This was so unfair.

In all the long years of Jason's life, he'd never imagined he'd be here. Sitting, tied up, in front of a bunch of children.

Super-powered children, but children nonetheless.

It had started this morning.

He had been taking down Poison Ivy, who had been wreaking havoc in downtown Gotham. A few leaves in his mouth and attempted kisses later, he'd had her pinned down and tied up. Considering whether to drop her off at the police station or just leave her there, he'd loitered around for a bit, perhaps waiting for a cop to show up (not like she wouldn't have broken out of Arkham in three days).

But nooooo, Gotham City Police Department was not receiving Jason's desperate telepathic messages. And guess who took the Commissioner's place instead?

"Where will we find him? How will we find him? Wheeeeennnn will we find him?" a high-pitched voice jabbered.

"Quiet, Kid," a girl scolded. "He told us to wait for him here. He'll show up soon- do not go looking for him!"

"Gotham gives me the creeps. No wonder he's so serious, if he grew up in a place like this."

Jason had stood there, frozen, as he watched a group of teenagers appear around the corner. In front was a blond girl, wearing red armour and toting a lasso. Behind her were two guys, one wearing a purple ninja costume and the other wearing something like red-and-yellow pajamas. Lastly came this weird glowy-floaty girl, whose eyes were the first to lock on him.

Oops. Should've holstered his guns when he'd had the chance.

"Who is that?" the glowstick girl asked warily.

The front girl's eyes widened. "That's the Red Hood, one of Batman's enemies! Titans, go!"

Jason facepalmed. Hard.

It was going to be a long day.


"Talk. Or we make you talk."

Jason's helmetless face growled. He should've shot every single one of them as soon as they'd caught sight of him- but him and Batman had just sorted things out, and were both standing on ice, and a bunch of teenage superhero blood on his hands would certainly not help things.

They'd tied him up in sort sort of living room, which was strange, but it was pretty comfortable so Jason didn't mind. They'd at least had the decency to make his butt happy.

Still, though, as he stared down the girl with the lasso, killing them would have been fun.

"Look kid," he sighed, "I have no plan to take over the world or anything. Honestly, I just fought Poison Ivy! I'm a good guy."

"That's exactly what the bad guys would say!" the red-and-yellow kid protested.

Jason looked him over. His knowledge of superheroes outside of his families was extremely fuzzy, but if his speed was anything to be judged by this was Kid Flash.

Honestly, Speedy would've been better, but Roy was a jerk who liked to pick codenames that had nothing to do with bows and arrows.

"Kid Flash, right?" Jason asked. "Which one are you? Wally, or the other one, what's his name-"

"How do you know Wally?!"

Uh oh. Jason would've facepalmed again if his hands weren't tied.

"Wonder Girl, he knows our identities, we're going to die, oh no, oh no-"

"It's alright, Kid," purple ninja boy soothed. "We won't give him the chance to spill those secrets."

"Whoa what?" Jason's brain jumped to conclusions. "Are you going to kill me?!"

"What, no!"

"That's what you said!"

"That is not what I said! I said-"

"That is enough!" Wonder Girl pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "Just, everyone, shut up for five minutes!"

Jason went silent. Kid Flash proceeded to poke purple ninja in the gut, earning a glowering glare. Despite himself, Jason smiled. They were definitely some sort of team.

A team. Jason remembers when he was Robin, and he'd tried to be part of a team. But no, they didn't want him, they'd only ever wanted the old Robin back, the better one, the one who wasn't reckless and brash and rude. They'd thought Jason wasn't good enough.

And you know what? They were right.

"What do we do with him?" Glowstick girl broke the silence.

Wonder Girl narrowed her eyes at him. "He's from Gotham. We'll leave him to Red Robin, who should be coming soon."

Jason's face blanched. "Wait, did you just say-"

"Wonder Girl?" Tim's voice sounded as he stepped into the room. "What's going on?"

No. Goddamn. Way.


Jason mind went blank, save for one thought: again?!

Tim entered the room with, Jason observed, his 'serious leader face'. That consisted of slightly narrowed eye lenses and a firm mouth. Of course, his face crumbled completely as soon as he laid his eyes on Red Hood.

