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Gotham was at its most honest in the middle of the night. The daytime’s feeble light through the city’s titular clouds made for a dreary afternoon, but at night Gotham truly became the beast it was famous for. Darkness allowed the street lights and office windows to glow even brighter, hazy golden fingers stretching for blocks at a time. Soaring arches and climbing lines of churches and towers gave movement among the stillness of the city, especially handy for those who flew between rafters and across glittering miles of glass.
The brutality that Gotham housed clashed with how beautiful it could be; its vigilantes knew very well what it was like to love something that would swallow them whole. For Red Robin, it only made him love the city even more.
His home had committed atrocities to everyone who lived in it, especially to the people who Tim loved most. Looking down his perch, it’s easy to see how people instinctively kept their valuables close at hand. Looking up allowed him an unobstructed view of Gotham’s gray horizon, the stars he tries to remember nowhere to be seen. The thought of them just behind the skyline was enough to make him sigh.
Still, it was a gratefully quiet night, though Tim somewhat wished it was busier so he could do something with the buzz of energy right below his skin. Normally he wouldn’t be so hyped up - at this point his caffeine intake was a habit and less an aide - but the following day was important.
“Soooo,” Dick’s voice drawled right in Tim’s ear.
Now if only his annoying siblings weren't scheming assholes.
Tim sighed, a loud gust of air that crinkled over his com. “Nightwing, don’t you have more important things to be doing?”
“Nope!” Tim could almost see Dick’s smug grin. He usually got along with Dick, but sometimes he cartwheeled down Tim’s last nerve.
“Don’t worry, Red Robin, you’re not alone.”
“Oracle, what does that m—?”
A pop of static drowned out Tim’s question, followed by Jason’s rough voice cursing Barbara out. Tim was always happy to hide in the silence of Jason cursing up a storm.
After a few failed attempts of turning his com back off, Jason finally settled on, “God damn it, O, let me escape from this nightmare.”
“No.” In Tim’s professional opinion, Barbara sounded far too happy with herself.
“I swear to—”
“Besides, this can either happen now when we finally have a moment of free time or you can try to put this off while Nightwing gets progressively worse.” Tim hated that she had a point. “Let Mister Drama Queen get this out of his system before he hunts you down to do it in person.”
Dick’s whining was drowned out by Jason’s groan of agony. On his end, Tim eyed the nearby gargoyle, calculating how hard he’d have to hit his head to get out of this conversation. Ultimately, saving himself wasn’t worth the concussion, mandatory bed rest, and patented Alfred Guilt™.
Tim tuned back in just in time for Dick to cry that he only cared about his little brothers, he wanted them to be happy, that seeing Tim away from a computer and Jason away from, well, beating the shit out of people was great! Said brothers’ twin “hey!” went unnoticed.
“C’mon, you two, you both have been so happy and yet we don’t even get to meet the people that captured my baby brothers’ hearts?”
Tim rolled his eyes while Jason scoffed. “The only way I’d be happy right now is not being here, Dickwing. For fuck’s sake, you couldn’t have decided a better time to get all mushy?”
“Oh, come on, you two!” Steph’s cherry voice rang loud and clear. “It’s a totally valid question! When are we going to meet the two baby civilians that stole the Red Wonder Duo from us? It’s unheard of!”
Tim groaned. “Spoiler, Hood and I have dated other people! You are a part of that number!”
“Yeah, but these are civilian-civilians! Regular people with no ties to terrorists or assassins! And they managed to snatch Mr. Murder Solves Everything and you, who would marry coffee if the law allowed it. It’s a Christmas miracle!”
“We celebrate Christmas now?” Jason deadpanned.
Dick’s confused, “But we’re Jewish?” followed quickly behind.
“Not important! What is important is that our socially-stunted boys are in love yet we haven’t even met the miracle workers! How’s that fair?”
Tim knew that, on every level, Steph was only joking. While she did want to meet “the love of his life” (her words, not his, he used “boyfriend” and left it at that), everyone knew to be hands off about it. It took forever for everyone to gain a sense of privacy and a somewhat-healthy respect for boundaries in the family, but Tim knew that if he or Jason said that they weren’t ready to meet the family, everyone at least had the sense to step back for a while.
Lucky for them that Tim’s boyfriend had decided he wanted to visit.
