Chapter 10

Alright, I am so excited to post this chapter! I love it, and I am so close to having this be the first story of mine to break the 10,000 view barrier! Plus, If I get 6 reviews, I could pull my review count to 30: another all time high for me! Actually, this story just passed up my second highest in reviews, Touch Starved, which has 20. All right, back to the story! So exciting!

Jason was now moving on to 'what Dick did for fun'. Seeing as they were unable to leave the manor (as they were supposed to be on vacation) they were relegated to indoor activities. Of course when you were in a mansion, and had a large enough imagination, there wasn't much of a difference between indoor and outdoor activities. (That was Jason's personal philosophy, anyway. Bruce and Alfred felt differently.)

Unfortunately, Dick didn't seem to quite understand the concept of 'personal fun time'. All he wanted to do was serve Jason! And seriously, if that didn't just suck all the fun out of covertly manipulating your siblings into doing what you wanted. And forget pranks! This kid would just believe that he was being punished for inadequacy or something. He couldn't prank the kid because the kid would always let himself be pranked! It was a stupid situation.

And yes, Jason knew he was deflecting from said situation because he was freaking out.

"Come on, Dick. What do you do when you aren't serving Daddy?"

"I sleep, and wait for him to come back. And I punish myself. And I think of ways to serve Daddy better."

"Well, aside from sleeping, we're not going to do any of those things." Jason tried to think back to what Dick had tried to drag him into in his Robin days. Of course, Dick hadn't tried doing that as much back then, due to all his Bruce problems. So maybe what Dick tried to drag Damian into…

"We are going to go swimming, watch a movie, and eat cookies." That was normal, right? Damian was always complaining about the movies Dick made him watch (and seriously, Dick pulled everyone into those stupid movie nights) and cookies were always good. All the batkids had liked those… and swimming was a normal thing for kids. Jason hadn't been much for it; living on the streets, water had seemed better used for more practical things. But most kids seemed to like it.

"I don't know how to swim. Daddy says if I start getting too independent…"

"Well, that's nice. Daddy's not here, I'm not Daddy, and things are different from now on. So the first thing we need to do is find swimsuits. I'll go get those. You start getting the ingredients out for cooking. I don't know where those are, but they're probably in about the same place as back home. Everything else seems similar enough. Chop chop, we'll meet back here in 10 minutes, you don't need to be done getting things out if this takes too long: we'll finish later. Capeesh?"

"What kind of cookies should I make?"

"We are making chocolate chip cookies. For both of us. Let's go then!" Jason moved confidently forward, making his way to the bedrooms. 'Capeesh.' 'Chop chop.' Hopefully they'd get rescued by someone from their universe soon enough. Jason quickly grabbed a set of trunks from his room, and another set from Damian's. They'd pry be about Dick's size. But before leaving the room, Jason slid against the wall.

This was the first time he'd really been away from little Dick since he'd met the kid, and everything seemed to be crashing down. He couldn't do this. He was unqualified. He was the epitome of Daddy issues, with both of his dads; the original abuser, and the emotionally repressed 'I refuse to avenge you' dad.

Besides that, he wasn't even a real superhero. He'd done too much killing for that. His issues' issues had issues, and if he had to stay here too long, he'd probably run away, find weapons, and start taking out crooks, whether there were vigilantes in this world or not. He wasn't a good role model. He wasn't a good adult. But he was all Dick had, so he'd better stop whining and start fixing Dick as best he could.

He wasn't ideal, or even third rate. But he would try. No one could say he wouldn't give his very best.

Jason met up with Dick as he'd said, noting that the smaller boy looked uncomfortable.

"Jason, I'm not sure Daddy would be okay with this."

"Well these are very different circumstances, and Daddy couldn't prepare for this." Well Jason's could. Not little Dick's, though.

Jason tossed the smaller trunks at Dick's chest, then gestured to a nearby bathroom. There were a million of those around the manor (it was a manor) and they were both soon changed. Now to tackle the who-knows-how-much-of-a-problem of teaching Dick to swim.

Jason even didn't know how to make sure Dick wasn't going to drown or not tell Jason he needed help, or something. Yeah, this was going to be fun.

"So, Dickie bird, let's get in." While Jason normally entered a pool in the deep end by making the largest, most annoying cannonball possible, this time he took Dick by the hand, and slowly descended the steps, knowing full well the boy wouldn't seek out comfort, and knowing that meant he needed to provide it unprompted.

"Dick, I need you to know that if you get in any trouble, or if you think you're going to sink, you need to tell me immediately. I need to know you're going to get help when you need it, or I'll get scared for you, okay?" Jason would probably notice if something were happening to Dick, but just in case, he needed to know.

"Yes Jason."

"Now the first thing you need to learn is how to float."

Jason explained the basics of floating, then gripped Dick gently on his back and stomach, holding him floating in the water.

"Ready?"

Dick nodded: Jason had told him that he didn't always need to talk when swimming, 'cause you're mouth could fill with water.

Jason let go, and Dick wobbled some, barely managing to stay atop the water, before losing his ability and sinking into the waves. Jason immediately pulled him up and against his own chest, grinning at Dick's spluttering form.

"Good first try, kiddo, you did better than me."

"Sorry, Jason."

Jason ignored the pang in his chest. "No apologizing while swimming today, okay? Just having fun and learning to swim. No sorries. Want to try again?"

"Yes, Jason." Dick looked a bit less apprehensive this time, as Jason lowered him again, before letting go.

It took a few hours, but Dick was getting the hang of swimming, and could get around the pool pretty well without help. He'd also seemed to lose pretty much all of the rigidity and strictness he'd entered with, and was now having a fabulous time splashing about.

"I'm coming for you, Dickie, there's no place to hide!" Jason cried, forcing the water aside as he strode through, fingers trailing through the water. Dick giggled, and splashed away, trying to swim fast enough to escape Jason's watery plans. Jason, though impaired by the slowness of walking through water, was able to catch up to his little charge, and pluck him straight out of the pool.

Laughing reservedly, he skimmed the boys body over the surface of the waves. He hadn't enjoyed himself like this in a long time, and he was loving it immensely. Dick was too, and especially enjoyed being caught by the water monster. Jason would pull Dick close and pretend to eat him or something, and he knew Dick considered it a hug.

If anyone back home asked, though, the Red Hood was not giving hugs. The Red Hood was pretending to be a fearsome monster that stalked the waves, and he was very cool, and Dick was probably scared. Because he was a monster and definitely not a nice person. Or a hugger. This is what he would say.

And then a bunch of the morons he was forced to associate with would say things that might almost sound like they didn't believe him. Of course Red Hood knew better, though. He was scary.

"I'm going to eat you and steal you and keep you in my secret dungeon lair." The Water Monster informed his prisoner. There, was that not scary? Cannibalism, kidnapping, and incarceration? "I decree we shall eat cookies in my secret living room layer, where we can then watch movies."

Okay, so he was a reforming monster. Dick was still scared. All that laughter? Hysteria. Obviously.