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It was supposed to be a quick mission, and it had been. The Red Hood gang was getting bigger and bigger, and the others just made it too damn easy to defeat them.
Gotham was his now, like it was also the Bat’s. Jason controlled what went in and out of the underground world. The amount of lethal weapons they found in this warehouse in the aftermath didn’t please him, because someone had managed to be sneaky under his nose, even for just a couple of days.
The gang put a stop to it, of course. 2 hours and 20 something men and the place, along with all the cakes inside, was Jason’s. What they found, however, wasn’t just weapons.
“So, I found this.” One of his men walked toward him, hand gripping on the neck of what should be considered a furry 4-legged animal.
“What the heck is that?” Jason asked, half of his mind still occupied with what his subordinate had to report.
“I think it’s a dog.”
That thing looked more like a baby bear than a dog. It was small, but not puppy size small, big enough to compare with a 3-year-old toddler. It eyed him with bright yellow eyes, somehow looking completely confused and stupid.
“It was chained up in the back of the warehouse, got a collar and all. I think it was supposed to be a guard dog for the cargo in the back when it grew up.” His man explained, holding the pup higher to take a closer look at it.
Yeah, criminal groups tended to raise their guard dogs from a very young age, it made them more loyal and submissive, easier to train and more experienced. Kinda like Bruce and his herd of Robins.
“What should we do with it?”
“Does our base have enough dogs?” Jason asked.
“Which one?”
“All of them.”
“4 Rottweilers at each gate, 3 Presa Canarios at the bunk and 3 more for each task force. I don’t think we need more, adding an untrained pup in the pack now will probably anger them and ruin the whole formation.”
Great, Jason couldn’t just leave the dog here, and the Bat brat did certainly have enough pets in the house already.
The hairy little beast looked at him with a wet nose and its head tilted, eyes big and round and little soft whimpering noise escaping through its throat. There was no way in hell Jason was going to leave this creature alone to rot dead in this shit hole.
“Ask the guys if any of them need a dog.” He said, eyes still glued to those huge amber ones.
Jefferson walked up next to him, staring at the creature with studious eyes and suddenly smirked.
“Hey Boss, why don’t you check if Blue wants a pet?” He laughed. “He certainly could use company when you’re away.”
And Jason did go away a lot. The thing about being a crime lord holding a massive drugs and illegal weapons business was that he had customers and dealers all around the world. Sometimes he would bring Dick on the trips with him, but the option was not always available. Batman still needed a Nightwing and the Titans still needed a leader, just as much as their troublesome family always needed a Dick Grayson playing the peacekeeper whenever they decided to bite each other’s heads off.
Dick didn’t have a daytime job since he had moved back to Gotham with Jason. He sometimes randomly occupied himself with managing and doing console for the Martha Wayne Foundation. On the worse days, the idea of joining the GCPD hit his mind but oh no, not in this life, not on Jason’s watch.
Jason sure spent the most of his time when the sun was still in the sky at home with Dick, either solving cases, helping him with superhero business, or just doing mundane things together like every normal married couple. But unlike popular belief, gang activities happened in broad daylight too. Workshops, garages and liquor stores that acted as their blinds for their weapons market; strip clubs, prostitutes, and beggars played as their informers; subways, taxi drivers, and homeless centers as hot points for delivery. Jason owned a huge organized system and the damn system needed managing and updating, not all of that he could do at home.
So yeah, he really hoped Dick didn’t mind having a dog around for some comfort while being all alone.
“What is that?” Dick jumped, hands went up to his heart when Jason came home with the beast in his hands, soaking wet because it was fucking pouring outside.
“Uh… your little present?” He laughed, handing up the whimpering puppy for him to see. “It’s a puppy.”
“That is NOT a puppy.” Dick eyed it suspiciously. “You sure it’s not a bear?”
No, not at all.
“Completely!”
Dick breathed and looked at the thing, blue eyes glistering light like living sea gems. He took his hand out and petted the animal’s head, rubbing behind its ears then scratching on its neck. The little thing seemed to like it, wagging its short little tail and turning to lick on Dick’s palm.
There he went, already charming the shit out of one fucking animal at first sight.
He took it into his own hands and rested it down on the floor, immediately, the beast went sniffing his feet and ran circles around him.
“It’s a he.” Dick stated, arms crossed in front of his half bare chest. There was something about Dick in a bathrobe that Jason found really endearing, and sexy, of course. “Does he have a name?”
