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“Kid whatcha think you’re doin’ there?” Jason asked startling the young boy.
It was almost midnight when Jason found the kid, carrying a backpack looking sketchy as hell. He was barely 9.
He wasn’t so dumb as to ask where his parents were or anything like that, he was a skinny one, dressed in dirty ragged jeans and a wrinkled shirt much too large for him. It was obvious he was a crime alley street kid, either an orphan or had negligent parents.
The kid was shaking, wide-eyed, so he was probably still new to the whole, carrying drugs for whatever scum he’d gotten involved with. It didn’t help that Jason had unintentionally snuck up on him.
Jason held up his hands, trying not to look too threatening, even though he still had his helmet on.
“Who’re ya takin’ that stuff to kid?” Jason asked, trying to sound as nonthreatening a he could. Which, okay, wasn’t all that nonthreatening but at least he wasn’t growling at the kid.
“W-What stuff?” he asked nervously.
“Kid.” Jason said flatly, “Are you serious?”
Jason walked up to him and the kid started scrambling away but Jason just grabbed his backpack and pulled it off of him and unzipped it to show him the packets of white powder in his backpack.
Jason thought the kid would try to run but instead he stood as if he wanted to snatch the backpack back, “H-Hey! Don’t touch that!”
“Kid-” Jason snarled, losing his patience.
“If I tell you what’re you gonna do about it?” The kid asked, not looking him in the eye but staring at the backpack almost angrily, “They find out I told ya then I’m dead or worse.”
“Kid-”
“Don’t ‘Kid’ me! What the hell do you know?! Even if they don’t find out I got caught… You take those drugs, you kill me and all the kids who get their food from workin’ for them!” The kid was almost shouting now, red faced and angry and… he reminded Jason of himself.
“Here.” Jason reached into one of his pockets and pulls out a granola bar and offered it to him, “Take it.”
The kid snatches it, unwraps it and stuffs it into his mouth, only chewing enough for him to quickly swallow it and then tosses the wrapper onto the dirty Gotham street, “Give me my backpack.” He said holding out his hand, no longer afraid.
“You got no manners. Didn’t I just feed your ass? Tell me who you work for.” Jason held the backpack up in a taunting manner.
“Just ‘cause you gave me a bit ‘a food don’t mean I owe you shit.” the kid challenged, “Where’dya think I’m gonna get grub from tomorrow? And the day after that? And the day after that? And what about my friends? We ain’t got nothin’ but those people you call ‘thugs’ to feed us.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed but then he sighed and threw the backpack on the floor, “You’re wrong, kid.”
The kid was about to retort when Jason pulled off his helmet, revealing that he, of course, had a mask on underneath.
Hey, it was always good to be prepared. It was one of those things that, although he’d never admit it, Bruce, had ingrained in him and the other Robins.
“You got me.” Jason told him, pointing his thumb at himself and giving the kid his killer smile.
---
“Thanks…” The boy is taking his break behind the restaurant when he notices him. He’s not scared of him anymore but there was still that pride in him that made his thank you sound stiff.
Jason could understand that.
“No problem kid.” Jason shrugged, jumping down from the fire escape, “The old man treatin’ you alright?”
The boy just nods as he eats his sandwich. None of that desperation he had the first time Jason had met him.
Jason knew if the kid and his friends were on the streets of Crime Alley then they either didn’t want to go to the orphanage or had escaped from there or the penitentiary. Knowing this he instead he worked around the system. These kids were now ‘adopted’ by this restaurant owner. It wasn’t the best of circumstances of course, they still worked the restaurant for the guy whenever they had free time but they could go to school, get shelter and a meal, and they could stay together.
The restaurant was still in Crime Alley but the kids didn’t seem to care. They actually seemed relieved when Jason hadn’t fully relocated them. Crime Alley was their home. Jason had taken down the thugs that they had been working for and they were in jail. They definitely had bigger problems and wouldn’t come after such small fry.
