Chapter 13

Happy Valentines Day! Also, Happy International Fanworks Day!

Jason woke early again, earlier than last night, his body hyped with energy no amount of in-house romping would be able to purge. Dick still slumbered peacefully in his arms, twitching occasionally. Jason hadn't been thinking about it last night, but now that he considered it, the boy must still be having nightmares. Jason wished there was a way to chase the nightmares off. It would probably require a psychiatrist. These weren't normal nightmares.

However, with all the energy buzzing inside him, Jason had to at least think. How were they going to escape? What were they going to do when Tim and Damian showed up? If they showed up? Wasn't it more likely that B would find them before that happened? What if he didn't?

Jason's arms tightened around the precious burden in his arms. If B didn't find them; if they couldn't go back, then he would take care of his little brothers. All of them. B would find them though, so it was a moot point. Still. If he had to find a way out from his side.

Jason spent the next few hours mulling over possibilities and probabilities, but all he could come up with was that unless this world had some fantastic resource that was around despite the presence of superheroes, he was probably stuck. He could check, of course, but the probability was that they didn't have anything near that kind of technology.

Jason wouldn't be able to create anything like it either. Maybe if Roy was here… but he wasn't, so it didn't matter. Replacement would be showing up soon, though, so maybe he'd get something done.

Finally, when Dick started to stir, Jason moved from out of bed, stretching out his back with a sound far too reminiscent of rice krispies. He was probably getting old. The end of his career was nigh - might as well accept it and move on. Get the grieving process over with. Nothing else he could do, anyways.

Jason moved over to the bathroom to throw on some clothes, already knowing the basic plan of the day. Which was sad, because Jason didn't really do plans like that, so he'd have to be really, really bored to make one.

When he finally walked out of the bathroom, the bed was made, and Dick was nowhere in sight.

"Birdy? Where are you?" Jason asked, walking into the room, and wondering if Dick was already in the kitchen.

"Here, Jason."

Jason nearly jumped at the unxpected voice, half whirling to see Dick standing beside the bathroom door, looking a bit confused.

"Umm. You need to go?"

"No, I was waiting for you. Did I scare you? I'm sorry."

"No, no, I'm fine. Just didn't see you there."

"Daddy says no one wants to see me, so I have rules about where I should stand and stuff. So I don't get underfoot."

"Well there aren't any rules like that here, and I like seeing you. You can stand wherever you want."

"Yes, Jason."

Jason had the sinking feeling that where Dick wanted to stand was out of the way. No kid should ever feel like that.

"Whelp, we've got breakfast to make." Which was getting tedious, actually. Breakfast wasn't even necessary! Did he really have to make the thing every day? Honestly, how did people do it?

Jason was tempted to simply let Dick make and eat breakfast, and he'd just sit around or something, and not eat. 'Cause… doing this… every day… Jason decided he shouldn't. Making Dick do all the work was bad, and not eating breakfast would only confuse the child.

Jason was annoyed with this (responsible) turn of events, and felt a bit out of sorts, as he trudged down to the kitchen. It was a hard feeling in his chest, this annoyance, and a bit of a burning behind his eyes. But even deeper than that he thought he felt… satisfied. Somehow. Even though this wasn't at all what he wanted to do!

On impulse, Jason turned a bit and scooped Dick's small frame into his arms. Dick started a little before settling in comfortably, melting himself against Jason's chest. It felt nice somehow, and that was weird, because Jason didn't like contact.

He didn't figure it was because he somehow magically liked the kid enough to want to cuddle all of a sudden. Maybe… of course. Daddy would have trained Dick to react to being held by making things as good for Daddy as possible. Jason ran a distracted hand through Dick's hair, feeling the trembles under his fingers as Dick contained his happiness. Continuing to pet the child, Jason walked into the kitchen. Well. Time to get this show on the road…

Following an uneventful breakfast, Jason decided to teach Dick some basics of self defence. Who knew what the kid might need?

