Okay so I was attacked by this plot bunny -I swear, it just won't let me alone- and I'm 100% unable to write it -believe me, I have tried- so, as a fellow fan, I will proceed to pass the torch. May you have better luck than me. The short version? Jason choses to come back from the death to be with Bruce. The long one? Oooh boy. So y'know those really angsty fics with Bruce's parents and Bruce's kids when you are three words in and already sobbing? Now add recently dead sweet Robin Jason (1/8)
Yeah. So lil' Jaylad, up in heaven with his grandparents (who doesn't love slowburn but in family) has one day the grand idea of see how B is doing and he sees how he's losing it. Now you have his neighbor who goes 'Batman needs a Robin' and then you have Jay who says to God himself 'I have to go back, B needs me' so he negociates with Death or whoever and comes back. The price? sth awful. Like a soul? Really awful. (2/8)
So then Jay comes back. And it should be great, but of course it all sucks bc lbr it's Gotham. So canon prevails (Jason crawling out of his own grave, the braindead wanderings of a fallen bird, 'oh dad look what I found in the street' 'Talia put that down or so help me'; etc) and Jason himself is semi-aware of what he did for Bruce and then shit happens. It could be when Bruce brings him back to Ethiopia to revive Damian (3/8)
And Jason, his soul so thin and weary already, just gives in and fades, and tries to bring Dami back or sth. So he dies. And he finds Dami and then Death/God and tries to negotiate a second time. The grandparents appear. Jason can't look at them, he's too ashamed and it's not about him. It's about Dami and how he is too young and barely alive, and was murdered brutally by his own mother. And Bruce loves him (4/8)
The grandparents, who have been watching all this time, go for the hug. They talk and comfort Jason. This is all emotional and I'm crying just imagining it but Dami goes back and Jason doesn't. He stays. "there's nothing for me there, dami" he says bc yeah they bonded. "Don't be absurd, Todd" "I never should have gone in the first place" Jason says very quietly, no fire left in him "I'm sorry" (5/8)
Dami comes back alone. He's crying, shouting, accusing bc 'look at what you did Father! Todd is gone' and the rest of the Bats don't know what to do with all this brand new information. At some point someone says "He should have been the last Robin" and Tim immediately "Batman needs a Robin" bc parallelism and things right? so Damian says very quiet and solemn "When Todd told me of his revival, despite the warnings, he thought Father needed him, too" (6/8)
And there's this terrible silence in the cave. The scene cut and Bruce finally decides to do sth that's not wallow in silence or beat up criminals, so he calls up Constantine or whoever and goes on his own journey to get Jason back. After a while he finds him just as he was, when he was 15, talking and laughing with his parents. When Jason looks at him, he starts to age and scars appear on his skin. Thomas put himself in front of his son and Martha hugs him (7/8)
Bruce knows he f*cked up. But then there's seeing your dead parents telling you you f*cked up and that's worse. I don't know how i want this fic to end, I just want Jason happy, but they talk, the 4 of them, and it's...heady, and liberating. Maybe an open-ending? a hopeful one. Bruce and Jay, shoulder to shoulder "I do need you Jaylad, come back home" and Jason just smiling in answer. (8/8)
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Well, for all intents and purposes, you have already wrote it:D
This hurts, man, hurts!!
