Archive of Our Own

“You’re not serious.” Dick can’t stop the judgmental tone from slipping into his voice. 

Jason makes this annoyed huffing noise at Dick as if to say ‘what the fuck are you on about now?’. Dick almost wishes the other would blow a fuse. Then, Dick can whirl around and prove to Tim why this is such a bad idea.

“Where are your necessities?” asks Dick, pointedly looking at a second duffle bag filled to the brim with weapons.

“These are my necessities, asshat,” Jason snipes back at him, green eyes flashing as the last dredges of his patience wears thin.

And normally, Dick would stop. Wouldn’t have let it get to this point. But Dick is frayed on the edges, and he’d love to work out his excess energy by smashing Jason’s face in.

“Can you guys quit it?” Tim gripes, turning around in the giant chair facing Bruce’s super computer. Then, he grabs a tablet and stands up, making his way towards them. “You’re literally going to be in space together for a half a month. Two weeks. 15 days – just you two. So maybe don’t try and start off with killing each other?”

“Too late,” they say in unison and then stop, glaring at each other. Jason glares as he bends down and grabs his bags, marching to the cargo van behind him.

Without Jason in his immediate presence, the tension drains out of Dick. “This is such a bad idea.”

Tim makes a half sympathetic noise, already out of fucks to give since Dick started opposing his strategy three days ago.

“You know it’s our only option,” Tim tells him again. “The Akularians are already giving us the mercy of collecting Bruce and Hal. They’ll only do it for Jason. And you’re the only one that can reign him in.”

That is only half true. There are plenty of people better suited for joining Jason on this excursion, but no one that can be available immediately. And by Tim’s calculation, Bruce and Hal have already been in Akularian jail for a week now. On top of the time it took them to strategize and get there – well, they’re already cutting it too close. The Akularians are on bad terms with Oa and keeping a Lantern is causing intergalactic friction on several different levels.

“Duke? Cass?” Dick tries, one last time.

Tim levels him with a deadpan look. “Get your ass in the truck and let me shoot you out into space.”

“Rude.”

“Here.” Tim hands him the last piece of the mission. In an airtight container is a glowing piece of pink rock. Superman had gotten it as a souvenir during his last space mission, and that ugly piece of rock just so happens to be the ticket to getting Bruce and Hal out of jail. And the only deliveryman the Akularians will let through their door is Jason. 

“Come on, let’s get you set up before Cass and Damian come back. Duke’s already at the station.”

“It’s not too late for me to call Kori – she even picked up my call last time! Tim – hey, Tim, are you listening?”

Pouting at being ignored, Dick resigns himself. Tim has the rigidity to his shoulders that means he isn’t taking any more bullshit. It’s not worth making him upset just because Dick is antsy about being trapped in a spaceship with Jason for a few days.

But no matter how he tries to talk himself into just being responsible and doing it, the looming space station coming into view just sets Dick into agitation all over again. It’s worse that Jason, sitting in the back, looks entirely unconcerned. He’s just thumbing through his phone, feet up on the passenger headrest and looking for the world like he is going on vacation.

Envy is really an ugly feeling.

Slightly below the envy is the dread of trying to make sure he doesn’t look like a fool in front of Jason. He’s already been staring at Jason’s thighs too long. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, it’s not like he can linger on it too long. In what feels like no time, they’re docking on the strip leading to the Justice League spaceship. Cassandra and Duke are there in full set up, but Damian stands to the side as just himself. There are horrible bags under his eyes.

Dick instantly softens walking forward to kneel in front of the pre-teen. “Hey, Little D.”

Damian glares with an intensity that reminds Dick of when he was still trying to stab Dick in the kidneys. “The fool is making a grave mistake by refusing me passage to board.”

Dick winces. Letting Jason and Damian onto a tightly enclosed space for half a month was just a suicidal idea. But Jason’s attendance is non-negotiable, asked for by name by the Akularians for his work done as part of The Outlaws.

While Dick would have loved to let Jason go on his own, being alone in space for two weeks isn’t good for anyone’s psyche. And with Kyle on a mission, Kori dealing with her own tense situation with her sister, and Roy fucking off to god knows where, another body was needed. It just so happens that everyone seems to think Dick going is the perfect solution.

“I need you to look out for things here, Dami,” Dick says, ruffling Damian’s hair. He’s careful not to keep his tone too placating. “We’re literally going to be sitting on our asses for two weeks. You’re not missing much. We’ll be back with Bruce and Hal in tow before you know it!”

Damian scoffs, but Dick knows that it’s his special privilege that Damian doesn’t immediately throw a tantrum. A deadly one. Bruce being away for so long is already taking a toll on Damian, but he’d also gotten to be friends with Hal over the year. He’s worried, in his own way, and it makes the last of Dick’s reservations dissolve.

“I’ll get them back, Damian. Promise.” He holds out his pinky. He keeps his triumphant squeal to himself when Damian grudgingly wraps his own pinky around Dick’s in the seal of a promise.

“Come back safe or you’ll wish you were still lofting in the mercy of space,” Damian hisses.

Dick ruffles his hair. “I’ll miss you too, Little D!”

Saying goodbye to Cassandra and Duke is easier. Barbra even calls before Dick gets ready to board. Clark drops by with Diana for a moment to assure that the cargo is safe and secure and Victor hacks into Dick’s Wayne Watch to say he’s downloaded a playlist for Dick on board the Bio-Ship which is generously on loan from Miss Martian.

“Are you done sending the bride off?” Jason’s snarky comment cuts through Dick’s conversation with Tim. “This is taking too long.”

Dick bristles but keeps his tongue in check as Tim rolls his eyes. 

Tim hands Dick a tablet. “All the information you’ll need is on there. The signal to Earth will get significantly weaker by Day Eight, but there are checkpoints that will alert us to your location. The emergency manual is in there as well, please read it,” Tim says, huffing when Dick’s eyes widen innocently. “I don’t want you floating in the vacuum of space because you thought the big shiny red button looked cool.”

“Hey, Timbo! Have some faith!”

Tim’s eyes soften. “I do. I know you’ll get them back. Stay safe, yeah?”

Dick is reminded that Bruce is a father-figure to Tim as well. He hugs him tight and makes the same promise he made Damian.

Shoulders squared, Dick takes a moment to reassure himself that he can do this. Just him and Jason. Two weeks in space. No big deal. Simple, really. They will either go down fighting each other, or have the most mind blowing hate sex in the middle of deep space. Either option works. 

And then there is no delaying it. Dick boards with a jaunty wave to those that saw him off, right up until the hatch closes. As he wanders inside, Jason’s already at the cockpit, getting the bird ready to fly.

Trusting that Jason knows what he is doing – he definitely has more space experience than Dick does – he opts to just buckle up in the co-pilot seat, going over the communications to make sure everything is in place.

“You’re clear to take off,” Tim’s voice resounds through the speakers. “Once you’re through the first jump, you can let the auto-pilot take over. It’ll be another day and a half before you reach the next jump.”

“I know,” Jason retorts impatiently. “We’re heading out, over.”

Immediately, Jason puts the bird into motion. Dick grins as they start hitting speed, the thrill of flying the Bio-Ship rushing through his veins. No matter how many years they’ve used it; it always surprises Dick how fast it can really go for being so heavy. The machine hums vigorously as the wheels pull in and the jets take over. He doesn’t even feel them lift off the ground. In no time, they’re already several kilometers in the air, the space center a dot below them.

With bated breath, Dick watches in exhilaration as they climb up through the atmosphere. At first it’s only thin wisps of clouds, but soon enough they’re engulfed by an entire sea. The sun glints off the clouds, peaking through in lighter areas like a halo. They continue to climb, breaching the surface to a whole new view, the stars of space are so close but the sky is still so blue but slowly getting darker.

In minutes, they’ve exited Earth’s atmosphere.

“Wow,” Dick breathes, twisting his head around to catch sight of the moon so far away but so big . He never gets tired of the sight. Automatically, the shield around their ship adjusts, allowing Dick to take in the sight of the sun as they peak over the Earth’s orbit. It’s as fierce and indomitable as ever.

