Chapter Text
Dick never shut up. Not even when they were fighting.
“I don’t know why you bother with the mask.” He told Jason, flipping over him with ease, “You are really much better looking with it off.”
Jason dove forward, knife flickering and teeth clenched just wanting to scratch the bastard but Dick, damn him, darted left and used Jason’s force to pull a particularly nasty punch in the gut.
“No really. You are.” Dick let Jason roll back, mouth still moving like stopping would cause the apocalypse, “Sure ladies like a mask and mystery, but they like to see the pout of your lips more.”
Honestly it was like if he thought if stopped talking, he thought he wouldn’t breathe. Jason grimaced planting a firm foot on the wall and pushing off, vaulting clear over Dick. He landed easily and swung a low kick.
“The pout of my lips?” Jason asked, grasping easily at the most readily available retaliation, “are you sure your talking about the ladies? Or you?”
Dick jumped over his kick, flying, and instead of flushing or blushing in anyway, his grin broadened. Shame, obviously, had never been introduced to one Dick Grayson. Probably wasn’t even aware of Dick Grayson.
“Which you prefer?” Dick shot back coyly.
Jason’s eyes widened briefly, and the gap in his defence was enough for Dick tackle him to the ground, leveraging off the ground like a freaking circus freak and pinned him. One wrist twist from Dick and Jason’s remaining gun went skidding along the ground.
So Jason hadn’t been expecting that response. Actually he’d been hoping for the disgusted face, complete with twisted lips and twitching eyes, not… well… flirty backchat. But when in doubt, go with the flow. Unleashing his cruellest smirk, Jason chuckled lowly, the exact pitch he knew pissed Dick off.
“Oh really? What would daddy dearest say?” Jason said lowly, letting his words drag dangerously, suggestively.
It was always hard to get a solid lead on Dick with the domino on. He could lie through his words, but the truth screamed through his eyes, always had. Best way to tell a Dickie bluff was one look in his eyes. Obscured, Dick’s face gave Jason nothing. The only tell was a slight one, a quirk of the lips as his hands tightened against Jason’s wrists.
“Well, if I convinced you to be good for a while, or even just kept you occupied, which let me assure you, I am very occupying,” Dick smirked, smooth as silk, letting his knee drop between Jason’s, ”he would say something like, Good Work Nightwing.”
A flush of annoyance rushed through Jason and he felt suddenly and irritatingly bare without his hood. He wanted to snap at Dick, yell at him, and maybe throw another fist. Red Hood wasn’t so easily contained, so easily placated. He wasn’t doing this just to get in Dick’s pants, didn’t even want to. Jason was doing this because he had to, because no one else would.
But he’d done that route before, sung that song. So Jason laughed, high and mocking.
“That’s your shtick? Really?” He drawled, tone with just a hint of rage but a good dousing of amusement because that was what Jason did nowadays.
Flicking an arm, he broke free of Dick’s grasp, curling his stomach muscles, hands coming to press against the ground and sprung up, putting good distance between them –finally.
“So screwing you would make me a good boy?” Jason continued low and nasty as he could, hands itching to draw the dagger in his belt, “You think too much of yourself Nightwing.”
As if he hadn’t said anything, Dick continued to smirk and slowly prowled around him, circling like a large lazy cat.
“Come on, it’ll be amazing.” Dick told him grinning, causal and light, “we can stop all out foreplay and our long lingering looks.”
That was rich.
“You’re deluded.” Jason told him frankly, taking a step back, “I mean really, call your shrink again Goldie. You need it. All this darkness has you seeing things.”
Dick shifted, and Jason could almost see his eyes widening behind the mask, “You didn’t-“
He was telling the truth. Something in Jason froze. Dick thought they’d been…
That was a good cue to leave. Before Dick could say anything else, Jason turned around, running, picking up the grapple on the ground and leapt into space.
Flying had never looked good on him, not like on Dick (which Jason noticed, not deliberately looked at) but Jason loved the feeling regardless, love gravity hurtling him down and the sheer weightlessness as he stretched his arm and fired the grapple. He swung, easy and graceful and knew from the dash of black in the corner of his eye that Dick had decided that this dance wasn’t over yet. Which was just perfect. Really.
He landed on the construction site as planned, taking off running across a beam like a high wire and leaped, seizing on the rising steel bar and starting climbing up the wire himself. A breath later he heard Dick's rolling landing copying him.
Luckily, Jason didn't need to outrun Dick, he just needed to out think him. Which thanks to some incredible self-admitted paranoia, he had already set up a couple of things for the perfect get away.
Assuming he could get there though. Jason glanced down behind him, down below the black shape became a blue blur, leaping up bars as Jason continued up on his make-shift elevator.
“Really?” Dick called up, not as far below as Jason would have liked, he liked Dickie out of hearing range, “I thought you were doing it on purpose!”
“You are so wrong it isn’t even funny anymore Dickiebird!” Jason called back, snagging onto the cool metal of the crane as his wire ran out.
Swinging he flipped the right way up and sprinted across it. The man in the operator saw him and raised his hands, placating, as Jason ran toward him but Jason hadn’t come up here for him. Flipping behind the crane operator room, he snagged the small bag on the shelf and leapt, flying through the air. He landed back on the construction work and started off running again.
Too close behind he heard a similar thump.
“Christ, leave me alone Dick.” Jason groaned leaping to the next bar, “Didn’t your daddy teach you no means no.”
“Sure, he did.” Dick’s smug voice came from behind, “But you still haven’t said no.”
Jason leapt again, rolling as he landed on the building and launched a grapple at the higher building beside it. He ran, cleaning the building just as Dick landed sprinting for him, own grapple shooting out.
“Here I thought this was answer enough.” Jason sniped back, swinging high, “Shall I spell out what running away generally means?”
“Jay, you could write a book and I’d still not know what you mean.” Dick lazily called back, gaining ground in the swing.
At the top arch of his swing, Jason let go of the grapple, shooting across the sky. He reached into his bag, throwing it away as he started to fall, strapping into his own special toy.
“Take a good guess what this means Dick!” Jason yelled, pulling harness tight and tugging a strap, broad, light, wings snapped out behind him, instantly sending him into a glide.
He glanced around, seeing Dick shadow land on a roof, watching him go. Thankfully out of hearing range.
Free at last.
Jason sighed. That was not how his night was supposed to go. Ideally it was supposed to go with two dead drug dealers and a whole lot more silence. But then the entire bat clan liked to screw up his plans didn’t they?