A/N - See the beginning of Ch.1 for trigger warnings. Lemons ahead, read at your own risk!

Please be aware of the difference between a fictional fantasy and real life. Real life BDSM should only be practiced with a vetted, trusted partner, who you've discussed limits, boundaries, and safe words with. Safe, sane, and consensual irl everybody! This is FICTION for a reason!

"Hey, Jason," Tim said curiously when he crawled in through his window after patrol late one night that week and found his older brother sitting on his couch, nervously twirling his red helmet around in his hands.

"Hey, Timmers," Jason said, clearing his throat and threatening the butterflies in his stomach to scram.

"You ok?" Tim asked him, furrowing his brow up as he peeled his domino off.

"Yeah," Jason said. "Kind of. I mean, yeah," he amended. Tim gave him a skeptical look that made him huff out enough air that his white forelock ruffled in the breeze. "Need to talk to you about something, is all," Jason said.

"Something serious, from the looks of it," Tim said mildly as he unclipped his Batbelt and tugged his gloves off.

"Yeah," Jason said hoarsely. "So, uh. Here's the thing. First - well - shit. I guess - what's really first - fuck." Tim was looking at him with more concern than amusement now. He sat down sideways in a chair at his dinette and bent down with his elbows on his knees, giving Jason his full attention. Jason let out a deep sigh and ran his hands through his hair.

"I've been fucking Steph," he said in a rush without looking at Tim. Tim inhaled sharply. Jason screwed his eyes shut and began plowing through the rest in a desperate bid to finish before Tim began cursing him out or beating the shit out of him or worse, crying.

"It was just sex and Steph swears I'm not why she didn't get back together with you and I believe her because - uh - well - I can't actually tell you why because that's her business but - I do. Believe her," Jason said, pressing his palms tightly over his eyes. "But now we're gonna start dating because I kinda fell for her and maybe she's falling for me, too, and - fuck. I'm such a piece of shit. I'm so sorry," Jason groaned, burying his head in his hands and refusing to look over at the brother whose back he'd just stabbed.

Tim didn't say anything but Jason could hear his breaths coming hard and fast. After a minute of silence, there was a quiet sniff. Jason made a distressed noise and forced himself to lift his head to look at his little brother, whose eyes were wet and red and angry and fuck it all, hurt. So hurt. Of course they were.

"I didn't mean to," Jason whispered hoarsely. "I just went over one night to ask her a question and she was naked and I was stupid and …"

"And you decided fucking me over once wasn't enough? Tim asked him kind of coldly, except the broken rasp of held back tears in his voice made his tone a lot more pathetic than he'd probably intended. Jason sighed.

"It wasn't about you," he said softly. "I promise."

"Then why'd you keep fucking her?" Tim shouted at him as he angrily scrubbed at the tear that dared to slip down his cheek. "You're the owner of the Iceberg Lounge and I think we can objectively say that you're hot. Women probably line up to fuck you. Why'd you have to keep fucking my girlfriend?"

"Ex-girlfriend," Jason gently corrected.

"You knew we were going to get back together!" Tim snapped.

"I knew you wanted to, yeah," Jason sighed. "But baby bird, Steph ain't what you think she is."

"What the fuck does that even mean?" Tim screamed. "Why don't you let me decide whether or not I can handle what she is or isn't?"

"She decided," Jason said softly. "Not me."

"But you didn't have to keep fucking her!" Tim snarled.

"No. No, I didn't," Jason agreed. "But I ain't gonna lie, I really wanted to. We're, uh, extremely sexually compatible," he hedged.

"Again, options! Hello! You had them!" Tim sneered, gesturing wildly with his hand.

"No, I didn't," Jason said quietly but firmly. "Not like what me and Steph do. And no, I won't be more specific because it's Steph's business, too," he said, cutting off Tim's next question. "You can go ask her about why we kept fucking if you want. She can tell you everything she wants about me and my kinks, I don't care, but I ain't gonna tell you shit about hers."

"Kinks?" Tim sniffed suspiciously. Jason stonewalled him with flat eyes. Tim glared at him for another minute before dropping his eyes. He rubbed his nose on his uniform sleeve without speaking.

