Chapter Text
“Lian!” Roy hollers from the dingy kitchen of their Crime Alley apartment, “we’re leaving!”
Little footsteps thunder down the hallway and a bright face appears in the doorway. “Where’s Jay?”
“He’s in the bathroom, baby. Doing his hair.”
“So… you’re not leaving yet.”
“No, no, we are- Jason! We’re gonna be late!”
“I’m comin’ alright?” Jason’s voice carries from the bathroom.
“You better be really fucking hot when you get out here.”
“Language, dad.”
“I’m always fucking hot!”
“Language, Jay!”
The babysitter chuckles from where she stands in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of water that Roy had gotten her while going over the list of all things Lian (bedtime is 9:30, yes she can have ONE Alfred cookie but not after 8, they already had dinner, only an hour of TV, there are board games in the cabinets under the bookshelves, Lian’s favorite animal is a goat (blame Jason), make sure she brushes her teeth, etc.).
“You’re still good with everything?” He asks the babysitter, Lizzy.
“Yes sir.”
“Oh, don’t call me that,” he winces. “I said Roy’s fine.”
And then Jason walks out of the bathroom and Roy’s heart just stops. He hears himself gulp when Jason smiles at him.
“Hot enough for you?”
Godyes. Roy nods, eyes big.
Damian Wayne had taken to designing gala outfits for all of his siblings and family. And if he wasn’t the best designer Roy had ever seen… Jason’s draped in red. Red shirt, red pants, red jacket, red shoes, red vest. And not bright red either, deep blood red, like Damian slit somebody’s throat and used their blood for the dye, letting it soak up enough to shroud Jason in danger– beautiful, beautiful, danger. Jason’s not wearing a tie. His collar unbuttoned enough to show skin but not enough for anybody to see the autopsy scar that paints his chest.
“Roy?”
“Beautiful.”
Jason breaks out into a smile and rubs the back of his neck. “Thanks.”
His hair is slicked back now, and Roy can’t help but feel a little bit disappointed about that. He likes Jason’s hair down, floppy, like he wants somebody to run their fingers through it. Roy wants to do that right now. To mess up the careful do and perhaps maybe kiss Jason on the lips and pull off that beautiful suit and throw him on his bed and–
Jason is telling Lizzy where all the guns are hidden in the apartment, and where to find a baseball bat and a hammer and the most effective way to get down the fire escape if there’s an intruder.
“Jason, don't scare the woman.”
Jason looks back at Roy and smiles shyly at the sitter. “Sorry. It’s just… It’s Crime Alley ‘n all.”
“No, no, I totally get it,” Lizzy says, smiling at him. Leaning towards him. Blinking at him.
Roy frowns and grabs the sleeve of Jason’s jacket, pulling his attention back to him. “C’mon Jaybird, we’ve got to go.”
Jason’s eyes flash down Roy, appraising. “Your tie is crooked.” He reaches up, looking at Roy’s neck, and straightens his cream colored tie and the dark red collar of his shirt.
Roy swallows. Jason is so close like this. Roy could stand on his toes and press a kiss to Jason’s lips. He could pull him down and run his lips along his jaw. He could convince him not to go to this silly gala and just spend the night in bed together. But he doesn’t. Because Jason would never go for that. It hurts to be in love with your straight best friend. It really does.
“Do you want a picture together?” Lizzy asks. “Your suits go together stunningly.”
Roy is about to say no when Jason smiles at the girl and passes her his phone. “Yeah sure.”
Jason pulls Roy close to his side, hand gripping his hip tightly. Roy’s face flushes as he steadies himself with a hand on Jason’s chest. His eyes flash up to Jason, who’s smiling big and real for the camera, nothing like the smiles he puts on for the cameras on red carpets and Roy can’t help himself from smiling big too, what can he say? Jason’s face is contagious.
“You are just the cutest couple,” Lizzy says.
“Oh we’re not–” Roy starts.
“Thank you.” Jason’s words throw him off guard. They’re not a couple. They aren’t anything but friends. They…
He shakes it off and turns back to Lian. “Okay kiddo, we’re outta here.”
She rushes forward and gives him a hug. “Have fun at your party, dad, Jayjay.”
“We always have fun,” Jason says lightly.
“Now you be good for Lizzy here,” Roy instructs.
Lian’s eyes roll to the back of her head. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
“Hey don’t give me attitude missy.”
She frowns. “Lick ass.”
He frowns back. “She gets this from you, Jason.”
“No way! You’ve got the foulest mouth on anybody I’ve ever met.”
“Rude,” he says to Jason. Then to Lian, “I love you kiddo.”
“Love you too, and I’ll be good. Don’t worry.”
“I won’t.”
“You remember where the guns are?” Jason adresses Lizzy.
“Yes sir.”
