Fic: Necessary Roughness (Tim/Jason, Kings Among Runaways)
Series Title: Kings Among Runaways
Story Title: Necessary Roughness
Summary: The AU where Tim ran away from home at the tender age of mumbledyteen, and Jason got let off with a warning, the night he met Batman.
Warnings: Sexual content including minors, both disturbing and hopefully not. Explicit violence.
Note: The series is indexed here. This installment occurs after Kings in Disguise and before Last Minutes. Huge thanks as always to kirax2 , my partner in crime. <3
“He knows me,” Manny is saying. He stuffs a french fry in his mouth and takes the ketchup away from Tulio before disaster can strike. “If he’s hanging around, or if he’s got a guy watching the site at night, he’d know it was me. Never seen you, though.”
Beside Jason, Tim is frowning. Jason is trying his best to ignore it. “You just want me to scout around?”
“See if there’s a guard, yeah. If not, we can clear the stuff out, pronto. I know a guy,” Manny assures him. “He’ll pay good. The stuff’ll be off our hands before the sun comes up.” He keeps his voice pitched low. There are still a few other occupied tables in the diner, despite the hour, and the waitress keeps looking their way.
“Just like that?” Tim says, disapproval in his voice. Jason doesn’t look at him. “You’re going to break in, destroy private property, steal valuable materials-”
“Man, I worked for that asshole three days. My cousin, too, and his brother-in-law. Bastard didn’t pay up. Cesar and Miguel got jack shit, and I only got about half - pays to be legal, but it don’t pay much. We put all that pipe and wiring in there... We’re just gonna take it back out.”
“I’m in,” Jason says, before Tim can argue further. Two and a half bucks a pound for copper at the scrapyard. Even split, it’ll be a good chunk of money - and Jason never minds sticking it to somebody who’s got it coming.
Tim sighs, and Jason expects a fight, but what his friend finally says is, “We’ll look less suspicious if we borrow your skateboard.” When Jason turns to look at him, Tim chews his fries and shrugs. “You’re going to do it either way. And he’s taking advantage of people who can’t go to the cops. I guess it’s kind of... justice.”
“Like Batman,” Tulio says around a mouthful of half-chewed french fries. Tim jumps a little - he always gets weird when somebody mentions Batman - and then smiles. Tulio grins back. “I wanna help!”
“No!” all three older boys say at once. A few heads turn toward their table, and Jason has to try hard to look casual.
“You’re gonna go home,” Manny hisses to his brother, pulling him into a half-assed headlock. “And don’t you dare tell Mami what we’re doing. She asks you why I sent you home alone, you tell her...Jay and I are picking up girls or something.”
“Ew!” Tulio says with great feeling. When Jason makes exaggerated kissy faces at him, he shrieks in childish disgust. Tim looks amused, so Jason turns to make a few sucking smacks in his direction.
Tim just throws a napkin in his face and looks away. “That girl is looking at us again.”
Jason glances over. The waitress - a pretty Latina with bleached highlights and dark, bruise colored lipstick - is indeed looking their way.
“She ain’t lookin’ at us. She’s lookin’ at me.” Manny winks at her over Tulio’s head and she rolls her eyes before going back to filling napkin holders. Manny grins and slicks a hand over his short hair. “Hey, Mariana-”
“No,” Mariana says without looking up. Jason grins and socks Manny across the table. He gets a solid kick in return.
The bell over the door dings, and Jason looks up; Cesar’s supposed to meet them once his little girl is in bed - but it’s not Manny’s cousin in the doorway. The guy looks kind of familiar, though - Dark hair shot through with grey, broad shoulders but a soft middle, like maybe he used to work out but hasn’t in a long time. Jason’s seen him somewhere - but it’s a big city.
“She likes me,” Manny insists. Mariana is talking to some working girls having coffee at the counter, and doesn’t look up even though he says it loud. He lowers his voice and gestures at the nearly empty plate in the middle of the table. “She gave us, like, twice as many fries, man.”
“Oh yeah,” Jason deadpans. “She’s totally hot for your cock.” Tulio cracks up, and Tim chokes into his water glass, laughing. “The extras are for the squirt, dipshit. He always gets extra everything.” When Tulio looks smug, Jason kicks him. “That’s why we let you tag along.”
