Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Patrol was fine. Punched a few muggers, stopped a few burglaries. It was a slow night if anything. The only problem was Gordan.

Commissioner Gordon got a tip from one of his moles that there was going to be shipment of something into Gotham. The mole didn’t know exactly what it was, just that it was very hush hush and only the top generals were allowed to have info about it. He didn’t make the cut, but he was sanctioned to work the drop off.

It was going down tonight. Jim had immediately turned on the bat signal. They had 30 minutes from Jim telling Batman to drop off time. Jim made the right call, there was no way he would be able to round up enough of his men for the take down.

They all were posted at different locations with different tasks. Batman and Robin were to hold the east exit, Spoiler and Red Robin the west. Nightwing and Red Hood were to be the distractions. AKA make as much noise as possible while avoiding the fire fight that was bound to ensue. It sounded like fun.

He didn’t get paired up with Nightwing often. Usually when he was it was a few days after he pissed off the bat and it was so Nightwing could play baby sitter.

They had been on good terms for a long time now though. Instead of being sore about being teamed with Wing he was actually excited about it. The last time he had happily teamed with Nightwing he had still been Robin.

It was a lifetime ago.

Hearing his assignment and the time frame he warned the others he would catch up with them in a bit. He went to his nearest safe house and changed to a lighter version of his suit. Sure it meant that the hits would hurt more but it also meant it was lighter. Making it easier to avoid the intense firefight they were bound to be stuck in.

It didn’t really matter if the bullets hurt a little more. The armor was still strong enough to take the hits and keep him upright. He would never admit it but he was fairly rusty with all of the gymnastics training he had gotten. Sure he could still do most of the flips but he had to concentrate on them. They didn’t just come natural to him, he had to plan each step in his head. His body didn’t just move without being told it needed to, he still needed that prompting, that stream of conscious thought.

That’s why he changed into different armor. To be lighter, hopefully making it easier to land the flips and not blow his knee or ankle out in the process of trying to not die.

0o0o0

The truck had been about 3 minutes late but it really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. In the end the bust went down how they all knew it would. The bats won and the GCPD had a long night of paper work ahead of them, booking all the idiots.

Within the last few seconds of the fight one of the higher ups had gone to throw something at Wings turned back. Even with his lighter suit it still packed more armor than Nightwing's suit. Instead of shouting his name, risking the elder to turn towards the noise, into the hurtling object, Hood ran and crashed into him. Body checking his older brother as a small vial broke on his opposite shoulder.

They landed with an OOMF on the ground, Hood basically on top of Nightwing. “If you wanted a hug you could’ve just asked” Nightwing quipped as he tried to push the heavier man off of him.

There was a metallic THUMP as Hood and Wing were getting up. Turning back to the assailant they saw Red Robin wielding his bow staff, standing over the now unconscious man.

Batman landed soundlessly to their right, “Hood, report”.

“Wing’s back was turned, goon #1 was winding up to throw something. I have stronger armor so I shoved him outta the way.” With the debrief explained something dawned on him. He wasn’t in pain. Angling his head to see what should be his injured shoulder all he saw was a puff of what looked to be blue chalk on his jacket.

“TT, you are an idiot as always Hood.” Robin chastised, emerging from the shadows.

“What the hell is this?” Hood inquired as he ran a gloved finger through the substance.

“How about” Red Robin began, roughly grabbing Hood’s wrist to wrench it away from the unknown substance, “ya don’t touch it before we can get a sample?” With that Red Robin removed a collection vial from one of his utility belts and began scrapping the mysterious powder.

“I feel fine,” Hood explained, knowing what must be going through everyone’s mind.

“ Nightwing, Red Hood, go take decontamination showers.” Batman instructed as Red Robin handed the sample to Nightwing for safe keeping.

“What? Why me? I didn't even get hit.” Nightwing countered.

“You two were in close contact when the container broke. You’re both exposed. Go.” Without leaving room for argument Batman shot off his grapple and disappeared into the skyline.

“We are just gonna make sure these guys don’t give the GCPD any extra trouble. Go back, we will be fine.” Spoiler explained trying to keep the situation light. “Besides there's only like an hour left of patrol anyways”

0o0o0

The tests were a waste of time.

For all of the hassle of the decontamination showers, packaging their suits, and blood work they didn’t get shit. Dick and Jason were perfectly healthy, besides their elevated stress hormones but that comes with the job.

After hours of being poked and prodded they were finally released. The Blue shit was some derivative of an old root that people used to smoke for out of body experiences and since neither man was high they figured everything would be fine.

Dick had promised Damian that he would take the younger to the zoo the next day so Dick made his way upstairs to spend the night in his childhood bedroom and Jason left the cave in one of his spare uniforms.

0o0o0

Putting his bike in the garage, Hood made his way into his rented house.

As he walked in he could vaguely smell the Chinese food they had ordered for dinner. Looking through the darkened open floor plan he could see the tv was on and Roy had fallen asleep on the couch.

He made his way to the bedroom and fully removed his gear and put on a pair of sweatpants before making his way back to the living room. He silently picked up the little mess there was before turning to the older man. Roy had broken his ankle on a mission in Star recently and it was the weekend so Lian was over at the Queen estate.

Roy was sitting on the couch, his casted ankle on a pillow resting on the shitty coffee table with the other on the floor. His hands were limply resting in his lap and he head was thrown back over the back of the couch. His messy bun had been released sometime between dinner and now so his ginger locks were cascading down the back of the couch in a mock halo.

Knowing Roy was not lacking in the sleep department, what with being temporarily benched from his ankle, Jason had no regrets in waking the man up.

Jason carefully threw one leg over Roy and hovered over the archers lap. Leaning forward Jason began kissing his boyfriend's neck hungrily. HE had one hand resting on Roy’s chest for balance as the other snaked up the back of his neck to entangle itself in his unruly hair.

It didn’t take long for Roy to start moaning and reacting to Jason’s antics.

Chapter Text

Jason awoke to light blinding him from a curtain that was left open. Instead of doing anything about it he elected to moan out in exasperation and roll over. He reached his hand out to wake the red head up and make him deal with the assault but he found the bed to be empty. He hesitantly cracked open his eyes, looking at the empty side of the bed and realized the room was wrong.

“What the fuck?” Jason questioned as he sat up, looking at the room around him. It had been a while but he knew where he was at least.

Why the hell was he in Dick’s childhood bedroom?

How he was here was a better question. Sure he still wasn’t technically out yet. But if any of the birds had tracked him home last night they wouldn’t have waited around watching the two have sex just to kidnap him.

So why take him at all?

Knowing he wasn’t going to be able to deduce the answer while laying in his older brother's bed he walked out of the room and made his way down to the kitchen where he knew everyone would be.

He noticed on his walk that they had also dressed him in an old beetles t-shirt and a pair on Dick’s plaid pj bottoms.

It had to be Dick. Dick had said he was spending the night so he wouldn’t have to wake up as early to take Damian to the zoo. If Dick hadn’t been in on it then how would he have ended up in Dick’s bed?

But how the hell did they get him there? None of them were strong enough to pick him up gently enough that he wouldn’t wake up. Not to mention carrying him down to a car and driving him over 300 minutes to the Manor to carry him inside. The closest anyone has come to such a feat was when he had been sick with the flu about 3 months ago and he had taken enough nyquil that Roy had been able to pick him up and carry him up a singly flight of stairs to their bedroom without him waking up. And it’s very unlikely they would drug him just so they could prank him by making him wake up in Dick’s bed of all places.

Rounding his way into the kitchen he noticed Bruce sipping at his coffee while reading the newspaper first. The sight hit him hard with nostalgia, that what Bruce had done every morning without fail when he was a kid and it had always been a comforting sight. To see that someone was with him, someone cared enough to spend time with him, even if they just sat in silence and ate together.

Next to Bruce sat an angry looking Damian who was wholeheartedly glaring as hard as he could at Tim who was sat on the other side of the table with one seat between himself and Bruce. Tim seemed to look more rested than he had the last few days so he probably was able to get at least some sleep before he had started the energy drink he was currently working on.

If this had still been Jason’s childhood his chair would be the one Damian was currently sitting in and Dick, for the few times he joined them for a meal had always sat in the currently empty seat between Bruce and Tim.

“Alright, what the fuck” was the greeting Jason chose to give his family. At the declaration of the statement all three of the males sitting at the table turned to him in their own time.

“Master Dick it is much too early for such vulgarity.” Alfred chastised.

Jason didn’t even register Alfred's exclamation as it wasn’t directed towards him. Instead he made his way over to the table, electing to sit next to Damian and serve himself breakfast. As he walked over to the table he stated “Why the hell would you kidnap me in my sleep just to drop me off in Dick’s bed?”

When no one responded he continued, “not only that, how did you do it because I don’t feel drugged and there's no way you were able to move me for 30 minutes then carry me up a flight of stairs without me waking up.” He had made a mistake, he had been serving himself food as he had been clarifying himself. He hadn’t noticed the expressions that were currently set on his family's faces.

“Did he get a head injury last night?” Tim began to question.

“Chum, are you injured?” Bruce butted in, trying to get to the bottom of his eldest son's abnormal behavior.

He had grabbed eggs, bacon and toast for his breakfast. “No I'm not injured and no I’m not hiding a head injury” , he chose blackberry jam to spread on his toast.

“You are acting strange, Grayson.” Damian countered

“Dick’s not even here demon bratt” Jason resplied.

If he had bothered to look up that was the moment he would’ve seen Bruce’s microexpressions shift to understanding. That wasn’t Dick’s normal breakfasts, that had been Jason’s back when he was still a child and lived with Bruce full time.

Instead of drawing attention to this hypothesis he decided to check his theory. He decided to pick his words carefully, because if what he suspected occurred his son didn’t have a strong grasp of what was actually happening. “Chum, what do you remember from last night to now.”

At that statement Jason finally looked up from his plate. He instantly clocked the worried expressions from the 4 other people in the kitchen staring at him. Even Alfred had looked shaked. “What, what do ya mean?”

“Recount everything you remember from last night to right now.” Bruce reiterated.

Looking around Damian looked like he had been presented with a puzzle he couldn’t solve, his eyebrows furrowed and his head slightly tilted to the side. Tim on the other hand looked scared, he was looking at Jason like a deer caught in the headlights. Jason began to try and figure out what he could have done to freak out his younger brother so much.

“Chum…” Bruce probed.

“Yeah, yeah. Ummm you sent Dick and I to the cave where we took decontam showers and did all your stupid tests. We were cleared and I went back to my safe house and went to sleep. Then I woke up in Dick’s room and walked down here.”

Alfred left the room at the end of his explanation. Bruce stood up slowly, like he was trying to telegraph his movements before he made his way around the table and squatted down behind Damian’s chair.

Jason had watched him move towards him, like he was creeping towards a cornered animal, waiting to attack. Instead when Bruce had sat on his hocks he reached up with both hands and grabbed Jason’s face. After a few seconds of Bruce inspecting his face Jason all but whispered “what are you doing?”

“Jason?” Bruce questioned.

“Yeah, whats” Jason turned to see if his siblings could give him any info about why Bruce was acting so odd. He was unable to deduce anything from their expressions and turned back to the man who was still holding his face. “What's going on?”

“Master Bruce, I believe this will help.”

