Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/12267975.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Batman_(Comics)
  Relationship:
      Dick_Grayson/Jason_Todd
  Character:
      Dick_Grayson, Jason_Todd, Slade_Wilson, Tim_Drake, Bruce_Wayne, Damian
      Wayne, Roy_Harper, Clark_Kent
  Additional Tags:
      Mirror_Universe, Extremely_Dubious_Consent, Implied/Referenced_Rape/Non-
      con, Consensual_Underage_Sex, Canon-Typical_Violence, Alternate_Universe
      -_Assassins_&_Hitmen, warnings_in_regards_to_events_that_took_place_in
      the_past, Torture, Aftermath_of_Torture
  Collections:
      JayDick_Week_2017
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-10-04 Updated: 2018-03-21 Chapters: 3/? Words: 17149
****** A Sweeter Sickness ******
by Zillabird
Summary
     Jason's been away from his adopted family for a long time and he's
     spent that entire time working against them. They're criminals and
     Jason's time away has taught him that what they do is wrong, plain
     and simple. Family isn't that easy to cut ties with, however, and
     Jason finds himself struggling to keep his past emotions separated
     from the present when a series of events draws his predecessor into
     his vicinity. Dick Grayson is every bit as sexy, charming, and
     dangerous as he was when Jason first met him, only this time he has
     everything to lose and the thing he wants to protect the most is his
     long lost Little Wing. Turns out that evil might be as cut and dry as
     it seems, but family defies everything.
Notes
     My usual spiel about warnings. Please read. All of the rape/dubious
     consent/underage warnings are in regards to past events. For more in
     depth explanation, refer to the end notes down at the bottom of the
     first chapter. Each chapter will have specific warnings at the top.
     Anything contained in the story isn't necessarily something that I
     condone, just how the story came to the page.
     Thanks for reading :D
     Warnings for Ch. 1: Torture (specifically burning though it's over
     quickly and then referenced use of a heavy object), Aftermath of
     Torture (including hospital time and then chronic pain later in the
     chapter)
See the end of the work for more notes
***** Chapter 1 *****
“When was the treaty signed?” Bruce asked.
“October twenty-sixth,” Jason said.
“Year?” Bruce prompted.
“Eighteen ninety six,” Jason said.
“Very good,” Bruce said.
“In Addis Ababa,” Jason added, after. “It acknowledged the independence of
Ethiopia.”
“You’re starting to show off,” Bruce commented. “But you’re not wrong.”
“All of the studying I did, you should at least ask all the questions,” Jason
said.
“I’d be more impressed if you prioritized the things I told you to study,”
Bruce said.
“I’m improving on my shooting,” Jason said. “My hand to hand combat has gotten
better across the board. My knife work is great.”
“Dick’s was better,” Bruce said.
Jason’s jaw ached with the force of his teeth grating. “I’m working on it.”
“When you’re reminded, when you want to,” Bruce said. His hand settled on
Jason’s shoulder. “You are improving, though. That’s why you’re going to join
me on the next job I take, in an active role.”
Jason’s head popped up. “Really?”
“Really,” Bruce said. “In Ethiopia, actually. We leave in one week.”
“Is that why you had to study all of this?” Jason asked.
Bruce shrugged. “Geography and world history is part of your curriculum. It was
only a matter of time and I believe in the practicality of learning what you
can use.”
It didn’t matter to Jason what Bruce put in front of him. This was better than
the scraps of attention he got in overstuffed classrooms when Mom was still
bothering to send him to school. Before she got too sick to even manage that.
Here Bruce gave him every resource he could want to learn as much about it as
he possibly could. If it came with knife fighting and anatomy lessons and
chemistry lessons to create poisons, so be it. Knowledge was power and power
kept Jason off the streets of Gotham, begging for scraps of food from people
who would kick him into the gutter before they parted with a penny of their
cash.
“Just you and me?” Jason asked, hopefully. Bruce had taken him on missions
before, but always either in a passive role or with Dick there to provide Bruce
the backup that Jason couldn’t be trusted to provide apparently.
“Just you and I,” Bruce confirmed.
Jason grinned. “Do you want to spar?”
“Suddenly eager to get in that practice?” Bruce asked. He huffed. “Go. Get
changed.”
Jason was gone in an instant.
~~~
“Did you know that he was going to have this many men?” Jason asked.
It was unlikely, based on Bruce’s thinned lips and narrowed eyes. There were
dozens of men, not the two or three personal bodyguards that the client had
informed him off. Bruce wouldn’t have taken Jason on this job if he’d had any
idea that there would be so many opponents. Jason was still young and he didn’t
take to his training physically enough for Bruce to feel comfortable sending
him up against dozens of armed men. Not yet.
“I need you to move out of the ventilation system and go to the building across
the street,” Bruce said.
Jason’s whole body tensed. “Bruce, I can handle this.”
This Dick and Jason shared. An inability to listen to any order that Bruce gave
them. If he didn’t want a fight on his hands, something too dangerous for the
situation right now, then he needed to be careful. “I need you to go meet with
the client and tell him that he will pay another twenty thousand for this, or I
will leave immediately. When you get word, contact me.”
“I want to help,” Jason said.
Bruce curled his fingers against the metal of the vent, taking a moment to
breathe and maintain control of his temper. “You will be more help dealing with
the client. Do you think I would send you to deal with the client if I didn’t
think you were capable? I didn’t let Dick deal with clients until he was
seventeen. This is not about your inabilities as a combatant, but my trust that
you will handle this appropriately. Can you do it or not?”
Dick didn’t get to deal with clients until he was seventeen? A grin spread wide
on Jason’s face. “I can do it.”
“Good,” Bruce said. “Then go do so.”
It took Jason about ten minutes to follow their exit plan out of the building’s
ventilation system and then cross the street over to the building on the other
side. It was smaller; only three stories and so sitting in the long shadow of
the building that Bruce was currently hidden away in. Jason passed by the
security with no problems, standing straighter with no small amount of pride at
the small victory.
And getting to do something that even Bruce’s precious golden boydidn’t get to
do at his age?
This mission couldn’t go any better.
Jason checked his cell phone for the time when he stepped into the conference
room that the client had paid for in anticipation of needing a secure place to
speak. It was empty, however, and Jason found himself getting irritated at
being made to wait. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jason knew the client didn’t
know that he and not Bruce had contacted him for this impromptu meeting, he’d
have been offended that the client was making him wait.
“Impatient, boy?”
Jason snapped to attention, looking up at the man entering. He was pale with
dark hair. His eyes were wild and it made Jason’s stomach turn. Even when Jason
had first realized that Bruce was a killer, a murderer for hire, he hadn’t felt
this discomfort around him. “Are you the client?”
“I am,” the man said.
Jason crossed his arms over his chest. “The Bat sent me to renegotiate. It
seems your intelligence was bad. There were five times the men in the room that
you said there would be. You can pay an extra twenty grand or we walk on the
job. You’re lucky that we’re willing to renegotiate at all.”
The door clicked behind the client. “I expected the Bat himself.”
“He has more important things to deal with than you,” Jason said. “Besides, he
trusts me to negotiate for him.”
“Does he?” the man asked, lips splitting into a grin. The fluttering in Jason’s
stomach managed to only get worse.
“Twenty grand,” Jason said. “Take it or leave it.”
Silence filled the space between them. Bruce wouldn’t be happy if they had to
skate on this job after all this time. He was expecting Jason to make this
happen and Jason refused to let him down.
“Fine,” the man said.
Jason barely held back a sigh of relief. When Bruce saw how well he’d done with
this, Jason would get to play a more active role in the jobs they took. Jason
would be just as good as the Golden Boy. Better, even. “Make the payment.”
“Could you help me with the account number again?” the man asked.
Jason huffed and then stalked across the room. He took the phone, snatching it
away from the man. He had this account number memorized. It was how they got
paid, so Bruce made sure that Jason knew it by heart. He punched in the
numbers, mistyping when the client’s hand settled on Jason’s neck. He squeezed
so hard that he pinched the skin and Jason pulled away abruptly. “Don’t touch
me.”
The man’s hand settled to his side. “Apologies.”
“Whatever,” Jason muttered. He really needed to have a talk with Bruce about
taking more care with who they hired. This guy was creepy to the max. Jason
finished typing in the account number and handed the phone back. “Let me see
the confirmation when it’s sent.”
“Of course,” the man said.
Jason blinked a few times, ignoring the throb at the back of his neck where the
man had squeezed. It was stretching into a vicious headache that was making him
see spots in front of his eyes and the room spin.
While they waited for the confirmation, the man kept glancing up at Jason.
Jason sneered. “Take a picture. It will last longer.”
“You’re not looking too good,” the man commented. It was followed by a chuckle.
Jason wasn’t feeling too good either. He braced his hand on the table, hating
how much he was showing by doing so. He just couldn’t stay on his feet without
help any longer. The room was spinning before his eyes.
The throb on his neck grew and Jason reached back, feeling the heat there. The
spot of blood. Jason closed his eyes. “You drugged me.”
“Figured that out all by yourself? I can see why the Bat trusts you,” the man
mocked. Jason tried to move away but the arms around him were the only thing
that kept him on his feet. The arms tightened, squeezing around Jason’s chest
and pinning his arms to his side. “The Bat took something precious from me. I’m
going to return the favor.”
If this man had wanted to take something precious from Bruce, he should have
gone after the Golden Boy. “...Not… going to… get away… with this.”
“I already have,” he whispered, before laughing into Jason’s ear and making his
head explode in pain.
When he woke up, his head was still pounding from the drug pumping through his
system. It throbbed behind his eyes and up and down from the base of his neck
to the top of his head. He rolled his wrists but found them bound. Metal, not
rope. There were disadvantages to both but Jason would have rather found
himself in rope than handcuffs for the moment. He hadn’t perfected the art of
lock picking yet. There was nothing less inspiring than having a time limit set
and having Bruce tell him over and over and over again that he’d lost.
“Wakey wakey.” Jason jerked away from the whispered words in his ear. A hand
settled on his shoulder and then down and around his neck. He was pulled back
until the back of the chair pressed against his shoulders almost painfully.
“You’re not going anywhere, boy. I expect to get my revenge back in full.”
The Bat took something precious from me. I’m going to return the favor.
Bruce had killed someone important to this man. Now Jason was going to pay for
that crime.
“You could start by telling me where your teacher is,” the man said.
“Bite me,” Jason replied.
“I am going to do things far, far worse than bite you,” he said. “Tell me where
he is.”
Bruce would come for him. At this point he had to have long realized that Jason
was missing. He would know it was the client, he would track them both down. He
would rescue Jason and Jason would get a long winded lecture about how to play
it safe and not let clients stab him in the neck with a needle unaware.
Jason would go home.
“I’d tell you,” Jason said. “But then I’d have to kill you.”
Whoosh. The sound was quiet, subtle, but it was enough to make the hair on the
back of Jason’s neck stand on end. His eyes opened and he took in the darkness
of the room. There were florescent lights above, a few of which seemed to
flicker in and out. Jason turned and caught the glimmer of orange and blue.
Some kind of small flame.
“Last chance, boy,” the man warned. “Tell me now and I’ll send your body back
to him in one piece.”