“Danny is actually coming over Saturday.” With that bomb dropped, Tim lowered the volume on his com.
“Oh yeah, Red is coming over Saturday too.”
Tim lowered his volume again.
A beat of silence is all he got before squealing set his ears ringing. Immediately, everyone drowned each other out as Steph and Dick battled for The Loudest Nuisance and Jason barked over them both to try and get them to shut up. To be fair, getting called out for not letting anyone know until now was admittedly more than a bit understandable considering that Saturday was technically later that same day.
Jason’s smirk was audible. “I have no idea what you fucks mean; I told Alfred all about Red visiting.”
Tim cut in before someone else could round on him. “And I told Bruce that Danny wanted to come over. It’s not our fault they didn’t decide to share with you.”
“I can’t believe you have me agreeing with Replacement, this family sucks.”
“And you two are traitors, so we all lose!” Tim could hear Steph take another breath, probably to dig into them for any gleams of information, when Damian finally cut in since the whole circus started.
Tim would never admit it, but he was grateful for the interruption.
“Will all of you cease your inane chattering? This is unseemly behavior of Gotham’s esteemed vigilantes, most notably on a night Batman himself is not present, and it is making it impossible for Oracle to properly do her job. Besides, Red Robin and Red Hood’s paramours are sure to appear within the next 12 to 16 hours—there is no need to make a fool of yourself over nothing.”
The urge to tease Damian never quite went away, but even the older birds couldn’t find an argument against his point. The silence after was a blessing for Tim’s night and, of course, ultimately short lived.
Barbara’s voice rang out strong and clear. “Well, I mean this wouldn’t have happened if they had just told us Danny and Red’s full names.”
“Fuck that!” Jason shot back. “You guys don’t need to know jack about shit.”
The hysterics started up again, Tim grimacing as he shot off from his perch to his last patrol area. As he swung down the street, eyes sharp for any petty crime, he quietly agreed with Jason. It might have been hypocritical of him to judge his family’s insistence on knowing more about who he was dating - he certainly would have hacked someone’s phone by now - but it was Danny. He only wished he gave everyone else a nickname like Jason had with Red instead of Danny’s actual name.
Tim wanted to keep him to himself for just a little while longer.
“God, even Black Bat is a traitor now! She says that sometimes you don’t need to do a thorough background check on random civilians.”
“Do you think we’re children?” Jason grumbled. “I already did a check on Red before we started dating. She’s fine.”
Steph huffed. “And you, RR? When did you check out your beau?”
Tim cleared his throat. He didn’t really have a good answer for that seeing as he didn’t really… do that. Danny had always been an open book, much to Tim’s dismay and wonder. The base information he had gotten from Danny’s school file easily lined up with Danny’s many stories about his hometown. Tim hadn’t felt the need to dig any deeper when any question he had asked, Danny had answered whether it was with a laugh or a grimace.
His ensuing silence was apparently enough of any answer for the rest of the bats to create another unstoppable wave of chaos. However, Tim could make out the outline of the manor’s gates from where he landed in the more wealthy part of Gotham and decided tonight was over. Taking a page from Jason, Tim turned off his com and swiftly made his way back to the cave.
Thankfully, he was the first one in. He switched his com off entirely and went about removing the smaller bits of his gear, his voice-to-text working overtime as he quickly ran through the quiet night. Seeing as how Barbara hadn’t sent him a text about his com turning off, it’s safe to believe that she had already tracked his location back to the manor and he didn’t need to check in personally. He got down to his base suit when the rest of the birds and bats finally started to trickle in for debriefing and reporting.
Steph bounded over to him, grin splitting her face, with Cass following her close behind, her mask already off to show off her small, but equally delighted, smile. Tim could see Dick and Damian follow in behind them before Steph lunged at him.
“Tim, you simp!” Tim dodged her attacks, shrugging off his armor in the process, doing his best to ignore her heckling. “You can't escape me, Mr. Stalker! How dare you look into me, but not your man! This is heterophobia!”
Tim usually had a good tolerance for the nonsense Stephanie said, but calling him heterophobic was just a bit too much. He sidestepped her, a twisted sneer on his face. “One: never say that to me again. Two: You do it, too. And three: I did look into Danny, thank you very much!”
The two squared off from each other, Tim half-dressed and Steph still in her complete Spoiler outfit, while the rest of the bats casually ignored them. Well, Tim amended, Damian was currently violent-pouting at the both of them, but he thought they were both children so whatever.
