Chapter Text
Jason shook his head a little, running his fingers through his hair as he removed his red hood helmet. Tim said it made him look like a dog. Jason disagreed, of course. It just made him look cool and dashing. Not that he needed to look cool and dashing anymore though, because he already had someone waiting on him back in his room. Jason grinned as he hung his helmet up in The Cave and took out two of the crepes from the bag he'd gotten. Two for him and Dick to share. He had gotten some for the others too, so they wouldn't whine, but they could fish it out themselves. He had a soulmate to get to. The others were still out, after all, Jason had been the first to get home.
He opened his door, and almost dropped the crepes then and there, almost like he the star of a shitty telenovela. His room was in, well, partial disarray. The closet was open, clothes ruffled, one drawer was open,and... Damian, asleep on his bed? To say he was confused would be a gross understatement. And the most damning of all, no sign of any Dick whatsoever in the room.
And the window was open. Fuck, where was Dick?
Jason immediately went to kneel beside the bed and started shaking Damian awake, all while shouting for Dick, knowing that he never would've left the room until Jason came back. He had tried his best to get Dick to let go of the habit, but the guy was still apprehensive to do things until Jason expressly told him to.
God, how could he just have left Dick all by himself? What if he was somewhere in the manor, afraid and waiting for Jason? He knew he shouldn't have left Dick all by himself when the guy had refused to come with to patrol. Dick would never willingly want to stay away from him, something had to be wrong.
"Talon! Come here!"
No response, atleast from the outside. That meant Dick wasn't in the Manor, because he never would've been able to refuse a direct order from Jason.
Damian, though, from all the shaking, was now sitting upright and rubbing his eyes, looking groggy. That was another, stupid thing that didn't make sense. Why would Damian be asleep on his bed, in his room?
"Damian, what were you-" Jason's eyes widened when he saw the redness around Damian's jugular. The perfect point to hit if you wanted to knock someone out. Had, someone knocked Damian out, the fuck? Why was he in the bed, tucked nice and cozy under a damn blanket, then? Who had taken the time to do that? And most of all, where the hell had Dick been during all this?
Jason would've been more worried about Damian, but he looked unharmed, just a little groggy from being woken up. Hell, the kid looked borderline cozy, all tucked in a blanket, only thing that looked missing was a stuffed toy in his arms.
He handed Damian a glass of water and waited for him to get a little more lucid, before he started questioning him. He didn't have to wait for long, though, because Damian gulped down the water and immediately shouted at him.
"Todd, your soulmate is a theif!" Damian glared at him. A thief? This again? Damian had been, for some reason, insisting that Dick was just a gold digger the past week, without considering the fact that he hadn't really gotten to any digging in the weeks he's already been with Jason. He refrained from lecturing Damian about describing Dick like that for the moment, though, much more important things to worry about.
"What the hell are you talking about, Damian? What happened? Tell me."
"I was up in the Manor, when I thought I would check up on Richard in your room," Damian held up a finger, "Lecture me about it afterwards, please. And that is when I saw your soulmate, looking through your drawers, with your closet open and clearly rummaged through, and an open bag kept on the bed. Naturally, I confronted him. He must be guilty because he mumbled some insipid things and knocked me out. And he's not here anymore, I presume?"
Jason nodded wordlessly.
"Of course, your soulmate must have left from the open window soon after that. He is a theif!"
A theif? Dick? No. But the open window and no sign of Dick, along with a knocked out Damian signified otherwise. Ah fuck, what was jason thinking? No, he couldn't let himself doubt his soulmate, Dick deserved better.
"That can't be true. Damian, Dick doesn't want any money."
"Then he must have been after something else! One of father's gadgets or some report you did! Don't let the fact he is your soulmate blind you."
Jason shook his head. He felt it, deep down, that Dick didn't do this to steal anything. He knew it, he couldn't let paranoia overtake him. Evidence before judgement. There had to be something else going on. He looked at Damian again. It was clear that Dick hadn't wanted to hurt anyone, because Damian was unharmed and nice and tucked in, in the bed. And the closet-
He got up and looked through the in-built lockers of his closet. And the secret compartments.
