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Jason is not exactly a big fan of social media. Although he sorta understands why youngsters these days are so dependent on them, the idea in general never really appeals to him. He rather sticks to good ol’ phone calls and texts.
After an ongoing insistence from Roy and Kori – those two could be quite a force of nature when paired up! – he caved in and decided to get himself a Twitter account. “Just Twitter!” he had said. That’s because he thought it’s the least obnoxious social media platform compared to the rest.
Roy had pitched that Twitter is a convenient platform to communicate and Kori had chipped in saying that it’s faster to get updates on things there. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t just text him but okay, sure, he should try to please the two people he genuinely wouldn’t mind labelling as ‘friends’ once in a while.
That was how he ends up lounging on the threadbare sofa in his living room, laptop on his lap, trying to register for a Twitter account.
@UnderTheHood - username unavailable
“What the hell? Seriously?” Jason grumbles to himself. He is on his fifth try and frankly, he’s on the verge of giving up. Who knew picking a username would be this hard?
@Redxxxx – username available
“Fucking finally!” he tosses his hands up in the air; half victorious, half frustration. He doesn’t care that his username sounds vaguely like a porn site. He proceeds to complete the registration process.
And for good measures, he decides to lock his account. Better safe than sorry. Wouldn’t want random people snooping around. Especially the Bat brats.
+++++
Jason didn’t exactly use Twitter after the whole registering and picking usernames debacle. He had the app installed on his phone, added Roy and Kori and that’s about it. It wasn’t until his phone buzzed one morning, informing him that Roy had tweeted him to ask him out for brunch that he remembered he had the app.
He got used to it since then (of course, upon further insistence from Roy and Kori for him to be more active). In fact, he even make it a point to keep up with his timeline whenever he’s free. He’s following more accounts now – they’re mostly news site but there are several authors and lifestyle gurus in his Following list too.
Also, he loves the tweets from @RateYourDoggies and @EmergencyKitties. They never fail to improve his mood tremendously; even after a botched operation. So there was that.
+++++
Dick Grayson (@ItsDickGrayson) has a steady 48k followers. His popularity is partly due to his status as one of Gotham’s Most Eligible Bachelors. But it isn’t just that; his tweets are also genuinely funny and witty. People like him for his humbleness.
His popularity, however, requires Dick to be extra careful in making sure that he doesn’t accidentally expose his nighttime activities (i.e. vigilantism). Although if one is smart enough, it is not hard to deduce his identity considering that the majority of the people he follows are those from the superhero community.
He had considered getting a separate account for his personal friends earlier but between his vigilantism activities at night and his humanitarian work during the day, he finds having a second twitter account poses to be too troublesome.
Also, if he’s being quite honest with himself, he rather enjoys it when his tweets go viral. So there was that.
+++++
Dick and Roy are mutuals. Aside from the occasional liking and/or retweeting each other’s tweets, they don’t actually talk. Although they have put whatever that drove their friendship apart behind, the rift is still there for them to be talking to each other casually.
How they ended up becoming mutuals was no thanks to one Wally West. Okay, it was not exactly his fault but Roy likes to blame him anyway. It was during those time when twitter had that pesky follow button underneath each tweet and Roy was scrolling through his timeline when he saw Wally retweeting some of Dick’s tweets. It was one of his love-yourself motivational crap and it made Roy balked a little when he accidentally thumbed the follow button underneath one of Dick’s tweet.
Crap.
On Dick’s end, well, it’s only polite that he returned the favour by following him back.
It’s cool. They’re cool.
+++++
It all started when Roy tweeted a link to his tweetails result. Dick scrolled through, a small smile bloomed on his face when the report mentioned that fck and damnit were the most used words by Roy. He discovered that Roy mostly tweet on weekdays, between 4pm to 2am. It wasn’t until he reached the part where the report listed the most mentioned users by Roy (@LoadedArsenal) that he noticed something.
1. @Redxxxx – 48 mentions
2. @LadyCoriander – 35 mentions
3. @Aquadude – 20 mentions
4. @wwwwallywest – 7 mentions
Huh, Dick thought. Who’s this @Redxxxx? Is Roy seeing someone new? Not that he knew, he had lost the privileges to ask Roy on the details of his private life. His curiosity got the best of him and he searched for the username in twitter.