“Oh? So you didn’t let him slide under the radar just ‘cause he’s cute?” Tim eyed Steph’s razor sharp smile and wondered, for a fleeting second, if she wasn’t more annoyed at them breaking up than he thought.
“Of course I didn’t. Just because I haven’t conducted a full background check yet doesn’t mean I didn’t look at all. His public and semi-private information all correspond with what he’s told me just by me asking, so pardon me if I felt the need for a more thorough look to be not a high priority.”
Damian scoffed behind him. “He might be truthful, but that does not equal to pertinent information, Timothy. It’s almost insulting that Todd is being the cautious one in this situation.”
“Not everyone is out to get us, Damian, whether as a Bat or a Wayne.”
Cass cleared her throat, gently nudging Steph out of the way. “If you have trust in him, then we trust your judgment,” she signed. “We just worry for you.”
Dick popped up with Damian in tow, dressed completely in lounge wear. “Yeah! It’s hard to find a partner that isn’t after the Wayne fortune and somehow even harder to find someone who isn’t evil.” Steph reached over to knock on the nearby wooden table. “You of all people know what it’s like, Timmy.”
Tim sighed, long and deep. “I know, I know. It’s just… I like Danny. I want to trust him and I do trust him, and I hope you’ll trust him, too.”
It filled Tim with affection to watch all of them soften and glance at each other. Even Damian wasn’t immune to the sincerity in the room, huffing to himself but staying quiet anyway. Dick reached over and gently ruffled Tim’s hair, resting his hand at the nape of his neck. Even after all these years, Tim couldn’t help but feel a little small in his hold. A squeeze and then the warmth was gone, everyone breaking apart to tend to their own post-patrol ritual.
Tim unthinkingly went through the motions of rinsing himself off and shucking on whatever night clothes Alfred kept downstairs for him. Since he’d have to be back at the manor in the afternoon anyway, Tim made his way to his room for the night rather than his apartment, intent on sleeping for once.
Of course, when he wanted to sleep, Tim found himself unable to.
Body jittery with his nerves threatening to overtake his chest and short his breathing, Tim could barely stop himself from pacing—actually going to sleep was out of the question. All he could think about was Danny, and not in the usual way Tim liked to think about his boyfriend.
While the thought of Danny’s trustworthiness had obviously crossed his mind before, the addition of the rest of the Bats’ opinions definitely made it feel more real. Danny just soothed something in Tim and he knew it’s just how Danny was - he already checked to make sure he wasn’t a meta and Danny checked out. He was just sweet and kind of awkward and always got it when Tim had to cancel a date; he never felt judged with Danny. His boyfriend’s relationship with Samantha Manson had helped—if Danny could be normal around a millionaire’s daughter, then surely a billionaire’s son was just a step removed from that.
As great as his family was, Tim still sometimes felt like he had to measure up to the people in his life and was always, eventually, found wanting. With Danny, it was the opposite. Tim could let go of all the greatness he was expected to achieve (just because of the people he was around, mind you) and be himself.
(It was always a favorite to remind Danny that, despite his friend Tucker being halfway in love with the Drake-Wayne name, he had had no idea who Tim was the first time they met. Teasing Danny was, apparently, a time-honored tradition according to his friends.)
To think, for even a second, that Danny went through all of that just to get his guard down made Tim feel like he was choking. He felt nauseous at the thought that every single one of Danny’s bright, crooked smiles with that single dimple was just to make him vulnerable.
Tim Drake had very little experience with love, but he knew it would break his heart.
Rolling over, Tim curled into a ball as his thoughts spiraled even further. The usual warmth of his room felt empty and his hands tried to clutch onto a body that wasn’t there.
In the more likely scenario, Danny was as completely fine as Tim had already reassured his family. Yet, just the act of looking felt permanent and serious. A casual friend was fine to not look into as they couldn’t get close enough to do damage, but an intimate partner had far more reach. Digging his fingers into Danny’s life felt like the first step in making sure Tim could spend his life knowing that he was safe—that Tim was safe with Danny’s secrets and Danny was safe with his’.
This idea of safety also toyed with Tim’s (unfortunately timed) budding conscience. For the first time in his life, Tim actually felt somewhat ashamed of looking into someone. It wasn’t something that applied to everyone, Tim knew that much, but Danny had already shared so much with him over the course of their relationship both as a friend and a boyfriend.
