"They are the cutest shit I've ever seen." Duke said when he got home.
"I know right?" Tim smiled as he continued typing on the keyboard, eyes glued to the screen.
"There was a moment where I thought they would kiss and everything, but both backed out." He placed his helmet on the batcomputer table. "Damn, I'm so invested now."
"What are you guys talking about?"
Duke and Tim jumped in place and turned, finding Bruce watching them from the end of the stairs that lead to the elevator back to the Manor.
"Um…"
"Todd has found himself a paramour and everyone's losing their minds about such a trivial thing." Damian explained, appearing from behind Bruce.
"Paramour?"
"A girlfriend."
"I know what that word means, Tim," Bruce said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "it's just- Jason? When? How?"
Tim and Duke glanced at each other. It had been collectively decided to keep Jasmine's existence and relationship with Jason between them - 'them' being everyone except Bruce. It was a 'batkids' thing, Dick had said at first when he texted about the favor in the no-Bruce groupchat. For a while the conversation was derailed by the discussion of using the word 'batkids' if more than half of them were over eighteen; but when it looped back to Jason and his crush it was unanimous. They would cover for him.
Damian, apparently, chose violence.
"His neighbor, Jasmine Fenton, twenty four years old. Only thing of notice is that she is a therapist in Arkham Asylum. But her background has already been completely checked out, Father. You have nothing to fear."
As he finished his report, Damian nodded, feeling sure of himself, and left to continue preparing for patrol.
Bruce tilted his head.
"And you didn't tell me because…?"
"It's none of your business," Tim's voice was weirdly controlled. "Also it is very new and we didn't want to make a scene if it turned out to be nothing in the end."
Duke knew this was bullshit, of course. A pact between siblings was sacred, despite Jason not wanting anything to do with the rest of the family. He had requested them to keep an eye on her, and they would do it. The 'not telling Bruce' part was implicit, given their history.
"So… she's not a cape?"
"No. As civilian as it gets." Duke nodded.
"And you did a thorough check of her background?"
"Oracle took care of everything."
"Since when have they been dating?"
The brothers glanced at each other. Technically…
"They are still working it out." Tim dismissed it with a hand gesture. "Don't you have a patrol to get ready for?"
"And you are trying to deflect my questions." Bruce stood firmly where he was. Duke tried not to look nervous, but he was weak to the Batglare.
Tim, however, was not. "Oh yes, I am, but you won't get any answers from me. If you have questions, ask them yourself. To Jason. And Jasmine."
Bruce deflated, his stern demeanor switching to the worried and lost face he had every time Jason was brought up.
"He doesn't talk to me."
Tim's shoulders relaxed a little. He turned in his chair, whatever he was working on completely forgotten.
"Look, Bruce. He'll come around on his own, you just need to be patient."
The man looked conflicted. "When you started going out with Bernard you guys didn't keep it from me like this."
Tim winced. "That was different. I… kept it from everyone and then all of you found out at the same time."
"We kind of had to, the boy guessed your identity." Bruce smirked, remembering the chaos of finding out about his son's boyfriend and that said boyfriend knew he was Batman at the same time. "Good thing that he turned out to be a good man, but that was a bad idea, Tim."
"I know…"
"I just don't want the same to happen here."
"Well it won't." Tim crossed his arms. "So I suggest you let it go and let him come around on his own."
The man thought about it for a few seconds. He didn't like it, but Bruce had to accept that they weren't going to spill about the lovebirds.
Ha. That's a good one. Duke made a mental note to use it later.
"Will she come to dinner?" He finally asked. Duke felt bad for the hope visible in his eyes, the blue shining with so much emotion that Duke felt like a fool for thinking that Bruce was incapable of showing emotion, once upon a time.
Tim made a face. "We are working on it."
Duke snorted. "I don't think that Dick dropping 'casually' on their dates and asking very obviously if Jason is going to bring a "cute girl" to family dinner is a good idea, Tim."
"I agree that is not the best, but I think we are past subtlety at this point."
"I also think that Steph's idea to provoke him by flirting with her is a bad idea."
"Well, we don't know if she's into blondes. Or women." Tim shrugged.
"Does he- Um…" Both turned to look at the man. "Does he look happy?"
Duke felt a pinch in his chest, like every time Bruce looked so torn and sad about Jason. He joined the family long after Jason was dead and resurrected, so he hadn't been around when all the drama started with the wayward son. He hadn't even properly met the man in person, he only had the impressions of what the others told about him, and watching him fight with Bruce and the family from afar.
