This was the last place Jason wanted to be right now: stuck in an enclosed space with Dickhead Grayson, and unable to leave because of the most affective form of imprisonment — guilt.

Damian might be seriously injured. Maybe he had brain damage. And Jason couldn't help but feel like it was all his fault. Sure, Dick played a huge part. A huge part. But…well, Jason hadn't exactly been nice to the kid, and even though he was probably the spawn of Satan, he was still just a baby.

Dick had called Leslie, and had somehow managed to blubber out a story that was plausible enough to convince her to make a home visit. Or, a more likely scenario, Dick's hysteria had made her realise that something was very wrong.

Either way, she'd shown up shortly after the phone call, taken one look at the situation — Damian yelling, Dick holding Damian and yelling, and Jason pacing and yelling — and had demanded to know what was going on.

A few moments later (after listening to a series of cries of, "it was his fault" "brat hit his head — " "Jason was supposed to be —" "He's Dick's love child!" — she'd snapped out a harsh "Never-mind," and had taken Damian from Dick.

She'd set him on the sofa and sat down beside him, while Dick and Jason hung awkwardly behind her. After managing to get them to answer her questions — how old was Damian, what had happened, where was he hurt — she'd told them to wait outside until she'd finished. Jason had briefly considered arguing, because wouldn't Damian feel more comfortable with one of them around? But Leslie had had an almost dangerous glint in her eyes, and he hadn't wanted to push his luck. Besides, Damian was a baby demon so he could probably take care of himself.

And that's how he'd found himself sitting outside the room and waiting for Leslie to finish up. Dick sat beside him, looking as nervous as he felt. Jason tried to ignore him. They should be focusing on Damian right now, not on how much they hated each other. It was kind of their fault that Damian was broken, so they owed the kid that much at least.

It would have been a lot easier if Dick didn't keep shooting him these looks.

After about the fifth one, Jason finally snapped.

"Okay, what the hell? If you have a problem with me, just say it!"

Dick sighed. "I didn't say anything, Jason."

"You keep looking at me. And come on, don't pretend you don't have a problem with me, what with all that stuff you were saying before." He remembered Dick saying that Robin wasn't Bruce's to give away, and his fists clenched. What the hell was Dick's problem? So he could fuck off and do whatever he wanted, but Bruce wasn't allowed to find a new partner because he said so?

"I don't want to argue with you right now."

Jason's eyes narrowed. Tough luck. Dick had avoided this for too long, and Jason wasn't going to let him go on treating him like shit for no reason. If Dick wanted to be an asshole, then Jason wanted to know why. "You've hated me from day one because Bruce made me Robin! Just admit it!"

Dick sat up, his jaw clenched and his eyes flashing dangerously. Apparently his mediocre attempt at acting civil was over. "Fine," he said, "you want to know why? I'll tell you. Robin was mine! Bruce had no right to — goddammit, my parents gave me that name! And — and those colours — those were our colours, he had no right to just — "

"Wait, what?" Jason froze and his eyes widened. He…hadn't been expecting that. What the hell? What did Dick mean…?

The realisation hit him and he felt his cheeks grow hot in embarrassment. There was no way…

Shit. Bruce, what the hell?!

"The costume," he said slowly, "and the name…your parents gave them to you?"

For a long while Dick didn't say anything. Jason watched as a series of emotions passed over his face. He expected Dick to snap at him or say something insulting. That was pretty much how their relationship went.

Instead, Dick's shoulders slumped, and the anger seemed to drain out of him. "They used to call me Robin," he said, sounding more tired than anything. "It was — a nickname, I guess. And those colours, they were ours. We used to wear them for our performances."

"Oh." Jason stared intently at his lap. Shit, shit. He'd had no idea. Bruce had never told him. If he'd known — well shit. Jason wouldn't have just accepted it like that. He would have spoken to Dick first or something.

"I didn't know," he said. "I thought it was something Bruce had just come up with or — I dunno, something. I didn't know it was — " Yours.

