Chapter Text
It was late at night.
The girl stretched her elastic hair tie out. Her hair had fallen down at some point during the afternoon and evening’s activities, but she had learned it was best to always keep a spare on her. It was easy to focus with her hair out of her face. She knew it was dangerous, walking the streets alone so late at night, but she had no one to ask for company. With her sole friend long gone and her father preoccupied, she only had herself. Her self-defense classes at the community center would have to be enough.
She walked past a group of men in suits. In this part of Gotham, they were undoubtedly mobsters’ men. A few eyes wandered her way, but she moved with purpose and was good at keeping herself covered.
She passed the mouth of an alleyway. She let out a yelp as someone grabbed her from within. A rough, large hand was shoved over her face to stop her from screaming, but there was no need to. The men she had passed earlier wouldn’t care about a girl like her. Her muggers—no, they were probably kidnappers, grabbing her like this—started to issue threats and demands for money she couldn’t pay. She wondered if they even knew who her father was.
There was a glimpse of movement from the rooftop above. A glint of a red. Her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t until the man covering her mouth was knocked to the ground by a dark, dark shadow that the girl finally realized that a savior had already emerged from the darkness. Her breath caught in her throat.
“Are you alright?” Batman himself asked, voice gruff but surprisingly gentle. She had always wondered what made him so comforting to Gotham’s masses when his costume looked so intimidating. She could see it now, looking at him. It was hard not to view him with adoration. This was the man who worked so tirelessly to keep Gotham safe.
“I’m okay,” she said. “They only just grabbed me.”
It was a familiar alley, this alleyway. She brushed aside the memory as Batman gave a warm smile. She couldn’t see his eyes with the cowl, but the way his lips turned up was enough.
“How far is your home from here?” he asked.
“Not far,” she lied. “It’s right around the corner.”
Batman’s attention to the figure at the entrance to the alleyway. Her heart skipped another beat. Before Batman could ask any more questions that would make it all too obvious she still had another good fifteen minutes before she got home, she darted to the mouth of the alleyway. Batman didn’t give chase. He had bigger issues to worry about.
The boy at the entrance of the alleyway didn’t give her a second look. His eyes, hidden behind a red helmet, were only on Batman. He didn’t notice how long her eyes lingered on him as she rushed by.
“Red Hood,” Batman greeted, all of the warmth gone from his voice.
“Batman,” the Red Hood greeted back, voice modulator smoothing his anger into a neutral monotone.
The rest of the conversation was lost on her. It wasn’t until she reached her apartment, fingers fumbling for the key that she had hidden away in her pocket, that she finally stopped running and took in great, heaving breaths of air. It would be another month before the Red Hood bore a red bat on his chest. Another month before she dared to wonder if she had somehow managed to change things. But in that moment, she stood there in her apartment, eyes closed and back pressed against the door of her apartment, and thought of how overwhelming it had been to be in the presence of two of Gotham’s vigilantes.
“What are you doing down here?”
When Jason Todd pulled his attention away from the computer in front of him, he found Tim Drake standing at the foot of the stairs with a cup of coffee in hand. He was still dressed in his civilian clothes. They would have passed as semi-formal, maybe, but his slight bedhead and bags underneath his eyes made it all too easy to remember he was technically a teenager in this life. Jason wasn’t really sure how old he really was. Tim never said.
…Not that they had ever really talked that much. There were a few times they had done things together with James—including a trip to the cafe that Hayleigh worked at—but they mostly kept their distance. If Jason was really Jason Todd, he would have been more upset about Tim replacing him. But since he had always known that Jason was just the second Robin of many, Jason had come to terms with Tim taking the title as soon as he had realized he had become his favorite character.
“...Ben said I could use the computer,” Jason awkwardly pointed out. Ben was over doing work with the Justice League, which left the Batcave mostly unoccupied. James had taken to patrolling in his place, not that he was doing that at this point in the day. It was too early for that.
“For what?” Tim asked.
Jason wasn't sure where to begin. With everything that had happened with Alex and the others, Jason had never felt so out-of-touch with Crime Alley. Now that Jason was at the manor until things died down with Talia, Jason finally had a chance to sit down and catch up with everything through Ben's reports.
