Dick had been discharged from the hospital, and he and Jason were now finally, finally almost home.

Jason pushed open the door to the stairwell in their apartment building, and Dick followed him in, adjusting his grip on the two large hospital bags in his hand filled with all his clothes and books and shit that had been brought to him in the hospital. Fuck, he really didn't want to have to go up four flights of stairs right now. Damn old ass Gotham apartments without elevators.

"My feet are killing me. They should really give a warning going into the hospital about that. Like, 'Hey, if you don't wear shoes for two months, you will severely regret it once you finally do have to'."

Jason chuckled. "You want me to carry you?"

Dick eyed him dubiously. Jason wasn't really going to carry a fully grown man with his bags and shit up four flights of stairs, was he? Maybe he meant once they got to their floor. "I mean, if you want to— Oh!"

Jason swung him easily up into a bridal carry, and Dick's arms automatically looped around his neck, letting the bags dangle against his back. Dick's exclamation quickly turned into a surprised laugh. Well. Apparently Jason was going to carry him up four flights of stairs.

"My hero," he said, half mock-earnest and half actually sincere.

Jason pressed a kiss to his temple. "Anytime, sweet pea."

Dick half expected Jason to give up halfway up the stairs — he wasn't bulky like Jason, but he did still have quite a bit of muscle on his frame and he wasn't light by any means — but Jason brought him all the way up, passing a disapproving Mr. Donovan heading down from the third floor. Dick had hidden his face in Jason's shoulder so he didn't have to see the look he knew they were getting, but Jason met the man's eyes and stared him down, daring him to comment, before pressing another kiss to Dick's head and continuing on his way up. It was possible he stuck his tongue out at the man's back once they passed him to make Dick giggle. 

He managed to get them up to their floor without further incident, unlocking their door and kicking it shut behind them without letting Dick go, and bringing him inside to set him gently on the bed.

"I'm impressed," Dick said, dropping his bags beside the bed to deal with later and kicking his shoes off. "That was quite the display."

Jason pushed the curls back from Dick's forehead and pressed a kiss to it. "Certainly more rewarding than most of my workouts."

Dick laid back on the bed with a grin, squirming his way under the covers. "Now, I believe I was promised nonstop cuddles once I got home…?"

Jason laughed and stripped off his t-shirt, before leaning back down and cupping Dick's face with both hands, starting to pepper his whole face with soft kisses. "Patience, buttercup," he said, dropping one last kiss on the tip of his nose and squishing Dick's cheeks with his hands. "You'll get them. As if I haven't been dreaming of finally getting to sleep with you back in my arms for weeks." He grinned at Dick's face with his cheeks all squished, and couldn't resist giving him two more quick kisses on one cheek before relaxing his hands.

Dick groaned. "Buttercup, seriously?" But his eyes were closed in contentment, and he had a small smile on his face.

"Aw, I was hoping you wouldn't notice." Jason gave him a final loud, dramatic kiss on the other cheek, and pulled away again, kicking off his shoes and starting to empty the contents of his pockets onto the nightstand. "Foiled again. I liked that one too."

Dick laughed and opened his eyes, shaking his head fondly.

Jason crawled into bed, snaking his arms around Dick with a satisfied sigh. "You good, sweetheart?"

"Mmhm." Dick intertwined his hand with the one Jason had settled on his stomach and settled in, then seemed to abruptly change his mind. He rolled over and inched his way mostly on top of Jason, until he was lying with one of his legs between both of Jason's, and his face buried in the crook of his neck.

He took a deep breath in, inhaling Jason's familiar scent, and then let it out slowly. "Hmmm yeah, this is better," he hummed, his eyes closed.

Jason let his hands rest just below Dick's shoulder blades, lightly scratching his nails over the skin through his shirt soothingly.

"God I love you," he whispered out.

"Mm love you too," Dick mumbled into his neck, pressing a kiss to it, and burying his hand in Jason's hair.

They were both fast asleep in seconds.

◇◇◇

Dick and Jason slept straight through until patrol the next night.

"Mmh," Dick rolled out of Jason's arms, attempting to turn and look at the alarm clock. "Time 's it?" It was dark outside, but that didn't mean much.

He managed to turn himself the rest the way over, accidentally kicking Jason in the process, earning him a pitiful, sleepy, "Why?"

"That can't be right," he said, as he stared at the clock.

Jason reached out and dragged Dick back against him by the waist. "Stay."

"It's eight in the evening, and I have a hard time believing we only slept for six hours. Jay, we slept the whole day and night and the next day."

"Wha…?" Jason opened his eyes and blinked rapidly. "Oh holy shit. Did we really?"

Dick leaned over the edge of the bed and dug around in one of the hospital bags until he found his phone, and then settled back against Jason, turning it on.

It took a few seconds for it to start up, but once it did, sure enough the date said it was the next evening from when they'd gotten home.

He held it up over his shoulder for Jason to see, and Jason groaned. 

"Ugh. I need a couple hours before we go out on patrol." He squeezed his arms tighter around Dick and closed his eyes again. 

Dick dropped his hand and set the phone beside his pillow.

"We need to eat something," Jason said after a long silence.

"That requires getting up."

"Yeahhh," Jason sighed out. "Not yet though."

