Chapter Text
Damian balanced with ease on the rafter’s edge, peering down into the illuminated room below told him two things.
One: Todd overestimated the firepower this sector held.
Two: Damian would be finished with his trial within ten minutes.
“How’s it lookin’, kid?” Todd’s voice crackled to life in his ear.
“Like you don’t trust me to take on real criminals,” Damian scowled, “I could manage this in my sleep.”
“Quit being cocky,” Jason reminded him. “Last time you misjudged your opponent, I had to take that bullet.”
“First of all, it was a knife. Secondly, you didn’t have to jump in between us.”
“It’s a saying, you dumbass. Also, that shit was aimed at your heart which meant it was your life or my thigh."
“Shut it.” Damian muted himself on the comms and leapt down into the shadows. He swam through them like a shark in water, stalking his prey with silent strides. There were eight men scattered about the room, each one unfocused and bored with their assignment.
Damian wasn’t complaining.
Well, he kind of was.
If they were tired and unchallenging, it only made Damian less interested.
Alas, he took out a man who’d strayed too far from his pack, slitting his throat and covering his mouth before dropping his lifeless corpse to the ground without so much as a thud. He started moving quicker, targeting another wandering fool getting too close to the shadows. After giving him the same fate as the previous criminal, he slunk back into the darkness, ready to reassess the current situation.
Damian spotted a figure getting close to one of the fallen men. So, acting defensively this time, he crept up behind the man and swept his feet out from under him, catching him before he reached the ground, and smothering him with a discarded piece of fabric, probably originating from some sort of old sweater or blanket.
Once the problem was dealt with, he returned to the rafters and waited for his next opportunity. Todd had given him the goal of not being seen the entire process, something he’d been implementing to make challenge days such as this a bit more… challenging. Damian knew Todd never actually left after giving him a solo mission, he was probably watching from a nearby window or using a thermal sensor to ensure everything went smoothly. Todd was about as paranoid as father sometimes.
Damian wiped another three foes off the board before someone managed to find a small pile of bodies. “JESUS CHRI–” Damian made it just in time to silence him before he finished his alarm, but it was too late to keep the last living man from responding.
“Who’s there?” He bellowed, voice cracking in fear and fingers gripping the handle of his gun with trembling force. Damian stalked behind a crate before the guy rounded the corner. His eyes widened in fear at the sight of his fallen comrades and he snapped his head around in all directions, fearing the same fate.
He was right to be afraid.
Damian pounced out of the shadows like a panther, wrapping his arms around the man’s throat from behind and drawing a red line across his Adam's apple, leaving him in a gurgling mess on the dirt floor.
The boy turned away and started making his way to the middle of the room where the smuggled guns were stored, only to find someone else already there.
“Nice, kid, but you didn’t get the bonus points.”
“I wasn’t seen.”
“They knew you were here, that’s like the same fucking thing.”
“I wasn’t seen.”
“You’re not arguing this into your favor, asshat.”
“You’re changing the assignment.”
“You’re being a whiny bitch.”
“What do you gain from my failure?”
“Pure fucking dopamine,” Jason started laughing manically.
Damian’s face twisted into something close to a wild boar, before ramming straight into Jason’s cackling form and attempting to drag him to the ground, pulling him by his left arm. Jason kept on chorting, pushing the boy away by the forehead, his hand took up the entire top of Damian’s face.
However, just before Jason lost balance and fell to the ground, Damian felt something pop, followed by Todd letting out a grunt and crumpling to the floor.
“What the fuck?” Todd seethed, clutching his shoulder in pain. Damian let go and backed away from Todd with an eyebrow raised. “Did– did you just pop my arm out of its socket… with that?”
After a quick lookover, Damian came to the conclusion that he had, in fact, dislocated Todd’s shoulder with his playful tugging. “Ow… that hurts like a bitch.” He rubbed at the loose shoulder and winced as it limply fell. “Fuuuuuck.”
“Hold still,” Damian ordered as he regrasped Jason’s arm and positioned himself, putting his right foot on the larger boy’s waist.
“Hold on, wait a seco–” Damian interrupted him by yanking on his arm and letting another pop echo through the halls. Jason let out a hollow noise, opening his mouth wide but choking on his howl, causing almost no noise to actually sound.
“That shouldn’t hurt that much, you’re fine,” Damian scoffed, brushing off his dirty clothes and working his way back to the smuggled items. “Now, come and get what you need before I start setting the explosives.”
“Uh… yeah, sure.” Jason got back on his feet and began shuffling through the pile using only his right arm. After he dug out a few mediocre looking weapons and a bag full of ammo, he gave Damian the signal to start planting the bombs and drug Damian’s earnings to the exit, again, only using his right arm.
“You’re dramatic,” Damian commented once he caught up.
Jason shot him a glare. “It hurts.”
“I’ve dealt with worse with less babbling.”
“Yeah, well, so have I. This one just hurts a shit ton more than it usually does.”
“Whatever,” Damian scoffed as he yanked a bag from Todd and slung it over his shoulder.
“Aw, what a gentleman,” Jason looked like a grandma complimenting her grandson.
“Cease your quips.”
“Never,” Jason whispered just loud enough for Damian to hear him, earning him a scowl.