"Wha... what..." Tim stuttered helplessly.

Wonder Girl stood a little straighter. "We encountered him tying up a lady-"

"Poison Ivy!"

"-and we detained him. Your files say he's a criminal, so we brought him back here, until you came," she explained.

"Wait," Jason snapped, "you filed me as a criminal?"

Tim looked at him haplessly. "What was I supposed to file you as? A hero?"

"An antihero, maybe!"

"That's not a thing!"

"Yes it is! Have you ever heard of the Punisher?"

"He's fictional, J- Red! And we are not here to debate your status!" Red Robin sighed. "Red Hood is... not an enemy."

"Not an enemy?" Kid Flash waved his arms. "He knew Wally's name! Who knows what else he knows?"

Red Robin held up a hand, and the others went silent. Jason, however, just laughed.

"What?!" Tim cried indignantly.

"Oh, nothing. It's just... you being a leader. It's adorable."

Tim crossed his arms and huffed, while the other teens looked confused. The only one who talked to their leader like that was Nightwing.

"Who exactly is this?" Wonder Girl inquired.

"Oh, um, this is... my..." Tim searched for an explanation. "He's my..."

"Llama."

"What?!" Everyone in the room yelled, including Tim, whose eyes were wide in disbelief.

"Yep," Jason said, trying not to laugh. "I am Red Robin's pet llama."

"But..." glow-girl was at a loss for words. "But you're human."

"Well, yes, I mean I'm not currently a llama, but I used to be one," Red Hood explained. "See, Batman was taking me for a walk, but then he left me somewhere and never found me and I died of loneliness."

Tim spluttered.

"Luckily for me though, my dead body rolled into this shimmering green pool, and I was reborn- as a human boy!"

"But... but then why are you a criminal?"

"Firstly, I'm not a criminal- not exactly. And secondly, what are you supposed to do when you think you're coming home and you realise you don't have one anymore?"

The others all were confused by the llama story, but Tim was looking at Jason sadly.

"Red Hood..."

Jason waved his hand. "This your team then? The Teen Titans?"

"Yeah," Tim said quickly, ready to change the subject. "This is Bunker," he said pointing to the purple ninja. "Solstice." He nodded to the glowing girl. "There's Kid Flash, and this is Wonder Girl."

Wonder Girl narrowed his eyes at Jason, and something clicked inside his head. A bright memory passed through his mind, of a day at the manor with Dick and Tim.

"Wait, this is Cassie, isn't it?" Wonder Girl flinched and Tim paled.

"Don't-"

"She's the one you have a crush on!"

The effect was immediate. Tim and Cassie blushed a deep red, while Kid Flash ran around yelling "I knew it! I knew it!" Solstice smiled and Bunker gave her a ten-dollar note.

"No! No, Wonder Girl, don't listen to him, he's insane! He's an insane llama!" Tim shot a Batglare at Jason.

Jason shot one back. "I thought I gave you advice on how to pick her up, remember? The candles and-"

"Shut up!" Tim seethed. "On second thought, maybe I will just keep you here!"

"Ok. I have, like, twenty more embarrassing secrets to share. Remember that time with Goldie-"

"No!" Red Robin shook his head frantically. "Alright everyone, get out."

"But I wanna hear what he has to say!"

"I said get out!"

The door slammed shut as they filed out, leaving the dead Robin and his replacement alone.


Tim spent the first several minutes glaring angrily at Jason.

"Hey Timmy," he said brightly.

"Don't Timmy me! You just had to say that to Cassie, didn't you? Now it will be so awkward!"

"I don't know, she seems to have the hots for you."

Red Robin rolled his eyes. He was already having a pretty bad day, but seeing Jason just topped it all off.

"Look, not that I don't want you to ruin my life even more, but I think you should be leaving now."

"Leaving? I only just got here." Jason gave him a pointed look. "Besides, no-one's seen you in ages."

"I've been... busy."

"Busy?"

"Yes, actually, leading a group and all."

Jason hummed, which meant he didn't believe it. "Dick misses you."

"Really?"

