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[theknightshift]

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[theknightshift]

[ he didn’t expect Jason to understand. And if he thought Bruce would put the suit away - just forget what happened, Bruce thinks he never understood. ]

Jason, stop. Now.

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[He spins, then. His hands aren't bleeding but only because his gloves are lined with kevlar, and are technically armor, because while he's being emotionally volatile he's not completely an idiot.]

Why? Does it bother you?

[He's snarling, now, planting his feet so he looks like an immobile object.]

Because I'm alive! I'm right here!

[theknightshift]

[ he was alive. Alive and well and whole in front of him. Bruce knew that. Allowed himself to be grateful for it despite all the tension Jason’s return brought. But he needed to see that suit, to keep it close by the same way he kept that stupid gun that had set him down this road.

It deeply upset him that Jason wanted to take that away. ]

I know that! That doesn’t make this go away! [ he points at the case ]

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[Jason isn't moving. He's getting more emotional, and it's making the fury build up in him, but he's not moving.]

You think I don't know that? I'm the one who has to live with it every goddamned day, and you're the one holding vigil over a boy you can't even admit-

[He turns and punches the case. It's hard enough that the case, weakened already, cracks a little bit more. He doesn't know how to say it, doesn't know how to put the words out there. That the case isn't a testament to him, it's a memory of someone Jason can't ever be again, and how Bruce prefers that boy, how Bruce can't look past that ghost. That Bruce doesn't, won't ever, care for him like he did before.]

I want it gone.

[theknightshift]

[ That was exactly the point. It was a memorial to a boy that had been taken from them. Not just Bruce, but Jason too, and the rest of their family. That boy was gone and he was never coming back. He deserved to be remembered as much as this...new Jason deserved to be embraced. ]

That's not your call.

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

It should be!

[Bruce has gone into that horrible calm, that Batman calm. He doesn't get angry in the same way that the Robins all do; his emotional template is cold, not hot. Not like Jason.

It's even more infuriating, in a way.]

You think this is about your failure, but all this does is make me feel like crap!

[He says it and punches, again, and again.]

Jason 😭

[theknightshift]

[ Putting it away was too much like forgetting. Bruce did not want to forget. Not that Joe Chill murdered his parents for their money or that the Joker murdered his son to terrorize him. Remembering made sure he never questioned his mission. It made sure he remembered all of the ways he failed and all the ways he needed to be better.

He reaches for Jason, tries to grab his arm to keep from doing anymore damage to the case. ]

That's enough.

He just has a lot of feelings

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[Bruce grabs him and Jason turns, his fist glancing off Bruce's jaw. It's a half-hearted punch, which means that he doesn't actually hurt or even want to hurt him. It still can't be that great.

He flails a little, and pushes him, and snarls.]

Let me go.

[His voice is dark, now, deeper than before.]

Let me go, and get rid of it, Bruce.

sorry bruce is being a jerk

[theknightshift]

[ He doesn't let go, despite the punch to the jaw, despite the push that sends him stumbling back a step or two. Not until there's some distance between Jason and the case. Then he puts himself in the middle. If Jason wanted a second strike at it, he'd have to go through Bruce first. ]

Destroying the suit isn't going to fix anything.

[ Us. It's not going to fix us, is what he really means, if he could bring himself to say it. Because there is still something very broken between them. ]

it's just who he is

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[He pushes, again, and they're just like children for a moment, and Jason is staring at this man who is supposed to be his dad.]

You get rid of it if you want me around.

[The threat is implicit: you get rid of it or you get rid of me. Jason is known for his ultimatums, and he's actually usually pretty good at following through. Like you know.

Me or the clown.

Bruce chose the clown, so there's no hope here that Bruce will choose Jason, even though this seems easier. He's not asking anyone to kill, here.]

[theknightshift]

[ Jason always asked for the impossible. Pushed Bruce for more than he had to give. Jason pushes him and his back presses into the glass behind him. ]

It's your choice. I'll never turn you away.