—
Jason sat on the edge of their apartment’s bathtub, looking down at the bottle in his hands. The bottle read: Maximum Strength Hair Dye! Semi-permanent, black hair dye. Use one bottle for the whole head. It’ll stay for months! Jason sighed, before standing up and walking over to the sink.
He’d taken off his shirt already; he didn’t want to ruin it with black dye, they were on a thin budget as of late, slowly running their drug money dry. It had been about eight months since they’d gotten here, and although the weather was moderate compared to a place like Gotham, the winter wasn’t helping Jason’s constant aches and pains.
He popped the cap of the bottle open and dumped a good amount into his hands. Did he have any idea what he was doing?
No.
But did he desperately want to rid the man in the mirror of the mocking white streak that haunted him every time he caught a glimpse of it?
Yes.
He wet his hair a little bit using his opposite hand –that felt right– before he began smearing the jet-black goo all over the bright stripe. He was halfway done with the bottle when the door creaked open.
“Todd.”
“Uh, hey.”
“What are you doing?”
“Hair?”
“You missed a spot.”
“No I didn’t.”
“There’s still a massive white spot.” Damian sighed before adding, “Give me the bottle.”
The kid crawled on top of the counter and sat down, motioning for Jason to lean down so he could reach his head. Jason handed over the bottle, after rolling his eyes of course, before bending down and angling his head downwards.
Once they were finished, the bottle said they should pin it up and wait 20-28 minutes. They didn’t have any actual hair pins, so instead they used a chip clip from the kitchen and pinned the soppy clump of hair out of Jason’s eyes.
With their 28 minutes, Jason began to clean the bathroom, while Damian cued up a movie he’d seen on an ad while they were walking around town. The bathroom Jason was faced with cleaning was an absolute disaster, he hadn’t realised how much dye he’d gotten on the counter, floor, and… somehow some on the fucking wall? It looked like a fucking tar-bomb blew up in their sink. It took him fifteen minutes just to get it looking presentable again, although it was still stained and he’d ruined about three towels in the process.
So much for not ruining anything.
For the last thirteen minutes, he heated up some shit microwave meal and sat down with Damian to watch whatever dog movie he’d chosen, only to find that he’d chosen A Dog’s Purpose.
Someone’s going to be crying at the end of this one.
They’d just reached the grandparent’s dinner scene when Jason’s alarm went off. Damian paused the movie and followed him into the bathroom, curious to see his work.
However, when Jason dipped his head under the showerhead and began rinsing it, Damian’s face shriveled up into one of confusion. “Todd, are you sure you got the right stuff?”
“Why?” Jason asked between spitting out water and dye.
“It’s… uh…” The fact that Damian had gone speechless… was not a good sign.
“What the fuck is it, kid?”
“Just look in the mirror,” he sighed.
Jason finished rinsing out his hair until the water was mostly clear before walking over to the sink and looking at his new hair.
Except…
Nothing fucking happened.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” The white streak taunted him from its place on his forehead, he could almost hear it laughing at him as it waved in the artificial wind created by the vent above them. “I’m fucking done.” He dropped the towel and just walked out of the room, not stopping until he reached the sweet comfort of his bed.
“Todd, are you not going to finish the movie?” Damian’s voice came from his doorway, small and almost sad.
“Sorry, kid, not tonight.”
“Very, well,” the kid pushed off from the doorframe. “I’ll finish it tonight and I can rewatch it with you another time.”
“Sure.”
Jason heard the door of his door click shut and the sounds of the speakers in the living room starting up again. He felt a single tear run down his cheek and he brushed it away, scowling at the thought of crying over a failed hairdo. His hand found its way up to the damned streak and pulled, wishing it would all just go away.
Why couldn’t he just have this one thing?
The injections Dick had given him had worked like a charm to keep the green at bay, sure. But it came at a cost he should’ve expected.
The Lazarus Pit stopped affecting him physically as well.
His movements became groggier and he found himself forgetting everyday things more often than he should’ve been. He’d accidentally tripped a trap the other day even after warning Damian about it, he found himself in the kitchen sometimes, forgetting what the fuck he was even there for, and his wounds took longer to heal, a minor scratch taking nearly a week to fully close.
And the dislocated shoulder from earlier today–
Why couldn’t he have anything he wanted?
Sure, he could stop taking the medicine at any time, really, it’d make him feel better.
But the voices.
He couldn’t imagine selling the silence in his head for anything, even if it meant being able to run for longer than a couple minutes again. The green was nearly gone, if he could just keep himself together until he figured out an alternative.
Jason sat in his bed for another hour, tugging at the white lock every time he thought about it.
It was a couple minutes after he heard the TV stop when he heard his doorknob shake before creaking open, allowing a small amount of light to creep in.
“Todd?” Damian nearly sniffled.
“Finish the movie?”
Damian stated weakly, “Yeah.”
The kid wordlessly climbed into bed next to Jason, ignoring the fact that he had his own room now and didn’t need to leech off what little warmth Jason had left. He nuzzled his face into Jason’s chest and threw the blanket over them haphazardly, missing Jason’s cold feet completely.
Despite everything on his mind, Jason felt a smile tug at the edge of his lips as he looked down at the oversized koala clinging to his chest.
At least he has this.