[I do not own Teen Titans or any characters mentioned in this story. gUESS WHO'S BACK. IT'S ME. SO I've been gone so long because my laptop's been acting up, but I have it fixed and now have inspiration for another fic! Please don't kill me, if anything, kill my terrible (read: lovely and wonderful) girlfriend for fueling this fire. This consisted of...more of a need for Jericho to have actual family. I've had this headcanon for a while, hope you enjoy it. I'm planning on making this a full length fic.]
Jericho groaned, rubbing his burning eyes with the rough texture of his hands, calloused and bruised from recent weeks spent alone in the streets, bones and joints creaking in the effort and crying out for just a little while longer. He didn't have a little while longer. It didn't take Joseph much time to realize that he was very much not in a familiar place. Instead of waking up under a bridge of some sort, he was in a warm and cozy bedroom, light blue blankets spread over him and newly bought clothes fitting him better than his uniform.
A bright light was coming from the fan above him, blinding his eyes until he finally brought a hand to rub at his head and attempt to soothe the ache forming. Stretching his arms and cracking his back, the blonde ex-titan finally looked around the room some before sighing. So, someone had kidnapped him. There could be worse things. He stood up on his still wobbly legs, shaky and untrustful from so long without proper sleep, only to fall forward. Joey started wondering for a moment if his kidnapper had perhaps drugged him somehow as he found himself lying face first on the floor and accepting his fate instead of standing right back up like he should've been able to.
How long had it been since he'd slept? Really slept? For three months now he'd been roaming the streets, attempting to become a solo hero and only succeeding in tearing himself apart. Jericho sighed, closing his eyes and thinking back on the shitstorm he'd been through in the past three months. When Jericho had joined the Titans, he was the happiest he'd been in so, so long. He had so many friends to fill the silence for him then. Even the intimidating boy wonder had become one of Jericho's most trusted friends in a span of only a few weeks.
Because Jericho had trusted Robin so much, he told him of everything, his first mistake. Robin tossed their friendship aside the minute he'd learned of a connection between Jericho and Slade. He didn't even listen long enough to hear that it was Slade's fault Jericho had been rendered mute. Robin almost immediately ordered Jericho to pack his things and leave the tower, not even giving Jericho enough time to say goodbye to the friends he'd thought he'd finally made. Jericho was furious, to say the least. He spent all of his adrenaline on fighting as much crime as he could possibly find, which, to be honest, wasn't much. He was only one sixteen year old boy angrily combing the city for any thugs to take his anger out on. At first he was at least somewhat successful.
But as time passed, he had nowhere to sleep, no food to eat, no place to bathe. All he focused on was pushing himself further, on proving to Robin, to everyone, that he was Slade's son, but Slade was the furthest thing from a father you could come. Most times he'd go four to five days without sleep, pushing himself all the way until he passed out somewhere for a few hours, only to repeat the cycle. It was unhealthy, he knew, but he couldn't think of anything except for the deep betrayal he'd felt from his 'friend'.
And now he was here. In a house covered in fast food wrappers and terribly colored walls, and probably being drugged or sold by a kidnapper. Jericho sighed dramatically, and had he a voice, he would've let out an extremely over dramatic sigh. He knew he needed to get up, at least attempt to escape. He was just so tired. The floor was considerably comfortable considering he'd been sleeping on sidewalks for three months. And suddenly, the joyous silence that had almost lulled Jericho to sleep was rudely interrupted by a voice he thought he'd never hear again.
"And how's my favorite transvestite doing this fine morning?" Came a very familiar and equally annoying voice from where the doorframe of the room was. Jericho didn't even look up. He knew who it was. Suddenly, he did fear being kidnapped.
Jericho lifted his head half a centimeter above the wood floor being banging it downward out of frustration.
"Oh come on," came the voice of a previously assumed dead family member that walked over with his bunny slippers and picked him up by the shoulders as if he were a ragdoll, forcing Jericho to look him in the probably also drugged eyes.
"That's no way to greet your favorite uncle!" The scarred faced and infamous Deadpool said with an ever gleeful smile.
With some more creaks of his arm and a sigh of frustration at his uncle for making him move them, Joey finally managed to sign something out.
You're my only uncle, Wade.
Wade rolled his eyes, glad to see that despite Joey's recent troubles, he sure as hell didn't lose his sass or his sense of humor. Something that apparently ran in the family.
"Come on, let's get you back in bed owl-eyes." Wade said quieter, trying his hardest to lull his nephew back to sleep, seeing that the poor boy obviously needed it.
After some struggle with Jericho's stiff limbs, Wade finally managed to get the stickish boy into the bed, feeling a bout of pity for him as the boy nearly sunk down into the warm bed once again.
What am I doing here, Wade? Jericho signed with tired, drooping eyes and yet a still present expression that reminded Wade way too much of his brother after a long day of dealing with family.