That makes Tulio stick his tongue out and Manny try to crush him. Jason can’t help thinking, though, that Mariana or the cook probably just took pity on them. Three guys scrounging to come up for enough between them for a plate of cheese fries had to look pretty pathetic. Even Tulio had pitched in a quarter he’d picked up, somewhere.
Jason glances at the newcomer again. He’s standing near the register like he’s waiting for Mariana to provide actual customer service instead of comparing lacquered fingernails with the girls at the counter. Jason looks for a second too long, though, because the guy turns around and catches him looking and oh shit fuck Jason remembers him now.
He looks away quickly and grabs Tim’s paperback, opening it randomly and holding it in front of his face as he hunches down and tries to disappear. “What-?” Tim starts, but he breaks off and his eyes narrow in his figuring-out-the-puzzle face. Jason does not want him to work this one out.
Manny’s looking at him, too, though Tulio is thankfully oblivious. Manny knows enough to take one look at the guy and figure it out. He raises an eyebrow and slides their plate toward Tim, drawing his attention. “You want the last few?”
“Oh!” Tim says, surprised. “You’re sure Tulio doesn’t want them?”
“He had plenty. He gets breakfast and lunch free at school.”
Tim glances at Jason - probably about to offer to split them - but a hand lands on the table and they both jump. There’s a band of white skin around the finger where a wedding ring would go. Jason doesn’t think he took it off, last time.
“Charlie,” the man says. He’s leaning into Jason’s space, making his skin crawl.
If he even told Jason his name, Jason’s forgotten it. He doesn’t wince, or look up. “That’s not my name. You got me confused with somebody else.”
The hand disappears from Jason’s line of sight. When it returns a few seconds later, there’s a twenty peeking out between the fingers. This time Jason does flinch. The man rubs his thumb against Jason’s neck. “Maybe we can talk about it outside.”
“Fuck off,” Jason growls. He doesn’t look at the others, but he can feel Tim’s stare - feel his own hot shame and cold anger.
“How about your friend, then?” The hand shifts, and Jason feels looming weight as the man leans along the back of the booth and reaches for Tim’s shoulder.
Jason’s on his feet before he even starts to feel the rage bubble up. The move forces the guy back a few steps, but Jason shoulders him even further back for good measure. “You know what?” He says, as calm and casual as he can, forcing himself to smile. “I think maybe I do know you. I’ll be right back, guys.”
“Are you-” Tim starts, then jumps and looks at Manny in surprise. Jason doesn’t look back again - just catches the asshole by the wrist and leads him toward the door. “Who was that?” he hears Tim ask, as he opens the door.
Manny just shushes him and says, “watch Tulio,” as Jason steps out into the night.
The cold hits him like a brick, and he tugs his coat closed, wishing the zipper actually worked. He can see his breath in the air, and the guy’s, too, especially when he starts talking.
“I was just getting some coffee. A pick me up,” the guy says as Jason leads him around the edge of the building, into the alley. He laughs, low and dirty, and Jason grits his teeth. “This is so much better.”
Halfway down the alley there’s a big dumpster, overflowing with black bags, and a grease disposal bin. Jason heads for them, ignoring the smell. If they get behind them they won’t be visible from the road.
“Just a quickie’s fine,” the asshole says. “I gotta drive out to Bristol.”
Before the dumpster cuts off his sight, Jason sees Manny step into position at the mouth of the alley and pause to light a cigarette. The man looks down to unbutton his fly.
Jason belts him across the jaw. Before he can recover from the shock and pain, Jason steps forward against him, grabbing his hair and slamming his head back against the brick. There’s blood in the man’s mouth. He goes down with a muffled shout when Jason’s knee impacts his groin, but the noise he makes when Jason’s shoe strikes his gut is little more than a rough exhalation of air.
“What...” He gasps. It’s all he gets out before the second kick.
“You don’t touch me without asking. You don’t touch my friend!” Jason growls the words, and it feels good, savage. He kicks again, aiming to break some ribs. “You crawl back under your rock in the fucking suburbs and you never come trawling down here after dark again, or I swear to God I will feed you your own dick before I slit your throat.”
The man curls up around his vitals, retching violently, and Jason takes the opportunity to get in a few good blows to his kidneys and the base of his spine before he uses his toe to kick the guy’s shoulder and roll him onto his back. It doesn’t get the man out of the fetal position, but Jason doesn’t need it to - he swings his leg down as hard as he can in a heel-stomp aimed at the the asshole’s collarbone, listening for the snap.