Kind of like Jason.

Dick pushes that thought down. Instead, he busies himself with replying to Tim who asks for a status update. Jason navigates them past the Justice League tower, picking up speed immediately.

“We’re getting ready to warp,” Jason informs Tim, fingers expertly dancing across the holographic screen as he prepares the bird. “Signal out for 20 seconds starting…now!”

Dick braces himself. He’s only warped twice before. It’s always an unpleasant experience. His ears begin to stuff up as pressure accumulates. The Bio-Ship vibrates, clattering noisily. Then with a ‘pop’, they leap forward. Dick’s back presses uncomfortably against his seat as the tension pushes him back. Everything becomes a blur. He stares, looking at streaks of white as the ship pushes forward past the planets to the edges of the galaxy. Dick counts the seconds in his head, holding his breath until he reaches ‘zero’, and almost immediately, the ship seemingly halts.

It’s not really stopped, of course. It’s just going to take Dick a few moments to process their new speed after that intense velocity.

“Checking in,” Jason’s voice interrupts Dick’s swimming head. “Warp One clear. Engaging auto-pilot. Goldie will take point, I’m going to take a nap until we reach Warp Two.”

There is a small sound of static before Tim’s voice confirms, “Over.”

Dick rolls his eyes at Jason’s second hand order. Figures he wouldn’t even ask Dick what he wanted to do. But instead of complaining, Dick just sticks his tongue out at Jason’s retreating back like the mature adult he is.

“Saw that,” Jason comments as the door to the cockpit opens to the rest of the ship. “Keep that thing in your mouth unless you want something else to do with it, Dickie.”

Before Dick has time to process what Jason just insinuated, the door closes. Dick’s left alone in the cockpit, jaw agape and a wry chuckle filtering through the speakers.

“Have fun in space, Dick,” Tim’s voice teases.

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Day One passes suspiciously quietly. Dick doesn’t see Jason until they change shifts. The Bio-Ship isn’t very large, but there is enough space for two people to comfortably avoid each other.

It just doesn’t leave a lot of room for entertainment. Dick refuses to admit it, but he’s already antsy with restless energy by the next ‘morning’. Dick has quickly realized how right Tim was to say the mission is a two-person job.

Space is lonely. The wonders of the universe only really can hold for so long when it’s largely just staring at the black void of nothing with little white dots and occasional bright lights floating around. The Bio-Ship is too advanced to require any sort of real handling, so Dick is mostly left to sit like a pretzel in his chair and wait. He wonders how Hal and his horrendous attention span does it.

Space is also cold. Dick is mostly sure it’s a psychological effect more than a physical one, but he gets this unbearable chill that travels through his forearms whenever he stares outside too long. Gravity is maintained well inside the ship, but Dick still feels pretty light. He’d quickly taken up challenging the limitations of his body. While he isn’t floating, there is a delay in landing a jump. For a gymnast that has internalized down to the nano-second what he can do in the air until he lands, the short delay just feels wrong.

So it leads him to the small gym outfitted in what was probably a spare bunk room. Opening up a screen, Dick decides to put on the latest anime Damian and Duke are into while he runs. Dick’s never been a TV kind of guy, but if it lets him bond with his siblings, he’ll happily do anything. Except the housewives reality show Tim swears is the best thing on Earth. That, he’ll pass.

He should have put two and two together faster, though. If the weightlessness in a jump is a bit weird, it’s not like physical activity is going to be the same either. Dick doesn’t even realize he’s forgotten to compensate, caught up in the show, until his bad leg suddenly cramps up.

“Crap,” Dick hisses, leaping off the treadmill to the floor in a controlled fall. He stretches out his leg, surprised at how badly it’s trembling. Gritting his teeth, he rides through the wave of his muscles seizing, trying to take deep breaths. He’s too short on breath though, making it hard to keep control of himself.

Then the door slides open and Jason walks in.

“With the girly scream you let out, I was expecting you to have broken a knee cap or something,” Jason jeers. He leans against the door with a pair of boxers and a ratty band t-shirt on. Must have heard Dick’s yell and came to check it out.

“A little help here?” he hisses as another cramp seems to creep down to his foot.

For a moment, Dick thinks Jason might actually leave him. But with a huff, Jason approaches, grabbing Dick’s leg and elevating it into a firm stretch while pressing the ball of Dick’s foot back.

“Ouch,” Dick whines, but already the pain is subsiding, leaving Dick to groan as familiar relief takes its place. “Thanks, Jay.”

Jason tsks, reminding Dick of Damian in the way he wrinkles his nose and drops Dick’s leg. “Don’t expect it again. It’s going to take your body some time to get used to the gravity.”

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed,” Dick snarks back, disliking the patronizing tone that Jason has adopted. “Couldn’t you have told me that before?”

Jason rolls his eyes. “Maybe you should read the shit that Replacement gives you. Or what, you just think everything’s going to fall into place without putting in work, Goldie?”

This is fast reaching a path Dick does not want to go down.

“Fuck off, Jason. Sorry for the trouble, go back and get your beauty rest.”

“Don’t need it” Jason’s grin is shark-like. “Careful there, Goldilocks. Your inner bitch is showing.”

Having the last word, Jason turns on his heel and walks out. Dick resists the urge to get up and go after him. He’s not a hot-headed teen anymore. He can let childish insults pass.

Mostly.

“I’m going to replace his ketchup with hot sauce.”

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“Nice try.”

Dick blinks innocently up at Jason from where he sits in the cockpit, Tim’s tablet in his lap. “What do you mean?”

Dick gapes as Jason suddenly shoots an arm out to curl around Dick’s chair, swiveling it to the side so he can lean in uncomfortably close. Dick’s heart is in his throat as surprise overtakes his instincts to lash out, leaving him to just sit there as Jason looms closer and closer –

-and breathes a foul stench on Dick’s face.

“What the hell!?” Dick yells as he chokes on air, pushing Jason away violently.

“I like it hot,” Jason informs him, sounding entirely too flirty for the way his eyes are narrowed on Dick. “But I hope you know this means war.”

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“I’m going to knock him unconscious,” Dick informs Tim, holding an ice pack to his cheek. He’d slipped on a well placed slice of soap in the bathroom and knocked his face against the counter top.

It’s only Day Three. Jason and Dick have engaged in a prank war that is making Dick slowly paranoid.

Tim sighs, the static making him sound more aggrieved. “At least you haven’t decided to kill each other.”

Dick tries not to look too guilty. One of his earlier ideas was to see what he could do with an electric node, a few pennies he found, and friction. But that might actually have done some damage and no matter how irritating Jason is, he doesn’t wish him dead.

“Jury’s still out,” Dick says instead because he doesn’t want Tim to know. Even though Tim most definitely knows. Tim knows everything. “But enough about me, tell me what’s going on with you, Timbo.”

“Oh wow, we’ve only been talking about you for twenty minutes now, I thought you’d round it to a nice hour.” The sarcasm has Dick smiling.

“Don’t pretend like you weren’t multitasking with work. You probably took over a small business while I was telling you about the cool toilet, you business monger.”

“Invested in a small business,” Tim corrects. “And fine, Dick. Just as the last update you requested three hours ago.”

Was it only three hours ago? It felt like half a day to Dick.

“How’s Dami?” Dick asks, ignoring Tim’s suffering sigh.

“He’s gotten back from patrolling with Batwoman and Blackbat, but I sent him to bed since he has school tomorrow. It’s been a quiet night.”

Dick chews his bottom lip. “Yeah, it’s quiet here too.”

There is a pause. Tim’s voice sounds guilty when he says, “I know, Dick.”

Dick doesn’t do well with quiet. His life is filled with noise from his first memories of the circus to the night cries of Gotham. Keeping confined is okay in theory, but Dick is feeling the familiar itch to stretch his legs and take a leap off a tall building. Exercising can only do so much.

“Hey, I mean, at least I am catching up on all the anime stuff Damian likes. So there’s that.”

