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Dick sighed, already hating the way his coronet dug into his head. He had only been wearing it for ten minutes and it was already feeling unwieldy. He fidgeted, smoothing the cape that hung down one of his shoulders and playing with his family signet ring.
“Will you stop?” Jason hissed next to him. His ears flickered back in annoyance and his tail swatted against Dick’s calves. “It’s as irritating as hell.”
Jason was fitting in a similar royal outfit. His chosen colour scheme was red and black with touches of silver and his official robes reflected that. He was a striking contrast against Dick’s blue and gold regalia, a reflection in a slightly different colour and style.
Jason’s robes were also different by necessity, changed to accommodate his Creature traits. All his clothes were because Bruce wouldn’t stand to force his second son into outfits that wouldn’t make him be uncomfortable.
Dick hummed, using a hand to brush down the cape that flowed from Jason’s shoulders. It was a different design than Dick’s, and one they had purposely chosen to hide the huldrekall hole in the middle of Jason’s back.
Jason could glamour away most of his Creature traits, hiding them from human sight and touch, but the hole was the one aspect of himself that he couldn’t keep hidden.
It was also his weakest point. One that had been targeted purposefully in the past.
Jason was comfortable with Bruce, Dick, and Alfred touching it and putting their hands in it now, but for anyone else to touch it was violating.
But people didn’t care about what the Creature thought. They didn’t care that he heard every single jab at his heritage or the disgust when they talked to him. They didn’t care about a nine-year-old kid who was crying and begging as strangers curiously felt the wood on the inside of his back. They didn’t care that it hurt him to feel someone reach in without his permission and grasp at his very soul.
To this day, it still shocked Dick how much people just didn’t fucking care.
“How do you feel?” Dick asked gently and Jason caught the sudden shift in his voice.
Jason’s eyes surveyed his face before he shrugged
“Same as I always do with these things,” said Jason grumpily with the indignation of a teenager who knew he was getting babied. “I’m used to it, Dick. I’ve told you a hundred times that I’ll be fine.”
But Dick still worried.
Glamouring was exhausting magic that required stamina and focus, even for a magically prone Creature like Jason. He could keep it up longer than any human could hope for, but every time he did hold it and left him exhausted and ragged.
Dick always hated that Jason had to go through it at all.
Jason didn’t get many benefits out of glamouring. It drained him, it dulled his senses, and it made him feel vulnerable with most of his natural defenses tucked away. Glamouring was supposed to be used for a few minutes, and Jason often had to use it for multiple hours.
But it made people who would never accept him in the first place feel marginally more comfortable and it kept his Creature traits impossible for a human to touch.
It only took a couple of yanks at his ears, a few feet viciously trying to kick his animalistic curved legs out from under him, and one attempt at cutting off Jason’s tail that got scarily close to succeeding, for Jason to decide the exhaustion of glamour was worth the small extra protection of some of his most sensitive features.
Dick much preferred for Jason to be in his natural form. He was confident and comfortable beside Dick, and knew his brother would never hurt him because of them.
“Well, I’m sorry to annoy you, Your Highness.” Dick chuckled, reaching up to flick one of Jason’s ears. The furred appendage twitched and the two silvers earrings in it jingled together.
Jason himself scowled.
“You’re such a royal pain in the ass.”
“You’re such a—”
“Boys,” Bruce said, cutting them off as he walked into the room.
Both of them fell silent and snapped to attention.
Their father was already in his full black and gold regalia and looked effortlessly elegant in the cape and crown. Dick knew his father though, and that the man was just as uncomfortable as Dick with the weight of the crown.
Bruce stepped to Dick, glancing over his regalia and giving it an approving nod. He moved to Jason next, adjusting his cape and a slight tilt to his silver coronet.
“My boys,” he said, a small affectionate smile on his face. “Both so handsome.”
Dick watched as his little brother brightened at the compliment. All these years and it still meant so much to him that Bruce said that when his Creature traits were on full display.
“Are you going to be alright, Jason?” Bruce asked, echoing the question that he didn’t know Dick had already asked. His little brother had to physically hold himself back from rolling his eyes.
