Not the bird you think (Dick and Jason)

[justlikeacircus]

There wasn't anything strange about the evening when it started, he finished up his shift and swapped one uniform for another same as he always did, and patrol was relatively quiet.

Then he dropped in on a mugging in progress - only to find somebody else had beat him to it. Somebody with a very familiar R on their chest - and that was where the familiarity ended, because it sure as hell wasn't Tim.

He held back until the mugger was dealt with and the victim had long since fled, since the stranger seemed to have the matter well in hand and he didn't want to ruin anything by joining in the fight unexpectedly. He did step forward before the 'Robin' could disappear, though, head titled curiously.

"Funny, I'm sure Batman would have told me if he was hiring somebody else, I normally get to be on the interview panel." he quipped.

Comments

[robintoo]

"Guess we're all delinquents," Jason said wryly. He didn't mind that so much. He'd had the balls to try to steal from the Batmobile. That was something at least. Dick would always be Dick and whoever Tim was, he might end up Bruce's son, but neither of them rolled up and tried to jack the Batmobile. They all had a niche, he guessed.

"Things aren't the same anyway. Dick back there - he's not that big on Bruce either." And there was definitely a hierarchy. Jason thought that was just how life went. If two people did something, one of them was going to be better. That wasn't him. There might be one or two particular things he was better at, but overall, he wasn't the one people were going to remember when they thought about Robin. He'd accepted that. The adoption thing just ... dredged up a moment he was already clamping back down.

The way Dick kept talking about his Jason though ... like he'd been gone for good. Jason was starting to get an idea that he might have been. "Did you think the other me was dead or something? Or did he go work for the bad guys, or never get away from Slade?"

[justlikeacircus]

"There was a time I wasn't," he admitted, because for a while there Bruce hadn't been his favourite person - he only hoped things improved for that Dick in the same way.

Then Jason picked up on the phrasing of his comments and Dick had to mentally kick himself, he knew he'd been saying too much but he'd hoped it was all vague enough that Jason wouldn't comment, but of course he did - Jason was very good at doing exactly what Dick didn't want him to do, apparently regardless of universe.

"Slade?" he said, partly out of genuine confusion and partly to buy himself some time to try and think of how to explain what had actually happened "Slade Wilson? Deathstroke? No, our Jason was never really involved with him at all..." Dick had tangled with him a few times. A lot of times, actually, but he didn't think Jason ever had.

"We... we thought he was dead because he was." as harsh as it was to tell the truth, lying felt worse "He was brought back, but he had actually died at the hands of the Joker..."

[robintoo]

Jason guessed that went around too, Dick and Bruce's non-talking period. They got over it at home, too, more or less. But he doubted it was the same here as it was at home. Nothing really seemed to be, aside from Gotham being weird as hell.

Jason listened, frowning. It wasn't really a surprise. Most people who'd met him since he was a kid pretty much wrote him off for being dead or in jail before he was 18. So he'd already beat the odds by a bit. But there was something about hearing it ...

He was dead, Dick said. So he wasn't anymore, since Dick had talked about him in the present tense before. He didn't know how that worked either, but Jason didn't know if he wanted to. He wondered if this Jason had just been on his own too, if he died and no one knew for a while and then no one knew it wasn't true either.

Probably not. This Dick would care. Jason's was obligated. It was different.

"I never dealt that much with the Joker, he was inactive while I was Robin," Jason said instead of asking. "Wilson had an axe to grind with the Titans and I got in his way like an asshole. He held me captive a while and then dropped me off a balcony when you - other you - got there to see." Jason said it nonchalantly, like he hadn't been tortured and didn't still see himself falling behind his eyelids whenever he closed them. He was used to hiding those things. "A new guy caught me, so I was fine."

[justlikeacircus]

Dick looked relieved at the news that the Joker wasn't active - he had his patches of not being around so much here, but he still seemed like an inevitability, no matter how many times he was thrown in Arkham - hell, that was ninety percent of Jason's problem, he just wanted the man dead. Dick was technically on Bruce's side, but he wouldn't exactly shed any tears if something did happen to Joker.

The relief is short lived, however, because the news that Slade had kidnapped Jason and dropped him off a balcony earned a horrified look - trying to get to him by going through his brother, however strained the relationship apparently was in that version of the world, was a low blow, but one he could absolutely see Slade doing. Their particular beef was... lengthy and complicated, and that was putting it mildly.

"Shit." he breathed "I'm sorry Jay."

Because he was, he was sorry something like that had happened to him - he knew Jason well enough to guess there was more he wasn't really saying abotu the ordeal, it seemed that blasé way of talking about what he'd been through was another common factor across universes.

[robintoo]

Jason had trouble understanding Bruce's no-killing policy sometimes too. It made more sense to him to take out someone they knew had gone bad before they could hurt someone else. But he had done things Bruce's way, so far - even if he was alittle more violent than either Bruce or his version of Dick would like. Jason hadn't turned the same corner Dick's Jason had, not yet anyway.

He shrugged at the apology. "Not your fault, not even your world. And it's over now," Jason said. He ignored the little twinge he felt from the nickname. Not many people called him anything but Jason anymore.

"Don't worry about it," Jason said with another little shrug, though it was sharper. As if throwing off the conversation altogether. "You got anything I can change into while I'm here?" he asked, mostly to change the subject.