Danny had unveiled the good, the shameful, and the frightening to Tim over the course of a year of them knowing each other. His parents, who he loved dearly, but who had an obsession with their work that rivaled Bruce’s. His older sister Jazz, smart as a whip and who Tim can’t wait to meet in person. His friends, of course, who made him feel at home and never the odd man out.
He had shared so much, even his brush with death. Tim can still remember the feel of Danny’s scars under his fingers when he had whispered about his accident into Tim’s hair. Tim was very used to the people he loved dancing with death and it never got easier, but with Danny it felt less scary.
There was just an intimacy in the way Danny had revealed these parts of himself, like he was peeling himself back layer by layer. Normally, Tim wouldn’t care, but this was sunshiney Danny Fenton with pretty blue eyes and freckles like the stars he could gush on about for hours; the same Danny who matched his speed when he talked about engineering and had a soft spot for Gotham’s vigilantes. Danny was kind and dorky and just a little mean and Tim did not want to reach into his past without his permission.
The Danny Tim would eventually scour through was the very same who believed that the dead were always with the living, just out of reach, sometimes so close that they could be heard.
Tim can still recall Danny’s chilled fingers dragging themselves through his hair, whispering in his ear that the dead always wish the living happiness until they meet again. He can still hear how Danny, with warm humor in his voice that sent shivers down Tim’s spine, mumbled that he wished Tim happiness, too.
Finally, twisted beneath warm sheets, Tim’s mind settled. He fell asleep to Danny’s face pressed against his eyelids like kisses, the feeling of knowing Danny loved him (not CEO Drake-Wayne, not Red Robin, just Tim) lulling him to a gentle slumber.
Across the city, in an apartment that creaked and groaned yet remained a steadfast and comforting home, laid Jason Todd. Like his younger brother, Jason was twisted in bed, his thoughts also rotating around a Fenton.
The strongest light in his room blared bright and blazing from his phone, Jazz’s last texts burning themselves into his eyes. Unsurprisingly, his need to be petty and dumb - leading to his phone being stuck on light mode after the comical horror Steph and Duke had shown it - had yet again led to his downfall.
Jazz’s easy-to-read happiness was worth the dry eyes, though.
She sounded happy to finally meet his “big family”, knowing very well how hard it could be to be a part of it again. Jason knew part of Jazz was happy to meet everyone, but that another part would be searching for any reason to calmly and sweetly put someone in their place. Given she was taller than Jason, the fact she could do that physically and metaphorically was just a bonus.
He also knew, because it was in a text he could not stop fucking reading, that she was touched he trusted her with something so close to him.
Jason was giving her a secret, quiet part of what made up Jason Todd, and he hadn’t even realized it until she said it.
The idea of giving himself up to Jazz’s tender mercies was a familiar one. He had first been introduced to one Jasmine Fenton as Red Hood. Jazz had been the newest Arkham psychiatrist with it being her first ever placement (one he later found out she had aggressively applied for). Making sure Arkham was staffed correctly fell more under Bruce’s purview, but the Joker had just been slammed back into the hellhole and Jason more or less staked his claim.
Joker had never done a good thing in his entire life, but he did give him Jazz. Just for that, Jason was willing to only shoot him a couple more times than necessary rather than a good dozen.
Arkham had always been and would always be a cesspit, but Jazz was the best damn thing for it. As Red Hood, he had wanted to see if she was actually as sincere as her CV claimed and if she wouldn’t fold to the first gun shoved in her face. Legally, she was clean with some very interesting gun handling licenses, but getting caught up with someone who could and would kill you was very different from being at a range.
When Red Hood had crashed through her office, coincidentally mid-appointment, he got to see first hand that she knew what she was doing.
Lucky for Jazz, she had a gun in her purse. Lucky for Jason, she could use it.
Jason would die again before he admitted to fucking anyone (except, of course, maybe Jazz herself) that his interest had been piqued the second she had slipped a pistol from her purse to point right between his eyes without even looking. Her cool voice had been calm as she demanded he excuse himself as she was already with a patient, a stark difference to the cutting look she had thrown his way after she was done and threatened to throw him out the window if he dared to interrupt a session ever again—finger still casually resting on the trigger.
