Jason Meets Nightwing
Night, in Bludhaven. When all the weird and nasty things came out to play. It had taken a while for Dick to get used to the city - it was different from Gotham. More modern and more...dirty. Gotham still managed to retain that classic 20s feel to it, with all the old buildings and old money. It was a strange place, to be sure, and dark and dirty in its own way, but Bludhaven was more rough around the edges. The night life was young people and loud parties and drugs instead of classy cocktail parties and...well, actually, a lot of drugs still, just different ones. Apparently kids these days did weird things. Half the time Dick felt old just being around them, though really his own life was probably much stranger. But it had always been this way. For him, it was normal.
These days, he'd gotten a feel for the place though. It was starting to feel like his city, rather than foreign territory. He'd gotten used to the rooftops and back allies, flitting through them with nearly the same ease as he had in Gotham. So he'd been feeling pretty pleased with himself, making his own way without Bruce. Without Batman. No surprise then, that he'd gotten a bit cocky, left his bike a bit more out in the open than usual. And then equally unsurprising was the fact that he came back to find some punk jacking his tires. Dick felt a surge of annoyance and, of course, the usual prick of shame in the back of his mind. He'd done something wrong and now he was paying for it. At least Bruce wasn't around to reprimand him for making such a stupid mistake. And at least he'd caught it in the act - the kid was still working on the front tire and hadn't even touched the back one yet. Grimacing in annoyance, Dick quickly scrambled down the side of the building, flipping off the lowest point of the fire escape and landing directly behind the would-be thief. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to mess up another man's ride?"
Jason froze when he heard Dick behind him. He mentally cursed himself. He should have been done both the tires 10 minutes ago, and he'd be long gone. Jason would have been, had he not been distracted by all the shiny additions to the bike. Pushing himself off the ground to stand up, he turned to face the bike owner defiantly. "Didn't your mother ever tell you it was rude to talk about someone's dead mother?" he answered with a question, staring up at the weird guy.
Dick fixed the boy with a rather flat look, though the domino mask he wore tended to make it hard to read his expressions. "No. She's dead too. So how about instead of making assumptions, you tighten up those bolts you were loosening up and I might consider not leaving you trussed up as a present for Bludhaven PD," he suggested dryly. Typical street kid - absolutely no fear and a whole hell of a lot of attitude, if the biligerent way the kid was looking up at him was any indication.
How was he supposed to know the guy's mom was dead too? It didn't look like he was weasling out of this, but it didn't mean he wasn't going to try. "Sure, right, you caught me fair," Jason started as he crouched back down to tighten the bolts, "but what's with all the bike mods? I've never seen half of these before." And he had stolen plenty of tires. Not off as many bikes, but definitely enough to know those bike mods were not something one picked up at a store.
"Yeah, they're not exactly common," agreed Dick, who was watching Jason's work with an eagle-eye. He might have gotten cocky, leaving the bike out, but he sure as hell was not going to repeat that mistake. Jason seemed to be fairly harmless, but years of fighting psychopaths in Gotham had taught him that even the most harmless-seeming things or people could be deadly. Letting your guard down was a sure way to end up in a body bag.
"Not common and would have been worth more to hock them then the tires, I bet," Jason muttered to himself as he tightened the last bolt. If he could just talk Dick into letting him go, he could probably find this mark again later and enlist some help to get the mods off the bike safely. He'd have food for at least a month after hocking those mods, so the way he saw it, that bike was his meal ticket. When he was sure the tire was back where it should be, Jason turned around to try for the sympathy thing. "Look, a guy's gotta eat. You're hero, if the tights and mask are anything to go by. Can ya cut a kid a break?" he asked with an attempt at an innocent smile.
Dick gave a very amused little snort. "Real cute. You're a regular Oliver Twist," he muttered, looking entirely unimpressed. The fact that Jason was angling to be let go suggested that he was used to being caught in these sorts of situations. Probably a habitual offender, which came as no surprise. "You know there's no way I'm buying the "poor starving street rat" routine, right?"
