Dedicated to xlilymareex for her wonderful idea! Feel free to comment anything you'd like to see me write.
"If it isn't little Golden boy," Jason said, purposely ramming his older brother with his shoulder as they passed each other in the hall of their high school.
"Stop Jason," Dick growled in reply. "I'm not in the mood."
"Oh, not in the mood? Maybe I wasn't in the mood to see perfect little Goldie today." Jason's group of lackeys laughed at his oh so clever comment.
Dick grit his teeth and kept walking, only to feel Jason grab onto his backpack.
"We weren't done with our little chat Dickie," Jason spat.
"I was," Dick said, trying to keep his calm when all he wanted to do was turn around and punch Jason in his smug face.
Suddenly Dick found himself on the floor next to his ripped backpack, with Jason's heavy foot on his back, making it hard for him to breathe.
"You think it's all about you charity case?" Jason said, bringing his face down towards Dick's ear. "Well, news flash you're just another orphan that Bruce took pity on. You're no better than me."
"I never said I was," Dick gasped.
Jason growled angrily. "I'm never good enough compared to you. I'm sick of Bruce's never ending comparisons."
"Th-that's not my... my fault," Dick said, struggling to breathe with Jason's foot still on his back.
"Actually it is. It's your fault for always being the perfect little circus boy who's never had to go through a single hard thing in his entire life."
"I never asked for my parents to die a-and leave me with Bruce," Dick said, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes.
"Maybe they just didn't want to deal with you anymore... Tell me Dickie. Did your parents scream when they fell?" Jason whispered into Dick's ear.
Dick screamed and pushed himself off of the ground, making Jason stumble back. He rushed at his brother raining blows down on him.
Jason retaliated with equal ferocity, ready for a fight.
The two traded blows, and the crowd around them formed into a semi-circle, blocking them in with a wall on the other side.
"You don't know how hard you've made my life!" Jason shouted, his fist colliding with Dick's side.
Dick swept his leg under Jason and knocked him to the ground.
Jason's vision went red with rage as he leapt up and came at Dick again. He pushed his fist forward with all the force of his bottled up rage, and he felt it connect with Dick's face, his brother's nose giving way beneath his fist.
Dick's head snapped back, his entire body slamming into the wall of the school hallway before he fell to the ground.
When the red cleared from Jason's vision his stomach sank. Dick was on his hands and knees on the floor as a river of blood poured out of his nose.
"Mr Todd, Mr Grayson! What's going on here!" A familiar voice shouted, causing the crowd around them to shuffle away.
A teacher stepped forward, Mrs Arkner. She took in the scene in front of her with a scowl on her face. "You two know there's no fighting in school," she said, glaring at Jason.
"He started it," Jason muttered.
"I don't care who started it. Go to the principal's office right now, both of you," Mrs Arkner said, helping Dick up, and escorting the two to the office.
—
Bruce walked into the office of Gotham Academy, hoping his sons hadn't done something stupid.
"Mr Wayne, right this way," a friendly woman said, directing Bruce into the principal's office.
Dick and Jason were sitting in chairs about 6 feet apart from each other, and they were two very different sights.
Dick was slouching in his chair with a blood-soaked rag pressed to his nose. His shoulders shook slightly, and his gaze was fixed on the floor.
Jason on the other hand, was staring straight at Bruce with his arms folded over his chest, and a glare plastered onto his face, one that might have been just the tiniest bit smug.
Bruce sat in the seat between the two boys and fixed his gaze on the principal.
"I'm so sorry to bother you Mr. Wayne, but your two boys were fighting each other in the hallway, and as you know, that is strictly not allowed," the burly man said, almost looking apologetic. "I have decided to give Richard one week of suspension, and Jason two weeks, since he seriously injured another student."
"What?!" Jason shouted. "Dick started it! He threw the first punch!"
Dick seemed to curl in on himself as Jason's shouts made his head throb where it had smacked against the wall.
Bruce fixed Jason with a cold glare. "I'm sure you did something to warrant that hit Jason, so I suggest you close your mouth," Bruce growled.
Dick flinched when he remembered some of the things Jason had been saying to him.
"Thank you for your time sir," Bruce said to the principal, standing and giving him one of his practiced smiles. "I will make sure nothing like this happens again." Bruce turned and led the way out of the office and to his car.
"You two better have an excellent explanation for what happened to call me here in the first place," Bruce said when they were finally settled in the car.
Dick sat silently in the back of the car, eyes trained on the ground.
Seeing that Dick wasn't planning on talking, Jason decided to tell Bruce a version that would get him in less trouble than the truth would. "Well," he started. "Dick just came up to me in the hall and started hitting me, so of course I had to defend myself."
"Is this true Dick?" Bruce asked, seriously doubting the story Jason had spun.
Dick remained silent.
Bruce glanced at him through the car's rear view mirror. "Dick. Answer me please," he said.
The only answer Bruce received was a shaky breath from Dick.