It was intact, all of it was. It was all messed up, like Dick had been looking for something, but nothing of value had been taken. Jason inwardly sighed. That ruled out, thief, atleast. But then why, why was Dick not in the room?
"Damian?"
"What is it? Finally believe me?"
"Shut up. What 'insipid' thing was Dick mumbling before he took you out?"
"I'll have you know, he did not just 'take me out' I had been caught off-guard-"
"Damian, please."
Damian gave him a signature Bruce brooding look in response but answered nonetheless.
"He was saying something about how 'Talon makes Jason sad' or something along the vein."
Jason felt his heart just about stop when he heard that. He had failed, that was simply it. And spectacularly, at that, because now his own soulmate had run off because he wrongfully thought that he made Jason sad. Just his fucking luck. He did feel some anger at the thought that Dick had chosen to run away instead of just, talking to Jason about it but refrained. Not the time.
He heard footsteps and looked up towards the door in hope, only to see Bruce, instead of Dick. He had never been more disappointed to see Bruce than he was, right this instant.
"Is everything okay? Damian, why are you in Jason's room?" Bruce asked them cautiously. Jason saw him look from the open window, to where Damian was now sitting up in Jason's bed, to Jason himself, and he had no doubt that he was making theories up in his Batman brain right about now.
Jason interrupted him before he could say anything.
"Dick's missing."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jason groaned in frustration as he shined the flashlight into a deep, dark bush in the forest-esque garden that surrounded the manor. He had always loved that the Manor had such a vast backyard where he could play in or whatever when he had been a kid, courtesy of the longing he had developed after living in a cramped shoe-box apartment in crime alley before meeting Bruce.
He had never hated it more than he did today, though. Because his idiot, stupid soulmate had thought it had been a good idea to run away and force Jason to play hide-and-seek with him right after he had returned from patrol, in the dead of night.
And when the aforementioned soulmate was a master at hiding, disguise, stealth, camouflage, espionage and all of that spy stuff, you name it, who had not tripped a single alarm. And especially when the soulmate happened to be a former Talon with literal cold-blood, whose heat signatures could not be tracked through the infrared tracker that Bruce had set up all over the Wayne Estate. Yeah, especially then.
God, when he found Dick, he wouldn't give him his arm for an entire day as punishment. No, not a day, an entire week. A month, even.
Jason sighed to himself. Who was he kidding? He'd give Dick his arm to hold for all of eternity if only the guy fucking showed himself.
Atleast, Tim had confirmed down from the cave that no one had left the estate, so Dick was still in these gardens. Or the Manor, but Jason doubted that because the window had been open when he had come in. And hadn't that been the shock of his life?
Great going, idiot. Jason had to be the only person in the entirety of forever to lose his wonderful soulmate before they even completed one single month together. Yeah, he should be called in to give lectures, at this point.
He flashed the light again, hoping to catch some speck of an iota of a glance at his soulmate. Nothing. Of course. That's what's bound to happen, with his runway bride being a master at all things espionage.
Creak!
Jason's ears perked up suddenly. Was that maybe the sound of someone's foot accidentally stepping onto some dry leaves? Maybe even an ex-talon, perhaps. He mentally crossed some fingers, hoping against all hope that this wasn't one of Damian's pets or a rat or bird- well, any bird except for the one he was looking for- and rounded on the spot, shining his flashlight straight ahead.
And lo and behold, there was Bruce, standing in front of him, blinking rapidly and bringing his hand up to his face to hide himself from the glare of Jason's flashlight directly into his eyes. Jason immediately deflated. This was the second most disappointed he had ever been to see Bruce.
He huffed and turned his flashlight towards the ground, slower than was strictly necessary. "Well? Find something along the eastern gardens?"
Bruce shook his head. "No sign there, but I am more hopeful that he will be on the western side, that one is further away from the manor, after all."
Jason nodded and turned his flashlight up towards the sprawling, unnecessarily dense and unnecessarily secretive trees of the forest, as he and Bruce moved towards the Western side.
They walked in silence for a bit, with Jason not really keen on breaking the silence anytime soon. Of course, it was as if Bruce had heard Jason's inner voice and had immediately decided to disregard it, because he spoke up soon after.
