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"I got nothing.”
“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” Jason asks, reaching out to take the envelope being thrust towards him from Tim's outstretched fingers.
“I mean nothing,” he replies with a shrug as he leans back casually against the console of the Bat-computer. “Zilch, nada. No fingerprints, no DNA, nothing traceable. Whoever left this for you was good.”
“What’s that?!”
Dick pops up out of nowhere, startling Jason into taking a quick step backwards from the sudden facefull of young acrobat.
“It's nothing!” he stammers, gripping the bright red envelope tightly to his chest.
“Sounds like a whole lot of something for ‘nothing’,” Dick responds, leaning into Jason's personal space again to examine the envelope. Jason takes another step backwards before Dick can do something stupid like try to steal the letter. He glares at the younger boy, silently warning him not to try anything. Dick’s eyes flicker up from the envelope to Jason's face.
“Did you know you're turning red?”
Jason's mouth gapes open and embarrassingly now he can feel the heat on his cheeks.
“I said it's nothing, Dickie, just leave it-”
“Jason's got a secret admirer.”
The sly smirk smeared across Tim's face seems to imply that he is unaware that Jason is now planning his imminent demise.
“A secret admirer?”
“I said it's nothing!”
“It doesn't sound like nothing,” Dick replies, stepping back towards Tim. The glow in his eyes lets Jason know that he's already passed the point of no return. He groans and buries his face in his hand, mentally preparing himself for the torturous teasing he's sure to endure soon. “So what happened?”
“Someone slipped a note into Jason's bookbag, confessing their feelings for him. But they're making him wait until Valentine's day to reveal who they are.” His smirk widens. “They also think he’s really cool and have looked up to him for a long time.”
“Wait, you read it?!” Jason snarls, head snapping up to glare daggers in Tim's direction. “I told you not to!”
“Well I couldn't very well examine it without opening it, could I? Not my fault I saw the contents.”
“You're the worst big brother ever. And you didn't even find anything.”
“Ask Damian next time then. I'm sure he'd love to use all our specialized equipment to examine love letters .”
“Wait, what do you mean ‘examine’? Did something happen to the letter?” Dick looks back and forth between Tim and the letter, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.
“Jason's just impatient,” Tim laughs. “He couldn't hold out until the end of the week to find out who sent it.”
“Anyone would want to know,” Jason mumbles. “If they really have a crush on me, why are they torturing me like this?”
“Maybe they thought it would be romantic?” Dick suggests, rocking back on his heels and pursuing his lips thoughtfully. “So you weren't able to figure out the sender?”
“No, not at all. There were no fingerprints or anything traceable on the letter,” Tim replies with a grin that is far too pleased considering Jason's current feelings of inner turmoil. “Whoever sent it was good.”
“Wow, yeah, sounds like it. They must be someone really special.”
Tim gives Dick a strange look. Then his eyebrows do the subtle unconscious raise that always seems to accompany him piecing clues together. He glances over at Jason quickly but then turns and suddenly seems to find the screen of the Bat computer very interesting.
“Well, that's very exciting for you, Jason. I guess you have a lot to look forward to this week, huh?”
There's a hint of a laugh in his voice. Jason thinks the only thing he has to look forward to this week is merciless teasing.
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“They're clean.”
Damian removes the box of chocolates from the scanner and hands them over to Jason with a scowl on his face.
“Geeze Dami, it almost seems like you wanted him to get poisoned,” Dick laughs. Damian's scowl deepens.
“This is no laughing matter, Richard. The whole situation is very suspicious.”
“Only you would find love suspicious,” Tim calls out without removing his eyes from where they're glued to the computer.
“The fact that you were not able to verify the identity of this so-called ‘secret admirer’ from the letter which Jason received earlier this week is either a showing of your lack of skills, Drake, or a sign that we are dealing with someone extraordinary. The likelihood that these chocolates were delivered with nefarious intentions is high.”
“Or they just knew what kind of chocolates Jason likes and wanted to do something nice for him,” Dick chimes in. He goes ignored by the older members of the Bat family.
“My lack of skills? And what exactly did you discover?” Tim responds, turning his full attention towards them now. Fighting with Damian is one of the few things able to pull him away from his work.
