Jason knows he's got anger issues. He does. He knows he's got trauma and scars and problems, okay? And he's working on it. Or at least he tells himself he's working on it. How do you 'work on it'? He exists, alright? He keeps going. Look he hasn't punched Bruce yet and he mostly manages to not snap at Tim and he and Dick can hang out without anything exploding (usually). He deserves some credit for that, right? Maybe a little, like... leeway or something. Some appreciation. Support. Something.

But this... this is just too much. How could Bruce do this to him?

Okay you'd had nowhere else to go. So friggin' what? Plenty of kids have 'nowhere else to go'. That's what orphanages are for. And if even the orphanage wouldn't take you, that probably says something, right? But when he tried to make that argument to Dick, he acted like Jason had said something awful, and they'd almost gotten in a screaming match, so that's not getting him anywhere.

But Jason's right. He knows he's right. How can nobody else see it? You look like the clown. You act like the clown. You're just a kid, but you're also a mess, and the way it makes Jason feel every time you look at him with those acid-green eyes, every time you laugh too loud at something that isn't that funny, every time you smile way too wide...

Damnit, this isn't a him issue. It's not. You're a problem. He doesn't get how nobody else sees that. How could Bruce bring the Joker's spawn into his house?

And the worst is, you put on a great innocent act. You're so... like a kid. Yeah, a weird kid, but still a kid. You play with stuff and get into trouble and get underfoot and trail along after him and Tim and Dick like a little lost puppy desperate for attention and Jason tells himself he never wanted a little sibling so how dare you of all people try and be his? No matter how many times he tells you to go away, you just keep showing up again.

"I said bug off, kid," he grumbles for at least the sixth time today. "Bother somebody else."