Jason was doing a real good job at running from his feelings — amazing, even — right up until he wasn't. That moment was right about when Dick plopped down on the fire escape beside him where he was smoking a cigarette during patrol, and passed him a cup of coffee.

"What the fuck are you doing down in Crime Alley?" Jason asked. He had intended for it to come out as more of a demanding growl, but it...did not.

Dick just shrugged, taking a sip of his own coffee.

"This poisoned?"

Dick gave him an unamused look. "I was trying to be nice."

"Why?"

"Do I need a reason?"

Jason took a sip of the coffee. Well it was at least a tasteless poison if it was in there. Good — anything else and he'd just be disappointed. No hit to the ego like not even being worth a sneaky poisoning. "Yes."

Dick sighed heavily. "Fine. Think of it as a very belated thank you. Or an 'I'm sorry for bleeding all over your floors'."

"Hmm." Jason took another sip of his coffee and flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette, staring down into the damp alley below them. It was really best to not look directly at Dick, even in the dark, even with his mask on, just for the sake of Jason's sanity.

Dick shifted and leaned back on one hand, and his shoulder pressed against Jason's. Oh lovely. Good to know that it was Dick and/or the universe's plan to just torture Jason to death now. Love that. Nice.

Jason took another drag of his cigarette.

"That's a really nasty habit, you know, there's a reason they're called cancer sticks."

Jason turned to him, leaning close, and blew the smoke directly into his face. "The Pit, dipshit; I can do whatever I want."

Instead of wrinkling his nose and flinching back like Jason thought he would, it almost looked for a second like Dick had opened his mouth and breathed deeper, but that— no, that definitely couldn't be right. The fucking dark had to be playing tricks on Jason's eyes or something.

Weird.

"Well I should get back to patrol," he said, taking one last drag of his cigarette and stubbing out the butt against the metal grating beside his boot.

"Oh. Right, sure," Dick said, sounding distracted. "Catch you later, I guess."

Not if Jason could help it.

He took another gulp of his coffee, grabbed his helmet, and then headed down the fire escape.

• ◇ •

Dick sat there on the fire escape for a long time, letting his heart rate return to normal. Fuck, he'd really thought Jason was gonna kiss him for a split second there before he'd blown the smoke in his face.

That was just Dick's overactive imagination, though. Unfortunately, all signs pointed to Jason still barely tolerating him. Dick would really have to try to fix that.