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[It's stupid how much it hurts; it shouldn't hurt. It shouldn't feel like the crowbar slamming into his ribcage again. He should have known. He saw it coming. He knew.

He presses away from Bruce, and lifts his head, and then reaches for his helmet. The calm that he's suddenly displaying is suddenly icy.]

Predictable.

[Because Jason is not actually a psychopath, he doesn't shoot the accelerant. Instead he reaches into his pocket and lights a lighter, and tosses it into the puddle on the floor.

There are so many contingencies for fire in this place, he's not worried, either, that someone will die, or that anything will actually get damaged. Mostly, he wants Bruce to stop looking at him.]

[theknightshift]

What the hell are you doing? Stop!

[ Bruce yells and Jason gets what he wants, however temporary. The fire flickers to life and swallows up the trail of accelerant before fire suppression kicks in and smothers the life from it. And as long as the fire burned, it had Bruce's attention.

Now, it's back on Jason and honestly, he's pissed. Setting fire, even a meager one, to the cave seemed a far more personal attack than taking a crowbar to a memory Bruce cherished. ]

What did you think that was going to do, Jason? [ Because it certainly did not change his mind. ]

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[Jason is heading to his bike. He almost wants to puncture a tire on the Batmobile, just to give him a minute, but he knows that those tires are a bitch to mess with and he doesn't want to make this dramatic exit lose any power.

He mounts his bike right around the time that Bruce yells at him.]

You set fire to our relationship, I set fire to that fucking memorial.

It's your choice.

[He parrots the words with a mimicry of Bruce's cadence that only the Robins can manage as he starts his bike.]

[theknightshift]

[ Deep down, Bruce didn't want things to be this way. Whatever their differences were, Bruce loved Jason and had wanted him back more than anything. But what came out of the Pit, who came out was someone Bruce was no longer starting to recognize and what put them at odds seemed greater than anything that had ever held them together. Bruce...he didn't know what to do about any of it. All of his efforts to make it right only ever seemed to make it worse.

Bruce Wayne was rebuffed at every turn. So now, Jason would have Batman instead.

He leaves the case behind (another mess to be cleaned later) and follows. ]

Fine. You made your choice and now I'll make mine.

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[Jason's head comes up, then.

He knows that tone, and he knows that threat. That's the tone of voice that he takes when you killed someone, and that means that Batman is out to play. It also means that Bruce, as usual, has taken a fight and turned it into a fucking crusade.

God, this was predictable and Jason walked straight into it.

He doesn't bother stalling, then. He just goes, bike going from 0 to an impossible speed on a street model in a second and a half. He needs to make up distance now. The benefit of a bike is that it's agile, but the Batmobile-

-Jason figures if he can make it to Gotham proper he can slip between the cracks. For all that Bruce knows Gotham, it's really always been Jason's city, and if Jason doesn't want to be found in it, the fact is that he won't be.]

[theknightshift]

[ What has his life been since that single tragic moment in Crime Alley but a crusade? A crusade for physical perfection. A crusade for a deep and vast well of knowledge. A crusade against the worst Gotham had to offer. Bruce Wayne - that little boy left alone in the dark at the feet of his dead mother and father - never stood a chance. Not a single one.

It's what drives him now. The Crusade. The Mission consumes him in all his waking hours (and his sleeping ones too). Jason's rejection, his choosing something other than peace was another to add to the list.

The car's driver side door swings open wide when he commands it to from his belt and he leaps into it to peel out after Jason into Gotham's night. He doesn't know what he'll say when he catches him. Was there anything left to say? Nothing Jason wanted to hear it seemed. It didn't matter anymore now.

The chase was on. ]

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[He wonders if Bruce even cottons this. That he's chasing his kid, intent on what? Some kind of violence? For setting a fire to a costume. Not for killing anyone. Not for hurting anyone.

For being upset.

He wonders if Bruce - the Bruce he knew, who used to take him to ball games and who was so proud of every good grade that he got, the Bruce that he used to think of, very tentatively, as dad - even is still there. Did everything good die with him?