The man screams. Jason kicks him in the teeth.
Manny whistles once and Jason stops immediately, taking a step back to peer around the side of the dumpster. A couple passes the mouth of the alley. Jason counts to twenty after they’re gone, and then crouches down, avoiding the vomit, and uses the weight of his foot to hold the asshole’s arm against the damp pavement.
He can’t remember exactly when he met this guy. It was at least a year ago - maybe two. Jason was Tim’s age, then, or something like it. Smaller. Weaker. “You got kids?” he asks.
The man doesn’t do anything but cry.
“Huh? Maybe your neighbor’s got a son? Nephews? Something?” He still doesn’t answer. Maybe Jason should have waited before he kicked his teeth in. Jason gets in his face anyway, pulling his hair to make him look up, ignoring the choked shout the man lets out as muscles in his neck and shoulders pull against the broken bone. “Nobody ever fucks a kid just once. I bet people trust you around their children. I bet you coach fucking little league.”
When the man just groans, Jason spits on him. He waits until a car with a loud stereo pulls up to the light, and then he breaks every finger on the man’s left hand, starting with the one that isn’t wearing his wedding ring.
“You ever think about touching a kid again, you think about this,” Jason says, and then stands. Even with the thumping bass that’s now retreating, somebody might have heard those screams. Jason shakes out his shoulders and wipes his knuckles on the inside of his jacket.
When he joins Manny on the sidewalk, Manny passes him his cigarette, letting Jason take the last few puffs before it burns down to the filter. Jason drops it into the slush by the curb. Neither of them says anything as they walk back inside, but Manny catches Jason’s arm when he stumbles on the doorstep.
Tim’s watching the door, wide-eyed and alert, when they come back in. He’s got a hand on Tulio’s arm like he thinks he might need to drag the kid with him if he’s got to run somewhere. His gaze sweeps over Jason, and for an uncomfortable moment, Jason feels like he’s being X-rayed - like Tim can see everything ugly under his skin. The moment passes, though, and Manny pushes him forward a little. Tim gives them a weak smile, and Jason returns it, even weaker.
He stops to talk to Mariana on the way back to the booth, and then he slides in next to Tim and finally starts to breathe a little. Tim doesn’t ask, but Jason says. “He got my name mixed up, but I knew him after all. Owed me some money.” And an Italian leather wallet, and a gold wedding ring. He’ll hit the pawn shop tomorrow, after they meet up with Manny’s guy at the scrapyard.
“Oh,” Tim says. “That’s...good.” Jason sighs. Tim’s not stupid. He knows something just went down, even if he’s got no clue what. Instead of trying to talk around him, Jason just starts a kicking war with Tulio under the table and hopes he’ll forget about it if he just acts normal.
When the burgers get to the table, Jason forgets why he’s got his hands in his pockets and reaches for the ketchup. Tim hisses and catches his hand, staring at the fresh abrasions on his knuckles, but Cesar saves the day by choosing that moment to breeze through the door, and it doesn’t get brought up again.
They stuff their faces with giant, greasy burgers and fill Cesar in on the plan, such as it is. Jason pays out of the wallet in his pocket. When they start to leave, though, Mariana stops them. She’s got a big paper sack in her hand, spotted with grease in a few places, top folded down tight. “Por tu madre,” she says, and holds it out to Manny.
Manny looks at her for a moment, obviously surprised. Then he grins and stands to take the bag, covering her hand as he does it, and moves in quick as a snake to press a kiss to her cheek. “Gracias. You got my number?”
She rolls her eyes, and takes a small step back, but Jason notices she doesn’t pull her hand away. “Why would I wanna call your ass?” There’s a twinkle in her eye when she says it though. When she does pull away, it’s to pat Tulio on the head. “It’s just the day-olds. And some cookies for the squirt.” She shrugs when Tulio beams at her. “Don’t know how such an atorrante got such a cutie for a brother.” She ruffles his hair. Then, absently, as if she’s speaking no one in particular, she says “Dino’s havin’ a party Friday.”
“Yeah? Might have to drop by...”
Jason snorts and puts a hand on Tim’s back, hustling him toward the door and catching Tulio by the collar on the way. “See you in an hour, Romeo.”