He didn't understand the nuances and the hidden meanings of the words exchanged between Bruce and Jason; but he understood the real pain in his mentor's eyes, the way the man went out of his way to check on him and follow his movements as he claimed Gotham's underworld for himself.
Jason's radio silence had broken recently when he agreed to be called in case they needed his help or vice versa; and now, after asking for the favor of protecting the girl from a gang, he had joined the batkids group chat just in case for when he wasn't suited - but he was as communicative as a brick. Absolutely closed off and responded only when it was relevant for the gang case.
But with Jasmine - Duke had seen them only once, and he had been struck by the way they interacted. The girl… she was more of a talker than him and neither seemed to mind; but still, she gave him space to express his opinion and speak his mind. He had only seen Jason angry or frustrated, so the wide range of emotions was shocking to see.
"Yeah," Tim's voice brought him back to the moment. Duke turned to find the other scrolling on his phone gallery until he got to the thing he wanted to show Bruce. "This is from a while ago, he offered to take her home after work and they ended up talking all evening in a coffee shop."
Duke didn't need to see the photo to know what he would find: The two of them smiling at each other, faces close, Jason pointing at something on the table that wasn't visible in the photo, caught with his mouth open as he talked. Tim had taken it when he learned that Jason had driven her to work and promised to drive her back home - Jason had simply said he "would take over at six" and Tim found out the rest. It was scary watching him work his detective magic, but it got them the amazing photo of the two being cute over coffee so it was totally worth it.
It was the moment Duke started believing this could be the change the family needed. Jason looked so alive, pun intended, and so… human. The impression of the man he had from what the others said about him didn't match with the twenty-something guy having a coffee date (even if they didn't know it was a date) with a girl he likes.
"Ah." Bruce's jaw muscle tensed, as it did when he was trying to not show what he was thinking. "He looks…" He trailed off.
"They are so in love it's stupid," Tim scoffed, "but we are working on it, as stated."
"Hm." Bruce's eyes were glued to the screen, as if he couldn't believe it was real. He had this slight glaze in his eyes, as he did every time he was thinking about his time with Jason before he died. "Dinner is in three days."
"We are working on it." Tim grumbled.
"Hm." The man nodded and finally left them alone. This wasn't over. Duke wouldn't be surprised if they found out later that Batman was seen tailing the couple tonight.
The two exchanged a look. Jason needed to come back soon or the man was going to lose it. They needed to hurry.
Jason had a quiet evening so far. It was rare, but he allowed himself to simply be in the moment and tried a new mushroom risotto recipe he had been meaning to test for a while.
With all the chaos and settling himself as a crime lord, taking down Black Mask and dealing with Batman; he had barely stopped to enjoy things again.
He smiled, thinking that Jazz would be proud of him for reconnecting with hobbies, or at least, spending time doing something that brought him peace of mind like this. For a person that dedicated her free time reading stuff for her work, Jazz was a fierce advocate of nurturing hobbies and fulfilling activities.
She had been so excited every time he opened up about the things he liked; his favorite books - the unending debate about Jane Austen adaptations was worth the expression she had on her face as she fiercely defended Bridget Jones as a valid Pride and Prejudice adaptation-, his favorite foods - she was cute when she admitted she was a bad cook -, or his interest in weaponry - she seemed interested in swords as well, and when he asked why she said she had been gifted a few and that they were pretty.
He was brought back to the present when he heard a scream from his neighbor, followed by a thud and more screams.
He didn't think. He grabbed a knife and ran out of his apartment towards Jazz's, banging on her door and contemplating if kicking it down was a good idea or not. She opened the door before he had made his decision.
"I'm fine!" She said as soon as the door opened. She let him in. "I burned dinner and the fire got scary for a moment."
Indeed, on the stove there was a pot with a smoking charred… something. Besides it sat a pan with a towel over it.
"Oil fire?"
The sound she made was a mix of a whine and a laugh. "Yep."
"Those can get dangerous really quickly," he turned towards her, assessing her for any injuries, "you sure you are fine?"
She rubbed the back of her neck. "I jumped out before I could burn something else than my food. Thanks for coming, though." He saw her eyes going to the knife in his hand, still ready to stab an intruder. "Fortunately, the only thing lost today was my pasta. And maybe that pot. And my dignity."
