runespoor | Bruce/Jason Rec List of Doom

Dear friends, fellow fans. I present you the Big Damn Bruce/Jason rec list.

It’s earnest, it reflects my tastes, and so it’s not intended as a one-stop resource for Bruce/Jason. For one, we probably don’t have quite the same tastes and I wouldn’t want you to miss on fic you’d like: you may want to stalk

oximore’s memories and those of

dcfic_index (the latter for older stuff) for more options, including my own. /self-pimp There are amazing fics, classics, that I’ve left out.

Warning: every fic on this list should be viewed with the understanding that it comes with a blanket warning for underage and potentially disturbing content. Not all these fics are explicit; not all feature Batman/Robin. But given the characters and the dynamics, I’d rather not accidentally trigger someone. (Most of these fics, of course, come with their own header on the other end of the link.) If the absence of specific warning/ratings on this page make this list useless to you, tell me so and I’ll amend this soon as possible.

Time period: pre-Crisis Jay

Little Black Dress (3396 words) by

SharpestRose
Characters: Jason Todd, Pre-Crisis Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Jack Drake, Dick Grayson
Summary: The Ancient And Most Noble Legacy Of Robins.
Why: Bruce takes Jay for a week of business in Paris, and this is made of Jason’s entries in his journal during that trip. The fic captures wonderfully the whimsy and light of Pre-Crisis Jason Todd. Bruce is almost peripheral to the fic; like the relationship between Jason and him, his presence is mostly between the lines. Instead, you’re treated to cameos by Tim Drake, conversations about trophy wives, and crossdressing and kicking ass!

Coarse (1515 words) by

irrelevant
Summary: Showers never go the way they're supposed to in Batland.
Why: to relearn the definition of UST and romance, and flail at oh-god-Bruce. To revel in the fraught earnestness of Bruce and Jason’s interaction. Irrelevant captures the essence of the characters of the time wonderfully. This is very much the Jason who’d pout when Bruce couldn’t take him on a date, and the Bruce that’d call off Vicki Vale for a date with Jay.

Time period: pre-Robin

In Pace by

petra
Summary: It could be a lot worse.
Why:100 words of wrong. Delightful. Petra notes the relevant fandom as this: Fandom: DCU (pre-Nightwing: Year One).

Time period: Robin

Now change (100 words) by

Petra
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Summary: There was a time when Robin meant something else.
Why: A distressingly accurate appraisal of the nature of Jason’s run as Robin.

Keep my mind on my duties (4583 words) by

Petra
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Summary: How many more times do we have to play this kind of game before I get to be Robin for real?
Why: This is the get-together fic. The get-together fic of Bruce and Jason at this point in time. It entertwines the civilian aspects of the characters with the progress of Jason’s training. It’s Petra, so the work on identities is topnotch. The details of Jason’s training add a layer of realism worthy of the best canon. It’s Petra, so you’ll be rooting for Jason to succeed at seducing Bruce. Yes, even given the timeline. This fic is full of a kind of optimism that’s rare on this list (one of the few fics that’s not explicitly about doom, angst, and destruction.) A lot of the pleasure in reading Petra’s fics comes from gleefully shrieking at how wrong the stuff that’s matter-of-factly happening on the page is. :D

The Talk by

mildredmilton
A/N: Buried somewhere in the porntasm that is Teland I found references to "The Talk" that Batman has with Robins. The sex-education talk. That just made me squee. Because imagine the agony of the poor Robins. I couldn't get it out of my head. Ever. So I wrote it.
Why: The Robins mentioned here are Dick, Jason, and Tim, because at the time of writing that’s all the Robins there were. It’s a funny story. It’s a touching tale of family. It’s a clever construction of three narratives comparing and contrasting how each talk went. And it’s a show-and-tell of Bruce’s ability to make the worst decisions possible at tragic times. The end result is disturbingly plausible.

Just the other day by

katarik
Summary: Bruce has always been fond of Jason's company.
Why: This fic has been called “pleasantly creepy”. It is just right. Jason had considered subtlety a demeaning waste of his time.