Bruce would come.
“Eat shit,” Jason said, bracing himself for what was coming. It had nothing on
the pain that lit up on his arms when the man pressed the flame against his
bared skin.
~~~
The bloody crowbar was laying at Jason’s feet where the man had thrown it when
he’d grown tired of listening to Jason tell him to go fuck himself in fourteen
different languages. Honestly, Jason wasn’t real confident in his verb
conjugation in Welsh but after taking a crowbar to the head half a dozen times
he would be impressed if the Welsh were confident in their conjugation, let
alone him.
It was hard to tell how long he’d been here. Years. Months. Weeks. Days.
Maybe it was only hours. The longest hours of his life and Bruce had barely
started looking for him.
It could have been a century. It could have been minutes. Nothing mattered,
least of all time.
“Once I was happy, but now I’m forlorn like an old coat that is tattered and
torn,” Jason murmured. The anger rushed up, anger that this was the only song
that he could remember. “Tattered…and torn.” Jason’s lips twisted and he felt
the laughter spill out from between them more than heard it. “Tattered and
torn.”
No one joined his laughter, but the steady drip of the pipe onto the cement
floor had kept him company for all the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,
months, years that he’d been here.
“Left on this world to fret and to mourn,” Jason sang. “Betrayed by a maid in
her teens. The girl that I loved she was handsome, I tried all I knew her to
please. But I could not please her one quarter so well, as the man upon the
trapeze.”
Jason’s head lifted up slowly at a bang at a distance. Something dropped,
something falling. Maybe it would crush the laughing bastard and Jason would
starve to death in here.
That would almost be funny. Starving to death after being tortured for so long.
“He’d fly through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on
the flying trapeze. His movements were graceful, all the girls he did please,
and my love he has stolen away,” Jason said.
Another bang.
Jason blinked down at the bloody crowbar.
“Tattered and torn,” Jason whispered.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Blood was so damn hot. It boiled under his skin and on his skin. It made a
searing little puddle on the floor.
“And my love he has stolen away.”
Bang.
“Tattered…”
Bang. Bang.
“And my love he has…”
Bang.
“Torn…”
Bang.
The drip of the pipe was so loud in the silence. Like tiny mockeries of the
banging. The door creaked as it was swung open, rusting hinges screaming at
being moved. Jason closed his eyes.
Something crackled and then a voice broke through the static. “Status report.”
“One hostile. Terminated. East of the warehouse cleared.”
“West of the warehouse cleared.”
“South of the warehouse cleared.”
Footsteps moved across the floor. Not his footsteps. His footsteps were
lighter. Jason could always hear the skip in his step. He left with a shuffle
but he never failed to come in with his arms swinging and a whistle on his
lips.
“Agent al Ghul?”
Jason cracked one eye open. The legs were thing. Feminine. There was an ankle
holster.
“Agent al Ghul?” the voice prompted.
The static cracked once before the woman in front of him finally responded. “I
need assistance on the north side of the warehouse. I found something. I think
he’s dead.” She had a heavy accent. Jason couldn’t quite place it above the
ringing in his ears.
He lifted his head, looking up at her. She was beautiful. Jason didn’t think
he’d ever seen a woman so beautiful.
“Correction. He is alive. Send a medic to the north side of the warehouse
immediately,” she said. The walkie went back to her hip and she moved around to
his hands. “I’m going to get these off of you. Can you hear me?”
“…tattered and torn,” Jason whispered.
“What was that?” she demanded. She was firm and gentle at the same time.
“My love he has stolen away,” Jason whispered. He cleared his throat. “Who are
you?”
“Agent Talia al Ghul, Interpol,” she said. “Who are you?”
“Jason…” he said. “Jason Todd.”
“We’re going to get you out of here, Jason,” Talia said.
Jason’s chest ached in a way that had nothing to do with his broken ribs. He
felt his eyes sting with tears. “Thank you.”
The cuffs fell off and Jason couldn’t find the energy in himself to stand.
“Thank you,” Jason repeated.
She tried to help him to his feet but Jason was barely halfway to standing when
black blurred his vision.
Tattered and torn.
He hit the ground and then passed out into blessed darkness.
~~~
“What were his injuries?” Jason recognized that voice. Female. Accented. The
woman from the warehouse. It could have been a dream except Jason hurt so damn
bad. Agent Talia al Ghul. His angel.
“There were too many to name.” That voice Jason didn’t recognize at all. It
sounded clipped though.
“Name them anyways, doctor,” Talia said.
A sigh. “He has two breaks in his right arm. Four in his left. There is
significant shoulder damage where it appears that the joint was dislocated
multiple times. He’ll be prone to having it dislocate in the future and might
experience chronic pain there,” the doctor started. Then, “He’ll have a lot of
chronic pain, actually.”
“What else?” Talia demanded.
“There were multiple broken ribs and all the ribs that weren’t broken were
fractured. He has burns up and down his arms and legs. His right foot is broken
in two places. There is significant nerve damage. Scarring on his stomach
indicates that the open wounds are not new. He is malnourished and dehydrated.
There was a skull fracture and evidence of several concussions. A scan of his
brain determined that there was some damage in the areas that control emotion,”
the doctor said. “Broken fingers. Two different strains of infection, one in
his lungs and the other in his blood.” There was a pause. “I would say that
he’ll be lucky to survive but… I’m not even entirely sure that would be a true
statement.”
Jason could have laughed except that he was too tired to and his throat felt so
raw from the constant screaming that it seemed like a pointless exercise to
try.
“Leave,” Talia said.
The footsteps leading out of the room told Jason that the man was smart enough
than to try and argue with her.
“I know you’re awake, Jason.”
The boy sighed and forced himself to open his eyes. “It sounds like I would be
better off to not have woken back up at all. Ever.”
“He should not have said that,” she said.
Jason shrugged and then immediately regretted the action.
“Medical miracles happen every day, Jason. With treatment and physical therapy,
you could lead a relatively normal life,” she said.
Jason snorted. “Save me the spiel, lady. I grew up in the system and it’s going
to eat me alive and spit me out right here and now. I don’t have insurance. I
don’t have a family. I don’t have anything. Which means that somewhere along
the line when it gets too expensive for me to be taken care of I am going to
slip right between the cracks. It’ll be an accident, maybe misfiled paperwork,
but it’ll happen.” He closed his eyes again. “You should have left me there.”
“That man was an international murderer,” she said. “And he has been torturing
you for the past year.”
“You can’t possibly know I was there that long,” Jason said.
“There are broken bones from several years ago,” Talia said. She didn’t go into
more detail. Jason knew, Talia had clearly put it together, so there was no
need to bring up Willis Todd and his stellar parenting. “But then no serious
wounds until about a year ago. We couldn’t know for sure until you woke up and
told us when he took you, but I would gather it was a year.”
Jason absorbed that. He had probably missed his birthday, then. Seemed silly to
care, but Jason rejected the idea that his birthday had passed him by somehow
without him even noticing. “Sometimes I wondered if it was just hours or
decades. I couldn’t… I couldn’t tell.”
“I’m sorry.” She managed to sound sincere.
“It’s not your fault,” Jason said. “It’s mine. I got caught.”
“Do you want to tell me about how you ended up there?” Talia asked. When Jason
only gave her silence, she added, “You can either tell me or the next person
who comes in here asking questions. There are a lot of people very confused as
to how an orphan from Gotham City managed to end up in a warehouse in Ethiopia
with a serial killer.”
“Why were you looking into him anyways?” Jason asked. “I would imagine Interpol
doesn’t usually chase after serial killers.”
“We’d discovered that Mr. Kerr had transferred a large sum of money to a
criminal commonly known as the Bat,” Talia said.
Jason’s expression hardened. “So he gets me into this mess and gets me out of
it.”
“Who?” she asked. “The Bat?”
Jason nodded. He looked down at his hands, the wires connected there, and then
up further to where the IV was dumping antibiotics and fluids into his system.
“He was training me, and then I was stupid enough to get caught.”
In response, there was only silence. It stretched on and on, until Jason looked
up and saw the light in her eyes. “You know who he is?”
Jason’s lips pressed hard against each other. He looked back down and then
nodded imperceptibly.
“Can you tell me, Jason?” Talia asked. Jason shook his head. “Jason, please,
if-“
“I said no.” Jason cut her off. He curled his hands into fists on his lap.
“When the system failed me, the Bat took me in off the street. He gave me an
education, he taught me how to fight so that I could protect myself… No, I’m
not going to tell you who he is.”
“He didn’t rescue you.” That was a cruel reminder.
“He couldn’t find me,” Jason said. “The asshole you killed in that warehouse
told me as much.”
Talia’s nails tapped a quiet beat against the wooden arm of the chair. “I’ll be
back, Jason. If you change your mind, you only have to let us know.”
“I’m not going to change my mind,” Jason said. Bruce wasn’t a good man. He was
a killer and he was practical. Jason was useful because he could learn and he
could be trained and he was so desperate that he had nowhere else to turn.
Jason had no illusions that Bruce would want him now that he was going to be
more of a hassle to take care of than he was worth. It might be worth it to let
him know that he was alive, though. If only so that Jason could quiet that
niggling bit of hope in the back of his mind telling him that maybe Bruce
really had cared more than he let on, maybe he would take Jason in no matter
how useless he was now.
Once Bruce told him to get lost, Jason could never regret not trying.
Jason wasn’t given a phone, but he was visited several times by different men
and women in suits. They asked questions he didn’t answer and seemed to get
angry when he rattled off imaginative insults about their parentage in Somali.
In fact, they’d assumed that he was giving the answers just in a different
language – right up until they brought the interpreter and the man relayed
exactly what Jason was describing that their mothers had used to do.
Jason asked for a book at some point. They gave him one and Jason finished it
the same morning. He started it again when it became clear that no one was
going to replace it. He didn’t bother looking up when Talia came back into the
room. He jolted when the pictures landed on Jason’s lap. It made bones and
muscles ache, sensations he ignored in favor of picking up the photos. “What
are these?”
“The truth about the Bat,” Talia said.
The glossy photos reflected the florescent lights above him, and beneath that
shine was the figure of Bruce. He was careful with the cameras, always so
careful, but it was obviously him. Jason had spent years as his partner, he
could tell.
“What about him?” Jason asked.
A manicured nail pointed to another figure. At first Jason assumed that it was
Dick, but the figure was too short for that and the image was too new for it to
be from the past. Jason had never had that build, so the picture was obviously
recent and not Jason or Dick.
Bruce had taken another apprentice.
Jason’s fingers tightened on the edge of the paper. “Who?”
“We have no idea,” Talia said. “You’d be more likely to know than we would.”
“I haven’t been with the Bat for a year,” Jason said. He threw the photo down
to the edge of the bed. “That could be anyone with him.”
Talia picked up the photo and looked at it herself. “We know it’s not you.”
Salt in the wound.
Jason’s blood pumped, spreading fire through his veins at the thought of being
replaced. “Get out.”
“He traded you in. You were gone and he wasted no time in finding someone else
to take your place,” Talia said.
“Get out!” Jason said.
“Why are you protecting him?” Talia demanded.
