#scottishhellound

Jason didn’t bother looking up from his book when he saw Dick starting to move out of the corner of his eye. Instead, he very calmly and patiently waited to finish the page he was on before memorizing the page he was on, closing the book, and turning his attention to Dick.

“How you?” he signs when Dick opens his eyes.

Dick blinks and squints at Jason’s hands, and Jason mentally kicks himself for forgetting about his brother’s concussion.

Leaving the book on the nightstand beside the bed Dick’s in, Jason scoots a little forward in his chair and holds his hands up to wait for Dick to focus on them. Dick squints a little at first but his eyes do eventually focus.

He says something but Jason can’t hear him, so he shakes his head and signs again, as a reminder to Dick.

Jason doesn’t need to read Dick’s lips to know that he says a simple “oh yeah”.

Dick lifts a trembling hand and signs, “Sorry.”

Jason shrugs and lifts his hands to repeat his question. This time Dick’s hands follow his and understand the question, and he leans back into the bed, pressing his hands to his face.

Patiently, Jason waits.

Dick moves his hands to sign, “So-so,” then he looks back to Jason, ready to read his response.

Nodding, Jason signs back, “Remember?”

His brother frowns and looks away to think.

Again, Jason waits, eyes focused somewhere to the right of Dick’s face as he thinks a little to keep his mind distracted, and only when he notices Dick’s hands start to move again does he return his attention to his brother.

“Maybe?”

Jason just nods and stands, signing a quick, “Wait here,” and only sticks around long enough to read Dick’s upset “Where I supposed go?”

Somehow Dick finds something to throw at him and Jason laughs quietly as he retreats out of the room to grab some ice packs for Dick’s injuries.

Everything is quiet as he opens the door to the freezer. It’s still quiet when he closes it. It’s quiet when he grabs a water bottle out of the pack he has.

It’s always quiet.

But that’s Jason’s fault.

He shakes his head and heads back to Dick’s bedside, tossing the ice packs at Dick’s chest and holding out the water bottle once Dick can reach it.

Jason sits down again while Dick opens the water bottle--silence, complete and utter silence--and he reaches out to grab the ice packs to arrange them where they go. One on Dick’s ankle, one on his shoulder, and one pressed to his cheek.

When Dick holds the ice pack to his face, Jason sits back and closes his eyes with his face tilted toward the ceiling.

He’s... tired.

Dick taps his knee, though, to draw Jason’s attention, so he sighs and cracks his eyes open.

Tilting his head, Dick signs, “Talk?”

Jason snorts.

“Deaf,” he replies with a smirk.

Dick rolls his eyes. “You understand what I mean.”

Which he does. It’s just fun to tease.

Jason nods and shrugs. “Talk.”

So Dick does. He starts asking questions about what happened, they swap a few stories, then Dick’s obviously getting tired so Jason tells him to sleep and promises he’ll be there when Dick wakes up again.

But, Dick being Dick, he isn’t satisfied with the simple answer and asks Jason to at least sit closer to the bed.

Rolling his eyes, Jason agrees and stands to take the now-melted ice packs back to the freezer for later. When he gets back, Dick is fighting sleep off and losing terribly, so Jason makes sure to scoot the chair closer right as Dick’s finally knocking out again.

In true Dick Grayson form, though, Dick doesn’t fall asleep until he has a hand off the bed and holding tight to Jason’s forearm.

Surprised but not really, Jason slips the hand from his wrist to his hand and holds it as Dick sleeps.

Eventually he falls asleep too.

The next morning Jason manages to fight an ankle brace on his brother and they spend Dick’s time conscious coloring, reading, and watching as much TV as Dick can before complaining about a headache.

It’s nice.

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