He pressed a few light kisses to the back of Dick's shoulder and neck before burying his face against his back.

Dick trailed his fingers back and forth over the back of the hand on his stomach for several long minutes, before shifting impatiently.

"Time to get up, Jaybird. C'mon." He patted his hand.

Jason gave a small whine and buried his face harder against Dick's back.

Dick sighed, and pried Jason's hands off enough that he could squirm his way around to face him.

"Nonono sweetie come back," Jason whined, eyes still shut, making ridiculous grabby hands.

Dick tilted his face up with a hand on his chin and kissed him slowly, and Jason's whines melted into a deep, satisfied, "Mmm," his muscles relaxing and his hand settling on Dick's cheek.

"Gotta get up now," Dick pulled back just enough to murmur.

"One more kiss?" Jason puckered his lips exaggeratedly, and Dick dropped a quick kiss on them, which quickly turned into several more before he was able to pull himself away again.

"Come on, seriously, gotta get up. No more kisses until you actually get out of the bed."

Jason heaved a very put-upon sigh and finally opened his eyes.

"I love you," he said. "Even though you're horribly cruel."

Dick laughed. "Every time I think you can't get more dramatic…"

"Who could ever blame me? I'm being forced out of my beautiful boyfriend's arms under penalty of kisses being withheld. Cruel and unusual punishment! And what have I done to deserve it? Love him?"

Dick was positive he had on some truly embarrassingly soft heart eyes. God, he was so fucking in love with his boyfriend, ridiculous melodrama and all. Maybe especially because of the ridiculous melodrama. Because when he got like this, Dick couldn't possibly doubt that this was the real Jason — nobody else would ever be able to capture his particular brand of drama quite like this. 

"Get out of bed, you dramatic bastard, so I can kiss you again." He pulled away from Jason's grasp and stood up from the bed.

Jason held a hand to his heart. "Truly, sweetheart, you wound me."

Dick held out a hand and wriggled his fingers impatiently. "You can do it," he said patronizingly.

Jason rolled his eyes and grabbed Dick's hand, letting him help haul him to his feet. As soon as he was standing in front of Dick, he let go of his hand and settled his hands on his waist.

"I believe I was promised more kisses?"

Dick gave him a soft smile and leaned up on his toes to kiss him, sliding a hand around the back of his neck and pulling his head down as he settled back onto his heels. He slowly started stepping backward and leading them out of the bedroom as they kissed.

They made it into the bathroom and Dick reluctantly pulled back again. "Brush your teeth and come meet me in the kitchen."

"Or," Jason said, "we keep making out and say fuck patrol."

Dick stepped back. "Morning breath."

Jason rolled his eyes again. "Like you've ever given a shit." But he turned to the sink and grabbed his toothbrush.

Dick retreated to the kitchen, and made Jason a strong cup of darjeeling tea, black, the way he liked it.

He pressed it into Jason's hands when he came into the kitchen, and leaned up to give him a quick peck before going to brush his teeth himself.

When he reemerged from the bathroom, Jason was making scrambled eggs at the stove and softly singing a song from 'Chicago' to himself. Dick came up behind him, sliding his hands over his hips and pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

"Thanks, Jay."

Jason turned around, his singing trailing off, and pressed a kiss to his forehead, then the bridge of his nose, then under one eye. "Can you start toast?"

"Mhm."

They managed to finish making and eating breakfast with minimal kissing breaks, before finally suiting up and heading out on patrol.

Dick was incredibly relieved to find over the course of the night that his skills didn't seem to have atrophied as much as he'd feared they might. It took him a few hours to really get back in the groove of things, but once he did, it felt as if he'd never been gone. Well, besides the utter shock of everyone he'd fought that Nightwing was suddenly back.

"Yep!" he'd cheerily responded, every time. "In the flesh!"

"Where were you? Why were you gone for so long?" A particularly brave man had asked.

"Busy," Dick had said blithely. "You know how it is." He'd tightened the zip tie around the man's wrists. "Don't worry though, I've made time for justice in my schedule once again."

By the end of the night his feet still hurt like a bitch and his muscles burned a bit more than usual, but he hadn't gotten his ass kicked by anyone even a little bit, so he was counting it as a resounding success.

◇◇◇

Dick woke up crying the next day, but he was able to get himself calmed down fairly quickly, and Jason was right there with him, stroking his hair through it.

He grabbed Jason's free hand once he'd stopped crying, and rolled over against him. He pressed his face against his sternum and set the hand over his waist, throwing his own arm over Jason's shoulders and holding him tightly.

Jason slid his hand up Dick's back, rubbing comfortingly between his shoulder blades, and they laid there like that for a good while before Dick finally spoke up.

"You know, I haven't gotten my coming home present yet."

Jason smiled and kissed the top of his head.

"Yeah? You want me to get all dressed up for you today?"

"Mhmm," Dick mumbled against his chest, sliding a hand over his bicep and letting it rest there, tracing his thumb in slow circles. "I want a show."

Jason chuckled. "You'll get your show, let's get up and get something to eat first, though."

Dick reluctantly rolled back onto his back and let his hand drop.

They eventually got up, and Jason made them both breakfast.