Story Title: Necessary Roughness
Summary: The AU where Tim ran away from home at the tender age of mumbledyteen, and Jason got let off with a warning, the night he met Batman.
Warnings: Sexual content including minors, both disturbing and hopefully not. Explicit violence.
Note: The series is indexed here. This installment occurs after Kings in Disguise and before Last Minutes. Huge thanks as always to kirax2 , my partner in crime. <3
“He knows me,” Manny is saying. He stuffs a french fry in his mouth and takes the ketchup away from Tulio before disaster can strike. “If he’s hanging around, or if he’s got a guy watching the site at night, he’d know it was me. Never seen you, though.”
Beside Jason, Tim is frowning. Jason is trying his best to ignore it. “You just want me to scout around?”
“See if there’s a guard, yeah. If not, we can clear the stuff out, pronto. I know a guy,” Manny assures him. “He’ll pay good. The stuff’ll be off our hands before the sun comes up.” He keeps his voice pitched low. There are still a few other occupied tables in the diner, despite the hour, and the waitress keeps looking their way.
“Just like that?” Tim says, disapproval in his voice. Jason doesn’t look at him. “You’re going to break in, destroy private property, steal valuable materials-”
“Man, I worked for that asshole three days. My cousin, too, and his brother-in-law. Bastard didn’t pay up. Cesar and Miguel got jack shit, and I only got about half - pays to be legal, but it don’t pay much. We put all that pipe and wiring in there... We’re just gonna take it back out.”
“I’m in,” Jason says, before Tim can argue further. Two and a half bucks a pound for copper at the scrapyard. Even split, it’ll be a good chunk of money - and Jason never minds sticking it to somebody who’s got it coming.
Tim sighs, and Jason expects a fight, but what his friend finally says is, “We’ll look less suspicious if we borrow your skateboard.” When Jason turns to look at him, Tim chews his fries and shrugs. “You’re going to do it either way. And he’s taking advantage of people who can’t go to the cops. I guess it’s kind of... justice.”
“Like Batman,” Tulio says around a mouthful of half-chewed french fries. Tim jumps a little - he always gets weird when somebody mentions Batman - and then smiles. Tulio grins back. “I wanna help!”
“No!” all three older boys say at once. A few heads turn toward their table, and Jason has to try hard to look casual.
“You’re gonna go home,” Manny hisses to his brother, pulling him into a half-assed headlock. “And don’t you dare tell Mami what we’re doing. She asks you why I sent you home alone, you tell her...Jay and I are picking up girls or something.”
“Ew!” Tulio says with great feeling. When Jason makes exaggerated kissy faces at him, he shrieks in childish disgust. Tim looks amused, so Jason turns to make a few sucking smacks in his direction.
Tim just throws a napkin in his face and looks away. “That girl is looking at us again.”
Jason glances over. The waitress - a pretty Latina with bleached highlights and dark, bruise colored lipstick - is indeed looking their way.
“She ain’t lookin’ at us. She’s lookin’ at me.” Manny winks at her over Tulio’s head and she rolls her eyes before going back to filling napkin holders. Manny grins and slicks a hand over his short hair. “Hey, Mariana-”
“No,” Mariana says without looking up. Jason grins and socks Manny across the table. He gets a solid kick in return.
The bell over the door dings, and Jason looks up; Cesar’s supposed to meet them once his little girl is in bed - but it’s not Manny’s cousin in the doorway. The guy looks kind of familiar, though - Dark hair shot through with grey, broad shoulders but a soft middle, like maybe he used to work out but hasn’t in a long time. Jason’s seen him somewhere - but it’s a big city.
“She likes me,” Manny insists. Mariana is talking to some working girls having coffee at the counter, and doesn’t look up even though he says it loud. He lowers his voice and gestures at the nearly empty plate in the middle of the table. “She gave us, like, twice as many fries, man.”
“Oh yeah,” Jason deadpans. “She’s totally hot for your cock.” Tulio cracks up, and Tim chokes into his water glass, laughing. “The extras are for the squirt, dipshit. He always gets extra everything.” When Tulio looks smug, Jason kicks him. “That’s why we let you tag along.”
