Work Text:
(1)
Dick’s been around here for awhile, Super Senior and all that.
He also knows the faces of the people who come to these parties.
And he does not recognize the guy with black hair with a weird but charming white streak in the front.
He’s around Roy and Kori though, which would mean that he’s cool if it wasn’t also very odd because he’s very sure he also knows all of their friends, being that they’re all mutual and all that.
Apparently not so much though.
And apparently they’ve been hiding a gymbrat stud in a closet somewhere.
“Hi-!” he offers his hand, “I’m Dick Grayson.”
He seems reluctant to accept but does anyway, “Jason.”
Dick grins, “Does Jason have a last name?”
“Just Jason.”
Right then…
“Well Just Jason, are you thirsty? We have a wide assortment tonight.”
“Thanks but no thanks.”
Dick flounders, “We have Pepsi? If you just don’t drink?”
There’s a thin smile, “I’m alright. Thank you.”
Right well…
“So uh…. How do you know Roy?”
Jason eyes him with- were those heterochromatic eyes? “Roommates freshman year.”
Dick’s eyes almost bust out of his head as a few pieces click together, “Oh! You’re that Jason!”
Jason, Roy's roommate.
Jason, the double major on a scholarship from his aunt who ran a cat shelter.
Jason who liked guns as much as his Jane Austin.
Jason the only reason Roy hadn’t starved or gone broke ordering Doordash.
Oh yes, he knew Jason.
And now Jason was standing in front of him and Dick was halfway to the moon.
Roy had totally left out how hot his roommate was.
“What are you studying?”
“Getting a degree in English Lit and Business.”
“Very cool.”
Ok so he’s a hot nerd.
“Any plans for that?” he scooches a little closer as somebody tries to get past him.
Jason shrugs, “I like literature and the shelter needs some help. Hopefully it hangs on long enough that I can get somewhere with the degree and work on it.”
“Nice-! I’m sure you’ll be great.”
“Jay!” Roy hollers, “Beer pong! Out back!”
Mr. Hot Nerd nods and glances at Dick, “Thanks for the party,” and leaves before Dick can say anything. He tries to follow but gets snagged by Gar who starts a chant. The next thing he knows, he’s lifted for a keg stand and gulping it down like it’s water.
He doesn’t see Jason after that…
(2)
Jason’s bi…
He knows this for a fact because Roy admitted to them fooling around once… only once but only because they’d decided they weren’t a good fit and worked better as friends.
Nothing said Jason wasn’t interested in other men period… despite the fact that he’s only ever seen on dates with women…
He wonders if that makes him sound creepy.
He probably sounds creepy.
He doesn’t want to be…
He’d like to just talk to Jason, but Jason doesn’t give him the time of day and maybe he should take that as a sign, but he’s also noticed Jason doesn’t give hardly anybody the time of day.
It reminds him of Bruce abit… gotta find something he likes and warm him until he cracks and wants to hang out. Bruce’s thing had been movies and sparring. Dick’s not huge on sparring, but he is big on gymnastics… which is why he rented out a jump park for a night and invited all their mutuals.
Because what twenty-year-old doesn’t want to hop around on a trampoline and feel all two-hundred some odd pounds go completely weightless for awhile.
Jason apparently.
Oh he’s hopping around all right… just not how Dick had thought he would…
Kori and Artemis and Wally are all hopping around like they’re five. Roy’s a little lowkey, but Dick knows he’s rolled his foot or something and probably didn’t want to aggravate it too much. Still he’s playing around on the balance beam, falling into the foam pit.
And Jason’s just kinda…
Well Dick’s thinking he’s not having a good time… which sucks…
(3)
It’s a study night, one he’s managed to persuade everybody else to bail on without telling… him.
He feels a little bad, but maybe proving he takes school seriously, Jason might take him seriously.
The dude’s a huge nerd.
Roy said he had a 3.99 gpa with a singular B to his name all three years for his double major.
So obviously the answer was to show him that Dick also took his business degree seriously, and never let on that he’d considered dropping the whole damn thing his second semester because gymnasts didn’t need a degree to teach younger gymnasts.
And what went well with studying?
Food.
What guy like Jason wasn’t hungry all the time anyway?
Dick could always eat.
Unfortunately his attempts to make said food-
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
Ding-dong
Dick almost wants to cry.
He hops up on the counter to shut the thing off, waving a hand in front of his face to disperse the smoke, and then rushes to unlock the door, forcing a smile on his face, “Hey!”
