The rumors at school are flying around at crazy speeds, and despite being back at school full-time, Jason has been trying his best to stay out of the rumors' way.

Well, at first he tries his best to stay out of the way of the rumors. And at first, it even goes okay. Then the news eventually comes out that "the Joker's kid," that Tim is staying with the Waynes. That's when things go kind of… Sideways.

"What, like you thought I wouldn't jump in if they were saying stuff like that about him?" Jason puts forward, stopping in his tracks as a challenge.

Bruce sighs and keeps walking down the empty school hallway toward the front door.

Unfortunately, that means Jason has to keep walking too, if only to make sure Bruce hears the rest of his argument. Scowling, Jason catches up with Bruce and adds, "Tim isn't even here to defend himself! And even if he was, he shouldn't have to, and-"

"And you shouldn't have to, either," Bruce says evenly.

"Yeah, like the teachers are doing anything about it," Jason mutters.

"Rumors about unknown people are one thing, rumors about classmates and classmates' families are another," Bruce says, but as Jason puffs up to continue arguing, Bruce adds. "Which is why, when I was alone with the principal, I made sure she knew about my expectations on how these rumors will be dealt with as pertaining to our family."

Jason deflates a little. "Dealt with how?"

"Severely," Bruce says, a firm protectiveness filling his voice.

Jason smirks to himself and follows Bruce out.

Once they're in the car and Jason's greeted Alfred, Jason says, careful to keep his tone casual, "So I'm out of school early today."

"What an astute observation," Alfred says dryly, not lifting his gaze from the road.

"Yeah, yeah," Jason says with a laugh. "But I was thinking, maybe that means we could go down to the Cave earlier tonight?"

"Are you saying you think you should be rewarded with extra time to get ready to return to patrol? And this is due to your physical threats to the other students based on their own vague comments about your family, for which you were given a strong warning and early let-out rather than two days of in-school suspension, and having that sentence switched only based on the points I made to the principal?" Bruce says in a very specific tone.

Jason knows that tone. That tone is a trap. Jason's probably in too deep to get out of it though, so, with a shrug, Jason says anyway, "Yeah, pretty much."

Unexpectedly, Bruce gives a chuckle. "Better luck next time. We'll go downstairs at the normal time."

Huh. Bruce must be more upset about what the other students said than Jason thought, if Bruce is letting Jason off that easy. Jason settles back into his seat and changes the conversation to lighter topics, still thinking about going down to the Cave.

Now that he's healed up, he's been concentrating on getting ready to be active as Robin again. The time he's recently spent in the Cave running comms and sorting through evidence and stuff is good, but it doesn't come close to running through the streets with Batman.

The problem now is how he'll do that. It's not a problem with his strength training or his speed training or anything like that. All of that's been going fine. The problem is the sick feeling he gets in his stomach when he looks at the Robin uniform. To this point, he's been able to avoid putting the Robin suit back on, but Jason's pretty sure Bruce has noticed that avoidance and will say something soon, probably some completely awkward attempts at emotion that both of them would rather not deal with.

So Jason's goal tonight is to put the Robin suit on again. He's been avoiding it, but there's really no reason to avoid it, right? It's just nerves, nothing big. This will be fine. It'll work.


"That didn't work," Jason says between counting his breaths.

"No need to speak just yet," Alfred chides gently. "Focus on the breathing exercise-"

"It's okay, I'm okay," Jason says. He takes a couple more careful breaths, rubbing his hands across his bare sides to ground himself further. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, it's fine."

"Master Jason, it is not fine," Alfred says sternly. "You have just experienced a panic attack."

"I noticed that," Jason says, but it comes out more weary than the snarky way he'd intended to say it. That's probably a good thing, though. He sighs.

From his spot kneeling on the ground, Alfred reaches out a hand and pauses, hovering his hand in the air above Jason's bare shoulder.

Jason leans closer, leaning into Alfred's hand, basking in the warmth.

They stay there for a moment, not nearly long enough in Jason's opinion.

"It would likely be best to get some clothes on you," Alfred says mildly. "The Cave air is not intended to be bathing suit weather, after all."

Jason looks down at himself. After frantically pulling off almost all of the suit in his panic, he's wearing just the shorts of the underlayer of the Robin costume, plus a single sock on his left foot. A snort bursts out of him. "It does look kinda like a swimsuit."

Alfred's mustache twitches in amusement. "Indeed."

Jason makes himself stand, then offers Alfred a hand up from kneeling. "I guess I'll… Put on pajamas, maybe?"

"Returning to training after a panic attack is not advised," Alfred agrees. He scoops up the right sock of the Robin suit from the floor and raises an eyebrow. "I will tidy up here."

"You're the best," Jason calls back as he heads back into the changing rooms.

Putting on a set of pajamas he keeps in his locker, Jason sighs to himself, "What even just happened?"

It's a stupid question. He knows what happened. He put on the Robin uniform for the first time, feeling uneasy the whole time but trying to surge forward. By the time he'd stepped out of the changing room and made it maybe ten steps across the next room, he'd started a full-blown panic attack and stumbled around the Cave, shedding the uniform as fast as he could while Alfred tried to calm him down.

"Stupid," Jason mutters. "So stupid."

"Trauma is not stupid, Master Jason."

Apparently Alfred was still close enough to the changing rooms to hear muttering. Great.

"I know," Jason says slowly, tying the string on his pajama pants and then untying it and retying it again. "But…"

"But it can take time to realize trauma is trauma," Alfred's voice says from out in the main areas of the Cave.

Jason sighs. "So what am I supposed to do? I'm not going to stop patrolling."

"No one said you would need to do so."

"But if I have a panic attack just putting on the suit…" Jason hears his own voice trail off, and he shakes his head at himself. "What am I supposed to do?"

"What would you like to do?"

Jason considers that for a while. By the time he's out and helping Alfred put away the last bits of the Robin suit, he has at least part of an answer.

"I don't want to get rid of the past," Jason says, methodically smoothing down one of the shoulder pieces on the Robin suit. "But I do want to move on, keep going, something like that. Maybe being Robin is the past, I don't know for sure, and I don't know how long it'll take to know for sure. But maybe if Robin is the past, being someone else could be the future?"

Alfred smiles widely and nods. "Well put."

Jason nods back at him. With a sense of finality, he fondly strokes one more time along the Robin suit in its locker, then he closes the locker door.