#walters

you realised that it was actually rather late for you to be awake, usually you would be up and ready much before the clock could strike nine but for an odd reason you had managed to sleep in until half past ten, strange, it was almost as if someone had switched off your alarm before you could wake. nonetheless, you ignored the off feeling in your stomach and simply descended down the staircase, ignoring your god awful bed head of hair, just knowing that you looked like nothing other than something that had just swam up from the bottom of the ocean.

you cursed yourself through the hallway, muttering words of insults to yourself, incoherent as you practically hexed your own mind and body, how had you been so obnoxiously stupid to believe the man would stay the night? of course he had only been there in the first place because dick had told him to, perhaps he knew he wouldnt make it back to the manor and so he settled for your bed, you were an idiot to believe anything else. it was hardly as if he would actually-

"morning." eyes snapping up instantly at the sound of another voice, inside your very kitchen. you would be lying if you said you had expected a groggy looking jason todd with his hair tousled and dishevelled, a phone in one hand and toast in the other. suddenly, you stood a little straighter, your hands had moved to your own knotted hair to instantly matt the strands down as best you could as if you truly cared for his opinion on what you had looked like when you first woke, but you did, you cared so much.

"morning." clearing your throat as you moved towards the counter, acting as if you hadnt been utterly shocked to see him there, sitting in one of your own kitchen chairs as he greeted you... politely. there was a furrow to your brow as you popped your own slice of bread into the toaster. you and jason had always spoken, whether it was an argument or a simple conversation with one too many jokes that hit close to home but by all means the man wasnt exactly the nicest person you had ever met and he certainly never spoke politely to you.

but you soon realised, all good things must come to an end eventually you just wished he had lasted a little longer. "So, good sleep, then?" but you knew just by the tone of his voice, he had something on you for he would never have had that smug smirk or that complacent timbre to his voice.

your brows furrowed into a knot, head turning towards him with a confusion stricken face as your toast finally popped from the toaster. "yeah... you?" still baffled to the reasoning for his leer that lay on his pink lips. All while grabbing your toast with two slices of kitchen paper before taking a seat at your kitchen table, across from the man.

"Oh, yeah." his grin only widening but still, you looked at him perplexed. "great sleep, real warm." you nodded suspiciously but nevertheless took a small bite from your toast, it was nothing to worry about probably something along the lines of his normal boasting that he managed to fill almost every conversation with. he was an arrogant man, that much was for sure and it most definitely wouldnt surprise you if he had turned into that same man once more by the time morning came. the man that had been awfully sweet last night was long gone by now. "y'know, it was almost like i had a stuffed animal with me."

and now your heart began to pick up its pace. you were sure that you had hidden all of your secret stuffed animals into the bottom of your wardrobe, you never left them out in fear that your vigilante friends would find them, you were not looking for one of them to start on you for you were sure dick grayson would never let you hear the end of it, your awfully large stuffed toy collection. "uhm." your breath caught in your throat. "what do you mean, jason?" a fake thin lipped smile as if to prove your innocence that had not yet been found guilty, or so you hoped.

"well, to put it like-" then he stopped, scratching the bottom of his chin and glancing upwards, thinking. "let me just show you." your eyes went wide though they dialed down a little when you saw him pulling out his phone and not one of your giant teddy bears. when finally you were met with his screen, you shifted in your chair to get a closer look. craning your neck up, lightly pushing your body forward but as soon as your eyes fell on the picture on the screen, you were sure that your heart quite literally dropped to your ass.

with wide eyes you stared forward at a photograph that you could only assume had been taking a couple of minutes ago, maybe an hour or so. your head, laid on the mans chest as if you truly were a stuffed animal, clinging to him as if desperate for heat. his arm was draped across you too but you paid no mind to that and instead tried to fight the instant pink that rushed up to your cheeks. "so what do you think? should i pursue photography?"

"jason you can't show that to anyone." believe it or not your reputation was indefinitely worth more than a picture of you cuddling into your supposedly sworn enemy but you couldn't help but feel the anxiety begin to build up. "please delete it."

he placed his phone on the table, his head slightly falling to the side. "what will you give me if i do?" and suddenly you found it hard to breathe. it wasnt the photograph that had made your knees feel so wobbly or your head feel so dizzy but instead at the way the man had managed to look at you, as if awaiting your answer, as if you had one.

his eyes never strayed from yours, locked together like one and it had your head gears turning in all directions. what was he hinting at? and why did he do it with such a look on his face that made you feel so utterly powerless. and why had you loved the feeling of weakness under the mans stare?

before you could so much as part your lips to respond, you were, thankfully, cut off by the door opening and closing. your head snapped back to see what it was, thankful to any lord that was watching now for if you hadn't been interrupted, you weren't too sure what you would have done. "hey, guys." never in your life had you ever been so thankful to see dick grayson in the flesh.

