Chapter Text
Jason was finally back from Danny's realm. He'd been gone for months of his time, but he'd been returned to barely a minute after he'd left. He shut off the stove and cleaned up the kitchen by rote. He needed to figure out how to say his piece on this little adventure without getting locked up for being compromised. He was already going to be suspicious for changing out his costume with no lead up. Though likely only Bruce would care. And Roy. Shit, right, Roy. He was supposed to do that with Roy, not get gifted something otherworldly and extra dimensional by his partner. Or have a partner at all. When was the last time he fucked a teammate? Had it been the week he'd left or maybe the week before that? Damn. He needed to tell his team something. Danny did not share and Jason was pretty okay with that. Jason didn't want to share Danny any either.
[chat: Outlaws5Ever]
JASON: (°▽°)/
JASON: hey so don't get mad
[several people are typing]
JASON: but I kinda accidentally got married to a guy (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄ <⁄ ⁄)
ROY: bro
STARFIRE: Oh my
JASON: a very very powerful guy that fucks real good UwU
BIZZARO: red him gone long time tho! /?
JASON: Also he gave me a new super suit (─‿‿─)♡ and that's not really something you say no to ¯\_( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉)_/¯ but I bet he'll totally make ones for all of you if I ask (o^ ^o)
JASON: yeah Bizz you're right man
JASON: it's only been like five minutes for you guys
ROY: bro
JASON: so don't freak out
ROY: too late
STARFIRE: I have noticed that when humans reassure that there will be no freaking out that it is invariably a freak out worthy occurrence
ARTEMIS: What troubles have you encountered this time, Pretty Boy?
JASON: there is no trouble
BIZZARO: me believe red him
JASON: zero trouble here, Arty
JASON: Bizz! You wound me bud! 。ﾟ(ˊ〇ˋ*)ﾟ｡
ROY: We know you. your lying. you did something stupid and dangerous and probably suicidal
JASON: Nah, haven't had any intrusive thoughts about killing myself in a few months actually. It's kinda really nice.
JASON: Oh right, I've been getting therapy. And my partner is monogamous and I'm cool with that so
ROY: oh shit, a bat getting therapy, I gotta tell Weylon
BIZZARO: me mad for Red Him
ROY: wait your guy can keep up with you?
ARTEMIS: your partner must be a formidable opponent indeed to handle your passions.
STARFIRE: As long as your needs are met then the accepting I shall do
ROY: lol same braincell
JASON: Why're you so mean? 。ﾟ(ﾟﾉД｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡ I am not any hornier than any other human
ROY: stop lying to urself, bro, ur literally the horniest human I've ever known
STARFIRE: Yes it is as Roy said. You are singular in your lust.
JASON: Hey! I will have you know I am a totally normal amount of horny!
ARTEMIS: Untrue. You treat every encounter like a bacchanalia. I have never met a Man as able to back up his lustful words as you.
JASON: (//▽//)
BIZZARO: red him so chaste red him nun
JASON: (⁄⁄>⁄▽⁄<⁄⁄)
Well, he'd told his team the most important parts. Despite them being literally the worst. What with their spending the rest of the day teasing him about literally every time he'd ever been frisky like ever. Jerks.
Jason knew how drastic the change in his responses looked from the outside. And he knew that even if he did his best at acting how he did before he'd still fuck up. Entirely by having to spend precious time recalling what he would have done before Danny and therapy and unconditional love. He'd already reconciled that he'd be off to everyone he interacted with. It still sucked. Jason looked over his schedule, it was encrypted in multiple levels of cypher. Jason wasn't exactly rusty but the knowledge was 'dusty'—like a book left alone for too long, difficult to remember until you opened the cover and then having it all fall in place. He had a meeting tonight with his lieutenants. Okay. Good. They were better family than his actual family most of the time, and wasn't that fucking pathetic? No, no that was not pathetic.
"I deserve to be safe." Jason hissed quietly. Fuck, that had been so much harder without Danny. But he had done it and Danny would probably be all proud and Jason would die again from embarrassed satisfaction. That happened a lot since meeting Danny, it was kind of inconvenient. And now Jason was almost smiling. He said clearly, "I deserve to feel safe."
