𝜗ৎ tags/tw: cheating, suggestive, Dick is an absolute douchebag, emotional manipulation, swearing, hurt/ comfort, angst with a happy ending, Dick got what he deserved lolololol not proofread
ও˖ ࣪⊹ pairing: jason todd x f!reader
𝜗ৎ a/n: honestly I think Dick deserved way worse, but alas!!! i hope you enjoy this read<3 and i mighttt write a smaller fic set in the future to see how reader and jason are doing, but idk yet
You stared at the pictures Jason sent you for what felt like centuries.
You loved your boyfriend, and he loved you.
Or at least that’s what you desperately wanted to believe until you saw the pictures of them. At the family dinners Dick told you you couldn’t go, at what you assumed was their apartment, at a restaurant (clearly on a date), and kissing like… Like Dick never kissed you. You could just tell by the picture, how tender it was, how much love that kiss had, and how much yours always seemed to lack. Suddenly you felt like the biggest idiot on the whole planet. You were the other woman, and for what?? He was just playing the two of you because he could. Maybe he had fun manipulating grieving people?
For the next few days, you made every excuse possible for Dick not to come see you. He didn’t press much after you told him you were really sick and didn’t want him catching anything. You felt numb and stupid, but at the same time, plans were forming in your head. He created this mess, he wasn’t going to get out of it with a simple ‘fuck you, we’re over’. No. You were going to make him regret ever messing with you the way he did. And what was more precious to Dick than anything else in his life? His reputation, especially what Bruce thought of him.
Jason was worried you’d just ignore what he sent you, since you hadn’t replied yet, but you were just plotting (and maybe a bit pissed with him too).
You: Please come over, we need to talk
He was at your apartment in ten minutes. The tension lingered in the air, and for a while, the two of you said nothing. You were both sitting on your couch when you broke the silence.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“Didn’t know how. Didn’t think you’d believe me.”
You turned to him. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to ruin what we had going. I was hoping you’d finally leave him, but you pissed me off when you started defending him so I sent the pictures. They were a backup plan, but… I was petty, I’m sorry.” Jason’s shoulders were tense, like he was ready for an attack, you sighed heavily.
“You don’t have to apologise, I get it. I just wish you’d told me sooner, because I’ve had a hunch that he was cheating on me for the longest time. I’m mad about that, but it’s not really at you, I guess I’m angry with myself for staying and at him for messing with my head when he had another girl.”
“I never understood either.” Jason spoke quietly, stealing a glance at you and at your numb state. He hated seeing you like this.
“Her name's Kori, right?” You asked quietly, he nodded. “That fucker had the audacity to mention her to me multiple times. I want him to regret ever speaking to me.” Jason smiled softly. That’s my girl.
“I’m going to need your help to pull this off.”
“Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
You smiled for the first time ever since you saw the photos. “I want you to take me to the next family Sunday dinner. The one where he takes Kori with him. And I need her number too.”
Oh, Jason was in immediately.
You: Hey Kori, I'm sorry. You don’t know me, and probably have no idea I exist, but I need to tell you something that concerns us both. Dick, your boyfriend, has been cheating on you with me for the past year. I had no idea the two of you were together, I only found out because Jason told me (he also gave me your number). I think it would be good for us to talk about this in person, so if you’d be okay we could meet for coffee sometime tomorrow. At first I was going to completely crash out at the sunday dinner, but you should also get your revenge, so please help me out taking him down a notch lol
You: And I don’t want you to think I’m lying so here’s some pictures of us together
Sunday arrived and you were feeling nervous. Standing before the big doors of the Wayne Manor never felt scarier. You knew Dick was inside, playing the perfect boyfriend and perfect son, with an oblivious Kori on his side that probably thought she had the best boyfriend in the world. Jason squeezed your arm reassuringly.
You nodded and rang the doorbell.
Alfred got up as soon as he heard the doorbell. “Oh! It must be Master Jason.” The butler had a soft smile on his face. “I’m happy for all the progress our boy has been making.” Bruce smiled back at him. “Me too. Jason is really strong, I knew he’d come back to us.” The conversation at the table resumed while Alfred went to open the door. He was a bit taken aback when he saw you, but he quickly masked that and greeted you with a hug.
“Master Jason didn’t tell me you were coming, my dear. I need to set a plate for you.” You shook your head.
