CherryBerry952 wanted a few of my random dialogues expanded on so I'll post the others at some point but here's the first!!

It was supposed to be a bit of fun. Some brotherly bonding after all the shit the family had been through. They'd lost so much that it had come as a wake-up call to reconnect. Dick was the one who offered most likely due to him being the one who was taken from the family. After Christmas, Dick offered Jason a patrol in Bludhaven. He argued he could do with a hand on a big case which would be his first since regaining his memories and sense of self. Jason was tempted to say no but then Barbara had contacted him. 

"Please go with him," she said. Concern was laced between her words as she spoke and he got the feeling he wasn't allowed to say no to the offer extended to him. "He really needs it. He's...he's not himself and I think you'd understand his situation more than anyone else. After what happened with the Lazarus Pit." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 

"Fine, I'll tag along. He won't be weird, will he? I'm not exactly the person you talk about your feelings with."

"I don't know Jay. That's the scary part. I couldn't tell you how much he's pretending to be fine and I can always tell." He knew she was worried and in all honesty, he was too. Dick could be complicated and he'd been through enough already to come out the other end twisted and mangled from his experiences. "Promise you'll go?"

"Alright alright. Dickhead and I will have some quality brother time if it'll make you happy."

"Thanks."

So here they were. The pair were doing undercover work mixed with a stakeout. The car was unregistered and they were in plain clothes. Jason all but demanded to drive and Dick decided to take his chances on his brother's driving. He picked him up from a coffee shop, Dick got them food and much-needed coffee for the hours it would take to get a lead before they drove to an alley facing an abandoned building that wasn't completely abandoned. They sat in silence for a bit whilst they stared, waiting to see anyone who entered or left. It was Dick who decided to strike up a conversation. "I forgot how boring these were," he commented as he leaned his chair back to get comfortable. They'd be there for a while and he didn't want to spend it cramped up. 

"Yeah?" Jason replied, deciding the conversation would be better than silence no matter how domestic it was.

"Yeah. I remember when I was Robin doing them. First-year me was allergic to them," he continued. 

"I think I was just as bad. Sitting there whilst there was action on the other side of the city made my skin crawl," the younger added. "I try not to do them as much now."

"Me too. I think."

"You think?" he repeated with a curious look.

"Memory is still on the fritz. I remember some stuff, don't remember other stuff." Dick stared, unblinking, before shaking his head and shifting in his seat. He took a sip of his coffee and quickly scribbled down a description of someone entering the building. "Did I tell you I got a dog?"

"You didn't," Jason replied. 

"Found her on the street. Only got three legs and the moment I find her, she bites me."

"Oh my God, you're replacing Damian with a dog."

"I am not!" Dick squeaked, lightly hitting the older on the shoulder. "Called her Haley. After y'know Haley. Pretty obvious there. Babs gets a real kick out of calling her Bitewing." 

The pair talked meaninglessly over the passing hour but Jason found himself loving it. There were always so few opportunities to just talk and spend time together without the weight of the world resting on their shoulders. Lives weren't on the line right now and if they missed someone leaving the building it wasn't going to make their mission fail. They worked so hard to protect everyone that sometimes they forgot to slow down and enjoy the moments of calm. "Jay look!" Dick suddenly said. The younger snapped his gaze forward just long enough for the acrobat to snatch the last doughnut and stuff half of it in his mouth. 

"What so you forget us and act like a dick and then steal the last doughnut? You're insufferable." Jason laughed to himself but Dick winced and he immediately felt as though he'd made a misstep. 

"You think I'm over it enough for you to use it against me?" he asked softly. He looked up at his brother, his eyes were devoid of their previous mischief. The other didn't say anything and the car felt ten times smaller than it once had. Just one time he wanted to have fun and he'd fucked it up. They hardly hung out anymore and he thought they were at the joking about trauma stage. He didn't think his comment would do anything. 

"It's not like you died," Jason found himself saying even though that wouldn't make this better. In fact, it made it worse. He saw how Dick tensed up and how he bowed his head slightly. "Come on, you know I didn't mean anything by-"

"I did die, Jason." He didn't bother to pick his sentence back up once it had been interrupted. "Dick was gone. I wasn't there for my family. I didn't do anything to help. I may as well have been dead."

