Tim was staring at him.
Stephanie was talking with her mom in the living room so Jason and Tim had gone down to the gym.
It was the first time they'd been alone together since the Tower.
Jason was doing bench presses while ignoring Tim's staring.
Tim was hanging off the pullup bar by her knees, staring at Jason.
She opened her mouth.
"Shut up."
She pouted. "I didn't even say anything."
"But you were going to say something."
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
"Don't care. Just shut it."
Tim did a few crunches and dropped down, flipping midair to land on her feet. She kicked the staff lying there into her hand. As she gave it a few spins, her eyes drifted back to him.
"So -"
"No."
"- did you know that it was me?"
He growled and put the bar on the rack. He sat up, glaring at her. "Do you think this would have happened if I'd known who you were?"
She shrugged and rested the staff across her shoulders. "Maybe. We both know you weren't actually trying to hurt me or Steph, no matter what you told Dick and Bruce. It could have been your way of keeping an eye on me, and later pushing me out of being Robin."
"The point was to get you off the streets, not let you tag along with me in addition to running around as Robin!"
Her lips quirked up. "It's not like you had much of a choice on that front. Besides, you kept me out of the fights."
"I should have done more."
"You couldn't stop me any more than Bruce could," she said with a Cheshire grin, then changed the subject. "I didn't know, by the way. About you, if that wasn't clear. If I'd known, I would have told Dick and Steph. And Cass, when she got back from Hong Kong. You know, after I confirmed you weren't a clone or something."
"Not B?" he asked, more out of curiosity than disbelief.
Between hanging out with a crime lord and hiding the location of said crime lord's safe houses, the kid clearly had no issue with keeping things from the Bat.
She rolled her eyes. "Obviously not. Bruce is… You're a touchy subject for him. For Dick and Alfred too, but you know how Bruce gets when strong emotions come into play. If he found out you were alive, all the grief, guilt, joy, and everything else would overwhelm him so he'd start compartmentalizing, which is the exact opposite of what you need considering how mad you seem to be at the Bats. I bet he's trying to confirm you're you right now, if he hasn't already, then he'll try to talk you down from this whole crime lord thing. You don't need to be talked down, you need to be talked with. That makes Dick the better option. He wouldn't be happy about the crime lord thing, but he'd be willing to listen because it's you. Bruce really should have only been brought in once you were ready to wait him out and had us as backup."
He snorted and laid back down. "I doubt any amount of time or backup would help him get over the fact I'm a murderer."
She walked up to stand over his head, arms crossed and staff leaning against her shoulder. "He loves you. You're his son. He might not be acting like it because emotions are hard and Bruce sucks at dealing with them, but he would do anything to get you back. He'd even put up with a little murder."
"A little murder, she says," he snorted.
"It's not like you're blowing up random banks or schools. I wouldn't be here if you were. We might not like killing, but we've worked with people who kill before. Heck, Diana doesn't always pull her punches and she's one of Bruce's closest friends. Then there's that whole thing he had with Talia back when Dick was in the cape."
"They got married. You don't have to be weird about it."
"They got married? Dick only said they hooked up a few times. Wait, are they still married?"
Jason opened his mouth, then closed it. He stared at the wall for a second before pulling out his phone.
Me: Are you and b still married?
T: Not legally, but in all the ways that matter, yes. What is this about?
Me: Does he know that?
T: We never got a divorce so I don't see why not.
Me: Because your psycho dad tricked him into the marriage!
T: The marriage is still binding nonetheless.
Me: Ok so he definitely doesn't know, great
Me: How does that work with Selina
Me: Can't see you just ignoring b cheating on you
T: Your father can have his harlot if he wishes. He is still mine at the end of the day. What is this all about? Does it have something to do with your impulsive kidnapping of the Robins and your father trying to track me down?
Me: Kind of and he's not my dad
Me: Also Selina's not a harlot
Me: Talk to you later
T: You are lucky another matter is taking up my attention at this time. I expect a full explanation at some point and you best hope your father doesn't discover what I'm doing because of your actions.
Me: What are you up to
T: That is not your concern for the moment. I will call you when I have time for your explanation.
He snorted and shoved his phone back into his pocket. He looked up at Tim, who was giving him an innocuous smile as if she hadn't just been reading over his shoulder. "Well, there's your answer."
"I've actually got more questions now, but we need to get back on track."
"Look -"
"And this just proved my point. Talia's an assassin. Her restrictions on killing are way looser than yours - if she even has any - and apparently Bruce married her. There's no way he'd give up having you back. I bet the only reason he hasn't tried to bring you home already is that he's worried you'll attack one of us or something. Despite my valid arguments that it would go against your clear moral code, someone got it in his head that you want to really hurt Steph and me."
"Probably because I was going to really hurt you and Blondie."
"No, you weren't. You're just a big softie who needs to be hugged by his dad. And probably also go to therapy, but same so let's not talk about that part."