"I get you're angry and hurt," Jason said gently. "I swear that wasn't my intention, but I get what I did and I'm sorry. Now that I'm actually gonna date her, I wanted you to hear it from me instead of finding out by accident, so. Guess I'll head out and let you hate me in peace." Jason sighed with regret as he stood up and replaced his helmet on his head.

He snapped the lights off before drawing back the blackout curtains from the window. Just before he crawled through to the fire escape, Tim's voice came through the shadows harsh and serrated like a knife's edge.

"If you break her heart, I will kill you." Jason smiled sadly underneath his helmet.

"I would expect no less, baby bird," he said before slipping out. He closed the window after him.

Alone in the dark, Tim began to sob.

"How'd it go?" Steph asked Jason in concern when he was crawling into bed beside her twenty minutes later. Jason groaned and wrapped himself around her naked body, burying his head in her neck.

"Not good," he mumbled. "Pretty sure I broke his little heart."

"Well, that makes two of us," Steph said in wry empathy. Jason groaned louder and Steph hugged him tight and pressed some kisses into his hair. "Thank you," she said softly, a minute later. "For telling him."

"He's my brother," Jason sighed. "I had to."

"Yeah, but he's my former best friend and ex-boyfriend," Steph said dismally. "It would have been just as fair for me to be the one to tell him. Or for us to tell him together."

"It was better this way," Jason said. "Let him get all his anger out at me without you there. Not that I expect him to get over being angry anytime soon, but …"

"How are you feeling?" Steph asked him gently when he trailed off into broodiness.

"He was so fucking hurt," Jason mumbled, avoiding the question. He swallowed hard against the tears that were pushing their way to the surface. Steph hummed in sympathy as she kept cuddling him, running soothing fingers through his hair.

"You're a good brother," she reassured him. Jason

gave a wet, derisive laugh.

"I'm not," he scoffed.

"You love him," Steph said. "And you care about your relationship with him. You went and told Tim the truth, knowing it would hurt him, because you knew it would hurt him less than finding out in a way that was easier for you. You are a good brother," she insisted. "Sometimes life hurts the people we love in ways we wish it didn't," she added quietly.

"Well, that's the truth," Jason sighed, squeezing his arm around her waist a little tighter.

"It means a lot," Steph said softly, "that you care so much about Tim but want to date me anyway. I would've just kept fucking you, ya know?" she admitted. "Nothing had to change." Jason totally lost the battle with his smile - and Steph felt it, too, pressed against her neck, because her cheeks stretched into her own grin against his forehead.

"Beg to differ," Jason growled, hauling himself up to press a warm kiss into her mouth.

"Mm, well, I'm not complaining," Steph smiled back at him, her eyes shiny and bright in the dim glow of her bedside lamp. "I like you coming over just to sleep," she added with the thready vulnerability that was still so new to see on her.

"I like it, too," Jason admitted, trying to tamp down just how much he liked it, because he didn't feel like he had the right to be so happy in Steph's arms when he'd just come from wrecking his brother's life. Normally if he wasn't up for sex, he'd stay home and work and patrol and sleep alone without a word to Steph, because them and communication were most decidedly not a throuple.

But he'd known he wasn't going to want to fuck after talking to Tim, and he'd wanted to fall asleep next to his girl anyway. And he'd even checked in with Steph ahead of time to make sure it would be ok. Sex kinks? Jason forged ahead with confidence and without conversation. But literal sleeping? Jason had been anxious about crossing an unspoken line in the sand. A line which Steph seemed equally pleased to smudge into non-existence.

"Hopefully Tim will get over it," Steph sighed as she reached over to turn off the light. "Eventually," she added slightly more despondently.

"We'll find him someone new," Jason vowed. "When he's ready and it won't be a rebound."

"You sound like a pimp," Steph giggled in the dark.

"I prefer the term matchmaker," Jason quipped back, while he reflected on just how much he really did like Steph, with her unfiltered comments and sharp wit and sharper claws, when she was in the mood to unsheath them. There was a reason why she'd originally snagged his interest, after all, and made him consider a professional partnership.

