“What the hell are you doing here, Red Hood?” Came a hard and familiar voice.
Jason turned slowly, glad the hood was hiding his face. Of course it was Nightwing, in all his fingerstriped glory. Jason’s stomach turned uncomfortably; he ignored it.
“Came here to murder you,” Jason said sarcastically. He immediately regretted it; that would have been funnier if he hadn’t actually made an attempt or two in the past, “that was a joke.”
Nightwing glared at him in a way that Jason knew would make his Bat-dad proud of him, “I won’t ask again.” His escrima sticks were at the ready, and his body was tense; he looked about ready to pounce.
“Relax, Goldie, I’m not here to fight.” Jason lifted his hands in surrender, “I’m following up on a case.”
“You’re working a case?” Nightwing asked doubtfully, “Are you sure you’re not here to chop off a few more gang members’ heads?”
“I’d never do that again,” Jason sneered, “the mess factor far outweighed the dramatic effect it had. I just stick to a good old bullet in the head; cleaner, and still gets my point across.”
“You’ve got five seconds to tell me the truth about why you’re here, or I’m taking you in.” Nightwing warned, his escrima sticks now crackling with electricity.
“Come over here and try it, Daddy’s boy,” Jason goaded, pulling out his favorite kris.
Nightwing leapt and Red Hood was ready for him, but he never made it close. Starfire swooped in out of nowhere and grabbed him. He yelped in surprise, but she silenced him with a kiss on his open mouth.
“It is so nice to see you again, Richard.” She said happily, cuddling him close.
“Kory!” he cried when she had released his mouth, still carrying him bridal style, “What are you doing here?”
Roy had also appeared, sidling up next to Jason, “See, if I had done that, he would have punched me!”
“Shut it.” Jason growled.
“We are working together now.” Kory explained, ignoring Nightwing’s squirming to get down.
“What? You two, and…Roy?” Nightwing spluttered, noticing Roy’s entrance as well, “That has got to be the weirdest team up ever.”
“What do you mean?” Roy said casually, “Kory and I have a lot in common.”
He punctuated this with a wink, which Dick ignored.
“Perhaps. But we work well together, and they have become dear friends.” Kory replied, finally letting him down.
“A lot in common.” Roy continued.
Dick continued to ignore him, but his cheeks were steadily getting red, “How did you even find each other?”
“Like you, for instance.” Roy smirked.
“Roy.” Jason warned, watching Dick’s hand clench into a fist as he refused to look over at Roy.
“I rescued Jason, and brought him to-“ Kory began, but Dick could hardly hear her from the ringing in his ears.
“Like fucking you, for instance.” Roy finished smugly.
Dick flew at him with impressive speed, but Kory was ready for him again, this time catching him around the waist with both arms.
“Roy, be silent.” She ordered with enough authority to make him look almost chastened.
“Okay, okay,” Dick grumbled, fruitlessly attempting to escape her hug-hold, “you can put me down now, I won’t do anything.”
She obliged and floated over to wear the other two were standing. Jason stepped up, looking to cut this reunion short.
“Look, if this lead turns out to be a dud we won’t be in town long.”
Dick stopped himself from saying Good. “What are you looking for?”
Jason turned to the other two, who said nothing. He supposed there was no reason not to tell him, “The Marrakech brothers are selling a huge amount of weapons. I figured if there was a buyer, they’d be here.”
Nightwing frowned at him, “It’s been quiet. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was because something big is about to go down. Batman was tracking an arms dealer earlier this week; maybe your cases are one in the same. You should ask him.”
Jason gave a hollow laugh, “Yeah, sure, I’ll do that Dickie-bird.”
“He’ll figure out you’re in town one way or another,” Nightwing replied simply, “might as well tell him yourself.”
“Why don’t you just tell him? And tell him and the rest of the bat-brigade to stay out of my way, while you’re at it.” Jason warned, “I didn’t come here for a fight, but if any of them want one I’ll be more than happy to oblige.”
“We don’t mean to cause you any trouble, Nightwing,” Kory interrupted diplomatically, seeing the look on his face, “and we would be so grateful if you alerted us to any information about these Marrakech humans.”
