Characters: Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, with mentions of Jason Todd
Summary: Basically I got Tim thinking about Jason in the grotto and Dick appears and they have a small chat. (I'm sorry it's short. I'm sorry it's crappy. I'm sorry.)
The one named Jason Todd. The one that died at the hands of the Joker. And the one who stood tall, like he was proud.
Briefly, Tim wondered if he was always like that, if his face was so serious when he wasn't on duty. Briefly, Tim wondered a lot about his namesakes, not only about Dick and why he left his job as the first Robin—the original, the one that made the title well known—but also about Jason.
Mostly because Bruce and Dick didn't talk about him much, and Tim was left to his own imagination about what Jason's life was like on the job, at the house, and about everywhere else.
He'd walk in the hall every now and then in Bruce's mansion, the hall with all of Bruce's family standing as tall as cornstalks and staring right at him, following him as he examines them all. Tim watches young Dick as he stands next to an empty chair, looks at Jason Todd, too, watches him as he has that same expression across his face as the one in the grotto.
"You look at him a lot, don't you?" a voice said from behind him. It was one he knew from countless missions he ran before, a voice that stuck in his mind. It was Dick, the first and the beginning of a legacy that Tim hoped would last for a while. The first of many Robins.
Tim didn't respond at first, didn't even turn around to stare at the tall man. "Not usually." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. He didn't come down here in the mountain to look at Jason often, but he made a trip once a week to the long hall of Wayne's just out of habit.
"He was a good Robin," Dick said after a while, standing now next to Tim, both looking at the predecessor and the successor of both of them. "But so are you."
The current Robin couldn't help the smile that came with the praise, and he thanked Dick, told him that he is a great Nightwing and a fantastic Robin. Dick's acrobatics had given him that fantasticness, but they had also given him away to Tim, had helped him become Robin.
Tim wasn't sure Dick knew that though, didn't think that Dick remembered the first time they met was the same night his parents were killed, so he didn't mention it. Not yet at least.
"Bats treating you all right?"
"Yes." It was true; Bruce treated him like his own son whenever he had to go there for training, treated him like the other Robins when he was on duty. And that was all Tim could ask for because he, unlike the others, had a place to return to at night, had a home where he made his own dinner and woke himself up at the appropriate time so he could get to school on time, had parents, even if they were hardly there because they had some business trip in Malaysia or Italy or some other place.
Tim never asked much from them, and they never asked much from him. And, despite himself, Tim was okay with that.
There was silence as both Robins stared at the hologram, stared at the one person Dick knew but Tim didn't.
"Do you miss him?" He didn't really mean to ask the question, but it fell from his lips and he wasn't able to take them back, just wait quietly for Dick's answer.
Instead of answering his question, Nightwing stated, "He'd have really liked you, I think. Then again, almost everyone likes you."
Tim smiled at the praise, and looked briefly up at the older man, looked up at the first Robin, the person whose parents were dead and whose younger "brother" was now dead. Tim hoped that he wouldn't end up next to him, standing here with Tula and Jason. He hoped no one else on the Team did, because no one deserved to die so young.
"Batman says the first time he went on patrol it was the best day of his life. Dawning that suit for the first time, I did too," Dick muttered.
"The suit might have been uncomfortable but the rush wasn't."
"No, no it wasn't."
Because the rush of jumping from buildings didn't hold up to spandex and hiding in shadows. Nothing outweighed the first patrol night they all went on, because patrolling marked the beginning of a new Robin, the beginning of the next one, and, though they didn't all know that at the start, they knew it by the end.
I'D LIKE TO THANK BUNNY FOR LISTENING TO MY ENDLESS RAMBLING ABOUT HOW THIS FIC IS GONNA KILL ME AND JUST UGH SO MANY FEELS BECAUSE HE STILL DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO DANCE AND SHE THINKS HE'S DEAD AND JUST UGH
I'D ALSO LIKE TO THANK AMANDA FOR LISTENING TO MY SHOUTING ABOUT HOW SOMETIMES REVIEWERS ARE STUPID AND ASK THINGS I'VE ALREADY DENIED, BUT I STILL LOVE THEM AND JUST NEED TO VENT SOMETIMES
I'D ALSO LIKE TO THANK BETH FOR GETTING ME INTO SYFY'S ALICE AND TAKING ME OVER TO HER HOUSE AND LETTING ME WATCH FIREFLY AND EAT ICE CREAM AND STUFF
I'D LIKE TO THANK KATIE FOR WRITING AWESOME THINGS AND LETTING ME READ THEM EARLY AND WRITING FANTASTICLY AND JUST MAN, YOU'RE A WONDERFUL TWIN
I'D ALSO LIKE TO THANK NIKKI FOR BEING AN AWESOME PERSON (THOUGH WE DON'T TALK AS MUCH AS WE SHOULD) AND THAT YOUR ZATANNA COSPLAY WAS A++
I'D LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE ELSE WHO HAS LISTENED TO ME RAMBLE ABOUT IDIOT THINGS AND FOR FOLLOWING ME BECAUSE DAMN DO I HAVE A SHIT TON OF THINGS TO POST AND HAVEN'T DONE SO. LOVE YOU ALL