Preferable Company

I KNOW THIS ISN'T THE UPDATES THAT YOU WANT I'M SORRY I KNOW I'M HORRIBLE, BUT I'M WORKING ON THEM! Also I'm in college now, so these slow updates have a real reason to add onto my awful laziness. Please forgive me! But I am working on my currently existing works I swear! But in the meantime, read this instead.

-LINE THING-

The first time Jason Todd met the kid was after his resurrection and subsequent return to Gotham. He hadn't quite become Red Hood yet, but he was certainly considering it more every day.

Still hiding from the outside world, Jason ducked into what he thought was an abandoned building too decrepit for even the worst of villains to consider. Once he's firmly inside what seems to a small bedroom does he realize that the building's outside looks are for show; the inside is perfectly sound.

The room he landed in was occupied by a small figure, a young child of about 5 or 6. With one hand covering the child's mouth, the other shook him awake. The young boy woke in an instant, but did not panic. Instead, he took Jason's form in carefully.

"Keep quiet," Jason warned in a low tone. The boy only responded with a slow blink. That was as good as he was going to get, Jason figured. He slowly removed his hand, and when the boy did as he was asked, took a step away from the bed.

"I got a few questions for you, kid." The child blinks once more, and gradually sits up on the cot he was resting in.

"Who?" The kid asks. (Jason often looks back at this and thinks that this is the worst unintentional pun ever, with more still to come.)

"You," Jason replies, but takes another look around the room to double check that there wasn't anyone else there that the kid could be referring to. Jason receives the mother of all pouts before the boy chews his bottom lip in thought.

"No," he says, not with defiance, but with confusion. "Who…you?" The question comes out slowly and hesitantly, not because he was afraid of Jason, but clearly because he didn't quite know the words to say. The kid was going to have trouble communicating with him, which was going to draw out the conversation a lot more than Jason wanted it to. He sighs and figures it's not really worth lying to a six year old.

"Jason," he replies, leaving out his last name as a compromise to his inner paranoia. "Now, where am I?" He asks slowly, now knowing that this kid won't be the greatest source of information with his broken English. He knows his location, but this place is obviously the headquarters for something important if they went so far as to disguise the building. The boy cocks his head to the side, his black eyes staring through him as he contemplates Jason's question.

"The Court of Owls." For some reason, the answer sends a shiver up Jason's spine. That doesn't sound like any place that should be housing a kid his age for any sort of innocent reason, and Jason has a real problem with that, especially after his shitty childhood.

"Why don't I get you out of here," Jason half pleads, half tells as he goes to scoop the kid up. He doesn't know what he would do with the boy, Jason certainly couldn't keep him, Bruce would probably fuck him up (plus he already had a replacement Robin, his mind whispered to add to his already boiling temper), there was no room in the orphanages, and this kid probably wouldn't last an hour in juvie, which is where he would go because the orphanages were full.

Luckily for Jason, the decision was already made for him.

"No." There was the defiance.

"The fuck?" Jason was stunned, both by the answer and how light the kid was when he picked him up. As he lifted up the kid's shirt to see if ribs were visible, his eyes got caught on the scars littering the small chest as they gleamed in the small amount of moonlight. He sucked in a deep breath and pushed down a wave of murderous rage.

"What do you mean? They obviously don't like you that much." Instead of a straight answer, the boy sang a childish tune, possibly one of the few things that The Court wanted him to know in English.

"Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word about them, or they'll send The Talon for your head."

If that wasn't a threat, then Jason was an idiot.

"Then why do they want you so badly?"

The kid smiled, and Christ, he looked adorable and innocent, while pointing to himself and said, "Talon."

"They're training you to be an assassin?" Jason isn't surprised, this is Gotham, and Gotham was the embodiment of 'fucked up'. "Then why haven't you killed me yet?" Not that Jason wanted to be offed by a kid after just having been resurrected, but he was curious.

Another smile lit the kid's face up. "Like," he chirped, pointing at Jason.