“I’ll make sure he’ll call you when he’s back from school. He got worked up over laser swords versus metal swords with Duke. I’m sure he’ll have an essay prepared for you soon.”

Dick laughs, head cupped in his palm. “Thanks, Timbo. Now go get some sleep, yeah? Don’t think I can’t hear the ‘I’m operating on five cups of coffee and the power of satan’ in your voice.”

Tim huffs but he does agree to try and sleep after Dick threatens calling Alfred. Even light years away from Earth, Dick can’t resist playing big brother.

After he hangs up on Tim, Dick’s left to stare out in space, a thought niggling on his mind.

Jason hasn’t made a single call. Jason didn’t have anyone to see him off, either. Is the other man just that good at being alone? It’s a depressing thought and one Dick isn’t sure he likes. He and Jason may be at odds with each other, but it’s over petty things. Like this stupid prank war. Should he extend an olive branch?

He walks into his room to catch Jason red handily – literally – stuffing Dick’s now pink sweats into his compartment. They also look a size smaller.

“Jason!”

Jason leaps over Dick when he rushes him, surprisingly nimble considering his large body and the small space. In a flash, he’s the one by the door while Dick is mournfully holding onto his favourite sweats.

“Thought they were mine,” Jason says with a shrug. “You left them in the gym. I was washing my stuff but didn’t realize I left my red Wonder Woman socks in my sweater pocket. So…pink.”

Dick glares at Jason. “And yet,” he says scathingly, “I don’t see any of your clothes having turned pink.”

Jason has the gall to smirk. “Can’t see them, Dickie. Not unless you want me to take off my pants.”

Dick gapes. Jason takes that as a win and walks away.

“Don’t kill him,” Dick mutters to himself. Miserably, he hopes Bruce is having just a bad of a time with Hal. That or they’re having kinky hate sex. Which, ew. 

But..it does remind him that there is more than one way to play pranks. Especially when Dick is pretty sure Jason has a hate boner for him.

So the next morning, Dick walks into the kitchen shirtless. And pantless. When Jason gets a look at him over his breakfast bar, his jaw drops.

“Forgot to do my laundry,” Dick explains innocently. “Oops!” he drops his fork and bends down to grab it, making sure his ass is in front of Jason. The sound of Jason’s choking is the winning chime to Dick.

“Make sure you swallow properly, Jaybird,” calls Dick as his parting shot.

Jason doesn’t approach him for the rest of the day.

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In hindsight, Dick thinks he would take the childish Jason over this moody one.

Dick didn’t think his little joke was going to have Jason completely avoid him. But he does and Dick gets worried when he goes an entire sleep shift without seeing Jason.

He knows from the comms log that Jason hasn’t been calling anyone either. Has he spent two days in pure silence? Dick feels bad enough to check up on Jason. Maybe it’s time for a truce.

“Jason?” Dick calls. He knocks on the closed door. “You in there?”

There is no response. Dick takes a gander around the ship, but confirming that Jason can’t be anywhere but his room, he returns and knocks, more aggressively.

“Jason? Jason?” Dick repeats, over and over again, knocks turning into the rhythm of ‘Stayin Alive’.

“Fuck! What?!” Dick leaps back as the door suddenly opens up, a furious Jason looming over Dick.

“So you are alive!” Dick chirps. “Just checking in.”

Jason glares down Dick. “Still alive. Go away.”

Dick puts his hand on the door before Jason can slide it shut. “Being alive is one thing, but, like, are you okay?”

Jason’s hands clench into fists by his side. “Just. Peachy,” he grits through his teeth. “Dick. Leave.”

Dick doesn’t lose his good cheer, but he turns a more assessing eye on Jason. He looks ragged.

“You know you can talk to me, Jay,” says Dick, extending an olive branch. “It’s not good to be by yourself all the time.”

Jason stares down at him, tension across his entire body. “Did you bother me to talk about fucking feelings? What, need a playdate for your tea party, Goldie? Bored of lip servicing every fucking person you’ve ever talked to?”

Dick frowns. “Jason, what the heck?”

Jason pushes Dick. Dick sees it coming too late and ends up stumbling a bit at the force Jason puts in it. He’s outside the door, and Jason grabs the frame, leaning out when he says, “Just stay out of my business, Dick.”

Dick sees what felt off before. Jason’s eyes are glowing a faint green. “Jason?” Dick says worriedly. “Is something wrong?”

Jason slams a fist against the frame. “Quit pretending to be worried about me!”

Dick’s own temper flares up. “I’m not pretending!” Dick yells back, regretting it instantly. That’s not how to handle an aggressive person. But Jason has always been too good at getting under Dick’s skin. “Jason,” he tries again, “I’m just concerned. You haven’t talked to anyone but me in days. And not even that, the last few hours. We’re not exactly in Hawaii. If you repress too much - ”

“God, shut up Dick!” Jason snarls. Dick barely jumps back as Jason comes forward. “Repress?” Jason snorts, “Do you want to help release my tension, Dick? Missing people so much, you’ll settle for me?”

This is quickly spiraling somewhere Dick doesn’t need it to. While backing up, Dick realizes they’ve already gotten to the cockpit. Hoping the open area will help calm Jason down, Dick says, “What do you think I am settling for? We’re the only two people on this spaceship, Jason. It makes sense I reach out to you.”

Jason clearly doesn’t want to listen to reason. “That's the definition of settling, asshat!”

Dick swallows down his rising anger. “Fine, whatever,” he spits. “Just talk to me. What’s got you so riled up?”

“Trapped in this fucking space prison with you!” Jason roars. “What else could there be?”

Dick lets that slide off him. The green glow in Jason’s eyes is only getting worse. Dick knows this isn’t Jason speaking.

“Would you rather it be someone else? Tell me who,” coaxes Dick, keeping the same calmness.

“Fuck you!” Jason spits. “You think I don’t know what you’re doing? I don’t need you to coddle me! You just think I’m some stupid brat with anger issues, don’t you?” Then before Dick can react, Jason takes a swing. Dick manages to get away from the worst of the blow, but the impact still makes him cut his cheek on his teeth.

“Jason,” Dick says levelly, wiping the blood from his split lip with the back of his hand. “I am not going to be the enemy you want me to be.”

Jason growls, his entire weight thrown into a body slam. Dick doesn’t dodge, takes the blow and tries to diffuse the power so it’s more manageable. Easier said than done. Jason is the densest human Dick knows, heavy and compact with pure power. Dick is pushed into the console board, head bouncing off and making him see stars.

“You think you’re so fucking perfect, don’t you, Dick? Mr. Goody-two-shoes, ready to get on a ship in the middle of fucking no where with big bad Red. Use me and then discard me, just like the rest of this godforsaken ‘family’, huh?”

Dick kicks Jason hard enough for his right side to give. He wrenches his arm out of Jason’s hold, barely faster than Jason’s next punch as he hurls his body to the side. The crunch of the console is not good news, but Dick has bigger things to deal with.

Jason’s having a bad episode. Dick knows that Jason’s antagonism towards the Batclan has cooled. He and Bruce are still at odds with each other more often than not, but he cares. Backs up Blackbat and Signal, has drinks with Spoiler, looks out for Robin, even let’s Red Robin and Oracle help him out from time to time.

Flirts with Nightwing and bails him out of more sticky situations than Dick would like to believe.

Dick has to stop Jason’s escalating breakdown. But he can’t exactly argue with Jason when he’s blinded by the Lazerus rage. 

Talking isn’t going to solve anything. Jason needs to work off his aggression and Dick has no intention of being his punching bag any further.

It’s not exactly easy to buck Jason off. Even with his techniques, Dick is at a disadvantage in hand to hand brawling. He takes more blows than he gives, and has to turn his back on Jason at one point to get the door to open, but they make it into the gym.

By some saving grace, Jason manages to wrangle most of the violent thoughts down. His eyes no longer glow a creepy green, but they’re still filled with aggression. He lets himself be corralled and Dick is so thankful, he even aims for the mats when he takes Jason down in a judo leg sweep. He follows up with a jitsu grapple, taking a foot to the abdomen when Jason tries to push Dick off. Dick’s flexibility can only hold so much and soon enough it’s him on the ground.