He hits the bridge and zips past a pair of cops, who start the lights right up until the rumble of the Batmobile overtakes them. Jason knows he has seconds, maybe, so when the bridge ends, perilously close to the edge of the river, he rides his bike up on the slim slick side and shoots down in the city on a run that would make Nightwing nervous. He hears something resembling a gunshot - okay he's in Gotham - and spins into the city, then jumps the bike and vaults into the air, letting the bike go.

Bye bye, bike. You were so nice for the few weeks you lasted.

Jason figures if he can get airborne, he can find a place to hide out this temper tantrum.]

[theknightshift]

[ That was the problem. Bruce hadn't forgotten. Jason is still every bit the son he'd taken in all those years ago. The only thing shifted now is the perspective. His or Jason's, Bruce couldn't decide which. He only knows it tilts his world the wrong way around and no one else is going to fix it. He has to fix it himself. It is always by himself.

Jason knows Gotham's streets, but then so does Bruce. When Jason cuts corners the Batmobile cannot, Bruce can find an alley to swing into and continue the pursuit. His focus is narrowed to a single point in a red helmet that he's not given any thought at all to what he'll say when the chase ends. That could come later, when the adrenaline's not so hot and when the quiet aftermath sets in.

The police scanner lights up with reports of a guy on a bike and Batman hot on his trail. Orders were not to engage and if any had to stand down immediately. Funny thing. Bruce didn't answer to Jim Gordon. Instead Bruce presses the accelerator harder, bringing the car perilously close to the bridge's edge before he ejects himself up and out into the night air. The cape spreads out like jet black wings, billowing in the updrafts that keep him airborne. It won't last long so he makes the best use of what little time he has in the sky to see if he can spot Jason from above. ]

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[He can almost feel the cape, at this point. He thinks that most of Gotham can, like a sixth sense, something above that is watching that is darker and more twisted than God. Jason could call in reinforcements, but backup has never been Jason's speed.

The old part of Gotham, that's where he heads. It's a playground for the bats, practically, with the old architecture that curled and cued and made a good place for grapples to land. But specifically to an old gargoyle that he used to hang out at, when he was a kid, when he was a teenager who just wanted to sit still for a while.

Bruce will find him here.

But who knows what he'll do from there. But maybe he's just kind of sick of running.]

[theknightshift]

[ Old Gotham is where he begins to lose altitude, clearing a few of the rooftops before he must land on one of the flatter surfaces.

He knows to look in the shadows first. It's where Bats always lurk. And he spies him on a familiar crumbling gargoyle nearby. Bruce grapples up, hauls himself across the distance until there's only a few feet between him and Jason and the gargoyle.

This is where they met. Fitting it's where they'd meet again. Their lives always seemed to converge at this point. ]

I don't want to fight with you. But I do want this to end.

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[He has one foot braced against the gargoyle, but he doesn't look like he's going to attack. He doesn't look like he's about to fling himself off the gargoyle, either.

He looks tired, or at least his body language does. His face is covered in his helmet.]

Well.

Here you are.

What are you planning? You want to arrest me? Hand me over to the cops? Get rid of me?

[theknightshift]

No.

[ Maybe any other time, his answer would have been sharp. It lingers instead. It's not soft. There's a sense of resignation with it. He's tired too. ]

I never regretted trusting you. Not for a moment. [ he looks over at Jason then looks away again. ] We don't have to be like this.

[turdusmigratoriusmortuus]

[Jason feels his whole body sag a little.]

You keep saying that.

[Its hard to believe him, when Jason feels like he’s always being hunted, when Jason always feels like he’s one decision away from being locked up in the cave for the rest of his life.]

I’ll give you-

[He sighs]

I don’t know. What do you want?

[theknightshift]

[ Jason isn't the only reason this relationship is strained. Bruce can admit that. Maybe to no one else but himself, but it's still an admission. ]

You don't have to fight with me. Just stop fighting against me.