Jeez, the kid had to be deprived if Jason was preferable company. What a sad situation. But it wasn't like Jason could do anything about it. He was still dead by everyone's standards, including Bruce's, and the kid didn't want to go with him anyways.

The thought struck him like a lightning bolt, and Jason felt stupid that he hadn't asked before.

"Who are you?" The kid cocked his head to the other side, confusion pouring off of him in waves.

"Talon."

"No," Jason amended quickly. "When you're not Talon."

"Not." Jason rubbed his forehead, quickly getting a headache trying to convert the one-worded answers into sense.

"Not, what?"

"Not person." It sinks in after a moment that he doesn't have a secret identity, a life outside of assassinations. Even though it went against everything his tough act stood for, he hugged the kid.

Briefly.

"I'm going to visit again," Jason sees excitement jolt through the kid, "and one day I'll take you away from this place." The excitement visibly dies down and is replaced with worry.

"But…die," the kid admonishes him, tugging at his jacket with clear frustration that Jason wasn't understanding what would happen to him if Jason actually stole him away. Jason alone could not stand against the Court of Owls.

"Don't worry, I got this." Jason says it with confidence and a smirk, just to get the little guy off of his case. Eventually persuaded, the kid gets back in the cot and is lured back to sleep as Jason stands over his bed and watches over him. Though Jason really wanted nothing more than to kidnap the child, he knew that he really had no allies to rely on for help, and that's what Jason really needed if he wanted to get the boy out of this hellhole.

And with his plan of becoming Red Hood slowing coming into fruition, he realized that getting any allies was going to take a while.

-LINE THING-

Two years passed, Jason was the official black sheep of his family, the Replacement (Tim Drake) was Robin under a new covert group working for the Justice League known as Young Justice, and the tiny psychopath was probably eight now (it was hard to tell, his room was always dark, Jason still didn't know who the kid was, and the kid's body was just plain small).

With that though, people knew he was alive, he could work with the heroes on a few things, and Jason was more than ready to extract the kid from the Court of Owls.

Of course, over these two years, Jason had tried to tip Bruce off on the Court of Owls, but it brought up uncomfortable questions and they would get into an argument, and he figured that it was just delaying what Jason wanted.

Plus, he figured, the operation he wanted to pull off required stealth, Young Justice was made for stealth operations, so Jason, as Red Hood, forwent telling the League and went straight to the teenage infested mountain. As much as it would grind him to work with the Replacement, he could admit that he needed allies in order to get his little buddy out.

Plus, he already promised 'new friends' last time he had visited, and Jason did not want to disappoint the kid.

"Recognize Red Hood, B-07," the automated voice announced, drawing worried and annoyed eyes to his newly delivered presence.

"What's he doing here?" Kid Flash, or Wally West, didn't even try to whisper, making Red Hood draw up a smirk. Inside, he was already questioning his judgment. Red Hood looked around and saw most all of the team out of their costumes.

"Vacation day?" he questioned with an undertone of rudeness. Well, at least they weren't doing anything and could focus on his mission entirely. The Replacement (no, he wasn't ever going to call him Robin) scoffed under his breath and looked away, already labeling his presence as unimportant.

How rude.

Artemis went back to studying something on her arrows, Superboy (wasn't he going by a human name now?) hadn't bothered to look at him in the first place and continued to glare fiercely at the TV screen, M'gann was sending him nervous glances in between making something in the kitchen, and Aqualad deemed Jason important enough to get off of the couch for a conversation.

"What is your purpose here?" A little bit cold in the delivery, but Red Hood could feel the subtle interest in doing something other than swimming or watching the TV screen do its usual black and white thing the clone liked so much coming off of the team's leader.

"What would you say if I had a mission for ya?" Aqualad's eyes widened in disbelief, before narrowing in distrust. Red Hood could feel the stares he was getting from the rest of the team.

"Why should we trust you? Your position as a hero is almost nonexistent. In fact, I'm surprised you're allowed in here."

