat back in his seat. Jason looked down, then slowly pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. He held out his thin arm, showing Roy the small, dark circles on the underside of his arm. Roy cringed a little. "There was this guy… He was always hanging around my alley and he didn't like me very much. Every time he caught me he'd beat me and put his cigarettes out on me."

"That's awful…" Roy looked up from the boy's arm and discovered Jason was staring at him intently. "My….guardian, before Bruce, he had refused to feed me and I was really hungry because I'd only been allowed to eat breakfast that morning. So I tried to sneak some food and he caught me So he….put my hand on a hot burner on the stove."

"Ouch. And…you back?"

"…That happened more than once. Usually, whenever he thought I was talking back or being disrespectful, he would whip me with his belt."

"There was this guy, we called him Sal, he would show up near Crime Alley sometimes…he would keep telling me that "brats should be taught a lesson" when I told him to keep his paws off my food. So he always slapped me in the mouth, or give me a quick beating."

"I hated beatings. Like…getting punched or slapped, that wasn't a beating. Beatings involved kicking, strangling, punching, and insults. Lots of threats and insults."

"Anyone ever call you a gutter rat? Or a useless leach on society who will never achieve anything?"

"More like an ungrateful bastard and stupid."

"Going to end up dead in a gutter somewhere."

"A waste of space."

"Poor excuse for a person."

"Worthless."

"Dirty."

"Only good for vigilantism."

"Not good for anything at all." Their voices had slowly started to pick up some weight and volume like they were trying to one-up each other. After Jason's last confession though, there was a small moment of silence. "Why-why did you end up here? Dick mentioned no one knows you lived here."

"My guardian was a vigilante and he…manipulated me and forced me to become one too. He wasn't like Batman and he killed criminals. I-I didn't like that and I didn't want to kill people. Bruce…that's how Bruce knew about me. He was keeping an eye on my guardian and realized what was happening. I ran away with Robin in the middle of the night so no one could know I was here, or-"

"You could get sent back. But…you're still a vigilante…? Even after the other guy…beat the shit out of you and tricked you?"

"Yeah."

"No offense, but that sounds really fucking insane."

"I know, but…I just couldn't stop. I became a vigilante because I wanted to help people. I wanted to do something good in the memory of someone who I'd lost. Even though I'd been hurt and I was originally tricked into doing it…I really wanted help. I just knew that I could do a lot of good as a vigilante."

"…I guess that makes sense…" Roy nodded, happy that Jason understood at least a little bit. "So…you live in Star City, right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"What's it like?"

"Kind of like Gotham, but brighter. More lights and fewer gargoyles."

"Oh. Cool…" Jason looked down at the book.

"Do you like reading?"

"…Yeah."

"Well, there's plenty to read in here."

"I guess…"

"You guess?"

"It's not like I can read all of them. Some of these books look really…nice; like no one's ever read them before. I'd probably just mess them up by touching them."

"Hmmm…. Do you have any books of your own?"

"No."

"Bruce hasn't gotten you any yet?"

"I've talked to him like….four times since he brought me here."

'Great work, Bruce,' Roy thought, trying not to sigh in irritation. 'That definitely won't make the kid feel isolated and unwanted by not talking to him.' He never claimed Bruce was perfect at this. "You know, there's a used bookstore a few blocks from my apartment in Star. Maybe once you get settled here, you could come to Star and we could go get you some books."

Jason snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Sure."

"I'm serious."

"Do I look like an idiot to you?"

'Actions will be louder than words,' Roy reminded himself. "Well, I will. Then you can have some of your own to keep in your room."

"…That'd be cool. I guess."

"Good."

"Are you- Going back tomorrow?" There was a hint of fear and hope in his voice; like he was hoping Roy wasn't leaving.

"I was planning on it- He paused when he saw Jason's face fall, then his head turned away; clearly hoping Roy wouldn't notice. "…but I think I'll stay for the weekend."

"Really?"

"Yeah. If that's ok with you. This is your home too now, and I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

"You can stay…you know…since it's your home. Kind of."

"Thanks. You're alright, Jason. You're a good kid." Jason stiffened a little bit, but he didn't say anything. It was only a little bit of a change, but it was something, so Roy was willing to take it. "We should probably go to bed. Alfred's kind of strict about bedtimes around here."

"Yeah…I've noticed." Roy stood up and waited for Jason to do the same. The boy set his book down but didn't move toward the door. Unfazed though, Roy left the library first, figuring that it would make Jason more comfortable to follow him. The boy was quiet as they climbed the stairs to the wing of the mansion where the bedrooms were. When they stopped outside their bedrooms, Roy turned to Jason, expecting the boy to escape into his own bedroom quickly. Instead, Jason was hesitating; standing there with his arms crossed and shifting from one foot to the other.

"Everything ok?" Roy asked him.