"Well," Bruce said. "If that's true, then Dick, you'll be off patrol for a week." He glanced back in the mirror again, hoping to see some sort of reaction, but was met with the same scene as the one he'd seen in the principal's office.
—
Jason came back from patrol early that night. He grumbled as he changed and clomped up the stairs. Bruce had told him to go home and apologize for punching Dick.
"Ugh, he said he was fine. It was just a little nose bleed..." Jason muttered under his breath as he made his way up to Dick's room.
Before he went into Dick's room, Jason stopped at the door and listened. He could've sworn he heard someone crying...
Jason opened the door as quietly as he could and slipped inside the room.
Dick was facing away from him on his bed. His shirt was off, and almost every inch of skin was covered with dark bruises. There were too many to just be from patrol, even from patrol and his fight with Jason.
Dick's tears were falling steadily onto a framed photo, one Jason quickly realized was of the flying Graysons.
The words Jason had spoken earlier came to his mind. 'Did your parents scream when they fell?'
'I'm such a horrible person,' he thought to himself, biting his lip before stepping forward. "Dick," he called gently.
Dick jolted when he heard Jason's voice, and had soon pressed himself into the corner of the room, body shaking violently as he covered his head with his arms.
"Dick," Jason repeated, watching as his brother flinched. "I-I'm here to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the words that I said, and for punching you."
"It doesn't matter," came the weak sound of Dick's voice. "What's one more bully t-to someone like me," Dick's voice sounded so heartbroken, so utterly hopeless that it made Jason's heart clench just to hear it.
"A-another?" Jason asked tentatively.
"Like you don't know. You're just one of the many people who see how worthless I am," Dick whispered, rubbing at the bloody gauze that was taped under his nose.
Jason was stunned. Dick was being bullied, and he just had to go ahead and add to his brother's pain like the great brother he is. "You're not worthless..." he said, stepping closer to Dick.
Dick's gaze flicked up to Jason for a moment before settling back on the ground.
"I... I didn't really mean any of those things I said... I was... am just jealous of how good you always are at everything," Jason confessed.
"It's alright," Dick muttered.
"No, it's not. I was a jerk, and I deserve to be the one off of patrol for the week, not you," Jason said. "I shouldn't have lied to Bruce about what happened."
"It's not too late to tell the truth," Dick said weakly.
Jason took in a big breath, thinking about the glare and stern talking to he'd most likely get from Bruce, not to mention getting banned from patrol. "Will you come with me?" Jason asked, sounding slightly pathetic even to himself.
Dick took pity on his brother and nodded his agreement before standing up and heading towards the Batcave.
Jason followed behind Dick.
Once the two were in the well lit hallway Jason finally noticed how pale Dick was. His normally tanned golden skin was closer to a pasty white.
Dick stumbled and used one arm to brace himself against the wall.
"Are you ok?" Jason asked, grabbing one of Dick's trembling shoulders.
Dick groaned, and Jason noticed the blood dripping from the gauze under his nose. "Jay... 'm dizzy," he said before going limp in Jason's grasp.
Jason panicked, rushing Dick downstairs to Alfred.
The butler quickly loaded the two boys into a car and sped over to the hospital.
—
The doctors had just finished performing reconstructive surgery on Dick's nose, to piece together his shattered nasal bone, and he was lying in the hospital bed with a large splint on his nose, still in a drug induced slumber.
Bruce, Jason, and Alfred sat in the various chairs that were available around the room, all the waiting for Dick to wake up.
"He's not as pale as before," Jason commented, noticing that the color had returned to Dick's skin.
"He got a blood transfusion," Bruce stated a bit coldly.
There was a moment of silence before Jason spoke again. "Bruce..." he said.
"What?" Bruce responded.
"I... I was the one who started the fight with Dick. I was jealous of him, and angry with you for always comparing me to him, so I took my anger out on him. He tried to get away, but I pinned him down... Some of the things I said... they were so horrible... that's why he punched me in the first place." Jason stared down at the floor, completely ashamed.
Bruce's gaze softened. "Jason," he said. "I don't mean to be too hard on you, or make it seem like there's some unattainable level of perfection that I expect from you, because there's not. I just want you to do your best. My comparisons of you and Dick when you're training is to let you know that it is possible for you to master concepts and techniques, not to make you feel like I love him more than I love you," Bruce said, pausing for a moment. "But it is unacceptable to take your feelings of anger out on Dick. If you have problems, come talk to me about them, don't go and beat up your brother in the hallway at school."
"Alright," Jason said sheepishly. "And... I'm sorry about getting suspended."
Bruce laughed. "It's alright Jason. I honestly expected you to be suspended a lot earlier than this."
Jason smiled at the small jab. "So did I," he added, earning a chuckle from both Bruce and Alfred.
"I'm glad you two got that all sorted out before I woke up," Dick said, blinking groggily. "Now I don't have to be included in the lecture."
Dick smiled when his comment made the three other occupants of the room laugh. It was nice for him to hear their laughter, now that everything had been dealt with. He didn't even mind the small headache that the sound created. As long as he was with his family, everything would be fine.