Chapter Text
Jason silently moved through the facility, Zee directing him through the maze of near identical hallways, and listened to the faint sound of gunfire on the other side of the building where Bucky, Steve, Tony, Sam, and Thor were all distracting Hydra while Jason, Clint, and Natasha went after the newest Hydra leader and all the scientists too nervous to join the fight. Normally, these would be the people they’d try to spare, but these were Hydra scientists, and that made them completely fucking irredeemable. Hydra scientists had been the ones who turned Bucky into the Winter Soldier, so they all had to die.
Luckily for them, both Captain America and the Winter Soldier attacking their front gates was a pretty big fucking deal for these Nazi psychos, so Jason encountered only one or two actual soldiers, and they were all panicking too much to be even kind of good in a fight. Jason’s team made it to the main control room, and Clint barricaded the door and kept watch as Natasha and Jason went to the main computer.
They’d obviously seen them coming and locked everything down, but it was nothing he couldn’t get into. He slipped the small thumb drive out of its pocket and plugged it into the port. “Okay, Zee, do your thing,” Jason told his AI, as she took over the system in less than thirty seconds, and she pulled up the camera feed to the room Volkov was hiding in without needing to be asked.
“Where is that?” Nat asked, and Zee pulled up a map of the facility with the room highlighted.
“Over three hallways to the left, he’ll be in the third door down,” Zee answered, and he mentally thanked Peter and Tony for the AI that made life so much easier for the thousandth time. “I’ve got the information secured, boss.”
“Sweet,” Jason said, removing the thumb drive now that she’d downloaded all the important stuff and wiped it from the system. “Okay, we’re good to go.”
The three of them cautiously exited the control room and made their way silently down to Volkov. “Widow, have you located the target?” Cap said through the comms.
“Control room secured, on our way to take out Volkov now,” Natasha answered quickly and quietly, and before long they arrived at the room Zee had found.
“Thermal,” Jason whispered, and his HUD automatically displayed thermal vision of the room in front of him. “Eight including Volkov,” he told the others, who nodded. These ones were probably the best Hydra Agents in this facility to guard the main asshole, but none of them were worried. Even the best of them weren’t enough to overpower the three of them, and he was proven right when they took down all seven guards within a minute.
It had been a long week of planning and tracking down some really inconvenient fucking leads to get here, and even though he was fucking exhausted, he genuinely couldn’t be happier to be on this mission. Actually taking down the base was almost too easy, since they worked like a fine oiled machine and had enough mutual hatred for Hydra that made kicking their asses so fucking satisfying.
Natasha was the one to execute Volkov with a simple bullet to the head, honestly better than he deserved, and then they were good to join the others who seemed to be almost done with the main bulk of the soldiers. Clint took a hard hit to his ribs in the chaos that had him cursing up a storm, but no one else got more than a few bruises, and the archer didn’t seem too phased by his injuries. Mission complete, go team, another job well done. Avenging was fun, but seriously so tiring sometimes.
On their way back, the team chattered about doing another movie night that night, all looking like they needed a relaxing night now that they were done with one of the last active Hydra bases out there. He would have been excited himself, but he had to head back to Gotham as soon as the debrief was over, then he needed to sleep for maybe a week straight.
When Jason finally got to his Gotham apartment after the long motorcycle drive, ready to just get some much needed rest, he raised an eyebrow when he saw Tim waiting by his door. He perked up when he caught sight of Jason and did an awkward little half wave as a greeting. “You really upgraded your security system crazy well,” Tim told him, apparently having tried to get into his place and failed for the first time ever. Zee had done her job well.
“Yeah, figured it was about time you guys had to wait like normal people for me to get here instead of breaking into my apartment after two minutes,” Jason responded tiredly, not explaining what he actually did to upgrade anything. Really, he’d gotten Tony to hook his AI up to the place, giving her control over the door and windows so she would only let in Jason unless he let them in himself. He’d also managed to make it so Zee wouldn’t speak up if there was anyone else in the apartment aside from himself and the Avengers, which he was grateful for at the moment.
When he just opened the door normally, not doing anything to unlock it, Tim’s dumbfounded face was genuinely hilarious. “What the hell?” he asked, sounding baffled. “Jason, tell me your secrets.”
Jason laughed, shaking his head and letting Tim into the apartment. “Sorry, Timmy, that’s for me to know and you not to know. Now what do you want? I’m fucking exhausted.” The kid did look apologetic enough for Jason not to get too annoyed, and he pretended not to notice him still looking at the door like he could somehow figure out how the security system worked.
“Firefly and Kite Man are apparently teaming up and hiding outside of Gotham for some reason, so Dick and I wanted to know if you wanna help us get them,” Tim said, watching Jason collapse on the couch tiredly.