"hi." a smile falling on your lips yet even so you couldn't push away the worry that jason had that god awful picture on his phone and how he was ready to share it to the whole world, and how on earth could you stop him? the feeling set in at the pit of your stomach, the realisation of what you had done, cuddling into him in your sleep, the mere thought made you want to hide under a rock and never come back again. it was either that or hitting your head against the table right in front of you and you didn't exactly wish to cause a scene.

"he wasnt too bad was he?" ruffling his younger brothers hair as if he were a parent collecting their child from a babysitter. jason wore a scowl, pushing the mans hand off of his head but nevertheless dick only shovelled some of the other mans toast into his mouth.

"i never am." he protested with the same scowl still sitting on his face, watching his older brother steal his food.

you watched dick let out a playfull scoff but nonetheless sent him a reassuring smile, as if you weren't on the verge of hitting him already. dick gave you the same thin lipped smile, happy that you too had agreed with his statement even if he didn't. "thanks again, y/n/n, appreciate it." but jason no longer wore any expression at all, his teasing smirk long gone and his scowl slightly softened as he watched dick and you speak, old friends that looked to be so much more. for the first time in almost forever, jason was quiet. dumbstruck.

"not a problem, really." a small beam on your face, attempting to make it look like jason hadn't truly annoyed every last bone in your body with your last conversation. eyes adverted from him but his never left your face, travelling from your forehead through the slope of your nose down to your chin and over and over again, as if every time he were discovering something new.

"well, can you still let me take you out for coffee for a thanks?" jasons eyes squinted and his brows furrowed, head turning up at dick who didn't so much as look his way. was he seriously flirting with you right now? in front of his little brother? and for some odd reason jason felt sick to his stomach. he wasn't quite sure what it was that made his heart fall to his knees but before anyone could say another word he was grabbing his phone and making his way out of the apartment. your eyes travelled across the room along with his figure, a furrow to your brows as he all but stormed out of the flat, ignoring the pair of burning eyes on him though he made sure to slam the door on the way out. you turned back to his brother, confused. "don't worry about him, he'll be fine." but that did nothing to soothe your worries. "so... about that coffee?"

it took you not only a minute to accept his offer for going to get coffee, it wasnt as if you liked the beverage but that wouldn't be a problem, you'd simply buy something like a sprite or a fanta and that was exactly what you did. so while you and dick had made your way towards a table, you spoke about every day things all while taking sips from your fizzed drink while he blew his coffee, then taking sips. you knew he was a little too addicted but he'd never compete to tim drake, that boy simply lived off the beverage though you were not too sure that was great for his health neither his physical or his mental.

"whatcha thinkin'?" his voice in a playful tone but nonetheless he had a hint of seriousness in it, he always used jokes and sarcasm to get into peoples heads. this was no unusual for either of you, two friends getting drinks together, as always though every time an old woman would pass you for a couple you always winced as he instantly came to defend the fact that you were siblings, even though you were not but he needed some sort of an excuse otherwise you'd be there for days listening to the old women.

your chin came to rest on the palm of your hand. "the way jason stormed out earlier, i wonder if he's okay." you spoke in a low voice. jason had always had his outbursts and while sometimes it left you rolling your eyes, annoyed at the fact he was getting annoyed at everyone else for something so small, you always still felt a pang of guilt, like there was something you should have done, should have said and by the way he stormed out of your apartment that day, he surely didn't look to be too happy.

dick sighed, looking towards you with a serious expression etched to his features. "y/n/n, trust me, he's fine. he has these tantrums all the time for no reason, you know jason every little thing pisses him off, he was probably just bummed that i didn't ask him for coffee instead." you nodded with a small sigh. it made sense, for jason to be angry about something so utterly little but you were still worried for him, you wanted to call him, make sure he was alright but you knew better, after all, you were still supposed to hate him, one night in the crazy l/n apartment wasn't bound to change that. "can i ask you something? and i want you to answer honestly?"

dreaded questions that left your stomach swirling, something you certainly weren't ready for right now but nevertheless you nodded your head with a small quirk to your lips. "of course." he could talk to you about anything, you'd always be honest with him but by the seriousness in his voice, you were sure to regret your decision.

"do you have feelings for my brother?"

your eyes buldged from your head. "look, dick, tim is great, i mean it, lovely guy but seriously, i cant-"

"not tim." rolling his eyes as if you were stupid now your eyes only widened further.

"well that's just inappropriate!" you exclaimed with nothing less than an astonished look on your face. "damian is twelve." you hissed at the man to which he face palmed.

