#halucination

"Wait. WHAT?"

It was a rare night off.

Somehow, Bruce wasn’t brooding.

Somehow, Damian wasn’t stabbing anyone.

Somehow, they were all on the same couch eating takeout and bickering like semi-functional human beings.

Which, of course, meant it couldn’t last.

Jason, halfway through his second box of lo mein, jabbed his chopsticks toward Dick and grinned.

“Hey, Dick,” he said. “Remember when I revealed myself as Red Hood and you thought I was one of your hallucinations?”

There was silence.

Like. Dead. Silence.

Everyone’s heads swiveled toward Dick in perfect synchronization.

Dick froze, dumpling halfway to his mouth. “…Uh.”

Tim squinted. “Hallucinations?”

Damian tilted his head sharply. “Excuse me?”

Even Bruce raised an eyebrow. Which, for Bruce, was the equivalent of spitting out his drink.

Jason, oblivious, just chuckled. “Yeah, man, you were so casual about it. I was trying to be all dramatic, kick your door in, make a big ‘ta-da!’ speech, and you didn’t even flinch. Just told me to go away and kept bandaging yourself.”

He snorted. “Didn’t even believe I was real for, like, a week. Thought I was another one of your creepy guilt ghosts or whatever.”

He popped a noodle in his mouth, completely unconcerned.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family looked like Jason had just announced Dick was secretly a supervillain.

Dick finally groaned, setting his dumpling down.

“Oh my god, guys, don’t look at me like that.”

“‘Look at you like that?!’” Tim squawked. “You were… you were hallucinating Jason?? Like, regularly?!”

“I wouldn’t say regularly.”

“Define ‘regularly,’ Grayson,” Damian snapped.

Jason just grinned wider and leaned back. “Oh, it was regular. I’d show up in his kitchen at, like, 3 a.m. and he’d just go ‘not now, Jay, I’m busy’ and walk away. Like I was the world’s most annoying imaginary friend.”

Dick shot him a look. “You were annoying. Real or not.”

Jason held up his hands in mock surrender.

Tim, however, still looked horrified. “Why didn’t you—why didn’t you tell anyone you were hallucinating your dead brother?!”

Dick shrugged helplessly. “What was I gonna say? ‘Hey guys, you know how Jason died? Well, surprise, I see him in the kitchen sometimes!’ You’d all have locked me in a padded cell.”

Bruce finally spoke, his voice quiet and steady.

“…We would have helped.”

Dick winced. “I know. I just… didn’t want to bother anyone. Figured it’d go away eventually.”

Jason, in a rare show of gentleness, reached over and whacked Dick lightly on the back of the head.

“You’re such a dumbass,” he said.

Dick smiled faintly. “Takes one to know one.”

Jason grinned back.

Meanwhile, Damian folded his arms and muttered something about “pathetic coping mechanisms” while also scooting a little closer to Dick.

Tim just kept staring, wide-eyed, like he was re-evaluating his entire childhood.

And Bruce… didn’t say anything else. But he didn’t stop watching Dick for the rest of the night.

Later, though, when Dick stood up to get another soda, Jason called after him:

“Hey! Just so we’re clear—still real.”

Dick rolled his eyes and shot back over his shoulder:

“Not convinced.”

Jason barked a laugh.

Friend: how did you know that?

Me, lying: I read it in an article

like I made this gif for this whole purpose:

and then the og image:

Chapter 3

Chapter 18