"Dude-"

"But I'm back now and that's all that matters, doesn't it? We're heroes it's not like we get traumatised. It's not like I get phantom pains, it's not like I wake up every day fearing this will be the day I don't remember, it's not like I have a scar that'll never go away as a reminder." Jason shrank back but not at the volume. No, that remained conversational. It was the tone. It was casual and factual, compartmentalized already. That's when he realised that Dick hadn't come to terms with what happened despite it being a year ago. He always bounced back so quickly, always ready to joke and move on that now he'd finally met his match, he didn't know what to do. "Sorry I didn't get a more violent ending, my body didn't die and I'm physically fine now." Dick put his hand on the car door but Jason locked it before he could open it. "Unlock the door, Jason."

"No, I'd rather not. I'm a piece of shit but I'm not a piece of shit who discredits other people's trauma. I need you to know that."

"Noted. Now let me out."

"No." They glared at one another, neither breaking the stare. "I didn't know you really weren't okay."

"It doesn't matter. I'm overdramatic, aren't I? Just memories right? I didn't die by your definition."

"Dick." The older let out a huff and took his hand away from the door. "Are you gonna run again?"

"What?"

"When you get stressed and things get bad, you run. Not being a douche about it. It's just how you cope but I need to know if that's how you're gonna cope. Those kids need the heads up if you're going AWOL." There was a long pause before Dick shook his head slowly.

"I wanted to. After everything cooled down, I still want to, but I don't...I don't feel safe. On my own. Not anymore."

"Explains why you're touchy about it," Jason muttered.

"Yeah. I don't like the memories. Even the happy ones with Bea. I can't enjoy it if that entire time, my family was suffering. You guys had to let me go that's not easy for me to come to terms with. I'm all about family, it's my thing." He leaned into the car seat before dropping his eyes to his lap. "It feels like shit, Jay."

There was silence for a bit as the conversation sunk in. "It's weird," Dick began slowly. "I've been scared of so many things in my life but this is one of the scariest things I've been through without even knowing it. Having my brain messed with, so many false memories implemented but then the real stuff being pulled out. Things were being swapped to serve something. It wasn't scary whilst it happened but it's terrifying now." He sighed and picked at his coffee cup, pulling the outer layer of the paper off and balling it up between his fingers. "I forgot the most important people in my life and there was just no break between everything. Owls then Joker." He shivered before flicking the paper balls somewhere he didn't care to think about.

"Do you remember when I came back?" Jason asked. He nodded slowly. "I was a real piece of work."

"You were hopped up on Lazurus Pit juice. It would make anyone like that," he defended but the younger shook his head.

"No, don't make excuses for me. Sure it affected me, namely bringing me back from the dead, but I chose to do the things I did. I knew it was shitty but I did it anyway and sometimes I find that I don't regret it as much as I should," Jason continued. It felt bad to admit that because he knew when it was all written down, he should regret the things he'd done but he just couldn't. He didn't know why. "But then I got to whatever this spot is and I had to live with those things. You're starting to live with the things you did and it's harder than most people think. I wouldn't blame you for finding it hard to joke about or wanting to run away from it."

"I wish I could trust myself to but I can't. I can't be vulnerable like that. That's not fun."

"Eh, I think Bruce would find it fun." The older laughed and gave him a playful shove, the tension successfully broken after so long. "What? He would!"

"He would but I've spent most my life trying to get away from that fursuit, I'm not willing to start now," he giggled.

"I'm telling him you called it a fursuit." 

"You wouldn't dare!"

"I'd dare, you know for a fact I would," he taunted. In all honesty, he was just happy to see Dick back to some semblance of happiness. He wasn't the best with emotions but he cared a whole lot about his brother even if he couldn't always show it correctly. Seeing him so haunted about the past wasn't exactly pleasant. Someone who was more literate in matters of emotion should be talking to him. Someone like Barbara but if she was calling on him then that meant she'd tried to make a move and it hadn't gone well. He wondered what was stopping Dick but then again, he knew why. This was Dick Grayson. He'd grown up with Bruce who didn't have any practice with kids, not that he was much better now. It made sense that he'd take on the need to hide everything and fix it himself despite telling others never to do that. "Listen, I gotta say that I'm not the best with emotional talks about trauma but you know who is?"

"Who?"

"Barbara. Wally. Hell, Kori too. You've got a ginger squad for a reason." Dick tutted at the name but didn't deny it. "They wanna help you and they'll do it better than I can. Better than any of us can." It was the truth as much as they didn't like it. The so-called Batfamily were the most emotionally constipated family within the Justice League that it was almost impressive until one of them got a new trauma which half of them wouldn't even find out about till long after it happened. 

"I know. Just need some time I think to get it right in my head. I'm sorry for blowing up at you."

"Nah, you're alright. I'll keep off the trauma jokes about your memory okay?"

"Thanks, Jay. In exchange, I'll call the ginger squad after this." 

"I'll hold you to it."