“No need, Alfie. I just came for a quick visit.” Alfred arched his brow, but he didn’t have time to ask before you entered the dining room and Dick’s face paled. He had been talking lively to Kori and Bruce but immediately stopped.
Bruce called out your name with a huge smile. “This is such a nice surprise! I haven’t seen you in so long. How’s work going?”
You smiled back at him. “It’s going pretty well, actually, Bruce. I’ve been really caught up in life lately, I’m sorry I haven’t visited in so long.” Then you turned your attention on Dick. “Dick, you’re so pale. Are you okay?” You put up your best fake concerned tone.
Dick’s mouth opened and closed like he was a fish out of the water. Kori looked at him with what looked like actual concern. “Love? What happened?”
“Aren’t you going to introduce us, Dick?” You asked sweetly and his eyes widened in panic. Kori dropped the act. “Yes, Dick. Introduce us.”
Everyone else at the table looked confused. “It seems you won’t talk, so I will.” You cleared your throat. “I’m sorry for crashing your dinner, but this family has always been a really important part of my life, and I think you guys should know why I suddenly stopped visiting.” You grabbed your phone and opened your gallery folder filled with pictures of you two, showing them to his family.
Dick got up. “Shut up.” Kori immediately pulled him back down. “No, you are going to sit there and listen.”
“Everyone here knows how wrecked I was after Jason’s death.” Bruce nodded grimly. “Well, not long before Jason came back, Dick decided it would be a good idea to start showing interest in me. While he was already seeing Kori. I obviously didn’t know about her, I was extremely vulnerable and I guess I was easy to manipulate because I fell for everything he said. I’m not going to go into details, I just need everyone here to know that I was lied to and manipulated for a whole year, while feeling like shit because Jason came back and I didn’t understand, and everything was messy, for literally no reason. I still don’t understand why you did what you did to me, Dick.” The anger in you kept your voice from breaking. “I haven’t visited because Dick made every excuse in the book for me not to come here, so no one would find out we were together, and so I wouldn’t find out about Kori.”
She nodded and got up. “Unfortunately for you, Dick, we both found out. We are done.” Kori started making her way out and Dick went after her, desperately calling out her name while apologising.
You heard the front door slamming shut and took a big breath. Bruce got up and made his way to you, for a few seconds you thought he was going to lecture you for doing what you just did, but instead he gave you a brief but warm hug. “I’m sorry about what Dick did, especially considering your situation. I thought I raised him better than that. You know you will always be welcome in this family and in this house.”
What he said made you tear up a little, Bruce always liked you and the two of you had a sweet relationship, you saw him as a father figure (especially because of how much support he offered you after Jason's death). Tim and Damian also got up. “I’m so sorry about this, we genuinely had no idea, if we did we would’ve told you girls the truth.” Damian nodded. “I am very disappointed in Grayson’s actions.”
“I know, guys. Thank you. I think I'm going to leave now, I need some time to process that this just happened.” As soon as you said that, Dick burst into the dining room looking like a mess.
“Why would you fucking do this?! I love Kori, you just ruined my life.” He was all up in your face. You scoffed and took a step back.
“No, you ruined your own life. If you loved her so much, why did you cheat with me? Literally why– I don't get it.” Your voice got quieter. “I never asked for any of this, you specifically went after me when I was at my lowest, just to treat me like shit, while having Kori. You owe me an explanation.”
“You actually do.” Jason made his way over to you. “You owe her an explanation and a shit ton of apologies.”
Dick turned to his brother, his face full of rage. “This is all your fault. This is what you wanted, right? You've been jealous of me ever since Bruce brought you here all those years ago. Couldn't stand me taking your little crush.” Your eyes widened and he laughed humourlessly. “He never told you, did he? God, you're such a mess Jason. He's been in love with you probably since you've met. I saw this coming miles away, he never got over you, probably has been plotting on you since he came back.”
Jason's jaw tightened. “That's not true. I only wanted what was best for her.”
That made Dick actually laugh. “Yeah right, as if you know what that even is. Y'think she'll ever want you given everything you've done?” He turned to you. “You want an answer as to why I did this? Fine. You were begging for attention. So sad, so broken, so mournful. I pitied the fuck out of you, so in all honesty you were kind of a charity case for me. Plus, if you closed your eyes maybe you wouldn't even tell the difference, and then you wouldn't feel so bad about being the bitch you really are–”
Before he could finish, Jason punched him hard. Everyone stood still for a few seconds, until Dick lunged at him and Bruce immediately got between the two.