“I should be fine. I’m only going to glamour my legs and my tail until we are all seated. Then I’ll release it and just do my claws and ears.”
“Good,” Bruce said, ruffling one of Jason’s furry ears. “Hopefully it won’t be more than a couple of hours and we can get out early. Just remember to give Alfred the signal if it gets to be too much.”
“I know, Bruce,” Jason whined, but he also leaned into the hand scratching behind his ear.
Dick tilted his head, “What do the Drakes even want anyways?”
Bruce shrugged. “Another attempt to make a deal for our Northernmost territory? I know they have been eying the Falls as a new water source. Jack Drake said that he had a gift to help change my mind apparently.”
A shiver ran down Dick’s spine. “That’s ominous.”
“It is. Though it does pique my curiosity. His letter was quite enthusiastic about it.”
“Would you give away the Northern lands?” Jason piped up, glancing up at Bruce from under his hand.
Again, Bruce shrugged. “I guess it depends on what the Drakes want to offer.”
The arrival of the Drakes was like any other official meeting between families. There were light introductions, announcements of titles, and Jason and Dick being bored to death while they got through the formalities.
And after that, there was the mingling.
Dick hated all the insincere mingling.
“Lord Richard, you’ve grown so much,” Lady Drake said with a polite but fake smile. Dick gave her a similar smile and kissed her hand.
Internally, he gagged and wished he were anywhere else. He wished he could be like Jason and stand off to the side while everyone else did the talking.
“Lady Drake, you haven’t aged a day,” he said, searching for something to talk about. “How is your family? I know you have a son around Jason’s age.”
Janet Drake blinked and something that Dick couldn’t read passed through her face. Dick couldn’t help but narrow his eyes at the strange expression.
“Oh yes, Timothy. I am quite proud of him; he’s given up a lot to bring honour to his family. He’s going to complete a very important task for us.”
Dick tilted his head a little. “What kind of task?”
“It’s a surprise, Richard,” Lady Drake said with a chuckle that sounded distinctly condescending. It made the alarm bells in the back of his head ring. But before he could ask for more details, Alfred called them all in for dinner.
They all headed for the formal dining room and Dick didn’t think too much more about it. The Drakes were always a bit of a weird family.
Dick sat on Bruce’s right side with Jason on the same side to Dick’s right.
Once they settled, Dick watched as Jason relaxed. His chest heaved like he was releasing a breath he was holding and the tension in his muscles melted. He caught a glimpse of Jason’s tail flicking around his ankles and the more animal curve return to his legs. He quirked a smile when he heard Jason slip off his shoes and then poke him with a clawed toe.
Dick resisted the urge to kick his brother in the shin and start a small battle of poking each other’s feet.
Once everyone was seated, Bruce turned to Alfred and gave him a silent motion to start bringing in the food. Alfred bowed shortly, but before he could go to the kitchens, Janet Drake raised her voice.
“Lord Wayne, before your manservant brings the food, I think we should discuss our gift to you and your family.” Her eyes slid over to Jason, and Dick caught his little brother’s flinch out of the corner of his eye.
Bruce narrowed his eyes, his shoulders becoming tense in a way that Dick recognised as wary. His father was as suspicious about this as he was.
“It cannot wait until after dinner?” Bruce asked, a question clear in his voice.
Jack Drake gave him the small knowing smile that reminded Dick of a fox coming into a hen house.
“You will see that my offer has a lot to do with dinner” his eyes slid over to the two princes and Dick had the urge to shove Jason behind him. “And we should get on with it in order not to for someone to spoil his meal.”
Bruce hesitated, but eventually nodded, waiting to see what the Drakes had in store with them. Dick relaxed back into his chair, taking the cue from their father and after a moment, Jason followed suit.
But the movement was forced. Dick could see the anxiety begin to run in his brother’s body, the wary twitching returning to his hands. The glamour that he had to stay focused to keep up, flickered and faded in places. It was as quick as a blink, but Dick knew the signs of his brother getting uncomfortable.
