The next time Dick showed up, to say Jason had not been expecting him would have been an understatement.

Jason whirled around and ripped the earbuds out of his ears as soon as he saw the window slide open out of the corner of his eye.

"What the fuck are you doing here? Go somewhere else if you got shot again," he said before he could even think.

Dick was grinning. "No, I didn't get shot, I just wanted to stop by. Whatcha doing there?"

Jason concentrated very hard on not blushing. Dick looked way too amused not to know exactly what he had been doing. "Practising," he said vaguely.

"Mhm," Dick said, looking like he was trying not to laugh. "Guess that explains the shady new hire at Gino's I was gonna follow up on."

Jason scowled. "Stay away from Gino's, that's my case. If I've gotta do the legwork, I'm not letting someone else come in and steal my hard earned leads from under my nose."

Dick laughed, sitting against the windowsill. "Well I can't promise I might not decide to pop in and see what's playing, so to speak, but I'll leave your case alone."

This time Jason couldn't help the blush that spread over his cheeks. "I swear to god, Dick. Do not fucking show up at the strip club I'm working." 

Stripping wasn't so hard as long as it felt anonymous, but fuck, when there were people there that knew you? That made it a thousand times harder. Maybe if it was someone like Roy or Kory who would probably jokingly catcall him and they could all laugh about it later, but Dick? He didn't know if he could handle that level of embarrassment.

It wasn't that he was self-conscious, his body was clearly good enough to get hired, it was just the act. 

"Fine, fine. Do I get to see how this routine is coming along? What's the song?" Dick got up and snatched his phone from his pocket before Jason even realized what was happening, and unplugged the headphones. Genuwine's 'Pony' started playing and Dick pressed pause, wrinkling his nose. "Should've expected that. A classic. Brings back way too many memories of my own times undercover though."

Jason just stared at him for a moment.

"So are you gonna show me or what?" Dick asked.

"I'm not stripping for you, Dick!"

"No, but I think you were about to dance for me?"

"I'm pretty sure I wasn't?" He meant it to come out as an emphatic statement, but it turned out more like a question.

Dick flicked his eyes up to Jason's. "Aw, come on, please? I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Holy shit, Jason didn't think that phrase was supposed to sound quite so...salacious, but coming from Dick's tongue it was, it really fucking was. "You have a pole around here somewhere, right?"

Jason felt himself go a little lightheaded. "Closet," he said faintly.

Dick beamed. "Great! That's settled then."

Was it? Jason didn't remember agreeing. He was also having a little bit of difficulty thinking more than one word at a time.

Dick settled back on the windowsill and held up Jason's phone. "I'll just start it from the beginning then, shall I?"

Everything was a bit of a haze for Jason after that, but he learned that Dick knew how to work the damn pole like it was made for him.

Jason had made sure he wasn't physically drooling and that was really all that could be expected of him for the night. He knew his limits, and that was it. Jesus christ. He might have to think twice now before answering whether he'd ever had a religious experience. Did this count? Surely it had to. God, the things Dick did with his thighs were a religion of their own — fuck it, it totally counted.

Jason didn't know what the hell he'd said afterward, but Dick didn't act weirdly, so it must've been normal enough. Honestly, he was just impressed he'd gotten anything out of his mouth besides a slack-jawed, hazy-eyed, "Gay."

And then Dick was on his way with a wave and a dazzling smile, and Jason watched that perfect ass disappear through his window and down the fire escape.

Oh, Jason was so royally fucked. Hello again feelings. Long time no see.

• ◇ •

Dick's eyes had widened when he showed up outside Jason's window to see him with headphones in, doing a sinuous body roll and sliding a hand up his stomach, and Dick had quickly decided he should probably make his presence known, no matter how much he would like to keep watching.

Luckily he'd somehow managed to convince Jason into performing for him — truly even he didn't know how he'd managed to swing that — and he felt his mouth go dry as he watched Jason work his body, hands sliding over his clothes, just marking the movements where he would usually be pushing them aside for a teasing glimpse of skin.

Jason rolled down onto the floor, holding himself up on one arm and grinding his hips a few inches above the floor. Holy shit. Before he even knew what he was doing, Dick whistled, and Jason— Jason fucking winked at him, a secret little smirk playing around his lips.

Good god Dick had never wanted to fuck someone so bad.

By the time the song was over, Dick was feeling a little...warm. Well shit, he had to somehow upstage that now. He got up and went to the closet, easily spotting the stripper pole leaned in the back corner.

It wasn't hard to set up and tighten to the floor and ceiling as Jason settled himself in his desk chair.

He kicked his shoes off then unbuttoned his pants and pushed them off.

"Why are you getting naked?" Jason sounded alarmed.

"I need grip, Jason. There's a reason people are already almost naked before they get up there. Skin has grip. Cloth slides and then you hit the floor." He took his shirt off, leaving him just in his tiny boxer briefs, which were basically what he'd worn when he'd stripped anyway, so perfect.

He kicked his clothes away and pulled at the pole, testing it, and then swung himself around it once. "Okay, you can play the music."

"Uh, okay, yeah." Jason said, sounding distracted.

Dick looked over just as Jason wrenched his eyes away, looking down at his phone with a blush. He'd barely seen, but it had looked like— had Jason been staring at his ass?

The music started and Dick put it out of his mind, spinning himself slowly around the pole and then sliding his foot forward and bending his body back.

He concentrated hard on making his routine as sexy as possible, occasionally catching glimpses of Jason's face, which frustratingly gave nothing away. It was just entirely blank, which made Dick push himself even harder, flipping himself upside down and wrapping his thighs around the pole, rolling his hips rhythmically and sliding one hand up over his stomach and chest before letting it down to touch the floor.

When he finally finished, he ran a nervous hand through his hair and cocked his hip, waiting for Jason's reaction.

"Who knew you'd be so good at that," he finally said. "I mean I was expecting good, but not...that."

"You thought it was good?" Dick asked. Oh thank god; it would really suck if he'd just seriously failed at being sexy after the show Jason gave.

"Yeah," Jason said, face still blank.

"Oh, it was kinda hard to tell what you thought."

"Oh." Jason's eyes swept over him and Dick could feel his gaze on his skin, heavy and dark. "Guess being an acrobat helps with that stuff."

Oh boo, so they were just going to have boring conversation after that, then. Ugh. Dick had tried, really. 

He turned to grab his clothes and start getting redressed. "Yeah, it definitely does. It's like a distant cousin of the balance beam and the trapeze sorta."

"Hmm."

Dick finished getting dressed and smiled at him. "Well I guess I should probably get going then, patrol soon and all that."

"Yeah."

Dick gave him a wave and a final smile, and then climbed out the window.

Well that had certainly been an adventure and not what he'd been planning when he came over, but Dick thought he could probably count it toward bonding with Jason, right? Probably. Common ground and all that.