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“What are those?” Jason asked catching Dicks arm.
Dick’s face soured. They were in his apartments bedroom. Although he had heightened senses Jason was also well trained and he had been too tired to notice Jason had come up behind him.
“They’re just some vitamins.” Dick told him, trying to yank his hand out of Jason’s hold.
Damn his super strength.
“Bullshit.” Jason twisted his wrist easily making his grip fail and the pills in his fist fall to the floor.
“Fuck! Jason!” Dick swore. He wasn’t in the mood for this, not now, he was so tired. He hadn’t really slept in a good week.
Jason let go and they both bent down to pick up the tiny capsules. Jason’s brow wrinkled.
Pain pills and sleeping pills. Too many.
“Don’t give me that look. I take these all the time it’s fine.” Dick tried to assure him as he picked up the last one on the ground and put out his empty hand to Jason asking for the pills he had grabbed.
Jason was clad in a dark cargo pants and a fitted black shirt and leather jacket. His helmet under one of his arms.
“Like hell it is.” He gets up refusing to give them to him, “Talk.”
Dick stood but his splitting headache due to the tension in his body and lack of sleep made him slightly off balance and he leaned against the bedside table, “Please please watch your strength. don’t crush them. I don’t have a lot left.”
“Why are you taking so many?” Jason asked out of gritted teeth. He wasn’t an expert on drugs or anything but this amount could knock a normal human out cold, “Does that bastard old man know about this?”
The winged man looked down. It took energy to retract them into a nonexistent state so he would look like a normal human but he did not have the energy or the will to do so right now.
“He should unless he got brainwashed or something. Him and Alfred prescribed them.” Dick shrugged and went to sit on his bed and popped the pills in his mouth and gulped a glass of water from the nightstand.
Jason followed him over but still stood in front of him. Dick held out his hand for the other half of the pills again.
Jason still looked distrustful, “They prescribed you this many?! Couldn’t it like- kill you?!”
Dick rolled his eyes and grabbed a pillow, he wrapped his legs and arms around it and flopped his face in it, “We’re both mutants here Jaybird. They won’t kill me. Promise. But I really REALLY need them so if you would just hurry up and GIVE them to me so I can sleep I would very much appreciate it.”
Jason’s anxiousness had decreased but of course his concern had not, showing in his deep frown. Nevertheless he handed the pills over.
“Did something happen? Are you hurt? Where are you hurt?”, his words came out in a tone that to untrained ears would have sounded angry but Dick knew he was just worried.
Dick gave a little smile that he hoped looked reassuring and downed the pills before answering, “Nothing happened, just business in Bludhaven got a little hectic and kept me up a little longer than usual so I have to take some extra sleeping pills is all.”
“So you always take sleeping pills? And you’re taking extra today? Is that what you’re saying? And the pain meds?” Jason’s eyes narrowed, that supernatural flare of green flashing in his pale blue eyes showing that he was feeling uneasy.
Dick shivered from the intensity of Jason’s focused stare, observing his body up and down. Dick wore a pair of off white boxers and a light blue tank top to bed tonight. He had these… heat patches? on his legs, arms, and behind his neck?
Jason had come close to him now, sat hip to hip with his lover of just a few months, one of his arms wrapped around him, his hand grazing another heat patch on Dicks lower back, before resting on his waist. His hand kept moving and feeling his ribs to his waist and resting against his hipbone. His other hand gliding along his shoulder to his elbow and then down to his thigh and his knee just feeling Dick for injuries of any kind.
Except for the usual scars Jason hadn’t found anything unusual.
“I don’t feel anything. Are your wings okay? And what the heck are these heat patch things for? Are you recovering from muscle strain torture or something?” He glanced behind them to his luminous white wings not seeing anything out of the ordinary either.
“I told you I’m fine. My muscles have just been a bit tense.” Dick leaning his head into the crook of Jason’s neck, his wings naturally curling a bit around both of them.
“That many pain pills is NOT fine Dick.” Jason’s hand squeezed his hip, “How long do you have to take that many? And for what?”
“I just… always… take those.” Dick got out barely, not wanting to answer but knowing he has to. He’s been caught and he really didn’t want to lie. Not when he and Jason were finally so… close.
He hid his face in Jason’s neck waiting for Jason to ask, “Why?”
“...Don’t tell Tim or Damian. Promise.” his voice slightly muffled.
Dick waited until Jason answered, “Of course.”
“PROMISE.”
“I promise, jesus.”
“... it’s chronic pain... from my mutation…” Dick’s hand reached up to hold onto Jason’s shoulder for support.
Jason stiffened, his voice was delicate in a way Dick had never heard before, “It’s been going on for that long? I thought your mutation was just that you sprouted wings pretty bird.” He grabbed Dick’s hand at his shoulder and squeezed it.
Dick nodded, “I- according to Bruce my body composition changed completely. My bones are lighter and more durable because they’re apparently porous like a birds and my muscles don’t relax as easily as they used to so my body just kind of… aches once in awhile.”