Damian huffs.
“There was nothing traceable on the chocolates. It seems unlikely that a normal highschool student could leave these on his desk without leaving any evidence behind.”
“They are safe to eat though, right?” Jason asks, looking down at the chocolates laid out temptingly from the box in his hands. They're the dark ones that Jason loves because they aren't too sweet nor too bitter, from the specialty store downtown that Alfred only deems to go out of the way and shop at on special occasions. Jason's mouth is watering just looking at them.
“Yeah, they're safe,” Dick assures him, as if he had been the one running the tests and not just spectating and making fun of Jason's predicament again. “You should eat them, it would be such a shame to let your favorite chocolates go to waste.”
Jason stuffs his face while Tim and Damian continue to argue about the state of his love life.
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“What the hell?”
Jason jumps back from the locker he just opened and the flood of rose petals that's suddenly cascading out of it. A few classmates turn his way at the commotion, and he notices some girls hiding giggles behind their hands. Groaning, he tries to scoop the petals back into his locker. They appear to be fresh, some of them cling to the sleeves of his blazer as he desperately tries to hide the evidence of his secret admirer.
A familiar laugh greets him and he curses his luck as the last person he wanted to witness this appears.
“Need some help, Jay?” Dick asks as he crouches down next to him and picks up a handful of petals.
“Not a word about this to Tim and Damian,” Jason hisses as they work together to scoop up the fallen flowers.
“I wouldn't dream of it,” Dick promises. There's a glimmer in his eyes that makes Jason think everyone in the manor will definitely be hearing about this tonight.
“If this person really likes me, why would they do something to try and embarrass me like this?” Jason grumbles as they work. Thankfully with two of them the cleanup is progressing quickly.
“Maybe they just think you're cute when you blush?”
“What?!”
Jason snaps his head up and is met with Dick's grin and an index finger poking him in the cheek.
“Do you think they chose red roses because they know red is your favorite color, or because they thought it would match your face?”
Jason snarls and bats Dick's finger away.
“Neither. Red roses are just the most popular things for Valentine's, aren't they? Whoever it is, I can't wait to give them a piece of my mind once they actually reveal themselves!”
Jason looks around, making sure he didn't miss any stray petals. He's still going to have to figure out a way to remove them from his locker later, hopefully in a method that won't get him noticed. Suddenly his eyes catch on something.
“What's this?” He wonders aloud as he bends down to pick up a slip of paper.
“I think it fell out of your locker with the flowers,” Dick replies.
Jason turns the slip of paper over in his hands as Dick crowds into his personal space to get a better look.
“Coupon for two free chili dogs from Top Dogs!”
“And look there!” Dick says pointing to something scribbled in the corner.
“14th, 6pm,” Jason reads.
“Looks like you're finally going to meet your secret admirer!”
Dick is bouncing with excitement but Jason's stomach is suddenly filled with butterflies.
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5:55
Only one minute later than the last time Jason looked at his watch. He takes a few steps down the sidewalk in front of the small restaurant, unconsciously trying to walk off some of his nervous energy, then forces himself to stop. Pacing is not attractive.
Jason isn't sure if he even wants to be attractive though. He has no idea who this admirer is, he might not even like them. Certainly he has been on the receiving end of a lot of embarrassment this week thanks to whoever this is; he should begrudge them.
But Jason can’t help the happy flip his stomach does every time he thinks about it. Someone has noticed him, not only that, but someone likes him enough to go out of their way to do all this just to impress him. He’s never experienced something like this before. Damian had taken to referring to Jason’s secret admirer as a "stalker" after Dick had inevitably spilled the beans about Jason’s date, but Jason doesn’t get that impression. It’s more like someone cared enough to pay attention. The thought makes him feel warm inside.
5:56
Jason’s been trying all week to figure out who his secret admirer could be, but he hasn’t gotten any closer to solving the riddle. Everyone at school was acting normal, no one was giving him goo-goo eyes or making any hinting comments. He had been forced to consider Damian’s idea that his admirer could be a cape, but he doesn’t think they would go through all the trouble to sneak into his school to leave the valentine's if that were the case. It’s much more likely they would leave clues for BlueJay to find out on patrol.