It would take a while longer for her to see Red Hood again, but Jason had very quickly become a permanent facet in her life.
Being a quick hand was good, but actually doing her job was something completely different. And, sue him, Jason wanted to keep an eye on the redhead who had promised to defenestrate him right before she verbally attacked him on everything from his inferiority complex to his anger issues. She couldn’t even see his face and yet called him out on shit he hadn’t mentioned to anyone. After that, it was easy to set up an appointment as Jason Todd, son to Brucie Wayne, who had heard about her methods and wanted to see if she could help him.
Jason had never actually gone to a therapist before - why the fuck would he and also who would he even go to - but implying that hadn’t been hard. Yet, even with hours of prep work, it still hadn’t been at all what he was expecting.
Where Red Hood sparked a gleam in her eye and a curling, nasty little grin, Jason Todd had been greeted warmly. Jazz had acted like they already knew each other, cheerful and optimistic to the core, open to talk about anything he wanted without ever prying. It was so different that Jason honestly didn’t know how to go about his mission.
She infuriated him from the very beginning. He was already a little bit in love.
It took a while for him to notice his feelings and even longer to get Jazz to agree to a date (though her refusal to even see Jason outside of sessions just bolstered his confidence that she was a good doctor). Jason had to go through the motions of getting a new therapist before Jazz had even looked at him with anything other than strict professional care. She wanted him to get better, whether it was with her or not; Jason was in good hands with Jazz in every interaction they had had together.
Jazz made him centered for the first time in a long time.
Jason’s phone, long since dark from inaction, blared to life once more. A single text wishing Jason a good night scrolled across his notification bar. Jason swiped it away and threw his phone down, turning over to face the wall.
Jazz was a light when Jason hadn’t even recognized he was in the dark, no matter how cheesy that sounded. He was intimately aware that Jazz could easily take care of herself and would point blank refuse his help if it stepped over her boundaries, but Jason couldn’t help the gnawing feeling in his gut to keep her away from his family’s grubby hands.
He wanted to keep her for himself, to have just one thing his family couldn’t scare away. He wanted to meet her crazy ass parents, the little brother she adored, the young cousin that always brought back amazing little things from her travels. Jason wanted to see the friends she had when she was young and the ones she met at Gotham U—anything about her was something he wanted to steal just for himself.
He wanted to love someone as Jason Todd.
He wanted her to love him back.
Jason gazed at his dingy wall, sleep creeping along the edges of his mind. He just wanted to have everything of Jazz that he could before she left, just like everything else he had ever loved.
In what could have been an entirely different universe, Danny and Jazz were on the phone together. Jazz knew it was late and that she, if not Danny too, should have gone to bed hours ago, but the both of them fed off each other’s adrenaline until she was texting her boyfriend to have a good night at 2:30 in the morning.
Danny made her feral, she could feel it in her bones.
The both of them had been preparing their very best to go to the Wayne’s for over two weeks. Jazz thought it was sweet that both Tim and Jason wanted them to come at the same time while Danny was just grateful he could share the spotlight that was the entire Wayne family’s collective attention.
(Not once did either of them consider that the family didn’t know they were family. They were siblings dating siblings, high profile ones at that, who had been invited to finally meet everyone on the same day. Why wouldn’t the Waynes know they were related?
The second Danny got a first date with Tim, he texted Tucker just to rub it in his face. Jazz couldn’t miss Tucker’s wailing for weeks. For Danny, Jazz had gone on a three hour rant about how her first non-Asylum patient - “Jason Todd, Danny, the previously dead one? Danny, why can’t I date a living guy just one time!” - dropped her as a therapist just for a chance to date her.
Of course the both of them knew each other’s boyfriend, they’d have to be deaf not to.)
When Danny had rushed home to video call Jazz about his date with the family, just a week and a half beforehand, Jazz had immediately set up a daily call to scrounge together a plan. Obviously Bruce Wayne had already conducted at least a decent background check on the both of them to make sure they weren’t soul sucking, money-hungry bastards, so that just left introductions and shovel talks.
Mainly, it was Danny waving his hands around, trying to convince his sister that the oldest Wayne was going to be the scariest.
Jazz smiled, nodding every so often as Danny’s predictions got increasingly more insane, taking the opportunity to just bask in the presence of her little brother. For once, she was mostly worry-free.