“I don’t know, it’s yours. You can make one up.” Jason shrugged, took off his wet jacket, then went to kiss Dick a short “Honey, I’m home” kiss. “I think we should call it Beast though.”
Dick laughed and Jason just loved the sound of it. He probably only agreed with the name because he couldn’t come up with any other choices right now. To be honest, the name suited the dog, if it was even a dog anyway. Its fur was so freaking thick and curly, looking soft and shiny, like a lion's mane but it ran all over its body, chestnut black with a few stripes of warm brown highlighted on it.
Beast wasn’t ugly but man, a puppy really should look more appealing than this.
Dick let the little thing walk around exploring the house, and went into Jason’s waiting arms. His skin and kisses smelled like the cheap shower lotion he usually bought, a tad too sweet but Jason loved it, could probably love everything just because it was on Dick.
“You want a shower, or something to eat?”
Jason bowed down to let Dick pet his hair. Those blue eyes shone a haunting glow, making his knees feel weak every time he looked into them for too long.
“Hm, I kinda feel like both.” He smirked. “I wanna eat you, in the shower.”
“Ah, aren’t you greedy.” Dick laughed again and let Jason haul him up under the butt and walk them both to the bathroom, knees digging slightly into his hips.
The pup hurried after them but Jason kicked the door slamming it shut right front of its face.
They gave the dog a proper shower in the morning. Not that Beast was that dirty, but Jason just felt like examining him a little bit more, just to make sure it was actually a dog, and not some weird ass animal that should belong to the zoo.
There were some scraps of the gang’s activity he needed to look at, so he left home after some blueberry pancakes, bacon, coffee and Dick’s kisses. Turned out work was that much, and Jason found himself already driving back to Crime Alley after three hours in China Town. Halfway to home, Dick called him, and when Jason picked up the phone, it wasn’t that sweet honey voice that he had expected.
The bark was so loud and clear it hurt his ear so fucking bad that Jason almost lost his control on the wheel. He immediately threw the damn earpiece out and checked if his ear was fucking bleeding or not.
“Mother father fuck!”
Those three words sounded weird when put together, but it described Jason’s feelings now perfectly. He dragged his breathing in and out, pulled over the side of the road and picked up his phone this time to check on what the hell had just happened.
“Dick?”
No one answered, the only sound that came to his ear was the dog’s exaggerated breaths and pants. Later, Dick’s voice came up with a loud and clear “oh my god, what are you doing!!!” in the background. Jason waited patiently until it was his husband on the other side of the line.
“Hey.” He breathed. “I guess you can imagine what just happened.”
“Pretty much.”
“Our dog just called you all by himself. My phone was unlocked but still, should we be worried?” Dick didn’t sound worried at all.
“I don’t know, sounds like he’s coming close to human civilization.” Jason grunted, rubbing his ear again because shit, it was ringing.
“I think it’s cute.” Dick chuckled. “When will you be back?”
“5 minutes. I’m on my way already”
“Great, I’m making beef stew.” Dick beamed, the sound of Beast breathing next to him could be heard.
“Um, should I be worried about the kitchen being on fire?”
“Shut up, that was like, two years ago. Alfred has taught me well.”
“Yes, he does train lovely housewives, like you and Steph. She walks the dogs now, can you believe it? Tim babbles about it to me all the time.”
“You must be dying for the couch tonight for calling me and Steph housewives, but I’ll look past that just because Beast’s doing something undeniably cute.”
Something cute turned out to be Beast chewing on one of his pistols. His stupid husband even had the heart to laugh until his stomach ached when Jason screamed and ran over to check on his precious piece of metal. The safety was on, of course, and there was no bullet inside, but damn, guns were fucking expensive and Jason really loved all his firearms like a normal grown ass man loved his PC setup.
He was really going to take this seriously and put out some threat about letting the dog touch his stuff, but Dick waved it off and told him this was a punishment for the crap he told the gang about him being a mob wife, or a housewife like Jason liked to secretly chit chat with Tim about. That shut him off, completely, because, seriously, married life was basically about knowing when you lost the fight.
“So, I did research and it seems like it’s the better for dogs to eat raw meats. I don’t know, but I found this website and I just filled in all the information, they’ll probably deliver in a week, until then, Beast will eat what we eat.” Dick stated, walking back to the kitchen with Beast hot on his heels. The dog seemed to have bonded with him already, kept looking at him with sparkling eyes like Dick was his God.
