[British and American] Jason Wayne's Struggle

Enter the gardener's utility room (Baji's studio) of the Gotham East Orphanage, turn the pointer on the dial on the door frame, and then open it, and you will reach Jason's apartment in New York.

Now he prefers to call this place "home".

Damian stood in the living room of Jason's apartment, feeling a little overwhelmed.

This is not to say that this is the first time that the heir of the League of Assassins and the prince of Wayne Group has returned to someone else's home as a guest, nor is it to say that he has never been to Jason's territory before. He has been to Jason's safe house several times and he can always find food and medicine there.

But the feeling now is obviously different. This is not Jason's safe house. It is obviously a small one-bedroom and one-living room, but it has a strong atmosphere of life, and there are many green potted plants on the balcony.

This is undoubtedly where Jason usually lives, and the man called Bucky who gave him the balloon is Jason's current boyfriend, and they are in a cohabiting relationship.

By the way, there is also a plump orange cat with sleek fur in this house, and a half-human-tall Paddington Bear who came over with a pot of fruit tea after he sat on the sofa.

Damian's eyes lingered for a while on the orange cat that was rubbing tenderly at Jason's feet and wagging its big fluffy tail slowly, and the rest of his attention was attracted by Paddington Bear.

Jason's voice came from the kitchen.

"His name is Axel."

Paddington Bear put the tray on the coffee table and held the teapot to pour tea for Damian. His brown bear eyes were lively and cute, and his fluffy ears trembled, looking very nice to touch.

Damian's hand also trembled along with the bear ears. He pressed his right hand with his left hand, coughed, raised his chin, and nodded to Axel.

"I'm Damian, thank you for your hospitality."

Jason in the kitchen almost burst out laughing. He covered his mouth and saw Bucky taking out the mango pancakes he made early in the morning from the refrigerator. He whispered to him, "I froze coconut milk ice cream in the bottom layer of the refrigerator."

Bucky understood and turned out the ice cream, wrapped the wooden stick with a tissue, and brought it to Damian together with the pancake.

The TV was on, and a strange head was placed on the coffee table in front of Damian. A Japanese drama was playing on TV.

Damian asked in confusion, "What is this?"

Mr. Freeze replied: "Hagane Naoki."

Damian's mouth twitched. "Is this what you watch all day now?"

"Hagane Naoki is a very classic Japanese drama."

Mr. Freeze replied calmly, "By the way, it's nice to see you again. Are you still with the League of Assassins and your mother?"

Hearing this, Damian immediately corrected the other party's cognitive error: "I am Robin now."

Mr. Freeze said "oh", and he didn't seem surprised that the old bat had another robin. He had long retired from the entertainment industry and stayed at home to watch TV series, and also worked part-time as the girl's pet. He calmly turned his attention back to the TV.

When Cassandra is on a business trip, she always leaves her pet with Jason and Bucky. After all, even if Jason is busy, Bucky will always have time to raise one.

As for Mr. Freeze himself, he seems to have accepted the status of a pet now. Cassandra treats him well and recently asked Tony for a tracked mobile device. Sometimes Mr. Freeze can sit on that device and move around.

Damian enjoyed afternoon tea with them. It was called afternoon tea, but in fact they just watched TV together and talked about the plot. Jason asked Damian about things at school, and then Bucky sat aside and refilled Jason's tea from time to time.

Bucky still had a job at the orphanage, so he gave Jason a few words of advice, telling him that he had already paid the water and electricity bills, and that the range hood at home had been repaired.

They were all very ordinary words, so ordinary that they were simply not what should exist between the Winter Soldier and the Red Hood. Damian felt uneasy, because he had never worried about water and electricity since he was born, those were all Pennyworth's business.

After seeing Bucky off, Jason took the key and said there was a good art exhibition in New York. He asked Damian if he was interested. Damian thought he had nothing to do anyway, so he just agreed.

When they went out, they ran into the neighbor boy, Peter Parker, who is now 15 years old.

Jason greeted him, "Good afternoon, Peter. Are you feeling better?"

The child went to the Osborne Group to see the technology exhibition yesterday, but ended up going home early with a high fever. He felt dizzy as if he had drunk half a pound of liquor. He took out the key to open the door, but couldn't find the keyhole for a long time. Jason helped him, and the child kept saying thank you and stumbled into the house.

Jason remembered that his uncle and aunt were at work at the time, so he simply went in to take care of Peter for a while, and only went home after making sure that Peter's fever had subsided.

Peter was still a little blushing at this time, but he looked much more energetic. He thanked Jason again. When he saw Damian beside Jason, he was confused for a moment.

"Jay, who is this kid?"

Jason replied, "My brother's name is Damian. Damian, this is my neighbor Peter. He goes to Midtown Middle School and is a running back on the football team. He's a very smart kid."

Damian hummed coldly, and was poked on the back by Jason, and said "hello" reluctantly.

Peter laughed and said a few more words to Jason, who then grabbed Damian's hand that was poking his waist and carried the child away.

Damian hummed. “It seems like you’re doing well in New York. Is that guy one of the neighbors you took graduation photos with?”

"Didn't you see everything?"

Jason pressed the helmet onto the kid's head.

He has a super cool motorcycle that goes as fast as flying. Damian wears a helmet and grabs his leather jacket. As he speeds along, it seems as if his troubles are flying away with him.

