Chapter Text
The next time Jason sees Valley, it's a surprise. An annoying one.
“What are you doing back here?” Jason asks imperiously, walking up to where he sees Valley standing outside of the bodega. It’s been a week and a half since the guy was last here. No way he forgot that fast.
“Oh. Hi.” Valley smiles a little, like he’s happy to see Jason, but he mostly just looks nervous and uncomfortable. “Shouldn’t you be in school right now?”
That’s why? Did he expect Jason to be busy right now? So he thought, what, he could come into the neighborhood again and not meet him? Why?
“Yeah,” Jason says. “But we had a snow day.”
It’s fifty degrees out and sunny. It hasn’t snowed in weeks. Valley gives him a confused little laugh, clearly not understanding. He’s like a fucking pod person.
“Are you trying to buy drugs again?” he asks directly. “‘Cause it’s still not gonna work.”
“Uh. No, not exactly,” Valley says. He looks around the neighborhood. Jason follows the line of his gaze, looking at the tenements that surround them, boarded up businesses at the bottom. A few guys are sitting on the stoop of one of the buildings, chatting. Another man is smoking at the intersection. It’s a normal day.
“Then why are you here?”
“Bill said we were all going to go hang out, so I got in the car with him and the guys. They dropped me off here again.”
“You listened to those assholes again?”
“You shouldn’t be swearing.”
“And you shouldn’t be gullible,” Jason emphasizes that last word, proud he knew it. Valley’s nose wrinkles and his brows draw together before his whole body goes lax and he sighs.
“...They were nice,” he says, like he knows he’s dumb. Jason rolls his eyes.
“You know how to get out of here, right? Or did you forget?”
“No, I-- Just thought I’d buy something first .”
Jason gives Valley a long, unimpressed look. Valley twitches under the look.
“Yeah? Like what?”
“A snack.”
“Okay. Let’s get you a snack, then.” Jason pushes open the bodega’s door, the bell tinkling above as he enters. Valley follows a second later. The owner-- Mr. Carey-- flicks his eyes up to assess them before returning his attention to his newspaper. Jason’s heard that Mr. Carey pulled a shotgun on some teens who tried to hold up his store a while back-- that he knew right away when they came in what they wanted and scared them right off. Kinda badass.
“So what did you want for your snack?” he asks Valley.
Valley heads for the chips and stands there staring at them. He’s reading all the labels, like he doesn’t know what kind of chips he likes. Maybe he’s just indecisive. Jason would believe that, after the last time they met. He goes over to look at the candy bars. He’s a little ways away from Valley. Down the same aisle.
And Mr. Carey’s a badass, but Jason’s been stealing from stores for basically as long as he’s been allowed out on his own. If Max were here, one of them would be lookout. But Valley’s new and that means he’s distracting. Mr. Carey might not trust Jason, but he definitely doesn’t trust Valley. Jason slides a few candy bars into his pockets. Ones with nuts, so he can say he’s getting some protein from them. His mom would understand.
Valley’s still looking at the chips as Jason returns to his side.
“You’re taking forever,” Jason says.
“Oh.” Valley shakes himself off, like he didn’t realize until just now. He grabs a bag of salt and vinegar chips without looking any longer. “These, then.”
“Anything else?” Jason asks, even though he wants the answer to be no. On the other hand, maybe he can convince Valley to buy him something.
“Um. Maybe one other thing.” Valley heads to the fridges at the back. This time, he doesn’t stop to look, just grabbing a bottle of water. Jason clears his throat, and Valley looks down at him with eyebrows raised comically over his glasses.
“Aren’t you gonna get me anything?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Valley agrees, sounding confused. That doesn’t matter, because Jason immediately opens the closest fridge and pulls out a bottle of grape Fanta. He’s not grinning, but he’s excited. This shit’s harder to steal, especially since almost no vending machines have it. It’s been months since his last grape soda.
“Good,” Jason says belatedly, waiting for Valley to head for the register.
Valley does so after another second. He puts his water bottle down and the chips. Jason puts his Fanta up there. Mr. Carey sets his newspaper down, scowling at them through the glass, but he doesn’t seem to have noticed anything. Jason mentally thanks whichever reporter wrote the front page story on the Riddler. Nothing like costumed weirdos to keep old guys occupied.
“Uh. Kid,” Valley says. He doesn’t know Jason’s name, that’s right. Good. Jason raises his eyebrows at him, mimicking the expression Valley had flashed him before. If Valley thinks Jason is gonna pony up the cash for this when Valley had the spare cash before to go on a drug run, then he’s got another think coming.
“The candy.” Valley nods at Jason’s waistband, like he knows that Jason’s tucked the bars under his shirt there. Jason doesn’t freeze, because he’s too good for that.
“What candy?” he asks.
“The ones you put under your shirt. I need to pay for them.”
Mr. Carey’s frown is darkening, and Valley’s looking at Jason, completely oblivious. He doesn’t realize that he’s screwing Jason over for the rest of his life here. Jason scowls and gives in, because he’s already screwed regardless.
“Just wanted to warm them up,” he tells Mr. Carey insincerely as he sets the bars on the counter. “I like ‘em a little melty.”
“I bet you do,” Mr. Carey mutters as he rings them up. “Brat.”
And then.
“Turn out your pockets. Both of you.”
“Why?” Valley asks, because he’s dumb as a sack of bricks. How did he spot what Jason was doing? The guy doesn’t know anything.