“I just got home and you let the dog eat my gun, and now you're rambling about his diet. What the shit? Where is my welcome home kiss?!!”
Dick looked at him like he was a beggar asking for a bigger bill. Beast rubbed at his feet and honestly, Jason didn’t know why he was fucking pissed at the dog.
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Dick smiled and walked toward him. He kissed Jason’s cheek then down to his neck, tiptoeing to kiss his temple then leave a peck on his lips. Jason wasn’t a soft bastard but damn, he was swayed.
Beast looked at them with questioning eyes, head tilted and tongue poked out. He looked silly like this, maybe a little cute.
Just maybe, because the dog bit on his pant and pulled like Jason was stealing something from him.
“Oh my God! What is that thing!!!”
Dick had decided to take Beast out for a walk today, and this was the fifth time someone on the road screamed that line to them. Jason facepalmed when Beast growled and scared off the lady with a skinny Chihuahua. Dick was on the phone trying to explain something to Roy, he didn’t even notice all the eyes on the street were now on them and the little creature they called a pet.
Jason was sure Beast was just a few months old, but his size begged to differ. He was already as big as a full grown bulldog. And he was damn aggressive too.
People didn’t even want to walk near them because Beast kept growling like a rabid dog, teeth showed and fur up.
Jason wondered what happened to the cute little submissive thing that always followed Dick’s lead and liked to nap on his husband’s chest after every meal. He wondered if there was something in the food Dick gave him too because shit, Beast grew like a weed. A few weeks with them and he had already doubled in size.
A tug of war formed in his head that they should even let Beast out untrained like this.
They got kicked out of a convenience store in the end. Beast had snarled at anyone in 2 feet range of Dick, and he had gone on alert when a girl had tried to start a conversation with Jason. When they got home, Beast turned back to normal, went all happy and joyful when Dick opened the door, jumping and barking playfully.
What the shit?
What was wrong with all of his bitchy attitude when out of the house?
Dick seemed to ignore the behavior and treated him like normal. Dinner today was turkey necks, for Beast of course, not for Jason thank god. Dick had threatened him once after they had gotten into a small fight, that if Jason ever said something stupid again, his meal would be exactly the same as Beast’s, which was usually 80% raw meat, 10% bone, and 10% organs.
Their dog ate like he had never seen food before, which was bullshit because Dick had designed a whole schedule of feeding him. He even did research every night before they went to bed, like right now.
“It’s just food, why are you putting so much energy into it?” Jason yawned and slung his arm over to hug Dick, who was still half sitting with a laptop shining bright on his lap, surfing through all kind of channels and websites for information.
“Food affects his health quite a lot, Jay. He can’t speak like us so I just gotta make sure.” Dick caressed his head and damn, it felt good.
“Leave it for morning, he won’t go anywhere.”
“Nah, I’m just going to finish this quickly.” Dick said that same line about 15 minutes ago. One rare off-patrol night and he decided to do dog research instead of something more… interesting.
Jason pulled Dick in tighter, could hear his husband chuckling and feel his soft hand touching his forearm.
“Baby, just shut that thing off. I need your attention now, not the dog.”
“Pfft, are you jealous of Beast?”
Possibly.
“Like I would be.”
Dick just laughed it off and shooed him to sleep. Jason just hugged him tighter and mumbled why a dog even needed a proper food diet and feeding schedule in the first place.
Dick had never done that for him before.
Turned out Beast was actually a dog.
They had taken him to the vet that morning, giving him vaccine shots and all the needed checkups. He was in perfect health, thanks to all the elaborate research from Dick. The doc said Beast was some kind of cross breed of a Tibetan Mastiff, with a little bit of wild wolf’s blood in him.
What the fuck?
When they had gone home, Jason did some digging about it and what the actual heck? What kind of psycho decided to mix these two breeds together?! No wonder Beast was fucking huge, the thing was mythicized to defeat mountain lions and protect monks and sacred temples in the toughest weather up in the mountains of Tibet.
And here they were, treating him like some kind of house dog. Jesus Christ, what kind of four-month-old pup had already reached above an average man’s knees when standing on 4 legs?
“You know what they call him?” Dick smiled, stroking Beast’s ears while they both sat tight on the couch together. “The lion’s blood.”
Lion shit. More like rapid bear’s blood.
“Honey, I honestly don’t think it’s even safe to let him out of the house.”