"i'm not talking about damian, either." you settled back in your seat slightly, now finding it a little awkward that you had thought dick was assuming you to like damian. he was great, really funny when he wanted to be but by no means did that mean you liked him. "come on, y/n/n, it's like im sitting here with a bag of popcorn waiting for you and jason to kiss already!"

watching him with saucer eyes and awestruck, you closed your mouth, only for it to part open once more. "dick me and jason- we hate each other!" you hated him when you met him because he hated you when he had met you, it was one sided surely but soon it turned to be a mutual hate that kept both of you on your toes and you certainly didn't need it any other way.

his eyes rolled instantly at your words. "say the word hate all you want but we both know it's not true." you didn't respond to that, aggressively sipping the drink in your hands as your eyes left his, glaring down at the table as if it were jasons face. "i've got a pair of eyes, you know, I see the way you look for eachother in a room, that nose scrunch you make when he talks."

this time your mouth formed a sort of pout. "I do not!" you protested though sinking back into your chair. "do you think he hates me?" a tilt of your head and a crane of your neck. you wouldn't admit to your longing for some sort of attention from the man but you couldn't help but ask. your sworn enemy, the man in which you were supposed to despise with every being in you, yet you found yourself anxious pondering the thought if he had such feelings for you.

dick sat up a little straighter, placing the coffee cup on the table. "jason's not exactly happy go lucky, we know this." giving you a pointed look from across the table. "but he doesn't hate everything in the world, believe it or not. he hates the joker, he hates himself and i'm pretty sure he hates anyone that takes up too much room but he doesn't hate you. in fact, the little bickers that you guys have, the sarcastic.... squabbles, it just makes him like you more." your brows knotted together as you pushed your fingers against the others, fiddling. "he likes that you fight back, he likes that you don't take offence to everything he says because god knows he's not the sweetest of the bunch."

a sigh passed your lips. "how do you know all this?" you knew the relationship between dick and jason but by the way dick was speaking it was as if he were in his head.

"y/n/n everyone knows how jason feels about you, we also know how you feel about him. oh, by the way, tim and i kind of have this bet going so if you could ask out jay first that would be great because i really want that ten bucks."

now your brows furrowed together in fake offence. "i'm only worth ten bucks?!" crossing your arms in an annoyed manner.

"no, i'm just poor." he fawned sadness before letting out a chuckle as you giggled yourself, you both knew he wasn't poor, the son of gothams infamous billionare. his eyes glanced down to the watch on his wrist. "i gotta get back to the manor, you coming?"

now it was time to stutter in your movements, juttering as you looked down at your phones time, contemplating the offer. "i don't think i should." after the conversation about a certain member of the family, you didn't think it would be best to be around him despite your growing worry for how he had stomped out this morning.

he groaned. "come on, y/n/n, you won't even see him, promise." but a part of you was hoping you would, that ounce that jerked every time his name was mentioned and every time your eyes caught his own. "besides, tim is dying to see you."

you didn't need telling twice. "tim's back?!" but you were already getting up from the seat, your coat clutched between your fingers in excitement of seeing your favourite batboy, not that you'd ever admit such a thing to dick grayson.

it didn't take long until the awaited manor was in front of you and it certainly didn't take long for tim to come dashing out of the house to see your face. in no time you were sat in the game room, a chess game sat in front of you and damian across from it, dick grayson laid sprawled across the couch that you had your back against and of course tim was watching the chess game from the sidelines, cautious to catch out any cheaters.

you werent a batkid and truthfully you didn't think you wanted to be, the hardship was something no one could endure you still werrent too sure how they pulled it off but you would be lying if you said there was a place you felt more comfortable in rather than where you were now, surrounded by your favourite people in the world. it was as if you were home, not just in the walls of your apartment but home, not many people truly understood that feeling.

"checkmate." and as soon as the words left the twelve year olds lips three groans were heard. you had lost the game once more, groaning as your head hit the back of the chair, dick flaring his arms up and tim studying the board as if he had missed something. damian had managed to win every single game you had played, it was truly becoming unfair but you didn't miss the tinge of a smile when he saw all of your disappointed faces.

"how?!" tim cried as his hands went straight to his hair, pulling on his long locks.

"you're too good at this game." dick commented as he plucked the cuison from the chair he was sitting on tossing it across the room but of course damian had dodged it with ease.

"or maybe i just suck." you spoke with a soft bite of your bottom lip, you too studying the board. how had he won so many times? and how had you let him? you were supposed to be the good one at this game though you knew ultimately the only one in the whole of the bruce wayne manor that could beat you truly was damian wayne and no one could beat him. "i'm going to the bathroom, don't kill each other while i'm gone."