It goes on like that over and over again until sweat soaks the mats and it’s too slippery to grab onto anything but clothes. Dick has long since abandoned his shirt; and his entire torso is covered in red welts and nail marks for it.

But Jason is just as tired as he is. In fact, he’s used more energy by giving into angry moves. Dick ends up breaking the stomach hold Jason has on him with a blow to Jason’s instep and knee. When Jason grunts and bends over, Dick sweeps into a handstand to lock his legs around Jason’s neck and swing. Jason goes down hard and Dick grabs Jason’s arm in a bar hold as he squeezes Jason’s throat with his thighs. He isn’t letting the younger man get out of this hold.

“Yield,” Jason finally wheezes. 

Dick probably could go longer but is glad to see the sanity back in Jason’s eyes.

Dick lets go, backing away as Jason coughs and grabs his throat. “Fuck, that's one way to show me stars. Almost saw heaven for a second.”

Dick groans, chest heaving as he says, “Just shut up, will you?” Then, because he is exhausted but still irritated, “I can’t tell if you want to fuck me or fight me.”

Jason pauses. The bastard’s already got his breathing under control. He gets to his feet before Dick. “Well, we’ve already fought - ”

Dick ignores Jason’s outstretched hand. “Give me time, Jay. I might say something I’m going to regret if we talk now. And we are going to fucking talk.”

Jason doesn’t shrink away, but there is something in his posture that makes Dick’s stomach twist into pitied knots. Dick knows that Jason hates losing control. Knows that the other must be freaking out and immediately trying to suppress and ignore his outburst. Dick won’t let him.

“Fine,” Jason says tersely. “I’m going to check the damage.”

Then Dick’s left alone. He’s exhausted, body aching in the worst way, and feeling like a failure.

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They don’t talk. It figures as much, Dick has been quick on adopting the mindset of ignoring negative emotions from a young age. Meanwhile, Jason stews on his own, hardly meeting Dick’s eyes and snapping when he does.

It goes on like this for what feels like a day. Dick knows he has to be the first one to make a move. Honestly, Dick doesn’t even blame Jason. It was a shitty situation brought up by circumstances and both their negligence. Dick should have known sooner than he did that something was off with Jason. They’ve known about Jason’s Lazarus episodes for a while, but it somehow slipped Dick’s mind. He can’t remove the culpability from Jason completely, but it’s not to the point where there are any lingering frustrations.

Dick sighs, bouncing a stress ball up in the air and letting it fall into his palm as he releases another one. Juggling helps him get his restless energy out, but it’s not helping Dick on figuring out a plan. He needs to talk to Jason soon. Knowing Jason, he’s probably holed up and blaming himself, spiraling again.

“Casting stones,” Dick mutters under his breath as he realizes what he said also applies to him. With a groan he lets the balls drop and rights himself from his one-handed handstand. He decides he should go for a walk to clear his head.

Jason’s door is still tightly closed. Dick walks past it with a little bit of guilt, heading to the cockpit. He assesses the damage, seeing the parts where Jason has tried to scuff away the worst of the dents.

The back of Dick’s neck prickles, his sixth sense blaring to life. Something is off. Dick sweeps his eyes across the console, eyes immediately placing a small blinking yellow light on the communications channel.

It wasn’t the blue of a stored message. It meant someone was trying to call.

Dick engages the button, pulling up the comm line. “Timmy! Hey - ”

“ – what the hell did you do!?” Tim’s voice shouts through the comms; the volume is deafening.

“Tim?” calls Dick, reacting to the panic in Tim’s voice. “Timbo, what’s-”

“Don’t you dare say ‘what’s wrong’ you fucking idiots!” Tim screams, angry and anxious at the same time.

The admonishment rings throughout the entire ship. Dick is completely unsurprised when Jason’s door hisses open; and Jason pads into the room.

“What’s going on?” Jason asks, his voice rough.

“What’s going on?” Tim repeats in hysterics. “I apparently can’t leave you two idiots alone for a few hours, that’s what’s fucking wrong!”

Jason bristles. “You little shit - ”

“You’ve fucking gone off course!” Tim screams, the static pitching violently to react to the volume of his voice. “You’ve done something and now you’re fucking headed straight to a fucking asteroid belt!”

Dick’s heart stops. “What?”

Tim’s voice crackles as he relays, “I fucking slept in, just a few hours, god fuck – listen to me, I don’t know what happened to your auto-pilot, but you’re in the gravitational pull of something, but I can’t see it. But I can see a fucking dense cluster of rocks you’re headed towards in – fuck! – 24 minutes!”

“Shit,” Jason curses, pushing Dick out of the way to fly to the control panel. Dazed, Dick follows Jason’s path; eyes drawn to the dented area from their fight on the panel. The auto-pilot. Of fucking course. "Shit!" Jason repeats. "It was working before I went to bed - fuck!"

It only takes a beat for Dick to push his fear down and down and for emergency training to take over.

“Tim, what can we do?” he asks, tone no nonsense. “How do we stop the ship?”

“You can’t,” Tim says, voice cracked and raspy with his worry, “you’re hurtling through space at a ridiculous speed. Your momentum isn’t going to just let you stop. First, tell me what you can see. Tell me what’s pulling you in.”

“Those shiny globes of trouble over there,” Jason answers before Dick can start looking.

Dick glances to the screen where Jason has enlarged a telescopic view. The globes in question resemble the Earth’s moon in their size, but their shape is considerably more elliptical. Barely perceptible, it looks like one of the smaller rocks is moving.

“They’re repelling each other,” Jason informs Tim, hands flying over the panel. “Can Miss Martian see this?”

She would be the only reason Tim could catch their signal this far out.

Tim makes an affirmative noise. “They’ve got their own gravitational field, the asteroids are in their pull,” Tim mutters to himself, talking rapid fire. “But their pull is weak, it wouldn’t be enough to change your momentum. You’re going over 500 k/m an hour, you’d need something momentous to halt your force. Gradual incline would take too long. Force correction? Maybe. If you had a - ” Tim’s voice cuts off and Dick hears dull background noise as he must be conferring with someone, probably Barbra.

Dick stares dumbly at Jason, panic making his body feel like sludge. “There’s nothing we can do?”

Jason’s been busy with the computer as Tim continued to talk. Jason gives a brisk shake of his head. “I can’t get the auto-pilot back up and I don’t have the time to figure out why. I can take manual control, but like Tim said, that isn’t going to change our course.”

“Could we fly through?” Dick asks, keeping an eye on the encroaching belt. It’s visible to the naked eye now. Just a cluster of dots that could kill them.

“If you’ve got a cross up your ass and the will to pray to a non-existent god for safe passage, yeah,” Jason grits out. “We’d be crushed. The force our ship is carrying would disrupt whatever peaceful tide they’ve got going on. I’ve got good reflexes, but I can’t dodge giant rocks without any pattern of how they want to crush us.”

Dick swallows hard. “We could shoot them?”

Jason gets to his feet, enlarging the screen. Dick’s gut clenches as he sees Jason pull up a scale of the size of their ship to the nearest rocks. They’re dwarfed nearly twenty times over.

“I don’t know how dense they are,” Jason runs a hand through his hair in frustration. “If it takes more than one hit to break ‘em, we’d never be able to shoot them out of the way. Fuck. Fuck! This is my fault – I can’t believe – fuck!”

“Jason! Jay!” Dick grabs Jason’s wrists, stopping him from slamming them against the wall. “Look, there isn’t any use thinking about that now. We’ve gotta get out of this first. Keep thinking. You’ve always been good at thinking on your feet.”

Jason drops his head on the wall. “Dick, I can’t stop thinking, but I am not a physicist. There are too many unknowns.”

Dick takes a few measured breaths to keep his own cool. He’s dealt with far worse impending doom than death by asteroids. Probably.