Jason would check in on them every time he’d come back to Gotham. It was like a little beacon of hope in Crime Alley.
---
Until one day it wasn’t.
Jason swung into Gotham. It’d been months since he’d had the chance to come to Gotham.
It was still light out when he walked over to the rundown restaurant in his civies, only to see the windows shattered by gunshots. The place was a mess, boarded up, abandoned.
Jason broke a panel and walked in, the inside as much of a mess as the outside.
“Fuck fuuuck…” Jason swore. What had happened to them? Where were they?
Jason walked the streets of Crime Alley. The sun was about to start going down and the kids and families who still lived there despite its reputation, or their inability to move away, whether it be because of stubborness or how poor they were, were turning in for the day.
“‘Scuse me, ma’am?” Jason asked, throwing his thickest Gotham City accent, letting them know he was one of them, “Ya know what happened to that restaurant over there? I was outta town and now I come back and I can’t get my favorite chow.”
“Son, I’m sorry but it was shot down two nights ago.” The elderly woman shook her head.
That wasn’t that long ago maybe- “Anyone killed this time?” He asked as casually as he could.
“Honey, you should be askin’ if anyone lived. That man and all his children are dead.” She said this as if it were just a fact of life. And it was for someone who lived in Crime Alley.
“Wh- Are you sure?” Jason asked, trying his best to keep his cool.
The woman nodded, “If you got nothin’ else I’m leavin’ good bye-”
“Wait!” Jason stepped towards her as she walked away and she immediately turned around and narrowed her eyes at him.
Jason put his hands up in peace, “Sorry I- Who? Do you know who did it?”
The woman shook her head again, this time deciding this conversation was over, “No. Goodnight.”
---
It was over. Jason had looked into it and it was true, they were all dead. There wasn’t even a prime culprit.
Why would there be? It was just another restaurant in Crime Alley. With how many villains tore through there within the last few days the restaurant was definitely just collateral damage and not worth noting in any case files. There was nothing he could go in.
That man and those kids. They were just gone and no one cared.
---
Jason was searching the batcomputer when Bruce, Dick, Damian, and Tim came in ready to start patrol. They had a full house tonight apparently.
They were planning out who would take what routes.
Jason wasn’t really listening until Dick started yelling at the demon brat.
“It’s dangerous there! You are not to go to Crime Alley alone!”
Damian scoffed and crossed his arm, “No one wants to go to that piss hole anyways. It’s just full of scum I could stomp with just the heel of my shoe.”
“Nothing good ever comes out of Crime Alley.” Tim comments, “That’s where most of Gotham’s criminals are born.”
Bruce silently nodded agreeing with Tim.
Jason tensed up, were they even aware of how hypocritical they were all being?
Before Jason could say anything Dick piped in and for a moment Jason thought he was going to defend the people of Crime Alley, “And that’s exactly why Damian is not going to patrol there alone!!”
Jason stood quickly and angrily from the computer chair, startling the rest of the bats, well as much as they could startle.
“Red Hood, what is wrong with you?” Bruce asked, eyes narrowing on Jason’s angry form.
Dick gave Bruce an annoyed look for his tact and then walked up to him, “Jason, are you okay?”
Jason flinched away when Dick tried to put his hand on his shoulder, “Don’t!”
Damian sneered, “Todd is just looking for attention.”
Tim rolled his eyes at that, “Yeah you would know all about throwing tantrums for attention wouldn’t you?”
“I was not throwing a fit Drake, I could trudge through the slime of Crime Alley any day! I don’t need anyone telling me what I can and can’t do!” Damian argued.
“STOP THAT!” Jason shouted and that outburst got Damian and Tim to stop their quarrelling to stare at him.
“I’m not speaking with you Todd.” Damian snarled.
Jason looked at Bruce and then at Dick in frustration and they just- they just didn’t UNDERSTAND.
How COULD they?
