Chapter Text
Fuck juvie.
That was all Dick could really think about, cramped in a tiny room — no, cell, with two beds, a shitty desk and literally nothing else. Apart from a glorified crack in the wall with frosted glass that was supposed to serve as a window. How was this place even legal?
It was definitely worse than that orphanage he'd been in for all of two months before getting sick of it and bolting. Not that he had gotten far. But those few hours of freedom were the best time he’d had since... since.
Of course, good things didn't last for him and he'd been dragged here. A place he hated even more than the one he was running away from. And now he was treated as if he had committed some grand crime, as if a literal murderer wasn't walking free out there and no one believed him. But he had quickly found that complaining about the unfairness of the situation to anyone else only got him into trouble.
Currently, he was on his incredibly hard bed, legs crossed, and brooding, which had turned out to be his new favourite hobby. His only hobby, considering there was just nothing to do here.
He was shaken out of his thoughts when suddenly the door flew open and two guards entered, dragging a tiny child — no older than eight, if his height was anything to go on — colourfully cursing at the top of his lungs. He was quite a handful, even for two grown men, with the way he thrashed and kicked out. But it wasn't enough. They discarded him on the floor and quickly left the room again without even a glance to Dick. The door snapped shut and locked automatically.
The kid didn't get the memo, bolting to the doorknob and shaking it vigorously. His attempts to open the door quickly turned into uncoordinated punching, until he was practically throwing his whole body weight against the metal. Dick had half a mind to stop his useless outburst, but he couldn't bring himself to. And he didn't need to, since the kid soon stopped on his own, shoulders sagging in defeat.
"Try and keep me here, bastards, see what happens!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, before giving the door one final, hard kick.
Dick flinched. That must have hurt the kid way more than the door. He could only see the black, wavy hair on the back of the kid's head, so he wasn't sure if he actually hurt himself. It seemed like he wouldn't find out either, since he was promptly ignored as the kid groaned and threw himself dramatically on the other bed.
For one second, Dick debated if he should say something, but the choice was taken from him when the little shape bolted upright again. Instead of the continued anger Dick expected, there was an excited energy coming off the boy as clear, blue eyes met his inquisitively.
He could see the freckled face now and it made him correct his earlier assumption. The kid looked far too aware for eight. Maybe he was closer to ten.
"What are you in for?"
Dick frowned. "None of your business."
"Okay, rude." The kid shuffled off the bed and approached Dick unperturbed by his defensiveness. "I'm Jason, your new cellmate. We'll be spending, like, a lot of time together. So... that makes your business kinda my business."
Dick crossed his arms. He didn't feel like sharing his life story with any of the people here. No matter if they were gonna be sleeping in the same room or not. "You wouldn't believe me anyway."
And it was true. No one believed him. Not the full story. Not how his parents were murdered, how their rope was sabotaged. Except for one person. But he had given Dick away too, so it didn't amount to anything in the end.
The kid, Jason, just shrugged. "Really don't mean to pry, dude, but the last time I was in juvie, they put me with an arsonist and I woke up with my hair on fire. And if that's gonna be a thing again, I'd really rather know now."
That made sense, Dick supposed. And he didn't wanna seem like he was there for anything weird or dangerous. So, he decided to go with the easiest version of the story.
"Nothing like that. Just ran away from an orphanage."
Jason gasped bewildered. "They can lock you up for that?"
"I guess."
"Wild," Jason exclaimed, staring at Dick in downright theatrical offense. "Fucking unfair if you ask me."
And wasn't that the truth.
It definitely felt good to have someone else say it for once. Maybe he did owe the kid just a little bit of kindness. He smiled in the friendliest way he could manage — which wasn't a lot — and patted the space next to him on the mattress.
Jason threw himself at the spot with so much force, it almost catapulted Dick out.
"I'm Dick by the way," he said when they both had settled down. Jason tilted his head in question like a bird. He didn't need to say anything for Dick to know exactly what he was confused about. "It's short for Richard."
Jason frowned. "I mean. Yeah. Like a hundred years ago."
"What can I say, my parents liked to keep family tradition."
Dick had said it so quickly, it almost didn't register that he had spoken about them in the past tense. Naturally. Without even thinking about it. They were gone and his subconsciousness had accepted it.
But he hadn't accepted it.
He didn't want to think about his mom and dad in the past. That they were something, that they did something, that they liked something.