"Yeah…" Instead of accepting that, Roy stood patiently, waiting for Jason to continue. "My room is just…empty."

"Empty?"

"Yeah. It's big and empty and you know….lots of shadows where people could hide." He left out the intimidation the blank walls gave him and how nervous he felt sleeping in a room that didn't feel like it was anyone's. Luckily for him, Roy understood more than he knew.

"Where've you been sleeping?'

"…In your bedroom…"

"Mine? Why?"

Jason hesitated. "…There's stuff. It looks like someone lives there."

"And you've been doing this the whole time?"

"Mhm. I sneak over there after everyone goes to bed, then wake up early and sneak up to mine before they get up."

'…That can't be good for the poor kid getting a good night's sleep.'

"But…you know, you probably don't want me in there so I'll just suck it up."

Not willing to take that, Roy opened his bedroom door, then stepped aside. "Come on," he said, gesturing. "You can sleep in here."

"…With you?"

"If you're comfortable with that."

Jason considered it for a moment. "Sure. You're…not a total freak."

"…Thanks?" Jason entered the bedroom and Roy shut the door. "I can sleep on the floor and give you the bed-"

"No!" Roy looked at him in confusion. "I can't just kick you out of your bed!"

"Why not?"

"…You're Bruce's son. He'd probably get really pissed at me for kicking you out of your own bed."

"No, Jason, believe me, he won't do that. I know, I've been there, but he won't." Jason stood still arms crossed and head down. "Ok….we can….hang on a sec." Roy disappeared from the room, quickly finding the closest linen closet and pulling down all the extra blankets and pillows he could carry. When he got back to his room, he was relieved to see Jason was still in his room. Without explaining anything, Roy started folding the blankets vertically, then laid them down on the bed. He piled them on top of each other, then piled the pillows on top as well. When he was finished, there was a wall of linens dividing the bed into two equal spaces. "There, look. I can sleep on one side and you can sleep on the other. We don't even have to touch." He studied Jason's face as the boy studied the bed. 'He's so closed off,' Roy noted, taking in the neutral, almost angry look and tense body language. 'I wish I could tell what he's thinking.'

"…It's alright…"

"Just alright?"

Jason shrugged. "You know. I guess. A bed is a bed, you know."

"Yeah. I do. Come on, let's get some sleep." Roy went for the side farther from the door, leaving the side closest to the exit for Jason. If the boy noticed the intention, he didn't mention it; but Roy didn't mind. He snuggled under a blanket he'd placed on his side of the bed. For a few minutes, there was a tense silence. He looked at Jason and saw the boy was laying there very tensely. "Is this ok, Jason? If it's not it's fine. I can go to Dick's room-"

"No, it's fine." He turned his head and Roy was slightly taken aback by the lack of a glare on his face. "…Thanks."

"You're welcome, kid."

"Why though? What do you want?"

"Nothing, Jason. You're my brother now, like Dick, and I take care of my brothers. That's what we do around here."

"…Dick is way too friendly. It's the opposite of Bruce."

"I hate to break it to you, but overly friendly is Dick's only way to get to know you. I know it can be overwhelming though, so if you just explain to him— with words— that it makes you uncomfortable he'll back off a bit."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. He's a great brother too. Just let him grow on you a bit."

"Bruce doesn't ignore him."

"Bruce… he tries." Jason snorted. "I'm serious. He's not great at this."

"This?"

"Kids. Kids who don't trust adults. He's made mistake with me, some of them serious, but I've always forgiven him because I know he cares. Trust me, you wouldn't here if he didn't care. Give him some time to figure out how to approach you."

"Dick said it's because I'm so unapproachable."

Roy wanted to groan. 'Really Dick? Don't force the poor kid to open up if he's not ready.' These people, really. "Don't listen to that. You're still new here and not trusting people is a valid worry, as long as you try eventually."

"How long is eventually?"

"Give it a month."

"Ok, but only if you take me to that bookstore."

Roy smiled. "You got yourself a deal, kid."

"Good." They lapsed back into silence. Roy's eyelids were starting to get heavy and he yawned. Looking at Jason again, he discovered the boy was now fast asleep. Roy smiled to himself as he slugged down into his blanket.

— —

Some time in the middle of the night, Roy woke up due to feeling unbearably hot. He frowned and looked around in confusion. When he looked down at himself though, he had to smile. The wall he'd constructed in the bed had basically been demolished, with blankets and pillows scattered about. Jason had migrated to Roy's side of the bed so that his side was now pressed against Roy's. 'He gives off a lot of heat of such a small kid.' It wasn't like how Dick cuddled with Roy— latching onto him like a koala bear— but it was still endearing to him. He smiled and gently readjusted himself, then closed his eyes. He turned his head a bit so it was resting on Jason's.

'I'm so glad you stole the tires off the Batmobile.'