Fic: After the Dust Settles: 4/8; Tim/Jaime; R
Title: After the Dust Settles 4/8
Author: Aravis Tarkheena
Pairing: Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III)/Tim Drake (Robin III)
Rating: R
Warnings: overall- sex, violence, angst, the gay
Disclaimer: Not mine, everyone's legal
Word Count: 3,000
Summary: Batman's gone. :( Timmy's all alone. :(( Jaime thinks Timmy needs a friend. :D
Index Post
Part Three
Part Four
Ives and Tim were sitting on the floor of his apartment, books and papers scattered around them. The two hamsters Ives had gotten Tim a few weeks ago were crawling over and on the papers and pillows, looking for the treats Tim had hidden for them around the study area.
“Uh oh! Looks like Gimli found another one,” Ives called to Tim, who was in the kitchen making them a study snack. “No wonder he’s so fat and Legolas is so skinny. He’s better at finding the treats.”
Tim walked over and handed Ives a plate of sandwiches with a slight smile. “I think Legolas is just more adventurous than Gimli. See, he’d rather explore your shoes than look for snacks.”
Ives turned to find two little rounded ears poking out from the top of his shoe.
“I really hope he doesn’t decide to leave me a present in there,” Ives groaned and reached for his sandwich. He pulled off a piece of crust and held it out to Legolas temptingly. “Here you go Leg, don’t you want a nice piece of-“ Before Ives could finish tempting Legolas from his shoe, Gimli crept out from under a sheaf of papers and stole the bread from Ives’ fingers.
“Hey!” Ives scolded and Tim smiled.
“Or maybe Gimli is really just a glutton.”
Ives nodded in agreement.
Ives hadn’t been completely sure how Tim would react to his early birthday present but Tim had really taken to his tiny furry roommates. He spoiled them terribly. The small aquarium the two of them had come in was quickly remanded to the closet after Tim had bought them four foot long hamster play house. It took up most of the space on Tim’s kitchen bar, but Tim didn’t seem to mind. He bought them the best wood shavings, food pellets and treats and he often let them have the run of the apartment.
Ives could tell when he petted them and spoke to them that Tim was very fond of both of them.
A sense of accomplishment suffused Ives. Tim’s apartment didn’t seem quiet so empty and dreary now. The minute Tim walked through the door of the place he called out a hello to Leg and Gim and immediately went over to check on the two of them.
While Tim was still quiet, withdrawn and achingly private, he seemed a little happier in general the past few months.
Ives yawned and stretched, careful of the little hamsters running around him.
“So, what do you think, another two hours and we’ll be about done with this thing?” he asked.
Tim nodded and swallowed a bit of sandwich before answering. “It shouldn’t take much longer than that. Just send me the rest of your Power Point Slides tomorrow and I’ll throw it all together.”
It was Saturday night and their project was due Monday at eight. They would have plenty of time to finish up.
Ives was just about to go over another set of notes Tim had taken when one of Tim’s phones rang. He kept two of them, Ives wasn’t sure why. He had the number to the small red one but Tim had another black one that no one seemed to have the number to.
Tim tossed him an apologetic look and flicked the phone open, Ives politely looked back down at the notes and pretended not to listen while Tim walked across the apartment towards the dormer. Tim sat down on the ledge and looked out the window as he answered.
“Hey, what’s up?” he asked lightly, but his tone rapidly changed with his next sentence. “What happened?” there was so much worry and concern in the question that Ives had to look up.
He knew that tone of voice. It was the tone he always heard at the other end of the phone line when he had to call his parents or friends from the hospital.
“Is he alright? No, no. Yeah, I’ll be right over,” Tim hung up the phone and looked back to Ives.
“I… I need to go. My friend was-“ Ives cut him off.
“No problem man. Call me tomorrow and we’ll finish up.”
Ives packed his bag while Tim rounded up his hamsters and put them back in their playhouse.
Tim’s face was tight and worried as he grabbed his keys and followed Ives out the front door and Ives wasn’t entirely sure what to say. So he didn’t say anything at all.
He and Tim nodded a perfunctory good night and they both drove away.
Ives had no idea what happened. He was also pretty sure Tim wouldn’t have elaborated any more if he had asked. All Ives could do was hope that, what ever if was that had happened tonight, it wouldn’t throw Tim back into his stupor.