“He’s still a child, he’ll learn.” Dick reached down to scratch Jason’s head too, as he sat down on the floor and leaned his back against the couch, laptop in his lap with a dozen websites about dogs.
“They say here that Tibetan Mastiffs are devoted to family, reserved and territorial with strangers.” Jason nose crunched. “And this website also comes with dozens of dog fight videos too. Dick, our dog is a fucking beast!”
“Thought you already knew that, since you were the one who named him in the first place.”
“Well… it was because he was hideous at firs−Hey!”
Beast bit his sleeve and only let go when Dick laughed out loud as Jason nursed his slightly wet sweatshirt.
“He understands you, Jay.” Dick giggled.
“And you’re just playing favorites. I’m your husband, I should be the favorite one, not the dog.”
“And you’re just being childish.”
“No, no I’m not. I’m being realistic.”
“You hear him, Beast? Your daddy is going on his mantrum mode.” Dick squeezed the dog’s cheeks, kissing him lightly on the head as he barked out happily.
“Hey, what about my kiss!!!”
Jason was in the middle of torturing some shit-bags when one of his men appeared and handed him the phone with Dick on the line.
“Hey honey, what’s up?” He answered, face crunched and made an apologetic look at his chained guests. He motioned at his men to put the gags on them in case they decided to get extra loud and Dick heard the noise on the background.
“Hey, are you in the middle of something?” His voice sounded strange, which was never a good sign. Jason sandwiched the phone between his shoulder and neck, and started putting on the gloves.
“No no. What’s wrong?” He slapped on the face of one particularly fat guy. This one was his broker in New York, if he remembered correctly. The fucker had sold his information to the other gangs, made shit tons of money out of that, busted one of his shipment and ruined a part of his plan. Luckily the damage wasn’t much, couple of hundred thousand dollars could come back in a few days, what Jason didn’t like was that somebody had tried to play him. it wasn't all the time he was occupied with the gang because vigilantism was still his right-hand job, and Dick did need a partner in crime in everything too, so troubles like this came sometimes. But only fools would think they could bamboozle the Red Hood and get away with it.
“So,…um, my day didn’t end well.” Dick took his time and he was starting to worry Jason. “Beast bit me today.”
“WHAT??!”
Jason shouted, pulling his ex-broker’s nail right off his finger, ignoring the muffled scream from the man and the sobs from the others in chain. He threw the pliers back to one of his men and pulled the jacket back on, nodding toward the guy to continue the job.
“How did it happen?” Jason demanded, completely confused because the dog loved the shit out of Dick. If anyone would end up getting their limb ripped out by that dog one day it should be Jason first, for molesting Dick of course.
“Well, he was eating, and the meat spilled out so I just thought I should help him. My thought was wrong.”
“Shit, is it bad?”
“Nah, it’s nothing, just a small scratch. I’m at the clinic already, the nurse here just gave me her number.”
“Even with the ring on?”
“Even better”, she said”
“I honestly don’t know what to think about that.”
Some people were just crazy like that. And who was Jason to crave for owning Dick all for himself when the man looked that good?
Nothing and just a small scratch turned out to be 3 stitches and 5 inches of bandage on his forearm. The moment Jason got home and saw it, he was furious. Dick did his best to calm him down, but they ended up in a fight that his husband stood no chance to win.
“He’s got wild blood in him, Dick. I’m not letting this continue.”
“And it won’t, it was just an accident.” Dick pleaded, grabbing onto Jason’s forearm as he snatched the leash and stormed towards Beast.
“Please don’t hurt him.” Dick’s eyes were doing their magic again, but no, not this time.
“He’s aggressive and untrained. I’m not going to hurt him, but I’m going to train him. Until he learns what he should learn, Beast’s not stepping one paw in this house.”
He slammed the door before Dick could follow him. Beast on his leash was already growling at him, and Jason didn’t even flinch a muscle when the dog started snapping his jaw as he dragged it down the stairs. When Beast jumped, Jason had it calculated and grabbed his jaw, catching his flight quick and clean and squeezed the animal tight in his hold. He grunted when Beast started to kick and fight, slamming his shoulder on the door and shouted.
“Jefferson! Open the fucking door!”
The man took three seconds to open the door, and when he got the sight, he jumped right back, eyes went wide and jaw down to the floor.
“What the shit???!”
