004 [el dorado police department] not gonna stand here and wait
Aside from being relatively bored, Dick was a pretty happy camper. Whatever had been causing the whole fear of heights thing had apparently gone away, there hadn't been any new horrifying arrivals, and in general, it had just been life as usual for the young man for a while now. Sure, there seemed to be a couple people missing from his contacts
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Jason hadn't been doing much, and like Dick, he was feeling the strain of inactivity. Oh sure, he had Bruce to observe, creepily, unwilling to approach him just yet, and the new arrival, Oliver, who might or might not know him, and Dean, on principal of dude that's my face.
But he wasn't actually doing anything. No shakedowns, no hustling the bad guys.
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Which really meant it was going to be more of a "This is what I'm planning on doing, do you want to come along or not" than a "Talk me out of this right now please because I've clearly lost my mind." Getting back in the costume was pretty much inevitable at this point, it was sort of just a matter of time as to when it actually happened.
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Jason wouldn't discourage it at all - if anything, he'd egg Dick on, simply because if he knows Bruce might disprove of it, he's all for it. Coming along was more of a muddy issue, because he didn't want to reveal the Red Hood outfit to Dick just yet, which meant he'd have to use the face mask, and possibly alter his suit.
But it could be done if he was interested. And he'd never had much opportunity to run with Grayson on his own; he was either with Bruce, or he was a kid and didn't warrant the same treatment as an adult.
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Which was true. It, like every other day in El Dorado, was slow and in all likelihood, no one was going to be that upset if he skipped out for a while.
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I'll meet you on the roof.
It went without saying, for Jason, that he wasn't going there with his face exposed. He abandoned the helmet for the mask underneath, and swapped out the brown leather jacket for something darker and a little more flexible, taking the time to transfer some of his tools. He could customize it later.
It was stupidly easy to get to the roof of the hotel after that, even with all the brightness that he wasn't used to, already missing Gotham's dark grunge. But it didn't take him long to get to the roof of the police station.
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"Guess you were a couple steps ahead of me."
Funny how that worked out, but he definitely wasn't complaining. Saved them the time of hiking back to the hotel and grabbing stuff.
Of course, Dick was still in his non-vigilante work clothes, although he'd stashed his gear in a duffel bag which he'd brought up to the roof with him, but that could easily be fixed.
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"I'm sorry, were you going to ask my opinion on your latest SWAT tactics or something?"
Jason's tone was mocking, but in a (for him) good-natured way, teasing the person who came closest to being his brother. It said I know you, and you're like me; you can't sit still for long.
Jason crouched on the edge of the roof, watching Dick.
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He gestured casually towards the duffel bag.
"So, you up for patrol tonight or what?"
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"I'm always up for patrol. I'm going to go stir crazy," he tells Dick. Following people is all well and good, but there's only so long you can stalk a guy before you need some variation.
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"Nice to know I'm not the only one," he commented dryly, before pointing out a building across the way from the police station. "Meet you in like, ten minutes on that building? Some of us didn't think to get dressed already."
Plus he wasn't sure two vigilantes should just be hanging out on the roof of the police department. This wasn't exactly Gotham City, after all.
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No sense in reminiscing, Dick was talking again. Jason looked to where he pointed and then back to the other man, with a grin and a nod.
"Don't be late to the party," he tells him, "and be sure to wear your dress, princess." Still teasing, Jason moves to go down the side of the police building; he'll find his way to the other without being seen.
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Jason wonders how easy it would be to jump over, to slip out his knife and test out Dick's reaction time, his reaction to being attacked by Jason - but he knows that Dick is also still smartly a bit wary of him, and he doesn't want to compromise the trust they have yet.
So Jason jumps over, landing on the fire escape, and makes his way up. He's fairly quiet, he could sneak up on a normal person - but to Dick, it's probably like wearing steel boots on a hollow metal box, and so he waves when he hops over the top of the ladder of the fire escape.
"Is that kevlar?"
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"Yeah. What else would it be?"
Seriously, anything else and he probably would have gotten himself killed as a teenager any number of ways. The suit had stopped knives, pretty much blocked lower caliber bullets and in general, kept him safe from completely falling apart. Sure, the uniform was a little lighter then Bruce's, but it was still pretty safe, all things considered.
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"So, you got any crime hotspots in this little golden town of yours?" Jason rolls his head, cracking his neck before he glances around, keeping one eye on Dick at all times, though.
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"Not exactly," he admitted, sort of failing at hiding the disappointment in his voice. Not that he minded that the citizenry was safer here then it was in Gotham or back in the 'haven, but it was still frustrating to go from being an incredibly busy vigilante to suddenly stopping purse snatchers was sort of an adjustment. "It gets worse the farther you get away from the hotel, but nothing too bad. Nothing like Gotham."
He cast a glance over at him. "But I'm sure we could dig up something if we looked hard enough."
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