“Then we blast through,” Dick says, trying to look comforting as grins at Jason’s incredulous face.

“Did you not just hear what I said?”

“I did, at least it gives us a chance. Besides, you like guns right? And lasers are the coolest type of gun. Won’t even feel the kickback here, right? We can make a show of it - ” Dick trails off, seeing the shocked look on Jason’s face. “What?”

“God, you’re brilliant.”

Dick is completely unprepared for how Jason cups his jaw and reels him in hard, kissing him on the mouth with enough force to bruise. Dick is too dazed to even register the press of chapped lips against his and in a flash Jason has pushed back, rushing to the console.

“Replace – Tim! Fuck, Tim, come in!”

“Jason? Look, we’re working on it – just a few more mins, we can - ”

“What type of guns are on this ship?” Jason interrupts.

“Are you trying to shoot them down? That’s insane!”

Jason growls. “No, idiot! Tell me what kind of force the lasers carry! Can they be used to pivot us? Or, better, push us backwards?”

The line goes silent. Then, “Oh my god – Babs! M’gann!”

Dick brings a shaky finger to his lips. Even in this situation, Dick can’t help but pause and stare at Jason. He looks even more attractive like this, green eyes blazing, hair sticking up in a mess, jaw sharp and tense as he speaks to Tim and the rest of the team. His lips are swollen but they’re stretched into a growing grin, making Dick a little weak in the knees. Fuck. This is really not the time.

“There is a megaton of energy in the lasers,” Tim confirms, breathless. “Theoretically, yes, it could push you back if - ”

“If we shut down the stabilizers,” Jason finishes off, eager. “If the ship has nothing to counteract the force of the laser, it’ll throw us backwards.”

“Yes, but if you disengage the rear thrusters, you could be completely off balance! You’d spiral out of control!” Tim argues back. 

“We don’t exactly have a choice!” Jason snarls. “If we fire a big one, the thrusters will keep us in place and then we’ll have debris hurtling to us.”

“They’re your stabilizers! If you take them off, you’ll lose your orientation and literally go ass over head in space, idiot! Without an opposing force, who knows how long you’ll be spinning like that? You’d fucking die!”

“Is there anything that can temper the output of the rear thrusters?” Dick asks Tim over Jason, keeping calm in Tim’s escalating tension. The rocks are only growing more and more visible, the view not unlike a cityscape from the view of a plane about to touch down. They’ve got a precious few minutes left.

“They’re automatic! They just repond – I, hold on – M’gann said you can override how many go live. If we can’t control them, we could shut a few off. Enough that you’ll be propelled backwards, but the ship might be able to correct itself once you’re thrown. But, Dick, that’s reckless - ”

“Great!” Dick chirps. “How do we do that?”

“Dick!”

“Tim,” Dick responds, voice full of command, “we don’t have a lot of choices. Does this give us better odds than trying to navigate through the field ourselves?”

“…yes.”

“Then hop to it, shorty!” Jason snaps. “We don’t exactly have time for a tea party!”

There is a beat of silence.

“The auto controls are offline,” Tim whispers with dread. “The controls would be right next to the auto-pilot.”

Dick shares a look with Jason. “Stick with me, Tim,” Dick interrupts before Tim can spiral out of control again. “Is there a manual override?”

Tim’s breath is shaky when he says after a beat, “M’gann says yes. But you’d need to physically do it. From the outside.”

Well then.

“We’re never going into space without a meta again,” Dick whispers under his breath. Then with forceful cheer he says outloud, “Okay, now we’re talking. I’ll go out and disengage the - ”

“Hold up,” Jason cuts him off. “I’m not letting you be the one to go out to the fucking demon void of space!”

Dick grabs Jason’s shoulder and forces him to stand back. “Jason,” Dick says authoritatively, not a shred of joking in his voice. “I need you to fly this ship and take the shot. You need to work with Tim to get the lasers configured into a proper form to keep us alive. Leave the thrusters to me.”

Jason looks murderous, ready to argue but it’s Tim that interrupts this time. “Dick is right, Jason. Dick can’t give me the specs you can. We need every bit of information possible to get you guys out of there.”

Jason makes a strangled sound. Dick pushes him towards the pilot chair. “Trust me, Jason.”

“It’s not about trust! Fuck,” Jason hisses, hand clutching Dick’s wrist. “Promise me you’ll be okay.”

Dick blinks in surprise. Then giving him a cocky grin, Dick says, “So much for a Pluto-nic relationship, huh?”

Jason stares at him, dumbfounded. While he’s distracted by Dick’s horrible pun, Dick wrenches his arm away and heads out the door. “I’ll be back,” Dick assures. It might be an empty promise, but Dick will do everything he can to make sure it isn’t.

He doesn’t wait for Jason’s reply, rushing from the residential area to the storage dock. Tim had shown him his flight suit before Dick got on board with a joke about how one of them is bound to shove the other into space.

It’s outfitted the same as his Nightwing uniform, bulkier but considerably more streamlined than anything NASA could provide. Dick settles it on in record time, trying to keep his breathing steady as his heart thumps wildly inside his chest.

“Best fall of your life,” Dick tries to psyche himself up. “Weightless. Like a bird. I can do this.”

His in-ear comm buzzes to life. “Dick, you ready?” It’s Barbra’s voice, considerably more static. Dick can barely make out her words but says his affirmative all the same. He heads to the airlock barrier. The chambers open up, closing with a rushing hiss behind Dick, only making Dick more nervous. Inside the chambers, there is zero gravity and Dick floats.

He tugs the rope attached to his waist harness. It’s the physical reassurance that is mostly unneeded.

“Counting down,” Barbra recites as Dick gets the gears ready to open the hatch to the outside up. “…5….3…1 – go!”

The hatch releases and like a vacuum, Dick is sucked right out into space. It’s a controlled exit, the small jets on Dick’s suit roaring to life to keep Dick from straying too far.

“I’m out,” Dick says to Barbra. He focuses on the mission to keep away from the mind numbing fear of the sheer blackness all around him.

“I’ve got the schematics up...screen. Head...the tail of the ship, stop appr...25 meters.”

Dick follows the instructions. On his shoulders two light beams shine, illuminating the platting of the Bio-Ship. Dick objectively knows they’re hurtling through space at a speed he can’t even fathom, but right now it almost feels like he’s floating alongside a boat. Magnets on his boots allow him to comfortably keep close to the ship. He walks until the approximate location, trying to ignore the chill in his bones. He keeps his back to the void, focusing on the physical to keep his wits about him.

“-here,” Barbra’s voice crackles.

Dick’s nearly under the belly of the ship. Dick follows Barbra’s instructions to reach the cover he needs. Then he opens up his belt, bringing out a few tools.

He tries not to notice the growing view of rocks in his periphery. “Let’s get to work!”

Nanobots help him create the perfect welding tool to wrench the hatch open physically. It’s a messy and rushed job, Dick hacking and pulling away to make enough space to see the thrusters. He spares only a moment for the wonderous thought of how long the pieces of debris will float in space for. Then he gets back to work, making a triumphant sound when the thrusters come into view.

Barbra’s voice blares to life. “…no pressure, ha!, but you’ve….five minutes….enter danger zone.”

Dick swears. “Easy peasy,” he tells Barbra with false cheer even as he pushes the distress of being far out of his depth down. The thrusters are huge, each easily the length of Dick’s body and as thick as a car. Dick climbs into the narrow space where the thrusters rest, like cars parked in a garage, looking for the control panel Barbra mentioned.

“Okay, not so peasy,” Dick huffs in frustration when the control panel opens up to reveal technology far past Dick’s rudimentary understanding.

“Babs, you got anything for me?”

There is static as a response.

“…b – e… spir-…”

The dread Dick has been able to keep a temper on fills his stomach with tar. “Babs! Hey, Babs, I can’t hear you.”

“B….l….bl…UE!”

“Blue?” repeats Dick, heart nearly in his throat. He turns back to the holopanel, focusing on the color. Quickly, he sees the blue veins through the high tech version of the motherboard. They must be the power currents.

