Chapter Text
Jason Todd was lying on his back in an alleyway. That was all he was sure of - at the moment, anyway.
Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, the cold night air piercing his lungs as he took a deep breath. Jason’s whole body ached, a raw, deep ache he felt in his gut, numb and sore from the relentless cold.
With his head pounding, memories flooded back to him as he regained his senses. He'd been trailing a couple of crooks exploiting kids for the past few days - and had finally made the decision to confront them, which had consequently resulted in several heavy blows to his head with a pipe, lots of lead in lots of bad guys, and his current position on the floor of a dimly lit alley.
Jason's vision was blurry, as he blinked several times to focus on the floating things in the air. He glared up at the narrow gap between the two buildings, at the white snowflakes trailing down towards him. Jason extended out a gloved hand to catch one on his finger, before he realised what the fuck he was doing - which was lying in the snow surrounded by several dead men. His arm promptly fell down to his side.
“Oh, thank god,” a relieved voice breathed, punctually after his movement. “I thought you were dead .” A black hand lined with blue stripes appeared in front of him - extremely close - expectantly hovering in the air.
“Wouldn't be the first time.” Jason muttered, swatting Dick’s hand away. There was no reply - and Jason wasn't sure whether Dick heard his comment, or whether he decided to ignore it. He heaved himself up, his shoulder shooting strikes of pain across his chest in protest.
Half of his view was pixelated, and he could feel a liquid trickling down his forehead, causing him to come to the conclusion that his helmet was cracked. Shit , he thought. Not another one.
Once Jason straightened to his full height, Dick grinned.
“Having fun making snow angels, were you?”
“No, I was doing my job, actually.” Jason repositioned his jacket, brushing snow from the leather as he spun and began trudging through the snow. Dick fell into step with him. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
Dick pointed to a security camera towards the end of the alley, which presumably belonged to the Chinese takeaway they were beside. “Oracle saw you get knocked out. I came to see if you were alright.”
“Well, I’m alright.” Jason informed him dryly. He pursed his lips as they reached the street lamp, washed in the pool of orange glow the light casted on them. Admittedly, Jason was glad Dick was the one who was alerted of his unconsciousness, and not another black-clad figure belonging to the streets of Gotham.
“How's your head?” Dick asked, pointing to the long crack in Jason's helmet.
Jason reached his hand up and traced the jagged edge with his finger. He hid the fact that it came away with blood. “I’m fine .” He repeated with finality. Jason sighed. “Oracle didn't happen to see where the guy who knocked me out went, did she?”
“No,” Dick answered. He hooked a thumb behind him, adding: “Must’ve gone that way: out of the camera’s vision.”
“Great.” Jason remarked. “Well, tell her I said thanks.” He glanced up at the streetlight, then back to Dick. Snowflakes rested upon his hair. It was longer than Dick usually kept it, Jason noted. He repositioned his helmet on his head. “See you on the streets.” Dick gave a curt nod.
Jason made his way across the street, his hands tucked deep into his pockets. His teeth were chattering together, but he clenched them shut.
Gotham was coated in a thick sheet of snow. It had snowed for the past few days, and now a thick blanket enveloped the buildings and streets of the city. It was probably the best and worst winter Jason had experienced in Gotham.
Then, a foreign, light object shattered against Jason back, as a flurry of white showered Jason’s vision. He flew around.
“You're a dick.” Jason immediately declared, grinning behind his mask. He was met with another snowball to his chest. He cursed, running to cover behind a parked car. “This isn't fair! I'm concussed.”
He could hear Dick’s laughter filling the night air, drowning out the distant sirens. “Yeah, that's why you didn't get a snowball to the head.”
Jason chuckled lightly, a breezy, content noise he hadn’t made in a while. He shovelled balls of snow onto a large pile, and began blindly pelting them over the parked car.
Snow flew over Jason’s head, hitting into the wall behind him and the car in front. The remains of the snowballs were scattered over Jason’s shoulders and upon his helmet. Jason leapt up to his feet, snowballs in hand, and aimed them, one after the other, at an unsuspecting Nightwing attempting to forge several humongous snowballs.