Bruce took the hand held mirror from Alfred and held it up to Jason’s face.

Dick’s reflection greeted him.

“Oh you gotta be shittin me” Jason countered.

“Well” Tim began, “at least we know what the blue powder does”

Chapter Text

“Well” Tim began, “at least we know what the blue powder does”

“No no no no no no no” Jason began chanting as grabbed the mirror and stood up.

“It is not that bad Todd yo–” Damian was cut off by Jason’s spiral.

“That's not the point” he all but screamed. The he choked out “fuck” and runs a hand don't his (brothers) face. “Why? Why the fuck does god hate me? This couldn’t have waited for like 3 months or something so I could do it myself?”

Bruce, now concerned because he had no context as to what was happening, reached out to Jason, resting his hand on his son’s shoulder “do what yourself?”

Looking up into his fathers eyes (because he was now shorter and actually had to look up to the man again) he began to reply and then cut himself off. “I just um– OH SHIT Tim gimme your phone!”

Tim was watching the entire interaction from his seat at the table and went wide eyed when the interaction was now focused on him. “What? Why?”

“Cuz I don’t know where Dickhead’s is,” Jason retorted.

“Why do you–”

“I need to call Dick before he flips out.” With that Tim pulled his phone out of his hoodie pocket and tossed it to Jason. He quickly dialed his own phone number and waited for it to ring.

0o0o0
Dick POV

Dick woke up to the smell of bacon and some pastry wafting into his doorway. He began to question why he could smell the cooking from the kitchen when he had fallen asleep in the family wing. A living room, hallway, stairs and another halfway separated to two. There was no way the smell could travel so far, and no one would risk the wrath of Alfred by sneaking food into their room.

Unless someone was sick.

With that thought process it was enough to convince him to open his eyes and take in his surroundings. He always liked to sleep with the blinds open on days he went to sleep at a reasonable time. That way the light could slowly ease him into being alert and he wouldn’t, or rather couldn't, just roll over and fall back to sleep.

When he blinked to sleep from his eyes he didn’t recognize the room. There were black out curtains on the two windows of the room with what looked like dark grey walls. A bedside table with a phone charger, lamp and what looked like random pieces of metal on the surface. There were 3 doors leading out of the bedroom. One he could see led to an ensuite bathroom and the other was cracked enough for him to be able to make out a hallway with gramma wallpaper. The other door was probably a closet then.

The bed had white sheets, a grey comforter and what looked to be a king sized fluffy blanket that was laid over him with the remainder pooled on the floor.

Across the room was a full sized dresser with 10 draws, 5 rows of two and a smaller dresser with only 3 draws that looked to come to about waist height. He could tell there were picture frames and other miscellaneous things on both dressers but it was too dark to make out the details.

His stomach growled at the smell of the food.

He had eaten 2 protein bars after patrol last night. Why was he so hungry?

Instead of pondering that train of thought further he decided to figure out exactly who had taken him and why. They had left the door open so surely they wanted him to go down stairs. The thing is, how did someone break into Wayne Manor, kidnap him, and move him to an undisclosed location; all the while he had stayed asleep.

He didn’t feel out of it so drugs were off the table, not to mention he didn’t feel the residual high that he always felt after one of Sandman or Ivy’s attacks. Which means he really did just sleep through the kidnapping.

Maybe he needed to take better care of himself. Shit, that means he's worse off than Tim.

It didn’t matter, he would deal with fixing his sleep schedule later, right now he had to figure out who took him. He could snoop around the room but this house looked lived in, it wasn’t just some warehouse or safe house. Whoever had kidnapped him had either used a house they knew was empty, or they had killed the people who lived here.

Either way snooping around wouldn’t help him. Sure there was a hypothetical 0.001% chance this idiot took him to his own home but then that brings us back to his original thought of ‘how the hell did they break into Wayne Manor and kidnap him’. No idiot would be able to break into a house full of bats and just steal the eldest son, therefore he didn’t waste time snooping around. The more time he spent here the worse the situation could get.

As he pulled back the fluffy blanket and comforter he realized they had stripped him down to his boxer briefs. Great.

He let his sore body carry him down stairs.

0o0o0
ROY POV

He had awoken before Jason, which made sense. The only thing he had done for the past 2 days was sit around Jay’s apartment and cook them dinner, tinker with his projects and ask for photo updates from Dinah.

He had halfheartedly tried to wait up for Jay to come home but he only had lasted till about 2 am. The night, or he guessed it had technically been morning, sex had been great.

Jay’s back had been hurting him recently, nothing bad just landed a little too hard into a roll so he was sore. Which is why when he woke up he had quietly left their room and went to go make them breakfast.

He was lost in his head as he was listening to soft music and finishing up cooking. It had become part of their routine for them to cook breakfast for each other and if one hadn’t woken up to the other's ministrations then they would bring the food up and they would eat in bed together.

He hated that all of the bats moved like they were shadows. At some point Jason had snuck downstairs and asked “Roy?”, he would deny jumping out of his skin to his last dying breath.

“Jesus dude, why are you sneaking? Sit down, the waffles are almost done.” Maybe he just didn’t want to eat in the bed they had dirtied a few hours previously, but that still didn’t explain why he had crept down the stairs and was currently staring at him like he had dyed his hair blue in the night.

0o0o0
Dicks POV

Sticking to the edges, Dick tried to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible and he traversed down the unfamiliar stairs. When walking on unfamiliar floors, if you keep the majority of your weight at the edges of the floor, or in this case where the stair meets the wall, you’re less likely to cause the floor boards to move. Preventing the floor from creaking, keeping your locations hidden.

As Dick made it to the landing of the stairs he could recognize the quiet classic rock song that was playing from around the corner. The living room was a dark green couch and a wooden coffee table that was on top of a dark arial rug. The coffee table was littered with more small pieces of metal and some gauze. Across the room there was a tv sitting on a stand with an x-box and some controllers and games below in the cubbies.

Risking a look towards his assailant he was caught off guard.

Roy Harper, Arsenal, Previous Titan and current Outlaw had kidnapped him. That made no sense. “Roy?” he questions as his mind begins to spiral.

“Jesus dude, why are you sneaking? Sit down, the waffles are almost done.” Roy would deny it but at the sound of his voice he had all but jumped out of his skin. Well, as much as a vigilante can given their training.

Dick tried to flash him a smile but it felt forced.

He kept eyeing his childhood friend as he obeyed and went to one of the stools of the island.

Dick couldn’t figure out the angle, why the hell would Roy kidnap him? Was he even in Gotham anymore? Probably not, last he heard Roy was still in Star. How would Roy even move him?

Jason.

Jason had probably set this up as a pay back for last week when he had helped Red catch Hood during their game of Tag.

How the hell had he pulled it off though?

Roy was laying the food he cooked as Dick was running through different scenarios in his head, trying to figure out how the two had done it. He piled all of the dishes in the sink and then rounded the island to sit in the middle seat, right next to Dick.

“Here ya go babe” he stated as he set the food in front of Dick and then leaned over to kiss his temple. Dick turned on him in confusion, leaning away slightly.

“Babe?” he questioned.

Roy just turned to him with a playful smirk on his face while saying “What are you gonna play hard to get now?”

Dick just sent a scowl towards the red head, what was that supposed to mean? Sure they had been friends since childhood, they were the first sidekicks and their adoptive fathers were childhood friends so they had been fairly close but that didn’t explain his current behavior. Roy had always been flirty but this felt different.

Dick could hear the abandoned phone on the coffee table vibrating with an incoming call.

Roy had misread the scowl of confusion for one of annoyance. And if Jason was going to play hard to get then that just meant they were going to play fight until Jay gave in.

Taking the scowl as a challenge Roy quickly reached up, grabbing a fist full of hair at the back of Jason’s head as he stood up. He cranked the younger man's head back and smashed their mouths together in a passionate kiss and he brought his other hand up to wrap around Jason’s throat.

Dick was ashamed to admit that he froze. It took about a second for his brain to catch up to the fact that his first friend outside of the Circus was now kissing him like a lover. In one fluid motion he twisted to the side, leaned forward and using Roy’s arm as leverage brough the man over his back and crashed into the ground.

What the fuck was this? What the hell had gotten into him? He began to panic as he backed away from Roy. Then the panic turned to rage at the realization.

He was sore.

Roy was kissing him like a lover.

Roy had fucked him.

The phone began vibrating with an incoming call again.

There is one fact that is known to every Gotham rogue. If Nightwing is pissed you go underground. Batman, when pissed, would still give you the luxury of being able to survive your injuries. Nightwing had throttled the Joker to death and stared into the clown's eyes as he had done it.

An angry Nightwing goes for blood.

“What the fuck is wrong with you Jay?” Roy shouted as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head that had been slammed into the floorboards.

Dick was too pissed to register the difference in name. Instead he stalked forward as Roy had turned, leaned backwards to grab the phone. He might only be in boxer briefs but he could still beat Roy in a fight, even if the other man hadn’t been benched.

0o0o0
Roy’s POV

“Hello?” Roy angrily bit out. It was Jason’s phone so either a Crime Alley contact or a bat. Either way the person on the other end of the line wouldn’t be insulted of being addressed as such.

“Don’t touch him” Dick quickly stated

“Don’t touch who?” Roy questioned. Dick would’ve been able to recognize Roy’s voice and know he wasn’t Jason so what the hell was this about?

“We got hit with a fucking spell THATS DICK!” he explained as the panic was audibly allowed to creep into his voice.

Jas– the man stalking towards him looked like he wanted to kill someone. Roy quickly put the phone on speaker and held his hands up in surrender before questioning “You better explain that to him”

0o0o0
Dick’s POV

“Dick cut the shit we switched bodies that's what the fucking blue powder did. I woke up at the Manor in your bed. I didn’t even register that it happened” he heard his own voice coming from the speaker of the phone.

It stopped him in his tracks, that didn’t make any sense. “Jason?”

“Yeah Dickhead I’m in your body and you’re in mine.” Jason replied

Dick’s eyebrows furrowed together trying to connect the puzzle pieces. That explained how he had been moved without waking up but it didn’t change anything else. Unless……

“Jay…”

“Yeah?”

Before responding he looked Roy in the eyes. He was still sitting on the floor with his hands raised, trying his best to diffuse the situation. He tried his best to pull his anger back, if what he suspected was true then he had fucked up by attacking Roy. With bated breath Dick questioned, “Why am I sore?”

“I mean I hurt my back a few nigh—”

“Jay, you know what I mean.” Dick was trying to be gentle. As far as he knew Jason was straight. But if Roy had assaulted him, he was going to beat the ever living fuck out of the red head.

0o0o0
Jason’s POV

“Jay, you know what I mean.” Dick said like he was gritting his teeth.

What the hell else could that mean? He hadn’t even gone that hard last night so he shouldn’t be— oh shit. Dick was trying to figure out if Roy had raped him or if it was consensual. Dick didn’t, no one knew yet. He hadn’t told anyone yet.

Looking up from the spot on the floor he had been staring at he was met with the worried glazes of his family. He reluctantly pulled the phone from his face and hit the speakerphone button.

In a voice that was much too small for either Dick or Jason he clarified “i’m gay”.