There was no polite way to do this, so Jason just stormed right in with the squirming beast in his arms. Jefferson went down to help him, grabbing the dog in a tight hold with muscled hands while Jason shot up and snatched the laptop cable nearby. He made a quick work of binding Beast’s legs together with Jefferson’s help, the man jumped out when Beast was fully tied, successfully avoided a powerful snap of his jaw.
“Jesus Christ, where did you get this animal?” He breathed, chest heaving like a drown man just breached through the water surface.
“It’s my dog.” Jason took the headphone wire he saw on the couch and carefully chose the right time to quickly wrap it around Beast’s mouth. “Dick feeds him raw meat and bone every day, so you better watch those teeth.”
Jefferson swallowed.
“He’s foaming, should I be worry?”
“Nah, he’s like that every time he sees a stranger.”
“Okay… s−shit… but okay.” Jefferson looked at Beast like the dog might break the binds at any second.
“Alright, I need you to carry him to my car. I’m gonna go up and make sure my husband doesn’t have a heart attack, and we’ll drive to Newtown.”
“To the base?”
“Yeah, the base. This bad boy is desperate for some training.”
When they made it to the base, Jason was the one to open the trunk and carry out a growling furious giant Beast out, and let Jefferson take care of the car. His men jumped and flinched when Jason walked straight down to the basement where they usually packed the trucks, with Beast wiggling on his shoulder.
He dropped Beast down to the floor and ordered the guards to get him some chains and a collar. When Beast was nicely tied against a pole, Jason cut his binding, and immediately, the dog turned, snapping teeth and tongue toward him like a wild animal. Jason dodged his jaw and sat a few steps away as his guard walked by and gave him a chair.
Beast stayed mental for one good hour, growling and teeth baring nonstop at Jason, until he finally tired out and flopped down on the floor, already deciding that Jason wouldn’t do anything to him.
“Hey buddy.” Jason called, and the dog glared at him. “You’re mad at me, huh?!”
He reached for the inside pocket and pulled out a pack of Camels, lit up the cigarette, and took a long drag.
“Well, then we’re on the same page, ‘cause I’m fucking pissed too.”
Like he understood everything, Beast growled at him, big white teeth showing, bright amber eyes locked on Jason through thick dark fur. He looked like a monster like this, like some sort of dire wolf-bear.
Jason hunched over, and flicked away the burning ash. He motioned Jefferson to clear the guards out, and when the room was empty with only three of them and a few trucks, he stood up, and walked over to Beast. The dog immediately went on the defense, growling warningly.
“Wanna know why?” The closer Jason got, the more Beast seemed to lose it. His fur went up, making him look even bigger. His teeth snapped and saliva spilled out, a clear warning that if Jason even dared to step closer, he’d lose a limb or more.
Jason stepped closer anyway.
“You hurt Dick, you brat.” He grabbed on Beast's collar, pulling him up on only two legs, holding his neck tight so he couldn’t twist and try to tear his arm off. “You don’t eat my food, sleep in my house, then bite my husband.” He snarled. “No one hurts my husband.”
This time, he let Beast twist his head, but before those dangerous teeth could close nice and tight on any of his skin, Jason punched the dog square on the jaw, sending him down the floor. He could feel Jefferson’s eyes on him, and ignored it. He rolled up his sleeves, and waited until Beast seemed to snap out of the shock, and went back to attack him.
He jumped with his mouth wide open, looking crazy and insanely wild like the ancient blood he owned. Jason got his jaw and wrestled him down. He heard Jefferson swear behind them, but was occupied by Beast’s growling.
“Fuck yeah, come on! This is the best you can do?” He snarled and punched the dog again, sending him down the floor with a loud thud. His teeth scratched Jason’s knuckles, making them bleed.
Beast seemed to hesitate on his next move, starting to feel the dominating atmosphere oozing out in the air all around Jason, but he tried again and dashed over, going for his legs this time. He let the dog bite on, hearing Jefferson call out in worry, and feeling the pressure of powerful teeth and bones on his skin, but most of his non-home-related clothes were Kevlar disguised, .45 ACP bullets could get through, what could a dog’s teeth possibly do?
Jason waited then kicked Beast on the side, put on just enough force to rip the dog off his leg and send him flying away, and not to seriously injure any of his bone structures. Beast howled a painful sound and stayed flat on the floor, which had Jason scared a little bit because damn, he was his dog and Dick would definitely kill him if something happened to the pup.
