Tim was making his way through the manor with an apple in one hand and his cell phone in another. Training today was brutal, and he decided he'd need more than just this apple to satisfy his hunger. Separating his gaze from his Facebook feed to take a bite from his fruit, he froze in his tracks at the sight awaiting him in the kitchen.
Barbara was standing between the island and the oven, leaning on her hands over the island. She was unblinking, staring onward with determination. A small smirk played at her lips and her brows were furrowed in determination. Between her hands, a plate was set on the counter with what appeared to be a freshly cooked grilled cheese sandwich.
Across from her, sitting at the bar of the island was Jason Todd. He rested his chin in his palms, his elbows firmly planted on either side of a plate identical to Barbara's. He was staring back into Barbara's eyes, unblinking, smirking, and determined. He was tapping his index finger against his temple impatiently, as if he was waiting for Barbara to say something or do something. The room was full of tension, but not necessarily in a bad way. Competitive tension, which all members of the Batfamily were accustomed to.
"Uhm…" Tim almost dropped his phone out of his hand in his confusion. Neither turned their head at the sound of his voice, which seemed weird to him. "What did I just walk into?"
Jason smiled mischievously. "Barbie here seems to think that I can't beat her in a staring contest. I think she forgot that I'm a literal zombie and I can pretty much do anything."
A very faint chuckle came from Barbara, so faint Tim almost didn't hear it from across the room. "I can think of a few things you can't do quite right." Barbara had an evil glint in her unblinking eyes.
Tim stood there, dumbfounded. "How long have you guys been doing this?" His question hung in the air for a few moments, neither of the elder Bats wanting to distract themselves from the important task at hand. Instead, he walked over to the stove and hovered his hand over the pan Barbara had just made grilled cheese in. It wasn't excessively hot, and Tim determined that they couldn't have been staring for more than five minutes at this point.
"Guys does it really matter who wins the staring contest?" he asked, sounding exasperated.
Neither moved, again. And Tim was surprised when Jason said, "You don't know the stakes, Timmy. It's life or death here."
He raised an eyebrow, both out of curiosity and out of annoyance. "What could you guys possibly bet on that's life or death?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, Replacement."
The youngest in the room rolled his eyes, turning his gaze back to his phone for a moment. Your siblings are in the kitchen being weird. Come look.
**********LINE BREAKER!**********
Twenty minutes later, the kitchen was full of bored Bats betting on who was going to win. Dick, Tim, Steph, Damian, Alfred, Bruce, Jason, Cass, and Barbara were all gathered around the island, watching this as if it were the most exciting sports event. Dick, Tim, and Cass were rooting for Barbara, claiming that they knew she was "the most stubborn person ever".
On the other side, Alfred, Stephanie, and Bruce were voting for Jason. They claimed that they knew from "personal experience."
Each group had one hundred dollars bet on the young heroes, and now along with Barbara and Jason's playful banter towards each other, the other six were arguing about who would win and why.
"Jason is undead!" Stephanie exclaimed. "He probably can't even feel pain anymore!"
"But he is also weak. He cannot compare to Gordon." Damian was very matter of fact in his claims.
"Don't sell Jaybird short, Dami. He packs a mean punch." Dick said, smiling at Jason, even though the latter was not looking.
He smirked at Barbara. "You hear that, Babs?" Jason asked. "Your own team is defending me."
And in that moment, Jason got an idea of how to speed this process up, because he was very hungry and his grilled cheese was probably cold by now. But he wasn't hungry enough to want to quit, the stakes were too high.
Bruce was silently watching from behind the crowd, a small smile resting on his lips and his arms crossed across his chest. He leaned up against the countertop, watching Jason's face intently. He knew that Jason would win, out of cleverness or maybe simply being too stubborn, but Jason would win. He'd find a way, just as Jason always had. Bruce had raised him, after all, and he was there when Jason got out of just about anything that was in his way. Whether he talked himself out of tough situations or he punched himself out or he tricked someone, he always got his way. Nothing was different now.
