Jason, Tim and the other characters do not belong to me, I'm just playing with them for a bit. The titles comes from a line in the song Dreaming by Smallpools. I don't own that either.

Jason was not Tim's friend. He wasn't pleasant, he wasn't entirely stable, and sometimes he just plain scared Tim. But there was one thing Jason was, and that was ruthless. Tim needed ruthless, so Jason it was.

Tim sat on Jason's couch, patiently waiting for his erstwhile "brother" to return. The shabby apartment had been inspected, the traps had been disarmed, and now Tim had nothing to do but wait. Wait and smirk about his discovery that Jason Todd, the Red Hood, had the largest collection Broadway musical soundtracks Tim had ever seen. Tim had never given much thought to what Jason did with his leisure time. If forced to guess he would have assumed Jason spent his non-vigilante related time throwing things at people in bars and maybe playing a first person shooter or two. Lip syncing Seasons of Love would not have cracked the top one hundred of Tim's guesses. He'd assumed that if Jason listened to music at all it was exclusively thrash metal. It didn't matter one way or another but it reminded Tim just how little he knew of the older man. Tim hoped he wasn't misjudging Jason's suitability for the mission as badly as he'd misjudged his musical tastes.

Tim heard the lock click. Then there was a pause. A very long pause. Tim knew Jason must have realized someone had broken in. Finally the door flew open. Jason stood in the doorway, a pistol in either hand. Tim had expected this. He sat motionless on the couch as Jason levelled one gun at his head while scanning the studio apartment with the other. Finally Jason was satisfied that there were no other intruders and he relaxed slightly. He did not however lower his gun.

"No," Jason said firmly, his voice only slightly muffled by his hood.

"Pardon?" Tim asked.

"Whatever it is you want, the answer is no."

Tim smiled. "I think you might want to at least hear the offer first."

"I'll pass." Jason was removing his hood though, which Tim took to be a good sign.

"B will hate it," Tim said with a hint of a smile.

"There are a lot of things he hates, kid. I think I can manage to piss him off without your help." Jason had lower the pistol slightly.

"Yeah, but how many of those things involve Talia Al Ghul?"

Jason paused carefully. "Talia and I aren't allies. We have an understanding is all. And if she needs something from me she can come to me directly."

Tim shrugged. "Or she can't."

Jason was still wearing his domino mask but even with his eyes obscured Tim could tell that he was concerned. "Whatever trouble she's in is probably her own doing. I don't get involved in her affairs."

"Not even if it involved Joker?"

"Get out!" Jason yelled, the pistol pointed back at Tim's head. "I don't know what game you're playing but I'm not interested."

Tim bit his lip. "I'll spell it out: B is trying to save her but he has certain… 'lines' he doesn't cross and I don't think Talia can be saved without crossing those lines. Look, I don't like Talia, but I hate Joker more."

"And you want what? an attack dog? An expendable pawn you can throw at Joker and then let the chips fall where they may?"

"Pawns and chips? I think you're mixing your metaphors a bit. But no, I'm not looking for that. I'm looking for a partner."

Jason slowly holstered his pistols and sank down on the couch next to Tim. Tim could smell his leather jacket. "I take it you already have a plan?"

Tim nodded.

"Let's see it."

Tim knew he was in.

"Your plan is shit," Jason pronounced, glaring at the charts and blueprints that littered his coffee table.

"It can work," Tim said.

Jason shook his head and leaned back on the couch. "It really can't. For one thing you're underestimating Talia. Chances are she has a plan of her own and will just be mad at us for bumbling in and ruining it. And for another thing you're forgetting that this is the Joker we're dealing with."

"I'm not, I…" Tim started, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Trust me, you don't know what he's capable of. You think you do, but you don't. He isn't rational, he can't be predicted, you can't chart out his moves on a pretty little spreadsheet."

"That's why there's contingency plans," Tim insisted, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

Jason shook his head again. Regardless of what Tim (and most of Gotham) might have thought he didn't actually hate the kid. Maybe he hated what he stood for, and maybe they didn't exactly always get along, but honestly he liked the kid. He'd offered more than once to let Tim be his sidekick; he didn't make that offer to people he didn't like. But despite that, he most definitely did not like Tim's plan. It was cold and pretty and neat and logical (just like Tim) but it would never work in practice. Those types of plans never did.

"Then how would you do it?" Tim asked, exasperated.

Jason smiled slightly.

Thoughts? Any feedback would be greatly appreciate. Thanks for reading.