The Bird and Bug Wonder {flashback}
It had been stupid from the beginning, all of it. With Bruce off world, Jason had been given a choice, stay at the manor with just Alfred with the condition that Dick would be stopping by regularly to check up on him, or stay at the Cave and still be allowed to continue with training and missions. After wrestling with the choice for hours, he had elected to stay at the Cave.
He had no idea why that had seemed like a good idea.
Having been with the Titans for some time now, he was used to most of them, though he was still a little uncomfortable being around them when some of the older members were being all buddy-buddy with each other. It made him feel like he didnât belong even more than usual. One on one though, most of them werenât that bad, at least the ones he had gotten to know anyway.
Today though, he had been left to his own devices. The day before, he had been on a rather intensive missions, so it was time for a break, which meant time to train. Though he could fight as good as the rest of the Titans and was doing fairly well living up to the Robin mantle, there were still a few places where he fell a little short. His flips werenât quite as crisp as Dickâs, and he often took an extra step when he landed.
The practicing had been going well, better than usual even, until he had tried to get fancy. He was just glad there wasnât really anyone else around to watch him hobble to the infirmary, cursing under his breath all the while.
So now, there he was, sitting on a cot and grumbling to himself, fighting back a wince as he pressed and ice-pack to his now slightly swollen ankle. Hearing the door open, he looked up sharply, eyes narrowing a little behind the sunglasses he always wore. Blue Beetle. Another new recruit, one he didnât know very well. Instantly, Jason was suspicious.
"Whatâre you looking at?"
Jaime held up his hands in defense, alarmed by Robinâs sharp reaction to him being at the door. He blinked, taking a small step back, and stared for a second at Robinâs ankle, eyebrows slightly furrowed. Robin was evidently hurt and Jaime doubted that ice would heal itâ heâd sprained his ankle a ton as a kid, and the ice helped, butâŠ
"Iâm not," he said quickly, averting his eyes from the boy on the bed. "Iâm not⊠Iâm just⊠I-I was just wondering who was in here, is all, I mean I could hearâ I could hear something.â
He swallowed and stared at a picture of a forest on the wall. God Robin was frightening, even injured and on the cot. Jaime ventured to take a step closer. He looked at Robin again and frowned at his obviously pained teammate. As an older brother, Jaime had always been inclined to help people, and this was no exception.
"Are you okay?" he asked hesitantly, starting to close the door and get nearer to Robin.
The babbling did nothing to alleviate Jasonâs mistrust. Jaime was a new recruit, some sort of crazy alien bug stuck to his back, at least that was what Jason had gotten from the file on him. Batman had instilled a healthy sense of paranoia in him, so there wasnât anything that was on record that Robin didnât know.Â
No matter how harmless Jaime actually looked, Robin tensed up as he drew closer, curling in on himself ever so slightly. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes flicked around, looking for possible escape routes. That was a habit that went back long before Batman, though it had only grown recently.
"Iâm fine," he replied a little tersely, twitching a little when Jaime closed the door behind him. Trapped. No way out. At least the infirmary wasnât small enough to make Jason feel claustrophobic, but he didnât like the idea of being stuck along in a room with an almost stranger with some sort of crazy alien powerhouse stuck to his back.
"Just landed bad, nothing to worry about," he insisted, though he was a little confused as to why Jaime would even be worried. They barely knew each other.
Jaime smiled, trying to be friendly, but he didnât really know what he looked like with the bug suit on. Probably creepy. Maybeâ well, Robin hadnât ever seen his human face, and Jaime always wondered how much like an alien he mustâve looked. Of courseâ with actual aliens on the team, it may not have been so strange, but.
"Sorry," Jaime said, though he wasnât sure if he was sorry for intruding or sorry that Jason had got injured. He walked up to where Robin was sitting and glanced at the swollen foot, frowning. "You should elevate it," he said, rubbing his scratchy chin. "And probably not walk on it like⊠for a week."
Well, that wouldnât go over very well. Jaime knew Batmanâ he knew frikkinâ Batmanâ and that guy was probably tough all hours of the day. He was off-world until tomorrow. No way that was going to heal, and no way Robin could hide it from anyone, let alone the worldâs greatest detective.
He didnât sit down on the same cot at Jason, but rather the one next to it, meanwhile the beetle whispered into his ear. Or shouted. Usually it was loud. Jaime looked up from the ankle and up to Jasonâs masked face. âWalking on itâll only make it worse. Iceâll help but keep it above your heart, like lay down I mean.â
The bugsuit was pretty weird, but nothing stranger than Jason had ever seen, growing up in Gotham and working with Batman had desensitized him to most things like that. Some of the other people they had teamed up with in recent years had looked far more bizarre. Still, he wasn't a big fan of letting anyone he didn't really know get anywhere near him no matter what they looked like.
"I know how to treat a bad ankle," he grumbled, though he did shift to grab a pillow to shove under his foot, keeping the ice pack pressed to his ankle. "Staying off it ain't--isn't an option." He corrected himself, his street accent often threatening to slip back in when he was agitated despite all Bruce and Alfred had done to train him out of it. It was more himself and his injury that he was annoyed with than Jaime, but the other teen had the misfortune of being around him when he was pissed off, so a little of the irritation was likely to get taken out on him.Â
Huffing, he reluctantly laid back against the other pillows on the cot, knowing Jaime was right at least about how to take care or the injury. He draped an arm over his eyes as he blew out a breath. "Gotta be in training tomorrow or Batman'll hear about it and never let me live this down. He's gonna be fucking pissed."
















