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Jason felt his fist tremble as he watched his replacement fall to his knees in the alleyway below him. Robin was quite obviously bloody and beaten surrounded by a bunch of nameless thugs. The kid barely moved the rise and fall of his injured chest being the only sign he was actually alive.
“Boy Wonder and you can’t even fight on your own. How sad.” One of the thugs laughed out just before striking the kid with a goddamn crowbar. Of course.
Robin wetly gasped as blood began trailing from his lips. He swayed forward in attempts of staying on his knees though quickly failed as he harshly fell forward onto his hands. His palms loudly echoed against the cement causing all the thugs to let out another sequence of laughter.
Jason's vision tinted green as he harshly ground his teeth. He swore he felt his moler crack under the weight of his heavily set jaw.
It was almost instinctual when Jason found his hand grasping for a gun. It didn’t take any hesitation for him to tightly grasp it in his hand just before shooting down one of the thugs below him.
As the shot -mixed with screaming- echoed in the alley Jason had then decided to take the opportunity to drop down onto the ground.
“Shit its Red Hood.” One of the thugs gasped.
Jason felt a sharp grin rising onto his face as he stalked forward carelessly stepping onto the guy he just shot.
“What did I say about harming children?” Jason hissed as he took another threatening step forward causing all the thugs to slightly step back.
“This is a mask. Isn’t that different?”
Jason quickly whirled toward the voice just before letting out a sharp laugh.
“Unfortunately for you this mask is still a kid. A kid is a kid. There are no exceptions.”
In an instant hell broke loose. Jason quickly went into action bashing heads and shooting the thugs down, and only slightly flinched as the crowbar grazed his heavily armored shoulder. Jason made sure that particular thug got hit the hardest. His harsh attacks seemed to happen in an instant as the next thing he knew all the thugs were thoroughly bloody and beaten on the ground leaving a heavy breathing Red Hood and shaking Robin.
After another labored breath Jason holistered his weapon before walking over the collapsed thugs making his way to Robin. As he finally reached his replacements hunched form he could have sworn the kid whimpered at the sight of his boots. Jason felt himself sigh just before speaking up.
“Why the hell are you in my turf?”
Robin remained quiet as he continued leaning forward onto the cement. The only thing that came from his mouth was blood and labored breaths.
Jason found himself once again sighing before kneeling in front of Robin, in doing so the kid once again harshly flinced. Jason swore he heard his replacement's ribs creak at the sudden harsh movement.
“I’m gonna pick you up now.”
Robin harshly shook his head which allowed another stream of blood to fall from between his chapped lips. Unfortunately for him Jason ignored the motion to instead heft him into a bridal carry. The kid let out a pained groan at the sudden movement while his head unwillingly fell onto Red Hood's armored chest.
———
Jason's closest safehouse of course ended up being the last one he had ended up having a Pit induced Rage. The furniture was strewn about while tipped from their correct spots. Piles upon piles of glass and pillow fluff littered the floor- while his coffee table sunk inward from a quite pronounced boot shape.
“Dammit.” Jason hissed as he carefully minovered his way across the disaster he once called his living room.
He as carefully as possible made his way to the bedroom that was luckily clear of any rage mess. Softly -almost too soft for Jason standards- he placed Robin down onto the center of his bed before heading into his bathroom.
The mirror was shattered leaving jagged shards of glass on the floor and sink. He let out another deep sign as his feet crunched onto the glass just before he quickly snatched the first aid kit from the cabinet.
Once he returned to his bedroom he found his replacement attempting to crawl away. Robin's face and arms dangled off the bed while his legs strained on top of the mattress, a pained look of concentration staining his face.
“What are you doing?”
Robin yelped at Jason's voice just before fully collapsing on the ground. The baby bird loudly cried as his body slammed onto the wooden floor. If Jason could take a guess he could only assume the kid disturbed already broken ribs.
“Jesus.” Jason hissed as he stepped forward leaving the med kit down on the mattress.
Carefully Jason hefted Tim back into his arms, the kid limply rolled onto his armored shoulder while letting out a weak cry.
“Why the hell did you move replacement?!” Jason seethed as he once again deposited the kid onto his mattress. “Can you take your suit off?”
Robin weakly shook his head as his lips began to tremble. Jason could already imagine the kids eyes fogging over with tears under his domino though he found his mouth falling into a thin line at the thought. The kid's pain brought no joy to him whatsoever. So with a sigh Jason carefully undone the top half of the Robin suit revealing heavily bruised purpling skin. The kid most definitely had some broken ribs.
Swiftly Jason found himself in a rhythm as he quickly patched up the kid. Surprisingly enough Tim didn’t struggle through the process but instead weakly went through the breathing techniques Bruce taught them. As the kid started doing so Jason's hands had begun to shake as he found himself subtly copying through the breathing techniques.
After shakily wrapping the final gauge around the kids middle Jason grasped the first aid kit tightly into his hands. Jason then pulled out a bottle of pain meds just before depositing two capsules into the palm of his still gloved hand. With his other hand Jason snatched Tim's qrist as he deposited the pills into the kids palm.
“Take these, they'll help.”