They should only be doing those things in the present. Because they should be here and they weren't and it was kind of his fucking fault.
His hands started sweating.
He was spiraling. He knew that. But he couldn't stop it. Didn't think he deserved to stop it. What kind of son accepts that his parents are gone? What kind of son sees a suspicious man around and doesn't tell his parents?
A son that doesn't deserve pare-
"You okay?"
Jason's voice snapped him out of it. The concern on his face was obvious. Well, shit.
Dick shook his head, not as an answer to the question, but to shake the thoughts away. If they spent any more time on this, Dick might very well lose his mind.
"What are you in for?" He asked instead, redirecting the conversation.
Jason threw himself back on the mattress, dramatically — which seemed to be his regular way of moving. "Like a lot of crimes. Stealing, mostly. Some breaking and entering. Being homeless. Is that a crime? Not sure, but they definitely treat it like one. Arson, too, but only once. Oh, also-" He stopped abruptly. When Dick locked down to him, he saw Jason fiddling with the hem of his sleeves. "Nevermind. Just a lot of stuff."
"Wow," Dick said, a little impressed and a lot concerned for the kid's well being. "Sounds like you got quite the record."
Jason sat up and shrugged, otherwise keeping quiet. He was still worrying the fabric of the blue uniform they had been forced into between his fingers. He looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure how. Before Dick could take initiative, he eventually rushed out, "Sorry about your parents."
Great, the one thing Dick really didn't want to talk about. He ran a hand through his hair. "How do you even know about that?"
"You said you ran away from an orphanage." Jason looked at him with those sad blue eyes. "I get it. Mine are gone too."
Honestly, Dick didn't know what to say to that. He used to be good at this stuff, he thought. Comforting people. But that was before. Now, he really didn't want to worry about some random kid's issues on top of his own.
Luckily for him, he didn't need to say anything, as the door automatically unlocked, signaling it was time for dinner.
The cafeteria was a little fuller than usual. Probably merged with some other institution or something. They were about twice as many kids as before — a hundred instead of the previous fifty. Maybe Jason had been one of the kids coming from the other location. But then again, his entrance had seemed so unwilling, like they had just picked him off the street.
Dick could ask Jason, of course, but then he'd have to acknowledge his existence and he'd rather get the kid to leave him alone as fast as possible. The way he was rooted to his side, arms almost touching, as they walked over to the tables was getting on his nerves.
"You got friends to sit with?" Jason asked. Dick just rolled his eyes. At that moment, they passed a group of teens. One, with quite the bruise on his cheek, eyed Dick angrily. The other two followed suit with their glares as soon as they saw him. Jason must have noticed too. "That answers that question."
They passed the group, thankfully without being stopped, and collected their dinner treys. Dick found an empty table at the very far end of the room, where he was least likely to be bothered by anyone. Except Jason, obviously, who maybe had never experienced a cold shoulder in his life and flopped down into the chair opposite Dick.
"You'd probably do better finding someone else to glue yourself to." Dick hadn't quite wanted to come off that mean, but he really didn't want Jason to get caught up in his terrible life choices. It was only a matter of time until Billy — the boy with the bruise — and his stupid friends came to take revenge on him.
Jason, however, didn't even seem to get the hint, if his oblivious smile was anything to go by. "Nah, I like you. We're cellmates, we should hang out."
"Just saying."
"Don't care what the love child of Macauly Culkin and a slug is threatening to do 'bout it." He nodded toward the group of bullies. "Also, we got better chances surviving this if there's two of us."
So he had picked up on that situation, but not that Dick was ignoring him? Who had even raised this child? Oh, right. No one. Shit, now Dick felt bad. Jason's lack of social skills wasn't his fault. And for fuck's sake, he was only ten.
Dick sighed, taking his plastic fork and picking at whatever slime they advertised as 'food' here. Why was it blue? What normal food was blue? Apart from blueberries, and this was definitely not blueberries. "I don't wanna get you in trouble."
"Already am in trouble, really," Jason said, eating his own portion as though there was nothing wrong with it. "How'd you manage to give him that bruise? He's like twice your size."
"And twice as slow too. I'm an acrobat, I can outmaneuver anyone," Dick bragged, as smugly as he felt he deserved.
"You're a what?" Jason gaped. Some of the 'food' hanging out of his mouth, making him look drastically younger. It was almost cute. And equally as disgusting.