"We had grown too complacent, leaving only Damian in the manor with Dick. Thankfully, he didn't do anything worse than just knocking Damian out."
And of course, because it was Bruce, he immediately had to ruin the somewhat camaderie-full silence by choosing the worst possible thing to say to him, at that moment. Jason immediately gritted his teeth, very painstakingly keeping his voice low, so that incase his soulmate was nearby, he wouldn't be tipped off.
"What, so you think Dick isn't trustworthy?"
Bruce paused for a minute.
"Jason, that is not what I-"
"Save it. You think he would've actually hurt Damian? He's been living with us for weeks, he's my soulmate, for fuck's sake! And yet, you still don't trust him."
Yeah, Jason knew why Bruce was so untrusting. He'd heard enough times from Alfred that Bruce was only alive because he owed his life to paranoia. It was still really fucking annoying though.
Bruce started again. "I'm not accusing him of anything-or blaming you- but we did end up with an unconscious Damian and runaway Talon on our hands." Oh my god. He had given Bruce a chance at explanation, but that had never been Bruce's strong suit.
"He obviously wasn't going to hurt Damian! With how much of a pro he is, he easily could've done anything worse."
"I know, Jason, I'm not saying he meant harm, all I'm saying is that he was part of a dangerous organisation that wanted us all dead till about a month ago. That kind of brainwashing is difficult to overcome."
Jason scoffed at him. "He's been trying to overcome it, but your suspicion here isn't helping anyone."
"Maybe some more tests are in order, some psychological ones this time-"
His whisper automatically turned harsh when he answered. "No, fuck that. I apologize from Dick's side. Don't worry though, soon as I find him, we'll be getting out of your fucking manor within the night." Bruce sighed but didn't say anything.
But Jason was already walking away, faster than Bruce was, to loose him as quickly as possible, steps still light as possible. He didn't hear Bruce call after him, probably because he also didn't wanna tip Dick off if he was nearby, or maybe because he just didn't care. He didn't know which one he would've preferred.
Of course, of course Bruce would be a hardass about it. Jason couldn't wait to find Dick and skip this fucking Manor as soon as he could. It had been Bruce himself who had forced them to come live here, hadn't he? And now he was casting aspersions on Jason's soulmate like he had any right to be.
It wasn't as if Jason didn't care about Damian, of course he did! But he also knew Talon, and nothing had happened. Was he being unfair to Bruce who had maybe just been worried about his kid? Maybe.
Jason sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. He didn't know why he had such an explosive reaction when Bruce had implied that Dick was dangerous. He didn't care what Bruce thought about him, and cared even less about what Bruce thought about his soulmate.
He shook his head to rid himself of the stupid notion that he cared about Bruce approving who he brought home as his soulmate. Of course he didn't. Of course.
Jason continued his search, the forest was so vast he fortunately didn't encounter any Bruces on the way. Unfortunately he also didn't encounter any soulmates. Jason contemplated returning back in the morning, when Dick would have lesser-relatively speaking- hiding spots, but then decided against it, ultimately. He knew Dick hated spending the night all cold and alone. And maybe, Jason did too, nowadays.
He sighed and trudged on, eyes drooping a little. A full night long forestwide search right after a hard patrol wasn't really doing him any favours anytime soon.
In his fatigue, Jason misjudged a particularly slippery rock, and cursed as he fell face first, barely stopping himself from getting brained on the worn sharp tip of the rock. It still managed to get his temple, and Jason sat against the aforementioned rock, rubbing the place where he had been hit. He cringed as his fingers felt something wet, coming off bloody from his temple. Of course.
He looked up, thinking to take a five minute break, maybe watching the stars and wishing on a broken one to- Jason blinked up as stars filled his vision. Not the ones in the night sky he had been expecting, but two large, round, unblinking ones.
Jason felt all his breath leave him as he exhaled. He could've just flopped back, right on the sharp as hell rock if Dick's hands didn't keep him upright by suddenly roaming all over him all concerned, as if Jason had been the one that had been missing.
Jason felt like he could cry from how good it felt to have him this close again.
Dick's unnaturally pale, devilishly handsome face that was about ninety percent eyes, had never looked prettier to Jason, than it did in this moment.
"Dick, where the hell were you?!"