Jaywalker
@Redxxxx
There was a man in the user picture and it had been artistically cropped. He recognized the leather jacket and also that chiseled jaw anywhere. As if the name was not a big giveaway.
Holy shit.
+++++
It has become a habit. Dick has been checking Roy’s profile page religiously to see if he has been tweeting Jason. Initially, he didn’t know why he was doing it but later on, he had justified that this sudden fixation was due to his inexplicable aspiration to get to know Jason better.
Roy tweets to Jason varies from random reminders or messages, to him mother-henning the former Robin and him being mother-henned in return (judging by the way Roy defensively replies to Jason that he’s good; he’s a grown up, for fuck’s sake etc.). To sum it up, their (Roy’s) tweets are a testament to how strong the camaraderie is between the two men.
Sometimes the tweets are also flirtatious in nature and whenever he sees those, something inside Dick aches a little and he has to remind himself that that’s just Roy being Roy; he tends to be flirtatious to those who he’s comfortable with. Dick chants it in his head like a mantra and it works most of the time; until the curious side of him betrays him, that is, and he starts to wonder how does Jason respond to those tweets?
Seriously, one of these days his curiosity will definitely kill him.
And that day is today.
Dick had just finished his morning workouts and he’s lying down on the sofa in his living room; catching up with his timeline. He immediately sits up straight when something catches his eyes.
In reply to Kori
R Harper (@LoadedArsenal) . 2m
@LadyCoriander @Redxxxx don’t be jealous ;o
In reply to R Harper
Kori (@LadyCoriander) . 3m
@LoadedArsenal @Redxxxx you guys are so cute :*
Dick can feel the growing trepidation in his stomach and he clicks on Roy’s user picture. It leads him to the archer’s profile page. He carefully scrolls down to see what had transpired prior to Kori’s tweet.
In reply to Jaywalker
R Harper (@LoadedArsenal) . 5m
@Redxxxx love you too, babe :*
Dick gulps audibly, steels himself and scrolls down further.
In reply to Jaywalker
R Harper (@LoadedArsenal) . 9m
@Redxxxx love your enthusiasm as always. My place at 8?
In reply to Jaywalker
R Harper (@LoadedArsenal) . 13m
@Redxxxx should be. Sup?
Dick drops his phone and it falls unceremoniously on his lap. It felt like someone had just whipped his right hand. He can feel his breathing growing erratic and his stomach is doing some acrobatic flips. He feels sick.
“Okay, calm down, Richard John Grayson,” he tells himself before taking a deep breath. He holds it in for a few seconds before slowly exhaling. “So what if they’re dating? It’s none of your business.”
They deserve to be happy too, his treacherous brain supplies. They’re good together.
He doesn’t want to analyze this new discovery too much. In fact, he’s going to be real adult about this whole thing. All this stalking Roy and Jason thing? It will stop now.
With a slightly shaking hand, Dick retrieves the phone from his lap. He fumbles a little when he tries to flip the phone around. And then he notices it.
Shit. Shit, shit. Shit . Shit.
His thumb. His stupid fat thumb has accidentally liked one of Roy’s tweet to Jason and now the heart icon underneath it is blazing red; just like the color of the alarm that’s currently blaring in his head.
Dick groans. Any second now and both Roy and Jason will find out that he has been snooping around when they receive the notification and the e-mail.
+++++
Jason’s phone beeps in that staccato tone to indicate him that there’s a new e-mail.
Dick(@ItsDickGrayson) liked a tweet you were mentioned in!
Jason is 100% certain that Roy and Kori are the only two people in this planet that tweet to him. Puzzled, Jason opens the e-mail to see which particular tweet directed at him that Dick had liked.
R Harper (@LoadedArsenal)
@Redxxxx love you too, babe :*
Oh my goodness gracious.
+++++
Dick is perched atop one of the gargoyles adorning the Wayne Tower when he hears a soft thud behind him.
“So,” Jason drawls. “You found my Twitter?”
It’s a rhetorical question and Dick winces;no point hiding it. “Well, sorta?”