Beast slowly got up and whined little noises in the back of his throat. When Jason stepped closer to him, he barked and growled warningly.
“What?” Jason snarled, letting his voice go low and rumble just the way that made rapists shit their pants when they heard him. This time, finally, Beast gave up, dropped his ears and tail, head bowed low, completely submissive. Jason was his Alpha now, and dogs always bowed down to their Alphas.
“That’s right. Submit.”
His voice went even louder and lower, had Beast sitting his ass down and head ducking low until his nose touched the floor.
Only now, Jefferson dared to get close to them, eyeing the dog while hesitantly walked towards Jason.
“You okay, Boss?” He handed Jason a towel to wipe the blood off his knuckles
“Peachy.” Jason grinned. “He won’t fight me anymore, not ever.”
Dogs like Beast wouldn’t work the ordinary ways, he was a vicious breed, with aggressive blood and pure wild instinct flowing in his system, and Dick had spoiled him just enough. He wouldn’t back off or listen with just light bats in the head or a simple “No, no”. Animals like him needed to fight to fully submit, needed to lose to fully respect their superior.
He liked it wild? Jason wouldn’t mind giving him that.
“How is he?” Dick whispered while lying on his chest, naked skin smelling like sweat and sweet shower gel.
Jason always loved him like this, not during but fresh after sex, lying lazily and blissfully on his chest, feeling warm and satisfied.
“He’s good, progressing. A smart pup like him will take no time.” He kissed Dick’s hair and listened to him hum, felt his smile and rubbed his waist. Tim always complained they hadn’t made progress at all, for almost 3 years had passed and they still felt and acted like newlyweds.
Jason didn’t mind that, and Dick certainly didn’t either.
“I miss him.”
Jason didn’t let Dick visit Beast during training, had said it would distract him from what he had learned so far, and Dick agreed. He would give notes on what Beast should eat daily, on what he liked and what he did not like.
After two week and three days, Beast was allowed to go home. The moment he stepped through the door, he jumped on Dick and licked over his face, whimpering soft noises like he was crying. Dick looked at him like the dog was his blood child, and Jason was left standing all alone, completely ignored by his very own husband and pet.
Dick seemed surprised by how much Jason had managed to teach Beast. When it was dinner, the pup ate on his own bowl and didn’t spill a single piece out, he didn’t ask for more like he had done before sometimes, and when he saw Jason stood up to put away the dishes, he took his bowl into his mouth and pushed it to his leg, asking him to wash the bowl for him too.
Dick just stood there with a hand over his mouth, too shocked to even put it into words, like a father's first time seeing his son take his first few steps. Also, Dick could pet Beast while he was eating now, Jason had made a routine of casually caressing his head while giving him food. Beast didn’t bite his Alpha, and the action gave away the message that no one was going to take his food, making him less food aggressive.
When it was bedtime, Beast stayed nicely on the fur rug outside the living room, giving them space like he was trained to do. Dick peeked through the door sometimes and looked at their pup with disbelieving eyes.
“How did you do it?” He gasped, eyes still on Beast while he pulled on his night robe. “He’s like a mini soldier. So disciplined.”
“You’re not the only one who did research on him.” Jason smirked and pulled Dick on to their prepared bed, pulling the robe down and off Dick’s naked shoulder, kissing the skin there.
“Umm… he gave me his favorite toy earlier. Normally he wouldn’t even let me wash it.”
“It’s your scent.”
“What?” Dick laughed, completely confused.
“Dogs scent people to identify them. You always have my scent all over you, Beast knows that you’re my mate, that you’re his Alpha’s mate, he respects you, won’t dare to hurt you, and would probably give everything of his to you if you wanted it.”
“Wow, since when did you become a dog expert, Mr. Grayson-Todd?”
“Since I needed to be, Mr. Grayson-Todd.”
They both chuckled and kissed each other. Dick tasted sweet on the tip of his tongue, slightly spiced like cinnamon, and Jason could feel himself needing it like a druggie needs their white dust.
They were seriously in the middle of something when the bedroom door peeked open and Beast poked his head in, ears dropped and eyes big looking at them. Seriously, just looking at them like he was waiting for something.
“Oh god, if this is what being a parent feels like. I don’t know if we should even think further or not.” Dick chuckled as he turned to look into Beast’s puppy eyes, couldn’t stop laughing since the dog kept looking at them like he didn’t know what they were doing.
