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Jason sat on the covers of his borrowed bed.
He could have made himself comfortable, remove his socks and dirty cloths and weasel himself inside the bed. He could have snooped around the Manor without any of the Bats knowing he was out and about, specially since the Batman had forbidden him for stepping out of the room. He could have snuck into Tim's bedroom and waited for him there, surprise sleepover long overdue. But when he heard the voice of his mother, rooms and walls away, he froze. He listened.
His ears were sharp, sharper than they had been in a while, and he felt the resonance of her silky, low voice, ever so slightly making it to the second floor of the Manor.
He zoned out all the other sounds in the old building. The humming of the dishwasher, the scritch-scratch of Ace's paws on the wooden floors, the clicking and tapping on Tim's laptop.
Jason could tell his mother was unhappy. He could also tell that Batman shared her sentiment, but for different reasons.
They argued in hushes, rough and low, and from time to time they would both fall silent. That part was the worst. It reminded Jason of his parents years ago and he did not like it.
Jason hugged his knees closer to his chest.
The blood-rush was coming down and he was crashing hard. The ecstasy of drinking fresh, warm blood earlier that evening was leaving him drained in energies. That, and also, it was his first time in months since he had a full stomach. His body had to digest a whole lot of horrible-woman meat and from the lack of experience it was going to take a lot out of him to get it done.
It made Jason wanted nothing more than to cuddle beside his mother and nap. But that was not going to happen any time soon it seemed...
He could tell, just by her tone of voice, by how exhausted and sad she was...
A boulder weighted on his chest. Guilt, for making his mother come all the way here, in the rain, to give her grief. For making her worry about the little boy she so selflessly saved and took in a decade ago.
But that boulder also burned with frustration towards no one else but the Batman. He, who spoke about Jason as if he knew him. Who chastised and imprisoned him for getting rid of a human piece of trash that had no remedy. He didn't even try to put himself in Jason's shoes. Batman just judged him away like always, and made him feel like shit in the process. Not just by the way he spoke to him, but also thanks to the equipment specifically made to “subdue” Arcane... Some kind of magic that burned and made him lethargic.
Jason sighed, unaware he had held his breath for much too long. His mother and the Batman had both fallen silent again. And they were making their way to his room.
He hated this.
There was a soft knock on his door.
“Jason, my love?” Said his mother, pocking her head inside the room.
Her face fell when she saw him bracing himself. His mother crossed the room in a heart beat and Jason melted into her embrace as soon as she was on his side.
“My sweet boy, my little nightbird.” She cooed into his hair.
All of his worries, his anger and guilt disappeared from Jason's heart. He was safe at last. And his mother still loved him.
“Mom, I'm so-” He mumbled against her chest.
“Jason, I know, darling. I know.” She said, pressing a kiss on the top of his head.
They embraced harder, Jason circling his arms around her middle.
He would never admit it to Batman, but... He didn't mean to. He didn't mean to kill that... woman. He wanted to scare her into submission, into telling him where the kids were, who hired her to taking them away. Into leaving Gotham for good. But... She pissed him off. Jason couldn't remember exactly what she had said, but next thing he knew, his fangs were on her neck and she was screaming bloody murder, and well... He bit down harder and harder to make her shut up and then her neck snapped, and she was dead.
He tried to get rid of the body.
His shrunken stomach couldn't hold much, and it felt like no time passed until Batman showed up.
It had been a disaster.
Jason knew how much his mother hated manslaughter, and yet she held him and loved him and didn't yell at him or made him feel like shit.
It made Jason want to cry, but the Batman was there. He couldn't back down, couldn't let him know.
“Jason.” His mother said, pulling away to look him in the eyes. “My love... I do not know another way to say this, but... you must stay here.” Jason felt his face fall apart, indignation and betrayal quickly flaring up again, but his mother continued.
“Moonlight, the woman that died tonight had some very dangerous contacts. These people will do anything to get their hands to the person responsible for hindering their plans, to give a message. Do you understand?” She said, lifting his chin.
