"Psst."

Within the darkness of his dreams, Jason rolled over in his sleep. Hanging in the air were guns and knives, but they were still, and no threat to him. Jason didn't mind them- these were one of his better dreams. No blood or death in sight. And, best of all, no company. Just him. Alone.

That's what he'd always wanted, right?

"Psst. Jason."

A voice penetrated the silence. It was familiar- familiarly annoying. But Jason didn't want to wake up, because he really didn't want to know what awaited him when he opened his eyes.

Well. Nothing could be worse than coffin wood, at least.

"Jason!"

Jason cracked his eyes open, just very slightly. Wide blue eyes greeted him, sparkling with excitement. He groaned.

"Why is it always you?" he mumbled sleepily.

"It's not," the intruder said. "This time, I brought company."

That statement made Jason sit straight up. The sight that greeted him made him slightly dizzy- Tim, Dick, and Damian all standing there, looking at him. All in their civilian clothes.

"What the-"

"Language," Dick interrupted firmly.

Jason blew his white strip of hair off his face. "What are you all doing in my house?!"

Damian scoffed. "This is not much of a house, Todd. Though I suppose it suits your... primitive taste."

Tim shifted uncomfortably. He seemed to not be sure what he was doing there, either. That, or he was waiting for Jason to shoot.

Jason wasn't sure he had the strength to anymore.

"What are you doing here?" he repeated, tone more exasperated than angry.

Tim looked down at the floor. "Dick thought it'd be a good idea to have some brother bonding time all together. He just... dragged all of us here. I hope you don't mind."

Guilt swelled up in him when he saw the way Tim avoided his gaze. Sure, they had worked things out a bit- but there was too much history, too much hate for Jason to let go of.

He hadn't meant to make Tim so... scared. Was he really that much of a monster?

"'Brother bonding time'? Wow, Dick, you really haven't let go of that yet."

"Yep! And we're doing movie night!" Dick exclaimed happily. "We're all going to the store. Come with?"

Jason closed his eyes. "Only to make sure you don't pick a Barbie movie or something," he growled.

"Great! Then let's gooooo!"

Jason shook his head as Dick dragged their two younger brothers away.

This day got off to a good start.

It had taken a while to get to the store, because- Jason should have really known way beforehand- it turns out that the Batfamily were incapable of getting into a car peacefully.

"I call shotgun!" were the last words Jason said before Damian started to rip him to shreds. Dick had had to intervene, and by that time Tim had crawled into the front seat. Then, Dick just had to have a car with one of the backseat windows unable to open- so, once again, Damian pounced on Jason with the ferocity of those cats he liked so much.

In the end, with a total number of 15 fresh scars, Red Hood had been delegated the worst seat. Go figure.

So by the time they reached the store, Jason was exhausted. Dick- being his typical mother hen self- looked him over with a worried glance.

"You okay?" he asked.

Jason scowled. "Next time, I'm bringing handcuffs."

"You know those won't be enough to stop him, right?"

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's just go already before Replacement dies at the hands of Demon Brat."

They entered the store, and air conditioning slapped Jason in the face. Rows upon rows of CDs and DVDs sat in shelves, stretching out for what seemed like miles. Dick herded them all together at the entrance.

"Okay," he said, as if they were going on an expedition, "we'll be watching two movies, so we'll split up. Each of you will have a partner, and I expect you to stay together. We'll have a major problem if one of us gets lost."

Damian rolled his eyes. "Not all of us are as incompetent as Drake," he said.

Tim glared daggers at Damian, but said nothing. He knew too well that responding would only cause another of their little wars. Dick clucked his tongue.

"Dami, play nice," he reprimanded. "Now, we are not allowed to buy R-rated ones- no, Jason, no horror ones either- so family-friendly movies, okay?"

"Okay," Tim responded, when both Damian and Jason frowned in disappointment.

"Cool! So, Dami and I will go together, and Jay and Timmy will pair up, too."

"You better hold Todd's hand, Drake," Damian sneered.

Tim let out a slight sigh. "Can we buy some duct tape and shut him up, please?" he asked at Dick pointedly.

"Come on, guys, this is our family night!" he said brightly. "Now, go find your disks, 'cause I'm giving us an hour to find something. We'll meet up back here after the hour's over." Dick grabbed Damian and skipped off into one section of the store.