He let his body relax. There was no threat and he didn't want to frighten her. He glanced at her window, finding it opened - which, it made sense since she needed to ventilate the room and let the smoke out somehow, but still she needed to get a window lock.
He almost made the comment, until he remembered that it wasn't Jason who told her to get a window lock. Nobody would catch him dead (ha) saying this out loud, but Tim was right - the secret identity thing got tiring real fast.
"How the fuck do you burn pasta?" He finally said, his eyes doing a final sweep on her, looking for hidden injuries. And maybe they stayed a bit longer on the smudge of burned something on her cheek he really wanted to swipe with his thumb.
What the hell. With the hand that wasn't holding a knife he cleaned her stained cheek.
Jazz giggled at the touch. "I have the natural ability to explode things and/or set them on fire. It's a Fenton trait."
Before he could say more, he smelled something burning. No. No the ruined… whatever she had been trying to make. It was-
The risotto!
He ran back to his apartment and removed the half-sautéd onions and the rice from the stove just in time to save it from disaster.
"It smells good."
Jason chuckled. "Are you mocking me?"
Jazz looked at him from the door of his apartment, her cheeks slightly red as she did the head tilting thing. "I am not. I told you I'm not a good cook. For me food either smells good or I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole." The way her smile twisted slightly at the end told him that there was a story behind her words.
"If your standards are so low then your compliments about my food are rendered invalid."
Her eyes widened for a moment, her hands gesturing wildly. "No! I mean, is not that I don't think your food is good or bad or anything! What I was trying to say-"
"It's fine, I was messing with you." He snickered, finally putting down the knife on the counter and grabbing a wooden spoon to stir the onions in the pan. They were salvageable. "Also, you haven't tried my cooking. Yet."
He was past the point of feeling nervous when he made a comment that implied more interactions between them. They were friends now, and after making plans with her to binge all the Pride and Prejudice adaptations there were in existence, he wasn't afraid of assuming she wanted to stick around him a bit longer.
That fact still made his chest bloom with warmth. He allowed himself to bask in it from time to time.
"Maybe I haven't because you didn't offer." Her smile curved in mischief. "That's not very neighborly of you, mister."
He looked back at the risotto halfway done, then at her. "You want some?"
"Um…" She looked down, the cheeky smile gone at the honesty of his offer. "I-"
"Don't make an excuse, darling. If you want food I can feed you. Also, you burn pasta, I can't trust you to feed yourself properly."
"I'll let you know that I've been fine on my own all these years." She lifted her head with pride, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "And Danny never complained."
Jason tried to not cringe, mentally giving his condolences to this little brother he hadn't met - would he ever meet him? He wondered sometimes.
"Keep telling yourself that." He opted to say. He made a vague gesture towards his living room, turning to check on the rice and adding a bit more water. "You can come in, by the way."
"Oh," she seemed to realize that she had been standing like an idiot on the threshold. "Sorry, I wasn't sure if I could."
"Don't say sorry." He reminded her, like every time she said the word. "And are you a vampire or what?"
She froze.
"I am not!" The way her voice got higher at the end was cute, but also meant that the comment hit a nerve or something. He wanted to pry so bad, but he was trying to respect her boundaries, especially after asking Babs for a full report on her already.
He chose to let it go. "Well, in any case, you are welcome to enter anytime."
She seemed grateful that he didn't ask. "Sure, let me go get my keys and my phone. Be right back!"
Once she went away, it was his turn to freeze. She was coming to his apartment. Jazz was coming over.
And he wasn't that careful about hiding his vigilante stuff.
He quickly ran around the house, picking up utility belts, knives, a wayward bomb detonator and threw it all to his room, closing the door. Next, he went to the bathroom and checked that there wasn't anything damning about his double life there. Good.
He was running back to the kitchen when he heard her close and lock her door, and then her approaching steps on the hallway.
"Hey," her voice was soft. She had put on a knitted sweater over her lounging clothes, since it was getting chilly. It was big on her and it made her look more adorable. "I'm back."
Once she was in and closed the door, she stood there for a moment, nervously playing with her keys. Why would she be so nervous? She had opened up a lot in the time they've been knowing each other - dates, they felt like dates, he liked to think-, and she felt comfortable with him. Or had he read her wrong?