"You want me to put the makeup on too, sweetheart?" Jason asked, as he put his plate in the sink once they were done.

"The lipstick. You don't have to do all the eyeshadow stuff — though it was very sexy."

He nodded and disappeared into the bedroom.

Dick had just finished washing and drying the dishes and putting them away, when Jason sauntered back into the kitchen.

"Hey, how do I look?"

He turned around and looked Jason over slowly, barely realizing he was stepping forward until his hands were tracing over his waist, up his chest, down his arms. 

"Fucking sublime," Dick breathed out. "God, amazing. Get up on the counter for me?"

Jason grinned and slid past him to hop up on the counter, and Dick ran his hands over Jason's thighs in the fishnets, pushing his skirt up just enough for Jason to spread his legs so Dick could stand between them.

"Your thighs in this skirt should be fucking illegal," Dick murmured, staring down at them and running his hands up and down over the muscles.

Jason squeezed his thighs lightly against Dick's waist, hooking his ankles together behind his bum and drawing him in closer, and Dick slowly looked up at his face.

"Fuck," Dick whispered, and leaned up to kiss him.

It was slow and heady, and one of Dick's hands slowly slid up Jason's body to fist in the back of his hair while the other continued to trace up and down his thigh.

Their kisses escalated, until somehow — Dick didn't remember how — they ended up on the couch with Jason on top of him, kissing over his neck and sucking as Dick gasped for air, his eyes clenched tightly shut and both hands up the back of Jason's skirt.

"Oh fuck, Jay, Jay we gotta slow down." 

Jason was purposely slightly up on his knees so they couldn't grind against each other — which Dick was very thankful for — but even without that, it was still getting too heated.

Jason pulled back, and Dick opened his eyes. Fuck. He was unable to resist pulling him down for another kiss — even if he had to surrender one of his perfect handfuls of Jason's ass in those fishnets to do it. It was okay, he had another.

And they really were perfect handfuls: all smooth skin (since Jason had thought it appropriate to only wear a jockstrap under the fishnets. Because apparently, after all this, he wanted to be the cause of Dick's death) and just the right balance of fat and muscle. How could Dick have ever been expected to keep his hands to himself? Especially when Jason had so eagerly pushed his ass back into his hands, arching his back. Dick had been so very, very doomed from the start. 

"Not— not ready for more yet," he managed to get out between kisses.

Jason pulled back again with a last, lingering kiss, and Dick's face automatically followed up after him. "Okay sweetheart; think we need to stop then," he panted, pushing Dick back gently with a hand on his chest.

Dick sagged back against the couch and groaned, clenching his eyes shut and reluctantly removing his other hand from Jason's ass with a final caress down the back of his thigh. "Yeah, yeah you're right. Fuck, I really don't want to though." He let both hands settle on the slightly more neutral territory of Jason's hips.

Jason sat back on Dick's thighs and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing the last traces of his lipstick off onto it, and Dick squeezed his hands on Jason's hips.

"What now?"

Jason trailed his fingers absentmindedly over Dick's chest and down his abdomen. "Let's watch a movie. Distraction." He realized what his hand was doing and he wrenched it away. "Shit, this is so much harder than I remember."

He got to his feet and pulled his skirt back down from where it had been rucked up around his hips, looking down at Dick and the smeared, dark burgundy lipstick prints streaking down his jaw and neck, and the smudgy mess over his mouth.

"You're kind of a mess, honey; you've got lipstick everywhere." 

"Eh," Dick said distantly, staring at Jason's thighs again. "I'll fix it later."

"And I'm putting on some sweatpants."

"Probably for the best," Dick agreed, his gaze not wavering in the slightest.

Jason's legs tensed as he turned to go and he saw Dick's tongue dart out to wet his lips, and— oh, yeah, Jason really needed to leave the room now before he did something stupid like climb back on top of Dick and coax that tongue back into his mouth for another taste. Fuck, fuck, fuck this was so much fucking harder than he remembered. 

Pun entirely intended.

Eventually they settled in for the movie (with Jason now safely in pants), and managed to keep their hands and mouths mostly to themselves during it. Mostly. Dick absentmindedly started raking his nails over the scars on one of his arms, and Jason gently placed his hand over Dick's to stop the movement. He carefully pushed Dick's hand away, before picking his arm up and kissing each scar — a line of sixteen soft kisses up his arm — and linking their hands together. Then he let their entwined hands down to rest on his thigh, and leaned his head on Dick's shoulder.

Once the movie was over, Dick stood and stretched, before heading into the bathroom.

"Jesus christ, Jay. You weren't kidding when you said everywhere."

Jason laughed.

"Oh this is gonna be a bitch to get off," he complained. "It's just smearing around. You got any makeup wipes?"

"Yeah, under the sink on the right."

"Thanks."

"Worth it?"

"Oh definitely worth it," Dick said, pulling a wipe out of the package and scrubbing it over the side of his neck. "In fact, you have a standing invitation to do this to me again. And again. And again. Better make it an even dozen so I can really be sure it's worth it."

Jason laughed again. "We'll see, sunshine."

◇◇◇

It became obvious over the course of the week that despite Damian's assertions to the contrary, Jason and Damian had become much closer in Dick's absence.

