Jason hated life.

And, since technically he had gotten twice as much life as one normally would have, he hated it twice as much.

It had started this morning.

The whole night before he had been on a wild goose chase, tracking a drug ring that seemed less like a ring and more like a scribble. He had been to places all over town, and still failed to find the boss, who called herself 'Headmaster'.

And then, of course, he had had to find out that Headmaster wasn't even in Gotham.

She was in- wait for it- Bludhaven.

That's right, Bludhaven, home of his annoying-ever-present-older-maybe-brother Nightwing. He had been avoiding Dick for a while now, for the simple reason that some days he would wake up and just not be bothered anymore.

Not bothered to be angry, day in and day out, over a debate that had been fought and won already.

No, Jason, you will never be important enough for Batman to break his code, never be important enough for him to come and say 'hi, I love you, I forgive you'.

So Jason had turned to the silent treatment. Cutting himself off from all members of the Batfamily, he'd taken refuge in one of his safe houses with only his guns and twenty tubs of chocolate ice cream to keep him company.

But now, of course, he had to visit Bludhaven. And there was no question that Dick would find him one way or another.

Faced with a choice of either letting the criminals go, or confronting certain doom, Jason decided to pack his guns and 'woman up' (as Steph would say). If worst came to worst, at least he probably wouldn't wake up from death a second time.

As it turned out, death wasn't the worst thing that possibly could have happened.

This was.

"If you don't cooperate with us, we might just test out our new tasers."

The kid blew his white streak out of his face. "Shock me," he grinned.

Amy Rohrbach of the Bludhaven Police Department was desperately hanging on to her last thread of sanity. This new kid- whoever he was- was found lollygagging about the scene of a major drugs transaction, not being suspicious at all. The first thing he did when he saw the police arrive was swear dramatically, and then reach for a gun, and then- when he saw he was clearly outnumbered and surrounded- flop onto the floor and pretend to be dead.

She frowned as she thought of the report she'd have to write about this incident. How was she supposed to write about it without it becoming some sort of comedy?

"Look," she repeated, "all we want to know is what your name is and why you were there."

"The name's None."

"None?"

"Yeah. As in, None Of Your Business," he smirked.

Amy growled. She could not wait until her partner got here- he'd always had much more patience than her in dealing with lowlife criminals like, presumably, the boy sitting in front of her right now.

"How about we play a little game? It's called, Tell The Truth Or I Punch You Somewhere Not Very Nice," she said sweetly.

He smiled sweetly back. "So, you're saying that if I tell you truth, I can get you to touch me?"

She gripped the gun in her holster tightly. Usually, a kid his age would be scared out of his socks by a police officer. However- and this was just her luck- she got one who not only was cocky, but also extremely, extremely aggravating.

"Do you realise the implications of what you're doing? We can arrest you right now on accounts of obstruction of justice!"

"You know, I'm actually a huge fan of justice." He smiled painfully. "No justice without vengeance, right?"

She growled, which was a signal to Jason that she gave up. And yes, messing with her was fun, but Jason was not in a very happy mood just then.

He shouldn't have gone out in daylight, he knew that. But at night it was much harder to keep shadows away, and there was a huge transaction happening right at the harbour, and Jason really wanted to hightail it outta there as soon as he could. He'd arrived like usual, helmet and guns and everything, and it had gone swimmingly well-

But then he got distracted.

He should've known that the feeling of being watched was because of the sniper on one of the rooftops, but a) Bludhaven wasn't his city so he can make mistakes, okay? and b) he was hoping that someone else was watching him.

That someone else being Nightwing.

And maybe it was because he was so tired of being angry that he became hopeful. That, of all the people in the family, Nightwing would forgive him and bring him home and maybe Bruce would look him in his eyes and see Jason Todd, not just a corpse of a mistake he buried long ago.

So he'd let his guard down. Forgotten his one rule, which was to never even think about going back to his family again. The sniper had gotten his helmet and it had cracked right off of Jason's head (which was what Arsenal had said it would not do) and left his face defenceless. Now, Jason happened to actually care about his face, so he'd retreated, tried to hide and wait it out.

But then the police arrived, and, well, the rest was history.

"Hello?" The (sort of hot) police officer answered her radio. "What? Oh, thank god you're here. Yeah, in holding cell 52. Some kid caught in drugs smuggling- 18, 19? Definitely a troublemaker. Come quick."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "That your partner? Girl or boy?"

She grinned at him, as if gaining the upper hand. "You'll see soon."

"Oh, I'm terrified," Jason mocked. He'd make sure whoever came through those doors would regret ever setting their eyes on Jason Peter Todd.

The door swung open slowly, for it did seem pretty heavy, and a thought just occurred to Jason unexpectedly.

Hadn't Golden Boy said something about being a police officer...?

"Hey, Amy," Dick Grayson said as he stepped through the door, "am I too late?"

No. Goddamn. Way.

Jason had never thrown a tantrum before. He wondered if you could throw one with handcuffs on, because the absolute hatred of humanity stirring up in his stomach felt like it would explode if he didn't get it out.