“That's enough!” He snapped. “Dick, go back to your apartment. Jason, take her home. You are not about to fight in my house, especially after what you did Dick. I am extremely disappointed in you.”
Dick scoffed and pushed away from Bruce. “Fine! Fuck this.” Then he pointed at you. “And fuck you especially. I hope you're happy.”
After that whole mess, Jason took you home and the two of you just stayed in your kitchen in silence. The atmosphere was even tenser than when you had reached out after getting the pictures.
“So…” You cleared your throat. “That went well.” Jason chuckled quietly. “Couldn't have gone better.”
“Jay, what was that whole loving me thing Dick was talking about?” Your hands were shaking slightly, he sighed.
“I guess there's no point in denying it. It's true.” He took a deep breath. “I was deeply in love with you before dying. Like… to the point where Bruce threatened to reduce the time we spent together because I wasn't focusing.” You two laughed sadly at that.
Your brain had stopped ever since Dick started talking about Jason's feelings, but he just said ‘Before dying’, which meant the feelings went away by now probably. Still, your heart lurched at everything that was stolen from the two of you, and how unfair it all was.
“It is. It was. But um… You just– look, you know I didn't sabotage anything right?”
You nodded and sighed. “Yeah, Jay. I know you'd never do that to me.”
“I didn't understand why he said you wouldn't tell the difference between the two of us if you closed your eyes.” A part of him wished it was because you felt the same way, the other wished that wasn't true, because somehow that'd hurt more.
You took a deep breath and braced yourself for what you were going to say. He deserved to know, and your past self deserved to get closure. "Jay, when you died I... I dealt with it badly, I wasn’t exaggerating what I said earlier."
He noticed you were fidgeting a lot with your sleeve while doing anything but maintaining eye contact with him.
"Well, um... Bruce let me spend a lot of time at the manor, mainly with Alfie, we'd cook your favourite cookies, and I'd cry into my dough basically." He chuckled quietly, and you giggled while wiping at some lonely tears. "But I liked to go to your room, it made me feel like you were just out there solving crime, about to come back anytime. One day, I was in your room, my birthday was coming up, and I felt really angry and lonely, so I was just sobbing into your pillow. Dick heard me and came in. He eventually calmed me down, and we started talking about you and about how much we missed you."
You stopped for a few moments, trying to control the need to cry and the shakiness of your voice.
"He basically said he regretted not being more present in your life, and I... I regret not having told you I loved you. So I told him that. That you were my first love and that it felt like a part of me died with you because I kept waiting for the right moment to tell you, and then you were taken from me."
As soon as the words left your mouth, Jason had to hold on to your kitchen counter. He forgot why or how the conversation even got to this topic. Dick was completely gone from his mind. All that he could think of was that you felt the same way at some point. You had loved him. You had loved him? You were each other's first love. This was definitely worse than you not feeling anything at all.
Whoever was in control of his life must hate him.
He sat heavily in one of your stools, and you immediately touched his arm. "Jay, are you okay?"
"You can't just say that." He wasn't looking at you, and his voice was low.
"But... It's true. I'm sorry, I just never got the chance to tell you, and it's been eating me alive for years."
The two of you stayed silent for what felt like years, everything felt heavier after both of your confessions. Then, the last thing you ever expected happened. You watched as he ran his hand over his face and then proceeded to cry. Not just little tears, no, full-on sobbing that sent tremors through his whole body. This giant of a man, who survived death and who has killed so many people it became routine, was sobbing in your kitchen because you told him you also loved him at some point, and that just twisted the knife of what the two of you could have had if it weren't for his death even more.
You wrapped your arms around him and involuntarily combed your fingers through his hair as he buried his head into the plush of your stomach.
“Shhhh… It’s okay, Jay. ‘s okay.”
“No. No, it – it’s not, okay. It’s not fair. Joker – he ruined me. My life. You were the best thing I’ve ever had, and I n-never even really had you.”
The words sank in and in an instant you were cradling his head to your belly and his arms were wrapped tightly around your waist.
“And you fell for Dick.” He murmured against you.
“Jason, I…” Sometimes you wondered if your love for Dick was real or if it was just some sick way of pretending Jason was still with you. No. You pushed that down. “We both moved on. We shouldn't linger on the feelings we had when we were younger.”