Someone had trained his girl well while she was away from Gotham. Too well - lethally (and didn't Jason know the signs of that kind of regimen) - because Steph was far more skilled of a fighter than she let on to the Bats. He wanted to ask her about it one day, but he was worried what his questions might unleash. Or, more specifically, who his questions might unleash. Jason got the impression that Steph had far less of a grasp on her system of Parts than he had on his.

But she was getting by, and so was he. For two Dead Robins, they weren't doing half bad, Jason thought to himself with a rueful smile as he nestled closer into Steph's side. Falling asleep in her arms was not bad at all. In fact, it was pretty damn good.

"Deathstroke," Batgirl drawled cautiously several weeks later when she came across the black and orange clad assassin stretched out flat on a rooftop with a sniper rifle aimed at a darkened window one night.

"Did my enhanced hearing deceive me," Slade asked mockingly, turning his head to regard her, "or did someone click her earpiece off before confronting me?" Steph gave him a wicked grin.

"Who's the target?" she asked languidly.

"Why?" Slade said bluntly, pulling his facemask up and off so he could look her in the eye, although he maintained his sniper position. His gaze was thoughtful. Curious.

"Well," Steph said, strolling a little closer and then sitting down casually on the roof's ledge not too far from him, stretching her feet out lazily in front of her, "if your target's a real piece of shit, maybe I'll forget we ran into each other this fine evening," she winked. Slade tipped his head to the side.

"Heard you were dating Red Hood," he said evenly.

"Yep," Steph said easily.

"Heard you spent some time in Africa with a mutual acquaintance, too," Slade said mildly, the corner of his mouth quirking up. A wave of wet cement rippled through Steph's psyche.

"How much to kill her?" she said flatly. Slade snorted and redirected his gaze towards his target's window. "I'm not playing," Steph said harshly. "How much?" Slade actually turned his whole head to face her.

"Two million," he said. This time, Steph snorted.

"That's bullshit, she's competition. Think how many more jobs you'd get without her around." Slade chuckled.

"And she even negotiates the price," he mused, half to himself.

"Fuck yeah, I negotiate," Steph grinned like a viper. "Two million is overpriced and you know it."

"Killing Lady Shiva is a more difficult job than most I take on," Slade pointed out, his sole eye beginning to twinkle.

"Oh, like the unkillable meta-human Slade Wilson can't take her out just like that," Steph scoffed, snapping her fingers. "Getting soft in your old age, Deathstroke? 950."

"1.5," Slade countered.

"1.1," Steph said.

"1.25," Slade returned, "and that's my final offer."

"Whine whine whine," Steph mocked. Slade shrugged. "Fine," Steph sighed on a noisy exhale. "Does Hood have your routing info?" Slade smirked and nodded. "'K, I'll get him to pay you later tonight," she said, standing up and stretching. "We good here?" she checked, gesturing to the still-dark window. "Or do I have to kick your ass?"

"Vincent Piaretti," Slade tossed over his shoulder as he refocused on his eventual target. "Top dog in the Maroni's sex trafficking operation. The Falcones hired me to take him out. They're looking to muscle in on Maroni's turf."

"Well, hallelujah," Steph said with dry approval. "I'll give Hood a heads up about the trafficking," she said as she turned to walk away. "Falcones ain't gonna be muscling in on shit when we shut it all down," she grinned back at Slade. "But, hey. I appreciate them saving Hood a kill," she winked. "Have a good night, Deathstroke," she sing-songed over his faint chuckle.

Batgirl's back was to Slade and she was sauntering towards the edge of the roof when Red Robin landed in front of her with a thud.

"Batgirl! Behind you!" he shouted, shoving her aside and drawing his bo staff. The merry-go-round in her head whirled and Steph snarled.

Slade's head snapped around at the call of alarm, but it was the whuff that flew out of Red Robin's chest as Batgirl bodyslammed him face first to the roof that really caught his attention.