While the Waynes were probably just fine with vigilantes and heroes of all stripes—they kind of had to be at the rate they’ve all been kidnapped, Jazz wouldn’t be surprised if Batman just lived in their house at this point—Phantom was still something of a sore spot. While their parents had nearly twisted themselves backwards to reevaluate all of their data the second Danny came forward as a halfa, that didn’t suddenly make it safe for him.
Jazz loved Jason, but she’d sooner stab the man than let anyone hurt her baby brother.
She was grateful that the Bats were looking after the Waynes and would always have a soft spot for the vigilantes, but she'd punt Superman into the sun for Danny, let alone one of the Bats. She watched him, eyes heavy with affection and sleep, as Danny continued on, oblivious to her more aggressive thoughts.
Watching Danny grow up as a hero, she had empathy for Gotham’s vigilante protectors, but Batman himself wouldn’t stop her from swinging on him with the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick if he got all huffy with Danny living in Gotham. Phantom’s discovery as a retired hero would suck, but being friendly with Pandora was ultimately a straight ticket to Wonder Woman and her Lasso of Truth—a quick, binding promise with some Styx Waters tested by the lasso and they would be home free.
If they weren’t, well.
“Jazz? Jazzy? Hello, Earth to Commander Jazz!”
Jazz snapped back into focus, the bright green of the Realms draining from her memory until all that was left was Danny’s bright blue eyes staring at her imploringly from her screen. She breathed out a small laugh and Danny’s eyes crinkled as his grin popped back onto his face.
“C’mon, Jazz, get with it!” He tried to scold her, but Jazz only found comfort in it. “It’s your turn to pick! Which Wayne do you think will be the first to get a shovel for us?”
She hummed. “Well, I’ve always wanted to try a mud bath so maybe a dirt nap wouldn’t be so bad.” Danny giggled and her smile widened just a touch at the sound. “But I’d have to go with Cassandra Wayne.”
“What?! No way!” Danny pointed at her, wiggling his finger back and forth. “I’m telling you, Dick is hiding something behind that bright bleh of his.”
“His what?”
“His bleh!”
Jazz laughed, covering her mouth as snorts threatened to escape. Danny, likewise, had driven himself to hiccuping laughter.
If the Justice League still had a problem with her baby brother of all people then, just in case of course, she was willing to throw down. It probably went against some ethics as a doctor, but, well, she’d done much worse for much less. Until then, they had a family to meet, and a couple of boyfriends to embarrass.
The two Fentons held on for a few more minutes before Jazz wrangled Danny offline and into bed before doing the same herself.
Saturday morning quickly bled into Saturday afternoon. Both Wayne boys had been hit with nerves tenfold and had graduated from “kind of funny” to “sort of concerning”. Jason had broken down and called Kor’i and Roy, who were taking turns ribbing him and giving him a pep talk, and Damian had already threatened Tim three times within as many hours for running around like an idiot. The Fentons were equally nervous, but tempered themselves with the knowledge that their sibling would be right there with them.
By the time the clock hit 2:00, no one was more relieved to see Jason and Tim go than their friends and family.
Jason made quick use of his motorcycle, throwing an extra helmet on for Jazz before taking off. His broad shoulders and Jazz’s long legs would make it a tight fit, but having his girlfriend pressed against his back was certainly not something to complain about. The thought was enough to keep his mind clear.
In what felt like no time at all, he slowed to a stop outside Jazz’s flat, his bike settling down to a purr as he waited. Like usual, his girlfriend was as punctual as ever. She was a vision in a navy pantsuit and he spied heels as she walked down the steps to the road. She glanced down at him, as dressed up as someone could be in a leather jacket, and she started to smile before her face twisted in a way Jason wasn’t sure he could read.
Jazz’s eyebrows were furrowed as she pursed her lips and took him all in. Her eyes, intense and focused all on him, normally had a rush of warmth slither through him, but the mirth in them calmed him back down.
He leaned back on his bike and looked up at her over the rims of his sunglasses. “You gonna keep lookin’ or should I pose for a picture?”
“While you are very pretty, Jason, I think I can remember what you look like just fine without one,” she got back with ease. “You just look a little bit like a very old ex of mine, that’s all.”
Jason’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?” A slow tendril of the Pit moved, the sludge of it rearing in the back of his mind. He had always been protective of the people he cared about, the Pit made him downright possessive—something Jazz knew during their time in therapy.