“Sp…ir…spi…l!”

Dick wracks his brain. “Spiral?” he guesses, seeing eight similar sized spirals lined up at the bottom of the motherboard. There are circuits attached to them. Dick’s eyes follow the trail, into the hardware of the compartment. They flow like electric wires, thinner than anything Dick has ever seen. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they do considering all eight thrusters are connected to them.

So needs to power down a few of the spirals. How the fuck does he do that?

“…ick! DICK!”

Dick winces, hand reaching up automatically to try and throw his in ear out at Barbra’s screech, but he’s blocked by his helmet. Fuck, that hurt. The realization that Barbra is panicking kicks in a beat later.

Something knocks against the ship.

Dick’s heart lurches up to his throat as the hit rattles the ship hard enough to throw Dick to the side. His back crashes against one of the thrusters and he groans.

Okay, so they’re officially out of time.

“Time to improvise,” Dick cheers to himself, swallowing past his hysteria as he grabs a spiral and tears the bottom part of it out. It snaps like glass in his hand, much easier than Dick thought. The blue glow dims down but doesn’t go clear. However, the lines connecting to the thruster nearest to Dick does.

“Huh.”

Dick grins, moving to break another one. However, before he can, the ship lurches, sending Dick flying again.

A swear dies on Dick’s tongue as he catches a glimpse outside, a shadow of something huge passing by. Dick pauses for a scant breath to take in the huge fucking rock that hurtles past the ship.

“Crap, crap, crap.” Dick springs to his feet, grabbing two more spirals and snapping them off. He’s careful to space them out. They’re leaving three thrusters live but they have to be in an advantageous position. Dick quickly snaps the other two.

“Babs? Come in, Babs. Mission clear, I’ve got the nodes powered off. I’m headed back inside.”

Static is his only answer. There must be something blocking the signal back to Earth in this field.

Dick takes a deep breath, he exits out of the hatch to the terrifying sight of whizzing asteroids around the ship. They vary in size but they are all, mostly, spread far apart. There is a fine dust, which Dick quickly realizes is smaller rocks, covering the area around them. That Dick can see them means there is a light source other than the ship near here. Or whatever the space approximation of ‘near’ is considering how contextual distance means nothing.

Dick plants his magnetic boots on the ship, using the tether to pull himself back to the ship. “Almost there,” he says, a reassurance to Barbra and himself.

It figures that he’d jinx it.

Not five meters from the airlock hatch, the ship suddenly lurches to the left. Dick’s boots are the only thing that don’t whip him out into space. Which is a good thing considering a rock as big as a semi-truck shoots right past Dick. If he’d been floating…he’d have been a bug on a windshield.

“No more space, no more space,” Dick hisses to himself, getting his bearings back to grab his rope. He’s going to get back –

The rope hangs loose. It must have been cut by another rock. 

“Fuck me.”

Okay, so now he cannot afford to misstep. Literally. If he loses the magnetic force keeping him on the ship, he’s a goner. No pressure.

Dick clamps down on his erratic breathing, forcing himself to take even more breaths to keep himself calm. Five meters is nothing. Just a few big steps. He can do this. He has no other choice but to put one foot in front of the other.

The ship heaves. Dick cries out, instinctively crouching down as they seem to ascend. Dick can’t get his bearings. Gritting his teeth, he crawls towards the hatch. He can tell how much closer the aestoriods are getting. But he can also see the orange of his sawed safety tether flailing. If he could just grab that –

His palm closes around it just as Dick gets a full view of an asteroid the size of an apartment complex looms close.

“Fuck!” he yells. He engages his jets, leaping and aiming for the rungs outside the airlock.

Dick’s hand slips.

Dick yells as he falls back, stomach lurching to his throat. But just as soon as the horrifying feeling of falling comes, does the pain of his arm getting caught.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Jason yells. Well, that’s what Dick assumes he is yelling. He can’t hear anything but he sees Jason’s lips moving before they fall into a grit, using pure power to haul Dick inside the chambers.

Dick engages his jets, propelling himself straight into Jason’s chest. They tumble inside, Jason’s arm secure around his waist as he reaches above him to slap the button to close the airlock. Immediately, the vacuum sensation fades.

Dick takes a moment to just breath, huffing in disbelief as he reaffirms he’s alive.

Then,

“Who’s flying the ship!?”

Dick springs to his feet and nearly collapses. Jason catches him a second time, carrying him to the door leading inside the ship. The decontamination showerheads brush over them, but they don’t have enough time for the proper procedure.

Dick strips out of his suit as fast as Jason does, both of them running in their boxers to the console.

Dick gapes at the wrench holding the stick of the ship in place. “You didn’t -”

“I didn’t have much choice!” Jason snaps, sitting in the chair and throwing the wrench out of the way to grab the stick and shift them out of the way of the apartment sized asteroid. Dick cries out as the ship goes nearly horizontal. He falls to the ground and rolls to the side as Jason curses.

“Tim!” Jason barks. He gets the same static sound Dick did.

“Okay, well, here goes fucking nothing. Get over here and buckle in, Dickie! I’m gonna give you a wild ride.”

Dick grins, crazy and full of adrenaline. He stumbles over the co-pilot seat. “Show me a good time, Jay.”

Jason smirks, handsome and wild. “Here comes the best load of my life.” Then he uses two fingers on the holopanel to engage the lasers to maximum capacity. Apparently they’ve been building up power the entire time because hardly a nano second passes between Jason giving the command and a brilliant pink light overtaking the windshield.

Dick doesn’t have to ask if it worked. He’s too busy trying not to throw up as the ship hurtles itself back. The thrusters are no longer there to stabilize the ship and act as a counterforce to the weight of the energy. The Bio-ship goes flying back, in a wild spin. Dick’s seatbelt digs into Dick’s chest as it straps him in, the pressure of their spin enough to make Dick sick in seconds. He can’t even keep his eyes open to check just where the fuck they’re being sent to.

It goes on and on. Just when Dick has the sinking feeling that this might be it – he realizes they’re slowing. It’s gradual, but the ship stops rattling and the items that went flying start to settle down.

It takes a lot longer for Dick’s equilibrium to settle in. Beside him, Jason unbuckles his belt to crawl to his knees, grabbing the small trash can and emptying his stomach into that.

Dick swallows down his own nausea with deep even breaths. He stares blankly out the window. There is a fading glow that is the laser’s path. Dick can’t even tell how far it stretches, but he can’t see hide nor hair of the moons or asteroids.

“Are you alive?” A tentative voice asks.

Dick’s head lolls to the side to look at Jason, but Jason is still groaning.

“Timbo?” Dick asks.

“Oh my god, you’re alive! Damian, let go of me! Dick’s alive!”

Dick chuckles weakly, dragging himself over to the pilot seat. “We’re okay. Nearly died three separate times, but what else is new?”

Tim sounds tearful when he says, “Guess I lost that bet.” Then after a beat. “I’m glad you’re both okay.”

“I can’t believe we made it through that,” laughs Jason, rolling over to his back, with hand over his eyes. “Fuck. Fuck. Tim turn off the comms, I am going to have life reaffirming sex with Dick.”

“...GROSS!” Tim yells. “At least fix the auto-pilot! If you guys drift off again, I’m leaving you to the mercy of space!”

Dick’s too dazed by the suddenness of Jason’s plan to placate Tim. He knows he should thank Tim because they sure as hell wouldn’t have made it out of there without his and everyone’s help. But the appeal of Jason’s suggestion is too good.

Jason rolls his eyes heaving himself up. “Out of the seat, Goldie. Unless you want me in your lap.”

“Which would be okay with me if I could feel my legs,” responds Dick, getting his bearings back. He gets up and lets Jason take control.

“Tim, walk me through what I gotta do. But keep it brief. We gotta appointment.”

Dick chuckles at Tim’s disgruntled words. “Sooner we do this, sooner we’re outta your hair, Timbo,” Dick persuades.

“I hate you both.”

☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆

They miss their appointment. The adrenaline crash leaves both Dick and Jason exhausted. It took hours to fix the auto-pilot and reconfigure their course to get them on track.

In between, it appears that Kyle has made it Earth-side and has called in a favour to let Dick and Jason borrow a hyper-warp point from one of his allies. It will shave days off their journey, much needed considering all the time that it would have taken to get back on course.

When all is finally right, Dick only has the energy to crawl into bed, close his eyes, and sleep like it’s his job. He’s awoken by a nightmare, the memory of that free fall into a dark void. He doesn’t even know how long he slept, just that he feels like he’s been run over like a truck.

“And I was doing so well,” Dick rasps to himself wryly. Knowing that he’s done with sleep, he goes about getting ready, keeping an ear out for Jason. It’s completely silent.

Dick finds out why when he comes to see Jason dozing on the pilot chair.

“Jason? Jay, hey wake up!”

Jason jolts awake, nearly grabbing Dick’s wrist in a crushing grip if Dick wasn’t fast enough to swipe away. “Fuck, don’t scare me like that, Goldie.”

“Did you sleep out here?” Dick asks, worriedly.

Jason yawns, stretching. “Nah, I’d break my neck. I slept in fits and finally came up here to feel useful.”

Dick puts his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “You were being useful, Jason. Thanks. We wouldn’t have made it without you.”

Jason snorts, but he doesn’t bat Dick’s hand away. “We’d be mincemeat without either of us, Dickie. Well, we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess if I had fucking self control.”

Dick squeezes Jason’s shoulder. “It was also my fault for not checking in on you, Jason. And backing you into a corner.”

That gets Dick’s hand smacked away. Jason leaps to his feet, glaring at Dick. “It’s not your job to babysit me, Dick. Don’t try and excuse what I did.”

Dick frowns. “I’m not excusing it, Jay. But what’s done is done. You know what happened was wrong. You aren’t going to let it get that bad again are you?”

Jason looks taken aback. “Of course not!”

Dick smiles. “Then? There is no point in lingering on the past. We’ve all got issues, Jay. As long as we are working on them, that’s all that matters.”

Jason frowns, taking a step back. “Dick, you know what happened isn’t normal right?”

Dick shrugs. “It was a side effect of the Lazarus Pit, right? Do you think I’m going to run away from you and scream possession or something?”

Jason chews his bottom lip as if unsure he wants to talk about this right now. But his shoulders slump and he drags a hand over his eyes and down his face. “Yeah,” he whispers. Then louder, he says, “Yeah. If I don’t keep an eye out for my mental health, sometimes I get these…urges. When I’m depressed. Angry. Frustrated. Most of the time I can reign myself in, but when it gets bad I need an outlet. And finding an outlet in space is…difficult.”

Dick looks at the damaged holoboard. “Come to me if you need to let off some steam, Jay. I can handle it.” Dick purposefully adds a bit of flirtation at the end. It’s not like he’s forgotten Jason’s words from hours ago.

But instead of rising to the bait, Jason takes a step back. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Dick pauses, wondering if he has misread Jason. But on a second look, he doesn't think so. Dick is good at reading body language and he is positive Jason is holding back because of fear directed at himself.

“Blowing off steam together?” Dick clarifies. “Why, what are you scared of?”

Jason’s hands clench into fists. “Are we talking about sparring? Because I can kick your ass any day, Goldie,” Jason jibes, a half smirk twisting his lips.

“What about fucking my ass?” Dick says bluntly. “Tell me honestly, Jay. Do you want me?”

Jason falters. “You don’t even know how bad,” Jason finally responds. “But I can’t – I can’t do one night stands, Dick. We’ve still got days together to get to Bruce. And then there is the ride back. If this goes bad, we don’t got anywhere to run.”

Which is part of the appeal to Dick. He would much prefer airing things out than hiding his worries away.

“Who said anything about a one night stand?” Dick asks, walking towards Jason. He doesn’t reach out to touch just yet.

Jason swallows. Dick watches his throat bob, mouth watering. “I – what more could there be?”

Dick finally touches Jason, laying a hand on his chest. “We could find out together, Jason.”

Jason shakes his head. “We fight all the time. It would never work.”

Dick is happy Jason isn’t pulling away. He puts on his best cocky smirk. “I personally hate the word ‘never’. I can’t promise it’s a happy ending, Jason. But I think it could be. I like how we fight and keep each other on edge. But I also trust you. I think it could work, if we both try... we don’t have to do anything on this trip. We could take it Earth-side. So you have a chance to leap out the window when you get embarrassed,” Dick teases.

Jason huffs. He grabs Dick’s hand. But instead of pushing it away, he entwines their fingers. “I won’t be the one to back out, Dickie. I’ve had a fat crush on you since I was fifteen.”

Dick blinks. Before he can process that Jason spins them around and backs Dick into the wall. Dick gasps and Jason takes the opportunity to lean down and kiss him.

Dick’s dazed for only a second. As soon as the hot press of lips register he surges up, arms wrapping around Jason’s neck and pulling him down to get more of that feeling. Jason feels so good against him, like everything Dick has been craving for. He keeps the kiss going until they’re without air, breaking off to pant. 

“We doing this now?” Dick asks, mostly to make sure Jason is in the same place he is. 

Jason looks stunned, staring at Dick’s mouth like he can’t believe he did that. It makes Dick smirk, taking the chance to steal another kiss from Jason before he reminds Jason of his question. He doesn’t want to move faster than Jason is comfortable with. 

“Fuck, yeah,” Jason moans, kissing Dick hard. In between kisses he says, “I promised you life affirming sex.”

Dick laughs into their kiss, letting Jason sneak his tongue inside his mouth so he can suck on it. When Jason groans, Dick pulls away with a teasing smirk. “I’d have thought you’d be the gentleman type. Six dates and four weeks before you try to French me.” 

Jason growls, hands grabbing Dick’s hips and digging in as he thrusts a leg in between Dick’s. “I’ll wine and dine you when there are resources, Dickie. But you can’t expect me to turn you down when you’ve been a fucking cock tease this entire trip.”

“Oh fuck, I love it rough,” Dick moans into Jason’s lips as they pull back for breath. Dick can already feel his lips swelling, lust coursing through him at the same look mirrored on Jason.

“Yeah? Should have figured you as a masochist sl-” Jason stops himself.

Dick moans, shaking his head. He bounces off his feet and uses his arms to tug himself up and wrap his legs around Jason’s waist. Jason doesn’t even stumble, easily taking Dick’s weight. “You can call me a slut, Jason,” purrs Dick, licking the outer shell of Jason’s ear. “I like nasty, disrespectful sex.”

Jason makes a sound that goes straight to Dick’s cock. “Fuck, you’re a fucking hellcat, ain’t ya?”

Dick bites on Jason’s earlobe. “Want me to purr for you? Take me to bed, Jay.”

Jason doesn’t need further prompting. It takes a while to get there with Jason pressing him into walls to kiss him dirty, their hips aligning as they rut against each other. By the time Dick’s back hits Jason’s bed, he’s already half hard.

Dick arches up to shove his shirt off and urges Jason to do the same. Their hands fumble passionately, grabbing and pawing at each bit of skin that is revealed. It’s Dick that is rendered naked first, Jason buried between his legs.

“Fuck, Jay,” Dick cries when Jason bites up and down the flesh of his thighs, one hand holding Dick’s cock. He doesn’t pump, just uses his thumb to run around the slit, leaving Dick’s thighs trembling, hand tangled in Jason’s hair as he revels in Jason’s hot, wet mouth leaving bruises on his skin.

“There is lube in my drawer, can you reach it?”

Dick slaps a hand on the table beside him, blindly searching for the drawer. He can’t tear his eyes away from the sight of Jason moving up to lick his cock, tongue out and eyes locked on Dick as he smirks.

“You’re lethal,” Dick huffs in amused pleasure. He uses his strength to wrench Jason’s head from his cock. In a deft move, Dick flips them over so it’s Jason under him. “Let me play too, baby.”

Jason groans. “Damn.”