Cage Match by

glossing
Summary: The appreciation and preservation of precious things are important parts of the Wayne legacy.
Why: Gloss makes the class discrepancy between Bruce and Jason the stuff of this fic. We usually admit it as the backdrop to their drama, but we rarely really use it. This is social commentary as its best, showing how people are made by their backgrounds, and how this might play out for Bruce and Jason in particular. The writing is sensual, and the contrast between Bruce and Jason, explosive.

Good Guys Don't Wear White (6112 words) by

gloss
Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake
Summary: "All the messed up chicks, all the changing times/White filth and easy living/You can't come close to the love that I've given."
Warnings: Underage and cross-generational content. Some RPF towards the end which, of course, makes absolutely no claim to fact about real people.
Why: Class issues and Robins Against Fascism. This fic contains probably the best line to explain the nature of Robin I’ve found yet: He's a punk, and he's Robin, and even though Bruce will never quite get it, that's the *same fucking thing*. Jason as his own person, even when he wants to share himself with Bruce.

Calculating Worth by

1_900_mimicry
Summary: “Language, son,” Bruce admonishes him, but doesn’t lose the carefree attitude.
Why: It’s Jason, after a Society Outing. It’s Jason not always getting Bruce, and not giving a damn. It’s Jason after a short encounter (kiss) with Tim, and throwing their mutual freakishness into Bruce’s face. Solid characterization, Bat-issues, and a clear, fast-paced style.

So pure, so rare by

thete1
Summary: All day, all night.
Why: No, of fucking *course* we shouldn’t. Te streamlines the world to two things: Jason-and-Bruce, and everything else. The first problem, of course, is that it’s really three things. A fascinating introspective look into Jason, during one of those social occasions Bruce Wayne and his adopted son have to show up at, the atmosphere of this fic is intimate, almost stuffy – hot and fucked up.

Miss by

thete1
Summary: Jason pays a visit to the Titans Tower.
Why: this isn’t explicitly Bruce/Jason, as it’s from Dick’s PoV one night Jason comes to him for advice. This is ironic in the tragic sense of the word: because we know what happens to Jason, because we know he and Dick never had the same close relationship Dick had with Tim, because we’ve read other Bruce/Jason fics by Te, this becomes tragic – understated and subtle. Fascinating depiction of the prickly relationship between Dick and Jason, and the state of mind of Dick after being replaced.

The Proposal by

eggblue
A/N: I remember when Jason first came up on the Batslash list a couple years ago there were issues about slashing Jason because Bruce had adopted him in canon.
Why: This is riffing on a piece of canon. Why did Bruce adopt Jason, when he hadn’t adopted Dick? There is never enough “RUN AWAY YOU FOOL” concerning Bruce/Jason, but this is a masterpiece of the genre.

Not In Our Stars (784 words) by

Rubynye
Summary: ‘Disaster’ originally meant ‘bad star’. As in comet.
Why: An illustration of what exactly it means that Bruce didn’t bench Robin after Jason may or may not have pushed a rapist to his death.

Time period: post-death

Perfect Example (3113 words) by

gloss
Relationships: Batman/Robin, Bruce Wayne/Tim Drake, Batman/Red Hood
Characters: Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake
Summary: "I'll put it in the past when the past is history.".
Why: Technically, this is Bruce/Tim. But I’ll admit: Bruce/Tim is emphatically not my ship, at all, and I loved this. This takes place during the Sins of Youth event – kids became adults, adults were deaged – so Bruce and Tim swapped costumes in order to still be able to patrol. As you do in Gotham, because criminals don’t take holidays. I was stricken reading and re-reading this how much teen!Bruce is Jason. This is that. Bruce is being Jason as Tim is Batman. This is identity porn of the most fucked-up calibre, and that’s a compliment.

As you and I go down by

thete1
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Bruce is in love, and all is fair.
Why: AU of Underworld Unleashed: when Neron offers Bruce to have Jason back for a price, Bruce says yes. This is as close to a happy ending as it can get, starting this way. Te is always good for heartwrenching dialogues, serious Bruce-has-issues, and taking stories to their logical end. This doesn’t disappoint. Jason’s voice is an excellent characterization of a Jay that never became Red Hood

The red and running life (325 words) by

Katarik
Characters: Cassandra Cain, Bruce Wayne
Summary: You know you do not entirely understand.
Why: First of all, because this is the most evocative fic you’ll ever find about what “body language” is to Cass. Through Cass’ perception, Bruce’s regrets are inevitable, his desires blatant. So often Bruce is opaque, or complex; here, he’s easy to grasp, through the poetic simplicity of the language. The kinship between Cass and Bruce is beautifully rendered.

