Interlude
“Baby Shark do-do-do-do-” The higher pitched mamma shark sang.
Jason groaned, the pillow did nothing to block out the song as Peter babbled to the lyrics. B had fled the room after the third encore and Jason mentally cursed him for leaving. What was keeping him here anyway. He didn’t have to listen to this damn song again.
Dick sat on the floor with Peter in his lap. Peter’s fingers held onto Dick’s larger hands as they swayed and bopped to the song. His high pitched giggles and squealing cut through the singing which was only a small reprieve.
With both of them distracted, Jason flipped over the couch. He crouched behind it, waiting to see if anyone called him out on running. When no one made a sound he crept for the door. Peter was barely 14 months old so he wouldn’t notice Jason leaving.
Nodding to himself, Jason slid past the open doorway into the hall. He let out a breath, the song still haunting him from the room behind him.
A loud wail broke through the tortuous tune, Dick’s frantic cooing following suit. “Jason! Come onnn! Peter wants both of us here!”
“He’s a baby! He doesn’t even know I’m gone!” Jason argued, silently shutting the door. Babies don’t have object permanence yet right? Peter’ll forget about him by now.
“Ay-sah!” Peter cried through the door, his blubbering making his words break and wobble. Jason groaned, head falling back to the door where the damn song kept playing.
Living on the streets at least meant no Baby Shark.
“Fineeeee!” Jason groaned, stomping into the room as Grandma Shark started her piece. “Give him here.”
Jason sat on the floor beside Dick, pulling the baby to his lap as Peter finally went quiet. “Happy?” He grumbled, making a face as Peter latched onto his shirt. Selena had warned them already that Peter’s teething would probably mean they’d be getting bit but he didn’t think Peter would target his shirts. “That’s gross, Peter.”
“See? He noticed.” Dick smirked, ruffling his hair.
“Fuck off.”
“Fuck!” Peter cheered, nodding along as if he agreed. Jason grinned before the word finally registered.
“Oh fuc- fudge no. Peter, lil rat, no. That’s a big kid word. You can’t say that.” Jason shook his head rapidly only to incite more giggling and swearing from Peter. “Ugh why don’t you sing with Grandma Shark? We’ll sing together okay?”
Dick laughed, holding his phone as he leaned away from the two to get a better shot. Jason shot the camera a glare before singing along to the stupid song.
—
Tim eyed the two brightly colored bikes on the yard. One was tiny and neon blue while the other was bigger and bright red. Both of them looked horrible. “I am not getting on that.”
“Why?” Peter looked up at him, his lower lip jutting out in a pout.
“They look… uhm… I don’t…” Tim groaned. Peter finally warmed up to him enough that Tim wasn’t being harassed when he walked through the door, he can’t ruin it by not knowing how to ride a bike. How hard could it be anyway? Bruce was teaching him how to ride a motorcycle so it can’t be that much harder. “Just get on yours. I’ll help you first, okay?”
Peter beamed, running for the little neon blue bike. He came to a stop in front of it, pushing the handlebar and watched the bike lean on the other side of the training wheels. “I won’t fall?”
“Nope. It’s impossible to fall when you have extra wheels.” Tim confirmed, walking up to stand beside him. He pushed the handlebars too, watching the training wheels as the bike teetered. Well, it was a little terrifying but he wasn’t getting on it. “Come on, up you go.”
Tim helped Peter sit on the bike as he held onto the back of the seat. Peter kicked his legs, missing the pedals spectacularly and jostling the bike. He knelt before pushing Peter’s feet in the straps. Okay, so motorcycles don’t have these… but he’s seen enough people bike on tv to understand that you have to push on them to move. That’s more common sense maybe but Tim didn’t exactly have parents around to teach him.
“Okay just push on the pedals now.” He instructed Peter, still holding onto the seat to keep him upright.
Peter pushed on them as instructed, rolling the bike forward an inch. Movies and montages always showed the parents letting go of the bike after the kid starts going. Tim watched Peter pedal twice more before he let go, lurching forward when the bike lilted to the side. “Peter!”
He pulled Peter from the still upright bike, holding him close before realizing that he would have been fine.
“Timmm!” Peter whined, wiggling out of his grip.
“Sorry.” Tim chuckled before letting Peter drop to the grass. He watched Peter go back to his bike, crossing his arms in a fairly good imitation of Bruce.
“Help me.”
“Yes sir.” Tim snorted, following the youngest Wayne.
–
Jason stalked out of the ramshack room. He hadn’t wanted to give up his headphones so soon but this was for the best. He could get another pair later but the information he needed couldn’t wait that much longer.
“Did you get it?” Talia slunk out from another room, leaning her hip against the door.
“Yeah, Erington Street.”
“How did you get the information?” Her eyebrow rose, studying his clean uniform. Usually interrogations with the League involved a lot of blood. While the uniforms were black and easily hid the blood stains, it didn’t always hide everything.
Jason had planned to go in and take out his frustrations under the pretense of interrogation but when he walked in,a faint memory bubbled past the green Pits that hazed his mind. The anger fueling and twisting at a long forgotten tune rang in his head. The infuriating song pissed him off but also brought something happy that satiated the rage.
He knew the perfect way to get his answers and still torture the man.
“Baby Shark.” Jason shrugged, passing Talia to enter the half destroyed kitchen. A bag of crackers was left on the counter, opened no doubt by Talia. “Waited long?”
“Long enough.” Talia followed him silently, the air buzzed with her silent demand.
“It’s a song.” He smirked. “You should listen to it. Whole new way to torture people, make their ears bleed and they’ll be begging to die.”
“Hmm.”