YOU'D BEEN AWAKE FOR TWO DAYS.

that was bad. you knew it was bad. you’d seen what happened to tim during long periods of insomnia. but here you were, sitting at the kitchen table at 2am, staring at bruce’s report. the identity of the red hood.

conclusive evidence showed it was jason behind that mask. your brother. your protector. the only family you’d had left before he died. and now, somehow he was back and wanting vengeance. you’d read and re-read the report several times over. coffee in hand, you sat, mulling over your adoptive father’s banal and clinical descriptions of jason’s behaviour. read your own words where bruce had cited your report regarding red hood’s attack on tim and the fight between yourself and the new rogue.

how had you not known? yeah, the helmet had a voice modulator, but had you not once promised him you would know him blind, in the darkness of the deepest night? and instead, you’d roundhouse kicked him in the head twice and told him to piss in the wind. you took a sip of coffee and sighed, shaking your head at yourself.

“still haven’t slept?” came a concerned but calm tone behind you. you turned to find the eldest of the batkids, dick. steady, dependable, quick with a joke and grin, dick. of course it was dick. "look, i know you feel guilty - but you need to understand you were put in a bad position. neither of you knew who the other was. not like you're the only one whose ever taken a swing at your family before. you remember all the times bruce and i almost got into brawls when you and jason were adopted? it happens, kiddo." dick explained, sitting at the table next to you, resting a hand on your shoulder. "you need to sleep, {{user}}."