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“This is stupid. How do we even know this is the right truck?”
“Don’t play stupid, Harper. He was extremely specific. Egg rolls made with things like bacon mac or Reubens. Hot guy, dark hair, white streak in front, and arms to die for. This is obviously him.”
Jason raised an eyebrow at the two arguing redheads, curious why they were looking for him and his truck. Thankfully, the rush had passed and now it would just be the stragglers until they closed up shop for the day.
The pair turned to face the order window to find Jason there, arms folded on the counter and an amused smirk on his face.
“Jason?”
“So it would appear. That was an oddly specific description. Can I help you guys?” He watched the pair exchange a look before the more rugged looking of the two stepped forward.
“We’re here because of Dick.” And of all the scenarios running through his head, Dick had not been involved in any of them.
“I see,” Jason said sharply, smirk fading to a scowl. “He has made his point perfectly clear without sending his harem of redheads to clarify.”
“What point?”
“Harem of redheads?” But Jason just raised an eyebrow.
“Ah fuck, Wally. Dick was right.” The man looked to Wally and then back to Jason. “Look, I’m Roy Harper and this is Wally West. Dickie is our best friend and whatever point you think he’s making, he’s not. Trust me.”
“He’s in the hospital. Got shot in the chest on the job two weeks ago and just regained consciousness yesterday,” Wally relayed, and Jason had to grip the counter to keep upright.
“He…Is he going to be okay?” And wow did he feel like an ass.
“Yeah. Doctors said maybe two more days before he can go home. It was bad there for a while but they kept him in the medically induced coma so he could heal without his usual bullshit of getting up too early. But look,” Roy crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at Jason, “You need to come to Gotham General. Once he was fully awake, he started freaking out about you. Something about a date, missed calls and texts, and you hating him.”
“Jesus, Roy. Dickie said to just tell him what happened. Not to guilt the guy into a visit.” Wally smacked Roy’s upper arm with the back of his hand. “Though, yeah,” he turned back to Jason, “Dick would probably weep tears of joy if you showed up. He was pretty wrecked.”
Jason wasn’t quite sure what to say, still working the fact that Dick had been shot and hadn’t just ditched him. He had spent the last two weeks wondering what it was he had done. He had gone over that last in-person interaction and the text message thread, wracking his brain for any kind of hint. And the first week had tried to text and call but had been met with silence. So, the past week he had convinced himself that Dick had just been fucking with him all along and never meant any of it. Now he was hearing the other man had nearly died and Jason had been the ass who had thought the man was just ghosting him.
“Did we break him?”
“Shut it, West. Look man, he’s in room 212 at GG. Give us a last name to go with Jason and we’ll put you on the visitor’s list.”
“Visitor’s list?”
“Comes with being Bruce Wayne’s son.” Jason gave Wally a weird look.
“His last name is Grayson…?”
“Yeah, but Bruce adopted him. Took him in after-“ Roy covered Wally’s mouth with his hand and glared at the other man.
“Shut the fuck up, West,” Roy growled and hell if that didn’t just pique Jason’s interest. “Now give us an order of whatever is Dickhead’s favorite so we can get a smile on his pathetic face.” Jason stood frozen for a moment before waving away Roy’s credit card and hanging the closed sign. He quickly whipped up an order of the bacon mac ‘n cheese rolls and an order of churros before bagging it all up.
“My last name is Todd. Get me on the list,” Jason said as he stepped out of the truck and handed the bag of food over. “I gotta clean this shit up because hazard and all that, but I’ll come by after I’m done.”
“Good,” was all Roy said as he grabbed the bag and turned to leave.
“Nice to meet you man! See you around, hopefully,” Wally called out as Roy grabbed his arm and dragged him away.
Jason wasn’t sure what he had been expecting once he finally got to Dick’s room at the hospital, but a fancy and very private suite was not it. And even less than that, a fifteen or sixteen-year-old kid fussing over Dick while Dick just smiled at the kid fondly.