Well, Jason was too, to be honest. Not that he was going to let them know that.

Jason shrugged and smirked, which irritated the Replacement enough to stomp over and give Red Hood a piece of his mind.

"Well, whatever it is, you can count us out. We all know it can't be legal, and Batman certainly wouldn't approve of it." As much as Jason hated Batman being mentioned…

"Just like Batman approved of you investigating Cadmus?" The question threw the birdbrain off long enough to push past both him and the team's leader to come to rest against the couch. "I guess you're right. You couldn't possibly be interested in this." Jason shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, waiting for one of the team to take the bait.

"Interested in what?" Kid Flash, winner of his heart!

"Well, I need your help to help rescue a kid." Silence covered the mountain, and Jason waited for the questions to start pouring in.

And they soon did. All at once.

"One at a time," he demanded. "What are you, three? Take turns or whatever, but I can't answer everything at one time."

"Why would you want to save someone?" Ah, the Replacement, ever the doubter.

"It could argued that I save lots of people by doing my normal gig as an 'anti-hero'. But I know that's not what you wanted the answer to, it's an ongoing argument we always have. You want to know why I want to save this particular person." The team nodded, the Martian seemed to be holding her breath. "Let's just say, that when I'm your only friend, you are in sad, sad shape."

"As much as they would need rescuing from you," the Replacement sneered, "lacking friends isn't justifiable for a mission."

"I think it is when everyone else that surrounds him wants him to become some sort of super assassin," Jason says it casually, but his insides still burn when he thinks about it, and looking at the teens before him, he knows that they don't like it either. "Especially since he's about eight, I think," he adds on for good measure.

Most of the team looks horrified, but Jason is pretty sure by the look on Superboy's face (someone else raised to be a weapon, now that he thinks about it), he has at least one ally. But Superboy alone does not make up the numerous teammates Red Hood knows he needs.

"But, since none of you are interested…" he trails his sentence off and turns to leave, when Superboy's hand grips his shoulder tightly and manually turns him around again.

"I'm going," is Superboy's gruff response to his raised eyebrow. Jason inwardly grins, and knows all he has to do is wait for the domino effect to kick in.

"But Conner (so that was his name), you can't just trust the Red Hood," Jason agreed with this, but this honestly wasn't the time, he was a bit anxious to pick the kid up already. "He always has some sort of personal motivation, and we can't even be sure that this kid exists."

"I don't want to take the chance that this kid does exist and that we refused to help them. I'm going." The Replacement sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to rationalize with the clone any further.

"Aqualad?" M'gann asked, deferring to their leader for guidance. The Atlantian stood there for a tense moment before letting out a huge breath.

"First, I must hear more of the situation. Tell me everything."

So, Jason got cozy on the couch and told the team of his past two years with the strange kid that he had stumbled upon by accident. About the kid's poor English, his weight, his scars, lack of identity, the way his smile lit up his whole face, and that the kid had never laughed a day in his life. And then Jason finally told a few stories about the assassinations the kid had managed to tell him about, and the few times the kid had died.

"They have this weird serum I think, that gives him the power to come back to life, because he says that all of them have this ability."

"Maybe they're all family, and this is a hereditary trait," Aqualad hypothesized.

"As much as I would love to know that there is a family dynamic even more fucked up than ours," Jason casually stated as he pointed to himself and Robin, "I'm pretty sure they aren't. Rumor has it that the Court of Owls goes around kidnapping kids to turn them into their assassins. But I've never met anyone other than this one." The team takes this in with all of the other information they gathered.

"Why us and not the League?" Artemis questions him curiously.

"Christ, do you think they understand the word subtle? I'm sure if Superman came with five miles of their hideout they'd be gone. If you want a covert mission done, you go to the group that does covert missions. Easy logic."

"Then why didn't you ask the League to give us this mission?" Kid Flash points out.