The rapid beeping of the monitor keeping an eye on Jason’s vitals should have
drawn a doctor in. Someone had to be keeping them out.
Jason had thrown away the photo but it was too late to prevent the image from
being seared into his mind. The smaller figure. Knowing that Bruce had replaced
him. Had Bruce ever looked?
“I want to be there to take him down,” Jason said.
Talia’s shoulders pulled back. “Jason-“
“No,” Jason growled. “This is how this will work. If you can’t agree and make
the deal, then the deal is off the table. No name for you, and I go die in the
system like I’m intended to. I’m already half trained, probably more than half.
If you pull the right strings, I’ll give you the name. I want in on that take
down, though.”
Talia pursed her lips and then nodded. “Let me see what I can do.”
She left the photo on the foot of his bed.
~~~
Five Years Later…
Jason rubbed his shoulder, digging his fingers in like he could pull the pain
right out. It throbbed somewhere deep in the joint and muscle and sent spears
of pain down his art and across his collar bone. All of it gave him a headache
and finally Jason caved. He opened the bottom cabinet and pulled out a bottle.
Mostly empty, by the rattling sound. He popped the cap off and tipped it over.
Two pills landed in his hand and Jason frowned into the bottle empty bottle.
He’d have to pick up more. Soon, too. Two over the counter painkillers was
barely going to put a dent in the pain left from the torture he’d experienced.
He swallowed them down with the last dregs of lukewarm coffee in his mug and
leaned back in the office chair.
The hand coming down hard on his shoulder made him squeeze his eyes shut. He
didn’t have to look up to recognize the firm grip on his shoulder. “Slade.”
“Kid,” the man replied. Another firm squeeze, fingers digging in a way that
should have been painful but actually managed to do wonders to quiet the dull
throb in Jason’s shoulder. “We got a case.”
Jason heard the slap of papers landing on his desk and opened his eyes as
Slade’s hand moved away. He leaned forward, flipping open the file and taking
in the gruesome photographs on the first page. “Wow.”
“That seems to be the general reaction,” Slade said.
Jason turned the photo over to look at the next one. Considering that Jason had
suffered unimaginable pain, it said quite a bit that Jason felt a bit queasy at
the sight of body. “This is…”
“Alexander Luthor, of LexCorp,” Slade said. “He was found murdered in his
office this morning. The police, of course, are baffled by how anyone could
manage that much carnage.”
“Who said it was any one?” Jason asked. “This could be the work of multiple
people. This could be a science experiment gone wrong, knowing some of the
crazy things that companies like this work on.”
“Lex wasn’t a bad guy. He’d worked with the company several times before,”
Slade said.
“Doesn’t make him a good guy,” Dick said. “Just makes him eager to make money.”
“Lex was one of the good ones,” Slade repeated. Jason flipped through a few
more photos, catching sight of a length of several feet of intestine on the
other side of the room from the body. “Have to be one hell of a science
experiment to go this wrong.”
That was no understatement.
The police report was succinct but dreadfully empty. Some of the writing
wobbled in places, a sure sign of a shaking hand. Jason could understand, and
he’d just looked at the pictures. What little the analysts had managed to piece
together was added after that. Jason scanned them quickly, coming to a stop
when a name listed proved to ring all the wrong sort of bells. “Hell.”
“I told you it was bad,” Slade said.
“No, that’s- I mean, yes. It is bad. I’ve seen somethings almost as bad but I
think this takes the cake,” Jason said. “But that’s not what I was talking
about.”
“What could you have possibly seen even remotely this bad?” Slade asked.
“My…” Jason trailed off, not sure how to describe his relationship to Bruce’s
first apprentice. “Older brother has quite the way with a blade.”
Slade arched an eyebrow but shook his head. “What were you talking about?”
Jason lifted his mug, frowning when he realized that the mug was empty. He set
it to the side and then tapped the name again. “Kal El.”
“So?” Slade asked.
“Bruce took a job from him once,” Jason said.
There was a flash to his eyes; something that happened on rare occasion when
Jason’s past and present somehow crossed paths. Slade was a seasoned agent.
Jason had always known that they’d assigned Jason to him in part to keep an eye
on Jason and in part because there was always a chance that Jason knew things.
Things even he didn’t know he knew. They needed someone sharp enough to catch
those.
“What?” Jason asked, with a sigh.
“We don’t have much information on the man. We’re not even entirely sure that
he is a man. The name popped up around a drug cartel several years back and we
thought nothing of it. Then he expanded his reach. He’s got a finger in drugs,
guns, human trafficking, gambling. It just keeps spreading,” Slade said. “What
do you know about him?”
Sounded exactly like the kind of prime specimen that Bruce took jobs from. “Not
much. It was back when I first started training. I didn’t go on the job and I
was still considered a flight risk so Bruce called Dick back to babysit me.”
“What about the butler?” Slade asked.
“Away on vacation,” Jason said. “Trust me. Bruce wouldn’t have left me with
Dick unless he absolutely had to.”
“Sibling rivalry?” Slade asked.
Jason considered before replying, “Something like that.” Slade didn’t probe.
“Bruce keeps those sorts of files about his clients, even years after he’s
finished the job.”
“Great,” Slade said.
“What about that is great?” Jason asked.
“I don’t think you understand, kid. This man is top ten threats,” Slade said.
“You’re telling me that you know where to get more information about him?
That’s the best kind of news.”
“And you know that after the thing with my replacement, Bruce told me he’d put
me six feet underground himself if he caught me anywhere near Gotham,” Jason
said. “He’s not going to nod his head as I dig through his computer files.”
“Where’s your sense of creativity?” Slade asked. “Close your mouth and use your
brain. Surely that’s not the best plan that you can come up with. You know the
house better than anyone.”
Jason snorted. “Not anyone. Alfred has been there even longer than Bruce has
and Dick-“ He cut off, falling silent.
Slade chuckled. “Got an idea?”
“Shut up,” Jason said, standing.
Slade followed suit.
Roy was most definitely the kind of person to get lost in his work. It was no
surprise to Jason that it took Roy an hour to respond to the message that Jason
had left on his voicemail. “What favor can I do you this time?”
Jason made a face. “I call you for things other than favors.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Jay,” Roy said.
“I do,” Jason defended.
“Alright, fine. What did you want to call about?” Roy asked.
Jason chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Fine. This time I need a favor, but
it’s not like I make a habit of it.”
Roy sighed. “What favor can I do you this time?”
Jason made a mental note to try and call Roy for things other than work. He’d
been getting more absorbed in these cases, trying to get enough to take Bruce
down after his last failure. His personal life had clearly suffered, and Jason
didn’t have much of a personal life to start with. “Dick.”
“I have one,” Roy said. “Are you asking to use it?”
“You’re hilarious,” Jason said dryly. “You know which Dick I’m talking about.
If anyone can find out what jobs he’s been taking, it’s you. I need to know
where to find him.”
“Did the CIA finally greenlight you to put him down once and for all?” Roy
asked. “If that’s the case, I’ll exchange his location for the opportunity to
film it.”
“You’re not supposed to know I work for the CIA,” Jason said.
Roy scoffed. “Okay.”
Jason rubbed his temple. “As a matter of fact, I am not attempting to kill
Dick. I need him to do something for me. The only way to do that is to give him
no other option.”
“Your brother isn’t a kindness from the bottom of his generous little heart
kind of guy,” Roy agreed. “Fine. Whatever. Give me about ten and then I’ll have
his next few locations for you.”
“Thank you, Roy,” Jason said.
“Keep that in mind the next time I need something from you,” Roy said.
Ten minutes later, Jason’s phone buzzed with the next few jobs that Dick had in
queue. Jason pulled up the information they had on each of those people and
weighed his chances in each instance.
“Well?” Slade asked.
Jason set a paper down on his desk. “Dick is going to be attempting to take
this man out in a week. I suggest that we set up shop and wait for him to show.
When he goes in for the kill, we can arrest him for attempted murder. It’s a
lowball, but with enough pressure I think we could probably convince him to get
the information we need without us ever stepping foot in the Manor. He gets a
pardon for his attempted murder and you get Kal El’s information.”
“Let Grayson go?” Slade asked.
“To get the bigger fish,” Jason said. “I thought that’s what you’d want.”
“It is,” Slade said. “But you’ve always been very adamant about putting them
all away.”
Jason clenched his jaw. “I still want to put them away but this is… this is
important. Dickie can slide one more time, and then we can work on them. For
now, Kal El. This is our chance to get the information we need to take him
down.”
“I’ll clear the stake out,” Slade said. “It’s good, kid. Nothing wrong with a
bit of prioritizing. Looks like a pup can learn new tricks after all.”
“That’s not how the saying goes,” Jason pointed out.
“That’s how it works around you,” Slade said, before walking away.
Jason looked down at the paper and then went to clear his schedule for this.
~~~
Dick’s mark wasn’t working with much light, just a desk lamp to illuminate that
part of his office. It gave them enough light to see him bent over the desk and
working. From time to time he would lean back and yawn, only to bend back over
the desk.
“I didn’t ask back at headquarters-” Slade started. Jason sighed before he
could get any further. “But when you were talking about your brother…”
“It’s not like you to be vague,” Jason said.
“Fair enough. What’s the story?” Slade asked.
Jason lowered the binoculars as the man yawned again. “Dick was seventeen when
Bruce took me in. He had already moved out about two or three months earlier,
so I didn’t see him all that often.” Slade didn’t speak. “Bruce didn’t seem to
let go as easily as Dick did.”
“What does that mean?” Slade asked.
“There was always…” Jason trailed off. “Bruce held him up on a pedestal. Dick
is just really good at everything he does. He’s a natural and I was never much
interested in the job.”
“You’re damn good. You were damn good by the time you got handed off to us by
Agent al Ghul,” Slade said.
“Dick is better,” Jason said. “Or maybe he isn’t anymore. I haven’t exactly
gone up against him recently. He was better then, though. Nothing I could ever
do was ever as good as Dick and I resented him for it.”
“So, sibling rivalry,” Slade said.
“Something like that,” Jason said.
Slade arched an eyebrow. “That’s what you said last time.”
“Dick and I were never siblings,” Jason said. “I might call him my brother, we
might have been raised and trained by the same man – but the family thing was
really Bruce. He’s real big on loyalty.”
“How far you’ve fallen from grace,” Slade replied. Jason snorted. “So that’s
it? A little not sibling rivalry and more daddy issues than even I can lay
claim to?”
Jason scowled. “That’s it.”
“I don’t believe you,” Slade said.
In the back of Jason’s mind, he could hear Dick’s husky whisper saying the same
thing. Lips pressed right under his ear, voice hoarse. “It’s the truth.”
Slade hummed and Jason took that as a good opening to lift his binoculars back
up and look at the window. The man hadn’t moved, still bent over the desk.
“Dick needs to make his move quickly. I’m getting tired of waiting.”
“How sure are you that he’ll even come?” Slade asked.
“Positive. He took the first half of the payment. It’s bad business not to
complete a job,” Jason said. “He’ll show.”
“Could he have made us?” Slade asked.
Jason considered and then shrugged. “Maybe. Not likely, but maybe. Even still,
Dick is an adrenaline junkie and he’s good. He’ll show.”