When Damian came to spend the night after patrols, Dick noticed that he and Jason were much more comfortable around each other. It was small enough that Dick wouldn't have been able to point it out even if he'd wanted to, but it was definitely there in the way Damian let himself completely relax around both of them in a way that he'd previously only allowed himself to do when it was just him and Dick. And he no longer seemed compelled to try so hard to ignore Jason as much as humanly possible like he used to.

And then there was the night that Dick had gotten caught up in Blüdhaven until dawn, and had come home to find Jason and Damian already fast asleep and curled up together — most definitely in a fashion that could be termed 'snuggling'. 

Dick swore his heart had melted and turned to mush immediately on sight, and he'd had to clap a hand over his mouth and hold his breath for damn near a minute to keep from letting out any number of embarrassing reactions, ranging from coos to squeals to loud 'Aww's, all of which would surely wake them up. It was quite possibly the cutest goddamn thing he'd ever seen, and if he took a truly ridiculous number of photos for personal reference and safekeeping before quietly leaving to take a shower and slipping into bed with them, well, nobody had to know. 

Dick also could have sworn he'd seen Damian using a couple of Jason's moves on patrol, which gave him the adorable mental image of Jason teaching him after they sparred. He was sure they'd been spending a lot of their time together sparring, and he supposed it wasn't much of a surprise that Jason would use a move or two that Damian would eventually be compelled to admit he wanted to learn.

In reality, the teaching had probably not been nearly as sweet as he was imagining, and probably a lot more violent, but Dick could dream. 

And, of course, he would always have those photos of them cuddling to keep his hopes up about that sort of thing. He'd already backed them up on the cloud and on his hard drive in heavily encrypted files. If Damian ever found out, there was no way he would be hacking in and deleting them — no, those pictures would have to be pried from Dick's cold, dead hands.

Jason and Bruce were on better terms now too, as Dick had been pleased to find out. He hadn't really seen them together since he was in the first hospital, but apparently his suicide attempt had brought them closer together. Or so he assumed.

In actuality, that wasn't entirely accurate. After their bonding moment outside the hospital, things had been a little awkward, at least on Jason's half. It wasn't that he was ashamed to have needed to lean on Bruce, but… Well yeah, actually. He was ashamed and he didn't want to acknowledge it, and so he ended up avoiding Bruce as much as possible.

Until he'd started counselling with Black Canary.

Talking about everything had started bringing Talia to the front of his mind again — although he hadn't yet told Dinah about that — and he'd kept thinking of Bruce finding out all those weeks ago and his weird reaction. Jason still hadn't known if Bruce was upset with him or what, and Bruce had never brought it up again.

He just hadn't been able to get it out of his head though, so he'd set aside his pride and called Bruce.

"...Hey." he'd said, when Bruce picked up. "Are you still...mad at me?"

Bruce had sighed heavily. "What for?"

"Uh. Talia."

Bruce had paused then, the silence stretching on until Jason was certain Bruce was still pissed.

"No," Bruce finally said. "No, of course I'm not mad. I was never mad at you."

Jason had pulled his phone away from his ear to stare at it, to make sure he was really talking to Bruce. "Oh." he'd said. And then, "What?"

"I'm...I'm sorry if it seemed like I was upset with you, I didn't intend for that. It wasn't your fault."

It wasn't your fault. 

It wasn't his fault? Of course it was his fucking fault, he'd fucked her.

"I fucked your ex, I fucked Damian's mom, how are you not mad?" He was honestly dumbfounded.

"It wasn't your fault," Bruce repeated.

"Stop saying that! Of course it was my fucking fault, I agreed to it, I did it, she didn't force me."

"Jay…you weren't in a position for your agreement to actually mean anything and I think you know that."

Jason's stomach felt like he missed a step going down the stairs. Or two. Or hell, he felt like he was tumbling ass over elbow down a whole fucking flight of stairs right now.

"Don't— don't do this, Dick does this, I agreed. I agreed. I did it. Why does nobody understand that?"

"Jay…"

"No! She— she told me to punish you before I killed you. For Ra's. And I did, I agreed, because I wanted to. Because I thought you deserved it."

"Jay. She was manipulating you."

"But I…"

"Would you think it was at all okay if I was sleeping with an eighteen year old? If I had been even ten years ago?"

"Of course not. But—"

"Because it's wrong, right? Because even ten years ago I would be in a major position of power over them."

"Yeah, but—"

"And that's not even factoring in all the other things."

"But it's not the same!" Jason had burst out.

"How isn't it?"

"I— It's not the same!" he repeated desperately, floundering for a reason why.

"I get it, Jason. I've been there. Damian...Damian came about due to her machinations. I had no say in what was happening."

Jason had felt sick. "That's… that's fucked up," he had stuttered out. "That's fucked up. It's not the same."

"But it's not altogether that different either."

Jason had angrily scrubbed at his eyes, which were burning for some strange reason. "It's not the same, I agreed, I agreed," he repeated, although it sounded weak even to his own ears.

"It's okay, champ. It's okay."

Jason had had a little bit of a breakdown after that conversation, and it had certainly come up in his counselling with Dinah, but it served to open him back up to Bruce. They still weren't the best of friends, and it wasn't like they ever talked just to talk, but they were closer and Jason was less standoffish with him.