“That’s an unexpected team up,” Jason commented, already curious. “Sure, just gimme like four hours. I need at least a little bit of sleep.” It was like eight in the morning now, which was past his fuckin bedtime.
“Sure,” Tim agreed easily, not prying and reminding him why he actually liked the kid quite a bit compared to the rest of his family. Unlike the rest of them, he seemed to understand that Jason liked his space and usually respected his boundaries, and though he occasionally suffered from the same holier than thou attitude the other bats had, he wasn’t usually outwardly suspicious or judgey. Jason knew they all probably assumed he was gone with the Outlaws when he wasn’t in Gotham, and he wasn’t gonna correct them any time soon. “We’ll track them down from the cave and pick you up in a few hours.”
“Sweet. You can see yourself out,” Jason said, and on cue the door opened on its own.
Tim stared at the open door, clearly surprised, and after a whispered, “what the hell?” he left the apartment, the door closing behind him. “Seriously, what the hell?!” Jason heard the kid exclaim from the hallway and snickered to himself.
“Thanks, Zee, that was hilarious,” Jason told his AI as he stood and walked to his bedroom to get his four hours.
“No problem, Boss,” Zee replied, sounding about as amused as an AI possibly could, which was still surreal. “You received a text from Tony saying you’re lucky you took off when you did because they got called away again as soon as you left.”
Jason laughed, feeling a little bad that they had to do back to back missions, but mostly relieved that he was able to get some rest. They’d all probably be sleeping on the ride there and back. “Text him back and say it sucks to suck,” he said, shedding his jacket and shoes and getting into bed. “And wake me up in three hours.”
“Sure thing. Good night.”
“G’night,” he responded, quickly falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
x x x x x x x x x x
Tim stared at the door that had just opened and shut on its own, in complete bewilderment. “Seriously, what the fuck?!” he exclaimed before turning and leaving the apartment complex, trying to figure out how Jason had done that and failing miserably. It didn’t look like an automated door at all, definitely the same one Jason had when his apartment wasn’t Fort Knox, and Tim had tried just about everything to get in, including the fire escape window, and literally nothing worked. Jason just opened the door. How in the hell did that even work? He was both impressed and really confused at the security upgrade. He doubted even Batman could get in, which was really saying something for what seemed like just a normal Crime Alley apartment.
Honestly if Jason had looked less exhausted he might have tried to pry a little more, but even so he knew he wouldn’t get an honest answer. Jason was one of the most private people he’d ever met in his entire life, and was probably the best of all of them at keeping secrets. If he didn’t want Tim to know how the security worked, he’d probably never find out, and unlike the rest of the family, he knew when to let things go. Even if he’d be thinking about it for the next forever.
It’d been a while since they’d all worked on a case together, since Jason was away with the Outlaws half the time, and Dick spent most of his time in Bludhaven, and he found himself looking forward to it. It was honestly even better that Damian was still with the Titans and Bruce was sitting this one out, since having both him and Jason on a case was stressful for literally everyone.
Unfortunately, B still didn’t really trust Jason, and Jay still had quite a bit of resentment there, so every interaction was loaded and half their conversations still ended in shouting matches. Dick could sometimes be a tactless asshole where Jason was concerned, but at least he seemed to be trying harder to get along with him these days.
Honestly, if Tim could get over Jason almost killing him multiple times, couldn’t they also move on from Jay’s return to Gotham too? All had been forgiven on his end, and he knew his brother had eventually come around as well, but with everyone else… well, it was still sorta tense. On both sides.
Lately though, Jason seemed to stop letting the occasional snide comments get to him as much, and seemed much happier for some reason, not that Tim was complaining. Dick thought that it was probably because he wasn’t in Gotham and spending time with them as much now, and had sounded more than a little bitter about that, which was sorta ridiculous. God knows that Jason of all people deserved a break from all of the shit the universe threw at him, including the rest of their asshole family, not that Tim could ever say that to Dick without offending him.
That wasn’t to say that Tim was perfect, because he really wasn’t, and they still argued sometimes like all brothers probably did, but he definitely got along with Jason best out of all of them. Most people might think that was weird, since Jason had nearly killed him, but honestly, he knew that if Jason really wanted him dead, he would be. Once he figured that out, he stopped being so wary around Red Hood, and eventually trusted him just as much as he trusted Dick, and definitely more than he trusted the demon kid. He was still half expecting Damian to stab him one of these days. They had a shaky truce, but Tim still did not put his back to the little gremlin.
Sometimes Tim looked at what his life had become and sighed. He texted Dick to let him know that they were gonna pick Jason up in a few hours before he made the drive back home. It was time to stop thinking about anything but what the actual fuck Firefly and Kite Man of all people could be doing and where.