It was very quickly soothed by Jazz waving a hand through the air, as if to shoo the Pit and her ex away, climbing on behind him without hesitation and accepting her helmet with an ease that spoke of familiarity. “Just a little, don’t you worry. Besides, Johnny and I dated ages ago, and that was mainly because he was having issues with his then and now girlfriend.”
Jason sucked his teeth and made a note to switch out his jackets. “Fucking slimeball.”
Jazz laughed, arms twined around his chest, as Jason revved his bike. “Oh, absolutely.” He grinned and peeled away towards the manor.
Down a few streets, Tim was equally distracted by his own boyfriend. Alfred had insisted on chauffeuring to and from Danny’s apartment, and Tim was very weak when it came to Alfred (as all the Waynes were). Thankfully, by the time they pulled up, Tim could already see Danny bouncing on the curb. He could see the moment Danny realized the car was for him - the look of shock melted quickly into a sheepish grin that sent Tim’s heart fluttering.
The car had only stopped for a few seconds before Danny ducked inside, sliding across the seating until he was pressed shoulder to knee with Tim. If Tim blushed a little, then that was his business.
Alfred glanced back at them, a warmth in his voice that was clear to hear. “Seat belts, young Masters. It is a 20 minute drive back to the manor.”
“Thank you, Alfred.”
“Oh, yeah, thank you!”
“My pleasure.” Tim saw Alfred wink - wink!!! - at them in the rear view mirror before the divider was rolled up.
Danny turned to him, still pressed impossibly close. “So, let me guess: butler?”
Tim blinked. “How’d you guess?”
“So he is a butler?” Danny asked aghast. Tim squinted at him, but couldn’t decide if it was real disgust or not.
“He’s basically our grandfather, please.” Tim knocked his shoulder into Danny’s, making his boyfriend sway.
“You damn rich people,” Danny said with a laugh, shaking his head. “I hope you know that Sam is still trying to get me to eat you, and I quote, ‘for the people’.”
Tim snickered. “I think Sam has to include herself on that list.”
If it were possible, Danny’s smile sharpened even more. “Nope! Sam’s parents are the rich bastards, so she’s safe. Don’t worry though, I’ll be gentle when I eat you.”
Tim’s breath caught in his throat and his flush returned with a vengeance. He buried his face in one hand, using the other to shove Danny away from him. Danny dodged his feeble attempts to punish his boyfriend and instead wrapped himself around Tim, his face tucked into Tim’s neck.
Danny’s cool skin against his somehow made him feel even warmer, but Tim still couldn’t help but relax into Danny’s hold anyway. The rest of the ride was as easy as breathing.
The ride itself felt both too short and too long; either way, Tim didn’t exactly feel ready when Alfred made his way through the gates. Jason, not but a minute behind, felt the same way as his stomach clenched at the sight of the wrought iron fence that surrounded the property.
Both vehicles cleared the way together, the car and bike slowing to a halt in front of the main doors. Tim got out first as Jazz stepped off the bike, both of them offering a hand to their significant other. As the best man in the entire world, Alfred elected to make his way into the parlor ahead of them so that way the couples could shake out the last of their nerves before meeting the rest of the family.
Tim looked over at Jason, but any smart comment he could think of died in his throat. When Jason called her Red , he wasn’t kidding—if his girlfriend hadn’t been at least 6’6”, she could have been mistaken for Barbara. Jason meanwhile was mentally groaning and hoped that Danny had a good home life; black hair and blue eyes was a dangerous combination around Bruce and if Danny was gonna be a new brother he’d prefer it to be a brother-in-law.
Thankfully, at least one person had enough brain cells to function.
“You must be Tim! It’s nice to finally meet you, I’m Jasmine.” She held out her hand and Tim took it in his own. He noted with soft surprise how gentle her grip was. “Please, just call me Jazz.”
She then turned to Danny, looked him up and down, and smirked.
“Well, if it isn’t a skinny little twink,” Jazz shot off before she could stop herself. Beside her Jason shook his head and glanced at her, baffled, as Tim’s jaw dropped.
Danny gasped, a hand pressed against his chest. “I am a twunk, thank you very much! Besides, can you really say anything when you’re dating a Johnny copy down to the bike?” He turned to Jason. “No offense, obviously. Well, maybe a little. Oh, and I’m Danny!”