Jason had known that Dick had been Robin. But he hadn't known Robin had belonged to him. To him, it had always been something that Bruce had had the last say over. If Dick wasn't happy with him as Robin, then tough luck — Bruce was Batman and Robin was Batman's partner, and that meant that Batman could decide who did or didn't run around in that weird little costume.

This changed everything. Bruce should never have just given him that name and that uniform if he'd known what it meant to Dick. Jason had alway felt like he could never measure up to Dick, and right now he felt more out of place than ever.

"Ah, it's okay," Dick said, his voice uncertain. And holy shit, that was weird. Dick usually didn't sound anything other than mocking, sarcastic, angry or bored when he spoke to Jason. "It's…" He hesitated. "It's not really your fault I guess. Bruce just — I was barely even gone and he just replaced me. But that's between me and him I guess, I shouldn't — yeah." He shrugged weakly and averted his gaze, and Jason realised that Dick had no idea what to say.

It was so ridiculous. This was Dick Grayson, the golden boy, the perfect son. "That's so stupid," he said. Dick's head snapped up, and the uncertainty was replaced by annoyance. Well, it'd been kind of nice while it lasted. "You're obviously Bruce's favourite. I might be Robin now, but I'll never be you."

Dick snorted. "Are you kidding me? You're the kid he always wanted."

Jason shot Dick and incredulous look. "What are you talking about?" Was Dick that stupid? Obviously he was Bruce's favourite. It wasn't even a contest. It hurt Jason to admit, because Bruce was the first and only dad he'd ever had, but he'd always come second. Dick had been here first, both in Bruce Wayne's life and in Batman's, and no matter how much time Jason shared with Bruce, Dick would always have more.

It wasn't fair. Dick didn't even seem to appreciate what he had. He was never here, and when he was he was always fighting with Bruce. He didn't even have to try. Jason always had to do his best, so that Bruce would really see him as a son and not just some brat he'd picked up from the street.

It wasn't fair.

"He adopted you."

Jason snorted. "Wait, that's your evidence that he loves me more than he loves you? So what, he adopted you too."

Dick glanced away.

"Wait, what?"

"I was his ward for a while and — it doesn't matter anyway. I'm an adult now, so I don't really need stuff like that."

Jason stared. This was hard to wrap his head around. He'd honestly had no idea — why hadn't Bruce adopted Dick? It was Dick for God's sake. It made no sense that Bruce would adopt Jason and not Dick.

Dick shrugged uncomfortably. "It's not a big deal."

"…I don't know why he didn't," Jason said, "but he loves you. I'm not kidding, he talks about you all the time. You're obviously his favourite kid." And for once, he didn't even feel bitter or annoyed about admitting that. Goddammit, he was actually feeling bad for Dickhead.

Dick shook his head. "It's really not a big deal, Jason."

Jason's eyes narrowed. "Hey, I'm venting, okay? Being second best sucks."

Dick snorted. "You're the best at being annoying."

"No, you beat me at that too."

And then Dick laughed. Holy shit, he'd actually made Dickhead Grayson laugh. This was a momentous moment. If he had a diary, he'd definitely be writing this in it. Hell, he'd go out and buy a diary just for this.

"But hey," Jason said, because as annoying as Dick was — and that wouldn't be changing anytime soon — this was actually kind of nice. "You might not be the favourite for much longer, what with Demon Baby and everything."

"He might not be Bruce's biological kid," Dick pointed out. "Talia is pretty crazy."

"Yeah." But maybe, if it did turn out that Demon Baby was Bruce's kid, it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe having a kid brother would actually be kind of nice when there were actual adults around to do all the work. As long as Jason never had babysitting duty, he could probably live with it. And he'd definitely be a better big brother than Dick.

"Hey, Jason?"

"Yeah, Dickhead?"