“Rather than creeping up on me like that,” Jason starts and there’s a tinge of amusement in his voice. “You could have sent me a follow request, y’know?”
“I was not creeping on you! I was-” he sounds pathetic; he knows. Why is he even trying to come out with excuses to justify himself? Dick turns around to look at Jason and his shoulders slump in defeat.
“I was not creeping on you,” Dick reiterates weakly. God, he can feel his face growing hot.
Jason laughs but he doesn’t call out on Dick’s bluff. He steps forward and mounts the gargoyle next to Dick’s; his leg dangling on each side of the gargoyle’s neck. Apparently he has decided to help Dick to look out for any signs of disturbance in the streets below.
“Happy for you, by the way,” Dick finally says to break the prolonged silence between them. It’s a quiet night anyway and he thinks it’s alright to let himself slack a little while on patrol. He shifts and mimics Jason to sit on his own gargoyle’s neck.
He also feels like he needs to get it out of his chest; both to satisfy his curiosity and also to give Jason his (unwarranted) blessing. Ultimately, if there are two people who deserve all the happiness in the world, they’re Jason and Roy. The two had went through a lot of hardships in their lives and Dick wasn’t there for them when he should have been.
“What?” Jason asks offhandedly and snaps Dick out of his reverie because unlike Dick, he’s actually in full patrol mode.
“You and Roy?”
Jason’s head snaps up at that and he turns to look at Dick for a good thirty seconds. He can’t see Jason’s expression with that stupid helmet on but he can still feel the weight of his gaze on him nonetheless. Dick feels like combusting. After perhaps another thirty seconds, Jason slowly swings his left leg over the gargoyle and he’s now sitting facing Dick. “We’re not dating, Dickie.”
“Oh,” Dick mutters quietly. He deflates; both relieved and ashamed. He didn’t even realize that he was all tensed up.“But you guys were, I mean, I saw Roy- “
“This is what you get for stalking,” Jason snorts and Dick is trying his level best to glare at Jason but he knows with the domino on, it’s not exactly working. Unable to hold back his amusement any longer, Jason bursts into full blown laughter and his entire body is shaking. “Daddy Bats would be very disappointed with your poor detective skills, Goldie.”
It is at this very moment that Dick notices how his hands are itching to take that helmet off Jason; how he’s dying to see that handsome face all lit up with mirth. Right in front of Jason, everything becomes clear and Dick is starting to understand them;the ache he had felt whenever he saw Roy’s flirtatious tweets and why he was feeling sick since he discovered (and assumed) that Roy and Jason are dating.
Jason couldn’t stop laughing and Dick couldn’t stop looking. Of course, acting on his newly discovered feeling is wildly inappropriate. After all, perhaps more time is needed to decipher what exactly this feeling is.
(But Dick knows exactly what it is.)
So he kicks Jason’s ankle instead and sees the younger man uncharacteristically yelps.
+++++
Jaywalker (@Redxxxx) is now following you!
Dick couldn’t quite hide his smile when he taps the Follow button on this Jaywalker person’s profile. He waits for a while before swiping his thumb downwards to refresh the profile page. Once he’s able to see Jason’s tweets, he types away on his phone.
@Redxxxx :D <3
A moment after that:
In reply to Dick
Jaywalker (@Redxxxx) . 15s
@DickGrayson Heya ;)
Their tweets immediately got liked by a couple of their nosy (and knowing) mutual mutuals.
+++++
Epilogue
It’s been 3 months since they became mutuals and 3 weeks since they started, well, sleeping together. They are currently lying in Jason’s bed; limbs all tangled and feeling completely blissed out.
“You know,” Jason says lazily as he nuzzles Dick’s neck from behind. “I think I need to confess to you about something.”
Dick hums; he is already dozing off, “What is it?”
“Back before we started following each other on Twitter? I, uh, I was already stalking your account. Fortunately, mine was locked so you wouldn’t have noticed even if I liked your tweets or something,“ Jason admits in between the light kisses he’s pressing on Dick’s nape. “Remember that time you tweeted about how you had picked the wrong pants and they were too tight to be worn to a kid’s birthday party? I liked that tweet in a heartbeat.”
Dick elbows Jason playfully.