None of these characters belong to me. They belong to the nice folks over at DC and I'm just borrowing them for a minute.

This is just my take on what might have happened during the breakfast with Tim that Jason flashes back to in Red Hood and the Outlaws #8.

Jason should feel some level of shame. Sitting here with Drake definitely constituted fraternizing with the enemy. Batman was still the enemy, maybe not at the top of the list anymore, but still the enemy. And here Jason was having a distinctly fraternal breakfast with with Batman's ally and "son". Drake was trustworthy enough and a good source of intel. Those were the reasons Jason had showed up at the Lex Towers apartment, but he'd stayed for breakfast because dammit, he liked the kid. Tim's dry humor and awkward offers of friendship were hard to turn down and Jason suspected the kid was lonely. You'd have to be pretty lonely to offer your homicidal "brother" waffles and companionship and you'd have to be even lonelier to have set a place for him before he'd even showed up. Yeah, it was that sad little plate and cup of OJ just waiting for Jason that made him take Tim up on the offer of breakfast. And the only thing Jason felt any shame over was that he was badmouthing Alfred's waffles.

"You're leaving the domino on?" Tim asked.

Jason shrugged, he'd taken off the hood. He was practically naked by his standards. Removing the domino was a bridge too far.

"It's fine," Tim said. "I've eaten meals with far stranger."

"Yeah, B looks pretty odd eating nachos in his cowl."

Tim snorted at the mental image. "Batman does not eat nachos!"

"Keep telling yourself that."

Tim took another sip of orange juice. "You doing okay, Jay? You look tired."

"I've been worse. It's just been a long…" he'd been about to say week but then reconsidered. "It's been a long life."

Tim smirked. It was a surprisingly sympathetic looking smirk though. "I know the feeling. I think we all do."

"Yeah…" It had been a long time since Jason had had someone to commiserate with, a very long time. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. It was nice but not entirely comfortable.

"You spend too much time alone," Tim observed. "When you're with someone else you're...healthier."

"Healthier," Jason repeated sarcastically, any hint of friendliness gone. "I didn't know breakfast came with free psychotherapy. You could have warned me. I did my time in Arkham, well some of it at least. I don't need you lecturing me about healthy."

Jason stood, nearly knocking over his chair, and grabbed his hood.

"Jay," Tim argued. "I'm sorry, maybe healthier was the wrong word. What about happier? You seem happier when you aren't alone."

Jason laughed humorlessly as he pulled the hood back on. "I'm a batkid, much as I might try to fight it. I don't get to do 'happy'. I"ll see you around some time though Timmy. Thanks for the breakfast."

Tim sighed and shook his head as his wayward brother dove out of his window. Tim could Google- he'd checked Pubmed- but being aware of the symptoms of Complex PTSD didn't make the egg shells any easier to walk on and it didn't make Tim feel any better when one poor word choice could wreck an entire breakfast. Tim liked to believe that it was worth it though; the explosive exit was worth it for the five minutes of pleasant, almost brotherly conversation. Five minutes was probably a new record even. And for all the grudges that Jason could hold onto with terrifying tenacity, he never seemed to stay mad an Tim for any length of time, not over things like this.

"I'll see you Jay."