When Jason opened the door, he expected to see Dick heavy-laden with bags while holding a scowling Damian in one arm, pouting at Jason to help him. However, he had to admit that the gorgeous red-headed beauty in front of him was much nicer surprise than the Dickhead. He had to crane his neck to see her face and from the way her curly hair almost seemed to brush the top of the doorway, Jason had to guess she might be taller than Dick, not to mention Jason himself. Lost in her gorgeous green eyes that were similar to his, he almost missed it when she spoke.

"Um-m… wh-what?" Jason stammered, stumbling on air as he clutched either side of the door pane. The women gave him a disapproving glance, her eyes narrowing as she took in Jason's appearance before looking behind him into the apartment.

"I asked if Richard was home." She said with a jerk of her head, her voice regal and strong, suggesting that she wasn't someone to go against when she was mad. Jason thought he was in love.

"Richard, who? Baby, the only people I see here are you and me." Jason replied coolly, switching from a stuttering mess to suave in a blink of an eye. He spoke as low as he could and leaned against the door frame with a smirk on his face like he had seen the older boys on the street do when they tried to impress girls. He didn't understand the whole point of impressing a girl back then, but lord did he now, and he was grateful he had bothered to pay attention to the older boys when they told him to watch and learn.

"Excuse me." Her eyes flashed, and even without raising her voice Jason could hear the fury behind the two words.

"Uuuuh…um… I meant, you can come in and wait for him, he'll be home in a couple of minutes. He went out to buy something from the store across the street." Jason cowered, quickly backing into the apartment with his hands in front of him. He watched as she considered his words carefully, before nodding and walking into the apartment, taking a seat at the only armchair in the living room like she owned the place. Jason's breath caught in his throat and honestly, he thinks, she just made him fall even more in love.

"Erm, would you like something to drink?" He asked, trying to remember how Dick had treated his boss when she came over to check up on them. The red-head shot him a look over the centerpiece and Jason resisted the urge to fidget when their eyes locked.

"I suppose I shall take a bottle of the water." She said, her unnervingly green eyes never wavering from his.

"Uhhhh… I'll go get that, then." Jason said awkwardly, before turning around and run-walking to the kitchen with the stranger's eyes still burning holes through his back.

Finally, safe from her gaze in the kitchen, Jason sighed in relief. Turning to the counter behind him that held water bottles, he was met with the unexpected sight of Tim sitting on the counter while sipping a juice box and banging his feet against the bottom cupboards. Surprised, Jason stepped back a hand going to immediately clutch his chest before he realized exactly who was sitting on the counter and letting out another sigh of relief.

"Fu-Fudge, Tim you scared me." Jason breathed out, stumbling over the curse word in an attempt to cover it up. Tim, being an observant child, had noticed immediately noticed Dick's dislike of Jason cursing and had taken it upon himself to snitch on Jason any chance he got. Not that Jason cared what the old man thought, he just didn't want to deal with the lectures.

Tim, still sucking on the straw, squinted his eyes at Jason, clearly noticing his faux-pas but choosing to ignore it as his eyes relaxed and he began to suck the straw harder.

- sluuuuuurrrr- sluuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrr-

Jason's eye twitched as each suck became noisier and noisier as Tim got to the bottom of the juice box. "Hey, Ti- "

-sluuuuuuuurrrrrr-

Another eye twitch, Jason's hands began itching at his sides. "Listen, can you- "

-sluuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-

"Fuck this." Jason muttered before grabbing the juice box out of Tim's hand and tossing it into the trash.

"Hey,I was dwinking that!" Tim complained, his eyes sparkling with concealed mischief.

"No, you weren't, you little shit." Jason pointed his finger at Tim. "You were trying to mess with me."

Tim didn't bother denying it, instead sending a smile full of innocence at Jason. "I'm telling Daddy you said a bad wowd."

"Fuc-dam-crap." Jason sighed, slapping a hand over his face as he admitted defeat. "Just get out of here."

"No."

"Tim." Jason growled, making the younger boy tilt his head and stare questioningly.

"Why?"

"Because I told you so." Jason answered, arms crossed as he stared up at Tim. The younger boy considered Jason for a second before jumping of the counter to stand by him. Jason rolled his eyes, before sighing, an action he was slowly becoming familiar with this healthier and more hyperactive version of Tim. He'd take what he'd get. Ignoring Tim, he climbed up on top of the counter carefully opening the broken cupboard that was precariously hanging on its hinges. Quickly, he grabbed a bottle, watching the cupboard with a wary eye as it creaked before deciding it would be alright and climbing back down on the floor.

"Why'd you take a bwottle?" Tim asked, following Jason through the hallways. "You can dwink the water from the sink. Mistew-daddy said you can. And the bwottle tastes weird, plus daddy pays money fow those. You shouldn't waste daddy's money." Jason who had been listening to Tim's rambling, suddenly paused as he heard a set of voices in the living room. Grabbing Tim back by the arm, he slapped his hand across Tim's mouth to hear better.

"Richard, it's been days since you've messaged me, I assumed you had gotten into trouble and came here to help you but instead I find you with a group of children that look almost exactly like you. What was I supposed to assume?"

"That I had maybe taken some children in, not, that I've been cheating on you!"

Jason shivered, his brain taking him back to a different set of yelling, a set of yelling that usually led to him sleeping on the floor with bruises, that had his mother shooting up more heroin than usual and eventually his mother's corpse. Tim noticing his shaking said nothing other than snuggling in closer to the warm body.

"Well, it certainly seems that you don't have time for both your children and your girlfriend, so Richard it seems you must choose."

"Kori, baby, no. I have time for all of you, I don't have to choose."

Suddenly a smack sounded and Jason jolted from where he stood, the world blurred and suddenly he was standing in front of his Dad again. The smell of booze permeated from every side and all Jason could see was that leering smile. "Trying to protect your mom again, punk? You know what happened last time, kid." Jason whimpered and Tim who had also been standing in shock since the sound, was brought back to reality by the sound.

Turning around to face his brother he was shocked to see the tears running down his face. Carefully he reached up and patted Jason's face, scared he'd do something wrong. "Jason? Jason?" When no reply came, Tim started crying as well. He was scared. Daddy and that scary lady were yelling, Jason was crying, and he didn't know what to do. Sobbing, he wrapped his arms around Jason's middle and shoved his face into Jason's stomach.

Dick found them like that sleeping, twenty minutes later after the living room had been crashed and Kori left. A sleepy and teary faced Cassandra clutched at his legs, she had been scared by the yelling and had half way through Kori trashing the living room curled up by his legs and begun to sob. Damian was also sleeping in his arms, wiped out by all the crying he also had done.

Dick sighed as he brushed a lock of hair from Jason's face. He had gone out to the store across the street with Damian and Cass for ten minutes, when he came back he hadn't expected a furious Kori waiting for him. The argument between the two of them had went down as expected. Yelling, throwing, some physical violence on Kori's part and many hurtful words. Yet, he couldn't find it inside of him to regret what he'd done. He had defended his choice and if Kori couldn't accept the fact that she wouldn't be his only priority in life any more then she wouldn't be a part of his life.

An: Just want to be clear that Jason was developing a puppy crush on Kori in the beginning, it was nothing serious.