“If he’s so good, how are you so sure that we can catch him?” Slade leaned back
in his chair.
“Because I’ve had a lot of training since Dick last pinned me to the mats, and
there’s two of us,” Jason said. He glanced at his watch. “He should have showed
already.”
“Getting late…” Slade said.
Jason clenched his jaw. “At this point, he has to be inside.”
“We should have seen it,” Slade said.
“He’s good,” Jason said. “Underestimating an opponent is the first step to
making a mistake. Let’s move to the building.”
“If he’s not there, we’ll show our hand,” Slade said.
“He’s there,” Jason said. “I’m telling you, we need to move.”
Slade watched him, piercing blue and then shrugged. “Your call then, kid. Let’s
move.”
The building was mostly shut down for the night. The man in the office was one
of three people left in the building, not including Jason and Slade. Or Dick,
if Jason was right and his brother was still in here.
“This just feels wrong,” Jason said. “He should have been here. If he was
smart, he’d have gone in for the kill ten minutes ago. It’s the most open the
security will be for another hour and then you run the risk of running into the
cleaning crew when they come in.”
“Take a left,” Slade said. “It takes us past the office. We can get a quick
look inside.”
Jason followed Slade’s directions, following him up the stairs. Jason took the
end of the hall and let Slade walk down to look through the window of the
office door.
“God damn it,” Slade hissed, throwing the door open.
Jason frowned and then jogged down the hall after him, stopping in the doorway.
From their position on the other side of the street, it looked like the man was
bent over his desk. From this position, the light from the desk lamp made the
red blood on the throwing knife shine. He would have died instantly, Dick was
an expert with blades.
“Fuck,” Jason whispered. “We missed him.”
“We didn’t even see him,” Slade said. “He wouldn’t have had to do anything but
crack open the door as long as he hit his mark. It’s in the shadows.”
Jason slammed his fist on the desk. Pencils rolled off the sides and the desk
lamp fell over, casting light directly on the blade buried in the man’s heart.
“Damn it.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “He made us. He had to. Dick
loves getting close. He wouldn’t have done this unless he was worried about
getting caught.”
“You can catch the moon glinting off the glass in your binoculars.”
Jason spun and Slade drew his gun. Dick was leaned in the doorway, arms crossed
over his chest. Dressed in black, with his weapons strapped over his body – he
looked lethal. Jason didn’t bother pulling his gun. Dick was close enough to
disarm him before he could get it pulled and then Slade would fire. It could
all too easily turn into a mess.
“You could have been long gone,” Jason said.
“I wanted to see who was trying to catch me in the act,” Dick said. “You can
imagine my surprise when I saw you, Little Wing.”
“This can’t be all that surprising,” Jason said.
“I thought you’d backed off after the last time we ran into each other,” Dick
said. He stepped forward and heard the gun click. The next step was slower and
he lifted his hands up in surrender. “I’m not holding a weapon.”
“That doesn’t make you any less dangerous,” Jason pointed out.
“You’re not wrong,” Dick said with a chuckle. Jason still let him approach,
standing face to face. Just like last time, Jason marveled at the few precious
inches he had over Dick now. “I missed you.”
“I’m here to arrest you, Dick,” Jason said. “You had to know that.”
Dick’s hand settled on Jason’s shoulder and Slade growled. “Get your hands off
of him.”
“You lost your clear shot at me five seconds ago,” Dick said. “If you fire,
you’re going to hit Jason and then I’m going to put you down.” He slid his hand
up around the back of Jason’s neck and then pulled him into a kiss.
Jason should have resisted, but he’d never been very good at telling Dick no.
Dick smiled when he pulled back. “I really missed you, Little Wing.”
“I’m still going to arrest you,” Jason said.
Dick slid gracefully to his knees. His hands moved slowly but finally settled
on the back of his head. “Arrest away.”
Slade stepped forward and Jason stopped him with a hand. “I do this or he’ll
stop cooperating.” He pulled the handcuffs out and tightened them behind Dick’s
back. “Richard Grayson, you’re under arrest. Anything you say can and will be
held against you in a court of law…”
Dick looked like the epitome of calm in the back of the car. Slade frowned. “I
don’t think I’ve ever seen a sibling rivalry that looked like that.”
Jason’s lips still tingled. “Just drive us back. I want this over as soon as
possible.”
***** Chapter 2 *****
Chapter Notes
     I'm alive. Special shoutout to NickyHaunter who is probably 80% of
     the reason you got a chapter today. Merry Christmas, Nicky. Or
     whatever winter holiday you celebrate if you celebrate one.
“Did you miss me, Little Wing?” Dick asked from the backseat.
The radio was so quiet that the song might as well have been white noise for
all that Jason could make out of it. His silence was all the response he
planned to give Dick right up until the man kicked the back of his chair like
an errant toddler.
“I’m talking to you,” Dick said. “I asked if you missed me.”
More silence.
“Little Wing, I’m talking to you,” Dick said. “Please stop ignoring me.”
Jason caught Slade looking at him and averted his gaze, forcing them onto the
dotted yellow line down the center of the road that blurred into a single line
from the speed of the car.
“Jason, you know how much I hate being ignored,” Dick said.
Nothing.
“Why were you looking for me?” Dick asked. When that provoked no response
either, he continued, “Little Wing, what were you doing looking for me?” He
punctuated some of the words with a sharp kick to the back of Jason’s chair,
snarling when Jason didn’t answer. The vicious sound rolled off into laughter
when Jason didn’t bite and then the man turned his attention to Slade instead.
“Who are you?”
Slade glanced at Jason again, who steadfastly ignored him, but then returned
his eyes to the road. “Special Agent Slade Wilson.”
“Special Agent,” Dick repeated, mock impressed. “Do you get the fancy title,
Little Wing? Special Agent Jason Todd.”
No response.
Dick’s smile grew tighter from being ignored. “Little Wing?”
“Yes,” Slade said. “Special Agent Jason Todd.”
“How long have you worked with Jason?” Dick asked, latching on to the person
who was giving him the answers he wanted.
“Since he started with the agency,” Slade said.
“That’s a very long time,” Dick said. “What were you? Thirteen? Seventeen?”
“I was fifteen, dick,” Jason said. “But I’m not surprised that you don’t
remember.”
Dick’s smile widened as he finally got his response. “That’s right. Fifteen.
Kept needling me to teach you how to drive because Bruce was such a stickler
for the rules. Couldn’t have you getting caught driving without a license.” But
had no problem teaching him how to kill. The hypocrisy of it had always seemed
to drive Jason up the wall.
Jason fell silent again.
“It was sweet,” Dick said. “The way you’d beg me just to let you sit in the
driver’s seat, remind me that it would be our little secret. That wasn’t the
only thing that was our little secret though, was it?”
Jason’s teeth grinded together so hard that it was almost audible from Dick’s
placement in the backseat.
“Little Wing,” Dick dragged out the nickname.
Slade’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. “What are you talking
about?”
Dick arched an eyebrow, leaning back against the seat. “I think you know
exactly what I’m talking about, Special Agent Slade Wilson. You work with Jason
every day. He’s a pretty thing, isn’t he? B is good at picking the pretty
ones.”
“Shut up, Dick,” Jason snapped.
“You’ve seen Tim,” Dick continued. “Right, Special Agent Wilson? Hasn’t anyone
ever whispered about what the Bat must have done with his black haired blue
eyed boys? Maybe you’ve considered what a criminal would do left alone with a
helpless boy like that?”
“Bruce wasn’t the danger though, was he?” Jason asked. He didn’t look back but
he didn’t have to. Dick had always been too good at reading him.
Dick leaned forward, feeding on Jason’s expressions and reactions now that
Jason had risen to the bait. “Aw, Little Wing. You did miss me, didn’t you?”
Jason unclipped his seatbelt and twisted. The car gave an anxious little jingle
that was promptly ignored. “I need you to understand what’s happening, Dick.
Look at me. You are being arrested. We have you on murder and now that we have
you, we can break down every door that even looks like it has your name on it.
I’m going to drag all the skeletons out of your closet-“
“Hope you’ve got some time because that is a hell of a lot of skeletons,” Dick
muttered.
“-and I’m going to lay them at your feet until you’re drowning in a sea of
bones,” Jason said. “You could get the needle, Dick.”
With Jason leaned so far into the backseat, Dick only had to lean forward to
steal another kiss. And Jason didn’t pull away, because he couldn’t. He never
could. He inhaled deeply when Dick finally let him breathe again and his eyes
snapped open.
“You won’t let them kill me,” Dick whispered, still close enough to Jason for
him to feel Dick’s breath on his lips with every word.
“You’re wrong,” Jason said. He took a seat again and quieted the beeping of the
car by clicking his seatbelt again. “I hope you realize that soon. Give you
time to accept it.”
“You won’t let them kill me,” Dick repeated.
“I’ll plunge in the needle myself,” Jason lied. Dick knew him so well, too
well.
But Dick fell silent after that.
~~~
Slade had Dick gripped by the shoulder. He squeezed and brought them both to a
stop, putting an arm across Jason’s chest.
“What the hell, Slade?” Jason demanded.
“I’m pulling rank, kid. Go grab a coffee, take a break, you don’t need to be in
that room,” Slade said.
Jason scoffed. “How about you go fuck yourself? This whole thing was me.”
“And you’re too damn close to it,” Slade said.
“You think you’re going to get a damn thing out of me without Jason there?”
Dick asked. He laughed, even as Slade used his grip on Dick’s shoulder to shake
him.
“You wouldn’t have him if I hadn’t served him up to you on a silver platter.
You’re not keeping me out. This is my collar, my family, my call,” Jason said.
“Not today it isn’t,” Slade said. “Back down, or I can go get someone to back
you down.”
Jason’s chest heaved and he curled his lip back. “You son of a bitch.” He cast
a look at Dick and then stepped back. “Fuck you, Slade. This is bullshit.”
Dick watched Jason walk away. He stepped forward, only to be yanked back
against Slade’s chest.
“Kid needs some space to get you out of his head,” Slade said. He pushed on
Dick to get him moving. “You and the Bat really fucked that kid up you know
that.”
“You have no idea who you work with, do you?” Dick demanded. He looked over his
shoulder, but Jason was out of sight.
“I know that he was fifteen years old when you turned him into a killer,” Slade
said. “Anything after that shouldn’t need to come up in a court of law.”
~~~
If the clock on the wall could be trusted for its accuracy, a questionable
statement if there ever was one, then they had kept Dick in here for the past
three hours. Three hours was nothing compared to the hours and hours that Bruce
would have them perched in the most uncomfortable positions, waiting out a mark
in order to complete a job – but that was hunting, stalking prey and knowing
you’d be soaking in their blood made the wait worth it.
Sitting with his hands cuffed to the table and watching the second hand tick
around and around and around the clock was mind numbingly boring.
Dick sank down further into the chair. He wanted Jason back. Seeing the boy,
all grown up now, had been a shock to the system. Little Wing wasn’t so little
any more. There was so much that was different, and yet in the soft press of
lips carrying the faintest taste of ash Dick could find the boy he’d held in
his arms all those years ago. Not so much had changed that Jason didn’t still
touch him gently, firm enough for Dick to remember every grip and embrace but
without any intention to hurt. Jason had always touched Dick like he was
something to be treasured.