Ives was pretty sure the hamster trick wouldn’t work again.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Everything hurt. Absolutely everything. His arms, his legs, his chest, the muscles of his neck. Muscles Jaime hadn’t realized he could injure.
Jaime groaned and blinked his eyes opened.
Robin was sitting next to his bed and his mouth was moving, but all Jaime could make out was a dull buzzing.
“Que dice?” he choked out and realized that he was still thinking and speaking in Spanish. He cleared his throat and tried again. “What’d you say, man?”
“I asked how you were feeling,” Robin said, raising his voice. Lines of tension and worry were clear around the sides of Robin’s mouth and on his forehead. “You’re clearly having some trouble hearing. That should fade within a few hours. I wouldn’t worry.”
Jaime sat up stiffly and tried to shake his head. “Feels like I stood too close to the speakers at a metal show,” he moaned.
“It’s the concussion from the blast. It injured your inner ear,” Robin explained.
Jaime blinked at him. “Oh yeah, the explosion.”
“Your suit took all the damage from the blast, except for the heavy concussion. I guess the scarab couldn’t adapt fast enough before it hit,” Robin said and his mouth tightened. “Why didn’t you let her or Supergirl take care of the bomb?”
Jaime shrugged. “I didn’t think it was that big a deal.”
“Have you ever had to handle a bomb before,” Robin asked with exaggerated patience.
“Uh, no. But I didn’t think it was-“ Jaime stopped talking as Robin sighed heavily. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he was absolutely certain Robin had rolled his eyes under the mask.
“What are you even doing here?” he asked somewhat defensively. So he didn’t know how to deal with a bomb, so what. He was new. He was entitled to a few mistakes.
Then he remembered how his heart had stopped when he saw Robin falling from the rafters of that warehouse.
According to Robin he wasn’t entitled to mistakes and Robin probably had a point. Last time he made a mistake Robin had been shot.
“Ca-Wonder Girl called me. She said the team was pretty beat and asked if I could sit with you while they slept. Make sure you didn’t slip into a coma or something,” he explained and turned to look out the window of Jaime’s bedroom. “You have a slight concussion and you probably hurt like hell, but there wasn’t any serious damage thanks to the suit.”
Jaime nodded then winced as his neck muscles pulled painfully.
“A hot bath will help the muscle pain. You want me to draw you one?” Robin asked.
Jaime grimaced. “I don’t think I can make it all the way down to the locker room…”
“I’ll draw you one in my bathroom. Stay here, don’t get up,” Robin ordered slipped out the door and across the hall.
Jaime fell back against his bed and sighed.
He hadn’t seen Robin since the incident in the warehouse a little less than a month ago. Jaime was still trying to figure out how to get back into Robin’s good graces. When Oracle had called him back and asked him how things had gone, she’d seemed worried when he told her what happened. She hadn’t called him back since.
Jaime was starting to think he was persona non grata in the Bat-family now that he had gotten their youngest member shot.
He hadn’t even dared to tell Wonder Girl about it. He was pretty sure if he ever did she would just destroy him. She tended to be more than a little protective of Robin in ways that seemed to put the Bats to shame.
Robin came back into the bedroom and Jaime was startled to notice that he wasn’t wearing gloves. His hands were pale, his fingers were long and his nails were light pink and neatly trimmed.
He stepped up to the bed and offered Jaime a hand. Jaime levered himself off the bed, stood up and promptly stumbled. Robin caught him and pulled one of Jaime’s arms around his shoulder and wrapped his own arm around Jaime’s waist.
“You ok?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah, just hurts,” Jaime bit out.
They made their way slowly across the hall, through Robin’s room and into the small adjoining bathroom.
“Why do you get your own bathroom?” Jaime asked as Robin deposited him on the closed toilet seat.
“Because I’m the one who’s usually in your position,” Robin pointed out and reached behind him to turn off the taps.
That was probably true.
“How often do you get roughed up this badly?” Jaime asked.
Robin shrugged. “Too often,” he replied and reached for the hem of Jaime’s shirt.
“What are you doing?” Jaime asked nervously.