"I didn't have many friends growing up," he blinked at the non sequitur, but Jazz kept talking, "in fact, I didn't have any. Too busy getting good grades," she chuckled but it sounded quite sad. "So I was never over at a friend's house, um, like ever. I know the experience is not the same as children and teens than as adults, and I really enjoy spending time with you, but there is no reference experience for me and it… makes me… nervous- I'm rambling again. Please stop me."
By now he was used to her ramblings as a way to deal with her nerves. "Let's start by taking a seat, then." He pointed at the stools around the kitchen island. "And then we can talk about stuff like usual. Because that's what happens when friends hang out in their homes, they just… hang out."
"You sound like you speak from experience." She commented as she sat down.
He let out a dry chuckle. "Didn't have many friends either. Kinda hard when you are unable to finish highschool." Jason mixed the onion and mushrooms in the pan with the halfway done rice.
"Hm," she said in that 'therapist tone' she sometimes had when she stored information about him in her mind. He had been at first a bit wary of her trying to psychoanalyze him, but she promised that she wouldn't seriously try to, despite both of them joking about it. "Then this is a first for both of us?"
"Excuse me, I have a lot of experience from years of consuming TV shows and movies."
She snorted. "That doesn't count, dummy."
He was smiling when he withdrew the parsley from the fridge. Smiles came easier with her around, he had come to learn. Thinking also became easier, the Pit madness that followed him all the way to Gotham was quieter, letting him focus on the present moment. He got distracted with thoughts about her sometimes, but it was worth the peace she brought him when they were together, in his honest opinion.
She was humming some kind of tune as he prepared to chop the parsley, the risotto almost done and ready to serve, the comfortable silence filling the otherwise empty and cold apartment.
"OH MY GOSH!"
He jumped, the knife missing its mark completely and landing on his hand. Ouch. Not the worst stabbing he ever had, but it was unexpected.
He turned to see what had her screaming, when he saw -
Fuck. He had forgotten about the sword display.
You see, he had a growing collection of swords he started after stealing a bunch from assassins the League sent after him. They were like trophies for him, and they were pretty and sharp, so he put them up on the wall and easy to reach just in case.
"I love these! Where did you- Jason!"
"Huh?" He looked away from the display that had very obvious sharp and dangerous swords that shouldn't be in possession of a normal person. "What?"
"Your hand!"
Jazz ran from the display she had approached (he didn't hear her stand from the stool?) and back to him, holding his hand gingerly between hers.
"You are bleeding a lot." Her voice was frantic. He focused back on her, on her worried face.
"It's just a flesh wound," he couldn't stop the smile despite getting a worried frown instead of a laugh. "Alright alright. I must have nicked a vein or something, don't worry. I'll go fix this in the bathroom. Could you…?" He gestured to the blood and the parsley and the simmering risotto.
"Yeah, I'll take care of this. Go."
It was only when he was already in the bathroom pouring water on his hand to clean the blood, that he realized he had slipped up again. The 'flesh wound' reference was something Red Hood said, not Jason.
He hoped she didn't notice a thing.
Jazz had meant to quickly clean the blood and fix what she promised to fix, promise; but once Jason left the kitchen and living room area, the smell was impossible not to notice.
Acid. Citrus. Batteries. Lemons. Ectoplasm.
But it was weird, muted, like diluted in mud and then left to rot under the rain for days. She wondered how on earth Jason would get ectoplasm, when she let her eyes wander to the blood on the counter. Her heart skipped a beat. No…
She removed the risotto from the fire (it was a bad idea to let it burn), and swiped some of the blood with her fingers. She looked at it, but the color was fine. No green. Just red.
She put her fingers in her mouth.
She tasted the ectoplasm. Diluted. Corrupted. Wrong. But it was ectoplasm, she was sure.
How could this be? How could he be liminal? Was he a halfa? Was he involved with ghosts somehow?
Did he have something to do with Red Hood?
Wait.
She could almost feel her neurons making the synapses. The idea rolled on her head before she even had a coherent way to express her thoughts. Jason was-
"Darling?"
Jazz turned, knowing that she was looking not only at Jason, her cute neighbor she was falling for, but also at the vigilante Red Hood.
Jason wasn't the kind of person that explained things away easily. Part of his training was analyzing all the angles, finding out the truth, seeking answers. Believing his eyes.
He would spend the next days denying it, but he had seen the green shine in her eyes. It was brief, barely even a second, but he saw it. Her eyes were back to the usual teal blue when he blinked, but he saw it. She was the same cute neighbor he was falling for, but he saw it.