As the Drake servant ran out, Jason’s anxious twitching became more apparent.
Dick didn’t know what Jason was sensing. His brother always had more awareness of what was going on, things that were about to happen. He didn’t know whether it was magic or just Jason being perceptive, but he trusted the huldrekall’s instincts just like he trusted his own.
“Jason, what’s wrong?” he said lowly. “What’s happening?”
Jason was a tense line near his side, his apprehension growing with every second. He knew that if Jason wasn’t hiding his teeth, his venomed fangs would be flexing and preparing for an attack.
“I don’t know,” Jason said. “I can’t tell. But it’s like … like they are covered in someone’s blood.”
And didn’t that send a chill down Dick’s spine.
He opened his mouth to ask another question, but before he could get it out, there was a thump and a crash, and the doorway into the dining room burst open.
Everyone tensed. Dick’s hand went to the sword on his hip. He caught a flash of his brother’s Creature traits as he struggled to focus to keep them up among the growing chaos.
But instead of attackers, the doors revealed servants who seemed to lug something behind them.
At first, Dick thought it was a sack, maybe even an animal carcass, but the thing moved and twitched and groaned.
Groaned in a way that meant this was a someone and not a something.
Dick’s heart dropped into a stomach as he took in the tiny form bound in shackles and chains.
It was a kid. A small one. Probably two or three years younger than Jason.
He was crying as he stumbled in, being forced forward even though he could hardly walk. Blood coated patches of his skin. It dripped down wounds and into the carpet below. The kid was hurt, openly bleed and no one was helping him.
Dick slammed a fist into the table and whipped around to spit something at the Drake and—
He froze when he caught sight of Jason.
His brother had dropped the glamour. His ears were perked. His tail whipped behind him and his eyes were no longer the round pupil of a human and were slit like a cat’s. His teeth were bared and his tongue licked over their sharp points.
The eyes. The claws. The predatory teeth. The too-long canines and the venom pooling within them.
He looked like a Creature
He looked like a predator.
Which means that the boy in front of him was his prey.
The human part inside of Dick twisted when he saw his brother looking at the boy like he wanted nothing more than to eat him whole. Logically, he knew that Jason had never lost his taste of blood. He just hid it so that he could live with humans and not want to constantly tear a chunk out of them.
And, in turn, they had learned to live with it so that they could live with Jason.
Alfred had been the head of that effort.
When they had first adopted, it was so clear how underweight and malnourished he was. Not only had he been starving, but the foods he was getting were less than ideal for a predatory Creature. The bread he snuck from the village might have filled him up, but it did little for a stomach designed to digest primarily meat.
Once Alfred adopted the huldrekall, he did everything he could to make sure that his newest grandson would never go hungry and would get all the nutrition he needed. He researched for weeks, consulting Creature scientists from all across the country to figure out what a healthy diet for a growing huldrekall would be.
It turned out not to be too difficult once they had all the information they needed. And thankfully, humans didn’t have to be on the menu as long as Jason had the appropriate amount of meat from other sources and a couple of drops of blood throughout the week.
And it must be working because once Jason got on Alfred’s feeding regiment he shot up like a weed and was going to getting taller than Dick any day now.
Outside of one feeble attempt on Dick’s life that Dick actually thought was a hug, Jason had never shown an interest in hunting humans. He was wary of them, occasionally snapped at them when they got too close for his comfort, but he had never tried to eat someone.
His brother could be aggressive, yes, but he was not murderous. He was not a monster.
Dick knew that.
But he still couldn’t help but make the comparison in his head.
And he hated himself for it.
He didn’t want to shiver at his brother’s bared fangs. He didn’t want to feel the need to edge away from the Creature next to him. He didn’t want that human, primitive part of his mind to whisper run as his brother looked poised to kill an innocent next to him.
He didn’t want it and he still couldn’t help it.
“Well,” Janet Drake’s voice was melodious and cruel. “I see at least one person is very interested in the gift we brought.”
A growl began to roll from Jason’s throat and her smile widened.
“I mean, not quite a person. A Creature.”