Robin gave him a contemplative look. “Trust me, you do not want to have to undress your self. You will cry.”
Jaime snorted a soft laugh and then winced as his stomach muscles contracted painfully.
Robin helped him to gently pull his arms from the sleeves of his shirt then lifted it up over his head. He tossed it into a sea green laundry basket next to the tub and reached for a waist band of Jaime’s sweat pants.
“You’ll need to lift your hips,” Robin instructed.
Jaime hesitated. “Ok, so I’m not so comfortable with the whole casual nudity thing,” he admitted.
Robin looked at him exasperatedly. “Oh, for the love of God, it’s not like I’ve never seen a naked man before, Jaime.”
“That’s not the point,” Jaime said desperately.
“What is the point then?” Robin asked, patiently.
“You haven’t seen naked me, before,” Jaime pointed out and tried not to get offended when Robin’s lips twitched.
“I suppose that’s true,” Robin conceded.
Jaime just looked at him worriedly and made no move to lift his hips.
Robin sighed. “The first time is always the hardest. Once you realize being naked in front of people is not, in fact, the end of the world, it’s not such a big deal. I used to be shy, too,” he added the last bit as almost an after thought and it did make Jaime feel better.
He tentatively lifted his hips and Robin pulled his sweats and boxers down over his hips in one smooth movement.
The lid of the toilet was cold against Jaime’s butt and he fought the urge to shiver. It would have hurt too much.
Robin tossed the rest of his clothes into the hamper and looked back down at Jaime.
“See, it’s not so bad,” he said reassuringly and reached down to help Jaime into the tub.
Robin had been right, the water felt amazing. The warmth relaxed his muscles and Jaime sighed, leaning back against the far end of the tub.
“Mmmm, yeah this is totally worth the naked,” Jaime said lazily and closed his eyes against the steam.
“Blue, you really need to learn that the Robin is always right,” Robin teased, but it sounded half hearted and distracted. He slumped tiredly down on the floor with his back against the side of the tub.
Jaime slit one eye open to watch Robin pull off his cape and push his sleeves half way up his forearms.
“You’re going to sit with me?” he asked sleepily.
“If you fell asleep in the tub, slipped into a coma and drowned, Wonder Girl would kill me,” Robin answered and let his head fall back to rest against the edge of the tub, very near Jaime’s damp shoulder.
They let the silence stretch out into the thick steamy air of the bathroom.
Now that his muscles weren’t aching as much, Jaime was starting to feel the fatigue and grogginess hit him.
“Robin?” he heard himself saying. “I’m sorry I got you shot.”
Robin snorted a soft laugh. “You are not the first person, nor will you be the last, to get me shot Blue.”
“Call me Jaime. I’m naked after all. I’m pretty sure it’s in the rules somewhere that, when someone’s naked, their real name must be used.” Jaime insisted. It felt weird to have Robin call him Blue Beetle while he wasn’t wearing any clothing. That particular notion might not make sense to anyone else, but it made sense to him.
“Jaime, then,” Robin corrected himself. “I’ll make every effort to remember to call you Jaime when you’re naked in the future.”
Jaime could tell Robin was teasing him, but he didn’t care.
“Do people call you Robin when you’re naked?” he asked, determined to press his point.
“Mmmm, depends on whom I’m naked with, I suppose,” Robin mused softly.
Jaime mentally nodded to himself. That made sense.
“I don’t think I’d be able to call you Robin if you were naked,” Jaime said and wondered where the hell that thought had come from.
Robin seemed to find it amusing. “If I’m ever naked in front of you, I promise to tell you my real name.”
Jaime smiled and it only hurt a little. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
He lifted one dripping arm limply out of the tub and Robin turned slightly so they could shake hands, silently and wetly.
It struck Jaime that this was the first time he’d ever touched Robin’s bare skin. The notion made him shiver slightly in the warm bath water.
Robin turned back around and rested his head on the edge of the tub again, looking at the ceiling. Jaime did the same thing. There were swirl patterns in the textured paint and he started to idly count them to himself in an effort to stay awake.
A soft voice interrupted just as he made it to twenty three. “I’m sorry, Jaime.”