Dick glanced at him for a moment, and then, to Jason's surprise, simply rolled his eyes in amusement. "I was going to say that maybe you aren't that bad, but I changed my mind."

Jason smirked. "Too late. You already thought it, so it's too late to take it back."

"Yeah sure, if that's what you want to believe."

"I will." Jason hesitated. Oh, what the hell, he sure as hell wasn't letting Dickhead beat him at being the better person. "And, uh, maybe you aren't horrible either."

Dick snorted, and Jason smiled. There — he could totally be mature about this.

…

The door opened and Leslie stepped out, a now quiet and docile Damian resting in her arms.

'Brat, what the hell, why can't you act like that around us?!'

"He's fine," Leslie said. "Just a small bump, but nothing serious. Keep an eye on him and call me if anything happens."

She passed Damian to Dick, who hesitantly took him and placed him on his lap. Damian's eyes blinked open, and Jason tensed, waiting for him to start screeching again. Instead, he simply stared almost curiously at Dick, before nestling back into Dick's arms and closing his eyes.

"What the fuck?"

"Language," Leslie said. She turned to Dick. "So, he's yours?"

"What?!" Dick yelped. "No, of course not, he's Bruce's!"

Jason, meanwhile, tried to keep his gleeful laughter under control. The last thing he wanted was to wake Damian up.

Leslie's eyes widened in surprise. "What? Bruce's?" She studied their expressions, trying to determine if they were lying or not. Once she'd accepted their story — and Jason was surprised just how quickly she had. Hell, it'd taken him hours. He still didn't fully accept it — she shook her head in disbelief. "He just — left him alone, with you two?"

"Oh, he doesn't know yet," Dick said.

Silence.

"…The mom kind of just…left him on the doorstep."

"Oh," Leslie managed. "And you're alright looking after him by yourself?"

Dick nodded hesitantly. "Yeah I think we can handle it." He glanced down at the baby in his arms, his expression surprisingly soft. "What do you think, Little D?"

Jason raised his eyebrows. "Little D?"

Dick shrugged. "Beats Demon Baby."

…

Now that Damian wasn't constantly screeching — and who knew all it would take was a knock to the head? And okay, yeah, maybe not being around his and Dick's constant arguing helped too — he actually wasn't so bad to be around. Maybe he was even a little bit…cute.

Wow, he'd never thought he'd actually think that.

And apparently Dick, once he'd gotten over his initial shitty attitude, actually wasn't terrible with kids.

"Aww, Little D, you're so adorable!"

Jason still hadn't wrapped his head around that one.

"Hey Demon Baby," Jason said, leaning over to smile at Damian. The baby glanced up at him with wide, curious eyes from where he was sitting on Dick's lap. "Be a good boy and pee on Dick."

Dick smiled and dumped Damian on Jason's lap. "He's all yours."

Jason stuck his tongue at Dick, and then turned to Damian. He smirked and poked Damian's nose, biting back a laugh when the baby let out a small noise of surprise. "Hey brat, you're actually not too bad, you know? Now that you aren't trying to make us deaf. I think — "

And then the front door burst open, and Jason was reacquainted to the sounds of Damian's ear-shattering shrieks.

"What the hell?!" Dick cried, jumping up in shock.

Before Jason could even think of formulating a response, he heard a set of thundering footsteps, and then Bruce was standing in the open doorway of the living room, his expression thunderous.

"Can't anyone answer their phone?!"

…

AN:

So FINALLY finished this chapter. Sorry for the ridiculously long wait, but hopefully this was worth it. Not as much humor in this chapter, and this was more of a chance for Jason and Dick to set aside their differences. Hopefully I did an alright job with that.

Also I'm not exactly sure when Bruce officially adopted Dick, but I think it was after Jason died? So at this stage it wouldn't have happened yet? Not sure if that's right or not, so if it's not…well, that's the way it's happening in this fic xD

One chapter left, and you'll get to see how Bruce reacts to Damian.

Hopefully you enjoyed this and tell me what you think!