"I'm not leaving, Princess…"

"Stop calling me that."

The ends of Jason's lips lifted and he bent his head, stopping when his lips were an inch from hers. "Make me…" he paused, smirked. "Princess."

There was a snarl and a blur of white and a second later Jason was forcibly pushed away by Krypto, who faced him with his teeth barred and fur standing on end. Raya looked like she had never been happier to see either him or Krypto. Jason, however, was clearly less than pleased. Not that Conner cared.

"So, how many Knights in shining armor do you got protecting you?" he sneered. "And what do you pay to have such a privilege?"

The insinuation in his tone earned a growl from Krypto.

"She doesn't have to pay us to protect her," Conner told him. "We do it because we care about her."

"That so, Super-freak?"

Conner's jaw clenched at the insult it he refrained from beating the creep into a pulp.

"She's a friend, Jason," he gritted. "Friends protect each other. Something," he added with a pointed stare, "you clearly know nothing about."

"A friend?" Jason scoffed. "She's not a friend. She's a nothing. A nobody."

"She's family, Jason," another voice chimed in. "Much as you and I are."

Jason swung his gaze towards the figure perched on the railing, his cape fluttering in the slight breeze, and his bo-staff in one hand.

"I'm surprised the old man's letting you outta the cave after the beating I gave you… Robin."

The last was spoken nastily and carried a slippery undercurrent of promise. Krypto issued a low, warning growl as Raya gasped.

"Kon." Robin glanced at him, a quiet urgency on his face. Conner interpreted the look easily. His bud expected Jason to do something at any moment and was as worried as him that Raya could end up getting injured in the skirmish. "Get her out of here, please."

Conner didn't hesitate, just stepped towards Raya, brushing his fingers against her arm to let her know he was there and waiting for her assent before he touched her. When she turned towards him, reached for him, he curled an arm around her, held her tight.

"Krypto, stay with Robin," he instructed a second before he lifted up into the air. "Make sure nothing happens to him."

...

As soon as Conner and Raya were out of sight, Robin rounded on Jason, his eyes flashing blue fire and his hands clenching into fists that he planted against his hips to keep from pummeling Jason. Oh, it was tempting to wipe that smirk off his face. Physically attacking the older man would only serve to give him the physical release he was after.

That did not mean he was going to let him off the hook. Oh, no, Jason wasn't going to walk away from here without getting a reprimand for what he put through Raya.

"Is it that you could not see what you were doing to her?" he asked the smirking man. "Or is it that you are so far gone that you just don't care about who it is you hurt?"

"Aw," Jason simpered in a tone that grated on Robin's nerves. "Hearing the truth really must have sucked for the pampered princess, huh?"

Krypto growled, long and low in his throat. Jason shot a glare at him but didn't dare make a move against the big white dog. He'd lose a valuable part of his anatomy if he did. Robin took a step towards him but refrained from planting his fist in his stomach. Remain civil for Bruce and Dick, he thought silently. And for Alfred.

"You really don't see that you were torturing a woman for no reason other than so you could feel better about yourself, can you?" He lip curled in disgust. "God, you're more screwed up than we thought."

...

Jason scoffed as he turned away. He didn't need the kid lecturing him about how messed up he was. He already knew how screwed up he was. It wasn't like he was gonna apologize to the woman, anyway. Facts were facts in his mind.

The fabulously wealthy Raya Kean was exactly what he thought she was: a pretty and pampered little kitten entertaining herself between lapses on her social calendar by playing at being a crime fighter. She's no Batgirl. No Black Bat. She's a nothing. A nobody. Don't deserve to wear a mask or parade around this city as one of the old man's helpers.

He sneered over his shoulder, "Exactly what traumas could the princess have suffered, Timbo? What?" His tone was biting. "Her daddy not buy her a new Mercedes for her birthday? Refused to get her a pony when she was a kid? Or did he take away her black AMEX card?"

"How about he murdered her mother right in front of her when she was nine?"

Whatever sarcastic quip Jason had been about to make came out as nothing more than a ffff at Robin's soft proclamation. He half-turned to look back at him, studying that masked face silently and seeing a quiet fury intermixed with a dark sorrow. Shit. That thought was followed instantly by, C'mon, kid, tell me you're joking. Please. The current acting Robin said nothing, though. He just continued staring at Jason as if he had grown horns and a tail.

Jason had the feeling he had.

"You aren't kidding," he stated in a soft voice, "are you?"

"Do you honestly think that I'd lie about something like that, Jason?"

It wasn't a growl. No, Robin just sounded exhausted. The hell of it was that he knew that being a liar — outside of having to lie in order to protect his secret life as a crime fighter — wasn't one of his character traits. If he was saying that the woman had watched her father kill her mother, well, then she saw him do it.

Jason felt the familiar stirrings of sorrow and regret, knew both were fed by the low boiling anger he only barely kept contained at best. However, there was also a new emotion worming its way through him, one he hadn't experienced before and had no way to define. It felt like icy claws were pumping something dark and desperate deep into the chambers of his crippled heart and soul and reanimating them.

Things long buried came roaring to life, flooding him with emotions that had been lying dormant since his resurrection. Guilt settled like a lead ball in the pit of his belly, and shame slapped away the last vestiges of his temper.

Long buried hurts and resentment festered and oozed, reminding him about how he was in her shoes "once upon a time." Jason raked his fingers through his hair as the voices in his head all rose up to shout at him, reviling him for the cruel and vindictive bastard he'd sworn never to become.

"Doesn't feel so good now, does it?" One whispered in his ear. "You made her feel like crap in hopes it would make you feel better. And you just feel worse, don'tcha?"

"Alfred would be disappointed to see how low you've sunk," said another.

"You're just like our pops, Jay. Why don't you just hit her next time? What he would have done."

And the most damning voice of all, the one which sounded like Bruce whenever he was most disappointed in him, demanded, "Why did you attack her?"

He didn't know why. Jason didn't have a logical explanation for why he had gone after Raya in such a vindictive manner. There was no rhyme, no reason, no excuse for his attack upon her. Even the lawless, heartless jades he encountered during his nightly searches of the bowels of Gotham he treated with more respect.

Hell, he showed more kindness to that nutcase, Harley Quinn. Yet, this woman he maliciously and thoughtlessly ripped to pieces. He couldn't understand why he had done it, either. It wasn't like she had done anything more than ask him to get out of her home. Where I knew I didn't belong but broke into, anyway. He turned away so Robin couldn't see the flashes of regret, or the sea of uncertainty now filling him. He should have known better, though. He should have known that turning away would tip him off. The kid was Robin, after all.

And a much better one than I ever was gonna be.

"Jason?"

"Yeah?" he mumbled. "What?"

"Are you... " Robin trailed off for a moment. "Are you okay?"

Dumb question, kid.

There was a wealth of uncertainty in the question. Almost as if the kid expected him to turn around and bust him in the chops. Even the mutt whined plaintively. As if he was offering him words of comfort and support.

Just bite me in the balls already, pup.

It's what he deserved after what he had done.

"Yeah," is what he said out loud, however. "Yeah, I'm okay." I'm only a nasty-tempered jerk who raked a woman over hot coals in order to get a rise outta the old man. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

He jumped over the balcony railing before Robin could say anything else, swinging between lamp poles towards old Gotham. There he could run away from his past rather than stand and face it.

A/N: Hello, everyone! Hope the week has been good to you!

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