“What is the meaning of this,” Bruce said, his voice on the edge of a yell. His eyes were stormy and furious. “Why have you tortured a child and brought him as a gift?”
Jack Drake stood and began stepping towards the bleeding boy.
Dick didn’t miss the way that the boy’s spine straightened with hope or how his eyes begged the approaching man. When Drake touched the child, he leaned into the contact like a pet.
No, that wasn’t quite right.
Dick watched closer as the boy edged towards Drake and seemed to try to hide behind the many that surely ordered his torture. He put himself in Drake’s hands with trust, almost like he expected the man to protect him.
“We know huldrekall,” Jack Drake said as he brushed a hand through the bleeding boy’s hair. “Grandfather was killed by one on a hunt actually. It was a tragedy.”
His eyes slid to Jason and suddenly, Dick’s brother flinched back and he began to lose the predatory sheen in his eyes. It was rapidly replaced by fear, and his ears went flat against his skull.
Jack Drake’s eyes burned towards Jason. “The Creatures may have killed one member of my family, but we made sure to repay them by killing dozens of their own. So when we heard that you took in one of them, well… we were quite surprised.”
Drake smiled and his teeth looked sharper than Jason’s at that moment.
“But we are accepting people, so we thought we could introduce yourselves with a gift,” said Jack, “for your monstrous second son.”
Jason flinched as he heard the word “monster.”
“But we are an accepting family, and we know that young virgin children taste much sweeter than older ones. Timothy will be a delicacy for your son. A real gift now that you’ve tamed him out of eating most human flesh.”
Dick’s mind caught on the familiar name. The one that Janet had mentioned earlier.
“Timothy,” he gasped, “He’s your son.”
Bruce's face paled and he looked vaguely ill.
Dick just couldn’t understand why.
Janet frowned slightly and it was nowhere near the reaction she should be having to her son being offered up to be eaten alive.
“Timothy is a good boy. He makes the sacrifices needed to honour his family.”
“You’re sacrificing his life,” he yelled, standing at the table.
The silverware shook when he slammed his fists down and the sound echoed across the room.
Beside Dick, Jason’s claws scratched into the wooden table. Physically holding himself still despite the chaos the room was beginning to descend into and the increasing scent of blood in the room.
Jason had control, but he also had instincts that were telling him that there was prey being dangled right in front of him.
Horror coiled in Dick’s stomach as he watched Jason lick his lips as if a real true delicacy were being presented before him.
“Your little monster has better training than I expected, but they always succumb to their instincts in the end.”
Jack Drake flicked out a knife and placed it on Tim’s collarbone. The hope in his gaze shattered and turned into broken glass resignation, even as his breath quickened with fear.
“Stop,” Bruce yelled as Tim’s blood began to bead under the blade. “Stop, what do you want? What’s the deal you’re proposing?”
“It’s less of a deal more of a threat,” Jack Drake as he drew more blood from his own son. Tim whimpered under his hands. The blood trailed down Tim’s bare chest, outlining the bumps of his ribcage before dripping and puddling on the floor.
The predatory gleam returned to Jason’s eyes and he tensed like he was going to pounce at any moment.
“Either you give us the North and West lands or we tell everyone in all the kingdoms about how your monstrous pet mauled our boy to death.”
Drake gave Jason a pure evil smile. “Then the price on his hide will be enormous and you can watch your Creature get hunted down and eventually slain.”
Memories flashed in Dick’s head of Jason when they first met him. He was tiny, but the villagers hadn’t thought twice of driving iron through his leg and torturing a kid that was just trying not to starve. They had laughed as he struggled. They put hands in the hole in his back even though he screamed.
Jason was smaller back then. A Creature, but nowhere near as threatening as he looked now.
They would have even less mercy now.
And Dick didn’t think he could live through watching his little brother get a sword through the hole in his back, or torn to pieces by hunting dogs, or collared and caged until he lost the fight in his eyes.
It brought tears to his eyes just thinking about what could happen to him.
But Bruce couldn’t give up the West lands.