5:57
Jason looks around. Still no sign of anyone. It’s not like he knows who he’s looking for anyways. Hell, he doesn’t even know if it’s a girl or a boy. Tim had suggested that the handwriting from the letter looked masculine, and Jason hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it. He’s only ever kissed girls, the idea of dating a boy fills him with nervous excitement. But while he isn’t exactly in the closet, the fact that he is bisexual isn’t really known around school either. Would one of his male classmates really have done this?
5:58
Jason tugs the sleeve of his red hoodie down over his watch to keep himself from checking it again. Alfred had tried hard to convince him to go in a button-up, but that seemed way too formal for chili dogs in Jason’s opinion. If his admirer likes him that much, they will like him in a hoodie.
Jason forces himself to take a deep breath. It’s just a date, he reminds himself. Jason survives much more scary things on a regular basis.
He tugs the sleeve of his hoodie back.
5:59
One more minute until his secret admirer is here. He looks to the right, then to the left. No one is there.
There’s a tap on his shoulder. It takes the concentrated effort of all his years of Bat training not to jump. Slowly he turns around, ready to come face to face with his admirer.
“Hi Jason!”
When he turns he finds himself nearly chest to chest with someone. And that someone is not a new admirer, but rather someone who regularly makes a habit of getting in his personal space.
“Dickie, what the hell are you doing here?”
Jason looks around frantically, but thankfully doesn’t see anyone approaching them yet. He does not want to be known as the guy who shows up on dates with his little brother in tow.
“My date’s going to be here any second, get out of here!”
He gives Dick a push hoping to urge him away, but Dick just rocks with it and remains stubbornly in place.
“Your date is already here, Jay.”
“What, where?”
Jason twists around again, his whole body tensing. He can already feel his face burning with humiliation. He’s going to kill Dick. When he looks up and down the street though, it’s just as empty as before.
“There’s no one here besides you, dumbass.”
“Yes. Exactly.” Dick is beaming from ear to ear.
“I don’t know what you are on about, but you need to leave now, before they show up.”
“Jason,” Dick says, still stubbornly not leaving. Jason is feeling more anxious by the second. “I’m your date.”
Jason freezes.
“What?”
“I'm your date,” Dick smiles. “It was me. I’m your secret admirer.”
Jason doesn't say anything, just stares forward at Dick with a blank look. The corners of Dick's mouth turn down and his smile falters.
“Are you surprised?” He prompts, hesitantly. “Jason, I um… yeah. I've liked you for-”
“You fucking asshole.”
“What?!”
“Asshole!”
The shove catches Dick off guard this time and it takes him a moment to regain his footing. When he looks up Jason's face is contorted with fury.
“So this whole thing was just a prank?”
“A prank? No, Jason I -”
“Let me guess, Tim put you up to it? Was Damian in on it too?”
“Jason, you're not listening to me-” Dick grabs Jason's arm, but Jason throws it off and pushes past Dick. Dick hurries to keep up as Jason makes a fast track back towards his bike parked down the street.
There is pressure welling behind his eyes and he has to get out of here before Dick can get even more blackmail material. Seventeen is far too old to be seen crying in public, especially over something stupid like a fake secret admirer.
“Jason, stop!” Dick calls, but Jason is already pulling his leather jacket on over his hoodie. He jerks his arm away when Dick tries to grab him again.
“Leave me alone, Dickie.”
“Jay, I'm trying to tell you-”
“Shut up.”
“Jason I lov-”
“I hate you!”
Dick deflates like a balloon with all the air squeezed out of it. His arms drop to his sides and he ceases trying to stop Jason's departure.
“Jason…”
Jason swings his leg over his bike and pulls on his helmet. He speeds off without another word.
He's grateful for the tinted visor that hides his tear stained cheeks on the drive home.
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There's a knock on his door.
Jason doesn't want to speak to whoever it is. He doesn't want to see anyone right now, he'd rather wallow in bed in his misery all alone.
He ignores the knock in favor of making a fist into his blanket.
It should have been clear that this was a prank from the beginning. Tim and Damian, two of the world's greatest detectives, not being able to find anything ? That should have been obvious.