“Dames, stop,” Dick laughed softly, reaching out to stop the kid from messing with the pillows again. “I’m good. Just go meet Jon already.”
“Tt,” the kid responded before turning to grab his bag from the chair next to Dick’s bag. When he tensed all over, Jason knew he had been spotted. “Who the hell are you? This is supposed to be a private room, not some free for all.” Wow.
“Jason,” Dick’s surprised voice cut in. Jason looked from the kid to Dick and practically melted at the look on his face. Surprised, yes, but the warmth was there and god if Jason didn’t want to just cross the room and press his lips to the other mans.
“Dick, I’m so glad you’re okay.” He took two steps into the room before the kid was standing in front of him, almost the same height as him but much leaner compared to Jason’s bulk. Raising a brow, Jason stared the kid down and waited.
“Dami, stop. This is Jason, my friend who owns the food truck.” The kid didn’t move or acknowledge Dick’s words. “Damian, knock it off.” Authority slipped into Dick’s tone and Jason wanted to smirk in victory when Damian tensed but backed off. “Jon is waiting,” Dick reminded him gently and with a grunt and one last glare sent to Jason, Damian was storming out of the room.
“Fun kid,” Jason commented, looking back toward the door before closing the rest of the space between him and Dick’s bedside. “Jesus, Dick. I almost dropped when Roy and Wally told me what happened. I’m so fucking glad you’re okay.”
“They didn’t guilt you into coming here, did they? They can be a bit much at the same time when you don’t know them.” Shaking his head, Jason tugged the chair closer to the bed and sat down. Without allowing himself to overthink it, he grabbed Dick’s hand in his and held it with both of his. The smile he got in return was well worth it.
“Nah, they just told me what happened. Said you’d like it if I stopped by and asked for my last name.” Dick nodded and sunk a little deeper into the pillows piled up behind him. “So, Damian is your…?”
“Oh. Brother. I know those idiots let slip that Bruce Wayne is my adoptive father, but Damian is Bruce’s only actual blood son. Tim and I were both adopted after our parents died.” Jason wanted to know more about that, but the look on Dick’s face told him he wasn’t quite ready to let him in on that darkness.
“He’s a very intense kid. How old is he?”
“Sixteen going on sixty,” Dick laughed. “He’s a good kid, despite the glare and protectiveness. He didn’t have the easiest beginning. B didn’t even know about him until he was eight. Lesson learned: protection is never a guarantee.” Jason laughed at that and shook his head.
“So, his mom was not a good parent?”
“The only person worse than her was her father.” Dick’s face turned from amused to angry faster than Jason realized he could and he was surprised at the fire there. “When LA Social Services called and told Bruce about Damian, he was…it was bad.” Jason squeezed Dick’s hand and the other man gave him a thankful smile. “Tim and I came from homes that knew love. Damian, I don’t think he had ever known love of any kind until he came to Gotham.”
“Poor kid.” Dick nodded sadly. “But he seemed pretty fond of you in the few seconds before he noticed me.”
“Yeah,” Dick agreed, and the smile was back on his face. “Bruce is a great man and a good father, but he’s not the most emotionally available man. He struggled with Damian when he came to live with him. Tim was a teenager already and I had moved out on my own, so B was pretty much on his own. But then he called me one night and begged me to help because he didn’t know if he was just screwing up Damian more than he already was.”
Well, fuck. How shitty was it that a man could tell he was not the best option for his own child’s mental and emotional health but that his older son was? Jason couldn’t imagine feeling so poorly about himself and that said something because he didn’t like himself most days.
“I moved back home and took a sabbatical from work in order to help. It was hard and there were plenty of times I would shut myself in my room and ask what the hell I was trying to accomplish, but Damian eventually improved.” Letting out a sigh, Dick looked down at Jason with a hint of sadness. “I think sometimes B wishes he hadn’t called me in. He and Dami…they’re not close. They respect each other, and B loves him like he loves Tim and me, but when Dami does something to be proud of it’s me who he comes to.”
