Jason watched with a smirk as the kids excitedly stuffed their faces with the catered Christmas dinner. All the food was kid friendly, and there was plenty of it. The kids were all grouped on blankets, eating and chatting happily. Kori decided to string up Christmas lights from the rafters and he used Christmas as an excuse to add a couple of heaters and replace the blankets, pillows and sleeping bags with fresh ones. Wilkes also arranged a donation of clothes, shoes, and coats that she'd dropped off in boxes earlier. They weren't Christmas gifts in the traditional sense, but everyone was accounted for, everyone was warm and dry, and everyone was well on their way to being stuffed with a real, hot Christmas dinner. By the standards he knew these kids were used to, it was pretty damn good day. Jason even got a smile out of Wilkes when she saw the Christmas lights and the vast array of food and didn't even ask where he'd gotten the money. And he was still riding high from the visit from Kori, so despite all the shit with Bruce and Superman, he was amazingly content.
"I want to go up there," Lisa spoke suddenly, and Jason tilted his head to see her pointing up to the high rafters.
"You do, huh?" he asked, amused.
"Looks high," she answered. "I want to try it."
"Okay," Jason replied easily.
She bounced on his back in excitement, and Jason smiled, happy to see her at ease. He moved to one of the tables the food was laid out on and snagged a couple of cookies before he pulled his grapple gun from his belt. "Hold on, carrot-top."
Jason could feel the nervous excitement in her limbs as they tightened around him. She let out a loud squeal as they launched into the air that turned into a giggle as he pulled them onto the highest rafter. He tried to pull her from his back to settle her beside him, but she just squeezed him tighter.
He chuckled. "Easy, kid, you're going to choke me. Come on, sit beside me. I'm not going to let you fall. There you go," he coaxed, gently settling her beside him on the rafter. She quickly threw her tiny little arms around his waist and held on tightly. Jason held up a cookie in front of her face, waving it enticingly. "You'll need at least one hand to eat this."
"It's really high," she protested.
Jason nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty high, but I told you; I won't let you fall. I got you. So relax and eat your cookie."
One little hand stayed fisted in the back of his leather jacket, but the other hand slowly released him to take the cookie. It took her a few minutes, but eventually she loosened up a little and giggled.
"Nice, huh?" Jason asked, smirking.
She nodded vigorously.
Jason smiled and ruffled her dirty, red hair. "Merry Christmas, carrot-top."
She nodded again.
Jason wasn't at all surprised when he felt a presence at the window. They'd been giving him space, but he didn't really expect Tim and Dick to let him get through Christmas day without seeing them. They hadn't moved in yet, likely not wanting to startle Lisa. He was grateful for the consideration, even if he wasn't particularly thrilled by the visitors.
"We got company, kiddo," Jason said, pointing towards the window. She turned her head cautiously and Tim took that as permission to enter. He wasn't alone either. Dick, Damian, and the Black Bat were with him. Jason did his best not to tense. Lisa would feel it and it would make her edgy, which was not a good thing when she was up so high.
"This looks festive," Tim greeted cheerfully as he looked at all the lights.
Jason shrugged and replied blandly. "It's Christmas."
"We come bearing a late Christmas dinner," Dick declared, and Jason noticed a bag slung over his shoulder that was undoubtedly filled with containers of food. "Courtesy of Agent A."
"Thought we'd have a sibling dinner," Tim said cheerfully. "We've got a heater set up on the roof."
Jason sighed at the fact that Tim had bypassed his motion detectors. Again. "Oh joy," he retorted flatly and just barely managed not to tense up as Black Bat, Cassandra Cain, moved close and sat down beside Lisa. The two watched each other curiously, tilting their heads slightly at each other, managing to look remarkably like birds. He did not like for one second that Lisa was between him and Cain. He knew her history—scary, deadly daughter of two assassins. He'd seen footage of her fight, though he'd never met her in person. He knew how deadly she was and there was a very large part of him that wanted to pick Lisa up and settle her on the other side of him so that he would be between the young girl and the assassin. He settled for giving Cain a hard glare that told her exactly what he'd do if she made any move to hurt the girl.
Cain met his gaze for a moment, acknowledging the warning. It didn't make Jason relax any, and he watched carefully as Cain's eyes tilted back down to Lisa.
"I'm Black Bat," she declared suddenly.
"I'm Lisa, but he calls me carrot-top," the little girl replied, poking at Jason's side. Surprisingly hard too. He swatted her fingers away lightly.
"Nice to meet you," Cain said seriously.