"Oh, shit," Slade whispered, springing to his feet. The kid's reflexes had at least kicked in, despite his obvious utter confusion as to why his fellow Bat had just attacked him, and good thing. Batgirl's second blow would've just broken his spine if he hadn't twisted in defense at the last second and taken the hit on his ribs, instead. Slade winced. He would've heard the bones crack even without his advanced hearing.

"Get out of here," Slade yelled at the kid as he ran towards him. Slade threw himself through the air and tackled Batgirl off of his chest just before she would have sliced the kid's throat with a knife she'd pulled out of nowhere. Fuck.

She growled and flipped him off of her, and then they were fighting hard, hand to hand to knife to hand. Slade could still beat Batgirl easily, despite Shiva's damned fine training, but fuck it, he didn't want to hurt her.

"Cease program. Desist. Disengage," Slade roared at the former Robin. "Mission accomplished!" he tried. "Power down!"

"You brainwashed her?" Red Robin shrieked at him from across the roof, instead of limping his beat-up ass down the fire escape to safety like a sane person.

"Not me, kid!" Slade snarled as he blocked another blow. "Call Red Hood. Get him over here," he shouted, hoping the kid had enough sense to do it. Maybe Hood knew her off button. "Go to sleep!" Slade tried. Nothing.

Maybe he should've shelved the pity and knocked the feral Batgirl out, because the stupid Batkid had re-attracted her attention by screaming at him about the brainwashing. Slade cursed as Batgirl managed to slice him in the thigh with her knife in a feint, cleverly switching at the last second to an attack that was meant to distract rather than disable, like he'd been expecting. The whack to his head afterwards served him right.

Slade staggered as Batgirl whirled and launched herself back at Red Robin, whose face was grimaced in pain but who was still trying to keep her at a distance with his bo staff despite that. Batgirl knew where she'd hurt him, though, and kept attacking in ways that made Red twist his broken ribs every time he blocked. Kid was about to collapse from pain, Slade could tell.

Slade groaned and groggily began to charge at Batgirl - his head would clear in a minute, he'd be fine - but he found himself being hauled backwards and pummeled by the Big Bat instead.

"Fuck me!" Slade screamed at him, launching into a series of way more vicious attacks than he'd been willing to unleash on the girl. "I am trying to save your stupid kid's life!" he roared at the Bat, who was glowering at him while doing his best to knock out the mercenary who had not been having a bad night at allup until the restaurant themed wonderbrat had shown his mug.

Batgirl had been surprisingly cool; Slade had been about to get his kill off without interference, and he'd even booked a lucrative new job - one which had the added bonus of giving him an excuse to take out a longtime thorn in his side. Pretty peachy night until the little do-gooder had butted in.

The Bat sneered at him and would've kept attacking, except a much younger voice yelled, "Batman!"

Batman whirled towards where the tiniest Robin was fighting Batgirl off from Red Robin, and Slade was a big enough man that he didn't even punch Bats upside the head as he turned. Only because he was worried about the girl, though. Slade respected Red Hood and they generally left each other alone. The girl being a Bat had given him pause at first tonight, despite the rumors of her dating the Hood, but when she'd turned out to be a surprisingly easy-going ally and then become a client, well. Slade was gonna have her back.

Even if that meant not fucking the Bat up right now for coming at him when he wasn't the threat in this situation. (He'd definitely fuck him up twice as hard another night to make up for it.) He could let it go for the moment, though, because Batman had his hands full.

Batgirl wasn't just fighting the little Robin, Slade saw. She was trying to kill him, just like she'd been trying to kill Red Robin. Which meant that, just like Slade, the baby Robin was having to hold back so that he didn't seriously injure her the way the former child assassin surely wouldn't hesitate to do in a normal life and death brawl.

"Evacuate Red Robin!" Batman barked at the kid, throwing himself in-between Batgirl and the older brat and taking her blows on his armored suit instead, which was far more suited to it. Slade let him have at it and trotted over to the pair of boys.

"Come on," Slade said, hauling Red Robin up. "You got the Bat-Mobile around here?" he asked the younger one. Little Robin's eyes lit up.

"Yes," he said cautiously.

"Can you drive it?" Slade persisted, fighting a grin.

"Indeed," the baby Robin beamed.