“Ben has caught more drug trades compared to before,” Jason said. “But things like muggings have gone down.”
The number of drug trades had steadily increased even before he had suggested moving in the manor. After spending the past week living here, Jason had finally realized he could actually use their databases to find out more information. Jason, who had never been all that good at computer work even in his last life, really wished they had someone who specialized in that information.
But they didn’t, so Jason had to do the work himself.
“I was trying to figure out if there was a pattern,” Jason added. Tim pulled a chair over. Without asking, he started to scan the few reports that Jason had already pulled up. Jason awkwardly cleared his throat. “...What are you doing?”
“I wanted to look through case reports,” Tim said, and left it at that. His gaze flickered over to the empty case that stood not far from them in the cave. “...He took down the memorial case.”
Jason glanced over for all of a second before he awkwardly looked away.
“...He said it felt wrong having it up now that I was back,” Jason said. Ben had told him that just the day before. He didn’t know if it was his place to bring it up. It had been set up like it was in the original comics, before: displayed in a glass case, with a plaque that said he was a good soldier. Even when Ben had said that it was only there because he had needed Tim to steal it when he became Robin—and to keep seeing Robin as a mantle that needed to be filled—Jason’s stomach had still twisted and churned. The thought of it now still made him shift uneasily in his seat.
Tim took a sip of his coffee, then recoiled at how hot it was.
“...How was school?” Jason asked. Then he remembered it was Saturday. He was so used to asking Alex that from her time as Ian that it just…came out. Jason's cheeks burned.
“On Friday?” Tim asked. “It was school. Like usual.”
He paused.
“They mention you sometimes, there,” Tim said. “The English teachers.”
He wasn’t looking at Jason when he said that. His eyes were only on the large screen before them.
“Oh,” Jason said. One hand absentmindedly went to his wrist. “I read a lot when I was a student.”
He had wanted to do a good job. He hadn’t known if Jason Todd was supposed to be good at school as a student, but he had remembered that Jason was supposed to like classic books. So he had tried to read them as much as he could. It was hard. He hadn’t liked reading them when he was in his first life, either.
…Not that he really thought much about then.
The two of them settled into silence. Jason kept staring at the overlaid maps of where Ben and him had both caught drug trades in action. None of them made sense. His head just kept spinning at all of it. It had been so much easier being Robin. Ben could do all of the analysis. All Jason had to do was support him when he was actually fighting crime. Now Jason was supposed to be the fully-fledged vigilante, and he still felt like he was floundering.
“We should go.”
Jason blinked. He turned. Tim still had his eyes on the screen. “...Where?”
“To Crime Alley,” Tim said. With one hand still holding his mug of coffee, he pointed at the center of the overlaid maps. “To one of the areas where there’s been a change.”
“You want to go somewhere with me?” Jason asked, bewildered. Tim should have been avoiding him. “I thought we weren’t supposed to like each other.”
Tim took another long sip of his coffee. If Jason had thought over his words more, he might have realized how rude they could have come across. But his tone—and the fact that he knew Tim always thought about canon with everything he did—made it clear that he very much had no problems with Tim himself. “No one else is here besides me right now. You’re working with us now. You need backup.”
Jason gave a slow nod. He looked at Tim, then at the screen, and then back at Tim again.
“...Did Ben bench you?” he asked.
Tim spat out his coffee.
“How-What-” Tim coughed. Loudly. He wiped the coffee off his face with his arm. “No.”
Tim didn’t seem injured. He had walked normally coming down here, and was sitting down normally next to him. The only thing that seemed to pain him was how hot his coffee was. Ben might have benched him based on how tired he was, but that was just part of what Tim was like.
Then Jason remembered the reason that he was staying in the Manor in the first place. The League of Assassins hadn’t fully left Gotham yet. Talia would eventually realize that Ben had stepped in, and then it was only a matter of time before Robin got dragged into things. Even if that wasn’t the case, Ben was away, and drug trades were going up. It wasn’t safe for him to operate on his own.
Tim put his mug down on the desk.
“We could go as civilians,” Tim said. “Go to one of the mugging sites. Walk around the area and see what’s changed.”
