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Peter looked down on the streets, hearing a familiar heartbeat — a little weak and a little erratic, sounding so similar to any other in Crime Alley, yet Peter knew this one almost better than his own — two blocks away from his spot on the roof. He waited, feeling corners of his lips tug up in a smile.
“Hey, K, do you think I should give him the wristband now?” Peter pulled off one of his gloves, examining red and blue bracelet with yellow spider on it.
“I think you should, Peter,” gently said Karen; he could almost hear the smile in her voice.
Jason landed on the roof to his left in his bright red-green-yellow suit, grinning cockily, with Peter sitting he was taller¹.
“Lazing around, Spidey?” Jason came closer, flopping down beside him.
“Letting you to catch up. You’re too slow, Loxley²,” Peter took off his mask, grinning and ruffling his sweaty hair.
“‘Course, keep lying, see if I keep bringing you food,” Jason crossed his legs, hugging a deliciously smelling paper bag and shielding it with his bright yellow cape.
“No! C’mon!” Peter made grabby hands. “It smells like Agent A’s nut cookies. You can’t deny me them! It’s illegal!”
Jason laughed, holding the paper bag out to him. Peter could not see his eyes, but he knew they had to be shining behind his domino mask.
“All yours.”
“Give him my thanks,” Peter happily took out two cookies and gave Jason one, not liking to be the only one eating. “How’ve you been? After what happened last week? I’ve heard Blüdhaven had more birds than usual,” he lightly nudged Jason’s knee.
Jason huffed, munching on his cookie and looking tense now. He did not say a thing for quite a long time, Peter started to doubt he would get a response. It was alright they both asked things from time to time other could not answer for whatever reason. Peter wished sometimes to tell Jason about his homeworld, about the war, about his death, about meeting aunt May of this universe whose name here was Dr. Pamela Isley.
“B said Robin can’t be impulsive.”
Peter frowned.
“But you’re Robin, not he. How could he know what Robin can and can’t be?”
“Nightwing was Robin before and he wasn’t,” Jason's voice was suddenly filled with bitterness.
“And now you are, so make Robin yours,” Peter bit into his next cookie with too much force. “Heck, be the Robin of Gotham³, leave the riches and come join me on my crusade to help Crime Alley,” he tried to turn this conversation into something lighter, because Jason started to look ready to bolt.
“I keep telling you I hate shooting a bow,” grumbled Jason. “Plus, who’ll be my Merry Men?” He glanced at the paper bag before taking one more cookie. “And you don’t want me to leave the riches, you love Agent A’s cooking too much.”
“We could always kidnap him,” suggested Peter.
Jason looked at him like he was crazy.
“Your funeral.”
Peter laughed a little hysterically.
“By the way,” he took red and blue wristband off his left hand and held it out to Jason, “here. It’s a Spider-Tracer⁴,” Peter pointed at the yellow spider on it, “if you press it’ll start to emit a signal that I’ll be able to follow. Even if you’re in Blüdhaven and I’m in Crime Alley. I’ve checked. And, uh, you know, web-swinging is faster than Batmobile, so, yeah, uh—” Peter nervously chuckled.
Jason gingerly took the offered wristband.
“You’re gifting me a tracker,” his voice had a flicker of amusement.
“I mean, it’s not really a tracker? Not like those Batman tries to put on me.”
Yellow spider blinked in a sudden moonlight. Maybe Peter should have shaped it as ‘R’ on Jason’s chest.
“Could Supes hear it too?” Jason removed his left gauntlet and put on the wristband, looking at it; Peter could hear a skip in a heartbeat, he was not sure whose it was, though, Jason’s or his.
“Actually, I have no idea,” he thought about Daredevil, who could pick up the signal but could not follow it. “Probably, but I doubt he’d be able to do so easily.”
“So sure?” Jason cocked his head to the side, putting his gauntlet back on.
“Yep,” Peter pulled his glove and then his mask on. “I’ve designed them myself.”
Peter jumped on a roof of the abandoned gym Jason had asked him to meet up on. It was daytime, not close to even the earliest patrol time for Batman and Robin. He was told to wear his Spider-Man getup. Thankfully, it was not strange for Peter to swing around and help people in broad daylight. Though the first time he had gone on patrol when the sun had been up, Gothamites had thought he had been a new villain. Peter had not been shot at so many times in his entire life.
“Are you playing hooky?” Peter blinked, realizing Jason was in his posh school uniform.
He got an unimpressed looked at his question.
“No,” Jason held up his backpack to him, Peter saw the wristband he gave him on his left hand, “classes ended early and I thought I’d give you it now.”
Peter cocked his head to the side, taking the backpack that was definitely heavier than it should be with just notebooks in it. He unzipped it and almost dropped it right away.
“Wha—” bright red spider emblem was staring right up at him.
“Gotham’s falls and winters are cold,” Jason shrugged.
“Yeah, and that’s why you should add actual pants to your suit,” mumbled Peter; Jason took back his backpack after he carefully had pulled what was jacket out.
It was dark blue with an almost invisible white spiderweb print. Red spider was on the jacket’s chest, its two upper legs stretched up and around his neck, going inside the hood, the other two trailed up his shoulders and down his arms in stripes, the remaining lower ones were wrapped around his lower ribs and hipbones. Jacket was made of the material similar to kevlar, but Peter could already tell that it would not restrict his movements.
“A hood?” Peter examined the dark blue hood of the jacket that was just as bright red inside as the spider.
“If you decide to ditch your stupid full-face mask,” Jason paused, hesitating. Peter looked away from the jacket and down at him, it was unusual for Jason to show he was unsure of something. “Check the left pocket.”
Peter did. There was a domino mask with the same spiderweb pattern, except there were hidden two green ‘M’ among the white lines, starting at one side of the mask and ending at the other, one was above his eyes and the other below.
“Oh.” Peter was at a loss for words. Only Mr Stark and he had a hand in creating any of his Spider suits or gadgets. And now… “Thank you, Jason,” he put on his new jacket, zipping all the way up. Not the domino though, it was back in the pocket. “Do I need to check it for trackers?” he teased.
“Nah, B doesn’t know about me making you this jacket,” Jason ran his hand through his hair, the red roots were already visible. Peter wished he did not dye them black. “Agent A helped me with hiding everything from him and Nightwing with choosing the right material.”
“Thank you,” repeated Peter. “I—” He stepped closer and slowly hugged Jason, hiding his masked face in his hair.
This time Peter was sure it was his heart that skipped a beat.