Chapter Text
After searching at least fifteen rooms, Piper finally found Bruce's son. He scowled at her.
"Who are you?" He was big. Taller than her. Her google search on Bruce Wayne did turn into a bit of a stalking thing, so she figured this was Jason. He was supposed to be younger than her, maybe by a couple months but still, she hoped it was a blunder because this was just embarrassing.
"Here for a playdate, apparently." She shrugged, refusing to be intimidated. "I'm Piper."
"Why are you here, princess?" She scowled at the nickname and decided she was not going to let it slide.
"Well, it all starts about seventeen and a half years ago-" She started.
"You're seventeen?" He cut her off.
"Sixteen. Now, shush."
"I don't care about that and I don't mean philosophically. I mean, literally why are you in my house? More specifically, in my room."
"I'm here with Lena." She said. "She's here for a meeting with Bruce, and said I could come along."
"Why?"
"I think my mom was just trying to send me away so she could go on a date or something. I'm basically being distracted and babysat."
"You're sixteen."
"Yeah, but I get to hang out with Lena Lutessa Luthor and I just met Bruce Wayne, so I don't really care. Your dad said I should come find you." She shrugged.
"How do you even know Lena?"
"My mom works for her. Also, she kind of helped us out when I got hurt when the particle accelerator exploded and STAR labs tried to stop me from getting medical care."
"What?"
"It's a long story, and you said you didn't care."
"Well, I'm guessing it didn't happen before you were born, which is where you wanted to start." Piper smirked.
"How'd you get to be a billionaire's kid, anyways? You're basically living the dream right now."
"Step one, be an orphan." He shot back.
"Done. Well, does half count? Cos, like, my bio mom died and bio dad's in jail for doing it." Jason paused.
"Wait, I thought your mom was on a date."
"Well, she wasn't always my mom. And to be fair, I'm not asking for me now. I'm asking for little me."
"You're adopted?"
"Yeah."
"Huh, I've never known anyone else who was adopted."
"There was this one kid I knew, and his stepdad adopted him when he married the boy's mum. That's really it."
"Well, I guess there's also Dick but I don't think he's officially adopted." Jason said. "Bruce has a thing about taking in strays. I'm guessing Lena might not be so different if she's let you tag along."
"Do you know Lena well?"
"She's pretty cool. Only met her a couple times. She and Bruce used to be a thing." He shrugged. "How old were you when you were adopted."
"11."
"Got any siblings?"
"A brother."
"Biological or adoptive?"
"Bio."
"Do you see him much?"
"Not really. You?"
"Holidays and some weekends."
"Do you get along?"
"Yeah. He's a sap, but he's cool. Get along with yours?" She shrugged.
"Can't really tell. Sometimes, I guess? You ever wish you had more siblings?"
"Nah. Dick's more than enough. You?"
"If mom had a kid, that'd be a huge age gap, and I'm going to college in, like, two years so what's the point?" Jason shrugged conceding to the point. "Seriously though. How did you meet Bruce Wayne of all people and get to be adopted by him?"
"He caught me boosting his car."
"Rims?" She asked and he nodded. "You got caught?"
"Only cos I went back for the last one." He defended himself.
"You were working alone." She realised. "No lookout."
"You can't trust people to watch your back, princess." He argued. "You're telling me things are all fair and daisies where you're from? Let me guess. Metropolis?"
"Starling." He winced.
"Never mind, I guess. That's almost as bad as Gotham. How long were you on the streets?"
"On and off for a little over a year. You?"
"Officially or unofficially?" He scoffed. She nodded in understanding. "So, what. Were you in a gang?"
"Not exactly." He looked curious, but didn't pry.
"For all your talk about teamwork, you musta gotten caught too." He said. "You're off the streets."
"Not caught, really. I was trying to get to Central City to see Barry for Thanksgiving. Missed the bus, and no trains were available. Mom saw me outside the depot and insisted she couldn't leave me in the rain."
"You went with a stranger?"
"I can take care of myself. Besides, jig was up. She took me to the nearest station, which was only a block away. No one was free to take me in, it was a busy night. So they made an official record somewhere, she took me home with her and I never left."
"Police just as corrupt as Gotham then."
"More spread too thin. Underfunded and overworked. There was this officer though, he was pretty nice. Homicide, technically, but like I said. They were spread too thin. He was the only one to listen to Mary when we went in. He did a whole background check on her and promised she would keep me safe."