"Jason wants something, or he never would've started this contest. That's why he will win." Bruce's observations were well thought over by everyone else who was there. Barbara flinched in annoyance, and Jason smiled smugly.
Barbara was watching him. His eyes were gleaming with victory that he hadn't attained. The color was brilliant. Barbara had known Jason for at least ten years, and still the color of his eyes could stop her in her tracks. He was doing something with his eyebrows and his smirk and it was setting Barbara's skin on fire. She steeled her expression, keeping up a poker face.
But it was too late, Jason had already seen it.
He bit his lip, just barely, just enough for Babs to see it. She saw it and she felt a deep clench somewhere within her belly. Without realizing it, she pressed her thighs tightly together in an effort to drown that desire within her. Just out of her focus, she noticed his jaw line and his lips curved in a flirty and mischievous smirk. Before Barbara could stop herself, she imagined kissing and sucking and biting along his neck and his collarbones and his jaw and his lips all over her body leaving those kisses that only he can do somehow.
Using only his eyes, Jason changed his entire expression into a smolder. His eyebrows raised and his eyelids widened and the color just seemed to burn. Barbara gulped, barely caring anymore whether Jason noticed.
Which, of course, he did. Jason was slowly gaining the upper hand, and the only one paying enough attention to notice was Bruce.
The older man had long been aware of Jason and Barbara's strange relationship. Though he'd never spoken to either of them about it other than a small chat with Barbara, during which he did not explicitly say that he knew what was going on between them but instead told her to 'be careful' around his second son. She'd been pretty convincing, and had Bruce not already known she would've cemented the lie that there was nothing going on. But Bruce had already seen the way they looked at each other, the way that Jason lit up when Barbara was near. He'd seen that they train better when it's with each other, and that their chemistry made working cases together extremely easy and efficient. But now he could see their competitive natures getting in the way of their feelings, and he smiled a bit.
Barbara's lips were drawn in a tight line across her face, her focus unwavering on Jason's eyes.
"Babs is gonna crack," Dick whispered to Tim. She was fidgeting in her chair now, and Dick took that as a nervous twitch. Her hands were toying with each other, as though she was trying to distract herself.
Jason's smirk grew. "You look a little distracted there, Babs," he commented. His eyebrow raised and Barbara could've sworn she saw a literal sparkle or sarcasm in his eyes. "You thinking about the bet?"
Shit.
Barbara had totally forgotten about the bet that she and Jason had made. If her skin had been on fire before, now it was hotter than the deepest pits of hell. She even felt a blush beginning along her cheeks and her chest. Jason noticed it too, and he realized that now was the time to turn things up a notch.
"You know, Barbie, after I win," he paused, his mouth hanging open and she could see his tongue hanging lazily over his teeth. "I'm going to need a new sandwich. Mine is too cold to eat now, and you know how I like hot things."
The strength it took to resist rolling her eyes was almost more than she had. "Can't you keep it in your pants for five minutes, Perve Wonder?" she asked, forcing a smirk in an attempt to look less distressed. It wasn't working, and she knew it, and that only made her situation feel worse than it really was. She was so desperate to win, even though she wouldn't really be losing anything if she didn't. The urge to win stemmed purely from the right to say that she won.
Jason laughed, winking at her. Her face became a similar shade of red to her ginger locks. "Why you blushing, Barbie?" he said, the tone of cockiness only making her skin burn brighter. "Something bothering you?"
Now Barbara was thinking about the bet. Would it really be so bad if she lost? Of course, Jason would rub it in. But after a week or two he'd probably move on. And it's not like Barbara wouldn't be able to get him back later, because she was better at him in plenty of other things. Maybe if she just threw it the others would leave and she could have Jason all to herself. She only really needed twenty minutes, maybe an hour…
No. Barbara Gordon was no quitter and she was not about to throw a match no matter how much her lower half disagreed with her decision. But she had to admit, images flashing through her mind's eye of her and Jason up in his old room with no space between them were very seriously weakening her resolve. His gaze was unwavering, and she felt the intensity behind his eyes. She knew he was thinking about the same thing as she was, and for some reason that only made it worse. How did Jason get so much better than her at keeping his cool? He used to be such a dork and completely unable to hide the way he felt about girls.