Despite this being a safe house Jason was not actually safe. He grabbed his nearest go bag and (figuratively) burned the safe house. Even if the energies of the spell pulling him to Danny hadn't been detected the fuck off huge energy spike from Danny and Fright Knight dropping him off had to have been. He laid false trails for three hours before deciding on a safe house to sleep in. It wasn't absolute shit, it was almost a home. One of his nicer safe houses for sure. This safe house was, at least for now, actually safe. Jason prowled around the perimeter and then cased the safe house once inside. It was clear. And the only bugs were the kinds with two many legs.
Feeling lighter, he unpacked his bags. The go bag was easiest, as it always was. But Jason had another bag with him as well. The finely crafted leather (maybe? it might be cloth? or possibly unspun plant matter?) bag he'd been sent with. Jason opened it and was annoyed (and maybe a bit fond) that he found more than two useless expensive trinkets squirreled away with everything else. Jason huffed and pulled out the new phone he'd been given. Though phone might be a bit generous. It was more like a pager. Danny really was as young as he looked and the Infinite Realms only had a few years with him wanting modern conveniences like cell phones. Changes like that took time, time on a geologic scale, millions of years or more. So for now, Danny was able to get communications devices that were about as reliable as an old school pager. There was no panic button. Which had been strange, Jason had wanted to leave Danny with six. Danny didn't even suggest one for himself. The 'phone' was a compromise between the both of them. Danny had a way to tell Jason get to him right the fuck now and it was enough. His paranoia still conjured up horrifying situations but it was easier to push it aside. Knowing Danny was effectively immortal and was the most powerful being ever was no kind of reassurance to Jason. He was a mostly mortal man and he'd killed beings no mostly mortal men should ever be capable of killing. It was sort of his thing. Or had been. Though actually Bruce was probably xenophobic enough Jason could probably kill non humanoid beings with no complaint. Which was all kinds of infuriating and fucked up but not helpful to think about just now.
"Bruce doesn't control me." Jason told his bed sheets as he made up the bed with fresh sheets. The old ones had only been dusty and musty but there wasn't any need to deal with that if he didn't have to. "I am my own man."
Then in his mind he thought comfortingly, 'I belong to Danny.' Because it was comforting even if it was 'toxically codependant'. Fuck everyone else, Jason was one extremely fucked up man and half a year of therapy could only do so much. And even then just sitting in a room with someone wasn't enough. Which Jason had admittedly done a non zero number of times, especially near the beginning.
Jason could write letters, actual paper letters, and he could 'page' a messenger. A royal messenger would arrive whenever they were able to get to the location to pick up whatever Jason wanted them to. It had sounded a little bit fun, honestly. Jason had impeccable handwriting and the idea of sending romantic missives to an actual king definitely had his heart all atwitter. They'd be cyphered messages but that didn't matter. It maybe even made it better, since Danny would be learning to use something that was entirely Jason's.
Jason pulled out a leather bound notebook from his bedroom shelves. It wasn't empty, exactly, but it was made with high quality hand pressed paper. Jason could write in it as he thought of things Danny might like to know then cut the pages out. Write in a triple cypher, of course. Jason had left Danny the keys to... fuck, to all of his cyphers and all of the bat ones he knew. Jason sat down on his bed and tried not to have a goddam panic attack. There was literally no way for Bruce to find out Jason had given away something so insanely important and secret. Bruce had no eyes nor ears in the infinite realms, Bruce might not even know Jason had been blipped out of existence for a tic. But that was for later. He'd literally just arrived. Well, like, today just arrived.
Jason finally ate a late breakfast then got ready for his meeting. He used his 'old' suit, he didn't want to worry his lieutenants with a sudden unexpected change. They might not be involved in 'that cape shit' but they were tangentially aware multiple versions of people existed out there and could run around where they didn't belong causing problems. Besides, Jason was barely running the Red Hood Gang these days so it should just be a check in. His lieutenants knew him almost as well as he knew them. As soon as he entered the office they all had something to say about his new demeanor, which Jason should have expected but like a dumbass had not.
