In the same universe as Pleasant Distractions, found on my Tumblr at post/30162030550/title-pleasant-distractions.
Dick came flashing into Damian's personal chambers on fleet feet, entering with the impunity that only he and Damian's revered mother were afforded.
"My lord," he cried, falling to his knees at Damian's feet where he stood by the map table, and looking up at him with pleading eyes "Lord and Lady Drake returned unexpectedly, and they caught Timmy and Jason, and they sent Jason back to the slave market! Jay belonged to the household, so Timmy couldn't prevent it, and they are keeping him in his rooms until they leave again. I don't know why they care, since they are never home anyway, but they do, and they did, and Tim is heartbroken, and *Jason*-!"
Damian held up a hand, and the other went instantly silent. He dropped the hand to the back of Dick's neck, fingers trailing along either side of the finger-wide silver collar, reveling in the way Dick leaned into the caress, even when distressed. The older man was always so hungry for touch.
"And why should I care?" He dug that hand into Dick's neck when the slave jerked unconsciously away, stung and hurt by Damian's words. Damian knew how much Jason meant to him; his brother in all but blood. Damian shook him a bit, and bored blue eyes into his until Dick realised that Damian was asking him to think, hard and fast, for a good, plausible, political reason for him to be able to rescue Jason from the markets without upsetting the political balance or ruining any of their facades. Damian might love his slave, but he could not indulge him in this if it would put the whole kingdom in danger.
"Ah," Dick thought fast. This kind of manipulative political thinking was not his strong point, but he needed to convince Damian to go rescue his brother. "If you had him in your possession, you might be able to convince the people who are suspicious of Tim's loyalty to the crown rather than his parents interest that you are blackmailing him into siding with you in order to see his lover?"
"Hmmm," Damian considered that for a long moment while Dick twitched impatiently against the implacable hand against the back of his neck. "And what makes you think that is not exactly what I will be doing?"
"Dami?" Dick gasped, forgetting himself in his astonishment. He looked at Damian like he was seeing for the first time the grandchild of Ra's everyone else had always seen, and not the little lord who he had played with whenever the young boy visited his father's court. Not the boy who had quickly surpassed him in height or the passionate young man who had claimed Dick as his coming-of-age present.
Damian continued to stare levelly at the slave, as much as he hated that look. Nails dug deep in punishment for the breach in protocol, though he normally treasured the open affection Dick regarded him with, untinged by the wariness of the rest of the court.
Nails dug into his neck at the use of his lord's proper name, disallowed to him since Damian came of age, at least outside the passions of the bed. Dick tried to think past the sudden surge of arousal. His collar would brush against those marks until they faded.
Dick took a deep breath. The boy Dick had watched grow up never displayed a penchant for manipulation; it was normally enough for him to demand, and be given. Lately necessity had forced a shift in that behaviour, but while he and Tim had never really gotten along, they had a wary sort of alliance. Damian had disliked his Father's affection for Tim, but knew that Tim was no threat to his position as heir. Tim had helped a lot in Damian's early days at court, educating him in the subtle nuances as only a true observer like Tim could. They schemed together now to control and manipulate the troublesome elements of court. The nuances of Damian's relationship with Tim were impossible for Dick to understand, but-
"My lord," Dick's voice was quite and sad. "you would not keep my brother away from his lover would you? When he loves Tim as much as I do you?"
-but Dick was sure of Damian's affections for him, and knew the other held an inexplicable fondness for Jason as well. He knew that, regardless of the appearances Damian put up, his young lord was a good man and would not condemn Jason to the fate that awaited him. Not after what had happened to Dick.
"You wouldn't let them take him away?" He tried to make that come out as a statement, a firm belief, but his voice shook too much.
Dick dropped his shoulders and peered up at Damian through his eyelashes as the silence stretched. Damian's face was stone. Dick had not looked at his lord so tentatively since Damian had reclaimed him from those who had stolen him away. Dick knew better now, but at the time he had allowed them to convince him Damian had grown tired of him, had sold him off in the night, away from his brother, and all he had ever known. Despite the bloody carnage Damian had wreaked when he had finally found Dick, it had been a long, hard road for Damian to convince Dick that he had never sold him, would never grow tired of him, that he would never be forced to bear the touch of another again.
Dick was abruptly yanked against the firm warmth of Damian's thigh, encouraged to lean against his lord's warmth. Dick practically melted into the contact, despite the tension running through him. He rubbed his cheek against the thin, skin-warmed fabric at Damian's hip, inhaling the much-loved scent of his lord, and trying to keep himself quiet and still; nearly holding his breath for his lord's decision. Damian was silent for an infinite moment before he stepped away abruptly, and started striding to the door.
"Come, Richard. We must make it to the market quickly, before some idiot buys Todd, and the muscle bound lug kills him for the offence."
Dick grinned happily, jumped to his feet, and rolled into a triple flip across the floor, kept mostly clear just for those purposes. He passed Damian, and caught the faint, fleeting smile at his antics before he bowed his lord through the door. A hand squeezed, brief and tight, around his wrist. He shuddered at the promise in it, and raced quickly in Damian's shadow as the larger man strode towards the stables.