"Well...I noticed how...down...you've been getting with your hero-ing and such." Wade offered, attempting to ease into his explanation slow.
Jericho immediately sat straight up, a glare present as he signed more.
How did you know about what I've been doing? Slade thought you were dead! I thought you were dead! Where have you been for the past twelve years?
Wade pulled in a large breath before nodding and accepting to having to explain everything.
"Well...do you know what the fourth wall is?" Wade asked. A skeptical shake of blonde head in return, of course.
"Okay well, it means I can see and do things that not alot of other people can. It's kinda hard to explain but- Joseph Wilson you stop signing that I'm crazy! I'm not- I mean-" Wade began, only to groan in frustration as he recalled the feeling of an attempt at explaining this to Slade at one point.
"Okay, listen. There are two separate dimensions where humans reside like actual humans. One, the dimension with your dad and your sister and the titans, is called DC Nation. The other is where we are right now, called Marvel. No one really knows about them but me." Wade explained, completely ignoring the bewildered and kind of amused look Joey was giving him.
"I know because in each dimension, comic books are a pretty popular form of media, yeah?" Wade asked, receiving a nod of Joey's head in return.
"Well," Wade began with a smirk, "What if I told you I crossed paths with The Ghost Rider and lived to tell about it?" Wade finished, noticing the gleam in Joey's eyes and distantly remembering the lumbering towers of comic books Joey read as a child.
"All those heroes and villains you read as a kid? They live here. I met Iron Man a few years ago, pretty stuck up guy, but pretty cool. I met another guy named Thor, pretty weird, but his dumb hair kinda reminds me of you." Wade said teasingly as he ruffled Joey's hair and finally managed a smile out of the boy.
"Anyway, the same way you read comic books about the people here, we read comic books about you. There's an entire line of comics dedicated to the Teen Titans, crazy huh?" Wade said, pulling out a book from under the lamp next to Joey's bed and handing it to him, watching Joey's eyes go wide as he saw a large picture of Raven, Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire all aiming at a very angry looking Terra, decked out in Wilson apprentice uniform.
Maybe crazy ran in the family, but Joey was just near believing Wade.
"I know it's a lot to take in. The reason I left and never really came back is because here, I was able to make a name for myself without being 'Deathstroke's dumb twin brother', y'know? Here, I can do what I want, when I want, and no one can stop me. I'm a hero, Joey! I mean...kinda. I-It's a work in progress." Wade finished, eyeing Joey as he finally accepted everything, looking more than a little overwhelmed.
"Hey, chin up, kid. Everything's gonna be okay. I brought you here so you wouldn't have to worry about everything back home. I'm not gonna force you into it, but I was planning on asking you to stay with me here." Wade said, laying a comforting hand on Joey's frail shoulder, not noticing the hopeful gleam in Joey's eyes.
"I know how bad things are at home, I've been watching over you. I suppose someone has to. I know I should've been there for you more- what with your psycho dad and your missing mother and your-" Wade never got to finish his sentence because a blonde fluff of hair was already hugging him tight around the neck and shakily signing 'thank you, thank you' over and over again hysterically.
"Oh wow, how long's it been since you hugged me? I remember when you used to slap me away for even touching your hair." Wade joked, already attempting to get Joey to lean back into the bed.
With some resistance, Joey finally fell back and limp against the warm pillow and the large comforter.
"Get some sleep, alright? You need it Golden Boy. You've been running around rampant and completely beating yourself to death-" Wade said as Joey already closed his eyes and rolled over to get comfortable. He quietly recollected that Wade was beginning to sound too much like his mother did once.
"...just...let yourself heal, and then we'll sort things out, I promise." Wade said, mostly to himself, as he pet Joey's hair again. The larger man snickered as Joey sleepily slapped his hand away from his still dirty hair and cuddled himself deeper into the blankets that he enjoyed so much.
He barely heard Wade leave the room or close the door, but he was also too tired to care. He was fearful - Joey was so worried that he'd wake up back on the streets. But for now, he was too tired to care about that either. He was in a warm bed, with a family member that wasn't out to use him for his powers or mesh him into a cult like family circle.
It'd been so long since Jericho slept, really slept. Lately he just passed out on the ground, no dreams, no nightmares, just the blank vastness of a black pit that was swallowing him up from the inside out.
Jericho let out one more sigh before finally dreaming of a life away from his own.
[You're welcome. I know, this is very weird. I've been getting into Marvel more lately and I also LOVE the idea of cross dimensions and comic books and yada yada. Also, don't ask me for more details on how Wade works, it's Wilson logic. Same reason Jericho just MAGICALLY remembered that he had healing powers when it was necessary to the plot in the comics and regrew his eyeballs. Read and Review please!]