Once they had cleared a bit of a small space out of the living room, Jason settled into a very basic defensive pose. Best to teach some defence before offence.

Dick mirrored him to the best of his ability, and Jason gave him a few tips on how to fix his stance. Jason then demonstrated how to block a basic punch, then going in to punch the kid in exaggerated slow motion.

Dick blocked pretty well, but there seemed to be something weird in his eyes. Maybe if Jason had been feeling more responsible, he would have asked after it, but he was so tired of being responsible. He was so done adulting. So. Done.

Even if he knew he'd do more of it later.

But for now he continued with slow motion attacks, repeating the moves again and again, until he could go a bit faster and faster. Of course, he wasn't stupid. He never went full speed or close, or even full speed for a normal person. Nothing that couldn't be pulled back, and nothing that at all ran the risk of hurting the kid.

And yet the something in Dick's eyes grew brighter, and Jason almost wanted to ask after it, and yet he didn't, because responsible time was over and he just wanted to go back to beating up criminals. At this point, Dick could be whimpering, and Jason may not have stopped.

It was stubborn. It was rash. But Jason had just decided that he was not going to stop, and he was going to train this child, and fix him, and anyone who didn't like it could just-

Jason slowly swept his leg under Dick's prompting the boy to jump, before crumpling in pain.

All the anger Jason had felt flew away faster than he'd thought possible at the sight of Dick's small body prostrate on the ground. The adrenaline faded, and Jason was left with a soul crushing guilt that left no room for any excuse.

He was on his knees beside Dick in an instant, pulling the featherlight child into his arms (no child should ever be so light). Running a gentle hand over the boy's forehead, Jason brushed the bangs back from his face.

"Hey, Birdy, can you tell me what happened? Are you alright?"

Dick's eyes were slightly unfocused, and Jason could see the faint sheen of repressed tears. "I'm okay, Jason. I'm sorry. I'll do better next time!"

Jason continued stroking Dick's hair, then acted on instinct and kissed Dick's cheek. Dick gasped, and stared adoringly at Jason. He opened his mouth to say something, but Jason silenced him gently.

"I'm not angry at all, little bird. Not the tiniest bit. This is my fault: I should've made sure you were okay sooner. I'm not mad at you at all. But can you tell me what hurt you?"

Because Jason knows it wasn't a hit from him. He'd never actually made any contact with the boy besides a light tap. But he did have his own sneaking suspicion.

"It's just one of the hurting times." Dick informed him unworridly. "Daddy says I shouldn't be able to defend myself since I don't deserve it and I'll never need to anyway. But you said that Daddy didn't know how things would happen here, so I should start my rules over. So I didn't think I needed to tell you. Was I wrong?"

"Well, I'd like for you to be able to defend yourself, but I do think I need to know when your… hurting times are. Can you tell me?"

"Well… when I do bad stuff. I guess. I don't think about it much. I just obey Daddy! And now you."

"Ah. I see." It occurred to Jason that he actually needed to start really thinking things through at this point. Get a real chance to turn everything over. And, probably, Dick did too. This was all so new to him; so strange. Surely the kid needed a chance to think all this over.

"You know what, Dick? I think we both need to think some'a this stuff over. I know this all seems pretty weird to you. It's weird for me too. You wanna take some alone time to try to figure this out?"

"If you want to, Jason."

"I think so." Jason stood up, hefting the child onto his hip. "Now, when you're done, just head over to the movie room, and help me pick out something to watch, okay?"

Dick nodded. The movie room was the sorta living room where they'd watched Frozen. "Okay."

Dick trudged into the other room, eyes on the ground as his head spun. Everything… had been so overwhelming. So strange. From Jason's strange rules to a new universe… The easiest thing to do was simply obey. But Jason's rules went against Daddy's a lot. So even that was confusing!

Dick wanted consistency. He wanted Daddy. But the thing to do, right now was really decide if he could obey Jason's rules or not. The ones that were different from Daddy's. Dick would've done this sooner, but everything had just been so busy! Dick didn't know what would happen if he decided he couldn't follow Jason's rules. He'd never been in a place like this before.