They both laughed as Beast flopped down on the floor and laid there like nothing was his business.
“Your dog makes me nervous.”
Tim stated and stared back at Beast.
The pup had reached 8 months old now, bigger than even a Great Dane at the same age, long dark fur newly trimmed, and freshly showered just yesterday. Jason would proudly say he looked handsome, and majestic, getting really close to the Tibetan myth that he was born to be. The pup pinned Tim with bright amber eyes, didn’t budge one inch from where he was half lying on the fur rag, but he watched Tim’s every single move, looking ready to jump on the guy at any time if something fishy could be spotted.
“Just leave him.” Dick walked over and handed Tim a cup of freshly brewed coffee. He was making breakfast for all the three of them, and the smell of delicious smoked sausages on the frying pan could probably be scented two miles away.
“He won’t bite… well, as long as you don’t look suspicious.” Jason grinned and called Beast over to rub on his ears. The dog pushed his wet nose into his palm and sniffed cheerfully.
Later on, the three of them sat nicely on the table near the window in the kitchen, enjoying breakfast with Beast a few steps away enjoying his ribs. Tim had come over today, paid a little visit to his “incest married couple”, he liked to joke.
“So how has my newlywed incest couple been doing?” Dick smirked, sipping from his mug as he flipped the sausages. Jason could see where Tim had gotten the joke from.
“Better than expected.” Tim huffed.
“That’s a lot, coming from the world’s best detective.”
“Steph likes the house, but complains a lot about my stuff littered all over the floor, even when she’s like, 10 times messier than I am.”
“Oh that’s just the start of a zillion things you’ll have to live with. Trust me, I have experience.” Jason walked over and caught the apple Dick playfully threw at his head just in time. He kissed Dick’s nape and dipped his hand just underneath his sweatshirt, rubbing his waist lightly.
“Oh, trust me. We’re not as bad as you guys.” Tim chuckled at the sight. “You sure you’re not the newlyweds?”
“Never too old for romance, Timbo.”
“It’s a whole new level of weirdness, hearing that coming from you, Jason.”
Jason just gave him the finger then went to set the plates down, Beast was hot on his heels and kept poking his nose to his ankles.
“Beast, hush. Sit down boy.”
He sat right down and tilted his head, eyes big and round watching Jason going around the counter to kiss Dick on the cheek.
“You know, Damian will definitely get overexcited about him.” Tim eyed the dog and smirked. “Who knows, he might even swap me for the dog.”
“Wanna swap?”
Dick eyed his brother and sighed, patting Beast’s head to let him run around exploring the garden.
“With what exactly, Dami?”
“You can have Drake, I only ask to keep him for…” Damian shrugged. “A year, maybe two?”
“Tim doesn’t even live here.”
“He does come around often enough.”
“You don’t even like him.”
“But you do, shouldn’t that be enough? That’s how transactions are made, give both sides what they need, for mutual benefits.” Damian watched Beast jump around chasing after Ace. He looked massive standing next to the German Shepherd, even when Ace wasn’t anything close to being small at all.
“You sound like Bruce. And you don’t need another dog, or even another animal at all.” Dick was amused though; his baby brother always had a soft spot for animals. Even from a very little age, up until now, when he already reached passed Dick’s shoulder, shadowing over him, that had never changed.
Jason was inside the house, either helping Alfred with lunch or 2 steps away from biting Bruce’s head off. Dick was always half worried about that every time they were at the manor. Jason’s temper always ran short when he was away from Dick’s gasp, and out of all Bruce’s talents, being a jerk was one of the top.
Dick was seriously thinking about going inside to take a look around, just to check if the house was on fire or not. Luckily for him, Jason walked right to him when he was still watching Beast chasing the bees.
“Uhm, did you roll around in Alfred’s bushes? Cause you smell good.” Jason dipped his head down, scenting Dick’s neck, hugging him tight from behind and lifting up until Dick’s toes were off the ground.
Damian scowled when Dick laughed out loud as Jason spun him around, Beast came running toward them and jumped around, completely excited with his humans’ laughs.
“This family is packed with lovesick fools.”
They spent the week at the Manor, of course. Christmas night was chaotic with criminals celebrating by deciding to bomb up a quarter of the city. Luckily this so-called Bat-family was ridiculously large enough to stop everything without too much difficulty.
