Invincible.
Pairing: Bruce/Jason [Batman]
Date Written: December 4, 2005
The last thing Jason remembers is the Joker hovering over him with a crowbar, but he woke up in his own bed just moments ago, so he’s understandably confused. He figures he must’ve blacked out and Bruce must’ve come in and saved the day like usual, taking him back to the mansion. Jason slides out of bed and pads down to Bruce’s room, but Bruce isn’t there. Frowning slightly, Jason turns and heads downstairs into the kitchen. Alfred should be in there making breakfast, but he’s not. Jason searches the whole house, but no one’s around. He decides to check the Batcave, just in case Bruce is down there instead of at work. And Bruce is there, cradling Jason’s Robin costume in his hands.
“Bruce?”
Bruce seems to ignore him, but that’s no surprise as Bruce often seems to have selective hearing when it comes to certain things. Jason steps closer and notices that Bruce seems to be very distraught, so he rests his hand on Bruce’s shoulder. Bruce doesn’t even look up, he just makes this choked sound.
“Hey, Bruce?”
Jason tries again, his voice louder, and this time Bruce does look up. His eyes are wild and they look everywhere but where Jason is standing.
“Jason?”
Bruce’s voice is barely a whisper with a large dose of disbelief. Jason waves his hands.
“I’m right here, man.”
Shaking his head slightly, Bruce stands and walks right through Jason and it’s about that time that Jason begins to realize that something is very, very wrong. He turns and follows after Bruce. Once, Bruce had told Jason that grief is a process and some people never get past the first stage: denial. Jason vaguely wonders if the same thing applies to your own death, because right now, he’s heavily feeling on the denial side of things.
I can’t be dead. Never mind that Bruce walked right through me and apparently can’t hear me. I just can’t be dead. It must be some trick. Some illusion. Something.
The same loop keeps on repeating through Jason’s head for the next couple of days as he follows Bruce around and tries to get Bruce to pay attention to him. Until he follows Bruce to his own funeral and then it finally hits him.
I’m dead.
**
Jason finds that time passes differently when you’re dead. It goes much slower when you have nothing better to do than watch the living. He never thought about it before, but Bruce’s life is so routine in a way and Alfred’s, well, Jason grew bored of watching him clean after a day. Still, even though time seems to pass more slowly, the days start to blend together into one long day so that one day, Jason looks at the calendar in Bruce’s office to find that it’s actually been a month since he had died. Jason is surprised, shouldn’t he have moved on by now? Or is there nothing but this purgatory of watching the living after you die?
Bored out of his mind, Jason starts to try to touch things, move things, walk through walls, anything. After awhile, he finds that he can move things and realizes that he actually could do it all along, it was just the silly notion that ghosts can’t that was preventing him from doing it. Still, he can’t seem to walk through walls and Jason begins to wonder if he’s not dead and a ghost, but rather invisible instead.
He hasn’t tried to talk to Bruce in a while, so he tries again when Bruce is getting ready for bed one night. His hand hovers over Bruce’s back.
“Bruce? It’s Jay.”
Bruce pauses and tilts his head as though he heard a very soft sound and isn’t sure of what it is. So Jason tries again, louder this time.
“Bruce, it’s me. I’m right behind you.”
Slowly, Bruce turns around. “Jason?”
But then he shakes his head and turns and gets into bed. Jason climbs in after him. His hands move over Bruce’s chest and Bruce actually shivers, like he’s got a chill. Jason had always wanted to touch Bruce like this when he was alive, but he knew Bruce would never go for it. As Jason’s hands slide further down, he feathers light kisses against Bruce’s jaw. Bruce shifts slightly and shivers again. He reaches to pull up the blankets, but Jason shoves them back down. Bruce makes a slight noise of confusion and Jason whispers in his ear.
“It’s okay. I haven’t left you.”
“Jay…”
It almost sounds like a moan, but then he closes his eyes and rolls over onto his side. Jason presses up against him and watches him sleep.
**
Jason had been waiting for Bruce to do something about his death other than mourn him. He didn’t even realize it until Bruce went up against the Joker one night and didn’t do much of anything that Jason expected. Like, say, killing the bastard for killing Jason. Jason’s rage in that moment had been so great that he found that he could actually wrap his hands around the Joker’s neck and squeeze.