Jaime lolled his head on his shoulder to look over at Robin. All he could make out through the steam was a messy mop of dark hair. It looked silky and soft, nothing at all like his hair. Jaime’s hair was little coarse and had a slight curl to it when it got too long. Robin’s was straight and silky looking and water droplets from the steam collected on the individual strands.
“Sorry for what?” he asked, resisting the urge to ruffle Robin’s hair in order to knock the water droplets free.
Robin sighed tiredly.
“To be honest, when I started, when I first became Robin, I told myself I wouldn’t ever be anything like Batman. I wouldn’t let myself get that emotionally detached from people. It’s part of the reason I clung so hard to-Well, to the other parts of my life, the non-Robin parts. Now that most of those non-Robin things are gone I guess I just… I don’t know. “ Robin swallowed hard and Jaime could hear his throat working.
“I’m scared I’m growing into the exact person I promised myself I would never. Ca- I mean Wonder Girl mentioned it before, but I didn’t want to listen. It didn’t hit me until just after she called me and told me what happened to you how bad I’d actually gotten,” Robin’s voice was quiet and introspective. It felt to Jaime more like Robin was talking to himself than anything but Jaime slipped out of his lethargy and listened closely.
“I’m worse, even. Worse than him, because when I needed him he at least tried. But me? When you told me you needed my help I just looked you right in the face and coldly said ‘no’. It was too much of a hassle for me to teach you how to keep yourself from getting killed” Robin’s voice had gotten tight and he lifted on hand to rub slim fingers at his eyes behind his mask.
“I think that may have been the cruelest thing I’ve ever done. You could have died and it would have been my fault for not helping you when you asked,” Robin took a deep heavy breath and shook his head back and forth as if he was trying to shake unwanted thoughts and images from his head.
“I’m sorry,” Robin whispered softly into the air.
Jaime lifted his hand from the tub again and this time he followed his instincts. He ran his fingers comfortingly through Robin’s hair and it was just as soft and silky as he had imagined it would be.
Robin didn’t pull away, he seemed to relax into the touch. To take comfort in it, even.
“Robin,” Jaime asked softly, “will you help train me?”
“Yes,” came the softly whispered reply and Jaime hated the sheer amount of guilt and sorrow that laced that one single syllable.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Part Five
Author: Aravis Tarkheena
Pairing: Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III)/Tim Drake (Robin III)
Rating: R
Warnings: overall- sex, violence, angst, the gay
Disclaimer: Not mine, everyone's legal
Word Count: 3,000
Summary: Batman's gone. :( Timmy's all alone. :(( Jaime thinks Timmy needs a friend. :D
Index Post
Part Three
Part Four
Ives and Tim were sitting on the floor of his apartment, books and papers scattered around them. The two hamsters Ives had gotten Tim a few weeks ago were crawling over and on the papers and pillows, looking for the treats Tim had hidden for them around the study area.
“Uh oh! Looks like Gimli found another one,” Ives called to Tim, who was in the kitchen making them a study snack. “No wonder he’s so fat and Legolas is so skinny. He’s better at finding the treats.”
Tim walked over and handed Ives a plate of sandwiches with a slight smile. “I think Legolas is just more adventurous than Gimli. See, he’d rather explore your shoes than look for snacks.”
Ives turned to find two little rounded ears poking out from the top of his shoe.
“I really hope he doesn’t decide to leave me a present in there,” Ives groaned and reached for his sandwich. He pulled off a piece of crust and held it out to Legolas temptingly. “Here you go Leg, don’t you want a nice piece of-“ Before Ives could finish tempting Legolas from his shoe, Gimli crept out from under a sheaf of papers and stole the bread from Ives’ fingers.
“Hey!” Ives scolded and Tim smiled.
“Or maybe Gimli is really just a glutton.”
Ives nodded in agreement.
Ives hadn’t been completely sure how Tim would react to his early birthday present but Tim had really taken to his tiny furry roommates. He spoiled them terribly. The small aquarium the two of them had come in was quickly remanded to the closet after Tim had bought them four foot long hamster play house. It took up most of the space on Tim’s kitchen bar, but Tim didn’t seem to mind. He bought them the best wood shavings, food pellets and treats and he often let them have the run of the apartment.
Ives could tell when he petted them and spoke to them that Tim was very fond of both of them.