"Good. Go pull it up to the bottom of that fire escape," Slade ordered with a gesture. Robin scampered off quickly, before Red Robin could protest, which suited Slade just fine. He looked down at the injured kid beside him. "Gonna have to be bridal carry with those ribs," he smirked. Red groaned but Slade just laughed and scooped him up, jogging over to the fire escape while Batgirl was distracted by Batman.

The kid was quiet at first, but then he said quietly, "She's brainwashed?"

"Seems like," Slade said mildly as he descended the metal steps.

"By who?" the kid frowned. Slade raised an eyebrow at him.

"Information costs," he smirked. When Red Robin began to splutter, Slade dropped down to the ground a smidgen harder than he had to. That shut the kid up - if you counted a muffled whimper as silence. "Ask

Batgirl," Slade added as the Bat-Mobile pulled up at a reckless speed and screeched to a halt in front of them. "She knows."

He deposited the hero on his feet, leaving him to manage his own way into the car, and jumped back up to the fire escape. When he made it back onto the roof where Batgirl was still beating the shit out of Batman, while the Bat gritted his teeth and took it (which was hella entertaining), a grappling gun whizzed through the air and Red Hood landed next to him.

"Babe!" Jason immediately yelled, although he was caught up by the beautiful wonder of Steph demonstrating some top-notch League of Assassins moves against B, who was letting her get away with as much as he could without getting himself hurt. Steph paid absolutely no attention to Jason's call, but kept striking B with a relentless fury.

"She's acting on programming," Deathstroke said from beside Red Hood. "Red Robin tried to shove her out of the way to get to me and that flipped the switch."

"Oh, shit," Jason gulped.

"You know her codes?" Slade asked him. Jason groaned and shook his head.

"I kinda suspected she was conditioned, but we haven't talked about it yet."

"Better get on that," Slade advised wryly.

"Yeah," Jason muttered. "Is she likely to know her own on and off switches, though?" he asked Slade as he frowned. "Don't they usually make sure the programmed parts can't reveal their access words?" Slade grunted.

"Your girl just hired me to kill Lady Shiva," he informed him in a seemingly abrupt change of topic. "You owe me 1.25 mil for that, by the way." Jason chuckled.

"No problem."

"I'm thinking," Slade said slowly, "if you bump it up to three, I could try to get the access words out of her first. No guarantees, since it's Shiva, but I'll do my damn best." Jason held his hand out to shake without turning his head away from Steph. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Slade's lip curl into a smile as they clasped hands.

"Got any advice for right now?" Jason asked him. Slade hummed.

"Lose the helmet and mask and the bat on your chest," he said. "I'll get Bats to fall back and you try to talk her down."

"Ok," Jason said. He disengaged his helmet's secret catches and dropped it on the rooftop, followed by his domino. Turning his back to Steph, he zippered his leather jacket up to his neck, covering the red bat symbol on his armored black shirt.

"Ready," he said, turning back towards Slade. Slade nodded, getting a sly grin on his face. With a whoop and a holler, Deathstroke bolted forward and dove at B from the side, tackling him down to the gravel and concrete rooftop, and gleefully began to beat the shit out of him.

"Babe," Jason said more urgently, trotting up to his very confused girlfriend. Batgirl had paused her attack at Slade's intervention and was watching the two men fight, with a considering expression on her face. Running through programmed orders, Jason suspected. Trying to figure out which best fit the new situation.

"Sweetheart," Jason said gently, lifting his hands palms up to Steph but staying several feet back. "Steph. Baby," he tried and - huh. She swiveled her head away from the bitching and fighting duo who were arguing now as well as trading blows and looked at him curiously.

"Hey, baby," Jason said softly. "I know you've got a different Part forward right now, but someone inside you knows me. A couple someones, I think," he said. He dared to take a small step forward. "You think you can ask inside and find out if I'm someone you can trust?"

Steph tilted her head like a bird, and her eyes fluttered up into her head. A few seconds later, she cautiously met his eyes.

"Jason," she said slowly. Or, well. Jason's Steph didn't say it. The woman facing him now was colder, much more calculating. But she knew his name, and she'd managed to communicate with some other Parts, and she wasn't attacking him. Yet.

