family reunions are so tedious >> @flyinggrcyson
“Come on, little monster.” Jason bounces Damian on his hip, listening to the infant shriek with laughter. It’s a bright day, sun coming down, and Damian is loving it just as much as Jason is. He waves chubby arms and babbles babytalk as they walk past a dog, making grabby hands. “No, Dami, you have ask permission before petting someone’s dog.” He glances up at the owner who nods before Jason kneels down, letting Damian reach out to grip fistfuls of fur, clumsily petting a dog that is very interested in sniffing Damian’s face and making him giggle.
Both Jason and the dog’s owner smile fondly at the child’s delight. But then Jason makes the mistake of looking up. Sure, it’s been almost five years since he last saw the Golden Boy Wonder, but Jason spent the best of his years trying to emulate everything about Dick Grayson. He would know him anywhere.
Why is he here, so far from Gotham? So far from New Jersey? There’s no way he can know that Jason is alive. Even Ra’s thinks he’s dead (again).
“Thank you,” he says softly, tugging Damian away carefully from the dog and standing up again.
“No!” Damian protests, but Jason kisses his forehead and he thinks Damian picks up on his disquiet, because he settles in a way that he almost never does when Jason does something the child doesn’t like.
“We gotta cut this short, kiddo,” he murmurs, turning his back on Dick Grayson and the bittersweet ache he leaves in his chest, and walks carefully away. Please, he prays, if there is a God, don’t let Dick have noticed me.