Despite himself, Dick felt a more genuine smile on his lips. "An acrobat. Or an aerialist, to be more precise. I grew up at the circus. You know, walking on a tightrope, swinging on the trapeze... that kind of stuff."
"No way."
"Yes way." He chuckled to himself a little. Okay, maybe he liked the attention. Whatever. "We used to be the Flying Graysons, me and my parents. I basically grew up in the stage light. And after every show, there would be a line of people wanting my autograph. Usually other kids. They called me the most flexible boy they'd ever seen."
"That's funny," Jason mumbled, more to himself. "People said that to me too." At that, Dick tilted his head in confusion like Jason had done earlier. The other boy didn't elaborate. "Did you have tigers at the circus?"
"We did, for a bit, but the director realised we couldn't care for them properly, so they got donated to a rescue station. We have an elephant, though."
Jason's eyes almost bulged out of his head. After laughing at his expression for an appropriate amount of time, Dick told him all about Zitka and the few other animals they had. When he ran out of animals, he started talking about the other performers, which had Jason somehow even more invested, especially when he heard about the strongman and the bearded lady. When Dick explained to him that the bearded lady was actually just a man who played the persona of a woman on stage, Jason nodded sagely in understanding.
"Like the drag queens that put on shows at Murphy's," he said.
"Yeah," Dick hummed, thinking it over. "I guess it's pretty much like that."
Jason grinned. He seemed to enjoy finding similarities between their lives. Though Dick felt like he was doing most of the heavy lifting here, since he barely knew anything about Jason at all.
Which was just as well. Again, he couldn't deal with someone else's struggles too. And he had a feeling Jason had a lot of those.
But then, so did Dick.
"Grayson!"
Speak of the devil.
Billy stood right in front of him, hand on the table, preventing him from standing. He was flanked by his two lackeys — a tall girl with short hair and a stout but vicious-looking boy. All three were about fifteen. "Maybe we should finish our talk from the other day."
"I thought we already did." Dick pointedly looked at the deep purple under the older teen's eye.
"You thought wrong." He leaned down, getting way too close to Dick's face for comfort. "You ain't gonna walk out of here. I'll make sure of it."
Shit. If he knew one thing about Billy, it was that his threats were more like prophecies.
Dick opened his mouth to reply, trying to reach for anything that could get him the upper hand.
"Really?"
Dick closed his mouth. Because he hadn’t said that.
Slowly, Dick, Billy, and his goons turned to Jason on the other side of the table. He blinked at Billy, innocently, as if nothing was amiss.
"Yes, you little moron," Billy snarled, "Really."
Jason hummed. Tilted his head. Untitled his head. Scrunched his nose. Unscrunched his nose. Thought it over some more. Before, shrugging. "Okay."
The grinding of his teeth was so loud, that Dick was almost worried for Billy's dental hygiene. "'Okay'? I don't need your permission, you worm."
"It's not about permission." Jason picked up his plastic fork and absentmindedly picked at the rest of his food. "Go ahead. I was just checking. I mean, I really wouldn't do anything right now, if I were you. With the superintendent watching us like a hawk and all."
"What?"
Following Jason's gaze to the overhead catwalks that the guards sometimes used to observe, Dick was greeted by the sight of Superintendent Sal watching the situation from afar. Billy must have seen him too, judging by the way he forced his posture to relax and took a step back to make the whole thing look less I'm-gonna-kill-you and more young-boys-hanging-out. The tension in Dick's shoulders faded immediately.
"He does that a lot," Jason continued casually. "I'm a bit of a problem inmate, so he always keeps me in his sight." Finally, he looked at Billy again, giving him the same smile as before. Only now, it seemed less innocent and more cunning. Calculating. "Always."
Billy took a second to just glare at him. Jason didn't shrink under it. It didn't even seem to affect him at all. Which only made Billy glare harder. "You think you're really clever, huh?"
"I try not to think of myself too much, it's egotistical."
Dick could swear a vein in Billy's face popped. Deserved. "Let me tell you something, nerd. The big guy isn't gonna watch you forever. I wasn't even gonna waste my time on you, but after this, you're a dead man walking. You think you're smart? I'll put you in so much pain, you won't even be able to think anymore."
With the attention away from him, Dick stood up, immediately drawing Billy's shifty eyes back to him. "If you try that, I'll break every bone in your body," he said with finality.
The other boy was still taller, even when standing, but Dick had proven once that he didn't need height. He didn't need strength. He just needed room to move. And he had that now. Even if the superintendent's sharp eyes weren't nailed to them, Billy wouldn't try anything now. They all knew it.