He shouldn't be doing this, Jason knew. The Red Hood didn't have snowball fights with people. Jason didn't have snowball fights with people, and certainly not with his brother he'd been avoiding since the beginning of December. Jason sucked in a sharp breath, then looked down at his gloved hands covered in snow. Fuck it , he thought. Let loose.
Snow flew over Jason's head. Only several snowballs actually made contact with any parts of his body, as neither of the two were using rather intelligent tactics. Despite this, Jason concluded that shouting “Your aim is shit!” might deter Dick a bit. Still, the sound of their laughter mingled together amongst the sirens and traffic of Gotham City was… comforting, really.
He wondered how this would look to any witnesses - The Red Hood and Nightwing battling it out in the form of a snowball fight. And they seemed to be enjoying it.
Jason's previous wounds were now a mere spec in his mind, the dull ache in his cranium simply an afterthought as he continued trying to curve snowballs at Dick.
Jason lifted his head above the car, about to make a direct hit on Dick - just as a snowball came flying through the air and contacted with the side of his head. Dick gave a hoot of joy from across the street, his arms in the air with triumph.
“Oh, you're goin’ down, you fuck,” Jason promised under his breath, one side of his lip twitching upwards in a smirk.
Jason peered around the edge of the car, firmly grasping a snowball in his hand, as he spotted Dick advancing towards his cover with an armful of snow. A lot of snow.
He gathered his snowballs and rolled backwards, around the car. Jason could hear the light footsteps of an approaching Nightwing. Stealthy, my ass, Jason thought, as he rounded the vehicle.
Jason saw Dick in the same position as his, arms spread wide to carry the most snow as possible and crouched down as to not alert the other. They must've looked quite the sight - both men heaving huge piles of snow, in an attempt to dump them on the other. Jason held back a laugh, slowly moving towards him. Luckily, the quiet crunch of snow beneath his feet did not catch Dick’s attention.
Seeing his chance, Jason lunged forward.
“God damnit!” Dick grunted, his arms extended at his sides as he peered down at his chest, now covered in the snow Jason had dumped. He began shaking his head, much like a dog - to Jason's amusement, as large chunks of snow flew to the ground. He turned around.
“That's what you get for challenging a master of the snowball arts.” Jason said, even if he could count the amount of snowball fights he'd had on one hand.
Snow stop rested upon Dicks shoulders, so Jason, reluctantly, brushed some off with the tips of his fingers.
“Thanks,” Dick said, a light grin on his lips. “You put up a good fight.”
Jason barked out a laugh. “I think I was the only one putting any fight in at all.”
Dick scoffed, bracing his hands in the bonnet of the car to lift himself up. “This was fun, little wing.”
Jason had expected that nickname coming tonight. In fact, he'd be surprised if Dick didn't refer to Jason as it at least once amongst the whole snowball ordeal. Still, it caught him off guard. Still, he found his words getting caught in his throat, and his chest seemingly feeling tighter.
“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “It was.”
Jason looked around, at the foot prints they'd created in the snow, and the light fall of snowflakes drifting to the floor. It was true - this was the most fun Jason had had in awhile.
“Y’know,” Dick began, shifting his weight, “B wanted to know if you'd want to come over sometime. For Christmas.”
Jason exhaled deeply, as he pursed his lips. He looked up at the night sky, despite his pixelated view in one eye. “So that's why this happened.” He said, gesturing with one finger between the both of them. “We have a little fun - like the good ol’ days - and then maybe I'd want to play happy families again.”
A small part of Jason wished it was that easy.
Dick shook his head. “No - that's not true at all. You know that. I just thought -”
“You thought wrong,” Jason interrupted, his head shaking slightly. Something struck in his chest with every word. He could suddenly feel the cold air from his fingertips to his toes. He felt numb .
“Goodnight, Dick.” Jason said coldly. He turned and walked away.