"Yeah, baby," Jason replied. "That's right. What's the consensus? Am I safe? Can I take you home?" To Jason's surprise, a glimmer of a smile appeared on the corner of Steph's mouth, but it fell when her eyes slid over to the still brawling B and Deathstroke.

"I'm supposed to -" Steph furrowed up her brow.

"Supposed to what, honey?" Jason asked her.

"Kill the Robins," Steph said slowly. Jason clamped down the hiss of air that wanted to escape his lungs. Goddamnit. If Leslie wasn't already dead, he'd kill her himself.

"The Robins aren't here anymore, sweetheart," Jason forced himself to say soft and gentle. "And Deathstroke's walloping Batman. Can we go home?" He took a step closer into Steph's space, stopping right in front of her. "Please, baby girl?" he asked her, nudging a few of his fingers forward to lightly trace against Steph's where they hung at her side. It was a risk, yeah. But Steph drew a shuddery breath and looked down at their hands.

Jason inched his fingers closer and softly wrapped them around hers.

"Home?" Steph whispered, sounding lost.

"We can go to my place if you want," Jason offered. A ripple of visible relief ran through Steph and she nodded, closing her fingers a little tighter around his. Hopefully Slade would grab his mask and helmet for him, Jason thought to himself as he led Steph to the fire escape, because he sure as hell wasn't going to put them back on at the moment.

But his jacket was zipped up, and it was dark, and the entrance to his underground lair was hidden well away from the Iceberg Lounge, so he shouldn't be too recognizable, even with Batgirl hanging onto the back of his bike. He'd give anything for Steph to be more recognizable, though.

At least all of his Parts had formed on their own, fracturing as a defense mechanism while Joker was torturing him. Steph had independent Parts, too, sure. Her ordeal with Black Mask had seen to that. But Shiva and Leslie had ruthlessly and deliberately forced her system to create even more Parts, and then programmed them from the ground up.

It was a miracle that Steph's core had found her way out of the labyrinth they'd constructed around her in the first place. He prayed that she could do it again now that she'd been sucked back in. At least she recognized him - and not only recognized him, but trusted him. Jason would never have guessed that his heart could feel so full and hurt so much at the same time.

She laid her head down on his shoulder as they sped through the city on his bike, and Jason had to fight his tears.

Steph looked around his apartment with curious eyes when he led her inside from the private elevator connected to his underground base of operations.

"You got your own name?" Jason asked her forward Part gently. "Something you want me to call you?" Not-Steph's eyes swiveled back to him.

"Where's the other one?" she asked instead. Jason raised an eyebrow. "The sexy asshole," she clarified. Jason laughed low and rough and cricked his neck.

"You into him?" his other-self purred, prowling closer. Not-Steph gave him a shark's smile.

"Come and find out," she taunted. Jason paused.

"Is everybody ok with that?" he asked her.

"Oh, yeah," Razor Steph grinned. She sauntered forward and looped her arms around Jason's neck. "We're all so very ok with that," she smirked, right before kissing him, hard and aggressive and - Jason yelped.

"Fuck," he grinned back at her when his fingers to his lips came away bloody. "I'm gonna make you pay for that," he warned with smoldering heat coloring the dark shadows in his eyes.

"You're gonna try," Razor Steph smirked.

An hour later, Jason wanted to pass out from exhaustion, but Steph, thankfully, seemed like she was finally switching. Not that it hadn't been hot as hell to fight fuck, and good God could Razor Steph ride a cowboy, but Jason was still so worried about his girl. She was curling into his chest all cute and sweet now, nestling her head into his neck and making happy little purrs while Jason wrapped his arms around her and cuddled her close.

"You coming back, baby?" Jason asked her softly as he brushed lazy fingers through her hair.

"Uh-uh," Steph denied, snuggling in tighter. Jason chuckled.

"Ok, honey," Jason hummed. "Well, I ain't going anywhere. I'm here when you're ready, ok?"

"'K," Steph sweetly mumbled before pressing sloppy, soft kisses to his neck. "Love you," she added. Jason's breath caught in his throat.