That makes Tulio stick his tongue out and Manny try to crush him. Jason can’t help thinking, though, that Mariana or the cook probably just took pity on them. Three guys scrounging to come up for enough between them for a plate of cheese fries had to look pretty pathetic. Even Tulio had pitched in a quarter he’d picked up, somewhere.
Jason glances at the newcomer again. He’s standing near the register like he’s waiting for Mariana to provide actual customer service instead of comparing lacquered fingernails with the girls at the counter. Jason looks for a second too long, though, because the guy turns around and catches him looking and oh shit fuck Jason remembers him now.
He looks away quickly and grabs Tim’s paperback, opening it randomly and holding it in front of his face as he hunches down and tries to disappear. “What-?” Tim starts, but he breaks off and his eyes narrow in his figuring-out-the-puzzle face. Jason does not want him to work this one out.
Manny’s looking at him, too, though Tulio is thankfully oblivious. Manny knows enough to take one look at the guy and figure it out. He raises an eyebrow and slides their plate toward Tim, drawing his attention. “You want the last few?”
“Oh!” Tim says, surprised. “You’re sure Tulio doesn’t want them?”
“He had plenty. He gets breakfast and lunch free at school.”
Tim glances at Jason - probably about to offer to split them - but a hand lands on the table and they both jump. There’s a band of white skin around the finger where a wedding ring would go. Jason doesn’t think he took it off, last time.
“Charlie,” the man says. He’s leaning into Jason’s space, making his skin crawl.
If he even told Jason his name, Jason’s forgotten it. He doesn’t wince, or look up. “That’s not my name. You got me confused with somebody else.”
The hand disappears from Jason’s line of sight. When it returns a few seconds later, there’s a twenty peeking out between the fingers. This time Jason does flinch. The man rubs his thumb against Jason’s neck. “Maybe we can talk about it outside.”
“Fuck off,” Jason growls. He doesn’t look at the others, but he can feel Tim’s stare - feel his own hot shame and cold anger.
“How about your friend, then?” The hand shifts, and Jason feels looming weight as the man leans along the back of the booth and reaches for Tim’s shoulder.
Jason’s on his feet before he even starts to feel the rage bubble up. The move forces the guy back a few steps, but Jason shoulders him even further back for good measure. “You know what?” He says, as calm and casual as he can, forcing himself to smile. “I think maybe I do know you. I’ll be right back, guys.”
“Are you-” Tim starts, then jumps and looks at Manny in surprise. Jason doesn’t look back again - just catches the asshole by the wrist and leads him toward the door. “Who was that?” he hears Tim ask, as he opens the door.
Manny just shushes him and says, “watch Tulio,” as Jason steps out into the night.
The cold hits him like a brick, and he tugs his coat closed, wishing the zipper actually worked. He can see his breath in the air, and the guy’s, too, especially when he starts talking.
“I was just getting some coffee. A pick me up,” the guy says as Jason leads him around the edge of the building, into the alley. He laughs, low and dirty, and Jason grits his teeth. “This is so much better.”
Halfway down the alley there’s a big dumpster, overflowing with black bags, and a grease disposal bin. Jason heads for them, ignoring the smell. If they get behind them they won’t be visible from the road.
“Just a quickie’s fine,” the asshole says. “I gotta drive out to Bristol.”
Before the dumpster cuts off his sight, Jason sees Manny step into position at the mouth of the alley and pause to light a cigarette. The man looks down to unbutton his fly.
Jason belts him across the jaw. Before he can recover from the shock and pain, Jason steps forward against him, grabbing his hair and slamming his head back against the brick. There’s blood in the man’s mouth. He goes down with a muffled shout when Jason’s knee impacts his groin, but the noise he makes when Jason’s shoe strikes his gut is little more than a rough exhalation of air.
“What...” He gasps. It’s all he gets out before the second kick.
“You don’t touch me without asking. You don’t touch my friend!” Jason growls the words, and it feels good, savage. He kicks again, aiming to break some ribs. “You crawl back under your rock in the fucking suburbs and you never come trawling down here after dark again, or I swear to God I will feed you your own dick before I slit your throat.”
The man curls up around his vitals, retching violently, and Jason takes the opportunity to get in a few good blows to his kidneys and the base of his spine before he uses his toe to kick the guy’s shoulder and roll him onto his back. It doesn’t get the man out of the fetal position, but Jason doesn’t need it to - he swings his leg down as hard as he can in a heel-stomp aimed at the the asshole’s collarbone, listening for the snap.