“And the fire escape?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good.” He wraps an arm back around Roy’s waist and they proceed to the door. “We’ll be back at around one, probably. You’re welcome to whatever’s in the fridge. There should be leftover potstickers– homemade– if you want any of those. See you in the mornin’ Lian baby.”
And then they’re out the door and Roy is looking up at Jason, whose arm is still around his waist.
“What was that?” Roy asks.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jason frowns, his arm slipping from Roy’s waist. “Sorry, I just thought it’d be easier to pretend we’re like… a real couple rather than, you know, what we are. Takes less explaining.”
“Right,” Roy says, mourning the loss of Jason’s arm around him. “Well we better hurry up and catch a cab, your brother’ll kill us if we’re not to the red carpet on time.”
They’re not late to the gala. They pull up in their cab about the same time that Bruce, Selina, Cass, Steph, and Damian pull up in their limo, Tim and (is that Kon?) pull up on foot, looking rather windswept, laughing and fixing each other's hair, and Dick and Barbra get out of their own taxi, Dick quickly setting up her wheelchair before helping her out. It seems everybody is paired up through Damian’s designs. Bruce and Selina are in gorgeous sparkling black outfits that look like the night sky somewhere you can see stars, Tim and Kon wear a brighter shade of red than Jason and Roy’s, their suits complimenting each other perfectly. Dick and Babs are in a grass green with emerald blue accessories, kind of like the Oracle head. Steph is in a short sparkly purple dress and Cass is in a purple suit that matches. All of these couples… They match like he and Jason are matching tonight.
Roy sighs and listens to Damian’s instructions to walk close enough with the rest of the family, but to also not separate from your date for the entire red carpet– or else (Roy wanted to laugh like it was a joke but nobody else did, so he kept it to himself).
They walk onto the red carpet in pairs of two and Roy watches with some fascination as Jason’s face changes from his Jaybird to Jason Wayne, dark smiles and chin held high. Roy wants to wrap his arms around Jason and hug him until he’s back to normal, rub his arms and whisper only nice things into his ear, but he doesn’t. Because that’s not really what Jason wants him for. No. Today he’s here to smile and look pretty. And shit, in Damian’s designs, they look pretty as fuck.
They finally smile and wave enough that Damian approves their entrance to the building. He raises his chin once they’re all stopped in the doorway though and says quickly, “thank you.” And then all they see is his back as the young teen disappears into the fray.
Roy and Jason manage to escape the family fairly quickly.
“Ya know,” Jason says, smiling his real smile, “I think Damian was quite pleased with us.”
“Well he’s a brilliant designer.” Roy’s eyes search the room for the youngest Wayne but cannot seem to find him. What he does see though, is Tim, pressed into one of the tall tables on the wall by Kon. Kon’s face is buried in Tim’s neck, and the younger boy is smiling and laughing and has his arm wrapped around Kon’s back. “Is this a new thing?”
Jason follows his gaze. “Tim and Kon?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I don’t know. They’ve always been together in a way…” Jason reaches to run a hand through his neatly done hair, then thinks better of it and rubs the back of his neck. “But the kissing and touching and whatever they’re doin’ over there… yeah that’s new.”
Roy glances down at his feet. “Do you ever think you’d want something like that?” He looks at Jason who’s very cute when he blushes.
“I mean. Yeah.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, but Tim and Kon were… really close before they became whatever it is they are to each other now. And I don’t know, I don’t really uh, have a lot of people I’m that close with,” It’s Jason’s turn to glance at Roy, “save for you… and you know, some of the other outlaws.”
A thousand butterflies burst from their cocoons in Roy’s stomach. He doesn’t know what to say to that. Would Jason consider him? Would he let Roy push him up against this wall and bury his face into his neck and kiss him until he’s silly? Would he let Roy do that in front of all these people and then stand up like Tim just did and take Roy’s hand and kiss it lightly and hold it close as they walk to the snack table? Would he let Roy whisper little things in his ears as they talk to the fancy people here that would make Jason suggest they go home early? Would he then…
Roy says, “I’m gonna go get us drinks.”
He feels Jason frown at him from behind, but he doesn’t move to follow him. So Roy walks across the room alone. Awkward. The cream suit feels too extra on him, without Jason there to bring the ensemble together.
He finds Dick and Babs at the drink table.
“If it isn’t my fourth favorite redhead!” Dick says when Roy joins them.
“Hey– what?”
“Be nice, Dick.”
“It’s true!”
“Can’t you see he’s having a moment?”
Roy frowns. “I’m not having a moment.”
Babs gives him a look. He’s not even that close with her– Honestly they should be really awkward together on account of he used to make out with her boyfriend but…
“I’m just… having some uh… personal troubles.”
“Personal troubles?” Dick asks. “Is Jade back in town?”
Roy shakes his head vehemently. “No, no, nothing like that.” Then he rubs the back of his neck, then stops, feeling like Jason. “I mean maybe something like that?”
Babs nods, prompting.
“There’s this uh… there’s this guy I like,” Roy starts.