Jason couldn't answer his mother. Yes, he understood, but that didn't mean that he was also quite pissed.
“Darling...” She begged, placing a loose hair strand behind his ear.
“Knowing the people behind the kidnappings, they will be able to gather DNA from the body and if you go around on your night patrols they will trace this attack back to you, no questions asked.” Batman's voice boomed from somewhere inside the room.
Jason's anger blinded him. He was on his feet, inches away from the man's face in a white, burning flash. Jason could feel his chest rising and falling, his mother's hand firmly pressed against his breast.
“Jason.” She warned.
A whiff of surprise rose from the Batman's perfectly still body. His expression unfazed.
“Afraid?” Jason sneer at the man, tilting his head. “You can't hide your feelings from me, old man. Aren't your just so extremely lucky to have me in your household, now, hm?”
“That's enough, Jason.” Said his mother, stepping in between them. “He's doing us a great kindness.”
Jason bit his lip, stepping back and walking away.
But he couldn't, wouldn't, keep his mouth closed.
“If you know so much about these people, why didn't you do something to stop them?!” Jason pivoted, yelling at the Batman. “You're fucking useless! Waste your time making out on rooftops, while kids get snatched! Enslaved! Raped?!”
“That's enough! ” Nocturna shouted.
Tears prickled down Jason's eyes and he rushed out of the room.
He ran down the corridor, down the stairs, away, far away from that asshole and his mother that was somehow defending him.
He made it outdoors, probably climbed out a window. He didn't know, it didn't matter.
Jason found himself outside on the rain soaked grass, the night still reigned the sky. The clouds above the city were breaking, letting the stars over the Atlantic ocean shine slightly through. The cold wind that parted the clouds engulfed Jason as he stood on the Manor's ground, filling up his lungs. The tranquility of the night begged his breath to calm, his mind to ease into peace...
When he was younger, Nocturna had told him that the night was a time for comfort and rest. If he was willing to accept the darkness, the night would protect him.
Then why do people do bad things at night?
People do bad things no matter the time of day. Those vandals who commit atrocities in the night do nothing but tarnish her true nature. Mother Night is benevolent and elegant. Gives us a view of how the world could be if humanity wasn't so rumbustious.
In the end, his mother had turned out with a rambunctious son that disgraced the night constantly. Disgraced her and her goodness, her kindness...
Jason ran his fingers through his hair, and let himself fall to his knees.
“You're pathetic.” A boyish voice proclaimed behind him. Jason didn't need to turn to know that that voice belonged to the newest Robin, Batman's blood son, Damian Wayne.
“You have the strength that could equal Superman's and yet you let yourself be bested by my father, for what? So you could have a shouting contest with your mother in front of him? You could be the deadliest assassin in all of Gotham if you so chose to. You could have gotten away with that woman's murder, but you didn't. How? Why?”
Jason sighed, slightly turning his head to take a better look at the boy.
Damian was a small kid. His hair was spiked up, probably to make himself taller, but his face was all scrunched up in an incredulous frown. His cheeks were very pinchable.
“You were raised by assassins, I wasn't.”
Damian tsked, crossing his arms over his huffed up chest.
“A shame, really. If my mother was here she would have turned you into a fine killer.”
Jason raised his eyebrows.
“But we are in Gotham, and my father has a no-kill rule. He has let you get away with far too many murders. You do not deserve his kindness. Nor Timothy's affection.”
Now Jason perked up to that.
“Tim's affection?” He echoed as Damian unleashed a hidden katana from his back.
Oh shit , Jason thought. He was much too caught up with his feelings to notice the boy's true intentions.
The blade of the katana flashed with the starlight, raising above Jason's wide eyes, when a batarang hit the boy's grip. Robin yelped as the katana fell to the ground, inches before Jason.
“Damian! For God's sake, if whatever I think its happening, is happening, it better not be!”
“Timothy, do not interrupt! This is for both your and Father's benefit!”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but this is not going to make either of us content, Damian...!”