Jason blinks, “Hey.”
“You’re the first one-!” he moves so Jason can get inside, “I-”
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
“Sorry-!” he darts off, ready to rip the detector off the wall and yeet it, full send, into the yard.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
He gets the beeping to stop as Jason opens the window and turns… a fan? over the stove on…
Huh…
He’d always wondered what that contraption was for…
Jason eyes the burnt pans on the burners and slides a look at Dick. The way his head tilts reminds Dick that he’s still on the counter so he hops off. They stand there while the rest of the smoke drifts outside.
“So… what happened here?”
“Nachos?”
One perfectly inky brow arches so far up Dick wonders if it’d just leap off. Jason opens his mouth, closes it, scrunches his brows as his face screws up like he’s constipated. He then heaves a heavy sigh and drops his bag on the floor, pursing his lips as he starts moving the trashed pans to the side and goes hunting. Dick helps where he can and then sits on the counter when Jason, very firmly and with some bisquick dust unknowingly on his nose, tells him to get out of the way.
What was he supposed to do…?
It’d been hot.
And watching Jason putter around the kitchen while making a tower of French Toast was adorable… and hot.
And Dick just hopes he hasn’t fucked up his chances yet.
(4)
Roy: on our way
Dick grins at his phone while he loiters in the lobby of the local theater. Wally was already there and discussing the merits of everything single snack at concessions with Gar and Kori who’d never actually been to a theater before. The rest, except maybe Donna who was coming after work, had bailed, but it was ok. There were enough people for this to feel like a group activity.
It was the premiere of a horror drama and, even though it wasn’t his thing, Roy had said it was Jason’s so… here they are.
He’d managed to get them all really good seats right in the middle while still making good use of the reclinable theater chairs.
Roy shows up with a reluctant Jason behind him. He snags his ticket from Dick and goes off to get himself his traditional hot pretzel. Dick hands Jason the ticket for the seat that put him between himself and Roy. Jason nods with a mumbled ‘thanks’ and goes to get whatever he’s getting. Wally’s waiting with their collective pile so Dick goes to help.
Snacks bought, they all pile into the theater and find the row. Jason plunks down and dubiously side-eyes Dick. He just offers a smile and some of his popcorn which Jason doesn’t take him up on.
Previews start up and none of them look appealing to Dick. The movie runs for abit, getting the whole thing set up and some of the creepy demon shit going on to up the ante. He wonders for a brief moment why he’s doing this, why he’s here.
And then Jason steals a couple kernels and it’s all ok.
It’s ok.
It’s ok even as Dick yelps at the jumpscare and hears Wally laugh at him for it.
It’s ok as he cringes behind what’s left of his popcorn while one of the twins gets ripped apart and Gar makes a disgusted noise.
It’s ok as the credits finally roll and he can unravel himself and hope he didn’t make too much of an idiot of himself as he glances at Jason to see what he thought of it-
Aaannd he was asleep.
Dick wanted to facepalm.
(5)
It’s a late snow even for Gotham. Dick’s not complaining though. Of course he’d have even less to complain about if it’d been dumped on them during the week and, thus, a snow day.
No such luck though.
What he does have is a group of people collected on the quad ready to throw down. They’ve already separated into teams of four. He’s with Wally, Roy, and Jason… and not sure how. He hadn’t even known Jason was here so to just suddenly be teammates was… something.
Especially since he’d pulled back after the movie failure.
But Jason’s here, bright eyed and ready to rumble. He’s busy making snowballs while they’re talking strategy. Dick helps with the pile and then moves on to packing snow in a heap for some semblance of a fort. Wally helps shovel, making it longer so they have enough space for all four of them.
The allotted five minutes passes way too soon and Dick’s hopping over as everybody else ducks down when the guy with the airhorn lets it rip. He watches with no small amount of glee as the quad turns into chaos. Some of the other teams have gone with forts too but others, like the one Donna’s on, decided to forgo that and just run around pelting people. Before long, some of them reach their three-hit limit and slog back to the sidelines. Wally and Dick hop up to go try and take out one of the closer forts. He gets hit once and Wally’s ganged up on. He screams for vengeance on his way out. Dick dives over the wall while Roy and Jason cover him.
Roy’s taken out next, a sneak attack from behind. Jason and Dick got away but Roy tripped and got pelted before he even realized he’d gotten a faceful of snow. Jason sniped their attackers and two left. The last one ran for dear life.