“Jason, no!”
The Joker’s eyes had gone even wider at that and Jason wasn’t sure which of the three of them was more surprised when Bruce shoved at what should’ve been thin air and actually connected with Jason instead, causing Jason to let go of the Joker’s neck. Jason had stared up at Bruce from his position on the ground before he got up and ran at him, giving the Joker an opportunity to escape.
“You fucker. It’s your fault I’m dead. If you had just killed him when you had the chance, I’d still be here.”
And all of Jason’s repressed rage had come out at once as he barreled into Bruce, knocking him to the ground. His fists had pounded into Bruce and Bruce hadn’t done a thing to stop him.
**
Jason stays away from the manor after that. He finds that when he taps into his rage, he can do almost anything he could do when he was alive, only no one can see him, and that proves to be an advantage. So he starts cleaning up the streets of Gotham one thug at a time. He leaves their bodies bruised, broken and often dead in alleyways and side-streets. A year passes like that and Jason finds that he’s getting stronger and stronger. Until one night, he finds that he can actually see his own reflection in a cracked mirror in an old, abandoned warehouse. He shakes his head and turns to continue stalking after his prey, but then his prey turns around and stares.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Jason pauses. “You can see me?”
“Yeah, I can fucking see you. What the fuck do you want?”
Grinning wickedly, Jason moves forward and picks up a two by four laying on the floor of the warehouse. “To kill you, of course.”
**
Jason spends the next year in hiding and trains hard. Another year passes before Jason returns to the manor. He sneaks in the back way and makes his way undetected to the Batcave. When he sees his old Robin uniform in a case, he actually laughs before making his way to the computer console. After messing around with Bruce’s so-called encrypted files, he finds that Bruce has a new Robin to his Batman. Some kid named Tim. Jason shakes his head before tampering with the surveillance equipment, looping his own feed in so he can watch Bruce’s every move. In the year he spent training, Jason had a lot of time to make a plan of action and now that he’s caught himself up through Bruce’s files, he thinks it’s time to implement it. He sneaks back out of the Batcave and makes his way out onto the streets of Gotham with every intention of cleaning them up like Bruce never would.
Date Written: December 4, 2005
The last thing Jason remembers is the Joker hovering over him with a crowbar, but he woke up in his own bed just moments ago, so he’s understandably confused. He figures he must’ve blacked out and Bruce must’ve come in and saved the day like usual, taking him back to the mansion. Jason slides out of bed and pads down to Bruce’s room, but Bruce isn’t there. Frowning slightly, Jason turns and heads downstairs into the kitchen. Alfred should be in there making breakfast, but he’s not. Jason searches the whole house, but no one’s around. He decides to check the Batcave, just in case Bruce is down there instead of at work. And Bruce is there, cradling Jason’s Robin costume in his hands.
“Bruce?”
Bruce seems to ignore him, but that’s no surprise as Bruce often seems to have selective hearing when it comes to certain things. Jason steps closer and notices that Bruce seems to be very distraught, so he rests his hand on Bruce’s shoulder. Bruce doesn’t even look up, he just makes this choked sound.
“Hey, Bruce?”
Jason tries again, his voice louder, and this time Bruce does look up. His eyes are wild and they look everywhere but where Jason is standing.
“Jason?”
Bruce’s voice is barely a whisper with a large dose of disbelief. Jason waves his hands.
“I’m right here, man.”
Shaking his head slightly, Bruce stands and walks right through Jason and it’s about that time that Jason begins to realize that something is very, very wrong. He turns and follows after Bruce. Once, Bruce had told Jason that grief is a process and some people never get past the first stage: denial. Jason vaguely wonders if the same thing applies to your own death, because right now, he’s heavily feeling on the denial side of things.
I can’t be dead. Never mind that Bruce walked right through me and apparently can’t hear me. I just can’t be dead. It must be some trick. Some illusion. Something.
The same loop keeps on repeating through Jason’s head for the next couple of days as he follows Bruce around and tries to get Bruce to pay attention to him. Until he follows Bruce to his own funeral and then it finally hits him.
I’m dead.