"I love you, too, baby," he said hoarsely. Steph let out a happy giggle and wriggled against him like a flopping fish before settling down again in Jason's snug embrace.

"We killed Leslie," Steph suddenly announced, lifting her chin up to look at him.

"I figured," Jason said honestly.

"Really?" Steph asked, her face brightening. Jason nodded. "Good," she declared more peacefully. "Glad you're not mad. Tim would've - Tim -" she stuttered to a halt. Jason rubbed a soothing hand on her back and waited.

"Oh, fuck," Steph - his Steph - whispered in horror. "Jason. What did I do? What did I - ?"

"It wasn't your fault," Jason swiftly promised. "And he's ok. Cracked ribs. Nothing that won't heal up."

"I tried to kill him," Steph whimpered. "If Slade hadn't been there - oh my God -"

"If Slade hadn't been there, maybe you wouldn't have tried to kill him," Jason rationally pointed out. "Tim shoved you aside, Slade said."

"He could've done that to protect me from anybody, though, in any fight," Steph moaned. "Oh, God. I'm such an idiot. I thought I was ok now that Leslie was dead, that I could keep myself from losing control -" She sniffed as tears filled her eyes.

"We'll figure it out," Jason promised, even though it was honestly more of a hope than a guarantee. "Slade's gonna try to torture your access words outta Shiva before he offs her," he added.

"Good luck to him," Steph muttered, wiping her eyes on her arm.

"Hey, baby, we'll figure something out, ok?" Jason said soothingly. "Even if it means you and the Bats can't team up anymore. We'll make sure you don't hurt them. You could always be my sidekick, ya know," he grinned at her.

"Yeah?" Steph asked with a shaky smile.

"Absolutely," Jason swore. "Dead Robins gotta stick together."

"I meant it," Steph suddenly blushed, dipping her head. "About being in love with you."

"I meant it, too," Jason said in a husky voice. The radiant smile that Steph gave him was everything - but their kiss was even better.

"So Leslie and Lady Shiva brainwashed Steph and trained her to kill us?" Tim repeated in horror, his mouth falling open.

"Yeah, after Leslie kidnapped her," Jason grunted, looking away and crossing his arms over his chest as he fought the urge to run. Out of his line of sight, Tim sniffed.

"Did you know?" he asked Jason in a shaky voice.

"I suspected some of it," Jason admitted to the floor, "but me and Steph hadn't talked about it." Tim tried to choke back his sob. Jason's stomach churned.

"I guess that's why…"

"Why what, baby bird?" Jason said gently, twisting back around to look at him.

"Why she won't be with me," Tim finished dully. "She might accidentally kill me." Jason heaved out a sigh. It wasn't the only reason, but if latching onto that one facet brought Tim a little comfort -

"Steph cares about you, Timmers. She always will. She's devastated and terrified that she attacked you," Jason answered.

"S'not her fault," Tim mumbled.

"Yeah," Jason agreed. "Doesn't make her feel much better, though. Especially since she might lose control again without warning."

"I still wish I could be with her," Tim sniffed.

"I know," Jason said quietly. He did know and he was going to hell because he was so glad, so damn glad that he was the one who got to be with Steph instead, but -

"It's good she has you," Tim whispered. "And I'm happy you two are dating for real." Jason's head jerked back up.

"Really?" he stammered. Tim wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

"Only because it can't be me," Tim answered in a shaky voice with a bitter smile. "But since it can't -" he swallowed. "I know you'll take good care of her."

"Always," Jason swore.

Always and forever. Second chances were rare in life and even rarer after death. He and his fellow Dead Robin were gonna take full advantage of theirs, with each other.

No safe words needed.

The End

A/N - Thanks for reading! You can visit me on Tumblr at River9Noble

You can find all the JaySteph Weekend 2022 event works on Tumblr at JayStephEvents

Please be aware of the difference between a fictional fantasy and real life. Real life BDSM should only be practiced with a vetted, trusted partner, who you've discussed limits, boundaries, and safe words with. Safe, sane, and consensual irl everybody! This is FICTION for a reason!