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It’s hard to remember how exactly sleeping in the same nest every night became a norm for them, but they all seemed to agree on one fact: that it started about the same time when Jason came back.
It was awkward at first. Their pack mate - their long lost omega, someone who died a violent death years ago, alive and breathing. No one seemed to know how to handle the situation.
For the first few weeks there were no words, no exchanges between Jason and anyone else. And it’s not because they didn’t want to, they just didn’t know how. No one quite knew how to strike up a conversation with someone who’s been dead and came back.
But then, they started to find out about the nightmares.
Jason would sometimes cry in his dreams, Alfred heard them when he passed in front of his door sometimes. The omega would talk in his sleep - mostly nonsense - but almost always with a shaky, frightened voice.
This concerned the rest of the pack. Yet still no one asked, no one initiated the conversation, mostly because none of them were particularly good at it.
Cass was the first to climb into the omega’s nest. She didn’t give out any signs that she would. She simply showed up at Jason’s door one night with a pillow and a blanket and was accepted into the den by the rather confused omega, much to everyone’s surprise.
She never told anyone why she did it either. She simply slept in the same nest with Jason every night since then. The rest of the pack just chalked it up to omega instincts.
But then, Dick joined them. It was mostly because of the alpha’s protective instincts. He just couldn’t leave the only two omegas of the pack in an unprotected nest; it simply didn’t feel right to him. He’d always sleep with his body wrapped around them, forming a physical barrier that would shield them from any metaphorical harm.
With Dick there came Damian. The demon spawn would always follow suit when Dick’s present. He showed up one night with Grayson while hugging his pillow and that was that. The pup initially slept close to Dick, nuzzled in his arms, but eventually he began to prefer the space between Jason and Cass, calmed by the omega scents surrounding him. Damian was starting to warm up to the new member of the pack as pups generally do with omegas.
Tim was the last to join. As a beta, he lacked some of the pack-seeking behaviors that others had, and he was sometimes embarrassed by some of the close affections that other pack members showed. But Tim was smart and caught on quickly. Cass had to physically drag him into the nest on the first night, but he stayed every night after that, and neither Jason nor anyone else objected to his presence either.
They couldn’t tell when the nightmares stopped, just that it gradually did. Jason’s sleep mumbles and shivering gradually ceased, and when they still occasionally happened, Dick would hug him from behind and Cass would nuzzle up to him while emitting her own calming scents, and the shivers would quickly subside. Until one day, they realized that the omega’s nightmares hadn’t seemed to return for months.
Jason never said anything, whether about the nightmares or about what his pack mates were trying to do. But he was definitely grateful, and it wasn’t hard to tell by the way he eventually softened around them. The simple fact that Jason never tried to kick anyone out of his nest said something about his desire to be accepted into the pack, to know that they wouldn’t let him die this time and to know that he would wake up in the middle of the night and they’d be there. And it was a comfort to them as well, that they’d sleep and wake up and still know that Jason was still there, still breathing, (still alive).
And luckily for them, this time no one had any doubts that the Omega would stay for real, that he didn’t have to be the lost bird again. That Jason would stay and be safe and be part of the pack.
And that really was what they all wanted.