◇◇◇

It wasn't that Dick didn't have his bad days — Jason could hardly miss that when just a few days ago, he'd had Dick curled up in his lap, sobbing into his chest about feeling slutty and permanently unclean. Jason had just held him tight and let him cry himself out when his reassurances fell on deaf ears.

There were still days, too, when Dick compulsively quizzed him on his identity, unable to feel certain that he really was who he said he was.

Overall, though, Dick was doing much better, and it showed. He was doing well with therapy — seeing the same therapist as Cass — and most importantly, he no longer had that horrible emptiness about him anymore. 

He had a lot of anger and upset to deal with as he worked through everything that had happened now that he was no longer stuck behind that curtain of numbness, but he was working it out. It was just good for him to finally be feeling and caring again.

It wouldn't be quite right to say he was 'back to his old self', but he was certainly several steps in that direction. He would probably never really be able to go back all the way, but Dick found that he was okay with that — he could become something new, something truer to himself as he was now.

Dick was actually pretty happy with the person he was right now, he thought as he came in through the bedroom window. He was still a little rough around the edges, a little burnt, but he was working on it, and for the first time in his life he wasn't shoving the broken parts into a dusty cupboard and slapping on a pretty mask, and that was a considerable step for him.

And...Dick was also happy to be alive. It wasn't an all-consuming jubilation, but the good outweighed the shitty enough that one day he had been surprised to find that he didn't want to die. Not just not actively wanting to die enough not to make an attempt on his life again, but genuinely not wanting to die. And more than that, actually being happy to still be here, happy to have this extra time he had wanted to cut short to spend with his family and Jason and their friends. 

Life still held so many struggles — some of them, at times, unbelievably difficult — but it felt worth it. Worth it for cuddles with Damian, for teaching Tim new ridiculous gymnastics moves he'd never have a practical use for, and for watching Cass' ballet recitals. For long, early morning chats over hot chocolate with Alfred, for falling in love with Jason all over again every single day, and for forging strong friendships with the women who understood him.

"Hey sweetie, how was ladies night?"

Jason was referring to the weekly meeting-of-sorts that Dick went to as Nightwing late every Tuesday evening with some of the prostitutes of Gotham. They had called it ladies night once as a joke, but then it had just sort of...stuck.

The meetings had been born out of Tootsie's offer to talk with him, and it had turned sort of into a support group. They didn't always talk about the things that had happened to them, more often it was just a safe place to shoot the shit with people who understood and related, but if any of them ever felt the need to, they knew they could. They'd become close over the weeks, and Dick found that they were good friends to have.

"It was nice." He shut the window and held up a container. "Tootsie sent me home with more snickerdoodles for you. And me. Mostly for you."

"Fuck yeah."

Dick came over to the bed and leaned down to kiss him, one hand trailing over his chest. Jason could tell he was discreetly feeling for his autopsy scars and breathing in his scent — little ways to confirm his identity — and Jason put his book down on his stomach, running a hand through Dick's hair.

"D'you need me to tell you something?" he asked quietly against Dick's lips.

Dick shook his head. "No, it's okay." He gave him another quick kiss and then pulled back. "You gonna come out on patrol now?"

"Yeah."

Even though Dick had been back on regular patrols for a few weeks now, Jason still found himself keeping an ear out for him over the comms when they went out.

Later that night, he was working to keep the smile off his face as he listened to Dick fighting someone while Jason finally backed the piece of shit loser he was after into a dead-end alley.

“I guess running wasn’t so smart, huh?” he asked the guy.

And, wow, Dick sounded alive. He was probably doing some sort of completely unnecessary acrobatics, just toying with whoever was dumb enough to fight him.

“Too slow!” he heard Dick say, before letting out an exhilarated laugh. 

Jason felt the grin finally break through onto his face. It didn't matter, he had his helmet on anyway.

“Kick his ass, sweetheart!” he egged on, and Dick gave a full-out cackle.

“Hood,” Bruce said exasperatedly through the comms.

“What the hell?” The guy Jason had cornered looked confused, and more than a little scared.

“Do I look like I was fucking talking to you?” Jason snapped, and kicked him in the kneecap. 

He zip-tied the man’s hands together. “Don’t sell drugs to kids, bitch."

Dick finished taking down the man he had been fighting, and listened to Jason over the comms interrogating the dealer about who had sent him out on the drop and who else was selling to minors.

He tested the hold on the zip tie and sent out a signal to the police, humming as he grappled up onto the nearest rooftop.

Once Jason wrapped up his little interrogation and headed back out onto the street, Dick's aimless humming turned into the chorus of Imelda May's 'Big Bad Handsome Man'.

🎶'Cause he's my big bad handsome man, he's got me in the palm of his hand...🎶

Jason let out a surprised, delighted laugh.

"Are you—" A few more chuckles slipped out, and he stopped, leaning against the side of a building as he laughed. "Oh sweetheart, I thought you'd never say."

"Well it's true, isn't it?"

"If I do say so myself."

"What is that, what were you humming?" Tim broke in.

"Don't worry about it," they both said at once.

"But I wanna know what the joke is," Stephanie butted in.

