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If there was one thing Dick Grayson hated more than anything, it was fear toxin. Nothing could prepare you for seeing your nightmares so clearly and the way it lingered afterwards was one of the worst feelings. This time Dick had managed to weather two nightmare before he felt the need to check on his family members.
Bruce, Alfred, Damian, Tim and Cass were all fast asleep in their bedrooms, none of them even stirring as he poked his head in to check. A quick call to Babs confirmed that she was okay and Steph was sleeping soundly at the clocktower, even if Babs did threaten to dye his suit bright pink if he called her that early again.
But it was worth it to know all his family members were safe. All of them apart from Jason.
Dick was mildly ashamed to admit that he knew Jason’s favoured safehouse because he’d followed his no-longer-so-little brother home at the end of patrol on more than one occasion. But it wasn’t like Jason had given him any other choice and he knew he wasn’t the only Bat to do so. He knew Jason was likely to have a better reaction to Dick knowing where he lived rather than Bruce.
So, Dick dressed in dark clothes and took one of the older bikes from the garage to make his way across the city to the end of crime alley. He stopped two blocks away from Jason’s building to reduce the chance of being spotted by any cameras that would alert Babs or Jason to what he was doing. He wasn’t planning on staying too long, he only needed to set eyes on Jason to make sure he was okay, but he still stashed his bike behind a dumpster and made sure it was hidden behind a pile of trash bags. Crime alley might have improved slightly since Bruce caught Jason trying to jack the tires off the Batmobile, but Dick wasn’t in a hurry to end up in a similar position.
He made sure no one was watching before he jumped up onto the dumpster and pulled himself up onto the fire escape. He tried to be as quiet as possible on the rusted metal as he climbed up onto the roof. From there it was no issue at all to jump across the roofs to Jason’s building.
It occurred to him halfway there that he had no idea what he was going to do if Jason had decided to crash in one of his other safe houses for the night. He supposed he could just check them all, but he really didn’t want it to come to that.
He was as quiet as possible again as he descended on the fire escape to Jason’s floor. But he didn’t need to be because as soon as he hit the bottom step of Jason’s floor, the window slid up and the man in question slid out onto the landing.
Blue-green eyes immediately locked onto Dick and Jason’s hand jerked down to what Dick assumed was a hidden weapon, only aborting as Jason recognised him.
“What the fuck, Dick?”
Dick honestly didn’t know how to respond.
Jason huffed and lit a cigarette before leaning against the railing directly across from the stairs. He looked annoyed and Dick would have believed it if he didn’t see the slightest shake in Jason’s hand as he raised the cigarette to his lips.
“You got hit.” Dick stated, finally stepping down onto the landing outside the window and checking Jason over in the light streaming through. “You didn’t tell anyone.”
Jason shrugged and took another drag. “I’m fine.”
“We have a protocol, Jaybird.” Dick said, flittering nervously; his body needing to move, to make sure his brother was okay, but being unable to touch Jason in case he bolted.
“There was a crack in my helmet. I barely breathed any in, definitely not enough for an antidote. I just feel jittery.” Jason narrowed his eyes at Dick’s movement. “Apparently exactly like you. Please tell me you don’t still feel the need to compulsively check each family member after getting dosed?”
Dick shrugged and buried his hands in his hoodie pocket. If anything his anxiety surrounding family had only got worse after Jason’s death because not only was he not there when his little brother needed him, coming back to a voicemail where Jason practically begged for his help, but no one told him his brother was dead for a month.
Jason sighed and stubbed out his cigarette on the wall before dropping the butt into a glass he kept for that purpose on his window ledge. “You hungry? I made cookies.”
“The peanut butter ones?” Dick asked hopefully. It had been one of the only recipes Jason could remember making with his mom because it had like four ingredients and took minimal effort. They’d made them together the first time Jason showed up at his front door after a fight with Bruce.
“Of course.” Jason scoffed and climbed back through his window.
Dick hesitated before following him and closing the window once he was through. One glance around the room confirmed that this was Jason’s favoured safehouse; the bookshelf in the corner was almost overflowing, there was a large, fluffy blanket draped over the back of the sofa, and there were a few framed photos dotted around. The photo on the side table drew his eye and he picked it up, finding the faces of the original titans staring back at him. Him and Jason were in the middle, his arm around the younger boy as he beamed at the camera and Jason gave a nervous smile. He’d spent the whole weekend practically glued to Dick’s side, still feeling out of place outside of Gotham.
(Dick told himself the tears in his eyes were an after effect of the fear toxin.)
He took a deep breath to centre himself and put the photo back before walking into the kitchen to find Jason using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a plate. Dick went to grab one and Jason smacked his hand away, muttering about letting them cool and Dick relented, watching Jason tidy the kitchen with a small smile on his face.
“So, everyone else get out unscathed?” Jason asked, shooting Dick a look out of the corner of his eye.