It felt like his blood ran cold at the confession. He knew logically no one would care, Tim was bi and bi people seem to get the most shit thrown at them from every direction, but he was still trying to figure it out for himself. He didn’t even know if he was gay yet or if he was something else. He had been dating Roy for 5 months, and it technically wasn’t even official. One day after a mission, freshly showered and sitting with a pizza delivery they had begun to watch some stupid comedy Roy had put on.

There wasn’t even any real build up, it was like a stereotypical situation of how teenagers get their first kiss.

After about 10 minutes into the movie Roy had thrown his arm over the back of the couch, not even touching him. The touching had started small, just a simple brush here or there, nothing to make the average person think something was out of the ordinary. Slowly as the movie carried on the touches got more frequent, and he hadn’t leaned away.

When Roy had moved his arm down to lay across his shoulders he hadn’t reacted, just simply turned his head and looked towards the other outlaw who smiled back at him.

With only a few minutes remaining of the movie, with Jason now resting his head on Roy’s shoulder with Roy’s arm around him, Roy reached down to Jason’s chin. He slowly, giving Jason time to stop him, directed Jason to lift his head to look at Roy. He then moved his hand to cup the side of Jason’s face and slowly leaned down to kiss him.

It was a gentle kiss, all emotions and nervous energy as both men sat still and kissed the other.

A chair scratching against the tile brought him back to the present. Tim had moved to his side. Instead of speaking Tim just gave him a small smile and a side hug as “Little Wing?” came through the phone speaker.

0o0o0

Dick’s POV

“i’m gay” came through the speaker in a whispered voice. He hated that he had made Jason admit it before he was ready but he had to know if he was safe or not.

It was quiet, too quiet, both in the room and from the phone. Roy had put his arm’s down and was now just looking at Dick with clarity in his eyes. Roy had figured out why Dick had flipped and didn’t seem to blame him for the outburst.

Taking a deep breath, trying to ground himself. when the silence had stretched on for too long he was beginning to question if the call had failed so he questioned “Little Wing?”

A shaky “yeah” was heard almost instantly.

Jay sounded like he was on the verge of tears. Which he couldn’t blame him for. He hadn’t been ready to come out, or hadn’t wanted to yet. Either way it was a shitty situation that couldn’t be avoided. Dick reeling all of his anger back and trying his best to quell the hesitation and fear Jason must be feeling right now, he did what all big siblings did best.

Tried to distract from the pain with laughter and reassurance. “I love you.”

There was another few seconds of silence before he accepted that Jason wasn’t even going to pretend to respond, likely trying to hold back tears, he had always been led by emotions. Trying to make the younger laugh , he added “but you need better taste in men.”

“Hey” Roy got out a fraction of a second before a slight huff of a laugh could be heard from the phone's speaker.

“Don't even start with me Harper. We grew up together I’ve seen how you treat you’re partners and if you fucking hurt him they won’t find your body.” Dick countered, his anger fully gone now. His voice was still able to carry how serious he was to the listeners though. “And Jay? If you hurt Roy Imma beat the shit outta you.”

“What? Why am I getting hit?” Jason questioned.

“He’s my friend and you’re my brother so I’m on both and neither of your sides.” he happily taunted the couple.

There was some rustling on the other end of the line and then Bruce's voice came through, “Dick come back to the Manor so we can run more tests and contact Zatanna.

“Yeah yeah more blood draws and waiting” he stated as he waved off the phone, nodding to Roy for him to end the call.

“We good?” Roy questioned, still sitting on the floor.

“Yeah, yeah we’re good. How’s your head?” Dick asked as he began walking to Roy, helping the man back onto his feet.

“Well, there’s no egg yet so it could’ve been worse” Roy teased while smiling at his old friend in his boyfriend's body.

Dick replied by rolling his eyes as he helped Roy back to the island where everything had started.

“I’m eating your food before I leave because I highly doubt there’s any left back at the Manor by the time I get there” Dick explained sitting down next to Roy.

“Doesn’t bother me, I technically made it for you. Even if I thought you were Jason.” There was a beat or two of silence before Roy spoke again, “And I promise not to kiss you again.”

“Thank god” Dick exclaimed and got half heartedly punched in the shoulder for it. He laughed at Roy’s antics and then they ate their meal and caught up on what had transpired since the last time they had seen each other.

Chapter Text

By the time Dick had arrived Jason had already been poked and prodded to the point he was getting over-stimulated and snapping at everyone. “Cut the shit Tim! Go fuck off with your machines or something.”

“1) They’re automated, 2) I need your blood pressure to see if it's your baseline or Dicks baseline since we have no clue how much switched over” Tim explained as he inflated the cuff.

Dick had driven directly into the Cave and was walking towards the med bay, where the voices were coming from. Bruce and Damian were at the Bat computer working on something.

When Dick looked in the med bay it made him freeze for a moment. It was his first time seeing his face not inverted, not a reflection but how other people saw him. It was disconcerting to say the least. In favor of hiding his insecurities he leaned on the door frame and quietly knocked on the door.

Both brothers looked towards him. Tim gave him an honest ‘oh thank god you’re here’ smile and Jason just made a face of disgust. “Ew that’s what I fucking look like?”

Tim turned towards his patient in confusion but before he could say anything Dick burst out laughing. He had had the same thought not a second ago but Jason had been the one to voice it. Tim of course had no clue what was happening because from an outside perspective it would make no sense that you didn’t know what you looked like.

Dick, while trying to cut off his laughter simply said “that’s what I was thinking about myself a few seconds ago” as he rounded the two to sit on the other medical cot. As Tim finished up with Jason Dick began prepping the tools and himself for the blood draw. By the time Tim came over the tools were unwrapped, laid out and his elbow was scrubbed.

As Jason began to leave the med bay Tim raised his voice to be heard to the man leaving. “Jay we need a urine sample”

Which got him “I am NOT touching Dick’s dick and I don’t want to FEEL someone ELSE touch Dick’s dick”

The comment made Dick stifle a giggle and Tim shook his head in exasperation. Tim began to put on gloves and simply said “it’s weird to hear Jason laugh, even though I know it’s you in his body.”

That comment made Dick pause, when was the last time they had heard Jason laugh? “Yeah, I guess it has been a long time since Jay has hung out with us.”

“A while? Jay has never hung out with us Dick. The only time I see him is in uniform or if he needs help with a case”

That couldn’t be true could it? Surely Jason didn’t still treat himself as an outcast? Thinking it over though he couldn’t come up with any memory to prove his ponderings incorrect.

“I’ll get on him about it” Dick all but whispered. “I guess we all just thought he wanted to go slow, with rejoining the family and all, but maybe he just doesn’t think he belongs here ya know?”

Tim quirked an eyebrow and questioned “is this a weird sixth sense thing from being in his body or are you just assuming things?”

Dick laughed again “No, no sixth sense. Just big brother intuition.”

“Well I hate to be the one to break it to you but you’re now a middle child. Welcome to the club.”

0o0o0

All of their tests came back normal for the body they were currently inhabiting, and Zatanna had said the spell would wear off within the week so they just had to wait it out. Jason in Dicks body, was currently pacing around the cave, Bruce was at the batcomputer, Damian and Tim were sparring and Dick, in Jason’s body, was laying on the floor watching his brother’s spar to critique their form.

“Dami, tighten your core,” Dick instructed.

“TT when was the last time you even performed a back handspring Todd?”

“I’m Dick and like yesterday. Now tighten your core.”

“My apologies Grayson”

Jason, hearing him get bashed for something he wasn’t even a part of interjected with “Hey I can do a back handspring just fine. Thank you very much”

That was when Timmy’s brain transfers from fighting to detective mode. “Wait, since you guys are stuck like this for a bit shouldn’t we see if the skills cross over?”

“What do you mean baby bird?” Dick asked.

“Well most skills are muscle memory so in theory Jason should be perfectly capable to do all the acrobatics that you do and you should be more competent in weapons fighting.” Tim explained

“Alright” Jason said as he stopped pacing the cave. “Get up Dickie and tell me how to do your flippy things.”

0o0o0
The skills did not transfer over.

It had been 5 hours.

They had quickly hypothesized that since their consciousness was transferred their own electrical currents used to contract muscles would be crossed over. Meaning they had their own muscle memory in a body that didn’t know the skill.

Jason had gone first, it was supposed to be a simple backflip, which he could do in his own body.

He had over shot and landed on his ass.

“Well that kills your ‘muscle memory’ theory Timmy” Jason quipped as he rubbed his tailbone, hobbling to stand up.

“You did the skill correctly, you just used too much force Jay” Dick instructed.

“That's how I always do it, Dickhead.” that was when realization struck him and asked “Wait, how much do you weigh?”

“180 I think, why?”

“I'm like 220, so it makes sense that I over shot. Lemme try again.” Everyone moved out of the way besides Dick who, now in Jason’s body, would be the only one other than Bruce that would be able to prevent Jason (in Dick’s body) from landing on his head if he failed.

He didn’t fail. He landed it perfectly.

“Hey good job little Wing” Dick cooed at the man in his body.

“Ok what's next” Jason questioned as they began to give him skill after skill to attempt. Some of them he had known from his Robin days and just hadn’t practiced them in a while and they worked their way up in intensity. Noting as they continued Jason’s movements were more jerky as Dick’s body began to grow tired.

Giving Jason a chance to rest meant the start of Dick’s tests of using different melee items and testing his aim with different throwing weapons. Dick and Jason had similar training with the weapons but the brothers were still able to tell Dick wasn’t as confident as Jason was while fighting with them.

Then they had switched to the League throwing knives. After the third failed attempt to make one stick in the target Jason instructed “turn your wrist more”.

“Turn which way?” Dick asked, frustration creeping into his tone.

Jason huffing out in exasperation at having to get up walked over to Dick. Jason moved to stand behind him, pulled his (his own?) arm up into a throwing position and twisted Dick’s (his?) wrist slightly to show him the proper form.

With the correction in his posture Jason stepped back and Dick retried the throw.

It unceremoniously bounced off the target and clattered to the ground. “How are your knives so difficult? I’ve been throwing birdarangs since I WAS 8”

“Cuz they’re League of Assassin blades. They’re hand crafted by some Tibetan dude close to Nanda Parbat so none of them are uniform. Which means you need actual skill to throw them and not just muscle memory” Jason smirked as he plucked the last knife out of Dick’s hand. The elder looked offended but before he could retort against Jason he was being shoved to the side. Jason threw the knife with no pomp or fanfair and the blade was wedged into the wood in the bullseye.

“UGHHH this is so not fair. You need to stretch more and maybe I would be able to do more than just a front flip in your body!”

Jason began cackling under his breath “not my fault your only talent is flipping away from your problems’”

“Oh? That's how you want this to go?” Dick shot back. He could feel heat creeping across his face in annoyance, it was made worse that it was his body's own stupid smirk that was causing it. “You do realize you have yet to beat me in a fight right jay?” Dick asked, getting slightly annoyed with the fact that everything that he considered near and dear to his heart he was now unable to do.

Jason raised his eyebrows and stated as fact that “I will beat you in your own body Goldie.”

Just as fate intended they had hurled insults back and forth the entire time. The fight had gotten pretty rough very quickly. A few minutes into the spar Bruce interjected by saying “If either if you break the other’s bone it will still count as acting irrationally during practice and you will be benched. I don’t care if it is technically your own limb, you are not the one who would feel the wound.”
Then Alfred had called an end to their nonsense by stating that Dinner was ready.

