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“You do realize how hot it is outside, right?” Jason asked, eyeing the grey hoodie Dick was swallowed up in. The drawstrings were pulled tight into a bow under his brother’s chin, framing Dick’s face like the tail end of a tootsie roll.
“Yeah,” Dick muttered absently. He was staring out the kitchen window at a pair of robins that were fighting for footing on the bird feeder Alfred had put outside.
Jason frowned at the tone void of any emotion. He pretended to take a sip of his coffee to eye Dick more closely over the lip of his mug.
His brother’s eyes were puffy and distant looking. Not at all like the vibrant blue gaze Jason was used to seeing. In fact, his whole face looked slack as if all the muscles in it were too tired to make any kind of expression.
Jason set his coffee down and leaned back in his chair, unconsciously mimicking the position of Dick’s loosely crossed arms.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Dick must’ve had a bad night. What he could’ve been upset over, Jason wasn’t sure. They’d both stayed at the manor last night instead of going out. Hell, they’d even gotten halfway through a movie until Dick got too restless to sit still any longer. He’d jumped on the couch cushion beside Jason’s, dislodging Jason from his comfy burrow of blankets. He’d only retreated to his room for the night when Jason had lobbed the TV remote at his head.
The annoying brother he’d been hanging out with last night was nowhere to be found this morning. It was like someone had cut Dick’s strings in the middle of the night, leaving him as an empty, emotionless shell.
Jason didn’t like it. Seeing Dick so lethargic rubbed him the wrong way.
He was about to say something else to break up the silence between them, but Dick beat him to it by choking out, “I did something stupid last night.”
Startled by the admission, and wondering what the hell Dick could have possibly done in the time since they last saw each other, Jason raised a cautious brow.
“Okay...” he said slowly, feeling something like worry settle in his stomach. “What did you do?”
Dick finally looked away from the window. His gaze darted from Jason’s face to the knots in the wood of the table. He sighed in such a deep and heavy way that made his whole body deflate like a balloon.
Slowly, Dick reached up to the drawstrings of his hoodie. His scarred fingers undid the bow, releasing some of the pressure that was keeping the hood secured to the sides of his face.
Jason could tell something wasn’t right even before Dick reached up and pulled his hood down all the way, revealing his freshly shaved head.
Jason’s mouth fell open in shock. Whatever he was expecting, it sure as hell wasn’t that.
“Dick... what?” he breathed out in disbelief, reaching out over the table to run his hand over Dick’s head to confirm that his brother’s thick head of hair was actually gone. Instead of long locks, his fingers brushed over fuzz that still felt slightly sharp to the touch, not having enough time from the initial cut to soften yet.
Jason had never seen his brother’s hair this short before. Never. Ever since Jason had known him, Dick’s hair had been long. He’d seen it long enough to trail down Dick’s back, he’d seen it long enough to hit his brother’s shoulders, and he’d even seen it short in the front and long in the back. He’d seen in it in various stages of a shag, and he’d seen it cropped on the sides. But even if it had been cropped, it had still been long on the top.
This was completely different. It was just... there was just... nothing. Well, hardly nothing.
The longer Jason stared, the more Dick’s shoulders started to bunch up towards his ears. “That bad, huh?” Dick asked with a fake smile.
Jason wiped his hand against his sleep pants, feeling like the tickle of Dick’s hair was still buzzing on his fingertips.
“Why?” Jason asked.
“Why?”
“Why’d you do it,” Jason clarified, gesturing at Dick’s head.
Dick’s eyes darted down to his arms, which were now wrapped around his torso in some kind of self-comforting hug.
He shrugged. “Been feeling kinda bad lately.” In an even smaller voice, he added, “Needed a change.”
Jason waited, expecting his brother to elaborate a little more. The longer the silence stretched on, the more Jason understood that Dick didn’t have anything else to say about it. And Jason understood, to some extent. He didn’t like talking about his feelings either. He didn’t like that feeling of vulnerability that came with opening yourself up to someone, so he could understand why Dick didn’t say more than that, but even if he understood it, it didn’t mean he had to be okay with it.
“I like it,” Jason said, his voice sounding too loud to his own ears. “A little prickly,” he grinned, “but you look good, man.”
Dick gave him such a heartbreakingly hesitant look at the compliment he probably wasn’t expecting to hear. It was a look Jason had only seen on children’s faces before. Not something he was used to seeing from his usual confident older brother. It did something to Jason’s heart. Made him feel sad and fond all at once.
For the first time that morning, Dick finally smiled in a way that didn’t look forced or fake. It lit up his eyes in a familiar way that made Jason internally breathe a sigh of relief.
Even though he didn’t look the same, this was still his brother. Still Dick Grayson.
Jason would punch anyone who said differently.
“Thanks,” Dick said quietly just as Alfred came into the kitchen and did a double take. The carefully controlled expression Alfred usually wore was compromised by his wide eyes and O-shaped mouth. Jason wondered if his own face had looked that horrified during the reveal. He sure as hell hoped not.
“Master Dick!” Alfred exclaimed in complete shock. His voice was so loud that it echoed through the halls, no doubt heard by Bruce and the others.
Dick grinned at Jason, amused. Jason grinned back.
Yeah, he thought as Alfred marched over and cupped Dick’s head in fascinated horror, things are gonna be okay.