The sarcasm in Tim's voice stung. "Yes, really. Don't act like that."

"Like what?"

"Like- like me!" Jason scowled. "Everyone knows you're avoiding us, Tim. Although you're not very good at it."

"I'm not avoiding you," he mumbled. But Jason noticed how Tim couldn't meet his eyes.

"Right. And you not patrolling Gotham when Robin's out there is just because you're 'busy' too, I assume."

"This has nothing to do with him."

"This has everything to do with him!" Jason looked at him. "I know it's hard, Tim, but out of all of us you know that you can talk to me."

Tim shook his head. "I can't."

"Oh please, you know what problems I had with you, Replacement," he said.

"And that's exactly why I can't talk to you! You know how many times I told myself that I'd never do to anyone what you did to me? I thought- I promised myself I'd never hate whoever replaced me, never make them feel worthless! Never make them regret putting on the costume in the first place! But I... Damian... I couldn't prepare myself for that."

Tim coughed angrily and rubbed his mask.

Jason swallowed. "I... I did that to you?"

The third Robin looked down at his gloves ashamedly. "No- I mean, you didn't mean to, did you? It's not your fault- but I understand now, why you did it. Being replaced... hurts."

Jason looked to the side. Yes, he had meant to hurt someone, but that someone had always been Batman. He'd just... strung up Robin in the crossfire, pretending that the collateral damage was because he'd been replaced. And yes, being replaced hurt (like hell), but he couldn't honestly say he wished any of what he did on Tim.

As was often the case, Jason had confused revenge for justice, and someone was hurt because of it.

"Tim... That isn't right."

"I didn't say it was." Tim sighed. "Damian isn't exactly making it easy for me, though. He tries to kill me every time I step through the door."

"But it isn't just Damian, is it?"

Tim bit his lip. "It... you can't tell him!"

"He already knows." Jason shook his head. "Dick didn't mean to hurt you, you know?"

"I know, Jason. But I can't just pretend like it was nothing."

"Oh, please, now you really do sound like me. I hated Batman for... years... because he replaced me. Are you going to hate Dick for years? Are you going to repeat the cycle?"

"It's not the same! You were dead, Jason! I was alive and it hurt, okay?!"

"It makes no difference! Dick told me everything. The only reason he replaced you was because he thought you were too good to be Robin anymore! You aren't a sidekick, Tim, you're a hero. And Damian needed Robin, in a way you never did. And never will."

Tim rubbed his mask wearily. "But... I just... But what if I'm not good enough to be a hero?"

Jason raised an eyebrow. "You seem to be doing pretty well, don't you think? Your team would follow you anywhere. That counts for something."

Tim screwed up his mouth and let out a faint 'pssh', which was how Jason knew he had gotten to him.

"I can't believe I'm taking life advice from you," he scowled.

"I know right? How far you've fallen," Jason replied mockingly.

There was a warm silence for a while. Jason almost smiled, but then remembered that he was still tied up at the wrists.

"Um, are you gonna let me out or what?"

"I will," Tim grinned. "On one condition."

Jason narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What?"


Wonder Girl, Bunker, Solstice, and Kid Flash barged back in through the door. They had just gone on a mission- without Red Robin, because they were afraid of entering the room without permission- and had been relatively successful.

"You think he's going to be mad?" Kid Flash twittered nervously.

"At us taking down bad guys?" Wonder Girl rolled her eyes. "He'll be fine with it."

"Yeah, especially because he loves you."

Bunker received a hard hit on the head.

Reaching the end of the corridor, they heard the T.V's low rumbling. Wonder Girl motioned for them to stay silent. Peering around the corner, they were greeted with a strange sight.

Red Robin and Red Hood were sitting on the sofa, both fast asleep. Red Hood had an arm around their leader, who was curled up in his side. The T.V was playing the remains of a Daredevil episode.

"Wow," Kid Flash said, eyes wide. "He must've really loved that llama."


Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed that little story, and if you did, feel free to read the other stories in this universe which include:

The Worst Things In Life

On Top Of The World

Please feel free to like/review/follow! Any support is appreciated. Thanks for reading!