Robin one shot part 3!

Hallucinations

This is kinda au ish? idk i'm just into writing the side effects of having your brain fucked with twice over - we're gonna pretend everything is fine rip Alfred you were the best but you're staying dead here uwu

TW: HALLUCINATIONS

"I used to hallucinate you," Dick stated as though that was a totally normal thing to say. Jason turned to him and watched his expression. When he found no significant changes in it, he assumed he'd imagined the sentence. "You and younger me." Okay, so he didn't imagine it.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Therapist said I should. Ghost you said some pretty harsh things," he continued. The pair were sitting together in the garden sipping on cider whilst their siblings played a fun game of fighting until someone nearly dies. They decided to sit out since they were both nursing injuries from the mission beforehand. Jason vowed to get them back if they tried to say anything about being weak. He'd been looking forward to watching kids fight when Dick had popped out with admission and he wasn't sure what to do about that. Luckily for him, Dick just continued. "I think you would've agreed with some of the things." He peeled the label of the bottle as he spoke, keeping his eyes on anyone and anything aside from Jason. "Not all of them though. You're cruel but you're not that cruel."

"Give me an example?" Morbid curiosity had come into play now. It wasn't every day your older brother casually mentioned his brain cooked so hard he imagined you there. 

"Well, it was after you died maybe four months. I was in my feels as Steph would say. You appeared right in front of me and I swear to you I nearly jumped out of the window." Jason rolled his eyes at the dramatics. "You said that if I was really better than you, I wouldn't have been so easy to replace." The mood switched and Jason swiftly regretted ever asking. He cringed at how easy the words came out and at how he probably would've said them at the time. It's not like he was an evil kid, he was just hung up on stuff and Dick had placed this unattainable standard upon him. Even then, he probably would've said something like that up until he worked through his death and truly processed everything. "And I agreed."

"Why?"

"Because if Bruce loved me and if I was good enough to be his protege, then he wouldn't have found a replacement. At least, not one so fast."

"Dick-"

"I'll go get another cider. Watch them whilst I'm out okay?" Before Jason knew it, Dick was halfway back to the house. He watched him carefully and caught him muttering something. Lipreading wasn't his greatest skill which he was starting to regret honing in on.

"Shut up, I told him," Dick whispered despite there being no one in the room. Well, there was someone in the room. That, someone, was Ric. Ric was Dick and Dick was Ric but the two weren't the same. Ric came from a product of mind manipulation. He wasn't a person more so a mindset that had a life of its own and lived inside Dick. At least, that's how Dick looked at him. He didn't know why the guy was following him around and lingering in his brain but there he was. It sucked so hard. 

"You hardly told him anything! You said you were going to tell him everything," Ric protested. He was currently leaning against the table as Dick grabbed a cider from the fridge. "I said that you need to confess all your baggage not just one thing," he added.

"Hey, you're one doctor's visit away from disappearing."

"Yeah? Why don't you go to the doctor then?" Dick stayed silent at that as he popped the cap against the table and took a swig. He had a point as much as he hated to admit it. Somehow Ric knew all of the things he'd been through yet when he'd actually been out there in the world he'd conveniently forgotten all of that. Dick would've preferred it stay that way because he was so done with the reminders. "You've all been through trauma. Those kids deserve to know how their brother is dealing with everything."