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Jason was getting desperate. It’d been two years since he’d stolen Damian away from the League of Assassins, and it had not been easy. Ra’s and Talia had people hunting them down every step of the way, and it forced Jason to retaliate in order to keep his little brother safe. They were constantly on the move and targeting League bases as they went. Every time he destroyed a base, they got at least a few days' worth break since the League had to regroup, which was a welcome reprieve. However, Jason knew this was no way to raise a child. His baby brother deserved some stability. But that wasn’t possible because the League wouldn’t give up unless he either crippled the League or they moved to Gotham.
Batman’s turf. Damian’s dad.
So obviously Jason needed to incapacitate the League. But there was a problem there. For one, he was only one man. And while he was damn good at destroying things, he couldn’t go up against a mega-cult alone. On top of that, he and Damian were down to their last few dollars. Constantly being on the move required a lot of money, as did being the Red Hood and going to war against a bunch of assassins.
Every time he took out a base, he made sure to swipe as much money from their safes as possible, but it’d been a while since he managed to track down a hideout. On top of that, Damian needed an emergency appendectomy and Jason had to track down an incredibly illegal, highly competent, and very expensive doctor to do the surgery discreetly.
He could have just taken Damian to the hospital with one of their dozens of aliases, but the Red Hood had somehow gotten onto the Justice League’s radar despite all the caution Jason’s taken. So, he’d been going out of his way to leave as little of a trace of their existence as possible and to avoid everything that had anything to do with the Bats. You could never be too careful.
But…they needed money. And Jason knew all the ins and outs of the Wayne bank accounts. If he risked breaking into some other billionaire’s accounts, he could be discovered and tracked. However, he might just be able to pull it off with Bruce’s.
Scrubbing his face with his hands, he glanced over to the couch where Damian was sprawled fast asleep. The poor kid needed new shoes and a fun day out. He wouldn’t say anything about it, but the stress was starting to get to the little eleven-year-old. It wouldn’t hurt to take him to a movie and out for dinner. But Jason couldn’t do that with the measly thirty dollars left in his account.
Taking a deep breath, he turned back to his computer and started the slow process of breaking into Bruce’s bank account. As long as he was cautious, it’d be fine. He’d only take a few thousand dollars, a minuscule amount to a man like Bruce, and make that work until he found another assassin hideout.
It’d be fine.
_______
It was decidedly not fine.
Six weeks after Jason siphoned two thousand dollars from billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne’s account, resourceful vigilante Batman broke through the window of his motel room. The second the Bat’s ankle was through the window, Jason was jumping up from the dinner table and throwing himself in front of his little brother, unintentionally spilling the boy’s cheerios all over the floor.
Batman landed hard on the floor before pulling himself up to his full height. “Red Hood-,” he growled before freezing when he caught sight of Jason’s face. Letting out a strangled “Jason?” he stumbles a step forward.
That’s when Jason springs into action. Heart hammering painfully in his chest, he snatches up Damian in one arm, their emergency go-bag in the other, and races out the door. Steps pounding on the crappy carpet, he bolts through the halls and runs full force toward the end of the hall. He chucks the bag through the window, smashing it to pieces before he hurtles out after it. Usually, he’d just throw himself through the glass with reckless abandon, but he couldn’t do that with his arms full of baby brother.
He goes to scoop up the bag that landed near the mouth of the alley, but Batman dropped down next to it effectively killing all chances of getting back their emergency supplies. Cursing silently, Jason tucked Damian into his chest and ran as fast as he could.
“Is that-,” the boy in his arms tried to ask, but Jason quickly hushed him and kept going. Now was not the time for questions. Not when a hero was on their tail. Even if he was Damian’s dad and Jason’s used-to-be-dad, he wouldn’t hesitate to throw Jason in Arkham and keep Damian from ever seeing him again. That’s just how the man worked when it came to criminals, and Jason was most definitely a criminal by Justice League standards.
But goddamnit, this had to be because of the money he stole from the man. How did he even know he was missing anything? Does he secretly count his money like Scrooge McDuck? (Yes, Bruce would be the Duck version)
Things were starting to look up ten minutes into the chase. While Batman was still right behind him, he wasn’t close enough to grab him anymore and was at least forty feet behind him. He’d managed to remotely call his bike to come pick them up and it was only another minute out. They were so close to escaping the Bat for the moment.
Unfortunately, fate had other plans. Jason turned down an intersection only to be slammed in the side by a passing motorcycle. Most likely some crook or another given the fact that the guy decided to keep going despite ramming someone.
Jason had managed to turn at the last second so Damian wouldn’t be hurt, but the motorcycle had been going fast enough to make his entire side explode with pain upon impact. When Jason hit the ground, his head hit the concrete hard and his vision began swimming. He vaguely registered screaming in the background, but it was a strange cacophony of a frantic, high-pitched voice and a deep, distraught one.
That’s the last thing he registered before slipping into the darkness.
_______
Sounds slowly filtered through the haze as Jason awoke. There was a buzzing in the background accompanied by soft snores that he instinctively recognized as Damian’s. Peeling an eye open, Jason was shocked to see that he was in a luxurious hotel suite rather than a prison hospital. Letting his eyes wander across the tasteful decor around the room, he eventually made eye contact with Bruce. The man was wearing sweats that were a harsh juxtaposition against the couture armchair he was slouched in.
“Jason? How are you feeling?” he said once he realized that Jason wasn’t going to be saying anything first.
Swallowing hard, Jason asked, “Why am I here?”
Bruce’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Where else would you be?”
“Prison? Arkham? Wherever else you keep rogue zombies terrorizing assassin cults?” Jason said as evenly as he could. It was nice not waking up chained to a table without the comfort of his baby brother, but he wasn’t going to delude himself into thinking that wasn’t exactly where he was going to end up eventually.
Horror crossed Bruce’s face as he said, “Jason, no! You’re my son, and you haven’t done anything wrong! I know I said some awful things to you before you di- before you left for Ethiopia, but the only place I want to take you is back home. Where you belong.”
Jason started to tear up, and Bruce was instantly at his side offering comfort. Even though it absolutely burned his ribs to move, he fought through the pain so he could sit up and hug his dad. Bruce still wanted him even after everything. He still had a home.
Thirty minutes later when Jason was all cried out and Damian had woken up and tucked himself into Jason’s side, Bruce finally asked a question that’d been on his mind since his son had bolted out of the motel with a child in his arms. “Would you mind introducing me to your friend?”
Instantly lighting up, Jason said cheerfully, “This is my baby brother, Damian al Ghul. Your son!”
Bruce’s pleasant smile turned to a dumbfounded gape as he rapidly looked between Jason and Damian, seeming to fight with himself on whether he should be scrutinizing Jason for any hint of a lie and studying Damian to see if he held any Wayne features.
As for Jason, he burst out laughing to the point it was difficult to breathe (and that was only partially due to the fractured ribs). “Did you get that?” he asked Damian hopefully.
The kid merely scoffed before saying, “Of course I did. What do you take me for?” With those words, he shoved his cheap flip phone in Jason’s face so his brother could see the video he’d just shot. Bruce’s aghast face, both on the phone and in real life, absolutely made getting run over worth it.
If Bruce was truly serious about letting him come home, this was going to make for some fantastic blackmail in the future!