Just seeing him had made Dick throw out everything that had changed. As if
Jason hadn’t nearly killed them all, as if he hadn’t orchestrated everything to
get Dick chained to this table, and now Dick was chained to the table and Jason
was describing just how he was going to tear down Dick’s whole world before he
personally put him down like a rabid dog.
Still Dick wanted nothing more than to get on his knees and give Jason every
reason to want to come home.
The door opened and Dick picked up his head. The white haired man, one eye
short of a true death glare, and Dick used the very minimal slack in the chain
to curl his hands together and rest his chin on top. “Get bored looking at my
pretty face?”
“Kind of forgot you were in here to be honest,” Slade said.
Dick’s lips twitched. “That might work on someone else, but I know exactly how
much I make you and your people twitch just being here. I’m the biggest catch
you’ve ever managed to fish out of the river.”
Slade took a seat across from Dick. “We’ve got you on murder.”
“Only because I all but turned myself in,” Dick said. “Credit where credit is
due.”
“Even as we speak, we have agents going to every place you’ve ever laid your
head down,” Slade said.
“Short list,” Dick said. “I don’t make a habit of making myself vulnerable.”
“And yet you turned yourself over to Jason,” Slade said.
It took real effort not to tense at that. “He’s my brother.”
“Never had a sibling myself,” Slade said. “But I don’t know that I’d be
swapping spit with mine.”
Dick shrugged. “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it, I’d say. Might like it more
than you think.”
“Cute,” Slade said. “I think it’s got a hell of a lot less to do with any
familial bond and more to do with whatever you did to Jason’s head.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Dick asked.
“You think I enjoy knowing how much you played with Jason when he was a kid?”
Slade asked.
Dick tugged on the cuffs so that the chains clinked. “I think you enjoy the
idea of justifying his bloodthirst. It’s easier to stomach how much he enjoys
getting his hands dirty if you can blame the Bat or me. Jason cut a man open
from groin to throat because I bounced him on my lap when he was younger. Jason
takes a few extra shots to draw out a death and it’s because I let him warm my
bed a few times?”
“You’re a pedophile,” Slade said.
“And you’re name calling,” Dick replied. “Does that qualify as a legitimate
interrogation technique now?”
“You’re a murderer and a thief-“
Dick arched an eyebrow. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“And you’re going to go down for your crimes,” Slade finished.
Dick hummed, blue eyes scanning Slade’s face for a long moment. “Go down on
whom?”
Slade sneered at the turn of phrase.
“You should have let Jason come in and talk to me,” Dick said. “Let me see
him.”
“No,” Slade said.
“Then I think we’re done here,” Dick said.
Slade crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s not your decision to make. I’m
not going anywhere until I get the information I want.”
Dick shrugged and leaned back in the chair. “I can wait.”
“Can you?” Slade asked.
“I’ve waited for Jason this long,” Dick pointed out.
~~~
“I ordered you a coffee,” Roy said.
“I think I need something stronger than a coffee,” Jason said. “Unless you’re
about to tell me that coffee has a shot of whiskey floating in there, in which
case thanks.”
“Sorry. The barista said they just ran out of Daniels before you got here. Just
straight coffee,” Roy said, pushing the cup closer to him.
Jason dragged a hand down his face but took the cup. He took a sip, grateful
for the bitterness. “Thanks.”
“Anytime,” Roy said. “How did it go?”
“Fine,” Jason said. “We lost the mark but he wasn’t exactly a real winner of a
guy anyways. I’m not broken up about the loss.”
“It’s incredible that they let you keep working for the good guys when you talk
like that,” Roy said.
Jason snorted. “I’m good at what I do.”
“Still…” Roy trailed off.
“We arrested Dick,” Jason said. “He walked right in and just turned himself
over.”
Roy shook his cup, swirling the coffee to pick up the cream and sugar that had
settled at the bottom. “Is that so?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. He rubbed his thumb over the opening at the top of the
plastic lid, picking up the condensation and then sucking it off his thumb.
“He’s not going to cooperate.”
“Of course not,” Roy said.
“I tried to tell Slade. He wouldn’t listen. Told me to get out of there,” Jason
said. “But Dick isn’t going to cooperate.”
“You want my opinion?” Roy asked.
Jason sighed. “I don’t know. Do I want your opinion?”
“Probably not,” Roy said.
“Tell me anyways,” Jason said.
“You’re a glutton for punishment,” Roy replied. He paused and then, “I think
he’s right.”
“Dick?” Jason asked.
“Slade,” Roy said. “I think you don’t need to be in there.”
“He’s not going to cooperate,” Jason said.
“My opinion, my priorities. I don’t care what you are using Dick to get. I know
that he’s no good for you and you’d be better off without him,” Roy said. “So I
think Slade is right. I’d want you as far away as possible from Dick if it was
up to me.”
“It’s not up to you,” Jason said.
“It’s up to Slade,” Roy countered.
Jason’s lips thinned. He took another sip, careful to avoid burning the tip of
his tongue. “He’s not going to cooperate.”
“So you’ve said,” Roy said. “Why don’t you just fucking tell me what’s really
bothering you.”
“That is what’s bothering-“
“Jason,” Roy interrupted. “Be honest with me, and if you can’t do that then
acknowledge that you’re not being honest with yourself.”
Jason’s fingers tapped on the side of the cup. “This whole thing was my idea.”
“And?” Roy asked.
“It’s Dick, damn it. I should be in on this,” Jason said. “Because he won’t
cooperate and because it was my idea and because it’s Dick and that alone
should be enough to earn me the right to sit across from him and get the
answers I want.”
“Even if it’s not good for you?” Roy asked.
“Even then,” Jason said. “Especially then. I want in on this, Roy. This is
bullshit.”
“There was a time when you wouldn’t have let some suit tell you what to do,”
Roy said.
That was back when Jason was young and defiant. Jason’s father had died in
jail, his mother had died from a needle in her arm, and Jason had been on his
own long enough to realize that the system was shit and the people who worked
for it weren’t much better.
“Things change?” Jason asked.
Roy arched an eyebrow. “Do they?”
Jason was quiet. He hated how well Roy knew him, as much as he loved having
someone who knew him so well. “He isn’t going to cooperate.”
Roy finished off his coffee and shook his head.
~~~
“I thought I told you to stay the hell away,” Slade said.
“Fuck off,” Jason snapped. He crossed his arms, looking into the room and
watching some suit try to interrogate Dick. Try being the operative word. Dick
had his head against the table. With the next question, Dick banged his head
against the metal. “I see you’ve had all sorts of luck in my absence.”
“They’ll break him down,” Slade said.
“No they won’t,” Jason said. “Dick is better than that.”
“His patience is wearing,” Slade said, jerking his chin at Dick still banging
his head against the table.
“No it isn’t,” Jason said. “He’s acting. He’s putting on a show so that you
think you’re winning. You’re not going to get anywhere and the longer you put
it off, the more time we waste.”
“You don’t know that,” Slade said.
“I know him better than any of you do, and I know when he’s acting. He’s
acting,” Jason said.
“Let him in.”
Jason very rarely interacted with anyone above Slade. Slade was Jason’s
handler, for all intents and purposes. Slade dealt with the big wigs and Jason
just tried not to piss anyone off so badly he wasn’t allowed to stay on the
field. It worked for them, but it meant that Jason didn’t even recognize this
woman.
Slade sure as hell did though. “I don’t think that’s all that wise, to be
honest.”
“I don’t remember asking if you thought it was wise, Special Agent Wilson,” she
replied. “Let him in.”
A tic worked in Slade’s jaw. He pushed a button below the two way mirror,
however, and the man inside stood.
“This conversation isn’t over,” the agent said.
“I am desperately looking forward to your return,” Dick said dryly.
Dick laid his head down against the table after the door closed.
“What?” the agent demanded. “I was making progress.”
“You weren’t making shit,” Jason said.
The agent stiffened. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
Jason pushed the agent to the side and put his hand around the doorknob. He
hesitated only for a moment, and then twisted it to open the door.
“You’re back soon,” Dick said.
Jason closed the door behind him. “A little bird told me that you asked for
me.”
Dick snapped up so quickly that Jason thought he might need to worry about
whiplash. “Jay…”
“It was starting to look like you might just crack,” Jason said.
Dick’s nose wrinkled. “You know me better than that, Little Wing. I could have
waited them out easy.”
Jason knew it, but he liked knowing that he was right and he liked other people
knowing he was right even more.
“We need to talk, Dick,” Jason said. He took a seat across from Dick.
“I think you’ve done enough talking,” Dick said. “You made your stance pretty
clear in the car. Pulling out all my skeletons, setting me up for the death
penalty.”
“Bruce would pull you out,” Jason said.
“Bruce might decide that if I can get myself into a situation I can pull myself
out,” Dick said.
“Is he right?” Jason asked.
“I suppose we’ll see,” Dick said.
Jason tapped his fingers against the table. “What if we didn’t have to?”
“What if you came home and joined your family again?” Dick asked.
Jason’s hand curled into a fist. “We were never family, Dick.”
“Sure we were. Maybe not the conventional use of the word but we were family,”
Dick said. “I’m still your big brother, Little Wing. No matter how many times I
bent you over and-“
“Dick,” Jason snapped, uncomfortably aware of Slade and the head honcho and the
agents on the other side of the glass. “Drop the act. I deserve better because
I know you.”
Dick’s easy smile faded. The sparkle of light in his eyes disappeared and all
that remained was a penetrating blue eyed gaze. “You want reality, Little
Wing?”
“Yes, Dick, I would,” Jason said.
Dick pushed down with both hands on the table and vaulted over  to slam his
foot into Jason’s chest. Jason’s chair tipped back and he hit the ground hard,
not having a chance to get up before Dick’s hands came down on either side of
Jason’s head. The chain pressed down against Jason’s neck, digging into the
skin and forcing Jason to tip his head back. Dick uncurled his fingers on one
hand and let the screws roll across the floor.
“What did you use to get the look unscrewed from the table?” Jason asked, much
calmer than most would have been in the situation.
“The side of the handcuff,” Dick said.
“Just like Bruce taught us,” Jason said.
Dick’s smile was all teeth, predatory and threatening. “Guess you haven’t
forgotten everything.”
“I haven’t forgotten anything,” Jason said.
“Where are the keys?” Dick asked, eyes flicking to the door.
“They’re not coming in. You could kill me before they made it through the door
and they know it,” Jason said.
Dick didn’t trust him. He used to. “Where are the keys?”
“Left pocket,” Jason said. He’d plucked them from Slade’s pocket out there, in
case he needed to leverage some favor with Dick. Looks like that was a good
plan.
Dick sat back, digging his hands into Jason’s pocket to pull out the keys.
Jason stayed still until Dick had the first wrist unlocked and then sat up and
slammed his fist into Dick’s cheek. Dick’s head snapped to the side and Jason
rolled them over. He caught the free cuff in his hand and yanked, pulling
Dick’s remaining trapped wrist with the action. Dick followed the motion and
let Jason provide the majority of the force behind the punch he delivered to
his face. He followed it with an elbow that caught the corner of Jason’s eye.