"Shut up," he grunted, returning to his presses. He didn't need Bruce to hug him. He needed Bruce to prove he gave a shit. About Jason, about his death, about the kids he was bringing into the fight when that fight had already killed one kid. "Bruce doesn't care about me, and he doesn't care about you."
"Uh-huh. Sure."
"Kid -"
"Considering I had to pick up the shattered pieces of Bruce after you died while you got to run off and play nice with the League of Assassins, I'd say I know more about how Bruce feels about you than you do."
"I wasn't playing nice with the League of Assassins," he huffed, ignoring the rest of her statement. Bruce was an amazing actor when he wanted to be. Tim could have been fooled. Jason wouldn't know the truth until Bruce proved himself.
She cocked her head and pulled a knife out of her boot. "Really? Because even if we ignore you casually texting Talia, this would still look like a League knife."
"I told you two to stay out of the armory."
She put the knife back in her boot with a smile.
"Do you two ever listen?"
"We listen when it matters."
"Like when B tells you to stay away from a very dangerous criminal," he muttered under his breath. Then, before she could go off again about how he wasn't dangerous, he said, "I use the League's resources and owe Talia one, that's it."
She snickered. "Come on, you don't have to be embarrassed about training with the League. I trained under Lady Shiva for a short time and she's basically an on-and-off-again member or something."
Jason froze, the bar against his chest.
Robin trained under Lady Shiva, who was one of the best fighters in the world. Tim trained under the woman who participated in fights to the death like they were calming morning walks. The kid trained under the woman who, during the search for Jason's mother, very likely would have killed Bruce if Jason hadn't intervened. Little Red trained under the woman who'd killed many of her masters and students just because she wanted to test them. His little brother trained under the mercenary who'd handed a baby off to David Cain and never looked back until she thought that child was interesting enough to fight to the death.
Frowning, Tim dropped her staff and went around to Jason's head to grab the bar.
"I'm fine," he muttered, but let her help him put it back on the rack. He sat up and poked her in the forehead. "What do you mean you trained under Shiva? What was Bruce thinking having you do that?"
"I mean, it wasn't that he had me do it. It just kind of happened. It's a long story, but I ran into her while doing some extra training in Paris and she agreed to teach me some things while we were running the same mission."
"And where was Bruce during this?"
"Gotham."
Of course, where else would he be? "What were you doing in Europe alone? When was this?"
"The summer I turned thirteen. And I was supposed to be staying at this martial arts school, but then there was this gang with a bioweapon and like I said, it's a long story. Bruce didn't even know until after it was all over and I reported back to him."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why didn't you report back to him as soon as you found out about Shiva and the bioweapon?"
"I didn't know who she was at the time, and I had everything under control."
"You were running around with a bloodthirsty mercenary!"
"And I had everything under control," she repeated.
"That…" He groaned. "What did your parents think about Bruce Wayne shipping you off to Paris for the summer?"
"Well, first of all, Bruce didn't ship me off anywhere. I wanted to go because I thought I needed more training than just what Bruce, Dick, and Alfred had taught me. And I just told my parents I wanted to spend some time in Europe during the break and thought the school looked interesting. They think I spent the whole two months there and never found out about the trip to Hong Kong."
"Hong Ko-Did Bruce know about the trip to Hong Kong?"
"It was in my post-mission report."
Jason put his face in his hands. "This is like Guatemala and Ethiopia all in one. Kid, how have you survived this long? And don't you dare say you had everything under control. You went trailing along after a criminal barely a year after I followed a criminal into a warehouse and got beaten and exploded for my troubles. And at least Sheila Fucking Haywood was my sorry excuse for an egg donor and not some mystery mercenary. What part of doing that - without even telling B - sounded like a good idea?"
Her shoulders hitched up and she looked away. "Well, when you put it like that it's going to sound bad."
"There's no way to make it sound good!"
"Look, that was years ago. Sorry for bringing it up. Can we talk about something else now?"
"Depends. Do you want to talk about your decision to stalk a crime lord?"
"Okay, that's not fair," she huffed, throwing her hands in the air. "You were stalking me first!"
"Which is the point in the undercover opp when you burn the alias and lay low," Jason snorted. "You're not supposed to respond by aggravating the crime lord into making you his plus one at as many future meetings as you can talk yourself into."
"You're not just some crime lord. I had plenty of proof that you wouldn't be a danger to me before I approached you on that roof."
"I attacked and kidnapped you."
"That was Robin, not Olivia."
"Both of which are still you!" Jason laid down, done with the conversation. "B needs to put a leash on you."
"Back at you, Hood."
He flipped her off and she giggled.
She picked the staff back up and started working through her forms. "So how'd you get Talia to play nice anyways? Dick told me Talia doesn't like us and gets possessive of Bruce."
He chuckled. "Yeah, he told me the same. I'm not saying you should go anywhere near Talia because you really really shouldn't, but it's actually just Dick she hates. I'm betting it's because he was the possessive jerk back then who probably Richard-blocked her and B all the time."
