Jason laughs quietly at the mental image of Tim taking a brick to the face. There must be a good story there, and he makes a mental note to ask Steph about it another time.

That glimpse of mirth is fleeting; Jason’s expression sours when Steph reveals that Tim and Dick are close. It’s not terribly surprising - Tim’s an amicable enough kid, and hadn’t he called Dick a friend when he’d introduced himself to Jason, back in Wonderland? Not surprising in fact, but undeniably and unexpectedly painful to think that the Robin who succeeded him was better liked by the original Boy Wonder.

Dick hadn’t always been enthusiastically accepting of Jason as his own successor to the stoplight-colored uniform, and Jason felt like he had too much to prove from underneath Dick’s shadow to allow him any real degree of closeness. Jason liked to pretend he didn’t care what anyone thought of him, but in his own estimation, he always came up short in comparison to Bruce’s golden boy. If he could see he was an inferior Robin, certainly so could Dick, and that thorn of self-doubt never truly worked its way out of his heart.

Luckily, Steph’s question pulls Jason from his thoughts before he can fall too far down that rabbit hole. “Yeah, apparently,” he affirms, with a light shrug. “I didn’t get too many details out of him, so I dunno who his mom is. The few times we talked, he was a little more interested in cramming as many insults as he could manage into every breath.”