Not buying the routine? Maybe it was a routine, but that didn't mean it wasn't the truth. Why did he have to run into this jerk? Usually, he could kick the loser and run, if he got caught, which rarely happened. There was no way he was going to try and fight this guy. Since when did the 'Haven get it's own Batman wanna be? Jason snorted. "Buy it or not, it's true. Sorry that you can't see the truth in front of you," he bit out. "Some hero you must be. 'Haven's your city, ain't it? Not very good at this whole hero gig then, are ya?"
Well that stung, but Dick was still not impressed. "I'm sure you've got to eat and I'm sure you're very sadly down on your luck, but seriously, go get a job at a burger joint or something. They'll even feed you" Although, that said, there wasn't much that Dick could actually do about the kid. Even if he brought him in, there was no real evidence of a crime and so he'd be released anyway.
Jason rolled his eyes. "You think they hire street kids? Some fantasy world you've been living in," he said with a snort. "Kinda need education past middle school to get a job that isn't going to get me into deeper shit than living on the streets already provides. Sorry, but I'm not too educated if you haven't noticed. So, if you're going to bring me to the cops, do it." Okay, now he was getting cocky, but he had a feeling that this guy had nothing on him. Plus, why would one of the cape and cowl group want to bring in a small time thief like him? They did big game. Like all those crazies he had heard about in Gotham, or bad guys that went up against Superman in Metropolis. No, a street kid like Jason wasn't even a blip on anyone's radar, whether it be costumed vigilante or anyone else.
"They hire people who don't speak English. I'm pretty sure you qualify," pointed out Dick rather dryly, but he didn't push the matter. He doubted this kid cared and nothing that anyone said would change that. However, he could at least keep the kid from stealing more tires, in the short term. He bent down to inspect the bolts on his tire, carefully keeping watch of Jason's movements out of the corner of his eyes. "Give me that wrench, you didn't tighten this bolt enough," he said, holding out a hand for the tool.
Jason made a sour face as he handed over the wrench. This guy was starting to grind on Jason's nerves. "Look, I don't know you, and you don't know me, so maybe you could not try to tell me how to live my life? I've been doing what's worked to get by. Everyone does it. Maybe some a little more legal than others, but there's no big difference," he said, wanting to get away now. He wouldn't be eating tonight, but at least he could sleep this whole stupid night away. It wasn't like he liked stealing and hocking tires, but after his dad left, probably getting himself killed, and his mother died from sickness, what the hell was he supposed to do?
Dick gave a perfunctory show of tightening one of the already perfectly tightened bolts and then stood up, keeping the wrench. It really wouldn't set the boy back much - he'd probably have a new one within a day, but at least it would keep him from doing more damage tonight. "Makes a difference to someone. You think everyone can afford new tires for their cars?" he pointed out, arching a brow that was hidden by his mask. A useless gesture, but one made out of habit.
Jason glanced over at Dick's bike, pointedly eying the mods. "You sure as hell can," he said flippantly. "You act like you know whose tires I steal. The cars are cars that obviously could belong to people like Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor. I'm pretty sure they can afford it." Actually, it was a bit harder to steal from the richer cars, even after learning how to disable the alarms, and the pay out for the better tires were hardly worth it, but Jason was not going to sink low enough to steal from not so well off people. The motto was steal from the rich and give to the poor, and he was pretty damned poor.
That got a shrug in response. Dick was not exactly going to rely on the kid's altruism, or his ability to spot cars that belonged to people who could afford a set of new tires. Still, the kid had a point. Dick sure as hell could have afforded it if Jason had taken his tires. "Well, you're still not getting back the wrench or the jack," he said, trying his best to sound authoritative. After years of living with Batman, one would think he'd have mastered the tone of voice, but somehow he still didn't quite manage it.
Jason caught that falter in the authoritative voice Dick used. "They weren't mine anyway," Jason said lightly. It was true; tonight he had found a squat someone hadn't been using in a while. They had left behind some tools, which Jason was definitely not above snatching, since they were better than the ones he had been using. Jason looked Dick over for a moment. "No offense, but your 'I'm an authority figure' thing kinda sucks. You should work on that." With that, Jason made a move to leave as his stomach growled. No food tonight, so get over it, he thought.
Dick rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I'll get lots of practice, with you in town," he muttered dryly. His sharp ears didn't miss the growl of Jason's stomach, which in turn made him feel a bit...well...guilty. He let out an annoyed sigh. "And you should work on eating." A pause. "Come on, I'll get you something to eat."