Jason stayed silent for a few seconds and you felt him tense up.
“You moved on.” You barely heard him.
“No… We both did.” No. No, this couldn't be happening. Not like this.
He let go of you enough so he could look up at you. “No. You did. You moved on.”
Your heart was beating so fast you were sure he could hear it.
“What… What do you mean?” Your voice was a barely contained broken whisper.
“I never stopped. The second I woke up in the pit I thought of you, and it made my emotions stronger. All of them. That's why I was consumed with rage.” His gaze shifted between your eyes. “That's why I've made sure you get home every day safely. And why I stayed in the shadows for so long. Didn't want y'to see what I became.” One of his hands came up to wipe your tears. “You consume every thought I have. Every second of every day, it's you. You give purpose to my life. I'm only trying to get better because you deserve a better best friend.”
You made a sound between a sob and sad laugh, and hugged him while crying into his hair. “Oh Jay. ‘m so sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?” He had been rubbing circles on your back the entire time. “I don't blame you for moving on, I was never angry at you, despite everything I've said. Just want you to be happy, ma. It just hurts knowing it won't be with me, because… despite us not ever actually being together I was so sure…” He laughed sadly. “I was so sure I'd marry you. And I'm sure I did in another life.”
“No, Jay, you don't understand. The whole closing your eyes and thinking about you thing, he wasn't reaching. I can't tell how much of my love for Dick was manipulation on his part and an awful coping mechanism on my end to replace you. Sure, I do have feelings for him, but as soon as you came back, you were always on my mind. Not him. And he knew that, I opened up about all of it one day when I was really drunk, that's why he said I wouldn't feel like such a bitch, because I've lived with guilt ever since you left.”
He lifted his head to look up at you again. “Why did you live with guilt?”
“Because I also thought we were going to get married, Jason! Because in my head, we were together even if we weren't, and even if I was too scared to tell you. And because I was too scared to ever confess my feelings. And because I didn't protect you, or tell you enough times how important you were to me. Because I started having a crush on your brother out of all people. Because me and him finally started dating and I still dreamed of what our life could've been, even though you were gone for three years already. And because when you came back, I felt like… Do you know I tried breaking up with him multiple times when I found out you were alive?”
He shook his head slowly.
“I tried.” You pressed your palms to your eyes. “What Dick and I had was weird, Jay. Really weird. Even before I knew you were back, he already treated me like shit, and I kept trying to break up with him, but he flipped it around so I’d feel bad about it.” A laugh started to bubble up your chest from how awkward it was to talk about all this. “He told me I was cheating on him with your ghost one time. And I actually felt awful, Jay. It was… honestly, I think I wanted to believe I could have a chance at happiness without you, so I just pretended this relationship wasn’t just a glorified fuck buddy with really complicated feelings involved. I just don’t get why he’d do this to Kori, and well, make me feel insane.”
Jason laughed. “He just wanted to be evil, I guess. It served him right, though, I hope he chokes in his ego.”
You nodded and the two of you stayed in each other's embrace in silence for a while, just taking everything in.
“We are, ma. But at least I’m already in therapy.” You chuckled at that and sighed.
“You’re right, I need a therapist quickly.” He sighed at the feeling of your fingers softly brushing his scalp. “Not trying to make promises here but…”
“When I get my head sorted out, and basically heal from these past four years… I’d be willing to give us a try.”
His head shot up. “You would?”
“Jay, I’ve been accused of cheating with your ghost. Of course I’d be down, silly.”
“But I’m different. ‘m not the same person you fell for all those years ago.”
“So am I. But that didn’t change how you feel, did it?” He shook his head. “Then do we have a deal?” He laughed softly and hugged you tighter.
“‘Course we do. I’ll wait forever if that’s what you need to feel ready to try.”
Maybe your life hasn’t been ideal lately. Maybe the Universe has been sending you a couple of ‘fuck off’s to make your life harder. But right now, in Jason’s warm embrace in your kitchen, you finally felt the peace that has been missing from your life ever since he died, despite the rollercoaster of emotions this day was.
And suddenly, the promise of a future didn’t seem so scary at all.
e/n: ehhh i liked the first part more but whateverrr!! i have a super fun cutesy fluffly bsf!dick in my drafts that just needs some finishing touches and i want to start dedicating more time to itt
dividers by @saradika-graphics