Jason bit his lip. Ben wouldn’t like that idea. The only reason that Alex had left the house today was because she was with Superman in Metropolis right now. If Jason left with Tim right now, neither one of them would be accompanied by someone with superpowers.
…But even though Jason knew that Tim was only asking him because he was the only other vigilante left in the manor right now, all that Jason could think of was that Tim had asked him to do something with him. Tim, who Jason knew didn't like him all that much.
“Okay,” Jason relented. “When do we go?”
Tim got to his feet. “Now.”
After Jason wrote a note saying that he was going out with Tim and left it taped to the monitor of the Batcomputer, the two of them left for Crime Alley. (Tim didn’t want to leave a note at all, but Jason couldn’t bring himself to leave without any explanation. The last time he had done that, he had died. Even if Alfred and Ben had known that he was coming back, then, he couldn’t put them through something like that a second time.) With Jason never having learned how to drive, they walked to the nearest bus stop and took a bus there.
As they got off the bus, Jason snuck a glance over at Tim.
“What?” Tim asked, not even looking at Jason. Jason was suddenly struck with the feeling that, out of all of them, Tim was the one that was most like Batman.
“Your clothes are…different,” Jason settled on. They weren’t the ones that Tim usually wore. Those clothes always seemed semi-formal. These ones were more casual. Looser. An oversized graphic t-shirt, bulkier pants, and a used pair of sneakers. He looked like the kind of boy who knew how to skateboard. Jason had seen Tim grab them earlier in the cave, but hadn’t thought much of it until they were halfway to Crime Alley.
Tim shrugged. “I keep a spare pair at Bruce’s in case I need them for reconnaissance.”
“You do that?” Jason asked, surprised.
“Not much,” Tim admitted, “but it’s always good to be prepared.”
That was Tim’s motto, Jason knew, though Tim didn’t always say it. He couldn’t help but think of the piles of boxes that Tim apparently had stashed away in his closet, and the books that he had meticulously written on each of the characters that existed in DC canon. Only Alex had seen them, though Jason knew about them now and James probably did, too, since they had known each other’s secrets before everyone else had.
Jason gave a nod, then fell back into silence.
“Where do you want to start?” Tim asked, suddenly, and Jason just faltered. “This is your area, not mine.”
Jason tried to remember the information from the files. He should have printed out a map. Even though he had lived in this area of Gotham with Alex, he still felt like he only truly knew a few locations well. “There’s a spot a few streets over from here. We could start there.”
Tim gestured for Jason to lead the way. Jason did that, feeling very much out-vigilanted by Tim and his overall nonchalant confidence with all of this. When they arrived at the alleyway, they didn’t see anything in particular. They kept checking other spots around Crime Alley, but nothing jumped out at them. It wasn’t until Tim’s stomach grumbled that they finally came to a stop.
Jason checked the name of the street they were currently on.
“There’s a Batburger near here,” Jason recalled. He hesitated. “...I think.”
“A Batburger,” Tim repeated, not sounding all that fond of the idea. He studied Jason, then, and Jason found himself shifting his weight from one foot to the other when he did. “You don’t know for sure?”
“I don’t usually come to this part of Crime Alley,” Jason admitted. His apartment was on the edge of it. Or had been on the edge of it. It seemed like they really were going to move back into the manor. Jason had liked the independence, but Jason couldn’t say no to the idea. Alex wanted to be closer to Ben, and Jason did like seeing him, too. “I walk through when I’m patrolling, but it’s not the same.”
Tim mulled that over.
“...I keep forgetting you only became Jason after meeting Bruce,” Tim said.
Jason stared. He suddenly realized he didn’t even know when Tim had become Tim. “That wasn’t the same for you?”
“It was when I saw the Flying Graysons,” Tim said. At Jason’s look then, he added, “Dick’s parents.”
“I know,” Jason said, quietly. He wasn’t the best with overall canon, but he did know that much from James. It had come up years ago, not long after they had first met. “I didn’t realize you saw them die.”
Tim didn’t look at him, then. His eyes were only on the sidewalk in front of them. “...It was the event that led to everything,” he said. “It’s the only time it made sense to become him. It’s not like I remember much of it, anyways. I wasn’t watching when they hit the ground.”
