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( it'd be funny as shit, showing up at a parent-teacher conference with a fourteen year old. jason's fairly sure he couldn't pass for bruce's age unless he put effort into it, and what's the point? though it's also not like he'd be stupid enough to put his name under parent on any birth certificate he fakes for dick. that's just asking for it. )

School's good for you. ( for more reasons than just--sitting in a classroom listening to someone drone on and on and on. ) Maybe you'll make some normal friends.

[ Dick laughs. ]

Normal is overrated. And highly subjective.

Yeah, well, our normal isn't great for anyone.

( considering they've all died at least once, for at least a few moments. he's not giving tim or dick credit for their i died phases. tim cheated and got zapped elsewhere, not killed. dick was only dead long enough to get the bomb off of him before luthor brought him back. damian gets to keep it, since he was dead long enough they had to chase his corpse all the way to apokolips. also not things he should tell a kid. even if damian was--what, ten at the time? eleven? damian's different. )

Older you's more fucked up than he'll ever let on. I'm fucked up. Both of me, Junior's just a few steps behind but he's also fucked. Tim's--Tim. Damian wants to kill his father, an' he's plenty justified in wanting it.

[ He has a response on the tip of his tongue, but the last statement has his brain come to a screeching halt. ]

He wants to kill Bruce?

His B is a piece of shit. Abandoned him when he really needed someone's support.

( because dick grayson died and everyone, including damian, blames him. )

Beats the shit out of him when they cross paths, too. He's got his reasons, they're--I can't blame him any. Hell, I've wanted to kill my B before.

( a loose shrug, before he reaches out and places a hand on dick's shoulder. )

He won't kill the one here. Probably.

[ Bruce is a complicated person. He can be demanding of his students, perfectionistic, paranoid, and emotionally constipated. But he's never, not once, been abusive or abandoned Dick. A Bruce out there somewhere who could do that to anyone, especially his own child, is difficult to understand. His heart sinks a little. ]

You have a bad Bruce too?

( this is what he gets, isn't it. for being honest and open about shit--even if the alternative would have been worse. letting dick find out the hard way wasn't an option. but his relationship with his own bruce is--complicated. )

Grayson and I come from the same place, I think. You should ask him about B, he knows him better.

( because jason is bitter and angry. because he knows his experience with bruce isn't universal, it's--jason's the problem. bruce just doesn't help any. )

So something else that's "complicated."

[ He supposes they all are. Even Dick, still so young, has a relationship with Bruce that's hard to define. Bruce is complicated and flawed, but he's still struggling to reconcile the Bruce he knows with Damian's Bruce and Jason's Bruce. It's a futile effort, he knows, but his Bruce is the only template he has for every other Bruce. ]

( there's a lot he can say in response to that. he could tell dick about all the bullshit he and bruce went through. he could talk about tim, about damian, about dick. or cass, duke, harper, steph--there's a lot he could get into. he's a good man is a response, and it wouldn't be an incorrect one even if would be an incomplete one. jason instead settles on what he knows to be fully correct and true, because it's--less weighty that way. )

I'm not a good person. There's been times when I was significantly worse than I am now, an' B and Tim got the brunt of it. Bruce did what he thought was best. But a lot of my. . opinions of Bruce're shaded by my own bullshit. I love him as much as you do, but any answer you get from me's gonna sound jaded, an' you should get it from Dick first before you get mine.

So you think he'll be the most objective when it comes to Bruce?

[ Dick only knows Jason from what he's seen here. He's complicated and weird and Dick doesn't think Jason is lying. ]

If you're looking for objective, I'd ring up Timbers. But I think older you's got the most experience with B, an' he's spent a lot of time dealing with his bullshit. And he's got a more--

( gesturing over to dick, because. )

You outlook, I'm guessing.

[ Dick runs a hand through his hair. ]

Yeah, that's going to take a lot of getting used to.

Tell me about it.

( this isn't even his first round with a mini me. it is, however, his first round with one this similar. and he hates it. hates seeing all the ways they're similar, hates the differenes even more because all they do is make him think about how much better junior is. )

The best I can hope is that we get along okay.

[ Dick has the benefit of being much younger than his other self. And he generally isn't consumed by self-loathing.

Still it'll cause a lot of problems if they can't at least tolerate each other. He assumes the others will side with the older Dick rather than him, if it came down to it.]

You two'll be fine.

( better than jason and junior, at least. hell, jason handled having a double better when he was just a brat rather than someone so--similar to him. )

He's had time to adjust to a bunch of Robins running rampant 'round him. You're just a little closer than the rest of 'em.

[ Dick snorts. ]

That's one way of putting it.

[ He sighs and leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. ]

He looks so much like my dad.

[ Which makes sense, of course, but it threw Dick off so badly the first time that he could hardly look at his double. ]

He looks just like you.

( which makes sense, doesn't it? they're the same person, of course they'd look like each other and also - dick's father. john, jason's memory supplies, a guy he hadn't met but knows the importance of regardless.

dick leans forward, and jason moves a hand down to ruffle his hair. )

I know it's weird as hell, but we'll get through it.

[ Dick's not sure how to feel about that. It's nice, maybe, but looking in the mirror and seeing his dad has to have been jarring the first time he noticed.

If he ever did. His memories of his parents slip away more and more every day.

Dick freezes at the hair-ruffling, but doesn't push Jason away.

Ruefully: ] Not much of a choice but to get through it.

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