Not Quite a Nightmare by

iesika
Summary: Bruce's subconscious is a scary place. But you knew that.
Warnings: This story may or may not contain dubious consent. It's possible Bruce is just crazy.
Why: Because this is sizzling hot porn embroidered on Bruce’s epic cathedrals of issues, that’s why.

Time period: Under the (Red) Hood

When this fog lifts by

katarik
Summary: Bruce will believe the impossible before the improbable.
Why: Of all the wonderful ficlets referring precisely to the instant where Bruce learns Red Hood’s identity, none is more precise and eloquent than this one. The heart of the matter of Bruce/Jason, stripped naked.

Flicker (5059 words) by

Jane St Clair
Summary: All dead angry boys come back.
Why: He doesn’t remember being dead. Freshly back from the dead, putting together an identity piece by piece. This is the flipside of canon such as Under the Hood and Lost Days - in those Jason becomes a mirror image of Bruce by following the same training at the hands of murderers and mercenaries. He’s still a mirror here – a broken boy growing in Gotham. The writing style grabs the reader at the throat and doesn’t let go, terse and gritty. Despite the premise, this fic manages not to limit its cast to Jason and Bruce; the inclusion of every other character through our protagonist’s eyes slots into place, voices and reactions pitch-perfect. Haunting in the best sense, the story delivers a magnificently fulfilling conclusion, and memorable identity porn.

Scar Tissue (2203 words) by

inlovewithnight
Characters: Jason Todd, Renee Montoya
There's something funny about the kid.
Why: Technically, the Bruce/Jason here is subtext. This is because Renée is the PoV character, and Jason is playing games – with himself maybe, as Renée doesn’t have the background to follow the layers of meanings in their conversation. Emotions are only contained because of this, subcutaneous, transparent to the reader. Jason playing identity games has never been done so well.

Both of us (2435 words) by

SharpestRose
Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Bruce Wayne
Summary: Jason catches up.
Why: this is a sympathetic portrayal of Jason as Red Hood that sets and fulfills the following goals: 1) deal with the problematic erasure of Steph’s death; 2) portray Jason’s interactions with the family; 3) reconcile Red Hood with the character Jason had grown into before by the time of Death in a Family. That’s a lot of things to fix. The result is a thoughtful, sensitive story about faults, loss, and atonement.

Renascence by

geeksicle_kezzy
Summary: It's all about who has the upper hand and who plays the game better.
Why: This fic was born from “I just love to watch you work.” As ridiculously hot as the premise promises, the voices of the characters read painfully canonical.

In the Machinery of Night (3745 words) by

Nokomis
Summary: Later, he will chastise him. Now, he can do nothing more than give in.
Why: Identity porn made bitter-sweet with the weight of Bruce’s regrets. (I gave up on working out a scale for the doom quotient in each of these fics, but this is a fine specimen.)

Time period: Red Hood established

Your Familiar Comforts. by

fickle_goddess
Summary: It's Bruce's birthday. Jason celebrates.
Why: In the style of Under the Hood, Bruce is full of denial – wistful – and Jason’s teasing doesn’t help. The ending is a classic.

The Bleed (1024 words) by

irrelevant
Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne (Earth-51)
Summary: Come on, this is the Bruce who gave Jason Red Robin.
Why: Come on, why don’t more fics take advantage of Jason’s meeting with the Bruce of Earth-51? Truly, the mind boggles. Lucky the fic that does exist is so good. Cruel, visceral, and obsessive.

The Chain (1081 words) by

zeen
Summary: It’s Christmas Eve, and Bruce Wayne gets a visit from ghost. Except Jason Todd is totally alive and definitely kicking.
(Fuck you for thinking otherwise.)
Why: Emotional porn on every level. Commentary on canon; truly inspired Jason voice; identity porn; gleeful exploitation of emotional weaknesses. Fast-faced, sharp, and lethally hot.