Dick nodded. “Everyone’s fine, sleeping soundly.”
“That’s good.” Jason said, finishing up before grabbing the plate of cookies and walking back into his living room.
Dick followed him and took the unspoken invitation to drop down next to Jason on the sofa. Jason put the cookies on the coffee table and started chewing on one as he started flicking through TV channels. Dick curled his legs up beneath him as he reached out and grabbed a cookie. They were just as good as he remembered and he wondered if he’d be able to convince Jason to start hanging out more if he reminded him what a terrible cook he was and asked for lessons.
Jason settled on a random cooking show, clearly avoiding anything with a laugh track. Dick buried further back into the sofa, content now he knew everyone was okay and he wasn’t alone. Jason pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa and wordlessly offered Dick half. Dick gladly swaddled himself as much as he could without ripping it away from Jason, and they both settled down to watch a woman show them how to joint a whole chicken.
***
“You know, at least Dickhead waited to be invited in.”
“I’m sorry, I just wanted-”
“To ruin my morning and make me burn another safehouse.”
“No, Jason-”
“I mean, you couldn’t have at least knocked before picking my lock?”
Dick groaned as the argument pulled him out of the best sleep he’d had in weeks. “’m trying to sleep.”
“This is your fault.” Jason said viciously to who Dick was assuming was Bruce.
Bruce sighed deeply, something he seemed to do every time he was around Jason these days. Dick finally forced his eyes open to see his adopted dad standing in front of Jason’s TV, which was still playing cooking shows, wearing non-descript dark clothes and pinching the bridge of his nose.
Dick it turned out had managed to fall asleep on a cushion in Jason’s lap, and he tried to push down the emotion threatening to swell in his chest. Instead, he turned onto his back and looked up at his brother. Jason looked more well rested than he had the night before as well, so Dick took that as a win. But he also looked extremely pissed about the fact that Bruce had apparently barged in without an invite.
“What’re you doing here?” He turned his attention back to Bruce. Jason snorted and shot Bruce a pointed look that clearly said, see he agrees with me.
“I- Well-” Bruce sighed again. “Every time you’ve been hit with fear toxin, you’ve always checked on each member of the family at least three times throughout the night. You only checked in once last night and then you were missing when we all got up.”
“So you decided to break into Jason’s apartment?” Dick asked, sitting up and cracking both of his shoulders before looking back at Bruce.
“I tried calling, you didn’t answer. So I called Babs and she said you’d checked in just after three AM but she hadn’t heard from you since. She tracked you here.” Bruce explained.
“Still doesn’t explain why you completely bypassed knocking on my door to breaking and entering.” Jason said, and for the first time Dick noticed the gun resting on the sofa on the other side of Jason.
Bruce ran a hand over his face. “I don’t have a good answer for you.”
Jason rolled his eyes and stood up from the sofa. “Right. Well, now we’ve established everyone is still alive,” Jason definitely missed the way both Dick and Bruce winced. “you can both leave me be so I can find somewhere else to live.”
Dick wasn’t ashamed of the look he sent Bruce because Jason had been opening up to him, he’d let him spend the night and hadn’t shoved him off when Dick had apparently decided to use him as a pillow. But now he was going to run again, and he was going to be even more guarded with his safe houses, and Dick didn’t want to lose the ground he’d managed to gain.
Bruce frowned and glanced between the two of them. “Jason, you don’t have to move. I won’t put this in the system, it will stay between me, Dick and Babs, the others won’t know. And I promise they’ll be no more unannounced visits.”
Jason froze halfway between the sofa and the kitchen and turned to look at Bruce like he was expecting the man to have grown two heads.
“I promise. This-this is clearly not just a safe house and you shouldn’t have to sacrifice that because of me.” Bruce said, more sincere than Dick had heard him sound in a long time.
Jason seemed to weigh the options. “Fine, still doesn’t mean I want you in my living room.”
Bruce nodded with a small smile before turning to Dick. “You coming home?”
“I’ll follow you in a bit, my bikes not far from here.” Dick stood and stretched out his sore muscles. Bruce nodded and looked at Jason again, who pointedly avoided his eyes, before turning and leaving out the front door. He turned back to Jason. “You okay?”
“You mean other than the fact that I nearly shot him when he came in through the door?” Jason snorted and continued into the kitchen.
Dick followed him, well aware that he needed to be careful with what he said next so Jason wouldn’t redirect his anger. “You know, Alfred still makes a full English after we have a run in with Scarecrow.”
Jason hummed as he pulled two mugs and tea bags out of his cupboards.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind fixing an extra plate. And if you didn’t want to see Bruce, I’m pretty sure Alfred would make him eat in his study if it meant being able to see you.” Dick tried.
Jason sighed. “If I come with you, will you leave me alone after?”
Dick couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “I’ll leave you alone for a week, but no promises after that.”
“Fine.”
Dick took the win and couldn’t help but hope things were starting to get better between them all.