Work Text:
“You got me a plant?”
“Please, sound more skeptical,” Jason huffed, shouldering his way past Tim and into the apartment.
Tim stared into the elevator for a few more seconds, as if trying to make sense of whatever steps Jason Todd had taken which led him to be in Tim’s apartment with a plant ostensibly for Tim to take care of. That was a horrible idea.
Tim spun around to see Jason clearing a space on the kitchen counter for the plant. It had a flower. What the hell. “You got me a flowering plant,” Tim observed, voice flat.
“What, I can’t get my darling boyfriend flowers?” Jason batted his eyelashes with comic flair as he swept a few more empty energy drink cans into Tim’s recycling bin.
Tim did not blush at the outrageous display, but he did feel the tips of his ears heating up a bit as he turned fresh eyes on his apartment. His messy, disaster of an apartment that stayed pretty much that way all the time even though Jason visited far more frequently than he used to. Even Jason’s compulsive cleaning couldn’t completely counterbalance Tim’s commitment to his own personal brand of over-caffeinated workaholic tech-geek.
“This is a horrible place for a plant, you know that, right? I am a horrible place for a plant.”
Jason nodded, then marched over to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and pulled aside the ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene bullet proof curtains and then keyed in the code to raise the layered steel plating to reveal the cityscape outside.
“Hey,” Tim frowned, “you know those windows aren’t perfectly one way. If it’s darker outside than in here, people could see my stuff.” He gestured to the various articles of technological detritus strewn around the living room.
“Oh please, babybird,” Jason flicked his eyes back to Tim, disbelief evident in his face, “Like you actually have anything potentially compromising here and not tucked into your super-secret Red Robin lab behind a foot-and-a-half thick steel door. Also,” Jason squinted at the bright light outside, “it’s like, 11am babybird. I think you’ll be okay.”
Tim considered this, then sniffed. “You’re so dramatic. It’s only a foot thick.”
“And you’re more paranoid than B.”
“Whatever. Ok, so spill, why the plant?”
Jason shifted, not meeting Tim’s eyes, then looked up. “You know I’m going off world with Kori and Roy for a while.”
Tim had been trying very hard to avoid thinking about it, so obviously he was intimately aware. Jason still wasn’t looking at him though so… “Why do I get the sense that I’m not going to like where you’re going with this?” Tim’s voice came out sounding smaller than he wanted it to.
Wincing, Jason admitted, “Probably because you’re not going to like it. I don’t like it either, but Kori said the situation has changed. She’s expecting it to take two weeks longer to get everything sorted out.”
They were both quiet for a minute.
“So,” Tim started, “you’re going to be gone for probably a month,” because space things always took longer than anyone expected them to, “and you’ve gotten me a flowering plant to replace you with while you’re gone?”
“Exactly.”
“God, Jason. I was joking.”
“No, really,” Jason said earnestly, “I won’t be here to take care of you, and you’re such shit at remembering to actually eat food when I’m not here to remind you.”
“Jason,” Tim looked distressed, “this isn’t one of Ivy’s plants, is it? Because I really don’t want to think about what you would have had to do to trade her for something non-lethal, and also, I realllly don’t want to be taken care of by a sentient plant. That would actually be a really dangerous security risk and as kind as that is—”
“Tim, stop,” Jason said, putting his hands on Tim’s shoulders. “I bought it at Home Depot, two hours ago, and it has not been anywhere near Robinson Park, or out of my sight, or near the warehouse where Harley and Ivy are probably holed up. This is a normal, run-of-mill peace lily.”
“Right, of course, a peace lily.” Tim nodded rapidly. “You’re sure Ivy hasn’t contaminated this plant.”
“For fuck’s sake, Tim, I can take it back.”
Tim just looked hard at Jason.
“Are you…checking my pupils?”
“Mmhm, just a second Jay.”
Phone flashlight on full blast, Tim swiped his phone in front of Jason’s eyes, then used his other hand to shade them. “You do look fine, but just to be sure—”
“If you try to poke me with a syringe, I’m taking the leftovers I brought and inviting Ivy to visit you while I’m gone.”
Tim huffed, putting the needle he’d just uncapped back into its case. “Well, you could have said that before I wasted this sterile needle. These aren’t cheap you know.”
Jason let his head flop back and closed his eyes. “Okay, you know what, obviously this wasn’t my best idea. But I brought dinner. So, let’s do that, yeah?”
…
Later, Jason sat on the couch with Tim propped between his legs, Star Trek playing near silently in the background.
“Sooo how exactly is this completely normal non-sentient peace lily supposed to take care of me?”
“Well, you're supposed to take care of it, actually. It's a peace lily, and they’re supposed to be almost as dramatic as you.”
Tim tried to glare at Jason, who just tugged on the small braid he was making in Tim’s hair.
“Stop turning, you’ll mess me up. Peace lilies droop when they don’t get enough water. They’re supposed to be an easy plant to take care of. I figure if it looks dead once a week, you’ll get reminded to get a real night’s sleep and a decent meal about as often as I ever manage to convince you.” Jason finished his tiny braid one moved to start another one, the last one falling out immediately from Tim’s silky hair. “God your hair is awful to braid, Kori’s holds them way better.”
Tim decided to ignore that, since Jason did this regularly and was obviously full of shit. “Huh. You really do want me to replace you with a plant. I feel like I should be insulted on your behalf.” Tim tried to turn again, and this time Jason let him, abandoning his most recent attempt at a four-strand braid to pull Tim back up onto the couch. “That’s actually really sweet of you.” Tim brushed his lips against Jason’s.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just—” Jason spun, lying down and dragging Tim on top of him so his next words were muffled in Tim’s hair, “take care of yourself, babybird.”
Tim smushed his face harder into Jason’s chest. He wasn’t going to cry after getting stupid flowers from his stupid boyfriend before he left for stupid face for three stupid weeks. Any evidence to the contrary was a secret between him and Jason’s T-shirt.
Jason ran his fingers over Tim’s back until his boyfriend’s breathing evened out and slowed. The flowers were probably going to be dead when he got back, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice if it made Tim happy. Even if that happiness felt suspiciously like dampness on his T-shirt. Jason was going to try damn hard to make this month-long trip down to three weeks. Maybe he could still save the plant if he got back early enough.