Jason looked at Dick suspiciously. "And I'm supposed to trust you why? Because you're one of the cape and cowl crowd? I just tried to jack your tires. You think I'm that stupid?" he asked. Even if he was starving, that was no reason to ignore the fact that going off with a stranger is never a good idea, even when his parents weren't around anymore to drill it into his head. He didn't even have this guy's codename let alone his real name. Just because he looked like he could shadow Batman didn't mean he wasn't actually a bad guy. Well, bad guys didn't act so self-righteous, but better safe than sorry. "Plus, I'm supposed to go with someone when I don't know their name? That would be pretty stupid of me." Might was well get his name before he ditched the guy.
"I have got to get a better PR agent," groused Dick in mock annoyance. He hadn't been in the city long, but considering he was the only major mask operating in the city, he'd have figured more people would know who he was. "You can call me Nightwing." He got onto his newly repaired bike, silently hoping that the kid hadn't fucked anything up that would lead to a fiery crash, and turned on the engine. "You comin' or not?"
He had heard about Nightwing, but not much. He was about to tell Nightwing to go screw himself and leave with a rude gesture, but his stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't since maybe the beginning of the week, and without hocking those tires, he wouldn't be able to get something for himself to until maybe the weekend. Jason grumbled as he begrudgingly got on the bike.
"So, then, Oliver Twist, do you have a real name?" asked Dick, glancing over his shoulder. "Or a fake name. Either works - unless you like being called Oliver Twist." He flashed Jason a grin. It was one of those charming smiles, handsome even with half of Dick's face obscured by his mask. Never mind striking fear into the hearts of evil-doers the way Batman did, Dick would be better off charming his foes into submission.
He was still suspicious, but it wasn't like his real name would mean anything anyway. "My name's Jason Todd," he answered, still frowning, "so don't call me Oliver Twist." Jason didn't trust charming smiles, even though the way Dick was acting seemed more natural than when he was reprimanding Jason. Whatever, he was going to stay suspicious until he had proof he could trust this guy.
Dick just laughed at that, then revved up the engine and sped down the alley and out onto the road. They were in a decent part of town and during the day the road would have been choked with traffic, but it was currently 4am - too late for most partiers and too early for even the earliest risers. The motorcycle was the only thing on the road, which Dick normally would have taken advantage of. He liked being able to really let go and get his adrenaline pumping. But with a passenger there was some else's life on the line, so he restrained himself to a sedate 60mph as they headed out of the city. Closer to the highway as a fast food place that stayed open all night, which worked well enough for purposes of feeding a hungry teenager. They went through the drive through, to the considerable surprise of the sleepy looking young man at the drive through window, who just sort of stared at Nightwing as though he were a ghost. Dick flashed the man a cocky grin, then grabbed the bag, paid with a twenty, and roared off before the man in the window could even manage to form a coherent sentence, let alone count out correct change. Food in hand, Dick drove in lazy circles around the neighborhood until he found a small and rather run down park. The place was little more than a beat-up jungle gym and a couple of swings, but it had a couple of benches, which is all Dick really wanted. He parked the bike and let Jason get off first, then swung his own leg over the thing and headed off towards the benches, not bothering to see if Jason was following at this point.
Not that Jason would admit it out loud, but riding a motorcycle with Nightwing had been a thrill, even though he could kinda tell Dick wasn't going as fast as he wanted. Though, if Dick had gone faster, Jason's clinging to him during the whole ride would have been much more noticeable. It wasn't his fault he'd never gotten to a ride a motorcycle before. He followed Dick to the benches, looking around at the park. He was just surprised there were no druggies around trying to make deals. Though, with Nightwing around, maybe they'd be smart enough to not show up. Or maybe it was later than he thought? Jason didn't have a watch. Not wanting to ruin his meal ticket, he waited for Dick to hand him his food, so the guy wouldn't change his mind or something.
Dick flopped down on the bench like he was a normal guy and not man running around in a spandex and kevlar suit, beating up bad guys. Rummaging through the bag of food, he pulled out two burgers, each wrapped in their own little greasy square of paper. He tossed one over to Jason and then began unwrapping his own. "Fries are in the bag," he mumbled through a mouthful of burger a few moments later. Oh, it had been so very long since he'd actually had fast food. It was the guiltiest of guilty pleasures - especially since his stomach was going to complain about all the grease later. But for the moment it tasted good in the way that only really horrible fast food could, and it filled him up - he'd been more hungry than he realized.