Tim ran up to Damian and Jason, stopping breathlessly besides his adopted brother.
“I do not understand. This vampire is putting our family in danger, and he gives you and Father constant grief. Unlike him, I know how to dispose of a body. I can make it seem like an accident...” The little boy finished in a secretive whisper.
“No. No, no, noooo, no.” Tim said shaking his head vigorously. “Jason is my best friend, first of all, and if you kill him, you will become a murderer yourself. And you can not make it into a accident because I'm here and I know your true intentions. You would have to kill me as well.”
The two brothers stared at each other, determination written in both their faces. Damian turned away first. Tim's shoulders visibly relaxed at once.
“I do appreciate you worrying over us, Damian-”
“-I'm not worried-”
“But there's nothing to be concerned about. We care about Jason, that's why you see us react like this. We care about him...” Tim slowed on his words, and took a careful, deliberate look at Jason. “Because he is a good person, despite his mistakes.”
Damian huffed and crossed his arms again.
“I suppose Grayson once said something about giving second chances...” Damian tried out the words on his tongue with disgust. “Let this be a warning, vampire! Do not yell at my father again, of you shall feel the bite of my sword!” Damian declared.
“...and do not even think about harming Timothy....”
Tim turned wide eyed at him, mouth slightly agape. The shorter boy swiftly took his sword from the rain covered lawn and fled back into the Manor.
Jason and Tim were left alone in the darkness of the night, both speechless.
Suddenly, Tim fell butt first to the ground, sitting carelessly besides Jason. His legs stretched out in front of him, as he groaned, swinging his head back.
Jason couldn't help but stare at him. His close brush with death by a child was erased instantly from his mind. Tim was all he saw.
His friend had changed from his Red Robin suit to his pajama, exposing so much more skin than Jason ever been blessed to witness. The sight alone made his skin tingle, his stomach tickle with butterflies.
He didn't know when he had started feeling this way. Tim just... made time stop around him. He made Jason forget how much of a fuck up he was. Made him forget how unforgiving life was.
The cold wind baffled them from the back, brushing all of Tim's hair to the front of his face. The boy gasped from the cold, but laughed at his messed up hair.
Jason pulled himself closer to him, trying to shield him from the continues wind. Tim leaned into Jason's space, eventually resting his head on Jason's shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Tim whispered.
Closing his eyes, Jason breathed Tim's words. The answer was no, but... he was feeling better.
“Your step-dad is going to give me gray hair before I'm due.” He answered, resting his cheek on Tim's hair. “ He just... Naturally pisses me off.”
That wasn't the full truth. Jason had never told Tim that the Batman was the reason why he was a ghoulish creature today. The Batman had missed to save Jason, missed to see him and hear his pathetic cries for help as a seven-year-old kid laid dying with a gun shot through his stomach. No, Batman had been too busy doing whatever Batman does. Leave civilians and innocent people to save themselves while he goes off to chase clowns and women in catsuits.
Jason had never forgiven him for letting him die... But that was how he met his mother, Natalia Knight. And that was how Jason had also, eventually, met Tim.
“I'm sorry, Jay.” Tim whispered again. “ I thought calling your mom was going to make things better...”
More wind filled into their silence.
Then Jason moved his lips.
“We could leave now...” Jason said into Tim's cold skin. Somehow, he had found his mouth atop the boy's neck again. What was wrong with him? He was like a compass rose, always looking to his true north. Always looking for Tim.
We can elope out of Gotham, he had told his Robin hours earlier.
“Jay...” A hand cradled his cheek, pulling him closer. Tim's fingers ran through his wavy hair, leaving a ghost trace of feverish heat over Jason's scalp.
His eyes were closed before he knew it. The night, the cold, everything around them was ten times more real as Jason relaxed into Tim. This time there was no teasing, no pretending.