“Dude why does your knee hurt so bad?” Jason asked as he began to stretch out the offending joint gently, trying to ease some of the pain.

“Oh I’ve ripped my ACL like twice is my right knee. Also what is wrong with your hip?” Dick asked.

“Don’t know, been like that since some time after the League but I don’t remember specifically breaking it or anything. Just kinda slowly crept up on me ya know?” Jason explained, earning concerned glances from the two youngest in the room.

“TT, you imbeciles need to take better care of your bodies. Father is your elder and he does not complain about the woes of chronic injuries. If you do not sustain injuries in the first place you would have nothing to complain about” Damian tutted, raising his head high before leaving the cave.

Tim chose the realistic route, simply saying “ You guys are gonna be so sore tomorrow” before walking up the stairs to the Manor.

Dick and Jason stayed laying on the floor for a few more moments, soaking in the silence of each other's company.

“Hey Jay?”

“Yeah?”

“You should hang around more, we miss you” Dick confessed, turning his head slightly to look at his brother.

Jason weakly shook his head before saying “no, no they don’t. You’re in my body right now, which means they know that body won’t hurt them. And I’m in your body which means this face give them a sense of home. They only hung out down here because when they looked at me they saw you and when they looked at you they heard you behind my face.”

Dick shifted onto his stomach, propping his head up on his folded arms before asking “do you actually think we don’t want you here?”

Jason didn’t answer, he just continued to stare into the ceiling of the cave, watching the bats flutter about every so often.

“Jay” Dick began “you’re their brother. They love you, hell Tim even mentioned earlier that it was nice to hear your laugh. It came out of me but it is what you sound like when you’re happy.”

There were a few more seconds of silence as Jason processed the information Dick was sharing with him. “Now come on, let's go eat before Alfred scolds us more.”

With that they both got up and walked up the stairs together.

Chapter Text

After dinner they had all begun getting ready for patrol Jason and Dick had gone upstairs to retire for the night, they had both aggravated old injuries they hadn't been aware of. Jason had retired to a spare bedroom while Dick had gone to his childhood one.
0o0o0
He was grappling throughout the city, there was mindless chatter going on through the comms of his siblings maintaining their banter. He knew he could hear it but it had just sort of faded into the background, becoming a sort of white noise as he flew through the city.

They were playing tag, trying to hide as the others who had been caught were actively trying to hunt those who still hadn’t been tagged.

He was it, chasing his siblings. Chasing Red Robin.

He was only a block away when his line snapped.

He was so close, but there was no way he could get there in time.

He was 15 feet away when Tim's body hit the pavement and he jolted awake.

Jason sat up in his bed, Dick’s heart rabbiting away in his chest. Turning to the bedside table he grabbed his phone and looked at the time. 5:04AM, "Of course Dickhead’s brain runs on trauma-fuel too" he spoke aloud. It wasn’t insanely early but much earlier than he would like. Instead of laying in bed, trying to sleep which he knew would not come, he went to take a shower. Jason had been able to clock the nightmare for what it was, Dick was scared of losing his family now the same way he had back then. It's why his body was reacting as much as it was. It was a trauma response, the sound of Tim hitting the pavement had been too realistic to be anything else. The slap of impact and the snapping on bone had been too realistic to be anything but a repressed memory.

The shower had been to get rid of the sweat, yes but the hot water was also supposed to help him get Dick’s heart rate under control. He knew this was the beginning of a panic attack if he didn’t calm it down. It didn’t feel like his panic attacks though, this felt like it was easing, almost creeping up on him. While his own felt like he was getting bodychecked by Bane. He was grabbing for the shampoo and before he had a chance to think about it he flipped the bottle before catching it in the same hand with a smooth arc. Dick’s muscle memory must have kicked in, he snorted laughter to himself before muttering a quiet “show off” under his breath.

0o0o0

Jason had beaten Alfred to the kitchen where he had begun to prepare breakfast. He knew he shouldn’t start cooking anything because no one would be awake for a few hours so instead with the extra time he had just begun to prepare everything for a large breakfast since everyone had spent the night. That way he could have most of the dishes done and dried before he had to do the second round while everything was cooking.

He was in the middle of making the pancake mix when Alfred had entered the kitchen. The doorway was just to his right so he knew right away that he was being watched, even if he was in Dick’s less paranoid body. Glancing over the butler he looked almost confused for a second before realization dawned on him, “Good Morning Master Jason, you do realize that you are currently doing my job, yes?”

Jason just flashed him a smile and said “Everybody's here and I couldn’t sleep, it didn't seem fair to leave it all to you.”

“Always thoughtful Master Jason” Alfred retorted as he walked behind the man, patting his shoulder as he went to begin the dishes. “I will say for a dreadful moment when I first saw you I feared I would have to start my day by putting out a fire.”

Jason just chuckled to himself, realizing immediately what Alfred meant. There had been too many instances of Dick lighting something on fire, instead of commenting on that he simply stated “I don’t trust Dick’s body to cook, I’m just prepping everything. There have been some instances where I’ve caught myself doing Dick’s habits and I don’t want to add ‘setting off the fire alarm’ to the list.

0o0o0

After breakfast he had gone down to the cave to stretch some of the sore parts that were normal for Dick’s body but new to him. Then he went back upstairs to read for a bit.

He felt different, no shit. But it was difficult to put into words. He felt lighter, like it was easier to breathe. Like he didn’t have to look around corners, or over his shoulders every other minute to make sure no one was trying to kill him.

Those were insecurities that were trained into him by the League of Assassins. To never trust your surroundings. Be ready to be attacked at any second as part of his training. It didn’t feel right, to have that part of his gone, it had kept him alive so many times that he almost felt guilty for enjoying that it was missing. That he was able to relax into the couch he was lounging on as he read his book.

He felt free, in a way he hadn’t in a long time. In years even. He wasn’t used to this quiet in his own head, the lack of paranoia clawing its way up his spine, forcing him to be on alert 24/7. Maybe it was ok to relax, he was in Wayne Manor after all, it’s not like anyone would be able to break into Batman's home.

Chapter Text

When Dick woke up it was ungodly dark in his bedroom. To the point where he wasn’t even able to make out the layout of any of the furniture.

That didn’t make any sense though, he lived in Bludhaven, a Major City on the East Coast where there was too much light pollution to be able to see the stars.

Why was it so dark?
Dick went to reach to his bedside table to grab his phone but his hand had crashed into something hard before he had even been able to turn his torso in that direction.

His bed wasn’t on a wall so what the hell had he hit?

Dick began to feel his surroundings. He was in a box. A small box with satin lining with a small pillow under his head and a suit on his body.

He was buried alive.

He began to panic, trying to find anything tech related to call for help from his family. He tried to hold his breath, to will the panic attack away and stop his hyperventilation, diluting the oxygen that was still left in the box.

How long had we been down here? How much time did he have left before he ran out of air?

His body wouldn’t stop panicking, he knew he was crying but he was useless to try and stop it. He had the idea to try and wedge the lid open but his body wasn’t listening. Instead his hands traveled to his waist. They wouldn’t find anything though, he had already checked himself for tools and came up empty handed.

But the hands moved, as if they knew what to do as they removed his belt buckle. With shaky hands, and what seemed to be a few broken fingers, he began to cut away at the wood lining of the coffin above him.

He cut and mangled at the wood as fast as he could. As he made a sizable dent in the material, splinters raining down on his face all the while, it got to the point that he put the buckle on his chest on order to grab some of the sharp edges and pry away what he could. He could feel the burning and stabbing pain and the wood cut into his flesh, tearing his nails from his fingers, but it didn’t matter. Either he kept fighting or he accepted death.
When he had finally fully broken through the lid and was able to shove a few fingers through the hold he had created the air was thin. His chest was heaving for breath that it couldn’t seem to catch no matter how hard he tried.

As he began to widen the hole in the lid the dirt began to rain down on him now, displacing the wood shavings from earlier.

He had to move quickly but efficiently, if he didn’t do this next part properly everything would be for nothing. He had to scoop the dirt down onto his own face and then push it as far down towards his feet as he could. If he just kept it at his upper body in his panic he would just compact the earth and give him less room to maneuver himself up and out of the wooden box.

As he made his way up his chest began to burn, his limbs were growing heavy with exhaustion. Trying to lower him back into the grave he had just tried too hard to free himself of. What made it worse was that as he moved the dirt from where he had come, the new dirt was harder to move. It was wet, adding more of an obstacle. Before the dirt was crumbling down on him, choking him as it fell in his airways. Now he was having to fight twice as hard from the material refusing to obey his commands.

Then his hand went through the mud, he could feel the grass blades tickling his wrist before he prompting spaying his fingers, put his hand flat on the grass and pulled his hand down with all his might.

The rush of the cool Gotham air felt like heaven against his screaming lungs. He allowed himself 10 breaths and then continued his ascension. It was pouring, every step he took down the hill left a wet squelch as the water was falling too fast to be absorbed by the dirt. He didn’t really know where he was going, he just knew I wanted to go somewhere.

He didn't know how long he had been walking on the road, he had stopped shivering quietly some time ago. The yellow lights were too bright and they made his head hurt more than it already did. When he tried to pry his eyes open to see what the lights were coming from, he had half of a second to realize they were no longer a block away. In almost an instant the yellow lights hit his legs.

Dick awoke at the impact and jolted upright in bed. His heart was fluttering away in his chest as if he had run a marathon while on coke. His skin was tacky with perspiration and his breathing was haggard. As he reached up to cover his face with his hands he vaguely realized that he was crying.

0o0o0

Dick relieved the oddity of being in someone else’s body. The intimacy of what it actually entailed to take care of a body. You didn’t realize how odd it was because it was you taking care of your own body. You do it your entire life. You only became hyper aware of just how much maintenance going into the human body when you were uncomfortable with each step of the process.

Last night, to avoid the awkward tension they both would feel, Dick and Jason had texted back and forth from their bedrooms about what this entailed. Being in each other's bodies for what was shaping up to be a week. It was an uncomfortable conversation to say the least, telling your brother you understand why he needed to touch your entire body.

Jason had rejoined the family a long time ago, he had seen the autopsy scar numerous times. Every time Jason had to take off his shirt for one thing or another you could instantly see how uncomfortable he actually was with people seeing the scar. As soon as he was free he would immediately put his clothing back on, hiding the massive scar again.

Dick always liked to take ice cold showers after a nightmare. He viewed it as something to not only cool off his body so it would stop sweating from the fear but also as a way to ground him, let him know he was still alive.

Jason’s body didn’t react well to the cold.

This was the shower he always used, he knew what the coldest setting felt like, and yet when he got under the shower head he almost jumped out of his skin.

It almost felt painful where the water had made contact with his skin. He forced himself to stand under the water, but he only lasted for a count of 3 seconds before it felt like all of the air had been sucked out of his lungs and it felt as if his veins were becoming electrified with how fast the panic had surged through him.

Without being able to form a rational thought he had jumped out of the shower, fallen to his knees, propping himself up with one hand while the other was resting on his chest. Trying to will himself to calm down.

Jason, every winter, hell every cold night, would voice how much he hated the cold. Said that he had gotten enough of it from almost freezing to death while living on the streets.

