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Jason wasn’t sure what to expect when he and Tim headed to the Manor on Thanksgiving. It was going to be the first time that the entire family was together for the holiday. While everyone had been getting along surprisingly well lately, there were still several issues within the family. From what he’d heard and seen on TV, he knew holidays had a tendency to bring out such issues. Sometimes it helped to address them, sometimes it didn’t. Other times, everyone was able to just focus on what they were grateful for and forget their issues for a day.
Jason was really hoping for the latter. He liked Thanksgiving. He loved his family. He wanted to have a good day with them without any catastrophes or fights or huge dramas. He really didn’t think that was asking too much for a guy who’d missed out on family holidays for years because he’d been murdered.
Before he’d died, Jason had spent a few Thanksgivings with Bruce and Alfred. Dick hadn't been there for most of them, as he’d either been fighting with Bruce or otherwise decided to spend the holiday with his friends. Kate had been invited, as far as Jason knew, but she always chose to spend the holiday with her father or girlfriends. Tim, Cassandra, and Damian hadn’t been part of the family back then.
Cassandra had spent a couple Thanksgivings with the family, from what Jason had heard, but not all of them. Tim had been with Bruce and Alfred for several holidays, but he’d had to stay home (whether his father had been there or not) to keep up appearances for the first few. Tim didn’t talk about it much, but it didn’t sound as though they’d truly celebrated for the rest of them. Dick had spent every Thanksgiving with his adopted father and grandfather for most of his childhood and sounded happy to return. Damian didn’t seem to know what to make of the holiday, but was willing to give it a chance provided that no turkey’s were harmed. Jason had no idea what Alfred and Bruce did on the rare holiday they’d had none of the others there.
Since Jason returned, he’d yet to spend the holiday with his family. He hadn’t been in the best place for some time. He’d wanted to reconnect with (or get to know) his siblings outside of situations where they had to make nice before trying something with that particular brand of pressure. He and his father had only recently started communicating well (for them anyway). It simply hadn’t been something that had a chance of working out well before. It did now.
He took a moment to remind himself of that (and be thankful for it) as he walked into the Manor.
Dick greeting him with a hug as soon as he entered the door wasn’t much of a surprise. The firmness of said hug and the awkward duration of it were. Especially since Jason hadn’t even been given the chance to remove his coat or put down the roasted sweet potatoes he’d brought.
Jason waited for what he felt was a generous amount of time before addressing it. It probably hadn’t been that long. However, it had been long enough for Tim to snatch the sweet potatoes and skirt around them to head to the kitchen with them and his seitan turkey.
“Uh, Dick? Why are you still hugging me?”
Dick either missed the blatantly obvious hint or chose to ignore it, because he didn’t release his brother. In fact, he shifted to take up some of the space that he’d had to allow for the now missing roasting pan. “Can’t a guy cuddle his brother a little to show how much he loves him during the holidays?”
“A little, yeah.” Jason shifted slightly and motioned over his big brother. “But you surpassed ‘a little’ after about thirty seconds.”
“It's Thanksgiving. I’m thankful you’re here.” Dick had already managed to shift from the sideways hug he’d started when Jason’s hands were occupied to a full frontal hug. His chin was even resting on Jason’s shoulder. “More than thirty-seconds-worth-of-hugging thankful.”
Jason wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Hitting the holiday cocktails a little early, aren’t you?”
Dick laughed a little. And still refused to release his brother. “Nope. Just drunk on happiness.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Holy fucking crap, you are such a dork.” He patted Dick’s back. Then he allowed his hand to drop unceremoniously. “Seriously. Stop hugging me.”
Dick’s grip tightened around him a little.
“That’s the opposite of stopping, dumbass.” Evan as he said it, Jason was growing slightly concerned that something had happened. Or something was going on that he was heretofore unaware of. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Everything’s great. I’m just really glad you’re here, Jay.” Dick’s voice was level and painfully sincere. “I missed you.”
Jason wasn’t sure if it was the holiday that brought it about or if this had been something his brother had been thinking of for a while. Either way, he knew it was more than Dick’s usual affectionate nature behind the gesture and words. It was more than Dick being happy to spend the holiday with his whole family. In everything that had happened since Jason came back for good, the two of them hadn’t discussed the time he was away much. They hadn’t addressed what they’d had before everything went wrong to begin with. They hadn’t discussed how much they missed it while it was gone.
They didn’t need to.
Jason understood.
He’d never told Dick, not directly anyway, but he’d always been happy to have gained a brother when Bruce took him in. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t been as close or spent as much time together. Just those little occasions where Dick let him know that he got his complaints about their father or that he believed in him had meant a lot. Even before he got to a halfway okay place with their father, he’d wanted that back. He’d gone about it wrong initially, but that didn’t matter anymore.
He was home. He was with his family. He was standing in the vestibule being hugged for far too long by his weirdo big brother.
He wouldn’t change any of it.
He decided to return the hug. He didn’t hold on quite as tightly, but he heard his brother sigh happily anyway.
Dick actually laughed lightly when Jason dropped his voice to make a quiet confession. “I missed you, too.”
It didn’t matter how the day went anymore. It didn’t matter if there was drama, or arguing, or fighting, or something that forced them to call the whole thing off while they defended Gotham. Jason was glad he came home for the holiday. He was thankful to have this moment with his brother.
Not that he was going say that, of course. Jason didn’t really have the tolerance for that much emotional conversation and Dick was obnoxiously affectionate without that kind of encouragement. Jason couldn’t imagine what a pain in the ass his big brother would be if he knew even half of how much he was loved and adored by his younger siblings.
Instead, he just let Dick hug him as long as he wanted.
“Happy Thanksgiving, bro.”
Dick laughed happily.
“Happy Thanksgiving, Jay.”