Archive of Our Own ^beta

Dick peaked through the warehouse window and flinched.

The Red Hood was standing in the middle of the room. He was surrounded by men, most smaller than him, Jason was physically intimidating especially in his gear, but there were so many that they were making Jason look small.

It wasn’t Jason looking small that made Dick flinch though.

It was the way he broke the jaw of the man in front of him by pulling his face down as he lifted his knee up to meet it. He could hear the crunch.

“Who wants to try telling me what I can and cannot do next?” Jason yelled. He turned in a circle, dropping the man to the floor where he held his face and shook in pain. “Huh?” Jason raised his arms. “You all couldn’t shut up five minutes ago. Come on? Go ahead.”

“What do you want?” A man spoke up.

Jason turned to the speaker and Dick could sense the predatory smirk on Jason’s face hiding just behind the mask. Dick often thought Jason would be more intimidating without it. He may have a young face, but the clear joy he took in his work was evident on it, and it was unnerving. 

“I told you.” Jason punctuated each word. “I want you to stop letting your drugs into The Alley. They’re fucking up my people.”

“We aren’t selling to anyone in The Alley. We already told you!” Another man spoke.

“In case it was unclear by how I broke your compadres face.” Jason spoke clearly, almost mocking. “I do not care if you think that because you do your deals outside my territory it isn’t my business. Your drugs are making it into the hands of my people, and it’s making them violent. It’s hurting everyone. It’s hurting the children. It is not going to continue.” Jason looked at each of their faces. “It is not going to continue.” He repeated. 

One of the men pulled out a gun and pointed it at Jason. Dick felt his blood start rushing faster as six more men followed along.

“This is how you want to negotiate?” Jason asked. 

The first man Dick had seen speak stepped forward. “You have a scary reputation, I’ll give you that, but you ain’t Batman. You can’t win fourteen to one.”

Jason tilted his head. It was the closest he could get to conveying an amused smirk while his face was covered. “If you really believed that, you would have shot me when I first showed up. You wouldn’t have stood around while I made your friend’s face a mosaic.” He turned around once again, swinging his arms and taking up space like he was in charge of the room. “Please, go ahead. Give it a go. I will suggest though, that anyone who would like to go back to their family and friends today, walks out of this building right now and keeps their hands out of this dirty business for as long as they shall live hereafter. Consider it my mercy.”

Nine of the men left. Dick was surprised to see two of the men who pulled out their guns amongst them.

“You still liking those odds?” Jason asked.

The man pulled the trigger on his gun and Dick broke through the window to join the fight. 

It really wasn’t very exciting. The men were poor fighters, and the ones who tried shooting were just wasting bullets. The Red Hood armour was bullet proof and offered Jason nearly full body protection. The Nightwing armor wasn’t as resistant, but Dick had years of experience avoiding bullets. 

It all ended in under ten minutes.

“I’ll notify the cops. You can tie them up.” Jason said.

“Rope?” Dick asked. Jason threw a bunch of zip ties at him. “These will do.” 

Jason gave a thumbs up and walked outside. Dick met him there only a few minutes later.

“Police are on their way. Thanks for the assist.” Jason’s voice came out clear with no modulator effect on. He sounded more guarded than Dick was used to. He'd gotten Jason to be pretty relaxed around him lately. Good thing Dick had nothing else to do tonight. Pushing Jason to talk to him about whatever was bothering him was now top priority.

“Not a problem. Do you mind if I stay the night at yours? It’s late and I don’t want to stay at the Manor.” 

Jason tilted his head in question.

"B's stressing over WE stuff, which means Tim is stressing over WE stuff and B stressing, which means Alf-"

Jason raised his hand. "I got it. The Manor isn't a fun place to be right now."

Dick nodded. "So? Your place?"

Jason hesitated. “Yeah, course. This was the last thing on my list tonight.”

Dick followed Jason to his safe house. This one was several months old and Dick’s favorite. It was on the sixth floor of an old apartment building. It had good soundproofing and nice tenants. 