Jason caught the burger easily, unwrapping it quickly and taking a bite bigger than his mouth should probably handle, but he really didn't care. He devoured the first bite pretty quickly before reaching into the bag for a big handful of greasy fried goodness. If he weren't a street kid, he'd be worried about his atrocious eating manners, but he was starving and could really care less as he shoved handful of fries into his mouth. As he chewed his food thoroughly, he made a mental note to make sure his next meal included something healthy. Junk food was easy to come by, but not so much for healthy food. He was not going to get sick just because he didn't make plans. As he swallowed the fries then took another huge bite of his burger, he added thanking Nightwing to the list after he was done eating. He had some manners, even if he wasn't showing them off at the moment.
Half of the burger was gone before Dick finally slowed down and thought about something other than filling his stomach. He slouched down on the bench now, lounging gracefully and managing to look rather attractive in spite of having a burger in one hand. Then again, a skin-tight body suit made it easy to forget about a lot of things. "So what's the deal?" he asked finally, glancing over at Jason. "You seem like a smart kid, why're you running around stealing tires?"
Jason gulped down his latest bite of burger before turning to answer him. "A street kid can't really make anything for himself, not anything legal anyway," Jason answered, taking another bite of his burger. He only stole tires, occasionally food from other people or other things he may have needed to get by, but that was it. He could have very easily got involved with gangs, but he avoided that shit. He wasn't his father. He swallowed. "Stealing tires is better than ending up in a gang and dying in gutter with a bullet in my head before I'm even a legal adult." Jason moved for more fries.
Well, the kid had some sense at least. That was good. Dick took another bite of his burger as he considered an idea that had just formed in the back of his mind. Jason seemed fairly smart and he had to have a good working knowledge of Bludhaven to do what he did. Better, he probably knew a lot about Bludhaven's underworld. Dick could use contacts like that - the boy might not be a part of any gangs, but even so, information got around. He was certainly a good starting point. Perhaps there was a strange sort of serendipity to Jason trying to jack his tires earlier in the evening. The question was, how to bring it up? "So...I've got an idea that I think you might like." Well, blunt and to the point was one way to do it. Batman probably wouldn't have approved, but oh well. That was one of the reasons Dick had left in the first place.
TBC...
These days, he'd gotten a feel for the place though. It was starting to feel like his city, rather than foreign territory. He'd gotten used to the rooftops and back allies, flitting through them with nearly the same ease as he had in Gotham. So he'd been feeling pretty pleased with himself, making his own way without Bruce. Without Batman. No surprise then, that he'd gotten a bit cocky, left his bike a bit more out in the open than usual. And then equally unsurprising was the fact that he came back to find some punk jacking his tires. Dick felt a surge of annoyance and, of course, the usual prick of shame in the back of his mind. He'd done something wrong and now he was paying for it. At least Bruce wasn't around to reprimand him for making such a stupid mistake. And at least he'd caught it in the act - the kid was still working on the front tire and hadn't even touched the back one yet. Grimacing in annoyance, Dick quickly scrambled down the side of the building, flipping off the lowest point of the fire escape and landing directly behind the would-be thief. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to mess up another man's ride?"
Jason froze when he heard Dick behind him. He mentally cursed himself. He should have been done both the tires 10 minutes ago, and he'd be long gone. Jason would have been, had he not been distracted by all the shiny additions to the bike. Pushing himself off the ground to stand up, he turned to face the bike owner defiantly. "Didn't your mother ever tell you it was rude to talk about someone's dead mother?" he answered with a question, staring up at the weird guy.
Dick fixed the boy with a rather flat look, though the domino mask he wore tended to make it hard to read his expressions. "No. She's dead too. So how about instead of making assumptions, you tighten up those bolts you were loosening up and I might consider not leaving you trussed up as a present for Bludhaven PD," he suggested dryly. Typical street kid - absolutely no fear and a whole hell of a lot of attitude, if the biligerent way the kid was looking up at him was any indication.