Every day.
“So that’s why you’re so light…” Jason commented. He should have known.
Dick nodded, “And you know birds can sleep but can still sort of be half awake? When I first got my mutation I thought it was cool but then after a few days of that I guess I can’t function as well, I’m not ALL bird you know? But it’s just so hard to actually fall asleep now... after I mutated. I guess not all mutations work out as great as expected...” Dick’s eyes were closed as he spoke, trying to breath evenly as he explained, “...You weren’t there but... I fainted a lot when I first got my mutation… after a little incident Bruce took notice and did a lot of tests and that was when he realized I was in pain too. That's why I’m on all of these pills.”
Jason sat listening to Dick’s deep breathing. No wonder after Bruce had found out Jason was a mutant Bruce had looked so worried and immediately wanted to bring him into the lab for tests. He was worried he would have side effects like Dick did.
“How long did it take after you mutated for him to notice?” Jason asked. How long were you in pain?
“... three months.” Dick answered.
A flare of anger rushed through Jason. Dick was having constant physical pain for three months and didn’t tell anyone?!
Dick took notice and clutched onto Jason a little harder, “It’s all in the past… me and Bruce weren’t on the best terms. We had thought you had died… and you know how he used to get about letting meta’s into Gotham.”
“And you had just turned into one of them.” Jason growled.
Dick nodded, “It was a lot for him to take in.”
All this time he thought Dick had it easy. He got some pretty boy wings, he got to fly around like some sort of prissy angel. Honestly he had been jealous. Dick never had to worry about breaking things or hurting someone because of fluctuating strength like he did. Dick never had to worry about people seeing him as a mutant because he could hide his mutation so easily unlike Damian did. And his powers increased his agility, sight, hearing, and strength, although he wasn’t super strong, as well as gave him flight. He didn’t have a stupid power like Tim, who could, what? Do the party trick of disappearing? Lame.
But the truth was mutations were never usually as simple as they seemed. The truth was Jason didn't think he would ever feel muscle strain ever again or get sick because of his regenerative abilities. He could take a bullet, a sword to the gut, a cut off limb and come out completely fine.
Dick on the other hand… got pain, maybe all of the time? The truth hurt in a way that he wished he could just take it all back. Go back in time to being jealous if Dick and his stupid facade of perfection instead of seeing behind the curtain. No that wasn’t true. He just wishes there wasn’t a curtain to look behind. That Dick was just as happy and healthy as he had thought he was.
Jason sighed. He was grateful to have just come visit Dick tonight actually. So that Dick could share this with him. So that he could be the shoulder for Dick to lean on. To be a pillar for him when he needed him just like Dick was for him and so many others.
Jason thought back, trying to remember every moment with Dick after crawling out of his grave, wondering if at any of those moments he was hurting. He guesses that he would never know.
But now he would know to watch for it and that was a comfort to him in and of itself.
Jason wrapped his arms around Dick’s waist and hoisted him onto his lap.
“Is there anything I can- uh- do?” Jason asked awkwardly.
Dick smirked, finding Jason so endearing, his eyes drooping in exhaustion, “You want to pamper me?” Dick laughed, “It’s okay.”
Jason just determinedly slowly pushed Dick down onto the bed so that he was lying on his stomach. His wings in a half upright position.
“What are you doing?” Dick asked, Jason could hear the tired slur in his voice.
“Just shut up golden boy.” Jason took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching his fists to get a good idea of how his strength was working tonight and started to rub his hands over Dick’s back.
He’s been practicing controlling his strength. Dick had helped him a lot actually. He realized it had to do with his emotions and adrenaline working together. He was a lot better at controlling it now that before.
“Mmmn…” Dick groaned out, “Are you giving me a massage? You know how to give massages?”
“What the fuck do you think?” Jason asked, blushing a little, “Your muscles are tense as fuck Dick.”
“My body is mostly muscle mass now… it takes a few days actually for my muscles to relax naturally.”
That explains the heat patches.
His hands worked his muscles and a good amount of time passed before very slowly Dick melted into the bed.
“Oh god I haven’t felt this relaxed in forever…” Dick sighed out, “If that was foreplay then you’ve got to just… wait until tomorrow okay? I’m about to knock out.”
Jason rolled his eyes, Dick was almost asleep but somehow he could still make the most embarrassingly dumbass remarks, “Any more requests your highness?”
Dick giggled at that, his wings fluttered with his laugh, “Will you hold this prince until he falls asleep? Or more accurately, since B thinks I’m like some sort of wild animal now, until I reach a state of torpor?”
“What the hell is that?” Jason asked as kicked off his pants and pulled off his shirt before laying on his side facing him, pulling the blanket up over them. Dick just lay there half asleep, “It’s like…” Dick yawned, “a very very very…. very… deep… sleep.”
Dick rolled to his side to face Jason as well then reached out and kept his hand on Jason’s chest.
“Goodnight Dickiebird.” Jason whispered staring at Dicks peaceful expression.
Dick smiled and dozed off in moments.