"For one, I found the kid and I want to rescue him. Two, if you guys went without me, which is what the League would order, the kid wouldn't know you and would probably try and murder you. Third, the League would want to investigate the Court of Owls, which would not lead down a path of rainbows and sunshine."

"What do you mean?" M'gann questioned.

"The less amount of people who know, the less we have to worry about the possibility of our presence reaching their ears. If their cute jingle is anything to go by, they'll wipe out anyone who even knows the title of their organization. The League is full of a lot of people, but again, subtlety is not their specialty, and I would hate to go against a bunch of guys who apparently can't die."

"I still don't know if I can trust you."

"Jeez Robbie, you try to kill a guy once and you're forever on his bad side."

"That's generally how it works, yeah." He was getting nowhere with this kid! Whatever, Red Hood would take who he could get, because at this point, all he wanted to do was get the mission over with.

"What's your decision then, fearless leader?" He asks Aqualad as he stands up, a clear indication he's through waiting around.

"I…," Aqualad trails off for a moment before collecting himself. "I will not make this a required mission, but I will join you."

"Aqualad," his 'brother' protests, before letting out a small groan and waiting for the rest of the team to make their decisions.

"I'm going," Conner repeats, standing up to join Red Hood and Aqualad. M'gann quickly stands up next to Conner, also offering her assistance.

Artemis, who had been carefully going over each arrow as the conversation continued put the last one away and slung the pack, along with her bow, over her shoulder. "I'll come." Jason knew he would be able to count on her to join, after all, having run away from her assassin father, Sportsmaster, she must not have wanted any other kid going through a similar experience.

Finally, it was down to Kid Flash and Robin. The speedster sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he said, "Rob…"

"You too, huh? Fine." They both stood up, making the covert team complete.

"Great," Jason said enthusiastically. "Let's go."

"Now?" A few of them asked, startled that the mission was so soon.

"No, next month," Jason quipped sarcastically. "Yes, now! I've made this kid wait two years, I don't want to make him wait even one more day."

He turned and left, and as he approached the Zeta transporters, he heard the team scramble to change and get all their gear together.

This was going to be a long night.

-LINE THING-

Once the team was prepared, and the customary Gotham warning went out, they went straight to work. Heading towards the parts of Gotham that most people shudder to think about. Red Hood heard more than a few unhelpful complaints through the (totally weird) mindlink.

'Would you shut up about it already? I know this place is gross even by Gotham standards, suck it up!'

The team went quiet so fast it almost made him think there was some deity watching over him.

'This is the place,' he said when he got to shitty-looking building.

'Are you kidding me?' the Boy Wonder thought, 'This place couldn't house anyone, not even an eight year old, and certainly not some league of assassins.'

'Just wait until you get inside.'

'For what, so you can kill us with this collapsing building?'

'I'm going in without you,' Jason figured this would be this best way to get the Replacement to stop stalling and get with the program. He slipped in through his usual place and found the kid there, snoozing away like every other time he had come to visit.

'Wait until I get him up and warn him about you guys.' When Jason got an affirmative answer from all of them, Jason went through the familiar motions of waking the boy up.

Black eyes shot open, his body remained calm, but ready to react in a dangerous way. When he registered Jason's presence, that cute smile quirked onto his face.

"Jason." As usual, the whisper and its echoes sent chills down his spine.

"Hey, call me Red Hood for a while, would ya? I brought those friends I promised and that's what I need to be called by." Jason watched as the young assassin took in this new information, and then blinked slowly, something Jason had come to recognize as a sign of understanding.

"Red Hood," he finally repeated, reaching out for him. Jason obeyed the silent command and picked him up. "Hood," he said by itself, probably as a nickname. "Friends?" he asked excitedly, looking around his small room for the extra people he had been promised, and frowned when he discovered it empty.

"Hold on, I told them to wait until I got you settled."

'Coast is clear, come in quietly.'