“He views you as a father more than his actual father.” Dick hummed and looked over toward the window, avoiding commenting on it. “Is that a point of contention between you and Bruce?”
“Not really, at least not that he allows it to be. But like I said, he’s not good with the emotions. Its just, sometimes I can see regret so plainly written on his face when I’m talking to Dami. It’s hard to miss sometimes.”
“And that makes you feel guilty.” A statement, not a question.
“Yeah…” Dick’s voice is quiet, but Jason knows him well enough now to hear the regret.
“Have you talked to Damian about it before?” Dick shook his head and looked back to Jason with a curious look. “I was just wondering what he thought of it all.”
Jason can tell Dick is mulling over the idea of asking Damian about the fact that he viewed Dick as his dad and not Bruce, but he can also see the moment when Dick rejects the idea for now. Not that Jason blames him. The kid had been intense, and he had come across as smart, so part of him probably knew. If it had been Jason in Damian’s place, he probably would have some resentment toward his actual father for basically pawning him off to his brother when it got to be too much.
“This was so not the conversation I thought we would have when I came,” Jason offered as an out of the current topic. He could see the appreciation in Dick’s smile and the slight shift of his shoulders as he relaxed.
“What did you expect?”
“Profuse apologies because your redheads had made it seem like you were pretty worried that I hated you.” Dick laughed hard, holding his middle where Jason assumed were some of the wounds that had caused this whole mess.
“They made it clear that you weren’t mad. I figured I could save the apologies for when I wasn’t laid up in the hospital.”
“Fair enough. Though,” Jason leaned forward and looked at Dick closely, “you don’t owe me any apologies. This situation isn’t anywhere near being your fault.”
“Still upset I missed our date. I had the whole thing planned.”
“Well, you can go through with that plan when you are back to full mobility. Until then, I’d be happy to accommodate to your situation.” Dick’s smile was practically blinding, and Jason squeezed his hand. The intense desire to kiss the other man hit him suddenly but not too surprisingly. “I’d really like to kiss you right now.” The words came out before he could stop them.
“I’d really like you to kiss me,” Dick responded, smile growing even brighter. And Jason wished he could figure out how he managed to be so beautiful. But he would have to try and figure that out later. For now, he just focused on releasing Dick’s hand and pressing a palm to his cheek as he leaned forward and pressed their mouths together.
And god if it didn’t feel like coming home after being gone for years.
Dick’s lips were slightly chapped from the dry, hospital air and his breath was a little stale but the whole thing was so utterly perfect that Jason could feel his chest tighten with the emotion. Keeping in mind his still healing chest, Jason ended the kiss sooner than he would have liked. Pulling back, he pressed one quick kiss to the corner of Dick’s mouth before pulling back even further to look at the other man. What he found made him want to ignore the chest wound Dick had and just dive right back in.
Dark lashes fluttering against golden cheek bones and lips parted just slightly. He hoped he never forgot this image.
“I can’t wait until this heart rate monitor won’t alert everyone to just how much you affect me,” Dick muttered, opening his eyes to reveal sapphire rings around black pupils blown wide with lust.
“Just focus on healing that chest wound. Then I’ll happily let you figure out just how much of me you can and can’t handle.”
“Deal,” Dick whispered, pushing up to press their mouths together one last time before falling back into the pillows again.
Jason chuckled and ran his fingers along Dick’s cheek bone before dropping back down into the chair he had previously been sitting in and letting his hands fall into his lap.
“So, Wally and Roy aren’t my only redhead friends and the fact that you called just the two of them a harem was so accurate I thought I had pulled my stitches from laughing so hard when they told me.” Jason looked at him for a moment before laughing loudly and shaking his head.
“Well then the name is definitely sticking around.”
“I’ll be sure to warn the others.”
And Jason couldn’t help but chuckle as he reached for Dick’s hand again.