Sitting down, side by side on the old 80s floral couch, you both ate as the opening credits rolled.  He finished before you, and he went to grab both your plates once you were done.  You swatted at hands, taking the dishes from him.

“You’re supposed to watching the movie, you gotta pay attention.”

He huffed a muttered, “yes ma’am” under his breath, but pointedly looked back towards the screen.  It wasn’t his normal movie pick, but you figured there was enough in there for him to at least enjoy it, so you were glad to see him paying attention as you carried the plates into the kitchen. Dropping them in the sink, you left them, figuring they’d wait until the end of the movie, and not wanting to miss anything.

Back on your side of the couch, you sat down sideways, and leaned back onto the armrest, before starting to push at Jason with your feet, trying to get him to move so you could lay down.  It took several prods with your toes before he moved, putting your feet in his lap so you could stretch out. 

You laid back like that for a while, Jason rubbing circles into your calves, face lighting up with the changing images on the screen. You’d seen the movie enough time that you didn’t need to watch the screen to know what was happening – you could probably quote the thing start to finish without the movie even playing.  You watched his face for a while, the small upticks at the corner of his mouth and the huffed laughs as he watched along. 

It had been a really long week. Several of the bats were still off duty due to injuries they’d gotten.  Jason had been relatively lucky, coming out of the fight with some bruised ribs and a couple dozen stitches.  You’d barely seen each other, and when you had, Jason had been in work mode. Even asleep, his body had been tense, and he never stopped for more than a few catnaps.

Now, he was relaxing into the couch, shoulders dropped, about as at ease as you ever saw him.

But, there wasn’t really a point where you’d consider Jason too close in your personal bubble, and he’d been well outside of it for the last week, and now here he was on the couch, decidedly too far away.

You pulled back one of your legs and tried to wiggle it into the space between Jason and the back of the couch, but he’d all but melted into the couch.  He looked over at you, eyebrow raised, clearly bemused.  You just reached out towards him, making grabby hands.   

He leaned over your direction, and when he was close enough, you grabbed onto his shoulder, pulling him closer. 

“Alright baby, damn.” He pretended to be off balance, but you knew from experience that it was much harder to move him if he didn’t want to be moved.  Nevertheless, he twisted, bracing his hands to either side of your ribs, looking down at you. “I thought you wanted me to watch the movie?” he asked, teasing smirk on his face.

You could feel the familiar twinge in your gut at the position, but you weren’t really looking to escalate anything past a little cuddling. So, pushing down the ever-present want, you hooked your arms around his shoulders, pulling him down,

“I do, just wanted you to watch it from here.”

He hummed, sinking down to rest his head on your sternum, arms snaking around and linking behind your back.  He settled between your legs, your knee hooking around his thigh as you both scooted around a bit, getting comfortable.

He tilted his head up, blue-green looking at you through his eyelashes, asking, “better?”

You leaned down, barely able to bend enough to kiss the curls on the top of his head. 

“Much.”

One of your hands went to his head, settling in to scratch gently at his scalp, just the way he liked.  It wasn’t long before you were both breathing slowly in sync, eyes focused back on the movie.

It was your favorite, and with Jason acting as the world’s best weighted blanket, it didn’t take long for you to get into the zone of watching it.  It wasn’t until you heard a slightly-louder-than-normal breath that you realized Jason had fallen asleep.

Your eyes immediately swiveled to him, and you couldn’t stop the grin that spread across your face if you’d wanted to.  Jason didn’t really snore, and he was dead silent when he slept in a bed (as far as you’d been able to gather at least), but when he slept in weird spaces, his breath would occasionally catch in a way that you called a snore, mostly to tease him with.  It seems the week had finally caught up to him, and while you were a little bummed he wasn’t watching the movie, you weren’t going to begrudge him his well deserved sleep.

You finished out your movie, eyes occasionally drifting to the sleeping man on top of you.  Your hand kept up a steady rhythm of scalp scratches, and every time you looked at him, something warmed in your chest.

The movie eventually ended, and thankfully the remote was close enough that you could change the TV to reruns of an old show you’d already seen.  You got through most of the second episode when Jason started to shift, showing the signs of waking up in a place he felt safe.

He glanced at the TV, before turning his face into your chest, nuzzling in.

You carded your hand through his hair, before teasingly saying, “sorry, didn’t realize my favorite movie was so boring you’d fall asleep halfway through.”

He groaned and muttered something muffled by your chest. He lifted his head up until his chin was resting on your chest, before saying “’s not my fault ya make a good pillow.”

You just shook your head, eyes narrowed at him. 

“Promise I’ll watch it all the way through another day.  First half wasn’t so bad.”

“I’ll let you off, just this once Todd.  Disrespect my favorite movie again, though, and there’ll be consequences.” You tugged gently at his hair, a physical threat to go with your (very serious) threat.

He grinned, sleepy and mischievous. “Wouldn’t want tha’ now, would we?” He pressed a kiss into your sternum, before laying his head back down, eyes closed. You waited a second or two, hand still in his hair, as his breathing evened back out.

“You wanna go to bed so you don’t have to sleep on the couch?” you asked, before he could drop fully into another nap. 

His shoulders shrugged around you.  “’m good here.”

“You sure?”

You got a noncommittal hum in response, and he made no move to get up, so you don’t push it.  It was only another 10 minutes before he was fully asleep again. 

You smiled to yourself again, hand still settled in his hair and went back to watching your show. 

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