Surely, Jason would be terribly angry if Dick decided he couldn't follow the man's rules. Dick gulped. He didn't want to make Jason angry. Not when Jason had been so kind to him!

But if he decided Jason's rules were against Daddy's, Dick didn't have a choice. Sighing, Dick sat down and rubbed his temples. Daddy didn't encourage thinking. Maybe Dick would be punished worse than ever ever before when he got home. Dick hoped so. That would be easy. Dick loved Jason super much, but sometimes he wished Jason would go away because he made everything so confusing. Which was an awful, horrible thing to think, and Dick was a hideous child even for thinking that. But none of this was helping him decide anything.

Dick sighed. He was only used to thinking about Daddy. But it was time to get down to business. Daddy had given him rules and said never to break the rules.

But even Daddy couldn't have expected this! But Daddy was always right! But if he was in a different place, didn't he need different rules to go with the different place? And Jason was Daddy's son too, so Jason was in charge to give him rules too. Dick supposed it came down to whether Jason was in charge to give rules or not. Daddy had never said anything about Dick obeying Daddy's son, but he couldn't have known Jason existed. If Jason had existed… if Dick was the most worthless person ever, then Jason had to be worth more than him, right?

Right. So Jason was Daddy's kid, and worth so much more than Dick was. Dick was sure Jason could give him orders.

But… Jason kept talking about Dick being worth something. Which was weird. Maybe Jason was lying, but it was odd that he seemed so… devoted to the lie. Dick liked being told he was worthless. Jason couldn't be doing this to make Dick feel happy (Jason shouldn't be doing anything to make Dick feel happy, but Dick would think about that later). So why would he say those things? Maybe Dick wasn't worthless where Jason came from. It was an odd thing to think about.

But Dick was sure he was worthless enough to be worthless in any universe. Maybe being nice to people made Jason happy in general. Jason certainently seemed very nice! Next to Daddy, Jason was the nicest person Dick had ever met! (Not that Dick could remember meeting any other people, but that was normal for worthless people like him). That was probably it. Jason like making people happy, so he was making Dick happy. Because he was stuck with Dick and there was no one else to be nice to.

Dick felt very sorry for Jason, being stuck here with Dick. Dick would try to be as nice as he possibly ever could, to make things as great for Jason as possible. Yes. That would be wonderful.

Jason's fist smashed a hole in the wall. He'd cover it up later. Right now he was MADMADMAD and there wasn't anything to properly fight to get rid of his anger. Everything about this was wrong.

Wrong. Dick being so badly traumatised by Bruce.

Wrong. Jason taking care of the Golden Boy.

Wrong. Jason not being able to fight any criminals.

Wrong. Jason not being able to smoke! He wanted a light, for goodness sake!

But no. Here he was, the responsible adult, taking care of a kid 60 shades too pale, and 500 pounds too light. Jason tried not to breathe too heavily as he peeled himself off the wall, adjusted a picture to cover the hole, and tried to look like a composed, not crumbling adult.

He couldn't do this. Dick would be fine without him for one night. Jason needed to go punch the underworld in the face. At least get a grasp on what sort of crime they had here! He'd leave tonight. Dick would be fine. Jason just… needed to blow off steam before he blew up here. Replacement and Demon Spawn would be here soon. For better or for worse.

Replacement was definitely for the better. If B hadn't got them home by that time, the big brain kid could probably find a way. The real question was Demon Spawn. Damian. What would he do? If this were anyone but Dickie, Jason would say there was no chance for anything but catastrophe. But this was Dickie, who was definitely the Demon's all time favorite person, so maybe the chances of calamity were only around 98%.

Damian would probably try to be helpful, since this was Dick. But Damian was not good with this sort of thing. And besides: all the batboys minus the real Dick under one roof? WIth little to no crime fighting? Armageddon. Definitely.