"Damn, Rojo get fucked? Your mood is good. Very good," Alexi commented first thing when Red Hood entered his office. His old office, not his office anymore. He wasn't, technically, in charge now. He was just an adviser to his lieutenants. Fucking asshole old man.
Jason took off his helmet and set it on the desk. It was hot and as useful as wearing a domino under the helmet was it was fucking gross and, again, hot. Also ugh.
Sasha and Johnson whistled cat calls and Cara Cortada and Smalls spoke over each other.
Cara Cortada said, "You slice up some puenta, Rojo?" Smalls crowed, "You cap some fuckers, Boss?"
Jason laughed. Of course those two would think fucking someone up was better than dicking someone down. 'Freaks.' The thought was fond. These were five of the people Jason trusted with his back, with his people. For all that they were just as fucked up as Jason, they were devoted to him. Jason didn't really get why, but he didn't need to understand the why to plan.
"Nah, just got back from my honeymoon," Jason said, smiling.
His lieutenants shared looks, Sasha was elected to speak up.
"So Bossman had day long honeymoon? Must be good fuck." Sasha said, eyebrow raised but not exactly incredulous. Jason laughed.
"Fuck, I forgot. No, no it's been way longer for me. Cape bullshit," Jason said, still chuckling.
"Cape bullshit," Johnson said knowingly. The rest of his lieutenants agreed with muttered curses.
Jason settled into his chair and paged through the hard-copy paperwork left out for his review. Coded and cyphered, obviously.
"Sometimes, it isn't fucking terrible," Jason conceded. Numbers were in order, but Cara Cortada had been his accountant nearly since the beginning. She was good, her reports were concise and precise. He dog eared the accounting papers together and set them back down. Drug running now. Supplies were stable, sales were up to the mobs. It didn't deviate much from Jason's expectations. Slight up-tick in meth sales to the other gangs, but these things fluctuated so not a concern yet. Having a monopoly on drugs for Gotham was so fucking great. His drugs were cut with nothing: pure and exactly what they said they were. The red 'decapitated' birdarang stamp on his product was printed on the inside of the packaging and turned black when in contact with air. And the ink was literally impossible to get on earth. Fuck, he owed Kori so much for that. Not that she'd ever accepted anything he'd offered, not even sex.
The safe use spaces were clean and guarded. He'd rather get rid of it all but, well, the entire reason he was a crime lord was 'harm mitigation' not 'flush everything down the toilet'. The old man and Gordon had been trying to flush it all away for decades now with no end in sight. Jason wasn't going to drown himself under delusions. He was going to use everything in his power to improve life for Gotham. Apparently there had been a few emergencies. Documented exactly like Jason ordered. That report was dog eared and set on the urgent stack for him to go over more slowly after this round of reports.
"Keep an eye on the Garzones. I don't like these numbers. The other mobsters are ordering up, not down." Jason said, mainly for his own peace of mind. His gang was a well oiled machine.
"You got it, Rojo. If fuckheads cut with shit, Alexi will take care of," Alexi agreed. Jason hummed and looked through Smalls' reports. The SWU:ES (Sex Workers Union: East Side pronounced suéz) was getting pretty well established in the heart of his territory. Settled enough they were starting outreach to workers under the fuckheads at his borders. Having the Goon's union (the freaking goonion because apparently Jason couldn't have nice things) existing at all had helped the idea take hold. Red Hood had been sure to encourage their unionization. Not only was he always eager to fuck over pimps, it meant so much less work for him and his gang. He hated micromanaging, and now the Red Hoods were hired security for the SWUES. Zero micromanaging involved, just 'stand there and shoot this fuckhead'.
The rest of the reports were much the same; nothing unexpected, and when shit cropped up it was taken care of exactly how Jason wanted. His gang running so smoothly without him actively leading was both gratifying and galling. He'd built something here, something that helped his people and would out last his inevitable permanent death. But because he'd set this up, and set it up right his people didn't need him now. They were basically running themselves. Finished with his review, he didn't really want to leave. And as stupid as it was, Jason missed shooting the shit with his lieutenants. He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on his desk.