**
Jason finds that time passes differently when you’re dead. It goes much slower when you have nothing better to do than watch the living. He never thought about it before, but Bruce’s life is so routine in a way and Alfred’s, well, Jason grew bored of watching him clean after a day. Still, even though time seems to pass more slowly, the days start to blend together into one long day so that one day, Jason looks at the calendar in Bruce’s office to find that it’s actually been a month since he had died. Jason is surprised, shouldn’t he have moved on by now? Or is there nothing but this purgatory of watching the living after you die?
Bored out of his mind, Jason starts to try to touch things, move things, walk through walls, anything. After awhile, he finds that he can move things and realizes that he actually could do it all along, it was just the silly notion that ghosts can’t that was preventing him from doing it. Still, he can’t seem to walk through walls and Jason begins to wonder if he’s not dead and a ghost, but rather invisible instead.
He hasn’t tried to talk to Bruce in a while, so he tries again when Bruce is getting ready for bed one night. His hand hovers over Bruce’s back.
“Bruce? It’s Jay.”
Bruce pauses and tilts his head as though he heard a very soft sound and isn’t sure of what it is. So Jason tries again, louder this time.
“Bruce, it’s me. I’m right behind you.”
Slowly, Bruce turns around. “Jason?”
But then he shakes his head and turns and gets into bed. Jason climbs in after him. His hands move over Bruce’s chest and Bruce actually shivers, like he’s got a chill. Jason had always wanted to touch Bruce like this when he was alive, but he knew Bruce would never go for it. As Jason’s hands slide further down, he feathers light kisses against Bruce’s jaw. Bruce shifts slightly and shivers again. He reaches to pull up the blankets, but Jason shoves them back down. Bruce makes a slight noise of confusion and Jason whispers in his ear.
“It’s okay. I haven’t left you.”
“Jay…”
It almost sounds like a moan, but then he closes his eyes and rolls over onto his side. Jason presses up against him and watches him sleep.
**
Jason had been waiting for Bruce to do something about his death other than mourn him. He didn’t even realize it until Bruce went up against the Joker one night and didn’t do much of anything that Jason expected. Like, say, killing the bastard for killing Jason. Jason’s rage in that moment had been so great that he found that he could actually wrap his hands around the Joker’s neck and squeeze.
“Jason, no!”
The Joker’s eyes had gone even wider at that and Jason wasn’t sure which of the three of them was more surprised when Bruce shoved at what should’ve been thin air and actually connected with Jason instead, causing Jason to let go of the Joker’s neck. Jason had stared up at Bruce from his position on the ground before he got up and ran at him, giving the Joker an opportunity to escape.
“You fucker. It’s your fault I’m dead. If you had just killed him when you had the chance, I’d still be here.”
And all of Jason’s repressed rage had come out at once as he barreled into Bruce, knocking him to the ground. His fists had pounded into Bruce and Bruce hadn’t done a thing to stop him.
**
Jason stays away from the manor after that. He finds that when he taps into his rage, he can do almost anything he could do when he was alive, only no one can see him, and that proves to be an advantage. So he starts cleaning up the streets of Gotham one thug at a time. He leaves their bodies bruised, broken and often dead in alleyways and side-streets. A year passes like that and Jason finds that he’s getting stronger and stronger. Until one night, he finds that he can actually see his own reflection in a cracked mirror in an old, abandoned warehouse. He shakes his head and turns to continue stalking after his prey, but then his prey turns around and stares.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Jason pauses. “You can see me?”
“Yeah, I can fucking see you. What the fuck do you want?”
Grinning wickedly, Jason moves forward and picks up a two by four laying on the floor of the warehouse. “To kill you, of course.”
**
Jason spends the next year in hiding and trains hard. Another year passes before Jason returns to the manor. He sneaks in the back way and makes his way undetected to the Batcave. When he sees his old Robin uniform in a case, he actually laughs before making his way to the computer console. After messing around with Bruce’s so-called encrypted files, he finds that Bruce has a new Robin to his Batman. Some kid named Tim. Jason shakes his head before tampering with the surveillance equipment, looping his own feed in so he can watch Bruce’s every move. In the year he spent training, Jason had a lot of time to make a plan of action and now that he’s caught himself up through Bruce’s files, he thinks it’s time to implement it. He sneaks back out of the Batcave and makes his way out onto the streets of Gotham with every intention of cleaning them up like Bruce never would.