Jason stuffed his hands in his pockets. "C'mon, Replacement," he said finally, "might as well get this over with."

They wandered the store for a bit, Jason sometimes wandering to the adult section before Tim tugged him firmly back. They ended up in the Disney shelf, looking at the rows of movies, mostly animated.

"...So..." Tim said, rather awkwardly.

Things had always been loud between them, what with Jason always shooting at him and cursing and just causing a ruckus. But without the anger, there was no noise. Only a silence that said fear as much as it said peace.

"Are we allowed to get a zombie Disney movie?"

Tim blinked in surprise. "...Um, I don't think those exist."

"What? Really?" Jason frowned. "Well, screw Disney then. I don't feel like I'm represented enough these days."

Tim laughed, and suddenly, it was like the silence gave way to something... else. Jason bit the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from smiling- no way would he let Replacement see him looking happy for once. He had an image to keep, after all.

"How about this?" Tim asked, picking up a movie from the lower shelf. "It might not be a zombie, but it has a singing skeleton. Plus, it's about Christmas. Dick would approve this in a heartbeat."

Jason looked it over and scrunched his nose. "It has songs in it. I'm pretty sure Dickiebird will be singing along, and I really don't want to live through that again."

Tim giggled. "He took me to karaoke once. Trust me, you do not want to know what happened."

Jason huffed and checked his watch. "Wow, we wasted a lot of time. Might as well get this one and endure the torture," he commented.

They walked back to their rendezvous point, Tim mostly taking up the chatter with small talk. Jason briefly wondered whether, if he hadn't died, this would've been the relationship he'd had with Tim. But if he hadn't died Tim wouldn't have been needed at all- and Jason wasn't sure how much he wanted that anymore.

"Guys!"

Dick waved brightly to them, holding Damian's hand. The little brat didn't seem to happy about it, but his twitching mouth gave it away.

"We got a disk," Tim replied, holding out the movie they had chosen.

Dick grinned when he saw it. "Great choice! Me and little D also got one," he said.

"It was mostly Grayson's choice," Damian defended.

Jason took a look at the movie and almost barfed. "...There are rainbows on the cover of this."

"Yep!"

Jason groaned, his grouchiness not helped when Tim gave a laugh. In retaliation he punched Tim in the arm, though not as hard as he used to, because before it was always a pummelling. He didn't miss the faint smile that flickered on Dick's lips.

"Alright, c'mon, we gotta pay for this."

They walked over to the counter, Dick flashing a grin and taking out Bruce's credit card.

Okay, so being rich did have some advantages. Though, when Jason had been still alive, he hadn't marvelled at being rich. He'd marvelled at Bruce and Dick and how they actually seemed to love him.

He'd taken more than just the money for granted.

They'd decided to bunk in Tim's house for the movie-watching, seeing as Dick's apartment was a mess and Jason's was a poor excuse for a house. Tim's flat was small but well furnished, and Jason delighted in pulling out books on his bookshelves and putting them back in the wrong place. The look of agitation on Tim's face was funny, and the best part was, he didn't have to pull out a gun for it.

Dick had busied himself in the kitchen making the popcorn, which might've been a bad idea. Tim and Jason and Damian together was sort of an explosion.

"Tt. Drake, your house is tiny."

"Too small for a little princeling like you?"

"I never said I was-"

Jason coughed, and both his little brothers looked at him. (His little brothers- since when had he thought that?)

"Look, I'm not usually the mediator for this thing, but if you guys fight than Golden Boy'll lecture me and I don't want to live through that. So, Demon Spawn, if this place really is too small for all four of us, we're just gonna have kick you out."

Damian spluttered, face growing red. "You're just like Grayson sometimes," he muttered under his breath.

"I'm back!" Dick greeted with two bowlfuls of popcorn. "Glad to see you got along without me."

He clearly knew what happened, as when they were sitting down, he winked at Jason. Jason glared in return.

"Drake, I'm sitting on the right side."

"What? I'm already here! Just sit over there!"

"I demand you move-"

"No-"

"Move!" Dick's voice sounded.