It began easy, soft. A press of his lips on Tim's skin. A kiss. Another, and another and another until the same spot wasn't enough, and leaning into Tim wasn't enough. His teeth nibbled at Tim's exposed skin, mind blank, hungry for something he wasn't willing to take from nobody else but his “best friend”.
Tim moaned and shivered.
Jason detached himself from Tim's neck, and the night felt colder than it had been seconds ago. His heart was on his throat, and Tim's face was flushed with embarassment, his eyes bright with expectation. He could see Tim's breath in the air, agitated as was his chest.
Despite the blank in his mind, a part of him was amazed at his self-control, while another reprimanded the other's lack of confidence on Jason.
That was when Tim grabbed him from the collar and smacked their faces together into a very painful and jump-starting kiss.
"Ow!" Jason laughed into Tim's lips.
There was no verbal apology from the boy, rather butterfly kisses, which left Jason anesthetized and liquefied in the best way.
Time stopped, and there was only them in the night. It was just their foreheads pressed together, their hands on each other's skin, their hearts laid bare in the only action their hungry minds could manage.
Jason had never felt more full in his life.
Tim kissed him again, sweet and soft, and Jason exhaled, content. He wanted to do this forever, but his love's cold skin reminded him that perhaps this wasn't the time and place to continue their courtship.
"We..." He started, taking Tim's hands to his own, "should go back inside."
Tim's blue eyes widened with inquiry, but murmured a quiet 'oh', when Jason removed his borrowed hoodie to place over his shoulders.
They walked back together, hand to hand, to the Manor's back garden. There stood Nocturna, with the Bat and his youngest Robin. They all turned to them as they jumped the short stone fence.
Jason didn't miss the Bat flashing a glace at his and Tim's locked hands, and joyous mischief flared over his chest.
"I've decided to stay." Jason claimed, casual. What joy indeed, to hold Tim's hand and make it clear to the Bat that they were a thing now. "But I do not apologize for what I said."
His mother sighed, embracing her pale arms.
"You are irredeemable, Knight." Said Damian, crossing his arms over his tiny chest.
"Jason." Asked his mother, "A moment."
Tim and he exchanged a quick look. He regretted letting go of his heart's hand, but Jason did walk straighter as he passed by the Batman.
Nocturna lead him back inside, sofly closing the panel doors. When she turned to him, Jason felt his shame and fear return. All the height he had gather from being besides Tim shuddered away in an instant, and he was nothing more than a wet puppy at the mercy of the dark night.
His mother sighed again.
From the other side of the glass door, Jason saw Tim approaching his family as well. They were also having a talk, but there was no way he would eavesdrop when his mother had some things to say.
"Are you feeling better?" She asked.
Jason nodded.
"I'm pleased you decided to stay. I just wish you would do it for your own safety and not because of Timothy. I ask you to not mistake my words, it truly gladdens me that you both share the same sentiment for each other, moonlight."
A light blush peeked through Jason's face.
"But Jason," Her voice became quiet, sharp. "Cease aggravating Bruce. He is short of patience with you for obvious reasons, and I am closely following behind. He will not lay a finger on you, I promise you that. He will not conduct his silly experiments to "fix" you, because there is nothing to fix, you are perfect Jason, and I will drain him if he dares go back on his word. But I need to be able to trust you too, that you will not misbehave and try to attack him again. I need you to take a breath and learn to ignore the words that hurt you. Can you do that, Jason?"
"Yes, ma'am."
She nodded and placed a kiss of his forehead.
"I love you, Jason. Thank you for listening to me."
"You get very scary, I better do as you say or I fear what might be of me...!"
"Hm," she chuckled, "Smart boy."
Nocturna opened her arms, and her son embraced her, resting his head over her heart.
"I know this wouldn't be easy, but I will come over to see you everyday. There is a lot you and Bruce have to discuss, a lot for him to understand, and a lot for you to hear. Just give him a chance. If it doesn't work Alfred said he would love to have tea and chat with you instead of Bruce."
"Honestly, I might just go straight to that..."
"Jason."
"But I'll try." Jason whined, "Just for you, mom."