Of course, Dickiebird hadn't made it any easier to contain. As soon as he saw Jason there, handcuffed and fuming, he had burst into laughter.

He never imagined he could ever hate laughter as much as he did in that very instance- besides from the Joker, of course. It was right then that he decided all laughter was inherently evil.

"Would you shut up?!" Jason screamed, after about five minutes of continuous laughter from a man who was managing to live up quite well to his name.

Dick sobered slightly, muffling his snickers with his hand. "Sorry. Right. Business."

The female police officer looked, confused and quite annoyed, from Jason to Dick then back to Jason again.

"This is Amy Rohrbach, my partner," Dick introduced. "Amy, this is-"

"Don't you dare!" He attempted to kick Dick in the- well, you know where- but only succeeded in tipping himself over, so that his chair slipped underneath him and he was kneeling on the floor, hands raised.

Dick only smiled. "Are you done?"

"Yes," Jason grumbled, for lack of a better thing to say. He managed to drag the chair under him with his feet.

Amy coughed. "Do you two... know each other?"

"Him and I go way back," Dick winked. Dropping his voice dramatically, he added, "he didn't take the break-up very well."

Jason's jaw dropped right to the floor, only matched by Amy's. For a little moment the two of them were choking on air, until Officer Rohrbach coughed again. She seemed to be developing an allergy to her partner.

"Well, I guess I should be leaving you alone then."

"Wait!" Jason gasped. "Please don't leave me with-"

The door slammed shut, leaving the first Robin and his dead replacement alone.

Dick had grown taller.

That was all Jason's mind had to offer as it scrambled for an answer, a way out, another solution to the problem that was his goddamned family.

Dick had grown taller, and his hair had grown longer, and the circles round his eyes indicated his night job was going well.

"You hit on her, didn't you?"

Jason blinked. "What?"

"You hit on my partner. Didn't you?"

He scratched the table moodily. "So what if I did?"

Dick laughed, and it sounded exactly the same as it used to. Light. Free.

And they wonder why Jason never filled his shoes.

"You never change," Dick sighed.

"What does that mean?"

"What do you think it means?"

Jason groaned. "Please don't do that."

"Do what?"

"That. You know, the whole puppy-dog eyes thing." He paused. "I'm not the same as I was, Dick. I never was."

"Jason..." Dick swallowed. "I haven't seen you in ages. Where did you go?"

"I don't need to tell you."

Dick looked at him skeptically. "I'm your older brother, Jason. I deserve to at least know where you are."

"You haven't been my older brother for a while now."

"I..."

"No." Jason heaved in a breath. "There is nothing you could say to me that would mean anything."

"Jason, please. I didn't know-"

"That I was in Arkham? That he locked me up?" He slammed his fist down onto the table, wrists chafing against metal. "I was alone there, Dick! The only person who came to visit me was Tim! The one person I- I mean, I thought you'd at least- but you didn't... I could hear him every night, laughing, laughing..."

"...I didn't know he put you with the Joker," Dick whispered. "I didn't think he'd be capable of- we just wanted to help you!"

"By putting me in jail? By pretending I was just another one of those criminals, just so you could bury me?"

"No! You were never one of those criminals..." The current Nightwing shook slightly. "He said it would help you. I just wanted to help you!"

Jason glared at a crack in the floor, as if it held the key to becoming normal again. As if everything that had happened to him, would happen to him, could just get sucked into that crack and disappear forever.

"You just wanted to get rid of me," Jason said sourly. "If... if Tim hadn't broken me out-"

"I broke you out."

Jason lifted his head. "What?"

"I... He told me you were lonely, so I broke in and turned off your prison security. I thought it would make things better..."

The chair felt cold underneath him. And maybe in that very moment, or maybe for a very long time, his anger petered out into nothing. Smouldering coals in the fireplace, burnt out and long past its use. Broken to bits.

"You're such an idiot," Jason mumbled.

Dick cocked his head. He recognised the change in tone, almost like a surrender, but not quite.

A compromise.

"Not as big a one as you, Jaybird," he smiled. "You got yourself arrested. What exactly were you doing?"

"My job," Jason sighed. "A new drugs boss is in your area, didn't you know?"

"Headmaster? Yeah, she's been shaking things up here, too. You could've called me, you know."

"Would you have picked up?"

Dick looked at him. "Of course I would. When you disappeared, I was so afraid... of course I'd pick up. I would."

"Guess I was wrong about you, huh?"

"...I guess."

Dick scanned the room, eyes resting briefly on the security cameras. He slid Jason a key.

"Aren't you going to lose your job?" Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dick shrugged. "Worth it."

He left, leaving the door wide open. And he knew that was a gesture, an apology of sorts. A promise.

Things would turn out okay.

See, Jason hated life.

And, since technically he had gotten twice as much life as one normally would have, he hated it twice as much.

But sometimes, rarely, life was worth it.

"Thank you," Jason whispered. "Thank you for everything."

Hey guys! I got stuck with my other story, so here's a little one-shot. I want to clarify that this is not slash, and that little joke Dick made about being boyfriends was just that- a joke. Not that I have anything against it, I just like the dynamic better as brothers. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, and please like/follow/review! Thank you!