He jumped in between them, making the sofa groan under his butt. Hooking one arm around each of the younger Robins, he gestured to Jason. Reluctantly, Jason chose to sit next to the Replacement. Demon Brat would probably rip out his innards if he sat next to him.

"Okay," Dick announced cheerfully, "Jay, put in the disk."

"What? You put in the disk!"

"Dami-"

"No."

"Timmy? Please?"

Tim shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry Dick. I'm kinda squished here."

"Oh, I see how it is. Always bossing around your older brother around," he pouted.

But his eyes gave away just how much he had always wanted this, Jason thought.

And Jason wondered, to himself... How much had Jason wanted this?

For how long?

By the time the second movie ended, both Damian and Tim had fallen asleep. Damian had slept with his head on Dick's lap, the rest of his small body spread out across the sofa. Tim hadn't taken up so much space, instead curling into Jason's body.

It felt nice, somehow. Warm. And for some reason it felt like he'd been cold ever since he'd died, like the Pit had laced ice into his bloodstream.

Well, take that, Pit. Tonight, Jason was warm.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while. Jason felt his head bob, almost going off to sleep, until he heard Dick sigh.

"Why can't it be like this forever?" Dick wondered aloud. Jason couldn't tell whether he was talking to himself or to him.

The second Robin closed his eyes. "Forever doesn't exist," he said.

The words used to taste like victory. A piece of evidence that, no matter how screwed up things got, it didn't matter because for God's sakes he could always just die again.

But not like this. Not when things felt so nice, so good, so warm. Now, all he tasted was bitter. Because those words meant that things could never, would never stay this way.

And maybe Jason didn't deserve this. Maybe, maybe he had screwed too many times for death to take him.

But Dick did. Dick deserved his family, and- no matter how much he denied it- Jason was his family. (Forever.)

"I know," Dick said sadly. "I know, but I wish it did."

"Just... why don't you take a picture?"

"What?"

Jason blushed slightly. "Pictures... pictures last forever. Memories don't. But pictures do."

Dick laughed. "As long as you don't lose them, or burn them, or..."

Jason scowled. "Yeah yeah, I get it. I was just trying to be helpful."

Buried in his chest, Tim stirred a bit. Jason held extremely still, not sure what to do. He'd never... done this with someone before. At least Golden Boy had practice.

"Relax, Jaybird," Dick called from the other side of the couch. "He's not going to kill you."

"I know," he growled. But he relaxed anyway.

Shuffling, Dick got out his phone. "Hey," he said teasingly, "say cheese!"

Jason groaned and buried his face into Tim's hair. The photo was taken with a soundless click.

"You shouldn't take photos without people's permission," he scolded.

Dick waved his hand. "Relax. I'll send all of them a copy, and print one for myself." He looked at the picture fondly. "This is definitely bedroom-wall material."

"If you send one to me, I'll delete it."

"Well then, I'll just send it to you again."

"You really are as stubborn as a mule, aren't you?"

Jason looked over at Dick. His bright blue eyes shone with mirth, something he hadn't seen since Jason had been Robin, and there were days spent tumbling down banisters and in snow. He'd missed those days, as much as he had missed the people in it.

Including himself. He missed the old Jason, the one who laughed when he felt like it and was too proud to cry and was just realising that there were people in the world who loved him.

Just a little bit of that Jason remained in him, the little bit that convinced him to hang out with his brothers at all. But that small part of him had a loud voice that couldn't be ignored.

"Dick?"

"Yeah?"

Jason stared straight ahead, not willing to see Dick's reaction to his words.

"I miss you," he said, the words Dick had said to him all those nights ago. And yes, he had replied then. But those words were different now, older, more sincere. Jason hoped Dick knew he didn't just mean he missed him- he meant that he wished he could have a second chance. To be the brother Dick always wanted him to be.

"Jason...I miss you too," Dick replied. And Jason knew that Dick had just said, in his own way, yes.

And Jason let out a sigh.

"I wouldn't mind if we stayed like this. Forever."

And, voila! The last chapter is complete! Well, not really. There's still one chapter to go, but I count it more as an epilogue than a real chapter. And there you have it! We end (still not really the end but whatever) with Dick and Jason, just as we started it. I hope to see you all soon for the next and final instalment! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Happy new year everyone!