Jason didn’t hate the cold. The cold had the ability to send his body into fight or flight. Thinking that it was once again in danger, once again in survival mode.

When he had been able to calm Jason’s body enough to stand, he promptly turned to water to warm, counted to 60 and tested the water before stepping inside.

0o0o0

Dick didn’t take a quick shower, electing to respect his brother’s privacy and try his best to limit the amount of interactions with Jason’s naked body as possible.

As Dick exited the shower and began to dress he caught a glimpse of something in the mirror. His shower hadn’t been long enough to fog the item. Standing straight up, turning his back, Jason’s back, to the reflection he almost didn’t understand what he saw.

Across Jason’s back were deep red scars crisscrossing against his entire back. They were mangled, as if they had numerous, been interrupted in their healing process and reopened. If Dick didn’t know any better they looked like flagellation scars. The only problem being that they were too deep, cutting horizontally across the entire length of his back. They weren’t self mutilation, forced or otherwise, someone else had given Jay these scars.

Did the others know? This must be what he was trying to hide so hard.

Dick didn’t know what to think, the only thing he was feeling in that moment was sorrow for all of the pain his sibling had endured.

Chapter Text

With everybody either in school, at work, wherever Alfred disappeared to and Jason was probably holed up in the Library, Dick found himself drifting towards the family room. It was where he had spent most of his time growing up. It contained the most used and comfortable couches not to mention the family’s board games and entertainment systems that had been able to entertain the family as it had grown and changed through the years. Adapting to its residents and growing with them.

Even with lounging on the couch and doom scrolling on his phone Dick couldn’t seem to shake the creeping suspicion that someone was watching him. He was in a safe zone, a room that he had always been fond of to blow off some steam after school and recently played with his siblings during family dinner nights and movie nights. He knew it was stupid, knew the only other people in the house were Alfred and Jason, and neither of them would waste time creeping on him rather than just getting to the point.

It felt like his body was ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’, for an emergency to come up out of the blue and force him into action. There was a tension almost engrained in Jason's shoulders, like he was always ready for a fight. It left a sort of fatigue, similar to weighing him down. Like he had been carrying it for so long that it had been forged armor into his bones.

0o0o0

After doing nothing but playing on his phone yesterday Dick was extraordinarily bored. At some point (Dick didn't even know when) had moved down to the cave. The feeling of being watched had slowly been creeping up his spine for the last 24 hours and making him feel like he was going to lash out. Growing up he had always used gymnastics as his outlet to let his pent up energy (or rage) out. Seeing as how Jason’s body didn’t hold the muscle memory or the physique for such a workout he guided himself over to the weight training section.

Instead of waiting for himself to blow up at the first unfortunate soul to talk to him, he was using one of the punching bags down in the cave pulled his headphones into place and began blasting the music. Blocking out the sound that was created when one of his wrapped fists came into contact with the bag.

He went for a long time, longer than his body would have been able to keep up with. Jason’s league training had conditioned his body to be able to have endurance behind every maneuver he did. Even with pushing Jason’s stamina it didn’t waver. He began to put more power behind the throws, harder punches in quicker succession; it was still impressive how long it took him to tire.

When he had finally been able to beat the paranoia out of his body he realized that still left him back at square one. He had nothing to do for however long it took for the spell to wear off, returning them back to their own bodies. Allowing his body to cool off he began to inspect some of the tools that had been laying around the workbench that were only half finished.

It looked to be a sort of switch blade batarang. When closed it was a small ovoid shape, when you pressed the button on the items back it was supposed to be a spring loaded contraption to expel the wings of the bat. It would be a more compact way of storing them, meaning more could be stored on the owner's person.

With the realization of where the tool’s schematics were headed Dick began to tinker with the item. Using tiny screwdrivers, pliers and such to complete the first model, test it and then think up more ways to improve the item.

It had taken him only about an hour of work before he noticed it, at first he just thought he was hungry, as it was almost lunch. But no, as he used his hands more, performing miniscule precise movements he could notice the tremors. It was only there when performing precise movements, but it was there. Tremors that would appear when the fine motor skills of his hands were tested. “Nerve damage” Dick whispers to himself and he flexes Jason’s hands, realizing the extent of the lasting damage that Jason carried around with him daily. Jason had nerve damage, not much, but enough to where the average person would be put in physical therapy, but Jason was trained. He had hidden it for god knows how long.

He just sat there, staring down at the splayed hands in his lap. The weight of each realization was weighing on his chest. He gently cradled his hands, running a thumb along the scarred knuckles of the other hand, Jason’s hand.

He had never known.

Never know how much suffering Jason carried with him day in and day out. Ingrained into his very being, his mind muscles and nerves. For a moment Dick just sat in silence, staring down at his brother's hands, the forgotten batarang left sitting half finished on the table. Staring down with blurry vision at the hands that refused to tell him the stories of battle’s that had been fought alone.

Was this why Jason always pushed them all away? The vigilance the League had instilled in him, drilled so hard into his being that even in a safe space he couldn’t breath. It had even caused Dick to turn to a physical outlet when he could feel the wrath bubbling up, simmering just beneath the surface looking for an outlet.

Jason carried it all in silence, he knew his limits, he always ran when he got mad. He probably could feel that rage eating away at him and knew he would attack, just as the League had trained him to do, if he didn’t leave immediately.

Chapter Text

Dick’s body was annoying. No it wasn’t jealousy it was more of why the fuck were so many of his joint always in chronic pain when the dude never let onto it?

It was just about every joint in his body ALWAYS hurt in the morning, like someone had cut him open and shoved egg shells in there, and as the day went on his bones were able to ground them into a fine powder. Then they would be fine, until he fell asleep again.

That and the fact that almost everything gave him an upset stomach. At first he thought he had a vague recollection of Dick mentioning he was lactose intolerant on one of the few interactions they had when he had been Robin. So he cut out dairy, and nothing changed. It was about 20 minutes after every meal his intestines would feel sour, like that feeling of them clenching too quickly, trying to expel food as quickly as possible so it was unable to neutralize the stomach acid. The only problem was he wasn’t having diarrhea.

They had agreed on Day 0 that any question related to the other's body could either be sent over text or they had to be locked in a room together so no one could hear. It’s not that they were hiding injuries, just that they all had chronic pain and they didn’t want the others to think differently of them. In a family of detectives, if you gave them a scrap of any information you would be placed under a microscope until they dissected you to the point of knowing everything about you.

He could deal with Dick’s sensitive intestines and his gymnast joints, he had been dealing, but this morning Dick’s left shoulder was killing him. The pain was radiating up towards his collarbone and down his deltoid to the point that it was difficult to get dressed in the morning.

He knew it was unlikely that Dick would see the scars across his back, people don’t really look at their own back very often. But it still made him unnerved to know there was the possibility, which is why when they had been texting back and forth, setting up the ground rules for ‘living in your brother's body’ Jason’s #1 was to give privacy where you could. Sure technically there was no way to enforce or know if Dick was following it but even if neither was showing it they were both skeeved out in their own ways. Wiping Dick’s ass after taking a shit is not something he is keen on admitting to.

Wandering his way down to breakfast, still half drunk on sleep, was easy. Whether it was Dick’s muscle memory or his from the 3 years he had lived here in his childhood it didn’t matter. One second he was in his bedroom the next he was sitting down and grabbing eggs and toast at the table.

There was mindless chatter going on around him, Tim and Steph had been staying over because Dick wanted to take the house arrest for anything other than what it was. So instead they were having family nights filled with board games and movies for the last 3 nights. Currently Steph looked like how he felt, she had sleep lines across one of her arms and her bed head had been thrown into a messy bun just to get the rats nest off of her.

Realizing he should probably ask Dick about what was wrong with his shoulder he pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent him “What the fuck is wrong with your shoulder?”

Dickhead: what do you mean???????

“I mean your left shoulder hurts like a bitch and is difficult to move”

Dickhead: “did you wake up on your/my left side???

“Yeah why does that matter though?”

Dickhead: “Does the pain go up and down like 5 inches from the joint?????”

“Yes”
“Why the fuck is this 20 questions?”

Then Dick, maybe being annoyed from having to text at the table, maybe he just didn’t feel like explaining over text spoke aloud. “Rotate your arm”.

The whole table went silent as Jason raised his head from gazing at the phone in his lap. They all were looking back and forth between Dick and Jason confused not only by the outburst but also the words said.

Dick had changed the conversation from text to real life and it was his body. Meaning he was ok with the family knowing about whatever injury this was. “What?” he questioned because how was rotating his arm going to help.

“What are you boys talking about?” Bruce questioned. They all had been informed that Dick and Jason would be using their phones at the table to talk to each other about personal matters while they were in each other's meat suits.

Dick, diving back into his eggs before waving his hand towards his body across the table simply explained “Jay slept on his side and now my shoulder is bothering him.”

Bruce made a face such that it showed he understood what Dick was getting at. Meanwhile everyone else at the table seemed to be just as lost as Jason. “How did that explain anything?”

Dick, probably realizing this wasn’t going to work, simply stood from his seat next to Bruce and walked to stand behind Jason. Dick had grabbed Jay’s fork full of eggs and laid it back on his plate before dropping Jason’s left arm off the table from where it had been resting to drop, relaxed by his side with his hand in his lap.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jason questioned as Dick put his left hand on Jason’s pec and his left grabbed his bent elbow.

“I’m fixing my arm since you’re not going to.” Dick simply countered.

“Not my fault ‘rotate your arm’ isn’t an explanation.” Jason retorted while the entire rest of the table just stared on in confusion.

Without any prompting Dick pushed against Jason’s chest and pulled his elbow forward, a sickening pop was heard with a groan leaving Jason’s mouth as Dick reset the shoulder joint. As Dick made his way back to his own chair he explained, “I have EDS, sleeping on your side puts too much pressure on the joint for too long and you just spent all morning with your arm partially out of socket. The pain radiating up and down was because of the muscles, tendons and ligaments being unnaturally stretched.”

Jason was slightly leaning forward, his left arm still limp beside him with his right arm holding his painful joint.

“Wait” Tim interrupted the interaction. “You just told him to rotate his shoulder. So what do you put it back in by yourself?”

Dick, with a mouth full of toast simply shrugged and said “well yeah, it happens all the time. EDS also is probably why I have stomach issues and migraines every so often. I got tested when I was younger. Apparently 80% of contortionists have it. EDS is a connective tissue disorder.”

Steph, finally having rebooted her brain from sleep, had caught up with the conversation. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT. So they guy named Dick has a disorder that is one letter off from Erectile Dysfunction?”

Damian simply tutted at her as Dick was laughing at her realization, “You are immature to an immaculate extent Brown.”

0o0o0

Tim had only had half a day at W.E. and had come back to the Manor after words to work on some of his cases. Jason had spent that last few days reading in the library and was frankly getting bored with it so decided to follow when Dick all but dragged the youger down the the cave for a sparring session.

Jason had taken the opportunity to change into work out clothes and stretch before shoving his head phones in place to drown out the others. How could Tim trust him? Sure it was Dick but he was wearing Jason’s face. He wasn’t part of the family and it felt like looking through a funhouse mirror whenever he had glanced over and seen Dick being his normal self in his body, and the others were fine with it.

They just laughed along as they always did with Dick’s antics, they were all still leaning into his touch too.