One by one they slipped in the small room, and it seemed that the team was just as enraptured by the small boy as he was with them. This was what the boy had been waiting for. Though he knew Red Hood was a powerful man, just one man alone could not bring down the organization when they came to collect their missing Talon. Now that the young assassin knew that Red Hood had powerful friends, he would let the man take him.

'What's he doing?' Aqualad asked in worry over their mindlink. Though they could not see the boy that well, they could see that he seemed to be sizing each one of them up. Peculiar behavior for a child his age.

'Truth is (Jason ignored the Replacement's grumble of 'here it comes'), this kid would never come with me unless he was confident that we would be able to defend ourselves. Just me by myself was an absolute no in his book, but with a group of metas, he sees that I have powerful allies, and now he's willing to come with us.'

The kid squirmed in his arms for a moments, a clear sign of wanting to be put down. Hood and the team watched as the kid scrambled over to the bed and lifted up the cot, pulled something out, and let the cot flop back down to the floor. He pulled the new item, a mask, over his face and rushed back to Red Hood's side.

"Hood," he whispered, causing some of the Young Justice members to jump slightly, as they were unprepared for verbal communication with the mindlink up.

"It's okay," Red Hood whispered back in a gentle manner, making Robin raise both eyebrows in surprise. "Go back to sleep and I'll introduce them when you wake up in the mountain."

The kid nodded his consent before dropping back into a fitful sleep in an instant. They must have worked him hard today…

'Let's go,' he said, very ready to be gone from this creepy place for the rest of his life, and the kid's life too.

'That's it?' Kid Flash asked in surprise.

'Yeah, thanks for not fucking up your simple task,' Red Hood snarked as he made his way out of the building with his precious cargo.

-LINE THING-

They made it back to Mount Justice rather quickly and with almost no fuss, as most of the team was focused on Red Hood's owl-masked bundle. And, predictably, an angry Batman and friends were waiting for them when they got back.

"Well. I'm not going to deal with this," Jason said, abandoning the team to a fate worse than death (he would know), when Batman's voice called him out.

"Why do you think that you aren't included in this?"

"'Cause I'm not a part of this team and I have a guest to watch over." Batman's eyes narrowed at the kid in his arms, but thankfully acknowledged his presence there by decreasing his volume.

"Put him down, and then come back in here. You have a lot of explaining to do." It was that sort of attitude that really ticked Jason off.

"How about you listen to me? I'm going to lay this kid down, and then I'm going to wait for him to wake up because if he wakes up in a completely new place without me, then I refuse to be blamed for the body count." He headed straight for the medbay, ignoring Batman or any other the other League members calling for him, and finally was able to put the kid in a bed.

Jason took this time to really look at this kid. His black hair was now readily apparent, Jason had never known if maybe it was brown or black under the moonlight and sometimes candlelight in the young boy's room. And with the harsh light of the medbay, he could also start counting the scars that covered his arms and legs. He didn't even want to think about the ones under his clothes. The owl mask the boy wore was plain white, but utterly creepy. Jason refused to remove it though. When the boy trusted them enough, he would take it off himself.

A sigh tore through his lips, and Jason ran a hand through his messy hair. At least he finally had the kid with him now.

-LINE THING-

At exactly 4 in the morning, the kid shot up and moved to slide off the bed, a bed which was higher up than the cot the kid usually slept on was.

"Woah, slow down there, short stuff." The kid jumped at the voice and when Jason's hand made contact, he thought the kid was going to rip his hand straight out of the socket. He held back his grunt as the tremendous force left his hand and the kid began to take in his surroundings.

"Hood?" The kid asked anxiously, rubbing Jason's wrist in an apology.

"It's fine. I understand."

"Where?" Straight to the point.

"Mount Justice. Those friends of mine are here too. Plus a few other people I'm sure you'll get to know." No kidding, once the League heard (or had probably already heard from the team) what was up with their guest, they'd swarm the little guy.

"Now?" The kid was buzzing in excitement, but…

"Most people aren't awake at 4 in the morning, but we can check." Jason put the kid down on the floor, and he immediately attached to Jason's uninjured hand. He led the kid down the hallway, and low and behold, it seemed like no one got any sleep last night.

