#ragnarokhound

“Would you have eaten if I hadn’t?”

A short but telling silence ensues. “I plead the fifth.”

Honestly. It’s a wonder this man lived to adulthood.

“You know, this is why you’re so skinny,” Jason says, conversationally, as he flips the second omelet in the pan.

“Nah, that’s the cocaine,” Tim says, equally conversational.

Jason pauses and half-turns, seeking eye contact. He doesn’t quite make it, not when Tim’s still clinging to him like a limpet, but the arms around his waist tighten in reassurance.

“Joking,” Tim says. “Obviously.”

“I wouldn’t put it past you,” Jason mutters, but returns his attention to the frying pan without further discussion. It’s not like it should matter to him, anyway, if Tim Drake is doing lines behind his back. That’s none of his concern.

“The only thing I’m addicted to is work,” Tim promises, then pauses thoughtfully. “And maybe your cock.”

It surprises Jason into laughing, and Tim finally lets go of him to make his smug way over to the breakfast bar. Two glasses of orange juice are ready and waiting, and he helps himself to one without hesitation, downing half of it in one gulp.

Sitting there in an old, faded t-shirt and sweatpants, too-long bangs hanging in his face, both hands wrapped around a glass of juice…Tim Drake looks soft. Soft and sweet and harmless.

You’d never guess by looking at him that this man needed less than a decade to turn a failing conglomerate into Wayne Enterprises’ biggest competitor.

It’s suspicious. He’s suspicious.

But he gives Jason the brightest, happiest smile when he places a carefully plated omelet in front of him, and maybe those suspicions are a little too easy to forget. They sure as hell were last night, when Jason followed him up to his penthouse suite and pinned him to his bed without a second thought.

It’s not the first time Jason’s done that. It’s not even the tenth.

“This looks fantastic,” Tim says. Rudely, he doesn’t wait for Jason to sit down with his own omelet before digging in. The way his eyes immediately close in pleasure makes up for it a bit, though. “And tastes even better. Thanks, Pete.”

He hums happily when he takes another bite, and hearing the fake name doesn’t even bother Jason anymore.

Yeah. This undercover thing’s gone way, way off the rails. Even if it does turn out that Tim’s up to something as shady as it looks like from the outside, even if he has done something worth killing over…

“Anytime.”

…at this point, Jason’s not sure he can.

As such, Jason keeps his true nature tucked tight to his chest. He also can’t bear to be parted with his coat. It NEEDS to be within his sight at all times—nowhere else is safe enough. Luckily for him, the magic of a selkie’s pelt allows it to change forms as he wants/needs it to. It’s been a red hoodie, a school blazer, a yellow cape, and most recently, a brown leather jacket.

The bats are all aware that Jason is a selkie. Jason trusted Bruce enough to tell him after about six months to a year of living with him, and that knowledge spread to Alfred and Dick and later to Tim and Damian. (In this AU, the Robin uniform in Bruce’s case has no cape.)

I am picturing this happening while Tim and Jason are tentatively something. They start out as fwb with feelings. Both of them knowing the other has feelings but less sure of their own, if they can really be the person the other wants or needs.

There is also still definitely some friction between them. Since it’s Jason’s POV a lot of that friction is focused on whether or not Tim can live with the way he handles his cases as well as his distance from the other bats. But there’s also likely some concerns about whether or not Jason can live with Tim’s quirks, haha.

Anyway. Outside of their relationship they also work together a lot, because they genuinely do work very well as a team. They compensate for each other’s weaknesses and boost each other’s strengths—and these days, there’s a mutual respect, now that Tim is better at understanding Jason.

But they still have issues there, too.

Each of the five incidents involve them fighting or disagreeing. I also want to show them steadily taking steps in their relationship, as well; growing from fwb to more of a couple haha. But each of therese incidents/cicrcumstances involve Tim handling Jason’s coat while he’s vulnerable.

Each time, Jason wakes up fearing that Tim will have taken his coat and hidden it. Tim may not want a selkie groom—he can think of a lot of bad things about Tim, but never that he would coerce Jason into any kind of relationship—but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want Jason’s obedience. His cooperation.

Each time, though, Jason’s coat is either safe in his sight or touching him.

The last incident is definitely the worst and the one Jason thinks that Tim will break up with him over, even if he doesn’t take the coat, but instead—

Instead he doesn’t.

It cements Jason’s trust in Tim. That he can trust him not to take advantage of what he is no matter how bad their fights get or how angry Tim is with him. And he wants to show Tim that. That he knows it, that he loves him, so—

He does it the only way he knows how:

He wraps Tim in his coat and kisses him.

Which brings us to the only proper scene I have written for this fic:

Jason runs his thumb over his coat, the leather of its disguise buttery soft, and watches Tim. He’s utterly at ease on Jason’s couch, scrolling through his phone, one arm dangling off the armrest. Jason swallows, stomach twisting with nerves. He takes a breath—in through the nose, out through the mouth. Then, he strides forward, clenching his coat a bit tighter.

He kneels in front of Tim, capturing his attention. His phone falls to the side as Tim’s brows furrow. Before he can ask what Jason is doing, Jason unfurls his coat, wrapping it around Tim’s shoulders.

His eyes grow wide. “Ja— wh—“

Jason can feel the heat on his face. Knows he has to be pink, at the very least. But he doesn’t stop, tugging Tim forward and into the briefest, chastest kiss before resting their foreheads together.

“Caught you,” he murmurs.