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The annual Wayne Enterprises trick-or-treat is underway, and there are many citizens dressed as the vigilantes that prowl the city amongst the other colorful costumes. Taller than most of the crowd, one of the vigilantes stands in their midst, being dragged around by children.
Jimmy, a little blonde boy dressed as Superboy (the first one with the leather jacket), drags Jason through the crowd, the rest of the street kids trailing behind them. “Look, Papa!” he says. “This one is themed on the Justice League, like me and your bucket!” He rushes up to the booth with his bucket and cries “Trick-or-treat!” alongside the rest of the kids following Red Hood.
Jason’s bucket is in fact themed like the Justice League. It’s red with the Wonder Woman logo on it. Dick gave it to him as a gag gift. Jokes on him, because now it’s filled to the brim with batarangs and Jason’s slipping them into every treat bag or bucket he passes.
“I don’t have room in my bucket for the candy,” Jason says. “I’ve told you this already.”
“Can we have extra?” Poppy, who’s dressed like a very small Red Hood, asks the person who’s running the stall. “Hood is giganormous, you know. He needs the extra candy.” Jason snorts at the question. The stall runner smiles as they put extra in Poppy’s sack.
The gaggle of children ushers Jason to the next booth. It’s very funny to see people double take at the sight of Jason surrounded by children. Most people are following the safety rules of not wearing domino masks and cowls if they’re dressed as the city’s vigilantes, so seeing someone wearing a domino mask but surrounded by children is odd. But by this point, people should know that Red Hood is someone that children trust, especially if they feel like he’s someone they can drag into a trick-or-treating adventure.
A quiet thud. Jason sighs before looking up to see Dick in his Nightwing suit perched on the tip of one of the stalls. “Helloooo Hood,” Dick says cheerfully. A bright blue witch hat is strapped to his head. “I love your costume.”
Jason is wearing his suit, excluding his helmet, and his face is painted like a sugar skull under his domino mask. “Hello Nightwing,” Jason says plainly. “You seem to have lost your familiar.”
Damian lands next to Dick, the Robins-on-Halloween traditional cat ears pinned to his hood. His face is scrunched in displeasure. “This is humiliating,” Damian says.
“Look at you,” Jason says, grinning. “Following in everyone’s footsteps.”
“Wow!” Harri, who is dressed as a very low budget Robin on purpose, beams up at Damian. “Look, Hood! It’s Robin! We’re the same!” Harri waves at Damian. “Hi! I’m Harriet but everyone calls me Harri! You’re really cool!”
Damian seems put off by the sudden display of affection. “...Thank you.”
“Any sightings of Scarecrow?” Jason asks, letting the children lead him to another booth. Damian jumps off the booth and Jason cheers internally at the fact that they managed to get him to wear the cat tail.
Dick does a flip and lands perfectly, avoiding every child. “Red Robin is on the task.”
Their comms crackle in their ears and Tim says, “For tonight’s Halloween party, I’m going as Oracle.”
Dick looks into Jason’s bucket. “Batarangs? Where’s your candy?”
“Don’t got any,” Jason says. He holds one of the batarangs out to Dick. “Do you want one?”
Dick laughs. “Is this what you’ve been doing with all the batarangs we’ve been giving you?”
“Trick-or-treat!” the kids say to the booth they walk up to.
“Aren’t you glad I’m giving back to the community?” Jason says with a grin as he takes the piece of candy that the booth runner offers him and unwraps it before popping it into his mouth.
The next booth is the main Wayne Enterprises booth. This is one of Jason’s favorites, except for when Harley and Ivy are given permission to run their own. Because Brucie Wayne runs this booth, and Bruce always wears one of his decommissioned Batman suits.
Jason’s children push him to the front so he’s in front of them as they approach the booth. The Brucie Wayne persona is in full effect. Bruce is charming every family as they approach and leave. The kids shove Jason forward a bit, causing him to stumble into the table.
Bruce gives his children a light glare before beaming at them. “Oh my! You're Red Hood and Nightwing! It’s such an honor to meet you again!”
“Really?” Jason says, smirking. “That's nice to know.”
Dick chokes on a laugh, covering his mouth. “Thank you, sir,” he croaks out.
Jimmy pokes Jason's side. “Is he a good’un?” he whispers. Badly.
“Think so,” Jason badly whispers back. “But there's always a good way to find out,” Jason says. He reaches into his Halloween bucket and hands Batman one of his own batarangs. “What say you, Brucie? You a good’un? Everyone knows Batman would have an aneurysm if someone awful got a hold of a batarang.”
Silence. Bruce's Brucie smile gets very tight. Dick practically vibrates with glee in Jason's peripheral vision. Bruce breathes out through his nose heavily and takes the batarang, grinning. “Thank you so much, Red Hood! Are these your children?”
Sht, wait a minute, go back, it's time to get a move on, this was a terrible idea. “Uh…” is all Jason says.
“Papa is a great, uh…. He keeps us safe!” Dusty, who's dressed as who Jason thinks is Wolverine from the comics, beams up at Bruce.
“I'm sure he's great at it,” Bruce agrees, giving Jason a real smile.
This is going to be Jason's second death. Death by embarrassment and paternal pride. Jason's face heats up beneath his face paint. “Thank you,” he gets out.
Now that Brucie has been vetted, the kids holler “Trick-or-treat!” and hold out their buckets.
Bruce places a handful of candy in every bag. He waves at Jason as the children usher him to the next booth. “Take care!”
“That was amazing,” Dick says. “Top ten things I've seen at one of these.”
“I'm going to kill you,” Jason tells him, glaring at him. “That was embarrassing.”
“Hey, do either of you know what happened to Robin? He took out his comm earlier," Tim says over comms. Dick and Jason look to where Damian was not even five minutes earlier to see that he is in fact not there.
---
“You're not supposed to wear a mask if you're not one of the vigilantes,” the civilian child that assimilated Damian into their party says. They're dressed as Nightwing.
Damian huffs. “I AM Robin. This tradition is ridiculous. How are you to believe me if so many others are dressed similarly?” He wishes he was allowed to retaliate against civilians. This is humiliating.
“You're not having fun like all the other Robins did,” says another civilian child, dressed as Catwoman. “I think you're lying.”
“If you're REALLY Robin, what's my name?” says the one dressed as Nightwing.
Damian stares at them incredulously. “Why would me being Robin mean I would know your name.”
“I can't even remember your name,” says one dressed as a character Damian recognizes from one of Brown’s TV shows.
The one dressed as Nightwing stares at them. “I've known you for over a year!”
“You know I have problems with names!”
The one dressed as Catwoman pats Damian’s back. “Don't worry, Robin, if that's who you are. We can teach you the true meaning of Halloween.”
---
“You're not a very good Oracle,” Dick tells Tim.
“Eh, he'll be fine,” Jason says. “There's not many places he could go around here.”
“Papa, after we finish, can we go to one of the haunted houses?” Matt, who is dressed as the purple ninja turtle, asks Jason.
“Sure,” Jason says. “Now shoo, Nightwing, you have to patrol the entire event. What if some kid on the other side of the park is getting their candy stolen? What if Robin is having fun?”
Dick laughs. “I guess I'll have to bid you goodbye.” He tips his witch hat to the children before climbing onto one of the booths and slinging through the air with his grapple.
The kids drag Jason to the next booth. Jason nods his head along to the Halloween music playing through one of the nearby speakers. Another couple startles at the sight of him and he grins. He’ll have to let the kids “convince” him to bring them to the WE winter holiday party. He’s sure they’ll have fun there too.