The Young Justice team were sitting on the couches in the living room, seemingly put out after their talk (interrogation) from Batman and the rest of the League. Speaking of, they were waiting in front of the doorway into the living room waiting for them. Jason was pretty sure Superman had heard them coming down the hallway and had alerted the others.

Prick.

The kid stopped short when he saw the heroes and looked to Jason for guidance.

"These are those other people I was telling you about." It was implied that these people weren't the friends that Jason has been telling the kid about, not that Jason really wanted to refer to Young Justice as his friends, but he thought they were better than the Justice League. And he didn't have any other 'trustworthy' word to call them with the boy's limited vocabulary.

A bit surprisingly, Superman, came forward first, instead of Batman like Jason thought he would. He leant down to the kid's level, took in his height, scars, and strange mask, and smiled at the young boy. The silence was astounding, even the Young Justice were watching them with baited breath.

"Hello, I'm Superman." This was usually a proven method that won over a kid's trust easily. Everyone knew who Superman was. The kid pointed at him, and though the League couldn't see passed his mask, they assumed his face was awed, until the boy spoke.

"Kill?" he turned towards Jason, asking if he was supposed to kill the strongest man on Earth. Jason couldn't help it, he burst out laughing. The question was funny, Superman's face was hilarious, and hell, so was everyone else's face.

"Kid, you crack me up," Jason told him as he picked the kid up and carried him passed the stunned Justice League. "These are my," ugh, "friends."

The first one he measured up was Conner. He took a full minute to look him up and down, and then turned back to look at the Man of Steel, and then looked back at Conner. The boy seemed mystified.

Considering he didn't quite grasp the concept of family, and that 'clone' wasn't likely to be on his vocab list, he told the kid he'd explain the resemblance later.

Next was M'gann, and the kid stared at her for a completely different reason.

"Hello Megan! He probably doesn't understand why my skin is green." She quickly changed her skin white, which Jason think only added to her mystique instead of reducing it. Again, he told the boy he would try to explain later.

One look at Aqualad and he was scrambling in Jason's arms to get to the team's leader. Jason waited for Aqualad's accepting nod before taking a careful step into the Atlantian's personal space. The kid immediately reached out for the gills.

"Died?" he asked curiously. "Dying?" He quickly revised feeling the leader's intake of breath.

"It's not a threat this time," Jason amended for the kid, pulling him out of Aqualad's space. "The gills make him think you've been stabbed in the neck. He's asking if you're dying."

"I'm part fish," Aqualad quickly edited for the kid.

"Fish? What?" Another 'I'll explain later' and they moved on in the line.

Artemis stood there, looking a bit worried, because she knew the kid was more perceptive than he looked. The kid cocked his head while looking at her, not quite knowing what to make of her, before sticking his fist out. Artemis blinked at it wearily.

"He wants a fist bump," Jason was quick to supply.

"He knows what a fist bump is, but not a fish." But she fist bumped the kid anyways. Jason could imagine the smile that the kid got for the feeling of comradery among kid assassins.

"I think the only real education he got in there was how to kill people, and what I taught him the few times I hung out there." Really, what a deplorable education. No English speaking skills, no social interaction outside of fighting and killing. Hell, the kid had apparently never gone outside before last night, and he was asleep for it!

Kid Flash effectively talked the kid's ear off, not only becoming unintelligible to regular English speakers, but absolutely impossible to the poor kid. He probably wasn't paying attention in the first place, he was incredibly focused on the speedster's yellow suit. It had to be strange to see such a bright color, and so much of it after having been in a dark place for so long. The kid reached out to touch the logo, only for the camo to activate, and the yellow suit to turn grey.

The kid in his arms froze up and became tense from the sudden change.

"Sorry about that, it happens when the logo is pressed. See?" Kid Flash gently pressed against the logo again, and the obnoxious yellow was once again present. Wanting to test it a few more times himself, the kid pressed the logo over and over again, probably watching the change happening meticulously.

