Stray (Batman: Arkham Series, Tim/Barbara/Jason, #625)
Title: Stray
Fandom: Batman: Arkham video game series
Challenge: #625 Crash
Pairings: Tim/Barbara/Jason
Rating: PG
Words: 499
Timeline: Set after Batman: Arkham Knight
Warnings: Contains major spoilers for the entirety of Batman: Arkham Knight, pre-threesome
“I’m gonna crash here tonight,” Jason says by way of greeting. Smirk on his lips, but eyes downcast, and there’s a heaviness to the way he moves, a slight limp to his right leg.
Barbara glares at him, her jaw set, seconds ticking past like the timer on a bomb. But she just sighs in the end, swallowing down whatever she wants to say, and moves past Tim to fetch the first-aid kit.
This is how their nights tend to go now.
It wasn’t always like this. The first time Jason showed up, Tim wasn’t there. Instead he came home to find Barbara shaking with anger and frustration, her eyes red and bright, her teeth bared. “He tried to make it a joke,” she’d hissed, hand squeezing Tim’s fingers hard enough to hurt. “Everything we went through, he tried to pretend like it was nothing.”
She’d broken her laptop against the wall. She’d been aiming for Jason’s head.
Tim had thought that would be the last they’d see of him. They’d heard about the Red Hood cutting his way through Gotham’s underworld in Batman’s absence, of course; just because Tim and Barbara have stopped actively fighting crime doesn’t mean they’ve stopped paying attention.
But Jason came back, and this time he was honest. He’d told Barbara that Crane wasn’t supposed to hurt her, that it was part of the deal when Jason gave up her name.
Tim hadn’t been there for that either, but whatever Barbara had seen on Jason’s face was enough to make her believe him.
The visits continued after that, and always when Tim wasn’t around. Which he understood - Jason clearly wasn’t a fan of his, still considered Tim a second-rate replacement. He wasn’t exactly happy about Barbara being alone with Jason, but she was more than capable of taking care of herself.
The first time he’d come home and found Jason waiting for him, Tim was expecting a fight. But Jason had just handed him a beer - one of Tim’s beers, from Tim’s fridge, the asshole - and spread out on Tim’s couch.
“Do you miss it?” Jason had asked. There were bruises on his knuckles.
Tim had looked down at his beer and admitted, “Yeah, sometimes I do.”
So now this is how it goes. Jason turns up when he pleases, like a wilful stray cat. Usually hurt, sometimes badly. Barbara seethes over how reckless he is, and Tim plays mediator between them.
They curl up on the couch together, Barbara under the curve of Tim’s arm, Jason’s head resting on her shoulder. This strange domesticity to it, and sometimes Tim’s fingers brush the hair at the nape of Jason’s neck until he arches into the touch.
Jason looks at Barbara like he wants to kiss her. Sometimes he looks at Tim that way too.
Tim thinks it might inevitable, that one day soon Jason’ll be in their bed instead of just on their couch. Their stray cat come home for good.
Fandom: Batman: Arkham video game series
Challenge: #625 Crash
Pairings: Tim/Barbara/Jason
Rating: PG
Words: 499
Timeline: Set after Batman: Arkham Knight
Warnings: Contains major spoilers for the entirety of Batman: Arkham Knight, pre-threesome
“I’m gonna crash here tonight,” Jason says by way of greeting. Smirk on his lips, but eyes downcast, and there’s a heaviness to the way he moves, a slight limp to his right leg.
Barbara glares at him, her jaw set, seconds ticking past like the timer on a bomb. But she just sighs in the end, swallowing down whatever she wants to say, and moves past Tim to fetch the first-aid kit.
This is how their nights tend to go now.
It wasn’t always like this. The first time Jason showed up, Tim wasn’t there. Instead he came home to find Barbara shaking with anger and frustration, her eyes red and bright, her teeth bared. “He tried to make it a joke,” she’d hissed, hand squeezing Tim’s fingers hard enough to hurt. “Everything we went through, he tried to pretend like it was nothing.”
She’d broken her laptop against the wall. She’d been aiming for Jason’s head.
Tim had thought that would be the last they’d see of him. They’d heard about the Red Hood cutting his way through Gotham’s underworld in Batman’s absence, of course; just because Tim and Barbara have stopped actively fighting crime doesn’t mean they’ve stopped paying attention.
But Jason came back, and this time he was honest. He’d told Barbara that Crane wasn’t supposed to hurt her, that it was part of the deal when Jason gave up her name.
Tim hadn’t been there for that either, but whatever Barbara had seen on Jason’s face was enough to make her believe him.
The visits continued after that, and always when Tim wasn’t around. Which he understood - Jason clearly wasn’t a fan of his, still considered Tim a second-rate replacement. He wasn’t exactly happy about Barbara being alone with Jason, but she was more than capable of taking care of herself.
The first time he’d come home and found Jason waiting for him, Tim was expecting a fight. But Jason had just handed him a beer - one of Tim’s beers, from Tim’s fridge, the asshole - and spread out on Tim’s couch.
“Do you miss it?” Jason had asked. There were bruises on his knuckles.
Tim had looked down at his beer and admitted, “Yeah, sometimes I do.”
So now this is how it goes. Jason turns up when he pleases, like a wilful stray cat. Usually hurt, sometimes badly. Barbara seethes over how reckless he is, and Tim plays mediator between them.
They curl up on the couch together, Barbara under the curve of Tim’s arm, Jason’s head resting on her shoulder. This strange domesticity to it, and sometimes Tim’s fingers brush the hair at the nape of Jason’s neck until he arches into the touch.
Jason looks at Barbara like he wants to kiss her. Sometimes he looks at Tim that way too.
Tim thinks it might inevitable, that one day soon Jason’ll be in their bed instead of just on their couch. Their stray cat come home for good.