Jason didn’t know what to say to that, then. So he settled with an awkward, “I’m sorry,” and a, “I can show you where the Batburger is.”
Tim didn’t argue with that. The two of them returned back to silence and walked the rest of the way to the Batburger. There were a few people already there when they arrived, but there weren’t many.
“I’ll grab us a table,” Tim offered, leaving Jason to fend for himself at the counter. He didn’t even say what he wanted to order, but Jason thought he remembered seeing Tim get a burger before. It was jarring, seeing the employees dressed in different superhero costumes. Jason hadn’t really come to a Batburger before. It was something distinctively DC, but also that felt incredibly like some sort of fast food place he would find back on his actual Earth.
There was a girl standing there at the counter. Jason felt a jolt of something, seeing her there. Familiarity. It took him a moment to realize it was because she was wearing his Robin costume, the one he had worn right before he died. The one that he had died in. A pit formed in his gut, but he couldn’t tell if it was because of the memory of that moment, or because it was strange interacting with someone who liked him as Robin when they didn’t even know he was Robin.
…Not that he was Robin now. That was Tim. But it wasn’t like someone would dress up as Red Hood here.
“Hi,” the girl said. Jason wasn’t the best with telling ages, but she must have been in high school from her face and her voice. Probably on the younger side. Jason glanced down at her name tag out of habit. It said Annie on it. “How can I help you?”
Jason looked up, still feeling that tug of familiarity. “I’d like to order two…”
He looked up at the board that showed what they had.
“...batburgers?” Jason said. “With two medium fries and two vanilla milkshakes.”
When he looked down from the board, the girl was staring at him in a way that Jason couldn’t quite describe but didn’t exactly like. A wave of guilt washed over him, which didn’t make any sense at all. She just seemed sad, looking at him then.
She took a breath in. The look vanished. She gave him a friendly smile, the kind that was clearly customer service and nothing else.
“I really hate asking this part,” the girl admitted, “but do you want to jokerize your fries?”
Jason froze.
“...Jokerize?” he repeated.
“It’s a special seasoning we put on the fries,” she said. “I’m afraid to ask what’s in it.”
“Oh,” Jason said. He glanced back at Tim, who didn’t even seem to notice what was going on at the counter. He was more engrossed in his phone. When he turned back to the girl, he gave a little shake of his head. “I don’t want to jokerize them.”
He watched as she typed that into her little display screen. Jason paid for it with cash from his job with Sabrina, then stepped to the side as another person lined up to order. Jason couldn’t take his eyes off of Annie as she worked. There was this tugging in the back of his head, this knowledge that he was missing something important, but he couldn’t figure out what. Another employee—this one dressed in a too-large, low-quality Batman costume—actually delivered the food to Jason as he stood at the pick-up counter, but Jason didn’t even notice until the boy cleared his throat and gave him a very annoyed look.
“You’re holding up the line,” he said, despite there being no line at all.
“Sorry,” Jason said. He grabbed his tray and brought it over to Tim. “Is Batburger important?”
Tim raised his head from his phone. “What?”
“Is it important?” Jason asked again. “To canon?”
Tim shook his head.
“It’s a gag in the comics,” Tim said. He studied Jason again. “Why?”
Jason’s eyes flickered back to Annie. He hadn’t even sat down yet. It must have just been the sight of the costume that was throwing him off. That was it.
“Jason doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Tim noted, grabbing one of the burgers from the tray. Jason’s attention immediately went back to Tim. Jason blanched at the suggestion that was why he kept looking at the girl at the counter.
“I don't want a girlfriend,” Jason said, horrified.
“He doesn't have a boyfriend, either,” Tim added. He grabbed one of the fries and dipped it into his milkshake. “If you're wondering if this is where Jason meets someone.”
“I don’t want a boyfriend either,” Jason quickly said. “Or anything. I just…”
He trailed off.
“Never mind,” he said. He sat down across from Tim, eyes focused on the tray to stop himself from looking back at Annie.
Tim pointed at Jason's fries.
“Are you going to eat those?” he asked.
Jason blinked. He suddenly realized he hadn't touched his food. He gave a little shake of his head, pushing all thoughts of Batburger employees out of his mind as he finally started on his own burger.