"Huh." He nodded. "Okay, princess."
"Stop calling me that." She huffed. Clearly her cold glares weren't enough deterrents. She narrowed her eyes, feeling the familiar energy of Lena's phone approaching. "The billionaires are coming. Also, I can't believe I can actually say that. Billionaires. As in plural."
"I don't hear anything."
"Wanna bet? Gotta make a choice in the next ten seconds." He looked skeptic. "Nine, eight, seven..."
"Ten dollars."
"You've got a billionaire dad."
"You don't."
"Make it fifty."
"Deal."
"Two and one." There was a knock at the slightly ajar door. Jason stretched around to see if he could see around the door, trying to figure out how she could've known. The door might have been slightly open, but it still blocked out the view of it's other side from where they sat.
"Come in." Jason called and sure enough both Lena and Bruce peered through. "Can I get fifty bucks?" He asked Bruce immediately.
"How about I give you lunch instead?"
"What did you do?" Lena looked at Piper, knowingly.
"Bet him you guys were on your way."
"There was no way for her to know down to the second and I couldn't even hear you." He accused. "I thought it was a safe bet. So I need fifty bucks."
"Piper." The teenager sighed.
"Fine, I release you of the debt."
"What do you even need the money for?"
"It was just a bet." She said. "No reason for it."
"Where exactly did you find her again?" Bruce asked Lena.
"Her mom's a friend."
"I am also a friend." She said. Bruce looked at her, and she could feel him look through her. He was terrifying. "Um... nepotism." She said weakly, looking down at her hands.
"Exactly." Lena's voice was sure and kind. "Nepotism."
"Nepotism?" Bruce repeated, baffled.
"Favouring relatives or friends. They're not relatives, so they're friends. So, nepotism. Nepotism in what though?" Jason cocked his head to the side.
"Uh, long story." He nodded. Bruce suddenly shifted and she realised he was reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a wallet, taking out a bill, and held it out to Jason, who took it and tried to hand it over. "You don't have to."
"I don't owe." He said.
"I kind of cheated." She said. "Wasn't a fair bet anyways."
"Thought you weren't a Metropolitan." He grinned and she took it.
"Touché."
"How'd you do it, though?" He asked.
"Trade secret."
"Shame you live in Starling."
"Keystone, actually. We moved."
"I take it back, Metropolis would be better." He said aghast.
"Keystone's a perfectly great place to live."
"Would've expected better from a Starlite."
"If it makes it worse, I was born in Central City."
"They had that whole explosion fiasco, and I hear they've got their own vigilante now, so..." He shrugged. "Better than Keystone."
"Are you guys measuring cities by how dangerous they are?" Lena asked.
"No." Piper said but then thought about it. "Maybe a little actually. Anyways, the streak totally doesn't count as a vigilante. I think he devalues the city, actually."
"You do?" Lena asked amused. "I thought you liked the streak?"
"Ha." Jason laughed at her and she rolled her eyes.
"I am obligated to support him."
"Why?" Bruce asked shortly. Piper could see Lena elbow him.
"Uh, because, I was born in central city. Also he did save my life once, and I'll admit it was pretty fun zooming around, even if I did end up on the other side of the city. He was nice enough to take me back instead of leaving me stranded."
"So why pick on him?"
"I wasn't prepared for the ride, and I'm bitter."
"He saved your life."
"I could've gotten hurt. I had whiplash. He's lucky he didn't hurt me worse than the car with the speed he was going."
"You didn't have whiplash."
"My neck totally hurt."
"You know, vigilantes are bound to make mistakes when they first start out." Jason defended.
"What would you know about it?"
"I live in Gotham. We have Batman and Robin."
"Weren't there two robins? One who disappeared?"
"Yeah. He became Nightwing. He teams up with them sometimes."
"You like Batman right? What do you think of Robin?" Bruce asked, a short glance at his son.
"Uh, he's cool." She offered weakly. If Bruce was Batman, then Jason had a very real chance of being Robin. "He could do better than a traffic light for a costume, but he sort of lightens it all up. Batman's all serious, and totally cool, but sometimes he can be scary. Robin brightens up his image and I've seen videos of them fighting together. They're both pretty cool." Jason smirked and she scowled at the idea of inflating his ego. Then, before she could stop herself, she responded, "have you ever met him, Mr Wayne?"
"Batman or Robin?"
"Either."
"You can hardly live in Gotham and not catch a glimpse, but personally no. I haven't met them."