Chapter Text
“Hey, Bruce, for tomorrow, what time did you want to— Oh.” Duke stopped abruptly, rocking back on his heels when he finally saw what he was walking in on.
He probably should have been paying more attention. Yeah, the door to Bruce’s study was open, but that didn’t mean that other people wouldn’t be in it. And of course, it had to be a conversation with Damian that he’d interrupted.
They’d moved past the stage where Damian would glare at Duke suspiciously whenever they were in the same room together, but things still felt a little stiff between them sometimes. Out of all of Bruce’s kids, Damian was the one who seemed to be just waiting for Duke to screw up, and he was the one that Duke was being the most careful around.
“Sorry.” He took a step backwards. “I’ll come back—”
“No, Duke, it’s fine.” Bruce waved him in further. “It’s good that you’re here, actually. I was going over the plan for tonight.”
“Thomas’ help is not necessary, Father. I am perfectly capable of looking after Jason and the house on my own.”
Bruce smothered a small sigh. “I know, Damian. And, Duke, just remember that none of this is a requirement for you, although of course I appreciate you helping out.”
It probably wasn’t fair, but something about that rubbed Duke the wrong way. No matter what Bruce was worried about, Duke knew the Waynes were nothing like some of his former foster placements where he’d been stuck looking after the younger kids from the second he got home from school all the way until he left again the next morning.
This was just hanging out and making sure Jason was fed and entertained while Bruce was gone to some swanky fundraiser and Alfred was out of town. It’d be easy to do. Bruce had zero problem outright asking Damian to help with this, and yet Duke got a weird, complicated explanation and multiple ‘check-ins’ over the whole thing.
Obviously, Bruce was going to trust and depend on his actual kid compared to a temporary foster placement he’d only known for a few months, but it was still annoying. More annoying still was how it actually bothered Duke.
Although he wasn’t gonna come out and say that, obviously. He just shrugged and smiled.
“Jason’s cool. I like hanging out with him and I don’t mind helping out. Honestly.”
Bruce watched him for a second before he nodded, taking Duke at his word. “Alright then. One of Alfred’s dinners is already warming in the oven. And even though it’s the weekend, try to see if you can convince Jason to get to bed at a reasonable time. I should be home by midnight.”
Damian jerked his head in a stiff nod. “Of course, Father.”
“And absolutely no going out. I don’t care what you hear or see; you stay put here.”
Damian opened his mouth, but Duke got to it first.
“Yeah, of course. Jason needs people staying with him here at home.”
Damian scowled. “I am aware of that. Although you should be aware, Thomas, that Jason does not enjoy being coddled or smothered.”
“I know.” A snappish tone was sneaking into Duke’s voice. It wasn’t a great look, but he was having a hard time keeping his cool. Maybe he wasn’t a permanent member of the Wayne family, but he knew how to look after a friggen kid. And he knew Jason. “I know that he’s a… a special case.”
Years of looking after yourself would do that to a kid. Duke felt it for himself, too, even though he was older when his family had fallen apart. He hadn’t had to go it alone for as long as Jason had, and his own stint of unhoused independence had only lasted a few weeks. The math was kind of vague for Jason, but as far as Duke could put together, Jason would have been out on his own on the streets for months.
Weirdly, that one comment seemed to make a ton of difference for both Bruce and Damian. Both of them were so annoyingly good at schooling their expressions, but there was a little flash of surprise before they smoothed it over.
It made Duke a little more irritated, actually. Why the hell would they think that Duke wouldn’t be talking to Jason about this? Obviously, he would understand what Jason went through. And it wasn’t like Bruce and Damian had experienced anything close to what Jason and Duke had lived through.
Before the resentment could build too much, Bruce pulled himself out of whatever he was thinking and gave Duke a little nod.
“Well, that’s… good. Glad we’ve got that cleared up. Now, let’s go over the emergency codes for the cave.”
Damian scoffed. “I know them by heart.”
“I know. But Duke might need a reminder.”
“I’ve got it,” Duke replied. He didn’t snap, but his patience was wearing thin. “I memorized all that stuff on the first day, remember?” It wasn’t like it was hard; Duke had always had a head for codes and puzzles and stuff.
Bruce stared, searching Duke’s face until he finally nodded. “Okay. That’s good to hear. But do me a favour and go through it with me anyway?”
Duke gritted his teeth. Maybe someone needed to tell the Waynes that Duke hated being smothered just as much as Jason did. But, no, that wasn’t gonna help things, was it?
And Duke was probably getting way too comfortable with this foster placement. So what if his temporary guardian was kind of patronizing and protective over his kid and his house? If that’s the worst thing about living here, then Duke had still won the freaking lottery. Better to suck it up and prove that he wasn’t going to screw up something as simple as babysitting a kid for one night.
“Alright,” he finally agreed, pulling that easy-going smile back onto his face. “We’ll go over all the stuff together.”