"Do you fight bad guys too?" Lisa asked. Cain nodded and the little redhead seemed very intrigued.
"Cool," she declared.
"Very cool," Cain agreed. Her expression hadn't changed at all and Jason found it a little unsettling.
"Well, dinner?" Dick asked cheerfully, breaking whatever weirdness was occurring between Cain and Lisa. Lisa turned to look up at him curiously as they all waited for Jason's response. He gave the Bats measuring looks. He wasn't in the mood for a warm and cozy family dinner, but he had a feeling that if he wanted Alfred's marvelous Christmas dinner, he'd have to put up with them. And they'd managed to catch him in a pretty decent mood.
"I want back down," Lisa abruptly decided, breaking Jason from his train of thought.
"Do you now?" Jason asked looking back down at her.
She nodded seriously. "The cookies are down there."
Jason smirked. "Yeah, I guess they are. Alright," he said, sliding her back onto his back. "You thought getting up here was fun? Getting down will be even better. Hold on tight, carrot-top," he said, standing on the rafter.
Her little limbs tightened around him and Jason grinned and leapt, laughing at her high-pitched squeal. She was light and he adapted to the extra weight on his back quickly. He took a much more convoluted path down than usual, adding in unnecessary flips and swinging using the grapple gun at one point, just to make it more fun for the little girl, who was giggling in delight by the time they reached the ground.
Jason chuckled as she climbed down him and jumped up and down in front of him, speaking in a quick rush that he didn't quite understand. He got the general gist though—it was fun, they'd be doing it again, etc.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Princess. Go get your cookies," he told her, ruffling her hair again.
She bounded off in Alex's direction to make sure the he had seen the acrobatics. Jason took a moment to breathe before making his way back up to the rafters. He always felt like he had to brace himself whenever there was more than one of them around, and at the moment, he had the whole damn crew.
Tim, Damian and Cain were already making their way out the window by the time Jason reached the top rafter, but Dick was waiting for him.
"Are we going to eat or not, Grayson?" Jason asked, when Dick made no move to head out after the others.
"We are, but I was hoping we could talk first," Dick said, hesitantly. "Tim said you were mad."
"Well he is the better detective," Jason replied flatly, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared Dick down.
Dick frowned. "I don't want this to be how things are between us, Jason. I didn't mean to make you mad; I was just worried. Going up against Maroni on your own was dangerous. I was upset because I didn't want something to happen to you."
Jason glared. "You have no right to tell me how to do my job, Dick. None of you do. I don't work under Batman; I don't follow his rules. I'm not one of you. You don't get to act like a concerned big brother—not when you never bothered before."
Dick jolted a little. "That's not fair."
Jason scoffed. "Seriously? Of course it's fair, Dick. You weren't a brother to me when I was in the family. Why do you get to act like one now that I'm not?"
Dick grimaced. "Look, I know I screwed up. Damn it, Jason, I know that. But no matter what your relationship with Bruce is like, you are still our brother. So just… please let me try and be a better one than I was before."
"What's the point?" Jason asked. "You've got them," he said pointing up at the roof. "You didn't need me then, you definitely don't need me now. And it's not like me being in Gotham is permanent anyway, so why even bother?" he asked, echoing the questions he'd asked a couple of weeks before.
"For one, I owe you," Dick replied. "I was a sucky brother, and you deserved so much better. But mostly, I want to get to know the person you are now—the guy who takes in homeless kids, and saves the whole damn planet and doesn't even advertise it. I know the kind of man you are, Jason. You care, and you fight for the people that get left behind. I know that you're strong and good and stubborn as hell, but I don't really know you. I have no idea what you like to do, or what kind of music, movies or books you like. I don't know what makes you laugh besides your awful, inappropriate, "I died" jokes. I don't know anything about the people in your life besides Roy and Kori. I don't know you, but I want to. You're a good man that I'm lucky to call a brother. So please just give me a chance."
Jason stared at Dick skeptically. "I tried to kill Tim," he pointed out. "I tried to kill Bruce. I would have too. I almost did, Dick."
"Are you going to try again?" Dick asked, like it was that simple.
"Not Tim, but Bruce and I kind of have an explosive relationship," Jason replied wryly.
Dick grinned wide. "That was a joke, right? Cause you died in an explosion and then you tried to blow him up? See? I'm learning already. Come on, Little Wing. What do you say?"
"That this is a colossally bad idea. All of this family crap."
"Then you should be on board, right?" Dick teased.