“I wanna make sure all the merchandise that walks out of my store’s been paid for.”
“Oh. Okay.” And Valley turns out his pockets. He has to take out his wallet, some wrappers, his keys (no car key, Jason notices), and a pocket Bible. Of course. Jason pulls his own pockets out. There’s pocket lint and a butterfly knife. He crumples the lint up in one hand and drops it on the counter, staring Mr. Carey down.
Mr. Carey scoffs and looks away. Reads the total out to Valley, who picks his wallet up from the counter and hands a twenty over. No small change this time, either? What does this guy do? Jason tucks his knife back into his pocket (it’s his dad’s knife, actually, and he’s not going to lose it before he gets out of jail and comes back). Then, he snatches his candy and his grape soda, immediately tearing one of the candy bars open and biting into it.
Valley collects his own stuff, too, but it takes him a little longer. He doesn’t open his bottle of water or his chips, just heads for the door.
“Jason,” Mr. Carey says as Jason follows. Jason stops and looks-- he hears the bell ring as Valley opens the door, though he can hear the sounds of outside loud enough that he knows Valley’s standing there with the door open, letting in the chill.
“Tell your mother you and her are both banned from my store.”
“If you ban the folks of every kid who ever steals from you, you won’t have anybody shopping here in a week!” Jason retorts, feeling his face turning red-- he’s not embarrassed but he is mad. The kind of mad that throbs in his ears and makes him want to yell until everything stops.
Mr. Carey’s not even looking. He doesn’t care that this is the closest shop to Jason’s place. Fuck him. Jason kicks over the rack of maps by the door and throws his candy wrapper down on the floor too as he stomps out.
Now, Mr. Carey cares. His yell is cut off as Jason turns the corner, heading back to his place. His mom’s gonna be mad, too. Or, worse, sad. Jason’s not gonna tell her unless he’s got to, but he doesn’t know how his mom won’t just find out the next time she leaves the apartment. At least she hasn’t been leaving much lately, he thinks guiltily.
It’s only after he’s walked a ways that Jason realizes that Valley’s at his side, chips in one hand and water in the other.
“Why are you following me?” Jason asks. He realizes he’s half-yelling only after he’s spoken. But Valley deserves it, because-- “Wasn’t it enough to narc on me to Carey? What, you want to watch me cry about it?”
And he knows as he says it that it’s the wrong thing to say because if he does cry he’s gonna be so mad at himself, but thinking about it makes it harder not to do. Jason rubs at his eyes angrily, teeth gritting. The taste of the candy bar lingers, sticky sweet between his teeth.
“What?” Valley sounds confused. Again. Jason can’t fucking deal with this.
“What?” he echoes. “Don’t you know fucking anything!”
If Valley wasn’t twice his size, Jason would hit him. He still wants to, but even knowing nothing, Valley’s gonna win in a fight. Jason could stab him first, but he can’t exactly afford to go to juvie right now-- and Valley knows his name now-- could go back to Mr. Carey and find out his last name or even just go to Jason’s apartment and ask his mom.
“I paid for the candy, so I don’t know why he was so upset,” Valley says.
“He was mad , ‘cause he didn’t see what I was doin’, so he thought you and I were screwing with him! And now my mom’s not gonna be able to shop there again, and she’s gonna--” Jason cuts himself off, because it’s none of Valley’s business and he’s embarrassed himself enough already.
“Screwing with him?” Valley echoes. “I just wanted to pay for the food…”
And what right does he have, still sounding so pathetic. Jason can’t take it. He throws a punch before he even notices what he’s doing. It lands in Valley’s gut, but even though Jason’s hit as hard as he can without thinking about it first (maybe harder than if he thinks about it), Valley’s only barely wincing as he curls around his stomach.
“Hey!” he says, sounding offended.
“How did you even notice! You weren’t looking!” Jason shouts, frustrated and upset that even this isn’t working-- he knows he hit hard enough to hurt, even for an adult and especially for someone who’s not even from Crime Alley, but--
“I didn’t think you were hiding it!” Valley replies. Then, after a second, “Listen, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were… Were you trying to steal them?”
“No duh! Do you think I have the money to buy candy?” … Jason has spent money on it before, money that he knew needed spent on something better. It tasted great, but he always regretted it later. Chocolate’s not worth it.
“I gave you sixty dollars less than two weeks ago?” Valley asks in return. Jason’s mad enough that he doesn’t care what Valley thinks of him, so he says:
“Yeah, and I spent it on food so my mom could keep the lights on!”
“On food?”
“On food?” Jason mocks, voice high-pitched and whiny.
Valley stands there, face red-- Jason would feel triumphant, but he can feel how red his own face is, too. This guy--
“Oh,” Valley says. And then-- “If you just told me, I would have--”
And Jason doesn’t want to hear it so he gives Valley the finger around the stupid grape Fanta in his hand before stomping off. He doesn’t want to go straight home-- if his mom’s up, she’s definitely going to notice something’s up and he’s going to have to tell her…
“Jason!” Valley calls out. Jason didn’t give him his name so he ignores that. “Jason!”
Jason hears Valley start to run after him. He doesn’t want to deal with that, so he ducks into an alley, takes a corner, then another… Loses Valley pretty easily, since he’s not familiar with the area. If Valley gets mugged after that, then that’s not Jason’s problem. Not like Valley helped him any.