The North lands maybe and he would need to give his people the proper notice, but the West lands were the ones that bordered the Wilds. They were the ones that Bruce constantly had to tend to and defend because not every Creature was like Jason.
Some of them thirsted for the blood of every living being or killed just because they thought it was fun.
Some of them laughed as they brutally murdered dozens.
Giving the lands up to Drake meant giving up his people’s protections. It would mean throwing them to hungry wolves before they even realized what was happening.
The room was silent as Bruce took in the Drakes’ offer and he desperately tried to figure out a solution that would keep both his people and his son alive.
But apparently, he thought too slow.
Because Jason couldn’t hold himself back any longer.
The Creature lunged faster than Dick could move to stop him.
Jason was fast. Faster than a human. Faster than Dick could ever hope to be as he reached out to grab his brother. Jason was already halfway to Tim as Dick scrambled out of his chair.
“Jason!” Bruce practically boomed, but that didn’t stop the surging huldrekall.
Jack Drake laughed behind them, shoving his boy to the ground and into a puddle of his own blood. “Looks like your ‘son’ is making the decision for you. Better hurry up if you want to change it.”
Dick did the only thing he could think of. He made a quick judgment and threw himself into Jason’s path.
They slammed into each other, Jason’s weight kicking all the air out of his lungs. He landed on his shoulder, gasping in pain for a moment. He barely managed to pick himself up before Jason was bearing down on him again.
“Jason!” Dick pleaded as the huldrekall flashed his fangs. He stayed on four legs, pacing like a ravenous wolf as his eyes flickered between Dick and the helpless child behind him. His fury was deep and when they met eyes, there wasn’t an ounce of recognition in his gaze. He had never seen his brother look so vicious.
Dick knew that this wasn’t a fight he could win. Jason was faster and stronger than him and that didn’t even take into account the magic he could control. Plus, Dick didn’t actually want to hurt Jason, though, Jason didn’t seem to have any of those concerns at the moment.
Jason lunged and Dick barely had time to raise his sword and block those teeth that were snapping at his neck.
“Jason you gotta—,” he grunted as Jason pushed against him, fangs coming closer to his jugular than he would have liked. Jason didn’t even need to get at the vein, his venom could kill Dick just as quickly. “You gotta snap out of it.”
He dropped the sword and used the opportunity to kick out at Jason’s right leg. Jason’s right leg was weaker and gnarled with a deep scar from the wolf trap he had been caught in when he was little. It was a low blow and when they sparred Dick never targeted the hurt limb because of how easily it sent flares of pain ripping through Jason. But Dick didn’t have the luxury of honourable moves right now.
Jason fell with a short scream, collapsing to the ground with his right leg kicking out behind him.
“Jason, please,” Dick dropped next to him, sword clattering on the ground. “Please, I’m sorry, but you have to come back to us.”
There was a moment, right as their eyes met, when the fog began to clear from Jason’s gaze. He blinked and it was his little brother, hurt and terrified about what was happening to him.
But then, the fury took over again and Jason was back to being one of the Creatures that hunted through human nightmares.
He lunged at Dick and Dick instinctively flinched back. There wasn’t any time to move away. There wasn’t any time to block. Dick wouldn’t be able to stop teeth as they sunk into his…
But the teeth never came.
Jason ran past him and towards the bleeding boy.
“No!” Dick yelled, trying to scramble up, but Jason was already at the child. He was already crouching over him and snarling to the boy’s face. Tim was struggling beneath him trying to kick his legs into Jason’s stomach, but he couldn’t do much while still weighed down with chains.
Ice flowed through Dick’s veins as Jason leaned down and licked at the open wound that was pouring blood from Tim’s collarbone.
He was…
Jason was going to eat a child.
Nausea rolled through Dick’s stomach and he had to hold himself back from retching on the ground. He forced himself to look away, unable to watch as Jason’s fangs got closer to the boy’s trembling skin.
No. Not Jason. Not his brother who curled under his chin when he had a nightmare. Not his brother who had constantly wanted to be held before he grew too big. Not his little brother who fell asleep on Dick’s chest as Dick had gently rubbed the smooth wood inside the hole on his back.