Jason glared, not even slightly amused. "Look, Dick. There is only one way that you and I will manage any sort of relationship, and that's if you tread lightly. I tell you to back off, you back the fuck off. I tell you to get out of my business, then you get the hell out of my business. Don't push and don't tell me how to do my job or what to do. No one gets to make me do anything I don't want to do. Trust me, Ra's al Ghul tried for two fucking years. It didn't work for him, it's not going to work for you."
Dick nodded seriously. "You can out-stubborn anybody except for maybe Bruce himself. Trust me, Jay, I know. And I'll try, okay? I'm bound to screw up every now and then, but I swear I'll try."
"Okay," Jason allowed, surprising himself.
"Okay?" Dick asked, also surprised, but he perked up in a hopeful puppy dog kind of way.
Jason groaned and ran a hand over his, face. He couldn't believe he was doing this. "Yeah. Fine. Okay."
Dick grinned wide and threw his arms open as he took a step forward. Jason immediately held his hands up to fend him off. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Big Bird. This is a fine line you're walking here," he warned.
Dick lowered his arms, but his grin widened even further. "Well then I guess it's a good thing I'm one hell of an acrobat."
Jason rolled his eyes hard. "Oh my god, you're the worst."
"I'm just saying I'm a pretty good tightrope walker," Dick replied smugly.
"Just stop," Jason retorted. "I was promised food. Time for you to deliver."
Dick fairly bounced his way back to the window. "Happy to, Little Wing. Tell you what, Alfred really outdid himself this year. We had our first dinner hours ago with Bruce, and I thought I was going to die from how good it was."
"Speaking of Bruce, I'm not about to be ambushed, am I?" Jason asked, making Dick pause before he slipped out the window. He really hoped Batman wouldn't be waiting for him on the roof. If he was, Jason's definitely going to shoot him with his new alien gun. He didn't even care what setting. "Because that's a real good way of ruining your chances for good."
"Nah. He said you wouldn't want to see him. He's going to honor that, apparently," Dick replied, and the only reason Jason bought it was because Dick sounded so put out by it.
"So we are going to do the whole pretend the other doesn't exist thing. Good," Jason declared firmly.
Dick frowned. "I'm guessing that talking to you about Bruce would be classified as pushing, huh?"
"Right off a fucking cliff."
"Damn," Dick sighed, finally moving out the window. Jason followed him.
"About time," Tim declared. He, Cain and Damian were settled on a large blanket with a space heater in the middle. "I'm starving here, and Dick has the food."
"You ate four servings of dinner," Damian said with a disgusted expression.
"And now I'm hungry again," Tim retorted. "Maybe I'm going through a growth spirt," he said, a hopeful tinge to his voice.
Jason snorted. "You wish, baby bird."
"Hey," Tim protested.
Cain smiled, which on her was a small twist of her lips. She patted his head. "That's okay. I like you as my little brother."
Jason smirked as Tim scowled. Damian gave a smug look. "It's only a matter of time before I surpass you in height, Drake. Then I'll be your superior in every way."
"You'd be my superior in height only, Damian," Tim snapped shortly. "And since you're still a midget, you've surpassed me in nothing except for maybe the ability to be an obnoxious little shit."
Damian snarled and went for a knife at his belt, but Cain cut in smoothly. "No using your Christmas present to hurt our brother."
Damian grumbled, but released the knife, which Jason thought was pretty fair. He didn't stand a chance against Cain, so backing down was the smart move.
She looked up at Jason and pointed at the blanket beside her. "Sit by me."
"You gonna try to kill me?" Jason challenged.
Cain shook her head. "You're my brother. I'm your sister," she declared, like it was that simple.
"Is that right?" Jason retorted skeptically.
She nodded decisively, and Jason moved over to cautiously sit beside her. "I've never had a sister before."
"Cass is a good sister," Tim said cheerfully.
"The best," Cain—or Cass, he supposed—replied solemnly. She then took the bag of food from Dick and dug through it until she pulled out a container of cherry pie. "Alfred said it's your favorite," she said, offering the container to him.
Jason took it, still mildly unsettled by the seriousness of her expression and how closely she was watching him. He knew her thing was reading people, but he didn't know why his reaction would be important to her. It's not like he was going to explode into violence at any moment. He'd be greatly outnumbered if he did, and he was wary enough of her abilities not to try anything on her without very careful planning. So the importance of it didn't really make sense to him.
Unless—he startled a bit as he realized—unless she wanted him to like her. And from the way she was waiting and watching him like a hawk, he was inclined to believe she did. Which was weird. Jason had never done anything to her personally, but he'd heard Tim talk about her enough to know that the two of them were pretty close. She should hate Jason for the simple fact that he'd tried to kill Tim. But instead she was handing him cherry pie, and hoping for some sort of friendship in return.