So, with a last baring of yellow teeth, Billy left them, his lackeys following close behind, visibly nervous.
The two boys were back in their cell, having managed to avoid trouble on the way back.
Jason was pacing the room on his little legs, rambling in excitement. "That was so cool! Literally you just standing up made him look so scared! Man, you must have traumatised him the other day."
Dick snorted. "I wouldn't go that far."
"Well, I would." He grinned and for a split second, it felt so achingly familiar. Dick missed this. Having younger kids look to him like someone to aspire to. Having anyone look at him with warmth instead of pity or contempt. Jason reminded him of those kids that wanted his autograph after a show.
Giving into old instincts, Dick ruffled Jason's hair and said, "I'm glad you're having fun with this. To me, it seems more like we just signed our death certificate."
Jason looked at him like he was stupid. "You don't sign a death certificate. That's done by a doctor. You'd be dead."
"It's a turn of phrase."
"I think you're looking for the term 'death sentence'. Which we also wouldn't be signing. That would be a judge."
Dick couldn't decide if the kid was really smart or really stupid or just really annoying. He definitely was really adorable. Damn, Dick had hoped he could avoid growing attached.
Well, too late now.
After they got ready for bed, or as ready as you could get in the communal bathroom, Dick tucked himself in with the paper-thin blanket, assuming Jason to do the same. The lights turned off. It was automated, controlled by someone else, just like the times that the doors unlocked. You really could go crazy in here with the little control you had over your own life.
Dick tossed and turned and tried to push away thoughts of spotlights and heights and police sirens and orphanages and Bruce Wayne, who had comforted him in the immediate aftermath of-
Footsteps.
Then, a light weight on his bed as someone sat down.
"Dick?"
He threw an arm over his eyes, grumbling "Yes?"
"You said you were an acrobat, right?"
Sighing, Dick bid the notion of early sleep goodbye — not that it would have happened anyway — and sat up, leaning against the wall that would usually be a headboard if he had an actual bed and not a mattress on some metal grating. "Yes."
Jason sat in front of him, his head bowed. In the almost pitch black, he looked even smaller. He was fiddling with his sleeve again and Dick had to fight the urge to reach out and keep him still.
"This is stupid. But. If that's true, then," his voice gained more conviction the longer he spoke, "then I think we can get out of here. If we combine our skills. I'm pretty sure I can open our door without ticking off the alarm."
Dick was still as a statue for a moment. He hadn't even considered trying to escape. Why hadn't he? He had run away from the orphanage too. This wasn't much different. Just harder. But for some reason it hadn't seemed like a possibility. Maybe it would have crossed his mind eventually. After all, he hadn't been here for longer than... a week? He thought. Yes, a week. So there hadn't been enough time.
But apparently it had crossed Jason's mind. How long had Jason been here? Dick had thought he was new.
"And then what?" Dick asked, not dismissively, but curiously.
"We have to get on the highest floor. Down here, the windows are all super secure, but up there, it's way easier, cause it's only offices and stuff for the employees. I saw when they brought me in."
Dick frowned. He had never been up there. "You got to see the top floor?"
"Yep. Took me to Superintendent Sal's office. Made sure to introduce me personally." Jason scoffed. "Guess my record really does speak for itself."
That was slightly worrying, but Dick couldn't really judge. It wasn't the focus of this conversation anyway. "What did you see?"
"The windows in the offices only have a simple lock. If we get up there, it's super easy to open them. Only problem is-"
"Getting up there," Dick finished.
Jason nodded. "Yep. And getting down."
It took anything in Dick to hold back his flinch at the thought of little ten year old Jason trying to climb out of a seven story high window and... falling.
No, that wouldn't happen. Because he'd asked Dick for help. Dick would be there and he could climb ahead or carry Jason on his back or do whatever else it might take.
The important thing was: they could get out.
Just the fantasy of freedom left Dick a little out of breath. "That's... Yeah. Yeah, I could manage that. I can get us up and down. No problem. We... could actually do this."
"Really? You're in?"
Dick was pretty sure if Jason asked him anything in that small, hopeful voice, he wouldn't be able to deny him.
"Absolutely, I'm in," he replied easily and threw an arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer. "We're a team now."
For the first time that night, Jason lifted his head to look at him, full of hope.
Had his eyes always been green?