Jason laughed again. "Tough luck."

"Batman? Did you recognize it?" Tim asked. 

"Nightwing and I don't exactly share the same taste in music, no," Bruce said.

"Robin?" Tim asked, hopefully. "You're over at their place a lot, have you heard it?"

"No, Red Robin. I have no idea what it was and I don't care. They were clearly...flirting—" he said the word like it was something repulsive "—do you really need to know more?"

Tim pouted. "I hate being out of the loop."

"I'm with Red," Stephanie piped back in. "My curiosity is officially piqued."

Dick sighed. "Well now it won't be funny."

"I don't need it to be funny," Tim said. "I just need to know."

"Hmm, I think you'll live," Dick said wryly.

"I'm hacking your iTunes library when I get home," Tim muttered.

Dick snorted. "You have fun with that."

"You tell him, uh..." Jason trailed off.

"Oh no," Dick said, preparing for another ridiculous pet name.

"Uh," Jason said again.

"Oh," Dick said. "Oh. Have you finally run out of awful pet names, then?"

"No!" Jason said quickly.

"Well go on, then."

"Uh," Jason stalled. "There's, uh…hold on, I got this. There's...uh……...rodent."

There was a small silence, and then Dick absolutely lost it laughing.

"Rodent?" he wheezed out, and Jason heard several of the others start to laugh over the comms as well.

"No, I didn't— That came out— I just meant, like, rodents are cute, I was trying to think of, like, a rodent, like a type of rodent, like a rabbit, or a...weasel — no!" he said quickly, as Dick and the other bats laughed even harder. "Not a weasel! Fuck. Shutting up now."

Dick was doubled over, laughing so hard there were tears streaming out of his eyes and he was desperately gasping for breath.

"Who could— who could ever think romance is dead," Dick gasped out, between bouts of laughter, "when I have Hood here to call me— to call me a weasel." His laughter took over again.

Jason pouted. "A man tries for romance every damn day of a relationship and it's nothing, but he accidentally calls you a weasel once and suddenly it's the peak of his romantic ability."

"I don't think you realize how funny what you just said is," Stephanie said.

Jason sighed deeply. "I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

"No," Dick said. "Absolutely never."

◇◇◇

Jason was impatiently pacing in front of the door. He was nervous for tonight, as he always was with family stuff no matter how long it had been since he was actually on the outs with them.

"Let's go already, I'm fucking starving."

Dick slipped his jacket on. "Already tired of being a good little Jewish boy?" he teased. "You know you didn't have to fast. Bruce does, but I don't think he'd actually care if you didn't want to. As long as you still come over for the meal."

"Yeah, but Alfred would know, and he'd be disappointed," he complained. 

Dick laughed.

"And," Jason added grudgingly after a moment, "we're supposed to be repairing relations and all that today — it's not exactly off to a good start if I don't even follow the rules."

"That's the spirit!"

Jason rolled his eyes and followed him out the door. "What are you so excited for anyway? This is supposed to be a somber holiday, Dickie, set a good example, now."

Dick stuck out his tongue. "I'm excited for my once-yearly date with Alfred's sweet lokshen kugel and you'll never take that joy away from me." His face dropped slightly as he pushed open the door to the stairwell. "I probably should be a bit more somber though; I've a lot more to atone for this year than usual."

Jason frowned, starting to follow down the stairs after him. "No you don't."

"Well that's for everybody to decide on their own, isn't it?"

Jason's frown stayed right where it was. "Still don't think you should have to 'atone' for any of that stuff, honey bunny."

"Well I think I do, and that's that."

Jason sighed, but let it go, changing the subject. "Not to completely blow it for myself, but I can't believe you just let 'honey bunny' slide."

Dick looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. "As long as you're not calling me a weasel again."

Jason's pout made Dick unable to resist grabbing his hand and pressing a kiss to his palm before lacing their fingers together and pulling him down a few steps so they could walk side by side.

Like every Yom Kippur — and, indeed, every entire family get-together — the evening was a bit chaotic, but all things considered, it went pretty smoothly.

The break fast meal was, of course, delicious, just as everything Alfred served always was; and they had all moved to one of the sitting rooms to talk.

Dick hugged Tim tightly after they'd finished their conversation and forgave each other. 

"Oh yeah, I found the song," Tim said, when he pulled back. "'My big bad handsome man', really?"

Jason looked over from his conversation with Damian on the other side of the sofa.

Dick blushed, but defended himself. "Am I wrong, though?"

Tim paused just long enough to be telling, and Jason let out a loud laugh.

"Oh, you think I'm handsome, Timmers?"

"Not personally," Tim protested, sounding offended. "Just— objectively— shut up," he said, when Jason kept laughing.

"Do I want to know how you even found the song?" Dick asked.

Tim shrugged. "Like I said, I hacked your iTunes library and spent a few days listening through all your music. You have weird, weird taste, by the way."

"Jeez," Dick said. "I didn't think you'd actually do it!" 

Tim shrugged again. "I was curious."

"You're an odd one, Timmy," Jason said, leaning over and ruffling his hair, which made Tim bat his hand away. "But at least nobody can say you lack determination."