Once the kid got his fill of Kid Flash's suit, Jason turned to his last 'friend', the Replacement. The two studied each other for a long moment, which was only broken so that the kid could eye him up too. Just as the kid had done to Conner and Superman.

Well, the kid was damn observant if he could tell that there was a connection between them already.

"Done," the kid whispered to him, so used to having to be quiet during their meet ups.

"Thank God," he sighed, sinking into the couch. He so wanted a nap right now.

Someone cleared their throat behind him and Jason let out a smaller, defeated sigh. This was not going to be a fun conversation.

"Go hang out with my friends, okay?" The kid nodded and slid out of his lap silently and walked over to Conner. Having the kid's approval over Superman was sure to give him a bit of a confidence boost. With that last thought, he willing followed Batman for his own dose of personal torture.

-LINE THING-

When Jason was finally able to escape, he took the opportunity by the horns and walked quickly back to the living room. A lot of the League had left, figuring that Batman would get everything settled and reported to them later, leaving the team and their mentors. And the kid.

All of them were being subjected to watching the TV screen snow. Most with boredom, Conner with his usual glare, and he couldn't see the kid's face, but Jason was sure that he was absolutely fascinated.

"Hood," the kid announced his presence, even though most people hadn't even noticed him yet, and he was still facing the screen. He pointed at it vigorously, like it was the best thing since sliced bread, and could only continue to wave his arms around. He probably had no words for it.

"TV."

"TV," the kid repeated with joy, and then became immersed back into the wonderful world of TV.

"We tried asking about the mask," Kid Flash informed him, and Jason rolled his eyes because of course they did. No sensible person would have wanted anyone to keep wearing that disturbing mask for any reason. "I think he wants your permission first."

"What makes you say that?" Kid Flash nodded to Artemis, who huffed, but turned to the kid and asked the question.

His response, "Hood!" Kid Flash looked at him with a raised eyebrow which Jason shrugged at.

"It's up to you," he told the kid. He could hear a few people groan at his answer, but he didn't give a shit, he wasn't going to force the kid to show his face to anyone if he didn't want to.

"Mask!" he pointed out Jason's helmet, and the domino mask the kid knew he wore underneath. He had almost forgotten he had been wearing both. He pulled the helmet off.

"You happy?" The kid latched his hands to Jason's face instantly. Mapping out the familiar face as he had done many times in the dark of his room.

"Yes." And that was what the kid had been waiting for apparently. He slipped the owl mask off and set it in his lap, his black eyes and pale features becoming prominent. Jason can barely remember the tanner skin the kid used to have, under the burning candle lights, but being a complete shut in had changed that dramatically.

Jason barely hears Batman's intake of breath over everyone else's, but only because he can hear the grief behind it. Batman rounds the couch and kneels in front of the kid, taking his features in.

"Who are you?" His voice is not angry and gruff as it usually is, it's more friendly, something that knocks a few of the others through a loop. The kid only cocks his head, and Jason intervenes.

"I've already tried that. You'll only get a creepy business jingle as an answer. He says he's the Talon, but I think all of the assassins are called that. They aren't allowed to be people, so he doesn't have a 'real name' so to speak." And it triggers that same anger that it did since the first day he heard the kid struggle to make him understand that he wasn't his own person.

"I know who he is-,"

"The shit?" Jason interrupts, clearly caught off guard as everyone else now. He'd known the kid for two years and tried to find out who he was and still couldn't do it, but Batman sees his face for all of three seconds and just knows. What fucking bullshit.

"I just need to confirm my suspicions. Would you come back with me to the medbay?" Batman holds out his hand, but Jason counts it as a personal victory when the kid still looks at him for his advice. When he nods, his stomach still sinks when he take's Batman's hand.

"I'm coming too." He says it before he realizes that it left his mouth.

"Fine."