“Is it my brother?”
“I- what?”
“I mean… you live together, and he’s your date tonight, but as far as I’m aware, you’re not dating, he’s like a second father to your child, and shit, whatever conversation you just had over there seems to have fucked you up in a major way, so… am I getting anywhere?”
“Raised by the world’s greatest detective, everybody,” Babs jokes.
Roy purses his lips. Dick isn’t wrong. In fact, he’s just right.
“So… what’s your problem with him?” Dick asks.
“I think I’m in love with him.”
Dick’s eyebrows raise in an almost cartoon expression. “Now you see I should have seen that coming.” Now Dick is rubbing his neck. What did Roy say about Jason being contagious?
“And why is this a problem?” Babs asks.
Roy says, “He’s straight,” at the same time as Dick says “He’s getting felt up by a socialite.”
Roy turns around faster than he’s ever turned around in his life. And yep. Dick was right. A thin ginger woman is leaning very close to him at the tall table he’s at, a hand pressed into his chest, rubbing up and down. And… Jason is smiling. One of his real smiles, not that stupid fake one he uses. This… this isn’t good. This isn’t okay. This isn’t right.
Dick elbows him. “You okay there, buddy?”
He has to do something. The woman lightly pushes a hand up into Jason’s hair and he laughs about something she says. Roy is going to throw up.
“Roy?”
He breaks his gaze off of Jason and back to Dick. To the drink he’s holding in his hand. Roy remembers, “I’m here to get drinks.” So he does. He grabs two flutes of champagne from the table in front of him even though he’s sober, and then excusing himself, he crosses the room back to Jason.
The woman stops her petting when Jason notices Roy. She turns around to face him too and… well she is very pretty… but that does nothing to quell the sick feeling bubbling in Roy’s stomach, if anything, it makes it far worse.
Before he can stop himself, Roy saddles up behind Jason, arms wrapping around Jason’s waist and chin resting on his shoulder.
“I got us champagne, baby,” he says, voice low in Jason’s ear.
Jason is quiet for a moment, shocked maybe as he takes one of the flutes from Roy’s hand and watches the woman take a step back. Roy’s now empty hand reaches fully around Jason’s waist, gripping tightly at his hip.
“Hi Roy.” Jason’s voice sounds weird. “How are you?”
“I’m good, baby. I’m really good.” The rise and fall of Jason’s chest is like an ocean under him. Jason’s so big and warm and he feels so right inside of Roy’s arms.
“Who is this?” The woman asks.
Jason hesitates for a moment. “Uh this is Roy.”
“I’m his partner.”
Jason doesn’t clarify anything but rather nods, and leans back into Roy. That's cool. Roy’s hand rises from where it grips Jason’s hip to up under Jason’s vest, feeling the hard muscles ripple under the soft fabric of his shirt, reacting to Roy’s touch.
The redhead woman nods. Eyes wide. She laughs a bit. “Sorry,” she smiles. “I didn’t know you were that way… or uh… taken.”
Then she leaves and Roy relaxes further into Jason, leaning into his sturdy form. His hand continues to rub over Jason’s abs, and for some reason, Jason doesn’t seem to mind.
“Your shirt is really soft,” Roy says into Jason’s ear.
Jason takes a sip of champagne and says, “Damian likes me.”
“Everyone does, apparently.” Roy’s hand grips Jason’s shirt as they watch the woman walk away. “Who was she?”
Jason looks down at his feet. “I don’t know,” he says. “I fear I’ve inherited my brother’s proclivity for redheads.”
Roy feels himself smile. “Is that so?”
“It’s a problem.” Jason nods, solemnly.
Roy makes an agreeable noise before burying his face in his friend’s shoulder, amazed that he’s let Roy hold him for so long, he might as well take advantage of it. Then a thought crosses his mind and he asks, voice muffled, “Did you like her?”
He feels Jason look down at him. “No, not really.”
Roy nods into his shoulder and then looks up at Jason who’s– wow, closer than he thought. And god he’s so cute. Roy wants to lift his face just a bit to connect their lips, to kiss each and every one of Jason’s freckles, to run his hand through the perfect hair that the woman had messed up. And… why not? For that last one at least? If anything Damian would be pissed if Roy let Jason walk around in his beautiful suit with silly looking hair.
So Roy loosens his grip around Jason’s waist and turns him around to face him directly. He lifts the hand that’s not resting at the small of Jason’s back– the one that’s not holding the flute either– to his hair, and slowly, very slowly, pushes it back into place. He smiles lightly at Jason’s slightly flushed face and then, because he hates himself and doesn’t think he deserves nice things or some other ridiculous reason, he takes a big step back and laughs like he’s 16 again, trying to impress some guy at one of Ollie’s parties and says “Don’t go hittin’ on chicks without me next time, bro…!” Then he slaps Jason on the shoulder and mutters, “Let’s go find Dick. I can’t actually drink this shit.”