The man screams. Jason kicks him in the teeth.
Manny whistles once and Jason stops immediately, taking a step back to peer around the side of the dumpster. A couple passes the mouth of the alley. Jason counts to twenty after they’re gone, and then crouches down, avoiding the vomit, and uses the weight of his foot to hold the asshole’s arm against the damp pavement.
He can’t remember exactly when he met this guy. It was at least a year ago - maybe two. Jason was Tim’s age, then, or something like it. Smaller. Weaker. “You got kids?” he asks.
The man doesn’t do anything but cry.
“Huh? Maybe your neighbor’s got a son? Nephews? Something?” He still doesn’t answer. Maybe Jason should have waited before he kicked his teeth in. Jason gets in his face anyway, pulling his hair to make him look up, ignoring the choked shout the man lets out as muscles in his neck and shoulders pull against the broken bone. “Nobody ever fucks a kid just once. I bet people trust you around their children. I bet you coach fucking little league.”
When the man just groans, Jason spits on him. He waits until a car with a loud stereo pulls up to the light, and then he breaks every finger on the man’s left hand, starting with the one that isn’t wearing his wedding ring.
“You ever think about touching a kid again, you think about this,” Jason says, and then stands. Even with the thumping bass that’s now retreating, somebody might have heard those screams. Jason shakes out his shoulders and wipes his knuckles on the inside of his jacket.
When he joins Manny on the sidewalk, Manny passes him his cigarette, letting Jason take the last few puffs before it burns down to the filter. Jason drops it into the slush by the curb. Neither of them says anything as they walk back inside, but Manny catches Jason’s arm when he stumbles on the doorstep.
Tim’s watching the door, wide-eyed and alert, when they come back in. He’s got a hand on Tulio’s arm like he thinks he might need to drag the kid with him if he’s got to run somewhere. His gaze sweeps over Jason, and for an uncomfortable moment, Jason feels like he’s being X-rayed - like Tim can see everything ugly under his skin. The moment passes, though, and Manny pushes him forward a little. Tim gives them a weak smile, and Jason returns it, even weaker.
He stops to talk to Mariana on the way back to the booth, and then he slides in next to Tim and finally starts to breathe a little. Tim doesn’t ask, but Jason says. “He got my name mixed up, but I knew him after all. Owed me some money.” And an Italian leather wallet, and a gold wedding ring. He’ll hit the pawn shop tomorrow, after they meet up with Manny’s guy at the scrapyard.
“Oh,” Tim says. “That’s...good.” Jason sighs. Tim’s not stupid. He knows something just went down, even if he’s got no clue what. Instead of trying to talk around him, Jason just starts a kicking war with Tulio under the table and hopes he’ll forget about it if he just acts normal.
When the burgers get to the table, Jason forgets why he’s got his hands in his pockets and reaches for the ketchup. Tim hisses and catches his hand, staring at the fresh abrasions on his knuckles, but Cesar saves the day by choosing that moment to breeze through the door, and it doesn’t get brought up again.
They stuff their faces with giant, greasy burgers and fill Cesar in on the plan, such as it is. Jason pays out of the wallet in his pocket. When they start to leave, though, Mariana stops them. She’s got a big paper sack in her hand, spotted with grease in a few places, top folded down tight. “Por tu madre,” she says, and holds it out to Manny.
Manny looks at her for a moment, obviously surprised. Then he grins and stands to take the bag, covering her hand as he does it, and moves in quick as a snake to press a kiss to her cheek. “Gracias. You got my number?”
She rolls her eyes, and takes a small step back, but Jason notices she doesn’t pull her hand away. “Why would I wanna call your ass?” There’s a twinkle in her eye when she says it though. When she does pull away, it’s to pat Tulio on the head. “It’s just the day-olds. And some cookies for the squirt.” She shrugs when Tulio beams at her. “Don’t know how such an atorrante got such a cutie for a brother.” She ruffles his hair. Then, absently, as if she’s speaking no one in particular, she says “Dino’s havin’ a party Friday.”
“Yeah? Might have to drop by...”
Jason snorts and puts a hand on Tim’s back, hustling him toward the door and catching Tulio by the collar on the way. “See you in an hour, Romeo.”