Jason was in the middle of planning how exactly to acquire firearms and do vigilante stuff when there weren't any other superheroes, when Dick walked in.

"Thank you, Jason. Thinking time was very nice."

Jason grinned at the kid, and knew that if the boy had been trained, he would be seeing the glass around the edges. Cracked, fragile glass, shattering and screaming…

"Jason, are you alright?"

Right, the kid had been trained to pick up on when his 'masters' were in distress.

"I'll be fine, kiddo. Now, come on, do you know how to play hide and seek?"

Jason figured this would be a good way to train the kid in places to hide in case they were attacked or something, and it would let him judge a whole bunch of the kid's other skills.

"No, Jason."

"Alright, at first, I hide somewhere in this room, while you count to 30 outside. Then you come find me. If you find me, you win. If you can't find me after 15 minutes, I win."

Dick smiled. "That sounds like fun! Okay, Jason!" Dick ran outside the doorway quickly. Jason was just wondering why he was so excited all of a sudden. Oh well. Maybe he'd figure it out later.

Jason looked around the room before selecting a fairly easy but still partially challenging hiding spot.

He finished adjusting himself as Dick hit 28, and had settled down by 30. The sound of light footsteps entered the room, and Jason could just imagine Dick's head whipping every which way as he tried to look everywhere at once. Dick's footsteps dashed around the room as the boy no doubt tried looking everywhere at once.

Obviously, Dick had never needed to search for a hiding person before.

Dick quickly paused in running around like a headless chicken, and seemed to start to think things over. Critical thinking skills. Good.

Dick then began to search inside the cabinets and behind curtains, quickly eliminating easy hiding places. Pausing, Dick then started checking under chairs before pacing around in confusion.

Jason, of course, couldn't see any of this, but he could guess most of what was happening from what scuffling and blurry shapes he could make out.

Dick then proceeded to check impossible places, like under the couch. Jason was pretty sure Dick even looked under the rug.

Eventually, Dick collapsed against the couch in frustration. Immediately, the boy jumped up with a squeal, and Jason popped his head up from under the couch's blanket, where he had been hiding among the lumps of pillows.

"Looks like you found me."

Dick gave a surprised giggle, then bounced on his toes, laughing. "You hid super well, Jason! I checked under the carpet!"

Apparently, Jason had been right.

"You did pretty well for your first time. You sure you're not a professional hide-and-seeker?"

Dick shook his head seriously, but he was trying to hide his grin. "Nuh uh. This is my first time!"

"Really?" Jason raised a fake skeptical eyebrow. "Well then, this calls for celebration. We're gonna get some ice cream, and then we're gonna watch a movie." It occured to Jason that he needed some new things to do with Dick… didn't too much screen time hurt the eyes or something? Dick, however, did not seem to have any such reservations.

"Wow! Thanks Jason! May we watch your favorite movie?"

"Uhh… I don't think you'd like that one very much."

"No?"

"Yeah… it's probably a bit scary for you."

"Are there agents from…" Dick's voice trailed off as he glanced around, almost as if looking for monsters in the shadows. "Child Protective Services?"

Jason almost choked. "Uhhh no."

Dick let out a sigh of relief. "Well, I can't think of anything scarier than that."

"I think we're probably do better with Finding Nemo. The dad in that story is really great with his kid and he learns some important stuff about being a father." Jason would probably have to skip the very beginning with Coral dying… but Dick would still understand the movie well enough without it.)

"Okay! Let's go find Nemo!"

Jason smiled and made some response, but didn't tell Dick that Finding Nemo had been a story he'd liked a lot as a kid, before and after Bruce took him in. As the two settled down, Dick in Jason's lap, and after Jason had skipped the first few minutes of the movie (with a brief toned down explanation of the setting) Jason's mind dredged up everything he had tried to put behind him.

I admit that I didn't expect Jason to become so central to my story, but next chapter is going to be all Jason Todd, what he thinks, how he feels, and why he does so. Funny how stories take a life of their own!