A sense of accomplishment suffused Ives. Tim’s apartment didn’t seem quiet so empty and dreary now. The minute Tim walked through the door of the place he called out a hello to Leg and Gim and immediately went over to check on the two of them.
While Tim was still quiet, withdrawn and achingly private, he seemed a little happier in general the past few months.
Ives yawned and stretched, careful of the little hamsters running around him.
“So, what do you think, another two hours and we’ll be about done with this thing?” he asked.
Tim nodded and swallowed a bit of sandwich before answering. “It shouldn’t take much longer than that. Just send me the rest of your Power Point Slides tomorrow and I’ll throw it all together.”
It was Saturday night and their project was due Monday at eight. They would have plenty of time to finish up.
Ives was just about to go over another set of notes Tim had taken when one of Tim’s phones rang. He kept two of them, Ives wasn’t sure why. He had the number to the small red one but Tim had another black one that no one seemed to have the number to.
Tim tossed him an apologetic look and flicked the phone open, Ives politely looked back down at the notes and pretended not to listen while Tim walked across the apartment towards the dormer. Tim sat down on the ledge and looked out the window as he answered.
“Hey, what’s up?” he asked lightly, but his tone rapidly changed with his next sentence. “What happened?” there was so much worry and concern in the question that Ives had to look up.
He knew that tone of voice. It was the tone he always heard at the other end of the phone line when he had to call his parents or friends from the hospital.
“Is he alright? No, no. Yeah, I’ll be right over,” Tim hung up the phone and looked back to Ives.
“I… I need to go. My friend was-“ Ives cut him off.
“No problem man. Call me tomorrow and we’ll finish up.”
Ives packed his bag while Tim rounded up his hamsters and put them back in their playhouse.
Tim’s face was tight and worried as he grabbed his keys and followed Ives out the front door and Ives wasn’t entirely sure what to say. So he didn’t say anything at all.
He and Tim nodded a perfunctory good night and they both drove away.
Ives had no idea what happened. He was also pretty sure Tim wouldn’t have elaborated any more if he had asked. All Ives could do was hope that, what ever if was that had happened tonight, it wouldn’t throw Tim back into his stupor.
Ives was pretty sure the hamster trick wouldn’t work again.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Everything hurt. Absolutely everything. His arms, his legs, his chest, the muscles of his neck. Muscles Jaime hadn’t realized he could injure.
Jaime groaned and blinked his eyes opened.
Robin was sitting next to his bed and his mouth was moving, but all Jaime could make out was a dull buzzing.
“Que dice?” he choked out and realized that he was still thinking and speaking in Spanish. He cleared his throat and tried again. “What’d you say, man?”
“I asked how you were feeling,” Robin said, raising his voice. Lines of tension and worry were clear around the sides of Robin’s mouth and on his forehead. “You’re clearly having some trouble hearing. That should fade within a few hours. I wouldn’t worry.”
Jaime sat up stiffly and tried to shake his head. “Feels like I stood too close to the speakers at a metal show,” he moaned.
“It’s the concussion from the blast. It injured your inner ear,” Robin explained.
Jaime blinked at him. “Oh yeah, the explosion.”
“Your suit took all the damage from the blast, except for the heavy concussion. I guess the scarab couldn’t adapt fast enough before it hit,” Robin said and his mouth tightened. “Why didn’t you let her or Supergirl take care of the bomb?”
Jaime shrugged. “I didn’t think it was that big a deal.”
“Have you ever had to handle a bomb before,” Robin asked with exaggerated patience.
“Uh, no. But I didn’t think it was-“ Jaime stopped talking as Robin sighed heavily. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he was absolutely certain Robin had rolled his eyes under the mask.
“What are you even doing here?” he asked somewhat defensively. So he didn’t know how to deal with a bomb, so what. He was new. He was entitled to a few mistakes.
Then he remembered how his heart had stopped when he saw Robin falling from the rafters of that warehouse.
According to Robin he wasn’t entitled to mistakes and Robin probably had a point. Last time he made a mistake Robin had been shot.
“Ca-Wonder Girl called me. She said the team was pretty beat and asked if I could sit with you while they slept. Make sure you didn’t slip into a coma or something,” he explained and turned to look out the window of Jaime’s bedroom. “You have a slight concussion and you probably hurt like hell, but there wasn’t any serious damage thanks to the suit.”