If Jason was mildly unsettled before, he was fully disturbed now. "Thanks," he eventually managed. "It is my favorite. I appreciate it."
Her shoulders relaxed minutely and the smile she gave was small, but genuine. "Good. I am still the best sister."
Jason snorted. "You'd be my only sister so you pretty much have that one in the bag already."
She looked pleased by this, and returned to taking food out of the bag and passing it around. There was a container with his name on it, and she passed it to him with a fork. The bag must have been insulated because the container was still warm.
Jason moaned at the first taste of duck. "Oh my god, this is amazing."
Dick grinned. "Right? I'm going to need to alter my suit by the time all the leftovers are gone."
Damian made a disapproving noise. "Grayson, you are a disgrace."
"Oh please, I saw you going for thirds at dinner, Little D," Dick retorted. "Alfred's Christmas dinners are heavenly and deserve to be appreciated fully."
"So shut up and appreciate," Jason replied, stuffing an enormous bite of sweet potato casserole in his mouth.
Tim snorted and almost choked. Dick watched him cough with a smug look on his face. "That's what you get for laughing at me, Little Red."
"Little Red?" Jason asked, knowing he was going to regret it.
Dick smiled. "Well you're Red Hood, so he's Little Red. You're Little Wing, Cass is Little Bat, and Damian is Little D."
Again, Jason felt mildly disturbed. "I think you're taking this big happy family thing a bit far."
"Nonsense," Dick retorted, but from the way Damian was grumbling, the kid seemed to agree with Jason.
About halfway through Jason's container of food, he felt a heavy gaze on him. One he knew far too well. Batman was keeping his distance, but he was present nonetheless. His hands tightened around his fork and his container of food as he tried not to let his lips curl up in a snarl. "You guys patrolling tonight?" he asked tightly, wondering if Bruce was letting the others know it was time to get going.
"Nah, B said he'd take it on his own," Dick replied.
Tim nodded. "Crime's always slow on Christmas anyway unless there's been a breakout at Arkham. It'll be a short patrol."
"Then why is he here?" Jason growled out.
"Because he's an emotionally inept, uncommunicative ass?" Dick grumbled, making Jason shoot him a look. Sure, Dick and Bruce had fought on and off for most of Jason's tenure as Robin, but he'd been under the impression that they were one big happy Bat-family in his absence. The comment shot Jason straight back in time to his younger years, and it took him a moment for the déjà vu to leave. "What? He is," Dick insisted, pouting at Cassandra's stern look.
Jason tensed slightly when Cassandra brushed her fingers over the back of his hand. She tapped twice in a gesture he thought was meant to be reassuring. He looked at her warily and she met his gaze easily. "He will not interfere," she spoke so softly he doubted the others heard. Or if they did hear, they were tactfully pretending they hadn't. "This is your place."
He nodded and did his best to shove Bruce out of his mind. He would not let Bruce see how much he got under his skin. Bruce had gotten enough of him; he'd gotten his memories, he wouldn't be getting this too. Jason wouldn't give Bruce the satisfaction. He had to admit though, he was surprised the other man was keeping his distance. He'd thought for sure that the big Bat would turn up to chew him out about Donald or lecture him about Maroni, or otherwise criticize the hell out of him at the first opportunity. That was what Bruce did; he judged and pushed. The fact that he was doing neither of those things now left him suspicious of the sudden change of heart. Bruce had had no problem showing up to chew him out in the past, why stop now?
The only answer he could come up with was the memories. Bruce knew everything about Jason's past now, when he hadn't before. Now he was keeping his distance, probably because of some misguided guilt about all of his own shortcomings. It probably had nothing to do with the actual issue, which was how thoroughly they had violated his privacy. Disgust welled within him, and he wished Bruce would just get lost. He had one goal at the moment, and that was to make it through until he wrapped things up in Crime Alley so he could get the hell out of Gotham. Pretending that Bruce didn't exist was an integral part of that plan, and him looming melodramatically in the distance wasn't helping.
"So what's that?" Dick said, breaking Jason out of his thoughts. He turned to see the man was looking at the very large mural of the Red Hood a block away.
Jason made himself smirk, even if he didn't feel it with Batman's distant shadow over him. "I got fans, Big Bird."
Tim looked amused. "Patron saint of orphaned and abandoned children. Apt. Although they didn't need to make your head so big—it's big enough on its own."