Whatever it took to get them past this whole thing. Bruce was overreacting anyway. Everything was going to be totally fine.
Even though Bruce was worrying about it just like he always did, Jason was actually really, really excited for having a night with just Damian and Duke.
It felt kind of like a sleepover, even though they were still at home in the manor. Without Bruce and Alfred here, they could do a bunch of stuff they didn’t normally get to do, and Jason was already thinking about how late he could push his bedtime. Not so late that he got all cranky and whiny, but late enough that it felt like fun.
The best part was that Damian and Duke would be spending time together. They’d stopped actually fighting with each other, but they still weren’t really friends yet. It was probably just because they hadn’t had a chance to really get to know each other. The manor was so big that it was super easy to not be in the same room as someone else if you didn’t want to, and sometimes it was like they almost took turns hanging out with Jason.
Tonight, though, they’d both be hanging out with Jason the whole time. They’d eat together and watch a movie and play games and all that stuff. Jason knew that both Damian and Duke liked spending time with Jason, and maybe there was even something Jason could do to help them get along better. Like, how everyone thought he was cute now and wanted to help him with stuff? There had to be a way he could use that; he just needed to figure it out.
But then the problems started up from the very first thing they did: eating dinner.
“Jason.” Damian put down his fork and sent a very serious look down at Jason’s plate. “You haven’t eaten any of your vegetables.”
“Well, not yet. I’m… I’m gonna.” Maybe. Jason poked a soggy piece of broccoli with his fork. Yeah, he had been pushing all of those mushy green bits off to the side, but… it was broccoli. It was gross.
Damian narrowed his eyes, weirdly looking a lot like Bruce. “Don’t think I’m not paying attention. I’ll notice whether or not you’ve eaten it.”
Jason felt his face heat up and he dropped his head down. Okay, yeah, Damian was his big brother, but he wasn’t usually as bossy as this. It wasn’t like he was their dad or anything.
“Aw, c’mon, one day without veggies isn’t gonna hurt,” Duke spoke up.
“Vegetables contain essential nutrients,” Damian said.
“Sure, but the fun part about parents being away for the night is that you can break a few rules.”
Duke was exactly right about that, but when Jason nodded along, it just ended up making Damian even more grouchy.
“The rules are important. They ensure Jason’s health and safety.”
Duke rolled his eyes. “I’m not saying to take him parkouring through the Diamond District, just that you don’t have to have a stick up your ass all night long.”
Damian puffed up; Jason could tell they were heading right into a full-blown fight and the thought of that made him feel way more sick than the idea of eating the gross broccoli.
“It’s fine!” He scooped a big bite onto his fork and shoved it into his mouth. “I already said I was gonna eat it.”
Somehow that didn’t make Duke or Damian happy, but at least they were looking over at him again instead of each other.
“And, um… Uh…”
Fuck, he needed to think fast and plan something else to say so that Damian and Duke didn’t start fighting again. Something easy and light that no one could start arguing about. He’d always been bad at that kind of small talk, and that was before his brain had decided to dump out any kind of useful, grownup stuff that he could use. Now, he mostly just had Pokémon facts and maybe some stories about school, which would be kind of weird to start talking about now.
“Oh! Dad says we can have some ice cream tonight, remember? Can we do it after dinner? Or maybe when we’re watching a movie?”
It worked a lot better than Jason thought it would. Damian’s scowl faded away and Duke’s smile came back. It was probably cause of the whole ‘Jason being cute’ thing. Even though that wasn’t what he’d been trying to do, it still actually worked, so he wasn’t gonna get mad about it. He just gave them both his best ‘cute kid’ smile. He was really good at them by now.
“Of course,” Damian said. “You can have your ice cream earlier and then perhaps we could have hot cocoa for the movie.”
“Cool! Yeah, that’d be good.” Jason ate his last forkful of broccoli and then swallowed it down with a big gulp of water so he didn’t have to keep the taste in his mouth.
He’d got Duke and Damian to stop fighting. Easy. And now they could keep the fun going for the rest of the night.
Everything worked out okay as they got all the dishes and stuff dealt with from dinner. Jason was really good at kitchen cleanup except for the stuff that was stored up high in the cupboards, so he actually got to be a little bit like a boss to Damian and Duke, telling them both exactly how Alfred did everything and making sure the kitchen was super clean for when he came back tomorrow.
And the ice cream was really good, too. Well, mostly. There was a weird moment when Duke got out chocolate sauce and peanuts to put on top and Damian wanted to do fruit instead, but Jason solved it by doing both so that kept another weird fight from starting up.
It was kind of like they were in a competition to see which person Jason liked the most, which was dumb and stressful. Jason liked them both. He’d just have to make sure he kept showing that for the rest of the night.
After that, they all went downstairs and Jason got to show off all of the tumbling tricks he’d learned with Dick. Both Duke and Damian told him he couldn’t do anything Dick was still helping him with, but that was okay because Jason knew a lot of stuff really good so he could still show off for a while.