Or maybe, she pondered. Maybe he just wasn't trying to hide the way he felt.
Damn. The thought only made her want him more. How had she gotten herself into this torturous situation? Barbara found herself mentally praying that something would force her to lose so that she could just put her hands on him.
Just when she was losing hope, she discovered there was a God as her prayers were answered.
Three notes played on a continuous loop, meaning that Jason's phone was ringing. She could see the playfulness leave his eyes as the reality dawned on him. More than half of the people he ever spoke with were sitting here watching him stare at Barbara. The only person he could think of that would be calling him would be Roy, and when Roy called him it could be anything between 'Where is the peanut butter?' to 'Kori and I are fighting a giant crocodile in Beijing are you coming?'.
"What's the matter, Jay?" Barbara asked, finally not having to force her smirk. "Aren't you gonna get that?"
She could see the internal struggle that he was going through; she could see him losing the upper hand in this little contest. If he answered the phone, he'd have to get up to get it. He had left it across the kitchen next to the stove, and Barbara sure as hell wasn't going to help him out. But if he chose not to answer, he could be ignoring a serious emergency due to a staring contest.
Jason only had seconds to decide. He bit his lip as his nerves did summersaults within him. The phone was still ringing, but would most likely only ring once more. Eyebrows furrowed, lips pursed, Jason stared intensely at Barbara thinking his decision through. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to hand it to me, Barbie?" he asked, biting his lip and raising his eyebrows.
She shook her head, smile growing as she watching his decision being made for him. Jason groaned loudly and got up from his spot, successfully losing the contest.
Dick, Tim, and Cass began cheering; Barbara sighed with relief. "Pay up!" Dick half shouted at the others, holding out one hand. Bruce chuckled, quietly and pulled out his wallet. He handed Dick a single hundred-dollar bill and walked with Alfred out of the kitchen, the rest of the group following and chitchatting about how intense the past hour had been.
Barbara grabbed Jason's cold grilled cheese and placed it in the microwave. Once the sandwich was re-cooking, she approached her friend and wrapped her arms around his lower waist.
Jason was pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. "Are you serious right now?" he said into the phone. "I was in the middle of something very important, Roy." Barbara couldn't really hear Roy on the other end, but she imagined that he knew almost exactly what Jason had been doing. "Yes, it was with Barbara. No, we were not naked… It's none of your business Roy!... Because it's not!... Why?... You just asked me that… Oh my god, Roy, no!... I'm hanging up now… Because I'm tired of this conversation!... Yes I'll still be home tonight." At this point, Barbara wriggled her way around Jason's body and looked up at him. She started kissing his neck and his collar bones and all the places she'd imagined earlier, and it was so much sweeter knowing that she won. "Actually, maybe not. I gotta go," Jason's voice cracked as he spoke, and he hung up the phone without waiting for Roy's response.
He tucked his phone into his back pocket and within seconds he'd grabbed Barbara's face in both hands and pulled her lips to his. She knew by the way that he kissed her that he'd been waiting to have her alone too, and that all his smolder and sexy eyes were not just to get her to lose. Pushing her backwards with the sheer force of his lips, Jason released her face and moved his hands down her body until he found her hands. As soon as her back touched the wall her hands were pinned above her head and Jason was pressing his body against her, kissing her as if there was nothing he'd wanted all day.
Barbara was getting lost in the feeling of him being so near, and pushing his face away was harder than she would've liked to admit. "You lost, Boy Wonder," she gasped as his lips found a new place to suck on.
Rather than reply he simply hummed against her neck, sending little vibrations through her skin and ripples of pleasure through her body. Despite how much her lower half hated her (again) she twisted her wrist, effectively freeing her hands and pushed Jason off of her.
He looked as though he personally offended him, and moved towards her once more. "Ah ah, Jay," she said, slightly out of breath. "You better pay up."