“Hi?” Jason had never been so fucking confused in his life.
Jazz sniffed. “Can you really talk when you dated Johnny and Kitty?”
“ That doesn’t count, Jazz.”
“Hmm, I don’t know—”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Jason cut in, sharing a confused look with Tim that sent both of them grimacing. Family commiseration, gross. “Quick question: you two know each other?”
Jazz turned slowly to Jason, disbelief written all over her face, which quite frankly he thought was a little rude seeing as she just insulted the shit out of Tim’s boyfriend. Speaking of, across from them Danny burst out laughing, one hand on Tim’s shoulder as he cackled into Tim’s chest.
“Jason.” Jazz slowly sounded out his name and Jason felt like he was about to be made fun of. “Did… did you not know Tim was dating my brother?”
Oh. Oh.
Well, hm. Well.
Fuck.
“So, I’m guessing… you knew your brother was dating Tim?”
Danny’s cackles got louder.
Jazz hit Jason with such an exasperated look he could feel his cheeks flush. “Of course I knew who my brother was dating! Do you guys not talk to each other? Did you not want them to know?”
“What? No, I mean, a little? It’s not because of you!” Jason scrambled to get his thoughts in order while Tim tried, unsuccessfully, to calm his boyfriend’s hysterics. “My family can just be a bit much, ya know?”
“Come on, Jazz! This is the funniest thing ever, don’t get too upset,” Danny gasped out between chuckles. Jazz huffed, crossing her arms, but Jason could see her shoulders lose their tension.
Jason could have kissed the kid. Tim did it for him, pressing his lips to Danny’s temple.
“Alright Danny, let’s get inside before you end up on the ground.” Tim led his teary-eyed boyfriend into the house, Jazz and Jason right behind them.
The Fentons gazed around the room, dismissing everything with a quickness that surprised the two Waynes. Tim recalled Danny mentioning that his godfather had a manor, not to mention Sam’s house, but the ease he and his sister disregarded the opulence meant to awe and dazzle was impressive.
And then Danny opened his mouth.
“So when’s the background check and shovel talk?”
Jazz smacked the back of his head. “Danny! You can’t just say that!”
Danny’s nose wrinkled as he stuck out his tongue. “It’s not like you weren’t thinking it!”
Jason and Tim both fidgeted slightly, glancing at each other yet again. The two might have had quite possibly the worst start to a relationship, but there was something that soothed the both of them as they watched their partner argue with their sibling. It just felt right.
Sadly, they couldn’t just let them continue on.
Tim cleared his throat. “Well, about the background check…”
Danny and Jazz turned to him with raised eyebrows. “What’s up, Dragon?”
Tim heard Jason snicker right behind him, followed by a smack and a harsh whispered, “You found something funny, Bluejay?”
With long acquired ease, he ignored his dumb brother and tried to word what he needed to say in a way that wouldn’t scare off his boyfriend. “I mean, well, I know the background check was just a joke, but—”
“Oh is that what you’re worried about, Tim?” Danny took his hands with his, swinging them back and forth. He darted in to kiss Tim’s cheek before looking at him with sincere, baby blue eyes. “Of course you were going to background check us, you guys are billionaires. It’d be weirder if you didn’t, to be honest. We totally get it, okay?”
A beat of silence was all they needed. All the worry and tension snapped out of their bodies in a second. Tim swayed toward Danny, burying himself into Danny’s shoulder as he groaned in relief. Jazz was also caught by her boyfriend, Jason’s strong arms around her waist as he muttered into her collarbone to keep the therapy session out of this fucking godforsaken house, please and thank you.
The two Fentons glanced at each other, slightly bewildered, and comforted their boyfriend as best they could. The moment was broken up by the steady tap of polished shoes. All four looked up to Alfred, standing at attention with a soft smile on his face.
“If you all have been well-acquainted, I do believe the rest of the family is ready for you in the dining room.”
Jazz and Danny exchanged a look, nodded, and took their armful of boyfriend after Alfred. Laughter followed them all the way there, mingling with the giggles already emanating from the table. Warm light streamed from the windows and the food already laid out was like a dream. As they crossed the threshold, the Waynes all looked up, eyes gleaming with anticipation, and the Fentons matched them like they were born for it.
For all of them, it felt like home.