But even more obvious was the fact that there's no way someone like Jason would ever have a secret admirer. He had been so excited by the prospect that it turned him into an idiot. Of course no one would like him like that, and especially not enough to go through all the trouble to try and woo him extravagantly.
There's another knock at the door.
“Go away!” He calls out, muffled from where his face is buried in his pillow.
He hears someone fiddling with the lock and not for the first time begrudges belonging to a family of vigilantes.
“The fact that it's locked means ‘stay out’,” he calls when he hears it finally click and the door hinges creak.
“I need to talk to you.”
The voice he least wants to hear right now greets Jason's ears, followed by the sound of the door clicking shut behind him.
“Since you refuse to come out of your room, I have no choice but to resort to lock picking.”
“Have you thought about the fact that I don't want to talk to you?” Jason asks, sitting up in the bed and twisting to face Dick. Thankfully enough time has passed that his eyes aren't red anymore, so he can actually look at his younger brother now without fearing further humiliation. Dick's own face looks fixed and determined. There's no way out of his conversation no matter how much Jason just wants to be left alone right now.
“You didn't give me any time to explain earlier,” Dick says, crossing the room and inviting himself to sit on the edge of Jason's bed. “So maybe let me talk for a minute before you jump to more stupid conclusions.”
“I'm stupid?” Jason scoffs. “So you came here just to insult me more? A week-long prank wasn't enough?”
“Just listen, Jay! I'm telling you it wasn't a prank.”
“What would you call that then?”
“A confession.”
“What do you-”
“I like you, Jason. Seriously. I wasn't your secret admirer as a prank, I admire you for real. And if you don't return my feelings that's fine, but if you could not treat the very notion that I might be interested in you as a big joke, that would be nice.”
A few moments pass silently, Jason staring at Dick in disbelief and trying to process what he just heard. There's no trace of anything insincere to be found in Dick's eyes.
“You like me?” he finally manages to get out. “Why?”
“Yeah. I think I already wrote you a whole letter with the details.”
Jason thinks back on the words he had read over and over this week, to the point they feel permanently ingrained in his brain. Suddenly he feels warm again.
“You really think all that?” he asks, not quite being able to meet Dick's eyes.
“Yeah, of course.” Dick replies. He shifts on the bed next to Jason. “So what do you think about me?”
Jason's eyes flick up. Surprisingly the expression on Dick's face reads nervous. It's not a look Jason's used to seeing from the cocky young vigilante who has faced down villains without fear since age nine.
In some ways, Jason still views him as that little kid. There had been hesitation at first, and jealousy on his part that suddenly the attention of his mentors had been pulled elsewhere. But Dick had quickly put Jason at ease, and shown him that having a training partner could be a good thing. Finally he'd had someone to commiserate with when Damian's training was too tough, and someone to laugh with when they found Tim face down fast asleep at the computer again. Someone to hold him while Scarecrow's fear toxin worked its way out of his system, that wouldn't try to psychoanalyze him in the morning. In the end whatever they've been through, Dick has always been there for him.
“I think I…” Jason swallows. He looks into Dick's eyes, that are staring back bright blue and sparkly with expectation. “I think I could like you.”
Dick's eyebrows shoot up.
“Could?”
“I mean. I haven't really thought about you in that way until now but… I mean. I do. I like you, Dickie. We could try this.”
Suddenly Jason finds himself with a lap full of younger vigilante as Dick launches himself forward to pull Jason into a tight hug. Cautiously Jason wraps his arms around Dick's back.
“I'm so happy, Jay.” Dick murmurs where his face is pressed into Jason’s shoulder.
“Me too,” Jason says, giving Dick a squeeze. The tingly warm feeling that had been plaguing him all week each time he thought about his secret admirer has returned. Only now it seems to spread further, filling even his chest with warmth.
After a moment Dick pulls back. Jason doesn't relinquish his hold on him though, leaving them sitting with only a few scant centimeters between their faces. Jason has never spent much time examining Dick's lips before, but suddenly they seem very interesting. When he looks up, Dick is staring back at him. The space between them disappears and warm lips are pressing together.
“I think I've always admired you too,” Jason says when they finally manage to pull themselves apart. “But for me it was a secret, even from myself.”
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