By the time they all went out on patrol, Dick was feeling a lot lighter. There had been a lot of hard conversations, but all the confession and the unhesitating forgiveness had lifted a heavy weight off of his soul.

◇◇◇

The next day was a sleepy one, and it wasn't long after they got out of bed that Dick and Jason found themselves lying on the couch watching TV.

Jason was on his back with his knees up, and Dick was on his stomach between Jason's legs, his cheek cushioned on the soft spot between his ribs, and they had both hands intertwined and resting on Jason's upper chest.

Dick seemed to have fallen back asleep at some point, and he was drooling a little on Jason's shirt, but Jason didn't mind. It was kind of cute, actually.

The living room window slid open and Stephanie stumbled in.

"Oh barf," she immediately said, looking at them. "You guys are sickening."

Jason looked away from the TV in annoyance. "Shh. Insult us quieter, please, he's sleeping."

Dick made a small noise in his sleep and shifted slightly, and Jason slid his foot soothingly up and down the back of his calf, stroking his thumbs over the side of Dick's where their hands were entwined and softly shushing him.

Stephanie made an exaggerated gagging motion, and Jason looked back up at her, rolling his eyes. "You came into our apartment," he reminded her. "What did you expect? Now what do you want?"

"You heard anything about a new drug making its way around, makes people really paranoid?"

"Maybe. Tell me more…"

They only ended up talking for about half an hour, and Dick blinked his eyes open just as Stephanie was sliding the window shut after herself none too quietly.

"Hey sweetheart, sorry, did we wake you?" Jason asked quietly, gently squeezing his hands.

"Nn-nn," Dick hummed no, squeezing back. "'S okay." He tilted his head up, scooting up slightly, and puckered his lips for a quick kiss.

Jason kissed him, and he felt Dick kiss back for a second before flinching back slightly. He pulled back and opened his eyes to see Dick's eyes clenched tightly shut and the muscles in his legs tensed like he was prepared to spring off of the sofa at the drop of a hat.

"Could— could—" Dick stuttered, his hands squeezing Jason's tighter. "Are—" He cut himself off, turning his head and burying his face in Jason's chest, and taking in a slow, deep breath.

"You need me to tell you something, honey?"

Dick didn't respond immediately, continuing to breathe deeply, and letting go of one of Jason's hands to slip his hand up Jason's shirt, feeling over his side. He took his time tracing over every scar within reach and the slightly-raised birthmark over one of his ribs, and finally settled his hand on the curve of Jason's waist when he was satisfied that everything was present and where it should be.

He shook his head, finally responding to Jason's question, but he kept his face buried against his chest.

"Okay sweetheart," Jason murmured, rubbing his free hand soothingly over Dick's upper back, and Dick's muscles slowly started to relax.

"I love you," Dick mumbled into his chest, after several minutes of silence.

"Love you too, sweetie."

Dick finally turned his head to the side again so his words weren't muffled. "I'm so in love with you it boggles my fucking mind sometimes." He clenched his hand lightly against Jason's waist.

Jason chuckled. "Yeah?"

Dick tilted his head up to smile up at him, eyes soft. "Yeah."

Jason smiled back at him and leaned down to kiss his forehead. "Well it's an awful good thing I'm stupidly in love with you too, then, isn't it?"

"I guess so," Dick said, his grin widening. "Funny how that all works out."

"Hmm, funny. That's one word for it."

Dick brought his hand up to cup Jason's cheek. "Seriously, though, I just want to… you've just been so fucking loving and supportive through all of this, every minute of it, and I can't possibly thank you enough for it. I couldn't be getting through this as well as I am without you, and I just hope you know how much I love and appreciate you." 

Dick scooted himself up a bit higher on the couch, his hand briefly sneaking under the collar of Jason's t-shirt to feel for the edge of the long, jagged scar on his shoulder, before sliding smoothly up to cup his neck as Dick leaned in and kissed him.

"Because I do," Dick continued, punctuating his sentence with another kiss. "I really do, I appreciate you so much."

Jason kissed him back, rubbing the back of Dick's hand that was still clasped in his with his thumb. "Thank you, sweet pea. I love you more than anything and I'm just doing my best to help you any way I can. I know you appreciate me."

"And I hope you know you're it for me. Don't think that just because I learned my lesson after three failed engagements that I'm any less serious about commitment than you are."

Jason kissed him again. "I know, honey. You sure picked the right guy: I can't get married anyway — I'm legally dead."

Dick laughed. "And since when have you let a silly little thing like the law tell you what you can and can't do?"

"Good point, let's get hitched."

Dick laughed again. "No, no, I need time to think of something to call it all off last-minute for. I'm running really low on excuses at this point and I wanna go four for four."

Jason snickered. "You're awful."

"So they say. You think that's why I never actually managed to get married?"

"Oh, I dunno," Jason drawled. "Maybe it's more like thinking of spending the whole rest of their life with the brilliance that is you is like staring into the sun. Overwhelming and unbearable in its magnificence."

"You're a horrible flatterer."

"I would never." Jason sounded incredibly over-the-top faux-offended and it made Dick smile.

"Well then what about you? How do you fare in the face of the sun?"

"Oh, me?" Jason grinned. "I brought sunglasses, sweetums."