Jaime nodded then winced as his neck muscles pulled painfully.
“A hot bath will help the muscle pain. You want me to draw you one?” Robin asked.
Jaime grimaced. “I don’t think I can make it all the way down to the locker room…”
“I’ll draw you one in my bathroom. Stay here, don’t get up,” Robin ordered slipped out the door and across the hall.
Jaime fell back against his bed and sighed.
He hadn’t seen Robin since the incident in the warehouse a little less than a month ago. Jaime was still trying to figure out how to get back into Robin’s good graces. When Oracle had called him back and asked him how things had gone, she’d seemed worried when he told her what happened. She hadn’t called him back since.
Jaime was starting to think he was persona non grata in the Bat-family now that he had gotten their youngest member shot.
He hadn’t even dared to tell Wonder Girl about it. He was pretty sure if he ever did she would just destroy him. She tended to be more than a little protective of Robin in ways that seemed to put the Bats to shame.
Robin came back into the bedroom and Jaime was startled to notice that he wasn’t wearing gloves. His hands were pale, his fingers were long and his nails were light pink and neatly trimmed.
He stepped up to the bed and offered Jaime a hand. Jaime levered himself off the bed, stood up and promptly stumbled. Robin caught him and pulled one of Jaime’s arms around his shoulder and wrapped his own arm around Jaime’s waist.
“You ok?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah, just hurts,” Jaime bit out.
They made their way slowly across the hall, through Robin’s room and into the small adjoining bathroom.
“Why do you get your own bathroom?” Jaime asked as Robin deposited him on the closed toilet seat.
“Because I’m the one who’s usually in your position,” Robin pointed out and reached behind him to turn off the taps.
That was probably true.
“How often do you get roughed up this badly?” Jaime asked.
Robin shrugged. “Too often,” he replied and reached for the hem of Jaime’s shirt.
“What are you doing?” Jaime asked nervously.
Robin gave him a contemplative look. “Trust me, you do not want to have to undress your self. You will cry.”
Jaime snorted a soft laugh and then winced as his stomach muscles contracted painfully.
Robin helped him to gently pull his arms from the sleeves of his shirt then lifted it up over his head. He tossed it into a sea green laundry basket next to the tub and reached for a waist band of Jaime’s sweat pants.
“You’ll need to lift your hips,” Robin instructed.
Jaime hesitated. “Ok, so I’m not so comfortable with the whole casual nudity thing,” he admitted.
Robin looked at him exasperatedly. “Oh, for the love of God, it’s not like I’ve never seen a naked man before, Jaime.”
“That’s not the point,” Jaime said desperately.
“What is the point then?” Robin asked, patiently.
“You haven’t seen naked me, before,” Jaime pointed out and tried not to get offended when Robin’s lips twitched.
“I suppose that’s true,” Robin conceded.
Jaime just looked at him worriedly and made no move to lift his hips.
Robin sighed. “The first time is always the hardest. Once you realize being naked in front of people is not, in fact, the end of the world, it’s not such a big deal. I used to be shy, too,” he added the last bit as almost an after thought and it did make Jaime feel better.
He tentatively lifted his hips and Robin pulled his sweats and boxers down over his hips in one smooth movement.
The lid of the toilet was cold against Jaime’s butt and he fought the urge to shiver. It would have hurt too much.
Robin tossed the rest of his clothes into the hamper and looked back down at Jaime.
“See, it’s not so bad,” he said reassuringly and reached down to help Jaime into the tub.
Robin had been right, the water felt amazing. The warmth relaxed his muscles and Jaime sighed, leaning back against the far end of the tub.
“Mmmm, yeah this is totally worth the naked,” Jaime said lazily and closed his eyes against the steam.
“Blue, you really need to learn that the Robin is always right,” Robin teased, but it sounded half hearted and distracted. He slumped tiredly down on the floor with his back against the side of the tub.
Jaime slit one eye open to watch Robin pull off his cape and push his sleeves half way up his forearms.
“You’re going to sit with me?” he asked sleepily.