[justlikeacircus]

That didn't make him any less sorry, didn't make it any less of a shame that it had happened. He would have said as much, except Jason was clearly done talking about it and he didn't want to force the guy to dwell. As much as he thought talking was important, Jason hadn't come here for some kind of elaborate healing therapy session, and Dick wouldn't be qualified to provide one if he had.

"Sure, I've got some things that should fit you," he agreed, allowing the change of subject easily and heading through to the bedroom to grab some clothes for him. They wouldn't be the best fit, but they'd be better for moving around without being noticed than the Robin outfit certainly.

"There you go," he offered a bundle of clothes to Jason "Go ahead and get changed. I'm going to start making a few calls."

[robintoo]

Jason took the clothes with a smile. "Thanks," he said. It was guarded still, but genuine enough.

He took them into the bathroom, cleaning up a little and changing into the clothes Dick had given him. It was a better fit than it likely would have been on the Jason Dick knew, who was bigger than this version. Dick was a little taller than Jason, though Jason was broad shouldered for his size. The pants were a little long, the shirt a little tight. But it was fine. Better than half his own clothes given how little he went to buy new ones and how oversized his hoodies tended to be. They even smelled a little bit like Dick which was ... nice. And definitely better than Jason's usually did. Laundry wasn't his first priority lately.

He took a few minutes to just ... think. Settle. He was in another universe, with another Dick Grayson, where there was another Jason Todd who'd died. Part of him wondered if it really was the Joker, or if that's just what this version said, if anybody had seen it. But he wasn't gonna ask.

He splashed some water on his face finally, emerging with hair a little damp and Dick's clothes on, his own stuff tucked under his arm and his feet bare save for socks, until he sat down to start pulling his boots back on. If anything went down, he didn't want to have to run barefoot. He checked to see if Dick was still on the phone before asking, "they say anything?"

[justlikeacircus]

"Yea I can do that, it's not a problem," Dick was saying as Jason came back into the room "thanks Babs. Just let me know."

He hung up and turned to Jason when he spoke, nodding.

"Left a message for Clark and spoke to Tim and Babs, they're going to work together to look into a few things and come back to us, though Babs said she'd call if she had any questions for you. That leaves us at a bit of a loose end for now, there's no point us hanging around bothering those two while they get their nerd on, and they'll let us know as soon as they find anything, so we can... hang out, I guess. You hungry or anything?"

It was a little awkward, he knew, and Jason would probably chafe at the inaction, but hopefully Dick would be able to keep him distracted while they waited for Tim and Barbara to find something.

[robintoo]

Left a message for Clark was never not gonna just be a little mind blowing. The fact that anyone could just give Superman a ring whenever they felt like it ... yeah. It made Jason wonder again if his Dick could do that, if he ever had. There was a shitton that Jason didn't know, probably. Would never know.

He finished with his boots and then sat back, aware of the uneasiness between them. With the Dick he knew, Jason would have pulled at that tension, made it worse with sarcasm and insults. But this wasn't the same guy, and Jason needed him. Plus he was being decent, so it was just left feeling ... awkward? Strained? Like what family dinner probably felt like when you had to go with relatives you didn't actually know except you shared a name. Or he'd guess, anyway.

"Yeah ... I could eat, I guess. I can find somewhere to crash though, if you've got a spare burner phone I can keep on me," Jason offered, just because it felt like he should.

[justlikeacircus]

"You have a place to crash, here." Dick said firmly "You're welcome here, Jason, you might not be the one I know but you're still family. Kind of. Look I know it's weird but I'm going to help you and that includes letting you take the guest room."

He was kind of struggling with how exactly to treat him, normally he knew how to act around Jason but there was a familiarity that was lacking here and he wasn't totally sure what to do about it or how to deal with it, but at the very least he knew he was going to do everything he could to help him get home, and in the mean time he'd look after him because that's what Dick did.

"You wanna order in or go out some place to eat?" he added

[robintoo]

Jason thought he'd say that. The Dick he knew would probably say it too, but Jason would believe it less. And the bed he'd be offering up wasn't a spare room in an apartment that felt real, it was a room in a sky-high rich tower. It wouldn't feel the same.

Still awkward as hell though. Especially when Dick kept saying family. Jason hadn't had family for a long time, and hearing someone just say he was theirs like it was that easy, or that certain - it itched at him. If Dick knew him, he wouldn't say that.

But Jason kept quiet and just nodded. "Okay ... yeah, thanks." He cocked his head. "Out?" he decided. "Get a look around, see how different it is from my Gotham." And maybe a little less searching for something to say out in public, Jason figured.

[justlikeacircus]

"Sure," Dick agrees easily - it's a reasonable request after all, and he can tell there's a little bit of nervous energy in the guy, maybe a trip out to find something to eat would allow him to work some of that out, make him feel a little more productive instead of sitting around waiting for take out.

"Let me just grab my stuff and we'll get going." It doesn't take him long to grab his jacket and get some shoes on his feet, so barely five minutes later he's holding the door open for Jason and tucking his phone into his pocket.

"There's a few good places not too far away, but we can take the scenic route so you can get a good look around." he offered - he was kind of interested to know how different it was here, as well.