Jason Todd is actually a very cool brother. He doesn't just look at the exhibits at art exhibitions, but occasionally whispers to Damian about some ideas. He has unique insights, sharp words, and a wide range of knowledge.

In fact, the superheroes in the Batman family generally have a wide range of knowledge, but other people just read books related to literature and art, mainly to expand their horizons, hoping that they will come in handy someday in the future. Jason, on the other hand, is really immersed in those books.

The same goes for Damian, he has a good acceptance of art films, but except for Alfu, no one in the family has the patience to watch that kind of films, because they always have more important things to do. Damian also doesn't want to be labeled as an "artsy boy" by Drake, so he simply doesn't watch them.

This was the first time that the demon boy talked about this with others, but it felt good. He unexpectedly discovered that he and Jason were similar in many ways and even got along well.

After all, he was the man his mother had liked. Todd met August's standards in terms of appearance, intelligence, and interests.

Damian looked Jason up and down without leaving a trace, his face, broad shoulders, pectoral muscles, thin waist, hips... especially his legs, which were impeccable even if measured by the most stringent standards.

His father always liked to get entangled with female villains, or flirt with hot supermodels. Based on the courses he had taken, Damian had judged that his father must be a man with a strong desire for conquest, and the same was true for his mother, but her taste in men was undoubtedly better.

Thinking of the gentle and considerate Bucky, Damian subconsciously felt that Jason's vision for finding a partner was stronger than his parents'.

The most important thing is that his parents like to look for physical partners, while Jason likes to look for the heart. Thinking about it this way, it doesn’t seem surprising that his mother and Jason broke up in the end.

Later, Jason took Damian to buy the best burgers in New York, parked the car on the road next to New York's East River, and looked at the lights of Manhattan Island in the distance.

The night breeze was very comfortable. Jason looked at Damian, who was concentrating on chewing a burger with his head down. His bangs were blowing in the wind. He wanted to reach out and ruffle the child's hair, but he suppressed his desire.

He said: "This city is lively and dangerous. The number of super villains is not much better than Gotham, but the density of vigilantes here is also the highest in the world."

Damian hummed, swallowed the food in his mouth, and complained, "Now you are one of them too. I really don't understand why you are involved with the power of the government."

"Because I get along well with many people here. They are all great people. I am not a member of the Justice League or the Teen Titans. They are all risking their lives to protect others. They are worthy of respect, but my style cannot fit in there."

Integration?

Damian was also silent when this topic was mentioned.

His situation is similar to Jason's, they have both killed people, but Jason has determined that his current path is the right one and decided to stop killing by killing. But Damian is willing to try the path pointed out by his father because he firmly believes that his father is the more correct person, even if this path of not killing is unfamiliar to Damian.

But after he chose his own path, he would not deny Jason because of it. He never thought that Jason was wrong.

Just like the point Jason just expressed, they are all vigilantes. In fact, they have no obligation to protect others, but they do so. Even if they have different ideas, they should respect each other.

Damian always looks down on others, but that doesn't mean he can't tell right from wrong. At this moment, he really thinks that his brother is a good person.

"Before I figured out which path I should take, I felt that the old man's approach was not quite... not suitable for me. At that time, I was still young and didn't understand anything. It was like I was trapped by something, but I didn't know how to get rid of it."

Damian seemed to understand something. He retorted, "I am different from you. I have received an education that you have not received, so I will not be as confused as you were before. Don't think that I will have the same troubles as you."

"I know."

Jason smiled faintly, "You are Damian. I have taught you and I know how good you are."

He ruffled Damian's hair after all.

"When you feel bored, you can come to New York to play with me, or you can come to Bucky. He's a very easy-going person, right? Now you also know that as long as you turn the pointer, you can open the door to my side."

Jason had no intention of digging Damian to be by his side. He already had enough children around him. Laura and Mindy were almost brought up by him on the road of being vigilantes. Peter from his neighbor and Harry who came to him from time to time to get some cookies were also very cute.

He just wanted to give Damian somewhere else to go.

After all, it was Talia's fault that he and Bao Bao got into such a relationship by accident.

Damian was rubbed for only three seconds before he twisted away, his hair a little messy. He thought Todd was so gentle today as if he was under a spell, but he didn't reject it.

When they finished their burgers, the two robins crumpled up the wrapper and threw it into a nearby trash can.

Jason's paper ball knocked Damian's paper ball aside and went smoothly into the trash can, while Damian's paper ball fell on the street.

Damian looked at Jason with disdain: "Aren't you bored?"

Jason stuck out his tongue and drew circles with his left and right hands. The paper ball on the street disappeared and went into the trash can.

Damian was now certain that Jason was not only bored but also lazy. He even had to use magic to do just a few steps.

Thinking of Axel, who worked hard and then went to vacuum the floor after serving tea, Damian didn't hesitate to scold Jason for being a useless adult.

Jason was confused. After listening to Damian's speech, he only grasped one point - this kid seemed to like Axel very much.

So he asked Damian: "Since you like Axel so much, how about I let him stay with you for a few days?"

Damian's speech was interrupted. His green eyes widened and he looked at Jason. His mouth moved but he didn't say no.

When baby Bruce returned home from the party, he saw Damian lying on the sofa with his arms around a half-human-tall Paddington Bear, eating some milk-flavored oatmeal cookies and watching a Japanese drama called "Hanzawa Naoki".