He didn't immediately know what to say, so he said nothing. Instead he looked up at the ceiling and contemplated if it needed a coat of paint or if he still vibed with the deliberately not painted over water stains. He found himself speaking without really meaning to.
"Like, even if your dad is a piece of shit you still love him, right? Like, you don't just want him dead because he's a dick, right?"
"Boss, you asking the wrong group a people if you want that fucker to live." Smalls informed him dryly. Jason huffed and ran his hand through his hair. He knew what they'd say. Why was he even asking?
"I think I'm the only asshole here that'd give their shithead Pa a second chance," Johnson said with a nod.
"I'd cut the bastard open and shove his balls down his throat," Cara Cortada sneered.
"Hmm, fifty fifty on killing Папуля. Depend on rest of day." Alexi answered
Smalls just laughed. Everyone knew he'd kill someone for not even one corn chip. Relationship status meant almost nothing to him. His loyalty was to himself, his girls, and Jason. In that order. Jason still had no idea why Smalls was so devoted to him, but he'd been with Jason three years. Since the beginning.
"Family is important, yes? I might not ice first offense. Give chance to make up." Sasha said after some time spent considering the question carefully.
Jason got up and paced. He forced himself to make noise and move slowly. He was suddenly tense, he let himself scratch his death scar on his throat. Just the once, then rubbed it. Clawing his throat bloody would help no one. But touching it made Jason think about his impossible King and how genuinely he cared about Jason. Even after Jason had explained to him what, exactly, the Red Hood did. The reminder was comforting.
"Love isn't supposed to hurt." Jason said. It felt terrifying saying those words when thinking about Bruce. He'd said them before. Often. To survivors. Jason wasn't a survivor. He hadn't survived shit. Saying them about himself was like falling into a void with no grapnel and no backup.
"Oh, I dunno, Boss, I got some pretty girlies that'd help you out with that," Smalls leered. Jason rolled his eyes.
"I'm not talking about fucking. I'm talking about family, and don't!" Jason gestured at Smalls, "Don't fucking remind me about kinks, Smalls."
Smalls cackled and the rest of his lieutenants chuckled.
"Har de har har," Jason grumbled.
"You're right though, Rojo. Family ain't supposed to hurt you." Johnson said, frowning.
"Yes, we have free parenting classes for all goons. Good classes. Parent do not hurt child. Very clear." Alexi said with a nod.
"Right, and we've got paternity leave, that's insane, you know that right? Not even Penguin gives his goons paternity leave. And his maternity is just ninety days." Cara Cortada added. She complained about the benefits. Often. But she never did anything more than bitch. She kept right on making sure benefits had funds.
Jason huffed wordlessly and tried not to hunch over as he paced. Outside, a dog barked. He prowled over to the window and looked out. He was high enough up he could see the women in the buildings across the street hanging laundry between the fire escapes. He couldn't hear, but knew they were shouting gossip at each other. Some grandpas were playing bones and heckling each other on a folding table at street level, chatting amongst themselves and shouting occasionally at the half a dozen kids playing some bastardized version of hockey involving a tatty old tennis ball and their dog. Or possibly not their dog, given the way they were chasing the animal around. The dog was playing though, theirs or not; ball in its mouth and tail wagging as it was chased around the empty lot.
The mention of paternity leave got his lieutenants chatting about their own families while Jason watched over his people. This would have been a rare day of peace back when he'd been a little brat here in Gotham's slums. Not so now. Jason had seen more days like this than he hadn't since his bloody take over. His people felt safe. He could see his tags sprayed everywhere he went in 'Crime Alley'. Jason refrained from sneering at his thoughts. He never knew who'd be looking. The last thing they needed was seeing a pissed off Red Hood glaring down at them. But these people abandoned by everyone, his people, had taken the name as they took everything the rich bastards threw out. With savage pride and derision at the soft fat assholes throwing out perfectly good things just because they weren't 'in fashion'.
"Smalls..." Jason said, then stopped. He knew Smalls' answer. "Nevermind."
