Chapter Text
Bart had blown Jaime off before, but never quite like this.
It started when Bart showed up to morning training looking… off.
His usually messy auburn hair was now a duller brown, cut shorter at the sides. But Bart laughed it off with some excuse about wanting to “blend in better for missions,” then ran laps like everything was normal.
Except it wasn’t.
He moved a little too precisely. Talked a little too carefully. And every time someone joked with him, Bart paused just long enough to make them wonder if he was searching for the correct reaction.
Jaime noticed instantly.
But he assumed, hoped it was stress, or fatigue, or one of the million chaotic things that could set Bart off on a weird tangent.
Still, when Bart approached him after training, shifting his weight like he was uncomfortable in his own skin, Jaime found himself blinking in surprise.
“You wanna come over?”
Bart asked. No flirting, no teasing, no leaning into Jaime’s space like he usually did. Just a question. Flat. Stilted.
Jaime raised an eyebrow.
“Uh… yeah? Sure. Everything okay, hermano?”
Bart smiled. It was wrong. Tight. Forced.
“I'm fine. Let’s… do homework or whatever.”
Homework? Bart hated homework. Hated even saying the word homework.
But Jaime brushed it off. Maybe Bart was trying to be responsible. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he-
Khaji Da hummed with mild concern in the back of Jaime’s mind, but said nothing.
So Jaime followed Bart back to his room.
And that’s when things got strange.
Bart sat rigidly in the desk chair, glancing at the door every few seconds like he expected someone to burst in. He tapped a pencil with uniform precision tick, tick, tick.
Nothing like Bart’s usual erratic, chaotic bursts of sound.
Jaime watched him for a long moment.
“You're really quiet today,”
Jaime said simply.
Bart shrugged.
“Just thinking.”
“You never just think.”
Jaime tried to keep it light.
“You usually just talk. A lot.”
A twitch. Barely visible.
“Maybe I’m trying something new.”
Jaime drifted closer, leaning casually against the desk.
“You sure you’re okay?”
Bart nodded quickly. Too quickly if that was possible for him.
Jaime reached out on instinct, cupping his cheek gently. Normally Bart would have leaned in immediately, bright grin flashing, fingers already sneaking to Jaime’s waist.
This time he froze like he’d never been touched before.
And Jaime, confused, worried, wanting to reassure him, did the most natural thing in the world.
He leaned in and kissed him.
Nothing new for the couple.
The reaction was instantaneous.
Bart went stiff. Eyes wide. Breath stuttering like he’d forgotten how human lungs worked.
Jaime pulled back, frowning.
“Hey what’s wrong? Did I-?”
“No,”
Bart blurted.
“No, that was… I just uh…wasn’t expecting it.”
“You weren’t expecting me to kiss my own boyfriend?”
Jaime gave him a soft smile.
“You’re acting weird, amor.”
For a moment, Bart looked like the floor had dropped out beneath him. His throat bobbed.
“I need to go.”
“What? Bart-”
“Later!”
he snapped, voice cracking, before vanishing in a whipped gust of wind.
Jaime stared at the empty room.
“…What the hell?”
He didn’t stop running until the Tower was just a distant speck on the horizon.
His heart hammered, not from exertion, but from the electric, disorienting jolt still tingling at the corners of his mouth.
Jaime had kissed him.
He slammed into the entrance of the abandoned facility he’d been using as a hideout, pacing tight circles, raking his fingers through the brown hair.
“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid-”
The words scraped out of him in a hiss. His breath came fast, shallow, like the air refused to settle inside him. His skin buzzed. His thoughts sparked violently, bouncing, ricocheting, spiraling.
What was he doing?
He was supposed to be in control. He had planned everything, scripted every move down to the second. He had studied the mannerisms, copied the laugh, mimicked the speech patterns until even the Titans hadn’t noticed the difference.
He’d told himself this would be simple.
But then Jaime-
Jaime had touched him like he actually cared.
Jaime had kissed him like he’d been waiting for it.
His face burned. His pulse spiked. A strange pressure built in his chest, tight and unfamiliar.
“No. No, no, no, this wasn’t part of it,”
he snarled under his breath, pacing faster, movements jerky now. “I’m not…this is stupid. He’s stupid. I don’t-”
He cut himself off, slamming both palms onto a dusty metal table hard enough to send rust flakes drifting to the floor.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
For one horrifying second, he felt… lightheaded. Warm. Like the echo of that kiss was still pressed against him.
Like a part of him wanted to go back.
“No,”
he whispered, voice fraying at the edges.
“You’re losing it. Focus.”
He dragged in a breath. Then another. They didn’t help.
Jaime’s confused face burned behind his eyelids anyway.
He turned sharply and stalked down the dim hallway, boots kicking up old dirt. His jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached. The facility hummed quietly, faint electricity running through derelict wiring, flickering lights barely clinging to life.
He walked faster.
He needed to reassert control. He needed to remind himself why he was here. Why he’d started this.
Why none of this, especially that kiss, was supposed to matter.
At the very end of the corridor, he approached the heavy reinforced wall. A panel beside it flickered weakly as he pressed his palm to it. Mechanisms churned behind the concrete.
A seam glowed.
Then, with a hydraulic hiss, the “wall” split down the center and folded open, revealing the hidden room bathed in harsh white light.
The brightness flooded over him, bleaching the edges of his vision.
Inside, metallic cuffs were bolted directly into the far wall. They glinted coldly under the overhead lamps, each one clamped tight around a limb, ankles, wrists, a collar cinched just enough to restrict movement without cutting breath.
Slumped against the restraints was a figure with a tired, annoyed expression despite the situation.
A shock of messy auburn hair pushed stubbornly into his eyes. Freckles. A scuffed suit. A faint spark of impatience even in exhaustion.
He glared up the moment he stepped inside.
He exhaled slowly, something dark and twisted and weary in the sound.
“Bartholomew.”
Bart smirked, the expression sharp and triumphant.
“Thaddeus.”