Dick’s face softened, looking at her, “I will.”
He took a step closer, and pressed a finger to Jason’s chest, “But this is Gotham, and we’ve got rules. If anyone dies, I’ll be coming for you, Red Hood.”
“Ooooh.” Jason replied obnoxiously, stepping forward as well, not to be outdone. Nightwing didn’t retreat even though their bodies were inches apart. Jason looked down on Nightwing with a smirk, “I quiver in fear.”
Nightwing apparently didn’t have a response to that. They stared each other down for a minute more, Jason glad he had grown up taller; his predecessor forced to look up at him. But his hard stare was making Jason’s mouth go a bit dry, and he could feel his heart pound loudly in his chest. After a moment that was much too long, Nightwing ducked away; for a minute Jason though the man was going to kick him, but he just cartwheeled backward and flipped off the building like the acrobatic nerd he was.
“Well…that went well.” Jason said sardonically once Nightwing was a black and blue shadow, growing more faint in the distance. He forced himself to breathe deeply and willed the heat in his face to go down before his teammates noticed.
“He’s more of a tight ass than ever,” Roy thought for a minute, and then, with a salacious grin, “with more of a tighter ass than ever. Maybe I should…”
Jason snorted in disbelief, “Yeah, I wouldn’t go there if I were you. He didn’t look too happy to see you.”
“He was happier to see me than he was to see you,” Roy protested, “plus, you don’t know how it is…that’s just our foreplay.”
Jason couldn’t hold back a laugh. He glanced at Kory, who was gazing off into the distance thoughtfully.
“He seemed distressed.” She said with concern.
“If he’s in Gotham he’s probably working with Batman,” Jason explained, “and that’s about the most stressful thing anyone can do.”
“What’s our move?” Roy asked.
“Retreat,” Jason said definitively, “Nightwing’s off to tell his dear ol’Dad that I’m here. We don’t need a confrontation; we’re supposed to be keeping a low profile. Let’s regroup back at the hotel with what we’ve learned.
Which, as it happened, turned out to be pretty much nothing.
Not a whisper from the Narrows. Nothing from Amusement Mile. As Nightwing had said, things had been quiet. Too quiet for Gotham.
Kory and Roy were discussing next steps. But Jason was distracted. His meeting with Nightwing had pushed almost everything else out of his mind.
Dick had looked the same as always. His costume bore the same ridiculous fingerstripes it had the last time Jason had seen him. He was still short (well, compared to Jason at least); he was still bouncy and bendy.
It was his attitude that was different. Jason wasn’t used to the hard, angry look on Dick’s face. They had only interacted for a minute or two back when Jason had first returned to Gotham as the Red Hood. But back when Jason was Robin, memories of his predecessor were of a laughing, lighthearted Nightwing, who flew through the air, and always made it look easy. Who was always surrounded by friends who loved him. Who always had time for a quick spar with Jason whenever he was at the manor (though he wasn’t at the manor very much at all).
But even when he was away from the manor, Dick lingered in young Jason’s thoughts. His easy smile, his toned, trim body. The warmth of his skin when he pinned Jason to the mat. And it had happened; first slowly, then suddenly, all at once. His jealousy of Dick, and his anger at Dick had morphed into admiration and passion. And suddenly, he didn’t mind so much when Dick called him ‘Little wing’ or ruffled his hair.
Jason had always figured it was a just a small crush; adolescent hormones combined with the fact that, for what seemed the first time in his life, someone was treating him with kindness. And he knew Dick would never want him back. But that didn’t stop him from scooting a bit closer when Dick sat next to him on a couch so that Jason could breathe in his fresh, warm scent a little better.
Jason’s stomach turned oddly at the thought that Dick would never call him ‘Little wing’ or ruffle his hair again. And, after knowing what Jason had tried to do to him, Batman, and the Replacement, he doubted that Dick would ever even look at him with kindness in his eyes again. And Dick smelled the same. And all of that made Jason’s chest ache with a pain and loneliness that he couldn’t quite understand.
