Title: knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend
Fandom: DCU animated/Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Donne
Warnings: Discussion of death/violence/torture – basically, everything Red Hood and Winter Soldier's respective backstories has.
Pairings: Jimmy/Jason
Rating: PG
Wordcount:775
Point of view: third
Prompt: Author's choice, author' s choice, if the end comes today… this will have been enough
Note: So, this is the last of what I have written for this fic. It might be a little while for more because I'm working on another 'verse that's become quite epic on me.
Three weeks into their lessons, while Tim is trying to catch his breath on the floor, he asks, "Why are you bothering with me?"
Jimmy stares down at him for a few minutes but Tim seems content to wait him out.
.
When Bucky Barnes was 17, he was working two jobs and dividing his paychecks between Steve's ma and his own parents. Becca was 14, Livy was 11, and Jules had just turned 6, and their pa's hours had just been cut, and Ma got paid barely anything to wash other folks' clothes when they could afford to pay her.
Steve would've been furious if he'd known, but Steve's ma understood. And Pa used to rage about Bucky giving Steve's ma anything, but it didn't matter to Bucky how loud Pa hollered or how hard he hit. They needed the money for Steve's medicines and all of the Barnes' were healthy.
.
When Jason Todd was 17, Jimmy knows, he was learning all sorts of things with the League of Assassins. He was supposed to be dead.
.
Tim Drake is 17 with too much time on his hands and too little to do. The fact that nobody in the world realized he was wandering around Gotham at night, trailing Batman… the kid is lucky to be alive.
.
"I'm bothering with you," Jimmy finally says, helping Tim to his feet, "because someone needs to."
Jimmy knows the kind of man Tim's going to be – he died for that kind of man once. He loves that kind of man now.
"You're a good kid," Jimmy says, handing Tim a bottle of water. "I'd like to see you live to be a good man."
Tim blushes a little, ducking his head.
.
Tim Drake is 17 and lives alone in his parents' home. He attends a prestigious academy because he wants to and his hobbies include reading everything ever written and stalking vigilantes.
Since beginning Jimmy's training sessions, though, Tim has not once contacted either Jimmy or Jason to inform them he is going out. Because Jimmy had worried, Jason swung by on the fifth night after the dinner at Wayne's and then texted him, Kid's safely in bed. Looks like a pretty deep sleep. The twelfth night, Jimmy checked himself and Tim was swaddled in his blankets.
Jimmy knows that Tim will catch on eventually – the lessons are designed to be just exhausting enough to knock him out all night, but not so hard the kid injures himself. If he has his way, Tim will find something else soon, maybe get out of Gotham and go to a good college and start doing good in the world. (If they hadn't grown up during the Depression; if there hadn't been a war. There are so many things Bucky Barnes used to dream about for Steve Rogers. There are so many things Jimmy wants for Jason.)
But… the kid's been stalking Batman and his partners for almost half his life and has yet to grow bored or move on.
Jimmy mainly focuses on self-defense, using an attacker's strength against them, and the best way to escape. He reiterates that calling Jimmy is to be the first thing Tim does after finding somewhere safe to hole up and Tim promises.
.
Bucky Barnes was 26 when he fell off a train and died alone in the mountains (how old was he when Hydra finally broke him and the asset was born inside him? there is no way of knowing). The asset had no age but it died dragging Captain America onto shore. Jimmy – Jimmy's maybe 27, but he doubts it, most days. Most days he either feels ancient or brand-new, with little in-between.
Jason Todd was 15 when the Joker murdered him. He's 21 now, but he feels every year like a decade, and when he puts on the hood (and the Hood), he knows he'll live forever. (Jimmy will do everything he can to ensure that, and the day Jason dies…)
.
"You comin' to dinner, kid?" Jimmy asks while Tim is stretched out on the floor, trying to remember how to breathe. "Debra's made meatloaf. The twins have been very inquisitive about you."
If Jimmy didn't know that Alfred visits Tim every other day, he might invite the kid to just move into the loft. But it is far too early for that, and not safe, besides. He sometimes still wakes up confused, and Jason's nightmares occasionally get violent.
"I… I'd be welcome?" Tim asks, eyes wide, turning his head to look at Jimmy.
"You are always welcome," Jimmy tells him.
Tim's smile is wide and bright. "Then I'd love to come to dinner."