It didn’t make sense.

He had still been using the weight sets, at a lower weight than he was used to, when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Dick and Tim had both migrated into the locker rooms to shower. The text simply read “can I ask about your touch thing???”

He knew this was coming. He knew Dick must feel it since it was part of the brainwashing / training / whatever it was that the League had ingrained into him. He didn’t want Dick to know all of his shit but also it might be helpful in the long run. It might finally be the thing to convince Dick to stop trying to hug him, sometimes he could deal with it, most of the time though it was the straw that broke the camel's back and it's usually what starts his crash out with the family.

“When you’re done socializing after dinner, I don’t want to type that much right now.”

Dickhead: “kk”

Chapter Text

The day had been normal, even though he was dreading explaining everything to Dick. What he wasn’t expecting was for Dick to excuse himself from the now nightly family night in favor of speaking to Jason first.

There was a tentative knock on his temporary bedroom, his door was cracked open because he knew this interaction was coming. Jason was sitting on the bed with his back against the headboard with pillows cushioning the hard surface. On his lap was his laptop, Roy, who was still benched, was having all of his wayward younger siblings sending him their cases. Roy had kept half and sent him half, since they were both technically benched and had nothing to do Jason was helping the Arrow family.

Looking up from his work he saw it was Dick and instructed him inside and to close the door while he finished the sentence he was on.

Closing the laptop, he put it on the bedside table and turned his attention to Dick. He had perched himself at the farm corner of the bed, giving Jason as much room as possible.

Feeling the awkwardness thickening in the air, Jason crossed his arms and started the explanation he had been hiding for years. “Its medical name is formication. It's Latin for ant. The League has most of its soldiers go through some special brain washing process that makes it feel like there are bugs under your skin anytime someone touches you. It’s to persuade its soldiers from never seeking physical touch.” There was a beat of silence as he regained himself, he still had yet to look up from his hands. They were in his lap, twiddling with the seam of his shirt.

Dick, knowing it was a sensitive topic decided to not make a joke about how close the word was to fornication and instead questioned “It goes away though, so did it not work on you?”

Jason’s head shot up at the question, “what do you mean it goes away? Does it go away for you?”

At these questions Dick’s eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, he took another breath before explaining that “If I keep contact with a person the feeling dies down and eventually goes away.”

Jason began to shake his head at the declaration, “no, that's not what it’s like for me. It’s always there for me. Formication is technically a tactile hallucination, I don’t understand why it isn’t always there for you.”

Dick tilted his head and seemed to think through the scenario. After a few seconds he questioned “Do you feel it with Roy? The formication, I mean.”

“No. I did at first but it just kinda slowly decreased in intensity so now I don't feel it at all when he touches me.”

“Well that’s kinda what it’s like for me, you guys had more time to whittle it down into nothing though. Like if I keep my arm around someone eventually I won't feel the ‘ants’ anymore.” Dick theorized.

It made sense, but it also didn’t. “I don’t think it's the same for us. For me, when someone touches me, sometimes it's so bad it almost feels like I got burned. I couldn’t ignore it if I tried. Some days are worse than others but it's always there.”

“Huh. Do you feel any version of it in my body?” Dick questioned.

Shaking his head again Jason replied honestly “no”, if they were going to get all touchy feely he might as well go all in. “It’s… kinda nice.” His voice was quiet, like he was embarrassed to have admitted it, his shoulders hunching a bit higher, as if waiting to be reprimanded for showing weakness.

Dick’s heart twisted at how Jason had made his voice at the admittance. Deciding that since Jason had willfully given up something vulnerable it was probably safe to gently probe him Dick asked the question that had been burning in his mind since he had first felt the sensation. “Is that why you always pull away from touch? Because of the formication?”

Jason nodded.

Dick continued, “Do you miss it? Being touched, I mean.”

Jason let out a sour laugh at the question before responding “Roy says I’m touch starved. Whenever we hang out he makes us cuddle for like the first hour.”

With this new knowledge unlocked Dicks face glowed with joy as he shifted further onto the bed, “Awwww, do you melt like Timmy?”

At the instant shift in tone of the conversation from heartfelt to teasing Jason prompt tried to shove Dick off the bed while saying “Shut the fuck up Dickhead”

Dick giggled at his antics and then sat beside him against the headboard.

They sat in comfortable silence side by side for a few moments before Dick suggested “Do you want to cuddle? We could watch a movie, just the two of us so you don’t have to join everybody.”

Jason turned to look at Dicks/his own face. The problem was he didn’t know his own words. It was still wear and tear to look at Dick wearing his face so most of their conversations Jason had elected to look anywhere but at Dick. It somehow fell into the uncanny valley since it was his face but not the inverse and someone else was controlling it.

The two just ended up staring at each other for a few breaths, Jason scared to answer and Dick not wanting to pressure him. Eventually Jason slowly shook his head no, “it wouldn’t be fair to you” was spoken in a voice that was much too small for either Jason Todd or Dick Grayson.

“Hey” Dick said as he shifted to be in Jason's line of sight again. “Like I said, it tapers down the longer I touch someone. It sounds like what you go through with it is a lot worse than what happens to me. Why don’t we put on a movie and just lay together. We don’t have to cuddle if you don’t want to.”

Jason had chosen “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” movie and while Dick was setting it up Jason had gotten under the covers. Dick took the action as permission to do so himself, getting himself situated before quietly instructing “hey, come here” with open arms.

Jason hesitantly moved towards his older brother, like he was still expecting it to hurt from the formication. After he had laid his head on Dick’s chest, Dick wrapping his arms around the little brother he was never able to be a good older brother too Jason let go all of the tension in his body.

Whispering because Jason was now laying on him Dick said “aww, you do melt” as he rubbed circles into the younger's back.

A weak “shut up” was Jason had given in retaliation.

5 minutes into the move Jason was quietly snoring against Dick’s chest. Looking down at the mop of hair Dick realized 2 things. One, he really needs to listen to Alfred and get a haircut. Two, he needed to help find a way to get rid of the tactile hallucination that had caused his brother to run away for so long.

Chapter Text

Dick woke up first. Jason had always been a morning person and his body seemed to retain that sleeping pattern against Dick’s wishes.

Dick had awoken laying on his back, just as he had fallen asleep. Jason didn’t move much in his sleep. Dick’s body however had always moved a lot in his sleep. Dick could feel the pressure of another person on his chest and knew that Dick’s body had retained the habit of writhing in his sleep. Prying open his eyes Dick looked at the still sleeping Jason, his head was on Dick’s right shoulder, laying across his body diagonally, with his left hip in contact with Dicks side. One leg was curled up and the other was hanging off of the bed. Jason’s left arm had snaked its way under Dick’s shoulder in the night and was currently curled, as if pulling Dick’s shoulder closer to his face. His right hand was in a loose fist and gently placed it in the left crook of Dick’s shoulder.

He knew it was early, the curtains may have been drawn closed but there was barely any light spilling from behind them. Jason had fallen asleep almost instantly from cuddling so Dick had willfully fallowed in his foot steps. Meaning they were both probably asleep by about 8 pm, the sun usually rose at about 6:30 so Jason was liable to wake up in about an hour or 2. That was taking into consideration that Jason apparently had a fairly reasonable sleep schedule in his own body and was trying to force the same into Dicks.

It wasn’t working though.

Each morning so far Dick had awoken to texts about how his body was stupid and that ‘if it was so exhausted then why wouldn’t it just fall asleep?’ Needless to say since Jason cuddling into Dick had been enough to override the bodies desire to stay awake in theory if he kept cuddling Jason he would stay asleep for longer. Granted 11 hours of sleep was a lot for the average person and they thrived on chaos and exhaustion so 11 hours for them was a mini coma.

He was also too cute to wake up.

Dick had never seem Jason sleep before, seeing him knocked out was different because there was usually blood involves and a whole bunch of panic. But now? Now Jason was limply laying on him, the soft exhales were tickling his neck and he could feel Jason’s heartbeat through his chest into his own. He never got to connect and be a big brother to Jason, he was too caught up in his own feud with Bruce to pay attention to Jason.

God they sounded like a divorced family, parents too busy fighting to notice the kid was being ignored.

Instead he decided to soak up this peaceful moment, he closed his eyes, placing one hand in Jason’s hair and the other on his back, simply holding his brother.

0o0o0

When Jason was slowly dragged back into the land of consciousness he wasn’t alone. He first heard faint talking behind him from voices he didn’t recognize so he faked sleep. As he waited it registered that his pillow was slowly rising and falling, he was sleeping on someone.

Roy.

No, He and Dick had been hit with magic, he wasn’t home.

Dick.

He had fallen asleep cuddling Dick after they talked about some of the League training. Dick had one arm lying limp across Jason's back, weakly rubbing circles into the material of his shirt. Paying attention to the voices he could tell that they were all coming from a few feet directly behind him.

Dick was watching something on his phone as he waited for Jason to wake up.

He had always been an early riser, Dick had probably been awake for some time, cradling him and he had waited. The protectiveness to try and not wait for him sent a warm bloom radiating through his chest at the realization.

Jason, finally figuring out his surroundings, opened his eyes. He was sprawled out diagonally across the bed with his head on Dicks right shoulder. Dick had his chin propped on top of Jason’s head as he watched the video on his phone.

In order to fake that he had just woken up he quietly moaned and moved the hand that was resting on Dick’s opposite side.

“Hey” Dick quietly said as he shut his phone off, wrapping the now free limb around the younger. “I was beginning to think you were gonna sleep all morning.”

“Ugh” was all the response Jason was providing Dick with. He wasn’t necessarily cuddling closer into Dick, but he wasn’t exactly getting up either.

Dick had continued rubbing circles on his back, waiting for the younger to fully wake up, he knew his body needed a few minutes. In the meantime he decided to tease Jason for how cuddly he was being, saying “we could just spend the day in bed. Watch some trash reality tv or something and just stay here for the day. Warm and quiet since you're being so cuddly.”

Instead of taking the bait like dick had hoped, Jason had changed the entire conversation instead, “How the fuck do I not feel rested after sleeping the night?” After a beat of silence he added “ And how the fuck is this shape comfortable for your spine?”

Dick gave a breathy laugh, smiling down at his grumpy brother before explaining “I move around a lot in my sleep. Seeing it first hand I can see what people mean.”

Jason groaned again in reply.

Dick, knowing if they laid there any longer Jason was going to fall back asleep patted his harshly on the back while saying “come on, get up, before Alfred sends the kids to come get us and they see how cuddly the Big Bad Red Hood is.”

Jason, refusing to move, simply said “this is your body Dickhead, all they would see is you being as annoying as always.”

Dick, knowing he was getting nowhere simply accepted he might get punched in retaliation before he engaged his core and sat them both up, effectively pulling Jason into his lap.

“What the fuck Dick” he grubbled into Dicks shoulder.

“Either you get up or I’m carrying you downstairs like a Princess.” Dick giggled, finally convincing Jason to get up and do his morning routine.

Dick made his way back to his childhood bedroom where all of his/Jason's supplies were. When Jason had joined the family and picked a room he had picked the one that was right next to Dick’s, meaning they both had a door to enter the ensuite bathroom. But Jason still hadn’t gone in the room since he was 15.