It was… a little weird to be the center of attention with them for so long. That didn’t really happen when you were a grownup. But with all those ‘almost fights’ happening between Damian and Duke, it was way easier if they paid attention to Jason instead, so he just kept doing stuff and having them watch him.
And it wasn’t like it was bad. Jason spent a lot of time watching all the people who were older than him do cool stuff that he couldn’t do anymore, so it was nice to have some time with people watching him.
There were a few weird comments that Duke and Damian kept making. None of the words were mean, but something about them must have been bad because Jason could see Damian getting all stiff and huffy and also Duke being all moody and annoyed. Jason fucking hated when this kind of stuff went over his head, but it wasn’t like he was dumb enough to ask out loud what they were doing to bug each other, so he just kept right on flipping and tumbling and talking about whatever popped into his head.
It worked pretty good. There weren’t any fights or anything. Jason was really good at tumbling and even if he ended up talking about Pokémon more than Duke and Damian were probably interested in, it kept them from getting snippy with each other so that’s what really mattered.
The real problem came when they were back upstairs and it was time to pick a movie to watch.
“Get ready for bed first,” Damian told Jason. “It will be easier when you fall asleep during the movie.”
“I’m not gonna fall asleep!” Yeah, Jason used to do that all the time but that was back when he was six or seven. He was eight now and he only fell asleep during movies sometimes. Plus, ‘getting ready for bed’ usually meant bringing his stuffed Batman out with him. Duke knew all about how Jason used to be grownup and how he was a kid now, but that didn’t mean Jason wanted Duke to know about Batman yet. Actually, Jason was kind of hoping he’d grow out of Batman before Duke ever figured it out.
Anyway, it wasn’t even all that late! Jason would be totally fine watching a movie with them and then going up to bed like a normal person. Maybe he’d go be in Damian’s room to help him sleep better, but that didn’t mean Damian got to boss him around like this all night long.
And then Duke started looking closer at the movie Jason had picked to watch.
“This thing’s rated PG-13.” He used the remote to scroll through the little summary on the screen.
Jason shrugged. “Yeah. So?” He hadn’t read what it was about, but he’d seen the big fireball in the picture and the racing car, so he knew it’d be something he’d like. Then, he finally realized what the problem was. “Oh, no, wait. That stuff doesn’t matter for me.”
It was kinda embarrassing that Duke thought that maybe it did. Jason remembered stuff that actually happened to him that was way worse than anything going on in a PG-13 movie. And, yeah, maybe he hadn’t really explained how all of that memory stuff worked for him, but that’s mostly because it was always kind of weird and awkward to talk about what ways he was like a kid and what ways that he wasn’t. Sometimes, he didn’t even have it figured out yet.
“Jason is very capable of handling a film containing ridiculous, inaccurate violence,” Damian said. “He’s lived through far worse.”
Duke frowned. “Well, that doesn’t make it okay. We could be watching, like… Pixar or something.”
“I don’t need little kid movies!” Even though Jason had watched Cars 3 at Ethan’s house last week and maybe kind of ended up liking it. But he liked real car chases, too, and that’s what he’d picked to watch for tonight.
“I told you!” Damian snapped at Duke. “Jason does not like to be smothered.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you said it because I wouldn’t have been able to guess by the way you’ve been acting tonight.”
“I am being responsible.”
Duke scoffed, and Jason’s stomach flopped over.
Shit, the fighting was back. And Jason’s brain wasn’t working right from all that embarrassing weirdness from before. What could he say to get them to stop?
“You’re not the only one who knows how to take care of a kid, Damian. And you’re not the only one who understands Jason.”
“You’ve only known Jason for a handful of months. I’ve known him for years. You have no place in this conversation.”
“Yeah, I get that I’m just a guest in your swanky rich house with your swanky rich family. You pointing that out just makes you more of an asshole, but I guess you don’t care about that, huh?”
“You will not insult our family!”
Fuck. It was bad. Jason really, really hated when people fought and it was even worse because this was mostly about him. Duke and Damian both wanted to take care of him, but they couldn’t get along to be able to do it. They’d just keep yelling and saying mean things and it would get worse and worse and Jason didn’t know how he was supposed to be able to fix it.
He did know one thing he could do. It was the exact same thing he’d learned from the first time he’d been a little kid and Dad would get drunk and start yelling at Mom. When he really thought about it, that’s when his ‘training’ had first started.
He’d learned how to read Willis’ face and know if he was going to start breaking bottles and throwing punches. He’d learned how to sneak around their cramped apartment and how to disappear into the bedroom without anyone knowing where he’d gone.
He was even more trained now. He was Batman’s kid so he knew how to be so sneaky that basically no one even knew where he was going. Especially two people who were super distracted yelling mean things at each other.
So, that’s what he did. While Duke and Damian kept getting mad and kept fighting, Jason just left.
And neither of them noticed that he’d gone.