Jason shoved away from the window and paced again. Deliberately loud again and head lost in thought. Thoughts of Danny and his genuine cherishment of Jason. Like he wasn't filth from birth and stayed filth after death. Danny would never disown him. The very notion was absurd. Jason was Danny's and would be Danny's and will be Danny's. Always. Danny would never think to say such a thing, even in anger. Maybe, especially, never in anger. And totally ignoring him until he fell in line? Never. Jason rubbed his arms then held them behind his back. He knew Smalls' answer. He knew Cara Cortada's too. But Johnson, Alexi, Sasha. They weren't as savage. They might have different opinions.
"What if the shit your dad did was kill you?" Jason said, before he lost his nerve.
"Well..." Johnson said, trailing off. Jason stayed braced at the window but focused now on his lieutenants reflections in the window pane.
"I mean, I'd be dead, so why care, yes?" Sasha said with a shrug.
Jason waved his hand dismissively, "You don't stay dead."
There was silence as his lieutenants shared long looks with each other.
"Well, I'd be pretty fucking pissed. Probably cut out his balls but maybe wouldn't feed them to him, maybe swap 'em around with his eyes," Cara Cortada said thoughtfully.
"Oh, I'd cut that bastard up into rat food," Smalls said cheerfully. Jason huffed in fondness against his will.
"You'd cut literally anyone up into rat food at the drop of a hat," Jason said. His lieutenants chuckled, even Smalls.
"Yeah, yeah, but I'd enjoy it extra special." Smalls insisted.
"Hmph. You say to all the girls." Alexi snarked, then answered Jason. "I think I kill him right back."
Sasha hummed in thought. Jason found himself holding his breath while he was thinking.
"Yeah, there's no second chance after that, Boss." Johnson added his two cents. Jason chewed his lip. Fuck. Johnson was his one lieutenant that never chose violence as his first or even second option.
"I think depends. Do I have siblings? They in danger from shithead, or they undying too?" Sasha eventually asked.
Jason's blood ran cold. There was no comfort in this chill. Cass would never tolerate that shit. No way. And it wasn't like Bruce was like that with his brothers. Jason was the exception. He was always Bruce's exception to his rules.
Wasn't he?
No. No way. Bruce actually loved and cared about his other kids. Even the idiots that followed his kids around, like Spoiler. It was only Jason he hated.
Wasn't it?
Jason remembered the blow out fights Dick and Bruce would get into and his stomach churned. He had no idea what had gone on with Tim. He'd been too focused on Bruce and the Joker. Jason replayed the fight in the Titan's Tower again, this time analyzing it as freshly as he could manage. Tim's style had been familiar. And Jason knew neither Bruce nor Dick trained him in bo. So who trained Tim, and why did it feel familiar? He let that thought simmer. Who taught Tim to fight with a bo staff? Tim specialized in it and Jason could admit to himself that Tim was fucking good with it. Really good. In fact... Tim almost fought like an assassin. Not exactly, and it wasn't as obvious now. He'd always flipped around and sassed way too much and had too many opinions to have been trained by only League agents.
But there were quirks in Tim's style that weren't in Dick's or Barbie's or even Steph's. They were in Jason's though. And in Cass, in Damian, even a little bit still in Bruce's. His churning stomach turned to lead and he stopped thinking about making noise as he paced. Tim was League trained. Had it been Deathstroke? But with his weird ass fucking obsession with Dick there's no way the asshole would just fuck off after training a Robin, even if it was third hand. Talia. Talia fucking knew who trained Tim.
Talia had already had him a year when his mind was restored. Hell she basically finished raising him. Jason finally had enough wherewithal to wonder why he'd been so trusting of Talia's intel. By nature and nurture both he wasn't a trusting guy. But he'd guarded Damian in between instructors and she never trusted anyone else to keep the little brat safe. It had been one of the rare genuinely good things in Jason's life. Caring for and watching over his little brother. Teaching him things like catching rats and cats just for fun, not to pass some skill test or murder test. Poor kid had squirreled away a kitten though, while Jason was out on a training mission. The result had been horrifically preictible. Jason hated that he'd been away then. If he'd been there he could have saved Damian from killing something so helpless that he'd loved. Jason was fucked up, he'd be the first bastard to tell you just how bad of a person he was, but even at his lowest he'd never considered that kind of insane bullshit.