The scuffle brought Jason under the table and he kicked out. Dick caught the
ankle and yanked. Jason heard a loud pop and worried for a moment that Dick had
just dislocated his ankle. There was no pain, however, and Jason caught on
belatedly that it was his own damn thumb that Dick had dislocated so he could
escape the cuffs.
He stood and Jason watched the door open. Dick kicked it closed before they
could get it open enough to keep him from doing so and then propped Jason’s
fallen chair under the handle. Someone threw their body against the door and it
jolted but the chair held.
Dick popped his thumb back into place and then his eyes snapped over to Jason.
He grabbed Jason’s ankle again and surprise kept Jason from crawling back fast
enough to keep from getting dragged over. Dick grabbed the front of his shirt
and dragged Jason up to his feet, pressing his back against the mirror.
Another thump against the door and Jason could make out Slade’s muffled
shouting. It was sort of distant, though, and quiet compared to his and Dick’s
heavy breathing. “Dick-“
“Shhh,” Dick whispered. He tugged Jason’s shirt out from where it was tucked
into his pants and then fingers ghosted over the skin there.
“Dick,” Jason said. He wrapped both hands around Dick’s wrist, the one with a
death grip on Jason’s shirt. “Dick, stop.”
“You wanted to talk, Jason,” Dick said. “You wanted me to stop acting. Then
talk, but then we’re going to have a conversation the way I want to have a
conversation. Now, what was this about not needing to pull all my skeletons out
of the closet?”
This close, Jason was so overtaken by the memory and how little Dick had
changed. He was still so damn beautiful. Most men couldn’t be called beautiful
the way Dick could, not without looking feminine. Dick could have had statues
carved from marble in his honor and they would have fit in among the sculptures
of Adonis.
“We have a bigger fish to fry,” Jason said. He shouldn’t be letting Dick in on
the plan already, but it was hard to think when Dick was so goddamn beautiful
right in front of his face and his fingers were tracing each new scar like Dick
was committing each one to memory. “We need access to Bruce’s information, and
you’re the only person I knew who could get it.”
“You thought I’d get you in for a pardon?” Dick asked.
“No,” Jason admitted. That answer brought a small smile to Dick’s lips. “But I
had to tell the agency something.”
“Then what did you think was going to happen?” Dick asked.
“This,” Jason said. “Or something else. I hoped you would do it for me.”
Dick’s fingers dug in and Jason clenched his jaw at the pain. “I’m not a toy
for you to play with, Little Wing.”
“I never thought you were,” Jason said. He closed his eyes when Dick popped
open Jason’s pants and let his fingers move lower. “Dick-“
“Jason,” Dick countered.
“Bluebird,” Jason whispered.
Dick’s fingers stilled. “You haven’t called me that in a long time.”
Jason hadn’t been touched by Dick in a long time either.
“You could have just asked,” Dick said.
“I didn’t think you would say yes if I just asked,” Jason said. “It’s been a
long time.”
Dick pulled his hand away and Jason throbbed at being abandoned. “What happens
when you catch your big fish?”
“Nothing,” Jason said. He met Dick’s gaze. “Things go back to the way they
were.”
Dick blinked and then stepped back, laughing. The smile was so bitter, though.
“Fuck you, Jason. Fuck you.”
Jason didn’t meet his eyes, focusing on zipping up his pants again and fixing
his shirt as best he could.
“I don’t know what’s worse,” Dick said. “That you think I’ll follow your Pied
Piper and give you what you want for nothing or…”
“Or?” Jason asked, when Dick trailed off.
Dick spread his arms out. “Or that you’re right.” He kicked the chair away from
the door so the others could step in. He lifted his hands up, knowing it
wouldn’t be long before they put him back in cuffs. “Fuck you, Jason.”
Jason couldn’t even argue.
***** Chapter 3 *****
Chapter Notes
     I meant to post this last night, trying to stick to a Tuesday update
     schedule where /something/ gets posted every Tuesday but then I
     forgot.
     On my second week.
     Wish me luck next week. Hope you enjoy.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Grayson,” she said. Dick rolled his eyes. “My
name is Adeline Kane, acting Director of Operations.”
“I didn’t ask because I didn’t care,” Dick said.
Director Kane leaned against the table. “Mr. Todd claims that you’re willing to
cooperate.”
“I am,” Dick said. “I’ll get you the information you need and then I walk.
That’s the deal we agreed to.”
“Then a bit of respect wouldn’t be out of the question,” she said.
Dick tipped the chair back. “I have a very short list of people I respect,
Director Kane. I respect Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, and my Mom and Dad –
may they rest in peace. If you were paying attention you’ll notice that you’re
not on that list so you don’t get to tell me what to do.”
Her fingers curled around the edge of the table and a pair of champagne glossed
lips pressed together. “Mr. Grayson-“
“Dick,” Jason said.
“I don’t owe her anything,” Dick said. He lifted his wrists so that the chains
jangled. “I have played ball for you, Little Wing. Time to meet me halfway.”
Jason blew out a breath and elbowed Slade in the side. The man narrowed his
eyes on Jason. “What?”
“Unlock him,” Jason said.
“Fat chance,” Slade grumbled.
Jason lowered his arm. “Slade, he’s right. He’s worked with us-“
“So far all he’s done is kill someone, mock us, and molest you,” Slade said.
“He hasn’t proven his worth in the least.”
“Molest is a pretty strong word,” Dick said.
“Enough,” Director Kane said. “Special Agent Wilson, unlock the prisoner.”
“Excuse me?” Slade demanded.
“I don’t like to repeat myself,” she said.
The silent stare down between them was palpable. Dick leaned forward. “She
doesn’t like to repeat herself, Special Agent Wilson.”
The sound of Slade grinding his teeth together was audible. He pulled the keys
out and handed them to Jason. “Here. Hope you don’t regret it.”
Jason reached over and unlocked Dick’s wrists which the man proceeded to rub.
“Listen, Dick, we need you to go back to Bruce and get the information. Then
you come back, turn it over, and we’re done.”
“We’ll assign you a chaperone,” Director Kane said.
“A chaperone,” Dick repeated. “No.”
“It wasn’t optional,” she replied.
“Then I’m taking Jason,” Dick said.
Jason stiffened. “No. I’m not going back home with you.”
“Damn straight you’re not,” Slade muttered.
Dick shrugged. “Then I go alone.”
“No,” Director Kane said.
Dick dropped his hands into his lap. “Jason, no one, or no information. You
can’t force me to go home and get the information.”
“I can press charges against you,” she said.
Dick snorted. “Go ahead. If I die, you and your people will still not have the
information that you need.”
Director Kane took a deep breath. “Mr. Grayson, this is not something that I
can compromise on. You cannot be unattended. Jason cannot go with you.”
“Then good luck getting the information you need,” Dick said. “You’re not going
to get it from me.”
Director Kane straightened. “Special Agents Wilson and Todd, if I can speak
with you outside.”
“I take it I’m not invited?” Dick asked.
He was promptly ignored as Slade stood and followed, and Jason stood and
followed right after that.
Jason shut the door behind him. “He’s not playing around. He’ll wait us out.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Director Kane said.
“Doesn’t mean we just bend over and let him screw us from behind. He can’t be
trusted,” Slade said. “He’ll sooner turn on us than aid us in a damn thing if
we let him go alone.”
“Alone wasn’t our only option,” Director Kane said. Her eyes went to Jason who
immediately tensed up.
“No,” he said. “I know what you’re thinking and I’m not running him back to
Bruce.”
“He’s not going to let us put anyone else on him, and Special Agent Wilson is
right,” she replied. “If we let him go on his own, he’ll turn on us.”
“Bruce will slaughter me if I go back,” Jason said. “You’re sending me on a
suicide mission.”
“I have no doubt that you are fully capable of protecting yourself, Special
Agent Todd,” Director Kane said.
Slade shook his head. “The kid is right. The last time we tried to get Wayne
with the kid, it damn near cost us our lives. I’m not sending him back to that
psychopath, or with the sick fuck we have locked up in that room.”
Director Kane narrowed her eyes at Slade. Jason watched her eyes. They were
calculating, considering, and Jason knew he wasn’t going to like whatever she
had to say before she even opened her mouth. “It’s not your call, Slade.”
“Addy-“
“No,” she said. Jason flickered his eyes between the two, catching the use of
familiar names and wondering what that could mean before she continued.
“Special Agent Todd, this is a direct order. You are to accompany Mr. Grayson
to get the information we need and then return.”
“Barring my death,” Jason muttered. “Which would definitely inhibit my ability
to do that for you.”
“I have full confidence in you,” she said. “Special Agent Wilson, prepare them
and then send them on their way. I want this whole ordeal done as quickly as
possible. Am I understood?”
Slade’s lips thinned and Jason could see the rage held back behind his good
eye. He cleared his throat, stepping in between them so that Slade wouldn’t get
into trouble. Jason knew there had been times that Slade put his ass in the
sling so that Jason could avoid getting the third degree from the red tape
committee – time for Jason to return the favor. “We understand, Director.”
“Good,” she said, never removing her gaze from Slade. She turned on her heel
and walked away.
Jason elbowed Slade in the chest. “What was that about?”
“What was what about?” Slade asked gruffly. Jason wasn’t fooled for a second.
“Addy?” Jason prompted. “I’m not deaf or stupid, believe it or not.”
“Could have fooled me on the stupid, boy,” Slade said. Jason arched an eyebrow.
Slade shook his head. “You got your secrets, kid. I’ve got mine. You ready for
this?”
“Not even a little,” Jason replied. He glanced back at the room and Dick
twirling the now unlocked cuffs around his finger.
Walking back in had Dick perking up and setting the cuffs down. “Looks like you
forgot someone.”
“Director Kane had more important things to deal with,” Slade said. This
response earned him a childish tongue out from Dick. “We’ve made a decision on
your condition.”
Dick’s lips quirked, leaning back against the chair. “You’re gonna give me
Jason, aren’t you?”
Somehow, Jason thought Slade looked angrier than Jason felt. Jason just sighed
and replied, “Yeah, Bluebird. You win.”
Dick grinned wider. “I love it when people gift wrap my favorite things for
me.”
Slade slammed his hands down on the table, standing and leaning over to get
right in Dick’s face. The man in question blinked up at him, but Jason could
see the tension and wariness in the way he held his body still. “Listen here,
you crazy son of a bitch - you let something happen to him and nothing, not any
deal you made with Jason or the CIA or whatever protection you think the Bat
can provide you is going to protect you from what I have in store for you. He
better come back to me in one piece or I’ll skip the lethal injection, the
electric chair, and a damn noose and go back to burning you at the stake like
the unnatural demon that you are.”
Dick closed the gap and pressed their mouths together, wrapping his fingers
around the back of Slade’s neck to pull him close and then dominating the kiss
with his tongue. Slade managed to yank back but not before Dick caught his
bottom lip between his teeth and drew blood that Slade wiped away with the back
of his hand. Dick licked the smear of red off his lip and chuckled. “I can’t
tell if you want to fuck Jason and you’re jealous, or you’re trying to
supplement yourself as a father figure. Maybe it’s a little of both? That’s
kind of kinky.”