Day one they had switched all of their products so he was technically using Jason’s toothbrush because it was Jason’s mouth but the thought process behind it slightly grossed him out. They would have to throw away all hygiene products after because he was already used to reaching for Jason’s toothbrush.

Jason had simply entered the ensuite bathroom for the spare bedroom he always holed up in whenever he was forced to spend the night. He didn’t keep anything in the room, but everyone referred to it as Jason’s room and his childhood room, the one next to Dick’s, as Jason’s bedroom. It was a slight difference in wording but very different in meaning.

Dick had always wondered why Jason refused to go back into the room. While brushing his/Jason’s teeth he decided he would bring it up to the other. It’s not like it would be an out of the blue question given the vulnerability they had been sharing with each other over the last few days.

Combining Jason’s curly hair and changing his clothes, Dick stepped out back into the hallway and made his way back over towards Jason’s room.

Jason was dressed with Dick’s hair brushed, he was still brushing Dick’s teeth as he cleaned up the room. Dick leaned against the door frame before asking, “can I ask you a question?”

Jason, mumbling around a toothbrush and a mouth full of toothpaste was able to get out “bout wat?”

Deciding to rip the bandage off Dick went for it. “Why do you never go in your old bedroom?”

Jason froze, bent over grabbing a sock he had somehow lost in the night from the floor. Before continuing to put the item in his hamper. He stayed silent as he went about spitting and rinsing out his mouth to the point that Dick was contemplating if he had crossed a line.

When Jason emerged from the bathroom he looked at Dick in the eyes and simply said “go in”

Not knowing exactly what he meant, Dick stated “in where?”

“Go in my room. It’s not a bedroom Dick it’s a tomb of a dead kid. It’s not mine to clean” Jason explained.

“No, Jason.” Dick said, understanding where he was coming from. Nothing from his room had been changed since he had died. It was a time capsule of a 15 year old who had messed up and Bruce had accidentally convinced wasn’t loved. A little boy that had run away before he could be kicked out. Ran to the arms of the woman who had given him half of his DNA and nothing more. “It’s not a tomb, at least it’s not supposed to be. It’s your bedroom. Bruce had always let it be known that he would never go into our rooms unless he was invited. I guess he just kinda didn’t want to break that promise to you. Even after you died he refused to go in without your permission. It wasn’t meant to immortalize you, it was meant to keep a promise.”

There was silence between them and the different viewpoints settled over him. He had crossed his arms during Dicks speech and was currently looking at something to Dick’s left.

“It creeps me out,” He finally said.

Dick, knowing he was uncomfortable, tried to break the tension. “Well now I’m in your body so I’ll be creeped out.” The comment was enough to bring Jason’s eyes back to him. “Listen, we don’t have to clean it out if you don’t want to, but if you're avoiding it because it creeps you out, then now would probably be the best time to rip the band-aid off. We should hurry up though before Alfred has our heads for being late to breakfast”

Jason, knowing that Dick was giving him an out of the conversation if he wanted, took it for the blessing that it was. “ Hey if anything that’s your fault for letting me sleep so long”

Chapter Text

They had spent the majority of the morning and early afternoon going through Jason’s bedroom. Dick refused to admit it, but when Jason had originally opened the door to the time capsule of a room, a chill had run up his spine. Like Jason’s body was having a visceral reaction to seeing the room frozen in time. It was almost like a slight panic attack, gnawing, trying to surface. His chest tightened as his pulse quickened, his shoulder’s rising instinctively, as if expecting something, or someone, to jump out at him.

The room had been trashed, well, trashed for Jason’s standards. There were a few clothing items on the bed with a half filled backpack. There were loose papers here and there with some childhood mementos on the floor in a few piles. His bedside table held a reading lamp and at least 5 books stacked beneath it with a box of tissue. The desk was another story though. Jason had ADHD, and the only place it seemed he let it get the better of his was his school work. There were assignments scattered over the entire surface with a mix of textbooks, a calculator, pens and his laptop.

Dick had never been in this room before, all he knew was that no one was allowed to without Jason’s permission. As Dick took his preliminary look around the room he noticed A few posters of bands and a Flying Grayson's poster that was between his closet and bathroom door. When Dick turned to look at Jason it was obvious that he didn’t want to talk about it so Dick respected his wishes and went to work.

Dick didn’t know the whole story of how everything had gone down and now wasn’t the time to ask. Instead, he stated that he would gather up all the clothes. Folding them and putting them in bags to be donated to homeless shelters throughout the city. It was a Tedious task as Jason was apparently one of those kids that liked to hang up every single piece of clothing, Dick had been a big fan of crumpling the items in a ball and just shoving them in drawers. As the more time passed from him being in the room though he could feel the tension starting to leave Jason’s body. Like it had realized it wasn’t under attack.

As Dick had made his way through all of Jason’s clothes he began to remember just how small Jason had been. It was one thing to have a mental image of a little bouncy boy in his uniform, but it was another to see the clothing of a 15 year old that was still too small.

He was smaller than Damian, and Damian was only 12. Jason Todd, at 15 years old had been smaller than Damian at 12.

The realization hit him harder than it probably should have. A single tear rolled down his face as he continued the comforting, repeating task of taking the clothing down, folding it, and placing them in bags.

The room wasn’t as musty as one would think an abandoned room of almost a decade should smell. Instead it still held a slightly familiar smell that Dick couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was mostly masked by stale air. Alfred would dust this room once a month so it wasn’t like there was much to mask the scent of anything. But, because of how things had been haphazardly thrown about, (it looked almost like he had been in a rush to leave the Manor) he had never vacuumed the room. Which left the lingering smell of old carpet in the room.

Jason had the task of going through all of his old school supplies, toys and such that he had accumulated through his 3 years living in this room.

When they had finished Jason hadn’t kept much. It was no longer a tomb thorough, a snapshot into the past. They had moved the few things Jay had grabbed from his apartment that had been in Jason’s room and had been transferred over. Of the few things he had kept among them were his Red fluffy blanket Bruce had apparently gotten him for his first ‘gotcha day’, it was California king sized and they needed to fold it multiple times to get it to fit on the Queen mattress and not look stupid.

In total there were 12 trash bags worth of stuff either being thrown away or donated.

They had been finishing up, just talking in Jason’s bedroom as he had been going through their last of his stuff, giving mini stories with each of the things he was taking out of the draws from his desk. “This was from my first science fair at Gotham Academy…”

“Not to be rude but it just looks like a piece of clay” Dick started looking at the Item Jason had given him to throw away.

“It is, my project was on how the tectonic plates move and an estimation of how Earth looked before pangea and how Earth will look at different time points in the future based on their movements.” At the perfect timing, just as Jason was finished explaining that the clump of clay in his hand was Pangea was when Dick’s phone rang.

“Who is it?” Jason asked.

Dick, pulling out his phone to check the caller ID, “It’s Tim…” His eyes lifted to Jason as he read the name. Tim was supposed to be in W.E. meetings all day, if he was calling either something was wrong or it was something stupid, and there was no inbetween. Taking his chances Dick answered the call and immediately put it on speaker phone. “Tim, you're on speaker with Jay, what's up?”

“Arkham breakout, Hatter targeted W.E. Bruce and I are fine but with the amount of people that got out and the fact that it's just Me, B, Damian and Steph we are gonna need your guys’ help.” Tim sounded out of breath, like he had been running.

“Who got out?” Jason asked, standing from the seat at his desk to get closer to the call.

“According to reports it's Joker, Riddler, Scarecrow, Hatter, Ivy, two-face, Freeze and Croc but who knows if that's accurate or not.” As Tim had listed off the rogues that were currently set free Dick and Jason had looked up and met each other's gaze. They had been benched because they weren’t adequate to fight in the style that their current bodies were used to. They were a liability. But with a minimum of those rogues free they would take liability over whatever plan they had cooked up while in Arkham.

Dick was the one to speak this time. “We’ll be there.”

Chapter Text

Ending the phone call the two brothers looked at each other, neither moving for a moment. They both understood why they had been benched, they weren’t used to fighting in these bodies. It wasn’t just trivial things like their weapons choices or fighting styles, their center of gravities had changed too. Jason was bulky and Dick was built like a gymnast, it even felt weird to walk when this had all started.

Dick spoke up first, “there’s too many in this breakout, which means they all planned it together. Which means we are fucked and they out number us.”

Jason, standing replied “true, but at least they will be expecting us to be normal. Now we can be a wildcard, they won’t be expecting Nightwing to pull out a glock.” Then the prompt left the room.

Dick, jumping to his feet, raising his voice to be heard in the distance said “If you make me bring guns I’m putting the rainbow Batman cape on you!”

0o0o0

The plan was simple, divide and conquer. Every report was still saying it was just the 7 criminals who escaped so that formed the basis of their plan. Batman was to get Joker, Robin Riddler, Spoiler Scarecrow, Red Robin Two-face, Nightwing (Jason) Ivy and Red Hood (Dick) Freeze. It was the most sound plan they had as when Croc broke out he usually went into hiding into the sewers and they didn’t want to waste the time trying to track him down while the other rogues would be actively causing destruction.

They were all to keep their comms open the entire time with their trackers on for Oracle to keep ears and eyes on them at all times and immediately aller the others if anything went sideways.

As they were tracking down their assigned rogues Spoiler asked over the comms “So are we just calling those two my the hero name they are dressed up as? Cuz I think we should come up with different names.”

“Keep on track Spoiler” came the definitive growl of Batman on his course towards the downtown district after a possible Joker sighting.

“Oh please I can talk and rung you should know that B.” She said as she continued her path through the narrows searching for Scarecrow. “But seriously, because if I need muscle I need the one who usually fights like hood, if I need a distraction I’m calling the one that's normally Nightwing.”

“TT, this is an obsolete conversation Spoiler. Call them as they are dressed so the Rogues do not detect weakness and target them.” Robin explained.

Red Robin finally spoke up, He was in the Earnern bank by the docks as he said, “as long as they respond it doesn’t matter.”

Nightwing spoke next saying “we fake it till we make it or need a hospital.”

“Don’t you dare put my body in a hospital Hood” Red Hood replied, forgetting which body he was in.

“See! This is what I mean!” Spoiler exclaimed.

“Enough. Stay on task.” Batman instructed, closing the conversation completely.

0o0o0

Ivy had been spotted in the middle of the City, which means Nightwing would have the most eyes on him of any of the Bats. Meaning he would get broad casted on the news for the world to see. Lets see how well he can fake Dick’s flips.

When he arrived at her location she had suspended herself in the air by her vines as she moved through the city. It was a slight comfort knowing Batman was nearby chasing a lead on the Joker, close enough to where if he needed help he could call for backup.

There was something wrong though. Red lines covered Ivy’s skin. As Nightwing swung closer on his grapple, kicking her in the face, trying to knock her back to solid ground he realized what they were. They weren’t just red likes, it looked like her blood vessels were brought to the surface of her skin, ready to burst. They mapped out every part of her skin, even her eyes were a flushed red color.

Ivy didn’t usually go for people, she would damage the Bats enough to get away but her major villains were the greedy CEOs and companies that destroyed the environment to save a few bucks. She didn’t go after civilians or cause bodily harm, whatever was wrong with her had changed that. “Uhh, guys? Somethings wrong with Ivy, looks like she's drugged or something” Nightwing explained as he tried his best to do a backflip, dodging a vine that was aimed for his skull. There were people screaming and running for their lives from the park. Most people looked like they had at least some bodily harm enacted on them.