How was he supposed to know the guy's mom was dead too? It didn't look like he was weasling out of this, but it didn't mean he wasn't going to try. "Sure, right, you caught me fair," Jason started as he crouched back down to tighten the bolts, "but what's with all the bike mods? I've never seen half of these before." And he had stolen plenty of tires. Not off as many bikes, but definitely enough to know those bike mods were not something one picked up at a store.
"Yeah, they're not exactly common," agreed Dick, who was watching Jason's work with an eagle-eye. He might have gotten cocky, leaving the bike out, but he sure as hell was not going to repeat that mistake. Jason seemed to be fairly harmless, but years of fighting psychopaths in Gotham had taught him that even the most harmless-seeming things or people could be deadly. Letting your guard down was a sure way to end up in a body bag.
"Not common and would have been worth more to hock them then the tires, I bet," Jason muttered to himself as he tightened the last bolt. If he could just talk Dick into letting him go, he could probably find this mark again later and enlist some help to get the mods off the bike safely. He'd have food for at least a month after hocking those mods, so the way he saw it, that bike was his meal ticket. When he was sure the tire was back where it should be, Jason turned around to try for the sympathy thing. "Look, a guy's gotta eat. You're hero, if the tights and mask are anything to go by. Can ya cut a kid a break?" he asked with an attempt at an innocent smile.
Dick gave a very amused little snort. "Real cute. You're a regular Oliver Twist," he muttered, looking entirely unimpressed. The fact that Jason was angling to be let go suggested that he was used to being caught in these sorts of situations. Probably a habitual offender, which came as no surprise. "You know there's no way I'm buying the "poor starving street rat" routine, right?"
Not buying the routine? Maybe it was a routine, but that didn't mean it wasn't the truth. Why did he have to run into this jerk? Usually, he could kick the loser and run, if he got caught, which rarely happened. There was no way he was going to try and fight this guy. Since when did the 'Haven get it's own Batman wanna be? Jason snorted. "Buy it or not, it's true. Sorry that you can't see the truth in front of you," he bit out. "Some hero you must be. 'Haven's your city, ain't it? Not very good at this whole hero gig then, are ya?"
Well that stung, but Dick was still not impressed. "I'm sure you've got to eat and I'm sure you're very sadly down on your luck, but seriously, go get a job at a burger joint or something. They'll even feed you" Although, that said, there wasn't much that Dick could actually do about the kid. Even if he brought him in, there was no real evidence of a crime and so he'd be released anyway.
Jason rolled his eyes. "You think they hire street kids? Some fantasy world you've been living in," he said with a snort. "Kinda need education past middle school to get a job that isn't going to get me into deeper shit than living on the streets already provides. Sorry, but I'm not too educated if you haven't noticed. So, if you're going to bring me to the cops, do it." Okay, now he was getting cocky, but he had a feeling that this guy had nothing on him. Plus, why would one of the cape and cowl group want to bring in a small time thief like him? They did big game. Like all those crazies he had heard about in Gotham, or bad guys that went up against Superman in Metropolis. No, a street kid like Jason wasn't even a blip on anyone's radar, whether it be costumed vigilante or anyone else.
"They hire people who don't speak English. I'm pretty sure you qualify," pointed out Dick rather dryly, but he didn't push the matter. He doubted this kid cared and nothing that anyone said would change that. However, he could at least keep the kid from stealing more tires, in the short term. He bent down to inspect the bolts on his tire, carefully keeping watch of Jason's movements out of the corner of his eyes. "Give me that wrench, you didn't tighten this bolt enough," he said, holding out a hand for the tool.
Jason made a sour face as he handed over the wrench. This guy was starting to grind on Jason's nerves. "Look, I don't know you, and you don't know me, so maybe you could not try to tell me how to live my life? I've been doing what's worked to get by. Everyone does it. Maybe some a little more legal than others, but there's no big difference," he said, wanting to get away now. He wouldn't be eating tonight, but at least he could sleep this whole stupid night away. It wasn't like he liked stealing and hocking tires, but after his dad left, probably getting himself killed, and his mother died from sickness, what the hell was he supposed to do?
Dick gave a perfunctory show of tightening one of the already perfectly tightened bolts and then stood up, keeping the wrench. It really wouldn't set the boy back much - he'd probably have a new one within a day, but at least it would keep him from doing more damage tonight. "Makes a difference to someone. You think everyone can afford new tires for their cars?" he pointed out, arching a brow that was hidden by his mask. A useless gesture, but one made out of habit.