Slade inhaled and Jason reluctantly stepped in before this got out of hand.
“Slade, it’s fine.”
“It’s far from fine,” Slade ground out.
“He’s playing games with you. This is what he does. Just let it go,” Jason
said. “Trust me. I’m used to dealing with him.”
“That’s the fucking problem,” Slade said. “That’s the goddamn fucking problem.”
Jason didn’t have a good response to that, just watched Slade leave and slam
the interrogation room door behind him.
~~~
Dick crossed his legs and stretched out as much as the seat would allow him
too. He grumbled when that space wasn’t far enough to satisfy Dick’s need and
wrinkled his nose in distaste. “I can’t believe your employers couldn’t spring
for first class.”
“We have budgets,” Jason said. “Those budgets don’t cover paying for criminals
to fly in luxury.”
A baby from the front started screaming and Dick widened his eyes and then
slowly turned his head to glower at it. Jason rubbed his temples. “Sorry, Dick,
but you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
“How have you lived like this for the past five years?” Dick asked, dragging
his eyes away from the crying infant.
Jason snorted. “I don’t mind crying babies?”
“I don’t mind them either, as long as they’re not joining me on a several hour
long flight,” Dick said.
Jason took off his suit jacket and left it to lie in the seat behind him,
loosening his tie in order to get comfortable. “Relax, Dick. It’ll be over
before you know it. Watch a movie to keep yourself entertained.”
Dick watched him the whole time and Jason wasn’t going to comment on it, but
Dick had to open his mouth. Some things never changed. “You look good, Little
Wing.”
“I’m not going there, Dick,” Jason warned.
“Going where?” Dick asked. He sounded sincere enough that Jason actually looked
at him, only to scowl when he found the mischief in Dick’s eyes. Jason looked
away. “Little Wing, don’t ignore me. I hate being ignored.”
“You know what I’m talking about,” Jason said, keeping his voice low as to not
bother the other passengers. “Every snide comment and mention of the past,
fondling me in the interrogation room – I’m not sleeping with you again, Dick.
If you think that’s where this is going, it’s not. What happened in the past is
because I was too young to know any better.”
Dick rolled his eyes and leaned back. “They hire a shrink to tell you that?”
“Yes, actually,” Jason said. “Believe it or not, after being tortured for as
long as I was they make that mandatory before they let you carry a gun. So I
got to deal with that and the history with my dad and then got to share my
stories of being molested as a teenager by my adopted brother.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds bad,” Dick said.
“That’s because it was bad,” Jason said.
“I didn’t rape you,” Dick said.
“I never said you did,” Jason replied. “I consented but I wasn’t old enough-“
“You climbed into my lap and forced your tongue down my throat,” Dick said.
“You didn’t just consent, it was all your idea.”
Jason’s lips pressed together. He curled his hand around the armrest of the
seat. “I was fifteen.”
“I remember,” Dick said.
“You were twenty two,” Jason said.
“I remember,” Dick said.
“You should have known better,” Jason said.
Dick rolled his eyes again. “Why should I deny myself when you were so eager?”
“Because I was a child,” Jason said.
“You were fifteen,” Dick said. “And you had already made your first kill. You
had seen people taken advantage of on the street before Bruce scooped you up
out of the gutter so don’t pretend that you didn’t know what you were doing
when you crawled into my bed and begged me to-“
“Would all passengers please buckle their seatbelts? We’re about to take off.”
Jason looked up at the blinking red seatbelt light at the front. “I wanted to
bring you down.”
“And I let you,” Dick said. “Even after you ran to Bruce the first time and
told him how far I had fallen for a gangly little fifteen year old kid. Even
after Bruce kicked me out, I still helped you sneak out and drag me down
further. Maybe I should have known better, but you don’t get to wear a halo and
call yourself a martyr.”
A silence slammed between them and Jason forced himself to relax his grip on
the arm rest before the plastic snapped.
The plane grumbled as it started moving along the runway. Jason exhaled
sharply. “You realize Bruce is going to try to kill me when we get there,
right? I tried to kill all of you.”
“You know I won’t let that happen,” Dick said. “Your whole plan revolves around
knowing you’ve got me wrapped around your finger.”
“You’re not infallible,” Jason said.
Dick chuckled. “It never even occurred to you that I might just not try to
protect you, would it? Your concern was honestly just that Bruce might best
me.”
Jason looked at Dick and didn’t like the guilt twisting in his stomach. Looking
away, however, just made Dick laugh harder.
“You really have them fooled back there, don’t you? Poor little victim Jason
Todd who was bad touched and left to be abandoned and forced to kill,” Dick
said, mocking voice. “Nothing about how much you liked sucking me off or asking
me to fuck you in the same room as the body you’d just slaughtered?”
Jason clenched his jaw.
“Yeah, Little Wing. I missed you too,” Dick said. He leaned back against the
chair again and closed his eyes. “Wake me when we land.”
~~~
Jason’s skin itched just looking up at the place. “In and out, Dick.”
“You’re cute when you get all demanding,” Dick said. “I don’t take orders from
you.”
Jason slid his hands into his pockets as Dick walked up and pressed his finger
against the doorbell. From outside, Jason heard the tune signaling a visitor
proceeding the footsteps walking across the wooden floors of the entryway. The
door opened and Alfred stopped in the doorway. “Master Jason.”
“Hi, Alfred,” Jason said softly.
“Hello, Dick,” Dick said sarcastically. “Good to see you too.”
Alfred’s expression tightened. “Of course, Master Richard. I didn’t mean to
ignore you.”
Dick shrugged. “It’s fine. I brought home the prodigal son. I didn’t expect
anything else.”
Alfred stepped back, holding the door open. “Please, both of you come in.”
Dick did, pulling off his coat, and Jason followed. When Alfred held out his
hand for Jason’s suit jacket as well he shook his head. “We’re not staying
long.”
“What he means is that he’s carrying a weapon and doesn’t want Bruce to know,”
Dick said.
Jason pressed his lips together. “Thank you, Dick.”
Dick saluted and walked past Alfred. “Something smells good.”
“Lemon and herb grilled salmon,” Alfred said. “I’ll go add to the pan for the
two of you.”
“Thank you,” Dick said.
“We’re not going to be staying for dinner,” Jason pressed. “Dick, we talked
about this.”
“You talked about this,” Dick said. “I’m staying for dinner.”
Jason felt his eye twitched and rubbed it with his fingertips as he followed.
“Bluebird-“
Dick turned and grabbed Jason’s shirt to shove him into the wall. “Are you
honestly about to try and sweet talk me?”
Jason looked down into Dick’s eyes and then felt his shoulders droop. “Dinner,
Dick. Then we have to leave.”
Dick nosed against Jason’s neck and then dragged his teeth against his neck.
The wet heat of his tongue pressed against Jason’s rapid pulse and then pulled
away. Jason leaned forward to chase after it before he could even think about
it.
“Dick…” Jason said, begging under his breath. Jason wasn’t even sure what he
was begging for. “Please.”
“We’re staying tonight,” Dick countered. “And we’ll leave tomorrow.”
Jason closed his eyes and then tipped his head back against the wall. He
nodded, stiffly at first and then stronger.
“Good boy,” Dick said, patting Jason’s cheek. He pulled back.
“Grayson?”
Jason looked over Dick’s shoulder. Talia’s nose and lips, Bruce’s everything
else. No denying who the kid belonged to, and Jason had doubted the stories.
“Hi, Little D,” Dick said.
“Who is this?” Damian asked, stepping close enough to Dick for the man to wrap
his arms around him. Jason swallowed back the jealousy. He refused to be
jealous of a thirteen year old embracing his older brother.
“Jason Todd,” Dick said. He looked back at Jason. “I know. He’s grown up a lot
since we took the pictures you’ve seen.”
For someone so small, this news gave Damian a presence that made even Jason
wary. He didn’t move as Dick set his chin on the top of Damian’s head but he
did manage to shoot a death glare at Jason. “The same Todd who nearly killed
you and Father?”
“And Tim,” Dick helpfully pointed out.
Damian sneered. “At least if he had rid us of Drake it would have been a
blessing.”
“Why would you bring him here, Dick?” Tim asked, also stepping into the room.
There had been a time when Jason was healing from his wounds and confined to a
hospital bed and watched a week marathon of animal documentaries. There had
been an African themed day where Jason had watched a gazelle hunted down by a
pack of cheetahs, surrounded and then made to run until it was ripped to
shreds.
The comparison did not fall short on Jason.
“We won’t be here long,” Jason managed.
“Is that so?” Tim asked.
Jason looked at Dick and then cursed himself in his head for the way it almost
looked like he was asking permission.
Almost. Hell, who was he kidding?
“Yes,” Dick said, lips quirking. He never took his eyes off Jason. “Just
tonight. I’ll come back for another visit when I’m done helping Jason.”
“Does Father know?” Damian asked.
“Not yet,” Dick replied.
Damian’s own lips curved into a grin, but this looked less like Dick’s
indulgent if smug smile and more like the Cheshire cat in the tree giving Jason
bad directions. “I volunteer to tell him that the traitor has returned.”
The boy didn’t get a foot away before Dick snagged the back of his shirt collar
and pulled him back. “No, Damian.”
“Welcome back,” Tim said.
Jason shrugged his shoulders trying to relieve the tension. “I’m not back.”
“So far,” Tim said.
“Give us some space,” Dick ordered. “I need to speak with Bruce before we
surprise him at dinner. I’ll speak with both of you soon.”
Damian didn’t seem pleased by this turn of events but pushed Dick’s hand away
on his collar and nodded. “Leave, Drake.”
Tim made a face but walked out at the same time as Damian.
“Jealous?”
“No,” Jason said instantly.
Dick smirked. “Yes you are.”
“You have a job to do,” Jason reminded him. “We had a deal.”
“I know what I’m doing and doing it right means going up and letting Bruce know
that you’re here,” Dick said.
Jason grit his teeth until his jaw ached. “Dick-“
“Jay,” Dick interrupted.
“Dick, do you want him to kill me?” Jason demanded.
“Don’t throw a tantrum. It’s not attractive,” Dick said. He turned and headed
for the stairs and left Jason no choice but to follow.
Jason jogged after Dick, grabbing his hand and pulling Dick close enough to
feel his breath against his lips. “What do you want?”
Dick’s eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?”
“This whole thing about demanding we stay,” Jason said. “You’re after
something.”
“Dinner?” Dick asked.
Jason growled and slammed Dick into the wall. “You’re not cute.”
“I am adorable,” Dick said, reaching up to rub the back of his head.
“What do you want?” Jason demanded.
“I want to see my family and watch you squirm for the hell you’re putting me
through,” Dick said. Jason’s hand wrapped around Dick’s neck but all Dick did
was tilt his head back. “You won’t hurt me, Little Wing.”
“You keep saying that,” Jason said.
“Because I know it’s true,” Dick said. “Either do it or let go so we can see
Bruce.”
Jason squeezed, dug his fingers in and tried to leave bruises because he knew
the truth as well as Dick did. He stepped back and let Dick massage his neck.