His brother wasn’t this monster.
Jack Drake walked towards the main table, grinning like he had gotten exactly what he wanted while his son was about to die.
“You see, Bruce. Creatures never change. They can’t be civilized. Give them the temptation of young flesh and they revert right back to being the rabid beasts they are. Maybe if you give me your lands then I can forget that this ever—”
“Hey, asshole!”
Everyone froze.
Dick slowly turned back towards Jason, expecting gore but only finding the chains broken and the skin on Tim’s collar knitting back together. The boy was clutching onto Jason, letting the huldrekall crouch protectively over him.
“I ain’t an animal,” he snarled at Jack Drake. “I don’t eat little kids and I definitely don’t sacrifice them for my own fucked up ideas. If you want a monster, you should look in the mirror.”
Dick smiled, the tight fear in him finally relaxing when he saw his brother acting like the person Dick knew and loved.
Jack Drake looked shocked to hear Jason talking back and not sinking his teeth into Tim.
Jason used his teeth to snap the rest of the chains around Tim and worried over Tim’s wounds, licking them to help them heal.
Dick slowly rose, coming to Jason’s side and helping his brother clean the blood that was sticking to Tim’s skin.
Behind them, Bruce rose from his chair, pulling his sword from his belt.
“I think it’s time to leave, Lord Drake. My guards will see you out and I have a feeling that you’ll be getting a much more serious from them very soon. And you too Lady Drake.”
“No,” Lady Drake hissed, “You can’t prove anything. We can say that you’ve stolen our son.”
“And test five testimonies against two? One of the testimonies being from the very boy you intended to sacrifice?” Bruce said, his voice dark and dangerous.
“You should leave while I’m giving you the chance. I’m letting the King and his judicial courts deal with you, but if you remain here, I can deal with you myself.”
Cold snapped in the air, and the room around Bruce grew dark with his magic. Bruce was human, but he knew how to wield. He had to to face the most dangerous Creatures that crept within the Wilds.
And even though Dick was never scared of his father’s magic, he knew that it could be absolutely terrifying to an outsider.
Dick chuckled as the Drakes quaked, flinching back from the small show of his father’s power. The boy in Jason’s arms whimpered, and Jason gently scratched his scalp. The huldrekall hushed him, murmuring comforting words to calm the traumatized boy down.
“Leave,” Bruce commanded, and the Drakes finally left.
They didn’t look back at Tim as they left their only son behind and seeing that broke something in Dick’s heart.
Tim cried as they left him behind, glassy eyes watching his parents’ backs.
“Jason, Dick,” Bruce said as he came closer, the magic around him completely gone. He looked haggard and older than he had just a couple of hours ago. “Are you alright?”
They both nodded and Bruce’s eyes settled on Jason. Jason flinched back, ears going flat and ducking his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said fearfully, “I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t—”
“Jason,” Bruce cut in off, “I’m not mad at you. They specifically targeted your instincts and triggers. It’s their fault they set you off, not yours. You controlled yourself when it was most important, I’m proud of you, not disappointed.”
His hand landed between Jason’s ears and Bruce gently tilted his head so they could meet gazes. “You’re my son. Nothing can change that.”
Tear filled Jason’s eyes and the huldrekall began to silently cry. Dick pulled his brother into a side hug, and Jason hid his face into Dick’s shoulder.
Bruce’s attention turned to Tim next, who was still in Jason’s lap and clutching onto the Creature’s shirt. Jason’s tail had come up and curled against Tim’s wrist. The smaller boy was unconsciously fingering the soft fluff and bringing it up to rub on his cheek. He was half-hidden behind Jason’s red cape and wide blue eyes blinked up at the larger man.
“Hello,” Bruce greeted, “Timothy, right?”
The boy nodded, curling into Jason like the older boy’s body could swallow him whole.
“You’re safe now, sweetheart. You’ll never be hurt by them again.”
Dick smiled into the side of Jason’s head. One of his younger brother’s ears flicked against his face.
Tim might not have known it yet, but he had just been adopted.