“Fuck all of you! You all are such a fucking bunch of tourists!” Jason yelled as Dick tried to get closer again he pushed him off and stepped back, his fists clenched, wanting to reach for his guns and shoot at something.
“What are you talking about?” Tim asked, brow furrowed. All of them looked so fucking confused and it pissed Jason off.
“You all fucking pretend to know Gotham, to know Crime Alley. That’s such BULLSHIT!” Jason screamed, finally finding his words, finally letting them out.
“You’re all just a bunch of tourists! Bruce you don’t even LIVE in Gotham City, you live here! In this fucking mansion, far away from all of it! Dick, you did too. Tim, you lived NEXT to Bruce’s mansion growing up! Damian, you JUST GOT HERE! HELL! NONE of you don’t know WHAT it’s like to grow up as a REAL Gothamite!” Jason scorned, “NONE of you know WHAT Crime Alley is like except for the few hours of the night you fly fucking through! Don’t talk as if you know WHAT is in Crime Alley or WHO lives there!”
“You realize that I’M actually FROM Crime Alley don’t you?!” Jason motioned to himself, “But I guess that’s right! I guess I’m just another Crime Alley scum!”
Realization seemed to dawn on the bat’s faces as Jason shouted at them, a hard lined frown on Bruce’s and Damian’s faces and looks of sadness on both Tim and Dick’s.
“Jason, When I said that nothing good comes out of Crime Alley I didn’t mean-” Tim tried to say.
“What the fuck did you mean then Timmy?! HUH?!” He didn’t get it, this wasn’t about HIM it was about THEM, “You realize there are still kids and families and good people that still live on that block and they all know. They all know those words. Why do you think so many of them are so fucking hopeless?! So why don’t you just SHUT UP?!”
“I’m sorry.” Tim said in a smaller voice. And Jason felt bad, it wasn’t fucking Tim’s fault, he was just saying what everyone else had been saying since the beginning of fucking time. It wasn’t Tim’s fault it was all of them, they all just needed to fucking STOP.
“Jay, we’re sorry.” Dick said firmly, “We didn’t know- No… we weren’t thinking about all of that. And you’re right.”
Jason let him touch his arm this time, squeezing it reassuringly, “We promise we won’t speak like that again, right guys?” Dick turned to the other three.
“Of course.” Tim answers just as firmly as Dick does. Damian rolls his eyes and grunts in acknowledgement and Bruce hums a low agreement.
Had he actually won this argument? “Fine.” Jason deflated, tired from his research, “Just fucking- I better not hear that shit from any of you again.”
---
Jason was in his safehouse when Dick, Tim, and Damian swung in.
Jason tensed with so many bat’s come to visit. He was already gearing up to head out of Gotham.
“Didn’t think I’d catch you in time.” Dick smiled at him cheekily, breathless, so unlike him, which meant they really had rushed here to make sure he got to him.
“Whatcha doin’ here?” Jason asked annoyed.
Dick threw something he was carrying around his shoulder at Jason.
Jason caught it and examined it, his whole demeanor changed to surprise, “What- How did you?”
It was that boys backpack, from the day he’d first met him.
“Sorry, but we looked into what you were researching…” Tim trailed off, “I know it’s not much but it was all we could find.”
“How did-”
“He left it at school before- you know.” Tim answered somberly, “We couldn’t find anything about their case either though… they had no one that held any grudge against any of them and-”
“I know.” Jason answered, tired, angry, but- there was nothing he could do for them anymore, “I know.”
The boys stood there letting Jason speak.
“He was a good kid, they were good people, and they were from Crime Alley.” The bag scrunched in Jason’s grip.
“We know.” Damian huffed. Tim and Dick nodded in agreement.
A moment of silence passed.
“Thanks.” Jason finally sighed, maybe he could stay in Gotham a little tiny bit longer, “You guys want some coffee before Bats calls you all in for patrol?”
They all agreed and settled in on his couch.