Jason glanced over at Dick's bike, pointedly eying the mods. "You sure as hell can," he said flippantly. "You act like you know whose tires I steal. The cars are cars that obviously could belong to people like Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor. I'm pretty sure they can afford it." Actually, it was a bit harder to steal from the richer cars, even after learning how to disable the alarms, and the pay out for the better tires were hardly worth it, but Jason was not going to sink low enough to steal from not so well off people. The motto was steal from the rich and give to the poor, and he was pretty damned poor.
That got a shrug in response. Dick was not exactly going to rely on the kid's altruism, or his ability to spot cars that belonged to people who could afford a set of new tires. Still, the kid had a point. Dick sure as hell could have afforded it if Jason had taken his tires. "Well, you're still not getting back the wrench or the jack," he said, trying his best to sound authoritative. After years of living with Batman, one would think he'd have mastered the tone of voice, but somehow he still didn't quite manage it.
Jason caught that falter in the authoritative voice Dick used. "They weren't mine anyway," Jason said lightly. It was true; tonight he had found a squat someone hadn't been using in a while. They had left behind some tools, which Jason was definitely not above snatching, since they were better than the ones he had been using. Jason looked Dick over for a moment. "No offense, but your 'I'm an authority figure' thing kinda sucks. You should work on that." With that, Jason made a move to leave as his stomach growled. No food tonight, so get over it, he thought.
Dick rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I'll get lots of practice, with you in town," he muttered dryly. His sharp ears didn't miss the growl of Jason's stomach, which in turn made him feel a bit...well...guilty. He let out an annoyed sigh. "And you should work on eating." A pause. "Come on, I'll get you something to eat."
Jason looked at Dick suspiciously. "And I'm supposed to trust you why? Because you're one of the cape and cowl crowd? I just tried to jack your tires. You think I'm that stupid?" he asked. Even if he was starving, that was no reason to ignore the fact that going off with a stranger is never a good idea, even when his parents weren't around anymore to drill it into his head. He didn't even have this guy's codename let alone his real name. Just because he looked like he could shadow Batman didn't mean he wasn't actually a bad guy. Well, bad guys didn't act so self-righteous, but better safe than sorry. "Plus, I'm supposed to go with someone when I don't know their name? That would be pretty stupid of me." Might was well get his name before he ditched the guy.
"I have got to get a better PR agent," groused Dick in mock annoyance. He hadn't been in the city long, but considering he was the only major mask operating in the city, he'd have figured more people would know who he was. "You can call me Nightwing." He got onto his newly repaired bike, silently hoping that the kid hadn't fucked anything up that would lead to a fiery crash, and turned on the engine. "You comin' or not?"
He had heard about Nightwing, but not much. He was about to tell Nightwing to go screw himself and leave with a rude gesture, but his stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't since maybe the beginning of the week, and without hocking those tires, he wouldn't be able to get something for himself to until maybe the weekend. Jason grumbled as he begrudgingly got on the bike.
"So, then, Oliver Twist, do you have a real name?" asked Dick, glancing over his shoulder. "Or a fake name. Either works - unless you like being called Oliver Twist." He flashed Jason a grin. It was one of those charming smiles, handsome even with half of Dick's face obscured by his mask. Never mind striking fear into the hearts of evil-doers the way Batman did, Dick would be better off charming his foes into submission.
He was still suspicious, but it wasn't like his real name would mean anything anyway. "My name's Jason Todd," he answered, still frowning, "so don't call me Oliver Twist." Jason didn't trust charming smiles, even though the way Dick was acting seemed more natural than when he was reprimanding Jason. Whatever, he was going to stay suspicious until he had proof he could trust this guy.
