Long Overdue

CHAPTER ONE-POINT-FIVE

"Light Work" w/ Jason•T & Dick•G
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| Leave it to Jason to get all uselessly sentimental over a swing through the city just cause this time there's no chasing involved.
| SFW, Jason POV
| 700+ words
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Jason follows a ways behind Nightwing in silence right after they've flung themselves over the first building.

Pretense of playful riffing over and done with there's just...nothing.

Nothing to talk about - or too much to pack into their relatively short journey from The Hill to the cave - and nothing to do but focus.

He swallows down the stiffness in his throat when the thought that a different less tainted less damaged him and Nightwing would've made a game out of this. Joked with each other. Laughed.

The reflection he catches of himself in the window of a yellow cape catching the air makes him cut that whole string of thinking.

Jason lands on paved stone in silence and watches Dick get another swing in before activating his coms. The separate unit could only be used sparingly (too easy to attach onto the frequency) but Jason wouldn't need it to work that long.

He rolls his left ankle, testing the stiffness and waiting for his contact to pick up. It's mild at best. He's sure he wouldn't have even noticed it until he was in his apartment if he hadn't dropped so specifically as to not catch Nightwing's attention.

Jason's just gotten on the line with one of "his people", a runner who he only bothered to remember the name of because they'd stay useful, when Nightwing finally catches on that it's only one grapple he's hearing.

The man retracts his grapple and does a series of flips to land on a roof four buildings away. Jason absentmindedly rolls his eyes while instructing Mensa on what cache to slip into. He'll have to burn that safe house but he needed out of the area anyway. The clock tower was gone but that didn't negate the fact that people now thought of The Hill as implicitly bat territory.

He's telling where he wants Mensa to leave his equipment when Nightwing finally decides to come over to him despite the way Jason cuts a hand through the air to wave him off.

"Bats, I swear," he grunts. He tests his ankle one more time to get rid of the crink and watches Nightwing run over.

"What?"

He only has enough time to turn his head and prattle off: "Nothing. Just do what I said."

The vigilante lands in front of him nearer the edge of the roof from Jason's position in the middle as the call disconnects.

"But you didn't say anything?"

The other's voice lilts upward at the end and Jason schools his face, letting himself scoff. He runs his hand through his bangs so he can swipe the com unit out as he does so.

"Course I didn't, I couldn't choose just one."

Nightwing lets his head tilt, still lost but not nearly as much as he's letting on. Jason answers his unspoken question anyway.

"They're not enough words in the English lexicon to describe how annoying you are, Dickhead. I got distracted."

He doesn't wait for whatever playact his reaction will be, throwing himself off the building and shooting his line in a slightly altered direction.

Of course Nightwing follows him but it's not like Jason can't work around his tag along.

He doesn't start talking to him again but the man's gaze setting his back on fire feels even more analytical than his words would have.

Jason grumbles to himself about it but is otherwise perfectly content to let the problem be one of the future. Preferably not his future, but when has Jason ever gotten what he wanted?

Jason would never let the other know, but the face Nightwing makes when Jason drops down to the street a few blocks later and there's conveniently a helmet sitting all snug for him on a bus bench is kind of worth the harassment.

He has to tamp down with his jaw until he slips the apparatus on so he won't laugh right in the vigilante's face. The helmet's speaker systems keep his mirth strictly for Jason's ears only.

His shaking probably gives him away regardless, but he covers it up by letting Nightwing come to his own conclusion that Jason is only taunting him.

And his conclusion's not wrong per say but - you know? - Jason's not going to tell him that.

NOTES: Hope you enjoyed! This takes place in between chapter one and chapter two before the guys (ie: Jay & Dick) get to the Cave.

Imma be honest with y'all I don't know if the clock tower was located in The Hill during War Games but I do know that I'm tired of looking for the answer (Edit: It was in The Hill). It doesn't matter anyway I can do whatever the fuck I want.