A Day at Wayne Manor [Alfred]

[jason]

It was only nine AM and Jason had been up since seven. And for that time of the morning, Jason was bored out of his mind. It was early in the morning and it was summer. He wouldn't have to start school for another few weeks. He didn't care for school and wasn't looking forward to it. He hadn't gone to school since his parents had died.

Jason now found himself sitting upside down on the couch in the front lounge, watching the tv upside down as well. He was that bored that he couldn't think of anything less to do.

Jason looked over at the clock, Bruce won't be back until later that evening. Bruce was never home, he always had business to take care of. Jason understood that, but it always left Jason with not much less to work on. There was never anyone coming by the Manor.

The only person that would probably stop in was Barbara Gordon, but she was usually with Dick Grayson. Jason had learned all about Dick from both Alfred and Bruce. He knew who he was, but had yet to have any contact with the guy. Jason could careless.

Jason stared at the tv and started to flip through the channels. He could feel the blood rushing to his head as he saw upside down, his legs hanging over the back side of the couch he was sitting on. He was just about ready to find something else to do. But wasn't sure.

[alfredpennyworth]

"Master Jason," Alfred said, with a tiny undercurrent of sarcasm, from where he had appeared behind the couch, "It is commendable that you should wish to emulate Master Bruce's behaviour even when watching the television, but i'm afraid to say that - whilst he may be the Batman - he does not make a habit of hanging upside-down from the rafters, and so your practice may be in vain."

He moved around the couch, peering down at the ocassionally troublesome boy with an arched eyebrow. It was still somehow a little throwing to have someone so young in the house, again. He derived a great deal of amusement from his interactions with Jason - primarily through any oppurtunity that he got to gently chastise him for slouching, putting his feet up on the cushions, or any other trivial breach of household etiquette - but when he looked at the boy he sometimes could not help but see Dick, as he had been years ago - before he had left. Just as when Dick had first begun to live at the manor, Alfred had not been able to see him without seeing a much younger Bruce.

Alfred had not even fully adjusted to the sudden absence of Dick from the manor when Bruce had just as suddenly brought Jason under his wing, and - though he had got to know the lad, during his training, and they were on friendly enough terms - he almost felt that he was shamefully out of practice at dealing with children. Or, as he was sure the young Jason would attest, 'young adults'.

"Perhaps you could achieve greater 'Bat-prowess' by studying the language texts that Master Bruce and I prepared for you, today? A multilingual detective is a happy detective, after all."

Something told him that young Jason would find this prospect slightly disagreeable, but as always, he felt it was his duty to point out even the courses of action that were most obviously going to be ignored by the young boy, when it came to their studies - just as with the real-world obligations of the boy's adoptive guardian.

[jason]

Jason lifted his head up when he heard the sound of Alfred's voice coming from behind where he was sitting. He looked up at the elderly man, listening to his slight sarcastic remark on the way he was seated. Then returning to letting his head rest against the couch again. Jason stay as he was for a bit until Alfred came around to the front of the couch.

Jason just gave him a slight bored look at first, but when he raised an eyebrow at him, Jason gave a slight sigh of defeat over the matter. He was still adjusting to this new life style of having the luxury of being able to sit around and not have to steal for his next meal. When he had been doing more combat training, Jason hadn't had the time to really sit around like this for long periods of the day. But even with the less thrilling of trying to get away with something he'd stolen, he couldn't complain about the changes of his life style.

Though the slight nagging of how to sit, act, and behave were a bit foreign to him. But he was getting used to the reminders from Alfred. He'd be willing to test the waters sometimes, but there were something that weren't worth the fight over since Alfred would win in the end. That and Jason knew not to push it too far other wise he would have Bruce to deal with if he didn't listen to Alfred. And to be honest, he rather not go that far and cause all that much trouble. Especially since he had recently gotten the go ahead to start patrolling as Robin with Batman. And he knew Bruce could bench him easily if he disobeyed either Alfred or him.

"Fine," he said as he was about to roll his eyes about the matter, but stopped to think about that before he would regret anything. Jason swung his legs from over the top of the couch and continued until he was sitting upright again. Leaving the remote sitting along side of him, his attention now on Alfred.

He sat deep against the back of the couch and let his body slump a bit. He listened to Alfred's suggestion of going off and studying the many language books that he had neglected in the study. "Isn't that what school is for," Jason asked with a bored expression on his face. He wasn't really looking forward to having to join in school. He wasn't even sure which one he was being sent to. He had gotten lucky that Bruce had taken him in rather than the police shipping him off to some sort of military school or something worse.

"Come to think of it, learning to hang upside down from the rafters sounds like a fun thing to try. Who knows, might come in handy on a stake out," Jason commented and looked up toward Alfred with the type of look that said he had just given him a good idea. Jason was only kidding. Though he could find something like that to do if he practiced more on the parallel bars in the gym.

[alfredpennyworth]

"I can only imagine." Alfred replied, dryly. He supposed that Master Bruce probably could suspend himself by his feet for an extended length of time, in the event that it was ever strictly neccessary, but then when one had trained with a league of monastic Tibetan warrior monks, one seemed to be able to do almost anything. Although Alfred had never quite understood how even the League of Assassins, or Master Bruce, apparently managed to dismiss material things like their legs falling asleep. Or, say, the pain of a knife wound. Though hopefully Jason would not experience any physical discomfort of quite that extent, for the forseeable future.

Dismissing the thought, he returned his attention to the young ward. "Have you paraken of breakfast this morning, Master Jason, or would you like me to prepare something?"

[jason]

Jason gave a the smallest hints of a smile at Alfred's reaction to his comments. Even if he was lonely in this large manor, Alfred was good company to have around. Still it amazed him how much Alfred did around the place. It was hard to believe that only one man took care of this place. It some what impressed Jason how Alfred always managed to keep everything running smoothly around here while having to deal with keeping him and Bruce on schedule.

"Thanks Al, but I got some cereal earlier," Jason replied to Alfred's offer of making anything for him. Jason had even cleaned up what ever he had gotten out that morning. It was definitely not something Jason was accustom to where he had grown up living on the streets. But while living at Wayne Manor and training for the past few months, Jason felt it was the least he could do to not have to leave it sitting around for Alfred to clean up.

If there was one thing about Jason that was different from other teen his age, he didn't leave things always sitting around. Heck, he didn't have much to have to clean up. From growing up on the streets, you learned to live with the cloths on your back. Jason didn't need all the fancy stuff in life. But it was nice to be able to have some of that stuff now. He was definitely enjoy this life better than living on the streets. Though he did miss being able to call his own shots and not have to listen to anyone.

Jason glanced at the tv and was getting bored of the same programs that had been playing. He switched the tv off any looked up toward Alfred. He had noticed the place had been spotless when he had woken up and Bruce had left before he had gotten up. "Do you know when about Bruce might be getting back this evening? He doesn't have a ton of meetings to go to, does he? I was kind of hoping to have some sparring practice in this evening before doing any patrolling," Jason said.

If there was one this Bruce and Alfred had probably picked up by now was that Jason enjoyed fighting. And through some of his work, he could get a bit violent against the thugs they took on. Definitely a little more so than the first Robin had been. But it helped to keep his temper in check. If there was one thing he didn't like it was being told what to do and went to do it. Though he had held back his complains about his patrolling and just mumbled in anger about it later on.