Tim seemed to hesitate for a moment before actually popping the tablets into his mouth dryly while Jason decided to finally strip himself of his blood stained gloves. He quietly tsked to himself as he throws the bloody gloves to the side along with his luckily only slightly blood covered jacket. Though unfortunately the same couldn’t be said about the blood smeared across his armor chest. Jason honestly couldn’t tell if it belonged to Robin or all the thugs he had literally just beaten to a pulp.
“Why are you helping me?” Robin rasped as he slowly attempted to balance himself up on his elbows. “You literally tried to kill me months ago.”
Jason once again tsked as he glanced away from the kid. “I owe you.”
Even under the domino Jason could tell the kid raised his brow.
“Don’t give me that look replacement.” Jason hissed clenching his fingers into his palms.
“Why do you keep calling me replacement?”
“Because that's what you are.”
The kid scowled, jutting his bottom lip out as his masked eyes narrowed. “I’m not a replacement.”
“Yes you are.”
“I’m not! I’m just temporary.”
Jason seemed to freeze at the kid's words just before he slowly turned to look back at him.
“What do you mean temporary?”
“After Robin disappeared Batman became hollow- bitter- he wasn’t the same anymore. So I offered to be his Robin but he was quick to decline. I even tried convincing Nightwing to come back- but even he dismissed me.”
The kid looked down at his blood covered bandages before deciding to continue speaking. “So instead I decided to steal the second Robin's suit and help Batman anyway. After that everything kind of just fell into place. I was never meant to replace Robin I was just trying to calm Batman down.”
The kid's lip once again began to wobble proof that he was attempting to hold back his tears. Jason let his nails pull from his palms leaving crescent indents to remain. He sighed just before deciding to sit down at the edge of his mattress barely taking notice of the kid scooting further away from him.
The slight linger of green from his vision dispersed as he hesitantly decided to pull the hood from his head. His fingers slid under the latches as he pulled it off before placing it into his lap.
“You're doing great, kid.”
At the sight of his hoodless face, Robin's domino covered eyes widened.
“Jason?” He softly questioned with a crack in his voice. “I thought you died.”
Jason found himself chuckling just before deciding upon a response. “It didn’t stick.”
“H-how is this possible?”
Jason shrugged. “You know about as much as I do kid. All I remember is waking up ten feet under.”
Tim shudder at the though as his teeth bit into his dried and blood crusted bottom lip. “D-does Bruce know.”
“Probably.” Jason shrugged rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean I basically outed myself to him.”
“What?”
———
Tim tiredly lifted the chopstick to his lips having the noodles briefly sway before he then shoved them into his mouth. A happy hum left his throat as the noodles flavor blessed his taste buds.
“You where that hungry?” Jason questioned just before he brought a spoonful of rice into his mouth.
Tim rapidly nodded his head as his mouth was still currently in use.
“Does Alfred not feed you or something?”
Tim slurped another noodle before opening his mouth. “Of course he does! I’ve just been too busy getting beaten to a pulp to go back to the manor for extremely late dinner.”
Jason snorted just before he choked on a single grain of rice. In response Tim leaned over from his position on the mattress to slap at the older vigilantes back. After a moment Jason was finally able to clear his throat from the single piece of rice.
“Thanks Timbo.” He rasped out in the middle of clearing his throat for a second time. “You're surprisingly snarky for a kid- did Dick teach you that?”
This time it was Tim who snorted. “No, but aren't you suprignly alive for being a dead man.”
“Jesus christ.” Jason laughed causing a smile to raise onto Tim’s face. “You aren’t just snarky you're a complete asshole.”
In response Tim smile grew not even caring about the stray noodle now swaying from between his lips. “I try.”
The room then became quite for a moment as the two continued to eat their takeout, just before Jason decided upon speaking again. “Do you have a bedtime or something? Does B expect you home anytime soon?”
Just as Tim opened his mouth to respond a quiet beeping sound echoed from the belt of his suit instantly causing Jason to tense. “Shit!” He hissed as Tim’s eyes also seemed to widen in realization.
“I may have forgotten about my tracker.” Robin whisper dropping his noodles into his lap.
“No shit!” Jason growled just before his bedroom window smashed in.
Tim hid his face behind his arm just as Jason protectively crouched in front of him with one of his many guns already in hand, unfortunately leaving his box of white rice long abandoned and spilled across his bedroom floor.
A hunched blue form came barreling in with a pair of glowing blue electric sticks held in tightly grasped fists.
Jason was only slightly surprised to see Nightwing being the one to barrel through his window. It was a much better case scenario than Batman. Still though Jason stayed in front of Tim his finger still staying quite close to the trigger of his gun.
“Jason!?” Dick gasped.
“Sup dickhead.”
———
“Get off me.” Jason grumbled as he weakly attempted to push his older brother off of him.
“Jaybird!” Dick cried allowing his grip around Jason’s shoulders to tightened. “Your alive.”
Jason felt his already pale cheeks start to redden as Dicks grip grew progressively tighter.
“You made me drop my dinner and broke my damn window dickwad! Let go!”
Behind them Tim laughed with the biggest and stupidest looking grin on his face.
“Shut up asshole.” Jason growled just before snatching the kid into a gentle headlock. “You are part of this now.”
“Hell yeah you are!” Dick shouted just before wrapping his other arm around Tim’s surprisingly thin shoulder causing the kid to squish further into Jason’s side.
Jason could have sworn that his heart had just pounded out from his chest.