"you better win next round!" you were only able to dodge the pillow coming towards your head thrown by dick grayson right before you ducked through the door, he was always the one with the post rage when it came to these games. he thought competitively, tim thought logically, damian thought in many ways though you only ever thought in the sense that would you could have the most fun possible, you created that for everyone around you.

you giggled to yourself as you walked down the hallways you had known off by heart, they were the place you spent most of your time if not in a room of the manor, come to think of it you were sure you had spent much more time here than you did your own appartment. the hallways were quiet as usual, it was a god awfully huge manor.

to say you were caught off guard by a quick yank of your wrist was an understatement.

you felt fingers capture the skin of your wrist, enclosing over you before instantly snatching you from your place in the hallway and instead into a room, you didn't get to so much as look at where you were before your back was hit against the wall, eyes going wide as your mouth parted. eyes instantly darting up, they came in contact with brown curls you'd recognise anywhere and that chiseled jaw and nose that could only belong to one man. "jason? what the hell? you scared me half to death!" attempting to free your wrists from his hold but when he didn't allow you to move, you glared up at him.

"do you have feelings for my brother?" your jaw went slack, was he serious? this was the second time you'd been asked such a question today and you were nearly as shocked as you were before.

you wanted to protest, to instantly yell no and exclaim, tell him you'd never like dick like that, that he was just a friend and it would continue to be that way until the day you died but something inside you told you not to, to play along, to find out if this was the real reason he stormed out of your apartment that morning. to find out if he shared the bundle of feelings buried deep inside you. "so what if i do?" you saw the way his face fell, the way his brows softened and his grip on you slightly loosened. "what's it to you? it's not like you've ever cared about me before." though you knew, it was a lie. when you were hurt, so was he, when you had invited him into your bed you felt... at ease, so he had to care even if it was just for a moment in his life.

"you're a fucking idiot, y/n." he seethed and watched as your brows furrowed together in hurt, then to anger, who was he to speak to you like that? he had no interest in you before but now that you had gotten seemingly closer to his elder brother, he was all over the fact and for the first time in his life, brought you into his room.

"and what are you, then?" anger thick in your voice. "what were you thinking would happen when you drag me into your room and then accuse me of being in love with, excuse me, dick grayson." you often bickered but there was something about your tone of voice, he never truly shut up in an argument but this time, he couldn't find words. "you're the idiot because you can't put behind your own stupid wall you've built to keep everyone out to realise that i don't like dick- i like you!" when you said it, you finally realised just what you had admitted to. but even then, you didn't falter, you didn't move your eyes from his own. you took in his shocked face, the way everything softened above you but you didn't stop. "and the fact that you had to second guess it says everything. do you think i'd let someone i hate into my bed for the night? do you think i'd care when you get hurt if i hated you? you're the idiot because i've been in love with you since i met you and you always acted like you hated me when i did nothing wrong!"

and then came silence.

that eerie silence that had you wishing you had never opened your mouth, you realised that his hands had fallen from your wrists, you could leave, he was practically shoving you out the door, really for if he wanted you to stay, he would have made that happen. you felt stupid, how could you admit something so utterly stupid to the one man you were supposed to hate the most but you didn't hate him, you always knew that. you were told that he was mean, rude, and incredibly dangerous, you shouldn't be around him so why had you felt so pulled to him in the first place? that was the thing about love, it always seemed to happen with the people you didn't want it to, the people you especially couldn't.

"i have to get back." a low mumble that had created so much nose in the nearly deafened room. you moved yourself from the wall, attempting to get away when suddenly, the breath was knocked from your lungs.

your back fell against the wall once more, but this time the man wasn't towering over you but instead his lips were on yours.

they were soft, smooth, something you never would have guessed with the roughed man though his calloused hands had made it to the side of your face, one on each cheek. he had kissed you. you always knew there would be a day where you couldn't deny that you didn't hate him but you had never thought he'd actually kiss you. the kiss wasn't rough and certainly wasn't too much but it was just right. the man, the dangerous, scary man, was being so soft and gentle you almost forgot it was him. his hands kept your face in place while his lips moved against your own so slowly. your own hands travelled up, behind his neck was where you settled for though you couldn't deny the excitement bubbling inside your chest, the sparks that flew just like in all of the love stories you had read. here you were, with your sworn enemy, kissing him.

you only parted for air for you were sure that if you went on any longer, you may actually loose your breath. your eyes travelled up once more, to see the man's face, you wondered if he'd be angry, if it would all go away when morning came. you were worried that something so sweet could turn so evil. a part of you expected him to be gone, as if it were all in your dreams but instead, the man stood in front of you, his hand still grazing your cheek.

"I've waited a long time for that, sweetheart."