“You know where the shower is. And my clothes.” Jason started removing his armor. “You want something to eat?”

“No, thanks.” 

Jason nodded.

After Dick’s shower Jason left him on the couch to shower himself. It was completely normal behavior, except he was taking too long.

“Jay? You alright in there?” Dick knocked on the bathroom door.

There was no response. 

“Jason!” Dick was about to break the door down. Leave it to Jason to find a way to drown in an inch of water.

The door opened. Jason was looking down at his feet.

“Jay? What’s wrong?”

Jason looked up and Dick’s eyes widened. Jason’s eyes were green.

“Are you upset?” Dick asked.

Jason shook his head. “It happens sometimes…after I hurt people.”

Dick nodded slowly. 

Jason sighed. “If I say I don’t want to talk about it will you forget about it?”

Dick didn’t hesitate. He shook his head. “No.”

“Okay. Well, I want to sleep so you can bunk with me and we can live our teenage girl sleepover gossip dreams, or you can take the couch and wait to harass me until morning.”

Jason wasn’t as subtle as he let on, or maybe Dick just knew him too well. Jason was feeling insecure, and he wanted to see if Dick’s care for him was stronger than his fear of his green eyes. 

“Lead the way, Jasmine.”

Jason laughed in surprise at the name and walked them to his bedroom. He flopped down on his bed, face first, and sighed.

Dick smiled and sat against the headboard on the other side.

“You know your eyes don’t scare me anymore, right?” 

Jason looked up. “Then why do you flinch every time you see them turn green?”

“It’s subconscious, Jay. They’re a reminder of what happened to you and of the things you did when you were less in control. I’m sorry I have feelings about that. It isn’t fear though. It’s not.”

Jason closed his eyes and shifted his body into a more comfortable position, ready to sleep. “Maybe if you keep repeating it you’ll come to believe it.”

“Why are you always so distrusting of me?” Dick let some heat into his voice.

Jason cracked one eye open. It was still green. “You’re the distrusting one. Go ahead. Ask me why my eyes turn green when I hurt people. Or are you scared of the answer?”

Dick was thoroughly unimpressed. “You think I don’t know you enjoy beating up assholes? You think that’s news to me? You get mad, your eyes turn green. You get scared, your eyes turn green. You get excited, your eyes turn green. Your eyes probably turn green when you j—”

“Shut up!” Jason interrupted. “We don’t need to go there.” He said calmer.

Dick sighed. “I’m just saying that your eyes turning green isn’t some sign of inner evil. I know that. I hope you know that too. It’s more of a mood ring showing when you’re feeling your feelings extra strongly.”

Jason’s face showed his displeasure with the comparison. “I think it’s connected to adrenaline. It doesn’t happen when I’m feeling really happy.”

Dick felt a little warm at the fact Jason had been that happy recently. Jason sensed it and rolled his eyes. 

“It happens the most when I’m enjoying being violent. That's when it starts to affect my mind.”

Dick shrugged. “But you know that, and you can stop it."

Jason nodded against the pillow. "Usually."

"Good. You know, If you stopped covering your eyes you could freak out your enemies even more.”

Jason held himself up with a propped arm to look at Dick more closely. “You really don’t care?”

Dick shook his head. “Nope. If anything, I’m happy to hear you enjoy your job. Not a lot of people do.”

Jason laughed in disbelief. “You’re crazy.”

Dick leaned in and whispered. “You wanna know something really crazy. I also enjoy beating bad people up. So does B. He probably likes it even more than you. Tim has it in him too, I think."

Jason shoved Dick away from him, but he was smiling. "You aren't a monster, Jay." The smile fell.

Jason gave Dick a small nod to show he heard him before he rested his head back against his pillow and closed his eyes. 

"You're not." Dick repeated.

"Maybe not to you."

"Tim was very receptive to your apology letter. He-"

"Dick. Please. This has been enough for one night."

Dick lied down. "Fine. We're talking about it sometime, though. I'll get you to come home."

Jason hummed. "Whatever you say Dickie. Don't wake me up before noon."