They managed to gather at the house around half past one, all the decoration finished perfectly single-handedly by Alfred. The tree this year was bigger than usual, and of course, they didn’t have Beast in the past few years so Jason had to spend a part of his mind aside from getting handsy with Dick and Bruce’s liquor cabinet to watch over Beast and the twinkling tree.
Goddamn it if the dog didn’t get itself together next year they were gonna have to install the tree upside down on the ceiling.
“So, I didn’t read the card but I guess this is from Jason.” Tim laughed humorlessly as he pulled up a bright red turtleneck with a big ass sparkling “NERD as fuck” painted in the middle.
Steph’s head rolled off Tim’s shoulder as she burst out laughing like a maniac and started snorting like a pig. Dick laughed so hard he spilled a bit of the eggnog on his sweater. Jason pulled him tighter in his lap, kissing and licking the foam off Dick’s lips before giving Tim a mocking peace sign.
When it was Dick’s turned Jason decided to surprise his husband a little.
“Oh my god, Jason!” Dick beamed with shiny eyes as he pulled out the golden Bollywood style anklet with dozens of ocean blue gems decorated around it.
“Benitoite, to match your eyes.” Jason leaned in to kiss on his husband’s lids and the corner of his big ass smile. “Fucking rare on this planet, maybe in other planets too. But I managed.”
Jason had a feeling Dick didn’t know what the heck Benitoite was, but meh, it wasn’t important anyway. The man couldn’t even remember what kind of stone his very own engagement was. He tucked the mistletoe that he had pulled down from the doorway behind Dick’s ear and kissed him, he could feel his husband’s face burning up from the glasses of wine they had had before and the kiss alone.
He turned then and wiggled his brows to Alfred, feeling so damn proud of himself he couldn’t stop laughing.
“Marvelous choice, Master Jason.” The old man said, putting on another layer of ego on him.
Jason let Dick marvel on the jewelry before taking the matte box away from his hands and squirmed out from his weight.
“Jay?” Dick asked but cut short as Jason slipped to the floor and knelt down on one knee. He carefully pulled the anklet out and rolled the leg of Dick’s pants up, pulling Dick’s fizzy sock off (god help him) before clicking the item onto his ankle with gentle touches, and Steph’s squeal mixed with the traditional Feliz Navidad on the radio as romantic background music of course.
He kissed the shiny stone then onto the naked ankle. Dick laughed delightedly when Jason pulled him up and off the couch, spinning around and falling into a waltz in the light of fairy lights and the burning fireside, with Cass clapping and Beast barking after. Later on, while Jason was letting himself get drunk on Dick’s smile and shiny eyes, he spotted Bruce in the background pulling Selina up for a dance as well.
Moments like this made the cold and ginormous place feel like home, with Dick’s present pushing the darkness away, with light and fire from the fireside warming the place, with Bruce smiling like he so, so rarely did to his wife, and the whole family sitting around, with no war to fight or mission to pursue.
Moments like this made any of them fear death the most, made Jason shake and tremble when thinking about the 6-foot deep hole under the ground, the cold wooden coffin that most of them in the family had laid in. No, he couldn’t afford to lose this, couldn’t afford to lose Dick and the many events like this waiting to happen in the future they both dreamed of building.
“You know, this is called injustice. You always have a soft spot for Dick.” Tim called after them and pulled Steph closer to his side, trying to get her on his side instead of laughing her ass off. “I mean, look at him. He’s gonna get robbed someday walking around in Crime Alley looking like a Cartier showroom. You’re ready to pay extra thousands on an anklet for Dick, but you couldn’t even pick a better turtleneck for me?” He exaggerated and pulled the sweater up. “I’m starting to regret for being too considerate and giving you a gun cleaning kit. Look at this color, it’s hurting my eyes! It’s an insult to the nerd community.”
Boys never grew up, they said. It was true though because minutes later Dick yelped as Jason tried to use him as a cover for the flying pine cones Tim threw at him. Damian scowled and pulled Dick toward the safe zone of Cass’s place when Duke decided to jump into the game. They had fun for a few short minutes before Alfred threatened to make them cleaned up the mess by themselves if one more pine cone was pulled down from the decorations around the room.
Turned out they stilled had to clean everything with Alfred following behind their backs anyway, because Beast went overexcited and tripped over the socks someone had managed to slip onto his paws, knocking down the whole tree. All the decorations were damned, and his night of romantic light and candles and a bed full of mistletoe with Dick was rescheduled out a few hours.
But hey, not the worst Christmas he had ever had.