Batman’s voice came through the comm, tight with exertion. “Nightwing, report.”

“Her veins are visible from a distance, attacking civilians, enraged.” Wing quickly explained as he grabbed one of his brother's escrima sticks from his back and electrified the plant that was wrapping itself around his middle. As the vine dropped to the ground Ivy screamed animalistically at him before directing the full force of her attacks at him, giving the citizens a chance to flee the scene.

Ivy kept swinging multiple vines at once in all directions, only one or two of which were directly aimed at his body. Like she was expecting him to dodge and flip into the direction of another blow, of course she was. SHe thought she was fighting Nightwing. Instead He had resorted to autopilot mode. They all did as they fought. It was so ingrained into them that they didn’t need to actively think of what to do next, it just naturally came.

As Jason fought he was still fighting as himself, he was still going for more heavy hitters, the escrima sticks being used as weapons instead of with the grace Dick used them, almost like it was a dance. The more he got into the fight, went through motions of fighting off the vines, he found his body was starting to get a mind of its own.

He effortlessly found himself bounding into flips and dodges that he hadn’t practiced since his Robin days. The more he fought the more Dick’s body seemed to be taking control of his fighting style. Like Dick’s muscle memory had finally come back into place and it was driving the fight forward.

Like all he had to do was switch off his brain and let Dick’s body go through the motions of fighting, blending and integrating the two into one.

0o0o0
As Red Hood grappled his way through the Narrows in search of Freeze he couldn’t help but notice the difference in weight. He had always known Jason was bigger than him but it didn’t really register just walking around. Now that he was swinging on his grapple line with all of Jason’s weight and armor being suspended by one shoulder he could feel the difference in the pull.

When he finally found Freeze the man was standing in the middle of a crossroads, with blasts of ice radiating in a wide radius. Dick used his advantage of the high ground and tried to do a Twisted Front Salto into Freeze.

He forgot to put the extra umph behind it to account for Jason’s extra mass, when he made contact with Freeze he wasn’t in the right position and they both went sprawling in different directions from the ice.

Before he was able to get his bearings, Freeze had already sent a shot from his weapon at Dick, causing one of his legs to be frozen to the ice rink he was currently sprawled out on. As Freeze stalked forward, reciting a villain speech that he didn’t care enough to pay attention to, he instinctively reached for his Wing Dings until he remembered he wasn’t in his body right now. He was the Red Hood.

Changing his tactics, Dick grabbed for one of Jason’s guns and began to fire at Freeze. He had been firearm trained at multiple points in his life for different trainers but he had never really cared for the weapon. Even as a Bludhaven police officer he preferred to blind side the runners and chase after them rather than stand his ground and try to disable them in halting their fleeing.

That didn’t mean that he didn’t have good aim, he wasn’t as good as Jason but he could still hit a target. And his current target was the tubing supplying Freeze’s suit within cryo temperatures. It wouldn’t kill him but it would be enough to slow him down long enough to bring him back into police custody.

On his third shot he had clipped one of the lines enough to make Freeze stumble back and try to plug the leak while his attacker was still frozen in place, literally. With the extra time Dick began trying to break the ice entrapping him with the butt of Jasson’s gun.

It shattered after 2 hits, Dick had put his full force into the strikes.

He had to wonder what kind of training Jason had gone through to make him so strong.

Dick, noticing Freeze aware of his new found freedom, tried to do a back handspring to create more distance between them and missed the landing, again. ‘Right too much bulk, I can’t fight the same way I’m used to’ Dick thought to himself as Freeze furrowed his eyebrows together. slightly tipping his head in confusion at the sight before stating “you look like a baby deer learning to walk Hood. Odd, I haven’t heard of count vertigo being in the area.”

It was enough time for Dick to throw out a few smoke bombs and get some distance between the two.

Giving himself a moment to think through the situation Dick slowed down his breathing. He wasn’t panicking per say but he was definitely not used to being unable to hold his own in a fight.

He had to stop fighting Jason’s body, he knew this. His acrobatics were so ingrained in his person though that it would be difficult to go completely without them.

He had to think through this logically. Jason wasn’t built to fight like he did, he was built like Bruce. Hell there was only like 10 lbs difference between the two. As much as it would piss Jason off to ever be told it, those two were far more alike than they would ever admit.

Now that he was thinking about it, Red Hood was kind of an amalgamation of Batman and Nightwing. He would quip and do flips here and there to be an annoying shit of a distraction, but if you pissed him off or got him on a bad day he would go for heavy hits while not even trying to dodge blows targeted at him.

With his new plan formulating in his brain, Dick stepped out of the smoke.

“Don’t tell me you’re considering running away Hood?” Mr. Freeze taunted with the beginnings of a smirk painted across his face.

Dick stayed still, letting the aura of Red Hood with the smoke dissipating around him do the work as he quipped “I’d say cool off, but I think you've had enough” before launching an all out assault on the foe.

As he fell into a rhythm of blending his Batman fighting tactics with his own he noticed Jason’s body begin to take control. Like his muscles knew what hits he could take the brunt force of and which ones he should roll with to soften the blow.

As they traded hits back and forth, Freeze constantly trying to put distance between the two and Dick constantly creeping towards him he realized at some point he had slipped out of his ‘Batman mindset” and was now purely moving on instinct. Like someone else was puppeteering him, blending Jason’s and his own fighting styles to create a new style of fighting. It was still a heavyweight fighting style but it had more of a dance element to it. Like every move was connected and flowed into the next, giving him an almost graceful look.

That was when he heard it.

Laughter.

Itr made Jason’s blood run cold and his brain reboot, freezing his body faster than Victor could dream of.

“HAHAHHAHA, ya know Hoodsie. I learned something very interesting in Arkham. A little snitch told me that you, HAHAHAHAHAHA. YOU, were the little bird whose wings I clipped. HAHAHAHAHAHHA.”

The comms were still on, his siblings screaming at him to get out of there, that they couldn’t reach Batman was just background noise, fading in and out of his hearing. Jason’s body was reacting viscerally. Every fiber of his being began trembling in fear, he kept vaguely hearing the sound of metal scraping against cement, even though all of the asphalt around them had been frozen over.

“So, HAHAHAHAHA. Imagine my surprise when I learn that I get to make it so Daddy Bats and all your little chicks are too late to save you again! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

His siblings were still screaming at him to get away, they couldn’t find Batman and they couldn’t risk losing him when they didn’t even know when they would switch back bodies again.

But Dick didn’t care. Freeze had stood down so Joker could give his speech. They were all working for Joker, that’s what the breakout was for, so Joker could kill the Red Hood. They didn’t know though. There was no way they could have known about the witch swapping them. Dick was not afraid of the Joker. Joker was just a lunatic that hated him because he was the one Robin he had never been able to break.

Hell, by killing Jason, Joker had been able to break Batman, but never the Boy Wonder. All he would have to do was big enough time for Oracle to find Batman and then he could end this.

Dick took a steadying breath before shaking his head, “no, that’s not how this is going to play out.”

“Oh? Do tell! Share with the class there Hoodsie, how do you think this is going to end? Because I do have to say, my crowbar and I are big fans of the classics. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”

Jason’s body recoiled at Joker's words, he could feel his heart rabbiting away in his chest. Vibrating him with its intensity. Dick was trying his best to compartmentalize Jason’s trauma but it was getting difficult with the building dread and need to flee.

That was when he heard Oracle say something about Batman being locked inside Gotham National Bank’s safe.

Thank god Babs worked fast. Tim was delegating everyone on where they were needed. Which means he had to work fast.

“You miscalculated Joker” Dick growled out as he began his calm walk forward. His training with Deathstroke had been many things, but exonerating had not been one of them. At Red Hoods words Joker's smile fell a few notches, not completely wiped from his face however.

“Batman is dealt with, all of the birds are occupied. You’re all alone little Dead Hood. Nowhere to run to, no one to save you.” Joker explained.

Dick shook his head again, closing the distance further. “You don’t get it Joker, you never did. Not on that rooftop, not with Joker Junior, and certainly not now. Ya know, I kinda like being Hood, it feels good to let loose. Let the anger out and not pull my punches. You are not alive because you’re smart and conniving. No. You’re alive because each time after you killed my little brother Batman was standing in between us!”

Joker's eyes had blown wide as his mouth dropped. He tried to recover, begging to any god that would hear him that he was misreading the situation. “What, what are you talking about exactly Hood?” They both knew what the rooftop incident was, that was the day Joker had taunted Nightwing about killing Robin. How the boy had screamed deliciously as he was beaten senselessly. He hadn’t had time to finish his monologue before Nightwings hands were wrapped around his throat, squeezing until his heart had stopped.

“You said you like the classics, Joker? Then you’ll love this rendition, no Batman, no rules, just you and me, just like that rooftop.”

Dick had been fighting Joker since he was 8 years old, that was the first time he saw genuine fear in that man's eyes.

0o0o0

It had been 4 days since Red Hood had killed the Joker, it was still the only headline that was making the News.

The streets had been quiet, crime dropping to an all time low as everyone was waiting for the Bats to attack the Red Hood, assuming he had gone back to his Crime Lord ways.

But that never happened.

If anything, Red Hood was seen with the bats more often. He still was the protector of Crime Alley but it was no longer surprising to see him throughout the city. As if killing the Clown Prince of Crime had been his ticket into the BatFamily.

No one knew the inner workings of what had really happened that day. Only the bats involved who had been rushing as fast as they could and Victor Fries who had been watching everything from the side lines. They still didn’t know how much Fries had been able to piece together, but in the end it didn’t matter. That night Dick and Bruce had had a screaming match, one that put the fights they used to have in front of Jason to shame, before Dick decided it wasn’t worth it.

Instead, they grabbed Jason and marched them upstairs into Jason’s bedroom, where they watched Pride and Prejudice as Jason sobbed in relief that his monster was finally on the ground. That someone, all this time, someone had cared enough about him to avenge him. He cried for the end of the chapter and the beginning of a new one. One where he knew he was wanted, for once in his life, for all his faults and all his scars.

In the morning they had woken up in their own bodies, as if nothing had ever happened.

And yet their whole dynamic had changed.

0o0o0
(2 weeks later)

It was 10 pm, his shift was supposed to end at 5 but within 30 minutes of his leaving time shit had hit the fan and it was an ‘all hands on deck’ matter.

As he stumbled in his apartment, throwing left overs in the microwave as he began stripping his uniform off as he walked into his bedroom. He hadn’t bothered to turn on the light, he had lived here for long enough to know the layout with his eyes closed, as he knew for a fact that he hadn’t left anything on his bed when he had left this morning.

As he heard the microwave chime that his food was done he turned on his bedroom light.

Sitting on his bed was a decent sized box with a note sitting on top. Walking forwards in only his undershirt, boxers and socks Dick read the note.

“I never noticed how paranoid you are when you're fighting, always making sure we are all safe. You have always been looking out for us and we never even knew it. Here is for when you want to let loose Goldie"
~ Little Wing

Inside the box was a Red Hood uniform, picking up the jacket Dick furrowed his eyebrows in thought. As he put the jacket on it confined his suspicions. Jason had a custom build Red Hood suit in Dick’s size.