Jason smiled, rolling his eyes. "Oh, I fully intend to." He moved towards her again. Instead of pressing her against the wall again, however, he grabbed her hand and left the kitchen.
**********LINE BREAKER!**********
Timothy Drake was walking through the Manor, glad that the evening's festivities were finally over. However, he had remembered that he'd been so distracted by the stiff competition, the snack he'd originally gone to the kitchen for had been completely forgotten. By now his midnight craving had shifted into a desperate hunger, so he'd probably have to make himself something quick and easy but filling.
He had his heart set on a Hot Pocket.
The bottoms of his sweat pants dragged along behind him, shielding his bare feet from the chill of the tile floor. Lights in the Manor had been shut off for the evening, making the kitchen and the foyer a very dark place. Had Tim not known where he was going, he might have been tempted to turn the lights on. Instead, he opened the freezer, squinting his eyes at the sudden brightness that flooded the kitchen. He picked up the pocket of pizza and unwrapped it, his mouth watering and stomach growling.
However, when he opened the microwave, he saw a plate was already in there. Confusion washing over his half asleep brain, he picked the plate up and turned on the light above the stove so that he could see it better.
It was Jason's grilled cheese from earlier.
But Jason had been so excited to eat it, what could've possibly distracted him from that?
Shrugging, Tim set it down on the counter and proceeded making his Hot Pocket. Minutes later, delicious snack in hand, he headed back to his room with a mouthful of magma cheese and a glass of water. Every footstep seemed to drag as he climbed the stairs back towards his room. At the very top of the stairs was Bruce's room, two doors down was Dick's room. One room over was where Damian was kept. On the other side, Alfred's room was next to Bruce's. The master room was next to Alfred's, and Jason's was after that. At the very end of the hall, several doors away from everyone's room, was the room Tim slept in when he stayed over.
As he trudged through the hallway, the only sounds that could be heard throughout the manner were his footsteps and Dick's snoring down the hall. But if Tim really strained, he could hear some kind of sound that he couldn't quite place, but he knew it didn't belong. It sounded like a very gentle thumping, like someone punching a pillow repeatedly. Where was it coming from?
Hot Pocket in hand, Tim walked all the way down the hall towards Dick's room. He pressed his ear against Dick's room and heard the snoring loud and clear, but no thumping.
Moving down the hall, he did the same to Damian's room, which was his best guess as to where the sound would be coming from. Damian was probably up late practicing the perfect punch on his pillows, especially seeing as Jason had utterly destroyed Damian and his ego during training that day (Bruce had reprimanded them for laughing, but Tim saw him crack a smile after he thought everyone had gone back to training and after Damian had stormed off in one of his fits). But alas, no sound at all came from Damian's room.
Tim got the same results from Bruce's room. Complete and total silence. Rolling his eyes at how similar Bruce and Damian were, Tim moved on.
Alfred's room housed the sound of a fan, which Alfred always had one. He claimed it helped him sleep, which was only a little absurd. The idea that the sound of the fan helped Alfred sleep had always weirded Tim out, since he'd just assumed it had been a temperature thing and not a sound thing. Tim once suggested Alfred use classical music to sleep, and Alfred simply chuckled and walked away.
The thumping had to be coming from Jason's room, it was the only one left. So Tim approached the door with intentions to knock. However, he froze with his knuckled mere inches from the door. He thought he'd heard a voice, and he was filled with curiosity as to who Jason was talking to.
As he had with all the other doors, Tim pressed his ears up against the wood and listened intently.
Now, he not only heard the soft thumping sound, but also panting. Maybe Jason was practicing his punching. But for some reason, the breathing didn't sound like Jason's. Jason's panting was heavy and loud and labored. This breathing was hesitant and soft. He heard Jason grunt, only furthering the idea that he was punching his pillow or his bed or something of that nature. But then he heard the other voice.
"Shit, Jay," It was Barbara, and faster than Tim had done anything that entire night he turned on his heels and silently jogged to his own room, nearly dropping his Hot Pocket as he did so.
Whatever was going on in there with those two, Tim did not need any more information than he'd already received.