-LINE THING-

All three of them stare at the DNA results. The name 'Richard John Grayson: Pronounced Dead' flashes on the screen.

Damn, what does this mean?

"How'd you know?"

"I was there when he went missing. The night his parents fell and he became an orphan two years ago." They both go silent and wait for Richard to react.

"Orphan?"

"No parents," Jason explains, and his heart breaks when the kid shrugs. The Court of Owls brainwashed him past the point of understanding anything (maybe the kid had been too stubborn when holding onto his memories, so that everything had to go), and all Jason wanted to do was go back to that dark, desolate place and tear the Court all to shreds. It was terrible that finding out about his parents meant nothing to him, because he didn't understand family and he had no memories of them to speak of.

"Dick," he finally says as he points towards himself, breaking Jason out of his mental funk.

"Are you sure you want to do that? That's a one-way ticket to endless teasing." Again, newly dubbed Dick shrugs, buts it's more lighthearted and is accompanied with a smile. He sees Bruce giving him a look that screams 'time for another talk', and shoos Dick away from what could only be another argument.

"Go tell everybody your new name," he encourages, and he whispers in Dick's ear, "give them hell." Jason is rewarded with another bright smile before the little hellion vanishes.

"Red Hood, what Dick needs now is stability," Batman starts off, and already Jason does not like where this is headed.

"I know you think that just because you're Batman, you can handle anything, but if you think that Dick's going to get stability from you, then I'm going to have to warn you because I will laugh in your face. I'd be a better influence for him then you right now, especially with your newest Robin needing your attention." Jason finishes his tirade with a glare full of promises. He can admit right now that he's attached to the kid, but he knows that Dick will need a lot more that Batman will be able to give him, more than Bruce will be able to give him. And Dick's best chance at normal will need to at least start out with a transition period with him.

"I know that Red Hood," Batman says dryly. Jason is tempted to rip the Batman mask off to see if Bruce Wayne really is underneath. When did he ever start agreeing with anything that came out of Jason's mouth?

"What? You're not going to argue about my anti-hero-ness, or my constant moving, or anything?" Batman sucks in a breath as if the words that leave his mouth next will kill him.

"You know Dick better and can better communicate with him. Your life as an anti-hero is something he can more closely relate to, though I would like it if you would steer him away from killing altogether, if possible. Your constant moving, though, will be a problem. This kid, though he used to travel all around in a circus, is now used to being in one place his whole life. I think it would benefit the both of you greatly if you moved into Wayne Manor."

Jason's jaw drops for about three seconds before he can command control of himself again.

"Of course there will be days when it will be hard to talk to each other, especially if you continue with your methods, but I only want to do what is best for Dick. And it will be easier to keep an eye on him there, he'll have Alfred to help him better learn everything, and with the Cave attached to the house, there is no place safer for him if this Court of Owls decides to come after him." Though Jason loathes to admit it, that is a very good point.

"Let's work out the fine details later, huh?" Jason has had enough conversation for one day, and not enough sleep to keep dealing with them.

"Come by when you're ready. I'll tell Robin later." Damn, Jason had forgotten all about the Replacement. Before Jason can stir up the energy to start an argument about that, Batman had disappeared down the hall.

When they reach the living room, Batman takes a second to take in the chaos before turning sharply on his heel and retreating from the situation all together. He's letting Jason start to earn some trust. Either that or he just doesn't want to have to deal with it.

But with the team and most of the mentors playing the super powered version of 'Find the Missing Child Assassin' and losing, Jason decides to relieve them of their duties.

"I'm tired, come lay down with me," Jason calls out as he lays down on the couch. A second and a few shocked gasps later, Dick flips over the couch and lands lightly on his chest, instantly going to sleep. Bringing a hand up to rest on the boy's back and to keep him in place as Jason went to sleep, he can't help but realize that he hasn't been this happy in a while, and that the rage that had threatened to consume him since he had been resurrected had reduced greatly.

All because of the tiny assassin napping on his chest.

All because of his new brother.