Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own any of the characters.

A/N: I'm not really sure what this is. It wasn't exactly my original planned ending, but… it works, I guess… If there are any mistakes, please tell me and I'll try and correct them. Thank you for all the follows/reviews.

Dick finds Jason the next morning sitting on the fire escape outside his apartment, smoking a cigarette and brooding darkly.

"Jay." He says, by way of greeting, and Jason grunts.

"Dick." And Dick isn't sure if it's a greeting or an insult, which makes him smile slightly, because Jason's kind of predictable sometimes. He leans on the railing that Jason's perched on, and they're silent for a little while.

"Look, about what I said…" Dick starts, and Jason turns his head to look at him, raising his eyebrows in something akin to amusement and exhaling smoke into Dick's face so he coughs slightly, meaning he can't continue and Jason has time to break in,

"Don't mention it, Dickie. You could have said worse." He says, and Dick falls silent again. Jason stretches out his legs, causing his knees to click, and Dick vaguely worries that he might fall of the railing onto the street below, and then shakes the worry aside. Instead, he smiles slightly and looks at Jason, who's staring out at the buildings opposite them, miles away, the cigarette drooping from his fingers.

"You know, smoking those things is going to give you cancer one of these days." Dick says, and Jason chuckles at the familiar line.

"There's things far more likely to kill me than smoking." He says, and then they fall silent, because the topic of death seems to have come up a lot lately. A chilly wind blows, playing with their hair before dropping it and moving off down the street.

"I thought I might cook breakfast." Dick says, and Jason fixes him with a doubtful look, blowing out loudly with a cynical sound.

"What?" Dick mutters, insulted.

"Dick. The only thing you've ever been able to successfully cook is food poisoning. You know that, right?" And Dick smiles impishly, hopefully, making Jason rolls his eyes.

"You manoeuvred me into that one, didn't you?" Jason says, swearing good-naturedly and punching Dick lightly in the arm. "Fine! But I'm only going to cook because I want to protect the Demon and Replacement from either endless cereal or homemade e-coli." Dick laughs and raises his eyebrows, knowing he should be insulted, but not bothering with that because suddenly it's occurred to him that it's nice that Jason's talking to him, let alone cooking for him.

"Liar. You love it really." He replies, and Jason rolls his eyes before swinging his feet back over the railing of the fire escape, 'accidentally' kicking Dick in the chest as he does so, and stubbing out his cigarette on the black metal rail before throwing the end into the street below. Dick tuts, but Jason just pushes him inside, laughing slightly.

Dick isn't half predictable sometimes.

"Grayson, what is this?" Damian asks, looking down at the plate in front of him, and Jason sighs slightly, because speaking of predictability…

"It's breakfast, Dammi!" Dick smiles cheerily, and Damian rolls his eyes.

"Tt. I can see that, Grayson. What I meant is, why did Todd cook breakfast?"

"Because he's the only one who can actually cook, Demon." Tim says, slumping down in a chair, hair ruffled on one side where he's been sleeping on it. Jason gives an almost grateful nod in the direction of Tim.

"For once, the Replacement actually knows what he's talking about." He says, and Tim doesn't even bother telling him not to call him 'Replacement'.

He also doesn't say that he suspects one of the reasons cooked for them is that he likes to feel both useful and wanted.

But then there's a lot Tim notices and doesn't say, and the discussion soon moves on.

Once they've all sat down, they actually manage a half-polite conversation, and Jason's pleased to see that Damian – after initial protests of food poisoning and certain death – eats the food.

And Dick looks a lot happier now, chatting like… well, like Dick, so Jason hopes maybe the night before has been forgotten, at least for now, because Dick's loudly chiding Tim, who's just pulled out his phone.

"No phones at the table, Timbo!" Dick exclaims as Tim glances at his expensive-looking mobile.

"Since when has that been a rule?" He mutters, and Dick makes a move as if to grab the offending mobile device from Tim, which he anticipates and slides his chair backwards.

"Since I decided it was a rule." Dick pouts, pretending to be hurt that Tim has moved away from him. Damian, behind Tim, grabs the phone and leaps backwards, out of reach, making Tim shout in annoyance and nearly fall backwards off his chair. Damian and Jason laugh, and Jay takes the phone off Damian, eyes flicking over the screen.

"Texting his boyfriend." Jason mutters, grinning maliciously at Tim, who turns slightly pink.

"Give. It. Back." Tim snarls, reaching for the phone, but he's fairly tiny compared to Jason's bulk and his efforts are virtually unnoticed.

"Why? Something you don't want us to see?"

"No. It's just… my… Ugh! Just give me the phone, Jason."

"Definitely his boyfriend."

"I don't have a boyfriend!" Jason raises his eyebrows and looks at Tim in the most condescending manner he can muster, and Tim leaps for his phone, this time succeeding in grabbing it out of Jason's hand, and all manner of polite conversation is ended as they all argue good naturedly (or not, in some cases). Then suddenly in the middle of it all there's a knock on the door and Dick gets up to get it, stifling his grin.

"Oh, hey, Dad!" They hear Dick exclaim from the doorway, and the party atmosphere is somewhat subdued as Jason stops laughing. "Yeah, we were just having breakfast, yeah… come in!" Bruce and Dick appear in the doorway, and Bruce's eyes sweep the room, landing on Jason.

"Hi, boys." He says, his voice tired but maybe almost happy, "Jason." Jay nods back and Dick gets another chair and somehow manages to get Bruce to sit down and have some coffee, and Tim's almost relieved because nobody's paying him as much attention anymore, although Damian does seem to change, to become more mature, and Jason's back seems to have stiffened slightly, although Dick's still the same, smiling at them all.

"So… what have you been up to while I've been away?" Bruce asks, and there's a brief silence before Dick suddenly speaks up,

"You know, nothing much. Jay dropped round to say hi, and we uh, went shopping and… yeah!" And if Bruce is suspicious, he doesn't show it, despite the fact that usually Dick's the worst liar out of all of them, and the side of Jason's mouth has twitched up into a half smile, which is one of his tells.

Tactfully, Tim moves the conversation on again, and they actually find themselves enjoying the time together.

When Tim and Damian have left, however, and Jason and Dick are left alone in the sudden quiet, Jason turns to Dick.

"You lied to him. You lied so badly anyone could have seen through it, and he actually believed you." He smiles good naturedly, and Dick raises an eyebrow.

"If you're going to be like that I'm going to phone Bruce and tell him the truth, Jay. Don't think I won't." And Jason just continues to smile for a moment, before he picks up his jacket from one arm of the sofa where it's been thrown.

"Well, I'd better be going too, Goldie." He says awkwardly, and Dick nods.

"Yeah."

"Well… thanks, I guess… for everything." Dick steps forward to hug him, but Jason knows exactly what's coming and ducks under his arms and towards the door, opening it and shouting a hasty,

"Not a chance, Bird Brain!" to which Dick shouts,

"Hate you too, Little Wing!" Before the door is slammed shut and he flops back onto the sofa, smiling contentedly.

Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?