"TMI," she groaned, nose scrunching up, "and did you seriously just use Richard for…"
"Hell yeah, I did," he chuckled. "I decided back when I first met Dick to start doing it. If he's going to call himself a dick, then I get to use his name as a substitute for all forms of the word. As a bonus, Alfred couldn't complain about my language and B always looked constipated."
"Steph's going to steal that the moment she hears about it."
Jason looked up from the carrots he was chopping and glanced over the room. Stephanie was splayed out to take up the whole couch and Tim was sitting sideways in a rocking chair. As she had been since her mom left, Stephanie was pouting. Tim had tried to cheer her up but was now focused on the action movie that was playing while his hands fiddled with a knife.
As he watched the kid spin the knife around his fingers in a similar way to how Jason had seen Dick play with wingdings and batarangs a lifetime ago, something occurred to the crime lord. "Hey, so the Bats actually saved you from Cortés, didn't they? They were just using the trafficking charges to scoop you up and you lied about sneaking away."
"Yeah, mostly. The bats were there to save me and they only found evidence of the trafficking while they were there, but I did try to sneak away. I wanted to try to keep the others from finding out about Little Red, but that didn't work out since Dick overheard some goons talking about it, causing Steph to spill the whole story."
"Should have done it sooner," she muttered, still watching the tv.
"Yeah, you should have," Jason agreed, earning a glare from the blonde.
"I mean, it doesn't matter really," Tim said, shrugging. "Cass told me later that she'd seen me shoot at the guard and call myself your Robin so B would have -"
"You shot someone!?" Stephanie gasped as Jason shouted, "You called yourself what!?"
"Yes? Cass didn't tell you?" Tim said to Steph, then turned to Jason to add, "And you didn't hear? I figured Cortés would have spread the news all over Gotham out of revenge."
"Oh man, this is your villain origin story!"
"What? No, it's not!"
"You are not my Robin! Little Red is not Robin!"
"I know! I just said that to freak her out while I waited for one of the others to find me!"
"You shot someone!"
"I just grazed his wrist to disarm him! It's no different than when we throw batarangs at people's hands! I would have thrown the knife, but I needed two weapons!"
"Why would you think telling her you're my Robin is a good idea?"
"I don't know! It sounded good at the time! You would have agreed if you'd heard the setup!"
Stephanie threw her arm over her face as Jason gave Tim an unimpressed look.
"I'm telling Kon on you," she muttered.
"What? No! You know how he gets!"
"You're shooting people and calling yourself a villain's Robin."
"He's barely a villain. He's more of an anti-hero, really."
"I'm telling Kon. KON! SUPERBOY! IT'S YOUR TURN TO TRY TO TALK SENSE INTO THE IDIOT!" she screamed and both boys flinched at the noise.
Tim crossed his arms and pouted. "I already tried calling Kon. That was my first escape idea."
Rubbing his ears, Jason said, "I'm not an idiot, you know. I chose this safe house because the perimeter is lined with anti-noise generators to keep the Supers away. I even added a few wards around the place to prevent magical detection. So stop trying to escape."
"No," she snapped.
Tim fully turned in his seat to look at Jason with wide, curious eyes. "You know magic."
"I wouldn't go that far. I just picked up a few things during my training."
"Will you teach me?"
Jason laughed and went to put his chopped veggies in a pot. "Kid, I doubt you'd be able to meditate for five seconds, let alone the hours it takes to develop the inner power needed."
"And you'd be right," Stephanie snickered.
Tim flipped backward, half hanging off the chair and making it rock wildly. "I can meditate!"
"Meditating and hyper-focusing are not the same thing, Tim," Stephanie said with the cadence of repetition.
"That's not how Dick described it."
"Because he can't meditate either," Jason said.
Stephanie nodded and gestured to him.
Tim sent them both a look. "Can you go back to fighting with each other?"
Tim looked up from his work when he heard Stephanie yell his name. He went upstairs to see she was standing in front of the couch, glaring at the tv.
He turned to see she was watching the morning news just as the reporter said, "- of unknown assailants broke into Arkham Asylum with the assistance of a guard at 2:11 a.m. this morning to free Joker. The current locations of all involved are unknown and - as unneeded as it probably is - the public is once again reminded that the Joker is considered extremely dangerous. Do not approach him for any reason and stay away from anything bearing his usual markings. Pictures and information on him and his current accomplices can be found on our website at GCBN dot com forward-slash Joker. Any information on their whereabouts should be reported by calling the GCPD's hotline, texting the Watch, or posting on Oracle's Eyes. Now back to the studio to -"
Stephanie muted the tv and the two shared a look.
"This is the first time Joker's been out since Jason came back to town."
"Us being missing is going to make Bruce and Dick's paranoia over everyone being within reach while the Joker's loose even worse."
"Especially since Bruce knows about Jason."
"The three of them are going to tear Gotham apart until they find Joker."
"Shit," they both hissed.
"Please tell me you're almost done," Stephanie said
"Give me an hour."