“Hmm, you prefer that?” Dick asks, grinding their cocks together. Jason is beautifully thick and Dick wants it inside him, now. He leans over Jason to grab the lube.

Jason takes the chance to bite Dick’s nipple. Dick yelps, faltering. Jason bucks up but Dick manages to ride it out, keeping his place at top.

“Sensitive?” Jason asks innocently, thumbs rubbing circles around Dick’s areolas. “That’s a nice face you’re making, pretty boy.”

Dick gasps, back arching when Jason twists his nipples, just hard enough to make it burn. His cock jumps at the stimulus and he makes a filthy sound. His thighs shake and he misses the timing to keep Jason’s roiling hips pinned. He’s back on the bottom but this time manhandled face down.

“Much better,” Jason whispers.  

“Fuck,” Dick whimpers, legs spreading wider and back arching.

“That’s the idea.”

Dick snorts. “Got any new lines for me?”

In retaliation, a wet finger probs Dick’s anus. “No point wasting words on you, pretty boy. You’ll be incoherent soon enough.”

Dick gasps as he’s breached. “Promises, promises,” he huffs, biting his forearm when Jason crooks his finger inside Dick, easily finding Dick’s prostate. Dick has never loved Jason’s long fingers more than this moment.

Grinding back, Dick is not shy in being loud. When Jason works his way to three fingers, Dick is writhing, cock leaking on the bed sheets as he moans for Jason’s cock.

“Fuck, you really are a slut,” Jason groans. He mouths as Dick’s neck, no doubt adding to the litany of marks he’s already left. Dick is sure he’s going to be covered in Jason’s lovebites by the end of this.

“Please,” Dick whines, looking over his shoulder. “Jay, baby, don’t tease. Want your cock.”

Jason’s cock jumps from where it grinds against Dick’s asscheek. “Don’t even need to get you to beg, do I?” asks Jason, leaning over Dick and flipping him so Dick’s on his back. “You’re just aching to spread your legs, huh?”

In answer Dick spreads them wide to let Jason crawl between them.

“Jay,” Dick cries when Jason cruelly grabs them and bends them back until Dick’s nearly folded in half.

Jason pants over Dick, green eyes darker than Dick has ever seen them, clouded in arousal. “You’re so fucking pretty, Dickie,” Jason whispers. He reaches over to the drawer and grabs something.

“You brought condoms into space?” Dick says breathlessly, a laugh building in his chest.

Jason huffs. “Always be prepared, Goldie.”

Dick’s retort dies on his tongue as Jason bites on the foil wrapper, tearing it apart and grabbing the rubber. With rapt eyes, Dick follows Jason’s hand as he wraps the condom on his cock, pumping himself a good few times after. Dick’s reminded of how big Jason is and all good humor falls to the wayside as desperate need floods back.

“Breathe,” Jason instructs, even as he presses Dick into the bed with his weight.

Dick whines as Jason’s cock notches against his rim, breaching inside with steady pressure. He can’t tear his eyes away, shamefully watching with lust filled eyes as Jason disappears inside him. When he can’t take it and closes his eyes to throw his head back, all he can feel is his hole throbbing around Jason’s length. He feels so deep .

“Move,” he cries when Jason takes a second to adjust. “Fuck me, Jason!”

“So fucking needy,” Jason snarls. “I’m going to take my time with you, next round. See how greedy you can get.”

Dick doesn’t care for Jason’s words, trying to buck up from his pin to fuck himself. His hands grab Jason’s biceps, nails racking thin lines over their bulge. Jason finally kicks into gear, rearing back to fuck back in.

Jason’s pace is brutal. He fucks into Dick with everything behind his weight, stuffing Dick full and deep. The noises that ring through the room fill Dick’s ears, barely heard over his own needy gasps and whines. It feels so good, all the pressure inside him seeming to connect to the nerves in his spine. When Jason shifts and his cock drags over Dick’s prostate, he screams .

“Like that?” Jason asks. “Such a dirty slut, dripping all over yourself. Can you suck your own cock, Dickie?”

Dick wrenches one eye open, seeing his own cock spew precum all over his collarbone. He feels as dirty as Jason mocks him for and he loves it. “Un,” he confirms, panting hard. He brings one free hand to his mouth, sucking on two fingers.

Jason groans, hips faltering. “You’re too sexy for your own good.”

Dick whines, clenching hard around Jason’s length. He wants it moving again. He wants to feel Jason’s balls slap against his ass. He wants that rough drag and brutal pace.

Jason gives it to him. With a low sound that almost sounds like a growl he fucks Dick again, hard enough for the frame holding the bed in place to rattle. Dick cries out in ecstasy, nearly non-verbal when Jason grabs his leaking cock.

“You’re so wet,” moans Jason, hand jacking Dick off in an uneven pace, “you’re gonna squirt all over yourself for me, yeah?”

Dick sobs. His fingers claw into the bed sheets. He wraps his free leg around Jason’s waist, squeezing with all his might to keep Jason inside him at that perfect angle. It feels so good, his orgasm builds with a ferocity that Dick can’t control. He cums in spurts all over himself, screaming Jason’s name as pleasure wracks his entire body.

He shudders through the bliss, sent higher by Jason’s frantic pace continuing inside him. Jason groans not seconds later, stilling as he reaches his own climax. “So good, you feel so good, Dickie,” he slurs, hips loosely pumping his softening cock in and out until he finally pops out.

Dick’s ears ring, breath coming in uneven wheezes as he tries to find himself after that orgasm. Jason flops beside him as soon as he peels his condom off, limbs heavy over Dick. Dick basks in the comfort of Jason next to him for a few minutes.

Then, “10/10, out-of-this-world sex,” Dick praises.

Jason snorts. “Am I going to have to deal with your space puns this entire trip?”

“Entire trip?” Dick parrots back, rolling so he can lounge on Jason’s chest. Jason makes a show of wheezing. “Jay, you’re going to deal with this your entire life.”

Jason’s hand traces small swirls on Dick’s back. He’s quiet for a moment before he says, “I think I’d like that.”

Dick blinks in surprise. Then he grins. “I knew you loved my humour.”

Jason blushes, turning his head away. “It’s not your humour.”

Dick’s heart skips a beat. His own blush finds itself. “10/10 also best confession I’ve ever had.”

Jason pinches Dick’s ass. “Doesn’t count,” he refutes, a pout on his lip. “When I confess for real, it’ll be a fucking production.”

Dick melts. He hugs Jason tight. “I’m looking forward to that.”

Jason is quiet for some time more. Dick’s dozing, nearly asleep, when Jason says, “I’m going to try. I don’t want to hurt you or put you in danger because of my shit again.”

Dick squeezes Jason, leaning up to press a lazy kiss to Jason’s throat. “It’s okay if you fall,” Dick whispers back. “I’ll catch you, like you caught me.”

Jason doesn’t respond but he hugs Dick closer. Dick knows that they’ve got more to talk about. That there are going to be bumps in the future. But he trusts Jason. Trusts that they’ll both get to the point where they can patch things up together.

☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆*ﾟ ゜ﾟ*☆

“You totally fucked.”

Dick ducks his head just as Jason chokes on his water. Hal grins broadly across from them, clad in Dick’s pink sweatpants. The hand off went smoothly considering all the live wires involved and now they’re on their way back.

“Please do not say that any louder,” Dick hisses, eyes flicking to the door blocking the way to the cockpit.

“Oh, he knows. Why do you think he’s brooding?” Hal points out. “Give him some time, kiddos. He’s getting a lot better at finding his happy place where his empathy lives.”

Dick releases an audible sigh while Jason’s shoulders lose their tension.

“Besides,” Hal chirps, head on his hand as he grins at the two of them, “it’s not Bruce you gots to worry about. Pretty sure the little man has his swords sharpened and ready to go.”

Dick freezes. Casting his memory back, Dick vaguely remembers Tim mentioning Damian being in the same room as him. At the time Jason so brazenly declared he was going to fuck Dick.

“Oh shit.”

{End.}