"Watch it, baby bird," Jason scowled, pointing his fork at Tim. "Just cause you don't have fans doesn't mean you should act jealous."
"Why on Earth would anyone be jealous of you, Todd?" Damian protested.
"My chiseled good looks for one," Jason declared. "The fact that I could kick all your asses except maybe hers, for two. The fact that I got three feet on you easy, Bat brat. The fact that my weapons are way cooler than yours. I mean, come on. Check out my new space gun," he said, pulling it from his thigh. "It's beautiful."
Dick groaned loudly. "No, not a Tamaraanean energy blaster. Those things are awful."
Jason grinned sharply. "Christmas present from Kori. So watch your step, Big Bird. Kori said it packs one hell of a punch."
"That'd be putting it lightly," Dick muttered.
"Oh really?" Jason grinned, looking at the thing in a new light.
"I don't want to know," Tim declared.
"It has a non-lethal setting," Jason offered.
"Yeah, that's the setting I'm talking about," Dick grumbled. "You don't want to be hit by that thing."
Jason grinned happily. "Then you know what'll happen if you push, Big Bird. I've got leverage now. Kori is an absolute queen. That hundred thousand dollar necklace wasn't enough."
"I don't want to know that either," Tim said, hunkering down in his denial. "Don't wanna know where you got the money or if you stole the necklace or any of it."
Jason snickered and slipped the gun back into the holster, making a mental note to text Kori a thank you. "She ever shoot you with one of these, Dick?" he asked.
"Tamaraanean soldier, but she has shot me with her starbolts a couple of times," Dick admitted.
"I'm sure you deserved it," Tim remarked.
"Probably," Dick agreed.
Jason snorted again and placed his empty food container on the blanket. "Well the company might have been lacking, but the food was good."
"Hey," Dick protested and Cassandra poked him hard in the shoulder.
"I apologize," Jason replied immediately. "The company minus my lovely new sister was lacking."
Cassandra nodded, appeased.
"Well you lazy bums might not be working tonight, but I am," Jason said, standing up. "I suggest you head off. And tell Batman to get the fuck gone while you're at it."
"Anything I can help with?" Tim asked too casually.
Jason rolled his eyes. "Get lost, Timmy."
He shrugged. "Alright then. You know where to find me if you need anything."
"Yeah, yeah. Scram."
"Bye, brother," Cass nodded at him and Dick moved forward for a hug, but stopped when Jason held up his hand.
"Come on, Jay, it's Christmas," Dick whined.
"No pushing," Jason reminded him. "No hugging."
"Fine, but I will get a hug, Little Wing," he declared, before motioning to Damian. "Come on, Little D. Maybe Bruce won't mind us making a round of the city with him."
Damian perked up immediately and they quickly headed off. Jason waited until they were all off and he no longer felt Batman's distant gaze before he let himself slump and rub at his head. It was too much. Too much and no one had ended up shouting or attacking each other, and Jason just didn't know how to deal with that.
He took a steadying breath and decided to distract himself with work. So of course there was a text message from Oracle waiting.
Oracle: Too much too soon?
Jason rolled his eyes and replied. Jason: Stop spying.
Oracle: I just wanted to check in and give you your Christmas present.
There was another text message immediately following; a file filled with Douglas Cooley's financial records.
"How the hell…" he began, but trailed off because it was pointless. Barbara was omniscient. That's all there was to it. She knew everything and he kind of really hated it, because she was a Bat and he didn't want them knowing his business.
Jason: Speaking of too much too soon. He texted, knowing that she'd understand.
Oracle: You shouldn't be stuck doing this stuff on your own, J. I'm not trying to nose into your business, I'm just trying to provide you resources you should have access to anyway. I swear I won't tell B. Just let me help you.
Jason didn't ask why. He didn't want to get into a conversation about family and loyalty with Barbara. He hadn't been the only one burned by this life, and that made it harder to fight with her. What was the point when she'd had her life taken from her by the Joker as well? None of the others could come close to understanding what he had lost, but Barbara, she could. Fighting with her would be pointless.
That didn't mean he was okay with her in his business though.
Jason: Just this once. From here on out, if I want your help, I'll ask for it.
Oracle: Okay. Ask me any time. Merry Christmas, J.
Jason: Merry Christmas, O.
Jason settled down in front of the heater the others had left and began to pour through the information. Below him, the noise from the warehouse steadily began to quiet as the kids started moving to the sleeping bags so they could sleep off their impending food comas. He stayed, keeping an eye on them for a few hours more.