They glance at each other and shrug, charging into the fray with nothing but a couple armfuls of snowballs and warcries that echoed off the buildings. Dick pelted people and Jason sniped, taking out a few with some impressive rapid fire and accuracy. Half the field is cleared and they’re still, somehow alive. Jason grabs him and hauls him behind one of the forts. Snowballs fly around as they pack some of their own together. Dick sends a few over to keep them away while Jason squishes snow into tight balls.
“You go. I’ll stay and cover.”
“Ok,” Dick scoops up a bunch and counts ‘one-two-three’ before leaping out. Snow flew around him as he sprinted to the last stronghold. He gets a few shots, two landing on a person. A snowball comes from behind and the guy who threw it at him curses at Jason, his back covered in white.
More leave, down to a life that Jason takes.
And then they all gang up on Dick and Jason, chasing them until Dick’s hit for a third time and he falls, sprawling in the snow. He watches Jason put up a decent fight, but he’s eventually felled. He stumbles around, clutching his gut, until he’s near Dick where he drops to his knees and stares up at the blue sky.
“Rose… bud…” and falls over.
“I’m cold,” Dick comments after they lay there, listening to the others.
“Yea…”
“We’re probably going to go get hot chocolate or something…”
“Cool…”
Sigh.
"Wanna come...?"
"Gotta study."
(+1)
It’s a cold night tonight.
For April anyway…
A crisp chill that eats through his three layers.
He’s determined to stick it out though.
Because tonight’s a meteor shower and Jason’s been unimpressed with everything else he’s tried… and yet he’s agreed to Dick’s hairbrained idea without knowing what he was in for.
Speaking of, he spots his wayward nerd ride up on a motorcycle. Jason pulls the helmet off, shaking his hair out and gets off. Dick waits, hoping to seem patient as Jason takes his time before swinging a leg over and walking towards him.
“Hey.”
“Hey… so… you gonna tell me what we’re doing out here?”
Dick smiles a little, “Keep it a surprise a little longer?”
Jason rolls his eyes, “Sure fine. Why the fuck not? I’m already out here freezing my ass off.”
Dick forces a smile, “It’s still a nice ass.”
Jason looks at him like he’s lost his mind… and maybe Dick has.
He leads the way to a little open alcove. The single thick blanket he’d brought was already laid out to give them some protection from the very cold grass. Jason settles and Dick next to him ,but still giving him a little space. He checks the time and spots a few other people coming showing up.
“This wouldn’t be a certain astrological event, would it…?”
Dick can’t read the tone, “Uh…”
Jason shivers in his coat and smirks a little, “I’ve had it on my calendar for months.”
“Oh…” well that’s… something… Something catches Jason’s eye and he grins. Dick looks the same way and his eyes bug, “Oh-!”
Jason laughs softly, “Cool huh?”
The bits of space flash across the sky. Dick’s transfixed, almost forget this is supposed to be a kind of, sort of date-ish thing. He eventually remembers and glances at Jason who’s still staring at the sky.
He really is handsome… and boyishly cute…
Dick can’t stand it.
And then Jason leans into Dick, head not quite touching his since he’s still staring at the shower but… it’s close enough.
And a large hand is laying over his, fingers curling lightly around his.
“My dad owns a theme park… They’ve got a new ride opening this year, Cirque. It’s boasted to have the most inversions in North America… We should go.”
Dick freezes, his brain needing to reboot, “I…”
“Unless you’re not a coaster person... I know somebody who owns a lake house-”
“No-! I… I love them! Yea-! Let’s… You’re… You really want to…” he’s not even sure what he’s saying anymore.
“Yea,” Jason grins… and it’s so boyish and cute. Dick should not have to deal with this. “Why.”
“I just… you never seem to have a particularly good time when I’m involved…”
The grin turns into a lopsided smirk as he leans in close, “I’ve liked you since the nachos.”
Oh… huh…
He looks back up at the sky, “I was going through some stuff, wasn’t in a good place to try and do anything with someone.”
“Oh…”
“You’re little… get togethers helped…” he glances back at Dick, “I’m sorry I never said anything.”
“It’s fine,” it wasn’t… but it was. Dick could, at least, understand the ‘going through it’ bit, “It’s ok now…?”
“It’s… better…I can feel like I can breathe now at least.”
"I'm glad."
Jason smiles a little... leans in... kisses his cheek.