If Souls Return (Then Tell Them I Say Hi) - Tony Stark's Daughter in Gotham

Chapter 12: This Safe House Isn't a Home

Jason had more or less freaked out after finding out the Joker was on the loose. He picked one of his lesser-known safe houses and locked himself in, sleeping when he could on the couch with a gun under one of the cushions. Every time he managed to doze off, he'd have another nightmare about the Joker coming for him again and beating him.

Sometime the night before, he'd drifted off to a boring documentary about animals in the rainforest. It was almost peaceful, but then someone had to go and ruin it by waking him up with incessantly ringing his doorbell.

"I'm coming!" he shouted after the tenth time.

He didn't even bother grabbing his gun, knowing no one else but one of his stupid siblings would think it was a good idea to track him down at his safe house and wake him up.

He swung the door open and was faced with Dick and Damian. Though the boy was of the age for ringing doorbells like a crazy person to be acceptable, Jason knew the racket had come from the older.

"Trick or Treat," Dick said holding out a plastic blue bucket in the shape of a pumpkin.

"What do you want Dickface?" He wasn't sure how they'd found him and wasn't really in the mood for finding out.

Dick's jaw dropped and he leaned down to cover Damian's ears. "Not in front of the baby. Don't corrupt him."

"Unhand me, Richard."

They were dressed up for Halloween. Dick was wearing a sparkly Elvis costume, that reminded Jason too much of his old Discowing suit. Damian on the other hand was dressed in a little cop outfit. He held onto a matching pumpkin bucket, which instead of candy had a tiny cop hat shoved inside. Jason wondered what Dick had bribed Damian with to get him into an outfit that matched his career. Then again, the kid did worship their oldest brother for some reason.

Jason rolled his eyes. "We both know he's seen and heard so much worse."

Damian promptly stomped on Dick's foot and pushed his way into the apartment. "I am not a baby."

Dick cooed after their youngest brother. "No, but you're so small and cute like one."

Damian huffed as he made himself at home on Jason's couch. He pulled out the gun from under the cushion he sat on and gave Jason a look. Jason readjusted himself so he was standing in between Dick and Damian, so that the older wouldn't see what Damian had found.

Dick distracted by whatever was in his hands, moseyed into the kitchen. Jason shut the door and locked it twice. He followed Dick after, watching as he began to unpack a grocery bag he brought and stocked Jason's fridge.

"I don't want anything you bought," Jason said.

"Don't worry it's from Alfred."

Jason supposed he would let it slide then. As long as it wasn't Dick who grocery shopped, the food would be edible. Jason shuddered to think what Dick's apartment kitchen would look like. When left to his own devices, Dick didn't buy anything that didn't contain 100 grams of sugar.

"Why are you here?" Jason asked ready to kick them both out. He would do it too, but he saw Dick sliding in a tray of Alfred's lasagna and it looked pretty good.

"I think you know."

Never mind, if this was about Bruce sending Dick to apologize in his place, Jason would happily show them the door.

"If Bruce wants to apologize, he can do it himself. You don't need to play messenger for him."

Dick shut the fridge and moved on to the cupboards. "You're right. What he did was wrong, and I told him as much."