Dick’s heart had never stopped aching. Not really. He’d spent years pretending that the wound left by Jason’s death had healed, that the unbearable loss had become something he could bear. But the truth was, it was always there, lurking beneath the surface.

Now, Jason was alive. Or at least, that’s what he’d heard. Word had spread through Gotham’s underworld: the Red Hood, ruthless and unrelenting, was back. Dick wasn’t fool enough to ignore the truth of it. He knew that face. He knew that voice, even when hidden beneath a mask.

Jason.

His fingers itched to reach out, to see his brother, to tell him everything—but he wasn’t sure where to start. How to bridge the gap between the brother he’d lost and the one who had come back changed.

Dick stood outside the warehouse, watching the shadows flicker beneath the streetlights. Every part of him wanted to charge in, to grab Jason, to apologize, to tell him that he was sorry—that it had taken too long, that he was here now.

But he couldn’t. Not yet.

Jason stepped from the shadows, the familiar silhouette all wrong. The weight of his presence hung in the air. The Red Hood’s mask was cold, but Dick could see it—the way Jason stood, shoulders tight, his stance guarded. It wasn’t just anger. It was something deeper. A hurt that ran so deep Dick could feel it.

“Jason,” Dick breathed, the name barely escaping his lips.

For a moment, everything was still. Jason’s eyes flickered beneath the mask, but he didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge him. His body tensed, like he was holding back a wave of emotion that threatened to crush him.

Dick took a cautious step forward. “It’s me… it’s Dick.”

Jason’s grip on his gun tightened. “You don’t get to say my name.”

The words were sharp, filled with all the pain Dick had been running from. They cut deeper than any knife.

“I’m sorry, Jason,” Dick whispered. “I wanted you back. I wanted to fix this.”

Jason’s head dropped. His voice cracked. “Too late for that.”

The silence stretched on, and Dick realized that some bonds—some wounds—weren’t so easily healed.