“Feel better?” Dick asked.
Not even a little. “Let’s just go see Daddy Dearest so I can get the hell out
of here.”
Dick opened the study door.
Bruce looked up and then did a double take. “Dick.” The shift from pleasant
surprise at seeing his oldest to red tinged fury at Jason’s presence behind him
was like an electric jolt straight through the air.
“Nice to see you too,” Jason muttered.
“You have some nerve showing your face here,” Bruce said. He stood and
sidestepped the desk.
Jason took a step back and reached for the gun at his hip out of instinct. Dick
moved faster. He always moved faster. Jason was suddenly pinned against the
wall with Dick’s back pressed against his front and his shooting hand tangled
with Dick’s fingers.
Jason swallowed a groan as Dick’s ass pressed against him and Jason remembered
every reason he kept going back to Dick when he was younger.
“Bruce,” Dick said, drawing the name out. “Jason isn’t here to fight. We came
to visit.”
“The last time we saw him, he nearly killed all of us,” Bruce said.
“And the last time he saw us, we nearly killed him and his partner,” Dick said.
“All is fair in love and war.”
“What is he doing here?” Bruce demanded.
“Keeping me company,” Dick said, using his grip on Jason’s hand to place it on
his hip and then slide it down. Jason swallowed and focused very hard on
staying focused. It didn’t work.
Bruce’s eyes followed the hand and then snapped up to Dick’s face. Then
Jason’s. “You know how I feel about this, Dick.”
Dick let go but this time Jason didn’t reach for the gun. He knew better. Dick
was protecting him, just like he’d promised. Jason could trust him, or he could
let Bruce call the dogs and outnumber him to take him down. And Jason had a bad
history of giving Dick control when he shouldn’t anyways.
“Do you think you have any place to judge?” Dick asked. He stepped away from
Jason but didn’t move out of Bruce’s way to him. “Don’t answer that.”
Bruce narrowed his eyes on Jason and then tore them back to Dick. “Don’t let
him abuse this.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Dick said. He tilted his head towards the door and
Jason took the permission to walk out of the room. Dick followed.
“Bastard,” Jason breathed.
Dick set his hand against Jason’s lower back. “What did you expect, Jason?”
Home.
“Nothing,” Jason said.
“Liar,” Dick said.
Jason knew it was a bad idea to come back. “I tried to kill you all. I expected
nothing.”
“You wanted him to take you back,” Dick corrected.
“I want him to burn in hell,” Jason snapped.
Dick shrugged. “Yeah, but you also wanted him to take you back.”
Jason sucked in a breath that made his lungs burn. “Dick…”
Dick kissed the back of Jason’s neck. “I know, Little Wing.”
Jason whimpered, bracing his hand against the wall as he tried to get himself
under control.
~~~
Dinner was tense. Jason tethered himself to the scrape of forks against the
plates and the scent of lemon clinging to the air long after the dinner was
eaten – the warmth of Dick’s hand on his knee throughout dinner.
“Jason?”
He looked up, attention pulled back to the moment at the mention of his name.
He wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin provided on the table. “Yes?”
“I asked if you enjoyed dinner,” Dick prompted.
“Yeah,” Jason said. “It was good.”
“Good,” Dick said. It was phrased in a way that sounded too much like praise
and Jason’s chest ached.
Jason pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. The Manor might as well
be an insane asylum for the way Jason was feeling. Dick’s fingers stroked
through Jason’s hair. Jason simultaneously wished that he would just stop
touching him and put him on the table and actually follow through on all this
touching.
It was a dangerous line of thinking.
“I’m going to excuse myself,” Dick said. “Jason, would you like to come with
me?”
“Yes,” Jason said, breathing out the word in a sigh of relief.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Dick said to the table at large. “Come on,
Little Wing.”
Jason followed him out, half in a haze. “I hate this house.”
“No you don’t,” Dick said.
“I can’t…” Jason trailed off.
Dick took Jason’s hand, pulling him close. “Yes. You can.”
“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” Jason said, pushing Dick away.
“I can’t be here,” Dick said. “I can’t deal with them. I can’t be around you. I
can’t do this again. I can’t breathe, think, be. Am I getting close?”
Jason squeezed his eyes shut, a mistake. Dick pressed their lips together,
guiding Jason’s mouth open to push his tongue in and taste every inch of
Jason’s mouth. “Dick…”
Dick smothered his protest with another kiss. Jason’s chest ached from lack of
air and yet it felt perfect. Nothing was as good as this. Dick’s hand let go of
Jason’s and slid up to cup Jason’s cheek instead. The wall fell away behind
Jason and he realized that Dick had pressed him up against Dick’s old bedroom
door.
Dick sucked on Jason’s neck at the same time he kicked the door shut with a
sharp crack of his heel. “Strip, Little Wing.”
“I told you that I wasn’t doing this again,” Jason breathed. He didn’t pull
away, though. He didn’t say to stop.
He didslide his hand up under Dick’s shirt and over the planes of smooth skin
and taut muscle.
“Strip, Little Wing,” Dick ordered.
Jason groaned. “Bluebird…”
Dick chuckled against Jason’s neck. “That’s right, Jay. Now strip for me.”
Jason let Dick suck his soul out through a kiss again and then tugged at the
hem of his shirt.
Dick shoved him back against the bed, crawling on after him and straddling
Jason’s waist. Nimble fingers started at the bottom to meet Jason’s as he
worked the buttons from the top. Jason struggled with the last one until Dick’s
impatience got the best of them and Jason heard the button bounce off the wall
and then disappear somewhere in the room.
The shirt fell open and Dick dragged his fingers over skin and ragged scar
tissue. Jason closed his eyes so he didn’t have to look at the mess of his body
that he’d been left with. Dick’s touches were tender, though, and then he
pressed a kiss to the scars on his chest.
“So goddamn beautiful,” Dick whispered. Almost too quiet for Jason to hear.
Almost.
Jason set his hands on Dick’s hips, using his grip to roll them against each
other and groaning at the friction. His eyes flickered up to Dick, watching him
with pupil blown eyes and a thin ring of bright blue. Jason rubbed his thumb
over Dick’s hip. “I missed you too, Bluebird.”
“Show me,” Dick ordered.
Jason reached between them and unbuttoned his dress pants. Dick shifted his
weight to let Jason kick them off and then pinned Jason’s thighs back down as
he gripped Jason’s cock in his hand and squeezed. Jason bit out a sharp breath
at then shuddered when Dick brushed his thumb over the tip.
“Has anyone touched you?” Dick demanded. Jason’s hesitation made Dick squeeze
harder and Jason shook his head. The grip loosened and started stroking him
from base to tip. “Good boy.”
That praise shouldn’t make Jason feel like falling apart and letting Dick put
him back together again.
“I’m going to fuck you, Little Wing,” Dick said, voice low and husky in a way
that still had Jason’s toes curling even now that he was long past working away
teenage hormones in the shower. “I’m going to fuck all the holy righteousness
that they put in you. You can ruin me but I’m going to drag you back down to
Hell with me.”
“Please,” Jason said.
Dick was gone and Jason couldn’t even open his eyes, didn’t need to because
he’d memorized the way clothes sounded sliding off Dick’s perfect body. Could
pinpoint the quiet hiss of Dick’s zipper sliding down and the shift of the bed
as Dick crawled back into it with him and breathed against Jason’s cock so that
it twitched in desperation.
The first touch of tongue against him had Jason grunting and curling his
fingers into the sheets beneath them.
Same damn sheets. The texture was the same and Jason could believe that Alfred
would clean and wash the sheets and leave the bed the way that Dick left it and
that was so fucking twisted and so fucking perfect because it was almost like
never leaving. Almost like waking up from the worst nightmare and finding
himself in the best dream of Dick holding him in his arms one last time.
“Dick, I need you,” Jason said.
Dick pulled off with a pop. “You’re impatient.”
“You’ve never left me feeling any other way,” Jason admitted.
The lubed finger that slid into Jason burned and Jason snapped his hips up to
get more of it.
“Masochist,” Dick chastised, but fed it with another finger. Too much, so much,
not enough and Jason had to pressed his hand against his mouth to muffle the
cry from it.
Jason felt the gentle brush of fingers through his hair and then the sharp
sting of hair being pulled as Dick shoved another finger in and Jason had to
exhale everything in his lungs to keep from tensing around them. “Dick,
harder.”
“You’re cute when you get demanding,” Dick teased. He curled his fingers and
cooed when Jason shouted in response. The fingers slipped out and Jason spread
his legs to give Dick more room without prompting. Dick dug his fingers into
Jason’s thighs and spread them further, taking what Jason was giving and then
so much more. A sharp bite to the side of Jason’s neck served as his only
warning before Dick snapped his hips and buried himself to the hilt in one
smooth motion.
Jason moved and then felt his head hit the bed when Dick’s grip on his hair
tightened. “No, Jason. Stay.”
Jason could never deny Dick anything.
The rhythm was brutal and interspersed with the gentlest kisses, loving nips
against Jason’s bottom lip. Jason’s ass was on fire but his cock was hard and
leaking between them. Dick’s brand of love was being set on fire from the
inside out and Jason was addicted.
“Missed you so much, Little Wing,” Dick said between panted breaths of air. “I
won’t let you forget me.”
There had never been a chance of that. Not before, definitely not now. Jason
wrapped his fingers around Dick’s shoulders and dug in, wanting to leave as
many marks. He dragged Dick back down for another kiss, sucking Dick’s tongue
into his mouth and biting on it with a particularly sharp thrust. Dick only
groaned as they shared the taste of blood between them.
“Touch me,” Jason demanded.
Dick chuckled. “Not a chance, Little Wing.”
Jason growled and twisted them. Surprise caused Dick to lose the grip on
Jason’s hair to keep him down. Jason never pulled off, just braced his hand
against Dick’s chest and then rode him. His free hand wrapped around his cock
and stroked himself. “Fuck you, Dick.”
Dick made a move to sit up and Jason squeezed around him. The parted lips were
too much of a temptation to resist kissing and Jason grunted into Dick’s mouth
as his orgasm hit with the force of a freight train. He didn’t stop riding him,
didn’t stop squeezing around Dick and the man groaned helplessly as he too
followed Jason right over the edge.
Jason stilled at the burst of wet heat inside of him and then moved his hand
from Dick’s chest to the bed to hold himself up.
“Damn you, Dick,” Jason whispered.
“Yeah,” he replied, pulling out of Jason and then guiding Jason down against
the bed. “I know.”
Jason closed his eyes as Dick shifted them around and then laid his head
against Jason’s chest.
“I missed you,” Dick whispered, ear over Jason’s heartbeat.
“I know,” Jason said, reaching up to stroke Dick’s hair. “Damn you still.”
End Notes
     THIS NOTE CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
     The rape/non-con/dub con/underage warnings all refer to the fact that
     Dick and Jason slept together a few times when Jason was fifteen.
     Obviously there is a significant age gap which, in this fic, puts
     Dick about seven years older than Jason and clearly adult enough to
     know better. Jason does not feel raped but the fact of the matter is
     that he was not old enough to consent, so the warning remains.
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