Again Jason wondered why—fucking why—had he trusted Talia al Ghul? He'd already known she was Bruce's ex and extremely dangerous. But he knew Selena too and she was alright. God, he was a fucking idiot. He'd always known that Talia had her own agenda. And for some reason he no longer understood, he'd always believed that whatever her agenda was she cared about Jason. Believed that in caring about Jason she wouldn't give Jason bad intel. Jason had been wrong. Jason had been wrong about her love of Damian and he'd been wrong about her care for himself and it had been so fucking obvious from day fucking one.
Jason needed to kill someone.
Instead he stalked past his lieutenants and into a room with nothing volatile stored. He had enough presence of mind to carefully give Johnson his family pictures. Then turned around screaming and already swinging. Plastic shattered, wood splintered.
He had let Talia manipulate him. In his arrogant stupidity he'd thought he could plan around her self serving interests. But he'd been a stupid bitch patting himself on the back for getting dragged through shit covered glass. She had tried to get him to change targets. He had believed he'd tricked her into his plans when really she'd been encouraging his anger and disproportionately brutal retaliation against 'the pretender'. How had he ever believed Talia about Tim replacing him immediately? That hadn't happened. And there was no way Talia hadn't known. She'd been following Tim's training for God's sake.
Jason had killed a lot of his trainers for being human traffickers or kiddie fuckers or both. Tim had been trained before Jason. Jason had to consciously fight back the urge to vomit. He couldn't even ask Talia who the fuck trained Tim because clearly Talia never expected Jason to figure this out. Jason focused on his breathing. His lieutenants were right fucking here. He could not have a panic attack on top of going fucking crazy and tearing apart Johnson's office with his bare hands. He had to focus.
Jason kicked pieces of a fax machine through the nearest wall. Then felt a twinge of guilt over destroying Johnson's office. Whatever had happened to Tim wouldn't un-happen just because Jason was aware of it now. Besides, he didn't even need to ask Talia shit. He just needed to get out his phone and send a text. Tim had no reason to not tell Jason who taught him bo. Besides being a dick. Which he was. Especially to Jason. Which was fucking fair. Jason got it. He didn't hold it against the guy, Jason had a lot of shit to atone for.
His lieutenants said nothing, but he could feel them watching. He knew it was concern for him. That didn't freak him out nearly as much as it once had. Danny had gotten him used to being cared for and cared about. If he sent a text to Tim alone there was no guarantee Tim would respond with anything useful. Group chat then. But not everyone. Sure as shit not any with The Bastard in them. But definitely not the one of all the younger bats and birds. Tim, like all of them, hated having weaknesses revealed. Jesus Jason needed to stop thinking like an assassin. Not helpful. Wanting privacy for a potentially fraught conversation was not weakness. But Tim still wouldn't want Harper or Luke or probably even Duke. Dick would be in, obviously, because if Tim still didn't answer he'd probably over share in his excited big brother bullshit. Barbie, because if Dick was busy or somehow didn't know then she'd know and would almost certainly answer. Cass? Maybe. Cass did the crazy fucking thing Bruce did, with Orphan and Cass being divided like two distinct people. Not healthy at all, but life was what it was. Orphan loathed Red Hood. She could not understand choosing to kill in any circumstance. Cass loved Jason. She could not understand ever hating her brother. Ultimately, Jason decided that yes, Cass should be in the chat too. It didn't feel right, keeping her out. No Steph. Steph was alright; devoted to Tim even though they hadn't been together in years. She nominally got on with Red Hood but she took special delight in making her pranks on him, as either since she wasn't fucking crazy like Bruce and understood Jason and Red Hood were the same fucking person. Again, fair. But with Jason involved, she'd back Tim up regardless of if it was a good decision.
He stopped pacing, closed his eyes and breathed. Jason would get no where running off half-cocked. There was no faster way to fail against Bruce. He took another shaking, slow breath.
"Family fucking sucks."