“If you fell asleep in the tub, slipped into a coma and drowned, Wonder Girl would kill me,” Robin answered and let his head fall back to rest against the edge of the tub, very near Jaime’s damp shoulder.
They let the silence stretch out into the thick steamy air of the bathroom.
Now that his muscles weren’t aching as much, Jaime was starting to feel the fatigue and grogginess hit him.
“Robin?” he heard himself saying. “I’m sorry I got you shot.”
Robin snorted a soft laugh. “You are not the first person, nor will you be the last, to get me shot Blue.”
“Call me Jaime. I’m naked after all. I’m pretty sure it’s in the rules somewhere that, when someone’s naked, their real name must be used.” Jaime insisted. It felt weird to have Robin call him Blue Beetle while he wasn’t wearing any clothing. That particular notion might not make sense to anyone else, but it made sense to him.
“Jaime, then,” Robin corrected himself. “I’ll make every effort to remember to call you Jaime when you’re naked in the future.”
Jaime could tell Robin was teasing him, but he didn’t care.
“Do people call you Robin when you’re naked?” he asked, determined to press his point.
“Mmmm, depends on whom I’m naked with, I suppose,” Robin mused softly.
Jaime mentally nodded to himself. That made sense.
“I don’t think I’d be able to call you Robin if you were naked,” Jaime said and wondered where the hell that thought had come from.
Robin seemed to find it amusing. “If I’m ever naked in front of you, I promise to tell you my real name.”
Jaime smiled and it only hurt a little. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
He lifted one dripping arm limply out of the tub and Robin turned slightly so they could shake hands, silently and wetly.
It struck Jaime that this was the first time he’d ever touched Robin’s bare skin. The notion made him shiver slightly in the warm bath water.
Robin turned back around and rested his head on the edge of the tub again, looking at the ceiling. Jaime did the same thing. There were swirl patterns in the textured paint and he started to idly count them to himself in an effort to stay awake.
A soft voice interrupted just as he made it to twenty three. “I’m sorry, Jaime.”
Jaime lolled his head on his shoulder to look over at Robin. All he could make out through the steam was a messy mop of dark hair. It looked silky and soft, nothing at all like his hair. Jaime’s hair was little coarse and had a slight curl to it when it got too long. Robin’s was straight and silky looking and water droplets from the steam collected on the individual strands.
“Sorry for what?” he asked, resisting the urge to ruffle Robin’s hair in order to knock the water droplets free.
Robin sighed tiredly.
“To be honest, when I started, when I first became Robin, I told myself I wouldn’t ever be anything like Batman. I wouldn’t let myself get that emotionally detached from people. It’s part of the reason I clung so hard to-Well, to the other parts of my life, the non-Robin parts. Now that most of those non-Robin things are gone I guess I just… I don’t know. “ Robin swallowed hard and Jaime could hear his throat working.
“I’m scared I’m growing into the exact person I promised myself I would never. Ca- I mean Wonder Girl mentioned it before, but I didn’t want to listen. It didn’t hit me until just after she called me and told me what happened to you how bad I’d actually gotten,” Robin’s voice was quiet and introspective. It felt to Jaime more like Robin was talking to himself than anything but Jaime slipped out of his lethargy and listened closely.
“I’m worse, even. Worse than him, because when I needed him he at least tried. But me? When you told me you needed my help I just looked you right in the face and coldly said ‘no’. It was too much of a hassle for me to teach you how to keep yourself from getting killed” Robin’s voice had gotten tight and he lifted on hand to rub slim fingers at his eyes behind his mask.
“I think that may have been the cruelest thing I’ve ever done. You could have died and it would have been my fault for not helping you when you asked,” Robin took a deep heavy breath and shook his head back and forth as if he was trying to shake unwanted thoughts and images from his head.
“I’m sorry,” Robin whispered softly into the air.
Jaime lifted his hand from the tub again and this time he followed his instincts. He ran his fingers comfortingly through Robin’s hair and it was just as soft and silky as he had imagined it would be.
Robin didn’t pull away, he seemed to relax into the touch. To take comfort in it, even.
“Robin,” Jaime asked softly, “will you help train me?”
“Yes,” came the softly whispered reply and Jaime hated the sheer amount of guilt and sorrow that laced that one single syllable.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Part Five