Dick was unable to resist kissing him for that, even with the horrendous pet name. 

The whole analogy was corny and stupid, and unfortunately Dick found it terribly, terribly romantic. Sunglasses. Of course Jason would be the only one to come prepared; he always did play by different rules.

They kissed slowly for a few minutes, only stopping when there was a sudden, loud throat clearing. They both pulled apart, looking over in surprise at the intruder.

"When did you get in here?" Jason asked — he hadn't even heard the window opening again.

"Repulsive," was all Damian said, ignoring the question entirely.

Jason rolled his eyes, but Dick sat up.

"Did you come over for anything in particular?" he asked, scooting down to the other end of the sofa and pushing Jason's legs over so he was only taking up half the cushions.

Damian shrugged, and Dick took that to mean that he'd had a shitty day at school and wanted comfort, but didn't want to say it in so many words. He patted the empty bit of cushion beside him. "Come watch TV with us."

Damian sat without protest and leaned heavily against Dick's side, and Dick wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"I'll go make us some popcorn," Jason said.

When he came back, Damian had taken his shoes off and curled up, and almost as soon as Jason had set the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table and sat back down — upright this time, rather than lying down — Damian shoved his feet under his thigh, resolutely not looking at him. 

Jason smiled, eyes also directed pointedly at the screen, and let his hand rest on Damian's ankle.

◇◇◇

A few nights later, Jason had asked Dick for some backup on a case. Strictly speaking, Jason probably didn't need backup, but teaming up together was so much more fun.

"See you on the other side, love bug," Jason said.

Dick shook his head fondly. "Awful and corny."

He held his fingers out for a Vulcan kiss, and Jason tapped them with his own, before they silently split up: Dick grappling up onto the roof and Jason slipping in the front.

"Hey guys!" Jason said loudly, drawing the guards' attention.

All six of them pointed their guns at him, and he held his hands up.

"Woah now, let's not do anything rash. I don't think I'm allowed to get shot tonight."

One of the men pulled the trigger.

Jason dropped to the floor behind the crates and rolled into a crouch. "Well hey, somebody's not using their listening ears."

He moved a bit further down the stacks of crates as they shot at the place where he'd just been, running through their ammo like idiots.

Silence fell for a moment and Jason watched them through a crack as they watched the spot where he had been, waiting to see if he'd managed to survive their attack.

"Fine, if you're so insistent, let me check." He went back the way he came instead of moving further down, and, as predicted, they let loose a spray of bullets down the rest of the line of crates. The man closest to the entrance, and now closest to Jason, was out of bullets. Nice.

"Nightwing, sweetheart!" he called. "Am I allowed to get shot?"

He watched them all immediately look up, waiting for Nightwing to drop down, and Jason knew that Dick was probably stifling laughter.

"No, dear," Dick played along, his voice echoing down through the warehouse. A few men shot up blindly toward the roof. "We just got the couch reupholstered and I don't want blood on it again."

Jason grinned and suppressed a snicker. "Sorry boys, the husband says no." 

Several Wingdings came flying down, making one of the men drop his gun as he was cut, and Jason leapt out from behind the crates, going straight for the closest one with the empty gun.

He clocked him hard in the temple and jumped to kick the second-closest man straight in the face. Both of them went down, but the other men had recovered from their surprise and started shooting again. Jason did a back handspring out of the way of the bullets, toward the man on the far end, and kicked him in the back of the knee. His head smacked painfully on the ground as he went down, and Jason grabbed the man's gun, hitting another man in the back of the head with the butt of it.

"Nice. That was hot," Dick said, and Jason turned to see him zip-tying the second man he'd taken down's hands together, the two remaining men already down and trussed up.

"Aw man, I didn't even get to see you take them down," Jason said, pulling out his zip ties and getting to work on the two men at his feet.

Dick waved at one corner of the room. "There's CCTV in here, remember? You can watch it later."

"Yeah, but it's not the same," he whined, getting to his feet, the men all taken care of.

"If you two are done flirting," Barbara cut in through the comms, "the rest of us would like some peace and quiet."

"Killjoy," Jason said, unrepentantly.

"Hey, uh…" Tim's voice came through. "You guys didn't, like, actually get secretly married or something, right?"

Both of them burst into laughter.

"No," Dick said finally said, through his laughter. "We did not get secretly married."

"See, I told you, honey bunny: even Red has faith in the strength of my sunglasses."

"What in the everloving fuck does that mean?" Tim asked.

They both ignored him.

"Shut up." Dick shoved at Jason's shoulder half-heartedly, but he was blushing. "And just because I let that name slide once in a moment of weakness does not mean you have free reign to call me that."

"Mhm, sure thing my little bun-bun."

Dick groaned. "How did you make it worse?"

Jason snickered. "It's a talent, jellybean."

"I think I preferred it when you were calling me a weasel."

"Anyway," Jason said to the others. "No, we didn't get secretly married, but 'husband' just has so much more drama to it. I have an aesthetic to keep up, you know. It's either that or 'the missus', and I don't think he's too fond of that one."

"Absolutely not. It makes me sound like an aging housewife who stands around doing the ironing all day in floral dresses that look like old lady wallpaper."

Jason cracked up again. "Oh sweetheart; I love your mind."