Dick just laughed at that, then revved up the engine and sped down the alley and out onto the road. They were in a decent part of town and during the day the road would have been choked with traffic, but it was currently 4am - too late for most partiers and too early for even the earliest risers. The motorcycle was the only thing on the road, which Dick normally would have taken advantage of. He liked being able to really let go and get his adrenaline pumping. But with a passenger there was some else's life on the line, so he restrained himself to a sedate 60mph as they headed out of the city. Closer to the highway as a fast food place that stayed open all night, which worked well enough for purposes of feeding a hungry teenager. They went through the drive through, to the considerable surprise of the sleepy looking young man at the drive through window, who just sort of stared at Nightwing as though he were a ghost. Dick flashed the man a cocky grin, then grabbed the bag, paid with a twenty, and roared off before the man in the window could even manage to form a coherent sentence, let alone count out correct change. Food in hand, Dick drove in lazy circles around the neighborhood until he found a small and rather run down park. The place was little more than a beat-up jungle gym and a couple of swings, but it had a couple of benches, which is all Dick really wanted. He parked the bike and let Jason get off first, then swung his own leg over the thing and headed off towards the benches, not bothering to see if Jason was following at this point.
Not that Jason would admit it out loud, but riding a motorcycle with Nightwing had been a thrill, even though he could kinda tell Dick wasn't going as fast as he wanted. Though, if Dick had gone faster, Jason's clinging to him during the whole ride would have been much more noticeable. It wasn't his fault he'd never gotten to a ride a motorcycle before. He followed Dick to the benches, looking around at the park. He was just surprised there were no druggies around trying to make deals. Though, with Nightwing around, maybe they'd be smart enough to not show up. Or maybe it was later than he thought? Jason didn't have a watch. Not wanting to ruin his meal ticket, he waited for Dick to hand him his food, so the guy wouldn't change his mind or something.
Dick flopped down on the bench like he was a normal guy and not man running around in a spandex and kevlar suit, beating up bad guys. Rummaging through the bag of food, he pulled out two burgers, each wrapped in their own little greasy square of paper. He tossed one over to Jason and then began unwrapping his own. "Fries are in the bag," he mumbled through a mouthful of burger a few moments later. Oh, it had been so very long since he'd actually had fast food. It was the guiltiest of guilty pleasures - especially since his stomach was going to complain about all the grease later. But for the moment it tasted good in the way that only really horrible fast food could, and it filled him up - he'd been more hungry than he realized.
Jason caught the burger easily, unwrapping it quickly and taking a bite bigger than his mouth should probably handle, but he really didn't care. He devoured the first bite pretty quickly before reaching into the bag for a big handful of greasy fried goodness. If he weren't a street kid, he'd be worried about his atrocious eating manners, but he was starving and could really care less as he shoved handful of fries into his mouth. As he chewed his food thoroughly, he made a mental note to make sure his next meal included something healthy. Junk food was easy to come by, but not so much for healthy food. He was not going to get sick just because he didn't make plans. As he swallowed the fries then took another huge bite of his burger, he added thanking Nightwing to the list after he was done eating. He had some manners, even if he wasn't showing them off at the moment.
Half of the burger was gone before Dick finally slowed down and thought about something other than filling his stomach. He slouched down on the bench now, lounging gracefully and managing to look rather attractive in spite of having a burger in one hand. Then again, a skin-tight body suit made it easy to forget about a lot of things. "So what's the deal?" he asked finally, glancing over at Jason. "You seem like a smart kid, why're you running around stealing tires?"
Jason gulped down his latest bite of burger before turning to answer him. "A street kid can't really make anything for himself, not anything legal anyway," Jason answered, taking another bite of his burger. He only stole tires, occasionally food from other people or other things he may have needed to get by, but that was it. He could have very easily got involved with gangs, but he avoided that shit. He wasn't his father. He swallowed. "Stealing tires is better than ending up in a gang and dying in gutter with a bullet in my head before I'm even a legal adult." Jason moved for more fries.
Well, the kid had some sense at least. That was good. Dick took another bite of his burger as he considered an idea that had just formed in the back of his mind. Jason seemed fairly smart and he had to have a good working knowledge of Bludhaven to do what he did. Better, he probably knew a lot about Bludhaven's underworld. Dick could use contacts like that - the boy might not be a part of any gangs, but even so, information got around. He was certainly a good starting point. Perhaps there was a strange sort of serendipity to Jason trying to jack his tires earlier in the evening. The question was, how to bring it up? "So...I've got an idea that I think you might like." Well, blunt and to the point was one way to do it. Batman probably wouldn't have approved, but oh well. That was one of the reasons Dick had left in the first place.
TBC...