Archive of Our Own ^beta

When waking up, Jason didn’t know what he was expecting. It was slow and gradual, which was unusual for him, as he usually woke up in a frantic and panicked way, usually from nightmares. But what was not unusual was waking to the smell of something burning in his safe house, it was a fucking concern.

Jason shot up from his laying position, his weighted blanket falling from his shoulders and piling onto his lap. Throwing it off, he stumbled to his door and yanked it open before quickly rushing to his kitchen, where the smell seemed to drift from. 

Holding one of his pistols, he arrived into the kitchen, his thumb steadily placed on the safety and ready to pull it. Then he realized what was happening.

Jason groaned, bringing his pistol down from its pointing position.

“Todd,” Damian stated, sitting at one of the few high chairs that stood in his safe house in general, looking over with the chaos that had erupted before him.  On the counter, Tim sat with his legs crossed, his laptop in his lap as he hunched over it, looking at the screen intently. A cup of what Jason presumed was either coffee or Zesti sat next to the teen, who occasionally brought it up to his lips and took a small sip or a long drawled out gulp. 

“Grayson,” the Demon Brat barked from where he was sitting. “Would you take the cookies out of the oven? It is smoking the entire room.”

Dick, who was already frantically shoving his hands into the two oven mitts that reside in the safe house, opened the oven where a small amount of smoke drifted from and took the tray of what it looks like to be cookies out of the oven. Dropping the tray on the stove, it clattered loudly as the man was fanning the air above with his oven mitts. Half of the counter was a complete mess, dough and floor was scattered across it. Tim shifted away from a large piece of cookie dough that resided on the counter, clearly not wanting his sock-covered feet to get coated in the substance. 

“Dickhead,” Jason drawled as he stepped further into the room. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Dick smiled nervously at Jason, who just raised his brow in question. Dick quickly took off his oven mitts before putting a hand on the back of his neck. Jason opened his mouth to repeat what was said, but the Replacement quickly interrupted.

“He was making cookies,” Tim stated, quickly glancing up from his laptop and doing a double take at the sight of what was supposed to be cookies. Grimacing, he elaborated, “Or, well, what was supposed to be cookies.”

“Thank you, Drake,” Damian said sarcastically. “For telling us all what we could see.”

“Shut it, Demon Brat.” Tim quickly retaliated, sticking his tongue out at the youngest.

Damian scoffed, but ignored the teenager as he went back to sketching in the sketchbook that lied on the counter that Jason didn’t notice before. The eldest of the group just sighed, over with the younger two’s antics.

“As Tim had stated,” Dick said, smiling sheepishly at Jason once again. If Dick didn’t tell him what was going on, Jason was going to punch him in the face. “I was trying to make cookies!”

“Yeah, no shit Dickhead,” Jason scoffed, dropping the gun with a clatter on the counter next to Tim, who flinched at the sudden loud noise and shot Jason a small glare. “Why the fuck are you attempting to make cookies at 4 AM?”

“Because we love you and want to appreciate you?” Dick asked, giving the taller man a bright smile. 

Jason just stared at him. 

Damian scoffed, and Tim let out a snort.

“Sure, Goldie,” Jason said, narrowing his eyes. “Still don’t understand why it had to be in my safe house? Also, how the fuck did you find this one?”

A small noise came from the Replacement, and Jason’s eyes immediately went towards the teenager, who was trying his hardest to cower behind the laptop, the tip of his ears starting to turn pink. Jason had obviously found the culprit. 

“Well, we,” Dick started before Tim and Damian made noises of protest, making Dick correct what he was saying. “I, was hoping for some brother-bonding time!”

“I did not want to be here,” Damian huffed, looking at Dick with what Jason could only describe with displeasure. “Grayson forced me to participate in this…brotherly bonding.”

Jason huffed a laugh at how disgusted Damian sounded when he described Dick’s wording. Dick just pouted at the youngest’s statement.

“I was also forced here,” Tim said as he quickly typed on the laptop before looking up, pausing with what he was doing. “Dick doesn’t know the meaning of having to finish these slides for tomorrow’s meeting. The meeting covers four and a half hours, I have to fill it up.”

Dick’s pout just grew larger. Jason just sighed, completely over with the three’s antics.

“I’m going back to bed,” he stated, turning on his heel and stalked back to the bedroom. “Don’t burn the place down, this is a brand new safe house.”

“But Little Wing!” Dick whined as he turned the corner. “Brother bonding time!”

“Please don’t call it that.” Tim said as Damian retorted, “Grayson, don’t be a child.”

Throwing himself on the bed, Jason tossed the blanket back over his body, trying to block out the clanging and clattering that Dick was making in the kitchen.

What felt like forever to Jason, but was probably only a few minutes in reality, soft pattering came from the hallway and the door to the room softly creaked open and then closed.

Jason’s eyes shot open, his entire body tensing, before Tim’s soft voice called out, “It’s just me, Dick and the Demon Brat are still in the kitchen.” 

Jason grumbled, then asked when he heard the teen’s soft footsteps getting closer to where he laid, “What the fuck are you doing, Replacement?”

“Joining you,” was the reply before the bed dipped slightly under the boy’s weight as he settled next to the laying form of the larger man. “It’s quieter here. Now shut up and scooch over, you’re taking up the entire bed.”

Jason groaned, but shifted slightly to allow the smaller of the two to settle comfortably at his side. Soft clicking started, making Jason realize that Tim had brought his laptop with him.

Before Jason knew it, he started to drift off, listening to the calm breathing and the clatter of the keyboard from his younger brother that sat beside him. 

While he may not show it physically, he enjoyed the presence of his brothers’, and enjoyed the minimal amount of time he could get from them. 

“GRAYSON!” Damian shouted, which echoed throughout the apartment, jolting Jason from his drifting, and he looked over his shoulder, still drowsy. Tim’s clattering abruptly stopped, and both men tensed in anticipation. 

The door to the bedroom opened loudly, and Dick’s voice overlapped with Damian’s as he bounded to the bed, Damian thrown over his shoulders. Tossing the kid onto the bed, Dick collapsed on all three of them, making the three groan in response.

“Grayson,” came Damian's seething voice. “Let me go at once!”

“Dick!” Tim yelped, lifting the laptop off his lap and above his head. “I need to finish these slides!”

Despite Tim’s efforts, Dick plucked the laptop out of his hands, closed it, and set it off the bed before pinning Tim, Damian, and Jason to the bed.

Jason took back everything he said as his older brother argued with his two younger ones.

Brothers were the worst.